VALKYRIE SMASH

"Anti-inter-dimensional portal barrier?" A man spoke with a raised eyebrow. His complexion was quite pale, littered with wrinkles that came from constant stress rather than old age. His hair was a bit disheveled and his clothes were a bit messy showing that he didn't have the time to dress up properly before making the call.

"Indeed. As the name suggests, it is a barrier that prevents travel from other dimensions into ours. Rest assured, it does not have any harmful effects on humans."

"I… would love to believe you but… does it have to be red? People are starting to panic."

"Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to adjust it to a different color. General Sanderson will provide you with the details soon so I ask for your patience."

Though he didn't seem particularly convinced, the man heaved a long sigh as his shoulders relaxed.

"Well, I can already imagine how bad things are if we need something like that." Pausing for a moment he then added. "We will try to get things under control on our side. Please tell General Sanderson that we await his report."

"Understood."

A moment later, the feed cut off leaving Nana's reflection on the dark scream. The silence lingered for a while until she began yawning and stretching her arm. As a Valkyrie her body didn't get tired like a normal human, however being forced to deal with the higher-ups of the resistance made her feel a kind of exhaustion unlike what she was used to from nearly a decade of fighting Calamities.

"This is getting way too complicated…"

Reaching for the back of her head she took off the thin stick holding her hair together and let it flow over her shoulders. With a long sigh escaping her, she folded her arms over the desk and rested her head on them, but instead of relaxing her mind went straight to everything that happened in the past couple days.

Who knew that their peace treaty with the Nephilim would lead to more trouble knocking on their door?

Though she didn't put too much thought into it, the idea of other dimensions getting involved was always at the back of her mind. After all if the Nephilim originated from a different world then surely there are even more out there.

Nana had yet to get the full picture of what happened since their leaders had yet to do a proper debriefing. She was only told what she needed to handle the resistance and the rest came from the pieces gathered by the team that accompanied the Doctor on the mission.

One thing is for sure, the war against the Nephilim and their Calamities was just the start. The Primordials, the Fallen, Akasha, Madness and Truth. Those concepts pointed at an everlasting conflict they had no choice but to be a part of, and as if that wasn't enough, everything that happened with Nino gave them a hint of their true nature, showing that they might have had a different life before becoming Valkyries.

"Well, if that's true then I guess we've already died at least once…"

The idea of memories from a past life resurfacing brought a flood of complicated emotions to her heart. It was only recently that they were freed from Odin's control, allowing them to experience feelings and thoughts that were previously sealed. Some had yet to adjust to the change even after months had already passed. If they were forced to deal with a past life on top of that then it wouldn't be strange for some of them to break.

"Without Freyja we can't increase our numbers so…"

Every Valkyrie counts so they couldn't just have them breaking down now.

"I hope Doctor figures out how to handle this…"

~[]~

"This is… unbelievable…" Wolf muttered, his eyes wide as he stared at the large screen.

"That's putting it lightly." Sam heaved a sigh.

Elina was speechless, her skin pale and her mouth agape.

The three of them were in the underground lab going through the footage captured during their week long stay in the Nephilim world. They had yet to get past the battle at the abandoned airport and the two were already too shocked to go on.

Glancing at the female scientist and seeing her shocked face, Sam shook his head.

"Maybe you should stop here." He said. "You don't exactly have the ability to shut down your emotions."

"I… I'm okay-…" Elina replied with a shaky voice only for her eyes to widen and her cheeks to bulge. She quickly grabbed the trashcan that was beside her and emptied her stomach on the spot.

"Don't force yourself." Sam added.

"I… I think I won't be sleeping for a while…" she replied.

"Primordials, huh…" said wolf. "To think that something like this was… out there…"

Elina wiped her mouth with some tissue and then turned her gaze to the same.

"So… let me get this straight." She said. "You're telling us that, because the majority of humanity was massacred in a short time, something like this is heading our way?"

"We should still have some time." Sam replied. "The other world was safe for twenty years until the Olympians decided to accelerate things with their Ritual."

"Yeah that doesn't sound very reassuring."

The idea of walking from one apocalypse to another was disheartening to say the least. First the Calamities then the Nephilim and just when they thought they would get a break now they have to deal with some freaky eldritch horrors.

"It would be hilarious if Cthulhu decided to show up." Elina sighed sounding unamused by her own comment.

"Actually, the abomination itself isn't our biggest problem." Sam felt a slight headache just thinking about it.

"Is it about the survivors?" Wolf asked.

The old man was quite surprised when he heard about the Sanctuary and the human survivors Sam ran into. After failing to stop Hela and the other Nephilim from going on a rampage he was convinced that the world was wiped clean, but to his surprise it seems like a few had avoided the massacre.

"Yeah." Taking off his glasses, Sam massaged the bridge of his nose.

For the next couple of hours, Sam went through everything he had learned during the short but eventful trip to the Nephilim world. Everything from the Primordial and its powers to the Key created from its Aether and Akasha. He told them about Truth, the Whispers and Madness, Fate, its Tapestry and Threads, and finally Nino's memories and the likelihood of all of Freyja's Children being reincarnations.

"That's… a lot…" Elina commented.

"... I see…" Wolf allowed a rare frown to take over his face.

"Old man, did you know about it?" Sam asked. "The true nature of the Valkyries, I mean."

"Well, you could say I didn't understand it until now." Wolf replied. "You do remember the process in which I discovered the Nephilim, right?"

"Yeah…"

Turning to the terminal beside him, the old man tapped on the keyboard a few times, opening a few files and displaying them on the large screen.

"So far I've been referring to them as 'consciousness' or 'brain pattern'. It's nearly identical to the… something that is left in our heads once every cell is replaced by ASC. Unfortunately I reached a dead end while trying to study them. I have not made any progress in the last twenty years, but now…"

At first Sam didn't understand why the old man was showing them the readings from the Aether Key and it was only after a few seconds of staring that it became clear.

"Don't tell me…"

"That's right." Wolf nodded with a grim expression. "If what you said was true then I've been unknowingly manipulating Aether, isolating and trapping it inside a box." Pausing for a second he looked down and added. "I've been messing around with human souls without even realizing it."

Though it should've been surprising, Sam felt that he had arrived at that conclusion long ago. It has been a while since he accepted that the Valkyries are sentient beings, and though some things were still unclear, they could say with utmost certainty that Freyja's Children are in fact human.

"Ah!" Elina suddenly gasped, drawing the attention of the two men. Her eyes met those of Sam and she exclaimed in an excited voice. "The ship of Theseus!"

It took Sam a moment to catch on to what she said, and when he did, his eyes turned into saucers.

"That's right…"

The female scientist enthusiastically schemed through the files on her terminal and opened some that contained the data from the operation they did on Sam, replacing all of his cells with artificial ones.

The ship of Theseus is a paradox regarding identity over time. It takes the example of a ship that has its parts replaced one at a time, posing the question of whether it's still the same vessel after all parts have been replaced. With every cell in his body replaced with nanomachines the fear of not being himself anymore lurked at the back of Sam's mind. Even though his brain pattern was monitored by Elina and Wolf, that fear still remained forcing him to ignore the idea so far. Now however he finally had proof that he was still the same person before and after the operation.

"I see. Now I get it!" Elina exclaimed, barely holding back her excitement. "These readings prove the existence of human souls. If that's true, do you know what that means?" She turns to the other two, her eyes practically sparkling. "As long as the Aether doesn't undergo any change, the person who goes through the operation is still the same even if they have every cell in their bodies changed! We have just eliminated the only problem with your secret to immortality!"

To both Sam and Elina, the conclusion they had reached seemed like a great breakthrough in a field of research they had dedicated their lives to, but compared to them Wolf's reaction was a bit lukewarm. Unlike the other two, he didn't put too much thought in the idea of identity with his only concern being curing his daughter. He performed the operation on himself first and never doubted that he was a different person afterward, but that didn't mean he didn't understand the concerns they had.

"There is still one problem, though." Wolf said, allowing himself to smile for the first time in a while. "The materials to create ASC aren't cheap. If you plan to undergo the operation yourself then you better have a few billions stored somewhere."

The female scientist turned to the old man and a moment later her excitement was washed away.

"Way to pour cold water on my dreams, old man." She said, her shoulders slumping as she sighed. "Well, we're still fresh out of the first apocalypse. Pretty sure I can gather what I need while the world is still the way it is."

"I had a guess that you would want to do it at some point." Sam commented with a grin.

"Of course." She replied. "You think any woman would pass on the chance to get a gorgeous new body on the same level as your Valkyries?"

"Well, you do have a point." Sam replied.

Cosmetic surgery was a multi-billion industry that was on a constant growth curve before the Third World War. No woman would reject the chance to improve her looks drastically, let alone get eternal youth on top of that.

"Hehehe, I can't wait~" Elina giggled to herself then glanced in Sam's direction, her cheeks reddening a little. "Better keep a spot for me in that harem of yours."

"Hm? You don't have to wait until then, you know?" Sam replied with a smile.

"As if I would fall for that." She waved her hand dismissively. "I was barely able to keep up with you before. You'd probably break me in a single round now."

The two of them laughed at the idea for a while, going on to make fun of his questionable relationship with the younger looking Valkyries, prompting Elina to ask whether she should make her new body voluptuous or underdeveloped. They also made fun of the fact that Wolf had apparently removed his sausage long ago, though that didn't seem to bother him much as all he said was that he didn't have a need for it.

The stress of the last battle still lingered for quite some time and with everything that needed to be done Sam knew that he couldn't relax for long. That said, with one of the burdens weighing him down falling from his shoulder, he welcomed the chance for a little laugh and allowed his mind to move away from the problems facing him.