The entire area was frozen, contained only by the barrier Artoria had set up. What should've frozen anything or anyone did not affect Artoria. She moved like normal, not affected by the onslaught of the freezing temperature and Velzard's aura. Everything turned to ice around them: the ground, the grass, the rocks, and even the air was frozen. Time was stopped, or was supposed to be, but Artoria kept attacking Velzard.
She lashed out with everything she could, throwing any semblance of defense aside, leaving everything for Avalon to handle, which it did. Artoria charged at Velzard, fists clenched on Excalibur's hilt.
Velzard had given up on turning her into ice, since it clearly did not affect her; nothing she did really had an effect, as if she was immune to everything she could do to her.
Any ice construct she used was destroyed by her, either a punch or a swing from Excalibur. Artoria's eyes blazed with fury as she zoned in on Velzard like a missile, every step crushing the ice beneath her in this frozen landscape.
Velzard was slowly getting desperate. She decided to unleash her breath. A cone of intense cold struck Artoria head-on during her charge, but what could freeze an entire continent in one breath was effectively useless against her. The only thing she did was swipe away any ice crystals and mist away to give her better vision. She wanted to make sure she saw everything.
With a burst of mana, she disappeared from her spot and reappeared in front of Velzard, reaching out for her throat, but she dodged and created space between them.
Artoria instantly turned to where Velzard was, her other hand clenched again as motes of light appeared as she summoned Rhongomyniad. "That's it, you're no better than a cockroach."
Rhongomyniad's outer shell broke apart into branch-like structures as she hurled Rhongomyniad directly at her. The entire world narrowed onto Velzard; she didn't care about the rest of the environment.
Velzard tried to block it with ice, freezing it, and lastly, trying to evade it, but Rhongomyniad smashed through everything she put up as it honed in on her, eventually piercing her through her chest and pinning her to the ground, the lance effortlessly breaking the many layers of ice below her, keeping her in place.
Velzard tried to grab the lance and take it out, but when she tried, branches of light struck her arms and hands, embedding themselves into them and pinning them down onto the ground. The branches of light burst out from her hands and arms, further inflicting damage.
Slowly, she started to realize that fighting her was a mistake. Slowly, she realized that she shouldn't have picked this fight while her emotions were rampant. She flailed her legs, trying to escape, but the same thing that happened to her arms happened to her legs. Now, she was effectively motionless, only being able to move her head.
She looked around frantically, trying to see where Artoria was, but her own ability was blocking all vision. In a desperate attempt, she poured a massive amount of magicules into her aura, freezing anything and everything she could.
Inside the barrier, it was a brutal ice storm. Ice shards and crystals that could instantly kill or dismember any weaker opponent flew wildly around. Some of the shards hit Rhongomyniad, but no damage was left, not even the smallest scratch.
Velzard couldn't help but wonder what the lance was, but then she heard the sound of ice shards breaking and getting crushed, as if hitting an unbreakable object. She moved her head, and in through the dark, misty, violent ice storm, she saw a shadow slowly moving towards her. Though the features were obscured, she knew who it was.
The sound of her footsteps on the ice seemed to echo, overpowering the sound of the ice storm. The metallic clanking of her footsteps got louder and louder as she got closer. Velzard's heart stuttered, and she held her breath.
Finally, Artoria got close enough for her face to be revealed through the storm. She walked closer, looking down at Velzard with a calm gaze. Her eyes turned into a dull green as she circled Velzard, unbothered by the ice storm. She finally stopped behind Velzard's head, upside down from Velzard's perspective.
She stood still, her eyes not blinking or making the slightest twitch. Now that Velzard could do anything, at least to Artoria, the rage finally gave way to something colder. She kneeled over Velzard, staring directly into her eyes. She took Excalibur and calmly pierced Velzard through her stomach while she looked directly at her.
"No, wait! Stop!" Velzard shook her head, begging Artoria to stop, but she stayed silent, methodically stabbing Excalibur all the way to the hilt.
"All you had to do was shut your mouth, walk away, and calm down." Artoria clenched her fists, her gauntlets making a scraping noise from the force, as she brought her fist down and punched Velzard in the face, making her bead bounce like a basketball on the ice.
"But you had to threaten my family." Artoria punched her again.
"I'm going to enjoy what I'm about to do." Artoria punched her again and again mercilessly and precisely.
Velzard's head recoiled back and forth on the ground, pulverizing the ice into dust.
"If only you could bleed." Artoria sped up her punches, brutal crunching sounds echoing through the storm.
In that moment, a red and black light sparked from her gauntlets. Artoria stopped for a brief moment as she saw it. She looked at her fist, contemplating, before looking back down at Velzard, who had glassy eyes.
"A bit more won't hurt." She resumed punching Velzard again.
This time, the more she punched, the more red and black sparks were emitted. She kept going until a large spark erupted into the sky, contained only by the barrier. That's when she decided to stop, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"That's enough." Artoria dropped Velzard's head, letting it fall into the small hole it had made from breaking all the ice. She got up and unsummoned Excalibur. She kept Rhongomyniad summoned, necessary for what she was about to do.
"Rejoice, Velzard. You're about to be erased in the same location where Rouge was. Scared Lance, unleash your anchor."
Rhongomyniad burst into a bright light as reality once again started to be erased, the lance being the center. Velzard showed no emotion as her body slowly disintegrated into small particles before completely ceasing to exist. Artoria stopped Rhongomyniad, fixing the damage it did. The ice very quickly started to melt, the rocky landscape returning to normal.
She unsummoned Rhongomyniad and cleared off any stains from her armor. Finally, she could go home. Enough distractions kept her away.
/\\//\\//\
"What's taking Artoria so long?" Rimuru said while looking through plans for the magic train. Raphael had suggested many improvements, and when Rimuru was concerned about how much it would cost, Raphael put away all concerns about the amount of money it would make.
"I'm back, Rimuru." Artoria walked through the door to the conference room where all the plans for the train are.
"Is everything okay?" Rimuru asked Artoria as she seemed a little different.
"Yeah, everything's fine, just took care of a some small problems."
"You seem different."
"Nope, I'm the same."
"I don't know, something's off."
Artoria sighed and decided to do something that would show Rimuru that nothing was different with her. "Rimuru, let me tell you about the time that an American president committed treason and got away with it."
"Huh?"
"So, it starts in the 20th century in Nicaragua when the Sandinistas overthrew this guy called Samoza, and the United States viewed this as a threat to their interest in the area, so they supported the contrarrevolucionarios, or just contra for short, and…" Artoria stopped speaking when Rimuru interrupted her.
"Okay, okay! I got it, I got it, you're normal, except for that longe word you used, what language was that?."
"Anyway, I was going to go to Shuna first, but I decided I would be nice enough to give you a small heads up for some things that would happen soon, like less than a week probably."
"Uh, like what?"
"So, like, another Walpurgis will be called soon, and Veldora will probably come to give you a heads up about his sister. Oh, and if Rain and Misery come knocking, which they absolutely will, send them to me; their experience as maids will be very helpful in a few months for me."
"W-what did you do?"
"Nothing big. But look, I have to go back to Shuna, since she's starting to show already and I need to take care of her." Artoria turned to leave the room, letting Rimuru deal with the aftermath of what she did, because she had a lot more important things to do. But she left him with one more reminder. "Oh, and I'm taking paternity leave until Shuna gives birth, and then for a few months after that, so like one year, or a year and a half."
"Wait, wouldn't it be maternity leave, since you're a woman?"
"No, it's paternity leave. You will come to understand it when you meet one of my future children, who will insist on me being father. Anyway, if there's anything to be done with my input or whatever, just deliver it to me or send a message, and I'll get to it when I can. It'll probably be the train, or the massive sporting infrastructure I have planned for a bunch of sports and a sporting event." Artoria left and closed the door behind her, finally going home this time.
"Huh?"
Rimuru was only left with more questions. What did she mean by a future child who will call her father? She couldn't possibly see that far into the future.