CHAPTER 262

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[Sif POV]

I thrusted my blade forward, sweat glistening around me, as the air in front of me seemed to burst in a silent explosion, perforating a hole of about thirty inches in a wall one hundred meters away from me.

"Not enough," I panted, my hands bleeding ever so slightly as I got into position once again. I was far from over.

"Impressive," I heard the distinctive voice of Hela in her child form chuckle as she entered my personal training room.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, continuing with my training.

"Nothing really," Hela replied, grabbing one of the wooden training blades that lay on the floor, "But now that I see you, I might as well help you out."

I frowned, gripping the handle of my blade so hard my hand was turning stark white, "I do not require of your assistance," I replied, keeping my tone even.

"Under normal circumstances, you would be absolutely right," Hela replied without missing a beat, "But right now, we can't be too picky, can we?"

I sighed, glancing at the sweat/blood-covered ground around me. It pained me to admit it, but she was right, "What do you seek Hela, and please go straight to the point."

"To be completely honest darling, I'm no longer sure what," Hela replied, dangling the wooden sword around her hands as she looked down with a neutral smile. "But I suppose, I seek to help everyone this time around, as unbelievable as that sounds."

I looked at her and sighed. I didn't trust her at all, considering her not deserving of redemption, but at times I found myself asking if that was merely out of spite, because of her blatant pursuits for Alex's attention.

She had done way less than Loki, at least to us, and yet, I entertained the idea of Loki's redemption more than hers, perhaps it was because I had known Loki all my life, and her I barely knew.

At least that's what I told myself because I didn't want to even consider the possibility I was letting something so pathetic, as petty jealousy steer my judgment, setting a glaring bias in my reasoning.

"Very well," I nodded, head high as a tired sigh escaped my lips. "As much as I don't like you, your experience speaks for itself."

Hela grinned, glancing at me, "Flattering, but not entirely accurate, at least, not anymore. In my time, wars were fought against armies, and strategies, now… things are gaining a new shade I didn't expect." she chuckled, "I might be stronger than you, without the seals Alex put on me, of course, but I fear in the face of what is about to come, I am just as inexperienced as you."

I chuckled, baring a challenging grin as I pointed at her with my blade, "Are you sure you are still stronger than me?"

"Without a doubt darling, I might be a lot of things, but a fool I am not," Hela replied without missing a beat, bearing a confident smile, "If I learned anything during my many fights and wars, was how to gauge someone's power in regards to mine."

"Then let's test how accurate you are," I replied, deciding to tell Alex to break her seals, I didn't trust her, but, a warrior of her caliber would be of great help during the war coming up, and as things were, we didn't have the luxury of keeping able hands out of this.

"Darling, if my childlike appearance wasn't enough of a giveaway, I must remind you, my powers are sealed," Hela replied, before immediately grinning in realization, "You plan to ask Alex to free me, don't you?"

"Not quite, I plan to ask Alex to put you on parole," I replied, my eyes fixed on her, "While it's true I don't trust you, at all. We need every able warrior to assist, and you alone have the power of an army."

"My, my, so many compliments in a day," Hela replied.

"Don't push your luck," I replied, hurling my blade towards a wall behind me, lodging the blade deep in the wall, leaving nothing but the handle out.

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[Alex Walker POV]

I pushed myself off the ground, scarcely dodging the attack of a demon before lunging at the beast with Serenity in blade form, cutting the demon in half.

[Abaddon's Servant slain. 78974541 EXP gained.]

"Fuck," I panted, sweat dripping down my forehead, as I dropped to the ground with one knee.

Soon after I had crafted Serenity, I had decided to train, for the sake of familiarizing myself with my new weapon, discovering soon enough how physically taxing Serenity was.

Serenity's description as an item had said nothing about it, so I hadn't expected such developments, but I suppose in hindsight it was to be expected, the weapon itself doubled all of my stats by simply equipping it, creating a strain on my body.

Nonetheless, the strain Serenity was putting on my body made no sense. If I considered prior experiences, I had, after all, had bigger increases in stats before base-wise, without pushing my body at all, which brought me to my second guess, energy consumption, and affinity.

I had gotten Serenity a day ago, and since I had started my training with it, I had come to learn a few things, one, Serenity used a lot of MP, like a lot, to put into perspective, twelve hours ago I was only able to use Serenity for three minutes before running out of MP.

Two, the handling of Serenity was considered a skill of its own by my power, one that had taken twelve hours to appear since I started training.

[Serenity - Weapon Skill - Passive - LV 57 =

Allows the user to freely handle Serenity better. 171% increase in energy consumption efficiency.

Affinity LV 1 = +1% increase to all weapon buffs.]

Right now, I was able to use Serenity, constantly, for eight minutes and twelve seconds before running out of MP. Which was exactly a 171% increase in efficiency compared to where I started, in terms of time and energy consumption at least.

Another curious thing I had discovered was that the weapon skill was evolving, so to speak, with the affinity part of the skill only coming after I had reached LV50 with the weapon skill, as well as increasing the skill efficiency multiplier from 2.5% per weapon level skill to a 3% per weapon level skill.

I think it was safe to assume every fifty levels or so with Serenity's weapon skill, things would get better.

My point being, that this explained the energy part of my strain, but it didn't explain the physical part of it, at all.

I knew the difference between physical strain and energy strain, and I was sure I was feeling both.

"I guess I will learn as I go," I muttered, wiping the sweat from my face with a hand.

However, before I could stand up, something about the size of a car shot toward me at a blinding speed. Biting me on the arm. Fangs sunken in my flesh, I cursed in pain under my breath before slamming the creature on the head, pulling my bloodied arm out of its grasp, before morphing Serenity into an M1851 Wolfsbane Magnum, and shooting at the beast in the head from point-blank, erasing the creature in a blast.

[Abaddon's Hunter slain. 89171741 EXP gained.]

"Fucking demons," I muttered, shaking my injured arm a bit as it healed. The worst part of this dungeon wasn't that the monsters were around my level, but that they had the ability to cloak themselves out of my minimap, which at times, fucked my reaction time.

But it is what it is.

I needed to train, and this seemed like the best possible dungeon to do so, considering Knull's theme.

I wonder if Asmodeus' dungeon will be like this?

I guess I will see after this one.

I wonder how the demons these dungeons are based of, would feel if they knew these simulations were infinitely stronger than them, I mean, the real Asmodeus was level 202, while his dungeon was level 2015.

I chuckled, putting Serenity on my inventory as I walked to the next zone within the dungeon.