Yuuki's obsidian blade tore through the air as the dark-purple Imp planted one foot against the ground.
The movement should have looked light, like a butterfly skimming across flowers, yet every step sent her forward with ghostly speed. Gone was her usual grace. She lunged like a serpent bursting from its den.
Her petite avatar blurred beyond recognition, moving at the very limit of the system's physics engine. Her long hair whipped wildly behind her, and her dark-purple dress streamed through the air like a serpent's veil. Only her brilliant golden eyes remained clear, leaving streaks of light in her wake.
There was no Sword Skill behind the black blade. It was a simple slash powered by every muscle in her body, yet the sheer speed made the weapon's model seem to bend out of shape. In broad daylight, the gentle girl had become a violent black nightmare.
Those wide golden eyes saw through everything, including the defeat waiting for her opponent.
Yuuki laughed, sharp and exhilarated, completely lost in the rush of battle. Whatever beauty remained in her movements vanished. To the terrified man across from her, she was a demon driven by pure hunger for combat.
She crossed the remaining distance in an instant. Before he could react, she reversed her grip and drove the blade through his chest. Red damage effects sprayed across her vision.
Yuuki gave a low laugh and kept charging.
The sword punched clean through him, half its length emerging from his back amid dark-red droplets of light.
"Ha... hahaha!"
The impact of steel passing through flesh traveled up the blade and into her hand. Even without real pain or blood, the sensation filled her with savage satisfaction.
"Aaaah!"
She still had too much energy burning inside her. With the man impaled on her sword, Yuuki drove him across the arena, her tiny frame kicking up a cloud of dust as she slammed him into the far wall.
The obsidian blade pinned him there. Yuuki stepped back, breathing hard through a quiet laugh. The nameless player had dropped his weapon somewhere along the way and now trembled against the wall like a condemned prisoner. Fine red slashes covered his body as though he had stumbled through a storm of blades.
He stared at the delicate girl before him and felt genuine fear.
It was only a game. His avatar could be destroyed without pain, and his real body would remain unharmed.
None of that mattered when he met those empty golden eyes.
Every nerve in him seized.
For one terrible moment, he imagined she was devouring his soul.
A cute Imp girl with pointed ears?
No.
She was a monster.
A demon.
He struggled to pull the sword from his chest, but Yuuki ripped it free herself. Before he could move again, one last slash erased the rest of his HP and scattered his avatar into light.
[You Win]
She was already growing tired of hearing it.
Yuuki rested the obsidian sword against her shoulder and licked her lips, as if wiping away blood that was never there. Then she turned toward the spectators with a look of pure, vicious delight.
Everyone watching the match felt a chill run down their spine.
"Was it my imagination, or did she turn around just to look at us?"
Seijirou Kikuoka stood before the broadcast screen with his hands in his pockets. While the other technicians monitored Yuuki's Fluctlight directly, he watched the same public stream as everyone else.
"Was she always like this?"
Takeru Higa shrank back. There was not a drop of real blood on the screen, yet every one of her matches looked like an execution.
"Who knows? Maybe having a Fluctlight makes people a little more violent."
Kikuoka sounded almost amused.
"One thing is clear, though. This Fluctlight is already every bit as capable as Kaizuka-kun's. Make sure we capture all of this data."
"Don't worry. This time, we're connected directly to her FullDive pod. We're receiving the complete raw data, without anything being lost in transmission."
"Good. Keep a close eye on her vital signs too, all right?"
Kikuoka considered something, then looked toward Nagashima, who had remained silent throughout the match.
"Nothing to say?"
"About what?" Nagashima replied coldly.
"This is the first time you've seen this side of her, isn't it? The girl you think of as a daughter turns out to be terrifying, with enough hunger for battle to make anyone shudder."
"She was confined for far too long. I respect whatever she chooses to do now. All I can do is pray for her."
"How calm. How mature."
Kikuoka adjusted his glasses, his eyes narrowing with interest.
"Miss Konno is certainly fired up. What about her opponent? He'll need that same ferocity, or this whole thing will be meaningless."
"Satoru-kun."
In Test Chamber 3, a silent young woman lay inside a white FullDive pod, pouring the full force of her life into the virtual world.
Satoru gripped his curved sword and swept across the arena's gray marble floor like a hunting hawk. The hem of his gray-brown hooded coat streamed straight behind him, snapping in the air like a pair of wings. His eyes were as still as dead water, save for the occasional glint of gold.
The curved blade was pitch black. His open coat billowed around him.
Anyone who had known him in Aincrad would recognize that silhouette: the travel-worn black linen coat, the relentless Sword Skills, and the elegant black edge.
It was the man who had always remained outside the front-line groups, yet walked alone through the deepest reaches of the Labyrinth.
It was the figure of the World Ender.
Every inch the Sword Saint.
And above him, he had reclaimed the name of that avatar.
Yurnero.
No one who had ever seen him fight could mistake him for an impostor.
This was the real player.
Satoru crossed the set distance in a heartbeat and invaded his opponent's reach before the spearman had fully raised his weapon. A polearm could dominate at range, and its broad, charging attacks were excellent at breaking defenses. Once an enemy slipped inside that reach, none of those advantages mattered.
Satoru cut horizontally through the spear's sweeping attack. The Sword Skill glow that had just ignited along the shaft died on the spot. He drove forward, his black blade sliding against the weapon as its point raced toward the spearman's heart.
The man finally reacted. His fairy wings flared, carrying him backward with a sudden burst of speed.
Satoru remained expressionless.
No Salamander wings appeared behind him.
Yurnero had no need for them.
He dropped into a lunge and triggered Reaver in an instant. There was almost no startup. Rather than the Sword Skill pulling him forward, Satoru seemed to drag Reaver behind him as he tore across the arena under his own power.
A Wind Arrow shot toward him.
The ALO Swordsmanship Championship permitted magic up to Level 3 as a means of disrupting an opponent.
Satoru tilted his blade and canceled Reaver himself without losing speed. Carrying that momentum into his next step, he slashed through the nearly transparent arrow and split it apart in midair.
Projectile spells were not indestructible. Beneath all the visual effects, each one had a tiny collision point at its center. Strike that single weakness, and even fire or holy light could be cut apart.
Shino's Hecate II rounds traveled more than three times faster than this crude Wind Arrow.
"Pathetic."
It was the first word Satoru had spoken since the match began.
"You call yourself a spearman? If you need flashy magic just to create an opening, delete your spear skill. You're an embarrassment to the entire weapon class."
Satoru surged forward and unleashed Deadly Sins. Seven consecutive strikes tore the spearman backward. He spun through the final blow, his coat tracing a clean arc behind him, then turned his back on the defeated player.
With a sharp flick of his right hand, he shook the lingering red damage effects from the blade before sliding it into the sheath at his left hip.
The dramatic finish was entirely accidental. His opponent had already lost and was being removed by the safety teleport. Satoru had simply turned away and left.
That was how he fought.
Always forward.
Never dodging.
Never retreating.
Only when the outcome was settled did he show an opponent his back.
"W-wasn't that my brother's Spell Blast?"
Leafa blurted out from the group gathered around the screen at the woodland home.
Yurnero had canceled a Sword Skill in the middle of his charge, carried its momentum forward, and severed the Wind Arrow with three precise cuts. Leafa had only ever seen Kirito perform that kind of magic destruction before.
"Spell Blast doesn't belong to me," Kirito said, watching Satoru walk away beneath the teleportation light. "It's an Outside System Skill built around an exploit. Back in Aincrad, using a Sword Skill against an opponent's weapon and striking its weakest point hard enough to break it was called Arms Blast. It takes superhuman reactions and incredibly precise aim."
"Weapon destruction is difficult enough, but he's definitely mastered it. In ALO, an ordinary physical attack can't cancel magic. The new Sword Skill system, however, includes Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and Dark damage that can clash with spells. Apply the same principle to magic, and Arms Blast becomes Spell Blast."
Kirito's expression tightened.
"Even I needed a long time to master it. Satoru barely played ALO before this, right? He probably figured out the principle just now and immediately tried it in a real match."
"That's insanely reckless, but coming from him, it somehow makes sense."
Klein gave a dry laugh.
"He's always been like that. He finds the one thing that matters and pulls off something no sane player would even try."
Klein's grin widened as he watched the replay.
"Man, that charge brings back memories. He's exactly the same lone wolf I remember from the field. He hasn't even opened his wings once, has he? He's fighting with nothing but a sword and the same old Sword Skills, like he's announcing, 'Yeah, it's really me.' Same coat, same black blade. What a show-off."
He folded his arms.
"I still remember the first time I met you two. You and Yurnero both pulled the lone-wolf act and ditched me. I'm not letting that happen again. Once we get him over here, all of us are clearing every last one of Aincrad's hundred floors together."
"Y-yeah!"
Silica agreed at once.
"Silica-chan, you're kind of a fan of his, aren't you?"
"Y-yes. He helped me a lot back then, but my level and skills were both too low to be useful. This time, I have to form a party with Yurnero-san. Right, Pina?"
Silica turned to the small dragon perched on her shoulder.
"I can't believe he even has a fangirl..."
Klein looked devastated.
"The stream chat is going wild too," Lisbeth said. "It's only the qualifiers, but his match already has a huge audience."
"Yeah. Comments calling him a bot or a hacker keep flying past."
Klein grimaced.
"Honestly, I'm starting to wonder too."
Yui floated down and landed on Kirito's head.
"Daddy, who do you think is stronger, you or him?"
"Well..."
Kirito rubbed the back of his head. He did not want to concede so easily, but claiming he would win felt just as difficult.
"We've known each other for a long time and fought together at the World Tree, but we've never actually faced each other. I'd call it fifty-fifty."
"That's a pretty confident answer."
Klein laughed and slung an arm around Kirito.
"Good. Once we bring him here, you two lone wolves are having a proper match. I've always wanted an answer myself."
"He's not the only one drawing attention in these qualifiers," Lisbeth reminded them. "Yui-chan mentioned another player in a different group. Yuuki, wasn't it?"
"That's right."
Yui nodded.
"So far, they have been racing each other from opposite sides of the bracket."
"You can practically feel the tension," Klein said. "Are they going to run into each other?"
"Yes. Once they finish the qualifiers in their respective groups, they'll enter the winners' bracket. At their current pace, they should meet very soon."
Klein bolted for the door.
"Then I'm going into town for popcorn."
...
Both fighters found themselves waiting for another match.
In different places and on different floors of ALfheim, Satoru and Yuuki opened the tournament bracket and studied the other's group.
"Soon," they murmured at the same time, the same calm light in their eyes.