Accel World Vol 2 Chapter 8 (2/2)
“What, want to fight?”
Between the two Kings face to face, giving off red and blue purple sparks, Haruyuki and Tak.u.mu desperately pushed them apart with ‘there there’.
- Then.
Suddenly, a remarkably strong wind came down from the Suns.h.i.+ne City huge tower, and Haruyuki involuntarily closed his eyes. Niko whispered ‘O’ sound. Continuing, Kuroyukihime said,
“There, Haruyuki-kun, look. It’s «Transition».”
“Tr... transition?”
As Haruyuki repeated what was said, he looked up and saw - .
The world’s landscape itself rapidly changing, an extraordinary scene.
The demonic city with just blue black steel and desolate ground, coming from the east direction, was covered by an aura like light veil.
Wherever that curtain touched, the street-scape that was bare cold steel material, changed to an appearance of large trees with thick trunks lined up. The trees used round openings for entrance, trunks twisted to make stairs, and thick branches suspended together to form bridges. Just like, a fairy country in a fantasy movie.
The many layers of lush leaves, faint blue phosph.o.r.escence shone in the darkness of night, lighting up what’s under the forest. In front of Haruyuki who stood there in a daze, a rainbow aura came up, covering everything with rumbling sounds and pa.s.sing behind him.
“Ah... S-Suns.h.i.+ne is...”
An instant before, the place that was the huge tower where a demon king might have lived, a huge tree that rose to the sky stood proudly there, and Haruyuki held his breath.
From the golden green moss covered trunk, it branched out and rose up, with the tree top melting into the clouds far above. From the trunk, here and there small scale forest like terrace extended, and blue light particles spill onto the ground. A majesty just like a world tree.
However, why did the field changed to this?
When he looked questioningly at her, Kuroyukihime’s wounded avatar showed a smile and answered.
“Remember, when we first dived into this field, I said the attribute was «Chaos».”
“Y... yea, now that you mention it...”
“That means, this world’s attribute changes with a certain period of time. However most of them are brutal looking. You are lucky, it’s not often that you are shown this beautiful appearance.”
“Ah... ah.”
Haruyuki deeply breathed in the air that had also changed to a sweet smell, and nodded again and again.
There were painful and tough continuous battles, but he was glad to come to this place, he felt for the first time.
‘- I still, don’t have enough power to fight here. But, eventually I will become strong enough to freely fly in this world’s sky. From now on, there will be many uncool losses though... someday, for sure.’
“...I want to say, ‘Carry me again to fly around’, but. With the «Transition», Enemy will be repopped[1], so it’s dangerous to loiter around. Here, we should obediently head back.”
To Niko’s voice, Kuroyukihime also nodded.
“Let’s do that. ...Oops, before that. I almost forgot something important.”
She looked at everyone once, then continued in a stricter voice.
“...Everyone, open your status window, and check the item storage. And if the «Disaster Armor» is there... erase it completely. So the same thing won’t happen a second time.”
Haruyuki opened his eyes wide.
That’s right, they must confirm that.
Two and half years ago, after the Pure Color Seven Kings subjugated the previous generation Chrome Disaster, the Kings probably did the same thing. And then everyone there reported that the Armor did not move to them.
However that was a lie. There is no proof, but the Armor should have dropped to the Yellow King, Yellow Radio’s storage. The Yellow King hid that, and recently contacted Cherry Rook who belonged to the Red legion, and gave the Armor to him. The devilish Armor caused the no invasion treaty to be broken, to use that crime to take Niko’s head.
Like Kuroyukihime said, this tragedy should not be allowed to happen again. Haruyuki extended his right hand and touched his own HP gauge, and from status window that opened, he moved to his item storage.
That window - was completely empty. No matter how much he stared at it, there was not a single line of text.
“...Nothing.”
Looking up and answering that, next Niko said ‘Me neither’ and Tak.u.mu also ‘Me neither’ while shaking his head. Finally Kuroyukihime murmured ‘Me neither’, and the four were silent for a moment.
The fifth generation Chrome Disaster that is Cherry Rook, with Niko’s «Judgement Blow» forcefully uninstalled his Brain Burst. The enhanced armament, when its owner lost all points, with a certain probability move to the storage of the one who defeated its owner. Then this time, it finally completely disappeared without moving - that was probably it.
Since you cannot see other’s status window, there is a possibility here that someone might have hid it like the Yellow King. However.
“It disappeared, this time for sure.”
Haruyuki announced in a clear voice.
Soon Niko also confirmed.
“Yea. We are not like that Radio b.a.s.t.a.r.d, that guy... after fighting with Disaster, I don’t think there’s any idiot here who wants that for themselves. The «Disaster Armor» disappeared. We completely annihilated it.”
“Yea... That explosion, could be seen from south Ikebukuro. It’s proof that it disappeared, right.”
Tak.u.mu also nodded, and finally Kuroyukihime too clearly announced.
“All right. Yellow King’s confrontation will be left till next time, for now - Mission Complete. Then, let’s head back and celebrate.”
“Oh, let’s open a bottle of champagne.”
“Fool, children should drink juice.”
While arguing with each other, the two Kings walked out. Tak.u.mu and Haruyuki, with wry smiles, chased after them.
At the base of the world tree, there was a big opening, and inside, the blue light that he saw from the steel tower was lit. Aiming for the bright swirl that is the «Leap Point», Haruyuki who was at the back of the line, in his ears - .
He thought he heard a sound that was not a voice.
“...What?”
He involuntarily turned back, but of course no one was there.
“What’s wrong, Haru?”
Hearing Tak.u.mu’s voice, he hurriedly turned back, and shook his head.
“No, nothing! ...Ah, I am ten times more exhausted than a normal «Duel» somehow. I am so hungry... can’t take it anymore...”
“Hey hey, let me remind you, we just ate cake in the real world a few seconds ago.”
“Arg, I forgot...”
While lightly bantering with his best friend, he pa.s.sed through the entrance surrounded by thick roots.
The world tree’s root became a wide half ball shaped dome. In the center of that, like a mirage, floated a blue portal that sealed the real world Ikebukuro scene.
While following his three comrades and walking forward, Haruyuki looked back once more.
‘...Must be my imagination.’
He whispered that in his chest, and soon turned to face forward.
However, at the moment he jumped towards the slowly turning portal, a strange sound again echoed from behind his head. That, he heard it like this.
‘- Want to feed.’
References
↑ MMO term, means reappear sometime after death.
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