Back at the main palace before all the drama at the Polar Prison, the Valkyrie bound to a wooden Cast in the middle of the palace growled as a cloud of red gas swirled around her body, slowly infusing hints of red as her snow-white skin became slowly darkened overtime.
The entire process was creepily silent, with only the Valkyries periodic growls and heavy breathing filling the space within the main palace as the entirety of the Talonia cabinet watched closely with Icy and the grand priest. After a little while, the majority of the red mist have dissipated from the air around her, revealing the dark red cracks pulsating over her body with each and every breathe.
Then, as if there's a full cooldown period, all of those red cracks then slowly started to retreat back towards the Valkyrie's head as if it's a Manifest of some sort, and it all condensed into a single horizontal black line that looked like a crack into another universe.
“Is it…complete?” Icy asked, rolling forward on top of a couch made from her ice as steam encircled her seat. The grand priest nodded slowly before he slowly raised his hand as the tips of his finger started glowing. In response to the activation of the Wave in his body, the Valkyrie rapidly tilted her head up before she leaped up and out from the pit, lunging towards the grand priest and stopping just shy in front of him.
Then, her movement traced his wrinkled palm before both lowered.
“Good girl…” The grand priest said, resting his hand as the Valkyrie stayed kneeling. Blood started streaming from one of the cracks over her skin, tainting the blue and white armor, but she seemed utterly unaware of anything, “Now…go to sleep.”
With the snap of his finger, the darkness around the Valkyrie’s forehead pulsated once. Then, the usual skin tone returned to the girl as she blinked and glanced around the room with confusion.
“You saw the way she moved.” The grand priest said, “And I am sure you sensed her power. You see, this partial demonic transformation is power on demand.”
“Nothing that good comes without a price.” Icy tilted her head as the temperature in the room slowly started to lower, “What is the price?”
Though taking a few days, Shadow was able to track down the precise locations of Alina the more time she was outside the prison. She was a little rusty initially, but all of the muscle and Wave memories came flooding back the moment she stepped foot onto the snow once again.
“The snow of Talonia is like our lifeline. Our blood.” Shadow said, her fingers scraping against the piles of snow at roadside, Its shapes tell stories.”
“What does this one say?” Wu asked.
“That someone needed to pee, but couldn’t find a toilet.” Shadow said with a serious look on her face as the scars over her eyes became stretched. Wu looked like he was choking on a pit when Shadow burped and started rolling on the ground.
“Haha…HAHAHAHA! You are so adorably innocent, man!” Shadow said, slamming her fist into the snow.
“Ok ok…have you found her yet?” Wu rolled his eyes, and Shadow pointed a finger up north.
“She’s not too far away. But…at this rate, she’s just heading to the middle of nowhere.”
“Is she captured?” Ita asked.
“That idiot wouldn’t make the same mistake twice…” Shadow shook her head, “If her capture was what lead the rest of us to be round up before, then at least she will be caught in a different way this time.”
“Then there is at least some probability that she was looking for the rest of the Valkyries.” Wu said.
“Hey, looks like this one ain’t an idiot, just innocent.” Shadow giggled before scratching her finger against Wu’s face, “Maybe you will be my husband? Even Valkyries needs their bodies tended to if you know what I mean~”
“Focus!” Lera appeared behind them and chopped both Wu and Shadow’s heads.
“Why me?!” Wu protested when Shadow smirked and leaned her head against Wu’s shoulders.
“Like I said! She’s heading to the middle of nowhere.” Shadow said, reminding Lera of Ver’s teasing as she let her long black hair dangle over Wu’ shoulder, “If you move, I will stab you.”
“I…will be fine.” Wu said, raising his eyebrow towards Lera before mouthing silently, “Let’s just use her for what we need…”
“Middle of nowhere, yeah.” Lera murmured, turning around and launching her scouting eye even higher up into the air as the group shared the chariot and glided through the snowy landscape. Leaving piloting duties to Ita, she simply focused on gaining vision on whatever’s on the other side.
The trees around them are all about twenty meters tall with all of the leaves completely shredded from the branches, and the dark tree trunks looked like ghostly extensions growing out from the earth that's hidden under the snow. Wu was almost certain that none of those trees are alive, yet according to Shadow, they obtain their energy partially from the local Wavefield during the harsher times of the year.
"So...all the time?"
From the projection of Lera’s Cast array in front of them, the individual trees were visualized as tiny black orbs. Lera initially thought those were the ambushers, but as the black orbs passed by the center of the projection as they passed through the trees, she came to realize that being the Wave signature of the trees all around them. Shadow wasn't kidding after all. Nature will always find a way.
“There seem to be a village there…” Lera murmured, her attention fully drawn towards the Scouting eyes as they rode the winter gusts over the mountain. The forest slowly started to clear on the other side, revealing flattened snow-covered plains on the otherside with a village at the bottom of the mountain, “But…I don’t see a single person?”
“Ghost town alert! Ghost town alert!” Shadow threw her hands up excitedly in the air when Lera projected what she saw onto the back of her seat on the chariot, “That ain’t on the map we were supposed to remember!”
Shadow shifted her hips over to Wu before she pulled up her shirt and started to undress. Wu turned his head when Shadow instead tapped herself on the side of the stomach, sending through a jolt of Wave before a map of Talonia emerged from under her skin over her stomach.
“That’s…a strange Cast to have.” Wu’s jaws dropped, and Shadow growled angrily before leaning in rather aggressively.
Stolen novel; please report.
“You are saying you don’t like girls with tattoos?!”
“Both myself and Lera have lines on our bodies.”
“Ok! Good!”
From Shadow's pointing, they are currently to the south of Fang, having traveled eastward after departing from the Polar Prison. According to her map, there isn’t supposed to be any settlements in the spanning mountains until the next major city another day of travel away.
“That’s a neat trick though, for all it’s…presentation style. I guess it beats having to carry a piece of paper...”
"Don't be an idiot. We can access this knowledge without showing you. But I like showing it. It's cool."
"It is pretty cool." Wu had to agree, "A tattoo that can be turned on and off at a moment's notice? Now that's neat."
“Yeah, if you’d like to endure eight straight hours of being carved into. Though after five hours, it got rather erotic.” Shadow shrugged, retracting the projection before glancing down at the village, “That shit is a real ghost town though.”
“We need to get closer.” Lera said as Shadow yawned. As their chariot started speeding downhill, Lera kept the Scouting Eyes in the air before extending out her Cast array, taking in more than just the visual information from the environments.
That was when she caught onto dozens of Wave signatures. They were hidden rather well, but eventually, their distinctness and strength in the Wave broke through the efforts of Wave suppression, though it was partially thanks to Lera's improvements too.
Each of those Wave signatures also looked similar to that of Shadows.
Just outside of the town, a far stronger one lingered. Then, Lera dispelled the chariot as the group silently approached on foot, when suddenly, the strong presence vanished from thin air.
“Shit. I’ve lost her.” Lera cursed, scanning around when Shadow’s nonchalant voice came from besides her.
“I didn’t.” She said, reaching a dark blade conjured from her Wave against Alina’s neck as the latter simply stood with her arms crossed.
“Good to see you too.” Alina said, pushing the dark blade aside, “The others…I tracked them here…”
“And I tracked your fat ass here.” Shadow smirked before she hopped to press her face all the way up Alina’s grill, “You heard of that upgrade shit?”
“N…not really. I was out most of the time.” Alina shook her head, when the sounds of footsteps came from the other side of the village, and an entire entourage of soldiers started entering the village.
“Guess you are as useless as I remember then. Doesn't matter.” Shadow said, her tone turning serious, “I am here to get them out.”
“Very well." Alina nodded, “We will work together. As Valkyries.”
“What even is this place, and why are the Valkyries kept here?” Lera asked.
“It’s a ghost town!” Shadow threw her hands up again, “It’s not on my map!”
“It wasn’t supposed to be.” Alina said slowly, “And…they are literal ghost towns…It seemed like the Grand Priest had repurposed it to keep the Valkyries prisoner…”
“What do you mean…litearal ghost towns?” Shadow asked, her body tensing as her eyes widened, “Are you telling me that there are metaphorical ghost towns too?”
Alina looked at her, and she held her breath before turning to observe the soldiers even further. Shadow marched ahead, pinching her by the wrist and yanking her around.
“Answer me.” Shadow said, her body twitching when suddenly she drew her dark blade and pressed it straight up against Alina’s neck, “Or I will stab you.”
“Hey!” Wu said, powering up his gauntlet when Alina shook her head and instead looked into Shadow’s purple eyes. However, she didn’t say a thing when Shadow finally grunted and yanked the blade away.
“Keep your damn secrets.” Shadow spun around, “No! I don't mean it. Why would they print something on us that's useless?”
“Shadow…please…” Wu still tried to delegate the situation, but Shadow stared him down.
“Shut it!” Shadow swung her right hand up at Wu before she slapped it with her left and pointed at Alina, “Not you! Spill your beans!”
“I have heard rumors.” Ita said, drawing the attention of everyone around, “Some conspiracies said that girls in the Valkyries program were enlisted from entire towns, and those towns became...they just disappeared soon after…I never believed it though cause it sounded so...odd.”
“But the humans have to come from somewhere…” Wu bit into his finger at the revelation as Lera gasped lightly.
“Yes! We aren’t like babies that just came out from thin air, right?!” Shadow snapped her fingers and pointed at Wu.
“Alina.” Lera said, “You know, don’t you?”
“…As the general of Valkryies, we were burdened with knowledge of the legacy of the program.” Alina said slowly before she walked towards Shadow.
“We all deserve answers..” Shadow said.
“I was ordered to be the sole keeper of secrets, so as to spare all of you the burden of knowledge.” Alina said, wrapping her arms around Shadow when she instinctively pinned a blade against her gut, “I love each and everyone of you all the same. Especially you, my dear Shadow. If I tell you the truth...you may not be able to handle it.”
"Test me." Shadow applied more pressure forward, though Alina resisted it easily with her Wave, "I survived all of the other tests."
"Like Wu said...the people had to come from somewhere. In order for the program to succeed, and for Talonia to be protected, sacrifices had to be made in the name of stability."
“This isn’t right.” Ita said, shaking her head, “You may be here to rescue the Valkyries, but we are going to change the entire program for good. Starting right now.”
“And then what? Leave Talonia in chaos? Let the other kingdoms do what they please?!” Alina glared at Ita before letting Shadow go reluctantly, “For years, the Valkyrie program had allowed Talonia to stand strong among the Eastern continent!”
“Not like this.” Ita pressed, “You can’t hide behind the fake patriotic purpose and the trails of blood it leaves behind! There is a better way, but you are too brainwashed to see it!”
“Not now!” Wu said, putting his hand up and interrupting, “Whatever it is…we need to rescue the girls first.”
“He’s right.” Alina said, sighing, “Shadow, I leave the rescue duties to you.”
“What are you going to do instead? Go kill yourself?” She asked, “Or bow to the new masters and swear your loyalty to the new system?”
“No. I am going to kill him. He had shown me what I needed to do.” Alina said, clenching her fist, “Once the grand priest is gone, then Descendants of Winter will be no threat at all.”
“What happened to you…?” Lera asked, and Alina rose up from her position without looking back, “I thought all that you wanted was to get the Valkyries back? Since when was killing the first priority…?”
“Like I said, I have received my guidance from my commander.” Alina said as the blue glow of her Wave surrounded her body, “And it will be done, like always."
“Same old idiot.” Shadow clicked her mouth before marching away in the opposite direction, “I am going to the houses. Whatever.”
“Hey!” Lera said, tossing a communication Cast her way when Shadow caught it behind the back style, “Use this if you need our help, since you always seem like a lone wolf!”
“I won’t.” Shadow said, sneaking the Cast into her pocket, “Just get ready when I bust them out from their Wave-suppression Casts.”
In the meanwhile, Alina dashed away, creating a series of small booms as she charged through the forest and drew the attention of the soldiers. At the exact same time, Shadow and Lera lead the charge from the other side of the ghost town with Shadow traveling far ahead and Lera, Ita, and Wu moving just a bit slower behind her.
Shadow quickly swept through the individual houses, marking out the ones with Valkyries in them with dark spinning circles in front of the doors.
With a single punch, Ita broke through the wooden doors to the run-down houses, when they spotted the Valkyries sitting still like robots in each of the houses. They looked back at the intruders with a dazed glare and squinted their eyes as the lights from the outside illuminated the room.
Over their foreheads, diagonal dark lines pulsed at the rate of their steady heartbeats.
“Come.” Ita hurried to the closest Valkyrie, “Let’s get out of here.”