Jaymes, two hours later

"You look troubled," Medina says as the three of us make the early-morning trek to the lair of the third Ancient Apostle. Truth be told, I'm more than troubled. After seeing Medina brutally wounded, wondering if she'll make it the last three days, then yesterday's weird phenomenon in which I cannot sense any part of the world beyond the ridge that continues until now... I fear we're entering a trap we can no longer avoid. The latter instance all but confirms it; it stopped me from returning to Medina in her fight against Eydis for just a few minutes. If I cannot fast-travel to any part of the Underworld because of the unseen barrier on my Incarnation, that means something is going on, either here or outside the Windcutter's Ridge. Maybe even both.

Medina getting a look at Eydis' compatriots is good news. A man in gold armor, and a woman in silver, but neither bore the mark of the Order of the Integrity Knights. My immediate hypothesis is that these beings were once captured by the Pontifex. Like Hersyrian, they must've 'heard her voice' after Kirito slew her and woke up from Deep Freeze.

"Just thinking about who the enemy is."

"And?"

"The only explainable origin is that Quinella had them in Deep Freeze like Hersyrian. And like Herysrian..."

Medina makes a face as I mention the Pontifex's son. Well, adopted son, and from what I recall of the moments with them together, "Mother" was not an arbitrary title; it did seem she treated him as her own child, as far as Quinella could in her chilly (but not exactly cold) heart. However, Hersyrian was jealous of the attention Quinella gave the Orthinanos family, so much so that the man betrayed his mother by diluting the pure bloodline himself-in other words, he's Medina's ancestor.

Hersyrian also bears many attributes Medina and I went over in comparison to the characteristics of our enemy. Despite being born at the peak of Administrator's reign, he was born into the wilds of the western kingdom. He told us he killed an elderly couple who found him, then brought him to the ruler of the empire herself. However, Hersyrian had no knowledge of the Taboo Index, which binds the empire's denizens to a certain degree of subjugation like the Law of Power does to the darkworlders. Because of it, he was outside the norm of Quinella's order, but she took him in and made him an enforcer.

That same freedom from the order of the world was his downfall when he raped the fifth head of the Orthinanos family, Miriam Orthinanos, all because the Pontifex was transfixed on the family's ability, the Reserve Forces Module, which directs personality data from the outside world (specifically, gamers playing in VR worlds connected to the Seed Nexus) and molds that data into Medina's wayfarers. Quinella was looking to reverse-engineer the module to escape the Underworld, forcing the Orthinanos bloodline for five generations to remain pure until Herysrian's interference. Ironically, Herysrian used Medina's power to help resurrect Quinella, but the obsession to be seen by Quinella would be his downfall again, this time permanently.

"You think they woke from Deep Freeze just as he did by hearing Administrator's voice. From what I remember, she did call to many, but only Hersyrian answered, right?"

"True, but that doesn't mean others didn't awaken. Herysrian wasn't controlled by the Synthesis Ritual like the knights. So if his servitude to Quinella is natural..."

"So could be someone else's resistance. As long as they have no knowledge of the Taboo Index, or freed themselves from it." Medina makes another face, one less disgusted and annoyed as she looks at her protege who walks ahead of the pair. "Are we almost there?"

I look to my right, seeing the stream, once crystal clear, now as blue as the rocks that surround it on both sides. Furthermore, there's an increasingly audible hammering sound in the air. "Mhm. We should be close now."

Sometime later, just as the first rays of light illuminate the dark sky, we arrive at our destination. The land is rocky and barren, which we use to our advantage to hide. With elevation on our side, we glance down at the lower ground where several armored, bipedal beasts mine blue gems out the side of the rockface. In all my years in virtual reality, I've seen some stuff from monsters, but the souls of the Underworld continue to surprise me.

"My goodness."

"My lady, look at that blue clump."

"Those are ingots. The material used to make metal weapons and armor. They dig the blue ore out, smelt it into ingots, and hammer it into weapons. Rika would be thrilled to be here." I say that last part to myself, not wanting to explain myself to the other girls. Still admitting it out loud makes me miss the blacksmith, especially after all she did during the war.

When the war got to its height, I wasn't present, instead joining Bercouli in chasing Vecta/Subtilizer who captured Alice. That left Asuna and Koharu fighting the red army the enemy was summoning from players in America. When Shino arrived, she wiped out the second wave of American players before coming to join me. The third and final wave of red players came from continental Asia, and it was there that the players of ALO and GGO-roused to action by Rika and our friends-joined the fray. I didn't learn all this until after Kirito and I dealt the final blow to Subtilizer and I went to thank everyone who survived to the very end. It was Klein who told me Lisbeth was responsible for everything.

Even though we aren't dating anymore, and I'm not sure where we stand now that the girl I liked before her is back from the dead, I know I owe her a great deal this time when I return to my world. If anything, she's still someone I care for and trust deeply.

"But why would they need so many weapons?"

"Not sure. I don't think they're selling them... Kaul said the Black Porcupines had sword wounds, right?" I nod to confirm Medina's statement. "This might be where they live. Bet they used the weapons to run them out. They're probably preparing for war. With enough arms, they could invade. And Rulid is the first village they'd attack... Jaymes, if those guys are behind this, if Eydis knew this, there's no way she'd allow Rulid to be attacked."

I want to agree with Medina, but the Eydis now is not the one I know. I haven't seen her for myself to determine if she's truly being controlled or if this is her own decision. What Medina experienced leans towards the latter yet the former possibility is equally as possible. She has every right to dislike me for taking Alice out of this world to mine, but Eydis had every opportunity to strike me down in revenge the moment I saw her when the raid team returned to the Eastern Gate after the war. I wouldn't have liked it, with my physical body being tormented with the lack of sensation for twenty real-world minutes,

"Hey," Ilia calls out, pointing to one of the beasts prone on the ground. "That beast has blue marks on it. It's definitely seen better days. And not just that one. A lot of the ones over there do too." I don't remark on that as thundering footsteps enter the mining field. As I spot it, my eyes narrow in memory. How could I forget the red-bodied, crimson-eyed, talwar and dagger-wielding beast that forty-four players led by a knight in blue defeated to give hope and inspiration to eight thousand others just a month after Akihiko "Heathcliff" Kayaba trapped us in Sword Art Online?

If Kirito and Asuna were here, they'd share the same surprise I had days ago when I first scouted this area. I hadn't lied when I said it was an old friend: Illfang the Kobold Lord and his army of kobolds.

Thanks to my quick reaction to save our leader Diavel, Kirito and Asuna's commanding presences (well, mostly thirty-nine males not named Kirito, Diavel, or Jaymes caught off guard by a second woman's presence in the boss fight) and my party's teamwork, we didn't lose anyone in our victory over Illfang. Kirito would be branded a beater, Diavel would leave the front to Kibaou and Lind until he's ready to return, and the potential we could beat the game would be realized. At the same time, we learned we couldn't rely on knowledge from the beta. It wouldn't be until the second-floor fight against three minotaurs (a baron, a general, and a king) that we'd learn that had Koharu, Argo, and I investigated a cave that we saved Asuna in weeks before, we could have found out about Illfang's change from the beta.

So I'm eager for a rematch, knowing what Illfang's capable of, but there's a new issue: I said he's a "talwar and dagger-wielding beast" and I meant that. He's wielding both weapons at once, forgoing the shield and ax combo he had in both the beta and official release of SAO, and the katana he used in the official release in place of the talwar from the beta. The dagger in his left hand is also glowing as it is raised in the air, flashing yellow light in the area. No, that's not just any light, that's a Luminous art, and he just healed the kobold Ilia pointed out earlier.

"That dagger removed its wounds!"

"Can that dagger remove status effects or something... It worked like a Luminous healing art."

Medina, used to my 'Sacred Tongue' speech, says nothing of my correction. Ilia, not used to it, questions it.

"Stat..us effects?"

"I mean to say that it might be able to cure poison."

"Even though they're poisoned themselves... Did they really have to make such weapons?" If the ingots are capable of poison, then it can be said that the weapons made from them can inflict that status effect too. That's simple game knowledge...but this world isn't a game. There isn't a poison antidote just readily available in shops like in ALO, GGO, or SA:O. This world runs just as much like the real world of centuries past to some degree, meaning those medicines will have to be found from the right herbs and made the right way. But by that time, the number of dead will be too much. Had Selka not found a cure as quickly as she did, I believe things would have been worse in Norlangarth.

And however the Council is ignorant of it, it wouldn't have been the case as it is now. Or so I want to believe.

"The time has come for us to prosper! We must kill the humans and take their lands!" I shouldn't be surprised, Fatal Scythe did talk, and so did the Headless Horseman, but I did not encounter Fatal Scythe in SAO myself. So to hear Illfang speak throws me off, but now I know his plan.

Ilia grips her sword. "It sounds like a monster from the Dark Territory."

"These...kobolds aren't from the dark realm, Ilia. If it is an Ancient Apostle, it was probably trapped in the mine tunnels for a long time. To think Quinella couldn't kill it." It took seven parties of four to six players each to beat Illfang once before, and that was on incorrect data. If only I could warp to the capital, get Asuna and Kirito's aid, then return... Wait, if I can't sense the outside world, can Medina use her power? "Medina, can you use the Reserve Forces Module?"

She closes her eyes, seemingly frustrated for some reason. "No. I don't understand it, but I believe it's the same reason you cannot use your power. Whatever keeps you from leaving the way you do is keeping me from summoning wayfarers."

"So we're truly isolated from not just the world, but the Underworld's server as well." it's like we're in a weird instance map, separated from the rest of the game world. That's the best I can come up with...and I don't like it. We have three options, and none of them are good.

We fight, just the three of us, but the danger there doesn't need to be explained.

We retreat, but the danger of that is just as obvious. It'll take us too many hours to return to the Lodend Mountains region, gather reinforcements, then march back.

The third and final option is that Kirito and Asuna are concerned with the lack of communication the last few days, or just in general. Kirito is one thing, he may not be too concerned, but Asuna has been more worried about me than usual, But the problem there also has one of the prior options. This operation is being done behind the Unification Council's back. Who cares what Medina, Ilia, and I do, but if Kiirto and Asuna leave, that's sure to gain the Council's notice, and the fact the bluethorn illness never reached them in the first place is already suspicious. If there's a mole in the capital, I rather not alert them that we have suspicions.

If there was some way to boost Medina's ability to break the barrier, then I wouldn't have these worries. Hell, I'd use that boosted signal to summon the girls known as Terraria, Lunaria, and Solus-Leafa, Koharu, and Sinon-in the hopes the signal from their Soul Translators could be revert back to the Ocean Turtle's Underworld server. I jokingly spoke of this with Medina long ago when she told me she wished she could meet and thank Leafa properly (they fought together for the entirety of Leafa's time in this world), but secretly wondered if we combined her Release Recollection with the Reserve Module, could Incarnation and technology bring them back?

I doubt we'll test that today.

But Medina is my trusted partner, one of a very short list of girls who I can fight alongside without worry. I trust her as much as I trust Asuna, Koharu, Kureha, and Sinon at this point, and aside from Asuna and Yuuki, Medina is the one non-Integrity Knight girl who has matched my skill with a sword in a real duel. If she was a real worlder starting in SAO or if I was a true Underworlder, she'll easily be my equal.

Ilia is Medina's page, and so far has performed exemplary for a trainee being thrown into fights much stronger individuals are struggling with. I haven't said much to her, but I've long noticed her skill in both swordplay and the arts. She's leaps and bounds beyond Ronie and Tiese in both regards, and definitely superior to Mia with the arts. But of course she is; from childhood, she trained with the sword as her only interest, and she was chosen by a defect who proved to the world her swordsmanship is not defective as the possessor.

My younger self wouldn't put these girls to such impossible odds. No, even as I am now wouldn't do this with Crimson Squad, and we got the toughest players in GGO. But I put my protective nature to the side and grip Falchion, stored in its sheath, and glance at the beautiful redhead to my left and her young blonde apprentice. "Medina, Ilia, we're going to end this right here and now."

"You sure?" Medina questions. "That's reckless, even for you."

"I know. But we have no other choice. Or to be better said, we're forced to have no other options. What do you say?"

Medina looks down at the congregation of kobolds and sighs. "If we live, you owe me another day to myself at the baths. Risking my life twice in a short amount of time is stressful."

I close my eyes, remembering the previous time I was there...and then slam my brain for letting those thoughts of the swordswoman beside me filter in at this moment. "Believe me, I'll be there with you. And how about you, Ilia?"

"...Are you sure about this?"

"No."

She has been around long enough to understand what that means. "I see... If we win, I want you to start treating me like you do Mia, Ronie, and Tiese. I know I am not your student like they are, but..."

I nod and, staying low, wobble over between both women. "I get the message, though you shouldn't be concerned. I've noticed your ability long ago, but I guess I can do more. Now huddle up..."