"Roar!"
A loud dragon roar filled the air as the massive golden dragon coiled and flew from Seiya's side, wrapping itself around one of Kayaba Akihiko's arms. The ten-meter long Golden Dragon was a giant to regular players, but to Kayaba, who was now a tens-of-meters-tall Grim Reaper, it was only the size of his arm.
Seeing the dragon suddenly appear, Kayaba didn't rush to attack. Instead, he carefully examined the dragon on his arm, a look of curiosity on his face. He had just used his admin privileges to search SAO's vast database, and he couldn't find any data or information about the Golden Dragon. In other words, this golden oriental dragon had never existed in SAO's data before.
In the past, to fulfill his dream of making SAO a true-to-life world, Kayaba had tried everything. To make the world capable of evolving, rigid computer programs and modules wouldn't work. To give SAO the potential for growth, Kayaba had made the insane decision to abandon his physical body and use his own brain and soul to replace the computer AI. While a computer AI couldn't evolve, he, as a human, could. In a way, he had become a sort of "digital spirit," living forever in the network.
Because of Kayaba's insane act, the world of SAO now had greater possibilities and capacity for inclusion. The power Seiya was using was data that didn't exist in SAO, but the world itself was evolving and accepting it, like an infant absorbing new knowledge.
"Analyze..."
The Golden Dragon that was wrapped around Kayaba's arm was full of question marks to him, except for its HP bar. But with Kayaba's manual intervention, the dragon's details and stats began to appear before him.
[Golden Dragon, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions of the Azure Dragon, the second of the seven Eastern Mansions. Long-bodied, scaly, capable of flying and running, similar to a dragon. Gentle in nature, skilled at controlling wind.
Type: Unique Skill - Shikigami Sword Summoned Creature
Level: Equal to player's level]
When Kayaba's data for the Golden Dragon was finalized, Seiya also saw it and was stunned. He had previously made up a story about his "Shikigami Summon" being a "Unique Skill," but he never expected Kayaba to actually name it "Shikigami Sword" while updating the data.
"I never thought that besides being the national Kendo champion, you were also from a legendary Eastern spiritual family. That's quite a surprise."
In the digital information age, Kayaba, who was completely integrated into the network, could easily search online information from around the world. It was not hard for him to find information about the Golden Dragon. The Twenty-Eight Mansions were an ancient Chinese astronomical term, referring to the resting places of the sun, moon, and five planets. In ancient Eastern cultures, many mystical studies were related to this.
Kayaba had searched for Seiya's information online and found that Seiya was from China, and "Wenren" was the name of a mysterious ancient Eastern clan. A mysterious family from the East, and the Golden Dragon being an Eastern constellation—everything made sense now.
As a genius of science, Kayaba naturally didn't believe in ghosts or spirits; he was a true materialist. He believed that even if Seiya had inherited an ancient family lineage in the real world, he wouldn't be able to summon something supernatural like the Golden Dragon. But SAO was different. It was a world of data, and with the immense possibility and capacity he had given the world, it was not impossible for Seiya's inherited power to be recreated in this world.
Unfortunately, after finalizing the data, Kayaba tried to use this power but found that he couldn't. Just like Kirito's "Dual Blades" skill required the highest reaction speed in the game, Seiya's power, although named "Shikigami Sword" by Kayaba, also had prerequisites. To master the "Shikigami Sword," one had to know about the constellations and how to form ritual spells and hand seals.
Kayaba believed this was a family inheritance, and only those from Seiya's family would know how to use it. In a way, the "Shikigami Sword" was no different from a personal skill for Seiya.
Kayaba was happy to have proved that SAO could evolve by incorporating data that didn't exist before. But as happy as he was, the fight had to continue.
Without a second thought, Kayaba used his other hand to grab the Golden Dragon that was tightly wrapped around his arm and slammed it onto the ground. The Golden Dragon, with its now-completed data, was classified as Seiya's pet and was on the same level as Seiya. Although its HP bar was much thicker than Seiya's, it couldn't survive a third hit from Kayaba's stats.
"Roar!"
The Golden Dragon, violently pulled and slammed to the ground, let out a cry of pain. Its HP bar instantly plummeted to a critical level. As the summoner, Seiya could feel the dragon's resentment. In the real world, the Golden Dragon could easily defeat a thousand humans like Kayaba without blinking. But in this cursed world, it was bound by the rules and its power was suppressed, to the point where it was being ground into the dust.
Just as the Golden Dragon was slammed to the ground and Kayaba was about to finish it with his scythe, Seiya lunged forward and blocked the attack with his sword.
"Clang!"
The long sword and the giant scythe collided, creating a huge shockwave and sending sparks flying. The impact pushed both Seiya and Kayaba back. Although Seiya couldn't stand on equal footing with Kayaba in terms of level and stats, he had used the Weapon Parry skill. The skill's effect was to force a parry with a weapon, ignoring the gap in level and stats if the timing was perfect.
"Shikigami Summon: Azure Dragon—Fire Tiger!"
"Shikigami Summon: Vermillion Bird—Solar Horse!"
"Shikigami Summon: White Tiger—Wood Wolf!"
"Shikigami Summon: Black Tortoise—Fire Pig!"