Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld 22 * * * Several seconds before that. In the middle of the gorge, Deputy Knight Commander Fanatio Synthesis Two was awaiting the enemy army in a posture that could be considered only odd by the common knowledge in this world. She was standing with her feet far apart and the left of her body forward. Her right hand, aligned to her shoulder’s height, was gripping tightly onto the hilt of her divine instrument, the Heaven Piercing Sword. However, her sword was held horizontally in a reverse grip with its bottom end supported by her spaulder. Meanwhile, her left hand was stretched out forward, her palm supporting the Heaven Piercing Sword’s blade. If Gabriel or Vassago were to witness this scene, they would likely come to the same thought. Simply said—she was like a sniper with a rifle at the ready. That could be said to be true in a sense. Fanatio drew the rushing enemy army in for as long as possible while scouting out the most effective point. Though Deusolbert’s Conflagrant Flame Bow could adjust the broadness of its arrow firing, the Heaven Piercing Sword could only shoot a single narrow beam of light. As such, naïvely firing it into the massive enemy army would hardly do much. She should aim for the commander somewhere within the enemy army—any of the Dark Empire’s Ten Lords. The Dark Territory led its forces through power and fear. The average soldiers pledged absolute obedience towards their commanders and they would fight on until their end as ordered regardless of any development. But turning that around, it meant they would lose all leadership with the defeat of their commander. —We, too, were once so.