“What is the meaning of this, sir Kenrik..?”

The archbishop stroked his chin.

“I’m sorry. I guess i..slipped.”

Kenrik pulled the godly relic in the shape of an axe, out of the floor and the carpet covering it.

“Still as soft hearted as before.”

Hikaru commented, still tied up while sitting on the floor.

Breathing in, Kenrik lifted the axe once more.

“That won’t happen again..”

“Unfortunately, it seems you missed your chance. Losing your composure even for a moment, is a spiral into defeat.”

Hikaru looked over at the entrance.

“What are you talking about..?”

Frustrated with both his own indecisiveness and Hikaru’s unconcerned nature, Kenrik didn’t bother finding out what Hikaru was looking at.

“HIKARUUUU!”

A high pitched yell filled the dead air. Amplified further by the structure of the great hall, it caused everyone's ears to ring.

Yuri seemed to fly through the air, her momentum so great that it carried her through the air at the speed of an arrow.

Her knee connected with Kenrik's jaw, who did not have any opportunity to dodge an attack he was not expecting.

“KUH-!?”

Unable to handle both the weight of the giant axe and the weight now suddenly pushing against his face.

Kenrik fell backwards, the axe slipping out of his hands, embedding itself into the floor, overly close to Kenrik’s neck.

“Yuri, you’re finally here. I almost got bored.”

Smiling an uncharacteristically wide smile, Hikaru looked at Yuri.

“Well you know, Helgi was going to slow me down even more, but i..i..”

Her words trailed off when she finally looked at Hikaru, his smile robbing her of her words, leaving instead a warm feeling trailing down her chest.

“So how did you plan on getting us out of here? Yuri?”

Repeating his question, Hikaru managed to snap Yuri out of her slightly blushing state.

“Oh, uh. Plan..?”

She repeated.

“I see. You did not have a plan.”

Hikaru’s smile was now no more than a thin expressionless slit. Unsurprised at the alarming news.

Surrounded by guards, with Hikaru still bound, and Yuri lacking any means of offence.

They were in a troublesome situation.

“Get the girl!” The archbishop commanded before retreating into another hallway, leaving the guards to deal with the intruder.

“Wait wait, you can’t get me!” Yuri walked behind Hikaru and waved her hands in front of her.

The guards approached her menacingly, their weapons at the ready.

“Because..it’s their turn first!”

Pointing at the door, none of the guards looked towards where she was pointing. They were too experienced to fall for such a petty trick.

“It’s the girl! Get her!”

“Get the girl!”

“She’s an intruder!”

“Yeah, that too! Get her, get her!”

Savage screams filled the great hall. Other than screams, it was also quickly filling up with more guards.

They were the guards who were chasing after Yuri.

Their eyes however, had acquired a very animalistic nature.

There was more on their minds than following their duty.

It was in Yuri’s best interest to stay away from people with those kind of eyes, lest she fall to a fate worse than death for most women.

But Yuri knew. Things that were dangerous to her, meant things that could work in her favour if she took advantage of them.

A twisted logic. Yet it somehow always seemed to work for her.

“No way! I’ll only let one guard catch me!”

She yelled out, loud enough for all the guards to hear.

“What? What?”

“It’s me! It should be me!”

“What no! It’s me!”

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“Fools! She’s trying to trick us! Catch her first, then we decide who gets the honour!”

The guards began bickering among themselves.

There were so many guards that they could barely freely hold out their arms. Which meant their bickering was now causing the already limited space to become even more crowded.

“Hikaru..! Let’s go..!”

Whispering this, she tried to lift Hikaru up.

Which she was unable to.

“Ah screw this..!”

Pulling on his shirt's collar, she resorted to pulling him after her.

Running through the crowd of guards, she was able to evade their notice due to how crowded it was.

Even though some of them did notice them. They could not draw their weapons.

For by that point, Yuri had already unbuckled their belts. Forcing their weapons to floor along with their pants.

Running like this, with Hikaru being dragged on the ground with a blank face.

Yuri left a trail of pantless men in her wake.

--

“Finally..!”

Breathing out in exhaustion, Yuri let go of the bound Hikaru.

“That was quite the tactic.”

He simply remarked, his face still blank.

“Well what else was i supposed to do!”

She looked away in shame.

“Anyway! Let’s get you out of those things!”

She attempted to pull on the bindings trapping Hikaru.

They would not budge an inch however, so she resorted to using a knife she stole from one of the guards.

The blade of the dagger broke in two pieces after her continued attempts.

Eventually her attempts devolved into her biting on the bindings out of desperation.

“What is this made of!?”

Holding her jaw in pain, she gave up.

“They are magic bindings, quite powerful ones. I noticed you didn’t have your dagger. Without it, i suspect it may be impossible to undo these.”

He explained.

“Well what the hell do we do then!? We don’t have long before they catch up to us, and i don’t have the strength to carry you out of this weird church..”

“Perhaps. I might be of assistance.”

A gust of wind carried with it something white.

In the corner of their eyes, Sköll had appeared.

Her white fur mantle tight wrapped around her.

“You like to frequent the most unpleasant places, brother.”

“Sköll. What are you doing here.”

Hikaru glared suspiciously at her.

“Don’t worry Hikaru, i’ll protect you!”

Jumping in front of Hikaru as if blocking a bullet with her body, Yuri landed in front of him in a protective pose.

“Yuri don’t. You’re no match for her.”

Hikaru warned her.

“Very cute. But i’m not here for that, brother. I was actually nearby, collecting some nice things.”

Opening her mantle slightly, she revealed part of the godly relic Kenrik had used, the giant sawed axe, which seemed to somehow fit into her mantle.

“That’s that axe!”

Yuri exclaimed in surprise.

“Correct, thank you for the diversion by the way, not that i needed it. Now as i see you’re in quite the predicament..”

Sköll nodded at Hikaru’s bindings.

“I can find it in my big heart to help you out..in exchange for that dagger of yours.”

Sköll smiled while motioning for Yuri to give it to her.

“The..dagger?”

Both Yuri and Hikaru blinked, glancing at each other.

“I would love to. But i can’t since you might just take it and run off without freeing Hikaru, in fear of him stealing it back from you”

Yuri shook her head.

“Him? In his current state, he probably couldn’t even fight off you. He’s all drained out of mana.”

She dismissed Yuri’s claim.

“Then..free him first. Then you can take the dagger as we can’t really fight you right now?”

Yuri offered.

Shrugging, Sköll approached Hikaru and with a swipe of her hands which grew long wolf-like claws, she tore apart the magical bindings like paper.

Finally free, Hikaru stretched his body, making his bones crack loudly.

“Now. The dagger.”

“Oh yeah. Uh, we don’t have it. We actually lost it. If i had it i could have easily freed Hikaru myself you know”

Scratching the back of her head, Yuri laughed awkwardly.

“You- you tricked me!”

Sköll growled.

“Then who has it!?”

“Like i’d tell you”

“..You don’t have to. Seeing as my dear brother got captured without you intervening somehow..must mean you probably couldn’t intervene. So there’s a high chance, it was the people who captured him..who took it from you..”

Sköll looked at Yuri’s face for an indication to whether she was correct.

“I ain’t sayin nothin” Yuri turned around to not show her any facial cues.

“Whatever. I’ll just search this place anyway. Your woman is quite stubborn brother. You should educate her on her femininity. Though i’m not one to talk about that sort of thing.”

Wrapping her white mantle tighter around her, Sköll prepared to disappear.

“Wait, why didn’t you just kill us if you knew we were weakened..?”

Yuri asked, curious over something so basic.

“Oh right. Thanks for reminding me.”

Sköll pulled out her clawed hands, however ended up putting them back under her mantle with a grin when she saw Yuri’s wide eyed expression.

“I just don’t feel like it. That’s all you need to know.”

With that said, a gust of wind forced them to close their eyes for a moment, and in the moment they blinked, Sköll was gone.

“That was an unexpected visit. But it was lucky. We must hurry, lest she find the dagger before us. Yuri?”

Now standing up, Hikaru walked up to the unresponsive Yuri and looked at her face.

She was mumbling to herself.

“She called me his woman..”

Her face was slightly flushed.

“Like i’m..like i was his possession..”

Her face turned redder.

“She told him to educate me..!?”

Her mind went in overdrive, her imagination going out of control.

Her entire body was glowing red, while her eyes were filled with frantic circles.

“...Yuri.”

He put his hand on her shoulder.

“W-wha, y-yes!?”

She straightened her back, looking at Hikaru.

“We should hurry.”

“Ah..y-yeah..” She nodded sadly.

“...” Hikaru couldn’t help but smile softly at her disappointed face.

“Thank you for saving me Yuri. Let’s talk privately once we’re done. I have a feeling you have some things you wish to discuss with me?”

“Yes!” Her face brightened up again, her energy returning. She now had something to look forward to.

--

“What are you doing! You’re supposed to be a knight!”

The old grey haired archbishop of Frigga shouted at Kenrik.

“Forgive me..i let my emotions gain the best of me..!

Apologising, Kenrik bowed his head to the bishop in shame.

“Fool! Haven’t you learned anything. Emotions running wild are a good thing! We can only truly be connected to our goddess if we let our emotions free.”

The archbishop spoke loudly enough that some guards entered from outside, worried there was another attack.

“...But my emotions, they conflict with my duties.”

Kenrik looked up at the bishop, confusion clear in his eyes.

“Emotions. Are what drive our every action. Each emotion drags you into a different direction. However! We as followers of Frigga, bend every emotion. We control them. And direct them. Towards the love of our goddess.”

The archbishop held out his arms dramatically, letting the light of the lamps create a several shadows around him.

“We do everything, we feel everything, out of love for our goddess. Even your care for your old mentor. Is true yet misguided. You simply wish to show him the love of our goddess.”

“...Of course. Forgive me for not realising this before. I was worried he might not feel the same love as we followers of Frigga do. However..even if they do not acknowledge it..in the end. Everyone endures suffering and pleasure for our goddess. I just have to make him understand that in his end.”

Nodding, Kenrik clenched his hands.

He deeply respected and looked up to his former mentor.

Because of that. He had to make him see the same light he had.

“Go Kenrik. There will be no hesitation this time i hope.”

“Of course not.” Kenrik bowed again.

“And find out who stole our holy relic. And make sure they get an extra dosage of our goddesses love.”

“...Of course.”