Chapter 4

"Bwa-chooey!"

Leafa the sylph warrior quickly covered her mouth with both

hands after the very unladylike sneeze ripped its way free.

She glanced at the entrance to the shrine, imagining one of the

enormous Deviant Gods peering inside of it at them, drawn by

the sound. Fortunately, the only thing she saw was dancing

snowflakes. As they approached the little fire flickering on the

floor, the flakes melted away into nothing.

Leafa scrabbled back to the rear wall of the shrine, where she

readjusted the collar of her heavy cloak and gave a single heavy

sigh. Every time she felt the brief warmth of the little fire, fatigue

crept closer, and she had to blink herself awake.

The stone shrine was small; less than fifteen feet in height or

width. The walls and ceiling were covered in reliefs of frightening

monsters, and the way they seemed to move with every flicker of

the light made for a very uneasy atmosphere. But Leafa's companion, sitting with his back against the wall, was nodding peacefully, unaware of and unconcerned with the eerie vibe.

"Hey! Get up!" she hissed, pulling his pointy ear, but he only

murmured sleepily. On top of his knee, a tiny pixie was curled

into a ball, fast asleep.

"Remember, if you fall asleep, you get logged out!"

She gave his ear another tug. This time, he flopped over on top

of her thighs, wriggling in search of a more comfortable position.

With a squeak, she jerked her back straight, and she rapidly

clenched and unclenched her hands in midair as she considered

just how to strike the guy awake.

Then again, she couldn't blame him for being tired.

The real-time clock in the lower-right corner of her vision told

her it was after two in the morning. Leafa was normally fast

asleep in her bed at this time of night.

Of course, Jotunheim—and Alfheim above it—were not actual

fantasy realms. They were virtual worlds contained entirely

within a server somewhere in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, on the

planet Earth. Leafa and her partner were engaging in a full-dive

simulation through an interface helmet called an AmuSphere.

Leaving this world was actually quite simple. A downward

swipe with the first two fingers of her hand would call up a menu

window with a log-out button. She could also lie down and fall

asleep for real, during which time the machine would sense the

change in her brain waves and log her out automatically. When

she woke up in the morning, she'd be in her bed back in the real

world.

But for right now, there was a reason she had to fight the fatigue that assaulted her. And it was for this reason that she made

a fist and brought it down directly onto the spiky black hair of her

companion.

The special yellow burst of light that indicated a manual attack

was accompanied by a satisfying crunch, and her partner leaped

up with a yelp. He looked around in a panic, head in his hands—

only to see Leafa smiling at him.

"Good morning, Kirito."

"G…good morning."

Her companion was Kirito, a spriggan swordsman with lightly

tanned skin and black hair. His rambunctious look—like that of

any protagonist from a shonen manga—was currently being ruined by the pout on his lips.

"Was I…sleeping?"

"On top of my legs. You should be grateful I only punched you

once."

"…I'm sorry. If you want, you could take a nap on mine…"

"No, thank you!" She turned her head to the side and glanced

at Kirito out of the corner of her eye. "If you're done being an

idiot, maybe you could share the brilliant escape plan you formulated in your dreams."

"In my dream…Oh, yeah. I almost got to that giant pudding à

la mode…"

It was stupid of me to expect anything better, she thought,

slumping her shoulders. She looked to the shrine entrance again,

but the only thing she saw amid the darkness was the flurry of

snow dancing on the wind.

Leafa, Kirito, and the sleeping pixie Yui were trapped deep at

the bottom of Jotunheim, and they couldn't make their way back

to the surface. This was the reason they couldn't just log out.

If they wanted to, they could leave the game at any time. But

the shrine was neither an inn nor a safe haven, so if they returned

to reality, their avatars would be left behind as soulless husks.

Nothing seemed to draw the presence of monsters like an unattended avatar. Death came swiftly for helpless punching bags,

and when they logged in next, they'd find themselves back at their

save point: the sylph capital of Swilvane. And then what would

their long journey from her character's homeland have been for?

Leafa and Kirito were traveling to Alne, the capital city at the

center of Alfheim. They'd left Swilvane earlier today—technically,

it was yesterday. They'd flown over vast forests, raced through a

long series of mine tunnels, and helped prevent a disastrous attack at the hands of the enemy salamanders, which earned them

the gratitude of Lady Sakuya, leader of the sylphs. They'd left her

side just after one o'clock.

Excluding bathroom breaks, they'd been in a continuous dive

for over eight hours. Alne was still far off in the distance, and they

didn't seem likely to reach it any time soon, so the decision was

made to call it a night at the nearest inn. They landed in a small

village they'd just happened to cross in the midst of the forest.

If she'd only taken the trouble to call up a map, to confirm the

name of the village and the presence of any inns. Instead…

"Who would have guessed that the entire village was just a

giant monster in camouflage?" Kirito sighed, clearly retracing the

same recent memory. She let out a long breath and agreed.

"Tell me about it…Who said there were no monsters on the

Alne Plateau?"

"You did."

"I have no recollection."

They both sighed again.

When Leafa and Kirito first landed in the strange village, they

were mystified by the lack of any NPC villagers. They had been

walking into the largest building they could find, to look for a

shopkeeper of some kind, when it happened.

The three buildings that made up the town crumbled simultaneously. They didn't even have time to gasp in amazement at the

inn suddenly turning into a slick, shining blob of flesh, as the

ground beneath their feet split apart to reveal a dark red cave that

squirmed and undulated. What they'd thought was a village was

just the mouth of a horrifingly large wormlike monster, which

had evolved to mimic an entire fairy settlement.

It swallowed Leafa, Kirito, and Yui instantly. Leafa was certain

that being dissolved in stomach acid would be by far the worst

way to die she'd ever experienced in her year of ALO.

Fortunately, they didn't meet the earthworm's taste; after a

three-minute tour of its entire digestive tract, they were mercifully expelled. Skin crawling from the sticky substance covering

her body, Leafa tried to stop her fall with her wings, only to get

another shock.

She couldn't fly. No matter how she tried to work the muscles

around her shoulder blades to flap her wings, they provided no

lift. She and Kirito fell through a featureless darkness and

plunged deep into a bank of snow.

After flailing and struggling to work her head out from under

the pile of snow, Leafa saw not the moon and twinkling stars of

the night sky, but an endless ceiling of stone. A cave—so that was

why she couldn't fly. After close scrutiny of her surroundings, she

saw a looming, inhuman form slowly prowling across the snows.

It was clearly a Deviant God–level monster, something she'd only

ever seen in pictures until now.

She quickly leaped to cover Kirito's mouth before he could

start shouting. Leafa realized that she had unintentionally made

her first-ever trip to Jotunheim, the vast underground realm that

was notoriously the most difficult region of ALO. Which meant

the worm monster wasn't designed to eat adventurers, but force

them down into the land of ice.

They stayed still long enough to evade the attention of the fivestory-tall creature as it shambled along on its many legs. Once

free to move again, they trudged wearily on until they found the

little shrine and decided to formulate a plan. Without the ability

of flight, however, their options were limited. They'd been sitting

along the wall of the shrine, staring at the little campfire for

nearly an hour now, without any progress to show for it.

"Well, the problem is I don't know a thing about this Jotunheim place, much less how to escape it…"

Kirito had shaken the sleep out of his eyes. He peered sharply

into the darkness outside.

"Didn't the leader of the sylphs say something about this when

I handed her all my money? 'You can't make this kind of money

without camping out to hunt Deviant Gods in Jotunheim,' or

something."

"Yeah, she did," Leafa agreed, traveling back through her

memory.

Shortly before they were swallowed by the giant worm, Leafa

and Kirito had saved a secret conference between the leaders of

the sylphs and cait siths from a deadly ambush at the hands of

enemy salamanders. After they did so, Kirito donated a massive

sum of yrd to their war chest, at which point Lady Sakuya, leader

of the sylphs, had made the previous remark.

"So where did you make such a preposterous amount of

money, Kirito?"

Leafa's sudden derailment was met with a hum of "ah, um,

well…" followed by a muttered answer.

"I, erm, received that money. From a friend who'd played this

game obsessively, then decided to retire from it…"

"Hmm."

It was true that when players quit a game for good, they often

passed on the cash and loot they'd stockpiled to a friend. That

made enough sense to Leafa.

"So, what's on your mind? Something the matter with

Sakuya's comment?"

"Well, based on the way she said it, there must be some players who do hunt down here, right?"

"There are…apparently."

"Which means there must be other ways to get to and from

this place that aren't one-way routes like that worm monster."

She nodded, finally understanding where he was going. "There

are…apparently. I've never used them myself, since this is my

first time here, but I've heard there's a large dungeon at each of

the four cardinal directions in Alne—and at the bottom of each is

a staircase leading here, to Jotunheim. They should be…"

She waved a hand to bring up her menu and map. It displayed

the large, flat circle that was Jotunheim, but because it was her

first trip here, the entire map was grayed out aside from the small

area that was their immediate surroundings. She touched the

edges of the map—top, bottom, left, and right.

"Here, here, here, and here. Our current location is right between the center and the southwest edge of the map, so the closest staircase would be either west or south. However," she said

warily, "the dungeons that house the stairs are guarded by Deviant Gods, as you might expect."

"What're the stats on those things?" he asked airily. She gave

him a withering look.

"I know you're tough, but not this tough. From what I hear, a

huge party of salamanders attempted to tackle Jotunheim right

after it was first opened, and they got easily wiped out by the first

Deviant God they faced. Remember how much trouble you had

against General Eugene in that duel? Well, he didn't last ten seconds against one."

"…That's saying something…"

"The current strategy requires at least eight people each to be

heavily armored tanks, high-firepower damage dealers, and healers for backup. Two light-but-agile fighters are going to be

squished like ants against one of them."

"They're formidable, then…"

Leafa glared at Kirito, who, his head bowed like he was nodding in agreement with her, was actually surreptitiously hiding

the fact that his nostrils were flared with excitement. She added,

"But I'd say it's ninety nine percent likely we'll never make it to

one of the exits. Who knows how many Deviant Gods we'll pull

along the way, walking from this distance?"

"Really?…Well, I guess on this map we can't just fly over them,

huh…?"

"Right. We need sunlight or moonlight to recharge our wings,

and that's clearly in short supply in a cave. Apparently, if you play

as an Imp, you can fly for a bit underground, though…"

She broke off and examined her wings. The pale green wings

that marked Leafa as a sylph and Kirito's gray spriggan ones were

both dull and wilted. A fairy that couldn't fly was just a human

with pointy ears.

"So that leaves our final option as joining a big raiding party to

help get us past those Deviant Gods to the surface…"

"That's right," Leafa agreed, looking outside the shrine.

The only things she could see through the dim, bluish gloom

were endless snow, some forests, and an eerie castle looming over

it all in the distance. Of course, if they got anywhere near that

castle, they'd be greeted most unpleasantly by its monstrous boss

and countless underling Deviant Gods. There was no sign of any

other players.

"Jotunheim was recently added to the game to serve as the

most difficult dungeon yet, for those who weren't getting enough

out of the dungeons on the surface. So there're never more than

ten parties down here at any time, from what I understand. The

possibility that one of them might coincidentally pass right by

this shrine is lower than us beating a Deviant God on our own…"

"A test of our real-life luck stat," Kirito smiled weakly. He extended a finger and poked the head of the sleeping pixie on his

knee. "Wake up, Yui."

The tiny, pink-clad fairy batted her long eyelashes sleepily,

then rose to a sitting position. She covered her mouth with one

hand and stretched out the other with a wide yawn. Leafa was entranced by the adorable display.

"Aawh…Good morning, Papa, Leafa." Her voice was as delicate and beautiful as the strumming of musical strings.

"Morning, Yui," Kirito responded kindly. "I'm afraid it's actually the middle of the night, and we're underground. Do you think

you could run a search to see if there are any players nearby?"

"Yep, sure thing. Just a moment, okay?…" She bobbed her

head once and then closed her eyes.

Kirito's little companion Yui was a Navigation Pixie, an ingame helper that anyone could buy for an extra fee. But as far as

Leafa knew, Nav Pixies simply read out answers from the help

system in a bland autogenerated voice. She'd never seen one with

Yui's rich emotional range. In fact, she'd never even heard of a

pixie having an individual name and personality.

While she wondered if those things would naturally develop

after summoning the same fairy enough times, Leafa waited for

Yui's search results.

The pixie's eyes popped open nearly immediately, only to have

her ears droop apologetically. She shook her silky black hair back

and forth.

"I'm sorry—there were no player signals within the range of

my data search ability. In fact, if I had been paying close enough

attention to spot that the village was not marked on my map…"

Leafa felt compelled to reach out and stroke Yui's hair, as the

little fairy hung her head sadly.

"It's not your fault, Yui. I kept you busy by asking you to keep

an eye out for other players. You can't blame yourself for this."

"…Thank you, Leafa."

As Leafa looked into those teary eyes, she couldn't bring herself to believe that it was just a piece of program code. She put on

her most heartfelt smile and stroked Yui's tiny cheek before turning to Kirito.

"Well, at this point, I suppose it can't be helped. We've just got

to do what we can."

"Do…what exactly?" Kirito blinked. This time, Leafa gave him

a confident grin.

"See if we can make it to one of those staircases and up to the

surface on our own. The only thing we accomplish by sitting here

is wasting time."

"B-but you said it was impossible…"

"I said it was ninety nine percent impossible. Let's bet on that

remaining one percent. If we pay close attention to the movement

patterns and eyelines of the wandering Gods, we might just make

it."

"You're so cool, Leafa!" Yui piped up, applauding. Leafa threw

her a wink and got to her feet. But Kirito grabbed her sleeve and

pulled her back down.

"Wh-what?"

She awkwardly fell on her bottom and was about to launch a

protest when she saw those black eyes staring into her at close

range. He had fixed her with a fierce glare, and his voice lost its

earlier frivolity.

"No…I want you to log out. I'll watch your avatar until it's

gone."

"Huh? Wh-why?"

"It's almost two thirty now. Aren't you a student? You've been

in a dive with me for eight hours already today. I can't force you

to spend any more of your time here."

". . ."

Leafa had no response to this sudden demand. Kirito continued.

"We don't even know how long it will take to walk there in a

straight line. Evading the search radius of those gigantic monsters could double the travel time. Even if we reach the staircase,

it'll be morning by then. I need to get to Alne at all costs, but it's a

weekday for you. I think you should log off."

"I…I'm fine, I can handle one measly all-nighter," she

protested weakly, trying to put on a brave face.

But Kirito released her sleeve and bowed his head formally, attempting to force the conversation to a close.

"Thank you for everything, Leafa. It would have taken me days

and days just to gather basic information about this world without you. It was only because of you that I could get this far in only

half a day. I can never thank you enough."

". . ."

Leafa clutched her hands together, unable to bear the sudden

pain that stung her breast. She didn't know why she was hurting.

But her lips moved automatically, pushing the trembling words

out.

"…I didn't do it just for you."

"Huh…?"

Kirito raised his head, but Leafa firmly looked away, her voice

hard.

"I came this far…because I wanted to. I thought you understood that. What do you mean, 'force me to spend my time with

you'? Did you think I was doing all of this against my will?"

The AmuSphere detected the emotions rising to the front of

her mind, and translated them faithfully into teardrops welling in

her eyes. She blinked furiously to stifle them. Yui looked at each

of them with panic, and Leafa had to stand and face the exit to

avoid her gaze.

"Today's adventure was the most fun I've had since I started

playing ALO. There was so much excitement and drama. Finally,

finally, I was able to believe this world was another reality of its

own, but now…"

She vigorously rubbed her eyes with her right arm and turned

to run out into the darkness.

But before she could—

An alarming, bizarre sound, neither thunder nor tremor,

sounded from very close by.

Brrroooo! It was a howl from the throat of an extremely large

monster, no doubt about it. It was followed by thudding, groundshaking footsteps.

Oh no, I just had to shout and draw a Deviant God down on

us! I'm so stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought to herself. But if

there was one way to make up for her mistake, it was that she

could run out into the open and draw the beast away.

Before she could move, Kirito was behind her, holding her arm

back.

"Let me go! I'm going to pull the monster away so you can

keep going," she hissed, but he cut her off with a sharp glance.

"No, wait. Something's wrong."

"Wrong? What…?"

"It's not one of them."

She stopped to focus her ears—he was right. Aside from the

low engine rumble of the Deviant God's roar, there was a

whistling sound, like wind through branches. Leafa held her

breath and tried to shake his hand off her arm.

"If there are two of them, that makes it even more imperative!

If either of them targets you, it's all the way back to Swilvane to

start over!"

"It's not that, Leafa!" exclaimed Yui from Kirito's shoulder.

"The two approaching Deviant God monsters…are attacking each

other!"

"Huh?"

Leafa blinked in surprise and listened again. Indeed, the rumbling footsteps were not the steady gallop of creatures approaching on a run, but the uneven pattern of two beasts circling each

other.

"B-but…why would two mobs be fighting each other…?" she

muttered in shock, her crushing sadness instantly forgotten. Kirito seemed to have made up his mind.

"Let's go out and see. This shrine isn't much of a shelter, anyway."

"G-good idea…"

Leafa joined Kirito and snuck out into the swirling snows and

darkness, her hand on her katana hilt.

It only took a few steps for them to spot the Deviant Gods that

were the source of the cacophony. The pair of monsters slowly approached from the east, like two small moving mountains. They

were at least seventy feet tall, by any estimate. Both were the

bluish-gray color unique to all Deviant Gods.

There was a slight difference in size between the two: The one

that rumbled like an engine was larger than the one that whistled

like the wind.

The bigger one might charitably have been described as humanoid. It was a giant with three faces stacked vertically, and

four arms sprouting from its sides. Each of the faces was sputtering individually, stony and menacing like evil deities, and the

combination of their muttering created that odd engine rumbling.

The four arms each held a titanic sword, as crude and blocky as

steel rebar from a construction site.

The smaller Deviant God was absolutely incomprehensible in

design. The large ears and wide mouth were vaguely elephantine,

but the body was flattened and round like a dumpling, supported

by around twenty clawed legs. It was like a jellyfish with the head

of an elephant. It reared up in an attempt to slash at the three-

faced giant, but the whirlwind of those swords kept the creature

from reaching its target. Each time the tip of one of the swords hit

the dumpling body, filthy black liquid sprayed out like mist.

"Wh…what's going on…?" Leafa wondered in amazement, all

thoughts of hiding forgotten.

There were three basic scenarios in which monsters in ALO

might fight one another.

The first was if one of the monsters was a pet that had been

tamed by a cait sith player, who were known for their taming

skill. The second was if a pooka charmed one with their characteristic battle songs. The third was if they'd been confused by illusion magic.

But none of those applied to this battle. A pet could be instantly identified by its light green cursor, but both Deviant Gods'

were the standard-monster yellow. There was no music, only

rumbling, whistling, and shuffling footsteps. Nor was there any

hint of the visual effects of illusion magic.

The two monstrous creatures continued their battle without a

thought spared for their flabbergasted audience. After a few moments, it became apparent that the three-faced giant's superiority

over the jellyphant was decisive. One of its swords caught a

clawed tentacle at the base. The appendage flew free and landed

close enough to send vibrations through Leafa's body.

"Um, do you think it's dangerous to stand here?" Kirito wondered. Leafa agreed, but she was frozen still. She couldn't take

her eyes off the elephantine Deviant God, whose wounds were

spurting black blood over the white snow.

The maimed god gave a whirling screech and attempted to disengage again. But the giant had other plans; it leaped onto the

dumpling body and swung its blades with wild abandon. The jellyphant was pushed into the ground by the pressure, its cries

growing weaker and weaker. Countless ugly gashes were struck

into its gray hide, but the giant above showed no mercy.

"Let's help it, Kirito," Leafa said. If she was shocked by this

sudden thought, Kirito was three times as flabbergasted. He

looked back and forth between Leafa and the giants.

"Wh-which one?"

He had a point. The three-faced one seemed at least somewhat

familiar with its humanoid shape, while the jellyphant was just

plain horrifying. But the choice was clear.

"The one being picked on, of course," she answered. Kirito's

next question was predictably sensible.

"H-how?"

"Umm…"

She had no response to that one—Leafa had no idea how to

help it. But even as they stood there, the giant was slicing deep

furrows in the grayish hide of the elephantine creature's back.

"…Just do something, Kirito!!" she wailed, clutching her hands

together. The spriggan boy looked upward in frustration and ran

his hands through his black hair.

"But I don't know what that something should be…"

Suddenly, he stopped moving and gave the beasts a hard stare.

His eyes narrowed, light flashing deep within them. She could

practically see the high-speed thoughts racing through his brain.

"If there's a meaning behind that body type…" he murmured

to himself. Then he looked around with a start and whispered to

the tiny pixie on his shoulder, "Yui, is there any water nearby?

Lake or river, anything will do!"

She blinked in surprise, but answered him without question.

"There is, Papa! There's a frozen lake about two hundred yards

north of us!"

"Good…Ready, Leafa? We're going to run there like our lives

depend on it."

"Um…huh?"

When he spoke of body type, was he referring to the threefaced, four-armed giant? What did that have to do with a water

surface?

Kirito pushed her lightly on the back and pulled something

from his belt that looked like a thick nail. Leafa suspected it was a

throwing pick, but she'd never seen anyone use them before.

With all the powerful long-range magic in ALO, it was nearly

pointless to spend time training up the Throwing Weapons skill.

But with a practiced motion, Kirito spun the five-inch pick

within his fingertips and raised it above his shoulder.

"Yah!"

He flicked his hand forward faster than the eye could follow,

and the metal nail shot forth in a blue line.

It struck the giant's top face right between its gleaming, dark

red eyes.

To her surprise, Leafa noticed that the massive creature's HP

bar actually went down a single pixel. He couldn't possibly break

through that Deviant God's powerful armor with such a toylike

implement unless his skill level was incredibly high.

It was only a tiny drop in the bucket of the giant's massive

store of HP; the real takeaway was that any damage had been

done at all. Because now…

"Bbbrrrooo!"

It roared and turned three pairs of eyes from its previous victim to its new target: Kirito and Leafa.

"Time to run!" Kirito screamed and turned north, spraying

snow as he dashed.

H-hey… Leafa mouthed in surprise, then took off after the

rapidly shrinking spriggan. A moment later, the ground beneath

her feet rumbled and her ears were filled with the sound of bellowing. The giant was chasing them.

"W-wait…Aaaaah!"

Leafa was now running as fast as her legs would go, but Kirito

was pulling even farther away, his form as perfect as an Olympic

sprinter's. She'd experienced his running speed before in the

Lugru Corridor on the surface world above, but it wasn't quite so

thrilling when he was using it to leave her in the dust.

"Thiiiiis suuuuuucks!" she wailed, as the massive thudding

footsteps drew closer behind her. The Deviant God was thirteen

times Leafa's height, so the ground it covered in a single step

must be about the same. She could practically imagine those

giant rebar swords swinging at her back, and put every ounce of

her strength—technically, every ounce of her brain's commands—

into running after Kirito.

Suddenly the figure in black skidded to a halt in front of her

with a spray of snow. Arms open wide, Kirito spun around to

catch her. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but feel a little

flushed in the face, and turned to look back.

The three-faced giant loomed over them, terrifyingly close. A

few more steps and it would be upon them. Just a single blow

from its massive swords would easily obliterate lightly armored

fighters like Kirito and Leafa.

What in the world is your plan?! she silently hissed at her

partner. At nearly the same moment, a monstrous cracking sound

echoed throughout the underground clearing.

The giant's enormous, tree-trunk leg had punctured the ice

hidden beneath the snow drifts. Kirito had stopped them directly

in the center of the snow-covered lake.

The ground just fifty feet ahead of them cratered in, revealing

dark, clear water. The three-faced giant plunged into the hole of

its own creation, sending up a towering plume of water.

"P-please, please just sink…" Leafa prayed with all of her

being, but it would not be that simple. Almost immediately, a face

and a half emerged from the water and began sloshing toward

them. It must have been using the pair of arms below the surface

like oars, and, despite its rocklike exterior, it indeed proved itself

a skilled swimmer. If dropping the beast into the lake was Kirito's

plan, then the gamble had backfired.

She tensed herself for another mad dash, but Kirito held her

close and did not budge. His grip was so tight, the game's antiharassment code could have kicked in at any moment. He stared

down the approaching giant.

"…Uh…y-you don't mean to…"

Does he just want to die here? she wondered instinctually.

Not long ago, she'd suggested that they allow themselves to be

killed so that they could respawn at their save point: Swilvane,

capital of sylph territory.

That was not an option. Every event, every incident that had

occurred throughout this long, long day had told her how urgent

it was for Kirito to get to the World Tree looming over Alne in the

center of the map. The spriggan boy dove into ALO solely to meet

someone atop it. They'd overcome all these challenges just for

that purpose.

"No, you can't—! You have to…" She struggled to free herself

from his arms, but her piteous wail was interrupted by another

large splash.

Leafa turned her head with a start to see a fresh plume of

water behind the approaching three-faced giant. Its whirling,

high-pitched roar was that of the elephant-headed Deviant God

the giant had been tormenting just moments ago. All this work to

pull the attacker away, and it had followed after them.

And as Leafa watched in shock and awe, all other details forgotten, it burst through the surface of the water, stretching out its

grasping limbs, nearly twenty in all, and clung to the giant's faces

and arms.

Baroomf! the giant grunted in rage, attempting to swing its

heavy iron swords. But the water slowed its movements, and the

jellyphant's grip stayed strong.

"Oh…I see," Leafa murmured in wonder.

The jellyphant was an aquatic monster by nature. On land, the

majority of its many limbs had to be used to support its dumpling

body, but now its bulk was floating on the water's surface, leaving

all of those legs free to attack. Meanwhile, the giant had to use

two of its arms to paddle, halving its combat ability.

When Kirito was muttering about body type, he'd been referring to the elephantine Deviant God. In retrospect, it seemed perfectly obvious to question why a creature modeled after a jellyfish

would be on land. Leafa felt a twinge of disappointment in herself.

Like a fish—well, a jellyfish—taking to water, the wiggler

climbed atop the three-faced giant, pushing it down beneath the

surface. The water swelled now and then with the struggle of the

massive creatures, hitting the lip of the ice to spray through the

air.

Suddenly, the jellyphant screeched louder than usual, and its

body flashed brightly. The light turned to fine sparks, which shot

through its twenty legs and into the water.

"Oh…"

"Yes!!"

Leafa and Kirito exclaimed together. The three-faced giant's

HP bar was quickly plummeting. Leafa used her Identification

skill, which displayed a number with six digits trailing downward

with every burst of sparks.

There was a series of red flashes beneath the surface that

caused several jets of steam to erupt—possibly the three-faced

giant's final struggle—but it had little effect on the jellyphant's

health. Eventually, the rumbling roar slowed down and died

away. In the next moment, a mammoth explosion of tiny polygonal shards obscured Leafa's vision.

She turned away for a moment, and when she looked back,

there was only one cursor left.

Hrroooooo, the jellyphant exclaimed in victory, raising its

many appendages into the air before proceeding to swim through

the lake.

It hoisted itself onto the shore, great waterfalls running off its

massive bulk, and began to cross the creaking ice toward them.

Leafa watched with apprehension.

The creature's footfalls shook the ice beneath them as it approached. When it stopped before them, she marveled again at

the preposterous size of the thing. Those tentacles, seemingly so

thin and fragile when it was fighting the giant, were too large for

her to fit both arms around up close. They stretched high like tree

trunks, supporting the dumpling-shaped body that was only

vaguely visible far overhead.

The face at the front of its wide trunk really did look a lot like

an elephant's. The flappers that were actually more like gills than

ears spread to the sides of the round face, and the drooping

mouth hung almost as low as those pendulous limbs. It had three

gleaming eyes covered in black lenses on either side of the face,

which would have been creepier if it weren't for their humorous

triangle shape, which made them look like rice balls.

"So…what do we do now?" Kirito wondered.

It was Leafa's idea to save the elephant creature, but she

hadn't spared a thought for what would come after that. It was

still a terrifying Deviant God standing before them, its cursor a

hostile yellow. One swipe of its clawed limbs would easily kill the

both of them.

But the fact that it had approached so close and still hadn't attacked them proved that this was already an irregular scenario. In

a high-level hunting ground like Jotunheim, common sense said

that every monster would fly into a rage and attack any player

that crossed its field of vision. The fact that it was not doing so

gave Leafa hope that it would leave them alone and eventually

shuffle away…

A second later, her hopes were dashed. It whistled and extended its long nose straight at them.

"Ugh…"

Kirito prepared to leap out of the way, but Yui pulled on his

ear with an adorably tiny hand. "It's all right, Papa. The little

one's not angry."

Little one? Leafa's jaw nearly dropped at the irony. Suddenly,

the finely separated tip of its nose snaked around the both of

them and lifted them straight off the ground.

"Hyeeek!" Kirito wailed pathetically. Leafa couldn't even manage a squeak. The elephant head easily lifted them a few dozen

yards into the air and tossed them not into its mouth, but onto its

back. Fortunately.

They landed butt first, bounced, and fell again. The jellyphant's body had seemed slick from a distance, but it was actually covered in thick, short gray hairs. Once Kirito and Leafa were

safely settled in the center of its back, it roared again—apparently

in satisfaction—and began moving about as though nothing had

happened.

". . ."

After sharing a wordless glance with Kirito, Leafa gave up attempting to understand what was happening and stared out at

their surroundings.

Being the "land of eternal darkness" did not mean that Jotunheim was actually pitch-black. The stalactites clinging to the ceiling gave off a faint glow, which glimmered dimly off the snow

coating the ground. If the place weren't so deadly, it would have

been quite beautiful. The dark forests, the jutting cliffs, and the

towers and castle looming over it all were easily visible from their

present vantage point.

After a minute of riding on the back of the jellyphant and feeling the vibrations of its twenty legs, Kirito murmured, "Do you

suppose…this is the start of some kind of quest?"

"Umm…" Leafa wondered for a moment. "If it was a quest, we

would have gotten some kind of prompt or start log by now."

She waved a hand to indicate the upper-left area of her view.

"Since there was nothing like that, it'd probably be more of an in-

game event than a simple commission quest with an obvious beginning and end. But that's a troubling sign…"

"Why is that?"

"If it's a quest, we're guaranteed to get some kind of reward at

the end. But since in-game events are more like a little prefab

drama involving the players, we can't be assured of a happy ending."

"Meaning…we might be heading for something unspeakably

awful?"

"Very possible. I made the wrong choice in a horror-themed

event once and got boiled to death in a witch's cauldron."

"Wow. That's messed up," Kirito said, his smile looking more

like a grimace. He brushed the heavy hair at his side. "Well, we

can't put this horse back in the stable. Er, this jellyphant? And

we'd probably take tons of damage jumping off from this height,

so I guess we just ride it and see what happens? Um…I know it's a

bit silly to bring this up now, but…"

"What is it?"

The spriggan looked at Leafa, his expression serious again,

then dipped his head.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier, Leafa. I made light of your

feelings. Maybe I wasn't taking this world seriously enough. 'It's

just a game,' I told myself. But I should have known already that

whether the surroundings are real or virtual, the things you feel

and think are real, and the truth…"

A look of anguish crossed his downturned face. For an instant,

Leafa felt she saw something familiar in that expression, but she

put the thought aside and waved her hands in supplication.

"N-no, it's my fault. I'm sorry…After all you did to help me and

the rest of the sylphs, I should know perfectly well that you don't

see ALO as just another game."

Lately, Leafa had come to feel strongly that there was something about this new VRMMORPG genre that tested each of its

players.

Generally speaking, it was a player's pride that was being challenged. This was a game, so it was impossible to win all the time.

You might fall into a trap set by players of an enemy race. You

might get into a fight and simply be beaten into the mud.

When that happened, how hard could you struggle? If you lost,

how would you regroup and hold your head high? That was the

test. In traditional video games played on a flat monitor, there

was no expression of emotion unless you entered a specific command. If you lost, the most that happened was a frowning emoticon in the chat window. But in the full-dive environment, every

player's emotions were written plainly across his or her face. You

might even be seen shedding tears of frustration.

Many players glibly abandoned a disadvantageous fight or

logged out the moment they lost, specifically in order to avoid

showing anyone that kind of emotion. Leafa, too, wanted no one

to see her cry, if she could help it.

But the mysterious spriggan before her seemed to spare no

thought for the concept of maintaining face. When they were ambushed by the salamanders in the Lugru Corridor and when he

was being pulverized by General Eugene's legendary sword, Kirito made no attempt to hide his anger and frustration—he struggled and scrabbled until he ultimately emerged victorious. No one

who wrote this off as "just a game" could do such a thing.

"Can I…ask you something?"

What game did you play before this? What are you like in

real life? Leafa nearly asked, but she bit her lip. It wasn't right to

ask other VRMMO players about their real lives and identities

unless you were very close.

She shook her head and told Kirito not to mind, grinning. "I

guess this means we've made up. I can stay up as late as it takes.

I'm at the time of year where I don't have to go to school if I

choose not to."

Leafa extended her right hand. Kirito chuckled and squeezed

it. She started shaking it vigorously to hide her embarrassment,

but only got more self-conscious when she noticed Yui grinning

happily at the two of them. She let go and turned away, certain

that her face must have gone red to the tips of her pointy ears.

The elephantine Deviant God continued trundling on, totally

unconcerned with the conversation taking place on its back.

When she looked to the direction of their travel, Leafa's brows

knitted, her blush completely forgotten.

"What's wrong?" Kirito asked. She reached out and pointed

ahead.

"We were supposed to be heading for the staircase either to

the west or the south, right? I think it's taking us the exact opposite direction…Look."

She was pointing through the darkness to a vast silhouette taking shape ahead. It was an upside-down conical structure dangling from the gently curved ceiling of Jotunheim. An endless series of tiny branches draping down came together to form a kind

of net, woven around an impossibly massive pillar of ice.

The distance-blur effect of the game's visual engine told her

that it was at least five miles away, but it was so large that it

seemed closer than that. A number of blinking lights were embedded in the icicle, and their steady flickering pattern lent the

structure an awesome grace.

"What's all that twisty stuff around the giant icicle?"

"I've only ever seen that in screenshots…They're the roots of

the World Tree."

"Huh…?"

She cast a sidelong glance at Kirito's squinting face before continuing. "See, the roots of the tree go so far into the earth of

Alfheim that they hang down from the ceiling of Jotunheim. Our

friend here isn't taking us to the outer rim of the cave, he's heading for the center."

"Hmm…Well, since the World Tree is our final destination, is

there any way we can climb those roots up to the surface?"

"I've never heard of anything like that. Besides, look at them.

Even the lowest-hanging tendril only comes halfway down to the

floor. That's got to be hundreds of feet tall, and there's no flight

down here. We can't get up there."

"I see," Kirito sighed, then switched gears with a grin. "Then

we just have to trust our weevil, or isopod, or whatever he is. We

don't even know if he's escorting us to a feast at the palace, or if

we are the feast."

"W-wait. Iso-what now? If anything, it's an elephant or a jellyfish monster," Leafa instructed him, but Kirito raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"What, you don't know about giant isopods? They're on the

bottom of the ocean, like pill bugs that are this big…" He

stretched out his hands to a terrifying size. Leafa shivered and

quickly cut him off.

"Okay, I get the picture! Let's just give him a name, then. A

cute one!"

She looked at the furry, dumpling-shaped body—and the

round head nearly hidden at the other end—and tried to think of

something with zo in it, which was the word for "elephant." Yuzo?

No…Zoringen? Not that…

"How about Tonky?" Kirito piped up suddenly. Leafa blinked

in surprise. It was certainly cute enough, but where did he get

that name? Hang on…something about "Tonky the Elephant"

sounded familiar.

After two seconds of trawling her memory bank, the answer

came to her. It was the name of an elephant in a picture book

she'd had as a child. As the story went, after a massive war, zoos

were ordered to put down their wild animals. The heartbroken

trainers gave the animals poisoned feed, but clever Tonky the

Elephant didn't eat it. Instead, he kept rearing up on his hind legs

until he eventually starved to death. Leafa remembered bawling

her eyes out when her mother had read the story to her.

"Kind of seems like an ominous name to give it," she muttered,

and Kirito grimaced.

"Good point. It was just the first thing that popped into my

head."

"So you know that story, too, huh? Well, fine. Let's go with

that!" Leafa thumped her fist into her palm and stroked the fur at

her feet. "All right, Deviant God. From now on, your name is

Tonky!"

The creature gave no response, of course. She chose to interpret that as a lack of disagreement. If it was turned into a pet

through the use of the Taming skill, the name could be made official within the game, but she'd never heard of even the master

tamers of the cait sith succeeding in bringing a Deviant God to

heel.

From atop Kirito's shoulder, Yui waved her tiny hands at the

creature, which was many hundreds of times larger than she. "It's

nice to meet you, Mr. Tonky! Let's be good friends, okay?"

This time, they saw the floppy ear/gill at the side of the creature's head wave slightly, perhaps it was just coincidence.

The jellyphant named Tonky continued northward along the

bank of a frozen river. On the way, they had more than a few encounters with other wandering Deviant Gods trudging through

the wastes. But for some reason, the creatures only threw the

group a glance from beyond the trees or hills that separated

them, and walked on without further interest.

Perhaps they saw Leafa's party as nothing more than an accessory of Tonky's, but that didn't explain why the three-faced giant

had attacked the beast. The only potential reason that came to

mind was that all the Deviant Gods they passed without incident

were nonhumanoid in shape, like Tonky itself.

She turned to Kirito to ask his opinion and was aghast to see

that once again, the spriggan was fast asleep, his head lolling. She

clenched her fist, ready to pound him, when she was struck with a

much better idea and began shoveling up the snow that had accumulated on Tonky's back.

Before the snow could dissipate, she quickly tugged on the

back of Kirito's collar and dumped it down his back.

"Hweeg!!"

Kirito leaped up with a strangled yelp as the chilly sensation

hit his back. She bid him good morning and asked the question

that had been on her mind a moment earlier. The spriggan sulked

for a bit, then pondered the idea.

"So you're suggesting…within the Deviant Gods, there are

fights between the humanoid kind and the animal kind?"

"Perhaps. Maybe the humanoid ones would only attack

Tonky's kind."

The Jotunheim zone had only been added to the game a

month ago during a major update, and it was so difficult that very

little progress had been made on it. If this situation represented

some kind of special event, it was quite possible that Leafa and

Kirito were the first players in the entire game to realize it. If a

Deviant God hunting party had witnessed the battle between

Tonky and the giant, they would have merely waited for Tonky to

die before finishing off the other one.

"Well, only Tonky and the designer of this event know the

whole truth. Let's see how this plays out," Kirito said, rolling onto

his back. He put his hands behind his head and crossed his legs at

the knee. Yui flitted off of his shoulder and landed on his chest,

then assumed the exact same position as him. Irritated by this

lack of caution and making a mental note to hit him with a freezing spell the next time he fell asleep, Leafa looked at the time

readout in the corner of her vision. The pale digital numbers said

that it was already past three o'clock in the morning.

Leafa had never stayed logged in after two at the latest, so this

was uncharted territory for her. She brushed the thick fur at her

feet, feeling conflicted over her very first all-nighter in a video

game.

The odd Deviant God continued at its steady pace, completely

unconcerned with its tiny passengers. It finally stopped at the top

of a gentle hill that was covered in snow and ice.

"Wow…"

Leafa walked up closer to Tonky's head and marveled at the

sight before her.

It was a hole. But the word hole wasn't adequate to describe

the scale of the thing. It was a vertical shaft so wide across, the far

side was hazy with distance. The sharp, sheer cliffs were covered

in a layer of thick ice, too. That ice was transparent white near the

top, but gradiated as it descended into the depths, first to blue,

then to deep indigo, then finally to pitch-black. No matter how

hard she squinted, there was nothing but darkness down there.

"Wonder what'd happen if we fell," Kirito muttered nervously.

Yui gave him a perfectly serious answer.

"According to the map data I can access, there is no defined

floor to the shaft."

"Gnarly! So it really is a bottomless pit."

Both Leafa and Kirito inched backward and headed for the

high ground on Tonky's back. But before they could get there, the

Deviant God's body shifted into motion.

It's not going to toss us in there, is it? she thought frantically,

but the creature, thankfully, did not seem to be so ungrateful. It

folded its twenty legs inward, lowering its massive bulk to the

ground in one even movement.

After several seconds, the bottom of Tonky's trunk thudded

heavily on the snow. It gave a brief wheeze, tucked the elephantine trunk underneath its body, and finally stopped moving altogether.

". . ."

They looked at each other, then carefully descended off the

creature's back. A few steps away, they turned back to find that it

was neither elephant nor jellyfish anymore. With its tentacles and

head firmly tucked beneath its body, the monster now resembled

nothing more than a giant dumpling.

"So…what was the point of all this?" Kirito asked. Leafa

walked forward and patted the gray, furry hide.

"Hello, Tonky? What are we supposed to do now?"

There was no response. She smacked it a bit harder, then noticed a change in the texture of its skin. When they were riding on

Tonky's back, the flesh had the resiliency of urethane cushioning,

but now it was harder.

Alarmed, she put her ear to the furry hide, thinking it might

have died after completing its purpose. Much to her relief, there

was a steady, faint pulse echoing through the massive body.

So Tonky was still alive. In fact, the HP gauge in its yellow cursor showed that the wounds it had suffered at the hands of the

three-faced giant were fully healed.

"Does this mean…it's just sleeping? While we're struggling to

stay up all night?" She was about to yank on its fur in retribution

for its cheekiness when Kirito called out to her.

"Hey, Leafa. Look up, it's really cool."

"Huh…?"

When she raised her face, the sight that greeted her was indeed stunning.

The conical shape of the World Tree's roots were now directly

overhead. The black tendrils wove around a mammoth icicle that

was roughly the same width as the vertical shaft below it. When

she looked closer, there seemed to be some kind of structure

within the icicle. She could make out tiny corridors and rooms

carved into the ice, the flames within gleaming blue through the

translucent surface.

"It really is incredible…If that's all one dungeon, it's got to be

the largest in all of ALO," she said, unconsciously reaching toward it. There was at least two hundred yards of space between

her and the bottom tip of the icicle, of course. Even an imp, with

their underground flight abilities, couldn't reach that height.

"But how do we get up there?" she mumbled. Kirito seemed

about to say something, but before he could get the words out of

his mouth, the pixie on his shoulder cried out.

"Papa, I'm getting a player signal approaching from the east!

There's one…with twenty-three behind it!"

"…!!"

Leafa sucked in a large breath. Twenty-four players—clearly a

raiding party hunting Deviant Gods.

This should have been the encounter they were waiting for. If

they explained their plight, they might be allowed to join the

party until they could safely reach an exit to the surface.

But the players heading toward them now had a very specific

intention in mind.

Leafa bit her lip and looked to the east. After a few seconds,

she heard the faint sounds of footsteps in snow. It was quiet

enough that without her excellent sylph hearing, she wouldn't

have noticed. She also didn't see anything—they must have been

using concealment spells.

She raised her hand and began chanting a spell of revealing,

but before she could finish, a spot, in open space about ten yards

away, rippled like a liquid surface, and a single player appeared

with a splash.

It was a man. His skin was so pale it was nearly blue, and his

long hair was the same, marking him clearly as belonging to the

undine race. He wore gray leather armor tooled with a fish-scale

pattern, and had a small bow slung over his shoulder.

His scoutlike appearance told Leafa his role was reconnaissance, but the high quality of his equipment and his confident,

supple grace told her this was a very high-ranking player.

The sharp-eyed scout cast her a steely glance, took a loud step

in the snow, and then asked what Leafa was most afraid of hearing: "Are you going to hunt that Deviant God or not?" He was, of

course, referring to Tonky, curled up next to them.

When she did not immediately respond, the man's eyes narrowed. "If you are, then get on with it. If you're not, step away.

We don't want you caught in our crossfire."

Before he finished speaking, a number of crunching footsteps

sounded behind his back. The rest of the party had caught up to

them.

If they're a mixed-race party based in a neutral zone, there

might still be hope, Leafa prayed.

Her hopes were immediately dashed when she saw that the

twenty-odd players cresting the snowy ridge had the same pale

skin and bluish hair. This Deviant God raiding party was made up

entirely of undines from Crescent Bay, far to the east.

If they'd been renegades of different races, perhaps they would

have overlooked the sylph-spriggan duo. But these were representatives, the best and brightest of the undine players. If anything, they could gain honor points for killing Kirito and Leafa,

who were of a different race, while the two of them couldn't possibly match up against twenty. They were lucky to have even gotten

the warning that they did.

But we have to stand up and do the impossible now. Tonky

treated us like a friend—we can't leave it to die, Leafa told herself. She stood between the blue-haired scout and the monster,

and issued a gravelly warning.

"I know this is against in-game manners, but I beg your indulgence. Leave this Deviant God to us."

The man and his cohorts behind him chuckled uneasily. "It

would be one thing to hear someone say that in a lesser hunting

ground, but this is Jotunheim. You must have been playing long

enough to know that claiming an area or a monster is 'yours'

doesn't fly around here."

He was absolutely correct. In any other case, Leafa's reaction

to someone else claiming ownership of a region or monster would

have been the exact same as his. If the monster was currently engaged in fighting someone, that person or party had priority, but

Tonky was simply curled up into a ball. Leafa and Kirito had no

intention to fight with it, so they had no right to prevent the

undines from doing so.

She bit her lip and looked down to the ground, unsure of what

to do, when a shadow stepped forward—Kirito.

Leafa held her breath. He wasn't going to attempt to bluff

them the way he had with General Eugene and the salamanders—

or even worse, fight them, was he? He couldn't draw his sword

against such a huge party.

It was insanity. They were hunting in Jotunheim, which assured that the twenty-four undines before them were among the

best of the best. They were far tougher than the salamander party

that ambushed the pair outside of Lugru; the gleaming heavy

armor and sparkling wizard staffs alone told her that much.

But she was not at all prepared for what Kirito actually did.

The black-clad spriggan made no move toward the greatsword

on his back. Instead, he folded at the waist and bowed deeply.

"Please," he croaked, deadly serious. "Its cursor might be yellow, but this Deviant God is our companion…our friend. It

brought us here, even when it was at death's door. Please let it

rest here as it wishes."

He bowed even deeper toward the blue-haired scout, whose

eyes were wide with surprise. That was quickly followed by the

largest expression of exasperation yet. The fighters behind him

were openly laughing now.

"Come…come now. You're human players, right? Not NPCs?"

Hands wide, the scout stifled his laughter and shook his head.

He took the beautifully ornate bow off his shoulder, drew a silver

arrow from his quiver, and nocked.

"Sorry, but we're not here to lollygag around. The party was

nearly wiped out by one of the larger beasts a few minutes ago. It

took a lot of work to revive all the Remain Lights and regroup. We

need to bag something to make this trip worth it. We'll count to

ten so you can take your distance. Once the count is up, we'll pretend you aren't here…Mages, lay down buffs."

He raised a hand, and the mages at the back of the party began

chanting spells. With each burst of colored light, the warriors at

the front were enveloped in status-enhancing magic, in preparation for the battle ahead.

"Ten…nine…eight," the archer's countdown rang out through

the sound of the spell. With her hands clenched so tight she could

hear the bones creaking, Leafa shuddered and called out to her

partner.

"Let's go, Kirito."

"…All right," he murmured and turned on his heel, walking to

the west along the bottomless shaft. Leafa took to his side. The

scout's countdown continued behind them.

"Three…two…one. Commence attack," he chanted mechanically.

They heard the piercing sound of fierce attack spells and the

metallic clanking of heavy armor bursting into motion. Explosion

after explosion sounded right behind them, and the ground rumbled beneath their feet. Leafa's ponytail was sent waving by the

blast of hot air that hit her back.

After about thirty steps, Leafa and Kirito finally turned around

to look.

The warriors had just started thrusting their swords, axes, and

spears into Tonky's unmoving body. There were bright flashes

and heavy shock waves from the impacts. The God's defense was

formidable, but their expensive equipment struck right through it

and took chunks of its HP bar down.

After several seconds of attacking, the eight warriors pulled

back to a distance. A second round of attack spells went off, accompanied by arrows from the archers in the group.

The powerful explosions covered Tonky's trunk, which was

over twelve feet tall even in its shrunken state. Pillars of fire burst

from its skin, charring the silky short hair. Its HP continued

falling, already 10 percent down from the maximum.

Between the rumbling blasts, they could hear a whistling,

whirling sound.

It was Tonky. The Deviant God was warbling miserably, even

weaker than it had when the three-faced giant was going in for

the kill. Leafa turned her face away, unable to watch any longer…

but what she saw tore at her heart even more.

Kirito stood with his fists clenched, and, peeking out of his

front pocket, Yui was gripping the seam with both hands, her delicate knuckles white with force.

Her sweet little face was crumpled with agony. Large, round

tears streamed out of her big black eyes. The sight of the tiny

pixie, shoulders trembling, desperately trying to stifle her sobs,

brought a hot sensation to the corners of Leafa's eyes.

If only this squad of undines had been a merciless PK gang!

Then Leafa could have hated them for what they were doing.

She could have promised the dying Tonky that they would avenge

its death.

But the undines were only performing the right of any MMO

player. Ever since the development of the first tabletop RPGs in

the last century, one goal was front and center in every game:

killing monsters to earn gold and experience. Decades later, in

the immersive full-dive format, that standard had not changed.

The rules and manners of playing in ALfheim Online said that

Leafa could not force these undines to stop.

In which case, what did it say about the existence of "manners" if they couldn't stand up to protect something, monster or

not, that had traveled with them and shared their sentiments,

even if only for a time? What was the point of rules if they

couldn't even say, Don't kill him, he's our friend?

Leafa believed that in this world, the soul was free. She believed that emotions that could not be expressed in the real world

were fair game in Alfheim. But it was as though the stronger players got, the better equipment they gained, the more they weighed

down their own set of wings. She felt certain that even these

undines, when they were brand-new to the game and unfamiliar

with its ways, saw the frolicking, nonaggressive monsters in the

wilderness and didn't wish to kill such sweet creatures.

Angst sat heavy in her stomach, not unlike a bar of lead. The

increasingly frantic sounds of attack were accompanied by everweaker cries from Tonky, who was wailing on and on. Its HP

must be under halfway by now. It would take two minutes at the

most—no, sixty seconds.

"…Kirito."

"Leafa."

They spoke together. She looked directly into the spriggan's

black eyes. "I have to go save it."

"I'll go with you."

She was about to tell him to leave and head for Alne, but

thought better of it. Once they charged into the fight, they'd be

dead within ten seconds. There was nothing to be gained from it.

But standing there and watching the scene unfold went against

Leafa's beliefs—and likely Kirito's, too. They'd saved Tonky from

the three-faced giant, and Tonky had saved them in return. Perhaps the Deviant God was nothing more than a few lines of code

tucked into a corner of the massive game server, following its

simple instructions. But if she was going to stand and watch the

murder of something she'd labeled a friend and given a name,

there was no point to playing a VRMMO.

"Later today, I'll help you travel from Swilvane to Alne again,"

she said quickly. Kirito nodded, his hand on his sword hilt.

"Thanks…Stay out of sight, Yui."

"I will. Papa, Leafa, um…good luck." The pixie hid her teary

face inside the pocket, and the two fighters drew their blades.

One of the mages at the edge of the undine troop turned a suspicious eye at the sound.

They'd start with the low-defense mages, they told each other

with a silent glance, and burst forward together. The snow at

their feet shot high in the air, and the air around them shook with

the force of their movement.

In a single breath, Leafa closed the distance and brought her

long green katana down in a mighty, double-handed swing.

"Seyyy!!"

Her piercing cry was joined by the crisp swoop of her slashing

sword. The green bolt of lightning that was her blade rocketed

into the shoulder of the leftmost rear mage.

It was an unbelievably powerful blow, but the pale blue robe

the undine was wearing was indeed an excellent piece of gear—

the strike only took 30 percent of his HP. However, even as he

tried to raise his staff to counter, a pitch-black light cut him

straight across the chest. A split-second later, there was a heavy

wham! as Kirito's greatsword took down another 40 percent of

the mage's health.

The undine was tossed into the air without so much as a word,

and Leafa's relentless combo finished the job. Gauntlet, gauntlet,

helmet: The kendo strikes each took an additional 10 percent, reducing him to zero.

The mage's avatar vanished with a plume of blue water. Leafa

brushed away the Remain Light and turned to the next foe.

Only now were the other mages, so consumed with their longrange attacks on Tonky, noticing that something was wrong. One

of them screamed, his face aghast. "A-are you insane?!"

"You tell me!!" Leafa shot back, leaping through the snow.

Once the assault was obvious, the undine elites were predictably quick to react. They canceled the long-term heavy spellcasts and switched to short-range ones that were quicker to

chant. But Leafa and Kirito's rampage was just a bit faster. They

shielded themselves behind a second mage and alternated powerful strikes. The closer mages unleashed what spells they could,

but they were all direct-fire missiles that Leafa and Kirito were

able to dodge, getting nothing more than singed clothes.

Leafa dispatched a second foe with a heavy thrust, grimacing

as she took one or two direct shots from homing spells. Kirito was

already off and running toward his next target. He hoisted the

sword that was almost his own height on his shoulder, held it for

a second, then prepared to unleash an earth-splitting blast—

—when a silver arrow thudded into his left shoulder.

He turned with a start to see the leader of the scouts at

medium range, already loading his next arrow with grim determination. The scout barked out a powerful order.

"Swordsmen, back! The mages are under attack!"

The second arrow roared through the air directly at Leafa's

breast. The comet-tailed projectile was so fast, she could do nothing more than take the arrow to her left arm. With a heavy thud,

she lost over 10 percent of her health. As she was tottering from

the impact, a laser stream of high-pressure water magic pierced

her right leg. It didn't hurt, but the unpleasant dullness caused

her to grimace.

Kirito had just finished halving his third target's HP when he

was swallowed up by an unavoidable whirlwind of ice. Leafa was

racing over to cast a healing chant when she caught sight of a line

of mages preparing a large-scale attack spell. Not only that, the

heavy warriors who'd been surrounding Tonky were now bearing

down on them at full speed.

So this is it.

Nearly fifty seconds had passed since they opened their assault. They'd put up an excellent fight against a group of this size,

all things considered. Tonky would surely forgive them, knowing

how hard they'd tried.

Crouched down and eyes closed, Leafa buried her face into

Kirito's shoulder and waited for the final blow, whether by spell,

arrow, or blade.

But before the sound of that blow, she heard a high, powerful

whistle, like a recorder amplified a hundred thousand times. The

chill air shook powerfully as the sound echoed off distant mountains and reverberated back. It could only be Tonky's voice, but

this was nothing like the pitiful moans it was making moments

ago.

So it's finally dead, Leafa thought, looking to the hill.

She saw its elliptical body gashed with countless deep furrows.

They grew longer and longer, connecting before her eyes.

"Ah…"

She braced herself for the sight of that black blood spurting

from the multitude of punctures. However, it was not blood that

issued forth, but brilliant white light.

A resonant, high-pitched wail erupted with the circular explosion of light, enveloping the undine warriors, archers, and mages.

Instantly, the auras of support magic and partially cast attack

spells surrounding them evaporated into smoke.

A field dispel!

Only a small subset of very powerful monsters had that ability.

It was much too strong for a wandering, low-level Deviant God.

Unsure of what had just happened, Leafa, Kirito, and the twentytwo undines froze where they were.

As everyone watched, Tonky's trunk filled with a white radiance and then blew apart in a silent explosion. No, that wasn't

quite right—it was only the hard, bulky shell that was disintegrated, because the growing mass of light was still attached, ris-

ing into a towering spiral.

The light spun higher and higher over their heads until it gently spiraled out and dispersed. The pattern resolved into what was

clearly four sets of massive wings, glowing brightly.

"Tonky…" Leafa murmured in wonder. As though it had heard

her, that same old elephantine face rose at the base of the wings.

Tonky held its long nose high and flapped its wide ears.

With another high-pitched, whirling cry, the no-longer-jellyfish shape beat its eight wing lobes and rose into the air.

The round body was shifting, growing streamlined. The twenty

appendages were still hanging from its belly, but now they were

more like vines than the clawed legs from before. Leafa suddenly

noticed that the tiny sliver of HP left was now blooming back toward full health.

Tonky's wings, held motionless about ten yards off the ground,

suddenly turned a brilliant blue.

"Uh-oh," Kirito muttered. He covered Leafa's body and laid

flat against the snow.

The next moment, terrifyingly thick bolts of lightning rained

upon the ground from each of Tonky's tentacles. The undines

were blasted by the tremendous lightning before they could so

much as scream. The warriors at least seemed to weather the

storm, but some of the archers and mages died in one hit.

"Retreat to the bottom of the hill! Group up for healing and rebuffs!" the scout leader ordered, taking quick stock of the situation. The survivors, now fewer than twenty, raced down the slope.

The heavy soldiers formed a clanking wall of defense as the

mages began casting behind them.

But Tonky's wings seemed to slide through the air after them,

now glowing pure white.

The wailing sound erupted again, and another ring of light descended, nullifying all magic. Several spells in progress poofed

into harmless dust.

"Damn!" the scout screamed in frustration, his facade of control slipping away. He tilted his bow upward and let an arrow

loose. It left a trail of pitch-black smoke that settled heavily along

the ground, cloaking his troop. "Retreat, retreat!!"

From Leafa's vantage point, she could see the undines peeling

off to run pell-mell in the other direction. Once in full escape,

their speed was impressive, and the blue fairies had soon vanished beyond the mounds of snow.

Now that Tonky had the power of flight, it could easily track

the land-bound players if it so desired, but the Deviant God

merely trumpeted in triumph. As the sound echoed away, it rippled all four wings on one side, facilitating a slow pivot in midair.

Tonky steadily flapped toward Leafa and Kirito until it

stopped right over their heads. The elephant head was pale now,

and the six eyeballs looked down on the humans.

"So…what do we do now?" Kirito asked. Leafa felt a moment of

déjà vu.

It was the extended elephant trunk that answered his question, scooping them both up off the ground. Before she could

even recognize that her suspicions were confirmed, Tonky tossed

Leafa and Kirito onto its back. They landed hard on their bottoms.

Once they shared a look of recognition and put away their

swords, Leafa rubbed the beast's white hide. It seemed to her that

the hair was also longer and softer than it had been before.

"At any rate, I'm glad you're alive, Tonky," Kirito murmured.

Yui popped her head out of his breast pocket and clapped happily. "I'm really glad! Good things do happen if you stick around

long enough!"

"Let's hope we stick around a little longer," he muttered, looking up and down from his vantage point.

Clearly, Tonky would take them somewhere from this point.

But if the destination happened to be the bottom of this massive

hole smack in the middle of Jotunheim, that certainly didn't

make things any easier. Fortunately, after a brief whistle, Tonky

instead headed for the impressive roots of the World Tree above.

With every rippling beat of its luxuriously furry wings, the

massive Deviant God rose further up into the darkness of the cavern. It followed a gentle spiral trajectory until Leafa could see the

entire vastness of Jotunheim below.

"Wow…"

She couldn't contain the marvel that passed her lips at the

cruel, beautiful land of ice and snow.

Player flight was impossible in the cave, so Leafa and Kirito

had to be the first to ever witness it from such a height. She was

about to pull an image-saving item out of her inventory when she

then thought better of it and clasped her hands instead. She could

save a screenshot of the image, but nothing could preserve the

feeling in her heart at this moment. It was a complex mixture of

sadness and delight, frustration and liberation.

Whether it had any inkling of what ran through Leafa's heart

or not, Tonky briefly dropped into a more leisurely spin before

beating its wings mightily once more.

At first, Leafa's mind couldn't exactly process the sense of dis-

tance between herself and what she was seeing.

There was the icy-blue translucent cone that hung from the

ceiling, as well as the net of black tubes that seemed to hold it

into place—the roots of the tree.

Based on the distance blur, the gigantic icicle was at least two

hundred yards tall. As they'd noticed from ground level, there

were multiple floors visible within the structure, forming a dungeon of ice.

As she marveled silently at the incredible sight, Leafa suddenly

noticed a golden light flashing at the very bottom of the icicle's

sharp tip. She squinted, but still couldn't see it very well. Without

thinking, she held up her right hand and chanted a quick spell.

A puddle of water vibrated in her palm, then crystallized into a

flat piece of ice. Kirito peered over at her.

"What's that?"

"An Ice Scope spell. See that thing shining at the tip of the

giant icicle?"

She squished her face cheek to cheek with Kirito's and held up

the large lens. The golden light in the image wavered briefly before sharpening into focus.

"Whoa!" Leafa let out an extremely unladylike shriek when

she recognized the source of that light.

Sealed into the tip of the icicle was a breathtakingly impressive

longsword with a blade shining pure and gold. The sword's phosphorescent glow and fine decorations made it clear that this was a

legendary weapon. Not only that—Leafa knew the name of this

sword already.

"It's…the Holy Blade Excalibur. I saw a picture of it on the offi-

cial ALO site…The only weapon greater than Eugene's Demon

Blade Gram. It's the best sword in the game, and no one knew

where to find it…until now."

"The best sword…" Upon Leafa's hoarse explanation, Kirito's

mouth watered, and he gulped, comprehending.

Just above the sealed sword was a spiral staircase carved directly into the ice, and this path seemed to lead directly inside the

dungeon within the icicle. If they conquered that dungeon, they

could gain the server's ultimate weapon, a unique prize.

Tonky the Deviant God continued its spiral path around the

side of the blue icicle, still rising steadily. Leafa finally tore her

eyes away from the holy sword to see where they were heading,

and noticed two things.

The first was a balcony extending out like a platform from

around the middle of the icicle's considerable height. Tonky's trajectory would take them just by the edge, close enough that they

could jump onto it if they wanted.

The other thing, far above it, was an individual root hanging

from the ice-encrusted ceiling of Jotunheim, with a set of stairs

clearly cut into it. The steps ran up to the ceiling and appeared to

continue from there. It had to be an escape route up to the surface—to Alfheim.

The balcony on the side of the icicle dungeon and the staircase

up to sunlight were not connected. If they jumped off now, they'd

have a chance at the holy sword, but they'd likely lose their opportunity to escape the underground.

Kirito appeared to have reached the same conclusion. He

looked back and forth between the balcony and the stairs. As the

seconds ticked by, the balcony grew closer and closer. They only

had twenty seconds left to decide…ten…

The two remained silent as Tonky slowly came level with the

wide balcony. Leafa and Kirito flinched simultaneously, their

VRMMO instincts screaming at them to jump.

But they did not, of course.

After sharing a look with Kirito, Leafa smiled apologetically

and said, "We can come again later. With a bunch of friends next

time."

"Agreed. I'm guessing this has to be the toughest dungeon in

Jotunheim, anyway. We probably couldn't tackle it alone…"

"Oh, don't sound so crestfallen!" she laughed. Tonky continued past the balcony and began rising again. Below them they

could see the shadow of a dreadful Deviant God emerging from

the square entrance cut into the wall of the icicle. It was similar in

shape to the humanoid three-faced giant that had attacked Tonky

on the surface, only this one looked even worse.

Most likely, the other Deviant Gods within the depths of the

most dangerous dungeon in Jotunheim were other humanoids.

Which meant that Tonky and the other freakish Deviant Gods

were at war with the humanoids, and were designed to escort

human players. Perhaps that was why the three-faced giant had

been trying to kill Tonky—to keep it from growing its wings.

If they'd joined a Deviant God hunting party arranged for that

explicit purpose, they'd never have had the idea to save the jellyphant from its attacker. It was because she and Kirito had fallen

down here alone that they'd experienced this in-game event…this

friendship.

As Leafa pondered on these ideas, Tonky reached closer and

closer to the ceiling. The dangling root with the steps carved into

it was clearly in sight now.

With a wheezing whistle, Tonky spead its wings to slow down.

The massive creature came to a gentle hover and extended its

long nose to grab on tightly to the tip of the root, just next to the

staircase.

Leafa got to her feet, the slightly swaying steps right in front of

her. She grabbed Kirito's hand and stepped over to the bottom of

the staircase.

As though recognizing the weight on his back vanishing,

Tonky gently released its nose's grip and began to descend, rotating slowly. But its trunk's tip held in place for a while, and Leafa

reached out one last time to grip it.

"We'll come again, Tonky. Take care, won't you? Don't let the

other ones push you around," she whispered, then let go. Kirito

touched the trunk next, and even Yui popped out of the safety of

her pocket to squeeze a strand of Tonky's thick hair with her tiny

hand.

"We should talk again sometime, Mr. Tonky," the pixie

squeaked. The Deviant God ruffled a deep response and folded its

wings. It dropped like a stone, growing smaller before their eyes.

With a final twinkle of feathers, the strange creature finally

melted into the darkness of Jotunheim below. With its full-grown

wings, it could fly to its heart's content, free from the harassment

of others. One day, if Leafa stood at the lip of that massive hole in

the ground and called its name, she felt sure that it would offer

them another ride.

She wiped away the wetness in the corners of her eyes and

gave Kirito a big smile. "C'mon, let's go! I bet we'll emerge in the

middle of the Alne!" she chirped.

Kirito stretched his limbs. "All right, time for a final run, is

it?…Though, hey, Leafa? Even after we return to the surface, let's

keep the holy sword a secret between us."

"Oh, you just had to ruin this precious moment with that statement, didn't you?" She jabbed the spriggan on the shoulder and

started vigorously jogging up the spiral staircase, still hand in

hand with him.

The trip down had taken less than three minutes through the

giant earthworm's digestive tract, but the hike back seemed much

longer. Onward they climbed, their path lit by dimly glowing

mushrooms. Leafa quickly gave up on counting the steps, and

after ten long minutes, an actual beam of light was visible above.

They shared a look and started the final spurt. Jumping an

extra step with each leap, Leafa popped out of the hole in the tree

wall headfirst.

The sylph rocketed out onto a mossy stone terrace with such

momentum that she flipped head over heels and landed butt first

on the hard floor. After a brief squint, she hopped to her feet to

take in the sight that lay before her.

It was the night view of a beautiful, stately, layered city.

Stone structures in the style of ancient ruins extended as far as

the eye could see. The yellow bonfires, magical blue flames, and

pinkish mineral lanterns twinkled and fluttered like stardust. Beneath the lights, a vast array of player silhouettes in every shape

and size milled about: An equal ratio of all nine fairy races walked

the streets.

After a long gaze at the glittering scene, Leafa looked upward.

The shadows of branches and leaves were clearly visible against

the deep blue of the night sky.

"…The World Tree…" she murmured, then turned to Kirito.

"This is it. We're in Alne, the center of Alfheim. The biggest city in

the world."

"Yeah…We finally made it," he nodded. Yui popped her head

out of his pocket, her face shining.

"Wow…! I've never seen so many people in one place before!"

Leafa could say the same. It had never occurred to her that so

many players would have left their home territories to enjoy their

own adventures.

The three sat for a time on the railing of the terrace, letting the

bustle of the metropolis wash over them.

Eventually, they were awakened from their reverie by the

heavy blast of a thick sound, something like a pipe organ. It was

followed by a soft, feminine voice coming from the sky. The announcement was for the weekly round of maintenance that would

shut off the server at four AM. Leafa had never heard this voice before— she'd never been online this late.

It's been one long series of firsts for me, the past two days.

She swung her legs forward.

"I suppose that's it for today. Guess we should find an inn to

log out," she said to Kirito, who nodded in agreement.

"How long does the maintenance last?" he asked.

"Until three in the afternoon."

"I see…"

He looked down briefly before tilting his head back to scan the

sky. A vast distance above, the branches of the World Tree spread

in all directions.

Kirito's black eyes narrowed and his mouth twitched. Leafa

suddenly remembered his reason for being in Alfheim to begin

with.

He was going to meet someone at the top of the World Tree.

Who could it be? If it wasn't an NPC in a quest, then perhaps a

staffer with the dev team, or…

But before she could come up with a better guess, Kirito was

back to his usual expression. "C'mon, let's find an inn. I'm

strapped for cash, so we can't pick a five-star hotel."

"That's what you get for showing off and giving Sakuya all your

money. You should have kept enough for a room!" Leafa laughed,

shaking off her previous curiosity. She looked down at Yui in her

usual pocket perch. "You heard Papa. Is there a cheap inn around

here?"

Oddly enough, the Navigation Pixie also seemed to be gazing

up at the branches with an expression of intent, but she soon answered with a smile.

"Yes, I think there's one just down that alley. A real slum!"

"Great, my favorite," Leafa groaned, her face twitching. Kirito

marched right off without a care, so she had to rush to catch up.

There was a stirring in her chest despite the exhaustion of

staying up so late. Leafa took one last look up at the World Tree.

But of course, she couldn't see anything among the branches

sunken into the night sky