Alicization Rising Page 9

  Even as I committed the ten commands to memory, a small part of my mind wandered.

  The Rath scientists who had created the Underworld called the data format that recorded all the objects in this world mnemonic visuals. Over two years (of my personal subjective time) ago, at Agil’s bar in Okachimachi in the real world, I had explained the broad concept to Asuna and Sinon. Through observation and experimentation, I had learned some things during my time here since.

  The Underworld, unlike traditional VRMMOs, was not made of polygonal models. A processor called the Main Visualizer read and buffered the sum experiences of all those who connected to—or lived in—the world, from rocks and trees to dogs and cats, tools, buildings, and so on. When needed, it would extract the necessary information to display to the diver. The reason I was able to grow the zephilia flowers that shouldn’t have grown in the northern empire was that I’d temporarily overwritten the average buffer data (“It doesn’t grow here”) with the mental image that said it could grow.

  Furthermore: All objects in this world were saved as memories.

  So wouldn’t the reverse be true as well? Could memories be turned into objects? I had seen something before that I couldn’t explain in any other way.

  Two years and two months ago, when I first awoke in the forest south of Rulid, I wandered until I reached the banks of the Rul River. When I did, I was faced with an incredibly vivid image: that of a flaxen-haired boy and a blond girl walking against the backdrop of the setting sun—and a boy with short black hair, too.

  The image had vanished in a matter of seconds, but it was no trick of the eyes. Even now, if I closed my lids, I could see the burning red sunset, the light glinting off the girl’s waving hair, and the sounds of the kids treading through the grass. I had called the trio of children from my own memory. Obviously, one boy was Eugeo. The girl had to be Alice. And the black-haired boy…

  “That’s thirty minutes. How do you feel?” Cardinal said, cutting off the line of thought running through the back of my mind.

  I flipped over the sheet of parchment and envisioned the command from the start. For not giving it my undivided concentration, I was relieved to find that I could recall every last word. “I’ve got it probably perfect.”

  “That was somewhat of an oxymoron. How about you, Eugeo?”

  “Uh…um, I think I’ve got it probably per…probably fine.”

  “Very good,” Cardinal said, stifling a smirk. “Just so you know, while Perfect Control is a powerful technique, it must not be used at every single opportunity. Its use consumes a considerable amount of the sword’s life. On the other hand, it doesn’t do to save it up if you are about to fall. Gauge the moment; use it wisely. Afterward, you must return it to its sheath and allow the life to recover.”

  “That sounds…tough…,” I grumbled, then I flipped the parchment over again. I ran my eyes over the full command one more time for good measure and noticed something. “Huh? Wait a sec…The last phrase of this command is Enhance Armament, right?”

  “Is there something wrong with that?”

  “N-no, that’s not what I mean. When we fought Eldrie, the Perfect Weapon Control technique he used had something else after that. It was, like, um…R…Rele…,” I mumbled.

  Eugeo stepped in to finish. “Release Recollection, I think. It was after he said that that his whip turned into a real snake. Boy, that really startled me.”

  “Yeah, exactly. Don’t we need something like that, too, Cardinal?”

  “Hrm,” the black-robed sage grumbled, looking annoyed. “Listen, there are two stages to Perfect Weapon Control: Enhancing and Release. Enhancing recalls specific portions of the weapon’s memory to unlock more attack power. And Release, as the name would suggest, unlocks and recalls all of the weapon’s memory to unleash its wildest power.”

  “Wildest power, huh…I guess that explains it. With Eldrie’s whip, he strengthened it to increase its range and split it into multiple parts, and then he released it so that it turned into a snake and attacked of its own will…”

  Cardinal blinked in affirmation and said, “Precisely so. But I must be clear up front that this is still beyond your means.”

  “Wh-why?” asked Eugeo, clearly surprised.

  The sage intoned, “It is the weapon’s wildest power, as I said. The strength created by Release Recollection is beyond the ability of a new wielder to control, especially for a divine-level weapon. It will harm you as much as the enemy—perhaps even be fatal to you.”

  “P-point taken,” said my partner, ever the obedient schoolboy. I had no choice but to accept her terms, too. But Cardinal could sense I was unconvinced, so she added, “The time will come when you can make use of Release…perhaps. The sword will teach you everything. But that assumes you can get it back first.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I muttered.

  Cardinal rolled her eyes and tapped the base of her staff against the floor. The two parchments rolled themselves up on their own and even seemed to shrink—only to be replaced by long, narrow baked goods.

  “You must be hungry after all that thinking. Eat up.”

  “Huh…? Are these magic treats that’ll help us remember the commands or something…?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  Eugeo and I shared a look, then we picked up the sweets. At first, I thought they were the simple flour pastries with sugar sprinkled on top like the kind you could buy from the market in Centoria, but in fact, they were a much more real-world kind of delicacy: flaky piecrust coated with white chocolate. The combination of crispy texture and rich sweetness was so reminiscent of the real world that it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

  We raced to see who would finish first, and once I was done, I looked up with a sigh of satisfaction into Cardinal’s gentle, understanding eyes.

  The young sage nodded slowly and said, “Now…it is time for good-byes.”

  There was such a weight to that brief statement, I couldn’t help but deny it. “But once we complete our goals, you’ll be able to come out safely, right? Good-bye seems a little dramatic…”

  “That is correct. Assuming all goes well, of course…”

  “…”

  True, if we lost to the Integrity Knights at any point on our mission to reach the top of the cathedral, Cardinal would be forced to undergo another long, long wait. In fact, the stress test would probably arrive before she found another assistant, plunging the world into blood and flame.

  But despite the looming, tragic catastrophe waiting in the wings, Cardinal’s smile was pure and gentle. I felt an odd sensation clutch at my chest, and I bit my lip. She nodded almost imperceptibly and spun around.

  “Come. It is time. Follow me…and I will send you through the door closest to the third-floor armory.”

  The walk from the first-floor library hall back to the entrance room with its countless back doors was disappointingly short.

  Under his breath, Eugeo silently mouthed the commands for his Perfect Weapon Control technique, while my eyes never left the small figure of Cardinal leading the way.

  I wanted to talk more. I wanted to know more about what she had thought and felt during those two hundred years in solitude. The sensation that I needed to know these things clawed its way up to my throat, but her pace was so quick and resolute that it brooked no discussion.

  Once we were in the familiar chamber with countless hallways leading off the three other walls, Cardinal beckoned us toward one on the right side. Only after walking down the thirty-foot hallway to the simple door waiting at the end did she finally stop and turn back to us.

  The smile on her pink lips was as gentle as ever. There was even a hint of a certain satisfaction there.

  In a crisp, clear tone, she said, “Eugeo…and Kirito. The fate of the world now rests on you two. Whether it is plunged into hellfire…or sinks into oblivion. Or,” she added, staring right at me, “if you find a third way. I have told you all that I can tell a
nd given you all that I can give. As for the rest, simply follow in your beliefs.”

  “…Thank you, Cardinal,” Eugeo said, his voice brimming with determination. “I know I’ll reach the top of Central Cathedral…and bring Alice back.”

  I felt like I should say something, too, but no words came. Instead, I simply bowed my head in respect.

  Cardinal nodded resolutely, her smile now gone, and she grabbed the knob.

  “Now…go!”

  She turned it and, in the next moment, flung the door wide open. Eugeo and I pushed against the sudden rush of cold, dry air and leaped through.

  After five or six steps, I heard a small noise behind me and looked over my shoulder to see nothing but cold, smooth marble wall. There wasn’t a single trace of the door to the Great Library.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CENTRAL CATHEDRAL, MAY 380 HE

  1

  How very, very far we’ve come…

  The ceiling was high enough that he had to crane his neck to see. Pillars of marble stood all around, and the floor was a fine mosaic of different kinds of stones fitted together.

  Eugeo could scarcely breathe upon his first glimpse of the grand interior of the Axiom Church’s Central Cathedral. Until two years ago, his entire life, as far as he knew it, was to be vainly swinging an ax into a tree that would never fall down. His only sentiment would be to reflect on the memories of his long-lost golden-haired friend as he led a lonely life without marriage or children, dwelling deep in the forest until the day he grew old and handed the ax to a new generation and passed away with no one to tell his tale.

  It was the sudden arrival one day of a black-haired young man that had broken Eugeo’s tiny, suffocating world by force. Using methods the previous carvers could never have imagined, he had cut down the absolute barrier blocking the way to the big city and confronted Eugeo with a major decision: stay here in his tiny home, nursing his memories of Alice, or set out on a massive journey to get her back?

  It would be a lie to claim that he had never given it a second thought. When Chief Gasfut asked him what he wanted his next Calling to be on the night of the village festival, he had first considered his family.

  Up to that point, Eugeo had given his family his entire salary as the Gigas Cedar carver. They were traditionally a barley-farming family, but their fields were small, and the recent run of poor harvests had left them little income. Eugeo’s steady monthly wages were a minor bedrock that he knew his parents and brothers relied upon, even if no one wanted to admit it.

  Once the Gigas Cedar was felled, that salary was gone, naturally. But if he chose to be a farmer, like his father, they would receive preferential choice of the large, sunny stretches ready to be tilled to the south. Standing at the pulpit amid the excited villagers, Eugeo looked into the hopeful and anxious faces of his family members.

  His hesitation had lasted only an instant. On one end of the scale was a reunion with his childhood friend, and on the other was the livelihood of his family. The scale tilted, and Eugeo announced that he would leave the village and be a swordsman.

  Even as a swordsman, he could choose to stay in Rulid and be one of the men-at-arms, ensuring he’d still have a salary. But leaving the village meant leaving his family. The money that Eugeo made and the possibility of new, fertile fields would all go up in smoke. He hastily left the day after the festival because he couldn’t stand seeing the suppressed disappointment and unhappiness in the faces of his parents and brothers.

  There had been more opportunities to choose a life that supported his family after he and Kirito left Rulid. They competed in the swordfighting tournament in Zakkaria and won the right to join the garrison there. After hard training, they were given a recommendation to North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy—but the commander also offered to keep them around, with the promise of promotions and maybe even a future place as the garrison commander. If he’d accepted that steady salary in Zakkaria and had sent some of it back to Rulid on the regular trading caravan, it could have made things so much easier for his family.

  And yet, Eugeo had turned down the commander’s offer and accepted the letter of recommendation instead.

  Along the way to Centoria, and even after joining the academy, a part of Eugeo’s mind had been busy making excuses. He’d be named school representative, win the Four-Empire Unification Tournament, and receive the prestigious rank of Integrity Knight—and then his parents would have riches and comfort beyond their imagination. When he made his triumphant return with Alice, riding a dragon and outfitted in silver armor, his parents would be prouder of their youngest son than anyone could ever be.

  But two nights ago, when he had drawn his blade against Raios Antinous and Humbert Zizek, Eugeo had betrayed his family for the third time. He gave up on the very real possibility of noble rank in his future…and chose to violate the Taboo Index, sacrificing his common status in the process.

  Even as overwhelming rage drove his actions, a part of Eugeo had understood that if he attacked, he would lose everything. And yet, still he made the choice to go ahead. He could say it was to uphold his personal sense of justice and save Tiese and Ronie from being raped, but that wasn’t all of it. He wanted to unleash the raging thirst to kill, to erase all traces of Raios and Humbert from the world. There was a pit of black desire in his heart.

  How very, very far he had come…

  From one of twelve elite, prestigious students at the academy to a traitor against the Axiom Church—and now there he was, stepping on the most hallowed ground in the entire world.

  After escaping from the archer knight and winding up in a vast, enigmatic library, the little girl who claimed to be the previous pontifex of the Church showed him books full of the world’s history, which he practically devoured. He had a pressing question to answer: How many people, in the long arc of history, had ever defied the Church, fought the Integrity Knights, achieved their desires, and safely escaped?

  Sadly, he didn’t find a single anecdote of such a thing in the historical record. The glory of the Church illuminated the world, and all peoples bowed before the might of the Integrity Knights. These things easily solved even the gravest of troubles—imperial border squabbles, for example. No matter how far he dug into the thick history tomes, he found no instances of anyone attacking the Church and fighting the knights.

  That means that in 380 years of history, ever since Stacia created the world, I am the most sinful person who has ever lived.

  He felt a freezing chill assault him as he closed the book. If Kirito hadn’t returned at that very moment, he might have fallen to the ground and curled up into a ball.

  Even as the mysterious little former pontifex explained the ways of the world to them, Eugeo couldn’t help but grapple with himself. He’d abandoned his family, attacked another person, and chosen to fight the Church. He could never go back to his old life. The only way out was forward—bloodied hands, soiled soul, and all. There was just one goal ahead of him.

  He had to retrieve the heart fragment stolen by the pontifex, turn Alice Synthesis Thirty back into Alice Zuberg, and take her home to Rulid Village.

  But his hope for actually living with her was probably gone by now. There was no place he could live after his many sins anymore, except for the horrifying Dark Territory beyond the End Mountains. But even that was a price worth paying if it meant Alice could go back home and live in happiness again.

  Eugeo watched Kirito walk before him, turning over this secret determination in his head. If I said I was going to the Dark Territory, would you come with me…?

  He stopped himself before he could imagine his partner’s answer. The black-haired boy was the only person in the entire world standing in this position with him. The idea that they might travel separate paths in the not-too-distant future was too frightening to ponder.

  As Cardinal had warned, the hallway from the doorway was surprisingly short. He barely had time to get lost in his thoughts before they arrived at a s
pacious rectangular room.

  In the center of the right-hand wall was a surprisingly large staircase leading upward. The ceiling was about eight mels above, so there were a good twenty steps before the stairs stopped at a landing. On the left-hand wall was a set of large double doors surrounded by sculptures of winged beasts.

  Kirito flung out his hand and pressed against the wall, so Eugeo followed his lead and backed against a nearby pillar. They held their breath and listened intently for any presence in the dim chamber.

  If the former pontifex was correct, those doors on the left would lead to the armory. For being so important, however, the chamber was silent and appeared empty. Even the light of Solus coming down from the stairs on the right seemed chilly and gray.

  “…Looks like there’s no one here…,” he whispered to Kirito, who seemed a bit surprised.

  “It’s an armory, so you’d figure there would at least be a soldier or two on guard…but I guess nobody’s going to sneak into the Axiom Church to steal weapons, anyway…”

  “Still, they know we’re here, right? They don’t seem too concerned.”

  “They probably aren’t. They figure they don’t need to bother searching around for us. So the next time we run across an Integrity Knight, it’ll either be a whole bunch of them or a really tough individual. Let’s make the most of our leeway, then,” Kirito said, finishing with a snort. He darted out from the shadow of the wall, and Eugeo followed him across the empty room.

  The doors of the armory, carved with reliefs of the goddesses Solus and Terraria, were so imposing and stately that even without a keyhole, it almost seemed to suggest that they would not open to anyone who wasn’t pure of faith. Kirito put an ear to one of the doors and yanked on the handles. They opened with almost disappointing ease—there wasn’t even the squeak of a hinge.