Chương 94: Chapter 92 - Meeting the Berserkers

The next morning, Chelsea was led down to the familiar common room from her dream. Long tables filled the center of the room, covered with platters of food and stacks of plates. The smell alone would have made most people hungry. Chelsea looked over the offerings. Bread, fruit, eggs, several kinds of meat, but no organs. With a sigh, she grabbed a plate and pulled a heart from her pouch.

"Again?" one of the Valkyr already seated asked. Law? Duty? Chelsea wasn't entirely sure.

"Shut up and let her eat," Passion said. The woman grunted and turned back to her conversation with the two Valkyr beside her. Chelsea took a seat next to Passion and bit into the heart.

"So what's on the agenda today?" she asked.

"How do I get started with this whole Valkyr thing?" Passion laughed.

"Well, first you're going to meet your unit. Nobody expects you to start ordering people around or putting them through training on your first day. I'll be working with my unit this morning. You can observe and get a feel for how things work." Chelsea nodded.

"So what exactly is your unit? Support? That's what you three said last night. How does the Passion unit support people?" She looked taken aback for a moment, "Ah, so we're starting from the very beginning." Passion set down the turkey leg she had been working on.

"That's fine. As you know, there are twelve of us. Each Valkyr represents one of the common or uncommon barbarian classes. My unit consists entirely of War Callers." She smiled.

"We're loud." Chelsea snorted.

"Ah."

"War Callers use yells, shouts, war cries, songs, and screams to empower the people fighting around them. Strength. Endurance. Courage. Speed. Different abilities do different things. There are ranges and limitations involved, but that's the general idea."

"Ah. And Suffering is in charge of the people who absorb pain while Deceit does spy things?"

"More or less." Passion picked up the turkey leg again.

"Suffering commands the Painbearers. Deceit commands the Masked Fangs." Chelsea watched the larger woman take a bite. The turkey leg somehow looked normal in Passion's hand. Chelsea was reasonably certain it would have looked ridiculous in her's.

"And those three?" She nodded toward the neighboring table where the Valkyr who had objected to her breakfast sat with two others.

"Duty, Justice, and Absolutes," Passion said.

"Duty commands the Iron Vanguards. Heavy infantry. Big shields. Heavy armor. If something needs to hold a line, they do it." Chelsea nodded along.

"Justice commands the Red Hands." Passion paused and wobbled her head from side to side.

"They call themselves executioners. In reality, they just sort of pick the side deemed least honorable and focus on them." Passion washed down another bite with a drink from her tankard. Chelsea noticed it was filled with milk.

"As for Absolutes, she commands the Zealots. That's our largest military branch. At least I think it still is. Law may have surpassed her after the last couple campaigns."

"There are that many?"

"Oh yes." Passion chuckled.

"There are several variations of Zealots, but they all share the same mindset. Very black-and-white people. Not the easiest to talk to, but you'll never complain about having them standing next to you in a fight."

"I didn't realize there were so many Einherin classes," Chelsea said. Passion blinked.

"Really? The Wixx family is probably the most famous Einhri family on the continent." Then she stopped.

"Oh?" Chelsea raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, that's right. You haven't actually been with them very long."

"Wait." Chelsea looked up from her breakfast.

"They are? We are? The whole Wixx family are Einherin?" Passion stared at her.

"You genuinely didn't know?"

"I knew Dewey was. But Mom? Aunt Bea?"

"Well, yes. Your grandfather Jared…"

"Ah-ah." Chelsea raised a hand immediately.

"No. We don't talk about him. He can rot in hell." Passion studied her for a moment.

"Is it because of the demon-killing?" Chelsea didn't answer.

"That... person," Passion said carefully, "was a very famous Einherin."

"And they're all his biological children." Chelsea leaned back in her chair.

"Huh."

"I had no idea. Mom and Aunt Bea are so... small." Passion nearly choked on her drink.

"Small?"

"Well, Aunt Bea is. Mom's still taller than me, but not..." Chelsea gestured vaguely.

"You tall." Passion laughed loudly enough to draw a few looks.

"Not all Einhri women look like us. Most smaller women born to Einhri families have non-Einhri ancestry somewhere in their bloodline." Chelsea looked around the room. Most Valkyr looked like she could pick up a horse.

"Though now that I think about it," Passion added, "I'm not actually sure about Suffering's family history."

"Really?" Chelsea smiled.

"I'm learning there are a lot of things nobody knows about Suffering."

"That makes two of us."

"Can elves be Einherin?" Chelsea asked, trying to keep up.

"And Einhri is a shortened version of Einherin?" If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Pretty much," Passion replied.

"Einhri is just the less formal way of saying it. The elf question is harder." She leaned back slightly in her chair.

"Einherin are technically a race, but at the same time we aren't. Our status screens identify us as human-einherin, so there's clearly a racial thing involved. But we also follow a particular philosophy. A way of life. That's where things get messy." She gestured toward Chelsea with her turkey leg.

"You and Suffering are both proof that being Einherin isn't entirely tied to blood. Neither of you are human. Neither of you are pure-blooded Einhri. Yet both of you qualified."

"You've put a lot of thought into this," Chelsea said.

"Does genetics interest you? I know a little about it. I could teach you some of the basics." Passion laughed.

"Oh no. Justice is the one who's obsessed with that stuff. We've all just had this conversation with her a hundred times." She furrowed her brow.

"Honestly, what's there to know? Parents pass down traits. Hair color. Height. Build. Things like that."

"Well, yes, that's the simple version." Chelsea nodded.

"Those traits come from genes. A parent might carry a dominant or recessive trait for being tall and muscular while another carries dominant or recessive traits for being shorter. Then depending on how the…"

"Morning formation." Deceit approached their table and interrupted the lesson before Chelsea could continue.

"Heart again, Havoc? Maybe ask the cooks for some variety. Surely there are butchers in the city willing to work with you."

"Human heart is just the best though." Chelsea took another bite before looking up at the woman.

"Speaking of which, if you die, can I have yours?" Deceit stared at her for a moment, then sighed.

"Fine. If I'm dead, you can have it. I'm not using it anymore. That agreement becomes null and void if you have anything to do with my death."

"Deal."

"Come on. You don't want to be late for your first formation and inspection." Chelsea finished one last bite and stored the remaining portion of the heart back into her pouch before following the others toward the door.

"So what exactly is formation?" she asked.

"We meet with our units every morning," Passion explained.

"We inspect them, make sure they're keeping up with training, address any issues, and generally remind them that we're still alive. Law has been watching over my unit since I was in Junstruce with you." The larger woman glanced down at Chelsea.

"Keep something in mind. These are your people. They're probably more like you than you're expecting." Suffering immediately laughed.

"Oh, they absolutely are."

"Cut from the same cloth," Deceit agreed.

"Demons?" Chelsea asked.

"No," Passion drawled. The four of them stepped outside and began descending the broad staircase leading away from the Hall of the Valkyr. In the daylight, Valhalla looked even more unbelievable than it had the night before. The city seemed less constructed than grown. Massive trees rose through and around buildings. Bridges connected enormous trunks. Ferns, flowers, and thick greenery filled every available space. The entire place felt alive.

If someone told Chelsea the city had been built by the fairies from Earth's old stories, she would have believed them. Not the fairies from this world. The ones from legends. The mysterious creatures who lived in hidden forests and built impossible things.

"Let's just say..." Passion began. She paused.

"They're crazy," Deceit supplied.

"Actually insane," Suffering added. Chelsea looked between the three women.

"I guess I'll see for myself." They reached the bottom of the stairs and followed a dirt path lined with carefully maintained ferns. It somehow managed to look both overgrown and meticulously groomed at the same time. Ahead stood the Valkyr training grounds. From a distance the structure resembled a massive amphitheater covered by a giant canvas roof. The shape reminded Chelsea vaguely of a circus tent, though built on a scale large enough to house an army. Halfway there, Passion led them onto a different path.

Then Chelsea saw them. Rows. Columns. Thousands. Thousands of warriors stood at attention on a grassy field. The sight stole her breath. Each formation was arranged with military precision. The lines stretched farther than she expected, and everywhere she looked she saw towering men and women standing perfectly still. Soldiers didn't feel like the right word. Neither did warriors. Whatever they were, they looked more like an army from legend than anything Chelsea had ever seen.

Several other Valkyr were already present. She spotted Truth in the distance berating a man for some… Truth reason.

"We're in charge of them?" Chelsea whisper-yelled. The conversation about genetics returned to her mind. Rows and rows of pure-blooded Einherin. It looked like someone had filled an entire field with Uncle Deweys.

"Sort of," Passion replied. As they drew closer, she pointed toward one section of the field.

"We aren't in charge of the army as a whole. Each Valkyr commands a single unit. The army is divided into sections, and every section belongs to one of us." Chelsea swallowed.

"Okay. How do I find mine?" A month and a half ago she had been a student. Now people kept casually informing her that she was some sort of military commander. The realization made her stomach twist. What qualifications did she possibly have for that?

"It's the same setup as the feast," Passion explained as they continued through the formations.

"Your unit will be next to mine. This time, however, you won't be beside Absolutes. Your block is on the end." Chelsea nodded along. Ahead of them, Deceit and Suffering kept looking back over their shoulders. Every time she caught them, they would exchange a glance, smirk, and continue whispering to each other.

"Is my group really that bad?" Chelsea asked quietly.

"Bad?" Passion looked surprised.

"No. Not at all. You actually have one of the highest-level warriors in the entire army. Actually? He might be the highest-level warrior we have." The larger woman hesitated.

"Though… he's… umm…" She trailed off.

"Actually, never mind. You'll understand when you meet him." Deceit reached her own formation first. The members of her unit were noticeably smaller than most of the surrounding Einherin. Not short by normal standards, but shorter than the giants filling the rest of the field. Suffering broke away next. Her unit wore green, a striking contrast against the colors Chelsea had seen so far.

"Keep going," Passion called.

"You'll see your berserkers." Chelsea continued forward. Behind her, Passion suddenly barked out an order. The response came instantly. Hundreds of voices roared back as one. The sound struck Chelsea like a physical force. She flinched and shook her head. Gods. No wonder they were called War Callers. She reached the end of Passion's formation and stepped around the final block. Then stopped.

"Uh." Chelsea looked left at the wall of War Callers,. Then she looked behind her at whatever Law's group was called. More rows of warriors. Thousands of them. Then she looked back at her own unit. There were three people.

"Uh." The word escaped her mouth again. The first stood at the rear of the formation. He looked around Chelsea's age and possessed the same towering build common among pure-blooded Einherin. Furs, weapons, scars, muscles. If someone asked Chelsea to describe a barbarian warrior, she would have pointed directly at him. The other two were significantly stranger.

"You our new general?" a middle-aged woman called over. She was sitting comfortably in a wooden dining with the front two legs off the ground.. Chelsea blinked. Did she drag that chair all the way out here? The woman casually took a drink from a mug that for sure didn't have water.

"Uh." Apparently that really was her word of the day. The third member of the unit was on his hands and knees in the grass. He was so focused on the ground in front of him that he hadn't even acknowledged Chelsea's existence. Chelsea cleared her throat.

"Y-yes. I am the Valkyr of Havoc."

"Joe!" the woman called.

"Hey, Joe. We finally got another general." The man grunted.

"A tiny one this time. And a demon." Another grunt.

"What's he doing?" Chelsea asked quietly.

"He's looking for something."

"What?"

"Ladybug," the man answered without looking up.

"Was told they're lucky." The woman rolled her eyes.

"He has a weird obsession with luck. Thinks if he finds enough lucky things, his Luck stat will increase." Chelsea considered that.

"Oh." She crouched slightly.

"Does that work?" Joe shrugged.

"Don't know."

"You've never tested it?"

"Trying to." He answered simply Before Chelsea could ask another question, several warriors from the formation beside them shouted greetings toward Passion. Chelsea jumped, not prepared for the sheer volume of it. The woman in the chair smirked.

"Why don't you find out for yourself?" Chelsea looked back at Joe.

"Don't mind if I do." She immediately dropped to her hands and knees beside him. The woman in the chair barked out a laugh. The grass was thick enough that Chelsea found herself inspecting both sides of individual blades. If ladybugs increased Luck, she wasn't about to ignore free stats.

"So what are your names?" she asked while searching.

"Peg." The woman pointed her mug toward the giant standing behind her.

"And that's Sebastian." Chelsea glanced up. The man still hadn't moved. Not even a little.

"Sebastian?"

"Strange name, right?" Peg continued.

"And you're Joe?"

"Mm."

"Have you found any ladybugs this morning?"

"No." He said as if annoyed. Chelsea nodded seriously. That was unfortunate.

"You're not like the other Havocs," Peg said. Chelsea looked up. They usually spend their first day trying to act like the other Valkyr. Follow their lead. Copy how they talk. Copy how they carry themselves." She gestured toward Chelsea and Joe.

"You, on the other hand, joined the bug hunt." Chelsea giggled.

"The other Valkyr have already started trying to change me. Well, most of them. Passion, Suffering, Deceit, and Freedom have been nice."

"That's honorable," Joe said. His face was still buried in the grass.

"Keep values. Be self. Good." Chelsea smiled.

"Thank you."

"Be Havoc. Be berserker." Then his hand shot forward. Joe froze. Slowly, he lifted something from the grass. A tiny pebble. His shoulders sagged.

"False alarm." Chelsea couldn't help laughing. A few moments later she spotted a flash of red beneath a blade of grass.

"Oh!" She carefully reached in and pulled out a ladybug.

"I found one." Joe looked at it with the sort of longing.

"Here," Chelsea offered.

"You can have it."

"No." He replied, looking for another one.

"You don't want it?"

"Want it very much." Chelsea blinked.

"Then why not take it?" Joe finally looked up at her.

"Not lucky if not found self." Chelsea stared at him for a moment. Then she nodded. That actually made sense. In a strange sort of way.

"I didn't know that." She carefully closed her hand around the tiny beetle.

"I'll keep it, then."