Yanai: D-don't move!

Yanai let out a high-pitched wail as he pointed a gun at Higa.

Higa: Mr. Yanai, why are you doing this?

Higa asked, shocked by his betrayal.

Yanai: L-Listen, you've got a wrong idea, treating me like a traitor.

Higa tensed as he had no idea what he was saying.

Yanai: I'm just following through with my goal. I'm going to carry on the boss' legacy. That's why I infiltrated Rath!"

Higa: Th-The Boss' legacy? Who are you talking about?"

Yanai's face then grew a cruel smile,

Yanai: Someone you know really well! It's Mr. Sugou!

Higa gasped at the familiar name that worked alongside him at the university where he learned everything.

Yanai: Carry on his legacy? But he's not even dead!
Yanai just started chuckling and said,

Yanai: He might as well be! He'll be locked up for at least ten years. It was a close call for me, too. But I blamed it all on my coworker and managed to get away.

Higa instantly knew what this meant and quietly whispered,

Higa: Then you were involved in Sugou's human Experiments, too?

Yanai: I wasn't just involved! I was the one who gathered the data for it. That was fun. You know, like the virtual tentacle play.

He paused, remembering the demon that logged him out, he shook his head and continued.

Yanai: Well, my current life might be coming to an end, but the line he connected is still alive. So I have to make use of it, otherwise, he'll be upset, right?"

Higa: Line? To where?"

Yanai grinned and answered Higa.

Yanai: The American National Security Agency.

Higa gasped and quickly said,

Higa: You're the one who's been leaking information about Project Aliczation to the Americans!"

Yanai: If the Americans down below succeed in retrieving Alice, there'll be a big bonus and a position for me overseas! What is it, if not the American success story Mr. Sugou dreamed of?

Yanai said with a smile on his face still there.

Higa: If we don't hurry, then Yami and Kirito will... Please Notice, Ms. Rinko!

The laptop nearly slipped out of his hand, and he hastily readjusted his grip on it.

Yanai: D-don't move!!

Screamed Yanai, pointing the gun at the side of the duct and pulling the trigger. There was a yellow flash of light as well as a powerful burst of air displacement that shook Higa's eardrums.

Sparks burst against the metal wall- and a sharp shock bit Higa's right shoulder.

Yanai: Huh?"

Yanai sounded surprised.

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

Sinon was currently gasping for air, her throat, she felt revulsion and fear, but even those emotions were sucked out of her mind, released by nothing but gray futility. The non-existent hands or something like it, disappeared from Sinon's neck allowing her to breathe once again.

She panted, "...You're Subtilizer!

She managed to say in between her breaths.

Subtilizer: Did Alice escape? No matter. I'll catch up soon enough.

He said in a monotone voice. Then he looked back at Sinon and smiled thinly at her.

Sinon: If I remember correctly, I fought you in Gun Gale Online, didn't I? Your name's... Sinon, isn't it? To think we'd meet again here.

Sinon fought desperately to keep her hands from trembling as she listened to the vaguely inhuman voice of the man who was both Vecta, Dark God, and Subtilizer. But her fingers cramped, sweat greased her palms, and she knew that if she tried too hard to use Solus's bow now, she would drop it.

As stood atop the round basin creature, Subtilizer spoke to her in smooth, fluent Japanese, holding a smile without warmth all the while.

Kitsune: And you? Why are you here?

Subtilizer: Because it's inevitable, why else?"

He explained, barely able to contain his glee. He spread his arms wide, revealing gray sleeves.

Subtilizer: This is fate. It is the power of the soul that brings us together.

His tone of voice was changing gradually. Even the temperature of his tone was dropping from moment to moment.

Subtilizer: Now we'll be able to understand all kinds of things. Like whether or not one can also suck in the soul of a living human through an STL. And also, after not getting to taste it in BoB, finding out just how sweet your soul is.

The bizarre words instantly brought back the thing this man had said to her at the end of the Fourth Bullet of Bullets event.

Subtilizer: Your soul will be so sweet.

She felt her body going cold. Everything felt tense, and even her breathing went irregular.

Subtilizer: Now... come this way, Sinon. You must hand over everything to me.

Subtilize's blue eyes shone coldly. The world shuddered and warped.

Air, sound, even light twisted- drawn and absorbed into Subtilizer's eyes.

Sinon: Wha....?"

What is this? But even the very thought was sucked out of her mind by an incredible magnetic force.

Kitsune: if you dare touch I'm gonna kill you, you son of a bitch!!

Sinon: Oh no. I can't. I have to resist. I have to fight.

She cried a voice in the corner of her mind, but it was helplessly tiny. Eventually, Sinon's blue armour-clad body found itself being pulled toward the man's outstretched arms. She slid helplessly, silently through the air, bowstring still held between her numb fingers.

A few seconds later, with her wits fading, Sinon just barely sensed her body being slickly surrounded by the darkness that was Subtilizer.

His left hand went around her back. The fingers of his right hand brushed her cheek and swept away the hair over her ear. He brought his thin lips up to the exposed cartilage and sent a voice like cold black water directly into her head.

Subtilizer: Sinon. Have you ever thought about the meaning of the name Subtilizer?"

Sinon: ???

In her powerless state, Sinon shook her head.

Subtilizer: Is it some wordplay, as Americans so often like to do, on the Japanese word Satori, meaning 'Enlightenment'? No, this is a purely English construction. Subtilizer means one who sharpens, one who renders, one who chooses.... and one who steals.

Subtilizer's eyes flashed brighter, right before her own.

Subtilizer: I will steal you. I will steal your soul.

In the center of the two blue eyes that gazed into hers. Sinon saw what vaguely looked like black whirlpools, black holes that rotated slowly, much like the dream she'd had that morning. She had something to do. She thought she'd done something, but it was a dream, so of course, she hadn't. A never-ending cycle of illusions.

Sinon: I can't.

The man's face loomed closer. his thin lips puckered, sucking in air. Her emotions, her thoughts, her very soul was sucked away with that air.

Sinon: Stop. Don't steal it.

But even that wish was instantly stolen, leaving only dull paralysis.

His lips approached hers...

Tzak!!

A sudden shock bolted Sinon's mind back into itself.

She opened her eyes wide and had no idea what caused it until something brushed her back.

Sinon: It's so hot!!

A feeling of heat, piercing her back shoulder blades, briefly overcame the man's suction. With what little of her mind she'd recovered. She jolted like a bullet's detonator, wringing a sudden burst of strength from her body and escaping from the man's arms.

With Solus's power of flight, she swept away to put distance between them. Kitsune then punches Subtilizer's face hard to send some distance away.

Sinon: Eugh....

She grunted, glancing down at the ground as the heat intensified on her back. Suddenly when her body slumped forward just a bit, she caught the outline of something coming from both sides of her body. It was black, made of darkness, unlike, Subtillzer's own darkness, this was full of emotion.

They had feathered ends to them, the individual feather seemed to emit their own emotion that reflected Sinon's own emotions at the moment. She recognized them as Angel wings but some would describe them as corrupted angel wings... that is not what she saw when her gaze recognized the material that made them.

Sinon reached up to the wings, the feeling her fingers registered, told her that this wasn't an illusion. The fluffy feeling, the realness of the feather she touched was unreal that her own mind wasn't able to make sense of it.

It was only when the darkness that made the wings leeched onto her hand and gently made its way up her arm. A smile graced Sinon's lips as the darkness created a mark on her arm, stopping at her shoulder that then combined with her body.

Sinon: Even if you can't use your powers you'll always be protecting us, huh, Yami.

She placed the arm that the darkness leeched onto, right where her heart would be and closed her eyes. The image of a familiar white-haired boy entered her mind, a smile plastered on his face as he stared at her.

Sinon: You entrusted this to me and I will do this no matter what!"

Her mind was completely back in gear, and she turned it back to concentrate on the black-winged creature hovering in the sky a distance away.

Sinon gripped the Annihilation Ray, Solus's GM weapon, and focused her gaze. The center of the shining white bow turned to a bluish-black colour. As the change in the colour spread, the bow's smooth curves shifted to straight angles. The long, dark, shining tube was a steel gun barrel. Then a muzzle appeared, then a grip, and a stock, and lastly, a huge scope attachment.

It was not a graceful, flowing longbow in Sinon's hands anymore.

This was a simple, ferocious, and stunningly beautiful .50-caliber antimaterial rifle, the Ultima Ratio Hecate II.

Sinon pulled the bolt handle of her eternal partner, and upon hearing its nasty slide, she grinned.

The bridge of Subtilizer's nose crinkled, and his lips twisted with anger.

Sinon stared at the man and said.

Sinon: You are not God- or the devil. You're just a man.

Kitsune: no you're just another mistake on humanity itself.

Sinon pointed the former bow at the man in front of her and instantly pulled the trigger once she correctly aimed it at the man.

There was a flash. An explosion.

Sinon was hit with incredible recoil force as she hovered in the air. Her body wanted to rotate on a diagonal, but she used all her will to contain it. If she was going to take this much blowback for every shot, consecutive firing would be all but impossible. But as long as this first shot landed, it wouldn't matter.

The man raised his left arm in the air, trying to stop the bullet with his Incarnation. But instantly the bullet tore through the palm of his hand

Sinon: Don't give in.

she muttered, not realizing that she was rapidly firing anyway. Then she shouted.

Sinon: Don't give in, Hecate!!"

Subtilizer stared at his tattered left hand in silence. The inky blackness was filling the space the bullet had blasted there like liquid, but it was not the sort of wound that could simply be healed like that.

He looked up and stared at Sinon, no longer smiling. His other hand moved to his side, removing the crossbow there.

Nyurp.

The crossbow suddenly warped. Its sideways extending limbs folded inward, and it stretched to over twice its original length. The wooden frame took on a metallic shine.

In the span of a second, Subtilizer went from holding a crossbow to bearing a huge rifle nearly the size of the Hecate. She recognized it instantly.

A Barrett XM500

It was a .50-caliber antimaterial rifle like the Hecate II but from a newer generation.

The twisted smile returned to Subtilizer's lips.

Sinon: All right, then.

Sinon muttered, steadying the butt of the Hecate against her shoulder. Kitsune chuckles as both looked at him.

Subtilizer: what are you chuckling about?

Kitsune: you think you're some powerful god? No you're just another mess to clean off.

He summoned his weapon which was a sniper rifle/shotgun hybrid.

Kitsune: because I'm joining this gunfight, 1 against 2? Sounds fair to me.
———

Rinko was currently both Yami's fluctlights in the chair that Higa was sitting in minutes prior. Kikuoka then quickly ran into the room as he asked,

Higa: H-How are things going?

Rinko: Higa's operation just started. Is the decoy working?

Rinko asked, wondering how Ichiemon was doing.

Kikuoka: I had them throw our entire supply of smoke grenades. We should be able to distract them until the smoke clears from the corridor, but after that, we'll have to lock the bulkhead again. We don't have much time.

Kikuoka answered just as frantically as his question.

Rinko: Well, Higa said we should see results in five minutes, at most.

Rinko turned to the main screen.

Something caught her attention, it was the sudden movement of a small group that was green. She moved the cursor over it and clicked on it and something popped up as she read it hesitantly unknown to what it meant.

Rinko: Let's see. 'Limit, opposition quotient... detection threshold... report'? What is this?"

Kikuoka suddenly slammed into the desk right next to her.

Kikuoka: Wh... what?!

Rinko: What is it?

Rinko asked, snapping to him startled. Kikuoka started typing with one of his hands on the keyboard that brought up another window.

Kikuoka: There's no question. It's a new limit-breaking Fluctlight. But why now, at a time like this?

Rinko: You mean it's a second ALICE?

Rinko asked realizing what he meant. Kikuoka was about to answer but now that he was looking at it, there was another signal near the south end of the map. It was blue instead of the green and golden colour of Alice and the other one. He opened the window information about that one, ice blue in colour and gasped in shock.

Kikouka: That one is a second ALICE! Another Fluctlight broke its limits through its emotional circuits, rather than its logical circuits. Oh, no! Both are heading or already in a group of Americans to the south!

Rinko had noticed something in the code typed away at the keyboard as she asked.

Rinko: Hey, Mr. Kikuoka?

Kikuoka: What is it?

Rinko: What is this external command inserted here?

Kikuoka in confusion turned to the main screen.

Rinko: Injecting simulated pain into the right ocular region'? You were actually restricting the people of the Underworld like that?"

Kikouka: N-No, we didn't do that! Of course, we wouldn't!

Kikuoka argued turning to the Doctor next to her.

Kikouka: That would defeat the purpose. In fact, it's clearly sabotage."

Rink: It is, isn't it. Not to mention, this code doesn't have Higa's idiosyncrasies.

A small window appeared next to the window.

Rinko: Something's commented out near the beginning. 'Code 871.' What's 871?

Kikouka: 871? I've never even heard that number before.

His eyes filled with realization.

Kikouka: No, hold on. Hold on a sec. I think I just saw it somewhere.

He muttered, his hand on his chin thinking aloud.

He turned to his left, a lab coat was folded on top of a nearby mesh chair. Kikuoka quickly grabbed the shirt and looked at the inside of it to see those exact same numbers on the coat.

Rinko: That lab coat belongs to the staff member who just went down with Higa, Mr. Yanai

Kikouka: 8(Ya)7(Na)1(i)...

Kikouka repeated the letters that made each number before realizing something. Rinko and Kikuoka both gasped in surprise and both exclaimed.

Them: Yanai!!
———

Yanai down below had just shot his pistol and actually hit Higa in the left shoulder. Higa was currently holding his arm in pain as he hadn't expected to be shot by the man in front of him.

Yanai: Well, I didn't mean to hit you. I was only planning to mess with your work a little, then escape down to the Main Control side."

He lowered his pistol and glanced down at the darkness below.

Yanai: It's not like anyone with Rath has died, so as long as we can retrieve Alice safely, it would've been a happy ending for everyone."

Higa: No one has died?

Higa repeated, feeling the pain vanish.

Higa: But if we don't take this chance Kirito and Yami may never leave the Underworld and be deleted forever! And the one responsible for killing their souls will be you!

Yanai: Oh, yeah, that's right.

The expression was gone from Yanai's face. His stubbled cheeks twitched a few times in the orange emergency lighting.

Yanai: Those brats can die.

Huga: Wha.....?

Yanai: he ruined my sweet admi.

Higa: Ad...mi?

Higa repeated, perplexed.bYanai exploded with indignation.

Yanai: The Pontifex of the Axiom Church, Her Eminence, Administrator! See, I'd promised her. That I would do everything I can to help her assume absolute control over the Underworld. And even if the server got reinitialized, I'd preserve her LightCube.

Higa could scarcely believe what he was saying.

Higa: So you corrupted the Underworld?

Higa growled. Yanai clicked his tongue.

Yanai: No, she was the one who made first contact. When I was on the late shift one night, I suddenly heard this girl's voice over the speakers. That really startled me. She'd found out the entire command list for the Underworld on her own, and opened a line to our side. And then I used an STL to secretly visit Admi. It turned out that Admi's personality, voice, and mannerisms were all my ideals. She promised me. That if I helped her, she'd make me her number one servant!"

Higa: I was wrong. It was Mr. Yanai who was corrupted.

Suddenly, Yanai's look of reminiscence vanished.

Yanai: But now she's no longer herself. She was ruined by that boy that ruined Mr. Sugou's experiment. I have to kill someone to avenge her.

He raised the gun at Higa once again, the look in his eyes told Higa all he needed to know in a few seconds.

Higa: Uh-oh. He's serious this time.

Higa closed his eyes. But he didn't felt any pain and opened his eyes to see Yanai being webbed on the wall away from him and Spiderman lowered down.

Spider-Man: hey Higa, nice to see you.

Higa: thanks Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: now let's finish that work you were working on.
————-

Klein had his bandana wrapped around his missing arm and Yuna was missing an arm as well. Agil was laying on the ground face down, weapons piercing his back as Silica was right next to him.

Silica: Agil! Please hold on! Agil!!

Artoria and Eugeo were standing along the other Underworlders still standing but their weapons were shaking from fear, Yu and the Persona users were standing their ground against the red knights. That's when Kirito noticed it, he was being held by five red knights.

He glanced around to see Sachi and Asuna near each other, none of which had any major wounds from the battle. Asuna was cradling Lisbeth in her arms as she was crying saying this entire thing was her fault.

Asuna: No. No, you didn't. Liz!

Asuna's stern voice came behind her, glancing back at her, she, too, was tearing up.

The hooded man in the black poncho then walked through the group surveying the crowd. A smile on his lips as he said

PoH: Lay down your weapons and surrender. Do that, and I won't kill you and those behind you.

Sortiliena: Don't be absurd! Do you really think we'd be reluctant to die at this point-

Sortiliena argued, only to be interrupted.

Kirito: Listen to the bastard!!

Kirito screamed, his insides hurting. Blood spilled out of his wounds that weren't sealed.

Kirito: You all have to live! Your lives are the most precious, and you can't die here!"

Sortiliena and the other still standing, clamped their mouths shut, their faces contorting and trembling with emotion... until their shoulders dropped at last.

When they let their swords fall clanking to the ground, the rows and rows of players from the neighbouring countries let out a victorious roar, which soon turned to chants of those countries' names.

The mouth of PoH then formed a cruel smile, and he said, almost cheerfully,

PoH: Yo, long time no see, Black Swordsman.

Kirito: Y...You bastard...

Kirito managed to croak out through his neck that was being held by a red knight.

Kirito: I should have killed you in Aincrad...PoH!! No I've told Yami to kill you so this would never happened!!

The grip of the knights got stronger since he was exerting more strength.

PoH: Hey, that name brings back memories. I'm glad you remember it.

Kirito: I don't take it this is vengeance for what the assault team did to Laughing Coffin?

PoH didn't say anything. His shoulders were trembling. Within a few seconds, he was shaking with controllable mirth. His body twisted and writhed with laughter.

PoH: Of course not! Let me tell you something.

He leaned down in front of Kirito's face.

PoH: The one who tipped off your Assault Team about laughing Coffin's hideout? That was me.

Kirito's face didn't change, he had a feeling one of the laughing coffin members was responsible for the tip. But to think it was PoH himself wasn't all that surprising given how much of a bastard he is.

PoH: You don't seem surprised?

PoH smacked him across the face Kirito spit out blood that was filling his mouth.

Kirito: You're a bastard so that isn't all that surprising, Why'd you do it?"

PoH: I wanted you to make you guys murderers. The Assualt Team, posing as heroes, acting all high and mighty on the front lines!

Kirito: Heroes? We wanted out of that fucking game!!

PoH: strange I heard you have a boyfriend named Yami? He's here right?

As he finished speaking Ronye walked out of the carriage pushing Yami/the wherlchair as Kirito struggles and Sachi screamed.

Sachi: stop!! Anything but that!!

Kirito: touch him I'll kill you!!

PoH: so this is Yami, the hero of SAO, ALO, GGO. What a shame he's in this state.

He then had huge grin as he shouts.

PoH: It's showtime!!!

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

End of Volume