Chapter 257 The first.

Chapter 257 The first.

"Loki..."

The moment that name left Sam's mouth, an oppressive aura enveloped the room. It was like a switch had been flipped, and the heavy weight of hatred and anger fell on the room.

Sam glanced behind him and saw Zero Five. Her eyes were wide open, her pupils having shrunk to small dots as a shadow fell over her face. A strange haze enveloped her body and her hair was slowly floating up, moved by an invisible force.

Trenta who was standing beside her was startled and immediately went to form her halo. She glanced in Sam's direction for a moment as if asking for his orders.

On the other side of the table, the same thing was happening with Mj?lnir. Her anger was clear as tendrils of lightning enveloped her body.

"Five." Sam called and the ponytailed Valkyrie immediately snapped back to reality.

"Eh? M-my apologies, Doctor!" Her expression completely changed as if the strange state she was in was just an illusion. "It seems I've spaced out for a moment."

"Mj?lnir, you calm down as well." Mimir said with a sigh.

The room was tense for a few more seconds. The ones most affected by the sudden change of atmosphere were Kamala and her companion. They looked quite stressed out, like a pair of animals who had just been exposed to some very loud noise. After a while, the human woman raised her hand and asked for permission to leave.

"I believe I'm not in a position to hear such information." She said. "May I excuse myself?"

Sam glanced in Mimir's direction, and when the Nephilim gave her approval Sam nodded as well.

"You're welcome to stay if you want." He said. They've already discussed a number of things that should be confidential so there was no reason to start hiding things now. "But if you want to leave, that's your choice. We can discuss the details of how we will handle the case of the Fallen later on."

"Understood!" Kamala stood up, practically jumping to her feet. "Then, we will be taking our leave!"

When the metallic door closed behind the two humans Sam heaved a long sigh and glanced in Five's direction once more. Another problem suddenly came out of nowhere and he didn't have the mental capacity to think about it. He was simply too tired.

'Now they're manifesting auras...' he sighed again. 'Was inter-dimensional magic not enough?'

He could only hope that, whatever that was, it wouldn't get in the way of the upcoming battle.

A few more seconds pass in silence. When the mood finally calmed down Mimir decided to break the ice and restart the conversation.

"If it's Loki then it brainwashing our brethren won't be an impossible task." She said. "She has Father's memories, after all."

Sam raised an eyebrow at her statement.

"Father?"

Mimir seemed confused, but then she understood what his question meant.

"Our relationship with Odin is a bit complicated, as you already know. The early generations believe that we're his daughters, referring to Alice as our sister. Others believe that we're Freyja's, and refer to him as our grandfather." Pausing for a moment, the green haired Nephilim averted her gaze, looking rather uncomfortable. "Some believe both, claiming that Freyja is our mother and Odin is our father."

"Oh..." Sam couldn't help but grimace.

The ones who gave Wolf and Alice those names were the humans of their original world. Their goal was to paint the old man as a pervert who set his eyes on a little girl and so they attached one of the most messed up stories to them despite the two being father and daughter.

"Well, none of this matters." Mimir said. "He never considered any of us as family to begin with..."

Though he never said it out loud, Sam was aware that Wolf harbored some conflicted feelings toward the Nephilim as well as the Valkyries. He saw them as the reason for his daughter's condition, which was the source of his resentment, but he also believed that they were innocent, knowing they didn't invade her body of their own volition.

"Loki is a name none of us chose to take." Mimir said. "We had our suspicions when she appeared in front of us, but we couldn't convince Queen Hela to not listen to her. Her love for Alice always blinded her actions." Pausing for a moment, she let out a long sigh then looked up at Sam. "Back to the main topic. Loki should be able to mess with our minds, but even if that's the case, why would she help those... Olympians? I can't see why she would do something like that."

"Who knows?" Sam shrugged. "One thing for sure, she's definitely planning on betraying them once she gets what she wants."

"True..."

Loki's goal is to create a species that stands above everything else in the multiverse, or so she said. She took the Original Alice with her for that reason, planning to use her for that goal. But when considering everything they had learned so far, simply making more Valkyries/Nephilim won't help her achieve that goal. The multiverse is endless and full of species that are as strong if not stronger than those girls. The only way she can ensure that her people are sitting on the top is by erasing anything that might stand in their way. And there is only one way to do that.

"All we can do is assume that she's trying to reach Akasha as well." Sam said.

"That's... reasonable..." Mimir replied.

If they thought about it like that, it was easy to see that his former lover was trying to steal the keys in Zeus' possession. Their two biggest enemies at the moment are vying for the path to Akasha. Knowing that, Sam's mind began to head in an obvious direction.

"At this rate, our clash with the Olympians is only inevitable." He said. "We can't allow Zeus to get his hands on more Keys, and Loki has been our target to begin with."

Mimir fixed him with a stern gaze, having already guessed what he was about to say.

"Even if we manage to stop those two, there is no telling if some other fool with a god complex will attempt the same thing, which leaves us with only one choice..."

Pausing for a moment, Sam breathed in and let the idea sink into his mind. It was the obvious choice, but just thinking about it made him sick to his stomach. He didn't know if he was ready to stand on the same playing field as a bunch who were trying to be gods, but that wouldn't stop the others from doing what they wanted, and he couldn't just let them be knowing that doing so might lead to him losing everything dear to him.

"We have to be the first to reach Akasha." Sam declared, forcing the doubts and indecisiveness to a dark corner of his mind. "That's the only way to ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."