“If only they had been here…things would have been different… If we have groups of protectors of Talonia who dedicated their entire lives into protecting the Kingdom…”

If only the capital’s troops can arrive here faster…things would have been different. Perhaps…they would all have been alive.

Caligo knelt in the blood-stained snow as smoke rose from the wooden houses ravaged by bandits from the Ethereal Realm’s north-most region.

If only they were strong enough to protect themselves…

Caligo leaned his head back as flakes of falling snow kissed his forehead. He heard a rustling sound coming from underneath the rubble, and he lifted up the wood to see a little girl shivering from underneath.

She was just small enough to fit under the table while everything collapsed, and Caligo extended his hand out to her, lifting the rest of the rubbles with his mist Manifest before pulling her shaking body into his massive jacket.

“Mama…daddy…they are all gone…” She cried as her little frozen fingers grabbed onto Caligo’s inner shirt. He ground his teeth together before looking in the direction of Ethereal realm and comforted the girl on the back.

“Don’t worry…this will never happen again…” Caligo said, his fingers rubbing the girl’s hair, “I will make sure of it. I will make sure that Talonia will never be trampled upon again.”

“How…the capital don’t care about us…” The girl cried further.

“Once we got strong enough, they will.”

To the outside world, it sounded as if the Valkyrie program was simply a new program that came along from seemingly out of nowhere. However, the truth was a completely different matter.

Caligo had attempted to sell this idea of a program when the news of the first of the raids from Ethereal realm upon another village broke out, but he was laughed out of the door by the generals of Talonia.

And now, his own village was also gone. In order for his dream of a free and secure Talonia to come to be, he must act, and he must act now.

It all started simple with rounding up the survivors of the raided villages, as they were plenty motivated for revenge. Then, based on what he learned back at his time in the Talonian military, he created the first iteration of the Valkyrie curriculum.

However, mixing in boys and girls in the same program was not a good idea as the arduous training program quickly forced the groups towards one another, and attachments soon became a nuisance rather than a motivating factor.

It was easy for him to narrow down the program to be girls only, as they were able to gain access to more places through the more untraditional of means, and the enemies had the propensity of underestimating girls.

The girl that he saved eventually grew up to become his first Valkyrie general. And, she lead a one-way mission into the depths of Ethereal Realm where her squad single-handedly destroyed the house responsible for organizing such raids into Talonia. Then, she faked for the attack to be coming from a rivaling house, all within the span of one week.

This swift singular action lead to massive politcal turmoils within the Ethereal realm, and no eyes were drawn towards Talonia for even a single moment. The success story drew more attention within Talonia and the program started to gain popularity.

With an influx of candidates, the Valkyrie's training curriculum subsequently became harsher and more systematic, and soon, the Talonian military had to confront the demons of their own creation.

It was said that the generals were planning to flatten this “attempt at a coup” as organized by Caligo, however, after a single night of swift action by the Valkyries already embedded within Fang city, all of the generals instead voted to support the formal establishment of the Valkyrie’s program, and the propaganda machine started working its magic soon after.

This was his vision, a vision of a free and secure Talonia where they possess a military power strong enough to keep the other countries at bay, versatile and fast-acting enough to respond to any hints of aggression, and covert enough to dismantle any potential opposition from behind the scenes.

And now, that dream is tumbling right in front of him. The fact that Alina had broken free of his conditioning and control and was fighting actively against him goes against everything that Caligo intended for the Valkyries to be.

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They are tools necessary for Talonia’s security, and tools are not supposed to have free will of their own.

“ARGH!”

With red mist swirling around his fist as Caligo drove it forward, Alina dashed through the air as her image became compressed into a single line with her blinding speed. The red mist arm exploded upon impact as the mists that formed Caligo’s gigantic body became scattered by the impact.

Then, individual humanoid mist phantoms formed out of the broken apart mists as they individually pounded into Alina’s body.

“YOU LET US DIE!” One of those phantoms screamed as her body shaped like a girl wearing Valkyrie armor, and Alina slammed straight through her face as the mist broke apart once again and rematerialized behind her.

“We must keep him contained.” Icy said, turning towards Wu and Lera who nodded simultaneously.

“We will create a perimeter that he won’t escape from.” Wu said, “What will you do?”

“I will be able to disrupt him, but I don’t want to destroy the city in the process.” Icy said, “And once that opening is created, then Alina will be able to destroy the orb in his chest!”

“On it!” Wu and Lera said, flying off to the side as Lera commanded the Cast array in the ground before a circular Cast circle formed near the surface as massive Void domain shiled layers formed and rose straight up into the air, separating the battlefield in the air with the rest of Fang city down below.

However, beyond a dark shade of the Void domain layer and the light blue of the shield, the rest of Fang could still see the fight.

“If only my Cast array can do Void Domain of this volume…and not just the thin layer” Lera said as the bubble of darkness completely wrapped around the air before glancing towards Wu who’s asking Ita to direct the people within close proximity to evacuating out fo the shield layer, and he fired off a Void-domain homing missile to keep a few portals open for people to get out.

"It's a lot easier to maintain a bubble than a solid sphere!" Wu said, "But that doesn't make the bubble any less effective."

"You are right..."

“Let’s do our job, and let the fighters do theirs too.” Wu said, tapping against his communication Cast, “Icy, Alina! Icy will focus on the disruption, and Alina you need to destroy the orb within his chest that’s condensing all of the power! I may be able to create an opening for you, but it won’t be long!”

“Got it!” “Understood.”

“Icy! It’s sealed!” Lera glanced down at the last group of citizens exiting the shield layer before Wu flew up to her side and Icy propelled forward with a growing ice column and spun around in the air to face Alina and the giant Caligo.

“Perfect Synchrony…Ice Age…Nifelheim Devastation!” Icy shouted, her body turning into the very embodiment of Talonian winter as the snow around her became swept up by the blizzard she’s creating.

“Tsk! You think you will just be able to attack me head-on?!” Caligo taunted, “Your strength is nothing compared to mine!”

Then, the blizzard started to tear away more and more of Caligo’s body, however, the individual chunks simply reformed into far smaller phantoms that all tried to swarm towards Wu, Lera, and Icy at the same time.

“Void Domain!” Lera said quickly, shielding both herself and Wu from both the blizzard and the smaller minions of Caligo’s.

“The more of me you create, the more I take control of this battle!” Caligo said, taking in all of the information that fed back into his body from the individual phantoms, and he sent out a pulse as all of the phantoms started flying around in the opposite direction of the blizzard, dispelling it in instant before Icy’s body was revealed in the air.

“KILL HER!” Caligo ordered as Icy’s body became swarmed in an instant. Then, an uneasy feeling filled Caligo’s mind as he had not felt Alina’s presence since Icy started channeling her attack.

The orb! That must have been their plan!

Caligo looked down when he caught onto Alina’s body gliding through the air with her Wave suppressed as she crashed headfirst into Caligo’s chest, her body suddenly powering up into her dominance mode as Caligo felt the atmosphere around his chest becoming heavier.

“YOU WILL NOT GET WHAT YOU WANT!” Caligo shouted, drawing the orb further back by reorganizing his body, “This orb is mine!”

“Void domain nuke!” Wu shouted as he flew up behind Caligo’s back, and he poured absolutely every single ounce of the Wave through his Void domain as his skin started to burn and darken. However, the dark orb exploded out from his body, freezing everything around Caligo’s chest in place as Alina simply held her pose and rammed straight into the sphere, "NOW, ALINA!"

The shells of orb were like eggshells that cracked when Alina touched it. With a firm pressure from Alina’s claws, she tore it open as steam rushed out from within the orb. Alina felt the heat from the highly condensed Wave immediately as her body felt like it was being cooked alive. However, she took the pain head-on and held both of her arms straight out, grabbing onto the sides of the initial crack and slowly started tearing it apart.

Jets of more condensed Wave shot out from the orb and it flashed through Alina’s eyes, burning marks straight onto her face, eyes, and forehead. As her vision started to blur, Alina transferred all of her attention into seeing only through the Wave and focused on dismantling the orb in front of her.

It felt as if some kid is throwing a tantrum against the sun. The restriction from Wu’s Void Domain was undone, and she unleashed her rampage upon the orb.

Through the bright red cracks over the giant Caligo’s body, more and more of the Wave that were poured out became directed straight into his body uncontrollably even as his mist form struggled to contain everything within.

“Argh…argh! ARGHHHH!” Caligo screamed as parts of his body started exploding and flaming up right as Alina finally reached into the deep cores of the orb, and she detonated it with a single pulse of the Wave, "No! Stop! STOP!"

“This is the end for you, and for the Valkyrie’s program…” Alina murmured, “How’s that for some action, Shadow?”

“It’s not that bad~”

Everything became silent for a single moment around her, and then, it all turned white.