A/N:
Okay, real quick; if you haven't already read Chapter 94, stop and go back. Today's release is a two-parter, and I don't want you accidentally skipping because I decided to double post.
All good? Cool!
On with the show!
Kirito nervously gripped his swords, his eyes boring a hole in the set of doors before him.
By all rights, this should have been simply the equivalent of tackling a floor boss. They'd even scaled a hundred floors to reach her, so there was at least a sense of familiarity to it. But that wasn't the case. Far from it, actually.
Somehow, knowing that the woman on the other side of those doors was a real human imbued with the powers of a system administrator was terrifying. At least with Kayaba, he could be trusted to fight fairly. When the day came when he would face their captor, he knew that there would be no cheap underhanded tactics, no magic; it would be a straightforward fight to the death that both sides knew was coming for well over three years.
This was different. If his suspicions were right, Quinella was not only an unhinged, hyper-controlling tyrant, but also the direct descendant of Diavel himself. If things escalated like he suspected they would, they may be forced to kill Quinella, and he wasn't sure if he could stomach having Diavel's blood on his hands. Again.
Yes, Cardinal implied that Quinella could hardly be considered human anymore, but frankly that didn't ease matters at all. If she wasn't human, then she could be considered AI. To most, that would likely ease the guilt of killing her, but Kirito knew of three sentient AIs himself: Kizmel, Yui, and Cardinal herself. He couldn't so easily take one of their lives; they were fully sentient beings and had just as much right to live as he did.
Kirito hated his life sometimes. Everything was just so needlessly complicated.
At least they were, theoretically, equipped for the endeavor. Now they had three Divine Weapons to work with so they had a better chance of taking on anything Quinella could throw at them. Granted, the third wielder couldn't really invoke an "Enhance Armament" without Cardinal's assistance, so things weren't as great as he hoped.
"Everybody ready?" Asuna asked, whipping Kirito out of his train of thought. Right; focus on the mission. There was no room for doubt here. Doubt led to hesitation, and hesitation meant death.
"About as ready as we're going to be." Leonn spoke up, hefting his new maul, ((Vandor Gisir)). According to Kizmel, the name of the maul translated roughly to "Forest Guardian".
It was a relatively simple-looking weapon, and looked remarkably similar to Thor's weapon from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stormbreaker, if he was being honest. The gnarled, woody handle was almost identical to the God of Thunder's weapon, but where an axehead would normally rest instead rested a large block of stone sculpted to resemble an imposing hammerhead. Embedded in the stone head were several seemingly decorative chunks of smoothed amber, like one would find in a tree. There was even a bit of moss growing in the cracks and imperfections along the stone's surface that gave the weapon an ancient feel.
Noting that everyone looked ready to proceed, Kirito strode forward and slowly – dramatically, even – opened the doors. With a creak, the way was opened, and together they entered the chamber of the Pontifex.
The first thing Kirito noticed was the bed. That told him far more than he ever needed to know about Quinella.
It was painfully lavish. Almost gaudy, really. Rich velvet linens – probably with an impossibly high thread count – and equally rich drapes framed the circular bed. With how bare the rest of the room was, it was easy to tell that this was where Quinella spent most of her time. (Cardinal did say that Quinella spent most of her time resting…)
Kirito's eyes buggered out when he saw the woman in question sitting on the edge of the bed, one leg lazily draped over the other while her long purple hair cascading over her body. Actually, that wasn't quite correct. She was floating above the bed, which honestly made her position all the more revealing. He quickly averted his eyes a split second before Asuna's hand slapped over them. A squeak of surprise followed by another *smack* was enough to tell him that Liz had covered Leonn's eyes as well. If he had to guess, Alice had done the exact same thing to Eugeo.
Klein, however, just decided to blurt out the first thing that came to his mind.
"Good grief, she's naked!"
Suguha was quick to slam her hands on top of Shinichi's eyes.
"Hey!"
"No!"
"But how am I supposed to – "
"NO!"
"Not quite." Kizmel corrected him. "Somehow her hair is keeping her sensitive regions covered, no matter how much she shifts about. How is she doing that?"
"I am always in control." Quinella boasted. Asuna had since released Kirito from her grip, but even now Kirito shifted uncomfortably at the sight. It was like she was trying to be seductively over the top. "I am not so vulgar as to allow everything to show. You will have to work for that."
"Huh?" Kirito so eloquently replied.
"Swear fealty to me now, become one of my Integrity Knights, and perhaps I will allow you the privilege of gazing upon my body in its entirety." Quinella continued.
"...Is she serious right now?" Klein whispered.
"Oh yeah." Liz confirmed under her breath. "Tried to seduce me when I first told her no. Apparently she has two settings: control freak and horny."
"We'll pass. Thanks, though." Alice said sarcastically.
Quinella frowned, her seductive expression evaporating in an instant. Her eyes flitted over towards Alice. "One of my own knights turned traitor. I am so disappointed in you, my dear Alice… wait. You're not her, are you? The way you carry yourself, how you stand so closely to that boy… you are not my Alice, are you?"
Alice simply shook her head.
"Well, then I suppose that little brat from the library sent you all then. You're certainly the most capable ones she's recruited since her rebellious phase began. To think that my Integrity Knights would fall so easily to the likes of you." Quinella droned on. She gave another sultry smirk. "Are you certain I cannot sway you to my side instead? I can offer you anything your heart desires. Fame, wealth, purpose… among other things. I can provide what she cannot."
"No thanks." Kirito said. "What you're doing to your people – specifically your Integrity Knights – is cruel. Stealing their memories? Forcing them into blind servitude? It's disgusting."
"I'm not stealing their memories, I'm…" Quinella paused, carefully choosing her words. "... I'm freeing them of the thoughts and worries of the common folk. I'm freeing them of unnecessary burdens, really."
Kirito's eyes widened with anger. "You call families and friends unnecessary burdens? How thoughtless are you?"
She waved him off. "We're getting off topic, I believe. What is it you want? What could possibly spur you to place yourself in opposition to me?"
Kirito's lips set into a thin line. "We just want to go home. You're in our way."
She quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? If all you want is to go home, then do it. I'll allow you to leave. No more invitations, no more abductions, and no more obstructions from me. You are more than welcome to leave."
Kirito smirked; that was more or less a confession of – dare he say it? – fear. She'd rather them take their things, leave, and never return again. Without them, she was guaranteed to rule without resistance. They were that much of a threat to her rule.
Good.
"Oh, we'll leave." Kirito said, shocking his friends for a moment. He tightened the grip on his swords. "But first, we've got business to settle with you first."
"You would dare raise your sword against her Eminence?!" Chudelkin sprang out from behind the bed. Huh; after the beatdown they gave him earlier, Kirito didn't expect to see him so soon. "The audacity!"
Chudelkin then started a fevered tirade, expounding on the virtues of Administrator – he could feel Cardinal laughing from here – and condemning the "filthy little rebels." He kind of tuned him out and focused on Quinella, who seemed deep in thought as her analytical gaze swept over the eight of them.
"Perhaps I've underestimated them." Quinella announced, causing Chudelkin to pause in his rant.
"Your Eminence?"
"Clearly these are seasoned warriors. Look at their eyes, Chudelkin; those are the eyes of veterans who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. I believe I may have to pull out all the stops." Quinella explained, her smirk becoming far more sinister. "I'm sure that little brat has poisoned your minds with doubts about my ability to defend my realm. That's just like her, really; incapable of contending with me martially, so she resorts to wordplay and manipulation. Well, rest assured that I have a countermeasure for Vecta's hordes… one I will now test on you."
Kirito did not like the sound of that.
"You should consider yourselves honored, really. You will bear witness to a Sacred Art of my own creation."
"What creation?" Kirito asked.
"I will admit that the Knights are a stopgap; I do not expect them to survive the clash with the Dark Territory, but I suppose that's what happens when you have to brainwash mere peasants. Skilled and capable peasants, but peasants nonetheless. My creation, on the other hand, is far purer. Pure soldiers should not think, only act."
"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Klein muttered under his breath.
"My perfect soldiers will relentlessly massacre all who stand before them. Ultimately, what I require is not human." Quinella held up a purple crystal, not unlike the one they saw come out of Aiko's forehead. "Wake, and destroy your enemy, my faithful servant, my soulless exterminator!"
A beat passed, and Kirito dreaded the next words to come out of her mouth.
"Release Recollection!"
The crystal exploded with purple light, and Kirito had to shield his eyes or risk going blind from its radiance. At first, nothing happened, but then the weapons along the wall – he hadn't even noticed they were there, dammit! – began to glow and shake. Axes, glaives, halberds, swords; all manner of medieval weaponry ripped itself free of its mount and launched forward and upward above Quinella's head. They swirled and swirled like a vortex of golden steel before colliding in a dazzling – and, again, blinding – flash of light.
When the burst cleared, a massive, bladed creature was suspended in the air. It was made entirely of blades, like the brainchild of some edgy teenage weapons enthusiast. It was also unmoving, and that's when Kirito made the connection.
She was going to be controlling it via the crystal in her hand.
"Discharge!" Kirito shouted, having quickly uttered a Sacred Art that sent a handful of thermal birds to home in on the crystal. A massive blade reached down and blocked the attack; apparently the thing was not as lifeless as once thought.
With far too much grace, Quinella let go of the crystal and allowed it to drift upward, where it sank into the body of the bladed creature.
Then the damn thing unfolded.
If it wasn't for the fact that this thing was going to try to kill them in the next thirty seconds, Kirito would have admitted that the sword golem thing was pretty awesome to look at. Literally every single part of it was made up of blades or hinges, the whole thing unfolding and deploying like an edgy Transformer. Soon enough, its two massive bladed arms and four bladed feet – Kirito needed to think of a different word to describe the hundreds of sharp edges that made up its body – unfurled, and the thing fell to the floor.
"This… were all those Divine Weapons?" Alice asked, aghast at what they'd just witnessed. "Was that Perfect Weapon Control?"
"Oh, you know of Perfect Weapon Control?" Quinella half-asked, half-taunted. "This is my perfect soldier. Offensive might with no equal. A soldier that will fight forever. I wonder… what shall I call it?"
Kirito warily eyed the sword golem. Fortunately, it did not immediately attack, instead choosing to stand guard in front of Quinella like a massive bladed sentry.
"I know! The Sword Golem!"
Huh. Called it.
"It's a walking sword." Kirito said – rather unhelpfully, even he would admit – as he held his own swords out and ready.
"You see, each one of its blades has the priority level of a Divine Object." Quinella monologued.
Kirito scoffed. Villains and their need to explain their motives.
"I stretched my precious memory capacity to the limit to create this, the ultimate weapon. Do you think you can defeat it?" Quinella boasted.
"We will." Kizmel said, her classic bravery unwavering. Looking back, he wasn't sure if there was ever a time she showed fear in the face of impossible odds. Gods, he'd missed her. "Our resolve is unwavering; nothing you throw at us will change that."
"Hmm. There are a lot of you, and only one of my golems." Quinella mused, her hand cupping her chin thoughtfully. Kirito tried not to pay attention to what that action did to her chest. "Oh well, never let it be said I underestimated my enemies. Chudelkin!"
At an instant, the white clown was at her side. "Yes, your Eminence!"
"Since I am generous, I shall give you the chance to restore your tattered reputation." She intoned, moving away and waving her hand to remove her bed from the room, probably with some Sacred Art. "Use your Sacred Arts and assist my golem; deal with these… rebels."
"B-but your Eminence!" Chudelkin skipped off after her. "Your Gloriousness!"
"Yes? What is it?"
Then Chudelkin performed a perfect dogeza, prostrating himself before her. Kirito winced at how ridiculous the whole situation was. A clown begging on his feet to his master, all the while a frickin' Sword Golem loomed nearby.
"For the first and only time in my many years of service to you, I would like to present you with a most impudent request." Chudelkin said, his head bobbing up and down as he spoke against the floor. "I shall happily risk my life annihilating these rebels. However…"
Oh boy, here it is. The little clown was probably going to ask for something in return. Probably more wealth or power… maybe some land. He'd known Chudelkin for all of an hour and Kirito wasn't surprised in the least.
"...Once I have fulfilled your wishes, would you…" Chudelkin stammered. "...would you let me touch your exalted body a-and k-k-kiss your lips and s-spend one magical night alone with you?"
Kirito blinked. What?
"Seriously?" Leonn deadpanned.
"I think I'm gonna be sick…" Klein groaned.
"Disgusting." All five women in their group managed to speak synchronously.
"Please! PLEASE!" Chudelkin groveled. "I would be most grateful if you granted me such a delight!"
Quinella actually looked caught off guard by the proposal, and Kirito fully expected her to shoot him down like the pompous old lady she was. Instead, she giggled.
"Very well, Chudelkin." She said, and the clown gasped. Oh gods, she was fondling herself. "I swear to the Goddess Stacia, as soon as you have fulfilled your mission… and if you manage to compete with my golem… my body will be yours for the taking. Every inch, for one night."
Chudelkin lurched forward, his expression one of tearful bliss. A shudder ran through everyone else; Kirito tried to banish the mental imagery of such a –
Nope! Not going there at all.
"I swear to you, I will not let you down!" Chudelkin proclaimed. Then he transitioned from a dogeza to a handstand and spread his legs out. "I am resolute and energized! I am motivated and I am invincible! SYSTEM CALL! Generate Thermal Element!"
He clapped his hands and held them to the sides, balancing perfectly on his head. Motes of fire manifested across his fingertips. His toes, too, actually. And his eyes; now it was getting creepy. Not that it wasn't before, but now Chudelkin looked positively demonic as his eye sockets started to char and burn.
Kirito could hear a couple of muffled gags coming from his friends.
"Now I will show you my greatest Sacred Art!" Chudelkin roared, his voice much deeper and more gravely than before. "Come forth, Genie! And burn these rebels to ash!"
The clown spun on his head, scattering the motes of fire to the winds. The tiny orbs flew outward and began to circle before convening into one massive flaming sphere. Kirito stared, slack-jawed as the orb began to sprout hands, feet, and a head that looked scarily like a mix between a devil and Chudelkin… if he were on fire, that is. Its eyes sprang to life as it looked down on the eight of them.
It walked up, right alongside the Sword Golem, and Kirito gulped with anxiety, if not outright fear.
This… was not going to end well for any of them, was it?
"How the FUCK are they supposed to fight THAT?!" Shinichi bellowed, gesturing wildly at the television screen. "Chudelkin, I could maybe see them taking on. Eugeo's got that crazy ice sword of his, but the Sword Golem too?! What the hell?!"
Suguha, despite her faith in her brother, couldn't find it in her heart to disagree. Yes, there was really no metric to judge those two monsters' strengths with, but what little she knew of the Underworld was enough to suggest that these were floor-boss level threats.
Chudelkin's Sacred Art was impressive on its own. The Renegades were, at the present moment, novices with the new skill, and they could already achieve some rather impressive feats of magical prowess. To think that a Sacred Art of this level existed… she had no doubt that the church's right-hand man was the strongest Sacred Arts user in the Underworld, second only to Quinella herself.
Then there was the Sword Golem, which was composed of probably well over 50 different Divine Objects. The sheer amount of power that thing possessed was incredible, and not only was it fully autonomous and slave to Quinella's whims, but it was probably ruthless in how it dispensed in violence.
And with just nine people to their name… Kirito and his friends had to fight two of them.
She could feel hope withering away in her heart.
"Wait, what's Kizmel doing?" Trish asked.
Suguha looked back at the screen to see Kizmel using one of Cardinal's daggers on a section of the flooring. It was a good thing that Cardinal gave them more than a handful of those things; she couldn't even begin to imagine how difficult things might get if, say, she only gave them two. That would have been shortsighted.
The floor panel glowed purple, and a wooden door faded into existence above it. The doorknob turned, and out floated Cardinal in all her pint-sized glory, much to the surprise of the rest of the Renegades.
"Well, it's about time." Administrator grinned. "I wondered when you would make an appearance. You always were rather attached to your underlings. Had enough of your musty hole?"
Cardinal frowned as she floated down, casting something on Leonn before floating back up and level with Administrator. The two sides had yet to clash, but the tension was palpable. "Hmm. Time has been kind to you; if I didn't know any better, you could almost pass for human."
"My, my… how cavalier you've become. You were nothing like this the last time I saw you, little one. You were so scared, my dear little Lyserith…"
"Don't." Cardinal cut her off. "I'm not that scared little girl anymore, Quinella. I have only one directive: deleting you.
Quinella smirked. "Be that as it may, I have been waiting for this moment for quite a long time. I just to make sure you don't go running off again…"
Quinella snapped her fingers, and the stream cut out.
"Whoa!" Shinichi gasped. "What the hell happened? It's never done that before!"
Trish walked out from behind the counter, ignoring the groans and protests of the other bar patrons, and fiddled with the television screen. "It's not us. Everything's working fine on our end."
"So the stream itself cut out?" Kouichirou asked as he nursed a glass of… something. "That's rather odd. Shinichi's right; that's never happened before."
"I mean, we're dealing with somebody who merged with the Cardinal system… or one half of it, at least." Suguha thought aloud. "She must have done something that cut off the stream, and with Cardinal now in the game, I don't know if she'll be able to – "
The stream cut back into a tense scene, as both groups readied themselves for a clash. Administrator floated lazily in the air, opposite Cardinal. Cardinal, on the other hand, took a moment to cast a Sacred Art on the Expeditionary Force before turning to face Administrator. Kirito, Alice, and Eugeo looked ready to engage Chudelkin's fiery avatar. Asuna, Leonn, Liz, Klein, Yuuki, and Kizmel had their weapons drawn and ready to fight the Sword Golem.
The windows to the Cathedral were shattered, and a purple miasma floated outside, almost as if they were no longer in Centoria, but rather in some pocket dimension.
Given that Administrator didn't want Cardinal escaping again, Suguha guessed that this was some sort of countermeasure to prevent just that. Wonderful.
"Oh my gods." Suli gasped. "Shit's about to go down, isn't it?"
"But how did we get the stream back?" Ren asked.
How did they get it back? There were few people in the game with the kind of authority Quinella had, Cardinal being one of them. The little pint-sized program seemed to busy, so it probably wasn't her. That left only…
"Kayaba." Suguha realized. "He must have wanted us to keep watching."
"Egomaniacal bastard." Ren cursed under his breath. "I'm gonna enjoy watching them beat his ass when they get there."
Nobody wanted to correct him with the obligatory "if they get there" instead. They had to beat Quinella, they had to. Yes, the rest of the Assault Team might be able to progress through Aincrad normally, but that would also be dooming the thousands and thousands of fluctlights in the Underworld to a cruel and painful death at the hands of the Dark Territory. Not to mention the loss of some of the strongest players on the Expeditionary Force and the loss of Divine Weapons.
Suguha clenched the hem of her skirt and refocused her attention on the screen, all the while praying for her brother's safety and success.
Kirito was going to be sick.
Immediately after Quinella separated them from the outside world – Centoria, not the actual outside world – she'd monologued like a true villain, complete with earth-shattering revelations. Revelations Kirito could have gone the rest of his life without knowing.
Chief among them was the fact that the Sword Golem was made up of approximately 300 human fluctlights that'd been converted into swords through a Sacred Art called Matter Conversion. It was disgusting; that was 300 souls that would never return home, never feel the embrace of their loved ones, and worst of all?
Quinella capitalized on that.
By extracting their memories, she manipulated their primary drive in life – to return to those they loved – and twisted it to suit her needs. Now, they destroyed all in their path in a futile effort to return home.
No, the irony was not lost on him.
While Cardinal was forbidden from fighting and killing humans – which the Sword Golem now technically qualified as – she could fight Administrator directly. He could tell she didn't want to relegate such a painful role to them, but she'd grudgingly accepted that the Sword Golem needed to be put out of its misery, and so the task of putting it down fell to them.
Kirito exchanged a knowing look with Eugeo and Leonn. They needed to end this as soon as possible; a prolonged engagement was not going to work well in their favor at all. A fiery avatar and a sword golem would likely win a battle of attrition, so time was not on their side.
"ENHANCE ARMAMENT!"
The proverbial gauntlet had been thrown, and both sides ran forward to engage the enemy. Quinella and Cardinal remained aloft, content to throw Sacred Art after Sacred Art at each other, both keen on simultaneously trying to defeat the other and prevent them from rendering aid to their allies below.
Kirito's ((Night Sky Sword)) hummed to life, and he pointed it at Chudelkin's Genie. An eruption of twisting, purple streams of energy burst forth, greedily and hungrily consuming the plumes of fire the genie was letting off. Meanwhile, Eugeo's ((Blue Rose Sword)), having been planted in the ground, shot forth a line of ice that actively battled with the heat the Genie was putting off.
The good news was that, between himself and Eugeo, they had Chudelkin's avatar contained. The heat and fire it was putting off would not be a threat to their allies. That left Alice free to stealthily circle around and go for Chudelkin's real body. With Quinella and the Sword Golem otherwise preoccupied, she might be able to quickly eliminate him without alerting them.
Speaking of the Sword Golem, Kirito chanced a glance at the action going on not too far away. Asuna and Leonn were taking point in that fight, with the latter now covered in tree bark-like armor that matched his new maul, giving him the appearance of some mythical arboreal warrior. Between that and his Unique Skill, he was able to keep the golem's attention and allow the others the time to strike back.
"I don't know how much longer I can keep this up, Kirito!" Eugeo called out, his hands gripping his sword despite the waves of ice and frost it was letting out.
"We have to!" Kirito shouted back, sheathing ((Dark Repulser)) so that he could hold onto ((Night Sky Sword)) with both hands. "If we stop, he'll roam free and burn everyone!"
Chudelkin's avatar took a shaky, yet still thunderous, step forward towards them.
"He's getting loose, though!" Eugeo exclaimed. "I'm gonna try something, keep him back!"
"Okay!" Kirito roared, taking a step forward while his blade kept eating away at the avatar's flames. Creepily, its devilish smile remained on its face as it stomped forward. He felt a moment of panic at seeing the fiery titan continuing on. "Hurry!"
"Release Recollection!" Eugeo screamed.
Instantly, Kirito felt the temperature in the room drop as more and more ice began to encroach on the titan's area. Several icy vines, complete with thorns, snapped outward, latching onto the genie and restraining it. The titan groaned as it pulled against its icy bonds, the vines hissing as they tried to maintain their frigid temperatures.
Sensing an opportunity, Kirito aborted his sword's effect and rushed in to engage. Was moving into melee range with a fiery clown a bad idea? Probably.
But was it an excellent distraction? Absolutely.
He leapt upward while drawing his second sword, lashing out with his blades as he approached its face. The heat was unbearable and ((Dark Repulser)) didn't have much effect on the fiery clown, but ((Night Sky Sword)) did. It seemed that its flavor text wasn't just flavor, but an accurate descriptor. Since it had been forged from a branch of ((Nerius the Evil Treant)), a creature rumored to have an insatiable hunger for energy and resources, it made a great deal of sense. Any energy – in this case thermal – that it came into contact with, it greedily lapped up.
"Stop that!" Chudelkin – the real one, not his genie – screamed, and the avatar clawed at its face in pain. "You will all fall before her Eminence! You will all – !"
"Oh shut up!" Kirito spat, running back and sliding on his knees under a flailing fiery arm. He swept out with his Divine Weapon again, scoring a strike against a restrained leg.
"Gah!" Chudelkin yelped in pain. Apparently pain and damage transferred over to the caster. Good. "Enough! I will not be deprived of my reward! My one night alone with – GRK!"
A blade, courtesy of Alice, speared through the clown's chest. Kirito shelved the realization that she'd just killed a human being. A despicable little subservient pervert, but a human nonetheless. They could seek therapy with Yui later to deal with the impending need for PTSD counseling.
As if blown away by a light breeze, Chudelkin's otherwise impressive genie dissipated. Rather anticlimactic, if he was being honest. Then again, the little gremlin seemed to be all bluster anyway. Oh, Kirito had no doubt that if that massive genie had made contact with anyone, it could have caused some serious damage. Fortunately, Kirito's and Eugeo's Divine Weapons were the perfect counters to that fiery monstrosity, locking it down long enough for Alice to deal with the squishy pilot, so to speak.
Probably would have been a nightmare to deal with otherwise.
Noting Eugeo's tired expression and slumped posture, Kirito rushed to his side. "Hey, are you okay?"
Eugeo gave him a tired smile. "Yeah, just a little cold, and a bit tired. Did I mention cold?"
Kirito stifled a chuckle as Alice crouched alongside them both. All three flinched at the sound of an explosion overhead, no doubt the result of Quinella and Cardinal's continued magical duel. They were high enough in the air so as not to catch anyone in their crossfire, but the gusts of wind generated from their clash were more than enough to ruffle their clothing.
"Well, that's a shame." Quinella commented lazily as she looked down at Chudelkin's unmoving body. "Not that I was looking forward to sleeping with him, but if that's how long he was going to last, I doubt I would have enjoyed it much anyway."
Kirito choked on his spit. He wasn't sure if he was going to laugh at the joke or sneer at the disregard with which she was treating her dead underling.
"Despicable." Alice scoffed, her eyes locked onto Quinella above. Kirito looked up, only to hurriedly look down to avoid the rather… compromising, position that their enemy was in as she floated in the air.
Put some clothes on, damn it!
"You three want to come give us a hand?" Klein shouted as he brought his katana down on the Sword Golem's shoulder joint. The strike didn't do a whole lot of damage, but he could tell it was doing some, at least. "This guy's tougher than he looks!"
"I need a minute." Eugeo shivered as Alice tried to warm him up. "Go on; we'll catch up."
"Don't take too long." Kirito smirked before he ran off.
He grimaced as he approached the other battle, noting just how little progress they'd made so far. The Sword Golem was far more deadly than expected, and that was saying something. Liz and Kizmel's shields were reduced to scraps, discarded to the side from just how useless they were now. Asuna and Klein were covered in cuts and scratches, evidence of just how narrowly they'd escaped an otherwise lethal blow. Leonn was the only one having any degree of success in surviving against the monstrosity's blades, and even that wasn't as impressive as it sounded; ((Defiant Soul)) was working overtime, knitting together his rent flesh just as quickly as new gashes were formed.
"About time!" Leonn spat, his voice somewhat muffled under his wooden helmet.
"Sorry, I'm here now!" Kirito replied, jumping in and blocking an overhead swing with a ((Cross Block)). Almost immediately, however, he buckled and fell to one knee. "...strong! Have you tried a clash?"
"Hell no!" Liz roared. "Don't give me that look, Leonn! We don't know if this thing counts as a boss monster! If it doesn't, it gets a clean hit on you!"
"She's right." Kirito realized. "Never mind. Guess we're doing this the old fashioned way. Alright, listen up! Leonn and I will block its attacks! Focus on one leg at a time and maybe we can cripple this thing!"
"Roger!" Came the unanimous response.
The next few minutes blurred together, he and Leonn working in tandem to intercept the construct's massive blade arms. There was little they could do about its legs, but its range of motion with each leg was considerably less than with its arms. With the roaring of Chudelkin's genie now distinctly absent from the chamber, all he could hear was the clanging of wood and steel, as well as the deafening explosions of magic overhead as Cardinal continued to keep Quinella busy.
One second, Kirito was leaping over a horizontal swipe; the next, he was lunging in to cut off an attack at the joint. Combat had become, more or less, second-nature to Kirito at this point. Yes, there was an ounce of thought and planning that went into each and every strike, block, or parry. That was inarguable. But the way that he swung each sword, the path a blade would take from point A to point B…
That was as natural to him as breathing.
That breathing hitched for a moment when his grip slipped just enough for the Sword Golem's blade arm to come crashing down on his shoulder. In hindsight, it was probably his now-eerily-realistic sweat that caused him to slip; damn this floor and its painful realism. Nevertheless, the massive blade bit deep into his shoulder before Asuna knocked it away and free.
Kirito bit back a curse as he staggered back, the wound bleeding freely.
"We're here!" Alice cried out, quickly taking his place on the front line. Eugeo, meanwhile, decided to let loose another Enhance Armament and slow the golem with his ice. "Take care of him!"
Asuna grabbed him and gently brought him to the side. She sheathed her rapier and placed her hands on his wound. He bit his lip so that he wouldn't cry out in pain from the contact. "System Call! Transfer human unit durability, self to right!"
"Wait, Asuna!" Kirito objected, recognizing that art.
"I'm fine, Kirito." She winced before giving him a smile. "I can drink a potion to replace what I'm giving. We need to stem the bleeding and close the wound. We don't want you losing your arm."
"It would just regrow." He shrugged, then immediately winced as the motion aggravated his injury.
"Back home, yes, but maybe not here. And stop squirming." Asuna said, swatting his good shoulder. "Things are more real here, remember?"
Content to concede her point, Kirito took a moment to watch the fight before him. There had to be a weakness they were overlooking. No matter how much they battered at the legs and arms, they didn't seem to be making any progress. It was still dishing out more damage than it was receiving, and they were flagging. His eyes feverishly roamed over every surface, every nook and cranny, desperate for any advantage.
There. The crystal floating in the center. In hindsight, it was obvious.
But how to get to it?
"Hmm." Asuna hummed, her eyes also locked onto the glowing purple crystal set in the golem's chest cavity. "Too bad we don't have Sinon here. I could get it."
"What? No!" Kirito objected. "That's dangerous!"
"It's dangerous for all of us if we let that thing keep rampaging." She countered, and the argument died on his tongue. "Give me a clear shot and I can hit it."
Kirito frowned, but made no objections. "Fine. Leonn! Yuuki!"
"Yeah?"
"What's up?"
"We need to keep it occupied for…" He looked at Asuna, who held up four fingers. "... four seconds! Think we can do that?"
"We can try!" Yuuki exclaimed.
Needing no further confirmation, Kirito sped forward and blocked one of the blade arms with another ((Cross Block)). Yuuki jumped in just as the second arm was crashing down, blocking the other. With both arms occupied in a pair of blade locks, it reared up on its back legs and tried to skewed them both, only for Leonn to step in and grab the leg blades in an incredibly ill-advised ((Clash)).
"LEONN!" Liz barked.
"Chew me out later!" Leonn yelled.
"Asuna, now!" Kirito bellowed.
A flash of light more akin to a meteorite than a lightning bolt slammed into the golem's exposed chest. The sound of cracking was faint, but somehow echoed in the chamber as Asuna pressed into the small purple prism with her rapier. She let loose a fierce battle cry and seemed to push farther than before until a shattering sound filled the air.
Then it exploded.
It was like a grenade went off in the room, large pieces of bladed shrapnel screaming through the air. Everyone dove to the sides in a mad scramble. Once the sound of clattering metal died down, Kirito took stock of the situation.
"Sound off!" He shouted.
"I'm good!" Eugeo answered.
"I'm afraid Leonn and I were hit by some pieces." Kizmel weakly called out.
"Same." Klein added.
"Ditto." Yuuki groaned.
Kirito winced at the state his friends were in. Klein had a small piece of metal embedded in his dominant shoulder. Kizmel was on the ground, a similarly sized piece jutting out of her thigh. Leonn was hunched against the wall, a long but thin piece of metal pinning him through his hip. Yuuki had a piece coming out of her bicep. Liz, Asuna, and Alice were already sprinting over to tend to their wounds and stabilize them. Kirito and Eugeo got up and moved to assist them.
They were interrupted by one of the two most powerful beings in the Underworld crashing to the floor.
And it wasn't the one he was hoping for.
Cardinal was bleeding – quite a lot of it, too – from the head and looked disoriented. On top of that, a piece of metal was protruding from her right arm, but she was apparently too out of it to realize. Her eyes were too busy being lazily locked onto her opponent.
Quinella, on the other hand, looked relatively unharmed. A few burns and bruises – undoubtedly from the magical duel before – but she was free of cuts and slashes. How she managed to avoid the shrapnel was anyone's guess.
"I have to say, I am impressed." Quinella smiled as she floated gracefully to the floor. "You are certainly much more capable than I anticipated. To destroy my perfect soldier… truly impressive. You will make wonderful Integrity Knights."
"How…?" Cardinal gasped out, flinching in pain. "How did you avoid…?"
"Oh, I didn't. Would you like to know a secret, little one?" Quinella mocked, leaning forward as if to whisper conspiratorially. "No metal can harm me. Isn't that wonderful? An ability befitting someone of my station! Yes, even those little toy daggers you gave them are worthless on me."
Cardinal blanched, as did Kirito. Using one of those daggers would, in theory, override the protections on Quinella and let the little librarian quickly and painlessly remove Administrator from the equation. Now? Now they were forced to resort to violence, and with the claim that metal had no effect on her…
Well, what hope did they have?
Quinella reached out with an open hand, willing one of the shards of metal forth. The piece of shrapnel landed in her grip and glowed as she used her administrative authority to reshape it into a weapon, a longsword. She took a few steps forward towards Cardinal before abruptly stopping.
"I don't think so." Kirito said, having stepped in the way. Both blades were out but held to the side. "You're not laying a finger on her."
Quinella cackled. "How cute! Did that explosion deafen you, boy? Did you not hear me? No metal can harm me. You might be able to defend yourself adequately enough, but you have no hope in defeating me."
"Maybe not." Kirito admitted, raising his blades. "But that's not gonna stop me from trying."
"I admire your tenacity, if nothing else." Quinella shrugged. "Very well. I am nothing if not a gracious ruler, so I will allow you the first strike. I want to see the look on your face when you lose hope."
As if to further rub it in, she closed her eyes and spread her arms wide, longsword carried limply in her left hand. She smiled with not a concern in the world. Was this a trap? Was she luring him into a false sense of security? Or was she being truthful in her immunity to metal weaponry?
He steeled himself; only one way to find out.
Kirito sped forward, prepping his swords for a ((Vertical Square)). Yelling a wordless battle cry, he brought ((Dark Repulser)) down across her exposed chest. The cyan blade screeched across what looked like a mix between a magical seal and a system window, having absolutely no effect. So it was true. Metal weaponry was worthless against Quinella. He saw her smirk, clearly reveling in the fact that she was immune to his strikes.
Then the second hit struck.
"AGH!"
Her right arm, specifically.
Quinella's eyes widened with surprise and pain as his second strike, this time using ((Night Sky Sword)) took off her arm at the shoulder. She managed to duck away, escaping with a small scratch across her cheek when his fourth strike hit, again with his Divine Weapon. Having cleared sufficient distance, she glared at him before dropping her sword, reaching over with her now free hand, and stopping the bleeding with a Sacred Art. A proper scowl affixed to her face, she resummoned her blade and held it aloft, this time taking the threat of his existence seriously.
"How…?" Quinella growled.
"Because it's not made of metal, bitch!" Liz taunted from the sidelines.
"Babe, please don't antagonize the sociopathic tyrant." Leonn pleaded as Liz renewed her efforts to staunch his bleeding.
Kirito's eyes widened. Of course! The ((Night Sky Sword)) was made from the fallen branch of a treant. He had no idea the entire process that went into Liz crafting it, but the primary component was a hunk of wood.
"I see." Quinella grimaced. She raised her sword high to the sky, poised to strike with what Kirito could clearly tell was ((Avalanche)). "So be it."
She was going to try to take him out with one strike.
On some unspoken cue, both launched themselves forward, intent on ending this now. Kirito easily sidestepped the overhead swing and pivoted, circling around her flank. He struck fast, aiming for her exposed back, only for Quinella to quickly spin in place and bring her sword to bear, swatting ((Night Sky Sword)) aside. The blow managed to stagger him, and, in a moment of panic, he brought ((Dark Repulser)) up to block the next strike.
The two blades crashed into one another, locking for a moment before they disengaged.
"Another ((Vertical Square))? Really?" Quinella taunted. "I expected more from the strongest warrior of the Expeditionary Force. Or perhaps you were hoping I didn't notice the first skill you used after you disarmed me?"
Crap. She knew sword skills? Half of the Cardinal system was part of her fluctlight, so unfortunately that made a degree of sense. So he'd have to use manual strikes mostly, then.
Good practice for Kayaba, he supposed, assuming he survived this fight.
Quinella lunged forward, morphing her longsword into a rapier and executing a skill he knew fairly well, actually. After all, it was a skill he knew Asuna to use from time to time. ((Crucifixion)). A six-hit skill. She'd used it on him a number of times, so he knew how to deflect some of the strikes.
Not all of them, though, as two found purchase. The other four were quickly blocked by ((Dark Repulser)), which caused a hideous cracking sound to echo through the chamber. Wait, was his weapon breaking?
"Damn it." Liz cursed. "I knew I should have repaired your weapons before we entered."
He needed to end this fast. He lowered himself into a stance, ready to charge forward at a moment's notice. He took a deep breath and then sprang, his blades ready to bite deep into his target. Quinella morphed her blade into a katana and stepped into his space before he could swing, performing a horizontal strike and striking before he could. He stumbled and fell forward, skidding along the ground.
"A one-hit skill. ((Zekkuu))."
"She's got katana skills too, bro!" Klein called out rather unhelpfully. Yes, he could see that, thank you very much.
As he got to his feet, Kirito's widened (again) as, suddenly, Quinella was in his face, another ((Avalanche)) coming down on his head. He quickly flicked both blades up in a ((Cross Block)) very similar to the way he blocked Volo's attack back at the academy. He fell to one knee as he struggled under the weight and force of the blow. Quinella's eyes were wide open, giving her a crazed look as she pressed down on him.
Then ((Dark Repulser)) shattered.
*CRACK!*
With the sudden drop in resistance, Quinella's sword slid to the side harmlessly, but the damage had been done. He could hear Liz lamenting off to the side, but Kirito's mind was too busy freaking out. He lost his second-best blade! And there was no way Quinella was going to let him retrieve another from his inventory. She was out for blood.
"Kirito! Catch!"
Kirito's eyes whipped to the side and, as if on reflex, his hand snapped to the side and caught a familiar blade. ((Blue Rose Sword)).
"I don't understand… why do you struggle so? Would it not be easier to simply accept your lot in life?" Quinella asked as she turned to face him.
"Because I can." Kirito answered simply. "It's why I'm still here… why we're still here. I won't stop until you're gone and we're one step closer to going home."
Quinella narrowed her eyes. "This world belongs to me. How dare you just waltz in and defy my rule? You should be groveling on your knees! Accept your defeat already!"
"No way. You're not a ruler at all; you're a thief. You don't love this world or the people who live in it… not like I do." Kirito said, steel in his voice. He may not have loved the people of the Underworld in the conventional sense, but he felt responsible for what they represented. They were, ironically enough – and screw you, Kayaba – the legacy of the thousands of players he failed to save. He failed to save their ancestors, and he was not going to fail them. "You have no right to be in charge!"
Kirito raised his swords, ready for one last clash.
"Hey Sugu?"
"Yeah, Suli?"
"Is it just me, or did your brother's eyes just change color?"
Suguha blinked. She was right; Kazuto's eyes did just turn a brilliant amber. That was odd. They'd never done anything like that before. Gods, everything about the Underworld was just plain wonky. And not in the good way, either.
"Shit, there they go." Shinichi commented.
Suguha watched with no small amount of awe as her brother charged forward and engaged the strongest being to date in Sword Art Online. Yes, Kayaba may have held more power, but she doubted he posed such an immediate threat as Quinella did. Where Kayaba was measured and calculating, Quinella was unhinged and power-hungry.
The term "dance of blades" came to mind as she watched the two figures on screen try to kill each other. Quinella was forced on the defensive, now having to deflect not just one, but two blades that were not only Divine Objects, but also made of non-metals. One strike from either sword would spell doom for her, but the same was true of her brother. Quinella had, on multiple occasions at this point, demonstrated her ability to absolutely devastate her opponents, even with the handicap of fighting with only one arm.
The clash and clanging of blades grew to new heights, new volumes. Trish, at one point, had to lower the volume on the television because it was getting so loud. What was probably only 30 seconds of combat seemed to stretch to unreasonable lengths of time as dozens of eyes in the bar watched with bated breath this fateful duel between the Administrator and the Black Swordsman, a scene probably mirrored across the internet itself.
This… this was a prelude to Kayaba, and everybody knew it. Now, everybody knew that if there was going to be one person to bring Kayaba to justice, it was him.
Kirito the Black Swordsman.
"OH MY GODS! HIS ARM!"
Suguha snapped out of her daze to see that, in a strange turn of events, Kazuto and Quinella had somehow managed to cut off each other's arm. Now Quinella stood literally disarmed while Kazuto stood opposite her, still clutching Eugeo's ((Blue Rose Sword)). His other arm, having flopped to the floor like a dead fish, still clutched ((Night Sky Sword)) in a death grip.
"That's… gonna hurt in the morning." Shinichi remarked. He was promptly smacked upside the head by Suguha. "Sorry. Bad timing."
"Ya think?"
Then Quinella wrapped her brother up in her hair like some sort of… she didn't even know what. Hair monster? Medusa? No, that was snakes.
Then lightning struck.
One moment Kirito was being strangled by sentient hair.
The next, he saw Asuna come zooming in, cutting off the hair at the midway point and freeing him, much to Quinella's surprise (and rage).
Kirito let out a roar of defiance as he plummeted back to earth, angling himself and pointing Eugeo's sword forward so that he would impale Quinella. He was surprised to see that… she didn't move. Yes, there was anger and rage and fury, but more than anything else, she was astonished. The very notion that she could be defeated clearly a foreign concept to her, unfathomable.
They both cried out as somehow – in a way that made absolutely no sense whatsoever – the act of stabbing her through the chest caused a small explosion, shooting the two to opposite sides of the room. Asuna was quick to catch him, though it was more like cushioning his fall as they both slammed into the wall.
Kirito pulled himself to his feet and went to offer a hand to Asuna, only to remember that his only hand was holding onto Eugeo's blade. He didn't have another hand to offer. That was probably going to hurt later when he wasn't filled with virtual adrenaline.
"In the end, neither sword was metal." Quinella chuckled. Not a friendly chuckle or a sarcastic chuckle, but a deranged chuckle. Given how her body seemed to be fractured and cracked while a gaping hole rested in the middle of her chest, that wasn't too hard to believe. "I did not expect this outcome. Even if I gathered up every spatial resource here, the damage is too extensive. I have no other choice."
Quinella staggered out of the crater they'd created and walked away from a bewildered Kirito and Asuna. How was she still standing?! The lack of arms, sure, that made some sense. But the gaping hole in her chest? She shouldn't even have a virtual heart anymore!
And where was she going?!
She stepped on a portion of the floor, which subsequently began to glow. A moment later, and that section of the floor revealed some sort of… table? Interface? It looked like a stone dias with a stone laptop seated atop it, which she then used her freaky hair to start typing on.
"Wait, is that an administrator station?" Asuna asked. "There was one just like it behind the ((Fatal Scythe)) that day."
Cardinal coughed, then answered, her voice still weak and wavering. "Y-yes. I believe she means to escape by exporting her program to the outside world."
"Wait, she can do that?!" Klein gasped.
"I believe she means to try." Cardinal said, struggling to stand up. "She cannot be allowed to succeed. Stop her!"
Everyone who could ran forward, weapons drawn. With one last flick of her hair, Administrator summoned a column of light that engulfed her, causing everyone to pause and shield their eyes from the blinding light. When they opened their eyes, Quinella was floating up within the column, well out of reach.
"Farewell, little boys and girls!" Quinella taunted, a manic smile on her face. "When next we meet, I will be stronger than ever! Not an Administrator, but a GODDESS! Tremble before – "
"YOUR EMINENCE! DON'T LEAVE ME!"
All eyes – Quinella's included – whipped over to Chudelkin's body. Or, rather, where everyone thought his lifeless corpse was. Reports of his demise were apparently greatly exaggerated, since he took that moment of hesitation and flew upward, his body combusting into flames. He latched onto Administrator's mutilated, naked body even as his flesh began to burn. Her screams and his lustful grunts of desperation filled the chamber as everyone stared in abject awe and horror of what was occurring.
"You disgusting clown! Get off of me!"
"FINALLY! I CAN BECOME ONE WITH YOU, YOUR EMINENCE! MY ADMINISTRATOR! MY LADY!"
"No! NO!"
Kirito averted his eyes as her screams of panic turned into shrieks of pain, the two conflagrating high in the chamber. The demented fusion of their bodies, courtesy of whatever Sacred Art Chudelkin invoked – caused an explosive reaction, flooding the chamber with fire and smoke. Kirito grabbed Asuna with his only arm and hugged her close, shielding her from the flames. Surprisingly, it wasn't as intense as he thought, causing only a few minor burns.
Once the embers died down, he released her from the protective hug and turned around, staring at the now-ruined altar. Great. Whatever hope they had for contacting the outside world or – gods forbid – somehow logging out was up in smoke, just like the rest of the room.
"Now what?" Asuna asked as she used a Sacred Art to stem his bleeding arm stump.
"Now…" Cardinal said, limping forward as the others pulled themselves to their feet. "Now we rest and prepare for the final act. By my estimate, we have approximately six months until the Dark Territory invades."
Kirito gulped. Six months?
A/N:
And there we have it! The Integrity Knights and Quinella have been confronted and defeated! Now all they have to do is prepare for a massive conflict with literal forces of darkness. No big deal, right?
Hopefully that didn't seem too rushed. I probably could have easily split the Central Cathedral arc into more than just two chapters, but I've been trying to avoid cliffhangers. I've been using a lot of those lately, and I don't want to fall into bad habits.
Anyway, Chapter 96 will be up in a few days and will be posted this weekend. We're getting into the final bits of Unyielding, so buckle up kiddos!
Til next time!