Sword Art Online - Volume 20 - Chapter Pr

A pure-white lily and a hawk with its wings outstretched, emblazoned on a field of black: 
The crest of the Norlangarth Empire, hanging on a wall banner, was wreathed in red flames. 
Fire licked here and there at the thick rug covering the throne room floor. The sounds of metal clashing and voices shouting flowed ceaselessly from the distance, throughout both the Imperial Palace and North Centoria itself. 
About twenty mels in front of Ronie and Tiese, who waited with swords drawn, was a man who sat leisurely in the shockingly tall throne of gold-and-black leather. He had his legs crossed and a fist propping up his cheek, as though he didn’t have a single care about the flames spreading throughout the chamber. 
“…I thought Integrity Knights would be the first to reach me,” intoned the man imperiously, stroking his pointed gray beard. “Instead, it is not knights, not even soldiers, but two little girls…Are you students at Swordcraft Academy, then?” 
They had no obligation to answer, yet Ronie felt an invisible pressure that seemed intent on making her lower her head into a bow. She shook it off with effort and said, “Primary Trainee Ronie Arabel of North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy!” 
Tiese followed her, shouting to hide her desperation. “Likewise, Tiese Schtrinen!” 
“Ahhh, that great lump of a man has finally been exposed for the fraud that he is, if he’s lost a battle to children so little they’ve only just learned how to hold a steel sword.” The man sneered and glanced to his right. 
Collapsed atop the carpet, limbs splayed outward, lay a very tall man clad in black plate armor with silvery-white details. The inlay on his breastplate was the crest of the North Centoria Imperial Guard. He wasn’t dead, but he’d taken Tiese’s and Ronie’s consecutive techniques simultaneously—he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon. 
They’d fought that man, the captain of the emperor’s personal guard, in a furious battle that spanned over twenty minutes. If there had been only one of them, she wouldn’t have won, and even together, they would not have won a traditional sword duel without the use of sacred arts. The flames licking at various surfaces of the royal chamber were from the heat elements that Ronie had thrown at him in desperation. 
He’d been a formidable foe, but the captain had fought honorably. So to hear this man speak ill of the loyal servant who’d risked his life to protect him made Ronie furious. 
She hadn’t suffered any deep wounds, but the captain’s vicious strikes left her arms with a numbing ache, and the countless little cuts and bruises throbbed incessantly. But by focusing her attention, she was able to momentarily forget all the pain and fear. 
“This war is over! Surrender now and retract your orders to the Imperial Guard!” 
To her left, Tiese called out in a crisp, clear voice, “The Integrity Knights and the Human Guardian Army will be here shortly! There is nowhere to escape!” 
In truth, this warning should have been given by the commanding officer of the operation to conquer the Imperial Palace of North Centoria, Deusolbert Synthesis Seven. And he had been leading the unit containing Ronie and Tiese, right up to the corridor leading toward the throne room. 
But when Deusolbert received word that the force attacking the castle’s west gate was being pushed back, he had ordered the unit to keep going and left to back up the other group. Then the soldiers in the unit drew the attention of the Imperial Knights stationed in the corridor and told the girls to keep going, so ultimately it was just the two of them in the throne room. 
There was a reason the operation was so rushed. 
This war, later to be known as the Rebellion of the Four Empires, was brought about when the four emperors who controlled the quadrants of the human realm issued joint edicts declaring the one-month-old Human Unification Council an act of treachery attempting to control the Axiom Church and sent the Imperial Knights under their command to invade Central Cathedral. 
These imperial soldiers were not sworn enemies like the red knights who had invaded during the Otherworld War but, instead, fellow residents of Centoria. The casualties had to be kept to an absolute minimum, according to Kirito, the swordsman delegate of the Human Unification Council. 
If all the Integrity Knights and arts casters had stayed inside the cathedral to focus on defense, and they’d ordered the Human Guardian Army forces stationed in Centoria to attack from behind, they could have wiped out the Imperial Knights, if they so desired. 
But Kirito had chosen not to do this. Instead, he’d evacuated nearly all of the Integrity Knights from the cathedral, pairing them up with the guardian army forces and sending them to attack the four imperial palaces. The only way to minimize the damage would have been to capture the emperors as soon as possible and force them to retract their edicts. So the other soldiers in the unit had taken on the role of decoy, pulling the attention of the Imperial Knights away so Ronie and Tiese could rush into the throne room. 
At this very moment, Kirito and his subdelegate, Asuna, were with a handful of lower knights, guards, and artificers defending Central Cathedral. But even the strongest swordsman in the world could not easily defend four gates, each in a cardinal direction and with an imperial army trying to break through it. 
So now they had to scrap those edicts as soon as possible and bring the battle of North Centoria to an end. 

But despite their fervor, the man on the throne—Emperor Cruiga Norlangarth VI—just stared back at them, his features cold and composed. 
“…Little girls from some lower noble houses whose names I wouldn’t even know, refusing to bow before me, daring to point their blades instead. Even this single incident speaks to the devastation this Unification Council seeks to unleash upon our order and security, does it not?” 
He spoke as though he were being perfectly reasonable and smoothly picked up a crystal goblet from a small tray at the side of his throne. He took a sip of the dark-purple liquid held within. 
The emperor’s wine was created from the lands richest with Solus’s and Terraria’s blessings, private holdings of the imperial families and other high nobles. A single bottle cost more than a month’s stipend for a lower noble family, according to what Ronie’s father had once told her. All this, even though, if those vineyards were to be turned into wheat fields, they’d supply the demand for all of North Centoria for the year. 
No order of things that allowed for such extravagance could be anything but corrupt. 
“And what have the high nobles done for humanity?!” Ronie shouted, the tip of her sword pointed at the emperor’s face. “The people who fought for our side in the Otherworld War…The ones who stood up to protect the citizens—they were ordinary common guards and lower nobles!” 
“That’s right! All you high nobles stayed safe in your castles and holdings, worried you might lose them!” Tiese added, jabbing a finger at the emperor. 
This was an act that would have earned her the wrath of the “judicial authority” system that high nobles wielded against those of lower rank. For the first time, the fine bridge of the emperor’s nose wrinkled with displeasure. 
“…But of course we did,” he said, swirling the wine in his glass. “That is the job of the lower nobles and guards: to give their lives to protect mine. And my job is to properly lead the common people of the empire. Yes…to this point, only the lands of the northern empire were within my grasp, but I cannot have this godforsaken rabble monopolizing the Axiom Church while Her Holiness, the pontifex, is in her long sleep. It is a mistake that must be corrected. If anyone is to unify the human lands, it will not be some nameless swordsman who appeared out of thin air—it will be I, Cruiga Norlangarth!” 
The emperor tossed back the rest of his wine in one gulp and threw the glass to the floor. The fine crystal vessel shattered, and the man who ruled the empire got to his feet, reaching for a longsword that rested against the side of the throne. 
From the crimson sheath, decorated so finely that Ronie had never seen its like before, he pulled a blade that shone like polished glass. 
Instantly, from the top of the three-stepped throne dais, something like a chill wind blew through her. Ronie pulled her right foot back initially but held firm and leaned forward against the force. 
Just because they did not appear in battle did not mean the imperial or noble families could not fight. 
Of course, upper nobles who dedicated themselves to fierce daily training like Volo Levantein, the former first-seat disciple at the academy, were very rare. But according to Kirito, those nobles’ authority levels were increased by the regular hunting they performed in the forests outside the city, a privilege only they could enjoy. Noble children went to Swordcraft Academy almost without exception, so they all had the opportunity to learn a solid floor of swordfighting. 
And for an emperor, there were special private tutors who could bestow upon him the finest training from a young age—and many opportunities to hunt larger game. The jeweled blade the emperor held was clearly of a higher item priority than the standard-issue swords Ronie and Tiese used, too. 
The sound of soldiers and Imperial Knights clashing floated forth ceaselessly from the corridor behind them. The banners dyed with the imperial crest on the walls to either side continued to burn and crumble. The emperor’s sword flashed bright red, reflecting the color of the flames. 
Ronie was the heir to a noble house, however lowly. Even with a sword in her hands, the fear and obedience toward the imperial family she’d grown up with did not vanish. But now she knew that there were things more important than blind obedience. 
When Kirito and Eugeo were just students at the academy, like Ronie and Tiese, they fought against Administrator, the half-divine being who ruled the entire human world. And now that Kirito was fighting to protect Central Cathedral, fighting to bring forth a new and better age, she could not fail him and retreat. Not at this moment. Not ever. 
“If you will not withdraw the edict…then I will cut you down here!” Ronie shouted, raising her standard-issue sword aloft. 
At her side, Tiese also assumed the Aincrad-style stance at medium height. 
Emperor Cruiga was no longer smiling. He raised the jeweled sword as though splitting the heavens, taking the bold stance of the High-Norkia style. 
When the flames began to lick at the largest of the wall hangings, located behind the throne, Ronie shot forward. 
Instantly, the floor beneath her lost its form, becoming a yawning hole of blackness. 
Before she could so much as scream, Ronie plummeted into the hole, down and down, until…