The woman before her was a monster. Her sweet face was deceiving and her sweet and kind eyes held a deep seated bloodlust. Her aura was visible and caused immensely powerful gales.

Azalea stood there, unfazed by the level of power this woman was radiating. A silver sheen covered her entire body and the cobblestone underneath her cracked. An immense pressure akin to that of oceanic depths slammed down on everyone around them.

Embla watched the two titans standing off.

Hati grinned, feeling the weight on her shoulders. “I thought you were just a prissy bitch but…” Her grin widened. She bared her fangs at her. “This. This might actually be interesting.”

“Azalea-”

“Embla, go. We have a healer on standby inside. Go now!” Azalea barked.

She nodded and tugged on Pandora’s sleeve. The elf snapped out of her fear stricken stupor and nodded.

Hati watched as the three retreated into the complex. “Sigrun. Forget the Princess,” she said.

“What?” Sigrun raised an eyebrow in confusion. She took a step back when she saw the glint in Hati’s eye.

Azalea narrowed her eyes when she sensed the woman’s malice grow to even greater heights. She summoned her staff and pointed it at her. The other knights around her drew their weapons and prepared to combat her.

“Get the Valkyria’s sister,” Hati ordered.

Azalea’s eyes widened. She immediately sprung into action. Several magic circles appeared behind her and let loose a volley of massive icicle spears.

Sigrun took a step back. Hati glanced at the spears and raised her hand. The spears halted in midair. They stayed there before crashing to the ground.

Kaguya’s eyes widened. “She has an Arts!”

Azalea bit her cheek. “This just complicates things. Don’t let either of them in!” Azalea ordered. A black and violet ball of energy appeared at the tip of her staff. She fired the Moonshadow Beam at the two.

“Go.”

Sigrun nodded and jumped into the air. The Knights fired spells and mana bullets at her, which she easily evaded.

“Kaguya! Go after her!” Azalea said, concentrating on the beam.

Kaguya nodded and ran after her.

Hati raised her hand towards the beam. Light warped in the palm of her hand and an irresistible pull began to drag everyone towards Hati. Azalea’s burst warped and stretched the moment it neared Hati. As soon as it made contact with her hand, the beam began to disappear.

A black hole!? Azalea thought. She slammed her staff on the ground.

“Hehehehe…. Ahahahaha!” she dispersed the black hole. “Oh, I think I’m going to enjoy this.” A manic smile appeared on her face. Her hands began to slowly turn black. Her fingers began to seize. Muscle spasms ran up and down her arm. The sound of bone and flesh ripping and coming back together was heard through the street. Hati’s hands changed. Her fingers became blades, sharper than any sword the knights had on them. Spines resembling a dragon’s appeared on her forearm. She splayed her talons for all of them to see.

“Did you know that wolf claws can easily kill most humanoid beings? That’s civilians of course. Let’s see how it can fare against someone like the Vice Captain of the Knights,” Hati said.

“Medic! We need a medic!” Embla yelled.

The knights inside the hall all stopped what they were doing and turned to face her. This girl’s face was familiar to them. One of their commanders always incessantly talked about her whenever they got the chance. But when they saw her beaten form, they all immediately jumped into action. The Knights all scrambled, helping Embla, Yuki, and Pandora. Red and Cal were taken away from them.

“Where are you taking them?” Pandora asked.

“To the barracks. The medics are over there. You should come. We need to get you guys patched up,” the knight said.

“Yeah, we’ll go. Where’s Koji?” Embla asked.

“The Grandmaster is at the Sages’ Manor. He won’t be back for another few hours,” the knight said.

“Then send a message-!”

The doors of the rotunda exploded. Sigrun walked through the door, dropping the corpse of one of the knights.

Embla gritted her teeth. She grabbed the Knight’s sword and drew it from its sheath.

“Go!” Embla barked.

The knight nodded. An idea popped into his head and he ran up the stairs.

“What are you going to do with that?” Sigrun asked, walking towards her calmly.

“Why are you after Yuki?” Pandora asked, getting in front of the mentioned fox-kin.

“The Princess? Our plans have changed. We’re no longer interested in her. But, we are interested in you,” Sigrun said, looking towards Embla.

“M-Me?” she asked.

“Your Arts. We want it on our side. Come with me and no one has to get hurt,” Sigrun said, holding her hand out.

Embla clenched her jaw. She stole a glance from Pandora, who was pleading with her not to accept the offer. However, what could she do? This woman before them was capable of easily thrashing Red, Cal, and Kaguya. The latter two had Arts themselves. This woman was truly on a different level than the people she fought so far.

“Embla, don’t,” Yuki said. She turned to Sigrun. “I’m your original target! Why are you shifting to her!?”

“Who knows? Hati would know more than me. I’m just following her orders,” Sigrun said with a nonchalant shrug.

“Yuki, it’s fine. It’s me they want,” Embla said. She put the sword down and began walking towards her.

“Wise choice.” Sigrun nodded and kept her hand held out.

Embla reached to grab it when she heard the sound of footsteps running towards them. Sigrun’s ears twitched, indicating that she heard them as well. The rabbit eared woman turned around and saw Kaguya appear in front of her in a burst of speed. She swung her blade at her throat.

“Pathetic,” Sigrun said, reaching for her blade.

Embla took advantage of this distraction. She opened her hand and created a swirling ball of dark mana. She slammed it into the small of Sigrun’s back, causing the kin to cry out in surprise.

Kaguya stabbed her sword through Sigrun’s throat.

“Push!” Kaguya yelled.

Embla didn’t need to be told twice. She pushed against Sigrun’s back, punching straight through her abdomen. Her black blood spilled on the floor along with the viscera of her internal organs. She pulled her hand back and jumped back towards Yuki and Pandora.

Kaguya pulled her blade from Sigrun’s throat and jumped, using Sigrun’s surprised face as a launch pad. She landed next to them and narrowed her eyes. “She’s already regenerating. What do we do?” Kaguya asked.

“She’s like those sick people back at Alfheim. And… William,” Yuki said.

“Fire didn’t work on William. How the hell are we supposed to beat her?” Embla asked. She watched in morbid fascination at the way Sigrun’s body stitched its way back together.

“No but… an Arts did. Specifically my brother’s arts,” Pandora said.

“Cal’s out of commission. We need to get him now. Fuck, I’m still overloaded,” Yuki said, wincing in pain when she tried to summon her mana.

“It’s fine. We need to hold them off long enough for Azalea to get here,” Embla said. She opened her hands and knives made of pure shadow appeared in her palms. “We just need to keep her cut up until then.”

Kaguya nodded.

Pandora closed her eyes and held her staff out. “Enchant: Iron Body, Victory Blessing, Enhance Parameter.”

Kaguya and Embla felt power rushing through their bodies. The two dashed forward as the last of Sigrun’s wounds stitched themselves together. Kaguya swung her blade, slashing the wound open once more.

Embla threw her knife, impaling the stunned Sigrun in the head. She teleported to the knife and pulled the knife, splitting her face open.

Sigrun stumbled, grabbing her split face.

Embla rushed towards Sigrun once more.

However, the injured woman was not as stunned as she had previously deduced. She felt Sigrun’s leg connect with her jaw, sending her crashing through one of the pillars.

Black mist began to radiate off Sigrun’s wounds. She turned to Kaguya and released a breath of black smoke from her injured mouth.

Kaguya disappeared, having accelerated her time. The black mist eroded everything in its path, leaving nothing but dust. She reappeared above Sigrun and brought her blade down.

The woman deflected her blade, sending her back.

Pandora held her hand out and fired an Outset Light at Sigrun.

The beam slammed into Sigrun, sending her sliding across the lobby.

Pandora clenched her jaw, feeling resistance from Sigrun. Her eyes grew wide when she saw a black mist begin to eat away at her magic. She canceled the beam and slammed her palm on the floor.

A brown magic circle appeared underneath her hand and a fissure split the floor open, sending Sigrun down into the ground. “Now for-” she gasped when she felt something pierce through her torso.

“Pandora!” Yuki screamed.

Multiple black sharpened tendrils were piercing through her body. The tendrils all quickly retreated into the ground.

Pandora silently fell to her hands and knees, biting back a scream of pain. Blood poured from her wounds, staining the floor of the rotunda.

“H- Healing Hands,” she uttered in a pain filled voice.

“O-Oi. Get a hold of yourself! I’ll hold her off,” Kaguya said.

Sigrun had long since removed herself from the fissure. She was stretching her neck, creating popping sounds that reverberated through the lobby. She moved her head back, narrowly avoiding a violet knife.

Embla appeared next to the knife and swung it, almost slashing Sigrun’s throat.

Sigrun reached out to grab her but caught nothing but air.

Embla reappeared next to Kaguya.

“When did you?” Kaguya asked.

“When we took off, I planted one of my knives in your pocket,” she replied. “Pandora, you okay?”

“I’m just peachy. I managed to stop the bleeding,” Pandora said, shakily getting to her feet.

“Come on. Look alive, we need to-”

Embla gasped. The next thing she knew, she was staring at the ceiling. She lifted her head and saw Pandora and Kaguya in similar situations. The two were struggling to get up. Sigrun turned to face her.

“It’s easier if you make my job easy. Come on, kid. Don’t struggle so uselessly,” Sigrun said. She took one step forward and was knocked to the ground. Her violet-pink eyes swiveled to see Yuki’s heel make contact with her skull. Her head hit the ground violently, sending spiderweb cracks through the floor.

“I can still fight!” Yuki yelled.

“Yuki! Dodge!” Embla cried out.

Yuki’s body reacted on instinct, jumping out of the way of Sigrun’s reach. She landed next to Embla, helping her to her feet.

“Come on, we need to rush her all at once. Keep her stunlocked like what you and Kaguya did before,” she said.

“If she’ll let us,” Embla said, spitting blood from her mouth.

Kaguya, Embla, and Yuki all rushed towards Sigrun.

Pandora raised her hands into the air and lobbed a massive ball of lightning at her.

Sigrun grabbed her blade and drew it, slicing the ball apart. She jumped back, narrowly avoiding Kaguya’s sword. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She turned on her heels and deflected Embla and Yuki’s attacks.

These brats… I’ve underestimated them. Her prana manifested on her body. She brought her sword down, forcing Yuki and Embla to split apart. A wave of air tore through the ground, spitting it open. The entire direction in which the air wave traveled split the wall open, cutting apart everything in its path.

Embla looked on with wide eyes at the devastation. Entire houses and buildings had been cut in twain.

“Embla! Now’s not the time! We need to-”

“Your team is rather uncoordinated.”

Yuki’s eyes grew wide. Sigrun grabbed her head and slammed her into the floor.

“Yuki!” Kaguya ran up to Sigrun’s unprotected back and raised her blade.

Sigrun anticipated this. She let go of Yuki and parried Kaguya’s blade. She stepped forward with surprising speed, thrusting her sword through Kaguya’s abdomen.

Kaguya cried out in pain as Sigrun lifted her into the air with her sword.

“Let them go!” Embla yelled. Her left eye began to glow brightly. It lost its blood red hue and adopted a color similar to molten gold. A burst of red and black energy erupted from her body. Sigrun dropped Kaguya and summoned a barrier to block the attack.

Her eyes widened in surprise when her barrier crumbled to nothing as soon as the energy made contact with it. The force of the blast pushed her back.

Pandora took this as an opportunity and fired a barrage of elemental magic at her. The skills hit home, exploding violently. Pandora’s eyes glowed, searching for Sigrun’s magic signature amidst the smoke. Pain shot through her body when she saw a sword sticking out of her stomach. She fell to her knees as the blade retracted into her body and out her back.

“Pandora!” Embla’s eye began to glow brightly. She disappeared in a burst of speed, reappearing next to Sigrun. A blue light appeared in the palms of her hand. Small blue squares swarmed around her fingers, taking the shape of a sword. She swung both swords at Sigrun, forcing her to dodge. “Sixteen Fol-”

Sigrun ducked underneath one of her slashes and slammed the butt of her sword into Embla’s solar plexus. She kicked Embla’s recently healed shoulder, sending a wave of excruciating pain through her body.

Embla was thrown back, crashing into one of the chairs. She groaned. Embla shakily lifted her head and saw Sigrun walking towards her. In her right hand was a ball of black mist.

“Hati never said I had to bring you back intact. This way, I don’t have to deal with your worthless floundering,” Sigrun said. She raised her hand and let loose a stream of black smoke towards her.

Embla shakily got on her knees, trying to fight through the immense pain she felt. She looked up and saw the smoke rushing towards her. Her life began to flash before her eyes. Feeling the oncoming embrace of death, Embla closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. However, she felt… nothing.

She cracked open an eye. A gasp of surprise left her lips. In front of her was a woman with silvery-white hair. Tears brimmed at the edges of her eyes and her lip quivered in joy and longing.

She turned around, revealing her warm blue eyes.

“I’m home, Em,” Valentina said, giving her younger sister a reassuring smile.