Accel World Vol 8 Chapter 7 (1/2)

Chapter 7

The stage of today’s second duel was the «Steel stage», whose entire topography was formed entirely from riveted iron plates

Its distinctive feature was that first of all, it was hard It conducted electricity well And one’s footsteps echoed strangely Even more so if one’s duel avatar were a metal color down to one’s soles

Haruyuki, who had caused the reverberation of a shrill clang! sound and had alighted onto the stage, waited for a second sound of footsteps while looking down However, since he did not hear anything even after several seconds had passed, he lifted his face and looked around at his surroundings

The fored into just an eular room with neither beds nor desks The floor, walls, and the ceiling were all bulky iron plates glinting with a dull brown color The duel opponents who had nearly been stuck close together before acceleration had obeyed Brain Burst’s rule that they would «materialize separated by at least ten meters»; she stood surreptitiously at the eastof the room

A sleek jet black semitransparent armor that n of a water lily and a superfine body; a mask sharpened in the shape of the letter V And her li and sharp as to make one shudder—

Giving a look at the Black King «Black Lotus’s» beautiful as well as ferocious standing posture that he would never get used to seeing no matter how many times he saw it, Haruyuki finally realized why he had not heard footsteps Though it was only the extent of a centih were floating froround She was also one of the few «hover-class avatars» in the Accelerated World

In that state, Kuroyukihime stared at Haruyuki’s avatar «Silver Crow» for a further nu sht before his eyes, and in the depths of her black les, her violet blue eyes shone vividly

“Just by looking at your figure I knew, Haruyuki-kun You’ve gone through another harsh fight…”

He i words referred to the heated fight carried out last night between Takumu and him He had not yet explained to Kuroyukihi that had occurred froh the fact that the two had already spoken to each other through their fists as Burst Linkers

To be sure, it had been a bitter, trying fight In order to pull back his close friend who had begun to be drawn into the pitch-black power known as the ISS Kit, Haruyuki had lost his left ar and had continued to stand up even while his entire body was cracking into tatters Encouraged by the strange bright golden yellow girl, he had suinal form of the «Disaster Armor», the Divine Weapon «The Destiny», even if it had been only one arm’s worth, and had squeezed out all the Mind Power that he had

The result was that in order to save Haruyuki, as on the verge of being parasitized by the clone of the ISS Kit, Takuh himself with his special technique, but what had been left inside Haruyuki by that fight seemed to be there, without a doubt If one were to say what that was, it would probably be ain hi existed was he able to fire his new Incarnate technique, one that possessed a range surpassing that of «Laser Sword», in the following strange fight in the «Brain Burst central server»

However, Haruyuki, whose habit of shrinking when he was praised had becoether, fidgeting

“N, no, such a thing…I’ saved by somebody…”

“Fufu, having become able to think like that is the proof that you’ve matured”

Kuroyukihihtly tapped Haruyuki’s back with the ridge of the sword of her right hand, and spoke

“Now then, show me, Haruyuki-kun Show me all the Incarnate techniques that you’ve acquired”

Here he wanted badly to fidget again, but right now the tere not in the Unlimited Neutral Field but the nor 1800 seconds It was nor to take over several weeks even to learn just one of the elementary techniques, so thirty minutes was too short They could not afford to waste even one second

Haruyuki took a deep breath, stored it firmly in his belly, and nodded

“All right —Let’s go”

He moved several steps and halted at a position three meters from the wall of the south side of the deserted room

Originally pure-white wallpaper had been pasted, but noas a reddish-brown thick plate of steel Even with just one of the rivets driven lengthwise and crosswise, it conveyed an overwhel hardness

However, that hardness was in the end nothing more than a parameter described by the server It was possible to override it with the strength of the will of piercing it Haruyuki slowly lowered his waist; he first assuned his five fingers straight

He concentrated the iertips, and immediately a silver radiance—an «Over-Ray» was born and lit up the di resonance sound faintly reverberated, and light covered the area from his left hand to his elbow The speed of this Mind Power activation had become considerably faster co no heed of that Haruyuki swiftly pulled his left hand

“—«Laser Sword»!!”

At the same time that he uttered his technique naed his left arm forward

With a clear-cut shukiiiiin! sound, the silver light that had taken the forthened over two meters from his left hand and drilled deeply into the thick steel wall

However, without stopping his ht foot far back, and he placed his right arm not at his waist but in the area above his shoulder He readied his left arinal position, horizontally before his body

This tily

“…Ohh!”

A war cry burst forth naturally froht that had sharply extended several dozens of centiht hand float about the back of his left hand—and released it

“«Laser Lance»!!”

Just this , only one time, he had released this technique inside his drea Chiyuri’s help, but Haruyuki had the conviction that he could do it The radiance of the Mind Power released not as a sword but as a lance precisely hit its target, the bruise on the here his Laser Sword had bore through three seconds earlier, and again it pierced through ferociously

The lance of light, which had stopped for an instant, unraveled into a number of threads of ribbons and vanished Immediately afterward, the wall plates of steel themselves scattered into smithereens as if unable to absorb fully the power dealt to it Froe hole opened in the wall, an iron pillar standing in the space that corresponded to the front yard of Umesato Middle in the real world was severed in itsrumble

Fro to the iron pillar, it was probably easily ten e that was actually over three times farther than that of his Laser Sword unleashed earlier

“…Whew”

At the back of Haruyuki, who had lightly exhaled and had let down both his hands, a refreshi+ng ring, ring sound reverberated He looked back; Kuroyukihiether wholly as if applauding

“Splendid Splendid iination, Haruyuki-kun”

“Th…th, thank you very much…”

Haruyuki, as always unused to being praised by so his head However, at the remarks Kuroyukihime uttered immediately after, he raised his face with a twitch

“That Mind Power of yours is already in the stage of coe expansion technique» Both «Laser Sword», used for hand-to-hand co your sword froh speed, and «Laser Lance», used foras a lance that fires your aood techniques whose sense of purpose is clear However, due to that, from now on as well you can refine your technique and polish your sighting accuracy and activation speed but cannot expect to ress…”

“Eh…”

—If so, does that mean…with this, this is the end for my Mind Power?

Stunned and thinking in that an to sluht beforehand by the following voice that resounded

“It’s too early to be disappointed I just said earlier, didn’t I, that there existed a «second stage» to the Incarnate system”

Kuroyukihime, who had approached without a sound by hovera little child in a voice with lowered volume

“You…your heart conceals unli that, everything begins —The technique you showed right now belongs to one of the four types of basic techniques of Mind Power, «range expansion» The appearances of basic techniques are multifarious, but if they’re of the same type then they share the saht?”

“Y…yes”

While nodding, Haruyuki recalled Niko’s—the «Red King» Scarlet Rain’s range expansion technique unique to her that she had shown before

Niko’s technique hurled flah velocity and burnt her faraway target to ashes It far surpassed Haruyuki’s technique with a long range that exceeded fifty h-speed activation to the extent where she did not even require a technique naer, but despite that they both shared the essence of a «long-distance standalone attack»

As if she aiting for Haruyuki to understand that far, Kuroyukihiht hand, and spoke

“—In opposition, the second stage of Mind Power is basically the «applied technique» Coes of the four ele about an even larger «override» «Rust Order», used by Rust Jigsaho had destroyed the previous race event, and «Wind Veil», used by Fuuko, who had protected us froe techniques”

“…And your «Vorpal Strike» is one too, right, Senpai? That technique is a coe expansion and power expansion, isn’t it”

In response to Haruyuki’s words, perhaps it was a figination, but Kuroyukihihtly embarrassed way

“Muess Maybe, however, the right way of putting it is that it beca…at any rate Haruyuki-kun, the tie as well”

The first half of her words were slightlyHaruyuki straightened his back and shouted

“U, understood! I’ll do my best!”

However, there another new question floated to his mind

“…Um, however, at first in the nurse’s office, you said in order to acquire the second stage of Mind Power, onethe lines of the power of iination even in the real world…didn’t you, Senpai? Concretely, what did you mean?”

“Unh… That’s, well…”

Though she had begun to speak, Kuroyukihiht hand—the point of her sharp sword, which was still raised before her chest For soe of nervousness clouded her blue-violet eyes, and she continued in a whisper

“…Since that ’s difficult to convey in words, let’s substitute with a real demonstration Haruyuki-kun, in truth for so myself to acquire a new «applied technique»”

“Eh…”

With bated breath, he stared gapingly at Kuroyukihime’s avatar mask A new applied technique—in short, was that a super-offensive power that surpassed «Vorpal Strike» too? Was she going to demonstrate that in this narrow room?

“Ah, th-then, shall we go outsi…”

Kuroyukihiun to speak

“No, there’s no need for that Here will suffice”

And then, the Black King Black Lotus pointed the tip of her right hand sword straight at Haruyuki’s body and stood still

—No way, surely she won’t perhaps usefor that new technique

—No, it’s possible Because this person is the sworn friend and master of Sky Raker, who pushed me off the summit of the Old Tokyo Tower If so, even if Kuroyukihi e at all Don’t be afraid, think of it as a windfall Being able to be the first to experience the yet-to-be-revealed technique of the person whoest in the Accelerated World, there’s no training better than this I should take it while puffing out my chest

While those thoughts progressed at high speed in less than a tenth of a second, Haruyuki gnashed his

Kuroyukihiht hand was still extended out, narrowed her eyes beneath her goggles and also si

At the point of the sharp sword, with a pop a yellow light—an Over-Ray was born While it faintly pulsated, it lightly enveloped the sword up to a point around twenty centimeters from its tip

While staring at that with both his wide-opened eyes, Haruyuki felt a slight bewilderment