Alicization Rising Read online

  “Since we survived and the test was over,” Fizel said, “those old senate fuddy-duddies said we had to choose our next Calling, and we told them we wanted to be Integrity Knights. They got mad and said that Integrity Knights were summoned from Heaven by Administrator, and kids like us couldn’t be one of them. So we ended up having a fight against the newest knights at the time…What were their names, again?”

  “Umm…it was Something Synthesis Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine.”

  “It’s the Something I was asking for, Nel! Well, anyway, you should have seen the looks on those senators’ faces when we lopped off those cocky guys’ heads in one shot.”

  The girls giggled, and Linel continued the story. “…So Administrator made a special exception and named us Integrity Knights in the place of the two who died. But since we haven’t learned enough to go on defensive duties like the other knights, we still have to spend a two-year period learning the laws and sacred arts like the other apprentices. It’s really getting old.”

  “We were just wondering how to hurry up and get our dragons and Divine Object weapons, when an alert went out that agents of the Dark Territory were loose in the cathedral. So we decided this was our chance! If we caught them before the other knights and executed them, Administrator would surely make us full-fledged knights at last. That’s why we were waiting on the stairs.”

  “Sorry about using that poison. But we really wanted to take you up to the fiftieth floor alive, if possible. Oh, and don’t worry—we’re really good at killing, so it won’t hurt.”

  The girls could scarcely wait for the moment when they dropped the boys’ severed heads before the Integrity Knights’ defensive line on the fiftieth floor. They bounded up the stairs with surprising speed, dragging their heavy prey behind them.

  Despite the increasingly urgent need to devise an escape plan, all Eugeo could do was listen passively to their story. Even if his mouth wasn’t paralyzed, it seemed impossible that he could actually talk the girls out of it. They didn’t even seem to possess the concepts of good and evil. The only thing they obeyed was the order of their creator, the pontifex Administrator.

  After dozens of times changing direction, the ceiling that formed the entirety of what Eugeo could see went from being a steady upward slope to a flat surface like any ordinary ceiling. There was no more staircase to travel—they had arrived at the Great Hall on the fiftieth floor that marked the midpoint of the cathedral.

  Fizel and Linel stopped walking and exchanged brief comments about getting ready.

  There were maybe minutes left—seconds, perhaps—before that green blade severed his neck. No matter how hard he willed, he couldn’t even budge a finger; there was no sensation in his body.

  The ceiling here was taller than anywhere previous, probably a good twenty mels overhead. The curved marble featured brilliant portraits of the three goddesses of creation and their followers. The circular pillars supporting the ceiling were covered in a multitude of sculptures and reliefs. On either side of the hall were massive windows beaming in the light of Solus. It was a tremendous sight, a place worthy of the name “Great Hall of Ghostly Light.”

  The girls dragged Eugeo and Kirito five mels forward, then came to a stop. The momentum left Eugeo’s body in a half-turn, giving him a full view of the Great Hall at last.

  It was frighteningly vast, seemingly spanning the entire breadth of the cathedral floor for one chamber. The distant corners of the multicolored stone floor were hazy through the light. A deep-red carpet ran from the entrance all the way to the far wall, where double doors stood, so tall they seemed to be built for a giant. Clearly, the stairs to continue moving upward were through that door.

  In the middle of the hall, far before the giant door, a number of knights stood in their armor and helmets, bristling and forbidding, preventing further progress. Four of them stood in an evenly spaced row, and another waited slightly ahead.

  The four in the back all wore brilliant silver armor and helmets with a cross-shaped slit in the middle—exactly the kind that Eldrie wore. Their weapons were identical longswords, each standing on its tip with its owner’s hands resting heavily on the pommel.

  The knight in the front looked much different from the others. This one’s armor shone with a regal pale-purple color and looked comparatively delicate, and a thin sword designed for thrusting hung at the knight’s side. It was tempting to think of this as “light” armor, but the suffocating sense of danger rolling off the one wearing it far outclassed the others. The knight’s face was hidden under a helmet designed to resemble a bird of prey’s wings, but it was clear that he or she was just as mighty as Deusolbert.

  Five Integrity Knights, an incredibly imposing wall to surpass in order to continue upward—and yet, at that moment, it was the two little girls right next to them who represented a greater threat to Eugeo’s and Kirito’s lives.

  Linel and Fizel, standing proud in their apprentice habits, faced the five knights.

  “You must be Fanatio Synthesis Two, the vice commander of the knights,” Linel said crisply. “If Fanatio of the Heaven-Piercing Blade is being called upon, then the senate must be panicked indeed. Or are you the worried one, Fanatio? At this rate, you might find your vice seat taken by the Osmanthus, won’t you?”

  After several seconds of strained silence, the purple knight spoke. The metallic voice carried that familiar inhuman rattle unique to Integrity Knights, but Eugeo did not miss its note of irritation.

  “…Why do you apprentice children barge onto the battlefield of honorable knights?”

  “Oh, this is so stupid!” Fizel immediately shot back. “It’s that insistence on honor and dignity that got two of the so-called invincible Integrity Knights beaten. But don’t worry; we’ve caught the intruders, and we won’t let any more harm come to the reputation of the knighthood!”

  “We’re about to chop off their heads, so watch closely and give the pontifex an accurate report. Not that I would expect an ‘honorable knight’ to claim the credit like a coward.”

  Despite the desperate circumstances, Eugeo couldn’t help but be amazed at the boldness of Linel and Fizel and how they stayed so composed facing five superhuman warriors.

  But, no…Perhaps he was wrong. The emotion exuding from their little figures—was that…hatred?

  With all his strength, Eugeo focused his eyes on the girls. Even if his intuition was correct, what did they hate? They’d showed nothing but pure curiosity toward Eugeo and Kirito, who were high traitors to Administrator and the Axiom Church.

  Linel and Fizel were so busy staring at the Integrity Knights with open loathing and disrespect, the knights themselves were so obviously annoyed by them, and Eugeo was so preoccupied with trying to figure out the two girls, that it was unlikely anyone noticed the figure in black moving behind them until it actually appeared.

  Like a panther on the hunt, despite suffering the same paralyzing toxin that Eugeo did, Kirito snuck behind the girls and grabbed their short swords from their belts, one with each hand. In one smooth movement, he drew the blades and pressed them against their exposed arms.

  By the time they turned around, mouths agape, Kirito had already leaped clear backward, short swords in hand.

  They were stunned. “Why…?”

  “I can’t move…”

  The paralysis worked instantly, and after just a few words, the children toppled lightly to the floor. As they fell, Kirito rose. He held both poison daggers in one hand and stepped forward to search in their pockets with the other. In no time, he had found a little bottle the size of a fingertip, filled with an orange liquid.

  He popped the cork out, sniffed it, and looked satisfied. Still paralyzed, Eugeo had no other option but to trust that it was an antidote as the bottle’s contents slipped between his lips. It was probably for the best that his numb tongue couldn’t taste it, either.

  Kirito leaned down on his knee, an unfamiliar and severe look on his face, and whispered, “The paralysi
s will wear off in a few minutes. Once your lips work again, start chanting the Perfect Weapon Control command so the knights don’t hear you. When it’s ready, hang on to it and wait for my signal.”

  With that, he stood up and moved back to stand next to the girls. In a loud, clear voice, he called out to the five Integrity Knights, “The swordsmen Kirito and Eugeo apologize for the disrespect of entering your presence on our backsides! We seek to make amends and repair our dishonored reputations, and to cross swords with you!”

  Promptly, the purple knight, who seemed to be the most important, replied, “I am second of the Integrity Knights, Fanatio Synthesis Two! Sinner, know that my divine Heaven-Piercing Blade knows not the concept of mercy, so if you wish to speak, do so while it remains sheathed!”

  Kirito looked down at the collapsed girls next to him and, loud enough for the other knights to hear, said, “You must be wondering how I was able to move.”

  Linel was unable to speak, of course, but her eyes seemed to well up with frustration.

  “You gave the game away. You said that all the monks and nuns were ordered to stay in their rooms. Nobody in the cathedral would dare disobey an order—so given that you weren’t following them, you couldn’t be real sisters-in-training.”

  The antidote started working, sending little prickles of pain into Eugeo’s limbs, but he hardly noticed them at all. At last, he realized the nature of the emotion he saw on his partner’s face.

  Kirito—placid, aloof Kirito—was furious.

  But his anger didn’t seem to be directed at the children themselves. If anything, there was pain in his eyes when he glanced down at Linel and Fizel.

  “And those sheaths you wear. They’re made of ruby oak from the south. That’s the only material that won’t corrode when touched by these swords made of Ruberyl’s poisoned steel. There’s no way a simple apprentice nun would be carrying something like that. So before you approached, I cast a poison-dissolving art—it just took a little time for it to actually work. The speed of your sword isn’t all there is to strength. In short, you were stupid enough that you might as well die here.”

  He held the poison swords aloft in his left hand, then swung them down without mercy or hesitation.

  The two short swords flew, leaving little green trails. They thudded dully, the blades stuck into the floor right before Linel’s and Fizel’s noses.

  “But I will not kill you. Instead, I want you to watch the Integrity Knights that you insulted and see how powerful they truly are.”

  Then he turned and took several steps forward. He drew his black sword loudly and swung around to brandish it before a knight.

  “You have waited long enough, Fanatio! I challenge you!”

  No…he wouldn’t.

  But Eugeo’s lips could do no more than tremble. He couldn’t call Kirito back; his mouth and tongue were still regaining their sensations.

  Kirito often liked to take out books on weapons from the academy library, so that might explain how he knew about things like ruby oak and poisoned steel. It was just like him to employ his skills of observation to escape from the girls’ trap, but the two had still undoubtedly left them in a far more dangerous situation than before. They had to face five Integrity Knights, one of whom was the vice commander, and fight them in direct battle. Their great idea about having Perfect Control ready to go before they entered the Great Hall was totally ruined.

  Normally, Kirito would drag Eugeo away from this situation to regroup and improve their chances. That he wasn’t doing it now was a sign that he wasn’t in his right mind. He was gripped by such a rage that if Eugeo squinted, he thought he could see wisps of pale-blue flame rising from the back of his black shirt.

  Even the instructors at Swordcraft Academy would be taken aback if they faced Kirito in his present state. But the purple knight named Fanatio, vice commander of all Integrity Knights, boldly grabbed the handle of his rapier and drew it. Eugeo’s eyes were pierced with such a brilliant light that it seemed the weapon itself was glowing.

  Following Fanatio, the other four soldiers flipped up their downward-pointed swords in unison and took stances. The swell of tension and hostility pushed back against Kirito’s, making the air in the hall practically crackle.

  Fanatio showed no signs of being affected by the tense mood. His dark voice issued forth from the helmet.

  “Sinner Kirito, it seems that you desire a duel of single combat with me. Unfortunately, we are under strict orders to slaughter by any means necessary if you should reach the Great Hall. So you will fight them first—my personal students, the Four Whirling Blades!”

  With that grand pronouncement, Fanatio promptly launched a System Call and began a complex, high-speed casting chant. It was most likely—most definitely—Perfect Weapon Control. They either had to use the same art to counteract it or attack before the spell was finished.

  Kirito chose the latter. He sprang forward at Fanatio so hard that the hobnails on his boots created sparks. His black sword swung up high in the air.

  But at the same moment, the leftmost of the four knights standing behind Fanatio began a similar charge. This one met Kirito with a two-handed greatsword, whipping it horizontally from the left.

  Kirito changed the angle of his swing, bringing it straight down to block the knight’s attack. There was an ear-rending screech of metal, and both combatants sprang backward, creating a gap between them.

  Unlike the knight, who had to redirect the momentum of his massive sword, Kirito recovered quickly. By the time he landed, he was already in follow-up mode, ready to plunge in again and deliver one fatal blow—

  “…?!”

  Eugeo gasped. Somehow there was a second knight there, unleashing a devastating slice from Kirito’s left. Kirito paused, tilting his sword up to slice left and deflect. There was another screech, a shower of sparks, and they ended up about four mels apart.

  This second knight also ended up significantly off-balance. This was natural, as anyone swinging such a huge sword so hard would find it difficult to avoid the shift in momentum when it was knocked off its trajectory. If anything was worthy of praise here, it was Kirito’s skill in repelling the enemy’s attack with a minimum of movement, absorbing the impact, and promptly transitioning to the next move.

  However—before Eugeo could even suspect it, the third knight was leaping at Kirito where he landed. Eugeo tore his eyes away from the third clash of blades and forced himself to look farther behind them.

  “!!”

  His jaw clenched. By the time Kirito and the third knight’s swords met, the fourth was already charging.

  How could they predict his movements so accurately? Yet another sideways swipe, and this time, Kirito’s reaction was off. He managed to block the swing, but the momentum finally pushed him back, and his black form teetered in the air.

  That’s it…

  Belatedly, Eugeo realized the knights’ intentions. All their attacks were horizontal swings from left to right. If he deflected them with his sword, that limited the direction he would be pushed. Then the next knight would rush to that spot and start another horizontal slash. Given the increased effective area of their attacks as compared to vertical slices or thrusts, and the size and length of their swords, it must have been easy enough for them to ensure that even when jumping early, they had enough leeway to hit Kirito no matter where he landed.

  The Integrity Knights didn’t have consecutive techniques the way the two boys did, but this was effectively the same thing, just spread out over a group. These were not the preening, demonstrative swordsmen of Centoria but true fighters with experience in the Dark Territory.

  But even the Integrity Knights’ combination strategy was not infallible.

  Figure it out, Kirito! Then you can counteract it!

  The only sound that erupted from Eugeo’s throat was a dry groan. At least his tongue and lips were starting to move again. He worked at the tense muscles as best he could so that he’d be able to start h
is chant and silently prayed. Figure it out, Kirito.

  After deflecting the fourth knight’s attack, Kirito finally faltered on the landing and had to put a hand to the floor.

  The first knight had recovered and blazed forward with another ferocious attack. Kirito promptly leaned backward, trying to duck under the sword. A lock of his black hair made contact with the blade and flew free.

  Exactly. If he knew they were always going to swing horizontally, he could dodge above or below, rather than stopping it with his sword.

  But that evasion had to be one with his countermove. If all he did was fall over to dodge, he would be that much slower to transition to his next action, if not worse.

  And the second knight, who bore down on Kirito from the left, was not going to give him time to recover. He raised his sword from flat to overhead and started a massive downward swing.

  “Ah…!”

  Eugeo tried to yell Watch out, ignoring the sharp pain that stabbed at his throat. But he wasn’t in time. Sensing that there would be no way to avoid it, his eyes instinctively tried to avert themselves from the grisly outcome.

  Just then, the first knight, who had finished his swing to Kirito’s right, suddenly lurched. Kirito hadn’t just been lying on the ground. Somehow, he wrapped both his legs around one of the knight’s and pulled the larger man down on top of him.

  The second knight was already into his attack and couldn’t stop now, so the huge greatsword dug deep into his companion’s back. He tried to pull it away, visibly startled, when a dark blur rushed up from below.

  Kirito thrust through the knight’s upper arm as he jumped to his feet, then turned to the third knight, who was hastily trying to follow up, and hurled the second knight at him. The newer attacker had no choice but to stop before he simply sliced his partner in two.

  At last, the combination attack of the group Fanatio called the Four Whirling Blades came to a halt.