Part 4
Alice and I had stopped for a mere five seconds.
We exchanged glances and I took the lead, plunging into the narrow passage. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be anything poison in the red fumes I inhaled a little of—though that was based on the reasoning that Chudelkin wouldn’t have done too well with poison in his clothes—and the coughing settled down in time too.
The hidden passage fitted Chudelkin and we would knock our heads on the ceiling if we didn’t stoop. The scratching sounds coming from behind every now and then must be the sound of Alice’s shoulder armor scrapping the walls. I, too, continued to run in a rigid posture while the sheath of the Blue Rose Sword hanging off the right of my waist banged into the wall.
Ascending stairs came into sight at the front before long, so we stood still for a moment before jumping on after confirming there weren’t any signs of an ambush. Chudelkin’s footsteps had already vanished and nothing but cold air flowed from our gloomy path.
The stairs were far longer than expected, taking up practically three of the cathedral’s floors. Judging from the height of the ceiling, I believe the Chamber of Elders, where those who Chudelkin described as «automated elders» were housed, made up floors ninety-six to ninety-eight, so the ninety-ninth floor would likely be at the end of these stairs.
The battle against the Axiom Church that started from the underground jail—along with the two-year journey Eugeo and I went on that started from Rulid Village would end in another two floors. My partner wasn’t by my side right now, but I should be able to reunite with him in the highest minister’s room if Knight Commander Bercouli’s words prove true. I will return his Blue Rose Sword to him and the three of us, including Alice, will defeat Chudelkin and the highest minister. And after that……
I lightly shook my head and focused on the faint lighting visible at the end of the stairs. I had all the time to think about what would happen next after everything was over. Now was the time to concentrate on the final battle.
It was when I focused my mind, almost slipping away to the past and future, back to the present, that I faintly heard the chief elder’s shrill voice from our path.
“System caaaaall! Generaaate…”
A chant for an elemental art. My wariness spiked, but we couldn’t stop here. The illumination from in front rapidly closed in.
“…We’re nearly at the end of the stairs!”
I curtly replied when Alice cried out a warning from behind.
“Watch out for an ambush by sacred arts!”
“Got it!”
Nodding, I braced my black sword in front as I ran. Magic was handy for surprise attacks in this world where elements could be prepared and maintained. By generating a thermal element and changing its form, then standing by, it could be discharged like a firearm the moment the enemy got within sight.
However, on the other hand, the firepower of arts was determined solely by the number of elements consumed. A single element used would basically result in the same firepower, whether it was a student who just started studying the sacred arts or a top-ranking art user who had trained for a long time. Many elements could be manipulated with adequate training, but each element required a finger to maintain, so the limit at a single time was ten. My black sword with its nature of absorbing energy could even guard against a concentrated attack of ten thermal or cryogenic elements.
If Chudelkin was aiming for a surprise attack, it would be less risky to burst out from the stairs than to cautiously reveal myself. Having decided that, I sped up and dashed through the few remaining meters, jumping up high after kicking off the final step.
However, there were neither floods of flames nor downpours of icicles. Spinning around horizontally in midair, I looked around three hundred and sixty degrees, but neither Chudelkin nor anyone else was here. Landing on the marble floor, I pricked up my ears while down on one knee. All I could was Alice’s footsteps chasing after me.
Alice showed herself the moment I brought my body up. The knight scanned through our surroundings like I did, then spoke with a frown.
“I believe I heard chanting, but there isn’t anyone here, is there… Did Chudelkin give up on a surprise attack and ran away above… to the hundredth floor…?”
Following Alice’s lead in glancing towards the ceiling, I muttered.
“But there’s just the highest minister’s room up there, right? Even with his status, the chief elder can’t just enter without permission, can he?”
“I doubt he can, but… in the first place, where are the stairs leading up?”
I took another look around the circular room that was probably the ninety-ninth floor as prompted.
Spacious. The diameter likely measured around thirty meters. The floor, ceiling, and curving wall were all made from that same marble I now felt used to, but there were surprisingly little decorative features. There were just the large lamps curling around the wall at most, but only four were lit at the moment, so it was dim. Though that only made sense since the room was pure white all over and would become blinding if they were all lit.
The stairs connected to Chudelkin’s room where we climbed up from was wide open at the floor bordering the wall. It had a marble flip-up door attached and would likely blend in perfectly with the floor when closed.
In that case, there might be a pull-down door hiding the stairs up somewhere in the ceiling. I tried searching for any cords or handles with that in mind, but I couldn’t seem to see anything of that sort. Guess I might as well hit the ceiling with a sword skill now; that then happened while I was hardening my grip on the sword in my right hand.
“……This room…”
Alice murmured all of a sudden. Turning around, I saw the knight’s blue left eye opened slightly.
“What is it?”
“……I know this room. This is… where I woke up as an integrity knight apprentice six years ago……”
“Eeh… you sure!?”
“Yes… All of the wall lamps were lit then… the room shone radiantly with light… The esteemed highest minister stood in the middle and talked to me as I laid down. Awaken, child of the gods… she said…”
Alice must have realized how her speech had gained a respectful tone too. With a slight grimace, she continued with more strength.
“…The esteemed highest minister gave me, who had lost my previous memories, a false past and my mission as a knight, then entrusted me to oji-sama… Knight Commander Bercouli. There was a depression somewhere on the floor, like the elevating disk constructed at the middle floors, that brought oji-sama and me to the ninety-fifth floor back then. I have never been here again since then.”
“A depression on the floor…?”
Inclining my head, I tried stomping on the marble floor with the sole of my boots. But I only felt the firmness of thick stone. It would be silly searching this vast room for a hidden elevator and in the first place, we had no need for a method to go downstairs.
“Alice, do you remember how Administrator returned to her room at that time?”
The knight pondered over my question with a finger from her left hand on her lips.
“I believe… that immediately before the elevating disk oji-sama and I rode sank into the floor… the esteemed highest minister look up at the ceiling… and a small elevating disk came from above…”
“That’s it!”
Shouting so, I stared a hole into the pure white ceiling once more. Rather than a pull-down door, there was an elevator hidden somewhere there. However, I couldn’t find anything like a switch even with another sweep. There wasn’t anyone in charge unlike the elevator connecting the fiftieth and eightieth floors, so there must be some mechanism that automatically raises or lowers it. And that something…
“Ah… maybe the chief elder’s chant earlier was…”
Alice also had a response for my murmuring.
“It wasn’t an offensive art for a surprise attack, but to move an elevating disk…? In that case, Kirito, do you recall what Chudelkin had recited after «generate»?”
“E-Erm…”
Feeling that I couldn’t give “I didn’t hear it” as an answer here, I frantically replayed my memories from several minutes ago. If I recall right, following the generate command, the chief elder’s squeaky voice continued with—
“Lu… Lu-something, I think…”
Alice emitted a freezing cold gaze at me as I agonized to recall the rest.
“That much is enough. The only one starting with ‘lu’ would be the luminous element.”
Not sparing me any further attention as I nodded in agreement, Alice first returned the drawn sword in her right hand to its scabbard, then held her ten lithe fingers up towards the ceiling.
“System call! Generate luminous element!”
Amazingly, the number of luminous elements generated was the theoretical limit of ten. Alice released the white points of light wandering about her fingertips in a radial pattern without modification. The luminous elements struck against various spots on the ceiling, one after another, without making a sound. One among them all let out a stronger radiance—a circle of light with a diameter of around one meter appeared on the ceiling while that thought crossed my mind. Its position wasn’t in the middle, but rather close to the wall.
I moved beside Alice who had lowered her hands and warily watched over the phenomenon. The circle of light immediately faded but didn’t vanish, and eventually, outlined by the boundary, a part of the marble ceiling smoothly protruded out and gently descended. The slate with a thickness of over fifty centimeters must be absurdly heavy, but it moved without any hint of that. The luminous element must have only served as a switch and the slate used some other source of energy for its movement, I couldn’t tell how it had been constructed. It was practically parallel to the various miracles the sage, Cardinal, displayed in the Great Library Room… no, it must have been so. What powered this elevator must be just a mere part of the unfathomable capabilities the highest minister, Administrator, possessed.
The elevator—or elevating disk, as Alice called it, barely jolted as landed upon the floor. Its surface was laid over with bright red carpeting rather than bare marble, mildly gleaming as bluish white light rained down from the circular hole in the ceiling.
And the path to the top floor of the Central Cathedral was now open.
The greatest and last battle will finally begin when Alice and I step onto that elevating disk and arrive at the hundredth floor.
The initial plan was to stab Administrator with our secret weapon, that dagger, while she slept and to leave the rest to Cardinal. However, the highest minister must have awoken with Chudelkin fleeing to the hundredth floor and in the first place, I had already used up my dagger to save Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio.
But fortunately, though I wonder if I could consider it so, Knight Alice had consented to return her personality to the original Alice. Hence, there was no longer any need for the dagger Eugeo held to be used on Alice. We would first rescue Eugeo who had been taken to the hundredth floor before us and was likely still frozen, then stab Administrator with the dagger while she still had her guard down. We likely had no chance at winning with any other strategy.
It appeared Alice had steeled own her will as well in the meantime.
Exchanging looks, we nodded once, and spoke.
“…Let’s go.”
“Let us move.”
Thus, Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty and I, the expert swordsman-in-training, Kirito, took a step towards the elevating disk fifteen meters away.
One step, two, three—and it happened.
The pale blue light that was probably moonlight pouring down from the hole in the ceiling abruptly darkened.
Glaring beams of bright light shone into my eyes as I stood still and looked up at the hole. It was the moonlight reflected from an elegantly designed metal armor. A long mantle fluttered as someone slowly descended from the hole in the ceiling, six meters high, covered from head to toe in heavy armor.
Judging from the height, it couldn’t possibly be Chudelkin. I wondered if the highest minister herself had bothered to come down to the ninety-ninth floor, but that was a man’s physique. With his face concealed due to the backlight.
“There was still another integrity knight…?”
I muttered—
“That armor should… no, but still…”
And Alice whispered; the new knight landed upon the elevating disk with a graceful metallic sound in the next moment. Absorbing the impact by bending his knees, he gently stood up.
The armor was silver with traces of blue. The surface that seemed somewhat translucent gleamed brilliantly as it took in the moonlight. The mantle was a rich blue and as far as I could see, there weren’t any swords on his waist. His lowered face was hidden by a large gorget, but his wavy hair was… a mellow flaxen.
A shudder tore through my entire body like a bolt of lightning in that instant.
That hair color. The color that always accompanied me throughout these two years I spent in the Underworld.
No way. But still. Why?
In my vision, the knight finally raised his face as I stood still, assailed by extreme confusion. Green eyes stared straight back from beyond those somewhat downcast eyelids. I couldn’t deny it any longer. The boy who wore the integrity knight armor was……
“………Eugeo……”
I called out his name in a barely audible gasp.
I couldn’t possibly mistake him, of all people, for anyone else. The peerless friend and partner always with me ever since we met in the forest south of Rulid. I could have only gotten this far thanks to Eugeo’s presence by my side. There was absolutely no chance I could mistake his face for anyone else.
However, the expression Eugeo’s eyes and mouth made as he silently stood still was unfamiliar. No, that couldn’t be considered as an expression. It was as inhuman as ice, colder than what Alice had on when we first encountered her in the Sword Mastery Academy’s large auditorium.
“Eugeo.”
I called out to him once again, at a reasonable volume this time, somehow. However, the cold light that filled his two eyes didn’t even waver slightly. Not that he ignored me. He was currently sizing me up. Possibly… as an enemy to cut down.
“…It couldn’t be… it’s too fast.”
Alice abruptly murmured by my side and I asked imploringly in return.
“What is… too fast…?”
“The completion of the ritual.”
Sparing me a glance, the golden knight showed slight hesitation before speaking out with resolve.
“Your partner… Eugeo had already went through synthesis .”
Synthesis—the ritual. Direct manipulation of the fluct light only Administrator was capable of. Robbing one of one’s memories and incorporating loyalty… to prepare one as an integrity knight.
“…No way, that’s… but it took three days and three nights for you…”
Alice calmly replied as I dismissing that thought, childishly shaking my head.
“The chief elder had said that was because I refused to recite the art necessary for it. In other words, the three-day ritual wouldn’t be needed if one recited that art… But still, this is far too fast. Only mere hours should have passed since Eugeo fought against oji-sama…”
“That’s right… it’s not real, Eugeo couldn’t have just, so easily…… This must be some sort of illusionary art or……”
My body haphazardly tried to walk forward, not even conscious of what I was saying.
But Alice’s left hand firmly gripped my loosely hanging right arm without warning. Accompanied by a voice at my ear.
“Get a hold of yourself! You won’t be able to salvage anything by breaking down now!”
“Sal… salvage…?”
“Yes! You said this yourself, that there is a way to give an integrity knight back their original memories! By that logic, you can return Eugeo back to normal too! We will have to get through this situation somehow to do that!!”
A feverish strength of will flowed into me from the wrist touching Alice’s palm as she continued her fierce rebukes, breathing life into my chilly, numb body. I firmly renewed the grip on my black sword that had apparently almost slipped from my hand.
Yes—Alice was right. Eugeo’s memories and personality definitely weren’t gone. They were simply denied from surfacing due to an operation performed on a part of his fluct light.
By taking back the «memory fragment» Administrator had stolen from him and getting Cardinal to recombine them, Eugeo would return to the gentle and easygoing swordsman I knew. And for that, I needed to converse and to gather information. To persuade the personality currently manipulating Eugeo and to open a path… it might not even be impossible to gain his cooperation. I got through to Knight Alice with words in the end, despite how unapproachable she was.
“…Please leave this to me.”
When I whispered so to Alice, still holding onto my right hand, the knight showed a little hesitation before she nodded. Releasing her hand, she quickly spoke while taking a step back.
“Understood. However, do not let your guard down. That knight… is not the Eugeo you knew any longer.”
“Yeah.”
Alice silently widened our distance after I replied.
To be honest, no matter how strong Eugeo got after turning into an integrity knight, rendering him powerless would likely be easy with Alice’s armament full control art—transforming the Fragrant Olive Sword into countless petals and enveloping the enemy in a lethal storm. That was how overwhelming Alice’s technique was. However, I would prefer that as the last resort of last resorts, one used after all other means were exhausted. I didn’t wish for harm to come to Eugeo’s body and making two childhood friends, both with their memories sealed away, fight each other would be too cruel.
I took a step forward and stared straight into Eugeo’s eyes, the same old icy light still within them.
“Eugeo.”
My third call was neither jittery nor hoarse.
“Do you recognize me? I’m Kirito… your partner. We’ve always been together since we left Rulid two years ago, right?”
The boy wrapped in bluish silver armor kept his silence for another few seconds, then finally opened his mouth.
“…I apologize, I don’t know you.”
Those were the first words from Knight Eugeo. The mellow tone of voice was exactly as I recalled, but it was tinged with an icy texture like his facial expression.
It appeared his memories before synthesis really were sealed away, but there shouldn’t had been enough time to implant the usual «summoned from the Celestial World» sort of false memories. There was a huge blank in Eugeo’s self-awareness. If I press that issue…
“But thanks.”
My eyes opened wide when Eugeo betrayed my expections and continued. I asked, with more hope than sensible, in reply to the sudden cordial words.
“…For what?”
However, Eugeo’s reply—
“For bringing my sword back to me.”
“Eh……”
After spending a short while dumbfounded, I looked down at the right of my waist. The sacred instrument, the Blue Rose Sword, hung off there in its sheath of white leather. Looking up, I asked again.
“What do you… plan to do with this sword?”
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