?


    "But seriously, how did you do it, Doctor?" Venti asked. She hadnded near them a few seconds ago but remained silent, enjoying watching Nino receive her punishment.


    "Ah," Sam turned to look at the orb in his left hand then answered. "I just copied something I saw in the recordings of the previous battle."


    The orb itself was a spare Valkyrie heart he had brought with him just in case. Using it he''s able to create preprogrammed formations of runes, just like what he did when he discovered how to modify hearts for the first time.


    "I noticed that the guy named Perseus never created a halo of his own and instead used his staff." Sam exined. "I concluded that, if he had to rely on tools to make use of the runes, anything he used most likely didn''t require any mental power, which also meant I could copy it without a problem."


    Normally when creating runes one has to rely on their imagination and mental power, or so Sam believed, at least. After all all of ites naturally to Valkyries and Nephilim while those who were originally humans like him and Wolf struggled to make anything they could use.


    For example, when Sam was finally able to create the halo for using the Nameless Element, even though it was an exact copy of Zero Five''s he was unable to recreate her sword. All he did was draw a bunch of unstable particles into their world, from there he had no idea how to control and transform them into what he wants.


    It was also for that same reason that some halos don''t work when created using hearts that aren''t connected to a conscious mind. Some simple formations work just fine, like the one for Balder''s Light, but anything moreplex or those that require a lot of control can only be used by those with conscious intent.


    "I recreated the runes he used when he broke Sitta''s barrier and moved them exactly like he did." Sam said, a satisfied smile taking over his face. "And as you saw, that was the result."


    The Valkyries were speechless for a couple of seconds before their eyes lit up with admiration.


    "Incredible..." Venti said. "You managed to recreate it just from looking at the recordings?"


    "Yeah." He replied. "The formation seems to create consistent waves of some kind. I probably will need to study it a little more before I can understand how it really works."


    "Wait…" Nino turned to him with half lid eyes. "Don''t tell me… is this the first time you have tried it?"


    It has been only two days since their battle against the Olympians, and they have been quite busy ever since. It was unclear when he found the time to adjust the spare heart let alone give the new formation a try run.


    Seeing Sam slowly look away, the Valkyries got their answer.


    "And you darein when I left my position for a few minutes." Nino said with a sigh. "I feel that, if you ever got yourself killed, it probably won''t be because any of us made a mistake."


    What Sam did was way too reckless. If he wanted to test the new formation he could''ve asked one of the Valkyries to do it for him, instead he put himself on the line without even knowing if he would seed or not. As Nino had put it, the likelihood of him getting himself killed through his own actions was very high.


    But Sam didn''t mind it if that were to happen.


    "Anyways!" Sam said in an attempt to divert the attention from him. "The real MVP today is Ichigo over here!"


    He ced a hand on the pink haired Valkyrie''s shoulder and pulled her toward him. In an instant her face flushed red, both from being so close to the Doctor that she could feel his breath on her neck and all the eyes staring at her.


    "Without her cleansing ability we wouldn''t have been able to incapacitate the rest of the ants!"


    Sam had instructed Ichigo to use her ability right after he creates the pulse, and because of that, it went unnoticed when the Soldier Ants lost the white glow that allowed them to break barriers. Soon after they activated their orange halos, Sam used his drones to analyze the substance causing the white glow and learned that it was another unknown material, most likely from a different dimension, which meant Ichigo''s ability was the perfect counter to it.


    "N-no… I didn''t… I didn''t do anything special…" she said in a low voice, steam slowly rising from her head.


    "This is the second time your power proved critical to our victory."


    The Soldier Ants didn''t disappear after their queen was destroyed, which meant it could''ve taken a while to dispose of them, and who knows what they would''ve done when driven to a corner.


    Ending things cleanly and swiftly was something Sam appreciated quite a lot, and that made Ichigo''s ability a lot more valuable than he used to think.


    "I have yet to give you your first reward, right?" Sam leaned in and whispered in her ear. "Let''s end this quickly so we can get to it."


    Ichigo''s eyes snapped wide open and her face flushed even more. She turned to look at him from over her shoulder, but Sam spoke before she could say anything.


    "Alright then!" He said. "Venti and Juni will keep an eye on this ce. The rest of us will go help the others."


    Though she was still blushing hard, Ichigo immediately teleported along with the doctor heading for the northern gate. Nino was frozen still for a moment, having heard what he told their pink hairedrade, but then she snapped out of it and quickly followed after them, the fire of jealousy having ignited in her chest.


    Once Sam and Ichigo made it to the other gates disposing of the giant ants became an easy task. Soon enough all four gates were safe and clear, however it seemed like the real problem was starting to manifest somewhere else.


    A few hourster.


    Deep underground, in a room in the residential area of the sanctuary, a boy was holding his head as a sharp pain assaulted his nerves.


    It was like his brain was about to explode. Countless images shed through his mind and iprehensible voices whispered in his ears. After enduring the pain for a second too long, his body copsed on the floor, blood beginning to spill out of his nose.