SAO 15 - Alicization Invading

by Reki Kawahara

  Not the five Demihuman generals. Passing over the Giant, Ogre, and Orc, even the shorter Goblins were unlikely to have dodged the eyes and ears of the guards and infiltrated the top floor.

  If he considered the four Human generals, he could first exclude the young leader of the Fighters, Iskahn, and the leader of the Commerce and Industry Guild, Lengil. Iskahn was just a straightforward boy who purely aimed at improving his empty-handed combat to the maximum, and Lengil would love to make a lot of money out of the war.

  Since the attacker had infiltrated the bedroom, the leader of the Assassin Guild, Fer Za, was the most suspicious, and he actually had a few hints for what that man was thinking, but it was puzzling that a short knife was used.

  In the inner depths of dark caves, the Assassin Guild specially researched the third power apart from Dark Sorcery and Martial Arts: [Poison]. The race of Fer Za was an organization formed to survive, by those who were not gifted on Priority when it came to controlling weapons and spells. They had a unique restriction: their only allowed weapons were hidden needles and blow darts coated with poison. Short knives were not included.

  In the same reasoning, the leader of the Dark Sorcerers kneeling right beside Shasta, D.I.L., would be out of the consideration. This woman with only desire for status, although she could have considered taking and raising high the Emperor’s head, becoming the dominator of the Land of Darkness, the Sorcerers under D would have used spells instead of a short knife.

  Looking at it like that, the one who sent the assassin was not any one of the nine generals.

  The one left — could only be himself, the Dark Knight Commander Shasta.

  However, he had not the slightest memory of doing that. He had already decided, when he was going to eliminate the Emperor, he would swing his sword with his own life on the line. Of course he didn’t give an assassination order to any of his men, or even the decision that he had kept secret, not once—

  No.

  No…

  Could it be?

  After the Emperor finished his words, Shasta thought only for the blink of an eye, and noticed that his left finger on his sword grip had instantly become ice cold.

  What was originally sharp, surging determination instantly transformed. Fear. Anxiety. Terror. Then — it became a certainty of impending misfortune.

  Almost at the same time, Emperor Vector opened his mouth a second time:

  “I don’t want to question right now, regarding the name of the one who sent the assassin. Souls that use their own power in a desire to obtain more power are excellent. If you want my head, cut me whenever my back is turned.”

  The Emperor looked arrogantly at the bustling hall, and for the first time, an emotion floated onto his white face — a shallow, light smile.

  “Of course, I hope that you all understand that this kind of gamble carries with it an equal price. For example… like this.”

  From within his dark robes, a hand extended and made a soft gesture.

  Then, set besides the throne, a small door on the wall east of Shasta opened soundlessly, and a servant girl shuffled in. She held a large silver bowl in her hands: inside was a cube-shaped object, but it was obscured with a black cloth, so it couldn’t be seen in detail.

  The servant girl set the silver bowl in front of the throne, bowed her head respectfully to the Emperor, and exited through the door.

  In the deafening silence, the Emperor wore a crooked smile, extended a toe, placed it against the cloth covering the bowl, and kicked it off.

  Shasta, whose entire body, even his thoughts, were frozen, caught sight of —

  An ice cube, as transparent as the most perfect crystal.

  Sealed inside, was the forever sleeping face of his lover.

  “Li…pi…”

  Shasta’s lips moved soundlessly.

  The coldness that enveloped his entire body disappeared, and was replaced with endlessly deep, dark emptiness in his heart.

  Shasta knew that Dark Knight Lipia Zankehl was secretly running an orphanage. No matter the races, she sheltered and educated children who had lost their parents, siblings, and were about to die on the street. Shasta saw a hopeful future in Lipia’s actions.

  Therefore, Shasta only told Lipia his own ideals. An endless dream in which the long-term state of war with the Human World would be broken, and a mutually supportive world in which there would be no need for constant snatching and seizing would be created.

  But, his own words had driven Lipia to attempt to assassinate the Emperor, and ended in this grievous result. Although it was the Emperor who killed her — Shasta also had a hand in it.

  Doubtlessly.

  Although it was only for a blink of an eye, a storm of insurmountable guilt and remorse raged in Shasta’s empty-feeling chest.

  Instantly, it became a black chunk of emotion.

  Murderous intent.

  Kill. He must kill that lightly smiling man sitting cross-legged on the throne, no matter what.

  Even if he needed to put his own life, and the future of the Dark Territory on the line.

  ***

  Now, who is that suspicious [Your Excellency]?

  Gabriel watched the ten prostrated Leader Units under his eyes with a little bit of interest.

  The master of the assassin woman whom she so loved. Gabriel had sucked dry all traces of the emotions that tasted of heavenly nectar, that had been released during the woman’s death: not just the yearning of the woman, he even understood the feelings that [Your Excellency] had for the woman herself — although he just analyzed the emotional patterns as data.

  Therefore, he was confident that when he showed the woman’s head, the one called Your Excellency would definitely take action. He would mercilessly execute the opposing, rebellious Unit, and increase the loyalty of the rest of the Units through fear. No different from the simulation games he had played to kill time in the real world.

  What a bunch of pitiful and happy people.

  Although they have real souls, their intelligence is limited, and can be reproduced as much as one wants even if they are killed and killed again. There will eventually be a day, when the Underworld, its Mainframe, and the Light Cubes are mine, the hunger that has so pained me ever since I was young will be quenched.

  Leaning his face against his wrist supported by the throne armrest, Gabriel waited, relaxed.

  He was a little more than 15 meters from the Units. No matter what attack from any weapon, he could easily counter it with the sword equipped on his left waist.

  Of course, he would be unable to deal with a [System Call] prefixed command attack. But Gabriel’s anxiety had already been wiped clean before they logged in.

  The super account «God of Darkness Vector» was set up for RATH workers to undertake forced operations to the Dark Territory. Therefore, the HP called Life would be massive, the equipped sword would be the strongest; and on top of all, Vector possessed a cheating attribute to prevent all commands targeting him.

  As Gabriel was protected under so many conditions, even as the leftmost Knight out of the ten Units, clad in jet-black armor, bent his back violently.

  Even as his entire body was covered with a halo like a light shadow.

  Even as he saw the Knight’s left hand gripping his sword’s scabbard as fast as lightning, flicking up his head at the same time, sharp eyes flashing an inhuman crimson from the middle of his iron face—

  He did not fully understood what had happened sequentially as he failed to realize the two facts below:

  This world, was not only a program executed by a physical server, but also a «Real Dream» that was built with the same photons which human Fluctlights were made out of.

  And, because of this, the pure and intense murderous intent created by the Knight in black, from his Light Cube to the Main Visualizer, and through the photon communication circuit, could reach the STL Gabriel was using.

  ***

  In the middle of Shasta’s blood-red vision, he could o
nly see the Emperor’s figure.

  With the fastest movement he had ever made in his life, he drew his sword with his right hand.

  What released from its scabbard was the Divine Instrument he had inherited from his mentor, the longsword «Hazy Mist», but not in its normal form of a gray blade. True to its name, a thick mist like a night haze encircled the long blade, winding into a vortex.

  The logic behind this phenomenon, was the same as the ultimate ability of the Integrity Knights that was indiscernible even under long years of research — the Armament Full Control Art, but all of that seemed insignificant.

  “KILL!!”

  With an instantaneous scream, Shasta put all rage, hatred, and grief onto his blade, and heavily swung it over his headDetermination. Loyalty. The feeling deep within was…

  Ah, so it’s like that.

  If that was the case, then there was no more need for this woman. To be precise, there was no more need for this woman’s Fluctlight.

  Gabriel complied with his own decision, and without another word, applied force to his left hand, which grasped the woman’s throat.

  He felt bones being crushed. The woman’s eyes widened, and her mouth let out a silent scream.

  Tightly restraining her struggling limbs, mercilessly tightening his grip around her neck, Gabriel felt a surprise unlike what he felt before.

  Was this really a virtual world? No matter if it was the feeling of muscle and bone breaking that was felt by his left hand, or the frightening, painful smell that came from the bare skin, they all stimulated Gabriel’s five senses much more realistically than the real world.

  His body trembled unconsciously, and his left hand reflexively closed.

  With a muffled crunch, the cervical vertebrae of the unnamed woman were crushed.

  Then, Gabriel saw it.

  From the forehead of the woman with eyes tightly closed and teeth clenched — floated a prismatic glow.

  This, definitely was it — the Soul Cloud once he had seen when he took away Alicia’s life.

  In an instant, Gabriel opened his mouth wide, and sucked in every trace of the woman’s soul.

  The bitterness of fear, pain.

  The sourness of regret and melancholy.

  Following these, Gabriel’s tongue was soaked in the heavenly sweet nectar that could not be described with words.

  Behind his closed eyelids, a hazy scene was shining.

  Small children were playing in the front yard of an old two-story home. There were Humans, Goblins, and Ogres. As they looked over, bright smiles appeared on their faces, and they came running, arms wide open.

  That vision vanished, and was replaced with a certain topless man. A wide, thoroughly exercised chest, tenderly, powerfully embracing her.

  “I…love you… Your Excellency…”

  A tiny voice came, reverberated, and faded away.

  After all had disappeared, Gabriel still tightly hugged the woman’s body.

  Beautiful. How beautiful of an experience.

  Gabriel’s consciousness was largely shaken in ecstasy, but shards of logic attempted to find out the reason for this phenomenon.

  The Light Cube that held this deceased woman’s Fluctlight was connected with Gabriel’s Fluctlight through the STL. Therefore, after her Life, or Hit Points became zero, fragments of her released quantum data could abnormally flow to Gabriel through the network.

  But, that kind of theory already mattered nothing to Gabriel.

  He experienced once more the [phenomenon] that he had been chasing for his entire life. Gabriel extracted and tasted all traces of the woman’s last emotion — [love]. That was like a drop of nectar falling into a stark desert.

  More.

  More.

  More slaughter.

  Gabriel’s body threw back in a wide arc, and he let out a wordless guffaw.

  ***

  Ordering the ten generals and the core members of each legion to line up neatly again, Gabriel watched them with a satisfied look as they respectfully bowed down.

  Under his orders, they had completed preparations for the attack in two days. By the looks of it, maybe these Units were even more excellent than the fellows sitting on the floor of directors in GlowGen DS.

  Really, they should just be classified as [finished products]. The perfect ability to carry out orders, with added loyalty. As AIs piloting robots in war, what else would you need on top of that?

  Even so, it should not be forgotten that their loyalty was based on the bug lying in artificial Fluctlights that RATH had been eagerly trying to get rid of. It was only because the general principle [power dominates all] was carved into their souls that these ten people would obey the Emperor, Gabriel — no, Vector. But at the same time, it could also mean that as soon as Gabriel’s power was suspected, anyone could rebel at any moment.

  This suspicion had already come true.

  In the night two days ago, a female assassin sneaked into his bedroom.

  That woman planned to kill the Emperor, who had the highest authority. In her heart, there was a master with a status higher than Gabriel. Someone she called [Your Excellency] at her last moments. And that person, almost for certain, was one of the ten generals in sight.

  To her, against Emperor Vector, her own master was the mightier one. Then, the likelihood of the so-called “Your Excellency” not declaring his absolute loyalty to Gabriel was very high. If he took a Unit like this to battle, there would also be the likelihood of being betrayed.

  Therefore, the last task before they went to battle was to single out and dispose of [Your Excellency] from the ten people before him.

  At the same time, he could demonstrate the power of the Emperor to the remaining nine, forever carving the identity of the strongest into their Fluctlights.

  At this time, Gabriel Miller did not consider at all the probability of any of the ten Units before him catching him off guard — in other words, defeating him in a one-on-one fight. To him, the Underworld was no more than an extension of VR games, and was still under the set impression that all Units here were [NPCs].

  ***

  Dark Knight Commander Biksul Ul Shasta maintained his genuflected position, recalling his mentor’s words from twenty years ago, in the Dark Knight headquarters training field.

  “…My mentor’s mentor’s head was taken off and he died instantly. My mentor was then cut in the chest and died on the way back to the castle. But even though I lost an arm, I’m alive today. Well, that’s nothing to be proud of, though.”

  His mentor said this, sitting on the glossy black floor with his legs folded under his torso[2], as he showed his right arm stump sharply severed on the elbow to Shasta. The wound that was only bound with medicine and gauze seemed painful just by looking at it.

  The one who had gave him this injury about three days ago, was the eternal enemy of the Dark Knights, or the most powerful swordsman in the world, or the most ferocious monster — Integrity Knight Bercouli Synthesis One.

  “Do you know what this means, Biksul?”