Sword Art Online - Volume 16 - Chapter 18.2

Chapter 18.2
“Heey, you know, the left doesn’t look so in control.”
As Fizel, her partner, reported to their commander in a somewhat carefree voice, Linel nodded as well as her pigtails wavered. However, no reply came from their commander. She shifted her sight forward while thinking about how she barely spoke.
Fizel Synthesis Twenty-eight and Linel Synthesis Twenty-nine, apprentice knights, were stationed at the front of the second unit’s right flank of the Human Empire Defense Army. Despite the ruckus at the first unit’s right flank positioned a hundred mel in front, no enemy had penetrated the defense line. It seemed the senior high ranking knight, Deusolbert, was making quite an effort.
The center of the first unit that Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio was entrusted with, too, held its position for the time being. Though Linel and Fizel treated her like an elder sister and a natural enemy of sorts, they could not deny her might. That tense feeling she gave off previously, too, had mostly vanished after she shed that iron mask and revealed her bare face.
What worried her, as expected, was the left flank of the first unit.
Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-one, who took up command, was a newcomer who awoke merely seven months ago and though his abilities recently improved significantly, the sudden, major role might have been a little too heavy for him. He did command the front lines by his own wish, but it felt like it would have been better to leave it to the other senior knights instead—
She pondered over those thoughts as she pictured the stations for each knight in her head.
The high ranking knights gathered on this battlefield numbered merely seven.
The first unit had Eldrie on the left, Deputy Commander Fanatio in the middle, and Deusolbert on the right.
The second unit had the young Renri on the left, Knight Commander Bercouli in the middle, and the silent female knight on the right.
And the last position, in the sky, was taken by Alice Synthesis Thirty.
“…The left is a cause for concern no matter how you look at it, isn’t it…”
Fizel was the one to curtly nod her head instead, this time, to Linel’s mutterings. In fact, the situation at the left flank had been strange since minutes ago. There were no signs of injuries, but countless disorderly cries could be heard from across the troops in the middle. What appeared to be thick smoke, darker than even the darkness at the bottom of the valley, could be seen lingering there after squinting hard.
In the off-chance they slipped through Eldrie in the first unit, the second unit commanded by the young Renri should still hold them back—or at least, they should.
“Will that kid really be okaay?”
Nodding to Fizel’s words, Linel drew her head closer to her partner before whispering.
“I did not say anything because I figured Esteemed Uncle Bercouli would have something in mind, but the left and right flanks of the second unit really should have been swapped. I’m not sure at all about lining up Eldry with Renry.”
Fizel lowered her voice even further at that and replied.
“I thought about it and all, but dear uncle’s probably thinking about making us fight as little as possible, don’t you think…?”
“……Aah…”
Coming to an understanding, Linel watched as a slender figure quietly stood up a short distance away.
The thin armor was in matte grey, a rare choice among the integrity knights. Her hair, dark grey as well, was separated neatly at the middle of her pale brow and tied up at the back of her head. She appeared around twenty years old with single eyelids on her eyes, narrowed in a refined manner, and no rouge on her lips.
She was named Scheta Synthesis Twelve. Her alias seemed to be «Silent», but the origins for that were unknown. However, at the very least, Fizel and Linel understood well enough that this knight was nowhere as harmless as she looked. This knight was dangerous. They had no desire to even remain near her when she draws the rapier at the left of the waist.
Knight Commander Bercouli must have thought of having Scheta avoid battle as well, thus setting her behind the senior Deusolbert instead of the young Eldrie. In other words, if that archer continued to hold his ground, Linel and the rest would see no action.
That hardly constituted a valid reason, but—
“Excuse me, Scheta-sama.”
Linel spoke to their taciturn commander once more. She shot a glance at them, so she voiced out the rest of words.
“May we go take a look at the rear?”
The knight’s slender right eyebrow moved just two millice at that. As she felt a questioning “why” from that, she replied in a hurry.
“Erm, well, we are a little concerned…”
Her eyebrow moved once again. It must be asking “over what”. Her answer made her hesitate and she struggled before she somehow got out the words.
“Ermm… that person who should be together with the supply unit. The rebel… Kirito.”
Fizel nodded with slight motions from the side at that.
In that great turmoil seven months ago, Fizel and Linel fought against the rebels, Kirito and Eugeo, on the Central Cathedral’s grand staircase. To be accurate, they paralyzed them with concealed, venomous swords in a surprise attack and dragged them before the deputy knight commander before trying to behead them.
It should have been easy. However, that rebel, Kirito, had recited the detoxification art without them noticing, stole their swords, and paralyzed them in the end.
When Kirito swung the venomous swords down towards Linel and Fizel, collapsed on the ground, they did not feel any fear in particular. They simply sighed and felt slight regret, missing out on the opportunity to advance to being real integrity knights from apprentices. Thinking that it would be nice if Kirito killed them skillfully—in a clean and relatively painless manner, in other words—Linel awaited the moment her Life would be severed.
However, Kirito did not kill the pair. The venomous swords stood stabbed in the floor and he turned his back to them, standing against Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio. And he achieved victory in that unwinnable battle with wounds all over his body.
Fizel and Linel could still clearly recall the words Kirito’s partner, the rebel, Eugeo, gave them right before they left.
—Fanatio and Kirito are that strong because they have their sacred instruments and armament full control arts; that might be what the two of you thought, being who you are, but that’s wrong. Those two are much, much stronger. They could fight on even when hurt that badly not through their skills or weapons but through their heart and mind.
To be honest, she did not truly understand the meaning behind those words even after these seven months passed.
However, it was reality that the rebels, Kirito and Eugeo, defeated even Highest Minister Administrator. In exchange, Eugeo lost his life and Kirito lost his heart and an arm.
What did the two rebels seek as they fought? What strength did they gain from their hearts and minds?
It was in pursuit of that that Fizel and Linel participated in the Human Empire Defense Army and came all the way to the faraway Great East Gate.
The answers remained obscure. However, an unfamiliar sensation went through Linel’s chest when she saw Kirito, atop the wheelchair pushed by Knight Alice, appearing on the battlefield. She could not determine what she felt and thought then; a first for her.
The apprentice knights, Linel Synthesis Twenty-eight and Fizel Synthesis Twenty-nine, were born in the Central Cathedral. Though they had heard their parents were among the ascetics of the Axiom Church, they recalled neither their names nor faces.
Their parents were ordered by the highest minister, Administrator, to procreate and to send the babies to a certain establishment in the tower. Though there were a grand total of thirty in that establishment from the same background, the only ones living on now were Linel and Fizel. All of the other twenty-eight could not endure the «resurrection sacred art» experiments conducted by the highest minister and died.
Fizel and Linel lived on only because of their wholehearted research into «good methods of dying» that placed their flesh and spirit under least burden. The pair stabbed each other in the heart as ordered, died, and were resurrected by sacred arts. By the time the highest minister gave up on her experiments, each of them had already gotten the knack of killing the other while causing nearly no pain.
Strength, to the pair, referred to effective techniques for murder. If the opponent proved stronger, they would promptly flee. Flee, and train, to surpass and to kill again when given an opportunity. By that logic, there was no reason to take on injuries while standing against someone stronger. They had always thought so.
The rebels, Kirito and Eugeo, appeared to be only as skilled as the lower ranking knights when judging from their combat capabilities alone. However, the pair fought against that highest minister, abandoning an arm and a life, and triumphed.
For what cause?
And thus, what had that pair to gain?
They wanted to ask Kirito upon meeting again with him, but Integrity Knight Alice was constantly by his side and they found no opportunity to come into contact with him. Though they did not know if they could hold a conversation with him in his current state, it would be a bother if he died off before they could try. The supply unit behind ought to remain safe as long as the second unit hold, but that chaos on the left flank was definitely of worry.
—And as they could not possibly explain all of that to Scheta, the acting commander here, the pair restlessly waited for approval.
The knight, «Silent», glanced towards the left flank with her grey eyes and pointed towards the rear with her left hand after approximately two seconds of thought.
“Eh… erm, s-so we can go?”
As Scheta nodded without a word, she hastily made a simplified knight’s salute with Fizel.
“Thank you very much, we will be back immediately after confirming their safety!”
Turning about, they began running by the side of the ranks.
—Thank you very much, huh. She had never said that, not even to the esteemed highest minister.
Linel’s eyes met with her partner and they exchanged cynical smiles before she accelerated further.
* * *

Integrity Knight Renri Synthesis Twenty-seven, about to put his arms around his knees once more, drew in a sharp breath deep in the supplies tent after several shouts reached his ears from surprisingly close by.
Could it be? He could not believe the enemy army could have broken through the valley’s defense lines so quickly. Only tens of minutes had passed since battle began.
It was just due to him being worked up that he could hear those faraway noises so clearly; Renri convinced himself.
However, the reactions from the two girls who had taken refuge in the same tent told him that he did not mishear the approaching soldier voices.
“No way… they’re already this far back?”
The red-haired trainee named Tiezé Shtolienen flicked her face up and rushed to the tent’s entrance. Lifting the drapes, she ascertained the outside. Her whispering resounded immediately after, in a tone of increasing anxiety.
“…There’s smoke…!”
The trainee called Ronye Arabel, too, tensed up at that.
“Eh… Tiezé, is there fire too!?”
“No, there’s just this oddly colored smoke streaming in… —No, wait. In the smoke… there are all those people…”
The words from Tiezé, peeping outside through the gaps in the drapes, stopped as though absorbed by the thick cotton.
Renri strained his ears once again in the tense silence, getting onto his feet.
The cries had vanished some time ago. However, he sensed someone approaching beyond that stillness. He heard gradual, damp footsteps.
Without warning, Tiezé retreated to the middle of the tent with uncertain steps. Her shuddering right hand reached out towards her left waist.
It happened then, when Renri realized she was trying to draw her sword.
Baff! The drapes at the entrance tore as they were pulled apart without care.
The outside was mired in dusk without him knowing and the torches’ light quivered alone in a pale red. A humanoid silhouette stood in silence against that backdrop. Despite its small frame and hunched back, its two arms were abnormally muscular and gripped onto a coarse machete that appeared as though cut out from sheet metal.
The stench mixed into the air blowing in from the entrance stung Renri’s nose.
Trainee Shtolienen drew her sword as its sheath clattered and Trainee Arabel shouted in a low voice from beside the wheelchair.
“—A goblin!?”
The intruder with bizarre features responded in a hoarse voice, scratchy in some places.
“O-hoh… white ium girls… trophies for me…”
Tiezé slowly stepped back at the sheer rawness of his desires.
While he was a high ranking integrity knight, this was Renri’s first time witnessing a demi-human from the Dark Territory. He had been dealt with, by being frozen, before he was granted a flying dragon to fly to the mountain range at the edge.
This was completely… different.
Renri thought absentmindedly.
He thought he had learnt sufficiently regarding the four demi-human races from the lectures given by the senior knights and the written material in the cathedral. However, the goblin he imagined, taking on an appearance like that of the mischievous fairies from nursery tales, resembled this repulsive organism standing a mere eight mel away in no way.
The goblin lumbered a step forward in Renri’s view as he shivered to the tips of his fingers, unable to even move. His dirtied plate armor shone dully like scales.
Tiezé turned the long sword held in her two hands towards the goblin, but its point wobbled as her knees quivered uncontrollably. Did that soft clattering come from the girl’s teeth?
“Ti… Tiezé…”
A feeble voice leaked out from Ronye’s throat. She hid the wheelchair Kirito sat upon before her back and held onto her sword’s grip with her right hand, but her legs, too, were shaking.
He had to stand.
He had to stand, draw the Twin Edged Wings from his waist, and fight against the goblin soldier.
Despite those thoughts, Renri’s body rejected any notion to move as though petrified. The enemy was no more than a single demi-human soldier. The high ranking knights, capable of matching a thousand, should have been bestowed enough power to achieve victory even when up against a thousand of these goblins.
“Gufh… you look tasty…”
The goblin licked his lips as his viscous drool dripped in strings.
“Ba… back off! If you don’t…!”
The warning Tiezé desperately wrung out served no purpose except to stimulate the goblin’s appetite. With a smug smile, the demi-human took another step forward, his machete brandished. Then—
Thump.
That stale noise rang out in the tent.
The goblin soldier’s two yellow eyes opened widely in confusion as he looked down at his own chest.
Sharp, smooth metal sprung from the coarse plate armor. It was wet with drops of fresh blood; a sword’s pointed tip. Some being had stabbed precisely into the demi-human’s heart from behind.
“…What is, this thing …?”
Those became the goblin soldier’s final words. Strength left his brawny frame and he crumbled onto the tent’s floor in exhaustion.
Standing beyond him and half a head shorter than the two female trainees was a small swordswoman, or perhaps a female ascetic. Her dark, reddish-brown hair was braided and she wore a silver breastplate atop black ascetic clothing. The sword she held in her right hand was rather short, fitting her physique. Despite how she could still be labelled a child as according to her age—despite how she had just killed that horrifying demi-human soldier, her adorable face showed not even a hint of fear.
After seeing that much in a daze, Renri noticed at last.
This girl was neither a swordswoman nor an ascetic.
She was a knight. An apprentice integrity knight with a name of Linel Synthesis Twenty-eight if he recalled right. The girl was half of the «dreadful twins»: the one who murdered the previous twenty-eighth knight in a match and stole the position.
Linel’s expression showed no reaction even when she saw the foolish sight of Renri sinking onto the ground. After confirming the safety of the two trainees and Kirito, on the wheelchair, she spun about.
Another apprentice knight appeared at the tent’s entrance immediately after. Her short hair was in same hue as Linel’s and Fizel Synthesis Twenty-nine whispered to her partner in a soft voice.
“Nel, I took care of all of the goblins nearby, but they’re still coming. May be best to move.”
“Nn, okay, Zel.”
Having nodded, Linel caught the obstructing goblin corpse on the floor near the entrance with the tip of her right foot and rolled it somewhere less troublesome. The near lack of spilled blood was likely due to the speed and precision of that one strike from behind.















Turning around, she called out to the trainees who appeared incapable of speaking.
“I am Linel and this is Fizel. The two of us are apprentice knights.”
“Y-Yes, we’ve seen you during practice. We are trainees, Tiezé Shtolienen and Ronye Arabel. Thank… Thank you very much for saving us.”
Tiezé stated her name with a voice that still trembled and Ronye bowed as well. Linel shrugged her shoulders in a precocious fashion at that.
“It’s still up in the air whether you’ll live or not. It looks like more than a hundred goblins slipped through the defense lines while the left flanks of the first and second units are covered in a smokescreen.”
Linel went quiet for a moment there and finally looked straight at Renri.
Her grey eyes tinged with violet narrowed.
“What could you be doing here as the esteemed knight who is supposed to be taking command of the second unit’s left flank? Those under you are moving about in confusion under the smokescreen, you know?”
Averting his face as though to escape from the apprentice knight’s sight, Renri replied softly.
“…It’s nothing to do with the two of you. Please take those two and the ill one to somewhere safe.”
Renri felt vividly a change in Linel’s presence in that moment.
A cold, murderous aura, unfitting for a child, brushed against his cheek. The sword stained with goblin blood shone orange in the torches’ light.
Was she thinking to kill him like she did to the previous twenty-eighth?
Then that would be all to that. It was a mistake in the first place to hurl him, a failure of a knight who should have been frozen forever, into a real battlefield. He could not possibly return to the second unit now and there was no place for him even if he fled back to the cathedral. Though she was an apprentice, an execution by Linel who held a number as a knight would be a fitting end for such a coward.
Renri turned his face away as he awaited the blade of condemnation.
But what he heard was a soft whisper rather than approaching footsteps.
“…You are a terrible coward, but you must have some strength if you’re supposed to be a high ranking knight. Thank that swordsman you called ill.”
—What did she mean; that thought came and he raised his face only after Linel’s ascetic clothing spun about.
“Trainees, come, and bring Kirito with you.”
Went Linel’s instructions.
“Nel, they’re here! There’re eight… no, ten!”
Before Fizel’s voice overlapped them. Certainly, there were multiple sets of footsteps approaching from the east.
Turning about, Linel quickly instructed Tiezé and Ronye who stood frozen.
“I take back that order, stand by for a while. We will take care of the goblins.”
“We… we understand, esteemed knight.”
Tiezé nodded and Linel left the tent, as though sliding away, and vanished alongside Fizel. Cries from the goblins going, “There they are! Ium children!” came straight away as the footsteps left. They must have planned to draw them away before engaging.
Standing against ten whole goblins without fear required courage beyond what one would expect from apprentices. However, those two held strength worthy of that.
Strength.
Linel judged Renri as a coward but still said he “must have some strength”. And that he should thank the rebel, Kirito, who should have originally been their enemy.
He did not understand the meaning behind those words and he doubted there was even a trace of strength inside himself. After all, he could not even bring himself to stand even with an enemy soldier within sight.
Renri looked downwards, unable to even muster the courage to confirm the expressions Ronye and Tiezé had.
However, that lasted only seconds. A straight line tore through the thick, woven fabric on Renri’s immediate left, separating the tent’s inside from the outside. That was reason enough for him to get up and leap backwards, rather than cower as he did.
Standing on the other side of the torn fabric was a goblin soldier shorter in stature than the one earlier but clad in armor that oper
seemed of somewhat high quality. Though made from leather, it was tailored skillfully and even dyed black. Judging from how he hid from Linel and the rest’s notice, he was apparen tly a scout that excelled in co vert operations.
Renri unconsciously reached out towards the throwing knives on his waist. But he could not draw them. Like when he saw the first goblin, the fear seeping from the depths of his stomach numbed his frigid finger tips.
Renri was mostly unaware of it himself, but the source of that fear did not stem from seeing a demi-human soldier up close for the first time.
It was fear towards fighting. To be specific, he feared the death match that engaging a goblin would lead to.
He feared getting killed. That said, he feared killing even more.
Sets of footsteps reached Renri’s frozen ears. They must be from a unit different from the one Linel and Fizel drew away. There really were more than ten or twenty goblins who slipped past the defense lines.
Perhaps having seen through Renri’s fear as he stood frozen, the scout grinned and turned towards Tiezé and Ronye. The two female trainees hid Kirito on the wheelchair behind themselves and firmly brandished their swords once more. However, despair flashed onto their faces right after. Numerous shadows approached through the smoke hanging behind the scout.
The scout readied the scythe-like weapon in his right hand and sidled towards Tiezé and Ronye.
“Stop… stop there! We will cut you if you come any closer!”
The red-haired girl shouted boldly. But that voice was faintly hoarse and quivered.

“……”
The goblin shortened the distance in silence. The lack of pointless banter, unlike the normal soldier from earlier, indicated him to be higher up among the soldiers, with more training. Still, Tiezé held her ground and held her sword aloft with an expression displaying her readiness to die.
—You can’t do it, run.
He wanted to say so. But Renri’s mouth did not move. His body, no, his soul rejected the option to fight even in this situation.
It was then—
A weak, creaking noise reached Renri’s ears.
He flicked his sight alone towards the right.
The black-haired youth looking downwards with an empty expression, still powerlessly sitting on the wheelchair in the tent’s murky depths. The noise came from his left hand. Blood vessels showed up on the hand hugging the two swords, rousing his joints, displaying the tremendous power within them.
As though resenting the lack of a right hand to draw those blades.
“You……”
Renri whispered with an inaudible voice.
You wish to protect those two? Despite being unable to stand, to draw your sword, or to even speak?
Out of nowhere, he noticed.
The strength Linel and Fizel mentioned before they left. That must refer to neither swordsmanship, nor arts, nor divine instruments, nor even the armament full control art.
It was that meager power everyone, both integrity knights and the common folk, possessed from the start, yet lost sight of all too easily.
Courage.
Renri’s right hand slowly began moving. His still-numbed finger tips brushed against the Twin Edged Wings on his waist. Sensation returned to his hands in that instant. His divine instrument seemed to speak to him.
The goblins carelessly swung that brutal scythe up towards Tiezé.
Then—
The sharp noise of the air being sliced apart echoed as a bluish-white light illuminated the murky insides of the tent.
The light sprung upwards, tracing an arc from Renri’s hand, grazing the tent’s roof as it dived. It turned upon passing through the goblin’s body and settled between the index and middle fingers of Renri’s outstretched right hand.
“…Gh-hi…?”
The goblin moaned as though doubting what had occurred. A light red line drew across the middle of his face without a sound.
Immediately after, the top half of the goblin’s face slid out of place and fell onto the ground with a damp noise.
The divine instrument, «Twin Edged Wings», was a set of extremely thin, steel throwing knives bent in the middle.
The knives of approximately forty cen long had no grip to hold them by. Both sides ended in sharp tips and they were thrown by placing that between one’s fingers. The edges that flew while revolving at high speeds could freely change their trajectory and would return to their owner’s hands before received between one’s two fingers again.
In other words, even normal usage required a level of concentration incomparable to that of swords. He could easily lose his fingers if his focus was disturbed by the slightest bit and he failed to receive the returning edges.
His evident control over such a weapon could be said to be proof enough of Renri’s capabilities. However, he himself was absolutely unaware of that. His spirit languished at the feeling of inferiority from his incapability to activate the armament full control art.
As such, Renri had not actually become any more ready for battle despite having killed the goblin with a single stroke.
Renri repeated his shallow breathing while focused on the cold steel faintly quivering, whirling to a stop at the tip of his extended right hand. He killed, he had finally killed; those words alone resounded in his mind time and time again.
“…Esteemed knight.”
Tiezé was the one to break the silence. Tears lightly stained her eyes in the shade of autumn as the trainee spoke in a whisper.
“Thank you… very much. You did save us, in the end.”
Warmth spread through Renri’s chest, icy with fear, from those words. That said, he did not have the time to respond. Multiple shadows came directly at them from beyond the smokescreen. Their numbers were likely beyond ten.
—Impossible. I can’t fight any longer. It was scary enough even against that one goblin.
The meager courage he gathered from all of himself scattered and vanished.
His breathing grew shallow. Strength left his legs.
His eyes swam, seeking a path of escape, and were drawn to the two long swords held in the black-haired youth’s one arm.
One among them, the sword adorned with a detailed rose inlay on its grip, let out a feeble light in the dim darkness. The blue light, faint yet somehow warm, pulsated just like a heart. The icy dread enveloping his entire body gradually thawed.
After drawing in all the air his chest could hold, Renri spoke.
“…The two of you should stay here and protect Kirito-san.”
“Y… yes!”
Tiezé and Ronye replied with spirit. Replying with a light nod, Renri left the tent from where the scout tore through. The two goblins leading the approaching enemy soldiers noticed Renri and bared their fangs.
A flash came from his right hand and a bluish-white radiance ran through the air.
The throwing knife returned to his fingers just as their two heads fell.
However, Renri shifted his sight without making sure of that and let loose the knife on his left waist towards a new target. Another two goblins had their life cut away as they crumbled.
New troops surrounded Renri who had dealt with four goblins in merely four seconds.
“It’s a knight…”
“The general’s head!”
“Kill! Kill!!”
Bathed in those savage voices, Renri ran forward in order to draw the enemies away from the tent behind. The goblins’ armor rattled as they chased after.
The orderly lines of supplies tents came to an eventual end. On his immediate left was a cliff wall that rose vertically and a dense smokescreen obstructing the front with goblins gushing out from there, one after another. And behind him were the ten chasing him.
Having jumped into his own doom, Renri stopped his feet and stretched his two hands grasping onto the two throwing knives towards the left and right before shouting.
“—My name is Renri! The integrity knight, Renri Synthesis Twenty-seven!! If you wish for this head, then come at me ready to set your life aside!”
The goblins responded with ferocious roars at that speech that took all of his courage.
Their machetes swung up as one and Renri let loose both throwing knives concurrently, targeting them who leapt in from both ends.
The knife in his right hand towards the right. The knife in his left hand towards the left. The two soaring edges traced arcs as they intercepted the frontmost goblins.
Heads left their bodies, dismembered one after another, before falling onto the ground. Their bodies fell forward, delayed, as dark fresh blood spurt from them.
Renri caught the two returning knives not by holding them between his fingers but by hooking them around his index fingers. Spinning them at high speeds in order to maintain their momentum, he threw them once more without pause.
The exact same scene repeated itself yet again. A naive comparison of his normal attacks against Deusolbert’s «Conflagrant Flame Bow» and Fanatio’s «Heaven Piercing Sword» in terms of might would probably result in his victory. The edges of the «Twin Edged Wings» were thinner than paper and as they spun at extreme speeds, they cut through inadequate armor as though they were not present.
The two consecutive throws downed over ten and even the goblins who knew no fear had their vigor dampened, spooked by the disconcerting manner of death of their allies.
I can do this— If he held on for a little longer, backup should come from the frontlines where the smokescreen was fading.
Renri held down the terror from the genocide he committed as he took a third throw.
However, what arrived at his ears was the noise of twigs fell by a hatchet rather than the prior cutting noises.
Kakiiin! A shrill sound of impact.
The two knives returned somehow despite how their courses were violently altered and Renri reached out as far as he could with both hands to retrieve them. Deprived of the composure needed to risk hooking it against his fingers, he narrowly b r ought the lethal knives to a stop.
His two widely opened eyes caught sight of a figure, a single goblin, languidly appearing from beyond the smokescreen.
Large.
His height did not differ much from Renri whose body was at the physical age of fifteen. However, the bulging muscles covering his entire body and the burning murderous aura emanating from his pair of yellow eyes were wholly different from the other goblins. He wore riveted leather armor, perhaps for the sake of mobility as it appeared light, and a massive hatchet dangled from his right hand.
“…You’re their general?”
Renri asked in a soft voice.
“Yer. Chief of the mountain goblins, Kosogi.”
The goblin replied calmly and slowly looked about.
“Ah-ah, that’s one grand display you put on in killing them. To think there was an integrity knight left behind all the way back here. I didn’t expect that at all.”
It was not just his physique, but his manner of speech, too, completely differed from the other goblins. Despite possessing an intense, seething blood thirst, his high intelligence held that down.
—Not that it matters. He only got lucky and deflected the Twin Edged Wings once, that won’t happen again.
Renri crossed his arms before himself and shouted.
“Your war will end here!!”
He threw them as fast as he could, with all he had.
The right edge soared down at an angle as the left grazed the ground as it sprang upwards, accurately flying towards Kosogi’s neck. Still.
Once again, all that rang out was a shrill, clear metallic noise.
The enemy general, Kosogi, shifted the hatchet quickly enough for it to turn into a grey blur and splendidly warded off the simultaneous attack from left and right.
He barely caught the deflected throwing knives.
—Why!? The Twin Edged Wings should be enough to slice through that goblin’s weapon…!
Shocked, Renri’s sight was drawn in towards Kosogi’s hatchet.
Though its make was coarse like the machetes the goblin soldiers had equipped, the tint of its blade differed. That was not a product of primitive casting. It had a sharp blade with high priority, forged over much time with tempered steel.
Perhaps having seen through Renri’s astonishment, Kosogi brought the hatchet before his face as he grinned.
“This? It’s a prototype, but it’s quite well done, right? There was blood spilt in order to steal the materials and methods from the Order of the Dark Knights. But you see… that’s not the only reason why your attacks are being blocked, knight kid.”
“……Then how about this?!”
He swung both hands straight up. The throwing knives that soared into the dark night skies vanished from the enemy’s sight and drew a great arc as they assailed from behind. Deflecting this would be—
“……!!”
His conviction immediately fell apart. The goblin chief named Kosogi swung the hatchet behind and deflected the knives travelling at extreme speeds without even looking, of all things.
Renri failed to perfectly catch the returning knives, wobbling unsteadily, and suffered a cut on the middle finger of his left hand. However, the situation gave him no time to even feel that pain.
“They’re light, kid. And that noise too.”
Kosogi’s short lines covered every single one of the Twin Edged Wings’ weaknesses.
The weight of each throwing knife was unbelievably light for a weapon considered a divine instrument.
That was only natural given its pursuit for only sharpness and rotational energy, but as a result, it could not cut down by force any opponent with a defense of sufficient priority to handle its velocity.
In addition, the knives that spun at high speeds as they flew exhibited a distinctive noise as they sliced through the air. It was within the realm of possibility for someone who had trained their hearing to predict the trajectories.
Renri shuddered at Kosogi’s intellect, seeing through that much after watching his attacks only those few times. To think a goblin, a crude, inferior demi-human could—
“And that’s just a goblin… your face’s speaking, kid.”
Showing a grin that appeared somewhat depressed, Kosogi whispered.
“But in my case, I would like to say this. You’re supposed to be some great esteemed knight, right? Some integrity knight capable of facing against a thousand… that’s what I heard, but looks like it’s different for you? That’s why you’re hiding all the way back here, aren’t you?”
“…Yeah, that’s it.”
It was his mistake in the first place to make light of the enemy before himself as some goblin. Understanding that, Renri abandoned his bluff and nodded.
“I’m a failure of a knight. But still… make no mistake. I’m the failure here, not this.”
He brought the silver edges held between his fingers in both hands before his face.
The Twin Edged Wings’ weaknesses. The one method to rid it of them would be the integrity knight’s secret art, the armament full control art.
This divine instrument was said to be once a pair of divine birds who had respectively lost their left and right wings. Unable to fly with a single wing, they joined together and soared higher than any of the other birds could go and flew on for close to an eternity.
That legend gave birth to a small, stinging wound deep in Renri’s heart without his own notice.
The one he cherished in those memories robbed from him through the Synthesis Ritual.
The childhood friend he crossed swords against in the final match of the Four Empires Unity Tournament and stole the life of by accident at the end of that battle surpassing all other.
He and Renri were truly a pair of birds. They had competed against each other for as far back as they could recall and even after moving to the central capital from their village, they broke through all trials while relying on each other for mental support, reaching that ultimate stage.
But their wings broke there.
Even with his memories sealed and him turned into an integrity knight, the gigantic sense of loss in Renri’s heart remained unfilled. Having lost the courage to take up the sword to fight and the joy of connecting, heart-to-heart, with another, Renri could not possibly have called awake those two divine birds soaring with their wings joined.
But.
That black-haired youth he met on this battlefield who had suffered more than anyone else and the two swords he held in his arm.
The warmth light emanating from one of those spoke to Renri in a mute voice.
Things existed in this world that remained even after one’s life came to an end.
Those were memories. Recollections.
Connections between hearts allowed for one’s life to be succeeded by another, and yet another. Without end, as long as the world continued on.
Renri averted his sight from the goblin general, approaching with an expression certain of victory, and gently lowered his eyelids.
The young knight appeared as though he had given on everything before his body let loose an abrupt tempest of his spirit as a swordsman. His two eyes flickered open. His two arms, gripping onto the two metal knives, intersected as though to conceal the bottom half of his face.
“——Fly, Twin Wings!!”
Those arms swiped horizontally along with that shout. The two soaring streaks of light traced a steep arc and assailed Kosogi from the right and left.
“You can keep trying… but it’s useless!!”
The goblin chief brandished his hatchet and deflected the throwing knives with all his strength.
Shrill, metallic noise accompanied crimson sparks. The two knives bounced away all too easily, but they took off back into the skies without falling onto the ground. Just like two nestled birds, they drew a helix as they intertwined, joining ever closer.
It was then, when the knives came together.
“ Release… recollection!! ”
Rather than the armament full control art, Renri cried out loud the phrase for the true secret art surpassing it, the «recollection release art».
A pure white radiance illuminated the valley.
The two facing metal knives united at their apexes within the light and became one.
Revolving gently, the knife that had now become a cross glittered bluish like a distant star in the night sky. The divine instrument, the Twin Edged Wings, released.
Renri slowly reached his right hand towards his other self, still releasing light from far above.
—Beautiful.
—Just like me together… with—
He gripped, tightly, the right hand that he had raised so high.
The crossed knife began rotating with tremendous force. The noise of it cutting through the air grew steeply before eventually disappearing as it exceeded the audible spectrum.
Renri leisurely swung down that right hand.
The Twin Edged Wings slid through space soundlessly as a disc of light towards the goblin.
“It’s… no use!!”
Roaring, Kosogi slashed the hatchet at the Twin Edged Wings’ assault from the sky above in a bid to knock it down.
However, it occurred a moment before the thick steel went up against the ultrathin knife. The divine instrument rapidly altered its prior trajectory and leapt vertically for a moment before accelerating downwards once more after the hatchet swiped through empty air.
Khh.
It was a dry, quiet noise.
A bluish-white streak surged through the middle of Kosogi’s figure, trained to the extremes, in the very next instant.
“Gaaahh!!”
Kosogi leapt at Renri with a savage roar. But the right half of his body fell behind the left. He ran a step or two before his body separated fully, crashing towards the right and left.
On the verge of his death, Kosogi pondered on the cause of his defeat with his excellent intellect.
Going by his preconceptions, it would mean that puny, budding knight hid bloodthirst and desires greater than him. However, no matter how hard he stared with his divided vision, he could discern no bloodthirst at all on the knight’s childlike face.
—Then, what had I lost to?
Though the desire to know overwhelmed him, that was but a moment before complete darkness engulfed his vision.

Upon receiving the returning Twin Edged Wings with both hands, they separated without a sound and returned to how they were.
Renri silently stared at the two knives unstained by even a drop of blood.
It was not as if his sealed memories came back to him. In the first place, Renri had no notion that his memories were sealed.
Yet still, Renri affirmed the remnants of memories, sparse as they were, of another person whom his heart had joined with once. He thought that sufficient for now.
After shutting his eyes for a moment, he flicked his head upwards in realization. There should have been many goblin soldiers waiting behind the enemy general, Kosogi. Yet it was strangely quiet.
Focusing his eyes beyond the finally clearing smokescreen, Renri noticed countless corpses heaped upon each other. They were all those of the enemy troops who should have been still alive minutes ago. Surprise took him as he wondered who could have done it.
“…You’re looking a little more like a knight now, aren’t you?”
Hearing that voice, he flusteredly turned his body about.
The person trotting in from his right was the apprentice knight, Fizel Synthesis Twenty-eight. Linel Synthesis Twenty-nine was present beside her too. It must have been this pair who took care of the remaining enemy troops.
He stood stock still, not knowing how to reply, and Linel, with her hair in pigtails, snorted before carrying out an embellished knight salute.
“Esteemed High Ranking Knight, we await your orders.”
That must have been part sarcasm, but it was still better than scorn. Renri cleared his throat before asking of the pair.
“… Are Tiezé and the rest safe?”
“Yep. They joined up with the supply unit.”
As Fizel nodded, he let out a relieved sigh and nodded.
“What about the enemy soldiers who got past?”
“We took care of all of them.”
Linel replied this time.
“Then… I’ll return to my unit, so it would be for the best if the two of you did the same.”
“Okaay.” “Understood.”
After seeing off the apprentice knights who turned about with absolutely no sign of exhaustion from the combat and rushed off, he turned his eyes towards the rows of tents behind once more.
……Thank you.
Expressing his gratitude in his heart to the two female trainees and that young swordsman, Renri Synthesis Twenty-seven the high ranking integrity knight began running towards the east to join up with the left flank of the second unit.