Alicization Beginning

  “Did I say that?” his partner replied, playing dumb.

  “You did!” he snapped. Alice held out a hand to stop him.

  “Hey, bring the light closer to me.”

  “…?”

  Eugeo held out the stalk to Alice’s face. She rounded her lips and blew softly toward the light.

  “Ah…”

  “Did you see that? My breath is white, like in the winter.”

  “Oh, geez. No wonder it’s been feeling colder,” Kirito grumbled. Eugeo ignored him and nodded to Alice.

  “It’s summer outside but winter in this cave. There must be ice,” she claimed.

  “Right. Let’s go in a bit farther.”

  He turned and resumed his careful progress down the cave tunnel, which seemed to be steadily widening. The only sounds that could be heard were the scraping of their shoes against the rock floor and the streaming of the brook beside them. Even so close to the source, its flow was the same strength.

  “If we had a boat, it would be so easy to get back!” Kirito piped up from behind. Eugeo hissed at him to stay quiet. They were already much deeper into the cave than they’d originally planned. So far, in fact…

  “What should we do if we really come across the white dragon?” Alice whispered, reading Eugeo’s thoughts.

  “I guess…we’ll just have to run away…” he whispered back, but it was drowned out by Kirito’s next oblivious comment:

  “It’ll be fine. The dragon chased Bercouli because he was stealing the sword, remember? Well, I’m sure the dragon won’t mind if we’re only taking icicles. But then again…if possible, I sure would like one of its old scales…”

  “What in the world are you thinking?”

  “I mean, just think of what’ll happen if we bring back proof that we saw a real dragon. Zink and the others’ll die of jealousy!”

  “That’s not funny! And just so you know, if you get chased around by a dragon, the two of us are running off and leaving you behind.”

  “Don’t shout so loudly, Eugeo.”

  “That’s your fault for talking nonsense, Kirito…”

  Eugeo fell silent when he heard a strange sound at his feet. It was a cracking sound, like he had stepped on something and broken it. He brought down the light and checked under his right foot, then gasped.

  “Oh! Look at this.”

  Alice and Kirito leaned down to peer at where his toe was pointing. A little puddle of water pooled on the smooth gray rock had a thin layer of ice over its top. He reached out and plucked free a piece of the clear film.

  Within seconds, the ice melted into water in his palm, but it was enough to bring smiles to the trio’s faces.

  “That’s ice, sure enough. There must be more ahead,” Eugeo said, holding out the light. A number of other frozen puddles reflected it back. And up ahead, much farther into the darkness of the cave…

  “Oh…there’s a lot shining up there,” Alice pointed out. When Eugeo moved his hand, countless tiny sparkles flickered ahead. They forgot all about the dragon and trotted farther down the tunnel in that direction.

  After what felt like another hundred mels, the walls on either side suddenly vanished.

  And the trio was faced with a breathtakingly fantastical sight.

  It was huge. A vast chamber that seemed impossible for a subterranean cave. It was at least twice as large as the square in front of the church.

  The chamber’s walls, which curved in a spherical shape, were not the damp gray of before but were covered by a thick, pale-white film. The floor itself was an enormous pond—no, a lake. It perfectly explained how the Rul River came to be, except that the surface was completely still. It was frozen solid from the banks all the way to the center.

  Out of the misty lake jutted oddly shaped pillars here and there, easily taller than the three children. They were hexagonal, with pointed ends. Eugeo was reminded of the crystal that Old Man Garitta had shown him once, years ago, only these were much larger and more beautiful. The numerous pure-blue pillars absorbed the holy light that Eugeo’s grass stalk emitted, then sprayed it all around to reflect off the other surfaces, such that the entire domed space glowed with light. The number of pillars increased toward the center of the lake, making it impossible to see to the middle.

  Ice. The walls around them, the lake below them, the strange looming pillars—everything was made of ice. The blue walls stretched up to form a rounded top far above, like the ceiling of the chapel.

  They stood still for minutes, breathing out white mist, forgetting the chill that stung their skin. Eventually, her voice trembling, Alice mumbled, “I think there’s enough ice here to chill all the food in the village.”

  “More like enough to turn the village to winter on its own. C’mon, let’s go in farther,” Kirito suggested, and took a few steps forward to test out the lake ice. He carefully added more and more weight until he was standing on it with both feet, but the ice was so thick that it didn’t even creak.

  Normally it was Eugeo’s job to reel in his partner’s reckless ideas, but curiosity won out in this case. He couldn’t help but wonder if there really was a white dragon up ahead.

  Eugeo held up the holy light, and he and Alice followed after Kirito. Carefully, silently, they traveled toward the center of the lake, moving from the shadow of one giant ice pillar to another.

  This is amazing. What if I see a real dragon? Will our story be told for centuries, like the others’? And if we’re able to do what Bercouli couldn’t…and bring home a piece of the dragon’s treasure, will the village elder rethink our Calling and give us a new one…?

  “Mmph!” Eugeo had been so wrapped up in his fantasies that he smacked his nose right into the back of Kirito’s head after the other boy came to a halt. “Hey, don’t just stop like that, Kirito!”

  But his partner did not respond. He heard only a low moan.

  “…What is this…?”

  “Huh…?”

  “What the hell is this?!”

  Curious, Eugeo and Alice both peered around Kirito’s sides to see what was ahead.

  “What’s the big idea, Kiri…” Alice started—and then she saw what Eugeo saw.

  It was a mountain of bones.

  Bones made of blue ice. The fierce shine coming off them made the bones look like carved crystal. The vast collection held a variety of bones of all shapes and sizes, all of which were far larger than a human. Together, they formed a pile that easily dwarfed the three children, and resting at the top was an especially large piece that told them exactly what kind of bones these were.

  Eugeo understood at once that it was a skull. It had empty sockets and long, narrow nostrils. At the back were jutting growths like horns, and the gleaming jaw featured many, many fangs the size of swords.

  “The white dragon’s…bones?” Alice whispered. “It’s dead…?”

  “Yeah…but it didn’t just die,” Kirito answered, calm once again. Eugeo could tell, through his intense familiarity with the boy, that there was an emotion present that he rarely exhibited.

  Kirito took a few steps forward and picked up an enormous claw that once may have been the dragon’s forearm. He lifted the heavy thing with both hands and showed it to the others.

  “Look…see how damaged it is? And the end is chipped clean off.”

  “Was it fighting with something? But what could possibly kill a dragon…?” Alice wondered. Eugeo had the same question. The white dragon of the north made its home in the mountains that surrounded the world, one of the great ultimate guardians that protected mankind from the forces of darkness. What kind of creature could kill such a beast…?

  “These wounds aren’t from fighting an animal or another dragon,” Kirito muttered, tracing the blue claw with the thick of his thumb.

  “Huh…? Then what was it…?”

  “These are blade marks. A human being killed this dragon.”

  “B-but…but even Bercouli the hero, champion of the tournament in Centoria, could
only run away from the dragon. How could any swordsman achieve such a…?” Alice started, then fell quiet as a thought occurred to her. Silence settled on the icy lake, now revealed to be a massive grave.

  Seconds later, tiny lips unleashed a fearful whisper.

  “…An Integrity Knight…? Did an Integrity Knight from the Axiom Church slay the white dragon…?”

  3

  An Integrity Knight, the ultimate realization of law and order and symbol of goodness, killed a white dragon that served as protector of the human world. In eleven years without ever doubting the way of the world, Eugeo had never considered a concept as difficult as this. He agonized over a suspicion he could neither swallow nor chew, and he shot his partner a pleading glance.

  “…I don’t know,” Kirito muttered, no more certain than Eugeo. “Perhaps…there was an incredibly strong knight from the land of darkness who came and killed the dragon…But if that was true, then it doesn’t make sense that the armies of darkness never once crossed the End Mountains to attack. And it certainly doesn’t seem like whoever did it was after treasure…”

  He walked over to the dragon’s remains and placed the claw back on the pile, then reached down and dragged out something long from the bottom.

  “Whoa…this is really heavy…”

  He unsteadily dragged the object about a mel and showed it to Eugeo and Alice.

  It was a longsword with a white leather sheath and platinum pommel. There were fine inlaid patterns of blue roses here and there on the handle, making it clear from a glance that it was more valuable than any sword in the village.

  “Oh…could that be…?” Alice wondered, eyes wide. Kirito nodded.

  “Yeah. It’s got to be the Blue Rose Sword that Bercouli tried to steal from the sleeping dragon. I wonder why whoever killed the dragon didn’t take it with them…”

  He crouched down and, grabbing the grip with both hands, tried to lift it, but the best he could do was get the tip a few dozen cens from the surface of the ice.

  “…I can’t!” Kirito shouted, and dropped the sword. It clattered heavily to the ice, causing fine cracks to form in the thick layer. It had to be unbelievably heavy for such a slender weapon.

  “What do we do with it?” Eugeo asked. His partner shook his head as he stood up straight again.

  “It’s no good. We couldn’t get this back to town even if the two of us carried it together. All it takes is a few swings of that ax to get us wheezing, remember. But it does look like there’s other kinds of treasure down under the bones…”

  “Yes…but I don’t feel in the mood to go taking it out of here,” Alice murmured gravely. The boys shared her opinion.

  They wanted a tiny little prize from a sleeping dragon to show off to the other children, but taking treasure from this place would be little more than grave robbing. The taboo in the Index about stealing applied only to other humans and not here, but just because something was not in the Taboo Index did not mean it was justified.

  Eugeo looked again at his friends, then nodded. “Let’s just take the ice, as we planned. I’m certain that the white dragon would have allowed us to do that, if it were alive.”

  He walked over to a nearby icicle and kicked at one of the countless ice crystals growing from its base like plant buds. It cracked off cleanly, and he picked it up and offered it to Alice, who lifted the lid of the empty basket and tossed it inside.

  For the next few minutes, the trio gathered up shards of ice to put into the basket. When the base of that pillar was clean, they moved on to the next one to repeat the process. Before long, the large basket was completely full of little blue ice crystals that sparkled like precious stones.

  “There…we…go.” Alice grunted as she lifted the basket. She stared down at the mass of twinkling light in her arms. “It’s so beautiful. It seems like a shame to take it home and have it all melt.”

  “I don’t care, as long as it keeps our lunches fresher,” Kirito opined crassly. She made a face at him, then held out the basket.

  “What? I have to carry it back, too?”

  “Of course you do. It’s quite heavy.”

  Eager to stop them before they started bickering like usual, Eugeo suggested, “I’ll take turns carrying it with you. We need to get going back to the village or we won’t make it by the evening. It’s been nearly an hour since we entered the cave, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Yeah…It’s hard to tell the time when you can’t see Solus. Can’t you use a sacred art that will tell us the time or something?”

  “There’s no such thing!” Alice snapped, and turned her head away in a huff to glance at the exit to the side of the vast ice lake.

  Then she turned to the opposite wall to look at another exit. She frowned.

  “Umm, which one did we come through, again?”

  Eugeo and Kirito both pointed confidently—at different exits.

  Once they had exhausted the other possibilities—that there should be footprints (the smooth ice surface left no marks), that the exit the water flowed through was the right one (it was flowing out of both), that the direction the dragon skull looked was the exit (it wasn’t pointed toward either)—Alice finally suggested an option that seemed promising.

  “Remember how Eugeo stepped on that little puddle and broke the ice? We should find it a short distance down the correct tunnel.”

  It was a good point. Eugeo cleared his throat to hide his embarrassment that he hadn’t thought of that himself and said, “Okay, let’s check the nearer tunnel first, then.”

  “I still think it’s the other one,” Kirito grumbled. Eugeo pushed him on the back, held up the glowing stalk, and walked forward toward the water-carved tunnel.

  Once they were out of range of all that reflective and refractive ice, the formerly steadfast sacred light seemed weak and unhelpful. It hastened their pace down the tunnel.

  “…Getting lost so we can’t find the way back. Who are we, the Berrin brothers from the old tale? We should have left a trail of nuts behind us. No birds in the cave to eat them,” Kirito groused, but it was an empty attempt to hide his worry. Oddly enough, Eugeo found it reassuring to learn that his best friend could actually be worried in this situation.

  “Don’t be silly, we didn’t have any nuts with us to start with. If you want to start making use of our lessons, why don’t you leave a piece of clothing at every branch in the path?”

  “No way, I’ll catch a cold,” Kirito complained, and mimed a sneeze.

  Alice smacked him on the back and said, “Stop being stupid and start watching the ground. We don’t want to miss the puddle. In fact…” She paused, then frowned, her brows arching. “We’ve walked quite a long ways, and I haven’t seen any broken ice. Do you suppose it was the other direction?”

  “No, I think it’s farther ahead…Oh, hey, quiet.”

  Kirito put a finger to his lips, and Eugeo and Alice clamped their mouths shut. They listened carefully.

  Beneath the quiet trickling of the brook next to them was a different sound. It was wavering between higher and lower pitches, like a mournful flute.

  “Is that…the wind?” Alice wondered. Eugeo thought it did sound quite a bit like the wind rustling through branches.

  “We’re nearly outside!” he shouted in relief. “We picked the right way! Let’s go!” He took off at a trot.

  “Don’t run, or you’re going to slip and fall,” Alice warned, but she was skipping, too. Kirito took up the rear, his expression suspicious.

  “But…is that the sound the summer breeze makes? It sounds more like…the rattle of winter…”

  “It’ll blow that hard in the canyons. Let’s just get out of this cave already,” Eugeo said. He sped through the cave at an easy run, the light in his hand jiggling wildly. The desire to get back to the village and his comfortable home was rising within him. If he got some of the ice from Alice and showed his family, they would be stunned.

  But ice melts so fast. Maybe we should have t
aken one of those old silver coins instead, he thought, just as a little light appeared in the darkness ahead.

  “It’s the exit!” he cheered, only to immediately sour. The light was reddish. They’d gone inside just after noon and could have spent only an hour inside—but maybe it had been much longer than he realized. If Solus was already descending to the west, they might not make it back to the village by dinner unless they rushed the entire way.

  Eugeo sped up. The high-pitched whistling was now loud enough that it overpowered the sound of the river, bouncing off the cave walls.

  “Wait, Eugeo, wait! Something’s wrong! It’s only been two hours; it shouldn’t be so…” Alice called out, but he did not stop. He’d had enough adventure. All that mattered now was getting home.

  He turned right, then left, then right again, and the red light filled his vision. The exit was just a few dozen mels ahead. He slowed down as he shielded his dark-accustomed eyes, then finally stopped.

  There was the cave mouth.

  But the world through it was not the one Eugeo knew.

  The sky was entirely red, though not from the setting sun. In fact, he couldn’t see Solus anywhere. It was just an endless expanse of a dull, dark red, like the juice of overripe grapes or lamb’s blood.

  Meanwhile, the ground was black. The eerie mountain range in the distance, the bizarrely shaped rocky outcroppings closer up—even the water surfaces here and there were as black as cinders. Only the trunks of the gnarled dead trees were white, like polished bone.

  A cutting wind set the dead branches to whistling, a mournful howl that droned on and on. It was clearly the source of the sound they’d heard within the cave.

  This world, so forsaken by all the gods, could not possibly be the human world that Eugeo knew. Which meant that the landscape before them was…

  “The Dark…Territory…” Kirito rasped, only for it to disappear among the whistling of the trees.

  The place beyond the light of the Axiom Church, the land of evil dedicated to the dark god Vecta, the world that existed only in the old stories told by the village elders—just a few steps ahead of them. The thought froze Eugeo’s mind, leaving him helpless to do anything but stare. It was as if all this new information flooding into a part of his mind he’d never needed to use before robbed his brain of the ability to process it.