<div>


    Valkyrie ? Chapter XVI ? Loyalty


    Quarter after quarter fell, and Seraphina and the other Valkyries found themselves trapped in the underground of the Union Palace. Only they, the narrow walls and a wooden door stood between the rebels and the imperial family.


    "Give up!", the leader the rebels proclaimed. "You cannot win this! Don''t you see it?!"


    Seraphina and the other Valkyries looked at him with great caution, not intending to give in an inch.


    "I am Marcel of Gahlen, the leader of the rebellion. We have risen up against decades of tyranny, poverty, and exhaustion. The ''beloved'' Emperor you protect behind these lousy doors? He bled us dry for many years! Just like you.", he told them with a challenging but somewhat diplomatic tone. The Valkyries already knew where this was going.


    "I offer you a single chance!", Marcel said. "I allow you to live. In freedom. Go where you want, do what you want, be who you want. You are unshackled from your oath, of tyranny, of any burdens. It is no more. You can be yourself again. Be free! Just step aside, and go!"


    The Valkyries looked at each other. They were offered a choice that, for everyone else, would''ve been an attractive deal to consider—one between freedom and life, or serfdom and death. For the Valkyries it was an insult. Abandon the Emperor? Betraying him?! No way! The Valkyries didn''t waver, didn''t surrender. They were conditioned for situations like these ones. This was the perfect crisis, and they were made to stand their ground. And so they did. Seraphina''s fellow Valkyrie sister, Johanna V, did the strike. It was swift, and with it, down fell Marcel, the rebel leader, to the ground.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    "You will... regret this....", Marcel said with his last breath, covered in blood. Multiple dozen men behind him immediately rushed in, shocked by this result but aimed to avenge their fallen commander. How?! How could the Valkyries be so dumb? How could they, just a dozen of armored women, dare to challenge an army of hundreds? Would they really rather live in serfdom to a tyrant, and die with him, instead of having freedom? Why? What was done to them? How could the Emperor create such beings?


    Storming in on the Valkyries, a battle against them however quickly proved to be futile in these narrow corridors. To get past them, explosives were necessary. The Valkyries themselve knew this and, having been well trained in the art of psychological warfare, they mockingly held up some explosives to the rebels'' faces. The Valkyries were full willing to do the job themselves. They would all die but collapse the corridor in doing so, thus preventing the rebels any way to the Emperor. So no matter what would happen—the rebels would never make it to the Emperor in due time.


    "How could the Emperor create such beings?". Indeed. That''s what the rebel soldiers began to ask themselves as the Valkyries mowed through their ranks, much more terrifying than even the Demons from old ages. Their reputation was already intimidating. Facing them equally was. But actually having to fight them was the final straw. What the rebels had to see was nothing short of terrifying. The Valkyries, ethereal beautiful looking women—they were beasts without limits, and the narrow corridor began to be filled with corpses. They started to build a bloody wall made out of dead rebels right in front of their enemies, and the look in their savage eyes was one that instilled pure terror in every single man.


    Despite having come so far, and despite outnumbering them so much, this situation was hopeless for the rebels. The nature in many of these simple men got the better of them. They fled, pure terror written on their faces. Others still stood, but wavered. They knew that they were powerless. Imperial reinforcements were approaching, and it was clear: The Valkyries saved the day, and the Empire. One more song added to their legend.