"What a terrible day this is," Integrity Knight Eugeo Synthesis Thirty-Three says.
The Integrity Knight was on the ground. His opponent was standing over him, the sharp end of a glowing light blue spear pointed at his throat.
He didn't really stand a chance. He had already used his Perfect Weapon Control Art three times, the maximum number of times it could be used before having to let his sword rest. Plus, whatever his opponent's spear was made of, not even the Blue Rose Sword, which could freeze through even the most intense of flames, could quell its burning heat. All he could do was swing his sword and hope to land a devastating blow.
His opponent, who Eugeo thought was a dark knight from the Dark Territory, didn't fight like a dark knight at all. In fact, she (at least according to how the knight's voice sounded from the one time Eugeo heard her speak) fought much like a human royal, but her fighting style wasn't quite exactly like it.
All he could really do was keep attacking...at least until his sword cracked after blocking a particularly massive blow.
His sword's durability finally gave out.
His opponent was quick to take the opportunity. She immediately smacked him in the side of the head with the blunt side of her spear, which felt like being hit by a burning hot cast iron. Then she punched him in the face, making him fall over backwards and onto the ground. When he attempted to get back up, he suddenly found the tip of a glowing, light blue spear at his throat.
He had lost.
Eugeo closes his eyes, waiting for the inevitable death blow that he knew would come.
At least he would die in service of the Axiom Church. The way Integrity Knights were meant to die.
But then something unexpected happens.
"You're lucky that my friend wants you alive," he hears the knight say.
He feels the heat from his opponent's spear tip disappear from his neck. Confused, Eugeo opens his eyes again. Then he suddenly feels a strong force slam into the side of his head, instantly knocking him unconscious.
"Wow, you Integrity Knight guys are the real deal, aren'tcha?" Yuuki asks, grinning at her opponent.
Integrity Knight Sheyta Synthesis Twelve swipes her paper-thin raper through the air once before dashing at Yuuki for again for another attack. Yuuki responds by attacking with the sword skill Sonic Leap. Sparks fly as their blades clash.
Yuuki was thankful that, in this world, she could still use sword skills. If that weren't the case, she'd already have died.
Her opponent had a very brutal fighting style. The Integrity Knight was fast and very aggressive. She mostly swung maim, not to put her opponent in a position where she could land a killing blow on her opponent.
Sheyta swings her rapier across her body, which Yuuki ducks under, sacrificing a few long strands of violet purple hair. Yuuki's sword glows as she then activates Vertical Square. She swings her sword diagonally upwards at her opponent's torso, which the Integrity Knight blocks with her rapier. She then brings her sword down again before attack with two quick, spinning slashes. Sheyta manages to block all three attacks, but the last one makes her stagger backwards slightly.
Yuuki quickly transitions into a Sharp Nail, her sword glowing red as she slashes diagonally downwards, horizontally, then diagonally upwards. The Integrity Knight manages to dodge the first two slashes and block the third one before thrusting her rapier at Yuuki's head, who tilts her head to the side just in time to avoid the sharp tip from embedding itself in her head. Sheyta then swings her rapier to the side, intent on slicing her opponent's head in clean halves. Yuuki ducks under the thin blade, sacrificing a few more strands of hair.
Geez, I'll go bald if this keeps up, Yuuki thinks to herself, just barely managing to suppress a chuckle. Kirito likes my hair the way it is so that just wouldn't do. I'd better finish this quickly.
Sheyta slashes her rapier at Yuuki twice, both of which Yuuki blocks. Yuuki then executes a Rage Spike, thrusting her sword at her opponent's torso. Sheyta sidesteps the thrust and swings her rapier downwards on Yuuki's sword arm with the intent of slicing it off. Yuuki spins around in a circle, the thin blade just barely missing its target before executing a simple Slant. Her opponent side steps it, putting her in the direct line of fire of Yuuki's next sword skill.
Nova Ascension, she thinks to herself, as her obsidian blade glows a bright light blue.
Yuuki swings her blade horizontally before bringing it up across her body in a diagonal slash. Sheyta blocks her both blades and leans her body backwards to dodge Yuuki's next diagonal slash. Yuuki then swings her sword horizontally across her body again and then vertically down without breaking pace. Sheyta blocks the horizontal slash but then side steps again to avoid the vertical slash. Yuuki then hops into the air and executes two more spinning slashes in the air, both of which the Integrity Knight manages to block at the expense of having her rapier forced up and away from her body.
Yuuki had finally managed to punch a hole through her opponent's defense.
The purple-haired swordswoman uses the sword skill's final attack to thrust her sword at her opponent's exposed torso.
But then just before the blade could reach its target, Sheyta suddenly shouts "System call, generate aerial element!"
Immediately, a burst of wind erupts from the space between Yuuki and Sheyta, forcing the tip of Yuuki's sword up and pushing the two of them apart. Yuuki gets launched backwards and into the air, landing lightly on her feet at the bottom of the staircase between her and the Integrity Knight.
I'm starting to regret just skimming through that command list, Yuuki thinks to herself.
"I see now that you're not just some ordinary intruder," the Integrity Knight says. "Your skill rivals even that of an Integrity Knight's."
"Thanks, I guess?" Yuuki says in response.
"However, we Integrity Knights were sent down from the heavens by Her Lady Eminence," Sheyta says, raising her rapier. "We are divine beings. Just your swordsmanship alone will not be enough to defeat us.
"System call! Enhance armament!"
The Integrity Knight's rapier starts glowing a very deep indigo as cybernetic circles appear all over around the thin blade. The blade starts glowing with a bright violet hue, a complete contrast to the blade's usual dark indigo.
That's the special command that I tried using back at the inn, Yuuki thinks to herself. So only certain weapons can use it. I wonder what the conditions are.
"The Age of Blood and Iron was the largest conflict between the Human Empire and the Dark Territory ever documented in written history," Sheyta says, keeping her rapier raised into the air as a spark of bright energy gathers at the tip. "When the war came to an end, it was thought that it was impossible for anything caught in the crossfire to survive. However, there was one thing. On the battlefield, there was not a single living thing. There was nothing. Nothing, but a single black lily.
"This is the Black Lily Sword," Sheyta continues. "It is a divine weapon created from that very same black lily. Despite how thin and fragile its blade may seem, with it, I have yet to find an opponent who I was incapable of slicing to ribbons. You won't be an exception."
"So that's all I need to do to use that 'enhance armament' command?" Yuuki says. "Find a sword with a backstory that sounds like it's straight from a fantasy novel? Where can I get one of those? Does this Lady Eminence of yours take gold for'em?"
"You-"
"Also, back from where I come from, they call me Zekken, the Absolute Swordsman," Yuuki says, cutting off the Integrity Knight. "To date, only one person has defeated me. And you're not at his level. Not even close."
Sheyta just gazes down at her opponent, her usual, placid expression not changing in the slightest.
"So what're you waiting for?" Yuuki says. "Come at me, lady."
At that, Sheyta positions her rapier at her side.
Yuuki knew that the fight that was going to come up wasn't going to be nearly as easy as it was before. Whatever that glowing blade meant, it could only mean bad for the swordswoman. Despite her bluff, she knew that at her current strength, she could very well be completely destroyed.
But she had to try at least.
Sheyta suddenly swings her rapier in the air. From the tip of her rapier, dozens of tiny, glowing pinpricks of purple energy shoot towards Yuuki like pellets from a shotgun.
Well, crap, Yuuki thinks to herself as she positions her sword in front of her to execute a Spinning Shield.
The sword starts spinning rapidly like a very fast windmill, making it appear as if it were a round, black shield instead of a spinning sword. The pellets of energy that hit the shield bounce off of it harmlessly while the others around her embed themselves into the Cathedral's walls around Yuuki. She quickly grabs her sword back to bring her sword up to block Sheyta's downwards slash.
"Bloom, Dark Lily," the Integrity Knight says, withdrawing her rapier from the top of Yuuki's sword. "Reveal your beauty."
At that, the budded dark lily flower at the rapier's hilt opens up as if it were an actual flower instead of just part of the rapier. A layer of violet energy forms around the paper thin blade, slightly thickening it to the width of a normal rapier.
The Integrity Knight swings her newly formed energy blade at Yuuki, who brings her sword up in defense of it. However, she suddenly feels herself being pushed backwards from the strength of the swing.
What the-, what's with the sudden boost in strength?! Yuuki thinks to herself.
Sheyta launches forward again, whipping her sword across her body at her usual speed. Yuuki attempts to block the blade again, but as before, she finds her blade being pushed aside by her opponent's swing, forcing her to lean backwards to just narrowly avoid the glowing blade.
Well, this doesn't look too good.
"Alright, we're in," Cardinal whispers. "Make it quick, Kirito."
Kirito and Cardinal both step out of the Cardinal's doorway and into a pitch-black room. Despite it being too dark to see anything, Kirito knew that they had just stepped into the Central Cathedral's armory. It was the only room in the whole Cathedral, at least to his knowledge which he frankly didn't have a lot of concerning the Central Cathedral, that was so dark that he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. Outside, the sound of blades clashing together rang, even through the armory's thick doors.
"Sounds like a fight's going on out there," Kirito whispers.
"Kirito, we came here for one reason and one reason only," Cardinal says.
"I know, I know," Kirito whispers back, holding out his hand. "System call. Generate luminous element."
Four orbs of bright, yellow light appear hovering above the palm of Kirito's hand. The orbs illuminate the entirety of the armory, revealing the shelves upon shelves of armor and weapons.
"Wow, it looks like we'll be here for a quite a bit," Cardinal whispers, taking a look around. "This place is...a lot bigger than I had anticipated."
"First time?" Kirito asks, in a hushed tone.
"The only places I've been in are the top floor and this Library," Cardinal whispers. "I've never actually been to any of the lower floors. Alright, no more chit-chat. Let's get on with it."
Kirito nods as he and the Cardinal start walking around the armory to start their search for a divine weapon.
The black swordsman didn't really know what to expect. Maybe he should've expected finding a divine weapon to be more difficult than he had imagined, even with how big the Central Cathedral's armory was. So far, after a couple of minutes of searching, neither he nor the Cardinal found anything of worth. However, Kirito kept his hopes up. If the Administrator kept all divine weapons for herself, then she would've kept Kirito's and Eugeo's swords instead of keeping them in the armory. There was bound to be something.
Around five minutes later, the Cardinal taps Kirito's shoulder with her staff. Kirito turns to her.
"We've been here long enough," she hisses. "There's nothing here. Let's just go."
Kirito just sighs and nods as the Cardinal taps the ground with her staff. A shimmering, wooden door appears out of the ground.
Just as Cardinal opens it and begins to take a step through it, something catches Kirito's eye.
In a box filled with normal, unremarkable swords, a box that he had walked past numerous times, he then noticed a white handle amongst the sword's red hilts. Anybody who wasn't really looking would've missed it easily.
"Wait, hold on, Cardinal-san," Kirito whispers, much to the Cardinal's visible but silent disdain.
Kirito walks over to the box and starts pulling out each sword and gently laying it on the floor beside him, making sure not to make any noise or accidentally cut himself on the blades of the unsheathed swords in the box.
Finally, Kirito finishes taking out the swords.
At the bottom of the box lay a white sword that looked contrastingly-different to the rest of the plain, dark iron swords that it lay with. It's hilt was a pure white and its blade was long and white with one side of it being sharp. A dragon's skull connected the hilt to the blade, where the blade protruded upwards from the dragon skull's opened mouth.
Kirito runs his hand along the blade of the sword. Strangely enough, it felt like very solid bone instead of metal, like what a sword would usually be made of despite shining in the light of Kirito's luminous element orbs.
"Hey Cardinal-san, over here," Kirito whispers, waving her over to him.
The small librarian walks over to him and examines the sword in his hands. Kirito outstretches a finger and traces a purple S over the sword. A purple screen appears in the air in front of him.
"The Elderfang Sword," Kirito reads off of the screen in front of him. "Priority Level 45. Durability is higher than the Blue Rose Sword's. Cardinal-san, I think we've finally found a divine weapon!"
"Great, now let's get outta here," Cardinal says. "We need to get to the exact spot where we came in, because that's where the doorway will be. Now-"
The creak of the armory doors being opened rings throughout the armory. Kirito immediately snuffs out his luminous orbs, once again plunging the armory into darkness before grabbing the white sword. The doors then slam back shut as the sound of a girl breathing heavily sounds out throughout the armory.
"Man, that'll be a bother to deal with," a familiar, young woman's voice says as she continues breathing heavily.
The voice makes Kirito stop. Cardinal notices and hisses a quiet "What're you doing?!" Kirito just stops and puts a finger up to his lips.
"Who's there?!" the unknown figure shouts. "I know you're there! I heard you whispering!"
"Cardinal, I know who this is," Kirito whispers. "System call, generate luminous element!"
"Kirito! What are you-!"
Four orbs of yellow light form hovering just above Kirito's palm, once again illuminating the armory in bright light.
Standing right in front of the armory's large was a girl with long, violet purple hair, milky white skin, and red eyes. She was dressed in familiar purple armor and skirt and a purple scabbard lay strapped to her belt. In her hand was a obsidian-black sword.
The girl suddenly turns to the light, holding her sword up in defense. Then her eyes widen in surprise upon falling on Kirito.
"Kirito!" Yuuki exclaims, her trademark smile breaking out across her face.
"Yuuki!" Kirito responds with. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I came to find you, obviously!" Yuuki exclaims.
At that, the double doors behind her burst open, sending her flying into Kirito who opens his arms to catch her.
Standing right behind the doors is a woman with short, greyish hair and grey eyes wearing dull, purple armor with a glowing, violet purple sword in her hand. If she reacts at all to seeing Kirito and the Cardinal inside the armory, her placid expression doesn't shift in the slightest to show it.
Despite how plain-looking the woman seemed, Kirito could easily tell, from her attire and her weapon, that she was an Integrity Knight.
"Yuuki, you broke the Taboo Index by breaking into the Central Cathedral, didn't you?" Kirito says, turning his head to the purple-haired girl.
"I still don't know what the Taboo Index is," Yuuki says.
"I'll explain later," Kirito says, sighing.
"How convenient, never would we have suspected that you chose this place to hide out in," the woman says in a soft, quiet voice as she looks around the armory. "Anyways, Intruder Kirito, you are wanted by the Axiom Church for your crimes. Come with us willingly or I will be forced to bring you into custody forcefully."
"Sounds fun," Kirito says. "Alright Cardinal, let's go."
"Wait, are we bringing the girl?" Cardinal asks.
"Course we should," Kirito says. "Trust me, I know her, Cardinal-san. It'll be safe to bring her into the Library with us."
"Library?" Yuuki parrots.
"I hope so," Cardinal says, ignoring her.
The Cardinal taps the ground beside her with her staff. A shimmering, wooden doorway appears out of the ground from where her staff made contact with the ground.
"You're not getting away," the Integrity Knight says, swinging her glowing sword in the air.
A wave of light purple energy fires off from the tip of her sword and shoots off towards Kirito, Yuuki, and the Cardinal.
"You guys go first," Cardinal says. "I'll handle this. And Kirito, I do hope I can trust you to bring a complete stranger into the Library."
"Course you can," Kirito says. "Alright, let's go, Yuuki."
"System call, generate luminous element," Cardinal says, holding up her hand.
A barrier of shimmering yellow light appears between the Integrity Knight and her. The purple energy wave impacts against it harmlessly. The Integrity Knight's eyebrows raise slightly in surprise, but her facial expressino still doesn't change.
"Whoa, that's pretty cool," Yuuki says as Cardinal walks past her and into the passageway. "Kirito, do you know how to do that?"
"Yes, I do," Kirito says. "I can teach you once we get outta here."
"You mean through there?" Yuuki asks, pointing to the Cardinal's doorway. "And where is that suspicious-looking fantasy door leading to?"
"Yuuki…"
"Fine, I'm coming."
"Great," Kirito says as he pushes open the door and follows Yuuki into the passageway, leaving behind the Integrity Knight who watches the intruders get away knowing that there was nothing she could do to destroy the barrier and prevent the intruders from escaping.
A/N: Tried to think up what Sheyta's Perfect Weapon Control Art would be since she never actually uses it. Thought up of something original but it didn't come off as anything creative cuz, honestly, I'm not that creative. Anyways, next chapter starring more Sans, Undyne, Alice, and Eugeo.