"Ha... ha..."
The sound of sword and halberd collapsing against each other had stopped.
Before the two of them, this fantasy world that stood so close to reality had been forcibly stripped of its ornamentation. Its false skin had peeled away, revealing its original form.
In the end, it was only a game.
Only a vessel.
It could no longer keep pace with the people, and the souls, gradually surpassing it.
But even if they could crush the limits of the system, even if their overheated souls could spread their wings, once their virtual bodies died, they would still lose consciousness. Then the electromagnetic waves from the terminal would evaporate their brains and kill them.
Survival, in essence and in principle, had never compromised with humanity.
It was enough to make one sigh.
Satoru and Didos gazed at each other from a distance.
Both possessed Unique Skills. Both had stepped into a certain domain within this world.
Even after their killing match, the HP bars still remaining above their heads were nearly identical.
But at this point, the virtual body had long since ceased to be the objective.
"Have you gradually gotten used to that state? I should have killed you before that happened."
Didos opened his golden eyes, his pale halberd burning with white mist.
"It's like the lights suddenly going out. At first, you can't adjust to the darkness, but as long as you keep feeling your way forward, it won't stay that way forever."
Satoru answered calmly. Then he gave a mocking smile and said coldly,
"Thanks to that, I saw a few things I shouldn't have, Kaizuka."
He called Didos by his real name.
"If that's the case, then I'm the same, Suzuki," Didos replied with a frown.
"No, it's not the same. At least... the old me and the current me aren't any different. One of the saddest things about humans is that they don't grow at all. But that self-deceiving face of yours isn't exactly something people would like either."
Satoru snorted.
"[Didos] has nothing to do with you in any way."
Didos fell silent for a moment, then slowly smiled.
It was no longer the smile of that massive virtual body, but of the person behind it.
"You're right," Kaizuka said.
"You're not going to argue?"
"Now that the truth has been seen through, there's no point making excuses."
He looked at his left hand, as if examining this body, and said,
"When I entered my body parameters, I lied. I made myself taller, padded out my clothes, and created this strong body. It was my own weak inferiority complex at work."
"I'm surprised you can use that body so smoothly when you can't even move your real body that easily anymore."
"That's right. I once thought I would need at least a month to adjust. As it turned out, I didn't even need a second."
Kaizuka shook his head. He raised the white halberd and looked at him with golden eyes.
"These eyes and this Life-Farewell Halberd. I obtained both of them only ten days after entering the game."
Satoru's eyes widened slightly.
"Hard to believe, isn't it? But I'm not lying to you."
Kaizuka smiled.
"A patient whose death had already been delayed entered this place with a fabricated body, and reached the peak in only ten days."
"So when I first used these eyes to look at my surroundings from another dimension, I truly understood what the potential of the soul meant."
"That was when I realized I still had value. It felt like a confidence I had never known before was being poured into me... like I had been given a new life."
Kaizuka let out a long breath.
"Originally, I was the kind of person who never had the chance to stand on stage. I was even afraid of drawing attention to myself by applauding the people who did. Even if I had a tiny bit of self-awareness, I had no talent for standing under the spotlight, and even less perseverance to keep going. I wouldn't do bad things, and I would only do the smallest amount of good. I could never accomplish anything great."
"Then, in the end, I learned the date when my shallow life would disappear."
"That was who I was."
"But before that happened, someone like me managed to grasp this power."
Kaizuka lowered his head and looked at the long halberd.
"The Life-Farewell Halberd... a halberd that bids farewell to life."
"But after that, you didn't have much time left," Satoru said coldly.
"Then let me ask you."
Kaizuka's voice was like iron.
"Which is luckier, living a long life in endless torment, or dying young with your ambitions unfulfilled?"
"..."
"You can't answer that question, because you've been searching for that answer yourself for more than ten years."
Kaizuka spoke in a low, slow voice.
"On that point, you can't even compare to PoH and the others. Even if what they do is evil, they have the resolve to carry that evil through to the end. They aren't lost like you. They aren't muddling through life like you."
"Kaizuka."
Satoru stared at him.
"You can't refute it. Just as you saw through my lie, I saw the real you."
"I just want to survive."
"Survive for the sake of surviving? Besides, when you came here, you had already thrown away even that little bit of clever caution."
"Love doesn't fully arm you. It only gives you more weak points."
Kaizuka said,
"Or perhaps... this is your way of finding release."
The reason you choose to kill me right now.
Is it for your survival, or for that weak point?
"How I walk my path is my own business, Kaizuka. Stop wearing that smile. You're nothing more than someone who can no longer climb to the finish line."
There was something dangerous in Satoru's words.
"True. We were never friends to begin with, and this killing match isn't over yet."
Kaizuka moved again.
From that second on, he became Didos once more.
"Let me push this battle past the point of no return!"
He laughed, twisted his body with all his strength, and hurled the halberd in his hand.
Like a pale bolt of lightning, it struck the center of the floor in an instant, where the owner of this base stood.
A crisp cracking sound rang out.
At the center, the 36th Floor Boss, the Forgotten War Statue, which had remained silent all this time, was activated.
Its slender body, wrapped in crimson armor, began to tremble. The blood-red long blade before it was drawn straight out. The vibrating blade sent waves of sound through the air, and ominous red light shone from the eye slits beneath its helmet.
It instinctively searched for the only two players on the floor.
But neither of those two humans even glanced at it.
After striking the Forgotten War Statue with perfect accuracy and activating it, the pale halberd refracted back into Didos's hand.
Satoru, standing opposite him, showed no concern at all.
At the same time, both of them broke into frenzied smiles.
That was a person who enjoyed life, yet wandered without knowing where to go, now barely touching the hem of happiness.
Didos was reflected in Kaizuka's crimson-tinged golden eyes.
That was a person who no longer had a future, yet had awakened and now held power. A night-blooming flower at the end of the road that had bloomed for a single instant.
Yurnero was reflected in Satoru's crimson-tinged golden eyes.
Good.
Very good!
The enemy was in front of them, and behind them was the Floor Boss beginning to go berserk. All they could do was swing their blades.
Think of nothing.
Only enjoy the desperate situation and unleash their power.
That was very good too.
Both men expelled every last breath from their chests, their souls roaring at each other.
Halberd and sword ignited at the same time, bursting into wild trajectories as they struggled toward their opponent like drowning men.
The assistance system faithfully carried out its commands and tried to keep up with them, but the two had long since abandoned it.
Their speed and power far exceeded the system's upper limit.
Even the simulated sound of cutting through the air had been crushed from the very beginning. That piercing, collapsing screech sounded like the sound effect system itself was wailing.
The great halberd surged forward, its pallor a farewell to life.
Five blades danced together, a chance miracle born from ordinary people and ordinary paths.
"Life-Farewell," Didos whispered.
"Severing Blade," Satoru rasped.
The air between them was shredded.
The Azure Gap Halberd and the Relic Blade seemed to sense the buzzing turmoil in their masters' hearts. At the very edge of their limits, their speed rose again. After carving out the irreplicable sword techniques of their Unique Skills, they refused to retreat, colliding and locking together in a brutal clash.
Satoru suddenly froze.
Unmatched pressure bore down on him from the front, making his breathing grow heavy.
The Relic Blade was blasted straight out of his hand.
The most direct, most savage kind of disarmament.
So this was...
The true face of that guy's Unique Skill.
A power that granted someone at the end of the road the strength to write one final, magnificent line into a mediocre life.
But.
"Come on, struggle with me!"
Satoru roared.
His entire body seemed to vanish from Didos's sight, only to descend like a ghost behind him in the blink of an eye.
Aincrad had no Sword Skills with curved movement paths. But a curve could also be seen as the result of countless straight-line shifts. Two straight lines were enough to form a turn, and two straight-line charge Sword Skills could create a > shaped trajectory.
But that also meant he had to forcibly interrupt one Sword Skill and insert another on his own. Otherwise, he would have no control over where he landed.
Satoru had performed that movement less than a meter from Didos's side.
Which meant...
"He used two movement Sword Skills in under a second."
What a luxury.
Didos laughed loudly.
The Azure Gap Halberd swept back across his body. There were no more intricate or complicated movements. One horizontal guard to deflect the attack, followed by one thrust to badly wound his opponent.
Satoru was driven backward by Didos's Unique Skill in his Life-Farewell state. Didos instantly charged in again.
"But you've got no weapons left!"
Satoru smiled at him, then turned his body aside, revealing the space behind him.
A Flameforged straight sword lay there.
It was a weapon that had been knocked from his hand during their earlier exchange.
And he had memorized its position, deduced every possible clash, and guided the battle there.
The result of achieving the Infinite Sword.
Looks like he really has calmed down.
From the madness of first stepping into this Fluctlight Domain, he has now reached the point where he can control it.
It doesn't matter.
Even if infinite swords truly exist, I only need this one Azure Gap Halberd.
Didos did not slow down in the slightest. Without hesitation, he stepped into Satoru's circle of blades.
How strange.
Satoru grabbed Flameforged.
Grabbed Windshatter.
Grabbed Icebane.
He was clearly just an ordinary person, with no gift for remembering everything at a glance. He had never trained for this, and he could not perform instant calculations in a split second.
Yet now, with just one look, no matter how he changed his position, he could clearly remember where every one of his scattered weapons lay on the ground. At the same time, he could find countless ways to guide the fight toward them.
Inside his mind, he constantly constructed illusions of Didos fighting him.
He discarded failed plans and simulated them again.
Even time seemed to slow down.
Attacks he should never have been able to dodge could now be predicted. He could see them coming.
But he did not relax.
Because in the dozen or so outcomes he had calculated, he still lost.
After switching weapons over and over again, every weapon would be shattered outright, its durability depleted until it broke apart.
There was only one thing he could bet everything on.
One single if.
Satoru fiercely discarded every other weapon, leaving only Flameforged in his hand.
This weapon had not been enhanced to its limit. It belonged to Sheeta. He had exchanged his own superior Flameforged with hers.
With two strikes of his halberd, Didos sent Icebane and Windshatter, which had been thrown at him, flying away.
Both slender swords let out agonized cries as they were knocked far into the distance.
Satoru charged at Didos, straight toward the edge of the Azure Gap Halberd. Flameforged, gripped in his hand, suddenly let out a cracking sound.
A sense of danger surged up.
The Forgotten War Statue had already charged over.
This Floor Boss should have been the protagonist of this floor, yet it had been almost completely ignored by the two of them.
"Get lost!"
Didos did not even think.
With unbearable arrogance, he swept the Azure Gap Halberd across and forcibly knocked the Forgotten War Statue back.
The tragic Floor Boss could only let out a wail. The HP bar above its head plunged sharply, and it was even forced into stun.
Ignoring a boss-level enemy's resistance to negative statuses and defense, one strike had paralyzed it.
As expected.
A sword that could face that halberd head-on.
Such a thing did not exist in this world.
But what if it was a sword that guaranteed death?
One slash, certain death.
Satoru roared, seized the instant Didos drew his halberd back, and thrust Flameforged forward.
"Heart-Eating Edge!"
Flameforged began to shatter halfway through.
It had started breaking before it even touched the Azure Gap Halberd.
The weapon's lifespan had been completely exhausted the moment he used that skill.
Didos froze.
For the first time, he instinctively tried to retreat.
But it was too late.
...
Satoru sank to one knee.
The Flameforged he had exchanged with Sheeta was no longer in his hand. The starlight left by the shattered weapon scattered before him.
He panted heavily as the golden glow in his eyes gradually faded. His slowed perception of the world faded with it.
He had returned to being that ordinary power-leveling proxy.
Didos still gripped the Azure Gap Halberd, watching him through the dying embers of Flameforged.
Two seconds later.
The pale great halberd in his hand let out a cracking sound, snapped in two, and fell crisply to the ground before turning into a pile of glittering fragments.
The HP bar above his head also began to fall.
It finally stopped at 700.
His HP bar was so close to empty that it was almost invisible.
Satoru raised his bloodless face without expression.
"So that was... the finishing technique of your Unique Skill?"
Didos asked from above him.
"Yes."
A plain long spear appeared in Didos's hand again.
He smiled quietly.
"Impressive."
"I lost."
Satoru watched as white light once more rose from the long spear in Didos's hand, transforming it into that unrivaled halberd.
He whispered those words in silence.
"Of course you lost," Didos said. "So remember this defeat for the rest of your life."
Satoru looked at Didos.
But that man did not come toward him.
Instead, he slowly walked toward the Forgotten War Statue, which had just awakened again.
Satoru's eyes widened in shock.
"What are you... doing?"
"Haven't you noticed? My HP bar is still going down."
Didos spoke without the slightest emotion.
Satoru stared at him blankly.
"The price of the Life-Farewell Halberd is my own life. When the Azure Gap Halberd is destroyed, the player bears that cost. The remaining durability becomes the HP deducted, but the deduction happens gradually."
Didos spoke calmly.
"Which means I will die. But before I die, I can still kill you first. So, you lost."
He repeated that it was defeat, not death.
There was no regret or fear in his words.
"Why are you doing this...?"
Satoru looked at his back and asked, unable to understand.
"Those condemned to Avīci never truly die. Longevity itself is the great calamity of Avīci Hell," Didos said slowly. "Satoru, not dying isn't necessarily a good thing."
"For you, if you still have no answer, living is just another kind of hell."
"For me, even in death, I cannot let go of this Azure Gap Halberd."
"This is... the greatest gift heaven has ever given someone like me."
"We are all rushing onward, forgetting the way out, chasing brief satisfaction through disappointment. We all cry in our dreams to escape from waking, unable to reach the end, returning to the starting point, enjoying that endless road."
Didos softly sang a verse from Infernal Affairs.
It seemed he had already said everything he could say to Satoru.
"Along the way, we perform the rare art of pretending not to know. Along the way, we look back with the rare numbness of forgetting. On this intimate and unbroken road, let me be like you, and you like me. How could we ever be lonely?"
Intimate and unbroken.
But this was not the closeness of intimacy.
It was the unbroken torment of Avīci Hell.
Didos laughed and faced the Forgotten War Statue.
...
"His name turned gray."
XaXa looked at Didos on his friend interface and spoke.
"Is that so? Then I'll have to delete him. After all, he'll never come online again."
The player in the raincoat heard it and left only those words behind.
That guy.
XaXa hesitated for a moment, but then closed the friend interface just like that.
...
The last thing Satoru could see was Didos's back as he thrust the halberd into the chest of the Forgotten War Statue.
It was not Kaizuka's body that gradually disappeared.
Kaizuka's Azure Gap Halberd remained.
The Floor Boss, whose HP had been drained by two-thirds, howled as it tore out the great halberd and flung it far away.
Satoru dropped the emptied potion, took one last look at that halberd, the symbol of invincibility, and silently walked toward the Forgotten War Statue.
And with that.
The Dragon King vanished from the chessboard.