“These behemoths—once they’re spooked and find no target—they chalk it up to a mirage, then stop watching. I just pricked them with Aether and they missed us. So, are you ready, Aphelia?”
Odin smiled gently and pushed Aphelia toward the lip of the cavern. Cold wind knifed past them, a glacier’s breath. Even Aphelia’s heart dipped at the abyss below.
“Why, we… jump, of course~”
“Nooooo!”
After a very stimulating flight, the three of them cleared the beast-infested airspace without a scratch—yeah, right.
“I swear…”
At that moment, Aphelia was clenched in the jaws of a giant rock-thing. Her mood was a knot of fury and disbelief.
How did it happen? Blame the outlier called Uroboros.
The two had been gliding overhead just fine. The herd didn’t stir, and Aphelia finally let out a breath. Then Uroboros swooped past above them, fast as a knife across silk.
Her wake was a match to dry grass. The herd went feral in an instant. One snapped up Aphelia while she wasn’t looking and yanked her out of the sky.
“Damn you, Uroboros…”
Even Aphelia cursed under the sheer awkwardness. The monster couldn’t hurt her, but its bite was bizarre. She couldn’t force its jaws apart at once, and its mouth wasn’t as tame as its stony hide.
“Why are there tentacles in a mouth?!”
Hearing her flushed, furious shout, Odin winced. She didn’t dare loose Thunder on these beasts.
Ugly as they were, they were the pets of the three maidens who guarded the magic gold in Niflheim. If she killed them lightly… knowing those three and their grudges? Even as the former lord of the god-realm, after all that had happened…
Aphelia wasn’t about to be a chew toy. Odin hesitated. Uroboros floated in the air like a bored theatergoer. The tentacles kept pestering. Heat flashed across Aphelia’s temper.
“That’s… enough!”
Crimson Flame erupted. The ever-reliable Crimson Fire didn’t fail her now. The blaze devoured the behemoth’s head to ash. Its scream split the rocks and roused the herd. Aphelia ripped free at once.
She couldn’t fly, so she hit the ground. The herd saw a companion die and charged like a flood released.
Seeing the riot swell, Odin steeled herself. Azure Aether pooled in her palm, coiling like a storm serpent. In a heartbeat it would turn to Thunder and scour the earth.
The herd was packed tight and surging. If she didn’t thin them, she couldn’t drop and pull Aphelia back into the air.
“Odin, which way?!”
Crimson Flame coiled around Aphelia’s hands. She was set to punch a road through. After that whole Demon King fiasco, her chest seethed. She needed a place to burn.
Odin sighed and pointed to a jagged stone canyon on the right. “Head east! We’ll wait over there!”
“Got it!”
Even as she spoke, Crimson Flame swelled into a sea of fire. Aphelia forged it into Bracer Gauntlets and shot forward, fists first, hammering the onrushing beasts.
She’d never cut loose with Crimson Fire like this. Anger sharpened her. Her power flowed clean as a mountain stream after rain.
The blaze in her chest became searing blows. She vented it across stone hides.
She couldn’t fly, but her body now was far beyond mortal. With a light spring, she reached head-height with a behemoth. Her right fist, burning with Crimson Fire, punched straight through. That slender arm flattened the rock giant.
“Ora ora ora!!!”
Instinct took over. Her fists blurred. Skin hard as a cliff-face cracked open under raw force. Black blood gushed like a burst spring—then vanished, flashed to steam by Crimson Fire before it touched ground.
Their wounded comrade sent the herd into frenzy. Roars rose. Lances of light blasted out. Midair, Aphelia stepped on the toppling beast, kicked off, and vaulted higher.
The light-beams ripped the air beneath her. Shockwaves bloomed in front of the herd and blew their encirclement apart. Aphelia got room to breathe.
If only I had the Ghostface Vambrace…
The thought slipped in unbidden, a relic of old battles. With that kind of divine gear, this lot…
As if answering her, something deep within her body trembled.
A green gem—the core that marked Primordial Soil—eased free from within and hovered over her forearms.
“What is…?”
She felt the gem drinking down her Crimson Flame. Her power gathered and tightened. A wild idea sparked, and she simply released the limiter on her Crimson Fire.
In an instant, the sky seemed painted red—then it went still, like a lake after thunder.
Only Aphelia knew what that strangeness was. In that heartbeat, with her restraints gone, she felt herself step across stacked layers of space, colors and time running like ink. She almost lost herself.
Her Crimson Fire, freed, should’ve poured out like a breached river and turned the heavens into a sea of flame. But the core of Primordial Soil flared with a deeper pull and drank it all.
Her power nearly slipped its leash. The Title-granted ability she’d once earned flickered back to life for a moment. Driven by Crimson Fire, it spiked to the absolute edge. That’s why time itself felt out of joint.
And the surprise didn’t end there.
“Scarlet… Sakura?!”
Crimson bracer gauntlets now sheathed her arms. For a blink she thought of the Valkyrie’s Ghostface Vambrace. A closer look said otherwise.
The embedded green gem had replaced the old fearsome visage. Beneath the jewel, light swirled like a kaleidoscope.
“Heh. Then I can’t keep calling you Scarlet Sakura…”
A beast lunged from her flank. This time, Aphelia moved like she already knew. She didn’t even look. She just thrust her hand toward its path.
Boom!!!!
The beast hit an invisible mountain and thudded back. It flipped over. A clear handprint dented its skull.
Crimson Flame bloomed from that print and raced across its head. It burned hotter than her Fire alone, and the creature turned to ash almost instantly.
Even Aphelia blinked at that. The gauntlets didn’t care. Power kept surging, steady as a tide. She eyed the herd, interest brightening her gaze.
“Hey, Miss Odin, think Aphelia might get stuck because of those beasts?”
They stood before a shimmering, prismatic barrier. Uroboros sounded bored, and poked at Odin for fun.
“As her companion, you don’t have much faith in her, do you?”
Odin chuckled and tossed the question back, polishing her spear as if they were gossiping over tea. Uroboros felt like she’d swallowed a thorn.
“She only just got her strength back. You really think she can handle that herd?”
Uroboros wasn’t one to take a loss. She fished for panic.
Odin didn’t bite. She shook her head with a smile. “Those beasts are average. Hurting Aphelia? Hard pass. And you sound eager for her to get hurt. She’s your teammate. Any normal thoughts in there?”
“Tsk. I’m worried about her, okay~ Though if she died, I wouldn’t care.”
A teasing voice drifted up behind her. “Oh? You wouldn’t care if I died? Then I’ll go do that now.”
At some point, Aphelia had appeared at Uroboros’s back. She patted Uroboros’s shoulder and looked at her with a very kind smile.
