Accel World Vol 4 Chapter 5 (1/2)

Chapter 5

The first thing he felt was a merciless chill, as if the season had reversed to three months back

He timidly opened his eyes, and only colors that went from white to blue expanded out across his entire vision

It was snow—and ice All of the surrounding terrain was formed out of thick ice, and pure white snow thinly covered it all The whole sky was filled with milk-colored clouds

“The «Ice and Snow» stage, huh I don’t like this one”

After Haruyuki looked to his right where the voice cairl-type avatar with ruby-like vivid cri antennas on her head

Her size was slightly smaller than that of Silver Crow Whether it was her face- round and cute lenses or her body which had ales, she could only be seen as a harmless mascot character

But this duel avatar was the body of the long-distance firepower deion «Prominence», Scarlet Rain

The Red King looked up at Haruyuki and spoke in a seely dissatisfied voice

“Hey Crow, is that metal armor cold resistant?”

“Y-Yes, on the whole…”

Nodding and shouting “Unfair!!”, she suddenly scooped up soainst Haruyuki’s back

“Uhyarue!”

“Come on, make this body rust! Come on, come on!”

“Hyoguu! W-When I say resistant, it’s only in tere, the c-cold itself is still the same!”

As he hopped away to escape froh was heard from a little ways away As he turned to look in that direction at the sae avatar with dark blue ar there with his arms folded Of course, it was Takumu—Cyan Pile

“O-Oh, that’s right, that’s right”

Scarlet Raina little ehed

“For the ti, I’ll say welcome to our Nerima area If it weren’t for this kind of situation, you’d be ih!”

She quickly spread her arain

The first thing he felt was that the wideness of the sky He i The three of the in a not very wide space that stood at an intersection of frozen roads, but alraphical objects that could obstruct their vision ithin sight

Only, he could see a slightly tall ice palace that was a little ways away from them to the northwest When he compared it to a map of the real world in his mind, it was probably the Nerie tower that grew hazier as if her it went, far away in the sky to the east That was probably the Sunshi+ne City in Ikebukuro within the Toshi+ht «Chrome Disaster» There were also no «Eneht

Haruyuki sucked a deep breath of cold air into his chest and then spoke

“This is a spacious and comfortable area, isn’t it!”

Just then, a howling flying sobll hit Silver Crow’s helht in the center

“S-Sorry that there isn’t anything here! We don’t have anything like your Suginami!!”

Shouting with her antennas standing on end, Niko turned away in another direction and continued

“Ah geez, the preface is over! We’re quickly starting the class! You guys sit down over there!”

Sensing that his words had pressed the anger switch of Nerima residents, Haruyuki looked at Takumu and then they both hurriedly sat down in the center of the intersection

As she folded her arht while briskly walking in front of the two of theed

The childishness she had been given off until now evaporated without a trace The light within her lenses became sharper, and it felt like her avatar’s body itself becaer

“I’ll say this first”

The voice she let out also had a tone that was clearer and e’s cold wind

“Before I teach you about the «Incarnate Syste”

Looking one by one at Haruyuki and Takuulped, Niko declared clearly

“You must never use an Incarnate technique outside of a situation where you are attacked with an Incarnate technique Promise that you will uphold this on your pride as Burst Linkers!”

“……U-Umm, is that because it’s cowardly to use it otherwise?”

When Haruyuki unconsciously asked that, Niko immediately denied it

“No It’s because, in this game, your true enemy is yourself Because ultimately, mind power exists not just to defeat enemies, but to confront your oeakness”

Haruyuki and Takumu couldn’t press the issue and say no Besides, they by no means wanted to learn about the Incarnate Systeht against the mind power-user Dusk Taker

Haruyuki and Takumu looked at each other for an instant, and then cried out “Yes!” at the same time

“Alright If you break this pro day in order to take responsibility for it, after all”

After nodding his head h speed, Haruyuki cautiously asked an additional question

“…U-Uuish between the appearance of a normal technique and an Incarnate technique…I feel that I can’t tell if I’m not hit by it…”

“Hey, you’ve already learned the bare basics, haven’t you?”

Niko let out an aht hand with a snap

“Listen well, Incarnate techniques have two big differences with special techniques…First, even if you use it, the special technique gauge doesn’t decrease!”

“Ah…yeah, c-certainly, that’s true…”

Haruyuki nodded once, but then iushed forth in him

“…But then, what do you do if you’re in the Unlie can’t be seen?”

Then Niko stuck out a second finger and—

“That is the second difference! It shi+nes!”

“S-shi+nes?”

Haruyuki shouted back that far too vague word Certainly, when ht» shi+ned white as its naness» also eht, but was that a system-like phenomenon that was common to all Incarnate techniques?

Hearing Haruyuki’s uncertain voice, Niko gave a thin smile

“It isn’t so spirit» Listen well, when using Incarnate techniques, our consciousness and duel avatars are connected to an «iination passes through the circuit, the systenals are processed as a particle-like effect without substance—in other words, as light Specifically…like this”

Niko tightly clenched her still struck-out right hand

Suddenly, her arm from her fist to near her elbow burst into red flaht covering and shaking over her arm

“…It also depends on the strength of your e that can be used in battle, it will definitely shi+ne like this We call this «Over-Ray[1]» Listen well, the phenoht like this never occurs except when activating the Incarnate Systeht, it’s only for an instant”

Abruptly putting out the flames, Niko spoke to sum it up

“In other words, if an enemy avatar shi+nes with an aura like just now and e doesn’t decrease, that’s an Incarnate technique But…even in such a situation, if you can run away, then run away Fight back with mind power only in battles that you can’t concede no matter what Understood!?”

—Naturally, they had the question of ‘why does it have to be restricted so strongly?’ But, Niko, aiting for their reply, was surrounded by an intense inti, so Haruyuki didn’t question it any further

“…Yes, understood!”

He shouted that out in a single voice along with Taku finally seemed satisfied and nodded

“Good Then, with this the preface is over”

Folding her arh and then—

Niko suddenly said some unexpected words

“Right now, you guys should be thinking this ‘Since its use is so insistently restricted, the «Incarnate Syste can be done’ But, that’s a big mistake”

“…Eh……?”

Feeling far ’s inti air, Haruyuki unconsciously raised his voice

“N-No way Mind power should be able to make the impossible possible…”

“No Listen well, hty power Drive this into your brains first”

After declaring that in a tone that ave an imperceptible smile over her mouth and continued

“You seeree?”

Sing his saliva, Haruyuki nervously nodded

“Y…Yes Because, I…experienced just how a hit by that power and by attacking with it myself”

“Hmph, you seem rather confident Okay, stand up”

Obeying her raised index finger, he tiaze, he took several steps forward

“Now then, show us that power of yours”

Those were the words Haruyuki had expected, so he had already been prepared for it the ht”, he stepped up to one of the blocks of ice scattered about close by

‘My Incarnate technique will surely be nothing special when seen by the King Niko, but—let’s show her sohts and feelings also existed within Haruyuki The «sword of light», which Haruyuki had ainst the cliff that exceeded the 300 meters of the Old Tokyo Tower over the course of a week, had also certainly been able to pierce through the «wave surge of nothingness» of the formidable enemy Dusk Taker

Stopping one meter in front of a transparent blue block of ice that was about the same size as himself, Haruyuki lowered his waist It was a suitable distance that absolutely could not be reached if he threw out an ordinary punch

He folded his right hand’s thu four fingers While twisting his upper body to the right, he prepared his blade-shaped hand sword at his side

—My hand is a sword A sword that pierces through everything at the speed of light

The sound of the cold wind blowing through the stage went off far away and disappeared The surrounding scenery also sank into dimness, and only the center point of the blue block of ice stood out clearly in his vision

iiiIIIN Minute vibrations were transht, what Niko called «Over-Ray», appeared on the tip of his piercing hand It soon spread from his wrist almost all the way to his elbow

“……shi+!!”

With a momentary fervor, Haruyuki ht forward

SHUKIIIIN!! Along with a high and clear sound, a sharp white light was send out froht arm, and sunk into the middle of the block of ice

A beat passed by after the light vanished, and the ice let out a cracking sound—And then the huge block split apart right and left from a vertical crack in the middle and fell down With a soleh the air

As he let out a breath and raised his body back up, Haruyuki was greeted by Niko’s applause when he turned around Takuht arm’s «Pile Driver», and Niko also clapped her hands without reserve

“Heh, that was a more decent technique than I expected Impressive”

As Haruyuki scratched his head and said “Oh no, I wouldn’t go that far” in response to the Red King’s comment, his movements were stopped as her words continued

“—For the first step of the first step, that is”

“……F-First step?”

“Of course! What you used just noas one of the four basic types of Incarnate techniques, «Attack Range Expansion[2]»”

“……B-Basic?”

After beckoning at the du hihed and then continued

“Listen well, it erated naic that operates within the Brain Burst progra to the Diver’s ie power To put it another way, due to one’s intense subjective impression, this world’s God…the system mistakenly believes it to be reality”

After taking a short pause to breathe there, the scarlet avatar spoke slowly in order to engrave her words into the minds of her two students

“But, in order to actually cause this phenoh to deceive even yourself is needed before the system can be deceived A «belief» that surpasses the level of is are needed in order to conceive that belief in your heart «Experience» that has been instilled over an overwhel amount of time, and a «desire» whose source is an absolute lack of sos will never become reality”

“……Experience, and a desire……”

Nodding slightly at Haruyuki as he mumbled that in a hoarse voice, Niko stepped back several steps and spoke while loosely hanging her arms at her sides

“—This is a huge service I’ll demonstrate it just once, so look carefully”

The instant they heard that, Haruyuki and Taku in seiza[3] position In order to , they opened their eyes so wide that they were practically spilling out from their helmets

The smallest-sized female avatar turned her body towards the south side of the intersection and—

Suddenly, a pale red flame-like aura appeared on her left fist just as it did a while ago

“This is the first of the four types of basic techniques, «Attack Range Expansion»”

With a voice e spirit, she threard her left arm at such a fast speed that it becaht line of flames was etched into the air

Immediately after, a wall of ice that was 30 meters away spouted out pure white vapor into the air with a ‘BOSHUU’ sound When that vapor had scattered to the winds, a huge hole of a size that a single person could slip through was visible in the middle of the wall The color of the sed from blue to black, and it was impossible to tell just how deep the hole went

The still-speaking voice reached the ears of the two dumbfounded boys whose eyes had peeled

“And this is the second basic technique, «Movement Ability Expansion[4]»”

The aura of flas this time Her avatar quickly sank its body, and then her form suddenly disappeared

No, Haruyuki’s eyes could just barely see a hazy silhouette She was behind hi there with her hands against her hips She had easilyclosely, a thin track that waspale white s theure disappeared a second ti only a ‘SHUWAH!” sound She surrounded Haruyuki and Takuinal position

It was overwhel

The range of her long-distance attack endlessly exceeded that of Silver Crow’s «sword of light», and moreover the speed of her side-dash easily surpassed the charge of Ash Roller’s bike

While clenching both his hands in order to hold down his enor and waited for the next demonstration

—But

The scarlet avatar nimbly spread out her hands and spoke

“That’s all”

“B-But”