Fortress Assault

After a short flight where they were protected from the biting wind and cold by his domain, Vahn and Grayfia touched down on the parapet closest to them, prompting ghostly blue lights to appear within the snow covering it.

Peering back at Grayfia over his shoulder, Vahn's expression and tone exuded measured confidence as he stated, "These Draugr were proud warriors in life. If any approach you, face them as you would someone deserving of respect..."

"Yes, Goshujin-sama..." responded Grayfia, standing, as usual, with her hands folded over her lap, her silver eyes focused on Vahn as he turned to face the nearest Draugr with a pair of sleek, ivory white, gold-trimmed gauntlets with a cross motif in place of his spear.

Waiting for the axe-wielded Draugr to fully animate and charge him, Vahn briefly materialized his Touki to accelerate forward, hammering his left fist into the skeletal warrior's sternum. The force of the impact fractured each of the Draugr's ribs and sent it crashing into a second, but Vahn held back just enough that he wouldn't end the bout in a single blow, giving both the chance to rally.

Shifting his gaze to the opposite side of the parapet, Vahn briefly met the gaze of Grayfia before darting past her, leaping into the air to intercept a Draugr performing a leaping, overhead strike with a large war hammer by inverting his body to dropkick it. In the same series of motions, he landed in a kneeling posture, the fingers of his right hand touching the ground as he made a pushing gesture with his left hand, dispersing a beam of frigid, bluish-white energy and knocking the Draugr unleashing it from the tip of a skull-headed staff off its feet.

With his domain effectively giving him eyes in the back of his head, Vahn turned to grab the wrist of the axe-wielding Draugr, thwarting its attempts to split his head open before meeting its subsequent headbutt by donning an ivory-white helmet with a golden, cross-shaped nose and brow guard. This knocked the Draugr off its feet, but it also moved him out of the way, allowing the one behind it to unleash the arrow it had nocked.

Though he turned his body, Vahn experienced a heavy impact to his left shoulder, knocking him off balance. Fortunately, the defense of his fur-lined armor was demonstrably greater than the offensive capabilities of the arrow as it bounced off rather than piercing him.

"Great shot," acknowledged Vahn, simultaneously equipping a single-handed crossbow from his inventory, firing a shimmering silver bolt into the archer's chest, causing the blue flames in its mouth, eyes, and chest to extinguish as it promptly collapsed into a pile of ash.

"Isskald...haldur...kall..." incanted a raspy, bone-chilling voice, drawing Vahn's attention to the Draugr that had attempted to blast him with an icy beam. Now, it was creating a bluish-white Magic Circle distinctly different from the ones used by Devils beneath it. Instead of a Devil Crest with an intricate pentagram encircled by astrological and geometric symbols, it wove shimmering runes in a circle and siphoned energy directly from the air and surrounding environment.

Completing its incantation, the Draugr slammed the end of its staff into the parapet, generating a swelling vortex of ice and snow with glowing blue eyes and a vaguely humanoid shape. The surrounding temperature dropped rapidly, and ice spread out across the parapet, but thanks to his 100% Cold and Ice Resistance, Vahn only felt the air become drier as he swapped the crossbow for his Legendary Spear, swapping its element to Fire, causing the head to transform into a three-pronged, flame-like blade with fiery golden runes on its surface.

"Try this on for size...!" shouted Vahn, throwing his spear with such force that he briefly bounced in place. The humanoid mass of ice and snow had grown to nearly five meters by that point, but when the flaming spear ran it through, it was promptly torn apart by the intense heat, creating a large, swirling cavity in its chest. Fortunately, as his spear continued traveling as if it were determined to break free from the pull of gravity, Vahn was able to summon the Legendary Spear back to his right hand with a thought.

Raising his spear overhead with both hands, Vahn once again stopped the axe of the opportunistic Draugr that kept sneak-attacking him. This time, however, he twisted his spear and rotated his body, catching the interior edge of the axe and driving it sideways into the parapet's stone surface, the intense reverberation forcing the Draugr to release it.

"It's time for you to rest..." said Vahn, his expression and tone firm as he raised the Legendary Spear with both hands, slamming the shaft into the Draugr's chin and knocking it off balance. Then, using his right hand near his hip as an anchor point, he performed a swift diagonal slice, sliding his left hand across the Legendary Spear's length as he split the Draugr from its right shoulder to its left hip, leaving the bones glowing red and orange in the wake of the nearly 5,000-degree blade.

'And then there was one...' thought Vahn, turning his attention to what he believed to be the final Draugr only to see nine more emerging or climbing down from the guard tower at the end of the parapet. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed there were more amassing behind him, seemingly assembling from other areas of the fortress, but instead of feeling fear, he cracked a smile, had Grayfia erect a barrier at his back, and prepared for a gauntlet...

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[Two Hours and Twenty-Nine Minutes Later]

Catching the wrists of the final Draugr as it attempted to bring its curved hatchets down onto his shoulders, Vahn kicked it in the chest with enough force to dislocate and separate its arms from its body. This wasn't enough to take the Draugr out of the fight, but as his mind was beginning to feel dull from protracted focus, Vahn finished things by leaping into the air and landing on the downed warrior's chest, crushing it beneath him.

"Well done, Goshujin-sama. Please, accept this," said Grayfia, presenting Vahn with a warm, scented towel the moment he breathed a sigh of relief and rose to his feet. Vahn immediately noticed it smelled like her when he brought it to his face, but since he was mentally depleted, he decided not to think too deeply about where she had been keeping it.

Returning the towel to Grayfia, Vahn gave her a curt nod before turning his attention to the ground enclosed by the fortress's walls, remarking, "Now, just the big one remains..." in reference to the nearly twenty-meter-long skeletal remains coiled near its center.

"If it pleases Goshujin-sama, I should be able to take care of it relatively quickly..." proposed Grayfia, standing close enough that Vahn could feel her warmth as she joined him in observing the skeletal wyvern's remains.

"Mmm...I don't doubt you could defeat it..." remarked Vahn, crossing his arms in a manner similar to Rias as he added, "But I feel it would be best to leave this to Issei. He didn't get a chance to show off during the Rating Game with Riser. Beating a skeletal wyvern should bolster his confidence, and he may even be able to absorb its Dragon Aura..."

"Goshujin-sama is very considerate," hummed Grayfia, adopting a faint smile. She also felt it would be prudent to nourish Issei, but since there would invariably be another Red Dragon Emperor, the current stance of the Underworld was to observe and ascertain if he would lose himself to his power like virtually all his predecessors.

"Well, we may not see eye to eye on everything, but Issei is one of my first male friends..." remarked Vahn, exhaling a cloud of condensation from his nose as he smiled and added, "Besides, if I weren't here...I feel he would play a more significant role. I don't want to see him driven to do something we both regret just because I'm hogging the spotlight..."

"I trust things will work out..." stated Grayfia. "But, purely hypothetically, what would you do if Hyoudou Issei succumbed to his power and began rampaging without restraint? That is the most common outcome for those who wield the Boosted Gear."

Though he frowned deeply, Vahn felt fairly confident in his words as he stated, "If Issei were to lose himself...I believe he would want Kiba and me to put him down before he could hurt anyone..."

Nodding approvingly, Grayfia was tempted to affirm Vahn's decision but decided against it at the last moment, not wanting to come across as too callous. That was one of the many pitfalls of a protracted lifespan, and if not for the relatively recent birth of her son, she would come across as a lot colder.

Shaking his head after nearly a minute of silence, Vahn turned to Grayfia and said, "Let's head for the keep. It should serve a similar function as a Checkpoint, allowing us to rest before we return or continue investigating the mine."

"Understood," responded Grayfia, spreading her wings as Vahn had done the same. It didn't take them long to reach the keep, which, even with the reinforced doors wide open, exuded a comfortable warmth from the very stone comprising the chamber. There was also a large hearth, igniting the moment they entered.

Following a lengthy pause, where he scanned every notable feature of the keep's interior, Vahn nodded to himself, turned to Grayfia, and decided, "I will take a bath first."

"Then, please, allow me..." said Grayfia, stepping forward and extending her hands, creating a bluish-white Magic Circle with a symbol similar to a Dragon at its center. Moments later, a bright bubble expanded a meter or so above it, filling the area in the blink of an eye, replacing the keep with a large, open-air bath.

'I should learn Spatial Magic as well...' thought Vahn, standing still as Grayfia, having Magically discarded everything but her black side-tie panties, stockings, garter belt, and Maid choker, approached to undress him. By the time she was done, his not-so-little brother was fully awake, but since that was a normal physiological response to seeing a beautiful woman naked, Vahn didn't bat an eye at it, and neither did Grayfia.

With his clothes removed and self-washing in a floating sphere of water, Vahn sat down on a wooden stool with a slit in it before closing his eyes as Grayfia set down a towel and knelt behind him. From there, she poured a fair amount of cream-colored soap onto her breasts, taking a moment to lather herself up before leaning forward, utilizing her soft and voluminous breasts to wash his back as her hands took care of his front...

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"This is Ymirite, one of the components of Hrimsteel..." remarked Grayfia, tracing her fingers along threads of glossy black stone, causing a layer of frost to develop across her fingertips. Every surface of the mineshaft they had entered was covered in a layer of blackened ice, but it wasn't due to cold air and condensation seeping in from aboveground. Instead, a frigid chill extended from the shaft's increasingly frigid and ice-covered depths as if the tunnel connected directly to Niflheim.

"Is it valuable...?" asked Vahn, simultaneously having Sis pull up the Shop to see how much the two materials cost in terms of OP. To his surprise, a single ingot of Hrimsteel started at 13,883 OP and drastically increased in value depending on its purity and the depth from which it was mined.

"It's one of the materials used to forge the weapons wielded by the Norse Pantheon's Einherjar..." revealed Grayfia, meeting Vahn's gaze and smiling as she affirmed, "It is exceedingly valuable, but only a select few possess the knowledge and skill required to refine it."

"Mmm...my power should be help with that..." said Vahn, his suspicions confirmed when Sis pulled up countless manuals detailing the process of refining Ymirite into Hrimsteel and other composite metals. The cheapest was a staggering 500,000 OP, but if he felt so inclined, there was nothing preventing him from developing the skills necessary to refine it himself...

"But of course," hummed Grayfia, narrowing her silver eyes as she added, "After all, there is seemingly nothing that Goshujin-sama cannot do..." in a playful but meaningful tone...

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