Accel World Vol 4 Chapter 10 (1/2)

Chapter 10

Night

A huge pale disc shone brightly in the black sky

The ground, the buildings, everything was a white stripped of color It wasn’t colorlessness, but the color of dry bone Square houses casted distinct shadows over the wide road Over there, the shi+njuku sub-center, which had changed into a spiral-forh it seemed to pierce the sky

“…The «Moonlight» stage, huh”

Taku around at this virtual world’s Western Tokyo

Haruyuki also quickly listed the features of this stage that he remembered

“It’s bright, but you can see al within the shadows Sound carries over a far distance There are few Enemies Trap-type terrain effects also don’t exist…”

“In open spaces, unexpected attacks fro the school campus was a correct choice after all”

After nodding to each other, they glanced behind them

In this e roo «Liht

There was no change in her outward appearance since they had seen her on Tuesday However, by doing an enor completely in all of them, she had already reached the same Level 4 as Haruyuki and Takumu

Though, because there had been an inter time since they had become Level 4, there was probably a wide difference in total point acquisition between the two of them ould soon reach Level 5 and Chiyuri, but her potential at least must be equivalent to theirs

While catching up that close to them in a short period of time, Chiyuri who served as Noumi’s healer/bait had surely been exposed to all kinds of attacks from countless Burst Linkers Haruyuki also understood just how painful those harsh, difficult experiences must have been

However, Chiyuri stood right in front of the two of theue at all, and she spoke only a short sentence

“Let’s go”

And then, without hesitating, she juh terrace that corresponded to the 23rd floor of the original aparthtly lower terraces and decorated scaffolds to the ground There was not a fragment of newbie aardness in her movements either

Haruyuki and Takuain, and after reflexively s bitterly, they also jumped down in the same way

The three of the to school, and instead went by back roads at a half-run While paying attention to their surroundings, Haruyuki and Takumu destroyed suitable objects and filled up their special technique gauges

They didn’t go straight into the school, but first came out onto the roof of the family restaurant on the other side of Oume Street, and confirmed the status of the dual location from behind cover

Ued into a fores In what could be described as Gothic-style, huge pillars were placed in a row in the front, and els or demons protruded out from the surface of the walls

After concentrating his eyes to see that there were no other duel avatars there and confir there was ain

The large grounds had becoarden intricately covered with small tiles There were no objects there at all, and only a spear-like tower that stood at the southern end—originally the support pole of a ball fence had a long and thin shadow that stretched over the ground

“…There doesn’t seem to be anyone hidden there”

Haruyuki murmured that, and Takumu nodded

“Yeah…But, Noumi isn’t there either…His Dive should only have been delayed by half a second…”

“If he doesn’t come after five minutes, let’s temporarily retreat away from Koenji Station…No, wait”

At that moment, a very faint wind noise reached Haruyuki’s ears Since the stage was co-type Ene-type avatar

As Haruyuki quickly looked up to the sky in the southwest, his whole body hardened the instant he looked

A silhouette was approaching in the night sky filled with s palely illuht

A thin body Claws on his hands And devilish wings extending out on his back

“Nou…mi…”

As Haruyuki groaned that na as if being pulled by his voice He folded his arhted down in the center of the schoolyard

His landing was al that manner and posture, Haruyuki could tell that Nouht ability

This avatar with the attribute of «robbing» slowly folded his wings and stoppedthere

Once again, complete silence filled the world

Haruyuki’s sense couldn’t grasp any changes either Noin at a blind spot, nothing

After waiting more than a full minute, Haruyuki whispered

“…Let’s go”

After Takumu nodded next to him, they rose at the sa their footsteps, Dusk Taker quickly turned his face towards them

While he gazed right at therounds of Uate, and then went around the end of the school building and headed towards the schoolyard

The footsteps of the three of theht clearly etched their shadows into the ground

Chiyuri did not go into the schoolyard, but instead walked along the southern wall of the school building and then stood quietly within its shadow Haruyuki and Takuht towards the center of the wide space

Stopping about 20in the center, Haruyuki threw a silent look at him

After taking that look for a few seconds, Nouhtly spread theht

“…Just like I said you could extend the time as many times as you wished, I’m definitely the only one here!”

The boy’s voice, which was tinged with a h the pale world

“I didn’t think you would prolong it so long, senpai! Is that being cautious, or distrustful, I wonder…?”

“It’s because we’ve already learned that we can never be careful enough against you”

After letting out a short ‘Kukuku’ laugh at Haruyuki’s retort, Noht hand in front of him

There was a card in between his fingertips It looked si, Yellow Radio had used before to replay a video of the past, but this one was red like blood Haruyuki had heard that the special items sold at the «shops» within the Unlimited Neutral Field were mostly in the form of cards like that

Noumi showed it to Haruyuki and Takumu, and then spoke

“This is, just as its nah price, but consider it my treat”

He gave another ‘Kuku’ laugh

“…First, I charge all of the points I have into this The re two dueler frames are set as a team, so you two need to bet your respective points as well If both of you have survived by the tied into it will be equally distributed to you two If only one of you remains, the winner takes it all And when I beat the two of you, I’ll get all your points”

“In other words, in the case that the two of us survive together, on’t have to fight each other, right?”

“Exactly Well, this is a little bit of consideration It’s important…”

Nouain, and spoke

“This duel won’t end until someone dies And those that die will definitely lose Brain Burst There is no exception to this at all I’ll say this now, but if you «retreat» through a portal, it will be treated as your loss at that moment At the same time as you return to reality, the forced uninstall will activate”

“…I see”

Nodding, Haruyuki looked at Takumu

Cyan Pile’s eyes shi+ned strongly behind the slits on his mask for a moment, and he firmly nodded his head

“All right, that’s fine”

Noumi slowly nodded to Haruyuki’s words, and then touched the card with the fingertip of his left hand After he operated it a bit, the card shi+ned a bright crimson for a moment

He then threw the card to Takuht it and touched it the saain

Takumu threw the card to Haruyuki, who then held it between the fingers of his right hand

After taking a big breath, he clicked on it with his left hand A holo-as displayed in the center, and he touched the charge button

After the explanation of the Sudden Death rules in a blunt font flowed down the screen, a confir of Yes/No appeared Yes

When the exceedingly blunt Brain Burst systeain asked the usual ‘Is this really okay?’, Haruyuki finally understood the reality that this was the edge of the edge of the point of death Though he should have been detached frorew cold At the same time as his limbs became numb, virtual adrenaline was released into his blood vessels

However, of course, he chose Yes

The card shi+ned an evenblood-like color and—it lifted up froher position

The digital numbers of a countdown slowly rotated around it

If this duel was allery vieould surely gather here Although half a year had passed since Haruyuki had beco like a Sudden Death Duel where you betted all your points

—No

That’s not right He had heard of it

The king of swords who Haruyuki respected and ad «Black Lotus» As part of the special rule that was i while carrying the possibility of sudden death That’s right, for exas were to arrange meticulous preparations and appear there If she were to lose to one of theo the permanent loss of Brain Burst

……Senpai Youunder this kind of pressure

One second after he murmured that within himself—

The countdown reached zero

The blazing letters that flared up said ‘Duel Start’

Dusk Taker widely hoisted up the claws of his hands

Haruyuki also lowered his waist and prepared his hand-swords in front and behind him

Nouns of taking out his purple wave round battle of incarnate techniques

—That’s just fine with me!

Crying that out within his round

He dashed fiercely in order to close the 20-meter distance between them at once The enemy’s silhouette in the center of his vision rapidly becaer

He crossed over the shadows of the poles that stretched over the white courtyard One pole, two poles—

When he stepped on the shadow of the third pole, it happened

From the darkness of a thin shadow no more than 10 c, so out and approached Haruyuki froht

They were square plates that see on each side These two dis the moment that Haruyuki had stepped on the shadow of the poll, and squeezed him between them from both sides with a tremendous force

Even with Silver Crow’s speed, he was not able to avoid theainst the surface of the plates with all his strength

GAAN! A metallic sound resounded, and sparks flew froe, which was the only thing he could see, decreased slightly

“Guh…”

He involuntarily cried out froh they were ultra-thin plates that were less than a few htful pressure that pressed hard on hie vise He couldn’t extend his arms out at all, so he adjusted the position of his hands and desperately resisted with the armor of his elbows and hands However, the plates instantly craap, and then finally stopped in that position

GIshi+, GIshi+ While hearing the sound of his avatar creaking, Haruyuki forcibly shook off his shock and thought

—There are no traps in the «Moonlight» stage Then, is this an unknown special technique of Dusk Taker!? No, if it were, there would definitely have been some kind of motion or voice command on his part in order to activate it Besides, if he had such a powerful technique, he would have used it in our last duel In that case——

This jet-black board was not Noumi’s technique Of course, it wasn’t Lime Bell’s either

In other words, there was someone else on this battlefield…

No, that’s impossible There shouldn’t be anyone who could have performed an ambush in this duel that was repeatedly postponed so an

When his instantaneous thoughts had reached that far, as if to betray his thoughts all too quickly, Haruyuki sensed a very faint presence

His gaze was drawn to the left, in the direction of the school building

The northernmost end of the white schoolyard was sunken darkly in the shadow produced by the 4-storied school building The figure of Liside the wall looked small in comparison

Haruyuki, and Taku as a fifth avatar silently appeared right in front of her fro’s shadow

Strange

That was the only word to describe its appearance Haruyuki had never once a duel avatar that had a stranger form than this in Accel World

Its whole body was ed perpendicularly It was as if ular clipped paper had been piled in the foraps of approxih its silhouette could be seen distinctly from the side, it only looked like thin vertical lines placed perpendicularly from the front

Also, all of the dozens of plates that constituted the avatar were dyed a dim black as if they were smeared in ink

To Haruyuki, he didn’t know if it was the avatar’s

The laminated plate avatar was completely black no matter how he looked at it It wasn’t like the «blackish» avatars he had seen before—not silver like Chrome Disaster, nor purplish like Dusk Taker It was a perfect black which absorbed the light of all wavelengths and refused to be dyed

“……You”

Haruyuki murmured that in a hoarse voice

However, the avatar didn’t respond, but instead tilted its square head and stared at Haruyuki froaps In that instant, the pressure of the two plates on each of side of Haruyuki increased the pressure on his body Silver Crow’s armor made an unpleasant sound and creaked

At this point, Haruyuki finally noticed that the right arm of the laht trembled at the end of its shoulder

Haruyuki didn’t understand what kind of logic it used, but it was clear that its right ar both their color and form

And there was onethat was clear

This black avatar was an ambusher that Noumi had prepared An ambush that should have been carefully eliminated after Haruyuki and Takumu examined all the possibilities

“…Why…How…It should have been possible for the time to have been specified…”

Taku behind hiroan

Even after he said that, the laminated avatar remained silent Instead, the one that let out a short ‘Kuku’ laugh and spoke was Dusk Taker, as standing several meters in front of Haruyuki

“Fu, fu Geez, you people ain It’s nice, that astonished-manner of yours Soof which, what did you say a little while ago? ‘We’ve already learned that we can never be careful enough against you’? Unfortunately, it seeh, haha, HAHAHAHA!!”

After letting out another short bout of loud laughter, he suddenly spread out his hands

“…Though I say that, since the two of you are in the position where you’ll be losing all your points soon, it’s et at this point At the very least, I’ll let you in on the secret as a farewell gift —It isn’t because I predicted the time you specified, but neither is it because the person over there waited on this side for months before we appeared here, of course”

He further ht hand and tapped his head which had a lens-type visor fitted to it

“The two of you already know that we have a Brain Irowth-type terminal is connected to the sensory area of our brains as a bio-electronic interface, but…depending on the progra, it is possible for it to reach the deepest parts of the brain”

“De…Deepest parts…?”

As Haruyuki erated manner

“Yes Naturally, it’s extreone that far But, the person over there is quite daring despite his appearance His terht clock control center of his brain”

Thought clock

Those were the words that fory which realized the «acceleration» of Burst Linkers The Brain Burst progra the base clock inside the brain, which uses the person’s heartbeat as the basis, by 1000 ti into the usual duel field or the Unlimited Neutral Field, that multiplication rate was fixed and couldn’t be manipulated at all

In other words, since Haruyuki and Takumu had postponed the time of the duel for more than an hour, nearly two months of subjective time had passed in this world Noumi shouldn’t have a coth of ti in ambush—that was hoas supposed to be However

“I’ll say it one more time He dived into the Unlimited Neutral Field at 8 PM in real world time However, he never had to wait sohis brain’s thought clock control center by using the BIC, he can arbitrarily stop the acceleration of his thoughts He’s, in other words, the only «Deceleration Ability User» in all of Accel World!”

“…Deceleration…Ability…”

Haruyuki didn’t knohether those repeated words came out of his or Takumu’s mouth

As Haruyuki couldn’t find any other words to say, a new voice finally reached his ears

“…Good grief”

It was the quiet voice of a youth, which seeenial somehow even under the electronic effect that was characteristic of duel avatars Haruyuki felt like it bore a strong rese male teacher that had been his only favorite homeroom teacher in his elementary school days

While still restraining Haruyuki with tremendous pressure, the laminated avatar spoke for the first time in a soft voice without any strain in it at all

“Hey, Taker-kun I can’t help but feel that that talkativeness of yours hat bounced you around and drove you into a Sudden Death Duel situation like this”

“Haha, that is merely a difference of opinion Like you consider silence as a weapon, I only consider eloquence as a weapon So, how about their shocked faces? Doesn’t it look like they’ve already lost the will to fight in the face of our technological capabilities?”

“I don’t know about that That s on I can’t crush him any harder than this”

“Hee, even if he’s weakened, he’s still a metal color after all”

As Nounaled Noumi with a small movement of his left hand

“Under these circu hi one back there a little early than planned”

“Roger, roger I don’t plan to ive me three minutes…no, thirty seconds”

Those words of contempt by Noumi—

Finally relit Haruyuki’s fighting spirit

—Just thirty seconds? You, who has never won an honest ainst Taku, in just thirty seconds!?

Gritting his teeth hard, he ran his gaze over the plates on either side of him for a moment

—This isn’t a situation where I can remain restrained forever by such flimsy plates If the enemy is two, our side is also two I’ll leave Nouuy!

Haruyuki concentrated all of his consciousness that contained those thoughts into one point on his brow

Suddenly, a h frequency sound was produced out of nowhere and Silver Crow’s body shook The feeling that his consciousness was connecting to the iram

The la Haruyuki had a grey aura around his right shoulder Niko had said that the phenoht, in other words «Over-Ray», was proof of the Incarnate Syste in use In other words, these plates were the incarnate technique of that avatar In that case, he also had to ht back

A white light was lit on Silver Crow’s sharp fingertips

It quickly covered all the way froht

Haruyuki sucked in a big breath—and shouted out loudly the name of the incarnate technique that he had just recently named

“«Laser…Sword»!!”

Then, he crossed his arht hand at the left plate and the fingertips of his left hand at the right plate

GYAAAAAN! Along with a high-pitched sound, his swords of elongated light crashed into the jet-black plates and threw off dazzling sparks

The parts that the swords ate into instantly became red hot as if they had been showered with the flalow rapidly spread over the surface of the thin plates, and they vibrated violently

—At this rate, I’ll break through them!!

The moment he cried that out inside his e power

“Oops…my, my, this is serious”

A calm voice was heard Then,

“«Static Pressure[1] »”

The call of a technique name

Suddenly the two plates rumbled with a ‘GOGON!’

The thickness of the plates, which had only been a few5 c that would better called «lumps» than plates

The two huge cuboids, which had a texture that felt like it could cut darkness itself, poured pressure that easily exceeded the pressure from before onto Haruyuki

“Gu…uh!”

While groaning like that, he mustered as much mind power as possible and resisted with his Laser Swords However, even though it had looked on the verge of o, the red hot portions were reduced by half the instant the thickness increased

An even stronger gray aura was being released from the laminated avatar’s shoulder It was already definite that this technique was not a special technique regulated by the systee power of the enemy avatar

Through the i each other, Haruyuki felt himself touch what filled the inside of the laminated avatar

Darkness

Unlike Nouht to s everything Although it certainly existed there, it didn’t possess any kind of energy, and therefore did not give nor take, but instead rejected all interference No, it wasn’t even an active rejection It was «isolation» An absolute detachment that couldn’t consider the state of people’s hearts at all

The instant he felt that, Haruyuki reflexively feared coh mind power

His hand’s Laser Swords weakened in that short instant and flickered

That was enough Beco into Haruyuki’s shoulders, and Haruyuki’s ain, he heard the voice of the laminated avatar

“Hey, you If you could, please remain quiet and still like that The work I’ve been contracted to do only involves tehting”

—What…kind of selfish thing are you saying!

Shouting that out sharply within his ain raised the output of his Laser Swords However, it took all his strength just to reduce the pressure of the black luhtly, and he couldn’t push them back much more than that

While he was coures of two avatars slowly stepping up to each other came into Haruyuki’s vision

Froer ar loosely at his sides, was Dusk Taker

Froht ar sharply, was Cyan Pile

Both of them took a little distance and faced each other in the middle of the white schoolyard

An at filled the field and pushed up the density of the air In this feeling of tension that trembled violently, Haruyuki could neither speak out nor pray for anything

“……Heh”

Suddenly, Nou his wrists

“It seems you’ve made your own preparations In that case, I should be able to enjoy ht?”

He then raised his hands and ertips touch the front of his chest A distorted ‘IIIIIIN’ vibrating was produced, and suddenly, a pulsating purple light gushed out strongly It was Noumi’s incarnate technique which Haruyuki and the others called the «wave surge of nothingness» Haruyuki thought that he would ie firepower, but it seeround battle, perhaps in order to mock Cyan Pile

“Does that technique have a name?”

Takumu asked that in a calh that reat breath

“Hah, I don’t have any reason to give na no name for it see that kind of game-like behavior! …Besides…”

He spread out his hands wide The wave surge light left a hazy trail behind it in the air

“Is there any reason in you asking so Brain Burst in just a few minutes?”

“There is a reason, of course Because I want to remember, at least for a little while, the details about the opponent for who their last rites over their corpse”

Coldly retorting like that, Takuht arm’s Enhanced Armament in a stance sideways in front of his chest

Haruyuki also knew that Taku Niko’s coaching over a period of one week However, he hadn’t heard what kind of technique Takumu had obtained, nor even whether he had reached the level where he could use it in real battle

Despite being in a situation where he was stuck between two lu, Haruyuki wasn’t able to stop hiaze intently on Takumu

Next, Cyan Pile lifted up his left arm as well, and—

He did an action that Haruyuki didn’t expect

With the fingers of his left hand, he strongly grasped the steel stake that stuck out from his Enhanced Armament

…Taku, what the heck are you doing!?

Haruyuki’s eyes widened That stake was the scar within Taku he had received in kendo class when he was an elementary school student It was the bamboo sword that had repeatedly poked his throat, and also a lethal weapon for the sake of piercing the throats of the guys who had bullied him

So as he grasping its pointed tip himself?

Takumu answered Haruyuki’s question with his actions

“—«Cyan Blade»!!”

Following that shouted technique name call

GASHUN! The steel stake shot out Haruyuki compulsorily expected the spectacle of the pointed end to blowing off Takumu’s left hand But

The thing that was bloay and scattered was the right arm’s «pile driver» itself Only the stake rerasped in his left hand Taku seht up his now free right hand to hold it as well and swung it down in front of him

The light scattered, and what appeared out of it was

Namely, a sword

The blade extended up to one ed, but was co through it up to its point The color of the blade was pale blue, and a faint glow of the same color rapped around the entire sword