“I don’t know…what I did to deserve that shabby treatment…,” I grumbled as I undid the chain and removed the cargo from my back, then leaned against a nearby pillar. The knight didn’t utter a word of thanks for my extreme physical labor; she was busy flapping her white skirt in an attempt to air it out. Once she finished, she felt the sleeve that had been pressed to the back of my neck the entire climb and glared at it suspiciously. Well, I wasn’t going to let this insult go without some banter of my own.
“If you’re that concerned, why don’t you go and take a bath, princess?” I said sarcastically, but fastidious Alice actually looked like she was taking the question seriously. “I’m just kidding!” I added. “There’s no way we’re going back down all that way.”
“That won’t be necessary, actually. There’s a Great Bath for the knights just five floors below us.”
“Wha…?”
Now it was my turn to look baffled. After escaping the underground prison, running through battle after battle, and completing this unplanned wall-climbing campaign, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want the chance to wash off the dust and sweat. It didn’t even have to be a bath, just a water pump—and then I looked around at last.
Like the name Morning Star Lookout suggested, the ninety-fifth floor was built to be one giant observation deck. The four edges of the tower had no walls here—which was why I was climbing up to it—just round pillars supporting the ceiling at ten-foot intervals. Given how open it was, I could now understand why Administrator placed those minion gargoyles along the walls below.
We were on the outermost part of the floor, which was a terrace with the occasional little set of stairs leading within. The interior was slightly elevated, with marble sculptures, verdant plants, and tastefully designed tables and chairs. I had no doubt that the wide-open view of the Underworld below would be breathtaking in daytime.
On the north end, a great set of stairs led to the adjacent floors. We were the only people in sight.
But had Eugeo passed through here yet or not?
Seven hours had passed since I was separated from him on the eightieth floor. I had to scramble for my life up a sheer wall and he had regular old stairs to use, so he should have gotten here much quicker.
But the problem was that he had to face a foe much stronger than the minions: Bercouli Synthesis One, commander of the Integrity Knights, a hero of legend stronger than Vice Commander Fanatio and Alice, both of whom had already fought me off without much trouble.
Eugeo was mighty, too, of course. In terms of sword skill, he had probably surpassed me already. But skill alone could not dispatch the superhuman Integrity Knights, especially the senior ones. It required taking advantage of the opponent’s mindset and utilizing anything you possibly could in the vicinity—a true “anything-goes” approach. Could earnest, straightforward Eugeo pull that off…?
Alice finished her own examination of the vicinity. “I say this with no relation to the issue of baths…but I must doubt that your friend Eugeo has come up this far yet.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because once we were thrown out of the cathedral, this floor became the only place we could get back inside. It’s really obvious from a glance…so if he had gotten here already, he would likely be waiting for you.”
“…I see. You’ve got a point,” I said, crossing my arms. If Eugeo had reached this floor before us, he’d have been either caught or killed by now. While I’d been doubting him just a moment ago, I also wanted to believe Eugeo was good enough not to end up with either of those fates.
“The other thing for Eugeo,” Alice said, clearly not realizing how naturally that name slipped out of her mouth, “is that if he came up the stairs from the Cloudtop Garden, he would run across our most powerful fighter before reaching the Morning Star Lookout. That would be Uncle…Commander Bercouli.”
Setting aside the use of the word uncle, I couldn’t help but be curious about something she said.
“Is he really that tough? This knights’ commander guy.”
Alice turned to me with a grin, part of her face still hidden by the makeshift bandage. “I have never once bested him in a practice duel. If you lost to me, and Eugeo is at your level, then by that logic, he will not win, either.”
“…Sure, by that logic. But if not for what happened, I may not have actually lost to you, either,” I grumbled.
The golden knight ignored me and continued, “Uncle’s skill with the blade is absolutely first-class, but his Perfect Weapon Control is simply divine. His Time-Splitting Sword, like the name suggests, is capable of piercing time itself. I suppose you would understand if I said that when he cuts the air, that slicing force remains suspended there for a time. Even if you avoid his strikes, eventually you will be trapped in a cage of blades that you cannot see. The slightest move might cost you a hand or a foot or, worse, your head—but if you don’t move, you are an easy target. Ultimately, any opponent of Uncle’s will be forced to stand in place and succumb to one of his greatest attacks like a practice dummy.”
“…The slices…remain suspended…”
It was hard to imagine from the way she described it, but it sounded like the chronological length of a swing was extended out into the future. If so, it was a frightful power indeed. It would totally override the strength of the Aincrad style, which was to reduce the strength of any single blow but make up for it by extending the range and time of our attacks with combos.
What would have happened to Eugeo against such a foe? I was certain he wouldn’t be dead, but a chilling foreboding crept up my spine. Perhaps we ought to head down in search of my partner after all. But what if he’d already been captured and taken to Administrator’s chamber on the top floor? What if she was performing some dangerous sacred arts on him, with her knowledge of all the user commands…?
At last, the fatigue was starting to leave my legs, and I got to my feet, if unsteadily. I glared at the stairs on the north end of the floor and bit my lip. What I would give for a sacred art that could tell me Eugeo’s current location—but as a basic rule, no art could be cast on a human target that wasn’t present. If that were not the case, Administrator and Cardinal’s duel would have been over ages ago. But if the target were an object rather than a person, there were other options…
Only then did I realize that there was such an easy way to solve this problem.
“Of course…that’s right.”
I motioned to Alice, who was looking at me with suspicion, raised my right hand, and at a moderate volume announced, “System Call!”
My fingers glowed purple, a sign that the spatial resources were charged again after the exhausting climb up the wall. Careful to control my emotions, I enunciated the following commands: “Generate Umbra Element. Adhere Position. Object ID, DLSS703. Discharge.”
It was always good to memorize your vocabulary. Naturally, my search target was the unique ID of Eugeo’s Blue Rose Sword. From what I was able to guess, DLSS was probably an abbreviation for “Double-Edged Longsword Single-Hand,” while the string of numbers was the identification for that particular sword within that category. My black sword’s ID was DLSS102382, which suggested that when the Blue Rose Sword was generated in the early days of the Underworld, there were only about seven hundred one-handed longswords at the time, but by the time my sword was crafted just two years ago, there were over a hundred thousand. At least, if my deduction was correct…
The little darkness element floated steadily downward until it landed on the ground a short distance away and burst.
“…It’s below.”
“So it would seem,” Alice noted with mild interest.
I clutched and released my fist a few times, sensing that some of my fatigued life was back, but I knew that Alice had suffered more damage. I glanced her way and asked, “Do you think you can heal your eye…?”
She put her fingers to the strip of cloth that had previously been part of my shirt and asked, “Did…you do this?”
“Yeah…It managed to stop the bleeding, but that was the best I could do with my sacred arts. I thought maybe you…”
“Of course. My sacred arts authority is far beyond yours,” she snipped in her usual manner. Her visible eye turned to the sky to stare at the full moon. “But there is not enough sacred power in the air to generate the light elements needed to restore my lost eye. It will not be possible until Solus rises.”
“Then perhaps if you converted one of your high-priority obj—I mean, one of your precious valuables into power…Your armor, perhaps…”
“Even the art to return a receptacle into its basic sacred power requires more than a small amount of power to begin with. Didn’t you learn that at the academy?” she said with exasperation, then thought it over. “I do still feel the pain, and my vision on the right side is limited, but neither is enough to prevent me from fighting. I shall be able to continue in this state for now.”
“B-but…”
“More importantly, I want to feel. I want to feel the evidence of my intention to fight against the Axiom Church I’ve believed in for so long…”
In that sense, I couldn’t argue. This fight was as much about Alice creating her own destiny as it was about mine.
“All right…if it comes to combat, I’ll protect your right,” I said, eyeing the main staircase. “We’ve got to hurry, though. Based on the movement of that darkness element, Eugeo’s got to be pretty far down from here.”
Technically, my search spell was for the location of Eugeo’s sword, not Eugeo, but he wouldn’t let go of it unless something very bad happened.
Alice looked to the stairs as well and announced, “I’ll take the lead—I know the way. Then again…we’re only going down the stairs.” And without allowing me any chance to interject, she strode toward them, boots clicking. I hurried to keep up.
Cool air flowed up from the descending stairs at the north end of the floor, and I couldn’t sense anyone in the darkness below. Even on the lower floors, there was very little sense of activity; up here at the top, Central Cathedral was simply cold and dead, like a series of lavish, beautiful ruins. It was hard to think of this as the center of power for the organization that oversaw the entire human world.
There was supposedly a senate in addition to the Integrity Knighthood among the upper echelon of the Axiom Church. It seemed strange that I’d ascended so high in the tower yet had not seen a single one.