Ascension of the last Celestial

"Valerie. Valerie von Astrea, that’s your name."

Valerie looked at Valerian with wide eyes.

’Valerie...’

Thinking about the name gave her a warm feeling, like it was always there, but just now she realized it.

It was her name, her very own name. After a decade of only thinking of herself as [Law Breaker], she now had a name.

Without her realizing it, tears formed in her purple eyes.

Valerian, who sat across from her, began to panic as he saw her begin to cry.

"If you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it. I can think of something else."

Valerie let out a light laugh and smiled at Valerian.

"No, I love it. Thank you, Valerian, I’m finally more than a skill."

Valerian looked at the girl that looked exactly like him; it was still a bit weird. But the longer he looked at her, the more the thought of her as a sister settled in.

He stood up and walked over to her. He placed a gentle hand on Valerie’s head, between her two horns that looked like his own, and softly stroked her silver-white hair.

"Stop petting me..."

Between sobs, Valerie complained without looking up at him, but she didn’t push his hand away.

Valerian laughed lightly at her behavior.

"I will stop when you stop crying like a little child."

That triggered a nerve, as Valerie turned to Valerian with an annoyed expression.

"Shut up! We are the same age!"

"And why are you the only one crying then?"

"I’m not crying! But you will if you don’t stop!"

Valerie’s outburst was interrupted by the loud laughing of Valerian, who couldn’t hold it in anymore. Valerie looked at the laughing Valerian for a second before she also broke into a laugh.

But their laugh was interrupted as Valerian’s form began to flicker in and out of existence.

"What is happening?"

More than scared, Valerian was curious. It was his soul space, after all; there was no way he would be afraid here.

"You are waking up."

Valerie said with a downcast face.

"Can I only come here if I lose consciousness?"

"Right now, probably yes, but you can learn to access your soul space at will. But for now, we can only communicate with our voices."

Valerian looked down at the still-sitting Valerie; she looked sad that she would be alone again. With a gentle smile, Valerian placed his hand one last time on her head.

"Then see you later, sis."

Valerie’s eyes widened at him calling her "sis" suddenly, but before she could look up at him, he was already gone, and she was left alone in the endless cosmos that is Valerian’s soul space.

While Valerian was having the emotional meeting with his sister, Arthur was still fighting for his life against Vespera. Their fight was dragging on for much longer than Valerian’s. During this time, Arthur met death countless times, but always managed to dodge, parry, or block.

Vespera’s dagger came racing towards Arthur’s head insanely fast. Luckily for Arthur, Vespera didn’t have an affinity that enhances speed, and only ones that make her a dangerous assassin.

Arthur activated his [Lightning God’s Descent]. With the sudden burst of speed, he narrowly avoided the dagger. Arthur long lost count of the times his skill saved him. Since he was only activating it for a split second, he didn’t face any backlash yet and the mana cost was also manageable, but he knew that this couldn’t go on. He needed something, an opening to win.

He clearly remembered when the spatial explosion disoriented her for a second. Since her unique skill was [Absolute Perception], there had to be a way where he could overload this perception.

But he didn’t have a space affinity or any space-related skills, so he had to find another way.

Vespera used her darkness affinity to create a large claw made from darkness, aiming it at Arthur.

As the claw got closer, Arthur pointed his index finger at the claw. At the tip of his finger, mana gathered. After a short charge-up, a bullet of compressed air appeared in front of his outstretched finger, blue lightning crackling around it. With a small explosion of fire behind it, the bullet flew at high speeds towards the claw.

Once the claw and bullet made contact, the bullet exploded in a rain of water charged by his lightning. Thanks to the elemental combination, the claw couldn’t put up much resistance and dissolved back into normal darkness.

The water rained down on Vespera, who was standing too close to the claw, and the rain charged with lightning covered her from head to toe. The currents of electricity coursed through her body, making her squirm in pain.

Arthur used the opening to close the gap. He threw his dagger as hard as he could, using his wind to reduce the air resistance and a steady gust to increase the speed.

In no time, the dagger reached the still electrocuted Vespera. Arthur activated [Mark] and appeared in front of her with his daggers already in his hands.

[Lightning God’s Descent] flared to life, making the tips of his black hair glow light blue and his red eyes gain a blue hue.

With the explosive speed of the skill, Arthur stabbed his daggers into the still-stunned Vespera. When the daggers met her neck, warm crimson blood sprayed out of the wound, covering Arthur’s face and upper torso.

Even though he was disgusted, he pushed his blades deeper, not wanting to take any risks. Throughout all of this, from the electrocution to the neck stabbing, Vespera didn’t let out a single sound, and for some reason Arthur got a really bad feeling.

Ignoring it, Arthur tried to move his blades to the side, intending to decapitate the beast woman.

But when he tried to move, to his horror, his body didn’t answer.

No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t move his arms; that was when he heard a creepy, wet giggle from Vespera.

When he looked at her face, she was grinning from ear to ear, a complete 180 of her previous behavior.

The giggle got louder until it turned into a full-on laugh. With every exhale, blood streamed out of her mouth, but she didn’t seem to care, completely lost in her own world.

Arthur wanted to pull out his daggers, but his body still refused to listen to his call. When he tried to move his legs, surprisingly it worked and he could shift his legs, but everything hip upward was completely unable to move.

Then Arthur noticed something: his upper body was covered in Vespera’s blood, as it only sprayed on his top half when he stabbed her neck. And now he also remembered her third affinity, besides having darkness and shadow, she also had... blood.

’This crazy bitch! Did she let me cut her so I’m soaked in her blood?!’

Arthur’s reality dawned on him, all the while Vespera just continued her crazed laugh.

Suddenly she stopped and silence fell upon the battlefield. She turned her head to Arthur and looked him in his blue and red eyes.

"You little shit, made me use my blood. I hate it, I hate it so much. But if it kills you, then I will gladly use it."

She dipped her hand in the stream of blood flowing out of her throat and splashed it on Arthur’s legs, gaining control of his whole body.

Vespera used her blood affinity to move Arthur’s body, slowly ripping out the daggers that were still lodged in her throat, making a large stream of blood flow out, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything except killing him, the one that ruined their mission and killed her people.

She moved him like a puppet on strings, first making him drop one of his daggers, then making him take a few steps back, her crazy smile plastered all over her face.

"I will make you feel the worst pain in your pathetic little life."

She moved his hand, with his dagger in hand, through her blood that was on his clothes and raised it high in the air. Moving his fingers, she flipped the dagger around so that the sharp tip of the blade was pointing towards his eye. Arthur, who was unable to even speak, could only watch in horror as the dagger moved towards his eye slowly.

’No! I have to stop her, I have to gain control!’

Arthur didn’t want to lose his eye, let alone die to this crazy bitch. He still had to help Valerian. He had to build his harem! He won’t die a virgin again!

His defiance towards death flared up and he felt the same warmth he felt in the fight against the elemental burn in his soul.

But this time he knew what it was, and how to use it.

With his will, Arthur broke the control Vespera had against her blood.

She looked at him with wide eyes, as she couldn’t believe that he was breaking free. But she didn’t have time to comprehend how he did it, as his body disappeared from the spot.

She saw his skill multiple times and knew it was some kind of teleportation to his daggers.

Remembering that one of the daggers was left on the ground, she spun around in the direction she threw his dagger.

But when she turned, before she could dodge or even understand what was happening, Arthur’s blade was inside her head, splitting her skull in two, and finally killed her.