Sword Art Online

Chapter 5

"Achoo!"

Lyfa, a swordswoman of the Sylph race, quickly covered her mouth with both hands after letting out an explosive, unladylike sneeze.

She stared out toward the entrance of the shrine, afraid that the evil-god had heard her and would poke its huge face in.

Fortunately, the only thing that floated in was the falling snow. As the snow neared the fire burning on the floor of the shrine, it turned into a puff of steam and disappeared.

Lyfa crouched down by the back wall while scratching the thick fur collar of her mantle.

"Haa..."

Sighing, Lyfa began to warm herself at the nearby fire. She felt more comfortable and soon found herself nodding off to sleep.

The small stone shrine they were in was about four meters in length, width and height. The walls and ceiling were decorated with reliefs of eerie monsters that seemed to move in the firelight; it wasn't the most comfortable interior. As her gaze turned to the side, Lyfa caught sight of her companion reclining against the wall, beginning to doze off, his peaceful —or foolish— face nodding up and down like a ship bobbing in the harbor.

"Hey, wake –"

While whispering, Lyfa pulled his sharply pointed ear. The only reply was a mumble that sounded like "munyamunya". On his lap was another companion, a pixie, sleeping soundly while curled in a ball.

"Hey, if you fall asleep, you'll log out!"

She pulled his ear again. Doing this made his head end up on her thighs, his head rolling around as if looking for a comfortable position.

Lyfa's body stiffened in mortification, her hands clenching futilely as she wondered what method to attempt next to wake him.

It isn't surprising that he is falling asleep though, she realized as she looked to the lower-right of her field of vision. After all, it is past 2:00 AM in the real world. Normally, Lyfa would already have logged out and been soundly asleep in her bed.

That's right, Jötunheimr and ALfheim were worlds that were products of a gaming company. Somewhere in the real world in Japan's metropolitan city of Tokyo was a server machine and this place is a virtual world inside it. Lyfa and her companion existed here as people using the FullDive interface machine called «AmuSphere».

It was actually quite easy to leave the virtual world. One simply had to extend the index and middle fingers of his or her left hand, wave them in order to open the game menu, and press the «Log Out» button. Alternatively, you could simply lie down and fall asleep; the AmuSphere would sense the user's lowered brainwave activity and automatically disconnect. Come the next morning, users would wake comfortably in their own beds.

However, there was a specific reason that Lyfa and her companion could not sleep here.

Finally deciding on an impish course of action, Lyfa made a fist with her left hand and sharply rapped it on her partner's spiky, black-haired head.

Whoosh! Along with a burst of a refreshing sound, the yellow light which characterized a homing bullet attack activated. Lyfa's companion made a strange, startled sound and bolted upright. Immediately taking his pained head in both of his hands, he looked around and saw the smiling Lyfa.

"Good morning, Kirito-kun."

"...Oh, good morning."

Her companion was a Spriggan swordsman. He had slightly dark skin, black hair, and if not for the depressed expression, could be mistaken for the hero in a shounen manga[1].

"...I, I fell asleep?"

"And you even got a free lap pillow; you should be grateful you got off with only one small punch."

"...Then I was impolite, as an apology, you can use my lap as a pillow if you would like, Lyfa..."

"There is no need!"

Lyfa turned away quickly, casting a sidelong glance at Kirito.

"Don't say stupid things— Did you dream of any nice escape ideas?"

"Speaking of dreams, I was just about to eat this delicious looking pudding with a huge helping of ice cream."

Thinking herself a fool for asking, Lyfa's shoulders slumped and she turned back toward the entrance of the shrine. Snow danced on the wind blowing through the darkness, but nothing else moved.

There it was— the reason they couldn't log out. Kirito, Lyfa, and Yui, sleeping on Kirito's lap, were trapped in Jötunheimr, unable to escape to the surface.

Of course, if all they wanted to do was leave the game, it was easily possible. However, this shrine was neither a safe zone nor an inn. Thus, if they were to go back to reality now, their virtual bodies here would be left essentially soulless for a period of time. Virtual bodies left unattended had the tendency to attract monsters, and their helpless bodies would be reduced to nothing, causing their «Death», in no time. They would then be returned to «Sylvain». If that happened then what would be the meaning of traveling all the way here from Sylphid territory?

The purpose of this journey that Lyfa and Kirito have undertaken is to reach the central city of ALfheim: «Aarun».

They had left Sylvain earlier today— yesterday evening to be exact. After passing over a vast forest area and then through a series of mine tunnels, they were ambushed by a group of Salamanders. After repelling the attack, they had met with the Sylph Lord Sakuya, were thanked, and then left, events finally calming down some time around 1:00 AM.

At that point in time, Lyfa and Kirito had already been in FullDive for eight continuous hours, minus the time needed to take bathroom breaks. With Aarun nowhere in sight and truthfully a long way off, they decided to stop at the first village they came across and log off. Just at that moment, the pair saw a village in the middle of the forest and, cheering at their good fortune, landed in it.

At that time, even if it would have been troublesome, they should have checked the map if only to confirm the name of the village and the presence of an inn. Who would have thought...

"...Who would have thought, that village was a mimic monster..."

Kirito, who seemed to be remembering the same thing, sighed. Lyfa also sighed and nodded.

"That's true... Whoever said no monsters appear on the Aarun Plateau?"

"I believe that was you."

"I don't recall saying anything like that."

With this effortless banter, they sighed again in unison.

Upon landing in the mysterious village, they hadn't see any villagers —NPCs— while looking around. Still thinking that there should at least be an innkeeper, they went to enter the largest building in the village when...

All three buildings in the village collapsed. What used to be the inn immediately revealed a fleshy lump. However, they had no time to be surprised at that as the ground beneath their feet split open to reveal a gaping hole made of the same fleshy substance. It was a gigantic earthworm type monster that waited underground with its folds projected above ground to lure in prey.

Kirito, with Yui in his pocket, and Lyfa were pulled into the earthworm's mouth by a strong suction. While sliding down the worm's throat, Lyfa was convinced that death by being dissolved in an earthworm's digestive juices was probably the worst way of dying she had experienced in a year of playing ALO.

Their luck seemed to be good however, as the earthworm didn't appear to have a stomach. Their tour of its digestive tract lasted for a good three minutes before they were unceremoniously ejected from the other end of the earthworm, the mucus coating Lyfa's body giving her goosebumps and a sense of revulsion. As she tried to slow her fall using her wings, she began to panic.

She couldn't fly. No matter how much strength she put into her shoulder blades, she couldn't beat her wings. Straight down into the darkness she fell, with Kirito close behind, and with a bang, they landed in a deep snow drift.

Lyfa was the first to recover and struggle out of the snowbank, and, upon looking up, she saw not the moon and stars but a canopy of stone extending as far as she could see. 'No wonder I couldn't fly, this is a cave,' Lyfa thought as she inspected her surroundings.

As she continued to look around, an abnormal shape appeared near the snow bank where she had first fallen. It was undoubtedly an «evil-god class monster», which she had previously only seen in pictures.

Next to her, Kirito poked his head out of the snow. Before he could say anything, she quickly covered his mouth, understanding their dire situation. They were in the endless underground world, «Jötunheimr», the most difficult field in ALO. In other words, that giant earthworm wasn't a trap to capture prey for food, but to transport players here to this land of ice.

The nearly five story building tall, multi-legged evil-god finally moved away. Lyfa's group then found this shrine to hide in, and pondered what to do. Unfortunately, there was no quick and easy way to leave this place when flight was prohibited. They had been looking at the fire while sitting with their back to the wall for about an hour, which brought things to the present.

"Well... before I can make an escape plan, I need to know about Jötunheimr considering I have zero knowledge about this field..."

Kirito finally drove away his drowsiness, looked out into the darkness with sharp black eyes, and spoke.

"Indeed, before coming here, the Sylph lord said something when I handed over the coins. 'I think to earn this much money, you'd need to hunt evil-gods in Jötunheimr,' or something like that."

"Ah, yes, she said that."

Lyfa nodded her head, recalling the memory.

Before getting swallowed by the worm, Kirito and Lyfa had met with the Sylph and Cait Sith Lords at their conference and fought off a large hostile force of Salamanders who had attacked them in surprise. Afterward, Kirito had given the same lords a large sum of money when he heard that they lacked funds. While accepting these funds, the Sylph lord Sakuya had certainly made some remark resembling that.

"...Having said that, Kirito-kun, where did you get all that money?"

The unexpected question derailed Kirito's train of thought and caused him to stumble over his words.

"That, ahh, some people I knew gave it to me. They used to play this game a lot in the past, but now have quit playing..."

"Well, if you say so..."

It was a common enough story. A player, retiring from the game, gave his money and equipment to friends or acquaintances. Lyfa decided to believe it and returned to their original conversation.

"Then what is the problem? What is it about Sakuya's speech?"

"Well, if the lord said something like that, then there must be players hunting in this field right?"

"There should be some."

"Thus, in addition to the giant earthworm which acts as a one way trip, there should be another way to enter and exit this field."

Finally understanding what Kirito was getting at, she nodded in affirmation.

"There seems to be... but like you this is my first time here so I haven't been there. In Aarun city there are large dungeons to the East, West, South and North, with their deepest floors supposedly having stairs leading to Jötunheimr. The location should be..."

Lyfa called up the menu with her left hand and opened the map. She could see that Jötunheimr appeared to be nearly circular, with everything around them except their current location grayed out since she hadn't been there before. She touched the map with her right index finger, indicating points at the top, bottom, left, and right.

"They should be here, here, here and here. We are now in a shrine between the center and the southwest wall, so the nearest stairs should be to the South or West. But..."

Lyfa slumped her shoulders before making her next remark.

"All of the dungeons stairs will have evil-god class guardians there."

"Those evil-gods, how strong are they?"

Lyfa looked incredulously at Kirito before answering his question.

"No matter how strong you are, this time it won't be enough. Rumor has it that when this area first opened, the Salamanders sent down a large party. They were completely wiped out by the first Evil-god class monster they met. General Eugene, who even you struggled against, didn't last more than ten seconds against it."

"...That certainly is something..."

"To hunt here, you have to have heavily armored players as human shields, high-powered attackers, and at least eight players focusing on support and recovery. We are two lightly armed swordsmen; before we could do anything we would be trampled flat and killed."

"I would like to avoid that."

Kirito nodded, but hearing about that kind of challenge seemed to have gotten him so excited that even his nostrils were twitching. Lyfa, seeing this, made sure to add another warning.

"But before that, there's a 99% chance we won't reach the stairs. Running this long distance will draw evil-gods, and we will be dead before we can target them."

"I see...and we can't fly in this map."

"Yes. To restore the power of flight, we would need either sunlight or moonlight. But as you can see, neither one of those is available here...The only exception is Imp players, who can fly a little bit underground..."

Here, her words cut off and they looked at each others' wings. Sylph Lyfa's dark green wings and Spriggan Kirito's grey wings had both lost their luminescence and withered. The only thing that marked them as fairies were their pointed ears, as they could not fly.

"So, our last hope is to meet one of those large-scale evil-god hunting teams Lyfa mentioned earlier, join with them, and make our way back above ground."

"That sounds about right."

Lyfa turned her gaze outside the small shrine as she nodded.

Through the thin blue darkness, past an expansive forest of snow and ice, stood a fortress-like building. Of course, it was controlled by the most powerful Boss-class evil-god and its minions; going close to that place would mean a very unpleasant death. Naturally, no other players could be found in the area.

"This Jötunheimr replaced the above ground dungeons as the highest level in difficulty. It was just recently added. So, the number of times that a hunting party has come down here is apparently less than ten. The chance of them accidentally coming near this shrine might be lower than us defeating a evil-god class monster alone."

"I guess this will be a real test of our luck."

Kirito gave a weak smile, then used his right index finger to poke the head of the nearly ten centimeter tall girl sleeping in his lap.

"Hey Yui...wake up."

After blinking her eyes with their long eyelashes two or three times, her small body wrapped in a pink dress abruptly shot up. She put her right hand on her cheek, stretched her left arm high above her, and gave a big yawn. This gesture was so lovely that Lyfa could only stare in fascination.

"Fuwaaa...Good morning Papa, Lyfa-san."

The little fairy greeted them in her bell-like voice. Kirito spoke to her very gently.

"Good morning, Yui. Unfortunately, it is still night, and we are still underground. Sorry to bother you, but could you search for other players near us?"

"Yes, understood. Please wait..."

Yui nodded her head and closed her eyes.

The official name for the little fairy, Yui, that Kirito carried around was a «Navigation Pixie». As long as players paid an additional fee, they could summon one from the menu window. Though from what Lyfa has heard, navigation pixies should only give basic information that the system deemed relevant. They should also speak in a synthesized voice and have no emotions. She had never heard of one with a personality or even a name.

'If you constantly summon the same navigation pixie for a long time, does it get this friendly?' thought Lyfa while awaiting Yui's reply.

When she opened her eyes, her ears drooped in disappointment, and she shook her glossy long raven-colored hair.

"I'm sorry, I can see no response indicating other players in the range of my data collection. Before that, if I had just noticed that that village wasn't registered on the map..."

Seeing the little fairy hang her head dejectedly from her perch on Kirito's right knee, Lyfa used her fingertips to gently stroke Yui's head.

"No, it's not your fault, Yui-chan. At that time I asked you to warn us of nearby players as first priority. You don't need to sound so sad."

"...Thank you, Lyfa-san."

Looking at Yui's moist eyes, Lyfa found it hard to believe the little pixie was just a simple piece of program code. She flashed a smile from her heart, touched Yui`s little face, and turned her attention back to Kirito.

"Well, since it has come to this, all we can do is try our best."

"Try... try what?"

Lyfa gave Kirito, who could only blink in confusion, a fearless smile.

"I just want to try it— Whether or not the two of us can reach the stairs leading above ground. Sitting here is just a waste of time."

"But, but, you just said it was absolutely impossible..."

"I said that it was 99% impossible. But I want to take a risk on that 1% possibility. As long as we figure out how the Evil-gods move and stay out of their view, careful forward movement should be possible."

"Lyfa-san, you are awesome!"

Yui clapped her hands, and Lyfa responded with a wink before standing up.

However, Kirito grabbed Lyfa`s sleeve and drew her back.

"Wh-what?"

Lyfa tumbled back to her seat. She started to protest, but the dark eyes staring into her own from nearby quieted her. As he held her gaze, the until-now relaxed Kirito addressed her in a firm tone.

"No, you should log out now. I will protect your avatar until it disappears."

"Eh?! Wh-why?"

"It is now half past two. Didn't you say that you are a student? Today, you have been in FullDive over eight hours for me. I can't let you stay with me any longer."

"..."

The suddenness of Kirito's comments left her grasping for words, but he merely looked at her and calmly continued to speak.

"Even going straight we don't know how long this will take. If we avoid the very large monsters' detection range, it will increase our travel distance. Even if we reached the stairs, it would be around morning. I have a reason that I must go to Aarun, but today is a weekday, so I think you better log off. "

"No, I'm okay. Just one all-nighter..."

Forcing a smile, Lyfa shook her head.

Kirito, letting go of Lyfa's sleeve, lowered his head to make his final speech.

"Thank you for coming this far with me, Lyfa. If it weren't for you, I would probably have taken several days just to gather information. But thanks to you, I only needed half a day to get here. No matter how much I thank you it wouldn't be enough."

"..."

Unable to fight back the pain in her chest born from these surprising comments, Lyfa could only ineffectually clench her fists.

Lyfa was uncertain why these words hurt her so deeply, but her mouth moved instinctively and roughly spat out words.

"...I'm not doing this just for you."

"Eh?"

Kirito raised his face. Lyfa avoided eye contact with him and continued in a hard voice.

"I... I wanted to come, that's how I ended up here. I hope you understand that at least. What is this about forced journey? Do you think I hated coming all this way with you?"

Her welling of emotion was detected by the AmuSphere, and it tried to make a film of tears cover her eyes— She was forced to blink rapidly to clear them. To escape from Yui's panicked looks between her and Kirito, Lyfa turned toward the shrine's entrance and stood up.

"I... think today's adventure was the best I have had in ALO. There were a lot of exciting things. Finally, I too began to think that this world is another reality, I was starting to believe!"

Lyfa wiped her eyes with her right hand, and was about to go outside when suddenly—

A huge, strange sound that was neither thunder nor earthquake came from a short distance away.

"BORURURU!" That roar, was no doubt from the mouth of a huge monster. Subsequently, the ground began to shake, and there was a roaring sound of footsteps.

'Oh no! My shouts earlier must have attracted an evil-god! I'm so stupid, stupid!' While mentally blaming herself, Lyfa quickly decided to bait the monster away by running.

Kirito interrupted her by grabbing her left wrist— Lyfa didn't even know when he had gotten behind her. His firm grip prevented her from running out into the field.

"Let me go! I will pull the enemy, and you can use that gap to get out of here..."

Lyfa urged Kirito in a low voice, but he caught sight of something and he cautioned Lyfa.

"No, wait. This is a bit strange."

"Strange, what is..."

"It's not just one."

After hearing this, Lyfa listened carefully; indeed, there were two evil-god roars. One was a giant engine producing a low bass, but that was also mixed with a wooden flute-like wind sound. Lyfa held her breath, then shook off Kirito's restraining hand.

"If there are two it's even worse! If either targets you it will be too late! After you die, you have to restart from Sylvain again!"

"No, that's not it, Lyfa-san!"

That small shout came from Yui, who sat on Kirito's shoulder.

"The two evil-god class monsters nearby... they are fighting each other!"

"Eh?!"

Lyfa quickly closed her eyes and concentrated on listening. Indeed, the roaring footsteps did not sound like a gallop issued by going in a straight line but rather like it was moving around irregularly.

"B..but, monsters fighting each other, how..."

Lyfa murmured in awe, completely forgot about the sadness in her chest. Kirito seemed to have decided on something and spoke up.

"Let's go and see. This shrine won't be much of a refuge anyway."

"That's true."

Lyfa nodded and placed her hand on the hilt of the katana at her waist then followed Kirito out into the darkness filled with dancing snow.

After running only a few steps, the noise resolved itself into two evil-god class monsters. They slowly approached from the east of the shrine, their movements like the shaking of small mountains. Almost twenty meters tall, both were the blue-grey unique to evil-gods.

Upon taking a closer look, the two evil-gods were different in size. The one issuing the "BORURURU!" sound was the larger of the two, about twice the height of the other, a smaller monster making a chirping "Hyuruhyuru!" sound.

The larger one was vaguely human shaped but had three faces lined up vertically as well as four arms, two on each side— it could be called a giant. Each of the angular faces gave the impression of a pagan god. As each face made its cry, all three together made the continuous, engine-like "BORUBORU" sound. In each of the beast's four hands held a sword that seemed more like a steel girder, the huge, heavy blades being swung as if they were weightless.

In contrast, it was harder to understand what the smaller monster was modeled after. Large ears, a long elephant-like trunk, and a body as flat as a bun supported by twenty legs ending in hooked claws. The overall impression was of an elephant-headed jellyfish.

It extended hook claws to pressure the three-faced giant, but the other's four iron swords swung at the speed of storm and easily blocked the offensive. The claws futilely attempted to reach the giant's faces. On the other hand, the giant's blade easily hurt the body of the jellyfish-like monster, dark body fluids flying off like mist.

"Wha...What's going on..."

Lyfa whispered in surprise, completely forgetting to hide due to her astonishment.

In ALO, battles between monsters could occur but only for three reasons. First, if one monster was domesticated by a Cait Sith player with high taming skill; in other words, a «pet». Second, if a Puca played a melody that either confused or agitated the monster. And third, if one of the monsters was hypnotized by illusion-type magic and forced to fight.

In the battle taking place in front of them, none of these appeared to be the case. If one of the monsters was a pet, its cursor should have been yellow-green, but both of the evil-gods had yellow cursors. No music could be heard over the rumbling of the ground and the screams filling the air, and none of the light effects caused by illusion magic were present.

Not seeming to notice Lyfa's group at all, the two evil-gods continued their intense battle. However, the three-faced giant appeared to have an advantage, while the movement of the elephant jellyfish appeared sluggish. Finally, with a swing of its sword, the giant cut off one of the jellyfish's taloned legs, the limb falling to the ground near Lyfa with a ground-shaking impact.

"Hey, doesn't it seem a bit dangerous to stay here...?"

Kirito whispered beside her, Lyfa nodded but couldn't make herself move. The blood from the wounds sprayed onto the white snow, dyeing it black, and Lyfa couldn't take her eyes off the elephant headed evil-god.

The jellyfish's injuries forced it to cry out shrilly as it tried to run away again. The giant wouldn't let it get away however, swinging the iron swords more powerfully at the body of the jellyfish. Unable to withstand the pressure, the jellyfish cried out as it crouched on the ground, its cries became weaker and weaker. The giant kept mercilessly swinging its swords, engraving cruel wounds on the gray skin of the jellyfish.

"...Help it, Kirito-kun."

Listening to those words coming out of her mouth, Lyfa was surprised at herself. The expression on Kirito's face was three times more surprised than her. Looking at her and the two evil-gods, he questioned her in a bewildered voice.

"Which one?"

Indeed, compared to the three-face giant, the jellyfish had a stranger form. But in this situation, there was no need for hesitation.

"Of course, the one being bullied."

Lyfa immediately answered, but Kirito responded with a very natural question.

"How?"

"Well..."

Lyfa had no immediate response. Mostly due to the fact that she didn't have any idea of what to do. During Lyfa's period of indecisiveness, more wounds appeared on the back of the blue-gray, elephant-headed evil-god.

"...Kirito-kun, do something!!"

Lyfa cried as she clasped both hands to her chest. The Spriggan boy could do nothing but scratch his black hair.

"Even if you say do something..."

Suddenly, Kirito's hand stopped moving and he stared at the evil-gods again. Eyes squinting slightly, the flashing in his shiny black eyes reflected the speed of the thoughts running through his brain.

"...A form like that, if it has any meaning...."

Kirito muttered. Then, looking around the area, he whispered to Yui sitting on his shoulder.

"Yui, is there water nearby? A river or lake is fine!"

Hearing that, the pixie closed her eyes without asking for a reason and started nodding her head almost immediately.

"There is, Papa! About two hundred meters to the north, there is a frozen lake!"

"Good...Lyfa, run there like your life depends on it."

"Uh...Huh?"

It looked like Kirito was talking about the form of the giant with three faces and four arms, but what did water have to do with it?

Lyfa was puzzled, but Kirito did not say anything as he bent over and pulled a long, fat nail out his belt. 'It must be a throwing pick,' thought Lyfa despite never having seen such a thing used before. Because ALO had very powerful long-range attack magic spells, there was no point to training simple long-ranged weapon skills.

Kirito was doing it for real, however. He twirled the twelve centimeter pick over his shoulder, holding it with just his fingertips.

"...There!"

With a shout, Kirito's right arm moved faster than she could see, and the iron needle flew straight with a stream of blue light...

The missile hit right between the shiny, dark-red eyes of the highest face of the three-faced giant.

Lyfa was surprised, as her careful observation of the giant's HP bar showed that its health was reduced very slightly. Such a tiny weapon penetrating an Evil-god class monster's overwhelming armor could not be done without very high throwing skill.

While that damage was nothing to the huge HP bar of the evil-god, that it was doing any damage at all that is important here because—

"BOBOBORURURURU!"

A roar of anger came from the three-faced giant as all six eyes focused on Kirito and Lyfa, signaling the change of target from the jellyfish to players.

"...Run for your life!!"

Kirito shouted as he ran northward, spraying snow in all directions as he took off at top speed.

"Wai..."

As Lyfa's mouth moved, she hurriedly followed the Spriggan who was sprinting far ahead. Then, from right behind her came a roar like thunder and the sound of something heavy trampling the ground. The giant was chasing after the two of them.

"Wait...Nooooooo!"

Lyfa screamed as she dashed at top speed. However, Kirito running ahead of her had a form that even Olympic sprinters would envy as he pulled further and further away from Lyfa. She had experienced his running speed as they escaped «Ruger Corridor», but being left behind was a different matter.

"Sooo meeean!"

While Lyfa was yelling desperately, the huge shaking sound behind her was getting closer. The evil-god was about thirteen times as tall as her, so each of his steps was about the same ratio compared to Lyfa's. Her fear of that steel beam size sword that might be swinging at her even now made Lyfa push her entire body to the limit— that is, her brain's movement signals worked faster in an attempt to catch up to Kirito.

Suddenly, ahead of her, the black-clad youth stopped in a cloud of snow. He turned and caught Lyfa in his extended arms. Despite their dire straights, Lyfa could feel her face heating up as she turned to look behind them.

The three-faced giant was close enough to be frightening. It would catch up in just a few seconds. If they were to be hit with those iron swords, the lightly armored Kirito and Lyfa would lose all their HP in a single hit.

'...What on earth do you want to do!!?'

Lyfa wanted to ask Kirito, who was holding her close to him. At the same time...

Crackcrackcrack...sounded the ground as it exploded outward.

The giant's legs, as large as tree trunks, had broken through the ice lying beneath the snow. Kirito had stopped in the center of a vast frozen lake that was covered by snow.

The ice for 15 meters around the evil-god sank, exposing transparent dark water. The three-faced giant plummeted into his self-made lake causing a ridiculously large column of water to splash into the air.

"Just sink like that..."

Lyfa desperately begged, but that easy solution didn't occur. One and a half of its faces appeared above water, and it slowly came closer. It seemed that below the water its lower two arms were acting as paddles; despite its rock-like body, it certainly could swim well. If Kirito was betting on the evil-god drowning, it seemed that he'd lost.

Wanting to start running again, Lyfa turned around only to notice Kirito standing motionless. He held onto Lyfa hard enough to activate the harassment warning, but Kirito remained staring at the giant.

"...Ah, you, couldn't possibly..."

'He wants to die here.'

That thought flashed through Lyfa's mind.

He couldn't be doing what Lyfa had attempted earlier, sacrificing himself to let Lyfa log out, dying and returning to the save point in the Sylph capital, Sylvain.

Lyfa couldn't allow that. Kirito had a very strong reason to go to Aarun, or more specifically, the «World Tree», as she'd found out during their one day of travel. The Spriggan boy's only reason for playing ALO was for the purpose of meeting someone up there, and he had surpassed many obstacles to get this far.

"No, you must escape..."

Lyfa weakly cried while trying to escape from his arms, but she was cut off by another splashing sound.

Startled, she turned her head and saw a new column of water appear behind the three-faced giant.

"Yururururu!" That roar was definitely from the elephant-headed evil-god that the three-faced giant had tormented earlier. Even though they had pulled the giant away, it had chased after the three-faced giant rather than escape.

Lyfa instantly forgot her situation, her eyes going wide from astonishment as she saw—

Cutting the water, around twenty limbs raised up and coiled around the face and arms of the giant.

"BORUBORU!" The giant angrily roared, trying to swing around its iron swords. However, they moved slowly in water and could not cut the jellyfish's skin.

"...I, I see..."

Lyfa whispered hoarsely.

The elephant-faced jellyfish evil-god was originally an aquatic monster. When on land, most of its limbs were needed to support that huge bowl-shaped body. Now that it is in the lake, with its body floating in the water, all of its limbs are being used to attack. The giant on the other hand, needed to use two of its arms to swim, reducing its offensive power by 50%.

The «form» Kirito was talking about was actually referring to the jellyfish evil-god. Realizing that it was completely natural for a jellyfish to be in water, Lyfa was disillusioned that she wasn't able to notice it herself so she clasped both hands tightly.

The elephant head evil-god was like a fish in water, the jellyfish's power forced the three-faced giant's head under water. The two super-sized monsters' violent fight caused high waves, spraying large quantities of water and ice in all directions.

The elephant jellyfish gave an intense roar, its body shining with a blue white light. The light changed into sparks which flowed along its twenty limbs.

"Ah..."

"Alright!"

Kirito and Lyfa both shouted at the same time. The three-faced giant's HP started decreasing with tremendous speed. Using the identification skill, they could see what amounted to hundreds of thousands of health points disappearing every time the electricity sparked.

It might have been the giant's blood boiling, but there were several flashes of red under water with columns of steam going up; these had no effect in the jellyfish evil-god's HP. Eventually, the frequency of the "BORUBORU" cries slowed to a stop— followed by an explosion of polygons large enough to block Lyfa's vision.

Lyfa averted her eyes for a moment, and when she turned back there was only one cursor displayed.

"Yurururururuuuu..." With a cry of triumph, the elephant jellyfish lifted its numerous legs, then returned them to the water and began swimming smoothly through the lake.

Water streamed down the huge body like a waterfall as it dragged itself onto the bank then walked on the ice toward them. Lyfa held her breath while watching.

With "Don Don" swaying footsteps it approached, stopping right in front of them— Lyfa was once again stunned at its huge size. When fighting the giant, the giant tentacles had seemed like thin limbs, but up close she realized she couldn't surround one with her arms spread wide. High above those tree-trunk-like limbs should be its round body, but only its contour could be seen.

No matter how you looked at it, its head was that of an elephant. Instead of ears hanging down the sides of its face, it had round, limb-like appendages covered with frills that must be gills. Below its round face hung a nose as long as its limbs. The eyes were a little creepy with three round jet-black lenses side by side. Lined up like riceballs they actually gave it a humorous looking expression.

"...So, what should we do now?" Kirito muttered.

Lyfa had indeed said to save the elephant-like monster, but she hadn't thought of what to do afterward. The fearsome evil-god before her eyes had a yellow cursor, indicating that it was hostile, and it could probably kill both of them with one step of its clawed feet.

However, the fact that it hadn't attacked them already could be said to be an irregular development. When it came to the advanced dungeons like Jötunheimr, it was normal for all monsters to attack players the moment they saw them. Since it hadn't done that, the elephant-jellyfish might leave if they just waited...

Lyfa's thinking was betrayed one second later. With a "Yurururu" sound, the evil-god stretched out its long nose to the two of them.

"Ack..."

While Kirito was backing away, Yui, who had remained silent until now, grabbed Kirito's ear and attempted to calm the Spriggan.

"It's okay, Papa. This child is not angry."

'...Child?' thought Lyfa, but she soon found herself without the time to ponder that question further.

The long nose gently wound around the two people and slowly lifted them off of the ground.

"Hieeee!"

Kirito yelled while Lyfa was speechless. The elephant evil-god slowly lifted them several tens of meters in the air and looked as if it would place them in its mouth— luckily that didn't happen; it merely dropped them on its back.

They landed on their behinds and bounced once before coming to rest. Seen from afar, the elephant jellyfish's body was smooth, but their current proximity revealed that it was covered with gray hair. Seeing Kirito and Lyfa sitting in the middle of its back, the elephant jellyfish seem satisfied. It made a pleased sound before moving along like nothing happened.

"..."

Lyfa and Kirito looked at each other once before the Sylph girl gave up trying to analyze the current situation, opting instead to leisurely view the surrounding landscape.

The dark kingdom of Jotunheimr was not completely dark. The ceiling was covered with icicles that released a pale glow. Pale blue light illuminated the snow-covered landscape, and despite this being a ultra-hazardous area, it was very beautiful. An old castle in the center of a black forest, steep cliffs, the tower built to connect this world to the world above ground. Lyfa could see all these clearly from her perch tens of meters above ground.

The elephant jellyfish walked on its twenty limbs and after a minute of traveling on its wobbly back, Kirito whispered a query to his companion.

"So this is...the start of a quest?"

"Well..."

Looking a bit puzzled, Lyfa formulated a quiet reply.

"If this were a quest, when it is started, it should display a Start-log in this area..."

Lyfa waved her left hand around her upper left field of view.

"Since it's not displayed here, it isn't a request type of quest. If that's so, then it's probably an event type...This could be slightly troublesome."

"In what way?"

"If it is a quest, there will always be some sort of reward at the end. But an event is more like the player is participating in a drama— there is not always a happy ending."

"...You mean to say we may end up with one of the tragic endings, right?"

"It's possible. Before, I made a wrong choice in a horror type event and I died when a witch boiled me in her pot."

"What an interesting game."

Kirito gave a laugh and put on a tight smile, beginning to stroke the thick hair beneath him.

"...Well, since this happened we might as well ride the boat out— No, that would be jellyfish. Anyway, even if we jumped down from this height we would take some serious damage, so we might as well ride it to the end...Well, this, that is, it might be a bit late..."

"Wh, what?"

Lyfa gave a perplexed look to the Spriggan boy. Kirito hung his head as he responded.

"...I'm sorry about earlier, Lyfa. I made light of your feelings...Well, I might have looked down on this world and not approached it seriously enough. It's only a game...But be it real or virtual, what you feel and think are all real, I should know that already..."

Kirito, who had his head down, wore a sad expression on his face.

Lyfa looked at him from the side and couldn't help feeling a touch of déjà vu, thinking she had seen that expression before. Lyfa dismissed that feeling and shook her head many times.

"Y, yes...I'm sorry too...You worked really hard to save me and my race. 'ALO is just a game', you would never think like that, I should understand it most..."

«VRMMO-RPGs», including ALFheimOnline, were a whole new genre of game— Somewhere it might be testing their players. Lately, Lyfa strongly felt like that.

Testing, to exaggerate, meant that it was probably a challenge. Because it was a game, you couldn't always win. Sometimes traps from hostile races stopped your forward progress, or they just attacked you from the front and wipe you out.

At that time, how seriously you struggle or if you could hold your chest high even in defeat, this game is testing that. In the previous flat panel display (Computer MMORPGs), other than motion commands, your avatar wouldn't change a bit;, you just typed in chat about your defeat whichever way you wanted. Now, under FullDive, the avatar faithfully reproduced the feelings of the player. It was even possible to shed tears of mortification.

Many people hated to be seen showing their true feelings; when a situation turned against them some tried to laugh it off, with many logging out at the instant of defeat. Even Lyfa didn't want anyone to see her crying face if she could help it.

But the mysterious Spriggan in front of her had no connection with the thought process previously mentioned. Even when trapped by the Salamander's one sided attack in the Ruger Corridor or during the fight with General Eugene where he was pushed back by the demonic sword, he never hesitated to show his anger and regret. He just did what he had to do, overcame any obstacles in his path and ultimately won. It would not be possible to do this for a person who made light of this world as «just a game».

"...Hey, you..."

'Before you came here, what kind of game were you in? What kind of person are you in reality?'

She wanted to ask that, but kept her lips tight. In VRMMOs, asking questions about someone's reality was something that even a very close friend should refrain from doing.

As Kirito tilted his head in her direction, she just shook her head and smiled, silently saying 'It's nothing.'

"...Well, we're decided now. I can stay as long as we need. School attendance is already optional for me."

Finished, Lyfa offered her right hand. 'I see,' Kirito seemed to say with a laugh before he shook her hand. Lyfa was constantly shaking her head to hide her blushing cheeks. She became aware of Yui, who was sitting on Kirito's shoulder laughing happily, and Lyfa became even more embarrassed. When she removed her hand, even the tips of her ears were hot, so she turned her head away.

Not caring about the three's exchange on its back, the evil-god continued moving forward rapidly. Looking into the distance, Lyfa instantly forgot that hot feeling on her face, and her brow furrowed.

"What happened?"

At Kirito's voice, Lyfa extended her right hand, pointing into the distance.

"Remember what I said about going to the closest stairs to the west or south? This child seems to be going the opposite direction...Look there."

In the direction Lyfa was pointing, a giant silhouette began to emerge from the darkness. Forming an arc in the ceiling of Jötunheimr, a huge conic structure hung. Like a net, branches knit and wove together to hold a huge icicle in place.

Judging from the hazy effect of distance, it was at least ten kilometers away, but the huge size completely disrupted a player's sense of distance. Several luminous points were trapped within the icicle, giving the illusion of a gigantic eye blinking majestically.

"...What is that winding thing inside the icicle...?"

"I've only seen it in a photograph... That must be the roots of the World Tree."

"What...?"

Lyfa's eyes narrowed and she sent a sharp look at Kirito's profile, before her commentary continued:

"The roots which went through the ground of Alfheim hang down from the roof of Jötunheimr. So instead of going to the edge of Jötunheimr, this evil-god is taking us right to the center."

"Hmm... The World Tree, but that happens to be our final destination... So if we climb the roots, will we be able to get out of here?"

"I've never heard of it. In the first place, look there— The roots only extend halfway between the ceiling and the ground. That means it is more than 200 meters off of the ground. Since we can't fly in this field, that height absolutely can not be reached."

"I see..."

After a small sigh, Kirito finally laughed helplessly.

"Well, now we just have to leave it to this weevil or bathynomus giganteus. Either we will be welcomed in the Dragon's Palace[2], or we will become their breakfast."

"Hey, wait a minute. What do you mean bathyno whatever? It should be elephant or jellyfish."

When Lyfa pouted and retorted, Kirito just lifted his eyebrows at her unexpected response.

"Oh, you don't know? Its other name is giant isopod...It lives in deep sea, it looks like an Armadillidium vulgare[3] this size..."

Kirito spread his arms out to about hugging length. Lyfa's upper body shook as she rushed to change the topic.

"I understand, let's give it a name! A cute name!"

With a round head and and the lower body of tentacles, elephant-like name, elephant-like name...Lyfa thought really hard on it.

'Yuuzou'... no... 'Zooringen'... not that either...

"Then, Tonkii."

Kirito suddenly said, earning a blank stare from Lyfa. It sure was a cute name, but how on earth did he think of it? —Elephant Tonkii, the name sounded familiar.

The answer came to her in two seconds flat once she started rummaging through her memory. When she was little, she had a picture book, that was the name of an elephant in it. In the book, at the end of the long-ago war, an order had been given to dispose of fierce animals at the zoo. While crying, the zoo keeper put the poison in the animal's feed, but smart elephant Tonkii didn't eat it; it died starving while receiving repeating cheers, that was the plot of the story. Whenever her mom read that part, she couldn't help breaking out in tears.

"...I feel that name won't bring us good luck."

Lyfa whispered, Kirito also nodded his head with a sorry look on his face.

"That may be so, but that was the first thing that came to mind."

"Oh, so you know about that picture book too. Well, ok. Let's use that."

Lyfa clapped her hands, then patted the short hairs near her feet.

"Hey, evil-god-kun, from now on you will be called Tonkii."

Of course, the monster gave no response, but it didn't refuse so they assumed it accepted the name. If you use taming skill on this evil-god and made it a pet, then you can use the system to give it a name. However, she had never even heard of a Cait Sith who had mastered the taming skill that can make an evil-god obey.

Yui, who sat on Kirito`s shoulder, also waved her small hands, and following Lyfa, called out to the hundreds of times larger beast.

"Tonkii-san, nice to meet you! Please take care of us!"

This time, as if it understood or maybe by accident, the evil-god moved the gill flaps on both sides of its head.

The elephant jellyfish, now named Tonkii, continued north along the frozen river.

More than once or twice, they narrowly avoided encounters with other evil-gods loitering in other fields. But, for some reason, the other evil-gods looked from grove of trees or hills at them, then left.

They might have thought that Lyfa and Kirito belonged to Tonkii, but then why would that three-faced evil-god attack Tonkii in the first place? There might have been one or two evil-gods that were the same type as Tonkii, but most of them had forms different from either Tonkii or the giant.

Lyfa turned to her side, wanting to get Kirito's opinion, but the Spriggan had his eyes closed and appeared to be nodding off again. Lyfa readied her fist again and was about to strike, when a thought occurred to her; she took a handfull of snow that had fallen on Tonkii's back.

Before the snowball object could disappear, Lyfa hurriedly shoved it down Kirito's black collar into his back.

"Cold!!"

Hit directly by the cold effect, Kirito shrieked as he jumped up. After saying 'Good Morning' to him, Lyfa asked him about her previous doubt. The Spriggan wore a reproachful look for a while, but before long he spoke while thinking.

"...In other words, even between evil-gods, the ones with human forms and those with bestial forms fight regularly..."

"Possibly... But maybe the humanoid type only attacks the evil-gods of Tonkii's type..."

The Jötunheimr field was only added a month ago as part of a major update, yet most of it is still unexplored due to the high difficulty. If it was some kind of event, it was possible that they were the first players to know of its existence. If it was a normal hunting party that had stumbled upon Tonkii's battle with the giant, they would've just watched the fight, and after Tonkii was killed, they would've probably fought the giant— that would have been the expected outcome.

"Well, only the designer and Tonkii know how this event will end, so let's just let it play out."

After saying so, Kirito flopped back down and used his hands as a pillow and crossed his legs. Yui flew from his shoulder and landed on his chest, lying down in the exact same position as the boy in black. Sighing as she noticed how relaxed the two of them were, Lyfa decided to brace them with a freezing spell if they fell asleep this time. Looking at the clock at the edge of her view, the pale green numbers already went past 3am some time ago.

So far, Lyfa had never stayed in-game later than 2:00 am, and what's ahead is unknown territory. Lyfa gently stroked the short hairs at her feet, having mixed feelings about playing an online game all night for the first time.

The strange evil-god, unaware of what was happening on its back, continued walking at a constant pace...

The advance suddenly stopped at a gentle hill covered in ice and snow.

"Uwaa..."

Moving to the front of Tonkii's head, Lyfa looked forward and unintentionally gasped in surprise.

It was a hole.

The scale wasn't ordinary. A large vertical hole so wide that the far side faded into a misty blue color. Sheer cliffs covered by thick snow and deep ice that was transparent at the top but gradually faded into a light blue color, then through blue to indigo blue and settled into a dark lacquer the further down one looked. But, no matter how one's eyes stared, the bottom was shrouded in a deep darkness, making it appear bottomless.

"...I wonder what would happen if someone fell off that..."

Kirito said in a strained voice. Yui, back on his shoulder, replied in a serious voice:

"The bottom of the structure is not defined in the map data I can access."

"Wow, it truly is a bottomless pit."

Kirito and Lyfa slowly moved back, returning to the top of Tonkii's back. Before that, the evil-god started moving again.

'- No way, does it want to throw us down the hole!?'

Lyfa screamed in her heart, but fortunately, the evil-god didn't seem to be so ungrateful. It folded its twenty legs in and kept its back horizontal as it sat down.

After a few seconds, Tonkii settled down onto the snow with a thud. Yururu, it cried in a low voice, then pulling in its long nose, Tonkii completely stopped moving.

"..."

Kirito and Lyfa glanced at each other, then gingerly climbed off its back.

After a few steps out, they turned around to look back at the jellyfish, but what was lying there was no longer either an elephant or a jellyfish. With its limbs and head tucked under its body, all it looked like was a giant steamed bun enshrined in the snow.

"...This guy, what is he doing..."

Lyfa walked forward a few steps to stand beside Kirito, who uttered that in amazement. She tapped the thick grey fur.

"Hey, Tonkii, what should we do now?!"

No answer. Lyfa swatted the evil-god's side slightly harder with her right hand and felt a slight change. When Tonkii had given them a ride, his skin had been like a urethane cushion, but now, it had become hard.

It can't be, he died when he reached his objective? Thinking that, Lyfa rushed to his side and forced her ear below his fur. A faint, periodic, bass 'boom boom, boom boom' can be heard, relieved, Lyfa removed her head from his side.

He was still alive. Lyfa turned to see his HP gauge had recovered from his battle with the three-faced giant and it's now full.

"This means... he's just sleeping? When we have been working hard all night?"

Lyfa pouted, she went up to Tonkii and was about to pull his fur in revenge, when Kirito raised his voice from behind her.

"Hey Lyfa, look at the top, it's amazing!"

"What....?"

Lyfa raised her head to look at the scene, indeed, it was an amazing sight.

The roots of the World Tree and the inverted cone they wrapped around that they had seen from far earlier were now directly overhead. Though it was still hard to estimate, the diameter of the icicle above was probably about the same as the hole stretching below. Looking very carefully, it was possible to see some sort of structure in the icicle. Transparent halls and corridors were lit by fires, casting bright blue light through the ice.

"Really, amazing... if this is all part of one dungeon, I don't doubt it is the largest in ALO."

Lyfa sighed and unconsciously reached toward it. However, there was of course a space of 200 meters or more to the bottom of the large icicle. It was a distance that even a member of the Imp race, which could fly underground, would not be able to cross.

"How do you get there..."

Lyfa asked Kirito, but before he could answer, the little pixie sitting on the black clad shoulder spoke up with a piercing voice.

"Papa, there are other players approaching from the east! One... no behind that are... twenty-three!"

"...!!"

Lyfa took a deep breath.

Twenty-four people. This is obviously a party formed for hunting evil-gods.

Originally, they are what we wished to encounter. If we told them our situation and they let us join, we could use the dungeon with stairs and escape aboveground.

However, now. In a word, the purpose of players who approach in this situation...

Lyfa bit her lip, staring eastward, and after a few seconds, heard the faint rustling sound of feet moving through snow. It was a sound that would have been inaudible if not for her acute hearing as a member of the Sylph race. She could not see them, so they are probably using stealth magic.

Lyfa quickly held up her hands, preparing to use the magic that would allow her to see them. However, a space no more than ten meters away started to distort like a film of water. A single player appeared.

He was a man with pale white skin that had a bluish cast and long, light blue hair. There was no doubt, he was an Undine. The engravings on his grey leather armor mimicked the appearance of scales, and a small bow hung from his shoulder.

This man is probably responsible for reconnaissance and locating the enemy's position, in other words a scout. Judging from his supple movement and high-grade equipment, you could tell he was a high ranking player.

With a sharp glint in his eyes, the scout stepped forward and said the words Lyfa most feared.

"You guys, that evil-god, are you going to hunt it or not?"

Of course, he was refering to Tonkii, who was curled up in a ball next to Lyfa.

When Lyfa did not answer, the man's countenance grew even sharper, and he continued.

"If you are going to kill it, then do it quickly. Otherwise, get out of the way, or you will get caught up in our ranged attacks."

Before finishing those words, many footsteps sounded from the ridge behind the man. It seems the main force of the party had caught up.

If they were a party formed by mixed races in the neutral zone, there was still hope...

But Lyfa's hopes were quickly betrayed as more than twenty players walked across the snow. They all had the same white skin and blue hair. In other words, they were an elite Undine evil-god hunting team, probably from «Crescent Moon Bay», far to the east.

If it was a mixed force formed by «renegades» who had left their territory, they might have overlooked the combination of a Sylph and a Spriggan. But if they were all honorable members of the Undine race, they wouldn't be quite so nice. They might actually accumulate "honor points" if they kill the mixed group of Lyfa and Kirito. They would probably just consider the two of them fair game. Thus we could be thankful they bothered to warn us.

'- But, for now we just have to be unreasonable. We couldn't let them kill our companion, Tonkii.'

Lyfa thought so from the bottom of her heart, and moved between Tonkii and the blue-haired scout, and said in a low voice:

"...I ask at the risk of bad manners. This evil-god, let us have it."

Hearing that, the man and the battalion of players behind him showed a light, bitter smile.

"In the lower-level hunting grounds maybe, but saying this in Jötunheimr is something else. 'This place is mine' and 'This monster is mine' have no meaning here. If you came here, you should be a veteran and should understand."

What the man was saying was quite right. Insisting on the right to a field or monster, if the situation was reversed Lyfa would be amazed too. Of course, priority was granted when in battle with a monster, but right now Tonkii was just curled up and the Undines want to attack, Lyfa had no right to interfere.

It was painful. As Lyfa was biting her lips, a shadow moved forward. It was Kirito.

Lyfa suddenly sucked in a deep breath. No way, was he going to do something unreasonable again, like when he confronted General Eugene and the Salamanders, that was— would he fight them? Would he draw his sword against so many opponents?

It would be a useless fight. There were twenty-four players in front of them, and they must all be super veterans or they wouldn't be here in Jötunheimr. They were on a completely different level then those Salamanders in the Ruger corridor. Heavily armored warriors and mages with their staffs showed the difference clearly.

However, the actions taken by Kirito were totally unexpected.

The black clad Spriggan, without touching his sword, knelt on the snow and bowed his head.

"I beg of you."

The voice that left his mouth was entirely serious.

"...Although the cursor is yellow, this evil-god is our companion... No, our friend. We came all the way here after it almost died. Till the end, we want it to do what it has to."

With that, Kirito bowed his head more deeply, the blue haired scout closed his eyes for a second.

When he opened them, he let out an enormous gale of laughter. A laugh quickly echoed by the pack of players approaching from behind him.

"Hey... hey, are you really a player? You`re not a NPC, right?"

With a final laugh, the scout spread his hands and shook his head. Then reached over his shoulder and removed his elegantly designed bow. He drew a silver arrow from his quiver and notched it to his bow.

"...Sorry, but we are not just playing around in this field. Just a little while ago, we were wiped out by a huge evil-god. It was very hard to collect all the Remain Lights and restore our party. When I see easy prey in front of me, I want to hunt it. Because I'm a nice guy... I'll give you ten seconds to get out of the way. When that time is over, we won't see you anymore. Mage team, begin casting support magic."

The man waved his hand, and the players in the back row began casting spells. One after another, colorful light effects appeared, granting various stat boosts to the warriors.

"Ten...Nine... Eight..."

The noise level increased severalfold with the sound of the magic as the scout's loud countdown began.

Lyfa`s fists clenched so hard her knuckles creaked and her whole body trembled with anger. Facing Kirito's back, Lyfa exclaimed:

"...Let's back up, Kirito."

"...Ok."

Kirito whispered with his head down, he turned west, moving along the edge of the bottomless pit. Lyfa also walked with him, side by side. The scout continued the countdown behind them.

"Three...Two... One... Begin attacking."

With no fighting spirit, she heard the calm instruction, and after that...

The sound of ferocious attack magics overlapped with metallic sounds that echoed as the warriors launched their assault.

Right behind their backs, a succession of overwhelming explosions shook the ground followed by a blast of hot air that sent Lyfa's green ponytail streaming in front of her.

Kirito and Lyfa turned after they had moved about 30 steps away.

At that moment, the warriors' swords, axes, spears and other weapons hit Tonkii's big body, one after another. Intense light effects and heavy impact sound effects followed the attacks. Despite having the defense of an evil-god, the repeated attacks from players with high-level equipment was taking its toll. Tonkii's HP steadily decreased.

The eight warriors continued to attack for several seconds before moving back some distance. As soon as the warriors moved away, the second volley of attack magic was completed and released along with arrows from several archers.

The magic caused a terrible explosion which completely swallowed Tonkii, even though he was more than four meters in height. With a pillar of flame, the glossy fur was burnt, scorching it. With that, around ten percent of Tonkii's total HP was gone.

Over the sound of the flames, they could hear the flute-like Yururuuu, Yururuuu, roar.

That was definitely Tonkii's cry. It was even thinner and more tragic than when he was being overwhelmed by the three-faced evil-god.

Not wanting to watch any more, Lyfa turned her face to the left.

Doing that, a scene that pricked her heart was seen. Kirito stood with his hands in fists, from his breast pocket, the little pixie, Yui, showed her face and clenched her hands over the rim of the pocket.

Her pretty face was distorted by grief, from her dark eyes tear after tear came dripping down. Watching the tear streaked pixie holding back her screams while her shoulders shook, Lyfa felt something hot ooze from her eyes.

'- If only the Undine forces were just a ruthless PK group!'

Then Lyfa could hate them. So she could swear that she would take revenge for the dying Tonkii.

But now they are just exercising their legitimate rights as players of an MMO. Killing monsters to earn money and experience was the first reason for playing, it originated in the table RPG games from many years ago, and hadn't changed over the years, eventually it evolved into FullDive type games. Neither the manners nor rules of ALfheim permitted Lyfa to speak against the Undines.

However, even if he was a monster, since he became a friend and a travelling companion, what kind of manners won't let you protect him? 'This child is a friend so don't kill him', if we couldn't say that, what was the meaning of the rules?

Lyfa believed that even in this world, there was «freedom of spirit». Lyfa believed it was possible to show feelings here that you would never expose in the real world. However, as players increased their status, donned rarer and more powerful equipment, their rank increased, but at the same time, their wings were bound by chains. At one time, even those Undines were beginning players who didn't know right from left, when they saw non-active monsters in the field, some might have thought that they were cute and not want to kill them.

With attacks that sound continuous, Lyfa stood inconsolably. As the attacks got louder, Tonkii's cries, which were inversely proportional, become more and more feeble. Tonkii's HP had already sunk below 50%. There were two minutes— no, sixty seconds left.

"...Kirito-kun."

"Lyfa."

They spoke almost simultaneously.

Lyfa raised her eyes to met the Spriggan's black pupils and said:

"...I'm going to help."

"I'll go too."

'Your goal is Aarun so run away', Lyfa swallowed back her words and nodded her head. If the two of them interfere, they will be dead in ten seconds or less. There was no meaning behind their actions.

But, like with Kirito, Lyfa's beliefs won't let her sit on the sidelines and do nothing. They had saved Tonkii from the three-faced giant and Tonkii had saved them in return. Even if the evil-god is nothing more than a bunch of code buried in a corner of the server, they had became friends, and even given it a name, there was no way they could just stand there and watch him die, or else there was no point in playing VRMMOs.

"...You know, today I'll help you travel from Sylvain to Aarun again."

Lyfa said quickly, Kirito nodded and put a hand to his sword's hilt.

"Thank you. ...Yui, hide well."

"Yes... Papa, Lyfa-san... good luck!"

Yui hid deep in Kirito's pocket, the pixie's face now free of tears. Kirito and Lyfa drew their swords at the same time. At the sharp metallic sound, an Undine mage at the side turned with a questioning look.

We will go after the low defense mages first. Confirmed by eye contact, they both dashed forward at full speed. Snow scattered high as the air shook with the force of their passage.

Lyfa too moved at the limit of her speed bringing down her katana with both hands as she reached her target.

"Eyaa!!"

Down came the katana with fierce momentum. Like green lightning, the katana bit into the shoulder of the mage on the back left edge.

The light blue robe he wore was a considerably rare piece of equipment, and his HP was only reduced by about 30%. As he went to raise his staff, a black flash hit his body horizontally. A bit later, a loud booming attack sound effect was heard. His HP was reduced another 40% by one of Kirito's godspeed blows with his greatsword.

Not showing any mercy, Lyfa relentlessly continued to attack the player floating silently through the air. With each hit, the mage's HP decreased until with a final blow it became zero.

Then in a column of blue water the Mage's avatar disappeared. All that remained was a Remain Light, and brushing it off, Lyfa turned to the next enemy.

At this point, the other mages who were focused on attacking Tonkii with long range spells finally seem to notice that something was wrong. With a dumbfounded expression, one started yelling.

"...Are you serious?"

"Well, what do you... think!"

Shouting in response, Lyfa kicked snow.

They were indeed the Undine elite troops, their reaction speed was very fast. They stopped the long incantations, and switched to high-speed short range spells. However, Lyfa and Kirito`s speed was slightly higher. In position to use the second mage as a shield, they continued their sword crossing attacks. The Mages still released their spells, but the most that happened was that their clothes were grazed as the mages were using the type of magic that moved in straight lines.

Lyfa frowned as one or two homing-type spells, which were mixed in, scored direct hits. Killing her second mage, Lyfa turned to see Kirito already moving on to his next target. With a swing of his sword, Kirito broke the ground, sending snow flying in all directions.

Suddenly, there came a sound as a silver arrow sank into Kirito`s left shoulder.

Turning around to look at the scout leader, standing a fair distance away, who with a straight face readied a second arrow. Opening his mouth, he loudly ordered:

"Warrior team, fall back! The mage team is under attack!"

The second arrow shot toward Lyfa`s chest, silver trailing it like a meteor. Too fast to dodge, she blocked it with her left arm. Thunk! With the sound of impact, Lyfa's HP was reduced by more than ten percent. While she was staggering, a high pressure stream of water that was more like a laser pierced her right leg. Of course, Lyfa did not feel any pain, but her face contorted with the unpleasant numbness.

As Kirito fought his third opponent, who had already lost more than half of his HP, he was engulfed in an ice tornado. Lyfa got close, ready to use recovery magic, but found the mages gathered in preparation for a large-scale magic attack. Moreover, the warriors who had been attacking Tonkii came rushing over with the look of demons.

'- Is this as far as we go?'

Nearly fifty seconds had already passed since the battle began, and they have fought well considering the number of opponents. With this, Tonkii would no doubt forgive them.

Lyfa shut her eyes and laid her head on Kirito's chest, waiting for the moment that sword, arrow or magic would blow their HP away.

However, before the sound of attacks, the flute sound of a cry tens of thousands of times louder was heard. The intensely cold air shivered, the sound echoing off the distant snow covered mountains, it was definitely Tonkii's cry, but it was totally different from his earlier weak cries.

It couldn't be, had Tonkii finally died? Lyfa thought as she turned her pained face to the top of the hill.

That oval body was engraved with many scars, but one was especially long and deep. As she watched that crack extended until the ends connected.

"Oh..."

Lyfa whispered. She had expected to see the black blood of the evil-god gushing out of the crack on its body.

But—

Gushing out, was pure white, dazzling light.

The white light shot out accompanied by a high-pitched resonance that enveloped warriors, mages, and scouts, not sparing a single Undine. The aura of support magic surrounding their bodies became smoke and dissipated and the effects of attack magic evaporated.

...Dispel Field!

A special ability that only high-level boss monsters possessed. For a low-level evil-god's ability, it was way too strong. Not understanding what was happening, Lyfa, Kirito and the 22 Undines were frozen for an instant.

With all eyes gathered, the light that covered Tonkii's body silently dispersed. No, that's not it. Only its thick, hard husk blew off. The continuing light source stretched out like a spiral minaret.

The tip of the the spiral of light moved, and she understood.

That the source of light, the pure white strips, were eight glowing wings expanded radially, four on each side.

"...Tonkii..."

Seeming like it heard Lyfa, the unchanged elephant-like face lifted away from the wings. Its long nose held high and its fluttering ears spread wide—

Yurururuuu. The loud sound once again emanated from the evil-god who was no longer a jellyfish. With a flap of the eight wings, it soared skyward.

The once round body is now sleek and streamlined. Of the 20 tentacles that once hung down from its stomach, they were no longer clawed feelers, but more like the vines of a plant. Its HP, which had decreased to about 10% was recovered to full.

After reaching around ten meters in height, Tonkii hovered for a moment, when, without warning its color shifted until it was emitting a blue glow.

"Ah... That's bad..."

Kirito whispered that, then he suddenly twisted round to grab Lyfa and dragged her down to the snow.

Just after that, Tonkii released a truly massive thunderbolt from each of its legs, one after another.

Without even having time to scream, the Undines were struck and blown apart with the noise. Some mages and archers were blown to pieces in a single hit, but the warriors seemed to have endured.

"Retreat to the bottom of the hill! Close battle formation for healing and support!"

The scout commander, seeing no chance of recovery, shouted. Of the less than twenty people who survived, all ran down the slope together. The warriors built shield walls while the remaining mages started chanting behind them.

However, Tonkii slowly glided through the air catching up, this time filled with a pure white light.

Kuaa... echoes as rings of light rained down, disabling any magical powers. Also, any incomplete incantations turned into smoke and dissipated.

"Goddamn it!!"

The scout leader, shouted having finally lost his composure. He raised his hand toward the sky. Arrows of smoke burst out, creating a smokescreen, hiding all of the Undines.

"Retreat, retreat!!"

While that order was shouted, the Undine forces fled in a straight line, clearly visible from where Lyfa stood. Their escape was also very quick, and they soon disappeared over the ridge in the distance.

Of course, for the Tonkii who could now fly, catching up to players trying to escape on the ground would be easy. But it just issued a cry of victory, then flapped four wings on one side to change direction.

Then it flew slowly until it hovered just over the heads of Lyfa and Kirito. From the now mostly white elephant head, three pairs eyes shifted to look down at them.

"...So, what should we do now?"

Kirito said something that she had heard before.

Tonkii simply elongated its nose, answered him. Its nose stretched and wrapped around Lyfa and Kirito, lifting them without an explanation. 'That's what I thought!' While thinking that, they were dropped down on its back, landing on their behinds at the same time with a don sound.

They looked at each other and sheathed their swords. Lyfa began stroking its white fur. Maybe it was just her imagination, the fur now seemed to be longer and even more supple than before.

"...After all that, it's good that you are alive, Tonkii."

Lyfa said, then Yui stuck her head out of Kirito`s pocket, clapped her hands said:

"I'm really glad too! Alive means good things will happen!"

"That would be nice..."

Kirito said while looking up and down.

After this, Tonkii would probably go somewhere. Ahead, was the big hole in the center of Jötunheimr— If that was his destination, it would get more confusing. Fortunately, after a shout, he headed above, in the direction of the roots of the World Tree.

Every time it beat its wave-like wings, its hair wrapped close to its body, the great evil-god began to rise through the air. It flew upward in a spiral, until Lyfa was able to the see the entire region of Jötunheimr.

"Wow..."

Lyfa could not help but exclaim. She began to glance over the beautiful and deadly ice world.

In this area, flight was not possible, so to see the view from such a high altitude was something that only Lyfa and Kirito had ever seen. Lyfa subconsciously opened her menu window to bring out an item to take a picture, but she thought again and stopped herself. Perspective views can be preserved through the screenshots, but the mood at this time could not be recorded. The sorrow and joy, melancholy and feeling of freedom were all mixed together to form a feeling of wonder.

Whether Tonkii knew how Lyfa was feeling or not, he slowed down his speed a bit and made a small turn, then once again strengthened the force of the wings.

Suddenly, from above an object entered her vision at close range. Lyfa couldn't immediately make it out.

The transparent ice blue inverted crystal cone. It was wrapped around by black mesh tube-like things, the roots of the World Tree.

According to the close distance effect, the length of the huge icicle is roughly two hundred meters or more. As they speculated on the ground, it was internally divided into several sections, forming an ice dungeon.

Without a sound, Lyfa opened her eyes wide, carefully inspecting it. Suddenly, at the icicle's bottom— inside the sharp point, a flash of golden light caught her attention.

No matter how much she concentrated, she couldn't make it out. Lyfa unconsciously raised her right hand, incanting a short spell.

Water started gushing out of her hands, immediately freezing to form a flat crystal. Kirito quickly turned to face her and asked:

"What is it?"

"A type of distance viewing magic made with an ice crystal. Here, look at the tip of that huge icicle, you can see something shining..."

After hearing this, Kirito took a closer look through the lens. The shaking golden light slowly steadied, finally leaving a clear image.

"Oh WOW!"

Once she saw the true nature of the light, Lyfa gave a squeal like a little girl.

Sealed in the tip of the icicle, stood a fearful yet beautiful transparent golden blade. Judging by the phosphorescence that wrapped around the blade and its minute decoration, it was clear that it was a legendary sword. No, even before that, Lyfa already knew the name of the sword.

"That is the «Holy Sword Excaliber». I've seen a picture of it on the official ALO website... It is the only sword that surpasses General Eugene's «Demonic Sword Gram», the one and only strongest sword... As far as I know, no one has ever been able to discover its location."

"S, Strongest..."

With Lyfa explaining with a voice so full of wonder. Kirito swallowed his saliva and gulped nervously.

The sealed sword was located at the bottom of a spiral staircase, which appeared to be connected to the icicle dungeon. That is to say, only someone who fought through the entire dungeon could obtain the ultimate sword.

The evil-god, Tonkii, carrying the two fairies, circled the icicle and rose in a spiral. Peeling her eyes away from the holy sword, Lyfa looked up and discovered two things.

The first thing Lyfa saw was a platform-shaped balcony protruding from the middle of the icicle. Tonkii's flight path would pass near it. It was very possible to jump off Tonkii onto that balcony.

Second, at the top of the ice-covered Jötunheimr was a hanging root with carved stairs. The stairs kept going up and continue past the ceiling. It was definitely an escape route that would lead to the aboveground area of Alfheim.

There was no connection between the stairs leading aboveground and the balcony leading to the dungeon. If you jumped to the balcony for a chance at the holy sword, then there wouldn't be a way to get to the stairs.

Kirito seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion. His eyes kept darting back and forth between the balcony and the escape stairs. While doing that, they approached the balcony. After twenty... no... if they don't make a decision in ten seconds...

In silence, Tonkii arrived at the balcony, he flew horizontally as if to give them the chance. For VRMMO players like Kirito and Lyfa, their first instinct was to jump down, and their bodies shook.

—But of course, they did not jump off.

They looked at each other, wearing slightly embarrassed smiles, then Lyfa spoke.

"...We must come here again, but with lots of comrades."

"You are right. This dungeon is perhaps the most difficult place in all of Jötunheimr. With just by the two of us, there is no way we can breakthrough."

"Ah, you, have way too much regret!"

While the two laughed, Tonkii went past the balcony without confusion and continued to rise. Looking down past the square entry of the dungeon, there was a shadow of a terrible evil-god. It resembled the three-faced giant that had attacked Tonkii, but it appeared to be a much stronger humanoid type.

Perhaps the strongest monster in the deepest dungeon of Jötunheimr is from the same species. The evil-god seems to be a type that Tonkii's species viewed with hostility, maybe that's why they were responsible for transporting players here. That was also why the giant was trying to kill Tonkii before it evolved.

If they joined an evil-god hunting party and mechanically fought, they would never think of only killing the giant-type monsters, and saving the elephant jellyfish type. If just the two of them didn't fall down here, this event, no, this friendship wouldn't have happened.

While she was speculating, Tonkii approached the canopy. The root with the carved staircase was clearly visible, hanging down from the corner of the icicle.

With a Yururu, Tonkii spread its wings and slowed down. Hovering, it extended its nose, winding it around the tree root near the stairs like a rope, and stopped.

Seeing the wooden stairs shake, Lyfa stood up.

Naturally taking Kirito's hand in her own, they moved to the bottom step.

With a little shake, Tonkii confirmed the loss of its burden and uncoiled his nose from the root. It turned around high above getting ready to dive.

As it turned, Lyfa grabbed the tip of the huge receding nose in one hand.

"...I'll come again, Tonkii. Take care until then. Don`t let the other evil-gods bully you."

When done whispering, Lyfa let go. Kirito grabbed the trunk and Yui even flew out of his breast pocket, grasping a bunch of the fur which hung off its nose with both small hands.

"We will talk a lot again, Tonkii-san."

The pixie smiled as she spoke. The evil-god answered with a Furururu and turned, folding its wings.

It descended at a tremendous speed, shrinking in moments.

Wings shining one last time, the mysterious evil-god faded into the darkness of Jötunheimr. Surely, now it will be able to live free from torment, flying freely through the sky. And, if we ever had the chance to return to this place and call out to him, he would surely give us a ride on his back again.

Lyfa wiped the tears that had begun to trickle out of the corner of her eyes, and meeting Kirito's eyes, started to laugh.

"Let`s go! I am pretty sure that Aarun is above!"

After listening to the vibrant words, Kirito stretched and replied:

"Well, lets finish the last leg of this journey... Lyfa, when we get to the top, let's keep what we know about the holy sword secret."

"Oh you, saying something to ruin this important moment..."

The black clad Spriggan shrugged his shoulders, while still holding hands, started running up the spiral stairs through the root.

The trip that took less than three minutes when falling through the gigantic earthworm, was much more time consuming when journeying on foot. As they walked up a path dimly lit by glowing mushrooms, she soon gave up counting the steps. After more than ten minutes, a thin streak of bright light appeared ahead.

Kirito and Lyfa looked at each other, and with a final spurt rushed to the exit. Taking two steps at a time, they stuck their heads out of a hole in the wall of the tree.

Jumping out of the stairway, they found themselves on a moss-covered stone terrace. They did a full turn from the momentum, then sat down on the stone pavement.

After opening their eyes which were closed the second they emerged, they took in the sight in front of them—

It was the night view of a beautiful, majestic city.

As if the remains of an ancient civilization, stone buildings of various sizes spread out in all directions. Yellow fires, blue magic lights, and pink mineral lights twinkled everywhere as though stardust had been sprinkled over the city. There was no unity of race among the silhouettes of the players moving around under this light, but an equal number of each of the nine fairy races.

After taking in the city at night, Lyfa lifted her face.

Upon the dark blue of the night sky, a shadow in the form of a tree split the night.

"...The World Tree..."

Lyfa whispered, she looked at Kirito beside her and continued:

"...No doubt, this is «Aarun». The center of ALfheim. This world's largest city."

"Yes. ...We are finally here."

Kirito nodded his head, Yui stuck her face out of his pocket, revealing a brilliant smile.

"Wow! This is the first time I am in a city with so many people!"

It was the same for Lyfa. The many people who left their home territory and enjoyed adventures freely, she had never thought of it before.

The two of them just sat on the edge of the terrace, enjoying the ambiance of the bustling city.

Soon, the heavy sound of a pipe organ sounded, breaking Lyfa out of her introspection. That was followed by a female voice floating down from the heavens. 'This is a notice of the regular weekly maintenance, which occurs at 4 am, the server will be closed', a system announcement. Lyfa had never stayed logged on so long before, so this was the first time she had heard it.

Truly, a lot of 'first times' happened since yesterday. While thinking that, Lyfa moved her legs forward, and stood up.

"We should stop here today. Let's find an inn and logout."

Kirito stood up, and nodding once, the Spriggan asked:

"When does the maintenance end?"

"It lasts until noon today."

"I see..."

After looking down lightly, Kirito suddenly stared at the sky.

The branches of the world tree opened, springing in every direction.

Kirito's black eyes narrowed slightly, his mouth seemed to move, seeing that, Lyfa remembered his reason for coming to ALfheim.

He wants to meet «someone» at the top of the World Tree.

I wonder who that is. If it's not a quest NPC, it might be a staff member on the operating side, or...

Before she can think any further, Kirito had resumed his earlier expression and said:

"Let's find an inn. I am poor now, someplace not too luxurious would be nice."

"...Acting cool, you gave all of your money to the two lords? At least keep some living expenses!"

Lyfa laughed at his predicament, then said to Yui in his breast pocket.

"That's what your papa said. Is there a cheap inn nearby?"

Strangely, the Navigation Pixie had crinkled her eyebrows in a frown, looking at the world tree, she soon smiled and answered.

"Yes, down there seems to be a place that is super cheap!"

"S, super cheap..."

Not caring about Lyfa's hesitation, Kirito began to walk briskly, so she followed.

Though she should be feeling sleepy from staying up too late, she felt a bit uneasy and looked at the world tree once again.

Of course, with the foliage lost in the night sky, there was nothing to see.