Chapter 90 - Caliber (Part 1)

Alfheim, December 2025

"Onii-chan, look at this."

With that sound, Suguha handed me a thin tablet terminal. I looked at it sleepily.

I went to sleep like normal last night, but it seemed like I had a long dream. Maybe it was due to that, this morning at the breakfast table, I had to use strong coffee to forcefully turn my thinking gears that refused to move. However in this situation, a small warning lamp lit in part of my head, and I hesitated whether to accept the tablet or not.

Because about two weeks ago, in a similar situation and timing, when she handed me a hard copy, it was my secret misdeed—not exactly that serious, but Suguha silently collected evidence of my character conversion from flight type VRMMO «ALfheim Online» (ALO) to the gun battle VRMMO «Gun Gale Online» (GGO). 'Is this the same as that time, but what have I done recently', while thinking that, Suguha said with a bitter smile.

"I am not going to hang you, this time. Just look at it!"

I fearfully accepted the tablet that was held out again, and took a peek.

It displayed the same thing as the previous hard copy, a news story from the country's largest VRMMORPG information site «MMO Tomorrow». However, the page category was not GGO but ALO. When I looked at the first article screenshot, I saw not a player avatar but a landscape. So it was true, it wasn't a story of a certain Spriggan dressed in black.

Relieved, I read the headline of the article.

However right after, I suffered a different kind of shock, and raised my voice when I finished.

"Wh... Whattt!"

[The Strongest Legendary Weapon «Holy Sword Excaliber», Discovered At Last!].

It was written down on the article like that.

I forgot my previous fatigue and read the text as if devouring it, and a long moan escaped from my mouth.

"Uh—huh... they found it at last..."

"Well, I still think it took them a long time."

Opposite of me, Suguha spread blueberry jam on her toast, and responded with a pout.

«Holy Sword Excaliber».

It was the only weapon in ALO that is said to surpass «Demonic Sword Gram» which the Salamander general Eugene had. However for a long time, other than a small description and picture at the bottom of the weapon introduction section on the official game site, how to obtain it in the game was unknown.

—No, to be exact, there were only three players that knew, that's not right, four people. Suguha, Asuna, Yui, and me. We found it at the beginning of this year, in January 2025. Since it was now December 28th, the secret of Excaliber had been kept for nearly a full year.

"Ah... if it is like this, we should have challenged it again..."

While complaining, I shoved my spoon into the jar of homemade jam which Suguha gave me and scooped the purple jelly onto my toast. Then I spread some whipped butter, making a marbled design. Recently trying to control her calorie intake, Suguha discretely watched me prepare my toast and tried to endure while comparing the toast in her right hand, but her willpower's saving roll[1] apparently failed, and without a word she pulled the butter jar toward herself.

Trying to show that she could at least control the amount, she carefully spread the butter sparingly. Suguha took a bite of that toast and corrected my misunderstanding.

"Keep reading, it has still only been found. It seems that no one has acquired it yet."

"What."

I who was going to take a big bite into my toast, stopped my hand and stared at the tablet on the table again. It was written in the article that the existence of Excaliber was confirmed, but there was nothing saying that somebody had gotten it. Thinking about it, if a player had acquired it, the article picture would be a screen shot of those guys proudly holding that golden sword.

"I see, don't scare me..."

I mumbled as I took a big bite of my toast this time, and let out a cry of relief. Seeing that, Suguha laughed at my impatience, took the milk carton and poured it into the glass in front of me.

Today is Sunday, December 28, 2025, 9:30AM. For both Suguha and me, it was the start of winter break, so we were having a slightly late breakfast. Mother seems to have some proofreading left to complete this year, so she flew out of the house earlier with a toast in her mouth. The e-books without the need for a printing office had both advantages and disadvantages.

Father, whose job took him to New York, was busy as usual, sent an e-mail saying that he was returning home on the 30th. When it was just Suguha and me at the table, our conversation naturally drifted toward ALO, as usual.

After finishing my first piece of toast, I spoke of my doubts as I spread my second toast with tuna this time.

"But, then how did they find it? Flight is impossible in Jötunheimr, but Excaliber is at a height where it can only be seen with flight."

A year ago, after departing from the Sylph capital and while aiming for the central city Alne, Suguha (Leafa) and I (Kirito) finally saw the world tree. But we were immediately swallowed by a giant worm monster, and passed through its digestive tract, then dropped into the Underworld, Jötunheimr.

We fell into a field populated with giant evil-god class monsters which we could not possibly defeat, and as we tried to reach the stairs to above ground, we came across a very strange scene. A humanoid type evil-god with four arms was attacking an evil-god that looked like a jellyfish with a long nose and the head of an elephant.

Leafa had shouted "Help the one being bullied!", and I who had drawn the four armed one into a nearby lake, and when it reached the water, the jellyfish evil-god won. Far from attacking us, that fellow who Leafa named «Tonkii» took us on its back, and carried us to the center of Jötunheimr. Tonkii, who underwent an «emergence»[2] from a pupa, flew while carrying Leafa and me to a walkway leading through the canopy to above ground—in the middle of that, we saw it. A huge inverted pyramid dungeon wrapped in the roots of the World Tree hung from the canopy, sealed in a sparkling crystal at the very bottom was a golden sword.

Suguha seemed to have relived that memory along with me, and with upturned eyes, said with a smile.

"Onii-chan, at that time you were really at a loss. Whether to return to the ground or jump off Tonkii and try to go through the dungeon and get Excaliber."

"W... Well, I hesitated... But I dare say it, people who don't hesitate there, I won't recognize them as real net gamers!"

"Those words are not very cool."

Suguha made that assessment while smiling, and looked down seemingly lost in thought. Apparently she was not at a loss on what to spread on her second piece of toast though, for she reached for the tube of tuna spread and whispered.

"...Tonkii will only come if Onii-chan or I call. ...I have not heard of anyone finding another way to fly in Jötunheimr. Does this mean, someone has saved another elephant jellyfish evil-god like us and succeeded in obtaining the quest flag..."

"It might be like that... That disgusting... no, unique form evil-god being saved by a whimsical... no, philanthropist person other than Sugu, I am surprised they exist."

"He isn't disgusting! He is cute!"

While glaring at me, my supposed-to-be 16 year old sister declared that and continued speaking.

"But, with this, I think it is just a matter of time before someone successfully breaks through the dungeon and gets the sword. It was not discovered until today because it is hard to understand the conditions for the flag activation, but a year has passed and there was the update that introduced Sword Skills, so the degree of difficulty of the dungeon itself should have decreased."

"You... are right..."

Taking a sip of my milk, I nodded.

It was January this year that we found Excaliber. After that, the administration of ALO was transferred from RECTO Progress to its current venture company, then there was the addition of the Floating Castle Aincrad, causing a huge change in the game. When things finally calmed down in June, Leafa, Asuna, Yui, and I got on Tonkii's back again and challenged the dungeon to obtain the Holy Sword Excaliber.

And failed miserably. That aerial inverted pyramid dungeon was full of the boss type of giant four-armed humanoid evil-gods that had bullied Tonkii, they were so strong as to make us want to cry out "No way―!". The three of us plus one had gone ahead of time, not to challenge it but to scout it out. At that time we determined that it was impossible, so we swore we would "Challenge it again after we became stronger."—But.

The first ten levels of Aincrad were opened when it was put into the game, with up to the 20th level opened up until September, so our plans were focused there. We sometimes went to Jötunheimr to collect materials, and incidentally called Tonkii to play with it, but about Excaliber, since no one else was going after it—or more like no one has found it, a year had passed by like that.

However, in MMORPGs, it is impossible for items to never be found. The details were still unclear, but since the location of the sword appeared on the news site like that at last, a lot of players would be rushing to Jötunheimr, some of which might have already entered the aerial dungeon.

"...What are you going to do, Onii-chan?"

Suguha asked, lifting her glass of milk with both hands after she finished off her second toast.

Against that, I cleared my throat to respond.

"Sugu, pursuing rare items isn't the only pleasures of VRMMOs."

"...Yeah, that's true. Even if the weapon specs are strong..."

"However, I think we must answer the feelings of Tonkii, who showed us the sword. As for that fellow, surely he hopes we will break through the dungeon. Because to us, Tonkii is a friend, right."

"...Earlier, you said he was disgusting..."

I asked my younger sister with damp eyes, and the biggest possible smile.

"So, Sugu, are you free today?"

"...Well, my club is on break."

Good! I punched my right fist into my left palm. And changing the gears of my thoughts, I started talking about the capture strategy really quickly.

"The maximum number of people Tonkii could reliably carry is seven. So, with Sugu and me, Asuna, Klein, Silica, and Lis... that leaves one more person. Agil is busy with his shop... Chrysheight is unreliable, Recon is at the Sylph capital..."

"...How about try to invite Sinon-san."

"That's it!"

I snapped my fingers and immediately took out my cell phone, scrolling through the phone book.

Earlier this month, I was involved in a certain case in GGO - «Gun Gale Online», and converted Kirito, I met a female player named Sinon there. After solving the case, Sinon became friends with Lis and Asuna, who invited her to make a character in ALO.

But since it is a new character that has only been used for two weeks since it was made, for an all skill system like ALO, the average of many of her numerical stats was still low. But with Sinon's senses, she should be able to stand tall even in very difficult dungeons.

Opposite me, who was sending e-mails at maximum speed, Suguha quickly stacked the plates and glasses, and took them to the kitchen. It might be just my imagination, but her footsteps had a bounce to them. Perhaps, no matter what she says, she was planning it to turn out like this when she showed me the news.

Diving into the other world with my companions, challenging a difficult and thrilling mission. Something more fun than this would be hard to find.

Once I had finished sending an invitation to five people, including Sinon, via e-mail, I did a short run to the kitchen to help Suguha.

Even though it's a Sunday, to so easily gather a seven people party in the year-end morning, it must by the inviter's natural virtue—no, it must be the result of the «Holy Sword Excaliber» strongly calling out to their gamer souls. Compared to half a year ago when Asuna, Leafa, Yui, and I challenged it, this time we have more people and our individual stats are far higher.

Our meeting place was at Yggdrasil City's main street, where a signboard stating «Lisbeth's Arms Shop» was. The Leprechaun storekeeper was sharpening everyone's weapons in order on a whetstone wheel. Before a large-scale quest, it was common sense to revive the durability of our equipment to the max.

To that Salamander katana user, Klein, who was sitting on the bench next the wall with legs crossed, with the excuse of «cheering up», and tilting a wine bottle back in the morning—of course, even so not one milliliter of alcohol entered his real body—the Cait Sith Beastmaster Silica, who had the fluffy blue dragon on her head, asked him.

"Klein-san, are you already on New Year vacation?"

"As of yesterday. There are no loads at this time even if I want to work. Our president is proud of our super white company having a week of vacation before and after year-end!"

Even looking like that, Klein is a proper member-of-society employee that works at a small import company. He always speaks ill of his company President, but he was taken good care of during his two years of imprisonment in SAO, and after Klein returned alive, he was immediately able to return to work, so it must be a good company. Klein also seems to feel indebted to him, and recently developed a long distance presentation system using a mobile camera and «the seed» package. For me who helped a lot in modifying that camera, only treating me to all-you-can-eat roasted meat once was a bit hard to swallow, but I will call it even for him helping me with today's quest—.

Leaning against the wall while I thought, the object of my thought, Klein, looked at me and said.

"Hey Kirito, if we succeed today in getting «Holy Sword Excaliber», next time you can help me get «Spirit Katana Kagutsuchi»."

"What... that dungeon is damn hot..."

"If you say that then Jötunheimr we are going to today is damn cold!"

While we were having our low-level argument, a subdued voice came from the left.

"Ah, then I want that «Light Bow Shekhinah»."

I looked at the person who stopped talking. Leaning on the wall with her back same as me, standing with arms crossed, from short light blue hair, grew sharp triangle shaped ears, was a female Cait Sith player. If Silica was a friendly munchkin type, then this was a cool Siamese cat—no, she would be a ferocious wildcat.

"You only made your character two weeks ago, and you already desire a legendary weapon?"

In response to my question, the wildcat's slim long tail moved in a waving motion and answered.

"The bow Lis made is wonderfully constructed, but I would like it to have a little more range if possible..."

At that moment, from the workbench deep in her workshop, Lisbeth who was just then changing the string on that bow turned around and replied with a forced smile.

"You there, the bows in this world, are a weapon with more range than a spear but less range than magic! Aiming at more than 100 meters away is just not normal!"

In contrast, the wildcat just shrugged, and put on an unruffled smiled.

"What I would really like is double that range."

At her home base in GGO, she was an over 2000 meters ultra long-range sniper, knowing that, I could not help but make a stiff smile. If she really got that bow, in duels without area range limit, before you can bring a sword into range, you would be shot with arrows like a hedgehog and that would be the END.

The water color haired wildcat—is a new friend, Sinon that came to ALO two weeks ago, with just one day of practice, she fully mastered the hard to use bow. Speaking of archers in ALO, it can be mobile Sylphs with short bows, or Gnomes who excel in endurance and strength using a heavy ballista as a mobile battery, she totally ignored those theories and instead focused on range with a longbow, choosing to be a Cait Sith, the race with the best eyesight out of the nine for her build. Thinking of letting her do what she wants at the beginning and other things, but seeing her arrows hitting in longer range than fire-attribute magic, and killing monsters before they can approach her, I ended up kneeling to her inside my heart.

The arrow from bows in this world, under normal distance, has system assist like magic attacks for target hit support, beyond that distance, wind and gravity influence will make the arrow miss the target. However, GGO used a common engine to simulate «the effects of wind and gravity», so it was like Sinon had been training on manual correction for years. It's the same as when I went to GGO and used «view detection» skill that is not in the system, this means the similarities for VRMMO made using The Seed, still has things in it that I did not think of—.

While I was thinking about various things, the workshop door to my right was flung open forcefully.

"I am back!" "Sorry for the wait."

The owners of those voices were Leafa and Asuna, who had gone potion shopping. It seems they did not put the objects into their item slots, but carried them back from the market in the baskets they carried, they dumped various small bottles and nuts onto the table in the center of the room.

A little fairy flew from Asuna's shoulder—she was a Navigation Pixie named Yui, landed on my head and sat down. My Avatar, the Spriggan «Kirito», had long pointed hair, at Yui's request now I have my old hairstyle. The reason was it was «hard to sit on».

On my head, Yui started speaking in a voice like a bell.

"I gathered some information while we were shopping, there was not any player or party that have reached that aerial dungeon, papa."

"Oh... Then, why is «Excaliber»'s location known?"

"Apparently, a different quest than the Tonkii one we discovered was found. That quest's reward seems to be the NPC showing Excaliber's location."

Hearing Yui's words, Asuna, who was organizing the potions, turned around with her Undine's only long blue hair waving, made a small frown and nodded.

"And apparently, it wasn't a peaceful quest either. Rather than errand or guard type, it was a slaughter type. Now, thanks to that, it is a brutal fight to claim re-pop monsters[3] in Jötunheimr."

"...That surely won't be calm..."

I twisted my lips, too.

Slaughter type, as the name indicates, «Defeat over xx number of xx type monster» or «Gather xx number of drop items from xx type monster», that kind of quest. Naturally, because it is a quest that requires a party to keep hunting a certain type of monster in a certain area, when other parties on the same quest is in the same small area, the scramble for the best re-pops, that is the re-spawned monsters inevitably leads to PvP[4] battles.

"But, isn't that strange?"

Klein who finished his bottle of brandy, wiped his lips and opened his mouth.

"«Holy Sword Excaliber» is sealed in the deepest chamber in an aerial dungeon guarded by powerful evil-gods right? What does it mean to have a quest reward from an NPC reveal it?"

"Now that you say it, it does seem so."

Silica too, while hugging Pina who came down from her head to her chest, tilted her head.

"If it's a reward for transportation to the dungeon, that's understandable..."

"—Well, we'll understand once we get there, I'm sure."

Next to me, the comment from Sinon was as cool as ever, and Lisbeth cried out from deep in her workshop just after that.

"Great! All weapons, full recovery!"

"Thanks for your hard work!!"

Everyone sang a chorus in appreciation. Then took their shining like new, loving sword, katana, bow and other weapons back and equipped them. Next, from the table, Asuna divided the potions into seven portions by inherent command capability, we took them and put them in the belt pouch at our waists. Then stored the items we couldn't carry in our item slots.

Taking a quick glance at the real world time display in the lower right hand corner of my view, I saw it was just 11:00 AM. We would take a lunch and restroom break at some time, but probably can make it to the first safety zone in the aerial dungeon.

Looking around, I saw that preparations were complete by all seven + one + one dragon, and cleared my throat to get everyone's attention.

"Everyone, thank you for coming today in response to my urgent call! I'll repay you for this one day, in spirit! Well then—let's do our best!"

Ooo! It might have been my imagination, but there seemed to be slightly wry smiles mixed into that chorus. Turning around and opening the door of the workshop, I aimed for the secret tunnel which led from Alne that is below Yggdrasil City to the underworld, Jötunheimr, and started my boots forward.

The narrow alley, which wasn't shown on the map of Alne's back streets, split left and right, the stairs went up and down until it reached a door at the garden of a private house we passed previously.

It was an unremarkable rounded wooden door, it actually lead people to think of it as a decorative object, which could not be opened. Leafa put a small copper key from her pouch into the key hole, and turned it, causing a clear Clink unlocking sound. The key was added to our storage without my knowledge when Tonkii carried us through the tunnel for the first time. So it could be said that it was impossible to open the door from the Alne side.

I grabbed the iron hoops and pulled, the wooden door slid open in the middle to the left and right, revealing the interior descending stairs. Once the line of all seven people went past, and Klein, who was at the end of the line, closed the door, it automatically locked itself again.

"Uwahh...What are these steps for?"

Lisbeth, who came here for the first time, couldn't help but exclaim loudly. The descending stairs which was the floor of the tunnel had a diameter of around two meters, it was illuminated by the small lamps on the wall, emitting a pallid phosphorescent light, and the length of the stairs seemed to continue into the limit of resolution.

"Hmm, it is like part of the Aincrad's labyrinth tower zone."

The answer came from Asuna who was at the start of the line and had already stepped down the stairs; Lis, Silica, and Klein's faces showed surprise at the same time. I made a wry smile, then stressed my gratitude toward this tunnel.

"Well, if you think about going to Jötunheimr using the normal route, first you have to find the stairway dungeon, which is located on the unknown location on the Alne plateau, advance inside while fighting the monsters, and lastly, defeat the boss guarding the place. One party would still require at least two hours to do that, but this route only takes five minutes! If I was Leafa, I'd start a business here collecting toll of a thousand Yrd per entry."

"Hey, Onii-chan, exiting here without Tonkii will drop you to an unavoidable death at the large underground hollow in the middle of Jötunheimr though."

Leafa said while making a tired face, she was always too straight.

At the very center of the large underground world, Jötunheimr was a big bottomless hole with a diameter of around 1.5 kilometers, it had been given names like «Deep Central Hollow» or «Great Void». The holy sword Excaliber was sealed within the air maze inside the upside down pyramid, which protruded from the canopy right above that void. The exit of the stairs we were running down was close to the air maze, and was also located high up in the sky over the void, jumping over will certainly result in going down that bottomless pit and to our deaths, returning to the save point above the ground with no question asked.

Ahem, I cleared my throat and said with a strict face.

"Well, for that reason, let's take each step with appreciation and without complaining, gentlemen."

"It wasn't you who made this though"

Sinon who was walking in front of me immediately responded. Still as cool and straight as ever, I should express the gratitude for this retort properly.

"Thanks for the retort."

Saying thanks, and at the same time grabbing hold of the light blue tail swaying in front of me to substitute a hand shake.

"Fugyaa!!"

Suddenly, the wildcat archer made a loud scream and jumped. She turned around, and skillfully ran back up, but I pulled my face back with ease before both her claws could make a scratch.

The triangular ears and tail unique to the Cait Sith race were of course organs human don't have, however, they could sense the feeling using an unknown mechanism. Being grabbed hard by a player who wasn't aware of the fact would cause a «super weird feeling»——Silica's explanation——for that reason, the reaction was always very amusing.

"You, the next time you do this I'll shoot a fire arrow straight up your nostril!"

Hmph! In front of Sinon who turned around quickly; Leafa, Lis, Silica, Asuna, with Yui sitting on her shoulder all shook their heads in a flawlessly synchronized motion. Klein who was behind them groaned in admiration, "You just don't know fear, huh."

Just under the expected five minutes, as the party was passing through the outer crust of Alfheim via the tunnel stairs, a dim white light could be seen at the end of the tunnel.

At the same time, the coldness of the virtual atmosphere increased with each step. The sparkling ice crystals started glittering in front of their faces.

After a few seconds, we were finally out of the crust, our vision caught sight of the bird's eye view of Jötunheimr. The stairs which were carved into the thick tree root continued on in midair for about fifteen more meters before it ended.

"Uu...waah...!!"

"Wow..."

Sinon and Silica, the two cats who saw Jötunheimr for the first time raised their voices at the same time. Even the small dragon Pina on Silica's head flapped its wings energetically.

Spread below the eyes and covered in the massive amount of snow and ice was the beautiful and harsh world of eternal night. Illumination came from the huge ice crystals protruding from the canopy surrounding us, which refracted a small amount of light from the ground above. Other light sources were from the yellow-green or purple-blue burning bonfires at the castle and fortress of the evil-god tribes scattered here and there on the surface. The height from the ground to the center of the canopy could reach one kilometer, the countless numbers of evil-gods on the field couldn't be seen from this height. And right below was the huge bottomless pit, inhaling all light, the «Void».

Returning the gaze from below back to the front, it was a terrific scene difficult to describe with words.

The countless roots crept about——the roots of the world tree stood tall above Alfheim ground—— it seemed like they were supporting the thin blue ice block protruding sharply from the canopy, which was our destination, the «Aerial Dungeon», that was shaped like an inverted pyramid. Its base was three hundred meters on each side, and its height was about the same. The myriad of rooms and passages which had been dug inside the ice could be seen from this distance, as well as the huge shadow hovering there.

Finally, my vision moved to the sharp tip at the bottom of the inverted pyramid.

Even with the increased night vision of the Spriggan race's special trait, it was still hard to see the shining gold light which blinked briefly. At the depth of that shining light resided the strongest incentive, ALO's strongest legendary class weapon, the «Holy Sword Excaliber», was sealed there.

After the general status confirmation had been completed, Asuna then held her right hand up and started reciting the smooth spell words. At that moment, the body of all members were wrapped in a thin blue light, and a small icon lit up under the HP gauge at the upper left of their vision. Immediately, the chill went away as if we wore a first class down jacket. It was the freeze resistance boost supporting spell.

"Okay."

Leafa nodded after hearing Asuna voice, her right fingers were applied to her lips and she whistled a high pitch.

Several seconds later, Kwooo―...n, a distant cry mixed with the sound of the wind slowly approached. Contrasting the dark void background, a white shade could be seen ascending.

From the side of the body, it looked like a spatulated fish, or a flat rice paddle, with four pairs, eight fins resembling white wings stretched out. Hanging from the lower side of the body were numerous ivy-like tentacles. Its head had three black eyes on each of the three sides, and an extended long nose. The evil-god which «emergence» from the elephant-jellyfish into this strange yet beautiful form, was Tonkii.

"Tonkii-saaaaan!"

From Asuna's shoulder, Yui called out with all her voice, the strange evil-god cried Oo―n once again. It ascended in a spiral movement after flapping its strong wings. With its shape becoming larger, the four new comers retraced their steps back up the stairs.

"It's alright, this guy is herbivorous."

After I said that, Leafa turned around and grinned.

"But, the other day I gave him fish I brought from above ground, he ate them all in one bite though."

"...H-Heh."

Klein and the others took another step back, but the narrow stairs had no more room for them to retreat. Once Tonkii was right in front of us, it stretched its long nose from its face which still resembled an elephant's, and with its bushy haired tip —— stroked Klein's standing hair.

"Ubyrho!?"

I pushed the back of Katana user who made an odd sound without mercy.

"Hurry, go ride on its back."

"E…Even you say that, I, not riding American cars and flying elephants was the last will of my grandfather..."

"The other day at the Dicey Café, your grandfather just gave me handmade dried persimmons, didn't he? It was delicious too, please bring me more next time!"

I pushed his back again after saying that, Klein fearfully stepped on Tonkii's shoulder and moved to its flat back. Subsequently was Sinon, who had no fear as usual, followed by the animal lover Silica who seemed to have included Tonkii into her target. Lisbeth said in an unexpected girly voice "Yokkorasho!" while following, then Leafa and Asuna who weren't first timers jumped on, lastly me, lightly scratching the base of Tonkii's nose before jumping onto the back of the evil-god class monster, which had a total length of more than ten meters.

"Alright, Tonkii, please bring us to the dungeon entrance!"

Leafa who sat right behind its neck shouted, Tonkii raised its long nose and cried again, then slowly flapped its eight wings to move forward.

For me, this was the fifth time riding on the back of «Tonkii», the flight type evil-god, including when we were just playing around . Even if I didn't mention it, I thought about it every time. It was——

"...Hey, what happens if we fall from here?"

That, was what I thought, frankly asked by Lisbeth who sat right behind me.

That's right. It was the principle of Jötunheimr that all the fairy tribes couldn't fly here, and damage would be applied upon falling from a high altitude. Depending on the skill value, damage would occur when falling from over ten meters, and falling from more than thirty meters would certainly lead to instant death.

However, Tonkii's current flight altitude was in the region of a thousand meters. There was no need to think about what would happen if we fell from this height. Of course there were some safety measures —— like grabbing the tentacles below its belly —— but I'd rather not have to do so.

While everyone seemed to have the similar concern in their minds; only Leafa, the «Speed Holic» who sat in front, along with Yui who moved to sit on her head, and Pina who was embraced by Silica, were feeling comfortable.

The one who answered Lis' question was Asuna who sat stickily beside her. With a somewhat stiff expression, she looked at me and smiled, then said,

"There was a person who climbed the pillar connecting to the next layer in the old Aincrad and fell down, I'm sure that person would experiment falling from here in the future too."

"...Falling from this height, aren't cats more suitable for that?"

The two felines immediately made a serious look and shook their heads repeatedly.

During the exchange, Tonkii was still flapping its four pairs of wings, slowly gliding through the air. Up ahead was the terrace entrance to the aerial dungeon made out of ice, the entrance was located at the top side of the inverted pyramid. Hopefully it'll be a safe ride until the end——

I secretly wished that. At that moment,

Without any warning, Tonkii folded all its wings into sharp angles and broke into a rapid dive.

"Uwaaaaah!?"

Was the loud yell by the two men.

"Kyaaaaa!"

The high scream by the girls group.

"Yaho——————!"

That was Leafa.

Both my hands desperately grabbed at the hair, which grew thickly on its wide back, to withstand the rushing wind pressure. The diving angle seemed to be almost vertical, the ground below progressively approaching. But why did it suddenly do this? Every ride up till now was always a slow patrol course between the tree root stairs and the ice terrace.

Was it tired of being used as a taxi? Or did the fish Leafa gave it before weigh heavily in its stomach?

While thinking about things which wouldn't be beneficial to my health, the details of the ground covered in ice and snow was getting much higher precision. It seemed Tonkii was aiming for the southern border of the huge pit, the «Void». Yes, it was the place where Leafa and I once fought with the Undine raid party trying to kill Tonkii.

Immediately after that, the sudden decelerating G caused our bodies to bend over and stick to the evil-god's back. Tonkii spread out its folded wings, applying the brakes to the nose dive. At least it looked like it didn't want to litter the ground with its luggage. I lifted up my body while exhaling in relief.

I looked downwards from Tonkii's back once it started cruising horizontally again, the altitude was already at about fifty meters. Now the state of the ground was clearly visible, like a high detailed aviation photo. Dead trees with sharp icicles hanging. Frozen rivers and lakes. then——

"...Ah...!?"

Leafa who sat on Tonkii's head raised her voice sharply and stretched her body. She then pointed to a spot on the ground as she squeezed out her voice that sounded almost like a scream.

"O..Onii-chan, look there!!"

Hearing that, the other five and I gazed to the front left, in the direction Leafa pointed her finger.

Suddenly a dazzling flash effect burst up, and shot into my eyes which was accustomed to the dim light. Then, a bass sound followed after a slight delay. Based on this, it was a large scale attack spell, no doubt about it.

Tonkii made a sad Krrru―n cry. The reason for the cry was found shortly,

The attack was focused on the manjū-like body sitting over the long tentacles, with the long nose and big ears of an elephant, it was a large jellyfish monster. The same type as Tonkii before undergoing «emergence», no doubt about it.

Then, the attack was from a large scale raid party with more than thirty members. With colorful hair color and the varying body sizes, it seemed to be a force of mixed races. If looking at just that, it could be said that it was just the normal «Evil-god hunt party». But what Leafa saw which we didn't, was the fact that it was not only the players that attacked the elephant-jellyfish.

With the height of about six or seven times that of the Gnome's, while having the form of a human, it had four arms and three faces lined up vertically. Its skin color was like pallid steel, its dull red eyes had the reminiscence of burning coal.

It was the same as the humanoid evil-god monster which tried to kill Tonkii the first time we met. Each of its arms held a steel-like crude sword, the blunt blades repeatedly slammed into the elephant-jellyfish's back. Its hard shell cracked and the bodily fluid gushed out while the players continued firing spells, arrows, and sword skills into those cracks.

"What's...going on there? Did someone tame that humanoid evil-god?"

Asuna whispered as she panted. Silica shook her head vigorously and answered,

"That's impossible! The tame success rate on evil-god class monsters, even with maximum skill and full equipment boosts is still 0.00%!"

"That means..."

Klein stroked his bristling red hair while groaning.

"That was, how to say it...«Hitch a ride» is the term? Attacking the elephant-jellyfish along with those attacks from the four arms and taking credit of the final blow at the end..."

"But I wonder about the hate control in that situation."

Sinon commented calmly despite her eyebrows drawing tightly together. Certainly it was as Sinon said, for the evil-god's action patterns, it would be no surprise if it turned its attention to the players if they fired a spell or skill nearby, even if they did not cause any damage.

Unable to understand the reason, we bit our lips while looking at the scene, finally the large body of the elephant-jellyfish evil-god trembled and fell down on its side to the snowy field. At that point, the iron swords and the large spells rushed on——

"Hyrrrrrrruuuu..."

The elephant-jellyfish screamed in agony before its body turned into a large amount of polygon pieces and scattered away.

Kwoooo... Tonkii made a sad sound again. Leafa, who sat on its head, was trembling, and on her head, Yui also faced downward with a sad expression.

Unable to find any words to comfort Leafa and Yui, my glance remained fixed on the raid party down below.

Suddenly, my eyes widened in surprise.

The four armed giant that was not under tame, incitement, or dazed state, raised its foot and roared in victory; the several dozen players also lightly made a guts pose, then both sides started to move to claim the new target.

"W..Why don't they fight each other!?"

A hoarse voice leaked from Asuna who was beside me, she then seemed to notice something and lifted her face,

"Ah...there, look!"

She pointed at the hill on the far right side. The battle effect also flickered violently from there. I focused my eyes and could see the large group of players, this time with the assistance of two humanoid evil-gods. It looked like they were hunting the alligator type evil-god with many legs.

"What the heck is going on here...?"

To Klein's confused question, Lisbeth murmured in a low voice,

"...Maybe it was what Asuna said above just now, the new slaughter type quest in Jötunheimr...? The assistance from the humanoid evil-gods to exterminate the animal type evil-gods...it seemed..."

"...!"

Upon hearing that, all of them inhaled at the same time.

It was probably so. If it was during the quest, it was possible to have a joint force with specific mobs. But what was the reason for the quest reward being related to the «Holy Sword Excaliber»? That sword was sealed inside the humanoid evil-god's stronghold, which means, one couldn't get it without defeating those humanoids...

Thinking up to this point, I looked up due to the reflection from the big ice pyramid above.

However, that was not where the source of light was. Because at the furthest end of Tonkii's back, where no one sat, particles of light appeared without a sound, and condensed —— to produce a human shape.

The long garment in the shape of robe. The wavy blond hair flowing from the back to the feet. The lady with elegance and a transcendental beautiful face.

But a word surged out of my mouth, and at the same time, Klein's, who had quickly turned around, which wasn't supposed to be said to a woman.

"Hu..."

"...ge!"

However, that could be forgivable. The height of the lady was, based on our estimation, more than three meters.

Fortunately, the first words from the mysterious huge lady to us sounded like she didn't appear to be hurt by our words, her serene expression remained as she opened her lips. The flowing voice, unlike that of a player's, was tinged with a solemn effect.

"I am «Queen of the Lake» Urðr."[5]

The huge blond onee-san continued talking to us.

"Ye fairies who bonded with our kin."

Kin? I twisted my neck with doubt in my mind. It seemed those words were directed toward us, who were hovering on Tonkii, Is this lady the friend of those animal type evil-gods inhabited in Jötunheimr?, I thought that, but...

At that point I finally realized the huge lady who called herself «Queen of the Lake» in front of me was 100% not human. The skirt of her long blond hair was like tapered, divided, and undulated tentacles; The limbs inside the robe that could be seen were covered by pearly scales. Similar to Tonkii, the strange form of large creature which chose to borrow human appearance —— But even so, I was still impressed.

"To you, my two sisters and I have but one request. Please save this country from the invasion of the «Frost Giant Tribe»."

What I thought while listening to the story was Firstly, this giant lady is «What»?

The color cursor didn't come out even when focusing on the vision, and it was certainly not the figure from a player's enchanting spell. Was it a harmless event NPC? Was it a trap set by the aggressive quest Mob? Or was it an avatar controlled by a human GM? I couldn't make a conclusion.

Then unexpectedly, I felt a modest weight on my left shoulder. And at the same time, in a cute whisper from Yui.

"Papa, that person is an NPC. But it's a little strange. It seems not to talk based on the fixed response routine like NPC usually do. Its core program is connected to the language engine module."

"...So, it's a kind of AI then?"

"Yes, Papa."

While thinking about what Yui said, I continued to listen to the lady's story.

NPC —— the «Queen of the Lake Urðr» turned her pearly sparkling right hand toward the vast underground world and said,

"This «Jötunheimr» was once like your «Alfheim», with the blessings from the world tree Yggdrasil, covered in the beautiful water and greenery. We, the «Rock Giant Tribe» and those beast kin lived together in harmony."

At the same time as those words, the surrounding scenery covered in snow and ice soundlessly shook and dimmed. Appearing as if it was a layer of illusion, was the scene in Urðr's story. The world filled with plants, flower fields, and pure water. It could be said it was far richer than the Gnome or Salamander territories up above.

Even more surprising, behind Queen Urðr where the bottomless pit «Great Void» was, in this other world it wasn't there. Instead, there was a lake filled with sparkling transparent water. The thickly huddled roots of the world tree from the canopy in this world reached the lake without spreading in other directions.

On the summit of the roots over the water surface existed houses made from logs, no, a town was probably more suitable. The scene was similar to the central capital Alne up on the surface.

Urðr lowered her right hand, and the illusory scene disappeared. The chilled ice world of Jötunheimr returned, she looked indifferent, but I might have imagined seeing her with sadness filled eyes, as she continued to speak.

"——In addition, on Jötunheimr's lower plane, the country of ice «Niflheimr» existed. The land was ruled by the king of frost giant tribe «Þrym»,[6] he once transformed into a wolf and did infiltrate this country, then stole the Excaliber, «The sword which cut all of steel and tree», forged by the god of blacksmith Völundr[7] and threw it into «Urðr's Spring» at the center of this world. The sword severed the thick roots of the world tree, and in that instant, Jötunheimr no longer received the blessings from Yggdrasil."

This time Urðr lifted her left hand, and the illusory screen regenerated. We could only wordlessly watch the overwhelming scene.

The roots of the world tree which expanded over the surface of the huge lake —— «Urðr's Spring», shook and floated over the surface, then shrunk toward to canopy. The town which was built atop the roots collapsed all at once.

At the same time, all the leaves of the tree fell, the grass withered, and the light faded. The rivers were frozen, the frost condensed, as a snowstorm raged. The huge amount of water in «Urðr's Spring» froze momentarily and became the large mass of ice, which was wrapped and pulled up by the roots of the world tree as they retracted back into the sky. The large number of lake inhabiting creatures snapped off the ice mass and fell down. Among them was the elephant-jellyfish type, like the old Tonkii.

The roots of the world tree ascended and reached Jötunheimr's canopy or Alfheim's crust before long, and half of the huge ice mass it carried pierced into the canopy. That ice mass was no doubt, set up and honored as the «Inverted Ice Pyramid» in the current Jötunheimr. At the bottom-most of the ice mass, a sharp edged icicle, a glittering golden light could be seen. It was from the sword thrown by the frost giant king Þrym, the sword which severed the connection between the world tree and Jötunheimr, it was, without a doubt, Excaliber.

When all of the water was lost, the once beautiful lake turned to a huge bottomless pit.

Urðr lowered her left hand, causing the illusory screen to disappear. However, this time it didn't make a large change to the scenery. The most change was the mass of ice in the sky, which had undergone restructuring into the linear dungeon. The existence of Excaliber at the bottom of that pyramid had also been confirmed by Leafa and me with our own eyes too.

"King Þrym's subordinates, the «Frost Giant Tribe» is preparing a big plan to invade Jötunheimr from Niflheimr, many of us, the «Rock Giant Tribe», had been captured and imprisoned in the various fortresses and castles they had built. The king built the castle «Þrymheimr» in the large mass of ice once called «Urðr's Spring», and ruled over this land from that castle. No longer having the power we once had, my two younger sisters and I had to escape to the bottom of a certain frozen spring."

Urðr's eyelids were half-downcast, she resumed the tale which was probably nearing the end. We had partly forgotten that she was an NPC, and the tale was just an in-game quest, wordlessly listening.

"The frost giant tribe wasn't satisfied with just that, but also wants to massacre every one of my kin, the beasts living on this land. That way, my power will completely vanish, and it would allow Þrymheimr to float up to the plane above, Alfheim."

"W-What! If it happens, Alne will be destroyed!"

Klein, who seemed to be deeply immersed into the story, yelled. The non-fixed response routine and partial AI, Queen Urðr nodded at Klein's words and said,

"King Þrym plans to enclose Alfheim in ice and snow, then continue attacking until reaching the top of the world tree Yggdrasil, where the «Golden Apple» exists, his objective is to obtain that fruit."

...Something like that exists up there? I thought for a moment, then suddenly realized, near the summit of the world tree, there was an impossibly strong eagle, a named mob, guarding an inaccessible area. It could be possible that the golden apple existed inside.

Urðr gazed at the ground, her eyebrows still bated with sadness.

"Being irritated by being unable to easily destroy my kin, Þrym and the frost giant generals started to use the power of ye fairies. Inviting them to hunt my kin, using Excaliber as a reward. However, it is not possible for Þrym to bestow the sword to others. Once Þrymheimr loses Excaliber, the blessings from Yggdrasil will return to this land, and that castle will melt."

"Eh...then, then, Excaliber as the reward is all lie!? Is it possible to have a quest like that!?"

The queen generously nodded at Lisbeth's wild voice and said,

"When the god of blacksmith Völundr forged the sword, he discarded the one in which he slipped when striking with the hammer, which looks just like Excaliber, but it is actually the «Fake Sword Caliburn». Þrym is probably going to give that fake sword as the reward, while it is strong enough, it doesn't possess the true power of the real one."

"S-Sly...is it alright for the king to do this...?"

Leafa murmured in confusion. Urðr nodded again and exhaled deeply.

"That cunning is Þrym's strongest weapon. But he was too impatient in destroying my kin, and committed one mistake. In order to cooperate with the fairy warriors they lured in using the fake reward, almost all of the giant subordinates are down on the ground. So, the defense in the castle is now thin."

Arriving at this point, I finally realized the future of this quest —— no, this «queen's request».

The queen of the lake Urðr stretched forth her large arm toward «Þrymheimr» in the air and said,

"Ye fairies, please invade Þrymheimr and remove Excaliber from its «Plinth»."

"...Somehow, that was an amazing tale..."

Was the first thing Asuna murmured after «Queen of the Lake Urðr» melted into shiny water droplets and disappeared. Tonkii ascended again —— this time gradually.

Her words were followed by Sinon's, who seemed to have recovered her thoughts, talking as she moved her light blue tail,

"This is…a normal quest...right? But isn't this assignment, the story too great? ...Once all the beast type evil-gods had been annihilated, the frost giants will invade the surface next, did she say this?"

"...Yes, she did."

I nodded, then twisted my neck while folding my arms.

"But, would the management's side go that far without any updates or event notices? For any other MMOs, any «Boss Invasion Event» would normally come with at least one week of advance notice though..."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Then, Yui who sat on my left shoulder flew to hover in the middle of us and said in a volume everyone could hear,

"Well, This might be just a guess, but..."

With a slight pause as if to think about what to say, she then continued,

"——This «ALfheim Online» has one major difference from other standard VRMMOs from «The Seed». That is, the game operation isn't based on the feature reduced version of the «Cardinal System», but uses the same full specs version as the one used in the old «Sword Art Online»."

That was certainly correct. It wasn't a story I wanted to remember, but ALO was created by a man whom was possessed by greed, in order to use some of the old SAO players in his illegal research, he copied the whole original SAO server. So the autonomous system operating the world «Cardinal» in ALO has the same capability as the one used in SAO, of course.

Yui looked around at our attentive listening faces, then added,

"The original Cardinal System has a few functions which had been cut out in the shrunk version. One of them is the «Automatic Quest Generation Function». It will collect legends and folklore of the world through the network, and continue to generate infinite amount of quests using proper names and story patterns."

"W-What?"

Klein's stubbly jaw dropped abruptly as he groaned.

"That means, that disastrous quest from pacific we did in Aincrad was created by system-sama?"

"...I can recall too many of them. At the time we reached the 75th floor, just those listed in the quest database of the information shop exceeded ten thousand..."

At one time, in order to earn the management fund, the guild had to seriously take on many of those quests, the KoB sub-leader said as she shook her head. Silica who was next to her stared to the distance and muttered,

"Also, I could hear this sometimes-myo. It was probably on the 30th floor, the slaughter quest to kill the ogres wearing strange masks and using chainsaws, but no matter how many times they were killed, the next week the quest would pop up on the bulletin board again. What legend did it come from though..."

For quests like those, I too have a lot in my memories, but at this rate, until we reach the ice pyramid, it'd be a meeting to complain about old Aincrad. So, in order the steer the topic back, I cleared my throat and said,

"That said, Yui, is this quest also created by the Cardinal System?"

"Judging from the behavior of the NPC earlier, the probability is high. It might be possible that the automatic quest generator that stopped until now had been restarted from the management's side."

Yui continued with a difficult face after she nodded to my question.

"If the story keeps progressing like this, the situation will end up in the worst state. That ice dungeon floats up to Alfheim above, Alne collapses, the evil-god class monsters popping up on the surface... No, even worse..."

Her lips closed for a moment —— the AI girl then continued with a frightened expression,

"...According to the data in my archive, as ALO has included parts of the Norse mythology in the quest, it'd certainly lead to the so-called «The Last War». Not only do the frost giant tribe from Jötunheimr and Niflheimr invade, but those from the lower plane «Muspellsheimr», the flame giant tribe would also appear, and burn down the world tree... That is..."

"...«Ragnarök»."

Suguha —— Leafa, who loves legends and mythology, also has those kind of books in her room, said quietly. Immediately her emerald pupils widened and she shouted "But!".

"Something like that... The game system shouldn't be able to completely destroy its own managed maps though...!"

What she said made sense. But Yui gently shook her head.

"...The original Cardinal System has the authority to completely destroy the map. Because, the old Cardinal's final duty was to destroy the floating castle Aincrad after all."

"..."

This time we sank into complete silence, unable to say anything.

The next person who opened their mouth was Sinon, whom up till now was mostly listening.

"——If that «Ragnarök» really happened and it wasn't the management side's intention, isn't it possible to do a roll back?"

"O...Oh, that's it, that's right."

Klein nodded repeatedly. Simply speaking, «Roll back» was used to overwrite the current situation with backup data. It was mainly done when players gained unexpected benefits due to bugs or programming oversights. In this case, if Alfheim had been turned into scorched earth, although it wouldn't affect individual player's exp or items, nobody would want the whole place to be like Salamander territory's «Burnt Land».

However, for some reason, this time Yui didn't nod in agreement.

"It would be possible if the management's side did backup all the data manually and kept the physical media in a separated location... however, if they used Cardinal's automatic backup function, depending on the configuration, it could be possible that the roll back would only affect player data and not include the fields."

"..."

Again, all members went silent for two seconds. Klein suddenly shouted "Oh yeah!" then opened the system window. But just after that, he held his head and said "No good!".

"...What did you do?"

Lisbeth asked while turning to the katana user's miserable face.

"Well, calling a GM, just wanting to confirm if they know about this situation . But it's off hours for human support now..."

"End of the year, Sunday, in the morning too..."

I sighed, shook my head, then looked into the sky.

The huge ice pyramid was quite close now. It's three hundred meters wide on each side, if it pierced up through Alne it would certainly cause a great clamor. While half of its population had migrated to «Yggdrasil City» at the top of the tree, Alne was still the raiding base for the advanced dungeons on Alne plateau, the central trading market for all races, along with its familiar crowded weekend nights, it was the town full of my profound memories.

"...When it comes down to this, there's nothing but to do it, Onii-chan."

Leafa held a big medallion hung on her right hand up high.

It was given by «Queen of the Lake Urðr», a cleanly cut large jewel was inlaid in it. But now, more than sixty percent of the cut surface had sunk into pitch black darkness, not reflecting any light.

When the jewel was dyed in total darkness, it meant all of the beast type evil-gods had been completely annihilated without a single one left, and Urðr would be stripped of all her power. At that time, «Frost Giant King Þrym»'s Alfheim invasion would begin.

"...That's right. Initially we gathered today to raid that castle and get «Excaliber» anyway. It's in our favor when the defense is currently weakened too."

I nodded, then opened the system window and operated the equipment figure.

Long swords appeared hanging crossed on my back, one was humbly made by Lisbeth's equipment shop, and the other was dropped from the 15th floor boss we defeated the other day in the new Aincrad.

Looking at my nostalgic back carrying two swords, Klein smiled from ear to ear and yelled,

"Alright! This is this year's final big quest! I've decided, let's get on the tomorrow's front page of MMO Tomorrow!"

The target was somewhat realistic, so this time Lisbeth didn't make a wry smile. "Oo―!" Everyone said in chorus, Tonkii under our feet moved its wings violently and cried "Krrr―n!".

The aviation type evil-god increased its ascending speed and crossed the pyramid at once, its big body hovered along the entrance at the top of the pyramid. Leafa, who was the last person, jumped to the ice terrace, stroked Tonkii's big ear and said,

"Just wait, Tonkii. We'll surely take your country back!"

She then turned about and pulled the long sword hanging loosely on her waist. At the same time, we took our weapons out too, in front of the big twin ice gates which stood tall in front of us.

Just as Urðr had said, there was no first guardian here like always, and the doors began to open. Exchanging glances with each other, we quickly set up a formation, with the front row being Leafa, Klein, and I; Lis and Silica were in the middle, while on the back row were Asuna and Sinon, we kicked the ice floor to begin running, and broke into the huge castle «Þrymheimr».

In ALO, the upper limit of a party size was, strangely, seven people. The reason why it didn't use six or eight like most other titles, until now, has never been officially told. That way, the maximum size of a raid party was 7x7 or forty nine people. The currency obtained from the monsters would automatically be distributed by the system function, as manual distribution would be very troublesome to calculate.

Well, from the seven people slot, if filled with only close friends, five would be pretty much fixed. With Asuna, Lis, Silica, Leafa, and I. All were high school students, furthermore, four went to the same school, and two even lived together, so the timing was easy to set.

The sixth and seventh slots could still be smoothly filled up, by the company employee Klein, coffee shop and bar master Agil, the senior bureaucrat Chrysheight, or Leafa's real life friend Recon. Recon was also a high school student, he was part of the olden day's «Yggdrasil Capturing Operation» and had been recruited by the Sylph lord Sakuya to help with scouting duty. Currently he was a permanent member of the Lord manor staff in Swilvane town, I had played together with him for a brief period of time when Aincrad was over the sky of the Sylph territory.

This time, I was glad the slot was filled with the bow user I met in GGO —— Sinon, however, there was still one unresolved problem for the party.

It was the lack of a mage. The only permanent member who had increased their magic skill was Undine Asuna, and as half was spent on her thin sword skills, her master leveled skills were only for support and recovery purposes. Leafa was also a spell fencer but her spells were only for enfeebling during combat. Then Silica had a little magic but her main focus was on support duty; Lis, of course, had spent more than half of her skills on smithing; Agil also had more than thirty percent on trading skills; then Klein and I had all our skill points focused on physical close combat, the so-called «Brain muscle» type. There was no one capable of casting attack spells.

Occasionally, when Recon, the Sylph dagger wielder with a mysterious build of very high dark magic; or Chrysheight whose freezing attack magic was at the lord class; joined as the seventh slot, the flexibility in combat was much wider. So lacking the fire power of a mage was really our weak point.

But that couldn't be helped. Because most of us had migrated from SAO —— a world where magic didn't exist. My one-handed straight sword, Asuna's thin sword, Lis' war hammer, Silica's dagger, Klein's katana, Agil's axe, then Leafa's long sword and Sinon's bow, were all not just mere weapons, but could be exaggerated into considering them as proof of our existence. At this point, discarding our weapons to raise our magic skill was already impossible. Even knowing it wasn't efficient, but all we could do was to trust our battle style that focused on physical attack, we managed to come this far with it anyway.

Still, we encountered dangerous situations occasionally.

"This is bad, Onii-chan, that gold one has high physical resistance."

Leafa at my left side whispered quickly.

Before I could say anything after nodding to Leafa, «That gold one» brandished its extraordinary huge battle axe up high.

"Shock wave attack in two seconds! one, zero!"

Yui who sat on my head exuded a loud voice despite her small body. Following the countdown, the five people from the front and middle rows split up to the left and right, creating a gap. The blade of the axe swung roaring down, and created a shock wave, cut in a straight line, which passed through the gap and hit the wall on the other side violently.

It had already been twenty minutes since we broke into the ice castle «Þrymheimr».

It was just as «Queen of the Lake Urðr» said, the number of the enemies inside the dungeon was quite thin. The encounter rate of the small fry mob was almost zero. Half of the floor's sub-bosses were also absent. However, the boss defending the hall in front of the stairs to the lower floor was there as expected, it was time to show our overwhelming attack power to the boss which once forced Asuna, Leafa, and I to say "No way―!".

Nevertheless, we somehow defeated the one-eyed boss on the first floor without twisting our hands, ran through the second floor, and managed to reach the boss room again, however——

What awaited for us there was the giant humanoid with the head of a bull, a large evil-god of the so-called «Minotaur» type. Moreover, there were two of them, the one on the right had its whole body in pitch black, the body of the other one on the left glittered with gold, the weapons they both used were battle axes with blades as large as dining tables.

As the first floor's Cyclops boss was defeated easily by the icicle in the center of the room, even without magic attacks, I first thought that we were fine, but there was one problem. Apparently, the black one resisted magic, while the gold one would be physical resistant, and thinking that it was fine resulted in an unexpectedly high price to pay.

Then we should defeat the black quickly and after that, attack the gold with carefully set up battle tactics; however, the two bull heads, unexpectedly, seemed to be connected by strong bonds, when the black's HP decreased, the gold would ignore the hate and come to protect it. During that time, the black behind it would curl up its body, it seemed to be some form of meditation power that could recover its HP.

After they did that once, we concentrated our attacks on the gold while the black was meditating, but as it had high physical resistance, its HP barely decreased. And of course we had problem with our HP, even though we could avoid the instant death attacks, the ranged attack's splash damage was impossible to avoid; with the healing only by Asuna, it was obvious she wouldn't be able to support us for long.

"Kirito-kun, at this pace, my MP will only last for about one hundred and fifty seconds!"

I heard Asuna shout from behind me, so I held up my right hand sword in reply.

In such an endurance battle, if the healer's MP ran out, what awaited the party was total annihilation —— in other words a «Wipe». If someone managed to survive, it was possible to collect and resurrect the Remain Lights one by one, but it would require a lot of time and effort. However, in case of a wipe, of course we would have to restart from the save point in Alne. But the problem was how much time we had left——

As if she could read my concerns, Leafa who was next to me whispered again.

"The medallion is more than seventy percent in darkness now, we won't have enough time if we «Death warp»."

"Understood."

Nodding, I deeply inhaled and enclosed it in my stomach.

If this was the old Aincrad, I'd issue a withdrawal without a second thought. In that world «Betting on the possibility» was not allowed. But now in ALO, it was no longer a Death Game. Even if the Cardinal System turned the entire Alfheim into a scorched field, it would affect only one thing, which was the «game enjoyment». So in this case, I had to believe in my companions strength.

"Everyone, when it comes down to this, there's only one thing we can do!"

Avoiding the gold Minotaur's axe swing and affirming the gauge of the black Minotaur recharging its HP in the back, I shouted,

"This is all-or-nothing, concentrate our attack using Sword Skills on the gold!"

«Sword Skill».

Just that, was the game system that distinguished the former SAO from the others.

In March of this year with the «Aincrad implementation update», the management team had introduced Sword Skills into ALO. However, there were some modifications, one of them was the «Additional damage property». The current high ranked Sword Skills no longer have only pure physical property, but are equipped with magical properties of earth, water, fire, wind, darkness, or holy. Therefore, it would be able to pass through the gold Minotaur's high physical resistance.

Of course, there were risks involved. Most of the consecutive Sword Skills had a long stun duration after finishing the move. If we took a direct hit from those battle axes in that time period, the HP gauge would be completely reduced to zero. There was a case where the front and middle rows could be instantly eliminated from the horizontal ranged attack as well.

However, everyone understood those risks and nodded immediately.

"Oh yeah! That's what I'm waiting for!"

Klein, at the right wing, held his beloved katana high above his head. Jumping to my left was Leafa who also set up her long sword at her waist. At my back, Lis and Silica tightened their grip on their weapons in preparation.

"Silica, use «Foam» on the count of three! ——Two, one, now!"

I instructed based on the gold's action, Silica then shouted,

"Pina, «Bubble Breath»!"

Normally, issuing a command to the pet didn't ensure one hundred percent success rate regardless of the taming mastery. But I have never seen Pina ignoring Silica's command before. This time too, the small dragon dancing in the air above Silica opened its mouth and released rainbow colored bubbles.

The bubbles slipped through the air and burst in front of the gold bull's nose which was preparing its big attack using its battle axe. The bull with weak magic resistance went under a confusion effect for just a second, and stopped its movement.

"Go!"

As a response to my shout —— all the party member's weapons aside from Asuna's went into dazzling multi-colored light effects.

Why did the floating castle Aincrad's creator Kayaba Akihito create the system of «Unique Skills» with such deviated power?

Until now I still couldn't grasp the real reason behind it.

The skill «Holy Sword» that person possessed could be clear example. Being the leader of the strongest guild Knights of the Blood, the paladin who stood in front of many players with his absolutely unbreakable crossed shield, and those legends would be turned up-side down at the 95th floor, when that man would turn himself into the worst demon king of all RPG last bosses in existence.

In that moment, the «MMORPG with the main story driven by player's action» would be realized. An Incarnating Radius —— realized world. In order to achieve his purpose of the world creation, it was necessary for him to continue being the absolutely strongest paladin. Even with «Holy Sword» and «Immortality properties», he also had to depend on the irregular power that was the «Over Assist».

But if just the unique skill such as the holy sword were sufficient, it would not be necessary to have an MMO where 'The Hero was the only one who could confront the demon king'. Of course, it would lead to a difference in the player's battle power, which wouldn't be appropriate based on the rules of fairness.

Yet, he still gave «Dual Blades» and probably a few other unique skills to the players.

Those abilities outside of rules resulted in the unequal distribution of the resources, that guy even understood that it could distort how the world would progress along his plan. In fact, during my duel with Heathcliff for Asuna's withdrawal from the guild, if I didn't have the «Dual Blades» skill, he could have won without having to use the Over Assist. Recalling that moment of irregularity caused me to realize Heathcliff's true identity on the 75th floor. By giving me the unique skill, his imagined world —— his story had to end at just three-quarters of the way.

In ALO's world, in the rare moments that I held two swords, I always had a thought in a corner of my mind, Why?

At the same time, there was also a bit of guilt. Of course, I defeated Heathcliff on the 75th floor —— It was a victory I didn't regret. If the game hadn't cleared at that point, the victims of the incident would certainly have increased even further. Among those might be people dear to me. Or perhaps, even myself.

However, I couldn't stop thinking about it. 'Was it alright like that?' and 'Mustn't we climb to the 100th floor and fight with the demon king Heathcliff there?' No, not 'must'. It was what I wanted to do, it was just my egotism, the worst egotism. That was why I hesitated equipping two swords in Alfheim.

——However, there was no «Unique Skill» in this world. The new management team had verified the enormous number of sword skills and removed some suspicious conditional skills from the system —— rumors said about ten skills were removed.

So I couldn't use the dual wielding sword skills such as «Double Circular» and «Starburst Stream» anymore. While I could reproduce its movement without System Assist to ninety-nine percent, and I had proven it against both human and monsters, however, it couldn't be used here. Because my self-made dual wielding skill version, although it could reproduce the technique's power, it didn't contain any magical attribute, so it was ineffective against the high physical resistance gold Minotaur.

However, «Using one handed sword skills while equipped with two swords» had one advantage —— as Leafa said «A lead tipped shinai was like terribly cheating a hundred fold».

Being hit by the special move «Bubble Breath» from the little dragon Pina, the gold Minotaur was stunned for about a second, in front of it was me, Klein was on the right, Leafa on the left, and from both sides Lis and Silica were also there, we all charged in at the same time.

"U...ooo!"

Everyone roared, then drew the highest leveled sword skills we learned. Klein's katana was wrapped with a rampaging flame, Leafa's long sword created a flashing gale, Silica's dagger had water spray moving around it, Lis' mace emitted a groaning lightning flash. In addition to that, from behind, the arrows glowing with its ice arrowhead flew in rapid succession, accurately piercing at the tip of the nose which seemed to be the bull's vital point.

At the same time, my right handed sword glowed in an orange light, and I assaulted it with all my power.

Five high-speed continuous thrusts then cut downward, upward, before another full force upward cut. The one-handed sword eight combo sword skill «Howling Octave». Its attributes were forty percent physical and sixty percent fire. Within the one-handed sword category, it was in a high tier. So of course, the stun after the move —— the skill delay was also long, however,

"...!!"

With a voiceless yell, my consciousness had detached from my right hand after releasing the attacks. The movement command output from my brain to the AmuSphere was to cut off everything for a moment. My next command was to start transmitting commands to the left hand.

The right hand was on the auto-pilot thanks to the System Assist, it went on with the final upward cut. And, parallel to it, my left hand moved, drawing the sword backward. The blade released bright blue lighting.

The right sword made a deep cut at the exposed abdomen of the bull headed humanoid. Originally, this would impose a delay, causing my avatar to become rigid. However, the parallel activation of the sword skill of the left sword had overwritten the delay. The slash drew a horizontal arc and cleaved at the bull's right abdomen.

It was not normal for my body, no, my left and right half of the brain to think of separate things at the same time. But here, my consciousness stopped its integration to the sword skill, leaving the right hand's skill to the System Assist, while concentrating on the left hand.

The sword causing the horizontal cut and buried in the enemy avatar rotated ninety-degrees. I then pushed down on the grip in my hand, the blade jumped up and dissected the enemy vertically from the belly. Once the blade exited, this time I slashed down from above. It was the three hit heavy attack, effective against large type monsters, «Savage Fulcrum». Fifty percent physical and fifty percent ice.

On the verge of finishing the attack from the left hand——

I switched the output from my brain once again.

This timing, if it were too late or too early, could cause the skill to misfire, and cause the avatar to become rigid. The window of error allowed was less than one-tenth of a second. I noticed this skill combination by chance around three months ago, and I wouldn't want to recall how much I have been practicing since then, but the success rate was still below fifty percent. With feeling and half praying, the sword in my right hand started to move.

"Ku...oo!"

Mounted on a short fervor, the blade glowed in light blue. From the vertical cut without a backward motion, then up and down combination, followed by a full powered upper cut. A high speed four hit combo «Vertical Square»——

Up until this point, the total number of hits was already fifteen. Approaching the number of a high rank Dual Blades' skill. While it continued to be hit, the enemy would be under a delay so there was no need to think about the defense.

When Vertical Square started, the skill delay of my companions were already over.

"Zeeryaaaaa!"

It was obviously a war cry from Klein, as the second wave of concentrated attacks engulfed the gold Minotaur. The dungeon floor trembled, a large amount of the enemy's HP gauge was suddenly shaved off.

Just before the final upper slash, I challenged the fourth «Skill Connect» without any hesitation.

This didn't mean that any one-handed sword skill was suitable to lead in. The movement by the System Assist, and the movement of the non-attack arm, all needed to be in continuous motion to the next skill.

At the time the Vertical Square from my right hand unleashed, my left arm was folded toward the shoulder. From there, with just a slight twist of my body, the «pull the shoulder carrying the sword, the other hand moves forward» form was completed. The sword in my left hand was wrapped in a crimson light effect. The blade roared like a fighter jet and approached from behind, my arm shot out at an ultra high-speed. A heavy single strike attack «Vorpal Strike». Thirty percent physical, thirty percent fire and forty percent darkness.

Zgaaan!, a loud burst of sound emitted out, the sword penetrated the enemy's abdomen. The huge body five times my size was knocked back violently. At that time, the second attacks from Klein and the others were already completed. This time, everyone's avatar, including mine, was struck by the long skill delay.

The HP gauge of the gold Minotaur stained in deep red and decreased toward the left edge——

Then stopped and was left with only two percent remaining.

A cruel smile emerged from the bull head. The enemy had recovered from the delay, it drew its huge axe back horizontally. That must be a ranged attack using a high speed revolution which would result in an instant death if hit. A "jump back!" command resounded in my awareness, but my body wouldn't follow. The axe heartlessly shone, the whirling wind occurred at the boss' feet.

"No...oooooo!"

While my spirit screamed sharply, a blue gale ran past from my right side. The rapier held in its right hand released five consecutive thrusts at a speed so high our eyes couldn't see it. It was the high ranking extreme speed thin sword skill «Neutron». With the damage properties of twenty percent physical and eighty percent holy, the remaining HP of the gold Minotaur, who was readying itself to swing its axe, was silently robbed.

The movement of the evil-god halted. From behind, the black Minotaur which had completed its HP meditation brandished its axe in triumph. However, the partner who had been protecting it up until now was screaming in a high pitched sound —— its huge body blasted in all directions with a stiff sound effect.

...Eh.

The eyes of the black Minotaur widened in surprise, and looked at the seven people who had recovered from their skill delay.

"...Alright, in front, that's the seat of honor."

Klein said quickly while baring his teeth.

The katana user finished off the black Minotaur evil-god by stabbing it with his special skill, as if releasing the grudges he had kept up to this moment. Not paying any attention to the drop items on the spot the enemy avatar had burst apart, he turned around and yelled,

"Oi Kiritard! What did ya do just now!?"

That question obviously referred to my usage of one-handed sword skills while equipped with two swords, and explaining in detail would be very troublesome, so I obeyed my inner thoughts and said while giving my most troubled face,

"...Do I have to say it?"

"'Course! After seeing something like that!"

It seemed I had pressed Klein's curiosity button, and since it was unavoidable, I answered briefly,

"It was a skill outside the system, «Skill Connect»."

Oo―, was the sound which flowed out of Lis, Silica, and Sinon mouth; suddenly Asuna pressed her fingertips to her right temple and growled,

"Um...somehow, I got a strong feeling of Déjà vu..."

"It's just your imagination."

I shrugged my shoulders and clapped my hand on our healer-sama's back, whom despite her support duty in the back row, had sneaked in during the battle with the gold Minotaur to deliver the killing blow.

"This is not the time for relaxed talk. Leafa, how much time do we have left?"

"Ah, right."

After sheathing her long sword in its scabbard behind her waist, Leafa held up the medallion hanging from her neck. From a few steps away, I could see that the light within the jewel was almost completely lost.

"...At the current pace, we still have an hour or two."

"I see. ——Yui, this dungeon structure has four floors right?"

I continued asking, so the little fairy sitting on my head the whole time responded clearly,

"Yes, the third floor is around seventy percent of the second floor size, the forth floor should be mostly the boss room."

"Thank you."

Stretching my right hand, my fingertips stroked my hair while I quickly considered the situation.

At this moment, in the Jötunheimr field far below us, the players accepting the «Frost Giant Tribe» side's quest and the hunting of the beast type evil-gods had gained momentum. The number of quest participants would only increase and not decrease. The remaining time was estimated to be around an hour. The battle with the last boss —— probably «King Þrym» himself —— should take about thirty minutes, we wouldn't be able to move to the third and forth floor within thirty minutes.

If there were a little more time, we could explain the situation to the players on the field, asking for their assistance in revoking the ongoing quest, but at this moment we didn't have enough time to go back to the ground. The other alternative was to message the fairy lord requesting reinforcements, but organizing a force in the capital city beyond the mountain range, moving it to the Alne plateau, and reaching Jötunheimr from the dungeon stairs, by the time they did them the sun would have set.

In other words, with just seven people, we were in a hopeless situation. —— Or rather, factoring in the failure of «Queen Urðr»'side quest from the Cardinal's automatic quest generator function, Þrymheimr castle would surface on Alfheim, and trigger the start of a large-scale campaign quest «Ragnarök». The fault was obviously the character who inherited its function from its creator.

Anyway——

"...In that case, I don't care if it's the king of the evil-gods or not, we will just «Smash» him for good!"

Lisbeth said that with a slap on my back, the rest of them altogether went "Oo!" in agreement. Where did they get that recklessness from? While thinking that, I strongly nodded.

"——Alright, everyone's HP and MP have fully recovered right? Then let's clean up the third floor quickly!"

The combined voice echoed once more, seven people then kicked the floor, and started running, aiming for the boss' room on the lowest floor, which was visible through the ice.

Just as Yui said, the third floor was clearly narrower than the second floor. It was natural for the lower parts of an upside down pyramid, but this place was quite a narrow and also had a complicated passage. For a normal clearing, we would be confused by the gimmick of the paths, but we had, enshrined on my head, the Navigation Pixie-sama which could give the latest model of an intelligent car navigation system a run for its money.

Our trump card accessed the map data, and with her instructions, we could run through the winding passage at full speed. Even the gimmick puzzles using levers, gears, or stepping switches were cleared without any time used to solve them. If this affair were to be observed from the outside, there would be no mistake for them to think that we were doing a time attack for the fastest clearing.

We ran into the sub-boss twice, but we still reached the boss room of the third floor in only eighteen minutes. What awaited us there had twice the size of the Cyclops and Minotaur from the previous floors, both sides of its long lower body had ten pairs of centipede-like feet, it was clearly the creepy evil giant, but it didn't have much physical resistance. Of course its attack power was through the roof, so the HP gauge belonging to Klein and me were in the red so many times after being targeted by it. This battle, which made my stomach sore later, when I thought that either of us dying would lead to a wipe, went on for nine minutes.

During that time; Lis, Silica, Sinon, and Pina tried their best to cut down the giant's feet one by one, I then finished it off with the «Skill Connect» which included multiple sword skills once it was unable to move. With our high spirits, we rushed into the fourth floor to beat King Þrym and his Niflheimr. Once we stepped into the passage leading to the boss room, we stopped, as in front of our eyes —— a scene came into view.

It was a cage made of elongated icicles on the wall's edge.

Behind the fence caused by the stalactite growing sharply from both the ground and the ceiling, was a single figure. It was not of a giant's size. As it had collapsed on the ground, its accurate size was difficult to tell, but its body should be about the same height as the Undine Asuna's.

The skin was as white as the powdery snow lying thick around. The long flowing hair was a deep brown gold. The volume of the chest covered by the clothing that could be seen from her sorry state, it would be best not to say this out loud, as it could easily overwhelm all of our girl members. Both her hands and feet were shackled in the rugged ice.

The unexpected scene caused us to halt and feel worried, then the captive girl's shoulders made a sudden but subtle shake, as she lifted her face, with the blue chains ringing.

Her pupils were also of the same tea gold, like her hair. Her face, if it was a player avatar, would surely be because of overwhelming luck when it was created, or the account was bought with the large sum of money. However, her face was sublimed with the western European beauty, which was quite rare in this game.

Blinking once, her long eyelashes moved down then up, the girl said in a fine voice,

"Please... Help me...out of here..."

The katana user was sucked aimlessly toward the ice cage, I grabbed and pulled the bandana tail which dangled from behind his head.

"It's a trap."

"Trap."

"That's a trap."

The last two were Sinon's and Lis's words.

Klein straightened his back and turned around, as he made a subtle expression while scratching his head.

"O-Oh...it's a trap. ...A trap, right?"

For the katana user on his death bed's sake, I asked in a small voice, "Yui?". The pixie on my head promptly replied,

"It's an NPC. Just like Urðr-san, there is connection to the language engine module. ——But, there is one difference. This person has the HP gauge enabled."

Normally, the HP gauge of the quest giving NPCs would be disabled to prevent them from taking damage. The exceptions were, when the NPC was the escort quest's objective, or the NPC was actually——

"A trap."

"It's a trap."

"I think it's a trap."

Asuna, Silica, and Leafa said at the same time.

His eyebrows made a 八 shape, his eyes widened, and his mouth was pursed; I patted Klein's shoulder who was stiff in those complex expressions and quickly said,

"Of course it could be possible that it isn't a trap, but now we don't have time for trial and error. We need to reach Þrym's place as early as possible, even if it is a second sooner."

"O...Oo, hmm, well, that's right, yeah."

Klein nodded slightly and moved his glance from the ice cage.

When we ran until just a few steps before reaching the stairs, the voice came again from behind,

"...Please... anybody..."