Einherjar Becomes Valkyrie

After she left the camp, Elena entered the first forest she found in search of privacy.

Once she found a river, Elena pulled her horse's reins to a stop. She considered that she was already deep enough in the forest.

Elena dismounted and carelessly released the reins of her horse, which approached the river to drink water. That horse she had taken from that Sadorian knight was entirely under her control thanks to a spell, so Elena was not worried that the horse would try to escape even if something unexpected happened.

The first thing Elena did was unsheathe the old iron sword she had claimed on the battlefield. She concentrated her magic power and cast an original spell on the sword, this spell was not for the sword to return to its new state, but it was a spell to modify the atomic structure of iron.

With the sword wrapped in white light, Elena contemplated something that only alchemy was supposed to be able to achieve after a hard effort. Slowly, the iron sword became as shiny as if it were made of silver, but with a color close to pale blue.

「Mytril…」

Elena was completely fascinated, although this had required a fair amount of her magic power, she had transformed a simple iron sword into a beautiful pure mytril sword. Something like this could only be accomplished through various alchemical processes and with dragon blood as the main ingredient.

Mytril was a mineral with the best conductive ability of magic power, the attacks made with a mytril weapon were at least ten times more powerful than with an iron weapon. Therefore, Elena could make a great fortune by transforming iron into mytril, however, her reserves of magical power would be completely depleted if she attempted to make more than four of those words a day.

Elena swung the sword as various magic runes appeared around her arms, to her surprise, the runes also appeared on the sword, the reason was simple, the conductivity level of the mytril allowed even magic runes to flow through it, something which was not possible with any other type of material.

After her fascination with the sword finally ran out, Elena tried to sheathe it but realizing that the scabbard no longer matched the sword, she used a spell to enhance her appearance and match her to mytril's sword.

The next thing on Elena's agenda was to test in more detail the runic magic she had learned from the memories of the one who refused to accept Kaname's legacy in the past, Feris, that devoted holy knight.

Elena closed her eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and several dozen runes appeared floating around her entire body. Opening her eyes again, Elena could feel how all of her senses had significantly improved, as had her physical strength, dexterity, and agility. Runic magic consisted of that, reinforcing the body's innate abilities, and although there were spells that could also do this, runic magic had a great advantage in this matter.

Spells that improved strength, dexterity, or agility did so only for a few dozen seconds, and after this, the spell had to be performed once more. As for runic magic, it remained active as long as magic power was administered. Furthermore, using runic magic a person could make their skin as hard as iron, which is why the original creators of this type of magic did not use heavy armor that could slow them down, the fearsome Berserk warriors of the islands of the north. Of course, other types of magic can improve physical abilities, but runic magic is much simpler to use.

Once she was satisfied, Elena cut off the magical power supply and the runes around her body disappeared.

Until now, everything Elena had tried she could have done without problem inside her tent, therefore, her real reason to come here was another.

Elena took a deep breath in anticipation of her next test.

「Aesir」

When she said that word, Elena's body was enveloped by a golden light. The magic power began to flow dramatically through the interior of her body and some of it began to escape through the pores of her skin, this was the origin of that golden aura that enveloped her.

Elena could feel all of her senses sharpening to a point where the time around her seemed to flow slowly. Despite simply standing there motionless, she could feel both her strength and her speed dramatically increase. Furthermore, she could also feel that, in this state, she could instantly cast witchcraft at the mere thought of it.

Aesir was not any kind of common magic, it was a state to which only two types of people had access, those who had acquired this ability at the cross the wall between the worlds, that is, the transmigrants, as well as those who had been blessed with that ability at birth by chance.

Elena stopped the Aesir state and was immediately forced to lay one of her knees on the ground as her breathing was labored, her muscles throbbed and her skin was covered in a cold sweat.

There was an enormous difference between those who acquired such a skill by chance and those who acquired it by traversing the wall between worlds, the body. The body of someone who comes from another world was abnormal, so they could better withstand Aesir's status. In the past, Kaname was able to maintain this state for up to thirty consecutive minutes.

Regarding Elena, she was halfway between the two cases of possible holders of the Aesir ability. She had not acquired this ability when crossing the wall between the worlds, but her body did bear little similarities concerning that class of people.

"One minute…"

Based on the test performed, Elena determined that, in its current state, its body would only withstand a maximum of one minute of continuous use of the Aesir state before being destroyed.

The Aesir state caused the magical power to permeate every cell in the body, which brought the body to an incomparable state of power, however, the price of using this power for a prolonged period could leave from irreparable consequences like death.

As for the reason why it was not a good idea to test this state around other people, this was because the Aesir state altered the flow of magical power from every nearby creature. This was another reason why this power was so fearsome, once a person enters this state, every creature around him would find it difficult to use his magic power.

Of all that Elena could use with the current limitations of her body, the Aesir state was undoubtedly her best resource, an ace to use at the last moment that, if it did not guarantee a victory, if a safe escape.

After catching her breath, Elena turned her gaze to the river, even if Kaname had created a spell to eliminate the need for bathing, she as a woman could not completely agree on this point with her old self, the bathroom was not just about cleaning, it was also to relax and enjoy the sensation of your body immersed in the warm water, or refreshing water depending on the weather.

Elena stripped off her armor, and just as she was about to strip off her clothes she stopped and looked around.

「A little caution never hurts」

With such thoughts, Elena performed an illusory spell that would affect the mind of any ordinary human or creature, and lead them to get away from the area.

After adding a few more spells as a precaution, Elena finally began stripping off her clothes.

The first thing to be thrown aside was the white shirt she wore under the armor, revealing most of her white skin. Her chest was protected only by a rolled bandage, bras did not exist in this world and if they did, Elena and her sparse chest would likely feel dejected.

The next thing was to take off her pants, which exposed the typical pumpkin panties.

Elena undid the bandage on her chest, and took off her panties leaving her slim figure and snow-white skin fully exposed. She jumped into the river without worrying about anything else.

She had survived certain death, gained the memories of a tragic previous life, as well as the power and knowledge necessary to completely turn her life around, yet at this time Elena was just a sixteen-year-old girl who wanted to enjoy a relaxing bath.

「Those onsen baths wouldn't hurt either」

Submerged to the shoulders, Elena mockingly murmured that as she recalled those enviable baths that Kaname had had at her fingertips in his original world. It was amazing to Elena that someone who had enjoyed this could do something like creating a spell that cleanses the body instead of one that creates hot springs.

The most incredible thing for Elena turned out to be the fact that from a certain point of view, both she and Kaname were the same person.

However, it was also a little scary to Elena that this difference of views in something so simple, was something that Kaname had already expected and this was where his last hope was., that, with a different point of view, his future self could find not a way to return to his original world, but to be able to carry out what he could not at the time, concretize his revenge.

Although such hope seemed naive since his future self would not have an abnormal body, Elena understood why Kaname had harbored that kind of hope, had done so simply because he needed something to hold on to so as not to lose his sanity due to frustration and despair.

「Einherjars and Valkyries? 」

Although Einherjar and Valkyrie were currently mythological beings associated with an already extinct religion, in the remote past that was the way people were called Kaname and its 31 companions, in other words, Kaname had been a genuine Einherjar.

As for the reason why Elena uttered those two words in a bitter tone, this was triggered by remembering that according to Kaname, there was a possibility that his future self could artificially cultivate an abnormal body, and for this, it was necessary to recover the remains of the 31 individuals who were brought into this world with Kaname.

Was such a task possible? Talking about getting the bodies back of those 31 people, this was possible, Kaname had arranged the bodies of his companions in special coffins created by him to preserve them in the hope of being able to bring them back to his world.

The problem on such a task was that, after the thousands of years that had passed since that distant time, the geography of this world had undergone drastic changes, so even if Elena had memories that specified the resting place of each of those 31 individuals, such places no longer corresponded to the current geography of the world.