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Sword Art Online - Volume 17 - Chapter 21.4




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Chapter 21.4
Koujiro Rinko raced back to the sub control room and sat into the mesh chair previously occupied by Higa Takeru.
A few windows were open on the large monitor directly in front of her, but the first one she looked towards was a small window on the bottom. Displayed there was a three-dimensional graph representing Kirigaya Kazuto’s Fluctlight status.
In the direct center of the reflected light, gradually shifting between spectral colors, there was a patch of darkness representing a «main body defect».
Currently, Higa Takeru was controlling four STL units, preparing to mend this defect using the memories in the minds of three girls in profound relationships with Kazuto. To do that, he had snuck into the lower shaft, which was swarming with enemies, by himself — wait, there was another person.
At that moment, the attackers were currently focused on engaging «Ichiemom», who had charged in from the stairs as a decoy. But even a steel-bodied robot couldn’t withstand much of the wild spray from assault rifles. When Ichiemom was destroyed, there was no doubt the enemy would think: What on earth were the Japanese planning?
— Faster, Higa-kun!
As she spoke that inwardly, the sliding door opened with a  whoosh , and a man dressed in a Hawaiian T-shirt and clogs rushed inside.
“How… How is Kirito-kun’s status?!”
“Higa-kun’s starting the operation now. Did the decoy work?”
As she answered his question with a question, Kikuoka Seijirou, his breathing ragged and shoulders quaking, pushed up his glasses, which were slipping down.
“We tossed over all of our smoke grenades from behind Ichiemom. It should buy us some more time before the smoke gets cleared from the passageway, but if we don’t seal the partition after that, it’ll be dangerous. We don’t have much time left.”
“Higa-kun said that it would take five minutes at most to show results…”
Rinko closed her mouth, looking towards the monitor again.
Kirigaya Kazuto’s Fluctlight remained unchanged. She thought of that old wives’ tale from America, “a watched pot never boils”, so she clenched her fists tightly and moved her eyes to the center of the monitor.
She saw a map resembling that of a fictionalized fantasy world — no, in a certain sense it was precisely a map of a fictionalized fantasy world, Underworld.
Compared to the full map of the Human Empire that she saw a few days ago when she had first arrived at the Ocean Turtle, this map showed a greater area. Due south of a circular mountain range surrounding the Human Empire, there was an artificial landmark that looked like it was comprised of four rectangles joined together, resembling ruins. The dot representing Yuuki Asuna’s current position, the blue pixels representing the Human Empire Army, and the white pixels representing the Japanese reinforcement players were all densely packed together at that location.
The gargantuan patch of crimson surrounding them was the American players who had dived in after being incited by the attackers — or so it should be, but their scale was simply too immense. Their number was already 20, no, 30 times that of the Japanese.
Was that really okay? Rinko searched the image for the two others apart from Yuuki Asuna, and finally discovered a water-blue dot very far south of the ruins. That should be Asada Shino.
Then where had Kirigaya Suguha gone? Rinko scoured the map, and at last located a yellow-green dot far, far north of the main battlefield. There was also a group of red enemies present there, but Higa had definitely said that both of their login points were at Yuuki Asuna’s coordinates. Rinko couldn’t help but furrow her brow, contemplating a reason why —
Just then, she seemed to notice another white dot blinking underneath Suguha’s gleaming dot, as if covered by it.
“………?”
There shouldn’t be anyone on Rath’s side diving in with an STL. What on earth was that dot, then?
She unconsciously moved her mouse, carefully lined up the cursor with the dot and clicked it once, opening new window. Rinko scrutinized the tiny English letters.
“Um… Restriction, Confrontational Index… Threshold Detection… Report? What is this?…”
Just as she was about to say, “I can’t make heads or tails of it”.
“Wha… Whaaat?!”
Kikuoka suddenly yelled loudly, cutting off his stare at the image of Kirigaya Kazuto’s Fluctlight. Rinko leapt out of her seat in shock.
“Wh-What’s wrong?
But Kikuoka didn’t immediately respond, instead snatching the mouse from Rinko and enlarging the window she had just opened. Then he brought himself right up to the monitor, muttering at an extreme pace.
“Unf… Yes, there’s no mistaking it, it’s another Fluctlight that broke its limits! But, why now?!”
Rinko’s eyes widened, and she looked up at Kikuoka, who was furiously scratching his head.
“Huh… you mean, a second «A.L.I.C.E.»?”
“Yes, exactly… Ah, no, wait… This is…”
Kikuoka rapidly scrolled through the window displaying a detailed log, and began muttering again.
“… Strictly speaking, it’s not of the same caliber as «Alice». It broke the limitations of an Artificial Fluctlight not through its logical circuitry, but its emotional circuitry… nonetheless, it’s an equally important specimen. If only it could stay there and not move… Oh, damn, it’s moving south, where the group of Americans aren’t far away!”
Rinko snatched back the mouse from a distressed Kikuoka and stared at the detailed log of the Artificial Fluctlight at the time it had broken its limits.
“Hmm… Yeah, a new node was generated by a chain reaction in its emotional zone… Huh—? Hey, Kikuoka-san?”
“Wha… What is it?”
Twisting his body and moaning in dismay, Kikuoka craned his neck towards the monitor.
“What’s this external command plugged in here? It feels really off to me… It’s much too deliberate… Almost as if it were created to impede the circuitry.”
Rinko squinted, scrutinizing the code printed in minuscule font.
“Implant simulated pain… in the right visual domain? But then, even if an Artificial Fluctlight spends all that effort breaking the limits, it would be stopped by the pain created by this process. You guys even placed such a restriction onto the Underworld residents?”
“No… No, we didn’t do that. There’s no way we would, that kind of action runs counter to our goal… That’s practically blatant obstruction.”
“Hmm… Good point. Also, the programming style of this piece of code isn’t the same as Higa’s… Ah, there’s a comment at the very front… «Code 871»? What’s 871?”
“871? I’ve never heard of that number… No, wait… Wait, wait, I think… Not long ago…”
Kikuoka suddenly began to move, the clogs on his feet slapping loudly on the ground. He darted over to a nearby chair, seized a dirty white coat hanging from its backrest, spread it open with a  whap , and stared at the inner collar.
“Hey, what’s wrong, what happened?”
At Rinko’s inquiry, Kikuoka, his eyes wide behind his black-frame glasses, held the white coat out to Rinko, inviting her to look at its collar tag.
There, clearly inscribed in black permanent marker, was [871].
“This white coat… belongs to that technician named Yanai who just went down with Higa…”
Muttering that, Rinko suddenly halted her speech.
Yanai. YA NA I.
“… 8 7 1?” 25
Rinko and Kikuoka screamed in unison, standing up at the same time.
***
Fist Fighters’ Guild Chief Iskahn was looking at the approaching crimson legion through his murky left eye.
After shrinking their surrounding circle to twenty mel, those soldiers speaking a strange tongue had seemingly confirmed that the Fist Fighters were depleted of their morale, and nodded at each other.
Then they emitted deafening, completely incomprehensible roars, and leapt from the ground all at once.
With his shattered left hand, Iskahn tightly gripped the hand of the female knight sitting beside him. She returned his grip very quickly, causing him a reassuring pain, momentarily restoring feeling to his numb left hand.
He lowered his head, and as he was about to shut his eyes and accept the end, just then —
“……… What is…?”
Sheyta’s voice made him raise his head again.
He saw a vast group of troops storming in their direction from the other side of the valley, north of the battlefield, kicking up a sky full of dust.
They possessed great, rotund physiques, long, flat snouts that curved upwards, and drooping ears.
Orcs.
“… Why?”
Iskahn murmured blankly. Having been ordered by Emperor Vector, the Orc army should still be awaiting orders at the «Great Eastern Gate» in the north. Since the Emperor had vanished, that order should now be unshakable. In fact, the remaining Dark Knights were also dully awaiting orders to no end on the other side of the valley, not far away.
Confounded, Iskahn perused the battalion of Orcs and spotted a tiny, tiny human silhouette running at their very front.
It wasn’t an Orc. Its yellow hair, with a tinge of green, was billowing in the wind, and the limbs extending from its tender green attire were so white that they were shining. Undoubtedly a human, and a young female from the Human Empire at that.
But was this person, who looked like a tiny, tiny swordswoman, heading the entire Orcish army?
Seemingly detecting the troops charging in this direction, the red soldiers surrounding the Fist Fighters stopped moving.
A blinding light exploded into being. The girl drew a silver katana from her back.
In that instant, Sheyta’s right hand, which was gripping Iskahn’s left, violently shook once, appearing to feel something.
When the human girl charged to the center of the bridge, she raised her katana high into the air. At that moment she was still more than two hundred mel away from the red soldiers.
But —
The girl’s sword and hands became blurred like smoke. Even Iskahn’s eyesight was unable to capture that slash. A flash of silver light was over in the blink of an eye, and then there was a terrifying sight.
A dazzling ray of light sped along the dark ground — but not only that; the tens of red soldiers standing atop that extending ray were silently sliced apart, collapsing to the ground before they could even scream in anguish.
The katana that had slashed downwards changed direction in the girl’s hands, and sliced upwards with chilling speed. A second ray of light penetrated the red legion, and the soldiers clad in heavy armor were cleaved in half, carapace and all.
“…… So strong.”
Sheyta murmured in a barely audible voice.
***
Without a moment’s hesitation, Sinon raised her beloved gun, Hecate II, which had transformed from the Bow of Solus.
She was currently less than 20 meters from Subtilizer.  Much too close for an anti-material sniper rifle. Even the act of locking onto the enemy’s movements with her high-magnification scope was very difficult.
As such, Sinon decided to determine the outcome of the battle before Subtilizer made his move; she pulled the trigger the instant she spotted a black shadow through the lens of her scope.
A flash of light. An explosive roar.
Intense recoil acted on Sinon’s hovering body, and she urgently tried to control herself as she began to tilt and spin. Every round would cause her body to move, so it was completely impossible to shoot repeatedly, but as long as that shot just now had hit its target, everything would be over.
With difficulty, Sinon stabilized her body, and looked towards Subtilizer.
Then her eyes opened wide with shock.
The man standing on the back of the winged creature had raised his hand, and his five fingers were curled into a claw shape.
In his palm was a vortex of darkness and light, spinning violently, and in its center was a brightly shining particle; it was unmistakably the bullet that Sinon had fired.
In other words, he could absorb that bullet as he had absorbed Sinon’s consciousness?
A bullet capable of piercing a two-centimeter steel plate, fired from a .50 caliber anti-material sniper rifle…
Slight fear emerged within Sinon’s heart. Along with it, the darkness in Subtilizer’s left hand seemed to become fiercer.
“Don’t lose…”
Sinon breathed unconsciously, then yelled vehemently:
“Don’t lose, Hecate!!”
Bang.
With this sound, light penetrated darkness.
A great hole was blown through Subtilizer’s left hand; flesh and blood spun through the air.
— I can do this!!
Sinon sucked in a deep breath and pulled back Hecate II’s bolt. The ejected bullet casing glinted in the air and fell towards the ground.
Subtilizer looked down at his wounded left hand in silence. Although a pitch-black, viscous liquid was currently patching up the huge hole in his palm, a wound that severe did not seem easy to heal.
He lifted his face, which was now devoid of laughter, and stared at Sinon.
His right hand moved and retrieved the crossbow from his waist.
“…Hmph.”
Sinon expelled a bit of air from her nose. How could something like  that  compete with an anti-material sniper rifle…
Flex.
The crossbow suddenly contorted.
The left and right limbs of the bow began to fold, and it elongated to at least twice its length. The once-wooden structure began to take on a black metallic gleam.
After one short second, Subtilizer’s right hand was gripping a sniper rifle just as big as the Hecate. Sinon immediately recognized this gun.
The Barrett XM500.
Like the Hecate II, it shot .50 caliber rounds, but it was an even more advanced anti-material sniper rifle.
A warped smile appeared once more at the corners of Subtilizer’s mouth.
“… Bring it on.”
Sinon muttered, and forcefully pressed the Hecate II’s stock to her right shoulder.
***
“Oh god… A-Are you okay?”
Yanai’s seemingly concerned words caused Higa to momentarily forget his pain and shout:
“He… Hey, you were the one who shot me, and you’re spouting stuff like that…?!”
“No, no, I actually didn’t mean to hit you, honest. I’ve no intention of committing murder; it took a lot of effort for me to buy that handsome condo on the west coast, but if I have to live my days in fear, what’s the use in that?”
Once Higa understood that Yanai appeared to be truly serious, a wave of weakness welled up within him and he lost feeling in both hands. He knew that he was in trouble; he frantically pulled himself together and examined the wound on his shoulder somewhat timidly.
It seemed that the bullet had hit the cable duct, ricocheted, and struck him somewhere underneath his collarbone. Higa didn’t feel much pain; rather, an icy numbness began spreading throughout his entire body from his right shoulder. The side abdomen of his shirt had already been dyed dark red. This didn’t look like a mere scratch.
Fear of the current situation, and of its future development, began slowly climbing upwards from Higa’s stomach, causing him to involuntarily begin to breath in gasps. A few meters above his head, Yanai was still chattering away with a complacent look on his face.
“To be honest, I only wanted to slightly hinder your work, Higa-san. After I destroyed the maintenance connector I would escape to the main control room below. That way I would be able to get away on the submarine. No one from Rath has died anyway, so if my side can successfully retrieve Alice, then everyone will be happy.”
“No one… died…?”
Higa demanded of Yanai, forgetting his pain once more.
“… If I don’t seize this opportunity to heal Kirigaya-kun, his consciousness will be gone forever! The one who killed his soul was  you , Yanai-san! And you said that you aren’t ready to murder anyone!”
“Ahh. Ahh… Riiight…”
Yanai’s face suddenly went blank. Under the illumination of the orange emergency lights, his stubbled cheek twitched a few times.
“Hmm… Who cares if that brat dies.”
“Wha……”
“Because, he was the one who killed her. My most important Admii-chan.”
“Ad… mii…?”
Yanai looked down at Higa, who was confused by the unfamiliar name, and screamed like he was furious:
“Her Eminence, the Highest Minister Administrator of the Axiom Church! I promised her that I would do my best to help her establish total rule over Underworld. And I agreed with her that I would safely store her Light Cube away if the server were to be formatted.”
Higa’s eyes opened wide in shock.
The Axiom Church was the organization that ruled over the Human Empire in Underworld.
It held total control over the entire populace by way of extremely strict laws and powerful military force.
The reason Higa had not obtained the limit-breaking Fluctlight «Alice» when she had first appeared was that, in the time-accelerated Underworld, the Axiom Church quickly whisked Alice away and applied memory modification upon her Fluctlight.
Yes, their speed was much too fast, and their methods were much too effective.
As though they were completely aware of what an Artificial Fluctlight was.
Yet the truth was just that. The Axiom Church — or at least the Artificial Fluctlight by the name of «Administrator», who seemed to be in charge, understood the structure of this world.
“… Was it you who corrupted Underworld?…”
Higa moaned lowly, and Yanai smacked his lips exaggeratedly.
“No, no, that kid came and contacted me first. I was working a shift at the time, and then I suddenly heard a girl’s voice coming from the speaker, it damn near scared the shit out of me… She had discovered Underworld’s entire command list by herself, and then opened a contact line with the outside. If we’re being technical, you’re the main culprit for forgetting to delete the command that called up the entire list, Higa-san.”
Neheheheh.  Yanai chuckled deeply a few times as though he were reminiscing about something, then continued with an absentminded gaze:
“I kept thinking that, at that rate, Underworld would immediately be totally formatted. It was all going to be deleted anyway, so it didn’t matter, and that’s why I secretly used an STL to go in and see Admii-chan. And then… God, I’d never seen such a beautiful girl. The kids that Sugou-san locked up in ALO were pretty cute, but Admii-chan’s personality, her voice, and her manner, it hit all of my buttons… — That kid promised me before. If I helped her, then in return she would become my number one servant. In the future she would rule the real world together with me, making me a king…”
— No.
The corrupted one was  this man.
Higa seemed to feel all of the hairs on his body stand upright in fear. Yanai might be a silly traitor, but he was no idiot. What kind of person  was  Administrator, to be able to beguile and control someone like him so exquisitely?
Just then, Yanai’s seemingly reminiscent face went blank again.
“But… that kid’s dead now. Murdered… That brat not only hindered Sugou-san’s experiment, he killed Admii-chan. If I don’t help her get revenge, that would just be too sad for Admii-chan…”
Yanai widened his bloodshot eyes and aimed the gun at Higa again. Automatic handguns would automatically cock the hammer after firing a round, so the second shot would require much less pressure on the trigger compared to the first. If his index finger pressed just a bit, another bullet would be fired.
“… Yeah, that’s right… Yeah, I gotta kill at least one, as a sacrifice for that kid…”
Yanai’s shrunken pupils trembled slightly in the middle of his widened eyes.
… Damn it. He’s serious this time.
Higa couldn’t help but close his eyes.
***
— I won’t make it.
Sensing that Asuna, Klein, and Lisbeth far away had plunged into dire straits, Leafa couldn’t help but bite her lip.
But before her eyes, nearly 3,000 red-armored soldiers were blocking her way.
She had requested a favor of Rirupirin, who appeared to be the Orc tribal chief: to bring reinforcements towards the south in order to assist Asuna and Kirito, but the ones whom they had spent a great amount of effort to locate were not those Human Empire Defense Army troops.
According to Rirupirin, the few hundred people who were being surrounded by the army that dived in from the Real World were Fist Fighters, who were all attached to the Dark Army like the Orcs. Leafa was bewildered for a moment upon learning this, but very quickly decided to help them.
“I’ll charge into the enemy alone. Rirupirin, you guys group up with the Fist Fighters, and you only need to fight back against the enemies that attack you first.”
At this suggestion, Rirupirin protested fiercely: “I want to fight too!” But Leafa firmly shook her head, tightly gripping the Orc’s gnarled hands, saying:
“No, I don’t want any more of you to die. Don’t worry about me… even tens of thousands of those kinds of enemies are no match for me.”
After saying that with a smile, Leafa stood solitary before the red legion.
She already knew that Terraria possessed sufficient HP and near-unlimited regeneration. Moreover, the people from the real world in front, like her, had virtual lives. Even if it were too late to get to Kirito and help, Leafa couldn’t watch the Orcs die in vain here.
After executing tens of enemies with her ultra-long range combo attack, Leafa stormed straight into the direct center of the enemy without hesitation.
For some unknown reason, she was able to activate Sword Skills with ranges several times greater than those in ALO, without stopping. Every time crisp light burst from Terraria’s GM equipment the «Verduras Anima», a great splash of blood sprayed in a radial pattern.
But during the cooldown time between Sword Skill and Sword Skill, uncountable blades would seize this chink in her armor and come flying. She was unable to evade all of them, and the number of wounds on her body grew; excruciating, scalding pain threw dizziness into her head and stars into her eyes — But.
“ HA  —  AAH!! “
She cried sharply and stamped her right foot on the ground. Green light erupted from underfoot and instantly healed all of the wounds on her body.
Leafa endured the lingering pain, unable to be completely purged, and concentrated on swinging the sword in her grip.
Even if every inch of her body were pulverized, she at least had to drive all of the enemies here back to the real world.
Although her dive coordinates had displaced her somewhere other than her intended location, if she had to name any of her responsibilities, it would undoubtedly be to save as many Underworld residents as she could. These were the people whom Kirito loved and vowed to rescue.
“ She’s such a boss!! “
Leafa used her left hand to stop a sword stabbing towards her during that shout.
“ Haiyah!! “
One mere counterattack vanquished the owner of the sword.
Leafa clamped her teeth onto the sword stabbed into her hand, wrenched it out, and spat it onto the ground along with a mouthful of blood.
***
Their second shots seemed to discharge at the same time.
Bullets fired from two anti-material sniper rifles grazed past each other, then deviated greatly in their trajectories and disappeared into the sky.
Sinon did not lose her balance this time; she stamped both feet hard onto air, suppressing the recoil. Before her eyes, Subtilizer was also standing steadily on the back of the winged creature, which was furiously beating its wings.
It was Sinon’s first time experiencing a space where all directions were extremely wide open, and a battle pitting two anti-material sniper rifles against each other. A game like GGO would naturally not support player flight; moreover, the Hecate was supposed to be fired with its bipod down and the shooter lying prone. The recoil from shooting it while in the air was far beyond her expectations.
This showdown —
Whoever was able to control their recoil and fire the next round before the enemy did, even by just an instant, would win. Sinon thought this as she pulled back the bolt.
Subtilizer probably had the same idea. As Sinon flew right to try and outflank him, he began flying left to counter her.
At virtually the same time, both of them began hurtling around at breakneck speed.
Under the condition that she didn’t lose balance, she maneuvered around at sharp angles in arbitrary directions. While she tightly captured her enemy with the barrel of the gun, she had to be careful not to let the enemy’s barrel lock onto her.
But Subtilizer’s raised Barrett suddenly moved at a barely discernible speed, seemingly predicting Sinon’s movements before she could do the same.
— It’s coming!!
Sinon grit her teeth and opened her eyes wide.
Flames spurted from the Barrett’s barrel.
Sinon flew as fast as she could while twisting her body to the left.
The deadly bullet roared past her chest, close enough to almost char the skin on her chest. Her blue armor split with a crack.
— Dodged it!
This was her first and last chance. She must fire in the instant that Subtilizer had stopped to control his recoil!
However, by the time Sinon had raised the Hecate.
She saw another bullet flying directly at her.
Repeated fire — why?!
Ah… damn it.
Differing from the Hecate, whose bolt needed to be pulled back with each shot, the Barrett was semi-automatic.
When this thought floated into her brain, Sinon’s left leg was torn to shreds above her knee.
?
***
Making a stand against the despairing situation, fighting on the battlefield until the very end, were Asuna, protected by a Super Account, Integrity Knight Renri, a resident of Underworld, and his dragon, along with Trainee Swordswoman Tiese and Guardian Leader Sortiliena, who were being protected by the knight yet bravely swinging their own swords.
Though her exceedingly exhausted eyes throbbed with agony, Asuna watched as Knight Renri battled valiantly.
Around ten minutes ago, this diminutive knight had appeared here at the front line, and immediately began lobbing out his cross-shaped throwing knives. The throwing knives soared through the air as they pleased, killing every single enemy who charged towards them. This terrifying power was enough to beat back for several minutes even the fury-fueled assault from the neighboring countries’ players. The flames spurted out by the dragon struck extreme fear into the enemies, solidifying the Integrity Knights’ status as the true dragon knights born and raised in this otherworldly place, Underworld.
But it didn’t take long for the enemies to notice. While Knight Renri had cast out his throwing knives and was controlling them, his person was virtually defenseless.
On his umpteenth time casting out his throwing knives, the instant he was about to make a clean sweep of the very front line of red soldiers, innumerable long spears were flung from the enemy’s rear. The enemy was finally using the battle tactic that had appeared during their battle against the Americans, which Asuna feared in her heart.
The spears fell like a torrential black rain from the crimson sky.
Renri’s dragon spread its wings and body, protecting its master from the first wave of attacks.
But it then collapsed to the ground with shattered scales and spraying blood.
Immediately, another wave of spear rain was lobbed their way.
Knight Renri looked up to see countless spearheads roaring his way and spun around to wrap Tiese behind him in a hug, shielding her with his body.
In the next instant, two spears buried themselves into Renri’s back, forcing him to fall forward on top of Tiese’s body. Having lost control, the cross-shaped throwing knives glinted once in the air before splitting in two, then stabbing into the ground far away.
At that moment, in the other parts of the battlefield, the fighting had all concluded.
Trying to outdo each other, the red soldiers pounced all at once, lunging towards the Japanese players who had collapsed from exhaustion, plunging sharp blades into their bodies. Flesh and blood danced in the air, while feeble screams of agony ensued, but were very quickly snuffed out.
A great many people’s armor and shields were wrecked and destroyed, and they were pushed to the ground, utterly defenseless. The tears of repentance running down their faces were as unbearable to watch as the blood flowing from their injuries.
The two thousand converted players who made up the defensive array were completely incapacitated, until the Human Empire Army being protected in the middle was finally exposed.
In order to protect the unarmed supply team and Ascetic team, nearly 400 Human Empire Guardians had assembled themselves into a circular formation and raised the swords in their hands. Their faces were filled with an almost tragic determination as they waited silently for that moment, preparing for the approaching, unstopping red legion to launch their fatal assault.
“……… Stop………”
Asuna heard such a voice squeezed from her own lips.
It was not a voice emanating from the pain enveloping her body, but a voice of despair and sorrow, of her spirit finally surrendering.
“I’m begging you… Please stop…”
As she spoke, the rapier in her right hand fell to the ground. Tears slid over her cheeks, splashing onto the mutilated blade.
But the red shadow before her instead emitted an expletive filled with hostility, and raised its two-handed sword high into the air.
— In that instant.
A thunderous roar rang out, stopping the blade hurtling towards Asuna and all of the battles taking place in various locations on the battlefield.
“ STOOOOOOP!! ”  The one who had bellowed at an absolutely deafening volume was the man in the black poncho, who had been observing the battle from afar until now. He was the ghost of PoH, the leader of the murder guild — Laughing Coffin.
The neighboring countries’ players seemed to confirm that the man in the black poncho was indeed the commander through some sort of mark on him, and reluctantly lowered their weapons. The man about to execute Asuna smacked his lips loudly and sheathed his sword, but still delivered her a savage kick.
Asuna fell forward onto her face, but desperately pushed her body up with her powerless hands.
She raised her head and looked, only to see a tall man walking towards her, his black poncho billowing. He seemed to say something to the surrounding red players in a low yet carrying voice, but since it was in Korean, Asuna was unable to understand anything.
Then, the red soldiers around them nodded one by one, and began relaying some sort of message to their partners beside them.
Suddenly, the man standing beside Asuna seized her by her hair and yanked upwards. She couldn’t help but let out a scream of pain, but the man ignored her completely, instead violently dragging her forward.
The same situation was occurring all around her. They seemed to be rounding up the surviving Japanese players into one place.
The man in the black poncho walked nonchalantly to the Human Empire Guardians, who still had their swords raised. He turned and waved a hand, making some sort of sign towards the man with a fistful of Asuna’s hair in his grasp.
Then Asuna felt a foot kicking into her back and she flew several meters out, landing on the ground. One by one, the Japanese players were thrown around her.
There were fewer than 200 survivors left.
It seemed that health points directly correlated to survivability; the remaining people here were mostly high-level players. Asuna scanned them, but was unable to immediately spot the ALO Lords, or the members of the Sleeping Knights.
Their equipment had either been destroyed or snatched away; all they had left were the tattered clothes on their bodies. Many had exposed skin that was criss-crossed with scores of wounds, and even bits of sharp blades that had snapped off inside them. Yet everyone’s faces were trickling with the same deep, deep powerlessness and frustration.
Asuna couldn’t bring herself to watch them anymore. She very much wanted to lay down just like that and wait for the end to come.
But she still watched the converted players through her tearful eyes, intending to thoroughly burn their appearances into her mind.
Her eyes scanned the entire area once, and spotted a female player hugging her knees not far away, her shoulders trembling. Her short pink hair was matted with dirt, her maroon clothing torn to shreds.
With movements that were almost to the point of crawling, Asuna came beside her and wrapped her arms around her best friend.
Lisbeth’s body suddenly went taut, then she rested her head on Asuna’s chest. Her face trembled, splotched a complete mess of blood and tears, and she whispered hoarsely:
“Everyone… I did this… to… everyone…”
“No…  No , Liz!”
Asuna said tearfully in a loud whisper.
“It’s not your fault, Liz. It was me… if only I could have thought this out more, if only I could have predicted this…”
“Asuna… I… didn’t know anything. How horrifying war is… how painful it is to lose… I didn’t know  anything …”
Asuna couldn’t think of an answer, and could only hug Lisbeth tightly. Tears began to slide from her eyes. Then she heard low sobbing, causing her to turn around and see Agil motionless on the ground, and Silica kneeling beside him.
Agil’s injuries were so severe that it was astonishing to see him still alive. Perhaps they were from long, intense battling in order to protect Silica. His gigantic frame was stabbed with many snapped swords and spears, and his limbs were smashed beyond repair. It was a sight more wretched than any other. Asuna watched him as he tightly clenched his teeth; he must be enduring unimaginable agony.
Near Agil she could see Klein, sitting cross-legged and crestfallen on the ground. His left arm had been severed past his shoulder, and he had tied his wound with what could be called his signature headband.

All of the survivors were in essentially the same condition.
The man in the black poncho looked down upon the 200 people sitting defeated on the ground, robbed of their weapons, armor, and morale — and his exposed mouth split into a big, big grin under his hood.
Then he turned softly around and looked towards the Guardians of the Human Empire Army.
Asuna waited, terrified for the moment in which he would raise his right hand, delivering the order to massacre them all.
But the man in the black poncho instead spoke something unexpected in Japanese.
“Throw down your weapons and surrender. Then we will spare your lives and those of the prisoners behind us.”
Momentary shock showed on the Guardians’ faces, but it quickly changed into boiling rage. One of them took several steps forward, facing the man in the black poncho directly; it was the female Guardian leader, Sortiliena. Her sword had already been dulled and blood was trickling down her forehead, possibly from fighting on the very front line with Klein and the others.
Even so, this did not impede her beauty. Sortiliena yelled resiliently:
“… What sort of joke is that?! You really think we would give up at this point…”
“ Do as he says—!! “
Asuna screamed desperately, interrupting Sortiliena.
Tightly hugging Lisbeth, she raised her tear-stained face and begged wretchedly:
“Please… you can’t die! No matter how much you are humiliated, you must live!! That is… our… only……”
Hope.
Asuna felt her chest seize before she was even able to finish her sentence.
But, even though Sortiliena and the Guardians still pinched their lips tightly together, furrowed their brows furiously, and trembled for a moment, in the end, their shoulders slowly drooped downwards.
Clang, clang . Watching them toss their weapons to the ground, the neighboring countries’ players who had tightly surrounded them let out high calls celebrating victory, which very quickly turned into a nonstop chant of their own countries’ names.
The man wearing the black hood quickly raised one hand, called forth a few players, and gestured something to them. They immediately nodded, went to part the surrendered Human Empire Army, and walked into the circular formation.
Before Asuna understood what they were going to do, the man in the black poncho walked towards her with crisp footsteps.
Even at such a close distance, she still couldn’t make out the darkness underneath his hood. She could only see the tough corners of his mouth and the black curly hair around his neck.
His mouth broke out in a contorted grin, and emitted a somewhat cheerful voice.
“Hey, long time no see, «Flash».”
— It really is him!!
Asuna held her breath, and squeezed out the words hiding deep within her heart.
“… You’re… PoH…!”
“Aw, what a nostalgic name. I’m quite glad someone remembers it.”
At that moment, Klein, who had inched himself over with his right hand, looked up at the black hood with eyes that seemed ablaze.
“You… it’s actually you. You’re still alive… you fucking murderer!!”
Klein swiped at him with his hand, but the man’s boot easily kicked him aside.
Asuna grit her teeth tightly and whispered:
“Is this… revenge? Revenge against the members of the Progressors, who destroyed Laughing Coffin…?”
“………”
PoH looked down at Asuna in silence for a moment. Asuna could see his shoulders trembling slightly.
Seconds later, he seemed finally unable to hold it in, and exploded. His body twisted under his cloak as he roared with nonstop laughter:  heheheh ,  hahahah .
After his epileptic, deriding laughter finally concluded, PoH stuck out his right index finger and spoke in a very sunny voice:
“Ah, hmm… how would you Japanese put it… I’ve been in the US for so long, I’ve even forgotten all the slang.”
His finger twirled over and over in the air, then he finally snapped his fingers.
“Ah yes, ‘ Are you an idiot? ‘ Simply hilarious, it really is…”
The man bent down, staring straight into Asuna’s face from an extremely close distance. Only his eyes were shining very, very brightly under his hood.
“… I’ll tell you then. The one who secretly let you lot of Progressors in on Laughing Coffin’s hidden base,  was me .”
“Wha………”
Asuna, Klein, and even Agil, who was nearing death, all opened their eyes wide.
“Why… would you do that…”
“Naturally, because I wanted to see a bunch of monkeys killing each other… but of course the most important reason was probably this: I… wanted to make you lot «murderers». By you lot, I mean the heroes who spent all day thinking themselves extraordinary, the Progressors who did all that pretentious posturing on the very front lines. The preparation work took fucking forever… I had to send out a warning to the people at LaughCof at the very last moment, and time it right so that they couldn’t flee but could still engage.”
— So that was why intel on their operation to assault that secret base was prematurely divulged? Asuna was shocked, but she continued to think.
For this very reason, the Progressors, who had the advantage in level and equipment, were instead at a disadvantage not long after the battle began, and a few of them even perished. They were only able to turn the tables due to the efforts of Kirito, who was a solo player yet still managed to gain recognition for his strength. They were only able to turn the situation around because he had taken care of a certain leading force of Laughing Coffin…
“… That was… your goal?”
Asuna whispered hoarsely.
“To make Kirito-kun… shoulder the burden of having to PK…?”
“ Yes. Absolutely yes. “
PoH confirmed Asuna’s inquiry with a tinge of fervor in his voice.
“At the time, I was concealed nearby watching that show of a battle. When Blackie-sensei went berserk and killed two people, I almost burst out laughing and blew my cover. The plan was to drop you two later with Paralysis and then seriously live-interview you guys to ask how you felt… But I didn’t expect the game to end on Floor 75.”
For an instant, boiling rage made Asuna forget the pain of her wounds.
“Do… Do you have any idea how much distress and suffering Kirito-kun went through because of what happened back then?!”
“Oh, that’s wonderful.”
PoH’s voice was as cold as ice, creating a stark contrast with her.
“But, that’s weird. If he really is remorseful about that… typically, he would never be willing to look at another VR game again, now would he? Because of the guilt towards the people he killed and all that. I know he’s here, I can feel it. Although I don’t know why he’d be hiding in a carriage… Whatever, I’ll ask him in person.”
PoH smirked at the speechless Asuna, then stood up forcefully.
Amid the nonstop cheers coming from around them, a glacial, chilling voice rang out:
“ It’s show ti—me! “
He spoke his catchphrase from the time he had been active within the darkness of SAO. Then he quickly he raised his right hand, and right in front of him —
There appeared a wheelchair being coarsely shoved along by a red soldier, and a girl in gray uniform desperately tottering along behind it.
Ah…
Stop.
Anything but that.
Asuna prayed and pleaded miserably in her heart. Klein, however, tried to leap up from the ground, but was immediately pushed back down.
PoH bent down, looking at the wheelchair in front of him.
“……… Hmm?”
He made a surprised noise and nudged the thin legs dangling from the wheelchair with his foot.
“What’s this? Hey, Blackie, get up. You hear me, Esteemed Black Swordsman?”
Even as he was called by his past nickname — Kirito did not display any reaction whatsoever.
His body was clothed in a black shirt, but there was no concealing the fact that Kirito was already so thin that it made one feel bad for him. He leaned against the backrest, his head drooping deeply downwards. His empty right sleeve wavered in the wind, and the bones in his left hand, which were wrapped over two swords, were poking at his skin.
Ronye rushed beside Asuna, blinking her eyes red from crying, and whispered:
“Kirito-senpai… while you were all fighting, he k-kept trying to stand up… although he quickly quieted down like he had lost his strength… but… tears… tears kept streaming down his face…”
“Ronye-san…”
Asuna reached out her left hand and gently hugged Ronye’s slender, quaking body.
Then she looked up and shouted shrilly at PoH:
“You get it now. He fought, fought, and kept fighting, and ended up getting badly hurt. So stop messing with him! Let Kirito-kun rest!!”
But the man in the black poncho seemed not to hear Asuna at all, and kept staring at Kirito’s face from an extremely close distance.
“Hey, hey,  hey,  you gotta be kidding me! How do we drop the curtain like this!? Hey, get up!  Hey, stand up! Good morn… ning!! “
PoH suddenly stuck out his left foot and kicked the silver wheel, hard.
The wheelchair was knocked over with a loud metallic noise, and the frail body within it was thrown to the ground.
Asuna and Klein tried to stand up at the same time, but were pushed back by the soldiers’ swords. Agil let out a low bellow of rage, while Lisbeth, Silica, and Ronye softly screamed.
But PoH took no notice of them at all, instead walking beside Kirito, and coarsely flipping him over with the tip of his foot.
“What the hell… he’s really broken? The great hero is only a puppet now?”
He seized the white hilt of one of the two swords that Kirito’s left arm was still hugging tightly. Then, he powerfully wrenched it out of its scabbard, only to see half a blade, and the point where it had cruelly snapped.  
PoH smacked his lips loudly, and was about to toss the sword away. But —
“Ah… Ah…”
Kirito emitted a hoarse shout, and his left hand reached helplessly towards the white sword.
“Huh?! He moved!! What, you want it?”
?
PoH dangled the white sword like he was tempting him, then tossed it away at random. He then violently seized Kirito’s left hand, which was reaching towards him midair, and yanked him to his feet.
“Hey,  say something!! “
PoH slapped Kirito’s cheeks with his left hand.
Asuna’s vision had been dyed pink with palpable rage. But just as she was about to stand up again, Klein’s bloody howl had already exploded into being.
“ You bastard!! Don’t you fucking touch Kirito, you bastard  —  !! “
As Klein tried to swipe and grab PoH, a gigantic sword buried itself into his back and pinned him mercilessly to the ground.
He spat mouthful after mouthful of blood, but he ignored the growing laceration on his body, attempting to crawl forward.
“Only… YOU…!! Never… forgive…”
Crack!!
With a heavy noise, a second sword pierced straight through Klein’s back.
Unstoppable tears flowed from Asuna’s eyes once more, as though she were going to totally exhaust them before the day was out.
***
At that moment, the fear in Sinon’s heart was more for her inability to freely fly rather than from the pain of an entire leg being blown away.
Before now, Sinon had flown freely by stepping onto the air. But now she was only able to quickly evade with her right foot, which turned into a rapid descent as she spun around chaotically.
“Urgh………”
Sinon clenched her teeth, changing her movements into the only maneuver she could still manage — flying backwards without stopping. The blood pouring from her left leg drew a bright red line in midair.
She increased the distance between her and Subtilizer at the fastest speed she could muster, while aiming at him and firing a third shot.
But, the enemy chased after her easily, and the sniper rifle in his hands also emitted a muzzle flash, firing a fourth shot.
The two bullets raced towards each other in the same straight line, emitted a sharp dissonant noise and bright sparks the moment they grazed each other, and then diverted from their paths and flew into the sky.
Sinon pulled back the bolt, ejected her endlessly expanding fear along with the empty bullet casing, and fired her fourth shot.
Two cracks of thunder overlapped each other. Two bullets exploded into immense amounts of energy upon making contact with each other, then each corkscrewed and disappeared.
The fifth shot. The sixth shot.
The results were the same. Subtilizer was obviously intentionally coordinating and firing at the moment Sinon fired, making the bullets collide with each other nonstop.
Such skill could not exist in GGO, let alone this world. But in this world, imagination preceded everything. Not only had Subtilizer, who was intentionally creating this result, realized this, even Sinon had too; that was why this bizarre phenomenon of supersonic bullets endlessly taking each other out kept happening.
Even so, other than the three actions of pulling back the bolt, aiming at the enemy, and pulling the trigger, Sinon was still unable to do anything else.
The seventh shot gave off a sorrowful wail, deviated on a huge curve left, and vanished.
Eject casing. Aim.
—  Click .
As Sinon’s finger pulled back, the firing pin emitted a hollow clicking noise.
The Hecate II’s magazine capacity was seven rounds. She had no backup magazines.
Conversely, the Barrett XM500’s magazine capacity was 10 rounds. Two more left.
Sinon could clearly see the icy smile floating into being on Subtilizer’s face more than 100 meters away from her.
Flames violently spurted from his raised sniper rifle.
Following her left leg, Sinon’s right leg exploded as well.
This prevented her from flying in a straight line, and she began to slowly descend.
Controlling the recoil, Subtilizer’s pressed his right eye up against his scope, preparing to fire the final shot. That eye that resembled blue glass took over the entire lens, directing his vision squarely onto Sinon’s heart.
— I’m sorry.
I’m sorry, Asuna. I’m sorry, Yui. I’m sorry… Kirito.
After Sinon murmured to herself, the XM500’s tenth round flew out of its barrel.
The bullet traced a corkscrewing tail of fire behind it, accurately flying along Subtilizer’s vision trail, shattering Sinon’s blue armor, torching her clothes, and penetrating towards her body —
Bang!!
Sparks were ejected once more.
Sinon widened her almost closed eyes, watching the long, thin, rapidly rotating bullet be stopped by a tiny, tiny silver disc.
Directly in the center of the rotating white sparks, the radiance shining from that metal barely two millimeters thick signified her own resilient willpower. The instant she saw all of this, Sinon’s tears spilled over her eyelids.
— I can’t give up.
I can never, ever give up. I have to believe. Believe in myself. Believe in Hecate. And believe in that boy connected to this piece of metal.
Sinon firmly raised the Hecate and placed her index finger on the trigger.
Even if this weapon had transformed into a gun with her imagination, its inherent system property would not change — that is, the power of the Bow of Solus: the ability to automatically absorb resources from its surroundings and store it as attack power.
Then it was able to be fired. Even if the bullets within its magazine had been depleted, the Hecate would definitely respond.
“ Go… oooo——!! “
Sinon pulled the trigger.
What fired out was not an armor-piercing round wrapped in metal.
A pure-white ray of light comprised of condensed, infinite energy erupted in a kaleidoscopic halo from the muzzle brake, slicing straight through the sky.
The smile vanished from Subtilizer’s face. The instant he tried to move right to dodge it, the white light struck the Barrett.
An orange fireball began to expand, completely devouring Subtilizer —
A deafening boom. An explosion.
Sinon felt the scalding gale press onto her face as she dropped like a stone, and seconds later she struck the rock-filled ground.
She hadn’t the strength to crawl, let alone fly. The blinding pain from her dismembered legs made it hard for her to even maintain consciousness.
Even so, Sinon kept her eyes open, observing the results of her direct hit.
Wind blew away the black smoke dominating the faraway sky.
Appearing there — was Subtilizer, still hovering in midair.
But he was not unscathed. His right hand had been completely blown away by the explosion of his sniper rifle, and slight black smoke was rising from his shoulders. The right side of his once smooth face had been charred, and a trickle of blood was flowing from his mouth.
Cruel, murderous intent finally revealed itself on Subtilizer’s face.
— Bring it on. I’ll take you on, no matter how many times.
Sinon concentrated her remaining strength, trying to raise the Hecate.
Seconds later, Subtilizer looked away. The winged creature underneath him changed direction and, tracing a thin wisp of black smoke, flew directly south.
Sinon softly placed the anti-material sniper rifle on the ground; simply holding it exhausted her beyond belief. The instant it touched the ground, it changed back into the original white bow.
She used the last of her strength to raise her hands, caressing the part where the necklace had snapped from her chest.
“……… Kirito…”
As she murmured, tears slid softly down her cheeks.
***
Leafa was now unable to spare time to remove the sharp blades stabbing into her body.
All of the pain in her entire body mixed together, as though needles were directly piercing her exposed nerves.
A few of her wounds were clearly lethal. Every time she moved, the two swords piercing straight through her abdomen would harm her internal organs, and the sword digging into her back and out her chest had gone directly through her heart.
But Leafa did not stop moving.
“ Ura… AAHHHHH!!”
As a great amount of blood splashed out while she roared furiously, she activated a Sword Skill that she had activated who knows how many tens of times — or how many hundreds of times.
The katana «Verduras Anima» sliced horizontally towards nothing with a green glow. After a moment of power concentration, the curve of light around her expanded silently, and the bodies of countless enemy soldiers were torn apart.
A few enemies seized the opportunity of her cooldown time after she activated that huge skill, charging at her. She leapt back at the last moment, but although she managed to dodge most of the attacks, a long halberd still managed to slice off her left arm.
She stamped both feet hard on the ground to stabilize her body, which had almost fallen from the impact…
“ HAAAHHH!! “
Her sword slashed horizontally once, and three men expired then and there.
Leafa picked up her arm that had dropped to the ground, placed it onto her wound, and stamped her right foot hard on the ground.
Flowers and grass sprouted from the ground with a flash of green light, then disappeared. Her health was restored to normal, and although her gruesome wounds were still present, her left arm was reattached.
In this sort of situation, the infinite regeneration granted to Terraria’s account could no longer be called the grace of a god.
Rather, a curse would be a more appropriate moniker. No matter how many wounds she suffered, how intense the agony she tasted, she was never, ever allowed to fall. She was not able to die, yet she was not invincible; she was facing unthinkable torture.
The only thing that still kept Leafa going was faith.
— If it were Onii-chan.
He would never fall from just these wounds.
So I can’t fall either. It’s just three thousand people, of course I’ll get rid of them all myself. Because… I’m… Onii-chan’s… the «Black Swordsman» Kirito’s…
“—  Little sisteeeerrrrrrr!! “
Crimson light shot from the tip of the katana in her grip.
Zoom!  The katana stabbed forward with a low, metallic sound, shooting out a gigantic spear of light that pierced directly through the hundred meter-wide battlefield. The bodies of enemies were twisted, and finally disappeared.
“…  Huff …  Huff …….”
Her rapid breaths quickly become mouthfuls of blood.
Leafa wiped her mouth, stood shakily, and a spear came roaring, striking her right in the left eye and exiting through the back of her head.
She staggered back a few steps — but Leafa did not fall.
She gripped the spear handle with her left hand and wrenched it out in one go. A sensation that was not pain surged through the inside of her skull.
“ Urgh… Uraaaaaaagh! ”
She screamed, stamping her foot violently to recover her HP. The temporarily missing left half of her vision regenerated with a  blip .
At a glance, before she had noticed, there were only around one hundred enemies left.
Leafa grinned, reached her bloodied left hand forward, pointed her palm upwards, and moved her clasped fingers.
Against the legion that came storming towards her, emitting utterly desperate howls, she swung her katana with a heavy  whoosh .
“ Eeyah… AAAAAHHH! ”
The sword flashed.
Blood sprayed into the air as Leafa plunged fearlessly into the obstructed center of the enemy legion.
Roughly three minutes later, after the final enemy had fallen, Leafa’s body had been stabbed with ten more pieces of metal.
Her limbs lost all feeling as she wobbled and fell backwards, then was suspended in midair by the swords and spears protruding from her back that had hit the ground.
Listening to Rirupirin and the others screaming her name, as well as the footsteps running towards her, Leafa closed her eyes and murmured softly:
“I… did my best, didn’t I… Onii-chan…”
***
As Yanai pulled the trigger, a muffled shout simultaneously came through Higa’s left earpiece.
“Higa-kun, dodge!!”
Huh?
Dodge… dodge the bullet?
While this dull thought floated into his mind, Higa heard the whistling sound of something falling from a very high place.
Clang!
That was not the sound of a firearm discharging. It was the sound of something falling from the opening of the cable duct high, high above and colliding with Yanai’s forehead.
Yanai’s eyes widened and swiveled upwards. His left hand gripping the ladder suddenly slipped.
“Whoa… Wait…”
Higa suddenly forgot the pain in his shoulder, clutched the ladder, and brought his body as close to the cable duct as possible.
A wrench so big that one questioned where it had come from fell past first, and then a small handgun still wafting the smell of gunpowder crossed his vision.
Finally, Yanai’s unconscious body wedged itself into the gap between Higa and the duct, then stopped.
“Hee… Heee!”
Higa’s shoulders unconsciously shrunk back, and he pressed his back hard onto the wall.
Yanai’s body slid down slowly, smothering the stink of sweat onto Higa’s shirt, inching past —
“……… Ah.”
As Higa made that noise, Yanai plunged 50 meters straight down into the hole. Several clangs from colliding with the ladder sounded, and then came a final boom as he landed at the bottom.
“………. Um.”
Is he… dead? No, by the looks of it, he probably broke two or three bones… No, probably five or six…
Just as Higa’s cognition was about to halt, what sounded like a scream rang out in his ear, interrupting his thoughts.
“Higa-kun… Hey, Higa-kun!! Are you all right?! Answer me,  hey!! “
“………. Ah, no, I was just surprised… that even you can make that sort of sound, Rinko-senpai.”
“How… How are you able to say something like that now?! Are you hurt?! Did he shoot you?!”
“Ah, um…”
Higa looked towards the wound on his right shoulder.
The amount of blood he was losing was somewhat frightening. His right hand had lost all feeling, and he felt very cold. Even his thoughts were not as quick as usual.
But Higa sucked in a deep breath and, after collecting his strength in his stomach for a moment, said as cheerfully as possible:
“No, I’m completely fine! Just a scratch. I’ll continue the operation, please go back to monitor Kirito-kun’s situation, Senpai!!”
“Are you really okay?! I’m going to believe you, okay?! If you try and trick me I’ll never forgive you, okay?!”
“About that… Just trust me.”
Higa looked up and carefully waved his hand at Rinko, who was poking her head into view at the entrance tens of meters overhead. The great distance, combined with inadequate lighting, should have made it hard for her to see that he was bleeding.
“Then… I’ll head back to the main control first, and if the image changes I’ll come right back! Good luck, Higa-kun!!”
The instant her silhouette was about to leave, Higa couldn’t help but call out to her in a low voice:
“Ah… Rin-Rinko-senpai.”
“What, is something wrong?!”
“No… Um, uh…”
— Did you know? In university, not only were Kayaba-senpai and that bastard Sugou obsessed with you, even I was too.
Higa wanted to say this, but he kept feeling that if he said something like that, his own survivability would drastically decrease, so he said something random to tide it over.
“Um, after this is all taken care of, would you like to grab something to eat together?”
“… I got it, I’ll treat you to burgers, or beef bowls, or whatever, good luck!!”
Then Professor Koujiro’s silhouette disappeared from Higa’s sight.
— She’s really cheap.
Come to think of it, on the scale of «famous last words», that wouldn’t be too different.
Higa smiled bitterly, then turned back to the laptop in his left hand. He placed his numb right fingertips onto the keyboard and began carefully typing commands.
STL #3… Connected to #4. #5, #6… Connected.
Possibly due to loss of blood, the words before Higa’s eyes began to double themselves. He shook his head and murmured silently to himself.
— All right, Kirito-kun, it’s almost time to get up.
***
Through a curtain of tears, Asuna gazed at the figure of her lover, praying.
— Please, Kirito-kun. I’m willing to devote my heart, my life, my everything… So please, wake up.
— Kirito-kun.
***
— Kirito.
***
— Onii-chan.
***
……… Now… Kirito…



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