Author's Note: Okay I've got a really good one for ya today...this one actually takes the greatest leap from the books and films, and might be the closest thing we've had to an original story line so far, so I hope you enjoy!

Also, I do not own Sword art Online or the Lord of the Rings.

Chapter Twenty Five

The Flame of Udûn

"Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world."

― Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring

The Northern Waste was a vast cold region of mostly ice and snow, in the far north end of Middle-earth, beyond the Mountains of Angmar, Mount Gundabad, and the Ered Mithrin altogether.

It was named Forodwaith. Little was known of it, except that it was an area of immense ice due to the proximity to the Gap of Ilmen, and evil cold created from the First Age.

Right now, several men from the central west lands venture into this frozen, inhospitable land in search of a secret location hidden from the regular map. They are all tired, hungry, and most of all freezing.

However, one man who particularly doesn't like the cold is actually doing rather well for himself in this venture up north, despite his frigid manor of speech.

"B-Boy this place s-sucks doesn't it? Gy-yah how much f-further?!" Klein sarcastically yelled out for all his men to hear, assuming they could hear with the howling winds and frosty clouds rolling in every which way.

Yes, Klein was alive. He did not fall to shadow and flame in the halls of Moria, nor did he die to the hand of the mighty Balrog of Morgoth. Instead he made it out with some unknown force of magic that sent him out of his doom and into Rivendell of all places, and here is where it was all explained…

~Over a week ago, in Rivendell

"Wait a minute, you're telling me I'm alive!?"

Klein sat in the center of a meeting room back in Rivendell with a hard breath as he was clutching his heart in excitement.

Akihiko Kayaba had no choice but to laugh as he drank a small glass of red Dorwinion wine with Klein.

"Whoo hoo! I actually cheated death! Man I don't even think Kirito has come this close to awesome yet!"

Kayaba shrugged in amusement. "I suppose not. Though, Kirito has created his own marvel in battle that can never be rivaled."

"Yea, true that…" Klein said with a smile. "Okay, so spill it, how did you get me out of there?"

"I didn't." Kayaba said abruptly, taking a sip from his glass. "I merely came to find you with burn marks of an unknown nature right on the floor of this house. It appears whatever you fought in Moria used a teleportation magic to save itself, and it must have rebounded on you as well."

"Yea, and I guess it had to register this place as my home or something…I guess it was the last bed I slept in inside the game!"

Kayaba nodded, but then got serious. "Klein, what you fought was a Balrog of Morgoth. A deadly demon of fire and darkness created by old dark lords in the lore of Middle-Earth. One was hidden away in Moria, but apparently you unveiled it with your friends' escape."

"Yea, unlucky for us right!" Klein was trying to act optimistic with this entire scenario.

Kayaba shook his head. "This creature however did not originate from Moria, but in fact it came from a deeper and darker hell inside of Middle-Earth named Utumno."

"Autumn-no? Eh sorry I'm getting kind of sick of all these goofy names, hehe." Klein apologized but left room for Kayaba to carry on.

The resident of Rivendell nodded. "Utumno was delved very deep into the flesh of the Middle-Earth. Here the original Dark Lord built his first of many dungeons and deep halls of ice, obsidian, and fire. Utumno had many hundreds of caves, tunnels, corners, and rooms, which allowed many things to remain hidden and secret for a very long time."

"It was here that the old powers of darkness corrupted the beings of light and turned good into evil. Orcs came from elves, trolls from the living trees, and even Balrogs from old and powerful mages. However, this land of Utumno is not dormant to this day…"

Klein raised an eyebrow. "Why do I have a feeling I know where this is going…?"

Kayaba pulled out his own map and laid it on the table. He then pointed to the frigid northern wastes. "If you look at the chain of the Forodwaith Mountains that curves around the bay in the west, you will find a small, long, narrow valley close to the intersection of these two mountain ranges. It goes north-east into the mountains and has several small valleys branching off from it. Ignore the branches and go to the end of the valley. Search around there and you will eventually find it."

"It?" Klein asked wearily. "What the hell is 'it'?"

Kayaba sat back. "An entrance into Utumno. They're called the Pits."

Kayaba then pulled out a listed piece of paper and handed it to Klein. "Do not undertake this trip without adequate preparations. Make sure that you've brought a fair amount of food before you enter, as well as a suit of warg fur armor, because this trip will involve a long march through the cold of Forodwaith. Also make sure you bring along good battle armor and weapons, because you will need them sooner or later..."

Klein started licking his lips after taking the letter and map. "Whoa you're telling me I get my own mission to slay a big ass demon?! Man this is way better than the original plan!"

"Klein, the enthusiasm is grand, but this cannot be taken lightly. Your original mission was to aid in the assault in the north, and that has not changed. This balrog has more than likely fled to Utumno, and it will gather more strength and a host of its own to join in the battle at Gundabad. You must stop it before it harms your friends."

Klein nodded and stood up from the table. "Understood captain. You can count on me!"

Kayaba nodded, but was not finished.

"The trip down to the bottom of the Pits is not for the unwary, for as the old tales say there is a terrible darkness still alive inside those halls...'"

Klein was ready. He had no idea if his men were, but he was fully prepared for the darkest battle of his life. The sun was setting over the sharp icy peaks all around them, and even their torches and itchy warg-skin armor was not enough to keep them alive in the frozen night to come.

Then, a scout made his comment. "C-Captain! I see something ahead!"

Klein stepped forward through ice and snow to gather a better look, and once he did a black structure of sorts was sitting at the foot of a great big mountain range.

It was tall and sharp like a spire, but there were many points. It was ugly, and un-uniform. The stone looked old and black, and it looked like there was absolutely no sign of life. Finally, there was a tiny hole in the bottom of the main tower, and this looked relatively close to ground, perfect for an entrance.

Klein grinned and held his sword with a fierce grip as he signaled forward. "Okay boys, time to see whee these pits take us."

They marched through the rest of the setting sun into the lower edge of the tower, and noticed it was all black brick, but most of it was frozen over, like pure ice. Several men tried picking bricks up and breaking them, but it was impossible.

Klein held a torch as he looked inside and noticed a staircase followed the square wall all the way down its edge to the center of the floor below. He stepped into the room with his men in trail and as he entered his entire body, the game froze for a moment, and a quick message popped up for him to view.

"These ruins are ancient beyond measure.

Be on your guard – there are older and fouler

things than Orcs in the deep places of this world."

"Good. Can't wait to meet them." Klein laughed to himself and carried on with all the confidence in the world as he and his men passed into the unknown. As the descended the staircase the host came a crossed the floor of the tower several steps below the surface. Here they came a crossed a pit in the center of the room, and once the looked inside, they all saw the darkest shade of black ever invented by man or earth.

Klein held out his torch and dropped it down below, but as he did the light quickly disappeared only a few feet into its plunge.

"Hehe…well this looks a bit more dangerous than we thought." He tried laughing but looked around as his collection of 30 or so players and NPC characters looked scared out of their minds.

Finally he sighed. "What? Am I the only one with adventure? Oh man…well Kirito, this one's for you." He then stepped up to the edge of the pit and plunged into the deep darkness below.

Several moments later Klein awoke cold and injured. His front was a little bruised, but other than that he only earned minor injuries after falling from his plunge into the pits.

"Ugh man…wow this is just as cold as up top." He then looked around and noticed the halls of Utumno were not just cold, but they were also dark.

"Whew…" He admitted, and quickly tried to pull up a torch, but as he did the flame from his light only extended about 3 feet or so in either direction.

"Ahehe well that isn't an option I guess. Man I wonder if…" As he began pondering the whereabouts of his teammates, he heard a faint falling noise, followed by 30 or so guys screaming at the top of their lungs who were raining down from above.

Klein ran over and stepped out of the way to allow all of them to land on top of one another and into the cold hard ground below. They all moaned in pain and agony and tried stepping off the person underneath them, but as they rolled off the mound they all looked to Klein who now had his weapon drawn.

"Okay, Kayaba said this place has three layers. This is the icy one I take it…" He looked around to barely see anything before him, but as he did his weapon never left his hand.

Then one soldier stepped up and handed him a bottle. "Relax. Agil left some of these in Rivendell. Kayaba said we'd probably need them."

Klein raised an eyebrow and took the vial filled with clear white liquid. He then shrugged and popped open the cap, and quickly drank the tiny elixir from within.

Immidiatey his eyes began to flash and the halls of Utumno lit up. The brick changed from a dark shadow into their natural bright white with blue lines. Klein was blown away by the natural brightness of the bricks, but did not let the false imagery from the night vision potion let down his guard.

"Okay, we need to find passage ways down through the lower levels and into the final hall of fire. I guess my old friend Mr. Balrog will be there waitin to die."

The men around him nodded with worried expressions, but followed him anyway as they all wondered off into the darkness.

However, it was not even a few feet into a cross section of hallway before they find several arrows darting out to kill them.

Klein looked over to find a troop of orcs running at them with swords and bows, only instead of the regular grey and black armor from above, these ones had orange armor mimicking flame.

"Charge!" Klein said as he swung his katana sword at the first orc, and sure enough his small force bravely followed him into the battle. They didn't lose any men, but it was only about 10 orcs vs 30 rangers. However it acted almost like an even fight, they were that strong.

Klein continued to slice through their front lines until he heard barking and growling, and then he looked down the next corridor to find a pure white warg wolf with blue accents charging him down with a cloud of frost all around it. The beast revealed its razor sharp teeth and pounced on the leader Klein with all its claws undone.

Klein's armor was thick, but not as thick as he would have liked it to be. H wrestled with the beast as his men pierced it with arrows, but then more creatures came in and attacked them from a flank.

Klein got up for a moment and ran down the short hallway to spin around and re-gain his advantage, but as he did the warg followed him and pounced once again, only this time it knocked him backwards and they both fell into an endless hole that fell to the end of the world.

Klein fought with the beast in mid-air as they both performed a freefall to death. The warg sliced open one of his shoulder plates, but Klein clocked it in the face with a swift punch from his fist.

Then Klein spotted his sword falling as well, and reached out to grab it, and as he did Klein took it by the handle and stabbed the warg right through the side of the head with a fierce jab, killing it before hitting the ground.

Klein had just enough time to gather leverage and use the large furry warg to land as a cushion, which softened his blow and kept him alive. He then dusted some of the blood off his left shoulder and continued keeping his sword high.

"Well, I hope this potion doesn't have an expiration date…oh man, I lost the guys!" He looked back up to the never-ending sky hole, but with no hint or clue did he even try to guess which height they were at.

In any case, the lone ranger continued into his new destination, but these halls before him were not made of white, icy bricks. They were instead lined with dark, deep purple bricks joined at cracks by orange light.

It was the hall of obsidian. Klein had fallen so far he had plummeted down into the second layer of Utumno. He would have tried putting that into greater perspective, but now he heard a voice coming from the front path.

"Please... help... us!"

Klein raised an eyebrow, and he did not like the sound of whatever pathetic creature was found lurking behind the corner. He stepped cautiously into sight until he saw three poor beings dressed in black with melty green/grey skin, each looking rather dismal and depressing.

One of the poor soul spoke again. "Who are you? How did you come here? There is no hope in this place…You will succumb to the darkness."

Klein raised a hand. "Whoa you look like one of those elves, but kinda gross, or maybe…" He then realized he provoked them with his sword, and now they were starting to act out.

"No, no, no! This cannot be! You are just another one of His puppets sent to torture us! Leave us alone!"

"Geeze! What the hell happened to you? You said torture!?" Klein really didn't care, but now he was curious.

"He took us away. He tortured us. He turned many into those foul orcs! He will not turn me! No!"

"Who!?" Klein insisted from the top of his voice. "Who did this to you?!"

Finally they all three started speaking at once. "There is no escape from this darkness. There is no hope."

Then, all three of the tormented elf creatures drew orange blades just like the orcs from above, and right then Klein knew this place was much more dangerous that the last.

"Agh great…" he sighed and held his katana high to deliver a fatal blow to the poor innocent souls who desperately needed any salvation they could earn.

Klein continued through the halls of obsidian to find more tormented elves, along with more well-armored orcs, wargs of purple fur, and even some cave trolls. He fought by himself, but being a master swordsman helped him face this task alone.

He had no idea where the rest of his crew was, but none of it mattered as he descended further into darkness and more layers of the earth to find his goal. He had no idea where his bearings were either, but down here in the cold earth, it really didn't matter.

Then, the disgusting smell of torment started to change as he made it to a lower floor, and here things started to smell smokey, and almost inflamed. Klein used it as a good sign to locate the nearest hole he could find, and without hesitation this time he jumped right down and landed on his feet.

Klein tried to shake off the shock from his ankles hitting the ground, but he was also in alarm when he realized the brick had changed down here as well. The purple brick with orange accents had changed into a deep crimson red brick, sealed only with red flaming cracks. Klein knew this was it, the last level of Utumno—the level of fire.

Although he only needed the bricks to locate that answer, he also saw lines of fire all about the halls before him. This sort of helped him see better than before, because his light potion was starting to dull down a bit. However, he also didn't need to worry too much about the flames with the help of the gift given to him by Lisbeth.

Narya was its name—the Ring of Fire. It was described as having the power to inspire others to resist tyranny, domination, and despair (in other words, evoking hope in others around the wielder), as well as giving resistance to the weariness of time. Klein understood this because although he suffered from cold and pain during his journey, he never once found himself discussing the weight of time or hours it took to get there. Now that he thought about it, he had been in the pits for a very long time, but to him, it felt like a little under an hour.

Narya also had a second ability given to the wielder in this game alone. Being the Ring of Fire, it would appear that Annatar (now the Dark Lord Sauron) created the ring to give its user fire resistance. This was originally meant to help the fighter vs. the fires of Smaug the Dragon, but seeing as Balrogs were creatures of shadow and flame, it didn't hurt to have it here as well.

Klein liked his new trinket, and he took pride in making sure it was eventually returned to its owner, Lisbeth, but for now he needed it to find and defeat his enemy.

And low if it didn't take him long to locate it.

There was a great big bowl of a room, deep within the fiery chasms of the lowest levels of Utumno. Flame illuminated it like a great coliseum for the underworld, and within its center was a horde and trail of fire, followed by it.

The Balrog of Morgoth stood with its wings spread and its flames high. All the creatures surrounding it feared its great size and stature, but they did not flee. They seemed to stand around its base, and looked to be taking orders of assembly.

Klein wasn't into this little meeting and decided to swallow all his pride the moment he stepped foot into one of the viewing holes of the room. "Well…I probably need to stop jumping into these situations like an idiot…"

He laughed to himself and drew Karakurenai, his trusty katana for the final time of the evening, and with one quick breath, he plunged into shadow and flame and ascended on the beast.

"FOR KIRITO!" Klein yelled at the top of his lungs and alerted practically every fiend in the arena, but his eyes were solely met with the Balrog's who turned to give him a nice glare.

Klein came down yelling out his war cry and went to deliver the first strike, but the Balrog effortlessly lifted his fist and backhanded Klein into the side of the wall.

Klein landed in a great big boom and coughed up the ash and smoke that was caused by his landing, and before he gave up he spun out of fire from several arrows trying to hit him. He ran by and killed several grunt men with great big swords, but only to clear a path to the Balrog's feet.

The great fire demon yelled out a fierce cry, and then summoned a mighty sword from its right hand. It then smashed the sword made of pure flames right down on Klein's head, but once again a red orb illuminated around the hero and saved him from the flame.

"Yes!" Klein cheered for a brief moment before leaving the inside of one of the Balrog's hooved feet with a great big scar. The creature wailed in pain and tried stepping on Klein, but the nimble ranger was too quick for his feet.

However, Klein landed right in front of a great host of enemy orcs and beast. He sighed and readied his blade as he took the first one head on, but then he heard a wonderous noise from above.

""IT'S KLEIN! GET IN THERE AND HELP HIM!"

All the men from before were surrounding the arena and they all jumped out of their holes and hallways to plummet into Klein's aid, and with his new host to his back Klein now had an easier time combating the grunt men.

However, some of them tried taking on the Balrog itself, to which Klein protested. He threw rocks at the beast to keep the agro fixated on himself, and then demonstrated that he was the only on with fire resistance.

The nodded and agreed, and all tried taking out the orcs and such on their own time. The battle was fierce, but it was also now more even-sided.

Klein performed a few more rolls to try and get below the Balrog, but the wall of fire was slamming its sword into the ground to try and hurt Klein by weight instead of flame. This was not protected by his ring, and now he had to strategize while also use his sword as a propped shield. Should he waste time and try to fight it head on, or suffer actually becoming vulnerable to try and deliver a kill shot?

The Balrog didn't have time for him to make the decision and went in to strike for himself, and Klein parried by delivering a similar "Reaver" sword skill like the one used in SAO. He sliced past the sword and tried poking the demon in the face, but once again it swiped its hands and knocked him into the wall.

Klein had a hard time rebounding from this one, but now he noticed the field was now covered in the trail of flames from the Balrog. His soldiers could die if they took one false step, and now the brute was starting to target them as well.

Klein was not about to let that happen, and as a result he chased the demon until he had its great big tail, and then started climbing onto its back. The Balrog yelled out in anger and tried to claw at Klein to get him off, and then Klein rolled off and left a few slices on its neck.

Finally he rolled down its right arm and gave it a good stab right above the wrist, which caused it to cry out in terrible pain and drop its sword at the same time.

Klein started smiling until the 20 foot tall beast kicked him like a mule and sent him flying one last time. It then summoned a great big fiery whip with its left hand and started charging down the army Klein brought in.

"Agh…no…I can't…I can't let it…" Klein tried fighting with his own strength to get up and defend them, but at this rate he would have been the only one left alive. The Balrog was advancing quickly and Klein was running out of energy.

"No…I won't fail them…these guys…Lis…Kirito…I WON'T GO DOWN EASILY!"

Klein channeled all the remaining energy from his Narya ring and stood tall. He then ran forward and grabbed the great big Balrog sword with both hands and dragged it behind him as he ran right for the Balrog attacking his party.

Then, before the demon lifted its terrible whip, Klein spun the sword around and jammed it right through its back, causing it to cry out in a gruesome pain and fall to its knees. All the beings and creatures fighting the party covered their eyes and fell as well, and before any more ran in to fight a new light came out of nowhere.

A column of pure angelic light flashed down from the ceiling and pierced the dead corpse of the Balrog, illuminating the room and guiding the saviors to their freedom.

Klein took a breath of satisfaction and took the now smaller whip from the Balrog's hand and placed it in his inventory. He then let out a laugh.

"Hehe well I'll be damned…let's go boys!" Klein high-fived some of his half-wounded warriors as they climbed the light and ascended back into the Middle-Earth. However before they left one man spoke up to his leader.

"So sir, any idea where to go next?"

Klein laughed for a moment and shrugged. "I dunno, I guess we could leave whenever! Kayaba already gave me my next mission before I left!"

"Really?" Another said. "So where's it say to go?"

Klein laughed again. "Some place called Harondor? I think…eh I hope its close! I doubt he'd send us that far after that hell of a trip up to the Arctic!"

His men all slapped their faces, because they knew where their next mission was. It was going to be a long walk for Klein, a very long walk, but no one wanted to break that to the new Balrog-slayer until they got well out of the cold, and onto their next road.

Ya know it seems like all the epic chapters get released on Thursdays...I should have waited one day to begin the full release to make them all end up on Fridays!

Yes Klein never died, wooooo! He found the Balrog again and kicked its ass pretty good...also do we have any Minecraft players in the audience? Specifically players who have experienced the Lord of the Rings Minecraft Mod? ...you might have recognized a good amount of this chapter's elements from that mod. If not check it out, it's pretty epic and the creators put TONS of hard work into it.

Fun stuff either way! Fan favorite character going places we never saw in the books or films! Tomorrow's chapter is sort of similar, it's place was in the books/films, but I'm using it A LOT differently...and another seemingly SAO fan favorite. Until then!