Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld
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1 2 3 4 5 6 Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld 7 Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld Chapter 18 War of the Underworld June ~ July AD 2026 Solus’s afterglow dyed the gate isolating the two worlds in the red of blood. «Great East Gate». The humongous structure, built at the hands of gods, that isolated the Human Empire and Dark Empire for over three hundred years started crumbling away this very moment. Tremors thundered throughout the world like roars from some immense beast in the Great Gate’s death throes, the last of its effectively infinite Life dripping away, while the five thousand in the Human Empire Defense Army and fifty thousand in the invading army watched on without a word. Those crossed from the Human Empire’s central capital, Centoria, in the east to the land of darkness’s imperial capital, Obsidia, in the west as distant, ominous thunder, prompting all in the Underworld to peer up towards the skies. Seconds passed. A crack streaked through the core of the over three hundred mel tall Great Gate. White light gushed from within and scorched the soldiers lined up on both the east and west. The fissure branched out infinitely, reaching the ends of the Great Gate in no time, as the white light chased after, spreading out like a mesh. Giant words in the sacred script erupted among flames upon the gate’s two sides next. There were merely two throughout the vast battleground who understood the meaning behind the words, [Final Tolerance Experiment]. It started just about as those words burnt out. 8 Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld The Great East Gate crumbled from the top, releasing flashes of light that extended to the skies. 9 Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld 1 “Uoohh…” An excited voice escaped from Vassago Casals whose upper body went over the command vehicle’s rails. “This the «final load test»? It puts even Hollywood movies to shame. Shouldn’t we be taking this videography technology instead of the AI, bro? We would be billionaires in no time if we start a VFX studio.” Despite having his eyes glued to the great spectacle in the distance, Gabriel Miller coolly pointed out upon hearing that. “Unfortunately, this sight cannot be recorded onto any medium. After all, it’s not polygons that form everything in this world. It’s a grand show visible only to those connected to the STL.” Half of the Great East Gate had already crumbled into countless pieces of rubble. Though the noise and tremors were tremendous, the massive rocks all melted into light right before they crashed into the ground. Judging from that, it seemed the remains of the gate would not end up as a barricade. Gabriel stood from the throne installed on the command vehicle’s roof with his jet-black fur mantle aflutter before walking towards a large skull set up by one of the Ten Lords of the land of darkness, the chief of the Dark Arts Users’ Guild, Dee Ai El. The skull placed on a small table was apparently an artifact capable of transmitting sound. She said that by speaking into this master skull, his voice would be sent to the slave skulls in the generals’ possession. Though inferior to the Stryker Command Vehicle’s multi-channel transmission system, it was far more effective than sending an army of messengers for every little command. 10 Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld Looking down into the skull’s hollow eye sockets, Gabriel let out a somber voice suited to his role as the «Dark Empire’s emperor and Vector the god of darkness». “Warriors of our land of darkness! The time you have await’d hath arrived! Kill all who live! Pillage all without hesitation! —— Trample upon them all!!” War cries burst forth from all across the battle formations, their volume exceeding the Great Gate’s collapse. The countless machetes and pikes thrust upwards shone in the hue of blood under the setting sun. The first batch of the Dark Territory Army comprised five thousand mountain goblins, five thousand plains goblins, two thousand orcs, and a thousand giants for a total of thirteen thousand units. He would first have them lead the charge and observe the enemy army’s reaction. Swiftly swinging his raised right hand down in front, Gabriel gave his first command as a player in this war game. “Group one—begin the assault!!” * * * The one who assumed command over the five thousand mountain goblins on the right flank of the goblin force making up the first group of the fifty thousand-strong invading army was its new chief named Kosogi. He was one of the seven sons of the previous chief, Hagashi, who incidentally died through the Dark General Shasta’s rebellion drama. Hagashi was extoled as the most cruel and greedy even among the past chiefs. Not only did Kosogi inherit a strong tendency for that disposition, he only concealed a high intelligence unbecoming of goblins under his hideous face. 11 Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld Having reached twenty this year, Kosogi had been pondering over why the goblins were regarded as the worst among the five races of the land of darkness—the humans, the giants, the ogres, the orcs, and the goblins—for over five years. Certainly, the goblins were the smallest among the five races and the weakest physically too. However, they once held numbers to compensate for that disadvantage and in fact, they conducted battles against the orcs and humans on equal terms during the ancient «age of blood and iron». When the races eventually ended their wars, exhausted, the goblin chief, too, gained a seat in the Ten Lords Assembly, the highest aggregation in the land of darkness, upon the conclusion of the five races’ peace treaty. However, the treaty was, in reality, in no way fair. Both the mountain and plains goblins were given no more than the withered wastelands in the north as their dominion and there was nowhere near enough agriculture or game to preserve the Life of a whole race; their children constantly starved and their elderly rapidly died. In short, they were done in by the chiefs of the other races. In order to curb the goblins’ greatest strength, their numbers, they forced upon them a vast but infertile land. As such, the goblins had to exhaust all ends to even survive to this current day and could not further their civilization. Having maintained training institutions for their children to practice like the black iums was impossible; they were instead sent down rivers on boats in order to reduce the mouths to feed. All while aware of the treatment their children would receive in the lands of the other races when they arrive. If only they had fertile land and sufficient resources, their soldiers would now hold not these machetes and plate armor casted from crude iron but tempered steel equipment. They would have amassed Life from ample food supplies and studied sword techniques and tactics. They might have even acquired those dark arts monopolized by the black iums eventually. 12 Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld If they had, no one would claim the goblins to be an inferior race. Kosogi’s deceased father, Hagashi, was constantly haunted by his anger and jealousy towards the black iums, but he lacked the brains to think about what he could do about it. He possessed wisdom enough only to hope to stay within Emperor Vector’s thoughts through military exploits in this great war. What foolishness. How could they hope to distinguish themselves in battle? That was obvious with a look at the army’s arrangement. It was likely suggested to the emperor by the chief of the Dark Arts Users’ Guild. That woman must have forced the «honor as the shock troops» upon the two goblin races to use and dispose of them from the start. The goblins would charge in as the vanguards and be promptly cut down by those devils of legend, the Human Empire’s integrity knights, before incinerated by her as collateral damage from the safe rear with the intention to rob them of their merits. —How could he let her? However, that, in no way, meant that they could disobey their orders. The descended Emperor Vector was not damaged by even a hair after immersed in Dark General Shasta’s attack which instantly annihilated the two goblin chiefs and the head of the Assassins’ Guild. The emperor held absolute strength and the law in the land of darkness decreed that the weak shall not disobey the strong. However, that black ium female was different. Kosogi was now one of the ten lords, on equal footing as her. He had no duty to obediently abide by her malicious schemes. The order given to the goblins was truly simple. They would penetrate in with a charge as the vanguard and annihilate the enemy army. That was all. There was nothing about maintaining the warfront until the flames from the art users poured in from behind. They had the allowance to outwit that woman. 13 Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld Kosogi secretly passed down a directive to his trusted commanding officers right before the Great Gate crumbled.