He bit his lip. In the fight against Deusolbert, and again versus Fanatio, it had been Kirito who suffered all the bloodletting. And this mad rebellion against the Axiom Church had all stemmed from Eugeo’s own personal desire in the first place.
“…Sorry,” he muttered, feeling abashed.
“You don’t have to apologize,” said Kirito, sounding more normal now. “I’ll give it back to you double…But, that aside…”
“…? What is it?”
“Well…based on what I can see from here, she doesn’t seem to be armed. Plus…who was she talking about…?”
Eugeo focused on Alice again, sitting atop the hill. She had closed her eyes and put her head down again, but sure enough, that golden whip from their encounter at Swordcraft Academy was nowhere to be seen.
“Maybe she’s on break and left her sword somewhere else…Boy, wouldn’t that be helpful,” Eugeo hoped, without any audible conviction.
Kirito brushed the hilt of his black sword. “I feel bad, but we can’t wait for her to stop napping in the sun. If we attack now, whether she has her sword or not, she won’t have time to cast her Perfect Weapon Control. If there’s one thing we need above all else, it’s to prevent that from happening.”
“Good point…My Perfect Control doesn’t use up too much of the sword’s life, so I think I can use it two more times today…”
“That’d be great. But one more’s the limit for me. And we should have this knight’s commander after Alice, too. Anyway…here goes.”
Kirito signaled to him, then took a step forward. Eugeo summoned his courage and followed.
They stepped off the brick path, which wound around the hill, and headed straight for the top. Their boots rustled the grass. When they were halfway up the slope, Alice stood. Through half-open lids, her emotionless, icy gaze met them.
Instantly, as though her vision itself could cast sacred arts, Eugeo felt his legs turn to lead. Despite the lack of any weapon, Eugeo’s legs seemed to be refusing to get any closer to Alice. Was that one bash to the cheek enough for his body to have learned its own subconscious lesson? Yet it seemed like Kirito’s pace was losing steam up ahead, too.
“…So you have come all this way up at last,” Alice’s crystal-clear voice rang out. “I made the decision that even if you should somehow escape your cells, Eldrie would be enough to stop you cold in the rose garden. Yet you defeated him, and then Deusolbert with his divine weapon, and even Fanatio, before setting foot in the Cloudtop Garden.”
Her arched brows darkened. There was a faint note of mourning from her cherry lips. “What in the world is giving you your power? Why do you seek to unravel the tranquility of our realm? Why do you not understand that for every Integrity Knight you harm, a major weapon against the forces of darkness is lost?”
It’s for you. That’s all this is, Eugeo thought. But he knew that this statement would mean nothing to the Alice facing him now. He clenched his teeth and put all his concentration into moving forward.
“I suppose I shall only have my answers by the blade. Very well…if that is what you seek,” she relented, placing her hand on the trunk of the tree.
But she has no blade, Eugeo protested, right as Kirito mumbled, “No way—”
There was a flash of light, and the little tree sitting atop the hill vanished.
“?!”
A moment later, there was a rush of thick, sweet fragrance, and then it was totally gone.
In Alice’s right hand was now a familiar longsword. A weapon made entirely of shining gold, from blade to hilt to sheath. A cross-shaped pattern of flowers decorated the hilt.
Right in that moment, Eugeo didn’t understand what had happened.
The tree vanished, and the sword appeared. Did the tree change into the sword? But Alice did not give any commands. Whether it was a simple illusion or some kind of ultra-high-level matter-conversion art, it should have been impossible without a verbal command.
But…not unless the tree changed its form based on only Alice’s thoughts, making it…
Kirito reached the conclusion a split second before Eugeo did. He snapped, “Dammit, that’s not good…Her sword might already be in Perfect Control mode!”
Alice stared down at the stunned boys, holding her sword flat with both hands. She drew it crisply, the blade a deeper golden yellow than the sheath, gleaming as it reflected the light of Solus.
In an instant, Kirito was rushing forward. Whatever power it was that Alice’s sword held, he was determined to force close combat before she could utilize her Perfect Control over it. He tore up the hill, blades of grass flying, and crossed nearly the entire distance within ten steps.
Eugeo tried his hardest to follow after his partner, still clutching the chain around his neck. Kirito wasn’t going to draw his weapon. Like he said, he was going to block Alice’s first attack with his body, which would give them just a tiny amount of time to hold her back. It was absolutely imperative that Eugeo take advantage of that window to hit her with the dagger.
Nothing in Alice’s expression changed with the black swordsman charging up at her. She calmly, almost carelessly, pulled her sword back.
Kirito wasn’t yet within sword range. Was it a ranged attack, like Deusolbert’s and Fanatio’s? If so, she might stop Kirito at a distance, but it would still leave Eugeo with enough time to get in close with the dagger.
Eugeo peeled off from Kirito and kept running at a different angle.
Alice’s right hand swung forward—and the golden blade disappeared.
“?!”
It did not actually disappear. It was more like a disintegration. The sword split into hundreds, thousands of pieces that hurtled at Kirito like a golden storm.
“Aaagh!!”
Kirito was knocked clean off his feet by the shining swarm. Eugeo gritted his teeth and raced onward, determined to make use of the momentary diversion his partner created.
But the golden wind did not stop there. With a sound like rustling leaves, it abruptly darted left in midair to engulf Eugeo next.
The force was irresistible. It felt like a giant swatting him with the palm of its hand, knocking him over on his right side.
Each individual fragment, less than a cen in length, was tremendously heavy. Eugeo instinctually covered his face with his left arm as he landed on the grass and felt a searing pain there. It was all he could do not to scream and roll around in agony.
The swarm of gold pieces, having easily stopped them, flew back to Alice’s side, where they hovered around the knight rather than returning to sword form.
In fact, on closer examination, all of the shards were cross-shaped combinations of even smaller diamond-shaped pieces. It was the same as the design on the hilt of the sword—the shape of the flowers from the tree.
“Are you mocking me? Why else would you run for me without drawing your weapons?” she asked, still without the slightest hint of emotion. “I held back on that attack, as a warning. The next time, I will eliminate your life. Use all the power you possess, for the honor of those knights you already defeated.”