Setting out from Village 23, Shirou and the others headed north, entering the iron forest.
Snow fell from the sky, covering the earth in a ghastly white blanket. Tall steel trees towered in layers, their iron leaves overlapping, blocking out the sunlight and casting an ominous shadow.
Thrud had left the two more seriously injured Valkyries in the village, bringing the rest along with Shirou as they made their way towards the Jotunheimr Gate.
"Don't let your guard down," Thrud commanded. "Keep the Valkyrie Network open, especially Type B's. Focus on detecting any traces of hostiles." Her golden hair fluttered in the wind, her stance proud and heroic.
Following Thrud's instructions, the Valkyries began swiftly scanning their surroundings through some sort of spiritual network.
"Your Majesty, please be careful as well," Thrud warned, her face serious.
He nodded.
The group advanced cautiously. Before long, they encountered a small group of Frost Giants. The largest no more than 15 meters tall, they approached aggressively, seemingly of the same tribe as the giants Shirou and Salter had previously killed, seeking revenge.
But unfortunately for them, they had crossed paths with this group. Without Shirou needing to act, the Type C Valkyries possessing Divine Cores obliterated the giants.
"There is indeed something wrong with the Jotunheimr Gate!" Thrud looked at the corpses of the slain Frost Giants, her expression grave.
Though this group of Frost Giants was trivial, the implications behind their presence made Thrud very wary. She turned to look at the red-haired Valkyrie from before. "B 224, connect to the Eyes of Hræsvelgr and check the gate's status."
"Yes," the red-haired Valkyrie nodded, her face stiff as she calmly began following Thrud's orders, operating through the Valkyrie Network.
This Network was something Shirou was quite interested in. Taking advantage of his cover identity as a "Chaldea Servant separated from his Master due to Skaði," he asked Thrud some questions about it to gain more understanding.
According to her, these seemingly robotic Valkyrie were actually clones she created along with two other Valkyrie. There were three model types in total - A, B and C. And because they originated from the same being, the brain waves and spiritual wavelengths of the clones were almost identical. This resulted in the formation of a super computing network called the "Valkyrie Network."
In principle, this was similar to the communication method of Clairvoyance EX. But the difference was that every single Valkyrie making up the Network could use it to achieve ultra-scale computing, communication and connections.
In other words, it enabled unified command and control - an ultra-powerful military legion network.
Additionally, each clone had its own specialization. Shirou didn't know much about Type A, but from his observations, Type B Valkyrie seemed to be positioned like army scouts, strategists and inspectors, while Type C were more simplistic combat units.
Skaði must have put a lot of thought into this, managing to achieve a battle maiden legion with just three main Valkyries, Shirou mused. This was likely the foundation for Skaði's ability to defend this world for two thousand years.
He wondered, just what kind of technology made up the essential components of the Valkyrie Network? If it could be replicated and installed onto his Eternal Legion, his troops' might would surely drastically increase. After all, something like the Valkyrie Network was equivalent to unifying the thoughts of all military personnel, with everyone knowing their own positioning and tasks without misunderstandings over orders.
At the same time, possessing such a network meant commanders could change combat strategies instantly in response to real-time developments on the battlefield.
The strategic value was simply too great!
Shirou felt his heart itch with greed.
The red-haired Valkyrie said, "Big sis, the Eyes of Hræsvelgr are showing everything as normal."
In Norse mythology, Hræsvelgr was the famous giant eagle perched atop Yggdrasil whose eyes could observe all Nine Realms, serving as a sentinel for the gods to monitor those worlds. It could be likened to a global satellite system.
And the Valkyrie Network could connect to the Eyes of Hræsvelgr, allowing the Valkyries to use them to monitor the Nine Realms.
In short, pairing the Valkyrie Network with the Eyes meant every Valkyrie possessed surveillance capabilities comparable to Merlin's Clairvoyance EX.
He wanted it quite badly. Again he felt his heart getting more itchy by the second.
Thrud frowned. "That can't be. If nothing was wrong, those Frost Giants couldn't have shown up here! Are you sure there are no traces of anything hostile or evil?"
The Valkyrie shook her head. "Reporting in - I've scanned this region seventeen times over with the Eyes. The only evil responses I'm detecting are coming from Eternal King. No other evil fluctuations have been found."
"You're detecting an evil fluctuation from me?" Shirou asked calmly, "Hmm... It seems what you picked up was my Alter's Saint Graph."
Thrud looked at him and said, "Your Majesty is not hostile. Continue searching."
"Yes!" The red-haired Valkyrie nodded.
Shirou added, "Since my Alter's Saint Graph gives off a similar signal to what you're hunting, it likely means the enemies were summoned in an Alter form as well. You should investigate more thoroughly based on that."
"Good thinking!" She nodded and instructed the red-haired Valkyrie to alter her search as he suggested. She then turned to him, "Your Majesty has quite a knack for piecing things together. Impressive."
He waved it off. "It's nothing too impressive. As a king, I need to stay on top of all available information to understand situations clearly. Otherwise I could make poor judgments, and would be failing my people."
"You are truly a respectable ruler," she praised him, though privately she thought, As long as you don't realize it was Lady Skaði who attacked and separated you from your Master.
The Valkyrie searched over a dozen more times, but aside from Shirou's fluctuations, she detected no other Alters. Even when Thrud had her widen the search area, at most she picked up Salter's signal.
Thrud muttered, "Could Lady Skaði have been mistaken?"
She and Shirou headed due north, soon arriving at the Gate of Jotunheimr.
"So that's the gate..."
As they continued north, at the edge of the iron forest stood an enormously tall, snow-white wall. Roughly sixty meters high, it stretched endlessley in both directions, serving as a boundary between Midgard's iron forest and Jotunheim.
Thud, thud, thud...!!!
The heavy sound of impacts came from outside the gate every so often.
Suddenly, with a whoosh, a gigantic boulder was launched skyward from the distant horizon. It reached an apex before shooting down like a meteor toward where Shirou's group had just arrived.
Seeing Thrud's unconcerned reaction, he also didn't make a move.
As expected, the huge boulder streaked toward the inside of the gate, yet about 180 meters up it was blocked by an invisible force.
He could clearly see space ripple like water where the invisible barrier had stopped the boulder, faintly glowing with primordial runes.
Crack crack crack---
The runes activated, shattering the enormous boulder. Yet not a single piece of debris made it through into the gate's interior.
"How interesting," he stroked his chin.