269 BEHOLD STEEL VALKYRIE
Liorea awakened a unique power—the dominion of space itself.
Within her resided a private region of space, a sealed domain she controlled absolutely. At first, she treated it as nothing more than storage, filling it with billions of aur stones.
But she failed to realize what she had created.
The Aur stones inside her realm resonated.
And when billions of them were confined within a single spatial domain, their resonance didn't disperse—it fed back into the space itself.
Her realm expanded, stabilized and evolved.
The space grew vast, dense with energy, and that energy flowed back into its owner.
Liorea's meta strength surged—not explosively, but steadily, passively. The aur stones had become meta amplification engines, continuously enhancing her power without effort or strain.
Though she was already Meta Rank A, her ability was fundamentally different from Damen's. His power was aggressive, lethal, made for direct confrontation.
Hers was not.
Her power supported, enhanced and enabled….
… But Liorea's ambition wasn't limited to working as the support crew.
"There must be a way I can use my powers in a better way… an aggressive way", she always told herself.
And then her experiences and encounters gave her an idea.
Suddenly, space folded.
Metal screamed into existence.
In an instant, enormous slabs of alloy erupted from her spatial domain, snapping together with mechanical precision on Liorea- Plates locked joints sealed and their systems ignited.
A mecha formed around her body.
This was an improved version of the mecha body kit they had acquired from the Somirac Workshop, reforged and optimized within her space.
It wasn't as colossal as Project Hermes—but it wasn't small either.The machine stood nearly three men tall, broad-shouldered and heavily armored.
Liorea was seated within the chest core, cocooned by layered composite armor and reinforced forcefields. Money had been spent without restraint—this was protection rated at Rank AAA, enough to withstand most battlefield threats.
Exoskeletal control frames wrapped around her limbs, translating even the slightest movement into overwhelming mechanical force. The mecha responded as naturally as her own body.
Mounted on its shoulders were compact auto-cannons, capable of firing high-velocity rounds and explosive missiles with terrifying efficiency.
Liorea exhaled slowly.
She had become a superheroine.
But she wasn't doing this alone.
"Sis, I'll handle the sensors and targeting systems," Kail's voice echoed through the neural link. "I'll optimize the controls and automate combat responses."
An invisible presence merged with the machine.
Kail became her unseen co-pilot—processing data, locking targets, managing battlefield awareness faster than any AI.
Liorea smiled inside the cockpit.
"Well," she said, flexing the mecha's massive fingers as servos roared to life, "let's do this. I've wanted to test the strength of this baby for a long time."
"Now all this baby needs is a name", Kail added.
Liorea paused to consider it.
"Steel Valkyrie," she said. "Behold."
The mecha took its first step.
The ground cracked.
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The members of the Syndic of Fracture watched in stunned disbelief as Liorea completed her transformation.
"Who is that woman?" one of them hissed. "How did she turn into a mecha?"
"That machine is at least Rank AAA," another said grimly. "Only a handful of us could fight it head-on."
"So what?" a third snapped. "It's only one unit. We employ an army of assassins."
The order was given.
They attacked.
Meta-humans surged forward, unleashing a storm of powers. Ice spikes screamed through the air. Bolts of electricity arced like living serpents. Boulders tore free from the ground and hurtled toward the towering machine.
The barrage slammed into Steel Valkyrie, energy and force stacking layer upon layer. The impact forced the mecha backward, metal feet carving trenches into the ground.
"Sis," Kail warned, his voice tight, "the attacks aren't strong individually—but combined, they're draining us fast. Our force field integrity is dropping fast."
Liorea remained calm.
"Relax. I've installed twenty Rank AAA force field modules. When one depletes, we rotate to the next. And if those run out…" she smiled, "…I have replacement packs stored in my space. Fresh modules are always available for instant swaps."
Kail paused.
"…That's ridiculous. You brought an entire armory into battle."
Liorea was exploiting her greatest advantage—space itself.
If Shields are exhausted? Replace them.
Power drained? Swap in a new core.
Damage sustained? Rebuild or replace with entire new parts.
Her strength was not brute force.
It was inexhaustibility.
"What kind of force field is that?" one syndic shouted. "Why isn't it breaking?"
"It keeps refreshing!" another yelled. "Every time we wear it down, it stabilizes again!"
"How do we fight someone who can regenerate endlessly?" a third demanded.
Kail glanced at the data feed. "Sis… are we really just going to let them keep hitting us?"
"No," Liorea replied evenly. "I am only testing."
"Testing?"
"I wanted to know the upper limits of the armor and shield tolerance against metas of their ranks."
There was a pause.
"…So, you're done testing already, my fingers are itching for a real fight?" Kail asked.
Liorea nodded. "Yes."
Her eyes hardened.
"Time to retaliate."
"Oh, finally," Kail said with a grin in his voice. "It's my turn to shine."
The auto-cannons mounted on Steel Valkyrie's shoulders rotated and locked.
Targets were acquired instantly.
Trajectories calculated. Shield frequencies analyzed. Kill angles were optimized.
Kail's supercomputer went to work immediately.
The cannons were fired.
Explosive rounds screamed through the battlefield with surgical precision. One syndic member was struck dead-center—his force field shattered in a single hit. A second shot followed milliseconds later, punching through his chest before the shield could recover.
"AAAGH—!"
He collapsed, blood flooding the ground.
Then another fell.
And another.
With Kail's autonomous targeting and the mecha's overwhelming firepower, the battlefield turned into a one-sided execution.
"Sis, your mecha is much better than even Project Hermes… and at this rate, this fight will be over soon," Kail said confidently.
Liorea shook her head.
"This is the Syndic of Fracture. This is only the opening move. They'll adapt. They always do."
As if on cue, the remaining syndic members retreated in unison. They regrouped, raising layered defensive barriers and forming a tight combat formation.
Their shields overlapped, reinforcing one another.
Kail clicked his tongue. "Damn. They're getting smart—organizing into formation."
"Told you," Liorea replied calmly.
Then—
The air shifted.
Pressure rolled across the battlefield, heavy and unnatural.
Something unseen was moving.
Liorea's senses flared red.
"…Kail," she said slowly, "do you feel that?"
The battlefield went silent.
And whatever stirred in the air was not part of the original plan.
"I do… they are going psychic on you," Kail said before adding, "Are you sure you are prepared for this?"
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