VALKYRIE SMASH



Right upon landing, CS summoned her Sabertooth. The giant white beast materialized and her senses extended beyond her body allowing her to control the creation as if it was a part of her.

She didn't know why, but it all felt so natural. Whether it was her white armor or the giant creation, just by being enveloped in one a sense of relief unlike anything she had experienced before filled her chest, but at the same time, an intense thirst took over her mind, making her aware of every enemy she had to destroy.

In front of her were rows and rows of the Black Stone Giants she had fought before. As their heads collectively turned in her direction, she began dashing, seeing that the holes they had for eyes were beginning to shine with an ominous red color. The Demons at the back ignored her presence. They were too focused on attacking the Nephilim holding the Ritual which gave her the opening she needed.

A barrage of red beams zoomed in on her and she jumped high to avoid them. Some more tried to take her down while she was still in the air, but all she had to do was twist her body a little and she managed to dodge them with ease. Despite the Sabertooth's size and weight it flipped in the air and swung it's tale sending a sharp arc of energy at the giants. CS was surprised herself as the motion was only intended to help her get closer to the enemy, but it ended up decapitating several giants as well.

With more and more laser beams being fired at her, CS headed straight for the Demons at the back while dodging and evading the fire, swinging her tail every now and then to open a path for herself.

As she arrived at the rear she saw something quite peculiar but understood what it was soon enough. The giant was being attacked from a different direction and clearly by a bunch that wasn't a part of the Nephilim army.

The Olympians had more reasons to take down the stone giants so it made sense for them to attack the things, though most of their forces were up in trying to prevent the Nephilim from freeing their captured friends.

'fools…'

A wide grin spread on her face as she once again leaped into the sky. The Olympians were already aware of her approaching, but when she made the jump they all backed away and looked up preparing for the attack to come. The tail began glowing then the claws and fangs followed. CS' Sabertooth was motionless for a moment, but then it began spinning, arcs of energy flying off its curled up figure as it fell toward the back of the stone army.

The Olympians were too slow to react and many were sliced along with the black golems. The first cries of pain filled the battlefield, but CS kept on ignoring them and slammed her creation into one of the demons, jumping at the one next to it right away. A swing of her claws was all it took to slice through them, and she began to wonder why the so called Primordial bothered with creating so many useless things when it should be capable of more.

Just as she locked her sight on the next Demon, CS noticed a faint flash above her location. A moment later a strange green rain began falling down, but upon taking a closer look she realized that the streaks were in fact arrows.

Trying to escape seemed useless as the green arrows covered a wide area. She was sure that her Sabertooth would protect her real body, but she couldn't afford to let the Creation get too much damage. Making a new one took too much effort and she didn't want to exhaust herself right from the start.

Having made up her decision, CS willed her beast to raise its head and open its maw. The moment it did, a loud howl exploded from it spreading out in a translucent yellow dome that pushed away everything that came into contact with it.

The rain of arrows was blocked but at the same time quite a few giants in her immediate surroundings were shattered, leaving her standing in a wide empty circle which made her stand out quite a bit.

As she examined the area CS noticed another flash in the distance. This time she made the right choice by jumping away, and as soon as she did something pierced the spot she was in leaving behind a green trail that slowly faded away.

As expected, the thing shot at her was an arrow. The Valkyrie sighed in relief, grateful for having practiced dodging arrows with Zero Five. She followed the fading trail of the arrow half expecting to find nothing, but to her surprise the archer was right there, slowly knocking another arrow on her longbow while observing the yellowish white beast.

"Those Nephilim…" Artemis muttered, her eyes scanning the battlefield before returning to the Sabertooth. "How many of them are capable of creating such large scale constructs?"

Having already seen the battle records given to her by Atropos' subordinate, she was aware that they were up against a formidable enemy, which explained why reinforcements were necessary. That said, now that she was facing them head on she began to consider what it would really take to grasp victory.

"They're attacking the stone giants as well…" she muttered, slowly drawing the string of her bow. "They're capable of wide range Purge. Why aren't they using it instead…"

The Primordial's Aether was extremely toxic to normal living creatures which made it a clear target for cleansing. If they wanted to stop the Ritual, Purging the Primordial should've been their first choice. Instead they were spreading their resources, attacking the golems on the ground as well as trying to free the Sacrifices above.

Just as she was about to launch the arrow, Artemis came to a sudden realization.

"They're trying to steal the Key!" Her hand slipped at that moment and the arrow went flying. "Ah!"

The giant Sabertooth saw it coming and dodged once more, this time returning the fire by shooting a white arc of energy from its tail. Artemis teleported to the side easily evading it, but her mind was still occupied as she tried to understand what was happening.

'What's going on here?' She thought. 'Perseus said they were from a lower realm, but everything shows that they weren't that underdeveloped. Were they able to decode the Whispers as well? Have they learned about Akasha?'

She turned her sights to the palace above which the Primordial's Aether was being gathered. Once the entire ancient being was absorbed, the third phase of the Retual would start to transform the accumulated Aether into a Key. Once they reached that point, her allies were going to be forced to fight a defensive battle to protect it, and without the option to call more reinforcements they were risking being annihilated.

'Atropos…' she began looking for the Raven haired girl intending to ask her to clarify things. 'Dies she knows…'

Artemis teleported once evading another arc of energy. She was aware that the Sabertooth was approaching her all the while, but her focus at the moment was directed at confirming whether her concerns were correct or not.

"... What?"

Finding Atropos wasn't very difficult. Her task was to prevent the Primordial from getting to the orb of Aether, which was a perfect fit for her Limited Rift and World Cleaver abilities. She was on the rooftop of the palace doing her job, but at the same time she seemed to be locked in a fight and the enemy she was up against caused Artemis to doubt her eyes.

"Clotho…?" She wondered, but then her eyes widened even more, seeing the Omi Yari the other girl held. "Lachesis!!?"

The realization hit Artemis at the same time as an arc of energy. Her Force Field was lowered so she took a bit of damage, but despite that she continued to ignore the Sabertooth, at least until it reached her location and tried to swat her with its clawed paws.

[You sure have some guts.] An amused voice came from the white beast. [Turning your back to me like that.]

Artemis had already teleported out of the beast's range, but she continued to ignore it, her eyes locked on the twins fighting on the palace roof.

[Hey now. I came all the way here just for you. You're that Artemis girl, aren't you? I was told you're quite powerful.]

Hearing her name come from the beast's maw, the green haired Olympian returned her attention to it and put the Sisters of Fate in the back of her mind. She wondered how the enemy knew about her when this was her first time confronting them, but the answer came to her quite easily now that she knew they had Lachesis among them.

"This is getting troublesome…" she muttered, forming a new arrow out of thin air before knocking it on her bow. "I didn't sign up for this."