– K Á R A –

The blood on my dagger hadn't even dried and I was rapidly back on the trail of Thanatos. It didn't even surprise me that it led a direct path to the royal castle. It wouldn't surprise me that Anselle would manipulate any mortal with a slither of power to her ends–even the royals of Vayleron. The hunt for the Three Lions prior was all too sweet...

My hands cracked with power and the sky thundered above me in response. I pulled my drenched hood lower and strode directly up to the main gate. Four pikeman turned from their conversation in the rain and called out to me. I didn't hear their words.

I broke into a run and they cursed, aiming pikes in my direction. I flung myself high over them and landed in roll–running faster. More shouts. More armour clanging in the rain. The next inner wall began closing its iron spiked gate. I let the power sing inside me before calling a bolt of lightning from the sky and sending it exploding into the metal and stone.

It shattered and flung guards to the side as I passed through the smoke and bent metal.

I heard crossbow bolts twang through the air. But there was nothing to distract me from my purpose. I clenched a fist and the incoming projectiles became ash around me–even the rain drops evaporated. 

The scent of familiar power was all too strong leading towards the main walls of the white walled castle. I disarmed another three mortals before picking another fool in tin off his feet entirely and sending him through the door. It broke in a crash of wood and metal.

I sent many of these guards with their royal training and armour aside like they were nothing. In reality they truly were. They were mere time between me and my immortal. I threw an arm out with an emotionless expression under my helmet, the bright white power flew outwards.

More of them fell to the ground under the electricity.

I kicked a grounded sword into my hand and flung it before turning and finally setting sights on the one responsible. She rose before a stone balcony and glared down at the commotion. She froze in disbelief. In complete denial that I was still very much alive from a damandium dagger through the heart.

"Impossible." She whispered, frantically before spinning on her heel and running.

I threw another man aside and danced above on pieces of bright light. My hands became wrapped in it and my eyes took on a new light. It didn't matter what mortals she had fighting for her or whatever royal power she had attained. If I didn't move them aside I cut them down.

She darted through another hallway before rushing to pull the dark energy into her hand and fashion a portal before her as she ran. She was fast. But I was faster.

The moment her foot stepped through it I tackled her around the waste following her right through. We collapsed on a heavy sand dune and rolled down it in sudden stark daylight. She whipped a dark wave of energy back at me and I dismissed it with my own arc of power.

I ripped her from the sand by the collar and sent a sparking ball of energy into her chest.

She flew back into another dune with a cloud of sand on impact. I didn't let up. I rushed her again as she drew my dark relic into her hands. I even smiled as I dropped on her and placed my hand against it. Her own dark look soon melted as she stared at my face. The way the dark energy leaked away from her eyes and drew into me rapidly.

"Thanatos knows true power." I whispered.

I tangled the energy of the dark god with my own of light and sent a fist into her again. She screamed as the power broke her armoured chest and dropped her to the ground. I tossed the black relic to the side and rolled my neck.

"I need no relic to enjoy this." I growled, drawing two daggers and lighting them with sparks.

She crawled back in the sand with pure desperation now.

"I killed you–you died that night!" She screamed, frantically searching for something to use–or someone. The thought made my rage blur my vision.

"There is no one to use against me now. No immortal. No mortal. Just your pathetic failures against a true Valkyrie." I murmured, tightening my fists and flinging a glowing dagger at her. She tried to block it with an arm but it sank past her gauntlet and embedded deep into her forearm.

She snarled out another cry and her dark strands of hair stuck to her face like hideous vines.

"You have so much undiluted power you are wasting!" She shouted as I took slow steps through the sand, closing the distance. "You wouldn't need to bow before anyone–no one could control you if you–"

I dropped a dagger and drew my palm into my fist. The sky blackened above us quickly and Anselle became more frantic.

"Think of what we could ACHIEVE! You could be with your mortal!"

I froze. Even the sky seemed to pause above us as her words sat in the air before me. Heard her talk of my love through her manipulations. Speak as if there was any realm where I would willingly work with the creature that had ripped us apart.

"I was going to kill you." I told her, staring down with endless death. "I was going to make you suffer. But you deserve an eternity with all the other unworthy souls. You deserve an endless end–one you will relive again and again because of what you have done."

I grabbed her by the neck in an armoured hand and her eyes darted over my gleaming helmet.

"What–what do you mean–" She got out with building anxiety.

I raised a hand and Thanatos flew into my fist. Then I drew the dark energy into me before ripping a rift in the sand below us. She stared at it in sudden realisation and writhed in my hand. I tightened my grip and jumped through it.

A bright flash of the realms passed around us. Brightness and nothingness before we landed in the bottomless fathoms of the Underworld.

"You cannot! You can't–Odin does not have Valkyries send souls to the Underworld!"

"No. He does not." I said simply. "Yet he is not here to stop me."

She thrashed against my arm but my strength with a relic against her was bottomless. A valkyrie of origin with a relic was unstoppable. Powerful and unbreakable. A god.

I dropped her to the circular platform and kicked her to her knees before the glowing blue of the soul rivers. Her whole being was shuddering away from it. The endless death that breathed from it was palpable.

"Please. PLEASE. Immortal–I am not a Valkyrie I will not perish I will be forever held!"

I grabbed the back of her neck and drew her up to me slowly to meet that hideous face. The eyes that were now blue without the power of my relic.

"You held the meaning of my existence before this very soul river, immortal. You almost took everything from me. Then you ripped her from my life again." I whispered, drawing her face close to my helmet. I tore it from my head suddenly so that I could meet her with my burning eyes. She flinched against my fist but I held her firm.

"I want you to watch me closely as I tell you this. You will walk dead and alive among the souls for eternity. I would watch you perish again and again and be at peace to know that you will never find any." I stated in a lethal calm that told her everything.

I released her.

 Her scream was guttural and cut short as her body was pulled into the thick glowing blue that took her soul among a countless number of others. I stared at the river a moment longer. Accepting the fate of the one I promised I would bring an end to. She would never live on any realm again.

"What will you do now?" The voices of many suddenly echoed out behind me.

I didn't flinch. I remained staring at the soul river. It stared back to me. Only a Valkyrie could walk back out–as Tayah had. Anselle was no Valkyrie.

"I will find the love of my existence." I murmured towards the blue glow.

"You will not consider staying in Valhalla. Staying an immortal protector of the realms." The god demanded.

I finally turned from the soul rivers and met the hooded cloak of smoke and shadow.

"You already know the answer. The question is if you will save me time or you will keep up the charade of trying to avert my fate." I told the god calmly.

"I won't hasten my daughter's demise. I will prevent it." It answered as if the simplest thing in the realm.

I growled low and summoned my relic into my hand again. I cracked a rift open again to the mortal realm. "You will never know if that fate is set in stone if I stay with her. Fate is always changing."

The god watched me silently. Before pressing the robed arms together and dropping his head. 

"I will always strive to balance the realms. Immortal and mortal."

"And because of that, we have nothing more to discuss, Odin. If our paths meet again, I hope you see enough to change your mind." I murmured, before jumping through the portal.