?


    Just as Sam left to treat the injured Valkyries, the Nephilim army began making its move. Some of them conjured their weapons and coated them in their force field, going ahead first. The few left behind began constructing a number of much moreplex creations;rge aircrafts and battleships, giant monsters and beasts, then there were the robots. Lots and lots of robots.


    [WAHOOOO!!!!] Juni''s excited exmation came from her blue robot as it craned its neck to watch the spectacle above. She had to quickly retreat to avoid being caught in the fire, but as the Nephilim began wreaking havoc through the ck Stone Army she began to feel the need to rejoin the battle herself.


    "We can''t let them take all the glory, can we?"


    When she heard the voice, the blue giant turned its head and faced the speaker. Trenta was there, floating beside it with a smirk on her face.


    [Let''s go!]


    Even before Juni made her decision, the enormous white sabertooth had already charged at the Stone Giants with renewed vigor.


    [Damn you Nephilim!] Came CS''s angry voice. [Don''t steal my prey!!!]


    Having noticed that their initial bombardment wasn''t as effective as they had expected, the Nephilim chose physical weapons for the second wave of attacks. Their movements were quite coordinated. First came a shower of arrows that shattered the Stone Giants'' barriers like thin ss, then a rain of spears followed drilling holes into the enemies and tearing off their limbs.


    The normal Giants fired their beams, but none of them were able to damage the ships and aircrafts raining fire on them from above. The Demons triedunching their spikes at them but were incapacitated in a matter of seconds. Multiple beasts stabbed them with their fangs and ws while the giant robots crashed into them before using various weapons to render them into piles of rock.


    As the battle raged on, a great number of drones began moving in the background following after a number of Nephilim. Among them some seemed to be carrying staves much like the one Ichigo was holding, although with different colors.


    In order to avoid getting caught in the fighting they had to circle around the battlefield, but their real reason for doing so, as well as why they had lowered the output of their Force Fields to the bare minimum, was that they didn''t want to draw the attention of the mysterious giant eyes, having heard that the Cleansers were the prime target of those monstrosities.


    [Doctor!] Mj?lnir''s voice came in through themunicator. [The Cleansers are ready!]


    "Great." Nino said. "Tell them to wait for my signal."


    [Eh!? Who are you!!? Where is Doctor!!?]


    "He''s tending to the injured." Nino replied, her smug smile spreading even further. "As for who I am, I''m Doctor''s lover and Personal Valkyrie! He leftmanding this operation to me!"


    [You''re what now!?] The crackling of thunder resounded for a few seconds before she spoke again. [I guess he already has his hands full. Anyway, I will connect you with the Cleansers now. They aren''t used to fighting, you know. I wanted the Doctor to tell them something so they would stop freaking out but…]


    "Just leave it to me." Nino said.


    [Oookay, got it.]


    A couple of secondster a beeping sound came from themunicator Sam left in Nino''s hands. Looking at the screen she saw that forty new contacts have been forwarded to it, the number of Nephilim with Cleansing type abilities she was expecting. Smiling to herself, she held the device up and spoke in a steady and confident voice.


    "This is Nino, I will bemanding this operation from here on." Pausing for a moment, she raised her gaze and looked up at the giant eyes above. "Everyone, I''m sure you''ve already deduced that the enemy we''re up against is unlike anything we''ve ever faced before, so I will spare you the details. All you need to know is that it''s impossible for us to defeat it right now."


    She could practically feel the color draining from the Cleansers'' faces at that moment, and that forced a chuckle out of her despite her sharing their feelings.


    "Don''t worry. Our objective isn''t to kill it." She said. "All we have to do is scare it away. That shouldn''t be too difficult to do."


    Through her memories as Lachesis and the information she obtained from peeking at the Tapestry of Fate, Nino was able to learn a few things about their enemy. For one, though the multiple eyes made it seem like they were fighting multiple entities, the truth was that all of them were a part of a bigger whole. Their real form was on an entirely different ne of existence, and at the current moment it didn''t seem to have the power to cross to the ne they were on. Because of that, she expected the entity to retreat the moment it felt that its life was in danger.


    ''Well, I doubt it''s one of the Outer Gods…'' Nino thought to herself. ''A little burn should be enough to scare it away…''


    "Are the drones in their ce?" She asked.


    [Y-yes!] Came a voice from themunicator, its owner appearing to have a really bad time keeping herposure. [We have surrounded them… it from all sides.]


    By focusing her eyes Nino was able to see several dots spread evenly across the crimson sky. She silentlymended the Nephilim for doing exactly what she wanted without her having to say anything then spoke into themunicator once more.


    "Wait for my signal. We only get one shot at this. Don''t mess it up."


    [U-understood!]


    The sound of battle was gradually fading. The number of red beams decreased as more and more Stone Giants fell to the Nephilim''s assault, and by now everyst Demon was destroyed, leaving behind smashed statues held in ce by the spikes they used as support while facing the onught from the ruthless Angels.


    Even though she was already aware of the exact moment she should give the signal, the fear brought on her by the possibility of failure was unbearable. Victory wasn''t the only thing she was after. Her aim was a wless one, a path where neither herrades nor the Nephilim die. Unfortunately, even if she times everything right, luck yed a big part in the final Divergence. It was impossible topletely control Fate, and most of the time, the number of Threads and variables involved caused the oue to be decided by pure luck. There was no guaranteed way to obtain the oue she desired in this situation, but even so, Nino refused to give up.


    ''C''mon now…'' she thought, tightening her grip on the Needle as the real world marched toward the point of Divergence. ''Stay on the Path…''