Shirou took one look and said to Salter, "Saber, use your Noble Phantasm!"
She glanced at him and nodded, raising her sword high.
Like him, she'd also been summoned by Svadilfari. Though her contract with him was never established, thanks to the Black Grail and devouring Skadi's divine essence through the blueberries, Salter still had plenty of mana to freely unleash her Noble Phantasm.
Seeing Salter ready to fire, Sigurd herded the young krakens together into a cluster.
Then she brought down her sword.
"Excalibur Morgan!"
The black beam swallowed many young krakens, but several survived. Far from afraid, they seemed maddened, flicking their tongues crazily, thirst for blood in their eyes as they stabbed at Sigurd and Salter.
Both of them were slashing their swords down in fierce blows. Just then, a clever young kraken sneaked up behind Shirou and suddenly burst out from below, stabbing toward his back.
Shirou glanced over his shoulder at the creature.
With that one look, the young kraken froze, its thirst for blood fading from its eyes, replaced by a hint of terror.
In the kraken's eyes, it didn't see Shirou, but instead an enormous black dragon - Nidhogg!
The fear on an almost primal level caused the young kraken to freeze up completely.
As for Shirou, he showed no mercy. He summoned Caliburn and slashed the kraken in two clean halves with one swift strike.
Sigurd had praised the young krakens as envoys from hell, but that was relative to ordinary people. To heroic spirits of Shirou's level, who stand unmatched in human history, they were just average magical beasts, easily slaughtered.
In particular, Shirou, Sigurd and Salter had all been active during the Age of Gods when mankind was not yet apex predators. They were extremely proficient at dealing with magical creatures. Thus, they had no trouble completely eradicating this group of monsters.
The aftermath was gory, with blood staining the deep snow entirely red.
Shirou used Broken Phantasm to obliterate most of the kraken corpses, leaving only one intact for research purpose. But Sigurd completely destroyed that last one as well.
He explained matter-of-factly: "Young krakens live in colonies and are extremely vengeful. If we leave any bodies, we might bring the whole colony down on us. Let's avoid unnecessary trouble and depart quickly."
Shirou nodded and brought out the mostly recovered A146. They set off on foot, leaving the area behind.
Along the way, he noticed Sigurd had a strange expression. He asked what was bothering him.
"I'm puzzled why those young krakens appeared on land in the first place."
"Is it unusual for those creatures to come ashore?"
Sigurd nodded. "Eternal King, you're Celtic so even though geographically close, you don't understand the situation on our Scandinavian side. While young krakens are sea monsters, they're way more frightening than the beasts in Celtic legends. They live in the ocean, but they don't set foot on land - that's divine law."
Shirou nodded, though he thought - I'm not Celtic at all.
Just then, A146 spoke up. "But this used to be a sea, so it makes sense for them to be here."
Sigurd raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Accessing Valkyrie Network to assist as per Lady Hel's orders," A146 touched her temple, "Beep...database accessed. Records show this was a sea region two thousand years ago. But around then, Lady Skadi used her powers to freeze the whole of Midgard, including the seas, creating the landscape you see today. The organisms within were also frozen by her."
"So this used to be the sea?" Sigurd asked in astonishment.
A 146 simply nodded in response.
Salter unleashed a mana burst, blowing away all the piled-up snow with her sword. Underneath was a thick sheet of ice, and beneath that, they could just barely make out the shape of a fish squirming about, looking like it was trying to wriggle free at any moment.
The truth was clear. This place had once been part of the open sea! Just two thousand years before, it had been frozen over by Skadi.
"Doesn't this mean that with Skadi defeated by Hel, as her power fades, the frozen organisms and environment will gradually come back to life?" Shirou furrowed his brow, grasping the crux of the matter.
Sigurd scoffed, "That Master is really up to no good. Well, none of my concern anyway. My only goal is to destroy Valhalla."
With whiteness stretching in all directions, the group hurried toward the Gate of Muspelheim. Though sent as assassins by Hel, they first needed to reach their target before carrying out the killing.
As they trekked through the vast, snowy land, it was unclear how much time had passed before the hazy outline of a village appeared in the distance.
"The next village is Midgard Number 46. Lady Hel gave no orders to stop there, so we can simply pass through," A146 dully stated.
Shirou's group nodded in agreement. As their map guide, A146 had charted the quickest route to the Muspelheim Gate, which necessarily passed through Midgard Village 46.
As they moved swiftly onwards, the blurred outline of the village grew increasingly clearer and closer.
Suddenly, Salter pointed and called out, "Eternal King, look!"
Shirou followed her gaze. On the snow-blanketed ground were traces of crimson blood, and following the trail of blood they spotted a lump of mangled flesh and torn cloth, with several small white reptiles feeding on it.
Further ahead, scattered fingers and shreds of flesh could be seen. Finally, they came across a gory decapitated head.
The village ahead loomed increasingly larger and more visible, while Shirou raised an eyebrow.
"Something's wrong," Salter said.
Just as the group considered taking action, Sigurd had already charged ahead, moving at extreme speeds akin to low-altitude flight as he rushed towards Village 46 in the distance.
Salter was taken aback and wondered aloud, "Isn't he an Alter?"
"He's a Norse hero," Shirou stated simply.
Leaving A146 behind, the two broke into a sprint toward Village 46.
Bursting into the outskirts, the first thing they saw was Sigurd standing there, silent and still.
While the major structures of the village were still intact, the details were a horrific mess. The blueberry trees, lifeblood of this world, had been chopped down one after another. Blueberries were scattered across the ground, many trampled underfoot, oozing out their aromatic, rainbow-glinting indigo juice.
The entire village was devoid of people, an eerie silence hanging over everything.
"This is..."
"It was raided!" Sigurd gritted out, fists clenched tight with violent aura. "The handiwork of those young krakens - this is one of their common tactics!"
Just then ——
"Save me ahhhhhh!" Anguished wails and cries emerged from the hazy fog in the distance.
Without hesitation, Sigurd charged toward the sound.
Heartbreaking wails rang out, jarringly out of place in the vast snowy landscape.
Sigurd sprinted ahead first, with Shirou and Salter close behind. Though Sigurd was fast, Shirou was even faster, using the black engine to propel himself.
As the first to arrive at the bloodcurdling screams, the ghastly scene before him was beyond horrific. The snowfield was littered with mutilated corpses, surrounded and feasted upon by dozens of fish-like monsters. Blood soaked the pure white snow a deep crimson.
One dead woman's abdomen had been completely gnawed away by the ravenous creatures, her internal organs smashed as the overpowering stench of blood filled the air.
Suddenly, the monster perched on the corpse seemed to sense something. It stopped feeding and abruptly flipped the body over, revealing a young boy curled up underneath. His hands were clamped tightly over his mouth, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Petrified by the looming creature above him, the boy was overcome with unspeakable terror. But it was nothing compared to witnessing his own mother being brutally eaten alive. His muffled cries soon turned into wailing, "Mama!"
But his mother was already gone.
Having just emerged from Skadi's frozen seal, the famished monster had chanced upon an easy morsel, delighting in his finding.
It quickly pounced at the boy who, demonstrating unexpected courage, slid out from under his mother's corpse to the other side. Her body had given him one last protection, briefly blocking the monster's path.