"I wonder how long you’ll keep up the facade- Freyja"

When Skadi vanished from the city, a black shadow emerged from the darkness of the room where the blonde woman was left alone.

"Till I finally deal with that Ice Witch"

The blonde woman, Freyja, scowled as she watched Skadi appear on the feed.

Skadi didn’t hold back as she dealt a bit of damage to her own people- the valkyries who were bound to serve Freyja and Skadi.

She didn’t even stop at the Valkyries as she also dealt with the einherjar’s.

Dealing damage to them by freezing and unfreezing them over and over again.

"Seeing the Aesir without the support of the Asgardian formation is truly a sight to behold"

The woman who appeared from the shadows laughed lightly as she watched the former rulers of the north suffer under the hand of a woman they treated as a slave.

"Magic reliant on belief is always bound to fail someday, they thought their mystical bloodline gave them power but it didn’t give them true invincibility. Even immortals could be killed and Ragnarok was the solution to the hundred year problem"

Freyja commented apathetically watching the whole scene.

"Is that so? But Ragnarok was but one of the many weapons made by Merlin... I wonder, where did all those artifacts go?"

The woman clad in shadows asked with a teasing tone.

"Dunno? Maybe Atlantis?"

"Hahaha! I see, I see... I don’t particularly mind- all I care about is the split"

The shadow lady moved away from the topic of the past and redirected back to the present.

"Once we deal with Skadi and Morgana, it would be our time to reap the rewards long overdue"

Freyja responded to the woman clad in shadows blandly.

"If that’s the case, then I do hope you keep your end of the bargain~ I don’t want to show off any more of my shadows to Richard~♥️"

As she said those words, the woman melded into the darkness once more.

Freyja glared at the shadow where the woman vanished into and sighed.

"That bitch Scathach... you really think I didn’t know about the trumpet and the Olympus? Tsk- bitch, if I had those two artifacts even I..."

Thinking of the two artifacts that she desperately wanted to get a hold of, Freyja felt annoyed.

The fact that she knew about Scathach having it on her meant that Scathach too knew of her knowing.

"Even Skadi has one... yet I..."

Merlin had created countless artifacts to fight against the mystical beings.

Their existence was passed down through myth and legend but their true form was never mentioned.

The only one who knew of their true form was Merlin.

Yet some of the items were found and taken by mystics throughout the years.

A few of those that Freyja knew of were-

Ragnarok - A spear that cuts through causality and destroys mystical formations and powers.

Olympus - A jar that bears a carving of mount Olympus where various mystical beings and semi-divine and even divine entities had been sealed.

Trumpet of the Apocalypse - A book that collects the names of the faithful, upon usage, the collected souls would be transformed into apocalyptic entities meant to destroy mystical entities capable of ending even the lives of immortals.

Those were the three artifacts Freyja was aware of.

Ragnarok was in the hands of Skadi and the last two were very likely in the hands of Scathach.

Freyja herself had spent a lot of time searching for "Artifacts of Apocalypse".

Through the use of Apocalyptic myths and legends, Merlin was able to create these artifacts that could stand the test of time.

Even Freyja didn’t know the exact number of artifacts that Merlin created, all she knew about were the ones he had used during the war.

After that, she never heard of them ever again.

She only knew of the three artifacts by chance-

Ragnarok was used in the fight against the Aesir, it was the same weapon used by Merlin to bring down Asgard.

The Trumpet was something a priest discovered by accident, Freyja tried to get her hands on it but someone got to it ahead of her.

The same thing happened with Olympus as the temple where it was stored had already been ransacked. The last thing she heard about it was that the jar had been treated as a "trash can" by "Archeological Experts" who found that it had no "important purpose" compared to other items that had precious metals, items and other valuables.

But the continuous research conducted on it and the opening of the jar caused the aura of mysticism to escape.

Alas, similar to the previous two artifacts, Freyja was also one step too late.

"Soon... I’ll have it all"

With her eyes shining with a golden light, Freyja gazed at the scene being displayed before her-

— — —

Skadi spent a couple minutes dealing with the Aesir survivors.

They were under her command, Freyja had marked them and she had a seal that gave her command over Freyja’s puppets.

Skadi had many questions but she held back for now.

Her focus was on how to deal with Richard-

I need to reestablish the connection... he didn’t abandon me... Richard... I’m coming to save you!

Initially, Skadi had thought of torturing Richard after dealing with his people but after learning of how Richard and Merlin were suffering from a certain condition that drove them to madness...

To think that Morgana was planning to take advantage of that... to go as far as use one of the ancient Gods who Merlin hated...

Skadi recalled her past with Merlin.

She shared the same hatred Merlin had with mystical beings who saw themselves as divine and treated everyone below them as slaves and tools.

That shared hatred was the reason why Merlin left Ragnarok in her hands!

Yet even she didn’t know the true story behind Merlin’s madness.

She thought it was a curse or a result of his various actions, the creations he made and the system of belief and magic that he had established.

Skadi never thought that Merlin was actually suffering from something caused by his own constitution.

Does that mean his reincarnations were not an accident but a way for him to reduce the burden on his soul? That means our love through multiple lifetimes is proof of our love!

While Richard had cut off the spell that bound their souls through a special line of fate, Skadi believed that such action was nothing more than an accident or worse- forced upon him...

I’ll KILL THEM

The sudden change in Richard was something that she didn’t believe initially. But now?

Knowing of his circumstances, Skadi knew what she had to do.

Leading the troops obtained by Freyja, Skadi headed for the North, towards the secondary split dimension created by Morgana.

Normally attacking such a carefully constructed space with multiple safeguards was near impossible to do without triggering a warning.

But Skadi had spent time with Merlin, not only as a lovesick woman but also as a student and fellow mystical researcher.

With Ragnarock- a spear that looked like a simple iron spear with a worn out wooden shaft, Skadi carefully cut through the various safeguards set up around the formation.

She was not planning to destroy the formation and cause a magical disaster above the whole province.

Mer- no, Richard would not like that.

She was here not as Richard’s enemy but as his white knight-

Hehehe... I’m saving you this time~

Thinking about the current situation, Skadi couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of being the savior this time.

Even while having such thoughts, Skadi was still able to maintain concentration on dismantling the defense systems of the formation.

"There"

In the time it takes to go to the bathroom, about 5 minutes, Skadi was able to open a pathway to the dimension.

She then connected it to the rift created by Freyja using the Aesir’s spell "Rainbow Bridge", unlike the legends, it was not a permanent structure but a spell that burnt through the dimension creating a spatial rift.

The spell took quite a bit of power to use and had a severe backlash should it fail or be blocked.

That was why Skadi had to dismantle the defenses first before connecting the rift and-

"Charge"

The army of enslaved Aesir charged through the rift and opened up to a vast mystical land filled with various mystical beings working hard to build various modern structures.

"What?"

"Who are those?"

"RUN!"

Some of the mystical beings reacted apathetically while others reacted in panic.

Either way, they were the enemies.

Skadi was merciless and immediately stabbed Ragnarok towards a towering giant who didn’t show a hint of panic at the attack.

Yet-

"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

The moment the spear met with the giant’s hand which was used to block the attack, the gigantic monster immediately screamed in pain as it turned to dust.

Seeing one of the strongest mystical beings among them turn to dust and die-

"ENEMIES! RUN!"

"CALL THE MISTRESS!"

"NO I DON’T WANNA DIE!"

"SAVE ME!"

Various screams echoed but Skadi ignored them and watched coldly-

For the sin of taking advantage of my beloved- you all will suffer divine retribution

Skadi lifted the spear and a cold wind blew towards the ground and-

*SHHIIIIING*

Everything within 10km of Skadi turned into ice, a world of pure blue-

Moreover, what happened was not "freezing" but "transformation"

There was nothing within the ice, instead, the trees, the mystical beings- everything was transformed into lifeless ice sculptures...

"FORWARD!"

Skadi declared and the Aesir slaves rushed forward while breaking as many ice sculptures as they could.

"So it was the ice witch huh? Are you here to take Richard away? He doesn’t hate used goods but I think you’re far worse than used goods-"

"SHUT UP WENCH!"