BERCOULI THE INTEGRITY KNIGHT COMMANDER, MAY 380 HE
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It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten what being alone is like, Eugeo thought as he climbed the long stairs.
Since that summer day eight years ago when he’d watched as Alice was chained to a dragon’s leg and taken away, Eugeo had lived a life consumed by swinging his ax in the woods, with his eyes, ears, and heart effectively closed off from the world. Everyone in the village, including his family, refused to discuss the Integrity Knight’s arrest of the village elder’s daughter, as though even acknowledging it was a taboo of its own. In fact, they’d even begun to shun Eugeo for having been close to her in the first place.
But just as the villagers avoided him, so did Eugeo avoid others, as well as his own memories of the incident. Unable to admit his weakness and cowardice, he descended into the murky swamp of resignation, hoping to ignore both his past and future.
But then, two years ago, a boy who wandered into the forest without a single possession to his name had found Eugeo and dragged him out of that bottomless swamp. They defeated a band of goblins together and cut down the Gigas Cedar, and the boy helped give Eugeo confidence and a purpose.
Throughout the journey from Rulid, through the town of Zakkaria, and at last to Centoria, where they trained at Swordcraft Academy, Kirito had always been at his side. They had even made their way into the Axiom Church’s Central Cathedral—though not the way they had originally planned—and had overcome numerous obstacles to reach high into the tower. It was all because Eugeo’s black-haired partner was there, guiding and encouraging him.
But just before they were going to reach the final floor, Kirito had vanished. In the midst of a terrible battle against Alice Synthesis Thirty, an Integrity Knight created by implanting false memories into his childhood friend, Alice Zuberg, Kirito and Alice’s Perfect Weapon Control arts intertwined abnormally, blowing a hole in an exterior wall.
The two combatants were instantly sucked outside, and the hole repaired itself soon after. Eugeo did everything he could to punch another hole in the wall, but nothing his Blue Rose Sword or his most powerful flame-based attack arts could do would affect the marble.
Most likely the walls were under a permanent kind of self-repairing art. As far as Eugeo knew, that would be an enormously high-level skill, the first line of which he couldn’t even imagine. So even if he managed to damage the wall at great pains, it would seal itself back up just as quickly. The only reason that hole had opened in the first place must have been because the power created by the mixture of Kirito’s and Alice’s arts had surpassed anything the caster of the wall-enhancing spell could have imagined.
On the other hand, if they had enough power to create the hole, they would surely find a way to survive being sucked through the wall. In particular, Kirito’s transcendent ability to react to sudden circumstances was surely greater than even the Integrity Knights’. He would find a way to stop their fall. He was probably climbing that wall from the outside even now. And that meant Alice was, too.
In her current state, Alice was a steadfast protector of the Axiom Church, so it was hard to imagine her helping Kirito, but if he could climb the wall, she would at least follow. If Eugeo could meet up with him above, they’d have another chance to use the dagger Cardinal had given them.
With that thought in mind, Eugeo passed through the door on the south end of the Cloudtop Garden, the eightieth floor of the cathedral, and proceeded up the stairs. He had to fight off the feeling of loneliness and futility that crept up on him once he was alone.
He started off slow and cautious, ready for an attack at any moment, but there was no sign of anyone else on the eighty-first or eighty-second floors. To get to that point, they’d defeated nine knights in total: Eldrie with his Frostscale Whip, Deusolbert with his Conflagration Bow, the apprentices Fizel and Linel, Fanatio of the Heaven-Piercing Blade, and the Four Whirling Blades who followed her. But there was still the commander of the knights and someone called the prime senator left to deal with, not to mention Administrator herself.
It didn’t seem likely that the pontifex, who was head of the Axiom Church and thus all of humanity, would appear directly, but the knights’ commander and prime senator surely wouldn’t allow him to get to the top of the tower undisturbed. So Eugeo focused all his energy as he went, Blue Rose Sword in hand. And yet, he couldn’t keep his mind from straying to other things.
What were Kirito and Alice doing now? Was she chasing him as he tried to climb the cathedral? Or were they still fighting, hanging off the side of the wall? Could Kirito’s unique charisma have actually caused the proud knight to stay her blade…?
Suddenly, Eugeo sensed an unfamiliar emotion welling in his heart. It made him recall the conflicted feeling he’d had a few hours ago, when he’d turned his blade on the fallen Integrity Knight Deusolbert.
When he’d realized that Deusolbert was the very man who had taken Alice away from Rulid all those years ago, hatred and rage had overtaken him, pushing Eugeo to end the knight once and for all. But Kirito had intervened, and Eugeo had felt a powerful sense of inferiority.
You wouldn’t have just stood there, he thought. You would have attacked that knight, consequences be damned, and found a way to save Alice.
Maybe Kirito’s strength and kindness would find a way into Alice’s heart. This Alice was an imposter, of course, her old memories stolen by Administrator. But Kirito had tried to save the lives of Deusolbert and even Fanatio, who had nearly killed him…so perhaps…
“No. That wouldn’t happen.”
He shook his head, forcing himself to dispel those thoughts. It was pointless to think about it. As long as he could get to the top floor and retrieve the memory fragment stored there and return it to Alice’s soul, her entire memory of being a knight would vanish. Then at last, the real Alice, the person he adored more than any other, would return.
When she awakened again, he would hold her tight and at last say, I’m going to keep you safe…forever. That moment would come soon, by tomorrow or perhaps even that night.
Now was the time to drive those thoughts away and focus on getting closer.