Rinko Koujiro sat in the control seat at the console of Subcon, staring at the glass hatch placed to the left of the board. The LCD screen at the top of the hatch flashed a message in red letters: Ejecting...

There was the deep sound of pressurized air leaking. Eventually, for a second time, a small black quadrilateral shape appeared beyond the glass window. The LCD screen changed to Complete for a second time.

Rinko reached out once again with a trembling hand to open the little hatch and take out its contents.

It was another hard metal package, a cube a little over two inches to a side, and surprisingly heavy. A six-digit number was carved on its sheer face, and there was a very small connector port on it. The first one was exactly the same with a different set of six-digit numbers on its sheer face.

Trapped in this second and third one was the second ALICE fluctlight that appeared long ago and was just discovered a little ago, Eugeo's and Edith's souls.

Following the commands of the system, the LightCube Cluster installed in the center of the Ocean Turtle's Main Shaft ejected a specific cube, sealing it into a protective package and then shooting them through a pneumatic, which was done twice.

At the same time, it was a journey from the Interior Underworld to the exterior real world.

Rinko was speechless for a few moments, struck with an indescribable sensation, but recovered when the second cube appeared and carefully with both hands placed it into a briefcase with another cube to the right of it.

She turned to the mic and shouted.

Ringo: Asuna, Sachi, Alice, Edith, Kirito and Eugeo have been ejected! All of are that it's left! Make it quick!!

She glanced at the crimson countdown on the monitor and added.

Ringo: You've only got thirty seconds until the maximum acceleration starts! Log out now!

There was a moment of silence.

Kazuto: I'm going back in.

Sachi: yeah we're going back in.

Rinko: but you'll there for a while and unable to log out!!

Asuna: Yami has been there with us since SAO and now it's our turn..

????: I know that but if I do that then Yami's fluctlight will be gone forever by the time we're able to enter the Underworld again.

A voice filled with emotion came from the speakers and said:

????: I can't lose him again so I have faith in Kitsune to protect the last bit of Yami in the real world while we come back no matter what.

Yami's fluctlight is inside of his body.

That's what Rinko wanted to interject with but Asuna's voice came through the speakers once again, calm and gentle and full of purpose.

Asuna: We're sorry. Please Take care of Alice, Edith and Eugeo. They're each sweet people. The two hold great love within him, and they are loved by many. For the sake of the souls who vanished for their sake... and for my boyfriend's and Kirito's sake, please don't let them turn them into a weapon. We're already dealt with problems please no more wars.

Rinko's voice was stuck in her throat as she grabbed the mic to croak out something else but then...

Kazuto: And tell everyone else, too, that... We're sorry... and thank you... and Goodbye...

The countdown hit zero.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

A long siren blared, and the heavy groan of machinery echoed throughout the cramped cable duct. It was ten o'clock in the morning on July 7th. The fifteen-minute countdown was over, and the cooling system on the other side of the wall was running at full capacity. Huge fans desperately tried to suck out the incredible heat output of the machines supporting the Underworld Simulation. If you looked at the Ocean Turtle from the sea, you would see heat haze rising from the top of its pyramid structure.

Higa: It's started.

Kikuoka: Yeah...

Higa: Rinko... how's it going?

There was some static, followed by a connection sound, but all he received was a heavy silence.

Higa. Rinko?

Rinko: I'm sorry. We've safely retrieved Alice,  Eugeo, and Edith's Lightcubes. But....

She said faintly and then delivered what came next. Higa held his breath and closed his eyes tight.

Higa: All right. We'll do all we can. I'll get in touch to tell you when to open the connection hatch.

He released the button and expelled all the air in his lungs over a long, slow period.

Kikuoka didn't ask what he'd heard, sensing enough from Higa's reaction already. He continued to bound downward in silence.

Higa: Kiku...

Several seconds later, Higa finally found the voice to tell the team commander what Dr. Koujiro had related to him.

———-
After she was done relaying the situation to Takeru Higa, Rinko leaned back in the mesh chair and let out a heavy breath.

Asuna Yuuki, Kazuto Kirigaya, Sachi's decision to stay in the Underworld once it became clear that Yami Minamoto would not be able to escape before the acceleration started was so youthful, so earnest- and so tragically beautiful.

????:
Dr. Koujiro

Said a voice behind her, and she spun around. It was Lieutenant Nakanishi, who had returned to the sub-control room without drawing her attention.

Nakanishi: We're ready to reopen the barrier hatch. You can go ahead at any time.

Rinko: Oh...thank you.

She said, checking the time on the monitor. One minute had passed since the activation of the maximum acceleration phase. In internal time, that was... ten years.

It was unbelievable. The age of Kazuto Kirigaya's, Asuna Yuuki's and Sachi's souls was now greater than Rinko's. Yami Minamoto's soul was already greater given the fact he already spent manys years in the Underworld but those memories were blocked so he was over 40 combining his real-world age and the time he spent in Underworld after his accident.

His soul wouldn't make it out of the Underworld if they took in the time he spent altogether in the Underworld which was 50 years without his real-world age taken into account.

Rinko: Higa, Kikuoka... hurry!!

Rinko prayed, biting her lip.

———
Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka wheezed with ragged breath. A cascade of sweat discoloured his shirt and seeped into Higa's clothing. Higa wanted to stop him here but his wound from Yanai shooting him was throbbing despite the maximum amount of pain killers.

Kikuoka: Do... you find this to... be a surprise?

Kikuoka asked out of the blue between his heavy breaths. Higa actually gurgled in alarm.

Higa: Er, I... uh... I guess I'll admit that it seems a bit out of character for you...

Normally, Kikouka's priorities would be to keep the pressure-resistant barrier sealed and protecting both Alice and Eugeo's light cubes until the defence ship could arrive should be the obvious choice. Even if that meant the collapse of the fluctlights of Kazuto Kirigaya, Asuna Yuuki, Sachi and Yami Minamoto if Dr. Koujiro protested against it, he could confine her if he needed.
——-

Kikuoka: No...kidding. But... let me tell you... this. I've got a... good reason... for doing this."

Higa: O-oh yeah?

Kikuoka: I make it... a point to always consider...the worst outcome. And for now... I want the enemy... to think... they have a chance at taking... Alice, Edith, and Eugeo.

Higa: The worst outcome, huh?

Could there be anything worse than the enemy finding about the cable duct and attacking from below while the barrier was open? Before Higa could extrapolate that idea any further, Kikuoka's soles finally landed on the titanium alloy of the hatch. While the commanding officer stopped and panted, Higa pressed on the intercom and said,

Higa: Rinko, we've made it! Open the barrier lock!!

Rinko immediately began to type away at the keyboard to open up the barrier lock once again.
———

Critter: Whoa... they really opened the damn thing again!

Shouted Critter, seeing the pressure barrier open warning on the main monitor.

Critter: Now that they have Alice, all they have to do is wait for the JSDF to storm in. So why?

Critter turned around to the members and instructed.

Them: All right!

Except for Brigg, everyone head for the stairs. Blast away and seize control of the bulkhead.

Hans: You make it sound so simple.

Hans complained, clicking his tongue and hoisting his assault rifle. A dozen or so men followed his lead.

Brigg: Hey, what am I supposed to do?

Critter lifted up his watch, revealing a miniature screen with the map of the way up to Subcon on it, and said.

Critter: You and I are going to check out this cable duct. I have a feeling this is what the enemy's really after.

Brigg: Oh yeah? Well... that's more like it.

Brigg grinned. He walked off loudly checking the ammunition of his rifle, and Critter did his best not to sigh out loud.

In a few minutes, they were at their destination. It looked just like a hallway that ran along the inner wall of the Main Shaft. But according to the ship map, there was a little hatch on the left side of the wall that led to a cable duct that connected to the upper half of the shaft. The shaft was split by that powerful barrier as well, of course, but if Critter's suspicions were correct.

After opening the heavy door, the first thing Critter saw was a tunnel about six feet deep and less than three feet tall, lit by dim orange lights. At the back, the tunnel went upward, and there were simple steps into the wall.

In the middle of the dimly lit tunnel was a body with blood under it with a gun in its right hand. Brigg used his right foot to turn the man over to see a pale skin with hollow eyes looking up at them while his nose and mouth dribbled blood out.

Brigg: He's dead.

Hans: Hey... isn't this that guy? The mole inside Rath...? Did they execute him when they found out he was a spy? It's a weird way to kill someone...

They glanced up the vertical tunnel for a moment, before Brigg noticed a flicker of light coming from up above.

Brigg: Oh, shit!!

Cried Brigg, then he lifted his assault rifle and fired. Yellow flashes burned Critter's retinas, and two types of gunfire rattled his eardrums. He managed not to scream but watched as Brigg's massive body bounced off the floor of the tunnel as though it had been smashed by an invisible hammer.

Critter: Aaaah! What the hell?!"

Shrieked Critter, falling onto his butt in the hallway. Brigg was collapsed and unmoving, in the same spot where the spy's body had just been. Critter didn't need to see the pooling blood on the floor to know that he'd suffered the same fate as the spy. One of Rath's combat members had been waiting up above and had shot him.
—————
Higa: K...Kiku! You all right, Kiku?!"

Hissed Higa as quietly as he could. The enemy had appeared at the bottom of the cable duct and fired off at least three rifle shots.

He got no response. Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka had his shoulder pressed against the wall of the duct, Higa on his back, with one hand on the ladder step and the other holding a pistol.

Higa: No way, man. You can't be serious. We still need you! Ki...

He was about to yell Kikuokaaaaaa!! when the lieutenant colonel coughed violently.

Kikuoka: Koff... erugh... oh, man. I am so glad I wore this bulletproof vest...

Higa: O-of course you did! Were you seriously thinking of wearing  your aloha shirt down here...?

Higa asked, sighing with relief. He glanced down at Kikuoka's back again.

Kikuoka: So you're not hurt, then?

Higa: Nope, but I did take one shot to the vest. Are you okay, though? There were a lot of ricochets.

Higa: Y-yeah... Neither I nor the terminal got hit.

Kikuoka: Then let's hurry. We're almost to the maintenance port.

As Kikuoka rocked back and forth down the rungs again, Higa thought how surprising this was. He'd always assumed that Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka was not one for physical activities, but the muscles under his broad back were hard as steel. And as for his marksmanship... he had been hanging by one hand from the ladder and shot down the duct twice, one-handed, and double-tapped the enemy in the throat and chest.

Higa: I feel like I'll never run out of surprises from this guy for as long as I know him.

Higa thought, shaking his head. He pulled the cable for the maintenance connector out of his pocket as the port came into view.

Critter: These Rath guys aren't playing around. It might be time for last resort measures But to do that...

Critter got his feet since he couldn't make this decision on his own or he would have nightmares for the rest of his life. I need the captain to decide!
———

Miller: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Gabriel Miller sprang upright, laughing uproariously. The first thing he saw was a wall of gray metal panels. Warning labels written in Japanese corresponded to cables to ducts all over its surface.

Miller: ha-ha-ha-ha-hah....

As his laughter subsided, replaced by heavy breathing, Gabriel blinked and blinked. When his breathing normalized, he looked to the sides. He was in STL Room one on the Ocean Turtle. Apparently, some unforeseen factor had booted him out of the simulation.

Gabriel turned to his STL, wondering if he could dive back in to devour the light and the boy's heart.

Resting on the seat of the STL was a tall white man with his eyes closed.

Miller: Hmm? Who's that?"

But he then realized something.

Miller: That's my face.

Chief Technical officer Glowgen Defense Systems, Gabriel Miller.

Miller: Then who am I, looking down at me?

Gabriel lifted his hands to examine them. All he saw was a hazy translucent light instead.

Miller: What is this? What happened?

And then he heard a quiet voice over his shoulder.

????: You've finally come to this side, Gabe.

He spun around. Standing there in a white blouse and a dark blue pleated skirt was a young girl. Her face was downcast, so he couldn't see it past her airy golden hair. But Gabriel knew who this girl was.

Miller: Alicia...

He said, for the first time in nearly twenty years in the real world. His face broke into a smile.

Miller: So this is where you've been, Allie.

Alicia Clingerman. The childhood friend of Gabriel Miller, and the very first person he'd killed on his noble quest in search of the human soul.

Gabriel momentarily forgot the bizarre situation he was in and reached out to her. Alicia's hand snapped forward in a blur of movement and snatched his, hard.

She was cold. Cold as ice. A freezing sensation prickled his flesh through the skin like needles. Gabriel instinctually tried to pull away. But Alicia's tiny hand was as firm as a vise. His smile vanished.

Miller: It's cold. Let go of me, Allie...

He murmured. Her golden hair shook back and forth.

Alicia: I won't, Gabe. We're going to be together forever. Come---Let's go."

Miller: Go...? Go where? I can't--I still have things to do.

Gabriel protested, pulling back with all his might. But he did not move. In fact, he was slowly being pulled down toward her.

Miller: Let go. Let go of me, Alicia.

He said, more sternly this time. Just then, she lifted her head. And the moment he saw her face below those neatly trimmed bangs, Gabriel felt his heart shrinking in his chest.

His guts surged upward. His breathing grew faster. Goosebumps rose on his skin.

What is this? What is this sensation?

Miller: A....a-a-ah...Let go. Stop. Let go.

He lifted his other hand to push Alicia away, but she grabbed that one just as fast. Fingers as cold and hard as metal dug into his skin. Alicia giggled at him.

Alicia: That's fear, Gabe. That's the real emotion you wanted to understand, right there. Isn't it lovely?

Fear.

The source of the expressions he'd seen on all those people in their final moments when he'd killed them for his experiments, to satisfy his curiously.

But now that he was experiencing it himself for the very first time, it was not a pleasant feeling. In fact, it was tremendously unpleasant. He didn't want to know this thing. He wanted it to be over.

But...he sees him, Yami but it wasn't him but lightning surrounded him as he made a finger gun.

Yami?: Something wrong, Miller? That you wouldn't be scared. You calling yourself a god? After everything you taken from them, Miller and now all that remains is...

He points at Miller as he grins like mad.

Yami?: a perfect punishment for you...

He walks away as many hands pulled Miller down as he screams in pain, his face was being pulled down as blood were coming out of his wounds until he was gone.

Yami?: seems the boss would be out for a while, I don't blame him.

He uses the dark areas to transform into a demon of darkness and waits for Critter.
———

Critter ran into the STL room one and exclaimed.

Critter: Captain Miller! Alice is in the enemy's..."

Any further words caught in his throat. Right in front of him, lying on the gel bed of STL unit one, with the machine covering his forehead and everything above it, was Gabriel Miller. His face wore an expression that Critter had never seen on him before.

In fact, Critter had never seen it on any human being.

His blue eyes were bulging so much they threatened to pop out of his skull. His mouth was wide enough that the jaw joints almost had to be dislocated- and it was diagonal, not straight. His tongue extended far out of his mouth as if it were an entirely separate living thing.

Critter: C...Cap...tain...?

Critter gaped, his knees shaking. He knew that if he happened to see one of those protruding eyeballs move, he would scream.

It took him more than a few seconds to control his breathing and then reach out, slowly and hesitantly, to touch the man's left wrist where it hung from the side of the bed.

There was no pulse.

His skin was cold as ice. Despite the lack of any external wounds, the assault team's commanding officer, Captain Gabriel Miller, was dead.

Critter clenched his stomach to keep its contents from rising and rasped.

Critter: Vassago...get up! The captain's d...dea...

He made his way on trembling legs around the gel bed to the second unit, which was farther into the room.

This time, he did scream.

The second in command, Vassago Casals, was asleep peacefully, glancing from afar. But getting closer, black lines ran across his skin from where Critter could see, and it spiked into his eyeballs that were bulging like Gabriel's but even more fiercely somehow.

Critter backed away. he didn't even bother to check the pulse this time. Despite being a hacker who believed only in reason and source code. He sees words on the walls and a monster of darkness staring at him.

NOTHING WORTH THE RISK

NOTHING WORTH THE RISK

NOTHING WORTH THE RISK

NOTHING WORTH THE RISK

NOTHING WORTH THE RISK

Critter truly thought at that moment he was going to meet the same end that these two did if he stayed in the accursed room.

He tumbled backward through the open doorway and slammed the door shut with his foot.

Critter panted heavily and tried to put together what this meant. There was no way to know what happened to Millar and Vassago, he didn't want to know. All he could assume was that something had happened in the Underworld and that, most likely, it had totally destroyed their fluctlights.

In the end, the operation was a failure. Now that the team leader was dead, there was no way to get a decision on whether to destroy the whole ship with Alice in it. There was no reason to stay here any longer.

Critter picked the communication device off the console and croaked.

Critter: Hans... come back. Brigg, Vassago, and the captain are dead."

Within a minute, the biggest dandy on the team came rushing back to the control room, his expression sharp as a knife.

Critter: You said Brigg is dead?! How?!

Hans: H-he got shot from above... in the cable duct...

Hans listened no further before rushing off with his rifle at the ready as Critter called out.

Critter: Stop! They've got Alice's lightcube. There's no reason to fight anymore.

The soldier was silent for a while. Then he abruptly punched the wall with an incredible clatter and came stomping back to Critter.

Hans: No...there must still be orders. If we can't steal it, we destroy it. You've got an idea of what to do, don't you?"

Critter was overwhelmed by Hans's imposing presence and trembling mustache. He nodded nervously.

Critter: I... I do, kind of... but we can't. I can't make that kind of decision on my own.

Hans: Say it. Tell me now!!

Yelled Hans, pressing the muzzle of his assault rifle to Critter's throat. The mercenary and Brigg had been a duo for years, since long before Glowgen hired them. The ferocity of his gaze was too much for Critter.

Critter: The... the engine...

Hans: Engine? Of the ship?

Critter: Yeah... this huge thing runs on a nuclear reactor...
———

Ten minutes had passed.

Rinko Koujiro clenched her sweating palms, staring at the digital readout that continued to ascend without mercy.

A hundred years had passed within the Underworld since the initiation of the maximum acceleration phase. It was impossible to imagine how Kazuto Kirigaya, Asuna Yuuki, Sachi Minamoto and Yami Minamoto had experienced that length of time.

All she knew was that the memory capacity of a normal fluctlight was running out, and soon- except Yami's who should've nearly been overloaded by now.

According to Higa's assessment, the human soul stopped functioning properly once it had accumulated about 150 years of memories, and then it began to collapse. This hadn't been tested in an experiment, of course. The limit might actually be higher--- or significantly lower.

All she could do now was pray that they finished the logging out process before the remaining ones with capacity imploded. If they could just avoid that, there was still hope that the three of them might return to their original selves while Yami they don't know if he'll able to remember

Nakanishi: Doctor! The enemy has begun to withdraw from the Ocean Turtle!

Rinko: W...withdraw?!

Rinko typed some commands on the keyboard to call up the status windows for various ship conditions and asked Lieutenant.

Rinko Did anyone get hurt in the fighting?.

Nakanishi: Yes, Ma'am... We've got two light injuries, one more serious. He's being treated now, but I don't think it'll be fatal.

Rinko: I see...

She let out the breath she'd been holding and glanced over at the man.  There was a large medical patch stuck on Nakanishi's chiselled cheekbone, which had a small trace of blood blotting through. he was one of the two who were lightly injured.

They had to save those three- hopefully four- kids so that this fighting wasn't all for nothing. At the very least, the news that the enemy was pulling out was good. On the status window, Rinko confirmed that the bay door to the submerged dock on the underside of the Ocean Turtle was open. That was how the attackers had gotten in the first time.

Rinko: Looks like they're going to escape with their submersible again. They're really in a rush, though....

She said, staring curiously. Then a vibration shook the entire Main Shaft. A whining howl, like a dry breeze through branches, burst through the gigantic megafloat. her pen rolled off the table and fell onto the floor.

Rinko: Wh...What is this?! What's happening?!

Nakanishi: It sounds like... Ohhh....No, they couldn't-!! This vibration must be the main engine at full power, Doctor!!

Rinko: Main Engine...?

Nakanishi: The pressurized water reactor at the base of the shaft.

When Rinko just sat there in muted horror, the lieutenant leaped to the console and awkwardly interacted with the status screen, bringing up new windows until one of them showed a blurry image.

Nakanishi: Holy shit! All the control rods are raised!! What have they done?!

Rinko: But...there must be safety measures, right...?

Nakanishi: Of course. Before the reactor reaches a critical state, the control rods automatically get inserted to stop fission from occurring. But... just look at this...

He pointed at the spot on the monitor where it displayed real-time footage of the containment chamber. It was hard to tell through all the red light, but it looked like some small white object was stuck to one large yellow-painted piece of machinery.

Nakanishi: First, it'll heat up the primary cooling fluid until it results in a steam explosion, destroying the pressurize... In the worst-case scenario, the core will meltdown and break through the containment chamber and the ship's blige into the seawater, thus evaporating lots more water and blowing up the entire shaft. Including Main Control, The Lightcube Cluster, and Sub Control.

Rinko: Wha...?

Rinko looked down at the floor beneath her feet.

Rinko: Superheated steam, bursting up through this thick metal floor? It would mean that all the Rath employees, who'd done their best to avoid casualties; Kazuto, Asuna, Sachi Minamoto and Yami Minamoto connected to The Soul Translators; and the thousands of artificial fluctlights in the LightCube Cluster- all of them would be obliterated in an instant...

Nakanishi: I'll go and remove the C4. They'll have set the time for long enough that they can escape to a safe distance on their submersible. We should have five minutes... That's enough time for me.

Rinko: B-but Mr. Nakanishi, by now, the temperature in the engine room must be...

Nakanishi: Please. It's no more than a sauna with the heat turned up. Rushing in to pull the detonator should be easy enough.

Nakanishi ran toward the door leading to the staircase down, but his high laced black boots stopped just short of the sliding door.

There was a sound in the room that Rinko had never heard before. Nakanishi promptly reached for his holster, and they both looked to their left.

It was a high-pitched metal whirring coming from a right foot stepping out of its protective frame- belonging to the metal and plastic machine body of Niemon.

To the disbelief of Rinko and Nakanishi, the humanoid machine walked slowly toward them, its head sensors glowing red.

Higa had designed it, so he knew how it functioned better than anyone. Unlike Ichiemon, which was loaded with many ambulatory balancers, Niemon was designed to be an artificial fluctlight carrier, so without a lightcube inserted, it couldn't walk at all. Alice and Eugeo were the only fluctlights ejected from the cluster, and she was still held in the case on the desk. Niemon's head socket should be empty.

Nakanishi: Wh...Why is Prototype Two moving...?

Nakanishi gasped, drawing his pistol. Niemon ignored him and walked straight toward Rinko, stopping about six feet away from her. A tinny electronic voice issued from a speaker somewhere in its head.

????: I'll go.

That voice.

The tang of oil lubricating Niemon tickled her nostrils. She had heard the same voice and smelled the same odour on the night that she landed on the Ocean Turtle, when she was dreaming in her cabin.

Rinko got to her feet, trembling slightly, and walked up to Niemon. In a tremulous voice, she asked.

Rinko: Is that you... Akihiko...?

The dim light of the sensors flickered, as though blinking, and the robot's head smoothly bobbed. She closed the space between them without thinking and touched its aluminum body with shaking hands. The robot's hands rose, whirring quietly, and touched her back.

Kayaba: I'm sorry for leaving you alone for so long, Rinko?"

The voice undeniably belonged to the one man Rinko Koujiro had ever loved: Akihiko Kayaba.

Rinko: So this... is where you've been,...

She whispered, tears pooling in her eyes, blurring the light of Niemon's sensors.

Kayaba: There's no time. I'll only say what I need to say. You brought joy to my life, Rinko. You were the only thing keeping me connected to the real world. If possible... I want you to keep that connection going... Fulfill my dream... and connect these two worlds that are still apart...

Rinko: Yes... of course. Of course....

she said, her head bobbing up and down. The machine seemed to smile. Then it let go of her body and smoothly changed its center of gravity, practically running out of the sub-control room.

Rinko started to follow it automatically until the sliding door closed in her face. Then she inhaled deeply and clenched her jaw. She couldn't leave this room now. It was her job to monitor the situation around the ship.

Instead, she watched the feed of the engine room and clutched the locket around her neck. She heard Lieutenant Nakanishi murmur in a daze.

Rinko: Why did he wait until now...?

There had been many perils before this point. Yet Kayaba had waited until this moment to break his silent observation and act. Rinko thought she understood why.

Rinko: It's not for the Underworld. He has no intention of interfering with the simulation. He made himself known so that he could protect Yuuki, Kirigaya, and Minamoto...wait the name....no he can't be related to her?

———

When Takeru Higa heard the groaning of the heavy turbines echoing up from the bottom of the duct, he finally understood the worst-case scenario Kikuoka was afraid of.

Higa: K...Kiku, I think they're setting off the---

Higa groaned, but Kikuoka cut him off.

Kikuoka: I know that. Just put all your attention into shutting down the STLs.

Higa: O-okay... but...

Higa felt a cold sweat break out all over his body when he inserted the cable into the maintenance panel at last. If the reactor went haywire, none of this would matter. The Underworld and Edith, Alice and Eugeo's lightcubes would be utterly destroyed in a blast of superheated steam and radiation, and many human lives would be lost along with them.

Just then, in his usual laid-back manner, Kikuoka asked.

Kikuoka: Hmm... Higa, do you think you can manage on your own from here?

Higa: Uh..yeah, if you attach my harness to the steps, I should be able to work... but, Kiku you can't consider going down...

Kikuoka: Oh, I'm just going to check up on things. I'm not going to make some heroic last stand. I'll be right back.

Kikuoka reassured him, slipping out of the harness that connected the two of them and hanging the nylon belts over the ladder rungs, then snapping the buckles shut. When he was certain that Higa was firmly in place, he descended several steps.

Kikuoka: The rest is up to you, Higa.

He said, his narrow eyes beaming through the black-framed glasses.

Higa: B-be careful down there! They might still be around!

Higa shouted after him. Kikuoka gave him an uncharacteristic thumbs up, then shot down the rungs with incredible speed.

When he got to the bottom, where the hole led out to the hallway, he carefully checked the perimeter before sliding out.

It was only after Kikuoka had disappeared entirely that Higa noticed something was wrong.

While he typed away on the laptop's keyboard with his right hand, Higa tried to adjust the harness where it was biting into his stomach with his left hand, and he felt something slick and wet. he looked down at his palm in shock and saw, under the illumination of the orange emergency lights, a blackish liquid on his skin.

It was painfully obvious that the blood did not belong to him.
——-

Rinko and Nakanishi watched the screen, showing the movements of the Niemon on a window in Subcon. Once Niemon reached the final door before reaching the reactor on the lower end of the ship, it suddenly swung open to reveal one of the attackers.

The man had a soft-looking face with a narrow mustache, but even on the grainy security camera, the extreme expression on his face was clear.

Nakanishi: Wha...?! One of them stayed behind?! Why?! Does he want to die?!

Niemon awkwardly lifted its arms to protect its body as the man unleaded bullets on it. Sparks flew, and holes opened in the aluminum exterior. Nerve cables tore here and there, and lubricant spilled out of its polymer muscle cylinder.

Rinko: S-stop it!!

Shrieked Rinko. But the enemy soldier on the screen screamed something in English and pulled the trigger a third time. The robot wobbled, taking step after step backward.

Nakanishi: Oh no! Number two's exterior can't withstand this!

Nakanishi said, reaching for his pistol, even though he knew he wouldn't make it in time.

Then a fresh series of gunshots rang out through the speakers.

More figures came running down the hallway from the front, firing a pistol wildly. The enemy's body jolted left and right. Somehow this new person was hitting his target without mistakenly putting a single bullet into the robot's body. But who...?

Rinko forgot to breathe. On-screen, blood burst from the enemy's chest, and he flew backward and stopped moving.

The mystery saviour slowly descended to a knee in the middle of the hallway- and then sank to the floor on his side. With trembling fingers, Rinko rolled the mouse wheel to zoom in.

Bangs covered his forehead. Black framed glasses slid off his ear. It looked like there was a slight smile on his face.

Rinko: K...Kikuoka?!

Rinko and Nakanishi: Lieutenant Colonel!! Captain Price!? Mason!?

This time, the SDF officer bolted out of the room for good. A number of the security staffers along with the soliders followed him. Rinko couldn't stop them now.

Instead, one of the technicians leaped to the console, typing a few keys and bringing up what appeared to be a status window for Prototype Number Two.

Staff: Left arm, zero output. Right arm, sixty-five percent. Both legs are at seventy percent. battery remaining, thirty percent. We can do it. It can still move!!

the staffer shouted. Number two seemed to hear him and resumed forward progress.

Zrr, chak, Zrr, chak. With each awkward step, its severed cables spit out sparks. When the ragged body passed through the doorway, Rinko switched the camera view to the angle from the engine room interior.

The second heat resistant door was physically locked with a large lever. Niemon's right arm grabbed the lever and tried to push it down. Its elbow actuators spun, spraying more sparks.

Rinko: Please...

Rinko Murmured, just before cheers of encouragement burst out of the observers in the control room.

You can do it, Niemon!!

That's it, just a bit more!!

Ga-kunk. The lever shifted downward heavily.

The thick metal door burst open from the pressure on the other side. Even on the monitor, it was clear that a huge blast of heat was pouring through the doorway.

Number Two wobbled. The especially thick cable hanging from its back sparked worse than before.

Staff: Oh, no!!

Rinko: What...what's wrong?!

Staff: The battery cable's damaged!! If that gets cut off, it'll lose power to the body... and cease to move...

Rinko and the other techs watched in silence. Even Kayaba, the brain controlling Niemon, seemed to realize how bad the damage was. The robot pinned the swinging cable down with its elbow and resumed walking, slowly and carefully.

The interior of the engine room was full of excess heat the reactor was putting off at maximum output, at a temperature that no human being could withstand in the flesh. Most likely the safety functions would kick in soon, automatically inserting the control rods back into their housing.

But if the plastic explosives went off first and destroyed the drive for the control rods? Then the neutrons coming off the nuclear fuel would destroy the uranium atoms in a chain reaction until it reached a critical point.

A core meltdown would then cause a steam pressure explosion in the primary coolant, destroying the pressurizer, and the core would then break through the containment vessel from sheer gravity, then the bottom of the ship, and would leak into the water...

Rinko had a sudden vision of a pillar of smoke rising from the center of the Ocean Turtle.

She closed her eyes and prayed again.

Rinko: Please...Akihiko...!!"

The cheers and chants resumed. Pushed onward by their encouragement, Number Two approached the nuclear reactor.

She switched to the final camera angle.

There was suddenly a terrible roar coming through the speakers. The footage on the screen was red with emergency lights. Number Two was practically dragging one foot as it proceeded through the searing heat. Only five or six yards until it reached the plastic explosives stuck to the upper part of the containment chamber.

The robot's right arm rose toward the dentonator. Sparks were flying in streams from all over its body, and pieces of its exterior fell to the floor.

You can do it... You can do it... You can do it!!"

One simple statement echoed around the control room. Rinko balled her hands into fists and screamed with them, nearly losing her voice.

Four more yards.

Three more yards.

Two yards.

Then there was a veritable explosion of sparks from Number Two's back.

The black cable split and hung loose, like some exposed entrails.

All the sensors on the robot's head went out. The right arm slowly lowered.

Its knees shook and bent- and Number Two went silent.

On the monitor, the output graphs that ad been bouncing up and down now sank to the bottom and turned black.

One of the techs whispered.

Tech: It's... lost all power.

Kayaba: I don't believe in miracles.

Akihiko Kayaba had said to Rinko on the day he'd woken in his bed in the mountain villa after SAO had been cleared earlier than expected and all its players had been released at last. His eyes were gentle and shining, and there was a faint smile playing around his scraggly, overgrown jaw.

Kayaka: But you know what? I saw a miracle today, for the first time in my life. My sword had destroyed the last of his hit points, but it was like he refused to obey the system and go away... and he stuck his sword into me and I was the one who was destroyed.

Kayaba: Maybe it was that moment I've been waiting for all this time...

Rinko: Akihiko!!

Shouted Rinko, not even noticing that blood was dripping from the hand that clenched her locket.

Rinko: You're Heathcliff, the man with the Holy Sword!! You're the ultimate rival of Yami the Soul Reaper!! You've got to have one miracle of your own in you!!

Flick.

Flick-Flick.

Red lights flickered. The lateral sensors on Number Two's head.

Exposed muscle cylinders jittered.

A faint, purple light bobbed at the very bottom of the blacked-out status window. THen all the bars on the graph displaying limbs and core output shot upward. Sparks flew as the robot's joint actuators spun into life.

Staff: N...Number Two's active again!!

A staffer shrieked, right as the utterly ragged machine stood upright.

Tears poured from Rinko's eyes.

"Gooooo!!"

"Keep going!!"

Shouts filled the sub-control room.

One foot stepped forward, slick with oil that ran like blood.

The other foot dragged forward next, and it reached out its arm.

One step. Another step.

The battery compartment popped. Its body lurched- but it took another step.

The fingers of its fully extended arm made contact with the plastic explosives strapped to the containment vessel.

The thumb and index finger pinched the electric detonator.

Sparks erupted from the wrist, elbow, and shoulder like death screams. Number Two pulled the Detonator loose, time and all, and raised its arm high.

The screen flashed white.

Number Two's fingers blew off where the Detonator had burst. Then the robot titled to the left and, like a lifeless puppet, dropped to the floor. The sensor lights blinked and went out, and the output graph on the monitor blacked out again.

No one said anything for quite some time.

And then the sub-control room rocked with raucous cheers.
————

A submersible rapidly flowed through the water at full speed while Critter's cheap digital watch beeped as the time he set, hit zero. He let out exhaled a long breath before turning to those that were on the ship.

Critter: Seems like the explosion didn't go off. Still, I never thought Hans would stay behind. I guess he had a longer history with Brigg than we thought.

Man 1: What can you do, right?"

Critter glanced unhappily at the two body bags at the back of the passenger section. The sight of Miller's horrible death rictus flashed into his mind, and he shivered.

Critter: Two? Hey, Shack?

He asked a nearby man chewing on an energy bar.

Shack: What?

Critter: Your team collected the bodies, right? Why are we down one?

Man 1: Huh? We got Brigg from the corridor and Captain Miller in the STL room. Who else died?

Though there was a pile of dust on the second STL, so who knows?

He shrugged, going back to his energy bar. Critter couldn't understand what that meant since he last saw Vassago with black lines across his entire body, but that couldn't have destroyed his body, right?

But then the C4 exploded the submarine killing everyone in it. Back at Ocean Turtle, Woods was well acting well Woods.

Woods: KA FUCKING BOOM!!

Reznov: what strange man, Section.

Section: you have no idea.
———-

The whining of the engine turbines weakened and grew distant.

Higa let out the breath he'd been holding. The nuclear reactor was finally starting to lower its output instead of continuing at a disastrous full power clip.

He wiped away his sweaty forehead with his sleeve and squinted at the laptop screen through dirty lenses. The shutdown process for four Soul Translators was about 80 percent finished. Over seventeen minutes had passed since the maximum acceleration phase had been initiated- that would be over 160 years in the Underworld.

By Higa's conjecture, that was over the theoretical life span of the fluctlight. In simple terms, it was highly likely that the souls of Kazuto Kirigaya, Asuna Yuuki and Nijika Karactachi had disintegrated. Yami Minamoto's fluctlight would've happened long before theirs.

But at this point, Higa also admitted to himself that in truth, he knew nothing about fluctlights in the Underworld, especially Yami's fluctlight who was always different. He had planned the simulation, constructed it, and operated it. But within the machine, the alternate word that had been built up by artificial souls had apparently reached heights that no one in Rath- except Yami- could have envisioned.

Right now, the real-world person with the deepest understanding of that world was undoubtedly Yami himself. Just an nineteen year old out of high school went to the unknown and had greater power than the Super Accounts that were ment for the gods along with his boyfriend Kazuto who is in Highschool and a year or months older than him.

He could argue that was just the power that Yami had all his life, but that wasn't the explanation for Kazuto. It was because that both of them- unlike the other Rath members, who saw the artificial fluctlights only as experimental programs- acknowledged that the fluctlights were just as human as they were. They interacted with them, fought with them, protected them, loved them- as human beings.

That is why the Underworld- all the people who lived in it- chose them. To be their protectors.

Then perhaps, through some miracle that even Higa could not have anticipated, they might be able to withstand the natural span of their fluctlight capacity.

Higa: I bet that's right, Y/n. Now Understand exactly why Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka was so insistent on working with both of you. And why you'll both continue to be needed. So...

Higa: Please Come back to us...

Higa whispered, watching the shutdown process approach 100 percent.
——-

Rinko had her hands on the duralumin case containing Alice and Eugeo's Lightcubes and waited for Higa's voice to come in over the intercom.

Higa: Rinko, the log-out process is going to be complete in sixty seconds.

Rinko: All right. I'll make sure to send someone for you soon.

Higa: Please do. I don't think I can get up this ladder on my own... Also, Kiku went down below to check on things. How is he doing? I think he's got an injury.

At the moment, Rinko couldn't tell him. Nakanishi had gone in to rescue Kikuoka after the gunfight in the hallway to the engine room about three or four minutes ago, but she hadn't heard back from him yet.

Rinko: Yes, the Lieutenant Colonel really put on a show. Better than a Hollywood action movie."

Higa: Wow, I can't even imagine that... We got thirty seconds left.

Rinko: I don't know where the STL 9 is located so I'm going to the STL room. Get in touch if anything happens. Over.

Rinko switched off her comm and left the console, clutching the case, as she made her way to the adjacent room. Before she touched the sliding door, the speaker in the room crackled with a report from the staff members who'd gone below.

It was the security officer who had gone to remove the plastic explosive itself, now that the temperature was dropping in the reactor containment chamber.

Rinko: Engine Room, coming in! Do you read me? Dr. Koujiro!"

Rinko felt her heart leap in her chest and switched the intercom channel, she shouted,

Rinko: Yes, I read you loud and clear! What is it?!

Koujiro: W-well, ma'am... I removed the C4 safely, but... it's gone.

Rinko: Gone...? What's gone?

Koujiro: Number Two. I'm not seeing Niemon anywhere in the engine room!

Nineteen minutes and forty seconds after the start of the maximum acceleration phase, the shutdown of the STLs in the Ocean Turtle was complete.

Three minutes later, the acceleration process itself finished, and as the cooling system wound down, quiet returned to the ship's interior.

Dr. Koujiro and Sergeant First Class Natsuki Aki released the Kazuto and the girls from their STLs- she did Yami before and wheeled his body into the room alongside them. But none of them opened their eyes.

It was clear that their fluctlight output was nearly at a minimum and their mental activity was all but lost.

But Rinko clutched Yami and Sachi's hands, tearfully calling and calling out to them.

There were the faintest of smiles on their faces in the midst of their deep, deep sleep.
———

(Yami/My POV)

Tek.

...Tek.

The sound stopped before me.

Then three people called out my name.

....Yami....

My eyes snapped open, it was a voice of pure crystal, a voice I never thought I'd hear again.

????: As usual that you go and do something crazy when you're left alone. We know everything about you.

There stood are the three of my many loves as they had their hand on my head.

I had a feeling they would disappear into a final illusion if brought up my hands to pull her body against mine, but the gentle warmth I felt radiating on my cheek told me that the two people I loved the most were right here.

They knew the stakes. They knew this world was going to be sealed shut- and that return to the real world would come only at the end of an unfathomably vast length of time.

And that's why they'd stayed. For me who they knew would make the same decision in their situation.

Sachi, Kirito and Asuna gazed into my eyes and through their clear irises, I saw my eyes were now their normal blue colour like before. I placed my forehead against hers and Kirito as Asuna whispered next to me.

Yami: You're crazy.

The first two words escaped my lips.

Yami; You shouldn't be here.

What I was saying wasn't how I felt about this, maybe because I could sense our child in my home. I couldn't because of how fast the Underworld was going.

Sachi: Something I got from you, I guess?

I released a dry chuckle at her words. She then said.

Sachi: When we get back there... Eugeo might be glad but Alice and Edith are going to be angry, aren't they?"

I chuckled, not taking my eyes off Sachi's own light blue eyes.

Yami: As long as we remember.."Everything will be fine."

Sachi: Yes. As long as we remember Alice, Edith, Eugeo... Liz, Sinon, Klein, Agil, Leafa, Yuuki and Silica... Yui... We'll be all right.

Sachi whispered, placing her lips against mine after she finished.

The World's End Altar, the console in the Obsidian Palace and the one on the hundredth floor of the Central Cathedral had ceased to function, and they slumbered silently beneath the gentle sun at the very edge of the world.

We separated and Asuna turned toward me, asked,

Asuna: How long will we be living here, dear?

We began walking to the edge of the floating island at the edge of the world. I turned toward my other lovers

Yami: It will be at least two hundred years or less.

Sachi; Ah..

Sachi murmured next to me. We all smiled and Asuna said.

Asuna: Even a millennium with you three wouldn't feel too long... C'mon, Let's go.

Kirito: Yeah. Let's go, Asuna, Sachi, Yami. We've got so much to do. This world is still just a newborn.

I pulled up my hand that was joined together with Sachi's and happily asked.

Yami: Together?

As her smile remained across her lips.

Sachi: Together.

She replied, squeezing my hand as wings appeared on our backs.

Kirito had his spriggan type wings, Asuna had angelic wings, Sachi had her deep blue wings and I had a pair of devil wings on our backs, and we took the first step into the infinite blue.

Yami: seems that the first universe is complete.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

End of chapter