Sword Art Online Alicization Alternative: War of Underworld
Chapter 6: Battle of the Knights
Integrity Knights were once pawns to the Administrator. They are just shells who don't remember those they love. To protect the order of the Aniom Church, they once punished those who break the Taboo index but it's that love, of the ones in the part, to the people now… that gives them strength.
Even from afar on both sides, the gate started to form more cracks in it. The cracks spread and glowed an eerie purple, illuminating the gorge. The excitement of dark forces was more smiles, glees, and cheers. The Goblins, Giants (who roared), the Orcs looked claimed, their leader Liplain stayed collective, The ogres whose leader held his arms waiting, The Pugilists' Leader Isekahn punched his fists together, ready to fight, The Dark Mage Leader D.I.L smirked (her composure despite almost losing her life strong), Vassago was gearing for a fight with the Dark Knights; (albeit disappointed he wasn't made leader, but he still was itching to kill), and lastly, Gabriel, who stood on his transportation, waiting with aboard but eager face. Alice was there, the 'Priestess of Light' as he called her. The lambs to the slaughter will fight for him, but he will claim Alice, finally.
On the other side, the Human Guardian Army was also ready for the fight of their lives too. Protector of the First Unit, Right Flank, Deusolbert Synthesis Seven stood with his battalion, his hand gripping his Bow, Conflagrant Flame Bow. Protector of the first Unit, center, Eugeo Synthesis Thirty-Two stood with Fanatio Synthesis Two, both their hands to their blades: Eugeo's Golden Anima Blade and Fanatio's Heaven Piercing Sword. Behind them, Fanatio's Four Oscillation Blades stood them as well, all four covered by their helmets. Protector of the First Unit, Left Flank, Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-two stood with his battalion, gipping tightly his whip, the Frost Scale Whip, his promise to his mentor Alice and a boy he calls a friend, Eugeo. Protector of the Second Unit, Right Flank, the Silent Shetya Synthesis Twelve stood with her battalion, silent, and firm as the rumors were true. Protector of the Second Unit left flank, the young knight Renly Synthesis Twenty-Seven wasn't like the other knights who stood confident and brave, he looked scared and terrified. Standing with the Commander, Edith Synthesis ten stood with her battalion, her hand grabbed to her Dark Slash Blade, an eager smile on her face. Protector of the Second unit, Center, the Commander and Leader of the Knights Bercouli Synthesis One held his sword, the Time Splitting Sword pointed downwards to the ground, looking serious. On the far back of the Human Guardian Army, Alice Synthesis Thirty was on her Dragon Amayori watching the gate readying to break open from afar. The letters 'Final Stress Test' appeared in fiery letters, the shock on the soldiers' faces. Behind them, Ronye and Tiese of the Human Supply Army stood with the wheelchair-bound Kirito, as they saw the gate ready to go. Knowing once the fighting starts to get to the supply wagons, Tiese gives one last word to the boy she loves.
"You better come back to me... Eugeo-senpai…"
At that moment, there was a flash of light that shone all the way, to the heavens, and the top of the Eastern Gate began to crumble.
November 7th, 380 HE, the War of Underworld had begun...
"Whoa…" It was difficult for Vassago Casals to contain his sense of wonder as he leaned over the railing of the command vehicle, "Final Stress Test, huh? This should put Hollywood movies to shame. We would be billionaires in no time if we start a VFX studio."
Despite having his eyes glued to the great spectacle in the distance, Gabriel Miller coolly pointed out upon hearing that, "Unfortunately, this site cannot be recorded onto any medium. It's not polygons that form everything in this world. It's a grand show visible only to those connected to the STL."
"Hey bro, why did you let those two off the hook, Shasta and Lipia? You could have killed them easily, even Shasta with your powers, but let him have a fighting chance?" Vassago asked.
Gabriel only kept a calm cold expression. "Just curious about what they'll do. Won't matter too much, they have to follow their Emperor, if it means they die to achieve my goal, it won't be a pang of guilt to me."
Vassago gave a light chuckle at his leader, "You are turning into quite the villain."
Half of the Great East Gate had already crumbled into countless pieces of rubble. Though the noise and tremors were tremendous, the massive rocks all melted into light right before they crashed into the ground. Judging from that, it seemed the remains of the gate would not end up as a barricade. Gabriel stood from the throne installed on the command vehicle's roof with his jet-black fur mantle aflutter before walking towards a large skull set up by one of the Ten Lords of the land of darkness, the chief of the Dark Arts Users' Guild, D.I.L.
The skull placed on a small table was an artifact capable of transmitting sound. She said that by speaking into this master skull, his voice would be sent to the slave skulls in the generals' possession. Though inferior to the Stryker Command Vehicle's multi-channel transmission system, it was far more effective than sending an army of messengers for every little command.
Looking down into the skull's hollow eye sockets, Gabriel let out a somber voice suited to his role as the Dark Empire's emperor and Vecta the god of darkness».
"Warriors of our land of darkness! The time you have awaited hath arrived! Kill all who live! Pillage all without hesitation! Trample upon them all!"
War cries burst forth from across the battle formations, their volume exceeding the Great Gate's collapse. The countless machetes and pikes thrust upwards shone in the hue of blood under the setting sun. Shasta and Lipia (Lipia still the guilt of living strong), kept their exposure and the Dark Knight Commander Shasta commanded the Dark Knight under their orders to stay in position.
The first batch of the Dark Territory army comprised five thousand mountain goblins, five thousand plains goblins, two thousand orcs, and a thousand giants for a total of thirteen thousand units. He would first have them lead the charge and observe the enemy army's reaction. Swiftly swinging his raised right hand down in front, Gabriel gave his first command as a player in this war game.
"First Regiment—begin the assault!"
The one who assumed command over the five thousand mountain goblins on the right flank of the goblin force making up the first group of the fifty thousand-strong invading armies was its new chief named Kosogi. He was one of the seven sons of the previous chief, Hagashi, who incidentally died through the Dark General Shasta's rebellion drama.
Hagashi was extolled as the cruelest and greedy even among the past chiefs. Not only did Kosogi inherit a strong tendency for that disposition, but he also only concealed a high intelligence unbecoming of goblins under his hideous face. Having reached twenty this year, Kosogi had been pondering over why the goblins were regarded as the worst among the five races of the land of darkness—the humans, the giants, the ogres, the orcs, and the goblins—for over five years.
Certainly, the goblins were the smallest among the five races and the weakest physically too. However, they once held numbers to compensate for that disadvantage and in fact, they conducted battles against the orcs and humans on equal terms during the ancient age of blood and iron. When the races eventually ended their wars, exhausted, the goblin chief, too, gained a seat in the Ten Lords Assembly, the highest aggregation in the land of darkness, upon the conclusion of the five races' peace treaty. However, the treaty was in no way fair. Both the mountain and plains goblins were given no more than the withered wastelands in the north as their dominion and there was nowhere near enough agriculture or game to preserve the Life of a whole race; their children constantly starved, and their elderly rapidly died.
In short, they were done in by the chiefs of the other races. To curb the goblins' greatest strength, their numbers, they forced upon them a vast but infertile land. As such, the goblins had to exhaust all ends to even survive to this current day and could not further their civilization. Having maintained training institutions for their children to practice like the black iums was impossible; they were instead sent down rivers on boats to reduce the mouths to feed. All while aware of the treatment their children would receive in the lands of the other races when they arrive.
If only they had fertile land and sufficient resources, their soldiers would now hold not these machetes and plate armor cast from crude iron but tempered steel equipment. They would have amassed Life from ample food supplies and studied sword techniques and tactics. They might have even acquired those dark arts monopolized by the black iums eventually.
If they had, no one would claim the goblins to be an inferior race.
Kosugi's deceased father, Hagashi, was constantly haunted by his anger and jealousy towards the black iums, but he lacked the brains to think about what he could do about it. He possessed wisdom enough only to hope to stay within Emperor Vector's thoughts through military exploits in this great war.
What foolishness. How could they hope to distinguish themselves in battle? That was obvious with a look at the army's arrangement.
It was suggested to the emperor by the chief of the Dark Arts Users' Guild. That woman must have forced the honor as the shock troops» upon the two goblin races to use and dispose of them from the start. The goblins would charge in as the vanguards and be promptly cut down by those devils of legend, the Human Empire's integrity knights before incinerated by her as collateral damage from the safe rear to rob them of their merits. How could he let her?
However, that, in no way, meant that they could disobey their orders. The descended Emperor Vecta went up against the Dark Knight Commander Shasta and not even a scratch of him, yet the Dark Knight showed power which instantly annihilated the two goblin chiefs and the head of the Assassins' Guild. The emperor held absolute strength and the law in the land of darkness decreed that the weak shall obey the strong. But Shasta, how did he resist the emperor, was it the order to attack him?
However, that black ium female was different. Kosogi was now one of the ten lords, on equal footing as her. He had no duty to obediently abide by her malicious schemes. The order given to the goblins was incredibly simple. They would penetrate in with a charge as the vanguard and annihilate the enemy army. That was all. There was nothing about maintaining the warfront until the flames from the art users poured in from behind. They had the allowance to outwit that woman.
Kosogi secretly passed down a directive to his trusted commanding officers right before the Great Gate crumbled. The moment the slave skull given to him clicked into movement and delivered the assault order from the emperor, he stuck his hand under his armor and pulled out a small ball he prepared prior. His commanding officer ought to be doing the same at that time too. The clump of rocks that was once the Great East Gate crumbled completely with a roar and vanished as light. He spotted multiple watchfires and the glint of dazzling weapons and armor further into the valley that opened straight on.
That was the white iums' defense army. Beyond them landed sufficiently filled with abundance, endless resources, and manpower, enough for the mountain goblins to regain their age of glory. How could he become some discarded stone? He shall have the plains goblins, cursed with a chief without brains yet again, and the orcs, who were even stupider, play that role. Kosogi gripped the ball firmly within his left hand and thrust up the thick mountain knife in his right as he screamed in a deep voice.
"All of you, stick together and come with me! —Chargeeeee!"
"...First Unit, draw your swords and prepare to engage! Ascetics, prepare your healing arts and incantations!" Fanatio Synthesis Two's proud voice pierced through the twilight, in her role as the integrity knight serving as the deputy head for the Human Empire Defense Army.
Jyariin! The chorus of swords slipping from their scabbards rang through the valley. Their watch fires, whose numbers were suppressed, imbued their steel blades with a red gleam.
A thunderous noise finally approached from beyond the collapsed Great East Gate with the ground practically rumbling from it.
"Eugeo, stay close to me, I've known of your other sword, so I'm sure that new one might come in handy from a distance," she ordered.
"Yes, ma'am." Eugeo nodded, gripping The Golden Anima Blade's grip, and held it in a fighting position.
'Lady Fanatio does feel different, not just the mood of her, something else changed.' Alice Zuberg pointed out, the young childhood friend feeling things have changed Fanatio since Kirito's fight with her.
"Yeah, it's like there's the warmth with her. Although, I wonder what happened to her to be more feminine and wearing makeup?" Eugeo asked.
"Maybe it's love?" Alice Zuberg suggested, only for Eugeo to be flabbergasted.
"You-You're kidding right?" he asked. Alice Zuberg merely giggled childishly in Eugeo's head.
Quick Goblin footsteps. Large Orc strides. The booming hammer of giant feet. And atop this, mixed in and overlapped atop their war cries. The howl of the massive beast known as war yet unknown to all humans. It took everything they had for the mere three hundred guards lined up in defensive lines two hundred mel from the Great Gate to stand their ground. It would not have been strange for their files to collapse before even crossing swords once and to scatter in confusion. This was the first experience all of those guards had in a battle with their lives at stake, let alone with war.
"I'm sure you are curious who she's in love with… Well, who does Lady Fanatio seem to care a lot for?" Alice Zuberg asked.
The knights stood on this battleground, trusting in their one last belief. Ironically enough, it was one emotion that should have been destroyed through the Synthesis Ritual once performed on them.
Deusolbert Synthesis Seven awaited the enemy army with his chest boldly puffed up while gently stroking the aged ring fitted on the ring finger of his left hand, holding onto the Conflagrant Flame Bow, with his right-hand fingers. Ranking among the oldest integrity knights, he had protected the order in the Human Empire's northern region for over a hundred years. He drove away invaders from the Dark Territory in their attempts to cross the mountain range at the edge, exterminated large magical beasts within his base of operations, and occasionally took in criminals who committed taboos. He had ceased thinking about the reasons for his responsibilities since long ago. Believing without a doubt that he was a knight summoned from the Celestial World, he held not even a drop of interest in the activities of the humans living on the surface.
What confused Deusolbert at times were those mysterious dreams that would visit him at daybreak without fail. A small hand so pale it seemed see-through. The light shining from a simple silver ring on its ring finger. That hand would stroke his hair, touch his cheeks, and softly shake his shoulders. He would hear a gentle whisper.
'Wake up, dear. It's morning…'
Deusolbert told no one about those dreams. He thought the Chief Elder would erase them with his arts upon hearing of them. He did not want to lose those dreams. The ring shining on that small hand in his dreams had the same design as the one he had on his left ring finger since he woke up as a knight. Were those memories from the Celestial World? If he fulfilled his mission as a knight in this lower realm and gained permission to return above, could he meet with the owner of that hand and voice once more?
'You have faint memories, of someone?" Eugeo's voice in his head, during the two weeks he was present at the Cathedral, the two would work together.
"I'm not sure of the memory, but it's faint, I remember after I fought with you and Kirito, it was someone calling for me… But I'm sure who it was," Deusolbert explained, his hand to his bow.
"I see. Then I'm sure, they are long gone now. Her Excellency, using her arts to create you would mean your time has slowed down those years passed for you. So that faint memory, they're gone," Eugeo explained, looked crestfallen.
"And it means I never meet that familiar face again, they're gone?" he asked, his tone serious but gruff.
"Yes. But that memory, that one thing that her Excellency took, let that be your strength, that normal life, you had it," Eugeo replied before looking onwards, "There was time, well it was not that long ago, I hated what happened to Alice, that I almost took my sword and killed you. But I know now, you all, lost something important, just I did," and gripped his Blue Rose Sword, "But, you and I, are human, and we will keep this world safe from the dark force, no matter what."
"Hmmm, I see… Eugeo, I'll ask more another time, let's get moving," Deusolbert said.
Even talking to Eugeo, Deusolbert had a lot of questions about his past, that faint memory still faints in his head.
However, something happened during that severe shock sent throughout the Central Cathedral half a year ago. Deusolbert accurately seized with fought with Eugeo and Kirito against the church, lost despite resorting to his armament full control art. The black-haired youth, who broke through the Conflagrant Flame Bow with a sword technique he witnessed for the first time, spoke of something he found hard to believe. The integrity knights were not summoned from the Celestial World. They were mere common folk born in the Human Empire, trained to become knights with their memories sealed.
"The Administrator may take you from lives, your families, but it doesn't mean you are still her puppets," Eugeo added once again, ``Those lost in the past aren't gone, they still are a part of us. I won't forget those I met, and I thank Kirito… for everything, now I want to do my part, and I promise to make up our trouble,"
"Even after everything, was fighting her Excellency worth it?" Deusolbert asked him.
The highest minister, Administrator, the supreme good, the absolute order, and personification of perfect justice could not be involved in deceiving all the knights. However, those youths repelled Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio, Knight Commander Bercouli, and Chief Elder Chudelkin reached the top floor of the Central Cathedral and defeated even Administrator herself. A party of mere rebels could not hold such might in their swords. He frankly knew from the start, ever since he first fought them. Their straight sword strokes possessed not even a trace of falsehood or deception.
That then meant the owner of that small hand in his dreams, too, was not from the Celestial World but a human born on the surface. Deusolbert did something for the first time since he became a knight the moment, he realized that truth. He embraced the ring on his left hand to his chest as tears flowed from his two eyes. Unlike the integrity knights, the lives of the people in the Human Empire were extinguished within seventy years at most. In other words, Deusolbert understood he would never meet again the one who called him, "dear".
Yet still, he responded to Knight Commander Bercouli's plea and advanced onto where the decisive battle would take place. To protect the world where he lived with the owner of that small hand, regardless of how far in the past it was. That was to say, what gave Integrity Knight Deusolbert Synthesis Seven the strength to stand his ground without budging before the great force from the land of darkness was the strength from that one emotion, he should have gotten rid of… love.
And unknown to him, Knight Fanatio and Knight Eldrie, too, stood there to fight alongside him for their respective loved ones. Even their now newly addition Eugeo, he's fighting for his comrade, Alice, and those who wait for him, the only one who has a family to return to, unlike them.
Deusolbert separated his right hand from the ring and grasped four steel arrows at once from the gigantic quiver set on the ground by his side. He arranged them carefully onto his divine instrument, the Conflagrant Flame Bow, that he wielded horizontally.
He was nearly done with the incantation for his armament full control art. Fanatio and Eldrie would still restrain from doing so, but Deusolbert's secret technique could not display its might when it became a ruckus. Even Eugeo's new sword, while new, no one knew what power it had, but it was a reason Fanatio had the young man fight alongside her. With the resolve to expend half of his beloved bow's Life, the integrity knight sucked in a deep breath and uttered the final phrase.
"Enhance armament!"
Crimson. The humongous flames from the great copper bow dyed the invaders who reached two hundred mel away in a brilliant red. The four arrows nocked on the bowstring shone too, immersed within deep crimson flames.
"I am Integrity Knight Deusolbert Synthesis Seven! All who stand before me, you shall burn away, leaving not even your bones!"
Though it did not remain within his memories, he once named himself similarly when taking in a single girl from a small village in the northern region eight years ago. However, with his thick steel mask now removed, his voice rang out, accentuated and sonorous. The knight's fingers released the taut bowstring drawn to its limit.
Zudoo!
Four streaks of flames shot forth in a radial formation with that roar.
The first victims of what would be later known as the War of the Underworld were the plains goblin soldiers who charged in from the left side of the valley. The new chief of the plain's goblins, Shibori, had neither wisdom nor schemes on the level of the mountain goblins' new chief, Kosogi, and was a youth who could boast only about his constitution and strength. As such, he went up against an integrity knight, possessing overwhelming might even when alone, unprepared, and simply ordered his five thousand soldiers into a tactless charge.
Deusolbert's four flame arrows pierced into the tightly packed plains goblin army from the front, achieving their maximum potential. A whole forty-two infantry goblins were instantly incinerated in that first strike and sent the surrounding soldiers into fine disarray. However, as their charge was undisciplined from the very start, most of the machete-wielding soldiers thirsting for blood tread over their torched kindred and continued their disordered rush, pushing their faltering comrades aside.
Deusolbert nocked another four arrows onto his Conflagrant Flame Bow in response. Instead of spreading out his range, he shot them while still bundled up. The grand, conflagrant spear impacted upon the direct middle of their ranks and brought forth a tremendous explosion. Many soldiers were blown away amidst the scattered shrill screams. The casualties exceeded fifty, but still, the plains goblins charged on.
Naturally, they would. Two thousand orcs and a thousand giants followed the two goblin races who kept pace with each other and stopping would be equivalent to getting stomped upon by them, several times their size, moments after. While the plains goblins lacked a tangible plan like the new chief of the mountain goblins, Kosogi, they held anger and resentment against the scorn and oppression they faced as the weakest race. And that emotion was redirected towards their hatred towards the people of the Human Empire, who would eventually become slaves under them, named white iums in their tongue.
Raising the brusque battle ax he held with his two arms, far more muscular than the average goblin, Chief Shibori let out a savage scream, "All of you! Kill that archer first! Surround him, cut him, smash him!"
"Orarara—! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
That battle cry resounded throughout the five thousand soldiers.
Deusolbert took on the imposing anger and bloodthirst without a word as he let loose his third volley of fire arrows. The number of goblins charred to cinders exceeded fifty yet again, but the enemy forces charged on. He stored away the Conflagrant Flame Bow's flames as the distance between them reached fifty mel and switched over to normal shooting. Taking steel arrows out from the quiver at a ferocious pace, he fired blindly without any target. Each arrow pierced through three goblins, or two at the very minimum. Guards ran forward from Deusolbert's sides with their swords drawn.
"Protect Master Knight! Don't let their blades reach him!"
The one who yelled that was a young guard commander still at the age of twenty or so. He put the large, two-handed sword, with which he had gone through intensive training, before himself. However, its edge trembled, just a little. Deusolbert thought to ask them to retreat and to not over-extend. He held no confidence that the young guards could endure a real battle awash with blood yet, in spirit, in technique, and body, despite experiencing the knights' strict guidance. However, he sucked his breath in before giving a deep shout instead.
"My apologies. I'll leave the left and right to you."
"Leave it to us!" The guard commander showed a distinct grin.
Seconds passed. And the shrill noise made when the plains goblin soldiers' machetes collided with the longswords of the intercepting guards rang out for the first time.
'Eugeo, you said that the ones in my memories are gone, and you're right, but as you said, they are still a part of me. The one that called me dear, they're gone, but I'm still standing. Same with you, stand and fight your heart with all the Life within you, Eugeo Synthesis 32,' Deusolbert thought with a small smile.
Several seconds before that. In the middle of the gorge, Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio Synthesis Two and Eugeo Synthesis 32 was awaiting the enemy army in a posture that could be considered only odd by the common knowledge in this world.
Fanatio was standing with her feet far apart and the left of her body forward. Her right hand, aligned to her shoulder's height, was gripping tightly onto the hilt of her divine instrument, the Heaven Piercing Sword. However, her sword was held horizontally in a reverse grip with its bottom end supported by her spaulder. Eugeo stood as close but apart from the Deputy Knight, making sure he still held his Gold Anima Blade's grip rightly.
Meanwhile, her left hand was stretched out forward, her palm supporting the Heaven Piercing Sword's blade. If Gabriel or Vassago were to witness this scene, they would come to the same thought. Simply said, she was like a sniper with a rifle at the ready.
That could be said to be true in a sense. Fanatio drew the rushing enemy army in for as long as possible while scouting out the most effective point. Though Deusolbert's Conflagrant Flame Bow could adjust the broadness of its arrow firing, the Heaven Piercing Sword could only shoot a single narrow beam of light. As such, naïvely firing it into the massive enemy army would hardly do much. She should aim for the commander somewhere within the enemy army… any of the Dark Empire's Ten Lords.
The Dark Territory led its forces through power and fear. The average soldiers pledged absolute obedience towards their commanders, and they would fight until their end as ordered regardless of any development. But turning that around, meant they would lose all leadership with the defeat of their commander.
'We, too, were once so.'
Fanatio embraced that intense, fleeting thought. The news that the highest minister, Administrator, had passed away broke down the Order of the Integrity Knights in a single night. It was Bercouli's words that allowed the knights at the peak of chaos to regain themselves.
'Was our mission, our purpose to live, to obey the highest minister and chief elder's orders?'
'No. We live to protect those living in the Human Empire.'
'It's long as we have the intent to protect, we will remain, knights, until we perish.'
Not all the integrity knights had understood and abided by the knight commander. The knights assembled on this battlefield numbered less than twenty. However, they all held the will to fight until the end even if they alone remained. The same went for the five thousand guards who hastened here, this place of death. That was the decisive difference between the Dark Territory forces and them.
Fanatio brought her bare face, stripped from its silver mask, towards her cherished sword's guard and caught firmly onto the enemy army with her widened eyes. The goblin unit charging in as the ground rumbled was already narrowing the distance between them to a hundred mel. Deusolbert had started his assault from her right with his armament full control art and explosives flames lit up the twilight in red twice or thrice. It was in that brief radiance… That Fanatio finally found her target.
Huge shadows in the middle chased after the goblin forces in the advance party as though urging them on. They were the giants, boasting bodies several times the size of humans. The one leading them had a tremendous frame a head taller than the rest; he was unmistakably Sigrosig, one of the Ten Lords, a chief she had caught sight of once before. The giants were a proud, or haughty, race. They measured superiority based only on the size of their bodies, and it seemed that inside, they looked down even on the true rulers of the land of darkness, the dark-skinned humans. That meant taking down the tribe's leader with a single strike before the war truly began would cause a great disturbance indeed.
"So those are giants, I have never seen a real one that came from the Dark territory before," Eugeo said in awe.
'I've heard of them in books, but they are large, but let's be calm Eugeo, we can do this,' Alice Zuberg said confidently.
'I should be careful, their movements aren't fast but protecting this battalion is important,' Fanatio thought.
Fanatio took in a deep breath, held it, and whispered, "Enhance armament." White light, bright as Solus, engulfed the Heaven Piercing Sword's blade as a low noise vibrated. She accurately seized, with the path its keen edge traced, Sigrosig who ran in from that distant point and shouted out sharply.
"Pierce through… light!"
Zubaaaa!
The air shook as a dazzling heat ray converged from the might of Solus penetrated through the battlefield. While it narrowly hits one of the giants, it pierces another, the front giant seeing its brethren fall with a low thud. The Giant that missed being hit was shocked, the white lum wasn't as weak as they thought.
Watching the explosion from the Right flank, the second unit of the Human Empire Army, Sheyta Synthesis Twelve could see from the distance the handy work of her superior's goal to keep her area safe. Behind her, Linel Synthesis Twenty-eight and Fizel Synthesis Twenty-nine could see the battle was starting.
"Oh, it's started, huh?" Fizel Synthesis Twenty-nine asked her young fellow Integrity knight excitedly.
"It has," Linel Synthesis Twenty-eight replied, looking at her.
"Looks like Uncle Deusolbert is doing his best," Fizel said.
"The vice commander seems to be doing well too, Eugeo is fighting with her as well," Linel added.
"But..." Fizel's gaze turns to her left, Linel looking towards there too.
"The left frank doesn't look so good, does it?" Fizel asked. The two looked to where Eldrie stood, the thirty-one's Knight staying in his position, the enemy not to his frank just yet. "The first unit's Eldrie is skillful, but as a knight, he's still a novice. Eugeo and the other boy Kirito fought him, without weapons yet still lasted him. Eugeo is, even more, a novice, yet he and Kirito fought all of us except Edith," Her eyes look to where Renly stood, seeing the green-haired boy standing there, "And behind him, there's Renllicchi, who isn't very dependable.
"Even Eugeo was dependable, I thought for a moment they looked alike," Linel mused.
"The Supply Corp is behind the left frank, isn't it?" Fizel asked.
"Along with Kirito, Eugeo's friend, correct?" Linel asked, remembering the black-haired boy. While both know Kirito and Eugeo were the rebels, it was the Commander's word that pardon the pair, since it was also them to keep Eugeo's identity as a rebel a secret, in favor of Alice too. Still, they know Kirito is with members of Supply Corp watching him, he should be fine… Right? The two girls looked at each other, Lady Shetya can handle herself while they go towards the Supply Corp and do a little fighting, right? Slipping through the line of soldiers, Shetya just stood there silently, not overhearing the two small Integrity Knights' Conversation.
"Everyone! Stay together and follow my lead!" commanded the Goblin Chief. Several Goblin were running their way towards the soldiers and their lone Integrity Knight before them. Eldrie held his whip at the ready, seeing the numbers coming towards him and his flank.
"Don't let a single one gets past us!" Ordered Eldrie to his troops, his whip held ready, "Engage the enemy!"
"Sir!" rang the voices of the first unit, left flank, ready to battle. The Goblin Chief kept running towards Eldrie and his troops, something in his hand. He squeezes the black-purple item, a flame ignited on the tip of the rope.
"What's that?" Eldrire asked with a gasp.
"Now! Toss them!" the Goblin Chief roared and one by one, more of those black-purple items were tossed from the Goblins. Were they explosives, if so, the goblins weren't as mindless as they thought? They did attack from where the Ruild Village as they were intelligent. Eldrie and the troops shield their eyes as the 'bombs' were on land. It wouldn't be the explosion the worse part, it would be the flash of the explosion. The 'bomb's match was no matter but nothing when all eyes were to them, was it a dull. If it was their idea of a bluff, the Goblins and the Dark Territory people who made them weren't smart at all. The bombs exploded, but it wasn't a blast but smoke coming from them that started to blanket the area.
"This is…" but Eldrie was swallowed by the smoke, only now realizing what they were… smoke bombs.
"Everyone, run!" ordered the Goblin Chief. The Chief went from running on his two legs, two running on fours. It was true with the command of the chief, the goblins going on all fours running to their enemy, diving into the smoke. The soldiers were confused as it felt the goblins passing them.
"I won't let them!" exclaimed a soldier exclaimed, sword held out bit Eldrie turned and grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait!" Eldrie exclaimed too, "If we start swinging out swords, we'll end up hitting each other!" This was the goblins' plan to blind their area of sight to make them attack the goblins, only to attack each other. The goblins were just passing them by on all fours, with no way they can attack them, without hurting each other. But there was someone who can keep the area safe, "We'll have to let Sir Renly in the second unit know what's happening!"
A Soldier sprinted as fast he could to the Second Unit, Center. Seeing the diversion made, it calms himself to the other Soldier and explained the situation.
"There is a disaster in the front line," The Solder informed, "The Integrity Knight… where is Sir Renly?" The troops looked confused; they didn't know how to answer the whereabouts of Sir Renly.
"The thing is...He's nowhere to be found," the other soldier explained, as there wasn't no sign of the knight station to protect this flank. And the said knight was running away from the flank he was protecting...
The giants' chief, Sigrosig, was a legendary warrior with a bronze beard and unkempt hair, a brawny appearance, and stature the size of a hill covered all over with countless gashes. They, the giants, were the very ones with the purest interpretation of the Dark Territory's only law, the strong shall rule. With each of them sieved through every means of comparing their might, skill, and guts for as far as they could remember, their hierarchy was decided in a manner stricter than the Order of the Dark Knights'. Though the giants' domains were the high plains in the west region of the Dark Territory, the various kinds of large animals and magical beasts that ought to be spawning there in abundance were constantly depleted. The giants had thoroughly hunted them down as targets for their rites of passage.
Why did they go that far in their pursuit of strength? If they had not, their souls, their fluct lights, would break. The four demi-human races in the Dark Territory were terribly warped existences, with the «soul prototype» confined within flesh not that of humans. Mental safety was necessary to guard against the breakdown of one's psyche. For example, the goblins anchor themselves by converting the inferiority complex towards humans, born from their small stature, into the strength of their resentment and hatred. The giants, on the other hand, hold back the distortion of them being human yet not through developing a superiority complex over humans. Each giant would never lose against a human in one-versus-one combat at least. That served as the foundation of their mentality, an absolute rule. That was especially why they imposed such excessive rites of passage on their youth, pulling up everyone's priority even if it meant reducing their race's numbers.
As such… The thousand giant warriors called to this battlefield, contrary to their taciturn nature, seethed with an intense will to fight. To them, born into the times after the ancient «age of blood and iron», this would be the first large-scale battle they experience. The race's chief, Sigrosig, though in all seriousness. That they would massacre the entire enemy army with the initial charge and end the war.
They would grant no chance to step forward to those determined by Emperor Vector as the army's main force: the Order of the Dark Knights, the Dark Arts Users' Guild, and the Pugilists' Guild. By attaining victory without them, the giants would be validated as the truly superior race. When the slave skull given to him rattled its jaw, resounding the emperor's order to charge, Sigrosig felt the old scars carved all over his body rise in heat. He thought it proof that might of those innumerable large magical beasts he had torn apart with his bare hands had transferred into him.
"Trample them!" His thundering command consisted of a single line. That was enough. Swinging up the gigantic Warhammer in his right hand and making the ground tremble alongside the reliable, brave warriors around him, Sigrosig began his assault. The soldiers of the Human Empire were packed tightly into the valley in front. To the three-and-a-half mel tall giants, they were weaklings not much different from the goblins. The swords they wear were smaller than even the teeth of a newborn rock scale dragon. They would crush, punt, and tear apart every one of them. The circuit carrying Sigrosig's superiority complex grew red hot and scattered sparks of pleasure. His rectangular chin warped and exposed a brutal smile.
At that moment. A foreign sensation that was, however, not all unfamiliar ran up his spine. Cold. Numbing. Like being pierced through with needles of ice. He had tasted this sensation a long, long time ago. In the Fledging Valley near to his village. His first trial. When he went to steal snapping birds' eggs, at that moment the mother swooped down from above… Sigrosig continued his charge even as he widened his two eyes and searched for the origin of that sensation. He saw a small, small human at the front of the Human Empire ranks, in the exact middle of the gorge. Long hair with a slender body. A female, a knight adorned in glistening silver armor. He saw a dragon knight of the Human Empire soaring beyond the mountain range at the edge just once before. He had thought to crush that knight upon landing, but the knight flew away into the mountain range after circling two, three times in the sky.
That bunch was worthless. Nonetheless. In that female knight's black eyes. Sigrosig vividly felt the gaze from the knight despite their distance apart exceeding three hundred mel. The fear or fright, which should have been present, were missing, making up less than even a speck of salt would after falling in a large kettle of hot water.
Instead, it had the coolness of ascertaining and targeting one's prey. Hunt, him? To hunt him, Sigrosig, the giants' chief and thus, the mightiest warrior among the Dark Empire's five races?
"Hgg…" shrill shriek, unsuited to his grim expression, leaked out from the depths of his throat.
Strength left his two legs and the large hammer in his right hand grew terribly heavy. Sigrosig's posture crumbled as he stumbled over. An instant.
Zubaaa!
A ray of dazzling light shot out from the sword the female knight propped up with that buzz, unlike any sound he had heard before. It stabbed through the right side of the chest of the giant running right in front of Sigrosig without any resistance. If Sigrosig had not tumbled, that light would have blown away his heart next. Instead, the white light vaporized part of the giant chief's disheveled red hair and his right ear decorated with his prey's teeth. Piercing through another two of his allies running behind, it dissipated into specks of light, leaving behind those fatal wounds. Sigrosig's consciousness could hardly register the three giants who lost all their Life in an instant and fell like logs. Even the intense pain burning at the right of his head was stabbed like some tiny insect before the humongous emotion assaulting him.
That was, in short, terror. Sigrosig shamefully continued sitting on his backside as his jaw chattered in his trembling. Even when he witnessed the upheaval during Dark General Shasta's rebellion, while he was surprised, there was no fear. The ones Shasta killed after conjuring a powerful force around, were no more than a feeble assassin and those goblins. Though he had to admit Emperor Vecta's power, he had no issue there as he was no human but a god of old. Seeing that power firsthand, seeing Vecta test Shasta's worth to survive, was it pride to the black lums?
Yet why had that mere female knight inspired such fright in himself? Sigrosig could hardly bear to be paralyzed in fear from a mere human as his opponent.
"No… No, no, no…" Smoke rose from his burnt hair as the giant chief moaned.
Impossible. He could not be frightened. White fireworks shot off deep in his mind as intense pain ran through it the harder, he fretted. His mouth and tongue convulsed rapidly, spewing out uninterrupted words that came out as strange noises.
"Nononono, kill, kill, killkellkeldell, delldelldelldelldeldel." In this instant, the core, the self-image of himself as the strongest rooted firmly in the middle of Sigrosig's fluct light along with this situation where he was paralyzed in fear-induced unavoidable conflicts, bringing on the collapse of light quantum circuits within his light cube. The giant's two eyes released crimson light.
"Dell, dell, de..." While the warriors of the giant race watched on in shock from all around, Sigrosig sprang up with force. about his gigantic Warhammer as though it was a tiny twig, he restarted his charge with tremendous vigor. Sending those of the same race in front flying to the left and right, he caught up with the vanguard goblin force before long. Moist noises and shrill screams continuously welled up from his feet upon him pushing on without any attempt to let down on his momentum, but the giant no longer perceived those with his consciousness breaking apart. The command to kill that female knight alone resounded through the core of his head like a broken bell.
The progression towards destruction advanced rapidly for the collection of light quanta that made up that soul, that fluct light, belonging to Sigrosig, the chief of the giants. However, as the collapse caused heavy damage only to certain parts rather than it, there was a delay before his fluct light ceased functioning. On the other hand, that phenomenon induced a particular side effect. With the hatred and bloodthirst Sigrosig had directed towards the humans for decades released all at once, they overflowed from his fluct light and reached even the light cube storing Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio's soul through the Main Visualizer regulating the Light Cube Cluster. Direct control of phenomena via imagination. The power termed incarnation by the integrity knights robbed the freedom of movement from Fanatio's body despite her lengthy experience. Charging forth with his humongous frame of almost four mel with terrible vigor, the giant chief swung the large hammer held in his right hand up high.
'Why won't they move!?' Fanatio thought. Fanatio thought to beat some sense into her two legs that refused to listen to her, but she could not even ball her hands into fists to do so.
Even with the giant chief as her opponent, the deputy commander of the Order of the Integrity Knights would never freeze up with a mere glare. She told herself so, but still, her body seemed frozen in her shooting stance with her right knee on the ground.
During a bout with Knight Commander Bercouli, she could not gain any ground with her sword prepared, she went through such an experience. However, this was utterly different from that heavy yet somehow tender presence that emanated from the knight commander and enveloped her. Pain, like leather belts covered in iron thorns wrapped over her one after another, tormented her entire being.
The giant chief, Sigrosig, bellowed out a strange yell as he kicked the goblins and orcs who should have been his allies aside and charged closer. Cutting the distance down below fifteen mel.
"Something isn't right," Eugeo said, realizing the actions of the giant mirroring how Raios was acting, "oh no, wait a minute, Lady Fanatio, it's coming towards us! Lady Fanatio!" but Fanatio not moving as the rampage of the Giant.
He would be no challenge in a one-versus-one; that was how it should have been. Among the ten lords in the Dark Empire, Fanatio acknowledged only the might of the leader of the Order of the Dark Knights, Shasta. In a prior bout, her helmet, unfortunately, cracked at the end of an intense battle exceeding thirty minutes and she tasted humiliation when Shasta drew his sword back after seeing Fanatio's bare face.
However, she never considered defeat even at that time. She was under a strict restriction from Bercouli regarding the usage of the armament full control art when fighting against dark knights. Hence, she should not be falling behind anyone else. The very thought of freezing up from a mere glare was preposterous. That said, the phenomenon that exceeded Fanatio's understanding was drawing closer before her eyes, moment by moment. It would not even take ten seconds before that gigantic iron hammer swings down upon her. She had to stand up and fix her sword stance at once. If she could intercept it with a slash, the Heaven Piercing Sword, a distinguished divine instrument, would never lose to that coarse iron hammer on Sigrosig. Despite that, she could not stand. Unseen shackles bound Fanatio and the giant chief, a dark red gleam seething in his two eyes, approached before her eyes...
"Humankilldeldelde…!" Spouting a scream that sounded no longer intelligible as his iron hammer roared down.
Before the hammer would reach her head, a cape flew in front of her face as someone took hold of her, first hearing Eugeo and then…
'Your Excellency…' Fanatio quietly muttered with her immobilized mouth.
"Lady Fanatio!" the sound of Dakira Synthesis twenty-two grabbed hold of Fanatio Synthesis Two, protecting her. Fanatio still feels her body frozen in fear, seeing the usual emotionless knight protect her.
Dakira Synthesis Twenty-two, a low-ranking knight, had offered everything to a sole person ever since awakening as a knight. Not to the ruler, the highest minister, Administrator. Neither was it to the leader of the knight order, Bercouli. It was to Deputy Commander Fanatio and no one else. Dakira was strongly drawn by her relentless intensity and the anguish she concealed. That emotion could be no other than love, going by the Human Empire's standards.
However, Dakira sealed all emotions away due to a variety of reasons and served as a faceless and nameless member of the unit directly under Fanatio, the Four Oscillation Blades. Being by her side alone made Dakira feel more fortunate than ever hoped for.
The Four Oscillation Blades were, by no means, some elite unit among the low-ranking knights. Fanatio had gathered those lacking power, judged to be at risk if assigned to the front lines on their own, and had them learn combination techniques to raise their survival rate, creating a so-called unit of leftovers. As such, they garnered low evaluations from the highest minister and chief elder, and in fact, they, the Four Oscillation Blades, all committed the heavy blunder of suffering heavy injuries against the two student swordsmen from the common folk in that rebellion half a year ago. But what hurt Dakira much more was how they failed to protect Fanatio. The time spent on the bed in the ward was filled with incessant thoughts of how it would have been better to die back then. However, Fanatio spoke kindly instead of harshly towards Dakira after the injuries healed. With the silver mask that she had never taken off in public removed, the deputy knight commander showed a beautiful smile and slapped all four of their shoulders in turn as she spoke.
"I, too, was saved by the rebels right before my death. Gentlemen, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Rather, that was a good fight. I had never seen finer coordination of the Encircling Bladed Oscillation Dance."
Dakira's mind was made up, then, as tears ran under that helmet. To not allow any harm to befall the venerated deputy knight commander the next time. And this was that very next time. Regardless of the orders to stay stationed until further commands, Dakira leaped out from the ranks the instant upon feeling abnormality in Fanatio's state. There were over twenty mel until Fanatio, on her knee, and the giant chief swinging a humongous iron hammer down onto her from overhead.
Covering that distance in time was not viable with the physical ability of a low-ranking knight. However, Dakira dashed on as a blurred streak of light and jumped before Fanatio. Wrapping her arms around Fanatio as the hammer struck her back, Dakira cried out.
"Dakira!" Fanatio exclaimed, seeing the helmeted Dakira protect her. Cracks in her armor and helmet were forming, the knight looking to Fanatio.
"Thank Stacia, you're okay, Lady Fanat- ahhhhh!" Dakira's scream echoes the canyon, her helmet breaking away, revealing her face as the giant's roars echoed too. Blood trickled from her head, her armor broken in places, exposing her clothes, now stained in blood. Fanatio looked at the girl, who despite taking the force of the giant's hammer, was smiling at her.
'Aah, Lady Fanatio called out my name.' Even with the damage, she was given, her short, straw-colored pigtails and freckled cheeks laid exposed with the loss of her helmet.
Dakira was born and raised in a small village beside the sea in Southacroith South Empire. Her parents were poor, holding no family name and fishing for a living, but the girl blessed with the strength of a man grew up healthily while helping with her parents' work. That girl committed a taboo at the age of sixteen. She fell in love with her close friend of the same gender who was a year older. Of course, she never found it in herself to confess. Unable to deal with her suffering, Dakira sought penance from Goddess Stacia in an empty church altar late at night. However, as the altar was connected to the Central Cathedral's automated elders' mechanism, Dakira was detected to have violated a taboo and was brought to the Axiom Church, becoming an integrity knight with all her memories pilfered. Though she could not remember her name any longer, the older girl Dakira had loved resembled Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio a little.
"You're still okay, I'm glad," Dakira smiled, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Dakira…" Fanatio uttered, seeing her disciple protect her. Her own tears watered, as the leader of the Giant, readied another hammer swing. Fanatio in an instant wrapped her arms around her and rolled away before the hammer stuck down at the two.
"Protect Lady Fanatio and Lady Dakira, I'll get it away from them!" Eugeo ordered the remaining Oscillation Blades. They nodded quickly and Eugeo dashed over to the battle.
'We need to be able to get the giant away from Dakira and Fanatio that way they're safe. The Giant is tall, but blades won't disarm it easily. If we can blind it, it might be a chance to defeat it, hopefully, Fanatio can recover enough to wipe the remaining giants out. As strong your new sword is, we shouldn't rely on Enhance Armament or Release Recollection, yet.' Alice Zuberg explained while in Eugeo's mind.
'How do we do that?' Eugeo asked, and Alice walked closer, a hand to his chest.
'Let me use your body, leave it to me," Alice Zuberg said. Eugeo was hesitant about Zuberg's words, but it made sense. Their souls are linked now, could she really be able to do so. He felt uneasy but nodded if it means protecting Fanatio and Dakira.
As Eugeo ran, his eyes flashed from green to blue, his left hand out.
'There's not enough sacred power here, but should be enough for this art,' Alice thought before speaking aloud, her voice now Eugeo's, "System Call, Generate luminous element. Burst element. Discharge!" and five balls of light forms from Eugeo hand and into the air, bursting into a light that made the giant stuck its eyes.
"Kilkikillkikillkillkillkillkillkillkill!" the giant repeated, still like it wasn't speaking normally as something struck its torso, a blade cutting him. The cut was horizontal, blood oozing from the giant as it toppled, Eugeo before it, his Golden Anima blade stained in red blood.
"Lady Fanatio, Lady Dakira!" Eugeo explained, running towards the two only a mel behind him, kneeling to the two knights. Fanatio was fine, Dakira looked she needed healing from that hammer to her body.
"Sir Eugeo, is that you?" Dakira asked. Her eyes were shut, seeming it was painful to keep her eyes open and not faint from the pain
"I'm here, I should take care of your wounds, hold on," Eugeo said, his armored hand glowing with luminous element, healing Dakira's wounds. His eyes met with Fanatio's, smiling at her. Fanatio still her body couldn't move, but her gaze was still on her disciple protecting her and Eugeo (noticing his eyes were now blue, like Alice's blue eyes).
'That's the second person who saved my life: the former Rogue Kirito, now Eugeo. I need to be to protect them,' Fanatio thought, looking to where the Giant felt, it was rising back up, even with the injury Eugeo befell it. Her eyes began to water, feeling the helplessness of others protecting her.
The giant chief, Sigrosig, who tried to stand up was reflected within her vision warped with tears along with the standing three members of the «Four Oscillation Blades» fiercely charging forward in response After Eugeo's attack.
"Protect Lady Fanatio and Sir Eugeo!"
Dakira. Jeis. Hobren. Giro. She had placed them directly under her to train them up and to protect them. Though she gave them only strict words, they were her cherished younger siblings. Despite that, she was protected instead, by Dakira and Eugeo…
"Unforgivable!" That word was directed at Sigrosig as well as her own self.
She would allow no more to be her shield. She would protect those three to the end, and Dakira and Eugeo well. That resolve became a power of incarnation from love and radiated from Fanatio's soul with an intensity surpassing the abnormal bloodthirst seething from Sigrosig. The icy thorns, binding her entire body, thawed in an instant. Letting Eugeo finish tending to Dakira, Fanatio stood up straight as the Heaven Piercing Sword noiselessly floated from the ground into her right hand. Before her, was the scene of Jeis, Hobren, and Giro knocked away with a single swipe of Sigrosig's left arm after they leaped forward with their greatswords raised. The crimson light residing within the giant's two eyes seemed of the flames in the demon world far under the earth. Even the surrounding goblins and orc soldiers had ceased their approach, afraid.
"Kee… keel… Keelllll!"
An abnormal scream roared from the giant who sluggishly stood up. However, there was no longer even a smidgen of surprise or fear within Fanatio's chest Smoothly pointed straight towards the sky by her right hand, the Heaven Piercing Sword. Gained a coating of pure white light with a dull rumble. That dazzling radiance stretched on for over five mel from the sword's tip and remained as such.
"Humankeeeelllll!" Swinging the iron hammer with both hands, Sigrosig jumped at Fanatio.
"Return, unto the earth."
Fanatio carelessly swung down with that murmur. Having extended several times its previous length, the blade of light drew a white streak through the air as it struck the iron hammer's blunt surface. A crisp noise echoed with the gigantic weapon dividing into two. Burnt red from the cross-section, the melted iron splashed all over. The huge sword of light met Sigrosig's head just like that, slicing down into the ground without its momentum even waning. The giants behind and the guards of the Human Empire descended into silence at that scene; the legendary warrior, boasting of the world's largest body, was severed into halves while still airborne.
Dakira, who now slung on Eugeo's arm, watched Fanatio kill the Giant in a single swing, not even his sword could do that.
"Kind of pleased to the goddesses we're on the same side," he admitted, while Dakira looked on with a smile longingly
"That's our Lady Fanatio for you," she smiled. She looked to Eugeo after straightening herself, despite her broken armor, she still wasn't too worse for wear, "Thank you, if it weren't for you, I'd be crushed. I owe you, Sir Eugeo."
Eugeo grimaced, putting an armored hand to the back of his hair, "It's nothing," Dakira not noticing his eyes turned from blue to green.
'What a lady killer!' Alice laughed within Eugeo's head; the blonde knight already annoyed.
Fanatio raised the blade of light over her head with a satisfying sound from the two lumps of flesh, falling with a damp noise, and shouted aloud.
"First Unit, middle, forward! Repel the enemies!" she ordered. The roar of soldiers cried out as the fight continued.
The waves of attacks from the never-ending stream of plains goblins sank Deusolbert into impatience.
There was no chance he would be defeated or even challenged by some average goblin soldier in one-versus-one combat, no matter how many times that was repeated. The mountain of corpses burnt by the flames from the arrows he shot earlier served as actual proof of that. However, he could not take on all the enemy troops alone as they came as a wide, horizontal wave. He could only leave most of those on the sides to the guards from the Defense Army. In terms of individual expertise, the guards surpassed the enemy troops by a significant gap. Their sword techniques, polished through half a year of strict training, were certainly faster and sharper than the goblins who relied on their strength in swinging their machetes. But that strength difference was far less sure than the overwhelming gap between an integrity knight and goblin soldiers. It would be tough to overcome those numbers, several times their own, with pure skill.
Deusolbert keenly felt the desire to share with all the guards the great strength his body was endowed with. But naturally, there was no art capable of that. The guards under him lost their lives one after another, one jumped upon by multiple goblins, another collapsing from exhaustion. Deusolbert felt as though his own Life was shaved away each time, he heard their shrieks echo through the battlefield.
'So, this was war?'
It was utterly different from the old fights: sweeping up intruders on the ground while atop a flying dragon or a one-versus-one duel with a dark knight. It was an ugly war of attrition with each moment certain to add to the number of casualties. The pride of the integrity knights served no purpose on this battlefield. Was it not yet? Was the order for the unit to retreat not given yet?
Even the knowledge of how much time had passed since the start of the battle escaped him. Deusolbert cut through the advancing enemy soldiers with the longsword in his right hand and randomly shot with the Conflagrant Flame Bow whenever he could. With his calm lost without his notice, he failed to notice the strange movements taken by a slice of the enemy troops.
The new chief of the plain goblins, Shibori, was far more of a fool than the mountain goblins' chief, Kosogi; the same went for his cruel nature.
Shibori recognized the integrity knights leading the enemy troops as no more than large magical beasts. He made light of them, thinking that no matter how strong they were, they were just one white ium on their own, doomed after being surrounded.
However, he found the integrity knights to be much more troublesome than magical beasts after the fighting began, barely slipping from their encirclements despite how many charged forth. Ten would be blown away with the explosion from a single fire arrow and even normal arrows flew true, to a horrifying extent, towards their heads and hearts.
'Now then, what to do?' The conclusion Shibori reached after some thinking could not have been any more simple or cruel. He would continue having his soldiers charge forward until the enemy knight's arrows ran out. That said, the soldiers sent ahead without a plan were in no mood to simply "go with it", naturally enough. There was a fair amount with intelligence surpassing Shibori and though they went with his orders, they contrived whatever gimmicks they could. They began lifting corpses from their fallen comrades and hiding in their shadows or staying a fair distance from the knight while strafing left and right.
Deusolbert should have seen through such a naive plan at once if he had his usual temperament. However, the screams from the guards whose strength left them shaved away at his calm without his notice. The goblins benefited from how the war started in the evening as well. The enemy was taking long to fall. By the time Deusolbert noticed that his stock of more-than-enough iron arrows was exhausted.
"Good, good, looks like he's finally out of arrows." Shibori scraped the nape of his neck with the backs of the two machetes against his shoulders as he snickered.
The tragic display of the countless corpses of his race, too, failed to instigate much influence on his mind. He inherited that tenacity from his ancestors who had lived through the old «age of blood and iron» which could have been no more appalling. It appeared a whole third of his allies were done in, but there remained over three thousand soldiers. If they obtained plentiful meat and land after invading the white iums' lands, they could replenish their race all they liked. However, they had to produce meaningful results to expand their territories. They would first have to take care of that integrity knight in red armor.
"Alright, let's go, all of you. Surround that archer and drag him down. I'll take his neck off myself." Shibori instructed those forming a barricade around himself, his close aides who were both brawny and boorish, and slowly stepped forward.
"I slipped up…" Deusolbert let out a deep groan.
He had finally realized those enemies erratically moving through the darkness and those scarecrows improvised from raised corpses. After bringing down those manipulating the scarecrows by aiming at the feet rather than the heart, the right hand searched through the large quiver behind and grasped only a fruitless emptiness.
Without arrows, the Conflagrant Flame Bow, a divine instrument, was no different from a plain longbow. Though it was possible to produce arrows from metallic elements with sacred arts, that technique could only be used in a one-versus-one where he had the chance to recite the art. In the first place, all the space sacred energy should have been absorbed by the integrity knight standing by in the sky, leaving the atmosphere dry. Grinding his teeth as he hung the Conflagrant Flame Bow on his left shoulder by its string, Deusolbert drew the longsword from his waist once more. It was in that precise moment that he spotted a party rapidly approaching through the darkness from in front, with sizes large for goblins. Their outfits differed from the small fry he faced off until now. Their chest around their hips was covered in plate armor and riveted leather belts wrapped about their brawny arms. They held thick, large hatchets that seemed fit to sever even cows in their right hands.
Deusolbert confirmed another goblin approaching from behind those seven with a frame that exceeded even orcs in terms of height. Judging from the cast iron armor shining with black luster, the two large hatchets hanging from his hands, and the vivid, decorative feathers swaying on his head, he figured there was no mistake that he was the army's commander. The goblin general's two eyes shining red under his bulging brow collided with Deusolbert's pair of eyes and the surrounding air creaked in that instant. The swords and machetes striking against each other without pause on the front lines gradually petered out and came to an eventual stop. Both the guards and the goblins gained distance from each other without further words and watched the two generals' confrontation with held breaths.
Deusolbert held back the numerous approaching guards with his left hand. Brandishing the sword in his right hand without letting down his guard, he questioned in a deep and seasoned yet distinct voice, "You are one of the ten lords of the Dark Empire… the goblins' chief, huh?"
"That's me." The large goblin responded with his yellowed teeth showing, "Chief of the plains goblins, that's Lord Shibori to you."
Deusolbert steadied his breathing, rough from the long, fierce battle while gazing straight towards the enemy general.
'If I defeat this general and those close to him, the goblin army would lose its will fight, even for a moment. If we take the initiative and push the lines back, we will accomplish our role as the vanguards.' he thought.
Even if he could not use his Conflagrant Flame Bow. Even if it were eight on one, he could only aim for a certain victory now. He would prove the integrity knights' strength, said to comparable to a thousand, here and now.
"I am the integrity knight, Deusolbert Synthesis…"
Shibori's vulgar cry cut his sonorous voice short as he tried to state his name, "Hold there, who cares about some ium's name?! You are meat, meat stuck on that head I'll be taking! Get to it… all of you, get him!"
Uu… raaaaaahh!
Deusolbert took on the seven elite goblins jumping forward with brutal war cries on his own. They should have simply continued that boorish war if they lacked the pride of swordsmen so. Proposing this shame of a duel was just…
"Ridiculous!"
Before picking up the whip, the spear, or the bow, every integrity knight was an experienced swordsman. Not even a single being there could perceive the motion of Deusolbert raising the longsword in his right-hand overhead and swinging it down. The slash at Godspeed drew a dimly white streak of light. A faint noise rang out as the large hatchet raised by the leading goblin was split into two. That was a moment before that goblin was cut into two from the crown of his head to his stomach, fresh blood gushing out everywhere. However, the knight was gone before that spray reached. Deusolbert carried out his next attack, having moved to the second before the first even noticed his own death.
It was not some consecutive sword technique like those of Knight Fanatio or the former rebels he had once fought against. Those were repeated single slashes in the old style of sword techniques executed from the traditional stance. However, Deusolbert's skill was polished through a near-infinite number of months and years, to a divine level. Only the upper ranks among the dark knights and pugilists could react against that single strike.
In fact, the second, cut from the left at the same time as the first, had perished with his plate armor severed along with his heart by the time he began swinging down his large hatchet. The overwhelming power difference was evident in everyone's eyes. However, the elite goblins showed no hesitation. Chief Shibori, too, was a superior being that inspired fear in them, and they did not even consider opposing his command. Two who circled around from Deusolbert's side, bathed in the blood sprays from their race, assailed him from both the left and right.
The experienced knight showed not even the least panic and first cut into the left goblin from below and drew that into an arc into the right goblin from above. The single immediate motion that ended the enemies on both sides was truly on the level of divinity. Three remained; no, four if the general was counted too. Would they come all at once or one after another? Avoiding the spurts of blackish-red blood with a jump back, Deusolbert prepared his next attack. The fifth naively slashed at him from the left of his vision. He saw no light reflected off blades from any other direction.
"Nuhn!"
He sliced horizontally with the sword on his left with that curt yell. The tip cut a silver arc and sank into the enemy's right. Both of Deusolbert's eyes opened wide at that only moment.
A large hatchet had stabbed through the enemy goblin's chest from behind, right as he had slashed, and flew towards him. The massive blade scattered all around the fresh blood from its still breathing comrade as it closed in towards Deusolbert's throat. He could neither dodge nor block it with his sword. Having judged so in an instant, the left forearm he raised collided with the tip of that large hatchet, producing dull light. A numbing, intense pain. Though he had somehow endured with his reddish-copper gauntlet, the blow spread through his bones from his flesh.
"Ku… oohh!"
Blowing through his surprise with a shout, Deusolbert forced the enemy's blade to glance off towards the left. A cracking noise rang throughout his body, informing him of the broken bones in his left arm. That was no more than a single arm! With the slash stopped with his mustered-up spirit, Deusolbert charged straight in just like that. Stabbing through the sacrificed fifth's stomach, his sword reached the overlapped sixth's body. However, the feedback was shallow. had to quickly withdraw his sword, gain some distance, and link that into his next attack.
Deusolbert pulled the sword out at once, sweat rising onto his brow without his notice. The fifth slumped over, dead, and beyond that, he saw…
The sixth and seventh throwing their large hatchets away and leaping at him with their arms spread out at a height equal to crawl across the ground. And there existed no stance fit for attacking an enemy in that position within Deusolbert's style.
Falling into a momentary rigidness, the knight's two legs were grabbed simultaneously by the two goblins. Incapable of dealing with their dreadful physical strength, Deusolbert fell onto his back. His two widened eyes perceived Shibori, the enemy general, jumping forward with his heavy frame and two battle axes brandished while showing a brutal joy. In such a place, against goblins?
'It's impossible for I, Deusolbert, an integrity knight, to face defeat here. Impossible,'
That thought could prove to be a dangerous poison for one's mental state the more stubborn one was. Though he remained above falling into a berserk state like Sigrosig, Deusolbert's motion came to a complete stop within his numbed consciousness. The knight could only watch on as the lethal blade loomed closer before he heard.
A scream, hoarse from exhaustion but valiant all the same, "Esteemed knight!"
A single guard charged towards the enemy general and his fiendish features. That was that young guard commander. That youngling whose name he had not even heard yet raised the great sword his two hands held up and carried out a slash from above with all he had. In response, the enemy general swung the battle-ax in his left hand as though it was a bother.
Gagiin! A dull, shrill metallic noise rang out.
Though it paled when compared to the enemy general, the guard commander had a large build and wore heavy armor, but was blown away like a paper doll, rolling two, three times across the ground. That physical strength overthrew the gap between their technique, speed, and equipment all too easily. The two eyes of the demi-human shone red and narrowed. Releasing the murderous aura of a beast's, he leaped and swung up the ax in his right hand as though to put an end to the guard commander who had yet to stand up.
'No. I cannot allow any further casualties as a knight, and as their commander!' The momentary thought stabbed into Deusolbert's stiff mental state like a bolt of lightning.
There was not enough time to shake his legs free from the two elite goblins binding them, stand up, and move before the guard commander. Throwing the sword in his right hand would only serve to delay the same conclusion by seconds. Before he could consider what to even do, his two hands swung automatically carrying out what he had never thought of prior.
Nocking the longsword in his right hand as a replacement for an arrow onto the bowstring of the Conflagrant Flame Bow, he wielded horizontally, he fiercely tugged at it. The heavy resistance felt as though he was pulling on a rope fastened to the great earth. The intense pain practically wiped his consciousness blank from the roots. However, Deusolbert let a groan escape amidst his clenched teeth and pulled it to its very limit.
"Come, flames!" he yelled, taking up a posture to fire. The divine instrument responded to its owner's will even without reciting its art.
The energy from the flames emitting from all over the bow surpassed all previous manifestations of his armament full control art. Though the longsword nocked onto the bow could not compare to a divine instrument, it was a named good produced personally by the highest minister. It possessed a priority on an entirely different level from the mass-produced steel arrows. The sacred energy contained within its blade transformed into flames without moderation. The full-body armor on Deusolbert, with its resistance towards heat, turned red hot at once. The two goblins clinging onto his legs let out shrieks as flames started spouting out from their eyes and mouths, burning them, before they could react accordingly. The enemy general, turning back upon noticing the abnormality, widened both eyes from surprise and anger as he tried to hurl the ax in his right hand.
However, that was too slow…
"Burn down to ashes!" Shouting so, Deusolbert released the bowstring. Shot forth with a roar, the longsword flapped its crimson, blazing wings as it soared straight. It appeared just like the Conflagrant Flame Bow's original self—the phoenix that lived in the oldest volcano of the southern empire.
"Graahh!"
The enemy general let out a groan as he crossed the two large axes before his body. The phoenix clads in flames struck the heart of that for an instant. The large, pig iron axes vaporized all too quickly with a hiss. And their owner, Shibori the chief of the plain's goblins, skipped through the usual processes of combustion, immediately turning into black charcoal. He crumbled into pieces right after and vanished without a trace. Having witnessed their general's horrifying death, the goblin soldiers turned around at once and began fleeing. However, over three hundred soldiers could not escape the phoenix's inferno and disappeared into cinders.
The distress both Fanatio in the first unit, middle, and Deusolbert in the right flank went through. Instructing the second unit in the rear, the commander of the Human Empire Defense Army, Bercouli Synthesis One, clearly knew of those as well as the chaos the left flank under Eldrie's command experienced from that smokescreen. However, he did not take even a single step. The first reason was his trust in the knights and guards brought up under his personal care. The second reason was how the Human Empire could not send out its second unit either, with the main force of the enemy's ground troops, the Order of the Dark Knights and the Pugilists' Guild, yet to make a move. And the third reason was the possibility of a surprise attack, something he could not help but worry for, with his knowledge of the Dark Territory beyond everyone. Or in other words, the enemy's might in aerial warfare.
In this world where the art for flight did not exist, save for the one recorded in the index, only Highest Minister Administrator could call out and be lost forever with her death, to be specific, the few «dragon knights» among the Order of the Integrity Knights and the Order of the Dark Knights possessed exceptional war potential. Freely soaring through the skies beyond the reach of swords, they could raze infantry with the knight's arts and the dragon's heat rays.
However, they could not be rashly let out onto the war front due to that value of theirs. If they sent theirs out before the enemy and any fell from the off chance of art or arrow from the ground, they would be ladened with a tremendous disadvantage from that very point. As such, Bercouli retained all flying dragons aside from Amayori, ridden by Alice, in the rear of the battlefield and trusted in the enemy to do the same. Hence, the surprise attack he fretted over would not come from dragon knights. Aside from them, the forces of darkness held an aerial force that they monopolized.
They were repulsive, winged monsters termed minions. Created from clay and other materials by dark arts users, they possessed no intelligence and could understand only certain basic orders.
In truth, Bercouli had heard from Alice that the highest minister had created and researched into those same minions in secret. However, the highest minister hesitated in deploying the repulsive minions as they were to the Axiom Church. He could only feel it a pity that she had not changed their appearances into something fitting in time before she departed, but there was no use in crying over spilled milk. Due to those reasons, Bercouli felt it necessary to prepare for minions launching surprise attacks from the skies. And in this situation with the flying dragons held back and the ascetics unit tied up with healing, he was the only option left for aerial defense over a vast area. To be accurate, the divine instrument Bercouli held, the Time Piercing Sword, was the only option.
Bercouli focused entirely on his mind while standing firm in the middle of the second unit with both hands against the pommel of his precious sword in its scabbard. He could constantly sense the difficult battles the three integrity knights and the guards of the first unit went through. However, he could not take even a single step.
Bercouli had already activated the armament full control art for his cherished sword. A humongous clock mounted on the Central Cathedral in an age long past had informed the residents of Central Capital Centoria of the time. Its minute hand and hour hand were reforged into a divine instrument, the Time Piercing Sword. The power it concealed was to «cut the future». The power behind a slash would remain in the trajectory where the sword was swung and anyone who touched that would be cut, a technique that was just as exceptional. Just before the Great East Gate collapsed, Bercouli straddled the knight dragon, Hoshigami, and created a gigantic slashing space spanning a hundred mel in width, two hundred mel in length, and a hundred-and-fifty mel in height right before the Great Gate. Swinging his sword time after time with subtle vertical and horizontal movements, he drew out a fine mesh in the empty air. The total number of slashes exceeded three hundred.
Maintaining those «incarnation blades» on such a scale for over ten minutes was a first for Bercouli, the immortal being who had lived for over three hundred years, as well. The technique was made possible only by separating his consciousness from his flesh and concentrating solely on his mental state. He had left command of the first unit to Fanatio for this one and only reason.
'Hurry… if you're coming, come quick.'
That earnest wish remained with Bercouli despite having reached a realm detached from needless impatience. Putting aside his mental exhaustion, over half of the Time Piercing Sword's sacred energy was already consumed. He could not dispel the armament full control art for the moment and repeat the act. If he failed to annihilate the enemy's minions and they assaulted Alice, preparing a large-scale art in the sky above the first unit, they would lose their only hope.
'Come, quick.'
The guards of the Defense Army continued falling after that, too, sporadically yet without end. Tens of those numbers among the demi-humans lost their lives as well, obeying the command for their ruthless charge to the very end. Much of the flood of Life resources dispersed throughout the battlefield rose as specks of light. Far, into the skies above the gorge. Where a single flying dragon hovered under the cover of night. Spiraling as they coalesced towards the integrity knight, clad in golden armor, standing atop its back.
Next time: Stigma of the Disqualified
Michael: a full year since I started this but finally chapter six of Alicization Alternative War of Underworld. Sorry for the long wait, was procrastinating, been working on my gameplay, anime, school, and just a lot of shows I need to catch up on, plus I was mostly stuck on the Fanatio part for a while of how to sequence Eugeo helping and still giving Fanatio a shining moment. It was also how to change Dakira's fate that still has the same impact, and it was still uniquely shielding Fanatio. Granted she does run in front of her to tackle her, we don't normally see that happen it's usually someone who is already in front of them embracing someone. But I had to remove the Renly stuff as that's saved for the next chapter which won't have much Eugeo as it's mostly a Renly chapter. I think the only thing from the anime was the scene with Finel and Lizel, everything else was from the light novel.
Hopefully, I have a more frequent uploading schedule next, but I got a lot of stories I want to focus on, and I got two Eugeo stories I am working on. Anyway, thank you for all the favorites and follows in the year, I won't call this a remarkable story, but we need more what-ifs that stay the course of the story and not people change it to think they can gain the lead over the original arc or anime. That's a disservice to the very series. Besides Fairy Tail, I have a crossover story I need to work on, and I want to get it done before the end of the year. It's a long one-chapter adventure with many characters in it.
Also, the opening narration is Eugeo, something I'm going to be doing these opening Eugeo narrations for the rest of the arc, making this what if unique with what he learns or knows.
Chapter seven will come, so I'll see you next time.