Entering a near-death state, triggering Battle Continuation, and then drinking the potion—compared to the advancement rituals of other pathways, this advancement ritual seemed exceedingly simple. The Earth Pathway required gratitude from hundreds of people, and the Law Pathway required abiding by the law for ten years, but for the War Pathway, anyone could do it; all you had to do was stab yourself.
Yet simple as it sounded, who could ruthlessly strike themselves down with a straight face?
What if the advancement ritual was fake? What if the potion was fake? What if... the advancement failed? Wouldn't that mean actual death?
However, these “what-ifs” had no bearing on Freya at all. At the end of the day, War Freya was merely a clone. What was the worst that could happen—death?
Besides, even if something did go wrong, she still had Life Freya as her dedicated healer. In reality, she couldn't die even if she tried.
War Freya didn't commit suicide inside Euphy's rented apartment. Instead, carrying the Rank Five Warrior potion, she slipped away into the depths of a deserted alley. The quickest method of dying was undoubtedly piercing the heart; a normal person would kick the bucket in seconds.
Yet looking at the small knife in her hand, War Freya abandoned that idea. The reason was simple: piercing her heart with this knife seemed rather difficult. Her physical defense was so high that the blade couldn't even pierce through.
Aside from piercing the heart, slitting her throat to suffocate would probably be the next fastest, right? Yet War Freya shook her head again. She still had to drink the potion in a bit—would slitting her throat affect her ability to swallow it?
Ultimately, War Freya raised her left hand, pressed the back of the blade with her right, and pushed down forcefully against her wrist. Crimson blood initially seeped out slowly before erupting like a fountain, spraying in all directions.
War Freya couldn't help thinking that she really needed to find a better weapon. Otherwise, if even committing suicide took this much effort, it was just too ridiculous.
Just then, footsteps echoed as another three or four ruffians arrived at the mouth of the alley. They had just seen War Freya coming from the wealthy district all on her own, heading straight for such a secluded spot. Wasn't that the definition of a fat sheep ripe for the plucking? So they had followed her in.
One of them called out, “Hey! This is a robbery! If you know what's good for you, hand over—”
Before the man could finish speaking, War Freya turned around in confusion. The gushing arc of blood traced a curve through the air, showering the alley as if a light rain had begun to fall—except this rain was crimson.
When had these thugs ever seen such a spectacle? Scared out of their wits on the spot, they wore expressions as if they had seen a ghost. “Wh-Wh... Holy shit?!”
What the hell was this?! They just wanted to shake someone down for some spare change, so why was it suddenly “raining”? Without a second thought, the men spun around and bolted, wishing they had sprouted extra legs.
War Freya, meanwhile, muttered expressionlessly, “Why do I keep running into muggers?”
She wasn't sure whether this bunch were genuine villains or merely driven by desperation, but there was no denying that public security in this city—or rather, the entire kingdom—truly needed improvement. Later on, she would have these guys rounded up to build railways. Having real work and earning money would definitely offer a brighter future than being hoodlums.
As time slipped by, the blood spurting from War Freya's wrist slowed. Finally, upon reaching a certain critical threshold, Battle Continuation activated. Naturally, she hadn't felt the slightest ounce of pain throughout the entire process—after all, Life Freya had completely deleted War Freya's pain receptors.
War Freya brought out the bottle of Rank Five potion and downed it in one gulp.
The next second, her body temperature skyrocketed, even emitting wisps of white steam from her skin. The wound on her wrist healed in the blink of an eye, and an inexhaustible surge of power welled up from every limb and bone.
After about ten seconds, the advancement was complete, granting War Freya two new abilities. Blinking somewhat blankly, she said, “Huh, that was fast...”
Then, she focused her senses to examine them. The two new abilities were 【Flight】 and 【Extreme Speed】.
Well, they matched her stereotype of a Warrior to a tee—simple, straightforward, and brutal.
Take Flight first: in many cinematic works, this seemed to be a baseline ability, as if any expert picked at random would know how to fly. But in this world, things were different. At least from what Freya currently knew, the Earth, Mind, Law, and Scholar Pathways couldn't fly at all.
In a sense, War Freya's Flight placed her in an inherently invincible position. If she could win, she fought; if she couldn't, she simply flew away.
Furthermore, once combat shifted from a flat map to a three-dimensional one, her tactical options multiplied. For example, what War Freya could imagine right now was grabbing someone, flying a thousand meters into the air, throwing them down, and then following up with an airborne dropkick from a thousand meters up. Just imagining that made her wince at how painful it would be.
The second ability, Extreme Speed, was equally literal: it made War Freya far faster, with supersonic speed as a bare minimum baseline. Paired with Flight, and with her two Rank Four abilities—Colossal Strength and Toughness—also enhanced, War Freya felt like Superman right now.
Though she didn't have heat vision, so did that make her feel more like Homelander?
“A Rank Five Warrior... is pretty formidable.” War Freya evaluated her current combat prowess. First of all, thrashing Life Freya would be completely effortless: just rush over, scoop Life Freya up, fly into the sky, and pummel her however she liked—a complete hard counter.
As for Law Freya, she felt she could win that as well. Law Freya's current abilities could hardly inflict meaningful damage on War Freya, whereas any casual blow from War Freya could beat Law Freya half to death.
Yet counterintuitively, War Freya felt she couldn't beat Mind Freya. The War Pathway had zero mental resistance whatsoever; if they were truly enemies, she would likely be played like a fiddle.
With the advancement complete, Freya recalled War Freya straight into the system. In the blink of an eye, three more days passed. Life Freya was still on the road to the capital, but today was Saturday—the day agreed upon to attend the 【Supernatural Research Society】.
Freya first went to Amy's house to meet her, and then the two of them went together to the home of their class monitor, Andrew. Perhaps because they had arrived too early, no one else was there yet, so the three of them casually chatted and ate snacks to pass the time.
A moment later, the members of the 【Supernatural Research Society】 arrived one after another. Just like when Freya had attended last time, they were still the same classmates from school.
The only difference was that, led by 【David Lancaster】, a man Freya had never seen before arrived here.
...
Rate on N.U.
