Chapter 0 - Revelation

Note: This chapter takes place immediately after the end of Volume 14 Chapter 13 Part 5, or at around 17:27 of Episode 24 of SAO:Alicization (basically right before Eugeo starts fading away).

I thought back to that day, almost 2 years ago in the Real World – well, 4 years in my perspective. That day when Yui had disappeared. The thought jumped in my head. I had a console, I could do the same thing to Eugeo. There was no way I'd be letting my friend die on me.

We'd gone through thick and thin together, we'd spent two years aiming for the Central Cathedral. We had achieved that goal, but a lot earlier and in a much different way. I grit my teeth as I thought back about even our climb up this damn tower. I promised myself I'd get him out of here and show him my world, my friends, my life. He didn't deserve to go like this. Not if I could do something about it.

With my one arm I picked up his body, now only half as heavy as it should be, and headed to the system terminal. Even carrying his weight put an immense strain on me after this whole fight, my vision tinging with red. My muscles screaming as I carried him over, I laid him as gently as I could back on the floor.

The notebook computer at the top of the terminal was certainly a little different compared to what I'd seen before. But it carried the same air of familiarity for me, seeming all too similar to the one I had manipulated in the basements of Aincrad. Flashing with so many colours, I paused for a moment, realizing I didn't actually know where to start. There must be some way to save his data as an object, just like I had done with Yui. I started poking around on the computer, trying to find a way to open up a command prompt.

There was absolutely no way that Rath wouldn't have put restrictions on what could be done without an administrator password. The entire interface was in Sacred Tongue, English, but eventually I found a login option. As I turned around to check up on Eugeo, his form was already fading.

"No! Eugeo hang on dammit!"

I turned back to the console and typed in the one login ID that I thought had a chance of doing anything, the one ID that had saved Asuna from Sugou. Heathcliff. Password ************. After all, this world was based on The Seed, right? The last time I faced an unstoppable force, he had been there to guide and save me. I closed my eyes as I pressed confirm, perhaps not wanting to witness a scene where this ID might actually be invalid. If that was the case, then I would probably have to give up on saving Eugeo. Just the thought of that alone was sending bile rocketing up my throat.

By some sort of miracle, or maybe because of the world's roots, the console responded with a loud beep and the words SUCCESSFUL LOGIN. As it loaded all the options, I reminded myself of the list of procedures which I had used to save Yui. It was now just a race against time, just like back then. As the command prompt loaded up, I hurriedly punched in command after command.

"Please please please just let this work…"

I muttered to myself knowing I could find no other way to save him. Frantically, I typed. Time seemed to stand still; I could see nothing other than the blur of my fingers. All sound faded. To top it off, I only had one hand to type with, my fingers flying across the keyboard inputting commands. I could almost see and hear a clock ticking in the back of my head, silently urging me to enter in the code faster. I snuck a glance at Eugeo. He had already begun to pixelate out of existence.

I had no time left. Just a few more lines… I could feel my heart racing, blood pumping to every inch of my body, adrenaline flowing like the rushing rivers, heightening my senses to even greater heights than my fight just now with Administrator.

As I finished the final line, I slammed my thumb into the Enter key, praying to God or Kayaba or whoever, that my code would somehow work. I fearfully turned around, but Eugeo wasn't there. All I saw was a sword. The Blue Rose Sword, unbroken, but beaten and battered, cracked all over. But it wasn't missing any parts; the pommel, the handle, the guard, the blade all the way through to its point – it was all there.

I had done it. I had never seen such a beautiful sight in my life, even though that sword looked like it had gone to hell and back. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, knowing that I managed to save Eugeo. My final work was done. As I slumped to the ground, my back hit the cold marble pedestal as I lay with my hand shaking, struggling to catch my breath.

"I did it Eugeo, I saved you. One day, I swear I'll find some way to bring you back. And when that time comes, who says we can't both have what we want? We'll find a way, alright? A way where we can bring Alice's memories back both as Alice Zuberg and as Alice Synthesis Thirty. Why do we have to fight? I'll find a way, and when that day comes, we can all live just like we did so many years ago, just us three back together. How does that sound?"

I was practically yelling by the time I had gotten to the end. I was somewhat surprised at my own declaration, but I guess that's what I've always strived to do: the impossible. Staving off my character disappearing to kill Heathcliff, overturning Oberon's absolute rule to free Asuna, even saving both Yui and now Eugeo as objects.

"So I guess until then, Eugeo… stay cool. We'll meet again one day, but on that day it won't just be us, Alice will be there with us just like the old days."

I sat in silence for a few moments. I could rest now, right? I just saved Eugeo, Alice and I defeated Administrator, we saved the Human Empire from being turned into sword golems… My work was done right? My eyelids felt heavy, my body felt like a cauldron of lead. All I wanted to do right now was just –

Then I remembered why I had come to Centoria – I needed to contact my world. The system terminal was just in front of me, I had to get in contact with the outside and figure out what the hell was going on. Why had I been put into the Underworld while retaining all my memories? How had I been able to live through two years here? I shuddered thinking about how long I must have been sleeping for, or how fast the Fluctlight Acceleration rate must be right now.

I grabbed the console with my remaining hand to hoist myself up. But as I did, I remembered the fourth member of our team, and the only one who wasn't dead or an item now: Alice. Her injuries were surely terrible, so I had to make sure she wouldn't die on me before contacting Kikuoka. I half walked, half ran over to her, and looked at her form slumped over on the ground.

Her armour and dress were ripped and burnt all over, her cape nearly unrecognizable. The once shining golden armour now completely lacking its original lustre, pitted with holes and covered in scratches. If it weren't for this armour, she'd definitely be dead, considering Administrator's power. Alice herself didn't seem to be bleeding, so there was no immediate danger to her life. But her state was still saddening, covered with burns, bruises and scars as far as I could see. Her once beautiful face was covered in soot, and the cover on her eye was essentially useless with the amount of abuse it'd been through. She wasn't dying, but she was still unconscious, and urgently needed some medical attention.

I trudged back over to the terminal, almost dreading contact with the outside. What was Rath anyways? How had this company created this world? What was its purpose? What did Kikuoka, who was involved with this world's creation, aim to do with it? Did he and Rath want to create a world? But that was already possible with The Seed, so it wasn't necessary to build the STL to create a more "realistic" one. But what if this was their goal, creating a world indistinguishable from the one we were from? There really was no end to the unanswered questions circulating in the back of my mind.

Also what had happened with my initial testing in the STL? I had been in there for three days, and they'd told me that with a bit of acceleration, I had spent 10 days in the simulation. But the Underworld had a history of over 400 years, and if what Rath said was the true acceleration rate, then they would have had to run this simulation for 120 years… this was clearly impossible. There must be a way for Rath to boost the acceleration rate to higher than what they had told me, if they could create a civilization lasting 400 years.

So that meant… I could have spent much, much more than just 10 days in the Underworld the first time I was here. That memory Eugeo showed me before, that was definitely me with him and Alice. We looked… 10 years old? Was it possible that instead of a 3.3x rate of acceleration, it was over 1200x, letting me relive my whole 10 years of childhood?

But that's impossible… at least that's what it felt like for every fibre of my body. But that fragment of memory, that vision I saw right after waking up in this world, that feeling of just knowing something that I couldn't quite put my finger on – that was without a doubt real. There was no way I hallucinated all that, especially when Eugeo himself remembered a bit of it too.

So what about me right now? If it's not 3.3x acceleration, but rather 1200x, then these 2 years would equate to just about six-tenths of a day, just over 14 hours. At least I could rest easy knowing that I hadn't been missing for an insane amount of time, so hopefully my parents, Suguha, and Asuna weren't too worried about this. Regardless, I would have to ask Kikuoka about this. That bastard better give me a damn good reason as to why this all happened.

I reached for the console looking for the right command. External observer call. That's right, Rath was just observing this civilization as omnipotent gods with the power to annihilate it at any moment's notice. Maybe they wanted to create… people? A whole new race of civilized people who lived in a different world? And this world would be filled with… real people. Fluctlights, with personalities, thoughts, tendencies, emotions; just like those of humans in the Real world.

"No… it couldn't be… they want to create humans?"

I shuddered, whispering the words which I couldn't bring myself to believe. Could they possibly be looking to create AI to use in our world as slaves? Thinking about it now, Kikuoka had some military ties, didn't he? Did he want to use them as soldiers to fight our wars for us?

I couldn't help but freeze at that thought. Oh, if this were true, the circumstances would be completely different. This would be slavery all over again, forcing humans against their will to do things that we didn't want to do ourselves. It didn't matter if they didn't have bodies in the Real world, the residents of the Underworld are undoubtedly human, no matter how you slice it. If that's what Rath truly was, then that was despicable. They just wanted unlimited, free labour. At the cost of enslaving an entire civilization.

I wouldn't let them do that. The people of this world deserve to be free. Because they aren't artificial intelligences, they're real, legitimate humans with real, authentic brains. If all these people had Fluctlights, then they would undoubtedly be human. Then… did the denizens of the Dark Territory also count as humans too? They too had Fluctlights, and had real lives.

I bit my lip, tasting iron and feeling flesh, as I pondered this, gathering my resolve to touch that button. I was met with a message written in Japanese and a warning tone.

[Performing this operation will fix Fluctlight Acceleration rate at 1.0x. Are you sure?]

I didn't think twice about it, pressing down immediately.

Then suddenly I felt this weird sensation. It felt like the air had just become some kind of viscous soup. Sound, light, all sensation extended into the distance, then flew behind me. It was like my actions and even my thoughts were in super-slow motion for one brief, disorienting moment – then that sensation was gone.

In the center of the screen was a black window. In the middle of that was a volume meter, just below blinking words reading SOUND ONLY.

The meter twitched, producing a rainbow-gradient bar. Then it shot upward, just as the rustling static noise reached my ears. This was the moment, I sensed, the moment when I could finally connect back to my own world. The real world without all this pain, bloodshed and sacrifice I'd just seen within the past day.

A great storm of countless emotions that I'd been keeping under control came bursting up from inside me, almost rocking me off my very feet. I leaned towards the monitor and hollered, calling upon the man who had brought me into this world.

"Kikuoka… Can you hear me Kikuoka?!"

Frankly, if I was able to see him face to face right now, I'd probably have to be restrained or else I would be strangling him to the point of near death. I felt helpless talking into the monitor, with nothing but audio feedback. My rage boiled over, to the point where I just slammed my left hand onto the console and screamed.

"KIKUOKA! ANSWER ME WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

I heard a response. But it wasn't a human voice. It was… percussion? No, these were the sounds of gunshots, the ones I had grown so very accustomed to in GGO. What was going on in Rath's lab? Why were there gunshots flying around?

"…can't, they've got position in the A6 corridor! I'm pulling back!"

"Fight them off at A7, then! Give me time to lock the system!"

Were these… sounds from a movie? Maybe the Rath staffers were just watching a movie in the lab to relax or something. But then I heard something that flipped my world upside down.

"Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka, it's too late! We're abandoning Maincon and shutting the pressure-resistant barrier!"

Unless by some damn miracle that there happened to be a Kikuoka who was a movie star, then that certainly wasn't a movie playing at Rath. That was the name of the man who had brought me into Rath as a part-timer, and without a doubt had something to do with my time here.

"Sorry, hold out for two more minutes! We can't lose this place now!"

That was undoubtedly his voice. But I'd never heard him under such duress before. What the hell was happening on the other side of the screen? Was Rath under attack? But why?

Kikuoka spoke again. "Is the locking process still ongoing, Higa?!"

That was another name I had remembered, Higa Takeru. He was the Rath engineer who had performed the test on me.

"Another eighty…no, seventy seconds to go…Ah…aaaaaah!"

Suddenly, Higa's voice turned into a shriek. Something had startled him.

"Kiku! It's a call from inside! I mean, inside the Underworld! This is… Ohhh! It's him! It's Kirigaya-kun!"

"Wh…what?!"

Footsteps approached, over the constant percussive din of bullets and their ricochets. Someone coarsely grabbed the mic, sending a loud unpleasant sound causing me to balk a bit backwards away from the screen and cringe as the noise assailed my eardrums.

"Kirito, are you there?! Are you in there?!"

That was undoubtedly the voice of Kikuoka Seijirou, the one who was probably the reason for these past two years that I spent in the Underworld. Instantly, ignoring my previous confusion about the situation in the Rath lab, my anger flared up, driving my blood to its boiling point.

"Yeah! Listen, Kikuoka… you monster… What you've been doing is-"

"I'll listen to every last name you want to call me later! Right now, you need to listen to me!"

The absolute panic oozing out of his voice was enough to stop me right in my tracks.

"Listen very carefully, Kirito…You must find a girl named Alice! When you do…"

Alice? What did they want with her? I mean, she was on the 100th floor of the Central Cathedral with me.

"Find her…? She's right here!" I shouted back, and now it seemed to be Kikuoka's turn to be stunned. Then he rushed back right into his explanation, seemingly having a time limit before the call would be terminated.

"M-my God…that's a miracle! G-good…Then once this transmission ends, I'm going to return the FLA rate to a thousand. You take Alice and head for the World's End Altar! The internal console you're using now connects directly to Main Control, but that's about to fall!"

"To fall…? What's going on there…?"

"I'm sorry – I don't have time to explain! Listen, to get to the altar, you have to leave the Eastern Gate and head far to the south-"

Then the first voice I had heard at the beginning of the transmission came in again, this time with even more urgency than before.

"Lieutenant Colonel, I closed the A7 barrier, but that only bought us minutes at…No, wait, oh no! They've started severing the main power line!

"Oh man, that's bad! That's really bad!"

I heard Higa shriek in the background, panic laced throughout his voice. "Kiku, there'll be a surge if they cut the main power now! The Lightcube Cluster's protected…but the surge will hit Kirigaya's STL in Subcon…It'll fry his Fluctlight!"

"No…that can't be! There are numerous safety limiters on the STL…"

"But they were all deactivated! He's recuperating, remember?!"

What in the world were they talking about? What was this about my Fluctlight if the power went out? I'm… recuperating? Had I forgotten something important? A split-second silence fell, until Kikuoka broke it.

"Higa! Can you reactivate one of the barriers so that Kirito's STL will be protected from the power surge?! I'll take Dr. Koujiro and Asuna-san to the Upper Shaft for safety!"

"B-but what about Alice?!"

"Raise the FLA rate to its max limit! We can think about the rest later! Right now we need to make sure that Kirito's safe in the Underworld, or else we'll lose any chance of recovering Alice!"

I hardly listened to any of the rest of their heated exchange. One of the names Kikuoka had mentioned struck my mind, rocking it like a storm.

Asuna? What was she doing there at Rath's lab?

Before I could lean in to the console to ask Kikuoka, Higa's voice pierced the speakers and cut through my consciousness like a spear of lightning.

"Kirigaya-kun listen to me! You won't be able to contact us with this barrie-"

"Ahh! They're cutting the power! The screw propellers are going to stop – all units brace for impact!"

The original voice pointed out the impending doom, leaving me in confusion, neither knowing why Asuna was there, nor what Higa was trying to tell me.

"Dammit! Kirigaya-kun! Please trust Kiku!"

With that, the transmission was abruptly cut. Before I could register my shock, I felt that same viscous feeling I had felt previously when the transmission was just beginning. Was this the Fluctlight Acceleration Rate changing?

I shook my head, snapping back to reality when I realized I still had so many questions to ask Kikuoka. What the hell was really going on? I needed to contact him again. The transmission had ended but the console was still there. I went through the same series of options which led me to the External Observer Call. Except this time, it was grayed out, refusing to connect back to the outside.

I frantically tried pressing it again, but to no avail. What did that mean for me? Had I lost my one and only chance to figure out what was really going on? Did I lose my one connection back to my world?

"Dammit!" I slammed my hand onto the console. What more could I do? At least I had figured out some information from Kikuoka. I had to search through my brain to grasp at the remnants of that rushed conversation I had with Kikuoka and Higa. I needed to take Alice and head to… the World's End Altar? I could get there… from the Eastern Gate and heading to the south? If I did that, would I be reconnected with my world? Maybe then I could figure out what was going on. I didn't even know if I could trust them, but I had no other options.

I tried to compartmentalize this massive influx of information over these past few hours. Administrator and Kikuoka. The god who ruled this world from within, and one of the gods who ruled this world from without. Kikuoka had given me a mission to bring Alice to the World's End Altar, for whatever purpose that may be. Administrator on the other hand…

My eyes widened as I remembered her plan.

"The sword golem…"

That's right! She wanted to convert half the Human Empire into Sword Golems to fight the Dark Territory's invasion. Now that Administrator was gone, the Human Empire had even less firepower to deal with the invasion. I couldn't just leave this world to burn as I fled with Alice – this world I had grown to love would be swallowed up in chaos and descend into darkness. So before I travelled to the World's End Altar, I first had to… protect the peace within this world.

So somehow, I would have to make amends with the Integrity Knights, whilst enlisting the help of either the nobles or the students of the Swordcraft Academies within the four empires, so that we could stand against the Dark Territory's invasion. Only after that could I take Alice to the World's End Altar, return home, and probably properly strangle Kikuoka.

Even Cardinal had said this was impossible, but despite that, I'd still do my best to protect the people here. All the precious people I've met over these past two years – from Rulid, from the journey to Zakkaria, from the Swordcraft Academy – I couldn't, no, I absolutely wouldn't, let them die. As I resolved myself to take on this task, I felt my knees buckling.

Stars dotted my vision as I felt myself collapsing to the ground. Was something wrong with me? Oh right, I just fought the god of this world. Not to mention all the other stuff that happened afterwards. Maybe a quick rest would be fine, right?

Before my head even hit the ground, the world had already faded to black, leaving me in a vacuum devoid of any perception.