“Why did you let the Descendants of Winter do whatever the fuck they wanted?” Shadow questioned, leaning forward as her purple eyes zoned in on Caligo's face, “Someone like you wouldn’t sit and wait while another tried to take your place, would you?”

“How perceptive~” Caligo smiled, his handsome eyes looking straight back into Shadow’s soul as she swallowed and forced herself to continue the staring contest.

“Sounds like someone want to die.” Shadow raised another dark blade up into the air, and she slammed it towards Caligo’s side, stopping just shy of severing his arms off.

“Sounded like someone didn’t have the guts to do what’s necessary, or rather…” Caligo squinted his eyes and started recalling the images of all of the girls he had processed throughout the years, “Or someone isn't in the right mind to do it…”

“Shit. You got me.” Shadow cursed, dropping down her hand as the dark aura of her blade melted away the table next to them. Then, she swung her weapon around, demolishing the furniture and the interior of the Cave.

“I don’t have to tell you anything.” Caligo seemed rather amused by Shadow’s antics, “It’s interesting, isn’t it? How Alina only wanted to know about the origin of her journey, while all you care about is the future?”

“I care about what I care about, you idiot.” Shadow tilted her head, “You really want to die, don’t you?”

“Well…nothing more than usual.” Caligo shrugged before he leaned back against the remains of the table. Shadow nodded to an inaudible beat before she spun around with her fingers scratching along her face, and her eyes started spinning around crazily.

Then, a black shard shot up from the floor and pierced through Caligo’s body from the back before it lifted him off the ground.

“Hehehe…nothing fucking matters anymore…everyone will die, and everything will be destroyed…” Shadow laughed as strange tears escaped her right eye and started flowing down her face, “And all of the it shall start with you.”

Caligo’s expression froze, and he grunted before his hands grasped towards the blade that punctured through his chest.

“How…how did you break through the conditioning?” Caligo struggled.

“Hey, guess I am the one with the answers now.” Shadow stuck her tongue out, “Easy! You break yourself first!”

She threw her hands diagonally, and a dark blade slashed through the air, cutting cleanly through Caligo’s body when it snapped apart as the chunks of Caligo flopped onto the ground. However, there was no blood, and the severed body segments looked weightless too.

Shadow leaned in to examine Caligo's body with surprise before poking him with another blade, as parts of his body became stirred up like clouds in a mist.

“Oh you son of a…” Shadow cursed when Alina suddenly let out a primal growl, her body twisted and strained as a red glow emanated from her skin. Then, she charged towards Shadow and tossed her onto the ground with the Great Northern Wolf surrounding her body.

“I don’t bore myself with failures, but aren’t you a special case…” Caligo said, enjoying the battle as Alina sat atop Shadow’s body and pounded into her. Shadow desperately looked for a shadow to hide into, yet Alina’s own glow was so bright that it bathed the entire cave in light, “You good for nothing Valkyrie…Always the one to hide, the one to crack, and the one to always survive. That’s all you are good for, but guess what…

“Talonia doesn’t need survivors. We need fighters.” Caligo said, his upper body levitating and leaning over Shadow’s body when she cursed and dissolved her body into his shadow, escaping the predicament when Alina’s punch instead cracked the floor, “I remember you now…when entire squads were wiped out, you were the only one to return. Some believed that you were a traitor, but I read in between the lines of Alina’s report…

“Because living and running away is all you can do. Some might think you are not suited for the upgrades because you are not sane, and you are hard to control…but no…I think you are unsuitable because you are a coward. One governed by fear. You hide behind your insanity, so you don’t have to confront your fears!”

“Shut up! Shut up!” Shadow screamed, “I AM TRYING TO KILL YOU HERE!”

“Also…you thought Alina cared for you? No. I programmed her to care only for the mission. She will abandon you the moment your use runs out, and guess what? She did.”

“SHUT UP!” Shadow rose up, bursting through the mist that formed Caligo’s body as his presence flickered once before it started to break apart into thin blue Wave lines, “You pretend big man hiding behind clouds.”

“Perhaps.” Caligo said, the broken pieces of his head reshaping into a single strand of mist that slipped into Alina’s ear, taking control of the Valkyrie general, “Destroy her, then come meet me at the capital.”

Alina nodded firmly as Caligo’s presence completely vanished from the room, leaving behind only Shadow and her Valkyrie general.

“Alina?” Shadow said, waving her hand in front of Alina’s face as she looked at her blankly. Then, she started floating into the air as the air in the room started to become heavier and heavier with pressure pushing into her body from all directions, “Damn. You useless bitch. What’s with all the big words about loving me and shit?”

“Hyah!” Alina grunted, her body dashing through the air before she slashed Shadow straight across the stomach with her manifested claws.

The impact threw Shadow back against the wall as the entire world spun in her head, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, given that’s how that bastard shows his love for you!”

“HYAHHH!”

Quickly conjuring up sets of dark blades, Shadow then parried Alina's strikes though they eventually started to distort her creations. Alina eventually backed off, threw both hands to the side and formed the mouth of the Great Northern Wolf as it bit sideways, readying to cut Shadow’s body in half.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Tsk! What a brute…” Shadow kicked back against the ground, using it to propel towards the exit of the room as a major chunk of the cave was bit down by Alina’s manifest. Landing in a smooth backward roll, Shadow then launched dozens of projectiles into the support structure of the caves, though it barely dented the surface.

At that moment, she could hear Caligo’s mocking laughter. Shadow growled with frustration before she dashed towards the exit, however, Alina was fast enough to dart through the room and cut her off.

Compared to the Valkyrie general, allegedly one of the strongest Wave user in the Kingdom, Shadow was slower, weaker, and her only strength is being able to hide in shadows. However, there was no mistake that Alina’s stronger and sharper in her movements, as the potion Caligo offered seemed to have both of the benefits that he verbalized separately.

At this rate, if she doesn’t figure something out, she will be dead. Narrowly avoiding another of Alina’s scratches by dipping half of her face into a shadow of her own creation on the wall, Shadow then threw a stack of books at Alina which she slapped away with ease.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Shadow gripped onto one of her shaking hands as her fingertips started to freeze up. Then, she bounced away as Alina bit into the wall where she was hiding with her Manifest again. This time, the bottom of her boot was ripped off.

Giving her no time to react, Alina followed up with another attack as her fist glowed and whizzed through the air before finally connecting with shadow’s own body. However, instead of parrying, Shadow decided to absorb the hit while carrying the momentum with her body as she half-dipped into the shadow behind her back.

She icould hide in shadows created by any and all objects, but she was also able to partially dissolve into shadows of her own creation. However, she needed to keep parts of her body in the real world in order to cast that shadow, and that made it nothing more than a temporary measure.

Turning the punch into a claw, Alina yanked Shadow out from her hiding place before sending her body flying through the wooden tables and into the shelf of books. As the individual books rained down over her, Shadow was able to instead hide within the darkness they created.

Maybe…maybe he’s right…maybe he’s right all along.

Perhaps…she was always driven by fear. As the design of the Valkyrie program was to ensure all memories of the life before the training was erased and replaced with the countless hours of training. Those that clung on only remember shards of their past, a mere fraciton of the person they once were. Like any other canditdates, Shadow would have been able to either go through the program with no problem or fail and perish somewhere along the way.

However, everything changed on that fateful night. The night when she awoke her abilities was also when fate opened another set of doors for her. In her excitement, she used it to briefly escape her romo beyond the curfew, where she saw the soldiers with shovels working the night jobs.

Then, as Shadow leaned closer, she nearly vomited out loud.

After all, they had all the bodies that needed to be buried. When the girls failed a challenge or a test, they were simply never found again. It was as if they never existed. And now…everything made sense.

Everything made all too much sense.

Shadow wanted to cry, she wanted to scream, but instead, she suppressed everything, as the fear of being found surpassed all other fears, and she resolved to the uncontrollable shaking of her body. That’s where everything was kept, where everything was pushed into. Cracks started to form along with parts of her body, and parts of her mind.

So long as she was allowed to shake, she would be under control, and she can stay quiet. She looked down at her vibrating arm, and her mind was clearer than ever. Everything bad was simply tucked away there, and when she could stick her hand into her own shadow, she felt peace.

Feeling the cool of the darkness as Shadow submerged her hand into the wall, she started to think. The sights of the bodies were hard to escape, but fortunately, even the worst Valkyries was drilled to use their heads more than their hearts in the direst of scenarios.

Think! Shadow, you idiot! Think!

Alina had always been a fearsome opponent, but Shadow now knew what she had to do.

“No one is coming to help you, girl. Nobody’s going to be there for you, but me…” Shadow murmured, emerging from the pile of books before she clapped her hands together and yelled, “COME ON, ALINA VUK! YOU STUPID IDIOT BITCH!”

Alina spun around rapidly, and she launched her body as everything tightened up like a bow. She formed the great wolf’s mouth again and bit down towards Shadow WHEN she threw out dark blades as projectiles that bounced off the wolf’s teeth to taunt her. The teeth bit down on the stone column as Shadow barely slipped out of the way with the sharp outlines scraping against the skin over her thighs, blood streaming down the side of her legs almost immediately.

Alina turned around with irritation, unsatisfied with the bite. She dashed at Shadow once more, smelling the scent of blood in the air and tasting the iron as she crashed headfirst into Shadow when the stones shattered under the bite of the wolf.

“Got you~” Shadow said as cracks rapidly spread through the entire caves before the weight of the mountain crashed down around them. The rocks rained down before filling up the empty space and the light in the room was snatched away instantly as Shadow slipped through the shadows in bewteen the rocks, leaving Alina trapped underneath the rocks.

“ARGHHHH!” Alina’s yells were buried alive, and Shadow stumbled out from the caves with blood rushing out from her stomach and her legs. She tried to run, but the fresh stings were preventing her from making any exaggerated movements.

The cold quickly sniffed out her adrenaline, and the severity of her wounds became obvious immediately.

“Shit…shit…” As her legs cramped up while she tripped and fell, a piece of paper escaped one of her pockets. Shadow grabbed a handful of snow before slapping it against her wounds. Then, she rolled around and picked up the piece of paper.

It’s the communication Cast that Lera had given her. Lera…the same Lera that was here for Alina…How would she react when she learned that Shadow had just buried Alina alive?

Shadow held onto the piece of paper, and her hands started shaking again.

Then, that vibration started spreading to the rest of her body as she started gasping for air while the world spun around her. Her body’s temperature ricocheted between boiling and chilling and pulsated pain was all she could feel.

She remembered her training, and she knew that her body was entering shock.

She…she needed to go somewhere…she needed to go somewhere safe… Crawling in the snow, Shadow only traveled a few meters before her arms gave in under her.

No one will come for her…and she would die alone and forgotten just like the rest of the girls…

After all, that’s what Alina told her to comfort her as she trembled in the hallway during that fateful night…

With her fingers outstretched and drenched in blood, Shadow tapped onto the communication Cast as it started to glow.

Please…someone…help me…I am…

I am scared.