Sword Art Online:
Finale of Redeeming Grace
Bright lights along every building edge, lengths of pine needles reaching across the streets, and countless people walking arm-in-arm with smiling faces decorated the Town of Beginnings. I was surprised to see how many people were logged in on a night like this. Didn't they have friends and family to be spending time with?
"Kirito?" Asuna's voice pulled the emergency break on my train of thought. "Are you with me?"
"Hm? Oh—yeah. Sorry. What were you saying?"
Asuna put her hands on her hips and pouted. "So you weren't listening, then?"
I raised my hands in defeat. "I…" I started. But I couldn't come up with a good excuse, so I let my eyes wander away from hers.
She sighed. "Honestly, Kirito…" I saw a change in her eyes as she decided to change the subject. "Thanks for helping me with the shopping," she said. "I'll see you later tonight at the party, okay?"
I gazed at her earnestly. "Are you…sure you don't want to go along for this?"
Her eyes darted side to side, quickly, like they didn't want to linger on their surroundings for long. "…I don't want to leave you alone. Especially not now." She smiled warmly. "But you won't be alone. And I know you'll be in good hands."
I frowned. The last thing I wanted at this time of year, especially in this place, was to be without Asuna.
Asuna reached out and touched my cheek. It was unlike her to do something like that with such a sizable crowd of potential onlookers, so my jaw dropped a little.
"It's just for a little while," she said in a soft tone. "The faster you find what you're looking for, the sooner all of us can be together."
I nodded, and Asuna turned and left, heading west toward the inn where the Christmas party would take place later.
I headed to the center of the Town of Beginnings to wait by the Teleport Gate. Despite the ink-black sky, the plaza was as bright as day. At the base of the Gate, where a stone clock tower usually stood, was a massive christmas tree dressed bottom to top in ornaments glowing with a soft, golden light.
A subtle shiver ran up my spine. "I never get used to seeing Aincrad like this," I muttered.
"'Aincrad'?" said a confused, almost aimless voice behind me. "I thought you told me this world was called 'Ainground.'"
I turned around. Facing me, with his head tilted and his brow furrowed, was a young man about my age. He had blue eyes, flaxen-blonde hair, and he was dressed all in blue.
I nodded. "It is, Eugeo. I just…get a bit mixed up sometimes."
Eugeo's brow furrowed more. He stepped up to me and examined my face intently.
"Are you feeling alright, Kirito?" he asked. "You don't seem like yourself."
I forced a smile and tried to make it look as nonchalant as possible. "Yeah," I said. "I'm alright. Don't sweat it."
Judging by the worry smeared all over his face, Eugeo didn't buy it. Nonetheless, he forced a smile, too.
"Well, ain't this jus' the picture o' holiday spirit?" said a high, nasally voice from somewhere to my left.
Eugeo and I turned to see a hooded figure with a small stature leaning against one of the obelisks on the Teleport Gate's corners. Her posture was as casual as could be. The only features I could make out beneath her hood were a snide smirk, and three whiskers painted across each cheek.
"You two look any happier an' I just might grow wings an' a halo."
"Oh!" Eugeo said. He turned and bowed politely. "Ms. Info Broker! It's good to see you again!"
"Nya-ha!" the little information broker cackled. "How come yer not nice like him, Ki-boy?"
"Because I've known you longer," I answered. "I thought you'd given us all the info you had, but if you're here now, you dug up something else. Didn't you, Argo?"
"Sharp as always, Ki-boy."
"Really!?" Eugeo blurted. "You have more information about how we can find her!?"
Argo shook her head. "Not exactly, kiddo. I got ya everything I could about the where. But there's a li'l somethin' extra I just picked up that I thought you boys oughtta be aware of."
"Oh…?" Eugeo said, raising an eyebrow.
Argo nodded. "Rumor has it that girly yer lookin' for is awful strong. She's carryin' around this sword… I haven't been able to get anything reliable outta my sources, but it's s'posed ta be somethin' else."
"Really? That doesn't sound like her at all…"
The info broker shrugged. "I'm jus' tellin' ya what I heard through the grapevine."
Eugeo frowned and looked down at the ground, deep in thought.
"We'll keep it in mind," I said. "C'mon, Eugeo. We should head out soon if we want to find her."
"Right…"
As Eugeo and I started toward the Teleport Gate, Argo grasped my sleeve. We were standing side by side, but facing opposite directions. Neither of us turned to face the other.
"You know better than anyone else that my info comes at a price, Ki-boy," she whispered.
"Just give me a number."
"No cash this time. A favor."
"Oh…?"
Argo tilted her head enough that I could see her curly bangs and just one of her eyes beneath her hood. "Even if it's just a little bit, forgive yourself. 'Kay?"
I opened my mouth to say something.
"Kirito!" Eugeo called from the Teleport Gate's platform. He cupped a hand around his mouth and waved his other arm over his head. "Are you coming?"
Argo snickered. She tapped my shoulder twice, then disappeared into the bustling crowd.
I stepped onto the platform beside Eugeo. We gave each other a nod, then shouted in unison, "Teleport, Forest of Wandering!"
Ainground, the setting of Sword Art: Origin, was arranged in one big continent as opposed to the one hundred floors in Sword Art Online's Aincrad. Since that would make traditional navigation considerably more tedious, Ainground had smaller Teleport Stones in more minor areas rather than the Teleport Gates which were limited to the main settlements of each region. That's why Eugeo and I were able to travel directly to the edge of the Forest of Wandering, a locale that had earned infamy in both SAO and SA:O for how difficult it is to navigate.
"Hold it," I said, grabbing Eugeo's arm as he started to walk toward the forest. "You can't just wander in like that."
"Hm?" Eugeo said, twisting his neck to look back at me. "Why not?"
I thought for a moment.
Eugeo wasn't an ordinary player like I was. That is to say, he didn't log into SA:O with an AmuSphere. He had come first to ALfheim, then to Origin from another world entirely. By my guess, he was a hyper-intelligent artificial intelligence from a game that had yet to be revealed, let alone released, who had somehow found his way here. Maybe that was because the game world he came from was built from the Seed, too—but that was just a guess.
Whatever the case, he didn't perceive game worlds the way players like me did. To him, this was reality. I couldn't tell him, "This forest is a dungeon separated into a grid whose borders have a random teleport effect," because that wouldn't mean anything to him.
"Uhm…" I started. "Because…the Forest of Wandering is called that because it has a way of turning people around. If you're not careful, the illusions it creates could trap you inside, wandering forever. Hence, the name."
"Hmm…" Eugeo crossed his arms and frowned, furrowing his brow. "That sounds like the work of the Dark God Vecta, for sure."
I stared blankly at him for a few seconds.
"So, how are we supposed to get through the forest if it's full of illusions?"
"With this," I said. I swiped my fingers downward to open my menu and produced a small scroll from my inventory. "This map will tell us which areas of the forest we've been to, and which areas they're connected to. We have to move fast, though. Are you ready?"
Eugeo balled his hands into fists and nodded. "Ready!"
Eugeo and I took off into the Forest of Wandering at a brisk jog. We moved through each area as quickly as we could, dispatching any monsters in our way in just one or two Sword Skills to ensure we made it to the next grid space in less than a minute. Occasionally, I checked my map to make sure we hadn't gotten off track. But I'd been through this dungeon enough times that I could start a tour, so we didn't have any problems.
"This is it," I said, stopping at the edge of one of the forest's grid spaces. I pointed to the wavering air between a pair of trees ahead of us. "Once we pass into the next area, we'll be at the clearing where your friend is supposed to be."
Eugeo nodded.
"Well, let's get go—"
"Wait, Kirito," Eugeo said, grabbing my arm to stop me in my tracks.
"Hm?"
Snow began to fall, dancing toward the ground between the pine needles above. Given that this was a game world, it was only a few moments before the ground was covered in a layer of powder.
"You're not acting like yourself," Eugeo said. The cold turned his breath to vapor.
"I'm not?" I said. "I'm sure it's just—"
Eugeo raised his hand to stop me. "Don't do that," he said. "It's 'just' nothing. I can tell when something's bothering you…" He crossed his arms and frowned worriedly. "…and when you're planning to bear it all by yourself."
"Thanks for worrying about me," I said, "but we don't have time for this."
Eugeo sighed. "Kirito, you can't—"
"No, I mean we literally don't have time. If we don't go to the next area in the next few seconds, we could end up having to start all over again."
Eugeo sighed again. "Alright," he said. But his brow remained furrowed.
I stopped again as we reached the edge of the grid space.
"Whatever happens in there," I said, "remember to stay cool. Alright?"
Eugeo smiled and said, "Yeah. You too, Kirito. Stay cool."
He made it sound like that was something I'd said to him before.
I shrugged that feeling off and stepped through the trees into a large clearing. The sky was black, but the snow on the ground and the flakes in the air reflected and amplified what little light the stars above provided, so I could see my surroundings clearly. Though the scene was picturesque, something felt off the moment Eugeo and I entered the clearing.
Among the falling snowflakes was another kind of particle. Small, gold, and shimmering in the starlight. They weren't falling like the snow, but they weren't suspended in the air, either. They were moving, ever so slightly. Each one was going in a different direction, like they had a mind of their own. And there were a lot of them.
"What are these…?" Eugeo asked as he reached for one. The particle drifted away from him, just out of reach.
I leaned toward one and squinted. From what I could tell, each particle consisted of four round, petal-like segments.
"It looks like…a flower," I said.
Just then, a voice called to us. It was melodious and beautiful, but had an unignorable firmness to it. "What business could the two of you have in a place like this?" the voice asked.
It was only then that I realized Eugeo and I weren't alone in the clearing. Far on the other side, just before the trees began again, was a red sleigh. At its front was a team of eight reindeer, and in it was a large, bearded man dressed in a red coat. It didn't take me long to figure out who that had to be, or that the voice we heard didn't belong to him.
Between the sleigh and Eugeo and I, in the center of the clearing, was a young woman. At this distance, it was hard to make out all of her features, but I could see that she had porcelain skin and long, golden hair tied back in a braid. She was dressed in golden armor over a blue garment, and she held what looked like the hilt of a sword with no blade.
I turned to Eugeo, whose jaw was hanging open. His eyes looked like they were about to leap out of his head.
"A…lice…?" he whispered.
"Wait—that's her?" I asked, incredulous. "That's your friend Alice?"
Eugeo nodded. "I…I think so. I mean, she looks just like her. And that voice…"
The woman in the center of the clearing spoke again. "Why have you come here?" she asked, her tone steadfast and stern.
Eugeo furrowed his brow. "Something seems off, though," he said. "She looks like her, but…I don't know. Something's not right."
"'Off'?" I repeated. "What makes you say that?"
Eugeo placed his hand on his chin as he pondered. "I don't know…aside from looks, it's everything about her, I guess. Her posture, the way she talks, the way she's looking at us…"
"This is your last chance to answer or depart," the woman called out to us.
"Speaking of the way she's looking at us," I whispered, "I think we should probably say something."
"Oh—you're right! She does sort of look like she's thinking of attacking us. But what should we say?"
"Huh? Why're you asking me!? She's your friend."
"I'm not good at things like this when I'm nervous…"
"You've gotta be—"
All at once, the petals on the flower particles in the air elongated into sharpened points.
"Eeeyugh!?" Eugeo and I exclaimed together as we both jumped a solid meter into the air.
"You leave me little choice," the blonde-haired girl said. As she spoke, the petals in the air began to move. Slowly, at first, then quickly picking up speed until they'd formed a vortex around the clearing. "If you will not leave on your own, I must force you to."
The woman raised the sword hilt in her hand above her head, and the flower petals in the air came to a sudden halt. "Now…fly, my flowers…" She swung the hilt down as if she were cutting an invisible enemy in front of her, stopping her arm when the hilt was pointed at us. "Enhance Armament!"
The golden petals blazed to life again, converging in a vortex at the bladeless sword's hilt. They made a sound like blades slicing the air as they reached toward us, and in a moment they were swarming around us.
I raised my hands to cover my face—a pointless gesture. As the petals swirled around me, I saw the HP bar in the upper left corner of my vision slowly dwindling. Beneath it, the same was happening to Eugeo's HP.
"Eugeo!" I called out over the roar of the spiraling flower petals. "We're going to have to fight!"
"What are you saying!? I…"
"We don't have to finish it. But if we lose now, we might never find her again."
"Even so, I—"
"There's no choice, Eugeo…" I watched our HP bars turn from green to yellow. "Sometimes a sword is the only thing that can communicate your feelings."
I turned my head toward him, and through the petals I could just see him nod his head.
I reached over my right shoulder, and Eugeo reached for his left hip. Together, we drew our swords and bolted out of the cloud of petals, heading toward the girl in golden armor.
She drew the sword hilt back, and the petals rushed past us to encircle her. They formed a more solid-looking mass over the hilt. Then, she thrust the hilt forward and the cloud of petals came rushing at us again.
"Guh!" Eugeo exclaimed as they hit him in the gut, knocking him backwards and off his feet.
I kept running. The woman drew her sword hilt back again, then swung it horizontally. The flower petals came rushing toward me from my left side. I lowered my sword beside me in an effort to block, but the petals rushed past the blade, hitting me in my side and knocking me to the ground.
I groaned as I pushed myself up, and noted the sizable chunk of HP that last attack had shaved off.
The woman raised her sword above her head again, and the flower petals formed a golden tornado above it.
"Kirito!" Eugeo shouted. "Get ready! I'll create an opening!"
I nodded back to him.
The armored woman eyed us warily, and she prepared to strike.
Eugeo raised his sword with the tip pointed at the ground. Quickly, he reversed his grip, then drove the point into the ground.
The woman's eyes bulged and she clenched her teeth. "Underhanded malefactor! You've been chanting a Perfect Weapon Control Art under your breath!"
"Perfect what?" I said, looking back at Eugeo.
Eugeo gritted his teeth. Gripping his sword with both hands, he shouted, "Enhance Armament!"
Shards of ice burst from the ground around Eugeo's sword. In segments, more shards burst forth, rapidly approaching the spot where the gold-armored woman was standing until her legs were encased past her knees in ice.
"Now, Kirito!"
"I think not!" the woman said. She thrust her sword hilt toward me, and the flower petals responded by rushing toward me in a spiral pattern.
I lifted my sword in front of me. I activated the skill Spinning Shield, and my sword spun rapidly in a circle in front of me, creating a barrier. The skill mitigated some of the damage, but not all of it. My HP was flashing red now.
As the woman drew her sword hilt back, preparing for another attack, I prepared my own. I held my sword back near my right shoulder, parallel to the ground, preparing to use Rage Spike. As soon as the glow and whirring sound effect started, I kicked off the ground, launching myself toward her.
Frozen to the ground, she was unable to avoid the attack. All I needed to do was land a blow to that sword hilt of hers and knock it away. Then, maybe, she'd be willing to talk.
"Huh!?" I gasped, eyes wide.
In the instant before I'd made contact, the armored girl pushed my sword aside. She'd done so by pressing the flat of the blade with just one finger, and so she hadn't sustained a single hitpoint's worth of damage. Now, I was standing with my only means of attack well past any point of being a threat, with her standing poised to strike.
"You're quite brave to face an Integrity Knight in close combat," the armored woman said. As she spoke, the flower petals in the air danced down to her feet. They revolved quickly around her a few times, and when they floated upward again, the ice ensnaring her was gone.
"Tch…" I clicked my tongue and gritted my teeth.
I looked back at Eugeo, but whatever he'd just done had left him drained. It didn't look like he could stand, much less cast that skill again.
"If you have courage to spare," the woman said, "I shall grant you a duel as a reward for managing to get this close to me."
I took a few steps back. Mustering every ounce of formality I could, I said, "I would be honored to accept your duel, Lady Knight."
"Very well," she said.
At that, the flower petals converged in a long vortex at her sword's hilt. They swirled for a few seconds, then joined together into a solid shape for the first time. The form they took was that of a long, golden blade, completing the gorgeous sword the armored girl carried.
"Since we are to duel," she continued, "It's only right that we exchange names." She rested the tip of her sword on the ground in front of her, folding her hands atop its pommel. "I am Alice Synthesis Thirty, Integrity Knight of the Axiom Church."
So her name is Alice after all, I noted. But could it be the same one?
Pushing aside the thought that this world had no such things as "Integrity Knights," or anything called an "Axiom Church," I said, "I am a swordsman called Kirito."
"Kirito," Alice repeated. "I see." She gripped her sword with both hands, raised it over her right shoulder, and lowered her stance. "En garde, Kirito."
I lowered my stance as well. I held my sword back by my right side, and my left hand in front of me for balance.
A few moments passed in perfect stillness as we stared each other down. It was quiet enough that I thought I could hear the snow falling to the ground.
I shifted the tiniest bit on my right foot. Alice shot toward me so fast, it was like my AmuSphere couldn't process the movement quickly enough to animate it. One moment, she was standing perfectly still. In the next instant she was flying toward me, her golden blade careening on a downward trajectory for my forward arm.
I drew my arm back without a millisecond to spare. After missing the downward cut, Alice turned her blade over faster than I could blink and swung upward. I met the blow with a downward cut of my own.
Our blades locked together between us. They shook as we tested each other's strength. I had to brace my blade with my off hand just to get a bit of leverage. Alice had both hands at the grip of her sword. Mechanically speaking, she had a disadvantage in this clash. But if she was struggling at all, she showed no sign of it.
We pushed off each other simultaneously, leaping a full three meters each in opposite directions.
I took the initiative this time, leveling my sword by my left side. In the same instant the skill kicked in, I launched myself forward. I swung once from left to right, then again in the opposite direction. Letting the momentum of the second cut carry me into a spin, I leaped to add gravity's force to my downward cut. I finished Horizontal Square with an uppercut from the lower left. A blue, square-shaped trail of light spun out from around us before dispersing.
Alice met and matched each blow without using a single Sword Skill.
"I'm impressed," Alice said as we moved away from each other again. "You're a cut above the other criminals I've faced."
"And your strength is astounding," I replied. "I don't know a lot of people who can stop a Sword Skill with their own power."
Alice raised an eyebrow. "Do you refer to Sword Arts?" she asked. "Well, in any case, I think it's my turn now."
She widened her stance and pulled her sword back by her right side with the blade pointed behind her. Soon, an emerald-green glow enveloped the golden blade.
Cyclone, I realized.
I wouldn't stand a chance if I tried to match her in strength. If I was going to win this, I had to be faster than her. And not just by a little.
I raised my sword over my left shoulder. My sword began to glow crimson red as the system registered the starting posture for Sharp Nail.
Alice dashed toward me and started her attack.
The Two-handed Sword Skill had two movements, but the first one was only a feint. Nonetheless, I struck her blade with the first move of Sharp Nail as her blade passed me, hoping to slow her down. Alice spun in place to deliver the second blow, Cyclone's true attack, from the same direction. As she spun, I raised my sword over my right shoulder and cut diagonally downward to meet her blade again, further reducing its momentum. It was still traveling toward me, though. I poured all of my focus into driving the Skill to execute faster, raising my arm in tandem with the system. I cut vertically downward, meeting Alice's blade one last time. Her sword came to a halt, and our blades were locked hilt to hilt again.
This time, with her blade in a horizontal position and mine in a vertical, I had the clear advantage. The problem was I had no idea how to capitalize on it.
It would be easy enough to move my sword into the position for a Vertical and fire it off before she had a chance to defend herself. But a blow to the head would be bad for anyone, nevermind someone not wearing a helmet. I couldn't guarantee that Alice would still have all of her HP after a blow like that, so there was little I could do.
"Hm," Alice murmured. She straightened her posture and lowered her sword, taking no heed of the threat mine currently posed. She returned the beautiful weapon to an ornate golden scabbard on her left hip. "That's enough," she said.
"Uh," I grunted, remaining in my blade-locked stance by myself. I wasn't sure how to react.
"It's not to say you would have been successful in a counterattack just then," Alice said, "but you refrained from even attempting one, and I sense it was not out of fear. Perhaps I misjudged you, and your intentions here are not as malicious as I perceived."
I nodded. "We didn't come here to fight you, Alice."
"If you have no ill will, why didn't you say something sooner?"
As we spoke, Eugeo, who'd managed to get to his feet some time ago, approached us. "Alice?" he said. "Is that…really you?"
"You know me?" Alice asked. "I don't recall ever meeting you."
"Of course I know you!" Eugeo placed his hand over his heart. "It's me, Alice. It's Eugeo. Do you really not remember me? We grew up together in Rulid."
Alice shook her head. "You're mistaken," she said. "I have no history in your world. I am an Integrity Knight. I arrived in Centoria's Central Cathedral when the Pontifex summoned me from the Heavens."
"That can't be," Eugeo said. "You're Alice Zuberg! You're—"
"Enough!" Alice barked. She gritted her teeth and placed her hand over her right eye as if it were in pain. "On my honor as a Knight, I will hear the two of you out. But if your aim is to deceive me and lead me astray from the Administrator's light, your punishment will be severe."
My eyes darted to the red sleigh behind Alice, and the gears in my head began to turn.
"We don't mean to deceive you," I said. "We're here to help."
"Help…?" Alice questioned. "What do you know of my mission?"
Eugeo gazed at me with his brow raised. His eyes echoed the question Alice had asked.
If there was one thing nearly every MMO had in common, it was Christmas. That is to say, nearly every MMO would have some sort of Christmas-themed event when the holidays came around. It didn't matter if the game took place in a fantasy world like this one, or in a galaxy far, far away. Online games were almost always guaranteed to have a Christmas event, or or a made up fantasy holiday equivalent to it.
I pointed to the man in the sleigh behind Alice. "That man has something important to deliver," I said, being intentionally vague, "and it has to be delivered tonight. Isn't that right?"
Alice looked stunned for a moment. She composed herself, then said, "Yes, that's right. However, if you were here to impede his mission rather than aid him, you would know that as well."
"I guess you have a point," I said. "What more can we do to prove our good intentions?"
"If you truly know him and have reason to lend your aid, then you must know his name."
I paused for a moment. It was obvious who the man in the sleigh was meant to be, but I had to consider which name I should give in the context. When I thought about where I was, though, the answer seemed obvious.
"Nicholas," I said.
Alice nodded. "Very well," she said. "I will trust you for the time being. But I will keep a close watch over you. Come."
Alice spun on her heel. The blue cape attached to her armor flared, then fluttered in the wind as she walked away from us toward the sleigh.
I turned to Eugeo, who was staring at me with his jaw hanging open.
"I… Wha… How…?" Eugeo stammered.
I shrugged. "Lucky guess…I guess. C'mon."
We strode over to the sleigh.
The sleigh's driver, a large man in a red coat with a long, white beard, stood and greeted us. "Hello, young swordsmen," he said. "I cannot express how grateful I am that you've decided to lend me aid."
"Think nothing of it," I said. "We're happy to help."
"I am Nicholas," he said, "but young Alice here has told me you already knew that. How can that be?"
Sword Art: Origin was a prequel to SAO, and therefore took place well before it chronologically. It was an entirely separate game from ALfheim Online, so of course this incarnation of Nicholas wouldn't remember that we had already met three times before now.
Though, I'm not sure I could call the interaction between us in Sword Art Online a "meeting."
"We've heard of you," I said. Again, I tried to keep the information I gave as vague as possible to avoid getting something wrong and raising suspicion. "We know you have something to deliver. Also, we know how important it is, and how much you'll risk to ensure it gets where it needs to go." I figured a bit of flattery would obscure my lack of detail, and ended with, "You're a brave man, Nicholas."
"Hardly," the man chuckled. "It's this young lady and you two who are the courageous ones. I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here to ward off the evil spirits."
"Evil spirits…?"
"Yes. The shades of this forest want to stop me from making my delivery, because if I succeed, they'll be sealed away, unable to harm anyone ever again."
"Right…" I said, nodding as if I knew all about the evil spirits in question. In truth, I had no idea what he was talking about.
Sword Art: Origin had undead enemies of all sorts. Skeletons, zombies, and floating reaper type enemies, to name a few. But they were all physical, corporeal entities.
SA:O, like its predecessor, lacked any sort of offensive magic. Because of that, astral-type enemies, which couldn't be damaged by physical attacks, were few and far between. In most cases, they were only quest givers, or they were special enemies who had to be slain through some means other than physical combat.
When Nicholas said evil spirits were trying to stop him, exactly what did he mean by that, I wondered.
I looked in the back of his sleigh. In it was a small sack, bulging at the base. By my guess, it probably wasn't full of toys for all the good boys and girls of Ainground.
"Were you able to complete your repairs?" Alice asked.
"Yes," Nicholas replied. "My sleigh is in working order again. Thank you for guarding me while I restored it, Alice."
"Think nothing of it. A Knight's duty is to lend aid to those in need."
Nicholas chuckled heartily. "Your humility is inspiring."
"In any case, we'd do well to make haste."
Alice climbed into the sleigh, seating herself on the right side of the sleigh's seat. Nicholas sat beside her, leaving no space for Eugeo and I.
"Wait—What about us?" Eugeo asked.
"There's plenty of room in the back," Alice answered curtly without turning to face us.
"Oh…right." Eugeo's shoulders slumped as he and I climbed into the back of the sleigh. "I wanted to ride up front," he mumbled.
Nicholas cracked his reins, and the eight reindeer pulling his sleigh went from a standstill to a full sprint almost immediately. The sudden acceleration caused Eugeo and me to topple over so that we were lying on our sides.
"What I wouldn't give for a seatbelt," I groaned.
"Forget the belt," Eugeo said. "I'd settle for a seat."
The reindeer's hooves thundered as the sleigh glided across the snow-covered forest. Trees rushed past us in a blur, their branches seeming like they were reaching for us. Eugeo and I clambered to the back of the sleigh and hunkered down as low as we could to avoid acquainting our faces with the passing branches.
We rode in silence for a while until I noticed Eugeo's forlorn expression.
"You're worried about Alice, aren't you?" I asked. I kept quiet enough that Alice and Nicholas wouldn't be able to hear us over the hooves hitting the ground.
Eugeo smiled unconvincingly. "I guess I'm not doing a very good job of hiding it…"
"You were trying to hide it?"
Eugeo laughed. Only a second later, though, his expression was downcast again. "She just seems so different… Could she have somehow lost her memories? If that's the case, is the Alice I knew gone forever…?"
"We don't know that for sure," I said. "At least going on this quest gets us close to her. We might get chances to learn more about her, and find out if she's really your Alice or someone else."
"But in either one of those cases, what will I do? On the one hand, it could be Alice Zuberg, but she might never remember me at all. On the other, I might have to start my search all over again…"
"It'll all work out. At least now you're not looking for her on your own."
Eugeo managed a faint smile. "You're right about that," he said. "But…something else is weighing on my mind."
"What's that?"
"It's you."
"Me…?"
"Yes, you." Eugeo furrowed his brow. His eyes glistened with concern. "Everyone's told me that in your world, this time of year is a happy one. But…that doesn't seem to be the case for you."
I shook my head. "That isn't true. Everyone is always so happy when the holidays come around. That makes me happy, too."
"There you go again…"
"Wh-What…?"
"This isn't about everyone else, Kirito. It's about you." His eyes shifted away from mine for a moment, then back. "I don't want to force anything out of you, but I can't just ignore the fact that something is causing you pain."
I smiled while letting out a defeated sigh. "I guess I can't hide anything from you, huh, Eugeo?"
"No," Eugeo answered, "and I wish you wouldn't try." He let out a long, strained sigh. "I swear, you're going to worry me into an early grave…"
I shrugged and flashed Eugeo a grin.
"So…you'll tell me what's troubling you?"
"Nope."
"Kiritoooo!" Eugeo wailed, dragging out the last syllable of my name with a wavering inflection like a child asking his mother to give back his favorite toy.
I chuckled. "Look," I said. "We have to focus on the here and now. Alice—she's right here, right now. We have to focus on completing this quest and getting to the bottom of what might have happened to her memories."
"But, Kirito, I—"
"Don't worry about me, Eugeo. I can handle this on my own."
That was a poor choice of words, given Eugeo's personality. But I couldn't take it back now, and I silently cursed myself for that.
"Kirito…what did you just tell me?"
"To focus on the here and now?"
"No. Not that. You told me just now that I wasn't alone anymore."
I nodded.
"Well, why is it that I can lean on you, but you have to bear everything by yourself?"
I didn't answer him.
Eugeo sighed again. "I won't force it out of you. I just want you to know that the same thing goes for you. You're not alone, Kirito. That is, not as long as you'll let the people who care about you give you their support."
"When all of this is said and done, I'll tell you."
Eugeo blinked a few times. He stared at me, his eyes as big as dinner plates. "You'll…what?" he said.
"Jeez… Is it really that surprising?"
"That's an understatement."
I sighed. "Look, it's not like I—"
"Kirito!" Eugeo shouted. He pointed to the sack in the back of the sleigh with us.
At first, I couldn't see what it was that he'd so rudely interrupted me over. But then, I saw the translucent silhouette of a hand reaching for the sack.
I dove immediately for the sack, covering it with my body.
I twisted around in time to see a figure materializing. It was little more than a robe, hooded and tattered past the point of usefulness for any normal person. I couldn't see a face beneath the hood. There were long, skinny arms that ended in talons coming out of the torn sleeves, but the entity had no legs. It just hovered there.
I trained my eyes on the ghastly thing, and a red cursor came into view. With it came a nametag that read "Spectral Assailant."
The Spectral Assailant came close enough to me to reveal a pair of glowing red eyes. It shrieked in outrage, piercing my ears with its unearthly sound.
Eugeo drew his sword and slashed at it, but the blue blade passed right through the monster's body. Its HP bar didn't so much as quiver.
"Physical attacks won't work," I called over the sound of the reindeer's hooves.
"But we have to do something!" Eugeo shouted back.
He was right. Anything was better than nothing.
I rose to my feet. Clutching the sack in my left arm, I drew my sword with my right hand. "Maybe a Sword Skill would work," I called out. I slung my sword over my right shoulder, queueing up a Slant. I swung the blue-glowing blade diagonally through the Spectral Assailant's torso. The monster didn't flinch, and its HP remained undamaged.
"It's no good," Eugeo shouted. I turned to see that another Spectral Assailant had appeared, and that Eugeo was fighting with it.
"Do the thing!" I called to Eugeo.
"Huh? What thing?"
"That thing you did before. You know, the thing with the ice. Use that!"
"My Blue Rose Sword's Perfect Weapon Control Art is meant more for ensnaring enemies than for attack! Besides, I don't think it will work if they aren't touching the ground."
"Just try it," I shouted. "I don't have any other ideas."
"System Call!" Eugeo roared. "Enhance Armament!"
Eugeo placed the tip of his sword on the floor of the sleigh. In an instant, the sleigh was covered in blue ice. Spikes shot up, miraculously missing me. Tendrils like vines, covered in thorns, reached out from the ice spikes, ensnaring the Spectral Assailant closest to me.
"Bloom, Blue Rose!" Eugeo shouted.
Countless ice sculptures in the shape of roses grew along the icy tendrils. The Spectral Assailant's HP began to drop rapidly, and in just a few seconds, there was nothing left. The mob glew a blinding white before shattering like a glass sculpture.
The other Spectral Assailant had avoided the ice by gliding behind the sleigh. To our dismay, two more of them appeared at its side, and the trio made for us.
"It's no use," Eugeo said. As he pulled his sword up from the sleigh floor, the ice shattered and vanished. "I'll never be able to defeat them all like this…"
As I went through about a hundred ideas in my head, all of them useless, Alice rose from her seat and stepped into the back of the sleigh.
"Your Perfect Weapon Control Art," Alice said. "Use it again. This time, use it on me."
Eugeo gaped up at her for a second. Then, I could swear I heard his brain click as his expression changed and he gave Alice a nod.
"Enhance Armament!" Eugeo shouted again as he dug his sword's tip into the sleigh floor.
Ice covered the sleigh again, encasing Alice's ankles—and rooting her to the spot where she stood.
Meanwhile, Alice had raised her sword above her head and begun chanting her own command. She finished it with "Enhance Armament!" and her sword's golden blade split apart into hundreds of tiny flower petals.
She swung her sword, and the petals swarmed around the sleigh in a circular motion. In the blink of an eye, all three Spectral Assailants were gone.
No sooner were they defeated, though, than another five of them came out of the trees.
"Take my place at the front, Kirito," Alice said. "Guard Nicholas with your life."
"Leave it to me!" I called.
"You. Eugeo, was it? Hold your Art for as long as you can so I can maintain my balance."
"I won't let you fall, Alice," Eugeo said. "Even if it costs me every last bit of my Life."
Alice paused for a moment, then nodded silently.
She swung her sword hilt as though the blade were still there, and the petals around the sleigh responded, rending the approaching Spectral Assailants before they could reach us.
"How much further?" I asked Nicholas as I seated myself beside him.
"Not very," he answered. "I know I'm asking a lot of you three, but hold on just a bit longer."
"Don't worry about us," I said. "Just stay focused on the path, and we'll handle the rest."
Without a special weapon like Eugeo's and Alice's, the only role I could play was that of a lookout. Since that was all I could do, I'd make it a point to be the best damn lookout there ever was.
"Alice!" I shouted as two Spectral Assailants approached the sleigh from the front.
She'd been standing sideways when she had herself frozen to the floor, so turning to face the front wasn't an issue. Alice pointed her sword hilt toward the front of the sleigh. A horizontal tornado of razor-sharp flower petals whirled over Nicholas's and my head. The petals tore into the Spectral Assailants, and in an instant, their HP was gone and so were they.
More enemies appeared, and Alice reduced them to fragments of data. More appeared and met the same fate. This went on for quite a while.
My head was on a swivel, calling out whenever a Spectral Assailant got too close to Nicholas. However, I only had one head and two eyes. I could only look in one direction at a time.
"One coming from the right!" I shouted.
As Alice annihilated the incoming Assailant, I heard a muffled grunt come from my left. I turned and saw a Spectral Assailant with its bony, taloned hands wrapped around Nicholas's throat. Its red eyes burned as it glared at Nicholas, whose expression was one of terror utter terror. He looked as though his very soul was on fire.
"Alice!" I screamed.
In an instant, hundreds of golden flower petals swarmed around Nicholas. They left him unharmed, but buffeted the Spectral Assailant until it shattered with an unearthly shriek.
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"Y-Yes, yes," Nicholas replied. His voice was raspy, and he was audibly winded. "I'll be fine."
Alice dealt with a few more Spectral Assailants, but once they were gone, curiously, no more appeared.
"You can release your Art now," Alice said as she recalled her flower petals, which reconstructed her blade before she sheathed it.
Eugeo lifted his sword from the sleigh floor. The ice covering the sleigh and encasing Alice's feet shattered and dissipated, and he collapsed to the floor with a huff.
"You should rest," Alice said. "Keeping your Perfect Weapon Control Art for that long must have taken a toll on you."
"It's fine," Eugeo said with a reassuring smile. "Restoring Life is a lot easier in this world than it is where we come from." As he spoke, Eugeo reached for a pouch on his belt. From it, he withdrew a small glass vial filled with a red liquid. He downed the liquid in three chugs, and the HP bar beneath mine filled, turning from red to yellow and then green.
Eugeo produced a second vial from his pouch and held it out toward Alice. "Here," he said. "You should drink one, too."
Alice gazed at the vial. Then, she turned to look at me. I nodded once. "Very well," she said, turning back to Eugeo. She took the vial, popped the glass stopper off with the thumb, and drank its contents.
"How's your H—" I started, but I caught myself. I remembered that Eugeo didn't have a HUD built into his vision the same way players like me did. The case was probably the same for Alice. "Uh…how do you feel?" I asked her.
"Without access to the Stacia Window, I cannot precisely quantify the amount of my life that was restored. However, I do feel stronger after drinking that fluid." Alice looked down at Eugeo. "You have my thanks," she said.
Eugeo shook his head. "You don't have to thank me," he said.
"Nonsense. A Knight expresses gratitude whenever it is due."
Eugeo laughed bashfully and scratched the back of his head. "W-Well, you're welcome," he said.
"Now then," Alice said, turning her attention to me. "Kindly relinquish my seat."
"Oh—Uh, sure."
I started to climb into the back of the sleigh, but Nicholas stopped me. "No need," he said. He forced out three ragged coughs, then croaked out, "We're nearly there."
Alice, Eugeo and I shared a concerned look. But before anyone could say anything, the sleigh emerged from the trees into another small clearing.
I gasped.
As a prequel to Sword Art Online, it only made sense that Sword Art: Origin used assets that were recycled from its predecessor. But this went beyond recycled assets. In the center of this all-too-familiar clearing was a tree that I had definitely seen before. For a moment, my whole world fell away. I couldn't hear the pounding of the reindeer's hooves. I couldn't feel the simulated cold the virtual snowflakes produced when they touched my artificial skin. All I could see was a massive fir tree with a faint blue glow radiating from its trunk and through its branches.
"Kirito…? Kirito!"
"Wha—huh…?"
"Kirito!" Eugeo said again. "What's gotten into you?"
"I… Nothing."
"'Nothing'? Your hands are shaking!"
"What…?"
I looked down. Sure enough, Eugeo was right. But how could that be? I'd never experienced that bodily effect in SA:O before.
I balled my hands into fists to stop the shaking, then looked to the back of the sleigh with a forced smile. "I guess the cold got to me since I haven't been moving around," I offered.
Eugeo frowned, and even Alice knitted her brow.
I was about to say something in the hopes of putting them at ease when Nicholas spoke. "We've arrived," he said as he climbed out of the sleigh with great effort. "Please…hand it to me."
"Right…" I reached into the back of the sleigh and retrieved the sack. I gave it to Nicholas and said, "Here you go. What do we need to do next?"
"You've done your part," Nicholas said. His voice wheezed, and he was speaking through stifled coughs. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done. But the rest is up to me."
I guess that's it, then…
Alice, Eugeo and I stood side by side as we watched Nicholas trudge toward the huge fir tree.
"Shouldn't we help him?" Eugeo said. "He's struggling just to walk…"
"There's not much we can do," I said. That was true enough, since the system prevented players from coming into direct contact with NPCs who weren't mobs.
"This does not sit well with me," Alice said. "When we met, the man was in perfect health."
"Yeah," I agreed. "Come to think of it, he seemed fine until that monster—"
I stopped mid-sentence when I saw the old man fall face first into the snow.
"Nicholas!" I shouted.
He pushed himself onto his hands and knees and turned to face us. Even from this distance, I could see the anguish in his expression. His eyes were bulging and his teeth were clenched. He clutched the center of his chest as he tried to say something. I couldn't hear what he said, and from this far away I couldn't read his lips, either.
"Help me!" Those were the only words I could imagine someone saying under these circumstances.
"Come on!" I said, but Alice and Eugeo had already started running toward Nicholas at the same time I had. "Nicholas!" I said when he reached him. "What's wrong? What do we—"
"No!" Nicholas croaked. He lifted his head to look into my eyes. "R…" he grunted before he had to stop to catch his breath.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Run…away!"
"What…?"
Nicholas doubled over so suddenly that I heard a cracking sound. With a series of pops and crunches, his back began to bulge and expand in a random, asymmetric pattern. His arms elongated, one after the other. He slammed his hands into the ground in turn, kicking up clouds of powdered snow, as he began to push himself to his feet. As he stood, he lifted his head to look at us. Before my eyes, his skin turned gray and sickly. His eyes became unfocused. They rolled around in his head independently of each other before settling on two completely different directions. When he finally got to his feet, he towered over us at nearly three times our size.
Four HP bars appeared over his head. The characters spelling his name glitched and distorted until something else displayed in his nametag: "Nicholas the Renegade."
"Kirito, what are you doing?" Alice shouted. "Get out of the way!"
But I couldn't. I was rooted to the spot, even as Nicholas lifted his hand to grasp a giant axe that was materializing above him.
Memories flooded my mind. So many all at once. It was hard to breathe, like I was drowning.
I couldn't move. Not even when the axe came swinging down toward me.
I felt something hit me in my side, but it wasn't the axe. The force carried me sideways, knocking me to the ground and out of the axe's trajectory, and then fell on top of me.
I blinked a few times and looked up. Eugeo was on his hands and knees above me. He screamed down at me. "What the hell has gotten into you!?" he demanded. He was about to say something else, but an unsettling sound stopped him in his tracks.
Nicholas's head tilted with a sickening creak as he lifted his axe to swing again. Eugeo and I both braced for impact, but Nicholas's axe met a golden blade with a loud clang.
"Get out of here, you two," Alice said. "I will cover your escape."
Eugeo and I scrambled to our feet, but we made no effort to get away. Instead, we drew our swords.
"Kirito," Eugeo said. "Are you—"
"I'm fine," I said. "Sorry about before, but I'm with you now."
Eugeo didn't look convinced. Nonetheless, he nodded. He turned his attention to Nicholas the Renegade and gripped his sword in both hands. I followed suit and lowered myself into a ready stance.
Alice glared at us. "I told you to—"
"Not happening," I said flatly.
"Kirito is right," Eugeo said with resolve. "We started this together, Alice. We won't let you finish it alone."
"Have it your way," Alice said. She tried unsuccessfully to hide her smile. She raised her sword above her head. "System Call!"
"Eugeo!" I called. "I'll knock him off balance, you get ready to trap him in place for Alice!"
"Right!" As I charged toward Nicholas the Renegade with my sword slung over my right shoulder, Eugeo also shouted, "System Call!"
My sword took on a green glow. As Nicholas's axe came careening down toward me, I quickly sidestepped. Then, I kicked off the ground and aimed my Sonic Leap skill at Nicholas's head. Nicholas the Renegade raised his axe to block, so my skill didn't quite connect with its intended target. However, it did distract him just long enough.
"Enhance Armament!" I heard Eugeo shout. As I landed, a layer of ice expanded in a several meter radius around the tip of Eugeo's sword. The ice crept up Nicholas's feet, rooting him to the spot. "Bloom! Blue Rose!" Icy tendrils sporting blue rose motifs appeared along the ice, and the first of Nicholas the Renegade's four HP bars slowly began to drain.
"Enhance Armament!" Alice echoed. A vortex of golden flower petals roared overhead and slammed into Nicholas's flank, taking a respectable chunk out of the boss's health.
"Haaah!" I roared as I unleashed my seven-hit Deadly Sins Sword Skill.
Nicholas the Renegade bellowed. He shook, straining himself, until the ice at his feet shattered as he freed himself.
"Fall back!" I shouted. I retreated several meters, and Alice and Eugeo followed suit.
Nicholas lifted his axe. He whirled it above his head in a circular motion. A cloud of dark mist enveloped him, then swelled until it was nearly covering the entire clearing. I couldn't see a thing.
"Kirito?" Eugeo called out.
"Over here," I answered. "Alice?"
"I'm here."
From the sound of his groaning and wailing, it wasn't too hard to pinpoint Nicholas's location in the cloud, either. Ground-shaking thuds told me he was moving. Not in my direction, though.
"Eugeo! Watch out!" I yelled.
I saw a stream of gold particles rush through the black. A wail of pain told me they hit their mark.
"Freeze him again, Eugeo!"
"Enhance Armament!"
I heard the ice take root and just had to trust that Eugeo had managed. I raced through the darkness toward Nicholas the Renegade's presumed location. Glowing gold flower petals rushed overhead in the same direction.
I swung my sword diagonally down from the right. I felt it pass through something, and Nicholas roared to assure me it was indeed him who I'd hit. I immediately swung up in the opposite direction, spun on my heel, and cut down from the top left. Gripping my sword with both hands, I swung down again to complete the aptly named Vertical Square, leaving behind a trail of blue light in the shape of a square.
Above me, a golden cloud of razor-sharp petals slammed into Nicholas the Renegade's torso once, then again. He howled with rage. Rather than search for the wielder of the flower petals, he lashed out at the closest target: me.
Nicholas lifted his axe, and I raised my sword to guard. But it was a feint. While I was focused on the axe, Nicholas swung the sack in his other hand. It hit me full in the torso, sending me flying until I collided with a tree trunk at the edge of the clearing.
At this distance, I was outside the cloud of black smoke. Inside, I could see flashes of blue light as Eugeo's sword repeatedly collided with Nicholas's axe. Trails of gold streaked through the black cloud as Alice's flower petals whirled in an elliptical pattern.
They seem to be managing, I thought as I sat in the snow, slumped against the tree trunk. I should stay out of it. The way things are, I'll just get in the way…
I could swear I heard something as I stared past the falling snow and into the black smog. "That's not like you at all," that something said. It was a girl's voice. One I knew all too well. One that had to be in my head, because to hear the real thing just wouldn't be possible. "The Kirito I know couldn't sit back and let his friends fight alone."
"You never really knew the real me, though," I muttered at the empty air.
There was no answer.
The black smog began to dissipate. At the center of the clearing, I could clearly see Nicholas the Renegade in all his grotesqueness. He had dropped his sack and was now clutching something else.
"Alice!" Eugeo shrieked.
Nicholas had his hand clenched around Alice's throat. Though, due to the size difference, he was actually trying to crush her entire torso.
My body began to move before I could even think.
Ainground was a cruel world. While not dangerous to players like me, Sword Art: Origin was a death game to the NPCs that called it home. When an AI was killed in this world, it didn't just respawn. Instead, a brand new NPC with new looks, new clothes, and a whole new personality was created and introduced in their place. As for the original, they would be deleted. Gone forever.
Alice and Eugeo had green cursors, same as me or any other player. However, they weren't players who'd logged into this world. The only bodies they had were made of ones and zeroes. In that respect, they were no different from an NPC. In that case, how did the Cardinal System view them? If they died, would it treat them as players and revive them at Black Iron Palace, or…
I wasn't about to find out the hard way. We'd never taken the time to add Alice to our party, so I couldn't see her HP bar. There was no telling how much time she had left.
Vorpal Strike was a charging skill, but it didn't have quite as much range as Rage Spike or Sonic Leap. So, as the crimson glow enveloped my sword, I first kicked off the ground as hard as I could, launching myself forward. At the apex of my jump, I unleashed the high-powered Sword Skill and shot forward with renewed speed, accompanied by the sound of a screeching jet engine. I buried my sword deep in Nicholas's chest, and he released his grip on Alice.
"Alice!" Eugeo said as he dropped to his knees beside her. "Are you—"
"I'm fine," she said. "Help Kiri—"
"No." Eugeo and Alice both startled at my interjection. "You two fall back and make sure you're in good health…" Nicholas the Renegade glared down at me. Lowering myself into a fighting position, I glared right back. "Until then, I can handle him."
Maybe it was something in my voice or the way I said it, but for some reason, neither Eugeo nor Alice argued with me. Instead, they got to their feet and made their way toward the treeline, leaving me alone in the clearing with Nicholas the Renegade.
"I beat you once," I said.
Before I could finish, Nicholas roared wildly and swung his axe down toward me. I hopped back, just out of reach. Then I stepped onto the poll of his axe to get in range and responded with Slant. The force tossed his head back, and he reeled from the shock.
We went back and forth, exchanging blows for a while. My experience dealing with him in that game meant that I had the upper hand, so any blow he landed always met my sword while my attacks hit their mark. Still, it wasn't enough. Facing him on my own, and without a special weapon like Alice's or Eugeo's, the damage I was doing wasn't even noticeable. If I had to guess at why, it was the Cardinal System had taken it upon itself to buff Nicholas's stats so that the fight wouldn't be too "boring."
It was inevitable that I would slip up at some point. I mistimed a Vertical that was meant to block one of Nicholas's attacks. That error resulted in my sword being knocked from my hand and sent flying past the treeline. If I went in after it, due to the nature of the Forest of Wandering, chances were slim I'd actually end up in the same location as it. In other words, it was gone for good.
"Dammit…" I growled, clenching my now empty fist.
Nicholas the Renegade lifted his axe with a subtle cackle. But then, I heard two voices call out in unison behind me. "Enhance Armament!" they shouted.
A trail of ice formed along the ground, missing me and heading straight for Nicholas. When it reached him, his feet froze over in an instant. In the next beat, a torrent of gold flower petals whirled overhead and collided with Nicholas's chin, sending him toppling over onto his back. I saw a status icon appear beside his HP bars. It indicated Nicholas was now suffering from the "Tumble" status ailment.
"Now's your chance!" I shouted. "Finish him off!" But when I turned to face Eugeo and Alice, they both shook their heads.
"We're low on healing items," Eugeo explained, "So we only had enough Life left for that last attack."
"But, then…"
Eugeo smiled, but his eyes were on fire. "It's up to you, Kirito. You're the only one who can defeat him now."
"I—"
"There's no time to explain," Eugeo said. "We don't have long before he recovers." Eugeo shoved his sword toward me, pommel first. I instinctively reached for it with my right hand. "Alice!" Eugeo said, looking across to the girl standing on my other side. She gazed at him hesitantly, but quickly held her sword to me. I reached across to the other sword with my left hand. Since Eugeo was on my left and Alice on my right, I had my arms crossed in front of me in order to grip their swords, and had each of them pointed outward. "Now…" Eugeo said. "You have to say—"
"I got it," I said. After hearing it so many times, I'd picked up on the voice commands for the weapons' special attacks. "System Call!" I shouted. Images of ice and swarming petals came to mind as I said, "Enhance Armament!"
Shards of jagged ice emerged from Eugeo's sword, reaching outward several meters away from me. Alice's golden sword split into a thousand tiny flower petals that swirled in a vortex at the hilt.
The Tumble effect disappeared from Nicholas the Renegade's status bar, and he began to get to his feet.
"Now!" I blurted.
"No!" Eugeo said. "In order to stop him here and now, it's not enough." He was right. After all the struggling we'd done, Nicholas still had two full HP bars left. Eugeo's and Alice's special moves combined wouldn't be enough to finish him off in one blow. "You'll need to use every ounce of power our swords can muster. Repeat this command…"
Eugeo placed his right hand over mine, gripping the sword with me. Alice followed suit and placed her left hand over mine. In tandem, the three of us shouted, "Release Recollection!"
The long spikes of ice jutting from Eugeo's blue sword shrunk and condensed until the blade was back to its original shape. However, a pure white hue and a cloud of vapor surrounding it told me that liquid nitrogen would feel like a nice, hot bath in comparison. The flower petals that had once been the golden sword's blade tightened their vortex until they were swarming so tightly and so quickly that it was impossible to see that they were still separate particles. It looked as though the sword still had its blade, glowing a brilliant gold, with the occasional streak of tiny petals orbiting around it before returning to their place in the formation.
Nicholas the Renegade glared down at us as he raised his axe to strike. Alice and Eugeo leaped back to get out of the way—my way, not his—and together they shouted, "Go, Kirito!"
I don't know what it was about this one Sword Skill that made me feel like I always had to call its name when I used it. It wasn't even the strongest skill in the Dual Blades skill tree. Maybe I felt there was some significance to it beyond its strength. Maybe I just thought the name sounded cool. Whatever the reason, as I crossed the two swords in my hands by my left side and the whirring sound effect kicked in, I couldn't help but shout, "Starburst Stream!"
First was a cut from the blue sword in my right hand, then a thrust from the gold one. I spun on my heel to cut twice from the same angle, and let the momentum carry me into a second spin to deliver another two simultaneous cuts. I swung the swords up over my shoulders in a circular motion to cut diagonally down in the shape of an "X," then traced the glowing red cut marks in Nicholas's torso in the opposite direction.
Nicholas couldn't get a move in, but he didn't need to. Eugeo once told me that the special characteristics of his weapon took a lot of focus in order to use. It seemed that in this world, that translated to an HP-draining effect whenever the sword's special move was used. That being said, I was currently using an even further strengthened version of that ability with not one but two of those special weapons. My health was depleting, and it was doing so rapidly. I needed to finish this skill, and soon.
Another "X" started the next series of blows in which I crossed my arms to slash twice, then spread my arms to cut outward before crossing them again. I then slashed from the right with the blue sword and spun to do it again. A series of high-speed slashes from both swords followed until only two moves remained.
With a roar, I thrust the blue sword in my right hand forward. A cluster of ice javelins sprouted from Nicholas's back opposite of where the sword buried itself in his chest. I pulled the sword out only to thrust again with the gold sword in my left hand. Once embedded in his flesh, the petals that made up the blade whirled and roared in a cyclone that passed through Nicholas's body in a brilliant display as they circulated around the spikes of ice.
With that, the sword skill was complete. I thanked the powers that be that Nicholas's HP was empty, because mine nearly was, too.
The swords in my hands returned to their original states as I fell to the ground, completely spent.
"Kirito!" Eugeo called. He raced to my side and dropped to his knees.
"I'm alright," I said. "Just need a pot or two and I'll be right as rain."
"Huh…?"
"Right…" I often forgot that Eugeo wasn't up to speed on his gaming lingo just yet. I reached into a pouch on my belt and produced a health potion, then downed it in two gulps. "See? Good as new."
"I must admit I'm surprised," Alice said as she approached us. "I never thought my Osmanthus Blade would allow anyone other than me to wield it like that, especially in its Releasing state."
"You two are both incredible," I said as I got to my feet and handed them their swords. "I don't know how you use those special moves all the time. It took a lot out of me."
Eugeo grinned. "That's because neither of us have ever tried doing it with two Divine Object-class weapons at once. Somehow, though, I knew you could do it."
As we celebrated our victory, I noticed something. Nicholas the Renegade was still here. Instead of bursting into colored fractals like every other defeated mob, he had remained. When I finally took notice of that, his body began to shrink. Slowly, he returned to the state he'd been in when we first found him with Alice.
"Oooh…" the poor old man groaned and rubbed his head.
"Nicholas?" I said, kneeling by his side. "Are you alright?"
"I am, young swordsman," he answered. "And I have you to thank for that." He lifted his head with effort and smiled. "That was quite the performance. You're quite the warrior."
"It was a group effort," I said. "I never would have pulled it off if my friends hadn't lent me their strength."
"Humility is a wonderful thing," Nicholas said through grunts as he struggled to get to his feet. "But there's no harm in accepting a little praise when you've earned it, young man."
"Let us help you," I said, changing the subject.
"No, no," he said, holding up his hand. "You've gone above and beyond what I asked of you already." Nicholas retrieved his sack from the ground and began to make his way toward the fir tree at the center of the clearing. He looked back at us, offering a smile that was, all things considered, quite lax. "I'll finish this."
Alice, Eugeo and I watched as Nicholas went to the tree and knelt at its roots. With his back to us, we couldn't see what he took out of the sack; what it was that was so important we had to go through all of this. What we did see, though, was the fir tree taking on a brilliant golden glow. It cast its light over the clearing and into the darkness between the trees in the forest. It was so bright and warm, one couldn't be blamed if they mistook it for the sun.
As the three of us stared in awe, Nicholas strode back toward us. He looked like a new man. No limp, no ragged breathing. Just a calm, strong stride. When he reached us, his eyes were full of pride and gratitude.
"You've done a tremendous service to Ainground tonight," Nicholas said. "Words are not nearly enough to thank you, but I'm afraid I have little else."
"Thanks beyond that are not necessary," Alice said, and Eugeo and I nodded in agreement.
"Let me return you to the Town of Beginnings. It's the very least I can do after all of this."
"That would be great," Eugeo said. "There were times when I thought Kirito was going to get us lost in that forest for sure."
"Wha…hey!"
Nicholas chuckled. "Well, let's be off, shall we?"
Alice, Eugeo and I started for Nicholas's sleigh, which was waiting just past the tree line. Nicholas tugged my sleeve, and I lingered back for a moment.
"Young man," Nicholas said. "You prevented a real calamity tonight, you know."
"It was nothing, really."
"That couldn't be further from the truth. If something like that should ever come to pass again…I hope you'll be there to stop me then, too."
Since Sword Art Online technically took place after Origin chronologically, I felt confident in saying, "Yeah…I will."
A few moments after that, Nicholas and I reached the sleigh. Eugeo and I climbed into the back while he and Alice took their places at the front.
As we settled in, Nicholas said, "Now that my business is taken care of, this trip should be a lot faster.
"Oh?" Eugeo said. "How's that?" But Nicholas answered only with a mischievous smirk.
He cracked the reins and the reindeer began to move. They ran into the clearing, bounding across the fresh powder to the trees on the other side. They gradually picked up speed until they were at a full sprint.
"Isn't this a little too fast…?" Eugeo asked. "How will you be able to maneuver through the trees at this speed?" Nicholas didn't answer. "Sir…? Sir!?" Eugeo gripped my sleeve as we barreled toward the trees. I had a pretty good idea where this was going, though, so I didn't panic. Eugeo, on the other hand, screamed as we reached the other end of the clearing.
"Yah!" Nicholas shouted, cracking the reins again. The two reindeer at the front of the sleigh leaped into the air. They didn't come back down. The two behind them followed suit, then the next to, and then the last pair was galloping through the air. Naturally, the sleigh followed, and we were soon soaring across the treetops.
"What…?" Eugeo breathed. He leaned over the edge to peer downward. I could imagine the twisting in his gut that made him suddenly drop back to his seat. But only moments later, he was looking over the edge again.
"First time on a flying sleigh?" I jeered.
"This is…I don't even have the words!" Eugeo finally got comfortable leaning over the edge and wouldn't come back down. His hair danced wildly in the wind as he pointed to this thing or that thing, intermittently saying, "Look how fast we're going!"
Alice was oddly quiet, so I said, "How are you doing, Alice?"
"I'd feel much safer on the back of a dragon," she said without turning to face me.
Unable to see her expression, I couldn't tell if she was enjoying herself at all. Maybe she's afraid of heights? I wondered.
Flying over it like this, I realized how big Ainground really was. When you explored it in chunks and got around mostly by teleportation, it felt a lot smaller. The reality was that Ainground was mind-blowingly massive. Even this high up, all I could really see was the Forest of Wandering and just the edges of the surrounding areas. Just on the horizon, I could see the festively-lit Town of Beginnings, where Asuna and the others were waiting for us to come back.
It took a long while for us to reach the Town of Beginnings. Maybe it felt longer because I was left alone with my thoughts while Eugeo was enjoying the view.
"Alright," Nicholas said as we circled over the Teleport Gate Plaza. "There's no room to land in the city, but there's a way to get down without landing."
"What!?" Eugeo shrieked.
"Oh—ho, ho ho!" Nicholas laughed from deep within his belly. "Not like that, child! Fear not."
"O-Oh…Alright."
"Just place your finger beside your nose like this," he said, demonstrating the action, "and give a little nod."
"What?" I said. "Do we really have to do that?"
"What's the problem?" Alice asked. "I'm intrigued to learn about such a wordless Sacred Art. Besides, the sooner we get off this thing, the better." Alice performed the action Nicholas described. The same visual effect that plays when one uses the Teleport Gate surrounded her, and she disappeared from the sleigh.
"I'll head down next," Eugeo said. "Thank you for the ride, Sir! That was a lot of fun!"
"Think nothing of it, my boy."
Eugeo placed his finger beside his nose and nodded. It looked about as ridiculous as I thought it would. Then, he disappeared from the sleigh.
"Alright, young man," Nicholas said. "You be on your way now. Your friends are waiting for you."
"How did you know that?" I asked incredulously.
"Oh, just a guess," Nicholas said with a sly smile. "I have a feeling someone like you has a lot of people counting on him."
I couldn't tell if this AI was particularly perceptive, or if the Cardinal System was prying into my thoughts and feeding him information.
"Yeah…" That was all I could say.
"Don't keep them waiting too long."
"Right…" Reluctantly, I performed the gesture that Nicholas taught us, and the next thing I knew I was standing on the Teleport Gate.
"Kirito!" Eugeo said as he and Alice approached the Gate. "There you are. What took you so long?"
"Sorry for the wait," I said. "Eugeo, you know the way to the inn, right?"
"Of course."
"Why don't you and Alice head there before me?" Turning to Alice, I said, "I mean—if you want to join us, that is."
"I still have much to learn about this world," she said. "If you'll indulge me in some questions, I'll attend your gathering."
"Perfect," I said. "We have friends who can teach you everything you could want to know about Ainground."
"Very well."
"But, Kirito…" Eugeo eyed me with concern. "Don't you want to come back with us?"
"You go on ahead. I just have to take care of something."
"Alright…"
I waved goodbye to Eugeo and Alice as they set off for Market Street, then I wandered off in the opposite direction. I passed by shops, restaurants, and houses, inns, and countless people walking arm-in-arm. All the while, snow fluttered down from the sky, powdering everything and everyone.
How am I going to tell him?
I'd made a promise, and there was no going back now. I had to tell Eugeo what happened all those years ago in Aincrad. But what would he think? Worst case scenario, he wouldn't want to have anything more to do with me. But if that were the case, so be it. He'd come to trust me, even rely on me in the time since we'd met. He deserved to know the truth.
It was maybe a half an hour before I arrived at the inn whose first floor we'd rented out for our party. All of my usual friends were there. Asuna, Yui, Lisbeth, and Silica were still putting a few ornaments on a large tree at the center of the room. Sinon, Yuuki, and Strea were setting the huge table with plates and silverware. Agil was setting platters of food while Klein talked his ear off. Leafa and Argo were helping Premiere make snowflake decorations out of paper. Kizmel was helping Rain arrange chairs around the table, and even Seven had made time to join us. Of course, Eugeo and Alice were there, too.
"Alice," I heard Asuna say, "are you sure you don't want to take your armor off and relax?"
"I would prefer to keep it on."
"But look!" Silica chimed. "We have an extra Santa outfit! You could match with all of us!"
"That outfit would hardly suit an Integrity Knight…"
"Oh!" Eugeo waved, gesturing for me to join them by the tree. "Kirito!"
I made my way toward them. With a brief nod to Asuna and the others, I asked Eugeo, "Can we talk?"
"Huh? Of course."
I led Eugeo to the balcony connected to the inn's foyer. Since all the festivities were happening inside, we were the only two people around.
"What's bothering you?" Eugeo asked.
"Well, I did promise I'd tell you."
"Oh…!" Eugeo gazed at me, worry in his eyes. "Kirito…you don't need to do this if you'd rather not. I just…" He trailed off, lowering his eyes.
I went to the railing and leaned on it, looking out at the frozen lake in the distance. "It's something you should know," I said without looking his way.
So I told him. I told him about Aincrad. About a guild called the Moonlit Black Cats. About three boys named Keita, Sasamaru, Ducker, and Tetsuo, and about a girl named Sachi. I told him how I misled them. I told him how they trusted me, and I told him that none of them would ever be able to enjoy this time of year with their friends and family ever again. I told him I was the reason why.
When my long story was over, I braced myself for shouting, screaming, and cursing as I turned to face Eugeo. But I didn't get any of that.
His eyes were glossed over and open so wide that I could see the festive lights decorating the inn reflected in them. Tears were spilling over, rolling down his cheeks and falling to the ground. He was biting his lip and clenching his fists, trying not to sob.
"K…Kirito…" Eugeo choked out. "All this time…carrying that…all by yourself…"
"A few people know," I said. "Talking about it never gets any easier."
Eugeo didn't answer.
"If you don't want anything to do with me anymore, I—"
Eugeo ran into me so hard he almost knocked the wind out of me. He put his arms around my shoulders and squeezed so hard I'm sure I would have lost some HP if we weren't in a safe zone.
"As if I could ever want something like that!" Eugeo wailed. His shoulders quaked as he kept struggling to suppress his sobs. "You're always like this," he said.
"Sorry," I muttered.
"All this time I knew there was something weighing on you. Something you were trying to bear on your own, like you always do. But I never imagined…"
Eugeo continued to cry, clinging to me the whole time. I would have thought that by this point I'd have gotten used to the pain, but something about his suffering on my behalf brought it all back again. I stood there quietly, not even capable of returning his embrace, as the tears began to fall.
. . .
"Cheers!" everyone shouted in tandem as we raised our glasses.
As the din died down, Asuna said, "Would anyone like to say a few words?"
"Actually…" Eugeo rose from his seat. He gazed toward Asuna and me with those impossibly earnest blue eyes. "I have something to say, if it's alright."
"Of course!" Asuna chimed.
"Kirito," he said, smiling warmly. "Would you mind standing up?" I did as he requested. "I feel so honored that all of you have allowed me to share in the traditions of this holiday with you. As an outsider to this world, I still don't quite get it, so forgive me if I'm completely off here…" He closed his eyes and drew in a breath before he continued. "I've learned from all of you that this time of year is for appreciating the ones you love. But…I think there's another side to that which isn't often considered." Eugeo's eyes fell on me again. "Kirito…you're always trying to take everything on by yourself. I'm sure that's because you're thinking about how it might hurt everyone if they knew you were suffering. But…you deserve to think about yourself every once in a while. You deserve to know how much of an impact you've had on everyone's lives, and you deserve to know that for as much as you protect us, we want to protect you, too." He smiled, and after a pause he said, "Honestly, I don't think I'd even be here if it wasn't for you—and I don't just mean here, in this room." He turned his gaze to the smiling faces gathered around the long table. "…And I think I'm not the only person here who thinks that way."
Every single person seated at the table—myself excluded—raised their glass and cheered.
"You guys…" I started. I was about to say that I didn't deserve it. That they all had the wrong impression of me. That I could never be the person they thought I was. But then, I felt a reassuring hand on my shoulder. I turned and was met by Asuna's loving gaze, and just like that the pain was gone. I picked up my glass and managed a real smile, and I said, "Thanks."
After one more loud cheer and an extremely embarrassing "To Kirito!" Asuna stood up. "Okay!" she said. "There's just one thing left to do before we can eat."
"Tell me it's not another warm-'n'-fuzzy speech about how awesome Ki-boy is," Argo said through a snide smirk. "Any more o' this an' you kiddies'll have me pukin' rainbows."
"No," Asuna said. "We still have to put the star on the tree."
"Ooh!" Seven chimed, raising her hand like a grade schooler. "I wanna do it!"
"Sorry, Seven," Asuna said, "but we already decided Silica and Premiere would do it together.
"Aww…"
"They're gonna need a little help, though." Asuna's eyes fell on me, then on Eugeo.
"Sure," I said.
"No problem!" said Eugeo.
Eugeo and I positioned ourselves by the base of the tree on opposite sides and knelt down. Silica climbed onto my shoulders, and Premiere got on Eugeo's. We stood up, and once the girls were ready, Asuna picked up the star from the table. Instead of handing it up, though, she presented it with two hands to Alice.
"You're a little closer," Asuna said with a smile that put the tree and all its gleaming ornaments to shame. "Would you mind handing this to them?"
"Oh…" Alice said, carefully and almost hesitantly taking the star from her. "Of course."
Alice lifted the star with both hands. It seemed to catch all the lights in the foyer, and it shone like the fir tree at the center of the forest had when she and Eugeo and I had completed our quest. Silica and Premiere gingerly took the star, thanking Alice in unison. They smiled at each other, then at the rest of us. Together, they lowered it onto the top of the tree, completing a picture-perfect snapshot of Christmas.
. . .
