VALKYRIE SMASH

As if things weren't bad enough, now they find out that some Nephilim were captured and brainwashed. Sam was lost for words. He stared at the floating screen, the recording paused on Thor's image as she descended from the sky.

One look was enough for him to know that she was going to be quite the challenge to deal with. The question is would they be able to free her from the enemy's control or was she a lost cause?

"And I thought the Nephilim were immune to mental attacks..."

In addition to their brains being made of nonbiological materials, the Force Field enveloping their bodies was supposed to shield them from anything that might interfere with their minds. Seeing that the Olympians had a way to bypass those limitations, Sam needed to make some adjustments to his plans.

"Do you have any data on the enemy?" He asked. "We already had two encounters with them, but I doubt they allocated all of their forces to us..."

An army of several hundred Nephilim couldn't possibly lose a battle against eight individuals, especially ones that barely held their ground against eight of his Valkyries. Then again Hela's forces were suppressed easily by the more combat experienced Valkyries so it wouldn't be strange for the same thing to happen again.

"We do have recordings from the first battle." Mimir replied, sliding her fingers on the panel on the table. "To be honest, at first we suspected that you went back on your words and decided to attack us. It was only after we saw male soldiers in the enemy ranks that we realized they had nothing to do with you."

Sam watched a few seconds from the video playing in front of him then asked the Nephilim to send it to him after the meeting. He would need to analyze the whole thing if he wanted to find something that could help them win this war.

"The captured Nephilim complicate things a lot more." He said. "Now we have to look for a way to free them too..."

Now that he had the Nephilim's support he hoped to just barge in and crush the Olympians. Well, not really. He knew something was off when he saw that they weren't on the other side of the world trying to do it themselves, but he never expected it to be their leader being captured and forced to serve the enemy.

"Doctor Sanderson." Mimir spoke. "Am I right to assume you have an idea of what the enemy's objective is?"
Faced with that question, Sam remembered the conversation he had with Nino the previous night. He had learned that his previous guess was mostly true so after taking a few seconds to reorganize his thoughts he looked the green haired Nephilim in the eyes and explained what he knew.

"The red tower is a beacon." He said. "the Olympians are trying to summon some magical creature to extract something from it so they could create a key of some sort "

"... That's..."

"I won't blame you if you didn't get it." He let out a sigh. "I still don't understand it myself."

"Then allow me to explain." Hearing the voice they all turned to the door. The Japanese doll stood there with her arms crossed and her head held high. Seeing her the two Nephilim grimaced, but she ignored their reaction and quickly made her way to Sam's side, pulling one of the empty chairs close to him before sitting down and wrapping her arms around his left.

"... Nino, this really isn't the time..." Sam said with a sigh.

"I should be the one complaining." She replied with a pout. "I woke up and you were gone! Why didn't you wait for me to wake up?"

"I didn't think you'd be up so soon."

Mjölnir continued to stare at the Japanese doll with a hardened expression, her confusion clear. This wasn't her first time meeting the young Valkyrie. Even so the silver haired Nephilim found it difficult not to have conflicted feelings about her appearance.

"Doctor, I've already heard about this from Mjölnir, but..." Mimir hesitated for a moment before addressing the elephant in the room. "I still don't understand why one of your Valkyries has the exact same appearance as one of the enemy leaders."

"It's a bit complicated, but..."

Explaining reincarnation would surely create some unnecessary distractions, something he didn't want at the moment. However he didn't know how he should go about explaining Nino's situation.

"Long story short, Nino here used to be one of the Olympians before she became a Valkyrie." He said, giving up on keeping the matter secret. "She knows a few things about them and it was thanks to her help that we were able to survive the last battle."

"Doctor, don't you think you should introduce me properly?" Nino said, looking up at him with a smile. "A lot of things have changed through the previous night."

"Drop it. This really isn't the time."

"No! I think it's the best time for people to know the kind of relationship we share." Standing up from her seat, she placed a hand on her chest and declared. "I'm Nino, Doctor's personal Valkyrie as well as his fiance!"

""Fiance?"" Everyone repeated, turning their sights to Sam.

He couldn't help but facepalm himself at that moment. Of course she would make that declaration. He didn't know why he hadn't seen it coming even before then.

His mind flashed back to the time Miku casually told everyone that she was his personal Valkyrie. Same as back then, the judgemental looks he got were quite painful.

The one who had the strongest reaction was Kamala, of course. She was looking at him with a pale face, clearly asking him why such a young girl was claiming to be his fiance.

He could feel Five's intense gaze on his back. He was sure she didn't have any idea about what the word 'fiance' meant, however it was clear that she had already arrived to her own conclusions.

"Fiance?" Mimir said, turning her gaze to the Japanese doll. "You mean as in the woman he promised to marry?"

"Indeed!" Nino responded, taking her seat and hugging Sam's arms once more. "Doctor proposed to me last night. He asked me to stay by his side forever!"

The dangerous aura coming from behind them suddenly got stronger, but only Sam seemed to notice it.

"Nino." Letting out a long sigh, Sam decided to put an end to the young Valkyrie's little skit. "Keep acting like this and I will break the engagement."

"Eh?" Nino looked up with a start, and when she saw the serious look on his face she immediately let go of him and straightened her back. "I'm sorry! I won't do it again!"

"This is an important meeting so I would appreciate it if you took it more seriously."

"I understand..."

Though the conversation moved on from Nino's little announcement, Mimir still seemed to have her eyes locked on the Japanese doll. What she had on her mind was unclear, however anyone could tell that she didn't like the young Valkyrie all that much.