Sword Art Online Light Novel Volume 14

Alicization Uniting (アリシゼーション・ユナイティング) is the 14th book in the Sword Art Online Light Novel series, published on April 10, 2014. It is the sixth and final volume in the Human Empire sub-arc of the Alicization arc

Part 1
Kirito and Eugeo attacked each other with «Sonic Leap», although Kirito used some tricks to make his move faster and stronger, Eugeo managed to match him, making Kirito realize all the extra hours of training Eugeo had. Kirito tried to talk with Eugeo, but he remained silent, while Kirito decided to fight seriously, he also thought about which memories had been stolen from Eugeo.

Both skills ended at the same time, and after the rebound, both swordsmen used the same moves. During the clash, the blades got entwined again, and Kirito exposed his thought about fighting Eugeo seriously during their trip to Centoria. After a while, Kirito fell backwards and, although Alice thought he had lost, Kirito was actually activating the Martial Arts skill «Gengetsu», aiming to kick Eugeo on his jaw, but the latter decided to use his sword's pomel to misdirect Kirito's attack. Kirito slowed down his kick and instead, kicked Eugeo's hand and sent the Blue Rose Sword flying, ending up stabbed into the ceiling.

After Eugeo burst five aerial elements to get some distance from Kirito and be able to retrieve his sword with an incarnation arm, they engaged in another scuffle, during which Kirito managed to make Eugeo remember who he was once again, but because of the Piety Module, Eugeo could only apologize to Kirito and Alice before releasing the recollection of the Blue Rose Sword unwillingly.

Part 2
After temporarily binding Kirito and Alice in ice, Eugeo went to the Administrator's room alone. There he first managed to send Chudelkin to the now frozen in place Kirito and Alice with a lie, and decided to face Administrator Quinella alone. After Eugeo met Administrator, she confirmed that the Piety Module inserted into Eugeo was unstable and tried to reinsert it properly while paralyzing Eugeo. When instructed to repeat the «remove core protection» art though, Eugeo instead forced his arm to break free from the paralysis and he attempted to stab Cardinal's dagger into Administrator. However, Administrator had a Sacred Art protecting her body from metal objects, thus this attempt ended up in causing an explosion that pushed Eugeo away. Eugeo then attempted to stab her with the Blue Rose Sword. After a surprising phenomenon between the Blue Rose Sword and the barrier breaking, Administrator hurriedly pushed Eugeo against the wall with a Sacred Art. Eugeo then went into a defensive stance, just when Chudelkin ran into the room, tailed by a now thawed Kirito and Alice.

Chudelkin ran towards Administrator and blamed Eugeo for not killing or at least weakening Kirito and Alice more. Eugeo, managing to walk around, then stood beside Kirito and Alice. Administrator told Chudelkin to attack them and he flipped his body and used his head as support, while his hands and feet remained in the air. He then proceeded to summon 10 cryogenic elements and threw 5 of them at the trio in the form of icicles, but Alice intercepted them. Then he launched the last five after transforming them into a huge ice cube, but once again Alice stopped the attack by using her Fragrant Olive Sword's Armament Full Control Art.

Part 1
Administrator ordered Chudelkin to freeze Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice using his Sacred Arts while keeping them alive, and Kirito noted that the room they were in was rather large and intricate; the walls were made of untainted glass while a canopy embedded with crystals was supported by pillars covered with decorative swords. Chudelkin generated twenty cryogenic elements on his hands and feet and attacked, but was stopped by Alice's Armament Full Control art. Administrator scolded Chudelkin for his incompetence, but he made a request: should he defeat the trio, he wished to get one night to do as he wished with her. Administrator dishonestly agreed to this deal, giving Chudelkin a burst of motivation. He generated twenty-two thermal elements and released them to create a five-meter tall flaming demon that resembled himself. Alice told Kirito and Eugeo that she would only be able to distract the flaming clown for about ten seconds and that they had to win in that time. Kirito decided that the only way to fight him was to use his sword techniques, amplified by Incarnation. When Eugeo launched a cryogenic element at Administrator as a feint to distract Chudelkin, Kirito unleashed a «Vorpal Strike» Sword Skill using all of his strength and causing his clothes to transform.

Part 2
Eugeo watched in awe as Kirito was engulfed in light and transformed into the «Black Swordsman» from Sword Art Online. Chudelkin, who refocused his attention on the trio, and Eugeo watched in shock as Kirito's «Vorpal Strike» skill, amplified by Incarnation, extended the fifteen mel and pierced directly through Chudelkin's torso. The giant flaming clown disappeared and Chudelkin stopped moving, followed by Kirito returning to his usual form and Administrator pushing Chudelkin aside. After a discussion about Kirito's home world, the future of the Human Empire, and the purpose of the Order of Integrity Knights, Administrator unleashed the «Release Recollection» art on the thirty swords decorating the room's pillars. The swords assembled into a large humanoid mass and Administrator placed the «Piety Module» extracted from Eugeo into its center. Administrator ordered the sword golem to attack and, although Alice attempted to intercept it as a distraction, the golem easily deflected her attack and impaled her. Kirito, having circled around the golem, unleashed a «Vertical» skill but also had his attack deflected and was hit by one of the golem's legs, sending him crashing into the wall. At that moment, Eugeo heard a voice, which came from Charlotte on Kirito's shoulder, telling him to stab Cardinal's dagger into the elevating disk to create a passage. Charlotte exclaimed that she would stall for time, and charged at the sword golem.

Part 3
With each step, Charlotte grew in size until her body was large enough to send heavy tremors through the floor each time she propelled herself by kicking the carpet. Charlotte engaged the golem, but after a short struggle, had four of her legs severed, and was stabbed through the torso. At that moment, a violet light flashed from the elevating disk, and seeing this, Charlotte passed away in peace, knowing that she succeeded in her goal. Moments later, a door appeared from the source of the light and, once it opened, the sword golem was struck by multiple lightning arts in rapid succession, the third strike knocking it backwards with ease. After the golem had collapsed, Cardinal stepped through the door, scanned her surroundings to confirm the situation, and then healed Alice and Kirito with her Sacred Arts.

However, at that moment, Administrator revealed that she had been anticipating Cardinal's arrival and used Sacred Arts to disconnect the top floor of the Central Cathedral from the rest of the world, preventing anyone in the room from escaping. Moments later, the sword golem, having fully regenerated, stood up, prompting Kirito to think about how such an object could regenerate so quickly. After a few moments of thought, Kirito and Cardinal both reached the same conclusion that Administrator had transformed three hundred people into the thirty swords that made up the golem. Administrator gleefully confirmed their suspicion and revealed that she planned to use another 40,000 people for more golems to defend against the Dark Territory and invade them instead. When questioned about how she could use «Release Recollection» on so many swords at once, Administrator claimed that Eugeo must have found the answer.

At that moment, Eugeo shared his realisation that the crystals in the ceiling were the memory fragments stolen from the Integrity Knights, allowing Cardinal to deduce that the swords were created from the people that the Integrity Knights loved the most, allowing their memory fragments to control the swords. As Cardinal considered the swords to still be human beings and was thus bound by her restriction on murder, she offered her life in exchange for the safety of Kirito, Eugeo, and Alice. Agreeing to Cardinal's terms, Administrator stopped the golem, summoned her «Silvery Eternity» Divine Object, a silver rapier, and used it to attack Cardinal with lightning arts. As Cardinal's Life approached zero, Administrator gave her time for her parting words.

Part 4
Meanwhile, Eugeo was immersed in thoughts about his own powerlessness. His desire to save Alice Zuberg was the reason for Kirito, Knight Alice, Cardinal, Charlotte, and his fight against Administrator yet he believed himself to have been more a hindrance than of any help. After resolving himself to stop Administrator with his Blue Rose Sword, which was half ice and could break through Administrator's metal-protection barrier, Eugeo began searching for a way to fight. As he continued pondering, he suddenly recalled the scene of him fusing with his sword. Deciding on his course of action, Eugeo pondered what could he use to power the same release recollection art that fueled the sword golem. At that instant, he felt his name being called, looked up at the ceiling, where he noticed Alice Zuberg's memory fragment, and finally understood the mission entrusted to him.

Part 5
Having decided on his course of actions, Eugeo informed the others of his plan and gave Cardinal the authority to modify his own Fluctlight, requesting her to turn his body into a sword. Seeing Eugeo's firm resolution, Cardinal agreed to grant Eugeo's wish and began the transformation art. The art resulted in the formation of a pillar of light, which allowed Administrator to notice their plot. Administrator aimed her rapier at Eugeo, but Alice intercepted her lightning attack with her sword. Alice then intercepted Administrator's second attack, which made use of thermal elements, but lost consciousness in the process.

Meanwhile, Eugeo finished fusing with his Blue Rose Sword, forming an enormous sword. After Alice's memory fragment connected with the sword, Cardinal used the «Release Recollection» art on it before finally dying. The newly formed white greatsword flew towards the sword golem and destroyed its piety module, sending the thirty swords that composed it flying in all directions. Witnessing this, Kirito realised that Alice's memory fragment was not linked to a sword and conjectured that this was because the love sealed within was too great for Administrator to transmute, which was why the Blue Rose Sword fused with Eugeo and Alice shone so beautifully.

The white greatsword then charged at Administrator, who used lightning arts from her Silvery Eternity to counterattack. When the two swords met, the rapier shattered while the greatsword snapped in half, severing Administrator's right arm. Having landed on the floor, the greatsword transformed back into a human, the bladed part becoming Eugeo's lower body and the half with the crossed guard becoming his upper body, which clutched a crystal prism, and once his body regained the tangibility of a human, blood gushed from both parts of his body. Moments later, the Blue Rose Sword appeared in the puddle of blood and the bottom half of the blade shattered.

Having finished her first-aid, Administrator morphed her severed arm into a new sword and used it against Kirito, but the attack was blocked by Alice. Seeing this, Kirito retrieved his sword and replaced Alice in the fight, as she lost consciousness again. Using Incarnation, he evoked the image of the «Black Swordsman» again, but was forced to defend against numerous styles of Sword Skills from Administrator, who continued to transform her new sword into several different weapon types. Kirito took heavy damage and was launched backwards, landing next to Eugeo in a pool of his blood.

Just when Kirito was about to surrender, Eugeo encouraged him and used Incarnation to reforge the broken Blue Rose Sword, which turned into the crimson «Red Rose Sword», and offered it to him. After Kirito deflected Administrator's first attack, both of them activated «Vorpal Strike», the impact of which resulted in them losing their right and left arms respectively. Kirito then used another «Vorpal Strike» skill with the Red Rose Sword in his left hand to stab through Administrator's chest. However, this resulted in an explosion, which blew both of them away. Glancing at his sword, Kirito noticed that the Red Rose Sword had returned to its original, broken Blue Rose Sword form.

Shocked by the outcome of the battle, Administrator retreated to a system console on one of the pillars and used it in an attempt to escape to the real world, but Chudelkin, who had set himself ablaze, grabbed onto her and extinguished what remained of her Life with the flame. As the battle had concluded, Kirito ran to Eugeo, who was on the verge of death, in an unsuccessful attempt to heal him. Calming Kirito, Eugeo touched him with Alice's memory fragment, which evoked Kirito's memories of his time with Alice and Eugeo as children, when Kirito and Alice prepared a birthday present for Eugeo. After this, Eugeo suggested naming Kirito's sword as the «Night Sky Sword» before closing his eyes.

Part 6
A young Eugeo and Alice Zuberg stood in a dark corridor, holding hands. They decided to leave the future of the Underworld to Kirito and Knight Alice, and walked towards a white light at the end of the corridor. Two Fluctlights, those belonging to Eugeo and Alice Zuberg, were then permanently deallocated from their Light Cubes.

Part 7
After Eugeo's body and Alice's memory fragment had disappeared, Kirito carried Alice to the system console that Administrator had used. After searching through the options, which were mainly in English, Kirito used the terminal's External Observer Call operation to call Rath. Hearing the sounds of gunfire and yelling, Kirito guessed that the Ocean Turtle was under some sort of attack. Once Higa Takeru noticed Kirito's call, he informed Lieutenant Colonel Kikuoka Seijirou, who then told Kirito to find a girl named Alice and to take her to the «World End Altar» located directly south after exiting the Great Eastern Gate. Takeru then warned Seijirou that the Ocean Turtle was in danger of losing power, which would result in damaging Kirito's Fluctlight, as the safeties on the Soul Translator were disabled. The Lieutenant Colonel stated that he would initiate a lockdown and told Takeru to get Koujiro Rinko and Asuna to safety. Just as Kirito became aware of Asuna's presence on the Ocean Turtle, the power was cut, resulting in his Fluctlight being heavily damaged. A nostalgic voice called out to Kirito, one with a ring so dear it made him want to cry, but he was no longer able to remember who the voice belonged to.

Adaptation Notes

 * Chapter 12 part 1 was not part of the web novel.

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Sword Art Online (Ранобэ, Том 14) Volumen 14