The real world.
6O was attempting an experiment: following the Commander's data stream into that world so that she could assist him.
If successful, she would be able to log in using a superuser account.
However, the experiment encountered one major obstacle—the Commander himself.
His consciousness resisted her attempts to enter because he feared that her consciousness might be consumed by his own.
6O suggested creating a backup of herself first, but the Commander refused.
When it came to backups, he did not want any of them to start thinking they could act recklessly simply because they could restore themselves afterward.
He wanted her to remain exactly who she was.
6O was deeply moved by that.
Did that mean the experiment had to be abandoned?
Not necessarily. They could still force the connection.
However, neither 6O nor 2B could serve as the test subject. They were familiar to the Commander, so the instant he sensed their identities, his consciousness would automatically block them.
A stranger would fare even worse. The Commander would interpret an unknown consciousness as a mental attack—and mental attacks were the one thing he feared least. An unfamiliar mind entering his consciousness would be like a lamb walking into a tiger's den.
He would devour it.
That was why 6O turned her attention to an artificial intelligence from this world.
Not the AI named Yui, but another one who could, in a sense, be considered Yui's younger sister—the girl-shaped AI who had appeared within SAO.
Her name was Strea.
After Kayaba Akihiko was located, Strea's data had been downloaded into 6O's equipment.
She had not been placed inside a physical body like Yui because her new body had not yet been completed.
Now, after learning about 6O's experiment, Strea accepted without hesitation—even though there was a genuine possibility that the Commander would mistake her for a virus and erase her.
For the moment, however, the Commander was still fighting. They would wait until the battle ended before attempting the connection. The last thing they wanted was to interfere with him at a critical moment.
The passage of time within that world had also synchronized with the outside world, so the battle footage they were watching was being transmitted in real time.
...
The mountaintop had once been covered in rocks. Now, it was scarred by destruction.
Some of the devastation appeared to have been caused by explosions, but most of it had come from sword strikes.
Even boulders the size of houses had been sliced apart.
Boom!
An explosion erupted from the nearby forest, accompanied by a brilliant flash of fire.
Immediately afterward, a succession of enormous trees toppled in bizarre fashion. One particularly massive tree collapsed into several perfectly cut sections in the blink of an eye, like a tower of wooden blocks falling apart.
The exposed surfaces were perfectly flat and smooth, the result of unimaginably sharp slashes.
"Haaah... Haaah..."
Bercouli's heavy breathing rasped through the air.
Ever since becoming an Integrity Knight, he had never faced an enemy this powerful or a crisis this grave.
There had originally been ten Integrity Knights. Now, half of them had lost the ability to fight.
And that was only because their opponent had shown them some mercy, choosing merely to incapacitate them instead of taking their lives.
Otherwise, their situation would have been far worse.
Bercouli's pupils widened slightly.
Their enemy emerged from the flames created by Deusolbert's fastest fire arrow.
The arrow had unquestionably struck its target. It had destroyed nearly half of the man's body, while two Integrity Knights had been forced to sacrifice their remaining strength to create the opening.
Yet their enemy was already regenerating.
Within a single breath, his body returned to its original state, almost as if time itself had been reversed.
Was this monster's Life truly inexhaustible?
No one could defeat an enemy like that.
Even so, there was still one lethal attack they had yet to attempt.
Perhaps it could truly kill him.
Decapitation.
The man's figure abruptly seemed to swell before Bercouli's eyes.
In reality, he had leaped toward him, accelerating himself with a chantless Sacred Art.
When he came within two meters of Bercouli, more than a dozen wounds suddenly opened across his body.
Invisible blades seemed to fill the air. By jumping forward, he had run directly into them.
Those blades were the result of Bercouli's technique.
The slashes unleashed by his Time Piercing Sword could remain suspended within the space they had cut.
Their opponent had willingly thrown himself into the attacks Bercouli had left behind.
Then—
Clang!
Metal collided with tremendous force.
The impact sent such intense pain through Bercouli's hand that he nearly lost his grip on his sword. The bones of his arm felt ready to snap.
Since they held, the force continued traveling up his arm and spread throughout his entire body. Without something to brace himself against, he would have been hurled away.
Bercouli planted both feet firmly on the ground and forced the impact down into the earth.
His legs sank slightly into the soil, while his heels slid backward and carved shallow furrows through the ground.
Thud!
Something sharp pierced flesh.
A broken fragment of an ice sword stabbed into his shoulder.
That was right—an ice sword.
The weapon his opponent had swung was not a genuine weapon like those wielded by the Integrity Knights. It was a blade created through a Sacred Art.
Such weapons were convenient. Their opponent could create an endless supply of them, but their durability was poor. After only a few clashes, they became useless.
In that sense, Bercouli was fortunate the man did not possess a Divine Object like theirs.
Otherwise, he could never have blocked that strike.
The man had charged forward despite knowing that Bercouli had filled the space with lingering slashes. He had done so because he knew those attacks could wound him but could not kill him.
That must have been why he did not care.
Even if Bercouli himself could not be killed, he would never choose to fight that way. Being unable to die did not mean that injuries stopped hurting.
At first, Bercouli had assumed the man could not feel pain.
Later, however, he confirmed that their opponent felt it perfectly well.
Yet the man could endure such agony without allowing it to hinder his movements.
The strength of will that required was beyond imagination.
Bercouli had even asked him about it.
Given the man's abilities, there was no need to deliberately suffer those wounds. If he spent a little more time, he could still drive every Integrity Knight into a hopeless situation without taking such risks.
Why fight this way?
Bercouli did not believe the man was in any particular hurry.
Their opponent had given him an answer.
He hated pain.
Yet pain also assured him that he was not dreaming. It reminded him that he was truly alive within the world around him.
Bercouli had not fully understood what he meant.
Suddenly sensing something, Bercouli abandoned his resistance and deliberately allowed his footing to give way, making it look as if he had slipped.
Almost simultaneously, an arrow flew toward him from behind.
If he had remained standing, it would have struck him.
Instead, the arrow passed directly in front of his falling face. The edge of its power grazed his skin, opening a tiny cut.
The Emperor of the Dark Territory, who had been about to strike Bercouli down, was hit instead. The arrow carried him into the depths of the forest, where a fiery explosion erupted.
"Sorry, Bercouli. I can't support you any longer."
Not far behind him, Deusolbert spoke those words before collapsing into a seated position.
That had been his final arrow.
His strength was completely exhausted, and one of his arms was broken. All he could do now was sit there, unable to move.
"Yeah. Get some rest. I can handle the rest myself!"
After giving that reply, Bercouli prepared to unleash his ultimate technique—the Ura Sword.
It was an attack capable of crossing through time and striking someone as they had existed ten minutes earlier.
The ten-minute restriction existed because this world recorded only the most recent six hundred seconds of every human being's movement history.
Once those six hundred seconds elapsed, any traces older than ten minutes could no longer be retained.
Nearly six hundred seconds had already passed since Bercouli began preparing this attack.
That meant the position he currently occupied was a place where he had also fought ten minutes earlier.
His opponent had landed two mel in front of him at almost exactly that moment.
The instant the counter reached six hundred seconds, Bercouli would slash that location.
By doing so, his blade would strike the man who had stood there ten minutes ago.
This was Bercouli's most powerful secret technique—
An attack that transcended time!
(End of Chapter)
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