The Larks Take Flight

The Sparrows Stretch Their Wings is the eighth volume of the Log Horizon light novel series. It was released on September 24, 2014 in Japan and will be released on June 20, 2017 in the U.S. Like the previous volume, it has a Drama CD in its Special Edition publication.

Alternate Titles

 * Web Novel
 * Route 43

Chapters

 * 1) A Life of Quite Average School Girl
 * 2) Departure
 * 3) After the Gig
 * 4) Crimson Night
 * 5) Birthday Song

Summary
Note: This is not a comprehensive summary of what happens in the published volume, since this was based off of the web novel version.

After returning from the Abyssal Shaft raid, Shiroe discusses some more problems Akihabara faces, such as the dwindling numbers in D.D.D now that Krusty is gone. Misa, too, is away (her arm never healed either), so Rieze is taking care of most of the guild’s work, Thanks to the way Krusty set up the guild, it could run even without him, but it’s still difficult, so some other guilds are helping her out. The third Drei Klauen, Kushi, was mentioned, but Kushi had already left the guild before the Catastrophe, even though she had returned to Akiba. Shiroe has worries about what Eins is doing with the Fairy Rings, but we don’t know what or why. He then meets up with Isaac and Charasin to discuss Eastal; the two of them would head to Eastal to power-level the Landers/train the knights. During this time, we learn that Isaac doesn’t like being called “Isaac-kun” and Charasin wanted Minori to transfer to his guild, for which he gets called a lolicon by Isaac.

On the kids' side, they prepare to depart for the Dazaneg's Magic Bag. Minori wanted to decorate the side of their caravan, but is physically restrained from doing so because of how bad her art skills are. They depart with their horses towing them. At some point, they forgot about the time limit on the horses, and the horses run away, leaving behind all their stuff, so they had to take as much as they could by hand.

Along the way, they encounter Roe2, who has almost no knowledge about how this world works or about things like flavors and sauces. She saved them from monsters with her powerful summons, and decides to travel with them when they called her “onee-san”. She herself was setting off to change the bothersome Vampanella subclass that her “onii-san” gave her. The scrubs notice that she resembles Shiroe, but don’t really question why. At Lander villages, the scrubs (sans Rudy) would perform for them, and Isuzu starts gaining a fandom among them. She dismisses her music as just stuff to do in her spare time, but then Rudy reveals why the Landers loved it so much: they themselves could only play 42 tunes. Because of that, they find Adventurers amazing. This fact makes Isuzu upset, because she feels like she’s cheating the Landers by playing music that wasn’t hers. However, Rudy reassures her that it’s okay because it makes people happy, and that’s what matters.

Before they get to the town of Saphir, they meet the Odyssea Knights and Dariella, a traveling Lander writer. The Odyssea Knights possess a portable shrine, so if they die in battle they’ll simply revive at this shrine. It’s rather ominous. The scrubs decide to go along with the Knights for a bit when they arrive at Saphir. Tohya talks to Dariella a bit, and points out that she’s hiding some sort of pain, but she evades those comments.

Meanwhile, in Minami, Nureha has disappeared. No one knows how she escaped through their security. Because Nureha’s Overlay is so perfect, it’s almost impossible to see through her disguise. Several people are sent to search for her, including Mizufa and Londark. However, Mizufa doesn’t care about Nureha or Kazuhiko's morals. She has the Lander Summoners under her try and wreak havoc on an Eastal town to spark a war, riding on a primitive tank (of which Minami has around 7 now) and using EXP Pots to strengthen themselves. Using Nightshade beads to summon the monsters, she causes the Wyvern hordes to head towards the city of Saphir. Just as she commands Londark to go forth, Nyanta, who had been trailing the kids to ensure their safety, intervenes and starts slaying all the Nightshades around him.

Noticing the thousands of Wyverns, both the kids and the Knights go into action. However, as the battle turns south, the Knights reveal their mentality: they sacrificed not only themselves, but the Landers, too. To them, Landers were still NPCs that had neither history nor emotions. The Knights recklessly kill themselves over and over, slaying Wyverns and each other in pandemonium. The kids are horrified by this, but Roe2 only remarks how humans had such inefficient social structures that defied logic. She says that the Knights were willing to sacrifice Empathiom for the Genius. Rudy determines to save this town, wanting to spare it from the fate of his own hometown. As Tohya, Serara, Isuzu, and Rudy charge into battle, Minori asks Roe2 who she really is.

Tohya grabs one of the Knights, demanding to know how they could sacrifice themselves and others so easily. The Knight just tells him off, calling him a brat. Tohya reveals how he knows of death and suffering, since he saw the driver in the car accident that paralyzed him die. However, his words don’t reach the Knight.

At Minori’s side, Roe2 notes how ugly the fight is, and how chaotic and purposeless the battle was. She could hear Tohya’s screams, Serara casting Heartbeat Healing, but none of that would make a difference. She asks some heavy, serious questions to Minori, who responds that while she couldn't really respond satisfactorily, she was Shiroe’s apprentice, Roe2’s their onee-san, and they’re all in this together. Roe2 looks surprised, and for a moment looks like “someone Minori loves”. As for Rudy and Isuzu, she becomes more desperate. She can hear Tohya arguing with the Knight. the world wasn’t kind to either the Landers cowering in fear among the rubble or the Adventurers desperately trying to kill the monsters. Throwing away her spear, she takes out her lute, to Rudy’s surprise.

Roe2 continues blabbering on about things we don’t understand, mentioning that the Alvs practically destroyed themselves with their desire for results rather than the means. She also mentioned that she is the first World Traveler to side with the Adventurers, because she won’t forsake her little brothers and sisters who were her first friends in this world. Then, she summons a Summon Attacker: Sword Princess that nobody had ever seen before and enters battle with Minori.

On Nyanta’s side, he argues with Londark. Londark didn’t care about his or Brigandia's loss to Shiroe’s group; he could put that to the side. However, he just wanted to return home. There were things he left behind that he wants to return to. The Landers meant nothing to him, who saw them as mere fabricated existences. Nyanta, who suffered some great pain in the real world, can only pity him after realizing that there’s nothing he can say that will change Londark’s mind. Just as Londark was about to unleash a powerful spell, he’s killed from behind by Mizufa, who comments that Adventurers are lucky to be able to leisurely die and revive, constantly in battle. Nyanta, enraged, fights her while she mocks him. However, Kazuhiko then arrives, telling Mizufa to retreat because Nureha had given word to end the operation. Despite this, Mizufa continues to try provoking Nyanta, with him lunging at her, only to be stopped again by Kazuhiko. Kazuhiko uses the skill Exterminate to end the fight, with a power clearly beyond an Adventurer's, and declares that he didn’t want the Chief to kill a Lander before they leave.

Nureha walks down the streets of Saphir, her disguise having faded away from using a spell. Using her Freezer build, she kills Knights, Wyverns, and Nightshades alike. She didn’t have any malicious intention when she approached the kids, she was simply bored and wanted to play around with them since they were connected to Shiroe. However, she hadn’t expected Tohya to have such intuition. At that moment, one of the Plant Hwyaden members, Roreil, finds her and asks her to leave. He reports to her that Mizufa had caused this, causing Nureha to realize the effect of her negligence. She hadn't thought that she, or Shiroe, would be affected by approving Operation Red Night. But she could see that Tohya wanted to save this town. As the queen of this area, and of Plant Hwyaden, she would have it saved for his sake. She orders Roreil to kill all the Wyverns and Nightshades. After he leaves, she turns back into Dariella and thinks about how she wants to hear Shiroe’s voice again.

On Rudy and Isuzu’s side, she's in despair, feeling that she can’t save everyone, and many Landers were already dead. However, seeing the others continuing to fight convinces her to keep going. She sings a song that she created herself, the 43rd Song, which filled the air with rainbow-colored notes and turned the rubble into shields, protecting the Landers and the Adventurers.

After the battle, the kids decide to leave the day after. Rudy understood that some Landers would blame the Adventurers for what happened and for not protecting everyone, and didn’t want his friends to be hurt by those words. They bid farewell to both Roe2 and Dariella; Roe2 hands Minori a letter and asks a favor of her before leaving with a “See ya.” Dariella was more distant, and left after a short farewell. Rudy teases Tohya, asking if he had a crush on her, but Tohya responds it wasn’t that -- he could tell that Dariella had been biting her nails out of pain and worry.

As they are leaving, Rudy and Isuzu hear some Lander children singing. It’s Isuzu’s song, which has reached their hearts and has truly become the 43rd song. As she burst into tears, Rudy hands her his handkerchief. It’s her birthday song, a song that will spread throughout Yamato.

Log Horizon

 * Minori
 * Tohya
 * Isuzu
 * Rundelhous Code
 * Nyanta
 * Shiroe

Plant Hwyaden

 * Nureha
 * Londark
 * Mizufa
 * Kazuhiko

Other

 * Roe2
 * Charasin
 * Rieze
 * Isaac
 * Rezarick

Drama CD
Note: Summaries are incomplete until someone that actually understands Japanese can give a summary, or until I can find a complete summary on a website.


 * Track 1 - Rayneshia and Krusty on an Elegant Vacation


 * Track 2 - Akatsuki's and Serara's Dangerous Fantasies
 * At a tea party, Akatsuki, Serara, Mikakage, Takayama Misa, Nazuna, and Henrietta have gathered.


 * Track 3 - Silver Bow vs. Black Sword
 * The events in this track take place right after the formation of the Round Table Alliance.


 * At one of the Black Sword Knights' training sessions, they were finishing up for the day. Rezarick and Isaac exchange a couple of words, with Rezarick teasing Isaac by calling him "Isaac-sama", much to the guild master's annoyance. However, as they were leaving, an arrow is fired, which startles Isaac's horse. Figuring out the identity of the archer, Isaac taunted Silver Sword's guild master William Massachusetts out of hiding.


 * Before the two could finish the duel, they were interrupted by a cracking sound. Investigating its source, they found a person having fallen from a tree branch, with a gratuitous shot of her rear end facing them, something that Isaac bemusedly comments on with "Nice pants." The two of them watch as the person freed herself, who promptly comments on how they didn't help her. Seeing that they are injured, unaware that she had interrupted a duel, she hops around them as she heals them, quickly annoying William. Seeing this, she then latches on to him as she reveals that she was aware that Silver Sword was leaving for Susukino. He then checks her status screen, revealing her to be Tetora. She continues teasing and flirting with him, much to his annoyance. As the two guild masters go their separate ways, Isaac chuckles as he listens to the banter between the other two.


 * Track 4 - Kanami, Go! East!
 * Read the translation here
 * After the events of volume 9, Kanami's Party continues on its journey towards Akiba when Kanami stops the party in order to watch a sunset. She mentions "Shiro-kun" and explains that seeing him is her way of finding out the answers behind the Catastrophe.