Sword Art Online Volume 16 – Alicization Exploding Chapter 18 – War of the Underworld 65 In this world where the art for flight did not exist—save for the one recorded in the index only Highest Minister Administrator could call out and was lost forever with her death, to be specific— the few «dragon knights» among the Order of the Integrity Knights and the Order of the Dark Knights possessed exceptional war potential. Freely soaring through the skies beyond the reach of swords, they could raze infantry with the knight’s arts and the dragon’s heat rays. However, they could not be rashly let out onto the war front due to that value of theirs. If they sent theirs out before the enemy and any fell from the off-chance of an art or arrow from the ground, they would be ladened with a tremendous disadvantage from that very point. As such, Bercouli retained all flying dragons aside from «Amayori», ridden by Alice, in the rear of the battlefield and trusted in the enemy to do the same. Hence, the surprise attack he fretted over would not come from dragon knights. Aside from them, the forces of darkness held an aerial force that they monopolized. They were repulsive, winged monsters termed «minions». Created from clay and other materials by dark arts users, they possessed no intelligence and could understand only certain basic orders. In truth, Bercouli had heard from Alice that the highest minister had created and researched into those same minions in secret. However, it seemed even the highest minister hesitated in deploying the repulsive minions as they were to the Axiom Church. He could only feel it a pity that she had not changed their appearances into something fitting in time before she departed, but there was no use in crying over spilled milk. Due to those reasons, Bercouli felt it necessary to prepare for minions launching surprise attacks from the skies. And in this situation with the flying dragons held back and the ascetics unit tied up with healing, he was the only option left for aerial defense over a vast area.