## Chapter 981 – Ancient Valkyrie

Those crazy bastards making a human pyramid was already over the top, but it exploded in one go. If they were going to do that, why did they even bother bringing the banners and flags?

How could I not scream in this situation?

“Aaaaaaaargh!!”
“Aaaargh!!”
“Kyaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Thankfully, there weren’t any major casualties, and the paladins scrambled to retreat, but that didn’t make the situation any better. It was perfectly clear that high-level magic and even dialogue were useless.

Now, all that was left was a life-or-death battle against that inhuman Valkyrie.

“Attack!!!!”

Anyway, starting with my scream, the mages and royal knights began to move busily. Of course, they’d have a plan for when the magic attacks failed. Yeah, we have them now. It’s better to watch how they fight for a bit and then support them at the right time.

—Scamper!

But, as expected, it’s the paladins.

Without any seriously injured, they helped each other and quickly retreated to regroup. Paladins really do have the strongest durability in the world. Or maybe it’s because they were bombarded with divine magic, so they had some resistance?

It’s right to point fingers at their foolishness, but I feel a little relieved to see them unharmed.

—Boom! Boom! Boom!
—Bang!
—Thump!

Soon, explosions began to be heard.

The mages, who had once again created magic circles in the air, bombarded the Valkyrie floating in the air with all sorts of spells. They’d already seen with their own eyes that it didn’t work, but you never know. Just because an attack fails once doesn’t mean it will always fail. Maybe it chipped away at the Valkyrie’s divine shield.

—Flash!
—Flash!

At that moment, the knights jumped. Clad in heavy armor, they leaped as if they had wings on their backs.

—Woooosh!

A magic circle was created in the air.

—Thump!

The knights stomped on the magic circle and charged towards the Valkyrie as if climbing stairs. Oh… shit. Mages can do that too? It was literally magic that created footholds in the air.

—Tzzzz!

As the knights stepped on the platforms and charged into the air, the magic attacks that had been fired at the Valkyrie stopped all at once. They immediately switched their attack to avoid team kills.

It was proceeding smoothly, showing that they had planned the operation properly.

“Yiaaaaaaaaah!!”
“Kuaaaaaaaah!!”
“Tsuaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Before long, the royal knights and the Valkyrie clashed.

—Bang!!

A surrounding attack from all sides. The knights’ deadly blades aimed for the Valkyrie’s vitals. Five people were deployed in the initial attack. Only one of them knew how to use sword energy.

—Slash!

But the Valkyrie swung her flaming sword twice, completely blocking the knights’ attacks. The knights in the front were taken out with the first attack, and the knights in the back were all subdued with the second attack.

—Clang!

The tip of the knight’s sword that had reached the Valkyrie’s neck was also rendered useless. Something like sparks flew out, protecting her skin.

“Kuaaaaaaaargh!!”
“Uooooooooh!!”

The knights who were hit by the flame sword fell. The guy who was using sword energy also fell without any special resistance.

“Rescue them!”

Other knights rushed out to rescue them, and the mages poured out their attack magic to prevent the fallen knights from becoming targets.

—Crash! Crash! Crash!

Of course, the magic attacks were completely useless.

As expected, she swung her flame sword to extinguish all the magic, then raised her palm again.

—Wooooooooooosh!!!

She fired a sacred beam towards the sanctuary.

—Kuaaaaaaaang!!!

Was it destroyed?

No. It wasn’t.

Fortunately, the Valkyrie’s attack was rendered useless. It was because the mages quickly created layers of barriers. —Bang!! —Kuaaaaaaaang!! The Valkyrie fired beams continuously, but she couldn’t penetrate the mages’ barriers.

“The Valkyrie… is only targeting the sanctuary and doesn’t care about anything else.”

Ari said, wiping her lips.
She’s right.

She doesn’t seem to care about the knights or mages right now. She only seems to be focused on the sanctuary.

“But they’re still blocking it. Is that a silver lining?”
“It is.”

I nodded at Karin’s words.

Anyway, taking advantage of the Valkyrie firing beams, the mages created platforms again, and the knights charged. When that stopped the attack on the sanctuary, the mages who canceled the shield supported the knights again.

Those things were repeated.

In the end, the Valkyrie’s goal is to destroy the sanctuary. As long as that doesn’t collapse, we can keep her trapped here. So, we’re using that as a strategy and fighting organically.

Just then.

—Rumble!

The paladins, in battle formation, rushed in. Have they finally recovered and come back? It’s a relief that they’ve come to their senses now. If they’re deployed, they’ll be able to completely heal the injured.

Thinking that, I looked at the paladins’ faces.

“Kuhk…! Why the Valkyrie of all people!!!”
“I already knew it, but experiencing it firsthand is incredibly shocking!”
“All the welcome banners and flags we made have been burned!!!”

They were almost crying their eyes out and wailing.

And not only that.

“Ooo…! Valkyrie-sama!!!”
“Why aren’t you listening to us!!”
“This isn’t right!!!”

Some of the paladins in the back of the battle formation, who weren’t ready yet, were sitting down or kneeling, holding the fragments of the burned banners and flags and wailing.

Oh my fucking god.

So, even the paladins of the Brass Celestial Angel Society are like this.

“Kuaaaaaaaah!!”

The ends of the piece of cloth that said 「♡Valkyrie♡」 were charred black, and seeing the paladin holding it and sobbing, I could only think it was amazing… Huh?

“What?”

That guy over there wailing.

I feel like I’ve seen him somewhere before?
I quickly racked my brain.

—Paladin training camp.

One of the disciples I taught back then.

“Anderson?”

The guy crying over there was Anderson, the paladin trainee who was in charge because he had the best skills. He’s the guy who came to support me when I caught the heretical preacher back then.

Now he was holding a piece of cloth that said 「♡Valkyrie♡」 and wailing.

That crazy bastard!!!

“Hey, you bastard!!! What are you doing there!!!”

As I shouted and ran towards him, he widened his eyes when he saw me.

“No way!!! Paladin-nim!!!”
“Why are you crying here, you bastard!! Get up now! Paladins don’t despair! Do you understand!!!”
“Kuhk…! But!!!”

He held out the piece of cloth that said 「♡Valkyrie♡」 to me and said.

“I’m so sad! The holy Valkyrie is ignoring our requests and even attacking us…!”
“You knew that already!”
“I knew the need for subjugation…! But still, I spent time with my senior paladins and made these things with care to try to talk to her one last time!!! But dialogue didn’t work at all!! Kuaaaaaaaah!!!”

What is the Valkyrie to you?

Reuniting with him was very embarrassing.

“Calm down! What’s important now is the subjugation of the Valkyrie!! Just think about that!!!”
“I know, but…! Look at those pure white wings and that brilliant halo! It’s clear that some god is protecting her! The Valkyrie is like a fragment of God! How can we point our swords at such a being!!!”

Crazy paladin.

“We’re the Brass Celestial Angel Society!!”
“Just because we worship the god Verde doesn’t mean we can ignore other gods!”
“Shit.”

He’s right.

The paladins thought of the Valkyrie as being no different from a part of God, so they were very reluctant to hit her carelessly. The paladins of the Brass Celestial Angel Society, who were like berserkers, were doing this.

“More than that, Paladin-nim!! I’m so happy to see you after so long!!!”
“Me too!!! Anyway, get up! This isn’t the time to be sad or agonize! We have to fight now!!!”

I grabbed Anderson’s shoulders and shouted intensely.

“You’re… right!!”
“Yeah! Get up! Go back to the formation!”
“Yes!!!”

The other paladins who were listening to me from the side also put the pieces of the burned flag in their arms, feeling embarrassed, and went back to the formation. Now they will also carry out their mission again.

After doing that, I went back to our spot.

“Katt. Look over there. The Master Knight has gone out.”
“The Master Knight?”

As soon as I got there, Claudia told me that.

“Kuaaaaaaaah!!!”

Looking at it, a man I had seen once before was stomping on the magic circle-platform and jumping up, engaging in a sword fight with the Valkyrie.

“Mr. Kelbain?”

Remembering, it was the person who came when I went to catch the Spirit King. It was the first time I was seeing his skills like this, so I seriously observed the scene.

—Bang!
—Thump!

Proper swordsmanship.

Compared to Karin, he seemed very lacking, but Kelbain was showing proper swordsmanship and putting pressure on the Valkyrie. He swung his sword as if to strike, wrapped it around the Valkyrie’s sword, and then tried to put pressure on her by unleashing a series of attacks.

It seemed to be working very well.

But he was being pushed back.

“The Master Knight is better than the Valkyrie in terms of swordsmanship?”

Karin, who was next to me, opened her mouth while looking at it.

“The Valkyrie’s swordsmanship isn’t that great. But the Master Knight is being pushed back because of that damn flaming sword and divine power. In the first place, normal swordsmanship doesn’t work on a guy like that.”

Karin analyzed it calmly.
I listened attentively, agreeing with her.

“It seems like you only need to know swordsmanship moderately… and you need to push through with power to do something.”
“Power, huh.”

Even while being pushed back, the Master Knight fought as hard as he could. Scattering brilliant sword energy.

“Kuaaaak!!”

Before long, the Master Knight, who had been fighting hard while showing a destructive battle, was knocked away. It was because the Valkyrie suddenly fired a sacred beam of destruction from her wings after receiving a sword strike.

For now, one human couldn’t keep up with the output of that crazy ancient Valkyrie.

“Kelbain-nim!!!!”

The knights and mages tried to rescue Kelbain, and at the same time, the Valkyrie fired a beam at the sanctuary again.

—Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

As expected, the mages who were waiting created a barrier to defend. It was a repetition of that. An endless stalemate. The battle was flowing without anyone making a big impact, but… are we the only ones being consumed?

Right then.

—Whoosh.

The Valkyrie gradually descended.

—Swoosh.

She landed on the ground.

What does that mean? Realizing that she couldn’t destroy the sanctuary with bombing from a distance, she came down to break it with her sword directly.

“She, she’s come down!!! Stop her!! We have to stop her!!! Ground defense formation!!”

…If it’s on the ground, we’ll be at an advantage.
I slowly started to gauge the timing to deploy.

“Uwoooooooooh!!”
“Oooooooooh!!”
“Haaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Knights in formation. And knights charging to strike. The two strictly divided types of soldiers carried out their missions. It was properly conveyed that they were moving according to the plan.

—Bang!!

“Kuaaaaak!!”
“Kyaaaaaaaaah!!”
“Oooooooooh!!”

But the Valkyrie who landed simply walked lightly and very easily knocked away the charging knights. A flame sword burning with divine power. Her swordsmanship didn’t seem that great, but every time it was swung, the best serial killers in the kingdom flew into the sky.

It was literally inhuman output.

The Valkyrie was just advancing towards the sanctuary.
Smashing all the knights.

“Well, then, shall we equip it?”

—Click.

Liztina, who opened the box, equipped the giant blue gauntlet that was stored inside. It was the claw gauntlet that she had used when she fought Karin before.

“Ooh.”

A murderous weapon with five claw blades like a demon’s claws.

“It’s been a while since I’ve used it… but this feeling is always familiar.”
“But seriously, how is that a weapon that a martial artist uses?”
“Is this a sword? A spear? Or a bow? It’s a weapon that combines a gauntlet, knuckles, and claws. So it’s a martial artist’s weapon.”
“That’s so funny, really.”

—Crack.

Karin and Liztina stretched and turned their necks.

“Good.”

I also grabbed Vigal, and Claudia also familiarly drew her twin curved swords.

“Katt. Shall we go as usual?”
“Let’s do that.”

—Bang!
—Boom!
—Aaaaaaaargh!!

Even at this moment, the Valkyrie was slowly advancing and breaking through the knights’ defense line. We have to time it well. If we go in at a strange time, the knights won’t be able to react and there could be massive team kills and accidents.

But for us, catching that timing is easy.

“The rest of you stay here. You might get caught if you use your strength unnecessarily.”

Let’s go.