Sword Art Online - Volume 26 - Chapter 16

16

Click, click…click.

The polished black leather boots cut across the floor of the little room and stopped in front of the window for observing the captured Divine Beast. Then two more people came through the doorway, halting directly behind the first one. As if on cue, the noisy alarms fell silent.

Eolyne and I were huddled under the window, not ten feet away from the intruders. In my head, I knew we were invisible because of Eolyne’s Hollow Incarnation trick, but in practice, I could scarcely breathe.

I didn’t even want to move my face, but I couldn’t stay staring at the floor the entire time. Careful not to make a sound, I slowly craned my neck upward to catch sight of the intruders—though, really, we were the intruders in this base. The side effects of the Incarnate veil over my senses made everything hazy and smoky in outline, but they were close enough that I could just barely make out the finer details.

The two guards in the rear wore the same dark-gray uniform as the ones at the gate up above. But they didn’t have the same simple rifles, wearing thin swords on their hips instead. Because of their deep-brimmed hats, their eyes were lost in shadow, but they both seemed to be in their twenties or thirties.

But the person staring into the large chamber in front was difficult for me to identify initially. What was their gender? Were they young or not? I couldn’t tell.

They wore a dark-gray coat that extended below the knees. The three-lined sleeve insignia and laced epaulets were a cold silver. They weren’t wearing a hat, but between the tall standing collar and richly flowing black hair, the only thing I could see was the sharp, thin bridge of their nose. They seemed a bit taller than me and Eolyne.

The color of their uniforms was not the deep blue of the Integrity Pilots, nor the gray of the Imperial Guard, nor the white of the Central Cathedral security forces.

Earlier, Eolyne mentioned that Admina had its own military command. That might make their uniforms technically the Underworld Space Force’s Admina base issue, but if so, it meant that the ones who forced the serpentine Divine Beast to have children in a horrific live experiment and who used guided missiles to damage the X’rphan Mk. 13 were part of Admina’s army.

I regretted not asking Eolyne what uniforms the guards at the rear gate were wearing, but it was too late to do anything about it now. The pilot commander was gripping my hand and breathing quickly and shallowly. It wasn’t a situation for idle questions like this.

After using Hollow Incarnation to get us through the gate, Eolyne had looked fatigued enough that his face had a blue tint. Now he’d been forced to use it again without an adequate break in between; each and every moment had to be grinding him down. I thought about picking up Eolyne and escaping the little room, but didn’t know if we’d be able to disguise the sound of a door opening. All we could do was pray that the trio would leave as soon as possible.

However…

“…The high-intensity Incarnation anomaly was detected by the Incarnameter on this floor, you said?” said the person in the coat, staring down at the larger chamber. Their husky voice was androgynous in sound, so I still couldn’t tell their gender.

One of the guards behind them said tensely, “That’s right, Your Excellency. The first-floor and rooftop Incarnameters reacted, too, but the highest numbers came from this one in the basement.”

The other one added, “Plus, we had a report of unexplained phenomena from our researchers.”

“Unexplained?”

“While attempting to administer a solution to the Divine Beast’s juvenile in the isolation room, the syringe apparently exploded. The researchers thought the Divine Beast used Incarnation and are refusing to leave the analysis room.”

“Hmm…”

The Excellency looked down behind their standing collar, lost in deep thought, until they suddenly pulled their right foot back and turned to face my direction. The movement swung the flowing hair aside to reveal parts of the face that had been hidden.

When I made contact with this person’s aura, I thought of powerfully swirling flames of darkness, but their face had a cold, delicate beauty that did not match my initial impression. Their long, narrow eyes were graced with fanciful lashes, and their thin lips were red and bold, their eyes pale blue with streaks of silver.

The moment those icy eyes pointed directly at us, both Eolyne and I tensed. But they soon passed by us, and their attention returned to the hallway window.

“…Are you certain the Avus shot down an enemy dragoncraft?” said the Excellency. The breath of relief I’d been ready to exhale caught in my throat instead.

That confirmed that these were the people who shot the guided missile at the X’rphan. We also learned the name of the large black craft outside, although I didn’t know if it meant something.

The real question remaining was whether they realized that they’d attacked the Integrity Pilot commander and member of the Stellar Unification Council, Eolyne Herlentz, himself…

“Yes. The dark-element blast and black smoke were visible to the naked eye. We sent a search party to the area where the craft crashed, just in case, but haven’t heard any reports yet saying they’ve found it,” answered one of the guards.

The Excellency faced the large isolation chamber once again. “In that case, it is possible the crew jettisoned before crashing.”

“However…even if the riders survived, it would be impossible for them to infiltrate this facility, or even discover it, I feel.”

“Hmm…” The Excellency nodded in agreement. They treated this like a teachable lesson for their subordinates. “But Incarnate power is what makes the impossible possible. If you trust your Incarnameter or Incarnate-resistant gear too much, you’ll regret it.”

“Ah…are you saying someone might have already infiltrated the base, Your Excellency?”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” said the black-haired beauty, shrugging.

I felt a horrible, spine-freezing chill, and tugged on Eolyne’s arm on instinct, pulling us down to the ground as quickly as possible without making noise.

Just after that, the Excellency plunged their right hand inside their coat, removed a saber from their left hip, and drew a line with it in our direction.

We were over six feet away from the saber’s range, but I swore I could feel an invisible slash grazing my nose. White sparks jumped from the metal wall just to our right. The impact left a very fine line in the surface as the force continued onward. I was so startled that I didn’t deploy an Incarnate wall out of sheer reflex. It was that crisp of a strike.

And the only reason we dodged it was because it was a level swing. If another swing came toward us vertically, there would be no way to avoid it.

Through the heat haze of my vision, I saw the beautiful person pull back their hand and then heard the cool clink of the saber sliding back into its sheath.

“Y-Your Excellency, what is the matter?!” asked the startled guards.

“Nothing at all,” the figure said with a wave of their hand. “Sugin, Domhui, return to the ground floor and strengthen defenses at the front and rear entrances. I will investigate the isolation room, just to be sure.”

“Then we should join you…”

“No need. Go!” the officer snapped. The two men bolted upright, saluted, and left the little room.

Once they were gone, the Excellency walked to the door on the left wall, which presumably went to the analysis room, as they called it. The door had a grip handle, but the officer stopped before reaching for it.

The Excellency turned back in our direction one more time, and I felt I had to take my eyes off their side profile—it seemed dangerous even to look directly at them. That possibly did the trick, however, because I soon heard the door’s heavy sliding as it opened.

More hard footsteps. The door slid again, followed by the click of a latch going into place. Faint footsteps got quieter until they were gone.

Immediately, the haze filtering my vision evaporated. Eolyne had released the Hollow Incarnation. I patted his back; his full weight was resting on me.

“Good job. You saved us,” I whispered, relieved. “Now, let’s get out of this base while we have the—”

I stopped short. Eolyne slid off me and onto the floor.