Alicization Uniting

by Reki Kawahara

  Copyright

  SWORD ART ONLINE, Volume 14: ALICIZATION UNITING

  REKI KAWAHARA

  Translation by Stephen Paul

  Cover art by abec

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  SWORD ART ONLINE Vol.14

  ©REKI KAWAHARA 2014

  First published in Japan in 2014 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo.

  English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo, through Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.

  English translation © 2018 by Yen Press, LLC

  Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Kawahara, Reki, author. | Abec, 1985– illustrator. | Paul, Stephen, translator.

  Title: Sword art online / Reki Kawahara, abec ; translation, Stephen Paul.

  Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2014–

  Identifiers: LCCN 2014001175 | ISBN 9780316371247 (v. 1 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316376815 (v. 2 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296427 (v. 3 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296434 (v. 4 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296441 (v. 5 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316296458 (v. 6 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390408 (v. 7 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390415 (v. 8 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390422 (v. 9 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390439 (v. 10 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390446 (v. 11 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390453 (v. 12 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390460 (v. 13 : pbk.) | ISBN 9780316390484 (v. 14 : pbk.)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Science fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Science Fiction / Adventure.

  Classification: pz7.K1755Ain 2014 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2014001175

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-39048-4 (paperback)

  978-0-316-56106-8 (ebook)

  E3-20180719-JV-PC

  Integrity Knights. Or, occasionally, Integrators.

  They were the most powerful of servants, possessing finely honed swordsmanship, high-level sacred arts, and even at-will use of fearsome Perfect Weapon Control abilities.

  For three hundred long years, these knights had been the force upholding the law and order of the four empires of man, as well as the rule of the Axiom Church—but the knighthood itself was stunningly small. As suggested by the name of the most recently inducted knight, Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One, there were barely over thirty of them.

  But rather than diminishing the dignity and potency of the knighthood, their small number only enhanced it. A group smaller than a full raid party in games like SAO or ALO had kept the lands of humanity safe from encroachers in the Dark Territory for all these years.

  I, Kirito, once known as “Beater” or the “Black Swordsman” but now an elite disciple at the North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy, armed with nothing more than my trusty blade and an even more trusted companion, had launched into battle against this band of Integrity Knights. Our rebellion wasn’t by design but rather was the consequence of escaping from jail—because once we had drawn our blades against the Axiom Church, the ultimate ruling body of the land, there was no way out but forward.

  Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One, user of the Frostscale Whip.

  Deusolbert Synthesis Seven, user of the Conflagration Bow.

  Fanatio Synthesis Two, user of the Heaven-Piercing Blade and her Four Whirling Blades.

  Alice Synthesis Thirty, user of the Osmanthus Blade.

  We had made our way up the grand staircase of the Axiom Church’s Central Cathedral, just barely besting these knights and their almighty weapons, which were known as Divine Objects. Needless to say, it wasn’t my skill alone that had paved the way.

  The craftsman Sadore in Centoria had taken an entire year to fashion a branch of the demonic Gigas Cedar into a single black sword for me.

  The sage Cardinal had provided me with rest, food, vast knowledge of the world, and the Perfect Weapon Control skill needed to fight back against the knights.

  And most of all, I had my friend Eugeo, who had been at my side for two long years, ever since we left the distant village of Rulid.

  I had taught Eugeo the One-Handed Sword skills of the Aincrad style, but he had given me so much more in return. The only reason I’d survived my unexpected plunge from the real world into the unfamiliar Underworld was the help, encouragement, and guidance of Eugeo.

  At the eightieth floor of Central Cathedral, I was separated from my partner. In the midst of a fierce battle, the Integrity Knight Alice and I punched a hole in the outer wall of the tower and tumbled out.

  I took great pains to convince Alice to stay her sword, but over the course of an entire night, we managed to climb the sheer wall of the tower until we at last reentered the building on the ninety-fifth floor. I raced up the stairs, certain that Eugeo was ahead of me now, and met a creepy man named Prime Senator Chudelkin. I chased him up to the ninety-ninth floor, just one floor below the chamber of Administrator, pontifex of the Axiom Church and supreme ruler of humanity.

  It was in this room, featureless aside from the staircase leading back down to the senate floors and the levitating platform up to the hundredth floor, that I was reunited with my partner.

  But he was no longer the simple, purehearted young man that I knew.

  Now he was Eugeo Synthesis Thirty-Two, clad in the silver armor of an Integrity Knight.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ADMINISTRATOR, MAY 380 HE

  1

  Both Eugeo’s Blue Rose Sword and my black blade carved light-green trails in the darkened chamber.

  The paths formed a perfect symmetry. This was to be expected, as we launched into identical skills simultaneously, including the charging skill Sonic Leap. The timing was perfectly aligned, such that the sword tips reached the peak of their curve, flashing brighter to indicate the attack power was at its maximum potential, at precisely the same moment before silver and black edges collided.

  I didn’t just execute the technique. I used the tension in my feet, rotation of my body, and swing of my arms as three separate accelerative forces on the attack. Even so, Eugeo’s Sonic Leap wasn’t even a microsecond slower than mine. He had pushed his as far as it could go, just like I had. And I hadn’t even fully taught him how to do that yet.

  Somehow, when I hadn’t been paying attention, Eugeo had kept patiently, stubbornly swinging away. Hundreds of times, every single day, until he could hear the voice of the sword.

  “…How?” I grunted under my breath as our swords clashed at their intersection point. “How did you lose to the Synthesis Ritual? The reason you studied the blade…the reason you left Rulid for Centoria was to take back your childhood friend Alice. Right?” />
  “…”

  Eugeo stood firm, blocking my sword. As he’d warned before we started, he had nothing more to say to me—his lips were shut tight. I felt like I saw a glimmer in his green eyes the moment he heard the name Alice, but whatever that was, it was instantly swallowed by darkness. Perhaps it was nothing more than a trick of the eyes, caused by the green glow coming from the swords.

  If our stalemate continued for a few seconds longer, the Sonic Leaps would expire, ushering us into a furious close-range swordfight. At that point, I wouldn’t have the time to think. I used the brief recess to furiously spur my mind onward.

  Integrity Knights were created through direct operation of their souls, in what was called the Synthesis Ritual. It involved extracting a crystal of memories from the subject’s mind and replacing it with a device that forced their loyalty, an object called a Piety Module.

  The moment Eldrie had heard his mother’s name, he’d become unstable, and the Piety Module had begun to emerge from his forehead. That meant that in order to make him an Integrity Knight, Administrator had stolen his memories of his mother.

  The other knights must’ve lost similarly precious memories. For Deusolbert, it was likely the memory of his wife. For Fanatio and Bercouli, I couldn’t be sure yet, but I imagined it was either families or lovers.

  So who would it be for Alice? The golden knight was back against the wall, watching the fight between Eugeo and me. The most probable answer was her little sister, Selka, who was still living back in Rulid. When I had casually dropped Selka’s name while we were resting on the terrace ledge outside the tower, Alice had reacted violently. She’d cried at the mention of her sister and even sworn rebellion against the Axiom Church.

  But the mention of Selka’s name didn’t cause Alice’s Piety Module to become unstable, as far as I could tell. That was either because she’d been an Integrity Knight for six years already or because the stolen memories weren’t actually of Selka.

  Assuming my conjectures about these matters were accurate, then whose memory did Administrator steal from Eugeo?

  Not far from where we stood locked in combat was the levitating platform, which Chudelkin had used to flee to the floor above, and which I’d summoned back down. There was a hole in the ceiling about three feet across. It had to be Administrator’s chamber through there, but it was pitch-black through the hole. If she was up there right now, I couldn’t tell.

  But just an hour ago, she had “synthesized” Eugeo there—stealing his most precious memories. But of whom?

  There was only one answer I could imagine. It was the girl he’d been chasing after for eight years, ever since Deusolbert took her away when she was a child. Alice Zuberg, who was now Alice Synthesis Thirty.

  Then why did Eugeo have no reaction toward Alice, who was standing in the very same room with us while we dueled? Eldrie’s module nearly fell out just at the mention of his mother’s name. If his instability was a factor of how little time he’d spent as an Integrity Knight—well, Eugeo had been one for barely an hour. He should’ve had an even more violent reaction the instant he saw Alice.

  But this Eugeo was completely closed off from the world. If it wasn’t memories of Alice that had been removed from him, then who—or what—did Administrator take away?

  At that moment, the shine from the two clashing sword skills faded.

  Without the propulsion that the system assistance gave them, the white and black blades recoiled from each other. As sparks flew, I clenched my teeth and Eugeo looked as impassive as ever. We brandished our swords for new attacks.

  “Yaaah!”

  “…!”

  With simultaneous cries—one voiced and one mute—we launched high left-handed swings with perfect synchronization. The blades clashed and recoiled, and next was a swipe from the right side. The edges clanged and slid, leading to a downward left swing. This, too, was firmly caught.

  As we settled into our second stalemate, I couldn’t help but marvel. Our swords might have identical stats, but the people who wielded them did not. I was lighter, with regular clothes, while Eugeo wore heavy plate armor. He was lugging around many times the weight I was, yet his attacks were coming with the exact same speed. Either turning into an Integrity Knight bumped up his strength, or this was the effect of that “Incarnate” thing Alice had mentioned just before the fight.

  I knew that this world contained some systems that couldn’t be explained with the logic of all the other VRMMO worlds I’d experienced to this point. Invisible forces like willpower and imagination could, at times, produce effects beyond that of even high-level system commands.

  Becoming an Integrity Knight had taken away Eugeo’s memories and emotions, but his willpower was cold and sharp. Before we started fighting, he had summoned the Blue Rose Sword I possessed to his hand as though through telekinesis—an ability Alice had called Incarnate Arms.

  What was actually in Eugeo’s heart now? It was the determination to take Alice back from the Church that drove him to want to be an Integrity Knight in the first place. What kind of will was now filling the enormous void left in its place?

  I couldn’t imagine that it was all just loyalty to the Axiom Church and its pontifex, etched into his soul. I didn’t want to believe that; there was no way the Blue Rose Sword could withstand every last ounce of my black sword’s strength with that kind of artificial willpower.

  Somewhere within those icy cold eyes, something was still burning. I had to believe in that. And if there was one way to summon that forth, it had to be…

  “…Eugeo,” I whispered, pushing against the sword with all my strength, “maybe you don’t remember this anymore…but you and I never actually got to fight with everything we have, before.”

  “…”

  Eugeo’s eyes, which had once shone a brilliant green, were now dark and dull. I stared into them, willing them to respond.

  “On the journey from Rulid to Centoria, and while we were at Swordcraft Academy, I asked myself the same question many times: Who would win if we crossed blades for real? And to be honest…I felt like one day, you would surpass me.”

  Eugeo returned my gaze without blinking. In fact, he didn’t return it—his eyes were like closed shutters. I was nothing but an intruder who needed to be eliminated. If I showed him even an instant of weakness, he would strike. But I still delivered the conclusion of my speech, believing that something would get through to him.

  “…But now is not that time. You’ve forgotten about me, about Alice, about Tiese and Ronie, and even about Cardinal. You can’t beat me. And I’m going to prove that to you.”

  As soon as the words had left my mouth, I stopped breathing and willed the strength of every muscle in my body into my sword. Fine wrinkles appeared on Eugeo’s brow as he attempted to push back.

  At that instant, I pulled back.

  Zshang! The blades clashed, producing a line of sparks in the gloom. The shift in momentum pushed me backward and caused Eugeo to lean forward.

  If I tried to steady myself, I’d be a sitting duck for Eugeo. Instead, I pushed into the momentum and let my back fall toward the floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Alice reaching across her body for the Osmanthus Blade, certain that I had just lost.

  But her decision was coming three seconds too early. Victory or defeat would be determined by whether my strategy was successful or not—or how well Eugeo truly understood the Aincrad style.

  Just before my back hit the floor, I kicked upward with my right foot. The toe of my boot shone, lighting Eugeo’s chin from below.

  “Yaaaah!”

  I spun backward, the angle tight. It was Aincrad-style martial arts, the backflip-kick skill Crescent Moon. This handy move, which you could activate while falling backward, had saved my life on numerous occasions in the old SAO. I hadn’t used it in combat or practice since coming to the Underworld, but the movement was etched into my muscles—and most importantly, I’d never shown it to Eugeo.

 
; On the other hand, I had shown him martial arts with fists or shoulders. He’d shown proficiency with it, too. He could do the simple punching skill Flash Blow, as well as three parts of Meteor Break, the high-level combination of body blows and slashes.

  If he had discovered the existence of kicking attacks in his own time, or even just suspected their existence, he was going to evade my Crescent Moon. And the downside of this attack was that it had an extremely long recovery after it had been dodged. If I missed, I would be helpless against his merciless blade.

  This is it, Eugeo!

  My right foot closed in on my opponent’s gorget. Even in this situation, Eugeo’s eyes were full of impassive frost. He twisted his torso without changing his expression, attempting to curve away from my foot. But the momentum that had pulled him forward when I fell backward was still a factor. My glowing toe shot toward his defenseless chin.

  “…!”

  Air shot from Eugeo’s mouth. The arm holding the Blue Rose Sword swiped sideways with ferocious force. But no matter how hard he swung, my leg was faster. If I just focused on connecting, I would reach…

  No.

  Eugeo wasn’t attempting a counterattack. He was using not the blade of the sword but its pommel and aiming it not at my body but at my leg: a backhand pommel strike. It was an utterly practical movement, one that would never exist in the Underworld, where graceful solemnity ruled all concerns of swordfighting. Even in the old SAO, only the most savvy of veteran PvP players could pull off such a tactic.

  He could change the trajectory of the Crescent Moon by nudging it from the side. So where did I aim?

  “!”

  I gritted my teeth and did everything in my power to hold back the kick. But if I pulled too hard, the skill would fumble, leaving me helpless. I had to delay the progress for what felt to me like a quarter of a second so that Eugeo’s hand would pass first.

  Now!

  A hard crash erupted.

  Rather than hitting Eugeo’s throat as originally planned, my Crescent Moon got him on the back of the hand that held his sword. Like the other Integrity Knights, he wore tough gauntlets, so this wouldn’t damage his hand—but it had the exact effect I was hoping for.