The Night Sky Swordsman (Sword Art Online X OC)

Chapter 76 The Night before Battle

No one's POV

She flew from the northern end of the human realm to the farthest east. Eastavarieth was the most enigmatic of the four empires, and it was the first time Alice the Integrity Knight had ever visited it—as it was for

Amayori, who was born in the west.

A rushing river as blue as lapis rushed between strange, jutting rock formations. When the occasional town or village appeared on its banks, it was built not of the familiar stone as in the north, but mostly of wood.

Nearly all the people who looked up to the sky and pointed at her had black hair. Alice recalled that Vice Commander Fanatio, whom she'd never quite seen eye to eye with, was from this region.

Directly in front, Zora leaned back against her and stared mutely into the sky as she held the reins. His hair was black, too, so perhaps he was from this area—and maybe an encounter with the people below would even cause him to open up again. But sadly, she had to reach their destination as quickly as possible.

They'd been traveling for three days, setting up camp away from civilization and eating fish Amayori caught nearby and the dried fruit she'd brought along for the trip.

On the afternoon of the second day of the eleventh month, they reached the End Mountains, which looked no different from those in the far north, and a ravine that looked as though the gods themselves had split the range vertically in two.

Alice:...We can see it now, Zora.

Alice murmured, brushing the neck of her dragon, who had carried the load over their long journey. Now that most magical beasts had all but vanished from the world, dragons were the creatures with the highest natural life values, but even then, carrying two humans and three Divine Objects had to be a great burden. It seemed to have exhausted all the energy it had stored up from eating fish to its heart's content for half a year.

She whipped the reins, promising that she'd give her mount its favorite boiled mutton when they reached the camp. Amayori called back and beat its wings powerfully, showing no signs of fatigue.

The ravine looked like just a narrow crack from far away, but as they grew closer, its scale soon became apparent. By her eye, the span of the ravine was nearly a hundred mels. It was certainly wide enough for an army of orcs and ogres to march in standing abreast.

In the grassland surrounding the entrance to the ravine running straight through the rocky mountains, there was a massive camp made up of countless white tents. Smoke from campfires rose here and there, while soldiers engaged in training exercises. Even from the sky, she could see the glint of swinging swords and hear their shouts.

Morale wasn't as bad as she'd feared, but the total number of soldiers was still abysmally low. By a rough estimate, there couldn't be as many as three thousand in the camp. Meanwhile, the Dark Territory's invading army was at least fifty thousand. "Soldier" and "guard" were callings given to only a small fraction of the populace here, but beyond the mountains, everyone who was capable of fighting became a soldier.

It was impossible to imagine that Alice's presence alone was going to change anything. What kind of defensive strategy was Commander Bercouli envisioning...? As she considered this, Alice urged her dragon past the camp and toward the ravine, which was sinking into darkness.

Alice: I'm sorry, Amayori. Just a bit farther.

She said, and the dragon purred in response, just as the peaks passed in front of the dying light of Solus. As soon as they entered the ravine, her body was hit by a shiver-inducing cold. The stone walls on either side were so smooth and sheer that they could have been carved only by the gods. She couldn't find a single blade of grass, much less a living creature, below.