A high schooler on his walk home. A flash of light. And then—clouds. Endless white clouds, floating islands of marble, and a colossal arena filled with gods.
Kanata Crow has been pulled into Valhalla, the stage of Ragnarok—the final thirteen-round battle between gods and humanity, where a single loss could mean extinction. He doesn't know why he's here. He doesn't know how he arrived. But as he watches Thor, the God of Thunder, clash with the legendary Lü Bu Fengxian, he witnesses something no
Record of Ragnarok: Shadow of the Einherjar - The Price of Powerlessness —A Scream Echoing Through the Prison—
Cold stone beneath him. Air thick with the smell of mold and iron. The cell tucked in a corner of the heavens was quieter than any dungeon in the lower world, and that silence stung at the ears.
Kanata Crow sat slumped on the cold stone floor, back against the wall, knees drawn up, staring at a single point. His messy black hair clung to his skin with sweat and dust, and the light had gone out of his bright brown eyes.
(Göll...)
That moment replayed in his head, over and over.
The familiar beast's claws tearing across Göll's back. White feathers scattering, stained red with blood. Her scream. And then the voice she'd cried out toward him.
"Run!"
That voice was stuck deep in his ears, and it wouldn't come loose.
Kanata had run. Desperately, blindly, without looking back. He'd left Göll behind.
"...Ngh."
Kanata forced down the thing rising from the pit of his stomach. He felt sick. No—he didn't even have the right to be sick.
Footsteps echoed from beyond the iron bars.
Clack. Clack.
Steady, cold footsteps. Kanata lifted his head.
A priest stood there, draped in white robes. The same man who'd been whispering in the underground archive. Two armed divine soldiers waited behind him.
Human. Raise your face.
Kanata rose slowly. His body was heavy. His fingertips were cold as lead.
The priest looked down at him through the bars. In his eyes was a clear, unmistakable contempt—the way one might look at a worm.
Because you went poking your nose where it didn't belong, that Valkyrie took grievous wounds. You understand that, don't you?
Kanata's throat let out a thin, strangled sound.
Göll... Göll was only protecting me! She didn't do anything wrong!
His voice shook. It was a pathetic sound. But he couldn't keep from saying it.
Protecting you? No. You trespassed into the forbidden domain of your own accord, and she was dragged into it. Everything is the result of your own foolishness.
The priest's voice was cold as a blade.
Your qualifications as an observer are revoked. At dawn tomorrow, you will be cast down to the lower world through the boundary domain. You will never set foot on heavenly soil again.
Kanata's vision swam.
(Exile...)
Wait! I was only trying to find the truth—I heard the priests say they were going to adjust the results of the fourth round! Isn't Ragnarok rigged from the very start?!
Kanata clung to the iron bars. The cold of the metal seeped into the bones of his fingers.
The priest's mouth twisted faintly.
Whatever a human from the lower world says in the realm of the gods is meaningless. Your words are no more than the wingbeat of an insect, scattered by the wind.
Göll! What happens to Göll?! What's her condition?!
That Valkyrie is being held by decree of the Divine Council. You needn't concern yourself. Count only your own sins.
With that, the priest turned his back.
Wait! Please! Let me see Göll! She saved me! I'll take responsibility—I will! So please!
Kanata's cries were swallowed by the walls of the cell.
The priest did not look back.
The footsteps receded.
Still clinging to the bars, Kanata slid down and crumpled to the floor.
...Damn it... damn it...
The tears wouldn't stop.
He was pathetic. Powerless. He hadn't protected Göll. Worse—he'd been protected by her, and he'd run.
(I'm the worst.)
How long did he stay like that?
Footsteps came again.
This time, several sets. Not the priest's. Lighter, more graceful—and yet footsteps that could freeze the air around them.
He raised his head. A woman with silver hair stood there.
Brunhilde. Eldest of the thirteen Valkyrie sisters.
She stood before the cell and looked down at Kanata with cold eyes. Nothing could be read in those sharp violet-blue irises. The great white wings at her back rose pale and eerie out of the cell's gloom.
...What a pitiful face.
Kanata scrambled to his feet.
Brunhilde... please! Save Göll! She's your little sister, isn't she?!
Kanata reached a hand through the bars.
Brunhilde merely glanced at it and did not move.
Your little game of playing observer is over. This is what happens when a human trespasses into the realm of the gods.
Kanata's outstretched hand closed on empty air.
You—you were the one who brought me to the heavens! You were the one who recognized me as an observer!
I kept you around because you were amusing. I have no more use for you.
With that, Brunhilde turned away.
Her silver hair swayed softly.
Wait... wait! I want to save Göll! If there's anything I can do, I'll do it! Please!
Brunhilde's feet stopped.
A moment of silence.
There is nothing you can do. You abandoned Göll and ran. That fact will never change.
A sharp blade drove into Kanata's chest.
Live a long life in the lower world, if you can. Sit back and watch the end of humanity with your fingers in your mouth.
This time, Brunhilde walked away for good.
Kanata stood frozen in place.
(I have no allies.)
That fact painted his heart pitch black.
He hadn't saved Göll.
He hadn't exposed the priests' corruption.
Even Brunhilde had abandoned him.
In all the heavens, he was utterly alone.
Kanata retreated to the back of the cell.
A dark, cold stone prison.
He put his back to the wall and slowly sank down.
(Why...)
(Why am I so powerless...)
Göll's smile surfaced in his mind.
"Kanata!"
"Amazing, amazing!"
"See you tomorrow!"
Every one of them had made him smile.
And yet, he—
Why am I so damn powerless...!
Kanata slammed his fist against the wall.
A dull thud.
He felt no pain. No—he had no room to feel it.
He struck again.
Thud.
Again.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The skin of his knuckles split, and blood seeped out.
Even so, Kanata didn't stop.
I couldn't protect Göll! I ran and left her! I'm the worst! I'm the lowest excuse for a human being!
Tears poured out without end.
His voice echoed through the cell and faded.
No one answered.
How long had he cried?
By the time his tears ran dry, Kanata looked up at the ceiling.
Through a small window, he could see the stars of the heavens.
Cold, distant light.
(Göll...)
Göll's smile surfaced again.
And then that smile was stained with blood.
(It's my fault.)
(All of it is my fault.)
Kanata closed his eyes.
In the darkness, the priests' whispered conversation came back to him.
"We'll adjust the results of the fourth round on our end."
(The gods are rigging the matches.)
(Ragnarok was fixed from the very beginning.)
Deep in Kanata's chest, anger began to burn, quietly.
(I can't let it end like this.)
(I want to save Göll.)
(I want to expose the corruption.)
Kanata clenched his bloodied fist tight.
(What can I do?)
(I'm just an ordinary high schooler with no special power.)
(But...)
Kanata slowly opened his eyes.
(I refuse to be exiled without doing a thing.)
(I want to save Göll.)
(Even if it means breaking that promise.)
A resolve quietly—but surely—took root in Kanata's heart.
That was when it happened.
From outside the cell, he heard a voice.
To keep a mere human in the heavens this long is utterly outrageous! He should be cast down to the lower world at once!
It was the priest's voice.
Kanata held his breath.
The rules decree that exile is carried out the following morning. As gatekeeper, I cannot bend the rules.
A low, heavy voice.
(Heimdall...?)
Kanata crept close to the iron bars and peered outside.
The rules? What need is there for such rigidity over the treatment of a single human! The decree of the Divine Council is absolute!
Even the decrees of the Divine Council must be carried out according to the rules. To ignore procedure would be to undermine the Council's own authority.
You... A mere gatekeeper dares defy me?!
I do not defy you. I merely uphold the rules. The exile will be carried out by my own hand at dawn. Until then, that human is under my supervision.
Silence.
...Do as you like. But if that human causes any trouble before dawn, the responsibility is yours.
The priest's footsteps retreated, harsh and angry.
Through the gaps in the bars, Kanata caught sight of Heimdall.
Blond hair swept back. A pair of white horns. Tall—over six feet. His golden eyes glinted sharply in the cell's gloom.
Heimdall paused for a moment before the cell.
His eyes met Kanata's.
But Heimdall said nothing, and turned at once to walk away.
Kanata watched his retreating back.
(I don't know if that man will be an ally.)
(But at least I won't be exiled right now.)
Kanata leaned against the cell wall.
(I have until dawn.)
(What can I do in that time?)
(Save Göll? How?)
(Find evidence of the corruption? Where?)
No answers came.
But Kanata's heart was facing forward, just a little more than before.
(I won't give up.)
(I will save Göll. No matter what.)
Kanata clenched his fist hard.
That night.
Kanata watched the outside through the cell's small window.
The heavens at night were quiet.
Starlight filtered thin into the cell.
That was when it happened.
A rustle.
Something stirred outside the cell.
Kanata tensed.
(What...?)
He peered out the window.
Something was prowling around the cell.
A four-legged beast.
A familiar beast.
It resembled the one that had cornered him in the underground archive.
The familiar beast pressed its nose to the ground, sniffing around.
Now and then it raised its head and looked at the cell window.
Its eyes glowed red in the darkness.
(I'm being watched...)
Kanata understood.
(A familiar beast under the priests' secret orders is watching my every move.)
Cold sweat ran down Kanata's back.
(Slipping out will be difficult.)
(But...)
Kanata moved away from the window and sat down in the center of the cell.
(My promise to Göll... stay away from the archive.)
(But I can't afford to keep that now.)
(To expose the truth, I have to go to the archive.)
(To save Göll, I have to expose the priests' corruption.)
Kanata closed his eyes.
(Forgive me, Göll.)
(I'm breaking our promise.)
(But this time, I'll be the one to protect you.)
Kanata's resolve hardened.
That was when it happened.
Footsteps came from outside the cell.
Not the familiar beast's.
Human footsteps.
Kanata opened his eyes.
A divine soldier stood beyond the iron bars.
Human. A message.
The soldier spoke without expression.
The Valkyrie Göll's condition has taken a sudden turn for the worse. Treatment is still ongoing.
Kanata's heart leaped.
Göll...?! Is she all right?!
Kanata clung to the bars.
We know no details. That is all.
With that, the soldier left.
Still clinging to the bars, Kanata trembled.
(Göll's condition took a sudden turn...)
(Please... be safe...)
Kanata's heart sank once more into deep darkness.
He wanted to save her.
But he couldn't.
That helplessness clamped down on his heart.
Outside the cell, the familiar beast was still sniffing around.
Kanata looked up at the ceiling.
Through the small window, starlight filtered in, cold.
(Göll...)
Kanata clenched his bloodied fist once more.
But the fingertips wrapped around that fist were trembling faintly. The trembling wouldn't stop. The tighter he clenched, the whiter his knuckles grew, his nails biting into his palm, the blood that seeped out drying between his fingers. Even so, if he didn't hold on to something, it felt like some part of him would come apart.
Outside the window, the familiar beast let out a low growl. The growl passed through the stone walls and resonated deep inside his spine. The beast walked slowly, and each time its claws scraped the stone, a thin, sharp sound reached into the cell. Kanata closed his eyes. Behind his closed lids, the starlight still flickered. Cold light. Distant light. Light that slipped between his fingers no matter how he reached for it, leaving nothing behind.
Before long, the beast's footsteps receded.
The cell's silence returned. The smell of mold and iron. The smell of sweat and blood. The scents mingled and congealed at the back of his throat. Kanata swallowed. His throat stung
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