Sword Art Online - Volume 25 - Chapter 10

10

At nine thirty AM on October 3rd, 2026 AD (December 7th, Stellar Year 582), a new mechamobile arrived at the mansion in the woods, and Eolyne and I waited at the entrance hall to greet its passengers, Asuna and Alice.

I’d told them everything I could beforehand about the mysterious Integrity Pilot commander and requested that they allow me to handle anything involving his resemblance to Eugeo.

Asuna had never met Eugeo to begin with—only glimpsed visions of him in the fluctlight shard that dwelled inside the Blue Rose Sword—so her introduction and handshake were perfectly natural, but Alice could not hide the shock on her face.

Then again, shaking hands with Star Queen Asuna and the legendary Osmanthus Knight Alice was also a nerve-racking experience for Eolyne. It made me wonder, disgruntled, why he was so calm and steady with me, but I decided not to follow that up.

Back in the upstairs tearoom, Eolyne serve the two women their share of hot honey pies and cofil tea. They were delighted, of course, and Asuna wanted to know the recipe. Even worldly Eolyne did not know the answer, however, so we made vague plans to one day visit the actual Jumping Deer in North Centoria.

Before we could do that, however, we needed to decide on our plan for the near future.

Right as the women finished eating their pies, I asked Eolyne again for the reason that he wanted me to accompany him to the planet Admina. The pilot commander took a sip of cofil tea with cream and gave me an answer that shocked me even more than the original suggestion.

“The government of Admina, or perhaps its military command, is suspected of concocting plans to rebel against the Stellar Unification Council.”

“…R-rebel?”

The three of us on the long sofa shared a look of shock. Choosing my words very carefully, I asked, “But…is that even possible in the Underworld? It’s encoded in law that the Unification Council is the highest governing body of all, right?”

“Of course. It’s written in the book of Stellar Law, Article One, Section Two. And as I’m sure you know, Underworlders do not break the law as a fundamental rule. In fact, they cannot break it.”

“Then why are they suspected of rebellion?” Alice asked.

Eolyne straightened just a bit, and his answer to her was more properly spoken. “It is a rather complex subject, I’m afraid…Lady Alice, how well versed are you on the subject of dragoncraft?”

“Those are the steel dragons that Stica and Laurannei were riding…what they call airplanes in the real world…Or is it jet fighters?”

“Air-plains…jitt fighters,” repeated Eolyne, grappling with the unfamiliar words. “I see. Well, at the moment, there are regular flights of large passenger and freight dragoncraft between the planet Cardina and its companion Admina. So in the style of the real world, you would call them…transport ‘airplanes’?”

“Or passenger planes, maybe,” Asuna pointed out.

The commander grimaced. “Then I shall call them that. The time it takes a passenger plane to fly from Cardina to Admina is about six hours. Theoretically, then, you could make two cycles in a single day. But until a month and a half ago, we could only fly once every week. Do you know why that is?”

Asuna and Alice looked befuddled, but the mention of that timeframe was familiar to me. That was around the time that the three of us first visited the later Underworld, two hundred years after our original timeline.

“…Was it that space monster? The…Abyssal Horror?”

“Yes. But we call it a spacebeast,” said Eolyne, a little shorter with me. I didn’t mind it, though, and the girls didn’t seem to notice.

“For a long time—since before Admina was even discovered—the Abyssal Horror has flown between our two planets at a specific speed, along a specific route. If spotted and attacked, even the most heavily armed dragoncraft stands no chance. In fact, very long ago, a passenger plane headed to Admina was destroyed, killing many on board. According to legend, it was vanquished three times by the Star King, but in each case, a small piece of it escaped into the darkness of space, only to return in a fully regenerated form…”

We nodded our heads in understanding.

“Yes, we thought Asuna’s meteor drop blew it to pieces, but those bits just wriggled away like bugs, trying to escape. After that, Alice’s Memory Release art eliminated every last one, as I recall,” I said, glancing over at the Integrity Knight on my left.

She had worn a brown cloak when getting out of the mechamobile, but she had taken it off since then, revealing her full suit of golden armor. Her divine weapon, the Osmanthus Blade, along with Asuna’s GM weapon, Radiant Light, and my Night-Sky Blade and Blue Rose Sword were all brought inside in a heavy-duty leather bag that was now resting on the floor of the tearoom. But even without her sword at her side, the knight’s pristine, noble aura was completely untarnished.

Alice’s blue eyes caught mine in a glare. “Are you doubting my technique? I destroyed every last piece of that monster.”

“N-no, no, I’m not doubting you. But it’s just kind of a trope that there’s always one of those things that escapes by hiding somewhere you’d never expect…like on the underside of your armor, say…”

“So you are doubting me!” Alice snapped.

“Ugh, don’t be gross!” scolded Asuna.

Eolyne wore a strangely conflicted look on his face—probably because his mental images of the Star Queen and the Osmanthus Knight were being overwritten somewhat—but he did offer me a life preserver.

“Have no fear, my ladies. In times past, the Abyssal Horror returned in full after a single month, but it has now been a month and half, with no sign of it. The battle itself is top secret, so this information is classified, but after much strict observation, the Integrity Pilothood has concluded that the dreaded spacebeast is no more.”

“Y-yeah. So we’re all good here. Great news,” I said, nodding eagerly and reaching for the pot on the table. I refilled Asuna’s, Alice’s, and even Eolyne’s cup with more cofil tea.

“So…how does the ol’ AH tie in to this rebellion talk?” I asked, earning an annoyed look from Eolyne at my lazy abbreviation.

“The Abyssal Horror was considered the greatest scourge in all of the Underworld,” he explained, “so there is no way for us to express the depth of our gratitude for eliminating it. But the truth is: That fight should never have happened.”

“…Meaning?”

“I just told you that the Abyssal Horror flew around the two planets, following a specific speed and route, but this is a living thing we’re talking about. Because it would alter its orbit on rare occasions, Cardina and Admina each built specific observation centers, using enormous telescopes to track the spacebeast and keep a firm grasp on its location before authorizing any dragoncraft to fly. A month and a half ago, Pilot Arabel and Pilot Schtrinen left Cardina based on information from Admina that the Abyssal Horror was traveling on the far side of the planet. There should have been no chance that they would encounter the spacebeast during a three-hour flight,” he said, finishing close to a whisper.

Asuna was the first to react. “Meaning…that either the Abyssal Horror moved with incredible speed or Admina’s information was wrong…?”

“Yes, one of the two…But the former is not possible. The Abyssal Horror moves very slowly when it is not attacking a dragoncraft and the people inside, so it’s simply unthinkable that it would move from the far side of Admina to the place where it encountered the pilots in less than an hour. And for the latter to be true, an experienced observer would have to mistake that massive beast’s shadow for some other object. And that is hard to believe…”

“Meaning that they might have intentionally sent bad information,” Alice pointed out bluntly. Eolyne seemed to tense briefly.

“Yes, I…I suspect that may be the case.”

“W-wait just a minute,” I said, envisioning the young faces of Stica and Laurannei. “Are you saying that someone tried to get the Abyssal Horror to attack those two…and kill them?”

“That would be the case, if so,” said Eolyne with a sigh. He’d been sitting directly upright but now leaned against the back cushion of the sofa. “I’ll explain in further detail later, but in fact, there are other cases of suspected sabotage and destruction of Cardina Space Force assets. If they are attempting to weaken our overall military strength, we must assume that it is because they intend to rebel against us. But I simply cannot believe that the director of Admina’s government or the commander of Admina’s base would be involved in such a thing…They are both great figures whom I’ve known since I was a child.”

“…Is it not possible for great people with a great cause to stage a rebellion?” I asked, hesitating slightly.

Eolyne murmured, “In the same way that you started a rebellion against the Axiom Church, long ago?”

“……”

I held my breath for a bit longer than usual but shook my head. “No. I didn’t fight the church for some great cause. It was for myself…and for my partner.”

I fought to fulfill Eugeo’s wish to free Alice Zuberg from the Axiom Church’s grasp and take her back to Rulid. But I failed at that, and Eugeo lost his life in the ultimate battle against Administrator.

Eugeo’s fluctlight was destroyed, along with a piece of the young Alice’s fluctlight, on the top floor of Central Cathedral. So why do you have his hair and voice and demeanor, Eolyne?

Once again, I had to grit my teeth not to give in to the urge to ask this question, and it was Alice who spoke instead.

“Eolyne Herlentz: To you, the battle between Kirito and the Axiom Church might be ancient history, but for Kirito, it happened only months ago. It should not be spoken of lightly by one who is not in full possession of the details.”

“…I humbly apologize, Lady Alice,” he said immediately, giving me a nod as well. “Sorry about that, Kirito. One day I would like to know the truth about your fight against the Axiom Church…But let us speak only about what is necessary now. It is true that great people can lead rebellions. But such things require a valid reason to break Stellar Law. Say, if Cardina was tormenting the people of Admina, for example.”

“And that’s not happening?”

“Not in the slightest. The Star King created many laws protecting Admina, to prevent such a thing from occurring. So Admina should have no reason to attack Cardina. But…when you mentioned that someone from your real world had infiltrated the Underworld, it made me think. Perhaps this is just the first glimmer of a new Otherworld War.”

“…!!”

All three of us sucked in a sharp breath.

Asuna was the first to react. She turned to Eolyne, her pearl-white armor sliding the tiniest bit, and asked, “You think that the intruder from the real world is fomenting discord…trying to start a war between Cardina and Admina?”

“The God of Darkness, Vecta, who caused the old Otherworld War was a real-worlder, wasn’t he? So it’s not so far-fetched that the same thing could happen again.”

His logic was sound. But Stica and Laurannei were attacked by the Abyssal Horror on the very same day that we dived into the Stellar Calendar era of the Underworld. If someone from our world manipulated things to set that up, they would have to have infiltrated the Underworld before we went in.

Was that even possible? And if so, either that person had some connection to Akihiko Kayaba, or perhaps…

I had to forcefully stop myself from thinking any further about it.

“And you want to go to Admina to learn more about this,” I concluded.

“That’s right,” said Eolyne, adding impossibly, “but we can’t use a dragoncraft.”

“…Huh?”

“In order for us to roam freely in Admina, we must secretly infiltrate the planet. But flying between planets with Integrity Pilot or space force crafts requires advance authorization from the Admina government, and riding on a large transport dragoncraft requires a citizen number. Both of these will be very difficult to fake.”

“Can’t we just fly there secretly, without a permit?”

“If even a single dragoncraft disappears from the base hangar, it will turn into a huge emergency involving the Unification Council. It’s not like taking a mechamobile.”

“That makes sense…,” I admitted, crestfallen. But then I realized that something was wrong here. It was the commander’s wish to go to Admina in the first place. “How were you planning to get to Admina, then?”

Without batting an eye, Eolyne said, “There are two methods. The first is for you to use Incarnation to transport me, Lady Asuna, and Lady Alice.”

“H…huh?! You want to fly to another planet…without a craft? Just floating out there?!”

“When you rescued the two pilots, they said you were flying freely through space.”

“Y-yeah, that’s true, but…”

Unlike in the real world, outer space in the Underworld was not a vacuum. As I’d thought about when pondering Mutasina’s suffocation magic, the concepts of vacuum and non-vacuum didn’t exist in the virtual world. So while space here was dark and cold and without gravity, you could still breathe and talk. You could probably use wind element flight, too, so it was hypothetically possible to travel from planet to planet using Incarnation, but…

“But that’s just going to make those Incarnation waves, right? I assume Admina’s got at least one or two Incarnameters…”

“Yes, one or two hundred, I’d say. Someday, you’ll need to learn Incarnation-Hiding Incarnation…But even the Star King will take some time to do that. So I think we’ll use the second method instead.”

“And that is…?”

“Very simple. Simply use a dragoncraft that no one will notice is missing.”

We sat in aghast silence as Eolyne raised his hand and gestured toward the south wall of the tearoom—the direction of Centoria.

“In the sealed-off upper floors of Central Cathedral, the Star King’s personal dragoncraft, the X’rphan Mk. 13, should still be stored and operational. With that, as long as we can hide the fact that it’s left the tower, the higher-ups at the Unification Council won’t notice.”

The boldness of the idea was shocking enough, but even more shocking was the name of the dragoncraft. I glanced to my left, over Alice to Asuna, who was wide-eyed herself.

X’rphan was the name of a field boss on the fifty-fifth floor of Aincrad—not the new version installed in ALO, but the original from SAO. The full name was X’rphan the White Wyrm. As the name suggested, it was a pure-white dragon, which made it a suitable name for a dragoncraft…Yet that all but confirmed that the Star King was familiar with Sword Art Online.

No, not now! Later! I told myself, looking back at Eolyne. “That does sound more realistic than flying there with Incarnation. But can we get into where it’s sealed away? What kind of seal are we talking about, actually?”

“Aside from the great stairs of Central Cathedral, there is an automated platform that can move from the first to the seventy-ninth floor. But if you take it to the eightieth floor, which it normally cannot be directed to do, there is a huge door right past the landing. Even the Stellar Unification Council is forbidden from approaching that door. I expect that it is heavily locked.”

“……”

This time, I stared at Alice. The golden knight’s eyes were trained on a single point in space.

I was certain that those eyes were gazing directly at her sister, Selka, who was trapped in a deep sleep on the eightieth floor of the cathedral. Despite considering her awakening my top-priority mission, I hadn’t a clue of how we were going to get into the structure, but now there was an unexpected light at the end of the tunnel. I was certain that Alice was currently upswelling with a huge amount of hope—and just a tiny bit of unease.

Eolyne could clearly sense something from our reactions. He murmured, “I see…So that person you mentioned being in deep freeze in the cathedral has something to do with Lady Alice, I presume?”

Well, there was no point trying to pretend otherwise now. I admitted, “Yeah…Do you know anything about that?”

“I’ve certainly never been as high as the eightieth floor, you understand…All I’ve been told is that the ancient Integrity Knights are sealed at the top of Central Cathedral, and the Star King’s dragoncraft is there as well. Also…”

He hesitated, then decided to go ahead, dropping his voice to a whisper.

“…One of the Crystal Panels, of which there are only three in the Underworld, is installed on the top floor. That’s all.”

It was clear what Eolyne was talking about: the system console for manipulating the Underworld itself.

A thought occurred to me. If we used that, couldn’t we find out about the intruder directly, without having to travel all the way to Admina? But the console was completely locked out at the beginning of the maximum acceleration phase, turning it into nothing but an actual crystal panel. The acceleration was long over, but if we were going to use it again, we’d probably have to perform a reset from the control room of the Ocean Turtle…

But we would know all these things once we were there. The first destination, of course, being the place where Selka rested.

Sensing that I’d asked everything I needed to, I placed my hands on my lap and leaned forward. “Well, if that’s all settled, let’s go back to Centoria. Will another mechamobile come for us?”

Yet again, Eolyne put on an uncomfortable, chagrined smile. “You’re rather impatient, aren’t you? I was expecting the legendary Star King to be more…relaxed about things.”

Before I could say anything, Asuna and Alice chimed in.

“Exactly!”

“I agree.”

Eolyne placed a voice call to somewhere—or voice transponder, or whatever they called it here—and before long, I could hear the rumble of an engine in the front approach of the mansion.

We descended the stairs, the commander taking the lead. I carried the large brown bag; with four divine weapons inside, it was incredibly heavy.

At Eolyne’s recommendation, Asuna and Alice changed out of their goddess and Integrity Knight armor and into standard Integrity Pilot uniforms. Alice, in particular, was hesitant to leave her trusty armor behind, but at Eolyne’s insistence that no one could enter the mansion without his authorization, and his offer to lock the room in which the armor was stored, she begrudgingly agreed to play along.

But in fact, the navy-blue uniform and cap that Stica and Laurannei wore looked very good on both Asuna and Alice, and I actually applauded when they emerged from their changing room. Alice, her face red, asked, “Aren’t you going to change, too?” But according to the commander, my clothes were already fairly standard design for the Underworld and wouldn’t draw any extra attention on the street.

Alice had removed her golden armor, but she still wore a firm, rectangular belt pack. Inside were two large eggs, bigger than standard chicken eggs. They were the eggs of her dragon, Amayori, and its big brother, Takiguri, which I had rewound to a pre-hatched state with Incarnation.

She probably wished they would hatch so she could raise them, but that was a difficult ask at this point in time. She couldn’t be logged in to the Underworld at all times, which meant she’d need to leave them in the care of someone trustworthy—and there were very few people in this age who had experience raising dragons, I was sure.

We crossed the entrance hall and headed outside, where we were promptly greeted by two cheery voices accompanied by the clicking of boot heels snapping into place.

““We’ve come with your ride!””

Saluting us at the bottom of the porch were two girls dressed in the uniform and cap of the Integrity Pilothood: Stica Schtrinen and Laurannei Arabel. Their arrival was a total surprise to me.

“Huh?” I squawked. “I assumed you were doing your real jobs today…”

“They ought to be.” Eolyne sighed, walking beside me. “At their young ages, they’re the aces of the Blue Rose Company. Ordinarily, they’re as busy barracudas, between training new operators and testing experimental dragoncraft; they shouldn’t be acting as chauffeurs, but they insisted, so…”

If there’s no sea in the Underworld, how does he know what a barracuda is…?

But that wasn’t worth wondering about; it was the mention of the Blue Rose Company. Operator Second Class Lagi Quint had said he was in the Cattleya Company, which meant that the different companies of the Integrity Pilots were named after flowers—and so-called sacred flowers, at that. But why was it Blue Rose instead of just Rose?

I made a mental note to ask Eolyne about that later. Meanwhile, the girls lowered their salutes and rushed over to us.

“Lady Alice, Lady Asuna, Sir Kirito, it’s so good to see you!”

“I’m so happy we got the chance to meet again!”

They were all radiant smiles. Alice and Asuna gave them warm hugs. I didn’t have the boldness to do the same, so I settled for handshakes. When Laurannei noticed the large bag I was carrying, she held out both hands and said, “I’ll carry your bag to the car!”

“Don’t worry; I’ll do it. This thing’s heavy.”

“Please, it’s my duty!” she insisted, pulling the bag out of my hand, then yelped, “Ullgh!”

I didn’t blame her. There were four full-sized swords in the bag, each one close to class-50 in priority. Asuna and Alice had to take it out of the car together, so there was no way one of the girls could do it alone, even if she was an ace pilot.

I very nearly used Incarnation to help hold it up, but Laurannei’s downward slump stopped just before the bottom of the bag touched the ground, and she held it there. Gritting her teeth, face turning red, she puffed, “Hrrrrgh,” and slowly, very slowly, lifted the huge bag higher.

Since I was too stunned to do anything but stare, Asuna and Alice tried to help her, but the girl refused their help. She looked at her partner and grunted through gritted teeth, “S…Sti…H-help me…”

Stica was already grabbing one of the straps. She and Laurannei took one each to share the load, and now they were both straining and groaning, “Frrhngh…”

Somehow, they managed to straighten upright and hauled the bag over to the vehicle, panting “One-two, one-two” in rhythm. If they were able to carry four divine weapons between the two of them, that meant they could easily have the Object Control level individually to equip one of them.

I watched them go, feeling more than a little stunned by this realization, and once they seemed out of earshot, I whispered to Eolyne, “How far along are they, actually?”

“Fifteen, if I recall.”

I was asking about their authority level, but Eolyne answered with their age. That number, too, was shocking.

“Fifteen…?! That’s normally the age when people would be starting at Swordcraft Academy. How is their authority level so high…?”

“That is because the Arabel and Schtrinen families are the most prestigious there can be,” Eolyne said cryptically, patting me on the back. “Come, let’s get in. I’d like to have lunch in Centoria, wouldn’t you?”