No one's POV

The little wise woman glared Cardinal up at her two-hundred-year foe, her voice righteous and bold. But the pontifex, still watching the situation unfold from her floating position across the room, did not respond. She merely steepled her fingers in front of her mouth, mirror eyes shining enigmatically.

According to what Cardinal had said in the library, when Administrator fused with the original form of the Cardinal System, the self-correcting process—which was the basis for her second personality, the one that was in Cardinal's form now—was powerful enough that she had to manipulate her own fluctlight to remove her emotions in order to counteract Cardinal's rebellion.

Once the two split into separate bodies, she no longer had to worry about the subprocess taking over her body, but her emotions were still meaningless noise to her and unnecessary to bring back.

So the image of Administrator that Zora had carried in his head was that of a programmed human, someone who mechanically carried out her tasks. But the pontifex Zora saw at the top of Central Cathedral was far from what he'd expected. She sneered at Chudelkin and toyed cruelly with our lives; something told him the grin that she constantly wore was no false simulation.

Even now, the silver-haired, silver-eyed young woman burbled and giggled behind her hands, her eyes narrowing with pleasure.

Quinella: Heh-heh-heh.

She laughed, slender shoulders rocking, letting Cardinal know that her righteous missive was no more damaging to her than a slight breeze. Eventually, between her chuckles came a short message that made real the very thing Zora had been afraid of.

Quinella: I thought you'd come. If I tormented those children long enough, I knew you'd emerge from your musty hole sooner or later. That's the limit of what you can do, little one. You can arrange for pawns who will come after me, but you can't bring yourself to abuse them like the pawns they are. You humans are such helpless creatures.

Zora(mind): I knew it...

As Zora feared, Administrator's true intention was to put enough pressure on them to lure Cardinal out from her isolated library. Or in other words, she did this knowing that she still had a secret trick that would absolutely ensure her triumph.

But the Sword Golem, which ought to have been her ultimate weapon, was virtually destroyed, and now Eugeo and Zora were perhaps battle capable again. Even Alice was awake, pushing herself up with one hand in an attempt to get up.

Cardinal and Administrator were two sides of the same coin, and in a one- on-one fight would surely draw, so in these circumstances, Zora, Eugeo and Alice's presence gave their side an overwhelming advantage, he assumed.

That meant that the instant the door to the library had opened, Administrator's rational choice would have been to stop observing and simply attack at full power without delay. So why had she let Cardinal destroy the Sword Golem and heal Alice and Zora and even allowed them to have a brief conversation? Cardinal had to be wondering the same thing—but her expression betrayed nothing but firm determination.

Cardinal: Since I last saw you, you've grown adept at imitating a human. Been practicing smiling into a mirror for two hundred years, have you?

Administrator shrugged off the comment with that very smile.

Quinella: Oh my. And what about you, pipsqueak? Why are you speaking to me in that bizarre manner? 200 hundred years ago, when you were brought before me, you were trembling and alone! Right, Lyserith?

Cardinal then looked at Quinella annoyed.

Cardinal: Don't call me by that name, Quinella! My name is Cardinal. I am the program that only exists into delete you.

Quinella: Yes, that's right. And I am the Administrator. The one who controls all programs. I apologize for not greeting you sooner, pipsqueak, but I was preparing the command to welcome you, and it took longer then expected.

Administrator gleefully raised her right hand. Her outstretched fingers curled, as if they were grabbing and crushing some invisible object. At this point, her pure-white cheeks, which had seemed impervious to any rise in emotion, actually flushed with the faintest trace of red blood, and a ghastly look came into her mirror eyes. A chill raced up his back as Zora realized this was the very first time he had seen her utilizing her full focus and concentration.

But there was no time to act. In an instant, Administrator's right hand clenched fully shut.

Then crash sound rings. Dozens of heavy shattering sounds burst from every direction in a deafening chorus. Zora's first thought was that the giant glass walls that surrounded the room had all exploded at once.

But that wasn't the case.

What had shattered was beyond the windows—the dark, roiling clouds, the blanket of stars, the cold full moon, and the very night sky itself. The sky rained into an impossible number of fragments, which collided and burst into even smaller pieces as they fell. To Zora's dumbfounded eyes, what appeared after the pieces of literal sky fell could only be described as "unbeing."

A void of black and purple that seemed to have no depth, swirling and marbled, churning away. It was a world of nothing, the kind of sight that would suck away the mind of whoever stared at it for long enough.

In terms of color and beauty they were nothing alike, but Zora couldn't help but be reminded of another scene he'd witnessed—when the original Aincrad had collapsed, and a veil of white had appeared to swallow the sunset that remained behind.

Zora(mind): Had the Underworld just collapsed and vanished as well? The human realm, the Dark Territory, the villages and towns...and all the people living within them...

The only thing that saved him from this momentary terror was Cardinal's shocked but still resolute voice.

Cardinal: You disconnect the address, didn't you?

Zora(mind): What does that mean...?

Despite his confusion, Zora couldn't tear his eyes away from Administrator. The silver-haired woman lowered her hand and said in a whisper.

Quinella: 200 years ago, it was certainly a mistake to let you get away when I was so close to killing you, pipsqueak. And so, I decided to learn from my mistake. If I could someday lure you out, I'd trap on this side. A mouse inside a cage with the cat that hunts it.

The pontifex snapped her fingers to punctuate this statement. Instantly, there was another crashing noise, but much quieter than the last, and the dark- brown door that stood on its own in the middle of the carpet shattered. The pieces split apart before they hit the ground and vanished. Even the circle on the ground that was meant to indicate the location of the elevator platform was gone.

Eugeo was standing right next to it, and he reached out his foot to step on the carpet several times with surprise. Then he looked up, straight at Zora, and shook his head quickly.

In other words, what Administrator had destroyed wasn't the outside world itself but the connection between this floor of the cathedral and the outside.

Even if they could somehow destroy the windows, there would be no way out of them—there was no space there to travel through. It was the perfect way to trap someone in a virtual space—almost too perfect—and the exact kind of thing that only someone with admin privileges could do. The prison area in Blackiron Palace on the first floor of Aincrad was child's play compared to this.

In short, Administrator hadn't been wasting her time in the minutes since Cardinal had appeared. She'd been preparing this exact tremendous command for execution.

However, if the consecutive connection between spaces had been completely severed, then...

Cardinal: I find your analogy lacking in precision. It might take minutes to sever the connection, but patching it back together will not be so easy. Now you are trapped in here as well. In this situation, it isn't clear which of us is the cat, and which is the mouse, is it? After all, there are four of us and only one of you. If you think these youngsters are beneath your notice, your mistake is grave indeed, Quinella.

She was exactly right. This now meant that Administrator couldn't easily leave this place, either. And she and Cardinal had identical power when it came to using sacred arts. While her and Cardinal's arts were at a perfect equilibrium, the rest of us could cut her to ribbons and seize victory. But Cardinal's correction did not wipe the little smile off the pontifex's face.

Quinella: Four against one? No, your calculations are a bit off. To be precise, it's four against three hundred, not even including me.

Just then, the upturned mass of metal—the almost totally destroyed Sword Golem—let out a discordant, eardrum-rending screech.

Cardinal: What?!

She'd hit it with three devastating lightning bolts in a row and clearly assumed it was out of commission. Zora had certainly thought so, at least.

But the golem's eyes, which had been completely dark just seconds ago, were now glittering like twin stars. It fixed us with a murderous glare, pushed itself up with its arms, and got to its four feet as though all the damage it had suffered was instantly gone. When it stood, it let out a belly-wrenching roar.

That was when Zora noticed that the various sword parts that had been charred and smoking from Cardinal's lightning bolts were gleaming like brand-new weapons.

It was true that weapons with a high-priority value had natural life- restoring capabilities in this realm, but only if they were cared for and put back into their sheaths. Even then, it supposedly took an entire day to recover half of an object's total life, and beyond any of that, the swords that made up the golem's body had been just decorative objects stuck to the room's support pillars—they didn't have sheaths.

Even if every part of the golem was a Divine Object type of weapon, they still could not recover so much damage so quickly. But the giant made of swords standing behind the pontifex looked just like it had before the lightning hit it—even more powerful than before, actually. It occurred to him that if she could mass-produce these golems, she might actually rebuff a full- scale invasion from the Dark Territory after all.

Zora stood there in mute shock until he heard the little sage command.

Cardinal: Zora, Alice, Eugeo, get behind me! Do not allow yourselves to slip forward!

Zora was already behind her, so the other two rushed over.

Zora(mind): Wait. Hadn't Administrator just said something strange a moment ago? Four versus three hundred.

Administrator hadn't used moving objects like animals to create that Sword Golem. She'd used human units—the people who inhabited this world. Three hundred of them. Enough that their loss would completely eliminate an entire village.

This thought process happened in a span so short, his brain cells were practically frying—and Zora innately sensed that his hunch was true. But there was no triumph in this realization. The only thing he felt was overwhelming terror. His skin was crawling, from his toes up to his spine and the back of his neck.

Underworldians weren't just mobile objects. They had fluctlights—human souls—just like any person in the real world. And their fluctlights would be active as long as they had bodies, even if they'd been converted into something like a sword.

Perhaps the people who'd been turned into those golem parts were still conscious, trapped inside metal without eyes or ears or mouths to speak. Cardinal reached the same conclusion as Zora did. Her small body tensed imperceptibly. The hand that clutched her staff was white with the pressure.

Cardinal: You...What...What depths have you sunk to? Are they not the very subjects you should be protecting?!

Eugeo: Subjects? Subjects as in humans...?

Alice: Which means that monster is human?

Cold, tense silence filled the room. Administrator drank in our shock, fear, and anger. With a gloating smile, she said.

Quinella: Very good. You finally figured it out, did you? I was getting worried that you'd all be wiped out before I could reveal the big secret.

The supreme ruler laughed, a true laugh of pure delight, and clapped her hands together.

Quinella: But, I'm disappointed in you, little one. After two hundred years of hiding in your den, you still don't fully understand me. In a sense, I am your mother, after all.

Cardinal: Enough japes! I'm fully aware of just how depraved your madness is!

Quinella: Then why would you say these silly things? As I'd I would even bother with petty matters like "the subjects I should be protecting".

Her happy smile did not change, but Zora could sense the atmosphere around Administrator growing rapidly chilly. It was like her lips were absolute zero and the words that came from them were particles of ice in the air.

Quinella: I am a ruler. As long as they are under my rule exist in the lower world in the manner l desire, wether human or sword, then there's no need concer.

Cardinal: You...evil...

Cardinal's voice creaked and cracked. Zora couldn't think of anything to say, either.

Whatever form the mind of the woman—the being—known as Administrator took now was beyond Zora's understanding. She was literally a systems manager and viewed the people of her world as nothing more than data files that could be manipulated and rewritten as she saw fit. Like some Internet addict who downloaded massive numbers of files for the sole purpose of collecting and organizing, without much fussing over what they actually contained.

In their conversation at the Great Library, Cardinal told Zora that the fundamental purpose burned into Administrator's soul was "maintaining the world." She was probably correct about that, but Zora felt it didn't fully capture the truth of the situation.

The original Cardinal System in the old Sword Art Online was a soulless management program. Did it actually recognize its players as human beings...as living things with individual wills of their own?

The answer to that was no.

They were nothing but data meant to be managed, selected, and deleted. Maybe Quinella, the little girl who'd existed centuries ago, couldn't kill a person. But to Administrator, even human beings were no more than fodder.

Quinella: Oh, you've all gone quiet. What's the matter?

Administrator said, tilting her head curiously as she surveyed them from on high.

Quinella: You aren't alarmed by a little thing like matter conversion for a measly three hundred units, are you?

Cardinal: Did you say measly...?

Cardinal repeated, her voice barely audible.

Quinella: Yes, little one. 'Measly,' 'just,' 'no more than.' How many fluctlights do you think collapsed before I completed this puppet? And this is only a prototype. In order to mass produce the finished version to handle the awful load test, I think I'll need at least half.

Cardinal: Half of what...?

Quinella: Half of the 80,000 or so humans units residing in the Human Empire. That should be enough. To repeal the Dark Territory's invasion and attack the other side.

Administrator said, a horror show without a hint of irony or doubt. Then she turned her silver eyes on the knight standing to Zora's left.

Quinella: Well? Are you satisfied, Alice? Your precious Human Empire will be well protected.

Alice said nothing. Zora noticed that the hand holding the hilt of her Osmanthus Blade was trembling, but he couldn't tell whether it was from fear or rage. Ultimately, her answer came in the form of a question, her voice compressed so that nothing showed in it.

Alice: Your Eminence, Pontifex...It's clear that words of a human can no longer reach you. So I ask you as user of the Sacred arts. Where are the owners of the 30 sword that make up that puppet?

Zora was momentarily confused. It was Administrator who had used Memory Release on the thirty swords, transforming them into the golem. So while it broke from the traditional pattern, it would stand to reason that she was their owner. But what Alice said next shattered that assumption.

Alice: It is not possible for you to be the owner. Even if you were to break the basic rule that one can only achieve Perfect Control over one sword, there is no breaking the next one. To perform Memory Release, there must be a powerful bond between the sword and its owner. Like me and the Osmanthus Blade, the other knights and their divine weapons, even Zora and Eugeo and their swords. The master must love the sword and be loved by it. If the source of the swords that make up that puppet are innocent people, then there is no way they would love you for what you did to them!!

Alice declared, her voice ringing loud and clear.

Quinella: Heh-heh-heh-heh.

Administrator chuckled, breaking the silence that followed.

Quinella: What is it with you young, foolish souls that makes you so vivacious? This sentimental quality, as sour as a fresh-picked apple...Why, I could just crush you in my fist and slurp down every last drop of juice right now.

Her mirror eyes sparkled with a continuum of color, perhaps reflecting her rising excitement.

Quinella: But not yet. It is not yet the time, no. What I believe you're trying to say, Alice, is that I cannot make use of enough imagination to overwrite all of these swords. You are correct about this. I do not have enough capacity in my memory to record highly detailed records of every one of these weapons.

She pointed regally toward the thirty swords that made up the Sword Golem, which was still inching onward. From what Zora understood, Perfect Weapon Control involved taking one's memory of all the information about a weapon—its appearance, feeling, weight, and so on—and, with the help of spoken commands, altering the weapon itself using the power of the imagination.

In other words, to utilize that ability, the owner of the sword absolutely needed all the information about the weapon to be stored in their head.

For example, if Zora were to use Perfect Weapon Control with his black sword, he would first need Information A about the sword as it existed in the Main Visualizer of the Lightcube Cluster to match Information B about the sword as it existed in his own fluctlight, with an absolute minimum of discrepancy. By doing so, Zora could then use his imagination to change Information B and thus overwrite Information A in the process, which would then share that change in information with everyone else. This logic also applied to the strange visual transformation that had come over him earlier.

As for Administrator, her lightcube memory was compacted to its limit by the memories of three hundred years of life. She couldn't possibly keep a picture-perfect memory of all thirty of those swords. Alice's convictions were clearly based on emotion and belief, but unbeknownst to her, it was accurate in terms of the underlying system's limitation as well.

So that meant that each of the swords that made up the golem would have to have its own separate owner. Souls that held those swords in their memories and that had the wicked will to use them for destruction.

But where? In every sense of the word, this space was currently isolated from the outside world. It didn't make sense unless those owners were inside the chamber with them...

Quinella: The answer is right before your eyes. I'm sure Eugeo has already figured it out.

Zora looked over at Eugeo on the other side of Alice, not daring to breathe. His flaxen-haired partner was staring the pontifex directly in the eyes, not budging, his face completely bloodless and pale. His brown eyes were almost oddly devoid of expression, in fact. Then he craned his neck, trembling, to look up at the ceiling.

Zora followed his gaze. The rounded ceiling featured a mural that depicted the creation of the world, embedded with little crystals that glittered in the light. Up until now, he'd assumed this was all decorative. But in Eugeo's blank expression, his eyes were the only thing that emoted, staring holes into the ceiling, searching fiercely for something.

At last, words came croaking from his throat.

Eugeo: I see. So that's it.

Zora: What did you figure out, Eugeo?!

Eugeo glanced over at Zora, his face full of profound fear.

Eugeo: Zora, the crystals in the celling...They aren't just ornaments...They're the memory fragment stolen from the Integrity Knights.

Zora: Wha—?!

Zora gaped. So did Cardinal and Alice.

The Integrity Knights' memories. The most important of memories, the things extracted from the subjects through the Synthesis Ritual so they could be turned into knights. In most cases, this would, rather obviously, be the memories of their most beloved person. For Eldrie, it was his mother. For Deusolbert, his wife.

So did this mean those crystals were the owners of the swords that made up the Sword Golem? No. The crystals were just isolated information that was stored in the fluctlight. They weren't entire souls with the independent ability to think. It just couldn't be possible for them to link with the swords and activate Perfect Control.

But then...something prickled in the back of Zora's head. If all those crystals were the memory fragments taken from Integrity Knights, then that must include the memories of Alice when she was synthesized six years ago.

This was the top floor of Central Cathedral.

When they fought the band of goblins in the cave north of Rulid two years ago, Eugeo was gravely injured. While healing him, Zora heard a very strange voice speaking.

It sounded like a young girl who claimed that she was waiting for Eugeo and Zora on the top floor of the cathedral. Then a huge rush of spiritual power flowed through him and healed Eugeo.

What if that voice was coming from Alice's memory fragment? Did that mean the stolen memory itself had some power of independent thought? But still, all sacred arts operated on that principle of direct contact. Even Administrator herself couldn't send her voice and healing power from Central Cathedral all the way to Rulid, nearly five hundred miles away.

The only way a miracle like that could happen was if the same overwriting logic that Perfect Weapon Control worked on could also apply here.

Zora(mind): Which would mean the memories stored in Alice's memory crystal were...were...

Cardinal's furious shout cut off Zora's train of thought.

Cardinal: Curse you, Quinella! You've...You've gone too far in your manipulation of humans!

Jarred loose from my thoughts, Zora focused once again on the serene smile of the silver-haired overlord.

Quinella: Well, well...I suppose I should give you my compliments, little one. You figured it out faster than I expected for a bleeding-heart altruist. So tell me: What is your answer?

Cardinal: It's the fluctlight's shared pattern. It is, isn't it?!

Cardinal said, leveling her black staff at Administrator.

Cardinal: By inserting the memory piece you extract during the Synthesis Ritual into a mental model, you can treat it as a simulated human unit. But it's intelligence would be severely limited. It'd be unable to execute a complex command like the Perfect Weapon Control art.

Zora tried his hardest to process her terminology. Back in the library, Cardinal had said that babies in this world started as fluctlight prototypes loaded on new lightcubes and given a portion of their parents' physical traits and mental and behavioral patterns. So this had to be a similar idea. But instead of starting with information from parents, these came from memory fragments taken from the knights.

In other words, the crystals shining in the ceiling were babies raised on memories of some beloved person. But if that was the case, how could that "Alice" have talked to Zora two years ago? No newborn child could speak as convincingly as that. The questions kept piling up in his mind.

Cardinal: But I'd be different if the memory piece and data linked to weapon are almost the same. In other words...the beloved people in the memory pieces you stole from the Integrity Knights were your resources for creating those swords. Isn't that right, Administrator?

Once the initial confusion of this accusation died down, Zora was assaulted by such overwhelming fear and disgust that Zoea felt his entire body turn to ice. The owners of the swords that made up the golem were the fluctlights that had been made from the Integrity Knights' stolen memories.

The swords themselves were crafted using the people in those memories —Eldrie's mother, Deusolbert's wife, and probably other close family members—as a base material. That was Cardinal's accusation.

Once they belatedly understood the implications, Eugeo and Alice uttered simultaneous grunts of shock and horror.

If it was true, then perhaps it was theoretically possible to execute Memory Release. After all, Information A in the Main Visualizer and Information B in the fluctlight were coming from the exact same individual. If the newborn fluctlight with the memory fragment in it felt something strongly enough about the sword it was linked to, it was possible.

The problem was what that "something" would be. The memory fragments shouldn't have had more advanced minds than a newborn baby. What impulse, what emotion could they be feeling that would control that mammoth Sword Golem...?

Quinella: Desire. The Knight's simulated personas desire only one thing. To touch one they recall, hold them tightl, and make them their own. It's unseemly desire that moves this swordsman puppet. Right now, they sense that person is near but can't touch them. They can't be one. Driven by maddening starvation and thirst, the only thing they can see Is the enemy standing in their way. If they annihilate that enemy, the person they desire will be theirs. So they fight. No matter how badly they're wounded, or how many times they fall, they'll get back up and fight for eternity. Well? Isn't it a wonderful mechanism? The power of desire really is remarkable!

Her voice rang out on high. The approaching Sword Golem's eyes flickered violently. A harmonic roar—which now sounded to Zora like a scream of grief and despair—erupted from its vicious form.

It wasn't just an automated weapon designed to slaughter. It was a poor, pathetic lost child, driven by nothing more than the hope to see that one person it knew again.

Administrator said desire was the power that moved the golem. But...

Cardinal: You're wrong! Don't you dare taint that emotion by calling it desire! This is...This is pure love! The greatest power and final miracle of humanity...and it is not to be weaponized by the likes of you!!

Quinella: They're the same thing, my foolish pipesqueak. Love is control. Love is desire. In actual form, it's nothing more then a signal output from the Fluctlight! All I did was take that signal, the most firm and powerful of any you can get, and use it effectively. I did it much, much better than your way!!

Her voice rose to a fever pitch, as if she was certain of her triumph.

Quinella: The best that you could achieve was ensnaring two or three powerless children. But I am different. The puppet I created runs on the overflowing energy of over three hundred units' desire, including the memory fragments! And most important of all...

She paused for dramatic effect, preparing the final poison stinger.

Quinella: And most important of all...now that you know that, you can never destroy that puppet, no matter what. And why? Because that puppet's swords are living human beings who've been transformed!

Administrator announced, her words trailing off in the long silence. Stunned, Zora watched as Cardinal's staff slowly dropped from its position pointed at the Sword Golem. When she spoke, it was almost bizarrely calm.

Cardinal: Yes...you're right... I can't kill people...I've spent the last 200 years devising an art to kill you, a nonhuman...but it was all for nothing...

Zora was stunned. She'd admitted her defeat just as simply as that. But if the weapons in the Sword Golem were indeed living people, then Cardinal could not end those lives...She would not even attempt it. Even if, like with the teacups and soup cups, there was some way around that limitation.

Quinella: Heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh-heh.

Administrator's lips curled up as far as they could go, her throat convulsing with unstoppable laughter amid the shocked silence.

Quinella: How foolish you were...What a tragic comedy... Ha-ha-ha-ha. How foolish of you! How completely comical! All life in this world is nothing more then aggregated data that can be overwritten. Yet you treat that data as human, binding yourself to the rule against murder...Truly, there can be no greater folly...

Cardinal: No, you're still human, Quinella. The people who live in the Underworld possess true emotions we lost. Hearts that laugh, grieve, rejoice and love. What more do they need? Whether the container of that soul is a lightcube or a biological brain is of little matter. This I believe. And thus—I accept my defeat with pride.

The mention of the word defeat gouged deep into Zora's chest. But that was nothing compared to what she said next.

Cardinal: I will give you my life! But in return, I want you to spare the lives of these youngsters!

Zora:...!! What are you—

Zora held his breath and started to step forward, while Eugeo and Alice froze with shock. But the sheer willpower radiating from Cardinal's figure stopped him short. Administrator narrowed her eyes like a cat with her prey in her claws and wondered.

Quinella: What would I gain from accepting such terms?

Cardinal: If you wish to fight then I assure you I'll keep your pathetic doll's actions contained, and sheer if at least half of your life. That much of a load will further strain your dwindling memory capacity, wouldn't it?

Quinella: Mmmm...

Administrator murmured, putting a finger to her cheek and pretending to think without breaking her smile.

Quinella: Well, I don't feel that my fluctlight is threatened by a battle whose outcome is already known. But I suppose it would be a bother...and when you say to spare 'the lives of the young ones,' would sending them back to the lower world from this isolated space fulfill that condition? If you say I can never do anything to harm them for all eternity, I refuse.

Cardinal: No, just a momentary evacuation is all I ask. I trust in them to...

Cardinal did not finish that sentence. Instead, she turned on her heel, robe swaying, and looked at Zora with kindness in her eyes. Zora wanted to scream that this was ridiculous. His temporary life here and Cardinal's one and only life were not equal. If anything, Zora was seriously considering throwing himself at Administrator to buy Cardinal time to escape instead.

But Zora couldn't do that. He couldn't risk Eugeo's and Alice's lives on his own suicidal gamble. Zora clutched his sword so hard his hand hurt and his foot creaked with the pressure against the floor. Zora was caught between impulse and reason.

Quinella: Well, all right. I can always save the fun for later, right? All right. I swear on the Goddess Stacia. That after-

Cardinal: No, not on any God, swear on the one thing you value most of all, your own Fluctlight.

Quinella: Fine, fine. Then I swear on my Fluctlight and all the precious data accumulated there. After I've killed you, I'll let the three behind you go unharmed.

Cardinal: Very well.

Cardinal gave a look to both Eugeo and Alice and lastly, turned to Zora. There was a gentle smile on her young face, and nothing but benevolent kindness in her brown eyes. Zora couldn't stop the emotions in his chest from spilling out as liquid and blotting his vision.

Cardinal: I'm sorry.

In the distance, Administrator called out a triumphant good-bye to her victim. She waved her hand, and the Sword Golem stopped where it was, near the center of the room.

Then she made a clenching gesture, hand still held high, and glittering bits of light came dancing out of empty air, coalescing into a long, slender shape.

The object that emerged was a silver rapier. It was as thin as a needle, with a beautifully curved guard, all of it perfectly silver in color. It was so delicate that it almost seemed decorative, but the overwhelming aura surrounding it spoke to its priority value and made it hard to breathe even at a distance.

Like Cardinal's black staff, this was Administrator's personal weapon— the ultimate source of the power that supported her sacred arts. The silver rapier rang like a bell when she pointed it straight at Cardinal. The sage faced her directly, showing no fear of the divine weapon trained upon her heart, and walked forward.

Alice and Eugeo leaned forward, as though they were going to chase after her. But Zora held his hand out to keep them back. Deep down, he wanted to swing his sword right through Administrator, of course. But giving in to his emotions now would only waste Cardinal's determination and sacrifice. Zora had to hold back his tears, grit his teeth, and stay put.

Rainbows of sheer delight cascaded through Administrator's eyes as she stared down at her counterpart. Then a bolt of lightning shot from the tip of the rapier, painting the entire chamber white for a split second as it pierced Cardinal's little body.

In the center of the blurred wall of white that was my vision, Zora saw a silhouette bend backward as though it had been flicked. The energy of the beyond-massive lightning bolt charred the air as it dispersed, and he struggled to keep his eyes open as it threatened to bowl him over.

The youthful sage hadn't actually fallen yet. She leaned on her long staff, feet planted firmly into the carpet, face resolutely pointed at her archenemy. But the signs of damage were ghastly. Her black hat and robe were ragged and smoking, and part of her proud, shining curls was burned so badly it was basically ash.

As Zora, Eugeo and Alice watched in silent horror just fifteen feet away, Cardinal lifted her left hand and brushed off her charred hair. When she spoke, her voice was ragged but loud.

Cardinal: Is that it? No matter how many times you strike me, I'll-

Another mammoth thunderbolt shook the world. A lightning bolt even greater than the first one rocketed out of Administrator's rapier, mercilessly tearing through Cardinal. Her pointed hat flew off and evaporated into tiny shards. Her body twitched in agony, slumped to the side, and escaped falling over entirely only by going to one knee.

Quinella: Of course I'm holding back, pipesqueak! What fun would it be to finish you right away? I've been waiting 200 years for this moment, after all!

This one arced overhead and struck Cardinal like a whip, slamming her against the ground with terrifying force. She bounced high and collapsed to the ground again, where she lay limply.

Half of her velvet robe was charred cinders now, and there were more burnt holes in the white blouse and black knickers underneath it. Her skin was white as snow before, but now there were burn marks like black snakes running along her limbs.

Still, her arm pressed into the carpet, trying to lift her body off it. As if just to mock this tiny act—practically the last ounce of strength Cardinal could have had left—Administrator hit her with another lightning bolt sideways. The little girl was blasted into the air and rolled several yards away across the floor.

Quinella: Heh...heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh.

From her distant height, Administrator's laughter spilled forth, as though she couldn't hold it back any longer.

Quinella: Heh- heh, ah-ha. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Her mirror eyes had neither white nor iris. Instead, brilliant refracted rainbow light swirled through them.

Quinella: Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

She held up the rapier, and from its tip poured a succession of lightning, one bolt after another, endlessly ravaging Cardinal's helpless body. Each one kicked her like a ball, burning away her clothes, her skin, her hair, her very existence.

Quinella: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Administrator bellowed, hair spraying as she writhed in demonic pleasure. Zora barely even heard the sound. Tears flooded from his eyes and blurred his vision, and it wasn't because the rampant flashing of lightning was burning them. It was just the only outlet for the storm of feelings that was roaring through Zora: lamentation that Cardinal's life was slipping away before his eyes, fury at Administrator's delight in her callous execution, but most of all, anger at himself for being powerless to do anything but watch.

Zora: Car...

Cardinal: STAY BACK...!!!

Zora couldn't even ready his sword or take a single step forward. Even if the worst should come to pass and Cardinal's sacrifice was utterly wasted and the voices in his head screamed to use that sword to kill Administrator, his body might as well have been turned to stone for all it listened to him.

And he knew why.

If it was Zora's power of Incarnation that caused his Vorpal Strike to extend far beyond its range to pierce Prime Senator Chudelkin, then that very same power was what turned him into helpless stone now.

When Zora attacked the Sword Golem minutes ago, he didn't put a dent in it— and its counterattack nearly killed him. The feeling of that cold blade severing his torso left him with a powerful mental image of defeat. Terror gripped Zora's limbs, so powerful that it made him all but certain that he couldn't summon that mental image of being Zora the Night Sky Swordsman again.

Zora couldn't beat any Integrity Knight now. Not even the students at Swordcraft Academy. And the idea that he might attack the pontifex was simply laughable.

Zora: Nngh...hrrk...

Zora felt his throat convulse and heard the miserable sobs that escaped. Cardinal knew she was defeated, accepted it, and bravely faced her fate. The thought that she was in the act of giving up her life now and Zora was going to be saved by abandoning her filled him with a festering self-hatred.

Then Zora noticed Alice, clenching her teeth, and Eugeo, his body curled, shedding silent tears. Zora couldn't know what they were feeling, but at the very least, it was clear that they, too, were aware of their own powerlessness.

Eugeo(mind): Powerless. I'm so powerless.

It was the only thought that Eugeo could entertain as Administrator was charring Cardinal's body with her tremendous bolts of lightning. The Sword Golem, which seemed like some horrific demon from the land of darkness, had started off just as human as Eugeo. The thought itself was a shock, and the realization that the pontifex was capable of envisioning and creating such a thing made him quake with fear. But what wounded Eugeo deepest of all was the despair that he was unable to do anything about it.

The entire reason that Eugeo, Zora, Alice, Charlotte the spider, and Cardinal had come to the top floor to battle the supreme ruler was because Eugeo had wished he could save his childhood friend Alice Zuberg from the clutches of the Axiom Church. It was Eugeo who had put them in this terrible situation. It should have been him standing at the very front, fighting and taking all the wounds of battle. It should have been him.

Eugeo(mind): And what did I do?

He'd fallen prey to Administrator's seduction, allowed her to steal his memory, and pointed his sword at his best friend, Zora. And when he'd finally regained his wits, he'd encased Zora and Alice in ice and gone back to the top floor to defeat the pontifex, but he couldn't manage it. In the fight against Chudelkin, the only thing he'd done was distract the enemy with sacred arts. And then with the Golem, all he'd done was watch as it had sliced up Charlotte, Zora, and Alice.

Eugeo(mind): Am I really this powerless? Alice's memory fragment is only a dozen or two mels away...somewhere in the mural on the ceiling. But I failed to get it back and survived only through Cardinal's sacrifice, and now I'll be thrown out of the tower. Is that the end of my journey?

Even if they escaped with their lives now, what could they possibly do with these mental scars on their souls? All they could do was watch as presumably the last and largest bolt of lightning infused the rapier, which the young woman brandished on high.

The pontifex would surely send Eugeo, Zora, and Alice to far separate locations. He might not even wind up in Norlangarth Empire. He might never find Zora again or get back home to Rulid. He'd live the rest of his life in a strange, foreign land, trembling in fear of the Axiom Church's retribution and cursing his own foolishness and lack of ability...

At the very least, he could keep his eyes open, to fully take in the blinding flash of the lightning that struck Cardinal. And then he realized at last: Accepting the offer of banishment to another realm was the worst possible choice he could make.

The pontifex herself had said she would turn half the people in the world, forty thousand of them, into swords. A veritable army of horrifying, tragic monsters to fight against the army of the land of darkness.

It meant that every family, every couple would be torn apart. Just like Eldrie and his mother. Like Deusolbert and his wife. Like Alice and the Zubergs. And then they'd be turned into the most hideous and horrific weapons imaginable. It couldn't happen. It mustn't happen.

Quinella: Now...let's finish this—our two-hundred-year game of hide-and-seek. Good-bye, Lyserith. Good-bye, my daughter...and my other self.

It was almost sentimental, if not for the fact that it came from lips twisted with sick joy. She lowered the rapier. The final attack came surging on a million rays of light, striking Cardinal's prone body, burning it, obliterating it. The sage's body flew high in the air, right leg disintegrating from its charred state below the knee, and landed at Zora's feet. The sound it made was dry and weightless, like there was no longer any mass to her. Pieces of blackened soot scattered off her skin and melted into thin air.

Quinella: Heh-heh...ah-ha-ha-ha...ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Aaaah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Administrator spun the sword in her palm, contorting her upper body like she was doing a dance.

Quinella: I can see it...I can see your life ebbing away, bit by bit!! Oh, what a beautiful sight...each little droplet like the finest gemstone... Now show me the final act. I will give you just enough time to say your good-byes.

Zora fell to his knees, as though his body had been waiting to obey that order, and reached out to Cardinal. The right side of her face was charred black, and her left eye was closed. But where Zora touched her cheek, he felt the slightest warmth of life, just before it could vanish.

Before he knew what he was doing, Zora had lifted her up with both hands and cradled her to his chest. Zora's tears overflowed, dropping onto her badly burned skin. Her burned eyelashes fluttered and rose. Even at the moment of her death, Cardinal's dark-brown eyes were full of everlasting love and tenderness.

Cardinal: Don't cry, Zora.

She didn't say the words aloud. The concept just entered Zora's consciousness as thought.

Cardinal: It is not the worst end I could have. I never expected...that I would die in the arms of someone...whose heart I felt a true connection with...

Zora: I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...

Zora choked out, hardly more audible than she'd been. Cardinal's lips—miraculously unharmed—curled into a faint grin.

Cardinal: Why would you apologize....? You still have a mission you need to complete, don't you? You and Eugeo...and Alice...must find a way...this beautiful...fragile... world...

Her voice suddenly got much more distant, and Zora thought he felt her body getting lighter. Kneeling nearby, Alice quickly reached out to engulf Cardinal's right hand with both of her own.

Alice: No matter what...No matter what...we'll use these lives you gave us to complete this mission.

Eugeo(mind): Stopping that tragedy is my final duty. That's why I'm here right now. I don't have Zora's and Alice's skills with the blade or Cardinal's talent for arts...but I know there's something else I can do. Don't waste your time lamenting your lack of power, Eugeo—find a way to fight.

And so Eugeo stood in place, thinking his hardest. The Blue Rose Sword was half ice, so it might break the barrier that rebuffed all metal, but if he just swung it at Administrator, she would either blaze him with her lightning or send the golem to slice him to pieces. At best, his Memory Release power might stop her in her tracks for a moment or two.

He couldn't destroy the Sword Golem first, because its one weak point, the Piety Module, was safely stored in its chest, far from his attack range. Even assuming he could reach it, he'd have to strike through the tiny one-cen gap between the three swords that made up its spine—while avoiding the attacks of its rib swords. If that was possible, he'd need the pontifex's ability to fly and armor that deflected sharp blades.

If only he could make his body as hard as ice, like the vision of Blue Rose and permanent ice that he'd seen in the Great Library, and become one with his sword. Become so hard that neither lightning nor flame could stop him... nor any blade cut his skin.Eugeo's hands reached in from the other side.

Eugeo's eyes flew open. There was a way he could do it. There must be. But even if he could achieve it, there was something else he would need. A power like that which operated the Sword Golem. Some miraculous power that would call forth his Memory Release.

Just then, he felt like he heard someone calling his name.

???: Eugeo.

His gaze was drawn upward to the ceiling. Running around the side of the massive dome was a mural that depicted the creation of the world. The gods that built the sky and earth. The ancient humans who were allowed to live there. The gods choosing a single priestess and giving her the role of guiding humanity in their stead. The birth of the Axiom Church, and the building of the white tower in the middle of Centoria.

It was the same as the history book that Eugeo had practically devoured while he was in the library. But it was probably all fiction. A story that Administrator had cooked up to make it easier for her to rule humanity.

At the edge of this ceiling of lies, there was a fine picture of a small bird. It had a stalk of barley in its beak and was flying away. This was the blue bird, from the children's story, that took the stalk from the strictly regimented fields of the great nobles and flew it out to the rural areas before it died. At this point in time, it seemed that this might be the one story that was actually true.

The crystal embedded in the bird's eye glittered. It was a glitter that had been familiar to Eugeo all his life. The light that sparkled in the eyes of the little blond girl his age... And then Eugeo realized his role to play at last.

Eugeo: I swear, too.

He was full of powerful intent, so forthright that it made Zora wonder whether Eugeo was really the same shy, gentle boy he'd known all this time.

Eugeo: At last, I have learned the duty I am meant to fulfill.

But Zora wasn't expecting the words that came next. Neither was Alice, and perhaps not even Cardinal.

Eugeo: And the time for me to fulfill it is now, in this moment. I will not run. I have...a duty that must be executed.

Zora(mind): Eugeo...what are you going to do?

Zora wondered, his eyes darting. The flaxen-haired youth, Zora's unquestionable best friend, Eugeo the swordsman of the Aincrad style, looked back into his eyes for just a moment and smiled. Then he turned to Cardinal and said.

Eugeo: Cardinal. Please use your remaining power to transform me...transform my body into a sword. Just like that puppet.

As though it were bringing her mind back to the surface, this statement caused Cardinal's eyes to sharpen again, widening in surprise.

Cardinal: Eugeo...are you...

Eugeo: If the three of us escape from here, the Administrator will transform half of the humans in the world into terrifying monsters. If there's one last chance remaining to prevent that tragedy, then...it must lie in this command.

Eugeo's smile had the serenity of understanding and acceptance. He wrapped her left hand in both of his and whispered.

Eugeo: System Call...Remove Core Protection.

Zora had never heard that command before. Eugeo closed his eyes when he was finished. On his forehead appeared a complex series of glowing purple lines, like some kind of electrical circuit board. They stretched downward, across his cheeks and his throat, to his shoulders, his forearms, his fingers.

The little pathways of light pushed a small amount of the way into Cardinal's left hand where he held it, their ends flickering as though waiting for an input.

Remove Core Protection.

Based on the definition of the English in that command, Zora assumed that Eugeo had just given Cardinal limitless privileges to manipulate his own fluctlight. Zora didn't know how he knew that art, but at the very least, it was a trio of words that spoke to his utter determination and acceptance.

The dying sage's eyes bulged—one fine, one burned—and her lips trembled. Her uncertain thoughts traveled through skin contact.

Eugeo: Please, Cardinal. Our bond has to be far stronger then the power driving that monster!

Cardinal: Are you sure...Eugeo? I don't know...if you can be turned...back.

Eugeo closed his eyes, his forehead and cheeks covered in glowing lines, and bobbed his head.

Eugeo: It's all right. This is my role...This is the reason I'm here right now. In fact, there's one thing I need to tell you here at the end. Cardinal...Zora, and Alice. Metal weapons cannot reach Administrator's body. It's why I wasn't able to stick her with the dagger you gave me.

Zora:...!

Alice and Zora gasped and held that breath. But Cardinal didn't seem surprised at all—or maybe she just didn't have the strength to show that much emotion. Her only response was to blink. Eugeo bobbed his head and prompted,

Eugeo: Please...do it. Before Administrator notices.

Zora: No, Eugeo. Stop. If you don't...make it back...then...then your dream...

If they actually won this fight and Eugeo didn't get turned back into a human, then the hopes he'd been holding on to for the last eight years—his dream of getting Alice back and taking her home to Rulid—would never come true.

Administrator and Cardinal were the only two people in the world capable of this ultra-advanced ability to convert people's flesh into weapons. One of them was the ultimate enemy, and the other was at death's door. If this gambit actually succeeded, it could very well leave Eugeo with no means to return to human form.

Zora wanted to continue arguing, but Eugeo turned his purple-lit face up to the ceiling and interrupted.

Eugeo: It's okay, Zora. This is what I was meant to do.

Zora:...!

Zora's best friend's mind was made up, and there was nothing he could say to him.

Zora(mind): And what could I say in such a situation?

One single defeat had him shaken to his core. Zora couldn't swing his sword or even step forward closer to danger. Instead, Zora looked pleadingly at Alice. Her blue eyes were full of pain and respect in equal measure. In the next moment, her head hung low. She bowed to the criminal whom she'd struck without hesitation just two days ago at the academy's great hall. Zora bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. In his arms, Cardinal struggled to keep her eyes open.

Cardinal: Very well, Eugeo...I offer the final command of my life...to your decision...

Like a candle before it burned out, her voice regained a valiant bit of strength inside my mind. Purple glimmers lit up the middle of her brown eyes. The pathways of light that ran from Eugeo's hands to Cardinal's suddenly flashed. That light raced through Eugeo's body, and when it reached the pattern on his forehead, it emerged as a pillar of light that blazed all the way to the ceiling.

Quinella: What—?!

That was Administrator, who was still looking drunk with exultation on the far side of the room. Instantly, her triumphant expression vanished. Fury crossed her silver eyes, and she bellowed.

Quinella: What are you doing, you half dead runt!

She pointed her rapier at Zora, Eugeo, and Cardinal. White sparks shot from the body of the weapon.

Alice: No, you don't!!

The Osmanthus Blade, which had to be near the end of its remaining life, disintegrated loudly into a golden chain that flew through the air. At the same time, an earsplitting blast from a giant bolt of lightning came toward them.

The tip of the chain brushed the white bolt. The enemy surge was directed down the length of the chain toward Alice. But by that point, the golden chain was stretching behind her as well, the far end jammed into the floor. Locked into the ground wire and unable to escape back into the air, the massive burst of energy flowed directly into the tower itself, producing a roar and white smoke before it vanished. Alice leveled her index finger at Administrator and declared.

Alice: Your lightning will not affect me!!

Quinella: You lowly puppet knight! You say such impertinent things!

While the two women faced off, the purple light shining from Eugeo only grew brighter and brighter, until he suddenly slumped powerlessly. Instead of falling to the floor, however, he began to float into the air.

He went into a horizontal position, eyes closed, and all his clothes vanished as though they'd evaporated. The beam of light rising from his forehead touched the ceiling. As though answering his call, one of the pictures in the mural began to twinkle—the little bird soaring through the ancient skies, its eye crystal shining.

The roughly thirty crystals embedded in the ceiling, the memory fragments taken from all the Integrity Knights, should have been active in owning the Sword Golem. Only the bird's crystal was different, pulsing with light as it came free from the ceiling and descended through the beam of light.

And that crystal, perhaps—no, almost certainly—was the memory fragment belonging to Alice.

Zora suspected that when Alice was synthesized, she'd lost the memory of her sister, Selka. But if that were the case, then Selka would've already been abducted and turned into a sword here by the time Zora first met her in Rulid two years ago.

So if it wasn't Selka...then who were the memories saved in that crystal about?

The hexagonal prism crystal, pointed on both ends, descended silently, offering no answers. The Blue Rose Sword rose from the floor, rotating, and came to a stop with the tip pointed at Eugeo's heart.

Eugeo's muscled body, the translucent blade of the Blue Rose Sword, and the crystal prism formed one straight line. Meanwhile, the distant Administrator screamed and swung down her rapier.

Quinella: Then you can all burn!!

Thirty heat elements floating around the rapier fused, forming a giant fireball that shot forth.

Alice: And I said...no you don't!!

Alice cried, her voice ringing loud and clear. She pointed her right hand at the swirling flame. The tiny blades forming a cross in midair swarmed together into a giant shield. The knight leaned against it and pushed off the ground, rushing straight toward the coming fireball.

A crash. A short silence.

The resulting explosion was big enough to rattle the entirety of the enclosed space. Fire whipped, light flashed, shock waves burst across the chamber, and most of the carpet on the floor burned into nothing. Even the massive Sword Golem, inactive across the room, buckled with the force, and Administrator herself shielded her face with her arm.

But safe behind Alice's shield, the worst Zora felt was a wave of heat that caused his to gasp. Neither Eugeo floating in the air nor Cardinal in his arms seemed to have been affected by the blast.

Within a few seconds, the maelstrom of flame was gone, as quickly as it'd come...and at its center, Alice fell to the ground with a thud. A second later the Osmanthus Blade, back to its original form, slumped next to its master, point stuck in the ground.

Alice's white-and-blue knight's uniform was charred and smoking here and there. Large burn scars ran over her arms and legs; it was clear from a glance that she was catastrophically wounded. She didn't get up—possibly unconscious—but in the valuable few seconds she bought us, Cardinal managed to finish her command.

Within the pillar of purple light, Eugeo's body lost its solidity and turned invisible. The Blue Rose Sword, also becoming transparent, moved into the center of his chest, fusing with him.

There was another flash. Zora squinted against the brightness, and Eugeo unraveled into a million ribbons of light. Fiercely swirling, they condensed back into a new shape. What was left floating there was not human in appearance.

It was one mammoth sword, stark white with the faintest hint of blue, and a cross-shaped guard. The blade was as long and wide as Eugeo's actual body. Its slight curve was beautiful, ending in a fiercely sharp point. A little furrow in the raised ridge on the flat of the blade was perfectly sized for the floating crystal to fit inside, and it did, with a little click. Cardinal's arm fell limply to the floor. Her lips quivered, and the final part of the command escaped like the slightest of breezes.

Cardinal: Release...Recollection.

The double-edged, six-sided crystal, Alice's memory fragment, shone and reverberated. Eugeo's sword rang on its own to answer that call and floated even higher.

Now the white greatsword was moving on its own, using the same logic that powered the Sword Golem. A sword forged from a human body, the fragment of memories that owned the sword, and the energy that bound them together: the power of love.

But there was one thing the Sword Golem had that Eugeo's sword didn't: the Piety Module prism that Administrator had placed in the heart of the golem. That was the tool that twisted the love powering the creature, driving it to murder.

Quinella: You'll pay for this meddling, Lyserith!!

Administrator shouted, flinching away from the shine of the greatsword as though it was blinding her.

Quinella: Even if you mimic my command, a meager sword like that can't compete with my weapon of utter destruction! I'll snap it in two with a single blow!

She swung her left hand, and the silent Sword Golem's eyes lit up again. It emitted an unpleasant metallic whine and began to shuffle forward at high speed. Eugeo's sword rotated until the flat was entirely level, with the point trained straight on the five-mel-tall giant. Its white length shone brighter and brighter, casting off motes of light into the air around it.

Then the greatsword flew, ringing like a bell. It soared, a sharpened comet, leaving a long white trail behind it.

Cardinal: Beautiful...

Cardinal thought audibly from Zora's arms.

Cardinal: Human...love. And the radiating light...of purpose...So...beautiful...

Zora: Yeah...it is...

Zora whispered, feeling more tears coming to his eyes.

Cardinal: Zora...I leaving the rest up to you now... Please... Protect this...world...and its... people...

With her last bit of strength, Cardinal turned her head to look at Zora with eyes crystal clear and smiled. Once she saw Zora nod his understanding, the little girl who was the world's wisest sage closed her eyes, exhaled—and never drew breath again.

As Zora fought against the sobs, he felt the weight in his arms grow lighter and lighter. In a world blurred by tears, the white sword that bore Cardinal's last wish flew straight and true on wings of light.

The golden giant spread its arms and ribs wide to welcome this oncomer. The blades took position like gleaming jaws, surrounded by an aura of darkness. In terms of sheer numerical priority, there was no way that a greatsword based on Eugeo and his Blue Rose Sword alone could compete with a golem converted from three hundred human beings. But Eugeo's sword sped up regardless, charging into the waiting fangs of the beast.

Its tip was pointed right at the middle of the golem's spine—which was made up of three swords in alignment—at the purple light spilling from the cracks between the swords.

The Piety Module.

Gold and white collided for the briefest of moments. White and black light tangled, swirled, burst. The overlapping metal collisions sounded like some beastly roar, and the golem's arms and ribs slid down to an intersecting point. But just before they could close, the white sword plunged deep into the tiny gap in its backbone.

Zora's ears caught the faintest crackling sound. The purple light seeping from the spine burst into nothing. From the point where the white greatsword struck, the thirty gigantic blades held together with thick darkness began to sparkle and lighten. It almost felt like Eugeo and Alice's love was repairing the sorrow of all those separated lovers.

Sword Golem: Greeeee!

A discordant scream came from the creature, gradually resolving into clean, clear harmony, a beautiful musical chord that rang long and loud before dispersing.

Then the killing machine, the creature that had nearly pushed Zora and the rest to death, fell apart into its individual swords and burst. Thirty different swords spun out following thirty different arcs, sticking and clattering on various surfaces around the room in a deafening clamor.

One of them stood directly behind me like a gravestone. It was from the left arm of the golem, the one that had sliced into me, but the aura of evil around it was gone now, and it was just smooth, cold metal again.

The glittering crystals on the ceiling that were controlling the golem blinked unsteadily and lost their light until they were still again. Zora didn't know what had happened to the "minds" inside of them, but at the very least, Administrator's Perfect Control, which had abused their emotions for power, was broken—never to return, he assumed.

The white greatsword that had destroyed the Sword Golem in a single swing was still levitating flat in the air, beams of light shining off it. Glistening in the center of the blade was Alice's memory fragment. Like a bolt from the heavens, Zora suddenly understood what was contained within it.

Thirty-one Integrity Knights. But only thirty swords in the Sword Golem. The fusion with Eugeo's sword made it clear that the only memory fragment that hadn't been used for that purpose was Alice's.

So why couldn't Administrator forge a sword that would pair up with Alice's memories?

It must've been because Alice's memories...her love...was too great. Young Alice loved Eugeo, loved Selka, loved her parents, loved everyone who lived in the village, loved Rulid itself, and even loved the time in which the people she loved lived and would continue to live.

Even the almighty pontifex couldn't convert time and space into solid matter. So she wasn't able to make a sword she could link to Alice. And it was why the sword that Alice and Eugeo made was so beautiful and radiant.

Zora: Yes...it really is beautiful.

Zora whispered to Cardinal's soul, which was now traveling to a place much farther than anywhere in the Underworld or the real world, as he clutched her body. She didn't speak back, but Zora felt her tiny body taking on a faint phosphorescence in his arms. It was the exact same kind of purity of being that he felt from the white sword's miracle light.

This, to Zora, was the proof that Cardinal, who was once a girl named Lyserith, was not simply a program, as she claimed so many times, but a true human being with real emotions and love.

The glow brought a gentle warmth that penetrated my freezing flesh, even as her body began to lose its solidity. It was becoming transparent, until at last the contours broke apart, and she vanished in a spray of light.

Zora: Eugeo.

The waves lit every surface of the isolated chamber, purifying it all—until they were ripped apart by a voice like a blade that resisted everything.

Quinella: That was a very vexing stunt to play right at your death, little one. You've put a very nasty scar on my long-awaited memory of triumph.

Even after the destruction of her ultimate weapon, Administrator was as haughty as she'd ever been, a cold smile on her lips.

Quinella: But the best she could do was destroy one measly prototype. I can make hundreds of them, thousands.

The way she boasted about this with her rapier in hand was so mechanical, so utterly artificial, that it truly made Zora wonder, despite her having the same origins as Cardinal, whether she had actually lost her ability to feel emotion. Her shining white skin and dazzling silver hair exuded pulses of darkness like some kind of miasma.

Deep inside him, the cold serpent of fear bared its fangs once again. On instinct, Zora clutched his now empty arms together. The seemingly invincible Sword Golem was destroyed, but at a tremendous cost. They'd lost the sage who was the only person in the world capable of counteracting Administrator's overwhelming power.

All Zora could do was stare up at the pontifex in silent horror—but Eugeo's sword kept rising, and with a smooth ringing sound, it pointed directly at their last and greatest foe.

Quinella: Oh my! You want to fight me, boy? A little arrogant, when all you did was poke a gap and destroy my puppet, wouldn't you say?

Zora couldn't even be sure whether her words were registering with Eugeo while he was in sword form. But the pure-white blade steadfastly held its tip in her direction. The shine that surrounded the weapon grew stronger, its vibrating pitch growing higher and higher.

Zora: Stop it, Eugeo.

Zora rasped, reaching out toward the shining sword.

Zora: Don't...don't go alone.

Driven by a burning panic, Zora shuffled over the charred carpet on weakened knees. He stretched as far as he could toward the sword and touched one of the motes of light that came off it, but the mote burst and vanished.

Out of the handle of the greatsword, another set of wings made of light grew. The wings flapped hard, pushing the white weapon directly at Administrator. A wicked grin appeared on her pearly lips. Her mirrored rapier creaked as she swung it down, and another blast of lightning, perhaps even bigger than the ones that killed Cardinal, burst forward to meet the rushing sword of light.

The instant the lightning touched the tip of the sword, there was an even greater shock wave than the one that had started upon the Sword Golem's destruction. Even at my distance, it buffeted Zora's weakened body.

He tensed against the shock and did his best to keep his eyes open, which is how Zora saw that Administrator's bolt of lightning erupted into millions of tiny tributaries.

A peal of thunder accompanied the flying sparks, which in turn created their own, much smaller explosions around the room. And even through the tremendous deluge of energy that it shattered, the sword flew on. The white surface of its blade was covered in fine cracks, and pieces began to fall off. They were parts of Eugeo's body, pieces of his very life.

Zora: Eugeo!!

Zora screamed, his voice lost in the storm.

Quinella: You wretched brat!!

The smile was gone from Administrator's lips. The white greatsword reached the source of the lightning at last. Its point hit the needle end of the rapier right on the nose. An ultra-high-pitched resonance arose, shaking the isolated chamber.

For a few moments, Administrator's silver rapier—the source of her godly power —and the white blade that was the fusion of Eugeo and the Blue Rose Sword grappled for supremacy. It looked like total stillness, but I could feel on my skin that this was only the precursor to the coming wave of destruction.

What happened next passed as though it were happening in slow motion. Administrator's rapier shattered into tiny pieces. The white greatsword split in two, spraying motes of light.

The front end of the blade shot off, spinning, and silently sliced Administrator's right arm clean off at the shoulder. The image burned itself into my retinas until sound and vibration finally caught up.

Sacred resources burst forth from the shattered rapier and exploded in a colorful array that engulfed the room.

Zora: Eugeooooooo!!

Again, Zora scream was swallowed by the storm that buzzed and squealed like analog static. An oncoming shock wave smashed into his body as it hurtled toward the southern windows. Zora just barely managed to take cover behind one of the giant swords stuck into the ground that had been part of the golem just minutes ago.

When Zora could at last stand again, he saw Administrator standing on the ground on her own two feet, clutching her shoulder with her remaining hand...and two large shards of metal at her feet.

Eugeo's broken sword still contained a faint trace of its glow. But even as Zora watched, it was growing weaker, pulsing like a beating heart, until it disappeared.

The pieces of the white sword began to lose their sense of being, gradually reverting to human form. The piece from the tip to the middle of the blade became the legs. And the part including the guard and hilt became the torso and head. Eugeo was clutching the crystal prism to his chest, his eyes shut. His flaxen hair and milky skin were back to their full, solid texture.

Then, the cross sections where his body was split in two erupted with blood, immediately flooding Administrator's bare feet.

Zora: Ah......ah.........

The sound that croaked from Zora's throat came to his own ears as though from a very far distance. The entire world lost color, lost smell, lost sound. Everything paled. In the midst of this existence without sensation, only the color of the blood that continued to spill out had any vivacity to it. Something sparkling descended right next to Eugeo, who was lying in a crimson sea.

It landed and stuck in the liquid, sending a ripple outward—a slender blue-silver longsword, the Blue Rose Sword. Zora thought it was unharmed, but only for a moment; it promptly shattered, the pointed half of the sword breaking apart into ice crystals.

Without its support, the handle half of the sword tipped over and landed next to Eugeo's face. It sent up a splash of blood flecks that hit Eugeo's cheek, only to roll back down his skin.

Zora managed a few wobbling steps before he fell to his knees. With glassy eyes, Zora clutched his own sides, clinging to what warmth of Cardinal's body still resided in his arms. But that faint heat did nothing to fill the growing void within him. It was like his mind, his body, and even his soul were going hollow.

Zora(mind): Let's end this already.

The thought rose from the emptiness like a bubble and popped. Zora had lost, in every sense of the word. His one single reason for being in this place was to help free Eugeo's soul into the real world. Instead, he'd sacrificed himself to protect Zora, and Zora was powerless, on his hands and knees—the man who would simply log out to reality when he died in the Underworld.

Zora(mind): I just want to fade out, to vanish from the world. I don't want to see any more, hear any more.

All he prayed for was his own obliteration. But the Underworld was its own reality, and its master was not a program designed to stop once a person hit the bad ending.

As she stood in the sea of blood, Administrator's pale, featureless beauty took on the slightest bit of color, which vanished just as quickly. Her gorgeous voice brushed aside the silence of the room.

Quinella: I have not suffered such injury in two hundred years. Since my fight with Lyserith.

It almost seemed like there was a note of praise, of admiration, in her voice.

Quinella: The sword was converted with Eugeo's body, in terms of priority, it was no match for my Silvery Eternity, so this is a surprise. And not recognizing that the sword wasn't metallic was also a mistake.

Drops of blood dripped from her right shoulder, creating more ripples in the puddle at her feet. She caught one in her left palm, converted it to light elements, and rubbed it on the wound. Instantly, the severed cross section sealed over into smooth skin.

Quinella: Now then. That you'd be the last standing is something of a surprise as well, boy from the other side. Why you came all this way without administrator privileges...I admit I'm a little interested. But I'm tired of all that now, and I'm sleepy. I'll have that person give me a full account later, and bring this battle an end with your blood and screams.

She began to stride gracefully forward, betraying no sign that she was suffering from her severed arm. She stepped over Eugeo's split body and proceeded toward Zora, leaving bloody footprints on the bare marble floor. As she walked, she reached out sideways, and something white flew up from the ground behind her. It was a slender right arm—the limb that Eugeo's sword had cut off her.

Zora thought she was going to reattach it to her shoulder, but instead, she lifted it up to her face, holding it by the wrist, and blew on it. Instantly, the arm was wreathed in purple light, shuddering mechanically as it underwent matter conversion.

What appeared was a silver longsword, simple in design but beautifully elegant. Its finish wasn't the perfect unbroken mirror that the rapier's was, but given the fact that it was using the arm of the most powerful person in the world as its resource, Zora was certain that the power it contained was more than enough to separate his head from his shoulders.

Death approached on quiet footsteps. Zora awaited it from his knees. In just a few seconds, the administrator of this world arrived before him, dazzlingly beautiful despite her missing arm, and gazed down at Zora. He looked up and met the colorful reflection of her mirror eyes. There was just a hint of mirth in them, and a gentle cast to her voice.

Quinella: Farewell, boy. Let's meet again someday on the other side.

Administrator raised the sword, which caught the light of the moon. A blade as sharp as a razor cut a blue arc through space toward Zora's neck. And then there was a silhouette occupying the space before him.

Long hair fanned through the air. All Zora could do was watch as the wounded knight held her arms out wide. He had seen this before.

Zora(mind): Was I going to repeat the same mistake...yet again?! Am I... gonna let Big Sis save me again?!

The thought flashed into Zora's head, stopping time. This exact moment. Yes he'd seen it before. It was at the old Aincrad. Golden hair, blue eyes, white ribbon in her hair. She too had jumped right before him. The same thing is happening again.

In a monochrome world without sound or color, a number of things happened in quick succession. A small hand brushed Zora's right arm where it dangled lifelessly. The cold fear and resignation that consumed his entire being melted just a bit with the warmth of that palm. The negative thoughts hadn't vanished. But the owner of the hand was telling me that it was okay to admit that weakness.

Cardinal: You don't have to always win every time. If you lose eventually, if you fall, you just need to connect your heart, your will, to someone else. I am certain that is how all of those who shared time with you and moved on felt. Even I. Which means you can stand again. To protect someone you love.

Zora was conscious of a mild heat emanating from his body, or perhaps his mind, sending circuits of light into his frozen fluctlight. From the center of his chest, through his right shoulder, down his arm, into his fingers. Zora's tense fingertips were suddenly engulfed in a burning heat.

With speed he'd never experienced before, Zora's right hand shot to the handle of his black sword nearby and grabbed it. Then time flowed once more. Administrator's sword plunged down at the left shoulder of Alice, who stood with arms outstretched to take the blow for Zora. The sharp blade ripped the sleeve of the charred knight's uniform and was just about to sink into her pale skin.

Zora swung his sword as he rose to his feet, and Zora caught the end of the silver sword just in the nick of time, sending up a shower of sparks. The resulting shock pushed Administrator away from Alice and him.

Zora's free hand slipped around to steady Alice as she fell back against him, while the force of the impact pushed him toward the wall—it took both feet holding firm to prevent a collision. She rested her head against Zora's right shoulder, then turned to look up at him with her blue eyes.

Alice: What?

Her cheeks, still ugly and burned from the fire attacks she'd suffered, crinkled into a smile.

Alice: You can still move after all...?

Zora: Yeah...

Zora said, giving her as close to a smile as he could manage.

Zora: Now leave the rest to me.

Alice: I think...I will.

And with that, Alice fell unconscious and slumped to her knees. Zora lowered her to the floor and set her back against the window. He sucked in a deep breath and stood again.

Zora: Get some rest and leave this to me. Charlotte, Cardinal, and Eugeo have given their lives for mine...so I'll make sure to pass it on to you.

The one thing that was most important was to get Alice out of this enclosed space somehow. Zora had to fight this woman and at the very least tie if he couldn't win. Even if that meant losing all his limbs, getting stabbed through the heart, or getting his head chopped off.

Zora leveled his gaze, keenly aware of these possibilities, and stared at his foe. Administrator's grin was as faint as ever as she gazed at the hand holding her sword. There was a part of her soft palm that was rubbed red and raw, probably from the earlier shock wave.

Quinella: I'm starting to get annoyed.

Administrator said with glacial ferocity. Her mirror eyes, too, were as icy as though frost had gathered on them.

Quinella: Why do you flail about in this unseemly manner? The outcome of the battle is already clear. What meaning can there be in the process or reaching a set outcome?

Zora: The process is what's important. The part where you either die crawling or die with a sword in your hand. That's what makes us...human beings.

Zora closed his eyes and imagined his past self again. The self-image of Zora the Night Sky Swordsman that he'd kept defining for himself for years. The part of him that could never lose—the curse that said if he ever fell in battle, he'd lose everything he ever had.

But now Zora needed to free himself from that fear and fixation. When his eyelids rose, long bangs hung over his eyes. Zora brushed them away with a gloved hand and swept his long dark blue and white coat aside to brandish his longsword. A short distance away, Administrator raised an eyebrow, then put on a cruel smile like the one she'd worn when she took Cardinal's life.

Quinella: The way you're dressed in mostly in black makes you look like a dark knight. Fine. If you wish to suffer, then I'll make sure your fate is drawn out and cruel. You'll beg me to put you out of your misery.

Zora: That won't be enough to atone for my stupidity.

A/N: Alright, we are reaching the finale of Part 1 in Alicization. One more chapter to go until, War of Underworld. So look forward to that. And as always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading.