Eugeo slowly opens his eyes to find himself in an empty black box.
He groans and clutches at his head with a hand before getting up off the empty, pitch-black floor and taking a look around.
Where was he?
The last thing he remembered doing was being knocked out by that knight he was fighting not much earlier. What was he doing here? Was he being held captive?
He hears a shimmering sound beside him. He turns his head to the side to see a moving image of two boys chasing each other. One was a boy with black hair and grey eyes and the other was a boy with blond hair and green eyes.
The blonde-haired boy, Eugeo couldn't help but stop and stare at him for a second. He looked almost exactly like what Eugeo would've looked like as a child.
But that's impossible. Eugeo was an Integrity Knight. The thirty-second Integrity Knight. He never had a childhood.
The black-haired boy pounces on the child-Eugeo-look-alike and pins him to the ground, a wide grin on his face.
Something about that boy seemed so familiar to Eugeo. Though he couldn't place exactly where he had seen his face.
The image disappears into the inky darkness, leaving Eugeo, once again, in the void.
Then, spontaneously, multiple moving images like the one before appear all around him.
One was an image of him wearing a simple white tunic and brown pants. He was sitting under the shade of a very, very large tree, a non-metallic, white axe sitting on the ground beside him. He was talking to what seemed like a grown-up version of the black-haired boy from the previous image.
Eugeo had no idea what he was doing in that setting. He was an Integrity Knight who was sent down from the heavens. He had no past. Yet the man in this image was, without a doubt, him. The Integrity Knight tried to hear what he was saying to his black-haired companion, but the words were blurred.
Then that image disappears and another one appears.
This one was another image of him, still in his simple tunic and pants, going through motions of what Eugeo immediately recognized as attacks from the Aincrad Style along with the black-haired man from before, who seemed to be leading Eugeo through the moves. In Eugeo's hand was the Blue Rose Sword.
This man, was he his teacher? If so, why couldn't Eugeo remember anything about him? And what was the Eugeo in the image doing with the Blue Rose Sword? Didn't the Pontifex Administrator grant him the sword upon becoming an Integrity Knight?
Then as if a flip in his mind had been switched, Eugeo heard a voice.
"That's it, Eugeo!" someone says in a very familiar-sounding voice. "Keep your shoulders up! Don't let your wrist fall or you'll lose power in your third and fourth swings!"
Eugeo clutches his head. Something about that voice, it was somehow important to Eugeo him. But he just couldn't damn remember what exactly.
The image disappears with another reappearing.
This time, he saw himself in a light blue Sword Mastery Academy elite disciple's tunic. He was panting and his right eye was shut and severely bloodied. His hands and the light blue blade of his Blue Rose Sword were both stained with blood and in front of him were the dead bodies of two men that he didn't recognize.
But their faces…
They were linked to something important involving Eugeo. But, again, he couldn't remember what exactly.
Then two names come to mind.
Raios Antinous and Humbert Zizek
He clutches his head as he receives another flood of memories. It felt like someone was pouring water into his head through his ears.
All of a sudden, he remembered.
He was the one who killed him. He and his companion, whom he still couldn't name. They did so while attempting to prevent the two officials from raping their valets.
Two girls named Ronye and Tiese.
But killing was against the Taboo Index. How could he, an Integrity Knight, break the Taboo Index?
"That's because you had a past before your days of being an Integrity Knight," he hears someone with his voice say from behind.
Eugeo spins around to face behind him, hand instinctively going to his hip where his sword usually resided. His sword wasn't there though.
Standing behind was an identical glowing, light green version of him.
Eugeo opens his mouth to ask who this copy of him was, but his copy holds up a hand.
"Don't talk," he says. "Just observe. I'll tell you who I am once you remember who you were before you were an Integrity Knight."
Eugeo tries to say something, but realizes that he can't speak.
"You're starting to remember some things," the copy says. "That's a good start. But it's not enough yet. You still need to remember more. You need to remember everything."
Glowing, light green Eugeo walks up to Eugeo's side and raises his hand. Another image appears.
Another moving image of him and his black-haired companion appears. However, this time, the two of them were locked in combat with who Eugeo recognized as Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One. The two of them were fighting with chains wrapped around their wrists while the Integrity Knight was lashing out at the two of them with his Frost Scale Whip, the tip of it elongating into a long, white snake and lashing out at Eugeo.
Then that image is replaced with one of him and the black-haired boy standing in what looked like a large library walking beside a child wearing violet scholar's garments. The child had short, chestnut brown hair and eyes and, despite her youth, she had a wise look in her eyes. A look an old sage would have, not a child.
"This is all I can assist you with," the child seems to say in another familiar-sounding voice. "Eugeo, K̸̰̕ĩ̴͙r̴͈̈́ĩ̵͇t̸̘̾o̷̦̽, I bid you good luck."
Like before, his head throbs as memories pour into his brain.
Eugeo knew who this child was.
Her name was Cardinal, the sage of the Grand Library.
But his companion throughout the images, he still couldn't remember who he was. Cardinal had said his name, but he couldn't hear it properly. It was as if he wasn't yet ready to hear the name.
"You're getting closer," Eugeo's copy says. "But there are still more names that you must remember. Names that are important to your past."
Yet another image appears, this time of him and his black-haired companion standing in front of Alice Synthesis Thirty, swords raised. The Osmanthus Knight herself was standing at the top of a hill in what Eugeo recognized as the Cloudtop Garden in the Central Cathedral.
What was he doing up there? Eugeo never stepped foot on the Cloudtop Garden. More so, he and Synthesis Thirty were allies. Why did she look down on him and his companion with such a hostile look?
"No, that's not the name you're supposed to remember," Eugeo's copy says. "We need to go back farther."
The image disappears and yet another one reappears, this one being another image of Eugeo and his black-haired companion as children, wrestling on the ground underneath the shade of the humongous tree from before.
He suddenly remembers yet another name.
Gigas Cedar.
His head starts to throb again as more memories flood into him.
He remembered now. He had a Sacred Task before becoming an Integrity Knight, even before becoming a swordsman. He was tasked with cutting down the Gigas Cedar along with his friend, his black-haired companion whom he still couldn't name.
"Eugeo! K̸̰̕ĩ̴͙r̴͈̈́ĩ̵͇t̸̘̾o̷̦̽! I've brought you some honey pies!" a girl's voice shouts.
A girl with blonde hair and shockingly blue eyes walks up to Eugeo and his companion, who both get off the ground to greet the girl.
She looked shockingly similar to Alice. In fact, she looked exactly like Alice if she were a child.
Like Eugeo before, Alice looked too unsightly to ever be an Integrity Knight. In fact, with her current attire and basket looped around her arm, she didn't look like a Knight at all.
Another memory finds itself into Eugeo's brain.
This girl, her name was Alice, but she wasn't Alice Synthesis Thirty. She had a name beside her usual branding of Integrity Knight.
Alice Zuberg. That was her name.
We were good friends. Good friends until something happened.
It was at that that Eugeo remembered. He, Alice, and his black-haired friend had gone one day into a cave to collect ice for the village.
But then what next? It was all coming back too slowly.
Then the three of them had entered a cave.
Inside, they saw the bones of a dragon that looked to be long dead.
That was where he had found the Blue Rose Sword, laying on the ground amongst the mounds of treasure surrounding the dragon's carcass.
Then they got lost and…
Accidentally found an entrance into the Dark Territory.
Alice then slipped and fell and…
Her hand crossed the barrier of the Dark Territory and the Human Empire, thus breaking the Taboo Index.
Then she got taken away.
He remembered now. He remembered everything.
Everything except the last piece of the puzzle. His black-haired companion's name.
"Very good," Eugeo's copy says, who seemed to be glowing brighter than when Eugeo first saw him. "Now think back on those memories. Whose name overlaps?"
Moving images start appearing all around Eugeo. Images of him and the black-haired man.
One of them was of him standing over his black-haired companion who was lying under a tree in a relaxed position with his eyes closed.
"Come on, K̸̰̕ĩ̴͙r̴͈̈́ĩ̵͇t̸̘̾o̷̦̽!" Eugeo seemed to say. "It's almost curfew! We don't want to anger Azurica-senpai!"
His name, he still couldn't hear his name properly.
"Don't worry, Eugeo!" the black-haired man says. "We've still got plenty of time! We won't be late."
"That's what you said last time! C'mon Kirḭ̶̔t̴̮̔ó̶̧, we can't afford to be late! Not again!"
Kir...?
That was all he needed to hear.
A name that started with Kir...he knew only one name that started with a "Kir."
"Kirito," Eugeo says. "His name was Kirito."
His copy smiles.
Then, all of a sudden, memories flooded into Eugeo's head, as if a dam blocking the sea of memories had been lowered.
He saw himself and Kirito standing at the bottom of a staircase in the Central Cathedral, swords raised at a red-armored knight who's bow and body was surrounded by red hot flames. He remembered how that confident smile he gave was enough to instantly quell all of Eugeo's fear and concern for his companion.
He saw himself and Kirito standing in the Hall of Ghostly Light, Integrity Knight Fanatio Synthesis Two's blade glowing with bright energy and Kirito's own blade glowing with dark, purple energy.
"You didn't come all this way just because you hated the Integrity Knights, right?" he had said. "Aren't you here because you want to get Alice back? Because you love her?"
Image after image of Eugeo's moments with Kirito appear all around him.
Him watching Kirito fight to save Selka from goblins in the cave where Eugeo had found the Blue Rose Sword.
Kirito congratulating him as he delivers the final slash that toppled the Gigas Cedar.
His and Kirito's conversation in that prison cell before their prison break.
Eugeo's desperate scream as Kirito and Alice fell out of the side of the Central Cathedral through a hole in the supposedly indestructible wall.
"It seems that you remember everything now," Eugeo's copy says, making the blond-haired boy turn to look at him. "Looks like my job is done here."
"Wait, who are you?" Eugeo asks, suddenly able to find his voice again. "You still haven't told me!"
Eugeo's copy just smiles at him as a bright white starts replacing the inky darkness all around him.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm you. Now, until next time, partner."
Eugeo's eyes shoot open and he sits up suddenly, making whatever bed he was lying on creak loudly.
His newly returned memories were still running around his skull, causing his head to ache. Eugeo closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. That helped a little.
Upon reopening his eyes, he takes a look to observe his current surroundings.
He was lying on a wooden cot in a dimly lit room, dressed in a simple white tunic and black pants.
The first thing he noticed was the figure in unusual-looking, blue garments sitting on a chair in front of a desk that had nothing but a single lamp on it. Eugeo instantly recognized the figure's robes as those belonging to the one he and Alice were fighting earlier on the flower field.
Eugeo's first instinct was to immediately get up and reach for his sword which wasn't at his hip. The fact that his foot was tied to the post of the bed stopped him. The bed creaks loudly again as he falls clumsily back onto the bed.
"you always this jumpy when you wake up?" the figure, Sans he remembers, asks.
His back was turned to the young swordsman. His hood was up, hiding his pale white skull. He looked to be inspecting pinched between his gloved fingers under the light of the lamp. It was a small, glowing purple rectangular prism.
That's...that's a piety module, Eugeo remembers. Cardinal-san said that those were what the Administrator used to make sure the Integrity Knights stayed eternally loyal to her.
"oh, may i ask whatcha doin' with this in your soul?" Sans asks, turning to Eugeo, his face hidden within the shadow cast by the hood of his robe.
"How did you...how did you get that out?" Eugeo asks, remembering how he had gotten a piety module out of an Integrity Knight before. "You don't know anything about my past."
"on the contrary, i know a lot about you," Sans says. "probably more than you know about yourself. as i had said before, your soul tells me everything. and i didn't need to know your past."
The monster points to Eugeo's chest. Eugeo looks down to see a small, glowing light green heart levitating in the air right in front of his chest where his heart was. He swats at it, but his hand passes right through the glowing heart.
"it'll go away on its own in a little," Sans says. "now, your armor and sword are over there."
Sans points to the corner of the room where Eugeo's armor and Blue Rose Sword sat, looking as if it had been polished and left alone.
"now i'll be going over there to free you from that rope tying your foot to the bed," Sans says. "personally, i'd think against attempting to attack me the moment you grab your sword, but i'm not you, aren't i?"
Sans then walks over to Eugeo and casually removes the rope binding his foot to the post of the bed before turning his back on him and casually walking back to the chair he was sitting on as if knowing full well that Eugeo wouldn't attempt to attack him from behind.
He probably did know more about him than Eugeo knew about himself.
Before walking out the doorway of the room with his armor in his hands and his sword at his hip, Eugeo turns to look at Sans, who was still examining the piety module.
According to what he learned about monsters in the Sword Mastery Academy and his experiences within the Dark Territory itself, monsters were supposed to be blood-thirsty, greedy beings who had no other thought but to pillage and kill. However, the behavior that this monster expressed was nothing like that. It was as if he never came from the Dark Territory at all, but where else would a monster come from?
It was definitely an unusual experience for the young Integrity Knight.
Speaking of Integrity Knight, was Eugeo even really an Integrity Knight anymore? Sure he had armor with the Axiom Church's signature logo and a divine weapon, but his loyalty wasn't tied to the Administrator anymore.
Did he want to be an Integrity Knight? After all, he and Kirito did decide to move from Rulid to Centoria to train to become Integrity Knights. Back then, the answer to that question seemed so obvious. Now, he wasn't so sure.
"your girlfriend's waitin' out there for ya on the porch," Sans says.
"She's not my girlfriend," Eugeo shoots back a bit too quickly, feeling his face heat up.
"not yet," Sans says.
Eugeo's face heats up a bit more before he quickly dons his Integrity Knight armor, secure his sword to his waist, and leave the room without gracing the monster with a response.
Just as Sans had said, Alice was waiting out on the porch, fully clothed in her usual golden armor and her hands laying on the hilt of her Osmanthus Blade with the tip of it pressed downwards on the wooden porch. She was looking down the dirt path towards Rulid, which could be easily seen from the monsters' home. Her gaze was wistful and mindless, a polar opposite to the stern and calculating one she usually had.
"What're you thinking about?" Eugeo asks, walking up to the Integrity Knight.
"A lot of things," Alice says softly.
"I'm assuming you've gotten all of your memories back as well," Eugeo says.
Alice just nods. For a few minutes, silence takes over the two Integrity Knights as they stare down at Rulid village, their birthplace.
"Where should we go now?" Eugeo asks.
"I don't know," Alice says, sighing.
"Well, how about this then?" Eugeo asks. "How about we go looking for Kirito?"
"Kirito is still alive?" Alice asks. "I thought you killed him."
"No, Cardinal-san saved him right before I could really end him," Eugeo says.
"Cardinal-san?" Alice repeats. "Who is that?"
"Someone important," Eugeo says. "At least I know where he is now."
"Where?"
"It's hard to explain. The thing is that it's within the Central Cathedral."
"Within the Central Cathedral?" Alice asks. "Then it's only a matter of time until the Integrity Knights find him."
"No, they'll never find him, not unless Cardinal-san wants them to," Eugeo says. "And I mean that literally. They will literally never find him."
"Who is this Cardinal?"
"You're going to have to meet her yourself to see," Eugeo says. "So, do you want to go back to the Central Cathedral?"
Alice turns back to the village in the distance.
"If it means finding Kirito, I will risk it," Alice says. "But I reckon we'll be seen as enemies the moment we enter. Why do you want to look for Kirito?"
"Because I wish to continue on with the mission Cardinal-san has entrusted to me," Eugeo says.
"Mission?"
"To kill the Administrator," Eugeo bluntly says.
Alice turns back to Eugeo and gapes at him.
"That's impossible," she says.
"On the contrary, it's very possible," Eugeo says. "Cardinal-san has given us the parameters. It is possible to defeat her."
"Even if you do manage to do as you say, what's the point?" Alice asks. "Killing her would be basically the same as eliminating the Human Empire's strongest weapon for when the monsters of the Dark Territory are freed."
"Because just the Integrity Knights are not enough to defend the full force of the Dark Territory," Eugeo says. "The Administrator thinks it is, but we will be overwhelmed. Without an army, we don't stand a chance. But with the Administrator, it is impossible to build an army within the Human Empire. Taking her out might actually be what saves the Human Empire."
Alice takes a moment to mull over Eugeo's words.
"That...does make sense," Alice says. "Alright, we shall go off to the Central Cathedral to find this Cardinal-san individual. Now, where's Amayori?"
"Ah, we must've left Amayori at the flower field," Eugeo says. "She must have flown off already."
Just as he says that, the knight that Eugeo fought in the flower field approaches the two Integrity Knights from behind.
"Your dragon's out back," she says, already turning around to walk back into the house. "Managed to get it right before it flew off. Thought you might need it."
Alice and Eugeo look at each other before turning to where the knight was standing. Eugeo opens his mouth to ask her name but she had already disappeared.
"Well, let us go then," Alice says.
A/N: Sorry for the slight absence. Tried to think of what a reverse synthesis ritual would be and this is what I came up with. What do y'all think? Anyways, thanks for reading!