Kirito.
It's all right. I'll go.
After I've rescued the villagers, I'll come right back.
Kirito!
Raids
That's...
Advance! Advance!
Why don't they flee south where there aren't any enemies?
Amayori, wait here until I summon you!
If the enemy breaches our line of defense, use lethal force!
Listen! Don't let a single one get this far into the village!
That's...
We can't possibly defend against them here.
Please have everyone take the south road to evacuate!
Don't be ridiculous!
Abandon my mansion— No, I mean the village and run off?
If you leave now, you can get away without being caught by the goblins.
Your possessions or your lives, which is more important?
"Form a circle in the plaza, and tighten up our defenses."
Those are Chief Man-at-Arms Zink's orders.
In a situation like this, even I, the village elder, must follow such orders.
That is imperial law.
Let's do as Sister says.
Father.
Selka.
Father.
Have you ever once known Sister to be wrong?
No, even I can tell.
If we don't do something...
we'll all be killed!
Flee?
You're just a child, so stay out of this!
The village must be protected!
I-I see.
I get it!
You're the one who let those monsters from the land of darkness into the village, aren't you, Alice?
Years ago, when you crossed the End Mountains, you were tainted by the power of darkness!
You're a witch!
This girl is a fearsome witch!
As a knight, I hereby revoke Chief Man-at-Arms Zink's order.
I order all villagers gathered in this plaza to evacuate to the forest south of here,
with those who are armed in the lead.
K-Knight? What are you talking about?
There's no such Calling in this village!
Claiming to be a knight just because you can somewhat handle a sword.
What would happen if the knights in the capital heard about this?
My name is Alice.
I am the overseer of the capital city of Centoria.
An Integrity Knight... of the Axiom Church.
Ranked third!
Alice Synthesis Thirty!
I-I-Integrity Knight?
Sister, you're...?
I'm sorry I kept it from you all this time.
This is the true penalty I was given, and my true duty.
No. I always believed!
That there was no way you could be a criminal.
I shall follow your command, Lady Integrity Knight.
Those of you who are armed, take the lead and guide the villagers to the south gate!
Once you've left the village, evacuate to the forest south of the clearing!
Leave the wounded and the elderly to us!
We'll lead the others out! Follow us!
Father, please take care of everyone, and of Selka and Mother.
Lady Knight.
Take care as well.
Sister, don't push yourself, okay?
Amayori!
What a horde!
Retreat! Retreat!
Burn them all!
N-No way.
I-Is that Sister's...?
A dragon?
Wh-What are you doing here?
There's no time to explain.
Please evacuate with the others.
Hurry!
I-Ium woman. I'll kill and devour you!
From now on, I'm going to fight for what I want to.
To protect my sister and my parents.
And...
I will fight to protect the people of the Human Empire Kirito and Eugeo tried to preserve.
Thank you, Kirito.
I'll be fine now.
I'm sure I'll still hesitate, but I'm going to move forward.
For you, and for what I seek.
I am Alice, knight of the Human Empire!
As long as I'm here, you'll never find the blood and carnage you desire.
Return through the cave to your homeland!
Enhance Armament!
Out of my way!
If it's just one little girl, I, Morikka the Foot Harvester, will...
Wh-What?
Storm and churn...
...my flowers!
This is the wall separating the Human Empire and the land of darkness!
Even if you unseal the caves, as long as we knights exist,
we will never allow you to corrupt this land!
Make your choice!
Either advance and fall into a sea of blood,
or retreat and escape to the land of darkness!
I'll make you a new doll!
Yay!
I think deep down, Father wanted to come and see you off.
I know.
Someday, when I've fulfilled all of my duties,
I'll come back here as plain Alice Zuberg.
I think that's when I'll be able to say...
"Father, I'm home."
I'll definitely return to this village one day.
Even if I fall on the battlefield, my heart definitely will.
Monday, July 6, 2026 2:07 PM Ocean Turtle
Main Control Room Ocean Turtle 33 minutes after the attack
Hey! It's deserted.
Looks like they ran away.
Where are they?
My guess would be... in the Sub Control Room.
Sub Control Room Ocean Turtle 23 minutes after the attack
We're connected to the backup power now!
Now we can use the Sub Control Room.
If Kirito doesn't regain consciousness, I will never forgive you as long as I live!
I know that.
I'll see to it that Kirito recovers, no matter what.
It'll be all right.
I promise you it'll be all right.
He'll definitely come back to you.
Yes, of course.
I'm sorry I overreacted.
Reporting in, sir.
Confirming that the primary and secondary bulkheads have been completely sealed,
and that all noncombatants have been evacuated to the bow block.
Good work. How long will the bulkheads hold?
The enemy could break through with explosives, but that's unlikely.
Near the primary bulkhead...
...is the Lightcube Cluster, right?
All right. Let's sum up the situation here.
Lt. Nakanishi, please report the casualties.
Yes, sir.
Minor injuries to three researchers on the civilian block team.
Two heavy injuries and two minor injuries to the Self-Defense Force.
None of them are life-threatening.
Any damage to the ship?
The bulkheads in the passageway from the bottom dock to the Main Control Room can't be controlled remotely.
Even worse, now that the main power line has been cut,
even though the auxiliary line is providing a stable power supply to all areas,
we can't rotate the screws without rebooting the control system.
Just like a sea turtle without its fins, huh?
Plus, it's got a shark latched onto its belly.
Yes. Sectors 1 through 12 in the Lower Shaft... have all been completely taken over.
So they've seized Main Control, STL Room One, and...
...even the nuclear reactor, huh?
I guess the silver lining is that their intention isn't to destroy.
The question is, who are these guys?
Higa, do you have any thoughts?
Well.
Let's see.
Going by the color and specs of their gear, they don't belong to any official army.
And from their average size, we can assume that they're not Asian.
So at the very least, they're not with a domestic special forces.
How lucky for us, huh?
And there's one more thing we can say with certainty.
These people know about the existence of Project Alicization.
Yeah, you got that right.
I mean, they went straight to the Main Control Room.
Which means their goal is the true bottom-up artificial intelligence.
To seize A.L.I.C.E.
Luckily, we were able to lock down Main Control in time.
So now they can't interfere with the simulation or eject Alice's Fluctlight from the cluster.
But the same goes for us, right?
Well, yeah, that's right.
It's no longer possible to use commands to eject Alice's Lightcube externally.
But Mr. Kiku, at this point, wouldn't you call this a win?
I mean, they can't access the cluster by physical or informational means.
So now if our escort ship sends some reinforcements,
I'm telling you, it's game over. Game over!
Not that we know what kind of game it is.
And that's the problem.
Tell me, will the Asahi take action?
Well, about that...
The Asahi was ordered by Fleet Command in Yokosuka to stand by and maintain its current distance.
They've determined that we've been taken hostage by our attackers, it seems.
Most likely, those men in black have a back channel to the top brass in the SDF.
There won't be an order for the Asahi to attack until after Alice's Lightcube has been secured.
Meaning that those guys aren't just terrorists?
This could be bad.
If they have any experts on their side, they might figure it out.
An operation within the Underworld, huh?
Now that they've taken control of STL Room One,
they can certainly execute commands via the virtual console installed in the Underworld.
What will happen if they do?
The target cube will be extracted from the Lightcube Cluster in the center of the Main Shaft,
and transported via air tube to the chosen control room.
There's an extraction hatch there.
And of course, there's one in the Main Control Room, as well.
We're going to retrieve Alice's Fluctlight from the Underworld before they can.
The only one who can do that is Kirito.
In other words, our last hope rests on his shoulders.
Higa, tell us. What's Kirito's condition?
To be concise...
he's teetering on the edge of the worst-case scenario.
The assault by the last Death Gun member left Kirito with damage to his neural network,
and to treat him, we blocked his memories and had him dive into Underworld like before.
But for some reason, his memories didn't get blocked.
Kirito was plunged into the Underworld as Kazuto Kirigaya, his real-world persona.
W-Wait a second!
Then he's been living as himself in the Underworld, where time's accelerated, for how long?
About two years.
That's how long Kirito has been interacting with the artificial Fluctlights of that world.
Knowing the entire time that they'll all be destroyed at the end of the current simulation.
That's probably why he went to the console in the Central Cathedral to contact the real world.
To ask you, Mr. Kiku to protect all of the Fluctlights.
And I'm sure it wasn't an easy thing for him to do.
But he did make it.
Since we were under attack, I couldn't check the logs,
but it seems like he lost some allies in the battle against the Axiom Church.
That's why, when he managed to get in contact with us,
he was berating himself harshly.
To put it another way, he was attacking his own Fluctlight.
At that moment, the men in black cut the power line,
which caused a short circuit, and the ensuing surge caused the STL to spike momentarily.
As a result, Kirito's self-destruction impulse was actualized and his ego was deactivated.
Ego... deactivated?
What does that mean?
Take a look at this.
Normally, where this black hole is, what you'd find is, to be precise...
...the self-image.
Self-image. One's conception as determined by the self, you mean?
That's correct.
Apparently, all our decision making passes through a "Yes/No" circuit inside our Fluctlights
that asks "Should I do this under these conditions, or not?"
For example, Rinko-senpai, have you ever ordered a second helping at a beef bowl place?
I haven't.
Even if your mind is like, "I want to have more. I could eat another bowl"?
That's right.
So in other words, that was the result of your self-image circuit processing.
In Kirito's case, his Fluctlight is largely unscathed,
but because the circuit in question is non-functional,
all he can do in his current state, most likely,
is reflexive reactions triggered by deeply ingrained memories.
I don't think he knows who he is, or what it is he needs to do,
and he can't speak voluntarily.
I believe that's his current state.
Next time: The Final Load Test.
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