The Black-Clad Integrity Knight

Ch 2: FLA and Goblin Hoards

For the people that are looking for the update to TCoI and EL then go to the bottom A/N. There, my situation will be explained.

Eugeo new that he had lost.

Kirito's dark grey eyes were a mere cen from his, yet he could see no guilt or reason behind them.

Only determination.

Eugeo was running out of options. He was nowhere near strong enough to hold back the blade coming towards him. His arms occupied with delaying his inevitable death. The only thing he could do was to try and talk Kirito out of attacking. Unless...

He remembered Deusolbert, the Integrity Knight that had been rendered immobile just by hearing his mother's name.

"Kirito... Kirito, uh, As soon as we get out of here, you can meet Alice!"

Kirito's eyes went wide, and he appeared frozen to a spot, staring out into space.

The pressure had lessened tenfold, and Eugeo took this opportunity to push his partner back. To his surprise, Kirito walked backwards several steps, the ≪Midnight Shadow≫ scraping along the ground. His dark eyes bored into Eugeo's blue ones.

"Alice...? Is that what... I recognise?" Kirito stated, questioning eyes staring into Eugeo. But he appeared to be talking to himself.

"No... No it couldn't be... Not Alice? Then who?" He scrunched his eyes closed. "As soon as we get out of here... You can meet Alice? As soon as we get out... As soon as we get out... As soon as we- ASUNA!" His eyes snapped open and a strange glow came from his forehead.

The purple Piety Module was showing itself.

"Asuna... Asuna, from... The other side. Yes, yes of course, of course! Asuna!" Eugeo could only stare, dumbfounded as Kirito put a hand to his fore-head. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth and finally tore the Piety Module from his forehead.

"Eugeo." Kirito was suddenly at his side with a rush of wind. A gauntlet stretched out and pulled out the tiny cross shaped dagger that Cardinal had given them. without hesitation, Kirito stabbed the knife into the ground. The purple lines of Sacred Tongue came out of the dagger and a single, plain wooden door appeared. Kirito wrenched it open and threw Eugeo in. Slamming the door closed behind him. The Black Swordsman then lifted his leg and kicked the door with his heavy black greave. The door smashed apart and scattered across the room, the splinters slowly turning purple and disappearing.

letting out a sigh, Kirito stared at the Piety Module on the ground.

His head suddenly snapped up.

"You go to, Charlotte. I am beyond the need of your assistance." With that, Kirito lifted up his arm and removed the tiny spider from his hair. He then placed it on the ground and took a deep breath. He picked up the Piety Module and held it with distaste. He then looked back at Charlotte.

"Tell Eugeo that it is up to him now, for once." with a final half smile, Kirito plunged the triangular prism into his forehead. Purple glow enveloped him and he fell too his knees. The light disappeared and he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

"I am sorry, Highest Minister. I was fighting the Insurgent Swordsman, and he played some trickery on me. When I came to, he was gone." Kirito was kneeling before the Administrator, once again on the 100th floor of the Axiom Church Cathedral.

The Administrator sighed and looked away from the memory review window that floated in front of her.

"You are telling the truth, and I suppose it cannot be helped. My goal was not achieved, anyway."

What was indeed only shown in Kirito's memories was the sword fight, to the point where Eugeo started speaking. However you could not make it out, as Kirito had seemed to be already falling unconscious.

However, the administrator brightened up immediately, looking down on Kirito who was still kneeling with his head bowed.

"Now that I have such a powerful swordsman under my command, we needn't worry about anything. ≪System call, raise object control authority ID...≫" And so she chanted, stringing out a long and complicated string of commands that boosted Kirito's power and level, to a point where the armour he was wearing seemed as light as the black leather he wore in his old Sword Art Online days.

Asuna was woken by loud shouting outside her cabin door.

"Miss Asuna! Miss Asuna! Something terrible has happened! Please dress quickly and follow me!" She hastened to follow instructions. What could possibly have happened? Was it to do with that Battleship I saw earlier? Or was it with Kazu- she stopped thinking and focused on changing into normal clothes.

Once changed, Asuna practically pulled the door of its hinges and almost ran into the scientist that was waiting outside.

"Please! Please follow me!" He took off in a run and Asuna hastened to follow. Her heart sunk as she realised that they were heading towards the central spire of the Ocean Turtle.

Once they reached the control room she saw Kikuoka, the head of the research program and a representative of the Japanese Defence Force. Also the one responsible for kidnapping and treating a neurologically imparted Kazuto after having his heart stopped by the final remaining member of Laughing Coffin, the red-guild that caused us all so much strife in SAO, and more recently, the real world.

He looked up from a screen with a worried look on his face and rushed over to Asuna.

"Asuna, Asuna I am so sorry. So so sorry." She looked up into the older man's eyes with only worry.

"Tell me what has happened."

Kikuoka breathed in sharply. Asuna realised that the entire control room was silent. Not even the sound of keyboard clicks was in the entire room filled with men and machines. Kikuoka took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Mr Kirigaya, no Kazuto's Fluctlight is... No longer active."

Although she only partially understood the statement, she got the gist.

He was no longer thinking.

"He... He's dead?"

There was brief silence, then Kikouka responded.

"No... Not really, his body is still alive and breathing; his subconscious is still active. But... For some reason... His Fluctlight is no-longer functioning."

"...Wh... How did this happen?" Asuna croaked, on the verge of tears.

"We don't know that yet. Our technicians are checking the server log as we speak and the observers are fast forwarding out footage until we get to the recent events. Unfortunately, due to the pace that the world is experiencing, three hours have passed since the problem, while in reality only a handful of minutes."

There was another brief pause as Asuna processed this information, then-

"SIR, SIR, I'VE FOUND SOMETHING!"

Kikouka turned and rushed towards the voice with Asuna closely on his heels.

"What, what is it?"

"It isn't much, but I forwarded the logs until just minutes ago and looked closely. And as you can see, there are recorded deaths the minutes afterwards and before, and all with a name against them. But ≪Kirito≫ or ≪Unregistered Fluctlight≫ are not among them. It means that he is not dead!" If the scientist was expecting Kikouka to jump up and sing and dance, then he was surprised.

"Then... what, what did happen to his Fluctlight?" It was Asuna who spoke up, staring worriedly at the scientist. Before he had a chance to answer however-

"SIR, SIR THERE ARE SPIKES OF UNUSUAL ACTIVITY IN UNDERWORLD!"

"WHAT! WHAT'S THE PROBLEM‽"

"SIR, FLA INCREASING: 100×, WAIT 500×!" Kikouka ran over to the monitor. "600×, 800× 1500×!"

"SHIT, SHUT IT DOWN. SHUT DOWN UNDERWORLD!"

"3000×, NO 6000×!"

Higa Takeru at that point ran into the room looking flustered. He immediately sat down at a vacant monitor and started typing away.

"It will take exactly 45 minutes to fully shut down Underworld." Kikouka ran over to him.

"Then at least shut down the ≪LightCube Cluster≫!"

"Got it!" He typed for a second on the keyboard. "T-Minus 30 minutes and counting until ≪LightCube Cluster≫ shut down!"

"FLA HOLDING AT 250 000!"

There was dead silence in the main control room. 250 000 Fluctlight Acceleration rate? How is that even possible? That means that 30 minutes for me would be...

"Roughly 14 years."

Asuna gasped.

Kirito strode purposefully down the road. There was ≪Obscuring Smoke≫ on his either side and he had his hood down, looking for the monsters. The ≪Midnight Shadow≫ diagonally to his right. There was blue, almost green blood splattered along the blade. He now wore a dark cloak covering his black armour, and it too, had its right side covered with the sickly material. He saw movement to his right, through the black smoke. Without pausing he swung his sword like a streak of black lightning, severing the goblin's head from its shoulders as it ran towards him. The decapitated body fell to the ground, its low priority short sword skidding a couple cen.

Kirito had been tasked to guard the ≪North Cave≫ and surrounding area, as the raids from the ≪Dark Territory≫ had become increasingly more frequent.

As the ≪Black Lightning Integrity Knight≫ strode towards the cowering goblin tribe leader, he noted that there were two more warriors on his right and one on his left, hidden by the ≪Dark Art: Obscuring Smoke≫. He also noted that Integrity Knight Alice was to his right, and about to destroy the goblins there.

As expected, the goblin on his left jumped out of the smoke, screaming a battle cry and brandishing a ≪Basic Curved Sword≫, as if to cut Kirito down the middle. Before his cry even finished, Kirito's left fist shot out and slammed into the warriors face. His head snapped back and a small cry escaped his lips before he fell down, spine broken. The Goblin's life would be dropping very fast, even as he lay on the ground. There were two strangled cries from his right, and ≪Integrity Knight Alice Synthesis Thirty≫ stepped out, falling into step next to Kirito.

"≪System Call:...≫" Alice started muttering a Sacred Art, and as she finished the black smoke vanished almost immediately, flooding the area with the orange light that marked the early evening. Despite the gory nature of the fight, Alice's hair was as flawless as ever, and it shone like polished gold in the reflected light of Solus. The pair strode purposefully towards the remaining three goblins, one happening to be the ≪Tribe Leader≫.

"Please, please don't kill me! I can give you Riches! Power! Women!" The leader shrieked, scrambling away from the pair of Integrity Knights. They didn't break stride as they cut down his remaining guards. "Why? Why must you refuse? Do you not wish for these things?!" He rasped, looking deeply at Kirito.

Kirito raised his sword and pointed it at the leader.

"I have no need for riches. My power far exceeds that of yours, and women?" He paused for a moment and sent a fleeting look at Alice. "Well I am sure Goblin women are just as ugly as you, eh fiend?" He pulled back his sword slightly, ready to drive it through his neck.

"NO! No I mean human women! The ones that we captured from that village before we burnt it... What was it? Rude, Budi...?"

"Rulid" Alice responded, completely deadpan.

"YES! BRUID VILLAGE! Lots of icky females. We figured that there was no use killen' 'em all! I got 'em locked up back at camp!" The Goblin was practically hysterical, and had his eyes trained on the sword point in front of him. Kirito shared a look with Alice, his partner in guarding the outskirts of the human world.

"Survivors? From the Rulid Destruction?" Doubt was evident in Kirito's voice.

"What if we discard them and find out later he was telling the truth? Anyway, is he in any state to lie?" Alice gestured at the leader, who was still cross-eyed at the shard of the ≪Gigas Cedar≫.

"Yeah, but I still think it is a trap." Kirito sighed. He lowered his sword and rubbed the back of his neck. "But better safe than sorry." Alice nodded, then looked at the Goblin.

"You are to take us to your camp. If you betray us we will remove your head from your shoulders with... extreme prejudice." The Goblin gulped and nodded frantically, his massive head almost falling of his tiny neck.

Kirito sighed and took a rag from within his leather coat. He turned and began walking back to the place that they had landed their dragons. He started wiping the ≪Goblin Blood≫ off his magnificently dark sword, once again revealing to the early night the almost completely black blade of his beloved sword, the ≪Midnight Shadow≫.

He and Alice had been stationed at the ≪North Cave≫ for a whole year now, two years since the dreadful event of the Rulid Destruction. The day when the forces of darkness had charged forth in the greatest raid so far, killing the Integrity Knight stationed there and burning Rulid to the ground. There were no survivors. Unless...

Kirito looked back at Alice, who was barking orders at the Goblin, thoroughly terrifying him. A half smile grew across his face at the sight of his friend, no, his close friend, bossing something round that wasn't him. Stacia, I hope I don't cringe like that! Kirito and Alice had repelled countless raids together in the time they had spent, and because they shared the same living quarters, (a medium-sized cave that was fully furnished with golden effects and had a magnificent view of the Norlangarth Empire) they had lots of down-time. This typically led to getting to know someone quite well.

By the time they had reached the dragons, the Goblin was a pale green. Kirito swung himself onto his dragon, which was also equipped with black armour trimmed with silver, and watched as Alice chained the Goblin Leader to the leg of her dragon, which greatly contrasted Kirito's with golden armour trimmed with a dark red. After a brief nod the two shared, Kirito and Alice flicked the reigns and the dragons soared off into the light of setting Solus.

Heh, OK I can explain.

For those of you that are waiting for Elemental Liberation Chapter 10, then it will just be a bit longer. I have been slightly obsessed with this story and will take a break from it now that I have gotten Ch 2 out of my head. Those looking for Consequence of Instinct?... Well... I will post Ch 2 when I get some more inspiration for it. It is partially done, and same goes for EL.

Well, Hope you had/have a good read anyway!

Fundindar