Victory

The beast lies slain.  The deathblow was not mine, but justice has been served.  When he evaded both my blow and Vincent's after he was stunned, Aren dragged him over the edge of the building.  Her bravery is to be saluted, but that may wait until she is recovered.  She did not come through the experience unscathed.

The artifact itself houses a powerful kami.  Amenable enough, but my divine bloodright is not enough to compel obedience.  It has been easy enough to find a container for it, however, until we can discover fully it's usage.  It will hopefully not take long, I would prefer to fully power it down before transporting it home.  Mother will know how to handle it, and while he has aided us, I would prefer not to simply give it over to Loki.  That seems...inherintly unwise.

We will be moving out soon.  Hopefully, it should not be difficult to slip away from the building to somewhere Aren may rest before we move on.  I will spend the time trying to discover how to disable entirely the artifact, or at least what I can about it.  Unfortunately, I did promise not to say anything negative about how Aren handled the beast.  I may, however, think it.

Straight to the Top

The barbarian, regardless of his apparent knowledge of a proper language(I know, I should not judge so.  He just...makes it difficult), has proven himself to be so again.  Instead of simply joining myself and Aren in the elevator, or taking the stairs, he jumped through the floor to the next level.  I admit, he did opt to join us after Aren spoke, but still.

The lighting cut out mid-way through the journey upward.  While I called the sunlight, it was not fast enough to prevent a pair of shinobi from entering.  When we could not end the fight in the first stroke, I summoned the sun again - this time in a sudden, bright burst, bounced off of every reflective surface within the elevator.  Given the nature of the elevator itself, this proved rather effective.  I had hoped it would have simply destroyed the shinobi outright, but I suppose I am not so strong just yet.  No matter.  The creatures were swiftly dealt with after that.

The last of the ride passed peacefully.  Our enemy was waiting for us at the top.  Hidden, but it would not matter.  There was only so many places he could hide, now.

Falsehood

I spoke to 'Mother', in this strange place.  I...do not believe it was truely her.  It was very convincing.  There were a few things that bothered me, but given the circumstances, I ignored them at the time.  She seemed...more openly disdainful of the others.  Even if she truely felt that when she sent me on this mission, I do not believe she would have allowed it to show now, regardless of how she felt about them.

I defended my companions against the various accusations, when I could.  They are not as bad as 'Mother' made them out to be.  And perhaps she was correct in that I should be more wary of the Lie-smith's daughter, and Hel-sama's words.  But as I said, I can think of no reason for whatever forces Aren-chan uses to divine the future to mislead her in this, nor for Hel-sama to.  Under other circumstances, certainly, but this?  I cannot believe it.  I know this one thing to be truth - Aren-chan is my friend.  

There are other things that make me believe this could not have been Amaterasu-Omikami.  Primarily, she knew details of what I saw that only three beings in any world truely know - myself, the elf-ling, and Aren.  I had never entered them down in these pages.  And then...the being before me called into question the education  Mother arranged for me.  I do not believe Mother would have done so...nor did she fail.  I was trained to be wary of the very tactics she claimed Aren-chan was using.  Furthermore, the being lost her cool.  Mother, even if I was being a foolish, petulant child, would never have done so.  The being grew angry, however...and would not, or more then likely could not, name the things Mother would know, but not an illusion or trick.  

To compound the matter, the scenary...flickered.  From Ise to the Empire State Building lobby.  This, to me, was the final straw in the shattering illusion.  I called the being to name itself and prepare to stand before justice.  Then the apperant illusion of Ise broke completely, leaving me standing with the others.  

I do not believe it was truely you, Mother, for I know you also can read these pages as I write them.  But perhaps it is simply my growing paranoia in the face of the battle ahead, or from being away from home, and the last family I have left, and everything I really know.  There is just a nagging feeling it truely was you, and I have been a terrible fool.  If that feeling is true...Mother, I will make amends to you.  Either I will bring the artifact itself to your hands in Ise, or I will return and present to you the Reza-Shouten, which I recovered from the Titanspawn several days ago.

Scattered

I have, at least, partially redeemed myself in my training.  One stroke cut down the final tengu.  Vincent-san is....fitting of the stereotype of New Yorkers.  Loud, obnoxious, but...he seems nice enough, otherwise.  He does not have any sense of how to properly behave.  It will take a great deal of work to turn him into someone I would feel comfortable taking to Japan.  Aren-chan I do not have to worry over, at least.

We traveled to the Empire State Building.  After the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings, it is the tallest building in the city.  There were roadblocks, no doubt work of the Titanspawn, but given that we had taken to the rooftops, it was not very difficult to evade them.  At the door we met Náttráðr, again.  Just as arrogant and infuriating as he was in the mountain.  I offered to allow him to surrender himself, his armies, and the artifact.  As you may guess, he did not take me up on the offer.

I tuned out the taunts he and Aren-chan threw at each other.  It is best that way.  I called upon Reza-Shouten's kami.  And...I once again discovered another person who could speak Japanese.  Vincent, this time.  I must stop underestimating those I encounter.  It is a bad habit.  It also seemed as if we would finally be able to put an end to Náttráðr's evil....

Then we entered the building itself.  I seemed to find myself transported to Mother's shrine in Ise.  Yet there were no people.  I was entirely alone, and Aren-chan and Vincent-san were nowhere to be seen.

Apples

The climb, as I predicted, was not too bad.  Cold, but I gather that's to be expected.  I don't think Aren-chan enjoyed it as much as I, though.  We did, though, finally reach what we would later learn was Central Park.  After she used her ability to try and read fate, we basically proceeded at random.  I should note to myself...Aren-chan is at least a very quick learner when it comes to swearing.

It didn't take long before we ran into a man being chased by tengu.  The scion we were no doubt meant to meet.    I have not taken enough time to properly train.  I will have to do so when there is time, as I am growing rather tired of not performing up to my own standards.  The Tengu seemed not to have any better luck.  They were unable to so much as harm me, and when they struck Aren-chan, she simply...I am not sure.  Phased out of her clothes?  It left her rather...ah...nude, leaving our unnamed 'friend' to comment.  I shall have to smash his skull in later for leering.

The annoying man struck down one of the tengu with direct, unarmed combat holds.  He is strong, if nothing else.  My next strike took another of the tengu out of the fight by tearing it's throat out with my naginata's blade.

I will continue the rest later.  For now, I need the time to clear my head.  Dealing with...everything has been difficult, and I have no great desire to finish the tale while I cannot concentrate on it.

A Very Large Tree

We spoke a little more with Haeljd.  After a short time, he brought us to the chambers of the Aesir's death goddess, Hel.  The stories are fairly exact.  A dual nature, split nearly down the middle.  She has been ill-treated because of it.  But amongst the divine, it seems they still have the far too human failings of such silliness.  Both myself and Aren-chan had to wade through a pit of blood...and other things, to reach her.  I am not going to pretend it was not disgusting, but what choice was there?

We learned a great deal from Hel-sama.  The most important piece is that we landed ourselves in the former prison of the Titans.  That explained a great deal.  The enemy that stranded us here prepares to strike New York, now.  And through the great tree of the Aesir, Yggdrasil, we have the means to stop him.  I am nervous about facing such a thing without a full band, but again, little choice.  Hel-sama told us another Amatsukami child awaits in the city, and that we would know him when we find him.

We are due to start the climb soon.  I worry about Aren, she is not as physically trained as I.  But if she falters...I suppose I shall simply have to carry her.  I am not leaving her down here.

Storm and Ice

Myself and Aren-chan opted to simply move ahead.  Moira-san and Alanna-san stayed back with the townspeople who had come with us.  It was that or simply wait and do nothing.  It did not take very long for things to grow...interesting.  We had but a single landmark, some form of pillar.  It's sheer size did little but keep it as a point of reference, using it to judge the distance we had walked was impossible.  And, soon, something else had appeared on the horizon.

It was a storm.  Massive in scope, it stretched across the black plain.  It moved incredibly fast, and it did not take long before we were within it.  The two of us pressed on.  Aren-chan said there was little other choice if we wished to reach one of the underworlds.  It did not take long for us both to be soaked to the bone.  And not long after that, I spotted strange figures in the mists.  Shambling creatures akin to horror movie zombies.  We were...unable to destroy the first one that got too close before it screamed, raising an alarm to the others.

There is little to be said of the fight itself.  Aren-chan will need training, but we destroyed the ones we had to before someone I did not recognize, but Aren clearly did, called to us.  With the way cleared, we broke free of the storm to find ourselves in the frigid wastelands of Niffleheim.  That is the coldest I have ever been in my entire life.  But the man, who introduced himself as Aren's nephew Hjaeld, created a fire.  We spoke, briefly, but my main concern was with not freezing to death.  This place was Aren-chan's show, all I had to do, and have to do, is look out for her.