Author's Note: Sorry for the late update. I had work stuff going on. Please enjoy!

{Alfheim, the next day…}

Light filled a pleasant glade in a wild forest, green and filled with mystic flowers and glowing butterflies. The land seemed to be bathed in a sort of deep twilight, the sun staying just above set beyond the great wall of trees all around. A [Gate] opened, and 42 mighty Death Knights marched through the portal, dispersing into a defensive ring around the glade. Four Soul-Eaters, flaming skeletal steeds, trotted through next, a powerful undead overlord astride each one, the same type of undead as Ainz Ooal Gown himself.

After that, a gigantic lizard, six-legged with two massive eyes moving independently of each other, like a chameleon, passed through. Its rider was the dark elf druid Mare Bello Fiore. A great wolf, lean and dark, followed the lizard, bearing as its rider, the ranger Aura Bella Fiore. Forming the rearguard came 24 Death Cavaliers astride Soul Eaters. They too fanned out to patrol the local area as the [Gate] closed.

"Hm… Mare, use your [Land's Stride] skill on everyone. Don't want us getting bogged down by any roots and the like," suggested Aura.

"R-right! [Land's Stride]." The wide-reaching skill buff spread out from Mare's staff and touched everyone around.

"Lord Ainz wants us to explore Alfheim, and gather any information, magic items, and people of interest we can for Him beyond what divination magic can find." She turned towards Mare, who both looked at her expectantly for instructions. Being the big sister figure for him meant that Aura was in charge of the whole operation, naturally. "Alright, the best way we can go about that is to each take half of our guard here and fan out," said Aura. She looked at the four overlords, all happy to be occupied outside the library of Nazarick. "Aelius and Fulvius, you're with me. Aurelius and Cocceius, go with Mare. Talk to me if you find something interesting or if anything happens, okay? I'll do the same with you. Now, let's go explore this place for Nazarick, and for Lord Ainz!"

Aura, with the great World Item Depiction of Nature and Society strapped to her back, the giant wolf Fenrir, two of the undead overlords, and a contingent of the undead guards broke away and galloped into the treacherous forest, their feet unhindered by its treacherous paths.

"H-H-Here we go…" said Mare meekly, using the dark and hellish World Item gauntlet Avarice to pat the head of Quadricile, his giant chameleon steed. The great beast made left, followed by the remaining two overlords and undead guards, vanishing into the trees.

{Further into Alfheim…}

"【Nista!】" cried the sickly boy, loosing an arrow. It pierced the chest of a distant foe. The dark elf crashed on the ground dead from the arrow that had stricken it. "Father, to the right!" the boy yelled.

The grizzled man swung his mighty axe in that direction, cleaving the approaching foe in two across the middle. The path before him and the boy was made like the combs of a beehive, and crowded with dark elves, who, borne upon their insectoid wings, flitted down from the rest of the vast hive with bright spears to kill the two intruders.

"Stay focused, boy. Shorten the time between your volleys!"

"What happened to 'accuracy over speed?!'"

"There are many targets, you will not miss!"

A dark elf charged at the boy's father, stabbing forward with a two-pronged spear. With a dull clang, the man deflected the dark elf's attack with his shield, slashing the elf's neck with a quick riposte from his axe. As he fought, he moved further along the path. With another chop, another dark elven head was cloven in two vertically. The man sheathed his axe. That weapon alone could not clear the path fast enough. He readied his fists.

With a mighty roar, a seething anger overwhelmed his reason and his vision turned red. He rushed forward, fists blurring. A warm mush quickly coated his hands as he moved forward, as elfin bones shattered with every blow. He reached forward at the last foe in the first gathering of the dark elves, tearing with his bare hands, and the elf warrior's body tore in two mangled pieces. He bent down, ripping out a giant piece of the hive itself from beneath his feet, hurling it at another group of dark elves who had flown down to attack. Their screams were dull in his ears as the great boulder crushed them like flies.

Another company of dark elves flitted upwards from below, lunging with their spears to cut him down. He jumped at the nearest one, turning its head into a red mist. He grabbed the corpse's leg, hurling it at some of the others in this newest wave, staggering them and letting him close the distance.

Only his son's voice broke the crimson haze that had passed over his senses. "You did it, father!"

The redness faded, and he dropped the limbs he had torn off from the last enemy. The path ahead was clear, now only a single pink membrane of the comb structure remained to hold it up. The man moved to it quickly, hacking into it with his axe. The runes on the axe glowed pale blue, as the pink membrane froze over with ice. With another mighty swing, the whole thing shattered. The hive shook, and the floor beneath them began to crumble. "Boy! To me!" shouted the man. He scooped up the boy, leaping from the collapsing hive, using his own body to take the brunt of the fall instead of his son. The boy rolled off of his body as they hit the floor. The two of them lay in the ruins of the hive, atop a large and beautifully decorated platform. A white column of light shot up from the middle of the platform, brighter than before. The very thing they had come to Alfheim for.

"The light, it's making the whole temple reappear! It's the source of all of it!" exclaimed the boy, looking as the light filtered through various crystals, making shimmering bridges and walls and columns throughout the vast chamber of the temple. "Wait! It's… singing?" he said, standing close to the pillar of light. "I hear… I hear her! I told you I heard her! Do you think she's in there?!" The boy pushed against the light, which crackled for a moment. He withdrew his hand in pain. "That really hurt… it felt like my hand was on fire…"

The father moved his hand along the light. "Stay here."

"But I wanna go-"

"Stay. Here." He proffered his axe to the boy. "Only use it as a last resort."

"You're giving me your axe?"

"I am letting you hold my axe. It is not a gift."

"Still…"

The father turned back towards the light. He tapped its surface with his hand. It crackled and burned like before. Again, and he held his hand there longer, to accustom himself to the burning. He stepped back, steeling himself to go all in. He pushed against the light again, bearing the pain, before his arm moved in. The rest of his body was drawn into the light, as he gave a cry of pain as the burning sensation subsumed his whole body. He was gone.

{The forests of Alfheim, three days later…}

Aura peered over the treetops, across the wide expanse of tangled woods. Just below the horizon was a large body of water, with structures upon it. A giant building, in the shape of a gigantic ring, towered over the still waters of that lake. A bright white light shone in a weak column through the ring. Aura touched her acorn necklace, and moved her thoughts towards Mare. A connection opened.

"[A-Aura? What's going o-on?]"

"[Do you see it, Mare? It's a bit far from where I'm at, but I have a good view from the treetops. There's some sort of building in a lake nearby, not like the one in Midgard. It's like a ring and there's beam of light shining through it!]"

"[I-I-I didn't s-s-see it, Aura… We killed more of those weird undead and are looking at some abandoned forge or something here. What direction is it?]"

"[Should be to the east of you. I'll meet you at the lake shore, okay?]"

"[Okay, Aura. B-B-Bye!]"

Aura rolled her eyes as she ended her communication with Mare. It was rather annoying that he was so timid. But at least he did his job well enough for Lord Ainz.

Aura took her hand from the amulet and clambered down the tree. One of the native warriors cried out as a Death Knight cut him down, screaming in the a tongue that Aura knew. "Oh…" she sighed in understanding as she called out to the overlord. "Alright, Aelius, let's go. Have the Death Knights fan out to clear our path."

"Yes, Lady Aura," said the overlord. He signaled to the other undead around them, who proceeded further into the forest.

{The Ringed Temple…}

The boy pulled his father out of the column of light, and the two of them fell on the ground.

"No! Why did you do that?!"

"I saved you! You were trapped in there! I waited, and I waited, and you wouldn't come out… so I pulled you out!"

"Boy! I was gone only…" the father hesitated, seeing the heaps of dark elf corpses all around. They had not been in there when he had entered the light, just a few moments ago. Not even he could have killed that many dark elves in so little time. Something was missing… "Moments…"

"No! You've been gone a long, long time! I didn't know what to do! You left me here. AGAIN! Why don't you care?" The boy angrily pushed his father.

The boy's father looked perplexed. "I… that's impossible…" He examined the bifrost the Witch had given him.

"We should go before they come back. I hope you got what you needed…" said the boy, darkly. The two of them got up to leave the temple.

{The shores of the lake…}

"Yeah… these are dark elves… they don't look anything like us, but I understand their language. I mean what they said wasn't very nice as they died, but still…" said Aura. She and her brother stood on the beach, surrounded by their vassals and guards.

"Oh…" replied Mare, a hint of apathy in his voice. "D-Do you think we should capture some of them? Th-They might know some s-stuff... Doesn't Lord Ainz want more information?"

"Yeah… Also I'm sure Demiurge will want a few of them for his experiments. Maybe we could take a dozen of them or so, and come back if needed? We can check the building up there," said Aura, pointing to the ringed structure in the lake. "Let's go, and meet back here in an hour."

{One hour later…}

The two dark elves met up at the same place again. "Mare… are you missing a Death Knight?" inquired Aura. Her brother's party, which consisted of 21 Death Knights and 12 Cavaliers, and the overlords Aurelius and Cocceius, had returned.

"Huh?" Mare turned around in surprise, counting his troops. "Twenty… B-b-b-but… Did one of them get l-lost?"

Aura rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Mare… did you lose one of Lord Ainz's undead, that He took the trouble of summoning Himself?"

"ImsorryImsorryImsorry!" cried Mare in terror. "I didn't mean to! We spread out in the ringed building and I told them to meet back together there before coming here!"

"We're not going to go further until we find your missing Death Knight. Come on. We're going back to the that place.

{In the Ringed Temple of Freyr, thirty minutes earlier…}

With a roar, the grizzled warrior cleaved off the leg of his foe, a dark imposing armored figure, likely undead. It bore a massive shield and wielded a wicked sword. The monster staggered to the ground, its body riddled with the sickly boy's arrows, and the man cut off its head with a second swing. It grabbed at his boot in spite of that, and with another swing of his axe, the man destroyed it. The monster dissolved into dust completely, leaving nothing of use behind.

"What was that thing?" asked the boy. "It reminded me of a Traveler… but way different… and more evil."

"I do not know, boy. It is dead. If we find any more, we will deal with them. Keep moving."

{At the shores of Alfheim, a half-hour after their first rendezvous…}

Aura and Mare met up again, this time on a part of the lake that was further from the ringed temple.

"It's gone. Your Death Knight's gone. Someone must've killed it. You really shou-whoa!" Aura started to speak, but then Fenrir seemed to pick up on some scent or another, running away to investigate. "Whoa, Fenny! Easy, boy! Whoa!"

"W-W-What is it, Aura?"

"He's on to something! Gaaah!" Aura managed to slide off of Fenrir's back to circle around in front of the great wolf. "Steady, steady! Fenny! Sit!" The wolf eventually obeyed its owner's voice and seated itself. "Alright, what's going on?" Fenrir began to nuzzle against Aura's shoulder. "A weird scent… not elves… headed southwest? Got it! Alright, people, we got something interesting to catch. And it's that way!" Aura pointed southeast, and leapt back on Fenrir's back. The two of them galloped off into the Alfheim forest, followed by Mare and the rest of their force. Fenrir's howling resounded in the maze of trees and vines.

{A small inlet to the southeast…}

The grizzled man and his son beached the small boat they rowed, climbing out of it. It wasn't far until they could get back to the Temple of Tyr. As they did, a distant sound, like some monstrous wolf baying as it found its prey, hit their ears.

"What's that, father?"

"I do not know. There is no time to lose. Keep your guard up."

The two of them began to run. The twisted vines and roots before their feet slowed their progress, and soon the sound of heavy, galloping footfalls could be heard. The horrendous howling returned, far louder and closer than before.

"Father!" gasped the boy after some time, heaving for breath. "Please… I can't…" He burst into a fit of worrisome coughing from the exertion. "I have… an idea… go Ratatoskr!"

"Boy?"

{A short ways behind them…}

Fenrir began to wheel right in the chase. Aura chuckled to herself, putting a hand to her acorn necklace.

"[Mare! We passed them, it looks like. Go right a bit! We're almost on them!]"

"[Uh… got it!]"

Fenrir leapt over a beaten path from the waterside. Aura thought to herself: Are they really that stupid? Why would they go off the path to try and lose me in the woods? In a few minutes, Aura could see something small, luminous, and blue dead ahead weaving quickly through the tangled branches and tendrils of the forest. It was fast, whatever it was, but Fenrir, empowered by Aura's [Land's Stride], was faster. At the right moment, Fenrir pounced, and Aura somersaulted off of the wolf's back, landing in front of the strange quarry, nocking an arrow to her bow, To Your Heart. She was rather shocked by its appearance. A small, luminous squirrel. Fenrir loomed up behind the small rodent, ready to chomp its head off with its jaws.

Aura relaxed. Quadricile dashed towards her position. Mare dismounted his steed, and moved to stand side by side with Aura. Mare's wooden staff was ready to either club an enemy or cast some potent magic. Their undead guards and the four overlords appeared just behind the two Floor Guardians.

"Aura?"

"It's fine! It's just a magic squirrel of some sort. It's kinda cute actually."

"B-b-b-but what's this got to do with Lord Ainz's missing Death Knight?"

"It might be this Thor guy for all we know. You remember how he came and went after beating up poor Lord Wrath, right?"

"Y-y-yeah… but…"

"Well, we had to take any lead we can get. This way, we'll have information to give Lord Ainz when we get back. Honestly, I've never seen this type of squirrel, so I'd like to keep it as a pet and-"

Aura was interrupted by an angry male voice that was overly posh for the foul language it employed. "Fucking what now? Keep me? You know what, I'm getting away from you arseholes. They don't fucking pay me enough for this 'oh, go distract them' bullshit. Even then, go fuck off! And have a nice day." The squirrel, who had just raved and swore at them, disappeared from before Aura's feet, bursting into a shower of blue sparks.

The twins were utterly gobsmacked; Mare because he had never heard such expletives before in his life, let alone in such close proximity to one another, and Aura from the surprise of it all. Her face was not dissimilar to a gem collector finding a large diamond in the middle of nowhere. She'd never seen such an oddity before, and she resolved that day to tame the bitter squirrel if he ever appeared again.