Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld 23 Fanatio embraced that intense, fleeting thought. The news that the highest minister, Administrator, had passed away broke down the Order of the Integrity Knights in a single night. It was Bercouli’s words that allowed the knights at the peak of chaos to regain themselves. —Was our mission, our purpose to live, to obey the highest minister and chief elder’s orders? —No. We live to protect those living in the Human Empire. —As long as we have the intent to protect, we will remain knights until we perish. In reality, not all of the integrity knights had understood and abided by the knight commander. The knights assembled on this battlefield numbered less than twenty. However, they all held the will to fight until the bitter end even if they alone remained. The same likely went for the five thousand guards who hastened here, this place of death. That was the decisive difference between the Dark Territory forces and them. Fanatio brought her bare face, stripped from its silver mask, towards her cherished sword’s guard and caught firmly onto the enemy army with her widened eyes. The goblin unit charging in as the ground rumbled was already narrowing the distance between them to a hundred mel. Deusolbert had started his assault from her right with his armament full control art and explosives flames lit up the twilight in red twice or thrice. It was in that brief radiance— That Fanatio finally found her target. Huge shadows in the middle chased after the goblin forces in the advance party as though urging them on. They were the giants, boasting bodies several times the size of humans’.