3.
"There... we... goooo!"
With that desperate cry, I pul ed my body up for the umpteen time, hooked my right leg onto the marble edge and clambered over it before falling flat down onto the smooth floor.
My joints and muscles, abused beyond their limits, throbbed as though they were sizzling in a fire. Large drops of sweat poured endlessly down my forehead and neck and I could only let out my coa.r.s.e breathing, not even having enough strength to wipe them away with my fingertips. The realism of this hefty fatigue was practically enough to dispel my belief of the basis that this world was a virtual world generated by the STL.
I had final y reached the ninety-fifth floor of the Central Cathedral at the end of roughly two agonizing hours after awaiting the moon"s ascent and resuming the wal climbing, but I no longer had the energy to gaze around. Throwing out my limbs, I closed my eyes and waited for even the slightest amount of my Life to recover.
The objective, the ninety-fifth floor, was merely seven floors from that terrace set up with "minions", but the reason for spending this much time and effort to cross that distance was this golden knight strapped onto my back with thin chains.
Several hours ago, Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty did manage to surpa.s.s that which was likely set on everyone in the 218.
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Underworld, "the seal of the right eye"-that mysterious system alert, by her own wil , but the price she paid was heavy indeed.
Her right eye, bearing a resemblance to jasper, blew off without a trace and the pain from that shock rendered Alice unconscious.
I am uncertain if it was due to their souls being stored in an artificial storage medium, the light cube, but those of the Underworld were relatively susceptible to psychological shocks.
When afflicted by excessive grief, fear, or perhaps anger and such-those emotions were rare due to the lack of crime in the world, however-they end up losing their sense of reason for a period of time, likely to protect their fluct lights from a fatal error. Like what had occurred to Selka, Alice"s little sister, when she was captured by a squad of goblins at the northern mountain range cave two years ago.
I conjectured that Alice, too, had only lost consciousness to mitigate the shock from breaking that seal and would eventually awaken. She should have died on the spot like the head elite swordsman-in-training, Raios Antinous, if her fluct light had threw a fatal error.
On that line of thought, it was a real surprise that Eugeo, having experienced the same phenomenon as Alice in Raios"s room two days ago, managed to draw his sword without losing consciousness. As expected, he wasn"t in an excellent state of 219.
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mind after we were thrown into the discipline chamber together, but he could stil give a proper reply when spoken to.
I had yet to form a concrete idea on the reasoning behind their emotional vulnerability and their absolute obedience towards orders, but at the very least, it wasn"t impossible for the people of the Underworld to transcend those. Eugeo and Alice were tangible proof. The people of the Underworld were intelligence created by man-AI, but the strength of their souls was no different from the humans of the real world...
Thinking through such things, I awaited Alice"s recovery on the minions" terrace, but the esteemed knight wouldn"t wake up even after an hour had pa.s.sed. I did stanch the blood flow from her right eye with sacred arts, but I lacked both adequate s.p.a.ce resources and the competency as an art user to cure it completely. The moon rose as I stayed on standby and the s.p.a.ce resources began to be replenished, but that had to be reserved for creating the pitons necessary for climbing. I tore the hem of my shirt off and made an impromptu bandage, winding it around Alice"s face in consolation, before making up my mind to climb the tower with the unconscious integrity knight on my back.
Upon undoing the chain that connected both of our bodies and carrying Alice"s slender, yet unbearably heavy body, I seriously considered leaving behind the golden armor and the Fragrant Olive Sword that made up most of the weight. But 220.
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seeing as Alice was resolved to fight on our side, it would be inane to discard that equipment.
Resigning myself to my fate once again, I firmly fixed the knight I carried in place and began climbing the sheer wal towards my goal, the upper portion of the cathedral that had sank into the night sky. When I saw a new terrace at the end of an excruciating two hours, the strength that escaped me from the relief I felt even caused me to drop a piton. I could only pray that no one was standing on the ground straight below.
Anyway, I ought to be forgiven for lying down for a nap after climbing over ninety meters of this vertical, straight wall to reach the goal, this ninety-fifth floor. Not that I"d move for another three minutes even I weren"t.
I gathered my determination to do so and focused my al into relaxing my entire body, sinking into bliss, but a hindrance sprang forth from behind me; it was a soft voice.
"U... uhm..."
The knight"s breath tickled my nape as she stirred awake.
"...Where... I"m... how..."
Those murmurs escaped from Alice before she tried to get up, but the chain immediately tensed up and the weight that momentarily left my back returned.
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"These chains... Kirito... don"t tel me you carried me... all the way here...?
That"s right, be a little more grateful about it. That mutter to myself lasted a brief moment.
"Get away from me, you"re soaked in sweat! It"s seeping into my clothes! Quick, get off me!"
And upon sending a jab to the back of my head alongside that scream, my brow smashed into the marble floor with all of her strength back it.
"You"re horrible... that was too much..."
Having undone the chain in a hurry and lowered down the baggage on my back, I leaned against a nearby circular pillar as I sighed.
However, as for the esteemed knight, she took no notice of my hard labor and dusted off her white skirt with a scowl. Just as I thought she was done, wrinkles settled in her brow as she pinched the sleeve that had stayed in constant contact with my neck while I carried her. I couldn"t help but to give a light rebuke at least, after seeing such conduct.
"If it"s annoying you that much, why don"t you just get in a bath or something, oh great knight?"
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It was meant as a jab towards Alice"s fussiness, but as the recipient began tilted her head in actual consideration, I had to continue on in a fl.u.s.ter.
"No, that"s a joke! Let"s not even joke about going al the way back down to the floors in the middle."
"No, there"s no need to go that far, a mere five floors below...
on the ninetieth floor, there is a large bath meant for the integrity knights" use."
"Wha..."
I was the one who trembled this time round. It would be a lie if I said that I didn"t want to clean up my clothes and body, smeared with dust and sweat due to the consecutive, fierce battles after escaping the underground jail, along with that unexpected wall climbing.
It didn"t have to be a bath, even a single pool of water close by would-I pondered while scanning through our surroundings once again.
The ninety-fifth floor of the cathedral, "(Morning Star Lookout)", appeared to have been built as a humongous viewing deck as its name implied. The circ.u.mference of the perfectly rectangular floor had no walls-that was the reason why we set this place as our target, after all-and circular columns supported the ceiling in intervals of roughly three meters all by themselves. I couldn"t help but give a nod of 223.
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agreement to Administrator"s decision to station minions on the wall a little below in the slight chance of intruders, after seeing how openly this was constructed.
The outermost circ.u.mference, where Alice and I were, was a terrace encircling the floor with short steps stretching inwards from various positions. Several marble sculptures and verdant shrubs were placed in the slightly higher interior, along with tables and chairs of magnificent design. Sitting in those chairs in the afternoon, rather than the middle of the night like now, would likely allow a lovely bird"s eye view of the Underworld, extending on infinitely.
The grand staircase leading up and down seemed to have been built on the northern side. Belated as it might be, there were no sign of anyone aside from us on the floor now.
Now then, had Eugeo pa.s.sed through this ninety-fifth floor yet?
Over seven hours had pa.s.sed since we were separated on the eightieth floor. Considering it rational y, Eugeo should have reached this place far faster than us who went through great struggles to climb up the outer wal .
But the problem would be the mighty opponent standing in Eugeo"s way, stronger than the minions we had fought- Integrity Knight Commander Bercouli Synthesis One himself.
The hero of the legend, supposedly stronger than both Deputy 224.
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Integrity Knight Commander Fanatio who fiercely fought me to a close draw and Alice who dealt with me without difficulty.
Of course, Eugeo wasn"t weak. He might have even surpa.s.sed me in terms of skill with the sword. However, technique alone could not defeat the upper ranks of the integrity knights who were effectively superhuman. That made striking the opponent unaware and making use of the entire situation necessary, a so- called strategy of "anything goes". Was the diligent Eugeo actual y capable of that...?
Having taken a look around as well, Alice called out to me as I worried.
"Of course, this has nothing to do with the bath, but... that partner of yours called Eugeo hasn"t gotten this high yet, have he?"
"Eh? Why?"
"After all, this ninety-fifth floor is the one and only place where we could return back into the cathedral after getting thrown outside. That much should be obvious on first sight... in other words, if he had reached here before us, he would have been waiting here for you."
"...I see, that"s true..."
I nodded with my arms crossed. Now that she brought it up, if Eugeo had already pa.s.sed this floor before us, he would have likely been captured-or turned into a corpse. Though it went 225.
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against my earlier conjecture, I would like to believe that Eugeo wasn"t one to be captured or killed that easily.
"Besides, if Eugeo..."
Alice murmured with a pensive expression, with his name rolling off her tongue truly natural y, though the person in question probably hadn"t noticed so herself.
"...had climbed the grand staircase beyond the Cloudtop Garden, he would have encountered the strongest opponent before he reached here, the Morning Star Lookout. He would have come into contact with oji-sama... His Excellency, Knight Commander Bercouli."
Putting aside how she called him oji-sama for now, I decided to enquire about something that caught my attention.
"So he real y is strong? His Excel ency, the Knight Commander."
Alice"s face promptly turned into a smile with the improvised bandage still wrapped around it as she nodded.