Welcome to Part 2 of World of Underworld. Like Part One, there's original content, some adaptation of Volume 20, and some parts of the first paid DLC of SAO: Alicization Lycoris, Blooming of Forget-Me-Not, and a little bit of Rising Steel/Unleash Blading. For some reason, I thought I updated this last week, so you're getting Chapters 23-26 all at once.

Nothing more to say, enjoy the chapter

Part Two: Revenge of the First Children

Medina

In Medina's family, there's a flower that bloomed despite the harsh conditions of the land. That flower begets more flowers, and they beget more that, when she was born, there was an entire garden of this one flower. The garden still stands today, the symbol of her family.

The lycoris.

Once she asked my father why the lycoris is their family's symbol. He told her that, despite the adversity and challenges, the lycoris sprouted, bloomed, and thrived, and that one day, their family would too. her father died on those words, as did many between the fifth and ninth generations did. They believed that one day the name Orthinanos wouldn't be followed by the term "defect". Almost two years ago, she did just that.

A beautiful lie.

Medina did nothing. Or maybe she did something, but the credit goes to someone else. Others who protected a world she almost helped bring to chaos, yet now she alone remains. A golden knight, her beauty as shimmering as her armor, departed for another world. A pair of pages, now trainees for the highest honor of knighthood one can receive. A graduate of that same school, now a general of the realm's still meager forces…

A best friend, a sister, now traitor to the state. A boy, her hero, a victim of the traitor's power.

It's been three days since the battle in Norlangarth, where the hero and the traitor fought to what seemed like the latter's victory. To think the most powerful person lost, even though he told Medina it would be likely, shocked Medina so much that she lashed out and held the traitor's throat in her hands. She, too, battled that person days prior, but Medina was supposed to lose; she's just a woman with a sword, her opponent's an Integrity Knight, and the boy has defeated gods. He doesn't hold back in a serious battle. But he wasn't fighting just the traitor, but enemies he couldn't see either.

Medina should've known it was a trap. But she didn't know everything. She didn't know they had an archer with arrows that inflicted terrible agony on the victim, attacking the very fiber of their being, nor did she know they wanted his sword, the strongest there is with the ability to shape the world as the wielder pleases.

Had Medina known that, she could have protected him. She wouldn't be praying to Stacia, Solus, Terraria, and Lunaria with tear-soaked eyes, She wouldn't be sitting at his bedside like she's his grieving wife. But she's tried everything, they've tried everything, but nothing has woken him up. Not her, not his two fellow otherworlders, not his apprentice or any other friends. Unlike Kirito, he's not in a comatic state due to a damaged soul; something has him gripped from within, drowned in the depths of darkness, and no one has been able to reach out and pull him into the light.

A perfect person would be able to save him, but a defect like Medina cannot. It's why she doesn't deserve him. For all her strength, she's too weak to protect him, instead always needing to be protected.

"Lady Medina." Hearing her name, but not from the voice she wants to hear it from at the moment, Medina lifts her head from the bed and turns to the door. There stands her page, standing all prim and proper as her personality allows. Her green eyes analyze the situation as she steps forward, handing Medina a folded note. "Wayfarers report a situation in Sothercrois, in the Lodell Desert."

"Another Apostle?"

"I don't want to say it without evidence, but… Shall we report this to the Council? They're in session currently over what has happened since we left for Norlangarth, but I can go there and wait."

Medina shakes her head and stands up. "We'll send a messenger. You and Mia get prepared to head out in two hours."

Ilia nods then look to the bed. She hesitates but throws her words at me. "Shouldn't you stay, just in case…Jaymes wakes up?"

Medina sighs and raises her hand to Ilia's left shoulder. Just days earlier, she was shot with one of those arrows there, which Kirito did a little experiment with after his return to the empire. Like Ilia, Kirito was in temporary agony and confusion the moment he punctured his skin, leading to the hypothesis that these arrows are painful enough to make their victim lose all focus. But what was more intriguing was their priority, high enough to be classified as a Divine Weapon.

"If he was here and I was there, Jaymes would go. I have to go and find a way to help him." Medina turns her head and looks at the sleeping man. Despite his pale complexion for his brown skin, he's quite peaceful. He's quiet now, but there would be times he'd murmur softly. At times, it has woken up her in a false alarm the first two nights (yes, she hasn't left his side at all, day or night) and sometimes he'll say something coherent. He'd call for names unfamiliar to her, a "Diavel", a "Sanya", a "Rei", and at the same time, calling names she knows from his stories of his prior adventures, frequently the identity of the lunar goddess Lunania, Koharu.

Not once has he muttered Kirito or Asuna's name.

"The servants can watch over him. I'll craft a message for Kirito and Asuna to notify them we're gone to the southern empire."

Ilia, whether she agrees or not, nods silently at Medina's command. She looks at Jaymes again and then exits the bedroom. Sighing, Medina step over to the window on the other side of the bed and lean against it, looking at the beautiful, young Dark Knight practicing her shooting with her Divine Object, the Loveblight Bow. Mia's been practicing activating and maintaining her Perfect Weapon Control, though she hasn't gone as far, to Medina's knowledge, to the Memory Release phase. Her Enhance Armament, which she's named Soul Resonance, fires a charged violet arrow at a vital point, possibly the very soul of her target. In the last three days, it has been nearly perfected. Ilia has been given permission to take a Divine Object of her own, the one Jaymes gave her after the defeat of the Bruised King hours before his fight with the traitor. though her disciple has yet to give the dagger a name as she waits for Jaymes to convert it to a sword as promised.

"Mia and Ilia have grown so much in the last month, the few days especially. Now that we've seen our enemy and how strong they are. Eydis alone was an eye-opener for them. They wish to be able to stand up with the strongest should we have to face them alone… I want to be strong enough to protect them from that. I realize I've been relying on you that. Now that you are out, I don't know what to do...but I'll do my best to keep the girls safe. I swear on our sister blades I will do you proud..and bring Eydis back to us. Or..."

Medina swings back around the bed, leaning over, her head hovering above his. She slowly raises a gloved hand to his cheek and presses her lips against his for a few seconds. He responds minimally, of course, as someone in a deep sleep would, but that's it as she raises up and turns on her heel for the door. She leaves him with one more promise. "Or I'll put her down myself…"

Central Cathedral, Kirito

"And that's basically everything that happened at Obsidia Palace." Kirito just told the Unification Council the events that occurred in the dark realm a few days prior. There, Kirito and his former page Ronie were involved in a series of events. Their original reason for being three stemmed from a murder occurring in Centoria involving a goblin and a dagger of their making going missing, and it ended with a rescue mission for Supreme Commander Iskahn and Integrity Knight Sheyta Synthesis Twelve's infant. When Kirito and Ronie returned, the swordsman delegate and knight trainee received bad news on the empire's side-Jaymes, their friend and Emperor of the Dark Territory, had fell victim to the enemy, known for now as the First Children.

Of course, he wasn't getting out of this situation easy this morning. "I have no desire to dredge up what has already happened, Swordsman Delegate, but I most certainly warned you about this the other day! For every job in the world, there's at least one person who makes it their calling!" As usual, it is Deusolbort Synthesis Seven berating him. "There are many guards stationed around Obsidia Palace, I'm sure. You should have left them to deal with the miscreant! You are now the cornerstone of the human realm—of the entire Underworld! I'm certain you must know the consequences for our world if you were to be hurt! Already, we're suffering one loss in the emperor, we can't have both of you incapacitated!"

"I actually agree with Deusolbert this time," says Fanatio Synthesis Two, current commander of the Integrity Knight Order. "Boy—I mean, Swordsman Delegate—the age is over when you are the one taking up your sword to fight with the enemy. I hope you understand that."

Kirito sighs as the representatives at the table agree with the knights. "L-look, I get what you're all trying to say…but even Commander Bercouli used to wander off by himself to the End Mountains to get into fights with the dark knights, didn't he? It's like, you can put your leaders and representatives and such in a safe place where they won't get hurt, but, you know, how do you build trust that way?"

"You and Commander Bercouli had very different positions!" That voice belonged not to Deusolbert or Fanatio, but to a knight Kirito hasn't known as long as them. It belonged to a knight in an overabundance of green, from his hair to his armor, and behind him, freely stands his weapon of choice, a spear. "Commander Bercouli continued his battle to protect the realm and the Axiom Church on the wishes of the mighty Administrator for years and years! But you are under no one's orders, Swordsman Delegate…which means that it is your duty that compels you to behave properly, especially with these 'First Children' running amok!"

Kirito shrinks under the knight's sharp glare, but still protests. "B-by that logic, I could just order myself to do whatever I wanted."

The knight looks ready to explode, but Fanatio intervenes. "Calm yourself, little Negi."

"I am not a green onion! My name is Nergius!" Nergius Synthesis Sixteen, a knight just as upright and straightforward as Deusolbert, if not even more. However, Kirito doesn't know how much he likes the guy, considering Nergius was the one who argued for Kirito's punishment after Administrator's first fall. However, when the Clamp Crisis began (which ironically saved the comatose Kirito's life), Nergius was stationed in the End Mountains and had little involvement in the Anti-Cedar Task Force led by Bercouli and produced the heroes that were in Jaymes' squadron. During the Otherworld War or the War of Underworld as he, Asuna, and Jaymes call it, Nerguis was here at the capital.

Nergius grabs his cup of tea to calm himself as a second new voice fills the chamber. "Well, I suppose what I would say is: Since Master Kirito takes it upon himself to do anything and everything, we feel sad that there's not a lot of trust in us. Isn't that right, Negio?"

"I never said I felt sad!"

Entokia Synthesis Eighteen, visually the same age as Nergius, with blue armor and a traditional longsword as his weapon. Like Nergius, he was not a major player during the Clamp Crisis or the Otherworld War, and the pair had spent months in Sothercrois to figure out how to reopen the tunnel between realms in the Southern Corridor.

"Ah, well…I get what you're saying, Nergius and Entokia, but I'm just not the type of person who sits in a tower and gives orders. And it's not like I'm doing everything by myself. I had you two performing a very difficult and crucial mission in the south. I was literally kicked off-"

"There! That's the problem!"

Kirito flinches at Entokia's sudden outburst. "Wh-what is?"

"You don't have to be so formal with us like that. Just call me Enki and call Negio Negio, and it'll really shrink the distance between us."

"Stop that! He can call you whatever you want, but don't drag me into it!"

Deusolbert claps his hand and gains the three's attention. "You two can focus on deepening your friendship with the swordsman delegate all you like after the meeting is over. We have more urgent matters to discuss at present." Nergius straightens up and Entokia raises his hands in understanding. "Now…from what the delegate tells us, it's clear there is some force that seeks to make the human realm and dark realm go to war again. If that robed man's plot had come to fruition, and the swordsman delegate was publicly executed in Obsidia, our movement toward greater commerce would have been called off…and we could certainly have plunged back into hostilities."

"Since reforming the system of nobility and releasing all private lands, Kirito's been extremely popular in the capital…It was enough that he was one of the heroes who stopped Emperor Vecta, but now he's proven himself capable of popular political measures as well."

Kirito shrugs uncomfortably. "Actually, it was the agency heads of the Axiom Church who did the real work of reforming the class system, and we had help from Sorti…er, from General Serlut and Instructor Levantein and other high nobles. I'm sure the holdings would have been released eventually, even if I hadn't said anything. Plus… The people of the city…of the entire realm…don't know that I killed the pontifex and the prime senator. The support for the Human Unification Council is synonymous with their belief and trust in the Axiom Church. They still think Administrator is in a long hibernation on the top floor of the cathedral. If they find out that's a lie and that I killed her, whatever popularity I have will vanish in a blink."

The official story being told publicly is that Quinella, also known as the Pontifex of the Axiom Church and Administrator of the Underworld, was placed in long hibernation in the aftermath of the Clamp Crisis after being betrayed by someone under her tutelage. The only people who were told of the Pontifex's fall outside the cathedral were the emperors' (albeit a different version of what is true, that the rogue Hersyrian indeed killed Administrator), though it is no secret in the dark realm the goddess is dead. However, the killer to them is Jaymes, not Kirito, same in regards to Vecta.

Jaymes had been prepared to take the fall for disposing of the tyrant and her prime senator, but Bercouli told a suitable story that kept the peace. As the symbol of the ACTF, Jaymes took on the mantle of Hero-King for "avenging" Administrator.

And to this day, there are two secrets the otherworlders and Commander Bercouli keeps secret from most of the knights. One is the command for Deep Freeze, formerly used by Prime Senator Chudelkin to put the knights to sleep. In all truth, only Commander Bercouli and Alice Synthesis Thirty have successfully used the command, the latter two learning it from Administrator's "sister" Cardinal during the Clamp Crisis. With the two knights beyond this world, it was suspected Jaymes may be able to revitalize the seven knights still in slumber. However, when he tried, he found it too complicated to undo. "'My power works like a keyboard, so if you imagine what I'm doing is like writing a paper, there's no button or shortcut command to restore a lost paper.'"

The other secret is the Synthesis Ritual, which all except one present-day knight believes to be true-that being Eydis Synthesis Ten, but she's under strict orders from Jaymes not to speak against the ritual to the others. Kirito knows the day will come he'll have to reveal the truth, but not anytime soon. No harm in the knights believing they're celestial beings called to protect the realm by the pontifex. It worked for centuries, why not a while longer?

"I have no interest in rehashing the debate of your past actions, Swordsman Delegate. If this is what will create a lasting peace with the dark lands, then I think it is for the good of all."

"I don't take issue with that part. And nowhere in the Taboo Index does it say you're not allowed to fight with the pontifex." Kirito knows that, though technically that was not a problem for someone like him; he, Asuna, and Jaymes are "outliers" to the Taboo Index, the ruling ideology of the Human Empire, and its Dark Territory equivalent, the Law of Power, as they're not born of this world. There aren't many of those people who are born in this world that are exceptions to the two powers, though all of them are loyal to Jaymes as either a trusted friend (Medina and Eydis) or the dark realm's supreme commander. Alice and Eugeo broke their fealty to the Index when they aided Kirito's raid of the Central Cathedral almost two years ago, and they were aided by Cardinal. The Order of Integrity Knights, in general, don't adhere to the Taboo Index, being that they were the Pontifex's enforcers, but they're not completely free.

Betraying the Axiom Church is a punishable offense in the Taboo Index, and for many, the pontifex was the Axiom Church. Despite no rule against fighting Quinella, she used said rule stated in Book One, Chapter One, Verse One of the Taboo Index against the ACTF in the final battle, including against the Integrity Knights, limiting her fight to just Jaymes and Alice for a moment. But in a world without the pontifex, that verse is now up to interpretation. It could one day mean Kirito is the Axiom Church, and any offense against him is an offense against the Axiom Church.

"I suppose we'll have to leave the investigation of the robed man up to Sheyta and Commander Iskahn," Fanatio says. "Whether he is from the assassins guild or the dark mages guild over there, we cannot have any effect on the matter. That is, we cannot send spies into Obsidia."

"I agree that it would be a bad idea, and I'd be afraid of the enemy catching them and using them against us. If I was going to send anyone…No, never mind."

"Are we certain the robed man is not in league with the First Children?" Renly asks. "It is more than a coincidence that Emperor Jaymes was here, Swordsman Delegate Kirito was there, and that happens. From what you say, it seems the purpose of the assassination was to split the realms, and who'd have more to lose than the emperor?"

Kirito bites his bottom lip and looks to an empty chair at the Council Table, the one that belongs to one of two subdelegates, Medina Orthinanos. "As far we know, they're two separate entities."

"Lady Orthinanos still hasn't given a report of her encounter with the First Children?"

"I've tried pressing her, but you know how stubborn she is. If anything, she won't say a word until Jaymes awakes… Anyway, we'll just have to wait for a report from the Dark Territory about the murder of Yazen…And I suppose that means we won't be able to release Oroi the mountain goblin from captivity here for a while, either,"

Asuna, who has been seated at Kirito's side and has kept herself quiet the entire time, finally speaks up. "We're doing everything we can for Oroi and showing him the notable sights of the cathedral every day, so he's not complaining about his house arrest. But he's a little homesick…er, I mean…" She glances at Kirito for help finding a term less otherworlder and complicated, more Underworlder and common. "Um…what do you call it here when you're traveling and you feel down because you're thinking about your home and family?"

"Well…I understand the feeling you describe, but we have no families, and the cathedral is our home…so if you wanted a single term…"

"Um, I think you'd call it nostalgic melancholy!" That answer comes from Ronie, who sits with her friend Tiese and Fanatio's infant child Berche on the upper walkway. Asuna waves up in thanks.

"Nostalgic melancholy? That's very interesting, Ronie. Thank you. Well, I feel as though Oroi is suffering some of that melancholy now, so in two or three days, I expect he'll be asking to go home. I'm hoping we can solve this case before then."

"Three days is asking a lot, I think," Fanatio responds. "Even a horse messenger from Obsidia is going to take two weeks for a one-way trip,"

"And you'll be adding however many days it takes for them to finish their investigation," Kirito adds. "I think we ought to look into whatever we can here, rather than waiting for Sheyta to get back to us."

Asuna sighs. "This would be much easier if the one person who can travel across the world in a snap wasn't taking a pitiful nap." Asuna says that with a tone that makes it seem she's angry at Jaymes, but Kirito knows her. She and Jaymes have known each other as long as he's known the both of them, and while they seem like enemies to outsiders. their hostile nature towards each other is just how they are. But when it matters, they're willing to go the distance for each other. Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online, Gun Gale Online, the Ordinal Scale incident, and the War of Underworld, each case has proven their loyalty and friendship. It was Asuna who led the knights to Norlangarth three days ago after, for some reason, she felt something off intuitively. Her answer came in the form of her first confrontation with the First Children and Eydis, who for some reason has betrayed them, against Medina, her apprentice Ilia Ordona, and a fallen Jaymes. The only thing that hasn't set his real-world girlfriend (and honestly, himself) into a rage across the world is that Jaymes is alive.

As the Council continues, now on the topic of the sacred artificers and their research on an art used by the former senate that allows for some visualization of the past, Kirito sees Asuna in his side view raising her fingers and catching a slip of paper between them. He focuses on the conversation at hand, putting in his input. When the subject switches to increasing the artificer's numbers and nominated apprentices, he notices she places the note down, but her expression is hard. He makes a face that asks her what's wrong, and her eyes dart to the empty chairs that belong to Jaymes and Medina.

Another Ancient Apostle has appeared, and Medina has gone to investigate without notifying the Council at large. Kirito's plan is still in effect, to keep the Unification Council in the dark about those matters after it was revealed the bluethorn sickness formerly rampant in Norlangarth had never reached the Council, leading to the idea that there's another traitor. Kirito and Asuna are still unaware of whether the traitor's in their midst or outside the council, or if there's another reason for the late news. Now with Jaymes sidelined, the tasks are more dangerous, but Kirito and Asuna are pinned to their matters in the capital, if for nothing more than to not alert the spy of their knowledge. If such a spy exists.

"...and North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy Elite Disciple Frenica Cesky, age seventeen."

"Wh…whaaaaaaat?!" The girls on the upper-level walkway must have recognized the named girl, given she goes to the same academy they and Kirito were students at. He doesn't recognize the name himself, but there is one name that causes him to shriek.

"Those were the five from North Centoria. Lastly, one more from outside the capital…from the Norlangarth northern reaches, an apprentice sister at the church of Rulid, Selka Zuberg, age fifteen."

?

"Lady Stacia, Goddess of Creation, give us who live under your protection the strength in our weakness. Give us faith in our fears. Give us power in our powerless. We're trusting you, always. As the goddesses will it… Do you wish to petition the goddesses?"

"I will… Our Mothers and Father, who art in their celestial home. By your grace, we have come home, by faith your will shall be executed on earth as you instructed us. Give me, my brother, and my sisters the strength to conquer all our adversaries that spread lies and deceit under false banners. Give us the wisdom to deal with our foes who blasphemy your names at the tower that encroaches on your kingdom. Grant us the courage to not falter before so-called heroes and heroines, these so-called gods and goddesses. Father Vecta, grant your true sons and daughters the right to restore the dark realm back to your loving hands. Mother Lunaria and Solus, guide our feet day and night to righteousness. Mother Terraria, bless our steps with fruit as we tend to this broken world. And Mother Stacia...shall we face your imposter and her band of false knights again, deliver us from their evil. This is Primus, your humble servant, and child's prayer. As the mothers and father will it."

As Primus rises to his feet, the priest beside him looks at him with an air of confusion and skepticism. Praying to Terraria, Stacia, and Solus is the norm, Lunaria is not uncommon, but Vecta? Here, in the empire? And the prayer itself… "Excuse me, young man."

Primus halts in the middle of the sanctuary and turns to the robed man. "Father?"

"May I… May I ask about the prayer you made?"

"Sure."

"Why pray to the Dark God?"

"Dark God? Oh, Vecta. What makes him the Dark God? Because the Dark Territory worships him? He plays 'tricks' on us by taking our memories and making us 'lost'? Well, I understand why, Father was quite the man. But no matter that, he, like Stacia, Solus, and Terraria were here at the world's beginning."

The priest seems to understand, yet he continues to question Primus. "Then...what do you mean by those at the Central Cathedral that speak blasphemies? To speak ill of the Axiom Church is an offense under the Taboo Index, Book One, Chapter One-"

"Verse One. I know. I was there when the damned Taboo Index was implemented. A foolish set of rules because Quinella-I'm sorry, the Pontifex-was afraid of someone gaining power equal to her. The Lord of Knights was gone, but we remained, the five of us. Me, Eva, Noxium, Stella, and Trius. At what should have been the end of our lifetimes, we five took the gift our parents gave us-youth and immortality, to never age, to proceed in the world and watch it develop. To guide it we decided, but for the first few years, we hadn't needed to do anything of the sort." Seating on a pew, Primus looks at the priest, who sits on the opposite side of the central aisle. "Tell me, priest, did you have siblings?"

"I… I do."

"So you know the value of family somewhat. We're all born with a mother and father, but not all of us are blessed to have siblings. I had seven siblings, taken care of by two women. To find love from those close to you because they are of your blood is a special thing, and it was truly special. Stella was the eldest sister, the fourth child, and I love her dearly. Trius, the third child, was the one I trusted most. The other five, Lillia, Sirium, Rion, Pela, and Alissa, decided to live their natural lives to the end and return to our mothers, and with my love I attended to their wishes. Then there were the other kids who aren't my siblings by blood but the bond we shared...that's just as powerful. Eva, the love of my life, was the eldest of that set of eight, and her youngest brother, Noxium, was the youngest of us all. His father's favorite, too."

"You...really care for your family, sir."

"I do. And because of it, she fractured us. We had no quarrel nor any intentions to make quarrel with Her Eminence, but she saw us as a threat to her fantasy of peace and order. We just wanted to observe the world and let it rule itself as Mother Stacia wanted, but she didn't believe us. She...killed Trius, and in my rage, I attacked her. I don't remember what happened next, except that one day almost two years ago, I heard her voice, telling me to wake up, to come to her aid. but I didn't. All I could think about was seeing my family, and there they were. And then we learned how much time has passed, we learned all that happened under the usurper's reign, then that she...had been replaced by others. Her Integrity Knights, and the return of the Lord of Knights. Then the war that came between realms meant our father was back, but we never got to him. The goddesses descended as well, and at first, we were overwhelmed to see the power of Stacia swallow the army of the dark realm, to see Terraria grow flowers on the dead soil of the territory, and to see Solus rain her radiance on the red soldiers that fell from the heavens. But then…"

"Then?"

Primus clenches his teeth as he looks up to the stained glass letting light into the church, with the three goddesses depicted flying around the Central Cathedral. "They weren't our goddesses. Vecta would never fall to one of Administrator's knights. Stacia, Terraria, and Lunaria couldn't save either realm's forces from the red army, and Solus sided with the Lord of Knights against another otherworlder who claimed to be Father and failed to win. It was them, the Swordsmen Delegate Kirito. the Swordswoman Subdelegate Asuna, and the now Dark Emperor Jaymes, who 'saved' the Underworld… You want to know something, priest?"

"What?"

Primus reaches over and grabs the priest's shoulder. "Your Pontifex, she was killed by them, those otherworlders. 'Vecta" and the 'goddesses' are otherworlders too. They spit on their holy names and take the world for their own...but that's something the four of us will have to correct. Unfortunately, we couldn't avenge our brother by killing Administrator ourselves, but we'll dismantle everything she's built. The Taboo Index, the Axiom Church, the Order of Integrity Knights. The Lord of Knights, the 'crimson emperor', has already fallen and his sword is mine. As for the 'king and queen' from the stars, I'll make them rip apart all they've built up, then I'll crush them myself. To put my family in its rightful place, I'll destroy those who've stolen it or recreate this world altogether. What, priest, do you think of that?"

The priest struggles for an answer, not that Primus expected one. The Taboo Index will prevent any naysaying of the Axiom Church's leader, even the belief she's dead, and the Seal of the Right Eye flickers on the priest. Satisfied anyway, he gets to his feet and releases the man's shoulder. "Well, one thing is clear; the gods are with us all, no matter who leads the Underworld, right?"

"R-Right."

"I'll take my leave. Thanks for listening to my tale." Waving farewell to the priest, Primus pushes the wooden oak door to the chapel open and steps out to the brisk morning air. Solus' radiance beams down on him as if she recognizes her first child from her perch in the sun. Terraria's breath envelops him gently, making the tails of his yellow tunic flutter. Smiling with his eyes towards Stacia's domain beyond the sky, Primus taps the hilt of the Lord of Knight's stolen blade, Falchion

The plan is nearly complete, with just a few more moves to be made. He'll allow Kirito and his Unification Council to in circles over the mysterious murder of a serf and the goblins 'responsible', and he's sure Medina and her brigade are heading out south. Stella, with her position in the capital uncompromised so far, will keep an eye on the Swordsman Delegate and Swordswoman Subdelegate; Eva, with her cruel toy of the tenth Integrity Knight, will entertain herself with Medina. Noxium, behind the scenes far in the other realm, has kept his strings of illusions on the fallen Jaymes. As for Primus...he has some spell words to remember, in case his first plan fails.

"A beautiful day on the coming eclipse of the Underworld. Soon, it will be under the order as the mothers and father willed it to be…"