Chapter 795 A fundamentally special kind of fight (part 17)

"And here I thought your sword, spear, bow and winged boots were quite something, but that seal and the Warhammer were on a completely different level, after all that gate couldn't eliminate the pattern until it activated at least once, and the little jealous mermaid had her promise innate ability alongside her defense "crushed" head on", said Aisha who had appeared next to Freya to then giggle as she added.

"On the other hand, the "severing" I saw in Karla's memories and the result of it that was applied to Jasmine's mother, is nothing like the one you have used so far, so, there must be a reason for this noticeable difference in power, right~", to which Freya softly smiled.

"Mm, though I renounced my birth status as soon as I became of age, meaning that I who originally was to reign over my native realm, stopped being royalty, I fought my way into creating the position of "Ruler", meaning that while I had no claim to the throne, I had the authority to judge not only royalty, but nobles and commoners equally, not only in my native realm but also in those that had been conquered by my race as a whole".

"And the term "Ruler" was not decided by me, everyone called me that because I could use laws on par with rules and my rule instead was on par with… ahem, the point is that laws that focus in direct battle were what I used when I was young and inexperienced, I later refined them all into do more than just cut someone to pieces, or blasting holes through them, but these challenges make you do with what you were the worst at originally", said he valkyrie girl who had a little "slip" midway so she slightly changed the focus of the conversation by the second part of her sentence.

But yeah, in case you have wondered how come Freya's "severing" was only turning Karla into pieces instead of cutting her status as an administrator like she did back then, the reason is simple, the sword technique was one of the valkyrie girl's oldest powers.

And since it was something, she created when she was too young and "weak", she managed to access the refined version of the "severing" law, back when suppressed by the system with the help of Alicia and her own efforts, which is how she cut Karla in more than a physical way.

And like she said, at the beginning of one's challenge one is supposed to make do with what they were worst at, so she only obtained the basic power of her severing law, this continued with the spear, the bow and the boots, all of them simply increased her strength in a "rough" and direct way.

But, the seal and the Warhammer were different, because even in their basic forms which is what Freya could use currently, those were powers that the valkyrie girl devised after having gained experience and going from simply focusing in raw power, to focus in much more abstract aspects, like "confiscating" with which Freya sealed a part of the enemy's most important aspect, their foundation.

Normally, the gate should have not only been unable to use the left arm of his magic avatar, but would have directly lost the capacity of using one of the energies, the one that the target used as its main, in other words the gate would have become unable to use battle aura, but once again the previous was the initial basic form of Freya's seal technique, so the effect was also way unrefined when compared to what it later turned into.

The same applied to the Warhammer, the law of "crushing", which Freya devised after the one of the seal, is used to shatter the enemy's "hope's for victory", to the point that they lose the will to fight and stop resisting, it might sound cruel but Freya created it to deal with the guys whose lust for war among her race, made them initiate unnecessary conflict that would lead to pointless bloodshed.

After all, it's incredibly common to have people who were unwilling to fight, conscripted into an army whether out of need, or simply to use them as cannon fodder, and to make sure they obey, the ones who actually want the war to take place, hold something over them, usually their family's safety become a collar to make then listen.

So, instead of cutting or piercing the waves of soldiers who might have been forced to participate, Freya created a power to target the bastards instigating the endless conflict, no powerful leaders fanning the flames of war, meant that only small scale skirmishes at most, would break out, and it was this power which made others fear the valkyrie girl and it was what earned her the chance to create a position from which she could stop anyone who tried to cause trouble whether it was a commoner, a noble or even royalty, she truly was a "Ruler" in all the meaning of the word.

She who originally was a crown princess from the war god race, meant to inherit one of their many territories, became an existence capable of suppressing her whole race, and that's how the peace treaties finally lasted, unfortunately it was also this humongous achievement what got her the attention of the system and well, you know what happened next.

You also now know why the "standing" banner was an absolute win for Freya when compared to Karla, and why Freya said those things about the duties of royalty, because while she herself renounced that status, she earned one that could judge let alone princesses, but kings, queens and any other position that the royal faction created for themselves, that was Freya's standing, she was unique in her whole race, when one referred to her as a "war goddess" of the war god race, it was not because she was a female member of said race, but because of that position, she was a goddess for a race that already had the term "god" in their name.

And yet she didn't aim to make war and plunder others, but sought prosperity and peace, though she later understood that remaining neutral when she should have cleaned up some trash that hid behind a screen of good deeds was a mistake.

Anyway, the important part, is that the seal and the Warhammer being powers she devised after she had grown as a person and someone who preferred peace over war, even at their weakest initial versions, carried powers that surpassed affecting just the direct physical aspects of things.

And that's how Karla's promise passive ability and her strongest shield, where shattered by the Warhammer, as they were in what she was "relying", so that was what got her "hopes for victory" to increase at the time.

"Normally I would say that it's not good that my "crushing" can't directly put an end to a fight, but there is no way I let her leave in such a peaceful way, not after what she has done", said Freya whose eyes were burning in silver grey flames, her battle avatar didn't grow more for a change, but Aisha could tell that Freya had reached a "limit", just like her.

'So, we are both at the peak of "Plan B" level strength, currently', amusingly thought the silver-haired vampire mother, that seal and the Warhammer where the equal of Aisha's demon royal sword and the royal decree, but for Freya, in other words the limit of what they could do without "risking" themselves by using powers they don't fully control yet, also known as "Plan C" level strength.

"They surely are taking their sweet time to come out of there, so let's give them some motivation~", said Aisha as she pointed her pretty index finger towards the abyss.

"Hsssss!!!", silver, violet and even white lightning started crackling around Aisha's body, which made the violet blood stars and moon as well as the silver firmament above, react the same way.

"Majestic Silver Empress, Celestial Lightning Royal Javelin", all the energy that gathered into the silver firmament and the violet blood celestial bodies descended from above and crossed through the demonite field to then compress to the limit as they gathered in a small palm sized sphere in front of Aisha's index finger.

This was another one of Aisha's royal techniques which exerted the peak of "Plan B" strength for her, she wasn't the only one using something new though.

All the grey silver flames burning around her battle avatar gathered on its right arm, before it formed a… crossbow, unlike so far where she has used techniques to condense weapons with different effects, Freya actually made a replica this time, and it was a promise level treasure, namely the crossbow used by her sisters.

It took Freya reaching this "limit" mentioned by Aisha to be able to create it, because as previously stated she wasn't a long-ranged marksman nor a main mage path powerhouse or even a light affinity magic knight, though she did have long range powers and techniques, neither of the aspects of the concept that her sisters had, coincided with her specialties.

And so, the crossbow had nothing to do with Freya's techniques, you can see it since she didn't use the banners to make it, she had no law for it, but she worked her way into creating a replica of the keepsake she had of her sisters to assist her in battle, also the fact that she didn't "use" to have a power related to crossbows, doesn't mean that will always be the case.

"Conceptual Banner", mumbled the valkyrie girl, which made banners with the words "mage" and "knight" appear behind of her.

"Conflict", the activation command resulted in the knight banner winning and in a new effect being showed through it, this time what appeared was actually a bolt, well, it first was an arrow meaning that it was meant to be used with the bow that used to be mounted on the back of Freya's battle avatar, but the thing changed into a bolt and was then placed on the crossbow replica.

"Radiant Explosive Shot", said the valkyrie girl as she clicked on the trigger of the crossbow replica, at the same time as Aisha released her technique, because she had waited for her friend to have finished her preparations.

"Booooom!", two thunderous explosions echoed through the battlefield as a continuous stream of lightning, accompanied by a single instance "flash" of grey silver flames, descended into the abyss below the battlefield, instantly illuminating every corner of it in the vicinity.

The sight of Karla and the gate who were coming upwards after having finished healing and removing all the aftereffects of the attacks they just took, suddenly putting on unsightly expressions as they saw the long range attacks of those two descending upon them, was quite the funny scene.

"Make a space crack now!", shouted Karla to which the gate gritted his teeth as he shouted.

"Fucking damn it!", the space around them cracked and sucked them in, however in case you have forgotten this area had become like this because the seal had grown unstable due to the Lord's actions within the blood prison realm so far.

Above "ground" level it was still fine to move through space and the like if one had the capacity, but the abyss below was basically a wrecked spatial zone, so while those two managed to avoid being pierced by the two rays of energy that passed the area where they used to be floating, which was followed by a single pillar of light emerging from the abyss, alongside a huge thunderous explosion.

"Booooom!", caused by Freya and Aisha's attacks clashing against something and then releasing the energy they contained in a single go, Karla and the gate still let out pained sounds as they emerged from a crack a few kilometers away from Freya and Aisha.

"Ack!", those two which were spat out by the space crack had some messed up wounds and blood on them, yeah, the gate actually had "blood", it was of a bright yellow color instead of being red like Karla's one, but it was blood, as to why only now was the gate bleeding even after receiving Aisha and Freya's attacks, that's simple, while his innate ability to reduce pain was nullified by those two fierce girls, the capacity it had to reduce the "severity" of the wounds in question did seem to work, because he was pouring large amounts of magic aura in it, in other words, the gate has been making its best look tough.

But it just reached the limit of his capacity to hold the bleeding back, so the chaotic space tunnel through which they moved a moment ago, gave them quite a wild ride which resulted in wounds they couldn't heal before being forced out of it, and of course Aisha couldn't miss the chance to kick them while they were down.

"Would you look at that, a high and mighty high tier gate is bleeding, like a "mere" mortal would", said the silver haired vampire mother with a mocking voice.

Which nearly made the gate charge at Aisha with rage in his eyes, only for Karla to actually be the voice of reason in their "team" for a change.

'Wait, don't let that bitch provoke you, focus in what's important, the restrictions in this damn place are being a nuisance, we both would have killed them by now if that wasn't the case', said the mermaid-siren in a voice that only the gate could hear.

'And your point is?', asked the gate with a clearly rougher than usual voice, why, because it was Karla the one who called him here, and he had been humiliated by a mortal, never in his existence had he experienced something like this, the only one to whom he had bowed his head so far, was the system, so being bested and suppressed by a mortal, obviously angered him.

Not to mention that while certainly Karla is someone with whom he has made some deals before, she is not the only one, the benefits brought to him by a single administrator, or at least one that wasn't especially outstanding like Karla, were not enough to increase his rank, he made many other deals to climb to where he is now.

That's why he wanted Freya's corpse, as an administrator she had "low" value, because the concept assigned to her was nothing especial, however, the gate could tell that the "achievements" made by the valkyrie girl before she became an administrator, where of an incredibly high quality.

If it wasn't because he knew that exchanging Freya's corpse with the system, would instantly raise his ranks by at least two notches, then he would have already left, and though Karla didn't have the brain or more accurately with every fiber of her existence denied the possibility of Freya being superior to her, she still noticed how interested was the gate in obtaining Freya's corpse, which is why she came with a way to benefit from it, she prefers to make use of others for her benefit after all.

'Even if temporary, make an actual contract with me, once we both get what we want, it can be brought to an end, but this is the best way to get rid of our problems right now, neither of us wants to leave with empty hands, right?', said the mermaid-siren with a "cunning" voice, she was actually using "breach" not to directly try to control the gate, because she knew that would result in backslash, but as a mermaid, her voice could be made to sound "tempting", it was just a little trick to sound convincing that was all, it didn't really affect the other party's capacity to think.

Why did Karla resort to that then, you wonder, well, because that was the only way it came to mind for her to defeat Freya "safely".

'With an incomplete existence plus the damn suppression of this stupid place, even if I push myself to the limit, at most I would be able to suppress one of those two bitches, so instead of taking a bet, it's better to tie this bastard down and get rid of them together with his help', thought Karla to her insides.

The mermaid-siren had actually accepted that Freya and Aisha were going to get stronger if the fight continued, and she also noticed that they weren't going all out, but the same applied to her, the problem in her mind is that the blood prison realm favored them while it suppressed her, so she was not going to get stronger thanks to it.

So, once they reached their limits, the one to lose against those two, will ultimately be her, and she didn't trust that the gate would fight alongside her, so far it participated on a whim because he felt insulted by Aisha, but it could randomly leave, because they only made a "deal" not a "contract".

'I already chipped in from my savings to give you a higher ranked concept's candidate status, than what you should have gotten, sure I want that war goddess's corpse but the penalty for directly skipping the system's restriction to make you a user without having completed an awakening trial, would leave me in ceros at best and in negatives at worst, I'm not going back to be a low tier gate for you!', said the gate with an incensed voice to which Karla inwardly smirked.

When negotiating, making the other party believe you are going to ask for something "outrageous" to then make what usually would be a high demand, but still within reasonable limits, is one of the best ways to secure what you want.

'I know, like I said we both will get what we need, just make a contract with me, that will restore my original connection with the system even while I'm on the outside world like right now, also with the contract in place, my existence will be complete, with your assistance and the candidate status as well, the fight will be over in a few minutes at most', she said.

The previous took long to explain but it happened in the span of a couple of seconds, and those two were brought back to the real world, by Aisha casually saying.

"So, are you two going to stick to each other like the losers you are, or not, we "sisters" are getting impatient here", said the silver-haired vampire which made Freya feel warm in her heart.

Not only because Aisha called her "sister" instead of friend as she did earlier, but because she also gazed at the crossbow replica as she did it, in other words, she was including Alicia and her sister, who were "present" in spirit through their keepsake, and Freya could tell that those weren't empty words, they came from the heart, Aisha really meant that.

Aisha had been mostly using more of her power as she saw fit because this was her challenge and she had yet to find the opportunity to advance that she wanted, but Freya did develop as the fight moved on, and against her usual way of doing things she refused to end Karla until she managed to manifest the crossbow replica, because she wanted her sisters to be present at the time, so that they could have peace wherever they might be now, so the previous did mean a lot for the valkyrie girl.

Of course, what was a wholesome and happy moment for Freya, was a moment of horror and fear for Karla, because her last resort plan was known by the enemy, especially because Aisha and Freya after exchanging gazes flashed towards the enemies together.

'Fucking bitch, just how the hell is she doing that!', screamed the mermaid-siren to her insides, in case you forgot, Freya made her vomit blood earlier when the Warhammer shattered her defensive battle spell and also "crushed" her innate passive ability which is why the Warhammer was mounted on the back of Freya's battle avatar ready to be used again.

And in case you think Karla and the gate are stupid for not realizing that it was through blood that Aisha managed to get intel, the reason behind of it is simple, the "authority" aspect of her blood energy is covering for her, and said authority has increased through the fight so far, first with each piece of the violet energy armor that was covering her body and later with the countless stars and the violet moon, and lastly with the combination of her silver firmament and it.

It's one of the mind and mysterious aspects of her domains joining hands, which Aisha called "Heavenly Mystery", it made enemy's attention unconsciously focus in other things, though from the very beginning, the process of blood reading is not really easy to notice.

Daimon might have his infinity eyes sealed in this place, but even with the reinforced mask technique from Tessa's energy, which allowed him to see through Ereth's copies, he didn't get a single hint about Aisha's blood reading, so, you get the idea.

'Don't think too much, they won't let us catch our breath from now and onwards!', shouted Karla as she retreated alongside the gate, to which the latter gritted his teeth.

"Fine, damn it!", said the gate as it positioned itself behind of Karla, to then open both of its leaves, releasing a "sacred" looking area what shone in white and yellow light, around the mermaid-siren.

'What a loss, but everything will be fine once I get that damn war goddess's corpse', thought the gate as he saw Karla being enveloped by the area produced by opening both of its leaves.

"Booooom!", the mermaid-siren exploded in battle mana, her domain which at this point had been half destroyed by Aisha's domains, contracted, mixing the hurricane with the sea, to then expand, in a second it turned into an ongoing storm a hundred meter large, which wasn't contained by Aisha's domains anymore, but was clashing against it frontwards instead.