War For Underworld

The Heir of the Creator, Primus

"We're here." Kirito, Asuna, and Jaymes take form on the ninety-ninth floor of the Central Cathedral. As they get settled, Jaymes steps forward, his eyes lingering on the ceiling.

"...Kirito, Asuna, we've destroyed his plan to have the knights and apostles stomp on the Underworld, right?"

Kirito joins Jaymes' side and crosses his arms. "It's weirding you out as well?"

"Yeah. He's acting like an RPG villain. We've dismantled everything he's set up, killed his family, yet he's up there, waiting for us to come to him."

"Then he must have something up his sleeve," Asuna states. "Something we're not able to see just yet. I found it weird he left Falchion behind as he did. Even weirder that he hasn't taken the battlefield all day. Not at the mansion, not here. His passivity is most troubling." She steps forward and heads for the stairs leading up to the upper level. "Let's just end this."

"You know it's a trap again, Asuna."

"Yeah... I don't really care now."

"Then this is the first time you and I have agreed on something in a long time." Jaymes takes Falchion from its sheath and gives it a light swing. He taps it against his shield, projecting resources and life from the shield to the sword. "Ready when you are, Kirito."

"Then let's go...and save the Underworld again."

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The hundredth floor remains as Kirito and Jaymes remember it. It is a circular room, walls lined with various weapons the pontifex created from powerful resources. Kirito can replay the entire battle against Administrator in his head, including the very spot Eugeo died. Jaymes looks to the wall he once broke through (temporarily, as the cathedral is self-repairing) to give Cardinal access to the body of Medina's ancestor. A part of that debris became his shield Vindica.

But there's one change to the room that draws their eyes. Primus has really outdone himself.

When Kirito first stepped onto the hundredth floor, he, Eugeo, and Alice found Administrator floating over a bed. There was no such thing when Jaymes ascended with Eydis, Medina, and the ACTF, and there wasn't a throne in the center of the room.

The trio says nothing, only allowing a pair of onyx eyes and two pairs of brown eyes to do the talking. Primus' blue orbs swell with excitement as he leans forward on his ivory throne, eyeing the trespassers of his domain. "And so you've come, thinking you're victorious in that bid to protect the Underworld. That brings you to me, hoping to correct your sins... I wished my siblings could rejoice with me at this moment, but it's no matter. In my new world, I'll bring them back. You've shown me a critical error of the world you seek, and that is freedom. My mother wanted a free world, but that doesn't mean the people should be totally free, else there are people like you, Kazuto, who believe it is their right to overthrow their superiors, people like Asuna who bear the face and names of gods and take their reverence or people like Jaymes who plant themselves in places of power they have no right in."

Jaymes sighs. "You done with the monologue? Give it up. I destroyed all of the Ancient Apostles, and Kirito saved the knights. You are all that's left."

Primus chuckles. "I'm thankful you've shown me the errors of a free world, but make no mistake, I won't repeat Quinella's tyranny. Freedom cannot be freely given, but it shouldn't be obstructed. As I said, the Integrity Knights will destroy everything from one end of the Walls at the End of the World to the other. I can restart that at any moment. Then I'll rebuild this world and exact Stacia's will on it. The result will become the world she, Terraria, Solus, and Vecta wished."