It almost certainly wasn’t Mihaya who had brought about this realization in Niko, but rather the silver corvus she’d met only six months ago. Equal parts sad and happy about this, Mihaya turned her ears toward her young Legion Master’s speech so as not to let a single word get away from her.
“So I want to stand my ground now. To be honest, the Acceleration Research Society and the White Legion scare the heck outta me. But they did Cherry in…So they’re my enemy, too. If I run away now and leave it all to the Negabu gang, I won’t have any right to call myself a king anymore. This time, for sure, I want to fight for the sake of the things I hafta protect. That’s why…I’m asking you, Pokki, Cassi. Help me.” Niko bowed deeply toward the two members of the Triplex.
A large ripple ran through fully regenerated fur, and Thistle took a deep breath before asking their Legion Master in a low voice, “And what is it that you ‘hafta protect,’ Rain?”
“Myself, my Promi comrades…and this Accelerated World itself,” Niko answered unwaveringly as she stood up straight once again.
Cassis shook his massive horns once. “The Black King has her sights set on level ten—on clearing the game Brain Burst. Your will to fight alongside her isn’t shaken even if the path she walks will lead to the end of the Accelerated World?”
“Yeah. That’s the thing she’s gotta protect and all. And I don’t think this world’ll suddenly vanish or anything just because one person makes it to level ten. I mean, we go up levels to win something, yeah? If this game was so sad you could clear it just by getting a bigger number, then we wouldn’t be so desperate like this, laughing and crying and whatnot. Even if someone does make level ten and meet the developer or whoever, they’ll just get a new quest or mission or something, and that’ll be the end of it,” Niko declared.
Mihaya had also started to feel the same way, with apologies to the Black King. But on the other hand, she wasn’t quite firm enough in that feeling to state that Brain Burst level ten was a mere number. Because, among all the levels, it was only level ten that couldn’t be reached by earning some particular number of Burst Points. Only a player who had driven five other level niners to total point loss and walked that blood-soaked path could reach the unknown land of level ten.
Niko called this conquering path of personal supremacy the Black King was on “something to protect.” She must have seen something of her own self inside the Black King. They differed in that one had guns and the other, swords, but both duel avatars hurt everyone and everything that came near them, and both had been born with the ability to keep others at a distance. They were also both trying to face this power—the manifestation of their own mental scars—head-on and accept it. They wanted to transform their scars into strength—the darkness into the light.
“So like…even if the time comes when I gotta fight Lotus someday…” As Niko looked at the silent members of the Triplex in turn, her eye lenses shone with a powerful light. “Even if one of us ends up at total point loss, I’ll accept that fate. I mean, I’m the one who chose to go up to level nine even though I knew about the sudden-death rule, y’know? …I sought power ’cause I wanted to protect the world around me. So I want to see that decision through, right to the end. And to protect the things I wanna protect, right now that means I hafta join forces with Lotus and fight the White Legion.”
For a while, neither Thistle nor Cassis said anything. Thistle’s fur flew up on end briefly before falling back down, soft against her back, a cool breeze making it ripple and wave.
The thistle-colored duel avatar stared up at the swirling black clouds and slowly nodded. “I guess if you’re ready to go that far, Rain, we got no choice but to stick with you right up to the end. Lemme talk to Blaze and them old-timers. I’m pretty sure they’ll get on board if we sit down and hash it out.” Her voice held equal parts concern over an uncertain future, fear of a powerful enemy, and the resolve possessed only by one who has chosen to fight.
Cassis Moose also assented, his nod making his heavy armor clank. “I thought it would come at some point…the time to leave the territory and fight. It’s in an unexpected form, but I will also follow our Legion Master’s will.”
Hearing their declarations, Niko nodded firmly in return and thrust a clenched fist out in front of her. “Thanks, Pokki, Cassi…and Pard. No matter how things change from here on out, I promise you this, at least: I’m definitely not running away. Up against the White King or the Armor of Catastrophe, Mark II, or whoever, I’m never freakin’ out or steppin’ back. I’m gonna fight with everything I got right up until the end.”
Thistle and Cassis approached her wordlessly and bumped Niko’s small fist with their own clenched hands.
You’ve gotten stronger, huh, Niko? Mihaya murmured internally, touching her own fist to the others.
A small gap in the black clouds of the Thunder stage opened up, and the light that poured down through it made their four fists glitter and shine like rising flames.
5
Waking up in the living room of the Arita house in the real world, Haruyuki had no sooner opened his eyes than he was lifting his hand to access the settings screen of his home network.
A moment later, he did a mental conversion of Accelerated World time into real-world time. Graphite Edge had said to change the automatic disconnection safety activation to ten UNF hours later, so the number he should enter into the setting window was a thousandth of ten hours—so then, six hundred minutes equals thirty-six thousand seconds, divided by a thousand—thirty-six seconds…
He managed the calculation in an instant and was about to type the numbers into the screen when a pale hand stretched out abruptly from beside him and grabbed hold of his wrist.
“Fwaah?!” he cried as he looked to his side and found a small face a mere ten centimeters away from his.
Fuko Kurasaki normally wore a gentle smile, but at the moment, her face looked tense somehow, and Haruyuki held his breath. But before he could say anything, Fuko brought her forehead to his and murmured, “Corvus, give me courage.”
“Huh?” Haruyuki didn’t understand what she meant, but he reflexively squeezed her hand firmly anyway. Instantly, a deep shudder came to him through the parts of their bodies that were touching. It was only after that that he heard her voice more firmly:
“Thank you. Shall we go?”
“S-sure.”
The way Fuko was acting was indeed concerning, but he didn’t have the time to be bewildered. With each second that passed on this side, sixteen minutes and forty seconds went by in the Unlimited Neutral Field. Once he finished changing the automatic disconnection settings, they nodded at each other and chanted the command in unison, “Unlimited Burst.”
Together with the sound of acceleration, his field of view went dark, and the warmth of Fuko’s body disappeared, along with the smell of her shampoo. What he felt in their place was a cloak of cold air and the crisp scent of wood.
When he opened his eyes, head still hanging, the feet of Silver Crow, wrapped in their silver armor, were braced on a white, natural-wood floor. Apparently, the Change had come while they were in the real world.
“A…Heian stage maybe…” He lifted his head and looked around.
Naturally, he was still in the same location as he was before the automatic disconnection, the small room in front of the Shrine of the Eight Divines in the deepest level of the Castle. But he could see only Sky Raker a little ways off; the master-student duo of Graph and Lead were nowhere to be found.
He was curious about where they’d gone, but since Fuko’s appearance before they accelerated still bothered him, he walked over to Raker and asked timidly, “Um, Master? Is something the matter?”
Fuko lifted her hanging face mask and shook her head. “I’m sorry for saying something so strange out of the blue like that, Corvus. I was just a little…scared.”
“Scared? …You?” Haruyuki was stunned.
“Yes.” Fuko nodded, setting her fluid metal hair in motio
n. “I…I have an obligation to tell Sacchi everything we learn today. But…what if what Graph tells us is something that will bring her not hope but despair? What if it’s something that will crush the desire she’s kept with her all this time, for so many years, the yearning to see the end of the Accelerated World? When that thought struck me, I was suddenly seized with fear.”
Haruyuki gasped beneath his goggles. The reason he had taken on the challenge of breaking into the Castle again today in secret from Kuroyukihime was to investigate the seventh Arc, The Fluctuating Light. He wanted to get information on it—the item Metatron had declared to be the reason for the existence of Brain Burst—and tell Kuroyukihime about the possibility of another path.
He had simply assumed it was nothing but unexpected good fortune when they ran into not only Trilead Tetroxide but also Graphite Edge after slipping through Suzaku’s ferocious attack to arrive in the Castle, because Graph probably had more detailed knowledge than Lead about the Castle—and about Brain Burst itself.
But it was true there were no guarantees that the information Graph disclosed to them would be what Haruyuki had been hoping for. Graph might declare that TFL was not a condition for clearing Brain Burst. Or that even if it was, reaching it was utterly impossible.
Haruyuki shifted his gaze to the far wall. The entrance to the Shrine of the Eight Divines had been a temple-like arch blocked by a silver fence in the Moonlight stage, but now in the Heian stage, it had transformed into crimson torii gates closed off by a snowy-white sacred rope. In the deep darkness beyond it, he could see the hazy pulse of the golden light on the pedestal.
It was, at most, only a hundred meters from the sacred rope to the pedestal. But in practical terms, that distance was infinite. He could barely just evade Suzaku, a single God, so he was convinced he’d never be able to cross those hundred meters, guarded as they were by eight super-class Enemies with God powers.
Fuko also stared at the golden light from his side. “I wonder what Sacchi would do if she were here, hmm?” she murmured softly.
He thought for a bit and then answered, “Knowing Kuroyukihime, I feel like she would try charging in there to see what would happen.”
“You and Pile would do everything in your power to stop her, though.” Chuckling, Fuko touched the thick sacred rope and then took a step back. “I’m sorry for my sudden weakness, Corvus. I’m all right now. No matter what Graph tells us, Sacchi would never give up or despair as easily as that. My duty is to cut down any obstacles ahead of her and fly—whatever sky might await us.”
“Um.” Haruyuki also moved away from the sacred rope and touched her arm gently. “I-I’ll fly, too. With you, Master…for Kuroyukihime’s sake.”
“Thank you, Corvus.” Smiling gently, Fuko looked around the small room. “Still…I wonder where Graph and Lead went off to.”
“Yeah. We were in the real world for about fifteen seconds, so only a little over four hours should have passed here, but…”
“You’ve gotten faster at accelerated calculations, hmm?”
He shrank at the unexpected praise and then had a sudden realization. “Oh! R-right. Please wait a moment…” He focused his mind and started to call the master of the underground labyrinth in distant Shiba Park. As the link was established, a 3-D icon terminal appeared on his shoulder and bobbed gently.
“That took quite a lot of time, servant.” The Archangel Metatron sounded peeved.
“Sorry.” Haruyuki hurried to apologize. “I’m sorry for making you wait, Metatron. And also…do you know where Graph and Lead went?”
“Listen to me, servant. In this state, the instant the link with you is severed, all sensory information is also interrupted. Which is to say, there is no reason why I would know.”
“R-right. Hmm…Maybe they went to have dinner or something…” A place on the level of the Castle would maybe have a super-luxurious restaurant-type shop somewhere, he wondered, casting his eyes around the room again.
Then he heard the thunder of one heavy impact after another from high above and looked over at Fuko. She nodded at him, and they started to run. They leapt onto the staircase opposite the sacred rope and raced up the stairs two at a time.
What they saw when they entered the Hall of the Arc half a minute later was the entirely unexpected sight of a gray-armored warrior over four meters tall swinging its sword against a young sky-blue samurai a third its size in the center of the hall. The bigger one was most likely one of the Castle’s guard Enemies, while the smaller was without a doubt Trilead Tetroxide.
With his slender straight sword, Lead caught the blade of the warrior Enemy, which looked like it could sever even stone. Snowy-white sparks jetted out from where their blades made contact, illuminating the gloomy hall. Lead had managed to brace himself for the present moment, but the difference in power and weight was clear. At some point, the equilibrium would crumble, and Lead would be struck with a fatal blow.
“Wh-wh-wh—? Sh-sh-sh—,” Haruyuki stammered hoarsely. What is going on?! Should we do something?!
“Oh!” A black shadow passed by the pedestal where the Arc Destiny had once been safely enshrined. “Rekka! Crow! You’re back!”
“This is not a ‘you’re back’ situation, Graph!” Fuko returned sharply, pressing in on the man. “Why is this happening?! You have to hurry and help him!”
“Nah, don’t panic.” Graph raised his hands to hold her off and continued lazily, “So like, the Change happened while we were waiting for you guys to get back. Both Lead and I haven’t had a Heian stage for a while, so I figured we’d double-check the route home and clean up some Enemies while we were at it.”
“Then why are you making Trilead do it by himself?!” Fuko scolded. “It’s dangerous!”
“It’s fine; he’s fine. He gets the job done when it needs to be done. I mean, he’s my student—,” Graph started, but he was interrupted by Lead.
“I-I’m sorry, Master.” His voice was pained as he continued to push back against the Enemy blade. “It’s getting a little difficult.”
“Oh-ho! Well, that is like the third or fourth one. Hmm…Okay then…” Cocking his head slightly to one side, Graphite Edge raised a hand and snapped a finger at Haruyuki. “Sorry, Crow. Get in there and help Trilead.”
“Wh-whaaat?! Me?!”
“Yup. Oh, but no Incarnate techniques.”
“Um…Okay…But…Uh…” Stunned, he alternated between looking at Graph and Lead, but the situation did not change. In fact, Lead’s straight sword was gradually being pushed back. He wouldn’t be able to hang on forever.
I don’t even know what’s going on, but I have to get in there, I guess!
He shelved his myriad doubts and took a deep breath before starting to run across the white wood floor. For a fleeting instant, he took some bit of courage from Fuko’s cheer of “You can do it, Corvuuuus!” that chased him from behind, but then the cold voice of Metatron echoed in his ear:
“Servant, that Being’s weapon has a relatively high priority. Your thin armor will not be able to completely defend against it.”
“Ee—”
“Your attack will have to be entirely composed of evasion. Well, if I am so inclined, I shall warn you in advance.”
“…P-please do.” He groaned in reply and stared straight ahead.
Trilead had his back turned to him, but he had to have noticed Haruyuki’s approach. However, it was all he could do to hold off the Enemy’s large sword; he couldn’t move from that position. Haruyuki had to first strike the Enemy to get it to change targets. Fortunately, his health gauge was in fine condition after he’d spent the ten points to re-log in.
“Lead!!” Haruyuki cried, kicking at the floor to jump. He flew over Trilead from behind, and once he had bounded close to the Enemy’s face, he beat down with a right straight with the whole weight of his body behind it squarely in the center of that terrifying mask. “Un…hyah!”
The feedback was fierce. The still-full health gau
ge displayed above the warrior’s head decreased the slightest amount. This seemed to be the first attack in practical terms, and the burning-red eyes of the warrior latched onto Haruyuki.
“Zoooooowaaaaan!” With a curious battle cry, it brandished its massive sword, at least two meters in length.
Released from its pressure, Trilead nimbly leapt backward, and Haruyuki used the slight charge in his special-attack gauge to deploy the wings on his back.
“Servant, from the right.”
The instant after Metatron’s voice echoed in his mind, the warrior brought down its massive blade and swung horizontally. Haruyuki had been thinking he would avoid a vertical strike to one side or the other, so if Metatron hadn’t warned him, he would have reacted too late.
“Shwah!” With a somewhat pathetic cry, he jumped into the air. The powerful horizontal slash passed directly below his feet, leaving a shimmering mirage in the air.
He got another blow in with his right foot as the Enemy was still swinging its sword, and with the reaction from that, he leapt backward and called out to Trilead as he landed, “It’s targeting me now; you watch for openings and attack!”
“Understood, Crow!”
It’d been a while since they’d fought together, but there was no hesitation in Lead’s response. The two kicked off the ground simultaneously, and Haruyuki went right while Trilead went left. Just as he’d expected, the Enemy chased after him, whirling its massive body around as it quickly brandished its fat blade.
“A series of attacks is coming, servant!” Metatron said from his shoulder, her voice slightly tense.
Haruyuki kept his field of view—which threatened to contract to the tip of the large blade—wide to take in the whole Enemy and waited.
“Zooooiii!” With a roar, the massive body began to move. From the flow of power and the change in its center of gravity, Haruyuki picked up the trajectory of the sword.
It’s true that one blow is ridiculously powerful…but in terms of technique, it’s not as sharp as Manganese Blade!
Pull of the Dark Nebula Page 6
