On the northern coast of the central continent, there was a fortress bordering a large forest. For the past week, this fortress had been drowned in the sounds of roars and thunderous battle, but as of this moment, it had all died down.
However, the end of the beast tide which would usually bring joy and celebration didn't do so. Instead, there was only stifling silence.
The eyes of the cultivators present, which would usually be greedily eyeing the countless beast corpses littering the ground, were all glued on a single woman.
Her shoulder-length blue hair flowed in the wind and her eyes had a sharpness that made it so nobody dared to approach her. However, this wasn't the only reason.
Surrounding the woman were 8 figures draped in majestic white armor that radiated holiness, yet the eyes of these figures were hollow, filled with a burning white flame that showcased their intelligence.
The armored figures were all in pairs.
Two with massive swords over 3 meters long, two with bows taller than the average human and shining quivers of arrows, two with heavy spears whose weight alone caused the earth to crack, and two whose figures were lean and carried short daggers that didn't lose out in majesty to the others.
The sword and spear-wielding figures were mounted atop armored steeds that looked like a mix between horses and birds while the other 4 were standing on their own feet.
However, the most glaring fact was that each of these figures who were radiating the aura of a peak Core Formation realm expert were now kneeling in front of that very same blue-haired woman.
Usually, a group of Core Formation realm experts such as this was not a sight to behold, and anyone would assume that the woman in question simply had a powerful background. But the cultivators present knew the truth.
Halfway through the final wave, this woman suddenly appeared in the middle of the beast tide and called out three words that radiated power.
"Souls of Valhalla."
The area around her was painted in pristine white light as an ancient formation etched itself onto the ground. In the next instant, these 8 figures appeared.
After that, it was a bloodbath. The massive weapons of the armored figures wreaked havoc upon the beasts, causing massive explosions and damage that was reminiscent of a minefield.
They swept the battlefield with unprecedented synergy, moving without care for their lives. Whenever they were injured, they were bathed in green mana with a heavy life aura until they regained their peak state.
And even while they were being healed, they continued to fight. The white flames that lit up their empty eye sockets burned brighter with every kill, reveling in the feeling of battle.
The force of these 8 Core Formation experts was greater than that of the rest of the cultivators combined, and it was all due to that blue-haired girl they had seen.
She stood in the rear, seemingly in awe at her own abilities, as she watched her summons blaze through her enemies. And the tide itself ended only hours after their descent.
Currently, Elena was observing the beings she called forth with her new skill. Their existence was contradictory, radiating an aura of both holiness and death, but their power was even greater than her own.
When Elena chose to become a Valkyrie, she expected the class to be an upgrade of her 2nd class. She didn't expect that she'd legitimately gain a connection to the place called Valhalla.
And she could tell that she truly did. These beings were, as the skill proclaimed, the souls of Valhalla. They were warriors of the past who lived and died on the battlefield. And now, they had become her personal army.
She could only summon 8 of them at the moment, but she could firmly feel the connection she had with an unknown Plane of existence.
It was a connection through which she felt she could call upon many more warriors, perhaps even building her own legion once she was strong enough to do so.
In the distance, Rose and Día, who had reappeared now that the combat had ended, were also watching in shock. Rose had been fully expecting Elena to receive massive boosts after her class change, but this simply felt too exaggerated.
With that kind of combat power, she couldn't be sure if even she would win in a fight. And that was if she was going all out with her illusions. In a pure upfront confrontation? Rose was assured of her loss.
But this wasn't discouraging for her. The threat she felt from Elena drove her competitive spirit and gave her a new drive to improve. Her rival surpassing her simply wasn't something she would allow.
As for Día, she could barely fathom the two monsters she had been tasked to protect. With this kind of prowess, was she even needed? It had to be known that the two of them were still concealed by Rose's illusions to the point where not even the strongest beings on the premises could sense them.
'I have to tell the Sect Master about these two asap.' She thought to herself. With the secret realm opening and massive changes on the horizon, two monstrous talents like them were imperative to the sect. Her only regret was that they had only recently joined.
If their growth had been fostered since the beginning…Dia could only imagine the results. However, it was unknown what she would think when she realized that both of them had only been truly gaining power for less than a decade.
As the crowd watched on, Elena's summons turned into streaks of white light before charging into her body. Two wing-shaped tattoos formed on each of her arms and two twisting serpents snaked up the sides of her neck.
Elena's ocean blue eyes became tainted with a hint of black, but it was barely noticeable if one didn't examine her thoroughly.
Sighing lightly, Elena raised her gaze to look at the crowd watching her. Like clockwork, they immediately turned away from her and continued with their post-battle arrangements.
At the back of the crowd, a man watched all of this happen with a profound look on his face. When the spectacle ended, he turned and walked away, every cultivator making way when they noticed his identity.
When he came to this fortress, he had never expected to see such an interesting scene. In fact, he was currently patting himself on the back for making such a wise decision.
The man held an imperceptible smile on his face as he thought back to the beast tide that had finally ended after many days of fighting. 'Everything is going according to plan. Still, I should tell father about those two girls.'
The man soon mounted a lavishly adorned flying beast and left the premises of the fortress.
If Rose had been present to see this man, she would immediately feel something off about him.
After all, his body was coated in a thick yet invisible layer of a familiar black mana oozing with the scent of death.
