12Dec2015NovelSword Art OnlineWar o

12
Dec
2015NovelSword Art Online
War of the Underworld

Translation of Sword Art Online’s volume 16, chapter 18.

Latest update: 12th December [continue from last update]
And that’s the end for this stream of updates.
It’ll likely take a while before I release anything for the next chapter.

Yen Press appears to have screwed up colour illustrations on SAO v6. See here.
Shameless advertising: Yen Press’s SAO Volume 8’s available for pre-order. Go get it.
Amazon referrals: v6, P.v3 (Pre-order: v7, v8 | Out: v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, P.v1, P.v2)
Available at other retailers too if you haven’t gotten them yet.




Chapter 18
War of the Underworld
7th Day of the 11th Month of Human Empire Calendar 380
18:00

Solus’s afterglow dyed the gate isolating the two worlds in the red of blood.

«Great East Gate».

The humongous structure, built at the hands of gods, that isolated the Human Empire and Dark Empire for over three hundred years started crumbling away this very moment.

Tremors thundered throughout the world like roars from some immense beast in the Great Gate’s death throes, the last of its effectively infinite Life dripping away, while the five thousand in the Human Empire Defense Army and fifty thousand in the invading army watched on without a word. Those crossed from the Human Empire’s central capital, Centoria, in the east to the land of darkness’s imperial capital, Obsidia, in the west as distant, ominous thunder, prompting all in the Underworld to peer up towards the skies.

Seconds passed.

A crack streaked through the core of the over three hundred mel tall Great Gate. White light gushed from within and scorched the soldiers lined up on both the east and west.

The fissure branched out infinitely, reaching the ends of the Great Gate in no time, as the white light chased after, spreading out like a mesh. Giant words in the sacred script erupted among flames upon the gate’s two sides next. There were merely two throughout the vast battleground who understood the meaning behind the words, [Final Tolerance Experiment].

It started just about as those words burnt out.

The Great East Gate crumbled from the top, releasing flashes of light that extended to the skies.


1

“Uoohh…”

An excited voice escaped from Vassago Casals whose upper body went over the command vehicle’s rails.

“This the «final load test»? It puts even Hollywood movies to shame. Shouldn’t we be taking this videography technology instead of the AI, bro? We would be billionaires in no time if we start a VFX studio.”

Despite having his eyes glued to the great spectacle in the distance, Gabriel Miller coolly pointed out upon hearing that.

“Unfortunately, this sight cannot be recorded onto any medium. After all, it’s not polygons that form everything in this world. It’s a grand show visible only to those connected to the STL.”

Half of the Great East Gate had already crumbled into countless pieces of rubble. Though the noise and tremors were tremendous, the massive rocks all melted into light right before they crashed into the ground. Judging from that, it seemed the remains of the gate would not end up as a barricade.

Gabriel stood from the throne installed on the command vehicle’s roof with his jet-black fur mantle aflutter before walking towards a large skull set up by one of the Ten Lords of the land of darkness, the chief of the Dark Arts Users’ Guild, D.I.L.

The skull placed on a small table was apparently an artifact capable of transmitting sound. She said that by speaking into this master skull, his voice would be sent to the slave skulls in the generals’ possession. Though inferior to the Stryker Command Vehicle’s multi-channel transmission system, it was far more effective than sending an army of messengers for every little command.

Looking down into the skull’s hollow eye sockets, Gabriel let out a somber voice suited to his role as the «Dark Empire’s emperor and Vector the god of darkness».

“Warriors of our land of darkness! The time you have await’d hath arrived! Kill all who live! Pillage all without hesitation! ——Trample upon them all!!”

War cries burst forth from all across the battle formations, their volume exceeding the Great Gate’s collapse. The countless machetes and pikes thrust upwards shone in the hue of blood under the setting sun.

The first batch of the Dark Territory Army comprised five thousand mountain goblins, five thousand plains goblins, two thousand orcs, and a thousand giants for a total of thirteen thousand units. He would first have them lead the charge and observe the enemy army’s reaction.

Swiftly swinging his raised right hand down in front, Gabriel gave his first command as a player in this war game.

“Group one—begin the assault!!”