Breathing Techniques in SAO

It was an old man — very short in stature — wearing a black dalmatics (the kind priests wear), and holding a small box in his hands.

His muscles looked completely withered, and the skin on his face was wrinkled and sagging, with deep lines etched into his forehead.

Beneath his sparse eyebrows were a pair of silver-gray eyes.

His nose was sharply defined, with a slightly hooked tip — a classic Roman (hawk-like) nose.

After giving Akimi and Asuna a blank glance, the old man silently walked to each of the four corners and lit the braziers.

The entire area brightened slightly, but Asuna now felt it might've been better left in the dark — because the flames burning from the braziers, which looked like they had been filled with charcoal, glowed a deeply unsettling blood-red.

After lighting the braziers, the old man stepped onto the podium, opened the box in his hands, and took out a large, heavy-looking book.

The book was roughly a handspan wide, about the length of a forearm, and as thick as four fingers.

Whether it was due to the lighting or its original appearance, the cover was a dull, dark red — the kind that made one's skin crawl just by looking at it.

Even though there were no other listeners in the room aside fromAkimi and Asuna, the old man opened the book and began what seemed to be a sermon — or perhaps a ritualistic preaching — as if he were reading straight from its pages.

His voice was hollow, devoid of emotion, and completely monotone.

From the sound of it, what he was preaching didn't resemble Catholicism at all, but rather some obscure, unknown sect.

Judging by the yellow cursor floating above his head, the old man was part of the NPC faction, not a monster.

His name was quietly displayed beneath the cursor — Mills.

However, what made Akimi a bit wary was the way the name appeared: "Mills the Missionary."

That kind of naming format was typically reserved for special monsters.

In SAO, normal NPCs usually only had their names displayed under the cursor, without titles or professions.

Likewise, most monsters only displayed their monster type — only boss-level enemies had personal names.

But Mills, clearly an NPC, had a name formatted like a boss monster's.

That made it hard not to be suspicious.

After drawing his Nichirin Blade, Akimi cautiously watched the missionary named Mills.

However, it was clear that this Mills was most likely the priest mentioned in the quest.

If they wanted to obtain clues for the quest, it seemed their only option was to question Mills — a key figure in the quest.

Just as Akimi slowly approached Mills, preparing to speak to him, Asuna suddenly grabbed his arm and whispered:

"How about… we wait until he's finished his sermon…? I just have this feeling… that if we interrupt him now, something bad will happen…"

Akimi paused for a moment, then nodded — after all, a woman's intuition is often surprisingly accurate.

That hollow voice echoed throughout the hall for about an hour before finally falling silent.

When Mills closed the book and was preparing to leave, Akimi stepped forward and stopped him.

"Excuse me, do you know Shackfen?"

Upon hearing Akimi's question, Mills slowly turned around and looked at him with those silver-gray eyes, remaining silent for a long while.

Just as Akimi was starting to grow impatient under that gaze, Mills finally spoke in a hollow, raspy voice:

"Shackfen? He was a devout and faithful follower. My lord was once going to bless him."

"Once?"

Akimi sounded confused.

As if responding to that confusion, Mills continued, "Unfortunately, his greed defiled the mercy my lord had granted him."

As he said this, Mills shook his head slightly, as if genuinely feeling sorry for Shackfen — that is, if one ignored the slight smirk curling at the corner of his lips.

"My Lord bestowed so many blessings upon him, yet he was insatiably greedy—constantly demanding more without end… So, my Lord granted him eternity—"

After saying this, Mills glanced at Akimi and Asuna, and then his voice took on a hint of fanaticism:

"Are you also devout followers of my Lord?"

"No. We're just here to retrieve something Shackfen left behind," Akimi replied with a frown.

He was starting to feel something was off about Mills.

"Hm?" Mills froze for a moment, then the muscles on his face began to twitch.

"Ah—what a pity, what a pity! Truly… such a shame!"

Ignoring the increasingly grim expression on Akimi's face, Mills continued, "My Lord is so merciful, His divine power so vast. Not believing in Him… is truly your loss—"

The hall suddenly fell silent.

Akimi tightened his grip on his Nichirin Blade and quietly watched Mills.

Mills, on the other hand, brought his hands together over his chest, lifted his head slightly, closed his eyes, and his lips moved constantly as though offering a prayer to the Lord he spoke of.

Asuna pressed her lips together and, after taking a deep breath, asked Mills, "Then do you know where Shackfen's relic is?"

"Of course. Of course, I know…" Mills paused his prayer, slowly lowered his head until his face was slightly tilted downward, and looked up at Asuna from beneath his brow — his pupils rolling up as he gave her a chilling upward glance.

"So where is it?"

"Of course… it is within the temple of my Lord," Mills replied in a flat, emotionless voice.

"And where is that temple?"

Mills pointed toward the door he had entered from and said, "Right there. That is the place where my Lord's faith gathers. Anyone may go to pay respects to Him."

Akimi and Asuna exchanged a glance, then began walking toward the door.

As they got closer, the two could make out the text on the door — it read [homo] (crossed out) home.

"Home?" Asuna found it a bit strange.

"Why would a temple be labeled as 'home'?"

Both of them were confused, and just as they turned around to ask Mills, they realized — he was gone.

The empty hall was now only lit by the four braziers emitting their eerie blood-red flames, creating an atmosphere that was both creepy and unnervingly silent.

"Tch, so this is how it's gonna be, huh?" Akimi muttered irritably.

"Asuna, get your weapon and potions ready. We'll check it out — if anything happens, we're pulling out immediately."

Hearing that, Asuna placed her hand on the hilt of her shimmering silver sword as she watched Akimi slowly push the door open.

The moment they stepped into the temple, the torches inside ignited on their own, bursting into the same blood-red flames as the braziers outside, casting the entire temple in a crimson glow.

The temple itself was quite spacious, with statues lining both sides.

Each statue had a twisted, grotesque expression, with contorted limbs and heads all eerily turned in the same direction — directly toward Akimi and Asuna.

At the far end of the temple stood an altar, and behind the altar was the base of a statue — but there was something odd.

There was no statue on it.

Asuna, feeling a chill under the gazes of those grotesque statues, clung tightly to Akimi's arm and said in fear, "I feel like… there's something inside those statues…"

Akimi gently patted her head to reassure her.

"Don't worry, we're still in a safe zone. There won't be any monsters here."

That helped Asuna relax a little.

They walked up to the altar and found a book placed on the offering table.

There was no title on the cover — only an illustration of a pair of angel wings crossing at the ends, with a blood-red sword piercing through the point where they intersected.

When they opened the book, they saw page after page filled with different names.

On the third page, the two of them spotted a familiar one — Shackfen.

They continued flipping through the book, but it contained nothing besides names.

However, on the final page, something changed.

It read:

"The offerings of the above believers have been received by my Lord. But it is not enough. Only two more sacrifices are needed, and my Lord shall descend — bringing hope to the world."

As soon as they finished reading this sentence, the words on the page suddenly began to squirm and shift, gathering into a blob of black ink that slid down toward the bottom of the book.

That ink blob actually slid out of the book, forming a drop of ink that fell onto the altar.

In the next instant, a statue appeared on the previously empty pedestal — a statue so utterly indescribable it defied verbal description.

At that moment, from the mouths of the surrounding stone statues, streams of milky white gas began to emerge.

These vapors drifted toward the center of the altar, converging into the shape of a figure clad in white dalmatics.

The figure looked exactly like Mills — even the name above his head was the same.

The white-clad Mills twisted his neck into a grotesque angle, eyes wide and crazed, and shouted:

"It seems… the final sacrifices for my Lord have arrived!"

Then he raised the small hammer in his hand and suddenly swung it at Akimi — the speed was so fast that neither of them had time to react.

Just as Akimi thought this is bad, the hammer struck in front of him — but he wasn't harmed at all.

The hammer had been blocked by a purple barrier.

White-clad Mills let out a shriek of disbelief:

"Impossible—! How could the divine artifact granted by my Lord be blocked?!"

Soon after, his voice abruptly stopped.

A few seconds later, he spoke again:

"You… you're outsiders?! Your souls do not belong to this world!"

After glaring viciously at Akimi and Asuna, he shattered into pieces and vanished — leaving the two of them standing there, staring at each other in stunned silence.

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