Blighted Affection

Chapter 1: Synthesized

Rath Headquarters, Main Control Room

Asuna's POV

"Kirito-kun..." I mumbled the name I dearly loved as I sat in one corner of the cold and dark metallic room, quietly watching the enormous screen before me. The screen was displaying an image of a beautiful capital, no, an empire to be exact. They called it the Human Empire and the majestic white tower in the center of all was the governing body of the empire, known as the Central Cathedral. I gazed longingly at the beautiful world which was now nighttime over there. The buildings all lit up like stars in the night sky and it was breathtaking. My eyes scanned over the cities within the walls, wondering where my beloved Kirito-kun could be. A small sigh escaped my lips as I shifted my gaze over to the small window beside the city view. A spherical cluster of lights was displayed on the window with a name labelled 'Kirigaya Kazuto', the name of my lover. It was his fluctlight. "I wish I could log into the world to find you, Kirito-kun..." I whispered quietly, hoping for a response.

I closed my eyes and held both hands above my chest, quietly praying for his safe return and full recovery. At that moment, a shrill alarm came blaring from an embedded speaker in the sub control room and the main control room monitor went completely red. "What is this warning?" Rinko-san asked, startled by the loud noise.

"This is...this is bad! It's the sound of the time acceleration rate being changed!" Higa-san replied in a panic. Just as he had said so, a timer popped up on the screen, indicating a countdown of 15 minutes.

"Fluctlight Acceleration rate safety limited disengaged. Reverting acceleration rate to 1 for disengagement period. 15 minutes until maximum-acceleration phase. For any personnel in the STLs, please initiate disengagement protocol immediately." An automated voice emitted from the speaker and a dreadful chill ran down my spine.

"W-what?! Why is this happening? Higa-kun, what happened?!" I heard Kikuoka-san demanded.

"I-I didn't do anything! Someone must have tampered with the time acceleration...but how?" Higa-san said as he peered into the smaller screen on his computer. A message in thick gothic font informed them that all three layers of security on the time acceleration mechanism had been fully disabled, and the entire Underworld was about to enter maximum acceleration phase.

Lost for words, I could hear Higa-san panting at the verge of hyperventilating. Rinko-san asked sharply in his stead. "What's the 'maximum acceleration phase'?! Isn't the FLA's upper limit 1,200 times?!"

"...That's the limit on people from the real world diving inside... the actual limit is 5,000 times if only Artificial Fluctlights are present..." Kikuoka-san gritted his teeth as he explained as calm as he could, causing the professor's eyes to widen even further.

"5,000?! You mean... one second here would be about 80 minutes inside... 18 seconds would be an entire day!!" It was an impressive amount of mental calculation, but Higa-san and Kikuoka-san shook their heads in stiff unison. "What? ...Where am I wrong?" Rinko-san asked. I was getting worried and ran over to the three adults.

"1,200 times is the safety limit we decided on when taking into account the soul lifespan of a real world human... 5,000 times is the limit of what can be observed in Underworld from outside...Neither is a hard limit..." Higa-san desperately squeezed the words from his throat, which was so dry it seemed ready to catch fire. Both Rinko-san and I stiffened up at his confession, fearing for the worst.

"Th-Then... What exactly... is the hard limit...?" I asked timidly. A part of me not wanting to find out but for the sake of Kirito-kun, I had to know for myself.

"Well, as you know, Underworld is constructed and calculated with photons. The transmission speed of photons is theoretically limitless inside the Main Visualizer... meaning, the limit is determined by the equipped subordinate server architecture..." Higa-san began fumbling with a detailed explanation. An irritation welled up inside of me as I fisted my hands, about to scream at him. But the first to speak up was Rinko-san instead.