Okay, let’s pretend for a sec that she couldn’t just pull some crazy magic stuff and turn them all off or whatever. Quinella/Chudelkin/Sword Golem vs All of the known IK’s
Okay, taking into account some rules here:
1) We’ll need to employ the “do they see one another as a human unit” rule. Quinella obviously doesn’t regard anything as “human” enough that she can bypass the rule and kill people. Presuming this rule is what allows war to happen from the IK side, let’s assume they don’t really consider her human either. The golem is up to each knight’s personal interpretation.
2) Quinella cannot be harmed by weapons made of metal (the reason Kirito and Eugeo’s swords worked to harm her was because ice and tree aren’t metal). So, IK divine weapons aren’t made of metal and would be effective in dealing damage.
3) We know for a fact that no individual knight is better at Sacred Arts than Chudelkin or Quinella. Presuming they’re all required to follow the rules of spatial resources and that S30 isn’t doing the stuff she does in WoU, the use of Sacred Arts is pretty on-par on both sides, considering Quinella can use the tips of her hair.
4) Quinella knows all of their weaknesses. I don’t know how many knights know hers.
5) Quinella would probably play avoidance (aside from Sacred Arts) while Chudelkin and the Golem fight first, so they’d be taking on those two and be a bit worn down before getting to her, who would be fresh on her legs, basically.
6) Left out of the anime, weapons do have cooldowns after PWC use. I don’t know the cooldown times of the knights’ weapons (only Kirito and Eugeo’s), but I do know they can’t just keep using them nonstop. Quinella improvs with Sacred Arts, so she’s less predictable than the knights.
With all of that being said, I think her victory would rest on spatial resources and with so many people capable of taking them for Sacred Arts, she’s at a disadvantage. Again, that’s presuming she can’t just use her Cardinal System powers to just cheat. But even with those powers, Kirito and Eugeo did a pretty good number on her alone. So, I think if the knights ganged up on her like this, the IKs would win, presuming they bypassed thinking the Golem and Chudelkin were human.
LN excerpt: Kirito using Incarnation to transform into the Black Swordman
This is an important key moment of Kirito in Alicization arc, the moment when he cast aside his self-dislike of Black Swordman persona and took strength from it, when he made use of Incarnation power of the Underworld settings through self-learning.
Due to the overwhelming strength of the fire giant, the Rulid Trio only had 10 seconds to defeat Chudelkin. Alice was using her power to hold him in his place. Kirito and Eugeo had to find a way to finish Chudelkin in one strike.
This post is exceptionally long so please follow under the “Read More” cut.
Kirito’s POV:
Eight seconds left.
During the two years I’d spent here, I’d practiced and repracticed countless sword skills so that I could teach Eugeo all about the Aincrad style. In the process, I’d realized that in this world, sword skills could sometimes exhibit a power that far surpassed their original specs in the game of SAO.
That was because in the Underworld, much of the outcome of actions was determined not by system calculation but by the strength of the user’s will and imagination. The little spider named Charlotte and Alice the Integrity Knight had called this power Incarnation.
In other words, here, the power and range of sword skills that were strictly defined in the old Aincrad might actually be augmented by the power of Incarnation.
But on the other hand, it also meant that negative emotions like fear, timidness, and hesitation could weaken the same skills.
There was a strong, fundamental desire within me to distance myself from the Kirito avatar I had cultivated in the SAO days: the Black Swordsman and the Dual Blades master. I wasn’t able to analyze the precise cause of that feeling. Maybe it was a desire not to be treated like a hero. Maybe it was guilt over those people whose lives I’d failed to save or ended. Either one could be true, but it might also have been something completely different that I had yet to figure out.
All I knew for certain was that no matter how much I might dislike it, Kirito the Black Swordsman was a part of me, had helped shape who I was now, and was giving me strength.
The same man who’d fought in that world—the same me—was still here.
Seven seconds left.
I hadn’t used this skill or taught it to Eugeo or even attempted re-creating it yet. And I knew why: Because this sword skill was the one the Black Swordsman knew best of all and used the most often. It was his symbol.
There would be only one shot at an attack. I couldn’t let him defend or evade it. In that sense, fifty feet was such a tremendously long distance. Balancing on his head meant Chudelkin couldn’t move quickly, but I’d already seen plenty of the little clown’s resilience in a pinch. I needed his attention diverted away from me, if just for a quarter of a second.
Six seconds left. With as few words as possible, I whispered to my partner:
His response was so immediate, so primed to go, that I glanced at him and saw that there was now a shining arrow of ice in Eugeo’s right hand. It wasn’t all that big, but the brilliance of its light was a sign that it had a high system priority.
I supposed he must have taken the ice resources in the air from Alice and Chudelkin’s fierce battle and converted them for use without anyone noticing.
Five seconds left. Eugeo moved his hands as though pulling on a greatbow, and the arrow in his grasp flashed blue.
Four seconds left. When the ice arrow had nearly reached the domed ceiling, Eugeo clenched his controlling hand. On command, the arrow plunged at twice the previous speed. Its vicious head bore down—and not on Prime Senator Chudelkin.
Three seconds left.
The true attack Eugeo was making was not on Administrator herself, however, but on Chudelkin’s abnormal fixation and attention on her.
Two seconds left.
I was already on the move before Chudelkin’s scream hit my ears. I held the sword at shoulder height, right arm pulled back as far as it could go. The preliminary motion kicked in and turned the blade red as blood.
The system started moving my body automatically. My feet, wide apart, launched off the floor. The acceleration was funneled into my rotation, traveling through my back into my right shoulder. The rotation went back into a straight motion, bursting through my right arm into the sword that was now just an extension of it.
With the metallic roar of a jet engine, the sword burst forth in a straight line with a shining crimson light that was deeper than any of the flames.
This was the One-Handed Sword skill Vorpal Strike.
The reason I had used this skill so much in SAO was because it had the tremendous power to change the course of any battle, and a range that seemed almost unfair for a One-Handed Sword attack. The crimson effect carved through a space about twice the length of the blade itself. When combined with the full reach of my arm, it could sometimes outdistance even a long spear.
But the distance to my target, Prime Senator Chudelkin, was a good fifty feet. A normal Vorpal Strike would never reach him.
In other words, I had to use my imagination—my Incarnation power—to extend my first use of this attack in the Underworld to over five times its range.
This would not be easy.
But I didn’t think it impossible. I would never think it.
Alice was exposing herself and her blade to hellfire, trusting in me to find the solution. My best friend, Eugeo, had used all his smarts and concentration to unleash a sacred art that would allow me this opportunity.
If I couldn’t step up and do my part for them, I had no right to call myself a swordsman.
And I was nothing if not Kirito the Black Swordsman.
The light effects around my sword flashed brighter, almost like an explosion. From one concentrated point at the tip of the sword, they practically drowned out the red light coming from the flaming clown.
“Aaaah!!”
I unleashed all the power at my disposal.
One second left.
Eugeo’s POV:
What was that sound?!
Eugeo gaped at the abnormal roar coming from just nearby.
All ultimate techniques created a multitude of lights and sounds. But this was different from anything he’d heard to this point. It was thicker, heavier, harder, sharper—just like the sword was roaring on its own.
The sound was coming from the black sword in Kirito’s right hand. It sparkled like black crystal, the blade’s sharp edge rattling and emitting an earsplitting roar. And it wasn’t just sound—the entire sword was wreathed in deep-red light.
It’s a special technique. But I’ve never seen this kind before.
Eugeo held his breath. But the truly shocking part of this was what happened right after that.
This time, his partner’s entire body flashed brightly and transformed into an appearance that he’d never worn before.
There were more changes to Kirito’s body, though they weren’t as dramatic as the changes to his clothes.
First, his black hair was longer now, covering half of his profile. Also, what was visible of his eyes through the wild blowing of his bangs was fiercer than anything Eugeo had seen before. They were wild, the look harder— harder than when they’d fought the goblins in the northern cave, harder than when he’d cut off Raios Antinous’s arms, harder even than when he’d fought against Deusolbert and Fanatio. It was like Kirito’s very spirit had fused with the sword, becoming sharper and more dangerous.
It was clear that this was an ultimate technique of the Aincrad style.
But what a tremendous thrust it was. It was unlike any of the moves he’d learned from Kirito; its ferocity seemed more High Norkia in style but with all the ornamentation and beauty removed. It was an attack meant for nothing but piercing a target…
“……!”
Eugeo sucked in a breath and followed the crimson shine with his eyes.
Kirito was aiming, of course, for Prime Senator Chudelkin, who was controlling the fiery behemoth. But the target was at least fifteen mels away. No special technique would reach that far as long as it was from a sword.
Kirito still didn’t move after he was back in his simple black shirt and pants. Eventually, he let his right arm drop until the tip of the black sword landed on the carpet, and he hung his head.
Eugeo didn’t know what to say to him.
Kirito had tried to save even Vice Commander Fanatio. Even against someone like Prime Senator Chudelkin, he would never celebrate the taking of another’s life. With his bangs back to being short, it was easy to see that the icy harshness he’d shown in the moment of his attack was gone.
LN source: Chapter 13 Part 2, Volume 14 Alicization Uniting
She removed the piety module, which means he’s back to his old self right ? Does he remember what he did back down there? He looks so sad, exhausted. Emotionally drained.
This boy never ceases to amaze me, whether it’s by giving in to her sugar coated words or finding the strength to resist against her.
That is exactly how Quinella explained it to your, only sugar coated.
“Love isn’t about control, nor is it something you can gain as reward or in a transaction.
The same way you water flowers, you give it continuously. I’m sure that that’s what true love is. “
Eugeo has finally learned what love means to him. I love how he refers back to the flowers Kirito had back at the academy. Since he poured his heart and soul into them so they could bloom.
Look at this precious boy looking al relieved and happy to see his best friends being there for him. He knows what he did to them and they don’t hold it against him. Kirito honestly has always been the one to not hold grudges. But this is just heart warming.
Ah yes, Kirito’s famous smile. I really like how they made Kirito smile a lot in this season. I feel like he smiled a lot less in the Aincrad, Fairy Dance, ALO and GGO arcs. It’s nice. I like it.
The three musketeers are back. They welcomed Eugeo with open arms. Who wouldn’t? He’s such a precious boy.
Quinella is an interesting one. She isn’t even fazed with what happened. All she’s doing is analysing what happened to Alice what made her ‘turn’ against her. And then still, she didn’t care. She just wanders off to let Chudelkin take care of it all.
You know. This left me speechless. This is gross. This is vulgar. This is the love Quinella has been talking about to Eugeo. She doesn’t even care. This is sickening. Is she a prostitute? Because she sure acts like it.
Why is Chudelkin break dancing?
WHAT IS THAT? This looks like one of those floor bosses they’d face in Aincrad. Only, more Chudelkin-ish.
Yep, that’s the bastard. I will say that Chudelkin is high on the nope list but Sugou, D.I.L., Raios, and Humbert are probably the literal worst. I cannot handle them.
