-Kirito POV (p474)-
The shock when her right eye blew off caused Alice to loss conscious, Kirito used his own Life to stop the bleeding but it wasn't enough to restore her eye back, as he had to reserve space resource from the moon for climbing, he tore the hem of his shirt to wrap her right eye as the temporally measure.
Kirito tied Alice to his back using the small chain she made when they started scaling the tower wall and resume climbing. Two hours later just when it was the limit of his body strength, he reached 95th floor, before lying down like a toy losing the power of battery.
He explained that unlike human fainting by external force done to the brain, the fainting of artificial Fluctlight was an automatic mechanism to reduce damage to its core when taking an intense mental shock, it was the reason Alice loss conscious. Ronié and Tizé were the same during their tragedy. Although Eugeo experience the very same thing as Alice a few days back, but he didn't loss conscious, he still manage to cut Raios, and after that Eugeo also didn't show any sign of confusion in his thoughts, Kirito really admired Eugeo's emotional strength.
Alice regained conscious soon after and realized Kirito carried her up, just when Kirito thought to say 'at least say a little thanks', Alice went into panic when she found out that Kirito was soaked in sweat and it stuck to her skin.
Alice told him that Eugeo probably didn't reach this floor yet, or else he should have waiting for them here, but Kirito thought Eugeo might have pass this floor in 3 states, arrested, unconscious, or dead. Alice further explained the reason Eugeo couldn't reach here was probably because he encountered the strongest Knight, Berculi, on the floor below. Since Kirito lose to her, so Eugeo who was on par with Kirito would have no chance against Berculi, whom she couldn't win against.
Kirito wanted to argue when did he lose to her, but instead he considered how to know if Eugeo was above or below them, as they couldn't waste time finding him in the wrong direction, or else Eugeo might be turned into Integrity Knight and that would almost completely shut them out of their goal.
There was a sacred arts to trace things in Underworld, but it couldn't be use directly on human target, he soon realized Eugeo's possession that he could clearly recall its ID.
"System call! Search position place! Object ID, DI:WSM:0131!"
It was the ID of Blue Rose Sword, the violet light beam pointed downward.
They quickly ran down stairs, on the way down, Alice explained about the elders, whom acted as the commanders of the Knights, 96th-99th floor were their exclusive floors, which the Knights were forbidden to enter. Their duty was to to monitor the Taboo Index violation and order the Knight to deal with the criminal. Alice was instructed to intercept Kirito & Eugeo on the 80th floor by the elders as well.
Kirito thought whether the elders memories were sealed the same way as the Integrity Knights. He then wondered about the "behavior control key", the content of memory piece taken from Alice. Initially he expected it to be about Eugeo or Selka, but Alice had no reaction both times she met Eugeo, while she broke into tears when mentioning Selka, both clearly weren't her missing key piece like in Eldré case, which when stimulated, a triangular prism would appear on the forehead.
They reached 90th floor, what greeted him after Alice opened the large door was a thick mist. He soon surprised by the scene he saw, the entire large bath hall was frozen. Further in the hall, they found Berculi, who already turned into stone, Alice told him she heard from Berculi that the elders possessed the power to turn the Knights into stone for "readjustment". Kirito couldn't understand why they did something like this to Administrator's precious fighting force, but Alice told him Berculi was long in doubt with the way the supreme priest ruled the Human World, Alice had the same doubt, but she kept fighting with the belief that the world couldn't maintain its current peace without the Church.
As Alice started crying to her father figure, Berculi used his last drops of his power to break out, he noticed that Alice managed to tore the wall, the seal in her right eye, which he couldn't do for over 300 years, he then asked Kirito to take care of Alice from now on, before telling them hurry to rescue Eugeo, who was taken away by elder Schuderkin, before he became "lost in the maze of his memories".
After Berculi stopped moving, Kirito picked the Blue Rose Sword and its white leather scabbard up, determining to return it to Eugeo, before equipping it on his waist. Alice looked at him and said he looked somehow strangely suitable in it, even though equipping two swords at the same time had no practical use, only royal family and nobles did something like this for show. She added that releasing memories of multiple weapons at the same time was also proved impossible.
Alice recalled that she only met Administrator once, the time she woke up in this world, she recalled her fear from that time by those eyes of the supreme priest, but she glad they met Berculi, in order to correct the current distorted Human World, to save her sister and everyone else, her mind would never sway any longer.
Kirito worried if they should leave Berculi like that, but Alice told him he should be released once they defeated elder Schuderkin.
Both of them then started hurrying to the top of the tower.
-End of Kirito POV-