Chapter 148 Choice.

Loki Showed her true self for the first time since she appeared in the obsidian palace. Seeing the cold anger in her eyes, Sam was sure it was genuine, not just a mask she placed on to fool those around her.

Something about what black Thorn said caused her to snap. It didn't take much thought to figure it out as the Asian girl herself had explained it not that long ago.

The Nephilim and the Valkyries came from Freyja, from the original Alice. She on the other hand was a copy of Odin, though it was difficult to understand how the mind of an old white man had resulted in an Asian woman.

Anyways, by her own definition Loki is not a Nephilim, nor is she a Valkyrue. Even if every part of her is identical to the others, the fact that she doesn't come from the same origin makes her an outsider, and that didn't sit well her.

"LOKI! YOU YOU TRAITOROUS BITCH! I SHOULD'VE KNOWN… I SHOULD'VE KNOWN!"

Hela yelled and cried, her expression depicting unbelievable rage. Black Thorn had advised her before to not trust that individual. She had explained her logic and informed her of the risks, however when Loki brought Alice with her the Nephilim queen let her guard down and this is the result.

"As I thought, you aren't worthy of your throne." Loki said, glancing at the young queen one more time before walking away.

"WHERE DO YOU-"

Hela reached out to grab her foot however another sword of ligh came down stabbing the floor and severing her arm.

"Well, even if that's the case, I doubt it'll be easy to convince the others." Looking in Freyja's direction she added. "Guess I have no other choice but to start from scratch."

"Three, Five."

The moment they heard their names, the two Valkyries moved in front of the container, holding their weapons at the ready. Loki's eyes widened a little, but then she smiled as she saw Sam move to stand behind them, the adult Alice by his side.

"Say, Sam." As she spoke, the fake smile she wore earlier returned. "Now that you know the truth, did your feelings toward me change?"

It wasn't a question he had expected, however Sam did his best to not let it get to him.

"I feel betrayed." He said, adjusting his glasses. "In more than one way."

"I see…" closing her eyes, the Asian girl seemed to change her expression. "Just to be clear, my feeling were honest. I really do love you, that won't change any time soon."

Sam knew she was telling the truth, the sadness she showed said as much. Now that he learned that their relationship was built on a lie there was no way for it to continue, however Loki still wanted to try even if she knew how it'll turn out.

"Say, Sam, why don't you join me?" She asked.

Everyone present seemed to have a different reaction to her question, but Sam only raised an eyebrow.

"You are a man of great intellect, you deserve more than what humans can offer you." She said. "I have the complete blueprints to the nanotechnology Heilung used to make himself immortal. Using it you can evolve beyond your flesh body and together we can rule over the Nephilim for eternity."

"That's… a very interesting offer." Sam said.

"Right? People like us are meant to rule; living under the authority of our inferiors is unacceptable!" Her smile widening, she slowly extended her hand toward him. "You can bring all the Valkyries if you want. Same as before, I don't care who you sleep as long as you come back to me."

The offer was quite appealing and Sam didn't have much of a reason to refuse it. In a way, if she hadn't showed up when she did he would've been dead by now. She also took down the enemy leader which should bring an end to the whole war.

Sam is still confused and it would take him quite a while to sort out his thoughts and feelings, making a choice right then and there guarantees that it would be influenced by his current mindset. That said…

"I refuse." He answered resolutely.

His reason is very simple; their philosophies are completely contradicted. Loki believes that humans and Nephilim are two different species that can't possibly live together. She sees herself as a superior being and will never accept them as equal no matter what happens.

She might be willing to turn him into one of the Nephilim, however something told him she won't be extending the same kindness to the rest of humanity.

The Nephilim as a whole aside, Sam believes that the Valkyries are humans. Well, at least in some sense. It's easy to point at their differences and say that they're two different beings, however he didn't really care about all of that. His relationship with his personal Valkyries show that they can live together, not to mention, he was already on his way to develop the nanotechnology to turn humans into Valkyries so he didn't really need her to do it.

"Too bad, I guess." Closing her eyes once again, Loki let her disappointment show for a moment. "As a token of appreciation for all the time we have spent together, I'll spare your world and the humans in it."

"I would be very grateful for that." Sam replied.

"Alright then." Opening her eyes, the woman he once knew as Shizuru glared at him and ordered "step aside."

She has already read his thoughts and knows that he had no intention on letting her leave with the original Alice. Conflict was only inevitable.

"Shizuru…" Sam spoke, unable to bring himself to use her true name. "I can't let you do that."

"You can't do anything." She replied. "I've already showed you enough mercy, walk away while you still can."

"HUMAN!" just then, Hela's enraged voice thundered through the throne room. "Don't you dare let her get away with my sister! I'll make sure you'll regret it if-"

"You sure have some resilience, dear sister."

"You're no sister of mine." Hela shouted back. "And neither are you Alice's!"

"How cruel."

A loud clanging voice was followed by sparks scattering. Once again Zero Five tried attack while her opponent was distracted, however her weapon was met with the same invisible shield.

Teleporting away to evade the light swords launched at her, Five let go of her katana and summoned a long bow, knocking an arrow the next instant and launching it.

Loki ignored the attempts and walked forward as each one bounced off her shield.

"Tsk…"

The ponytailed Valkyrie continued the assault, shooting arrows while evading the swords following her around. Sam searched his mind for a solution but found nothing. It was like their situation hadn't improved at all after everything that happened.

"The barrier is different from force fields!" Wolf shouted, drawing their attention to him. "It'll break if you hit it with a powerful enough strike!"

Putting on her oni mask once more, Five pulled out her katana and accelerated her movement. She stopped teleporting around and built momentum striking at the invisible barrier from different angles.

"This is getting troublesome…" Loki commented, her eyes following the ponytailed Valkyrie. Her attention was focused on a single target which meant everything else was neglected for just a moment.

The sound of glass shattering came from above.

"TRAITOR!!!"

Breaking the barrier that sealed the throne room from the outside world, Mjölnir descended from the hole in the ceiling swinging a lightning coated hammer at the Asian girl.

A powerful shockwave followed the collusion however Loki's barrier didn't budge at all. Zero Three increased the size of her shield to cover everyone but ended up blocking their sight adding to Sam's stress and frustration. Just then he noticed Nine's golden hair flutter as she descended from above and swung her gigantic mechanical arms with a terrifying force adding more power to the silver haired Nephilim's attack.

"Tsk…"

Loki clicked her tongue, her posture lowered as she felt a bit cornered. Five's Karana came swinging forcing her to put all her focus on the barrier which had small cracks starting to spread through it.

"You know this much won't do anything to me, right?"

Without a warning the barrier disappeared taking the two Valkyries and the Nephilim off guard and leaving them defenceless against the ring of swords that sprouted from below.

Thankfully everyone managed to evade teleporting away just in time.

"How's she able to do that?" Zero Three commented, having brought her shield back to a smaller size.

She was referring to how the strangely designed light swords appear without a warning and how so many of them moved in sync without a problem. The young Valkyrie was sure they're made from the same material as everyone else's weapons, however compared to them the speed at which they're created was instantaneous.

"Three, the outer barrier has been broken." Sam said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Can you take us out now?"

Gazing up for a moment, the young Valkyrie gave him a troubled look.

"I can, but…" her eyes moved to the white haired commander then the Eir behind them. "I don't think I can take all of you at the same time."

Sam was lost for a moment but then turned to look at the young Alice.

"The two of us aside, we need to at least take the container out of here. Can you do it?"

"It's too big." Three shook her head. "We can't teleport anything we can't hold between our arms."

She wanted to say that the distance she can teleport is limited as well, however that didn't matter right now.

The other three were having a difficult time with Loki switching to the offensive. At some point she sprouted a pair of wings and started levitating with a number of swords cycling around her.

Nine seemed to be having a really bad time with her movements being a bit sluggish. Five did her best to make up for it but she had her own trouble to deal with. Mjölnir was devoured with rage shooting tendrils of lightning with each swing of her hammer, but her movements became predictable and she found herself getting stabbed when she teleported away in an attempt to evade one of the swords flying at her.

Little by little Loki seemed to regain the upper hand, getting complete control over the flow of the battle. Still, she understood that the longer it went the higher the likelihood of her messing up so she decided to look for a way to end it before that happens.

As he watched from the safety behind Zero Three's shield, Sam's eyes met the traitor's eyes for just a moment. Knowing she was up to something he whipped his head to the left catching a smaller sword as it flew in Alice's direction.

With the blade flying toward them so suddenly his first instinct was to push his childhood friend out of the way even if it meant taking the hit himself, but thankfully Zero Three noticed it just in time and moved her shield to black it.

"... ah…"

Sadly that small blade was nothing but a diversion and the real target was never the adult Alice.

Sam felt a prickling pain in his back, an unbearable ringing sound drowning the voices of his allies as they called for him. Glancing from over his shoulder he saw a dagger sized light sword stabbed into his left flank, blood dyeing his white coat with a red color that spread slowly as everything seemed to come to a halt.

Seeing him get stabbed created the opening Loki needed to take down Nine. Five managed to dodge in time but she was quickly overwhelmed, one of the swords hitting her like a missile and sending her flying into a wall.

"Ha~, this sure was intense."

Loki said while surveilling her surroundings, things having settled for the time being.

She floated down weightlessly until her feet touched the floor, her wings disappearing the next moment. Looking forward she allowed a smile to touch her lips. The sight wasn't particularly pleasing, however she felt a sense of satisfaction knowing her plan succeeded.

Sam was down on one knee, barely able to keep himself from falling as blood spewed from his mouth.

"Doctor!" Three called by his side, tears flowing from her eyes, her face ghastly pale.

Alice was speechless, her sight locked on the blood stained dagger buried into his back.

"Not bad for my first real battle, right?"

Hearing those words, anger took over Zero Three. Up to that point she couldn't believe that the one they're fighting was Shizuru, however she didn't care anymore.

"Careful now." Said Loki with condescending grin. "You have a really important choice to make."

Sam was a human. A weak flesh and blood creature who won't be able to hold on to life for long. That placed Zero Three in a really tight spot forcing her to make an important decision. Will she continue fighting knowing the chances of her winning were very small, or will she take Sam and run away hoping she'd make it in time to save him?

Before she could make her decision, Sam grabbed her arm.

"Take… the girl…" he said, coughing blood.

"You're much smarter than that, Doctor." Loki shook her head slowly. "There is no place on this planet where you can hide. Besides, who said I'll allow you to take just anyone?"

"You…"

"Oh, don't look at me like that. This is a war after all, I'll do anything to come out on top." Shifting her sight back to the young Valkyrie, Loki probed her more. "So, what will it be, Three?"

Zero Three didn't reply, her head lowered as she struggled to make her choice.

"I'll make it a little easier for you." Saying that, Loki made the light dagger vanish allowing the blood to flow out from the wound

"Guh!..." Sam couldn't help but groun feeling his body growing week, his vision becoming blurry from all the blood loss.

He wasn't made for this, the pains was too much for him to handle. It would've made more sense for him to pass out the moment he got stabbed, however he clung on to consciousness, his mind still working to its full capacity desperately trying to find a way to victory.

But reality is cruel and some things were out of his control. With each passing second his dizziness increased and the world around him grew darker and darker.

"Good bye, Sam."

The moment he heard Shizuru's voice, he felt Three's slender arms wrap around him. The young Valkyrie had made her choice and without saying a word the two of them vanished from throne room.

Seeing the scenery suddenly change to a blue sky and dusty wasteland, Sam understood that everything has come to an end. The last bit of will power slipped from his hand and as his eyes closed he was forced to accept.

They had lost the war.