Valkyrie Smash

Chapter 280 Unnatural thought process.

"Greetings, Doctor Sam Sanderson." Said Perseus, bowing slightly. "I believe this is our second meeting."

"I don't remember introducing myself in the first." Sam spoke. At the same time, the halo over his head began spinning.

"Indeed. Though we were already aware of your position as the enemy leader, we only learned your name after looking around. I have to say I'm quite intrigued by your victory over the so called Nephilim."

"I'm guessing that didn't convince you to surrender, then."

"Unfortunately even if the odds were against us we don't exactly have a choice in the matter." Perseus shook his head and sighed. "With Lachesis by your side you should be aware of our objective by now. Do you think we can just give up and retreat?"

"So you're going to throw your life just like that? Well, your call."

With no more Fallen making an appearance Ichigo turned off her ability. The formation didn't change much as the Valkyries prepared for battle; Venti stood at the front as their vanguard, Zero Three was behind her holding her shield and preparing to cast barriers. Sam stood behind her with Ichigo holding his arm so she could teleport him away at any moment. Triska stood at the very back and covered for them with her rifle.

"Leonidas." Perseus said.

"Okay okay, I get it already." The muscular man slumped his shoulders, sighing as he stepped forward. Despite his impressive figure he seemed reluctant to fight, but that changed soon enough as he formed a halo over his head and summoned his weapon.

In one hand he held an engraved round shield much like the ones used by the Spartans they fought before, although a little bigger. In the other he created a broad sword using the Nameless Element —though it looked like nothing more than a knife in his hand— and enhanced it by channeling most of his Force Field to the blade.

There was a very short window of time where the two sides stared at each other in silence, then, without a warning, the bulky man teleported, appearing right in front of Zero Three with his blade held high.

The young Valkyrie raised her shield to block the blow, spreading her Force Field to make sure it doesn't shatter from the impact. A loud clang followed the downward slash and the blade bounced back, but the bulky warrior appeared to spin around along with its movements just in time to block Venti's spear with his shield.

A second spear headed for the gap in his helmet only for it to be parried just in time. Before the resulting sparks disappeared an invisible box sprang t life around the man, its size decreasing instantly. Just then Perseus tapped the floor with his staff and a wave of energy spread through the hallway shattering Three's barrier and freeing his companion from being erased.

Venti tried thrusting at the Spartan again and Triska followed with a few beams directed at the two in the distance. Leonidas blocked every attack with minimal movements while the small man raised the orb in his hand creating a barrier around him and his companion just in time.

'Got him…' Sam thought to himself, not letting his reaction show on his face.

With her first spear parried Venti prepared to thrust the second one. Leonidas was about to block it with his enhanced sword but his body twitched messing up his timing, though he was quick enough to encase himself in his Force Field deflecting the spearhead and taking minimal damage.

Before the green haired Valkyrie could get the chance to follow with another attack he quickly teleported back to his allies. He looked down on himself and patted his chest, a confused look making its way to his face when he saw that the left side of his chest had turned blue at some point.

"Poison?" He muttered only to cough the next moment.

"Calm down, Leonidas." Said Perseus. "It's nothing like that."

The response confused the Spartan, especially now that he found himself falling to one knee, blood spewing from his mouth.

"Wha… what are you…"

"Daedalus."

"Sure sure." The shower man replied then stroked the orb in his hands a few times before raising it again.

At first look nothing seemed to change, but after a few seconds the blue spot on the Spartan's chest began to fade. At the same time his exposed skin became lustrous as sweat slowly gathered. The same was happening for the other two so Sam concluded that they had increased the temperature inside their barrier, showing that they had seen through his little trick.

'Well, I'm not too surprised.'

Perseus reached into the inner pocket of his coat and took out a small handkerchief. As he wiped the sweat off his forehead, he turned his gaze to Sam and spoke with a smile.

"Quite impressive. A very simple way to use the 23rd dimension, but an extremely effective one."

The 23rd dimension was the source of the Nameless Element, according to Nino. It being mentioned confirmed that Sam's trick was exposed.

"Normally one would try to create something they're familiar with, something engraved into their very essence." Spoke Perseus. "Sometimes it's a weapon, sometimes it's a tool. The Awakening makes it possible to draw its molecular structure from your subconscious, but you aren't an Awakened, are you Doctor."

"Uh-oh. And what makes you think that?" Sam asked, a fake smile plastered on his face.

"Your reliance on your soldiers for protection." Perseus replied, wearing the same smile. "If you had Awakened, you would've at the very least mastered teleportation and barrier creation, which would allow you to protect yourself even if you don't intend on engaging in combat."

"Good guess. But it might be that I'm doing all of this just to trick you into letting your guard against me."

"I see no reason for going to such length. If you wanted us to underestimate you, you would've refrained from using the power of Runes at all."

For a moment there Sam was about to clap. The Olympian youth was right on the spot, but it wasn't that impressive of a deduction. Anyone would've been able to find out as much by looking at the situation, and doing so doesn't change anything as Sam's role remains the same whether he's able to use the Runes or not.

The palace shook once more. Only four shockwaves remained until the next Divergence. Perseus was clearly buying time. Whether he was aware of what would happen after the ninth shockwave or not was unknown. Nevertheless, the longer he kept Sam and the others busy the higher the Olympians' chances of winning are. With that in mind one would think that Sam would be in a hurry to crush the three obstacles and move forward. But that's not what the Doctor did. He simply stayed silent and listened to the young man rambling, waiting for the right moment to move.

"Creating something capable of generating a Force Field isn't much of a challenge, the same goes for linking it to one's consciousness. But doing so is meaningless. Without the knowledge obtained from seeing the Truth, one can't possibly make use of the Force Field, even if they're able to mimic the halos and Runes." Pausing for a moment, Perseus stared at Sam, a hint of anger appearing in his eyes as the corners of his mouth slowly went down. "You are attempting to understand the Truth without ever witnessing it. Believe me when I say you aren't the first one to try, and you won't be the last to fail."

Sam didn't need to hear the young man's story to understand where his restrained anger came from. Just like Sam, he as well lost the chance to awaken. Though he managed to invent a technology that could mimic the Force Fields created by the Awakening, he realized that it couldn't be used as efficiently without seeing the Truth. Replicating the runes alone wasn't enough. One needed a consciousness engraved with a deep understanding of reality to be able to manipulate it.

Perseus concluded as much and gave up on his pursuit, but Sam wasn't the same.

Another quake shook the hallway. This one was much weaker, showing that several of the Titans were already destroyed. Leonidas got up to his feet, rotating his left shoulder and stretching. He prepared to resume the fight now that he had recovered, but then he turned to Perseus with a question.

"Are you going to explain what he did to me or what?"

Just then the blond youth looked up with a bewildered look on his face, finding it difficult to believe that someone still hadn't figured it out from their conversation so far. He let out a sigh and turned to the doctor, his usual smile returning.

"He's using the 23rd dimension to fill the area around him with thin water vapor. You breathed some of it while attacking and he used that to freeze your blood." He said before turning his eyes to Sam. "That's how you killed the guards outside, correct?"

"Wha-" Even with his helmet on, Leonidas' shock was still visible. "Is that even possible?"

"You experienced it yourself, didn't you?"

Though it was much simpler than most other creations, transforming the Nameless Element into water was quite a difficult task to accomplish. It would be more accurate to say it's impossible as no one has attempted doing it before, whether they're Awakened or not. The thought process that led the man named Sam Sanderson into taking such a route was an incomprehensible mystery, and that only served to induce an unsettling kind of horror into the hearts of the three Olympians facing him.

"So… how do I deal with this?" The Spartan asked. "Are you asking me to not breathe at all?"

"Are you an idiot?" Said the tiny man. "Just kill that damn bean sprout! That would solve the problem!"

"O~h!"

In a way, he was right. With the summoner gone the Nameless Element would revert back to its neutral state and return back to where it came from. That made killing the man in a lab coat the most optimal course of action, but with the four Valkyries guarding him doing so was going to be much easier said than done.

"Alright, then." Summoning his weapon once more, Leonidas stepped forward. "Let's get this done with."

"Be careful. The leader isn't the only one you have to worry about."

Perseus wasn't too worried about their odds of winning that battle. Leonidas was a formidable warrior, and with his and Daedalus' support handling the intruders wasn't going to be much of a problem.

"Daedalus, prepare to cast a barrier that covers the entire hallway." Perseus said in a low voice. "As long as we can adjust the temperature ourselves, breathing the water vapor wouldn't be a problem."

"Got it."

Everything was ready, and the battle was about to resume. The seventh shockwave was about to be launched, and for a moment it seemed like everyone were timing their movements to match it. The Valkyries tensed up and so did the Olympians. The instant they felt a tremor spread through the ground, Daedalus took down the barrier surrounding him and his allies as he went about creating the new, much larger one. Leonidas lunged forward trying to build momentum for his attack and Perseus smiled as he prepared to launch something as well.

Time slowed down to a crawl and the blond youth felt a faint prick on his left cheek, his eyes slowly widening as a thought spawned in his mind.

"Dae-"

The word was caught in his throat and his mouth was left hanging. He didn't even finish turning in his friend's direction, stopping mid motion with a terrified expression on his face. The same went for his allies. They were standing still, with the larger one pressing on his right foot as if he were about to break into a run.

The three Olympians were frozen. Literally. A thin layer of ice covered them from head to toe, spreading through the polished floor along with a cloud of white mist.

The silence continued and nothing seemed to happen for a while. Finally understanding what had just happened, the four Valkyries turned to look at their Doctor, their eyes wide with surprise.

Sam kept his gaze on the enemy, the air he held in his artificial lungs coming out as white mist as well.

"Idiot." He said, heaving a sigh. "What made you think I would wait for you to get close?"

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