“Okay does everybody understand the plan?” asked Zero
Everybody with the exception of the children nodded and then Zero had the twins open a portal to the hotel for Yoko and the children while Valna opened a gateway to her realm. Yoko and the twins were taking the children back to the hotel while Zero would head to Valna’s realm along with Hel. As they were leaving Zero secretly sent Dahlia a message.
{Dahlia I need you to keep an eye on Yoko. Hel messed with her soul and I don’t know if they will be any side effects. So stay close to her and if she wonders why just say you want to be close to the children.}
{Understood my lord. Shall I keep this from Azalea?}
{Yeah nothing should happen but just to be safe.}
When Zero arrived in Valna’s dimension he looked around a saw 2 planets near a bright white orb. The first was a large planet was near the white orb and the second was a smaller planet much further away from the orb. The planet they headed for looked about twice as big as the Earth and when they land on its surface Zero felt that the gravity was about 4 times that of Earth. The white orb functioned as a sun and shinned harshly on the planet causing the landscape to look like a desolate wasteland. The wind blew creating clouds of dust that filled the air. When Zero took a breath he found that the air stung his lungs with every breath and the dust obstructed his vision. It certainly did not look like a pleasant world to live in, though he imagined some beings could manage.
“Well this is certainly an unpleasant world you created.” said Hel
“Is it not to your liking? Well there’s nothing to be done about that now so you’ll just have to bear it.” retorted Valna
“What’s wrong?” asked Zero
“You may have forgotten but my parents are frost giants meaning so am I. I generally prefer colder environments. The atmosphere of this world also contains traces of aether so it has a slight draining effect on me.” explained Hel
“Well it’d be hard for mortals to live here but those who can acclimate will certainly gain great power. I created this world after having a discussion with Julius. He wanted to train a few humans well versed in light magic for his team. Since I was focused on my own training and couldn’t be bothered to help train the humans I made this world. I figured that if they could just survive here for a month they would become strong and able to use light magic.” explained Valna
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“I get the logic behind that idea but this plan would fail. Human bodies would be unable to withstand this level of heat and aether on this level is poisonous to mortals. If you want to do as you planned I would suggest cooling this planet and diluting the aether until it is 1/10,000 of its current level.” said Hel
“Why?” asked a curious Zero
“It seems you are all too used to hanging around Julius that you all seem to forget that the humans of this world have weak bodies and souls. If a normal human stepped foot here their soul would shatter from the sheer amount of aether and their bodies dehydrate in a day or 2.” explained Hel
“Then I just need to create stronger humans.” said Zero
“Yes that would work and it might be for the best. The humans of this world were poorly nurtured their souls are frankly malnourished.” said Hel
Valna summoned her armor and spear. She then swung the spear creating a gust of wind and said, “Enough we’ve spent too much time talking about this. We need to begin.”
A shadow sword shot out of Zero’s shadow into the air. Zero grabbed the sword as it descended and took his oblivion offensive style that focused on quick footwork and quick draw slashes. Hel stood to the side to observe the 2 as Valna also took her stance.
“Remember the fight end once your opponent loses consciousness or admits defeat. Now begin.” said Hel
Valna started the sparing session with a thrust at Zero’s chest which he sidestepped to dodge. Zero then counterattacked but Valna released her spear, grabbed Zero’s arm, and then with her other hand clad in white flames attacked Zero with a palm thrust. Zero was blasted back and fell to the ground. Valna waved her hand and summoned flaming spears above Zero that instantly fell down. When the spears fell they created a large dust cloud blocking Valna’s vision but she instantly used her spear to block an attack from behind her.
Zero had disappeared the instant before the attack and reappeared to slash at Valna from behind but she blocked the attack as if she had eyes in the back of her head. Zero was about to put some distance between them when a flame spear pierced his chest from behind. A shocked Zero instantly teleported away from Valna. When he reappeared further away he coughed up some blood. Shadow tendrils crawled from Zero's shadow and engulfed the flaming spear and extinguished the flame.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you defeated me when we first met.” said Valna as she tossed her spear at the wounded Zero
The spear flew at an impossible speed and stabbed Zero’s stomach before he could even react. Valna then teleported in a blaze reappearing before Zero and grabbed the spear. She then turned towards Hel and said, “Do I end the spar here?”
Hel didn’t respond so Valna ignited her hand with her white flame that spread across her spear and engulfed Zero. Once Zero was completely engulfed by the flames Valna removed her spear from his abdomen and retreated. Zero’s shadow tendrils attempted to extinguish the flames but unlike the previous flames, these burned the shadows. As the flames burned Zero collapsed and Valna waved her hand and the flames flew off of Zero's charred black body and coalesced into a ball of fire.
Valna then looked at Zero’s motionless body and found that it was strange that Zero was showing no signs of healing. Even when they fought Sophia and he took a hit of condensed aether his body still heal albeit slowly. The ball of white flame turned into a spear and launched at the body. When the spear stabbed into Zero the body then began to disintegrate into black dust-like specks.
As Valna watched the scene she failed to notice that the shadow under her feet had grown considerably. Before Valna could even react black spikes erupted beneath her surrounding her and making her unable to move. Zero then emerged from the shadowy ground and held a shadow sword to Valna’s throat and with a smile asked, “How did you like fighting my shadow clone?”