Accel World - Volume 24 - Chapter 10

10

Even after the scheduled 125 days were up, Haruyuki didn’t return to the real world. On the last day, he saw Centaurea Sentry off at the portal alone, told her the access code for his home server, and got her to cancel the automatic disconnect timer.

In the schedule discussed with and decided on by Kuroyukihime and the others, they would burst out for a bit at 4:30 AM, go to the washroom, have some water, and do things of that nature before diving once again at ten seconds to five. But if he gave up that break and stayed in the Unlimited Neutral Field, he would have an additional five hundred hours—twenty days and twenty hours—to train.

When he announced his decision, he’d 99 percent expected Sentry to be opposed. But when she heard what he had to say, she thought about it for three seconds before telling him to do what he wanted. On top of that, she lent him the spare key to Oumutei. In exchange, she made him promise not to fight Enemies greater than Wild class and to not go anywhere near Kitanomaru Park, but he’d had absolutely no intention of doing either of those things to begin with.

Alone at Oumutei, Haruyuki kept repeating the same simple training he’d been doing up to that point. Since he couldn’t face off against Sentry anymore, he increased his practice swings by a thousand to make up for that absence.

In the end, even after four months, he still couldn’t scratch Sentry’s armor, but at some point, the impatience he’d felt had disappeared. Haruyuki was not a genius or anything of the like, and he wasn’t some chosen warrior, either. With everyone talking about how he possessed the only true flight ability in the Accelerated World, he’d gotten the wrong idea, but his flight was both an advantage and a disadvantage, just one of countless abilities that existed in the world.

The conceit that made him lament that he couldn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with a true master like Centaurea Sentry after a mere four months of training was the height of hubris. He decided that if he had time to cry about it, then he had time to swing his sword just one more time, and he threw himself into his training. In actual battles against lesser-class Enemies, he tried the Gou technique that Sentry had shown him but didn’t see any real results there, and the “extreme”—the basic principle of Omega style, that of overlaying the maximum on the minuscule—also sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t, so occasionally, he died and regenerated.

Even so, two weeks after he started training by himself, Haruyuki suddenly felt like he had reached a type of sensation he’d never known before while practicing his swings in the front garden of Oumutei. He felt the tip of Lucid Blade ripping through empty space not through his palm but in the sword itself. Almost as if the nerves of his avatar had escaped from his hand into the hilt and stretched up along the blade, all the way to the tip.

The more he practiced swinging, the stronger the sensation got, then changed, weakened, and got stronger again. He gave up on going out to fight Enemies, and in the garden where the sakura leaves danced into the air, he intently brought his sword up and down again.

At some point, that iron sphere had appeared in front of him. The perfect iron sphere two meters across that shone dully; the imagined object he had slashed at repeatedly when he was trying to shift to the Highest Level under his own power.

Haruyuki overwrote the iron sphere he’d produced with a new image. From the polished iron to roughly cut tungsten. The most powerful armor material in the Accelerated World, which covered the body of the Carbide Wolf, Wolfram Cerberus, and would likely repel even the “extreme” of Omega style.

From that day on, Haruyuki swung Lucid Blade with this massive tungsten sphere as his opponent. He didn’t eat or take breaks, simply collapsed on the gravel and slept when he reached his limit. And when he woke up again, he immediately reached for his sword. The sensation that his nerves were running through the blade was gradually refined, and every time the tip of his sword collided with the tungsten sphere, a sharp pain shot through the core of his head.

Here, he shaved away the excess power of his blows without reducing their speed. When he did, he was able to launch a blow that didn’t cause any pain at all, which was accompanied by a remarkably crisp metallic ting, just once out of every few hundred swings. It was the same as when he thrust his sword hand at iron armor. The one blow, in which the timing and the movement of his entire body were perfectly aligned down to the single joint, conveyed all the energy to his target and produced zero backlash.

Each day, he swung his sword thousands of times, and each day, the number of critical hits he managed increased bit by bit. Even still, the tungsten sphere was not so much as scratched by his efforts. It sat in the garden of Oumutei looking just as it had when he first imagined it. On the 145th day, the real last day this time, once he’d succeeded in a series of ten critical hits, Haruyuki stroked the gray sphere gently and said good-bye before leaving Oumutei.

In the Change of the previous day, the stage had turned into a Moonlight stage.

The shortest route to the mustering point at the Ministry of Defense was down Gaien Higashi-dori, but since there was a risk of encountering large Enemies that way, he chose back roads as he headed south, and when he finally joined up with Yasukuni Street at Akebonobashi Station, some familiar Burst Linkers were facing off against a Beast-class Enemy up ahead. And that was that.

He had fought the difficult Enemy Flame Blower just once before. He flew into the battlefield in a trance and severed the armor of its weak point with the “extreme,” and it was then that Haruyuki finally realized he was not his usual self. The supposedly high-resistance armor felt like semihard jelly beneath his blade. If this was a kind of awakened state due to his continued image training against the tungsten sphere, it definitely wouldn’t last long.

Given this firm conviction, Haruyuki told Cobalt Blade that he would keep going to tackle the mission. However…

“Aah, aah, aah! Why are you so beat up and rusted when we haven’t even started the mission yet?!”

Welcoming Haruyuki when he arrived at Gijo Plaza was this scolding shout from Lime Bell.

“Your health gauge has to be down with all this! How much you got left?!”

“N-no, it’s not down as far as it looks,” he protested. “The scratches and rust are just from sleeping on the gravel and getting stuck in the rain in the Primeval Forest stage.”

“What?! Why were you doing stuff like that?! At least sleep here for an hour!”

Thus ordered, it was hard to come out and say no. He sought help with his eyes from Cyan Pile, who was standing next to her, but his other childhood friend only shook his head silently.

“Corvus, could I bother you a minute?” Sky Raker called to him, and Haruyuki looked to the side. The avatar in the white dress seated in the wheelchair continued, the hat of the same color tilting to one side. “As far as I know, there is no such thing as a ‘zone’ system-wise in the Accelerated World. If it’s something that derives from the person’s mental state, then it won’t last a few seconds, much less an hour. If you feel like you’ve grasped something essential here, Corvus, it won’t vanish just because you take a little nap.”

“…B-but…” Touching the hilt of Lucid Blade with one hand, he persisted, “I want to do everything I can to help Kuroyukihime. To the point where I actually don’t even want to put my sword in its scabbard. If we have another hour, then doing some practice swings would be way better than sleeping.”

Raker sighed a little before opening her mouth to say something. But before she could, a childish yet resolute voice rang out.

“C, if you intend to be thoroughly prepared, then now is the time you should rest.”

When he shifted his gaze, Ardor Maiden’s cute eye lenses were staring straight at him.

“Mei…”

“That is not advice. That is an order from one of the Four Elements!” Maiden declared and sat formally on her knees in front of one of the pillars lining the corridor. She patted her lap wrapped in crimson hakama- style armor. “Mmm!”

“Mmm…?”

“Mmm!!”

“…”

He looked at Takumu again, and this time, he nodded together with Chiyuri. Haruyuki gave up at last and lay down beside Utai, putting his head on her small lap.

There’s no way I can sleep in this situation! he thought.

“Springtime haze lingers, as though a bloom of the distant moon.”

The instant Utai murmured this bit of verse, a warm breeze blew through and caressed his face. The scent of flowers. The bright sunlight. His consciousness was sucked away to a distant place.

But he quickly snapped his eyes open with a gasp and blinked repeatedly. No, whoa, I’m really gonna fall asleep here.

“Did you sleep well, C?” Utai asked, having lent him her lap as a pillow.

“Huh?” Haruyuki stared up intently at her cherubic face mask. “I just drowsed for a second there.”

“What are you talking about, Crow? You’ve been out like a light on Mei’s lap for fifty minutes now!” Chiyuri told him from above.

He bounced up. “What?!” And then he saw that indeed, the number of duel avatars gathered in the plaza had nearly doubled from the time he borrowed Ardor Maiden’s lap. And more than anything else, his head was impossibly clear. Forget fifty minutes; it felt like he had slept a full eight hours.

He hurriedly grabbed the hilt of Lucid Blade, but it didn’t feel like that connection had been cut off. It seemed Fuko had been right about his “zone.” He looked around, wondering where Fuko was anyway, and saw her talking with the leaders from the other Legions in the center of Gijo Plaza. So he turned back to Utai, still sitting formally on her knees, and sat up on his own knees before bowing his head to her.

“Um. Mei, thank you so much. I feel really refreshed.”

“That’s wonderful, then. I’ll make a lap pillow for you again anytime.”

“O-okay, please and thank you,” Haruyuki mumbled in reply, and the three members of Petit Paquet giggled behind Chiyuri. Shrinking into himself, he let his gaze wander farther. Magenta Scissor was also standing with the three girls, but naturally, their Legion Master, Black Lotus, was not there, and neither was Centaurea Sentry. She must have stayed with Kuroyukihime in the real world. In her place, someone else, someone he wanted to see before the mission no matter what, appeared.

“Lead!” Haruyuki shouted and almost pitched forward as he stood up and dashed his way over to the indigo samurai who stood next to Chiyuri and Takumu.

The young warrior bowed in greeting. “Aah, Crow. Excuse me for being la—”

“I’m sorry!!” Haruyuki interrupted the other Burst Linker and bowed deeply. When he finally lifted his head after holding this pose for a full three seconds, he met the eyes of a bewildered Trilead Tetroxide.

“Wh-what’s the matter, Crow?”

“It’s just…at the Legion meeting before, we decided you’d be the attacker, and then I went and enhanced my own sword.”

The air of a clear smile bled out from Trilead’s face mask. He raised both hands and clasped Haruyuki’s shoulders firmly. “I heard about the situation at the time of your encounter with the blacksmith. You made the right decision. There is no need for you to apologize.”

“But you’re a way better swordsman than I am,” Haruyuki protested.

“No, I understand. You did some very difficult training for today, did you not? And saying that you snatched away the most dangerous attacker role and then apologizing for it, that is what one would call being far too nice.” Lead smiled again before patting Haruyuki’s shoulders and lowering his hands.

Takumu chuckled. “Well, that sort of thing is really just how H—Crow is. I could tell at a glance you did some serious sword training, Crow. All the Burst Linkers here have zero objections to entrusting you with the attacker role.”

“Zero…?” Haruyuki murmured, and then suddenly, Chiyuri whacked him on the back. He didn’t need to be told out loud that she meant he should stand tall.

If Takumu, Trilead, and the rest of the people there recognized Haruyuki’s value, then it was all thanks to Centaurea Sentry, who had given him close instruction over these long four months. When he closed his eyes, he moved past the wall between worlds and sent a thought to Seri, who would have been in the Arita living room.

Thank you, Maestro. I am definitely going to cut into Inti’s core.

Naturally, he got no response, but he felt like a single sakura petal drifted across the back of his eyelids.

July 23, 5:00 AM.

The ninety-six Burst Linkers from five Legions who had gathered in Gijo Plaza moved eastward on Yasukuni Street in rows of four. Their scouts, who had returned a little earlier—Blood Leopard, who had remarkable mobility, and Mustard Salticid, who excelled in enemy detection—had confirmed there were no Enemies wandering along the road. If Oscillatory personnel were indeed monitoring Kitanomaru Park, there was no way they wouldn’t notice the approach of such a large group. But even if they immediately returned to the real world through a portal, no matter how veteran the Linker, it would take a minimum of ten seconds to contact their comrades and get the timing sorted out. That was two hours, forty-six minutes, forty seconds on this side. Since the Inti mission of necessity had to be a short, decisive battle, if they succeeded, that would be plenty of time to regenerate the kings and retreat.

Although they were a large group of nearly a hundred, almost none of them were talking. Bathed in the moonlight, they marched forward in quiet formation.

When the outer moat came into view ahead of them, Aqua Current, walking on Haruyuki’s right, said slowly in a hush, “I remember—” But then she added right away, “No, never mind.”

Haruyuki was about to ask her what she remembered, and then he understood. Three years earlier—August 2044. After their Legion Master, the Black King, had pushed Red Rider to total point loss and a general attack from the six Great Legions became impossible to avoid, the members of the first Nega Nebulus had launched an attack on the Castle to make the Black King take back her statement of retirement. Naturally, Haruyuki hadn’t seen it, but he’d heard they’d advanced on the Castle under the night sky of an Aurora stage.

But the strength of the Four Gods, the Super-class Enemies guarding the four gates, was beyond anything they’d imagined, so Nega Nebulus divided into four squads for the attack and was annihilated a mere 120 seconds from the start of the attack. Ardor Maiden had fallen into an Unlimited EK at Suzaku’s southern gate, Aqua Current at Seiryu’s eastern gate, and Graphite Edge at Genbu’s northern gate, and only Black Lotus and Sky Raker, who had attacked Byakko’s western gate, succeeded in escaping, thanks to Raker’s Gale Thruster. The Legion crumbled, and the Black Legion’s flag disappeared from the Accelerated World for two years.

Akira was likely seeing their march from that time on top of the formation heading toward Kitanomaru Park now. And then she’d realized she was implying an unfortunate future and taken back her words.

Abruptly, Fuko, moving forward in her wheelchair to Akira’s right, grabbed Akira’s hand. Reflexively, Haruyuki squeezed Akira’s other hand. The slender hand covered in flowing water twitched but soon squeezed back. Utai, to the far right, grabbed Fuko’s hand and connected the four of them.

Walking slightly ahead, Chiyuri, Takumu, Lead, and Niko also joined hands. When he looked back, he saw that Shihoko, Satomi, Yume, and Rui had done the same. The wave of hand-holding spread forward and backward from Nega Nebulus in the center, and the members of the other Legions joined hands happily—or else somewhat shyly.

The twenty-four rows of four crossed the outer moat over the Ichigaya bridge and passed in front of Yasukuni Shrine, now transformed into a chalky palace. They went up the gentle slope, and when they reached the intersection at Kudanshita, he finally saw it.

The flat land spreading out on the right side of the road was Kitanomaru Park. And beyond it, the massive ball of flames burning red-hot in the place where the Nippon Budokan would have been—the Legend-class Enemy the Sun God Inti. The distance between them was perhaps three hundred meters. A faint heat he hadn’t felt when he’d scouted the location with Sentry crackled against his avatar’s armored surface.

At the head of the army, Cobalt Blade raised her left hand swiftly, her right still firm on the hilt of her sword. The ninety-six Burst Linkers came to a halt at once. In the back of his brain, he replayed what Cobalt and Manganese had said right before their departure:

“Listen, Crow. We have seven lines for the synergy to charge Lime Bell’s special-attack gauge. We did a test run while you were sleeping, but even with all seven lines on full blast, the longest Citron Call could continuously fire was seventy-three seconds.”

“Taking into consideration escape time, you can’t use the whole seventy-three seconds. If you haven’t managed to cut Inti’s core after sixty seconds, escape. In the worst case, you also end up in Unlimited EK, and if that happens, we won’t be able to plan our next attempt.”

Sixty seconds.

That was an extremely short time limit for an attack on a Legend-class Enemy, but Omega style wagered everything on a single blow. Whether or not Haruyuki’s “extreme” worked on Inti’s core, the result would be clear in half of those sixty seconds.

At the Legion meeting two days earlier, Fuko had said the ideal would be to create three lines of gauge-recovery synergy. And the executive members of the Great Legions had racked their brains to produce seven lines for him. Whatever happened, he had to live up to their expectations.

Bringing her hand down, Cobalt called out in a clear voice: “From here on out, Incarnate System is permitted! Naturally, Enemies may be drawn in from any and all directions, but the non-synergy group will repel them with general force, so the synergy team and the attacker are not to worry about the rear. Execute your mission with all your might!”

From beside her, Manganese shouted next: “The five contact Linkers are already on standby in front of the portal at Chiyoda Ward Office, directly east of Kitanomaru Park! Once they confirm Inti’s defeat, they will leave immediately and inform the kings. When the kings regenerate, we will all guard them as we move to the ward office and leave to complete the mission! Does anyone have questions?!”

Not a single person raised their hand. Haruyuki also had nothing left to ask at this point, but next to him, Akira murmured, “Um, who is the contact for us anyway?”

“Ash.” It was Fuko on Akira’s other side who responded. “He’s already on standby at the ward office.”

“Huh,” Haruyuki said. “R—I mean, Ash is?”

“I thought about asking someone from the Petit Paquet group at first, but then I got a message that Lotus and Ash were staying over at your house, Corvus, so I left it to him instead. It’s probably two seconds faster than sending a mail after bursting out, so it works out well.” Fuko smiled as she told him this, and in her voice, he sensed something scary. He bobbed his head up and down.

“We begin the mission to attack the Sun God Inti now!” Cobalt raised her voice once again from the front of the army. “Anyone with buff abilities, cast everything you’ve got on us now!”

At this order, light of every color shone from all parts of the group. Ardor Maiden changed the bow in her right hand to a fan and danced gracefully. A veil of light enveloped the armor of everyone there and then disappeared, sinking into it.

“We go down the hill and charge into the park through the Tayasumon gate!” Manganese yelled when the buffs were finished. “Once the synergy team is deployed, the attack begins! Go!”

Nearly one hundred Burst Linkers thrust fists high into the air instead of issuing a battle cry. Cobalt and Manganese looked back and also brandished their left hands before throwing them down. The enormous army began to race down Yasukuni Street.

After two hundred meters, they turned right, crossed the bridge over the inner moat, and slipped through Tayasumon gate, now transformed into a splendid archway. And the Sun God Inti appeared in all its majesty once more after disappearing from sight momentarily.

There weren’t even fifty meters separating them from the large ball of flames at that point. The moonlight pouring down from the night sky was erased by the crimson flames, and an intense wave of heat scorched the air. The ground where Inti’s lower half touched it had become a lake of magma, melted red-hot, which made an unsettling burbling noise.

But the elite members of the synergy team did not flinch. Instead, they deployed themselves in the chalky plaza in seven small teams, and then they were awash in the light of special attacks and Incarnate techniques. In the center of it all, Lime Bell readied the Enhanced Armament on her left arm, Choir Chime.

“Anytime you’re ready, Crow!”

Guided by Chiyuri’s voice, Haruyuki opened wide the wings on his back. From even farther back, the voices of the defense team joined in.

“You got this, Crow!”

“I know you can do it, C!”

“Get in there, Corvus!”

Cheers from the other Legions soon drowned out those voices.

Haruyuki took a deep breath. “Here I go!”

He drew Lucid Blade from its scabbard and pushed off the ground. He vibrated the ten metal fins that made up his wings and flew at top speed. The two-meter ball of flames that had caused the instantaneous deaths of the five kings grew closer and closer. When he charged into the heat-death zone, Chiyuri shouted her technique name—

“Citron Caaaaaaaall!!”

—and at basically the same time, a heat so intense he almost couldn’t believe it cooked his metallic armor to the point of fusion in an instant. The moment his health gauge started to drop, a lime-green light enveloped him from behind. Citron Call Mode I, the Watch Witch’s—Lime Bell’s—special attack, rewound time for the target and recovered any damage, an ability even rarer than Silver Crow’s flight. Its drainage of her special-attack gauge was all that much more intense for that, but if the other Burst Linkers kept on recovering her gauge, in theory, they could create an invulnerable state. Supposedly.

Even after time started rewinding, Haruyuki’s health gauge continued to drop incrementally. At that pace, he wouldn’t last until the sixty-second time limit given to him by Cobalt and Manganese. More likely, fifty—no, forty-five seconds was the limit.

Works for me!! Haruyuki roared in a corner of his heart and lifted both hands to brandish Lucid Blade.

He charged into the center of the swirling nuclear fusion. In an opening there, he caught a glimpse of the thorny crown that held Inti’s body—the Arc Luminary’s circlet.

If he could destroy that crown, Inti would escape the White King’s control and roll off somewhere following its own original movement patterns. The kings would be able to regenerate then, but in the past, the White King had confined the blacksmith NPC Mr. Smith and gotten him to enhance the Luminary to void the effects of fire damage. In which case, there was no reason she wouldn’t have also enhanced it to be immune to physical damage at the same time. And if that were the case, the principle of Omega style probably wouldn’t work on it. As Sentry said, Omega style wasn’t an Incarnate technique, so it couldn’t go beyond the system. Thus, Haruyuki tossed aside the option of slicing into the crown and plunged deeper into the flames.

He saw it. No, felt it.

Deep in the crimson flames was a spherical body shining like lava. This was the core of the Sun God Inti—its true body.

Forty seconds left.

The core was nearly fifteen meters across. From extremely close-up, it was nothing more than a gently curving wall, but given that it had some curvature, he would be able to find the minuscule. He caught that lone point not with his vision but with image power and brought down his beloved sword.

Lucid Blade sliced through the swirling flames and closed in on Inti’s true body. The blade was instantly red-hot. The effects of Citron Call didn’t extend to Enhanced Armaments; if he hadn’t gotten Mr. Smith to enhance it to nullify flame damage, the sword would have evaporated without ever reaching the main body.

But his blade blocked the high heat with the crimson light it emitted, and the tip at last touched the enemy’s body.

There was just one tier to the health gauge displayed in Haruyuki’s field of view. Even Einherjar, whom he’d fought at Midtown Tower, had had four levels, but—no, he could wonder about that later. Right now, he had to think of nothing but cutting the main body and knocking that single tier flying.

His sword and the nerves of his hands connected once more, and he felt Inti’s body at the tip of the blade.

It was hard. Harder than the tungsten ball he’d conjured at the end of his training. Such a fearsome physical density. Even Flame Blower’s armor was like a cracker compared with this core.

He was going to be repelled. Shot through with this fleeting premonition, Haruyuki gritted his teeth. His own health gauge was already down to 70 percent. He’d be able to attack only two more times at most, and if his first attack was repelled, then the result would be the same for the second and third.

Kuroyukihime.

A vision of her rose up in the back of his mind, the way he’d seen her last—lying on her side, sleeping, her face innocent.

At that very moment, she was waiting impatiently in the Arita living room for the notice of Inti’s destruction. Whether she’d be able to escape from the Unlimited EK rested on this blow struck by Haruyuki.

Over the sleeping face, he saw a series of eight digits: 20320930—the number printed beneath the bar code on the back of her neck.

He wanted to save her.

Not just from the Unlimited EK. He wanted to save the Kuroyukihime who had been born a machine child and lived her life with a deep sense of alienation. He wanted to help her. He wanted to see the end of this world with her.

You can do it.

He heard a voice.

You got this.

I’m sure you can do it.

You will do this.

I know you can do this.

I’m telling you, you can do it.

So many voices flowed through his body.

Yes, you of all people may accomplish it. You, our first and last student.

Now, have faith…And cut!!

“Extreme!!!”

Haruyuki turned the entirety of his will into power and focused it on the single, minimal point where his blade touched Inti’s body, and he brought the sword straight down.

Keeeeeeeee!!

He heard a sharp, fleeting squeal.

And then he saw it:

A pure-white line stretching out along the surface of the red-hot body. It finally reached the top and bottom poles and kept going around the rear to connect.

The silver crown that encircled the red orbit broke apart and scattered soundlessly.

And then the main body of the Legend-class Enemy the Sun God Inti slowly split into two. A stream of incredible heat energy spiraled out, jetted up, and burned the night sky of the Moonlight stage red.

…Is it over…?

Although he felt it in his sword, Haruyuki couldn’t quite believe it in his head, and he gaped at the endless stream of energy. The spiraling flames scattered far and wide in the distant sky, like a twisted thread unraveling, and made an enormous red flower bloom above.

The crimson cascade seemed like it would rise forever, but eventually, it gradually weakened and grew narrower, pulsing irregularly, until it disappeared.

At the same time as Inti’s health gauge was depleted, the bisected body was dyed blue and then shattered, flinging out more fragments than any other Enemy he’d ever defeated. A massive amount of burst points was added to his total, and it seemed like several items also dropped, but Haruyuki couldn’t even put the lowered Lucid Blade away, much less check his storage.

We’ll have to split the points and items among everyone who took part in the mission. This thought absently wandering through his mind, he finally lifted his beloved sword.

The thin blade was nicked and gouged here and there, and several cracks ran across it. This damage wouldn’t be recovered until he logged in again.

Thanks, he told the sword that had endured Inti’s flames and gently sheathed it. With his left hand still on the hilt, he continued hovering.

“Crow, you did it! But we helped a little!”

Hearing Chiyuri’s voice, he hurriedly looked back. He saw Lime Bell (who had healed him), the synergy team (who had kept charging her special-attack gauge), and the defense team (who were in a semicircle around them). And farther back, he saw strange shadows writhing. The synergy team had used Incarnate techniques, and that signature had drawn nearby Enemies.

Fortunately, they all seemed to be lesser or Wild class, with no Beast class among them, but there were a lot of them. If the Burst Linkers didn’t clear them away before Kuroyukihime and the other kings dived in, he didn’t know what would happen.

The contact personnel for each Legion on standby at the Chiyoda Ward Office would have left via the portal after seeing Inti’s demise. It would take a minimum of two seconds for them to wake up in the real world and contact their masters and then for the kings to call the acceleration command. That was thirty minutes and change on this side. They had to smash the herd of Enemies before that.

“Bell, let’s go!” Haruyuki shouted, scraping together the last of his remaining strength. He landed next to Chiyuri, and they both started running. The various members of the synergy team grinned at Haruyuki and gave him a thumbs-up as they scattered toward the front line.

Here, finally, the reality hit him—that he had crushed the Sun God Inti, a Legend-class Enemy no one had ever been able to defeat before. But of course, it wasn’t something he had done alone. If it hadn’t been for everyone there with him in that moment, the many people who had guided him in his life, and the rivals who had honed him, the feat would have been utterly impossible.

We did it, Kuroyukihime! We did it, Maestro! Haruyuki sent the thought toward the women in the real world as he ran even harder to lend his strength to Cyan Pile and Magenta Scissor fighting a lizard-type Enemy with two heads.