War For Underworld

The Decisive Fight Against Primus

"You are...Project ALICE."

Silence ensues for a moment. I can't bring myself to look at Primus' face, so all I hear is the crunching of his armored boots against the rocky ground. When they stop, they stop in front of me, forcing me to look up to the golden-haired son of Stacia. His face is plastered with a shit-eating grin. "Indeed. So now you realize this fight is futile."

"..."

"I cared not whether my plans were fruitful or foiled. There is nothing or no one who can stop me. Now you'll drown in despair knowing you cannot win. Even if you smashed this sword, Gladius Filius, I can recreate it time and time again. Hurt me, and I repair all damage to myself. I am the Underworld, and Falchion cannot destroy the Underworld as powerful as it is."

But Primus can. I know this because Cardinal, the human who took that name, was the background half of the Cardinal System that puts checks and balances on half that directly manages the world. It was that part of Cardinal that destroyed Aincrad in SAO, Ainground partially in Sword Art: Origins, and could have done the same to the Underworld had Cardinal gone out with her plan.

Primus is not just the Cardinal System but every aspect of Project ALICE. The Main Visualizer, where "memories" of the world's residents are stored. The Lightcube Cluster houses the Main Visualizer and the hundreds of thousands of Lightcubes that house a Fluctlight each...and Primus is inside one of those cubes. Quinella, Kirito, and I are demigods in our own right, and Asuna, Koharu, Leafa, and Sinon have the powers of the goddesses, but Primus is the true definition of a god right now.

"But let me show you the full extent of my power, a taste of what's to come when the world is reborn. Nativitas Mundi." The initiation sequence of the release phase of Perfect Weapon Control appears around Primus' Gladius Filius, and then he taps the sword's tip against the ground. At first, nothing much happens, so I guess the power is not meant to attack another person...then, at his feet, a small amount of green appears in the dead hues of brown and gray. That green becomes a bouquet of leafy stems, all budding into various colors of flowers.

I sink further into despair. What may look like a miracle, having vegetation grow in an inhospitable area like the easternmost end of the Human Empire, is nothing more than another insult to me. I can't do the same thing, for that breaks the world's laws, but as the lawmaker, Primus can do that. As I sulk more, Primus makes his move.

Coming quicker than I can react, Primus' boot hits my liver hard. I feel my intestines shoot up into my throat as I gasp, then a right hook impacts my cheek. "What a high thrill this is for me." His left hand uppercuts me in the chin, launches me in the air, and then grabs me by my collar. "And the high risk you wasted." He twirls and throws me to the ground. As my back collides with the rough ground, Primus stomps my chest. The scream I produce echoes through the ravine as the golden knight repeatedly crushes my ribs underneath his metal boot. "In the end, this is a heartless game."

He steps off me and walks around in a circle like a lion waiting for the zebra to die. "Do you concede, Joshua Hardin?" Do I? The answer is yes, and I strive to say it. There's no way to beat him now. He's more than invincible, and he's all-mighty, all-powerful. He's a god, and we're measly mortals. So yes, even though I hate it, I want to say that I bow to him.

But I do not. Or better to say, I cannot. Never once have I conceded to what others want of me. And knowing that saying no means the end of everything, I still do not open my mouth and give him what he wants to hear. I faced death every day with Kirito, Asuna, and the others on Aincrad for two years. I faced death with Kureha, Zeliska, and (though it was his doing) Itsuki. I faced death many times tonight, a virtual death in this regard. I'm not keen on testing the truth of Kikuoka's warning of sensory loss should either me, Kirito, or Asuna's virtual selves die here. But I am never willing to give up.