The Night Sky Swordsman (Sword Art Online X OC)

Chapter 77 Battle of the Knights

Gabriel stared down into the blank sockets of the skull and summoned the cold gravitas appropriate for the god of darkness and emperor of the Dark Territory, Vecta.

Gabriel: Soldiers of the dark empire! The time you have long awaited is nigh! Kill all that lies before you while you yet live! Take all that is ripe for the taking! Plunder!!

From here and there among the lines of infantry, roars and bellows of excitement arose, loud enough to drown out the collapsing of the gate. Swarms of scimitars and spears glinted bloodred in the setting sun.

The First Regiment of the Dark Territory's army was thirteen thousand strong, consisting of five thousand mountain goblins, five thousand flatland goblins, two thousand orcs, and one thousand giants. This would be the first group to charge ahead and elicit a strategic response from the enemy. As the player in this war game, Gabriel thrust his raised arm forward, giving his first command.

Gabriel: First Regiment—forward march!!

(Timeskip)

Fanatio: First Division, draw swords and prepare for battle! Priests, begin incanting healing arts!

So trumpeted Fanatio Synthesis Two, vice commander of the Human Guardian Army, her voice crisp and loud in the dusk. Her command was met with a chorus of swords sliding in harmony from their sheaths. The few campfires behind them were reflected in the steel, causing it to glow red.

There was a rumbling roar approaching from the space where the Eastern

Gate had just been standing.

Quick goblin footsteps. Longer orc strides. The booming hammer of giant feet. And atop this rhythmic cavalcade was a curtain of bellows at full throttle. It was the roar of the beast called war, a sound that no human being in this world had ever heard before.

Just three hundred guards stood at the front defensive line, two hundred mels from the gate, and it was all they could do to bravely maintain their ground. It was a wonder that the formation didn't break down and give way to mad retreat before the enemy even arrived. None of these soldiers had ever seen war or even been in a life-or-death battle before.

The only thing that kept them at their stations was the sight of a trio of Integrity Knights standing apart at the front of the defensive line.

On the left wing was Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-One with the Frostscale Whip.

Eldrie: You cursed dwellers of the darkness. We'll show you what we're made of!

In the center stood the commander of the unit, Fanatio Synthesis Two, with her Heaven-Piercing Blade. On the right wing was Deusolbert Synthesis Seven with the Conflagration Bow.

Deusolbert: Here they come.

These three knights, their armor shining beautifully in the dark, planted their feet on the ground and awaited the coming enemy without budging. There was dread in their hearts, too. They at least had battle experience, but nearly all of it was merely one-on-one fights against dark knights. Vice Commander Fanatio did not have any experience fighting against a full army, and neither did Bercouli Synthesis One, the commander of the Integrity Knights, who was leading the Second Division in the rear.

Alice: It has begun. I shall... do what I must.

On top of that, there was no longer an administrator who ruled over the Human Empire's Axiom Church. The absolute justice that the Church once stood for was long gone. The final defense for the knights preparing for battle was, ironically, the one emotion that should have been destroyed by the Synthesis Ritual.

Deusolbert:...

As Deusolbert Synthesis Seven boldly awaited the arrival of the enemy, he brushed the ancient band on his left ring finger with his free hand. One of the oldest Integrity Knights, he had spent over a century maintaining order in the northern reaches of the realm.