Outside of Yggdrasil, a gap suddenly opened. Yukami Yakumo, alongside Ran, walked forward with two figures following her, a man and a woman. Two familiar faces, in fact.
"...That was freaky." Alexia comtemplated what she saw inside the gaps.
"..." Hiroki left no comment.
The small group located themselves in front of a scorch mark near Yggdrasil. Remember? Where Cerberus and Mokou burned the trunk in order to enter and now it has restored itself? Yes, that place.
"Anyways, I have brought you here, so my job here is done." Yukari said.
"Youkai." Hiroki stopped. "From what I heard from our superior, you are technically a reality warper, capable of opening gaps whenever the hell you please... So then, why here? Why not up there? Is this some sort of schem-?"
"Look, I know you have reasons to doubt me." Yukari started. "But bear in mind this. I love Gensokyo. I always will. And this situation is not a joke. Do you think this a scheme, human? You're sadly mistaken." Whoa, serious Yukari is scary. We want our lazy hag back!
"...Whatever." he continued walking forward.
"Yukari-san." Alexia tried to sound polite, even if she too wasn't too trusting of her. "Would you at least tell us why you can't take us to the top levels then?"
"There's a good reason for that... You see, this is not a normal space I can just rend. Yggdrasil itself possesses godly protection that prevents me from rending gaps inside and/or near it. If you think I'm some sort of a god, you're wrong. I'm a youkai that manipulates boundaries. But there are some things in this world that can't be bended as easy as that. Take willpower for example. Even with my wisdom, there are some things that are beyond me...including why people are continuing to live in the outside world with the same mindset since many years."
...Okay. That was deep. Summary, you can't just bend any boundary in your will. Either something ridiculously strong may block it or it's too strong for its borders to be manipulated. Does this count Raim's ability immunity? I don't know...
Also, this proves that she's not as godly as some people thought. In your faces, suckers.
"...That's..." Alexia tried to say something, but stopped.
"We don't have all time of the world. Ignore that demon and move on." Hiroki told her, without even looking at her.
Alexia kept up the pace and said nothing more.
"Ran. If you would be kind to..."
"I understand, Yukari-sama." Ran bowed as she followed the group.
The small group of people moved forward towards the trunk. From afar, Yukari sighed, feeling a migraine coming.
"Geez, me having migraines? And I getting too old?"
"It depends of how old you feel you are."
Yukari mentally groaned as she recognized the voice. She turned around to see Louis, dressed in his usual get up, with a fedora on top.
"What do you want?"
"Don't I have the right to walk freely?" Louis asked. "In this place where fantasy can manifest easily, there must be also freedom, don't you think?"
That logic is...actually, kind of right.
"Anyways, seems that the panic of one god is causing this space to be rended. Not that I care, actually, but it is kind of interesting to see something like this happening."
"It's not funny." Yukari countered. "Besides, you haven't answered me. What do you want?"
"Me? I'm just relaxing after a very good chess match."
Back in Muenzuka, in the middle of the Warp.
"...He checkmated me with four knights and a pawn?" Loki blinked while still looking at the chessboard. "How did he do that?"
"Needless to say, I'm exhausted." Louis sighed while shrugging. "Now, whose sparks will trigger what, I wonder...Either way, it's a nice spectacle."
He then noticed that a gap opened in front of him, as several kunais drew dangerously close to his neck.
"I thought you were not this...impulsive." Louis raised an eyebrow. "This place is full of surprises indeed. Or perhaps...you are feeling fear? Fear that this event might cause the breaking of that border, am I right?"
"That doesn't concern you."
"But of course." Louis answered bluntly. "After all, wherever this place falls or is spared from this disaster, that depends of your actions. As I sugested before, consider me just as a...samaritan. Nothing else. Nothing more."
"I can't trust you. I don't even know who you really are." Yukari wasn't stupid. You can't trust this guy! "Leave, before I change my mind and stab you. I'm not kidding."
"Oh? You think you can do more than you just did? Please. You think that power is the only thing needed to threaten me? *chuckle* It's funny. Is this your mask? A veil you use to conceal that under that personality of yours, lies a loner that is insecure about her own actio-?"
(STAB!)
The kunais dug effortlessly inside Louis' neck. Yukari had enough of his banter.
"I warned you." she said as the kunais returned to the gap and Louis' body fell to the ground.
She started turning around as she cluched her head. His words were...quite strong.
"Hmm...Quite fast. And deadly too. Just as I expected, your power is something to be worried about." a voice chuckled behind Yukari.
Not surprinsingly, Louis stood up as the kunais fell down from him. His neck was unscathed. Or maybe it regenerated at a high rate. I don't know...
"What the...?" Yukari said, and with good reason. After all, how often do you see a man coming out unharmed after being stabbed to the throat? Although, it's kinda justified since he's the freaking devil and all...
"Now..." he said while smiling at Yukari. "Shall I tell you what I know? Or should I leave you to figure it out? As I said, I'm just a bystander here, but that doesn't mean I can't give out information. It depends only if you choose to listen to me. Do you understand?"
Yukari kept silent as she started proccessing Louis' words slowly. If it was any other situation, Yukari would've playfully ignored him altogether and formulate a solution by herself. However, this situation was far from safe. One thing was making a small incident for her amusement. Other thing was the appeareance of a big freaking tree out of nowhere.
"...What do you know?"
Louis smirked.
Episode 36: Breaking up in groups might cause a stupid conmotion
(THUD!)
Kyoji and the girls grunted as they were thrown down some sort of cell. Or more like a trap door. Cerberus was already thrown inside, with chains on his feet and a fetter on his mouth. He was obviously not happy with the current events.
"Heh. Small tribute to Fenrir they did there..." Kyoji commented, as seeing Cerberus reminded him of the legend of Fenrir. "So...any luck with those dolls, Alice-chan?" Kyoji asked, wondering how much time have it passed since they were locked.
After some more seconds, Hourai (while being controlled by Alice, obviously) cut the ropes that were restraining both Aya and Kyoji.
"But wait, couldn't you have freed yourself first, then free us?" Aya asked.
"...Ask yourself, can I see the ropes that are binding my hands?" Alice said, moving the fingers of her hands, which were behind her.
"...Touché." Aya and Kyoji said in synchrony.
"*growl*"
"You know, we should just free Cerberus before he gets crankier." Kyoji commented.
After some more seconds...
"Alright...any ideas?" Kyoji asked.
"Well, escaping isn't a problem. The problem is that we'll be spotted in no time. After all, did you see how many valkyries were around?"
"It's true." Alice nodded. "I've seen the possibilities. If we blast the trap door, we'll get spotted and they might take no risks and kill us. But even if we try to open it silently, there are several guards out there, so the chances to escape are still very low."
"Hmm..." Cerberus didn't have any more to add.
"...Okay, that's just depressing." Aya commented.
"..."
"..."
...How long are you going to stay there doing nothing?
"Alright, I'll cut to the chase." Louis stated, walking past Yukari. "As you already know, the current chain of events are going to lead towards Ragnarok, the end of gods. However, this event was...triggered on purpose by another spark. Or to put it in better words, someone gave something to Flandre Scarlet."
"What was given?"
"A certain stone with bharjan runes. As a christmas present, to boot. Someone has a weird sense of humor." he said, walking around Yukari like a hound playing with his prey. "Of course, taking in account that the Scarlet sisters are, for some reason, avatars of Nordic deities, that lead to...an interesting development."
"...Only that? I don't think so."
"Good. You're as sharp as they say. Yes. That wasn't the only factor. Complete paranoia is also at play."
"Paranoia? From what I've seen, the humans hadn't feel panic about..."
"Who said I refered to human paranoia? No, this is a god's paranoia. Somewhat childish, if you ask me." Louis fixed his bow tie. "Do you know enough about Norse Mythology?"
"Yes... Although I don't know it all." Yukari said. Being alive for a long time has its advantages. "But as far as mythology says, I just couldn't predict that Yggdrasil would've been this big."
"Whether the World Tree was beyond your expectations or not isn't the issue here." Louis interrupted her. "What I am talking about is about Odin's fear of Ragnarok."
"I know that, but what does that have to do with abducting Remilia Scarlet?"
"She's an eye."
"A what? !"
"...No, let me paraphase that..." Louis cleared his throat. "She's the physical incarnation of Odin's lost eye!"
"...Ugh...where...?" Remilia grumbled as she woke up. She rubbed her eyes, trying to dissuade the sudden headache. No, it felt more that the pain came from her left eye. "Was all...a dream?"
Ha ha. Tough break, you.
"...No, this isn't a dream." Remilia corrected herself. "This is not my room. It's too...fancy, even for me."
She looked around. The room was considerably wide and there were several fancy furniture around. There was a mirror near, along with a drawer. The room itself was colored in a mix of bronze and wood. She looked at her clothes. She was still wearing the same pajamas as when she was kidnapped, and that annoyed her.
"*sigh* Alright, let's see where exactly I am..." she moved forward towards the window, which was covered by a curtain.
And she was greeted by a really impossible view.
For many years, Asgard was depicted as a heaven for warriors. From some points of view, that caused Asgard to be imagined as an eternal battlefield, where warriors were constantly fighting to prove their strength or were having parties.
Err...that may be true...somewhat. But, looking at it directly...well, that's another thing. Remilia was atop of a giant fortress-like castle, some sort of gate far and the end and, the most insane part of it all is that there was a giant rainbow bridge leading below. That's Bïfrost, by the way. Also, still in her newfound shock, she saw several men and women standing on the bottom floor, all looking up, as lions that have cornered a prey.
They were looking directly at her. And, for the first time in her life, she didn't want to be the center of attention.
"What the...?" Remilia started walking back. The window was barless, she could just fly out of there. However, if that quantity of people started chasing her, she won't have a chance... "What's going on? Where am I? !"
"If you want a straight answer...you're in Asgard." a male voice came from the other side of the room. "And don't try to go down from here. That'll just be foolish."
A red-haired man was lazily resting on a wall, looking almost completely lifeless. The only sign that showed he was alive was the long sigh he let out. His clothes resembled a normal militia uniform, the only difference was that in had a shoulder-pad on the left and, for some reason, he carried a short stick that didn't resemble a weapon at all. The only thing I can imagine that might be useful for is to...well, be a stick.
...Goddamn, I need to get better at describing things.
Remilia jumped back, increasing the distance between them as she was about to take out one of her spellcards...when she noticed she didn't have them on her. "Who are you? ! Where are my spell cards? !"
"These?" the man said while taking out Remilia's set of spell cards. "I still don't see the use of these to limit your attacks. That goes against to what I believe, you know."
As everyone knows, the Spell Card system was used to create non-lethal variations of the attacks everyone uses...or did you didn't know that?
"Give them back! Don't make me do something that you'll regret!" Remilia hissed.
"Why? I don't see any reason for it. Besides, you're not in the position to give demands, Remilia-sama." the man said, putting the card away and walking forward. "I ask of you, don't make this harder than it should."
"What are you talking about? And why are you using the suffix -sama? !"
"Because you're very important to us. Don't make something foolish. I am not here to harm you. I only came here to see the "eye" in person."
""Eye?"" Remilia raised an eyebrow while quickly creating a spear without the use of her spell card, meaning that one was lethal. "Ah, forget it! Listen to me, fool. I don't have the time to stay here. So just move and I'll spare you."
"...*sigh* Try if you want." he said as he shrugged.
"Are you mocking me?" Remilia gritted her teeth as she strenghtened her grip. "Stop joking around and move!"
"I'm afraid I can't. So...just try. If you manage to take me out with just that, then I'll let you out. No tricks."
Now, this, to Remilia, was a really awful joke.
"SPEAR THE GUNGNIR!" Remilia shouted (force of habit) as she threw the spear at the man.
Did I forget to mention it was Thor?
(CLANK!)
"WHAT? !" Remilia gasped as the spear shattered when it came in contact with Thor's hand. Thor was not amused.
"I told you so..." he sighed.
Remilia, however, ignored what just happened and created two spears this time.
"Tch. Y-You just got lucky..."
Err...no. His body is too resilent.
"Luck? There's no luck on the battlefield." Thor frowned, incredibly dissapointed that she was the holder of the "Eye". "Enough, I've seen enough. I thought you had more fight in you, but you are just a spoiled girl."
"SHUT UP!" Remilia snapped as she threw the Gungnirs at Thor. However, Thor dodged one and slapped the other one out of the way. This one passed through the wall, flew over Asgard until it became a twinkle in the sky...
Lesson of today: Don't freaking mess with Thor.
"...I'm done with this charade."
After saying that, Thor dashed towards Remilia at almost Aya's speed, with a trail of lightning bolts behind him. Remilia didn't have the time to react as Thor attacked the back of her neck gently, with a small voltage to be sure. Needless to say, she was knocked-out cold.
"As usual...there's nothing that can bring excitement to me in a battle..." Thor was dissapointed.
Several footsteps were heard from the other side, like a small organized troop. After some seconds, the door opened, revealing a small ensemble of valkyries and einhenjar, armed with spears and short swords. The einhenjar had the same color thematic as the valkyries' clothes...a la Valkyria Chronicles.
Honestly, who designed the clothes of these guys...or where did they got the clothes' reference? Hell, the game came out this year, for Christ's sake!
"Thor-sama!" one of the valkyries rushed to his side. "What happened?"
"The vessel of the Eye got...out of control for a little while. It's no big deal." he answered. "Take her to the All-Father at once. It is almost time."
Almost as he said that, the cloudless sky filled with dark red cloud and, for some reason, it felt like the sky was...growling. Like a feral animal just about to snap its victim's neck.
"What are you staring at? ! GO!" Thor snapped the trance that all of the warriors there felt. "Also, call all the valkyries that reside in the other worlds, along with the einhenjar, to Asgard. Now!"
Dude's good for crowd control.
"HEY! ANYONE THERE? !" Kyoji screamed atop of his lungs. "We have a problem here!"
Inside the small cell, Kyoji was desperately get the valkyrie guards attention by shouting. When that didn't work, he tried kicking the walls. When that didn't work too, well...
"Shit! The blonde one died! What, she was a fierce warrior too? Isn't there a, uh, I don't know, a psychopomp around here that is worthy for freaking Valhalla? !"
Kyoji...you're trying too hard.
*creak*
...Wait, it actually worked? You son of a...
"...*sigh* What do you want? You're causing a racket." a pair of valkyries appeared from beyond the trap door.
"If it isn't serious enough, then we'll..."
"It is serious! Just look." Kyoji protested.
Inside the cell, the pair of valkyries couldn't see much due to the lack of light inside. When they squinted their eyes enough, they noticed a body laid down on the ground...and what it seemed at first like a trail of blood, coming out the body of Alice.
"*sigh* What happened here?"
"It was too fast! She started spasming like crazy and, last thing I know, she started vomiting blood out of nowhere! Really!"
As I said, you're trying too ha-
"I see..."
...Goddammit. Does every guard get a stupid upgrade or what? It is the usual trend nowadays? ! GOD!
Anyways, the two valkyries decended into the cell, while getting near the body of Alice.
"...?" one of the valkyries noticed the blood was denser than it should. "Hey, this is..."
(SNAP!)
Apparently, they forgot to check on Aya too, since she delivered a swift blow in the back of their necks, as fast as she could, with two small sized rocks that Cerberus managed to craft by scratching the sturdy wall, several times.
Their two bodies fell limp on the ground as soon as the hit connected. The rocks shattered on contact, but it still managed to do its job.
And it was all Alice's plan. Damn.
"...Did they faint?" Alice opened her eyes as she stood up, her shirt with a giant red stain on it. "Ah, geez. I I told you not to use too much!" she berated Kyoji. "Now I have to clean this up too..."
Let me explain, true believers. While they were contemplating what to do inside the small, humid cell, Kyoji got hungry all of the sudden. So he took out a small cup of ramen that he stashed inside his jacket and a container of ketchup. Cerberus reprimanded him that this wasn't the time to eat and pounded the wall near him to make him face reality.
That when the rocks fell of. And the rest was done inside Alice's mind. She asked Kyoji to spray ketchup over her clothes, simulating a bloodstain enough to fool the guards. And, since the guards don't know jack shit about the tropes that surround these actions...well, you just saw what happened.
But perhaps Kyoji sprayed too much ketchup.
"Well, you asked me to do it." Kyoji shrugged. "Although...you're using a blouse over a shirt, right? So why don't take out your blouse and..."
"Hit him?" Aya asked Alice, almost like she asked for confirmation.
"Hit him."
(WHAM!)
"Argh!" Kyoji...you should really know how to use your mouth. "Oh come on! I was just suggesting!"
"Ugh, you are truly an idiot." Aya frowned. "This is no time for that! I don't know how much time these two are going to stay like this. We need to get out of here."
And suddenly, Kyoji's mind pinged.
"Hey...I have an idea." he said while looking at the unconcious bodies of the two valkyries.
"Hey, you two!" a valkyrie guard walked towards two familiar figures. "What are you doing with this prisoner? Where are the other two, by the way?"
"Ma'am!" both of the two saluted, holding Kyoji with a rope that was awfully similar to a string. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you this before, but the prisoners were scheduled to be moved due to them trying to blast the wall." Alice, using the standards clothes they stole from the valkyries, built up an excuse. "So, we moved this prisoners' companions to another cell."
"I can see that, but why didn't you move the other one too?"
"Well, you see, this...pervert, managed to sneak out the cell while the other squad were moving the others, I don't know how by the way, but we managed to capture him once more. However, we were walking around trying to find where did the others imprisoned the rest of them. So...yeah. This is the situation."
"...I see..." the valkyrie was still doubtful about all of this, and both Aya and Alice noticed, getting unnerved. "And might you expla-"
"ATTENTION, everyone!" one female voice blared from the...oh great, they have a P.A. system too? "Thor-sama is calling to arms! Leave everything you're doing and start heading to Asgard! This is not a drill!"
"...!" the valkyrie that stopped both of the girls seemed to have changed priorities as she rushed towards the near exit. "You heard the announcement! Just leave that guy on the nearest cell and move on!"
She left on a hurry as Aya and Alice let out a sigh.
"...That was close."
"Yeah. Definitely close."
"I don't want to sound like a douchebag but, won't you mind untying me now? ! Seriously, who tied these things? They're crushing my wrists!"
"Oh sorry, that was me." Aya shamelessly said. "After all, even when we said that you shouldn't look at us changing, you still did so. I just went ahead and punished you."
"Hey! Don't blame me for trying to admire the female body!" Kyoji berated, while Alice untied him. "Don't you know that voyerism is the way of men's souls to shine?"
"Well...Raim doesn't comment like you." Alice added.
"He's an exception, I'll admit. By the way, those clothes are a nice fit. They make your figures slender."
"Um...thanks?" Aya just couldn't give a straight answer to that. He seemed honest on that statement and it didn't feel like a tease.
The now-free trio suddenly found themselves with a problem...
"Hey, how are we going to go undercover if he's still in his normal clothes?" Aya asked.
Alice started thinking when they heard running footsteps once again. They hid inside a nearby room as the footsteps got heavier. Alice peeked through the small gap of the door and saw several Einhenjar.
"...I have another idea."
The next event included a strange mastery of strings a la Spiderman, surprising a poor Einhenjar and dragging him towards the room, knocking him out and making Kyoji wear his clothes.
"Alright." Kyoji said as he put on his new jacket. "Guess we now should go unnoticed."
Err...no. This tactic only works if your face is concealed. It worked for Han Solo that way. You can't just walk freely like that without anyone noticing.
But then again, Aya and Alice were like that and they weren't noticed too...Ah, screw it. Do what you want.
"You must be joking." Yukari spoke words that a normal person would say.
"Do I look like a guy that would joke about situations like this?"
"I don't know you very well. That doesn't help your case."
"...True. But I'm sure that can be arranged." Louis smiled as he cleared his throat. "Now, back on track!" You know, the devil's somewhat energetic by talking, almost as he's having fun. "I draw your attention towards the sky, if you please."
Yukari paused as she raised her view upwards. Normally, she would've expected a starry night, with the moon on view. However, the sky was red, not because of clouds. Oh no, no no no...the sky was red. Also, Yukari could've sworn she saw two giant canine figures trying to pass through the border.
"Just what is that?" Yukari said.
"Eh, don't mind them. One is trying to reach the sun while the other is seeking the moon."
Yukari snickered. She knew very well that the moon wasn't as easy to get to as it seemed.
And to put more weirdness to the scene, it started snowing.
"Oh please..." Yukari facepalmed. "What now?"
"Hm?" Louis seemed interested. "Seems the chain of events is reacting earlier than expected." he turned around, facing Yukari. "Well, a little too early, if you ask me. Now, it seems you're eager to know how to stop all of this madness."
"Madness? This is more of a ticking bomb ready to explode!"
"I thought you were more calm and calculating than this." Louis sighed. "But anyways, what you need here is...an ace down your sleeve."
"An ace?" Yukari raised an eyebrow, her umbrella shielding her from the falling snow. "What for?"
"Sooner or later, the jotun will start to go down, the snake will rise and the hound will free from its bounds, making this a really interesting chaos. However, the nordic gods will try to make their last stand inside Yggdrasil. However, who says that Gensokyo or the Earth itself will be spared from the carnage?" Louis said. "You really didn't expect your pieces were strong enough to face them head on. This is not bound to that maiden's spell card rules." Louis was direct. "*sigh* I'll be simple. If they think they can go on like this unprepared, they are all going to die."
Geez, Louis. Give her a break.
"But there's hope at the end of this dark corridor. That's why I'm here, you know."
I can't trust you. Neither do the audience.
"..." Yukari remained silent, weighting her options. She can't just trust the guy, but if what he's saying it's true, then she'll need to follow his advice.
If she ignores the advice, the girls get killed, and if Reimu dies, the Border would collapse. And that's something she doesn't want.
Storming Yggdrasil herself along with Ran? Yes, she's a force to be reckoned with, but she will take a lot of time, even for her since she can't just gap herself in. Yukari frowned. She noticed that she was very dependant on her gaps working.
She didn't have much choice, did she?
"...Talk."
"Gladly." Louis smiled. "But before that, can we go somewhere else?"
Yukari's gap opened up just where Raim dissapeared. But at this point, this region of Makai was...err...
"The roots reached up to here..." Yukari was surprised by the spectacle...Ah crap, I'm talking like Louis now.
"That is besides my purpose of bringing you here. Look, don't you sense something...unusual?"
"Unusual?" Yukari raised an eyebrow. "Apart from that? I don't th-"
She stopped. Something inside of her told her that he was right. She flew forward, near the overgrown root, and...with just one finger, she drew the outline of a crack.
"A crack...?"
Yukari tried manipulating its borders, trying to open it up again. However, Louis spoke up before she could finish.
"...I suggest you get hold of something before you do that."
Too late. The crack "opened" and the vortex that swallowed Raim was active once again. Yukari, not been an idiot, manipulated the border around her so that the pulling effect of the vortex was reversed, making it safe for her to stand in front of it.
"Could you explain what this is?"
"In a manner of speaking, you could say this is a gate someone opened to get to another dimension, fragment, choose your own definition." Louis said, struggling to keep his hat on his head...along with his body to stay where he was. "However, this may serve us well. The ace you seek is there."
"Which is?"
"You'll see when you notice. But it will be easier to find if you search and follow Raim Hanta."
"...? That human's there?" Yukari was strangely amused. She didn't care too much about the kid. She was only surprised he was there. "I thought you looked over the kid."
"I did." Louis said. "Looking over does not mean helping, you see."
You sneaky bastard.
"...Wait, you send him here on purpose, didn't you?"
"Who knows. Take your own conclusions. For me, that doesn't concern me." Louis shrugged. "Now, I suggest you go. It's almost four hours till midnight. And trust me, you don't want to take your time, do you?"
Yukari just ignored him as she jumped into the vortex, closing itself. Meaning the pulling effect dissapeared.
"About time. No matter what happens now, it's checkmate."
What? What are you talking about?
*rumble*
Three figures emerged from below, panting all the way up as they finally rested on a wall, relaxing of that terrible experience. Youmu recovered faster, so she tried to help the other two to move on. However...
"Um...isn't there supposed to be an exit here?" Reisen noticed the sudden change of patterns. "I mean, it was going so smooth before."
"Sure. As smooth as those giants down there." Youmu commented.
"*pant* *pant* We need to just go forward." China said, walking forward. "My mistress is in danger..."
"Hey, don't push yourself." Youmu caught China by her shoulder. "We should focus on finding an exit."
"But..."
"She's right!" Reisen claimed. "Look, I really don't know what is going on, but we can't just leave it like this, right?"
China nodded slightly, as accepting her speech.
"Anyways, if we can't find an exit..." Youmu started drawing out her Roukanken "Then..."
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The greenish wall (or trunk) in front of her stood still for some seconds as Youmu sheathed her sword. When she did, the wall "collapsed" in small pieces of the same size. How flashy.
"Ooooh~!" the other two were in awe. "Holy cow! I know that sword is something else, but...wow."
"...Err...Not quite..." Youmu felt embarrased.
There was a small draft of wind, signaling that Youmu cut a way out of the trunk.
"You think they are still looking for us?"
*rumble*
The ground (or tree...floor) shook.
"Well, if they are searching for us, then I think they'll get delayed by those guys down there and Suika." China said.
Well, it's true. Those jotun are still brawling with Suika. And, knowing the oni's nature of fighting...this will take a while.
"Anyways, let's just go through here..." Youmu said, starting flying towards the hole.
*bump*
"What the?" Youmu suddenly crashed towards something...fluffy? "Hey, when did the tree regenerated so quickly?"
"Ah...ah..."
"Huh?"
"Y-Youmu-san...That's not a wall."
"Eh? Then...?"
She was now looking at a riduculously large black eye. She blinked once, her brain just couldn't process the image too well. The figure rose again, revealing...squirell teeth?
Oh, it's just Ratatoskr.
...
...Hold on. He's still a giant squirell. Emphasizing on giant.
"SQUIRELL!" China gasped in horror. I mean, seriously. They barely escaped several jotun. To find a big freaking squirell out of nowhere is...well, weird.
Ratatoskr started sniffing Youmu out of curiousity. In his proportionated small mind of his, he found odd to find something other than valkyries or einhenjar lurking around Yggdrasil. Are these edible? What are they doing here? These questions and more sprouted from his mind.
But then again, he started chewing the scenery anyways. And I mean literally.
"Whoa!" Youmu flew backwards to avoid being eaten alive by Ratatosk. She noticed his squirell-like teeth were more compared to tusks than anything else, a fact that creeped the hell out of her. "Get away from me!"
SLASH!
Ratatoskr roared as Youmu's blade drew blood from one of his cheeks. Aw, how cute! A gigantic squirell who can easily crush you all is bleeding.
...What the hell do you think you're DOING? !
"Watch out!" China pushed Reisen away as Ratatosk started clawing the inside. At first, he was just trying to eat, but noooo, you had to panic and attack him. Idiots, all of you.
The small..."room" they were into started breaking apart the more Ratatoskr tried to enter to slice down their attackers...and possibly eat them. I don't know, I'm not a squirell expert! I'm just an observer!
(SQUEAK! SQUEAK!)
"Youmu-san~! Why did you attack the giant squirell that now wants to kill us!"
My thoughts exactly. Thanks for nothing.
"I didn't know it (dodge) would react like this!"
...Err, he is the bigger animal. It's obvious that if you piss him off, he would go on a rampage. This thing might even make bears shit out of their asses...except wolverines.
Wolverines are cool.
Anyways, Ratatoskr started rampaging. Reisen aimed to his eyes and shoot thin red lasers at his eyes. However, this only made him angrier. And stronger.
(SQUEAK!)
"Oh c-!"
(CRACK!)
Part of the trunk behind Youmu was shredded in half as she dodged a swipe from Ratastoskr, now blind in rage. In all due honesty, that's an achievement. For a squirell to be this kind of scary. Well...he is a bit giant after all.
*rumble* *rumble*
"Hm?" Aya felt the shockwaves from below. "An earthquake?"
The trio was running through the stairs leading to Asgard, inside a small squadron of both Valkyries and Einhenjar. And, yes, people, the others never even branded them as suspicious.
"No...I don't think so." Kyoji whispered back. "Now, stay in line. We don't want them to suspect us, don't you?"
"Right."
(CRACK!)
"AAH!" the girls screamed as the floor started breaking down. Reisen managed to look at the outside. She noticed that the air pressure was incredibly low due to the sheer altitude of Yggdrasil and noticed she had problems breathing. However, Ratatoskr didn't seem to have any problems. In fact, he looked perfectly fine.
"*pant* Let's get out of here!" China said, in the midst of the confusion, panting also due to the lack of oxygen on the air. Hey, it's science, people!
The trio started flying upwards, in the outside of Yggdrasil.
Ratatoskr jumped through the falling crunks of Yggdrasil, scaring the girls and this observer because on how fast the furry was. Seriously, look at him go!
...
...Oh wait, you can't.
"Well, this *pant* isn't good." Youmu said, flying upwards as she looked at Ratatoskr climbing Yggdrasil with ease. Youmu tried slashing more chunks of Yggdrasil in order to slow him down. Ratatoskr parried the chunks back to them, impacting China for massive damage.
"Chi- I mean, Meiling-san!" Youmu gasped. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"I'm okay. Now RUN!"
"We are flying..."
(SQUEAK!)
"WHATEVER!"
The more higher they ascended, the more fatigues they felt...and Ratatoskr was not slowing down. At all.
"Tch!" Youmu gritted her teeth, even when she was going to suffer from oxygen deprivation if they keep flying at this speed. "Girls, when I say now, we turn around and shoot!"
"Oh, a great plan." Reisen started. "Sure, that will save ourselves from the rampaging beast behind us!"
"Just listen, alright?" Youmu reassured. China looked doubtful, but since she knew the other choice was "imminent internal digestion by a giant rodent", she complied to the former.
Ratatoskr somehow noticed they were plotting something, as started moving upwards, but this time, it wasn't on a straight line!
Squirells are scary.
"Oh great." Reisen said. "Now what?"
Youmu closed her eyes and just...focused.
"Hey, sleeping *pant* is not an option!" China said. "Hey, Youmu!"
The lack of oxygen and their voices hampered her concentration. However, with enough inner focus, she was able to predict Ratatoskr's movement pattern. With that revelation, she quickly turned around and slashed the air. Ratatoskr noticed that and jumped aside. But...
"Heh." Youmu smiled. "NOW!"
It was a feint. The true attack came when Youmu shouted, alerting the other two to shoot red colored bullets and lasers at Ratatoskr's face and feet. Especially the feet, since it made him lose balance.
And everyone knows that if you lose balance while running up a goddamn World Tree...well...you're pretty much screwed.
While Ratatoskr was still stunned, Youmu used the inertia of her feint to draw out her other sword. Did I forgot to mention she was spinning while at it?
"This is the coup de grâce!" Hey Youmu, I didn't know you knew French! "Slash of Present!"
(SLASH!)
And with that, Ratatoskr started falling down and down and down...while a small trail of blood was released during his decent. Oh no, he isn't dead. He's just pissed.
"W-We did it!" China cheered. "Now...we...zzz..."
...Uh oh.
"H-Hey..." Youmu grabbed China by the collar of her outfit. "You can't just...faint like this... *pant* Hey, look the...zzz"
(GRAB!)
"H-Hey...Please...We're almost...on the top...or so I think..."
Let me see...
...
... ...Oh yeah, you're on the top, alright.
"*pant* See? !" Reisen was about to faint. "We are on the top! We made it! Now...zzz...
(THUD!)
Well, gee, that was predictable. The three bodies slumped to the giant branch, that was as wide as a soccer field. No, this is no bullshit. It actually is this large.
"...What is this?" a confused feral voice rang.
And if this was weird enough, we are now looking at a moderate sized hawk who's in the middle of the eyes of a big freaking hawk, who was on top on the highest branch of all of Yggdrasil. My good god, does every animal in this realm have to be this goddamn huge?
"..." the eagle stood still.
"Well, it kind of looks edible, but still, we can't just eat unconcious maidens."
"..."
"You cannot be serious." the hawk looked down to his other feathered companion.
"..."
"I mean, come on! Those four stags might get satisfied by eating from the branches, but us? We're birds of prey, man!"
"..."
"But..."
"..." the eagle frowned.
"...Fine. Suit yourself. But still..."
The hawk, Veðrfölnir, looked to his left. He managed to see Bïfrost, the big freaking rainbow bridge, as a small platoon of valkyries and einhenjar started running upwards. The trio of Kyoji, Alice and Aya were not noticed by any of the others.
But Veðrfölnir knew that they weren't either valkyries or einhenjar. He remembered faces and other crucial information, so this wasn't such a big surprise.
"Heh. The gods will get a really odd surprise because of this..." Ved (we'll call him Ved for now) snickered.
"..."
"You want to know why I won't interferre? Well, perhaps because it isn't my destiny to do so."
"..."
"True. You can't just go against destiny. Now even if it convey the end of the world as we know it."
*rumble*
Inside Muspellheim...something was rising.
*rumble*
Inside a crack in the middle of the rocky mountains of this hellishly hot land, a grotesce hand rose from the ground. Flames started sprouting from it too. Damn, this looks almost like Mordor.
How the hell did the girls managed to cross this hell of a place in the first place? Oh, redundancy! How I missed thee!
"THE TIME IS NEAR."
...Ah crap.