Return to Alfheim

“Alright, so you’re sure that we aren’t going to appear in the middle of town?” Naoto asked, keeping careful watch as they returned to the exact spot that John first entered Alfheim at.

“Pretty sure. I mean, I would think that it would be tied to location, and when I used it the first time around, I appeared in the middle of the woods.”

“So you think that we won’t but aren’t sure.”

“Well, Alfheim works differently compared to the illusion barriers I can craft. Those have a defined entrance and exit, as well as being much simpler in design overall. Alfheim is an entire realm in itself, and as far as I can tell, my rune just allowed me to craft a way to enter it rather than create the illusion barrier.”

“But you can still take us in, right?” Moira asked as she spun her warhammer in her hand

John nodded, opening up his menu and pulling up his Aki rune. Listed next to it were various illusion barriers he had opened, including the skeleton dungeon and tiger dungeon that he, Talia, and Mavis had cleared a few days before his arrest (that was a fun day). There, listed at the very top was the realm itself, written in a gold font to distinguish it as a rare illusion barrier.

With a quick tap, he could suddenly feel the mana in his body surge to his fingertips as the knowledge of how to cast Aki flooded into his mind. Granted, he already knew how to cast the rune, but this knowledge had just the slightest difference in its casting. He couldn’t explain what it was, or how to differentiate it from a normal casting, but somehow he just knew it was different.

John extended his right hand, slowly tracing the symbol out ahead of him. In his mind he pictured Alfheim, specifically the very forest where he first met Talia and his crazy journey truly began. As the drawing of the rune came to its conclusion, John could feel the fabric of reality itself slowly twist and bend around the rune as it latched into the realm of Midgard, slowly peeling back a layer of reality into the realm of Alfheim.

“By the Lady…” John heard Moira mutter, and at first he didn’t know why. However, as he slowly opened his eyes, he saw what the rest of his party was in awe of. The rune was glowing gold, the same color that the font had been in his menu. But what was more impressive was that the rune was actually latching onto the air around itself and had opened up, expanding as it tore a hole in reality and showed the light forests of Alfheim. John was astounded, as this had never happened with the other illusion barriers.

_‘Must be because of the special nature of Alfheim,’ _he thought as the final bit of mana poured into the rune, allowing John to drop his arms and the portal to become stable. He turned towards his group, who all had expressions of shock and amazement.

“Well, who wants to go first?” John asked with a smile, breaking the tension.

Talia stepped forward, giving John a quick kiss on the cheek and whispering, “Nicely done, babe,” before stepping into the portal to her homerealm.

Next, Naoto walked forward, taking a close look at the edges of the portal before sticking her hand through it. “Kamigami ni yotte... Dono yō ni…” She turned to John, a wide smile on her face. “I knew I made the right choice in getting you out,” she said before stepping into the portal as well.

Moira walked up next, a look of amazement still on her face. “How did you do that, John?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked, sliding a hand into his pocket. “I just… y’know. Used a rune.”

“I know but… this…” She gestured to the portal. “This shouldn’t be possible for someone of your skill level. I’ve seen Fateweavers who can’t maintain portals this complex and stable, let alone of this size. I knew your powers were strong, but this…” She took a breath and a step back. “This is the kind of stuff legends do.” Before John could respond, she quickly rushed her way into the portal.

John turned to Mavis, who was staring at the portal with her arms crossed and a smug grin on her face. “Not bad, for a nerdy idiot.”

“Did you hear what Moira said?” John said with a cheeky grin. “Legends, Mavis. I’m the stuff of legends.”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t let it go to your head,” she said, slapping the back of his head. “You’ve still got a long way to go before you get that legendary status. Trust me, I’m gonna help you get there.”

“Thanks, Mavis,” John said softly, earning a smile from Mavis as well as a small kiss.

“Don’t mention it, nerd.” She then took a quick step forward, and hopped into the portal with a bit of a wink.

John sighed. He really did love his girlfriends, and a small part of him was starting to have a crush on Moira and Naoto as well. Granted, the crush on Naoto was mostly from his memories of her video game counterpart, but damn did she age well. Plus, she had a mature aura about her, something that John could not deny that he found desirable.

As for Moira… he wasn’t sure if his feelings were a full fledged crush or a kinship with the kind redhead. He could easily imagine the two of them becoming friends outside of the Abyss had they ever talked with one another, and now their fantastical lives were bringing them into even more contact allowing for a stronger bond to form. Plus… He had to admit that her legs looked absolutely amazing in the leggings she was wearing earlier.

He wondered, considering how heavy her armor would probably be as well as the weight of a warhammer, if she could crush a watermelon between those thighs.

“Hey, nerd! Stop being a perv and head on through!” Mavis yelled at him, poking her head out of the portal for just long enough to break him out of his self-induced stun. John quickly shook his head before stepping forward into the portal. He felt a strange lurch in his stomach as he did so; the view of reality shifting around him caused him to blink several times before everything finally settled.

“About time you joined us,” Mavis said, a sly grin on her face as she placed her hands on her hips. “You seemed to be lost in dreamland there for a second. Thinking any naughty thoughts?” She winked at him, causing him to blush ever so slightly.

“If I did-”

“You did,” Mavis interrupted.

“IF I did,” John said a bit louder, “it would be totally understandable considering the beautiful women that are surrounding me.”

“Perv,” Mavis said, despite the fact that her eyes seemed to be gravitating towards Naoto’s chest as she said it. It seemed that John wasn’t the only one thinking dirty thoughts.

“Well, John, while I knew you could do it, I am still surprised that you managed to get us here and keep us out of sight of the council,” Naoto said as she looked around, oblivious to Mavis’ gaze. “Do you know how far exactly we are from the city proper?”

“Not too far,” Talia said before pointing over to an old oak decorated with slash marks. “I used to practice my swordsmanship on that tree all the time. We’re only about a fifteen minute walk from my neighborhood.”

“And how far from Lifthrasir’s house?” Moira asked as she placed her hammer on her shoulders. “Keep in mind we are using the tunnels and won’t know how straight and direct they might be, but let’s try to make an estimate.”

“Well, the normal council members live about half an hour from here at most. But Lifthrasir I think has a family home that he lives in over in the older section of town.” Talia took a couple minutes drawing a route in her head, her fingers twitching in the air while she did so. “If we have a direct route via the tunnels, it would probably be the same amount of time as going to the normal council members’ houses. But if we had to walk on the normal streets, we would have to double that time at a minimum.”

“So anywhere from half an hour to an hour?” Moira asked.

Talia nodded. “He lives on the east side, where all the old houses are. On the plus side, if any district would still have tunnels underneath it, I would bet it would be that one.”

Naoto nodded, turning to Moira. “Can you find us an entrance to the tunnels?”

Moira gave Naoto a small smile. “No need. Talia already told me about a nearby cave that has the Golden Rose’s sigil above it not too far from here.” She gave a small nod to Talia, who returned it with a thumbs up. “The only issue now will be navigating the tunnels.”

“Leave that to me,” Naoto said. She closed her eyes, before taking a deep breath and whispering out, “Tiresias.” As she finished saying the name, John heard something that sounded like shattering glass only to see a strange looking spirit appear behind her. The spirit was old-looking, with long grey hair and a long grey beard that reached all the way down to his knees. His eyes were stitched shut, but between the stitches golden fire tried to leak out of his closed eyelids. He was carrying a curvy walking staff and a charm in the other hand that looked like a lyre, with the rest of his appearance covered in rather plain looking grey robes. John could not help but grin ear to ear as he watched Naoto summon a Persona, the little fanboy in him squealing with joy.

Naoto opened her eyes and turned to Moira, who was the only person who had no look of shock or awe at Naoto’s performance. “This one has the ability to be clairvoyant, and should tell me which tunnels will take us to our destination.”

“Hold up,” Mavis said, walking forward. “Are you saying that you have clairvoyance now?”

“Not quite…” Naoto explained. “He has the ability to see a bit into the future and tell me different outcomes, but it’s really limited. For example, Tiresias can tell me which way a path will take me or what attacks will work decently on an opponent, but he can’t tell me what an opponent will do. He can tell me permanent facts that don’t change about people or places, but he can’t tell me what choices those people will make as there are too many options.”

“Oh, so he sees possible futures and tells you which ones you want to know,” Talia said as she walked up and tried to touch Tiresias, only to have her hand pass through him like he wasn’t even there.

“Precisely,” Naoto said. “However, my having to use Tiresias to ensure we don’t get lost is a bit of a detriment, as I cannot summon another persona while I am using him. So my only defence if we get attacked will be my revolvers.”

“Those being… what?” John asked.

“A Colt Police Positive .38 Special, a Smith & Wesson Model 19, and if things get really hairy…” She opened up her jacket, which in addition to giving John a great view of her undershirt (and how tightly it stretched over her rather large chest) showed off an absolutely massive handgun that John had no idea how she hid. “A .500 Smith & Wesson Bone Collector with some enchanted rounds.”

“Ah. The Control-Alt-Delete gun,” John said trying to sound nonchalant, but in reality the idea of Naoto Shirogane blasting someone in the face with such a gun was both terrifying and oddly arousing.

Naoto gave him a small smile and a nod. “Exactly. But I don’t have a lot of rounds for it, and I would prefer to save it in the event we come across something really large and dangerous. So I will be relying on all of you to help keep me defended while I navigate.”

“What do you think we will find down there?” Talia asked, her hand resting on the hilt of her blade.

Naoto shrugged. “Could be anything honestly. The skaven might have dug their way back into the tunnels, there could be undead that were disturbed by the tunnels that now roam it, could be mutated creatures or elemental summons… Hell, I wouldn’t put it past Lifthrasir to know that those tunnels exist and put a few traps in there. Either way, we should all be prepared for whatever comes our way.”

The five of them looked at each other and gave almost devilish grins. Talia quickly drew her sword and knife, having practiced dual wielding both with John and while he was in prison. Mavis shifted her arm into a blade and held onto John’s hand with her unshifted one. John tightened his grip on Mavis’ hand and held his free hand up, the mana in his body shifting to his fingertips as possible runes flashed through his mind. Moira pulled out her warhammer and gave it a few experimental swings before resting it on her shoulder, her body almost shining with holy energy. And finally, Naoto pulled out her Colt .38 and gave the cylinder a quick spin, all while Tiresias behind her stood up a bit straighter and the fire in his eyes flared a bit stronger.

John looked to his party, and felt confident that whatever they found inside of those tunnels would be no match for even one of them, let alone all five of them. He took a deep breath before walking towards where Moira said the tunnel was.