Part 5
Even for me who was not very knowledgeable in myth and folklore, there were some of which I was somewhat familiar with.
In Norse mythology, the great god Ó?inn [8] , clown god Loki, and a well known —— god of thunder ?órr. Armed with the hammer to call thunder, the figure that defeated giants one after another had been the motif in many films and games.
This was that Leafa told me later, the proper episode in Norse mythology about «?órr reclaiming the hammer stolen by the giant king ?rym». In that myth, ?órr had disguised himself as the goddess Freyja in order to trick ?rym into a false marriage, the disguise was almost exposed many times during the banquet, but the cunning of Loki had helped them pass through, finally he reclaimed the hammer and proceeded to kill every giant there except ?rym, it was a cruel story I had never known before this. It was probable that the Cardinal System collected the legend, then arranged it to be used as this quest’s sub route.
In other words, if one knew about this episode, once they heard the name Freyja, they would have immediately understood that she was not ?rym’s spy. So I was very thankful for Klein’s intuition and bushid? at the ice cage that helped Freyja out, however —— with Freyja’s «true identity» revealed, I wondered what his state of mind was like right now.
“Nuuu?n…… you despicable giant, your punishment for stealing my treasure «Mjölnir» will be given right now!”
The god of thunder ?órr brandished the huge golden hammer in his right hand, he rushed into battle using the momentum from kicking the thick floor.
The frost king ?rym standing opposite breathed onto both of his hands, creating a battle axe of ice there. Swinging the axe, he shouted in return,
“You small dirty god, you dare trick me! I’ll cut the beard from your face off and send you back to Ásgar?r! [9] ”
If we thought about it, ?rym truly believed that the Freyja just now was the real goddess, and was waiting eagerly for the wedding. Even though he was a bad guy, at least he had the right to be angry.
In the center of the open space, the gold moustached and the blue moustached giants shouted and exchanged blows with each other using the golden hammer and the ice battle axe. The impacts that were sent out shook the entire castle. Still not recovering from the shock of Freyja’s change into a giant —— no, into a grandpa, we stood around with eyes wide open in confusion, and before long, Sinon, who already finished recovering her HP, shouted sharply from the back of the room,
“Everyone attack now, while ?órr is the target!”
Yes, that was absolutely correct. There was no guarantee that ?órr would be able to fight until the end. I also swung my sharp swords and raised my voice.
“Alright, full attack! Use sword skills without holding back!”
Then, seven people kicked the floor and approached ?rym from all directions.
“Nuuooooooo————!”
Emitting exceptionally intense fighting spirit, with his katana raised high in his battle stance, it seemed there was something glittering at the corner of Klein’s eyes, but as mercy to the warrior I pretended not to see it. Without worrying about the skill delay, we continued using more than three-hit sword skills on both of ?rym’s legs. Asuna also changed from her wand to her rapier without me noticing, her god speed thrusting attack shook the Achilles tendon. Lisbeth beside her repeatedly hit ?rym’s little finger with the mace held in both hands.
“Gu……numuu……!”
?rym let a growl leak while his body shook, and finally, his left knee hit the floor. A dazzling yellow light effect circled his crown’s perimeter. It was the stun condition.
“Now’s the chance……!”
According to my call, every member released their highest combo attack. Bright light effects covered the bare upper body of ?rym. In addition, from the sky, orange shining arrows poured down like rain.
“Nuuun! Return to the abyss, giant king!”
In the end, ?órr delivered the final blow by slamming the hammer in his right hand at ?rym’s head. The crown broke and flew off, and the boss monster that once seemed like an iron wall collapsed onto the ground with a loud crash.
Its HP gauge had already disappeared. The tip of its limbs and its moustache turned into ice as it made a creaking sound.
Its jet black eye sockets with the blinking blue phosphorescence faded and vanished. At that time, the tangled moustache moved, and a low laugh flowed out,
“Nu huhuhu…… you little bugs can enjoy your triumph now. But let your guard against the æsir down and you’ll see painful experience…… Because they are the true…”
Zumun! the sound of ?órr’s intense stomp exploded, he then tread onto the almost completely frozen ?rym.
A tremendously large scaled End Flame occurred, as the frost giant king turned into countless numbers of ice shards and scattered. Due to the pressure of the effect, we involuntarily held up our hands and took a few steps back, the god of thunder ?órr glared at the scene with his golden eyes from high above.
“…………Hmmm, I give you my thanks, Fairy Warriors. I was also able to wash away the disgrace of my treasure being stolen. ——Now, there must be a reward.”
He then lifted his left hand and touched the handle of the gorgeous giant hammer in his right hand. One of the inlaid jewels came out easily, emitted light and turned into a small, human-sized hammer.
?órr then dropped the scaled down version of the real golden hammer to Klein.
“«Thunder Hammer Mjölnir», use it well in battle. And —— farewell.”
?órr held up his right hand and the pale lightning immediately penetrated the wide open space. We closed our eyes reflexively, and when we opened our eyelids, he was no longer there. The member withdrawal dialog floated up, and the eighth HP/MP gauge soundlessly disappeared.
On the spot where ?rym had disappeared, a bunch of drop items rolled down like a waterfall, which then automatically disappeared into the party’s temporary storage.
At the same time, an intense light shone in the boss room, driving away the darkness. Regretfully, the mountain of golden objects by the wall also faded away. Well, all of our storage was almost full, so we couldn’t keep them anyway.
“…………Phew……”
I let out a small breath, then walked to Klein’s side, then placed my hand on his shoulder and said,
“Legendary weapon get, congratulations.”
“…………I don’t have any hammer skills though.”
Gripping the one-handed battle hammer glittering with an aura effect, the katana user who had a sad smile earlier returned to his usual energetic smile.
“Then, I’d be glad to give it to Lis. Ah? but don’t dissolve this into ingots……”
“Wait! No matter how many ingots I can get I won’t do something as wasteful as that anyway!”
Next to Lisbeth who was objecting, Asuna said seriously,
“But Lis, dissolving legendary items seems to yield a lot of Orichalcum ingots.”
“Eh, really?”
“O-Oi! stop talking about dissolving it already!”
Everyone laughed at Klein who shouted while hugging the hammer tightly to his chest——
At that moment,
The ice floor shook violently along with a heavy bass sound at such a high volume that it could shake the core of the body.
“Kyaa!”
Silica screamed with her triangular ears faced down. Sinon next to her, who had her tail bent into an S shape, shouted,
“It……it’s moving!? No, it’s floating……!”
I might be a bit late, but I noticed too.
The giant castle ?rymheimr shuddered like a living thing, and seemed to rise slightly, little by little. Why is this —— no —— could it be, when I thought until this point,
Leafa took a peek at the medallion under her neck then gushed out in a high-pitched voice,
“O……Onii-chan! The quest is still ongoing!!”
“W……What!?”
Shouted Klein. It was the same feeling I had. With the chief of the frost giant tribe dead, normally the quest would have been completed too —— but, my memory started recalling what «Queen of the Lake Ur?r» said when we were asked to do the quest.
Invading ?rymheimr and removing the holy sword Excaliber from the pedestal. Defeating ?rym wasn’t the objective. In other words, ?rym, the formidable enemy, was just one of the hurdles for the quest’s progression——
“L-Last light is flashing now!”
In a voice similar to Leafa’s scream, Yui responded sharply,
“Papa, stairs appeared behind the throne!”
“……………!!”
Without sparing any time to reply, I furiously kicked the floor and dashed toward the throne.
As I approached, in the shape of a chair, aside from it being fifteen meters tall as it was for the frost king ?rym’s exclusive use, the throne looked like a small hut. If we weren’t in an emergency, we would try to climb up to the seat, however, I ran to its left side without looking up at all.
When I turned to the throne’s back, just as Yui said, the ice floor had opened, showing a small descending staircase. It was clearly the size one from the frost giant tribe wouldn’t be able to pass, the size was for a human —— no, a single fairy was barely able to pass. While hearing the approaching footsteps of my companions, I plunged into the dim entrance without hesitation.
While running down the spiral staircase skipping three steps at a time, I thought in a corner of my mind. If we failed the quest we received from Ur?r —— and at the same time, the large number of the players on the ground were successful in the slaughter quest, the giant ice castle ?rymheimr would float up and surface in the middle of the capital city Alne; however, ?rym, who had the ambition of invading Alfheim was no longer there. Well, the «came back to life as if nothing had happened» line was also not impossible, but I didn’t think the Cardinal System which had always stuck profusely to details would expand the story in such an aggressive manner.
Thinking while running down at full speed, as if she could read my thought, the voice of Leafa came from behind me,
“……Well, Onii-chan. I can’t recall it clearly…… but what if the master of ?rymheimr isn’t ?rym in the real Norse mythology?”
“E……Eh!? But, the name……”
“I think so too. But, in the legend is certainly……Th……Th……”
While Leafa was mumbling, Yui on my head who referred to the outside network immediately replied,
“It’s «?jazi» [10] . In the legend, the one who wants the golden apple that Ur?r mentioned was him, not ?rym. And next is the information from within ALO, the request of the problematic slaughter quest came from the biggest castle on Jötunheimr ground, was from an NPC named «Archduke ?jazi».”
“……In other words, the successor was there since the beginning then……”
Perhaps when ?rymheimr floated up into Alne, ?jazi would be in the throne room above, giving out commands like a last boss. But letting the Cardinal’s intention of destroying the capital city and invading the Alne plateau wasn’t on my mind, I didn’t come this far to just surrender here. Rather than not obtaining Excaliber, I wouldn’t be able to face our friend Tonkii. Of course if the sword was there along the way, I wouldn’t hesitate to grab it either……
While I was thinking those various thoughts, the tremor that wrapped around the castle became increasingly violent. Sometimes the change in G force could be felt intensely, it was clear that the castle was piercing the canopy. I held my breath and continued throwing my momentum down the spiral staircase which I didn’t know how far down it went.
“————Papa, five more seconds until we reach the exit!”
“OK!”
I shouted, just as the bright light up ahead entered my field of vision, I jumped ahead at full force.
What was there was a regular ice octahedron, or a hollowed room in the shape of a superimposed upper and lower parts of a pyramid. The so-called «Burial Chamber».
The wall was quite thin, the entire Jötunheimr field could be seen from the lower part of the ice. On the surroundings, fragments of rock and crystal continued falling down from the canopy. The spiral staircase pierced the center of the burial chamber and continued down toward the bottom.
Then, at that point —— was a deep pure golden light.
There is no mistake, when Leafa and I rode on Tonkii’s back to escape from Jötunheimr, this was the same twinkling light we saw inside the bottom of the ice castle. Nearly a year had passed and we finally made it here.
When all seven people came down the staircase, we surrounded «that» in a half circle.
At the very center of the circular floor, a 50cm dimensioned ice cube was enshrined. Something small seemed to be trapped inside. When I stared at it closer, it seemed to be thin and delicate tree roots. The countless number of threads that looked like capillary gathered and huddled thicker toward the single main root.
The main root had a diameter of around five centimeters, however, it was cleanly cut. At the place it was cut was a thin and sharp blade inscribed with the detailed runes —— the sword. The shining golden long sword extended vertically, half of the blade was exposed from the ice plinth. It had a detailed knuckle guard and black leather was tightly knitted around the hilt. Its pommel was shining with a big iridescent jewel.
I once saw the very same sword, no I had grabbed it before.
The man who used ALO as a tool for his own ambition, in order to cut me, tried to create it using the GM’s power. However, that power was transferred to me by the person who had higher authority than him, I generated the sword and gave it to him in order to settle it all.
At that time, I had produced the world’s strongest sword with just a single command, but I had a strong sense of aversion to it. Without the challenge to obtain the sword by proper means, the feeling of borrowing but not returning wouldn’t disappear. Although more than half was by chance, but the time had finally come.
……Sorry for the wait.
As I whispered in my mind, I made a step forward, my right hand grabbed the hilt of the long sword —— the legendary class weapon «Holy Sword Excaliber».
“…………!!”
I put all my strength into pulling it out of the pedestal.
However, it felt like the sword and the plinth, no, the entire castle had become a single object, as it didn’t even creak a little. With my left hand helping, both legs firmly planted, mustering all my strength.
“Nu……o…………!!”
But the result was the same. Bad vibes caused a chill to go down my spine.
In ALO, unlike in SAO and GGO; strength, agility and other numerical stats weren’t shown in the system window. The boundary if a certain weapon or armor could be equipped was also vague, from «Easy to handle», «Somewhat challenging», «Body would be swayed», to «Difficult to lift up», changing in non-gradual stages. So among the players, there were many that even though the weapon obtained by sheer luck was so overweight, they still didn’t give up, but wore it, causing their combat power to be lowered as a result.
But even so, the system needed to handle those stats in numerical values, in other words, they were «hidden parameters». The basic value was determined by race and constitution, then applied with boosts from skills and bonuses from magic equipments, and supporting magics could adjust the value even further. Comparing Klein as a Salamander against me as a Spriggan, Klein would have only a slightly higher base value.
But as he loved katana techniques, all his skill and equipment adjustments were based on agility. On the other hand, with the tendency of «loving heavy swords», my adjustment was focused mainly on strength. As a result, among the seven people here, I was without doubt the one with the highest strength. So if I couldn’t pull the sword out with my strength, no one else would be able to either. As everyone seemed to understand this, no one asked for an attempt.
Instead, I could hear voices from behind me,
“Keep at it, Kirito-kun!”
It was Asuna. Then Lis raised her voice saying “Yeah, just a bit more!”. The encouragement from Leafa, Silica, and Klein also came right after that.
Sinon shouted “Show me your willpower!”, Yui said “Papa, keep at it!” with all her little voice, even Pina purred with “Kurururuu!”.
As the person who assembled this party, becoming discouraged here wasn’t an option. I already got the maximum buffs, the rest was just fighting spirit and will power. Rather than thinking the parameter wasn’t high enough, I had to believe that the lock would be released with the multiplication of the input and time, mustering my strength, no, my will power to the limit.
The surroundings in my vision started to white out, a flickering light flew in front of my eyes, if this continued any longer, the AmuSphere would automatically disconnect me due to an abnormality in the brain waves —— at that time,
Piki, with a sharp sound, and at the same time, a faint vibration transmitted to my hands.
“Ah……!”
I didn’t know whose yell that was. Suddenly a light burst out from the pedestal under my feet, as golden light filled my entire vision.
Immediately after that, a crushing sound which was more profound and exhilarating than any sound effect we had heard up until now ran through our ears. My body fully stretched out —— inside the ice lump which was scattering in all directions, my right hand held the long sword which created a vivid golden track in the air.
Flying significantly behind me were my six companions who were using their hands to extend support to each other. While withstanding the tremendous weight of the sword I was holding, I faced up above, my vision met with everyone overlooking from above. All members of the party started smiling, and released a great joyful atmosphere —— Although I had already assumed so, the next phenomenon happened sooner than expected.
Small tree roots were released from the ice pedestal.
Floating in mid air, it suddenly stretched out, no, it started growing.
The very fine capillary spread downward in succession. The upper section which had been cut off also had new tissue growing upward from the cut wound.
From above, a tremendous roaring sound could be heard. Looking up, the hole which we had ran through and the spiral staircase had been crushed by something rushing down. It was also roots. The one which supported ?rymheimr, the roots of the world tree——
The thick roots rushed into the octagonal room with a blistering pace, the small roots which extended from the plinth touched them, twisted together, and united.
The next moment——
The slight vibration which was felt like a shindo 1 earthquake up until now sent out a shock wave that swallowed the entire ?rymheimr castle.
“Owa……b……breaking……!!”
Klein yelled, as everyone mutually held onto each other firmly, while numerous cracks ran through the surrounding wall almost simultaneously.
The deafeningly loud echo roared continuously. The thick wall of ice, about the size of a carriage separated from each other, dropped to the «Great Void» far below.
“……! The entire ?rymheimr castle had collapsed! Papa, we need to escape!”
Yui on my head screamed in sharp voice. I looked at Asuna’s face on my right and shouted,
“Even saying so, the stairs!”
Yes, the spiral staircase which we used to reach this burial chamber had already been blown off by the rushing world tree’s roots, leaving no trace behind. Even before that, going back the original route would only lead us to the open terrace in the mid air.
“If we could grab the roots……”
Sinon murmured while looking up, she was still calm even in this situation.
“……Seems impossible.”
I shrugged my shoulders. Surely, the roots of world tree stretched from the ceiling and reached the middle of the chamber, but we were on the circular floor below, which was about ten meters below the capillary. It wasn’t a distance we could reach even with a full force jump.
“Wait, the world tree! Don’t be so cold-hearted!”
Lisbeth raised her right fist while yelling, but her opponent was a tree. She wouldn’t even get a single apology from it.
“’Right……if it comes to this, Klein-sama will show you all the Olympic class vertical high jump!”
The katana user stood up abruptly then ran up to one end of the six meters diameter circular disc——
“Ah, idiot, don’t……”
Before I could stop him, his gorgeous jump already happened before my eyes. He could reach around 2.15 meters, it was splendid considering he had a short running start, however, his hand couldn’t reach the root before his body continued on a parabolic curve and dropped heavily onto the center of the floor.
At that moment, It was surely from the shock wave earlier. —— was what everyone tried to think —— while running cracks suddenly appeared on the surrounding walls.
The lower section of the burial chamber, in other words, the lower apex of the ?rymheimr castle had finally separated from its body.
“C……Klein-san you idiot?!”
Came from Silica who was not used to screaming except when her tail was pulled; the rounded disc carrying seven people + one + one pet broke into an endless free fall.
If this were a gag manga, in this scene everyone would just sit around and drink tea as if it were completely normal.
However, dropping in a VRMMO like this was really ultra scary. It might be my daily hobby to fly above the clouds in Alfheim, but that was because of the reliable wings. With flying forbidden, such as in dungeons, a beginner female player could taste terror just by jumping from a five meter height. Even I didn’t like it.
Therefore, the seven of us crawling on the circular ice disc couldn’t help but scream simultaneously.
Surrounding us were the lumps of ice that collapsed at the same time, clashing with each other, as they continued breaking into smaller pieces. Looking up above, the lower part of the giant castle ?rymheimr broke apart from its structure, and each time caused the roots of the world tree to tremble.
Finally, from the edge of the disc, I fearfully took a peek below.
A thousand meters, no, it should be about eight hundred meters from the Jötunheimr ground, the darkness «Great Void» had its mouth open. Of course the disc we were sitting on was rushing toward the center.
“……What is down there?”
A calm mumble came from Sinon, I somehow managed to answer,
“P-Pr-Probably as Ur?r-san said, M-M-Maybe it leads to Niflheimr!”
“It would be great if it’s not cold……”
“N-N-Noo, I think it’s super cold! I-I-It’s the hometown of the frost giants after all!”
Having a conversation like that finally helped loosen the constriction in my stomach, while my hands still hugged Excaliber, I asked Leafa to my left,
“Leafa, W-W-What happened to the S-Slaughter quest?”
Then, the Sylph with her pea green ponytail trailing vertically stopped screaming —— or perhaps it was a joyful shout, I have my doubts —— and looked at the medallion on her chest.
“Ah……W-We’ve made it Onii-chan! There is still a single light remaining! I-I’m glad……!”
Leafa made a full smile and jumped to me with open arms, while I stroked her hair and started thinking,
If the world tree had returned to its original shape, Ur?r and her kin would have regained their power as well, so they would no longer be hunted by the humanoid evil-gods. In that case, if we continued falling into the Great Void, be it dying during the fall or dying due to crashing upon Niflheimr, our sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.
There was only one worry, it was «Excaliber» which we used all our power to secure. The quest wasn’t properly completed, as I still couldn’t say I had obtained ownership of it yet. Perhaps, surviving and meeting with Ur?r again were the required flags for the clean completion of this quest?
Nevertheless, I spread the system window where Leafa couldn’t see and tried to put Excaliber into the storage. But the sword was repelled from the window, and wouldn’t settle in.
——Well, I already grabbed it once. It’s fine, such a gold sparkling legendary weapon like this isn’t my taste anyway.
I tried to fool myself using the sour grapes theory.
Leafa who was embracing my neck suddenly raised her face.
“…………I hear something.”
“Eh……?”
I reflected the air off my ears to listen carefully, but all I could hear was the groaning sound of the air. The ground was already much closer now. Falling and breaking into the Void would probably take about sixty more seconds.
“Here, again!”
Leafa shouted again and stood skillfully on the rounded disc.
“O-Oi, it’s dangerous……”
As I started calling, at that time,
Kuoooo——……n, a cry from the distance reached my ears, I realized.
I turned around and adjusted my vision. Beyond the group of ice lumps surrounding us, from the southern sky, was a small white light. Approaching in a small arc, with its streamlined body like a fish, four pairs of wings, and a long nose——
“…………Tonkii————!”
Leafa shouted with both hands cupped around her mouth. Once again, Kuoo?n returned. Without a doubt, that was the flying evil-god Tonkii who carried us until the entrance of ?rymheimr. Thinking about it, as Tonkii sent us there, coming to pick us up wasn’t strange. And of course we would want it to come too.
“R……Right here right here?!”
Lis shouted while Asuna also waved her hand. Silica raised her face fearfully while still hugging Pina tightly in her chest, Sinon waved her tail in relief.
Klein who was still in the landing pose from his ultra high jump also lifted his face and smiled while putting his right thumb up.
“Heheh……’right, I believed from the start…… this guy would surely come to help……”
——Bull shit!
That was what I, and probably the other five, shouted in our minds, as he was the same person who had forgotten about Tonkii up until now. Still as admirable as usual, Tonkii gradually glided toward us. There was plenty of time to transfer all the members before the crash.
Because of the numerous scattering ice lumps around us, the closest Tonkii could hover near us still left us with a five meter gap. But with such a gap, even a heavy player would had no problem jumping over.
The first one was Leafa, who jumped casually while humming, and landed splendidly on Tonkii’s back. Then she stretched out her hands with a “Silica-chan!” call.
Silica nodded single-mindedly, as both her hands grabbed Pina’s legs, then running awkwardly before firmly launching out. Pina, which Silica was dangling under, flapped its wings, boosting the flying distance. It was a tamer’s privilege from a flight type pet. She then stopped in Leafa’s embrace safely.
Next was Lisbeth who jumped along with a “Toryaa!” shout, along with Asuna who made a long jump with a fluid form. Sinon was the extreme one, jumping with double forward somersaults and landing near Tonkii’s tail.
Klein turned to me with a stiff expression, I made a gesture telling him, ‘Please feel free to go first.’
“’Right, prepare to be fascinated by my splendid……”
I slapped his back while he was saying that and measuring his timing. Struggling with the running start’s distance, his jump’s distance did not seem to be enough, but Tonkii stretched its nose to catch him in mid air.
“O-Owaaaaa!? S-S-Scaryyyyy!?”
Ignoring his yell, I looked downward once more. Beyond the rounded disc made of clear ice, the Great Void had filled entire my field of vision. Facing forward, preparing a short approach run——
At that point, I noticed one terrible fact.
I couldn’t jump.
To be more exact, in my arms was a heavy load —— the «Holy Sword Excaliber», so jumping five meters wouldn’t be possible. Just by standing, my boots already bit into the ice.
Everyone who already moved to the back of Tonkii also noticed the reason I stood still.
“Kirito!”
“Kirito-kun!”
Calling voices reached me. Still facing downward, I clenched my teeth from the intense conflict.
These two choices —— embracing Excaliber like this and dieing from the fall, or dropping it and surviving. Is it the coincidence that a player is being tested for greed and obsession at the final five meters distance? Is this also a trap by the Cardinal System……?
“Papa……”
A worried call from Yui on my head, I made a slight nod and reply,
“…………Really……you Cardinal!”
I shouted with a bitter smile.
At the next moment, the sword in my right hand was thrown aside.
Suddenly my body became so light it was as if it was a lie. The rotating faint golden light moved toward the edge of my vision.
I made a light run, jumped, and changed my body orientation in mid air. Excaliber was falling slowly, like a feather dropped from the wing of a phoenix, into the immeasurable depth of the great hole.
On Tonkii’s back, once I had made a backward landing, it spread all eight wings wide. Its speed slowed down. Tonkii, that had been falling at the same pace as the rounded disc up until now, began hovering, stopping its descent.
Asuna came to me and tapped my shoulder.
“……Later, someday, we’ll take it back.”
“I’ll perfectly coordinate our journey!”
Yui continued right after Asuna.
“……Ah, that’s right. It’ll surely be waiting somewhere in Niflheimr.”
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