For the next week, Loki settled in to the simple life at the village, and was surprised with how much it agreed with her.
Using the remains of the superior tyrant dragon that she was gifted by Admin 0, Loki now had a large supply of material for crafting, and new designs in her head.
She started with crafting new equipment for herself. She first used a good portion of the dragon hide to create a cloak for herself, it was jade green with black designs, and golden designs and trimmings. Made of dragon leather, it covered her form rather flatteringly, and had a large hood pulled back around the shoulders. It was fastened along her left sid, with a large circular clasp by the collar that bore her emblem; a triquetra.
As an experiment, she had added some of her blood and a bottle of elixir to the cloak when crafting it. She was just curious what would happen, but had not expected that it would automatically be granted a name and added bonuses bt the system.
[FAFNIR'S MANTLE]
Forged from the skin of the Greater Dragon, and crafted by the master maker, [Nex Loki], this vestment has been blessed with sentience by Admin 0. It has earned the rating of Legendary 2nd-Grade item.
It has become the familiar of [Nex Loki]
[BONUS SKILLS]
Adapt; Camouflage; Dragon's Protection; Levitate; Living Clothing; Regenerate; Shapeshift; Swift;
Wait... Admin 0 blessed it with what? Her cloak was alive? Loki imagined a scenario where her cloak suddenly became animate and molested her. Was she afraid of that happening to her, or was she excited by the prospect?
Setting aside that can of worms, she focused on what she knew for a fact. Ultimately, her new cloak was sentient; it was alive and could move independently, and it could change its form. It was also bonded to her as a familiar, which could come in handy.
Along with Fafnir's Mantle, she had also forged a sword made from dragon bone, as well as a dagger made from its metallic horn. She kept the dagger for herself, but she gifted the sword (dubbed Dragon Bane) to Sara.
"I don't know what to say," Sara said holding the sheathed blade.
"Say you'll take it," Loki said, "it suits you."
When Loki next checked on her status, it was like this;
[STATUS]
Name: Nex Loki
Race: prime titan (fallen)
Sex: female (fluid)
Karma: neutral
Condition: normal
Jobs: trickster/ master maker/ archivist
Affiliation: Rondel Village
Level: 12
Tier: Ace
HP: 100.00%
Anima: 100.00%
Points: 30,000pnts
[SKILLS]
Anima Manipulation; Appraisal; Awareness; Crafting; Devil's Luck; Designer; Elemental Resistance; Faker; Foresight; Golden Rule; Grey Shift; Heresy; Hero's Fortune; Illness Resistance; Iron Flesh; Iron Will; Joker; Longevity; Mental Fortitude; Opportunist; Pain Resistance; Poison Resistance; Parallel Thinking; Pyromancy; Recovery; Shapeshifting(fixed)(locked); Survivor; Synthesis; Transmutation; Thought Acceleration; Trace; Universal Translator; Word is Bond;
[EQUIPMENT]
Sleeveless Shirt; Cargo Pants; Fafnir's Mantle(familiar); Tactical Belt; Boots;
[TITLES]
Ace; Primal Shard; Fallen; Survivor; The Joker; Maker; Leader; Archivist; Traveller; Nomad; God Slayer; Genius; Observer; Reincarnated; Exhibitionist; Pangender; Trojan Warrior;
[CLAN]
(Locked. Conditions not met)
[OPTIONS]
Inventory
Maps
Messages
[OBJECTIVES]
Find Fenris (...)
Settle In (complete)
People in the village were quickly getting used to her presence,, although there were still incidences of quiet prejudice against her since she was not a werebeast. She even got the occasional advances from a few admirers, but she kept politely rejected them.
The village of Rondel was actually bigger than she had initially thought, with a population of a few hundred. The militia was a full-fledged peacekeeping force, with standardized equipment and procedures. From what she could tell, the village seemed pretty well developed, with access to clean water, and lights, there was even a communal shower with indoor plumbing.
Her job as a master maker proved popular with the engineers and craftsmen in the village, who hounded for her to share her secrets. She shared some of her designs with them, but kept the truly revolutionary stuff to herself, no need to upset their rate of development... at least not yet.
Tetra and Petra came of age that week and gained access to the system, there was even a ceremony in the village square where they opened their status windows for the first time.
Since then, they spent as much time as they could with Loki, and she'd also grown fond of the twins, they reminded him of... someone he couldn't remember.
It was possibly due to this similarity that Loki couldn't place that she started teaching them the ways of the system, training them on how to gain more experience and level up faster.
Once, Loki had taken the twins and their friends into the woods to grind levels.
"Miss Loki?" Tetra called
"Please, just Loki," Loki corrected,
"What sort of jobs do you have?" Tetra asked,
"Yeah, we can't get a job until we reach level 25 at least, but you had them even at level 1." Petra added
The others murmured in agreement, seemingly all curious about her job classes.
"Well, I'm a special case, as you well know," Loki said, wondering how much she should tell them, "I have a few jobs, like master maker, but my first job, my main, is trickster."
"Trickster?" Petra echoed, "like a comedian or performer?"
"No, it's actually a pretty rare job," Loki said.
Trickster was a unique job class, a neutral aligned, jack-of-all-trades type of job. Trickster was one of the only jobs that evolved with the users karma.
"Can we be tricksters too, then?" One of the girl's friends, Caleb, asked
"Uh, I guess?" Loki responded. She wasn't sure if such a rare job class could be so easily gained.
"You guess?" The friend named Kylo inquired, he'd just had his own system awakening the other day, so this trip was mostly for his benefit.
"Hey, I don't know how it works for you guys," Loki shrugged, "its not easy to become a trickster. There are a lot of other jobs out there that would suit you better."
"But what if we could get the job?" The harpy, Ella, asked, "how would we do it?"
"To unlock the trickster job class, you need to be true neutral in karma, the perfect balance of good and evil, lawful and chaotic." Loki said, "So far, only Kylo and Tetra seem to have that potential,"
"What?" Petra demanded, looking over at her sister, "no fair,"
Loki chuckled, "relax, there are plenty of other opportunities for each of you since your just starting out. Tetra and Kylo just happen to have the best karma alignment for the trickster job,"
"What about me?" Petra demanded,
Loki appraised at her. Surprisingly, her karma was evil aligned, which means she might cause problems for others down the line if she continued as she was.
"I can think of a few great jobs that would be perfect for you," Loki chuckled, "now, who wants to hunt some monsters and level up before you have to go home?"
They all sounded off.
* * *
That night, the week-long timer would finally elapse. Loki was in bed when the early warning alarm went off in her head that the location would soon be available, and she bolted upright to a sitting position. Checking her map, she saw a wolf icon appeared within the forest, some distance from the village. Only half an hour remained.
"It's a full moon out tonight," Loki realized, "of course it'd be now."
She quickly got dressed and went over to Sara's house, but stopped herself from knocking at the door. She had considered informing Sara about what she was doing, but that'd raise questions she wasn't sure she could answer. In the end, Loki decided to go it alone, she couldn't remember much about this Fenris, but maybe she could learn more about her past with Fenris. With that, she left the village, not knowing that she had been noticed.
The map led Loki back to the vault she came out of. After they had found nothing inside but an empty box, the security on it was lifted a few days ago, so Loki would be undisturbed. Just under a minute now.
"Um," a voice called from behind her that caused Loki to spin around, where she found Petra and Tetra, coming out of the bushes
"What the hell are you doing here?" Loki snapped.
"We followed you from the village," Petra said,
"We were curious why you stopped at our house before just leaving," Tetra added
"You really shouldn't be out here," Loki chided them as the final seconds of the timer ticked by and another loud bell toll went off, echoing through the forest.
"Dammit." She hissed as the vault rumbled. High above, the full moon had reached its zenith in the night sky, directly above them.
"What's going on?" Petra demanded as the rumbling intensified, inside the darkness of the vault a bright light burst out, followed by the release of anima and the rush of air to fill a vacuum.
"I don't believe it," Tetra gawked in awe, "a second vault inside the first? A double vault?"
At the back of the vault was a second vault door that had just appeared and was slowly sliding open, then the rattling of chains stopped the further widening of the entrance. It was sealed with spiked black chains.
Without a word, Loki entered the outer vault and approached the second door, Petra and Tetra not far behind her.
"This is incredible," Tetra exclaimed, "there's never been evidence of a double vault actually existing. This is unprecedented."
"I don't think we're meant to be here," Petra said in a hushed tone, "it doesn't seem very inviting."
"I know, I feel it too," Tetra noted, hesitant to proceed.
"It's her, she's here" Loki said as she walked to the back of the room, where the second vault lay, just within reach. Whatever force kept the twins at bay obviously had an opposite effect on Loki, beckoning her forth. She grabbed a handful of the chains that sealed the entryway and tore them away as if they had were made of paper. With the chains gone Loki pushed apart the large doors that looked like it probably weighed more than a ton with relative ease and went in.
"Loki," Tetra called after her, no response,
Petra groaned, "Godsdammit, we better not get killed because of this,"
Steeling their nerves, the twins dove into the thick darkness after Loki. Past the entrance the twins were greeted by a staircase that led deep underground. It was so dark they could barely see beyond a few feet in front of them, but they could hear the footfalls of Loki just ahead, with a bright green fireball to light the way, the only luminescence in the all-consuming dark.
"Loki, wait up." Tetra hissed as she and her sister rushed down the stairs as careful as they could not to trip, while trying to catch up with Loki, who descended swiftly with ease.
They walked in silence for a few moments before Petra spoke, in an effort to have something fill the awkward void of the unsaid.
"So what do you make of all this?" She asked, "I mean, all this seems more like how I imagined a vault to be."
"It feels... hostile, and unwelcoming," Tetra noted, "like something doesn't like us being here."
Then, they heard Loki muttering to herself,
"It's some sort of construct... they're playing with me," they heard Loki hiss, "Has she been here all this time? Or did she just arrive here this evening?"
The whole thing made the twins feel uneasy, like they were intruding on something they wouldn't understand, but still they pressed on, because they cared about Loki.
After walking down for what felt like ages, they finally reached the bottom landing, before them was a large brazier, filled with a black liquid.
"What do you want to bet that's oil?" Tetra asked, trying to spark conversation.
Loki remained silent as she tossed her fireball into the braizer, setting it alight. Similar flames erupted from braziers around the room, bathing the chamber in light.
As their eyes adjusted to the light, Tetra and Petra gasped at what they saw. There was only one thing inside this chamber; a single woman, bound in chains in the middle of the room. She was on her knees on a raised platform, while over a dozen spiked chains anchored around the room wrapped around her body, holding her in place. She looked pristine, not like how an aged corpse should, to the point that the twins couldn't tell whether she was dead or not, but the chamber was aged and covered in a layer of dust and cobwebs, signifying she'd been down here a long time.
"Is... Is she dead?" Tetra asked turning to Loki who didn't take her eyes off the prisoner.
"Just dormant," Loki said, inspecting a nearby chain, "she needs the light. That's why she's locked down here in the dark."
"We'll need to get her down first," Petra thought, "then it's just a matter of carrying her out of here,"
"No need," Loki said quietly, as pointed at the high ceiling, "Oblivion-Burst!"
Everything that was directly above them was silently and instantly erased, leaving only dust to lightly rain over them. The girls blinked as reality seemed to warp, then the next thing they knew, moonlight bathed over them in what was now standing in a deep crater in the middle of the forest that had once been the vault. What kind of skill could destroy an entire vault so completely, so totally? They heard chains rattling, and turned their attention to the bound woman, who was starting to stir. The twins watched in amazement as the woman rose to her feet, the remaining chains that held her snapping easily like they weren't even there. Once she stood at full height, she raised her head to the sky and let out a powerful howl at the moon.
The two werebeast girls covered their ears from the auditory assault that left their ears ringing.
{Good evening, Fen,} Loki greeted, speaking in that language they didn't recognize, a warm smile plastered on her face, {how was your nap?}
{Eh, Lokkun?} the woman replied with a yawn, {I had the weirdest dream.}
Her face was hidden behind a dark veil, cut in a way that left only her snout visible. She had a wild mane of ashen grey hair, with two wolf ears that perked up above her head glittering with gold piercings. Her body was covered in a fine coat of dazzling pale grey fur that glittered in the moonlight like silver, and a thick bushy tail that wagged excitedly behind her, clasped in golden rings. She was dressed in a gothic-style habit, with a sleeveless open bust bodice that exposed an incredible amount of cleavage and a long skirt with slits along both sides going up to her hips that revealed her supple thighs and long digitigrade legs. Her arms, at first, appeared to be adorned with what looked like oversized detached black ruffled sleeves, but were actually just a solid black silhouette, wrapped in spiked black chains. Around her neck was a spiked choker. Her clothes looked to be of exceptionally high quality, made from the finest materials. Etched in gold om her veil was Loki's emblem, a triquetra.
Despite her gothic appearance, she radiated both savagery and elegance, with a graceful vibrance in her movements and a playful smirk on her lips, while her voice carried a low growl that was noticeable in every utterance.
{Where are we anyway?} Fenris inquired, looking around.
{We're apparently in a world different from the one we knew, and you've been in there for quite some time.} Loki informed her with all seriousness,
Fenris was silent for a moment, then she chuckled, {Lokkun, did you hit your head or something?}
Loki shrugged with a chuckle, {Yeah, probably,}
Then a chime went off in both of their heads as a new window opened up for both of them to see;
[CONGRATULATIONS! FENRIS THE BLACK WOLF HAS JOINED YOUR CLAN! THE CLAN FUNCTION ON YOUR SYSTEM WINDOW CAN NOW BE ACCESSED!]
[THE FIRST OF THE VALKYRIE HAS BEEN REUNITED WITH HER MASTER IN THIS NEW WORLD! YOU HAVE LEVELED UP [X20]! SOME OF YOUR LOCKED SKILLS HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED AND SOME RESTRICTIONS HAVE BEEN LIFTED!]
{Whoa. It seems you weren't kidding. How long has it been?} Fenris mused. {So, who're they?}
Fenris turned to the twins who had silently been observing the two for some time, unable to understand their conversation.
{They're friendly,} Loki said, before suddenly switching to the common language, "And they doesn't understand the star-tongue."
"So commons it is, then?" Fenris said, she then stepped back and curtsied politely in front of the young twins, "Nice to meet you, I am Fenris the Black Wolf, Captain of the Valkyrie, and personal attendant of Nex Loki. Thank you for taking care of our master until now. You can call me Fen."
At that moment, Petra and Tetra both dropped to one knee and bowed at her, which confused both Fen and Loki,
"I-it's an honor to meet you, great ancestor, Fenris!" They said in unison,
"Uh, what?" Loki queried just as she received another notification;
[FENRIS THE BLACK WOLF IS THE CONCEPTUAL PROGENITOR OF ALL WEREWOLF VARIANTS. AS SUCH, SHE IS REVERED AS A MYTHICAL BEING AMONG THE WEREBEASTS.]
Mythical being? Did that mean that Fen was considered something akin to a god to the wearbeasts? How did that even work?
Fen didn't look bothered by this revelation, so Loki figured it was nothing she should worry about currently.
Loki then decided to check out Fen's status, to see if she was also reset;
[STATUS]
Name: Fenris the Black Wolf
Race: origin lycanthrope
Sex: female
Karma: lawful evil
Attribute: sun/moon
Jobs: secretary/beast master/ranger
Affiliation: Valkyrie
Tier: Ancient
Level: 800(geas)
HP: 100.00%
Anima: 100.00%
Points: 22,612,000pnts
[SKILLS]
Appraisal; Analysis; Assistant; Boost; Battle Sense; Bloodlust; Blessing of the Hunt; Chef; Chain Combat; Carnivore; Dexterity; Devoted; Devil's Luck; Dutiful; Eye of the Wild; Eye of Temptation; Eyes of Eclipse; Eye of Ruin; Eye of Despair; Feather Touch; Focus; Fangs and Claws; Grace; Hedonist; Heresy; High Noon; Iron Hands; Iron Will; Iron Flesh; Imprint; Illness Resistance; Killer Instinct; Law of the Jungle; Longevity; Leadership; Maid; Mystique; Midnight; Natural Element; Nocturnal; Overpower; Paradox; Pioneer; Pain Resistance; Pride; Poison Resistance; Primal Nature; Professionalism; Perfectionist; Recovery; Stalker; Survivalist; Savage; Stamina; Summon Familiar(Hati/Skoll); Tame; Taunt; Tracker; Unique; Unbreakable Will; Vanguard; Vitality; Wolf Sense;
[EQUIPMENT]
Veil of Faces; Dark Forest Habit; Cursed Chains of Gleipnir; Spiked Choker;
[TITLES]
The Black Wolf; Infernal Child; Eyes of Evil; Twice Cursed; Personal Attendant; Child of the Sun&Moon; Lord of the Hunt; Apex Predator; Enigma; Realm Champion; Wild Knight; MINOR WORLD DEITY;
Loki sighed as a flood of memories came rushing back. They were small, insignificant moments with her, like when she would bring Loki tea on those long nights of work, or when they would travel. Loki was pleased to see that her closest aide and confidante was alright, and that she was no truly longer alone anymore.
"Fen, do you have any idea where the others might be?" Loki asked.
"Nope," Fen shook her head, "they were likely sealed away, like I was."
"So I just have to unsealed them too?" Loki guessed
"It figures I'd be the first one to wake up." Fen sighed, shaking her head, "By the way; I love your new look, Lokkun."
"Thanks," Loki grinned, posing for her, "I just made it recently, it's called Fafnir's Mantle, and it likes you"
Thanks to her empathic bond with the familiar, Loki could sense it's feelings. She still found it wierd that her clothes had feelings.
"Well I like it, too," Fen said caressing the mantle and causing it to ripple with glee, which sent a weird feeling down Loki's spine.
"Uh, great ancestor?" Petra called quietly, attracting their attention.
"Right, you two are still here," Fen said
"A little harsh, don't you think?" Loki scolded
"N-no, we don't mind," Tetra replied sharply
"Okay, you guys are acting weird," Loki demanded, "how did you even know about this great ancestor thing,"
"We're pureblood werewolves," Petra said, "descendants of the first lycanthropes of the ancient times."
"There are legends of you among the werebeasts," Tetra answered, "the Black Wolf of the Sun and Moon. Reverence for you is ingrained in our blood."
"Hmm," Loki mused, this was indeed very curious.
Fen scowled, "are you two just going to grovel there the whole time?"
"N-no ma'am" they both shot to their feet.
"Well, it was nice to meet you, I guess" Fen acknowledged, "now I can't wait to get home and have a nice hot bath, just me and Lokkun,"
"Well, I'm currently staying at their village." Loki said,
"What about Asgard?" Fen queried
Asgard? That sounded familiar, like home, but Loki couldn't remember what happened to it.
"Not available," Loki said simply
"What?" Fen demanded, "Then what of Yggdrasil? She couldn't leave the tower."
"We'll find her, and the others," Loki assured,
Fen observed at Loki for a moment
"Alright," Fen sighed,
"For now, let's head back to the village," Loki suggested
The next day, the whole village was in an uproar. Fenris the Black Wolf, one of the mythical figures of the werebeasts, had returned.
Fen treated them with indifference, having very little regard for their reverence. News of the destruction of the vault was met with shock and surprise, it was believed that vaults were virtually indestructible, being constructed by the ancients.
Loki refused to elaborate on what happened, and even used [Faker] to manipulate the memories of the twins. She couldn't let what she had done be known. [Oblivion-Burst] was a genesis 0th-grade anti-material forbidden technique known as a Skill Break, which triggers anomalous outcomes by activating random skills simultaneously, and stacking the different skill effect to create a chain reaction.
Such an event is normally considered impossible by the laws of the world, but it can only occur in specific circumstances. Loki could trigger the technique because she had the passive skill [Heresy], which allows her to circumvent the rules of the world. Skill Breaks also came with a significant amount of personal risk to invoke. Each technique is unique in both the outcome and the penalty on the invoker. Using the [Oblivion-Burst] sacrificed 40% of Loki's anima, as well as the penalty of losing ten levels, and this was with the protection of [Heresy] to lessen the cost.
It is a dangerous cheat ability that should never be known.
"All you need to know is that the vault is gone," Fen told the elders when they asked.
Later in the day, Loki and Fen were on a stroll around the village when they ran into Sara,
"Good evening," Sara greeted
"Sara, right?" Fen asked, "mother of the twins?"
"Yes," Sara smiled, "how are you doing?"
"Fen and I were discussing what other types of vaults are out there," Loki explained
"Types of vaults?" Sara queried
"Well, the vault Lokkun and I came from are different from usual vaults, aren't they?" Fen elaborated
Sara nodded
"Well then, there may be others like ours, which we're calling crypts, and they would be different from the typical vaults you people are familiar with," Loki explained,
"Tetra told me that new vaults like ours are a rare occurrence," Fen added,
"They are almost unheard of in this day and age," Sara clarified, "most of them were believed to have been discovered thousands of years ago."
"Well, I theorize that these vaults may have specific open conditions, like mine, so until those conditions are met, they remain dormant and undiscovered."
"So there may be other crypts that we don't know about, even in discovered ?" Sara mused,
Loki and Fen glanced at each other,
"So you think the others are also in crypts?" Fen asked
"Others?" Sara asked
"The other five members of the Valkyrie besides me," Fen elaborated, "Lokkun's loyal subordinates and elite guard."
"And you were all made by Loki?" Sara asked
Fen was about to speak, but trailed off. She turned towards the forest, her ears perked up.
"What is it?" Loki asked
Sara sniffed the air, but felt nothing off. Fen growled then took off, heading deep into the forest.
"C'mon," Loki said, grabbing Sara by the waist and launching into the air.
"Wha?" Sara yelped in surprise, holding on to Loki as soon as she felt the ground fall away beneath her feet.
"We'd never catch up to Fen on the ground, so we'll go by air." Loki said
Instead of flying, it was more like they were floating in a bubble of anima.
From above, they could see that Fenris was making a direct line for the crater where the double vault once stood. Around the site of the former vault, they could see light from torches and a few dozen dark figures. Loki swooped low and landed just at the edge of clearing, intercepting Fen, whose bloodlust was evident.
"Fen, please calm down," Sara pleaded with her, but the lycanthrope just ran past her without even slowing. "Loki, what do we–?"
She turned to her side, only to find Loki was no longer there, she was rushing towards the crater with Fen.
"Dammit." The elder scowled before following after them.
It didn't take Loki and Fen long to reach the site where they found a gathering of people in red hooded robes, chanting in the same language that Loki spoke to Fen.
{What are you doing?} Loki snarled, as an uncontrollable rage came over her. When she spoke that language, it flowed naturally from her lips like a hymn. But these people? Their dialect was forced making it sound wrong, they were bastardizing the star-tongue.
"Who are you?" One of the robed figures demanded, holding a large book, "do not interfere,"
{Do. Not. Speak. Those. Words!} Fen snarled, as she threw her arms forwards and the black chains wrapped around them uncoiled and shot out, striking down the the closest robed figure.
"Stop them!" The figure with the book yelled as the others all brandished weapons.
{Lokkun...} Fen growled, not seeking permission to act, but rather acknowledgment of what was about to happen.
{Yes,} Loki replied coldly, {we kill them all. No mercy.}
With that, the two of them leapt into battle against the dozen opponents.
Sara was close enough to see the massacre. She watched in horror as Loki and Fen tore apart a dozen people in robes, as long black chains from Fen's arms moved under her will, slithering and slashing everyone in her path, while Loki turned the very ground into their enemy, transmuting giant spikes that impaled them from below. The two of them set upon their enemies with brutal and deadly efficiency.
"F@£k!" One of the robed figures cursed, as she raised a jeweled staff and aimed it at Loki. "Eat this!" The woman screamed, activating the innate skill of the item, and a torrent of fire spewed forth from her staff like a flamethrower, completely engulfing Loki. The robed figures cheered as the fire consumed her, but they were silenced when the fire died down and Loki was still standing, with not even her hair singed.
"H-how?" Someone demanded "she survived the 5th-grade attack [Dragon's Cry]?"
"You dare compare such paltry flames to the likes of dragons?" Loki growled, her emerald eyes glowing, "this is fire worthy of dragons."
Loki snapped her fingers, activating her [Pyromancy], and the four nearest robed figures spontaneously combusted, engulfed in bright green flames that reduced them to ashes in moments.
"Impossible, an instant kill attack, done without an item?" the woman cried, "that was a 4th... no, a 3rd-grade skill!"
"Where did these bitches come from?" Another demanded watching as Fen held one opponent up by their head. They screamed as she steadily applied pressure, before being silenced with a sickeningly wet crunch as she caved their skull in like an egg.
Seeing their odds of survival dwindling, the remaining robed people made a hasty retreat, disappearing in puffs of smoke while Loki and Fen were busy killing their comrades. As the one with the book was about to vanish, Loki grabbed his arm and tore it off with little effort, showering herself in the blood spray. He screamed, but vanished moments after, only just avoiding being decapitated by Fen's spiked chain whip, which moved to fast it might as well have been a chainsaw.
With no one left to kill, Loki and Fen calmed down, in a noticeable better mood despite being drenched in the blood of their enemies. Oddly, Loki didn't mind this.
A chime went of in their heads as a window opened before each of them;
[YOU HAVE DEFEATED SEVERAL CULTISTS! YOU HAVE GAINED 5,000PNTS TO BE SHARED ACCORDINGLY AMONG PARTICIPANTS! YOU HAVE LEVELED UP[+3]!]
"What the actual f@£k?" Sara demanded as she cautiously approached them, stepping over the carnage.
"Their chant..." Fen scowled, wiping blood from her lips, "it was an abomination, a sacrilege against the star-tongue."
Loki nodded, remembering the rage that filled her when she heard it, it was frighteningly overpowering. Stranger still was that this stirred up a faint memory, like foggy dream Loki didn't recognize. She now saw a vision of herself clad in dazzling white and gold armor stained with black blood, standing over a vast and devastated battlefield, with four brilliant emerald wings at her back, and a large halo of green light floating behind her head. Above were several other winged beings, only they had two wings instead of her four.
Before she could process what she was seeing, she was brought back to the present.
"Why?" Sara asked, "what's so special about that language?"
"It is not your place to question its sanctity, werebeast," Fen snapped harshly, "it is beyond your kind,"
Loki knew that Fen didn't need to be so harsh to Sara for her curiosity, but she didn't reprimand the Valkyrie. She agreed with her on some level.
"Lokkun, four of them got away," Fen growled, dissatisfied.
"It wasn't a total failure, we got this," Loki said as she picked up the book from the arm she tore off. The book was leather-bound with a simple blank cover bearing no title nor inscription, but on the first page was a crudely drawn symbol of three conjoined circles.
When Fen saw the book, she cursed loudly. "This is a forbidden book!" She snarled, "No wonder those cultists knew the star-tongue."
"What's wrong with that book?" Sara demanded, backing away from it, "it feels... odd."
"You can sense it too," Loki stated, ever since she picked up the book, it has been giving off a high pitched hum. Something familiar to her.
"This book reeks of the celestial," Loki concluded, sniffing the leather.
"What does that mean," Sara asked
"It might not be a coincidence that these cultists are here, at the site that once stood our crypt." Loki said, turning to the dead cultists that littered the crater.