The bells somewhere in the cathedral tolled seven as he came to the end of the stairs. Eugeo counted each time he arrived at a flat landing; that number was now ten. That made this the ninetieth floor. He was approaching the heart of the Axiom Church’s power now.
There was no indication of any staircase continuing upward in the large entrance hall, just a single massive doorway on the north end. It suggested that, like the fiftieth and eightieth floors, the ninetieth would be one wide-open chamber. And within it, more powerful foes than anything he’d seen yet.
Can I really win? All on my own? he wondered, standing at the end of the hall. Fanatio had nearly killed Kirito, and Alice was even more powerful. How would he manage someone notably stronger than them?
Upon reflection, it had been Kirito alone who’d suffered the blows in those fights. All Eugeo did was hide behind him and activate his Perfect Weapon Control. Kirito claimed that was the smart thing to do, considering their respective strengths, but now he was gone, and it was up to Eugeo to do all the fighting himself.
He brushed the Blue Rose Sword at his left, feeling the texture of the hilt and guard. He’d be able to use Perfect Control one more time, but just wildly throwing it around wasn’t going to help him capture anyone with his ice vines. He needed to overpower his foe with swordplay alone and create an opportunity to use it.
“…Here goes,” he told the sword, then lifted a hand and pushed on the white door.
Instantly, he was greeted with bright light, thick smoke, and a continuous booming rumble. A sacred arts attack?! he wondered instantly, moving to leap out of the way…until he noticed that the pale substance billowing out of the doorway was not smoke but steam. It merely moistened his hands and sleeves. Through the swirling vapors, he identified what was happening inside the room.
As expected, this entire floor of the cathedral was dedicated to a single vast chamber, and countless lamps shone from its extremely high ceiling. The floor probably had some fancy name like the Corridor of Ghostly Light or Cloudtop Garden, but there was no way to know. The steam hung low to the ground, blocking Eugeo’s view, but the place seemed empty.
Eugeo took a few steps into the hall, trying to discern the steam’s source. He heard splashing water, and there was a distant rumble that was probably a large stream.
Just then, a draft of cold air from the door rushed through, pushing the wafting steam aside. There was a marble path about five mels wide farther into the chamber. On either side of the walkway the floor dropped, down a series of steps covered by clear water—and hot water, at that. It was at least a mel deep, too. If this entire chamber was full all the way around, he couldn’t even imagine how many lils of water it held.
“What…is…this room…?” He gasped.
The water temperature was too hot to support fish or other animals, and the humidity was too unpleasant for some kind of viewing garden. If anything, it would probably feel good to strip off his clothes and jump into the hot…
“Oh…w-wait a second…”
He knelt at the edge of the pathway and stuck his hand in the water. It was neither too hot nor too lukewarm—exactly the sort of thing that Kirito would describe as “just the right temp.”
It was an enormous megabath.
“…”
Eugeo exhaled, still on his knees. Back at his family home in Rulid, the bath was not much bigger than a simple water basin, and since he was the youngest, by the time it was his turn, the water was half-gone. The first time he saw the bathhouse at the academy dorm, he couldn’t believe it was possible to heat so much water at once.
But that was nothing compared to this place. You could fit all the students from Swordcraft Academy in here with plenty of room to spare. Though they wouldn’t allow the male and female students to bathe at the same time, of course…
Eugeo exhaled again and washed both hands, just because he could, being considerate enough not to bother with his face. He proceeded down the marble walkway toward the ascending staircase, which he expected would be on the other end of the room. Surely they wouldn’t attack him in a bath…
But this assumption delayed his recognition of what was ahead. In the center of the Great Bath chamber, the walkway bulged into a circle. And when he approached it, Eugeo at last noticed a shadow lurking in the water ahead and to his right.
“—?!”
He leaped back on instinct, putting a hand on his sword handle. The misty figure was large with short hair, suggesting that it was not a woman. He was submerged up to his shoulders, with all his limbs stretched out.
This pose indicated he was simply bathing, rather than waiting in ambush, but Eugeo couldn’t afford to be careless. Given the circumstances, the man was almost certainly an enemy. Perhaps it would be best to strike now, while he had the advantage of terrain.
He was about to slide his sword from its sheath when a deep, rusty voice said, “Sorry, you mind waiting first? Just got back to Centoria, and I’ve been on my dragon for ages. I’m all stiff.”
His manner of speaking was rougher than that of anyone they’d met in the cathedral, which surprised Eugeo. The man had a kind of informal simplicity—he was more reminiscent of a rural farmer than a knight.
Eugeo was frozen, unsure what to do. The water sloshed, parting the clouds of steam hovering over the bath. The owner of the voice had stood up, droplets pouring off his frame. He stood with his back to the intruder, hands on hips, rolling his head around on his neck and groaning. It looked totally careless, but even with his hand on his sword, Eugeo couldn’t take a step.
The man was huge. His knees were submerged in the bath, but even then, he was nearly two mels tall. His steely blue-gray hair was shorn short, revealing a shockingly thick neck connected to two very wide shoulders. His biceps were like logs built for swinging even the largest greatswords with ease.