I'm enjoying this. A lot. I love the idea of flight, magic and that sort of thing, so Alfheim really got me hooked.
Without further ado, let's get going!
I don't own SAO, only my OCs.
Chapter 14: Land of the Fairies
Title Song: Wings of Liberty by Ohara Sakuya (Erza Scarlet!)
Alfheim – Undine Territory – Aquaria – January 20th 2025
"Of all the most stupid things you've done in your life, this has to take the biscuit! What could possibly have compelled you to get a diving rig and a VRMMO?" Ion demanded. He had pulled her back into the alley, and was furious.
Melody flinched at his tone. He rarely used that kind of voice, ever. "…" She couldn't find the words to answer him.
"How did you even get your hands on this kind of thing?" Ion asked.
"Warren and Amy got them for me, about a year after you got trapped in SAO," Melody sighed. "Warren quintuple checked all the safety measures of the Amusphere, and even tested the thing ten times himself before letting me use it. I swear!"
Ion blinked, then he sighed. "Ok. If Warren checked first, then I'll lay off. Now I have to have a little chat with him and Amy."
"Don't go too rough on them, they wanted to see me smile again, and they got me this game to try and achieve that," Melody told him.
"Ion? Do you know this person?" Aurora asked, slipping out from where she had fallen into his shirt.
"Melody? Who is this guy?" Asked Kione, who had been standing off to the side.
"He/She is my brother/sister," they both replied, then blinked, and grinned.
Then Kione and Melody whirled around, "Wait a minute! That's a navigation pixie! How the hell did you score one of those?" Melody asked.
"Long story short, two months ago, she was an adorable little ice wolf," Ion shrugged.
Aurora nodded, "At the end of SAO, Akihiko Kayaba wanted me to continue to serve him, no matter where Ion went. Therefore, I became a pixie."
"Emma, I'm sorry for delaying you, you said you had a report to give?" He then said.
"GAH! My report!" Melody gulped. "Kione, take him to the launch tower, we'll talk there once I've delivered the news."
She summoned her wings and shot towards the domed building, "Let us come with you," Kione said, following.
Ion summoned his controller, willing his wings to appear, and he followed them at a safe speed towards the center of the city.
All three landed at the main gate to what appeared to be a military compound. Melody walked with confidence through the gate. Two Undine players stood at ease, but snapped to attention, "Sergeant Melody. Commander Lockster is in her office! She's been waiting for a while now."
Melody nodded, "Keep up the good work," she said. "At ease." She passed them, walking inside.
Kione lifted a balaclava from inside her jacket, giving her a mysterious vibe, Ion followed her and his sister through the gates, nervously avoiding the glances his way.
Melody led the way through a finely decorated hallway, before stopping at a pair of doors. She knocked twice, before entering.
Ion followed Kione in after her, and both stood back as Melody walked up and snapped to attention, giving a crisp salute. "Sorry I'm late Ma'am," she said. "I was held up."
The woman she was talking to was wearing a thick, dark blue coat with fluffy trims, her hair was a deep ocean blue, and her eyes were grey. "At ease Melody, what's the word?" She asked.
"Sakuya and Alicia Rue were interrupted by a Salamander Army headed by General Eugene. Only thanks to the timely arrival of my friend Leafa and a Spriggan friend of hers, were peace talks able to finish," Melody said.
"Who was this Spriggan?" Lockster asked.
"I believe that he said his name was Kirito, he fought with a large greatsword, not much smaller than my own," Melody replied.
"I've never heard of this Spriggan, he fought Eugene?" Lockster asked.
"And beat him, ma'am."
"What?! Someone besides myself has beaten General Eugene in battle?" Lockster asked, wide eyes. "I almost want to see what he's like myself now..."
"Unsurprising, Kirito should never be underestimated."
The woman turned her head, to where Ion had spoken. He then chuckled. "I said that out loud, didn't I?"
"Who is this boy? Is he with you and your mercenary?" The woman asked.
"I am, ma'am, My name is Ion." The new player spoke.
"You know this Spriggan who saved Sakuya and Alicia?"
"Kirito never does things half-assed, he probably gave it his all in that fight, and there's no way he'd lose so soon," Ion chuckled.
"Commander, my second part of my report," Melody spoke up.
"Proceed," Lockster asked.
"I was able to open negotiations with the Salamanders, Cait Siths and Sylphs, all three are in for our combined forces raid with the Spriggans, however, it will probably take them a while to gather the equipment they need for the assault," Melody said.
"I see, we now have five races who could work together to tackle the Grand Quest," a voice said from behind Melody. Both the commander and Melody dropped to their knee, as a woman walked into the room.
She carried an elegant flow to her, wearing a beautiful outfit, consisted of a white, short sleeveless tunic decorated with many snowflake motifs, which has revealing openings on the sides and front, revealing a rather impressive chest. These openings are held closed by a large, ocean blue obi, which has a thin, white rope tied around it, sporting a wide closing ribbon on the back.
What also closes the openings on her outfit is a lighter, smaller white belt, which is wrapped around a blue, snowflake-patterned cloth circling her waist on the front, back and sides. A long cloth hung down from her front, and another fell down from behind her. Her arms are covered in white bandages and her legs and feet are donned in white leggings and simple sandals.
"Lady Oceania," Melody said.
"Please, save your pleasantries for another day," Oceania said.
She looked at Ion, "I don't believe we've met, I'm Oceania, the Undine Leader," she said, holding out a hand.
"Ion, newbie," Ion rubbed his head, and shook the hand with his own.
"Oceania, if I am not needed, may I take a few days of leave from the forces?" Melody asked. "My friend here wants to learn to play more, and I thought I might take him to Arun."
"We'll gather the troops and get there as quick as we can, remember, there's an update that is meant to be coming out soon, I think it's about to go live," Lockster said.
"Come on Kione, Ion," Melody said. "Let's go have a drink, my treat."
Ion took a sip of an iced tea he had ordered. The three sat around a booth in the corner of an inn Melody brought them to, Aurora sat on the table, nibbling away at a sponge cake slice that Melody had bought. "So... that's the full story," Kione muttered.
"My friend, Angel, is meant to meet me at this little town called Tomoki, we were going to head to Yggdrasil," Ion said.
"Tomoki is just before the Rainbow Valley, it is beautiful, it has lots of waterfalls which create rainbows all over the place," Kione smiled.
"From what I can gather, it's the quickest route from Undine Territory to Arun," Aurora said, halfway through a mouthful.
"Don't talk with your mouth full," Ion poked her face.
"We can head up to the long-distance flight tower after maybe getting you some kit," Melody suggested. "How much cash do you have?"
Ion opened his menu, and scanned his status window, "This Yld… is that money?" His eyes widened to the maximum before he glanced back at the girls. "I feel like going shopping for a lot of things."
Melody and Kione both glanced over his shoulder, and they giggled.
"Whoa… now this is a view," Ion muttered. Melody had brought him to the long-distance tower that extended high into the sky. He was now wearing a white sleeveless waistcoat with a large collar around his neck and blue marks around the center of his chest. The coat had dark blue trims all the way down to his waist, and trailed down to his knees behind him. He wore white pants that went down to his feet, which were in white boots and his hands were covered by brown gloves. Horizontally across his beltline was an Estoc he had managed to find at a player blacksmith in town, it was a white blade, with a blue crossguard shaped like an icicle.
"I know right, and if you look all the way out in that direction, you can see the World Tree in the distance," Melody smiled.
The smaller undine opened her wings, Kione did the same, her black wings twitching slightly.
Ion summoned his controller, which caused Melody to giggle, "There's an easier way to fly you know," She smiled, knocking the controller out of his hand.
Kione put her hand on the crest on his back, "Feel where my hand is?" at his nod, she went on, "imagine you have virtual bones and muscles here, spreading out to your wings, then try and move them."
Ion summoned his wings, "Virtual bones huh…?" He felt something new along his back, and acted on it. Slowly, his wings started to twitch, before they opened completely.
"That's it! You nailed it!" Melody gave him a shove, and he lifted off the ground.
"We can practice your flying on the move, what time are you meeting your friend?" Kione asked.
"Depends on who gets there first," Ion said.
He twisted his body around, getting used to the different motions needed. It was actually rather easy to figure out, the flight engine used momentum to propel a player around, and he found it was a lot like how he rode on buses or trains, move with the momentum and use it to stay balanced.
"Let's go!" He grinned.
Kione and Melody looked at each other, and giggled, jumping off the tower and joining him in the air.
"Try to keep up!" Melody taunted, and kicked out behind her.
Ion rolled his eyes, and casually caught up, "I'm sorry, is that the fastest you can go?" He asked, slowly pulling ahead of his sister.
"She's always the last one to our missions, it's because she decided to pack some extra baggage!" Kione smirked.
"I wanted to know what it was like! You're missing out with that flat chest of yours!" Melody shot back.
"You wanna go melon chest?" Kione glared at her.
"I'll take you on anytime anywhere!" Melody growled, hand reaching for her sword.
"Girls! Another time perhaps!" Ion butted in.
The two broke apart, Aurora, who was riding on Ion's head, looked between them both, "You two are weird, one moment you're best friends, the next you're at each other's throats!"
The two glanced at each other, "Meh, we just like to do it sometimes, we never really do it at school," Kione said.
"Yeah, because Lex will break us up like last time, seriously, she is one motherly canine!" Melody added.
"You're Sarah's sister, aren't you? The sightless prodigy?" Ion looked at the Spriggan.
"Yeah, good to see you Marcus," Kione smiled.
The three players continued flying for quite a bit, making small talk while they travelled. Melody soon saw Ion's wings lose their glow. "We're going to have to land, you've got about two minutes left on your wings bro."
Ion glanced at his own wings, "I see, if they lose their glow, they can't keep us aloft, right?" He guessed.
"You're right Ion, then you'll need to wait thirty minutes for them to recharge," Aurora told him.
"Long cooldown timer…" Ion muttered, his wings then stopped working, and he fell to the ground with a yelp.
Aurora pulled herself off his head, and watched him go. "There he goes," she sighed.
"Come on, wouldn't do much good if he gets killed by that fall," Melody offered a hand to her.
The three girls descended, finding Ion in a small crater, "Ugh, that sucked," He muttered, sitting up.
A window appeared, telling him what he knew already. "You ok brother?" Melody asked, dropping out of the sky to come to land next to him.
"Ugh, just peachy," Ion grumbled. He looked up at Melody. "You said I had two minutes."
Melody giggled, "I lied."
"So, we have thirty minutes, what do we do? Press on? Rotate out?" Kione asked.
"Let's rotate out, Ion, why don't you go first," Melody suggested.
"What's rotating out?" Ion asked.
"Basically, one or two of us log out, the others stick behind to watch over their body, you can't safely log off in the field in ALO," Melody explained. "Didn't you know this?"
Ion gave his sister a small glare, "Remember, this will be the first time I've logged out of a VRMMO of my own accord."
He opened his menu and went to the options tab, pressing the log out tab.
Marcus opened his eyes, and pulled the Nervegear off his head, Emma was lying prone next to him, so he gently clambered over her to go out the door and downstairs.
Warren and Amy were watching some TV in the sitting room, "The store closed now?" Marcus asked.
"Hey, you're back," Warren smiled.
"Why did you hide the fact you got Emma an Amusphere?" Marcus asked, raising his voice as he nipped into the kitchen to rustle up a snack for him and Emma.
"We just wanted to see her be happy. When she saw this new hardware for VR, one that was proven to be a thousand times safer than the Nervegear, that was the first sign of hope we got, and we took it," Amy sighed.
"Marcus, I'll have you know I dummy tested it myself before letting her use it," Warren pointed out.
"I know," Marcus said, coming in and sitting on the other couch. "Emma told me in game. Weirdly enough, she's a sergeant in some kind of military in that game."
"Emma's really gotten into ALO, she's part of the Undine Recon Division, or what she said to us," Warren smiled. "She's in charge of her own unit, who some are spies from other nations. Kione is one of her agents."
"Huh, my little sis is a recon officer, what do you know…" Marcus chuckled. "She's always been one for frontal assaults in the old games we played, and the fact she uses a Greatsword seems to add to that."
He finished eating his sandwich, and downed his glass of juice. "Right, I'm meant to be rotating out with one of the girls at the moment, so I should get back."
"Put your dishes by the sink, I'll deal with them in a bit," Amy told him.
Ion opened his avatar's eyes as he dived back into ALO. "Right, I don't mind watching the pair of you if you log out," he said to the two girls who were gossiping quietly nearby.
"Sure, be right back!" Melody nodded, and her body slumped down as she logged out, Kione followed a moment later.
Ion decided to play around with his menu, spotting a magic tab under skills. Opening it, he found three spells, one was a basic healing spell, then there was a water attribute spell and finally a status cure spell.
Ion tapped the healing spell, and several odd words appeared. Ion took a deep breath, "Su Feila Heil Astelu!" He chanted out the spell, and he was cloaked in a light green aura. "Interesting…" He smirked. "This is magic."
He then stood up, setting his sights on a low branch on a tree. Then, he raised his hand and chanted out the words for the offensive spell he had seen. Several small icicles appeared in front of him, before pinging towards the target. He had expected purple hexagons to appear, signifying an immortal object, but he found himself smiling when the shards shot right through the branch, tearing it off completely.
"Not bad newbie," A voice chuckled. "Why don't you hand over the pretty ladies to us, we'll take good care of them."
Five players, two Sylphs, a Spriggan, a Cait Sith and a Salamander emerged from the bushes around him, all of which were male.
Ion stood in a defensive stance, but didn't draw his sword yet. "Afternoon gentlemen," He said. "What did you mean by 'hand over' these girls?" He asked.
"Please," the Salamander scoffed. "Figure it out, we're slavers! We acquire high value merchandise from the playing field, and sell them to the highest bidder!
Ion hid the scowl on his face, "Well, what can one new player like me possibly do against five experiences players? Go ahead."
The two Sylph players walked towards the two logged out girls, one holding a one-handed sword, and the other a short axe. Ion waited until they got close enough.
"On second thought…" He muttered, grabbing them by their hair and whirling around, tossing them into the Spriggan and the Salamander. He then drew his estoc, settling into his stance.
"If you want to get the girls, you'll have to defeat me first," he growled.
"That can be arranged pal!" The Salamander smirked, drawing a warhammer from on his back.
The Cait Sith summoned a little red dragon that reminded Ion of Pina, and drew a short sword from his hip, while the Spriggan pulled a mace off his belt.
Ion examined their stances and rolled his eyes, "How long you want to bet this will last Aurora?" he asked.
His navigation pixie giggled, "I predict this fight will last thirty seconds."
Ion smirked, "Sounds about right," he nodded.
"Get him boys! And grab that Pixie too! Those score a huge sum on the market!" The Salamander called.
"Fire breath!" The Cait Sith said, and his little dragon spat out a wave of fire that came towards Ion. With his wings restored, the new Undine player sprang up and over the fire, before swooping down and slashing through the Cait Sith and his dragon together, the two halves of the player burned away, leaving a small orange flame.
"Who's next?" Ion asked, looking around at the others. The two Sylphs glared at him, sprinting forward to attack.
Ion held his hand forward, and started chanting the spell he used earlier. Four shards of ice appeared before him, then he waved his hand at them, releasing the spell at them.
One of them dodged by jumping to the left, but his partner wasn't as lucky, three of the shards impacting in his chest and removing all his HP. He burned away into a little green flame.
"Damn it… take this!" The Sylph remaining chanted a different spell, and around twenty razor sharp wind arcs shot at him. He dodged most, but a few cut through his health.
"Was that meant to hurt me?" He asked, shrugging off the damage he had taken and speeding right towards the Sylph, stabbing his estoc through his chest until his HP vanished. Three down.
Ion looked to the Spriggan and the Salamander. "What about you two?" He asked.
"Whoa, did we miss a party?" Melody asked, having just logged back in.
"Looks like Ion's been busy," Kione muttered, hand reaching for her Katana.
"Damn it, this mission is a bust!" The Salamander growled. "Hey, dead guys, meet back at our clubhouse!"
He then took off, followed by the Spriggan.
Ion twirled his sword, before sheathing it across his belt. "That was a great warm up, so that's combat in ALO huh?" he said. He thought back to when he summoned those ice shards. "I'm going to like it here."
Aurora giggled, "You finished that fight in twenty-nine seconds."
Ion sighed, "I'm out of practice then," He turned back to Melody and Kione. "You two good to go?" He asked.
"Yup, thanks for the food by the way," Melody nodded.
"Tomoki is just a bit further, come on," Kione said, summoning her wings again.
She and Melody took off, Ion chuckled, letting Aurora settle in his waistcoat breast pocket, "Right behind you," He said, crouching, before shooting into the sky.
Tomoki looked more unique than Aquaria. There were four entrances to the town, but two came from the tunnels that went from some cities to Arun. The city seemed to descend into a large sinkhole, the buildings formed out of the ground, some on the surface and some underground. Ion, Melody and Kione landed at the east entrance and approached on foot.
"Angel said she was going to be a Spriggan, we agreed to meet on the other side of town," Ion told his companions.
The three walked through the streets, noticing a mix of Undine, Spriggan, Imp and Leprechaun players mingling around. "Wow, look at everyone getting along!" Melody smiled.
"We usually skip this town because it doesn't have an inn to log out in," Kione said. "It's rather nice, being able to stop in this place."
Ion just looked around as he progressed through the town. It was so different to the towns and cities of SAO, which were your generic medieval styled settlements, sometimes with a twist.
ALO on the other hand… Ion realized that every city in this game was different, Aquaria was a resort, and this looked like a mining town of some kind. It made him think about what Arun was going to be like…
He approached the western gate, spotting a lone Spriggan girl leaning against a nearby tree. She had long black hair, but it was as light as possible, her eyes were purple, and they softened when they set eyes on Ion. She was wearing a short purple jacket over a black halter top that refused to hide all of her chest. She also wore a black pair of tight shorts that stopped just before her knees, finishing the look with a pair of black gloves and boots. A long black spear with a red head and handgrips was strapped to her back.
"Hey, you finally showed up!" She grinned.
"Sorry, I got held up," Ion said, pointing at their sisters.
"Who are they?" Angel asked.
"Amazing helpers, I probably wouldn't have gotten this far without their help," Ion admitted. "This is Melody and Kione."
Angel's eyes widened at the second name, and smirked. "So this is what you look like in the game…" She looked at her sister.
"And I assume you're just like this IRL, but blonde?" Kione shot back casually.
"Right, we've met with you, now we fly for Arun," Ion said. He then received a message. He opened it, "It's from Kirito, he's been held up and will make it to Arun tomorrow."
He then got another, this time from Klein, "Klein says he's about halfway there, his guild are all present and raring to help."
One more message came in, from Ren, "Looks like Wyvern's Inferno has already made it through the Ruger Corridor, they're almost at Arun," He reported.
"I got a message from Silica, she's met with Liz and are making their way to the World Tree," Angel said. "She's apparently been fortunate to have Pina again as her Tamed Familiar."
Ion smiled, looking down at his pocket, "Hear that Aurora? Pina's back!" He said.
"That's nice to hear, I wonder if she's also become an MHCP like me… or a Navigation Pixie?" Aurora popped out.
"Wait… that's Aurora?" Angel asked.
"Hi Angel!" The pixie waved.
"Right then, let's make dust," Ion said. He could see their destination ahead, it was closer, but it could be even closer than that.
All four summoned their wings, and after Melody and Kione quickly showed Angel the method of flight they used, they headed for the World Tree. Hang on Asuna, Ion thought. We're coming!
Ion: So, we're all together at last.
Angel: Pretty cool, I can't wait to see us all in action.
Kione: Ion, have you got anything special planned for the World Tree raid?
Melody: brother won't reveal spoilers, but look forward to something badass.
All: Next Time: The Calm Before the Storm