The Red Conqueror

Chapter 23

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ASGARD, ODIN'S CASTLE

In Odin's library, sifting through books about dragons was Lightning, Odin's new guard. She planned to go back to her world and know of its fate, but to do that, in her mind, she needed to defeat Great Red. She thought of how she came to this point, when she believed to defeat the Fal'Cie and saved her sister, Serah, only to be summoned by the goddess, Etro.

She fought for the goddess, earning herself a rival, a man by the name of Caius. He was strong and was once a l'Cie like her, she also had an understanding as he was the guardian of a seeress named Yeul. It was similar to her need to protect her sister, she also had an understanding of Issei as he was also protecting those that he loved. Unfortunately, she had witnessed the betrayal done to him, she could not fathom what would happen if Serah did the same thing to her. However, she wouldn't get that chance because Issei had succeeded in saving his loved ones, she heard how the other valkyries praised the Sekiryuutei. She did not get that chance as Serah had died on her journey through time.

Lightning had mourned Serah's death and confided in binding herself to Etro's throne. However, the goddess had other plans and so did Serah, who had explained to her about her eventual death. It made Lightning feel useless that her sister was going to die no matter what she did and that hurt. She remembered Serah's spirit telling her to continue on and Lightning promised that she wouldn't stop until she saw her again, only to wake up and find herself in front of Odin's castle. It was then she realized that Etro sent her here and she knew that her journey was not done. She worried about her former teammates, who gave her up for dead as Serah had informed her. She wanted to go back and let them know she was fine. Serah joked to her about finding a guy and she snorted at that, she was a soldier. So she trained herself and took on the other valkyries, rising in their ranks.

She impressed many, including Odin himself that she became assigned as his new personal guard. She questioned him about his former one, which she noted the sadness in his tone, when speaking about Rossweisse. She wanted to learn more about Rossweisse and spoke with Göndul about her granddaughter. She thought Rossweisse was a capable warrior and was displeased about what she did, but upon learning that she was drugged, her view changed. As a woman, Lightning could sympathize with Rossweisse and wondered if they would really banish her. It seemed that there was quite a back and forth as Rossweisse gained more support, since she was a victim, it did make Lightning disgusted with the fallen angels. Of course, Göndul noted that not all of the fallen angels were like that and noted to Lightning that she could train with Baraqiel, who was skilled in using the element of her namesake.

Lightning pondered about it, and with the threat of Razevan, she would need the help that she would get. It helped to speak with Göndul, since she had been living with the woman and decided that Rossweisse and her would make a competent valkyrie duo, since Rossweisse was skilled in magic, and Lightning was skilled in combat. Now she lies in Odin's study, reading about dragons, from what she had gathered was that Great Red was a dragon and to slay a dragon, she needed a dragon slaying weapon. The top one that she discovered was Gram, which was used to slay the dragon, Fafnir, however, the dragon was revived by Odin himself.

She grimaced at this as she knew that the gold dragon was a bit of a pervert, likely due to Odin. Odin, when drunk, usually criticized her breast size and if she was insecure about them, hence why she always wore her armor. She wasn't, although her breasts were a bit bigger, the reason she wore her armor was because she was always prepared for a fight. She wondered how Rossweisse tolerated Odin's pervertedness. She found it ironic how she once had a summon or Eidolon that was named Odin and saw how the deity was much different from her majestic steed. Even her former teammates, their Eidolons were different from their DxD counterparts, as Brynhildr was her mentor and Shiva was a male. She also wondered if the girls cheated on Issei because he was a pervert as she saw through his memories in that meeting. Considering how he protected them, she was pretty sure that if they asked him to change, he would, so she considered it a heinous way to betray someone. It didn't help her to discover that Gram was wielded by Kiba Yuuto, who she remembered from Issei's memories. He didn't look like a man proud of sleeping with his former best friend's girls from what she saw, but he had the possible key to helping her get back home.