The aura exuded by their comrade took Sitta and Trenta by surprise. The fear they felt was now directed at Zero Five instead of the crimson queen, so much so that the thought of teleporting away crossed their minds. 𝒪𝓥𝐿xt.𝓒𝞸𝗆

The aura grew so thick they could no longer see her form. The red lightning stopped raining, but Thor was still, keeping her distance and not attacking like she usually does. It was as if she was waiting for whatever was happening to end, and it didn’t take long before they reached that point.

Nino had said that the ponytailed Valkyrie was the only one strong enough to win against the crimson haired queen, but she refused to tell them why she thought that. Using her ability to see the future she must’ve seen how Five would do it, but her refusal to give them the method led to the conclusion that knowing about it might result in failure somehow.

Sitta didn’t understand why that was the case back then, but now she had a vague idea.

The phenomenon that was happening had nothing to do with the Runes or halos. Zero Five was reaching into a source of power they had no knowledge of, manifesting an ability they’d never seen her use before. It was doubtful she herself knew what she was doing, but that was one more reason to not disturb her at all.

Seconds passed and the strange smoke like haze began to change. It seemed to gather and compress, turning into a solid material. A figure soon came into sight, but it was no longer the curvy soft body clad in a leotard like combat suit.

At first glance it seemed like nothing more than a statue, and not a well sculptured one at that. It was a full plate armor. Each part seemed to be carved out of obsidian stone, having a crude surface and sharp edges.

Sitta felt a painful prick in her chest the moment she laid eyes on the strange figure. Images from their first battle in this world flooded her mind, stopping at Atropos’ armored figure emerging from the inferno B3 rained on her. The design was different, but there was no denying that they were similar. The material alone said it all.

“Sitta…”

Hearing her name being called, the ginger snapped out of her daze only to be startled once more. Despite having seen it on several occasions, the glowing red oni mask seemed all the more menacing. That said, for some reason it felt like its appearance complemented the Japanese style armor despite how crude it looked. The long ponytail still flowed behind it indicating that the one inside was indeed their comrade. Though she couldn’t see her eyes, Sitta understood what she was trying to convey so with a nod she turned her gaze forward and lowered the barrier causing the crystals that had formed on its surface to shatter.

As the red ice fell like shattered glass, Zero Five locked her eyes on the crimson haired queen. Thor was calm, unperturbed. She floated motionlessly a short distance away holding her lance by her side. The black weapon was clearly made from the same material as Five’s new armor. Seeing that it withstood strikes from a weapon coated in a fully powered Force Field, Five’s chances at winning the battle seemed to suddenly increase now that she had something similar.

She grasped her odachi in both hands and channeled all of her Force Field to it, turning the blade’s color to a much more sinister shade of purple. Thor seemed to react at that moment, changing her posture as she prepared to attack.

There was an ear splitting silence as the sounds around them faded away. The two stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, then, without a warning, they lunged, their forms becoming a blur before they clashed with an explosive sound.

The recoil sent each of them flying a few meters, but instead of stopping themselves they teleported, clashing once more the next second.

Their movements were difficult to follow even for the Valkyries and their eyes. Thor was swinging and thrusting her lance as if it was weightless while Five did her best to dodge and deflect everything thrown at her. The new armor seemed like a perfect fit. Even though it was her first time using it, Five felt that she had worn it countless times before. Despite it looking like a rigid stone the inner layers were quite flexible as if they were made out of stone, though that didn’t seem to affect their durability and defensive power that much.

Putting all her trust in the obsidian armor, she dedicated every bit of her Force Field to enhancing her weapon. The lance was still holding strong, but each strike left a small cut on its surface. It wasn’t anything to be thrilled about, but progress was still progress.

Five remained focused and tried to strike the same spots each time she swung her sword. Thor didn’t show much of an expression, but it was clear she was getting frustrated from having all of her attacks being parried. She backed away after a barrage of thrusts and held her left hand out. Sparks danced at the surface of her palm and a second later a crimson bolt shot out.

Five remained calm and without hesitation slashed it with her purple blade. The flash of electricity scattered into several sparks, some of which fell on Five’s obsidian armor, blooming into sparkling red crystals in an instant, then shattered in the next.

Though she felt the chilling cold, the absence of pain informed her that her body was safe. Without hesitation she followed after the queen, raising her odachi over her head and preparing for a downward swing.

Thor fired another bolt striking the Valkyrie right in the chest, but that did little to slow her down. Seeing that her lightning was ineffective the queen went back to physical attacks, meeting the sharp blade with the crude surface of her lance.

Sitta continued to watch the battle from a distance, her hands held out as she prepared to create a barrier at a moment’s notice. Now that Five no longer had to worry about the red lightning she began to focus more and more on the offense, but that only worried her comrades even more.

Something told them that they had yet to see the Nephilim queen’s true power. After all despite the battle going on for several minutes she has yet to show any signs of using her Force Field for anything other than to form the halo over her head. That made it seem as if one strike would be all they needed to end the fight, but so far the most damage they inflicted on her was a few cuts on her red dress.

“Hey…”

Sitta had her focus entirely on the fight in front of her, thinking that nothing else was worth paying attention to. Her mind changed instantly when she saw what Trenta wanted her to see and she quickly conjured a multi layered barrier around them, shouting for Five at the same time.

A weak boom resounded in the distance and a second later the world trembled as a violent shockwave washed over everything. Though she increased the durability of her barrier to the max causing its wall to dramatically lower its opacity, the box didn’t seem to hold very well as cracks began spreading through it.

Five had teleported right before the quaking began and avoided getting caught in whatever was happening outside. As soon as the quaking began, the Three Valkyries teleported at the same time distancing themselves from the blueish box a moment before Thor’s obsidian lance pierced through it.

“It seems things aren’t going so well over there…”

With freeing the Nephilim queen being their sole task, the three Valkyries paid no mind to the rest of the battlefield and because of that they were oblivious to the change that was happening.

“So those things are the Titans, huh?” Said Trenta. “Nino’s description didn’t do them justice…”

The new creations made the Black Stone Giants look small in comparison. It was doubtful whether something of that size could even move, but one thing that was clear was that they weren’t something the Valkyries could easily handle.

“I don’t think we need to worry about them, but… those shockwaves are going to be a problem…”

The uneasiness returned as Sitta recalled how her barrier began to crack. Just like what Nino had described, the Titans’ attacks were meant to destroy everything in a very large area. Evading it was easy as long as they could see it coming, but if any of them ended up receiving a direct hit their fate would be sealed, just like the hundreds of Olympians who were blasted away by the first attack.

Their short break came to an end pretty quickly as a red bolt of lightning fell down on them prompting Sitta to create another barrier. Five was nowhere to be seen, having already made her move as evidenced by the lightning storm ending shortly after it started showing that she had interrupted the Nephilim queen drawing her attention away from the other two.

The second shockwave came soon after and the third followed didn’t take too long. Once the ninth is released, the Titans would unleash a more devastating attack to free the Primordial before it has all of its essence absorbed. None of that was of concern to Five and the others. Stopping the mountainous giants and securing the Key were jobs for the others to handle. The crimson queen wasn’t someone they could hope to defeat while worrying about everything else so even though they still had to keep an eye out for the world shattering wails they directed all their focus to the task at hand.