VALKYRIE SMASH

Chapter 258 Only two.

The meeting went on for a couple of hours during which Sam and Mimir decided their next course of action and ironed their objective in the next battle.

Now that they had several hundred Nephilim on their side, reaching the portal gate was no longer their top priority. However Sam saw it fit to leave a detached force that would focus on that part. Getting reinforcements from the forty sixth base would definitely tilt the scales in their favor.

The second objective would be freeing the captured Nephilim. This was an obvious step, one that was absolutely required to get Mimir's support. Eliminating them wasn't an option so it was going to be a really tough nut to crack, especially when considering the final point.

The third objective, and the most important in Sam's opinion, is stealing the Key the Olympians were trying to obtain. This was what made things a bit complicated.

Nino had limited knowledge about the ritual, but she knew some of the details. The Runes that create the Crimson Tower require a greater deal of mental power, so much so that it's impossible for one individual to create all of them on their own. Even if multiple people work on it at the same time, the pressure would still be too much, eventually leading to their deaths if they attempt to maintain it for a long time. To get around this limitation without having to sacrifice their own soldiers, the Olympians would normally use the awakened children instead. This time, however, they had the Nephilim so they used them instead of bothering to find the human survivors.

And there lies the problem. The ritual puts a great deal of pressure on those performing it, which leads to their deaths by the end of it. Knowing this, it was obvious that the correct course of action was to stop the ritual to save the captured Nephilim, but if they were to do that it would take away their chance of obtaining one of the Keys.
Achieving the second objective meant giving up on the Key, but prioritizing the Key meant risking the deaths of several Nephilim. There wasn't much of a discussion before choosing which route they would take. Obviously, saving the Nephilim was the top priority. Even if they were in a race to determine who reaches Akasha first, Sam didn't want to deploy the same methods used by his rivals. He understood that his reluctance to make sacrifices would put him behind the others, however he still wasn't going to fall so low.

Still, all of that assumed that the Nephilim wouldn't be able to handle the ritual. The awakened children are, well, children. It's only natural that they would die if forced into such a position. According to Nino, although they were different from the humans of his world, the Olympians were humans as well. Although they had achieved immortality through different means, they were still flesh and blood which left them vulnerable to the same level as normal humans.

The Nephilim, and by extension the Valkyries, have bodies and brains made out of ASC, which are more resilient compared to biological cells. They also have high resistance to psychic attacks so, although they're currently under the influence of mind control, they should still be able to withstand the weight of the ritual.

Even if they were going to stop the ritual this time, Sam was looking toward the future. They have the opportunity of obtaining another by performing the ritual back in his world so he was hoping to learn a few things in order to increase the chances of their success.

'First of all, we need to learn the ritual itself.' He thought. 'Everything else comes after that...'

"Hmm..." Nino drew her brows together in a frown. "This... doesn't look good..."

She was holding her Needle, now transformed into a Yari. The halo over her head and the rings of Runes around the spear showed that she was currently using her powers, gazing at the Tapestry of Fate to see what awaited them in the near future.

"Is it that bad?" Sam asked, his arms crossed as he stood at a distance.

"Well..." the Japanese doll replied. The Runes around her dimmed before disappearing. "It seems Atropos got some unexpected reinforcements. The ritual was slowed down because of that."

"Seriously?"

"Remember how they destroyed our portal the first time they attacked us? Apparently inter-dimensional portals create some sort of interference that weakens the effects of the ritual. It'll take at least one more day for it to reach its full potential once again."

"And here I was sure they did it to prevent us from running away or asking for reimbursements..."

"It's a bit weird though..." Nino looked up at the red sky. "That massive barrier should make it impossible to open portals into this dimension. The only way in would be through a portal opened from this side."

She went on to explain that Atropos wouldn't have risked slowing down the ritual just to summon reinforcements, which meant someone on her side did it without her permission.

It's been five days since they arrived in the Nephilim world. Since they hadn't sent any words back to the forty sixth base so Sam expected Elina to think something was off and send someone to investigate, especially with Nine and Miku still there. Now he understood why no one came.

"The ability to see the future..." Mimir said, gazing at Nino with amazement in her eyes. "That's indeed a very useful power to have."

"Of course it is!" Nino said, puffing her chest with pride. A moment later her shoulders slumped over and she let out a long sigh. "Well, it should've been, at last."

"So our odds are..." Sam said.

"Not very good," Nino replied. "If it were just Atropos and her army we might've had a good chance but... of all people Artemis has decided to come over. Apollo is around as well and they've brought along quite a few of their followers."

"Only two?" Sam raised an eyebrow. "Would they really be a problem?"

"Maybe not Apollo, but Artemis is a real pain in the neck. She really doesn't like men, you see. I'm afraid you'll be her main target, Doctor."

"Well, I guess that would make sense..."