Alice Zuberg


 * Alice redirects here. For A.L.I.C.E (Artificial Labile Intelligence Cybernated Existence), see Artificial Intelligence and Project Alicization.

Alice Zuberg (アリス・ツーベルク) is one of the main characters in the Alicization Arc. She is the child of Rulid Village's chief Gasupht Zuberg, and the childhood friend of Eugeo and Kirito. Due to breaking a clause of the Taboo Index in her childhood, Alice was apprehended by Deusolbert Synthesis Seven and taken to the Central Cathedral, where she was forced to become an Integrity Knight, named Alice Synthesis Thirty (アリス・シンセシス・サーティ), with her memories sealed.

Appearance
Alice has sparkling blue eyes, and long, golden hair that is tied to both sides of her head, and a braid running down from the back of her head, a bow attached at the end of the braid. She also wore a white lace around her forehead.

As an Integrity Knight, Alice wore white armor (golden in most light novel illustrations), a blue cape, white leather boots, and a white skirt (blue and white in the illustrations).

Personality
Alice was a determined, hard worker that aimed to master the Sacred Arts. Although her personality was serious, she was also adventurous and even mischievous, such as when she found loopholes in the Taboo Index and was willing to travel far to the Mountain Range at the Edge with enthusiasm, despite the risks.

Upon losing her memories due to having undergone the «Synthesis Ritual», Alice lost her mischievousness and began to devote herself to her duty as an Integrity Knight, being completely convinced that the Axiom Church was just. She hardened herself and became a stern, almost cold individual who rarely allowed herself to show any emotion. In addition, she also developed a strong sense of pride. However, deep down, Alice remained somewhat childish, a side she only showed in front of Bercouli.

After learning about her past and the «Synthesis Ritual» from Kirito, Alice's worldview was shattered. She underwent somewhat of an identity crisis, considering her herself to be a false existance and was fully willing to return to her former self, even if it meant her current self dissappearing. This only got worse after her «Piety Module» was shattered and she could no longer reclaim her lost memories. While finally allowing herself to open up and show emotion, she wondered if she truly deserved it, as she wasn't the "real" Alice. She also lost her will fight, as she believed she had nothing to fight for anymore. However, after meeting Selka and the inhabitants of Rulid Village, she regained her resolve as she gained something to protect.

Alicization Beginning
In the beginning, Alice was a Sacred Arts apprentice under Sister Azariya, and she would bring lunch to Eugeo and Kirito at the Gigas Cedar every day. On a quest to find ice at the «Mountain Range at the Edge» to make their lunches last longer, they take a wrong turn in the cave and turn up into the edge between the Human Empire and the Dark Territory. Looking up, they see an intense battle between a Dark Knight and an Integrity Knight. Seeing the Dark Knight dying after he crashed into the ground near the children, Alice trips over herself while trying to reach the dying Knight to help him, and as she falls, her hands brush the soil of the Dark Territory before Kirito and Eugeo manage to pull her back onto the neutral land. Sacred Arts confirmed that she broke one of the laws of the Taboo Index, and the window disappears before the trio makes sense of it.

Scared, Eugeo and Kirito ran home, carrying Alice. They sighed in relief when nothing occurred that night. However, at lunch the next day, an Integrity Knight, called Deusolbert Synthesis Seven, arrived, announcing that Alice had broken one of the Taboo Index laws and that he was going to take her to the Central Cathedral to interrogate and execute her. Kirito attempted to rescue her but was stopped by the town people, while Eugeo was frozen due to his inability to go against the law, thus neither of the boys managed to save Alice before she was taken away by the Integrity Knight.

Several days later, Alice was brought to the Central Cathedral, where she was told that if she studied hard and mastered Sacred Arts, she would be able to return to Rulid Village. However, after she spent two years studying, Quinella decided that she was old and strong enough to be turned into an Integrity Knight. Alice was taken to the Chamber of Elders and had her Core Protection removed by force over three Underworld days. With Alice's Core Protection removed, Quinella conducted a «Synthesis Ritual» on her, suppressing the girl's memories and turning her into an absolutely loyal Integrity Knight.

Six years later, Eugeo and Kirito save Selka from a group of goblins, but Eugeo is greatly injured in the process. While Selka transfers Kirito's life into Eugeo's body to save him from dying, Alice appears beside Kirito and tells him that she is waiting for him at the top of Central Cathedral. Her spirit then runs through Kirito and gives him enough «Life» to save both of the boys from death.

Alicization Turning
Alice arrives at the Sword Mastery Academy as an Integrity Knight, referring to herself as «Alice Synthesis Thirty», after Kirito and Eugeo break the Taboo Index by harming Humbert Zizek and leading Raios Antinous to his death. Due to the Synthesis Ritual, she does not recognize the two youngsters as her childhood friends and also threatens them by saying that she had permission to decrease their Life by 70% when Eugeo tries to touch her. Alice arrests Eugeo and Kirito for breaking the Taboo Index and takes them to the Central Cathedral prison. She also orders one of the knights, Eldrie Synthesis Thirty-one, to stand guard in the Cathedral's garden in the unlikely case that the two prisoners escape.

Alicization Rising
After Kirito and Eugeo reached the Cloudtop Garden on the 80th floor of the Central Cathedral, they found Alice sitting silently atop a hill next to an olive tree. At the moment Eugeo began to think that Alice was asleep, she spoke to the two intruders, asking them to wait a little longer while the olive tree basked in sunlight, as it had been long since they had such good weather. When the two swordsmen started climbing the hill, Alice stood up and remarked that she was surprised that the two managed to defeat Eldrie, Deusolbert, and Fanatio, even though she assumed that just Eldrie standing guard would be sufficient in the off chance that they escaped from the Cathedral's jail. After asking what was their motive in challenging the Integrity Knights and not receiving an answer, she decided to use her sword to get the answer and turned the tree growing atop the hill into her Fragrant Olive Sword.

As Kirito and Eugeo charged at Alice, Kirito planning to take Alice's first blow to give Eugeo enough time to stab her with Cardinal's dagger, she brandished her sword and, the next moment, it disassembled into thousands of flower petals which then fiercely assaulted and blew away the two attackers. She then ridiculed them for mocking her by attacking her without even drawing their swords and remarked that she would not go easy on them the second time.

After Kirito silently told Eugeo to get started on his chant, he asked for a fair duel with Alice in an exaggerated motion. Alice, agreeing to have a fair duel, reassembled her sword out of the flower petals. After Alice explained the nature of her sword, Kirito immediately charged at Alice, hoping to get the upper hand with consecutive hit skills, however, Alice easily deflected him on his first hit. Afterwards, it was Alice turn to go on the offensive and she delivered slash after slash at the retreating Kirito. After merely five exchanges of offense and defense, Kirito was driven to the western wall of the floor. As Kirito averted another swing from Alice, he suddenly jumped at her, restricting her arms, and then immediately telling Eugeo to activate his sword's special ability.

After both Alice and Kirito were frozen by the Blue Rose Sword's Armament Full Control Art, Eugeo let go of the sword to stab Alice with his dagger. However, after Eugeo had only taken three steps, Alice's sword turned into petals which quickly shaved off the ice. After Alice remarked that mere ice did not even have a chance of restricting her flowers and turned her flowers back into her sword, Kirito immediately finished the chant for his sword and attacked Alice's sword with a torrent of darkness. While Kirito had Alice occupied, Eugeo again attempted to come close to her to stab her with his dagger, however, as he was getting closer, the torrent of both Divine Instruments hit the walls of the floor and broke them. At that moment, the air within the room began flowing out of the room, dragging both Kirito and Alice out through the hole while the wall resealed itself behind them.

Alicization Dividing
It was revealed that Alice and Kirito were hanging on the side of the Cathedral, as Kirito had stabbed his sword into the wall and hung onto Alice's hand. Alice felt dishonor and shame for having been saved by Kirito, whom she believed to be a major criminal, and questioned his reasons for saving her, to which he replied that Integrity Knights were not supposed to be shameful. They decided to cooperate, slowly making their way up. When Alice questioned Kirito about his crime, he responded that the Taboo Index was flawed. In response, Alice said that even though the Taboo Index was flawed, they still had to follow it.

After Kirito discovered that he had some meat buns in his pocket and Alice steamed them using elements, Kirito complemented her and accidentally mentioned Selka's name. The name immediately drew Alice's attention and, although Alice felt conflicted about listening to his words, she urged him to tell his story. Kirito revealed the truth about the Integrity Knights and told her about her background and family. At the mention of Selka, she began to cry, as she could not remember her, but felt that Kirito was telling the truth.

Although Alice was sceptical about Kirito's story, she could no longer deny that Quinella had been deceiving the Integrity Knights. However, Alice brought up the problem of the Dark Territory. After a discussion, Kirito convinced Alice that it was necessary to stop Quinella's rule and spend the time they still had left to form an army to stand against the upcoming invasion from the Dark Territory. Alice agreed with Kirito's plan under the condition that she could meet with Selka, but when she was about to state that she would oppose the Axiom Chirch, the Seal of the Right Eye activated, preventing her from finishing the sentence. However, she managed to successfully break the seal with her strong will, resulting in the temporary loss of her right eye and Alice losing consciousness due to the pain.

When Alice awoke hours later, she found herself in the Morning Star Lookout on the 95th floor of the cathedral, having been carried up by Kirito. Following the trail of an art that allowed them to locate Eugeo's sword, they descended to the large bath on the 90th floor. There, they were shocked to see the water completely frozen and Bercouli in a petrified state. As Alice began to cry, Bercouli awoke from his frozen state and told her not to do so. He was proud to see that Alice had broken the Seal of the Right Eye, a feat that even he could not achieve. He told Alice to help guide the world into becoming a better place, before returning to his frozen state.

While Alice and Kirito continued up, Chief Elder Chudelkin stopped them and remarked how easily the Integrity Knights were defeated by mere criminals. He began mocking Alice, to the point where she slashed him. But instead of blood, a red, sulfurous gas spewed out from Chudelkin. They soon heard Chudelkin laughing, as he ran through a tunnel, and they chased after him. Once they reached the 99th floor, an Integrity Knight, revealed to be Eugeo, stopped them.

Alicization Uniting
In the aftermath of a fight between Eugeo and Kirito, Eugeo activated his Armament Full Control to freeze Alice and Kirito, and ascended to the 100th floor, apologizing while telling them not to follow him. Chudelkin descended while laughing and jumped into the middle of the room, but at that moment, Alice, who had used her Fragrant Olive Sword's Armament Full Control art to break Kirito and herself free, assaulted Chudelkin with the storm of razor-sharp petals, forcing him to retreat. Alice and Kirito then ascended to the 100th floor, where Alice helped Kirito and Eugeo by defending against Chudelkin's attacks, while Kirito attacked Chudelkin, defeating him.

After a brief moment of shock, Alice was disgusted by how Quinella merely blew Chudelkin's corpse away and completely forgot about him. She then questioned her deception regarding the Integrity Knights, and the cost of losing their loved ones. Although Alice spoke with tears in her eyes, Quinella merely smiled and mockingly acted sympathetic, considering removing her emotions.

Quinella then proceeded to use Armament Full Control Art to summon a being composed of thirty swords, a Sword Golem, to exterminate Alice, Kirito and Eugeo. Alice, along with Kirito, fought the golem, but were immediately incapacitated; however, under Charlotte's guidance, Eugeo used Cardinal's dagger to summon Cardinal, while the spider distracted the sword golem. Although Charlotte fought relentlessly, she eventually died. Cardinal appeared moments after Charlotte's death. The sage rendered the Sword Golem temporarily immobile with several strikes of lightning, and healed Alice and Kirito's wounds. Alice immediately regained consciousness and stood up with difficulty. Realising that the Sword Golem was created by morphing people into swords, Cardinal could not fight the golem due to the rules passed down to her as Lyceris. As a result, Cardinal agreed to surrender in exchange for the trio's freedom.

After Eugeo requested Cardinal to be turned into a sword capable of killing the golem as Cardinal approached death, Alice defended them against Quinella's attacks. After Eugeo's death, just as Kirito was about to die by Quinella's rapier, Alice jumped between them and took the hit, stirring Kirito into fighting Quinella again, and eventually defeating her.

The original Alice was later seen in Eugeo's mind as his Fluctlight was prepared to be deleted. Alice gave her blessings to Kirito and Alice Synthesis Thirty, before walking away, holding hands with Eugeo.

Gallery

 * See: Alice Zuberg/Image Gallery

Trivia

 * In the original web novel, Alice's name after becoming an Integrity Knight was Alice Synthesis Fifty, which designated her as the 50th member to join the Integrity Knights. In the light novel, her name was changed to Alice Synthesis Thirty, thus making her the 30th member to join.
 * Alice's name coincides with the acronym of the concept of Rath's plan, Artificial Labile Intelligence Cybernated Existence (A.L.I.C.E).
 * In an official character popularity poll hosted by Dengeki Bunko for the cover of abec Art Works, Alice Synthesis Thirty ranked sixth and Alice Zuberg ranked thirtieth.

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