Welcome back.

This will be my last chapter for this story. It has been a long time now, and I honestly got more support than I expected…Danmachi isn't a very well-known series.

Anyway, Answers to Reviews:

Anc1enT: Thanks for the review. People would have busted my backside had I not given her the level up.

Anyway, on to what you are all here for.

Chapter 7, The Return (Part 3): War

"Girls…are you all ready?" Hilde asked her team. They were currently at the Hephaestus Familia retrieving their gear. The armour shone as though it were made yesterday and the weapons all had edges that were sharp enough to split hairs.

Tsubaki muttered something about the spears being ages old and her having to spend half an hour inspecting each of them, making sure that they had no defects anywhere.

Meanwhile the armourers were complaining to the ones who serviced the 7 sets of armour, saying they wanted to study them.

"Almost." Leaf answered. Being the newest amongst the Valkyries, she of course didn't know how to fit the armour properly. Skuld came over to help with that.

Riful meanwhile walked over to Hilde.

"We should be heading back soon. Thor and Loki are having a council of war soon and I think you should be there as well." She said.

"You're right about that." Hilde said. "I'll see you later then."

"Easy there, Tiger. The last time we left you alone you got your ass captured." Skuld called over. She had finished with Leaf and was carrying a pair of spears. "We are going to be watching your ass until this is over." She said, tossing Hilde one of the spears.

"No, you won't." Riful said. "Hilde's ass is mine. And I forbid you from watching it."

Skuld mock pouted, as did the others minus Leaf.

"Then we'll watch her back." Mist offered a compromise.

"That I will allow you." Riful said with a smile. "Since it isn't as nice to look at as her ass."

Hephaestus chuckled at the scene whilst the blacksmiths were either blushing or shaking their heads.

Shortly afterwards

"There they are…" The Valkyries had barely left the tower when they were assaulted by a mob of thugs. The onlookers looked on in pity for the fools whilst Hilde decided to test out the weapons that had been serviced.

The fight didn't even last 10 seconds.

"These things…are scary…" Riful commented, looking at the spear she was holding. She was used to wielding a spear that was about three times as heavy as this one, so she had a lot of difficulty holding back.

Well, the sentiment was shared by the others as well.

"No kidding…I think I may have given some of these morons a gender change…" Skuld gave her opinion, with Göndul and Sigrun nodding.

"You THINK?" Herja deadpanned. "I felt bones, as well as other things, crack…I most surely gave some of them a gender change."

"So, any Idea whose Familia this lot belongs to?" Leaf asked.

"About that…this is not an emblem I've seen before." Hilde said, looking at the back of one of the thugs. A pair of swords crossed with a burning torch as the background.

"Let's take him with us. Maybe one of the other Gods will know it." Riful said.

"Yeah, about that…give me a second…" Hilde said, before suddenly shouting out, "HERMES! GET YOUR SORRY ASS OVER HERE BEFORE I…" she didn't finish the sentence before a blonde god with a feathered hat came running though the crowd, sweating buckets.

"No need for any threats…" he said pleadingly. Behind him came Asfi al Andromeda, the one who usually keeps him out of trouble…most of the time…

"Good, now know whose symbol this is?" Hilde asked pointing at the man's back.

"This is…" Hermes turned from scared to dead serious instantly. "You had better return to Asgard immediately…I need to send out some messengers…" Hermes said. Those who heard him understood the seriousness of the situation. For one of the biggest perverts in Orario to be this serious…it couldn't be good news.

"Ok…how did you know he was nearby?" Riful asked suspiciously. The others were looking at Hilde with the same suspicious glare.

"You mean you didn't notice him following us since we left Asgard?" Hilde said.

"I would like to call you on the Bull Shit, but it does make sense." Herja commented after a short while.

"Anyway, let's get back to Asgard…" Hilde was interrupted by Rex who came running.

"Hilde-sanya!" he shouted. "We need you at the God's Gatherinya! The other Valkyries are to be there as well, nya!"

Looking at each other, they started running after Rex.

In Thanatos

"Ok, mind telling us why we were called here?" Hilde asked Thor who was sitting in front and to the left of her. Behind her the other Valkyries stood in a line, spears held at ease, though also ready to be called into action.

"Some of the other major Gods had learnt of Bael's return and are just as dissatisfied as we are." Thor answered. "To my knowledge they don't know about Ares joining forces with Bael yet, not that we have any physical evidence."

"Yeah…about that…" Hilde explained what happened when they left Babel.

She barely finished describing the Familia symbol when Thor smashed the table in front of him.

"Thor…what are you doing?" one of the gods asked in shock.

"Forgive me, but my Familia has been attacked today by…" Thor began, but a new arrival finished the sentence for him.

"…the Ares Familia who has joined Forces with Bael." Hermes finished. "Several small groups of Ares's goons have already entered Orario. From what we managed to get out of the thugs that attacked the Valkyries earlier, they were ordered to attack any group made up from Thor and Loki Familia members." Behind him came a few new arrivals, mainly other gods and their escorts.

Silence.

More silence.

"That would explain how the Bael Familia had managed to grow to such numbers after 5 years in exile." Hestia said. "And they already have a foothold in Orario."

"What do you mean?" Freya asked.

"It means, bitch, that the Bael Familia forced them out of their Home." Hilde said. "Even with myself and Riful there."

"Oh, mind explaining how that could have happened then." Freya asked, trying to supress the vein that was threatening to burst on her forehead at being called 'bitch'. She hated it when Hilde called her that…which was why Hilde called her that in the first place.

Hilde began explaining about the events that had taken place 5 years ago, how there had been less than half of the Valkyries there during the wargame between the Bael Familia and the Thor Familia.

Thor continued by explaining that the traitor Valkyries had joined the Bael Familia and had tried to sow discord amongst them by being the messengers that delivered the news of his return. He also explained that the message had the opposite effect on his familia.

Loki continued by explaining how she and her brother joined forces to oust the Bael Familia from Orario, stating her reasons for doing so had been that the Bael Familia had been attacking their affiliated Familias without reason or remorse.

Hilde took over again when she explained the circumstances around when Bael took over Hestia's home, with Riful adding in the ambush she knocked out whilst escorting the Hestia Familia to Asgard. Hilde continued on how she fought the traitors, how she killed three of them before she got captured, and how she learnt about the alliance between Bael and Ares.

Then Loki began with how she and some in her Familia saved her and brought her to Asgard, where they also learnt about all this.

Then she and Thor began explaining that both of them were almost finished with their preparations and would attack the Bael Familia in the morning.

"That would be a bad Idea." Hermes told them at this point. "My sources report that the Bael Familia had reclaimed their old home on the outskirts of Orario and have been heavily expanding the property, always seeming to have enough men to man the buildings they put up. Our estimates show that there are roughly 500 people living in that estate as of this morning."

"In that case, let's go." Hermes looked at Thor as though he was crazy. So too did most of the other gods and their escorts. "500? That shouldn't be much of a problem, as long as there aren't many level 5s amongst them."

"I agree with my Brother for once." Loki agreed. "We will take on the estate. So…500 people? Hey Thor…maybe we should leave half of our Familia back at home…give the bastards a chance."

"What about us?" Hestia and several other gods shouted. "Are you going to deny us the chance for payback?"

"You guys can retake those facilities that have been lost to the Bael Familia over the last week." Hilde suggested. "That way you will be helping us by making the Bael Familia think that we are focusing on their outposts."

"Easy for you to say…we haven't prepared yet." One of the other gods shouted.

"That is right…give us a day to prepare, will you." Another one added.

Thor and Loki looked at each other before nodding.

"Alright, you have 1 day." They said.

Timeskip, 2 days later, Bael Compound

"It has been awfully quiet in Orario…" one of Bael's Familia said.

"You are right…it is almost peaceful…" Another said. "Let's change that."

"Go for it." Bael shouted, having heard the conversation, before walking into a corridor. Grinning, a large group of people made their way to the north east entrance, armed with an assortment of weapons and armour.

The first one was about to open the gate when it was blown open. Entering through the gate came 8 females wearing near identical armour and weapons. Without mercy they slew the survivors from their 'knocking'.

They made it halfway to the main building when they heard the alarm go off.

"That took longer than I expected it to." Hilde commented. "Leaf, be careful. You are still a low level, so beware people of higher level. Stick close to Skuld."

"Roger that, Lady Brynhildr." The Elf said.

"There they are!" They heard a shout, followed by "Get them!"

"Here they come. Get ready." Hilde commanded.

But the attack never came. Before the new group of Bael Familia engaged them, another group of people smashed their formation into bits.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be at the south gate?" Riful asked the members of the Loki Familia.

"And loose out on the fun? You knocked on the gate before we could even leave. The others are already pouring through your gate anyway." The Pallum, Finn, said.

Looking behind them, the Valkyries saw the combined forces of the Loki and Thor Familia pouring through the now broken gate.

"Damn…and here I was thinking we'd get all the fun." Hilde muttered under her breath, grinning as she saw Bete's ears twitch at the jab.

"How about this then…We go with the good old Plan B?" Hilde asked Finn.

"Plan B?" he asked. The others looked just as confused.

"B for 'BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THEM'." Hilde answered as she and her team charged directly at a new group of Bael Familia, smashing into them like a hammer onto glass.

"Heh? That simple?" Bete asked, before rushing at a flanking attempt.

"I like it." Tiona and Tione said before rushing to catch up with the Werewolf.

Those two later went on a rampage when a few stupid Bael Familia made comments about either bedding Tione or saying that Tiona didn't have much in the way of sex appeal. Bete himself ended up dodging quite the number of their swings.

Finn decided not to join that little battle as he, Gareth and Riveria decided to team up to clear some of the nearby buildings.

Aiz left to join the Valkyries and maybe kick up a little competition with her rival.

That left Lefya not knowing what to do, so she did the only thing she could and started chanting her Elf Ring Spell that allowed her to use an unlimited number of spells as long as they are elvish in both nature and origin. This she followed up by a large-scale fire magic, Rea Laevateinn, and almost finished when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"A bit late there, young elf." She turned to see Rex standing there. "They have finished them off long agonya."

Lefya turned to see the defeated bodies of the Bael Familia members lying around on the grass.

"Useless again…" she said, kneeling and thundercloud appearing over her head. Another elf, Filvis from the Dionysus Familia, walked up and tried to snap her out of her depression.

"There, there, at least you managed to almost complete the spell in time this time…" Filvis said, embracing her friend. It did not have the desired effect as Lefya started ranting on her uselessness to the raven haired elf.

Where the combat was

"Leaf, watch your flank." Skuld shouted. The Valkyries, together with Aiz and the other first class combatants of the Loki Familia had entered the main building and were now fighting for every foot of ground they advanced. Unlike before, now they ere facing higher level opponents. Hilde guessed them to be mostly level 3, meaning Leaf would have her work cut out for her as she was nowhere near reaching a point where she could level up yet.

"Hey, aren't those bitches the Valkyries?" a Bael level 4 asked.

"Yeah, they are…didn't the Temple Wives tell us to leave them?" a level 3 said.

"Yeah they diURG!" the level 4 said, only to suddenly have Hilde grabbing his throat ad lifting him off the floor.

"Where are they?" she growled, her KI so powerful that even Bete was backing away from her.

"D-down the hallway to the left…take the third staircase down to the basement…We turned it into a holy temple…" 'CRACK' Hilde snapped his neck.

"Riful…have the others clean up here…I have some payback to give…" Hilde said darkly.

Even the airhead Aiz knew better than to stop her as she followed the instructions given to her.

For several minutes following her disappearance into the dark hallway nobody in the main hallway dared to move a muscle, before…

"What are we just standing around here for?"

Leaf's question acted as the resume button as in less time than it took to blink the battle resumed in all of its ferocity. However, once Rex arrived with the rest of the Thor and Loki Familias' First Class Adventurers, the main building was quickly emptied of Bael Familia members.

The worst of the fighting happened in the chokepoints along the passageways, though that only delayed the inevitable…the arrival of Bete, Tione, Tiona, Finn, Riviera, Gareth or one of the more experienced Valkyries usually solved the problem.

Seeing that the main building was almost completely under their control, Riful ran to search for Hilde. Naturally the other Valkyries wanted to follow her, but a sharp command from her stopped them. Aiz though she allowed to follow as she couldn't really tell her to not follow…she may be an airhead, but she can be more stubborn than stone at times.

By the time they reached the bottom of the staircase, about 30 minutes had elapsed since they had last seen or heard from Hilde, though they now clearly heard the sounds of blades clashing.

"Last Offer, Brynhildr, join us…and you will be given…pleasures that that…whore of a girlfriend of yours…could never hope to give you…" they heard Fenheim say, grunting as she defended herself from Hilde's attacks. All they heard was Hilde's roar, followed by the sound of metal meeting metal and metal slicing through flesh, followed by a blood chilling scream of pain…

30 minutes earlier

Hilde encountered no resistance on her way down to the basement. Inside she found the remaining former Valkyries, kneeling before a raised dais on which stood an extravagant throne adorned with murals of demonic rituals. And on the throne sat none other than Bael himself.

"The combined armies of the Thor and Loki Familia have begun their assault." Bael said. "Just as was planned. You are to buy me time for me to send word to Ares to begin his assault on the city."

Hilde's blood froze…from the beginning the plan had been for the Bael compound to be attacked as the Ares Familia came sweeping in without resistance…she knew she had to do something.

"Now go and defend this holy place whilst I prepare…" Bael said, standing up, but the rest of his sentence was interrupted by a newcomer arriving.

"Prepare for this, Mother Fucker!" Hilde screamed as she drew back on her bow and fired several arrows into the God. She knew that her arrows couldn't kill the bastard, but she deliberately aimed for the joints and neck, aiming to paralyze the god…and make it hurt at the same time.

"What the…" the Ex-Valkyries all shouted. Turning around, they all saw Hilde standing at the entrance, bow in hand.

"The time for the final reckoning has come, traitors." Hilde said, putting down her bow and drawing her sword and shield.

"My wives…capture that whore, then help me." Bael shouted.

"To stoop so low…I can't believe that I once looked up to you, Fenheim, or should I call you Bael's Whores?" Hilde asked, directing the last bit at all of them.

"Oh, ye of little faith and knowledge, Brynhildr. We beat you last time. This time will be no different." Fenheim called back calmly, taking Hilde's insult as a compliment. "Give up, and I am sure that Bael will feel merciful and have you bear his child, like we did."

"And suffer his barely existing prick barely prodding me?" Hilde asked. "No thanks…but Riful can give me greater pleasure than that."

Now this pissed the Ex-Valkyries off to no end. A pair of them charged Hilde, thinking that they'd have an easier time now since they had fought before.

They were not prepared to momentarily see their own bodies before the world turned black for them.

Hilde appeared behind them, her Fang held out to the side. She had struck so fast that blood couldn't even collect on the blade. For a moment the now headless bodies just stood there, before gravity took hold.

"Five down…seven to go…" she said, all emotion gone from her voice.

"Why you…get her!" Fenheim shouted. As one the rest of the Ex-Valkyries attacked, making one mistake.

And that was that they had spread out.

Hilde disappeared once more…at least for the weaker people in the room.

Fenheim managed to bring her own sword up in time to block the strike, though she grunted under the strength of the attack. 'What the fuck? There is no way this strength is that of a Level 5…unless…Oh Fuck me…'

Too late she realized that she may have underestimated her opponent.

"What are you doing? If you can't capture her, just kill her!" Bael shouted.

Hilde and Fenheim began exchanging blows whilst the other Ex-Valkyries surrounded the pair, clearly intent on following Bael's new orders.

"Last Offer, Brynhildr, join us…and you will be given…pleasures that that…whore of a girlfriend of yours…could never hope to give you…" Fenheim told her, grunting each time she blocked Hilde's strikes.

Hilde roared and prepared for another blow. Too late she saw the sword approaching her from the side.

And in that moment of distraction, Fenheim blocked her weakened strike as the incoming sword pierced Hilde's thigh after sliding of the thick armour.

The scream that left Hilde's lips was loud and full of pain.

"HILDE-CHAN!" a new voice shouted, and someone ran a spear through the one who stabbed Hilde. The others meanwhile were blown away by a strong wind and Hilde found herself having an elixir forced down her throat.

"Riful…Aiz…what are you two doing here?" Hilde asked.

"Later. For now, let us help you." Riful said, jumping backwards to Hilde's side. Aiz appeared at the other side.

"This is not your fight…I have to finish the fight that began for me all those years ago." Hilde said, only for Riful to slap her in the face. This stunned everyone in the room.

"And I told you…you don't have to shoulder this burden alone." Riful all but shouted. "I am your best friend, your lover…I can and will help you shoulder this duty."

"Oh, this just makes me want to puke…" Fenheim said. The other Ex-Valkyries agreed.

"Aiz, Riful…what is the situation topside?" Hilde asked quietly.

"We have secured the compound and most of the outposts have been reclaimed." Aiz whispered back.

"Then let's finish up here, shall we." Hilde said. With a roar, the three woman engaged the 6 remining enemies, with Hilde engaging Fenheim again and slowly but surely breaking apart her defence.

"For Hildegard!" Hidle shouted. "And Rossweise! And Freyr!..." for each of the Valkyries who died during the Wargame 5 years ealier, Hilde delivered a powerful attack. On the last name, she struck hard enough to shatter Fenheim's sword.

Before Fenheim could recover from the shock, Hilde drove her sword through her heart.

The death of their leader demoralized the other Ex-Valkyries, but Hilde's decision was set in stone…their fates were the same as their leaders.

2 days later, Asgard

"Lo, there do I see my Father. Lo, there do I see my mother and my brothers and my Sisters. Lo, there I do see the line of my people back to the beginning. Lo, they call to me, they bid me to take my place among them in the hallowed halls of Valhalla, where thine enemies have been vanquished, where the brave shall live forever, nor shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death." Thor prayed for the deceased members of the Thor Familia.

Before him were the 14 dead bodies of those of his Familia who had died in the last battle, far fewer than he had expected. It seemed that sending the Valkyries as a Vanguard made quite the difference in the estimations.

Filling the rest of the hall stood row upon row of saddened Thor Familia members, with the Valkyries standing guard in their ceremonial armours.

At the end of the prayer Thor bid for a moment of silence to remember the deceased, before asking the Valkyries to lead the way to the final resting place.

Leading the way to the Valkyrie Ceremony Hall, Valhalla, the people carrying the dead saw that the floor had been carefully removed, revealing a spiralling staircase dug into the rock beneath Asgard. Continuing on, the fallen were laid to rest amongst the dead adventurers who died in the past.

Once the bearers were out, the Valkyries resealed the crypt and renewed their vows to protect the entrances of the crypts from any intrusion.

Epilog

Few days later

It has been several days since the war with the Bael Familia and life was returning to normal, especially after the unsuccessful assault by the Ares Familia a few days after Bael was defeated.

Thanks to a pair of elven mages from the Loki Familia and their liberal use of Rea Leavateinn most of Ares' army was defeated before they even reached the walls. Those that did were bombarded with tons of smaller scale magics such as the common Fireball and wave after wave of arrows.

The only time during the assault that a melee engagement occurred was when one of the attackers called Tiona 'a walking flat-board'…

The craters of her attacks were still visible from the City Walls…

"So, we will meet you in the pantry then in say…3 days?" Hilde said. The figure on the other side of the table nodded.

"That will be fine. It has been a while since I trained him, it would be nice to see how much he had improved since then." The figure said.

"That…and it would be nice if the two of you finally hooked up." Hilde said, smirking at the blush.

"Is…is it really that obvious?" the figure asked.

"Oh…you really don't want to know." Hilde said before finishing of her coffee and placing a handful of Valis on the table top. "See you soon."

3 days later, Pantry

"Say, Hiide-neechan…why are we back here?" Bell asked. It has been a day since he and his familia had been picked up by the Valkyries to go on another Dungeon trip.

This time Welf wisely decided to think before he talked, not wanting a repeat of last time.

"Well, your fellow Familia members as well as my newest Valkyrie need some more training if they want to keep up with us." Hilde said. "You on the other hand…I have arranged for a more…one-on-one training instructor to help you…In more than just fighting…' Hilde thought evilly.

"Oh really? And whom have you gotten to train him?" Lili asked. Welf, Yamato and Haruhime leaned in, interested as well.

"Oh, you all know her very well…indeed, I would be surprised if that airhead isn't already waiting for us at our destination." Hilde said as they arrived at a campsite.

'Wait…A female we know who is an airhead…IT CAN'T BE…" Lili, Welf and Bell shouted.

"It can't be what?" a new voice asked. Bell froze and turned red, Welf, Lili, Yamato and Haruhime turned and were shocked to see who it was.

"Jo, Aiz." Hilde said with a smile, picking Bell up by his shoulders and placing him before the blond airhead, facing said airhead. "As promised, I'll leave his training to you."

"Much obliged." Aiz answered before grabbing Bell's collar and dragging him away to a nearby field.

"…"

"…"

"Well, now that his training is sorted, let's get on to you lot." Hilde said, cracking her knuckles, grinning.

Yamato, Haruhime, Welf and Lili immediately hid behind Leaf.

"You do realize that she will take part in the training, right?" Riful said, joining Hilde. Skuld, Sigruin, Mist, Herja and Göndul joined in moments later. All of them had evil grins on their faces.

The 5 unfortunate trainees did the only thing they could think of…Run.

"Don't look back…just keep on running!" Leaf shouted.

Meanwhile with Hilde and co

"Think we've given them enough of a headstart?" Hilde asked.

"Nah…give them 5 more seconds…" Riful said. "GO!"

With that the 7 veteran Valkyries began chasing the fleeing figures.

AND DONE! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and this story.