?


    Sam held his hand up and began channeling his focus. Sparks of green light began to appear over his palm, turning into small squares and rectangles before forming a number of strange symbols.


    "These are what we call Runes." He said. "I''m still in the process of studying them but… you could say they''re something akin to a programingnguage."


    "A… programingnguage?" One of the men raised an eyebrow. "You mean like in aputer?"


    "Something like that. Using these runes one can create several phenomena that technically shouldn''t be possible, like bing weightless and flying around with no kind of special equipment, for example."


    Sam released his focus and allowed the Runes to disappear. The parents who were staring at them with great interest snapped back to reality, but they were still at loss for words.


    "I have a lot of theories, however a lot of research is needed before I reach a level where I can confidently say I understand thempletely."


    "So you n on turning out children intob rats?" Asked another man.


    Zero Three sensed the hostility in his voice, but before she could even twitch Sam nced at her from over his shoulder and silently told her to stand down.


    "Of course not." Turning back to the parents, Sam spoke with his usual fake smile. "At most I would only perform a few tests to make sure nothing changed about their bodies."


    There was no need to tell them that, once they make it back to his world, he would be isting the children to make sure their new powers don''t identally cause another apocalypse. It would only take one of them opening a portal to an energy dimension like that of Balder''s Light to cause a nuclear holocaust, and because of that they needed to be ced under strict supervision and taught when it is eptable to use their halos.


    The Valkyries were forced to be loyal to the Resistance from the starts. Even though they''re now free from the mind chackles Odin had ced on them, they still follow the orders of their superiors just because that''s how they have lived their entire lives.


    The children on the other hand were going to be a lot more troublesome. Their minds couldn''t be restrained like the Valkyries'', not that he ns on doing so. That makes training them into obeying his authority withoutints his only choice.


    The parents might be in the way in that case. Thest thing he wanted was for his teachings and theirs to sh, causing the children to go astray.


    ''Now I''m thinking that parents are in the way of me grooming kids to follow my orders…'' Sam took his sses off and messaged the bridge of his nose. ''Where did my life go wrong?''


    "Still, I don''t understand why it''s only happening to our kids." A woman said. "What''s so different about them that they have to go through this?"


    "As I said, we won''t know until we perform a few more tests and do further investigations."


    Unsatisfied with his answers, the parents turned their eyes to the old woman beside him.


    "Elder, please tell us!" One of them demanded. "What''s going to happen to our children? Why do they have to go through this?"


    A moment of silence passed before the old woman responded, but when she did, she only shook her head slowly.


    Of course, she has already seen what was going to happen, and it''s exactly because of that that she couldn''t tell them.


    In her previous visions, the children would eventually learn how to summon the halos on their own even without a Valkyrie being there to show them. It was a cause of concern, but not much happened because of it. Well, at least not until the adults started gaining the same abilities as well.


    ording to Ra, unlike the children who were able to control their powers with ease, the adults seemed to be struggling with something beforepletely losing their minds. Once that happens they would turn into mindless monsters that would attack anyone in sight.


    After disposing of the adults who went berserk the survivors turned their sights to the children. The sanctuary split into two sides from that point onward and things got ugly really quick. One side argued that they should kills the children, fearing that they would lose control as well. They even went as far as to use their mothers ofying with the Angels and giving birth to their children. The other side rejected the idea for obvious reasons.


    Things got out of hand when one of the soldiers lost it and killed both his wife and two children. Apparently he had been suspicious of his wife, using her of infidelity. When the rumors about the children being the offspring of Angels began to spread he was the first to believe them and take action, opening the floodgates for the others.


    Everything went into chaos from there on. The madness spread and the survivors began killing each other indiscriminately, sparing no one, not even the women and children.


    Ra had noted that, when the incident happened during one of the visions he was involved in, Sam had noted that something was effecting the humans, causing them to behave erratically.


    Before the Ant army attacked a strange wave spread across the globe. Sam was still in the process of studying it, however it seems the equipment he had on him was insufficient for the job. He had a guess that, whatever was happening, it was caused by that strange wave, which once again pointed at the crimson tower the Olympians created being the prime suspect for everything that''s about to unfold.


    "The situation hasn''t changed." Ra said in a firm voice. "All we can do is survive until we make it to the Doctor''s world. Hopefully, things would get better after that."


    The parents didn''t seem convinced, and their reluctance to put their fates in the hands of a stranger was clear and understandable. Still, what choice did they have?


    Sam and his Valkyries were their only hope at surviving whatever disaster the Olympians were about to bring down on this world. If they were to refuse his help, the only thing that awaited them was madness and death.