Kirito

After Jaymes and the Chaos Drake left with the enemy dragoncrafts, Eolyne and Istar finally released their Sonic Leap skills. With the sword skills empowered by Incarnation, power surged between the two blades. Purple lightning crackled in the air around the swords until it couldn't be contained anymore.

Their swords shattered into hundreds of shards. The ruptured energy blew both combatants away from each other. Kirito managed to catch Eolyne, while istar floated on their own some twenty yards away. Neither person was hurt seriously by the blast.

Now the situation is firmly in Kirito's hands. Alice, Asuna bolsters their numbers, and soon Jaymes will return with Sylvie and Cordelia. Seven to one and disarmed, Istar couldn't possibly beat them all, even with their control of Incarnation.

Straightening his posture, Eolyne makes a simple command to Istar. "I'll say it again. Surrender yourself, Kouga."

Istar smiles. "I'm glad to see you haven't lost your touch, Eol." Then, as quickly as it appeared, the smile vanishes as Istar cleans their coat of sword debris. "But you're still as naive. You won't be me unless you can overcome. And if you can't overcome me, the rider of his will, then..."

"Then what?"

Istar doesn't finish their statement. Instead, they draws the prototype black pistol. Kirito reacts by deploying another Incarnate Shield, knowing (well, hoping) the bullets cannot pass through it as Istar did. Let them waste their bullets on this, and they're done for good.

Or so it seemed, but then Istar points the pistol upward and shouts, "Enhance Armament." To Kirito's shock, the pistol rearranges its shape and shoots out red light from the cracks formed from the configuration change. Istar pulls the trigger, and the red light bursts from the muzzle, spreading outward in a spherical fashion.

Perfect Weapon Control. The power once afforded to the Divine Weapons of Adminstrator and the Integrity Knights, then to Kirito and Eugeo by Cardinal, and later to any person who commanded a Divine Object. But that wasn't many people back then, and in an era where Kirito could count the number of Divine Objects in the world on one hand (To his knowledge, there's only five, and all except Eydis' are present on Admina).

As the light passes through, there's only a cold sensation of hands passing through his soul. It feels similar to the Noose of the Accursed, Mutasina's spell in Unital Ring. What is the effect of the attack?

The question is answered as the crystal door (along with Stica, who poked her head out before Eolyne and Istar attacked each other) vanishes. Next goes the crystal platform, and the girls start to drop to the surface. Kirito tries to save them with Incarnation, but then he finds himself and Eolyne falling with no answer from the power of the mind.

To confirm his working theory, he searches for Istar, finding the enemy nosediving for the ground below.

Their Perfect Weapon Control could be summed up as a Incarnation nullification area, completely restricting all usage of Incarnation to anyone, including the user, caught in the area of effect.

Istar's descent took him towards the hills to the north. where out of nowhere their body is caught by a large, red-bodied being. Safely on the ground, Istar glances back up at the falling otherworlders, Alice, and Eolyne — specifically the latter, then they and the larger being vanish behind the hill, beyond the visible boundary of the nullification bubble.

Meanwhile, Kirito was about to prepare his ground to project wind elements to cushion their fall when a thick, long, tubular object scoops the four up. It's not alone, for at the head is the tiny black snake that lead them to the base.

The Divine Beast that Kirito freed earlier had woken up at last and saved them.

Descending to the ground, Kirito gets a good look at the people left behind either from the base or the crashed Avus. "...Eo, what should we do about them?

"We'll have to leave them here for now. As long as we've got the large dragoncraft and the base itself, we have plenty of evidence of their conspiracy."

"Good point..." With that settled, Kirito walks along the snake to the girls, who look confused about the situation. They weren't around for the rescue of the giant serpent, of course.

"Kirito, what is this giant snake?" Asuna asks,

"It's apparently a Divine Beast that's been living on Admina."

"Divine Beast?!" Alice shouts in surprise, her eyes widening. She kneels down on the snake to brush her hand against its scales."I've never seen a living Divine Beast before. Uh...if you don't count the Abyssal Horror and the Western Dragon, that is."

"The Horror probably doesn't count." Kirito chuckles. Right behind and above them, he catches sight of the returning Chaos Drake. Jaymes and the girls were successful in driving off Sugin and Domhui, hopefully without casualties. He straightens his posture and bows to the girls. "Alice, Asuna, thank you for helping us. It would have been pretty bad if you weren't there."

"You're entirely welcome, of course, but that door—"

"Dark King, where wouldst thou have me take thee?"

"Wh-what?" Kirito takes a moment to look around for the owner of the voice, then figures the voice belongs to the Divine Beast. Figuring it would be nice to continue riding the beast instead of flying with Incarnation now, Kirito responds to the serpent. "W-wait a minute!" He deploys a series of Incarnate radio waves in a single direction to his estimation, but receives the signal back he's looking for.

"Fly us over there!" A vague instruction, but the serpent changes direction in accordance. The serpent and the trailing dragoncraft travel over the yellow fields for several minutes until a small hill appears. Without instruction, the serpent gently lands over the hill.

Kirito and the others disembark the beast's back, and the Chaos Drake lands a few meters away from the foot of the hill. The serpent coils up into a pyramidal mound and stares down the seven humans before it. "Thou has my gratitude for freeing me and my child from that prison, Dark King, Blood Emperor".

"Uh...we're the ones who should be thanking you. Humans like us inflicted those terrible things on you, but you saved our lives anyway. Thank you." Alice, Asuna, and Eolyne bow with Kirito to the beast. Cordelia does the same, but Jaymes and Sylvie abstain, instead performing a salute with the fist to the heart.

"I am well aware that thy kind contains both the virtuous and the wicked. Those who captured me will one day pay the price for their deeds."

"We'd be glad to help."

Acknowledging that, the serpent points its tail over Kirito. Attached to the end is a leather bag. "Take this."

"Huh? Wh-what is it?"

"Thou gavest it to me thyself, many seasons ago. Thou saidst that when thee or the Blood Emperor returned after time's passage, I should relinquish it to thee. I was meant to gift it after thee had crossed the planet hither and thither, completing numerous ordeals...but having found ourselves in each other's company this way, I cannot begrudge thee this early bequeathing. Take it."

Jaymes reaches up for it and take the leather bag. "Then this must be it. Though I wonder what questline the Star King left behind for us, huh, Kirito?"

"Ah ha ha ha." Kirito can't help but feel somewhat disappointed that the series of trials the Star King left behind won't be touched, but the majority of his being is relived they lucked out through a series of unforeseen events.

"Until we meet again, Dark King, Blood Emperor...White Queen, Golden Knight, Dark Princess, Red Swordswoman, and Blue Swordsman." Mother and child beasts lift lift off into the sky and shoots off towards the sun.

Silence ensues for a few moments until Alice addresses Jaymes. "What is that, Jaymes."

"What I came here for."

"What you came here for?"

"Oh, right. No, my trip to Admina is still the same as we discussed earlier, but I'm sure you and I have a reason for this chest inside." Jaymes removes a small chest, no bigger than eight inches long, and gives the bag to Kirito while handing the chest to Alice. "The Human Empire, unknown to me and the Dark Territory, had found the Deep Freeze art and hid it here on Admina. I'm sure you know about that now, since I know Silica can't have been unfrozen with the Deep Freeze art we know as the one Hersyrian uses. This should contain it, right, Kirito and Asuna?"

Thanks to Jaymes, the X'rphan Mk. 13 and the Star Empire team were able to return to Central Cathedral. He sent his ship, Cordelia, and Sylvie back to Obsidia Palace before joining the others at the cathedral, instructing them to bring Eydis to a secret area or something.

While Eolyne answered the bombardment of questions from Stica and Laurranei about what happened, Alice, Asuna, Jaymes, and Kirito returned to the eightieth floor with Jaymes' fast travel ability again. Alice flies up the green hill to the trio of frozen girls and kneels before the seated girl, Selka.

"Wait," Jaymes gawks in shock, "I know Selka was here, but...is that Ronie and Tiese too? And wait...Airy, you're actually still alive?"

She bows to Jaymes. "It's been a long time, but I'm happy to see you've also returned, Emperor Jaymes. I've had the honor of taking care of young Sylvie in her infant months while Eydis protected the throne."

"I... I thank you very much for that."

Eyes on Alice, the golden knight lifts the chest's lid. The inside is lined with a blue velvet with several depressions. Inside are six small bottle. Confused, Alice looks back at Kirito, who explains, "I think the scroll has the entire formula for Deep Freeze on it, and the bottles contain a solution that corresponds to the formula that undoes it."

"Solution...? So we don't need to chant the entire formula? We just sprinkle the contents of the bottle, and it will undo the petrification?"

"Hopefully," Jaymes says tensely. "It's all we got."

"...Falchion?"

"Long story short, I can't use that power anymore." Lips tight, Alice looks back at the box and picks up the bottle on the right. She crawls over to Selka, takes a deep breath, and uncorks the bottle. She reaches out and pours the blue liquid on Selka's head. It drips down here face and chin, and five silent seconds pass.

Then a gentle blue light envelopes the girl's body, and her form regains its normal color. Short bangs and white veil topping Selka's head rustle in the breeze. Blue eyes blink over and over, gaining focus and looking at the girl in front of her.

"...Alice?"

"Selka!" Alice topples her sister, embracing her in a tight hug. While the sisters hug and cry it out, Kirito and Jaymes go to the box. Kirito picks it up, removes two of the bottles, and hands one to Asuna. "Go ahead and pour this on Tiese."

Teary-eyed, she says, "Okay!" At the same time, Kirito taps the chest with his foot, gesturing for Jaymes to take it.

"You came to Admina for these, right?"

"Yeah. But I only need two."

"You should take the third as well," Airy declares from behind, her pet Natsu in her arms. Her eyes drop to the ground, a tinge of sadness in them. "I'll let Empress Eydis explain but...take the third with you."

"...Very well. Kirito, see you guys on the other side." Jaymes gathers the three bottles and disappears instantly. ON that note, Kirito steps over to the still form of Ronie, pulls out the cork of the bottle, and pours the solution over her.

She looks a decade older than he remembers and slightly taller, but otherwise remains the same. Their aging was halted in her mid-twenties like Tiese, but both spent another fifty years before being frozen,

As her form regains life and color, her eyelids flutter a couple of times before fully opening, allowing her ocean-blue eyes to glance back at Kirito's onyx black. "...Kirito!"

Despite being chronologically seventy, Ronie's mannerisms hadn't changed from her teenage days as his apprentice at the Norlangarth Swordcraft Academy. Awkwardly hugging her back, he replies, "It's been a while, Ronie. I'm glad to see you again."

"Yes...yes!" Squeezing her former teacher harder, she relaxes it a few seconds and grasps the situation. "Oh...what about Tiese, Ilia, Mia, and Selka?"

"Um, I don't know an Ilia or a Mia... Oh, Jaymes is on his way to unfreeze them now. But as for Tiese and Selka, they're fine. We've unfrozen them, too."

Turning around, Kirito's met with an unforeseen sight. Tiese has awaken, but her eyes are not on Ronie, Asuna, or himself, but towards another figure.

The white-masked face of Eolyne Herlentz.

Jaymes

I warp to the small room within the vault, appearing instantly in front of the two frozen knights and the golden imposter of Avenger in the pedestal. Finding myself alone, my eyes are drawn to the sword, feeling the same unease as I did earlier today. I know the short end of its history with Primus.

The first time Primus showed his face to us, I had been defeated by then-controlled Eydis by her powerful second-phase Perfect Weapon Control. Moments before, Eydis had disarmed me of Falchion and discarded it elsewhere, forcing me to rely on Incarnation-made swords to continue. She had temporarily returned to her senses when Medina and Ilia caught up to us, and that's when Primus and his family appeared for the first time. Primus had possession of Falchion at the time, and demonstrated the impossible ability to utilize its Perfect Weapon Control.

It would after we settled the mass attack of the Divine Beasts and the mind-controlled Integrity Knights in the capitals of both sides of the End Mountains that Ronie and Tiese returned Falchion to me, having been stripped from Primus by Kirito. When we saw Primus again, he would wield the Gladius Filius. I was never told what happened to Primus' effects after I destroyed his soul, but his sword survived the ordeal and has become the goal of the Cult of Primus since. I wonder why we kept it hidden instead of tossing it towards Solus and ending this threat once and for all, and something tells me I had that same thought.

Why are Mia and Ilia guarding it? I guess it's better to ask them, but that's just one of two mysteries in front of me.

i was confused why there were three extra bottles, but the reveal of Ronie and Tiese accounted for two of them. I guess the Star King and Queen figured I would return first, with or without them, knowing Alice would join me in her search for Selka and eventually learn of the four knights also frozen. But the sixth bottle is strange to me. Who else is frozen that would be considered a priority for me at the minimum?

"So you've found it." The voice is weak but cheerful, and its owner slowly enters the room with me. Turning to face her eye to eye, I set two bottles on the nearby table and uncork the one remaining in my hand.

"There were six of these solutions, Eydis. Kirito left them behind with the scroll inscribed with the art for Selka, Ronie, Tiese, Ilia, and Mia...but that leaves one unaccounted for. Airy said it would be better if you explained it."

"...Then I'll tell the truth because we might need it."

Feeling like there's a secret waiting to be exposed between us again, I lower my brow in anticipation. "What is it, Eydis?"

The Empress, her face pale because of her ailment, somehow goes paler as she looks away from me to the golden sword. For a quick second, her features harden and relaxes just as quickly. Sighing she looks back at me with the fortitude I've known for a long while as she hobbles forward, grabs one of the bottles, and heads towards Ilia. "He... You never wanted to tell the truth. I was against it, but considering the situation, I understood. If you knew, there wasn't anything you could do. We all understood that, and that's why what happened happened."

"What happened?"

"This poison I'm afflicted with, it is similar to a poison two hundred years ago by one of Round Robin's agents and used on someone else. We couldn't do anything about it. No remedy was successful, the sacred art were useless, and Falchion's power was gone before the poisoning occurred. So, in the end...we froze her life indefinitely. Selfishly. You did the deed, so that one was made in case someone other than me, you, or Alice were around to wake them up with the cure."

We had poured the solutions on the girls, so they are in the process of being unfrozen. I just try to keep my mind going about the sixth bottle. It is someone we know, that Alice would even wake up with the version of the Deep Freeze art we know, and they were around two centuries ago. I rack my brain on those criteria alone, and narrow it down to a select few. Smaller than it should be, but my memories end on the hours after the war. Whoever it could be must've known Eydis and Alice before the latter's journey to the real world.

...Someone that I would have put to sleep in the first place, that me, Alice, and Eydis could wake. Someone that I would have spent decades to find a cure for. Someone that I would lie to myself about because hearing the truth would hurt more.

No...

"And, if this helps, these cuties weren't to awaken until after we found that cure."

The first to move is the girl I poured the solution on, Mia Zancale. There's no breeze in her like in the garden in the cathedral, yet her deep purple hair flutters a bit. Her eyelids flutter open, the intrinsic muscles returning to work. Purple irises stare back at me, completing the beautiful picture of the woman before me. She's around a decade my senior, at least biologically, but chronologically in the Underworld, she's still my junior in age.

Once again, the remnants of the Crimson Emperor in my soul stir, feeling me with a mix of joy and longing. It's not the same as when I saw Eydis, who I loved as a lover, but the next closest relationship a man can have with a woman his age: a sister. "Sup, Mia."

"...M...Master?"

"No, he's not here. It's just regular Jaymes now."

"...J-Jaymes!" Mia collides with me, holding me so tightly that I fear for my life. Tears soak my shoulder, and my hand strokes her hair. She turns her head to the left, gasps, and partially lifts off me as she addresses her empress. "Lady Eydis!"

"Welcome back, Lady Mia. And you too, Lady Ilia."

"Lady Eydis. Jaymes... Huh?."

I turn my head to the second girl. Ilia Ordona, a former member of the Human Empire's nobility, retains that air about her. She brushes her short, dirty blonde hair out of her face, then fixes her gaze on the both of us, then scans the room as like a lost child looking for their mother in.a store before locking in place. Kureha and the other girls are below to my knowledge, so I have no clue who she could be desperately searching for, or why her eyes go wide.

A gasp from Mia, who is facing Ilia's direction, gets me to turn around. When I follow their line of sight, I find myself looking at the younger sibling of the sixteenth generation of the Orthinanos family. Ilia takes a step forward towards Cordelia, then collides with the girl. Cordelia's bluish-green eyes, the right usually partially hidden by her bangs, grow in shock and confusion at the tight squeeze of the knight.

Then Ilia speaks words that, deep in my soul, I wasn't surprised to hear, but my mind is surely rocked.

"You're alive!"