CHAPTER 197: VALKYRIE AWAKENING

"Master, quit messing around!"

Kiri couldn’t watch this train wreck anymore and called out her master.

"Senior’s about to die from guilt."

The second she finished talking, Pergina’s voice rang out:

"Huh? Kiri, how’d you know?"

"!!!"

Master!

Demi’s head snapped up, eyes wide as dinner plates!

She watched her master’s red flesh crumble away bit by bit, turning to dust and floating off in the air, showing off pale white bones underneath.

Then fresh flesh grew back over those white bones like crazy until she looked normal again.

No... her skin was even more snow-white than before, like a newborn baby’s.

"Mas... Master! You’re okay!"

Demi’s eyes went huge as she threw herself forward, hugging her master tight.

This soft feeling was the real deal!

She wasn’t dead!

"I’m fine. Just got a little steamed, that’s all!"

Pergina held her student with an annoyed look on her face.

"Master! I’m so sorry!"

Demi buried her head in her master’s arms, feeling like total crap and too ashamed to look at her.

"Demi, what the hell was that blast just now? It felt pretty damn powerful."

Pergina was seriously curious.

What had Demi been cooking up that packed such a punch?

Even though she hadn’t been ready for it and was half-asleep, getting her flesh steamed off in an instant was no joke!

"That... that... I kept pumping steam into this sealed container while heating the hell out of it, then... then I accidentally made it blow... blow up."

Demi explained quietly.

"Blow... blow up?"

Looking at the trashed lab and the disaster zone that used to be the hallway, certain similar scenes couldn’t help but pop into Pergina’s head.

"Demi, Master thinks the lab in the shop is way too cramped for these kinds of dangerous experiments..."

All these constant explosions were giving Pergina heart palpitations.

She really didn’t want to get steamed again.

"Master, I get it."

Actually, Pergina didn’t even need to say it—Demi had already decided to take her experiments somewhere else.

The current space was too tight with crappy tools, seriously cramping her experimental style.

Plus accidentally steaming her master had left Demi with some serious psychological baggage.

"Master, I want this thing. How much?"

Seeing her master was back to normal, Kiri hustled over with some sword-shaped stone artifact.

"What’s that?"

Pergina looked at the sword-shaped stone thing in her new student’s hands.

The patterns on it were pretty fancy, looked like it might be ancient half-elf work.

What was this thing again?

Having just regrown her flesh, Pergina’s brain was running on empty and her memory was a little fuzzy.

"Kiri, where’d you find this?"

Kiri pointed to the counter covered with black cloth:

"Up there."

Pergina thought about it.

The stuff on that counter... well... was usually ’valuable items’ she’d picked up.

In other words, they were all junk with no clear purpose.

"Don’t worry about payment. Master’s giving it to you! Think of it as a welcome-to-the-family gift."

Pergina was feeling generous.

"Thanks, Master!"

Kiri quickly and carefully stashed the sword-shaped stone artifact.

This was her ticket out of being just some regular person and becoming a real psychic!

"Master, I’m heading out now."

After securing the sword-shaped stone artifact, Kiri didn’t want to waste another second.

She was dying to get the awakening done.

"Go for it."

Pergina didn’t give a damn.

As a decent master, she wasn’t gonna cage up her student’s freedom.

"Creak!"

Kiri walked out of the shop barely keeping her excitement in check.

Valkyrie—I’m gonna be a Valkyrie again!

After Kiri left, Pergina frowned a little.

Did I ever pick that thing up?

That sword-shaped stone artifact seemed... not like something she’d found.

If she hadn’t found it, why was it there?

...

Night fell with the blood moon hanging high in the sky.

Rock Sand City, in some quiet little courtyard.

Kiri’s face was dead serious as she held the sword-shaped stone artifact with both hands.

A six-pointed star magic circle was carved into the ground under her feet.

The blood moon had just hit its highest point when the solemn chanting started:

"Glorious Valkyrie, I swear here—your glory is what I’m after;

Brave Valkyrie, I swear here—your courage is what I carry;"

With the nonstop repeated chanting, the patterns on the sword-shaped stone artifact in Kiri’s hands started glowing with bloody light.

The six-pointed star magic circle suddenly lit up, light gathering to form this blurry shadow whose face you couldn’t make out—only pointed ears were barely visible.

Dressed in blood-red armor, wearing a crimson-gold helmet, gripping a wicked bronze spear in one hand and bronze shield in the other, with battle-tested warrior spirit that seemed to pierce the heavens.

The shadow ’looked over’ Kiri, seeing right through her soul and body, apparently judging something.

Kiri kept chanting her oath.

She knew this was the make-or-break moment for completing the Valkyrie inheritance.

All of a sudden, the shadow’s voice rang out:

"Your soul carries my will;

Your body holds my blood;

The oath is sworn!"

This voice started echoing nonstop in every corner of Kiri’s soul and flesh.

With the shadow accepting the oath, the North Star’s light blazed like crazy in the sky.

The sword-shaped stone artifact in Kiri’s hands showed its true bronze form, then melted right into Kiri’s body.

Some serious power started transforming Kiri’s flesh and soul.

The psychic energy around her came rushing in like mad, actually creating a mini psychic storm!

...

The shadow stared up at the starry sky, her sight cutting through time and space:

"In the final days, what’s gonna happen to humanity?"

She sighed softly and faded away.

The inheritance was done!

On Kiri’s forehead appeared a bronze sword-shaped mark, pointed ears, and emerald eyes.

"Nailed it."

Even having been through this tons of times, Kiri’s heart couldn’t stay calm.

This meant she was a psychic again, back on that brutal path full of blood, battles, and killing.

"Next up, I should officially make contact with the Eternal Annihilation Demon King—Carlos Valois!"

Kiri’s emerald eyes showed something unusual.

"With Kathy and the others as connections, meeting him’s gonna be easy. But getting close to him won’t be a cakewalk."

Kiri thought through her future game plan.

"There’s also the real deal about the Black Sinners’ conspiracy. I gotta find a way to leak it to Rock Sand City’s bigwigs.

But with my current status, I can’t get anywhere near them.

The easiest target is still Carlos Valois."

But schemes involving people’s hearts were the trickiest to pull off, and Kiri wasn’t feeling super confident.

"If only I could know ahead of time whether the plan would work."

Kiri mulled it over, a figure flashing through her mind:

"The Destiny Witch! The Destiny Witch is actually hiding out in Rock Sand City!"

Kiri immediately decided to get the Destiny Witch to help predict how things would go before making her move.

"The Destiny Witch’s hideout is... some simple fortune-telling shop."

...

Deep space in dark mist.

"Demon General, the Elven Hall’s vibes have shown up in the Material Realm!"

"Hehehe! Finally... finally showed up!"