VALKYRIE SMASH

It was a nice autumn day; the sky was clear and the sun was much more merciful than it was a couple of months ago, though the sun wasn't what people feared back then. A lot has changed in those couple of months.

Silence filled the venue once the party from the forty sixth base arrived. People were astonished when the Valkyries made their entrance, but what they awaited with held breaths was the person whose attendance was never anticipated.

The Nephilim were easy to spot, being the only ones to wear a different kind of uniform. Thor, their queen, stood out quite a bit, part of it due to the red uniform she wore but most importantly due to her beauty while overshadowing even those of her kind.

Though it was already a well known fact, people still found it difficult to believe how similar to the Valkyries the Nephilim were. That caused doubts to build up in their hearts, and with hatred already filling them it would've been no surprise if some of it spilled out at some point.

Natalie Anderson was only a little girl when the Calamities first attacked. Being from a family with a long history of serving in the British military she was fortunate enough to be among those who were first evacuated when the fire became visible from their shores. The rest of her family weren't so lucky, however.

Her father lost his life in the first attack and so did most of her relatives. Her mother, unable to withstand the despair and grief ended her life a few months later leaving her and her older brother behind. Despite the hardships the two vowed to survive and eventually joined the Resistance to fight back. Her brother was quick to climb the ranks eventually becoming the commander of the second Resistance base, however his journey came to an end when Jormungandr, one of the Ragnarok Heralds, put its sights on them.

Natalie always believed that she was prepared for such a day, but when the news of what happened reached her, her entire world came down crumbling.

She had lost everything and began contemplating ending her life. There was nothing for her to live for. Things kept getting worse for humanity and the despair never seemed to fade, but one day all of it came to an end.

The enemy was defeated and the war was over.

It was difficult to believe with how sudden the change was, but eventually, joy filled the world as people realized the nightmare was finally over. Natalie was unable to accept it, however.

She had lost everything in the war but suddenly all of it concluded just like that. What's worse was that their leaders decided it would be a good thing to strike a peace deal with the enemy, essentially spitting on the empty graves of seven billion people, including her brother's.

Anger soon replaced the despair she felt and when she received the invitation to the ceremony she thought she would finally have the chance to give those Generals a piece of her mind, but then she heard the news of the enemy leader attending as well and her fury reached new heights.

The guests received warnings not to cause any disturbances during the award ceremony, but Natalie didn't care. When the crimson haired queen entered the venue she became overwhelmed with rage.

There was nothing a human could do against monsters such as those, but she wanted to vent her anger at the very least and so she shot up from her seat preparing to hurl some insults at the people responsible for all the loss and suffering she had to go through.

All of it went away when she felt a hand on her shoulder and the next second she was no longer in the front row of those invited to take part in the ceremony.

The sudden change in the scenery caused the words to get stuck in her throat. She was in an empty room with a small table and and two chairs on either side, a white lamp hanging from the ceiling and a single door.

Coming back to her senses Natalie quickly turned around to see who it was that had their hand on her shoulder, but as soon as her eyes fell on them her heart almost came to a stop. A gorgeous woman with ginger hair smiled as she looked at her with scornful eyes. Natalie's mind failed to understand what happened, but after noticing the strange glowing halo over the woman's head she realized she wasn't human.

The door suddenly almost caused her heart to stop. Another woman appeared, this one having red hair and although good looking she was far from the one standing her making it clear she was a human.

"Lieutenant Natalie Anderson." The red haired woman spoke while looking at the tablet in her hand. "Daughter of James Anderson, same rank, and Jeffrey Anderson, the last commander of the second base."

Natalie kept her silence as the woman read from what was most likely her profile.

"Considering what you were about to do I can't say it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Lieutenant Melissa Ranford, head of the forty sixth base's public relations department."

Natalie felt the hand on her shoulder fall and the tension she felt skyrocketed.

"You can take things from here, right?" The ginger haired woman, most definitely a Valkyrie, spoke in a disinterested voice.

"Yes, no problem. I apologize for having you handle something so trivial."

A moment later the Valkyrie was gone leaving the two human women on their own in what felt like an interrogation room.

"I will get straight to the point." Lieutenant Ranford spoke. "Today's event is an important milestone in human history and you made an attempt to disrupt it. Fortunately we were able to stop you before anyone noticed, but even if that's the case we still need to hand over some punishment."

A moment of silence passed and Natalie began to comprehend what had just transpired. The people who took everything from her were there, right in front of her, and even then she was unable to do anything. She found the whole thing hilarious. Who knew humans were so pathetic they couldn't even yell or scream at their enemy.

"What does it matter?" She asked no one in particular. "What's the point?"

The storm of emotions raging inside her searched for another exit and soon enough tears began to flow. Watching her collapse to her knees, Melissa averted her gaze and pursed her lips.

"You aren't the only one who lost people in this war." She said. "You must keep on living, if not for you then do it for them."

~[]~

It was clear that, even with all their precautions, it was impossible to ensure that nothing would sabotage the ceremony. Sam was adamant on not letting anything slip by so he asked Nino to check the future beforehand. As expected, the number of attendees that had something to say was far from null. Several Paths showed different people standing up to voice their rage at the Nephilim, and since all of them were nearly identical it was difficult to know which one would end up coming true.

A list of the perpetrators was made and the Valkyries were asked to memorize their faces. If anyone showed signs of agitation, the girls were to remove them instantly.

With her proficiency in barriers Sitta took the initiative to isolate the first offender with a sound blocking transparent before teleporting to her side and extracting her from the scene before anyone could notice. A few seconds later the ginger Valkyrie was back in her place behind the Doctor as if she didn't move from there in the first place.

"... Trenta as well, huh?" She muttered in a low voice.

"The second offender made his move. Be ready for the third." Nino spoke while keeping her gaze ahead.

Actions determine which path becomes reality, so once the first few come to pass, figuring out which of the potential futures they were currently living in becomes much easier. Now that the first and second disruptions were prevented, the next one on the list became clear and Sitta teleported once more removing them before they could make a sound.

"Unforgivable." Hearing the murmur, the Japanese doll glanced to her left. "They should understand the importance of today's event. How dare they try to ruin it?"

Though her voice carried restrained anger, Miku was doing a fantastic job at keeping a neutral expression.

"Well, that's to be expected. Not everyone are able to control their emotions like Doctor."

Most of those attending the ceremony had lost people close to them so it's only natural that they would have some reservations about the Nephilim being there. Still, one could say it was the epitome of stupidity to try and cause a scene especially after being warned about the consequences of doing so.

"You're right." Said Miku. "We can't expect the same from those worthless sacks of flesh."

The next moment, she disappeared, having gone to deal with the fourth offender. Nino tried to keep her composure, but after a while she couldn't help the sigh that escaped her.

"I hope she doesn't do anything stupid..."