of those horns wavered without a sound. And then the face was covered with a mask that had a laughter on it.

“Clown...?”

Haruyuki unconsciously whispered. That avatar’s silhouette is very similar to the joker drawn on playing cards. However that mask did not have a single bit of humor. The long small eyes that slanted upwards were ash white in the shadow of backlight, filled with a cruel light.

Then, suddenly part of the clouds above thinned. The weak grey sunlight reached the ground, and showed the shape of avatars surrounding the crater.

Many different colors. However, to say it strongly, most were red and yellow.

The one that shone especially brightly, was the loosely standing in the center of that group, the clown avatar’s armor.

Without a single part of cloudiness, a poisonous yellow like uranium ore. At the moment he saw that, a strong sense of terror ran through Haruyuki’s back. There are not many duel avatars with that degree of fresh color saturation. Up till now the ones he’d seen directly were darkness deep black, and flame crimson, only those two. That means -, that means that clown is...

As if supporting Haruyuki’s imagination, the crimson avatar standing beside him let out a dry sound.

“?Yellow Radio?... ?Yellow King?... Why is he here...”

King. Only 7 of them existed in the accelerated world, level 9 Burst Linkers.

Up till now for Haruyuki, never mind the Yellow King, he did not even have contact with members under that King’s control. The reason is the territory under Yellow legion’s control, are on the opposite side of Suginami in the Tokyo area - from Ueno to Akihabara. When he went to Akihabara to buy old PC parts, he always disconnected from the Global Net at those times.

That means right now the Yellow legion being in Ikebukuro, and moreover in these numbers, is extremely unnatural. Of course it was not a coincidence. However, the time since Haruyuki’s four person group dived from his apartment home with ?Unlimited Burst? command into this Unlimited Neutral Field till now, only a few seconds at most should have passed in the real world. For their legion member to discover Haruyuki’s group inside, contact the outside, and gather those members in Ikebukuro, there absolutely won’t be that much time for it.

That means, they had also monitored Cherry Rook’s movement, and predicted that at this time, this place, Haruyuki’s group will appear, so they waited in ambush.

If that was the truth, then there is only one reason.

Everything. Everything from the cause of this situation, is their -

“...It’s you bastard!!”

Suddenly, Niko roared.

The Red King who reached the same conclusion at the same time as Haruyuki, jumped out one step, held her fists, stuck out her chest, and her youthful shout was filled with majestic lion roar.

“You bastard planned all of this, Yellow Radio!!”

That’s right. It could only be that.

After being showered with the inferno of accusations, however the Yellow King’s thin body did not seem to be affected.

Unexpectedly, the bone like right arm slowly moved. Extending it wide to the right side, and turned the palm upward.

“Hey hey, thought I saw some dizzily flying insect fall down, it’s this unexpected guest? Good day, Red King.”

What came from the smiling mask, was a fresh, flowing young man’s voice. However, it was like it had an effect with extreme compression encode, so the sound was filled with various poisonous taste.

“Still saying that after the ambush...!”

“I do not seem to understand what you mean? I just, for my cute subordinates who were attacked after breaking the no invasion treaty, someone in the red legion who is forcing them to lose all points, I only came to ask for responsibility right? Recently, that duel avatar that rampages in defiance in our territory is quite troublesome.”

The horns on the hat made with many metallic rings swayed slowly. It was almost as if he was suppressing laughter.

On the other hand, Niko’s right index finger was pointed straight forward, as she shouted like a fiery explosion.

“It was you who made him do that! To lure me to this place, you gave that hidden ?Disaster Armor? to Cherry Rook... it was you who instigated his violation of the treaty and indiscriminate attacks!!”

“Hidden? Gave? What bad words... that ?Armor? was supposed to have been annihilated long ago right? Did your subordinate make another one?”

While saying that with a throaty voice, this time he extended his left arm, while he pointed to the sky with strangely small and sharp fingers, the Yellow King continued.

“In the holy treaty between the Kings, there is something like this. If attacks in violation of the treaty was carried out, and that caused the legion member’s forceful Brain Burst uninstall, then from the attacker’s legion, someone will be picked to suffer the same fate, that. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth... in truth a savage revenge method right?”

‘Kuu. Kuukuuku.’

Then, this time actual laughter leaked from the inverted triangle and sharp horned mask. The up slanted eyes shone lightly with the laughter.

“However, it is decided... isn’t that right? Here, if a King like me ignored the treaty, then more and more similar violators will appear. So without any other choice, that’s why came all the way to the frontline like Ikebukuro. To find one Red legion member, to make him pay for his comrade’s crimes, right? However... is this perhaps another trick of fate...?”

The Yellow King put his hands one his waist, and leaned forward as he continued with a cool yet obscene voice.

“That person,?by chance?to be the Red legion’s leader... ?Scarlet Rain? herself.”

‘- No way it’s by chance!’

Haruyuki shouted inside as he ground his teeth.

The number of avatars around the crater’s edge is around 30. Even for a King’s legion, that should be about the upper limit number that can be moved in a week day evening. And that goal, can only be for hunting the strongest existence, a ?King?.

The Yellow King predicted Scarlet Rain - Niko would act this way. That for Niko’s personality, she would personally use ?Judgement Blow? to purge her subordinate Cherry Rook for his crimes, and would appear in the Unlimited Neutral Field like this.

No, not only that. To force Niko into that situation,?he wanted to legally hunt one of five heads that will make him a level 10?- for that goal, the Yellow King gave the enhanced armament ?Chrome Disaster? to a Red legion member. He could only think of it like that. If that is the case, that means.

“...Two and half years ago, when the fourth was put down, at that time it was the Yellow King who hid the dropped ?Armor?...”

Haruyuki unconsciously whispered. However there isn’t any proof. If he use that conjecture here, it would be a pointless argument.

Niko probably realized that as well, and while she remained silent, her fists shook violently.

Eventually she opened her hands, and let them dangle down. Her controlled flat voice flowed from the bottom of the crater.

“In the treaty, this should have also been written. ?...Anyone can be selected for revenge, but if the legion master purge the criminal, causing him to lose all points then that won’t apply?... that guy, I will deal with Cherry Rook. Then you don’t have any complaint against that right.”

“Please do, please do.”

Opening both hands, the Yellow King, Yellow Radio say joyfully.

“If you can manage to do that! I heard a rumor on the wind... the other day, you tried exactly that, and you failed superbly... was it that you even suffered an unsightly time up lost? You are free to challenge him again, however... where is that certain person called Cherry Rook?”

As if on purpose, he moved his head covered by the huge hat left and right as a show.

“We don’t have much free time. For someone that you don’t know when he will appear, you don’t want us to wait here for days right? If you can’t deal with it right now... then we just have to use you to fill in right...?”

“Kuu...”

Niko growled in chagrin.

For Haruyuki’s group, with Niko’s long distance surveillance they found out when Cherry Rook was moving in the real side and accelerated, however there is a time lag before the actual person will appear in the Unlimited Neutral Field. Even with a few minutes of real time lag, in the 1000 time accelerated world, the difference at worse would be over one day. As the Yellow King said, capturing Cherry Rook right now is impossible.

After deciding, Haruyuki took a step forward, and whispered lightly behind Niko’s back.

“It’s useless, Niko. That guy set a trap to go after you from the beginning so he won’t let you escape... here, we should just leave for now. Log out, and wait for the next chance...”

“Can’t.”

The answer was instant and simple.

“That is not possible in the system way. In the Unlimited Neutral Field, instant log out is not possible.”

“Wha...”

In the speechless Haruyuki’s ears, the murmur from Takumu who moved forward reached him.

“That is the way it is, Haru. To exit this place, you have to go to Leap Points placed in various locations. Even if you ?suicide?, you can’t log out. You will just be revived in one hour at the place you died. Of course, if in the real world someone removed the Neuro Linker from your neck, that’s a different story... right now, at Haru’s home...”

There isn’t anyone. His mother is on a trip and will return tomorrow, and then three years would have passed in this world.

Niko who glanced around, again quickly whispered.

“The closest Leap Point from here is either Ikebukuro station or Sunshine City. We cannot quickly reach either. Even if we aim for those, to break through the encirclement we have to fight at least once no matter what...”

There she momentarily stopped, and Niko’s ruby like eyes shone a sharp light.

“But, that Radio bastard also miscalculated.”

“Mis, miscalculate?”

“That’s right. That number of people, is for me... that is a number gathered to kill one King. However, right here, is not just one.”

There Haruyuki opened his eyes wide.

For the color circle that determine duel avatar’s affinity, Yellow is a color best at ?Indirect Attack?. It specialized in various forms of unpleasant weak point attacks, but its direct attack power is less than other colors. On the other hand, the Red King Niko is a demon of long range firepower, and for Black King Kuroyukihime, he had only seen her fight a few times, but her form is built for close range attacks.

If those two cover each other, even if the enemy is a King and 30 people, there might be a chance to win.

Thinking till there, Haruyuki was filled with a small feeling of strangeness.

Why did Kuroyukihime keep silent all that time? If it was the normal her, at the moment when the Yellow King appeared, she should be going after him with more force than Niko?

Haruyuki who turned around to look at his right side behind, saw - .

With both sword hands dangling down, and slumped like she was in fear of something, that deep black avatar shape.

“Se...”

Before he involuntarily called ‘Senpai’, the Yellow King’s crisp voice again echoed loudly.

“Unless Cherry appears, we will have you take responsibility right, Red King? ...Since that is the case...”

The slowly lifted up left hand long and small finger, pointed straight at the black spot on the bottom of the crater.

“The now starting fun fun carnival, you will watch without interfering right, Black King?”

After being hit with the extremely self-righteous speech, Kuroyukihime remained head down without a single reaction. After over five seconds have passed, she finally lifted up her head, and pointed her right sword hand at the Yellow King.

“...Don’t mess with me, Radio.”

The speech that leaked out of the mask was in attack mode, however the sound was not fierce like usual. To the opponent, or more like to herself, Kuroyukihime continued to spit out words.

“That formation, even you would not think it can stop two Kings. I... if you think I would just watch silently, that is a huge mistake.”

“Oh? Does that mean you will fight? You will turn that blood soak blade on me as well? I went to the trouble of giving you a side seat to watch, do you actually want to make it difficult on yourself...?”

As Kuroyukihime pointed out, that was not an absolute advantageous situation, but the Yellow King still showed a ‘Kukuku’ laughter from deep in his throat.

“...To be honest, that you would come to the Unlimited Field today with Scarlet Rain, even I did not expect that. But... this level of irregularity will not stop my legion ?Crypt Cosmic Circus?’s fun carnival. I have waited a long, long time for the day to meet you like this, Lotus. To give you this small present that had been sitting in my pocket for a long time!”

With a showy gesture the Yellow King extended his fingers, and Haruyuki saw something rectangular that flashed. About the same size as a playing card, but he could not see the design.

The clown avatar skillfully spun the card on his finger, then snapped it.

From the sunlight shining down between the clouds, that card danced in the air with a sparkle for tens of meters, then stuck into the ground silently a little away from Haruyuki’s group.

He did not think it was an attack object. As Haruyuki looked on while dumbfounded, from the surface of the card, a sideways triangle, floated up, and lightly lit up. At that moment, Niko beside him lightly whispered.

“It’s a Replay File.”

Right after, the card’s surface shone brightly, and an inverted cone shape light was released directly above it.

Many noise like lines appeared in the air, and was soon turned into a picture. The half transparent 3D image, was a duel avatar that he had not seen before.

Red. The form was orthodox humanoid, well balanced armor on different parts, shone a pure red that could not be more than that. Different from Scarlet Rain’s many colored flame red - to say it in words, it’s color of passion.

Again, Niko’s raspy voice leaked out.

“Previous generation... ?Red Rider?.”

Kuroyukihime backed off a step, and said in a moan.

“Stop... stop it!”

It was at that time that the 3D image suddenly started to move.

The pure red avatar appearing large in the air, leaned forward with its right hand held in a fist, and left hand spread open to the side. In Haruyuki’s ears, a pleasant sounding crisp boy’s voice loudly flowed.

“This... this worthless goal, had we been fighting till now for it!? Hating each other, fighting each other, killing each other... to see that ending, for years, for thousands of ?duels? again and again!? No, even if that is Brain Burst developer’s written scenario... we are not NPC controlled by game masters! This game’s main character, is us! Isn’t that right, Lotus!”

The scene was pulled back, at the time the red avatar became smaller, another avatar sitting directly in front was framed in. A deep black avatar with four long large blades, it was Black Lotus.

To the head lowered Black King, the first generation Red King continued to gesture wildly and speak fiercely.

“We did control our legions and continued to fight till now. But that, is not because we are enemies! It’s because we are rivals right!? I... like your style of fighting, Lotus. If someday we meet in the real world, I want to become your friend. Absolutely will. No, I want to! That is why I don’t want to fight you with sudden death! You are probably the same!”

At that moment, a little bit sharp girl’s voice echoed.

“Wait Rider, I can’t just ignore what I heard!”

Then the red avatar turned left as if in a panic, and raised one hand.

“N, no, that’s not it. I don’t mean it like that... now I am done for.”

On top of that voice, were many sounds of laughter.

Black Lotus who was head down in the scene, suddenly relaxed her shoulders. She raised her head, and with calm voice - .

“Yea... That’s right. It’s like you said, Rider. I like you too. Of course, in a respect kind of way.”

She quickly stood up, moved forward one step, and the Black King extended her right sword hand towards the Red King.

“I thought you would understand, Lotus!”

After shouting that joyfully, the Red King was about to extended his right hand to shake hands, but stopped while a bit lost. Then the Black King shrugged her shoulder, and said with a bit of laughter.

“Oops, sorry about this. Then... let’s do this.”

After saying that, she stepped close to the Red King, and made a gesture to hug around his neck. The Red King, after scratching his face like he was embarrassed, put his hands around Black Lotus’ waist. Again from outside the scene, the girl earlier shouted.

“Wait wait!”

“Don’t be mad, it’s in exchange of handshakes only.”

The Red King said in an anxious voice for excuse, and again multiple laughter echoed -

At that moment.

Inside Black Lotus’ deep black goggle, two eyes lit up with ice like blue white light.

Her two sword hands crossed behind the Red King’s neck gave off a strong violet shine.

“?Death By Embracing?.”

A special attack skill was quietly voiced, the two crossed swords, moved in a cutting way just like a huge scissor.

Red Rider’s body completely lost strength, and collapsed down near Black Lotus’ feet like a broken doll. However just his head, remained on the Black King’s crossed arms.

From the cut on the head, large amount of bright red sparks dripped down, and Black Lotus turned her face away.

The high density silence, was broken apart by a high pitched scream.

“N... nooooooo!!”

The replay ended there, the shape of Black Lotus who stood there while holding her rival’s head, was melting away and erased by noise lines again.

However the small scream did not stop and continued to ring in Haruyuki’s ears. That, was from the throat of Kuroyukihime who stood right beside him, he finally realized.

“Stop... stop, stop it...!”

“Se... sen, pa...”

Haruyuki who called out on reaction, noticed that his voice was violently shaking and stopped his breath. Kuroyukihime looked slightly at Haruyuki, and soon turned her face away, shaking her head left and right many times.

“Haruyuki-kun... I am... I, am...”

What was ahead did not become words.

Suddenly, the two eyes in Kuroyukihime’s face plate goggle that was shining blue violet light, with a small line of light going left and right, then abruptly disappeared. At the same time, like a robot with its power cut, all the strength went out of the deep black avatar body - .

With a dry sound, the Black King’s body fell down to the blue black crater bottom.

“Senpai... senpai?”

Not understanding what’s going on, Haruyuki called with his shaky voice as he knelt down and shook the delicate avatar. However Kuroyukihime did not show any kind of reaction at all.

“...?Zero File?...! Lotus, you... that much...”

Behind him, Niko whispered quietly.

Not understanding what she meant, Haruyuki was going to turn around, but went still on hearing the loud laughter from up high.

“Kukuku... Fufufu, Kufufuhahahahahaha!!”

The owner of the roaring laughter, was the Yellow King, Yellow Radio looking down from high above.

“Kufufufufu... as I thought. You are still tied to that betrayal. You going with expectation to become Zero state is on the other hand disappointing... you should have quietly stayed hidden in a small cellar, with that level of resolution, I am surprised you said that big talk about aiming for level 10, Black Lotus!”

“Y... you bastard...”

That murmur leaked out of Haruyuki’s throat with a rasp.

Right after, changing to a whip like sharp sound, the Yellow King’s voice echoed throughout the crater.

“Well then, my carnival’s final program, let us enjoy it! - Ready attacks! Target, Scarlet Rain! The small fries who try to interfere, crush them ruthlessly!!”

“Shit.”

With that poisonous word, Niko’s delicate avatar spread both arms wide.

“Come, Enhanced Arm...”

However, Takumu’s quickly extended hand held Niko’s shoulder.

“You can’t, Red King! If you expand your armament, then you will lose mobility and won’t be able to escape! It’s not possible to go against that number of people even with a King, forget Chrome Disaster’s subjugation for now, break through the encirclement from behind and retreat to Sunshine City’s Leap Point is what we should do!”

The small slits lined up under the mask, this time those blue white shining eyes turned towards Haruyuki.

“Haru, I will leave master to you! I will become a wall, so no matter what you do, bring her to the City!”

“B, but... then, you will...”

“I am fine! Those bastards, if they bring down the Red King, they will definitely go after master! I will not allow that!”

To the dignified yet somehow forcing himself tense voice, Haruyuki could do nothing else but nod.

“I... I understand, leaving it to you!”

While shouting, Haruyuki held up Kuroyukihime’s lax body with his left arm.

Right after - .

“Attack, Start!!”

The Yellow King moved his highly raised right hand down all at once.