Chapter 166: By Any Means Necessary

Vexena tilts her head, genuinely thrown by the new arrivals, studying them a long moment, taking in the sheer weight of power radiating off each of them, before she turns to Pip and Vuvi, eyebrows raised with suspicion.

"Do you two know these women?" she asks, jerking her chin at the Saint Sisters standing before them, a soft ethereal glow shedding off the trio as all three smile at the group with an almost maternal care carved into their faces.

Vuvi groans, rubbing her forehead, exhaustion warring visibly with the sheer effort of processing yet another divine complication tonight.

"Not them. We’ve met their sisters." Vuvi finally responds, "Lihona, and... what was her name?"

"Evania." Veena adds.

"Yes, those two met in Market Town and Nettlehusk." Vuvi nods, dragging a hand down her soot-streaked face. "Never seen these three before. These are new. Wonderful. More of them. Please tell them we’re a little occupied."

Vexena’s gaze slides past Vuvi, past the trio of bubbly beauties, straight to the shattered ranks of soldiers behind them, where scattered armor and dozens of boots still stand empty and smoking in a long line of destruction marking where the three had entered the battlefield.

"Those," she snarls, head tilting toward the empty line of scorched boots and armor. "Those were my men you just killed."

Bela winces immediately. "Please accept our most sincere apologies. My sisters reacted rather poorly upon seeing demon soldiers gathered on these lands—"

"Who exactly are you?" Nela cuts in, tilting her head with open curiosity toward Vexena. "You smell... pretty powerful."

Vexena introduces herself formally, her words cold and precise.

"I am Queen Vexena... Ruler of the Demon Lands," she says, pausing slightly for dramatic effect.

Only for Eris to pipe up from behind her, scythe braced against one shoulder, with a long, unnecessary string of additional titles. "She is The Crimson Woe. The Slayer of the Third Legion. Destroyer of The Black Trinity, Sovereign of the Blood Fortress. Terror of the—"

"Eris."

"Apologies, Your Grace." Eris bows as Vexena turns to her with an unimpressed scowl. "I was only trying to be thorough."

Each syllable of the general’s words visibly grates against what little patience Vexena has left for the day.

"Oh..." Nela smiles, eyes wide with wonder, "She’s the Demon Queen. Here. Right now. Beside the Prince. Did you hear that sister?"

Hela doesn’t respond. She merely steps forward, grinning wide, eyes bright with something between open curiosity and growing appetite.

"Vexena, was it? An honor, truly. I’ve heard so much about you, Your Majesty. The Crimson Woe, the terror of two continents, mother of miracles and monsters alike." Hela spreads her hands, smile softening into something full of mischief. "You’re smaller than I expected. And yet, somehow, that only makes it more impressive. A pleasure to meet you."

Vexena is taken aback, then opens her mouth to respond, but Bela catches the look flickering behind her sister’s eyes and quickly steps in front of her, whispering urgently.

"We are not fighting the Demon Queen today, Hela. The Prince is right there. Right there! We take him, and we go. That’s the whole reason... H-Hela? Hela! Listen to me!"

Hela bites her lip instead, gaze flicking to Vexena, who returns the look with pure, unimpressed indifference.

"What?" Vexena asks as Hela’s face spreads with an expression burning with anticipation. "Something you want to say?"

Hela brushes Bela aside with one hand and moves toward Vexena, hips swaying with patient, predatory confidence.

"Mother’s going to kill us." Bela groans under her breath, already rubbing at her temples like a woman who can already feel the headache coming.

Beside her, Nela’s hair begins to flutter without any wind to explain it, raw power gathering visibly under her skin as gold-pale filaments of light trace along her arms and fingers.

"It truly pains me," Hela says, straightening to her full height, voice dropping into something formal, ceremonial, almost surgical, "but I am the First Sister of the Church of the Great Mother after all." She gives a small, almost apologetic bow of her head, entirely at odds with the raw, magical power clearly gathering in her core. "Our teachings are clear. The Demon Queen is an enemy of the Church, its people, and this Kingdom. And here you stand before me. An army at your back, banners flying high, far from your own lands, standing beside a construct beloved by half the continent. A construct we have come a long way to meet."

Her gaze rakes over Vexena slowly, head to toe, with something disturbingly close to hunger rather than righteous conviction.

"That is not..." Vexena tries to explain, "I am only here because—"

"I’m afraid I can only assume you’re up to something nefarious." A slow smile creeps over Hela’s face, eyes going brighter with every word uttered. "My sacred duty commands I stop you. By any means necessary. I do hope you’ll forgive me."

Behind her, Bela pinches the bridge of her nose, already resigned to whatever comes next.

And what comes next is a massive greatsword of solid light, materializing in the air between Hela and the Demon Queen and dropping to the earth with the clang~ of a bell struck by lightning, splitting stone as it slowly sinks into the churned ground, close enough to Vexena’s boots to make even the Demon Queen take an involuntary half-step back from the thrumming divine light shedding off its blade.

Every trace of emotion drains from Vexena’s face in a single breath.

No fury, no fear, nothing at all remains, which is somehow far more disturbing than either emotion would have been.

"You’re about to make a mistake," she says, her voice still quiet and level. "A very big mistake."

Hela seizes the sword’s hilt in one hand and launches herself forward like an arrow loosed by an angel, faster than anything her elegant, leisurely entrance would ever have suggested possible. She summons a dozen more blades of light which spiral into being around her in a swirling, glittering orbit.

Vexena leaps back, boots tearing through the mud, as crimson and black light gathers fast between her palms, forming into swords of her own as countless more flicker into existence around her in a slowly widening ring, edges crackling with barely contained power.

"Oh!? Fantastic!" Hela squeals as she bears down on the Queen, "You might actually make this interesting."

And the two of them collide across the battlefield in shrieking, blinding clashes of light and shadow, steel and radiance ringing out in overlapping clangs~ as the impacts send shockwaves rolling outward, flattening whatever grass had somehow survived the day thus far.

"This is NOT what we came here for!" Bela calls out through cupped hands, stamping one bare foot uselessly against the churned earth, "We don’t have time for this!"

"Relax, sister." Nela coos beside her, already rolling her neck with anticipation. "We’re just having a little warm up before we get to the real fun."