Accel World - Light Novel Discussion

[dark44]

thanx for the summary

[Elder]

Originally Posted by gensouR-1

Here's the last 4 chapters,afterword stuff and my comments on the volume.

Spoiler for AW V25 Chapter 10-14:

Chapter 10
Haru woke up to see that KYH,Fuuko,Utai and Niko are still asleep,if KYH aborted rescuing Graph for now then they should wake up in 2 seconds but since they didn't wake up in that time,Haru was about to disconnect KYH's cable out of worry for their safety until they woke up,KYH asks him how did he knew that Vise and Array was waiting in ambush and contacted her even though he can't go to the UNF with Haru telling her that he went to the Highest Level without Metatron's help with someone's help,he's not really sure who that person is but he thinks the one who helped him was Mirror Masker's Fluctlight copy and he intends to bring Utai with him the next time he goes to the stage to attempt contacting Mirror Masker again,he then tells them about how he went around looking at Genbu's gate when he discovered that Vise was hiding in the tower east of the museum before being caught by Snow Fairy and asked them how everything turned out,KYH tells Haru that he received his information but told the group not to stop because Fairy who is in the Highest Level would have been alerted to the fact that Vise's ambush was exposed if they did,she then passed on the information to the other leaders of the rescue group:the Dualis,Vine and Pound,KYH thought that the Dualis would would at least ask for an explanation on how she got it but when she told them that Haru passed it on to her,the other leaders believed her words because they think that Crow could perform a miracle like that.

The other NN members believed her words and discussed what to do on the way to Genbu's gate,Haru thought there was no way but to retreat but Niko told him that because of his act they have a chance to turn the tables on them before they could pull the ambush by destroying the tower they are on using IS skills since the chance of defending against an overwhelming assault of IS skills is low,Argon's abillity that allows her to monitor through terrain objects has one weakness:it can't see through Exit Points just like Rain's Visual Expansion so they used that to their advantage by hiding the group members that can use long-range IS attacks behind the Exit Point while the main group goes to intended ambush point,when Lotus gave signal the long range attackers bombarded the tower with their IS skills but Vise quickly reacted to it and managed to escape with Argon,Vise couldn't bring Jigsaw and Croaker with him in time however so they got annihilated,Wolfram Disaster however survived the attack and went to assault the attackers but something weird happened to him,instead of continuing his assault like a mad beast he suddenly slowed down and went to the exit point like a broken robot,it appears that thanks to Crow touching Cerberus's star in the Highest Level,his consciousness is starting to resist against Disaster MK2's negative IS and managed to force his Duel Avatar to leave the UNF,Snow Fairy didn't show up to intervene so it appears she was never near Vise's location in the first place,Haru then asked about the operation and KYH gives him a message from Graph:if he wants to learn the Ain style then he'll teach him as much as he wants in the UNF.

Chapter 11
After putting Niko and Utai to bed after Haru explained everything and finishing their homeworks,before Haru could go to sleep Fuuko asks him if its true that he took a bath with KYH in her apartment,Haru then tries to explain himself and Fuuko tells him she's not accusing him of doing anything to KYH and tells him the reason why she asked him this:KYH had told her the circumstances of her birth as a Machine Children and shown her the barcode on the nape of her neck when they were bathing and told her that Haru saw the code when they were bathing before doing the Genbu operation so she wants to get a confirmation from him.Haru was shocked and at the same time relieved that KYH confided the truth of her birth to Fuuko who asked him how does it feel to take a bath with KYH,Haru tells Fuuko that he was shocked about it but he was happy that KYH told him what she was hiding in her heart so he wants to be her strength to support her,Fuuko thanks him for feelings on that matter but that's not what she was asking,she was asking about how he felt when he saw KYH naked to which Haru says that he and KYH would never do anything inappropiate,Fuuko tells him that she will accept his answer for now but tells him that if his erotic thoughts becomes reality,he should choose and cherish the person he chooses when that time comes and that while communicating with other Legion members by visiting their residences are fine,doing illicit activities is not especially with her friend and tells him to never do it again.

Haru and Niko left Utai's house at 07:45 pm to take the bus,they talk about how to take care of the school owl when they will go to Yamagata except Heir in early August,Niko thinks about lending the owl to Porcupine since she has a carnivourus bird as a pet so she could handle feeding and taking care of the owl in Utai's place,Niko also admitted that she never actually met Porcupine in RL because she and the 1st gen Prominence members aside from Mihaya weren't exactly close but she wants to close distance between her and the remnants of Rider's subordinates,Haru then goes home to find that his mother had woken up and welcomed him home,they then talk about how Saya used to raise a pet owl of her own in his grandfather's farm until middle school when it disappeared,Haru then gives his mom a draft of his speech and she tells him that she'll give an opinion about it in 2-3 days and that she'll take her time with it to which Haru replied she'll forget about it if she takes it slow.

Afterwards the rest of the day up until the evening was pretty peaceful for Haru since all he did was doing his committee duties and hanging out with Chiyu and Taku.

The Tokyo Grand Castle operation is scheduled to begin in 11:00 PM,and the briefing for the operation will begin the hour before and since it's only a little past 07:00 PM,Haru has more than 2 hours of free time and he wonders what to do until a long lost voice rang to him which nearly caused him to dive to the UNF by reflex but he stopped before he screwed up and used the Burst Link command to dive into the initial acceleration space instead.

Chapter 12
After diving into the initial acceleration phase,Crow attempted to find anything he can break to access the Highest Level just like what he did to the giant mirror but he couldn't find anything in his room to serve that purpose so he decides to just break the glass window instead but before he could do that Metaron's icon form materialized in the blue world who Haru then hugs despite Metatron's constant reminders to her servant to not touch her casually,Metatron then turns into her 2nd form and comments of how she's not in the Low Level like she thought,Crow tells her that this is the initial acceleration space which connects the Lowest Level(RL) and the Low Level(normal duel space) and Metatron then comments that the room the initial acceleration phase is reproducing belongs to Crow then and asks why he looks like a pig instead of his Duel Avatar,Crow then tells her that this is the avatar he uses for diving into the VR spaces in the Lowest Level,Metatron gets annoyed that she got called a bug by Chiyu in V15 and a pet by Fuuko in V17 in her icon form when Burst Linkers used avatars that look like actual animals in the Lowest Level and mixed up Crow who tries to calm her down with Chiyu and Fuuko who actually called her those names in her annoyance.

Crow asks if her restoration is complete and Metatron affirms it because the reason she contacted him was to deliver the news,she would have called him to Fuuko's player home but it'll take 6 minutes for Crow to get there from the UNF so she decided to go to Crow directly instead,Crow tells her he can't go to the Mean Level to her confusion because even though the information input was blocked so Metatron can focus her on her recovery,the sensory information monitoring in their link confirmed to her that Crow had slayed Inti and because she thought everything was over,she deactivated it and focused her efforts on recovering so Metatron asked him what happened after Inti was killed,Crow doesn't know how to explain everything and Metatron decides to just see his memory instead since their link was strengthened after her recovery so they can share their memories as long as they are in the same Level,Metatron then puts Crow's head on hers to connect their quantum circuits so she can copy Crow's memories to find out what happened and unlike most of NN who didn't believe Cosmos(at most,Seri believed Cosmos's words about Tezca being a torture device to end the world),Metatron actually believes her words from Crow's memories and realised the enormity of the situation,Crow then realized what Tezcatlipoca's birth means from Metatron's PoV,for Linkers they'll at least retain their lives in RL despite being deprived of their memories of BB forever,but for Beings the birth of the <God of the End> is the equivalent of the apocalypse for them and every Being will die when Tezca closes the world,the only one who shares their fear is Seri who got her memories back and thus knows the taste of death from losing Brain Burst(Megumi doesn't know about this yet but she'll definitely have the same fear once she learns about this) actually feels like and has a greater fear of Tezcatlipoca than the other NN members because she knows that if the world is closed then it means she will lose her memories again and will permanently live with the emptiness from losing her memories for the rest of her life in RL.

Crow then reassures Metatron that he won't let the world of Brain Burst end,he doesn't believe Cosmos and Fairy's words of the world's end being inevitable and he thinks they have enough time to both stop Tezca and infiltrate the Imperial Palace to get The Fluctuating Light,he then tells her about the strategy to destroy all 6 of the thorn crowns that Cosmos is using to control Tezca and her role in it,Metatron points out a problem:while Crow can escape to safety because of the 6 second delay from an Enemy being stunned from being tamed by The Luminary but asks if the other 5 Linkers can get to safety on their own by running away on the ground,the other 5 Linkers can only run at most,between 100-200m per second(wow Pile can actually run that fast?) while the Tokyo Grand Castle covers 1km range with the distance from the safe zone to Tezcatlipoca is 500m so it's impossible for them to get away in time,Crow hangs his head in shame for only thinking of how to get himself out of EK without ensuring the safety of the other 5 Linkers,Metatron tells him not to worry since she can carry the other 5 Linkers to safety and tells him to focus on escaping,Crow points out that carrying 5 Linkers at once would slow her down and Metatron tells her servant now that she regained her full strength,carrying 5 Linkers isn't a problem for her,Crow offers to give back Metatron Wings back to her but Metatron states that's impossible because the ownership of the Enhanced Armament is locked to Crow ever since they made a link and she can't take it back but she tells him that 7 seconds is enough for her to bring the other 5 to the old Tokyo Tower at full speed,before going back to the Mean Level to meet up with Graphite Edge for the operation,she admits that doesn't really mind Crow's pig avatar in the Lowest Level(After KYH,Blaze Heart and Seri that makes 4 people who openly stated that they like Haru's pig avatar).

After the acceleration period is over,Haru sent a message to KYH,Fuuko and Seri that Metatron has fully recovered and before the meeting starts,he opens the map of the Tokyo Grand Castle Amusement Park to memorize its terrain as much as possible,Haru's role is to escape the moment the crowns are destroyed in the direction he thinks is the safest,if they pull this off then Oscillatory's plan that was set in motion will be derailed and while its impossible to know what will happen to Tezca once it's liberated,even if Cosmos can tame it again it'll be impossible to take Burst Linkers by surprise by using it again because Tezca's size makes it easy to spot and the players can evacuate before they can come within its attack range.

Haru thinks that if they can succeed then they will be able to surpass Cosmos's intentions but her last words to him before he got disconnected rang in his mind about how Tezca will EK him and his friends in a second if he attempts sneak to the UNF before the appointed time but Haru resolves to himself that they'll make it out of this alive.

Chiyu and Taku arrives in Haru's apartment in 09:30 PM where they had some snacks before diving to Fuuko's VR space in 10:00 PM,the participants of the meeting are the nearly same as the last one except one new participant:Lavender Downer whose VR avatar is close enough to her real appearance in RL,Seri greets Lavender,calling her Love(Love is a pun on the Lav part of Lavender) and Lavender is happy to see Cencen again,Seri thanks Lavender for accepting the mission and Lavender says to her that she learned that Crow helped Rosie(Tsubomi) and Orchy(Megumi),Seri realizes she's here out of gratitude for Crow so she asks her about the status of Blossom's 7 other Children to which Lavender states that she doesn't know and asks how Seri and Megumi are active when both of them lost their BB,Seri tells her that she'll discuss it later before telling Fuuko to begin the briefing.

Fuuko then goes over the plan:the team will depart to Tokyo Grand Castle from the telecenter building in Odaiba after going there gathering in the Old Tokyo Tower,Metatron will carry 3 attackers while she will transport 2 attackers,after they arrive Fuuko will drop off the 2 attackers she's transporting with Metatron and leave the area before Gale Thruster runs out of fuel after which Metatron will give the signal to Crow through their link to tell him to go to the UNF,Tezcatlipoca will be distracted by Crow logging in and the 6 attackers will use that chance until to destroy the 6 crowns which will release Tezca from its tamed state and stun it after which Crow will fly away using the safest route he could use and the attackers will withdraw using the west entrance.

KYH thinks they're putting too much burden on Metatron who just recovered and Fuuko agrees with her but her Gale Thruster can't reach Tezca's head or chest so she can't help with destroying the crowns,KYH attempts to once again volunteer as an attacker to ease Metatron's burden but her motion was rejected by everyone causing her to sulk,Haru then tells Fuuko about his conversation with Metatron about how the escape portion of the plan is impossible to accomplish because none of the attacker Linkers are capable of escaping in time on their own so Metatron will transport the other 5 to the old Tokyo Tower once the escape portion starts to which Fuuko could only smile apologetically and decides to prepare a mountain of cakes for Metatron as an apology for making her do so much.

After the meeting is finished,the attackers logged into the UNF to meet up with Graph and Metatron in the old Tokyo Tower before going to the telecenter building in Odaiba,because the height of the building is 20m higher than Tezca,Raker can serve as an extra transporter by taking off from there and go back to the mainland with fuel to spare,Haru wishes he could help them by being a transporter but now he has to wait for Metatron's signal for his part in the infiltration,according to previous experiments,it seems that after chanting "Unlimited Burs","t" can be delayed to about 2 seconds.If you focus on the limit,you can reduce the delay to 0.1 second which is 1 minute and 40 seconds in the UNF.Haru asks Chiyu if they can suspend club activities for the trip and while Chiyu can suspend hers,Taku probably can't because the timeframe for the Kanto kendo conference is in August so Haru considers inviting Heir for the trip if Taku can't make it,at 10:59 Haru begins counting down and at 10:59:58,he spoke the command for Unlimited Burst while holding back the "t" until he heard Metatron activating her ringtone as the signal after which he finished the command.

Chapter 13
Crow dives into the <Spirit Realm> stage of the UNF,since this is a Light attribute stage then Metatron's parameters will increase and there's no stage hazards that will hinder flight,while the damage of ranged attacks will be reflected in this stage since all of the attackers uses swords that's not a problem,Tezca has reacted to Crow's spawning ahead of the appointed time and goes to crush him with its hands,Crow wanted to get away but he needs to stay put to attract its attention,at this point the 6 attackers arrives,Crow then used Light Shell to cover Tezcatlipoca in the barrier so Toxcatl's gravity attack won't affect him,Metatron begins the attack by destroying the crown on its chest with Pile and Heir destroying the crowns on the wrists shortly after,Lavender and Sentry then destroyed the crowns on the abdomen and the waist using 3rd stage IS and finally Graph destroyed the last crown on Tezca's head using <Elucidator>,all 6 crowns of The Luminary are destroyed in 0.5 seconds and Tezca is now stunned from being freed by The Luminary,it'll take at least 7 seconds for Tezca to recover so Crow uses Light Speed to fly away and Metatron transports the other attackers by levitating them,just when everything goes well until changes started to happen to Tezca,with it forming a mouth in its face to unleash a roar that the destroyed the surrounding area around it.

It is at this point that Crow realized their biggest mistake,the crowns of The Luminary doesn't actually dominate Tezcatlipoca,it actually limited Tezca's power from the <God of the End> to the power of a Super Class Enemy so that Cosmos can tame it so by restraining and taming Tezca,Cosmos actually saved everyone from being on the receiving end of the <God of the End>'s power in the previous volume.

The shockwaves of Tezca's roar reached Crow which torn apart his wings and reduced 80% of his health which caused him to fall on the roof of Heimvald Castle which reduced his health by another 10%,just when he began to stand up the shockwaves reached Metatron which had also torn apart her wings and caused her and the other 5 attackers to fall to the ground,Crow attempted to draw Tezca's attention by using Laser Lance on its head but it only form a 5cm dent to Tezca's head,and since the <Spirit Realm> Stage's effect of reflecting ranged attack damage didn't activate then the Laser Lance Crow just used didn't do any damage to Tezca's health at all.

As if to laugh at Crow's efforts,Tezcatlipoca uses <Miccailhuntontli> on the 6 attackers which has the power to equal Suzaku's flame breath,Graph managed to get up and spins Lux and Umbra together to use <Spinning Shield> to protect the other 5 from <Miccailhuntontli>'s flames,Crow attempts to take advantage of the opening made by Graph by equipping Metatron Wings but at this time Tezca fired a black sphere with purple sparks from its abdomen which reminds Crow of Seiryu's sphere from V14,Pile gets up and cuts the sphere in half but the 2 halves captured Pile by merging together and Crow realized to his horror that Tezcatlipoca can use Seiryu's Level Drain attack which fires a black sphere that homes in on a Linker and drains their level and BP,Pile's level has now been lowered from 6 to 5(welp,Taku's wish to reset his Duel Avatar's level got granted in the worst way possible because they're all going to die and Bell isn't around to reverse the Level Drain),Crow falls to despair because by doing this operation instead of waiting until the time appointed by Cosmos to give her his answer,he has ruined his and Pile's promise to fight again once both of them reached level 7,if he had accepted Cosmos's offer then they could at least survive and fulfill their promise even though they will be on opposing sides.as Pile's level gets lowered from 5 to 4,Tezca lifts its right hand to activate Toxcatl to deliver the final blow and Crow cuts off his left leg which reduced his HP to a single pixel to get out of the rubble so he can use Light Shell to protect them from Toxcatl but he can't gather enough photons from his Light Cube in time and at this moment,just like how Snow Fairy sensed him in the Highest Level,he felt from his soul that someone is watching this tragedy from the Highest Level and so he decides to concentrate his consciousness to enter the Highest Level instead of trying to draw photons from his Light Cube.

Chapter 14
Crow arrives to the Highest Level to see the stars representing Pile,Graph,Heir,Metatron,Sentry and Lavender in their respective colours and a giant mass of swirling energy that represents Tezcatlipoca,compared to the massive energy that swallows everything like a black hole Disaster MK2 is just a stardust despite the accumulated negative IS it has.a voice then asks Crow if he feels helpless when faced with that kind of power,Crow then turns around to see White Cosmos and asks her if she foresaw this happening,Cosmos tells him that she only foresaw him trying to sneak out but she didn't foresee the destruction of the 6 crowns which had been applied Fire Invalid,Physical Invalid and Corrosion Invalid,and as a result Crow and the 6 attackers are at the mercy of the untamed Tezcatlipoca until she arrived at the scene,despite their disastrous performance in the escape attempt Cosmos congratulates NN for surpassing her expectations by destroying the 6 crowns,Crow is angry that his foolishness has put his comrades into the worst situation,had he went to the Highest Level to observe Tezca to see the massive amount of energy it emits then he would have rejected the operation and stayed put until the appointed time but Cosmos tells him that even if he went against it,KYH and the other NN members would still go to rescue him even if he pleads to them to not rescue him,Cosmos acknowledges that the greatest strength of NN is the bonds between its members but because those bonds will drive them to help each other in times of danger it can be said that their greatest strength is also its fatal weakness to which Crow can't refute what Cosmos pointed out because he knows she's right.

Crow asks Cosmos if its true that the end has come because of his foolishness to which Cosmos replied that the reason why she had an opportunity to tame Tezca is because it was in the middle of its activation sequence after Inti gave birth to it and that opening has long passed but there's still a possibility to stop it because of all the Burst Linkers only she has the possibillity to stop it,Crow asks her why she can do that and Cosmos tells him that it's because she was once swallowed by Tezca a long time ago(so maybe Cosmos played in AA or CC and fought Tezca only to die to it then?),Crow asks Cosmos to stop Tezca and save Graph,Pile,Heir,Sentry,Lavender and Metatron to which Cosmos rhetorically asks him why she would save them when they want to wipe out Oscillatory Universe from Brain Burst?,Crow tells her that in exchange for their lives he will accept her offer and transfer to Oscillatory but Cosmos tells him that his acceptance of her offer doesn't have the same value as the opportunity to eliminate Graphite Edge who is possibly even stronger than her and the other kings,Crow tells her that he'll work hard for the sake of her and Oscillatory's true goal and that his life will be hers to decide in exchange for the other 6's lives to which Cosmos began to consider accepting the compromise Crow offers to her,at this point Metatron appears in the Highest Level to tell Cosmos that she will be joining Oscillatory with Crow,Crow pleads to her to stay in NN to protect KYH and the others but Metatron reveals how lonely she felt in the 10 years of recovering her full power because of how he never called out to her for help or to even talk with each other so she decides to stay with Crow instead of NN since from the beginning her contractor is him and not the Black Legion,Crow and Cosmos accepts Metatron's decision to stay with him and Cosmos then states the terms for their compromise:in exchange for Crow and Metatron joining Oscillatory Universe,Cosmos will spare the lives the other 5 Linkers after she stops Tezca to which Crow(who apologizes to KYH) and Metatron accepts by kneeling to her to swear their allegiance,Crow brings out Lucid Blade and Cosmos uses it to make Crow her knight,from now on he will obey only her orders and die for her if it's necessary and Crow accepts it,the volume ends with Cosmos putting down the sword after knighting Crow and focuses her attention to the giant energy that represents Tezcatlipoca with an unreadable expression.

Spoiler for Afterwords stuff:

-Yes,despite what happened in this volume as you read in the summaries,V25 marks the end of the Vs White Legion Arc.
-Kawahara's comment to the ending is "Cosmos,are you sure you want to let him join your Legion,Haru won't stop being Haru you know?,lol".(i.e he's totally going to stuff behind Cosmos's back just like with KYH and will attempt freeing Cerberus despite joining OU)
-Next arc is called Seventh Artifact Arc so The Fluctuating Light is going to be the focus of the next arc.
-1 Book/year is still the norm for AW releases unfortunately.
-Nothing in the afterword implies that Haru and Metatron joining OU is going to be undone in a few volumes so for now assume that this is going to be the status quo for the next arc.
-Curiously,Kawahara never mentions anything about "look forward to KYH's reaction to the developments in this volume's ending" in the afterword which indicates that she and the rest of NN for that matter,won't find out about Haru and Metatron's compromise next volume,though they'll eventually figure it out anyway after several volumes.
-No comments about why Haru and Metatron are NN members in Infinite Burst when they joined Oscillatory nor was there any confirmation that Infinite Burst takes place after Seventh Artifact arc,which probably indicates that they won't formally join OU and instead act as Cosmos's agents inside NN without anyone outside OU knowing about it and that Seventh Artifact arc will probably include Infinite Burst in its time frame.

Spoiler for My comments on V25:

-Well,i didn't expect the volume to end that way,though the JP and Chinese AW fanbases never expected that to happen considering their reactions so we're all in the same boat.
-It's too late to clear the Imperial Palace even if Oscillatory and the ARS unites with the other Coloured Legions even with all that power?,what the hell is going on in the background of things?
-Cosmos specifying that Crow and Metatron will obey only her orders means that Tower/Vise,Reaper and Behemoth can't order him and Metatron around because they'll take direct orders from Cosmos just like Tower/Vise who is the one managing both the Seven Dwarves(thus making it super obvious that his Seven Dwarves title is Doc even though it hasn't been confirmed yet) and the ARS.
-Bell unfortunately wasn't there when Pile got Level Drained so she can use Citron Call Mode 2 to give back his BP so he can respec but there's still hope:Seiryu states in V14 that the BP she drains gets converted to resources for the maintenance of the Imperial Palace,so if Cosmos manages to tame Tezca before it can absorb and use up Pile's BP then he can probably get it back if Cosmos is feeling generous and orders Tezca to give Pile's BP back.
-Surprised UW is still active if it really is the 4th world considering the world of AW acts as if the reveal of Alice,UW and artificial Fluctlights never happened.
-Welp,Haru vs KYH is pretty much confirmed in the future and it's not for the reason(fighting over who gets to be Level 10) people thinks it will happen.
-Mirror Masker's Fluctlight copy still existing confirms that even if the RL person dies,the backup will still be preserved so Glass Monarch's Fluctlight backup should still be intact in the Main Visualizer though considering how his Duel Avatar is inert in the Mito Art Tower dungeon means that the duplicate can't use the Duel Avatar unless the copy and RL self syncs and viceversa which explains why Ivy Capture's ressurection using Insoul Copal at the end of Dural Magisa Garden didn't turn out as expected because Ivy's copy and RL self isn't synced yet to complete the revival though Seri can help with that.
-Mirror Masker's Fluctlight contacting Crow in a place connected to him isn't that bizarre,we know Blossom's Fluctlight copy still watches over her BB Children(well Megumi at least) even though she's trapped inside the Star Caster(and still is up to this day) and even contacted her in the RL even outside the initial acceleration phase in V10 so it's not a stretch that a Fluctlight Copy that's awake in the Main Visualizer can contact a Linker in a place connected to them in RL.
-Considering how pessimistic Cosmos is about the idea of cooperating with the other Legions(but not to the point of hating and looking down on it),i'm guessing she used to play Cosmos Corrupt and got killed by CC's God of the End(likely had a different name considering Cosmos said the names in the 3 games are randomized) when the excess cooperation caused the Administrative AI to activate it which really soured her opinion on cooperation because it got everyone killed and finding out what happened at the end of Unital Ring didn't help.
-Unital Ring's events took place in 2026 while the A vs B war took place in 2029 which also shoots down the "AW splits from SAO in the Alicization arc" theory,so while Unital Ring's conclusion is separate from the A vs B war that doesn't mean Unital Ring won't lead to the events of the war.
-On one hand,Haru has to work against NN and the other Legions from now on,but on the other hand he's in a position to get closer to the truth,he can finally talk with Cavalier,Fairy and Behemoth like he wished to in V23,get close with Cerberus (though Argon is going to be a problem considering she is Cerberus's Parent) and he can go to Minato without being attacked by OU members now that he's on their side so it mostly balances out aside from the inevitable trust issues with his friends in NN,Prominence,Leonidz and Great Wall.
-Utai's intuition is really sharp considering how she got it right that something irreparable will happen.
-Kinda interesting that Haru's dream is more like a vision instead of a nightmare,if this really is a vision of the past then it gives more credence to the Haru is an ex-Assault Linker theory the chinese fanbase made.
-Cosmos turning out to be not coming off as malicious as she's hyped up to be by KYH(mainly because of heartbreak from being betrayed by her sister) and Graph(probably has ulterior motives?)was pretty surprising,at this point we have to learn her PoV regarding why she drove KYH from her home and her true feelings regarding her sister and what is Graph's problem with her instead of relying on what KYH and Graph says about Cosmos.
-I wonder if each of the 3 trial worlds has their own Isotopes assigned to them,if so then does AA and CC has 2 other versions of Graphite Edge in them or if their Isotopes are copies of other people than Kirito.
-The fight against Genbu got offscreened and skipped over(literally no description of how it went) while Byakko didn't even show up when Crow and Raker tried to break through their gate in V18 because Suzaku's Hate towards Crow caused it to appear and attack him first before Byakko could even spawn so the only Holy Beasts that actually showed up in person so far is Suzaku and Seiryu.
-Tower's Vise form being shown as a black star when it should be an ivory star is strange indeed,maybe instead of alternating between 2 forms of 1 Duel Avatar,maybe Tower can use 2 Duel Avatars(Ivory Tower and Black Vise) in 1 BB program?,is it because Tower used to play either AA or CC and Vise is actually his Duel Avatar back in the accelerated game he used to play and he somehow recovered it for use in BB?,it could explain why the name Black Vise doesn't show up when he's using that avatar,it's not because the name Black Vise is self-proclaimed but because Black Vise's Fluctlight doesn't exist in Brain Burst's Main Visualizer but in either AA or CC's and that's why the name doesn't show up.
-V24-25 explains why Oscillatory members with the exception of Crow and Metatron is nowhere to be seen in Infinite Burst,with both OU and ARS members going dark on the Global Net,no one can duel them to uninstall their Brain Burst in the Low Level and with Tezcatlipoca under their control(especially after the disastrous rescue operation in V25),no one can invade their HQ in Minato in the UNF to infiltrate their territory and eliminate any members that are active there all the while being ignorant that the one who saved the other 6 kings is now a secret Oscillatory member.
-Given how Cosmos accepted Crow's compromise,it's possible Milady made a deal with her to let her leave Oscillatory under certain conditions though Oracle probably isn't out yet considering only Milady is confirmed to leave but i'm sure we'll find out in V26.
-Thinking about it,if Crow,Cosmos and Tower really did used to play in the other accelerated worlds,then it's possible Cavalier,Fairy,Behemoth,Jigsaw and Argon are actually ex-AA/CC players who escaped being killed by the God of the End by never going to the Mean Levels of AA/CC and retained their programs after the torture device killed everyone but them,it actually explains their behaviour a lot,they fell to despair after everyone they loved and cared about,both Linkers and Beings including possibly Fairy's contracted Being was killed by the God of the End and lost all of their memories as a result and the survivors doesn't know how to restore them,so all of dubious acts they did to Brain Burst and the Burst Linkers is now put in a new light:it's not only for the sake of bringing back the AA and CC players,but also to give the Burst Linkers and the Beings of Brain Burst a different conclusion so the tragedy that befall AA and CC never gets repeated to them(if this is true,then it means that when Cosmos said to Milady and Oracle that she'll bring back Blossom when she took them under her care even though she sacrificed their Parent to prevent the premature end of Brain Burst,she genuinely meant it because she lost people important to her when the God of the End destroyed the accelerated world she used to play in and once Oscillatory's goal is accomplished,she'll bring back Milady,Lavender,Sentry and Oracle's BB parent and Chrome Falcon as an atonement for the tragedy which created the curse of Chrome Disaster that lasted for 7000 years)
-AW23-25 takes place in July 21-22,AW24 is July 22-23,AW25 is July 23-24 so only 3 days left before the events of Infinite Burst in July 27-August 1 and 10 days before the Return to Forever side story where Nyx fuses with Nitride Unica,so the beginning of the Seventh Artifact arc should take place in July 24-26 at earliest unless Reki decides to kickstart the next arc's events after Return to Forever.
-1 possible time limit for the Seventh Artifact arc is August 24th,because that's the last day Haru and Metatron can be convicted by KYH and Niko and once August 25th comes,there's nothing stopping Cosmos from formally making Haru and Metatron into Oscillatory members.

Here's crossing fingers that we would at least get V26 on August next year.

This is amazing. I wish AW would get more love from Sunrise.

[gensouR-1]

So i have been lurking around chinese message boards like tieba and forum.gamer and it appears that:

Spoiler for Unital Ring V25:

The theory of Black Vise/Ivory Tower actually being an adult somehow gaining access to Brain Burst might actually have some merit: 3 new members of the Virtual Research Society led by Mutashina who may be KYH and Cosmos's mother was introduced when they attacked Kirito City in Unital Ring,2 of the new characters are twin female swordsmen named Viola and Dia and a male mage named Magis,the person of interest is Magis because he's the sub leader of the Virtual Research Society just like how Vise is the vice president of the ARS and has the exact same speech patterns as Vise/Tower,even having the same Yare-Yare as Vise and the narration describes his tone as a soft bass like a school teacher which is identical to how the narration described how Vise's tone is like a school teacher in Accel World.

Magis's powers are similar to Vise's powers in Accel World with him being able to create cut-ins just like how Vise created cut-ins of Lotus and Blossom to trick Crow in V9,he also has an escape technique like Vise but instead of diving in shadows,he creates a black smoke that is described as being closer to pure darkness without form without any smell unlike a smoke,he hasn't exhibited any of Ivory Tower's abillities in V25 though.

Assuming Vise=Magis(inb4 they'll get Nobuo Tobita for Magis in the inevitable Unital Ring anime),then at least 1 member of the Virtual Research Society joined the Acceleration Research Society in Accel World but it now begs the question of why didn't Mutashina lead the ARS like with the VRS unless it's because Cosmos's abillities were superior to Mutashina's so the mother decided to pass on leadership of the ARS to her daughter.

I'll post any new information about more AW-SAO connections in SAO V25 if there are any more,but so far it's just <Spoiler> from SAO possibly being <Redacted> in Accel World.

Update:summary of SAO V25 is out in chinese forums,the only AW-SAO connection in the volume is the implication that <Spoiler> in SAO is Accel World's <Redacted> and nothing more,so we'll have to wait for 2021's SAO and AW books to learn more though i guess i can make a recap of the recent AW-SAO connections after catching up with reading the SAO LNs.

[Legarad]

The rumor that Accel World looks like a bad ending to Sword Art Online Unital Ring seems true to me. This had already happened with another novel by another Author, Negima-sensei and UQHolder. Where in UQHolder is a future where Negima-sensei couldn't be saved in the previous novel.

[gensouR-1]

Well at least we know that V26 is coming after Unital Ring V gets released in October despite not knowing the release date.
https://twitter.com/kunori/status/1424334319800053762

[tsunade666]

Thanks for the info.

[garf02]

I wonder if the English localization by Yen Press will also take 1 year as we are about to catch up the LN JP

[gensouR-1]

Accel World Volume 26,The Conqueror of Heavens will be released in March,release date unrevealed yet.
https://dengekibunko.jp/product/newrelease-bunko.html

[gensouR-1]

https://dengekibunko.jp/product/322109000002.html

Spoiler for preview summary:

A New Chapter Begins!,What is the fate of Haruyuki who transferred to the White Legion?

The revelation of The God of the End,Tezcatlipoca.
It brought chaos to the accelerated world and caused the turbulence of Haruyuki-Silver Crow to withdraw from Nega Nebulous.
Haruyuki who left Kuroyukihime and went to the gate of the White King,visited Eterna Women's College where a trial and the strong enemies he once fought fierce battles with,the <Seven Dwarves> awaits.
On the other hand,a serious turning point will come in the relationship between Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime who lost the connection of Legion.
"Kuroyukihime-senpai,i am your-"
The new chapter,Seventh Artifact Arc begins here!

Spoiler for comment:

Ok,so Cosmos isn't going for the double agent route with Haru and Metatron and went straight to openly making him and Metatron resign from NN and testing him through a trial,the preview indicates that the "invincible torture device created by the management AI to mass-uninstall the players by EK" part of Tezcatlipoca is going to be revealed to all Burst Linkers which (understandably) is going to cause massive unrest,it sucks that KYH lost Haruyuki to her sister because they destroyed the 5 crowns that was nerfing Tezca but it's not like their bond is broken even though they're pretty much enemies now.

And since Haru is visiting Eterna next volume,then the first appearance of the OU members's RL selves aside from Cosmos,Taker,Oracle,Milady and Cerberus who showed up earlier is pretty certain or at least just Argon.

[gensouR-1]

The preview illustrations for V26:
https://www.acfun.cn/a/ac33762500

Spoiler for comment:

The descriptions didn't straight up tell it,but it's obvious thanks to the preview summary that the 4 people other than Tsubomi are members of OU,the blond loli,Yubolt Nanako is a 1st year high schooler in Eterna,the boy with the mask and gloves,Kyoubu Tomochika is a 3rd year middle schooler,the big guy with glasses,Koshimizu Ryou is in 3rd year of middle school,and the girl with twin braids,Sagisu Airi is a 3rd year middle school student in Eterna,considering the blurb about how the Seven Dwarves are in Eterna for Haru's trial,the assumption is that Nanako is Snow Fairy,Ryou is Behemoth,Tomochika is Cavalier while Airi is either the 5th Seventh Dwarf or Cypress Reaper,the girl with Niko is probably Porcupine.

Also despite Heir being in the picture with the other NN girls,it's already confirmed that he's a young boy,his RL self showed up in V20 even though we didn't get his real name,just that he's an important enough person(though it's obvious that he's a member of the Japanese imperial family from the bits up to now) that he's normally accompanied by bodyguards and that he has scheduled tours in important buildings.

[gensouR-1]

Details from the V26 bookwalker trial:

Spoiler for spoiler:

-The book starts in July 27 12:00 PM,3 days after the botched operation and the same day Infinite Burst takes place as the book starts literally 4 hours before the NN vs GW Territory War in 16:00 PM where Nyx starts a blackout of the SSC system to block Burst Linkers from accessing Brain Burst.
-The consenquences of the end of V25 is incredibly dire,while Cosmos was able to tame Tezca again,for some reason its causing a scene in the UNF which prevents anyone from doing Enemy hunting which is the primary source of BP hunting in Brain Burst,and because they're the primary source of Burst Points for several lower to middle ranked Legions this means their lifeline is effectively cut,fortunately no Burst Linker was EK'd by Tezca so far.
-In the end,Crow couldn't escape the fate of ending up like Falcon and history repeated itself:thanks to him transferring to Oscillatory Universe who are the front face of the Acceleration Research Society,he's effectively the greatest traitor to the Burst Linkers unaffiliated with the 6 Great Legions(NN got accepted back into the fold while OU got the boot thanks to the events of V20-25,Prominence is treated as continuing to exist as part of NN despite the merger) and they go after him to get revenge and vent out their frustrations by continuously challenging him to Duels,Zelkova Verger,the Level 6 Burst Linker he fights at the beginning of V26 and 3 other Burst Linker he beats on the same day offscreen are one of the Burst Linkers trying to get revenge on Crow,thanks to his transfer to Oscillatory,he no longer has the right to refuse duels in NN's territory and none of the members of the 6 Coloured Legions are able to back him up from being constantly challenged by the vengeful players as Oscillatory is the enemy of the 6 Coloured Legions which makes it even easier for the Burst Linkers to attack Crow but none of the NN,Aurora Oval,Leonidz,Great Wall,and Crypt Cosmic Circus's members attempted to get revenge on him,even the former Prominence members didn't do anything to enact their promised retribution despite the prophecy of betrayal in V20 coming to pass nor was there any calls for Lotus to enact Judgment Blow on Crow to deprive Oscillatory from obtaining an exceptionally skilled Burst Linker.
-Oscillatory's lights out protocol is still under effect as no member except Cosmos shows up in the Matching List so none of them can back up Crow from being continuously challenged,one Burst Linker attempted to attack Cosmos in the third district of Minato to get revenge but they were defeated by a monster in the form of a Duel Avatar and Cosmos never showed up in the Duel and it's speculated by Haru that this monster is something Cosmos can summon using her Abillities,there's a rumor claiming that Behemoth supposedly defied Cosmos's orders and showed up in the Matching List one day but no one can confirm this rumor since he didn't show up again.
-Taking responsibillity as the traitor,Haru permanently connected to the Global Net and accepts all of the challenges from the Burst Linkers out for revenge with him doing 20-30 challenges per day non-stop after the botched operation but thanks to the Omega style's <Synthesis>,the memorized information of nearly 500 Burst Linkers that operates in Tokyo that includes his contacts and Burst Linkers unaffiliated with the coloured Legions,Crow's accumulated combat skills and battle experience,and taking advantage of the Stage's characteristics and special effects,he was able to easily defeat the Burst Linkers that came after him and it's rumoured that Crow won all of the matches,his mental strength that was strengthened from facing powerful opponents and the deathmatches up till now allows him to take on the hatred of the vengeful Burst Linkers with a calm mind,effectively becoming a hate magnet.The other reason other than taking responsibillity is that if he didn't become a hate magnet then the Burst Linkers unaffiliated with the coloured Legions would eventually turn their fangs on them because the coloured Legions including NN took the problems of Brain Burst for granted and didn't have a solution for the impossible problem known as Tezca,as Sky Raker said in V6,the total amount of Burst Linkers that belongs to the coloured Legions is a small portion of the total amount that is currently active,and there are a lot of powerful Burst Linkers that doesn't belong to the coloured Legions so if they turned their fangs to the coloured Legions,the situation would have gone even worse.
-Haru refused to meet KYH out of shame of betraying her by transferring to her older sister's Legion,Utai doesn't hold a grudge at him regarding his betrayal and is concerned for his wellbeing,she tries to tell him to talk to KYH and stop taking on the non-stop matches.
-There's going to be an offline NN meeting regarding Haru's transfer to Oscillatory Universe after Haru and Utai does their committee duties of taking care of Hou.
-Since the book starts at the same day Infinite Burst begins,by shutting down the SSC network system to prevent Brain Burst players from playing,Nyx extended Haru and Metatron's time with NN by complete accident as they're still NN members at the start of the book and the transfer to OU which hasn't happened yet got postponed thanks to the blackout.
-The girl that shows up with Niko in the trial made a bet with Niko on whether or not Haru remembers her which she won because he forgot so she's definitely Thistle Porcupine whose RL self Haru saw before the NN vs OU Territory War.

[gensouR-1]

Heads up,the rest of AW V26's illustrations got leaked on tieba yesterday,no details about what happens in V26 though,just the rest of the illustrations:
http://c.tieba.baidu.com/p/7749510733

Spoiler for uhhhhhhh:

-Haru and KYH has their first IRL kiss in V26 after their first kiss in accelerated space in V1.
-Megumi tags along with Haru and Tsubomi to Eterna.
-Haru's post-initiation party or is this before the fight against Cavalier?
-Cosmos's RL Self revealed?
-Metatron gets a fight in this book?
-Cavalier,Behemoth and Airi's AA/CC Avatars?,this means that Vise/Tower isn't the only one who can change his Duel Avatars and Oscillatory really is a Legion mostly composed of the last survivors of AA and CC's purge.

[ooPeaToo]

The illustrations vol 26

Vol 26 : https://imgur.com/a/9EDwuLt

[gensouR-1]

Spoiler for We finally got the answer,sort of:

Kuroyukihime and White Cosmos's real names got revealed in V26:
White Cosmos:Kuroha Enju,born in September 2031(the girl with KYH in one of the illustrations is her,but Haru never meets Cosmos in RL)
KYH/Black Lotus:Kuroha Sayuki(get rid of the -ha in Kuroha and the Sa- in Sayuki,you get Kuroyuki,so what KYH said about her real name not being too far off her nicknames(Sacchan,Sacchin,Sachi,Kuroyukihime) was true)

[tsunade666]

Originally Posted by ooPeaToo

The illustrations vol 26

Vol 26 : https://imgur.com/a/9EDwuLt

Thank for the link.

[gensouR-1]

Spoiler for WARNING AW26 spoilers:

-Cosmos stopped Tezca by creating a crown of thorns on its head and stabbing its chest using The Luminary which caused it to stop moving which gave Crow,Metatron,Heir,Graph,Lavender,Sentry and Pile an opening to escape,Crow saves Cosmos's life by carrying her to the Leave Point because she was too exhausted to escape after retaming Tezcatlipoca,unfortunately,while this taming succeeded in saving Crow and the rescue team,this is just a temporary taming as Tezca breaks free of Cosmos's control after everyone escapes by breaking the crown on its head.
-Cavalier can perform Crow's Laser Lance despite never seeing it once,Crow thinks that Cavalier has IS Skill that can imitate other player's IS skills but Cavalier tells him that he doesn't have an IS Skill like that and Crow's Laser Lance isn't actually unique to him because anyone can learn this type of long-range IS skill in 2-3 days of training.
-The 7 Dwarves that corresponds with the 4 people with Tsubomi in the coloured illustration are:
1.Tomochika Kyoubu(Student Council President of his school's student council):Platinum Cavalier.
2.Yubolt Nanako(Secretary of Eterna's High School Student Council):Snow Fairy,the reason for her European family name is because her father's side of the family is Swedish while her mother is 3/4 Danish and 1/4 Japanese so Nanako is 7/8 European and 1/8 Japanese in her blood.
3.Sagisu Airi(Vice President of Eterna's Middle School Student Council):Cypress Reaper
4.Koshimizu Ryou(Vice President of his school's Student Council):Glacier Behemoth
(With this,it's now confirmed that 5 out of the 6 core members of OU in Eterna are Cosmos,Fairy,Milady,Reaper,and (probably) Argon,so that leaves only 1 core member left to be revealed)
So no Argon,5th Dwarf,Croaker,Sulfur and Vise/Tower RL debut yet,though the latter's debut i suspect is going to be saved for SAO,assuming he is Magis.
-The picture with the current territories of the Coloured Legions isn't a mistake,Nega Nebulus gave the territories given by Great Wall back to them in this volume since they don't have any reason to hold on to them now that their goal of exposing the Acceleration Research Society as the back face of Oscillatory Universe was successful.
-Kyoubu and Ryou enrolls in Shirakaba Mori Academy,a co-educational school established in 2015 next to Eterna,and no,it's not an all-boys school.
-The last step of the entrance exam to enter Oscillatory Universe as a full pledged member is fighting a Crococitus(a Beast Level Enemy that has no elemental weaknesses and physical parameters high enough to kill a Level 6 Burst Linker in 1 hit but it doesn't have any special moves) in the Minato Culture Center with the Seven Dwarves overseeing the examinee's battle against the Beast Level Enemy but only 10 members including the Seven Dwarves out of the Legion's 30 members have actually accomplished the exam and the other members haven't actually finished theirs yet,Crow was supposed to undergo the group portion of the test(which is said to be pretty difficult for normal Burst Linkers even though we don't know what it entails) but Airi points out that Crow's extraordinary skills and him being a Contractor and a Reacher thanks to his abnormal growth means that the difficulty level of the group portion is pretty much easy for him and they can't really gauge the full extent of his abillities using that phase so the only step that was left was the 1 vs 1 against a Crococitus,Crow's exam was going pretty well until Tezca barged a few minutes into the exam,it turns out it had an built-in function that allows it to detect a player fighting an Enemy so it could immediately go there to kill them which is why Enemy hunting is impossible right now(in Tokyo at least,it never went away to other areas so Crikin's group is safe for now) and while Cavalier erected a 30-minute anti-detection barrier in the test area using his Abillity <Ignorable Zone> so Crow's test can go smoothly but Tezca detected them anyway despite the barrier being present so Behemoth,Fairy,Reaper,Milady,and Oracle drawed Tezca's aggro away from Crow so he could escape but during Crow's escape,he got ambushed by Cavalier and Tower who wanted to eliminate him which ultimately failed because Metatron detected Crow being in danger and forced them to escape.
-Metatron was tasked by White Cosmos as an OU member to monitor Tezca's movements in the UNF with Amaterasu and Bari helping her with her task.
-Cavalier's Duel Avatar isn't actually what his Avatar actually looks like,when Crow cut off his arm,he found out to his surprise that the inside of Cavalier's Duel Avatar is hollow with no mechanical parts inside it nor did any blood loss happened,Crow deduces that Cavalier's knight appearance is in fact,the very embodiment of Cavalier's trauma itself and that as the purest of the Metal Colours,this made Cavalier the very embodiment of the Metal Colour itself by literally wearing his own trauma in Brain Burst which made Cavalier mad that Crow found out about this,so the knight Duel Avatar is either an Abillity or an Enhanced Armament of the real Cavalier.
-Kyoubu was the only one who was in Vise's plot to sabotage Crow's exam while Cosmos/Enju,Fairy/Nanako,Milady/Tsubomi,Reaper/Airi,Behemoth/Ryou and Oracle/Megumi genuinely had no idea of the attempted assault,after the other 5 found out about Kyoubu(who immediately ran away from the student council room once he realized that the sabotage is going to get found out after they logged out from the UNF) and Vise's attempt at Crow's life,Ryou apologized to Haru about the botched test and to further make it up to him,he tells him that they'll give him a compensation as apology for what Cavalier and Vise/Tower did but Haru asks the remaining Seven Dwarves that the compensation is to be given to Megumi and Tsubomi so the former is free to leave OU without any strings attached but both of them thinks its inappropiate for Megumi to get an easy exit ticket because of an attempt on Crow's life so Megumi instead asked for them to pay for Haru's return trip while secretly setting up a meeting between Haru and KYH after she noticed the distance between Haru and KYH after the betrayal 3 days ago.
-Ok,so it turns out the 4th world Crow saw last volume isn't Underworld but a new acceleration world titled Dread Driver 2047 or DD 2047.
-Originally Oscillatory intended to shut down its lights off protocol and attack Minato's 3rd district that is now owned by NN to capture it in the same day as Crow's exam but thanks to Kyoubu and Tower/Vise's attempt at Crow's life,the Territory War is cancelled since Kyoubu ran away before it could start and is postponed until further notice,presumably after Kyoubu and Tower/Vise's penalization by Cosmos.
-The category for Burst Linkers that reached the Highest Level are divided into Level 1(needs the assistance of a contracted Being),Level 2(can go to the Highest Level when their contracted Being calls them and Level 3(can go the Highest Level without assistance),the term for players capable of reaching the Highest Level without the assistance of Beings such as White Cosmos,Snow Fairy and Silver Crow are Reachers and they can go the Highest Level whenever and wherever they want and they can bring other players to the Highest Level with them as substitutes for contracted Beings but forming contracts with Reachers are impossible so Lotus still has to find a high-level Being to contract with instead of Crow.
-Cavalier is the 7 Dwarves member with the highest loyalty towards Cosmos that borders on adoration,but this same adoration means that he's bent on removing uncertain factors like Crow(which he's actually right about,after all Crow screws up Cosmos's plans constantly but he really should have just watched if Crow was showing signs of betrayal instead of trying to kill him in secret) from Cosmos which makes him vulnerable to Vise's plot to get rid of Crow.
-Behemoth's quadrapedal form is actually his Beast Mode like the other animal Burst Linkers,his Duel Avatar normally looks like giant blue devil similar to Iris Alice's Snow Devil.
-The list of the dungeons corresponding to strongest non-Imperial Palace and Tezca Beings are updated in this volume:
1.Metatron:Shiba Park,formerly housed The Luminary that was obtained by Cosmos.
2.Ushas:Shinjuku Tokyo Metropolitan Government building,formerly housed The Impulse that was obtained by Blue Knight
3.Xi Wangmu:Tokyo Dome,formerly housed The Strife that was obtained by Green Grandee.
4.Rudra:Tokyo Big Sight(lol,so his lair is where Comiket happens every year)
5.Amaterasu:Tokyo Subway,formerly housed The Tempest that was obtained by Purple Thorn
6.Nyx:Yoyogi Park.
7.Bali(mentioned by Amaterasu to tell Crow to bring cakes to her dungeon as a request):Tokyo National Stadium.
-Taku got reverted back to Level 4 in V26 with Cosmos saving him from being degraded back to Level 1,unfortunately she couldn't reverse the Level Drain(if that's even possible) because she was too exhausted from retaming Tezca.
-All Cosmos did up to this point including the birth of Chrome Disaster,Hermes Cord,ISS Kits,Red Rider's assassination,Disaster MK2,and Tezcatlipoca are for the sake of preventing Brain Burst from imbalancing into either excess conflict or peace by creating threats for Burst Linkers to fight as a united front or preventing them from uniting when there is no threats like what happened with Rider,while Grandee's BP feeding to Enemies is indeed a fight against excess conflict and beneficial for Brain Burst's longevity,it would just lead to the Brain Burst stagnating into excess fusion if his method was the only one supporting BB2039 so Cosmos,OU and the ARS takes up the role of being the one that create threats to fight to produce conflict while Grandee acts as the one that extends the life cycle of Burst Linkers using the BP feeding,effectively creating a balance between fusion and strife.By taming Tezca using The Luminary,the formation of Burst Linker alliances should have been permanently stopped under the threat of OU sending it after alliances but the botched rescue operation that released Tezca from Cosmos's contol ended up causing the creation of the 500-man Burst Linker joint army which counts towards excess fusion because without Cosmos giving it instructions,its behaviour pattern is too simple and undirected for it to be a functional deterrent.Sayuki however,refuses to believe Enju despite Haru slowly realizing that she's telling the truth still denies her sister's cause thanks to the trauma of being used to kill Rider and tells Enju that she will still expel her and the ARS from Brain Burst,Enju then asks her sister on whether she would be capable of doing that while making a foreshadowing that "Crow will be on her side on that battle",hinting that Crow will eventually come to an understanding with Cosmos that will lead to him opposing Lotus,to which Sayuki declares that she will definitely do it even if she has to cut down Crow with her own hands,after hearing her resolve,Enju expressed a little pride at her little sister's determination.
-Turns out Cosmos's assumption that Tezcatlipoca was a Being because Inti was maturing it within its shell was wrong,Bari used her <Eyes> Abillity to analyze Tezca and confirmed that it isn't a Being and it had an Exit Portal inside of it that can't be used by Burst Linkers for some reason,and after Crow reports what Bari told him,a startled Cosmos gives Crow his first mission as a member of Oscillatory Universe:go to the remaining underground great dungeons to enlist the help of the other Beings(Amaterasu,Rudra,Ushas,Nyx and Xi Wangmu) before its too late and that she'll tell Fairy and the other members to help Crow so he doesn't have to go at it alone.
-According to the Beings who has achieved free will and true sentience,the biggest difference of Castle Owners,the rulers of Brain Burst's dungeons and the other Beings is the capabillity of speaking human language(which explains why Jormungand and Nidhogg never spoke despite having Legend Rank status,it's not because its unable to communicate but because they can't learn human language to speak with the players) but otherwise every single one of them is capable of achieving sentience and this applies to all Beings in all accelerated worlds,it's hypothesized that the reason is because the Castle Owners were given <Thinking Circuits> so they can learn and speak human language but none of the Castle Owners understands as to why the creator of the accelerated worlds didn't just give every Being <Thinking Circuits> or at least give the Beings below the Castle Owners the capabillity of fostering their own <Thinking Circuits> so they could eventually engage in dialogue with the players,what gave away that Tezca isn't a Being to Bari is that not only it lacks <Thinking Circuits> despite being in the Super Rank,she couldn't sense the essence of a Being from it or any form of sentience in it while even the lowest ranked Beings had some sentience to an extent.
-The Kuroba Sayuki name reveal was in Haru and KYH's moment where the former tells her that even though they're no longer in the same Legion anymore,Haru's feelings for her remains unchanged and he tells her that he still likes the person known as Kuroba Sayuki/KYH.
-There's a tradition in the Kamura family that the girls are named after plants if they were from the main family or herbs if they were from the Kuroba branch family,because KYH's mother was from the main family but married someone from the branch family which means she's part of the Kurobas now,both KYH and Cosmos should have been named after herbs but for some reason KYH never knew,only she was named after herbs while Cosmos was named after a plant.
-With the exception of Black Vise/Ivory Tower and Kyoubu/Platinum Cavalier(at least for the time being,Crow has to work to get him to trust him unlike Behemoth,Fairy and Reaper since Kyoubu antagonizes him because he's an uncertain factor and not because he hates him),Oscillatory Universe lost their position as the antagonists now that Crow is part of them with Cosmos,Fairy,Reaper,and Behemoth no longer antagonizing him,the current main antagonists of the arc are the invading players from Dread Driver 2047 who showed up at the end.
-Kawahara in the Afterword confirmed that the events of Infinite Burst and the existence of Risa and Nyx are still canon,but there's going to be a slight adjustments with one of them delaying the events of Infinite Burst(and by extension,the Return to Eternity side story that happens afterwards) that was supposed to happen 4 hours after the start of the book's events by a week and that the Infinite Burst of 2016 will only apply for the OVA,both characters will appear in the Seventh Artifact Arc a little while after the events of V26.
-Several Burst Linkers not affiliated with the Coloured Legions formed the first joint army Legion on July 27 2047 named Excelkitus,the army is led by the middle sized Legions Orwest,Night Owl,Gowen and Cold Brew,solo Burst Linkers and small sized Legions including the Gallant Hawks Legion which includes Zelkova Verger and Taupe Cape also joined in order to destroy Tezcatlipoca,300 out of the 500 Burst Linker army attempted to kill it by freezing its movements in the Sea stage after their recon team saw Fairy,Behemoth,Milady,Reaper and Oracle binding its movements by freezing it in a river using IS skills,but instead of using IS,they instead lured Tezca by Enemy hunting,used an item bought from the shop to force a Transition into the Sea stage and freeze Tezca using a freezing Abillity,one of Chiyu's friends that she made after becoming Burst Linker and member of the Orvest Legion in West Tokyo,Cotton Marten,was forced to participate in the operation and sent an email to Chiyu to find her if she doesn't contact her by eight in the morning which alerts her to the operation and she goes to Haru so they can save as many Burst Linkers as they can knowing that the operation is doomed and just as they predicted,the operation fails and the army got EK'd with hundreds but not all members undergoing the Final Elimination Phenomenon from Brain Burst(Zelkova,Marten and Taupe's status are unknown) but Tezca stopped in the middle of the EK for some reason and coughed up the Leave Point inside it before going dormant.
-The Leave Point inside Tezcatlipoca activates at the end of the book after it went immobile which causes the sky of BB to turn red and generates WARNING signs,the Leave Point serves as a pathway for the DD2047 players to invade Brain Burst(they called it Trial #2,just like Grandee did) to destroy it,White Cosmos actually got shocked and perplexed for once because she never expected the DD2047 Players to invade Brain Burst in her predictions and that it was actually possible to invade other acceleration worlds,even when the AA and CC Tezcas destroyed their worlds,no invasion by other acceleration worlds happened so this is new even for her.
-According to Kawahara,while the Dread in Dread Driver means fear,the Driver part has nothing to do with racing and its meaning is Attack,so it's not a racing game.

[AP24]

That reminds me, what is everyone’s latest level?

[gensouR-1]

Originally Posted by AP24

That reminds me, what is everyone’s latest level?

Skimming through the japanese and chinese wikipedia pages of Accel World+V26 spoilers in tieba got me this regarding the confirmed levels of current active players up to now:

Spoiler for not much change:

Sayuki/Black Lotus=Level 9
Enju/White Cosmos=Level 9
Green Grandee=Level 9
Blue Knight=Level 9
Purple Thorn=Level 9
Yellow Radio=Level 9
Niko/Scarlet Rain=Level 9
Graphite Edge=Level 8
Vise/Tower=Level 8
Argon=Level 8
Mihaya/Blood Leopard=Level 8
Fuuko/Sky Raker=Level 8
Iron Pound=Level 7
Crimson Kingbolt=Level 7
Yuuko/Orange Raptor=Level 7
Kurumi/Violet Dancer=Level 6
Risa/Nitride Unica=Level 6
Nozomi/Mimosa Bongo=Level 6
Comet Squeaker=Level 6
Haru/Silver Crow=Level 6
Ruka/Lagoon Dolphin=Level 5
Mana/Corral Merrow=Level 4
Taku/Cyan Pile=Level 4
Chiyu/Lime Bell=Level 5
Rin/Ash Roller=Level 5
Chiaki/Aluminium Valkyrie=Level 4
Lilya/Iris Alice=Level 4
Tokinori/Vanilla Slicer=Level 4
Akira/Aqua Current=Level 4
Rui/Magenta Scissors=Level 6
Olive Drab=Level 4
Zircon Paladin=Level 4
Wolfram Cerberus=Level 5
Rust Jigsaw=Level 6
Blaze Heart=Level 5
Ochre Prison=Level 5
Peach Parasol=Level 4
Avocado Avoider=Level 5
Azure Heir=Level 6
Nago/Chocolate Puppeteer=Level 5
Cerulean Runner=Level 5
Zelkova Verger=Level 5
Tourmaline Shell=Level 4
Iodine Sterilizer=Level 6
Jade Jailer=Level 3
Frost Horn=Level 5
Beryllium Coil=Level 5
Nickel Doll=Level 4
Sand Duct=Level 3
Saxe Lauder=Level 4
Yuki/Manganese Blade=Level 7
Koto/Cobalt Blade=Level 7

The only recent change was Taku getting Level Drained to 4,no one leveled up recently as far as everyone knows

[gensouR-1]

Spoiler for AWV26 part 1:

Chapter 1

【HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!】

Haruyuki glanced calmly at the line of words blazing with bright red flames.It's not that he can't feel the high fighting spirit before the battle but the depths of his brain are as cold as icicles,while maintaining his calm,he waited for the teleportation to the battle stage and the moment the words burned out,there was a sense of falling in the endless darkness,Crow's feet stepped into the hard flat ground and immediately,the dim vision returned to light and color.Haruyuki was walking down the street in order to go to school when the intruder came and as a result,the scenery and terrain that appeared in front of him remained roughly the same.However,the pavement of the road was fragmented and incomplete,and the mixed-use buildings and apartments standing on the left and right were also scorched by fire.At the same time,in place of the blue and clear sky in the real world,yellow sand and dust flow in a vortex.

This is the stage of the low-level terrain [Scorched Earth] of the natural fire attribute and in an instant,Crow held the handle and his eyes were fixed on the cursor that represented the guidance in the center of his field of vision.The light blue triangle swung slightly toward the southwest and his opponent seemed to be pressing forward in a straight line but it would take some time to see the encounter from the color of the cursor.Crow looked at the top right of the field of view,immediately below the stamina bar is the avatar name of the enemy,<Zelkova Verger>.Crow understood the meaning of these two words,even though they were all words he didn't learn in middle school.Zelkova is a tree called zelkova and verger means keeper. Together, it's Zelkova Keeper,however it seems that it is not the intention of the person who guards the Zelkova tree,but that the Duel Avatar has attributes of the tree.It was the first time he had fought against Zelkova Verger but it was no accident that Crow knew so much because it was the result of hard work day and night over the past few days in order to keep in mind the information of the Burst Linkers who were active near Tokyo.

Of course,it is not that the same efforts have been made before but Crow's research objects are mainly limited to members of the six major legions except the Nega Nebulous among the seven major legions but this time the objects to keep in mind also include small and medium-sized Legions and unaffilliated Burst Linkers.With the total number reaching nearly a thousand,it's as difficult as memorizing mathematical formulas and historical year numbers at the same time but now is not the time to be discouraged.All in all,Zelkova Verger was included in the list of less than 500 people he has remembered so far and Verger is a member of the small-scale Legion Gallant Hawks based in Mitaka City near the west side of the Suginami area. If they appeared from the southwest,they would probably have taken the Keio Inokashira Line to Suginami 3rd Ward which while not far at all,is an expedition.

Although it was very close,there was no chance of a battle so far, simply because Haruyuki had no intention of going to Mitaka for a battle and because he had the privilege of refusing to enter the battle randomly in the Suginami area within the territory of the Nega Nebulous,however, on July 24th three days ago,this right was taken away.In an instant, the thinking back to the past was pulled back and Crow has to concentrate on the battle at hand.Zelkova Verger was a male M type with a Level of 6 and Silver Crow was also a 6,so if we followed the Principle of the same level and the same potential,there wasn't much difference in the abilities of the avatars and the key to success or failure depends their own knowledge,experience,insight,judgment,and inspiration.

The enemy was still approaching in a straight line and the reason why this was possible in the Suginami Third War Zone which was densely populated by residential buildings was that most of the buildings on the Scorched Earth Stage were in a state of skeletons with only floors and pillars left,and the burned walls were much more brittle than they looked so if it is a heavyweight avatar,it can easily destroy most of the walls just by dashing forward, and at the same time accumulate the Special Attack gauge,however,Silver Crow belongs to the light-weight relationship of metallic color and cannot pass through thick walls just by running so in order to accumulate the Special Attack Gauge,the only way is to destroy the wall that is about to collapse is to kick them at full power.As he thinks of this,Crow glanced upwards at the roof of the building complex with exposed steel bars,there were seven or eight spectators in sight alone and among them,there must be people who plan to intrude after the battle between Zelkova and Crow,while the Silver Crow's Duels has been made public for a long time,there is still no obligation to let them see the preparations of the Duel before the battle begins.

Focusing on the guide cursor again, the color of the water became more and more distinct. Seemingly less than 500 meters away from the Zelkova,Haruyuki started walking west on the streets of Ome Street and soon after,the big crossroads that crossed ahead came into view.Going straight will lead to the gate of Umesato Junior High School but there is no point in going to the school in the battle arena.While introducing an enemy into a location with familiar terrain is an effective strategy,it also comes with the risk of exposing reality.After turning left at the intersection into the streets of Itsukaichi,Crow picked up the pace and if he turns left on the road not far away,he will be able to detour behind the advancing Keyaki tree while destroying the residential street on your left but the opponent naturally sensed that Crow wanted to take a detour and corrected his course.The guide cursor floating in Crow's line of sight increased slightly which means that Zelkova will shift the advancing route to the left and at the same time,Crow turned left and entered a small alley in the residential area,this action should also be communicated to Zelkova through the cursor,where there is room for traps.The buildings on the scorched earth stage are all scorched,but there are still dense walls blocking the view of the residential area and the opponent can only predict the position and movement of the enemy through the subtle movements of the guide cursor.Although they want to strike first,they will forget the basic rules if they are too concentrated,the guide cursor can only be rotated 360 degrees on the plane,but cannot reflect the height up and down.

On his way into the alley,Crow kicked the ground and uses half-damaged fences and charred courtyard branches as scaffolding to jump onto the roofs of second-story homes.If he stop at this moment, it is likely to be found by the Zelkova,so he used the same speed as Fuuko to jump from one roof to another on the numerous houses.If it is a stage with other solid buildings,[Roof Jump] is a fixed movement skill,but the difficulty will increase on the Scorched Earth Stage:If it is a reinforced concrete building and apartment,even if the roof is burnt,it will not be easily damaged but the roof of the residential house is only as thick as cardboard so even an ultra-light Avatar can easily break it.The reason why Crow was able to jump so easily without falling down had to be thanks to his new master but this isn't a task that measures up to the high standards given by her.Stand on the water with your right foot and extend your left foot before it sinks and through repeated practice,advance ten steps in a row on the water.Although this is a subject that makes people want to question the person,Seri had succeeded a long time ago and acquired the ability to walk on the water without sinking,<Surface Walk>

These days,Crow would enter the UNF before going to bed and if he happened to meet the water stage,he would choose a suitable water surface.Otherwise,he would walk on the water in the temple pool or the swimming pool of the elementary school and he has accumulated more than two months worth of accelerated time training this technique but his highest record is only five steps away,he doesn’t feel like a fool for doing this,but if he reached this point and then give up,then he's more foolish than a fool.It will take about a year to two years for Crow to complete the ten steps project,but it can be regarded as a harvest now.He doesn't know when but his technique of [Roof Jump] has improved a lot and compared to the surface of the water where even grains of sand can sink,the scorched roof of the Scorched Earth Stage is as thick as steel.

With a movement that even felt strange to him,Crow dashed along the densely populated residential roofs for 30 seconds and there was a dry cracking sound from the front left side,and yellow earth smoke flew into the sky.It was the Zelkova Verger who shattered the walls of the building and his gauge has also reaches its maximum with the destroyed buildings.In this way,Crow charged from behind or from the side, and made a preemptive attack—although he was still 30 meters away, the sense of urgency was also approaching rapidly.Of course,Zelkova should have also had a preview of the flying ability of the Silver Crow,regarding the maximum speed and limit altitude,as well as the restriction on cannot fly without consuming the Special Attack Gauge.For a while after the battle,Crow planned to attack from the air from time to time, but chose the normal approach in the end and at the same time,relying only on the guide cursor,let Zelkova relax his vigilance about the overhead.

As he thinks of that plan,Crow lightly kicked the fragile-looking roof and jumped up and the cursor disappears from view which means Zelkova is very close and sure enough a voice shouting <Cubic Skelter> came from the wall of the private house on the left and half of Zelkova's gauge disappeared and subsequently,the concrete walls became shattered.What rushed over from the dust was a huge fist clenched in a translucent shape roughly in the shape of a cube with a length and width of 50cm passed right under Crow at an astonishing speed,smashing across the courtyard and smashing the walls of the neighbor's house,it's true that it has excellent aiming accuracy if it is fired from a room that is out of sight and only based on guidance.If Crow was still moving on the ground,he would have had to endure the Special Attack just now and his health gauge would probably have been wiped out by about half.The name of the skill [Cubic Skelter] has been recorded in previous information but as expected,the feeling of oppression after seeing it is completely different from that after knowing it but a Duel is not just a simple skill competition,a power competition,and before that,it is a victory or defeat between [Understanding] and [Strategy].

A cold feeling came from the center of his brain,and Crow jumped into the big hole punched through the wall.The dust has not disappeared but the outline of a large figure standing in it is clearly visible.Zelkova,who was standing with his right fist stretched forward was caught in a situation where he stiffened for a few seconds after the skill.Crow landed in front of the enemy, grabbed the right arm that was stretched out unsuspectingly with both hands and threw it with a back throw.Zelkova,who was thrown out of the wall that had been pierced with his special move earlier,smashed into a larger hole and fell to the center of the garden with his back on his back,and there was a sound of shattering.Nearly all terrains are fragile in the Scorched Earth stages with a few exceptions.In principle,the Stage itself cannot be destroyed so it is stronger than any weapon in a sense and therefore,in fighting against avatars with special armor such as Zelkova,in many cases,the effects of strikes or throws are more pronounced than those of low-purity strikes.

Having said that,Zelkova,who could not decide the outcome with a single shoulder-to-shoulder fall,jumped up from the ground immediately while ignoring the fact that his stamina gauge had been reduced by 15%,he posed nervously and praised Silver Crow in low voice because he didn't expect him to come over from the top where the guide cursor doesn't show it,although his tone was polite,it was not out of respect for Crow at all,but rather a role-playing like Yellow Radio.Crow figures that Zelkova is just putting up an appearance because it's not that the latter didn't expect it,but that he didn't want to let him fly at all but failed anyway,keeping such an answer in his head,Crow walked through the wall and compliments Zelkova for aiming "accurately" even though he is separated from the wall which annoys the latter,looking the silent stance of Zelkova as if he is exhuming poison gas.He thinks that just like the information he kept in mind,even though it was a fairly large battle avatar,he didn't feel dull at all.While Zelkova's shoulders,chest,hands and feet are covered with square heavy armor,the Duel Avatar looks slightly smaller than Cyan Pile.The color of Zelkova's armor is a reddish tan,but it doesn't give a glossy look and the most characteristic feature of the Zelkova Verger is his wooden armor,which seems to have high resistance to penetrating attacks including slashes, blows,and physical ammunition.Because it was a tree,its resistance to fire was very weak but Crow had neither fire or fire-type weapons nor skills and the stage was not a fire-type field.

Effective attacks other than flames are throwing and Special Attacks but after the one cast just now,Zelkova should be more vigilant about throwing skills and first of all you have to grab the enemy and use the throwing skill by consuming the Special Attack Gauge.Moreover,the throwing skills in combat-type fighting games since ancient times,once detected by the enemy,it will become very difficult to use.So Crow didn't try to get closer,but stood there without even posing.As soon as he saw the name of the intruder,he expected it to be like this.So it was a bit tough to grab the lead and as long as Crow surpasses Zelkova in their remaining health then the latter would have to risk being caught and attack.

When this stalemate lasted for about ten seconds,an anxious voice came from out of nowhere who asks Zelkova if he is here for a blind date and another tells him that he doesn't have to fight if he doesn't want to,it was the cheers from the spectator seats of the surrounding high-rise buildings who were not impressed with Zelkova from their voice and intonation.Like Zelkova in front of him,they are Burst Linkers of small and medium-sized Legions who went on an expedition to defeat the [Traitor] Silver Crow,Zelkova who re-positioned,swayed slightly in the center of his gravity and he seemed to be distracted by unceremonious applause.Although the level is the same as Crow,the way to obtain BP is mainly to hunting Enemies and his battle experience does not seem to be very rich.

When Zelkova recovered,Crow was already in front of him.It's not running or walking,but a way of moving like sliding on the ground thanks to his teacher Centaurea Sentry,this is the combination of extremely soft [movement] and [stillness] and although it is far from being called a heroic footwork,but thanks to the practice of walking in the water,there are now a lot less redundant movements and the distance between them approaching the limit when Crow was about to throw a right straight punch.Due to the advantage of remaining physical strength,Crow could have waited for Zelkova to attack first but the current Crow had already put his body into a state where he could automatically counterattack at the right moment.Such considerations are limited to before contacting the enemy,and after that,it is left to fate.He casually poked the left breast of Zelkova with his right hand and the latter's huge body swayed,and Zelkova's left arm,which was trying to maintain his balance,waved wildly in front of Crow who immediately grabed that arm with his hands,wanting to turn inward.At the moment when the range of motion of the joints reaches the limit,Crow's Special Attack Gauge obtained in the previous roof jumping is exhausted so that the wings on the back can dance with full power within one second and the propulsive force generated by the well-trained flying ability is directly transmitted to the left shoulder joint of Zelkova who screamed in pain,no matter how tough the armor is,the Special Attack that directly attacks the Duel Avatar cannot be defended against and moreover,the strength of the body is hardly affected by its size,Crow then unleashed an Aerial Combo and broke Zelkova Verger's left arm from his body,the latter groaned in pain and stepped back.Usually,the pain of an injury in a Duel is half of the pain inflicted in the UNF,but it is difficult to ignore the pain caused by a part defect and if you can't ignore it,it's like asking the opponent to chase after them.

Crow threw the torn-off arm away and shortened the distance again while Zelkova wanted to get a breather from the somersault attack but since he is a heavyweight avatar,it takes a moment for him to charge up a jump by hitting his feet side with a low kick.Although the damage caused by the kicking technique was minimal,because of the loss of an arm,Zelkova,whose center of gravity was unstable turned over 180 degrees and when he got up from the ground again,his health gauge was cut off a bit.Although he could continue to pursue,Crow decided to retreat to the back,his Health gauge is still full while Zelkova had already fallen below half.Judging from the offensive and defensive battles thus far, it was self-evident that it was Crow's overwhelming victory,the reason for this is the difference in his battle experience compared to Zelkova.While it had only been nine months since Haruyuki had become an Burst Linker and he had just graduated from a novice,the intensification of the struggle with the Acceleration Research Society and the White Legion, the battle with the experts in the Acceleration World also brought a wealth of experience to Crow:<Predator> Dusk Taker,<Quad Eyes Analyst> Argon Array,<Restrainer> Black Vise,<Sneezy> Glacier Behemoth,<Grumpy> Rose Milady,<Sleepy> Snow Fairy,<Bashful> Platinum Cavalier and the White King <Transient Eternity> White Cosmos.All the battles with them were literally deathmatches where it wouldn't be a surprise if all of his points were lost and the only one that can definitely be called a victory is the battle with the Dusk Taker and the rest is either a draw or a tie.As for the White King,he lost without even being able to fight head-to-head,but thanks to surviving these countless extreme situations,at least in the usual battles against opponents of the same level,he almost never made mistakes due to excessive tension.

Contrary to Crow's calmness,it was obvious that the Zelkova Verger is too involved,it's not about the emotion of not admitting defeat but if the desire to win is too strong,it will affect the action of the attack,allowing the opponent to take the lead.Crow thinks that perhaps the Burst Linkers who fought him before Zelkova in the past few days felt the same way and after thinking about it,his emotions became tense.Self-confidence and pride are separated by a piece of paper and it is still ten years early in terms of internal time for him to join the ranks of the strong.

Crow landed on the other side of the garden,and after Zelkova made sure that there would be no further pursuit,he was able to stand up despite the red damage effect from the broken left shoulder,from the depths of the sturdy visor,a gaze full of anger was projected at Crow and he asks him with a murderous voice if he's making him help with his fall training,Crow simply shrugged that it would be a big help if he did help and Zelkova was angered that this is his whole attitude from the beginning of the duel and smashed the stone pillar next to him with his remaining arm,although a part of the flying rubble hit Zelkova own face,he let out a new growl without noticing and angrily tells him that he doesn't what that Sun God has done to the UNF and there are many Legions still troubled by the inability to hunt the Enemies,but he,a traitor,has defected to the culprit of everything,Oscillatory Universe and the appearance of a member with a high reputation makes them angry,although he was scolded in the face, the blade of words did not penetrate the thick shell covering Crow's heart because the same thing has been said no less than ten times in the past few days,he tells Zelkova in a flat tone that he didn't mean to act like a senior to him,he meant that it would be better if he could win easily and the anger that erupted from Zelkova's body grew even stronger.

Although he had a hunch that something needed to be done,Crow did not act.Zelkova's special attack gauge filled up again due to the massive damage it took and if there is a way to reverse the losing situation,it would be now.Zelkova seemed to have sensed Crow's thoughts and tells him that if he wants him to do it,then he will show it to him and as he speaks, he raises his right hand high.The height of about eight meters was a distance that could only be reached by using a special move and the information he had had did not contain any skills that could restrain him.Even if he used a Cubic Skelter again,Crow already had the key information and there's no point to doing it,the attack-type abillity in the original Brain burst would not be easy to hit at long range or close range so it's best to to do a surprise attack or using some method to reduce the enemy's evasion ability before using the abillity is the most basic.

Zelkova who is also a Level 6 should know that so in other words,even if he launches an attack in this situation,there is a possibility of being hit by Crow.As for the performance of the Special Attack or his own attacks,he can only know by looking at it.Crow waited for the moment when the skill was activated,thinking that it would be good if it was time and the five fingers of the right hand held up by the Zelkova Verger were inserted into the ground and he activates <Cornick Smiter>,it was the name of the skill that did not appear in the information Crow had and wonders if this was hidden for a long time,or is it just recently learned.

Zelkova's right hand glowed red but his special attack gauge has not decreased so Crow begins to wonder if Zelkova is using an IS skill,at the same time being on guard like this,there was a faint vibration from both feet,and Crow reflexively jumped to the right.Zelkova's Special Attack gauge finally began to decrease and at the same time sharp spikes protruded from the ground at a violent speed,it was a cone-shaped stake with the same color as Zelkova's armor which is about one and a half meters long and the diameter of the root is about 15 cm,if he hadn't jumped up by instinct,Crow would have been pierced from head to toe.It’s almost impossible to avoid it if he didn't notice the faint vibration thanks to it being a long-range attack with an invisible trajectory but since he avoided it,it is time for Crow to end it.With such determination,Crow looked at the half-squatted Zelkova and planned to sprint over but at that moment,he noticed that the Zelkova's special attack gauge was only reduced by 4%,he couldn't feel the vibration because he was already moving,but this time he jumped to the left intuitively and with a thunderous sound,the place where Crow was standing was pierced by a second stake.Zelkova's right hand that was inserted into the ground was inserted to the base of the fingers,and there was still 80% of his gauge left,which means—

At the moment of landing,Crow rolled back with all his strength and the third stake was skipped in front of him,he continues flipping and the 4th stake brushed across the tip of the nose.In the next somersault,the fifth stake passed behind Silver Crow.The aiming is getting more and more precise and the wall of the house next to him represents that there is no room for somersaults.This special move called Cornick Siter is probably not guided by Zelkova's sight,but has the ability to automatically track so it is a high-performance skill suitable for local defense and commensurate with the name of <Keeper>.Judging from the reduction in the kill slot,the total number of stakes is ten and it was impossible to completely avoid the remaining five in such a narrow courtyard.

In a split second,Crow made three kinds of judgments and studied them separately:1.Jump into the sky to avoid the opponent,but there is a danger of being targeted for a very short time before the flying wings are aimed at the back and vibrating to advance.3.Destroying the stakes with hands by aiming at the tip of the sharp wooden stake,penetrating a very small point can guarantee the destruction,but even if it is a small difference,if he's not accurate for a even a second,his palm will be shattered first.3.Although there is some hesitation,the success rate is indeed the highest so in order to make a quick decision,this should be chosen.With the feeling of super-acceleration stretched out,Crow uttered Synthesis briefly before landing on the third somersault and his diffused consciousness gradually melted into the air.

With a roar, the sixth stake stretched out but the place was three meters away from where Crow landed in the middle of the courtyard which shocks Zelkova because the automatic aiming function had gone wrong,the <Synthesis> skill that Crow used was the first mystery of the Omega sword style taught by Centaurea Sentry By completely switching off the output signal in one's own consciousness,the future prediction function of the BB system, also known as the Main Visualizer fails,which not only makes the opponent but also makes the system unable to perceive its own existence,it made the tracking-type special move untraceable and Zelkova himself couldn't catch Haruyuki's position for a split second.

While Synthesis uses Brain Burst's imagination control system just like the Incarnate System,it diffuses one's own imagination instead of covering matters with high intensity imagination so both are using opposing logic.Imagination is indispensable for all Burst Linkers,whether it's the choice of how to move your avatar or the long-term vision of how you want to grow,you need to have a clear imagination and the water walking that Crow was practicing so hard was also a kind of imaginative exercise to <Return his own weight to zero>.

Usually,the standard of IS skills is actually quite ambiguous but if we use the words of Scarlet Rain to define it,it is [the light emitted by Incarnate skills].The excess light produced by the so-called IS Skill is the result of processing the excess control of the Burst Linker as a light effect when the user's imagination passes through the image control system of the BB system,Synthesis which makes the image output zero naturally produces no light so that is to say,it can't be counted as an IS skill.

Crow,who had just touched the threshold of a novice according to Centaurea's words,stomped hard on the ground after landing.The flying wings behind him also accelerated with full power and pierced through Zelkova Verger who was standing dumbfounded,the latter immediately woke up from his astonishment,but there was no sign of pulling out the right piercing into the ground and Crow realizes that Zelkova can't pull his hand out until the thorns are finished being created or his health gauge is reset to zero and from a performance point of view,it is understandable to have such a limitation.Although he planned to tear off Zelkova's right arm,it couldn't be done if it was fixed on the ground so Crow continued to charge forward,leaping in front of Zelkova and hovered lightly in the air, his eyes fixed on <Cornick Smiter> who had risen from the ground and resumed tracking him but this time the sharp point was one centimeter away from Crow's toes and instead,the body of the Zelkova Verger directly below was mercilessly pierced through the weakly armored lower abdomen to the neck.Less than 50% of the remaining health was taken away in one breath and the huge tea-red body shrank in an instant and then shattered into countless pieces and scattered.

Chapter 2

The 3 Burst Linkers who had entered after Zelkova Verger were also repulsed without danger,and after waiting for a new challenger,Haruyuki decided to give up and cut off the Global Network.Just like Kuroyukihime,if she didn't cut it for 24 hours,someone who called herself a bounty hunter would rush in nut Haruyuki had set it to be automatically connected except at home and school hours.Rather, the odds of names appearing during peak hours are high,even on purpose.Thanks to this,the number of battles Haru has to go through per day is at least 10 and it can be as many as 20 times.By the time I got back to home in the evening,he was already exhausted but even at the risk of being knocked down on the road,Haru didn't refuse to fight indiscriminately because he thinks that it is a duty and obligation that should have been shouldered long ago.Haru finally reached school and connected to the school's public network,compared with the global network,the functions are greatly limited,but the anxiety in his heart has been alleviated.Haru then goes to hut where Hou is resting because the hot summer heat and begins giving him a mist shower when Utai shows up and greets Haru in the chat window,he gets reminded that they're no longer comrades of the same Legion since three days ago which hurts his feelings but tries to pretends that nothing is wrong so Utai wouldn't worry and tells her that he's giving Hou a bath and asks if she wants to join in,but Utai didn't wait for Haru to finish speaking and dropped the handbag in her right hand and slammed into Haruyuki aggressively,she hugged Haruyuki's plump body tightly with his right hand,and tapped the holographic keyboard with her left hand at a super high speed to tell Haru to stop pretending with tears in her eyes,she tells Haru that she watched the battle just now.Although it was a wonderful battle,if he continues to win in such a way,more and more people will say that they're disgusted with him.

Haru asks Utai how she was able to watch the Duel because he didn't notice to which she tells him that she was using a Dummy Avatar,as Haru wonders why she was watching,Utai tells him that she heard rumors that Haru was fighting more than a dozen times every day and that he didn't lose any of the fights,she's not saying that the pursuit of victory is bad. But there are more important things in a Duel and Haru gives the answer:enjoyment.Utai then continues that she didn't feel any joy from him at all,while the four battles were all overwhelming victories,in her opinion,he seemed to be fighting with hatred for oneself which Haru admits to be true,he then explains with an expression of grief that Utai has never seen that Tezca has caused chaos in the accelerated world and the small and medium-sized legion could not get points from Enemies were greatly affected in just three days.Their grievances are now all gathered at the masterminds,Oscillatory Universe but he feels that sooner or later these dissatisfaction will pour out to the 6 Coloured Legions that left Tezca alone.Utai states that none of them intended to leave it alone but Haru points out that even if all 6 Legions unites to fight it,they can't defeat it but the small and medium-sized Legions believe that it seems reasonable that the problems that occur in the accelerated world should be solved by the six major Legions.This was the case during the Disaster Armor and the ISS Kit incidents.If they can’t continue hunting Enemies,then the small and medium corps will have the idea of ​​questioning why the king does not move and in that case,the members of the six major Legion will of course not admit it.

Utai also seemed to understand the danger Haruyuki envisioned in the future and there was a different expression on her immature face.she states that it would be great if they were just arguing with each other on the Internet but if it has already entered the small-scale competition then she doesn’t know how much it will escalate to which Haru agrees,although it is called a large Legion,there are only about a hundred people even at the largest and most Burst Linkers are members of small and medium-sized groups and freelancers without guilds so if there is a real struggle,the six major Legions will not be unscathed because after all,even in the small and medium legions,there are many masters to which she nods in agreement.

While Utai had also mentioned just now that Haruyuki had zero defeats in the dozen or so rounds of daily battles.Although this is true,it has also been in a dangerous situation several times.Take this morning's battle against Zelkova Verger,if he didn't use Synthesis then he would have probably lost.Even the backbone of the six major Legions will be at a disadvantage if they are continuously invaded by opponents of that level so if the small and medium-sized corps unite to start a territorial war,then the area dominated by the six major corps is likely to fall and even before that,there will definitely be a bloody battle and it is impossible to imagine how many people's BP will be lost until the situation stabilizes.

Utai then states that even so,there's no reason for Haru to be a punching bag for the small and medium-sized corps and correctly states that the responsibility lies with the White King and OU,she tells Haru to cut off the Global Network and make a declaration that you will not come to Suginami but go to the Third War Zone of the Minato District because no OU members can refuse a Duel there.Indeed,the third war zone of the Minato area,where the private Eterna Women's Academy which is the base of the White Legion is located became the dominant territory of the Nega Nebulous during the territorial war on July 20 a week ago and it is estimated that there are about a total of about 30 OU members were denied the privilege of refusing a Duel in that area.Having said that,unlike Haruyuki,they seemed to have cut off the link to the global network so even if they entered the third district of Minato,they couldn't get in,with one exception:The Legion Master,the White King White Cosmos herself.She kept putting his name on the match list shortly after losing her territory and the reason given by Fuuko is the speculation that she's issuing a challenge to the Kings especially Lotus although the actual situation is unclear,but in any case,any Burst Linkers can freely compete with the White King who was out of reach in the past if they want to and in fact,it seems that there are people who are curious or self-challenging to jump into the challenge.Regardless of them,all of them were attacked by a large monster-like Duel Avatar and died on the spot before confronting Cosmos himself.Usually, there can be no Enemies on the normal Duel Field and there are no legion members who escorts Cosmos,so it is not a team battle,so Haru thinks Cosmos has something similar to Decurion and Puppeteer's doll generation abillity though the details are unknown because he never asked her after being inducted.In addition,there are also rumors that the name of the Seven Dwarves has appeared on the battle list,but no one could confirm this.

Because of this,Zelkova Verger and other Burst Linkers to would not have the chance to complain to the members of the White Legion at the 3rd district.Haruyuki than thanks Utai while calling her Mei for caring about him despite no longer being in NN but he states that he was the one who killed Inti and resurrected Tezcatlipoca who was sealed in it.Cosmos persuaded him to surrender to her Legion and he is the one who caused this situation so the members of the small and medium-sized legion are qualified to express their dissatisfaction to me so they can be relieved a little.At this point Utai cries and tells him that the bond between them will never disappear even if they're no longer comrades and points out he killed Inti to save KYH,she then began to tell him how she feels about him being a traitor and attacked a dozen times per day but she couldn't describe it in words,as Haru sees Utai crying while silently hugging him,Haruyuki felt his eyes redden too but couldn't cry here because all of these are chosen according to his own will so instead of hugging Utai,who was trembling slightly,Haruyuki patted her lightly and apologizes for worrying her because he didn't have time to enjoy his duels for the past 3 days but compared to the training of Master Raker and Sentry,20-30 battles a day are not enough to exhaust him and that he only accepts duels only when going to and from school,and since almost all opponents are first-time opponents,he'll learn a lot of things from them,not to mention that since they're all Burst Linkers,the only thing they can do is fight.

Utai then relaxes and wipes her tears with a handkerchief and states that this statement can defeat her even if she refutes it,she then promises to not force herself to say anything like the outburst about the 4 battles back then and asks him to go see KYH which made him speechless,3 days ago,on the night that the Crow rescue operation had ended in devastating failure,Haruyuki told his friends who were diving and chatting about what happened and KYH was naturally present at that time,but Haruyuki had not been able to contact or get in touch with Kuroyukihime since the meeting ended at 0:00 on July 25th.Haru thinks he has to talk to KYH but it's fact that he betrayed KYH to her sister,if he didn't then Graph,Heir,Sentry,Downer,Pile,and Metatron would have died in the Tokyo Grand Castle,because Tezca has the same Level Drain ability as Seiryu,they wouldn't get away with losing a few points and in fact,Cyan Pile has been downgraded from Level 6 to Level 4 and unlike the Burst Linkers,Metatron does not need points to revive but strictly speaking,what will revive when a Transition is activated in the Unlimited Neutral Stage is another Metatron with a different way of thinking and not the one they know.So at that time,Haruyuki had no choice but to dedicate himself to the White King for her forgiveness.She is the only one who can stop the sun god and she has no choice but to swear allegiance to the White King in exchange for the lives of the six.Kuroyukihime definitely could understand this but it was one thing to figure it out and another question to accept.

How Kuroyukihime accepted Haruyuki's choice was unknown but the fact was that three days after that—60 hours to be exact,he couldn’t get in touch so he had to assume that Kuroyukihime was still unable to talk to Haruyuki.Haruyuki was worried about how to explain such a thing to Utai when Izeki shows up to help both of them with Hou,she noticed something was wrong with Haru and he tells her that he betrayed an important person who was his saviour,Izeki tells him that although she doesn't know about interpersonal relationships,it's okay to apologize and that he has to do it soon before the time interval gets too long and makes things uncomfortable to which he thanks Izeki for the advice,as Utai and Reina give Hou a shower while Haru cleans up the owl food that Hou wouldn't eat,he gets reminded of the cherry seeds he planted with Utai and Niko and finds out that the seed had begun to sprout and calls over Utai and Izeki(who agrees to help take care of the cherry tree).As the latter 2 celebrates the germination of the seedling,Haru decided to message Niko about the cherries but that was unnecessary as Niko shows up with a middle schooler with a punk outfit,he asks the latter if this is the first time they met which causes the girl to tell Niko that she won their bet because Haru didn't recognize her,she then deactivates the AR hair pigment modification which causes her hair to turn from silver to black,causing Haru to realize that the girl was Thistle Porcupine from when they invaded Minato's 3rd district,he apologizes for not remembering her and tells his RL name to her while extending his hand for a handshake but Niko tells him to not shake hands with except in some circumstances,they then go to Hou's hut where Utai and Izeki are where Thistle introduces herself as Fukaya Kao,she tells them while Hou's hut is well made,the hot weather in summer is troublesome but they can bring Hou to her house for the rest of the summer where it's more comfortable and they can do their committee duties there,she asks if Izeki and Haru are coming along with her,Utai and Niko to her house but the former tells her she needs to pick her sister up from kindergarten nursery and the latter is wary that the Legion transfer issue will be brought up after they're done with Hou,Niko is understanding of Haru's situation and tells him that it's okay if he doesn't want to go.

After Utai,Niko and Fukaya leaves with Hou,Haru then thinks about apologizing to everyone in Prominence about his betrayal but then nips that thought because he doesn't have the right to apologize until the small and medium sized Legions calms down,Izeki tells him that he's making a bad expression again and asks him if Rin,Shihoko,Niko,Fukaya and Utai has something to do with the betrayal he mentioned,Haru then realizes that he has keep his discomfort hidden or Izeki will eventually misunderstand their situation,he then changes the topic about the student council election and invites Izeki to Ikusawa's team but Izeki tells him that Chiyu actually asked her about this before and that there are more suitable people than her because being a good teammate doesn't equate to having a good relationship.After hearing the school bell that signals lunchtime but only signals 12:30 in summer vacation,Izeki tells Haru that they can continue this conversation tomorrow because she has to pick up her sister but Haru tells her that since it's summer vacation,she can just call him at night if she wants.

After seeing Izeki off,Haru then gets reminded that Chiyu and Taku are currently doing their club activities and that he hasn't responded to their e-mails out of guilt but there's actually a more important reason why he hasn't contacted them:Today is Saturday, the day of territorial wars in the accelerated world and OU will attack the 3rd district of Minato to reclaim what was theirs originally,Haru doesn't know whether NN will defend or just give that territory up because he's not a member anymore and if the White King and her officers asked about NN's stance,then he would have to answer because he's one of them now.At this point, the dynamics of OU are really puzzling to him,it has been three days since his address was notified to them,but there is no contact at all.The alarm bell rang just now at 12:30,which meant that there were less than three and a half hours left until the territorial battle at 4:00 in the afternoon.Even if the White King planned to use Haruyuki as a spy,the information obtained before the territorial battle would not be reflected in the battle and thinking of this,Haru feels like he's been completely ignored—

In Haruyuki's field of vision,a reminder of the new mail lit up and he stared at the sender's name to the right of the icon.The username is [Sleepy],in other words,Snow Fairy of Oscillatory Universe,Haru then wonders how she could have sent that mail because he's still connected to Umesato's local net and not the Global net,as he trembles and raised his stiff hand to click on the icon,in the window that popped up,there were only simple lines of words.

<I will pick you up at 12:40>

Beneath the overly succinct message is a link to a taxi.Haru then clicks on the map on the left, the blue light represents the moving route of the car,and the predetermined destination is marked with a bright spot of the same color.Haru calls out to Seri and looked around as if asking for help but there is no companion.Now that Haruyuki was no longer a member of NN,he had to decide how to respond to Fairy's instructions and after glancing at the campus again,Haruyuki turned around and ran towards the school gate.

Eterna trip and OU stuff is in chapter 3 to 6 that i'll post tomorrow.

[gensouR-1]

Spoiler for AW26 part 2:

Chapter 3

Haruyuki started rushing to the designated pickup spot after leaving the school gate and connected his Neurolinker to the global network.As soon as he leaves the coverage area of Umesato Middle School,the LAN of the school will be cut off so when you want to take a taxi,you have to connect to the global network and although it is very likely that other players will challenge him,he'll just have to wait and see.A holographic sign that only Haruyuki could see floated in the parking space for taxis at the corner of the road,showing a countdown of only 20 seconds left.The self-driving taxis driving on the main roads will run away directly because the reserved passengers are not at the designated place,so it is really timely and Haruyuki complains that Fairy should have at least sent the e-mail 5-minutes in advance before the designated time,Haruyuki arrived at the spot and dropped his jaw in surprise when he saw the car sliding in front of him,although it is a self-driving taxi,it's is not a small two-seater car,but a large SUV large sports car painted black.Because he was afraid that it was actually a car reserved by someone else,he looked left and right to confirm,but there was no one around,and there was a clear holographic sign on the roof of the car.The SUV stopped at Haruyuki without a centimeter error and the door on the passenger side was open,and he looked in while feeling the cold air from the air conditioner,the driver's seat was naturally empty,and the seat belt was stowed.Haru then entered the SUV on the passenger seat and after the door closed with a high-class sound,the windshield showed the route map to the destination and the estimated time of arrival,although the map is simple and does not show the name of the building in the destination,he knows where the destination is without checking it,the time has come to enter Oscillatory Universe's base in the real world.

After the beeping sound from the window,the high-horsepower engine also hummed,and the SUV started smoothly to drive to the destination.As Haru relaxes in the luxury SUV,a voice from behind greets him while addressing him as Crow and Haru looks back to see that Megumi and Tsubomi are also passengers of the car like him,he expresses his shock that Megumi is in the car and the latter asks him if he doesn't want to see her to which Haru tells her it's not like that and asks her if she's alright now to which Megumi confirms to his relief.Haruyuki had learned that Megumi Wakamiya was actually a Burst Linker named Orchid Oracle last Saturday during the territorial battle with the White Legion.Oracle has an IS skill <Paradigm Breakdown> which is praised by Blood Leopard/Kakei Mihaya as the best skill in the accelerated world,it forcibly transfers an area with a radius of 2 kilometers from the territorial battle to the UNF and the reason the Oracle would do as ordered by the White King,White Cosmos, is because the Cosmos promised her that she would resurrect her and Milady's BB Parent Saffron Blossom but Haruyuki revealed to Oracle that the one who deprived Blossom's BP was the White King herself and Oracle used the IS Skill Paradigm Restoration to re-transfer the scene back to the territorial war stage and thanks to her,NN narrowly won but Oracle also paid a heavy price.It's not actually clear what happened to her,but Oracle said that her soul was linked to a quantum circuit for acceleration that wasn't her own and that's why Megumi fell into a coma in real life.The time when Haruyuki and Tsubomi found Oracle in the Unlimited Neutral Space and rescued her was this Monday.Megumi,who woke up after being admitted to a large hospital in Setagaya Ward,has recovered to a state where she can walk around like this after only five days.

It's really good news that Megumi has fully recovered but Haru asks both of them if they know that the car is going to Eterna to which they confirm which prompts him to point out that they're planning to leave OU and go to a medium sized Legion,if they go to Eterna,they'll be forced to confess their guilt and be punished,Tsubomi tells Haru that this is not a problem that can be solved by talking,she and Orchy hasn't officially told OU that they're resigning and Cosmos has no reason to punish them if their intended resignation isn't officially known.Megumi then thanks Haru for saving her since she didn't get the chance to do so last time and he tries to be modest and says that most of the work was Tsubomi to which the latter tells him that she doesn't like excessive modesty but she won't reprimand him,Haru then asks if Megumi is going to be turned into Cerberus III again if she goes to Eterna,when he said Wolfram Cerberus' name,the feeling of being stabbed in the depths of his chest was felt while trying to endure the two's answers to his question but Megumi tells him that she doesn't know either because she doesn't fully understood the logic of Cosmos's <Anti-Soul> which is the ability to access the Main Visualizer.

White Cosmos interfered with the Brain Burst central server,or the Burst Linker's quantum circuit for acceleration that existed in the Main Visualizer and then caused a series of miraculous—or rather,demonic phenomena:The revival of the first-generation Red King <Master Gunsmith> Red Rider to mass-produce ISS kits and downloaded <Plunderer> Dusk Taker to Wolfram Cerberus' right shoulder armor which then lead to the creation of Chrome Disaster Mark II,and then Orchid Oracle was also locked up in Wolfram Cerberus's quantum circuit to forcibly activate Paradigm Breakdown.These actions,according to Megumi's description,are caused by direct manipulation of the Main Visualizer but this is equivalent to hacking the server to rewrite the internal content.The BB system has so far suppressed the cheating behavior of players including the same backdoor program that Takumu used to use all without exception except for the hacking behavior of the White King and he begins to wonder if <Anti-Soul> is in fact,a legitimate ability given to her by the system itself.

Megumi then continues speaking in an enlightening tone that what <Anti-Soul> can access in principle is only the quantum circuit of Burst Linkers who has left Brain Burst but she can't operate the circuit of active Burst Linkers,if she can do that,then killing the other five kings to get herself to level 10 would be a simple matter for her,Haru points out that Megumi was an active Burst Linker when she was turned into the 2nd Cerberus III which contradicts this and Tsubomi tells him that there are always exceptions to Brain Burst's principles including Anti-Soul:<Commands>

Haru then asks if the <Commands> are referring to voice commands like Burst Out and Physical Burst which he nearly activated and Megumi and Tsubomi scolds him for nearly wasting 5 BP for being careless,Megumi tells him that Physical Burst which she shortens to PB so as to not activate the command is a command in the main interface,but there are also hidden commands such as PFB/Physical Full Burst(first time this command has been mentioned ever since V1),and among these hidden commands which there are commands that can remove the protection of one's own quantum circuit though she can't tell him for his safety.

(Remove Core Protection from Underworld?,the quantum circuit for thinking in the accelerated world are Lightcubes after all)

Haruyuki then tells Megumi he doesn't want to know either and then asked in a hoarse voice why a command like that exists,Megumi tells him she doesn't know but Cosmos or to be precise,the guy called <Doc> told her to say that command and then took control of her quantum circuit,Haru then gets reminded that the titles of the Seven Dwarves are based on the Snow White fairytale and Doc translated to Japanese is 先生,so he figures out that Ivory Tower is the one who corresponds to this title because he's the one who matches the description of a 先生 which Megumi confirms without concealing his disgust towards Tower,Haru considers asking her for advice for the upcoming election but decides against it because it's inappropiate in this situation,he then asks if Megumi's Lightcube is still under Cosmos's control because if that's the case then it's too dangerous for her to go,Megumi tells him that removal of the protection order has a 30-minute time limit and Haru asks her if the time limit belongs to Cosmos or Tower to which she tells him that it's for her,when she called out the command in the unrestricted neutral space,the system message I received popped up saying that it would expire within 30 minutes so neither Cosmos or Tower can remove her Lightcube's protection on their own.

Haruyuki relaxed his shoulders after Megumi's safety is confirmed and asks her if Cerberus was there during the period when she was Cerberus III to which she confirms,but he never spoke a word to her and it was the 1st time she saw him in BB and she never saw him in real life,Haru asks Tsubomi if she knows only for her to reveal that she never even met him in BB because she only knows his Duel Avatar's name,she also reveals that the members of Oscillatory Universe and the Acceleration Research Society doesn't communicate very much so only members of the latter knows who Cerberus is.

Haru then thanks both of them for the information,and thinks back to when he saw Cerberus in the Main Visualizer,swearing to one day save him from the ARS so they can have a Duel again as friends but he now has to focus on the current situation,as long as he,Tsubomi and Megumi doesn't use the Lightcube protection command then they'll be safe from being grafted into Cerberus's Lightcube but the question of why Fairy paid an exorbitant taxi fee to bring them to Eterna and why did Megumi and Tsubomi agreed without hesitation to go but then gets reminded that he's the same in this regard.Fairy had sent him a message from Haruyuki while he was still at school,so if he wanted to,he could just make an excuse because he was working on a committee but in the end,the order was followed and the reason was that Haruyuki was now a member of OU and he has a responsibillity to answer when he is called as a Legion member which also the same for Tsubomi and Megumi.

When the taxi finally left the Suginami Ward and entered the Nakano Ward,Haru thinks that if he was by himself then he would have moved to the driver's seat to enjoy the feeling of driving but he can't do that in front of Megumi and Tsubomi,the former who tells him to talk to KYH and Tsubomi adds that this is an order from her and Megumi using the fact that he owes her for the BP used to upgrade Lucid Blade to make him comply,Haru then gets reminded that he got a lot of BP and about 3-4 items from killing Inti and tries to weasel out of it by attempting to bribe Tsubomi with the item drops but she already figured out what he's going to do and tells him that he doesn't have to pay the BP back because what she wants is for him to make up with KYH to clear the debt to which he complies with,although her words are very sharp,Haru can still understand the worries of Tsubomi and Megumi as well as Utai and Niko,and the other companions are the same.The more Haruyuki delayed his apology to Kuroyukihime,the more troubled everyone became.

Only 20 minutes are left before the 3 of them arrive in Eterna,Haru hoped to arrive sooner,but also hoped that they would be suddenly caught in a traffic jam and be late.With such a complicated mood he remembered that didn't eat lunch,but didn't feel hungry at all because he was nervous.Haru doesn't know the destination,but he's certain that at least Fairy who sent the message must be there,he gets reminded of Fairy's words at the Highest Level of how Cosmos can do whatever she wants since it's almost the last page of the story,he wonders if the meaning of the last page was about Tezcatlipoca's release or are there are still pages left unturned.

The taxi passed the Chutainan exit and headed for the Yamanote Road underground linking with the Central Ring Road of the Capital Expressway. The summer heat fades away behind, replaced by orange artificial light,prompting Megumi to mutter that she doesn't like tunnels,In the end,there was no traffic jam,and the taxi arrived at the destination at the expected time.The money was paid by Fairy beforehand,so Haru got off the taxi and in an instant,the sunlight that seemed to be able to ignite a person swept in.At the end of the road, there is a white school gate in the shape of a heavy arch bridge,the left doorpost is equipped with a nameplate etched with [Eterna Women's Academy] and the right doorpost is engraved with the text [Eterna Girls's School in Tokyo].Inside the gate,a tree-lined road stretches inward.The school area is far larger than that of Umesato,which is something that Haru already knew when he visited this school in the Accelerated World in order to save Niko who was kidnapped by Black Vise and had no time to enjoy the scenery.

Haru asks if it's okay to go inside without a pass and Megumi reassures him that Fairy will take care of it,the super famous eldest school should have complete security facilities and it seems that they have put a lot of effort into keeping people from realizing it.When Haru looks around with this intention,he noticed that most of the schools has SSC that subtly blended into the trees and street lights on the roadside.

They arrived at the atrium,as big as the playground in Umesato.The ground is covered with gray bricks like a European square,and a pure white teaching building stands in the depths on the right and left,and directly in front.Although a bit old but without any flaws,the school feels more like a museum than a teaching building and perhaps because it was during the summer vacation,the students could not be seen.Tsubomi tells him that on the left is the main building,on the right is the central school building for the junior high school and high school,and the one inside is the school building and church for the elementary school,the latter of which was built 1928,120 years before 2048,Megumi tells Haru that he can take a tour later and asks Rosy/Tsubomi where the meeting is to which she responded that it's the usual place in the central school building,which has a more school-like feeling than the the other 2 buildings despite having a huge stained glass in front of it,as they go to the meeting room on the 4th floor,Haru then looks at the atrium and gets reminded of when he fought in the school's atrium in V15-16,During that battle,Haruyuki and Archangel Metatron,one of the Four Holy Saints,were linked and he became a Contractor,right now she's currently recovering in Raker's Player House but the recovery period this time around shouldn't take as long as last time and he decides to contact her after the meeting

After walking down the long corridor,the three of them arrived in the student council room of Eterna and the student union office that finally entered Haru's field of vision was much larger than expected.It is 5 meters across and about 8 meters inside,the wall on the right is full of bookshelves on one side,and the windows on the left and the front are relatively old slanted squares.In the middle of the room was a huge oval conference table,surrounded by high-backed armchairs,opposite the conference table,there are a pair of sofas and a simple kitchen,and the surrounding atmosphere is a bit like the student council room in Umesato Middle School.There are nine chairs in total,five of which are empty so in other words,there were four Oscillatory Universe members waiting for Haruyuki and the others.

One of them,the girl with three braids sitting on the chair at Haruyuki's right,greets Tsubomi while shaking the chair and tells Tsubomin that she's tired of waiting because she was slow to arrive,Tsubomi tells her that the taxi that was sent was a pick-up SUV so she doesn't have the right to say that and coldly tells her to not call her Tsubomin,but the braided girl responded jovially that the nickname is cute and asks Ryouryou if he agrees,the boy the girl was referring to was a boy sitting upright across from her.Even if the man is sitting, one can see at a glance that he is very tall,the body wrapped in a simple white shirt and black trousers school uniform is as mighty as if he is practicing martial arts.The sides of the hair were shaved short,with a clean sporty hairstyle and black-rimmed glasses.As Haru wonders as to why there are men in the student council office of the girls' school,the male student replied in a gruff,low voice that he's troubled when she asks him for permission and also adds that he never agreed to the nickname Ryouryou in the first place and points out to the girl who he calls Airi that the person in charge of pouring the tea today is her.

Haruyuki thinks the voice of the male student is familliar but his eyes were drawn to the two people sitting at the table.One was a beautiful boy reading a paper novel who was wearing a mask and gloves and the other,like Tsubomi is a relatively petite girl.The first thing that catches the eye is her waist-length wavy blond hair. The natural and magnificent color is not dyed,but born with blond hair.Looking at her white skin with this thought,she looked like a doll—no, like a fairy,a Leprechaun.

Although he didn't know the names of the avatars of the braided woman, the man with glasses,and the man with the mushroom head,Haruyuki was sure who the blonde girl was and asked in a hoarse voice to the blonde who he doesn't know what she was typing on the projection keyboard if she is Snow Fairy which she confirms,she introduces herself as Euholt Nanako,her dad is Swedish which is the reason for the European first name,Haru asks her if she's 1/2 Japanese to which she corrects him that it's 1/8 Japanese, because her mom is three-quarter Danish,one-quarter Japanese.

Haru thinks that if there is no such strong Nordic blood,then it is impossible for Nanako to have such beautiful blonde hair and thinks that her appearance is very similar to her Duel Avatar Snow Fairy calling her a <Perfect Match> in terms of abilities and personalities but no matter how cute,this girl used her terrifyingly powerful mind skill [Brinicle] to kill all the members of NN and she wanted to cut off the link between Haruyuki and Metatron and although she is now a member of the same legion,she is also an opponent that must not be taken lightly.

Haruyuki also began to introduce himself as Arita Haruyuki,a second-year student at Umesato Middle School,and a member of the breeding committee though he thinks that the last part was unnecessary but Fairy simply nods and also adds that she's a ninth grader and the secretary of the Eterna student council.Nanako then orders the boy with the glasses to introduce himself and the boy introduces himself in a disciplined manner to Haruyuki that he is Ryou Koshimizu,a 3rd year of Shirakaba Mori Junior High School and the vice president of the student council,and bows to him with his right hand on his chest,Haruyuki immediately figured out who he is from his gentlemanly nature,although he is curious about the name of the school he heard for the first time,he had to confirm the name of the avatar first and asks him if he is Behemoth,Ryou was surprised he figured it out and confirms that he is indeed Glacier Behemoth,Haru apologizes for asking him out of the blue while shrinking in fear because he still remembers his voice from their territory battle,Megumi reprimands Ryou for scaring Haru because he should have at least revealed his BB Avatar's name when he introduced himself and reminded him that he lost to Haru,Ryou points out that the battle ended when one of his horns was broken and asks Haru if he agrees it's still undecided,Haru then remembers that Behemoth said something along the lines of "This duel will be decided next time" and begins to wonder if he got summoned to have a match with him,Ryou reassures him that while he's looking forward to having a Duel with him again,now is before the important decisive battle and tells the flustered Haru that can have their Duel when both of them have free time to do so and points to Airi who came back from the kitchen while holding a tray that it's her turn to introduce herself,Airi greets Haru as Silver Crow and tells him that this is the first time they met and jovially asks him if he knows who she is,The first-person [Airi] of the girl with braided hair who asked with a smile on her face was the second half of her real name.Although that's understandable,Haru can't remember her avatar's name,among the four people waiting for them,two are Snow Fairy and Glacier Behemoth,so the braided girl has a high possibility of being one of the [Seven Dwarfs] in the Oscillatory Universe,Fairy is second,Behemoth is seventh,and Rose Milady is third so there are still four people left,but she has a completely different temperament from the first-place Platinum Cavalier and he rules out Airi being Ivory Tower/Black Vise so that leaves fifth and sixth Dwarves but the avatar name of the fifth seat couldn't come out of the turbulent flow of memory,so he makes a bet on the sixth Dwarf and asks her if she is Cypress Reaper,Airi gives a thumbs up to Haru for giving the correct answer and as a prize,she'll give him the biggest portion of the cake.

Hearing this sentence,Haru inadvertently looked at the tray on the table,on a flat wooden tray is a cheesecake cut like a pie chart but no matter how you look at it,you can't see that it is seven equal parts,and the gap between the smallest and the largest is still very large,a baffled Tsubomi asks Airi why she couldn't divide the cakes better to which the latter puffs up that you can't make a cake with seven equal part prompting Nanako to teach her how to divide it equally by folding a paper into a heptagon as an example,at this point,a new voice tells Nanako that she doesn't have to trouble herself by using a paper because using AR software is less troublesome,the end of the sentence contains a full reverberation,a lazy beautiful voice.Goosebumps appeared in Haru's arms involuntarily and his back suddenly became cold.Only this voice cannot be forgotten no matter what because in the large-scale theme park located on Reiwa Island in the Unlimited Neutral Space,the cold words of wanting to cut his wings in the ancient city of Tokyo's Grand Castle came to mind.The first place in [Seven Dwarves],a platinum knight riding a pure white Pegasus with two names [Bashful] and [Basher],Haru then addresses the boy with a mask as Platinum Cavalier and he looked at Haruyuki's face after closing the paper novel he was reading.Despite wearing a mask,the boy was more beautiful than Taku and Haru wonders if he works as a model or an actor,At Haruyuki,who seemed to have forgotten his vigilance for a split second and stood up straight,the boy let out a lazy voice again and introduces himself as Tomochika Kyoubu,3rd year of Shirakaba Mori Junior High and the Student Council President of his school.

Haruyuki asks what the Shirakaba Mori Junior High is and Airi who was cutting the cheesecake that they're neighbors of Eterna and points to the modern school behind Eterna's elementary school,Haru comments that the school looks relatively new but Ryou tells him that although it looks very new,the school opened in 2015 so it has been established for 32 years which is still far from the long history of Eterna but their Student Councils have a history of communicating with each other from the past and taking advantage of this,their king turned the two schools into a Legion stronghold.Haru asks Ryou if the student council of Shirakaba Mori Junior High are members of OU but he tells Haru that it's only him and Kyoubu while the others are normal students but there are other Shirakaba Mori students who are OU Burst Linkers.

The moment Ryou said this sentence caused a conjecture to appear in Haruyuki's mind and then it slowly turned into a certainty but decides to ask this question later and asks if Ryou and Kyoubu's school is the opposite of Eterna to which Ryou tells him it's a co-ed but he'll take him around later because Haru,Megumi and Tsubomi are the guests of today's meeting,after the latter three took their seats,Haru noticed that Megumi was imitating KYH's posture and was surpressing her nervousness,he then resolves to make sure that Megumi and Tsubomi leaves the meeting safely but then remembers that while Megumi lives in Suginami,Tsubomi lives in Aoyama,Minato so the question of why Tsubomi was in Suginami popped up in his head but before he could ask Megumi about that,Airi serves iced tea and cheesecake to members of the meeting and just as Airi said about Haru getting the biggest portion,his cake was 1.2 times bigger than the others but as it turns out Airi didn't divide cake properly and Kyoubu sadly laments that he got the smallest portion of them all,Airi tells Kyoukyou that he can just switch cakes with anyone except Haru with rock-paper-scissors but he decides to relent in the end.

Although there are still two chairs vacant,the cake is in seven equal parts,so the officers who are not present are Ivory Tower,the fifth Dwarf whose name he couldn't remember,and White Cosmos who did not participate.When Tsubomi visited Haru before,he asked what is the relationship between Cosmos and the members of OU that enrolls in Eterna to which she answers that it's like the Demon King and his subordinates from manga and video games,although it was something that Haruyuki could easily imagine,what he actually sees in his visit was a huge conference table and a bright and soothing room.

If the atmosphere of the Demon King and subordinates was because of Ivory Tower and White Cosmos's presence then Haru hopes they never arrive during the meeting but setting aside the former,he thinks that it's a pity that Cosmos didn't attend not because of the feeling of chasing a star but because despite KYH wanting to make sure Haru never meets Cosmos at all,he still wants to understand what kind of person in the real world is the Burst Linker who has created so much destruction and chaos in the accelerated world.After all,is she really able to eat and breathe despite her deeds and he can't be satisfied with just KYH's description.

At this point Airi tells him to enjoy the cake when he was deep in thought and the eyes of the six of them were all focused on Haruyuki at some point so it seemed that he was waiting for Haruyuki to start eating because they treated him as a guest,Haru then apologizes for being absent-minded and begins to eat the cheesecake which he finds to be delicious,Airi tells him that the cake was bought by Nanako who tells him that he bought it for herself and that it's better for Crow to have a good taste now because he won't have that kind of free time soon(wow,tsundere much?),before Haru could ask Nanako what she meant,Ryou calms them down because eating delicious food should just stay as eating delicious food and they can keep the complicated things for later,as everyone enjoys eating the cakes,Haru thinks that the cheesecakes is incomparable to the rare cheesecakes from Mihaya's patissierie and thinks about asking Nanako regarding where the cheesecake was bought because he wants to share it with everyone in NN but then he realizes he's not part of them anymore but he swallowed the pain with the iced tea and cheesecake.

The <Seven Dwarfs> that made Haruyuki tremble many times in the Accelerated World were also boys and girls who would be addicted to a piece of cake in real life and as he thinks of this,an intense pain different from the previous heartache suddenly appeared:All Burst Linkers should be players who are playing the same game but why has they continued to hate each other,deceive each other,deprive each other,kill each other since it was released eight years ago?,One can only say that "This is the design idea of ​​Brain Burst",the point system and the territorial war system were also created to facilitate competition among players and if we can only fight by obediently following this law,then aren't Burst Linkers are like marionettes in the hands of developer——

But as if resisting continuing that line of thought,Haruyuki then calls the cheesecake delicious and Airi happily agrees with him with a smile,Haru then thinks that if he could understand each other through a piece of cheesecake with the members of the Oscillatory Universe who had fought so many times then perhaps a revolutionary path can be found to change the structure of competition in the accelerated world if everyone unites as one to change it.

Thinking of this,Haruyuki slowly put the last piece into his mouth but in just ten minutes into the meeting,he will realize how naive this idea is.

Chapter 4

After everyone is nearly done eating their cheesecakes,Tomochika(who changed his mask for a new one after eating for some reason) tells Haru that they called him here for 2 reasons,one of them is the handling of Haruyuki,because his king has agreed to it,he doesn't want to discuss whether letting him join is right or not but regarding his evaluation the Dwarves have differing opinions on that subject,Tsubomi then suggests having Haru participate in the training course which reminds him that Ryou and Airi are responsible for training newcomers and Haru tells Tomochika that if he wants to,he can join the training course and he thinks to himself that since Tsubomi said that Ryou and Airi's training is peanuts compared to Fuuko's training,he at least won't die but as if seeing through his thinking,Tomochika narrowed his eyes slightly and tells him that the shortest training period if everything goes well is 1 month's worth of accelerated time and at most it'll take half a year,because it's too harsh,there are many people who wants to call it quits but Airi and Ryou disagrees because it's not as harsh as he describes,their guidance is very stable and in order for newcomers to not lose all of their points,every probationer gets enough BP that dying 10 times during the training wouldn't even matter,although Haruyuki wondered if dying 10 times during training was sound,Ryou continues that the problem about the handling isn't whether Haru can withstand the training,but whether the training itself is even necessary.Even though Haru and Kyoubu never fought directly,the latter can infer Haru's level of strength from his battles so far and he comments that Haru is too psychologically affected in his battles,Tsubomi states that's the same for everyone,when you're in good shape,you can win against more advanced enemies and if you're not in a good shape,then you'll fail even against newbies.Since BB is the outcome of your imagination,that's bound to happen and points out that Kyoubu doesn't even have a 100% win rate.

Even though he was mercilessly criticized by Airi and Ryou,Kyoubu answered without changing his expression that it doesn't matter whether you win or lose for OU but people who can't control their own minds when it's important isn't qualified to be equals with the Seven Dwarves,even though Tsubomi backed him up,Haruyuki himself didn't refute anything Tomochika and Ryou said and just lowered his head because they're not wrong.Ever since elementary school,he felt that he was weak and powerless,he thought that after becoming an Burst Linker,there was a little change,but he couldn't even communicate with KYH for three days and in the final analysis,he's still the same Haruyuki Arita from kindergarten,Haru thinks that since Tomochika said that his strength is insufficient then it's better for him to train in OU's training course for half a year but just when he thinks about this,Nanako tells Bashful that if he wants to talk about qualifications,Crow is a Level 2 Contractor and if you want to exaggerate his feats so far,he's a Level 3 <Reacher>.Haruyuki has never heard of the term of <Reacher> or the Level 2 and 3's meanings,the only thing he understood was that Contractors are Burst Linkers connected with a Being,he held his breath and waited for someone to say something, and the tense silence lasted for more than ten seconds.Finally,Kyoubu then asks her if she thinks that training Crow is necessary which Nanako confirms but for a different reason than his,when Kyoubu asks her what the reason is,she dodges the question and goes back to typing on her virtual keyboard,Kyoubu then pressed his pure white Neurolinker with his right finger if he is trying to confirm something about Haru and tells him that whether or not he is a Contractor or a Reacher won't change his evaluation because the meaning of the existence of the Oscillatory Universe is to protect Cosmos and only carry out her will so if he really wants to be a part of this legion,he needs to go through the same training as other people who want to join,and show his awareness.

From the gray eyes surrounded by long eyelashes,Haru felt a blade-like edge and it was obvious that Tomochika didn't trust Haruyuki at all but there is no other way.Although Haruyuki himself had sworn no false loyalty to the White King,he had not proved it was not the means of a spy or assassin sent by the NN so he tells Tomochika if he wants to put him through OU's training then he can do so,but Airi who was supposed to be Haru's instructor points out that if he really is a Contractor and even a Reacher,then he could even finish the final step all at once,when Haru asks her what is the final step,she tells him that it's killing a Beast-Class Enemy alone which causes him to scream internally,while the Beast-level Enemy is in the middle of the five Enemy levels,because the probability of encountering above Beast-Level is almost zero as long as one does not deliberately challenge them,it can be said that it is essentially the acceleration world's strongest enemies.In the Tokyo Midtown building that he entered in order to rescue Megumi,although he defeated the Beast-class Enemy Varjag,the Enemy was tamed by the White King and its abilities were reduced.

A trembling Haruyuki asks Ryou if all members of OU have all passed this final task to which the latter tells him that not counting the Seven Dwarves,only 2 or rather,3 members have completed the final task,if every member can kill a Beast-class Enemy on their own then they would not have to work so hard,Haru thinks on what would have happened if every OU member was that strong back in last week's Territory War but then dismissed it because NN would have won in the end and even now,they'll definitely win even against OU who has him on their side,Haru then asks Tomochika to let him do the final task which surprised him,there's a possibillity of infinite EK and asks Haru what is he going to do if that happens to which he tells him that if that happens,then he's free to leave him to die.

Chapter 5

Until now,when Haruyuki infiltrated an unrestricted neutral site,he had almost always resorted to a safety device that automatically cut off the line when the set time expired.With it,even if you enter the infinite EK state,you can avoid total loss of points even if you die a few times but today,Haruyuki had boasted that "Infinite EK is just right for me" so he couldn't ask for a safety device.Surprisingly,Tomochika and the others also did not intend to use safety devices which causes Haru to wonder if everyone fairly confident in their own strength or do they have safety measures other than automatic cut-off devices.With this thought in mind,Haruyuki used the ID sent by Fairy to connect the Neural Linker to the LAN within Eterna.Originally, global connections were required to infiltrate the UNF,but they seem to have circumvented that restriction in some way.

The OU members dived into the UNF with Airi doing the countdown,currently the Stage is the Purgatory stage and when Crow looked to the left,he saw an unfamilliar tall M-shaped avatar with heavy armor as pale as ice stood with his arms crossed.There are two long "horns" on the forehead and the mask is quite strong,giving the impression of being like a blue demon.Looking back on his memories,Crow thought it must be the first time he had met this person and asks who he is prompting the Duel Avatar to tell him that he's <Sneezy> which confused him because last time he saw him,Behemoth was an almost 6-meter long giant dragon bigger than he is now,Milady tells Crow what he saw back then was Behemoth's Beast Mode and this is how he normally looks like,she sighed and asks Crow if he can really defeat a Beast-class on his own prompting Crow to admit that he doesn't know,Oracle asks Behemoth if he really would ditch Crow to his death if he got EK'd which he denies,at this point a Grim Reaper-like Avatar pops up behind Behemoth that has the same levitation abillity as Black Lotus and tells Orchy that she's so gentle and the tone of the voice gave away that she's Cypress Reaper,Crow found the disconnect between Airi's Duel Avatar and her actual personality to be interesting,although it is not uncommon for overclockers who are disconnected from the real person and the avatar,it is still the most typical manifestation of violation of etiquette to investigate the "mental trauma" that has shaped the Duel Avatar.

Oracle states that she's not a gentle and considerate person and points out that when she and Sneezy challenged the final task,the rescue team was also on standby and since Crow is already a member of Oscillatory Universe,the same conditions must be prepared,Reaper agrees with Oracle but Crow stated that he doesn't need to be rescued causing Oracle to tell her that Crow likes to put on airs.At this point Cavalier shows up and reprimands her for insulting Crow who's going to face the test.Crow stared intently at the knight who Centaurea Sentry called a master swordsman of <Femto>,from the balcony of Heimvald Castle,the great castle in Tokyo,Crow had had the opportunity to look at it up close,but at that time he was just trying to calm himself down and he didn't have the energy to observe it calmly.He had fought sword-wielding overclockers many times since he was level 1 but the realization of the profundity of swordsmanship came only after obtaining the sword-shaped Enhanced Armament [Lucid Blade] from the reward when he was promoted to level 6.

Right now,Haruyuki believed that there were three people who were the strongest swordsman in the Acceleration World among Burst Linkers.One of them,of course,is the Black King who uses the sword fused with his limbs to slash everything,<World End> Black Lotus.One is a double sword made of super diamond and graphene,the swordsman of [Ain Style] who is both offensive and defensive,<Anomaly> Graphite Edge.The other was Haruyuki's master, the user of the [Omega Style],Centaurea Sentry known as the [Sword Demon],[Asura],and [Omega Weapon].Of course,there are many other sword masters.The member of the Red Legion who participated in the Tezcatlipoca 3 days ago,Lavender Downer,is a master of the third-stage mind skill [Tranquil Sword],the second is Graphite Edge's Child,Trilead Tetraoxide,who is also an orthodox swordsman who can master one of the Seven Arcs [The Infinity] with ease.The Blue Legion's [Dualis] are also the most powerful characters among the swordsmen,and their teacher,the Blue King,the strength of the <Vanquish> Blue Knight is also beyond doubt.

For the first time,the knight who observed closely at close range unexpectedly exuded a soft aura.Although Crow didn't have the visual expansion ability like Scarlet Rain,he could still sense what she called the "intelligence pressure",or aura,to some extent but needless to say,the pressure that was clearly felt from the officers of each legion and the 7 coloured Kings,did not radiate from Cavalier at all.Fairy,Behemoth and Milady,who were standing nearby,and naturally,even Reaper and Oracle,who didn't seem to be direct fighters,had a strong aura.

In retrospect,the only time Crow had ever witnessed Cavalier's strength was the only time he had made his kite shield gigantic to protect the White King during the eruption of Tezcatlipoca's [Ninth Moon].If Cavalier used the shield on his back instead of the long sword on his waist as his main weapon,then Crow thinks that maybe he would become a defensive avatar like the Green King.

Cavalier then states that Crow cut his own way of retreat and it shows the pride and determination of a warrior then they have to respect his will by not giving him reprieve if he fails,as Crow internally screams that Cavalier is misunderstanding,Fairy shows up and tells him that as long as he wins,it would be fine.Although she has a soft and cute appearance like an ice doll,in the Territory War she wiped out 14 members of NN's invading members with a single blow with her IS skills and at the Highest Level,Crow fell into a complete rigidity that he could not even breathe.The state Fairy has reached is a high-ranking person with unfathomable strength and even though she paid for the taxi and the cheesecake,Crow felt that she was definitely not someone he could relate to.

Fairy tells Cavalier to hurry up because she has things to do and the latter tells Crow to follow him to the final exam room,the OU members left the school building through the back door of the building,as they went to the final exam room,Crow asks Milady how the exam is going to be done when Tezca will detect them fighting an Enemy and attack them,Milady tells him that she doesn't know and that is for Cavalier to figure out,Crow looked up at the sky toward the city center and reminisced what happened 3 days ago,after Cosmos agreed to their deal,she saved everyone from Tezca but the method used was beyond his expectations:Cosmos created a crown of thorns using The Luminary sharp enough to stab into Tezca's head and then she held the scepter with her backhand and stabbed it into Tezca's chest which caused a backlash strong enough to nearly kill her which baffles Crow because why would she need to cause self-harm but Tezca,for reasons incomprehensible,actually stopped.Since the wings had been completely destroyed by Tezcatlipoca's blast wave,Haruyuki couldn't help his comrades so Downer and Archangel Metatron helped everyone except Crow and Cosmos out of the battlefield.

Crow also rushed down the stairs of Heimvelt Castle with the injured White King in his arms and rushed through the portal in the lobby on the first floor to log out of the UNF and therefore,the primary purpose of [Leaving Tokyo Grand Castle] was achieved but Tezcatlipoca,who completely destroyed the crown of thorns was liberated from the domination of the White King and returned to the [God of the End].That giant lingered in the twenty-three wards of Tokyo in the UNF and instantly killed the overclockers who were found in the search range,now it has become the worst disaster in the history of the acceleration world.The basic enemy search range of Tezcatlipoca is about 1 kilometer radius.If you don't enter it,the possibility of being attacked is very low,but the problem is that once the overclocking linker attacks the enemy,Tezcatlipoca can also be detect the place and fly straight over.It's rumoured that when Tezca was in the Edogawa Ward,it flied straight to the Setagaya area where a group was hunting an Enemy in 15 minutes and destroyed them,if this is true then Tezcatlipoca could fly at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour and judging from the size of a normal hunting group,if it only took ten minutes,then it's impossible to defeat a Beast Level in that time.

According to an experiment done by the Great Wall,if one is more than 100 kilometers away from Tezcatlipoca,even if you attack an Enemy,it will not be detected,but it is unrealistic to move to Gunma or Yamanashi for every hunt.In short,for most overclockers in Tokyo,Enemy hunting is practically forbidden and the anger and anxiety of Zelkova Verger and other members of the small and middle-sized Legions naturally pointed to Silver Crow who transferred to the White Legion immediately after liberating Tezcatlipoca from Inti.

Haruyuki looked at the back of the knight walking at the front of the line,right now he's friends with Megumi/Oracle and Tsubomi/Milady,he got along with Ryou/Behemoth and Airi/Reaper and he's certain that he can befriend them too eventually,he's sure that even though Nanako/Fairy is still distant it's not impossible to get along and become friends with her too,but for some reason he gets the feeling that unless something changes,it's impossible for him and Kyoubu/Cavalier to understand each other,he feels like this is a repeat of Dusk Taker/Noumi but instead of malice,he feels that Cavalier is too isolated for them to even begin dialogue but even so,he cannot actively build walls when it comes to Cavalier,Crow had to be recognized as a member of the White Legion so that his promise to the White King would not turn into a lie.He needs to be doing what he's supposed to do as a Burst Linker because that's the only way out for him and the injured Metatron right now.

Cavalier,Fairy,Reaper,and Behemoth jumped over the high wall covered with spikes at the top in Eterna's field without a run-up,At first glance,there is nothing special about them but because of this,it really conveys that they are true masters.Milady and Oracle also performed jumps that didn't feel their own weight and Crow jumped up following them.Beyond the two-meter-high wall,the landing place is an area with dense small-scale buildings.Although it should be a beautiful residential area in the real world, being in the organically twisted streets of the [Purgatory] stage makes people feel like they are in a nightmare.

Cavalier glanced back and made sure everyone was following before starting to follow the road that went south.Haruyuki chased after him and hit the fence again at a distance of only fifty or sixty meters from the road.Behind the fence,a building the size of the Eterna's school building could be vaguely seen.At the end of the road,they crossed the wall again and what stood before them was a somewhat palace-style building.The west-facing C-shaped palace has four floors in the wing and six floors in the main building.Crow and the others could not see the appearance of the atrium clearly.They approached the wing without hesitation, and entered through the opening like a back door and the group continues to go up along the large spiral staircase.

Crow asked Milady again and asked what is this building in the real world because It doesn't look like a school and she tells him that it's the Minato City Local History Museum that has a history of more than 100 years though Crow comments that Eterna's church is older and ask why are they here to which she tells him that he'll understand soon enough,the group reached the atrium and Cavalier tells Crow that his opponent is in the pool,There is a rectangular pool in the atrium surrounded by the C-shaped palace.The water had a mercury-like sheen,and it was impossible to see inside.Just when Crow thought so,the silver liquid suddenly surged and a huge creature appeared.If he had to describe it in one sentence,it would be a four-legged whale,The streamlined body is six meters long,with the head occupying two meters.The limbs are strong and stocky,and the tip of the tail has fins.If it had a thinner head and a more pointed tail,it would not look like a whale but a crocodile.

Looking at the footed whale swimming leisurely in the twenty-meter-long pool,Cavalier tells him that is a Crococitus,the final task of the exam and nearly all stage attributes are constantly pouring out of that pool.Since Crococitus is an animal-type Enemy.It's less likely to make tricky special attacks than human-type and monster-type ones and no matter how you look at it, Crococitus was not a flying type so Crow could dodge in the air in case of an emergency.Of course,Crow didn't want to underestimate this beast-level Enemy,but if there were two or three members of the Legion who defeated them alone,in addition to the Seven Dwarfs,then it shouldn't be an absolutely unmatched opponent.

Crow then reconfirms to Cavalier that if he defeats that guy then Cavalier will let him join OU and he nods,Fairy asks him about Tezca because if Crow attacks Crococitus then Tezca will fly oer in a few minutes,Cavalier tells them not to worry and removed the kite shield hanging from his back with his left hand and walked towards the atrium.Crow didn't know when Cavalier had the time to accumulate a Special Attack Gauge,and a silver light bullet was released from the shield and melted into the ground in front of the pool.The thinly lit dome spread out silently from there,completely enveloping a fifty-meter radius including the atrium and part of the palace.Crow didn't feel anything when he touched the dome and Croco Citas on the ground didn't react.But after the dome was opened,he couldn't see the outside at all,and he couldn't hear the wind whistling just now.Cavalier tells him as long as he fights inside this light film then he doesn't have to worry about being disturbed because it can cut off all detection abillities of Burst Linkers and Enemies,Reaper and Milady were surprised that an abillity like this exists and Crow asks him if it can cut off even the Incarnation detection abillity of Enemies to which he confirms so he's free to use IS skills but he warns Crow that it will only last for 30 minutes so if he can't defeat Crococitus in that time,they're bailing out before Tezca arrives,Oracle tells Crow that as long as he fights with composure then he'll definitely win,Crow nods to her and goes to fight Crococitus.