‘She is William’s first wife.’ The Pope narrowed her eyes as she gazed at the Valkyrie in front of her. ‘If we capture her then we will have the upper hand!’
As if sensing the Pope’s intentions the two Pseudo-Gods that had already flown up in the sky attacked Wendy on her left and right side. They didn’t care if what they were doing seemed to be unfair. Since the enemy had presented herself to them, they would teach her a lesson she would never forget.
Suddenly, the Six Eared Macaque, and the Bull Demon King, appeared and engaged the two Pseudo-Gods, keeping them away from Wendy, who was still looking at Belle with the “what are you waiting for?” gaze.
Before William left, he had freed the Bull-Demon King and made him one of the Guardians of the Ainsworth Empire. The orders he was given were simple, he would follow the orders of the Six-Eared Macaque without fail.
With the Power of the Shepherd, he had branded a rune on the Bull Demon King’s body, making him unable to disobey his order. Because of this, he had no choice but to listen to the Six-Eared Macaque’s orders, who used to be his subordinate.
The Pope’s eyes widened in shock because she was very familiar with the Bull Demon King. How could she not be? The Pseudo-God had served as Felix’s general during their invasion of the Central Continent and the Pseudo-Gods under her command had suffered greatly because of him.
Belle, who had decided to face Wendy’s challenge head-on, summoned Aethon and jumped on his back. She was a bow user, so she decided to gain some distance in order to fight against the Valkyrie who seemed to be confident in her own strength.
A moment later, Wendy and Belle flew away until they were beyond the boundary of the Capital City of the Ainsworth Empire.
As soon as they deemed that they were far enough, the two immediately battled each other without holding back. This was the first time that they would be facing against each other, and both wanted to know just how strong their opponent was.
Using her bow, Belle released countless arrows in rapid succession towards the Valkyrie who was riding on her mount, Thor.
“Get me as close enough as you can, Thor,” Wendy ordered. “I’ll handle the rest.”
With a growl of agreement, Thor charged straight towards their enemy. Lightning snaked around its body as it dodged the attacks that were aimed in its direction. Those it couldn’t dodge were swatted away by Wendy’s silver spear that glowed faintly.
‘She can block my attacks?’ Belle frowned after realizing that Wendy’s way of blocking her attacks wasn’t a fluke.
Although she had only appeared in the World of Hestia recently, she was able to tell that the Valkyrie in front of her was only at the Demigod Rank.
She was a Pseudo-God at its peak, so if they were basing their attacks on strength alone, Wendy shouldn’t be able to take her blows head-on because of the disparity in rank.
But, the reality was that Wendy was indeed charging fearlessly at her with a confident smile on her face, while blocking her magic-imbued-arrows.
Half a minute later, Thor had bridged the gap between them and Belle was forced to split her bow into half, creating twin swords to block Wendy’s powerful stab.
As soon as the silver spear collided with her swords, Belle felt as if she had been hit by a bus that sent her flying off Aethon’s back.
The Roc immediately swerved to the side to catch its rider, allowing Belle to regain her foothold.
“How?” Belle asked.
She couldn’t understand why Wendy was able to overpower her despite the great difference in ranks between them.
“How?” Wendy snorted. “You’re still too green. I have seen countless battlefields and blocked the blow of the God of Destruction himself during the War of Ragnarok. Compared to him, your attacks are as light as a feather.”
When she was still a Valkyrie Captain in Asgard, Wendy had already possessed super-human strength that surpassed all the Valkyries under Freya’s command.
After regaining all of her memories and battle experiences, with the help of Takam’s artifact in the Kyrintor Mountains, Wendy had been able to wield the powers that once belonged to her, thousands of years ago.
She had indeed fought in the War of Ragnarok and faced the Gods of Destruction fearlessly.
With that battle experience back under her belt, Belle’s attacks were simply too light for her. She, who had once been the Valkyrie Captain commanding a Legion of Einherjars, including William, had carried the fate of the world on her shoulders.
A Pseudo-God’s attack was nothing!
“Aethon, gain some distance,” Belle ordered. “We can’t beat her up close.”
The Roc shrieked agreeing to her command and flapped its mighty wings to fly away.
“Follow her, Thor,” Wendy urged.
The Lightning Wolf growled and turned into a lightning bolt, streaking across the sky towards the black-haired beauty whose deadly arrow was aimed in their direction.
“Pierce through the veil,” Belle chanted as the radiance on the arrow in her hand intensified.
“Illumina!”
A sharp, shrilling noise spread in the surroundings as soon as Belle released the arrow in her hand.
Thor stopped in his charge, while Wendy narrowed her eyes as she held the handle of her spear firmly in her hands in a throwing pose.
“Turn the world asunder!” Wendy roared as she threw her silver spear towards the arrow that seemed to pierce through the very fabric of the world. “Rend my foes, Falarica!”
The spear hummed as soon as Wendy released it from her hands. A trail of fiery blaze erupted from behind it as it flew straight and true towards the arrow that was flying in its direction.
Suddenly, a powerful explosion rocked the sky as the two attacks collided, pushing Wendy, and Belle, hundreds of meters away from the point of impact.
The two of them watched as a giant mushroom cloud soared up towards the sky, and the land below them cracked due to the sheer power that the two blows created. Visibility was nearly zero as the dust cloud covered the battlefield for miles on end.
Although she couldn’t see Wendy’s form within the dust cloud, Belle could tell where her opponent was due to the presence of her aura.
“Let’s go, Aethon,” Belle said. “This battle is a draw.”
The giant Roc screeched before flying away towards the East. In truth, Aethon didn’t want to fight against Wendy, but William had ordered it to take care of Belle, and become her protector. Since that was the case, it would ensure her safety and prevent anyone from hurting William’s beloved.
Within the dust cloud Wendy clicked her tongue. She was baiting Belle to get her to attack her, but the latter didn’t bite her bait. Instead the black-haired beauty decided that she had enough and left the battlefield.
“I guess William doesn’t love you for nothing,” Wendy muttered before patting Thor’s back. “Let’s go back, Thor. I’m sure that the battle at the capital is over as well.”
Thor nodded its head before running towards the direction of the Capital City of the Ainsworth Empire.
Just as Wendy had guessed, the members of the Holy Order of Light had retreated as soon as the Bull Demon King appeared. However, before they could escape completely, Estelle, (Est), arrived at the scene and rescued Loxos.
Riding on the winged-serpent, Dia, Estelle was able to sneak into the flying ship, while everyone was busy fighting each other.
There was nothing the Pope could do at that moment because she wasn’t much of a fighter.
Just like Wendy, Estelle was emitting the strength of a Demigod, which made the Pope choose to stay behind one of the Pseudo-Gods protecting her, rather than engage the unknown opponent who she was seeing for the first time.
“Good Job, Est,” Wendy said after seeing the young nymph riding on Dia’s back.
“You were a very good distraction,” Est replied with a smile. “They didn’t see me coming.”
Loxos, who had been released from the chains that bound her feet and wrists, looked at the two beautiful ladies who had come to help them in their time of need.
“N-Nice to meet the two of you,” Loxos stuttered. “My name is Loxos. I am one of William’s concubines.”
“Nice to meet you, Loxos,” Wendy replied. “Are you hurt anywhere?”
Loxos shook her head. Although the Pope had pulled her hair, and slapped her earlier, that pain wasn’t enough to hurt her completely.
“Are both of you Will’s wives?” Loxos inquired. She had already heard Wendy’s declaration as the Half-Elf’s first wife, but the silver-haired lady beside her hadn’t said anything earlier as she was saving her.
“My name is Estelle, but you can call me Est,” Est replied. “I am Will’s fiance. We’ll get married as soon as he comes back from wherever he is right now.”
“… how envious,” Loxos muttered after hearing Este’s introduction.
“Let’s get along from now on, Loxos,” Est extended her hand for a handshake, and the young nymph accepted it gratefully.
“I have a lot of questions regarding Will,” Wendy stated. “Can you help answer some of my questions later?”
Loxos nodded. “Of course.”
“Thank you.”
“Please take care of me from now on as well.”
Loxos bowed respectfully to the two ladies whom she felt had a very strong connection with her Master. She was very curious about them and decided that she would also ask them a few questions when they got back to the Royal Palace where William’s cousin, Eve, was waiting for their triumphant return.
