Rae's POV

When I flew to the third balcony, I met the Valkyrie standing in a domineering pose. This Valkyrie unlike the others was not in the air. She just stood there eagerly waiting for me to land at her feet.

Once my feet touched the ground I found myself slowly sinking as if I had just landed on a mushy plain kind of how one standing on quicksand would feel.

I struggled trying to get myself out of that quagmire. The more I wriggled and tried to fight my way out of it the more the fluid like ground engulfed me. Unlike me who was struggling, the Valkyrie stood comfortably like one who was on solid ground.

She slowly watched as my body continued to be submerged. Fearing for my life I tried to come up with a way to escape that predicament. I considered blowing myself out by expanding the air pockets surrounding me but that would come with the risk of I being blown up in the process or worse making the soil far more liquid than it is.

The best solutions out of this that I could think of were to either find a way to solidify the ground, kill the Valkyrie instantaneously or cover my self with a sort of protective capsule filled with air.

Killing the Valkyrie at my current level was seeming to not be a possibility. So all I was remaining with was hardening the ground or either covering myself with a sort of protective capsule.

Choosing between the two was a no-brainer since hardening the ground seemed out of reach to me as I no longer had earth magic in my arsenal... The capsule could be easily created by surrounding myself with a physical and magic barrier. These barriers would then protect me from the surrounding engulfing land. The problem is what to do next while I am within the barrier since the air within the barrier would be pretty limited.

I will think of something once within the barrier and not anywhere drowning on this mushy plane.

Once the barrier was up, I was in a sort of dark bubble. I felt like I was on a boat that was both doing a pitch and roll motion. This unstable form of motion made me feel seasick... the bubble itself was also unstable one wrong move and I could find myself passing through it like paper. The walls of the bubble also seemed to get closer and closer to the point I was starting to feel claustrophobic.

Suddenly a low powerful rumble was heard, from within the rumble, a mild alto voice spoke authoritatively.

" Welcome challenger to the domain of Hrist the third Valkyrie."

The voice reverberated within my whole body to the point I felt overwhelmed. It slowly faded bringing me a little bit of peace and tranquillity. But that peace was immediately disturbed when the bubble suddenly became rigid and a huge hammer struck the barrier and impacted it on one of its sides. I could feel the impact travel all through the barrier leaving me in a state of fear and impermanence. The darkness was heightening my unstable mental state.

I could not think in any way. This was the first time I felt fear like this. At some point, I started to feel excited. This was peculiar seeing that I have never felt thrilled like this before even when I was at death's door.

The Valkyrie Hrist continued to hammer at the bubble tirelessly slowly increasing her pace. The barrier really held up to her attacks. At some point, I began feeling like the air was getting thinner and thinner. While I could feel the leftovers of the impact inside the barrier it was mostly absorbed by the outside of the barrier and the ever-changing ground.

My worry was the amount of oxygen that was left within the barrier. If I do not do anything I will find myself suffocating to death. I have to do something fast. But what can I do?

It is very dark very cold and I have no mobility whatsoever in this place... I could try to fly away by blasting air outside but that for now is impossible. Doing it from inside is also a possibility but that will either destabilise the barrier making it break or suffocate me faster if I fail to escape. Besides I currently cannot tell which way is which in this dark capsule.

Some light would really be appreciated right about now but it is not like my light magic could help me out of this...Hmmm? I was thinking of hardening the ground before but I know fire is a no go underground... what about laser hardening? That could work...but even if I harden it using a laser what help is that going to do. Speaking of which how can I even achieve lasers using light magic...maybe by doing optical pumping? Yes by doing optical pumping I maybe be able to cause population inversion thus causing the creation of a laser beam. That is a nice thought. With lasers, I can actually achieve something. Lasers are powerful enough to burn through objects and since they have negative absolute temperatures they can be infinitely magnified. Yes, I think the use of lasers is the only way I can win against Hrist.

First, before I do anything I need to isolate the beam by creating two smaller barriers. These two smaller barriers will need to have a refractive index that will direct the ray on one side while simultaneously amplifying the laser beam that will be fed within them. The first barrier will be completely reflective so that the photons inside it will give the electrons within the space enough excitation to cause a population inversion. Once enough population inversion has been achieved the beam will be released into the second barrier that is almost completely reflective with just a single outlet to let the beam out. The outlet itself is lense-like and will magnify the beam's output by twice its initial value.

Now that all the prerequisites have been met, we wait. With her current pattern, Hrist should be making an impact in 3,2,1 

"RELEASE!!!"

"AAARGH!!"

That was quite a powerful beam. Coupling it with the initial darkness no wonder I have gone temporarily blind.

... I think she was killed with that attack, I am not really sure since I am uncomfortably in the dark but I am assuming so since I can no longer feel my barrier and am not sinking like I was before...

Wow, what is happening? I think I just felt a tremor. Did I not defeat Hrist?

The temperature is getting quite high. I can't waste any time here, I need to heal my eyes fast so that I can tell what is going on. These temperatures have gotten quite absurdly high...Why is my Healing magic not working? Do I not have any mana left? I am feeling quite dizzy now. The heat is really getting to me. Let me check if...

"At the Behest of Hrist, Gondal has now descended. Challenger! I Gondal will face you now."