-Break-

Picking myself up out of the snow, I try to hold the contents of my stomach whilst saying, “Christopher we are going to need to have a talk.”

Anouk says, “You don’t get to judge anyone on this adventure!”

“I apologized!”

“FUCK YOU!”

Standing up with vigour, Casandra says, “Well now that we are all fine let’s continue on!”

-Break-

We continue through Fimbulwinter, and on our 3rd day of adventuring Christopher says, “I think it is time we called it quits on this.”

Anouk says, “Don’t you think it is too early?”

Pointing at her clothes, he says, “Our clothes are almost at the point of crumbling and the food we have has started to freeze, our time here is up.”

Christopher says, “We are reaching our physical limit so it would be better to use this time to escape rather than continue on.”

“But then you won’t reach your goal.”

“My goal was to confirm the validity of people living on Fimbulwinter, and since I have been unable to find anything, I can conclude there is nothing here. Now with this people won’t be appearing around Fimbulwinter anymore.”

Sighing, Casandra says, “So that was your goal all along.”

“Seems you have seen through me, boss.”

Anouk says, “What’s going on.?

Thorgrim says, “Countless people have been coming here and throwing away their lives due to those rumours, so it seems Christopher came here to prove all those rumours false so that others wouldn’t throw away their lives.”

“Spot on Thorgrim.”

Looking at him, I say, “So you essentially used us as your bodyguards knowing damn well that we were actually doing nothing but wasting time.”

Grabbing his collar, Anouk says, “So I almost died over nothing?”

Being shaken, Christopher says, “It wasn’t over nothing, your sacrifice will now help the lives of others and isn’t the fulfilment god gives you through that enough?”

Staring at him directly in the eye, Anouk says, “No it isn’t. I expect a higher payment for my work.”

“It seems the bug of greed has possessed you yet again Anouk, only a tender kiss can set you free.”

As Christopher brings his lips close Anouk hits him in the face, sending him flying far away.

Casandra screams, “AGAIN ANOUK!”

“He started it.”

“The next time you hit him don’t send him flying far away. LET’S GO EVERYONE!”

As we all run towards Christopher I go over to his body and pick him up asking, “Are you ok?”

“It seems the power of god’s love was rejected by the demon within her.”

“No, I think this is just what happens when you try and kiss a gorilla.”

Grabbing me Anouk says, “What was that?”

Hitting her on the head, Casandra says, “Stop.”

“OW, why am I getting shit, should I have just allowed him to kiss me!?”

“No next time just hit him in the balls, it is more painful and requires less effort from us.”

Calming down, Anouk says, “That is actually a good idea.”

Under my breath, I mutter, “Idiot.”

I am quickly hit with a heel to the face, and as I writhed in pain on the ground, she says, “What was that mister useless?”

As I prepare to say, something Casandra grabs Anouk and brings her head to the ground. “I need everyone to crouch down and be quiet.”

All of us instantly follow Casandra’s lead, and then with hand signals, she tells us to follow her. Following her to behind some trees, we are signalled to look past them, and past them we she a large ground of people walking in the snow.

Some of them are wearing rather Tribal clothes, so I say, “Is this them?”

Anouk says, “Some of them are wearing modern clothes, I swear those kids' clothes over there look like they are from Skydust.”

Thorgrim says, “Guys look!”

In the distance, we see 2 giant wonderbeasts. Casandra says, “Those are tiritrexes!”

Looking at Casandra, Anouk says, “Boss what should we do?”

But Casandra freezes for a moment as well all hear a loud voice say, “Orb’s it’s too cold!”

“Can you be quiet; all you ever do is complain.”

In that moment we all look over at Anouk. “Hey why are you idiots looking at me, you’re the crazies that are always infuriating me!”

Sighing, Casandra says, “For now let’s follow them.”

“Is that safe boss?”

“I don’t sense any form of hostile intent, so for now we will follow them and see what is going on.”

Φ “I see why you're cold all the time Orb, since this is the environment, you grew up in.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

With a smile, I say, “Don’t worry I am just cold to you.”

“So, I am special to you!”

“Die.”

Activating her legacy, she says, “You're such a bully.” As her legacy produces heat, she says, “This is the stuff.”

Moments later Anto and Mime jump on her shoulders, and Mime says, “Share that heat with the great Mime this instant.”

“No way, and speak to me again like that and I will tell Elia.”

Freaking out, Mime says, “No don’t do that, the great Mime wishes to live a long life!”

Under my breath, I mutter, “I will never be nice to a mean redhead woman who doesn’t treat kids nicely.”

“That’s blackmail!”

“No, it isn’t, it is just the truth.”

“Ok then, Anto, Mime get close.”

Holding her close, Anto says, “Thank you Atalanta.”

“Some sense has fallen into you red one, it seems you understand the greatness that is Mime.”

“I’m about to fling you off!”

Stopping I turn and around, and scream, “STOP EVERYONE!”

Walking up to me, Willow asks, “Orb are you finally going to tell us what we are doing here?”

“Oh it is pretty simple, we are all going to climb up to the top of Fimbulwinter.”

“Huh?”

“I know you heard me.”

With a calm smile, Willow says, “Orb did I hit you too hard in the head last night.”

“Nope, I am doing fine.”

“THEN HOW THE HELL ARE WE NOT ALL GOING TO FREEZE TO DEATH. It took us 3 days to get all of the people and equipment from the caves all the way to the outskirts of Fimbulwinter and now you want us to trek all the way up there.”

Avram walking up says, “Orb we didn’t take wave sweeper up there because we knew it couldn’t handle the snowstorm, do you expect the kids to handle it themselves?”

“Of course not, I am just messing with you.” Turning around, I say, “Advent.” Then after transforming, I cause all of the snow in front of all of us to disperse.

In amazement, Willow says, “The snow is following your command.”

“I have always wondered if I could do something like this, and after I attained advent, I was definitely sure I could, I am amazing aren’t I?”

Clapping their hands, Avram and Willow, sarcastically say, “You’re so amazing Orb. I never could have done such a thing.”

Turning off advent, I say, “I don’t like your tone, but whatever. Cyrus, please come and carry me.” After saying this I fall to my face.

-Break-

As I see it in the distance, I hear Maple say, “Orb is that it?”

“Yep, without a shadow of a doubt that is the house I grew up in.”

Willow says, “That house is giant, you really lived a good life before you met us.”

“EHHHH, You jealous!!”

“No, I’m not because any house with my beautiful wife is the best ever.”

“Shut up!” Maple says while being embarrassed.

“It’s no fun making fun of you two anymore.”

“Don’t be jealous of our love.”

Ignoring them, I say, “Cyrus, run me over to the top of my house.”

“R-Right!”

Following my instructions, Cyrus places me on the top of my house where I sit down and look at everyone, then say, “Everyone I need you to listen up.”

Taking a deep breath in and out, I say, “This house here is where I grew up, despite how cold it seems to be up here, my childhood was fun, warm and filled with happiness.

Some of you here have lost your homes, have no homes, have left their homes to be with me, and have been rejected from their homes, so I had hoped to share this home of mine with you, but that isn’t right.

If you walk into someone else’s home, you will always feel like a stranger and even me myself, have felt like that with others. So I am going to suggest something new to all of us today, let’s take this land that has been completely frozen and turn it into our home. But I guess the better term for such a thing would be a country?”

Everyone looks shocked in front of me but Willow sticks up his hand and says, “I would like to be a part of that. Since I have come to love a lot of people outside of Aplos”

“Me too,” Maple says.

One after another they all start to agree and put their hands up. Willow, Maple, Cyrus, Atalanta, Suzuka, Iancu, Avram, Gheorghe, Wadim, Ivana, Buloke, Aea, Alis, Pine, Oren, Peppa, Melisa, Aaron, Rada, Cedar, Ewen, Throne, Jute, Juniper, Holly, Acadia, Hazel, Coco, Banya, Mango, Ash, Quant, Bella, Willow the 2nd, Maple the 2nd, Anto and Mime.

Then as I smile on the rooftop, I hear someone say, “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO CALL THIS COUNTRY!?”

Looking down, I see a young man in what looks to be some sort of Priestly attire. “Umm, who are you?”

With bright shiny eyes, he says, “WHO CARES ABOUT THAT! Right now, a country is being born on the lost continent in front of my eyes, a historic event is taking place. So now young man tell me what is the name of this country you want to create!?”

“Umm, well, I don’t really know. But if I had to think of a name, I would call it Niflheim, yeah I think that is a good name.” Jumping off the roof I have a rather shaky landing then, I say, “Now it’s time for me to interrogate you.”

A few people start to make a run out of the crowd, so I scream, “CATCH THEM!”

-Break-

Looking at the tied-up adventurers inside my house, I say, “So your names are Casandra, Thorgrim, Anouk, Guāng, and Christopher and you came here on a mission to see if there was other life on Fimbulwinter.”

“That’s right piece of shit,” Anouk says.

Guāng says, “This really is not the time.”

“We could take him.”

“But we can’t take him and all the other people around us can we. I don’t know if you have ever fought a legacy, but they are bad news.”

As the two start to argue, I say, “SHUT UP!” Which quiets them down. Rubbing my head, I say, “What are we going to do? If I let them go they will run around and tattle everywhere, so I either have to essentially kidnap them or kill them.”

The boy called Guāng says, “I would prefer to be kidnapped.” Thorgrim and Anouk shake their heads in agreement.

The woman named Casandra says, “There will be no need for that, because we won’t say anything.”

“I am sorry, but I can’t be assured of that, I have quite a few lives currently under my watch.”

“Yes, you can because I owe you quite a bit.”

“Huh?”

“You see earlier this year my husband was returned to me after being kidnapped for years, and he told me it was a boy named Orb that rescued him from a bunch of bandits.”

Digging through my memory I remember all of the slaves that we first let go, when we first arrived at Gaia’s sky. “That was your husband!?”

“Yes, and I thank you very much for reuniting me with him. So, I can promise you that neither me or my companions will ever speak a word about this, isn’t that right guys.”

Three out of four of her companions shake their heads up and down furiously but one doesn’t, Christopher.

“So, what about that one?”

Casandra says, “I am not so sure about him.”

Christopher says, “Ahh if given the chance I would record the historic moment in all the books of Cordum.”

“I guess I have to kidnap this one.”

Casandra says, “Don’t waste the effort just take him out.”

“Casandra, it seems you might think poorly of me. Despite how much I want to tell the world of this historic event I refuse to, because granny Ai will frown on me otherwise.”

Shocked, I say, “You’re a part of C-.”

“Please stop right there before you reveal my identity.”

Anouk says, “Are you supposed to be someone special?”

“I can only reveal that secret to my wife, you can find out if you apply for the position.”

“No thanks.”

“Ahh another rejection, if you keep telling lies like that I might eventually believe them Anouk.”

“You really are like Ai. So why are you here at Fimbulwinter if you already knew of our existence?”

“Oh simply because was tasked with throwing people off you guys' scent but I got a bit distracted.”

Grabbing Christopher, Anouk says, “So you lied again, you knew something was here and basically made us run around Fimbulwinter knowing damn well that we were just wasting time.”

“Yes!”

Throwing him to the ground Anouk, Guāng, and Casandra start to stomp on him.

After they finish Casandra walks up to me and holds out her hand saying, “Thank you again.”

“No problem, and before you leave you can personally beat the shit out of all the Gaia’s sky bandits around.”

“I will have to take you up on that offer,” she says with a laugh.

Bursting through the door, Mime and Anto say, “Orb come it is so pretty.”

“Huh, what is.”

“That snow!”

“Hurry up!”

Grabbing me and leading me outside Anto throws his dagger teleporting us to a different area higher up the mountain, and then he repeats this process until we are high up.

There I see the moonlight hitting the snow with everyone playing around it. Laughing, I say, “I was in this exact same position 2 years ago.”

Anto with excitement says, “Let’s go.”

Mime says, “I will give you the honour of playing with the great Mime herself.”

Looking at the beautiful sight before me, I say, “It is a whole lot nicer than when I first saw it. Let’s go you two.”

3rd cycle, year 2026; On the 10th day of the 12th month Capricorn, the country of Niflheim was founded, and in the future, many would say that this day is the beginning of the 4th cycle of history.

Arc 9 End

Part 2 End