Sword Art Online - Volume 22 - Chapter 3.4

4 

Three months earlier: April 2025. 

The new company running ALfheim Online, Ymir, unveiled a massive update to the game. 

It implemented the flying castle, New Aincrad; consolidated old SAO accounts; and removed the limit on flying time. 

Previously, the fairies had been unable to reach even the lowest branch of the World Tree on their own power, but now you could fly all the way up to New Aincrad, which hovered far, far above the ground. The first place the newly powered fairies went was not to the new flying castle, however, but the tallest place in Alfheim itself—the top of the World Tree. 

But they did not reach the top of the tree, nor even see it. 

The top of the World Tree was shrouded in massive cumulonimbus clouds. The ferocious gale-force winds and lightning bolts that crackled around them rebuffed any player’s attempt to pass through. The result was the same if you tried to rise along the trunk. Within seconds of entering the mass of clouds, you would either die from lightning shock or get physically hurled out into the open air by the winds. 

The idea had probably come from a classic animated film, but among the players, it was known as the Lightning Dragon’s Nest, and even now, there was no end of foolhardy adventurers attempting to breach the supercell… 

“…Hey, Kirito,” said Asuna, who stood at my side, staring up at the sky. “How many times have you died trying to fly into those clouds?” 

“Um…no more than ten…I think…?” 

“And who had to use magic to recover your Remain Light each and every time? Remind me again.” 

“You, Asuna…” 

“And who helped you recover from the experience penalties each and every time?” 

“You, Asuna…” 

“Well, I’m glad you remember,” she said, beaming. I awkwardly returned the smile. 

“O-of course I do. And I’ve thanked you for that more times than there are total suckers on the eight tentacles of the Kraken.” 

“That’s…not the nicest analogy…,” she muttered, looking up to the sky again. 

It was two o’clock on Saturday, July 26th. 

There were no other players on the observation deck built at the southern tip of Yggdrasil City, the elevated city built into the center of the World Tree. In the past, countless people had challenged the storm from here, but now the supercell surrounding the peak of the tree was considered an impassable barrier, much like the dome at the base of the tree guarded by its NPC knights had been in the early days of ALO. 

That dome was created by Nobuyuki Sugou, the previous manager of ALO. He’d set the difficulty to an impossible level in order to hide his personal usage of server resources and, more important, his illegal experiments. It was impossible to imagine Ymir, the new management company, having people held prisoner at the top of the tree, however. 

If we couldn’t get through the clouds, then, it was because we hadn’t fulfilled some condition. Meaning if we cleared whatever hurdle that was, there might be a way through the howling, crackling storm… 

“Thanks for waiting!” called an energetic voice from below as a green blur zipped past the handrail of the observation deck. 

The figure that did a flip overhead and landed in front of us was a speed-demon sylph warrior. After logging out in Swilvane last night, she must have flown at top speed to get to Yggdrasil City. 

Leafa glanced at the time readout and groaned, “I couldn’t break forty minutes!” The distance between the two cities was over forty miles, so she’d need to maintain a solid sixty miles an hour to record a time that short. 

“Wow, that’s really impressive, Leafa. It took me and Kirito nearly an hour,” Asuna remarked, genuinely impressed. 

My boorish, unsophisticated sister puffed out her chest with pride and said, “There’s a trick to it. The wind direction changes with altitude and time, so you have to constantly fine-tune your facing to keep following the proper tailwind.” 

“So you’ve totally memorized how the wind blows. That’s amazing…Kirito fell asleep while he was flying and ended up crashing through a flock of Cyrus Medusas.” 

Leafa shot me a nasty look. “He logged in by himself late last night so he could do something in Swilvane. Apparently, this idea to tackle the Lightning Dragon’s Nest again came from some information he picked up on, but he won’t tell me anything more than that.” 

Even Asuna’s expression grew suspicious at that point, so I coughed unconvincingly to hide my embarrassment. Suguha had learned about my late-night dive during our big cleaning of the dojo this morning, due to all my yawning. Of course, I didn’t tell her anything about what I was actually doing—infiltrating Lady Sakuya’s manor—but it felt like the secret was going to get out sooner or later. 

Still, it was worth the risk. If I hadn’t met with Sakuya and seen that secret world map, I would never have gotten the hint that the “new chamber” might be on the top of the World Tree. 

And once I was aware of it, I couldn’t possibly sit still. After the cleaning was done, I reached out to the usual gang—of course, it was the middle of the day, so Agil and Klein couldn’t join in—and called for a meetup at this observation deck. 

I was gazing at the passing clouds for no particular reason, hoping Liz and Silica would show up soon, when a tiny spirit of salvation popped out of my shirt pocket. She stretched her tiny arms, yawned adorably, and flitted upward with a sound like bells ringing, landing on Asuna’s shoulder with a smile. 

“Papa, Mama, Leafa, good morning! I think I slept in a little,” said our daughter, who giggled to herself cutely. The women immediately forgot about their criticisms and beamed back at her. 

We were reminiscing about the whale from yesterday when Lisbeth and Silica arrived from the southwest. With all members present, we were ready to hold our meeting. 

“…Well, I don’t really have a very fancy plan. Basically, I’m going to charge into the Lightning Dragon’s Nest, so if I die, bring me back with magic, please…” 

The Remain Light left behind after a player’s death generally had to be physically grabbed by party members to be moved, but a few high-level magic spells and expensive consumable items could retrieve a Remain Light from a distance. Since trying a direct retrieval of a Remain Light inside the Lightning Dragon’s Nest was likely to lead to additional victims, I would need to be pulled out of the clouds by magic. 

Of course, after a certain amount of time, I would automatically revive at my save point, but that would come with a much harsher experience penalty than if someone else revived me. I was prepared to die once or twice, but the less I lost, the better. 

When the girls heard my plan, they looked at one another, and then Lisbeth spoke for the group. 

“So, um, just to make sure I have this right…You want to go to the top of the World Tree because you think that giant pearl, or Holy Child’s Egg, will be there?” 

“Yes,” I confirmed. 

Silica’s triangular ears twitched as she asked, “But, Kirito, assuming you find the egg, what will you actually do with it? You aren’t going to steal it, are you?” 

“Y-yes,” I said again, and I explained, “The thing about the egg is…I have a feeling we can get a continuation to the Pillager of the Deep quest from yesterday. I really don’t think it was meant to be a one-off quest…” 

Asuna’s light-blue hair swayed as she considered the idea. “Maybe that’s true…but when there’s additional quests, aren’t they usually found in the same area? On a straight line, there’s over sixty miles between the underwater temple and the top of the World Tree. Even if the phrase ‘all the seas and skies’ is the hint, it seems like an extreme leap.” 

It was a very keen observation from the woman who was known as the quest-finishing demon back in the Aincrad days. Out of all the many points of interest in Alfheim, the deepest was located in the underwater temple and the highest was in the Lightning Dragon’s Nest. But I couldn’t bring that up here, because it was a secret of the sylph government, and I shouldn’t technically know that. 

If I wanted to use that as evidence to convince her, I’d have to reveal that I snuck into Lady Sakuya’s manor last night… 

“You know……” 

That was Leafa, who was leaning against the observation deck handrail. She looked around at each of us, then started again. 

“You know, I had a dream last night. A dream of a rainbow bridge coming down from somewhere very high in the sky. And I went up and up that bridge until I came to a huge and very beautiful gate…But before I could get there, I woke up,” she said, smiling bashfully, and looked out at the blue sky. “I’m sure I had that dream because we were talking about the Aesir on the beach last night. See, in the mythology, the Aesir live in a land called Asgard…” 

“Is that a land in the same sense of Alfheim and Jotunheim being lands?” I asked. Leafa nodded. 

“Yes. In Norse mythology, there are nine lands in all. There’s Vanaheim, where the Vanir live; Niflheim, the land of ice; and so on…Asgard is located all the way beyond the sky, and there’s a rainbow bridge leading from it down to the ground. And the rainbow’s name is Bifrost…” 

The sylph warrior looked up again, tilting her golden ponytail downward. 

“Ever since the first time I saw the Lightning Dragon’s Nest…I’ve had this idea in my head. What if there’s a rainbow bridge inside those clouds that leads to Asgard…?” 

“Wow…that’s so romantic!” squealed Silica, her eyes sparkling. The exclamation caused Pina to stir atop her head. “If that’s true, I want to see that for myself…I mean, I want to cross it!” 

Liz, Asuna, and Yui all smiled and nodded along. I considered this for myself. 

Based on the conversation between Kraken and Leviathan, the Aesir could quite possibly exist somewhere in ALO as NPCs. In that case, their home of Asgard existed, too…But simply seen in terms of MMO construction, it was baffling to imagine an entire new region existing in the game without any announcements or hints whatsoever. 

In fact, when the underground realm of Jotunheim opened, there were huge announcements all over the official site and other spots for gaming news, and they held a commemorative in-game event. If they were spending all the money and time to create a new game zone, why would they make the gate impossible to reach and ensure that no one could get there? 

But on the other hand, there was no point to listing all the reasons it couldn’t be true. All I had to do was get through those clouds to find out if there was a rainbow bridge inside, a Holy Child’s Egg…or perhaps both. 

“Then I’ll go and find out what—” 

“In that case, I’m going, too!” chirped Leafa, raising her hand. Then the other girls joined in, even Yui. 

“At this point, we might as well all go as a group!” 

“Yeah, let’s go!” cheered the girls, much to my alarm. 

“W-wait, wait. If we all get wiped out, who’s going to get our Remain Lights?” 

“Look, I want to be on the front line rather than playing backup all the time,” Asuna said slightly petulantly. But as someone who relied on her to get me out of trouble all the time, I couldn’t argue with her wishes. 

She smiled again and pointed out, “If we get wiped out, we can go out and hunt monsters when we return to town. We’ll make up for the experience penalty in no time with a group this large.” 

It was true that summoning them here and telling them to wait around while I exposed myself to danger was hypocritical of me. More important than figuring out the mystery of the quest was making sure everyone had fun engaging in the adventure. 

“…You’re right. Let’s all go together, then!” I agreed. 

The four of them, along with Yui and Pina, cheered in unison. 

“Yeah!” 

After checking over our gear, we left the observation deck and soared through gigantic branches that twisted and craned like the walls of a maze. I stayed at the tip of our V-formation and kept us moving straight upward. 

The Alne highlands were clear and sunny today, without a single shred of cloud in the sky. But after a few minutes following the curve of the World Tree, curling white clouds came into view ahead. If I concentrated, I could hear the faint, deep rumble of thunder. 

“We’re almost there!” I shouted to my companions, lowering my speed. We passed through the layer of haze that acted as a warning zone, and then there was nothing but a huge white block filling our view—the Lightning Dragon’s Nest. The sharp tip of the World Tree was surrounded by a block of cumulonimbus clouds, five hundred yards tall and across, that blocked it from sight. 

I threw my wings out to come to a stop and hovered in the air. 

A supercell storm in the real world could be six miles across and two or three times higher, but seen up close like this, the virtual cloud mass was every bit as terrifying. I’d flown inside many times before, but even now, I felt myself trembling with excitement. 

Just on my left, Silica exclaimed, “Ooh, wow! It looks yummy—like whipped cream!” 

“You’re right,” Lisbeth added. “I want to drop that on top of a stack of pancakes, slather it in syrup, and gobble it up.” 

On my right, Asuna came to a stop and laughed. “Ah-ha-ha-ha! Let’s go get some when we’re done here, then. I hear there’s a really good pancake shop in Ygg City now.” 

“Really?! I love pancakes!! I’ll have a ten-stack!” Leafa finished. 

Should I find their confidence and excitement infectious or worrisome? And what happened to going hunting if we got wiped out and had an experience penalty? 

But that was only if we wiped out. If all went well, we were going to charge through the clouds, find the rainbow bridge that continued the quest, and celebrate with pancakes instead. 

Properly motivated again, I proclaimed, “I’ll eat a hundred!” 

It was time to reveal the strategy to my steadfast companions. “Based on dying in there ten times, I can tell you that dodging the lightning is impossible. Rather than trying to endlessly change directions, slowing us down, we should try to cross through as quickly as possible. There’s no visibility when you’re in there, so we’ll need to make a star to fly straight.” 

“Got it!” the others chimed. Yui flew into my shirt pocket, and Pina flattened itself against Silica’s back like a booster rocket. 

The five of us formed a tight circle. Rather than holding hands with Leafa and Lisbeth on my sides, I grabbed Asuna and Silica across from me. The rest of them followed suit so that our ten arms interlocked in a five-sided star pattern. This was a high-level group-flying technique called a star bind. It worked only with a group of five, but it offered much sturdier support than a horizontal line or a circle while still improving speed and stability. 

The problem was that flying sideways in this formation meant that at least two of the five would be flying backward, which required a lot of skill, so Leafa and I elected to do it. We moved slowly, maintaining our formation, until we reached the height of the cumulonimbus clouds, and just in case—or just for good luck—we had Asuna cast a spell of increased lightning resistance. 

“Okay…I’ll count us down. Five, four, three, two, one…” 

Lastly, all five of us shouted in unison, “““““Go!! ””””” 

Five pairs of wings shone five different colors, and we accelerated as though shot from a giant cannon. 

With a thousand feet of lead-in, we reached our maximum speed and burst right into the giant cloud mass. At first, the only thing we could see was white, but it got darker very soon. The density of the air increased against our skin, slowing our speed. 

“…Here it comes!” I shouted, and clenched my jaw. 

Krakaaang! A piercing explosion rattled my ears as a burly bolt of purple lightning shot through the air just ten feet away from us. Liz and Silica, who were experiencing the Lightning Dragon’s Nest for the first time, yelped a little, but our pace stayed firm. We held hands tight and made a beeline across the storm, which was dark as the night. 

The next thing to assault us was a lateral gust of wind. Alone, we might have been buffeted head over heels and lost our sense of direction, but with the weight and propulsion of five, we withstood it. 

There was another brilliant flash of lightning nearby. Then another. And another. 

The path of the lightning bolts seemed random, but I didn’t think they actually were. For one thing, there had probably been thousands of attempts in total on this storm, and not a single person had made it through. Every person who invaded these clouds, somewhere between one and ten seconds inside, suffered a direct lightning bolt attack and died instantly. Dodging or defending against them was impossible. 

But if my suspicion was correct—then the “new chamber” Leviathan spoke of was somewhere beyond this cloud layer. 

We could break through this storm. I had faith, if not any evidence. We had to be able to seize something in this ordained death zone…something capable of telling a true story in this artificial world… 

Kra-booooooom!! 

Yet another barrel of purple lightning—I’d lost count of how many there had been—shot toward us, twirling and zigzagging like a dragon. It just barely grazed us and continued onward. The light left me blinded, and all sound vanished. We were flying so fast that my fear didn’t have time to catch up. 

Were we still under ten seconds? Or had that milestone already passed? How far would these storm clouds go…? 

Just on my right, Leafa shouted loud enough to be heard over the thunder. “There’s a huge wind coming from below! Don’t fight; let’s ride it!” 

Below. We were the ones facing backward, so it would be at our backs. No sooner had that registered for me than a tremendous gale buffeted us. We squeezed even harder, desperate to maintain our star formation as the forces of nature tried to tear us apart. 

“………Here! ” Leafa yelled. I buzzed my wings as hard as I could. 

We went from horizontal flight to a sudden jump upward. The vibration weakened, but our flying speed reached levels I’d never experienced before. Several lightning bolts were raining down around us. If we freaked out and slowed down, they would certainly strike us. 

“Keep goiiiiiiiing!! ” I bellowed, wrenching my voice from my lungs. 

The star formation held firm, as our arms were locked, not just with the two across the way but also with the arms of the other two on my sides. I could feel courage coming from where our skin intersected. 

We were a comet with five multicolored trails. Four bolts of lightning struck ahead, behind, and on either side, turning my vision white again. The visual illusion of blindness did not leave so quickly this time, either. Instead, the area got whiter and whiter, even brighter… 

And then the sound was gone, too. 

The howling of the storm, the flashing of the lightning dragon—everything went distant. With nothing but unbelievable silence around, I opened my narrowed eyes at last. 

The first thing that came into view was a vertical white wall. It acted like a screen without definition—the only detail was our shadows, rising along it. 

I looked to Asuna and Silica, across from me. They were both wide-eyed. I wondered what they were seeing from their vantage point. 

“…I think we’re good to undo the formation now,” Asuna whispered. I slowed down and carefully let go. With the star undone, Leafa, Liz, and I turned around to see. 

There was a vast, spherical space bounded by pure white around us. 

It had to be about a thousand feet across. A green pillar ran through the center of the area. The foot of the pillar was submerged in the white wall, but its sharp tip was visible near the roof. 

No question. That pillar was… 

“The tip…of the World Tree…,” Leafa said, her voice raspy. 

We had broken through. We were in the Lightning Dragon’s Nest, which no other players had reached, inside the eye of the storm that surrounded the top of the World Tree. 

“I can’t believe it…” Asuna gasped, holding a hand to her mouth as she stared. We locked eyes, then smiled and sucked in a deep breath together to erupt into cheers. 

But at that very moment, a pixie leaped out of my shirt pocket and cried, “Papa, something’s coming!” 

“…!” 

The five of us tensed. I drew my sword from over my back, looking around for trouble. 

The cloud dome was almost completely silent. There was no hint of the lightning that was rumbling just on the other side of them behind us. All I could hear was the gentle rustling of the tree’s leaves in the breeze running under the dome… 

No. 

There was a tapping sound approaching, but from no direction in particular. It wasn’t metallic but something both hard and soft, like a branch striking a thick pane of glass. 

“Oh…there!” yelped Lisbeth, pointing up at an angle. 

The sun was out of sight, but the uppermost part of the cloud dome was full of brilliance that caused me to squint against it. A small silhouette was approaching from the light. It wasn’t a monster. It was a fairy like us, wearing a loose toga…No, wait, a human…? 

It was a young, thin man. Despite having no wings on his back, he was creating footsteps in the air, as though walking on some invisible glass staircase. His long blue-silver hair was flared upward at the ends, and he wore a thin circlet around his forehead. I couldn’t see a sword or staff on him, but there was an unbelievable intensity about him that sucked the air from my lungs. We backed away. 

The young man maintained his pace until he had descended to our level, then came to a stop in the air just fifteen feet away. Though his features had a crystalline beauty, it was the piercing, golden-brown eyes that made the greatest impact. 

When he spoke, a cursor appeared over his head. 

“Put away your swords, fairies.” 

It was a voice as pure as polished steel. The name on his cursor was Hraesvelg the Sky Lord. 

“Hraesvelg…the Sky Lord…,” Leafa whispered at my side. 

It felt like a name I’d heard somewhere before, but I didn’t have time to go dredging up memories. Instead, I threw an elbow into my dazed sister’s side. 

“Oof…Wh-what was that for?!” 

“Put your sword away!” I hissed quietly, slipping my own weapon into the sheath on my back. The girls made sure to remove their weapons, pulling us back from a battle footing. 

Identity aside, there was no doubt that Hraesvelg here was of a kind with Leviathan. If we fought, he would prove to have such powerful stats that the wave of a finger could wipe us out. 

With my sword put away, I stared over the young man’s head again. But the only thing there was a cursor with his name. There was no golden ! to indicate he was a quest-related NPC. 

Was this the wrong place to go to find the second quest in the story line? Then why had Hraesvelg appeared? The sky lord, well over six feet tall, looked down upon us and hummed to himself. 

“I see. I wondered how you tiny fairies managed to break through my storm. You had the protection of the king of the sea.” 

“King of the sea…? Do you mean Leviathan…uh, Your Majesty?” I added hastily. The lord of the sky did not change his expression at my rather forward question but merely nodded. 

On the other hand, the giant old man had given us a ride back to land on a whale, but I didn’t remember him casting any magic on us. When had we received his protection…? Or was that the evidence that the quest was still ongoing? 

“But, fairies,” Hraesvelg continued, slightly harder than before, “just because you have gained the acquaintance of the sea lord does not mean you are allowed into the sky chamber. Or are you thieves who consort with the lord of the abyss?” 

“No, sir!” “Certainly not!” “No way!” “You’re kidding!” “That’s not true!” “Kyurrrr!” 

Fortunately, the sky lord was capable of discerning six different protests at the same time. He nodded and said, “I see. Then you should leave here at once.” 

“……” 

This time, we were all silent. 

Hraesvelg had mentioned the “sky chamber.” That had to be the “new chamber” Leviathan had mentioned. 

It meant the Holy Child’s Egg that Kraken was after was safely contained somewhere under this dome. I looked at the trunk of the World Tree and saw a structure on the lower part that looked much like a gate. The interior of the thick trunk had to be fashioned into a dungeon, just like the underwater temple. 

A new dungeon! I want to go in there! More specifically, I want to go in and open all the treasure chests! I thought, driven by my baser instincts. 

But my sister did not share them. Leafa floated in front and shouted to the sky lord, “Um…excuse me! Before we leave, can you tell us just one thing?” 

“What is it, fairy girl?” 

“Is there no rainbow bridge here…? There’s no Bifrost leading to Asgard?!” 

Those golden-brown eyes grew even sharper somehow, like the eyes of a bird of prey. “Why do you want to know that? Do you intend to cross it and seek an audience with the Aesir?” 

The tension in the air reminded me of something. The conversational ability of Hraesvelg, the lord of the sky, was advanced far beyond that of a simple chat bot. He, along with Kraken and Leviathan, had to have a more developed AI with a rudimentary facsimile of self-awareness. Something closer to the dark elf Kizmel from Aincrad, or Yui, who was curled up in my pocket right now. 

Had Ymir created these characters and inserted them into ALO? Or…was this the work of the true god that controlled this virtual world…? 

Leafa was silent, too, but for a different reason. She shook her head. 

“No, I don’t want to meet any gods. I just…want to know. Is this the end of the world…? Or is there more beyond this point?” 

It was a rather abstract answer to the NPC’s question; how would he interpret it? 

The sky lord smirked mysteriously and said, “It is a hope beyond your means, little fairy. I call myself the lord of the sky, and even I have not seen the very limits of the nine worlds.” 

“…Oh…” 

“But I shall tell you one thing. The rainbow bridge of Bifrost does indeed come from Asgard, but it does not end in your land.” 

“Huh…?!” 

All four of the others gasped, too, not just Leafa. The only other land currently accessible in the game was the subterranean realm of Jotunheim. The rainbow couldn’t be passing right through the surface and ending at the bottom of the cave. 

But the sky lord did not intend to give us any further hints. He just smiled enigmatically and took a step back. 

“And now, you ought to return home.” 

“Huh…? W-we have to pass through that storm again…?” Silica asked, her voice frail. 

The lord of the sky looked stern once more. “Did you break through my shield without considering that on your return?” 

We all looked guilty, realizing our mistake. Fortunately, he did not summon any lightning bolts in his anger. 

“In light of my friendship with the king of the sea, I will send you back outside, just this once. Listen to me, fairies: You must never come back to this place without the proper role.” 

“Yes, Your Majesty!” we said obediently. It felt like his lip curled just the slightest bit with mirth. 

But then his expression turned stern again, and he raised a long-sleeved arm high in the air. I presumed that, like Leviathan, he was calling us our return taxi. What would it be this time—a giant bird? A dragon? A flying saucer…? 

But my expectations were utterly shattered. 

“Farewell, little ones,” Hraesvelg said in a deep, authoritative voice, and he swung his right hand down. The arc of his hand looked like the transparent wing of a bird of prey. But the very next moment, a powerful whirlwind appeared and swallowed us up. 

“Aaah! Yah, ah, aaaaah!” 

Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one embarrassing myself. The four girls screamed, too, as the vortex picked us up and spun us around. On instinct, I spread my wings and tried to escape the tornado, but there was no propulsion behind the motion at all. 

Soon the sky lord was distant, and the roof of the dome was approaching. Either way, the big storm wasn’t happening inside this dome, I thought. But then a small hole opened in its ceiling. Would it take us to a safe passage or back into a zone of instant, crackling death? I couldn’t tell from here. 

Liz grabbed Silica’s hand before she got sucked through the hole. Then Leafa grabbed Liz, and Asuna grabbed Leafa. 

“Kirito…!” she cried, stretching toward me. I grabbed her hand next. 

Sadly, that was the end of our chain. I didn’t have a sixth person to grab for help. 

But as my hand scrabbled in empty space for anything it could touch, I felt something. 

On pure reflex, I squeezed it tight. Tensing myself against the buffeting wind, I looked back at my hand and saw it was holding a narrow, vertical branch. There were two cute, perky little leaves growing from the end. It was the very, very tip of the World Tree. 

“Rrr…rrrgh!” 

I clenched the branch with all my strength, fighting against the sky lord’s whirlwind. Just above me, Asuna shouted, “Um, Kirito…?!” 

“It’s all right! I won’t…let…go!” 

“No, not that…I feel like…you aren’t meant to do that—!” 

“Huh…?” 

I looked up and saw a surprisingly conflicted look on Asuna’s face. Behind her, Leafa yelled, “That’s right, Big Brother. I don’t think you’re supposed to grab that branch!” 

“Let go, Kirito! His Majesty’s going to be angry!” Liz called. 

“If it snaps, that’s your fault!” Silica warned. 

“Kyuuuu!” Pina agreed. 

“B-but…I was trying to help you guys,” I complained weakly. 

Then, far below the thin branch I was holding, a shadow leaped out from a part of the World Tree’s trunk. 

It was not Hraesvelg the Sky Lord. It was much bigger than a human being, with two wings and a long neck and tail. Alfheim was a big place, but even then, this was the most supreme of monsters that you rarely witnessed: a dragon. 

The dragon rolled, its numerous scales glittering like sapphires. The creature looked right up at us and roared like a bundle of thunderbolts. It exposed sharp fangs, which were crackling with visible electricity. 

“S-see? It’s angry, Kirito!” Asuna warbled. I couldn’t disagree with that observation. 

“F-fine! Fine! I’ll let go on the count of three! One, two, thr—” 

Craaack! 

The branch I was holding snapped with a tremendously satisfying sound. 

The thunder dragon, screeching lightning bolts at us, glared with fury smoldering in its blue eyes. But fortunately—if you could call it that—we had lost our lifeline to the tree and were sucked out of the hole in the roof with great force. 

The line of us, all connected, shot through a dark, narrow tube of space at high speed. I couldn’t even tell if we were going up or down at that point. With each turn to the left or right, I felt like my soul was being wrenched out of my avatar. 

“Yaaaaaah!” screamed someone; I wasn’t sure who. 

“Yahooooo!” screamed another someone; it was definitely Leafa. 

We spent at least thirty seconds on this unexpected roller-coaster ride before the tunnel ahead began to get lighter. But our speed did not slow at all as we approached the white light at the end. 

Shu-pu-pu-pu-pung! We popped right out into the midst of an endless cobalt blue. 

No matter which direction I looked, there was nothing but sky, sky, sky. I spread my arms and wings to steady myself and looked down. There was a pure-white cumulonimbus cloud directly below, but very far away. Even farther below that were the hazy, faded branches of the World Tree. 

“Kirito!” someone said. I looked up, expecting to be scolded, and saw Asuna— 

—with a dazzling smile on her face. 

I smiled back at her, then grabbed the hand she stretched toward me. Leafa grabbed her other hand, then connected with Liz and Silica so that the five of us were floating in a line again. Lastly, Yui emerged from my pocket and alighted upon Asuna’s shoulder. 

Ultra-high-altitude gusts whistled past our ears. The falling sunlight made our hair and equipment glitter and shine. 

No one said anything for quite a while. They must have been reflecting upon the strange experience we’d just had. 

We did not gain another quest to follow up Pillager of the Deep. But as we’d left, the sky lord had told us that we “must never come back to this place without the proper role.” 

In other words, if we did have the proper role, we were allowed to return…I assumed. We must not have fulfilled the requirement for the quest yet. The continuation of the story was waiting for us somewhere in the world. And that meant we would find it sooner or later. 

It wasn’t just the quest, either. Suguha wanted to see the Bifrost, and if the sky lord was to be believed, that existed somewhere else, too. 

I turned my head to the right and called out to the sylph warrior whose ponytail was whipping in the wind. “Leafa, it’s too bad we didn’t find the rainbow bridge. But I’m sure one day…” 

“Oh…about that,” she said, snapping out of her reverie and looking back at me. “Hraesvelg said that the bridge starts in Asgard but doesn’t end in Alfheim. Hearing that reminded me of something. In the myth, the Bifrost connects Asgard and Midgard.” 

“Mid…gard?” the rest of us repeated, unfamiliar with the name. 

Leafa grinned and explained, “The land of the humans.” 

“…Humans…,” I repeated. 

At first, I didn’t understand why that wasn’t the place we were now—but then I understood. Alfheim wasn’t the land of the humans. Every player and NPC, without exception, was a fairy with pointed ears and translucent wings. 

But then that meant there was no place in ALO that could be considered the land of the humans. No place for a rainbow bridge to appear. I shared a look with Asuna, Liz, and Silica, who had all come to the same conclusion. But in the middle, Leafa did not stop smiling. 

“Oh…I get it!” shouted Yui from Asuna’s shoulder. 

“What do you get, Yui?” 

“I know where the human land is!” 

She flew up from Asuna’s shoulder and took a little distance so she could turn and face all of us together. The little pixie puffed out her tiny chest with pride and pointed to a part of the sky. 

The navy-blue curtain stretched onward without end. There was no sign of any rainbow bridge, or even any flying monsters at this elevation… 

But that wasn’t true. In the far distance, at nearly the same height as us in the air, was a small floating shadow. A frustum shape with just the faintest hint of a curve along the sides. 

New Aincrad. 

“Oh…th-that’s right!” I yelped, wide-eyed. 

There were scores of NPCs living in New Aincrad. They didn’t have wings, and their ears were rounded. The same thing was true of the players who once fought there. 

“…Is New Aincrad meant to be Midgard in this world…?” Asuna murmured. 

“That’s what I suspect!” Yui claimed. 

Leafa bobbed her head. “I think so, too. Of course, there’s no rainbow bridge leading to New Aincrad for now…but I’m sure that at some point, maybe once we’ve conquered up to the hundredth floor, Bifrost will come down from the sky…” 

“That’s right! I’m sure it will!” Silica cried. Asuna and Lisbeth nodded vigorously. 

On the inside, I couldn’t help but lament, Awww, the hundredth floor? But I didn’t let that disappointment show. I pointed at New Aincrad with the object in my hand and said, “All right, let’s be the first to hit floor one hundred!” 

Despite my expectations, there was no cheer in response. 

I looked to the side in surprise and saw the four girls, Yui, and Pina all staring at me with a strange look in their eyes. 

“D-did I say something weird…?” 

“No, but…I can’t believe you brought that along…,” Asuna said. I looked at what I was pointing toward New Aincrad. 

It was a very long stick, nearly five feet long. The surface was fine and pale, with delicate spirals near the tip, followed by two large dazzling leaves. 

The highest branch of the World Tree. 

“Oh…I b-brought it with me…” 

I looked down at the cumulonimbus clouds below, but there was not yet any sign of a furious sky lord or dragon chasing after us. 

“Ummm…what should I do with this?” 

“I don’t know—you grabbed it! You deal with it! I don’t want to experience divine punishment on account of you!” Lisbeth snapped. So I tried to think of how to “deal with it.” Alas, throwing it away, burning it, or boiling and eating it all seemed likely to invoke that very divine punishment. 

“Well…maybe I’ll sell it to Agil and let him suffer the consequences instead…” 

“…So you’re going to sell it to him, not give it to him.” 

“I mean, it’s the very top of the World Tree! You can’t find something like that just anywhere,” I protested, then got an idea and tapped the branch with my finger. 

A properties window popped up with a little jingle. I assumed, of course, that it would say something like Wooden Branch. 

“Huh…? Wait, this name is really long. Uhhh, Crest of Yggdrasil…? Category…Two-Handed Staff?!” 

I looked up and saw Asuna staring back at me with wide eyes. I lifted up the branch, which had just been revealed to be a staff, and said in a quavering voice, “I guess it’s actually a weapon…and the specs on this thing are crazy…It’s got to be a legendary weapon…” 

“I-I’ve never seen a staff like that before. Does that mean it’s a one-of-a-kind weapon…? H-how much would you get for something like that at the auction house in Alne…?” wondered Lisbeth, unable to resist her business instincts. 

Then someone coughed. Next to Liz was Silica, whose triangular ears were twitching as she scolded, “Kirito? If it’s a weapon, then there’s not going to be any punishment for taking it. And what to do with it should be obvious.” 

“Kyuuu!” squeaked Pina, bobbing its head up and down. 

“O-o-of course. Of course.” I nodded back and let go of my grip on Asuna’s hand at last. I slid forward through the air and turned next to Yui so that I was facing Asuna directly. She looked dumbfounded. 

Leafa, Liz, and Silica all knew what I was about to do and fanned out to the sides. 

But Asuna was still at a loss. I straightened up, then laid the Crest of Yggdrasil flat across my hands and offered it to her. 

“Use this, Asuna. I’m sure it will be a big help for you.” 

“Uh…Y-you want me to have it…?” 

I inclined my head to confirm, and she hesitantly took the staff. It looked just like a tree branch, but that merely gave it a graceful beauty. It was the perfect match for an undine healer. 

I glanced at the others to send a signal, then took a deep breath and announced, “Asuna, thanks for always having our backs!” 

“““Thanks!!!””” the other girls chorused. 

Asuna clutched the branch from the World Tree to her chest and flashed a dazzling smile.