A Nascent Kaleidoscope.

I held the branch of the Fae Tree in my hand as I walked towards the supposed 'Government' building that the humans here created.

The Branch was actually... well, it was of value to me right now because I was working out a new spell, and this filled a spot I wasn't sure how to do so previously. Scáthach uses an Ash Tree's branches to make duplicates – lesser versions, admittedly—of her spear. 

For the spell I'm devising, this branch would work perfectly since it has such an absurd vitality to it.

The same tree that had been supplying its own vitality to ensure the longevity and health of thousands of humans for centuries.

Without doing so, it could have probably lived for several hundred thousand years. Yet its branches were withering from what I could tell. It probably only has a few centuries left of life in it.

It wasn't a simple matter of giving away one point of vitality and letting a human absorb one point of vitality. 

To push it out into the form of fruits that contained such pure life energy... it probably had to sacrifice ten or twenty times the same amount of its own vitality to create those. And that was more of a conservative estimate because what it was doing was not something normal or natural.

If it were possible to easily do what it was doing, the world would be a much different place. 

Hell, the closest approximation are literal divine fruits. 

Regardless, I have a debt now to repay. I made a promise that I would take them back if they wanted to go, and I was going to uphold it.

Unnulf walked next to me as we approached the amphitheater-like building. He didn't ask me about the Fae Tree dropping me a bunch of fruits or the branch. Honestly, the amount of trust they had in the tree... well, I couldn't even find it in myself to fault them for it at this point.

It truly cared for them like a mother.

There were no guards; frankly, there were no real guards anywhere. 

For the first time since coming to this realm, this was the first time that I considered a place a sort of 'paradise' by any stretch of the imagination. Did the people want to be here? I would say absolutely not, but at the same time, it was extraordinarily peaceful on this little island, and I genuinely questioned if there even was any crime or things of that sort.

There were several dozen people inside as I walked in; a lot of arguing was going on.

It took a few moments for them to notice my presence, but they gradually quieted down, looking at me.

"Unnulf, why did you bring the outsider here? We're not done discussing." A man, Greek in origin, had a bit of a belly, and he even wore a toga with noticeable sewed edges as if it were fixed many times over the years.

"Eh, I just followed; he came here himself." Unnulf sat down, drinking a bit less aggressively, but he hadn't stopped drinking since I'd given him the barrels of alcohol. 

"I'm leaving; we're leaving. We can't waste much time here; we have our own plans and objectives." I decided to cut right to the chase. 

The Greek one furrowed his brow. "We haven't decided what to do with you all yet."

"And you are..."

"Kallipides." He said it with pride.

"Right, Kallipides." I nodded. "Let me make something clear: we're not beholden to you all. We came here out of good will, but that's it. As someone who's half-human and identifies with my human half, I sympathize with your situation. Thus, I'm offering you all a chance to leave this realm and return to the human world." 

Someone pushed past him, one of the Vikings it looked like based on their attire. "You do have a way out?" 

"And you are...?" I repeated it once more.

"Chief Hrodi." He grunted, much less flamboyant and self-gratifying compared to the Greek. "You claim to come from outside with a tale of invasion."

Ah, they didn't quite believe us.

"A group of monsters." A derivative snorts from the back.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"Could be a trap."

"Demons, the lot of them." Someone dressed like a cardinal huffed.

I'm once more impressed by the breath of cultures represented that are somehow getting along.

"I understand." I held my hands up to quiet down their arguing. "Your skepticism is warrant; it's kept you all alive this long. Allow me to provide you all with some proof." 

They went silent, as if to wait for me to provide said proof.

I release my spiritual pressure, pinning all of them to the ground, shaking the entire building and the island. 

Even the tree above began to sway noticeably.

"If I wanted to, I could kill you all right now without a problem." I spoke calmly as my spiritual pressure receded.

I admit, I loved having learned this little trick; it's rather handy and imposing.

Some of them recovered better than others. Some of them were real warriors; others were their equivalent of politicians or leaders without any combat experience or strength to them. Other than what they've passively obtained over the years.

For the older ones, of any on this island, I don't think there are any below a 'Mid-Class' in status.

"I can speak on behalf of all your gods." I segued into the next topic. "If you're willing, the gods you worship will be waiting in some part for your return. Asgard will welcome the warriors out of time. Olympus will accept those who have stayed loyal. Takamagahara will gladly accept brave warriors from the past. And Heaven will accept all its believers back with open arms."

It's actually kind of funny that I—someone who is still technically mortal—have that kind of connection.

And truthfully, I think their 'faith' is one of the few things that's kept them going through these years.

"Blasphemy!" the cardinal-looking figure breathed out.

I flicked my hand, and the True Longinus slammed into the ground in front of the Cardinal. The Holy Power was radiant as it pulsed out, calm and welcoming to them.

"I said this before; maybe it wasn't quite understood. The world is a much different place than your times. Heaven and Hell recently agreed to peace. The Youkai—my people that have come here—participated in the peace meeting, and we have agreements with Heaven."

The Cardinal was silent, gulping as he stared at the Spear along with the ones who seemed to be of the same faith or derivations thereof.

"Ragnarök recently occurred." I continued as no one else was speaking.

"Ragnarök?" A faint whisper among the Vikings and Nords. 

"I participated." I revealed. "In order to overturn the destruction of Asgard, I sat upon the throne and was momentarily the King of Asgard. They're currently rebuilding and will happily accept honorable warriors among them as comrades. And... I'm also Blood Brothers with Odin."

"Can you prove your words?"

"I can only offer my pride as proof that I wouldn't lie about such a thing. If you want to call me a liar, I will draw my blade, and we can fight as warriors." I said pointedly. 

Sometimes, it was much easier to deal with these sorts. One's blade arm spoke louder than words in a lot of cases.

The pride of a great warrior was usually enough to back up tall tales, even if they sounded ridiculous.

No one stepped forward to call me a liar.

However, there were a few whispers between them—the whispering of godly names.

"The result of Ragnarök is that there are new gods among the gods of Asgard. One of them is currently within this realm. You can pray to Jinn—the Goddess of Magic, Knowledge, and Homestead." I found myself smiling.

"You are Japanese?" An older gentleman wearing regal-looking Japanese attire from an older period asked with a very polite tone. "I am Kiyabu Taro. But an old man without an ancestral home any longer. Can you speak for the Kami we pray to? Will I be able to meet my ancestors and beg forgiveness for not being able to rebuild our clan? They may not know, but you ask of us to trust Youkai."

"I was born Shimoda Takao. My mother was Japanese, and I lived and grew up in Japan until I became an adult. The Leader of the Youkai is Yasaka, A Kyuubi-no-Kitsune, and Miko for Amaterasu-no-Okami. I have a certain... relationship with Susano-no-Mikoto. And if you're willing to believe me, I'm currently... courting Izanami-no-Mikoto. I can guarantee your acceptance by Takamagahara."

Taro went quiet, clearly contemplating what I just said.

"What about us?" The Greek Kallipidies asked softly; his earlier bravado was diminished. My display of power clearly has an effect on him. 

"I've met Hades on a few occasions, and I can reach out to the Gods of Olympus. I have no reason to believe they'd reject you all." Of course, they might try to frame it as a favor towards us in doing so.

However, there is no faction in the world that would reject humans that worship them with the strength they show.

It's easy for me to be dismissive of their strength earlier, but generally, they're already far beyond the 'average' strength of the supernatural world.

Considering that the average military person in the Underworld for Devils is low class, anyone above that is considered an asset big or small. It's doubly so impressive for humans because they have such low 'starting points'.

The humans here were silent.

It was probably hard for them to accept the casualness in which I just spoke about the gods they worship.

The unreachable thrones for their belief, yet for me, it's usually a rather mundane experience. I've had dinner with Hades and his wife. Izzy, there's not much that needs to be said there. Odin, I've literally kicked him off a building before. 

Still, while they were speechless, they weren't normal humans any longer. Perhaps they've never met their objects of worship, but they've lived in this realm for years. 

"You will take us out of this realm?"

I looked at the one who spoke, a younger man—though that might not be a case considering. "Immediately, no. We're currently an advance party looking for the path to cross this ocean and to acquire ships. If you're willing to wait, within a month, I'd say at a maximum."

"I heard stories about our home." He said quietly.

Ah, he was one of the ones born here, it seems.

"I intend to gather our people and leave rather soon." I said, crossing my arms. "You need to make a decision quickly. However, we have set up base on a nearby island. I can't say I know the directions from here, but it should be easy for you all to find if you know these parts."

"I'll go with them." Unnulf spoke amid their silence. "We got a little bit of time; they're doing their fighting; I can check things out and see if it's true." He said, taking a swig of his drink.

"Unnulf is trustworthy." One of them muttered.

"Aye, Unnulf could have been Chief. His words will bring no doubt." The Viking chief nodded, and they seemed to come to a silent agreement. "Thank you, brother."

"It's my duty." Unnulf said shamelessly.

Shamelessly, because I knew him for hours at this point, and I knew for a fact he volunteered because he knew we had more drinks.

I didn't reject it because it didn't interfere with our goals in the slightest.

If it set their minds at ease, so be it. 

I pat Unnulf on the shoulder. "I'm heading back to the ship; be there within the next quarter hour."

He probably had some quick words that needed to be exchanged privately, and I left them to it as I left the building.

"Nurarihyon." I said quietly.

"I'm here." The Youkai leader entered my perception at my side.

One of the few beings that, despite my strength, could go undetected by me. "Ready to head out?"

"Not much for us here to keep us preoccupied." He grunted. "Give me one of those fruits."

I shrugged, handing one over out of my ring. "I'm surprised you didn't steal one... or a few."

He happily accepted it, munching down on it with vigor, licking his lips of the juices. The wrinkles on his face decreased noticeably. He still looked old, but there was a newfound energy to him, his back a little bit straighter. "Oh boy, that's a rush. My Touki nearly burst out for a moment." He stretched his back for a moment. "I feel twenty years younger." He let out a breath, glancing at me. "I considered it, stealing a few. Probably was going to do so, but I snuck in on that little meeting you had with the tree. Lost my motivation after that."

I felt my eye twitch after hearing that he snuck in on a mental meeting with the Fae Tree.

I wanted to say plenty of things to that, but I decided it was better for my sanity to just ignore it for now.

@***@

"Watch the star there." Unnulf pointed up towards the sky. "It moves; we use it to track the time of day."

"Fascinating." I replied, looking at the star in question. "And the one next to it is the point of reference."

"Aye, that one never moves." Unnulf nodded.

The ship of ours hit the waves quickly. We made a short trip back to the island to drop off our acquired boats, then we immediately set sail again.

"Human brat." Nurarihyon appeared next to us, startling Unnulf. "Got a question. How come you all haven't left yourselves? Surely you could have found a passage out of here. If so many of you accidentally stumbled into this place, there has to be equally as many exits."

"Ah…" Unnulf scratched his beard. "Elder, you speak the truth. However, this realm is not forgiving for humans. We live on these waters because they are the safest. But equally so, there are no known exits within them. Every group of ours that ventured out from these waters, they returned with heavy losses or not at all." He said quietly.

"Have you left this ocean before?"

"Aye, I was among a group that tried to push out, to raid some of those cursed things's homes for revenge." He shook his head with a hint of melancholy. "Eventually, we lost all desire for revenge and only wanted to survive."

Thankfully, Unnulf knew the location of the 'exit' to the other side. The exit that put us right into the main territory of the Winter Court.

A few hours of sailing, and the temperature started to drop, so I could feel we were getting close.

"Tell me about the exit." I asked. "What kind of defense should we expect?" It was a good idea to either scout it now or secure the exit properly.

"They have no people guarding it, but something much worse. We call it the ice mirror valley." Unnulf said taking a drink. "Large glaciers of ice, crystal clear that you can see your reflection."

"Dare I ask what's wrong with it?"

"Don't know." He took another drink. "The only survivor died before being only to explain. Only said that death awaits us there. Every party that went to investigate never came back." 

I would have to see it for myself.

But there's surely a limit to what they can 'copy'.

"Something we should be concerned about?" Nurarihyon looked at me.

"I'm honestly not too concerned." I shook my head. We could handle what came our way.

Before I could say something else, I felt a small tinge of cold as I looked up and saw snow falling from the sky.

Less than a minute, and it picked up heavily, making me frown.

"We've been discovered." I said, voicing my thoughts as I let a falling snowflake land on my finger.

It was made of pure magical energy.

Every single one of the falling bits of snow was made of magical energy. I questioned the purpose of it until I realized it was drowning out my senses.

Clever.

Something I hadn't considered before, but it made sense. If you blasted your magical energy in front of someone, it was nearly impossible for them to sense a point of magical energy somewhere else.

This accomplished the same thing in that a snowstorm spawning on top of us was basically drowning out my perception.

I could disrupt it, but the amount of magical energy... it would simply reform in moments.

There was no point in using a dragon shout every breath for hours on end.

"I see something ahead!" A shout came from above.

The little Youkai with the single eye that could see even further than me was pointing forward.

I summoned my sword and swung it forward, cleaving through the storm in front of us for just a moment so I could see clearly. 

Right, when he said Glaciers, he wasn't lying. They were massive and numerous. Each one like a skyscraper. But beyond those, I could see the climbing pillar of light from the lighthouse, it seems.

Rather quickly, the snowstorm covered up my sight as it became difficult to see a few dozen feet in front of us.

Still, it was somewhat peaceful, as nothing happened. It only took a few minutes for the ship to float up to them.

There was no 'going around' these glaciers, it seemed, either; they surrounded the lighthouse protectively.

As the ship slowly advanced forward, it nearly brushed up against the side of a glacier, and I stepped towards the edge to get a good look.

I put my hand on the side, the crystal-clear ice, my reflection doing the same, as you would expect from a reflection.

However, as soon as I put my hand on it, my eyes widened in realization. "Uh oh."

"What?" Nurarihyon was quick to snap his head to me.

"These glaciers are made of crystallized magical energy." Different from Dust, but functionally the same.

And they're massive and numerous...

I couldn't notice until we got this close because of the snowstorm.

"Brat!" Nurarihyon raised his voice.

I looked over, and the reflections of the crew were different.

They pushed against their side of the 'glass' so to speak, and like ice sculptures given form, they materialized and took shape, landing onto the ship, looking at their counterparts.

Even one of Nurarihyon popped out, and its aura was no less than the old man's.

The glaciers' positions were intentionally arranged in a grand ritual, and the glaciers themselves were made of magical energy.

There were no guards here because this place was one big trap.

I looked back at the reflection of myself, and it was looking back at me, crossing its arms.

The snowstorm distorted and dispersed abruptly, with an intense wind whipping around.

Just as quickly, the vast majority of the glaciers disappeared.

…as if they were consumed.

My reflection stepped out.

I could feel the sheer amount of magical energy it contained. And it was rather easy to put two and two together to know where the crystallized magical energy from a moment ago went.

Glaciers of crystallized magical energy arranged in a grand ritual to fuel a doppelganger creation. 

I caught one last snow flak and came to the realization that it wasn't only used to obscure my perception but also used to investigate us thoroughly.

I heard a faint but cold laugh across the chilling winds.

Well, it was far from the first time I've fought a mirrored version of myself.

The fake me looked around, at me, then down at his arm as a very familiar Red Gauntlet appeared on it.

[Alright, now it's personal]. Ddraig chimed in. He's just bluffing regardless. [I don't feel any Dragon presence from that thing, so it's a fake through and through.]

I cracked my neck. "Alright, let's see what half-assed copying you've got."

My copy smiled smugly and spoke in the same voice as myself, holding the Gauntlet up. "I who am about to awaken..."

...suddenly, I don't think he's bluffing.

@***@

A/N

If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone

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We got a Kunou chapter, a Cyclops chapter, and two Arachne chapters up there ahead of the normal releases.