"don't you think it's strange, undyne?" Sans asks.
Sans and Undyne were sat on the porch of their house, watching as the children in their front yard were playing around. Considering that none of them knew how to cook, they had someone from the village below make lunch for the children (for free of course, because everyone was too damn nice). Sans and Undyne just watched as the children ran around, laughing joyfully and enjoying the beautiful day outside.
"What is?" the knight asks, sat on the ground beside the bench Sans was sat on and subconsciously doodling random things into the wooden porch with her spear. That particular habit ticked Sans off a little, but she always did make them go away after she was done. That was besides the point though.
Sans raises his hand and activates his magic, a light blue flame appearing in his eye socket that was visibly bright under his hood. Thankfully, none of the children noticed it.
Glowing hearts appear above the heads of all the children around. Undyne recognized them as their souls, but there was something wrong with them.
Although their heart-shaped borders were glowing with their respective soul colors, they were empty and transparent inside.
"a human's soul is always at its strongest in their youth," Sans says, lowering his hand and deactivating his magic. "that was why asgore wanted to use childrens' souls to break the barrier, besides the fact that children were the only one who fell into the underground, of course. but all of these children, their souls are all hollow."
"Like those guys we fought not too long ago?" Undyne asks. "Those knights?"
"no, those knights are much more worse off than these children," Sans says. "these children still have their souls, but something is suppressing their power. those knights, it was as if their souls were deactivated and then reactivated when i took those things out of their souls."
The hooded skeleton gets up from his seat at the bench and walks up to a young, brown-haired boy who had his arm slung back as if to throw the ball in his hand. Behind his back, Sans then activates his magic and holds his hand out in front of the child. A glowing heart with an orange border appears floating just above the palm of his hand. He reaches towards it with a finger and gently taps the empty heart. He then quickly retracts it when it suddenly glitches and disappears, replaced by a purple box with the text SYSTEM ALERT Code 871 in it.
what the hell…is this? system alert code 871? that sounds like something that would belong in a computer system.
why would a child have something in their soul?
Sans taps the box with his finger, but nothing happens. He just deactivates his magic and makes his way back to the porch.
there's somethin' more than i can see goin' on here.
"What'd you see?" Undyne asks as Sans plops back onto the bench.
"somethin' very interestin'," is all Sans says before he leans back into his bench with his hands behind his head.
Then he starts softly snoring. Undyne just deadpans at the skeleton before sighing and goes back to doodling Mew Mew Kissy Cutie on the porch.
"We're approaching the dragon landing," Alice says.
Eugeo just nods. His hand strays to the handle of his Blue Rose Sword, softy rubbing it with a gloved hand without wrapping his hand around it.
"Are the Integrity Knights capable of knowing if we still have our piety modules or not?" Eugeo asks.
"Our what?" Alice asks, looking behind her back to Eugeo with a confused expression.
"The thing that was suppressing our memories," Eugeo says.
"I…don't know," Alice says. "I've always thought that 'Integrity Knight' was just a title, but if something inside of us determines whether we are knights or not…"
"I don't think the other Knights can see them," Eugeo says. "The Administrator wouldn't allow that because it could foster curiosity which would lead to doubt about the Integrity Knights' origins."
"You didn't call her 'Lady Pontifex'," Alice points out.
"Remember that she was my enemy before," Eugeo says. "And now that I'm no longer an Integrity Knight, she has returned to being my enemy. She is no longer my 'Lady Pontifex'. How about you?"
Alice doesn't respond. She just turns back to her front.
After a few seconds of complete silence, she speaks again.
"Oh? What's Synthesis Seven doing on the dragon landing?" she asks.
Then another few seconds of silence.
Then she suddenly pulls her reins to the side. Amayori takes a very sharp right turn, one that would've made Eugeo fall off the dragon if he hadn't been strapped down and hadn't grabbed the edge of the saddle by pure reflex.
A split second later, four golden arrows whizz right past his head.
"Are we under attack?!" Eugeo shouts.
"It's Synthesis Seven!" Alice shouts back. "He's about to fire at us again! Hang on!"
Amayori does another very sharp turn, but thankfully, Eugeo was prepared for it. Another small swarm of arrows fly right past the dragon's side.
"We need to somehow get past Synthesis Seven without getting hit," Alice says. "Even one of those arrows are strong enough to seriously hurt Amayori and without her, we can't enter the Cathedral."
"Couldn't you just tell her to fire at him?" Eugeo asks.
"In that case, where will we land?" Alice asks. "The walls of the Cathedral are indestructible, but the landing pad itself is not."
"That means we will have to use a Sacred Art or Perfect Weapon Control Art," Eugeo says.
"He's about to fire again," Alice says. "I'm going to perform another dodge."
"Don't," Eugeo says. "If we keep doing that, we'll never reach the landing platform. I have a plan. Just keep flying forward, we'll push our way through. Also, I believe that in this way, we won't need the landing pad."
Alice gives him a questionable look at that, but doesn't argue. She snaps her reigns as Amayori picks up speed, starting a diagonally downward dive straight for the landing platform. With the changed angle, Eugeo could see the red-armored knight standing on the landing pad, his red bow aimed up at them. He had five golden-tipped arrows nocked in his bow.
Quickly, Eugeo undoes his strap, to Alice's exasperated surprise, and gets up into a crouch that would keep him on the dragon's saddle. He then holds up an arm in front of him, palm facing the knight.
"System call! Generate luminous element! Bird form!" he shouts.
Five small, bright white birds made of pure light materialize at his finger tips.
"Burst!"
The birds shoot off towards the landing, rushing past the dragon at a very high speed like little bullets. Then they all suddenly expand and burst into very large flashes of light.
Alice and Eugeo manage to look away before the birds could burst. However, the Integrity Knight Deusolbert Synthesis Seven wasn't as lucky. The white light floods his field of vision, making him lose sight of his targets.
Making use of the opening, Eugeo crawls up the dragon's neck and onto its head behind Alice's saddle before unsheathing his sword and pointing it at the knight.
"Enhance armament!"
The Blue Rose sword starts glowing a very bright light blue as frigid energy starts seeping off of the crystal blade. The temperature in the air starts dropping, making Alice shiver in her armor.
Then suddenly, ice erupts from the tip of his blade. A large surge of ice shoots off towards Deusolbert.
Several golden arrows shoot through the wave of ice, shattering it and forcing Eugeo to duck in order to avoid being impaled, but the ice doesn't relent. Once it reaches the landing pad, it quickly spreads into the tower, engulfing the red Integrity Knight in ice and coating the floor in a thick sheet of ice.
Eugeo hops off of Alice's dragon and slides down the frozen wave into the tower, sword grasped tightly in his hand. Alice unstraps herself from the rider's saddle, but before getting off, she leans forward to Amayori's large ear.
"Remain near for now," she says. "If I don't come back in one day, fly away to a place far, far away from here. Don't come back here until you hear my call."
The dragon just grumbles slightly. Alice smiles, leaning down to rub the side of its head.
"Until next time, Amayori."
She then gets off of its head and slides down the ice bridge Eugeo had created. After a couple of minutes, she finally reaches the dragon landing pad, where Eugeo was waiting for her, Blue Rose Sword in hand. She turns out to see Amayori fly away before turning to the iceberg where Deusolbert was frozen in.
"I apologize, Synthesis Seven," she whispers. "I will find a way to make up for it in another way later."
"Alice, let's go," Eugeo says.
The blonde Knight just nods, drawing her own Fragrant Olive Sword from its sheath before following Eugeo into the Cathedral.
The two former Integrity Knights push through the first door, entering into a large hallway leading up to a large flight of steps. Large pillars flanked the sides of the large red carpet that split through the middle of the hall.
Eugeo's guard relaxes slightly, seeing that the hallway was empty. He brings the Blue Rose Sword down to his side as he and Alice continue making their way through the hallway and towards the set of stairs leading downwards into the Cathedral.
"So, where are we going?" Alice asks.
"To the lower floors," Eugeo says. "I'm hoping to catch my friend's attention as we proceed down."
"You still haven't specified who this 'friend' of yours is," Alice says.
"Let's just say that she is a…very young librarian," Eugeo says.
"Librarian for what library?" Alice asks. "There never has been a library in the Cathedral."
"There is, it's just inaccessible."
"Impossible, nothing is inaccessible to the Lady Pontifex."
"You'll be surprised."
The two continue down the hallway. Just as they were about to reach the foot of the stairs though, Alice suddenly stops. Eugeo also stops, looking behind his shoulder at her quizzically.
"Don't you find it strange that other than Synthesis Seven, there hasn't been another Integrity Knight to intercept us?" Alice asks.
"Our luck, perhaps," Eugeo says.
"But after the first incident, she would undoubtedly tighten security around the Cathedral," Alice says.
"Kirito and I both entered through the first floor," Eugeo says. "Maybe she is more cautious of the lower floors."
"No, that doesn't sound like-"
Then her eyes suddenly widen. Eugeo's own eyes widen as he hears the very familiar whistle of something metal traveling through the air at a fast speed from somewhere behind him.
"Eugeo, look out!"
He suddenly drops to the floor, his armor hitting the hard ground with a clank, and rolls to the side just in time to see the sharp tip of a small, silver blade attached to a long, green handle skewer the air right above his head.