Sword Art Online - Volume 15 - Chapter 15.2

Part 2

The twenty-second day of the tenth month that came next was the coldest it got throughout that autumn.

Calling off the walk, she spent it together with Kirito by the stove.

She intended to make plenty of firewood as the elderly Garitta had taught her to before winter truly arrived, but it appeared there would be no need for that.

After taking the entire day to write a mere two letters on parchment, Alice hesitated for a moment before signing off with Synthesis Thirty in Sacred Tongue as well below the Schuberg family name in Common Tongue.

She neatly folded one, put a wrapper on it, and addressed it to Selka. She set it on the table beside the other for the elderly Garitta.

The letters expressed farewells and apologies. She could no longer stay in this house now that Integrity Knight Eldrie knew of it. The next to come would likely be Knight Commander Bercouli himself, rather than Eldrie. Alice had no words she could use against her master in swordsmanship, her benefactor.

Hence, she would leave once more.

A thin, long sigh leaked from Alice before she raised her face and looked at the black-haired youth sitting on the opposite side of the table.

“Hey, Kirito. Where do you wish to go? I heard the highlands in the west are a truly beautiful sight. Or perhaps the jungles in the south? It would be warm year-long and the fruits there seem plentiful.”

Despite the bright voice she deliberately used, Kirito showed no response as always.

His empty eyes stayed glued to the tabletop. Her heart hurt upon thinking how she had to drag this injured youth from stability again. Still, even so, she could not possibly leave him in Rulid. Alice could not force such a task on Selka who was a sister apprentice, neither did she desire to. Caring for Kirito was the one and only reason Alice found to continue living.

“...I know, let us leave our destination to Amayori. You should go to bed soon, we will have to wake early tomorrow.”

Alice changed Kirito, put him to bed, then changed into her own sleepwear, and extinguished the light before slipping under the blanket.

Her ears focused on Kirito’s breathing by her side in the darkness.

She gently shifted herself after he completely fell asleep.

Laying her head on Kirito’s bony chest, steady beating reached her ear pressing against it.

Kirito’s heart was no longer here. These heart beats, too, were no more than echoes from the past. Alice came to think so through the months she spent sleeping aside him each night. However, she still believed there was something remaining deep within each beat that echoed out.

If Kirito currently lost only his means of expressing himself yet retained his ability to think, what could she say to excuse this behavior of hers? Alice sank into the shallow abyss of sleep as a mild smile formed as she pondered.

Startling, weak shaking came from the body against hers. 

She somehow managed to lift her heavy eyelids. She turned her left eye towards the window in the east, but the sky visible in the gap between the curtains was still pitch dark. Her sleep lasted two, three hours at most by her intuition.

Alice whispered to Kirito whose body stiffly trembled once again.

“It is still night... go to sleep for a little longer...”

She moved her eyelids back down and thought to rub Kirito’s chest until he went back to sleep. However, Alice finally noticed the youth’s abnormal behavior as his soft voice reached her ears.

“Ah... aah...”

“Kirito...?”

Kirito, in his current state, possessed no extraneous needs. He should not awake due to the cold, his thirst, or any such thing. And yet, the youth’s trembling grew stronger while his legs moved as though to leave the bed.

“Is something the matter...?”

Alice quickly brought herself up, wondering if he had, by some chance, regained his consciousness, and generated a single luminous element as even the time required to light the lamp seemed too precious.

She breathed out a disappointed sigh as she saw only that usual hollow darkness within Kirito’s eyes that showed up in the faint white light. But, then, what had— The sound that reached Alice’s ears this time came from outside the window.

“Kururu, kurururuu!”

Cries came from Amayori, who should have been sleeping in a corner of the vacant land - sharp, shrill reverberations as though advising her master to stay vigilant.

Leaping to the floor, Alice ran to the living room from the bedroom and forced open the entrance door. The cold night air immediately blew in. A strange smell was mixed into the wind that normally smelled only of the forest. It seemed to prick into the depths of her nose; the stench of something burnt— Alice jumped down onto the front yard still barefooted. She drew a sharp breath the moment she turned about, scanning through the night sky.

The skies to the west were aflame.

The ominous vermillion glow was unmistakably reflected from some humongous inferno. She focused her eye and spotted numerous trails of black smoke across the starry sky.

—A bushfire!? 

She retracted that thought an instant after it came to her. Aboard the burnt, pungent wind faintly reaching her was the noise of metallic clangs—and a clamor of screams.

An enemy assault.

The Dark Territory forces were attacking Rulid Village.

“...Selka!!”

A hoarse cry escaped from Alice and she dashed back to the house.

However, she stood petrified just as she got on the porch.

She had to save her little sister and parents.

But, what about the other villagers?

If she tried her best to save everyone, she would need to fight the forces of darkness head-on. But did the strength to do so still remain in her current self?

The source of Alice the integrity knight was her almost blind loyalty for the Axiom Church and the Highest Minister. Now that she lost that faith along with her right eye, could she truly swing the Fragrant Olive Sword and use her sacred arts?

Standing frozen, Alice’s ears— Picked up a gatan, from within the cabin.

Her left eye flashed wide open. A chair fell over in the middle of the dim living room and beside it was a black-haired youth crawling on the floor.

“...Kirito...”

Alice moved her paralyzed legs and entered the cabin.

The light of determination was absent as usual from Kirito’s eyes.

That said, the motive for his sluggish movement was evident. His one, extended arm reached out straight towards the three swords hung on the wall.

“Kirito... you...”

Something hot was caught between her chest and throat. It took some time before she noticed what faintly warped her sight were tears.

“...Ah... aah...”

Kirito’s frame moved without pause as his hoarse voice escaped, desperately approaching the swords. Alice swiped at her eyes, then ran straight to the youth and raised his frail body up from the floor.

“Everything will be fine, I will go. I will save the villagers. So please settle down and wait for me here.”

Quickly whispering so, Alice drew Kirito into a tight hug. Thump. Thump. The reverberations of his heart beats reached her from their touching chests.

A persistent willpower definitely lurked in those beats even with his heart closed off. Even as indistinct embers, they still transmitted distinct warmth to Alice’s body.

Alice pressed their cheeks together tightly before gently bringing him up and sitting him on a chair.

“I will be back immediately after saving them.”
She spoke again, and then first took her armor and sword belt out from the closet where they were this whole time before equipping them atop her sleepwear. Rushing over the eastern wall next, she grasped her beloved sword without hesitation.

The Fragrant Olive Sword weighed down her two hands as they held it for the first time in half a year. Attaching its scabbard’s metal clasp onto her sword belt, she threw an overcoat on while sticking her feet into boots, then ran down onto the front yard again.

“Amayori!!”

A gigantic silhouette flew out at once, lowering her head, after she called out towards the bed in the east.

Alice commanded in a keen voice after leaping onto the base of her long neck.

“Go!!”

Her pair of silver wings beat loudly and the flying dragon lifted straight off into the night sky after a short ground run.

She could clearly see the catastrophe in Rulid after gaining a little altitude. The grandly rising flames were mainly from the village’s north end. The aggressors likely did come from the Dark Territory through the mountain range at the edge after all.

Eldrie had said that there were no abnormalities at the «North Cave», blocked on Bercouli’s orders, last night. The numbers required to be mobilized for removing all that rubble in a single day definitely exceeded a mere ten or twenty.

It seemed small units had been sneaking in via the three caves through the mountain range at the edge under the cover of night to commit evil deeds since times long past.

Kirito and Eugeo had claimed that they fought a group of goblins in the northern cave before they arrived at the central capital too.

However, she had never heard of an attack this extensive yet bold. 

The whole of the land of darkness might truly be thinking that the time is ripe for an all-out assault on the Human World.

Amayori flew over the dense forest in a single go and arrived at the skies over the wheat fields at Rulid’s outskirts even as such thoughts went through Alice’s mind.

She had no reins, but she still conveyed her instructions to hover by lightly tapping the dragon’s nape.

Alice leaned forward and focused her eye on the village’s state.

The main street crossing from south to north shone red with flames on its northern end and she could spot the distinct shadows of the advancing attackers. The nimble goblins dashed as though they were leaping forward. The large orcs, too, advanced with a short distance from them.

An impromptu blockade was built from furniture and lumber piled up immediately north of the central plaza, but the goblin vanguards had already reached there and their drawn swords flickering in the light struck as one to pass the obstacle.

The ones fighting back were of the village’s guard corps. However, they were likely surpassed by even the goblins: be it in numbers, in equipment, or in experience. At this rate, it would take but a brief moment before the orc unit, causing tremors as they approached from behind, pulverized them.

Holding back her desire to dive into the midst of that battle this very moment, she continued checking the situation.

Flames rose all about the eastern and western sides of the village as well. It seemed to have yet suffer damage from the plaza to the south, however. Aside from the guards, the other villagers— including Selka, of course—must have fled from the south gate and evacuated to the forest.

Alice focused her eye on the plaza once more with that thought in mind and could not help but to let out her voice.

“Why...!?”

There were countless silhouettes sticking close to the central fountain, surrounding it in the circular plaza before the church. It escaped her immediate notice as there were far too many of them.

Nearly the whole of Rulid’s inhabitants must have been gathered there.

Why did they not escape from the village?

The guards would certainly be crushed in no time when the attackers’ main force reaches the blockade. Unless they begin moving straight away, it would be too late to evacuate.

Alice tapped the flying dragon’s neck again and shouted out a line after moving right above the plaza.

“Amayori, standby here until I call!”

And she jumped from the height of several tens of mel without the slightest hesitation. The hem of her overcoat blew violently as she fell, slicing through the cold night air.

The villagers, numbering an overwhelming three hundred, who huddled in a circle might have been prepared to put up a fight as there were men positioned on the edge carrying farm implements such as spades and scythes. Alice landed right beside two men who shot off orders from the side.

The stone paving cracked in a radial pattern with a thunderous roar. An intense shock ran from the sole of her feet to her head and her Life probably fell somewhat, but that was as far as it went.

The two men—the wealthy farmer, Nygr Barbossa, and Rulid Village’s chief, Gasupht—had their words scared out of them by the silhouette suddenly falling from above.

Though Alice felt her breath momentarily stop upon seeing her father’s face, she recovered quick enough to take advantage of the silence she caused and shouted out.

“You will not be able to hold them back here! Evacuate all of the villagers through the southern road at once!!”

The shock grew on the men’s faces as they heard Alice’s instructions.

But what came out from Nygr’s mouth after he came to his senses was a throaty, harsh voice.

“Don’t be stupid! How can we run away and abandon my mansion... this village?!!”

Alice refuted the wealthy farmer, veins popping from his brow, in a sharp tone.

“You can still escape from the goblins’ reach now! What is more important, your assets or your life?!”

Replacing Nygr who could grunt in reply, Gasupht the village chief let out his voice, deep and tense.

“Fortifying our defenses in a circular formation was the instruction from the guards’ chief, Jink. Even I, the village chief, have to abide by his orders in such a situation. That is the empire’s law.”

Alice was the one who went speechless this time.

During emergencies, the one who acceded to the sacred task of the guard chief gains a temporary authority to command all residents of a village or town in place of its leader. That provision certainly existed on the empire law of Norlangarth North Empire.

However, the guard chief named Jink was a youngling who only recently inherited his sacred task from his father.

It was doubtful he could maintain his composure and assume command under such abnormal circumstances. The pronounced anxiety on Gasupht’s face showed that he, too, thought so inside.

That said, the empire’s laws were absolute to the villagers. She could only have Jink, commanding the defensive line fighting at the north side of the plaza, pull back and change his orders to start the evacuation at once, but there was clearly insufficient time.

What? What could she— The cry of a young yet resolute voice reached Alice’s ears then, as she stood frozen.

“Let’s do as big sister says, father!!”

Looking back forward with a gasp, she saw a short sister healing the burnt villagers with sacred arts.

“...Selka!”

Thank goddess, she was fine; Alice took a step forward towards her beloved little sister, but Selka stood up and weaved through the crowd to the trio.

After showing a brief smile towards Alice, Selka’s facial expressions immediately tensed up as she spoke to Gasupht.

“Father, have big sister ever been wrong even once? No, even I can tell. At this rate, everyone will die!”

“But... but still...”

Gasupht stammered with a bitter expression. His moustache, stained with white, quivered slightly and his sight wandered futilely through empty space.

Taking the place of the village chief who went speechless, Nygr Barbossa erupted once more in anger.

“This is no place for a child to meddle!! We will protect this village!!”

His two bloodshot eyes stared at the Barbossas’ mansion built near the plaza. What was on Nygr’s mind was unmistakably the mass of wheat just harvested in autumn and the gold coins hoarded over many years.

Returning his sight towards Alice and Selka, the farmer, naturally enough, yelled out shrilly.

“Yes... yes, I’ve got it! You are the one who invited those beasts from the land of darkness to this village, aren’t you, Alice?!! You were defiled by the darkness’s power when you crossed the mountain range at the edge in the past!! You witch... this girl must be a terrible witch!!”

Alice lost her words, jabbed by that fat finger. The clamor from the villagers, the clashes between weapons resounding from the defense line, and the war cries from the monsters closing in from the north all felt far away.

Since she began living in the village’s outskirts, Alice had countlessly fell the forest’s gigantic trees on Nygr’s request. This man had practically writhed to thank her each time. And yet, he could still spew those words as his family’s fortunes occupied his entire time; how could— Alice averted her eye from the middle-aged man with an expression much like the evil countenance of the orcs and murmured inside.

—How about you deal with it on your own?

—I will simply do as I like. I will take Selka, the elderly Garitta, my parents, and Kirito away from this village and search for a new home somewhere far away.

She grinded her teeth audibly; she lowered her eyelids.

Her stream of thoughts put forth an opposing view.
—But the foolishness Nygr Barbossa and the other villagers displays was created by the rule by the Axiom Church over hundreds of years.

The masses were bound by countless principles and laws under the Taboo Index and while they were granted a tepid peace, something important was steadily stolen from them.

That would be their ability to think, and to fight.

Where had that imperceptible power, plundered from the masses over endless years and months, accumulated?

Within the integrity knights who numbered merely thirty-one.

After she took in a deep breath and let it out, the force Alice’s left eye flashed open with practically made a noise.

Nygr’s face abruptly turned pale, as if from fright, in her sight.

In contrast, Alice felt a mysterious energy overflowing from within. A power like a flame burning blue-white, quiet yet hotter than all other. The power that she thought lost at the end of that battle on the cathedral’s highest floor—one that led Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice to face off the Human World’s mightiest ruler.

Alice took in a deep breath and announced.

“...I will revoke Guard Chief Jink’s order. I shall have every villager gathered in this plaza retreat to the southern forest with those bearing arms at in front.”

Her tone was gentle, but Nygr’s upper body bent back as though hit by some unseen hand. Nonetheless, one could still say his courage was admirable with how he still replied in a quivering tone.

“By... by what right can a girl who was drove away-”

“The authority of a knight.”

“Wha... what knight!? This village has no such sacred task! Even if you can swinging a sword around a little, do you know what will happen should the esteemed knights in the capital hear about you just claiming to be one...?”

Alice gave Nygr, frothing as he continued screaming, a firm look as she gripped her overcoat at her right shoulder with her left hand.

“I am... My name is Alice. Third among the Axiom Church’s integrity knights, overseeing the Centoria City Region, Alice Synthesis Thirty!!”

She tore the overcoat from herself as she loudly announced her name.

The moment the thick cloth her entire frame was clad in was taken off, her golden armor and Fragrant Olive Sword gleamed brightly as they reflected the blazing flames.

“Wha... an, an i-integrity knight...!?”

Nygr fell on his rear while looking upwards as a voice, now completely shrill, leaked from him. Gasupht’s eyes opened wide as well.

Alice’s proclamation of her name could not have been a lie. After all, there could not be any in this world who could pass themselves off as an integrity knight—none who could disobey the authority of the Axiom Church. Kirito and Alice were probably the only two capable of doing so, but it was not as if Alice abandoned her sword, the proof of her knighthood, even after escaping here from the central capital.

The villagers making a din around, too, fell silent. The swords clashing at the defense line in the north as well as the war cries of the guards and goblins, too, felt far away.

What broke that silence first was a whisper from Selka.

“Big... sister...?”

Turning her left eye towards her little sister who had her two hands grasped together before her chest, Alice smiled gently.

“I am sorry for keeping it from you all this time, Selka. This is the real punishment given to me. And—my real duty.”

Tear droplets appeared from Selka’s eyes upon hearing those words.

“Big sister... I.... I always believed in you. That you were never a criminal. You are beautiful... so, very...”

The next to act was Gasupht.

Kneeling down on the stone paving with a firm noise, the village chief shouted with a strained voice while looking downwards.

“Your will shall be done, esteemed integrity knight!!”

Quickly getting up, he turned back to the villagers behind and issued clear instructions.

“Everyone, stand!! Those bearing arms shall lead the way, run to the south gate!! Once you are out of the village, escape to the forest south of the cleared land!!”

An uneasy stir ran through the villagers standing stiffly. But that, too, lasted but a brief moment. The villagers had no option to resist orders from the village chief in the first place; all the more so when it was the will of an integrity knight.

The muscular peasants fortifying the surrounding stood up and urged the women, children, and elderly to stand as well. Alice called to Gasupht who joined in at the head of the pack to stop and spoke in a hushed voice.

“Father, please take care of everyone... of Selka and mother.”

Gasupht’s stern expression quavered for a mere instant and he gave a terse reply.

“......Do take care of yourself too, esteemed knight.”

This father would likely never ever call Alice his daughter again.

That, too, was part of her payment for the power she was granted.

Carving that into her heart, Alice pushed Selka’s back and made her go along with Gasupht.

“Big sister... don’t work yourself too hard, please.”

Alice smiled as she nodded to her little sister whose eyes were still watery, and then turned towards the north. The villagers moved off as one behind her.

“Ah... aah... m-my mansion...”

That pathetic moan came from Nygr Barbossa whose rear was still on the ground. His gaze flickered between the villagers running off and his mansion where the flames were closing in towards.

Deciding to leave him alone, she focused on the overall state of the village.

She did succeed in setting the villagers into action, but they still numbered three hundred. It would take time for them all to escape from the village. But the defense line was reaching the end of its rope and besides, the enemy’s footsteps approached from the east and west too.

A young man’s shout, much like a scream, rang out from the north side of the plaza then.

“We can’t hold on any longer! Retreat! Retrea—at!!”

The voice belonged to Guard Chief Jink. Nygr stood up upon hearing that, as though revitalized, and flared up Alice.

“Look... just look at that! We should have stayed in the plaza and defended! We will get killed! They will murder all of us!!”

Alice shrugged her shoulder and refuted calmly.

“No need to worry; there is all this space. I will hold them back here.”

“As if you can! You can’t possibly do it, not a chance! Even if... even if you are really an integrity knight, what can you do alone against so many of those demons?!!”

Nygr still continued crying out despite the goblins’ horrifying silhouettes already pressing in from the east and west. Ignoring him yet again, Alice glanced behind. The last of the villagers were still in the plaza, though enough of a distance from Alice and the rest in the center.

Alice gripped Nygr firmly from his nape and pushed him towards the south. That hand thrust straight into the night sky and she called her beloved dragon’s name out loud.

“Amayori!”

A mighty roar immediately returned from the skies. Swinging her raised right hand down from the west to the east, she then shouted.

“—Burn them to ashes!!”

The noise of flapping wings poured down like a storm and Nygr, standing still, along with the grotesque demi-humans charging into the plaza—the goblins—looked straight up at the same time.

The gigantic flying dragon diving through the skies, dyed red by flames, opened its jaw wide. A bluish-white gleam flickered from deep in its throat— Shubaa!!

That resounded as a glaring light came forth.

The heat ray that made contact with the west streets mowed down the east streets as well, cutting through before Alice and Barbossa’s eyes as they stood on the southern side of the plaza.

Time stopped briefly.

Terrible flames swelled up along a line and freed themselves into the night skies. The goblins swallowed up were blasted up high with shrill screams.

The heat ray that instantaneously slaughtered over twenty of the aggressors while vaporizing the fountain in the middle of the plaza and thick white smoke rolled out into the surroundings.

Amayori flew off, skimming atop it, and Alice called out instructions to standby before glancing her eye behind.

Nygr collapsed back onto the stove paving, perhaps due to the strength in his waist leaving him, with his two eyes peeled.

“Wha... whaa... a.... a, a d-dragon...!?”

Alice was wondering what happened to the middle-aged man whose slackened cheeks went into spasm before desperate footsteps approached from beyond the hanging steam. The ones who appeared, all clad in leather armor, were the men from Rulid’s guard corps. The decision to beat a hasty retreat was a good call as their condition showed; despite suffering slight wounds, none were hurt badly among the several tens of guards.

A young man with a large frame who admirably ran at their end— Guard Chief Jink—noticed the plaza was mostly empty and shouted with a shocked face.

“W-Where have everyone from the village went!? Didn’t I tell them to fortify their defenses here!?”

“I had them retreat to the southern forest.”

Alice answered and he blinked as though just noticing her existence. His sight shifted between her head and feet countless time as he spoke, dumbfounded.

“You... Alice...? Why are you...?”

“There is no time to explain. Is this all of the guards? Are there any left behind?”

“Ah... yes, I believe so...”

“Then please escape along with everyone. Aah, and take Barbossa there with you.”

“B-But... they are right behind......”

Before his words finished— “Gihii——!!”

A vulgar roar rang through the entire plaza.

“Wheree!! Where did you go, white iumss!!”

The ones who broke through the thick fog as they rushed into the plaza were goblins clad in coarse plate armor with long feathers on their heads, holding machetes similar to lumps of metal in their right hands. These seemed of a different tribe, having a slightly better physique when compared to those who appeared from the side streets earlier and were incinerated by Amayori’s flames.

Alice stared at the demi-humans as she placed her right hand on her cherished sword’s grip. Flying dragons could not fire their heat rays in succession. Alice had to face the enemy on her own until Amayori stockpiled the thermal elements within herself again.

One of the goblins noticed Alice who was clad in golden armor, and the colors of bloodthirstiness and lust welled up in his eyes shining golden as he cried out.

“Gihii!! A ium giirl! Kill heer! Kill her and eat heer!!”

Quietly taking on the demi-human who charged straight towards her while brandishing a machete with his abnormally long arm, Alice murmured deep in her chest.

—What a terrible power I was given. My very existence is practically a sin.

This body of an integrity knight.

“Gyaa——!!”

The heavy machete swung down as he leapt and was caught by Alice who carelessly extended her left hand. Though she felt an immense impact through her naked palm, it neither broke her bones nor tore her skin. Gripping the blunt blade with her five fingers, she crushed it as though it was nothing more than thin ice.

Even before the metallic fragments, broken and scattered far too easily, fell to the ground, the Fragrant Olive Sword was already drawn by her right hand and tore a horizontal line through the goblin’s torso.

The bright golden air from the sword swept in three goblins approaching from behind and blew away the cluster of dense vapor as well in no time at all.

The four enemy soldiers’ golden eyeballs were peeled open, as though unaware of what had occurred, while their upper body left their lower body before they could let out a single word, collapsing haphazardly onto the ground.

Avoiding the blood that shot up a moment later, she muttered to herself within once more.

—Highest Minister Administrator. You were wrong, after all.

—You collected all this power into merely thirty integrity knights and made them puppets without a will of their own. You thought to grasp all of the power that should had been split between the masses of the Human World through that. However, this far too ill- distributed strength served only to delude and mislead both its owners and those around them. Like how you were swallowed by that overwhelming might and lost your humanity...

That mistake was now beyond redemption with the loss of the highest minister.

Thus, at the very least, she had to expend every last drop of this strength for the masses.

Not as an integrity knight of the Axiom Church, but as a single swordswoman; she had to think on her own and fight on her own will. Like how those two brave swordsmen did.

Her left eye was shut throughout that swing; Alice opened it with resolve.

At the same time, the defense line hastily built at the plaza’s north was smashed into small pieces from the other side.

The invaders’ main unit charged in as though to bury the wide main streets. The goblins numbered over fifty and were accompanied, though in lesser numbers, by orcs whose giant, plump frames were covered in thick iron armor, each with a trident in a hand.

Upon seeing them whose golden eyes gleamed, aflame, and roars filled with hate and desire, moans of despair leaked from Jink, the other guards, and Nygr Barbossa.

But Alice’s heart was at ease.

She relied not on the talent for battle she obtained as an integrity knight. Not even a knight could escape with light wounds if they were to surround by such numbers and stabbed by their spears.

What gave Alice strength was a new realization.

—I will fight for what I, myself, seek for from now on. I will fight to protect my little sister and my parents, along with the people of the Human World who Kirito and Eugeo hoped to protect.

Alice vividly felt the remaining doubts about herself and her sense of futility disappear into a white light deep in her heart. That light surged through her, finally accumulating at her right eye, covered by that black patch, and generating an intense heat.

“.........!”

She clenched her teeth as she withstood a fierce pain that shot to her eye socket from the back of her head. But that pain somehow nostalgic, or heartrending. Alice gripped the bandage across her head with her left hand and took it off all at once.

Her right eyelid that had been closed since that day nearly half a year ago opened slowly. A red light expanded from the center of her dark vision and eventually turned into flicking flames. Visions of houses lit aflame overlapped and gradually closed in on each other—finally finishing as one.

Alice looked at the black cloth held in her left hand with both eyes.

Kirito made the eye patch, discolored from being washed many times, by tearing it from his clothes.

The cloth that protected her for months ever since her right eye shot away along with that seal might have finally reached the end of its Life here as it began to disappear from its edges as melting into the air. Alice came to a realization while staring at that fleeting, beautiful sight.

She thought she was looking after Kirito who had lost his right arm and heart through this half-year. However, she was actually the one protected instead.

“...Thank you, Kirito.”

Pressing the black cloth to her lips immediately before it utterly vanished, she whispered softly.

“...I am fine now. I will likely still be at a loss, worry, and lose heart in the future... but I will go on. For us both to achieve our goal.”

Her head flipped up just as the cloth disintegrated.

Her two eyes gazed at the distinct sight of nearly a hundred goblins and orcs letting out a multitude of roars as they flooded forward. The fleeing footsteps from the guards and Nygr Barbossa echoed from behind.

There was no fear in Alice’s heart as she faced the enemy army on her own.

Breathing the burnt stench deeply, she yelled.

“—I am a knight of the Human World, Alice!! None of the blood or slaughter you seek shall happen while I stand here!! Return to your land through the caves you came from this instant!!”

As though awed by her refined, distinct shout, the goblins running at the head slackened slightly. However, a large orc in the middle of the group, possibly the general, immediately brandished his two-handed axe with a brutal roar.

“Graaahh!! «Cut-Feet Moricca» here will have that one little white ium girl on her knees before long!!”

The voice gave strength to the goblins. Alice put a decent amount of distance between her and the enemy army charging in as a massive black wave— “Amayori!”

A huge shadow rapidly dived from the skies the moment she called out that name. Though the thermal elements accumulated were not enough for firing the heat ray yet, the flying dragon intimidated the demi-humans with her body and thunderous call while savagely skimming past their heads. The anxiety of the astonished enemy army rose beyond earlier.

Not letting that chance escape, Alice raised the Fragrant Olive Sword held in her right up high and shouted.

“—Enhance armament!!”

It was half a year since she last chanted those words of the «armament full control art», not to mention how she shortened the main body of the art, but Alice’s beloved sword responded to her will. The golden blade divided into countless small edges with a clear metallic noise and soared into the night sky while reflecting the fires’ glow.

“Rage—flowers!”

The golden storm of flowers fell upon the enemy army with numerous zaas.

The first to be wrapped in a spray of blood was the orc general who called himself Moricca. His entire body was stabbed through by many petals, instantly robbing him of his Life, and he fell onto the ground with a tremor. The orcs around him, too, bent down onto the ground with screams one after another.

The Fragrant Olive Sword was a sacred tool among sacred tools with the world’s oldest tree rooted to the core of the Human World before the world began as its source. As its alternate name, «Eternal Immortality», implied, even when divided into hundreds of flower petals through its armament full control art, each held a priority on par with famous swords forged by artisans. Coarse cast iron armor could not possibly defend against them.

The invaders became restless at losing their main force, including their general, in an instant. The charge’s momentum weakened before long and came to a stop around ten mel from the plaza.

Alice sharply swung her right hand that held her sword’s grip at the goblins lined up at the front, lost at whether to obey their greed or fear. The hundreds of petals danced through the air with light zaas, forming dense vertical stripes between Alice and the enemy army.

Alice gave a subdued proclamation while gazing at the demi- humans through the fence gleaming golden.

“This is the wall dividing the Human World and the Land of Darkness. Even if you dig through the caves, you will not defile this earth as long as we knights live. Choose—to advance and fall into a sea of blood, or to retreat and flee back to the Land of Darkness!!” 

Not even five seconds passed before the goblin vanguards turned back with great force.