Vergil wasted no time trying to interpret the disappearance of the six marks. As soon as he understood they had not been destroyed, only torn out of Helheim’s normal structure, he closed his hand in front of the three-dimensional map and focused all his attention on the last point where he had been able to feel them. The red lines compressed into a precise coordinate, combining physical position, spiritual signature, and the momentary direction of the pull. Brynhildr realized what he intended to do and immediately stepped closer, but she had only managed to open her mouth before Vergil grabbed her by the waist.
Space folded around them.
Hela and Göll vanished from sight, and in the next instant Vergil and Brynhildr appeared in a much deeper region of Helheim. The change in temperature was immediate. The cold there felt drier, more aggressive, and the usual green mist had almost completely disappeared. In its place stretched a vast depression surrounded by black cliffs covered in fossilized roots and partially destroyed ancient Norse runes. No souls walked through that sector, and there were no administrative structures nearby. It was exactly the kind of region patrols were supposed to cross only to confirm it was still empty.
Brynhildr immediately drew her spear.
Vergil did not need to search.
The anomaly was only a few meters ahead.
A dimensional rift floated above the ground.
It was not an established portal, nor an ancient passage of Helheim. Space had been violently torn apart, leaving an irregular opening nearly three meters tall. Its edges were still trembling, slowly closing while small fragments of reality broke apart and vanished into it. It looked as though something on the other side had simply thrust a claw—or something similar—through, grabbed the Valkyries, and returned before the dimension itself could react.
Vergil approached.
The marks of the six warriors were still there.
Very faint.
But definitely coming from the other side.
Brynhildr stood beside him, examining the ground. "There was no fight."
"No."
"Not one of them drew a weapon."
Vergil examined the marks left in the stone. There were six pairs of footprints forming a normal patrol formation. Then, abruptly, every trail ended at the same point. Some had long scrapes trailing backward, as though the warriors had been pulled with enough force for their feet to lose contact with the ground.
"They did not have time."
The rift trembled.
Its opening shrank by almost half a meter.
Vergil gripped Yamato.
Brynhildr turned toward him. "It is closing."
"I know."
The sword left its sheath in a controlled motion. Vergil did not strike the rift directly. Pouring power into it without understanding its structure could destroy the trail or throw the Valkyries into an even more distant layer. Instead, he brought Yamato’s tip close to the edge and felt for the place where space had originally been cut. There was a scar there, a minimal difference between the two dimensions that still resisted the natural tendency to close.
He found the point.
Yamato pierced space.
Vergil pulled the blade downward.
The rift opened with a sound like thousands of branches snapping at once. Its edges were forced apart and stabilized by the sword’s dimensional authority, transforming the irregular tear into an opening wide enough for someone to pass through. Greenish and golden energy escaped from the other side, carrying the strange scent of ancient wood, damp earth, and an absurd amount of life energy.
Brynhildr raised her spear.
"That does not look like Helheim."
"It is not."
Vergil could still feel every mark distributed throughout the realm through the seals placed on the Valkyries. He used the connection and sent his voice through all of them at once. There was no need to shout or use Gjallarhorn. His energy functioned as a network connecting every marked warrior.
"Stop the search. All units return to the palace, or remain where you are if you are too far away. Do not enter any new passages. I found the problem."
The responses came almost immediately, first from Sigrun through the units near the castle, then from the patrol leaders scattered throughout Helheim. Brynhildr heard part of the communication through her own mark and visibly relaxed. At least no other sister would be used to feed that route while they investigated.
She looked back at the opening.
"What place is that?"
On the other side, there seemed to be a forest.
But not an ordinary forest.
Vergil could see only a small region from that angle: a surface covered in dark wood that had initially looked like ground, gigantic roots crossing everything, and golden particles floating in the air like pollen. The scale was wrong. A single ridge of that supposed wood stretched for kilometers, and some roots visible in the distance seemed larger than entire mountains.
That was when a voice appeared inside Vergil’s mind.
Qliphoth.
She did not have her usual excitement. Her voice was lower, focused, almost respectful before what she recognized.
"That is Yggdrasil."
Vergil became still.
"What?"
Brynhildr looked at him, unable to hear the conversation.
Qliphoth continued only inside his mind.
"You heard me correctly. It is Yggdrasil."
Vergil looked back through the passage. "I thought we were connected to her roots through the Bifröst."
"We are."
"Then what am I looking at?"
"The trunk."
Vergil frowned.
That completely changed the scale of the situation.
He moved closer to the opening until he was practically touching it. Brynhildr tried to grab his arm.
"Vergil."
"One second."
He leaned forward and put his head through the portal.
For a few moments, he said nothing.
What he had seen from Helheim was insignificant.
The dimension beyond the passage did not possess a sky in the normal sense. The entire space seemed built around a living structure so colossal that the mind itself had to reorganize proportions just to interpret it. Vergil was looking at part of Yggdrasil’s trunk, and even what he could see was only a fraction.
The tree rose upward.
And kept rising.
Its trunk was larger than continents, marked by valleys, natural mountains, caves, and smaller forests growing directly over its bark. Gigantic branches vanished far beyond the clouds, each carrying ramifications that could support entire cities without ever noticing their weight. Above, golden leaves covered the heavens like stars, each radiating enough energy to completely transform the environment around it.
Rivers flowed across the bark.
Entire regions of vegetation.
Creatures flew at distances that made their bodies look tiny.
And far below, so distant it seemed like another dimension, gigantic roots plunged into a deep darkness.
Vergil stared for several seconds.
The scale was absurd even to him.
Finally, he pulled his head back through the passage.
Brynhildr was waiting, clearly bothered by the fact that he had put part of his body through an unknown tear without any precaution.
Vergil gestured with his head.
"Look."
She hesitated.
"Is it safe?"
"Probably."
"That does not reassure me."
"Then just look quickly."
Brynhildr exhaled and approached. She held the spear in one hand and rested the other on the edge stabilized by Yamato before leaning her face through.
The effect on her was immediate.
The Valkyrie’s entire body stiffened.
Her fingers tightened around the spear.
For several seconds, she simply stared upward.
Then she pulled back so quickly she nearly stumbled.
"W-w-what..."
Vergil looked at her.
"It is Yggdrasil."
Brynhildr opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Then looked back at the portal as though she needed to confirm it really existed.
"That is impossible."
"Qliphoth recognized it."
Brynhildr became even more tense. "The trunk?"
"Yes."
Some of the color drained from the Valkyrie’s face.
Something was falling into place inside her head.
"Wait."
She slowly raised her eyes toward Vergil.
"If we are seeing the trunk directly... and something opened a passage from there to Helheim..."
Vergil waited.
Brynhildr seemed to search her own memory for an ancient story she would rather have no reason to remember.
"The only creature that lives directly in that region and—"
She never finished.
The opening exploded.
Vergil reacted before understanding what was coming.
A colossal blue claw tore through the portal, ripping its edges apart from the inside out. Each talon was larger than a sword, covered in scale-like plates and surrounded by corrosive energy that caused Helheim’s runes to fade merely from its proximity. The strike crossed exactly where the two of them had been standing.
Vergil grabbed Brynhildr by the waist and vanished.
The claw passed through them and slammed into the black cliff behind. Stone, ice, and part of Helheim’s own spiritual structure were torn away in a single sweep. The entire mountain shook, and a massive fissure opened for kilometers.
Vergil reappeared fifty meters away with Brynhildr still held against his side.
She stared at the claw with wide eyes.
Vergil released her and immediately moved his hand to Yamato.
The creature tried to pull its limb back through the passage.
Inside his mind, Qliphoth spoke again.
This time, there was absolute certainty in her voice.
"Niddrog."
Vergil narrowed his eyes.
Qliphoth continued:
"Our enemy that has been kidnapping the Valkyries is none other than the Dragon that eats Yggdrasil’s roots."
Vergil did not wait for the claw to complete its movement.
The instant he realized it was changing direction to reach Brynhildr, his hand was already on Yamato. The Valkyrie was still stepping backward, trying to recover her stance after the previous attack, when the enormous blue paw crossed the rift again and spread its talons. Each claw was large enough to pierce completely through her body, and the corrosive energy accumulated in the scales caused even the surrounding space to distort. Niddrog was not attacking Vergil this time.
It was trying to recover the prey that had escaped.
Vergil noticed that and became irritated.
Yamato left its sheath.
The cut was almost horizontal, extremely clean, executed at the exact point where the paw crossed the dimensional boundary. Vergil did not try to compete directly against the toughness of the scales. He first cut the space around the limb and, together with it, the physical structure occupying that region. The blade passed through Niddrog’s scales, muscles, bones, and energy in a single trajectory.
The enormous paw was severed just above the wrist.
For an instant, it continued moving only from the force of its previous momentum. Then it completely lost support and crashed onto Helheim’s terrain with an impact heavy enough to shake the entire depression. Stone and ice were thrown in every direction while bluish blood, far too dense to be mistaken for anything mortal, began pouring from the amputation.
A roar came from the other side of the rift.
It was not merely a sound.
The dimensional opening itself expanded beneath the pressure of the voice. The edges created by Yamato trembled, the ground beneath Vergil’s feet cracked, and Brynhildr had to drive her spear into the stone to avoid being thrown backward. The roar crossed Helheim and continued for several seconds, carrying pain, fury, and a consciousness perfectly capable of understanding what had just happened.
Vergil kept Yamato lowered at his side.
The severed paw twitched once on the ground, its claws scraping against the stone through pure reflex. The corrosive energy inside it began destroying everything nearby. Ancient runes disappeared, ice turned to vapor, and even part of Helheim’s spiritual matter began losing shape.
Brynhildr stared at the limb.
"You cut Niddrog."
Vergil did not take his eyes from the rift.
"He tried to grab you."
The answer was so simple that Brynhildr took a second to react.
"I noticed that part."
Another roar came from the other side.
This time, farther away.
Vergil narrowed his eyes.
"He retreated."
Inside his mind, Qliphoth answered with unusual calm.
"That is not Niddrog. It is only one of his offspring. The true Dragon has the diameter of Yggdrasil."
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