《Angel Monarch》 Chapter 1: A Beautiful Day In Newber-City a brown haired, average looking girl was walking down the busy street, happily. Today was a beautiful day. She just finished her day at the Academy, spending the day learning about the ins and outs of the government and society. She was heading home, after a very important exam, which she of course aced. Looking around the city and the wonderful sky without any cloud in sight, she was thinking: ''Today is a perfect day and nothing could ruin it.'' While walking down the street, she passed her favorite bakery and stopped dead in her step, nearly tripping other pedestrians. "Watch it girl!" An especially rude person called. He seemed to be in a rush somewhere. Of course the girl haven''t noticed it. She just turned around and went in the bakery. There weren''t too many customers at this hour, since the afternoon rush hasn''t started yet. After waiting 5 minutes it was finally her turn. "Good afternoon Mrs. June" called the girl while smiling. "Hi Sera, what can I get for you today" said Mrs. June kindly. "Can I get half a dozen doughnuts, three cupcakes and an apple pie" said Sera with enthusiasm. She was already salivating, just by thinking about all the tasty, sweet pastries. The baker looked at her with surprise. "Are you celebrating something, this is a lot of food. " "Have you heard the news?" asked a man. "What news?" asked the other sitting in front of him. The first man looked around and answered in fearful, hushed tones: "Copen is lost, destroyed by a Realm Gate opening." The man was trembling while he said it. "How is that possible? Weren''t the Evolved prepared! This should be there specialty." Grumbled the other man. He didn''t seem too heartbroken about the rumor and the loss of life. "It was a Class 3 Gate and their Transcended, who could''ve fought it off was out of the city for the Opening." ''So the rumors are already spreading'' thought Sera. Copen was one of the closest cities to Newber, so the panic is understandable. But also Copen was way weaker, than Newber ever was, their strongest Evolved was only one Transcended, while we have not only multiple Transcended, but also one Stellar. A puny Class 3 Gate wouldn''t be nearly enough to cause a problem for the city. Still the news was really sad. There were very few survivors, most of them Evolved and some regular humans whom the Evolved managed to save. ''When they learn that it isn''t a rumor, but it actually happened there''s going to be panic. Mum already has a headache because of this.'' As she was eavesdropping on the conversation, Sera saw that June was ready with her order. She went and picked it up, payed, said a quick goodbye and started heading home yet again. Sera was trying to hold herself back, but in the end gave up and began eating one of the doughnuts. While munching on a bite, she looked around again and smiled with powdered sugar all over her face. ''Today was a beautiful day indeed'' while she was thinking that, suddenly everyone stopped dead in their tracks. The whole city started to shake and the building next to her disintegrated. Chapter 2: Pain ''...Agghh, it hurts...'' was Sera''s first thought waking up. She was lying on the ground, barely conscious after the explosion. Her ears were ringing and she couldn''t see anything cause of the smoke. Her whole body was alight with pain, that was the only thing keeping her from passing out. Trying to hold onto consciousness, she began checking herself for any serious injury. Every citizen knew basic first aid in their apocalyptic society exactly because occasions like this. Sera looked at herself, other than a few scrapes, bruises and a couple of small burn marks she looked fine, even though she didn''t feel like that at all. ''What happened?'' she asked herself. She shook her head trying to clear her foggy mind and immediately regretted it. "Egh..." ''So painful! I probably have a concussion.'' After that disaster she tried to look around her surrounding to make sense of what happened, but alas she couldn''t see much from the ground. She then started rising up, but immediately fell back on the ground and began coughing because of the smoke. ''I... need... to get... out of here...'' She redoubled her effort to move and started to rise up from the ground. On shaky legs she stood and could finally look around and see the destruction surrounding her. The whole street was in flames, maybe even the whole city. All around her were destroyed buildings, or ones that were about to crumble. And the dead, there were so many of them, just lying on the street, motionless. It was horrible to say the least. ''What happened? What caused all this destruction?'' ''Our society is made up of two levels, on the lower level are the regular humans referred to as Citizens, on the higher are the protectors of humanity the Evolved. The purpose of the Citizen is to work and help their society where they can, the purpose of the Evolved is to fight monsters and defend the Citizens.'' Sera was miserably failing to calm herself because of the monster noises coming from all around her. She started running and redoubled the efforts of soothing her mind. ''The Evolved have 7 rankings the lowest are called without too much creativity the Evolved, rank 2 are the Ascended, 3 are the Transcended and 4 are the Stellar. The other 3 rankings are classified for unknown reasons.'' Just as she was getting some peace of mind, she noticed something moving ahead. Sera immediately went behind an up turned car and watched through the broken windows the shape move. It looked like a big, grotesque, hairless dog the size of a small truck. The dog had 2 heads and six legs with 5 talons on each. Sera typed on her watch and brought up the scanner function. ''Scanning in progress...'' It read on the holo-screen. ''Come on! Hurry up you stupid watch!'' ''Scanning complete... Classification: Rotten of the 2nd Tier... Name: Feral Hellhound... Suggestion: Avoid at all cost!'' ''Well, that''s just great.'' As she was thinking of a different route to take, suddenly the Hellhound started sniffing the air, then it looked to the sky and growled once before running away. ''Huh? Why did it run away?'' Then she noticed that everything around her seemed to become quiet and kind of peaceful, if you don''t mind the destruction of course. Sera looked at the sky where the Hellhound was looking and what she saw froze her blood. Chapter 3: Horror What Sera saw, she will remember until the day of her death, which might be closer then she would have liked. There in the sky she saw a human figure with huge, graceful, white feathered wings. The creature could''ve been breathtakingly beautiful, if it wouldn''t have made Sera feel so much dread. She didn''t have to check her watch to know that the heavenly monsters Class is at least a 4, designated as a Horror. Every monster below Horror is a special kind of terrible being in and of itself, but only after the 4th Class do they start emitting fear as an aura. Sera was rooted to the ground and couldn''t look away from the terrifying creature. The said creature was scanning the ground searching for something or someone. While looking around it''s eyes lingered on Sera for a split second. She looked into the creatures eyes and the next second, she immediately went as pale as a dead person, fell on her knees, and started vomiting and trembling. After everything in her stomach came out, she fell on her side and let go of her bowels as well. Still trembling and lying in her own vomit and waste. She held on for a couple more seconds, then she passed out from the fear. In a minute or an eternity later, she woke up to the sounds of huge explosions. The fear still lingered but somehow it seemed to be suppressed for now. Slowly getting up on her knees, Sera turned toward the explosions. There in the sky she realized what made the sounds and she immediately went pale again and would''ve vomited if there were anything left in her stomach. The sounds weren''t explosions at all, just a fight between a Horror and a Stellar. The scene in front of her was equally amazing and terrifying. Seeing the fully shapeshifted Stellar was as bad as looking at the Horror, but neither came even a little bit close to the terror she felt looking into the deadly angels eye. While Sera was distracting herself with these useless thoughts, she finally arrived at her house''s door, well at least what''s left of it. Seems like some monster went through here, and hopefully left. She wasn''t that afraid for her parents, they were probably already in a private or public shelter somewhere close to their workplace. Sera went in and making as little noise as possible approached the basement door. It was made from some monster material since, those were way tougher to get through than any mundane metal. She went to the terminal next to the door and typed in the code. A second later the terminal lit up green and the door silently opened. Going down the stairs she heard the door close and after getting downstairs, she closed another even heavier door to the stairs, after that she began looking around the place. The basement was pretty big with it''s own bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom and of course armory. She quickly went through the supplies to see if everything is fully stocked, but she shouldn''t have worried since her parents were so thorough. She grabbed one of the railguns from the armory, loaded it and went to the living room. A railgun wouldn''t do much against anything above Tainted but she felt safer holding it. As she sat down on the couch and let out a shaking breath, her eyes become watery and she started crying. The adrenaline was leaving her system and the realization of the whole situation dawned on her. The world which she knew and loved has came to an end. Her friends are probably dead. She couldn''t even contact her parents, a Gate Opening disrupts any network communication. She wanted to just sit there and cry in her self despair, but it seemed the world had other plans for her. Above her the earlier explosions could be heard again but from way closer. It took a minute for Sera to realize what was going on. ''These assholes are fighting right above me.'' Chapter 4: Entombed Sera was certain that the world, for some reason wanted to destroy her. Maybe it was something she did in a previous life, who knows. The one thing she knew, is that the world above her was about to be destroyed. And the worst thing is that she couldn''t leave, she wouldn''t even last for a second up there. So with these helpless thoughts, she began to pray and beg for any kind of higher existence willing to listen to protect this basement against the clashing titans outside. Well either that higher existence hated her or just straight up didn''t exist, because after just a couple of minutes of fighting, suddenly the whole basement started to shake there was a loud thunderclap like sound and the reinforced ceiling above her dented. ''There''s probably nothing left of the house after that.'' Sera thought dejected, her energy was starting to run out, same as her luck. Sera was scrambling for a way to get out of this situation. But alas there was nothing. She could only wait for her inevitable end in a reinforced stone coffin. ''Well I had a nice life at least, not too exciting but more importantly a happy life. Shame it came to an end so fast. 17 years that''s how long it lasted. Well technically 18 in a couple of days.'' These thoughts saddened her even further. ''Maybe I should just shoot myself, end this quickly. It would be better than being buried alive.'' She was about to point the gun at her head to end it all, but she couldn''t do it. Something was stopping her, a feeling deep in her heart. It felt like she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life. She was trying for another couple of seconds then finally gave up and put the weapon down. ''Can''t even kill myself, how pathetic.'' As this thought appeared in her head both creatures moved suddenly. The angel held it''s sword out, while the lion roared so loudly, that Sera fell on the ground holding her bleeding ears. But through her pain and lightheadedness she kept her eye on the exchange. From the angels sword a lightbeam went out trying to hit the lion, but Beastbane sent out a beam of his own from the lions mouth. The two beams hit each other and Sera had to turn away just to not go blind. Even turned away she could only perceive whiteness everywhere. It''s like a new star has born right above her. After a couple seconds of that, it abruptly stopped and she could feel that something bad was about to happen. Through the haziness caused by the light, she could see something big falling toward her. It took a second to realize that it was the angel, about to fall right on top of her. "Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!" She screamed while scrambling to find somewhere safe to hide, but there was nowhere to run or hide. In the end she went to the corner of the room and awaited her death. The world started to shake and a second later, a deafening sound could be heard as the angels body collided with the ground. The ceiling of course couldn''t hold up the angel so it promptly collapsed right on top of Sera. As she saw the falling debris about to hit her, only one thought appeared in her mind. "I''m going to kill you, you oversized pigeon." She yelled with a pure hatred and a second later she was entombed under the debris. Chapter 5: Hide and Seek Sera was starting to regain her consciousness for the third time today. It''s been a long day and the end is still not in sight. "...Agghh...Fuck..." She was almost getting used to the constant pain and suffering. As the pain cleared her mind suddenly her eyes flew open and hatred ignited in it. "I''m...going...to...kill...that...fucking...PIGEON!" She didn''t care about anything anymore. The only thing on her mind was killing the angel. She didn''t care that it was way more powerful than her, and just by looking into it''s eyes she would go insane. The only thing that mattered was killing it. She looked around but couldn''t see much. She tried to move but she felt a piercing pain on the right side of her chest. "Those are probably some broken ribs, my left hand and right leg hurts like hell as well they are probably broken." ''I need to know the situation around me.'' Sera was thinking of a way to make light, she could move her right hand freely, which had the watch on it. "I''m so dumb. Watch turn on the flashlight." Suddenly a small light came out of the watch. Sera moved the light around to see her situation, it didn''t look too promising. She was properly encased in debris. There was one large block on her right leg. "Well that explains the pain...AHH...Why did I try to move it? Fuck." She took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself and looked around her surroundings again, there was not much she could do other then try to move the debris out of the way and crawl out. But that could cause a collapse. "Well it''s not like I have any other choice." Sera started moving the rocks around her stuck left hand first, it was pretty easy and nothing collapsed on her head. Then she began moving the debris from her leg. She dug out a hole that she could pull her leg out of. ''What should I do?'' As she was scrambling for an idea, there was a sniffing sound and movement behind her, the Hellound was 30 or so meters away from her. ''Ahh...fuck it!'' She grabbed the first thing she saw, which was some metal fragment cut her hand with it and threw it as far away from her as possible. Luckily for her the Sun was on her side of the outcropping and it was late afternoon so it hung pretty low. It was perfect for masking the fragments trajectory. The hound didn''t waste a second and went after the fragment. While Sera ran the other way of course with caution to not alert the hound or some other monstrosity. She arrived at a road or at least something that resembled a road. She started following it trying to find someplace where she could figure out what to do next. As Sera went she had to hide a couple of times luckily none of them had as good of a smelling as that Rotten Hellhound. Which made it a lot easier to hide from them and wait while they passed her. As she was moving through the city, she remember the titanic fight above her. ''Wonder who won.'' She remembered the angel and her wrath reignited itself. ''I wanted to kill that stupid pigeon, but if not then at least I hope Beastbane clipped that bastards wings.'' While she was thinking this she looked around and realized that for some reason no monster seemed to be willing to approach this area of the destruction. Sera went forward a couple more steps and happened upon a crater, she looked down and was startled for a second. Then slowly she came back to her senses, and within a heartbeat a wide grin appeared on her face. She then proceeded start laughing with a dark glee so hard, that she nearly fell over. Chapter 6: Angel Monarch "Ha...ha...ha...ha...huh..." Sera laughed until her breath started to run out, and had to stop so she wouldn''t pass out. As she looked down the crater, she found the answer to her previous questions. The first question was who won the Titanic clash in the sky. The answer was quiet obvious neither won. In the crater in front of her was Beastbane, lying dead on the ground in his human form, and a couple of meters away was a figure who still gave of a lingering, fear-like aura. The angel was motionless, but what made Sera laugh so hard and the answer to her second question, was the same. The second thing she wanted to know, was if the angel survived the clash or not. The answer couldn''t have delighted Sera more. Because laying in the crater was the fearsome angel. But it wasn''t dead, oh no it was only dying from all the injuries on it''s body. Which meant that it was helpless and could be killed by any passerby. And Sera happened to pass by. "Oh, you fucking pigeon. I usually am a very forgiving person, but destroying my city? Killing millions of people? Possibly killing my friends and parents? And if that wouldn''t be enough! DROPPING MY OWN FUCKING HOUSE ON MY HEAD?!? I''m going to enjoy this." The hatred in hear voice was palpable. She climbed down as fast as she could with her broken body and approached the Horror. But she noticed a problem fairly quickly. "What do I kill you with?" She was looking around trying to find anything to kill the fallen angel, but she came up empty handed. There were a lot of things a person could use to kill mundane humans, but you need a special weapon for killing stronger existences. She turned back towards the angel, and saw something shining near the creatures left hand. It was a sword. But not just any sword, it was the angel own sword. It shrink down with the angel to a humanly usable size. Sera started grinning again and said: "It would be poetic, wouldn''t it. Getting killed by your own sword." Approaching the sword Sera hesitated, then with trembling hands touched it. The burning pain that went through her, was like nothing she ever felt. She was a bit scared to touch it again and trying to use it. But then she glanced at the Horrors peaceful face and the hatred overwritten her fear. "How...How is...How is this possible." The time wasn''t that important but the date. "It''s...It''s been a week since the Gate Opening?! How is this possible???" Sera was starting to have a panic attack, but she began taking deep breaths, and a couple of minutes later she was calm enough to see things more clearly. ''So that''s why there are new messages. The network is back online since Gates only stay open for a couple of days at most.'' Taking another deep breath she checked on her messages, but nothing could''ve prepared her, for what she saw next. "Congratulations on your Evolvement, Seraphine! You slain your first monster: Archangel of Despair, a Horror of the 3rd Tier! With your Evolved status your MK3 Citizens Watch Has been upgraded to an MK3 Evolved Watch!" "What?" "Additional functions has been added including: checking your status window, your abilities, your transformation, your progress toward Rank up, your killing history and many more fun information! Also with the upgrade comes a small storage, from which you can summon your weapons, armor and other items you will earn with your hunting!" "WHAT?" "It seems that your first kill was so special that you have earned your title! Congratulations ''Angel Monarch'', hopefully your later kills will be just as amazing!" "...UGH...What the fuck is happening?!? Me an Evolved? And by killing a Horror no less!!! I''m going to pass out." In the end Sera didn''t pass out but she did stare at nothing for a good hour just to regain some resemblance of composure, but then she remembered something else. "Wait did it say I gained a title? ''Angel Monarch'' it does sound cool but also it''s kind of narcissistic. Where did it come from? Although now that I think about it, the Watch said the Horrors name was Archangel of Despair, I guess an Archangel is the leader of angels, and by killing the leader of angels I became the ''Angel Monarch''? Yeah that''s probably it." After that Sera turned back to her Watch and smiled. It was time to learn what had she gotten from her avenging murder. Chapter 7: Wings of Despair Sera immediately started looking through her watch and in a minute, she was looking at her status window. Name: Seraphine Title: Angel Monarch 1st Kill: Archangel of Despair, Horror of the 3rd Tier Life Essence Absorbed: 64/1000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: 1st Transformation Ability: 1st Transformation Passive Ability: Items: - Looking at her stats she got stumped yet again. ''Two passives on first kill? Well I did get a title as well, so I guess it makes sense.'' She wasn''t surprised about the Life Essence counter being already so high. She did kill a 3rd Tier monster of the 4th Class, which means she had gotten 4¡Á4¡Á4(4^3) Life Essence. Sera just realized that the monster was of the highest Tier. ''No wonder It was so powerful! Wait, but that doesn''t make sense. It was supposed to be a 4th Class Gate, a 4th Class creature could come through it technically, but of the 3rd Tier?'' She''s already starting to have a headache thinking about it. But she buried these thoughts for now, she still haven''t looked at the good part, her abilities. Sera turned back to the status window, with a stupid grin on her face. ''Let''s see the Lightbringer ability first!'' She was trembling with excitement. Description: She was trying to figure it out, but couldn''t seem to find a reliable answer. The only thing that was clear is that there were a couple things the Evolved hid from the rest of society. ''But why? Everyone was fighting for the same thing, a better future, so why hide things?'' Sera finally dismissed these thoughts. ''It would do no good to try and put together a puzzle with a bunch of pieces missing.'' Finally she looked at her last ability. Description: Your wings are very durable and could withstand attacks from foes with higher Rank or Class. This ability was pretty self explanatory, but also very useful. There was only one thing bothering Sera. "...''from foes with higher Rank or Class.'' Why would it say Rank, humans don''t usually fight each other as far as I know. But for some reason I have a bad feeling about this." But Sera didn''t find out where this feeling was coming from, so she dismissed both the feeling and the description as some weird mistake. Instead she turned to more important matters, and summoned her wings. She took a couple of minutes to figure out the summoning process, but she got the hang of it eventually. A pair of huge, beautiful, powerful and perfectly white feathered wings expanded from her back. She expected to be weighed down by them and fall over, but they were light as a feather. At first she could only move them very awkwardly, but in an hour or so and countless failed attempts, she was ready to try them out on a test flight. Sera looked around for any signs of possible danger, but there was nothing. Only silence, it was quite peaceful here. She turned her head up towards the brightening sky, it was close to dawn now. Then with a wide smile she started to beat her wings, all the dust and dirt around her got shaken up and she began to rise. Judging her wings, they were about 3 meters each, so it only took a couple of snaps, to be in the open air. Sera didn''t stop there though, instead she increased her speed. After a couple of minutes she stopped rising and with controlled movements stayed in one place. She was laughing and giggling with every beat. Moving in the air felt so familiar, as if she was always able to do it, like she finally arrived home. Speaking of home she looked down on her city. The happiness she felt didn''t last long, as she was reminded of the harsh reality of the world. "Oh... I forgot... Everyone is dead..." As she looked down on the destruction, tears ran down her cheeks, cleaning of the blood and dirt where they went. Chapter 8: The Next Step Sera was on the doorstep of total hopelessness yet again. Looking down on the broken city she was losing it. ''What should I do next? Look through the city for survivors? Or just leave everything, and try to get to another city and ask for help? Would it even matter if I gotten help, the closest city was over 300 km away, any survivor would be dead by then.'' But then she remembered that it''s already been a week. Any survivor would be either rescued by surviving Evolved, or they were dead. In the end she decided that before doing anything reckless, she should think through her options properly. So she glided down gracefully to the crater with the angel and Beastbane, and began check herself out, last she remembered, she had broken ribs, leg and hand. To her absolute surprise all her wounds, even the small scrapes were healed. She didn''t notice it before, because she was very bloody, dirty and just beaten up in general. Her clothes didn''t have a clean spot on them, and there were also multiple large holes. The only thing clean about her, were her wings which seemed to repel all the dirt around it. "I guess the Evolution healed me? It could''ve cleaned the grime as well, but healing is better than nothing." Now that she checked on herself, came the more depressing part, figuring out the next step. "I... I probably should just go. Everyone is either dead or heading the same direction I would go... But... But, mom and dad..." Remembering her parents she began crying in earnest. Even if there were survivors she couldn''t do much, her evolution only happened recently. And that thought only added to her anguish. Sera sat on the ground in fetal position. Her wings draped over her like a veil, hiding her suffering. She was crying without a care in the world. After an unknown amount of hours, she finally put herself together enough to start walking out of the crater. She tried to grab the sword of the angel, but it still burned her soul, so she had to leave it. Sera decided that she would go to the next city, and only after reaching it will she figure out her next move. ''Who knows, maybe my parents were rescued and will be waiting for me at that city.'' She tried to believe this fantasy but in the end she knew the truth. Other than her, everyone was dead. "Okay... Let''s do this. Watch, which way is Castleburg?" "Goddammit" The monster couldn''t pierce the wing, but it still hurt like hell. Sera tried to recover from the blow, and managed to evade a swipe of the monsters talons that would''ve most certainly disemboweled her. She even managed to hit the beast in the face, but it did nothing. Another dodged pounce and slash later it became very obvious, that she will lose going on like this. ''I have to think of something and fast.'' The hound attacked again trying to bite her neck, she backstepped and then rolled to the side escaping the deadly slash coming from the right, but she was either too slow or didn''t notice the incoming talons from the left in time. "Agh...Fucking hell!" A new cut appeared on her left side, and it was bleeding quite badly. She was out of time and options. ''Okay, if this doesn''t work, I''m truly dead.'' While dodging another bite her whole body began glowing and suddenly a blinding light appeared all around her. Of course she could see perfectly well, but the Hellhound probably couldn''t. Sera looked at the monster and the sight pleased her very much. It did not just get blinded but seemed to be afraid of the light. She didn''t waste a second and attacked the beast. They didn''t really teach how to fight beasts the size of cars, so she just started raining down blows on it''s head and every part she could reach easily. The Rotten was surprised by the sudden onslaught and tried to recover, but was too late. A sickening crunch could be heard, as Sera hit the head of the beast for the 10th of 20th time. The hound fell on it''s side, heaving, dying. Chapter 9: First Aid 101 The stupid dog was dying, so Sera could finally breath a sigh of relief. ''Fuck, fighting is way harder than I expected. I probably should clean these wounds before it gets infected. Wait, I''m an Evolved now, can it even get infected? Well it''s better to not chance it.'' She had about half a dozen bleeding wounds, three of them looked or in her backs case, felt really bad. After looking herself over, she looked at the hound, then after thinking for a couple of seconds she approached it. "I can''t say, I''m sorry for this. You should''ve known better, than to attack me. Now you will get what you deserve and die like a dog, drowning in your own blood." Sera began to walk away, but then she heard a whimper and looked back. There the Hellhound was watching her, it''s eyes seemed to ask her to kill it, to show mercy and put it out of it''s suffering. Feeling sad for some reason she obliged the beast''s last request. She plunged her fist into the beast chest, and crushed it''s heart with her bare hand. "I hope you find peace, wherever you go." She stood there looking down at her bloodied hands. This wasn''t her first kill, that was the angel. This wasn''t even her first life and death situation, she had about 2 dozen of them already. But this felt different, her death was so close, but she fought and ended up killing her foe instead. And what a kill it was. Realizing what she had done, and looking at all the blood and gore around her. She instantly went on her knees and started vomiting, but of course nothing came out she haven''t eaten anything for at least a week. Remembering that fact she started to get hungry, but then she stole a glance at the dead hound and all the nausea returned. After a couple of minutes Sera tried to stand up, but suddenly started to feel lightheaded. ''Shit, the wound on my side is still bleeding.'' She looked at the bite wound on he right wing but couldn''t see anything, no blood, not even dirt. Then she remembered ''Through hardships, pain and suffering the only thing that remained the same was his wings''. "Well I''m sorry about it but you are already dead, so you might as well serve another purpose." ''Am I really going to do this? Butcher the Hellhound and eat it? But how do I even do that? I only learned about it in some class, never actually seen someone do it.'' She took a couple more deep breaths and then grabbed another metal fragment and used it to pry out one of the beast''s monstrous talons. The talon was the size of a dagger but much sharper. Holding the claw she flayed the skin off of a part of the hound''s side. Then she began to cut off pieces of meat. While doing this she tried to distract herself so she wouldn''t pass out from the nausea. ''The monsters have more categorizations than the Evolved. They can be put in 7 different Classes and each Class has 3 Tiers. The first Class and the weakest of them all is the Tainted, above them are the Rotten like the very Hellhound she was butchering, at the 3rd Class are the Corrupted and at the 4th Class are the Horrors like that hateful pigeon was. The rest of the Classes are classified from the regular citizens...'' "Wait I''m not a Citizen anymore! Watch what are the last three monster Classes?" "Sorry Angel Monarch! The requested information is currently unavailable on this device! Request help in the nearest city''s Main Terminal! Nearest city is Castleburg! Suggested route..." "Okay that''s enough. Thanks. Huhh...Unavailable...Figures." A bit dejected she turned back toward her work. She was nearly done already. "Angel Monarch! You have unread messages!" She was surprised by that, but was too hungry to care at the moment. So she threw some more wood onto the fire, and started cooking the Hellhound meat. Chapter 10: Insatiable Hunger While Sera was waiting for the food to be done cooking, she was thinking of what to drink. ''There is no water source around here. Now that I think about it, where did the water in our own house came from? Well, it doesn''t matter now... But then what should I drink?'' Then she remembered something they taught her in school that could replace drinking water if necessary. Looking at the corpse of the Hound she said: "And I naively believed that butchering it will be the most disgusting of todays events. I should at least look for a pot to boil it in. Because god forbid, I might catch something." Then she looked down at her wound and laughed. ''Yeah sure, that''s what will make me sick.'' Sera looked around the ruins for a bit, and found a couple of useful items including a pot. Things were really looking up. Sera gathered some blood into the pot and started boiling it. In a couple of minutes it was ready for consumption. Sera went and poured some into a metal mug, she found. Then turned towards the corpse and said: "Cheers", before downing the whole thing and nearly vomiting. "Fuck that''s disgusting, let''s drink more." Yes the blood tasted awful, but hydration is very important. After downing another mugful and rethinking all her life decisions, the smell of the roasting meat hit her. It was the best thing ever. In half a minute she was already pulling it out of the fire and waited for the meat to cool down a bit. A couple minutes go by and she was already devouring it. The taste was so amazing, that she couldn''t describe it with words. After finishing the first, she started eating the next with haste, like it would run away from her. Sera ate as much as it was physically possible for her, she was never a big eater but probably the Evolution increased her appetite. It didn''t bother her either way, she was just lying on the ground, enjoying the foods remnant taste. "Ah, this is what life is supposed to be. Not hiding, running and fighting monsters, but eating them." After half an hour, she finally had enough strength to actually sit up. ''I should probably check the new messages.'' She brought up her Watches holo-screen. "Angel Monarch! You have unread messages!" Items: Sera brought up the new page instantly. Type: Weapon Description: In a forest lived a hungry man who had nothing except for a hound. After an other failed hunt, the man couldn''t take it anymore and went to kill and eat the hound. As the man was about to stab it, the hound pounced on him instead and started tearing him apart. In pain and dying, the man cursed the hound to all consuming hunger. The hound, no matter how much it ate, stayed hungry. Eventually the constant starvation drove it to Madness. ''Why are these stories always so sad?'' She looked at the Hellhounds body and sighed. ''Let''s read the rest.'' She thought, her enthusiasm died down almost completely. Attribute: This weapons strength increases with the users need. It also increases the users bloodlust. ''That will require some testing, but not too bad. Okay, let''s see what kind of weapon are you.'' Sera began summoning the weapon which took a couple of tries, but eventually she was holding it in her hand. Her first thought was: "Its...Its beautiful...and terrifying!" In her hand was a glaive, its color could only be described as bloody. The whole weapon looked like it got drenched in an ocean of blood. At the places where it wasn''t bloody the original color could be seen, the handle probably was brown and made of wood, while the blade and pommel of the weapon was an elegant dark blue color. "How lucky! I even got a weapon that I can somewhat use. I don''t know what I would''ve done if I had gotten a battle axe or even worse, a hammer." Sera moved around with it, done some basic katas to get to know the weapon more and awaken her memory about its usage. With that done, she dismissed and resummoned it a couple of times until she could do it with ease. Then she sat down next to the fire with a happy smile. Things were finally looking up. The sun was about to go down so she destroyed the fire, and while lying on the ground she was thinking about the tomorrow. Her long journey to Castleburg will start, and nothing would come in between her and her goal. Chapter 11: The Beginning of a Long Journey The horizon was only starting to brighten up, but in the ruined city there was already movement. A girl, barely into womanhood was flying around with her brilliantly white wings. They really brought out the contrast between them, and her dirty body. She seemed to be looking for something in the destroyed buildings. The girl was of course Seraphine. She was preparing for the road to Castleburg. "C''mon where is it? I just only need one and I''m good to go." She was mumbling under her breath. After digging through the rubble a bit more, she finally found what she was looking for. In her hand was a banged up metal flask. "Ha-ha, I finally found one." Then she flew back to the campsite. There were a lot of new things all around the place. More meat was missing from the Hellhound, some of it roasting, most of it packed away. She even found some seasoning and salt to use. "Okay so let''s see if I found everything I wanted: lighter check, talon-knife check, backpack check, as much food as I can carry check, a large part of a car covering ''thingy'' against rain check, pot for boiling stuff check, some extra shirts and pants check and check and finally a flask full of disgusting blood check." Sera packed everything together, had breakfast, drank a mouthful of blood, nearly vomited and flew into the air. She was finally leaving behind the remains of Newber the only home she ever knew. In the air she looked down on the destruction one last time, then she turned her back toward the dawn and never looked back. It was time to move on. While flying she thought back on her preparations throughout the night. After the Sun went down she lay on the ground for a couple hours, but she didn''t feel safe enough to sleep, so instead went to prepare for today. She looked around the ruins trying to find useful things. She gathered a lot, that could be very helpful throughout the journey, sadly her carrying capacity wasn''t infinite. ''Carrying capacity...It reminds me of those games I used to play before enlisting in the Academy. The characters in those games could carry an abnormal amount of items, multiple big weapons which only an Evolved could lift, or 100s of wheels of cheese. I wouldn''t mind an inventory like that.'' She had to leave a lot of stuff behind. For example she couldn''t bring anything for her cycle. Sera looked at the direction of the attack but what she saw didn''t make sense. There was nothing on the wall there, or was there? ''Its like the wall has eyes, that''s kind of weird.'' Then she remembered something about the animals that lived in the wild before the apocalypse, there were a type of lizard and some water creature that could change their color so they could hide from their preys as well as their predators. The eyes moved on the wall and seemed to focus on her. She didn''t thought about it much and attacked the wall with eyes on it. There was a weird scream like sound, then she heard her Watch in her head. ''You have killed a Venomous Chameleon, a Tainted of the 2nd Tier! Your Soul is Nourished!'' She looked at the dead 1 meter long lizard monster and was thinking: ''Venomous eh? Thankfully I didn''t chance it. That could''ve been bad.'' Then Sera looked around the broken down home and a realization hit her. ''If I didn''t notice this first one, then how do I know there was only one?'' Suddenly venomous tongues started to rain down on her, they had spikey tips and moved with the speed of a whip. She fell on one knee and covered herself with her wings. ''I couldn''t just be wrong once. No, there needs to be dozens of them.'' Chapter 12: Bloodlust ''Fuck, they''re really persistent I give them that.'' Sera has been on the ground for a couple of minutes, trying to find a way out of the situation. Every idea she came up with was dismissed pretty fast. ''What to do? I could try to surprise them and while covering myself go for the door, which way was it again? Or could just start attacking, no that would be a death sentence.'' Thankfully the wings were strong enough that the tongues couldn''t pierce it. But as time went by and she was running out of ideas, Sera started to become angrier and angrier with each passing moment. ''These assholes. If I get out of here you will be my fucking dinner!'' What''s causing this anger? She didn''t know but also couldn''t stop it from starting to consume her minds. "I''m going to roast each and every one of you filthy lizards." While shouting she only got angrier. It was like that anger fed itself. She only wanted one thing, killing the reptiles. Her eyes turned hazy from the anger. No, that wasn''t the right word, it was bloodlust. And with that bloodlust came the need to destroy her enemies an that gave her power. "What-what''s this? Ha-ha-ha, now you are well and truly fucked!" It was the last thing she said before exploding into movement, but something didn''t look right with the lizard. They were frozen in their place, as if in total despair. But Sera failed to notice it through her hazy mind or just simply didn''t care. She made quick work of the chameleons, cut off the heads of some of them, the others she straight up gutted. But she didn''t stop at killing them, oh no, she obliterated every last one until only bloody piles of pulp remained. After reclaiming some sense of self, she paled, went on her knees and tried to hold back her nausea. ''What was that? Why did I go full berserker on them? Yes they annoyed me, but definitely not enough to do that!'' She said while looking at the piles. The realization hit her kind of fast. Looking down at her bloody glaive she said: "So that''s what your attribute is. Giving me power as my need to kill them arose. But wait, didn''t the weapon cause that need as well? Oh, I get it, the weapon causes bloodlust, which could be translated to ''the need to kill'', and as the user''s need increases the weapon becomes more powerful." Title: Angel Monarch 1st Kill: ... Life Essence Absorbed: 98/1000 "Well I did kill a lot of those critters and they gave 2 Essence each. 1/10th of my core is already saturated, with this speed I should began looking for a monster to absorb for ranking up." Then she looked further down at the items section. Items: "No new items? I guess life just doesn''t want to take it easy on me." She closed her status window and started devouring the meat, that has been cooking. ''Hmm... This meat tastes even better with seasoning. Why can''t its blood taste the same?'' She quickly ate everything, then put out the fire and went for the door. ''The next night I should probably sleep, its a miracle I can still stand. I''m so exhausted, but have to move on. These corpses will definitely attract the nocturnal monsters. While thinking that, she heard a big roar coming from somewhere in the forest around the town. Sera quickened her steps and was about to lift into the air, but saw something flying further away and decided against it. ''Better not chance it in my current state.'' Then she looked down the ruined road heading west. ''Right, I guess walking it is then.'' She looked around one last time and began walking on the road, into the night. Chapter 13: Midnight Stroll Sera was walking through the big and scary forest. Even though she could see in the dark it didn''t make the situation less terrifying. ''Walking in a monster infested forest, at night, alone. What could go wrong? I''m just on a nightly stroll.'' It did not help her state of mind that every now and then a roar could be heard, but those weren''t the frightening ones. Some of them stopped abruptly, now that ones scared the crap out of her. ''They just probably suddenly lost interest in screaming. They definitely weren''t killed by bigger, and worse monsters, nope not a chance.'' While walking she constantly scanned the surrounding woods for any signs of danger. But the trees were so densely packed that seeing further than 10 meters was basically impossible. ''Let''s just try to ignore the scary sounds and instead start to think of what route to take. The first goal is to reach the El-Ba River, after that I only have to follow it to Castleburg. Maybe I can even take a bath in the river and clean all this dirt off.'' Sera brought up the map of the area on her Watch. ''Hmm...This map seems to be from before the apocalypse, not the most accurate but better than nothing.'' Studying the map she tried to find the town she left, but it was missing on the map, but the road wasn''t. ''50 km to the El-Ba. I can make it in a few days with this speed, if flying would be an option I would be there by dawn, but life wasn''t perfect.'' She could still hear the beating of wings every now and then. And saw moving shadows above her. ''It must be their hunting ground or something. Anyway, so if I move on this road for a couple more kilometers I reach a crossroad, then I turn right and at the next one left, follow that until I reach a place called Havel which is on the shore of the El-Ba. Seems easy enough.'' Now that the route was planned Sera started to get bored. In half an hour she reached the crossroad and went right, just as planned. Her mind began to wander and tried to find answers to the many questions she had. ''So our society was made of two levels, lower and upper. But why make the distinction? We are both humans, it feels like the Evolved think themselves as better, than regular humans. Weirdos. And all the secrets they keep: the upper Classes and Ranks, the Watch''s storage capability and who knows what else.'' After thinking a bit she was reminded of a question she asked her parents as a child. ''They''re still patrolling the sky I see.'' But looking down the roads she noticed something. At some point every sound in the forest ceased, which was impossible. ''So something is wrong with this space and every time I think of flying off, something stops me. Interesting.'' While Sera was trying to work out a way to escape the situation, she remembered what her Watch said about the route to take. "Watch how do I get to Castleburg?" "Angel Monarch! Before suggesting a route to take you should wake up." "But I am awake!" "Most certainly not! You are under the dreamspell of a Corrupted 3rd Tier monster, named Dream Weaver! Before heading to Castleburg waking up is necessary!" ''Corrupted of the 3rd Tier? Dreamspell?? WHAT??? Okay take a deep breath. You can get out of this situation, just like the other ones.'' "Watch how do I wake up?" "Angel Monarch! You should try to leave the threshold of the dream! And you should hurry up, in about 5 minutes and 11 seconds, your body will began to dissolve in the creatures digestive fluids!" "Well, thanks I guess." "Your welcome!" Said the Watch with a hint of mischief. ''This fucking Watch. I will break it one day. So I have to leave and fast, but where is the threshold of the dream?'' She thought about it for a couple of seconds then looked up and laughed. ''Of course, those are the gatekeepers for the exit. Wanting to stop me from leaving. Well, lets see if you are capable enough.'' Sera held out her hand where a bloody glaive appeared, bent her legs a bit and took flight to fight her way out of this dream. Chapter 14: Midnight Brawl Sera flew through the trees and after leaving them behind, she looked around and saw the flying monsters coming for her. They were like huge bats with bloodsucking fangs. "Watch, how much time do I have left?" "Angel Monarch! You have 4 minutes and 35 seconds!" "Great, remind me every 30 seconds!" With that she increased her speed and went against the first bat creature. The bat tried to grab Sera to give her neck a bloody kiss, but her maneuvering in the air was better than the bat monsters. She dodged another attack, but this time she moved her glaive to the side and cut the beast on its wing. It went down screaming. Her eyes were getting hazy again but then heard the Watches voice in her head: "4 minutes and 5 seconds!". She shook of the bloodlust and evaded the attack of another bat who tried to sneak upon her. Sera turned towards it with a swipe of her glaive, but it dodged upward and the attack went wide. She was about to try again but heard a rustle on her left and moved backward, as a claw hit the spot where she was floating. She used her chance and cut off the clawed feet. "3 minutes and 35 seconds!" ''Shit, I have to hurry.'' Dodging an other attack, she began glowing with light but after a second realized that it''s useless. ''Fuck! They''re blind, figures.'' Sera slashed with her glaive and an other went down in a rain of blood. Then she immediately evaded a pair of fangs and a set of claws, she was getting surrounded. "3 minutes and 5 seconds!" Sera redoubled her efforts and cut the head off of one and with the same slash gutted another. Her flying and glaive usage were improving quite fast. She dodged an attack and used the opening to stab a bat in the head. "2 minutes and 35 seconds!" By the time the Watch said that, most of the goo came off of her, but there was still some which burned those places. She summoned her glaive and without much thought cut the skin of at those places. "Agghh...Fuck!" ''This could''ve been bad.'' After the usual life and death experience was done, she started checking on herself, for the thousandth time in the past couple of weeks. She gazed down and realized all her clothes, bag and everything was missing. ''Where did all my stuff go? My clothes were probably dissolved in the acid, but the bag and all the things in it wouldn''t have. So where was it? Did it fall off of me when I got dragged here? Wait, where is here exactly?'' Sera looked around trying to figure out where she was, but before she could investigate further suddenly a high pitch screeching could be heard. She fell on her knees clutching her head, but in the next second she was already running to the opposite direction. ''That was probably the Dream Weaver. It seems unhappy that I broke her spell.'' While running she scanned her surroundings. She was surrounded by woods everywhere and the worst thing was, that she heard flapping wings coming in her direction. Looking back she saw the bat creatures from her dream. ''This is just fucking amazing! Running trough the woods naked, while getting chased by human-sized bats!'' She ran a few more meters then flew into the sky and turned around, there were 5 bats coming her way. "Come you bastards, I send you back the hell you crawled out of!" At this point she couldn''t hold on anymore, her eyes turned blood-red and she went berserk. Sera spread her wings and used her transformation ability again. The bats stopped dead in their tracks, but weren''t as frightened as the lizards and in a couple seconds they recovered already. Or at least would''ve but Sera didn''t give them a chance. Sera went in and cut the head off of one, another went down without its wings, the third was gutted, the fourth was slashed in half from head to crotch and the fifth she killed it like the hound pushed her arm up its stomach reaching its heart and crushing it. 3 seconds, that''s all it took to commit a massacre. "You have killed a Dream Fiend, a Rotten of the 1st Tier! Your Souls is Nourished! You have killed a..." The messages kept playing, but she didn''t seem to hear it. Bathed in blood yet again Sera looked down at the corpses, then turned around and left. Only feeling a little nausea, she was starting to get used to her new lifestyle, no matter how sad that was. Chapter 15: Drained Flying above the forest, Sera was looking at the map of the area, trying to find the road she had been on. ''Shit, I''m 5 kilometers away and my essence is running low, I can''t keep my transformation up for that long.'' She flew towards the road anyway but two more Fiends attacked her. She couldn''t even summon the Insatiable Hunger anymore, so had to go hand to hand. "Let''s go you bastards." Sera moved towards the first trying to grab its leg, but the monster easily dodged it and in the meantime the second managed to cut the back of her right thigh. "Agh... I''m going to enjoy ripping you apart." Making good on her promise she increased her speed and tackled the second bat, then felt a piercing pain at her clavicle. The beast was draining her blood, but that didn''t stop Sera to start punching and ripping her foe until it no longer moved. "You have killed a Dreamers Fiend, a Rotten of the 1st Tier! Your Soul is Nourished! You received..." Sera ignored the rest when she realized something. She was falling, her essence finally ran out and her wings disintegrated. Sera tried to use the bat to cushion her fall, but after hitting the first branches of the trees, she lost hold of it. Hitting every branch possible and scraping her whole body in the process she finally fell to the ground. "Ahh... So painful..." But the world didn''t give her time for self pity. From above, the sound of breaking branches could be heard. Sera looked up and began to rise from the ground slowly. She didn''t care about the sounds above her and began to run, not caring about the direction. After a good 5 minutes of sprinting she was panting, all she wanted to do was lay down and sleep. It became very clear that the bat can somehow track her. ''It''s probably the blood I need to cover it up.'' Her bleeding thankfully stopped, but after the massacre and because of her own wounds she was covered in it. Looking at the muddy ground she thought: ''This will do.'' And began putting it on every inch of her body. Sera started running again. And began to lose her adversary, but it could still follow her. Then it hit her, the creature was blind so it had to rely on its other senses to find prey. ''It''s tracking the sounds I make!'' Type: Clothing Description: The Dream Weaver was worshipped by a group of people once. But she eventually succumbed to Madness and with her fell the worshipper. They became her eternal servants. The only thing left behind was this ritual clothing. ''This ''Madness'' again, what is it? Seems like many powerful things fall for it and become monsters... Does it have something to do with the state of the world?'' A shiver went through her and she quickly dismissed these thoughts. Sera had a feeling that the answers will come in time anyway. So instead she continued reading. Attribute: The wearer has enhanced hearing and some protection for attacks targeting the mind. Also, it provides immunity against dreamspells. ''Well, that would''ve been nice to get a couple of hours earlier.'' Then she looked down at herself and sighed. ''At least its a clothing type item. I really needed one of those, even though it would''ve been kind of funny to arrive at Castleburg naked and covered in blood, the poor guards at the gate would freak out so much.'' Thinking of that scene she chuckled. ''But travelling 300 kilometers naked wouldn''t be as much fun. And it would be very cold in the air.'' Sera wanted to summon the Garb to see how it looked, but her essence didn''t let her. Her mind was starting to succumb to exhaustion and her eyes began closing. ''No, not yet! I still have to figure out where I am and how do I get to Havel from here.'' She opened her map and looked at her current position. ''Seems like I ran southwest, it''s not too bad just a couple more kilometers to the road. Okay, now I know which direction to go in the morning. I guess there is nothing left to do but wait and sleep.'' With that she closed her eyes and in a couple of seconds was already sleeping. She didn''t care if some predator found her or not. With no energy left to fight them, they would kill her in a battle anyway. The only thing she could do was take a chance, go to sleep and face the tomorrow with a clear mind. Chapter 16: Refreshed Sera woke up feeling confused. ''Where am I? Why am I in a tree? Where are my clothes?!'' It took her a couple of seconds to remember. ''Huh... Guess I survived. Didn''t expected that to be honest.'' She made a sigh of relief and climbed out of her hiding place. There wasn''t much space in the tree, and the constant action through the past day really made her muscles sore, so she decided to start the day with some stretches. It was lucky that no one was around, the stretches really accentuated her delightful curves. If anyone saw her, they would''ve fainted on the spot. Her beauty was really unparalleled, if you could ignore the dirt and blood covering every naked inch of her. Sera was average at best when she was just a regular human, but the Evolution truly made her bewitching. Of course she had no idea about any of this. Last time she saw her face, was when she went to school for the last time. "Ahh. This feels amazing." She said while finishing one final stretch. With her muscles working properly, she finally summoned the Fiendish Garb to cover her sinful body. The clothing weaved itself into existence and her first thought was: "I guess its better than nothing." The garb was made of two main pieces. The first was a tunic that left her shoulders and some of her back exposed, while not even reaching her navel in the front, it was actually closer to a bra than anything else. The second was a short skirt that went down to her midthigh. Both clothing had colorful weavings on them. It also gave a pair of slippers, which Sera immediately discarded because they could fall off too easily. "Well, at least they are self cleaning, that has to account for something." It was already past noon, when she started walking again. But she didn''t went onto the road. ''Why is this road so much bigger than the others? Was this made for those flying machines, people used before the apocalypse? Speaking of flying, I''m probably out of the territory of the Weaver already, so I could try and brave the skies again.'' Just as she thought of that, she saw a winged, four legged, eagle headed beast fly on the horizon in her direction. Sera jumped behind the first tree she saw and made herself as small as possible. Looking out from behind the tree she started scanning the bird-like monster. "Scanning complete... Classification: Horror of the 1st Tier... Name: Castiel''s Pet... Suggestion: Avoid at all cost..." ''Castiel''s Pet? That''s a weird fucking name, who is this Castiel that he has a 1st Tier Horror as a pet? Huhh... It doesn''t matter...'' Sera looked towards the flying beast once more than turned and went deeper in the forest. ''So flying is not an option. GREAT! At least I might be able to hunt some food and disgusting blood.'' Sera walked for over an hour before, hearing something moving through the undergrowth. It didn''t sound too big, but also not really small. And by the amount of sounds it was making, it wasn''t afraid to fight for its life. Slowly approaching the direction of the sounds, she finally saw the creature. ''What the fuck am I looking at?'' There moving in between the trees was a moose. But not the kind Sera learned about in school. No, this one had antlers with thorns growing out of it, teeth that could break bone with ease, and two arms grew out of the section above its front legs, both ending in wicked scythes. The creature looked terrifying to say the least. But Sera''s mind already drifted to somewhere else. ''Wonder how will its meet taste!'' Chapter 17: Hunt The first rule of hunting is to always be prepared, at least that''s what they thought her in school. In the past few weeks she realized how right they were. She won most of her battles to pure luck or some resemblance of skill, but she was never prepared. Firstly the hound would have killed her with ease if it wasn''t injured, and she nearly died like that as well. The chameleons she accidentally used her Transformation ability, which she still didn''t know how to use. And lastly, the bats were only the servants of a stronger existence, so they as Rotten, were weaker than a strong Tainted. All of it was just luck and miscalculation on the enemies side. But this would change today. Sera will hunt and kill this moose not because of luck, but skill and wit. First thing she done is scan the monster. It was a Rotten of the 2nd Tier, named: Bloodletting Moose. After that she began to plan the trap. It took some time but 2 hours later the trap was ready, only problem was that it needed a bait and well, she was alone. Walking through the woods Sera made as much noise as possible and 5 minutes later she heard the moose rushing in her direction. With a grin on her face she began running, and helped herself on with her wings. For an outsider it might seem she was sprinting without direction but that wasn''t the case, she knew where to go and what to do. She thought about it for a long time, rehearsed the plan in her head 100s of times, and now it was time to execute. Sera seemed to be getting slower and the moose started catching up. In another minute there was only 15 meters between them. The trees then opened up into a small clearing that was covered in dead leaves and branches. Sera ran straight through it but her running was weird, her steps were sometimes bigger or smaller then necessary, like she was dodging something invisible. In fact, she was evading her own traps. As the beast reached the clearing it followed her without a second thought, but after a couple of steps a crushing sound could be heard. ''Got you!'' "I started from here which was 50 kilometers away from Havel and I''m here now. There is still 35 kilometers to go. Not bad, I''m nearly there." Sera could hardly believe it. She was close to 70 kilometers away from Newber, how had she survive this far? Castleberg was still close to 250 kilometers away but it was further yesterday and the day before that. So, slowly but surely she was getting closer. As the Sun was about to set Sera grabbed some meat, and using the skin as a makeshift bag, put it away. Then she summoned her wings and clothes and went into the sky. First she scouted making sure it''s safe, the Pet was nowhere to be seen. Staying low to the tree line she continued her journey toward Havel, then to the El-Ba, and finally to Castleburg. While flying Sera was reflecting on todays hunt. ''It''s good that it worked so well but I shouldn''t place as much faith into traps, and have multiple in case one fails. And I also shouldn''t completely abandon fighting with my glaive, it would be so much easier if I had an actual teacher. My fighting technique is mostly quick reflexes and guesswork.'' Sera was absorbed in her thoughts, when she heard the sound of heavy wings and saw the Pet approaching her location yet again. "Okay, fine I won''t fly! Just, fuck off!" She made a hurried descent onto the ground and sprinted for a couple of minutes, before stopping next to a tree, panting. ''Walking it is then.'' Chapter 18: Clear Mind The night came and went quickly. Sera made steady progress, nothing attacked her and she only had to hide a couple of times. The one thing she learned was that around here, the Pet controls the skies. Sera could hear it, the beating of wings, the horrible screeching sound and sometimes other monster''s painful screams. It sent shivers down her spine every time it happened, so after the first two tries she gave up on flying. Sera even dismissed her wings which meant her Essence usage decreased by a lot. As the Sun came up she prepared some breakfast. While it was cooking she started to actually feel bored. ''What should I do? I never really learned how to use my transformation''s ability, I probably should work on that. It always came in handy.'' After breakfast, making good on her promise, she hid in the branches of a tree, summoned her wings, and started to figure out how to use their ability. Sera decided to spend the whole day like this, the reason was pretty simple the city will most likely be full of monsters. In battle every advantage could mean the difference between life and death. The first thing Sera did was meditate for about an hour, then thoroughly looked through each memory when she used her ability. ''Every time I used it, I was under the effects of bloodlust, that can''t be a coincidence. But the feeling I get when using it is not even remotely similar to bloodlust. It feels more like being in perfect control of my mind, like everything becomes clear.'' Sera felt like she was about to reach a greater understanding about her power. ''The key is not losing control that wouldn''t make sense. Which is scarier, a mindless beast or a calculating monster. The answer was quite obvious. So with that in mind, how can I achieve that much control.'' Sera began trying to gain control and use her ability, but it just didn''t seem to work. ''Maybe I''m looking at it all wrong. If control would be the key, then how did I use it when I wasn''t even in control of myself? The answer was just within her reach but she couldn''t grasp it. ''Okay let''s backtrack the feeling when using it feels like control but it''s not and when I used it I was basically a mindless beast.'' "Wait! Mindless... Beast... That''s it! It''s not control, or it is in a way. I need perfect clarity of mind to be able to use it. Passive Abilities: 1st Transformation Ability: Transformed Passive Ability: Heritage: 1st Transformation: <...> <...> Items: Sera couldn''t believe her eyes, she unlocked her first Heritage already. There are people who after years of trying couldn''t figure it out and she had done it in a couple of weeks. "I thought I was only finding a way to use my ability, but who knew in order to use it I needed to unlock my Heritage. Wonder what the other two is? I should probably read it''s description maybe it will give some clue." Description: Clear Mind allows the user to gain clarity in the heat of battle. It''s also a prerequisite for the usage of Wings of Despair. "So that''s what it does! This is invaluable! I can finally use my glaive without having to fight the constant bloodlust. Well, eventually the bloodlust would probably win because it''s constantly increasing. Still this is great, and being able to use my Transformations ability, finally." While Sera was thinking of all the different ways to use her ability she dismissed her clothes. It was already afternoon and she needed all her Essence for the nightly walking. She read through the description again and her mood plummeted a bit. "The description was sad again. Why is it have to be sad? And this Madness again, did the Archangels whole civilization succumbed to it? Then there is that line: ''With that clarity he continued to fight, because giving up meant the destruction of his people.'' Is this a clue for the next heritage?" As Sera thought about it she realized, that it didn''t matter right now. Yes she learned Clear Mind but she had to master it first. Until then, finding the other Heritages is probably impossible. Chapter 19: City on the Horizon It was finally night again. Sera ate the rest of her meat and continued her journey. If she kept walking without stopping, she would reach Havel by noon. Well at least in a perfect world she would, which this certainly wasn''t. Looking at the horde of monsters passing below her she was thinking of just, fuck it and fly off but that would likely be a death sentence. There were 100s of creatures walking, none of them the same kind, but all of them absentminded. ''Some Horror is controlling them if I have to guess.'' Sera has been sitting on the same branch for the past hour, when she heard the first of the monsters. Luckily the end was already in sight. In 20 minutes she was walking again. ''I won''t make it until next nightfall so I might as well hunt another monster tomorrow. I will be a bit more prepared for the city at least.'' Sera kept walking and hiding until the Sun was up, then she began looking for a prey. It took her hours but she finally found one she could kill. It was a Tainted of the 3rd Tier named Shadow Leopard. Sera even silently followed it as much as she could. She spent an hour studying its abilities. What she learned was that it''s really hard to track a monster that becomes close to invisible in the shadows. Luckily it wasn''t actively hunting, she probably would have lost it in seconds otherwise. ''Okay I think I learned enough, but I can''t leave it to make a trap somewhere else. I would only find it again when it attacks me. It''s better to just ambush it here.'' Deciding on the pros and cons of the ambush and thinking of every possible scenario, Sera turned Clear Mind on and suddenly everything became clearer. She was ready to take on the Shadow Leopard. She began to sneak upon the monster but when she got to around 15 meters from it the leopard disappeared into the shadows. Expecting a move like that Sera lit up the whole area with her light, dispersing every shadow in the vicinity. The leopard appeared 5 meters to the left, looking very confused. Not wasting a second Sera turned on her wings ability and attacked the beast. The monster died without knowing what hit it. After hiding on a tree from some predator for another hour or so, and then walking for another, the forest began to change. Dawn was approaching, the tops of the trees are already got hit by the first rays of the new day. But what Sera noticed is that the forest started to clear up. As she was walking the trees became more wide spread from each other. ''I must be getting close to the city!'' With hurried steps she approached the end of the forest. Of course she didn''t stopped looking for danger but with the help of Clear Mind that became very easy. Finally Sera saw it. There, a bit further away the line of trees stopped. She slowed down her steps and stopped at the threshold of the forest. Sera gazed back once, then taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a second she moved past the trees and looked forward. There on the horizon was a city. Well at least it was a city once now probably only monsters live inside of it. That didn''t take away of its beauty. As the morning Sun hit the side of the buildings, Sera''s only thought was: ''I made it!'' She felt on her knees, laughing. She laughed so hard that had to lay down on her back. She was laughing for minutes now but at some point it turned into crying. "I made it... Great... Is this what life is? Constant struggle to stay alive? What''s the point... There has to be more to it... Otherwise it would be pointless..." Sera dismissed these philosophical thoughts. This wasn''t the time and place for them. Getting up from the ground she gazed at the city, then started walking towards it. Chapter 20: Havel Sera approached the city perimeter without too much of a problem. She was trying to keep calm but it was hard. After spending so long in the wild, just seeing actual architecture was a small blessing. Stopping near the first building, she was scanning the streets, it looked deserted but she knew better than to believe that. Sera looked around for a tall building which she could use as a base for exploration. While scanning around, a sound of something breaking came from the building next to her. From another building came a growl and before either creature could come out to eat her, Sera was already flying back to the tree line. ''Let''s establish a base at night, it will be much safer, ironically.'' Stopping on one of the inner tree''s branches, she gazed at the city trying to make out the monsters dwelling within. There was no movement, but judging by her first experience that''s just looking at it from the outside. ''They are actually living in the buildings. How unfortunate.'' Deciding to wait for the night she cooked all her leftover food, ate half of it and made herself comfortable watching the city. She was getting tired again. ''Three days and nights is my limit I guess. I should make the base safe fast to have time for sleeping. The tomorrow is going to be hectic as well.'' Sera patiently waited until night came. She ate the other half of her food and went into the city yet again. In the city there were still monsters around every corner, but she managed to stealthily bypass most of them. Some she had to run away from. But through hardship, she arrived near a building that would be her base. It was a 5 story apartment complex, nothing special, but it only had one entrance which made it easily defendable in case of attack. And who knows, maybe it was empty? Sera didn''t go in through the door, instead she flew up on its roof and went in there. The roof''s door was open and a very old staircase led down into the building. She looked around the city from this high vantage point and spotted multiple marks of interest. Then she turned south and her heart stopped for a second. The leopard didn''t skip a beat and used its tail to cut Sera''s leg right behind the knee. The knife-like protrusion went through the tendons and the next second Sera was already on the ground screaming. "Aahh! You fucking bastard!" As she gotten angry the bloodlust seeped in and ignoring the pain she rose on one leg. The leopard attacked again but looking at the angelic wings of its prey, it froze. The female gave it a sense of pure dread and imminent death. It tried to shook the feeling off but suddenly the female exploded with light dispersing its wall of shadow. Scared and blinded it had no chance to dodge its adversary''s blade. "You have killed a Damned Shadow, a Rotten of the 1st Tier. Your Soul is Nourished." The beast bled out with its throat cut. But Sera didn''t notice it. Her own wounds were grievous as well so she tried her hardest to hold back the bleeding. "Fuck, I just hope nothing saw that light show I put on." But it was only wishful thinking. And a couple minutes later she was already hearing footsteps. ''Footsteps but something is different about them, they sound small almost human-like, but that can''t be. No human lives out here. Unless that light I saw was from them?'' Sera was thinking about how should she protect herself from the human-like monster coming up the stairs. Then she heard a voice. "Are you alive up there?" It was a male human voice coming from down stairs. Chapter 21: Help ''Its a human, it has to be. But what if it''s not? What if it''s a monster mimicking a human''s voice.'' Sera was so absorbed in her thoughts that she forgot to answer the mysterious voice. "Hello? Are you there?" Asked the mysterious person. ''Fuck, what should I do?'' Thought Sera, at which she quickly came up with a kind of stupid question. "Yes. Are you human?" "Last time I checked I was, so probably yes? Did you cause that light show?" "Maybe. Are you friendly?" Sera was quiet inexperienced with the wild, outside of Newber''s walls. She was a bit scared and suspicious, but not as much as she should''ve been. "Why wouldn''t I be?" Said the man with a light chuckle. "You could be a monster pretending to be human." Said Sera with concern. "That''s a sound logic, there is only one problem. Why would a monster ask for permission?" Said the voice laughing. What he said made perfect sense. Sadly her lack of knowledge about human atrocities made her quite naive. "Are you alone?" She asked, with a bit more calmness, then she should''ve felt. "No. There''re five of us, 1 Evolved and 4 regulars." ''I''m pretty sure I heard 6 pair of footsteps. Must have been an echo or something, why would he lie?'' Her suspicion rose only a small fraction and she moved into a position that would make it easier to attack. ''Should I let him? Well I''m not really in the position to stop him and he might be able to help.'' "Fine." She eventually said. Within the door a human head appeared, it was a man in his mid 30s he had a very handsome face like every Evolved. Behind him came 4 person all in military armor and with railguns. They were ready to take on even monsters if necessary. The man looked at Sera and his eyes slightly widened from what, only he knew. "What''s your name little girl?" "Seraphine and I killed more then enough beasts to not be a girl anymore." "Yeah, I can see that. My name is Blake. Nice to meet you." Everyone laughed at that, except Sera of course. She was getting angry and scared, a tear ran down her face. "Why? Why are you doing this?" In answer the small group only laughed in her face. "Holy fuck, you are actually a stupid bitch! Do we look retarded to you? Anyway, let''s get to work on you. Craig, bring the chains." "Sure thing Boss." Sera was confused, scared and most of all felt betrayed. "What are you going to do to me?" She asked while more tears began making their way down her face. Her vision started to become hazy but not cause of the tears. "We will of course beat and rape you until you stop resisting, then bring you home to the rest of the whores." That done it! She could handle threats on her life, but rape? At that moment Sera''s mind fully broke, she didn''t understand why they wanted to hurt and rape her, but she didn''t care anymore. All of them will die. Suddenly a wicked grin appeared on Sera''s face and Blake had a very bad feeling. Just as he was thinking what to do, a pair of beautiful angelic wings materialized behind the girl. But the wings did not bring awe, only despair. If that wouldn''t be enough she exploded with light as well. Everyone had some form of nightvision on the roof. Blake had a passive for it and the soldiers had it built in their helmet. All of them went blind instantly. Combine that with the feeling of dread, Sera made quick work of them. The first one dead was Blake she grabbed his head with both hands and popped it like a tomato, then she sliced up the soldier with the chains, the next three died in similar spectacular fashion. When she was done, the roof was the color of red, not a clean spot on it. Then suddenly a piercing pain went through her chest. Sera looked down and there was the tip of a sword poking through her. It missed her heart but not the lungs and liver. But to the dismay of her attacker she didn''t even seem to notice it. Sera was like a demon with angelic wings as she took her enemy apart with her bare hands. After everything was done and her Essence ran out she was lying on the rooftop looking at the stars. They were so beautiful, and felt like she could reach them. Sera began to reach for them but couldn''t even lift her hand. There was so much pain. She began coughing blood. ''So this is it... No happy ending for me it seems...'' This was her last thought before passing out, at the last moments she could''ve swear she heard footsteps coming in her direction. Chapter 22: Massacre Site In an apartment building a fire was burning. 3 person sat around it 2 female and 1 male. It seemed like they were preparing for something. "How many did you spot?" Asked the brown haired female. "I saw 5. One Evolved the rest regulars all kited out." Answered the other female. She had dirty blond hair with streaks of black. "So you are saying there is 6?" Asked the man without a hint of emotion. "Yes probably." Said the blond with a smile. "Okay we can take them. Are you prepared for what happens next?" Said the brown haired one. "Do you even have to ask Bea? We were born prepared, its in our blood." The man just looked at Bea and nodded. "Okay, then let''s proceed with the plan..." Before she could finish that sentence something very unusual happened. On the top of an other building further away, a light lit up. That was not too surprising. But the light didn''t come from a fire. It was like a star. The light was glowing for less than a second, before darkness swallowed it whole. It disappeared like a mirage. "What was that? Lucy did you see the source?" "I only saw it for less than a second, but if I had to guess it was a human." ''A human? That doesn''t make sense. We know all of the Evolved working for Nightmare. None of them could make light like that.'' "Who could''ve made that light." Asked the male. "No one, as far as we know, which could mean only one thing." "That''s not possible Bea! It was destroyed! I saw the site myself!" Said Lucy. "Then how do you explain a new Evolved appearing out of nowhere?" "So, you think someone survived Newber''s destruction?" Asked Lucy with disbelief. "It''s the only possibility. Castleburg is too far away to have someone here and we are the only ones left from Copen. The only answer is Newber." Said Bea with mixed emotions. "Maybe but I''m still not convinced. What do you think Will?" Before Will could answer the light appeared again, but this time it was brighter and lasted for a couple of seconds. "Okay, it doesn''t matter who caused it. One thing is sure, we have mission. Hunt down one of Nightmare''s patrols." Said Bea with determination. After a minute they arrived on the roof. The site could only be described as a Massacre. "Who... Who did this? What kind of monster done this?" Asked Bea while holding back her nausea. The good news was the patrol was already eliminated, the bad news was it was killed so brutally that it couldn''t be determined who was who. On a preliminary judgement, you would think that someone spilled red paint all over the roof, but on a closer inspection you would see the bone parts in the red. And also, there was a dead leopard, on the roof bathed in blood. "Monster? What do you mean, monster? It was her." Lucy said while pointing at something. Bea didn''t see it at first. There was a big lump in the ocean of blood. But on closer inspection, it was a naked woman so dirty and bloody that she was hardly recognizable. Taking a deep breath she approached the woman. ''She is unconscious, probably from Essence over usage. No, wait a second is that a wound?'' "Will, summon water. I can''t see." Without an answer Will made water out of thin air and put it on the spot marked by Bea. "Shit, she has a punctured lung possibly from a sword. Lucy, keep watch while I try to close the wound. Will, decrease her blood pressure before she bleeds out." Bea only had to order once and everyone done their job. ''Okay let''s close the wound on her lung first.'' Placing her hand on the wound suddenly a warm, green light appeared in Bea''s hand. She closed the wound and was already starting to get exhausted. ''Why is the bleeding not stopping? Is there an other wound in there?'' Looking at the female''s wound she saw the problem. "Shit, the liver has been cut as well." "Can you save her? If not we should get out of here. That light was like a dinner bell for monsters." Said Lucy. As she said that, a loud roar could be heard a couple blocks away. Bea looked down at the defenseless, dying woman and made a decision. "Will, bring her! We''re going back to base." Chapter 23: Retreat ''At least the mission was a success, not because of us but it still counts. Who is this woman though? Judging her looks, she is like a demon straight from hell. But maybe that''s not the case, she could also be an angel fighting the hordes of hell, while trying to survive.'' Bea was entertaining herself with these kind of thoughts. Anything to keep her mind off of what happened on the roof. ''Let''s just hope that she is the second and not the first.'' "Lucy, report!" "Multiple monsters heading in our direction! A couple Tainted, most are Rotten and there are even one or two Corrupted." They were currently a block away from that horrid rooftop. Will, had the girl on his shoulder, Lucy was trying to find a safe route and Bea well, she was there to make sure all of them survived. "Any way through them?" Asked Will. "Some of them are already starting to fight each other, the Corrupted are massacring them. But because of that, there is no way we could break through. My suggestion is to go down." "Is there really no other route?" Bea asked with exhaustion. She was tired. Healing the girl enough to survive the transport, took a lot out of her. But they had to go on, the war and hundreds of lives depended on it. Lucy looked at Bea with determination, then she glanced at the dying girl. "No, if she could take out a patrol on her own, we need her. And if we left her, would we not be just as bad as Nightmare?" Bea looked both at Will and Lucy. Will''s face was as composed as ever, there was no emotion on it. Lucy, on the other hand looked sad. She knew better than most how bad Nightmare actually was. "We either leave her or try our luck with the sewers." She said while not daring to look in Bea''s eye. "Well, the sewers it is then." They found an entrance within a few minutes and after a couple of seconds, they were already moving through the waste of humans and beast alike. The smell was truly horrible to say the least. ''The sewers. Fuck, why did it had to be the sewers?'' The danger of the sewers didn''t lie in the kind of monsters dwelling within. In fact, there were only 1st Tier Tainted down here and probably a creature controlling them, but they never saw that monster yet. Hopefully they never will. They walked in total silence, trying to make as little noise as possible. They were alert, checking every corner for enemies. Other than Lucy, neither Bea or Will could see in the dark. But they each had nightvision lenses on their eyes, which means all of them were able to see. Seeing didn''t mean they were less tense, in fact it made it worse. "Lucy how far?" Shouted Bea. "It''s still a couple of blocks. Why? Are you regretting your decision?" Looking back Bea glanced at the girl, a hint of a smile appeared on her face. "Of course not! You always say life is boring in the apocalypse and now you bitch when I make it exciting!" Before Lucy could answer they heard a sound that sent shivers down on everyone''s spine. Thousands of feet scraping against stone. The noise came from everywhere but not because of the echo. "Fuck, hurry!" Said Bea. They ran from the sound, but it was closing in and after a minute they even saw glimpses of what''s coming after them. On the floor, walls, roof, everywhere the same kind of monsters were chasing them. "Hundred meters to the exit!" Shouted Lucy. They ran on. "Fifty meters!" After a couple of seconds the saw the ladder and the incoming monsters from that direction. "Twenty!" They ran as fast as they could. Bea was the first to reach the hatch, but instead of going up she used her transformation and suddenly roots came out of the walls, obscuring the tunnel on both side. She could hold it for a second or two against the creatures. But that was enough, Will was already up with the girl and Lucy was right behind her. Bea went as well and they managed to close the hatch before the Devourers arrived. They never came out of the sewers. No one knew why. "Fuck, we made it. Didn''t expected to." Said Bea quietly. Lucy looked at her angrily. "The fuck you mean ''Didn''t expected to''. It was your idea!" "I never said it was a good idea. It doesn''t matter now anyway, let''s s go home." "Fine but just because the girl could die any minute. Don''t expect that it was the end of this conversation!" With that they approached the building in front of them. The writing on the building had some missing letters, it read: ''Havel... Police Station''. Chapter 24: Lady Bea They hurried into the police station, their base of operations. They weren''t even stopped, when the guards saw the state of the human girl Will was carrying. At some point he covered her body so she wasn''t naked at least. "Evan! Where is Witchdoctor?" The regular guard visibly paled looking at all of them. "She... She is... She is at the infirmary, Lady Bea!" The guard said then hurried away flustered. At some point Bea got used to this behavior. After the Evolution she became extremely beautiful and at barely 20 years of age, not many people could look at her without a bit of red appearing on their faces. As they ran down the corridors to the established infirmary, many people gave them weird looks. Especially when they saw the woman on Will''s shoulder. And why wouldn''t they, she had so much blood and dirt on her that they probably didn''t even know her gender. ''It would be kind of funny if she wouldn''t be at death''s door. How much did she suffer to look like that?'' While thinking about the mystery woman they arrived at the infirmary. In there, was a woman, she was of average stature, her hair was white as fresh snow, same as her skin and on her face she was wearing a weird ritual mask kind of thing. She was Witchdoctor, the cities only medical professional and that weird mask was actually her transformation ability. It lets her heal people and she has a passive that can see other people''s injuries. Without turning towards Bea and the others she said: "Ahh, Lady Bea, you came back fast. Did everything went well? I hope so, I don''t want to heal you every time you go out for... She finally looked at them and Bea saw her eyes widen. She dropped the clipboard she was holding and hurried to them. "Who is she? What happened to her, or the better question is, what didn''t happen to her." "We don''t know, but need you to save her. She had a stab wound through one of her lungs and liver, I patched it up as much as I could." Said Bea. The surgery took the better half of a day and at the end both Bea and Witchdoctor were lying in beds, utterly exhausted. At some point their Essence fully ran out and had to use mundane medicinal practice. But both of them were very happy, because on an other bed lay a breathtaking woman in the process of healing. They managed to save her, whoever she is. At this point Bea didn''t care. She was too exhausted and after saying goodbye to everyone, went to bed. When Bea fell asleep she dreamed with the heavenly woman. They were speaking and laughing together, she couldn''t make out anything they said but they seemed very happy. At morning, or at least morning for her, she went straight to the infirmary to check on the woman. She went through the maze of corridors with a smile on her face. The people greeted her as usual but made weird faces because of how happy she was. She didn''t understand why was her mood so good, but also didn''t care. She arrived at the infirmary soon and went straight to the mystery woman''s bed. There were already a couple people here. The Witchdoctor, Will and Lucy was there and also a young person barely 16 years of age. He was Clockwork, an Evolved who''s ability is related to machinery. He was currently connected to the mystery woman''s Watch. "Good afternoon, Lady Bea! As I was saying to the others, I couldn''t get a lot of information out of her Watch. Actually I couldn''t get anything because her Watch''s software is not upgraded enough." "That means we still know absolutely nothing of her?" "I didn''t say that ma''am. The fact that we found her here and that her Watch is not upgraded tells us that she only became an Evolved recently. And if I had to guess she became one after the Newber Destruction." "Maybe... Well, we can only wait for her to wake up. Witchdoctor keep an eye on her, and call me immediately if something, anything happens. Understood?" "Yes ma''am!" "Everyone get back to work. We still have a base to run, people to keep alive and a war to win." Chapter 25: Seraphine It turns out the woman''s body wasn''t the only problem. Her mind probably broke on that roof, whatever happened it definitely left a scar much deeper than any wound on her body. Bea was spending her free time watching over her. She didn''t know why but felt responsible for her. And even a little afraid for her health. ''Why do I feel like this for someone I technically haven''t even met? I don''t know but it''s...'' She couldn''t finish her thought because suddenly a groan came from next to her. Bea nearly jumped out of her skin from the sudden noise. But then she turned toward the woman, her eyes were fluttering open. The color of her iris was unlike anyone''s she ever saw, they were a magnificent golden color. Her eyes focused on Bea who smiled at her. After a second, some awareness appeared in those bewitching eyes and in the next she began to move. She must have very overestimated her state, because instead of jumping out of the bed she couldn''t even turn on her side. After trying for a couple of seconds she finally gave up, and something very different appeared there. Instead of the dermination and will to fight, there was only acceptance, sadness and fear. It broke Bea''s heart to see the change and she was reminded of where they found her, on a roof in an ocean of blood. ''What happened there before they arrived? Knowing Nightmare and his gang it must have been horrible.'' Then she heard the beautiful woman''s voice and what she said broke her heart even further. "Please... Please just kill me... Please... I don''t want to be raped..." Her voice was very hoarse, because she was in a coma for weeks. And she began crying as she asked to be killed, instead of suffer. Bea started to become very angry at that patrol and whished she could kill them, but much more slowly. She got her anger under control when she realized it would increase the girls fear even more. Instead Bea gave her the most sincere smile she could muster. "I think we began on the wrong foot my name is Bea. What''s your name?" The girl didn''t belive her, Bea knew it but after a couple of minutes answered her question. In barely a whisper she said "Seraphine". "Seraphine, what a beautiful name? How old are you Seraphine?" "18" She began crying again and Bea hugged her again. "It''s going to be alright. No one will hurt you here." Said Bea while trying to hold back her own tears. She couldn''t imagine how it would feel like to lose everyone and the first person you meet try to do horrible things to you. Yeah, she lost a lot of people including her family at Copen, but she still had other people to rely on. So she decided that from today on Seraphine will have people to rely on. The sound of crying decreased, until it stopped and her breathing became even. She fell asleep in Bea''s arms. With a sigh she rose and put Seraphine back in her bed, those breathtaking wings were nowhere to be seen. Bea sat next to the bed for over an hour thinking about nothing and just watching Seraphine sleep. ''I should probably tell the others about this meeting.'' But looking at her she was reluctant to leave. Right before deciding to get up, the infirmary doors snapped open and Lucy ran in. "Oh Lucy, I was just about to find you..." She fell silent after seeing Lucy''s face full of anger and fear. "What happened?" "It''s Nightmare and his servants, they are coming to teach us a lesson. Those fucks think we killed their patrol. He even sent Deathbringer." "Shit, when do they arrive and how many? "If they take the fastest route they will be here by dawn tomorrow as for how many I think it''s about seventy personal 10 Evolved and 60 regular. But Deathbringer is worth all that put together." The situation seemed pretty much hopeless. They couldn''t take on that many in an ambush, but then she remembered something. Bea turned to the bed where Seraphine was sleeping and laughed. "Does fools don''t know we have an ace up our sleeve." Chapter 26: Getting to Know Each Other In a bed a beautiful girl was lying. She was looking at the ceiling in melancholy, it felt like her mind broke on that hateful roof. She couldn''t even properly recall those events. It''s like her brain didn''t let her remember those memories. The girl was of course Seraphine. She didn''t care about what happened to her, until no one threatens her with rape she would be fine with anything. While she was having these depressing thoughts, someone came into the infirmary. Hearing the noise she got out of bed. They gave her some clothes to wear so at least she wasn''t naked anymore. ''It''s probably that beautiful, brown haired woman with the big tits. What was her name again, Bea?'' After waking up last time she was sitting next to her, but before they could speak she had been called away. She seems like the leader of this group or something. "Good afternoon Seraphine! We can finally speak without you trying to kill me!" Said Bea with mischief. "You deserved it!" Sera answered with a hint of anger. "Yeah... Sorry about it again..." Bea''s voice sounded sad for some reason. "Don''t worry about it. So ask away, you probably have a lot of questions." "You have loads as well if I had to guess. So why don''t we play a game. You ask a question and I answer, then I ask a question and you answer." "That''s very cliche. Let''s just ask each other what we want to know. I have nothing to hide." Bea looked very stumped by this. She probably didn''t expect her refusal. Sera tried her hardest to hold back her laughter. "O-Okay, I guess that works too. So, how and when did you become Evolved?" "Straight to the point, I like it. The first answer is kind of obvious, I became Evolved when Newber was destroyed and how? You sure you wanna know?" Sera asked with a scary grin. Bea was taken aback yet again but regained her composure fast. "Sure." "No, I can''t access any data on my Watch until I reach Castleburg." "Ah, that explains it! Well, let me tell you then. When a monster becomes a 3rd Tier Horror they get their title and a qualitative boost to their strength. That''s the same reason Beastbane couldn''t defeat him. He was simply too weak." Sera didn''t know how to feel about that. This revelation made her achievement even more unique, but on the other hand, she couldn''t have done what she did without it being in death''s door already. She was confused and in the end decided to forget about it for now. "Well, that explains a lot... But enough about me. Let me ask you, who are you and those people that tried to... Hurt me...?" Noticing her pain Bea''s eyes became sad again. "We are the survivors of Copen and they are them as well. We were heading to Newber but it was already destroyed by then. So we changed direction and ended up here just like you." She took a deep, shaky breath and continued. "Our leader was a person named Nightmare, he is very strong and a good leader. But when we reached Havel he started to change. He began to think that we shouldn''t move on to Castleburg. A lot of us disagreed, but most Evolved supported him." At this point a couple tears fell from her eye. "We had thousands of civilians with us, not even nearly enough combat gear to support everyone. And the people with combat gear supported his idea as well. So we, the people who opposed him snuck out of our camp bringing everyone we could." She was now crying in earnest and Sera decided to go and hug her like she did last time. "We tried to take as many people as possible I swear, but there just weren''t enough of us and still, many died. The civilian women either became whores by choice or by ''breaking in'' as they call it. The men are whatever they want them to be, bait for monster, entertainment you name it. I tried, I swear I did..." "You did a great job saving as many people as you could Bea." She didn''t seemed to hear Sera. "Look at me! Bea, look at me!" She looked into Sera''s eye, her eyes were a magnificent green color, like a beautiful forest. "We will save them and kill all those fucking rapists! I swear it!" Chapter 27: Getting to Know Each Other part 2 "We will save them and kill all those fucking rapists! I swear it!" Bea didn''t know what to say. Seraphine said it with so much conviction, that even she believed her. It didn''t matter who or what gets in their way, they will rescue everyone who needs saving and kill the rest. "Yes. We will." Whispered Bea. They looked at each other for a couple more minutes and realizing how close they were, both turned away embarassed. "Uhm... Thanks for cheering me up..." Said Bea still not daring to look at her. "I just payed back the dept I owed..." Answered Seraphine, she sounded as awkward as she felt. Taking a deep breath Bea looked at her and continued their earlier conversation. "So, do you have any more questions?" "For now I only want to know one thing. When do we attack those fucks?" She didn''t have to specify who ''those fucks'' are. It was pretty obvious. "Okay, then let''s continue this conversation with the others. What do you say, ready to meet the rest of the team?" Bea said with a kind smile. "Uhm... Sure, I guess." Seraphine looked a bit afraid. "You don''t have to worry. They are all good people who just want to help." "It''s not that... My only problem is... Huhh... My only problem is that, you are the first person I spoke with sincerely since the destruction of Newber, which was..." Seraphine looked at her Watch and made a weird face. "1 and a half months? I was out for nearly a month?" "Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you, sorry." Bea felt a bit guilty, she forgot to tell her that she was in a coma. With her being awake and the things she learned about Seraphine, it just didn''t came up. "It''s... It''s okay... But as you see I''m not really good with conversation." Said Seraphine with a sad expression. She knew what Seraphine meant, their first meeting wasn''t the best. But they were running out of time, by morning Deathbringer and his troops will arrive. "No you idiot, that won''t work, they have their own scout that knows the city enough." Said Clockwork angrily. "Then what do you suggest, if you are so smart?" Said Lucy with the same amount of anger. ''Seems like they were at it for a while now.'' Clockwork was about to answer Lucy''s question probably with a couple of vulgar words, but Will intervened. "Lady Bea, you arrived and brought our guest!" That shut everyone up, there were 5 people in the conference room before she and Seraphine walked in. "I know we have to plan the defense for tomorrow, but before that introduction''s are in order." The first to go was of course Lucy. "Hello, my name is Lucy. I''m the scout of the group. That idiot sitting in glasses is Clockwork, he is our techy." Clockwork gave an angry glance at Lucy but didn''t rise for her provocation. Instead he said: "Hey, nice to see you got better." He couldn''t even make eye contact with Seraphine, well no one blamed him. ''She is very good looking after all, I''m curious how good is she in bed? Wait, what am I thinking.'' In the meantime Will and Witchdoctor introduced themselves as well. Which only left Luke. "Hi, I''m Luke or Killshot which ever one you like honey." He smiled at her very inappropriately. ''Fuck, I forgot about his personality. This is going to be bad if I don''t intervene.'' Indeed Seraphine''s face began to sour and her body became more tense. Like a predator about to pounce. Everyone noticed it, but before the situation could escalate Bea intervened. "Luke, you stupid fuck! Do you have a death wish? That''s why you insult the strongest person in the room?!" This sentence coming from Bea, made everyone''s eyes widen with surprise. Because all of them knew that she was the most powerful in the room or at least before Seraphine entered. With a smile Bea said: "Seraphine, if you would like to, please introduce yourself." Seraphine gave her a similar wicked smile and answered: "With pleasure." Chapter 28: Defense Meeting Sera was very angry and wanted to kill the man named Luke. She knew it was an over reaction, but didn''t care. As Sera was about to attack him suddenly Bea took her off guard, but Sera immediately understood what she wanted. ''This is going to be so funny!'' "Hello everyone, my name is Seraphine. I''m 18 years old, the last survivor of Newber, the first monster I killed was a Horror of the 3rd Tier, since then I killed dozens of monsters and I made the journey from Newber to here alone." Everyone was stupefied by that, even Bea was surprised which confused her a bit. ''She already knew these informations why is she so shocked? Is she pretending for some reason?'' The girl named Lucy was the first to recover. "So you are probably the strongest Evolved ever, please tell me you are here to help us." Sera understood her concern. They weren''t able to take on their enemy alone, so they could use the help. "Of course, after what those fuckers tried to do, this story will only end with their death." Next one to speak was Luke, he looked very scared. Good! "Uhm... I''m sorry if-if I insulted you. Please don''t kill me." Sera wasn''t angry at all about him anymore, but she could still have some fun. "Hmm, I will think about it." Everyone laughed at that, except Luke who looked deathly pale. "Oh I also forgot, I already unlocked my first Heritage." That got disturbed looks out of everyone. Lucy was drinking something but after hearing Sera she spat in Clockwork''s face, who was very mad at her. Even Bea didn''t expect that. ''Oh my god, I can''t hold it in any longer.'' She began dying of laughter. Everyone was just looking at her like she is an impossibility, like she shouldn''t exist. After several minutes of that, all of them started to snap back to reality. Lucy was the first to speak again. With that everyone became absorbed in their thoughts. After a while Sera was the first to speak. "So, you are saying they outnumber us 3:1 and if their leader cuts us we die? Okay, my next question is what are our powers? I go first, my wings can inspire allies and cause fear within enemies, it can even affect Rottens to some extent. I can also summon light and see in any brightness. And I have a weapon and clothing item, each with their own quirks. So, what about you?" Sera forgot that what she said was amazing. So, she didn''t understand why everyone stared at her. "What?" Lucy answered still stupefied when she said. "Why am I even surprised about you anymore. Huhh... Anyway I can turn into a big eagle and I can see in multiple spectrums like infrared and can see in the dark, also I can zoom in with my eyesight. I have two daggers for weapons and an armor, all of them items of course. Clockwork you''re up next." Clockwork probably killed Lucy for a hundred times with his eyes already. "Fine, my ability can''t really help in battle. I can see through technology and learn how to control them on a very basic level. My transformation is a clockwork golem which I haven''t really figured out. As for items I gave my only one to Killshot." With that, Clockwork stopped speaking and Luke began. "My power is pretty simple, I can see any enemy weak points and my transformation is actually not transforming me at all. I can transform bullets into whatever kind I need at the moment explosive, incendiary, armor piercing you name it. My items are an armor and a weapon which is a rifle, that''s what Clockwork gave me. And I''m still in his debt because of it." The next was Witchdoctor. "I''m simple as well I can see if you get hurt and I can heal most wounds even to the soul to some extent. And I can put hexes on people or monsters those can cause nausea, wild rage or even take away someone''s ability to heal. As for items, I''m running dry." Will came next and his was as short of an explanation as they came. "I can summon and control water on a small scale also can turn into a water beast and I have a shield and spear for items." With him done everyone looked at Bea. "Guess I''m left. My transformation and ability are intertwined they both give me control over nature to some degree. Which means I can control plants and heal if necessary. I have an armor and a sword for items." Sera looked at her with scrutinizing eyes. ''She is hiding something, it is pretty obvious but everyone ignored it. Let''s not worry about it for now.'' Ignoring Bea''s weird behavior she smiled and said: "Okay, we can do something with that." Chapter 29: Hell Let Loose The defense meeting ended. They made a plan that could actually yield victory with minimal loss. The only thing left was to execute. Bea was surprised by Seraphine''s leadership capabilities. She was like a born leader, even better then Bea herself. ''It'' s good to have another reliable person here in case I die or something.'' That was one of Bea''s biggest fears, because if she dies there is no other person who could lead. Yeah, there are the others and they would try their best, but they weren''t like Seraphine or Bea herself. The two of them were like magnets attracting everyone''s attention. This was especially obvious during the planning. Seraphine thought out the main part of it, but Bea filled in the blanks and now they are going to execute it. Everyone was in their place, they were only waiting for the enemy to arrive. They chose the place of engagement to be a wide street close to the police station. The enemy will definitely pass through this area and there was no cover in sight. The place was as good as it gets. The sunrise is still 2 hours away which means it was still dark out. Bea didn''t have optics on, in fact none of them had. The signal will be obvious without it anyway. Bea was in a building on street level, while Seraphine was waiting on a roof. They didn''t have to wait long for the enemy, in 10 minutes they were already coming towards the ambush site, judging by the sound of dozens of feet scraping against the ground. ''It''s time!'' Indeed it was, in a couple of seconds the sounds the feet were making stopped and the priming of weapons started. "Identify yourself!" Called a male voice from the crowd. ''That wasn''t Deathbringer''s voice. Something is not right here.'' ''Her Essence is probably running low as well. It will make this pretty hard.'' The soldiers weren''t shooting in their direction, instead there was a separate war between the two groups. Lucy and Will joined the fighting as well, they were running amok between the enemy, killing everyone they could. Which meant Bea and Seraphine were on their own. "Ah, Bea. It''s good of you to show up, I was starting to think you let your partner do all the heavy lifting. Who is this winged friend of yours anyway, she is even hotter than you." The voice was an awful rasp, like the voice of death or the bringer of it. "Deathbringer, you came out of hiding finally? The great killer of Nightmare hiding in someone else''s shadow, literally." Deathbringer didn''t rose to her provocation. "I wonder how your friend''s wings will look above my fireplace, I will even be able to fuck you under it. Wouldn''t that be romantic." Bea knew he was just trying to get a rise out of her, but gods be damned it was working. She summoned her sword and was ready to attack any moment. "Oh my, I''m so rude, not even introducing myself? Very unlike me, but allow me to correct that error. My name is Angel Monarch, the last survivor of Newber, the killer of the Archangel of Despair and the one who massacred your little patrol. I hope this elevates some confusion around me, and I also sorry for the killing that''s about to go down, right about now." Seraphine finishing her monologue moved attacking and killing one of the Evolved with her bloody glaive. ''Well, this is one way to end a conversation.'' "Kill the ''Angel Monarch'' and only her! Bea is mine!" He said with a wicked smile. Chapter 30: Queen of Nature Deathbringer had his own sword out, he and Bea were circling each other. The two swords were alight with different auras. Deathbringer''s had a black aura that gave off a feeling like decay, while Bea''s was its opposite it was a green aura that gave off a feeling of nature. ''This is going to be interesting. My survival depends on how long can I keep up my ability and if Seraphine finishes her opponents fast enough.'' Speaking of Seraphine she was currently dodging and weaving between attacks, she was very cool-headed and had amazing awareness of her surroundings. But the skill is quite frankly non existant, which makes sense, all things considered. Bea was an Evolved for over a year before the Fall of Copen happened. ''I should teach her a bit, when we have free time. The fuck am I thinking? Focus on the battle you idiot.'' She lost her patience and thrust her sword toward Deathbringers heart. It was easily deflected and he followed it with a slash, she evaded and using some vines to trip him, she went in with a slash of her own, trying to decapitate him. He easily dodged the vine, went under the slash and even cut Bea on her leg. "Shit." She said under her breath. She lost the first engagement. A cut would mean death to a normal Evolved, luckily Bea was anything but normal. "What, you little bitch, already giving up?" Bea quickly glanced at Seraphine''s battle. She had a nasty laceration on her back that was oozing blood, but the number of enemies decreased to 6. ''Not long, just a couple more minutes. With the two of us we can take him.'' But after another set of attacks she was less confident, but did not give up, instead she tried to focus on the fight. Bea blocked his sword and leveraged it to the side to get close to him. Then she headbutted his nose which stunned him for a second, and in that time Bea stabbed his shoulder. "You will pay for that!" ''Maybe breaking his nose and stabbing him was a mistake.'' The way Deathbringer began to fight shows that previously he was just joking around. The cut and stab wounds started to accumulate on Bea''s body. ''I don''t know how much longer I can last.'' She didn''t even know how Seraphine was holding up, with how furious Deathbringer was, she had to pay hundred percent attention just to not die. ''Maybe she''s dead and I''m on my own... No that''s not possible, she is probably stronger than me and will help at any minute.'' "Since when you were able to do that? Wait no, how can you do that?" Bea''s laughter suddenly died and her mood sobered. ''Right, I haven''t told it to anyone... Well, I can probably tell her.'' "This is something that no one knows about me, so please keep it a secret." Seraphine looked very concerned but nodded. ''Here goes nothing.'' "The reason I can survive Deathbringer''s decay, regrow limbs, heal others and even control plants is because of my transformation. But unlike other people''s mine is permanent." Seraphine''s face was so surprised at this point that it was kind of hilarious, but the mood was too somber for either of them to laugh. "You don''t mean to tell me..." "Yes, I''m constantly transformed. My body is the same in most ways, I still bleed, I have skin and feel the same feelings, but I know my body is not the same. It feels like I''m connected to nature on a deeper level. My power''s description says I''m a Dryad, whatever that means." Seraphine was still stunned by this revelation, so Bea asked the question she was always afraid to know. "So, do you think I''m a monster?" That brought back her attention and she answered with the utmost care it seemed. "Monster? Why would I think you''re a monster, just because you can''t change into a human? I''m pretty sure we fought regular humans today. In my opinion they are bigger monsters, than you could ever be. I think you are very awesome. Also at this point I''m curious about your title, because you hundred percent have one. Don''t try to deny it." ''I mean, there is no point hiding it anymore.'' So with a smile Bea said. "Okay, ''Angel Monarch'' my name is Queen of Nature, nice to meet you." Chapter 31: Connection The fighting wholly ended by the time Deathbringer got eliminated. There were a lot of injured, some even seriously but no one died. For that reason, Witchdoctor was on stand by and took care of the most grievous wounds. But her powers weren''t infinite. Which meant Sera could continue her conversation with Bea in the infirmary. Both got injured but were healing nicely. "So, miss tree lady you photosyntesis as well? Or maybe you are more closer to a mushroom. Are you chemotrof perchance?" Said Sera while laughing. "Ha-ha very funny. Remind me to never tell you any secrets of mine ever again." Said Bea with a beautiful laugh of her own. "But I''m actually so curious about the description of your ability. I don''t know if you realized it, but those descriptions probably hold deeper meaning than we think." "For example how do these Watches know anything? Do they have some kind of inner archive with all the information? Or do they just generate them? That seems very unlikely since the descriptions are too unique and well made. And why are you staring at me like that?" Bea was smiling at her with that beautiful mouth of hers. "I just didn''t expect that you would be interested in Realm History. And you figured it out all on your own. Cute and smart!" Sera ignored the remark and focused on the first sentence. ''Realm History? What is that? I never heard of anything even remotely similar.'' "What is Realm History?" She asked with embarrassment. Bea noticed it and said: "No need to feel like that! What you figured out on your own is really amazing, probably only a handful of people would be able to do what you did!" Bea took a deep breath and continued. "Realm History is what it says, the history of the Realms and the creature''s dwelling within. You probably figured it out already but the Realms were actually places where people or creatures lived, but something happened and they all became monsters." Sera was very interested in this topic. ''The Realms had other living beings in it whom weren''t monsters? What happened to them? Is it that Madness I read about a bunch of times?'' She was about to ask it when Bea said. "You know I''m not the best person for this conversation. I didn''t really pay attention in those classes." At this point Sera was blushing just as much as Bea. Neither of them could look at each other in the eye. "No... You want to read descriptions... And I''m kind of curious of yours as well... So if you want to we can go for it..." Sera made a big sigh and said: "Okay... How do we do it?" "It''s quite simple actually, we just touch our Watches together and press yes when it asks if we want to connect our Watches." "Let''s do this." Said Sera. Bea stood up and sat next to Sera on her bed. They looked into each other''s eyes, then Sera reached out and grabbed Bea''s hand pressing their Watches together. A pop up came on both, it said: ''Would you like to connect to Seraphine''s/Bea''s Watch?''. They both pressed ''yes''. Suddenly a flood of information appeared on both their Watches and the voice read it up in her head. "Name: Bea Title: Queen of Nature 1st Kill: World Tree, Horror of the 1st Tier Life Essence Absorbed: 289/1000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: Heritage: Items: " They were both silent for a long time. Sera read through Bea''s main status window a dozen times, but her eyes stopped on one line: . ''Why didn''t she tell me she unlocked her Heritage? And why does hers not say 1st transformation? I ask later, let''s start reading descriptions.'' Sera smiled and began reading. Neither of them realized that they were still holding hands. Chapter 32: Seed Sera began from top to bottom, even though she was most interested in the Heritage. Description: Nature called and you answered. You are able to control nature to some extent. ''This is kind of weird, the description of her ability is not even sad. All of mine are sad. Anyway lets see the next one.'' Description: You are part of the mythical Dryad race. Your progression changes from regular Evolved and can achieve greatness, if you nourish your tree. ''Sounds ominous and way to end a description. Who ever wrote that is an asshole! Now, the one I have been waiting for.'' Description: You have the Seed of Life in your soul. Great power awaits those who understand their nature, for you this is especially true. Your connection to nature increases. ''Finally found the sad part and what is this ''Seed of Life''? And this part about understanding your nature, maybe this is a clue to increase the Heritage''s level or something, I will ask Bea when I''m finished.'' Type: Weapon Description: The Knights of the Trees swore fealty to nature itself. They worshiped the forests and thought nothing was above Mother Nature herself. In a war most of them died and this sword is a relic of that era. Attribute: This weapon highly resonates with nature. It helps its user until they obey and take care of nature. This time Bea''s face was pure confusion. "Heritage? I haven''t unlocked my Heritage yet... Or did I?" She immediately opened her status window and judging by the surprise on her face, she realized that her Heritage was indeed unlocked. "Okay, so I unlocked my Heritage, but when?... Oh, I remember it was at the end of the fight against Deathbringer. But why does it look different from yours?" "Well, I think that this Seed of yours is upgradable. You do not gain more Heritages but your current one evolves with you." Bea looked at her thoughtfully for a while then she nodded. "Yeah, probably that''s the case. It''s interesting, wonder how strong will it get." Sera was more interested in something else. "I''m more curious about how you unlocked it?" "Oh, that is pretty simple actually. I just needed to accept my death. If I had to guess, this relates to nature''s aspect to accept death in winter to be able to reborn in spring." Sera''s face was very sad and scared. "Promise me that you will never do something like that again... I''m not asking to stop risking your life, because in this world that is impossible. But never ever dare to give up and accept your death!" Sera was on the verge of crying. "Seraphine... I can''t..." But before she could finish Sera cut in. And while crying she said. "Please... I don''t want to lose someone I care about again... Just, promise me... Please..." Instead of saying anything Bea just hugged her. They both were crying at this point. They knew how much they''ve lost already so the thought of losing each other, was nearly unbearable. After a while they both fell asleep while holding onto each other, for much needed support. Chapter 33: War Plans "Why won''t you two just go and get a room already." Said a female voice. Bea looked towards the voice and with sleepy eyes she could make out Lucy grinning down at her. "Lucy, what do you want? I was sleeping." "Oh, I bet you were. You two slept real good didn''t you." Lucy said chuckling. ''What is she talking about. Yeah, I had a really good sleep for some reason, but why did she make that snide remark. And what did she mean by saying ''you two''.'' At that moment something moved next to Bea which startled her. There on the other side of the bed Seraphine was starting to stir up. "What''s going on? Lucy, why are you bothering me?" Said Seraphine, in a very cute and tired voice. "You two are unbelievable, if you want to have sex. Go somewhere more private than the infirmary, you are lucky that everyone left already." ''Fuck, she will never going to stop bringing this up.'' Finally, Seraphine turned her way and they looked into each other''s eye for a second too. Then they both got up while blushing. "Oh, you two are so cute." "Shut up Lucy!" They both shouted. ''Well, this was embarrassing but I like it for some reason.'' "Lucy, why are you here?" Asked Bea, with a bit too much need for a subject change. "Why did I interrupted something?" Lucy had a stupid grin on her face as she said it and Bea gave her a look that meant violence if she didn''t drop the subject. "Fine-fine I stop. I came here to see if you two are up to some planning. Because you know, we didn''t win the war yet." That sobered both of them up and got rid of any left over tiredness remaining from their sleep. Seraphine answered for both of them. "Okay, let''s go." "What is that?" Asked Clockwork. Seraphine answered: "That is a high grade military bunker from before the Apocalypse. It has everything we need food, shelter, weapons and probably many more things we don''t even know, but would certainly help." All of them were stunned by this information. Clockwork regained his composure first and asked. "How do you know Nightmare doesn''t know about this bunker and he didn''t loot the whole place already?" Bea answered this time. "Oh, he most certainly knows about the bunker, because we both went and scouted it when we first arrived. But don''t worry it''s not looted, because the entrance of the bunker is where a Corrupted of the 1st Tier lives." That dumbfounded all of them yet again, but this time Lucy was the one who spoke first. "Well, no shit it''s not looted, even he can''t kill something like that. Why do you think we can do something even he can''t accomplish?!" Bea and Seraphime both looked at each other and laughed. Then Seraphine continued. "Of course he couldn''t make it happen. He didn''t have me! The Corrupted has an affinity towards shadows and can control them, but I can summon light which is its perfect counter." This time it was Witchdoctor of all people to speak. "I think you fail to realize how much stronger a Corrupted is than an Evolved. Yes, you are the strongest in this room probably, but taking on a Corrupted is still not an option for you or all of us for that matter." Seraphine and Bea glanced together again and grinned. "That''s why we need to get stronger first and we just happened to live above like a million Life Essence just waiting to be collected." Said Bea. They went pale hearing and understanding what she meant. Killshot said with a stammer. "You-you m-mean to t-tell us to... S-start killing those crustaceans in the sewers? Are you both insane?" Seraphine said with a grin. "Don''t be so scared, they are just 1st Tier Tainted. And our goal is not to exterminate them but to farm them for Life Essence." They began making out the details of the plan and after a couple hours it was ready. But they decided to wait for a couple of days for everyone to prepare. Chapter 34: Fighting Lessons The members of the team started to go on their way. The plan was ready so everyone could enjoy these days of free time. Sera was about to leave to her room as well, when she heard Bea call out to her. "Hey, Seraphine I think we should go train. I have seen how you fight, your reflexes are really good, probably because of that Clear Mind Heritage of yours, but your technique is basically non-existent." Sera thought for a second, then decided that it makes sense to train. Being lazy would be fun, but would do no good for anyone. And it was an excuse to spend more time with Bea. "Okay, but where do we go, is there a training area somewhere?" "Yes, there is and because our Watches are connected you can check every information that mine has. That includes the floor plan of the building." With that, Sera brought up the floor plan and they headed to the training area. She was too absorbed with the map to notice the glances Bea was stealing in her direction. They arrived there in a couple of minutes. There were people training on different machines, shooting at the range next to the gym, the dueling mats were mostly empty though. They went to change into training clothes. The clothing really accentuated their sinful bodies and no one could take their eyes off of them. The two girls were different though, they couldn''t look at the other without blushing. ''Fuck, why couldn''t she wore something less tight fitting. How am I supposed to concentrate on the fighting, just imagine that body getting all sweaty and close to me. Stop you idiot! Focus! You are here to learn, not to be horny!'' In a couple of minutes, after they got themselves under enough control. They were on one of the mats, talking. "Do you want to use a glaive as your main weapon?" Asked Bea, there was still a hint of red on her face. "I never really thought about it. This is the first and only weapon I have received and it helped me a lot. But I feel like it''s not the best for my fighting style. It''s blade is too big." Answered Sera trying not to think about how horny she was. "Okay, so not glaive. There is a bunch of training weapons here. Let''s see if we can find something that suits you." "Your awareness slipped in the face of victory. Until you know that your opponent is hundred percent dead, you stay focused. Let''s go again." They went again, then again, then again and every single time Sera lost. But she wasn''t dejected at all, she was actually really enjoying it and not only because she could admire Bea''s sweaty body. The main reason is, that she was actually improving. Sera started to make less mistakes and her awareness rarely slipped. The other thing Sera noticed during the fighting is, that Clear Mind has way bigger potential than she thought. During the fighting it kept her focused on multiple things at once the enemies footwork, the movement of the weapon, where the enemy is looking, and a bunch of other things. She knew that mastering this will be the next step to unlocking more of her Heritage. In the end, they were both lying next to each other on the mat, breathing heavily and utterly exhausted. Suddenly Sera said without thinking. "We should probably go take a shower." Bea glanced at her incredulously and with a deep blush. "Y-you mean... Together?" Sera looked at her and blushed as well. "No, of course not!" Bea looked away a bit sad and said. "Ohh, yeah I just misunderstood..." ''Wait, did she want to take a shower with me?'' She wasn''t able to ask because Bea hurried away. Chapter 35: How Do You Feel?* !!! *Contains sexual content !!! Bea hurried away from the mat where she and Seraphine were fighting before. She quickly took a shower and thankfully avoided meeting with Seraphine. After that she basically ran back to her room and sat down on the ground, with the door to her back. ''You''re so stupid! What were you thinking, that she would like you? Why would she? You''re nothing compared to her!'' Bea couldn''t escape these thoughts and while drowning in her self misery, tears began to fall from her face. Bea spent maybe a minute or an hour on the floor crying, she didn''t know or care. ''Why did you have to ruin it! Maybe with given time she would''ve felt that way as well, but now it''s all ruined. You fucking idiot! I hate you!'' While having these thoughts, Bea didn''t hear the knock on the door. She only heard it when a whispering voice called. "Hey, Bea... are you here?" It was Seraphine. ''Oh god, she can''t see me like this!'' "Uhm... I''m not feeling well... Could you please go away...?" There was a sigh behind the door then Seraphine spoke again. "Could we perhaps talk about what happened in the gym?" ''Fuck! She knows or maybe doesn''t and just curious? Let''s pretend!'' "I-I don''t know... What you mean..." ''Great job you dumb bitch! Very convincing!'' Turning towards her she saw Seraphine''s face looking at the floor and her hands were trembling. Bea decided and grabbed her hands, which startled Seraphine. "Of course I am... The bigger question is... How do you feel about me?" ''There I said it! She can decide what to do with it.'' But never in her wildest dreams was she prepared to what came next. Seraphine looked into her eyes for a couple of seconds, then leaned in and kissed her on the lips. ''Oh my god... her lips are so hot and soft... I couldn''t get enough of it till the day I die.'' The kiss was a couple seconds long, then Seraphine broke it and Bea already wanted more. But she also knew, to hold back until she made sure if Seraphine wanted it as well. As they looked at each other Seraphine whispered to her "I hope this answers your questions..." She couldn''t finish her sentence because suddenly Bea attacked her mouth, there were no tongues involved and she had to hold herself back with all her willpower. Bea couldn''t stop getting enough of her but after a couple of minutes she stopped. Seraphine was lying on her back and Bea was on her. There was only a few centimeters between them. They were both breathless from the long kiss and were looking at each other, when Bea asked. "Seraphine, are you sure about this?" Bea was still a bit hesitant when she asked, but the bright smile on Seraphine''s face told her everything she needed to know. "Yes, and please... call me Sera." That broke everything that still held her back and she attacked her mouth with renewed ferocity. And in the next second a tongue tried to enter her mouth, rising up to the challenge she used her own tongue and they battled. In the end she won and began exploring Sera''s mouth with it. Her lips were so soft and Sera''s tongue exploring her own mouth, it was an amazing feeling, perfect even. Bea started to feel hot and began pressing her lower body against hers. All the while she began kneading her breasts and ass through the clothing. Sera''s own hands were exploring her back under her shirt. She pressed Bea closer onto her and Sera was about to push one hand into her pants and onto her own butt. Then suddenly a knock came at the door and a voice called. "Hey Bea, are you ready to go out? We''re starting to run low on meat and need to hunt!" They broke the kiss, a saliva bridge still connected their mouths. Then with a lot of reluctance they stood and went to the door. Chapter 36: Operation: Sewer Farm Sera started to become very annoyed with the world. Whenever she and Bea went to continue what they started on that faithful night, something always comes up. Throughout the few days before the operation they tried to have sex nearly a dozen times, but never managed to go further than kissing. It made both of them very frustrated and constantly horny. They gave time to sword training, because both of them judged that more important then to finally have sex. Sera was improving surprisingly well, she wasn''t nearly as good as Bea, but instead of losing within a couple seconds she could hold her ground for a minute at least. The trainings were a special kind of torture. Watching each others sweaty bodies, sometimes pressing them to each other. They really had to hold back and not do it on the mat for everyone to see. The shower wasn''t an option as well, they wanted their first time together to be more special. After enduring it for a couple of days, they finally decided to wait until they move into the bunker. No matter how much they wanted it, the people''s safety was priority for both of them. The days went by like this and finally the day of the operation came. They met up at the police stations entrance. All seven of them were here. The guard roster has been changed accordingly, so they would be safe while all of them were increasing their power. "Okay, is everyone fucking ready?" Asked Sera, she didn''t try to hide the anger in her voice. ''Good, at least I can elevate my frustration with some killing.'' Lucy was about to make a snide remark when both Sera and Bea looked at her. She looked away with a pale face. There''s going to be a lot of killing today, which was perfect for both of them. "Yeah, lets get this over with." Answered Bea for everyone and none dared to disagree. They went to a further sewer entrance and went in. The plan is, that they stay near the exit in case of a fast retreat. Lucy is going to alert the enemy, then they will establish a killing field in the best way possible and kill as many crustacean as they can. They weren''t really using their abilities to kill them. They tried to hold onto their Essence as long as possible, but as time went on the situation started to become worse and worse. In the end Bea and Will had to start using their powers, while Sera and Lucy were fighting in their transformed form. After the battle against Deathbringer, Sera discovered a limitation to her wings. The more enemy it affects, the weaker its power. Even though she tried to use it, the crustaceans didn''t really care, so she truned it off. ''If they are controlled by some Horror as we think, then it wouldn''t do shit against them anyway.'' The trainings done wonders to her battle prowess, and the mastery she achieved with Clear Mind made it possible to always be at a place where she was needed. ''I feel like I''m nearing the limit of Clear Mind, but I still haven''t used it at its full power. I should start thinking about the next Heratige at some point.'' She used her glaive to cut through multiple monsters, then immediately went into the air to the left and killed a couple on the ceiling. Meanwhile Bea was using her ability tactically, to hold back some enemies by breaking up their momentum further. Will was doing his share as well, he increased the water pressure on the enemies side, slowing them down. Lucy was flying between them, causing mayhem wherever she went. Killshot was using normal bullets since his Essence wasn''t infinite. Witchdoctor and Clockwork used the weapons they borrowed from the regulars. The Life Essence absorbtion didn''t care how you killed your enemy, if you made the killing blow you get the Essence. It was all going really well until Sera noticed movement way further behind them. ''It was good while it lasted.'' She killed three more monsters with one swing, then called out to the others. Chapter 37: Deep Lurker Considering the situation each of her teammates where in, Sera decided which plan to follow. ''Bea is too detrimental on this side, same goes for Lucy and Will, which means it has to be plan D.'' "Everyone! Plan D is in effect! Change in 10 seconds!" The enemy on the other side was about to hit them in 10 seconds, so Sera went in to break their momentum. Plan D relied on her the most, while Witchdoctor and Clockwork supported her from the sides and Killshot from the back. ''This is going to suck!'' She hit the wall of monsters and began cutting them to pieces, she didn''t stop for a second. Stopping meant certain death. The 10 seconds went by and everyone was at their positions, which eased her job quite a bit. "You have killed... Your Soul is... You have... Your Soul... You... You..." ''It doesn''t help, that I can hardly hear my own thoughts with this sound in my head. Fuck it''s so annoying!'' She started to become angry, but held onto her sanity. ''The bloodlust would only break the formation and everyone would be swarmed.'' Sera dodged a set of scythe like appendages for the 1000th time it felt like, then delivered a devastating slash, breaking carapace and killing the monster. She was getting slower but could still keep up. ''Well, at least we are certain that there''s an endless amount of these fuckers.'' While evading an attack she saw how the others were doing. Bea''s side was getting worse for wear, they had some bleeding wounds, but didn''t call out for retreat so none of their injuries were that bad. Their at the end of the tunnel was darkness, but not like shadows or the night. No, it gave off a feeling like the deepest depths of the ocean. But that wasn''t the worst. There was something in the darkness. ''I definitely shouldn''t look at it. It feels like I go insane just by catching a glimpse of it.'' Instead she turned on her wing''s ability on maximum power, her Essence would burn out in a couple of seconds, but that''s all she needed. Her gamble worked out and she was able to move again. Sera immediately grabbed Bea and flew out of the sewer. She didn''t dare to look back even for a glimpse. They went out through the sewer hatch, which Will instantly closed. Bea was trembling in her arm, but Sera couldn''t focus on anything. All of her Essence ran out and she was doing her best to not pass out. The others were talking including Bea, but Sera couldn''t hear anything because of the constant notifications. ''Shut up! Shut up! SHUT THE FUCK UP!* She might have said it aloud because the others gave her worrying looks, but she didn''t care. The bloodlust reached its apex in the tunnels and the ''Deep Lurker'' only increased it. Now she couldn''t control it anymore. Sera got up from the ground with bloodshot eyes. Witchdoctor was in front of her, probably saying some diagnosis. Sera didn''t hesitate and punched her in the head, then she moved to hit Lucy but she dodged in time. Using her momentum she tried to hit Will but his shield blocked the blow and before she could hit him again suddenly vines came from the ground immobilizing her. Bea stood in front of her, a meter or so away. "Let me go! I''m going to kill everyone! LET ME GO!" Screamed Sera over and over again. At some point Bea put a kiss on her brow, then Sera tried to bite her, so she moved back. There were streams of tears flowing down on her face as she whispered. "Please... forgive me..." With that the vines began tightening around her neck until the airflow stopped. Sera tried to hold on, but in a couple of seconds she passed out. Chapter 38: New Type of Pain Bea was kneeling on the ground holding onto Sera''s unconscious body. What she had to do to her, was more painful than any injury, Bea had suffered in her life. Even though Bea knew what she did to Sera was in her best interest, it still felt like her heart was being torn to pieces. And kneeling while holding her was like torture. Seeing what Bea had done to her. She couldn''t even think, her tears still haven''t stopped falling. The whole battle was more than an hour ago. Witchdoctor was already up and awake, she was very angry at Sera, but seeing Bea crying over her unconscious body she held her tongue. The others were talking about something, but Bea couldn''t hear them. After about ten more minutes Lucy approached Bea. She squatted next to her and said in a very kind voice. "Hey... We should probably head back to base... Sera will be fine... Will is going to carry her, like last time..." Bea knew Lucy was trying to make her go, because it''s not safe here. But didn''t care and instead got angry. "If you want to leave us so much then go! She sacrificed so much for us to win today! Do you even care about that? Or you just happy that you got some Life Essence and don''t care about other people!" Lucy''s expression was pure pain, but Bea didn''t care at all. "Fuck you, Bea! It''s not my fault that your stupid girlfriend lost her mind and attacked everyone. Maybe if she wouldn''t be a little..." She couldn''t finish the sentence because suddenly a sword was at her throat. "I dare you to try and finish that sentence!" Bea''s voice was as cold as ice and her eyes were the definition of hostility. She would actually do it without hesitation. On the other hand Lucy''s face was deathly pale and her eyes were wide with fear. Before the situation could escalate any further Will called out. "That is enough! Both of you! Bea put the sword down and bring Seraphine! We are going back to base right now!" Some awareness returned to Bea''s eyes, she basically dropped the sword and backed away looking frightened. Then she looked at Lucy, who was still frozen to her spot. "Lucy... I''m so sorry... I don''t know what came over me..." Lucy turned her head and looked at Bea, then turned into an eagle and flew into the sky. Bea looked after her, but she was immediately brought out of her reverie. "I''m sorry about the things I said... I was just angry and wanted to leave for safety." "Huhh... I''m sorry as well... Lets just forget about it, what do you say?" "That would be great... Also how many Essence did you acquire? I have 786." "You too? Fuck I should have put more effort in!" Whined Killshot. As the others were talking she checked both hers and Sera''s counter. And eventually said. "I have 879 Essence and Sera has 901." As she said it the others looked at her with weird expressions. ''Why are they staring at me? Yeah mine and Sera''s are a lot higher than theirs but we were down there for longer. Did I say something wrong?'' But she realized her mistake when Killshot asked with a stupid grin on his face. "So, Lady Bea... How do you know Saint Seraphine''s Essence count?" ''Well, shit! Now they know. I mean... Its not like we tried to keep it hidden. In fact we tried to have sex a bunch of times, but something always came up.'' "What do you think, isn''t it obvious? Because she is her girlfriend !" Said Lucy with a grin of her own. ''Great just what I needed.'' But she did like the sound of girlfriend. Just thinking about it brought a smile to her face, which turned into a blush really quickly, because everyone was still staring at her. "We haven''t really talked about what we are yet. But we kissed so, do with that what you want." At that point they had already arrived to the station. Bea didn''t bring Sera to the infirmary, instead they went to her own room where she tucked her in. Then sat on a chair and held her hand. Bea learned a knew kind of pain today, the pain of hurting someone you love for their own good. ''I hope neither of us has to feel like that ever again.'' Chapter 39: Volunteers After a couple hours Sera was finally waking up. Her head pounded like a bell and her throat felt like she swallowed some sandpaper. ''Fuck, what happened? Where am I? We escaped that weird eldritch being in the sewer and then nothing...'' She finally managed to open her eyes and saw Bea holding her hand, asleep. Sera tried to slip her hand out and get up, but instead she just groaned, waking up Bea. On her face concern and sorrow were showing. "Hey... how are you feeling...?" She asked in a small voice. "W-water... Please..." Is all Sera managed with her throat being so dry. Bea''s eyes widened with guilt and in a second she was already bringing a glass over. "T-thanks..." She drank deeply and enjoyed the coolness of the water. ''Water is so good! So much better than blood.'' Suddenly Bea looked at her and in a very timid voice asked. "A-are you mad at me? For... you know..." Bea couldn''t keep eye contact and had to look away, her face still stricken with guilt. "What... Do you mean? Why would I... Be mad?" The speaking still took some effort but Sera managed. Bea was a bit surprised, then she explained what happened after escaping. Sera felt worse and worse as the story went on. As she finished the explanation, Bea asked again. "So, are you angry at me?" "I should ask that question shouldn''t I? How is Witchdoctor doing?" Bea''s mood improved a bit as she said. "She is fine, just pissed at you that''s all." Sera looked at Bea''s face, their was still some remnant sadness there. So she leaned in and kissed her. It wasn''t a long, but one with more meaning than any word could deliver. "You don''t feel guilty for what you did! I was under the spell of bloodlust and began hurting our friends. If something like that happens, you should do it again. And I don''t even remember it so just act like nothing happened." ''Or maybe I''m the problem. In Newber, they never given Evolved names like Saint or Lady. It doesn''t really matter until he does his job well.'' Lucy spoke for both of them. "We need 6 volunteers to help scout out a Corrupted of the 1st Tier. And don''t worry, this is only a scouting mission." Moe nodded and repeated louder so everyone could hear it. ''Here we go, there probably won''t going to be any volunteers but it''s too dangerous to just order people to come with them.'' But to Sera''s surprise everyone raised there hand. Even Lucy wasn''t prepared for that. They looked at each other with pure bewilderment. Seeing their confusion Moe smiled. "What? Did you think that there wouldn''t be any volunteers for a mission with Saint Seraphine?" At this point Sera couldn''t hold it back anymore. "Why do you value me so much?" It wasn''t Moe who answered but a regular who is probably close to Sera''s own age. "Saint Seraphine, we were about to be enslaved or killed. Deathbringer brought enough people to kill all of us." An older soldier cut in and continued. "But you woke up after weeks of unconsciousness, close to a day before the battle. And because of you, we didn''t even lose a single person." This time a woman carried on. "So we believe with Saint Seraphine''s and Lady Bea''s leadership, we will win this war, rescue our people and reach Castleburg!" With that a cheer went up within the ranks of soldiers. Sera was fully stunned by this revelation. ''At least the volunteering won''t be a problem, probably ever.'' Chapter 40: Reverence In the end, they let Moe choose the 6 people for the mission. 3 women and 3 men. They were their best soldiers and that meant a lot coming from Moe. The scouting mission will be done from two directions, north and southwest. Lucy and Sera decided to do it this way because it will increase the chances of gathering information. So after a couple of minutes of walking the 8 of them split into two groups. One was led by Lucy and they will scout from the southwest. The other is led by Sera and they got the north. As they walked through the ruined city, Sera was feeling very uncomfortable, the three people with her acted like she was a religious figurehead. At some point it got so annoying that she began asking them questions so at least they were talking. "What are your names?" "Saint Seraphine! My name is Ash, thank you for choosing me on this mission! I hope I won''t let you down." ''Fuck me, please don''t tell me they are going to talk like that...'' "Saint Seraphine! I''m Faith and it''s an honor to be here My Lady." Said the other female bowing. ''Oh my god! She actually fucking bowed.'' "Saint Seraphine! I''m called Isaac, it''s a pleasure to finally meet you." ''Well, he is somewhat normal at least...'' But he wasn''t finished. "If the Lady requires anything, please just ask." ''Okay, no. All of them are like that. This is going to be a long mission...'' As they walked through the streets, they sometimes had to run, hide or even fight. But something became very obvious for Sera pretty soon. ''I''m so much more powerful! The increase in Essence made me way stronger! But I shouldn''t overestimate myself. I''m still only an Evolved.'' The power growth did nothing to make her look more human in the eyes of the regulars. When they were closing in on the bunker entrance, the three soldier acted like she was a holy being sent by god. "Uhmm... What rumors did you hear?" They looked at each other then Faith began. "We heard that you two fell in love on first sight." Ash cut in. "And you immediately connected your Watches because you knew that she was the love of your life. Is it true?" ''I-I mean I like her... But love of my life is a bit of an exaggeration at this point. But I can''t say that... I just lay out the truth and they do with it what they want.'' "I did connect my Watch with Bea''s and we do like each other." With that Sera left them to do the cooking, she had a lot to think about. Mostly her future progression. ''I nearly have a thousand Life Essence, so what monster should I hunt for the rank up?'' Sera thought about it for a while then dropped the topic. ''It''s unnecessary to plan that far ahead and I want to ask Bea''s opinion on the subject.'' The next thing she thought about was her Heritage, specifically the next one. Sera nearly mastered the use of Clear Mind, but until she gets better at fighting, it wouldn''t really improve. ''How to get the next one? The description said "With that clarity he continued to fight, because giving up meant the destruction of his people". But what does it mean in my case? Fighting while using Clear Mind to save my people. Do I even have people?'' While thinking Isaac approached her. "Saint Seraphine. Dinner is ready, if you would like to eat." ''I will think about it later.'' Sera just nodded her thanks and went to eat. After eating her fill she took out her training sword and began practicing. She was sweaty and exhausted by the time the Sun went down. And when night arrived so did the Corrupted. Chapter 41: Scouting The Devil Sera and her group were prone on the roof in total silence. As they were relaxing all of them heard a sound, it was a roar. Seconds later Ash came running in, she was on watch duty and she told what was kind of obvious for everyone. "My Lady, the Corrupted is heading in our direction." "Thank you Ash. Lets head to the roof." And here they were, waiting for the Corrupted to show itself. They needed to get as much information as possible and they wanted to scan it. Even the monster''s name could provide clues about its powers. They didn''t know anything about the creature, they only knew that it''s a Corrupted because that''s what Nightmare told Bea back then. They didn''t even know its Tier. They were watching the streets trying to find the monster, but it was nowhere to be seen. And had to wait for nearly an hour before they heard it again. ''Something is off... Where did the sound come from?'' The sound was like it came from everywhere as it echoed between the buildings. Sera was wearing her Clothing Item under her tactical gear so the she had better hearing then most. But still she couldn''t pinpoint the noise. ''It''s coming from our direction. Maybe below us?'' But then it hit her, the sound didn''t come from below. Sera slowly began to raise her head into the sky. Their what she saw is the literal definition of demon. A huge figure around 5 meters in height with curved horns, dark red skin, a pair of black bat-like wings, was flying right above them. Sera looked at it and only felt pure malice coming from the devil. She couldn''t see the whole creature from this angle, but saw enough to know that it''s going to be a hard fight. "Watch. Scan." She whsipered into her Watch. The rest of the group looked at her, they didn''t notice the creature above them. Sera without saying a word pointed up and they used their optics to analyze every inch of the demon. "Scanning complete! Classification: Corrupted of the 1st Tier! Name: Night Demon!" "This is excellent, then we could head home to make a plan against this ugly bastard." "Yeah, finish eating then lets go. I haven''t slept all night." "Oh, I bet Bea will help you with that." Said Lucy with a grin. Sera blushed a bit but didn''t look away as she said in a faked outrage. "So you are the one who''s spreading rumors about me and Bea." "What rumors? I only tell the truth, Bea and you already confirmed it." Said Lucy while chuckling. "Fine, whatever! Finish eating and then lets go!" With that Sera went up the roof to keep an eye on things while the others rested. Soon they finished eating and began the journey back to the station. They had to fight a couple of creatures, but the regulars took care of them. After a few hours they arrived. They bid farewell to the soldiers and they all saluted them. With that done, Lucy and Sera went straight for the conference room. The others were waiting already and so the long planning began. It took them hours to work out a way to win, but eventually they decided on a viable plan. Which will be executed in two days. They spoke of other important matters afterward like a potential spy''s existence. "It just seems way too convenient, that Deathbringer knew not just about our plan, but Saint Seraphine''s existence as well." Said Clockwork. "You are probably right, but we weren''t too secretive about our plans either. And Nightmare could have an Evolved that has some kind of future sight or something. The only thing we can do is proceed with our plans." Answered Bea. "But if anyone is suspicious of someone, don''t hesitate to isolate and question them." Added Sera. With that the meeting came to an end. Sera and Bea went into ''their room'' as they began to call it. To talk about the future. Chapter 42: Thoughts on The Future Bea sat on the bed her back against the backboard, she held Sera''s head on her thighs. Sera was sprawled out on the bed, while Bea massaged her head and she periodically moaned. Sera had a long day, then night, then day again. And the planning session didn''t help at all. But she couldn''t sleep yet, her brain was still working overtime about the discoveries and connections she made. Sera wanted to talk with Bea about it, but this massage was too good to pass on. ''Just a couple more minutes. Then we will talk.'' 15 minutes later she finally opened her eyes and looked at Bea. She was smiling down at her, with her fingers dancing through Sera''s hair. She leaned in and gave a long sensual kiss. After that she straightened and asked. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Sera needed a few seconds to gather her thoughts but eventually remembered. "I wanted to talk about multiple things, but lets start with the most obvious. Do you want to be my girlfriend?" Sera blushed as she asked, but her head was still on Bea thighs so she couldn''t turn away. Bea looked down at her, she wasn''t surprised about her question and her answer came pretty fast. "I thought we were already? Didn''t you?" She asked with a grin. "I was... But I wasn''t sure..." Sera at this point tried to turn her head away in embarrassment, but Bea held it firm and but another kiss on her lips. "You are so cute while blushing." Bea whispered on her lips. "And you are a meany for making me blush constantly." Said Sera with a pout. "Okay, then find someone else to massage your head." "Yeah, I know. We will get to the bunker soon enough, then I will finally be able to fuck your brains out. I actually need to run some errands so there isn''t even time." Bea kissed her once more, then got up and went out. Sera spent an hour turning from one side to the other until she finally managed to calm herself down and fall asleep. She was asleep for a long time. At some point she woke up and found Bea hugging her while sleeping, so Sera decided to sleep a bit more for no reason in particular. The next two days went by fast. Sera spent most of it training and sleeping. She also began training more with her abilities. After figuring out her future progression, she should begin mastering them. Sadly the soldiers that volunteered to help her train, can''t take too much of a beating. They did help to better control her Wings of Despair ability. Because they are allies she inspires them and with their feedback Sera began perfecting her output and Essence usage. With her light she couldn''t do much other than learn to make different parts of her body or weapon glow. She tried to focus on smaller and smaller areas. The smallest she had gotten is her nipple, which made Bea laugh so hard that she was rolling on the floor crying. Time went by and the faithful day when they will challenge the Night Demon finally arrived. They all met up at the station entrance, there was also 20 soldier with them. Their job will be to keep a safe perimeter around the battle-zone. As Bea and Sera stepped out all of them did something, that no one expected. They actually knelt. "Well, this is new...." Whispered Sera. Bea recovered from her surprise quickly and said. "Our Soldiers! Today we will do something, that no one has ever done! 7 Evolved will hunt down a Corrupted!" The cheers were deafening, but at some point it turned into one voice shouting two names. "SAINT SERAPHINE! LADY BEA! SAINT SERAPHINE! LADY BEA!" And while the shouting went on Sera kissed Bea which caused another round of cheers. Then with high moral they marched to face the devil. Chapter 43: Ambush In The Day Sun just came up when they left the station. It was a big part of the plan that the attack happens in the day. They based this on the fact that their enemy''s name was Night Demon. Bea walked next to Sera in the front, leading the group. Behind them came the rest of their team except, Lucy who was currently scouting. And behind them marched the 20 soldiers in full kit, ready for battle. They estimated their arrival to be around noon. Walking through the city no one talked, everyone was watching the surroundings, wary about ambushes. As they went sometimes a couple of Tainted or even Rotten came and attacked them, but they made quick work of them. In the end their progression slowed when Lucy told them to change route. But not by much, they arrived at 2 hours past noon. Everyone took their positions. The regulars split up and went to their posts as well. They were ready for the battle. ''Lets see how we manage.'' Thought Bea and while Lucy went to bait out the demon, Bea went to Sera and gave her a deep kiss for luck. ''Now we only have to wait for Lucy''s signal.'' They didn''t have to wait long, in 5 minutes she was already hurrying back with a dark shape not far behind her. The Corrupted moved with incredible speed, it moved his head before the round could hit it, then used each of its swords to parry both attacks. It was about to retaliate when vines moved around its legs stopping it for a split second. And within that split second, a giant eagle slammed into its face taking one of its eyes with her talon. While these attacks went on, a glaive with a of pure white light around it, came crashing down on one of the creatures arms. The arm fell to the ground. And Sera was flying through the air because the Corrupted slammed into her. But she quickly used her wings and delivered another slash, while Bea took its attention with a swing of her own. It was going well but the monster suddenly changed tactics. It began ignoring the smaller attacks and focused on single targets. The first one to fall was Clockwork, both greatsword slammed into his chest, the Rotten armor held but he lost consciousness and flew 10 meters through the air. With Clockwork gone they changed formation, Lucy in the air harassing the beast, while they three are trying to attack when someone else has its attention. Both swords were heading toward Sera but she dodged back. The demon followed on as if realizing that she is the biggest threat to it. Bea was already using her Essence to enhance her sword''s attacks and she went in and cut off one of the monsters wings. It screamed as it turned around and slammed both swords on the spot where Bea stood, but she used her vines to easily evade it. The follow up attack came but this time with a rhythm change one slash from the left, the other a stab a split second later. Bea went under the slash, but was a fraction of a second too slow and got a cut on her arm. After that Will stabbed the creature in a leg''s joint but it didn''t care and used an arm to grab his shield. Using one of the swords it tried to skewer him, but Lucy managed to knock him out of the way and instead of dying he went down with a nasty cut, but alive. ''Shit, this isn''t going well! We need to do something!'' Sera must have thought the same thing because her attacks became more ferocious but not because of bloodlust, it was pure skill as she moved between attacks and delivered cut upon cut. Bea went in after Sera and the two of them began taking the beast apart. Lucy couldn''t do much, other than taking Will away from the destruction. And she was helpless when Bea went down with her body cut in half. Chapter 44: The Birth of Something New This day began nice for Lucy, she woke up in one of the soldier''s beds, after some drinking in the night. Lucy didn''t even know when was the last time she had slept in her own bed. ''What''s the point when I can have fun in someone elses.'' As Lucy woke up and quickly dressed she said goodbye to the soldier in the bed, whoever he was and was about to look for the others. ''Today we are making history, 7 young Evolved taking on a Corrupted. I''m so excited.'' While heading out of the barracks she overheard a couple of conversations. Most of them were about two person, the others about today''s mission. ''Seems like everyone is just as excited as I''m. In fact there is not even a hint of fear or doubt in their voices. That pair really did a number on them with this whole religious crap. But it gives them purpose and takes their fear away, so I guess it''s okay.'' After the scouting mission, the reverence they began speaking about Bea and Seraphine increased by a lot. The news that they are lovers was just pouring oil on an open flame. ''It''s getting weirder and weirder but I don''t understand why are they so obsessed with them, like yeah they want to believe that this shit show will end. But isn''t this a bit too much?'' She finally arrived to the entrance, all the others were here including the 20 regulars. Only two people were missing, the leaders. ''They probably want to make a scene with their entry. Oh... speak of the devil.'' The next thing surprised Lucy, all the soldiers knelt in front of the pair. ''Okay... Didn''t expected that...'' But she wasn''t prepared for a lot of things, the speech Bea made, the cheers and the kiss at the end. ''Did they rehearse it beforehand?'' In truth Lucy didn''t care, it was just kind of interesting. Until the people have this much faith in their leaders, and said leaders keep putting the need of the people before their personal interest, it doesn''t matter. As she was thinking that suddenly a scream sounded, it was Seraphine but she didn''t scream for herself. Instead she screamed because Bea was in two pieces on the ground. She was still alive and slowly regenerating but the demon was preparing the killing blow already. Its weapons fell, but were stopped in mid air by Seraphine''s glaive. The weapon cracked, but held. ''How can she hold her ground against that monster?'' "GET... HER... OUT..." Screamed Seraphine through gritted teeth. Lucy knew immediately who she was talking to and moved to pull Bea away. In the meantime Seraphine made sure the demon wasn''t near Bea or the others. She tried her best to kill the demon, but her attacks were easily blocked. The only good thing was that the light around her weapon seemed to hurt the demon and its weapon. That''s why Seraphine was the biggest threat to it and why they had a chance for success. But Seraphine alone can''t kill it, and she knew it as wel,l but didn''t give up, because giving up meant the destruction of her loved ones. Seraphine tried her best. But as she blocked an attack her glaive shattered and turned into specks of light. Suddenly a sword went through her abdomen just missing her spinal cord. In the next second she was flying through the air, then hit the ground hard and stopped moving. The demon looked at her for a few seconds then turned away and approached Lucy and all her injured friends. She stood her ground ready to fight, no matter how pointless. The demon attacked her with the swords and she evaded them but the 3rd empty hand grabbed her by the neck and threw her on the ground. Lucy only had time to look up and see two massive swords heading her way. Then suddenly white feathers were before her and in a flash of light something incredible happened. Seraphine stood in front of her and there was a sword made of light in her hand, around her were the pieces of the two greatswords. The demon was still standing in front of Lucy, but something was wrong with it. ''What''s wrong with it? It looks... afraid...'' As the realization settled in Seraphine moved and cut the demon from head to crotch with ease. ''I think I finally understand the regulars...'' Seraphine turned around and looked at all of them individually, her eyes lingering on Bea who was starting to awaken. As she saw all of them alive and well, she smiled then fell to her knees and side. Lucy only now noticed the ocean of blood pouring out of the hole on Seraphine''s abdomen. Chapter 45: Life and Death "Aghh... Fuck!" Was Bea''s first words waking up. Her senses were still confused, but she heard loud noises coming from close by. ''What''s going on? Where''s Sera? What happened to the demon?'' Questions like this kept popping up in her head. Bea began to try and stand up, but her legs haven''t grown back fully yet. Suddenly a shout could be heard, it was Lucy. "Witch! Help!" ''Why did she sound so desperate? Is she worried for me, I will be fine in a minute or two...'' Then she turned towards Lucy''s voice and her heart stopped. Will was next to her and they were really bloody. But it wasn''t the demons blood. Suddenly Witchdoctor sprinted towards them, she glanced at Bea but seeing her slowly regenerating, moved on. ''Did someone get hurt? Whos blood is on their hands? And where the fuck is Sera?'' Looking around Bea saw the demon in two pieces and calmed down a bit. ''At least they managed to kill it without me...'' She was still looking for Sera when she realized her legs were fully functional already. Bea stood up with very shaky legs and made a step. She fell down on the ground. ''Shit, it still hurts...'' But she started to have a bad feeling, because of not seeing Sera anywhere. So Bea climbed on her feet and summoned the Branch of Life. With the sword''s help she approached the others. ''Why are they kneeling there...'' But deep down she already knew. Bea knew why Sera was nowhere to be seen, why Lucy called Witchdoctor over with distress, and why all of their hands were bloody. "No... No-No-No..." Bea went as fast as she could. Finally arriving she fell on her knees. Sera was lying in front of her, there was blood all over her body. She looked so pale. "No, this can''t be! NO!" She was screaming at this point, because the others weren''t doing anything. Which could only mean one thing. Sera was dead. "Witch why aren''t you doing anything! SAVE HER!" Instead she only gave Bea a pitying look and said in a kind voice. "I sorry for your loss..." "Next to your room, of course." "Okay, could you send the food there?" Lucy smiled and bowed her head. "Of course Saint Bea. I will bring it soon." ''Why is she so weird all of the sudden? And what''s up with this ''Saint Bea''?'' She thought about it, but as Bea went into Sera''s room and saw her lying on the bed, she quickly forgot about it. Instead she hurried over and checked on Sera. She was clean and all her wounds disappeared but not without a trace. There were scars everywhere. ''She is only 18 years old and she has so much responsibility. Well, I''m only 20 and have the same responsibilities. But at least we are here to help each other.'' Bea was playing with Sera''s hair when a sudden groan startled her. "Uhh... Fuck! Why does it feel like I had been skewered?" Sera was staring at Bea with a grin on her face. And that angered Bea. "Because you fucking were, you idiot! There was a fist sized hole in your stomach!" Sera pulled up her shirt and saw the scar there. Then she smiled again and said. "But I survived didn''t I?" But Sera''s smile quickly disappeared, when she saw the tears streaming down Bea''s face and the amount of pain there. "Did... Did I... Die?" Her face was deathly pale and scared, as if remembering her last moments. "Yes you did, but I brought you back..." Sera''s face was pure disbelief, but she just beckoned Bea to come to her. She went and they lay there hugging, supporting each other. After a few minutes Sera spoke. "Thank you for saving me... I try to be more careful in the future..." Bea looked at Sera and kissed her, then waited for the food. They were famished. Chapter 46: Why Does It Have To Be Sad? After a while Lucy finally arrived with the food and was happily surprised seeing Sera awake. "Saint Seraphine! You''re awake as well! I... I wanted to thank you... For saving me... I will never forget it!" Sera looked a bit uncomfortable, but she ignored Lucy''s weird way of speaking. "Uhm... Your welcome..." Bea was trying her hardest to not laugh and instead told Lucy. "Thanks for the food. After eating and everyone recovered, we begin the bunker''s exploration." "As you wish, My Lady!" Said Lucy with bowed head and left. Sera looked at Bea and asked the question that was on both of their mind. "Why is she like that? When did she became a devoted follower?" "Probably when you saved her from certain death by sacrificing yourself. And when I brought you back to life." They looked at each other agaim and sighed. "If even Lucy starts to act like that, what will happen when we rescue the others?" Asked Sera with a hint of exasperation, but also amusement. "Just ignore it and act normal. If they have this much faith in us, that''s good. Now lets eat!" With that they both started devouring their food. It was nothing special just some monster''s meat, but for them it tasted heavenly. After finishing they sprawled on the bed, satisfied. Bea was enjoying the peace, when suddenly Sera began to speak. "When did this happen?" She asked while looking at her Watches holoscreen. Her status window was open, but there were a couple of new words on it. Bea grew curious and opened Sera''s status. Name: Seraphine Title: Angel Monarch 1st Kill: Archangel of Despair, Horror of the 3rd Tier Life Essence Absorbed: 931/1000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: 1st Transformation Ability: Transformed Passive Ability: Heritage: 1st Transformation: <...> Life Essence Absorbed: 879/1000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: Heritage: Items: Without wasting time she opened its description. Description: <...> You have the Seedling of Life in your soul. Great power awaits those who understand their nature, for you this is especially true. You learned more about yourself, so your seed grew into a seedling. Your connection to nature ever deepens and your authority over it increases. ''The first part of the description didn''t change. But this second part explains a lot... I could only save Sera because of this...'' Bea turned back toward Sera who was smiling at her. With that amazing brain of hers she already figured out what the description meant. "Congratulations for upgrading your Heritage, I just hope the other upgrades will be easier." Bea sighed. "Yeah me too." "Anyway, we should go and check in with the others. We have a bunker to explore and people to transfer." Bea felt that she tried to change the subject and went along with it. "Okay, lets go! We should get this done as soon as possible, so we can have time for sex finally." They both laughed and went out. Neither of them saw anything wrong with the room. -A different part of the city- In a dark room an 8 year old girl was lying on her bed. The only light source was a candle on her bedside table. The girl was looking at the ceiling, but she seemed to be elsewhere. Suddenly a tear ran down her face. "Please hurry..." She whispered. The room was in total silence, only a couple sobs could be heard. But then footsteps sounded from the outside and the jingling of keys. The lock in the door turned and a figure appeared in the doorway. The girl sat up on the bed, she didn''t have anything on and was very dirty. There were also wounds all over her, like she was tortured. She sat in a fetal position, as far away from the door as the chains on her limbs allowed it. "Come now Freak, you don''t have to be afraid. I just want to ask some questions about, you know who." "Please... Lord Nightmare... I don''t know anything..." The girl was weeping and trembling from fear. "Maybe you just need a bit of motivation." Said Nightmare with a wicked grin on his face. Chapter 47: Freak Freak turned 8 years old a couple of weeks ago. Or was it months? She forgot a lot of things since Lord Nightmare tossed her into this room. Most importantly she couldn''t remember her name. During every torture session Nightmare would call her a freak, so that must be her name. Why else would he say it? He also calls her sometimes his favorite toy, but not toy for sex like the others, but for torment. She didn''t know why he liked to torture her specifically. In this room she was chained to the stone walls, there wasn''t much in here. Only a bed, a small table and a bucket, for obvious reasons. They fed her once a day probably, she didn''t know. She served two purposes, one is Nightmare''s toy. The other is because of her ability, yeah this small, malnourished 8 year old was an Evolved. And her transformation is, that she could send her soul out of her body. The ability was very powerful, and when Nightmare heard of it she was immediately placed into his custody. She was his best scout he said once. But whenever she reported something he didn''t like, she would get tortured. Also he somehow knew when she lied, and got tortured again. Initially he tried mental torture, his speciality. But her mind came close to breaking and she went into a coma for a week. After that, began the physical torture. It was more painful, but she still preferred it over the nightmares. Her whole body was full of scars. He had a healer to ''clean the canvas'' as he liked to refer to her body. Some wounds even the healer couldn''t heal. That''s why she was missing fingers, an ear and some ribs. Her body was in pain constantly and with no entertainment in the room she sent her soul out and watched the city. It was beautiful, the open sky, the buildings, everything. She loved to explore, and using her ability she could explore the whole city. But outside of the city was her limit. She didn''t care, she went into every building or at least tried to. She quickly realized that just because most monsters can''t see or attack her, some still could. As she watched the man named Blake pull out a dagger she began to hyperventilate from worry. But what happened next calmed and deeply satisfied her, the woman exploded with movement and light. When the light disappeared everyone enemy was dead except one. "Behind you!" She accidentaly shouted even though the woman couldn''t hear her. But someone else could. "What did you see Freak?" Asked Nightmare from the door. "N-nothing..." But it was already too late he had a suspicion, so he would get the information tortured out of her. And that''s exactly what happened, she told him everything, what she saw about Bea and the woman who she later learned was called Seraphine. But Nightmare didn''t stop there. He made her report everything about them. Which was really bad, but at least she could keep watching them. She saw when Seraphine awoke, the battle near the station, how Sera and Bea fell in love, the fighting in the sewers, the scouting of the demon and the fight. She cried when Sera was dead and jumped up and down from joy when Bea brought her back to life. And watched them explore the bunker, which she checked weeks ago, it''s empty of monsters but stocked with everything else. Sadly she had to report everything to Nightmare but as she watched over them she tried to find a way to communicate. And after weeks of trying she finally found a way. Chapter 48: Warning Sera and the others just finished looking through the bunker. They found no monsters, also the bunker was empty when the Apocalypse hit and no one in Havel made it down here. That was kind of sad, but at least the whole bunker was fully stocked. It could house 1000s of people, has enough food that could last them a year and a huge armory, full of the eras highest millitary equipment. It wasn''t the best by todays standards but still better then nothing. Clockwork will stay here with Killshot, Will and 10 soldiers. The rest will go back and began the moving process. Sera and the others were talking at the entrance to make sure everything was ready. "So when do we bring them, a week?" Asked Sera. "It should be sooner than that, they are already packed and ready to leave anytime." Answered Bea. "Hmm... Lucy you know the city the best. What do you think?" "My Lady, it will take nearly a full day to move that many people all at once. Of course, if there aren''t any setbacks throughout the journey. Also, moving in smaller portions is not an option, we don''t know when Nightmare will retaliate. And we can''t move during night, unless we want to make light and die." She took a deep breath before continuing. "Our best option is moving everyone at once, with the fastest possible route. There is a high chance of people dying, but this is our best option." Bea was about to speak when something weird happened. The soldier name Faith seemed to have a small seizure, then she got up and headed staright for them. She stopped a few meters away and spoke in a mechanical voice. "Hello... Bea... and... Sera..." It became clear pretty fast that the thing speaking wasn''t Faith. Everyone went on high alert and pointed their weapons at it. "Identify yourself!" Said Bea. "I''m... a prisoner... in Lord Nightmare''s... custody..." Her voice started to become normal, but was still weird. "What''s your name?" Asked Sera, still not lowering her sword made of light. "I don''t know... he calls me Freak... I don''t remember my previous name..." Everyone was stunned by the avalanche of information. Her life was so sad that they didn''t know what to say to any of it. Luckily their leaders were really competent, and in the face of danger they focused on the last part the girl said. "How do you know his plans?" Asked Bea with reined in anger. "I of course, spied on him. I have to go back, but please keep this person close. I don''t know what the criteria is for my possesing ability but it doesn''t work on everyone. If I learn anything, I will come." "Okay, her name is Faith by the way." Said Sera. "Faith... Please tell her to forgive me for this. And also thank you all, for not letting me lose hope. Please hurry with that rescue plan, there are a lot of people suffering more than me." With that she was gone. Faith was about to fall to the ground but Sera caught her. And in a couple of seconds she was fine but really confused. "Do you remember what happened?" Asked Sera with concern. "Yes, My Lady. It was just really weird, that''s all. Also it felt like I could fight her for control, but when I figured that out, she already told you enough to trust her. At least I trusted her, because I could feel what she felt." "What did she feel?" "Pure terror... and a miniscule amount of hope..." Sera sighed loudly then promoted Faith. "Congratulations Faith. You are now my personal assistant. You will only take commands from me or Bea. You can refuse of course but you are still needed to be close by at all times..." Sera couldn''t even finish her sentence because Faith was kneeling in front of her. "Saint Seraphine, you are too kind. I will do anything you ask of me, I will provide help whenever I can and will do everything in my power and beyond to make your life easier! I swear it!" Sera was feeling uncomfortable but also weirdly enough, satisfied. ''Maybe my ego is growing bigger, but I don''t have to worry, Bea will keep it in check.'' "Rise now, Faith!" A cheer went up as Faith rose from the ground, there was a beautiful bright smile on her face. Like she had finally reached her life''s goal. Chapter 49: Dream Come True After Faith''s promotion they said their goodbyes and hurried away. They weren''t even considering the possibility of the girl being a liar. It would be pointless for Nightmare to play mindgames. He has the numbers to crush them at any time. At least until they reach the bunker, after that even he won''t be able to kill them. Faith didn''t care about any of that. She was just feeling very happy. In fact if someone asked her, she would tell them that this was the happiest day of her life. Before the Fall of Copen she was only a 22 year old, working a mediocre job. Her parents passed away before that and she didn''t really have any friends. The Fall might have been very tragic for most, but not for her. She was just a normal human without any goals or purpose. But after the Fall she finally found something she could do, fight monsters. And so she fought as much as she could. Maybe she wasn''t the best shot or the most athletic but she did her best. Weirdly enough she was one of the most experienced in their group but she still haven''t killed anything. The killingblows were always delivered by someone else. Faith thought that this will be the height of her life and she was fine with it. She had friends and even a lover for a time, she felt content. But then came the news of someone arriving from outside the city, possibly Newber. She was really curious about this person. But she was in a coma and not long after her arrival another news came. Deathbringer was marching on them with a small army. The people trusted Bea wholly, but they also knew Deathbringers reputation. The situation seemed hopeless until the day before the attack, when the girl finally awoke and during the battle killed 10 Evolved alone, while Bea killed Deathbringer in a dual. It took no longer than a day, for everyone learn her name and everything she had accomplished. Saint Seraphine they called her. Faith wasn''t a devot believer at first to be honest. Even after seeing her fight that night, against the Evolved. Yeah she was strong and a good leader but nothing more. And after she left Faith''s body the sadness lingered, but not for long because Saint Seraphine began speaking to her. Her eyes widened with surprise, then with happiness, then with devotion. Being a personal assistant to her Lady, she wouldn''t have even dreamt of anything like that ever. Faith knew that the main reason for it was, so the girl could speak with her Lady anytime. But she won''t going to let her down and she will prove useful outside of her main duty of being a spokesperson. Sadly she couldn''t think of a way to be very useful for her Lady. But she wouldn''t give up and will find a way. They were just about to arrive at the station. Lucy already flew ahead to make them good to go, and when they arrived, everyone was ready. On the road Saint Seraphine and Saint Bea decided to leave the station this way. The Sun was just about to come up so daylight wasn''t an issue. The journey isn''t going to be easy and people could die, but anything is better than getting attacked by Nightmare. She still remembered those days before they escaped him. And learning what he had done to a poor 8 year old only made Faith angrier. "Okay, everyone say goodbye to our old home. And lets move into a better one!" People cheered, but not too loudly. The city was still full of terrifying monsters. They began their journey to the bunker, Saint Seraphine was in the front, while Saint Bea in the back, this way they could keep both sides safe. Faith was walking right behind her Lady, she was very happy and hopeful. Chapter 50: Saviour They had been marching for a couple of hours, getting closer to their destination by the minute. Sera was leading them, well technically Lucy was leading them and warning them of dangers. Sadly she can''t go into the sky anymore, the ''Pet'' as everyone calls it, is too near to be safe for flying. ''When was the last time I was in the sky just for the fun of it? I really miss it, but if I had time for fun then me and Bea would''ve already had sex. Speaking of Bea, I should bring her into the sky once, it would be fun. For me at least.'' As she thought about Bea a smile crept on her face. After fantasizing a couple of minutes she turned towards her new assistant. ''Now that I think about it, I don''t know anything about her other than her name.'' "Hey Faith, tell me about your past." "My Lady, what would you like to know." "Tell me about your life before the Fall." Faith''s face became weird. "I had a boring life. I worked at an auto repair shop working on the richer people''s vehicles, that I would never be able to afford." Sera had a small smirk as she said. "We had two cars in our household, one for my dad, the other for my mom." She said proudly, then Sera began reminiscing about the past, but stopped when she noticed Faith staring. "Uhm... what is it?" She quickly turned away, embarassed. "I...I''m sorry My Lady, it''s just that no one knows anything about you from before the Destruction of Newber. I got surprised to learn something about your past." "Ohh, I understand. But you are wrong." Faith looked at Sera confused. "About what?" "That no one knows of my past. Bea knows a most of it. And it isn''t a secret, just simply no one asks about it. You could ask anything and I answer, you should know more than others anyway, since you are my assistant." Faith looked like she was about to explode from excitement. But she reined herself in and instead said. "Thank you My Lady, for trusting me. I only have one question. I had thought about it for a long time and can''t seem to find an answer. Why?" It was Sera''s turn to be confused. "Why, what?" "I don''t know My Lady... There seems to be nothing wrong with her... She just passed out for no reason..." Sera glanced at the dead monster, then at Faith. "No reason my ass! Get Moe here right now! Lucy you lead the group, we shouldn''t linger here. And someone bring that corpse, it has many valuable materials!" "Yes My Lady!" Everyone saluted and went their way. In a few minutes Moe approched Sera and with a bow asked. "Is there anything you need from me My Lady?" "Did Faith have killed a monster before?" "No, My Lady! But she still one of the best soldier we..." "Stop! Fuck me... If she didn''t kill anything before... and she spontaneously passed out after her first kill..." "You don''t think..." Moe started but Sera cut in. "She is an Evolved." Moe nearly fell from shock. "She has been a soldier for 6 months. How unlucky, she shot many monsters, possibly hundreds but never gotten a killing blow." But Sera''s mind was elsewhere. ''She killed a Rotten of 2nd or 3rd Tier, which means she will be passed out through the whole journey to the bunker. I hope the girl won''t need to communicate until then.'' Sera looked towards Faith. They put her on a makeshift carrier and two people were already bringing her along. "Okay Moe, Faith is your responsibility. When she wakes, immediately call for me. Understand?" Moe bowed and said. "Yes, My Lady." With that done Sera returned to the front of the group. She had a feeling that it will only get harder from here on out. Chapter 51: Devout Shadow It was dark when Faith awoke. ''Huh... this is weird, wasn''t I in the city a second ago? Wait, where am I?'' As she began to come to her senses her eyesight cleared and adjusted to the darkness. No it didn''t just adjust, she could see perfectly well. ''How is this possible? I don''t have optics on...'' But as she looked around more and more questions popped up in her head. The room she was in looked awfully similar to the bunker''s rooms. ''But we were just on the streets! How did I get here? I remember shooting at that leopard, when it lept onto Saint Seraphine. Did I kill it? I remember it falling over...'' When that thought sinked in she looked at her watch and brought up her messages, there were multiple new ones. But before she could read them the door to the room opened and Moe came in. "You''re finally awake, that''s good. How do you feel?" Faith thought for a bit then said. "Healthier than ever." Moe laughed at that. "It comes with the evolution I suppose. You probably have a lot of questions, so ask away." "Is Saint Seraphine okay?" He used his warmest smile as he said. "Yes she is, thanks to you." Breathing a sigh of relief Faith asked her next question. "Okay... when did we arrive?" He looked at his Watch. "About 3 hours ago." "Did everyone make it?" Moe''s smile disappeared and he looked away as he said. "After you passed out the fighting became harder. Monsters were ambushing us from everywhere. Saint Seraphine, Saint Bea and the others tried their best. But they can''t be everywhere. We lost 97 men and women." They stayed silent after that. ''97 people, all dead. We only had 631 when the day started. Now we have 534. It''s so much smaller.'' Faith didn''t let her mind spiral and instead focused on the good side. Yeah 97 people died, but 534 still lived. ''You mourn the dead after the war, and the war is not even close to being over.'' "Where is Saint Seraphine, I''m her assistant I should be with her." Moe was a bit startled by the sudden sound, but answered all the same. "She just came out of a meeting and headed this way. She is very curious about your abilities it seemed." You have a small control over shadows and can shape them however you like. "Hmm... we have to do further testing with this. Will the shadow you create be actually touchable or not? Anyway, open the next one." Faith didn''t think too much of it and opened the next one. Description: You can perceive the World of Shadows. "This is kind of creepy... and why does it ask a question? Are the shadows special in some way? Aren''t they just the absence of light?" ''It seems like that Saint Seraphine took deep interest in this description. I mean, it is interesting. Never heard of a description ask a question.'' "Okay lets finish this, I have a date to prepare for!" Description: You can transform into a shadow. Seraphine did not speak for a long time seemingly lost in thought. She stayed like that for 5 minutes before realizing where she was, then smiled at Faith. "Faith I have a job for you. Go, train with your abilities and comeback with your findings. That will be your only duty as an assistant, until you get comfortable with them." "Yes, My Lady!" Faith hesitated for a moment, then eventually asked. "Uh... My-My Lady... What about the girl?" Seraphine just smiled and shook her head. "Don''t worry about her. With us escaping here successfully, Nightmare will have too much on his plate to care about her." "I understand, Saint Seraphine." Seraphine nodded, then turned around and left. Faith was left alone with her thoughts, she had a stupid grin on her face. ''If I can be a shadow, I can follow and help Saint Seraphine whenever possible! I should go and immediately learn everything of my new powers!'' Faith basically ran out the door and to the training hall. Chapter 52: Date Night Bea was very excited about today. With everyone safe and with no imminent needs that has to be taken care of. She and Sera finally found time for themselves. They decided to have a date night in their own room. They brought a table, two chairs, they even found some candles. For food there won''t going to be anything too special, they were still living in a destroyed city after all. The bunker had some luxuries as well, so they even had wine with the dinner. They didn''t really have anything special to wear. A dress is not something you find in a millitary bunker. Bea wore a t-shirt and her tactical clothing''s pants. She was seated already waiting for Sera. ''She is late, there must have been a lot to talk about with Faith.'' Bea was losing herself in her thoughts when the door cracked open and a head popped in. "Hey, what are you doing?" Asked Sera with a grin. "Me? Nothing just waiting for my date who seems to be at least 10 mintues late." Answered Bea with faked anger. "Is she? Well, she probably has a good reason, like showering, getting a change of clothing and so on." "Well, then why won''t she come in the room?" Bea smiled as she said it. When Sera finally stepped into the room the temperature seemed to increase, at least that''s how Bea felt. Suddenly her whole body seemed to be too hot, escpecially a region that was wet as well. "You... you... what are you wearing?" Sera was wearing her clothing Item. She was basically in a bra and miniskirt. The clothing left little for the imagination, but just enough to make Bea really horny. "What you don''t like it?" Sera said in a deep seductive voice. "Yes I do... very much actually... but I don''t know how I''m lasting through the dinner with you looking like that." To Bea''s dismay Sera even bent forward giving her a clear line of sight to her massive assets. ''Fuck, I want to touch them so much. Okay, calm down... deep breaths... deep breaths.'' "Will you actually sit down, or you just going to stand there bent over." Said Bea with faked calm. Sera straightened and sat down. "Wow, you actually managed to hold on. I''m impressed!" Bea sipped from her wine and asked. "So what do you want to talk about?" "Lets see you don''t want to talk about Evolved History, Realm History and anything related to being smart. Can we even talk to each other?" Said Sera with a grin. "Asshole." They both laughed and fell silent. They were still holding each others hands. The food was gone a long time ago and they were running out of wine as well. Bea thought a bit then asked. "You asked me what I wanted to be, but I never asked you." Sera smiled at her, it was a sad smile. "I was a student in our Academy. I was studying to be a government official, like my mother. On the day of the Destruction it was one of my final exams, I was heading home from there." Sera wasn''t looking at her, she was at another place, in another time. "How did the exam go?" Asked Bea with the kindest smile she could muster. Sera grinned and asked. "What do you think?" "You got max score didn''t you?" "I might have missed a question." The both laughed. The mood was improving and the night was still long. Bea turned to Sera and asked with a grin. "So Saint Seraphine, what do you say we finish this wine and then fuck each other senseless?" Sera answered with a grin of her own. "I thought you would never ask." They quickly downed their leftover wine, then stood from the table. Chapter 53: Finally* !!! *Contains sexual content !!! The dinner was nice the food was good, same for the wine, but the best part was of course the company. Sera stood from the table and walked towards Bea. She was actually really nervous. Sera wasn''t a virgin, but she only had two sex partners in her life. A boy and a girl, she wanted to know how either felt like. The same went for both, it was pretty good. The only problem is that she didn''t love those people, yeah Sera liked them, but it wasn''t even remotely close to the feelings she felt for Bea. ''I hope I don''t do anything stupid or even worse, weird.'' Bea seemed to realize her feelings. "You know, we don''t have to do it tonight. If you are not ready we can wait." Sera took a deep breath and held Bea''s hand. Sera''s were slightly trembling and as Bea felt it she squeezed reassuringly, which actually calmed her a bit. "It''s not that I don''t want to do it or that I want to wait... I just... kind of nervous. I... I never had sex with someone I actually love..." Before Sera could catch herself she already said it, ''love''. A big word for every relationship. Bea seemed to froze and her hands started to tremble even more than Sera''s. "Wha... what did you say?" ''Fuck, what should I do? I can''t take it back that would ruin the mood. I can only double down and hope for the best.'' "I... I said I love you..." Sera looked away while she said it, and had a deep blush on her face. "You... you love... me?" Bea was still trying to process the information. "Ye..." She couldn''t finish the word, suddenly a mouth was on hers and a tongue tried to enter it. ''Oh god! Seems like she won''t go easy on me.'' Sera hesitated for a moment, then dismissed her clothes. She didn''t wear anything only her Item. Bea was stunned by her, with ravinous eyes she looked over her body multiple times. Like a beast preparing to devour its victim. This made Sera feel even hotter, and she started rubbing her legs together. Finishing the devouring Bea looked at Sera in the eye. "You are the most heavenly woman I have ever seen." Before Sera could say anything, Bea was already kissing her. Both of her hands were behind Sera''s back, holding them close to each other. Ther skin where in contact everywhere which increased their pleasure even more. ''I love it! I love how her tongue is moving in my mouth, how her hands are keeping me close and exploring my back, how our breasts are pressed so close to each other!'' Sera didn''t even know how much better this night will get. Bea''s hands moved from her back. One hand went on her breast sqeezing it. The other went to her butt kneeding it. Sera was suddenly overloaded with pleasure and moaned in Bea''s mouth really loudly. Bea moved away from her mouth. "If you like that already, you are not prepared what I will do to you." Bea continued kissing Sera, it was on the mouth first, then on her cheek, then came the neck where she lingered and squeezed both her breast and ass hard. Her back arched a bit and she moaned even louder. Bea seemingly satisfied with the result moved downward. She kissed Sera''s lower neck, collarbone and finally she reached the upper part of her breast. She went even further down and stopped right above her nipple. She turned her head and looked Sera straight in the eye. Sera was already at the edge of pleasure. And she was ready for the plunge. Her breathing was ragged as she asked. "Please..." Was all that came out. Bea still keeping eye contact, stuck out her tongue and began teasing Sera''s nipple. The moans grew ever louder, the attack on multiple fronts was something she couldn''t handle. But it only gotten worse as Bea released her ass and grabbed the breast she was teasing and sucked on it hard. Sera actually screamed from pleasure, she was losing her mind from it. ''I... I can''t take it for much longer...'' But Bea either didn''t know or care as her tongue began playing with her nipple while sucking on it. Sera began squirming more and more until suddenly Bea grabbed her other nipple and squeezed. "Ahhh... Yes Bea!" Sera screamed her approval and the dam broke. She climaxed from the attack and squirted all over Bea''s stomach. The orgasm lasted a dozen seconds before finally stopping. They were both breathless as they looked each other. Then a wicked grin appeared on Bea''s face. "You know this was only the beginning, right?" Chapter 54: Losing Her Mind* !!! *Contains sexual content !!! ''Wha... what? O-only... the beginning?'' Sera''s mind was completely blank from the previous orgasm, hearing that this was just the start was both dreadful and exciting. Sera looked at Bea and smiled tiredly. "I was... getting scared... that this is all... you''ve got." She said between breaths. Bea looked a bit surprised by what Sera said, then she grinned and attacked her again. She sucked on her nipple for a couple of seconds, while massaged the other with her hand. But Bea''s mouth didn''t stay there for long. With small kisses she went down, down and down even more. Bea kissed her nipple, the lower side of her breast, and all of her stomach. As she reached her waist, Sera began to squirm from all the teasing. ''Fuck, this is so annoying. Just go down there already.'' But Bea had other plans. After kissing all over her waist her hands began teasing Sera''s tighs. While her mouth kept closed in on Sera''s pussy. When she was about to reach it though, Bea stopped and instead looked at Sera. She smiled seeing how much she was ''suffering'' from her actions. ''What a cruel woman.'' Bea turned back her eyes to the feast and very slowly began to spread Sera''s legs. Sera was getting more uncomfortable, the more was visible. She even started trembling again. Bea noticing this change, returned to her original position and gave Sera a deep kiss, then whispered. "I love you." Before Sera could answer her back arched as something entered her special place. Bea gave a groan of approval, as she felt how wet she was and her finger began exploring Sera. "Yes!... Yes!... More!..." She screamed. ''This feeling... is unlike anything... I ever felt...'' The feeling only increased when Bea''s other hand began playing with her ass. "Bea... You are amazing!" Bea seemed to like her reaction and her thumb started playing with her clitoris. Sera''s back arched and she felt another orgasm closing in, but it wasn''t close enough. "Please... I''m so close..." Sera begged for release. Sera tried her hardest to stay awake, but her eyes kept closing. Bea moved next to her and hugged her from the back, then whispered. "You will pay this back next time, but now you should sleep." Sera didn''t have any energy to answer, instead she closed her eyes and began to fall into unconsiousness. Bea kissed her neck and the last thing Sera heard was. "You were delicious by the way." Faith learned a lot about her powers. If she concentrated she could percieve her surroundings just by the shadows of objects. It took her a long time to understand it, but eventually she got it to work. After that she tried to learn how to use Intangible. It was actually easier to make work, than Shadow Perception. Using it she could control shadows but nothing more, she couldn''t make them into actual objects. Faith was a bit disappointed by that revelation, but then she tried doing the same with her own shadow. As it turns out everyone''s own shadow is special in some way. Using her own shadow Faith turned it into a slender sword, black as night. She tried it on some metal and monster skin dummies. It could actually damage the Rotten hide of Tier 1, but it took multiple cuts for the Tier 2 and couldn''t get past the Tier 3. The results were very satisfing and with a smile on her face she dismissed the sword. ''The only problem is that I''m only good with rifles. I will ask Saint Seraphine for advice. Maybe she will let me train with Saint Bea!'' Faith was excited by the idea. It was a well known fact, that Bea was amazing with the sword. She reined in her excitment, she still had to test out her transformation. ''Okay, here goes nothing!'' She turned on her transformation, but nothing seemed to change. Then she looked down at herself and was very surprised. Instead of Faith''s body there was only her shadow, it was like she turned invisible, but still had a shadow. ''This is very weird.'' But it wasn''t all, if she went into a shadow, her own would disappear and if she went into a person''s shadow she moved with it. ''This could be very helpful with infitration and spying.'' Faith had a big smile on her face, which no one could she because a shadow didn''t have expressions. She headed towards Saint Seraphine''s and Saint Bea''s room, but something was wrong. ''Why is this area of the bunker so deserted.'' After a couple seconds of walking she finally understood. There were very loud moans coming from their room. Faith immediately turned around and left. ''It''s good that they finally have time for each other. I will tell her about my powers when they are done.'' Faith didn''t perticularly care for what she heard. She actually felt really happy for them. With nothing else to do she returned to the training hall to learn more about her powers and get better with them. Chapter 55: News Bea had a restless night, she was tormented by nightmares for some reason. She awoke multiple times, but every time Bea just looked to her left, where Sera was sleeping peacefully and she quickly calmed down. ''It must be because our relationship reached another level. It''s messing with my mind somehow.'' The date was amazing, especially the end. The moans and screams of Sera still echoed in her ears and just remembering how she looked all spread out, brought a smile to her face. ''Next time she will pay it back!'' After sleeping for a long time both of them finally woke up. When Sera opened her eyes Bea was staring at her. "Good morning... Love..." Said Bea with a hint of red on her face, it was still weird to say it out loud. But Sera just smiled at her and kissed her. She whispered onto her mouth. "Good morning, My Love." They went silent, just enjoying each others presence. They stayed like that, until a knock came at the door. "Who is it?" Asked Sera, still a bit sleepy. "It''s Faith, My Lady! You said to come to you, when I explored my new abilities!" Sera turned toward Bea, then motioned her to get some clothes on, while she summoned her own. After a minute, Bea called. "You can come in!" Faith entered the room and she brought food with her. "I thought you might be hungry after last nights sex, so I took the liberty and brought you some food, My Ladies!" There wasn''t even a hint of embarrassement in her voice. Sera and Bea were both stunned by what she said, then they thought back to last night and they both blushed. ''Well I don''t know what we expected, the walls aren''t soundproof.'' Bea regained her wits sooner and said. "Uhm... Thank you for the food, but we should talk about your powers first." She looked away embarrassed. Bea thought for a bit and asked. "You can make any weapon from your shadow can''t you?" Faith nodded and Bea continued. "Then what weapon would you like to use?" Faith said without hesitation. "A sword probably." Again Bea became thoughtful and looked Faith up and down a couple of times. ''Considering her abilities, longsword wouldn''t be the best choice. Other weapons could work, like daggers. Maybe she could even throw them, but lets stay focused on the sword. Greatsword? No. Broad or short? No. Maybe a katana or odachi? No. Rapier? Yes, that''s it!'' "Okay, I will train you with the sword but it will be a rapier. With your stealth abilities, a slender blade for quick thrusts will serve better than a slashing weapon." Faith looked like she would jump out of her skin from excitement. "Of course, My Lady! When do we start?" She asked trying to hide the smile on her face. Sera answered with a smile of her own. "You can go and train after we eat." "Yes, Saint Seraphine! I will wait in the training hall!" With that she left the two of them. After leaving the smile from Sera''s and Bea''s face disappeared instantly. Sera spoke first. "What do you think?" Her anger was well hidden, but still there. "We can''t do this slowly anymore. After the infiltration mission is done we have to make a plan for the rescue, and the destruction of anyone who sided with Nightmare!" Bea''s anger wasn''t contained at all. But Sera took her hand, it was cold. Then whispered to her. "There''s going to be no mercy! But this is war, don''t get angry, that will only make you lose your rationality. Vengence is best served cold." Bea''s temper decreased and a wicked smile took its place. "You are correct and know exactly what I want! How considerate! Anyway lets eat the food before it gets any colder." They both sat down and enjoyed their meal. They talked and laughed throughout it. Maybe because they knew, that happiness will be absent in the next couple of weeks. The war is about to truly begin. Chapter 56: Alone In The Dark In the city of Havel it was currently night. Even though it was night, this city never truly slept. Most of the residents actually like to go out at night and grab something to eat, you just have to hope that something isn''t you. Through the darkness of the night something moved, it was a shadow. It weaved between monsters, most of them couldn''t even perceive it. The ones that could ended up with puncture wounds in vital spots. The stronger ones it escaped. That something moved trough the city, until it stopped on a rooftop. Below it, a whole district was cut off from the rest of the city, they didn''t try to hide. The Corrupted in the area had been led away or with big losses killed. The rest of the monsters the guards could take care of. The shadow suddenly became a breathtakingly beautiful woman, before the Evolution she had straw colored hair and blue eyes. But being an Evolved changes a lot of things, inculding appearance. Her hair and eye color changed to black, like the shadows she could control. ''They were busy it seems. It would''ve actually been amazing what they achieved, if I didn''t know who exactly built the fortifications. Slaves.'' Faith sat down near the edge of the roof and dangled her feet in the air. She was on the roof of a 15 story office building, or at least it looked like one. After her perilous journey she could finally catch her breath. The Hold was about 20 kilometers from The Bunker, which meant 20 kilometers full of deadly monsters. ''At least my training is proving really useful!'' It was a couple of days ago since she began her training under Saint Bea''s wings. She was surprised how good Faith was during the fights, but it was mostly because of Shadow Perception. It made the moves more pronounced somehow, it was easier to predict the opponent. She still lost against Saint Bea every single time. Couldn''t even touch her once, but that was what she expected from her. And she still improved by a lot after each session. After the last one, the two leaders decided that she was good enough. They were also running out of time, so here she was. Waiting for an 8 year old girl to possess her and help her infiltrate a camp of around ten thousand people. Well, most of the ten thousand were slaves, but still the majority weren''t. Faith still didn''t understand how they fed so many people. Yeah there were Evolved who could grow crops in days and they had a lot of hunting parties. The city never seemed to run out of monsters, it was a blessing and a curse. ''It doesn''t matter. Other than the slaves all of them will die.'' As she was fantasizing the murder of all those slavers, suddenly she lost control over her body. Faith wasn''t even surprised unlike the first two times. After a minute she lost control of her non exsistant body, and percieved her own hand giving her a thumbs up. ''Well, here goes nothing!'' Faith turned to the wall and glided up onto it. The whole thing was empty. She didn''t linger, moving from shadow to shadow she went down onto the other side. The streets were empty and dark, there were lights coming out of some houses, but that''s all. ''Perfect!'' Faith thought and would have smiled if she had a mouth. She talked with Saint Bea and Saint Seraphine about, how long should she stay in The Hold. They said that in a couple of days, she should be able to learn most of their defences. The only problem was that she couldn''t fall asleep because Nightmare would sense it. His powers has to do mostly with dreams and since he is an Ascended, his strength greatly above Faiths. And after you are in his clutches, he can drive you insane with nighmares. Faith moved through the streets, periodically losing control over her body. ''Where is she guiding me?'' After a couple of minutes she realized. ''Clever girl!'' In front of Faith was an abandoned house, in which they could talk safely without anyone hearing it. She went in without hesitation and stopped in a place the was possibly a living room once. She lost control again and her mouth said. "Now that we can talk, lets begin." With that the work had begun, throughout the next few days she will try to map all of The Hold. Also, she has another mission, learn what Nightmare is planning. Chapter 57: The Horrible Reality Faith talked hours with the girl. She had vast knowledge of the whole place and with the help of Faith''s Watch, they made a map with every important place marked on it. With that done she began exploring the city, marking down every patrol she came across. After a couple hours, she had marked most of them, but dawn was approaching, which meant she had to be more careful. But with daylight the patrols drastically decreased, so she could focus on another part of The Hold. Faith went into the worst of the places, the prison. This is where they kept all the slaves, at least the ones they weren''t using. Faith had to know the exact amount of guards in the prison. This was one of the most important information, since the whole rescue mission depended on it. A shadow moved near a building next to the prison. The guards weren''t paying attention, so she moved next to the wall of the prison. And waited in the shadow of the prison. After 10 minutes someone moved towards the entrance. Faith didn''t waste time and hid in her shadow, she didn''t notice a thing. As she moved towards the entrance, the guards suddenly went to attention. "Good morning, Lieutenant Cat!" Said one of them, he was kind of nervous. ''One of the 5 lieutenants, well there is only 4 of them left.'' Cat didn''t show any emotion, she just asked. "Did the dogs barked or tried to bite anyone at night?" She was so emotionless, like a husk of a human. "No ma''am, but Lieutenant Harold came by for a couple of whores. Probably for one of his experiments." Said the other guard. He was much less nervous and a bit emotionless as well. Faith thought for a moment, then she saw Cat move in a different direction and she got curious. Sticking to her shadow, Faith followed her to a better guarded part of the facility. Seeing the amount of guards, all of them Evolved and the thick titanium doors, Faith realized where she was. ''I was wondering where they kept the Evolved who disagreed with Nightmare. But why even keep them alive?'' Faith shadowed Cat as she looked into each cell. There was a person in every one of them, they seemed to be resigned. Like they tried to escape multiple times but always failed. As they walked through the place, silence reined. Cat walked until there was only one door left, but as she reached for the hole on the door to see behind it, something happened that shocked Faith. The emotionless woman''s hand slightly trembled. Faith was shocked because the woman haven''t shown even the smallest of emotions. Seeing her hand tremble could only meant one thing. ''Whoever is behind that door scares her.'' Cat opened the hatch, behind it was a man sitting in a fetal position. His face couldn''t be seen, but Faith saw his body. It was very muscular and he was tall, probably above 2 meters. He had shoulder length hair, which was the color of fire. Cat watched him for a few minutes then turned away and left the facility. Faith moved along with her, until she could safely leave her shadow. Then she hid in the abandoned building and wrote down everything she learned. Faith didn''t forgot to count the guards in the prison, she even counted the cells holding Evolved and their guards. After writing everything down she planned out the next place to go. ''There is the fighting pits, the electric station and then there is that lab. The wall is the girls job, she is better at it anyway. I will have to ask her about the river entrance as well.'' Faith thought for other places to go, there was Nightmare''s headquarters but she needs the girl for that. ''The electric station and fighting pits it is.'' Chapter 58: The Ugly and The Bull Faith decided to check out the electric station first. The reason she had to check it out is, because for the eventual attack they need to turn the power off. They knew the enemy didn''t have enough optics for everyone, but The Bunker had more than enough. It is a great adventage to be able to see in the dark. So she went to the station to learn about its defences. She went from shadow to shadow, sometimes even changing their size or shape, not drastically of course. People would notice a weird looking shadow. After about half an hour she reached the power station. There were a lot of guards here and slaves labouring in the early afternoon Sun. They were moving boxes around the place, Faith had no idea what was in them. At least until one of the slaves stumbled and a box broke. It had some kind of energy cell in it glowing with power. ''It''s similar to the cells powering our railguns, but a lot bigger. What do they use these for?'' "You stupid slave, if that shit broke we would all be dead! You two beat him senseless!" Said a whiney male voice from the power stations balcony. Two guards looked at him and said. "Yes, Lieutenant Tor" ''Hmm... another of the Lieutenants, I should shadow him for a while, like I did with Cat.'' Faith waited until a guard moved near the shadow she was hiding in, then going from one person to the other she slowly reached the entrance. It had a very high grade lock on it, which she ignored and went through the slit below the door. The inside of the building was as she imagined, a bunch of generators, transformators and a bunch of other big machine she couldn''t even name. ''Clockwork will know about them, and how to sabotage it.'' Moving through the facility she noted every guards positions. It took her a couple of minutes, but Faith finally found the Lieutenant named Tor. He was a small man about 40 years old and fat. He had to be an Evolved since he was a Lieutenant, but somehow this one managed to become ugly. Suddenly there was a loud cheer coming from outside. Faith thought for a bit and decided to check it out. She went to the auditorium and hid between a couple of patrons. Down in the pit she saw a bull of a man fighting multiple humans. The man seemed to be Mad by how he fought. There was no self preservation, if he got cut he ignored it. What was most amazing is that he didn''t wear any armor, but none of the attackers weapons were able to do more than scrach him. The Bull got close to an opponent and he punched through his armor. The man was dead, but the Bull was already moving onto his next victim. The woman didn''t know what to do, when the Bull grabbed her sword and broke it with a squeeze of his hand. Her head exploded in the next second, as the Bull''s other hand closed in on it. He still had three more opponents, but made quick work of them. In a minute he was already done. He waved to the crowd with the arm of one of his opponents, which he ripped off. The people exploded with cheers, it was disgusting. Just looking at them and their bloody sport angered Faith. Looking down at the Bull she got even angrier. ''How can any human be this insane and bloodthirsty. What''s wrong with all these people? Why are they cheering? Are all of them Mad?'' The Bull''s head suddenly turned to the exact position where she was, as if he sensed her anger. Faith froze on the spot. ''Did he somehow sense or see me?'' But after a couple of seconds it became obvious. He could sense her emotions probably, but couldn''t see her. Which meant she was still safe. Faith even with this discovery didn''t chance getting caught and left the pits. Night was already approaching, which meant she could talk with the girl again. The last time they spoke, they decided to speak the next night to share informations and questions with each other. It took Faith ten minutes to arrive at the abandoned house. It was night for quite a while now. As she stepped in, she lost control and said. "Good night, Faith. How was your day?" She regained control and said. "Good night to you too. It was productive to say the least, but I also have many questions that you could probably answer." Chapter 59: The Headquarters Freak was really happy. Yeah she got tortured every day multiple times, but she could actually help others! It was an amazing feeling. She spent the whole day learning everything about the wall''s defences. By night she was even a bit tired, which never happened before. She watched as Faith''s shadow moved through the dark streets, hid from patrols and finally arrived at the abandoned house. They said hi to each other, then they began sharing information. Faith wrote and marked every guard and patrol she reported. It took nearly an hour to note everything she found and after finishing, Faith began asking questions about her own finds. "I went to the facility they keep the slaves at, and saw that the water they give them is straight from the river. Is there a usable infiltration point near the river?" She didn''t seem to show emotion, but under the surface Freak saw it. She was very angry. "Well, there is but it''s quite small. Two man could fit there at the same time max, also it''s under water." Faith noted everything and asked her next question. "Who''s the fifth Lieutenant? I saw Cat, Tor and heard them talking about a Harold and his lab, but who is the fifth?" Freak thought about it for a couple of minutes then she remembered. "Ohh... you probably saw him already, if you went to the pits. He is a bulky man who seems to be always angry. They call him The Bull. It''s not a title the Watch gave him, but the people." She continued a second later. "As far as I can tell the 4 Lieutenants all have some job. The Bull is responsible for entertainment, Cat is ''taking care'' of the slaves, Tor works on the energy grid and Harold. He is the Maddest of them all. He works in his lab, I don''t know what he does in there, but judging by the screams, something horrible." Faith got control again and asked. "Where is the lab, I would like to check what''s in there." She took control again and sighed. "You can''t, it has multiple security measures. One of them is a room of pure light, no shadow exists there. Even I couldn''t get in." Faith sighed and jumped onto her next question, while she wrote all of it down. The main problem was, that every person guarding the headquarters is an Evolved. A lot of them with abilities specializing in detection. ''There is at least one person that could even sense me. I have to be careful.'' They waited in the shadows for hours. And only acted when the guards finally moved. Faith crawled along the ground and managed to slip into the building without getting noticed. Freak began to guide her towards Nightmare''s office. There were a lot of guards, but Faith proved to be an excellent spy. ''She could probably be an assassin with this stealth ability.'' Faith moved to another corner of darkness and waited for some regular soldiers to pass her. She never let an Evolved get close to her, instead she took detours and went into empty rooms. After about half an hour of moving through the building they were finally near the door, there was a small problem though. A guard was standing right in front of the door. Freak was about to suggest killing the guard, but she dimissed the idea. ''If they find the body, they will be more prepared.'' She couldn''t think of a way to get in. The room didn''t have any windows, probably because of a situation like this. Luckily Faith had more in her arsenal, then she previously let on. Faith looked around, then probably checked the shadows around her. After making sure no one was near or coming her way, she molded her shadows into a ball. Then she proceeded to throw it a bit further away from the guard. But just close enough from him to investigate what it is. Immediatly after the ball left her hand, Faith turned into a shadow again. She crept behind the guard and into the room. The ball has already dissipated and the guard was very confused by what he saw. He even looked into the office, but there was nothing in it, just darkness. They waited for about 10 minutes, just to make sure no one would come in. After it Faith became corporeal again. "Okay, could you please keep watch?" She asked very nicely. "Sure thing!" She answered cheerfully. Freak didn''t really care about learning the plan, that wasn''t her job and she takes her job very seriously. She hid in the wall, in a way so she could watch the hallway. ''I hope she learns what they need to rescue me and the others.'' Chapter 60: Diary Faith took a couple seconds after the girl left to gather her thoughts. The infiltration wasn''t easy and it took a lot out of her. Even worse, she was getting tired and sleepy. ''After this I have to leave or I might get caught by Nightmare.'' Faith turned to the room. It had a big desk in the middle and bookshelves on both sides. ''Where did he get books from?'' She would''ve loved to skim through them, but was short on time so instead she went straight to the desk. It was well organized there were a bunch of small things on it. ''Probably paper weights or something.'' But then she looked closer and actually gasped. A shiver ran down her spine. All over the table were bones, kept as memorabilias. There was a finger, part of a femur, a jaw and a dozen others she couldn''t even name. ''What a sick fuck!'' Faith turned toward the drawers and opened the top right one. It had a bunch of papers in it. She started going through them, but put them down fast after she realized they were daily reports. The next drawer was similar, but the one under it turned out to be quite interesting. It was a book or maybe an album? Faith opened it and nearly dropped it. It was an album, and in it were pictures of naked woman. All of them were either dead, dying or just terrified. Next to them were nicknames, hair samples and teeth. Faith looked through it until she found it. There in the book was a picture of a horrified and dirty girl about 8 years old, next to the picture it read ''FREAK''. A small tear ran down Faith''s perfect face. She quickly closed the book and placed it back where she found it. ''Don''t worry... We will rescue you soon... All of you...'' She shook her head and began searching through the other drawers. They only had junk in them. ''If I was an insane, rapist, asshole where would I hide my most precious information? At home? No, his table is organized, which implies he keeps work seperate from fun.'' Faith thought for a while, then looked towards the bookshelves and smiled. ''Who would keep books in the Apocalypse? Maybe someone who has to hide something in them.'' Faith made sure everything was in order on the table. Then walked towards the shelves and took the first book she found. Its cover was barren of writing and opening it the pages were the same, it was completely empty. She opened another, then another and another. After about ten books she stopped. ''They are empty, all of them. Why? Why go through the trouble of making all these books? Maybe not all of them are empty? But they all looked the same, how would he know which one to open?'' After she put the books back at their exact places, Faith began comparing the spines. ''We decided to send my sister to Newber. We are safe currently so its fine. I also decided to make the woman whores. If they don''t fight and look good, why don''t my soldiers enjoy them.'' ''Good news, my headache disappeared without a trace! Finally my mind is free, maybe I enjoy a couple of woman. It''s nice to see them trying to fight me, so I can beat them up.'' ''Lucy finally came back, Newber seems to be destroyed. I don''t really care though. With this news spreading I can finally rule without opposition. Well, there is Bea. I should beat her into submission as well. After all I''m an Ascended already, now even she can''t stop me.'' ''THAT TRAITOROUS FUCK!!! I WILL KILL THEM ALL!!!'' ''Why? Why am I like this? I just want to hurt others... Why?'' ''I should surrender to it! It whispers to me! It says if I stop fighting all my problems cease to exist!'' ''Hehe, I am free. Hehe, the end is near. But first it spreads! IT HAS TO SPREAD! Spread. Need more! There has to be more! Everyone will be more!'' ''The Bright Whore has arrived, but the surprise is nearly ready. And then she will join!'' This was the last entry, there is more writing afterward. But it''s either gibberish or a Mad persons ravings. ''This is a lot to process. So, Lucy is Nightmare''s sister? How did non of us knew? Even more surprising, Bea was his lover? They hung out a bunch of times everyone knew that, but to have this close of a relationship? And who is Hellfire, his name comes up a lot. He was or is an important person to Nightmare. What happened to him?'' Before she could think about it longer, she lost control and said. "You have to leave immediately, Nightmare is coming!" Chapter 61: A Trail of Bodies ''Fuck, why did he came back. He should have stayed at his home longer.'' Faith was already placing back the dairy. Sadly, she didn''t learn anything about Nightmare''s plan, but time was up she needed to leave now. Turning into a shadow, Faith went below the door and into the guards shadow. She couldn''t use the same trick twice and time was running out. Faith didn''t know if Nightmare can sense her or not, but she would rather not find out. ''What to do, what to do! There''s nothing!'' As she started turning hopeless, when a miracle happened. The guard began to move in the opposite direction where Nightmare was coming from. ''Must be the end of his shift, that was lucky.'' But her luck wouldn''t last long, the soldier moved in the direction of the Evolved guards. These guards could sense her and there was no escape route. ''Fighting it is then!'' The guard got close to them and before anyone could react, Faith appeared in front of one Evolved and stabbed him through his eye. Before he even hit the ground a different guard was dead as well. But the last three reacted quickly. A sword was headed in Faith''s direction, but it only hit a shadow. When training she figured out a great adventage she had. She could transform fast, which meant she could easily dodge physical attacks. Faith made quick work of the three Evolved, their abilities were worthless against her shadow form. Leaving behind bodies will definitely draw attention, but she could probably escape before that. Moving as a shadow with the girls guidence, Faith reached the entrance pretty fast. But now came the hard part, because of the murders she needed to escape fast. ''Looks like the killing will begin sooner than we anticipated. Good!'' Faith moved through the gap. As the guards sensed her, they only saw a rapier going through each of their vital organs. The murdering didn''t stop there. She couldn''t escape silently, so she cut her way out. There was a man and a woman, the third she didn''t know, it was wearing full plate armor. The armored one stood in the middle, while the other two were on his flanks in the shape of a crescent. ''Lets get this over with.'' Faith moved toward the man, but before getting too close she turned into a shadow. She was still visible, but then a bunch of shadows, that looked just like her began moving all over the place. They were quite crude looking actually, but moved fast enough to not get noticed. The Evolved didn''t know which to attack, so they attacked all of them. After about 10 seconds all the shadows disappeared, then a loud clang could be heard. The person in the armor fell to their knees, blood was running down on his plate and the person was clutching its throat. Behind it was Faith with her rapier, she was exhausted. ''Controlling that many shadows took a lot and there is still two, fuck.'' The man had a spear, while the woman had a mace and a shield. Faith took a deep breath and engaged the woman first. It was a bit stupid but she was counting on the shock factor of her previous attack. The woman reacted a bit too slowly. She swung her mace in a wide arc, which Faith easily dodged below. With the same move she stabbed the woman in the foot. She fell over screaming, but was silenced when she reached the ground. Faith didn''t have time to pull her rapier from the womans head. The spear coming towards her even managed to cut her on the side. The wound was painful, but Faith didn''t lose focus. Her sword already dissolved to shadows and she summoned a new one. The man attacked and she parried, but he was too powerful and she was put off balance. Another attack came and with no time to evade, she dissolved into a shadow. But after a fraction of a second she already appeared and stabbed her sword into a very surprised man''s heart. The fight took about 3 minutes and the only one left standing was Faith, albeit not unscathed. There was a nasty lacaration on her left arm from the previous attack, she wasn''t able to fully dodge it. There was also the cut on her side. But she didn''t care about any of that. Faith was already moving down the wall and into the city. Behind her shouts could be heard and an alarm rang. She escaped without anyone seeing her. Or at least anyone who was still alive. The only thing she left behind, was a trail of bodies. Chapter 62: Something Broken Its been 3 days since Faith had left for the mission. No one was idle during that time, Sera and Bea made sure of that. They released the information about the upcoming attack on The Hold and began the recruiting process. They asked anyone who wants to participate to report to Moe. 400 people reported, all of them wanted but they refused the too young and too old people. Moe''s hands were full with the training, he even promoted a lot of veterans to help him. They were making great progress. Meanwhile Bea and Sera trained the Evolved. All of them were getting better, but without having more knowledge, they didn''t know what to train for exactly. But that was yesterday. In the morning news arrived about Faith. She actually managed to come back alive. Sadly she did suffer some damage, but managed to survive. Sera hurried towards the infirmary. Bea was training with the others, they were always training or planning. They didn''t even have time for each other since their date. ''And there''s still so much to do.'' Arriving into the infirmary Sera found Faith sleeping. She was awake for three full days so it''s understandable. She also got healed by Witchdoctor, Faith had a couple of wounds but they looked worse than they actually were. Sera made herself comfortable and watched Faith sleeping. As if sensing Her Lady, she opened her eyes and they instantly focused on Sera. "Saint Seraphine! It''s good that you are here, I put together a report on my Watch! I can send it to you..." Before she could continue Sera cut in. "We''ll worry about the report later. First tell me, how you doing? I heard you got injured." Faith''s face softened from pure devotion and turned into appreciation. "Thank you My Lady, for asking. I''m actually doing well, at least physically. Mentally, I won''t feel at rest until we rescue does people. There condition is so much worse than we thought." The smile from Sera''s face disappeared without a trace and determination took its place. "We haven''t been idle either, and when we are done with the training there won''t be a hundred people attacking, but 5 hundred." Sera''s mouth twisted into a cruel smile as she said it. Meanwhile Faith''s reaction was quite hilarious, she was very surprised. "That many people joined?" "Actually, there was more, but we had to turn away some because of age." Faith nodded understanding what she meant. "I... I''m sorry we didn''t tell you... We kept it a secret beca..." Sera cut in, her voice was emotionless. "I don''t care about your excuses. It doesn''t matter now anyway. Just tell us the whole truth now, so we can move on to making a plan." Bea was very hurt by these words, she knew that something broke between her and Sera. Lucy recovered faster though. "It''s true what you read, I''m Nightmare''s sister, Bea was his lover and Hellfire was his best friend. Bea and Nightmare were actually together before the Fall. I loved my brother truly, he helped me get my first kill, he was a good person. Reaching Havel changed him though." She took a deep breath and held in her tears. "As your read something happened to his mind. Maybe it was some monster or something else, but he began to have these headaches. He was losing focus more often and his mind came close to breaking, maybe it even broke. The only thing keeping him from losing himself was Bea, until even she wasn''t enough." Lucy was actually crying now. "We tried to make him better, but he was becoming more evil each day. We instead decided to escape him as all of you know. Hellfire didn''t manage to get out, he is probably dead. That is the whole truth." Everyone stayed silent for a long while, until Sera spoke, still emotionless. "Lets begin." And with just two words hours of planning began. After they were done with the outline, most people left the room. Only three were still sitting in their chairs, Faith on Sera''s left and Bea on her right. They were in silence until Sera spoke. "Faith, wait for me outside." "Yes, My Lady!" She said while bowing, then looked at Bea with dislike and left the room. Bea didn''t waste time after the door closed. She reached for Sera''s hand, but she quickly pulled away and turned towards Bea. "Sera! You have to understand, I loved Nightmare for years! I can''t just act like that never happened!" Bea''s eyes were watery. Sera actually began laughing, but not because of happiness. "You are a fucking idiot, if you think I care about your past relationships! I don''t give a flying fuck about Nightmare or your feelings towards him! My only problem is, you felt you can''t trust me with this information! Why is that the case ''My Love''?" Her voice were full of betrayal and anger. Bea opened and closed her mouth multiple times, but no words came out. "You have 5 seconds to answer!" Sera shouted, there were tears streaming down her face. Five seconds passed in silence, then at the sixth a door opening and slamming could be heard. Chapter 63: The Price of Keeping Secrets Its been a couple of days since her secret has been revealed. The information spread fast. The people still looked up at her as a leader, but you could see it in their eyes. They feel hurt because Bea didn''t trust them. Sera on the other hand became even more popular, most look at her for advice. She became the only true leader of the group. Bea of course didn''t care about that at all. She only sees Sera when they are planning the attack, which they are nearly done with. As far as Bea can tell, she spends most of her time with Faith. They train together and go out hunting. Bea looked at her Watch and brought up Sera''s status window. The Watches were still connected which is a good sign, it means Sera didn''t give up fully on their relationship. The status read: Name: Seraphine Title: Angel Monarch 1st Kill: Archangel of Despair, Horror of the 3rd Tier Life Essence Absorbed: 1000/1000 ''She already fully saturated her soul. And probably helped Faith get close to it as well.'' A sad smile appeared on Bea''s face. ''Why? Why did I keep it a secret? I... I trust her fully, with everything... Maybe I felt that she would look at me differently, if she knew my past lover. But I knew what kind of person she was... Fuck, I should have told her... Now I ruined everything!'' She began hyperventilating and tried her hardest to calm down, eventually she managed. ''There''s no use thinking about it now. Mistakes were made, now I have to live with them. This is the price of keeping secrets, I will try to fix it after the rescue.'' Bea was still lying in her bed, alone. Then a knock came at the door, the person didn''t wait for her to answer and instead barged in. In the door a beautiful woman stood, she had hair dark as night. Her face was emotionless, but there was something hidden beneath, dislike. ''Seems like she doesn''t like lies either.'' Before Bea got lost in her self-pity, Faith spoke. Sera was all sweaty as she moved, her swordsmanship increased by a lot since Bea began teaching her. After a couple of minutes she finished her set and turned toward Bea. "You should be sleeping, tomorrow is a big day." Said Sera with hidden anger. "I could say the same to you. Looks like even Faith thought it wise to go to sleep." Bea said with a small smile. Sera tried really hard not to smile as she answered. "You think she went because of her own choice? I had to order her away, but if I had to guess she still hides in one of the shadows." Bea laughed and smiled at Sera. It was good to speak to her again. Then her smile disappeared as she said. "I... I''m sorry... I realized my mistake in not telling you... And I understand if you won''t forgive me... But I just thought you should know, that I regret it... If I could go back I would tell you. Sadly the future''s wisdom is the past''s foolishness." Sera was silent and emotionless, then she sighed. "I''m not mad at you. But you broke my trust, I never lied to you and I thought you were the same." Bea turned towards Sera and done something that left her in shock. Bea knelt before her and said. "Then from today I swear to you, I will never tell a lie to you, never dodge or ignore a question and always tell you important informations." Bea looked up and held her laughter seeing Sera''s stunned face. ''She looks so cute with that expression!'' After a few seconds Sera regained her composure. Her face was a bit sad. "Thank you for it. But this won''t be enough. I need time, we will continue this conversation after the mission, okay?" Bea was a bit dejected, but she understood where Sera came from. ''Trust is a fragile thing, it could take a long time to make, but only moments to break.'' "Okay, but until then we could still train can''t we?" Sera hid a small smile and nodded. They both grabbed training swords and began fighting. The day came and went and soon enough it was night again. They gathered in one of the biggest rooms of The Bunker. The mission was about to begin. Chapter 64: "We March!" The night has finally arrived. Sera stood on a makeshift podium, behind her stood Faith on her left and Bea on her right. She didn''t want to, but Sera insisted. She was still their leader and today they will be reminded of that! Sera hid her hands behind her back, they were sweating and trembling from her nerves. Everyone was looking at her, she even prepared a speech, but forgot it as soon as she looked down on the crowd. ''I should still say something inspiring.'' But she couldn''t think of anything motivating, so Sera spoke from her heart. "25 years ago the world ended, but humanity changed with it and managed to survive! Now our cities were destroyed and we changed to be able to survive as well, but we didn''t lose ourselves in the process!" Sera took a second for her words to sink in. In the crowd a lot of people were nodding at her words. "But sadly not everyone adapted the same way we did! Some became evil and in some ways worse, than the monsters we kill! They enslaved our people and tried to enslave us! I SAY, NO MORE!" The crowd echoed. "NO MORE!" "The day of reckoning has arrived and none shall survive! If they are slavers or just enjoying themselves and ignore the atrocities others commit around them, there is only one thing waiting for them! DEATH TO THE SLAVERS!" "DEATH TO THE SLAVERS!" "Tonights purpose is a rescue mission, but don''t get me wrong! All of them will die, we will make sure of that. For the suffering they caused, a debt is owed and the price is blood! LET THEIR BLOOD FLOW!" "YEAH" They all shouted with all their might, but soon a chant rose up in the crowd. "QUEEN SERAPHINE! QUEEN SERAPHINE! QUEEN SERAPHINE!" Her sword elongated in both direction. In Sera''s hand was no longer a sword, but a huge lance around 6 meters in length. It had the same pattern as the sword and somehow was the same weight. ''Yes, this is better.'' She didn''t just go hunting with Faith to increase both of their Essences, Sera was training with the lance while Faith was training with other weapons of her own. They became quite good by the end of it. The railguns still shot her wing, so she used her ability and the enemies froze for a split second. Sera used the fear factor as a quick stun and after the last shot hit her she moved. Evolved with melee weapons or transformed were coming her way but she ignored them. A bat-like creature flew towards her, but got impaled and while falling turned into a human, dead he hit the ground. Sera flew and dodged the attacks coming her way, in a second she already hit the middle of the enemy formation. She decreased the size of her weapon, then mayhem ensued. She stabbed a soldier in the heart, then pulled out and with the same move cut the throat of another. While the man was bleeding out, she already dodged a shot and stabbed another guard. A bold soldier wanted to stab her, but she evaded it and killed the soldier with a well placed punch. She killed and maimed, after a minute around 20 or 30 soldiers were dead around her. Sera didn''t wait and flew into the air and towards the Evolved she left behind. ''Finally, I''ve been waiting so long for this, killing all these fuckers!'' Sera impaled a soldiers from the air and flew on. In the air she turned and stabbed another. She went back and forth until all of them were dead. With no enemy currently near her, she went back to the wall to wait for Clockwork. There was a shout coming from her left, turning toward them she saw a Bull of a man leading close to a thousand soldiers. Turning to the right she saw the other two Lieutenants leading another thousand soldiers. But Sera wasn''t surprised at all, she was even smiling. The reason for her mood was simple. ''Ohh Clockwork... You''re right on cue!'' Suddenly every lamp, spotlight or any device on the main grid went dark. And in the dark everyone heard one sound, a woman shouting one word. "FIRE!" With that all hell broke lose. Chapter 65: Attack on Multiple Fronts The people were getting ready for the first part, Lucy was already in the air carrying Clockwork. Their target was the power station, but the assault couldn''t began until Bea and Seraphine launched their attack. ''We need the distraction, for most of the enemy forces to leave the area.'' She and Clockwork went to a roof near another part of the wall. This one was closer to the power station. While waiting Lucy thought about the past few days. The people took her lies better, than Bea''s. But still most avoided her and just tried to stay away. She was sure it would go back to normal in time, but it still hurt. What hurt her even more was the diary entries Faith brought back. It proved her theory, that her brother wasn''t evil, he went insane. It didn''t make it better, but at least there was a chance. ''Maybe... He can still be saved...'' Watching The Hold she hoped for a better future, then someone sounded the alarm. She quickly dismissed these hopeful thoughts, maybe her brother can be saved but not today. Today is for killing the sinners and rescuing the innocent. "Are you ready?" Clockwork asked, there was something in his voice, concern. Out of everyone he took the news the best. Maybe he already knew or at least suspected, who knows. "Yeah, lets begin!" With that she transformed and grabbed him. They didn''t immediately go to the power station. Staying in the air they circled around the building a few times and after seeing Lieutenant Tor leaving, they descended. Faith made a truly amazing job with that girl. She actually managed to find every possible point of entry, they chose the roof. On the roof there was one guard, but he never expected a clockwork golem to fall on his head. The whole building shook from the impact. Lucy changed back into a human and landed next to Clockwork. They went in the door, there were already soldiers waiting but Clockwork took their railgun shots without even slowing down. In a minute most of them were already dead. The ones that tried to run to get reinforcement got hunted down by Lucy. In just about 5 minutes everyone was dead in the building and around it. Lucy turned towards Clockwork who was covered in gore. The gladiators who could fight and weren''t slavers had weapons on them. The others were fairing much worse, some found clothes but others were so traumatized that they just didn''t care about anything. Lucy nodded at Clockwork and they continued their plan. His job was to bring these people to the prison. Lucy''s job was much more dreadful, she was going to free the monsters, then join to Clockwork. "Everyone, follow me and you will see a better future!" Clockwork shouted. People looked each other a bit confused but then shrugged and followed him. Lucy meanwhile was shaking her head with a smile on her face. ''He really needs to work on his speeches. Maybe he could ask for advice from Seraphine, her last speech was amazing!'' She slowly approached the cells where the monsters were kept. Luckily Faith found the control panel where they can be released from remotely, the bad news is it doesn''t work without power. ''Manual it is then!'' Lucy went slowly to give the others a headstart. She reached the cages in a couple minutes, but decided to wait for a bit longer. When she heared some feet shuffling in the building she moved. ''You are in for a nasty surprise!'' Lucy moved as fast as possible, on the corridor both sides were lined with rooms. There were locks on them and monsters behind it. She ran through the corridor while cutting every lock. It took a couple of seconds for the first monster to realize what happened, but soon all of them were out. She was already flying towards an exit. Multiple monsters were on her tail, but soon they found much tastier targets. She left the pits with the screams of soldiers and the howling of monsters echoing behind her. Lucy enjoyed the melody for a couple seconds, then went to find Clockwork and help them towards the prison. After catching up to them, they made quick work of every patrol. Some of the slaves even picked up the enemy''s fallen weapons and began fighting. They reached the prison in about ten minutes, but they weren''t prepared to find it up in flames while a thousand people stood there, watching it burn down. Chapter 66: Hellfire The most Devout Shadow on this planet followed her Queen''s instructions to the point. If she tells her to kill someone, that person is dead. If she tells her to make something happen, she will make it happen. And if she tells her to follow Will into the river, through a pipeline, then into a prison, she will do it without hesitation. ''I mean the water can''t really affect me in my shadow form, so who cares.'' Faith hid in Will''s shadow, which was massive. She never saw Will transformed, he was outright terrifying. He was probably 30 meters long, he had a shark head which could swallow a human without chewing. His mouth had multiple rows of razor sharp teeth and in his throat there was a seperate circular maw. His head had four eyes on each side. The body was the worst part, it had four arms growing out of his mid section, two with hands and two with scythes. The back was a bunch of tentacles, they were as long as the rest of his body twice. Will told them that it was a Corrupted of the 3rd Tier. It gotten washed on shore and was dying, so he could kill it with relative ease. One thing Faith was sure of... ''I never in my life want to fight something as horrible as this monster!'' They reached the entrance shortly, his speed was weirdly fast, very unlike for his massive body. Sadly the hatch was too small for a 30 meter beast, so he changed back into a human. Will could breath underwater, so that wasn''t much of a problem for him. He broke through the metal rods welded there and swam into it. The pipe was quite long, it took them nearly half an hour to reach their exit. It was a small building near the prison. As they got out, the alarm sounded. ''Right on time.'' Faith became corporeal and turned to Will. They both nodded and went in the direction of the prison, they hid from patrols and any other people, it wasn''t time for their reveal yet. In a building near the prison they waited, Cat has already left taking a large portion of the guards with her. After another few minutes the lights turned off and they finally moved. Will''s job is to free the large group of slaves down there, while Faith freed the Evolved captives. They are a vital part for the escape out of The Hold. Faith entered the prison taking out the guards at the entrance, Will came in after her. They went into seperate directions from here. Faith moved through corridors unnoticed and killed anyone coming in her direction. Behind her shouts and screams could be heard. "Did Bea make it out?" Asked a female. Similar questions popped up, but before Faith could answer any of them, the tall man raised a hand and everyone went silent. Then he spoke, his voice was like a crackling fire. "It doesn''t matter, we thank you for the rescue! After we get out of here we will talk about everything!" His face was emotionless, but hidden under it was anger and hatred. ''I should keep an eye on him, just in case.'' "What''s your name?" Asked Faith, she already had a suspicion though. "Hellfire." Was all the man said. "Nice to meet you Helfire. I''m Faith, the servant of the Angel Monarch, the last survivor of Newber, the strongest Evolved, the killer of The Archangel of Despair, a Horror of the 3rd Tier! Queen Seraphine!" ''Well, I got a bit carried away, but at least they will respect My Lady!'' All the Evolved looked outright stunned by these informations. Even Hellfire was dumbfounded. ''He definitely didn''t expected that.'' Faith held in her laughter and motioned the Evolved to follow her. None of them objected. They immediately went outside, Will had already evacuated everyone from below. After reaching them, she introduced Will to Hellfire. But before she could say more Hellfire spoke. "Is everyone out of the building?" Will nodded, then Hellfire turned away and in both of his hands huge fireballs appeared. He threw both at the prison and they exploded in crimson flames. By the time Lucy and Clockwork arrived the whole building was aflame. Chapter 67: The Bull and the Angel While the others were trying to rescue the slaves. Sera and Bea held the frontlines. They each fought and killed dozens of Evolved already. But they just kept coming, and the worst of them, the Lieutenants haven''t even attacked yet. ''Fuck, what are they waiting for, cowards!'' Sera tried to contain her emotions, but the Midnight Crown was increasing her desires. She couldn''t dismiss it either, it was improving her soldier''s power. Yeah, they used railguns but the crown somehow increased the firepower of their weapons. She flew into the air and impaled some flying beast, she didn''t even have time to look because the enemy soldiers immediately targeted her. Instead of gracefully landing she dismissed her wings and landed on an Evolved''s head crushing it. Her weapon turned into a sword yet again, and by the next second she already blocked and evaded two seperate attacks. A weird lion-like beast tried to pounce on her, but she cut of its front legs. Her mind was getting more foggy. ''Fuck, another one with a mental debuff.'' Following the feeling she looked around and found the source. A woman was looking at her and concentrating really hard. Sera smiled and began to cut her way towards her ''This mental attack would probably cripple me if I didn''t have Clear Mind.'' It didn''t take long to reach her and cut the Evolved in half. She fought for another couple of minutes until something changed. Shots were still being fired between both sides, but the Evolved army stopped and backed away from Sera. She was breathing heavily, but only had a few small cuts and bruises. She looked towards Bea, she was in a very similar state as Sera. Suddenly a ripple went through the Evolved army and something was coming their way. Sera already knew who it was and she smiled. ''Finally!'' The crowd in front of Sera split and a Bull of a man came out. He was angry but happy at the same time. ''Mad bastard.'' With her wings she managed to push herself away, so the blow wouldn''t kill her. It landed on her sword arm''s shoulder dislocating it. Her arm nearly got ripped of by the blow and she screamed from the pain. "Ahhh... FUCK!" The blow was strong enough to send her flying. She landed about 20 meters away. The Bull didn''t follow her for some reason, so she had time to look at Bea''s battle. She was doing a lot better than Sera. Tor seemed to be already dead or at least dying, and a huge cat was currently circling Bea. She kept her eyes on the Cat, but she constantly glanced in Sera''s direction. There was concern in her eyes and even fear. Sera then turned towards the Bull, he was grinning. ''I will kill this ugly bastard... somehow.'' Sera went on a knee and slowly rose. In her left hand the sword appeared. She wasn''t as good with her left hand, but it was better than nothing. Slowly she began walking towards the Bull, he was still standing there with a stupid grin. After around ten meter seperated them, she stopped. "It''s sad really. I wanted to rip you apart, but Lord Nightmare has other plans." He was actually a bit sad as he said it. "Why?" Sera was confused. ''What is Nightmare planning? Does he want something from me? But what?'' "Don''t worry, you''re about to find out. He was waiting for you, you know." Said the Bull while laughing. "And he didn''t even had to get you. You came on your own free will! How marvelous!" Sera was getting concerned and suddenly she remembered something, the last readable line in Nightmare''s diary. ''The Bright Whore has arrived, but the surprise is nearly ready. And then she will join!'' She thought it was only his Mad ravings, but it seems there was a different meaning behind it which everyone ignored. ''This is a trap... And I walked right into it...'' As the realization hit her, suddenly the lights came back on. And with that the hidden weapons came alive as well. Chapter 68: The Home of Nightmares Faith watched the prison burn with everyone, but then she remembered where they were and their mission. "Will, Lucy and Clockwork you lead everyone out of here. The other Evolved will help in the escape." The three of them nodded and she turned towards her next objective. But before she could leave a large hand garbbed her shoulder. "Where are you going?" Asked Hellfire. "There''s still some people I have to rescue. I''m heading to Nightmare''s home to get them." Hellfire nodded and said. "Okay, lets go!" And with that he took to the skies and flew towards Nightmare''s mansion. Faith was stunned for a second. ''Fuck me, that was hot!'' She shook these stupid thoughts out of her head and went after Hellfire. The streets were mostly empty around this area, which was a bit weird. ''I would have thought, that they would keep their leader''s house more secure. But also we are closer to the fighting, so maybe they all went away to help.'' The main reason they came here was to free the girl and any other slave they would find. ''Now that I think of it, we haven''t heard from the girl since my escape. I hope she is alright and that Nightmare is not home.'' Faith approached the house, Hellfire was already waiting for her. In shadow form she went behind him, then turned back into her human form and tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped and turned around fast with his halberd at the ready. Faith giggled at this display. "Don''t be scared it''s just me." Hellfire was still breathing quickly, but a small smile was playing on his lips. "Did anyone tell you, that you would be a great assassin?" She just shook her head and said. "I''m no assassin, just a Devout Shadow." Then she whispered. "But if My Lady orders, I will kill anyone." With that Faith turned away and went into the building, leaving Hellfire stunned. The building was huge with hundreds of rooms, it will take a while to look through each of them. They approached the chains, their end was quite small. Likely for a child around 8 years old. ''We were late... FUCK!'' Faith threw the chain so hard it imbedded itself into the wall. She was angry, but a hand held her shoulder firmly. Hellfire was looking down at her with concern. "Who was kept here? Judging by the chains it must have been a child." Faith was trying to calm down, but it was hard. Eventually she said. "She doesn''t have a name yet, she is an 8 year old whom Nightmare liked to torture. She forgot her real name because of the tortures, Nightmare only called her Freak and she thought that was her name." Faith was crying at this point and Hellfire hugged her. Faith didn''t even know why she was crying, it was just so sad. Through the tears she continued. "She''s an Evolved, with an ability to move her soul outside of her body. Eventually she learned how to communicate with us and she helped so much. Without her this rescue would have been impossible. And I... I promised her... That she will be rescued with... with everyone else..." Hellfire didn''t say anything just held her and waited for her to calm down. After a couple of minutes she managed and her rational mind took over. ''If the girl is not here I should go back to Sera and help with the retreat... There''s nothing left for me to do here...'' With a big sigh she turned away from the room and called over her shoulder. Faith''s voice was emotionless as she said. "Lets go, we need to help with the retreat." Hellfire looked at her with concern, but didn''t say anything, only nodded and went after her. They were just about to move towards the frontline, when all the power came back on. Faith and Hellfire looked at each other, then he took to the skies with her in his shadow. They both knew that something very bad is about to happen. Chapter 69: The Sacrifice The lights came back on and with it a bunch of hidden railguns, all aiming straight at Sera. They were a lot bigger than the ones humans can use. ''So, this is what those energy cells were for. To power these weapons.'' Sera didn''t have time to run away or even dodge the shots. She summoned her weapon as a shield and tried to not die. Shot after shot rang out, they were so powerful that the ground around Sera began to cave in. Still she held her ground, her arms were already numb from the attacks but she couldn''t even move. Her Essence began to dwindle and she dismissed everything except her wings and shield which she still held. At some point she fell to her knees and began screaming. She couldn''t even hear her own thoughts from the constant noise of railgunfire. Her Essence was so low that she had to dismiss her shield as well. She only had her wings to protect her, the pain was excruciating. Her wings felt like they were taken apart muscle by muscle. It took around one minute of constant bombardment for her Essence to fully run out. As her wings dissipated the shooting stopped. Sera was lying on the ground and around her silence reined. She quickly glanced towards Bea, she was fine. There was a large dead cat near her. ''She managed to kill the other as well, that''s good... and the railguns only shot at me.'' Sera tried her best to see Bea''s face but her vision just couldn''t focus. If she had to guess there was pain, anger and horror, but she didn''t know for sure. Suddenly there was a flap of wings and a huge demonic man appeared in front of her. ''Seems like Hellfire is still alive.'' From his shadow Faith came out and knelt next to Sera. There were tears running down her face. Sera''s mind was getting more and more foggy, but she held on. "My Lady... Get up, we have to leave... All the slaves are rescued..." Sera looked at her, then reached out and held her hand. Tears were running down on Sera''s face as well. And Faith began crying even more, she knew what Sera was about to say. "Save them... Get them... To... Safety..." "No... We can all make it out..." ''No we can''t... Nightmare won''t let me go...'' There was a noise next to her. Footsteps, slow and methodical heading her direction. Her eyes were trying to stay open, but her vision was all foggy. Above her stood a man, he was very handsome with dark hair and dark purple eyes. He stood with arrogance, like she was only a bug in his eyes. "So... You''re... Nightmare..." He smiled at that. It was a Mad smile. "Oh, so my reputation proceeds me." ''Arrogance it is.'' "Well... It wasn''t... Hard to... Guess..." Sera''s words were getting more and more slured. "Yeah well, your reputation proceeds you as well. You even managed to get the attention of my Master. The strongest Evolved to ever exist, killing a Horror of the 3rd Tier as your first monster, just because he angered you." He began laughing madly. "The horrible Archangel of Despair, finally dying at the hands of a human girl. The other two would be emberassed, well if they would still be sane of course." Through the exhaustion Sera tried to pay attention to what Nightmare said, it confused her. "How... How do... You know... That there are... Three of them...?" He laughed again. "Do you know what they fought against? Wait no, let me rephrase that! Do you know what defeated them?" The smile on Nightmare''s face was the scariest thing she ever saw and before she could try to answer he spoke again. "Madness." After saying that Nightmare kicked her in the head and she instantly lost consciousness. [End of Part 1 - Angel of Despair] Chapter 70: A Magical Day On a field walked two woman holding hands, the Sun was shining high in the sky and there was no cloud in sight. They went through a field of grass barefoot, feeling each strand of grass between their toes. Suddenly one of them began running, she was a magnificent woman, with a breathtaking body. Her hair was the color of bark and her eyes were green as a forest. She wore a bright sundress with flowers and trees adorning it. She giggled while running and the other woman followed. She had bright gold hair and eyes, her body was just as amazing as the other woman''s. She wore a sundress as well, but hers had nothing decorative on it. The color of the dress was the cleanest white one has ever seen. It made the woman look heavenly. "Haha, come Sera! Catch me!" Said Bea while laughing. It was the best sound Sera has ever heard. She ran after Bea, but she just couldn''t catch her. "What is it Sera? Giving up already?" She giggled some more, then yelped when suddenly Sera grabbed her while using her wings. They both landed in the field of grass, laughing. The laughing after a while stopped and turned into kissing. Then the sounds changed to moans and screams. It lasted for hours and after it, they both just lay next to each other watching the sky. After another hour Bea looked at Sera. "Tell me something Sera. Are you happy?" Sera looked Bea''s naked body up and down, then answered. "Of course!" They both laughed, then stayed silent, until Bea spoke again. "And what would make you even happier?" Sera thought about it for a while, but she couldn''t think of anything particular except one thing. "I''m probably as happy as I can get. The only thing I want is to have a family of my own." Bea looked at Sera with a bright smile. "Well, you won''t going to believe me, but as it turns out with me being part of nature we can actually have children." Sera wasn''t convinced, it seemed too good to be true. "How do you know that?" She asked skeptically. "NO!... STOP IT!... YOU''RE KILLING HER!" There was so much pain in her voice. "Yes, that''s the plan!" Whispered the woman. Sera couldn''t breath, Bea was dying on the ground and she couldn''t do anything. ''I will not watch while they kill her!'' Her eyes went bloodred and her mind went blank. She broke away from the woman''s hold with ease, then took her apart limb by limb. Sera then turned to the others, they haven''t noticed her. With Mad rage she attacked. With every move a new bodypart or organ was removed from her enemies. She didn''t care and didn''t stop until all of them were only pulps of bloody mess. After all of them were dead she ran to Bea. And knelt next to her. "No... Please No... This can''t be happening..." In front of her lay Bea her body a broken mess, she wasn''t breathing anymore. "NOOOO... Please Bea... Wake up..." Sera was holding onto Bea''s corpse. "Please Bea... Don''t leave me... We still have so much to do..." But Bea didn''t wake up. In front of Sera was the love of her life and her unborn child, both of them dead. She will never marry Bea. Her child will never be born. They will never teach their kid to be a good person. They will never watch him grow up. And they will never grow old together. That life was held for someone else, but not for them. Sera couldn''t breath, there was no escape from her grief. It was driving her Mad and she felt like that was the only way she could survive. By losing her mind. ''Wait... Losing my mind... Going Mad...'' "YOU MOTHERFUCKER! THIS IS NOT FUKCING REAL!" As she said it the world around her broke apart and Sera woke up. Chapter 71: The Harsh Reality Sera woke up in a dark room, she was chained down on a table. But something was wrong she couldn''t see in the dark. It took her a minute to fully remember everything. ''Ah, yeah I remember. The chains are blocking my abilities and my Essence regen.'' She never heard of chains like this, probably Nightmare and his Mad scientist made it. Another torture session just ended. Nightmare''s favorite type, mental. Sera didn''t remember how long ago was the rescue mission. It could have been days, weeks, months or even years. The amount of mental and physical torture she went through, the days just all felt the same. The darkness didn''t help either. "Are you happy with todays session?" Asked Sera from the darkness. Suddenly a hand touched her arm and moved upward to her shoulder, then stopped on her breast. She had gotten used to the physical torture already. Sera was still angry everytime he touched her anywhere. But after the first time, she learned to endure it. "Oh, don''t worry the session is not over yet. I actually feel very horny, watching those people rape Bea, really made me hungry as well." Sera didn''t even react to his provoking, after hundreds of times he just couldn''t say anything to hurt her. She was properly numb to the world. "Okay, but hurry. I have better things to do." She said in an emotionless voice. "Ah, yes you are very busy individual!" Suddenly there was a sound of clothing hitting the ground and something touched her on the leg. Sera turned off her mind throughout the whole thing. She didn''t make a sound, even when Nightmare hit her. This was her life now. Nightmare trying his hardest to break her, while she is trying to keep sane. It was getting harder after each session, she didn''t let it show on the outside though. ''If Nightmare found out how close she came to breaking today. He would double his efforts and I won''t let that happen. I will not break!'' After about an hour or maybe a minute she didn''t know nor cared, Nightmare was done with her and left. While alone she tried to recall every happy memory she had. Her parents and all the fun they had, her friends at the Academy, her friends after the Desturction and of course Bea. The only blessing Nightmare gave her without him knowing, is the reminder of her love. All her other memories were becoming blurry. She couldn''t recall her parent''s voice or her friend''s face but Bea, she was perfectly clear in her mind. "Please, have mercy on me My Lady! I... I didn''t mean to hurt you... Please... Mercy..." The woman cried while pleading, but Sera didn''t care, she didn''t understand anything happening. She climbed to her feet and looked at Nightmare who was smiling at her. "What game is this?" Nightmare feined confusion. "Games? What are you talking about My Love?" Sera didn''t try to hide her disgust that those words caused. But before she could say anything, Nightmare stood and walked towards her. He then pulled out a collar from behind his back. "This is a gift just for you, we can''t have you walking around in chains now, can we?" He slowly raised it and closed it around her neck, but something was wrong with it. There was a slight humming coming from it. Sera didn''t care though, Nightmare was close and she could finally move to attack him. But when she prepared to grab him, the collar sent electricity through her whole body. She fell onto the ground clutching her neck. After a second it stopped, but she could hardly breathe. The pain was unimaginable, but at least she figured out where the humming was coming from. "Haha, You didn''t even wait for me to explain what not to do! Anyway, now that you got a taste I will tell you. The collar activates if you leave these couple of rooms, if you try to attack anyone and if you try to hurt yourself." He laughed again and continued. "Now that we are done with that, clean her, clothe her and take off her chains. I won''t say it again!" His mood changed in the blink of an eye. The maids bowed and took Sera to the bathroom. Sera didn''t object, she was scared that Nightmare would hurt the maids. They worked quickly, efficiently and without emotion. Sera didn''t care as they cleaned her everywhere, it was actually a nice feeling. Their hands were careful, but also firm, way better than Nightmare. After about ten minutes she was all clean, they brushed her wet hair and put a dress on her. Sera was stunned by it, the dress was pristine white. It looked very similar to the one from her last nightmare. They didn''t give her any footwear, so she walked out of the bathroom and into the dinning room barefoot. As Sera turned to the table she was shocked, but not because it was full of delicacies. She was surprised because in one of the chairs sat a girl of about 8 years of age. She had white hair and eyes, she smiled at Sera but it didn''t reach her eyes. ''So she is still alive.'' Chapter 72: Victoria Sera didn''t have time to think because of Nightmare. "Come, My Love. Sit next to me!" With a sigh she approached the chair on his left. This way she could sit next to the girl. ''What happened to her? We haven''t heard from her since Faith''s escape.'' Nightmare smiled at the two of them. "Oh, how mindless of me! You two haven''t even met each other. Or at least in person." There was anger in his voice. ''So he figured it out. But she didn''t know our exact plan. How did he know?'' The anger from Nightmare''s face disappeared like it never existed, and he smiled at them. "My Love, meet Freak! Freak, meet My Love! But you can call her mother since we are now a happy family, don''t we?" There was a Mad grin on his face. Sera''s face was emotionless, but the girl didn''t react like that. She actually smiled at Sera, like this is the best news she ever heard. ''How did she stay this innocent through all the suffering?'' "It''s nice to meet you mother!" She was grinning from ear to ear, which meant that Sera saw her mouth and all the missing teeth. Actually now that Sera looked more closely there was a lot of bodyparts missing. An ear, two fingers and judging by the weird way she leans on one side, there are missing ribs as well. Without her knowledge Sera''s left hand held a knife and was trembling from anger. Suddenly a small hand touched the hand. Sera looked down at the kid and saw something that made her really sad, understanding. The girl only pretended to be innocent. She quickly released the knife and instead held the little girls hand. "I... I know... I know Nightmare said it as... as a weird form of torture, but... but can I... can I still call you..." She didn''t have to finish the sentence for Sera to understand what she wants to know. With her other hand Sera reached and pulled up Victoria''s chin gently, so she looked up at her. Then with a smile she said. "Yes, you can call me mother. Every little girl needs a mother." Victoria''s smile was beautiful and her eyes became watery. She suffered so much and finally found someone to rely on was an amazing feeling. ''It''s not like I didn''t want children, but I didn''t expect to become a mother so soon... Or that I will be alone in motherhood...'' While Victoria was crying from happiness and desperately clutching Sera, she began to cry as well but not from happiness. After a couple of minutes Sera pulled herself back together and continued to stroke Victoria''s head. She even began to hum a melody from her own childhood. It was sad, but hopeful just as they were. Sad because of their reality, hopeful because they could rely on each other. After about an hour her daughter finally fell asleep, Sera tucked her into the bed and silently left the room. In the door she stopped to look back at Victoria. Sera watched her for a couple of minutes a small smile playing on her lips. ''It might sound insane, but I''m happy that I found her. Even though it took this much suffering.'' Sera was about to turn and leave, when a hand grabbed onto her waist. She tried her hardest not to shudder. The feeling of Nightmare this close to her, was the worst thing she ever felt. He kissed her neck and Sera supressed the trembling of her body. He whispered onto her neck. "Come My Love. Lets have some fun." Nightmare led away Sera from her daughter''s room and into another bedroom. There were tears in her eyes. ''Maybe if he can torture me, he will leave Victoria alone.'' With these thoughts she endured. It was hard, but until her new daughter would be fine, none of it mattered. Chapter 73: Waking Up in a Nightmare In a dark room lay a woman on her bed. She couldn''t sleep again. It seemed she will never have a good nights sleep ever. The constant nightmares stopped her, but no nightmare was as bad as the reality. It has been 2 months since the rescue mission, when everything went to shit. Losing Sera was a horrendous blow to the whole group. Yeah, the rescue was an ultimate success, they managed to free 1300 people and only lost about 250. But the happiness didn''t last long, soon enough chaos insued. Without Sera, people became aimless, they had no real leader. Faith, Hellfire, Lucy and the others tried to keep them together, but they weren''t enough. The Bunker is in multiple groups now and there is no one to pull them back together. Well, there is one person, but she could hardly make herself get out of bed. Losing Sera hit the group hard, the loss of their Queen was something they weren''t prepared for. But it hit Bea the hardest, her mind was in shambles. She couldn''t even think straight, the grief was just too overwhelming. In the first two weeks she tried everything, but she couldn''t even find the place where Sera was kept. She caught soldiers, Evolved, anyone who might know. She tortured them until they screamed, but none answered her questions. In the end she went into her room and never left it. Faith made sure that she ate, but that was it. She opened her Watch and tried to look at Sera''s status, but there was nothing. They destroyed her Watch. The first time Bea saw the missing window, she ran out of The Bunker and came back two days later, covered from head to toe in monster blood. Her soul was fully saturated after the Battle of Hold, but that didn''t stop her from killing more creatures. She got a lot of items since then, but gave away all of it to others. She only needed her sword. Suddenly there was a knock on the door, she didn''t even look at it. There was only one person who would come here. Faith opened the door and walked in. There was a tray in her hand with food on it. She put it down and took the one from yesterday. She lingered in the door looking at Bea, after some debating she said. "You know, Queen Seraphine wouldn''t want you to just lay there and do nothing. Her people are fighting each other in her own house. And you as her lover just letting it happen." Faith''s words were harsh but true. "Get out." Was all Bea said, she didn''t even look at Faith. With a sigh Faith said. "I wanted to save her, but Nightmare would''ve killed us all! You have to start live with the truth, she is gone and we can''t save her." "Get out." Bea didn''t raise her voice, it was just emotionless. Faith wanted nothing more than to go and save Sera, but that was just simply impossible until their own house is in chaos. "Lucy, listen to me. If we accept their reasoning we are no better than Nightmare. We can''t compromise with anarchists!" "No you listen to me! We can''t go on much longer like this, are food stores are already diminishing faster then we anticipated! We need peace in The Bunker, so we can establish hunting parties!" This back and forth had been going on for multiple days now. The food would last them about a week with the current consumption. It wouldn''t be a big issue, if they were one group with one leader. But currently there was 4 groups in The Bunker and the worst of them, the so called anarchists lived in the water treatment plant. They keep it hostage, making threats of destroying it if the other groups don''t bow down to them. ''They just want to reestablish slavery, but with them as slavers!'' Faith really wanted to hunt and kill all of them, but the others forbade her. ''If Bea would come back, this would be solved in no time. She was a great leader...'' Her thoughts suddenly stopped as Bea walked into the room. Everyone was shocked and all the conversations stopped. Bea looked around the room then sat down in her chair, next Sera''s empty one. Then she smiled and said. "So who''s going to brief me about The Bunker''s situation?" The people were still stunned so Faith spoke first. "Are you back or this is just another game for you?" Bea furrowed her brows in anger, but soon got her emotions under control. "Yes, I''m back. Now lets get to work, we have a lot to do!" Chapter 74: House Cleaning Hellfire lived a happy life. He was born into an Evolved family and became one at the age of 15. His first kill was a Corrupted of the 3rd Tier. Of course he only dealt the killing blow, his parents were already Transcended so they had an easy job dispatching the Fire Devil. Soon after he got enlisted into the Evolved Academy, he quickly made friends with a man named Nightmare. He was an Evolved and he had a title as well. They went to classes together and became bestfriends. He got to know his sister Lucy and his girlfriend Bea. He lived happily with his parents, hunted monsters and hung out with his friends. But when he was 18 his parents died on a hunting trip. He was depressed for a while, but with the help of Nightmare he got through it. But he was never the same, he unlocked his Heratige on the day his parents died and it increased his power, with his temper. Fire is a fickle thing, it could burn slowly for days or really hot for seconds. In two years, the Fall of Copen happened. Without his parents Copen couldn''t handle a 3rd Class Gate opening. There was only one Transcended left Bea''s father, but he wasn''t enough. Millions lost their lives and only a couple tens of thousands survived. With the leadership of Nightmare they made it to Havel. Nightmare never understood why he became the leader, but Hellfire knew. It was because he made decisions fast. A good leader makes good decisions, a bad one makes bad decisions, this is how the short sighted people see leadership. In reality it doesn''t matter if the decisions are good or bad, those are concepts for the philosophers. A real leader makes the necessary decisons and does it fast. Nightmare tried to make the best decisions possible and made them quickly. This was necessary in the wild to survive. Sadly after reaching Havel his headaches worsened and he went Mad. Hellfire tried to help him, to convince him, that what he does is wrong. What an idiot he was, instead he should have listened to Bea. He got thrown into a cell for months, but he was one of the lucky ones. He didn''t even want to think about how much did others suffer. To how much their Queen suffers even now. He only heard stories of Queen Seraphine, their real leader. He didn''t know what to think, all the people who knew her swear she is a saint or something. He didn''t really care, she was still with Nightmare and he had a debt to pay, not just to Seraphine, but to the slaver himself. But there wasn''t time for that yet, they first needed to unite their own people. Luckily Bea finally decided to join them. ''Fucking finally!'' They both stopped a couple meters away. There was about a hundred or so anarchist with a couple of Evolved leading them. There were a lot of new Evolved, most found out when they killed something on the way to The Bunker. Hellfire had the armor''s helmet on as well, it increased the fear factor of his bearing by a lot, the wings and horns helped as well. ''Remember, they are our people just misguided. Do not kill them!'' He constantly repeated this sentence in his head. If he lost his temper who knew what would happen. Their leader was about to speak, but Hellfire summoned his halberd and hit the ground with its end. Numerous large cracks spread through the floor. With everyone''s attention on him he said. "We came here, for your surrender! If you want to avoid blood shed you will stand down!" The people looked between each other, most of them were conflicted. Sadly their leaders were too dumb to see. "We sent you our demands! Either comply or live with the consequences!" With a sigh Hellfire turned to Faith and said what she had been waiting for. "You can beat them up..." Before he could finish she was already gone and in a second a shout of pain could be heard, then another and another. They didn''t know what to do against her and after the 20th person fell unconscious, all of them vent on their knees and held up their hands. "Was this really so hard?" Asked Faith while she dusted off her hands. Hellfire just shook his head and asked the soldiers to take care of the rest. Then they turned around and went back to Bea. ''The others should have taken care of the last two groups by now.'' Chapter 75: Call to Arms In the conference room Bea was waiting for everyone to arrive. She was thinking through the plan she made. ''If I am correct we will be able to rescue Sera, but it will have a high cost. The enemy still outnumbers us 3 to 1 and have way more Evolved. That''s the issue, we don''t have enough people that could fight them.'' While thinking the door opened, Hellfire and Faith walked in. ''They seem to be in a good mood. The mission was a success.'' "The water treatment plant is under our control again." Said Hellfire. "Good, lets wait for the others." In half an hour all of them came back with similar news. With the first part done, time for the next step. "Gather everyone into the big room, I''m going to make a speech." They were quite surprised, but none disagreed. In an hour the news spread and everyone gathered for her speech. She stood on the same podium Sera was before the attack. Bea quickly dismissed her emotions, it''s not the time nor the place for such thinking. "2 months ago we completed a mission. We rescued the slaves from Nightmare''s clutches, but not without a cost." Bea took a second for dramatic effect, then continued. "We lost 257 of our brothers and sisters in arms, 258 if we count our leader. But Queen Seraphine would be ashamed of you! She gave her life for you to live and you dare to try and cause upheaval! I say enough!" She took a deep breath and continued. "No one is keeping you here! If you want to try your luck outside, Leave! But if you decide to stay you will obey My Rules! Is that understood!" Everyone either nodded or looked away ashamed. More than 1500 people and none dare to look her in the eye. "Now, lets get to the point, in this Bunker under my rule, there won''t be any free living. If you can work you will work, if you can fight you will fight! We''re not planning to stay here forever, after we killed Nightmare and all his man we march towards Castleburg." The people were confused, a lot of them only hearing that for the first time. The veterans on the other hand all shouted "YES!" "There is a chance, that our Queen still lives and we won''t leave her behind! We will gather our strength and destroy all of them!" "Bea! Why didn''t you sent me with Faith and Lucy! I can be a really good scout as well!" He was shouting but Bea didn''t take it to the heart. After losing his parents he changed and became very temperamental. "First things first, you are fucking huge, that makes you a shitty scout. Second, I didn''t send you because I need you here. We need to train an army if you didn''t notice and after me you are our best fighter!" Hellfire took a couple of deep breaths and finally calmed down. "I''m sorry... So what''s next then?" Bea smiled and began walking. "We will go and meet our army, then lead hunting parties to get food and find out how many Evolved we actually have." She took a couple of steps before continuing. "After we find every Evolved, they will be trained and their souls will be saturated, not fully of course. One of them might get a funny idea and become an Ascended. It would only complicate things." Hellfire nodded with understanding and they moved on in silence. Bea''s mind wasn''t silent though. ''We currently have around 50 Evolved, while the enemy has hundreds of them. We have 1500 regulars, while our enemy has probably 5000 or so. This won''t going to be easy, but it will have to be enough. One thing I learned from the last mission is that the enemy''s souls aren''t saturated enough. They are weak.'' They arrived at the training hall, it was full of people and Moe was really struggling to put everyone into some form of order. ''I really need a better leader structure, it was fine for a couple hundred, but we are working with more than a thousand people here.'' As they entered the room silence spread and everyone turned in their direction. Bea just smiled at them and said. "Carry on!" Slowly people began to continue what they were doing, but soon got distracted again. Bea and Hellfire moved onto one of the fighting mats. They both had training weapons and changed into gym clothes. Bea''s clothes were as accentuating as ever, but many people were watching Hellfire''s muscles move. They began fighting, nothing serious it was just something to increase the soldiers morale. Everyone liked to watch a good fight. Bea ducked under Hellfire''s halberd and moved to hit his dominant leg. Using the momentum of his attack he turned in time to evade it and push Bea away. She didn''t give ground and instead moved into close quarters and delivered a punch into his abdomin. Hellfire coughed once, then blocked three of Bea''s attacks, but got hit on the arm by the fourth one. He nearly dropped the halberd and that was enough for Bea to shove her sword at his throat. "Congratulations!" Said Hellfire with a smile. Bea just nodded and put the sword back on the rack. Then she looked around and shouted. "I said, Carry on!" Non dared disobey her after that power display, which was exactly their plan. They spent the next week doing nothing but training, going on hunting trips and waiting for Faith and Lucy. Chapter 76: A Few Happy Moments Sera woke up in a bed, she didn''t have nightmares this time for some reason, turning on her side she remembered why. ''If he sleeps he can''t torture me... at least not mentally.'' In the night he chained her collar to the bed, so she couldn''t get up until he unlocked it. She began moving around trying to remove it, but it was to no avail. Sera did achieve something though. "Can''t you just lie in peace for a while?" Said a sleepy voice next to her. "Not with someone as disgusting as you next to me." She wanted to spit on him, but the collar might consider it an attack. Nightmare sighed, then unlocked her collar and called in the maids. "Clean her and Freak, get them ready for breakfast!" He sounded quite annoyed by her. "Yes, Lord Nightmare!" The emotionless maids pushed Sera into the bathroom. There a bath was already ready and Victoria was in it. Sera didn''t wear any clothes for obvious reasons, so she just went into the bath to join her daughter. Victoria immediately went and hugged her. "Good morning, mother!" She said cheerfully. "Good morning to you too! Did you sleep well?" Sera asked and surprisingly she wasn''t a little bit sad. Seeing Victoria happy already made her day. Even though without clothes Sera saw every wound on her body. Seeing her like that she hugged her even more. "Mother... I... Can''t... Breathe..." Sera quickly released her from the too tight hug and had a scared expression on her face. "I... I''m so sorry... I didn''t mean..." Her expression quickly changed to annoyed, when Victoria began laughing at her. "You little vixen! I thought I hurt you!" The both laughed and began bathing. Afterward Sera didn''t let the maids to clean or braid Victoria''s hair. It just didn''t feel right. Victoria was jumping out of her skin she was so exicted. She was really interested in the outside world and especially about Newber. She asked so many questions, that Sera could hardly follow her. "Slow down, what was the question?" Asked Sera with a beautiful smile. With Vicky, she forgot all about the place they were stuck at. "I asked what was the most beautiful place in Newber." This was probably the 1000th question she asked about the city, but Sera didn''t care. She loved this about her daughter, the curiosity. "There was a large park in the middle of the city, with a bunch of old world monuments overgrown with plants. But nothing mutated, just regular beautiful plants. It was especially magical in the spring when all the flowers bloomed." Her daughter stayed silent for longer, than usual so Sera turned to her. Her face was confused, but there was a mischievous smile hidden beneath. "What is it Vicky?" She asked a bit concerned. The smile turned obvious as she said. "Mother, did you perhaps love that garden so much, because of Bea." She began to giggle. "What do you mean you little rascle? I didn''t even know Bea back then." Sera began to tickle her and they both chuckled for a minute or two. When they finally settled back down, Vicky asked with a serious expression. "Mother, what if you really loved the garden, because you knew you will love Bea? Isn''t that possible?" Sera was very skeptical, but had no heart to tell her daughter that it was just the only garden she ever saw. "Maybe you are right." As she said it, she kissed Vicky on the top of her head, which made her giggle. They stayed silent until footsteps approached the door and a voice came in. "My Lady, dinner will be served soon, if you don''t mind Lord Nightmare ordered you to take a bath." With a sigh Sera stood up and helped Vicky on her feet as well. Then with a smile she asked. "Do you want to take a bath with me?" Vicky jumped up and down from joy and she said yes over and over again. Sera and Vicky went, both laughing and happy. This was her life now, hell in the night, heaven in the day. After spending a week with Vicky, she actually began to think that this is fine. She could live like this with her daughter and wouldn''t care about the night''s suffering. She would give everything in this world just to never see her daughter sad. But as all good things, this had to end as well. Chapter 77: Final Preparations In the streets of Havel a dark haired man was leading a group of 10 people. It seemed like they were sneaking towards something and after a couple of minutes they saw it. A dozen Tainted were eating a large corpse of some other monster. The man in the lead made a couple of hand movements, giving the others orders silently. Half the group went to the left and half to the right, encircling the beasts. They weren''t too strong just Tier 2s, but they were perfect for increasing Essence. The Evolved went to their places, everyone of them knew what to do. They have done this a lot of times. The ranged began to open fire, while the melee users defended them and delivered deadly blows of their own. It took less than a minute to kill all of them, when they were done their leader spoke. He didn''t move from his position since the beginning. He needed no more Essence since his core was already saturated. "Good, bring the meat and lets go back." Said Will and began looking around the place, making sure nothing ambushed them. ''Its been a week since Lucy and Faith let. In that time they should''ve already found the entrance or at least know where it should be. Which means the attack is soon to come.'' Suddenly he heard a noise and a beast jumped at him, he summoned his spear impaling it. "You have killed a Corpse Eater, a Tainted of the 3rd Tier! Your Soul Is Fully Nourished! Try ranking up to further nourish it!" Will dismissed his spear and continued looking around. ''Based on our past information, The Hold has about three times our number in regular soldiers. Probably even more now, because a lot of us are Evolved.'' He stopped again, when he saw the others finishing up. "Move out!" He said and began walking. The others already gotten used to the way he speaks so they just followed him in silence. ''We have by our last count 1543 personal. From that 1471 can fight. And also 496 of them are Evolved. A lot more than we initially thought, also with our constant training and hunting, all of them are elite millitary personal. Their cores on average is at 600/1000 Essence.'' "We will kill him of course!" Answered Hellfire, than looked at Bea. "Won''t we?" "No! What... what if he can be saved! We can''t just abandon him!" Lucy sounded very anxious. Hellfire just shook his head. "Does he even deserve to be saved? After everything he has done?" "He... he is under some spell... maybe it can be broken... he is your best friend, you can''t just give up on him!" Her voice changed to anger. "He was my best friend, until he threw me into a cell and began torturing people for fun!" Hellfire''s mood was very similar to Lucy''s, but also different. ''It''s like he''s constantly fighting with his anger, interesting.'' "That... that wasn''t him!" Lucy shouted. Hellfire was about to retort, when Will had enough. ''Lets bring this conversation back on track.'' "Bea, what do you think?" Will''s voice was emotionless and firm. Because he spoke little, people listened to him whenever he opened his mouth. Everyone turned towards Bea, who had a thoughtful expression on her face. Eventually she made a compromise. "If we find a way to save him, we do. But our main priority will still be killing him. He is too dangerous to be left alive." Lucy nodded and stayed silent. She knew that it''s the best Bea could do, and understood the danger of confronting Nightmare. Capture was not an option. "Okay, now lets begin the planning. How do we turn a 3 to 1 siege into an overwhelming victory? Any ideas?" Said Bea and they began finding a way that could win. It took them a lot of hours, but they came up with a way. It will have a lot of casualities, but if there is a chance at victory they will take it. Will followed the others out of the room. Tomorrow the Siege of The Hold begins! Chapter 78: "For Queen Seraphine!" The large room where the speeches happened was packed again. Everyone knew what was about to be announced. The war will come to an end today one way or another. Bea walked at the head of the leadership to the podium. Her hair was braided tightly so it wouldn''t move during the fighting. She wore and armor Item, that one of the monsters dropped. It didn''t do much just increased her physical protection. It also gave her an air of authority she never before possessed. The armor was brown with black lines decorating it. It went with her hair. She also summoned her sword giving her even more dignity. She arrived on the podium. Behind her stood Lucy and Faith, Bea initially wanted Hellfire, but his height would undermine her aura. Which meant her speech wouldn''t have as good of an effect. And that was the reason for speeches, to give the soldiers morale before they march to their death. Bea took a deep breath and all the sound stopped within the room. It was like nature itself was listening to her. At that moment she felt it. Bea nearly understood something about herself, but it was just out of her reach. ''I''m close to furthering my Heratige, but there is something missing still.'' Dismissing these thoughts she turned to the crowd and smiled. This is what they worked towards for months and it''s about to become reality. "We have been stuck in Havel for months, because evil kept us in his clutches! Today we will destroy that evil! NIGHTMARE WILL DIE!" "HE WILL DIE!" "But we won''t going to stop only him, NO! All of them, people who hurt us, killed our friends, tortured our family! THEY ALL WILL DIE!" "THEY WILL DIE!" "And most of all, the main purpose of this mission is to FREE OUR QUEEN! Who sacrificed herself so we could fight another day! FOR QUEEN SERAPHINE!" "FOR QUEEN SERAPHINE FOR..." The crowd didn''t stop the last chant until they began the march outside. They only stopped then, because it would have been dangerous to keep shouting on the streets. Both armies were stunned by this display, but in truth it wasn''t really impressive. ''The wall wasn''t the best quaility, a strong wind could knock it down.'' But it didn''t matter, the attack was a clear display of power. It increased her armies morale, while decreased the enemies. With nothing to block their approach Bea and her army entered The Hold and came down on the fledgling enemy army, like a warhammer, breaking their lines even further. Leading the charge Bea didn''t stop, only killed. She knew what streets to take for the fastest route to the headquarters and in about 10 minutes of constant fighting she reached it. Sadly her momentum was stopped by the enemy army. There was at least three times as many enemies in front of her, but she didn''t care, her blood was boiling and with a war cry she charged the enemy line. Behind her army followed and attacked the enemy. But before they hit their stable defensive line, vines grew from the ground displacing and even killing most of the enemy vanguard. Bea was using a lot of Essence, but she didn''t care. ''I will kill all of them!'' In the next second she hit the broken enemy line and the massacre started. With a swing she decapitated an enemy, then cut the throat of an other, then stabbed another. She moved trough them as a whirlwind, making perfect cuts and stabs. Every blow was deadly, she cut through the enemy line in a minute, but what came next took away from her war spirit. In front of her was a well managed enemy line, with shield in the front and ranged in the back. ''This just got a lot harder!'' But before either party could make a move, something very weird happened. The ground rumbled, some of the people even fell over. Then there was a loud explosive sound and the night sky turned bright. It was like the Sun came up. In a couple of seconds Bea''s eyes finally gotten used to the brightness change. ''What... what is that?'' In the previously empty sky, a new star was shining bright. Chapter 79: Darkest Hour It happened just after dinner. They were sitting at the table, and just finished eating, but unlike other times Nightmare didn''t leave. Instead through the door The Bull walked in. Sera immediately began to fear what will happen next. Nightmare turned towards her, smiling. It was the most horrifying thing she ever saw. Vicky must have felt it as well, because she began to hug Sera''s arm while trembling from fear. The Bull was smiling too with that Madness behind his eyes. "I think it''s time for Freak to become a woman don''t you, My Love?" Said Nightmare still smiling and motioned Bull to take Vicky away from Sera. "NO!... Please Nightmare... Don''t do this!..." But he didn''t care and The Bull pulled Vicky away with ease. "Mom... Mom please... Help me..." She was sobbing. After the months she spent with Nightmare, she wasn''t innocent and knew what was about to happen to her. Sera went on her knees and begged Nightmare. "Please... Let him take me... Not my daughter... Please I do anything..." Nightmare knelt before her and held her face in his hands. "Oh, that''s nice. But through the mental torture I realized something about you. You have a hero complex and just can''t stand if someone you love is getting hurt while you watch." Nightmare laughed, then continued. "It drives you Mad! The feeling of uselessness, but that is exactly what I want. You can save your daughter, but you have to become Mad to achieve it. Lets see if you can do it before Bull rapes your daughter to death!" After saying that the Bull teared Vicky''s clothes off with one move. Then he slapped her cheek and put her on the table, with her back facing up. As he began to take off his clothes, Sera ran at him. She tried to stop him, but the collar on her neck sent waves of electricity coursing through her body. Even that didn''t stop her fully and she tackled the Bull. Sera screamed from the pain, while the Bull laughed from it. With their skin in contact he felt the electricity as well, but he ignored it and tossed Sera of off him. She hit the wall hard and crumpled on the ground. Dazed and still convulsing from the collar she looked to the table. There Vicky was struggling trying her hardest to keep The Bull away from her. "MOM!... PLEASE!... HELP!..." She screamed over and over. And while she screamed Nightmare laughed Madly. He was enjoying it. "I... Will... Save... Her!" She turned on her stomach and began to rise to her knee. The more she moved the more the pain increased. Eventually somehow she stood on very shaky legs and screamed. "LET ME GO!" With that the false reality broke apart. The Void disappeared, but the voice said, before it was fully gone. "Good, we will meet again Little Angel." ... Her eyes opened, she was still on the ground just after The Bull broke Vicky''s arm. Sera didn''t think for a second, she grabbed the collar with both hands and ignoring the pain caused by the shock, she broke it. There was a new found power in her veins and she used everything possible to save her daughter. In a fraction of a second she flew at Bull and punched him so hard he hit the opposite wall. Then Sera grabbed her daughter and flew straight trhough the ceiling of the building. Vicky was clutching onto her and crying from relief. Sera broke the collar on her neck as well and didn''t stop until they were high in the sky. Only then did she notice the armor she was wearing and her wings which were glowing as bright as a star. Then she looked down and saw the war spreading out in front of her. Her eyes teared up by this sight. Bea came for them, she didn''t give up. Sera looked at it for quite a while, then decided she should help lead them to victory. Looking down at her daughter who was still crying Sera kissed the top of her head and began her descent. She hit the ground near the front line and grabbed her daughter with one of her wings. Sera will not let her out of her sight. Suddenly something hit her in the chest and didn''t let her go. It was Bea wearing some weird armor, she was ready for war. Sadly Sera wasn''t the same, so she immediately pushed away and went on high alert. Bea didn''t care though, she just smiled at her and went back to fighting. The celebrating is after the war is won. Chapter 80: This is War The fighting stopped for a minute, when Sera burst out of the main building, but it soon resumed. The war already escalated, everyone was fighting, it was pure chaos. A man dodged a swing of a sword and delivered a killing blow to someone else, then he got shot in the head. A woman aiming towards an Evolved took the shot, killing him instantly. Then she fell over dead her body a broken mess. A man shot out support beam collapsing the roof of a building, crushing multiple people in it. He laughed, but soon stopped and fell over dead with a knife in his back. A woman stabbed a man in the back, then ran to one of her friends dying and tried to heal him. Suddenly the whole building exploded. There were similar fights happening all over the place. This was war, there is no glory, honor or anything remotly pleasant about it. War was pain, suffering, loss and chaos. A man stabbed another with his sword, then cut one into two pieces. Then a halberd came down on his head splitting his skull. The demonic figure moved on to deliver another dozen, 2 dozen, hundred, 2 hundred killingblows. At somewhere else a shadow moved between soldiers, it killed anone that was her enemy. Clean stabs, quick, painless. Close to her fought a man his shield deflected every blow and his spear was death itself as it always found its mark. In the sky a different battle was being fought. Multiple flying monters or humans with wings were chasing each other. Their corpses fell from the sky one by one until only a huge eagle remained. He broke free and managed to hit Sera in the chest. She should have been dead on the spot, but instead her armor dissipated the blow and she only backed away a few steps. While Bull was stunned from this display, Bea stabbed the same spot again. He screamed when the blow went through his muscle and into his chest cavity, but still it wasn''t strong enough to pierce his heart. Finally realizing the amount of danger he was in, the Bull came at them hard. He still didn''t care about most blows, only the ones targeting his wounded chest. Sera evaded his fist, then his kick, but then he grabbed her arm. She wasn''t fast enough to stop him. He pulled her closer grabbing her left hand with both of his, then with a Mad smile on his face he broke her arm. She screamed from the pain, even though it wasn''t even remotly close to the pain she felt in the Void. Bull began pulling on her broken hand, trying to tear it off. Sera somehow didn''t pass out from the pain, instead while screaming she summoned her weapon in daggerform and stabbed it through Bull''s heart. He instantly released Sera and she slumped to the ground, Bea was there to catch her. With her arm screaming in pain, her whole body went limp including her wings. Victoria climbed to her legs looking very confused by everything. Then she saw her mother lying on the ground with an arm that was only attached by a piece of skin and muscle. She was really scared and began crying again. Her mother reached out and grabbed her hand, she then brought it to her lips and kissed it. Sera was smiling, but in her eyes there was only pain. Finally Sera turned towards Bea, woh was still holding her with teary eyes. She only said two words before losing consciousness. "Protect her..." Chapter 81: "See You in Hell!" Around Lucy there was pure chaos, every enemy that can fly was dead. She and Hellfire made sure of that. But the war in the sky was a lot better than on the ground. Here anything could happen. Lucy nearly got stabbed or shot in the back over two dozen times. Some she dodged, some she dodged only partially cuting her at one place or another and some Hellfire blocked with his armor. They fought side by side delivering death to anyone and everyone who dares to challenge them. Hellfire pierced the skull of another man, while Lucy defending his back cut the throat of a soldier. The battle was purely a melee at this point, some shots still rang out, but anyone with a ranged weapon didn''t survive for long. They continued their rampage when something changed. Their own army began to move with a lot more lethargy, like they were tired and only wanted to go to sleep. Hellfire and Lucy looked at each other, they both knew whos ability was this. Nightmare has finally joined the battle. The two of them took to the skies and began scanning the ground for their target. It took them about a minute to find him, then they swiftly descended next to him. He was standing at the edge of the roof, looking down at the mayhem with a smile on his face. ''Oh brother, what happened to you...'' Lucy felt very sad, hearing that her brother went Mad is one thing, seeing it with her own eyes is another. "Isn''t it just beautiful! The chaos, the destruction, the Madness, the hate, it''s just so delightful. Like after working for months you finally see it come to fruition." Hellfire and Lucy were both stunned, neither expected him to be this fucked up. "Wouldn''t you agree, little sis? You helped me get here after all." Said Nightmare as he turned around. "Nightmare, this isn''t you... You can still change..." Said Lucy, but it didn''t matter Nightmare just laughed hysterically. Then looked at Hellfire and asked. "Is she serious? She wants me to change back? What about you Hellfire, do you think I can still change?" He asked with a smile. ''Fuck... his so strong...'' Nightmare moved to kill her. Lucy dodged the first attack, but the second one managed to cut her on the arm. Everything seemed to be in slowmotion, she just couldn''t react fast enough. He continued the attack and after about a dozen, he backed away. Lucy barely survived the exchange, but her whole body was covered in cuts. Hellfire tried to help, but with him being as tired as her, he could hardly move. Nightmare didn''t try to pierce his armor, instead he used it to his adventage and delivered blow after blow on his helmet. At some point he fell on the ground, possibly unconscious. "Well, this was anticlimactic. I expected better from the two of you, maybe if Bea would''ve been here, you might''ve stood a chance. It''s sad really, dying like this. Not that I care though." Nightmare slowly walked towards Lucy, she was kneeling on the ground. ''I guess this is how it ends... It could''ve been worse... Wait, what is that?'' "See you in hell Nightmare." Said Lucy while laughing. Nightmare looked confused for a second, then a dark rapier was protruding from his chest. Faith had come to save the day. She dismissed her sword and looked at the two of them. "You fucking idiots, didn''t we say that charging Nightmare is suicide! And what do you two do, attack him on your own! What do I even expect from the two hotheads?" Faith shook her head, then checked on the both of them. After making sure they are fine, she went back to the killing. Lucy slowly moved to Nightmare''s corpse and put his head on her legs. There were tears in her eyes. "Rest in peace, Brother..." She stayed there as long as possible. After about an hour the fighting began to die down. Without the leaders the enemy army began to fall apart. They have won, but the cost of human life was devastating for both parties. Chapter 82: Pyrrhic Victory The war was over. The human lives lost, too many. They killed every single one of the enemy except one. The Mad Scientist Harold, he simply disappeared. No one even saw him during the fight. Bea was walking around the battlefield. She should be celebrating, Sera survived although barely and judging by her scars, she won''t be the same ever again. There was that girl with her also, she calls herself Victoria. Sera named her when they met and adopted her as well. Bea smiled at the thought of it, she was kidnapped and came back as a mother. Remembering Sera''s and Victoria''s suffering, Bea quickly realized how they ended up bonding. ''At least she wasn''t alone, there was someone to rely on, even though that person was a child.'' Bea looked around the corpses, there were thousands of them. Young and old, beautiful and ugly, good and evil, death didn''t care he came for everyone. After Sera nearly lost her arm, Bea quickly healed the wound, but used all her Essence doing so. Which meant she couldn''t continue fighting and instead stayed by Victoria and Sera, keeping them safe. After the battle finally ended, Bea brought them to a makeshift hospital. It was already full, but seeing Sera and her state they quickly made room for her. Bea immediately asked for Witchdoctor to heal her, but the other healers only shook their heads. She didn''t survive the battle. After that Bea was reminded, she didn''t even know who survived. In the hospital she found Lucy, and she told Bea that Hellfire was alive as well. Bea went outside looking for the others. She found Will and Clockwork kneeling in front of a broken corpse, Killshot. Dead from an explosion. Bea touched their shoulders, but only Will looked up at her. There was one singular tear running down his cheek. She nodded at him and squeezed his shoulder. He just turned back and didn''t say a word. Soon Bea found Faith and Hellfire. They were counting how many survived. ''237... All of them Evolved... The loss of life... 1234...'' She didn''t really care about the enemy, they deserved it. Then there was a bit more crude drawing, probably done by an eight year old. On it was a woman with golden hair and eyes, and a girl with white hair and eyes. ''Mommy and me.'' There was a lot of similar drawings, but one stood out to Bea. And when she read the writing, she began to sob. There were three people on it, Sera, the girl Victoria and Bea, all of them were holding hands. ''My family.'' Bea put that drawing away and walked out of the building. She hurried back to the hospital to see if Sera woke up or not. Around Sera''s bed were multiple people, but none dared to go too close. Victoria attacked anyone who dared to approach. In the room was Will, Lucy, Clockwork, Faith and even Hellfire. They all waited for Sera to wake up. Sadly Bea couldn''t heal her fully just yet. And there is so many things to heal not just on Sera, but on Victoria as well. The girl had missing fingers, a shattered arm, most of her teeth were gone, one ear was gone as well and some ribs too. Bea slowly approached the bed, Victoria watched her like a predator, but let Bea get close. When she wanted to touch Sera''s hand though, she began to growl. ''It''s fine, I will just sit next to her silently.'' After an hour Sera finally moved and her eyelids slowly opened. Suddenly her eyes became terrified and she began to look for something. "Mommy!" Screamed Victoria and jumped on Sera. This seemed to calm her and they stayed like that for a long time, hugging and crying. The scene brought tears to everyone''s eyes. Even Will shed a few tears of relief. After they finally calmed down Sera turned her head to Bea. And her body shook from sobs as she asked. "Is this another nightmare?" Bea reached out and held Sera''s hand. Her voice was very shaky as she said. "You''re home..." Chapter 83: A Nice Walk After everyone got well enough to walk, they began the walk back to The Bunker. Bea decided to wait a couple of days there, so everyone can fully heal, then they will begin the journey to Castleburg. Sera wasn''t well still. Not mentally nor physically, every time someone tried to heal her she just said that, "Not until my daughter is fully healed!". People were very surprised when Sera called the small white haired girl her daughter for the first time, but they quickly accepted it. They walked next to each other now, holding hands, laughing. Both of them were very happy they finally escaped from their hell. Victoria was especially thrilled, she was under the open sky after all and not in her soul form, but with her actual body! She would be running around giggling, but her mother was still shaken by those last few moments in their hell. It was Vicky''s job to keep her mom happy and she took her job very seriously. "What are you two laughing about?" Said a very kind female voice behind them. It was Bea. Before they began walking to The Bunker, Bea came to them and healed most of Vicky''s wounds, she still had some missing teeth and fingers. But her ear and ribcage was fully healed. She could finally breathe with ease. "Nothing, just this rascal can''t stay still for a minute." Said Sera and began tickling Vicky. "Hehe, stop mom!" Said Vicky trying to evade her hands. Bea was smiling at them. "I don''t think we formally introduced ourselves, my name is Bea. Nice to meet you." "My name is Victoria. Nice to meet you too." Said Vicky a bit shyly. She even went closer to Sera, partially hiding behind her. Sera didn''t push her away, she even pulled her closer. ''I know we can trust her, but it feels strange. I can only fully trust mother, if she says I can trust Bea I will!'' "You promise?" "Yes, and after we reach Castleburg we can fly however much we like!" Said Sera grinning. "Really?" Sera nodded and Vicky began to run laps around her. The mood of the others was much better because of Vicky. A child always increased the happiness, especially after a fight like that. After about an hour of walking they finally arrived at The Bunker. A couple of people who couldn''t fight for various reasons stayed here. Sadly most of their friends and family didn''t make it back. Sera didn''t really care though she was really tired, being unconscious is not equivalent to sleeping, not to mention that Vicky was lying in her arms half asleep. She walked to Bea. "Hey... uhm... where can I sleep... with Vicky..." Sera felt very awkward asking it, but she had to. "Just go to my room, I won''t going to really sleep tonight anyway." Said Bea with a smile, she seemed to understand Sera and didn''t push her. Sera only nodded, then began walking to the room. On the way she met Faith, but she probably saw how tired she was and only nodded before moving on. They arrived at the room and Sera had to wake Vicky up to help her take a shower. After they cleaned themselves, Sera tucked Vicky in. She was asleep within seconds. Sera on the other hand sat on the bed and watched her daughter sleep. What was on her mind only she knew. After a couple minutes she went under the covers as well and hugged Vicky. They were here finally, in safety. There were tears running down Sera''s face, remembering all the pain, torture and suffering she had to go through to get here. And she would do it again in a heartbeat. Without it she wouldn''t have met with Vicky. Her daughter was the most important person for her. She didn''t care her that there was no blood connection, there is a much deeper bond between them. Shared pain. Thinking back to all those happy hours in a world of darkness, she couldn''t help but smile. Sera leaned and kissed her daughter''s cheek, then fell asleep knowing both of them were safe here. Chapter 84: Princess In a room slept a woman and a girl, they were hugging each other for warmth but not of the body, for the soul. The two of them didn''t look similar, but a blind person could tell their relationship, a mother and her daughter. Someone knocked on their door, but neither stirred. There were a couple more knocks, then the door slowly opened. Bea walked in carrying a large try of food and she was about to call for Sera to wake up, but she was already awake. Sera jumped out of the bed with her sword pointed right at Bea. Her breathing was erratic, like she just woke up from a nightmare. Bea wasn''t surprised, she just slowly placed the tray down on the table. "Good morning to you too." She said sarcastically. "You could have knocked." Answered Sera, she was a bit angry and annoyed. Bea laughed at that. "I knocked like a dozen times, you were in too deep of a sleep." "Oh..." Sera looked away with a blush on her face and dismissed her sword. Suddenly a noise came from behind her. "Mom... Mom?" Vicky sounded worried and Sera was already there holding her. "What is it my little angel?" She said, her voice calm and kind. "I... I dreamt... I dreamt about hell... When I tried to sleep, but couldn''t because..." Vicky was crying and Sera just held her. "Shh... It''s okay... We escaped remember... We are safe here don''t we?... Bea will keep both of us safe..." Said Sera while giving Bea a meaningful look. Bea understood what she meant. "Of course I will protect both of you, but Sera alone is more than enough for that!" Said Bea smiling, but it quickly turned into a frown. Sera was looking away embarressed and Vicky said. "I know she can... But Nightmare was still able to do things to her..." "That''s enough!" Shouted Sera a bit louder and angrier, than she planned. Noticing her daughter''s reaction of fear, her voice instantly became calmer and warmer. She also began to stroke her hair. "Those things happened in the past Vicky. Don''t bring them up, instead focus on the future. For example I''m hungry what about you?" Her daughter was sadly too smart for her age and she knew when Sera wants to forcibly change the subject. But she also didn''t seem to mind. She smiled and jumped from the bed walking to the table. She was in one of Bea''s shirt, it looked like a nightgown on her. Sera looked towards Bea who tried her hardest to not laugh, this brought a small smile on her lips. Sera stood as well and invited Bea for breakfast, since it was her room. When all three of them were seated they began eating. After a while Bea said. "We will have a meeting today, about what route to take to Castleburg. If you feel up for it you can join." Sera turned and looked at Vicky, she was at an impasse. She didn''t want to leave her daughter alone, but also wanted to go to the meeting. Noticing her dilemma, Bea solved it. Vicky looked very stunned by the whole scenario, but a grin quickly spread through her face and she asked. "Am I really a Princess?" Faith looked down at her smiling. "Of course you are! Since your mother is a Queen that makes you a Princess!" Vicky began jumping around from joy, while she kept shouting "I''m a Princess!". Luckily there was no one nearby, because Sera wouldn''t have been able to hold her laughter. Faith just giggled. Soon they arrived at the conference room. Sera looked around and was reminded to the cost of victory. There were two empty chairs. With a sigh she went to her chair and sat down, then Vicky jumped onto her lap. She reached and grabbed Sera''s hand, she was very good at sensing her mood. Hellfire walked towards her and bent down a bit. Vicky didn''t seemed to mind his closeness. ''She probably explored those cells as well.'' "I don''t think we officially met yet, Queen Seraphine! My name is Hellfire as you probably already know... It''s good to see you well." Sera reached out and shook his hand. "It''s nice to meet you. And don''t call me Queen, that goes for all of you. You are my friends not my subjects." Everyone seemed fine with that, except Faith. "Can... Uhm... Can I still call you Queen Seraphine?" Asked Faith very shyly. Sera chuckled at her bashfulness. "Yes you can. But no one else from this room!" Sera was very strict about this. She had enough of her close friends calling her titles. "Now that we are done with that, lets begin!" Said Bea and everyone''s attention went to the map on the wall. On it was Havel, Castleburg and the El-Ba River connecting the two. There were other larger landmarks and abandoned cities on the way, but they are going to evade those. "We are currently around 200 kilometers away from Castleburg. On foot this journey will take about two weeks give or take. The route that the Watch suggests is not the best, we would have to go through places similar to Havel. My suggestion is we follow the river, but not too closely, we all now the creatures dwelling in there and other than Will, we severly lack in case of a water fight." Clockwork finished speaking and they turned silent deep in thought. The silence didn''t last long though, because Vicky was a very curious child. "Mom, why don''t we go on those roads? It looks like they lead straight to Castleburg." Sera smiled down at her and answered. "Because, this map is old. Most of those roads are destroyed already by the wars before the Apocalypse." Vicky''s face became thoughtful as she processed the information. After a while she said. "I understand! Then we can build boats and go on the water!" Some of the group began to laugh at her idea, but one murderous look from Sera shut them up. She then turned to her daughter and answered with a smile. "We don''t go near the river, there are a lot of very strong monsters living there. Only Will can go near it, since his transformation is related to it." This back and forth questionere lasted about an hour. In that time they also decided to follow Clockwork''s plan. The were going to leave Havel by tomorrow morning. Chapter 85: Leaving Havel By morning everyone was ready. The people were in a good mood, they will finally escape this hellhole named Havel. A city of monster, that''s what they call it, but the real monsters are about to leave, the humans. They call those being, that Evolved unnaturally monsters, but are the humans better. If you look at The Hold now you will know the answer. In the world no matter if it''s Evolved or not, humans perfected the way of destroying themselves. They always find a reason to kill each other. But this doesn''t matter now, this only happened because of this uncivilized city. At least that''s the lie they tell themselves. They began their journey Northwest, following the path of the river. In the sky flew multiple scouts and even a figure with angelic wings, holding a little girl. This girl was especially happy, she never saw a forest or at least she doesn''t remember it. Her memories before Nightmare are inaccessible, probably because of the torture. Bea watched from the ground with a smile as Sera flew. They were out of the Pet''s territory finally, which meant the scouts could do their job with higher efficiency. "It''s nice to see them happy isn''t it?" Asked Faith with a bright smile on her face. "Yes, but I wish we would be as close as before..." Bea looked sad, but Faith just smiled and squeezed her shoulder. "You know you have to give her time, a lot changed and not just because of Victoria." "Haa... I know, I know... Anyway, did you discover anything?" Faith''s smile disappeared. "I have, continuing this direction will lead us into a large group of Rotten. And before you ask, no we can''t go around it." Bea stayed silent for a minute, then looked up at the sky again. "Seems like the fun is over." With that she called back every scout and Sera. The fighting is about to start and it won''t be easy. Sera waited for the monster in the air, Faith said there are about 40, all of them Rotten. Victoria was currently guarded by Faith, she is the only one whom Sera trusted enough. The monsters were about 150 meters away still, rushing towards the Evolved defensive line. There were three kinds that Sera could make out. The first a beast that looked humanoid, it stood on two legs, but that''s where the similarities ended. Its upper body split into two parts, there were some plant blooming inside its body. As it ran pollen fell on the ground. The creature also had three arms growing out of his body at random places. ''We probably shouldn''t go near those, the pollen could be toxic.'' "Aim for the plant ones!" Shouted Sera from above everyone. Soon enough they began to shoot those, but their weapons weren''t too strong and a lot of them made it too close. They hit the line of Evolved and soon, they began to cough. Sera''s eyes were on something else though. Sera didn''t know where the armor came from or what''s its name. She had a suspicion, but no clear answer. The monster kept trying, but all the force dissipated. It still hurt quite bad, but it''s better than getting cut in half. Her arms were still free so Sera summoned her trusty sword and sent it to the centipede''s skull. It too fell over dead, but this time Sera wasn''t so lucky. The monster still held her in its mandibles and she couldn''t get out of them. She was stuck and worst of all, one of the plant creature was running right for her. ''This is really bad, I can''t even sit up! How the fuck do I kill this thing?'' In the end she decided, that it was time to see how long her weapon could get. The monster ran at her, but suddenly it was pierced by a 10 meter long lance. ''10 meters, not bad...'' But suddenly another complication appeared, in the form of those cat monsters. Two climbed on the centipede corpse and jumped on Sera. She summoned her sword impaling one, but the other managed to attack her. The creature leaned down and its mouth tried to close on her throat. Sera reacted quickly, she dismissed her sword and summoned a dagger in her other hand. The creature stopped only a few millimeters before her throat and fell on her, dead. Now she was totally buried in corpses. After the battle while the others counted the dead, Bea looked for Sera. Last time, she saw her fighting two centipede monsters. She went to the first one, but Sera was nowhere to be found. She began to feel anxious and ran to the other one, but Sera wasn''t there either. Only a couple more monster corpses. In wild panic and against her better judgement she shouted. "SERA!" There was nothing for a second and her anxiety spiked. But suddenly there was a muffled noise coming from the monster pile. Bea quickly moved them and began to roll on the ground, laughing. Below the monster pile was Sera stuck in the centipede''s mandible. "Ha-ha, very funny... Could you please help me get out of here?" Sera seemed very angry, but Bea knew she was faking it. "Sure, but tell me first. How the fuck did you end up here?" Looking down at her she laughed again, but seeing Sera was getting more annoyed, so she stopped. "You know, just the usual. You fight a big fucking bug, then after you kill it another grabs you, then after you kill that some other monsters appear. Now get me out!" Bea smiled and said. "Fine, fine no need to shout, it might attract monsters." Even Sera couldn''t keep a straight face after that. They both laughed and Bea helped her out of the monsters mouth. Her hands lingered on Sera, their faces were quite close. Suddenly Sera turned away, her hand was trembling from fear. ''Haaa... Small steps, small steps. It will take time for her to get through that trauma.'' They both went back to the others in silence. Chapter 86: Castleburg Sera immediately went to her daughter and hugged her. She was perfectly fine Faith didn''t even have to fight. Sadly this couldn''t be told about most. A large portion of the Evolved were injured, but a lot of them were dead. 197 that''s how many were left, about 40 of them weren''t even Evolved. They were either too old or too young to fight. Moe was the one responsible for them. After losing all of his soldiers he was without purpose, so they decided to give him this job. As always he took it very seriously. They were about 178 kilometers from Castleburg. At least that''s what Clockwork said. In reality it might as well be a thousand, 3 or 4 more fights like this and none of them will make it. But they didn''t give up. After collecting some monster meat, they continued their long journey. A week has passed and they only had to fight once. In that fight they lost another 15 Evolved. It was currently night, Sera and the others were sitting around an extinguished campfire. Light in the dark was a beacon for monsters in the wild. They were sharing some stories before going to sleep. "...then I dodged its attack and stabbed it through the eye!" "Bea why does all your stories end with someone or something dying?" Asked Sera with a smile. "Yes, why don''t you say some nice story, like mom always does!" "You people do not appreciate my storytelling abilities!" Said Bea pridefully and everyone began laughing, which annoyed her. "I can tell a good story about Bea!" Said Lucy very enthusiastically. "Which one?" Asked Bea skeptically. Lucy thought for a moment, then grinned at Bea. "About when we stole your fathers car!" "Oh yeah lets hear that!" Said Hellfire. "No, no, definitely not!" Bea looked very embarrassed, she even turned her head away blushing. Sera''s mouth, unknowingly to her, crept up into a smile. Noticing it Bea sighed and began telling the story. "Once before becoming an Evolved me, Lucy, Hellfire and Nightmare went out drinking. But we drank a little too much... especially me. I thought it would be really funny to steal my father''s car." Bea took a deep breath before continuing. "We drove around a bit, luckily there weren''t many people on the streets, but eventually I drove into a building." She seemed to be finished with the story, but Lucy didn''t let her. "But whos building did you drove into?" Asked Lucy with a grin. Bea looked very annoyed, but continued. "It was the mayor''s house okay!" All of them began laughing except Bea who pretended to be offended. "Did you get in trouble?" Asked Sera after she finally stopped chuckling. On the way Sera and Bea talked and decided who will be the main speaker. Also they decided to hide the fact, that Sera is not from Copen. The city guard looked really confused, which is understandable the Fall of Copen happened more than six months ago. There were probably many questions popping up in their heads like, ''What took them so long to get here?'', or the better question ''How did they even manage it?''. After a couple of minutes the leader came to his senses and immediately called his supervisor, at least that''s what Bea thought. With his helmet on she couldn''t make out what he said, but judging his tone, he was very anxious. After five minutes of heated conversation he dismissed his helmet. Below it was a handsome middle aged man. There was a scar running through his face, probably from a claw or a knife. Taking a deep breath he spoke. "I''m not high enough rank to continue this conversation. We will bring you onto the wall, a Transcended is waiting for you there already." Suddenly Bea, Sera and everyone began to float towards the wall. It took them a couple of minutes, but they finally reached the top. The first thing Bea did was look at the city behind the wall. Her jaw dropped and she nearly fell over, the city was simply breathtaking. The building style was old, if she had to guess it would be Victorian. Pointed roofs, huge cathedrals, massive mansions, a building complex that could only be a school and the jewel of the city, a castle. The castle was hundreds of meters tall, way taller than the wall and it was exactly in the middle of the city. The city itself was so big one couldn''t see its other end from the wall she stood on. ''This... this is... this is a city that can house more than a hundred million humans. How did they build it and why in this style?'' "Beautiful isn''t it? I lived here all my life, but still can''t fathom the sheer volume of it all. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. Prince Otto, from Castleburg''s royal family." Prince Otto could only be described as the prettiest man to ever exist. He wasn''t really handsome, his facial features were more feminine than manly, but that only made him more interesting. His clothing was neat, without even a wrinkle. His posture is also well mannered. ''Like he trained to be a prince since his birth. Weirdo.'' Bea looked him up and down a couple of times. "Your city is breathtaking Prince Otto..." Before she could finish one of the prince''s guards shouted. "You will refer to the Prince as Your Highness!" Suddenly the prince''s attention went to someone else, next to Bea stood Sera with a sword in her hand and a smile on her face. "I don''t think anyone asked for your opinion!" Sera''s smile turned a bit scary and the tension on the wall increased. At least until the Prince began to clap and laugh. "Hear that Captain! We didn''t ask for your opinion. You can call me Otto by the way, I don''t really care." He looked away for a second, then turned to his Watch and sighed. "I would love to chat some more, but then I will be late from a very boring meeting. The guards will take you to a place where we will register you and upgrade your Watches." He paused and looked at Sera''s wrist. "Or give you new ones if they had been destroyed. Anyway, see you around!" After finishing he just ran off the wall and suddenly a huge dragon flew towards the castle. When everyone finally got their emotions under control, the guards led them to an elevator and onto the street. Chapter 87: Triple S Rating The streets of Castleburg were bustling with people, cars, buses and even trains. ''I mean they need this amount of transportation for a city this size.'' The buildings were truly amazing, there design foreign to Sera and the others. They only seen it in history classes. The cities of Newber and Copen were very different. They were modern, flat, boring, but efficient. This city done it very differently, but the real question was how? After the Apocalypse most cities were destroyed, only the very large ones with millions of people survived. Which means everything they built, wasn''t here 25 years ago. ''I will ask about it when we have time.'' The guards lead them to an especially beautiful building. It was huge with multiple domed roofs, metal railings on its top and a huge wooden double door. Its windows were colored and there were pictures visible on them. It looked more of a temple, than a migration office. Sera really wanted to see every picture on those windows, but she didn''t have time. They entered the building and she looked around. Even the interior was like a temple, which made her suspect that it was one. Suddenly the lead guard turned around and said. "All the non Evolved follow this man for the debriefing and registering. The rest follow me." He then turned around and continued. There were people sitting in the rows of chairs, as the small army of Evolved passed them, they stood and bowed. They said things like "Good day Lords and Ladies." or "God blessed us with you." Sera looked at Bea confused. This wasn''t how people acted around Evolved, at least they thought. Turns out they didn''t treat Evolved the same way everywhere. Sera walked to a guard and asked. "Why do they speak like we are sent by a greater existence?" The guard answered in a neutral tone. "Weren''t we? Haven''t noticed between killing monsters and surviving. Do yourself a favor, don''t question it, just enjoy it." ''Well that wasn''t reassuring at all.'' After another couple of minutes they arrived at a different part of the huge building. This one had a lot of rooms on either side of a corridor. "Everyone go into a room, there are people inside qualified to interview, debrief and evaluate you. At the end you will get a rating and have to complete a couple courses in our Evolved University. They will tell you the rest, bother them with your questions." All of them began to go into rooms. Sera was with her daughter and was about to enter a room when the guard interrupted. "I think I was very clear! Only one person per room!" He sounded annoyed. "I''m not leaving my daughter alone." Said Sera coldly. The people stopped entering rooms and looked at Sera and the guard. The guard was a bit smaller then her but his presence was even stronger than hers. ''An Ascended, how annoying.'' The guard looked at the both of them and said. "I don''t see the resemblance, can you prove you two are family?" Sera answered with indifference, to further annoy the guard. "No, because we aren''t related by blood. I adopted her." "If you two are not related by blood, then go into separate rooms. Nothing will happen to her I..." Sera interrupted. "No, I don''t think so." She answered with a stupid grin. The guard was angry at this point and began to summon a weapon, probably to threaten Sera. Unluckily for him Faith was already there. Holding a knife to his throat, she whispered in his ear. "I would think twice before making any more rash moves. My hand might slips." To prove her point she moved the dagger a few millimeters, and drew a drop of blood. "You think you can just kill me, I am an Ascended..." His voice was cut short because the dagger came closer, drawing even more blood. 1st Kill: Unknown Life Essence Absorbed: 1000/1000 Sera couldn''t read further, because the first few information was so interesting. ''Her name changed to the one I gave, and she already has a title? Why is her first kill Unknown? How is her Life Essence at 1000?'' She froze from the amount of questions popping up in her head. The man ever helpful brought her out of the shock. "So, first kill?" "It says Unknown." Answered sera, still very confused. The man wasn''t much help either. "Hmm... That is weird. Anyway Life Essence?" "Fully saturated, for both of us." The man looked at Vicky with skepticism, but typed in their answer anyway. "Titles? "Mine is Angel Monarch, hers is Soul Keeper." The mans head snapped to her and his whole body began to tremble, but not from fear. It was excitement. He suddenly began laughing, it was a weird sound coming from him. "You said Angel Monarch? That is what it says exactly? Monarch?" She nodded and the man started laughing even harder. "Is there something I don''t know about my title?" Sera was feeling very weird, she thought titles were just some reward for doing a good job. "Don''t worry about it. You will learn when you get to the University. Anyway are you fertile?" The mans ability to change moods was truly fascinating. "Why do you need to know that?" "Oh it is simple. There is a bachelor system for single Evolved. You are only a new Evolved, but with that title of yours, even a Transcended husband is not out of the question. Maybe even one of the Counts, Dukes, the Princes or the Princesses. Only the sky is the limit!" ''This place is very weird.'' Was Sera''s only thought, but she let it go. "Yes, I am and don''t you dare put my daughter on that list of yours. She is only 8!" The man looked confused for a second, then he said. "Don''t worry about that. No one under 18 is registered. That would be very weird." ''It is weird like this as well!'' A couple more questions about her personal life later, he took a picture and made IDs for the both of them. It had all their information''s on it. It also had an evaluation at the bottom. There was 3 S, at the bottom for both of them, Sera''s even had a plus next to it. She was about to ask what it meant, but the man was already answering. "The evaluation means what your potential is. It calculates it, using the first kills information and how fast you acquired x amount of Essence. In your case it was a 1000 in 6 months, which is better than anything I heard of." "The ranking is pretty straight forward, F worst, E better, then so on until A. Above A is S, then SS and finally SSS, which is the best possible rank to achieve. But you''re actually even above the triple S, so there is a plus next to it. You are the only one in this city with that rating..." Then there was a pop up sound and the man typed a couple of things, then began laughing. "I stand corrected, one of the only two persons." Sera looked interested who the other person could be, but she had a very strong guess. "Who''s this other person?" She asked with a knowing smile. "Are you familiar with the person named Queen of Nature?" Chapter 88: Flashing Lights "Am I familiar you ask?" Sera had a goofy smile on her face which she quickly hid. Discover tales on m_vl_em_p_yr "Of course I am! She is our groups leader!" The man stared at her, then continued. "Okay then. We reached the second part of this interview. Tell me about what happened since the Fall of Copen." Hearing that Sera started to panic a little. It was one thing for them to know her title, but to learn she wasn''t from Copen. That would be certainly devastating, which meant she had to do the thing she hated most, lie. "Uh... I became an Evolved, when Copen fell... Bea was already one... and with the help of some other people a large group survived... about 20 thousand." ''Shit, what happened next?'' Suddenly a sound came from in her arms, Vicky spoke. "We went on a long journey and eventually arrived in an abandoned city named Havel. We survived there for a few months, then made our way here. About 150 of us made it." Sera was stunned, yeah she technically was there through the whole way, but she wasn''t prepared for her to answer in Sera''s place. A small smile crept onto her face and she kissed the top of her head. ''I will have treat her with something. What is her favorite food, I don''t even know... wait, what is my favorite food? I don''t remember!'' The man was typing away, then he looked at the two of them with discontent. "You say Queen of Nature is your leader? Then explain to me why multiple of your people say otherwise, Angel Monarch or should I call you Queen Seraphine?" ''FUCK! I forget about those idiots! They think this is a way to honor me! Dammit!'' A weary sigh escaped Sera''s lips, there was no point hiding it anymore then. She looked up at the man, who was patiently waiting. She took a deep breath and began her story. "First things first... I''m not from Copen... I''m the last survivor of Newber." The mans typing froze. He was surprised, but not like the other times. He knew that a 4th Class Gate destroyed Newber, just surviving that as a regular is impressive and achieved by literally by no one other than her. But Sera didn''t wait for him, she continued and as she said more the man become more frightened. When she reached Havel and began talking about the fight on the roof the man finally spoke. "I think this is enough. Please go to the University to began your studies. Transport has been already arranged." The man spoke like a robot and he couldn''t even look at her. Sera only noticed it now, but the man was trembling and was so white he might be dead. "O...okay...uh... sir, are you alright?" The man still didn''t look at her and just said. "I am fine, thanks." ''Yeah, that was very convincing!'' But looking at the man she didn''t linger, instead holding onto Vicky she left the room. On the outside the others were already waiting for her. Bea looked at her embarrassed. "This is the so called Evolved University?" Asked Bea with awe in her voice. "It''s huge!" Said Vicky, she looked very excited, not even a hint of fear remained in her. They went through the massive gate and into a huge courtyard with an exquisite fountain in the middle. The car went around it and stopped in front of its main entrance. There were a couple people in the door waiting. Sera and the others looked at each other, then taking a deep breath they got out of the car. One of the people an older man stood in the front of the group of people. "Good day to all of you! I''m the Director of this humble school, behind me are a couple of our teachers and helpers. I welcome all of you and hope you will learn many great things, that you can utilize for furthering of humankind." He took a deep breath before continuing. "We already got your files and made the necessary preparations for your stay to be as comfortable as possible. My daughter Helen will lead you on a tour of the school grounds." The Director thought for a couple of seconds. "I think that''s about it. You can access most information about the University on your Watch, but if you prefer real life conversation. Just ask one of the teachers or any student with a badge like Helen has." With that he stayed silent and a kind of average looking but cute young girl came out from behind him. The girls smile immediately brightened seeing Vicky. ''There must be very few little girls in a university. Maybe they can play together, it would do good for Vicky to have friends of her age.'' "Hi everyone, I''m Helen! Please follow me and I will show you around!" Her voice was happy and light, like she didn''t have a care in the world. They began the tour of the campus, but unknown to all of them something else happened in the city. ... -In the castle grounds, in a large room- A man was walking with hurried steps, he reached his chair and sat down. The room had a large table in the middle with about a dozen people sitting all around it. There was silence in the room, until the younger woman sitting next to the man who just arrived spoke. "All of you know why we gathered here correct?" Her voice was emotionless, but there was a smile on her face. The smile was confusing, it gave her face a touch of happiness, but her voice was the opposite. The people around the table nodded and she continued. "So what do we do about them? They are only Evolved now and fairly knew as well. We can either kill them or convince them." Silence spread around the room until the man who arrived late spoke. His voice was strong unlike his face which had a feminine touch to it. "I think we should find a way to integrate them. The person named Angel Monarch especially. You read her accomplishments, they are unlike anyone''s. The others are similarly amazing. Killing them would be a mistake." Prince Otto looked around the people with a small smirk on his face, the other people were convinced by him pretty easily. Only her sister saw trough him, but she was on his side. ''Easier than I thought.'' Chapter 89: The University They began looking around the place. Their first stop was the dormitories. "These are the dorms, you will be assigned one each. There are family dorms as well, for couples and children." Helen purposefully looked at Sera and Vicky. "Also, you can find some apartment buildings in the vicinity of the university. You can commute from there as well, but those are a bit less convenient." They looked into one of the single rooms. It had everything one could want. A bed, separate bathroom, wardrobe, TV, window, everything none of them had for 6 months. All of them started to feel nervous. ''Do they really letting us live here for free? That sounds like a scam!'' They made their way to the family section of the dorm building and they went to look at a room. This room was pretty much the same with the exception of king sized bed and a separate room for children. The room for children had all sorts of toys as well, Vicky''s eyes instantly brightened, but also saddened. Understanding her feelings Sera put her hand on her shoulder. Looking at this other room the group was really suspicious, in the end Bea was the first to ask. "Helen... This might sound weird, but..." Before she could finish Helen spoke. "...But how much you have to pay to live here. Most ask these questions, but the answer is always the same. Nothing, it''s free." The group looked at her skeptically. ''Nothing is free in this life or any other!'' Helen just laughed and began walking out of the building complex. When they started to approach the next building she spoke. "I understand why you can''t believe it, but in Castleburg this is how we do things. As you can probably already tell I''m not an Evolved, on the other hand you probably saw those temple looking buildings." She stopped and looked at the group and said with a solemn face. "We worship you, the Evolved. We don''t believe in some God that sent you, but we as regular humans appreciate and support everything that you do! Because your sacrifice is larger, than any human''s. So that is why all of this is free, the people already pay for it in the form of taxes." They stayed there for quite a while, there were some students walking and looked at the group with interest, but seeing Helen they didn''t approach them. If she was with them that means they are new to the University. Vicky was the first to speak, but none were prepared for her question. "What are taxes?" They looked at each other and collectively laughed and began to walk again. They approached a building that wasn''t too big, at least compared to most buildings here, it was still huge. "This is the mess hall. They serve food 24 hours, every day. You can set up your own menu and ask them to make anything, well they can''t literally make anything, there aren''t enough ingredients for that. If you don''t know what you want, they have a menu as well." They walked into the building, it was pretty empty at the moment, when they asked about it Helen only told them that most were either in class or just somewhere else. The group looked at each other with knowing smiles. As they walked Helen never stopped talking about the campus. Sera was very impressed. ''Just how did she memorize all that information this young.'' Then she looked down at Vicky who was looking around with awe and she smiled. ''But she doesn''t compare to my child!'' "...There are many classes. Ones related to realm history or our own history. There are classes related to fighting, survival, better utilization for your abilities. We will actually go and check out one of the classes." They turned and stopped near a door. Helen opened it and ushered them inside. It was a huge room, with a stage at the bottom and hundreds of seats. Most of them were occupied as well. The teacher stopped talking, but seeing Helen he just waved and continued the class. "...If you want to survive in the wild, the most important thing to know is how to fight. The monsters will kill you other wise with ease..." Sera looked at Bea and whispered. "I think there are way more dangerous and mundane things out there that can kill you. For example thirst, remember when I had to drink blood for a week!" Bea''s head was red from trying to hold in her laughter. "...You will learn actual martial techniques, weapon usage and ways to fight better with your ability. Does anyone have questions before we start?" Lucy probably feeling mischievous raised her hand. "You in the back!" "Yeah, my question is what do you do when you can''t fight?" Asked Lucy with stupid grin. The teacher looked confused. "What do you mean you can''t fight? You can always fight!" Said the teacher with a bit of annoyance, but Lucy just continued. "Good luck fighting a 1st Tier Horror, as an Evolved!" She was laughing at this point. Silence spread through the room and only Lucy''s laughter could be heard, but that stopped quickly when saw everyone looking at her terrified. ''So, we are this special huh? They can''t even imagine a scenario, like the ones we had many times.'' Even Helen went white as a sheet, and what was even scarier to her is that Vicky wasn''t even a little bit surprised. She just looked at all the people still in awe. "Well... I think I know who you are. The new arrivals correct? From Copen." Then he turned to Sera specifically. "And Newber." This ignited a lot of whispers from the students, but Sera just stared at the teacher and said. "You are correct. Sorry for my friends interruption." The teacher nodded and continued the class. But the group wasn''t there anymore, they left to explore another part of the campus. The library. Helen still looked a bit shaken, but hid it well and continued the introduction. "The library has a lot of books that remained from before the Apocalypse. There are ones that have been written after it, but they are mostly for people who don''t like to read on their Watches. Also you can only read within the library, most of these books are very old and you have to be careful handling it." They entered the gigantic library. ''This girl knows how to undersell things. A lot of books is a huge understatement.'' She wanted to look around, but the others quickly got over their surprise and were already looking bored. With a sigh she reluctantly looked away and they went to the next stop. Chapter 90: Well Deserved Relaxation The tour lasted about 2 hours. After the library they went to see the training hall, gym, arena, various parks and recreational facilities. The place was just massive. After the tour they went to the main building and got keys to their rooms. At the reception they told them to relax and tomorrow they will have to pick their classes. They have to complete at least 3 to be able to pass and go on missions or other assignments. The group didn''t really care about that, they were just happy to finally relax. Currently Sera was in her room with Vicky and Bea, they were watching TV. Sera still wasn''t comfortable with touching anyone other than her daughter, but she let Bea stay anyway. Vicky was in constant awe since they arrived to the university and it didn''t end, she never saw a TV in her life, at least she doesn''t remembers to it. Currently they were watching the news. On the screen was a middle age woman talking about the new arrivals. Sera tried to not get embarrassed when they showed a picture of her and the others moving around within the campus grounds. ''Where did they even got those pictures. Is there no privacy in this place?!'' Because of the time spent in the wild they were already paranoid about a lot of things. Clockwork even checked everyone''s rooms for hidden cameras and other devices, he found nothing but that just meant the rooms were safe, not the whole city. "...This young woman is truly amazing! We actually acquired some of the other arrivals accounts about her. She is the only survivor of Newber, which in and of itself is just impossible, but she is also the first regular human to kill a 3rd Tier Horror, and I might add the same Horror killed a Stellar beforehand..." ''Well they could have also added that the same Stellar basically killed him and I just delivered the killing blow!'' There was laughter coming from next to her, Bea and Vicky found Sera''s reaction really funny, but soon enough Sera was the one laughing. "...Her name is Bea. The accounts say she is the leader of their group next to Seraphine and she is a survivor on Copen! She is also very special as well, her first kill was a 1st Tier Horror. Together they led this group and saved them from certain destruction..." ''Way to take away the other people''s credit, they also did plenty of work.'' Sera had gotten a bit angry at the last part. Many people died so they can be here and they just spun the story to make Bea and her the heroes saving everyone. Her thoughts were stopped though, because the woman had another information. "...The most interesting about the two of them is their titles and their relationship. Seraphine also known as Angel Monarch or how the group called her Queen Seraphine. She is actually the lover of Bea also known as Queen of Nature. These two powerful woman together, we are very curious to see what they will become in the fut..." Sera quickly shut off the TV her face red as a tomato. There was silence in the room until Vicky spoke. "Why did you turn it off? They were talking about you and Bea!" Sera looked at Bea for help, but there she was in a very similar state and didn''t even notice her stare. Eventually Sera took a deep breath and explained. "It is weird because after Nightmare... we haven''t spoken about... being together. But on the TV they portrayed us as a couple, which is weird for the both of us." Looking around she was quite right. There wasn''t any real plants other than one or two tree growing at the side of the street. Sera looked down at her map and motioned Bea to follow her. It took them 10 minutes, but they finally arrived. In front of them was a huge park, it was comparable to a small forest. Sera smiled at the surprised Bea and walked on ahead. "Sera?! How did you know where to find this?" "What? I just looked at the map on our Watch. Look here this is the campus and this is where we are, University District Nature Reserve." They walked some more until they found a grassy clearing. They lay down into the soft ground and just enjoyed the sunlight. But they couldn''t enjoy it for long, suddenly they heard an obnoxious music coming there way from the path they came in from. With very annoyed faces Sera and Bea looked in the direction of the noise. There was a group of 7 people heading straight for them. One had a big box in his hand, the source of the sound. They just went into the clearing close to them and sat down. They began to talk and laugh really loudly as well, they opened another box which had some drinks in it. They began drinking and continued to be very annoying, which by that point Sera had enough. She stood up and walked to the young group. A very beautiful girl looked at her and she went white as a sheet. The others noticed that and turned to Sera and Bea approaching, they didn''t really care about them though. Sera stopped next to them, Bea a step behind. "Could you turn off this obnoxious music? Others are trying to enjoy the peace and quite!" She had to shout to be heard. The person in control of the music just smirked and made it louder. Sera''s expression turned angry, the girl in the back seemed to be about to pass out. She tried to warn the others, she seemed to know exactly who Sera and Bea was. Sera didn''t care though, she turned to Bea and mouthed the words ''Would you like to do it?'' Bea just smiled and nodded. Suddenly vines came out of the ground, they broke apart the music box, then pulled the broken pieces below ground. The group watched the whole thing in awe, but soon their expressions turned angry. One of them a man that was about the same age as Bea spoke first. "Who do you think you are? Do you know who my family is? My fa..." Before he could continue two pristine wings appeared behind Sera and the point of a sword was placed at the whining person''s throat. His face went white, and judging by the spreading wetness of his pants he pissed himself. "Do I look like I care about your family tree? Your father can be the leader of this whole city for all I care! Let me tell you a secret, if you have to use other people to threaten someone, just stay silent and do what stronger people tell you!" She took a breath, then shouted at them. "NOW GET OUT OF HERE!" She didn''t have to repeat herself and soon all of them ran off. Sera looked at Bea and they both began laughing. ''Now this is what I call fun!'' Chapter 91: Real Angels After showing off in that clearing, Sera and Bea didn''t think it would cause the commotion it did. The 7 youngsters quickly spread the news. And soon major news channels were already spinning the story. ''The new arrival threatens children!'' ''New arrivals, danger to society!'' ''Are our children''s even safe?'' These headlines instantly popped up, but other kind appeared as well. Ones that didn''t by the children''s story, and all the headlines containing slander about Sera and Bea were soon drowned. Of course it wasn''t only because of those headlines, since there is a censorship in place and every news has to go through the royal family''s people, they have full control over information. ... -Head Quarters of Royal Information Bureau- A woman walked into the RIB HQ, she didn''t look at anyone and none tried to stop her. The woman wore a very elegant outfit it was deep dark blue and white, it brought out her dark blue, waist length hair and fierce eyes, her skin was very white but it only helped bring out the color on her full blue painted lips. She was a rare beauty even in a world full of Evolved. Her steps was measured and helped bring people''s attention to herself. Suddenly a very nervous person appeared and walked toward the woman, not looking into her eyes and in cold sweat, he greeted her. "Your Highness Sarah... What do we owe the pleasure?" The man blurted out anxiously, Sarah walked on still not acknowledging him, reaching the elevator she stopped and pressed the call button, then she finally spoke. "Do you know what happened?" Her voice was emotionless and a bit aloof. "Oh, yes... Your Highness refers to the situation with Angel Monarch and Queen of Nature! Am I correct?" After she spoke the man visually calmed down. "Yes, then you know why I am here. I want to know everything about what happened and also send reporters to find the pair. I want them to start bothering them, to know how they react." There was a ping and the lift doors opened, it was of course empty. None dared to use the royal elevator which most government buildings had. She stepped in slowly and the man stepped in after her. As the Director of the whole of RIB, he was one of the few that could travel up in this elevator next to the princess. The doors closed and they moved up towards the top floor. "From the recent reports we know what happened. The 7 kids were blasting music right next to the pair, they got annoyed walked to them and asked to turn the music down. Sadly for them they were rich children, thinking they owned the world their group''s ''leader'' just made the music louder. There were tears glistening in both of there eyes, but through them Sera plowed on. "And I also wanted to ask you something... You don''t have to say yes, but... I talked to Vicky and she agreed as well... So if you want to..." Before Sera could finish, Bea stopped her. Her hand reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out a paper. Seeing it Sera broke down into tears. "How... Where... How did you find this?" On the table was the drawing Vicky made about her family. Bea just looked at her with a smile and tears running down her face. "I went into Nightmare''s place to find the room where he kept you. I also found Vicky''s room with all your drawings. And my answer is yes! Always!" Bea took Sera''s trembling hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Suddenly there was a sound close to them, it was plates hitting the ground. Near them the previous female worker stood, and it looked like she was about to beg for mercy. Sera and Bea just looked at her, then walked to the counter and ordered another set of burgers. The woman was so stunned she couldn''t move a muscle. In her head she must be thinking, ''These people, they weren''t even mad? How?! This never happened? Why are they so nice?'' They sat back down and waited for the burgers, they were just holding hands and smiling at each other. Soon the burgers arrived and the ate it in record pace again. They already payed and as they stepped on a street something unexpected happened. People began swarming them asking weird things or personal things, it was very annoying. Bea and Sera tried to push through them without causing a mess, but the reporters were like a wall of flesh. They could have pushed them away with their superhuman strength with ease, but they didn''t want to hurt them. After about a minute of this Sera had enough. Behind her a pair of pristine white wings spread, they had an ethereal glow on them. The clicking of cameras and the flashing lights stopped for a few seconds. It was enough for Sera to put Bea in a princess carry and fly straight into the sky. Back down the street the only thing could be heard was Bea''s scream of fear. Her eyes were tightly shut and her whole body was trembling as Sera moved through the sky, then there was a laugh. Seems like Sera thought her reaction to flying hilarious. "Yeah, laugh at my suffering, you cruel witch!" This made Sera laugh even more. "I didn''t know you are afraid of heights!" "Well, I didn''t know since I never flew before in my life!" After staying silent for a minute Sera spoke in a very reassuring voice. "Open your eyes and just look at me. Don''t look down!" Bea took a couple of deep breaths and slowly opened one eye, then the other. Sera was staring at her with a smile, behind her those bewitching wings constantly moved, keeping them in the air. Remembering that fact her eyes began to wander toward the ground, but her attention was snapped back. Suddenly there was a mouth on hers. Sera was kissing her and the trembling finally stopped, her whole body melted. It was quite short only for a few moments. Sera moved away, her face tried to stay positive, but Bea saw it in her eyes. That kiss took all her willpower. Bea just grinned and said, "Maybe flying isn''t so bad." Chapter 92: New Mother -Royal Investigation Bureau- The anxious man walked towards Sarah, new reports just came in about the pair. "Your Highness. Our reporters found them and harassed them until they left." Sarah just looked at the man without expression and asked in a firm voice. "What do you mean ''until they left'', I am pretty sure I explicitly told you not to let them leave. Or at least make them leave aggressively." The man became nervous, but he answered anyway. "Well... You see Your Highness... They couldn''t follow them, because they flew away." The piqued her interest. "How exactly did they fly away, did one of them transform into some flying monster?" The man just shook his head and pointed to the big screen on the far wall. Soon a camera''s picture came into view, it showed Angel Monarch and Queen of Nature trying to leave without causing anyone harm. Soon enough her facial expression changed, visible getting annoyed. But unlike what the princess thought Angel Monarch didn''t attack or even hurt any of the reporters. Instead two amazingly white wings appeared behind her and with just a couple of beats they were already gone. There was only silence in the room. The crew of about 50 people sitting behind their screens, were watching the feed. Even Sarah was in awe, she never seen anything like that in her life. "I... I need to call... Call my brother... This changes everything!" She said while already leaving the room. Stay updated with m-v le-mpyr ... Mean while Sera and Bea was still in the air, but slowly descending near the campus area. The other students on the ground watched the whole scene astonishment, but neither paid them any heed. They just went into the building and to Sera''s room. It was past 20 and Vicky should have returned already. They went through the corridors any people coming their way stared at them, but none dared say even a ''hello''. ''How rude! They stare at us because we are famous, but can''t even properly say hi!'' "They were the most beautiful and kind person I have met. After they entered everyone recognized them, but they still went to the back of the line and waited until it was their turn!" The host made a surprised face, but quickly regained his smirk. "So, they can wait a bit. That doesn''t make them very kind, just normal." He was trying way too hard to make the woman slander Sera and Bea, but the woman just shook her head with a smile. "You don''t understand. First things first I have never seen an Evolved eat at a fast food place. Second they order two burgers and when I delivered it, they even thanked me! But that wasn''t what made them kind in my eyes, yeah it was unusual, but not that amazing. They went into line again and ordered another two, but when I was about to bring it they slipped from my hand and they fell to the floor right next to them. You know what they did?" The host''s face was solemn, he never heard of Evolved being this nice to anyone. All of them were at least a little bit aloof and thought they were better. He prompted the woman to continue. "They smiled at me! But not the cruel smile I had gotten used to, no. It was a knowing smile, a kind smile, one that felt sorry for me. Then they just stood up, walked to the counter, waited in line for a third time and bought another set of burgers. They even tipped me a huge amount!" The man''s face fully broke, he just couldn''t believe it. Evolved supposed to be treated like saints, but they never act kind. They are weapons to fight and kill monsters, and everyone accepts them acting like lords. But this didn''t make sense, the ratings of the new arrivals were public data, which meant everyone knew Sera was the highest rated person ever, which made this even more bewildering. They were about to speak more when Sera turned of the TV with a big sigh. She held her head for a bit shaking it, she was mentally exhausted just from listening to that. "Why is this happening? Every time, I go to a new place I tried to be nice to people and they began thinking I''m some kind of saint, just because everyone else is mean to them!" She turned to Bea and Vicky to get some support, but she was knocking on the wrong door. They were in the process of dying from laughter, seems like her rant was really funny to them. "Yes very funny laugh at at my misery and maybe I will find another place to sleep tonight. Faith will definitely be happy to provide accommodations." She pretended to be angry, but it worked both of them stopped laughing and apologized. Sera just smiled and put her arm around both of them with Vicky in the middle, they stayed in comfortable silence for a while. Sera looked at her Watch to check on the time and realized the she haven''t even checked on her armor ability, or Vicky''s abilities. Her Watch also needs to be connected with Bea''s as well. But then she turned to the two of them, they were already sleeping. With a smile she turned off the lights and snuggled in with them. ''Tomorrow. There is always tomorrow. We will check them out then, after taking our classes and actually attending them. But in the late afternoon we will surely have time!'' In the comfort of her loved ones Sera drifted in a sleep. And since getting captured she finally slept without any problem. There were no nightmares, no waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. Only a calm, restful sleep with the two person who matters the most in her life. Chapter 93: Realm History For Beginners A new morning dawned on Castleburg, people went to work as usual, students went to classes and the group went to get their schedule''s set up. They walked to the counsellor''s office, he will help them pick classes on their abilities and strengths. They arrived to the office, the man was already waiting for them. "Good morning everyone! My name is Holt, I will help you with the very important decision of what to learn in this university. You might already have an idea what you want to become or you have not a single clue. It doesn''t matter we will figure out what the perfect class is for everyone." ''This man is way too energetic for this early in the morning.'', Sera was about to ask who should go first, but this very lively man beat her to it. "I think we should start with the youngest, since she will be the easiest to figure out. what is your name little girl?" He went down on a knee to be at Vicky''s eye level, which scared her a bit and she hid behind Bea, who was currently holding her hand. Sera''s mood worsened a bit, but she understood the man meant no harm. "Don''t worry about her she will have the same classes as me." Said Bea, she wasn''t hiding her distaste either. The man stood up and asked. "And what kind of classes will you pick? Those might not be the best for her." Bea''s smile was frightening, but the man didn''t even flinch. ''Huh, must be an Ascended at least, why is he a counselor?'' "I will pick any class that has to do with fighting of course! And my daughter will come with me since she needs to learn how to fight as well." The man made a weird face, then he just sighed and moved on. His job wasn''t to make decisions for others, but to help them make their own. "Okay, then lets move on. You must be Seraphine, I assume you will want fighting classes as well." Sera made an embarrassed face and said, "Actually, I would want any class that has to do with Realms, monsters and their origin, anything related to the Apocalypse." The man''s eyes visible brightened and a smile appeared on his face. "That is excellent, very few people sees merit in learning about the Realms. What they don''t realize is if you know your enemy you have a great advantage over it." The others said their own decisions and the counselor quickly wrote them down into the system. Hellfire and Faith went the same route a couple of fighting classes and monster killing ways. Clockwork went with a bit of ability training and technology classes. Will went with transformation training and Lucy just did the same as Bea. After everyone got their schedule, they went their separate ways. Sera only had one class today ''Realm History For Beginners'', she was very excited. Spending so long pondering on questions she was finally able to get some answers. "Of course, we have been exploring Realms since we found out how to go into them and leave them. Currently we have outposts in at least a dozen and that is only Castleburg''s. There are other similar sized cities out there with their own footholds in those and other Realms." Sera was really excited, if she could go into another Realm she could learn more about it! But she was interested in something else, "Scholar, do you know of a Realm that was populated by angels?" He raised his bushy eyebrows and thought for a moment. "Populated by angels, can''t say I have. Why?" Sera sighed before bringing out her wings and spreading them, the man was a bit stumped but wasn''t too surprised. "My first kill as you probably already know was a Horror of the 3rd Tier." Scholar nodded. "But not many people know is the name of that Horror, Archangel of Despair. It was truly frightening, but I read the descriptions and I learned a lot about who the archangel was before falling into Madness. i don''t know, I just wanted to learn more about where he came from. The man had a stupid grin on his face. "Very few have such explorer spirit, especially young people like yourself. We currently have no knowledge of such place, but there are possibly hundreds of Realms out there. Who knows maybe you will be the one to find it!" This brought a small smile to Sera''s face and they went to his office. The office was kind of small, but perfect for two people to have one on one conversations. Scholar was very excited, he instantly grabbed a couple of maps and began showing Sera what they have explored so far. They didn''t have names, only number designations and descriptions. There was one which had no Sun and it was a land of darkness, another was a never ending huge cave system, then one that had lava as rivers and abandoned cities made of metal, etc. All of them had some form of human outpost, but these brought up new questions for Sera. "I understand that we fought and gotten footholds in those Realms. But how do we enter and exit?" "Oh, that is pretty simple, well in theory simple. There are special kind of Gates, that can be stabilized, we use those to transport goods and share information. Of course living in a different Realm is not fun at all, they are constantly under attack and sometimes we even have to abandon outposts, but we constantly try to acquire new ones. Sadly the people in charge don''t use these opportunities to learn more, they just want to have resources that they could use for power." ''So that is how they do it. And not doing it for the good of mankind, but for resources. I mean it was quite obvious, judging by the amount of students interested in Realm History, that it isn''t the leadership''s main priority.'' They kept talking and Sera learned man important and useful things, but sadly the class had to come to an end. Even then it lasted 2 hours longer, than it was supposed to, but Sera was really hungry, so she went to the cafeteria alone since the others had more classes today. Chapter 94: The Worst First Day Walking into the dining hall, a lot of students were currently having lunch. Sera looked around a bit, then approached the waiter to order food. As she walked through the rows of tables, conversations stopped behind here and people began to whisper. She didn''t care though, she just approached the waiter and said, "What do you suggest I should eat?" The man was sweating a bit, but after calming himself down he said, "Well, you can have pizza. You can''t go wrong with that." Sera just shrugged and agreed, then she turned around and walked to an empty table. While sitting and waiting every student kept glancing at her, she tried her hardest to not pay attention. ''Not creepy at all. Do I really have to go and find a place to eat at, because everyone will just keep stare at me.'' After about 10 minutes of waiting her food was finally ready, she went to take it, but as she sat back down a girl barely into adulthood approached her. She was pretty, of course as an Evolved it was hard to not look good. Her hair was black with some streaks of white, her eyes were the ones that demanded the most attention. She had heterochromia, one of her eyes was black, the other white. It was very beautiful, but weird at the same time. She had the same outfit as most students, the ones that the university gave them. "You... You are Angel Monarch right?" She asked with a small and shy voice. Sera just smiled. "Yes, but call me Seraphine. I don''t like to be called by my title." The girl looked very surprised, after all it was quite rare for an Evolved to not like their title. "O... Okay... But why? Most Evolved would kill for a title such as yours!" Her voice had gotten a bit more firm, Sera on the other hand focused on something else. "What do you mean, ''A title such as mine?'' What is special about Angel Monarch?" The girl was confused, then it hit her. "You... You don''t know, about what titles are?" Sera''s face could only be described as really annoyed. "Of course I don''t! Where would I learn it from, on the way from Newber to Castleberg. I don''t know how many monsters you have fought but they aren''t very talkative or helpful." The girl began trembling, for some reason. Slowly she regained her control and sat down in front of Sera. Then with a big sigh she began explaining. "I''m sorry for being inconsiderate. Of course you don''t know since you didn''t have any teachers. There is a deeper meaning to every title, but I''m not the best person for explaining it in a more intricate manner. But one thing I know, title referencing leadership are considered the highest and most important. Many people think they reference fate itself, and having Monarch in your name means you will achieve great things." ''Well... I didn''t quite expected that, but it does explain a lot. That is why many people act weird when they hear my title. They think that I will achieve something great. Bunch of weirdos, like a name could make you a great person.'' ''Okay... We need to get out of here then! We need to find Sera and leave... Wait, that is a bit of an escalation, first we should contact ask for help, there must be someone else in this huge city who can see soul monsters.'' "Is it still here?" Vicky shook her head. Bea stood up with her daughter in her arms and nodded at Lucy. She knew what to do and went to the instructor to explain the situation. Soon the whole university went under lockdown and the authorities were notified. Of course Bea didn''t just sit still, she went to the dining hall where Sera was judging by her Watch''s ping. After connecting their new Watches they unlocked more features including, being able to see each others location. The ping was moving in their direction as well and soon, they saw her running towards them. "What happened? Suddenly everyone got an alert to stay within buildings and in the vicinity of higher rank Evolved!" Sera went straight to the point. "Mommy! The monster is back!" She didn''t seem too surprised by this information. ''She did spend a lot more time with her.'' "Which one?" Sera''s face was getting more concerned, ''She knows something we don''t.'' "The ghost one, that is white and is wrapped in cloth." Her face fell and she looked depressed. Then in the next moment she had done something that confused Bea. She pressed the Realm Gate opening button on her Watch. Every Watch had such a button, but Bea never quite understood why. When Sera saw her confusion she explained. "In my class today we talked a lot about Realm Gates and who they open. Most open randomly for no reason at all, but there is a kind of monster that can open Gates. They are called Gate Spirits. They can only be observed by people with special Soul Visions, also they are glowing white and are wrapped in cloth." The realization dawned on Bea and she understood immediately why, she pressed the panic button. Soon a timer began on all of their Watches. It said, "Gate Opening Imminent! Stay Away From The University Area!..." Stay connected to the story on m-vl-em-py-r ''Like we can just stay away.'' With a big sigh Bea began calling the others from their group. "All of you! Get your asses over here right now! Hey! Can you hear me?!" "It is useless, the opening process already begun, we won''t be able to contact anyone during this process. At least it''s only a 2nd Tier Gate, we will be able to survive. For a while at least." Bea just sighed and looked at the notification for more details. "Gate Opening Imminent! Stay Away From The University Area! 2nd Tier Gate In Vicinity! Reinforcements 10 Minutes Out!" Bea sighed and just summoned her sword and armor. Sera did the same and kneeled down before Vicky. "I will keep you safe in my wing, just like at The Hold. Okay?" Vicky was scared out of her mind, but she nodded anyway. With that done the pair stood and looked ahead, there in the park where they stood a crack appeared. The crack grew to about 10 meters in height and 7 meters in width. It was a crack in reality itself. A doorway to somewhere else, a different dimension or Realm. From the crack the first monster appeared and ran at the pair. Chapter 95: School Fight What a nice day it was, there was nothing to do, but pick your class, go learn something and relax. Of course life decided that relaxation is overrated and put a Realm Gate right in front of them. The first monster appeared, it was a weird big lion with antlers and six arms, it also had three tails with stingers on each. After a quick analyzation they figured out that it was a Rotten of the 3rd Tier. Bea looked at Sera and they both ran at the lion. It was about to dodge the attack coming from Sera''s 10 meter lance, but vines stopped it and got impaled. In that time two more appeared and were already closing in. They took one on each killing them within seconds. They didn''t stop and other monsters came out of the Gate, some were humanlike, others like animals, others like plants, and others like nothing Sera had ever seen. The only thing that every monster had were antlers, which was weird especially on plants. Sera dodge a pounce from a small monkeylike beast and slashed it into two pieces in the air. With the same slash her weapon elongated catching another monster in its belly. Then the blade was stopped by the claws of some bearlike beast, and she jumped back from a gigantic lizard which was about 8 meters in length. She changed her weapons shape and soon a long spear with a large blade at its end appeared. This weapon was better suited for longer ranges, while it can be still used for piercing and slashing. Utilizing her new weapon she stabbed the lizard in its face and cut the throat of the bear. A bit further away Bea was fighting like a master of movement, her steps were as always very calculated. She stabbed a monster, cut another and using her vines it went into the wound and teared open the beast from inside out. She was using her vines way better than previously, her increased connection helped a lot with this feat. Around her death ruled in a circle every being running at her died, either by blade or some root coming from the ground. Suddenly there was a weird feeling ignited in her and the strength in her arms increased. Every swing broke bone and shredded muscle, but also more monsters began attacking her, like they were afraid to approach the place where Sera fought. It didn''t take a genius to figure out what she had done. There were also constant light going off from that direction. She was using her ability to quickly stun and kill her enemies, sadly some of them were either blind or just didn''t care about the brightness increase. Bea kept on fighting and killing. She dodged another of those lions, then stabbed the eye of a five legged deer with eagle wings, the creatures looked more and more uncanny. At first they somewhat resembled the creatures of Earth, but now they looked like mutants. Suddenly there was a change on the battlefield, all the monsters stopped and stared at the two woman. Something was coming, a Ravager. Every Gate has a Ravager, they are the ones who lead the forces that comes through the Realm Gate. What is really bad about them is that there Class can be higher, then the Tier of the Gate by one. Which meant the Ravager that was about to appear was at least a Corrupted of the 1st Tier. "Well, they either really stupid or feeling heroic. Either way they will be dead, before we touch down." Said the person next to Connor. Seeing the two woman he felt a moment of inspiration and ordered, "We are dropping boys!" All of them began to grumble, but didn''t make any objections. The first one out was of course the leader as it should be. His suit was specially made with his requests included. Connor simply stepped out of the helicopter and let gravity take hold of him. His speeds were increasing and soon he reached the ground. He landed on about three monster corpses, well they became corpses after him landing on them. Then a very magnificent greatsword appeared in his hand, and he started to kill. Soon other ''booms'' could be heard all around him. Alpha Team with all ten of its members has arrived, most were Ascended or very strong Evolved. Alpha was the best of the best, they got the strongest people out of all the teams, and it showed in the way the horde of monsters just disappeared before them. There shots never missed always killing one monster, their blade passed through the Rotten beasts like a knife through butter, but out of all of them Connor was the best. His main weapon was a greatsword and he was an artist with it. Killing monsters left and right he soon found the Corrupted it was currently trying to kill the two girls. Connor smirked behind his masked, then moved. A giant hammerlike hand was about to slam down on the white winged one, but it never reached her. It stopped a meter above her like an invisible wall was there, which in a way was. Connor''s strongest ability was gravity control, which meant he simple changed the gravity in the area of the hand, stopping it from moving forward. But his next move was even more shocking, he just pushed up from the ground and landed on the monsters shoulder with his sword going straight into its head. With that done he landed on the ground and took off his helmet. The two woman looked very exhausted and he soon realized who they were. ''Well, that explains why they could hold their ground for this long.'' Discover worlds on m-v le-mpyr "Are you two alright?" He asked but it was like neither could hear him, they just looked at the others fighting and something weird happened Angel Monarch spread her wings and a small girl came out of it. Connor was dumbfounded. ''She fought while holding onto a little girl?! WHAT?!'' "Are the three of you alright?" He asked a lot louder this time. Queen of Nature looked at him, then shouted, "Our eardrums are blown. We can''t hear you!" Chapter 96: Heroes ''So they are deaf.'' After thinking a bit Connor approached the three girls and motioned them to stay put. They nodded and he went on to exterminate the rest of the monsters, the Gate Team was about to arrive which meant that his team only needed to keep the area safe. Stay connected with m|vl|e|mp|y|r Looking around he realized how bad this Gate Opening actually was. If these Rotten began to run wild around the campus the next generation of Evolved would''ve been eviscerated. He looked towards the two young woman in new light. ''Not many could''ve or would''ve done what they did. They are truly good fighters and even better people, unlike most of the Evolved who only care about fame or other stupid petty thing.'' With a sigh he checked on his whole team, they were perfectly fine. For them this was an easy battle. Sadly their team had no healing personal, so the girls had to stay deaf for a while longer. Soon more helicopters and SUV-s arrived bringing medics, soldiers and for Connor''s utter dismay reporters. ''The damn RIB. They definitely gotten the news about the girls defending the university. I feel really sorry for them, getting constantly harassed must be very annoying.'' The Gate Team arrived as well and went into the Gate to close it. The closing of a Gate is pretty simple after you clear it, you just have to go to the other side and stay there for a while. When the Gate begins shrinking you come back. Alpha Team had done it many times, when Gate Teams aren''t available. Before the reporters could rush the three girls a wall of regular soldiers stopped them. It couldn''t stop the cameras though and they probably had pretty clear audio as well. Connor approached the medics, who were currently healing the girls. He got close enough to hear their argument. "No don''t heal me! Heal our daughter first, we deny medical attention until she receives it!" Said Angel Monarch, while shouting. She looked very pissed when the healer approached her first. With a surprised look the medical professional went and healed the girl, then the two young woman. Connor was only a couple of steps away at that point. They looked at him with serious faces and Queen of Nature said, "Thank you for showing up just in time. And nice execution of that Corrupted." ''Why am I getting complemented? I came here to say they did a great job!'' "Don''t complement him too much Bea. They were quite slow with their approach." Connor got a bit angry hearing that. They responded the fastest to the alert, they sere in the helicopter in under two minutes! That is fast even amongst the Teams! But he knew that they had every right to be angry as well, so he forced out a smile. "We arrived as fast as possible, sadly the alert only came in 1 minute before the Gate opening." Angel Monarch just shook her head and said in a very exhausted voice. "Yeah, I figured out a bit late that a Gate Spirit was on the university grounds. That one''s on me, sorry." ''Did she apologize? And for a mistake she didn''t even commit. Is Newber or Copen that different? How can an Evolved be so humble?'' Queen of Nature just held her hand and smiled, their daughter was sitting between the too. She seemed to be in the best shape out of the three. Soon some officer got to them, for debrief. Then they went on their way towards the dorms. Connor went on his way with his Team as well, but the experience stayed with him for a long time. He wasn''t even a little bit surprised by the news either. "So lets see it right now!" Said Clockwork, he was always interested in Vicky''s soul form. Sera nodded and asked Vicky for her Watch and was about to open the status window, when she received a priority message, but not only her, Bea and Sera got one each. With curiosity they opened it and they were a bit amazed. It was an invitation from that prince they met, Otto. He asked the three of them for a private dinner with him and her sister. Sera looked at Bea and they both shrugged. The others were confused by this interaction, but they showed it to them as well. "A private dinner with royalty, fancy. They will even send dresses for you and a private vehicle, but weren''t we invited?" Faith seemed a bit offended, but it was all just a joke to her. "Maybe if we would have saved a bunch of people''s lives by tackling a Realm Gate alone, we would''ve gotten an invite as well." Faith looked at Hellfire with murder in her eyes, then she smiled and began laughing. "Anyway the dinner is only tomorrow, lets look at Vicky''s status screen for now!" Clockwork didn''t seem to care a little bit about the dinner invitation, but was very interested in something else, so Bea asked him. "Clockwork, why are you so interested in Vicky''s status window?" Before he could answer Lucy cut in. "Oh, don''t worry about him. He is just very interested in upgrading his transformation, he never shuts up about it." Everyone looked at Lucy with raised eyebrows and Clockwork facepalmed. She was looking around confused until Faith with a stupid grin asked. "When does he never shuts up about it exactly? Not when he is with us that is for sure. Are you two perhaps spend a lot of time together?" Lucy''s face started to redden, but she was just too shameless to embarrass. "Yeah, we have been fucking for a while, so what?" They began to laugh, which angered Lucy and further mortified Clockwork. After about a minute Sera had enough of waiting and opened Vicky''s status screen. Name: Victoria Title: Soul Keeper 1st Kill: ''Unknown'' Life Essence Absorbed: 1000/1000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: Transformation: Items: Chapter 97: Race Change Name: Victoria Title: Soul Keeper 1st Kill: ''Unknown'' Life Essence Absorbed: 1000/1000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: Transformation: Items: Sera looked through it quickly, then begin reading the first ability of Vicky. Description: You have the ability to eat another being''s soul or at least a fragment of it. Every kill made in your proximity increases your Life Essence. She read all of it out loud for the others to hear as well. They stayed silent a bit, until Lucy spoke. "How is that even fair! She doesn''t even have to fight, all she has to do is stand near while something or someone else kills. Life is unfair." While Lucy was throwing a hissy fit the others concentrated to the more important part of the description. The ''Unknown'' it was rare, but not impossible for the Watch to not know the name of some creature or race. It made Sera very curious especially because how they are described, not like most races it almost seemed reverent, like they were special compared to other races. Sera quickly pulled up the next one, she hoped to gain more insight relating to the so called ''Unknown''. Description: You can see the soul of any being, which makes them impossible to hide from you. Be careful what you see, if a soul is too powerful Madness will soon follow. Again she read it out loud, then turned to Vicky and asked, "I hope you never used this ability haphazardly! Even though it is a passive you can learn to control it." She was actually quite scared for her, what if she accidentally looks at something she shouldn''t. Vicky just nodded understanding her concerns. ''All the ''Unknown'' were blind deaf and mute. They are definitely something special, being able to see a beings souls, but communicate and fight with them. Just how powerful could they have been and what destroyed them. The Disturbance, not Madness.'' She was growing more and more curious, so she opened the last one. Description: You know everything about the Archangel of Despair. You unlock his armor which dissipates most blows, it also gives high mental and soul protection. Your aura changes as well, you passively attract the attention of most people and when angry passively causes fear in others. ''That explains why everyone acts so weird around me. Can this be turned off? I don''t want to be a religious figurehead!'' The others were still talking about something, but Sera didn''t care. She just cut into the middle of their conversation. "Guys I realized something!" That brought everyone''s attention. She quickly read the two descriptions out loud. The silence and awe was heavy in the air. "So, I know what we have to do before advancing to Ascended. Everyone of us needs to unlock their full Heritage, except for me and Bea of course." They all looked a bit disheveled, but non disagreed. "Actually, I already unlocked part of it." Lucy said in a very small and sad voice. All of them including Clockwork looked shocked, but she wasn''t done. With a big sigh and teary eyes she continued. "I actually unlocked it after Nightmare died and I held his body, but don''t ask me to read the description, it is too painful." She was crying by the end of it and neither of them pried further. Bea went and hugged her, which seemed to calm her a bit. After getting her emotions back under control they continued with the conversation. They talked about what everyone can and can''t do, what could potentially lead to the acquiring of Heritages. For Will and Clockwork it was pretty straight forward, Will had to better understand his transformation which could only be done in water. Luckily Castleburg has a port on its northwestern side. Clockwork had to better upgrade and also understand his transformation. Faith had to better acquaint herself with shadows, she just said leave it to her and Hellfire also had one of his Heritage unlocked while in the cell, that was actually his halberd. The only one they didn''t quite know how to help was Vicky. Her ability was just too unique and they didn''t even know what was the being she killed. What they eventually figured out was that it has to do something with her possession ability. "Why can she only possess Faith? What makes her different than us?" Asked Sera from everyone. "Maybe her weird reverence toward you?" Asked Hellfire with a grin and he got elbowed in the stomach by Faith. "My title is Devout Shadow remember and my Heritage is actually related to that... Wait my title is related to my Heritage, same for Hellfire, Sera and probably Lucy, but she doesn''t have a title yet. So what if..." Suddenly Sera cut in with a thoughtful expression. "What if her Heritage has to do with the Soul Keeper title. It could be... Vicky when you try to possess us or Faith do your try to force yourself?" She shook her head firmly and said, "Never! I don''t want to accidentally hurt any of you. Souls are no playthings!" "That is a good thing, but we need to test what happens when you do force your possession. Not on any of us of course, not even on humans." Bea said and Sera already knew where this was going. "So the day after tomorrow we go look for some Tainted beast and try to make Vicky possess it?" Asked Sera with a smile on her face, she already felt it. This is the way for unlocking her Heritage! "Why not tomorrow?" Asked Bea with raised eyebrows. "Tomorrow is the dinner with the royal siblings." Answered Sera with tiredness in her voice. "Oh yeah, I already forgot. Do we really have to go?" Sera just shook her head with a fatigued smile. Soon everyone went their way. Tomorrow is going to be a long day as well, but hopefully there will be less life and death fighting. Sera went to bed hugging Vicky and Bea, in minutes they were already fast asleep. Chapter 98: "How to Evolve?" The rays of the morning Sun were only starting to enlighten the city of Castleburg, but Sera was already awake. She was currently heading towards the cafeteria in search of coffee. After yesterday''s fighting all she wanted to do was sleep, but she had to go to class soon, so she went with the second best option, caffeine. She went in and asked for pure black coffee to go. After a couple of minutes she was already heading to class. In reality she hated coffee, it was bitter and unpleasant, she also knew that it had its uses. She drank it black because it would taste horrible for her even with milk or sugar. Taking a swig from the cup she was a bit surprised, it didn''t taste as awful as she expected. ''Well, after drinking monster blood for a weak this would taste like ambrosia.'' The current class she was heading towards was related to evolution. Mostly how to evolve and what is the best monster to choose. It was really important especially after last night, when they talked about it. Of course non of the others thought it that important since she was heading to the class alone! With an angry and tired expression she remembered how peacefully Bea and Vicky were still sleeping when she left. They will only have classes later so they could sleep in. ''Lucky bastards.'' She arrived to the class room and went in. This class had more people than the last one, there was at least a dozen students waiting for the teacher. Walking in she remembered something else. Everyone turned towards her and they went white as sheets of paper. ''I forgot about the whole, being famous and having a passive aura around me. This will definitely make my life a living hell!'' Slowly she went down the steps and sat in the front row. Then she took out a tablet and an electronic pen she could write on it, most people only recorded the whole lecture with their Watches, but Sera liked to take her own notes. All the conversations stopped when she arrived. On the back of her head she felt all the other students watching her. She was about to turn around and tell them to leave her alone, but the teacher arrived. A beautiful woman who was still in her prime walked out of the back door, behind the stage, She had waist length black her which seemed to reflect the lights, her eyes were bright blue and she wore a knee length dress. The students watched her every move, especially the sway of her hips. Sera looked around and saw that the students looked like they are in love with her, male or female it didn''t matter. Sera on the other hand only felt some small amount of attraction. ''So she is using her ability to prank the students or something? She must be at least an Ascended, so her power is definitely way stronger than what she is currently showing.'' Sera watched her with a bored expression. After reading through her new description yesterday she realized something. Her armor gave her amazing physical defense, but also soul and mind defense. But those two had nothing to do with actually covering her whole body, so she was currently wearing her armor as a bracelet and it currently protected her from the teachers prank. Siren had a wide smile on her face and she slowly clapped her hands. "Excellent, you are 100% correct! We need to evolve, because there won''t be anyone to do so other than us. Sadly some people forget this purpose of the Evolved! They think of themselves as celebrities or even worse, religious figureheads. Glad to know there still are people who aren''t that full of themselves." ''At least I''m not the only one to think of them as idiots.'' The teacher moved behind her desk and wrote on the blackboard with a chalk. It read, "How to Evolve?". She moved away so everyone could read it, then began. "So we now know why there is the need for evolution. The monsters out there aren''t only Tainted or Rotten, there a plenty of Corrupted and Horror. There is also the ones above those, but even I''m not allowed to know their classes. "But how to evolve? No don''t raise your hands, probably all of you know it already. In case you don''t it is fairly simple. You fully saturate your soul, find a monster, make the killing blow, then absorb its soul by touching its still warm corpse. Pretty straight forward. "What really matters though is which monster to choose. You all probably believe that the higher class and tier the better, which is true but not fully. All of you already know what your abilities are, what you can control or manipulate. This is what will determine which monster to kill." She clicked a button on her desk, suddenly the lights turned off and a projector came alive. It showed pictures of a bunch of different monsters. There was one similar to the Shadow Leopard Sera killed, another had demonic wings and humanlike body, another was a huge snake moving through water, there was also a lion that had bird like wings, and many more. As Siren scrolled down more and more monsters showed, there hundreds or most likely thousands of them. So many to choose from, but only one or two held Sera''s attention. ''They even found angelic beings? That would be very convenient.'' After a couple minutes of scrolling, she clicked another button and the lights came back on. The projector still showed the images, but they were quite dim. "As you saw, we scouted thousands of monsters already. You have access to the archive through your Watch and you can go to hunt any of these monsters any time. I am not here to stop you or anything like that. Just giving you the ability to choose the one that is best suited for you. "Now lets talk about specifics, today all of you will write down on a piece of paper everything there is to know about your abilities. Of course you decide how much you want me to know, but I can assure you that this is purely confidential. When I learn about your abilities we will have a private one on one class where we can decide the best monster for you to evolve with." Everyone got out a paper and began writing. Sera thought for a while what to write, in the and she decided to write down everything except her Heritage and the race change. Soon after that the class ended. Chapter 99: Dining Like Royalty After her first class Sera had a bit of free time, so she decided to eat breakfast. The cafeteria was pretty empty since most people were currently having classes. She ate herself full and in the meantime looked around the monster archive. Slowly but surly she gathered every monster that their group could hunt to evolve. The others had a fair amount of options to choose from, Sera on the other hand had maybe two. One was an angel with black wings, it was a Corrupted of the 1st Tier named Azriel, and just as the name''s predecessor it''s ability seems to be related to death. ''This I feel like isn''t the kind of angelic being I''m looking for. It''s relation to death has nothing to do with my light which is the main deciding factor in this case.'' She opened the second one, is a bird with fiery wings burning with white flames. The bird itself is pretty big about 15 meters. It is also pure white in color with red spots all over its magnificent body. The scouts account said the flames felt a bit holy in a way, pure. Only problem is that the bird is a Corrupted of the 3rd Tier named Holy Phoenix. ''This would be perfect, only one issue how do we defeat a Corrupted of the 3rd Tier? Also it is quite far away, it is actually quite close to an outpost that guards one of the open Realm Gates.'' It didn''t matter now anyway, she still had to speak with the others and also they will do nothing until everyone has their Heritage fully unlocked. With a contemplative look Sera stood from her seat and went to another class. ... The day passed quickly and soon enough both Sera and Bea was in their room getting ready for the dinner. At some point, probably when they were cleaning the room a package arrived for the three of them. Just as they suspected it contained three dresses. And for their utter bewilderment they weren''t just made from synthetic material like everyone''s. They were some monsters skin. Sera even tried to cut it with her knife at a spot where no one would see, but it didn''t even leave a mark, which meant only one thing... This was made of at least a Horror''s skin. They didn''t know how to feel about wearing such clothing, and not even as armor. They were supposed to wear it for dinner for gods sake! Without options they put them on. Sera wore a dress the showed a little cleavage and shoulder, it had a flowing part that connected her arm to her chest, the skirt was so light it felt like she wasn''t wearing anything which made her a bit uncomfortable. The color was a tasteful connection between white and gold, very similar to her armor actually. For her feet the gave a pair of high heels with 5 centimeter heels. The whole outfit was perfectly fitting her body. ''So it does relate to sea, how peculiar!'' "Nice to meet you Princess Sarah." "You too." As Sarah answered something weird happened Seraphine, Bea and even Victoria began laughing loudly. She looked towards her brother to see if he knows what this is about, but he seemed to know just as little as she. "Uhm... Did I say something funny?" Her voice sounded bored, but inside she was replaying the interaction a thousands of times trying to figure out her mistake. Soon the laughter died down and Bea answered. "We are so sorry. It has to do nothing with what you said, well that actually not true, but lets gloss over that. I''m kind of curious is this silent behavior because of your evolution?" Sarah looked relieved and concerned at the same time, but of course only in her mind. Her expression stayed the usual slightly bored one. "Yes, kind of. Why do you ask?" Seraphine answered this time with a smile. "In our group there is actually a person with a similar condition, he became like that after evolution as well and his power has to do with water as well." That picked up her interest. ''Another person like me and has an ability with water. It must be that Will, he is the only one in their group who fits that description!'' Before she could ask about him some more, her brother cleared his throat indicating that they should move on from this subject. "That is interesting I would like to meet him at some point, but lets move on to the actual reason we asked you to come here. But since there is all this nice food lets eat while we talk." With that she turned around and sat down in one of the seats. The table was rectangular in shape, with two seats on one side and three on the other. Otto sat down next to her sister, while Seraphine sat on the right and Bea on the left with Victoria in between them. They began gathering food on their plate and started to eat. It wasn''t anything special for Sarah, but judging the faces of the trio they never really tasted food like this. ''It must have been hell wandering through the wild without even good food to enjoy.'' They ate for a couple of minutes before someone spoke again, it was her brother. He looked a bit nervous for obvious reasons, they were about to make a gamble with these three. It will either help them achieve their goal or end their lives. He cleared his throat took a deep breath and began. "The reason we asked you two here tonight is pretty simple... I and my sister ask for your help... We want you to help us kill our father." Chapter 100: Ranks and Classes "...We want you to help us kill our father." The words echoed in the deathly silent room. The trio''s faces froze, their mouth falling open. Considering everything they knew, never in their life would they come even remotely close to predict this. "What?!", was all they managed and with serious expression Otto explained further. "We want your help in killing our father. There is multiple reasons for it, but for you there is only one. He doesn''t want competition. He kills everyone who has even a chance of opposing his rule over this city. And sadly you two are the biggest threat for him currently." Seraphine''s and Bea''s face unlike how Otto thought didn''t became fearful, only angry. There hands were holding onto the cutlery, bending the metal with relative ease. "How many?" Was all Seraphine asked. It didn''t take a genius to figure out what she is referring to. Sarah answered this time, "2756 Evolved. All dead. All of them powerful. Most of them good people." "And why are we so powerful to be killed? We are just at the beginning of evolution after all." Bea kept her anger under tighter leash than Seraphine. Otto looked at her sister and begin revealing more secrets. "You probably already know that titles have more meaning than just names given to you by the system. What very few people know is that they are directly correlate with your potential. For example if you reach Stellar without a title you can''t advance to the next rank. It is just simply impossible, that is why our father left our older brother alive even though he is at the rank of Stellar." Serpahine and Bea looked at each other again, there was a question in their eyes. One that bothered them for a long time. "What are the three other ranks? I presume your father is at least of the fifth whatever that is." "Yes, he is. The rest of the ranks are Ethereal, Celestial and Empyrean. He is an Ethereal." As Sarah''s explanation set in the atmosphere became thoughtful in the room, Seraphine was connecting many dots in her head it seemed like and soon she spoke. But what she said shocked the siblings. "So people with authority in their title are destined to achieve the rank of Empyrean am I correct?" The silence was very uncomfortable for Otto, he heard reports about her being very smart, but to find connection between this two was just too much. ''Maybe she already knew and just pretended to be in the dark? Unlikely, she seems to honest to be able to lie so good. It doesn''t matter, at least I don''t have to explain that.'' "You are correct. And for example people who has soul in their title have the potential to become Celestial. Our father on the other hand acquired his title when he became a Transcended, he has no more potential this is the highest he will ever get. But he is stubborn and greedy for more power. He constantly tries to find ways to increase his rank." They refer to the opposite of our ranks, an Abomination could destroy cities with ease, a Calamity could destroy continents and an Apocalypse, well we are currently fighting one or at least its servants." The information dump was shocking for the trio, but just as Otto expected Seraphine absorbed it all like a sponge. And even started to make connections again with the clues he left. "So, you are telling me that Madness is a being at the level of Apocalypse and we are currently fighting every being it afflicted? Just how many Realms did Madness destroy?" Otto smiled, her deduction abilities are truly amazing. Instead of him Sarah answered this time. "We don''t know exactly, there is at least 173 by our last count from different item and ability descriptions. Also we currently know that there are at least a thousand different Realms, but most of the Realm Gates are opened by Madness. That is why we haven''t really come in contact with other intelligent life here on Earth." The silence returned yet again Seraphine looked very thoughtful, but in the end she just nodded and began eating again. It confused Otto enough to ask her, "You don''t have any more questions?" She looked up from her food and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Not really, soon when our group unlocked their Heritages we will leave to evolve. Until we get stronger and learn more about our powers there is nothing really to talk about." Sarah and Otto looked at each other with confusion, it made sense for them to prepare, but unlocking all their Heritage seemed a bit of an extreme. "Why do you want to unlock all your Heritages before becoming an Ascended?" Asked Sarah, unlike Otto who was already a Transcended, she only recently became an Evolved. She was currently in the process of deciding what monster to hunt and kill for evolution. "You... You don''t know? How did you never figure it out? Well, there are probably very small amount of people who try to unlock all their Heritages before becoming an Ascended." She stayed silent for a bit, then shrugged and explained. "Since you told us a lot of secrets it''s only fair if we tell you some as well. The reason is pretty simple, you become more powerful if you unlock all your Heritages before evolving. I already unlocked them all, but the others still need some time." Sarah looked very excited, well at least what could be considered excited with an emotionless face. It was only a small smile, but Otto knew that it was a very rare sight. "So you are telling me if I want to be more powerful, I need to unlock all my Heritages before evolution? But why? What does it do?" Bea smiled and with a bit of chuckle said, "Changes your race of course!" Chapter 101: Path of the Divine Dropping that bombshell on the siblings was really funny. Bea and Sera just couldn''t stop laughing at their reactions, Vicky in the meantime was humming some song and peacefully ate her meal. After a few minutes they somewhat accepted this new reality they lived in. Sarah still had a small smile on her face, which probably indicated that she was pleased with this information. When Otto came to his senses, he finally asked the million credit question. "How do you know that?" Sera only smiled and showed him her status window, on it he could clearly see the race change counter. She even showed the description. "As you can see, when you achieve full Heritage status before evolving you gain the ability to change your race after a while. Do you understand now?" Otto was frozen, he thought there was some feeling within ones body when they get closer to race change, but if the Watch showed it that could only mean one thing... ''It''s part of the system...'' He might have accidentally said it out loud because everyone began staring at him, like he was insane. "What system?" Asked Sarah, even she wasn''t aware of this truth. Otto never got the chance to share it with her. He took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. "Our Watches, you probably already noticed they know things that they shouldn''t be able to. The descriptions containing the history of other Realms, how could a piece of tech possibly have that information. The answer is very simple, it doesn''t. "There is this dust humans found after Madness ripped open our world and the Apocalypse began. That they this dust fell from the sky and we quickly realized that placing it in this Watches not only powers them, but gives it an self writing A.I. We didn''t code these Watches they coded themselves. "They also give you and interface where you can see what do you have in your storage, it doesn''t actually gives you one. It is still a mystery how we gain items and how we can summon them, one working theory is that the soul evolves with the body and you store the items there..." "Otto get back on track! What is important about this system?" Asked Sarah somehow at the same time emotionless and annoyed. "I was just about to get to that. A couple years prior we discovered something else, when we made contact with the first of the other intelligent species. They had a similar event happen in their Realm as well, but they said that this system was The Path to the Divine. "Its main purpose is to help any individual reach their highest potential and even godhood." Finishing his monologue there was only silence, even Vicky stopped eating to listen. Sera thought about this information quite a while, then she realized what Otto was saying. ''Did I say something wrong again? I was just honest aren''t we friends or something?'' With a sigh Otto apologized. "I''m sorry about Sarah, she is not the most considered person in the world. But she replaces that with diligence." They nodded and continued talking. "Sarah do you have at least one Heritage unlocked?" Asked Sera. She just nodded, held out her hand and around it the air and water particles condensed into a breathtaking trident. "Good. And do you need help with figuring out the rest or you don''t need our help?" "Thank you for the offer, but I got it. Just in case though I will talk to that Will, I''m curious about his transformation as well." She had a small smile on her face and Otto was frowning at her. He didn''t seem to like the idea of her sister meeting with a boy. The scene was quite hilarious. Since there was nothing else to really talk about, they just chatted and ate themselves full with the mostly cold food. Then Sera, Bea and Vicky went back to the campus while Sarah and Otto went back to the castle. When they came back home it was already quite late, so they decided to speak with the others tomorrow. Vicky was already sleeping in the bed, while Sera and Bea talked about everything in the children''s room. "Do you think this is a good idea? I mean we could just let them do whatever they want, or we can just leave, maybe another city will take us in." Bea said these options although she wasn''t convinced at all about it. In truth she was perfectly fine with killing people who try to threaten her loved ones. "I don''t know either. I think it is the right thing to do, but it is very dangerous. But there is no guarantee that other cities are any better or that we can survive the journey there. Considering our current situation the best possible route is to stay and get stronger, we can leave anytime so that shouldn''t be an issue." Bea nodded, she agreed with her thinking a hundred percent. She reached out her hand and held Sera''s. There was still a slight tremble, but it was barely noticeable. She could even plant a kiss on it without her face going pale. She was just about to ask something, when a very sleepy looking Vicky walked in. While constantly yawning and wiping her eyes she said, "Mommy, I can''t sleep because of the beeping. Could you turn it off?" They looked at each other, initially they thought she was just dreaming about something and woke up while still remembering her dream, but then they heard it. A very small periodic beeping sound coming from right under their bed. Sera began walking towards it, but then she realized what the sound was. She ran back, closed the door behind herself while summoning her wings and pulling Vicky and Bea under their protection, she also shouted, "BEA! PLANTS AROUND US! NOW!" Without question she summoned it and just in time. One second there was total silence in the dorms, next a loud ''BOOM'' could be heard and destruction soon followed. Chapter 102: Assassination Attempt Alpha Team was about to retire for the day. Connor was already heading out the door, while leaving their recreation room he looked out the window. They were stationed on a pretty high skyscraper''s top floor so nearly the whole city was visible from there. He could see everywhere except behind the royal castle which even dwarfed this building. Seeing the magnificent shinning city always brought a smile to his face, but not this time. From here the campus grounds could be easily observed, as he stared suddenly he saw an explosion. It wasn''t huge, but still significant. It wasn''t their job to be concerned for explosions and what not, but Connor had a feeling something wasn''t right. The others had mostly left so he decided to just drive there and check it out. When he got there he saw part of the dorms collapsed. Most of the fire was already put out and some of the dead were lay on the grassy ground a safe distance away from the building. Only on m v|le|mp|yr Since Connor had a security clearance higher than most, he just went into the closed off area and approached one of the first responders. She had a military uniform on and judging by the silver star on her shoulder she was a regular officer. The woman saw him and called out. "Hey, this is a restricted area! You can''t be here..." The rest of the sentence stuck in her throat when Connor pulled out his badge. It showed multiple gold stars, marking him as an evolved special division leader. Her face went pale and she quickly looked away. "I''m deeply sorry, sir! I was just doing my job and accept any punishment, even if it means getting court marshalled..." He cut in before the woman could say more. "Don''t worry about it. What happened?" The woman sighed from relief and happily dropped the pervious topic. "We aren''t sure. All we know is there was an explosion possibly from a bomb. We are still looking through the rubble, but at least 5 students are dead, even healers couldn''t save them." He nodded and began to approach the building, but suddenly there were wings beating and 3 young man plus 2 young woman dropped right next to him from the sky. He went on high alert, but quickly calmed when he saw their concerned expressions. One of them a tall man above 2 meters with demonic wings on his back asked, "What happened?" Before the woman could try to send them away, Connor answered. "We aren''t sure, an explosion probably from a bomb." The man nodded slowly and one of the woman spoke next she had black hair and dark eyes. Her whole demeanor radiated coldness and danger. "How many dead and where are their bodies?" "Five." Then Connor pointed towards the corpses. The woman didn''t acknowledge his response and just ran to look at them, after a couple of seconds a shout came from her. "They aren''t here!" Suddenly the students collectively breathed a sigh of relief, but quickly grew tense again. "That means they either haven''t came back yet or they are still under the rubble!" Said the youngest of them a light brown haired nerdy looking boy. "Who are you talking about?" Asked Connor, his voice was calm. The other woman answered. They knew that Vicky was smart enough to make a decision like this and also all of what the prince said made sense. They went out for a dinner together and suddenly after they come back there is an explosion. Vicky also recounted the couple of seconds before the explosion and the beeping sound she heard. It didn''t take a genius to figure out that there was a bomb under the bed. Otto didn''t share his thoughts of who could have put the bomb there, since they were out in the open. His main suspicion went to Victor, but he wasn''t cunning or smart enough to try and pull something like this off. Which meant it was put there by some kind of loyalists of his father. ''I should probably call Sarah as well about our new guests.'' Walking away a couple of steps he began calling her. After a few seconds a very sleepy and annoyed voice answered. "What is it?" Otto held in her laughter, the situation was very serious, but hearing her sister annoyed always brought a smile to his face. "We are about to receive a couple of new guests." There was a yawn on the other end of the line. "Why what happened? And who?" His voice lost all merriness and turned solemn. "There was an assassination attempt on Seraphine and Bea. They survived barely, but they aren''t safe here. Whom ever tried to assassinate them won''t be able to in our own home so their whole group will be staying there." The sleepiness from Sarah''s voice full disappeared and a hint of anger took its place. "Okay. Do you think ''he'' figured it out and tried to do it?" Otto knew she was talking about Victor. He shook his head then realized she couldn''t see him. "No. If he would have figured it out, he would''ve attacked by himself and also we would be dead as well." "Yeah. You are right. When will you arrive?" "You have about half an hour to get ready." He said while grinning. "I can hear your stupid grin through the speaker! You could have called me sooner, dammit." She grumbled something else as well, but it was too quiet for Otto to hear. If he had to guess her beautiful, smart and elegant little sister, was in the process of cursing him out, by every known and unknown vulgar words. With a light chuckle he hung up the call. They waited for the transport to arrive, then headed to the royal castle, when they reached it a still sleepy looking Sarah waited for them. She actually managed to put on some nice clothes. The group was in awe the whole time while they walked towards their assigned rooms. When they arrived all of them went into the room where they placed Seraphine and Bea. Otto asked them why and their only reply was, they will only leave when they ask them to. Sarah and Otto were bewildered by this loyalty, they looked and each other, shrugged and decided to stay as well. Throughout the night they explained the situation and who could have caused the assassination attempt. When morning came the pair was finally starting to stir awake. Chapter 103 : Hunting Trip Sera was walking down the corridor of the royal castle. Even after living here for two weeks she still couldn''t believe how huge it was and also how lavish it was. Everywhere throughout the building there were vases with exotic plants, sculptures depicting people that died a long time ago, there were suits of armor as well... some of them were even made from monster materials. 2 weeks since the attempt on her and Bea''s life. She still didn''t feel too safe, even in this place. There were security cameras all over the place with 24/7 surveillance team watching everything, there were guards constantly patrolling or just standing in place. This was the safest place in the entire city and still Sera would feel much more secure in the wild then here. These past two weeks everyone made progress and unlocked their Heritage fully. They even choose which monster to evolve with and currently Sera was heading to the helicopter landing pads, where the others waited for her. She also learned more about Otto''s and Sarah''s abilities. Sarah couldn''t change into a giant sea monster like Will, her transformation was more intricate. She could change into a water elemental, it gives her the ability to control large amounts of water and she can summon small scale storms. She can also manipulate wind to a small degree. Otto on the other hand, well he is a dragon. He shoots fire that for some reason burns gray. He can also do a lot of other things since he is a Transcended, but he didn''t want to tell her all his abilities, which is understandable. Another surprising person was Lucy, who after the death of her brother got some amount of affinity towards it. She also unlocked her title, Winged Death. Very cool sounding and fits with her transformation. When her race change says that she will become a Deathbird whatever that is. After readying some of the race changes Sera quickly realized that they aren''t full changes. They will probably still have a human appearance, but also some permanent bodily transition. She wasn''t quite sure and no one else figured out race change before her, so she couldn''t even ask someone. Hellfire''s race change is pretty obvious, demons. But Faith''s is actually a bit more interesting, the power of her abilities are actually a reflection of the person she devoted to. When she changes race she will become her chosen person''s shadow. What that exactly means they have no idea, but she is fine with it so who is Sera to stop her. Clockwork will turn into a cyborg and Will into a leviathan. Those are pretty obvious, but how will they look like once they change race is a very good question. Then there was Vicky, her race change is still a mystery. It just says ''Unknown''. Who are these ''Unknown'' the Watch keeps talking about? It wasn''t easy to acquire the Heritage of Vicky and took many days camping in the wild, but eventually they figure it out. The main aspect of her power is the ability to control souls and even tame them. As Sera walked out to the platform, there was a huge butterfly just sitting there. This monster only scary on the outside, it was actually kind of weak. Only a Tainted of the 2nd Tier, it took Vicky half a day to tame it. It could fit their whole group, it was their ride on this hunting trip. Walking towards the huge monster, she saw the others checking their packs nearby. She went to Vicky and Bea first. She kissed Bea on the lips, then Vicky on her head. They still haven''t had private time, mostly because Sera still wasn''t ready, but she was making progress ever so slowly. "Is it ready for the journey?" Vicky pouted and crossed her arms, then she raised one hand and petted the butterfly on one of its antennas. It made some weird sound that can either be satisfaction or anger. It definitely won''t be an easy fight, but it is actually one of the least difficult from their list. With the help of Sarah and her water control, it will be even easier. The next stop after is still even further south in a city ruin named Hannover, its about 80 kilometers from their first checkpoint. This one will be for Clockwork and he managed to choose a giant death robot for his next evolution. It is a Corrupted of the 1st Tier as well named ¨C Death Dealer Mk3. It is a 15 meter tall mech, with six arms each holding 6 different weapons. It also has an area of effect scan, so if you come too close it will notice you. Even though they don''t know what the six weapons exactly are, this will be the easiest fight. Even if Hellfire wouldn''t get an upgrade just before the fight. From there they will move northwest until they reach another abandoned city named Brema. The distance between the two is about 130 kilometers. Here they will have to hunt for Lucy. They have to fight that angel of death, which Sera initially thought and then dropped, as her evolution. It is a Corrupted of the 1st Tier named ¨C Azriel. Not much is known about it except that it wields a longsword and a shield as weapons and has powers related to death Here they started to approach the harder fights, this one will be their toughest challenge until that point, but the next two will be even worse. From Brema it is time to head northwest again until they reach the sea. Somewhere in an area near the shoreline there is a gigantic sea beast. It is a Corrupted of the 2nd Tier named ¨C Colossal Sea Devourer. There are two main issues with this monster. First they know very little of its abilities, they don''t even know how it looks exactly since the scouts couldn''t make sense of it. Second is that they have no real way of fighting it. Well, most of them don''t, other than Will and Sarah, they are pretty much useless in the water. But that is a problem for their future selves. After killing that beast they will travel above water for quite a while to another shoreline. The next one is for Sarah, who choose a Corrupted of the 2nd Tier as well, named ¨C Storm Spirit. The scout report only said that its power is related to storms and everything they contain, they also described the spirit as a female lightning... Whatever that means. This won''t be as hard as the last one, but it will still be a hard task. These were the first and easiest ones, for the other four they will all be Corrupted of the 3rd Tier, a significant increase in power. But that is for later, first they had to take out there first monster, the Blazing Devil. Chapter 104 : Stymphalian Bird Pixie moved quite fast through the air, they could make the distance to the area where the Blazing Devil was located, but that wouldn''t be the best thing to do. Since the journey was quite long they plan to make camp near the site, then send Lucy and Faith to scout out the devil. Then tomorrow they will launch a well put together surprise attack. In the air they sat in silence since the wind was too loud for talking, they had been travelling for about 3 hours. The Sun was already right above their heads and heading towards the western horizon. Below them the vast wild landscape stretched as far as their eye could see. Sometimes they saw monsters moving around on the ground, from this height they seemed more like ants than anything, but they knew those shapes were much larger up close. After another half an hour or so the first of their problem rose to the sky. When they planned this excursion, they knew flying for long periods of time will be dangerous. There are a lot of other flying beasts how would want to make dinner out of them. One of those was currently heading in their direction. It wasn''t as large as the butterfly, but it had very sharp looking claws and a maw full of dreadful teeth. The problem was that the butterfly''s wings were kind of brittle, which meant that after one good slash of claws they could be shred. The monster was a large bird, but something was weird about it. As Sera observed its wings, they looked unnatural, as the sunlight hit it they reflected for some reason. Suddenly there was a shout from behind her, Lucy was screaming, "DIVE!" Sera looked ahead in confusion and quickly realized why she sounded so distressed. The bird slowed down, then raised its mighty wings and with a strong beat a couple of feathers came off heading directly towards them. Luckily Lucy noticed it in time and warned them, which made it possible for Pixie to evade the metallic feathers completely. While still in dive Sera looked back and nodded towards Hellfire and Lucy. The three of them were the only ones able to fight in the air. They noticed her gaze and soon the three of them were flying through the air and beginning to attack the metal winged bird. In its longest lance form and clad in full white armor Sera flew towards the bird. She even donned her helmet to keep the wind out of her face. Next to her was Hellfire, his halberd in a much larger form as well. His Heritages other than the halberd was pretty useless here, since one only increased his affinity with fire and the other gave him more physical strength. They were both good, but not the best against this big bird. Moving its wings again it shot out another barrage of feathers, this time towards the three of them. Lucy dodged the feathers in her eagle form and got close enough to land a hit on the monsters body. The beast screamed as she tore into its flesh, but quickly recovered and with one shake of its large body managed to get Lucy off of itself. ''Damn, she cut it really close. Another second and she would have to find another mother.'' Indeed the bird''s soul was destroyed by Vicky. Sadly she can''t just kill monsters with a thought. They had to attack it and make it weaker to lower its defenses. When it went into a frenzy it gave up all her shielding against soul attacks, so Vicky could infiltrate it and destroy it. The large bird stayed in the air for a second, then gravity took hold of the corpse and it began its long descent towards the ground. When it finally reached it a large cloud of smoke rose as well. There were screams of a bunch of different monsters and the sound of fighting. The group didn''t care about it though. Sera, Lucy and Hellfire climbed back onto Pixie. He actually had some broken ribs, which Bea quickly healed. The journey was only beginning and their first of many battles was over. The Sun was on its way towards the horizon, they flew until the sky started to become purple. They made camp at a clearing and quickly scouted the area around them for any monsters. The ones they found were quite weak and they made quick work of them. There was still some daylight left so they lit a fire and began cooking some monster''s meat. Luckily unlike the journey towards Castleburg, this time they actually had spices and salt... Also as it turns out Will was an excellent cook. He managed to make the meat so tasty, that Sarah only chocked on it a couple of times. Since she never really had to survive in the wild, she wasn''t used to eat anything other than gourmet food. Monster meat was anything but gourmet. They had a good laugh at her and even Will made a small smile, which also brought a small pout on Sarah''s face and she even furrowed her eyebrows Soon they had to put out the fire since the night has arrived. Faith and Lucy already left to find the devil and make their own conclusions about its appearance and abilities. For first watch Bea volunteered, Sera wanted to stay up with her as well, but after the fight and flight she was dead tired. They chatted a bit and soon they were all sleeping. Tomorrow its going to be a big day, after weeks of preparation, they will finally slowly start to evolve even further... Starting with Hellfire. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. Chapter 105: Blazing Devil The night went and the Sun was about to show the first of its rays and illuminate the land in its shining glory. It wasn''t even dawn, but the group were already getting ready for the attack. Lucy and Faith came back at some point in the night and now they were planning the attack. The scouts were either stupid or just simply blind. The devil was larger than 7 meters and also they failed to mention that those curved swords were as large as it was. They even saw the monster in fight against another Corrupted... It killed it with one swing. At this point they started to realize that the classifications made by their Watch is not an accurate description of power. It is just an indication of their evolution. This discovery made Sera second guess the nature of their hunt. The first five won''t be an issue, but the last four will be Corrupted of the 3rd Tier. What if their power is close to a Horror, which was a possibility she never expected. But she kept these second guesses to herself, on the outside she stayed as stoic as ever. It wasn''t the time to show weakness and decrease the moral of the group. After discussing the plan and thinking through every part with the information they had, it was time to execute it. The Sun was already shining high when they broke camp. They left Pixie, she couldn''t do much in a fight and it would only serve as an annoyance. They knew exactly where the devil was living, so led by Faith they arrived about a kilometer from the monster. Here they split into multiple groups. Hellfire is going to take point with Sera and Bea. They will have to take the devil''s attention until Sarah and Will can act. The Blazing Devil have powerful flame attacks, so Sarah will summon a storm and using the water she and Will are going to use water control against it. Lucy''s job will be to inflict as many small wounds as possible, to weaken it. Clockwork actually managed to upgrade his mech form quite a lot. He has railguns that can kill Tainted easily and he even got a main weapon as one of his Heritage. It is not a railgun but something more powerful. He said it is a ''fusion laser''... Whatever that means. He will be taking shots from a bit further away since his aim became really good after upgrading his eyes. Discover stories at m|v|l|e|mp|y|r Faith''s main job will be to keep Vicky outside of physical danger. Vicky will have to stay closer than Sera would''ve liked to be able to attack and damage the monster''s soul. It is too strong for her to kill and also she wasn''t the one who will have to kill it. Sera looked at Hellfire, he walked a step in front of her as confident as ever, but she knew he was only pretending to be stoic. In reality he was probably very tense and maybe a bit scared. The kill will have to be made by him, only then can he evolve to Ascended. From the side Sera came running her wings only there to increase her agility. Her weapon was in sword form, for this battle precise cuts and piercing strikes were the best option. Also size was useless when you didn''t have the power to block or deflect attacks. She managed to deliver a stab onto one of the monster''s sword arms, which made his attack slip and made it possible for Bea to increase distance. She slashed across the devil''s chest, nearly cutting through its armor. Another shot took him in that spot as well. It didn''t scream, just growled and increased the speed of its attacks. The wind and rain increased even more and it started to affect its weapons. At this point Sarah and Will controlled the water in the air so it would only fall onto the spot near the devil. His sword were slowly gotten smaller and smaller. And the air around him became steam. Lucy had to leave already, she didn''t have armor like the three main fighters and breathing in steam was a very painful way to die. Clockwork also had to stop his shooting since the steam obstructed his view and drastically increased the possibility of accidental friendly fire. Hellfire moved in to attack the tail blocked it, he tried to get past it, but it was too strong and moved unexpectedly. There were about a dozen places where it nearly stabbed through his armor. Its swords were about two meters in length, which really decreased its fighting potential. Bea tried to move in, but was quickly repelled by the too fast attacks, a similar thing happened to Sera, but her movement started to change slowly. It was nearly imperceptible, but the directions of her attacks changed. It took Hellfire a couple of seconds to figure out what she tried to do. He moved to attack the devil''s back again and as it blocked his strike suddenly a large greatsword that was white and gold, landed at the middle of the tail cleanly separating it from the rest of the devil''s body. Hellfire looked at Sera and could have swear she made a small nod. But he couldn''t be sure because in the next moment an attack landed on her. It wasn''t deadly, but it cut through her armor and slashed across her from the left thigh to the right shoulder. Her body flew through the air and hit the ground hard. Instantly Hellfire understood what she did. Sera knew she will get hurt by changing target, but making this sacrifice, she gave Hellfire the chance to deliver a killing blow. The monster was screaming in pain, but Hellfire ignored the pain in his brain and he screamed as well. Using the point at the end of his halberd he stabbed into the gap between the devil''s helmet and armor. It went into its brain and it stopped dead in its tracks. Slowly it turned around and looked down at him, then it fell to its knees... And began glowing. At one moment Hellfire was about to celebrate because the fight was over. In the next, the monster exploded into a fiery hell. Suddenly all the water in the air evaporated, its armor dissolved into smoke as well and its whole body became covered in fire. At that moment Hellfire realized why its name was Blazing Devil. And he also knew that the fight was far from over. Chapter 106: Fight Between Demons The devil stood in front of him, its body covered by flames hot enough to melt most metals. Bea had to retreat, her armor and body couldn''t take the heat. Sarah and Will tried to pour more water on it, but it was useless. Clockwork shot bullets, but they melted before even reaching its skin... Hellfire was on his own. Looking the demon up and down he took a deep breath to clear his mind of any doubt. He opened his eyes and ran at the devil. Without the armor it was even faster and more agile, very unexpected for a being of its size. With the halberd he slashed horizontally trying to catch it, but it evaded with ease. It moved back, then before Hellfire even finished his movement it attacked. A flaming fist half the size of Hellfire''s body hit him in the chest. He flew through the air for about 10 meters before hitting the ground and rolling another couple. The armor held and defended him, it still hurt like hell, but it gave him an edge against the monster. ''I really hate this guy.'' Trying to calm his mind again, he rose from the ground and reacted in time to deflect the devil''s fists. He even managed to hurt its wrist with the blade of the halberd, but it didn''t even seem to feel it. After evading another fist, he crouched down a bit and using his wings rose to the air trying to hit the devil in the face. It defended with its hand, then with a backhanded slapped, it hit Hellfire out of the sky. The armor around his body was starting to heat up, but it could still hold a couple of minutes. "You little... Don''t... Don''t lose yourself..." He tried his hardest to not abandon his sense of self, but the devil was started to really annoy him. With renewed energy he attacked again, then again, then again... It never worked and always ended the same way... With him on the ground. The armor was basically glowing it was so hot, but the inside was still bearable. Of course at this point he didn''t even care, it took a while, but he finally lost it. Hellfire dismissed his halberd, stood up and screamed. "I AM GOING TO RAPE YOUR FUCKING CORPSE!" All he saw was red as he ran at the devil. He dodged one fist, then the other, he jumped up and delivered a punch to its face. The monster was much heavier than him so he only took two steps back before recovering. The fight descended into a frenzied brawl between the two demonic figures. Hellfire hit him everywhere he could, losing his mind meant losing his will of preservation. Hit after hit he delivered without the care of his own wellbeing. He didn''t even notice when his skin started to boil and blister. The skin on his hands was already melting from all the punches, but the pain disappeared entirely behind the wall of red haze, that controlled his mind. There was only the need to kill, to destroy, to completely eviscerate his enemy. In his mind he begged for the pain to stop, but it didn''t seem to want to listen. It took a long while for it to fully stop. Even after that it took way longer for his mind to stabilize itself, luckily he couldn''t remember the pain. That memory could potentially break him. Slowly reality returned, his eyes focused and saw the darkness shrouding the world... It was night. ''Wasn''t it close to midday when we fought?'' He soon understood what happened. While he suffered from pain time passed by, he just didn''t notice it. Hellfire was currently lying on the ground with a blanket pulled over his body. Quickly he made sure all the injuries were healed. Then sighed in relief and looked at his left where a black haired woman was sleeping while clinging to him, a small smile appeared on his lips and he couldn''t hold himself back. He placed a small kiss on the top of her head, which was enough to wake her. Without opening her eyes she dissolved into shadow and appeared on top of him with a very angry and tired expression. Hellfire of course saw past that, in her eyes there was only relief and worry. Without making a sound she mouthed. Embark on a quest with m,vl_em|p_yr "Are you okay?" He just nodded and sat up to kiss her. She lay back on the ground next to him and slowly both of them drifted back to sleep. He was very curious about his new powers and strength, but he was also really tired. Getting tortured by a burning soul wasn''t exactly a very good sleeping experience. The first of their hunts was over, it was a close success. It didn''t really feel the group with hope, if the first one was so hard... How hard will the last ones be. They quickly realized there was no point thinking about it right now. They take today as a new experience and use this knowledge for the next fights, every victory or defeat teaches you something. Today they learned their need for better planning and more preparation. Without Hellfire''s fire resistant armor, they wouldn''t have been able to kill the Blazing Devil. They need better items, which meant that between the main hunts there is a need to kill as many monsters as possible. Since Hellfire just became an Ascended his soul can absorb more essence, than before. That meant with him killing monsters he not only would get more powerful, but there is a chance for acquiring useful items. These were the things Sera thought while she was on watch duty. Bea healed her mostly, but there was a nasty scar running across her whole body. She couldn''t wait for her evolution. At least twenty percent of her body was covered in scars, but after evolution they would actually disappear, which is just perfect for her. Even though Bea always tries to make her feel better about it. She always says scars are sexy, but its easy for her. Because of her strong regen she has no scars or bruises ever. ''Lucky bastard.'' She thought with a small smile on her face. Chapter 107: Reminiscing After waking up and hunting some breakfast, they talked a bit before climbing onto Pixie and heading towards the next destination, Hannover. Hannover was a city destroyed in the Apocalypse, there were no survivors back then. Later a Realm Gate opened there and Castleburg sat up an outpost keeping the Gate open and secured. They didn''t exactly know what happened, one day when they tried to call them and get a report, no one answered. After another day Castleburg sent a team to take a look at the outpost... They found nothing... It''s not that the base was destroyed, by some monster. The outpost disappeared with all the people in it and the scary part... There was a Stellar stationed there. Whatever occurred there, even a Stellar wasn''t enough to stop it. The Gate was also gone, which made people think that there was something on that side which was strong enough to kill everyone or something. The whole thing feels like a horror story. The Gate was allegedly supposed to open into some world that only had night. They reported multiple moons which were green, red and blue in color. It is still a mystery how can those celestial object shine, when there was no star. But other Realms were always weird compared to Earth, some weren''t even planets and you can literally fall off its edge, others were inverted planets, the laws of physics broke down in other Realms, at least our laws. The Realm that was previously located in Hannover also had mostly desolate land and undead creatures lurking about. A spooky place. The wind blew Sera''s long hair, it was really annoying and she cursed herself constantly for not bringing a hairband or something. She could''ve wore her helmet, but that wasn''t very comfortable either. She looked down at the plain, they left the forest a while ago and now there was only endless grasslands in front of them. Here it was easier to spot monsters. Down there Sera saw a figure flying low, he was hunting a monster that still haven''t seen him. The figure''s demonic wings were on fire, but it didn''t burn him. There was also fire on his weapon, but it didn''t melt. It took only one swing for Hellfire to kill a 3rd Tier Rotten. Sera still remembered when she struggled to defeat such opponents, even currently it wasn''t as easy as just one swing. But he as an Ascended was strong, fast and overall powerful enough to bully these creatures. After evolving he checked out his upgraded powers. Unlike when people normally evolved further, a race changer instead of getting new abilities, his previous ones became stronger. When they finished, they began eating in silence. The atmosphere was still sad, but all of them had a realization. The list of names was very lethargic, but they were still here. They were the ones who carried those people in the form of memories. A long time ago someone said, you only truly die when someone speaks your name for the last time. It gave the group purpose, until they lived and remembered who they were, their names would never be spoken for the last time. They would be immortalized as echoes of the past. They wouldn''t be alive, but not fully dead as well. In secret Sera even made herself remember the names of everyone they said. This way all of their names would live on until she died, if the others wouldn''t make it. The sober atmosphere quickly passed after they finished, they began talking, laughing and telling stories about their own lives. Everyone was amazed by how easy and nice Sarah''s life was as a princess. They learned about Clockwork''s mechanical engineering degree, Will''s interesting life as a biologist student, Lucy''s asperation to not be and Evolved like all of her family, instead she wanted to be a dancer. She even made a few moves she learned back in the day. Hellfire and Bea were also from Evolved families, but unlike Lucy they always wanted to follow in their parents footsteps. Faith spoke about her life as a car mechanic, which seemed really astounded Sarah in particular. She thought by the way she fought that her family was Evolved as well. Faith quickly explained that because of her shadow perception learning to fight was really easy. Sarah just called her a cheater and they all laughed. To not make Vicky feel alone, Sera didn''t share a story from her life before evolution. Nobody questioned her, they were smart and understood what she was doing. The Sun set a long time ago, they were sitting in the dark talking, but slowly all of them stopped and went to sleep. Lying down the group''s heart burned with resolve and hope. Resolve to carry the legacy of all their loved ones and hope for a better future, where this long list of names didn''t increase further. Tomorrow they would find and scout out the Death Dealer Mk3, then using all their newly acquired items and abilities, they will make a foolproof plan. Tomorrow a new person in their group would evolve to the next level, and there was nothing that could stop them. Everyone was asleep, except Bea. She was currently on watch. Her eyes were sometimes scanning the grasslands and sometimes staring at Sera and Vicky. When she was looking at them an unconscious smile appeared on her lips every time. She didn''t quite know how did she find not only a person to love, but a daughter as well. She also didn''t care how or why it happened, she was just grateful to have them as her family. Chapter 108: Swarm of Drones As dawn approached they were already in the air, flying towards their next destination. Pixie was carrying them, on the horizon the city of Hannover rose. The first rays of the morning Sun caught on the desolate city, it gave an artistic romanticized rendition of the Apocalypse. ''It seems oddly peaceful and tranquil, the polar opposite of what we are about to do.'' The buildings had vines and all kinds of plants growing all over it, some of them moved when the sunshine reached it. A reminder that not even plants are safe to be around. They were about to reach the outskirts, when something changed. All of them felt it, but in different ways. Sarah felt the wind change, Bea felt something unnatural, Lucy felt a deathly aura approach, Vicky felt the weird soul composition, Sera felt there power and Clockwork felt the technology. Collectively they looked towards the east where the Sun already came out of its hiding fully. There were specks in front of the Sun, they were approaching their position fast. "Scatter!" Shouted Clockwork. He was the one to figure out what the incoming danger was, which wasn''t surprising since they were had to do with technology. In the sky was a large swarm of about hundred or more drones. Each had at least one weapon attached to it. As soon as they came close enough they began firing. The group quickly scattered, but sadly Pixie wasn''t large and not very agile. The first of the shots hit her wings fully immobilizing her. Then they shredded her to pieces. Sera was holding onto Vicky trying to calm her and keeping her from running out. Drones fell out of the sky one by one, for no reason it seemed. But it was Vicky slowly destroying each of their souls, in a futile attempt to save her friend. Meanwhile the others began attacking the swarm as well. Bea using vines grabbed them and destroyed them. She could do it without even moving out of cover. Clockwork was just shooting at them from behind a broken wall, while Lucy in her eagle form started taking them out one by one. Faith constantly changed forms, and every time she became tangible a drone died with a stab through its body. Suddenly there were explosions as Hellfire summoned compressed fireballs and shot them in the densest parts of the swarm. Sarah used her wind powers to fend the flames taking out even more drones. Since Will''s power was pretty much useless in this situation, he ran to Sera and took Vicky away so she could join the battle. Using her wings Sera flew into the thick of the swarm, her body was fully protected by the white and gold armor. The drones were of small class and tier so her swings didn''t need to be very strong or precise. She turned her longsword into a large three meter long odachi. The curve of the odachi gave her slashes more power for less energy consumption, and the size made sure for every one of her swings hit something. The drones began falling out of the sky in pieces as she took them apart with ease. ''This is a bit too easy. They can''t even hurt me, but I can kill them with only one swing.'' The hundred drones soon turned into fifty, then into two dozen, ten and eventually zero. Sera flew back to the ground and the group gathered around her. Vicky''s eyes were rimmed red and she kept looking at the decimated corpse of the butterfly. Sera summoned her weapon in longsword form, it will be much better in a close quarter team fight, than the other forms she could use, also she was the most comfortable with this one. Sarah summoned her trident and some armor item, Will his shield and spear, Lucy her daggers with dark smoke around them, Bea her armor and sword, Clockwork his rifle, Hellfire his armor and halberd, Faith used the shadows to form a dark armor and rapier for herself. Non of them transformed, that would only hinder their ability to fight as a group. The first lines of robots ran at them. Sera made to stab one in its eye, but the attack got deflected with one of its sword arm, the other was about to cut her leg, but it got stuck in a tridents. Sera used the stuck position of the robot and using her free hand she grabbed onto its neck then squeezed, decapitating it. From the ''wound'' some black liquid spurted all over Sera, but she didn''t even notice it. On the other side of their formation Bea evaded the sword arm and stabbed her own weapon through the robots chest where the heart of a human would be. Just as she expected the robot didn''t have such weakness and it attacked again. Before the sword could reach Bea the robots head exploded from a shot at pointblank range. Next to them Hellfire using his flaming halberd just cut a robot in two, while Faith moved behind another and stabbed through its eye. Then before the robot even died she turned into a shadow and was back in her position helping Sera kill another. Behind them Will deflected a slash with his shield and used his spear to push the robot off balance. Lucy was waiting just for that and with two quick slashes the robot fell on the ground in a rain of black oil. The group''s teamwork was near perfect, when one couldn''t kill a robot quickly, the person next to them helped. When Sarah''s weapon got stuck in a robot''s skull, Will defended her and Sera killed the attacker. When two robots tried two take out Lucy, one got stabbed in its neck by Bea, the other just fell over dead... Its souls destroyed. When Hellfire had about five robots try their best to kill the strongest of their group. One fell over dead with an unnatural shadow at its feet, two others got shot by projectiles that were a lot faster and stronger, than railguns. The last two was taken out by Hellfire himself with just one swing of his weapon. They kept this up until there were no more robots to kill. Somehow they all survived, without even getting hurt. The floor of the warehouse was a mess, robot parts everywhere and that black liquid, was covering the ground. There wasn''t a clean spot anywhere. Sera crouched down and touched the liquid. It reminded her of something, she just couldn''t quite remember it. ''What was it that those old world vehicles used as fuel, petrol? Gasoline? Something like that, this has a very similar consistence and smell, but I''m forgetting something... What was so dangerous about gasoline... I remember my teacher talking about it back when I was a kid...'' Slowly the memory returned and her face went white as a sheet. ''Of course... How could I forget... It is very flammable!'' There was a sound of something metallic moving. She turned around to see one of the robots still alive and as it dragged its metallic body across the floor... It created sparks... Chapter 109: Hot Situation The gasoline near the dying robot instantly ignited. Luckily the warehouse was large enough for them to be about 20 meters away from the point of ignition. The problem was that this gave them a maximum of two seconds to get out of there. Sera summoned her wings and grabbed the two closest person near her, Sarah and Will. Faith would have been closer than Will, but she was already in her shadow form. Hellfire held Clockwork and Bea. Lucy turned into her eagle form and Vicky was in her spirit state. Flying towards the nearest window she struggled carrying two person at the same time, behind her the robots which had concentrated gas still in them began exploding. This spread the fire even faster and as it turned out her wings had a weakness... Fire. Her left wings suddenly burst into flames and she screamed from the pain, but didn''t stop. Will and Sarah reacted quickly and summoned water to put out the fire. The blackened feathers quickly regained their pristine white shine and the pain stopped. The explosions ruined the building''s structural integrity and it started to collapse, but that didn''t matter because Sera already reached the window. First Sarah went outside, then Will and finally her... At least she tried to. They never had actual time to explore the warehouse. Inside there were a few barrels with some weird markings on its side, it looked like a circular object exploding... Whatever was in those barrels, when the fire reached it and melted the corroded metal... The building exploded. Sera instead of safely climbing out the window, flew through a wall with a wall of fire quickly approaching behind her. The explosion''s power was so strong, it sent her above the surrounding buildings, then she started falling and rapidly approaching the ground. Before hitting her head on concreate at terminal velocity, large leaves grew out of the buildings and every time she hit one it cushioned her fall, slowing it down more and more. When she finally reached the ground she landed on a bed made from leaves, vines and all sort of natural soft material. Bea stood next to her looking all concerned and soon Vicky appeared from the ether as well. "Damn... That hurt... Couldn''t find something more comfortable... To help with my landing..." Said Sera between coughs and laughter, she was perfectly fine only a little banged up and really tired. She just closed her eyes and snuggled in between the leaves, using them as a blanket. "You are very shameless, you know that?!" Bea''s voice sounded angry, annoyed, worried, happy and cheeky at the same time. ''Just how can she convey so many emotions with one sentence? Or maybe I''m just too good at reading her mood.'' "But isn''t that what you like about me?" Said Sera while trying to make herself even more cozy on the makeshift bed. "Shameless indeed..." Was Bea''s only answer, before Sera felt the bed disappearing and the ground hitting her in the face. The arguing quickly stopped as everyone saw the merit in his idea. It could possibly work and even if it didn''t, the only thing in danger would just be a drone. But it all depended on Sera. ''This could work and it is the safest way for exploration.'' "Okay. But how will we know what the drone sees or where to go?" "I got an idea for that as well." Answered Clockwork and had a mysterious smile on his face, the group just looked at him with raised eyebrows. He looked at all the confused faces and then rolled his eyes while sighing. "Fine I tell you... I will hack into the drone and use its senor to transmit information straight to my Watch. This way we can see what it sees. Also I will be controlling it in a similar way." Since none had any further questions or concern they went to work. Sera and Hellfire flew out, with Faith in his shadow and Vicky floating around as a soul somewhere. They quickly found a small swarm and easily managed to tame a drone. It took them less than an hour to kidnap one and come back. Now it was only Clockwork they waited for. He opened a panel on the back of the drone, it was full of wires and lights, a lot of things nobody had any clue about... Except Clockwork of course. He cut some wires, connected others, put something inside it and soon he could control the drone. He perfected the movement so it could fool other drones, then it was time to search for the Death Dealer''s location. The drone flew out of the room through the window and went into the sky. He looked around trying to find signs of drones. After a couple of minutes he spotted some of them and joined the swarm unnoticed. This part was really boring... He had to pretend to be just a regular drone, until they decided to return to base. It took hours, when the drones began moving in a specific direction and stopped patrolling... It was already night. Sera and Bea was currently sleeping on a leaf bed together. After their fight they went into a different room and talked, they weren''t arguing or anything since there was no shouting. If the group had to guess, Bea apologized, which cause Sera to apologize as well. Because they were finally approaching the base, Lucy went and kicked them awake... She thought it was really funny. The whole group gathered around Clockwork and watched his Watch''s screen. They were approaching a giant block of a building. It had large chimneys on the top which spitted smoke towards the sky. That raised questions in them since they would''ve easily saw a huge amount of smoke leaving a building, but they realized why they didn''t see it. Whatever is happening inside the building, it was turned off in the day, camouflaging it in the night. A very clever move, very unlike any monster they previously fought. The building also had windows which showed lights burning and shadows moving inside it. The drone didn''t transmit sound, but if Clockwork had to guess there was loud mechanical sounds all around this area. By his judgement this building only served one purpose... A factory. Chapter 110: The Factory The drone approached a large opening in the wall of the facility. The whole swarm was entering and with them move Clockwork''s own drone. The hole in the wall of the building was large, like something huge barreled through it in the past. When he finally went inside all he saw was machinery. Conveyor belts zigzagged through the whole factory, they carried either metals, parts of robots or some sort of whitish blue crystals. Clockwork didn''t know the exact purpose of the crystals, but putting together the pervious clues, he deduced that they gave the robots to semblance of a soul. All the belts went different directions, he decided to follow the metal one. It led him to a couple of large crucibles, the metals were put in different ones. One carried gold, another copper, then there was one with something like iron or maybe steel. And about a dozen more that just looked the same. The crucibles when full were carried away and poured into shapes. The gold was mostly used for circuitry, the copper for cables and those other metals for either armor for the robots or weapons. Here they went to a different part of the facility, they got assembled into robotic arms, legs, chest, head or just a drone body. Clockwork realized quickly that this was one of the three assembly lines he saw at the entrance. He also found the line of crystals again and got curious. After following the conveyor belt back to the source the whole group''s turned white, these crystals they didn''t just manufacture them. At the beginning of the line there was a compressing unit. It had another belt running into it, but it was much wider than the previous ones... It carried corpses. The corpses of monsters, humans, plants, everything that has evolved... It was mortifying. Watching the dead creatures go into the machine, getting compressed and leaving it as tiny soul crystals. After watching the process over and over again, Clockwork finally decided to leave that area. The mission was still far from over, they haven''t found the Death Dealer yet. The lines of crystal and robotic parts soon found each other. The next part was the full assembly, by the end of it the previous robotic soldiers were standing in attention. Some of them were different from the ones the group had fought, instead of sword arms they carried railguns, but something was weird about those as well... They glowed much more powerfully. They used the soul crystals as power cells not just for the robots and drones, but for their ranged weaponry too. The power of those weapons could easily decimate everything''s defense below corrupted. The worst wasn''t their weapons though, it was the quantity. Rows upon rows of robotic soldiers stood, waiting for something. There were possibly a thousand of them, maybe more. Clockwork hid his drone behind a couple of pipes and watched. The whole group held their breath waiting for what was about to happen. After maybe half an hour, they finally found the Death Dealer Mk3, but it was vastly different from the scouting report. The scouts said, the mech was about 15 meters, with six different arms and four legs. In reality it had eight arms and eight legs. The legs looked like a spider''s and it gave the robot exceptional stability and agility. Where the eight legs connected a huge torso grew out and circularly the arms grew out. Tears appeared in Bea''s eyes as well. She knew what Sera was about to say next, so she didn''t let her. "Please... It won''t happen again... I promise I will always make decisions, that won''t put Vicky or you in danger..." She was crying as she said it. If Sera didn''t believe her she would lose both of them for good. Bea didn''t know when exactly happened, but at some point she began loving Vicky as her own. She didn''t want to lose neither her or Sera. Sera''s eyes were scrutinizing her whole being, looking for even a hint of insincerity. After a few minutes, she didn''t find any. "One... That''s all you get, one more chance. But if you try to put her in danger, it won''t just be the end of this relationship... I will kill you..." Saying those words hurt Sera more, than most wounds either physical or mental, but Bea needed to know how serious she was. To her surprise Bea only smiled at her, she didn''t seem the least bit offended about the deadly promise she just made. "I vow to never hurt either you or Vicky and accept you killing me as punishment. If I cause harm to any of you, that means its not me anymore..." After those words even Sera couldn''t stop a small smile from appearing. It was exactly what she wanted to hear. With a sigh she approached her previous spot and sat down. She put her arm on Bea''s shoulder and pulled her close. Read first at m-v le-mpyr "I''m sorry for being like that... I don''t even know what''s going on... One moment I''m happy, the next I''m angry, then sad, then horny, then afraid... What is happening to me?!" Bea had a tinge of red on her face, as she chuckled. Sera looked at her with suspicion and curiosity, there was something she wasn''t telling her. Using her free hand Sera pinched Bea on the side... She yelped and looked at her. "There is a very obvious explanation. You know what a woman''s fertility cycle is, probably. When you evolve it changes, you don''t bleed but your hormones still become weird, which causes you to be more emotional." Sera looked thoughtful, then confused. "But why does this only show now? The woman cycle supposed to be monthly." Bea looked away a bit awkwardly, she had a face like when a doctor is about to convey bad news about a surgery. "Yeah... That also changes... Instead of monthly... It will be yearly... And lasts about a month..." Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open, then with a face full of surprise she just said, "WHAT?!" That night Sera learned a lot about the inconveniences of being an evolved woman. Chapter 111: Fireworks At morning the group sat down to make a plan, they were all hungry because there were no monsters to hunt in this city. They planned and prepared throughout the day and by next night it was time for another member of their party to evolve. The night was tranquil and peaceful, all the drones and robots went back to the factory, so there was no sound to disturb the silence... Except near the factory, it only just started to make a new batch of mechs. In the night sky 3 forms flew, each holding a bag with somethings inside it. The moon came out of its hiding and was currently shining down on the three individuals. It was the middle of autumn, the nights were getting longer everyday, the temperatures were still quite warm, but soon it will start getting closer to 0 degrees. Of course these things were a bit mundane for evolved like Sera. Still it was something she couldn''t fully ignore, only at the rank of stellar will she be able to ignore any human problem, like hunger, thirst, sleep, feeling hot or cold, etc. Need less to say she was very far from that, but evolving is a start... Which was also still far away. They started to get closer to the factory. The lights were already in their view, they heard the machines, the buzz of drones... They broke the calmness of the night to pieces, but what they will do was going to be even worse. The three of them flew high in the sky, way above the drones or the scan range of Death Dealer. When they were right above the factory Sera spoke to Lucy and Hellfire, because the wind was really loud up here, she had to shout. "YOU KNOW THE DRILL RIGHT?!" Both of them nodded. Sera went above the place where they found the army, this was her area of attack. Hellfire was above the main assembly line and Lucy was above the soul crystal maker. The three of them opened the bags and took out the device within. Clockwork spent the whole day working on these, only he knew how they worked. Flying in one place Sera looked at the device, it was the size of a medium sized box, there were wires running in and out of it. After turning it around a couple of times, she looked at the others... They were waiting for her next move. She looked down at the device, then reached out her hands and thought. ''I really hope this works.'' After taking a deep breath, she released the device and watched it disappear from sight. The others did the same as well. Sera asked Hellfire what kind of monster dropped this item. He said it was a small drake that could breath fire, it was a rotten of the 3rd tier. At first he wanted to use it, but the fire couldn''t be stacked with his own... Which made it useless to him. Sera on the other hand happily took it. The drones were rapidly approaching. Sera looked at Hellfire, he was in full armor with his burning halberd and wings. Lucy was in her eagle form and there was an armor on her, it is also one of the new items. It wasn''t anything really special, but she could use it as an eagle and that made all the difference. In Sera''s hand the three meter long odachi appeared and with a thought the huge blade ignited with dark flames. In reality she didn''t know how to use and odachi, but luckily against these drones, she just had to swing. The first of the drones came near her and she moved towards them. Her weapon cut through the chassis of the drone like it was made of paper. She killed three with only one swing, then another two with the follow up. There was also a reason why she chose this weapon style for the battle. The flames wouldn''t really help much on their own, since her weapon could easily cut through all these robots with ease. But with the curve of the blade and a fast enough slash, she could shoot the flames for a couple meters farther. It meant that every swing shot a projectile that killed a drone outside of her swords range. The drones opened fire on her, but non of their shots could penetrate her armor or hurt her wings, which was the only unarmored part of her. With each swing of her arm drones fell out of the skies in pieces, some were cut into two, some were melted from the dark fire and some very unlucky ones, she just grabbed and through it at another one. After a minute or two her kill count was already closing on hundred, but there was just no end of the drone army. Even worse there were some with better railguns, those could shoot past her defenses, which meant she had to prioritize those. A bullet moving around 20000 m/s grazed her shoulder. It didn''t really hurt and the armor quickly covered it, but it put her off balance. She recovered just in time to see the previous railgun point tight at her face... But it didn''t shoot. Behind her helmet Sera smiled in relief... ''Thank god that worked!'' Suddenly about two dozen drone fell out of the sky around her. Physically there was nothing wrong with any of them, it was like they just gave up on life or were scared to death. Using her ability on maximum power and on so many things at once really put a drain on her essence, but the battle was far from over. So she went back to ripping and tearing these robots apart. Through the fighting she lost all sense of time and reality. Everywhere she looked there were just more drones and in her mind there was only one order... Kill them all. Her odachi moved and the robots fell. Every swing was a death sentence, every slash sent a wave of fire and every move dodged a bullet that could''ve ended her fight early. The reason she fought and stayed alive wasn''t for her family or anyone... It was that deep hatred she felt against the Archangel of Despair. She didn''t know if it was because of her unstable hormones or just simply because these drones were that annoying, but Sera loathed them so much that she became very disappointed when the drones began to fall out of the sky... All of them were dead. Chapter 112: Death Dealing On top of a roof the rest of the group was waiting for the signal to attack. It took a while, but they finally saw the explosion and realized how much they actually miscalculated the power of it. They just stared at it for a few minutes, in the sky they saw the army of drones flying towards the sky. Clockwork watched the burning corpse of the factory, it delighted him that the explosives worked so well. After watching it burn for a few more minutes and waiting for all the drones to leave... Bea finally gave the order to move out. They ran through the streets and occasionally looked at the sky, where a light show was currently playing. Hellfire was throwing fireball after fireball, killing drones wherever they landed. Every time they exploded, the night sky lit up for a second and dozens of drones melted. Sadly it also illuminated the thousands swarming around the three of them, it made the rest of the group run faster. Soon they arrived to the factory and went around it, to the side where they saw the Death Dealer Mk3. This was the third part of the plan, a frontal attack on the corrupted. Since the explosions were really chaotic they couldn''t really make a foolproof plan. It was going to be mostly luck, which decides the outcome. With Bea in lead they arrived where the robot army supposed to be, but of course there was only a crater there and a bunch of parts lying everywhere. She stopped near the edge of destruction and looked around. Some of the robots weren''t dead and with difficulty stood up, but vines swiftly grew out of the ground at killed all the survivors. Eventually she turned around and ordered, "Clockwork! Find that corrupted!" He immediately began to work. His eyes were the most enhanced out of everyone here, especially when it comes to finding high grade tech. After a minute or two he already found it. The Death Dealer seemed to be in the process of repairing itself, it had two missing leg and arm, also one of its huge railguns didn''t seem to be in working condition. The robot also noticed him, or maybe it knew they were here all this time. It just tried to hide, to see if they could find it. It exploded from the debris where it hid. Ruined pieces of machinery flew everywhere nearly hitting the group. Everyone dodged in different direction, Bea used the vines to make a shield for Vicky. After the previous talk with Sera she realized how important these two people were to her. So throughout the battle her position won''t be the usual front line attacker, but using her powers she will help defend her group and disrupt the enemy. She never really uses her powers, so this is a great form of exercise... Even if it''s a bit dangerous. Since her last Heritage upgrade she noticed, that she couldn''t improve further. At first she thought there was something missing, but now she knew what the problem was... Evolution. The issue was that her rank was only evolved and to be able to advance further she needed to evolve more. The robot after bursting out stopped and looked at each of them, then it did something that no monster they have fought with ever done... "Two hostiles disabled... Four remains..." The counter seemed like a mockery. Bea while dodging attack after attack and shot after shot, tried to summon more vines, but the electric field was still on the robots body. Discover tales on m_vl_em_p_yr No matter what they tried it was useless. Sarah dodged a swing of one of the four energy sword, then jumped over another, the railgun was powering up as well, but this time she was prepared for that too. There was only one thing she didn''t count on... The robot charging right into her. Using its body as a ram it crashed into Sarah, its body electrocuted her and also sent her flying... She hit the ground hard and unconscious. "Three hostiles disabled... Three remains..." Using all her knowledge and every bit of power she had left Bea dodged and evaded everything, but also tried to hit the shield with her sword to keep the Death Dealer''s focus away. At this point Bea noticed a long time ago, that Clockwork was nowhere to be seen. Vicky was hiding behind some debris and Bea kept the focus of the huge robot away from that area. Her essence was running out and her speed was slowing, but just when the robot was about to eliminate her as well, there was a sound approaching from below ground. Death Dealer noticed it as well, but it was too late. Below him a huge beam of laser broke the concreate. It went straight through the robots body and because of the energy field it kept on bouncing inside it. Just with one shot and a large amount of essence Clockwork took out the Death Dealer Mk3. All that was left of it is a burned pile of trash metal. While he was still crawling out of some hole or sewer, Bea quickly healed everyone and with the death of the robot Faith was also freed. When she made sure everyone was fine, Bea looked at the sky and saw as all the drones began falling. ''Guess we were right about them being controlled by Death Dealer.'' Soon Sera, Hellfire and Lucy arrived just in time to see Clockwork scream in pain as he evolved. The whole group was very tired, so they just sat down at the edge of destruction and waited for Clockwork to wake up. After all the sound of drones falling from the sky died down, only silence remained. The factory was mostly destroyed, but here and there a couple of small fire still burned. The second hunt was complete, it wasn''t as easy as they anticipated, but everyone was still alive and that is what mattered. Chapter 114: Kastral, King of Hippogryphs After a couple of minutes the two of them finally separated and spoke without words. Kastral flew into the sky and went after the rest of his people to tell them its safe to comeback. He even left the three eggs in the nest for Sera to protect. Since their souls bonded they fully trusted each other. While he flew in the sky Sera just watched him with the same grin. Eventually she turned around and looked at her group. She was a bit startled by their weird expressions. "What is it?" She asked cluelessly. From her point of view everything that happened was perfectly normal. "Seriously?! What did you do? All we saw is you slowly approaching the hippogriff, then spreading your wings and it becoming obedient. Then you slowly approached it and when you touched it you screamed! After that you started hugging its head!... So I ask you again... What did you do?" Bea was really angry and worried. She didn''t know what happened, but it seemed to be very painful. ''Oh... Yeah, that must have looked strange from an outsider''s perspective...'' A bit awkwardly she scratched the back of her head and while not looking at anyone said, "I made him my ''Eternal mount'', whatever that means..." The group just stared at her with blank expressions. They were so speechless that their faces couldn''t even show the emotion. "I don''t know what an Eternal mount is, but when I look at you and the hippogriff I see a golden white cord connecting your souls." What Vicky said shocked even Sera, but she quickly realized that it made sense and explained the pain she felt. ''So that''s what it was... My soul connecting with another being, but I don''t think its just simply connected... Hmm, maybe my Watch will know more...'' Your next chapter awaits on m v|l--NovelFire She opened her status window to see if anything changed and soon she found something new right below her list of items. Items: Eternal Mount: Name: Kastral Title: King of Hippogryphs Rank: Ascended Bond type: His white hawk head snuggled close to her. Sera could feel his emotions through the bond, respect and admiration. "Okay everyone, we will continue our journey on these mounts! But we can''t go until we have a way to transport the eggs! So while you get familiar with your new rides, me and Kastral here will go on a hunt to get leather. Is that clear?" The group was stunned yet again, but Sera didn''t leave them time to object. Quickly she flew up and landed on Kastral''s back. His back was very fluffy and created a perfect seat for her, only problem was the lack of anything to hold onto... But soon that was fixed as well. "My Lady... Just hold onto my feathers, they were designed to withstand the pulling of a rider." ''If you say so.'' Without reservation she held onto the large feathers of Kastral, they were more rough than the seating and gave her hand a perfect grip. Seemingly satisfied with he spread his wings and with a few wingbeats they were already flying through the air. As the wind hit her in the face she felt amazing. With her wings she could fly anytime she wanted to, but this felt different... Kastral''s speed was much faster, than anything she felt before. The wind seemed to bend to his will as every movement of his body was perfect for flying. By her judgement they were going at least 200 km/h, it was more than twice what she was capable of. But she could feel that this wasn''t his max speed... He was moving slower for her sake. "Don''t slow down for me! The faster we move the sooner we can continue to our next destination." Kastral looked back at her, he had no facial expressions since his hawk head couldn''t really make any, but through her bond she could feel his doubt. It annoyed her a bit, but also made her a bit warm... It always felt good if someone cares about you. "Just show me! If I can''t take it, than you can return to this speed." Throughout her life she will always remember this moment... This was the single stupidest thing she had ever done and will do. As Kastral increased his speed she slowly discovered her stupidity and naivity. After more than half a year of being an Evolved and she still hadn''t adjusted to this world''s creatures. Sera thought that her mount will go at like 300 km/h or maybe 400, but his speed just kept increasing. She held onto him as long as possible, but when they were about to break the sound barrier she lost her grip and fell off. Quickly she summoned her wings and began adjusting her speed to a standstill. When Kastral returned to pick her up, he was screeching mockingly. "Ha, Ha, Ha... Very funny! Just you watch, when I become an Ascended we will see what''s your max speed!" She climbed back into her seat with a bit of shame. Kastral was an Ascended already, much stronger than her, but her hubris got the better of her. After a couple of minutes of flying at bearable speeds she even apologized, which made her mount very confused. While flying they both looked at the ground, trying to find some prey that had enough skin for making saddlebags for the eggs. Eventually she got bored and started talking to Kastral again. "What are your abilities anyway? I know that the soulbond makes you inherit my abilities, but you had to have ones from before becoming my mount." He screeched again, this time a bit offended. "Of course I have! Why do you think I can fly so fast? The rest of my people can''t move even remotely close to these speeds, they are much weaker... If you are really curious check that device on your hand, it should be able to show what my abilities are." She petted his feathered back apologetically, then opened her status again, but this time she concentrated on Kastrel''s name. It turns out he was right and soon she was reading everything there was to now about him. Chapter 115: Tragic Backstory Name: Kastral Title: King of Hippogryphs Rank: Ascended Abilities: Passive Abilities: Inherited Abilities: Race: Hippogryph Kastral''s status page seemed normal. He didn''t have any transformation, humans learned from other races that only people who weren''t born as evolved can transform. It''s actually a very rare power to have and everyone was very surprised to see a whole race able to do it. The other difference lied in his rank. Human status windows didn''t have a rank assigned, no one knows why. We just have a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. kill and that''s it. The only thing that really surprised Sera was the inherited abilities. He even has the transformation ones. She quickly read through those to see what they did. Most of it was the same. Lightbringer gave him the ability to illuminate himself, Angel Sight gave better vision and the ability to see in any brightness, Wings of Despair made him able to cause fear in others. The really interesting one was Indestructible, because he didn''t have a transformation this passive was in constant effect and it worked on his whole body. Which meant he had a lot more defense than anyone in their group. When she finished with the inheritance, Sera looked at the first of his actual ability. Description: As the leader of Hippogryphs you have the ability to command everyone in your race and even affect other races. Everyone that accepts you as a leader gains a small part of your power. As an Eternal Mount the owner gets this trait as well. ''Huh... The Aerin?... Are they the angels where the three Archangels are from?... I will ask Kastral... It seems like I inherited one of his trait too, it''s not very useful since I don''t lead anyone except our small group, but who knows... Maybe it will come in really handy in the future!'' Quickly she looked around to make sure they didn''t miss any monster. Kastral noticed it and screeched, he sent the emotions of confidence and trust. He was asking her to just go back to reading and he will pay attention. Sera bent forward and nearly laid down on his back, only this way could she pet his head. He made some small sound that meant he was happy and content. After a few minutes she opened the next ability and began reading. Description: Your birth increases your strength by a large margin. You are much faster, stronger, more agile and overall more powerful, than the rest of your race. A true King. ''So sad... Like always...'' Only then did both of them realize how similar their background is. Both were orphans... Both of their family got killed in some conflict... Both of their homes were destroyed... They both had very similar tragic backstories... It was like they were fated to meet... Neither actually believed that of course, they were just happy to find each other and to continue their journey together. Soon they found some large boar with a very thick hide. It was a rotten of the 3rd tier, but Kastral just grabbed it, then dropped it from the sky. It had no chance and died quickly as it hit the ground. Then he just grabbed the corpse again and they made their way back to the nest. ... Soon they returned to find everyone flying around. Other than Bea and Vicky nobody was really liking their new mode of transport. Bea was riding a magical mare, whos feathers and fur matched Bea''s own. She was chuckling as they flew next to them and matched Kastral''s speed... Or more like he slowed down so they can match his speed. Slowly they both landed near the eggs. Sera got off and like a cannonball Bea hugged her, she seemed really excited for some reason. "What is it?" She had a sly smile on her face as she leaned in close and said, "Ah... Nothing I just have to introduce you to someone..." Taking a couple of steps Bea went to her brown mare and she snuggled close to her. "This is Alyrine, my Eternal Mount!" Sera was very confused... She thought it was only possible to make Kastral her mount, was because she was part angel. She turned and looked at her own mount, he looked just as surprised as she was. Continue your adventure with m|v-l''e-NovelFire With a small screech and the clicking of his beak, Kastral asked how did Alyrine do it. When she answered Kastral quickly translated. "You didn''t even say that your mate is a Dryad! That explains why she can form a soulbond, she could form one with any natural creature since she is one with nature." That made sense, there was only one thing she didn''t understand. "What do you mean by my mate?" Kastral looked confused, then said something to Alyrine. They both started laughing, or at least that''s how Sera interpreted the weird sounds and bobbing of their heads. She started to get annoyed, so Kastral quickly stopped and explained. "Isn''t Lady Bea your mate? Your eternal partner in life? Like Alyrine is for me!" This time Sera just sat down and held her flushed face. Seeing this even Bea started laughing with their mounts, but she didn''t care. In her mind there was only one question. ''How did I end up in this situation? The person I love has a mount that is the wife of my mount... Please don''t tell me they even have a child and Vicky has it as her mount...'' After dealing with the weirdness of the situation everyone got to work and soon they were in the air heading towards their next destination... Brema. Chapter 116: Wars of the Past The solution of carrying the eggs was pretty easy. They skinned the large boar, then using rope, strings and needles they made saddlebags. They put a lot of leaves and fur in, so the eggs would be secured and kept warm. They even did a bunch of test flights, not with the eggs of course, they put similar sized rocks as a test. After making sure they were properly secured the journey continued. The rest of their group slowly gotten used to flying on the hippogryphs, but they still weren''t very comfortable. The only ones who actually enjoyed it were Sera, Bea and Vicky. Vicky''s mount was a younger, small, gray mare. Kastral said he was about 5 year old and it wasn''t his son. She was flying all over the place laughing, it brought a big smile on both of her mother''s faces. The Sun was about to set when they reached Brema, but they knew from kilometers away that they were close. About hundred years ago there was a large war on Earth, it nearly destroyed humans and the planet. But from its ashes new people, smarter people rose. They figured out technologies previously thought impossible. After some time they even began colonizing the solar system, but greed is something no society can escape. In those times the world was made up of 7 continents and each became its own country. Their shapes and sizes changed from the previous large scale war, when countries threw miniature suns at each other... At least that''s how the records say it happened. Currently they were in the continent of Europe. In the past before the Apocalypse it was the strongest out of the 7. The people of this country made the first bases on the Moon, Mars, Mercury and Venus. They were the first ones to discover cloning, gene manipulation. With these their society became a superpower within a few years. Their population rose into the tens of billions and with agricultural scientific improvements they could not just feed themselves, but other continents as well. But of course they didn''t trust the other 6, so they also made sure to have the largest military this world has ever known. And the heart of this military was Brema. A huge military city with tens of millions of soldiers stationed there constantly. Large flying warships carrying thousands of spacecraft. Weapons that could decimate cities with ease. Sera saw one of those warships on a picture once. It was about 15 or so kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide, back then she thought they were really powerful and nothing could take them down... Now she knew better. Just like every other strong empire Europe fell because of its hubris. The people back then became too confident in their technology, their weaponry, their soldiers. They didn''t even know how they died. In school they learned a lot about the past, the source were patchy at best, but it was something. They learned about humanity''s fall, then the rise of the 7 continents and eventually... The Last War. It happened right before the mass Realm Gate opening and the Apocalypse. ''So Aerin is one of those special realms.'' It is a rare phenomenon humans observed. A lot of realms weren''t planets, they were more like land floating in nothingness. They were much bigger than Earth, but you could actually fall off its edge. Explore hidden tales at m,v l''-NovelFire Every realm was different in some way... unique. But all of them had one common denominator, intelligent life. While imagining all the realms she learned about, they began their descent towards the city. It was gigantic, even bigger than Castleburg. The city was also destroyed, but not like Havel or Hannover... No, this city was a proper ruin. Whatever bombs those past humans used, they didn''t spare anyone. Every building was either just a pile of rubble or could crumble by the slightest touch. Very carefully they landed on a semi stable building and went inside. Whatever it was in the past, it had a huge door so the hippogryphs could easily fit inside too. After making sure there weren''t any monsters hiding, they made a fire and cooked meat... A lot of meat since there were a lot more and larger mouths to feed. This was another problem, there weren''t any monsters for about 50 kilometers. Hunting was going to be an issue so they needed to finish this hunt fast. Faith and Lucy went away to do some scouting. Clockwork just walked around the area trying to find a sign of Azriel, but something was disrupting his signal. While waiting for them to come back they took out the eggs as well. The warmth they got from the leaves and fur was negligible, barely enough for them to survive. Usually a hippogryph egg would hatch in about 4 months, but for that one parent has to constantly sit on it. Because of all the moving around they didn''t sit on them as much as they should have. The eggs were more than two months late and it started to worry the parents. There were so few of them left and most were a bit old, if these batch of children don''t make it... They didn''t even want to think about it. Luckily for them Bea quickly got to work and soon reported that the eggs are fine, they just need a couple more weeks to hatch. When she told them this information, all of them began snuggling her and while she was trying to push them away with an embarrassed look, Sera was rolling on the ground from laughter. When night came and darkness spread Lucy and Faith returned with bad news. There was no sign of Azriel anywhere in the city, which meant one of two things. Either he moved away, that was very unlikely or he could simply hide so well neither of them could find him. They decided to continue the search tomorrow and just to be safe non of them would sleep this night. Since they were evolved staying up for more than 24 hours wasn''t much of an issue. Sera was looking down at the ruins, deep in thought. She didn''t even notice when Bea sat down next to her. When she placed an arm around her shoulder she yelped and nearly summoned her sword. But then she just settled back and continued watching the city in complete silence. Chapter 117: Romantic Night* The night sky above Brema was beautiful, a total opposite of the destruction on the ground. The Sun set a hours ago and now the stars came out to show off their own lights. But there was something even more magical in the sky, a giant blue full Moon was shining. Explore more stories at m,v l''-novelhall.net It illuminated the land and gave it an other-worldly appearance. Because the whole city was dead the light gave the world a spectral impression, like it was a ghost city. On one of the roofs that was still standing strong in spite of everything that happened to this city... Sat two figures. One of them had golden hair like a waterfall of sunshine, its brightness only increased in the glow of the moonlight. The other''s hair was light brown a more natural color, but everything about her was natural, like nature itself. They were holding onto each other and watched the sky, the stars and the magnificent Moon. Both of them were sitting there for a few hours now, but they haven''t even said a word to each other... They just enjoyed the comfortable silence. Suddenly Bea had an idea and while still having her right arm around Sera''s shoulder, she reached for the ground. She poured a bit of essence into it and soon a handful of delightful flowers bloomed. They weren''t just any type of flowers, they were daffodils Sera''s favorite. Their head was similarly golden as Sera''s own, it was supposed to be yellow, but Bea edited them a bit. Their petals were reaching outward, inviting everyone to sniff them and take in their fragrant smell. With a small smile on her face she hid the flowers behind her back and turned towards Sera. Suddenly losing the pleasant warmth she came out of her thoughts and looked at Bea suspiciously. "Is there something... Wrong?" She asked with a hint of blush on her face. Her emotions and desires were still all over the place, and seeing Bea in the magical moonlight ignited even the ones that had been dormant for months. With a small cute chuckle she answered, "No... There is nothing wrong. In fact everything feels perfect... I just brought you a present, because I love you so much... I hope you like it!" Quickly before she could react she brought out the bouquet of daffodils. Sera was left speechless, that wasn''t what she had expected, but Bea wasn''t done yet. Her other hand touched the ground again. From the concreate grass grew making it as soft as a bed. From that grass more and more flowers bloomed, making the scene seem like a fairytale. Sera''s mouth fell open, she just kept looking around not fully understanding why Bea decided to do this. "You probably wondering why I did this. It''s simple really, I felt like we didn''t have time for each other for so long and this beautiful night just seemed perfect. I know you still aren''t comfortable enough to do more, so I thought we could lay down and watch the stars together." "So what do you say..." She stopped speaking when suddenly Sera started crying. ''Did I say something wrong?... I just wanted to make a nice gesture...'' But she soon realized that those weren''t tears of sadness, but of joy. In the next second she just jumped on her and they fell on the soft velvety grass. Bea yelped in surprise, but soon she was just holding onto Sera while chuckling. "Sera why are you crying?" There was a smile on her face as she asked, her voice was filled with warmth and love. After sniffing a couple of times Sera answered. From this Bea''s face became ever so slightly annoyed, but her needs were too strong for shame to exist next to them. Without a hint of embarrassment she said. "Please... Let me... CUM!" She screamed the last words as Sera pinched her nipple with one hand and touched her clitoris with the other. "YES... SERA... PLEASE... I''M SO CLOSE..." Sera leaned in and began kissing her, also she pulled on her nipple a bit and with her hand inside her pants, she pushed a finger inside her very wet cave. "YES... RIGHT THERE... DON''T STOP... I''M ABOUT TO..." Suddenly there was a light breeze and someone forcefully cleared their throat behind the couple. "I''m sorry I have to interrupt your private time, but we found Azriel and he is coming in this direction fast!" Faith''s face was red even though she stood with her back to them. Quickly Sera jumped to her feet ready to kill anyone nearby, but as she spotted Faith she calmed down a bit. Bea on the other hand became very angry. "Hey!... Why... Did you... Stop... I was... About to..." She shut her mouth instantly when she saw Faith standing there. Then slowly she remembered the words she said. ''That... Fucking pigeon! I''m going to pull out everyone of his stupid feathers!'' Bea turned towards Faith and said a bit louder than she planned. "Where is that bastard!" She shouted, Sera and Faith just looked at her with raised eyebrows and they began laughing. The contrast between her angry, annoyed and horney expression was just too funny, it didn''t help that her pants were so wet, that it looked like she pissed herself. For a second she was confused, then looked down on herself and saw the situation between her legs. Quickly she summoned her armor and hid her ashamed face inside her helmet. Soon the others arrived on the roof, they were amazed by all the grass and flowers in this dead place, but after a moment or two they turned away. In the sky a dark form was approaching fast. His wings were bended in perfectly with the dark sky. In his hand was a sword made a similarly dark metal. He wore an armor made of the same material. As he came closer they finally felt his aura. The flowers and grass started wilting and soon the were brown and dead... That was the feeling they got from it too... Death... Chapter 118: Azriel, Angel of Death Just by feeling the approaching presence in the sky the group knew this won''t be an easy battle. The whole group transformed and summoned their weapons. Azriel was still a kilometer or two away, but with the speed of his approach he will be there in a minute. "The three of us who can fly will try to bring it close to the ground so the rest of can join the battle as well. When he comes close Bea will pull him down and damage his wings. Without his ability to fly the fight should become much easier." Said Sera, her voice was steady and firm, the bearing of a leader. The rest of the group had no objections. But before Sera could take off Bea stopped and kissed her. It was small, it contained the promise of something more happening later. They smiled at each other while holding hands, but time didn''t stop for either and soon Sera was in the sky about to face the strongest opponent of her life. Lucy was in her eagle form and Hellfire with his fiery wings. Azriel wasted no time with his speed he went straight for Hellfire, judging him the strongest of the three. With a quick move he dodged, but still the sword of the death angel clipped his armor. It disintegrated by its touch, but it didn''t reach his skin. They weren''t exactly sure what would happen if they got damaged by that sword, but they suspected it to be a death sentence. In the sky the stars slowly winked out as storm clouds approached their position. Sera and Lucy attacked from two sides. They were close enough to see behind the creature''s helmet through the eye slits. There was only darkness, like he didn''t even exist and this was just some sort of darkness wearing armor. He turned his body in a strange way dodging both attacks at the same time and even delivering a quick stab towards Sera. She wasn''t fast enough and it cut through her left wing''s muscle. With s small scream she started falling, but when she was about to hit the ground her wing regenerated and she took to the skies again with renewed fury. While Sera was struggling with flying, Hellfire was receiving blow after blow. No matter how fast he moved or how agile he was, every attack passed through his defense. His armor was in shambles, but somehow none of the attacks went deep enough to actually hurt him. Lucy attacked when Azriel was distracted, but her attack was a distraction too. Behind her down on the ground a large, heavy rifle was priming a destructive shot. Just as she expected the angel turned around just in time to evade her attack, but not fast enough to dodge the meter long railgun round moving twenty kilometers a second. ''That must''ve hurt him!... Wait... Wha...'' Lucy''s thoughts stopped, she was smiling inside a moment ago, but now only despair remained. The angel of death unlike her expectations just slashed towards the bullet, and when his sword touched it... The bullet turned to dust. Only then did they realize that Azriel was just playing with them, he was way too powerful to fight like they did with all those other corrupted. And that increased their fear... They were all about to die. Slowly Lucy''s wingbeats slowed down and her will to live decreased. She knew that the feeling of approaching death was made by Azriel and it wasn''t actually real, but her mind just couldn''t get rid of its terror. The others felt similarly... Or at least most of them. While Azirel was enjoying watching their despair something approached him with large speed. Another angelic form came from below him, her right wing a pristine white, her left black as the night sky. There was strength within her that she hadn''t felt for a long time... For about seven months to be exact. The will to not give up, not die, but live and kill her enemy whom she hated from all her heart. On her helmet and around her neck small sparks of light appeared. The blade of her sword ignited with black flames and on her head a midnight black crown appeared, with a black onyx at its center. She dismissed her helmet and gave herself over to the sweet fresh air. She took a deep shuddering breath and closed her eyes. Steadily her body moved. "AHH!... FUCK... I... WON''T... GIVE... UP..." She shouted every word as her broken body slowly rose. When she was finally standing she leaned against a broken pillar to keep up right. Azriel flew down and stood a couple of meters away from her. The some weird scraping sound came from behind the mask... Laughter... For a moment Sera looked confused, then a large grin split her face. "What are... you laughing at... death pigeon?..." He seemed to understand her mockery, because the scratchy sound stopped and his head snapped towards her. The onyx on Sera''s crown glowed with a gentle light and she hoped her plan would work. "You don''t like the... Name death pigeon... But isn''t that all you are... A stupid winged armor... No purpose other that being annoying?... Wander how you ended up this way... Did Madness took pity on you and you became its whore for fun?..." Her next words were cut off as Azriel finally moved, her grin grew larger. ''How predictable...'' The dark sword was about to cut Sera in two when her left wing defended her body. It got cut in half and she creamed from pain again. While Azriel was distracted she moved. with a sidestep she appeared at the side of him with a clear shot at his wings. In her right hand was a white and gold sword burning with that unholy flame. With one slash she cut the two wings off cleanly at their root. A small slightly insane laughter escaped her mouth as Azriel screamed in pain. At this point her she couldn''t even stand from the agony. Enjoy new tales from m-v l''-novelhall.net Tears ran down her face from the torment of her wings and from the mad laughter that just couldn''t stop. In the end the constant suffering overpowered her already weakened body and on the broken floor of a destroyed building she fell unconscious. Chapter 119: A Life for Death Lucy was still in her eagle form when the fight between Sera and Azriel happened, she tried everything but her body didn''t move. Every couple of second she made a wing beat to stay in the air, but that was all. In the magnificent light of Sera''s power, she got her mind free from the lethargy of death, and even managed to move her body a bit. Slowly her control increased more, but just as she was about to go and help, a scream even louder than the constant thunder broke the skies. Her heart cracked from the sight of a shining figure falling towards the ground, her right wing cut in two and bleeding... Lucy never saw Sera''s wing bleed, it only got bloody for a second or two before repairing and cleaning itself. Now the whole thing was red and the droplets of blood fell towards the ground, like the rain from the clouds above her head. The angel of death didn''t even wait for her to hit the ground and started his descent immediately. She fell for a few seconds, constantly screaming from pain... It only stopped when she finally hit the ground. The fear steadily crept back, she tried to suffocate it, but all her efforts were worthless. Inside she was cursing her uselessness, she had no clue if the others were in the same situation as her or if they even seen Sera plummet to the ground and her thoughts were no help either. ''You are nothing... Why are you even here?... You''re only here because others took pity on you... Look down there Sera will die, just everyone you ever cared about, and they will be dead because you are weak...'' The voice wasn''t hers she knew that, since her brother''s death it taunted her every time she made a mistake. It was driving her crazy sometimes, but that was its purpose... It was the voice of Madness, the godlike being that''s corrupting everything and everyone. She figured it out a long time ago, that her brother and all those other people in Havel somehow got under the spell of Madness. Their killing, rape, murder and enslavement wasn''t for their own pleasure, they were already too far gone by then. When she realized it the pain and anger she felt was unimaginable. Her brother had to die because of some stupid insanity. What she didn''t understand is how did it happen? It started with headaches, but after a while he just snapped. It didn''t matter now. There was only one thing left for her to do in this life... Find and kill everyone who hurt or try to hurt the people she cares about, and conveniently... There was one right below her... Using the rest of her willpower she stopped beating her wings and began to fall towards the broken building with enormous speed. ''Oh, what is it?... Another useless action?... Do you have this much of a death wish, to just hit the ground with terminal velocity?... There''s an easier way out you know, you just have to let go of your mind and it will free your spirit... Like your brother did!...'' "Shut... The... Fuck... Up!" Indeed, Azriel had no idea how to fight without the wings on his back. Since he was born they were his constant companions. They made him more agile, gave his swings more momentum and increased his velocity by a large margin... Now he fought like a toddler with too much power. His slashes and stabs were still very dangerous and accurate, but after Sera removing his wings there was a chance at victory... If the others arrived fast enough... They didn''t... Lucy only saw the change in Azriel''s movement when it was too late. A clean slash was coming her way and she blocked it with ease and used her other dagger to cut the sword arm deep that something like a bone showed in the wound. He immediately dropped his sword and as it clattered on the ground a small smile appeared on Lucy''s face, but soon it turned into a grimace of pain. There was a large amount of pain coming from her chest. Slowly her head moved and the realization hit her... She was baited into the last attack. She forgot to pay attention to his other arm, which now resided right between her breasts, where her heart lied. Her vision was getting foggy and her arms weak. There was two distinct clattering sounds, like two small metallic items hitting the concrete floor... Her daggers. Steadily her heart beat slower and slower, the time between each breath also decreased and only that small spark of anger kept her alive. She couldn''t die... Not yet! If she died now Sera would be killed before the others reached them... With a last parts of her consciousness remaining she held out her right hand and summoned an item she never used before. In her hand a small ring appeared with a leaf symbol on it. There was a green energy glowing around it and her hand slowly eroded under its power. The item contained a lot of life energy thanks to Bea. It was supposed to be a healing ring, but with her ability related to death it only damaged her... Which also meant it would damage the death angel! Lucy screamed as she closed her right hand and punched it into Azriel''s chest. While doing so he crushed her heart in his palm and the scream was cut short from the overwhelming pain. Powerlessly her body fell onto the ground, her right hand came out of his chest cavity empty. Furiously he began scratching the hole trying to fish out the ring, but it lay in his dark heart. With screams and shouts of pain the monster was finally defeated. Lucy''s breathing slowly stopped and her eyes turned dark. Near was a loud bang right next to her, like something heavy falling onto the ground. Out of curiosity she reached out her left hand and felt something metallic. She held out as long as she could, but without a heart there was no chance of survival. Soon she took her last breath and as she died there was only one thought inside her mind... ''...Yes...'' Chapter 120: Limbo There was only darkness. This place wherever she was didn''t really exist, or more like it didn''t exist on the same dimension as Earth and all those other realms... This was something different. Scary but tranquil. Painful but serene. Good but bad. Happy but sad. It was a contradiction, like even in a world of gods and madness it shouldn''t exist. In the empty void a lonely soul floated, she didn''t have a body or any resemblance to her previous self, but deep down she knew herself. But it took her a while to remember. ''Who am I?... Where am I?... What happened?... Is this a dream?... Or was reality a dream...'' Slowly her memories returned one by one and after an infinite amount of time she knew everything about herself. ''I''m Lucy!... I... I died... Is?... Is this the place where souls go? Into the void?!'' A bit of panic rose within her, but the atmosphere quickly calmed her turbulent emotions. It was interesting, what people feel as emotions are only chemical reactions in our brain, so it was strange that she could still feel emotions. Suddenly her soul began turning violently, somewhere far away shouting could be heard and Lucy felt like she was forgetting something. The voices were gradually disappeared and the calming silence returned. After in undefined amount of time her soul began feeling a strange pull. It wasn''t strong or demanding, but more comforting, like she was supposed to be someplace else and the pulling was trying to guide her. ''Well, I''m already dead, so might as well follow it...'' But before she could move the voices came again, they were saying something that Lucy just couldn''t make out. It was like an invisible wall was keeping them away. The silence soon returned and with nothing else to do she let her soul fly towards the pulling. In this black nothingness time and space seemed to bend in different ways. But after a long while or maybe one second, Lucy realized that this place simply didn''t have time and space... This was somewhere more ancient... A place before concepts even existed... The true emptiness... People always tried to find out how the universe actually came to be, but even after meeting with a lot of other species they had no clue. This place though... It felt old and young, alive and dead... Like it only exists because of her. The pull became stronger and stronger the more she flew towards it, that was the only indicator that she was actually moving. ''Maybe I''m not even moving, but the origin of the pull is coming closer towards me... What if it''s some monster and tries to kill me?!... Does it really matter though... I''m already dead...'' While flying towards the source she heard the voice more and more, but the membrane kept them incomprehensible. After an eternity of floating, Lucy saw something weird... Light. Somewhere farther away was a light source, it felt warm and inviting, like a mother''s embrace. She tried to increase her speed and get there sooner, but the distance seemed infinite between them. She tried everything to get closer to the magnificent light, but all her efforts were in vain. There was a similar invisible membrane keeping her from reaching the light, Lucy already knew what that place was... It was the afterlife. The place where souls went after the body has been destroyed and if she can''t reach it that could only mean one thing... ''I''m not truly dead!... But also not truly alive... Which means that my souls will be stuck in this limbo forever...'' ''What is he writing?... Who is this guy?...'' "Really, ''guy''? That is a weird way to spell ''God''!" His voice reverberated inside the room and echoed for a long time. Lucy tried to cover her ears but it made no difference. Her eardrums exploded, then her head did as well... She died on that sofa. The man just continued to write in a large book made of human skin. Lucy''s body slowly disintegrated and put itself back together, her soul returned too. She gasped very loudly for air, then began coughing violently. "Don''t insult higher beings, not even in your head. You were also curious what happened to most people, so I gave you a demonstration. Was it educating?" She was trembling from head to toe and quickly got up, then went on one knee. "Yes... It was... Please forgive me for..." Suddenly her body teleported back onto the sofa and she looked up to find the mysterious individual smiling at her. "I don''t care about forgiveness or any kind of formality. I''m just joking with you! Just like you wouldn''t care if a worm insulted you, I don''t care that a mortal insulted me. Now that we cleared that up lets get back to work Miss... Lucy." He moved his finger down the book until it stopped next to her name. In her mind she wanted to make fun of him and curse him out, but Lucy reined in those thoughts before they had a chance to form and instead asked, "I still don''t know who you are... And where am I..." She closed her eyes and waited for the same excruciating pain, but there was only the sound of laughter. "Bold of you to ask it again, but fine I will answer." He held out his left hand and from a similar black smoke a large scythe emerged. The blade was the darkest material she ever saw and she could''ve swore that sometimes screaming faces appeared, like the souls of the dammed trying to escape. The handle was made of shining gold, it made the scythe breathtaking and exotic. Her gaze slowly returned to the man''s grinning face. Only now did she realize that no matter how hard she looked, the person''s face seemed blurry. "If you couldn''t figure out who I''m yet, then I give you a hint. This place where you are is the doorstep of the afterlife... Limbo. Normally when souls arrive here they just go towards the light and enter their heaven or whatever... But sometimes... Sometimes they aren''t fully dead or alive and get stuck here!" The last words came out a bit angry, or more like annoyed and she quickly learned why. "Usually I''m just asleep, but when a soul gets stuck the system I made awakens me! I still didn''t figure out a better way to deal with lose souls, but whatever... Who said that Death couldn''t be lazy." Lucy wasn''t the least bit surprised when learning the man''s true identity. Actually she knew it from the very beginning, but pretended to be clueless... And just as this thought appeared in her head Death laughed again. "Very clever... Figuring it out so soon. But lets get back on track since I want to go back to sleep. You are stuck here which means there is a decision in front of you. Death or life, simple isn''t it?" There was a stupid grin on his face and Lucy just rolled her eyes. Of course it wasn''t simple, but she had an obligation and a promise to fulfill. ''We will meet again brother... But not yet...'' With teary eyes Lucy said only one word, "Life!" Death looked down at his book of the dead and laughed for a long time. "Oh girl... You are in for a wild ride! We''ll meet again soon..." As he said those ominous words reality broke apart around Lucy, and after spending so much time in limbo, she finally woke up back on Earth. Chapter 121: Reaper A new day dawned on Brema. And just like the day before only death and silence reined on these plains. Slowly sunshine hit the broken buildings, further illuminating the ruined city. It went inside every crack and cranny, making the them she light in the endless darkness. In one particular building, there was no hope brought by the Sun... Only sadness. When the fight ended the rest of the group arrived soon after. Bea went towards Lucy first, but quickly realized that she was already dead. With a heavy heart and teary eyes, she approached Sera''s broken body. Her face was plain white, very similar to Lucy''s, but her chest still rose and fell weakly. Swiftly Bea began trying to heal her, but it didn''t work. Even Vicky tried to help and give energy to Sera''s soul which helped a bit, but soon she went back to the same state. It was like her body was already a foot in the grave and only her spirit kept it alive. While they were trying everything to save Sera, Clockwork just knelt next to Lucy''s corpse. He put her head onto his legs and just stared at the lifeless face. He didn''t cry, not even a teardrop. His face just turned empty and emotionless, like the only good thing in his life was lost... Forever. Eventually Bea and Vicky used all their essence trying to heal Sera, but they haven''t succeeded... She was slowly dying and there was nothing they could do. Between the constant sound of crying, wailing, bargaining and pleading to some unknow higher existence, there was one particular sound that drew everyone''s attention... A small groan. Clockwork''s head snapped to the source, and his face after god knows how long finally shown emotion. Lucy''s eyes gradually opened, but quickly close from the sensory overload. After spending so much time in limbo without any of her senses, suddenly being able to hear, see, touch, taste and smell, pained her mind and confused her. It took a few minutes to fully be able to focus on the incoming sounds. And only after ten more minutes could she finally open her eyes. With foggy vision she looked up and saw a young man looking down at her. A small smile crept onto her face and she said in a whisper, "What is it James? Did you think I''m so easy to kill?" His face turned relieved and without thinking he kissed Lucy''s lips. It lasted for a few seconds, but after stopping he stayed near her face and replied onto her lips. "No... But don''t make it a habit... Okay?" The smile from her face disappeared as she nodded. "Fine... It wasn''t fun anyway... Death was kind of mean and strange, not how I imagined him at all..." With a very confused expression he helped Lucy onto her feet and only now did both of them see the state of Sera, Bea and Vicky. They were all passed out next to each other. Bea and Vicky from exhaustion and Sera because of her approaching demise. Lucy turned her head towards Hellfire waiting for him to say something, but he was occupied by trying to comfort Faith. Because of her devoutness, she was taking Sera''s dying nearly as bad as her partner and child. With no one else to explain the situation Will and Sarah were the ones to step up. "They tried to save her, but even after using up all their power..." Even her abilities changed as well, her items and essence counter also disappeared! Then there was her title, which contained sovereign in it. That meant her power should be close or at the same level as Sera and Bea. The whole situation was just surreal. With nothing else to do and curiosity killing her, Lucy opened the first of her new ability''s description. Description: You gain the ability to control the ''Essence of Life and Death'' to a small degree. ''That explains NOTHING! Why did this happen?!'' She was starting to freak out and to distract her mind opened the next one. Description: With each kill you become stronger. This description made her stop for a moment and rethink everything that happened to her in limbo. ''That light, the afterlife... It''s all just a higher realm?... I thought it was something more mystical...'' She didn''t know how to feel about this new information, and from the corner of her eyes she saw James staring at her. He read the previous descriptions as well, but unlike her he didn''t understand any of it. After a quick staring contest between the two of them Lucy sighed and recounted her experience in limbo, leaving out the part where she was in total despair. He looked really concerned, but instead of making any remark he just placed a comforting arm around her shoulder. Lucy closed her eyes for a few moments, and let James''s warmth seep into her, giving her enough strength to open the last description. Description: You gain the ability to summon your race''s signature weapon, the Reaper''s Scythe. This weapon can bypass any defense and can kill stronger beings. It will also rank up with you and eventually be able to kill Death itself. They looked at each other with raised eyebrows, then large excited grins appeared on both of their faces. Quickly they jumped to their feet and she summoned her new weapon. In her right hand a large two meter long scythe appeared. Its blade and handle was the same color as Azriel''s sword, but there was something different as well. There were golden lines like veins spread throughout the weapon, giving it an exotic feeling. When the weapon was fully formed the temperature in the room slowly decreased, it felt like death itself had arrived. Chapter 122: Journey to the Sea Sera woke up to the feeling of strong winds hitting her. She was very disoriented and confused, her last memory was the excruciating pain and the sorrow of dying... again. ''Uhh... What happened? Where am I?...'' Slowly she tried to open her eyes, but they were sealed shut, or at least it felt like that. With a bit of panic and fear she tried to move other parts of her body, but nothing worked, she had no control over anything. Her breathing started to become more erratic and through her eyes she saw a blinding light originating from her. Finally someone noticed her distress and in the next second Kastral spoke in her mind. "So you finally decided to wake up! Took you long enough..." His voice sounded angry, but also relieved. "Well, it''s not like I was taking a nap!... What happened?... I only remember nearly dying... And where are we?" With a very loud voice Kastral shouted into her mind. "YOU DIDN''T JUST NEARLY DIE! YOU WERE GOING TO DIE!... If Lucy didn''t come back to life in time, you would be dead!... And me too..." His voice turned painful, sad and small at the end. Sera felt like her heart was pierced by something sharp, she never really thought about it like that, but if she dies her mount dies as well. Her eyes must''ve turned teary since she felt something wet running down on her face. "I''m sorry... I will be more considerate with my plans next time..." Her voice was full of hurt and suffering, just the thought about losing her new friend was horrible. The hippogryph sighed loud enough to be heard over the wind. "It''s okay... I know what I signed up for, but from now on don''t think of yourself as just one of the soldiers. You''re a leader, even if you fight on the front lines that won''t change. Be More Careful!'' "You...*sigh* You are right... Is everyone else okay?" There was only silence for a while, then Kastral recounted everything to Sera. He told her about how her sacrifice gave Lucy a chance to kill Azriel. He talked about Lucy dying and going to a place named limbo where she met Death. ''Limbo?... Death?... They sound so familiar, but from where?... Maybe from some description I read, or from somewhere else?'' No matter how hard she tried the origin of the feeling stayed a mystery to her, but she did note that it felt like something she had forgotten. Strangely her mind ignored this weird memory loss and continued to listen Kastral. He was quoting every single description about Lucy''s abilities. ''So she has a chance to become Empyrean too. The more the merrier!'' Her mood was improving swiftly, in fact she was so happy that one more of their prey was defeated that she forgot to ask one very important detail. "Hey, Kastral! Why can''t I move?" Enjoy exclusive chapters from m-v l''e|-novelhall.net From the front there was a few chirping sounds, Sera already learned that this was his form of laughter. "It''s nice of you to finally wake up. Right before arriving to our next destination too. You have great timing!" She was grinning at Sera, and she just shook her head, smiled, and hugged her. "Thank you... For bringing me back!" The warm hug only lasted for a few seconds. While smiling at each other kindly for a few moments, Clockwork just stood next to them awkwardly. Eventually Lucy spoke again. "Your welcome! But don''t make it a habit! It only worked because of my race change, without it probably both of us would be dead right now." The joyful atmosphere took a fast dive into sadness, so Sera quickly changed the topic. "So where are we right now?" Both of them turned to Clockwork, who reluctantly and with a roll of his eyes answered. "We are currently about ten kilometers from the sea. If we keep heading north from here we will reach the exact position where the Colossal Sea Devourer was spotted." The distance between Brema and the sea shore was about the same as Hannover, so circa 120 kilometers. If they were only 10 kilometers away, that means they had been travelling for quite a while. This raised another question in Sera. "How long was I out? And why did we stop here and not near the shoreline?" For a second they looked at each other with a bit of confusion, then with a strange expression Lucy answered. "We... have been travelling for about two days... and we stopped here because that''s what we talked about before setting out on this hunting trip... Don''t you remember? It was your idea?" ''My idea?... I don''t remember it at all... Very weird, I don''t usually forget stuff...'' "Oh yeah... I forgot. Must be a side effect of nearly dying! Anyway thanks again..." With that she quickly went away to find Bea, but when she reached her, only a lingering feeling of disregard remained. Since there was nothing else to do here, the group ate a quick breakfast, than continued out towards the sea. Their next stop was a small island a few kilometers off-shore. They didn''t have to wait long, and soon Sera saw the sea for the first time in her life. The bluish-green waves hit the sandy shoreline, gently washing it. The Sun was already up and as the light hit the waves it reflected into a magnificent picture. For a long time she just stared speechlessly at the magical sight. ''If I react like this for something as natural as the sea, how will I act when we go to other realms?'' She didn''t know the answer to this self-imposed question, but one thing was sure... This was the best part of their journey so far. The group landed on the small island, it was about seven kilometer on its longer side and two on its shorter. It also had some remnants of a town, which by the looks of it was abandoned even before the Last War. They didn''t even care about it, and just went straight to the northern side of the island, then they started discussing their next steps. Chapter 123: Swimming Lesson They talked for a good while, and soon the scouts left for the sea. Since this time, they had no idea what they were looking for or where it was, they sent out three people. Will and Sarah are going to look around in the sea, while in the sky Lucy flew scanning the surface for any large shapes. After Lucy''s race changed she didn''t have a transformation any more, but one of her new abilities made it possible for her to fly. Behind her back two dark wings appeared, they were made of black smoke and with them she could fly even faster than before. There was also a sad realization within Sera. When everyone else left she tried to summon her own wings, but when they came out there was suddenly a huge amount of pain and she fell to her knees screaming. Everyone quickly rushed to her to see what was wrong. Her wings were still in a mutilated state, they didn''t seem to be able to heal... Whatever Azriel''s sword done to them was impossible to repair even with Lucy''s help. Sera looked up from the ground and turned to see her wings. She was stunned for a second, but the pain was still there so she dismissed them. With a depressed expression she stood up and began walking away. Bea tried to stop and hold her hand, but she just shook her off and without turning back she said, "It''s fine... Just need to be alone for a while..." She walked for a few minutes before finding a large rock that faced the sea. As the wind played with her hair Sera sat on top of it and shed silent tears for her missing wings. It hit her harder than most things before, after losing everyone she ever loved in the ruins of Newber, that was her only crutch. The one good thing she came out with from that disaster, now... they were gone as well... At some point she hid her face behind her knees, and sat like that for at least an hour. She stayed like that until a large shadow passed above her and landed near the rock outcropping. Kastrel slowly walked to Sera and put his large head next to her. Without much thought she reached out one hand and began petting his soft feathers on his head. Neither said anything for a long time, they just sat there listening to the waves moving in and out. When she seemed to be calm enough, he finally spoke. "You shouldn''t worry about your wings that much, when you evolve into an ascended they will grow back! And until then you just have to rely on me!" Slowly Sera raised her head and couldn''t stop a small smile to creep onto her face. "I guess you''re right... And when I will become an ascended like you, will race to see who''s faster!" They both laughed a bit, then headed back to the others. The group was currently waiting for the scouts to return and in the meantime they made a campfire on the sandy beach. Silently Sera sat down next to Bea and Vicky, she also gave a small kiss to both of them, on the mouth for one and on the top of her head for the other. They looked at her with concern, but she just made a confident smile and asked, "So, what do we do until the others come back?" Vicky instantly jumped to her feet and shouted ''Yes!'' over and over again, on the other hand Bea didn''t seem too fond of the idea, but seeing her child''s excitement she went along with them. There was only one problem with their plan, no swimsuits. They had a couple solutions for this problem, for example Bea just simply wore one of her black colored sports bras with one of her shorts and Vicky just summoned her clothing item and wore that. But Sera wanted to try out something else. She hid bellow one of Kastral''s wings, he wasn''t too happy to be used as a changing booth, but she didn''t particularly care. When she was fully naked slowly her armor began to weave itself into existence, but she didn''t summon the full thing. There was only the upper part of the breastplate and the part of her pants which covered her most important place... It was basically a bikini. Quickly she made sure everything that needed to be hidden stayed that way, then she walked out from the cover of the wing. Bea''s reaction was so funny she began laughing, her face was red as a tomato and her breathing uneven. With all her willpower she turned her head away, but her eyes kept glancing back onto Sera, especially her chest area. Slowly she began walking towards them, then grabbed Vicky''s hand and went towards the sea. Bea was rooted to the ground, her eyes watching Sera''s swaying hips, gradually it climbed up just in time to see her head turn. With a small alluring smile she winked and motioned for Bea to follow. Before she even realized her legs moved towards the pair and she began to hurry up as some liquid began to run down her leg. Needless to say that she was very horny and while walking towards the water she swore to punish Sera severely for pulling something like this. When they reached the threshold of the waves Vicky instantly jumped in and began playing with the water while giggling. But the three of them didn''t stop there and went further in. Another problem arose though, Vicky never learned how to swim, so it was her parent''s job to teach her this survival skill! The water was cool, not too warm or cold and they conveniently forgot about the fact that it was the middle of autumn. That water in reality was near freezing, but their evolved skin only felt a slight chill. They stayed where they could stand, but Vicky was a quick learner and soon they began swimming farther into the waves. After spending hours in the water they started to get hungry and tired. On the shore they saw most of the group around the campfire, only two person were missing Will and Sarah. When they were about to go to shore a large about 30 meter long dark shape passed below them. It was fast and barely noticeable, but a second later they saw it again as a large shark-like fin broke the surface of the water and began circling them. The three of them went on guard and they were preparing to attack, when a laughing came from above the three. They looked up to see a woman made of water and wind fly in the air, she found the situation very hilarious. "Stop it Will... I think you gave them a good enough scare..." The flying woman''s voice belonged to Sarah and the three of them quickly realized that they were pranked. From below the water the large shape moved and slowly shrank into his regular human form. Will''s emotionless face was broken by a stupid grin, which made the three girls even angrier. Experience new stories on m v|l e''-novelhall.net Sadly he was a way faster swimmer than either of them, so no matter how much they tried strangling him wasn''t an option... Until they reach the shore at least. Chapter 124: Taking Time Off In the end they decided to let Will live for now. Currently they were all seated around the campfire. Sera caused a small disturbance when she came out of the water, but when Bea nearly started growling at everyone, they quickly looked away and pretended she was wearing regular clothing. They quickly dried themselves near the fire, then ate some meat that James acquired while exterminating. And now that everyone was full and well, it was time to hear what the scouts found. "...Nothing." Said Lucy with some displeasure. She was jealous because while she went scouting everyone else had fun in one way or another. "Okay, and what about you two? Any sign of the creature?" Asked Sera while purposefully ignoring Lucy. Sarah and Will looked at each other, then they both shook their heads. "We found a lot of monsters down there, some of them very scary, but we found nothing about the Colossal Sea Devourer." Explained Will without much interest, but he was naturally like that. "Those previous scouts reported a gigantic corrupted, possibly more than a hundred meter long. How can a beast like that hide?" Bea''s question was valid, how could a monster that size just disappear? "There is a few explanations for that. First things first, this part of the sea is deep and I mean very deep. As far as I know, in the old world they deepened this part of the waters by a few kilometers. This means that the monster can just be hiding in those depths." The whole group listened attentively as James continued with his second theory. "The second and worse possibility is that the monster simply left this area. The reports are a few years old, so this is actually very likely. It would be really bad since that would mess with our scheduling by a lot." They collectively sighed, that was one big problem... The timing. It was currently near the end of october, which meant they only had about a month to reach a human outpost named Flensburg. By that time Will and Sarah have to be an ascended or they had to change their whole plan. "So? What do we do?... We either try to find it which is basically impossible or move onto the next hunt and figure this out later." Said Hellfire, then they turned towards their leader to make a decision. Sera thought about every possibility and scenario, but something kept eating away at the back of her mind. The whole picture seemed incomplete, and this sea devourer was too mysterious for a creature that big. ''I think there is more to this... What if we couldn''t find it for some specific reason? These monsters never just disappear, they stay put near an area if there is enough food to hunt... And the sea had loads of it.'' The idea became clear and slowly a smile appeared on her face. She looked at each member of their group and with a light chuckle declared. "Good news everyone, we got some free time on our hand. You can do whatever you want until nightfall! Dismissed!" She said it as a command which further confused them, especially because of her persisting smile. The first one to recover was Faith, but as always she never questioned her lady''s orders. "Come now, stand up and let''s get this over with. You know as well as I do the need for this training, so stop acting angry or I will drop you in the water!" "You are mean!" Still offended she pulled her feet up and very gradually rose to a standing position. She held it for a second before falling down towards the boundless sea. Before actually reaching it, Kastral caught her and she tried again. It took her a long while and fell down dozens of times, but after about an hour she could stay standing comfortably. Kastral looked back at Sera, then in her head said, "Now that you got familiar with this speed, let''s increase it shall we?" There was no time for rejection since his speed steadily grew and her ability to stay on became more precarious. It took her a minute to finally fall, but sadly this time they were too close to the water for him to catch her. "You Asshole! Why weren''t you higher in the air?!" The only answer she had gotten was laughter through the bond, it didn''t really help her mood. Slowly she swam out and plopped down next to the fire. Will and Sarah looked at her curiously and with small sly smiles, but through gritted teeth she shut them off. "Don''t you dare say a word." For her dismay though neither stayed silent as they began snickering between themselves. ''Just when did they became so talkative? And why are they so despicable!'' The Sun was finishing its arc towards the west, it was still an hour or two until nightfall, but everyone was already back and getting ready for the battle. Sera still haven''t said a word to Bea after that move she pulled. She wasn''t actually angry, but it was nice to pretend. And it gave her an excuse for the two of them to be alone. They went further inland then stopped near some ruined building where Bea quickly made a bed from grass and leaves. But Sera didn''t let her off the hook that easily, when she was about to kiss her, Sera just put one finger on her lips and leaned in to whisper into her ear. "I don''t think so... We have fun after I punished you thoroughly..." As she finished the sentence her hand began exploring her body, touching every erogenous zone. Sera wouldn''t stop until Bea started begging her. She was moaning by the slightest touch when suddenly a dark shape moved above them and Lucy landed near the building. They both turned towards her with piercing eyes already knowing what was going on. ''I can''t fucking believe it! These monsters have horrible sense of time!'' They both just looked at each other and sighed dejectedly before moving back towards the others. Chapter 125: A Giant From the Deep The first one to know about their prey arriving was Will. He felt a large shape moving in the sea kilometers away. Just the sheer displacement of water was enough for him to have an idea about its location. They quickly sent away Lucy to get Sera and Bea, then when they finally arrived it was time for the confrontation. Before setting out on this expedition they knew that this battle is going to be different, because within the water only Sarah and Will can fight effectively. Faith and Lucy can also cause issues for the monster, but no one else really... Except Vicky, her attacks are effective against anything, but no very powerful. The plan was to keep the beast near the surface, so everyone can at least have some way of attacking. This is going to be Will''s and Sarah''s job, delivering attacks while distracting. They got onto their hippogryphs, except the people who can fly themselves. Sera watched Hellfire and Lucy rise into the air with envy, she let herself have a second of longing before focusing her mind to the fight. But she did ask Kastral to speed up and leave the others in the dust. While most were flying, Sarah just turned into her water elemental form and blended in seamlessly with the waves. The last person who weren''t in the air was Will, instead he swam out far into the sea and transformed. His body elongated, the feet turned into twenty meter long tentacles, his head became shark-like with four eyes on each side and multiple rows of sharp teeth. Arms grew out as well, four of them two with hands and two with deadly scythes. His coloring was just like the sea which provided excellent camouflage. The speeds of his body increased drastically as well, nearly reaching Kastral who wasn''t even trying to go fast. Sera flew through the sky while scanning the water for the large shadow of the beast. It took them a few minutes of flying, but she finally spotted it. Her eyes couldn''t pierce the waters, all she saw was a gigantic shadow at least hundred meters, and it was strange... Its movement was off, not fluid enough, like it had too many moving parts out of sync. She couldn''t figure it out for a while, but Will didn''t have this problem. He saw exactly what caused the disharmony and he realized a very important detail that the scouts didn''t... ''Those idiots made a fucking typo! It was Colossal Sea Devourers... plural!'' In the water ahead of Will instead of one gigantic monster, there were dozens if not hundreds of creatures. All of them were the same, about 15 meters in length with bodies that looked like a squid... or more like had a small resemblance to one. They had some small tentacles near their front, and four long ones for grabbing prey, but their bodies were more similar to a whale''s. Their tail was made up of a large whale-like fluke that propelled them forward, the smaller tentacles helped with maneuverability. Their mouth was made up of four segments which could open wide to bite and crush any victim they catch with the four powerful tentacles. The eyes on the side of their heads constantly scanned the waters, but they didn''t see Will hiding bellow them. He observed their movement for a long while before finally realizing why did they count as one monster. They were a hivemind or at least there was a leader that controlled all the others. As the killing went on a large portion of the sea became red from all the bloodshed, but something didn''t seem right. No matter how many of them died they didn''t try to retreat, which was great for their mission, and also raised red flags in Sera''s mind. ''Where''s their leader? Did it already escaped and these ones are just sacrifices to make it more believable... Or, maybe these weren''t even the monster?'' The more she thought about the clearer the picture gotten, and the paler her face had become. ''Dammit!... How did I not think of that!'' "Kastral, relay a message to every hippgoryph, get high into the air as fast as possible!" He turned his head towards Sera, but seeing her scared expression he knew something bad was about to happen. Quickly he climbed into the air as well, and after reaching about two hundred meter he leveled out and finally asked what was going on. "We made a huge mistake... Those monsters in the water!... They aren''t the monster at all... they are what the real creature uses as bait!" He swiftly understood what she meant and looking back down on the bloody sea, they caught a glimpse of the real beast. Within the water Will started to get confused a lot sooner than Sera. With each kill more questions rose in his mind. ''Where is their leader? We nearly killed all of them, where is it hiding?'' He killed two more, than looked and felt around to find another prey, but their was none... They were all dead. ''Well... what now? Can I maybe use any one of these for evolution?'' He swam towards a corpse, than touched it but nothing happened. He then tried another, then another, then another, but even after trying nearly all of them including the largest of them... He still didn''t evolve. Soon Sarah appeared next his huge body looking as confused as him, neither of them could speak in their transformed forms, but with just movements they conveyed enough information. They agreed on moving to the surface and talk with the others about what to do next. After swimming for only a few second though, a large shadow appeared bellow them and moved with swiftness that should have been physically impossible for a monster this size. Will noticed it too late, and it was already dragging him down in its maw when he realized what happened. It was biting down on his mid section making his escape out of the question. On the surface the bloody seawater seemed tranquil, but in the deep darkness a battle was only just beginning. Chapter 126: Battle in the Deep The pain was excruciating, but Will didn''t let his mind falter even for a second. His whole midsection was in the maws of the real Colossal Sea Devourer, and it was getting slowly crushed by its four jaws. Using his gigantic form Will tried to wiggled free, but it only caused more pain to coarse through his already mangled body. He couldn''t even use his arms since they were all kept immovable by the yaws and teeth of the monster. Or at least he thought they were, but as it turns out one of his scythes were still very much free. It was contained within the monsters mouth, but at least it could deal some damage. ''Let''s see how does it feel to eat a knife!'' He began wildly swinging his arm and feel it bite into the creature''s skin. It even managed to make an indent on the bone of one jaw. From the monster''s throat a deep reverberating sound came, which made Will''s head spin. ''How?... What?... Is this a mental attack?! From this huge beast?... Just how many tricks does it have!'' It wasn''t a very strong attack, but Will knew he was capable of something lot stronger. ''It must be because of all those smaller monsters, he was controlling them which means he probably felt each death. It weakened his mental capabilities by a lot, that''s why it is using physical attacks... That''s all it has!'' This realization was great and all, but the monster still didn''t release him. He kept on swinging his arm which caused a small trail of blood as they descended further into the depths of the sea. There was only darkness around them, Will couldn''t see anything, but the monster didn''t seem bothered by it at all. ''Why would it be? It''s a fucking nocturnal hunter, it can probably see in the dark without any issue!'' At this point any light he saw above has fully disappeared. With his eyesight gone there was only one method that he could use for observation. He closed his eight eyes and focused on the water''s movement. Will felt the movement of smaller creatures and larger ones all around them, but one held his interest in particular. It was moving with high speed towards them, but it''s size was way smaller than anything else... almost human-like. Sarah was following the blood trail as fast as possible. Seeing Will getting dragged down caused a bit of panic in her, but she was taught to expect the unexpected and always be prepared. After letting herself be scared for one second she centered her mind and went after the monster. Down here no one from the group has even a chance of helping... They were fully on their own. Finally after a minute of diving straight down she caught up to them. She grabbed onto one of the creature''s eyes and stabbed her trident in the middle of the pupil as deep as possible. Will instantly got released as the beast''s movements turned erratic. "What do we do?" Asked Will, he didn''t try hiding the fact that he had no clue of the next step. But fortunately Sarah was the smarter out of the two of them. "It''s easy! We use my bubble to slowly approach the sea devourer, and when we reach it you kill it! Any questions?... No good, because here we go!" While doing this attack the beast had to be stationary it seemed, and also had to concentrate. It didn''t notice them closing in on it, but the closer they had gotten the more issues arose. The first and biggest one was the size of the monster. It wasn''t hundred meter in length as said in the report, but it was definitely twice the size of Will''s transformed self. It seemed even bigger from a human body, so how does he supposed to kill it? The second problem was the ever increasing soundwaves, it was already starting to hurt again, but they could hold out for a bit longer. When they were touching distance from the monster they stopped. "NOW WHAT?" Shouted Will over the soundwaves. The grin that appeared on Sarah''s face made a deep fear crawl upon his spine, not a fear of death or pain but something much worse... Humiliation. "IT''S EASY WE GO AND CLIMB INTO ITS NOSTRIL UNTIL WE GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO ITS BRAIN TO KILL IT! ARE YOU READY? JUST KIDDING I DON''T CARE!" As Sarah finished speaking the bubble began rising until it reached a hole that could fit two person standing abreast easily. Will sighed dejectedly and began moving inside the nose of the beast. .net After a minute or two of walking Will soon realized that he won''t going to have a more disgusting experience than this in the rest of his life... He will make sure of it. Since the size of the tunnel was so big, it was full of a lot of very disturbing things. There were a few human items, remnants of corpses, bones, and some slimy thing that resembled snot. Sometimes it covered the whole tunnel and they had to go through it. At this point he killed Sarah hundreds of times with his eyes, but she always just laughed a bit then moved on. After another couple of minutes they finally reached some soft tissue that seemed to lead into the creatures brain. Will quickly cut through it and they moved further inside. Before them was a large sized brain about ten meters across, and through the large hole they made, seawater began flowing inside. The monster began moving all over the place, like it was in a lot of pain. Will soon understood why, the water within the brain had a very different composition from seawater. Which meant that the hole he made was slowly killing the beast. It also meant that he had to move as fast as possible and cut the brain apart swiftly. Even after all the pain and suffering it caused, he didn''t let it suffer and instead made his passing fast. When the monster finally stopped moving he reached out his hand and touched the brain tissue. It was time to evolve! Chapter 127: The Lord of the Waves In the sky Sera and the rest of the party started to worry. Will and Sarah had been gone for way too long. She trusted both of them with all her heart, and she knew they would come out victorious, but that didn''t stop her from worrying. Flying on Kastral''s back she scanned the blood soaked waters for any sign of them, and so did the others. After about half an hour of looking, they decided to meet up and talk about their next step. All of them stopped about a hundred or so meters above water. "So? What do we do now?" Asked Hellfire, he was the least concerned of them which made sense given his very pragmatic personality. It also would''ve made him a bad leader who didn''t really care for his people... Luckily he wasn''t the real leader. "There is only one thing we can do... Faith, are you up for it?" She had shown no surprise when Sera asked her, but she was always like this, knew exactly what Sera will request of her. "Anytime My Lady!" But as she was about to leave something changed, there was a very large shadow approaching their position currently from the water. Which either meant the monster had came back, or Will had evolved further. She quickly told the others this information and they decided to wait for the creature to surface. It took a minute, but soon they saw the beast. At first they thought it was a larger version of the previous devourers, but they quickly realized that wasn''t the case. It had a very similar mouth, but with six segments and as he opened it a deep circular maw appeared capable of swallowing smaller ships whole. It''s massive body grew over 60 meters with a large fin on the top of it. The back end was made up of long tentacles which gave the creature unnaturally swift movement speed and maneuverability. From his sides large, sharp appendages grew, hundreds of them. Each had the strength to cut one of those smaller sea monsters in two pieces. The color of the beast was black on top and bright blue bellow, making it able to perfectly blend in while looking from either above or under him. But these were all small details compared to his eyes, which seemed to contain the waves themselves. "Hello everyone! How is my new look?" The sound was very familiar, but also different. They began to look around trying to find the source and soon understood why it was strange. The voice belonged to Will, but it didn''t came from anywhere near them, instead it just appeared in their head. Collectively they stared at the large form moving bellow them, and they heard a laughing sound right within their minds. Lucy''s face turned red and she shouted, "Hey Will! Get out of my fucking head!" *Chuckling* "I''m not inside your heads, just projecting my voice into your minds. Turns out the Colossal Sea Devourer had a lot of powers related to the mind and waves! I can even make soundwaves that have the power of destroying solid objects... At least I think so, haven''t tested out yet... Any volunteer?" The group looked at one another with raised eyebrows. They understood his change in appearance, and abilities... What really made them question their reality was Will''s behavior. "Isn''t he a bit too talkative?" Asked Bea while making a weird expression. "So I wasn''t the only one to notice... But what happened?" Answered James making the same questioning face. "Yeah...*sigh* I don''t know why, but my personality changed. And now I just want to constantly talk, I nearly drove Sarah to insanity on the way up... But don''t tell her that I said that! She is very sensitive about her strange taciturn self!" "HEY! I HEARD THAT!" Came a shout from a woman who at some point appeared next to the group. "Shit! I forgot not to include her in the group message... And I said this one out loud didn''t I?... Damn how do I turn this off?!" This was the last thing he said, but non of them heard it as they were dying of laughter. Even the hippogryphs heard him and found it hilarious. The only person who just stared at sea monster bellow with murder in her eyes was Sarah... She didn''t seem too fond of his new talkative personality trait. Since the battle was over and nothing left to do they returned to the island to discuss when do they move to the next destination. The answer was pretty obvious, tomorrow at first light. They weren''t really that tired, but that couldn''t be said about Will and Sarah... They were near dead from exhaustion. The two of them settled down on the ground ready to fall asleep, but the curiosity was killing Will about his new ascended abilities. Instead of sleeping he opened his status and read through it quickly. Name: William Description: There is strength in knowledge and fast thinking. You brain gets an upgrade, your mind works faster than most and it can handle a lot more. ''Why is the Watch so weird about matters related to Madness. It always acts ominous when the topic is related to it.'' Neither Sarah or Will had anything to talk about, so he moved onto the next one. Description: This form gives you incredible strength and speed. Your mind becomes immune to any forms of attack below Stellar. The waters are yours... use them wisely. To Will''s absolute surprise Sarah was the one to speak first this time. "Ah, so that''s what happens when the evolution is made with two creatures very closely related. Unlike Hellfire or James your transformation didn''t just upgrade, it fused!... I hope mine will do the same!" There was a lot of hope and barely contained anticipation showing on her usually emotionless face. Will just smiled at her, then turned back to open the entry both of them were very interested in. Description: With this incredible union you gain an upgrade both to your skin''s toughness and your power over waves. "Even more upgrade to my wave powers! It''s sad that I can only use it when I''m transformed, but better than nothing." He was grinning from ear to ear, his new self became vastly stronger than he could''ve ever hope for. Sarah just looked at him with a raised eyebrow and motioned for him to open the last entry. Type: Weapon Description: Attribute: This spear can ignore air and water resistance and it increases your mind''s bearing. "So that''s why my spear is missing?! I really hope that at least it had gotten stronger!" When he turned his head to look at Sarah, all he saw was her face covered by her hands. From time to time it shook like she was laughing behind them. "Hey! It''s not funny! What if my heritage made my spear worse!... Which isn''t really possible since it was basically just an ordinary spear, but still! This is a serious issue!" What he said was the opposite of what his face shown. There was only a bright, loving smile on it and soon he started laughing as well. As the night was coming to an end the laughing and talking sounds turned less appropriate. Needless to say neither had gotten much sleep. Chapter 128: Amygdala While Will and Sarah were ''sleeping'', Sera went with Kastral to see a new arrival for their group. When they were fighting the Colossal Sea Devourer, there was another fight happening in their camp, on a much smaller scale... One of the eggs finally hatched. Kastral led her, Bea and Vicky to see the new baby hippogryph. Near a few broken eggshells stood a very small hippogryph on shaking legs. Her feathers were a beautiful mix of light and dark brown, inherited from her parents. They were currently standing behind her, and let nobody get too close. When Vicky tried to grab the little baby, Bea quickly stopped her before something bad happened. .net Sera was grinning from ear to ear as she turned towards Kastral and asked with excitement, "What''s her name?" The voice that answered wasn''t as happy, but more proud and wary. "They haven''t given her a name yet... They were waiting for their leader..." She turned her head in confusion not understanding his meaning. "Then what are you waiting for? Go ahead and name her already. Why are you staring at me?" The face that Kastral was making seemed to say ''Are you serious?'' He also made a sound that could be interpreted as a sigh. "Why would I need to name her? Since when am I the leader of this group? We always follow your orders, and also I''m your mount which heavily implies a hierarchy in our relationship..." "Fine-fine, I get it!" *sigh* Sera stayed silent as she thought of a good name for the baby. ''What would be a great name for her... I could name her after someone I lost, like my mother... What was her name again?... I-I can''t remember... H-how could I forget her name?!'' Her breathing became faster and faster as she started to panic, but suddenly it all went away. She didn''t find this missing information weird anymore and instead thought of a name for the baby. "I think her name should be Memento. It means remember in an ancient language, and that is the most important for us to do, not forgetting our past and future..." What she said didn''t seem to convince her. The tone in which she spoke was more like, trying to make herself believe that that''s the meaning behind the name... While keeping her thoughts away from the real message behind the name... Remember! No one noticed anything strange about her or the name, and soon little Memento was playing with Vicky. It didn''t matter how hard the parents tried to dissuade their youngling, she always found a way to go against their will, and reluctantly they let her. "Watch! Scan!" Was all that could be heard from her voice which got swept away by the sound of the wind. "Scanning complete... Classification: Stellar... Name: Amygdala... Suggestion: Avoid... Look at her... She is so beautiful... Bask in her glory... Open your eyes, Seraphine... Don''t you want to see my magnificent self?..." Said the Watch inside her head, and some doubt appeared in her mind for some reason. ''Maybe I should open my eyes... I do want to see how she looks... She must be extraordinarily breathtaking judging by that magical voice inside my head...'' "Yes! Open your eyes and let''s feast... I''m so hungry, I haven''t met a tasty meal like you in a long time!... All that potential and strength, what joy that we meet!" The flying speed of Kastral changed into a hover as they floated in the air. Both of their eyes gradually opened and instantly blood came pouring out of everywhere on their faces, like their whole being was rejecting the sight they saw... Which was weird because there was nothing in the air, just a very attractive young woman. Her black hair seemed to disobey gravity as it flew around her, each strand was twice the length of her body. And how alluring that body was... She wore no clothes and instead strands of hair kept the most enticing parts of her body hidden, always teasing but never revealing. She took step after step on empty air, until she was only a few meters away from them. Neither could look away from the beauty that brought only fear with her. "Oh how pretty you are! I have to say from woman to woman you are the best looking one I have seen, well after myself of course! Maybe I will use your face next time!... It would be funny to use your form while I kill your friends wouldn''t it?" Sera had no way of responding since her very soul was paralyzed by sheer terror, and unlike the last time she felt something similar, she didn''t pass out. Amygdala waited for her to respond, but soon realized that it won''t happen. After sighing and rolling her eyes she made a hand movement that elevated some of her fear. "So Serapihne, what do you say? Wanna kill some innocent people?" Unlike anything Amygdala imagined for Sera''s reaction to be, she wasn''t prepared for laughter as an option. She turned her head sideways in confusion, the first thing she thought of was that Sera''s mind broke from the fear... But soon she understood her mistake. Around Sera a lot of little specks of light appeared weaving her armor and crown into existence. It gave her a lot of mental and soul protection, but they can only work while Amygdala wasn''t using most of her power. The crown also gave her the ability to inspire Kastral, and get him moving again. But the most important part and what truly stunned Amygdala was Sera''s anger. It caused some fear to appear in her heart, it was very small and fully ignorable for any creatures... Except Amygdala. She was the literal embodiment of fear, her whole nature revolved around it. But feeling fear even this small amount was something that nothing bellow ethereal can cause to her. As Kastral was speeding away with Sera on his back, there was that sound again. Only now did she realize what it actually was. Not a scream of pain, or anger... It was laughter... Fear itself was laughing, because there was something small that made her feel the very emotion she brought to the world... Terror. Chapter 129: Crash Landing They flew for a dozen kilometers, behind the horrible laughter haunted them, but strangely enough it was getting quieter by the minute. "She let us go... Thank god!..." Said Sera through their bond and slowly all the things she summoned began to dissipate into flecks of light. Her face was all bloodied from the encounter, same as Kastral''s. When the power of the Midnight Crown went away, Kastral''s speed gradually decreased until it stopped about fifty meters in the air. They began falling towards the ground, but neither seemed to notice, since they were currently passed out. Surviving Amygdala''s power, even just a fraction of it took every speck of essence they had and even in the past minute or so they were running on fumes. Now, there was no power in them. The ground came closer each moment, but neither could do anything to stop it. They soon hit it with a lot of force, then both just lay there, no strength to move or do anything. ... When Sera woke up the sun was already touching the western horizon. The dark orange color ignited the sky like an open flame. As her eyes opened a painful headache hit her head. It took all her power not to scream from the pain. Her muscles spasmed and her breathing near stopped. In her mind a picture appeared of something she shouldn''t have seen... An old man in a lab coat. The pain went away in the next second, just like the memory. The feeling of losing something still lingered, like she had to remember but she couldn''t. ''Why do I have a feeling that I''m forgetting something?... I don''t understand!'' Her body was trembling from concentration, but no matter how hard she tried there was an impenetrable wall in her mind. After a minute of this she stopped to take a breath and continue trying, but in the next moment the sensation went away. Sera felt a bit disoriented not quite remembering what she was doing, then decided to look for Kastral since they both fell from quite high. It took her another few minutes to finally gather enough strength to get up from the ground. The first thing she had done after standing, is to look around for any signs of danger. She was standing in the middle of a plain field with nothing around her, but bushes and tall grass. Her eyes quickly focused on one spot where the grass had been trampled. ''Maybe that''s where he fell?... I should check it out anyway!'' With no way of answering Sera did the only thing that might get her out of this situation. Her speed was quite slow because of the injuries, but she made up for the distance with elongating her weapon by another meter. Using her two and a half meter sword she made one quick slash and decapitated five goblins at once, including the one that spoke to her. Sadly this trick would only work once, and there were still about thirty goblins all around her. Her sword returned to its normal size to not hinder her movement, and with one move she intercepted a strike coming towards her leg. She used her bigger body to her advantage and with the next move a sword arm joined the five heads. The next two goblins took a bit more effort, which meant they died in three moves. And so did three other. On the ground the number of heads and limbs grew as the slaying continued. Back in the Apocalypse the goblins were a big enemy not because of their skill or technology, but their numbers. On the war-stricken land of Earth, with people who haven''t learned hand-to-hand combat in generations, the humans had to adapt quickly. Possibly half of the worlds population died by the hands of goblins. As this fact came to her mind Sera''s anger ignited tenfold, and as the next five goblin was about to jump her they suddenly stopped. Their hands trembled and some even dropped their weapons. The air around them carried the smell of fresh urine and feces, as the goblins shat themselves from fear. On Sera''s mouth a small smirk appeared, and not caring about the smell she continued to kill every single goblin around her. There was no pity or second guessing, she knew exactly what type of creatures these beasts were. At least the monsters she fought before are Mad, but these ones are just simply pure evil. Her clothes were covered in bright green fluorescent blood... Goblin blood. Looking around and seeing all the terrified expressions on the corpses she laughed. If someone would look and see this woman, they would think her a monster. Laughing in a sea of corpses, it wasn''t something a good, kind and forgiving person would do. These thoughts appeared in her head as well, but she quickly sent them away and tried to calm her joyfulness. After minutes of constant laughter, she moved on with a big smile on her face. With a limp on her right side she approached the area she first spotted. It was a bit bigger than Kastral, but she found a few white feathers which was a clear indication of his landing spot. There was only one problem... He wasn''t here. Towards the east the tall grass was trampled and more feathers were dropped on the ground. There were also parts of a rope and small footprints all over the area. "Those fuckers took my eternal friend?!... *Chuckling* Looks like the real massacre haven''t even started yet! Hahahaah..." The laughing returned in earnest, and without much thought she followed the trail to whatever camp the goblins had. Chapter 130: Goblin Camp The sun slowly sat on the horizon, but Sera still haven''t reached the place where the goblins had come from. Her mood had only worsened as she went on, but her body only became better. As more essence was produced, it regenerated her body gradually, and after hours of walking in a lot of pain, she could finally increase her pace. Jogging was the most she could manage, but it was better than nothing. After another hour the night had arrived in its fullness. Above her the full moon had already passed and it was slowly waning into its third quarter, all around it the stars shone as its eternal companions. Together they brightened the plains she was walking, not that it made any difference for her sight. Explore more stories with m,v l''e-novelhall.net The tracks she was following slowly grew as more footprints and drag marks appeared. ''Seems like the goblins congregate here and continue on together towards their camp... I must be getting close then!'' On Sera''s face a large grin slowly crept on. It was nice to let oneself go and not worry about decisions being right or wrong. There was a flicker inside her which tried to suggest not to go and mercilessly slaughter goblins, but she smothered these thoughts with the anger burning deep inside her. After looking around a while longer she increased her speed into a light run. Every step sent a shiver of pain through her leg, but Sera ignored it and continued... Time was of the essence. It took her another half an hour to finally saw the lights. On the horizon a few kilometers away was a small hill, and on top of it was a large encampment. Hundreds of fires burning with different kinds of meats cooking on each. Some were monsters, some were animals... some were humans. Her anger flared anew and her speed became faster. In her mind she was praying for Kastral to be safe, until she reached him. Sera conveniently forgot the fact that he couldn''t really die without her dying first, but she seemed to forget a lot things lately. The pain in her leg grew with her distress, the camp was only about two kilometers away at this point and she finally heard it, not the giggling of the goblins... but the screams. One thing she never really thought of is that goblins weren''t stupid. They were only a lot more primitive and evil. After taking humans as prisoners they wouldn''t just eat them, they would actually feed and fatten them. And while they were kept well fed they would use their bodies for their other, more horrible desires. Images of Nightmare and the nights with him came to Sera''s mind. No matter how hard she tried there was no way of burying them this time. The goblin camp was less than a kilometer away when her eyes turned bloodshot from anger. In the back of her head a small laughter could be heard... She didn''t even realize that she was the one laughing. *Laughter* She chuckled because of the question, which made the chief second guess his translation. Of course there was nothing wrong with it, a bit crude but better than one would expect from goblins. "Why am I here? The answer is very simple, because I can and I want to!" She said as the smile remained on her face. It took a few moments for the chief to understand her meaning and slowly his mood worsened. "It is good you here! Me and my wives was lack a new whore! You will serve good!" This caused a bout of laughter and giggle to spread through the goblin horde, but soon Sera''s own overpowered the rest. *Laughter* "You... You mean to tell me... *giggle* Those ten females... *snicker* Are your wives?! Was it hard to find the ugliest goblins in the camp, or you just have a good eye for this sort of thing?" *Laughter* The anger on the chief''s face flared, same as the rest of the army. They didn''t take kindly to having their leader''s harem called ugly. He made one exaggerated hand movement and soon two hundred goblins came at Sera in full force. Whatever did the goblin chief expect didn''t happen. The laughing only increased in volume and soon white specks of light appeared all around Sera''s body. In her hand the weapon changed as well, it took the shape of a four meter long odachi. The 200 goblins were already about ten meters away when the laughter abruptly stopped. They thought it weird, but didn''t stop their insane rush... Which they soon regretted. As they got into the range of Sera''s sword a blinding light exploded from her body stunning the small horde of creatures. She didn''t just turned it on and off, instead the light stayed for about ten seconds. In that time the goblin army only heard screams of pain. Since it was night the effect of her light greatly increased, but Sera knew another weakness of the goblins... Their eyes. They had big eyes that could see in darkness perfectly well, but they also have an evolutionary weakness to abrupt changes in brightness. So the light was only on for ten second, but it took them a full minute before they could actually see what was going on... What they saw made them wish for the blindness. The screams stopped even before their sight came back, and when Sera noticed their reaction she began laughing again. The two hundred goblins that ran at her were in pieces all around her. Some cut with a sword, others literally ripped apart. The pristine armor that she summoned was already bright green from goblin blood. Her eyes stared into the goblin chief''s very soul as she laughed and said, "So little goblin? Who''s next?" Chapter 131: Goblin Slayer In one of the tents there were a few slaves together in a cage. Some arrived a few months ago, others had been here for years. Bran was one of the later. He was only 16 years old when the goblins destroyed his squad and took him as a sex slave. That was about four or five years ago, he couldn''t really keep count of the days. He knew that winter was closing in, since the tent started to get colder each day, but that was all he could manage. In the same cage was three other person, one man and two woman. They arrived somewhere before summer, maybe at the end of last winter? Bran didn''t know... They talked about two larger cities falling to realm gates, one of the girls even talked about surviving the disaster, but soon after that she got captured. Her age was young, a bit younger than Bran, 18 or 19... He didn''t remember, or care. The people in his cage tried talking to him, but he hasn''t spoken a word in years. At this point he didn''t even know how. The years of torture broke him completely. At first he thought someone will care about them and liberate them, but nobody came. But when that realization first came he didn''t stop hoping, praying to any deity that would hear him, and after that didn''t work he tried to take his fate into his own hands and escape... How naive he was. There was no way out, no escape, no liberation... Nobody would come for them. The night came and Bran knew exactly what that entailed... Another day of torture. When the goblins came to take them for their bodies he didn''t care, he let them drag him and the others away, because there was nothing he could do. His eyes weren''t afraid like the girls'', they were just hollow... But then something changed. The goblins turned their heads and ran out of the tent leaving them in an open cage. From the outside shouts came in the goblin language, then screams... Goblin screams. The usual giggling that was a constant echo around the camp turned silent. It took the four of them a long time to notice it. The whole camp was quiet, not like a church but a graveyard. The only sound was the cold wind''s howl within the open flaps of the tent. The wind brought something else though, the smell of rusty iron. Bran knew that smell more than the other three. It was a very special one, the smell of goblin blood. .net He stood up from the ground and with a few quick steps looked outside. He expected to see some sort of goblin fight, but that''s wasn''t where the blood came from. The source was a road made entirely from corpses. *Laughter* Somewhere near him or more like around him the sound of mad laughing came, it took him a few minutes to find its source... his own mouth. With one quick movement she pulled back her arm, and threw the spear so hard, Bran didn''t even see it until it hit its target. One of the goblin female in front of the chief got her head pierced by the spear and she instantly fell over dead. The spear in her skull slowly dissolved into speck of light and appeared back in Sera''s hand. *Laughter* "So? Will you come and fight me now?" Her grin was scary even for Bran, but also a deep satisfaction grew inside his heart. Seeing the despair on the chief''s face was something that filled him with great joy. The anger spread on his face and with a mad scream he jumped towards the mysterious slayer. Her weapon changed again, this time into a western longsword and with one move she stopped the attack that was about to decapitate her. The chief wasn''t even slowed by the block and in the next moment he moved to her side stabbing towards her right leg. The smile on the woman''s face grew as she parried the attack. They exchanged another few moves before separating. Only now did Bran notice the limp in her right side, and he quickly understood why the goblin tried to attack that leg. "Dum Ba Qua!" In his mind Bran quickly translated the words. "Not bad whore!" This time he did use whore as an insult, the woman didn''t care though, and just began another exchange. Her sword moved with accuracy Bran had never seen. Each cut or stab nearly hit some point on the chief''s armor which would be a death sentence, but the goblin had one advantage over the mysterious goblin slayer... He was an ascended. Suddenly he giggled and moved back a few steps. In the next second he seemed to disperse into a cloud of colors, and after about five seconds he settled back into his goblin form... Except he wasn''t alone. From the cloud five goblin chief''s stepped out of and they immediately encircled Sera. Her head moved to try and keep all of them in her sight, but that was impossible. Seeing this ability her whole demeanor changed and she turned serious. Specks of light appeared around her head and a helmet soon appeared. Also on her chest a small pendant grew out of the armor, it looked like a dragon or something. Bran didn''t understand what was the pendant''s purpose, but as the goblin slayer''s sword ignited with dark flames, it didn''t take a genius to figure it out. She spun her sword around a few times leaving scorch marks everywhere it touched the ground, then strangely enough she turned around and cut a spear out of the air. One of the harem members that looked very similar to the female who had died, threw the spear. Her face had tear marks on it, which brought happiness to Bran. It only took him a moment to look at the female, but within that time frame one of the copies was already stabbed through the chest. As the goblin hit the ground he dissolved into a colorful cloud and reassembled himself into a copy. *Laughter* "Marvelous! What other tricks do you have up in your sleeve?... And here I thought your biggest weapon would be boredom." The goblin chief giggled as well, and in the next second all five copies attacked at the same time. Chapter 132: Ublykx, Chieftain of the Goblins Ublykx was proud which was unusual for a goblin of his strength. He led this camp for nearly a decade now, and he was thankful for his master who gave him this opportunity. All these years he murdered, raped and enjoyed life, but at one night it all changed. When that killer came to his camp and started slaying his citizens left and right. He wasn''t very good at counting, but one of his concubines told him the woman killed nearly a half of their camp. What was even more surprising is that most of the goblins haven''t even fought her. They just knelt from fear and let her kill them. .net At first he was furious how can all his subjects be this spineless? But after meeting the mysterious woman it all made sense. As the mad whore walked onto the square, covered in his people''s blood, there was no remorse on her face. Ublykx met a lot of humans in his time, but non seemed as fearsome as her. It was like a deep raging star was burning right within her soul, each step sent a tremble down his spine. At first he thought that the woman was breakable and he would make her one of his royal whores, but when she sent that spear through his concubine''s head her fate was sealed. Without much thought he jumped forward and attacked, but this strange human could match his speed and strength. He knew that she was only an evolved and not an ascended like him, but she was much stronger than any he faced before. It didn''t help that she was constantly mocking him, when his pride was about to get the better of him Ublykx remembered that he didn''t need to play fair. He decided that this wouldn''t be a one-on-one duel, instead he used his ability and summoned four copies of himself. He attacked at the same time as the copies and expected the woman to fall within the next few seconds. He was a master of his ability after years of fighting and killing, but he also knew it wasn''t a strong ability to begin with. It still should have made the slayer die in a couple of moments, but that''s not what happened. As the five attacked the a small laugh came from the woman''s helmet. To Ublykx''s absolute surprise she didn''t try to dodge or intercept any of the attacks. She just turned around and stared exactly at the real him. It made him stumble, which caused his sword to reach the slayer''s body a bit later than the rest. Not that it made any difference, as the five swords landed on her armor... they broke apart. Through the air bits and pieces of metal flew, some even hit a couple of goblins killing them on the spot. The square was as silent as a crypt. The female knelt on the ground seemingly in a lot of pain, but with no wounds. The helmet on her head slowly dissipated into sparks of light. Then she took a deep breath and began laughing again. Gradually and shakily she started rising to her feet, which caused Ublykx to take a step back. Those swords were made of very strong enchanted metals, they shouldn''t have broken so easily and this was the fact that scared the chief the most. In the human language, in a trembling voice he spoke to the goblin slayer. "Who are you?" The woman turned her head, she seemed a bit confused. After a few seconds she realized that he didn''t call her a whore, this was a sign of subjugation on his part... Not that she cared. Non of them knew what kind of mount should they look for, or what even a mount is. But weirdly enough they felt compelled to follow her order. They could disobey it as well, but that just simply felt wrong, like disobeying your superior. The four of them looked at each other, than they shrugged and went different directions. Bran walked straight towards the chief''s large tent. As he was about to go in, he stopped next to the goblin female''s corpse, then with a quick movement he crushed her head with his feet. Satisfied with the outcome he moved on and into the giant tent. The first thing he saw was a large bed and many smaller sofas all over the place, there were stains on every furniture and even human blood. The implications of it made his stomach turn, but he kept himself from vomiting and instead moved towards the back... Where the cages were. In the back of the tent was a large area with about hundred or so slaves inside. They looked malnourished, hopeless and barely alive. He didn''t know when it happened, but seeing them made the changes within himself more pronounced. On the outside he was very similar as them, but his emotional state changed drastically since seeing that mysterious woman. He looked at every person with pity and with swift movements opened every cage. The captives had no idea who he was or what he was doing, and as the cages opened they didn''t know what to do. Bran looked around trying to find anything that could be considered a mount, but there was nothing. With empty hands he was about to leave, when his eyes spotted a specific part of a cage. Behind a terrified woman was something he hadn''t seen in a long time... Children... Looking outside he contemplated what to do next. In the end he decided to do something he hadn''t done in years... speak. "Leave..." His voice was barely louder than a whisper and so raspy that it hurt his throat. He coughed a few times than tried to speak again. "Come... On! The goblins... had left! You are... Free!" After speaking he went into a coughing fit, but non of the slaves moved. He was about to give up on them, when one of the children ran out of the cage. The woman tried to stop her, but wasn''t fast enough. The little boy stopped next to Bran, and looked out onto the square. Seeing the mounds of goblin corpses, he quickly turned around and motioned the others to look. Very slowly people began moving and stared out at the massacre site. Many of them fell to their knees crying from joy, others just simply cheered. After a few minutes they calmed down enough to move outside, but as they stepped onto the square a large shadow landed right in front of them. The beast was pristine white, his front was like a hawk and his back like a horse. He was huge about 3 meters in height, but most of all he looked angry. With a large huff he turned around, not even taking a second glance at Bran or the others and with quick steps he approached the mysterious woman. Only now did Bran realize that this beast of nature was the mystery woman''s mount... Chapter 133: Road to Flensburg After half an hour of lying on the ground, Sera finally collected enough energy to try to stand up. Her eyes gradually opened and as she was about to move, she noticed something soft cuddling her side. Her head turned and while a headache was splitting her skull, she stared into the golden eyes of a white hippgoryph. Seeing her friend safe and sound her eyes turned teary. Slowly she tried to reach out her hand, but the excruciating pain stopped her from doing so. Kastral noticed how much suffering she was in, and gently place his head on her hand. With a bit of chuckle she began scratching his chin, but then suddenly a large amount of essence appeared in her depleted soul. With a gasp and wide eyes she stared at her mount, who was just enjoying the pets with closed eyes. "What?... Did you think I would let you suffer in pain? Am I that horrible to you?" This time she actually began to cry, and with slow and methodical movements she placed her head on the hippogryph''s. "You could have done it sooner... You know how painful it is to get hit by five ascended all over your body at the same time?..." They both laughed, then just stayed in that position for a good while. Find your next read on m_v l|e-novelhall.net Eventually they separated and when Sera rose to her feet she was very surprised. All around her people were staring with shocked expressions. There was a few hundred of them at least. With a calm demeanor she looked at each member of the crowd, which seemed to make them uncomfortable. They began looking at each other, then slowly they knelt before her. As the people went to one knee in subordination Kastral only watched Sera. Something was different about her, instead of looking uncomfortable like she used to, there was a small smile on her face. It looked strange, but he always suggested for Sera to act more like a leader, so who was he to judge. While she stood all proud, he stepped behind her and spread his massive wings. From the people''s position it looked like she had a pair of angel wings. Her head turned around and with a kind smile she nodded towards him. "You probably wonder who I am! The answer should be obvious to you, I''m your savior! But you haven''t been fully saved yet, we still need to reach Flensburg, an outpost north of here! So everyone loot this camp taking everything you deem necessary! We move out at first light!" After finishing she stood there waiting for objections, and when non came she just went and climbed onto Kastral''s back. He made a loud screech as they took to the skies leaving the people in an awed state. ... On the eastern horizon the sun had only started to brighten the sky, but on the ground a large group of humans were already marching towards their destination. Many of them wore the goblin''s armor, they looked ridiculous since it wasn''t made for beings the size of humans, but every small protection counted in the wild. ''That face, those eyes, that hair... Where had I seen her, maybe back in Castleburg? But that wouldn''t make sense, I spent less than a month there and she was captured long before that... But that only leaves Newber, I''m not the only survivor?... That still doesn''t explain the familiarity though...'' She was beginning to lose herself in these thoughts, when she noticed the sudden silence around her. The four of them stopped talking and were instead looking at the ground, their faces showing nothing but reverence. "My Lady, what do you need from this humble servant?" Said Bran without looking up. Sera needed a lot of self control to not roll her eyes. It was truly hard to talk with your followers. "I just wanted to know how long do you think the journey will be?" She said in a perfect monotone, her voice contained a slight demand inside of it too. It was also full of authority, which gave it another sense of need. "We are about two or three days away from Flensburg! It will depend on who bad the marshes are in this time of year." He said still not looking up. For a second or two she stared at him, then just slowly nodded and said, "Good job, Bran!" Hearing his name from her mouth made Bran''s whole existence tremble. It felt like his god had spoken to him. Without any more word Sera moved on. She went to a bit of stone outcropping and sat down. Watching the plains was peaceful, but deep within her mind she felt that something was off. The feeling of loss was a permanent companion for her. ''What is happening to me?! Why do I feel this great sorrow?... I should be happy! We are only a few kilometers away from our destination... The others will be waiting for us there! They will find out that me and Kastral are fine, Bea and Vicky must be worried sick...'' The feeling of depression only increased the more she thought. With a bit of shakiness in her hand, she touched her cheek. It came away wet... teary. ''Why am I crying?... Am I forgetting something?...'' Quickly she recalled everything that happened to her in this life, which weirdly enough wasn''t much. She was born to a good family, but she couldn''t recall any of it''s members. She went to some kind of school, but didn''t know it''s name or what she was studying. After the destruction of her city, which''s name she couldn''t remember, she stumbled upon his current friends and family. The events after that were clearer, but still a bit foggy. It felt like some kind of darkness was creeping in her mind making it harder to remember events of the past. While Sera was holding her head and struggling to recall who she was, in the large group of humans an old man was staring at her from afar. He was old, but weirdly enough quite fit. His hair was mostly gone on the top and what remained on the sides was white as snow. The whitish-blue eyes of his, were covered by a pair of welding glasses, and he wore a large lab coat. While looking at Sera''s inner struggle, on the old scientist''s face a cruel and satisfied smile appeared. [End of Part 2 ¨C Angel of Hope] Chapter 134: Zephyr, The West Wind As night approached the group had already settled near where the Storm Spirit was supposedly located. The mood was much more serious and less joyful, since Sera and Kastral left. They only spoke to talk about the plan of attack. Vicky just stared into the burning campfire and in her mind she prayed for her mother to be okay. In the past week or so she noticed small changes in her personality. At first she became much more emotional, which as Bea said was because of the hormonal cycle of being and evolved human. But after a while she seemed to change in the opposite direction, not quite cold but as if she wasn''t really the same person anymore. It was weird, and whenever Vicky brought it up to the others, they just told her that Sera is under a lot of stress... But they didn''t know her as much as Vicky... She spent a long time with her in that tiny room, but it was as if her mother was slowly forgetting the things they went through together. This fact was really scary to think about, she was even afraid to bring it up with her other mother. ''Bea wouldn''t listen to me anyway... She never does, not like Sera... I miss my mommy...'' While sitting a silent tear ran down on Vicky''s cheek. Nobody in the group noticed her inner conflict and sadness, they were preoccupied with something more important... Figuring out where the Storm Spirit was. Whatever they said to each other Vicky wasn''t paying attention to it. Slowly she stood up and walked towards the makeshift hippogryph nest. Little Memento was happily jumping around, wanting to play with anyone. She was too young to understand why the adults looked a bit crestfallen. Watching the tiny hippogryph hopping from one place to the other brought a small smile to Vicky''s gloomy face, and brightened her mood a little. As Memento noticed her approach she quickly jumped and headbutted her stomach. Luckily she wasn''t strong enough to knock Vicky down, but Bea told her that hippogryphs matured fast. In maybe a year or two she will be as big as the rest, well not as gigantic as Kastral. When she remembered the King of Hippogryphs and his rider, her pervious smile turned upside down. Absentmindedly she stroked Memento''s small bird head, which strangely enough calmed both of them down. They sat on the cold ground and watched the stars together. It made her think of something that her mother once told her. "If you ever get lost don''t be sad. Just look at the stars and be assured that I''m watching the same sky as you... No matter how far you are or how bad the situation is, just know that I will always find you. That is something I know for certain!" As Vicky looked at the starry sky tears fell from her eyes. In her mind she repeated the same sentence over and over until it lost its meaning. Feeling her fragile emotional state Memento came closer and buried her head into Vicky''s chest. This caused a small sad smile to appear on her face, and she began scratching her chin''s feathers. They sat there staring at the night sky for an hour or so, but suddenly her attention went elsewhere. Farther away about three kilometers to the west some living thing was approaching them, fast! Quickly Vicky jumped to her feet and was about to warn the others, but they also felt it. The creature whatever it was, didn''t try to hide its presence. Bea was looking everywhere seemingly very anxious, but when her eyes fell on Vicky she breathed a sigh of relief. She floated around a bit more, than with a chuckle looked at Bea. "You have a bit of pure nature in you, how delightful! Back then they associated me with spring you know, but then all the gods went to sleep for a long time... I got off track again! My suggestion is to hunt down a corrupted named Notus. He was once my brother of sorts, but Madness took his mind." Her erratic movement suddenly stopped and she stared at them a bit confused. "I don''t even understand why you wanted to hunt me... My power isn''t related to storms at all!" This time the eight of them were the confused ones. "What do you mean? Aren''t you a Storm Spirit?" Asked Sarah with disbelief, she thought Zephyr was lying to them. The spirit didn''t take offense and instead flew closer to the group which put them a bit on edge. "Of course not silly! Maybe you should check the batteries in those watches, they seem to get an awful lot of information wrong... *Chuckle* I''m just kidding, it''s not the watch''s fault, but mine... You see these instruments work with cosmic materials, which gets more inaccurate as the creature''s power grows!" The fickle spirit flew away and danced in the tender wind. While spinning and doing cartwheels in the air, her voice appeared again. "At the transcended level it becomes a bit lackluster. Those scouts years ago thought I didn''t see them... What dummies... *Giggle* They even thought me a mere corrupted, a bit insulting if I do say so myself!... Anyway do we have a deal, or you still want to fight?" The group looked at one another, then just shrugged. Bea took a step forward and said, "Okay, but only if you can point out Notus''s exact location on our map!" *Giggle* "Sure thing!... There he is, just a bit north from here!... Now that we are done with that I''m leaving! Bye, it was nice to meet all of you!" As she left her voice echoed for a few more seconds in the wind, then it too gradually went away. With nothing else to do and very weirded out by the encounter the group went to sleep. Tomorrow they would continue their journey. Vicky stared at the sky a while longer, then gently her eyes closed. When she had fallen asleep, she dreamt of her mother. Sera was walking in a dark corridor, it was infinitely long and both sides were covered in doors. On each there was a label, but Vicky couldn''t read them. She seemed to be in a lot of panic, she was running around trying to open every door, but they were all locked. Eventually she stopped and just sat down with one of the doors to her back. "I''m sorry... I just can''t... I can''t..." While crying she whispered the same sentence over and over again. Vicky also felt her emotions, her mother was terrified, lost and extremely sad. Then suddenly out of nowhere she shouted, "BEHIND YOU!" As Vicky turned around a man in a lab coat slowly walked towards Sera. The old man brought a great amount of fear and pain to Vicky''s soul, but she didn''t understand why. It felt like she seen this man before, but couldn''t recall her memory about it. His hand slowly reached out and touched Sera''s head, which caused an even bigger concern and horror to appear in Vicky''s heart. As the old man smiled, he turned towards Vicky and said, "You are next!" The nightmare broke apart and Vicky woke up screaming from terror... Chapter 135: The Person in the Lab Coat While everyone was sleeping Bea was keeping watch... alone. She stared out at the brightening horizon, the absence of Sera hurt her the most. It''s not like this was the first time she had left, but something felt different now. The grassy plain was moved by the gentle wind and Bea felt on edge. In the background there was something bigger going on, she just couldn''t figure out what it was. She listened to Vicky''s concerns about Sera, and it would be a lie to say she hadn''t notice the changes in her personality. Even though she was trying to remain in the blissful ignorance, there was still a feeling at the back of her mind screaming at her to do something. Speaking of screaming, while she stared out at the smooth plains, behind her a girl screamed. Since there was only one girl in the group Bea knew who to run to and within a second she was holding a trembling Vicky. She was crying and between sobs she whispered, "Don''t hurt my mummy... *sob* Leave her alone..." With her hand Bea made small strokes on her back and hair, which seemed to calm her down a bit. "Shh... It''s okay, you just had a nightmare... Nothing is going to get you and Sera can protect herself..." Suddenly Vicky burst away from her arms and with a face full of tear marks shouted, "NO!... SHE CAN''T!..." Slowly Bea tried to reach for Vicky''s hand, but she quickly evaded it. With a sigh she let her hand fall, and asked in a soothing tone, "Why do you say that?" Vicky turned her head a bit trying to focus on some memory but having hard time doing so. Eventually she seemed to remember and said loudly, but also less angrily. "It''s that man in the lab coat! I don''t quite remember him, but he is doing something to Sera! That''s why she has been acting strangely in this past week or so!" At first Bea thought that this was just part of her nightmare, but she soon realized that wasn''t the case. Steadily she walked towards Vicky and went down on eyelevel, her face was deathly serious as she said, "Okay Vicky, tell me everything you remember!" She didn''t speak like a mother would to her child, but more like a commander to her subordinate. It wasn''t the time to be careful with emotions, they needed to learn more about this potential threat. Unlike how she expected, Vicky wasn''t even remotely disturbed and seemed to have a better grasp on the situation, than most in her place would. Without skipping a beat she started from the very beginning. "I remember, back when I got captured by Nightmare there was a person ¨C an old man, in a lab coat. He was a scientist of sorts, at first I thought he was one of Nightmare''s lieutenants, but that wasn''t the case at all... *sigh* He was his boss!" There was a thoughtful expression on Bea''s face, then her eyes widened from surprise. She remembered that when they won the fight in Havel, there was only a single person who escaped... the scientist. They even tried to figure out what he researched, but literally all of his papers were burned. There wasn''t a single trace left from him, every person who knew how he looked was dead. Not being able to read didn''t have any hidden meaning, you just simply can''t read in dreams. But Harold and him touching Sera''s head, was clearly indication that it was his doing, this also brought other questions up. ''Just how strong is that scientist?! If he can just simply lock or erase memories, he has to be at least transcended!... Which means we can''t fight him, not even if all of us would be ascended, the gap is just simply too big...'' The others seemed to understand this as well, but Bea didn''t let the depressed mood linger. "Everyone! Yes this is bad news, and we don''t even know where Sera is, but we won''t give in to hopelessness! First we find that corrupted north from here and kill him! Then we find and save Sera before it''s too late!... Any objections?" The group stayed silent, but the sadness had been replaced by determination. "Good, then let''s mount and find this Notus!" She didn''t have to order twice, soon all the hippogryphs were mounted and in the air. The goal has been set, and they will achieve it at any cost! ... They flew for about an hour before they reached the foggy marshlands Zephyr talked about. At the edge of it they got off of their mounts and went inside the humid wetlands. The area was quite precarious for multiple reasons, the ground was covered in a small layer of water which made it easy to trip, while the fog took most of their vision away. The only people who could really sense approaching creatures were Faith and Vicky. Vicky using her soul vision, and Faith with her shadow sense. They were their main scouts, but there were no need for them. It was quite obvious where they needed to go... In the middle of the swamp a weird storm was raging. It was strange since the clouds that made up the storm weren''t moving in any direction. They just went around in a circle. The whole group watched the clouds move for a few moments, it was kind of mesmerizing, and ironically serene. The sound of thunder reached them every now and then, but there was mostly just a warm breeze blowing around them. They continued to move towards it. Non were really shocked to find this weird phenomenon, since Zephyr was kind enough to provide exact descriptions of what to look for. She also said there will be a large building in the eye of the storm, and inside they would find Notus. The group cautiously approached the edge of the storm wall, then Bea stopped and turned towards them. "Is everyone ready?" She asked, but already knew the answer. Everyone looked at each other and collectively nodded. With a large sigh Bea turned around and stepped inside the downpour. Chapter 136: Notus, Storm Spirit As the cold rain blasted them in the face they approached the large building a few kilometers away. With a downpour the fog dissipated, but that didn''t increase visibility by much. And only when Will used his powers, and made a nice, dry bubble around them, were they finally able to see more clearly. Every now and then the dark sky was illuminated by lightning, and when it hit the ground the muddy plains were brought to light as well. There was no living creature here, only the eroded ground from all the rain. ''Just where does all this rain go? If it rains here throughout the whole day, that could feed a large river, but it seems to only make a small marshland around the storm... Strange, it''s like something doesn''t let it spread. They marched on further, closing in on the eye of the storm. The rain gradually decreased in frequency, and the clouds turned thinner. When they finally stepped outside of the storm wall, they were welcomed by an azure blue sky, and a bit farther away stood a lonely building. The group hadn''t stopped to reconfigure and just walked towards the structure. From afar it didn''t look any special, but as they closed in, the building''s pervious purpose became as clear as day... it was a church. It looked old, or more like ancient. The stone that it was built out of was already crumbling at most places. The stained glass windows were mostly broken to little bits and pieces. From the two clocktowers only one stood kind of straight, the other was destroyed and turned to rubble. The eight of them approached the rotting double doors of the temple and stepped inside. The building''s interior wasn''t as dark as one would imagine. The window holes and broken roof really helped with the atmosphere of the creepy abandoned temple. There were rows and rows of seats, or at least there were at some point, now most of the lied in splinters. The pillars that were meant to hold up the roof were in a bad state too, they could probably be toppled by a light push. All in all this place was a health hazard, and they haven''t even seen the most dangerous part of it. In the front, below a large tainted glass window, where an altar should''ve been, stood a throne... and on it sat an old man. His hair and beard were dark like a storm cloud, his bushy eyebrows brought out the eyes which seemed like electricity were coursing through them. He wore nothing, but a dark robe. The group readied their weapons preparing for the fight and as the man slowly raised his head a mad smile spread on his face. He began laughing with the sound of thunder, then steadily rose from his throne. "Who dares approaches my domain!" His voice was a deep rumble which shook the whole building to its core. The group looked at each other a bit confused, beings affected by madness rarely talked if ever. It rose a spark of doubt in their minds, they didn''t want to kill someone that wasn''t corrupted. Luckily Notus made the decision for them. "Whoever you are, I hope you are prepared to die!" While his voice was still shaking the foundation of the building, his body turned bright as a lightning strike. He seemed to disappear from the elevated platform where the throne was located, and in the next moment Lucy was flying through the air. His movement was so fast that non of them could even react. The next one to get hit was Hellfire, but he only fell to the ground. Then behind his back a pair of flaming wings appeared, but before he could rise a lightning hit him square on the chest. Above the church the dark clouds from the sides began closing in. Through the cracks in the roof Bea saw them and quickly realized their threat. Her eyes focused on the exhausted group, then rolled back into her head. She began falling over unconscious, the evolution process had begun. Will quickly jumped and caught her, before she fell to the ground. They decided to wait for Sarah to wake up, then they would immediately beeline to Flenburg and try to find Sera before it''s too late. With a quick mental message Bea told Alyrine, that it was safe to come here. And in the next second, through the broken roof the hippogryphs had descended. It took Sarah a few hours to wake up. She felt a lot more powerful, especially her control over lightning and storms, but before she could check or test anything out, the group saddled back on and flew towards southeast. They were about fifty or so kilometers away, which meant they would arrive there by nightfall. They went as fast as they could, their worry and anxiety was constantly increasing. And they felt that something horrible was going to happen, and unfortunately they weren''t wrong. At first there was just a small point on the southeastern horizon, but as they got closer towards it they soon realized what or more like who he was... Kastral. For a second everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but when they saw that there was no one on his back, their fear came back tenfold. The group quickly landed on the ground and listened to Bea, who in turn listened to Alyrine as she translated for Kastral. He spoke of Amygdala, and how she let both Sera and him escape. Then about the goblin camp and Sera''s massacre, then finally about Sera herself. "As we were flying towards Flenburg with the group, suddenly she began talking to herself and asking questions like ''Who am I?'' or ''What am I doing here?''. At that point we were already close to Flenburg, but she suddenly began to freak out!" It seemed their worst fears came to be true and Sera truly lost her memories, and with that her whole sense of self. "I landed to try and calm her down, but she immediately ran off. No matter what I said or done she just sprinted into Flenburg with a terrified expression. The guards saw her and were about to open fire on me, so I had to leave..." "So she is still in Flenburg?" Asked Vicky with teary eyes. Kastral seemed to look away sadly, then shook his head and sighed. "No... She went through the portal... I only saw her from afar, but through our bond I felt her emotions... After entering Flenburg, her whole demeanor changed, like someone else had taken control... She went straight for the Realm Gate, and when the guards tried to stop her she cut them down mercilessly..." The group turned speechless. What happened to Sera was horrible, worse than they thought. The silence lasted for a few minutes, then Bea spoke up. "I don''t care..." She said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. Her head slowly turned towards the sky, and she repeated herself, this time louder. "I don''t care what she did! My only concern is what''s happening to her! We were already planning to enter the Realm of Boundless Frost for the last four hunts, this just means that our schedule has been brought forward!" Bea looked at each of the group members with a serious expression, while her right hand was absently stroking Vicky''s hair. Everyone bobbed their heads, showing their approval. "SO? What are we waiting for! MOVE OUT!" Chapter 137: Realm of Boundless Frost They flew as fast as possible, but still only arrived to Flenburg when the sun set behind them. The hippogryphs sat down near the outpost''s wall, they wouldn''t be coming to the other realm anyway. Bea got off of Alyrine and turned towards Kastral, who descended next to them. She reached out her hand and petted his beak. "We will bring her back... I promise!" Kastral didn''t seem to be too convinced, but nodded all the same, then turned away and flew to the sky. "He''s just angry that he can''t help saving Seraphine..." Said a feminine voice inside Bea''s mind. She turned towards Alyrine and scratched her chin feathers. "Take care of them while we are away. And if things don''t go as planned make sure you leave... Don''t risk your entire species for us!" Her eyes turned teary as she said it. Somehow she could tell, that they won''t going to see each other for a long time. With that done, the eight of them turned towards the outpost''s main gate, where a bunch of guards looked at them with wide eyes. They didn''t bother approaching slowly, everyone went as fast as possible. The first one to arrive was strangely enough Sarah. Her transformed self changed a lot and now it incorporated the speed of lightning in itself, even she didn''t know her new limit. By the time Bea arrived with the rest, the guards were already minding their own business. This outpost was Castleburg''s property, so when the princess appeared they didn''t know what to do. Sarah told them that they have a hunt in the Realm of Boundless Frost, and non of them had the jurisdiction to stop her. Without another word from anyone, even from the outpost''s lead transcended... they went to the gateway. These Realm Gates worked on a very special principle... flow. After years of trial and error the humans eventually figured out what could keep a gateway open. The first thing they noticed is that the gate won''t close if something is on both side of it. This can be any matter, or even energy. While a constant connection exists with both sides, the realms will stay connected. But the solution for the problem wasn''t as easy as putting a long stick inside a gate because the portal''s size will still decrease to the circumference of said object. Strangely enough only specific kinds of energy works for it. For example light or magnetic fields don''t suffice for some reason. For them to be able to keep the gate open they needed a constant flow on every part of the gateway. It took scientist another year to figure out the method. When a gateway appeared and got secured, they built a frame around it from both sides. These instruments had hundreds of thousand little energy transmitters, which were programmed to only send energy to specific points on the other side. It created a constant flow all around the gate and that kept it open. ''It made sense, since only people who are the best could get stationed in an outpost like this. It requires even more to get an assignment in a different realm.'' With confident steps Bea approached them and asked, "Have you seen a golden haired, white armored woman came through the gateway?" The trio looked at each other with raised eyebrows, but didn''t say a word. Bea just sighed and was about to look for someone else to ask, when a fourth person said, "Who was she?" From the frosty air a figure appeared. He was a tall middle aged man, who has seen quite a few battles it seemed. The man expected some kind of decorum or a bow like the trio did, but Bea just stared him down, which was a bit ridiculous since the man was at least two meter tall. The air between them started to tingle marking the possibility of conflict, but before the situation could escalate, Vicky poked her head out from behind Bea and spoke. "She is my mother mister! If you could point us in the direction she went, we would really appreciate it!" The cold demeanor of the man quickly melted by Vicky''s innocent voice, but even then there was a hidden pain in his eye. ''Sera probably killed a few of his men as well... *sigh* I hope we can still save her... I don''t know what would I do if she was truly lost... Idiot! Don''t even think like that! WE WILL SAVE HER!'' While Bea was convincing herself, the man answered Vicky''s question. "Yeah she passed through here not that long ago actually. We couldn''t stop her from leaving towards the outskirts, I mean I could''ve but weren''t near the base when she came out of the gate. What the reports had told us was that she left through the main gate, and headed straight to north." ''Straight to north? Isn''t that where the Holy Phoenix was located?... Don''t tell me she will try to fight it alone, without her wings!... We have to leave immediately!'' Vicky came to this conclusion about the same time she did, and after a quick thank you they excused themselves and went to the main gate where the others were already waiting. .net Each knew the direction Sera went, and after a quick talk they began running the same way... north. The Holy Phoenix was located quite far away from there, or at least it should''ve been. In truth the monsters in other realms acted a bit differently then on Earth. Here they liked to wander and explore, but most of all they loved to destroy. This was one of the main reasons that a constant force was required to guard the realm gate on this side. Any monster could just either wander through or disable it completely. And it also made the monsters'' movements very unpredictable. By the latest scout report the phoenix was located about fifty kilometers to the north, but that estimate was made more than a few months ago. But they weren''t hunting for the phoenix right now, they were following Sera and since she went that way, they had to follow her metaphorical footsteps. Chapter 138: Forgotten On the icy plains a woman walked. Her steps were steady and her armor shining even in the obscured sunlight. She had no destination or sense of direction, there was only one command in her mind... Find the phoenix. That''s what that man told her, he will help regain her memories if she killed the phoenix and became an ascended. Her golden hair was blowing in the wind, and her fierce eyes scanning the plains for said bird. With no recollections of who she was, there wasn''t much choice but following the strange white coated man''s orders. Back then there was a small sound in her mind, it wanted her to run or kill the man, but eventually that went silent too. There were still loads of questions within herself, like ''Who am I?'', ''Where am I?'' or ''What am I doing here?'' but getting answers required her to kill the Holy Phoenix. Strangely enough she remembered the exact description of said monster, and she knew everything about fighting beasts. ''Just what kind of person learns to fight monsters?... Is this a normalcy in this world?... What world is this anyway?... Is this my home?... It doesn''t feel like home...'' On her cheeks the tears she shed froze immediately, this was another question that she had no answer to. ''Why do I feel this inexplicable sadness, like my heart is breaking from despair... Did something bad happen I just forgotten it... *sigh* Let''s move on, that is the only way I will learn more!'' The old man named Harold sent her this way, and said just walk straight for a few hours, then kill the monster. ''Like it was that simple to kill a corrupted of the 3rd tier alone... Alone? Why do I feel like I shouldn''t be alone... Did I have companions?... *sigh* So frustrating! Just who the hell am I!?'' Her very soul was clouded in terror, but she marched on towards a fight that could very well be her last. Around her the snowy plains were as empty as ever. From the sky snow began pelting her armor, and to keep out the cold she summoned her helmet too. Now fully covered, she began jogging towards whatever destination life held for her. On the ground her footprints were slowly filled up by the a new layer of fresh snow. After walking for about six hours she finally found something. Some stone structure was sticking out of the ground. Slowly and cautiously the woman approached it and with one hand brushed the fresh layer of snow off of it. The stone had many carvings all over it, and its shape was cylindrical, just like a pillar. Most were already too damaged to make out, but a few were still distinguishable. One showed a gigantic city built on clouds and everywhere beings with multiple wings flew. Another shown a large building that resembled a temple with many bonfires burning all over it. The last was the most well maintained out of the three, it depicted a large bird-like creature with burning wings right above an altar... The Holy Phoenix... The carving brought a strange feeling to her, like she had a passion of researching things similar to this pillar. ''Maybe I liked history or something... It doesn''t matter, this is clearly a drawing of the phoenix which means it must be nearby!'' The woman stood up and brushed off the snow from her armor. She then looked around the sky trying to find any indication where to go next. Feeling an instinct within her soul, she closed her eyes and let herself go. Her arms moved, even the burned one. At the joints it began bleeding because of the movement, but she didn''t care. There was only one goal in her mind... Kill The Beast! With each pull she came closer and closer to the top. The phoenix seemed to notice it as well, and began making sharp turns to throw the woman off. *Mad Laughter* The woman had nothing to say, throughout the whole climb she just laughed. After a few more seconds of very slow climbing, she finally saw the phoenix. Its feathers were a magical blend of yellow, orange and red. Unlike what she expected the phoenix wasn''t on fire at all. It''s long neck held a magnificent bird head and as it turned towards her its eyes seemed to be on fire. Then its beak opened and after a loud screech white flame appeared in it. With an inner curse the woman tried to throw the phoenix a bit off course with a few pendulum movements. It caused a great amount of pain to the monster and its fiery breath went astray. After breathing a small sigh of relief she continued to climb, and after a few more pulls, she grabbed onto the large feathers of the phoenix. Without much thinking she held onto even more and pulled herself onto the beast. When she was finally on it, her lance dissipated into specks of light, then reformed in the shape of a dagger. Using her left hand she pushed it deep inside the bird just in time, as it began doing barrel rolls. The knife''s blade was curved and had a great grip, but it was still really hard to hold on. With very steady and methodical movements she climbed further onto the back of the bird, until she was right near its neck. She waited for another roll to pass, then with an extremely quick movement pulled out the knife and her hand stabbed towards the creature''s neck. Its blade elongated and widened, turning into its usual longsword shape. Within less than a second the sword went through skin, muscle and bone with ease, snapping the spine into two pieces. While laughing madly she held onto the sword that was stuck inside the beast. The phoenix''s struggling and movements stopped. Gradually it slowed down and began falling towards the ground. With loud and joyful cheers the woman rode the dead phoenix to the ground. As it hit the icy plain she lost her grip and flew for a good fifteen meters. Every single cell in her body hurt like hell, but she didn''t care. The beast was dead, now she only had to use its corpse for the evolution. With a few moans and gasps of protest, she rose to her feet again. Her eyes slowly cleared from the haziness and focused on the monster''s body. At some point the snowstorm stopped and turned into a light drizzle. She could see the corpse clearly, but something looked strange about it. Even from fifteen meters away she felt the heat that its body conducted to the surroundings, following by her instinct she started sprinting to the exact opposite direction. After she was close to fifty meters away the woman finally stopped and looked back. The body of the phoenix melted all the snow and ice around it. Slowly a few embers appeared, but soon they turned into heavy flames. Its head spasmed a bit, then gradually rose. The eyes of the monster seemed to only hold the woman in their sight, then suddenly its head looked at the sky and with a loud screech its whole body exploded into white fire. Chapter 139: Holy Phoenix The whole world turned into a bright mess. In a few hundred meter circle all the snow had melted and in the middle of it was a fifteen meter long fiery bird. The phoenix had resurrected, and became even stronger than before. Its bright colored feathers turned pure white and on each a small fire burned constantly. Its magnificent eyes were gone and in their place, two white flames watched the world. It spread its giant wings and was about to take to the skies, but suddenly something hit it right between its right shoulder''s connecting bone. The white and gold spear slowly turned into spheres of light, then fully disappeared. The phoenix fell back to the ground, but didn''t stay there for long. The hatred burning within its eyes began burning even brighter. With a perfect spear throw she managed to take away the monster''s flight, but that was only a small advantage in this fight. Her legs and arm healed enough to be able to use them at about ninety percent efficiency, but the pain had only increased. Since the freezing cold wind went away, her melted skin wasn''t as numb anymore. With gritted teeth she started running towards the bird. Its eyes watched her every movement, and she had a bad premonition. Throughout this battle she mostly followed her instincts and this time wasn''t different either. The woman changed tactics and began running in a zigzag pattern, which she had done just in time. The two burning eyes of the monstrous phoenix glowed even brighter, and in the next second two beams of pure white energy burst out of them. The ground exploded wherever they touched it, and since it was aimed at the woman everything around her went up ablaze. In her left hand the longword appeared again, then the black flame came next. With a shout of pure rage she ran on towards the large bird. The energy beams in its eyes quickly went away, and the phoenix decided to make it a physical fight. It moved its wing in a sweep that left fire in its wake. The woman had to jump back and change directions to avoid it, but in a moment another wing passed her. This time it set everything behind her aflame. Her head swiveled quickly and only after another second did she realize that everything around her was in flames... She was encircled. Just the heat from these fires were so hot that even the somewhat healthy parts of her skin began to blister. With a few deep breaths and gasps she calmed her turbulent mind, then before the phoenix could melt her with its fiery breath, she used her sword to cut through the wall of flames. Slowly she started walking on the extremely hot stone ground, then when she came close to the fire she swung her sword. The black and white flames met and countered each other. She didn''t stop for a second and just marched on, with each cut and swing a part of the flames got extinguished. Sadly the ground didn''t really have time to cool, so with each step her fresh blood boiled beneath her feet. The pain was indescribable. Even worse, on the sides the flames were still there and were slowly melting her whole body. The clothes she wore previously were fully burned away, same for her hair. The rest of her body looked like a grotesque zombie''s. It was a miracle in and of itself, that she could still move forward. At some point she closed her eyelids to protect her eyes and quickly they melted shut. Where previously her ears were located only two holes remained, and she couldn''t open her mouth either. With each agonizing moment she moved on. There was no thought in her mind, the pain burned them all away. The only thing keeping her going was a deep anger right within her soul, the flames were only oil for that fire burning inside her. Strangely enough his movements were strange. It looked like he was just walking normally, but every now and then he seemed to disappear, then reappear a few hundred meters away. As the man walked through the empty plains he came across a group of eight. They were running in the same direction as he went. With a mad grin he waved towards them, but none seemed to notice him. Only the little girl''s eyes turned to him and widened for a second, before she resumed her run. It was like she immediately forgot what she was looking at. The man chuckled a bit, then got bored and teleported about two dozen kilometers to the north. He stopped and looked at the ground in front of him. Everywhere in front of him the snow and ice had melted, only the stone ground below remained. It took him a second to find what he was looking for, but when he did the smile on his face widened. "There you are child..." He whispered to himself, then with measured steps walked towards a destroyed part of the stone plain. While walking he looked at the large corpse of a monster. When he had gotten close he touched the feathered head and began hysterically laughing. It took him a few minutes to finally stop and turn away. His interest instantly seemed to spike, and his mad expression even turned a bit surprised. He expected to see that wildly beautiful and alluring young lady, but instead there was only something that resembled a corpse. "Oh, you poor little angel. You managed to kill the beast, but at what cost... Let Uncle Harold elevate you from those painful memories and give you better ones..." His hand gently touched the woman''s skull. While editing her memories he transferred a small amount of essence, which worked wonders with the whole healing process. Slowly the melted skin began to regenerate, her ribs and spine became whole again, and even the scar on her stomach knit itself back together. When she was back in her beautiful form, Harold hadn''t even looked at her. He just quickly pulled off his white garb and gently placed it on the woman''s naked body. With him working on her mind and giving her a boost of essence, he decreased the evolution time by a lot. Her eyes spasmed a bit, then gradually opened. When they finally focused on the man''s face, they turned a bit teary and a thankful smile appeared on her face. "Uncle Harold... Thank you for your help... What would I do without you..." Harold slowly reached out and gently took her hand, then with a similarly warm smile he answered. "Oh, my little Seraphine... Of course I helped you, just like always... Don''t you remember?" They both laughed a bit about their happy memories. And inside Serapihne''s mind the feeling of inexplicable sadness, loss and despair finally fully dissipated... leaving no trace behind. Chapter 140: Ascended The woman''s eyes opened and suddenly she remembered everything. She was Seraphine, and orphan from Newber. After the destruction she killed her first monster, a Horror of the 3rd Tier and became an evolved. When she began making her way to Castleburg, she came to the ruins of Havel. There she found an old man named Harold, or more like he found Sera. Back then she was in a horrible shape, nearly dead, but Harold helped her. After that they travelled together to Castleburg, it was very dangerous and the had to fight a lot, not just against beasts, but evil humans. They tried to steal from Sera and her uncle, but she massacred any who wanted to hurt either of them. Harold taught her, most things she now knows about evolution. He was always kind and warm to her, basically like a father, but he just insisted to be called uncle. He wasn''t that big of a fighter, his abilities had more utility than power. This meant that Sera had to protect him throughout the journey, which she had done with great pride. Soon they arrived there, but the people were jealous of her potential. Uncle Harold suggested that she should get stronger so no one could stand in their way. They then looked for the perfect monster to hunt, which turned out to be a creature named Holy Phoenix. Sadly she had to go on this journey alone, because for Uncle Harold there was a different hunt somewhere else. Sera wanted to go with him and help, but he insisted to focus on herself. From the very beginning of their relationship, she had always listened to him, so this time wasn''t different either. Sera packed her bag, then went straight north to an outpost named Flenburg. It took her a lot longer than she imagined and she had to kill more people during the way, at that point she didn''t even feel bad for it. At the outpost they didn''t want to let her through, so she had to cut her way into the Realm of Boundless Frost as well. On the other side of the gate she had to fight again, but eventually managed to run away to the location where the Holy Phoenix was located. After a hard and perilous battle Sera managed to kill said phoenix, but she took grave injuries in the process. She began the process of evolution, but her body was unprotected and anyone could''ve killed her with ease. Luckily, and to her utter surprise, Uncle Harold came after her. He found her on the ground slowly healing and gave her some of his essence to help with the evolution... He saved her yet again. When her eyes opened they turned teary from happiness, but before she could jump up and hug the old man, he pointed down at her body. As the battle went on, she hadn''t even noticed that all her clothes had burned to crisps. With no clear answer she put the idea away and focused on her transformation. It took her a minute to reach that same feeling, but soon she felt the change. It was slow at first, then faster and finally, it was done. There was no pain, which for some reason she expected, only power. Sera hadn''t checked her back yet, but judging by Uncle Harold''s expression it was really impressive. Steadily she turned her head and looked at her wings... all four of them. .net Instead of the usual pristine white feathered angelic pair, there was another right below it. They were made from bright golden flames, and held a lot of power within. All of them were the same shape and size, about three meter in each direction. But the evolution didn''t just change her on the outside, but inside as well. Sera didn''t understand why, but when she transformed a deep well of energy appeared right in her very soul. Following her instinct she held out one hand and summoned her sword. Instead of the small specks of light, a large burst of flame came out of her palm and formed into her weapon. On her face a small smile grew, and for a few minutes she began doing basic slashes and stabs. Eventually Sera made the sword and her wings disappear, but then noticed that the well of power was still there. ''Huh... It isn''t part of my transformation it seems... But then what could it be? Of course I lose my watch when I need it the most...'' Since there was no way of figuring out now, she turned towards her uncle, but he wasn''t looking at her. Instead he was staring out over the stone plains. Far away, where there was still snow, Sera saw a few figures running in their direction. She stepped close to Uncle Harold and asked, "Who are they?" With a bit of shame and anger he looked away, then replied in a small voice. "I''m so sorry my little angel... The journey here wasn''t easy and I made a few enemies. They came to take me away, alive or dead, and since you are with me they will target you as well..." Sera''s calm and beautiful face twisted into mad rage. There was only one thing that could make her really angry, and that is if anyone tries to hurt her only family. With confidence she stepped in front of her uncle, then without looking back she spoke. "Don''t worry, I will take care of them, then we can finally leave this hellish realm!" As the group of eight came closer and closer, the old man began to grin madly. He was really out performing himself throughout this interaction, and now it was time for the last test. All his research, every sleepless night, all the hours spent concocting this plan. It all came down to this. His hand was near trembling from excitement. As the group began to slow down, he was watching them, like they were some poor trapped animals waiting to be slaughtered. Chapter 141: The Old Man and the Lost Lead by Bea, the group of eight ran through the endless snowfields. They had been running for hours and their bodies were slowly tiring, but still they went further. While running Vicky felt weird, like someone was watching her, but when she looked to the side there was no one there. Still, her hands trembled, from anger or from fear she didn''t know. Her eyes were full of determination and her soul full of terror. In her head the doubtful questions kept popping up. ''What if we don''t make it in time... Will she truly forget me?... How do we even save her?... Are we even going in the right direction?...'' Her last question was the simplest to answer. Suddenly Bea held up her hand and all of them stopped. On the horizon the snowy plain ended and a large stone field took its place. They began to move again, but a lot more cautiously since they had no idea what caused all the ice and snow to melt. When they reached its edge there were scorch marks all over the gray rocky ground, like something very hot melted and burned some of them. The group stared further ahead and saw a very large boulder. They looked at each other with confusion, then went further to see what the giant rock was... a corpse. As they came within a two hundred or so meters in its proximity, it became very clear that it was the carcass of a large bird, possibly the Holy Phoenix. But strangely enough Sera was nowhere to be found. With slow steps they went to inspect the dead phoenix, but before they could get even close to it, a strong and commanding voice echoed through the plains. "Leave!" Was all she said. Vicky''s eyes snapped to the top of the carcass, where a breathtaking woman stood. Her usual white armor changed into gold, and her eyes were much more fierce and wary. When Vicky was about to run and hug her mother, Bea quickly caught her and pushed her into Faith''s care. Only after a few seconds of angry squirming did she actually pay attention to Sera''s demeanor. There was no warmth in her eyes or posture, it felt like she was treating them as hostiles and soon it became clear why. Behind Sera an old man appeared, he was grinning down at them like he already won... which was sadly true. At the front Bea''s face paled, her mouth trembled a bit. She just stared at the two of them standing on top of the phoenix''s corpse. She only whispered one word, "No..." They all knew what this meant... They were too late. Since non of them responded to her command, she spoke again. "Leave now! I won''t repeat myself for the third time!" Her eyes focused on each of them, trying to gauge their strengths and powers. Her hand was casually kept at her side, ready to summon her sword in a moments notice. Sera stared every one of them in the eye, but when her eyes found Vicky''s something strange happened. Her eyes changed again, and she seemed to be really close to remembering, but slowly her anger returned. "You are lying! He is the only person who cares about me!" "No mommy! I care about you more than anyone else!" Said Vicky while constantly crying. This time Sera took a step back and her face twisted into a fearful expression. The flames in her hand became smaller, and her empty left hand touched the place where her heart was. It looked like she was in a horrible pain, like her very soul was aching. "Who-Who are you?" She asked. Vicky stepped closer to Bea and took her shaking hand. "She is your daughter, whom you forgot about. Do you still believe that old man? You have truly forgotten your own daughter?" Bea placed the final nail in the coffin. With a distraught face Sera fell to her knees and the flames in her hand went out. The smoke left behind slowly dissipated into the air. Her face was twisted in agony and confusion. Her eyes couldn''t seem to focus on anything and were constantly moving around. It was like her very mind was in total disarray. While breathing heavily and trembling on the ground a wrinkly hand began petting her hair. "Shh... It''s okay my little angel... Uncle Harold will fix everything..." When she heard little angel her eyes jumped to Vicky for one second, then changed target and stared at Bea with horror. Through the moment of clarity Sera reached out her hand and mouthed one word to the group... RUN. In the next second she fell over unconscious. Above her Harold just stared at the body for a while, then with an angry expression looked at Bea. "You dare ruin all my work! You know how long it took to get her here, to evolve with exactly this creature? Months of planning, all for nothing!" His mad rage was barely contained, which surprised the eight of them. Why wasn''t he attacking? "What did you do with mommy?" His expression changed from anger to amusement in less than a second, and he began laughing madly. "Well, since you and your bitch mother stopped me from making this little angel do everything I say because of her caring personality, I simply erased most of her sense of self!..." *Laughter* "Good luck making her remember anything now!" From the ground Seraphine slowly rose. Her face wasn''t angry or scared, like before. It was simply soulless, her whole being has disappeared, or at least most of it. There were two things that remained, her sense of loyalty towards Harold, and her bloodlust towards everything else. *Mad Laughter* "My little murderous angel, why don''t you take care of these pests so we can be on our way!" From atop the dead phoenix Seraphine stared down at her friends and family, then gradually a mad smile spread on her beautiful face. In her hand the white flames came out again and her eyes turned bloodshot. She only said two words before jumping down... "With Pleasure!" .net Chapter 142: The Power of the Phoenix Bea watched in total dismay, as Seraphine grinned at her own daughter like a prey waiting to be slaughtered. At that point she felt the change, there was no saving her lover anymore... With a sad expression she summoned her own sword and engulfed it in her nature aura. On top of the phoenix carcass a woman laughed. She looked at each of them as they summoned their weapons, armors and trinkets. *Insane Laughter* "Good! Good! It wouldn''t have done justice to murder you all without weapons!" *Chuckling* "Let''s get this over with!" Her face turned deathly serious, then faster than anybody expected she jumped down and attacked. Her sword headed straight for her own daughters head, but was stopped by Bea''s own, or more like pushed off course. Since Sera was an ascended she had became vastly more powerful, especially because her strength was already significant beforehand. While her sword was still in motion she turned from her waist and nearly disemboweled Bea. Her quick reflexes saved her, but Sera wasn''t slowing down... she was just get warmed-up. She fainted a downward slash which Bea didn''t fall for, but with her ascended speed the direction changed and began heading for Vicky again. Bea''s eyes went wide and in a desperate maneuver, she pushed the sword away while letting it cut of her left hand. It hurt like hell, but the wound was already regenerating. Sera just laughed, but before she could do more the others finally came to her help. With a quick move Faith grabbed Vicky, who looked basically hollow. The six of them on the other hand moved and encircled Sera. Her posture was calm and even a bit excited, theirs on the other hand was grim, especially Bea''s. From that small exchange she had judged Sera''s natural strength an speed. She was vastly stronger than any of them. The only reason Bea wasn''t dead is because of her sword fighting expertise, but that wouldn''t be enough to win. *Mad Laughter* "Six against one? Doesn''t seem too fair... I like it!" In the next second she was already moving again. Her sword made of white flames cut through the air and slashed at James. He was the weakest and least experienced when it came to close quarters fighting, but he was also an ascended. Using an energy sword he quickly parried the blow, which Sera used to gain momentum and turn around. Behind her Sarah was making a stabbing motion with her trident, but Sera just used her own weapon and deflected it. The next attack came from Will, who with his new spear tried to stab Sera in the side. She back stepped and changed targets again. Hellfire was the slowest of them, but he also had the best defense. Sadly he trusted his armor a bit too much. When Sera''s sword came in contact with it, the armor melted before its holy fire. With a small chuckle she dodged to the side and evaded an angry Hellfire''s halberd. The cut on his arm wasn''t bad, more annoying than anything serious. Bea and Lucy attacked from two sides at them same time, but with a fraction of a difference. Without paying too much attention, Sera moved to the side evading Bea''s slash. Then just held her sword with two arms stopping the scythe dead in its tracks. Seeing the signature weapon of the reapers her smile grew a bit, then with a quick and strong push Lucy went off balance. But when Sera was about to impale her suddenly a shadowy rapier brought it off tracks. His eyes never left Sera''s corpse, for reasons unknown to Bea. For a moment she stopped, then was about to run and kill the old man, when a small hand grabbed Bea''s own. "Bea, look!" Said Vicky while pointing at the dead body. Bea had no idea what she was supposed to look out for. On the ground lay Sera''s corpse, which the snow tried to cover, but was failing miserably since every little snowflake melted before even touching her skin. When this realization hit Bea, her head snapped towards the dead phoenix. It didn''t take long to figure out what was about to happen and Harold soon confirmed her thoughts. .net *Mad Laughter* "What? Did you think this would be so easy?... Please, the real fight hasn''t even started yet!... It is time for your to witness the Power of The Phoenix!..." They stared in terror as Sera''s previously dead body began to heat up. Slowly they began backing away, but even after twenty or so meters the temperature was nearly unbearable. After a few seconds Sera''s body moved. At first it was only a spasm of her hand, then she turned her head and gradually rose from the red hot stone ground. Her whole body was becoming redder and then whiter as more heat was generated from it. When the members of the group saw this, they began sprinting in the opposite direction and only stopped when they stopped feeling the scorching heat. From more than a hundred meters away, they still heard Harold''s voice... it was right in their head. "Rise high Seraphine! The darkness needs to be banished from this world, and who''s the better choice for such role as the Last Angel herself!... LET THERE BE CARNAGE!" The eight of them fell to their knees by the shouting inside their minds. Their eyes on the other hand never left Sera, who began to levitate in the air. Around her body a cocoon of white flames slowly appeared, fully hiding her. For a minute or two they stared at the cocoon with wide eyes. Below it the heat was so strong that the stone melted into lava. It happened in the fraction of a second. At one point the cocoon grew in size, then shrank and suddenly exploded into a pillar of white flames. The previously dark sky became bright like a new sun was born. They had to look away to not get blinded and when they turned back in the air flew a woman of pure magnificence. Behind her four heavenly wings spread, their size was at a baffling six meters. Their colors matched her armor and hair, which was magical in its own way. The person they connected to wasn''t the least bit less amazing. Sera''s armor hadn''t really changed, but her hair seemed to disobey gravity as it flew everywhere. It danced to the same rhythm, as her golden flame wings. Seraphine, the Angel Monarch was reborn! Chapter 143: Little Damien In the sky Seraphine stared down at the eight of them with fire in her eyes. Then suddenly a maniacal laughter shook their very souls and their hearts skipped a beat from fear. Only now did the group realize that Sera throughout the whole fight was holding herself back. They haven''t even noticed that she didn''t use her transformation, only her physical strength and speed. Her Wings of Despair must''ve gotten an upgrade as well, since the whole group was trembling from terror. Slowly she descended towards them, but just before she reached the group a large snowy wind blew her farther away. The feeling of hopelessness disappeared from Bea''s heart and gradually she looked up. In front of the group stood the tall man from the outpost. His long white hair was carried by the strong frosty winds. For a moment he turned towards Bea, his freezing blue eyes focused on her... he was angry. "You should have told me Harold was here!... Dammit, I should''ve know this was his doing..." He turned away and looked at the man in the white garb. Harold grinned at the man and laughed. "Damien, you finally joined us! I had been waiting for you!... Let''s see if you can still keep up!" In the next moment he seemed to disappear into flecks of light. Damien turned to Bea and the others, and shouted, "RUN!" They didn''t need to be asked twice and soon they were already dozens of meters away, but still they haven''t stopped. Everyone heard the stories about the scales of battle. When first ranked evolved fought each other, they can hardly even destroy a building. But when ascended fight the damage can be from one building to a few kilometers. It only gets crazier. When transcended fight the destruction could be anything around them, there is no specific scales of damage... If they fight everything gets destroyed! Above transcended the fight changes, at that point a city is just a piece of land that will definitely fall to their power. A very good example for that is Newber. It wasn''t destroyed because of the Realm Gate, but the fight between two creatures of stellar rank. Bea had no idea how big a battle''s scale was above stellar, but only the thought of finding out was terrifying. They haven''t looked back even after running for a few kilometers. Behind them the first of the explosions could be heard. ... Sera watched the fight between Harold and Damien with glints in her eyes. The pain, the destruction, the suffering... it was exhilarating. The only sad part was her lack of strength to join. On the ground Damien was about to get punched by Harold, but when the fist connected to him, his whole body turned into ice and exploded into shards cutting up Harold''s white coat. He reappeared from a strong wind behind him, then with a blast of cold tried to freeze the old man. As the frosty wind hit him, the body froze and disappeared into specks of light. All around the place mad laughter echoed and soon dozens of Harold''s formed. They spoke at the same time. "It is nice to fight again isn''t it?... Just like old times..." On the ground there were about a dozen copies of Harold currently. All of them fell to the ground and began to change. The process lasted for a few minutes. Every single clone became some different horrible monstrosity. Damien looked around, then tried to do his usual area attack. He pushed ice cold winds towards the beasts, but unlike with the copies, these ones simply ignored it. He then changed tactics as well and transformed. His body grew in size and changed shape. It took a few moments, and when he was done a huge roar shook the snowy plains. From the ground icy spikes grew impaling at least half of the creatures. In the place where Damien stood, a gigantic, white furred saber-toothed tiger was. His height extended about seven meters, while his length reached nearly eleven. Without wasting a second he pounced on the next approaching monster. It was smaller than Damien, some kind of insect-like being. He tore it apart in seconds. While he was preoccupied with a worthless battle, in the sky Harold held onto Sera''s shoulder. She looked at him curiously and in the next second they both disappeared from the plains. On the ground Damien continued to fight without noticing that his main adversary was already gone. Meanwhile they just stood in the air staring out at the frozen outpost. He was still holding onto her shoulder. Slowly he made her turn and gave her a big hug, which she a bit reluctantly reciprocated. She had many questions about what he wanted to do with her. Since most of her previous memories were gone, her whole personality and sense of self was all over the place. Sera was angry at Harold, but there was also a feeling of indebtment. She felt bloodlust, but also a sense of protection. She wanted to kill those eight people, but also felt that it would be a big mistake... The only constant feeling she felt was confusion. When they separated her eyes were teary, the worst thing was she had no idea why. At some point her brain started to hurt from all the constant emotional changes. Harold must''ve noticed her suffering and asked in a gentle voice. "Do you want me to take away your pain?" Slowly Sera nodded and whispered, "Please... It hurts..." On his face a small smile appeared, which could be interpreted as compassionate. Gently he held out his hands and touched both sides of Sera''s temple. She could feel her memories, personality, sense of self change... Her whole reality was being rewritten. It would''ve caused a great amount of horror, but the pain was gone and there was only relief in its place. When her eyes opened, there was nothing left of her. No sign of the kind and warm person who adopted a girl when she needed a home. No sign of the leader who sacrificed herself multiple times for her friends. No sign of the lover, that found a woman she could love for the rest of her life... There was no happiness, anger, love, madness, sadness, despair... There was not a single emotion in her soul... Sera''s face settled into a calm and bored expression. Her eyes that had a small glint in them turned empty. The soul that burned bright before, was finally snuffed out... Chapter 144: The End of a Journey The explosions and wild freezing wind still hasn''t stopped. Bea and the others were running towards nothing in particular, their only mission was survival. They didn''t know why, but some time ago everything calmed down. Sadly that only lasted for a few minutes, then it became even worse. The man named Damien was having a though fight with Harold it seemed. ''I... I hope Sera is okay...'' Even after everything that happened this was still her first thought. It was stupid to love someone who tried to kill not just you, but her own daughter... But also it wasn''t her fault. ''If I get my hands on that old man, he will regret being born!... This... This is something I vow!'' As her face twisted in anger, the others looked at her sympathetically. Vicky even held her hand and they gave each other much needed support. They ran on for multiple kilometers, until the sounds of fighting was almost lost in the cold and wild wind. When they were a good enough distance away, Bea held up her hand and the group finally stopped to catch their breath. After a few minute break they looked at Bea. There was a big problem which non of them thought of until they stopped... What do they do next? Their chance of saving Sera passed a long time ago. They even tried to end her suffering, but that didn''t work either. ''Before beginning this hunt, we made a plan of coming here for the purpose of becoming ascended... Should we continue to do that? But without Sera what''s the point...'' It was hard. A few hours ago Bea was acting as leader and making decision with the hope of saving Sera, but now... There was no idea inside her head. She felt drained. Somewhere far away the sound of explosions came to an end, but the group didn''t pay any attention to it. All of them were preoccupied with their thoughts. They had to make a decision and soon, in this weather they couldn''t survive for long. Suddenly everyone turned their heads towards Bea. With an empty expression she fell to her knees and just stared at the falling snowflakes. "I don''t know what to do..." Her voice was barely audible and hollow. The members of the group looked at one another, they had no idea what to do either. At least most of them had none. "What you are just going to give up on life because we lost Seraphine?! Tell me something Bea and everyone else... What Do You Want?" Hellfire was the one who spoke. His voice was loud and strong, and he seemed to have enough of silently following others. "I tell you what I want! I want revenge!... Shouldn''t we at least try to avenge Sera?! Do you truly going to let her suffer?... Do you really hate her that much?" He said it while staring straight into Bea''s eyes. The previous emptiness slowly disappeared and anger took its place. With a quick step she jumped to her feet, then with a jab punched Hellfire so hard he nearly fell down. He looked at her a bit surprised, but his eyes went even wider when she went and healed him immediately. "You are right... This fight isn''t over just yet. And who knows, maybe Sera isn''t fully lost... We will find out when Harold lies dead on the ground!" "Well said young one. But sadly your plan has multiple flaws... You haven''t got the slightest clue how strong and dangerous Harold actually is. What I suggest instead is that we get back to the gateway before its too late..." From the snowstorm a giant tiger spoke. They all went on high alert, but nearly instantly calmed down. The voice of the creature was exactly like Damien''s. "Weren''t you fighting with him just now? If you are here unscathed, that means you have won... Isn''t it?" Asked Lucy and as an answer Damien growled. "I didn''t fight Harold, only a few of his minions and copies. His powers are strange. They have to do with illusion and perception of reality... Every time you think you killed the real one, it turns out that it was just a clone. I thought I had killed him a few years ago, but as you can see he''s still here..." The group looked at each other. They didn''t think that Harold was this powerful, but they had no actual idea how much ones power grows at the next stage of evolution. A good example would be that, at the first stage of evolution you are a fish. Then as an ascended you change into a shark. At transcended you turn into a military gunboat and at stellar a multiple kilometer long battleship. For anything above stellar the changes would be too big to use this metaphor. "But why do we have to hurry back to the gate? What will he do?" The big cat seemed to shake its head and make a weird sound that could''ve been self-deprecating laughter. "Isn''t that the question... He works for Madness and It wants this world for some reason. It also wants your friend whom Harold took, but that''s not the point... Currently they want to get back to Earth and we have to stop them! You can ask the rest of your questions later!" As Amygdala was about to step into the gate, she turned back with a bit of confusion. She saw the line of fire approaching her, but didn''t do anything about it. The flame passed through her without any problem, Harold on the other hand just burned to ashes and appeared next to Sera. He seemed to be furious and disappointed at the same time. While they were all paying attention to Sera, the line of gray fire went and hit the gateway. It passed through with ease, then hit Damien square in the chest. Before this maneuver he already wanted to close the gate, but his whole body was frozen from fear. Now the gray flame managed to snap him out of his trance-like state. The gateway began closing even faster then before, it took only a few seconds for it to shrink to the size of a human. The group watched with grim expressions as back on Earth Sera fell to her knees. Behind her Harold reached out his hands and whispered something into her ear. The tiny glint in her eyes, which marked everything left of herself got snuffed out fully this time. They watched in sadness as their leader yet again sacrificed herself to save the group... For the last time... The gateway slowly closed itself, the last picture Bea had seen was a single teardrop making its way down Sera''s beautiful face. She then closed her eyes and turned towards the bright sky. Whatever her last thoughts were was a mystery to Bea. When her eyes opened again, there was nothing there. The person kneeling on the ground wasn''t Sera anymore. In her stead an empty human knelt, a husk of her previous self. The sight broke their heart... Soon the gateway fully closed. The only way out of The Realm of Boundless Frost disappeared, just like that. But at this point non of them seemed to care about it. They just stood there, still staring at the gate, at the exact place where Sera was kneeling. Then after minutes or maybe hours, Bea looked towards the sky and screamed with all her pent up anger, pain, sadness, despair, fear... love... She screamed until her body couldn''t take all the emotions assaulting her. At that point she fell over unconscious. Her only thought, that last image of Seraphine looking at the bright sky, accepting her fate. ... Back on Earth, Sera rose from the ground and looked at Harold for orders. She had no desires, memories, personality, sense of self. In her mind there was only one directive that she had to follow... Obey! Next to them Amygdala was furious. The only way she could be appeased was by giving her food, which she quickly went and collected for herself. From the outpost, screams of terror began sounding. She feasted upon the fear others felt. Every now and then her joyful, horrible laughter echoed through the camp. Even Harold seemed to be a bit fearful of her, or more like wary. Sera on the other hand just stood straight and watched the terrified people run around like headless chickens, even the outpost''s transcended could do nothing against her. On Sera''s face no emotion showed. She felt no compassion towards the people dying. No fear from Amygdala. No anger towards what she was doing. Her soul was empty and hollow. Harold stared at the chaos with a small satisfied smile, then began laughing happily. The world has come to an end... At this time, around the world, multiple cities were being taken over by Harold''s people. Some held out, some were too strong to taken down so fast, but a large amount fell with ease. Sera watched as the vestiges of her soul burned away with the rest of the world. But unlike the world she was a phoenix now... And something will rise from the ashes... [End of Part 3 ¨C Angel of Hollow] [End of Volume 1 ¨C Heaven Sent] Chapter 145: New Athens The Sun was shining brightly in New Athens. The city was packed with people who enjoyed the Mediterranean Ocean''s mild autumn. There were a few who would''ve even liked to go down to the beach for a quick swim in the Aegean Sea, but of course that was strictly forbidden. As people walked up and down the Main Avenue their heads suddenly snapped to a specific person. She wore nothing special, just civilian clothes. A leather jacket that was zipped up fully, dark pants that stuck close to her alluring legs, and a pair of combat boots. Her waist length golden hair was placed in a neat bun on the back of her head. Her golden eyes beautiful, but empty of light. The woman walked down the street without much care for the people staring at her. She wore a constantly bored expression, which brought a mystical aura to her. People believed that she could control her emotions that well. They had no idea of the real reason for her hollowness... She simply didn''t have any... Everyone only looked at her for a few seconds, then quickly turned their heads down. Between a few of them whispering conversations could be heard. "When did our Lady get back?" Asked a curious girl from her friend. "Haven''t you heard? She has been back since the november 4th!" "What? Three days ago? And how did the capturing of Sofira went?" Said another of their group. The news of the capture hadn''t spread that wide yet. The city leadership also haven''t made any actual statement about the state of the last operation. It wouldn''t last long though, within the next couple of days probably all 12 million of the New Athens''s citizens will know about it. "Well, my friend in the military told me that the fight was fairly easy. The Federal Alliance only had to send another two cohorts to help our Lady." The boy leaned in and said in an even smaller whisper. "It is said She had killed about a dozen ascended alone." The girl who asked the first question said in a proud and haughty voice, "Why do you sound so surprised? Do you think Lady Seraphine couldn''t accomplish such feat? I could bet She had killed a lot more!" It would seem like a crazy idea, but non of her friends laughed. Instead they looked towards the leader of the city, who was already becoming a living legend in most places around the continent. Some talked about her current achievements, but others had more interest discussing the legend''s past campaigns. "I still can''t believe that our Lady is this amazing." Said an older man to presumably his wife. The couple laughed joyfully, but the young man still didn''t fully understand what happened. They quickly noticed and spelled it out for him. "Lady Seraphine has the power of a Phoenix. When She dies, She resurrects in a giant explosion! In the tyrant''s bed She killed herself and destroyed the whole, previously emptied out mansion with ease. Since the tyrant was right next to her, he disintegrated from Her holy flames!" They looked towards a specific direction where a large smokescreen was making its way towards the sky. The young man looked there as well, then he seemed to understand a few things. "So that''s why there is a large bonfire burning there all day long! It is memorial!" The couple nodded with somber, but also thankful expressions. "Yes... The fire burning there was made by Lady Seraphine herself and the Angelic Order keeps it alive. It is said that if the fire ever goes out, a great calamity is approaches the city..." The young man had the same expression as the couple and he began walking towards the Everlasting Bonfire. Many similar conversations went on. They talked about every accomplishment and exploit Sera had made. Some after seeing her went to the Angelic Order''s Cathedral, they weren''t praying to her like some sort of goddess. It was just a comforting place where they payed their respect to Lady Seraphine. No one knows where the Angelic Order had come from. After Sera had took over the city''s leadership, they just kind of appeared. Their order was made up of the Angelic Sisters and the Phoenix Brothers, representing both sides of their Lady''s power. It might seem strange making a religion to a person who was most definitely not a god. But throughout the years every god humanity had made failed to defend their fold, so it was time to pray to someone who was real! The religion was lead by a couple called the High Angel and High Phoenix. At first people thought that the religious heads should be married to signify union, but Lady Seraphine herself quickly shut that down. She went straight into the temple and told everyone to only get married for love, not for other people. This phrase, such as many of her other sayings could be found in their bible. With just that small saying, at least a quarter of the marriages in New Athens divorced. The reason? If they didn''t love each other they shouldn''t be together. Other changes happened because of said religion, like increased education, better healthcare, less public disorder, and many others. The whole city was part of the religion at this point, except maybe the leader herself. She just walked down the street without much care for anything. Her empty expression not even hinting the existence of any emotion within her soul. Strangely enough She actually makes facial expression at interviews and public speeches, but it all feels weird for everyone. Something is always off about it, a smile that is a bit too wide, an eyebrow raise at a fraction of a second too late. Its like she just pretends to have emotions to make people more comfortable around her. Sera walked through the city until she finally reached her destination. In front of her was a large, about twenty meter tall wall. She was standing right in front of its gate, which had a large sign written above it ¨C ''Military Encampment''... Her home... Chapter 146: An Army of Devotion As she stood before the large gate, the hinges groaned and the large door made of some strong alloy opened. It could withstand attacks ranging from ascended to corrupted, but even this alloy wouldn''t be able to hold up against her flames. When the gate was opened to a crack she went through. Behind it were about a dozen evolved soldiers on guard duty. When they saw Sera each went on their knees, she didn''t even look at them. In the past two years she had many achievements, which made her citizens and soldiers near fanatical. The old Seraphine would''ve felt uncomfortable and even embarrassed, but the new Seraphine didn''t feel anything. Looking at the soldiers'' devotion there was only one thought in her mind. ''I''m late.'' She quickly went through the gatehouse and exited onto the main military compound. The area was large and circular, about one and a half kilometer from its center. This complex held everything related to the New Athens Army. There was a large garage full of vehicles like SUVs, tanks, APCs and even a few Self-propelled artillery. At another place was a small airfield which mostly held helicopters and about 3 orbital ships. They were getting dusty since the patrols usually moved on foot. They are mostly used by the leadership to get to places fast within the city, and not necessarily for emergencies. The people either knelt or saluted when she passed them by. The regular soldiers and civilians were thankful for everything she accomplished, all of them heard rumors of her military record, which increased their beliefs even further. The evolved soldiers though... They were there on at least one or two campaigns. They saw the victories with their own eyes. They saw that every time Sera died at the hands of the enemy, she would come back even stronger! The nickname Immortal nearly got stuck on her, but she quickly corrected their mistake. She wasn''t immortal, since she can die. She is Deathless, since death couldn''t keep her. Her eyes passed the ranks of soldiers heading in different directions. By their latest count the evolved soldiers'' number reached the 1200 mark, from which 35 were ascended. The regular soldier count was a bit all over the place currently. Sera judged them to be at a hundred thousand soldiers, but she didn''t really care about them... Technically she didn''t care about anything... Back two years and a month ago she woke up next to Harold in that destroyed outpost. He told Sera that losing all her memories was a punishment for her disobedience. The only things Harold let her remember were details of Earth, its history, what evolved and monsters are, her own powers and fighting capabilities, basically anything unrelated to her personal memories. Also he had done something else to her. Harold never said anything, but she can''t feel any emotions. Throughout the past two years she had gotten a bit used to it, although it was a pain in her ass to pretend not being an emotionless robot. Find adventures at m_v l|e-novelhall.net The tanks shoot a cartridge that breaks into multiple smaller bullets, and the artilleries have something similar, with the difference that it explodes on impact. Every single one of these weapons are very affective against rotten, but pretty useless against corrupted. This was the reason that Sera specifically asked the engineers to focus on crowd control instead of piercing. It was strange thinking like a commander and military leader, but one thing she learnt from the past two years was, that she is an amazing tactician. Out of the dozens of battles and sieges she hadn''t lost one. Sometimes the losses of man were bad, but never overwhelming. Other times victory wasn''t achieved because of her strategy, but her citizens and soldiers treated them all the same. It was a strange devotion these people had, but understandable given how uncertain the times were. In the past two years the European Continent had been absorbed in war. One side, the United Front got established because of the other side''s increasing influence. Currently the Federal Alliance held most of the southwest of Europe, while the north and east were trying to hold their territories. The biggest fights happened within the mid section of Europe. The Alps were painted in evolved blood. Another interesting fact were the goblins. It was like they sensed the war and began their own destruction. Every city that didn''t have enough defense got looted by them. It was quite scary since their movements were so random. Also the worst thing about goblins is that they attacked citizens as well. Even though a large scale war was happening all over the continent, they tried their best not to hurt the civilian populace. It wasn''t easy and most sieges had a few thousand deaths, but they were focusing on not destroying the cities they wanted to capture. It also helped the people living there accept their change in leadership. Sadly even though deaths were rare, other crimes ran rampant in newly captured cities. The drunk soldiers who lost friends were more than happy to take whatever they wanted from the citizens. They took items, food, drinks and there were also a lot of rape. Sera''s was one of the few armies who didn''t go and cause disorder in a newly captured city. This also increased her popularity and fame, even in enemy city-states. In reality she didn''t care about any of those citizens, but it made her job a lot easier if the masses liked her. As she was absorbed in these thoughts, she finally arrived at her destination. In front of her a gigantic complex spread. This was the main headquarters of her military. The building had a brutalist design, but they were already making plans of changing it on the outside. In her opinion it currently looked like a villain''s home. The new design is going to be a lot more open, with loads of windows, balconies and arches. It will have a bit of a gothic architectural style to it, which she liked the best out of all the options. The building itself housed many of the evolved''s offices, a large gym for keeping in shape, recreational rooms, a giant library, conference rooms and the main operations room. Sera stared at the ugly building for a while before finally deciding to step inside. Chapter 147: The Leadership As Sera stepped inside the same thing played out as before. She walked through the building and everyone bowed deeply when she passed them. Every now and then she heard whispers, some were about her accomplishments, some about her beauty, and some were talking about her allure. She had gotten used to the remarks about her body and what others want to do with it... not like she cared. Continue reading stories on mvl These actions fell into the same category as most things in her life. Until nobody does anything that could cause issues for her, she had no interest paying attention to it. While walking she watched the artistic architecture of the building complex. Unlike the outside, the inside was actually tastefully decorated. There was no sign of the brutalist building style, but a more simplistic and a bit more baroque. Yeah, baroque wasn''t simple at all, in fact it was the exact opposite. But since the main dominant color of the inside was gold, and there were a lot of small details everywhere, this was the closest style she could match the interior to. It was strange. She remembered all these information that she had never learned about. It made her wonder, just what kind of life did she had before Harold took it all away. While her mind was occupied with these thoughts she arrived in front of a large double door. This was the entrance to the conference room, where a meeting was supposed to start about twenty minutes ago. Without much care Sera reached out and opened the doors. She looked around the room with her usual empty expression. It was huge, with a lot of screens showing different images on one wall. The middle was taken up by a large table which got illuminated with a light right above it. The table was an oval shape with six seats in total. Its material was special too, with multiple smaller screens built right into it. There were also a few other items like a fridge full of snacks and refreshments, and a bit of a lounge area in one of the corners. At the conference table currently five of the six seats were taken. As Sera stepped inside, the door closed automatically behind her. The people at the table were in some conversation, but instantly turned quiet when she arrived. Three out of the five people stood up and bowed deeply, the other two just stayed seated and snarled a bit at their decorum. Sera made a small nod of acknowledgement and took her seat at the most prominent chair out of the six. "Good afternoon, Lady Seraphine!" Said the three at the same time. But before Sera could''ve said anything another person spoke. "Yeah, good day. Could we begin this meeting already? We have been waiting for your arrival since an hour ago!" The person who spoke was named Hector. Both of them, and a large amount of her other soldiers, came from a group Harold showed her. They were survivors of a goblin camp, which by Harold''s account, was cleared out by Sera. They were on their way to Flensburg in hopes of safety. Of course the whole of Flensburg was already destroyed, so instead Harold ordered Sera to use them as an army. It didn''t take long to find every evolved in their midst, by letting them kill monsters. Two people were especially outstanding out of the few hundred. Melinda and Bran were her right and left hands when it came to making decisions. When she left the city for whatever reason, at least one of them had to stay here as temporary governors. They happily obliged. Whatever Sera had done in the past made these people trust her. It felt strange since both of them knew more about her past then she did. Especially Melinda, she always looked at Sera weirdly, like Sera should remember her from somewhere. A lots of times when they talked, Melinda would start speaking like they were old friends. She would catch herself immediately and even apologize, but the intent was still there. For some reason though, Sera didn''t care about her past at all. Whoever she was, that makes no difference for her. In the end she still had to follow the orders of the higher ups... mostly Harold''s. Only the really high ranking members knew who the leader of the Federal Alliance was. In reality Sera shouldn''t know about it, but she has a lot more interaction with Harold than most. Remembering those meetings brought phantom pain to appear all over her body. It wasn''t great to constantly be experimented upon. While she was absorbed in her thoughts Kathy and Percy were in an argument, which Bran soon ended. "Okay, we get it. Percy is an idiot who can''t satisfy his woman and Kathy is a whore who only want to satisfy everyone else! Can we move on to the topic of the meeting, since you want to leave so badly?" The room turned silent when Bran spoke. People learnt the hard way what happens when they disobey him. His strength wasn''t even close to Sera''s, but for an ascended he was much stronger than the average. Actually, all five of them were really strong in their own right and their fighting experience was quite good as well. As the silence persisted the five captains looked at Sera to find out the reason for this meeting. After staying quiet for a while longer Sera finally decided to look at them and for the first time since stepping inside the room, she spoke. "Report." Was all she said. Chapter 148: New Directive "Report." Sera didn''t need to say more, she spoke very little which often unsettled most people. Of course when she makes a public appearance like interviews and announcements she tries to mimic facial expressions. It helps some amount, but the speaking part still wasn''t her strong suit. In the past two years she improved a lot though. When she first came and took over New Athens, her first speech to the masses was barely one sentence. At this point she only spoke like this with her captains, who knew about her condition. "Not much happened in the past weeks since you had been away..." *cough* "I mean since the Lady has been away..." Said Melinda a bit awkwardly, but Bran soon came to the rescue. "Earlier on November 1st we had the usual Remembrance Celebrations. Their were a few unruly citizens there, but nothing concerning. Then later on a patrol found a small horde of Jumping Lizards heading our way, but they cleared them out without any issue. No deaths or even injuries." The others nodded along agreeing with Bran''s report. "I also compiled a lot more detailed report, which should''ve already arrived to Lady Seraphine''s watch!" Sera opened her watch''s interface and quickly brought it up. After reading though it for a few minutes, she looked to the right and made a nod of thanks towards Bran. In answer he made a small proud smile, it didn''t take much to satisfy his needs of approval. "And all of you should''ve gotten my record on the Sofira operation. What insights do you have for me?" Her voice sounded the farthest away from interested, but she asked for their opinion after every operation. It helped her as a leader to learn what other people would''ve done in her place. Most of the times her decisions were the right ones, but unlike the public believes she does make a lot of mistakes. Never big ones that could turn a victory into defeat. It was more like not making the most optimal of choices, which could increase the casualty rate by a large margin. She pressed a few buttons on the table''s interface and soon her report came up on everyone else''s personal screens. Other than Bran and Melinda everyone began reading it with great interest. It was clear who payed the most attention to her messages. The three of them waited patiently for everyone to get an idea of those events. Eventually they all looked up with a bit more admiration than before. Sera just stared at them silently, waiting for someone to begin. "Well, first of all congratulations for another recent victory. It was truly amazing how the Lady had defeated them with only half the numbers they had..." Sera slowly raised her hand and Kathy turned silent. "Don''t discredit the others, the plan of attack wasn''t my idea because it got overruled by the others. You should also know, we could''ve suffered much more casualties if we would''ve we went with my plan." Said Sera in her usual empty voice. She turned her head to the side a bit and stared at Kathy curiously. Discover more stories at mvl "Uh... Lady Seraphine... Why didn''t you die?" The question might seem strange and utterly insane to most people, but Sera instantly knew what she was referring to. "Previously before the siege I got asked away by Harold to help with his research. As you know that''s never pretty, so I wasn''t able to provide help that way during the siege." In these two years she made many discoveries about her new ability and how to properly use it. She could die once a day and resurrect more powerfully than before. This power-up would last an hour and in that timeframe she could even fight against weaker transcended. Sadly this power was also the main reason Harold liked to use her as a lab rat. By her count she had died 389 times. Most times during an experiment, other times during battles, and rarely from assassinations. They even cleared a giant field next to her home, where she could resurrect without destroying a few streets and killing thousands of citizens. Since there seemed to be no more insight about the siege, Sera decided to continue with the real reason for the meeting. "We had gotten a new directive from Central Command. There is a small outpost a few hundred kilometers north of New Athens. Our mission will be to kill everyone in their camp." As Sera spoke Bran was writing everything down on his watch. "Their numbers?" Asked Hector. When violence was on the table, he quickly became very interested. "About a hundred evolved and ten ascended. No regular soldiers as by latest account, but this could''ve changed in the past few days. We don''t know what their plan is, or why did they get so close to our territory, but our job is not to ask questions." She said with her hollow voice, then looked to her right and spoke only to Bran. "I leave the control of New Athens in your hands, I will take Percy and Melinda with me. Also choose twenty other evolved for the mission, only people who can travel fast. I don''t want to be outside for too long." Bran nodded along as he wrote everything down. On the other side of the table Hector was fuming, he seemed to be a bit angry for not choosing him for the mission. Sera didn''t even look at him. "Okay this was all for today. Percy and Melinda, we will leave in a few hours. Be ready." She was still speaking, when she stood up and walked towards the door. Her last sentence was said form the corridor and then she was gone. Non of the captains were surprised because of this behavior. Their leader was like a storm, you couldn''t stop it, only weather it. Chapter 149: Bringer of Disease Near the housing part of the military compound, a woman and a man were walking together. After careful consideration Melinda and Bran decided upon the twenty evolved who will accompany Sera on the mission. They had sent messages about an hour ago, now they were going the brief them personally. Melinda was really excited since it was rare that she got to go on missions with Sera. She changed a lot since they attended the academy in Newber. They were best friends back then, but the Destruction was very thorough. Through many hardships and suffering she had managed to escape and survive for a while. Sadly eventually her luck ran out and the goblins captured her. She still held a deep hatred towards them, every time they had gotten close to New Athens, she would personally ask for Sera''s permission to exterminate every single one! Those days of suffering lasted for months, until her best friend from a previous life saved her from the torment. Strangely enough Sera didn''t seem to remember her and after a long time she figured out why. That monster named Harold took her memories, but also something else. Her every action felt soulless, like she was pretending. Melinda figured it out soon before anyone else, or before Sera told her story to them. When she came back from Flensburg to ask them about wanting to join her army, Melinda was one of the first to raise her hand. That was two years ago. Since then a lot had changed, not just with her and Sera, but the whole world. The war that still had no end in sight was raging across the continent. Melinda born in 6 ATA (After The Apocalypse), which meant she never knew the Old World, like a few of the older folk. Some of them even travelled in space or were born on another planet within their Solar System. But even in the apocalypse she had never expected a war of this scale to happen. In her eyes it was pure idiocy, but since her only remaining friend from her life in Newber was one of leaders in this war, she had no choice but to join. Two years ago on that plain grassland she had made this decision and she had never regretted it. Since then she had killed hundreds of monsters, tens of thousand of regular soldiers, nearly a thousand evolved and dozens of ascended. The watch gave her the title Bringer of Disease which fit her perfectly, since that''s what her main power was... plague. She can passively kill every non evolved and bring the evolved to near death. It can even severely weaken ascended, if they aren''t from the stronger kind. Her vast power can be thanked to Sera as well. She was the one who told them the secret of becoming stronger than most evolved. It gave both her and Bran the ability to defeat most of their enemies. At first Melinda thought that her power would actually come close to Sera''s, but when she heard about the horror she had killed... That thought went out of her head real fast. Slowly she and Bran arrived at the designated gathering area. Unlike the other three captains the two of them payed more attention to soldier upkeep, moral, skill etc. They had expectations from them as well. This wasn''t an army run on hopes and dreams, but on experience and discipline. The twenty soldiers were in small groups talking, but when Melinda and Bran arrived every single one went to attention. Melinda hid her satisfied smile, it felt great being appreciated as a leader. It made her ego grew by a lot every time someone saluted to her. She didn''t let it get to her head, but it felt nice. One of the twenty stepped forward. He was the cohort leader for this mission. "At ease soldiers." Said Bran in a calm tone, while typing away on his watch. He spent every waking hour on the damn thing. Always compiling some report or making preparations to some event. Long ago Melinda tried to out do him, but she quickly discovered how tall of a task that was. Melinda herself didn''t live in the compound though. Actually non of the captains did, except Bran. He decided to stay here since Sera was staying here too. Unlike everyone else she didn''t have a choice. Next to her house was a circle with a few hundred meter radius. When they first arrived there were buildings, houses and families there. Then the first successful assassination happened. Those idiots had no idea who they were trying to kill. Most of them died by Sera''s own hands, but in the end she died there. All those families who were sleeping in their beds, all those houses... The explosion killed all of them... Sera didn''t blame herself for it. Within the hour of her resurrection she released her statement to the public and the list of casualties... 3859 dead... 1594 men... 1461 women... 804 children... All burned away within seconds... The people mourned the loss. She actually made it into a holiday for the whole city. It was illegal to work on that day for anyone who isn''t essential for the city''s function. Also she gave a lot of money to everyone who lost a family member or even a good friend. When Melinda heard it for the first time, it melted her heart. It was clear that her old friend would never come back, but even then Sera decided to help. She also knew that Sera didn''t feel bad about the destruction, since she couldn''t, which made it all the more amazing that she didn''t just turn away from her citizens. A few days later they cleared all the rubbles away and now every time Sera needs to revive within city grounds, that''s its designated place. People keep far away from it, since nobody wants another one of those accidents to happen. Slowly Melinda''s footsteps slowed and she finally stopped next to the gate. A dozen or so meters away Percy was saying goodbye to his four wives. It always made her feel weird, but they looked happy enough... At least that''s what she told herself. But she still saw the marks on one of the woman''s wrists, and another one''s clavicle. Percy seemed to love them and treat them well on the outside, but whatever he does to them in the bedroom was beyond Melinda''s imagination. It wasn''t her concern though. She would gladly take Percy out if Sera or one of the wives asked her to, but they looked to be fine with this dynamic. She walked to the twenty soldiers who were speaking between themselves excitedly. The cohort leader was a bit off to the side from them, constantly scanning the surroundings. He was either waiting for a surprise attack, or wanting to be prepared for her Lady''s arrival. He didn''t even seem to notice Melinda, but she knew that wasn''t the case. "What''s your name anyway?" She asked from the man in his thirties. He had a reddish-brown hair and similar colored eyes. His height was not even a head above Melinda''s own, but at least his build was muscular. Finally he turned away and looked at Melinda. "Glenn Chase, or Cohort Leader Chase, ma''am!" A small smile appeared on Melinda''s face as she whispered to Glenn. "Well, Cohort Leader Chase here is a small advice. It is useless to try and be prepared for Lady Seraphine. She has a supernatural power to only appear when you least expect it!" "Is that so?" Asked a bored feminine voice from behind Melinda. She didn''t turned around and just made a face to Glenn which roughly translated to ''I told you so!''. With Sera''s arrival the cohort of 23 personal moved out. Their destination, an enemy encampment with five times their numbers. Chapter 150: Dead Within Seconds 5 days later the 23 person cohort was walking through a large forest. One of the evolved had scouted out where the enemy camp was located. The journey took longer than Sera had initially anticipated. The directive which claimed the camp was 328 kilometers north from New Athens, was wrong. It was actually closer to 400. Luckily they found the trails of their patrols, tracking them back to the camp was fairly easy. Currently Sera was waiting for the scouts to make an exact headcount of the enemy combatants. It took them a few hours, but soon they came back. There were three scouts, one female and two male. Each went down on one knee before Sera, then the woman standing in the middle spoke in a bit nervous, but otherwise professional tone. "The scouting was a success my Lady. We have counted ten ascended, 113 evolved and at least 2000 regular soldiers and civilians!" Sera looked at them for a few seconds, then made a small nod of acknowledgment. Slowly they stood up from the forest ground. They made a quick salute, then moved to where the rest of the evolved stood. They waited for Sera''s command. She on the other hand was just staring into the distance, towards the camp which they wanted to destroy. Her eyes seemed to pass through trees and foliage, as she pictured the camp grounds in her mind. After minutes of standing in silence, she turned her head and looked at Melinda. Suddenly Melinda''s posture changed and she looked much straighter. After watching her for a few moments Sera just said, "Are you ready?" She and Percy already knew the plan. They had done this exact same strategy multiple times over. It was nearly impossible to defend against. "Understood my Lady! We won''t disappoint!" With that both Melinda and Percy moved towards the camp. After a few seconds they were already gone. Sera stared after them for a while, then looked at the twenty evolved behind her. "You should get ready. The fun is about to begin." Even though she was talking about having fun, her voice stayed emotionless. The best she could manage was a small smile towards the cohort which looked more threatening, then comforting. ... It was night in the United Front camp. The people were still walking around, heading towards their makeshift homes, or running a few nightly errands. Wayne was currently on guard duty. He was about 23 years old, at least that''s what he thought anyway. After becoming an evolved, he was conscripted into the United Front Army nearly immediately. The pay was good, if nothing else. He didn''t really understand what either side fought for, there was only one person he was concerned about... himself. Before evolving about a year ago, he had no friends or family. Now at least he had a few friends in the army, but nothing else. After a year of war he lost many of them, which made him realize that he should only care about himself. That''s why he was in this camp. They had been here for a few weeks and everything seemed to be alright. Only another day or two and they will finally head back to home base. Finally the woman stopped. The purple magical light still danced around her. From below the cloak came a warm sounding female voice. "Do you really want to see me?" Wayne could hear the smile in her voice and he quickly started to second guess himself. With a small nod he gave her permission to do so. She giggled a bit, then lowered the hood just enough for Wayne to see the camp''s light catch on her eyes. They were different colored, one was azure like the sea, the other green like the leaves in the summer. Suddenly Wayne fell to his knees. Something was wrong, he could feel it. His whole chest was in pain and he began coughing blood. Without him noticing the woman slowly walked towards him. After another moment he lost all his strength and fell on his back. He was staring up at the starry night sky, when something blocked out his view. From above a beautiful woman was smiling down at him. It wasn''t a nice smile, but not cruel either. She just simply didn''t care about him. Gradually his vision went blood-red, then totally blank. His mouth tasted of iron and he smelt it too. From above him the woman''s hand gently touched his head. She weaved her fingers through his hair and whispered to him in a gentle tone, "Shh... It will be over soon..." And just as she said it finally Wayne''s heart couldn''t take it anymore. Melinda slowly stood up and looked at the brightly lit camp with a small menacing smile. She closed her eyes, then focused her mind. While fully concentrating she released a large blast of invisible wave of disease. The purple light around her seemed to burn brighter as well. Percy using his magic increased the blast''s power even further. Throughout the camp people began falling to their knees coughing up blood. Every single regular human soldier or civilian was dead within seconds. The evolved''s constitution was stronger though. What she had done with the guard was a concentrated attack, but this time the more she affected the better. Slowly the evolved became dizzy and the weaker ones even fell to their knees while bleeding from their noses, but none of them died. The ascended on the other hand didn''t even feel a thing, except for the unseen wave passing through the camp of course. Quickly every one of them ran towards the source where Melinda and Percy stood. They stopped near them, then with a few silent orders from their leader, they began making a circle around the two ascended. While they were in a lot of trouble, Sera and the rest of the cohort was just about a hundred meters away, hiding in the tree line. The twenty evolved were looking in wonder at all the people dying for seemingly no reason, but they also started to get anxious. When the ten ascended showed up, they began to forget everything they had learnt. Now, they were waiting for their leader''s order to either attack or retreat. Even they didn''t believe that Sera could defeat so many on her own. To their utter surprise though, when she turned towards them there was only a small smile on her face. This time it didn''t confuse them, its meaning was clear... It meant death... Chapter 151: Deathless Phoenix The group of evolved should''ve been terrified by Sera''s smile, but instead they felt amazing. It was like their body became more powerful and they could achieve anything they put their mind to. With the cohort inspired, Sera turned back towards the ten ascended and walked out of the tree line. She only said one sentence before leaving... "Take care of the survivors." Her voice sounded still and even, but the cohort felt the underlying message... She will kill most of them, their job is eliminating the few that will remain! There was no shouts or war cries. The twenty evolved silently slipped away and went towards the camp while making a large detour. Sera on the other hand went with a more direct route. Without much care she walked towards the ten ascended who were about to attack Melinda and Percy. Slowly she held out her hand, then made a bright ball of light. Immediately all of the ascended looked in her direction, but still she just walked without increasing her pace. Eventually her body began to get absorbed by a golden armor. At first only a pair of boots appeared, then her whole leg changed, next followed her waist, stomach, chest and finally her arms. Her head was left unprotected. She was still about thirty meters away, when she held out her arm and pure white flames came out. They elongated in both directions and slowly became corporeal. After a few seconds she was holding a large two and a half meter long golden glaive. It was a magnificent weapon, with loads of embellishment and ornamentation. For some reason the weapon held pictures of her previous accomplishments and triumphs. She didn''t make it like that, but she did think it looked better this way. When she was only ten meters away, she stopped. Looking at the ten ascended a cruel and malevolent smile appeared on her face, which made half of them take a step back. "Who are you? Why did you attack us?..." Asked a man whom seemed to be the leader of this camp. He was in full armor with nothing showing, which made it harder to judge his character. Unlike what he expected Sera didn''t answer. She just placed down her glaive with the blade towards the sky, and leaned on it a bit. "I give all of you one chance to surrender, if not you will be executed right here!" The man sounded a bit distressed. He didn''t like it one bit, how comfortable Sera looked in this situation. Her face didn''t let any emotion show other than pure confidence. From the camp a few screams and shouts sounded, which was the indicator that the massacre had begun. This was exactly what Sera had been waiting for. Without a word or exclamation, she moved swiftly like the wind. The ten ascended stood in a half circle around the three of them. Sera went straight into the middle, not at the leader since he seemed to pay the most attention out of them. Her glaive moved and split the air with the sound of crackling flames. The woman she had aimed for tried to bring her sword up in time, but it made no difference. While she managed to successfully block the weapon, it carried so much power that she fell to her knees. That would''ve been fine as well, but what she didn''t expect was the shower of holy white flames which followed the initial attack. Her armor melted and the woman screamed as she was cooked alive. Her face was fully emotionless as she changed the shape of her glaive again and threw it towards the large deer. Her head got impaled by a spear in less than a second and she fell over dead. The other five ascended just looked at her with despair and terror. Before they had no idea who she was, but after calling herself phoenix and seeing her wings there was no denying it... The Deathless Phoenix had come for them... They heard the stories about her. A woman who can resurrect with ease and even gain power from it. A person who broke countless armies and took many cities. The strongest ascended to ever walk the Earth. People like to exaggerate to explain their defeats. Saying that the enemy is really powerful was easier, then admitting that a 22 year old is a better tactician, then a person who trained for leading armies. But of course these five ascended, were weak and gullible. They believed those stories, and thought that the woman in front of them was a demigod of sorts. Just her presence brought fear to the five ascended''s hearts. Even the leader was looking around, trying to find a way to run away, but there was no escape from her. She didn''t even re-summon her weapon. With a few large bounds she arrived in front of the weakest of the group. He was the one with the gargoyle transformation. There was still a lot of persisting pain all over his body, when Sera moved her fist he didn''t even have a chance to defend against it. Her fist connected with the helmet and it bent from her power. The man wasn''t dead, but he did flew for meter or so, then hit the ground hard. With a quick move Sera broke the helmet into pieces and stomped the man''s head in. The other four watched all of this with horror, but they quickly realized that they needed to fight to be able to survive this encounter. The woman with the crossbow swiftly shot another bolt while Sera was still distracted. Suddenly the pair of pristine white angelic wings appeared and covered her whole back. The bolt didn''t even make a scratch on it. Sera turned around and with a mad laughter jumped at the next person she saw. The katana wielding man tried to impale her, but she used her wing as a shield then grabbed the man by the throat. She lifted him with ease, and in the next moment he was flying through the air. He hit the woman with the crossbow, just in time for the next bolt to go astray. Another katana user attacked Sera from the left, while the group''s leader using his spear attacked from the right. To their dismay, Sera didn''t even use her wings. She held out both of her hands and caught both weapons with zero effort. They stayed like that for a full second. In that time the pair of golden flame wings appeared behind her back, and soon both weapons were melted in her holy fire. While the two of them screamed from the burning pain, Sera''s hands got enveloped by said fire. With two quick moves she punched through each of their breastplates, melting all their internal organs from the inside. From the ground the other two were about to get up, but Sera was there in the next moment. There was a bright explosion of white flames and when she left, only two molten metal puddles remained. The battle lasted a few minutes at most. In that time she had killed eight ascended alone. Yeah, they were the lowest tier of ascended, but it was still something few could accomplish. Chapter 152: Thorough Extermination Sera silently stood over the dead ascended. Melinda and Percy had already finished their fights a while ago and now they were in the camp hunting down any survivors. It always felt a bit strange to complete these kinds of missions. She knew it was evil to massacre an entire camp of people, but deep inside her there was only emptiness. Sera knew it was bad, but she literally couldn''t feel bad. It was a confusing contradiction, which she struggled with at times like this. After a while when the screams and shouts died down a bit, she began walking through the camp. Her weapon changed into a tiny spark that stuck close to her hand. It gave her quick access in case of a surprise attack. Her hollow eyes looked at the corpses around her. The people with actual wounds were the evolved that survived the initial wave of plague. Then there were people wearing the uniforms of the United Front. White and blue, that was their color. It supposed to represent freedom and justice, but Sera knew them well. She was always curious what propaganda did the United Front spread about the Federal Alliance. From the outside it might seem like they had the moral high ground, but the United Front lost that about a year ago. Back then Sera wasn''t nearly as prominent of a fighter and leader. She was already in control of New Athens, but her rule was still unstable. One day there was a new major operation not too far from her home. The target... Venice... A city built onto the Adrian Sea. She saw it before the end, it was one of the most beautiful sights Sera had ever witnessed. The streets next to the waterways, the buildings of the classical Old World''s architectural style, the people so happy and full of life. It was a city of splendor... It''s gone now... One of the cruelest of the United Front''s generals lead the defense. It was one of the largest offensives of the Federal Alliance''s campaign. The city didn''t really hold anything special other then a way to connect the Balkans with the Italian Peninsula. Venice had a strategic purpose. If they managed to capture it, the armies didn''t need to cross the Alps in the middle or the Pyrenees in the west of Europe. Sadly Napoleon knew that too. He is one of the best general this world has ever seen. He named himself after a very successful general of the Old World, after he had won many victories to the United Front... but Venice was an unwinnable battle. It was one of the few offensives where people of the stellar rank had gotten involved. The battle itself was a massacre. Both armies had nearly hundred thousand evolved with another few thousand ascended. They weren''t the strong kind of ascended, just cannon fodder, Sera killed hundreds of them in that battle. The real deciding factor was the transcended forces. The United Front had about twenty or so within the city, while the Federal Alliance brought nearly thirty. The battle should''ve been a clean victory, not an easy one, but also not too hard... It wasn''t... Not long after the battle started, the enemy started to lose ground and troops swiftly. Artillery fire shook the earth, tanks rolled through the battlefield crushing everything in their paths. "Please... Just let us go... We will never fight against the Federal Alliance again!" Each and everyone of them begged for their lives. Slowly in Sera''s hand her glaive formed. She leaned on it for a bit, and looked towards the sky. The people on the ground didn''t even breath while they waited for Sera to answer. After a minute of pretending to be thinking, she looked back towards the small group, then with one quick motion beheaded them all. While walking away she said one word... "No." It was safe to say that she was a perfectionist when it came to following orders. The camp slowly turned silent as the last of the evolved had finally died. Every single one dead. No survivor, no person who escaped, no one spared from someone''s kindness. She was asked to kill everyone and she did her job splendidly. In the middle of the camp the 23 of them got together. They all waited for Sera''s next command. Currently she was examining the gear of the individuals within the camp. The material the ascended used was awful. Whoever gave them supplies made a really shitty job. Eventually she threw the melted armor away and looked up at her soldiers. "Great job everyone. As always when we get back you will receive your bonuses and a week long holiday." This was always the reward for a successful missions. Sera watched the faces of the evolved. Every time they told her that they didn''t do it for the money or free time, but non dared to refuse her generosity. Instead they just stood there awkwardly. Percy and Melinda didn''t really care, since they didn''t get rewards like the evolved. As captains they already had many bonuses which meant they have to do more work too. After staying silent for a bit, Sera stood up and motioned for the group to move out. The journey back to New Athens was a lot quicker. It took them only three days to reach the outer city gate. As they walked through the city grounds the citizen cheered for them. Sera forced out a small smile and waved her hand a few times at the crowds, which made their cheering even louder. It always went like this after every successful mission. Today at night, celebrations will be held all over the city. The amphitheaters will be packed with people. In the taverns the alcohol will be flowing like rivers. But Sera won''t be their for any of that. Read exclusive adventures at mvl Just like always she will attend the real celebrations within the military encampment. But that will happen later. Now she only wanted to take an ice cold shower and go to sleep. Sadly a good leader''s job never ends. She still had to write a long report to central command and even after that she had no time to relax. It was a bit tiring to have so many responsibilities, but she needed to be here for her future goals. Chapter 153: Night Celebrations As night fell on New Athens the city was absorbed in festivities. The taverns were overflowing with people. In every amphitheater, plays were being acted out. There were some classical ones that came from the Old World. Then there were the newer ones depicting most of Sera''s triumphs. There was the Tragedy of Venice, where a family of four gets saved by Lady Seraphine while their whole city gets destroyed. Then there was the comedy named Drunken Angel. Sera didn''t really remember that night. The whole premise was her getting really drunk after a celebration like this, let''s just say a lot of strange and funny things happened that night. But by far the most liked is the aptly named Night of Liberation. This was the play''s name which depicted Sera killing the tyrant. It was a tragicomedy, but they also made it into a musical. Sera did watch all of them, but all her reactions that the people saw, were faked. In reality she didn''t care how they made her look, and the Angelic Order handled the censorship process. Every new play before getting a chance at the amphitheater''s, had to go through a thorough scrutinizing. They made sure that Lady Seraphine''s image wasn''t depicted the wrong way. In the middle of the city, within the encampment the celebrations took on a different form. All over the large square hundreds of tables were set up, most of it occupied by nearly a dozen people. And close to these tables a few rings were made in the ground, which were the real entertainment of the evening. On these nights people could legally fight each other. They could take out their anger because of some difference, or just simply test out their strength. It was forbidden to use your weapons, armor, or abilities. Only training weapons with blunted blades. Nobody really took it seriously. People laughed at the losers, but after a minute everyone forgot about it and drank all the same. Another big thing was gambling. People bet on the fights, but the more interesting part was the other games. At a few tables everyone could play either poker or dice, which were more luck based, but another big sport between the evolved was chess. Strangely enough this game of logic and pattern recognition survived even the Apocalypse. Some rules changed, more pieces were added and the board increased in size from an 8x8 to 10x10. There were two new pieces added and an old one, the knight was removed. One of the pieces was called healer, which could bring back two other pieces to the game, if she makes it back and forth from two sides. This was a very powerful ability, only issue is she couldn''t capture pieces, and could only move forward or backward by two squares, except if her path is blocked by a pawn, then she could jump to one of the other lanes. The other was not so creatively called the evolved. He was more of an overpowered knight, meaning he could move in any directions up to three squares and could even jump over pieces. Needless to say usually these were the pieces most hunted for at the beginning. There was also a randomness added to it, in the form of disasters. Every tenth turn the players would roll a new modifier. For example, every piece on the 6th row dies, or both side''s evolved revive. Technically it wasn''t even alcohol, but the poison of some small evolved critter. They had a farm of them in an underground facility. If you distill the poison, mix it with hundred percent alcohol and some pure fruit extract, you get a drink that taste''s pretty good and with only one sip has the effect of about half a liter of vodka. Currently Sera was drinking her fourth cup. One thing they never talk about was, how much alcohol you need to consume as an evolved to get drunk. It was a true nightmare. It took a few rounds for the fourth cup to hit, but when it did she felt amazing. Her head was buzzing, the lights shined brighter, everything seemed perfect. Sadly this state of ecstasy only lasted for about ten minutes. After that her super strong liver processed a large portion of the Critter Bite. She sighed a bit disheartened, then stood up and went to get another drink. Soon Sera was drinking again, but this time she only took sips. With small and very shaky steps she approached the fighting circles. There were about fifteen fights going on at the same time, but she quickly found the most interesting one. It seemed like Hector couldn''t handle himself and started a fight with another ascended whom he was currently pummeling into the ground. It was fun to watch for a while, but Hector''s each hit gotten stronger and soon he couldn''t hold his excitement and transformed. Sera quickly downed her drink and before the surprised ascended could suffer any real damage, she jumped in. Hector''s transformation was nothing special. His skin would turn dark and his physical strength would greatly increase. With these powers and his impulsive nature, the soldiers gave him the nickname Dark Fiend. His fist was currently travelling towards the other ascended''s head, if it would''ve reached him, the skull would''ve burst like a watermelon. Luckily for him, Sera was much faster than either fighter. Using her wings she gained enough speed to reach and push him out of Hector''s way. Sadly she didn''t account for her drunkenness and the fist hit her clean on the left clavicle. Her hollow face didn''t change, like she didn''t even feel the hit... or her bones breaking. In reality she was seeing red from all the pain, but throughout the past two years, she had suffered so much under Harold''s hands that this felt more like a bee sting in comparison. Using the power within the attack she turned from the waist and with a quick wingbeat, she appeared behind Hector. It only took one well placed fist to his kidney for him to crumple. The people watching the fight cheered all around her. While coughing Hector slowly changed back. Still on the ground he looked up at Sera with terror in his eyes. But instead of getting straight up executed in the middle of the ring, Sera just motioned for him to follow. Gradually he rose to his feet and nearly ran after the leaving Sera. They didn''t go far, only to the nearest bar counter. Here Sera ordered a drink for both of them, then she clinked her glasses with Hector''s and drank the whole Critter Bite in one gulp. She looked towards the starry sky and enjoy the feeling of weightlessness for a while longer. Chapter 154: Birthplace and Grave The two of them were drinking for about half an hour now. Nobody approached the counter at which they sat, and the bartender looked pretty nervous just by being near the two of them. At some point Sera began staring at him, she didn''t know why but the man''s demeanor gave her a strange sensation. Something wasn''t right with him, but she couldn''t put her finger on it. "Why don''t you let me go on missions? I''m going insane in this city! I need to kill something!" Said Hector. Sera just took a small sip of her tenth drink and looked at him with narrowed eyes. It made Hector pause a bit, which was kind of funny since they were only narrowed because her eyes couldn''t really focus on him. Only now did she realize that these past couple of drinks were even stronger than before. "You know Hector, I don''t like you very much... *Hiccup* You are good in a fight and for fucking, but otherwise you bring nothing to the table... Look at the others for example. Bran and Melinda do most things related to the city, and even Kathy and Percy try to work for their positions! You are just... *Cough* Use... *Cough* Less..." Slowly her breathing grew more and more labored. With a bit darkened vision she looked around to find the bartender, but he has disappeared. After another few seconds she began violently coughing. Hector was about to shout back with anger, but he quickly realized that Sera was currently choking. His eyes snapped to her drink and after a quick smell he determined that the drink was poisoned. Continue your saga on mvl "HEALER!" He shouted into the crowd. Every single one of the thousands of people turned silent and a few evolved with healing aspects came to Sera aid, running. At this point her face was deathly pale and her breathing inefficient. Her vision was also fully dark, she also lost her sense of smell and touch. The only way she could perceive reality was through hearing. Currently the healers were using all of their powers to cure Sera, but nothing seemed to be working. After a long time or maybe in a couple of seconds her other captains arrived. They began arguing as well. Eventually Bran sent all of them away to hunt down the assassin. "I''m sorry Captain... We tried everything, but... Nothing''s working..." A female voice said, one of the healer''s, Sera thought. Next she heard a sad male sigh, which she immediately noted as Bran. "I understand... I will take her to The Field of Resurrection then." Strangely enough her sense of balance was still active, so Sera noticed when Bran lifted her off of the ground and began taking her elsewhere. While walking, he talked to her. "How much will it be? 390? 391? If you go like this, soon you will reach 400!... We can have a celebration then too! Maybe one that doesn''t end up with you dying..." It was strange how quickly he dropped the ''best subordinate'' act when they were alone. It was kind of comforting, but that was probably the alcohol and the feeling of dying... again... Bran said it as a joke, but the reality would be truly mortifying for anyone other than her. Dying that many times, remembering each death, all the pain and suffering... Sera had no idea how her soul wasn''t in pieces yet. "Yes... But he used the poison on himself too... He had nothing on him, except a large rifle, which he would''ve probably used to kill Lady Seraphine after her resurrection..." Her voice was grim, which was understandable. The first few attempts on Sera''s life were pretty bad. They had no idea about her powers back then, only her increasing military records and her closeness to the Federal Alliance''s higher leadership. They tried shooting her with a sniper from kilometers away, which Sera could defend against with ease. Other''s tried to place bombs in her building or a vehicle she was traveling inside, her armor could defend against tank shells, so the mundane bombs didn''t work either. But slowly they had become better and better. This current one seemed to be their best attempt yet, which caused a lot of anxiety to Bran. His job would be to secure everything in the city, but assassin''s constantly managed to get inside. Suddenly from inside the crater a giant beam of white fire shot up towards the sky and slowly Sera began floating with her wings out. She was currently naked since all her clothes burn away in the rock melting heat. Luckily she was also so bright that nothing substantial could be made out. Behind them the thousands of people cheered loudly, which caused Bran''s face to twist in anger. His fist''s were shaking from the need to knock out every one of his soldiers. Instead he took a few deep breaths and calmed himself. The flames would only last a few seconds, but the heat would persist for another couple of hours. As the fire dispersed Sera''s armor got woven into existence just in time for it to cover her alluring body. With a few strong wingbeats she came down in front of the captains. Gradually they knelt in front of her. Bran didn''t need to turn around to know that the rest of the soldiers were on the ground as well. It always amazed him how much Sera''s presence grew after a resurrection. It reached the level of a transcended, but unlike them, Sera''s will only last an hour. This was her biggest weapon during battles. She tricked many transcended to be overly cocky and die by her hand. This in and of itself was a feat no other ascended could do. At least none that Bran knew of. Sera moved her arms a bit and made a few head circles. After she head gotten used to her body, she sighed and whispered so only Bran could hear. "Dammit. I''m sober again..." It took all of Bran''s power not to burst out laughing immediately. But no matter the effort, the stupid grin didn''t budge from his face. He slowly looked up at Sera and saw an extremely tiny glint in her eye. The light which few could observe was there, shining. "Did you have a nice sleep?" He asked with the same smile. Above him Sera tilted her head a bit, then burst out laughing, surprising everyone except Bran. Sadly it didn''t last long. As her power settled back into her body, the previous glint in her eyes slowly died out. After every resurrection, there were a few minutes when her emotions aren''t fully broken, but they go away eventually every time. The sight was horrible, in some ways even worse than seeing her die. The beautiful face that laughed so wholeheartedly a few moments ago, settled back into its usual hollow state. Her eyes turned away from Bran and stared at Hector. "Come Hector. Let''s fuck." And with that she began walking towards her mansion, which was a few dozen meters away. With a large grin Hector quickly jumped to his feet and ran after her. The other captains just sighed to themselves and went on their way. Chapter 155: A City of Wonders The next day Sera woke up in her large bed alone. Yesterday after she had sex with Hector for a few hours, she sent him away. It was always like that with every single one of her nightly partners. They could have sex with her, but not sleep next to her. While slowly trying to get up, she hissed a bit and looked down on her bruised body. Her wrists were purple, the bone a bit brittle, same went for her chest and ribs. But only when she walked to the large mirror on her wardrobe, did she see the full extent of it. The worst looking part was her neck which got nearly crushed during the night. It was always like that with Hector, same amount of pain and pleasure. They at least made her feel something. Gingerly she touched the large bruise right on her throat, then with a small grimace she went to take a shower. Still dripping wet, Sera went and opened her wardrobe. It was full of the same kinds of clothing, leather jackets ranging from light brown to black in colors. Pants that were made of a stretchable material so it wouldn''t impede her movement. Military boots, all of them black. And short sleeved shirts, in darker colors of course. Quickly she picked out her clothes, including a leather jacket with the largest collar. It hid her neck bruise quite well. With that done, she stood in front of the mirror and summoned an item. It was a small earing with pained faces on it. This was an item she commissioned from one of her subordinates. It had one ability, being able to edit her appearance to a small degree. As she put it on her waist long hair shortened and only reached her shoulder blades, it also changed the color from its magnificent golden into a bit lustrous, but still ordinary black. Her eye color changed as well, from its golden color into a nice hazel. Sadly this was the extent that the item could change her looks, but it was good enough. After being done with that, Sera spent the next half an hour making facial expressions. This was the only way she could at least try to mimic regular humans who still had their emotions. Eventually after trying on every expression she knew, Sera made a small nod to her mirror self. She then proceeded to walk out of her room. The building she lived in was a small mansion. It had at least five bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, multiple living rooms and recreational spaces, a large kitchen and a connected dining room. Sadly this whole building was filled with emptiness. Every large room, every bedroom, every living space was missing something vital... Life... This whole large building, and Sera lived alone. Every day people came and cleaned every room in the house, but that was the only traffic it got. As Sera walked down the silent hallway, her steps echoed throughout the building. Since it was currently 6 in the morning even the gunshots and explosions which usually sounded in a military encampment, were silent. It shouldn''t have minded her, since she literally couldn''t feel either loneliness or sadness, but it increased her hollowness a bit. This was one of the reason why she never ate at her house. There was one true way she found that let her elevate the hollowness a bit, and that was to be around regular people more. This task in and of itself wasn''t easy because of her status as the city''s leader, but that was the earing''s job. She could mingle with her citizen''s without them knowing her actual identity. Discover hidden content at mvl New Athens was truly a city of wonders. The buildings were modern, but with a classical, almost ancient architecture to them. It was a perfect blend between the past and the present. It is said that the Athens that stood here before the Apocalypse, was the heart of some civilization once. They say this was the place where democracy was born. The ideology was a bit confusing for Sera. Why would some random person that the most people liked, lead a society? If democracy would still be alive, they could replace Sera with someone who wasn''t even an evolved! It sounded utterly ridiculous to her, but of course she was born in a society where democracy was eradicated more than a hundred years ago. It proved to be really ineffective when multiple planets could vote for leaders on other planets. They then tried a decentralized government structure, which nearly immediately lead to civil war. In the end democracy failed as a government structure and they went back to some form of monarchy. Sera knew all about these things, for reason''s she had no idea about. But these information about the past''s failed societies and broken empires, gave her the opportunity to not make the same mistakes. There was a saying she liked, ''A normal person learns from their own mistakes. A smart one learns from other people''s mistakes.'' This was a quote she tried to live by, but it didn''t work most times. There were a lot of cases where she had done something nobody else before her did, which meant she couldn''t learn from others and made mistakes of her own. She continued to stare outside. Slowly the Sun rose on the horizon and the magical city came to life. Cars began rolling down the streets, the people were in a hurry to either get to their workplace, or somewhere else. The streets were emptier than on most days since it was saturday, but not everyone got free weekends. Some people worked mostly on weekends, like entertainment workers. They made their largest profits on days like this, when people had time to bring their children to watch a play, or go to the zoo. Yeah, New Athens even had a zoo and there weren''t only normal animals kept inside, but even a few smaller and harmless monsters. The revenues the brought in, when their monster section opened was on a whole different level. But of course not every person would go to these places. Some of them spent their time within the Angelic Order''s weekly mass, which happened on every saturday at 9 am. After waiting for fifteen minutes, her ordered food arrived, which she consumed very leisurely. First she drank from the coffee with no sugar or milk. It had a horrible bitter taste, which suited her just fine. In her opinion every feeling was better than emptiness. It also made the actual food''s taste much better. While eating she overheard a few conversations about yesterday''s events. People mostly talked about the assassination, which made sense. They were quite angry about the perpetrator, but also proud of their leader. Sera didn''t particularly care and after eating and drinking herself full. She left her table with a very generous tip of a few thousand credits. Just for perspective, her whole meal had the cost of about thirty. After walking out of the restaurant, she looked around and began walking around the city without any target in mind. Chapter 156: The Emptiness in Our Heart Walking through the streets her face stayed bored. The warm breeze blew her hair a bit, she was close to the shoreline now. At some point she decided to go watch the sea, while she was nearing her destination. The guards didn''t stop or question her when she climbed onto the wall. Sera''s usual serious expression and empty eyes made most people so uncomfortable that they straight up went away when she approached. On the large city wall she sat down at its edge and watched the waves a few dozen meters away. The Sun was still quite low and reflected on the water, making the azure waves even more magical. Sometimes kilometers from the shore, monsters popped out of the water and fought with each other changing the azure water blood-red. Strangely enough corpses never washed onto the shore, they were always devoured by smaller monsters. Even the bones were consumed in their strange ecosystem. Her thoughts were mostly empty while watching the sea. The time was approaching, so it was too dangerous to think about her future plans. Also there wasn''t much to think about... At this point everything was in other people''s hands. Eventually, after an hour of sitting and doing nothing, Sera stood up and continued her pointless walking. Her feet moved without purpose to a destination she didn''t know. While walking she watched the cloudless sky which looked to be an even brighter blue today. Since she stopped in the middle of the road, the people looked at her strangely, but nobody seemed to care about her. Slowly she closed her eyes to hide the phantom pain in them. Eventually Sera moved on and found herself near one of the main amphitheaters of New Athens. Currently the actors were doing rehearsals for the night, but since these establishments worked purely on taxes and it was free to get in, anyone could watch the rehearsals too. There were a few other civilians sitting near the front. It was also great for the actors to have a small trial audience before the real performance at night. They were currently rehearsing one of the classical tragedies of the Old World named Antigone. It was actually made in this very city, but thousands of years ago. They were nearing the end of the rehearsal, currently Creon was condemning himself for going against the Gods'' will. Sera felt that what she was doing is similar to that, but she had no interest in just going against the Gods'' will... "Even the ancient Greek Gods could be killed, why wouldn''t ours be the same?" She whispered to herself when the rehearsal finally ended. Her enemies weren''t truly gods, just people with powers much vaster than her own. There was still time, before her next session, so she continued to wander around a bit more. Unconsciously she walked towards an area where children''s laughter could be heard. With a quick glance she saw a playground where the happy sounds were originating from. Sera tilted her head a bit, looking at the young children especially the girls, her heart felt even emptier than usual. It was like something had pierced it, and the aching pain only grew stronger with each passing second. With curiosity to learn more about this feeling which she rarely ever felt, Sera sat down on a bench and watched while the children played around. The pain never left her chest, it was amazing! She wasn''t masochist, she actually despised it, but this specific pain was different... It felt like she lost something so important and precious, that her very heart couldn''t bear witnessing other people''s happiness... The girl didn''t even have a chance to speak, before Sera stood up and just walked back to the bench where she was sitting previously. The parents and children were still taking glances at her, but slowly they resumed their playing. It wasn''t anything special what she had done. The statue was a complementary item for every evolved, it could provide basic medical care on a battle field. Healing dangerous wounds and keeping people alive, until an actual medical aspect user could look at them. The girl gingerly touched the area where her previous wound was located, then with her mother they both approached Sera. They looked at the ground while the girl spoke, "Thank you ma''am... for healing me..." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper and it was very nervous. The mother on the other hand was a bit scared which confused Sera a bit. "Does the lady require any form of payment?" Said the mother and Sera finally understood her fear. She quickly looked at the child''s and mother''s clothing and nodded to herself. They were quite cheap and a bit dirty, which meant they weren''t wealthy in any way. The mother probably lost his husband too, since in New Athens a two parent household should''ve easily supported one child. Sera still didn''t say anything and just touched her watch to the mother''s trembling wrist. Suddenly she had gotten a pop-up notification about a large transfer of credits. She did the same with the girl''s watch and with a smile whispered, "Don''t spend it all on candy!" The pair looked at Sera with wide eyes and mouths hanging open. It was no wonder they felt that way. Who wouldn''t be amazed, when a random woman just transferred them one million credit each. That much money could basically buy a small mansion, or they could live the rest of their lives without the need for work. They seemed to be about to go on their knees and thank her, so Sera quickly shut them down. "Little girl go back to playing. No need to thank me, I weren''t using that money anyway." Her voice wasn''t haughty or proud, more sad and empty. It seemed to held the underlying message, that she had no use for that much money... since she had nobody to spend it on. The mother gratefully nodded and was about to go away, when her daughter suddenly jumped towards Sera. It took all her will power not to punch the kid from reflex. The girl jumped onto her and hugged Sera. Her eyes were teary and very happy. She said ''Thank you, ma''am!'' over and over again. The girl''s mother on the other hand was mortified. Read exclusive chapters at mvl With a quick movement she pulled her daughter onto the ground and immediately started begging for forgiveness. Sera just chuckled lightly and said its fine. With pure terror in her eyes the mother pulled her daughter away, but Sera''s attention was already somewhere else. Her demeanor changed like the wind. The previously smiling and happy nature turned grim as she was reminded what day it was. At some point a person seated himself next to Sera. The balding white haired man stared at the children playing, he seemed to be deep in thought. Nobody noticed his weird style choice of a lab coat and welding glasses. Harold''s eyes slowly turned from the children and looked at Sera with a smile. "Good Day, Lady Seraphine! Did you miss me?" Chapter 157: The Pains of the Past, Present and Future "Good Day, Lady Seraphine! Did you miss me?" Said Harold sarcastically, at which Sera just rolled her eyes and stared ahead. "You know the answer to that question... I don''t care." Her voice was much different than the warm, kind, almost motherly tone she had spoken just moments ago. It was soulless, empty, like a living corpse was talking. Slowly Harold''s wrinkly old hand touched Sera''s. She looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What is it?" She asked. He just laughed and while still not letting go of her hand, he spoke... "As you know the next session will soon begin, but I heard a few rumors and just wanted to know more about their validity... Could you enlighten this old man about your current situation?" Sera sighed while pretending to be exhausted, it clearly hid her surprise about Harold finding out about her resurrections not even a full day ago. "There was another assassination attempt. I died and revived all the same, so whatever session you have planned, the revival phase has to be about twelve hours from now." Her voice unconsciously trembled a bit as she talked. It wasn''t exactly fear, just the memory of the excruciating pain she would feel soon. Every week or so, Harold would come and take her away to his lab. There she would be tested and measured in every way possible, then eventually killed in a different way every time. Her resurrection would be held in a specific tube-like instrument, which absorbed all the energy she made. Sera had no idea where all that power went, but she knew Harold... He wouldn''t use it to anything like the good of humanity. "Oh, no you misunderstood me! I know all about the attempt, what I was more curious about is this place. Why are you sitting in a playground watching children, like a creep?" The irony of what he said didn''t escape Sera, since Harold was much creepier than she could ever be. She didn''t look at him, just watched as the children laughed and played. Eventually she answered in a small and a bit confused tone... "I don''t know. I was just walking around the city, while waiting for you and ended up here. Then I sat down and watched them play for a while. I feel strange when I look at them, like the hollowness is even more prominent." Sera really wanted to lie, but she learnt the hard way that Harold knew exactly when she told a lie. A phantom pain appeared on her left arm, as the memory came to her mind. With a slow movement she glanced at Harold, who seemed a bit troubled and was constantly muttering things. Sera only managed to catch a few words like ''Returning again'', ''Make her forget'', and ''Extremely strong emotion''. She just pretended not to hear anything, but on the side of her face, which was hidden from view, an ever so slight smirk appeared. It was there for only a moment before her face reset to its usual boredom. Eventually Harold seemed to calm down and they both stayed silent, just watching the kids play around. The girl whom Sera had previously healed seemed to be back to her vigor, she was currently having a rematch with the kid who hit her on the head by accident. It was strange, neither child really understood what pain was. Even after getting hurt only a few minutes ago, the little girl went back to play. He was a bit angry, but Sera just smiled at him and asked, "How many did you have to collect to become transcended?" Because of her remark, his face turned furious and with a lightning quick move he punched Sera in the face so hard she flew through the air for a few meters. Throughout all that she just laughed mockingly. The civilians around them didn''t even look in their direction, it was like they were fully invisible to them. Sera tried to get up, but suddenly a boot pushed her head into the grassy ground. Harold bent down from his waist and whispered into her ear. "Just because you are my favorite PET, doesn''t give you the right to mock me! I tell you what, I give you a month for you to fully saturate your soul..." He bent down even further and his voice turned menacing. "All those things I do to you is purely for research. Don''t for a second believe that your reality couldn''t get any worse... We barely even scratched the top of the kilometer long iceberg of suffering..." Even though Sera couldn''t feel fear, a shiver ran down her spine. "Do we understand each other?" He said with a mad smile on his face. Sera''s whole body was trembling from Harold''s presence, this was a passive ability of every transcended. Their emotions alone could bend reality to an extent. "Yes..." She said in a barely audible whisper. Suddenly she found herself back on the bench, with Harold grinning at her. Seeing her confused expression he laughed out loud. "What? Did you truly think I would destroy this nice bench or get physical to prove a point? Why would I need to do that, when I can easily control your perception..." His smile disappeared faster than Sera thought possible and he spoke in the previous mad tone. "But don''t forget about it. I gave you freedom to do what you like, but don''t believe for a second that I can''t change my mind anytime I want!... It would be much easier for me to have you locked up in my facility... You have a month!" His expression slowly turned from angry to neutral, then eventually happy. Harold breathed in the warm air and gradually stood up. With a smile on his face, he held out his hand to help Sera on her feet like a gentleman would. She had no real choice other than taking his hand. When they both were standing Sera took one last glance at the playground with the happy children, then with a small sigh she closed her eyes. The two of them stood there for only a moment, before suddenly both disappeared into nothingness. Gingerly Sera opened her eyes, they focused on the white surroundings and the bright lights above her... It was time for another day of suffering... Enjoy exclusive content from §Þ?? Chapter 158: Torture Session The place where she got teleported to could only be described with two words, white and clean. The small room looked like a hospital room, with a bed, small night table, a few machines that were constantly making beeping noises and a large window. The whole place, every furniture, the tiles below Sera''s feet, the walls of the building, all of it was plain white. Even the light above her was purely white, but also really bright and made a buzzing sound. She wasn''t even a little bit surprised. Before every testing session she was teleported into this room. Her eyes quickly looked towards the bed, where a hospital gown was already prepared for her. Without any ceremony she started dressing down, taking of her leather jacket, shirt, bra, boots, pants socks, panties and even her watch. Then put on the hospital gown, which luckily covered every major part of her. It was a bit cold in the room, but she had no care to cover her chest more than the gown already did. Strangely enough Harold was a sadistic psychopath who enjoyed watching other people''s suffering, but at least he wasn''t a pervert. In Sera''s opinion he didn''t even have sexual desires. He only pursued academic knowledge and liked to torture anything that could scream. Slowly Sera walked to the large window and stared outside while she waited for Harold. Looking outside she wasn''t shocked to see the cave walls and roof. She already knew that this facility was fully underground, she even began to believe that the only way to access it was through Harold''s teleportation. But not too long ago, they actually found where it laid. The facility was located on a remote island below the Italian Peninsula. Still actually finding it on the large island wasn''t an option, Harold definitely implemented defensive measures against that. From her window she saw... a lot... The area was a huge rectangle, by her judgement about three hundred meters towards one side and another hundred to the other. The large facility was full of different machines, tubes containing dead or living specimens, there were also different separated rooms which where labeled with different names. From her vantage she couldn''t quite make them out. There were also many different pipes and cables all over the place. The whole setup was purely chaotic, similar to its owner. The truly interesting and creepy part was the emptiness of the area. You would think that a nearly thirty thousand square meter facility would have hundreds of scientist working inside, but there wasn''t a single soul down there. The only actual personnel in this whole place was Harold. "Speak of the devil, and he shall appear." Said a male voice from behind her. Sera glanced over her shoulder at Harold who was grinning from ear to ear, then she turned back and spoke while staring out the window. "I don''t think I said your name even once." She heard the sound of footsteps and soon Harold was standing right next to her. They both stayed silent for a while, then eventually he smiled down at her. "Oh, but you thought of me little angel. That''s more than enough for me since I''m living right inside that pretty head of yours." As Harold said it, he ran a finger through Sera''s golden locks. With the teleportation her color changing earing got sent back to her soul, so both her hair and eye returned to its original golden state. With a quick movement she batted his hand away and while pretending to be spiteful she said, "Then maybe I should increase the rent!" Harold just laughed and glanced outside for a bit. For example, ''Who is the most important person in your life?'' she wrote Bran, since he helped her the most with the city''s management. Then another asked, ''Do you love anyone?'' her answer was easy. She wrote down ''No you idiot I can''t feel emotions because of you!'' Another strange one was, ''What would you name your daughter?'' she wrote down ''Go Fuck Yourself'' as an answer. This was the only fun part of these tests, since no matter what she wrote Harold never seemed to care enough to punish her. As she was done with the final test, the worst part was about to begin. Currently Sera sat on a comfortable chair, waiting for Harold to decide how she will die. Find adventures at §Þ?? The tests, especially the last one, took so long that her revival has reset about an hour ago. It took him a bit longer to compile all the data and compare it to the last session''s. He was constantly muttering things to himself which Sera couldn''t make out. Eventually he nodded and turned towards her with a small cruel smile. Harold picked up a clipboard, which held all the different ways she had died. A few of them were suicides, then other times Harold killed her himself with brain aneurysm or just a simple physical hit, but the worst ones were when he got creative, or had some truly awful idea. She was burned in a vat of acid, jumped into lava, he even done a blood eagle on her once when she talked shit about him, also he was curious how it looked. It was a coin toss. If he feels more scientific he will choose something that''s important to his research. Sadly most of the times he feels sadistic and chooses the most painful way for her to die. Luckily for Sera, today was the first option. "Hmm... Ah, yes! Let''s do this one!" He said while pointing at something on his clipboard, then he stared at Sera, waiting for her to do something. After a few seconds of waiting he realized that Sera had no idea what he pointed at. Harold looked a bit embarrassed, which in Sera''s opinion, looked strange on a sadistic psychopath. "We will do the gamma ray test. Let''s see how your body reacts to large amounts of radiation!" Slowly she stood up from the chair and they both walked to one of the corners were a coffin-like capsule laid on the floor. With a raised eyebrow Sera looked at Harold, who was just giggling to himself. The machine probably didn''t need to look like a coffin, but he had a strange sense of humor. Without any protest Sera went into the box, closing it onto herself. Gradually the machine came alive and Sera felt her skin being pierced by tiny particles. It was a weird sensation, not painful at all... The painlessness didn''t last long... As more particles hit her skin, she started to feel warmer. It was like she had a high fever of sorts, then came the nausea. She tried to hold it back, but soon that was simply not possible Sera vomited all over herself, it was a combination of food she had eaten a while ago and blood. It still wasn''t really painful, but when her skin started to melt it become excruciating. It was like being on fire both on the outside and on the inside. This was also different from the pain test, instead of a gradual climb it was a sudden piercing pain. She screamed on the top of her lung as her body slowly melted down. It took only a few minutes for her to die, but eventually the sound of screaming stopped within the coffin... Another death... Chapter 159: The Burdens we Carry After dying there was only darkness, but nearly immediately a burning sensation appeared right in her heart. It gradually spread all over her body, then it finally burst out of her consuming everything nearby. Or at least that''s what should''ve happened. Instead all the pent up power and energy within her soul got syphoned away by a strange tube-like machine, where she currently resided. As her eyes opened, they focused on the white flames encompassing her little tube. From above and below her she heard a loud sucking noise. Slowly everything cleared around her and she could finally look through the tube''s wall. Outside she saw two large pipes leading away from her. They held the large amount of white flames. Her eyes followed them along, but they soon turned and headed through the floor. It also didn''t help that her eyes were really tired. She was fully exhausted from the torture, dying and reviving. Eventually her legs fully gave out and she just sat inside the little tube. She didn''t fight the fatigue as her eyes finally closed and she fell into a deep slumber. ... After who knows how long Sera woke up in her room within New Athens. She was a bit disoriented at first, but soon she sighed in relief, and closed her eyes trying to go back to sleep. She spent the next hour or so turning from one side to the other, but the sweet unconsciousness evaded her. A bit dejectedly she climbed out of her bed and went to take an ice cold shower. Soon she got out of it and put on some clothes similar to the ones she wore yesterday. With a quick look she determined that she was running low on clothes again. For some reason Harold never gave her back the clothes she wore before the tests, which meant that she constantly had to buy new ones. The only item he ever gave back was her watch, which was currently on her night stand. Sera quickly put it back on and looked at the time. It was 5 pm, sunday. She also had a few messages from Bran. Most of them were asking if she was okay. All of the captains knew where she went for nearly an entire day, so it was obvious why Bran was worried. As a reply she just sent a message that a meeting will be held at 9 pm. Everyone sent back their acknowledgement nearly immediately. This meant she had four hours to do whatever she wanted. Gradually she sat down on the bed and just stared at her trembling hands for a while. She didn''t seem to be doing anything, but every now and then her facial expression changed, like she was having a conversation inside her head. After nearly an hour her hands stopped trembling and she stood up with a near invisible smile. While walking away she whispered to herself... "You''re right..." Since she still had a few hours to do nothing, she went out her house and flew up on top of her mansion''s roof. From there she watched the soldiers and civilians in the encampment move about. It was strange how all those tiny people each had their own lives and own worries. Probably non of them had the same amount of stress to deal with as Sera, but that didn''t discredit their own hardships. She moved her hand on the watch''s interface and after a few seconds all of the captains got a new message. It read ¨C ''Life Essence Absorbed: 8453/10000'' Bran read the message dozens, maybe even hundreds of times before he finally regained his wit. 1547 life essence... It wouldn''t have been so bad, if Sera was still an evolved, but getting essence increased in difficulty by a lot as one''s rank increased. Ascended couldn''t absorb the life essence from tainted since they were too weak. It also meant that they had to fight harder creatures to keep increasing their strength. Another gigantic issue was Sera''s own potential. She needed 10000 life essence for her next evolution, just for perspective a regular ascended needed 2000. Her current life essence count was close to a transcended''s, which gave her the ability to fight them after resurrection, but it also nearly crippled her growth. Without the war, where she could kill humans and absorb part of their life essences'', she would probably still be below four thousand. To gather this much life essence within a month was nearly impossible, except if there would be a major offensive, but that was unknown even to Sera. *Sigh* "So, what are we going to do?" Asked Bran, while looking into Sera''s heavenly eyes. In answer she tilted her head a bit seemingly confused, it was always funny to Bran how bad she was at understanding underlying messages. It took her a while every time. "Well... There isn''t much to do... I will go hunting with you, since his soul isn''t fully saturated either. I just have to hope that a new directive will come really soon!" While her voice was hollow, her eyes had a small hidden meaning for only Bran to interpret. The others didn''t know, but his soul was actually fully saturated, which meant this hunting trip had another purpose. Something that Sera didn''t want the others to know about. "When do we leave?" He asked with a small smile, it was always nice to be alone with Sera. Just like every time she didn''t understand why he was smiling, or at least she pretended to not understand. "We could go now." She said, then turned towards the rest of the captains. "We will be back two or three days from now. If a new directive comes immediately message me! Understood?" All of them nodded with grim expressions. Non of them wanted for Sera to be replaced by some other leader from the Federal Alliance. She gave everyone enough freedom and had low expectations from them, which gave Hector and Percy a reason to not want her to leave. Melinda and Bran were of course fully devoted to her, and even loved her either like a family member or romantically. The only outlier was Kathy. Sera still didn''t fully understand why she was so happy to follow her, but she had a few ideas, non of them good. With that, the meeting ended. Both Bran and Sera went their ways to pack a bag full of supplies, then after half an hour they left New Athens. Chapter 160: Flames of Mourning This was definitely the weirdest experience Bran ever had in his life... He was currently being carried in the air by a bored faced Sera. It took a bit of convincing, but eventually Bran agreed that this was the fastest method. Unlike other people, his transformation didn''t include changing into something on the outside. It only changed his eye color and increased his power by a great amount. This meant that he had no way of flying, especially as fast as Sera could. Right now Sera was holding him by the waist, while they flew through the skies with about 100 or 150 km/h. She was actually going slower for his sake. Every time he looked at Sera and realized the situation he was in, he began blushing from embarrassment. It was very weird being carried by your crush through the air. He also felt Sera''s breast touching his side a bit, which only made the scenario worse. As he was struggling keeping his dirty thoughts away, Sera payed no attention to him. Currently she was staring at her status window, reading through everything for possibly the hundredth time in the past hour. Name: Seraphine Title: Angel Monarch 1st Kill: Archangel of Despair, Horror of the 3rd Tier 2nd Kill: Holy Phoenix, Corrupted of the 3rd Tier Life Essence Absorbed: 8453/10000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: 1st Transformation Ability: Transformed Passive Ability: Heritage: ? Race Change Status: Items: Two years ago, when she was finally able to check out her status, there were a few interesting changes about the interface. There was the new line which showed her second kill, then the three new abilities and finally the question mark at her new heritage. First Sera opened the ability. With a small proud smile she opened the description of . Description: It''s nothing! What did you expect? Attribute: Does nothing... This was a masterpiece of an item which will serve a major purpose when the eventual revolution happens. In the past two years Sera only met one person who could edit an item''s description and that was a necessity for this item. If Harold would''ve found out what its actual purpose is... Well, she had really good imagination, but even Sera couldn''t imagine the tortures she would have to go through. Who knows maybe Harold would fully destroy her consciousness and use her constantly regenerating, lobotomized self to do experiments on. Her plans were mostly ready, but a few players were still missing from the board. By her and her scientists'' judgement they will take at least another two months to arrive, which meant she had to keep Harold off of her back until then. This meant getting 1547 life essence in a months time... They flew for quite a long time now, so Sera dismissed her status window and began scanning the ground. The reason they had to go this far was because more than a hundred kilometers around New Athens the evolved and regular soldiers were constantly patrolling. This meant that the city was much safer, and they had to travel farther to find prey to hunt. It was still a bit surprising to Sera how different this part of Europe is from the north where she had initially came from. Not just because of the bit stormy, but otherwise mild weather, but more importantly the monster composition. While in the north the monsters roamed alone and killed anything coming their way, in the south they moved in packs. Nobody really understood why, since they weren''t any weaker than their northerner counterparts, but what was even weirder is that the packs weren''t homogeneous. They were made up of many different races and forms of monsters. The only common denominator was that the strongest creatures in each pack were only corrupted. For some reason when a creature evolves into a horror, they leave the pack no matter what. Of course this made hunting them much less dangerous, since there were basically no corrupted that stood a chance when fighting against Sera. Even though she was technically a rank lower, they just simply had much fewer life essence or abilities to use in a battle. They were in the air for a few hours now. Their eyes constantly scanning the ground below. Just when they were about to glide down and take a short break, Bran spotted movement a few kilometers away. Sera increased the speed suddenly, which caused Bran to yelp from surprise. After a few seconds she began to slow down and a small smile appeared on her face. Luck seemed to be on their side today. The pack or more like horde, was quite huge. It was made up of maybe 250 or so monsters. More than half of them were only tainted, but the rest were perfect for her. Gradually she went down on the ground and then both of them took a few minute to catch their breaths. They were a bit farther away from them and since there were so many, they wouldn''t be getting away anytime soon. Eventually Sera stood up from the ground, then made a couple of stretching moves which caused Bran to look away with a blush. After a few minutes both of them were ready and without the need to say another word. They left the small clearing, leaving their bags behind. Slowly they neared the end of the forest in which Sera landed. In front of them the ground sloped downward and about a hundred meters away the first monster seemed to notice their presence. Chapter 161: Leech of Life As the first monster noticed them and attacked, neither needed to say anything. Both of them knew what to do since this wasn''t their first hunting trip like this. The creature was a strange large ugly beetle which had some kind of corrosive saliva dripping from its mandibles. It was at least a rotten, which meant Sera was the one who killed it. Since she was the one in need of more essence, Bran only had to kill the tainted so they wouldn''t annoy her while she exterminated the rest. A small group of tainted was nearby and they immediately bounded at Bran. Sera was already gone killing every creature she saw. It usually only took one glaive swing for them to fall down dead. Funnily enough Bran didn''t even need to do that much. The six tainted ran towards Bran, but at the 50 meter mark something weird happened. Suddenly their eyes, which held only madness within, turned fully lifeless. The six monster fell over dead, seemingly for no reason. There was no wound on them, no apparent attack on their body. They didn''t even act weird before dying, which meant it wasn''t a mental attack. Bran watched them fall over from the 50 meter distance, then began running towards the middle of the enemy horde. Many creatures tried to approach him, but all of them fell over dead when they reached the 50 meter mark. Except the rotten or corrupted, he left them alive since Sera needed them for essence. Slowly as more and more creature died a dark green aura began to appear around Bran''s body, but in the next second it was gone. The radius in which the tainted died grew in size, now reaching 60 meters. With each death the area became larger. When two years ago Bran evolved he unlocked a very powerful ability. It gave him the power to steal other creatures'' life force. This was different from life essence, it was more like he took the life right out of their body, bypassing every outside defense. As an evolved it wasn''t very powerful, since he couldn''t change its strength. He could target which living beings he used it on, but the power didn''t change no matter if there was one or a hundred creatures. This meant that his power was only limited by range and himself. Luckily both of these issues were solved when he became ascended. As an evolved the power only came from himself, but as an ascended he gained the ability to steal and use the life force of the creatures he killed. This meant he could both increase his range and strength, the only thing he needed to do was kill more! This ability was possibly one of the best crowd control any of them had ever seen, but that wasn''t all. The real amazing thing was that this ability wasn''t even his transformation. If he decides to change, the range becomes a few hundred meters and its killing ability greatly increases. The only downside is that the power itself begins to syphon every living thing in his near proximity and the more he uses it the larger its effect becomes. Back when he was an evolved, his power could barely kill a rotten in a dozen seconds and that was with his transformation. Now as an ascended he could kill even corrupted without transforming, it would take about half a minute, but he could still do it. While transformed that number goes down to a few seconds. Luckily for him Sera wasn''t paying it any mind because her focus was on the status window. Slowly Bran walked towards her and looked over Sera''s shoulder at her watch. He seen her status a few times, and even read all the descriptions once. In his opinion Sera shouldn''t have been that trusting with him, but she needed a right hand man she could trust and there was literally no one else other than him. Currently both of them were looking at one specific line ¨C ''Life Essence Absorbed: 8547/10000'' "Damn, it didn''t even increase by a hundred... *sigh* This will be impossible like this..." Said Sera, her voice sounded annoyed, but Bran knew that wasn''t a case. She had no emotion and with a quick glance he knew that she was just simply tired. Not physically, but mentally. She had been making plans for about a year, pretending for the past two years and now that she was so close to making her goals a reality, the exhaustion was slowly catching up. Without thinking much Bran put a comforting hand onto her shoulder and subverting all his expectations, Sera let it stay there. But Bran thought it wasn''t enough, so he tried to say a few comforting words as well. "Don''t worry about the life essence, we both know that a large operation will definitely happen this month... *chuckle* New Constantinople won''t going to capture itself, eh?" Unknowingly a small smile appeared on Sera''s face, which also brought a small warm feeling in her heart, but Bran wasn''t done yet. "Also, do you really think I would let Harold take you?" Bran nearly fell over from surprise, when something very strange happened... Sera laughed... It wasn''t the usual mocking or imitating laughter she had done, but a sound that was like a delightful melody to his ears. Slowly Sera turned around and Bran''s eyes widened when he saw the most beautiful woman in the world smile right at him. "You won''t let him?... *giggle* I would definitely pay to see that!" Since he was still so surprised, he didn''t find a proper answer for a few seconds, but eventually he straightened his chest and mustered his most prideful and haughty voice. "Why are you mocking me? He is just one of the strongest, or maybe the strongest transcended on this planet! I could take care of him without any issue whatsoever." This made Sera laugh even harder. "Stop... *laughter* I can''t breath..." She said between laughs. Her eyes were already teary from all the laughing, but still she didn''t stop. It was like all the previous two years'' pent of happiness suddenly came bursting out of her, but what Bran said next put an end to her chuckling. His haughty expression changed into something serious and in a voice that was nearly a whisper he spoke. "I''m serious Sera... If Harold would try to take you, I would immediately start our plans and I wouldn''t stop until he is either dead or you are rescued... If need be I would go straight into his facility alone to get you out! You could mock me all you want, but I''m hundred percent serious when I tell you, I would walk straight into hell just see you safe and happy..." Suddenly Bran''s eyes went wide, what happened next wasn''t even remotely close to his expectations. He still wanted to say more, but it was quite difficult since Sera''s tongue was currently occupying it! Chapter 162: Until It Lasts* In the middle of a large field stood two person. One, a woman with bright golden hair that reached her waist. The other, a man with dark brown hair, who was just about a head taller than the woman. Currently both of their eyes were closed as they kissed each other. The sight was the exact opposite of their surroundings. Below their feet, the grass was painted red from all the blood, and around them corpses laid everywhere the eye could see. The grim environment didn''t seem to bother the pair though. They just stood there and enjoyed the moment. Bran felt really weird about this whole experience. Not in his wildest dreams did he imagine this to actually happen. His whole being was trembling as Sera''s soft lips pressed against his own. He was so surprised that it took him at least a few seconds to reciprocate the kiss, but soon both were fully absorbed in the moment. With a quick move Bran put his hands around Sera''s waist and back, pulling her even closer. For answer Sera put her arms around his neck and rose to her tippy-toes, giving her a better angle for the kiss. They stayed like that for a few minutes, but it seemed like Sera wanted or maybe needed more. They separated leaving a bridge of saliva connecting their shimmering lips. Sera''s face was fully red and her breathing ragged. Her hands looked to be shaking and her eyes were glazed over. Bran also noticed a few small movements with her legs, like she was trying to create friction between them. The signs were obvious, but they just made him confused. Before Sera could jump on him and continue their kissing session, Bran had to know more. He was still holding onto Sera, there mouths only a few centimeters apart. In a voice barely louder than a whisper and in a husky tone he spoke. "Why do you seem so emotional?" For a long moment Sera just stared at him with confusion. She didn''t even realize her mind which was absorbed in loads of different emotions. With widened eyes she laughed out loud towards the sky. It was the most magnificent feeling, after two years finally being able to feel again. But another problem rose, since her emotions were suppressed for so long, she felt a lot more than she supposed to, and there were two dominant emotions in her right now love and horniness. Quickly she jumped on Bran and between kisses she whispered onto his lips. "I don''t know why it happened, or if it will stay... I just want to enjoy this moment with you... Until it lasts!..." It took Bran a few moments to understand what she meant. As Sera wanted to kiss him again, he moved his head away just enough to stare into her eyes. They were so beautiful, and very annoyed that he stopped the kiss. He tried his hardest not to laugh at her small pout... or kiss it. Instead he just asked one question... "Are you sure?" On her face a bright smile appeared and with a small nod she broke down any reservation that still kept Bran at bay. He began leaning in further to continue the kiss, but suddenly Sera turned her head and looked at all the corpses. She made a disgusted face, then she seemed to have an idea. With a small giggle she began kissing Bran again. He closed his eyes enjoying her lips, but soon they burst open. "Yes!... Right There!... Faster!... More!" Said Sera between moans and Bran happily obliged. He even increased the amount of fingers inside and used his thumb to play with her clitoris. "AHHH!... YES!... BRAN, you are the BEST!..." He further increased the speed, until she had gotten close to an orgasm, then he stopped for a few moments, until Sera looked at him with an angry and horny expression. At that moment his hand, which was still inside her began moving really fast, pressing all her previously found weak points. His other hand pulled on her nipple hard. Sera moaned loudly and as she was about to cum, he bent down and licked her clitoris. This caused an explosion of pleasure to appear in Sera''s mind. Her teary eyes widened and she screamed in ecstasy. She spent the next several minutes moaning, and every now and then small trickles of squirt shot out of her. For a moment Bran thought that this was it since her state was so bad, but this thought quickly went out of him. Without any warning Sera jumped on top of him and pulled his pants and underwear down. His sword, which was so hard it actually began hurting a while back, stood at attention straight towards the sky. Sera looked at it for a moment, then while staring straight into Bran''s eyes, she began gently stroking it. Just by this touch he began moaning and squirming, but it was nothing compared to what happened next. Bran watched with wide eyes as Sera''s mouth slowly moved towards his rod''s tip. She stuck out her tongue and began licking the area near the slit at the top. Immediately his mind went nearly blank from the pleasure. His hands unconsciously rose and moved through Sera''s hair. She might have took this as him needing more, so with one move she pulled his skin back and put the entire tip in her mouth. His groans echoed in the forest as Sera''s tongue made circles around his sword''s tip, then to further increase the pleasure, she began moving her head. It was slow at first, but soon it picked up the pace. He was already started to reach the edge, but then came the best part. At first she was just moving her head and tongue, but then at some point she began sucking. As the slurping sounds reached Bran''s ear, he came extremely close to cumming right then and there, but he still held out... not for long though. The final straw was, when Sera raised her head. Her mouth was still on his tip, he looked at Sera with confusion for a moment. She just smiled at him for a bit, then while still keeping eye contact, she began moving her head down... and down... and down... Sera didn''t stop until her whole rod was swallowed by her mouth. As he felt her throat around his sword, he couldn''t hold it any longer. With a large moan of pleasure, he shot everything inside him right into Sera''s throat. Still, she didn''t move away. Not until he was fully emptied out. When her mouth was finally free, she licked her lips and looked at Bran with both need and love. Gradually she rose to her feet and turned around. Very slowly she bent down and pulled off her wet panties. Bran who only came moments ago, didn''t know how to feel, but his body wasn''t as confused. His sword, which was slowly decreasing in size, suddenly grew back into its most elongated form, ready for another battle. His eyes still haven''t left Sera''s butt, only when she finally turned around did his vision move to her beautiful face. Her eyes were still fully glazed and when she saw Bran''s rod up and ready, a large grin appeared on her face. It seemed like their battle was far from over... Chapter 163: Hollow Again* Bran was lying in the grass, while Sera sat on top of him. They were kissing and teasing each other. His sword was pressed close to Sera''s entrance, but she didn''t seem to be in a hurry to let him inside. It was quite annoying, frustrating and so very hot. He felt her breast pressing close to his chest, each nipple was hard as stone... it felt amazing. At this point in time, there was possibly no human happier than him one this planet. This was something he always wanted to do with Sera, but not with her hollow emotionless self. He didn''t care about the sex part, but the love part of the ordeal. In truth he still didn''t believe that Sera felt anything towards him, but he was closer to her heart than ever so he might as well imagine it. Eventually their long kiss came to an end. Slowly Sera raised her body from his, then she began moving her hips right on his sword. She giggled when a small moan of pleasure escaped Bran''s mouth. It was probably fun to watch Bran suffering between her legs, but she was starting to move faster and press down more. It seemed like she couldn''t take the teasing for much longer either. After a minute of rubbing their instruments against each other, Sera finally spared both of them from the increasing frustration. Gradually she rose higher, then gently grabbed Bran''s sword and placed it right against her entrance. Her glazed eyes were reflected in Bran''s own. His hands held onto her thigh as she ever so slowly began to move downward. When the tip went inside both groaned from pleasure at the same time, but Sera didn''t feel satisfied yet, not even close. Her movement didn''t stop as she went down more and more. At this point her inside walls were pressing against most of Bran''s rod. They were really soft and constantly squirming with the rhythm of Sera''s moans of pleasure. He nearly came there and then, but that would equal to admitting defeat! Eventually Sera fully sheathed Bran''s sword inside her cave, then she took a few moments to get used to his shape. It was pressing against her at all the best places and it even reached her farthest point. Gradually her breathing started to calm down and she began moving up and down. Each movement caused moans to escape from both of their mouths, but it increased further when Bran began moving with her. Every time Sera moved downward, Bran thrust his hips upward, creating a lot more friction and pleasure for both. Their speed was increasing each second and with them the moans became louder. They were both getting near to the edge and were drowning in ecstasy. It didn''t take long for both to orgasm at the same time. With a loud moan Bran shot his semen straight into Sera and above him Sera screamed from pleasure while her mind was going blank. This brought a tiny, sad and gentle smile to Sera''s face. She sighed loudly, then placed her head back onto his chest. After that she didn''t speak for a long time, then eventually she felt the hollowness slowly spreading in her very being. While she was still herself, Sera looked into Bran''s supportive eyes and gave him a long soft kiss. It wasn''t like the previous hungry ones, or small pecks she gave him, but one that held more meaning that any word could hold... almost any word. When she moved away from Bran, she spoke quickly since now most of her emotions were already turned off. "The hollowness is slowly creeping back in, but before it fully takes hold of me I wanted to say one more thing..." She took a deep breath and straightened her cloudy mind. Bran was looking at her with confusion and sadness. But his eyes went fully wide by her next words. "Thank you... For being here... I don''t remember or know much especially about myself, but if there is one thing I know, it''s... It''s that I love you!" As she said it, Sera couldn''t hold on any longer. The shining and life went out of her eye. Bran was about to say something, when he noticed the change as well. There would be no point saying it back to Sera''s hollow self, so instead he just smiled sadly and nodded. Her last words kept echoing in his mind as both of them got dressed. After that Bran quickly went away to gather some meat to cook. All the while he was giggling and he was skipping as he walked. These were the words he wanted to hear from Sera, and he heard them from the real one, not the emotionless husk. He looked towards the sky where the Sun was making its way towards the horizon and he began laughing hysterically. His heart was near to bursting from happiness. Even when he was butchering some beast, he kept repeating, ''She loves me...'' to himself. Of course he showed nothing from his previous giddy self when he went back to their camp. Sera was already waiting for him with a fire ready. Quickly they placed the meat on top of it, then sat silently. Eventually Sera sighed and she looked at Bran. She knew exactly what she said, since her memories were intact, but the feelings which made her say it weren''t there anymore. "We should probably move soon. We still have to gather as much life essence as possible..." Bran just nodded with dejection. No matter how happy he was for her, it was just too painful to see her this hollow. Sera raised an eyebrow, not fully understanding why Bran''s disposition changed, but she soon realized. Thinking for a few seconds, she made a smile that was, in her opinion, a close approximation to a cunning smile. In reality it was more menacing than sly. "You know, the sex was pretty good! We could do it again some other time!" There was no emotion in her voice, which made Bran even sadder. In answer he just shook his head a bit and said, "No need. Maybe when you get your emotions back." It made Sera laugh self-deprecatingly and both of them stayed silent. When the food was ready they both ate, then moved on to fight some other monstrosity. Chapter 164: What the Future Entails Sera and Bran were standing in the middle of a corpse field again. There were fewer dead creatures than the last few times, which meant the area was starting to run dry of prey. This made them decide to turn back, but first they would have some breakfast. They sat in silence for a long time, but eventually Bran had to ask some questions and make a few reports about their future plans. "Got a message from Mary..." Sera''s head immediately perked up hearing that and her eyes even hid some hopeful desire. "...She says that they finally found the place and even received some kind of signal from the other side. By her judgement they will be able to open it before the new year!" On Sera''s face a small smile appeared and she made a nod of thanks, but Bran wasn''t done yet. "Also the other plan has had some progress. There is nothing concrete yet, but Mary seems to be hellbent on this idea..." The small smile disappeared from Sera''s face and deathly seriousness took its place. "Did she found out what Harold is using all that energy for?" Bran looked a bit awkward, as he raised his hand and scratched the back of his head. "Not exactly... They started researching what that much energy could be used for, but they only managed to make some small assumptions. The first working theory is that he is trying to open a realm gate, but the energy he''s using is too much for just one gate..." He turned silent for a moment, then while taking a deep breath he continued. "The second and much worse is that he is creating something, either an item or a living being, they have no idea. This is the two theories, but there could be another reason that even Mary and her team has no idea about." Sera looked away with a thoughtful expression, her magnificent mind was trying to connect the dots, but there was just too much missing from the tapestry to make sense. Eventually she sighed and asked another question. "Did her team find out the strange energy activity on Earth?" Before answering Bran brought up his notes in his watch and quickly went through them, after a few minutes he found the exact answer Mary gave him. "She didn''t manage to learn a lot, only where they originate from. As you know there is a large activity on this very peninsula, then there is one further up north on the broken Scandinavian Peninsula, also there is a lot of energy fluctuation on the Italian Peninsula''s middle part, then..." He read a bit further, since there were so many places and Mary''s writing was all over the place. She was an amazing scientist, but awful at writing reports. "...Then, there is one at the Middle-Eastern Desert, also the northeastern part of the African Continent which wasn''t destroyed in the Last War, also there are two more spots on the Asian Continent. She couldn''t find their exact location since the wasteland-like terrain caused interference with her instruments." Sera nodded along thoughtfully. "Is that every place where it originates from?" She asked after thinking for a while. "For now at least, but there are still a lot of questions, the biggest one being, why? Why is this happening? Why now?" Bran didn''t expect an answer, but what Sera said next sent a shiver down his spine. "Uh... where are you going?... I mean where is the Lady heading, since it would be much easier to stay with her... The-then I could bring the message to you without the need to wait... I just thought..." Before she could make excuses or mumble more, Sera spared her from the embarrassment and answered her first question. "I''m going to my personal dojo, I need to train a lot more. This next operation will definitely be really hard, which means I can''t slack off." While she spoke, she began walking again leaving Melinda confused if she should follow her or not. Sera seemed to notice her mistake too, so she said over her shoulder, "You can wait in my house." With that Melinda quickly went after her, and they walked on in silence towards Sera''s mansion. Soon they reached the house and Sera opened the front door, it wasn''t even locked since no one would be stupid enough to break in. While walking through the corridors, Sera looked at the empty rooms of the hollow house. First she lead Melinda to one of the giant living rooms with a huge Holo-screen television. She left her there with the order to come to her when the news arrive. After that Sera went to her own room. She approached her second wardrobe, which contained loads of training clothes. They were in a vast range of colors, but she only used the black ones. She took of her usual street clothes and changed into the more comfortable leggings and sports bra, she also wore a shirt that stuck close to her body. Her military boots also had to go, so instead she put on a pair of running shoes. Next she sat down in front of her bathroom mirror and braided her hair so it wouldn''t get in the way. When she was finally satisfied with her looks, Sera left her room and went outside into a separate building. The building was huge, nearly the size of the actual house, with the one difference being its looks. The building was a large concrete block, with no special ornamentation. It didn''t need to look good to fulfill its intended purpose... Sera''s personal gym. The inside wasn''t any less lethargic, then the outside. There was a corner with a large amount of weights and training machines. Another corner held a few training dummies, most of them had at least one scorch mark or melted spot, but they were still in usable condition. The height of the building was giant too and there were many small circles hanged from the ceiling. She trained her air maneuvering there, trying to increase her speed as much as possible while going through the hoops and avoiding crashing into the walls. There were also loads of cracks on said walls, marking her every failed attempt. There was also a climbing wall and a large obstacle course, which helped increase her reflexes. The middle of the building was made up of a large mat for duels. These all were nice, but Sera didn''t approach any of them. She went into a specific corner, which held a small room. Inside was nothing else just a humanoid looking strange machine. Sera circled around it and stepped inside the human-sized opening. All around her the machine began to whir and the opening encased her inside of it. There was a screen right before her eyes and slowly a light came on shining straight into her retina. Instinctively she closed her eyes. It took her a moment to open them again, but when she did she wasn''t in the machine anymore. Around her there was only a giant field of grass. She looked around for a few moments, then a woman''s monotone voice resounded right in her head. "Welcome back Angel Monarch! What training do you wish to do today?" Chapter 165: Virtual Training On the infinite grass field Sera was currently doing stretches and a few basic katas, trying to get used to her virtual body. This VR machine was truly magical. It had the ability to create scenarios that are very realistic. It wasn''t hundred percent the same as real life since the enemies created by it had more restrictions than actual humans or monsters, but it worked well for anything at the low transcended level. If you try to simulate something stronger, the reality will actually begin to break down since it requires to much processing power to keep the calculations going. When Sera gotten used to her new self she spoke to the A.I., which controlled the simulations. "Third Warmup Preset!" She said in a low voice. It wasn''t actually necessary to talk, she could''ve just thought of a command and the A.I. would''ve obeyed. This was a feature Sera had quickly turned off, because it often changed the scenario based on her thoughts. "Understood Angel Monarch! Third Warmup Preset will begin in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... NOW!" The voice said the last word a bit louder and in that moment everything changed around Sera. The large grass field became a mountainous cold terrain. The visibility decreased because of strong snowfall and wind. From somewhere behind her a loud roar shook Sera''s very bones. Without moving Sera held out her hand and summoned her glaive. She didn''t summon anything else, not her armor, or her wings. She wouldn''t use anything other than her glaive for the entire training session. The roar reverberated again, but this time it was from much closer and from two directions. This time Sera actually began to look around. There were supposed to be three beasts in this simulation, but every time the A.I. spiced it up in some way since its main purpose was to simulate real life. Sera heard a very light footstep on her left and instinctively she ducked to the right. There was a brush of air above her and the sound of something large landing nearby. There wasn''t much time to think, since she heard another small sound from behind her. This time she didn''t roll, but jumped into the air. Her legs propelled her nearly six meters above the ground. In the air she made a flip at the apex of her jump, which gave her just enough room to avoid the creatures claws. While still in the air, Sera looked down at the beast. It had pure white fur and it resembled a giant lion of sorts. While falling she made her weapon elongate another meter so it would reach the creature''s back and cut through the muscles on its left shoulder. The monster roared in pain and rage, but Sera was already moving in another direction. She still found no signs of the third beast, but the other two were trying to encircle her. One on her left, one on her right, they moved with impossible synchronization. One attacking from down, the other from up, this left her no room to evade, so instead she moved her glaive in the way of the lion aiming for her legs. The creature didn''t seem to care for the blade heading towards its head. It knew that its body''s momentum would still be carried over to Sera, when its corpse hit her. This was one problem when it came to simulations. A computer only thinks rationally, a fight for it is more like a game of chess, where you can sacrifice pieces to win the game. This was exactly what the A.I. was doing with the snow lion. The fight between the six of them began and by the next minute a large circle was left empty where they fought. Around them evolved fought their personal battles, but they didn''t have a death wish to engage in whatever horror Sera and the other ascended were unleashing on each other. The battle wasn''t heading in the direction Sera wanted it to. She was currently losing, each move nearly costing her life. These ascended were truly elites. Every opening she created through loads of effort was covered by another member of their cohort. When she was about to die from a sword heading towards her heart suddenly all five ascended froze, it was like their whole existence was stopped in time. Sera had already knew this would happen and with a dejected sigh she decapitated her nigh killer. At that moment another person appeared next to her. He was a bald, tall, average bodied man, with dark skin that shined like a snake''s scales. His name was David and he saved her by stopping the five ascended in time. Sera knew him quite well, but she always pretended not to since it was crucial for her future plans. He was an ascended as well, and he also led a smaller city like Sera. Behind him, his team approached and with their help Sera took out the five ascended with ease. As the simulation ended again the A.I. woman spoke in her mind. "Congratulations Angel Monarch on completing Fifth Human Training Preset! Your results are amazing as always! What training would you like to do next?" After this she spent the next few hours doing most of her training presets. Some were scenarios made from her memories, others were made by her scientists and a few was made and customized by Sera herself. She stood in the infinite grasslands for a long time, then with a quick move turned off her watch. When she was sure that nobody would see her next actions, she made a silent command inside her head. "Turn off active surveillance and pattern saving! Open hidden scenario named ''Nothing'', code: ''Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust!" Her surroundings changed again, this time it was much different from before. She was underground in a large facility that had machines, cables, tubes with live specimens and lab equipment everywhere. Sera looked around a bit, when she heard the voice of the A.I. again. "Warning scenario too high level! The result of this simulation won''t even be remotely close to real life! Don''t take the results seriously!" When the female voice went silent a person came out from behind one of the machines. He was in his usual lab coat and welding glasses. He had no weapon, but she knew that an impossible fight was about to commence. Harold just laughed a bit hysterically, then said, "Really? Another try? Wasn''t the previous 1547 losses enough? You want to get you ass kicked again?... *sigh* Well, don''t mind if I do!" In Sera''s hand her golden glaive appeared and in the next moment all hell broke lose! Chapter 166: Central Commands Order Sera stood breathing heavily in Harold''s laboratory. She had been here fighting for hours, but still she couldn''t even scratch Harold with her glaive. The worst part was that the A.I. made a Harold with very realistic personality. "1564 for good old me, how many do you have, I forgot to count... Oh, I remember! You didn''t win a single time!" He slowly walked and squatted in front of Sera. He reach out his hand and grasped a handful of her hair, making her squirm from pain. In the next moment he spoke in a whisper. "You should just give up already little angel. You can''t even defeat my simulated self, how do you plan on killing the real me?" In the next moment a fist broke Sera''s jaw, sending her flying, then a kick hit her on the side before she even landed. Unlike what someone would expect she just laughed at this performance. The point of this exercise was never to defeat Harold''s virtual self, but to learn everything about him. She wasn''t even using her own powers and every time she died the simulation reset so she couldn''t use her stronger form. Before Harold could hurt her more, she stopped the simulation. It was already getting late and she was curious if any news had come from Central Command. With a silent command the VR closed and she opened her actual eyes for the first time in hours. Her head was a bit woozy as she stepped out of the machine. It took her a few minutes to finally get used to walking again, but her eyes were still full of strange spots, making it harder to see. Without much care for her sight Sera began walking out of the building, but she couldn''t make it out of the room, before she bumped into an excited looking Melinda. "I''m so sorry Sera... I mean my Lady!... I tried to send you a message, but your watch has been turned off, so I came here to tell you the news in person!" With a few quick movements Sera brought her watch back online, which instantly showed the new messages from both Melinda and Bran. She read the one that Bran sent her first. It was a report of the collection mission. There was no real issue and the vehicles are already back with about ninety percent of the carcasses. The rest were probably taken by some other monster. Overall the mission was a success. The reason they collect these materials is a bit obvious. They needed to use the bones for bullets and other structures, the skin was really good for either covering vehicles or building material and the meat was for eating, of course. Nothing went to the thrash from a monster corpse. Also for some reason they needed to use their materials to create weapons, armor and other items. The scientist told Sera, that each corpse holds a small amount of life essence even after death, which makes it possible to use them as a stabilizer when it comes to making soul items. After she quickly read through Bran''s report, she finally looked up at Melinda who looked like she would begin strangling Sera, if she made her wait any longer. Sera smirked a little, which Melinda fully missed as she opened the message from Central Command. "Ascended Seraphine! This message is from the Federal Alliance''s Central Command! You are hereby informed of our next offensive which will be against the infamous New Constantinople! You and your main leadership will head to the gathering point immediately and reinforce the offensive! The maps and leader of the offensive had been sent in a classified message! Good Luck!" As Melinda read it aloud, Sera just looked towards the ceiling thoughtfully. The silence persisted around them. Soon Sera nodded to herself and ordered Melinda to gather everyone in the operations room. Without saying anything Sera moved towards the computer and circled one name that was about 50 kilometers away from New Constantinople. It was a small destroyed city named Tekirdag. Bran looked at it for a few moments, but before he could''ve made any kind of conclusion Melinda chimed in. "I think the Aegean Sea would be the best option. The message was priority and it didn''t explicitly gave us a time to get there, but it said we should go immediately... But the real question is, do we all go? The order said that Lady Seraphine and her team should go, but that would leave New Athens unprotected!" Sera didn''t answer for a few minutes. Eventually when she evaluated and re-evaluated every option, she turned away from the large screen and towards her captains. "The Aegean Sea it is. The answer for your previous question should be obvious. You and Bran will stay here. I will take Hector, Percy and Kathy. If they wanted my full team, they should''ve made better preparations!" Find your next read on M V L "All of you know what to do. We leave first thing in the morning. Be ready!" She looked at each of the captains, then pointed towards the door and said, "Everyone is dismissed, except Bran!" They didn''t ask questions, just went outside silently. All of them had a lot of things to take care off before the day ended. Inside the room Sera and Bran were staring at the map, neither saying a word. The silence lasted a long while, it was quite comfortable for both of them. "You will only be able to contact me in case of emergencies... They will definitely monitor my every long distance communications." Said Sera in a whisper, still not looking at Bran. "Do you think they have an idea of your plans?" This time her eyes met Bran''s and she reached out her hand grabbing one of his own. "I''m not sure... I didn''t give them any reason to, but they had probably already guessed that I wasn''t fully under their control... I guess we just have to see it through!" On her face a small smile appeared. It took a lot of effort to try and mimic the right emotions, but judging by Bran''s own smile, she got it right. There hand where still holding each other and after making a bold decision, Sera leaned in and gave a kiss to Bran. They closed their eyes, getting fully absorbed in the moment. The kiss was calm, one with a lot more meaning than any amount of words could translate. Sadly every moment has to end and so did this one. They separated and Sera left the room, leaving Bran inside. He stayed there for a few more minutes, staring at the next operation''s target, then his eyes slowly turned towards his hand, which was still warm from Sera''s own. As he thought back on the moment a small loving smile appeared on his face. It was obvious that Sera had no feelings towards him currently, but he still appreciated that she tried to pretend. Eventually with the same goofy smile he left the room, he had a lot of things to take care off in preparations to Sera''s leaving. Chapter 167: Leaving New Athens After saying goodbye to Bran, Sera headed home and quickly packed a small bag. There wasn''t much she needed, they would gather food and water as they move through the land. The only real concern was clothing, but that was solved by her armor most of the time. Only issue was that it drained her essence constantly. Luckily she could literally wear the armor for a full year without it fully draining her life essence. She only packed two separate outfits, while also wearing another one. This gave her enough to switch around every now and then. It wasn''t the most hygienic, especially the underwear department, but technically she was a soldier. Also the torture sessions really helped elevating her ability to not feel discomfort. Other than clothes a normal evolved would pack something to make fires with, but Sera had her own flames, which made taking any such item redundant. They would also take some kind of knife, which she already had in her soul. Actually she had basically everything necessary for survival, and as a luxury she placed a few cookware in her bag. It was always nice to be prepared. She placed the packed bag next to the door, then unclothed herself and went to bed. After a few minutes it looked like she had fallen asleep, but looking closer people would see how her facial expressions changed and sometimes she muttered something inaudible. At one point she even laughed for some reason. This went on for nearly half an hour, before she muttered a ''good night'' to whoever she was talking with. Her fitful night of sleep didn''t last long since the sun already started to rise a few hours later. Sleepily Sera got out of her bed, then after a quick shower she got dressed and went to the gathering point near the main gate of the encampment. The others were already waiting for her. They didn''t dare to get here later than their hollow-souled leader. After the usual ritual of going into attention and Sera''s dismissal, the three of them waited for her next order. Sera turned towards the rising Sun for a moment and enjoyed the warmth it brought her. Slowly she turned to the other three ascended. Behind her back four large wings appeared two white feathered and two made of whitish-gold flames. With a small nod Sera took to the skies heading northeast. Below her Kathy turned into a large eagle and followed after Sera. Percy seemed to sigh, then he dissolved into purple specks of light and lifted Hector into the air. They would travel like this through the 450 kilometer distance between New Athens and the gathering point. At least that was the plan, who knew if there wouldn''t be any complications along the way. Their first destination was the seashore about 40 kilometers to northeast. While flying Sera looked down at the city... her city... She had no emotions about the city, but she still felt strange, almost reluctant to leave it behind. This place was her home, filled with her people. Leaving it even just for a couple of weeks felt wrong. The roofs of the buildings only just started to shine below the illumination of the Sun. There were no big skyscrapers or anything similar in her city. This meant the people and their houses had to spread horizontally along the ground, but it was worth it for this beautiful skyline. Gradually they approached the city wall. The guards saw Sera''s wings much sooner than that and as she flew above the gates, all the soldiers went to attention, which she acknowledged by sending a small wave of white and gold flames towards the sky. "Maybe you should be better at fighting and Lady Seraphine would take you on more missions!" This brought a laugh out of Kathy too, who quickly doubled down on Percy''s remark. "Yeah, you are way too excited to fight every time... Are you maybe compensating for something? Is everything working right with your lower instrument?" While speaking Kathy reached out her hand and slowly dragged one finger down Hector''s jaw, which further annoyed him, but instead of lashing out he just grinned. "Ask her if you doubt how good I am in bed!" He shrugged while speaking and made a hand movement towards Sera, who seemed perfectly bored by this conversation. Percy and Kathy looked at each other with deathly paleness. Saying something like this in front of Sera was a very dangerous game. "What is it? Are you two jealous since neither of you got invited to her bed yet?... Maybe there are problems with you two''s ability to please your partners! I haven''t even heard of you having anyone in your bed Kathy... So how can you judge me, when I..." Suddenly Sera cut right into his next remark. "Are you planning to continue that sentence?" Her emotionless voice cut right through whatever he was planning to say next. Suddenly the realization hit him. The large grin from his face disappeared without a trace and with a trembling body he turned towards his leader. Her golden hollow eyes hid only pain and suffering within. They focused on his face, which caused the shaking to increase tenfold. Her beautiful face revealed nothing of what she was thinking. "Are you planning to continue that sentence?" She asked again in the exact same tone, which caused Hector to look away with fear. "No..." He answered in a very small voice. "No? Who are you speaking to?" Asked Sera with cruelty in her eyes. She gradually rose from the rock that she used as a seat. Below her Hector was trembling in pure terror. With widened eyes he slowly looked up at Sera. "I''m... I''m talking to you..." Before he could continue Sera cut in again. "You?... Is that how you talk to your commanding officer? I don''t remember us having that good of a relationship, or maybe I have said that you can refer to me as a friend?... Tell me did I ever say such thing to you? Remind me if I had done so and I will apologize this very moment!" Her voice was getting lower with each word. At this point even Kathy and Percy were terrified, but they were in a much better position than Hector, who was just about to piss himself from fear. "No... No, ma''am... You haven''t blessed me with such permission... I''m sorry for... for my disobedience... It won''t happen again..." He didn''t dare to look away from Sera''s face, which had a small almost invisible frown on it. She made a small nod to acknowledge his apology. Suddenly the aura changed and the suffocating atmosphere passed. All three of them took a deep breath to calm their turbulent emotions. Nobody saw the small smirk that appeared on Hector''s face, he thought with this little performance Sera was fooled to thinking he wasn''t as awful anymore. He really should have hid his real emotions with more care. Hector couldn''t even react to the fist that hit him square on the jaw. He flew through the air for a dozen meters, but before he touched the ground Sera stomped on his head from the air above him. It only took two moves for Sera to knock him out cold... Chapter 168: Skyros The world was only blackness and pain. Hector slowly raised his hand and held onto his bruised face. He had no idea how his face looked, but judging by the pain which originated from everywhere, it definitely wasn''t pretty. He tried to open his eyes, but only the left one could actually see. His right eye''s vision was obstructed by the large bruise right below it. While he kept touching the bruises and hissed every time from the pain, his eye tried to focus on his surroundings. The Sun was high in the sky, way higher than the last time he saw it. He was very confused about what happened, but soon he remembered Sera and how easily she knocked him out. He was actually stupid enough to get angry about his weakness instead of rethinking his mistakes. Suddenly a high pitched laughter came from somewhere to his right. He had to turn his head more, because of his right eyes missing vision. A few meters away on a rock sat Percy, who found his anger really funny it seemed. "Please don''t tell me you are that mad! *laughter* You can''t be angry with our Lady because of your own stupidity!" Slowly his demeanor changed from jolly to serious. He stood up from the rock and walked towards Hector, who only sat up just now. From above, Percy spat right into his face and with a sneer said, "You fucking idiot! Don''t you realize how good of a life you have?... You even have a chance to fuck our beautiful leader and what do you do?! You began boasting about a privilege few could enjoy!... And worst of all, you done it right in front of her!..." Percy leaned in a bit and said in a whisper, "Please enlighten me!... Are you really this dumb or you just pretend, because if its the later let me congratulate you! You fooled every single person who knows you!" Hector''s face became red from anger and with a quick move he tried to grab onto Percy''s neck. In response he just laughed and dissolved into specks of purple light. In the next moment he appeared at his previous seat. "Who the fuck do you think you are!" Screamed Hector, while he walked towards Percy with menacing steps. "I''m the person Lady Seraphine chose to tell you that you have one more chance to prove yourself! If you make even the slightest mistake, she will personally take care of you..." He didn''t seem bothered by Hector''s presence even the slightest. He even had a small smile on his face as he spoke in a low tone. "I suggest you don''t cause any problems... Lady Seraphine suffers weekly under the hand of that strange scientist guy... Who knows what happens when all that pent up suffering is released upon someone else!" The smile on Percy''s face could truly cause fear to appear in most people, but Hector was simply too dumb to realize that. "Where is she anyway?" He asked while looking around, with his one black eye. In front of him Percy just shook his head in dejection and sighed. He never considered Hector to be his friend since his personality and anger issues were simply unbearable. It didn''t matter now anyway, if he didn''t change after this, he wouldn''t get another chance to change. His eyes and tone were mournful, but also cunningly gleeful as he said, "Where do yo think our Lady is?... Her last sex partner turned out to be a wrathful retard, so she chose someone else to warm her non existent bed! I hope I don''t have to spell out who the new person is!" With that Percy jumped to his feet and walked away. Behind him Hector was trembling from anger and at some point a hateful scream shook the mountaintop. ... These thoughts didn''t last long, because as the Sun was starting to set behind them, they finally spotted the island, but the sight wasn''t as comforting as it was supposed to be. They sat down as fast as possible at the edge of the island, then the three captains looked at their leader for new instructions. Before they started on this journey they only had intel from maps, no active data of their current status. This meant they had no chance of previously knowing about the not too small goblin encampment on Skyros! Carefully and silently Sera ¨C followed by the rest of her team ¨C approached the edge of the camp. They were on a small hill covered in trees, which gave a perfect vantage to see the whole camp. Judging by its size, the camp only contained about two or maybe three thousand goblins, and there didn''t seem to be any human hostages. There was only one problem which they had to find out before acting. Was there any transcended in the camp? This one intel would decide if they can kill the whole camp or not. Sera turned towards Kathy, who didn''t seem to notice her stare. After a few seconds, Sera had enough of waiting. "Kathy, would you be so kind and explore a bit?" Asked Sera with a fake smile. Kathy didn''t even look at her, just sighed and began to change. Her dark skin gradually became green. Her long dark hair turned shorter and looked to be dirty. Her eye color changed with her facial features. Her small nose elongated, her teeth became smaller and pointy, her ears became larger. When her features became goblin-like, her bodily proportions began to change too. First went her large breast, which became small and shriveled. Next went her perfect ass, which became boney. Then finally her height changed from her previous 1.75 meters to a measly 1.3 meters. It took only half a minute for Kathy to change. Now the dark skinned beauty had fully disappeared and in her place a small goblin female stood. She looked at her small, green, wrinkled hands for a few moments. "I fucking hate to change into goblins! They are so disgusting and ugly..." She made a coughing sound, like she was about to vomit, then grinned back at Sera who stood with her usual bored expression. "After taking care of them, would the Lady like to have a bit more alone time?" It wasn''t clear why but whenever Kathy changed into something else her personality became a bit like the race she turned into. For example as a goblin she became much more bold and horny, that''s why she could ask a question like this without being afraid of repercussions. While Percy was shaking his head in despair, Sera just smiled a bit. "Sure, but definitely not as a goblin... They are too small, ugly and smelly!" Kathy just laughed a bit at her answer, then approached the camp. Percy and Sera watched her go, while a bit farther away Hector was trembling from anger. He was trying really hard to calm himself down, but his hands were still shaking and his head was red as a tomato. He didn''t even notice when Sera looked towards him with a tiny smirk. At this point she was just waiting for Hector to make another mistake, so she could finally get rid of him! In these past two years he was really a thorn in her side, taking up an important position which other, much more competent people could use. She had decided some time ago, to send him away or even better, kill him, but there was no real chance before today. That plan of hers was at least on the right tracks! Chapter 169: Camp Clearing It took Kathy a few hours to get the intel, which Sera required. The Sun had fully set by the time she had come back. She still looked like a female goblin, but after getting back to the team it didn''t take long for her to change back. When she was a human again, a shiver went through her and a satisfied smile spread on her face. "Fuck, how much I hate these critters! I''m pretty sure at least half the camp asked me to have sex, or join an orgy..." She made a few retching sounds, before saying, "Fucking disgusting!" Sera did say anything, just watched as Kathy looked through her whole body, making sure there wasn''t anything green remaining on her skin. Eventually she seemed to realize why the rest of the team was staring at her and she quickly looked away with a blush. "Uhm... The camp has only ascended and only a few dozen of them. We can take them with ease, ma''am" She tried to hide her embarrassment by going into attention, but it fooled no one. "Good." Sera said and began walking towards the camp. The others followed and soon all four of them stood at its edge. She looked back over her shoulder and said, "Kill everyone." Her voice contained no hatred, madness, or anything, but it still sent a fearful shiver down the team''s spine. The solemn atmosphere soon turned much more excited though. It was rare to be able to just have fun killing goblins. They were perfect for letting off steam since they were easy to kill and there seemed to be an infinite amount of them. Hector was the happiest out of them all. He ran down the hill right into the goblin camp while laughing hysterically. He didn''t even transform and just began massacring anything he saw. His fists only left pulps in their way. Percy went in with a bit more decorum, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t enjoying the killing. He just simply didn''t use his hands to deliver death. Instead his purple energy took all sort of form, ranging from two meter spears that went through the goblins'' heads, or large mallets squishing them flat. Sometimes he even made chains and pulled the goblins apart limb by limb. Kathy just changed into a large six limbed black leopard and began tearing each goblin apart. Sera watched for a few minutes, but eventually she joined the fun as well. Unlike the others she didn''t use any ability or transformation, her glaive was more than enough to take care of any goblins below transcended. Her glaive''s blade cut through dozens of goblins at once with ease, even when an ascended appeared in front of her, it took just one swing and he fell over dead. A bit farther away Hector was using a dead ascended goblin''s body to smash anything he saw. He didn''t have a fight in so long that he was currently in a mad frenzy, but there was still a lot more goblins to kill, so it wasn''t that big of a problem. At another part of the camp Percy was flying around as specks of purple light. He made weapons out of it and rained it down on dozens of goblins at once. It shouldn''t have worked so well, but Kathy was constantly running around, chasing every goblin right into the purple death falling from the skies. The once silent camp was awash with screams of pain, suffering and despair. They simply didn''t have the strength to even put up a fight against Sera and her team. After an hour since the explosion the whole group reconvened at the top of the hill. From this vantage the destruction could seen in a much more detailed fashion. The whole camp was on fire, the ground was painted green by goblin blood and corpses lay everywhere. There were the usual male and female goblin warriors, but the camp was also full of regular workers and children. If someone didn''t know goblins they would definitely think that Sera was a monster and if someone said it to her face, she wouldn''t disagree. How could a good or at least neutral person condemn hundreds of children to their deaths? People would say that ''children aren''t born evil'' and that ''they just need better parents and a healthy upbringing to turn out good''... How wrong those people would be... Goblins are in fact born evil, they were the exception from that rule. It was in their genes and no matter who their parents were, a goblin will always grow up to be a rapist slaver with murderous and psychotic tendencies. They are also like pests, reproducing much faster than humans. By the time they are six years old, they are fully mature, but their first kill or rape happens much sooner than that! This is why Sera would let people judge and condemn her. She would let others try to speak and be civil with goblins. She would let them be taken and she would let them learn the truth on their own. The team watched the beautiful sight in front of them. They were grinning while watching the fruits of their work go up in flames. Suddenly Sera''s eyes changed targets. There was something coming towards the island, something big, something strong, something deadly... "Everyone we are moving! NOW!" She shouted her voice containing a small tremble. Sera didn''t even wait for the others to react and within a second she was high in the air. Soon the others followed her and they all watched the island from the cloudless night sky. They were hundreds of meters in the air, the fires below looked like small specks on a giant canvas. The rest of the team was still confused why they needed to leave so fast, but soon the answer came. Below them a gigantic roar shook reality itself. The whole group watched in terror as the island named Skyros seemed to rise in the air and in the next moment get swallowed by a creature which''s size was just simply incomprehensible. Skyros was a large island 10 kilometer to its shorter and 30 to its longer end. The monster''s maw was even bigger, they had only seen a few of its teeth as it swallowed the giant island whole. Sera stared down in awe. She left the island fast, because she thought a horror was about to attack, but she definitely misjudged the monster''s class... She never truly understood the fifth class''s meaning, but looking at the area where the island was, only one word that came to her mind when she thought about that monster... Abomination... Chapter 170: Fighting Through the Aegean The whole team looked down at the large whirlpool of water that tried to fill in the missing island. All of them felt terrified even from just one look at the Abomination. Sera was trembling, she couldn''t feel fear, but the creature''s presence was so gigantic that it made her remember what terror could''ve felt like. It has been nearly an hour since the island was devoured whole, but they were still just staring at the turbulent waters. Their minds were constantly trying to comprehend the monster''s enormous size... Eventually after who knows how long Sera calmed down enough to be able to think again. They were currently in the middle of the Aegean Sea, with nothing around. Their plan was to spend the night on Skyros and the next day, head to another even larger island on the other side of the sea. The journey would be 110 kilometers and they would probably have to fight a lot more. They were all tried from the spending the day flying to Skyros and then exterminating a whole goblin camp. There was two options in front of Sera, either move towards Lesvos, the island which was more than a hundred kilometers away. Or head back towards the mainland and try to find another route. She was still in the process of deciding when something very strange happened. Her vision began to swim and her stationary flying became erratic. Her eyes turned back towards the water. It was finally calm again, which meant she could see below the waves. At first she saw nothing, but soon lights appeared there. They were small, really small, barely noticeable, which meant either the source was tiny... or the source was huge and really far away. The previous trembling slowly returned to her body, but this time it was much more concentrated. The creature was staring right at her... Her mind didn''t work, but her body did. With a shout to the others all of them began to fly as fast as possible towards the other direction. Below them the Abomination didn''t follow. It seemed like the creature made the decision for her. They wouldn''t be heading back to the mainland since that meant flying over the Abomination''s territory. Sera was hundred percent certain that the creature didn''t use any power. It swallowed the island just by opening its mouth, then made her nearly pass out just by looking at her. The powerlessness was immeasurable. She was hundred percent certain that nothing below Ethereal could survive a battle with a creature of that magnitude, but this also raised a very important question in Sera. The creatures corrupted by Madness tend to be a lot weaker than their evolved counterpart. This meant if an Abomination had this much power... How strong could an Ethereal be? ... They had only been flying for an hour, but the exhaustion was already overwhelming. At this point only Sera had the strength to actually fight. Well, Hector could do so as well, but he was basically useless in the air. It becoming even more apparent to Sera who utterly awful choice she made two years ago. Just from the top of her head, she could name half a dozen ascended in her army who would be much better in the current situation. "Hopefully he will die in that godforsaken siege... If not I will have to think of something else..." She whispered to herself, while she killed a pair of large featherless bird creatures. Both were corrupted and had a nasty shriek attack which nearly threw her out of the skies. The two dead birds fell towards the water, but didn''t even make it inside before a large sea monster plucked them out of the air. Her speed slowed down quite a bit as she went further trying to determine what it was. She was already just about a kilometer away when she finally realized what the object in the sea was. It was a corpse of some dead monster. What was really strange that nothing snatched it up or down. The monster didn''t look anything special, she judged it to be of the rotten class, maybe of the third tier. She waited for a bit so the others could catch up, then continued her scouting. After travelling for another few minutes she found even more bodies floating in the water. Her suspicion grew and a strange shiver went down her spine. Something was very wrong here, but she had no clue what. They travelled another ten kilometers. Below them the surface was full of corpses. A lot of them were flying monsters, but there were ones the lived in the sea as well. At this point Sera already knew that going further into this graveyard was a mistake, but her essence began to run dangerously low. She had to use her explosion two more times in this last ten kilometers, which meant her essence was already below a thousand and decreasing every minute. The others were fairing even worse than she, which also caused alarm in the team. They needed to get to Lesvos and fast! After another ten minutes they finally spotted the island on the horizon, and in that exact moment the keeper of this graveyard finally showed itself. The creature, monster, thing... whatever it was supposed to be, was just as Sera thought, a horror. It looked very strange and incomprehensible. Like a large floating pulp of flesh with tentacles and eyes all over it. Its form was in constant change, it was like something from a different dimension. Even looking at it caused a trickle of blood to run down from Sera''s nose and eyes. Her vision began to swim and a mind splitting migraine caused all her movements to stop. Her mind went blank, she heard someone''s voice inside her skull, but couldn''t determine its owner or what he said. Slowly some strange sensation appeared right in her heart. Something she had lost, something she never remembered having, something awful, something that could save her life... Fear... Sera who was an emotionless machine, felt a deep terror looking at the brain-like horror. Instead of trying to overcome it, or trying to send it away, she used it. The fear gave her back a small amount of thinking ability which she used to its fullest. Suddenly she remembered who spoke inside her head and on the same channel with a lot of effort she sent one mental command... "DISTRACTION NOW!" Seemingly out of nowhere a comet made of whitish-gold flames hit the large fleshy monster in the middle. With a large explosion of flames the horror got stunned. The comet didn''t even lose its speed as it exited on the monster''s other side. The brain terror tried to catch it, but it was way too fast. After a few seconds of having left, it did another hit and run, then another... While the distraction was working admirably, Sera was ushering her team to the island. She had a feeling the flying flesh thing wouldn''t follow them there. When they had finally reached solid ground they didn''t stop. Only when they were in the middle of the island did they actually land on the grassy floor. Sera''s essence was nearing its end, but before she had passed out from exhaustion she sent another mental message through the connection... "Thank you... friend..." Chapter 171: Internal Strife Sera''s head was pounding and in severe pain. Her eyes slowly opened and focused on the bright blue sky. It was already started become purple which meant the Sun was about to set. With a large groan of pain she sat up and tried to look around. Her vision swam and it couldn''t focus on a single thing. It was very disorienting and it caused a lot of nausea to build up. After a minute she couldn''t hold it in any longer and she vomited on the ground to her right. She spent the next few minutes on the ground puking up her guts, which were really empty. It took her another few minutes after that for her vision to clear enough. Her eyes instantly focused on her team of three. They were staring at Sera. Percy seemed to be a bit concerned, but mostly unbothered. Hector pretended to not be satisfied by the sight of Sera suffering. Kathy was the only one who seemed to actually care about Sera''s wellbeing. She walked to Sera and knelt down in front of her. Her mouth moved, but strangely enough no sound came out... or at least Sera heard nothing. After a few seconds she realized that her hearing was gone, same with her smell and taste. She could only see, feel and talk. With a lot of effort she read Kathy''s lips. ''Are you okay?'' She asked. Sera just slowly nodded, which she instantly regretted since in that moment the migraine doubled in pain. She closed her eyes and slowly laid back on the grassy ground. The headache and pain slowly decreased and she had eventually fallen asleep. ... Kathy watched her leader groan in pain, then after being awake for only a few minutes, pass out yet again. Her expression turned a bit grim. Behind her a boisterous laughter shook her bones. She didn''t even know what was happening, in one moment she was kneeling next to the passed out Sera, in the next she had already changed into a giant ghost leopard. Without thinking she jumped on Hector''s chest and held one of her front paws, with its gigantic claws, to his throat. The sound emanating from it got silenced instantly. Kathy''s maw full of multiple rows of razor sharp teeth came awfully close to his face. While growling angrily saliva dripped down right onto his face and into his eyes. Hector''s eyes got consumed in pure dread, but soon his idiocy came out victorious. His vision got absorbed in pure rage and with one swift move he threw Kathy right into a tree. ''I''m glad you brought this up. How is she like? Does she conspire or anything?'' Her voice sounded strangely gleeful, like it was experiencing deep satisfaction. Kathy didn''t quite understand why the voice always asked her if Sera was conspiring or not. On one hand Kathy had no idea, on the other she didn''t really want to tell anything important to this outsider. ''I have no clue. Can''t you go and bother someone else?'' She made her voice sound annoyed, and her emotions starting to reflect that as well. The voice, her own voice, laughed inside her head. It was an uncanny feeling. The laughter was sadistic and evil. ''Oh, little Kathy. This connection takes so little to keep up and it is always nice to converse with you... Now I ask you again and you probably shouldn''t dodge the question this time... What is she doing!'' The voice sounded friendly at first, but it soon became cruel and mad. Her body shuddered a bit from what was about to happen next. Slowly pain started to appear all over her body. It wasn''t from any injury or anything like that. It was a mental attack made by the voice inside her head. Chapter Experience: Every time the voice asked her something it wanted to know badly and she didn''t want to answer, the pain would come over her. It kept increasing until she eventually couldn''t bear it any longer. In that moment she would tell everything to the voice. Kathy tried to fight it every time, not because of her loyalty towards Sera. In reality she didn''t care much about her. The resistance was more of a principle in her mind, she didn''t want to bow down in front of this parasite in her mind. Somehow she knew that on the day she stopped fighting it would be her last day as herself. The pain gradually increased, her body trembled from it. Slowly her breathing pattern became erratic and quick, same as her heartbeat. She seemed to hold out longer than usual, but after five minutes of pure excruciating pain, Kathy finally gave in. ''Nothing... She doesn''t plan anything... She just wants to use the siege at New Constantinople to fully saturate her soul... It''s because of that bastard Harold... She needs to do it by the end of the month...'' She said a few more mundane things, but nothing new. The pain had already stopped when she started speaking, but her body still shivered. The voice laughed again, this time less cruelly and more in satisfaction. ''Bastard eh? He is quite an asshole if I do say so myself, I should probably take him out at some point...'' The voice laughed even more hysterically, which made Kathy feel really uncomfortable since she was hearing her own voice. ''Anyway, it is good that she takes her task seriously. I hope the little angel will grow up fast!'' After saying the last sentence the voice disappeared. Kathy felt it leave, it always made her feel liberating. It was like when your boss watches you work, it always feels great when they just leave you to it! She took a deep breath of the nice cool air and eventually fallen into a slumber of her own. Chapter 172: Unexpected Guest The night had already arrived by the time Sera had woken up. Her head was finally clear of that awful pain. Tiredly she turned onto her other side and found some gigantic fluffy thing next to her. In the next moment she was already on her feet about to summon her glaive, but she soon calmed down. It was only Kathy in one of her other forms. Sera didn''t fail to see her paws and mouth, which had dried blood all over it. Curiously she began looking around the camp. It seemed like someone had made a fire and cooked meat. Judging by how close Percy was sleeping, he must''ve been the culprit. One thing Sera had noted though is Hector, or more like the lack of him. At first she thought he had left the group, it would''ve been really convenient if he had done so, but that wasn''t the case. He was just sleeping a lot farther from the rest of them. His whole body was covered in blood... his own blood... It didn''t take a genius to figure out where the blood on Kathy''s paws and mouth had came from. Sera looked at the passed out asshole with no remorse. Behind her a twig snapped, but she didn''t react. Slow footsteps sounded all around her, but only when they had gotten a dozen meter close did she finally look up. In front of Sera a tall man with an average build stood. He wore nothing save for a white tank top, black pants and black boots. It really highlighted his dark skin which shined in the moonlight like scales on a snake. His head was fully bald, his face not quite handsome, but definitely above average. What most people found curious about him was those two bewitching eyes. They were like whirlpools as they reflected the world inside them. The man looked at Sera for a moment, then glanced at the bloodied Hector and started laughing. All around them the forest laughed as well, or more like the people hiding in the trees. "Did you finally decide to get rid of this idiot?... You know he is really bad for your reputation." Said the man with a smile. Sera made her own smile which was less cheerful and more scary. "Tell me David, since when do I care about my reputation? I thought you knew me better than that." Her voice sounded a bit aloof and hurt, but David knew very well she was just pretending. His face soured a bit, but then it suddenly burst into another round of laughter. With a few large steps he walked to Sera, then gave her a large hug. From behind the trees twelve other people came out. All of them clad in a special set of metal armor. Their color was black with a few white highlights and on each of the breastplates there was a embellishment of a snake biting its own tail. Each stood at attention in acknowledgement of Sera''s higher rank in the Federal Alliance Military. It was true that compared to her two most trusted man and woman, they were kind of lackluster, but Sera doesn''t take kindly to being made fun of. The small smile from her face slowly disappeared making the atmosphere much more serious. "I left the two of them to take care of my city. It would''ve been really stupid to take all of my strongest people to this incursion..." She leaned in a bit closer, her eyes showing nothing but contempt. In a voice that was nearly drowned out by the wind she spoke. "It wouldn''t be smart to make fun of my team David... These two could probably kill most of yours, and that doesn''t even account for my power..." The small smile came back on her face when she saw a small tremble go through his body. Sera didn''t even have to look at the cohort to know how terrified they were. Each of them saw her kill at least one transcended and they heard the stories of the other times. It would be insanity to try and provoke her. David laughed a bit awkwardly, then desperately tried to change the subject. "Your weird church has appeared in Antalya. It seems like it spread to multiple cities now." After saying silent for a few seconds eventually Sera decided to drop the subject as well. "Yeah, believe me I''m not the one controlling them. They are a strange bunch and calling it my religion is a bit of a stretch, its more like a gathering of people who pray for a better future. It''s not my fault that my actions caused them to have a deep sense of religious belief in me!" For a moment they stared at each other, then they both burst out laughing causing the rest of the cohort to giggle too. After a minute of chuckling, David calmed down enough to speak again. "I know it has nothing to do with you, and they are actually really good for keeping the peace. They are great at de-escalating situations and solving arguments. I even considered taking one of the priests or priestesses as my assistant..." He leaned in close to Sera so his team couldn''t hear what he was about to say. "You know why I feel comfortable leaving the city without any of the Ouroboros Cohort to protect it? It''s because those priests of yours... Nobody really sees through the facade they had built, but I know their strength... And some people actually believe you don''t have an elite force!" He laughed a bit. Sera just stared at him a bit amused. Since David was a fellow soldier on the outside she pretended to be the same. Other than Bran nobody in either of their cities knew their conspiring. It needed to be kept a secret and they couldn''t act too friendly since that would''ve brought suspicion on both of them. He didn''t actually knew her and Bran''s plan, but he didn''t seem to mind it. Luckily David was smart and he knew that knowing about it would be much riskier for both of them, so he was happy not knowing the details. "How main cities have that strange religion now? Four? Five?... They are spreading pretty fast... like parasites of sorts, eh?" This time Sera laughed a bit as well, the implications of what he said was very clear. Most people think her to have small vision, keeping only a medium sized city for herself... They have no idea how large her influence had already spread! Chapter 173: Leaving Lesvos The two of them chatted for a while longer, but soon a deep rumble shook Sera''s stomach. Only now did she realize how famished she was. David was about to say something else, but Sera cut in, her face not showing even a hint of embarrassment. "Hey, do you guys have some food? I haven''t even for at least a day!" For a moment the cohort and David looked at her with confusion. One of the woman in the group quickly grabbed some leftover from her pack and gave it to Sera. Without looking at what it was Sera devoured it. She didn''t care about the questioning looks the others gave her. After about a minute of eating she finally finished. Her eyes instantly met David''s, but she had no idea why he was staring at her. "What is it?" She asked in her usual emotionless tone. "It''s nothing, just... It''s weird you have no food. This island has so many monsters you could hunt... Why haven''t you eaten for an entire day?" Finally Sera understood why he and the others were confused. With a small nod she began to tell him about their journey from Skyros to Lesvos. The whole cohort stared at her with wide eyes and mouths agape as she began the story with an abomination swallowing the whole island of Skyros. They looked terrified just by her account of the event. Then their terror turned to awe and amazement when she spoke of their fight through the Aegean, then they became scared again when she recounted how the brain horror looked. She kept their final escape brief on purpose. There was no way she would tell the truth about who saved her and her team. Even her own group had no idea of his identity and she preferred to keep it that way... Until the others arrived of course! "Well... That explains it... Really?!... That''s how an Abomination actually looks like... Scary motherfuckers that''s for sure... Luckily all the Ethereals are gone from Earth. Imagine how fast the Alliance would''ve died out if even one of those assholes would be here..." Sera didn''t have to imagine it at all, but just like always she knew more than most people. When the whole Federal Alliance was born and the war had started, there was a worldwide operation lead by the high echelons of the Alliance. All of the Ethereals that were on Earth were in a different realms on that day. The operation was highly classified, but Harold didn''t really care to keep it a secret and he didn''t find it strange when Sera asked about it. Operation Enclosed Earth was its name. In the span of one day the strongest of the Alliance destroyed about a dozen realm gates cutting off access to every Ethereal. Without them the Federal Alliance could thrive. If even one of them found its way back to Earth, it meant death to every war participant... Well, if the Ethereal felt like it of course. There were multiple Stellar in the Federal Alliance, but the jump in power between a Stellar and an Ethereal was just simply too high, impossible to bridge. Also evolving into an Ethereal isn''t as simple. Even Sera had no idea how it worked since it was always some personal task people had to complete. It was never truly hard, but more time consuming than anything else. "Fuck if I know! You should ask one of my scientists, they are the ones who are making this plan a reality!... I should really give them a raise!" Both chuckled a bit, but Sera''s just like always, sounded humorless. They stayed silent after that. When David was about to ask more they finally spotted the sea on the horizon. They were currently at the northern edge of Lesvos island and they had to cross a more than ten kilometer span of sea to get to the mainland and continue their journey. Before embarking in the morning they talked about how they will cross it. David and his team didn''t really have methods to fly, his cohort had no flying transformation. They crossed the island with the help of David''s serpent form, but this span of water was different from the southern side... it was littered with corpses. A shiver still went down on Sera''s spine just by thinking about the brain horror. The current plan was that Sera, Kathy and Percy would fly everyone to the other side as fast as possible. They were hoping the horror wouldn''t notice them and they would be far enough away from this hellhole by the time it arrived. This plan worked quite well, unlike their other previous plans. They managed to transport everyone and didn''t even see signs of that horror. The cohort left the seashore running. They didn''t want to test fate and linger. When they were in relative safety again, Sera and David moved away from the main group continuing their previous conversation. "Anything else I should know about?" Asked David, his voice a lot more serious than usually. Sera looked forward for a bit in silence. She didn''t know if she should tell this to David or not. Eventually she sighed and told him anyway, there was no reason to hide it any longer. "We found Harold''s research facility." She said this even quieter than usual, like she was afraid of even speaking his name out loud. David''s interest got perked up instantly. By his knowledge they were looking for the place, but nobody knew where to find it. Looking at Sera though, he understood that they didn''t find it recently, but they hadn''t told him about it. He nodded to himself in understanding and put a hand on Sera''s shoulder. As she looked up David smiled down at her, not saying anything. Sera made a tiny smile as well. They both understood each other and the meaning behind their silence. If there was no reason to tell him, she wouldn''t. They worked on this principle for more than a year and so far nobody noticed the meaning behind their actions. "So, where is it?" Asked David after a few seconds. "Below the Italian Peninsula on a large island named Malta. We used my watch to pinpoint its location. It wasn''t easy since his defenses block most signals, but with the help of one special item we managed to bridge that gap." Answered Sera proudly. He looked at her with raised eyebrows. By her past accounts, she couldn''t bring any items to the research facility. "What kind of item?" He asked, but Sera''s answer only confused him more. "Nothing..." Chapter 174: Serpent of Time While the two leaders talked at the front the cohort began to mingle with Sera''s team... or at least two members of said team. Hector just walked about a dozen meters behind everyone, watching Sera talk and occasionally laugh with David. At this point his head took a permanent shade of red. Kathy constantly looked back at him waiting for the moment when the veins would finally explode from the high blood pressure. He noticed these glances as well, and it quickly reminded him of yesterdays fight. Seeing him get even angrier brought a deep satisfaction to Kathy. As she was about to laugh at his misery she heard something ahead. In the next second both Sera and David appeared next to the group. "Heads up everyone! We have company!" Said David. The whole Cohort went into high alert within the next second, like a well oiled machine. Kathy changed as well, this time into a large wolf-like beast with wings. This was purely something she had made. There were very few forms that she had personally thought out since it was nearly impossible to create new creatures from scratch, but she could still combine already existing appendages from many different beings. She called this form, Wolfdragon. It was a fitting name since the wing designs were literally stolen from a dragon. Her size was also huge about 3 meter tall and 5 meter long, with a wingspan of 7 meters. The cohort looked at her with a bit of surprise, but they quickly turned back to their deathly serious selves. Percy changed into his energy form as well and Hector transformed into his fiend looking self. Sera looked at all of them for a moment, then just leaned against a tree and watched the show. In her opinion this fight wouldn''t last long enough, so she didn''t need to involve herself. For a moment David looked at her curiously, but then understood her intentions. By not doing anything she was hiding the fact that her essence count still wasn''t full. That was the only reason why she wouldn''t fight. While walking Sera told him about the order from Harold, so it didn''t make sense why she wouldn''t take this opportunity to kill more monsters. But if her essence wasn''t full it explained everything. They were still about 200 kilometers away from the gathering point, Tekirdag. They will hundred percent need to fight a lot more and she had the biggest reserve count out of all of them. They needed her at full strength which meant she couldn''t fight little skirmishes like this. In front of the group about a kilometer away a small horde of monsters were closing in fast. The twelve members of the Ouroboros Cohort summoned their weapons. Four people had towershields and spears, another four had swords of different kinds, one longsword, one katana, one rapier and one khopesh. The last four summoned different types of ranged weapons. Their coordination was impeccable, within seconds they connected their shields protecting the ranged users behind. The four swordsman stayed at the sides of the small shieldwall, keeping the monsters from circling around. Sera''s team was much worse in this aspect. Kathy took to the skies and dropped behind the approaching horde, massacring them from the back. Percy just did his usual murder rain attack. Hector, the dumbest of them all, ran straight into the middle of the enemy formation. For example he could freeze an evolved for probably months with his reserves, but an ascended would only get frozen for a dozen or maybe only a few minutes depending on their strength. A transcended would get frozen for probably a little over ten seconds, but could be less. These monsters were at most corrupted, which meant their essence usage was quite small. Sera looked as the giant snake''s eyes glowed and swirled, they were mesmerizing to look at. He froze another dozen monsters and with one tail swipe killed them all. His destruction capabilities weren''t even near Sera''s level, but he had one thing she didn''t... He could freeze even transcended, which would come really handy in the near future. One of the main reasons Sera had dared to involve him was his power, second only to his personality. David was older than her, he was born right at the end of the Last War. He had been an evolved for far longer than her too and he had seen a lot more cruelty in this world than most. The first time she had met him was about one and a half years ago. Back then she wasn''t sure what to do. Her mind was still partially under Harold''s control, so going against him seemed out of the question. After the attack they had both contributed to, they had spent the rest of the day talking. She had quickly realized how similar their worldviews were, but only after another half year did she send someone with an offer to join her in a revolution. Watching him fight and kill now, only reinforced her notion of having him on her team. After there were only about two dozen monsters left he froze all of them in time and let his cohort take them out. This was the real power of David, the Serpent of Time... His leadership ability and great understanding of battles. If Sera was considered an amazing general with only victories, he was a perfect one with victories much greater than hers. For a revolution she needed to account for a lot of things. First was the citizens, whos support she needed to be successful. Second was her army which needed to be strong and well supplied. The third was the actual battles and tactics, she needed the best general for that task. Even David didn''t know how big of a role he will play in the upcoming war. People think that this war between the Federal Alliance and United Front is bad... They have no idea how worse it will be when her faction finally reveals itself. These were only the Sparks of War, but she will make sure the Flames will soon ignite and burn all who stand against it! Chapter 175: Approaching the Dardanelles They moved swiftly through the empty plains. There were a few forested areas, but most of the terrain were made up of hills with low amount of vegetation. The Sun had nearly set by the time they made camp. It was near a strait called the Dardanelles, which they had to pass to continue the last part of their long journey. The strait wasn''t anything special, but David told them that it was the home of some horror which only came out at night, so they had to wait until daytime to cross. Sera and David both let the setting up of the camp to the others. While waiting they both left the group and walked towards the edge of a cliff which stood above the Dardanelles. The strait was small, a bit more than two kilometers wide. They could easily see the other side from here. There was nothing really noteworthy to see, but they still made sure to look at everything that has a chance of causing trouble. For the next ten minutes they just stood there silently, the early night breeze blew against Sera''s long golden hair. David stared at it for a moment too long and Sera didn''t miss the chance to make an obvious joke. "What? Imagining what it''s like to have hair... Must be sad living so baldly..." David just looked at her with a raised eyebrow which caused Sera to second guess her joking capabilities, but soon came the deep rumbling laughter came out of him. Sera breathed a sigh of relief. She had started to think her acting had become worse. It wasn''t easy to pretend to have emotions all the time. Making jokes that you know are supposed to be funny, but you just simply can''t feel joy... It was exhausting... David must''ve noticed her less than happy demeanor. His laughter abruptly stopped and with a kind expression he placed one hand over Sera''s shoulder. Without giving it much thought she leaned into him and accepted his silent support. It was strange. After losing her memory she always felt like there was nobody supporting her. She felt alone most of the time. Only now did she start to realize that just because she didn''t feel it, there were still people helping her along the way. Keeping her from the endless chasm of despair that she could fall down in any moment, on any day. Melinda with her childish, way too friendly, almost family like behavior. David here with his strong stoicism... Then there was Bran... He was different from the other two. He never tried to get close to her and only did when she got a few sweet moments of lucidity. It was like he didn''t want to be with the emotionless Sera, but the fun and amazing full of life Sera... She fully understood him. If she could choose, she would be that Sera too, but life didn''t let you pick what will happen. Her only hope was that maybe after all of this is over and if they both survive the upcoming hardships... If she gets her soul repaired... Maybe they can try to get together... "What do you think? Can this be considered a weapon?" With one finger Conrad touched the sharp edge of her claw, he left it with a few blood droplets on the blade. It took him a few minutes to calm his turbulent emotions. He was breathing heavily, his eyes glazed over as he looked Kathy up and down seemingly for the first time since the start of their conversation. "You... You can turn into a weapon... That''s so hot!" Before Kathy could even react, Conrad leaned in and kissed her. This was probably the weirdest way she had managed to turn a man on, but she went along with it. Soon both of them left the camp leaving Percy and a woman from the cohort laughing hysterically. They had listened to their whole conversation attentively, not wanting to miss a single word. "Is that guy always like this?" Asked Percy between laughs. The woman next to him was beautiful, way out of his league and she made it clear that she won''t going to have sex with him. "Conrad?... Kind of. His great in a fight and an amazing addition to the cohort, but he''s a bit dull as you have seen. His emotional intelligence is also quite awful, and his true love is only for weapons and warfare tactics..." Suddenly the woman ¨C who''s name was Morren ¨C turned silent for a moment before bursting out in an even larger bout of laughter. Percy looked at her curiously, not understanding the origin of her glee. Morren seemed to notice it as well and between laughs she explained. "Don''t you understand... He got Fucking turned on by her hand changing into a weapon!... That idiot will have sex with her, while her hand is like that..." Hearing this Percy began laughing too, but he still poured more oil on the fire. "But Kathy can change anything about herself... Will he ask her to change her other hand as well, or maybe her whole arm will turn into a sword... Maybe he will ask her to change her whole body into metal!" At this point both were rolling on the ground from laughing so hard. "Stop!... Stop... I will piss myself, if I laugh more!" Said Morren while continuing her chuckling. It took them close to five minutes to finally calm down enough to continue their conversation. "So... Did you perhaps change you mind about..." Before he could say more Morren cut him off. "Fuck no!... I know about your wives and your unfaithful tendencies. Sadly for you I don''t fuck for pleasure, only for emotion and what I''m feeling towards you is definitely not love. It''s more like a bit of disgust mixed with boredom." Percy ignored everything she said and throughout the night he would ask her about a dozen more times. He was about to say something witty, when a giant shriek shook the whole area where they had been camping. All of them turned and looked towards the Dardanelles where the scream originated from. Back on the cliff Sera and David watched with deep curiosity as the monster of the strait emerged from the depths of water. Chapter 176: The Wraith of the Strait Sera''s body trembled from the cold that attacked everything around her and David. The strait before them, the whole Dardanelles had frozen solid within seconds after the creature''s appearance. At first she couldn''t understand what the monster was supposed to be. It looked like a glowing white blob of some strange ethereal substance. Whatever it was, she knew it was absurdly strong. Going on a hunch she opened her watch''s scanning feature. She hadn''t used it for months since most of her battles didn''t need it, or she just simply didn''t have time... But now she needed to know more! ''Scanning in progress...'' Said the feminine voice of the watch''s A.I. inside her head. It''s been a long time since she heard the voice. Two years ago she had turned off most of the talking features. It had become annoying very quickly when she would slaughter hundreds of monsters and the voice would name each and everyone of them. Same went for items. It was a rarity with monsters, but every time she would just look at it, upload the description into a giant database and then donate it to her army. Nearly all items were useless to her, and the ones she wanted could be made by one of her crafters. She did have one interesting item when she had awoken two years ago in Flensburg, but nearly immediately Harold took it away from her. Sera didn''t know why, or what the item''s power was. She only remembered its name... Dragon Pendant. ''Scanning Complete... Results... Error... Error... Entity too high level... Abomination Detected!... Run... Run... Run...'' Hearing the message inside her mind brought little comfort to her and judging by David''s pale expression he got a similar answer from his scan. Slowly Sera turned back towards the supposed Abomination and watched as it floated through the air. Below her feet the ground started to whiten and freeze as well. The creature''s very presence was starting to kill everything around the strait. The monster itself started to look more clear and at this point Sera could see what it actually was. Its size was about the same as an average human''s. It wore a large glowing white robe, which perfectly hid everything that could''ve been below it. The robe was blowing on a phantom wind which didn''t exist since slowly the air itself started to freeze. The closer the entity moved to them the colder it got and the more both of them trembled, not just from the freezing temperature, but because of its presence. It felt like if Sera would stare at it for too long, she would become an ice sculpture. She let herself look at it for another couple of seconds, then she grabbed David''s hand and slowly moved away from the cliff they were crouching upon. They were deathly silent for a long time and only after they reached an area ¨C which was definitely outside of the wraith''s influence ¨C did they stop to take a breather. Only now did she realize that calling those victims monsters was misleading. In reality they were only beings of instinct, while the real monster, the real evil was doing everything on purpose! A real horrible creature wouldn''t just try to kill and eat you. They would torture you and break your very soul for fun... or maybe force you to die and resurrect hundreds of times! Unknowingly Sera''s hand was trembling more than when it was from the cold, but this time it was pure rage that boiled inside her. She didn''t feel any of it of course, but the symptoms somehow still showed. David looked at her then and his previous pale expression returned. He didn''t understand why had Sera became so angry, but he also didn''t really want to know. Looking at her, he had became a bit torn up. Should he ask what''s wrong, or should he just continue his silent support. Find your next read on M-V-L Eventually he decided to go with the first option. They are technically friends after all, which meant they should help each other, especially when one of them really needed it. "What''s wrong?" He whispered to her, which caused Sera''s trembling to stop. For a moment she got spooked, totally forgetting about David''s presence, but soon her golden eyes focused on his whirlpool ones. With a large exhausted sigh she leaned onto him a bit more. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her turbulent mind. After taking a couple deep breaths, she answered his previous question. "It''s nothing... I just hate evil monsters..." Her voice which should''ve been emotionless sounded sad. It was so surprising that it stopped David''s thoughts for a moment, but he soon focused on what she had said. "Like the ones we are about to fight?" He asked, which caused Sera''s sleepy eyes to look at him confused. He made a few pointed glances at his watch indicating their ability to listen in on their conversation. On Sera''s face a small smile appeared, understanding exactly who they were about to fight. Slowly her eyes closed again and she laid down on the ground putting her head in David''s lap. Her mind which just minutes ago was absorbed in rage, turned strangely tranquil and at some point her breathing became calm as well. It took only a minute for her to fully fall asleep, which left David astounded. He carried her back to the camp and put her down near one of the campfires. The rest of their teams, those who were still awake, looked at the pair with goofy smiles. David knew exactly what they thought about their relationship, but he didn''t correct them. He just let them believe whatever they wanted to believe, just like he had always done. Before going to sleep though he did make sure there was a watch arranged for the night and he even quickly recounted the events at the strait, not failing to mention the Abomination. After that he left them there trembling from fear, and he went to lie down next to Sera. Chapter 177: Crossing the Dardanelles In the morning Sera opened her sleepy eyes and nearly jumped to her feet from surprise. She didn''t remember falling asleep and was quite bewildered to learn that she used David as a pillow. By the time she had woke up, he was already awake. They looked into each other''s eyes for a moment. "Good morning Sera... I don''t want you upset you, but there is something really important I need to tell you!" He leaned in a bit closer then whispered into her ear. "You snore very loudly." With seemingly no reaction Sera began raising her head off of David''s legs, but in the next moment she slammed it down. The back of her head hit him straight in the nuts. He started violently coughing while Sera just stood above him laughing. Luckily for him nobody was there to see this interaction. He would''ve never heard the end of it, if his cohort had seen him get headbutted in the balls. "Okay... Fine... I deserved that... Fuck that hurt! You would think as an ascended I would feel less pain getting hit in the balls, but alas... life sure as hell works in mysterious ways..." Her laughter increased a bit, but she soon turned back into her previous cold self. "Where are the others?" She asked while looking around. There was some leftover breakfast next to the burnt out fire, but that was all. While waiting for the answer Sera sat down and began munching on the cold monster meat. With a sigh and a small limp, David sat down next to her and began eating the meat too. "I sent them away to scout out the Dardanelles. The wraith supposed to have left already, but I won''t risk my and everyone else''s life on incorrect intel. They each went to different parts and after about another hour they should be reporting back." The meat was really dry so Sera took out her water canteen and drank deeply. "You should''ve woke me up. We have to move out soon and I don''t want to look lazy in front of your soldiers." Said Sera and took another bite of the food. David looked at her for a few seconds then just sighed and shook his head. "You really are hard on yourself. It doesn''t matter how hard you work, if you die before the finish line!" He spoke more seriously than usual, but Sera didn''t raise her voice and just answered in her empty voice. "If I die than I will resurrect." Her voice sounded even more hollow than usual, which caused David''s face to scrunch in anger. "How many more times?!" He tried to say it without shouting, but it didn''t really work. Sera stared at him with a confused look. "I can resurrect infinite times, if the question referred to that?" He just slowly shook his head and looked towards the cloudy gray skies. "No you idiot... How many more times before you lose yourself?... I haven''t died even once in my life, but I know for a fact that what your ability gives has a price... How many more times before you finally go insane?... A thousand... Five-hundred..." Before reaching the place Sera went ahead just to make sure everything was alright. She stood atop a cliff looking out at the few kilometer span of water, which they had to cross. The sight was beautiful and thankfully she spotted no creature that would cause any issues. Soon after that she went back and they began taking everyone over the water. Everything was going well, but something didn''t quite seem right. Sera was making the last trip back. There was only David she needed to bring across when she felt the change in the air. The wind that was constantly blowing suddenly stopped, like it froze. Her breath made the cold air show and she also felt her body cool down. With faster wingbeats she arrived back at the cliff where David was already shivering from the cold. "W-we sho-sho-should... g-g-go b-back!" Said David with a bit of fear showing on his face. Sera didn''t say anything. She just grabbed David and flew as high as she could manage, while trying to keep away the cold with her flames. It was like trying to put out a housefire with a garden hose, it helped somewhat but they were still slowly dying. Her speed increased further. They still had time since the wraith hadn''t shown itself yet. It took only a few seconds to arrive on the other shore, but still she kept increasing her speed. The others had run away already, they knew that there was nothing they could do and it was also protocol to always try to save the ones you can save. There was no telling how fast she was going, but soon they caught up with the others just as her mind was starting to get cloudy. The frost had stopped spreading inside her, but there was no telling how much damage it had already done. She knew that her life wasn''t in danger, but she was also about to pass out. In her arms David was already unconscious, but after a quick check-up she breathed a sigh of relief. He was alive. The others on the ground finally noticed them and they also saw their trajectory which headed straight for the ground. Sera could barely keep her eyes open, but when she did all she saw was a giant furry creature grabbing them out of the air. Panic began rising inside her, but she soon noticed who the beast actually was. Kathy, after plucking them out of the sky in some strange, large flying cat-like form, landed a bit further ahead. Everyone hurried to her and they breathed a sigh of relief when they noticed both of their leaders alive and unconscious. Somewhere far away, but also close by, a giant scream could be heard. It caused all of them to groan in pain and they quickly realized that their previous sense of safety was an illusion. Without saying anything Kathy changed forms again, this time into a large six armed gorilla. Using her two middle arms she gently held both Sera and David, then she began running away from the Dardanelles. Close behind her everyone followed and they haven''t stopped until they were dozens of kilometers away. Chapter 178: Small Lie Sera''s head was still hurting and she heard shouting coming from all around her. With confusion she tried to get up, but the darkness persisted in her vision... Or at least that''s what she thought. Going on a hunch she held out her hand and summoned a small globe of light. She never really used her light making ability since she could see in the dark and her flames were much more powerful She only used it now to test something. The small light illuminated their surroundings instantly, which meant the darkness wasn''t in her vision at all, but made artificially by some creature. Putting more essence into the light, its brightness greatly increased. It illuminated everything around her for about a dozen meters. Her vision went to the ground where David was still lying unconscious. The hearing in her ears were still muffled and her headache only grew. Still she didn''t dare lose focus. Something bad was happening and she needed to figure out the situation as best as she could. Slowly her armor weaved itself into existence including her helmet. In her hand the beautiful golden glaive appeared. On the armor the small healing elephant charm got placed, which gradually elevated her headache. With her mind clearer she summoned even more essence and placed it into the light, which originated from the top of her crown-like helmet. It brightened everything for about 50 meters. She could finally see most of the group fighting some very strange monsters. They were dark, almost shadowy and nearly formless. When they attacked a claw formed out of nowhere, or a large maw full of razor sharp teeth. One of the sword-bearer''s of the Ouroboros Cohort managed to cut one, but the monster just dissolved into dark smoke. One thing she noted was that they stayed at the edge of her light, seemingly afraid of it. She placed even more essence into the light and didn''t stop until the dome of illumination reached for a few hundred meters. All the shadow monsters dissolved, but Sera knew they weren''t dead. She was sure that those creatures weren''t even alive, they were just weapons summoned by some large meaner monster. The group quickly ran towards Sera. They were all accounted for, but they looked battered to say the least, especially Kathy, who seemed to be barely clinging to consciousness. "My Lady... Thank you for the save!" Said Kathy before falling down next to David. Her breathing was heavy, but even. She passed out the moment her head hit the grass ground. "Status?" Asked Sera from the rest of the group. One of the Ouroboros Cohort''s members stepped forward. They all wore armor so she couldn''t determine who spoke, but it was definitely male. "We are approximately 50 kilometers from Tekirdag. After the Lady and David had fallen unconscious we tried to make as much progress as possible. We fought multiple relatively easy battles, but as the Lady can see... or more like can''t see... Something ambushed us!" Sera nodded along thoughtfully. If they were 50 kilometers from Tekirdag, that means they already walked 150 kilometers from the point she had lost consciousness. This would''ve been great news, if their circumstances would be better. Description: It''s nothing! What did you expect? Attribute: Does nothing... Contained Souls: Seeing the change in the description would''ve brought a bright smile to her face, but she controlled her facial muscles not letting it reveal anything. Slowly Kathy was finally awakening. Her eyes tried to open, but the sudden bright light caused her face to scrunch up. "Weren''t we in darkness? What the fuck is going on?" She asked and the others looked at Sera with raised eyebrows as well. Without any fanfare she turned to them and said her prepared lie. "I saw through the darkness. It was controlled by a very strong corrupted of the 3rd tier. I threw my spear hitting it, but it didn''t die and it managed to get away." Since her voice was emotionless they couldn''t guess her lie, still they seemed a bit skeptical, especially Hector. His eyes narrowed, but after a few seconds he just turned and walked away. The others dropped the topic as well, non of them were dumb enough to try and call out her easily noticeable lie. The only person who held her eyes was David. He wasn''t skeptical, just curious. After a few moments Sera made a small nod indicating that she will explain it later. David just smirked as an answer. Her eyes turned away from the group and went to the Sun above their heads. There was still close to half the day left, which meant they could make it to Tekirdag if they hurry. David seemed to have the same idea. "Okay everyone! Take a small breather, we are moving out in half an hour... Oh, and someone call off the support..." He turned to Sera and smiled as he finished his sentence. "...Seems like we didn''t need help after all!" With just those words David made most of the group forget about her small lie. It was truly amazing how much better he was with leadership than her. The people she lead was because they trusted her blindly. He on the other hand has earned all of his soldier''s respect. Each of them took some time off. Sera and David ate a lot since they were starving. The others just watched in bewilderment as Sera devoured about ten kilogram cooked monster meat, even David looked at her with a strange expression. After the half hour was up, they each grabbed their packs and began walking northeast on the last stretch of their journey. As always Sera and David went a bit away from the rest. They stayed silent for a long while, but eventually it was time for her to reveal another large secret to him. Chapter 179: Nothing Sera stared straight into David''s eyes. He was really curious about what she would reveal to him now. Sera on the other hand tried to figure out how much she should tell him. This secret was bigger than the rest, but since he already knew this much, she had no reason to keep anything from him. With a few quick moves they both turned off their watches. When that was done she looked towards the sky and sighed. "You have asked how the machine gets its power... Well, the answer is not too simple. As you know we have been working on this for the past year, but only about half a year ago had we made significant progress with the research." David nodded along, he already knew about most of this. What he didn''t know anything about was the actual research. "We needed a power source, which could put out enough energy that could be used without any issues. Eventually after a lot of trial and error we found three ways that could work." She took another deep breath, while examining the horizon. They were getting closer to Tekirdag, the biggest telltale sign was the lack of monster presence. After a few seconds of silence she turned back towards David and continued. "The most obvious answer was me... As you know I put out a gigantic amount of energy with each resurrection. This could be used as a great power source, only issue is that I need to die each time we start to run low on power..." "The second much better option is Bran. He could take in the life force of his environment, then we could convert it to usable energy, but this one can''t be used effectively until we manage to get the others here..." David still wasn''t entirely sure who the ''others'' referred to, but it seemed like most of Sera''s plans were related to them, so they must''ve been important. He also wasn''t sure how Bran''s power actually worked, but before he could ask anything Sera continued to the third option. "The last one is something that only exists because of luck..." She held out her hand and suddenly something appeared in it, or at least that''s what David thought. Her hand began to shake out of nowhere, like she was holding onto a large mass or something really unstable. David had a really bad feeling about this, but he was also kind of curious. "What are you holding? Are you even holding anything, or you just pretending?" Sera chuckled a bit, then moved the item towards him. Gingerly he reached out and tried to touch whatever she was holding. The ''thing'' was strange, it was very smooth and round, like a ball made out of glass. It was about the size of a baby''s head and it felt very weird. His hand that was holding onto the object felt really hot and really cold at the same time, also it was like the crystal ball vibrated every few moments. Sometimes it felt like something was moving inside. "What the hell is this?!" He asked with a serious voice. Whatever this was, it felt unnatural. David looked a bit embarrassed by his previous question, but he also realized what happened with the darkness. "So that corrupted of the 3rd tier didn''t actually run away, you just killed it and took its soul!" Sera nodded along and when he finished she corrected him. "Yes, but it wasn''t a corrupted... It was a Horror of the 1st Tier!" This new information made him stumble and he nearly faceplanted into the grass. When he regained his balance the only word that came out of his mouth was, "WHAT?!" Sera just continued to walk in silence for a bit longer, ignoring David''s amazed stare. Eventually she had enough and further explained the situation. "Don''t look with too much awe, I can''t really kill most Horrors, but this one was perfect. Since its power had to do with darkness and evil, my holy flames were the exact counter for it. After I made sure that I could kill it in one shot I summoned Nothing and threw my spear!" This didn''t in fact make the achievement less amazing. Killing a Horror in one shot as an ascended was just... impossible! At least that''s what David had thought, but it seemed like life was just full of surprises! Before he could ask another question Sera spoke again. Her eyes seemed reminiscent and hopeful. "We haven''t tried the energy convertor with a Horror''s soul yet, but by our estimates and the studies conducted on corrupted souls, it will held much more power than anything we could hope for!" There was still the problem of recharging, but that should be solved by Bran in the near future... and there was still the first option... She also haven''t explained everything there was to know about Nothing. The item was a marvel of item craftsmanship. They found the material at the site of a huge battleground. It was a place where two abominations fought, possibly to the death. This invisible material was part of one of the creature. It was extremely strong and souls could only pass through it from one direction. Sera didn''t know the details of how they had crafted it into the shape of a ball, or how it works exactly, but until it does its job, there was no reason to question it. The other power that it had is a very strong locator. When you capture something with it and you place the device into the machine, which extracts the soul within, you can actually tell where exactly you found said soul. This was how they had found Harold''s hidden laboratory. He didn''t even notice that one of his goblins went missing! After the conversation was over they walked on in silence. When the Sun went down they finally saw the gathering point on the horizon. It was a giant military encampment that illuminated the world. Sera and David waited for the others, then they began walking to the closest gate excitedly. Their perilous journey was finally over and it was time to do something so much worse... Chapter 180: Tekirdag In the twilight of the setting Sun they arrived near the southern gate of the military encampment. Sera and David walked in the front with their teams behind. When they were a few dozen meters away two large spotlights illuminated the area around them. "That''s far enough! State your name and business!" Shouted a voice from the top of the wall. They probably saw them approaching from kilometers away, they just let them get close. Sera and David looked at each other, then she motioned for him to take the stage. With a small laugh he stepped forward about to speak, when another person shouted down. "I give you five seconds to start speaking before we open fire!" Both person sounded a bit young and inexperienced. David looked back a bit, then with a smile he pointed his arm towards the gate. Sera understood what he wanted her to do and in the next moment her wings appeared. With a few quick beats she went to the top of the wall and grabbed one of the spokesperson by the neck. He was panicking and tried to pry Sera''s hand away. "Do you think that''s a smart idea? It''s a long way down." Her voice sounded menacing, which only increased the fearful aura around her. The young man glanced to the side and only now did he realize that the ground disappeared from under his feet. Behind her the other soldiers just watched this interaction in pure silence. They asked for her identity and now they have it! The man in her hand went taut and began crying. Sera only realized now that he wasn''t even an evolved, just a regular soldier. With a sigh she threw him back to his comrades and jumped down to the other side of the gate. As she flew down another shout resounded. "Open the gates and inform the commander! The Deathless Phoenix has arrived!" She waited near the gate for the others to catch up. People stared at her with awe, but she gave them no heed. Currently she wanted to do nothing more than to have a nice cold shower and go to sleep, but she knew that there was much more to do before the day was fully over. The others soon arrived. Together they walked towards the inner camp where the leadership had their housing set up. David was laughing his ass off through the whole walk. It seemed the poor soldier''s scream could be heard even down there. Relma was the main scout of the Ouroboros Cohort. Her power is pure utility. She can basically move her sight and every other sense outside of her body. There is no attack that could kill her in that form and it is basically unnoticeable by most creatures. It is also a really good spy ability, one that Kathy was really jealous of. Without saying another word the groups made their way to the room. They stepped inside and most of them stumbled. They looked at the woman sitting in front of the fireplace with pure awe and desire. Even Sera couldn''t say anything. Cassandra was truly one of the most beautiful human beings to ever exist. She had very long purple hair, that was placed in an elegant bun on the back of her head. Her pink eyes seemed to glow in the low light, while her face was near perfect, but the few imperfections only added to her allure. Looking her up and down once there was only one question in Sera''s mind... "Doesn''t your back hurt?" She asked without much thought. The people around her began coughing, looking very embarrassed. Most of them were staring at the same place, the large cleavage that gave everyone a fairly good look at Cassandra''s breasts. Unlike them Sera''s face stayed straight and Cassandra just laughed. The sound was beautiful as well, it was like everything she done was attractive. "Oh Sera... How much I wanted to meet you! You are probably the only person below transcended who can resist my charm!... It''s so exciting!" She jumped up from her seat, which caused her large breast to bounce. While everyone next to her was salivating over Cassandra''s body, Sera just stepped forward and held out her hand. Cassandra grasped it and shook it firmly, giving just enough of a squeeze to show her dominance. "It''s a pleasure working with you... The famous Deathless Phoenix right in my small encampment! I await seeing you fight on the battlefield!" With that she moved towards David. He seemed to be holding onto his sanity quite well, but his eyes still held a bit of desire. Cassandra shook his hand as well and after saying a few pleasantries to each other her eyes moved to their teams. She looked at each of the Ouroboros Cohort members with satisfaction, but when her eyes went to Sera''s team of three, a small frown appeared on her face. She lingered a bit on Hector, which caused a bit more suspicion to rise in Sera, but she didn''t say anything about it. "I understand that this siege is probably won''t be too hard, but I was given the intel that Central Command requested your full team... And by your latest report that includes five people... Why am I only seeing three?" Asked Cassandra, her previous facade fully dissolved. Sera looked her up and down again re-evaluating the image she made of her. This wasn''t a person that liked to have fun and fuck around. She seemed to be very much like her maid, power hungry and incompetent. "Well, you only seeing three because I left two of them back in New Athens!" She said with a matter of fact voice, like this answer should''ve been obvious and she didn''t understand why Cassandra haven''t figured it out. The frown deepened on her face, but she didn''t say anything else about the two missing captains. "Okay, your housing should already been set up. All of you can leave, except Sera and David. You should meet the other leaders since we only have a few days before the attack!" Everyone filed out. Cassandra, Sera and David left the mansion, heading straight to a large building that was possibly the camp''s military headquarters. Chapter 181: Cassandra, Succubus Princess The headquarters was close to Cassandra''s mansion. At least that''s what Sera believed it to be. A constant traffic went in and out of the entrance, most of them were officers carrying orders. Looking around Sera realized how great walking next to Cassandra was. Nobody seemed to care about her presence at all, next to Cassandra she became invisible. The people didn''t just bow to her, most of them straight up knelt. Both Sera and David looked at this display with dissatisfaction. In their opinion authority and respect has to be earned, not given! For now Cassandra haven''t made a single attempt to seem like a competent commander, in fact she seemed to be very petulant. Every time a person knelt for her, she glanced at Sera waiting to see her jealous, but she just walked on without acknowledging Cassandra. This act seemed to further annoy her. "You know Sera, you could be a great ruler if you would just act a bit more light-hearted. You look beautiful, why don''t you smile more?... I''m sure you would get more partners if you would have a better disposition!" She spoke with a small smile, next to her David had enough and was about to finally speak up, but with one hand Sera made him stop. She stopped in the street and looked straight into Cassandra''s breathtaking, pink eyes. Her smile widened a bit and turned into a small grin. The people around them seemed to tremble from the tension in the air. "There seems to be a bit of miscommunication between us. I''m not one of your friends or lovers, I''m here to be part of a siege, which will lead us capturing one of the last cities in the south, that is still under the control of the United Front!" Sera stepped a bit closer to her, coming face to face. She was a little bit taller, but for most she looked like a giant compared to Cassandra. Sera''s aura was simply unmatchable by her. "I don''t give a fuck what little game you are playing, or if you think its fun to try and embarrass me, but I will tell you this one time... If you get in my fucking way, you will end up the same as all who came before you!" She was about to walk away leaving Cassandra speechless, but before that she spoke once more without looking back. "Also, I''m not a ruler. I''m a leader!" Behind her Cassandra looked a bit angry, but she hid it well. "What''s the difference?" She asked. Sera just chuckled a bit and said, "A ruler leads because they want to, a leader rules because they have to... Not like you would know the difference. Must be great not fighting for anything!" With that last sentence she walked off. David quickly followed her, not failing to give a disdainful look to Cassandra. She seemed to be really mad, the hatred was nearly dripping from her face. With a huff she walked after them and soon the trio entered the headquarter building. Since Sera had no idea where to go, she motioned for Cassandra to take the lead. She walked off not entertaining Sera, which caused a small laugh to escape through David''s lips. Cassandra seemed to be trying Sera''s own tactic on her. "These three aren''t as well known as the two of you. The large armored woman is called Jill, Death Knight. This stupid bastard next to me is Dwight, Falling Star. And the insane person''s name is Frank, Tinker Master." As she finished Frank''s head snapped to Cassandra and he made an obvious proclamation. "I think mushrooms should be destroyed!" Cassandra literally facepalmed, while Dwight just laughed. "Man why are you hating mushrooms? You seem to be fucking high on them!" Even David had to giggle a bit after that remark, but seeing Sera''s unamused face it instead turned into a cough. "It''s nice to meet all of you and hope we will have a successful and conflict free work experience. I think the first thing we should address is the sever lack of organization in this camp! Just by walking through it I saw many people idling, they act like the siege has been already won. Even worse the defense at the gates is miserable. Why aren''t there an evolved stationed there?" As she spoke Jill nodded next to her same as David. Frank was just looking around frantically, possibly looking for mushrooms. Cassandra''s eyes narrowed, but before she could say anything Dwight spoke. "I don''t know who do you think you are, but this operation isn''t lead by you! In reality you have the exact same authority as the rest of us, except Miss Succubus of course since she is the commander! If she thinks the camp''s order is fine, then its fine!... How much I hate stuck up bitches..." He said the last part in a whisper, but just loud enough for everyone to hear it. Sera looked at him with a bored expression and he just winked again. With a small shake of her head Sera sighed and tried to bring up another topic before they got to the main part of this get together. "I think we should..." Before she could even get the sentence out, Dwight cut in. "Nobody gives a fuck about what you think! Can''t you just sit there silently like Jill, it would make everyone''s life much easier!" Sera frowned a bit. "You really like to hear yourself talk don''t you?" Asked David, at which Dwight just laughed. "Of course I like it, in fact I fucking love it! Isn''t it sweet, its like honey dripping into my ear! Anyway, can''t we get to the main part of this meeting? Or is that whore has something else to say?" Sera was opening her mouth to say something, but Dwight cut right in. "No? Good!" At this point Sera had enough of playing nicely. If she was going to be surrounded with idiots, she would make sure non of their stupid decisions would lead to the death of all these soldiers, and there was only one foolproof way to achieve that... By taking leadership of course! Slowly Sera stood up and walked to the chair where Dwight sat. He looked her up and down, his eyes lingering on her breasts. "If you going to suck my dick, you should kneel, that way it will be much easier to..." He couldn''t say anything else as Sera grabbed onto his face. Behind her back two flaming wings appeared and her right hand which was holding onto Dwight''s face, became engulfed in flames... His screams echoed through the whole camp! Chapter 182: Siege Plans While Sera was melting Dwight''s face, the others looked at her with terror. Even Cassandra was disturbed by her unhinged behavior. Her hands were still on fire as their eyes met, there behind her hollow and neutral expression Cassandra saw something, which caused a deep fear to grow in her heart. She heard the rumors of Sera''s emotionlessness, but she also heard about her caring leader personality. Previously she judged her to be the second, but now she saw the truth. As Dwight screamed in pain under her hand, her eyes stayed emotionless, like she had no remorse or even an ounce of care about others... She was like a machine that''s only purpose was to complete her goal! The whole interaction only lasted a few seconds. When she released Dwight his eyes were melted shut and he was unconscious from the pain. David quickly called in a healer, while Sera just sat back into her own seat. She watched curiously as the terrified looking healer went to Dwight and healed all of the injuries on his face, or at least he wanted to do that. He finished healing Dwight''s eyes and most of his facial features, but when it came to healing the skin''s damage Sera stopped him. "That will be quite enough, thank you!" She said emotionlessly. The healer looked between the unconscious man and Sera, he didn''t know what to do. "Uh... My Lady... If I don''t heal all his wounds now... It might cause permanent damage..." Sera nodded, then pointed at the exit. The healer looked at the others in the room, but he found no support there, they were still trying to process everything that happened. The only person who met his eyes was David, but he motioned towards the door too. Since the healer could do nothing else, he bowed and walked out. When the room only contained the six of them again, Sera looked at each with interest. Both Frank and Jill met her eyes, they didn''t seem to really care about Dwight. Cassandra on the other hand was still looking at him with wide eyes. "Now that the trash is finally silent, lets get back to the topic... We will up the patrols and have the evolved guard the gates, including at least one ascended at each. We also should have the people in reserves train. The regulars don''t really need to, but the evolved acting like this is unacceptable!" Jill and David nodded along, while Frank was writing something into his watch. Cassandra''s eyes turned to Sera, but something was different behind them, she looked dejected and also a bit hopeful for some reason. Sera tilted her head a bit confused and in the next second the look was gone, so she just continued to the next topic. "The siege was supposed to be a week from now. I hope you''ve at least have scouts in the city. What are the exact numbers we are facing?" She asked, not paying attention to Cassandra''s previous expression. Suddenly her watch pinged and a new message arrived from Jill. It was a well made report of numbers, soldier movements and enemy weaponry. It had everything Sera needed to know to make an effective plan of attack. She looked at Jill and nodded in gratitude, which she returned. In that moment her watch pinged again, this time the message came from... Frank. Without looking up Sera opened the file, she had expected it to be a document about mushrooms and how to destroy them, but instead it was something much more surprising... The file contained their army''s exact numbers and every evolved''s powers, including Frank''s, Jill''s, Cassandra''s, Dwight''s and even Sera''s own. The lists were remarkably accurate, which caused a suspicion to appear in her mind. She looked up and her eyes met with Frank''s. The previous insanity was all but gone, it was like a mirage compared to the steady brown eyes that were currently staring at Sera. He made a small wink, then they suddenly changed back to their previous craziness. This expression confused Sera, but she didn''t stop with her shaming. If an attack would''ve came while she wasn''t here, this place might''ve been destroyed! "A commander should put their soldier''s wellbeing first. Their purpose is not to be used as a tool, but to be wielded as a sharp weapon, you serving as the tip!... Logistics and preparations are just as important as planning, and right now this camp lacks everything, including good leadership... Please enlighten me, why did they sent an amateur as the commander?" Sera voice held no malice, but on Cassandra''s face a single tear ran down. She quickly smeared it away and tried to act like nothing happened, but the sadness persisted and she couldn''t meet Sera''s eyes as she answered. *Sigh* "My parents are part of the Central Command... They thought of me as useless since I rather went to parties and had fun, instead of fighting in the war... I''m only a transcended because other people helped me... You were correct earlier, when you said I didn''t have to fight for anything... And believe me I would rather be anywhere than here..." Finally Sera started to understand what was happening here. Technically Sera and the others had no need for Cassandra for this siege, but it seemed like her parents wanted her to get some experience... or die... Cassandra still hasn''t looked up, instead she let her hair cover her face. Sera heard her sniffling and saw her trembling body... She seemed terrified about her future, and who wouldn''t be? She never had to fight for anything and now she suddenly found herself in a commander position. If she fucked it up, thousands of lives would be lost because of her. Sera felt disgusted by the whole situation. Central Command was using the soldiers'' lives, like training dummies. As if their whole purpose would be for the powerful to play chess with! They stayed silent for a few minutes and as Sera listened to Cassandra''s crying she made a decision. "Okay Cassandra, from now on you will follow my lead in this room and act as a leader outside for the troops! Me and David will teach you a few things about leadership, but you will stop acting so childish. If you care about the lives of all these soldiers, you will let the more experienced people make plans... Deal?" She finally looked up. Her face was full of tear marks and desperation. Looking at her like this made Sera realize how young she actually was. At first she thought Cassandra was in her thirties, but now she seemed even younger than Sera herself. The previous petty, stuck-up lady behavior had fully dissolved, leaving only an earnest girl who wanted to do her best. "Would you really help me?" She asked while sniffing. Sera just nodded. Suddenly she got up and moved so fast Sera couldn''t even react. In one second she was sitting in her seat and in the next she was hugging Sera. She felt her ribs and spine groan under the pressure. "Thank You!... Thank you so much!... You are truly a person of honor, like the others say!" Sera''s head started to turn a bit blue and with a voice that was barely audible she said, "I can''t breath..." Hearing that Cassandra quickly released her and apologized. They both laughed a bit, then Sera proceeded to give her a few advices. Eventually they left the room, like they were friends who had known each other for years. Chapter 183: The Spy Sera spent a good while talking and teaching basic leader mannerisms to Cassandra. As it turned out she was a great person to talk to, at least when you don''t trigger her competitive personality, which wasn''t easy. Whenever Sera brought up a topic, Cassandra always had to find a way to one up her. It should''ve been annoying to most people, but Sera just laughed it off, not trying to fight her. Eventually she left her mansion with a promise that David will come over tomorrow to teach her more. With a grateful expression Cassandra made her maid lead her out. The small hateful woman was much friendlier this time around, which confused Sera a bit, but she didn''t care enough to ask about it. She walked around the camp for a while longer. The organization was truly abysmal, it took her nearly fifteen minutes to find her assigned housing. She moved forward and reached for the door. It was already open and inside the lights were on. The whole house was one large room. It had a shower in the corner, a small kitchen area, a large chest and a double-sized bed. There was also a small dining table, where currently Frank was seated. He was eating some kind of soup and Sera spotted mushrooms in it. She wasn''t too surprised by his appearance, but she was still dubious by who he was, or what he wanted. Slowly she walked towards the table and sat in the other seat. He looked up from his soup with a mischievous smile, then pushed the soup away. His appearance hadn''t changed since the meeting, but everything else seemed to be different. The insanity had fully disappeared from his eyes, while he sat with a straight back and comfortable expression. He seemed to be much more serious and even a bit reverent. "So, Frank... if that''s your name... Who are you exactly?" He chuckled a bit nervously. "I''m indeed Frank and I''m a friend of your friend!" As he spoke he made show of turning his watch off. Sera followed suit and waited him to further explain. "First things first, it is an honor to finally meet you, My Lady. Lilith spoke a lot about your beauty and bearing, but words couldn''t even come close to describe the reality!" He said a few more compliments, but at that point Sera''s mind was already somewhere else. "Is Lilith here?" She asked, but Frank just shook his head. "She is currently residing in New Constantinople. The United Front actively tries to dismantle the Angelic Order in the city, but a lot of civilians had already joined our cause! Sadly we have to take the city, before it can be done on a city-wide scale!" Sera nodded along, then absentmindedly began eating the leftover soup. It tasted good enough and it did have mushrooms in it. After eating all of it she looked at a Frank, who was awkwardly smiling. "How much do you know?" He seemed to breath a sigh of relief as he answered the question. "Lilith told me about going against the Federal Alliance and the United Front. I also know that we will make our move by the New Year. I know of the Angelic Order''s real purpose and I know about what we will face along the way!" Sera looked at him with her usual emotionless expression, which made Frank a bit uncomfortable. Suddenly out of nowhere she laughed a bit, then said, "Well, that''s great. I haven''t got the slightest clue what we will face along the way, so at least someone knows!" "Dwight is a bit of a mystery. During my time here nobody could tell me what his powers are, and he never showcased any feat. He has four ascended under his command all of them just as bad or even worse than him. They probably know what his powers are, but they would never tell it to anyone." Sera payed attention to his every word. "I suggest to be careful with him. From the previous interaction he might seemed to be stupid and wrathful, but he is much more cunning than that. You surprised him back there, but that probably won''t happen again. The worst part is that we have no idea what his goal is!" Sera nodded, not hiding her interest in this topic. "Does he have any known affiliation with someone important, or did he had any shady meetings while living here?" Asked Sera, but Frank just shook his head. "No, nothing... The strangest thing is that he doesn''t seems to do anything. He never goes out to have fun with his team. He just walks around seemingly without purpose or destination in mind." That did seem odd. Sera had no idea who this Dwight was, or what he wanted, but she decided to follow Frank''s advice and be careful with him. "Now that we are done with the boring stuff, let me ask the most important question. What the fuck was that act back in the meeting?" She asked it with a smile. Frank''s head turned red like a tomato and he couldn''t meet her eyes. "That... That''s a side effect of my power... Every now and then my personality drastically changes... And he hates mushrooms for some reason..." Sera laughed loudly and strangely enough she actually felt an ounce of joy in her usually empty heart. It seemed like this scenario was just so stupid that even her hollowness couldn''t resist it. After laughing for nearly five minutes, they talked a bit more, then she sent Frank away. So much happened today and there was still so long to the end of this campaign. Sera looked outside at the dark sky. Up there a small falling star seemed to move across the sky for a moment. Seeing that caused a small chuckle to escape her lips. While still looking up at the night sky, she whispered to herself, "Goodnight..." She then proceeded to take a quick shower. The faucet could only be turned off and on, which meant it had no hot water, not like she would''ve used anything else other than freezing cold. She had no idea why, but after dying and coming back to life so much, the cold became a comfort for her. When she was done, she climbed under her covers and quickly fell asleep. Chapter 184: Jill, Death Knight The Sun was high in the sky by the time Sera had finally woken up. She looked around the unfamiliar room for a few moments before remembering where she was. She let her tired body fall back onto the bed, then spent the next ten minutes staring at the ceiling while organizing her thoughts. Eventually she got out of bed and looked into her bag in search of something to wear. The clothes from yesterday still lay on the floor, they smelled really horrendous. It was a combination of monster blood, sweat and dirt. Sadly all of her clothes seemed to be dirty, or covered in gore, which left her with little choice to wear. Around her specks of light appeared as her armor weaved itself into existence. With a few quick moves she gathered all of her dirty clothes and placed them inside the bag. The first objective for today was getting something to eat and finding the laundry service. Sera stepped out into the mild morning warmth and looked around. Many people were walking down the makeshift street, but all stopped in their tracks when they saw Sera in her armor. The Sun glinted off of the golden plates, making it especially stunning. Without giving them any attention Sera began walking in a random direction in search of the mess hall, or some place where she could get some food. While moving through the camp she quickly remembered how horrid the organization was. There was just simply no indication where anything could be found. After walking around for nearly half an hour Sera gave up and she wrote a quick message to Kathy, asking where she can get some food. Kathy just sent her location. Sera spent another ten minutes walking to the other side of the camp. Here she found a giant warehouse-like building, with a constant traffic. Without care Sera walked towards the entrance, the people basically jumped out of her way. The inside was well illuminated and huge. There were seats for thousands of people, maybe even ten thousand. A whole wall was designated for the army cooks and servers, a large line of people waited for their turn to eat. Sera''s eyes narrowed a bit and she quickly realized the problem. There was no schedule to what order people could get their food, this caused a large backlog of soldiers waiting for their turn to eat. This needed to be fixed and soon, but for now Sera''s stomach was growling at her from hunger. She decided to eat first and solve things later. One thing they at least got right was the separate area for the evolved and ascended. Sera walked straight to there and she soon spotted Kathy speaking with one of the Ouroboros''s members, his name was maybe Conrad, but she didn''t quite remember... At another table sat David with Jill and Frank. She spotted Percy as well, he was eating with the rest of the cohort and he seemed really interested in one woman in particular, but she purposefully ignored him. Still in her armor Sera went to the private food station and grabbed a large tray, she then proceeded to build a mountain of everything that could be eaten. After that she headed for the table with David and sat in the empty seat. David had previously spotted her and greeted her instantly. Jill just looked at her armor once, then gave Sera a bright smile... it looked really awkward on her usually neutral face, but Sera just smiled back. Slowly she descended into her chair. To her right Frank''s eyes snapped towards her. He smelt the air a few times mumbling ''mushrooms'' under his breath, then out of nowhere he jumped up and looked at Sera''s tray like it was the most vilest thing he had ever seen. With an angry expression he pointed at the tray. "Why are there mushrooms?! I should destroy them, kill all of them! Exterminate the devil''s fruit!" He put one hand into his pocket, but before Sera could''ve seen what was in it, a girl ran to Frank. When I was evolving into an ascended, while unconscious I got attacked by some monster. It used its claws on my throat and I nearly died. Luckily my family found me in time and saved my life, but the scar never truly healed. Sera nodded with understanding. While Jill was putting the neck protector back on, she spotted six necklace chains hidden below her shirt. They were probably some memento from each of her husbands and wives, or maybe the actual rings. For a moment a bit of envy appeared in Sera''s eyes without her knowledge. Jill haven''t missed this small show of real emotion and she began typing again on her watch. Jill: Do you have any kind of family? Sera quickly read the message, then with a roughish grin said, "Why? Are you asking me to join?" She laughed soundlessly, which caused a small grimace of pain to appear, but in the next second she was already typing. Jill: Not going to lie, we did talk about getting you into our marriage. Helena really wanted you to join, but I shut them all off. I know my family is a bit unusual, but we do love each other... You haven''t answered my question though. You don''t have to, but I saw it in your eyes, that deep loneliness and sadness. The idea of talking about her life to basically a stranger, sounded strangely comforting to Sera, and she stayed silent thinking for a long while. She really wanted to talk about it, but she was also too fearful to say it aloud. Noticing her hesitation Jill wrote another message. Jill: If you don''t want to say it out loud, you can write it in a message like I do! That would''ve solved her problems, but there was one huge problem... "Can''t. My watch is most likely pinged by Central Command. Whatever I write they would see it too." Jill nodded with understanding, then just wrote a short message before standing up and walking away. Jill: Ask Frank for help! With a curious expression Sera turned towards Jill, but she was already nearly out of the building. She watched her going outside for a bit, then was about to go back to her cold food, when she noticed something interesting. A few tables over Hector, Dwight and presumably his four team members were dining. Sera watched them for a good minute before deciding to use this opportunity. She stood up and walked towards their table with a cunning smile. Chapter 185: Banished In the past few days Sera had really thought about what to do with Hector. It seemed like he won''t going to give her a chance to kill him. He stopped causing issues and actually started to act more well-behaved. She also noticed him spending a lot more time alone. He always seemed to be talking with someone on his watch. Instantly Sera got suspicious, but with no real evidence of him doing anything wrong, she couldn''t use it as an excuse for execution. Seeing him sitting there with Dwight and his team, gave her an idea. Walking to their table, they only noticed her when she plopped down in an empty chair and put her armored boots on the table. The dining table sagged a bit under their weight. All six of them looked at her with dissatisfaction and most of them with outright hostility, but she had to give it to Hector. His expression stayed neutral and undisturbed, like her presence was equal to a small fly buzzing around his head. She didn''t really care and just leaned back in her chair, while placing her hands behind her head. From the outside she looked to be extremely comfortable, but a keen eye would instantly notice the difference between her left and right gauntlet. One of them was the exact same as her armor, but the other was much more elaborate, with small ornamentations and carvings all over its surface. While walking towards the table she summoned her weapon in a gauntlet form and it melted into her armor near seamlessly. "The fuck do you want?" Asked Dwight, in his usual whiny, annoying voice. "I just wanted to get to know everyone! We are going into battle together in a week, I would feel much better knowing the people who will cover my back." Her voice sounded serious, but non of them believed a word she said. Sera looked each in the eye while smiling. Dwight''s team looked exactly like how she imagined them, roguish and hostile, with scars all over there body. One was a woman, the other three man. They had the same sense of style for clothing, dirty and bloody, with a lot of tears and holes everywhere. They looked the most hostile, even Dwight wasn''t as bad as they were... At least until he stayed silent, which was unfortunately rare. "The fuck you want to know?" He asked with a bit more annoyance and wrath than the last sentence. But Sera needed him angrier. "You know your speech pattern is very predictable. You should really expand upon your vocabulary. It would greatly enhance your sophistication!" As Sera spoke his face soured further. "Keep talking that way and I will shove my sophistication right up your ass!" His voice became much deeper as he spoke, but Sera only smiled and said, "Invite me for a dinner first! At least I could be disappointed with a full stomach!" Hearing that the only other female at the table suppressed a laughter, and the other members of his team seemed to be struggling to keep their angry expression. Suddenly Dwight jumped to his feet and held out his hand to the side, about to summon his weapon. Sera''s face stayed impassive as she stared into his eyes. This standoff lasted for a second before, out of nowhere her head snapped towards Hector and she spoke in her most haughty and authoritative tone. "Hector, Dwight has attempted to hurt me. Kill him!" His previously neutral expression changed to pure bewilderment, this was also reflected on every single person sitting at the table. Even Dwight looked at Sera, like she had lost her mind. "S-Sera... My Lady... He didn''t... What do you mean?... He just stood up abruptly, because of your teasing... That''s nowhere near an attempt on your life!" His voice sounded a bit panicked, but Sera had none of that. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she said, "Do you dare disobey me?" Sera smiled down affably. She went down on one knee, to the girl''s eyelevel and she spoke with her kindest voice. "Hello there. I don''t think we have met before. My name is Seraphine, nice to meet you!" The girl was stunned for another moment, then she suddenly went into attention like a soldier. Sadly this caused the garage door to slam back down since she was the only thing that held it off of the ground. Behind the door Sera heard a muffled curse, then the door quickly rose again, this time to a height that would let Sera enter the building. While walking inside she looked around. The building was actually just one giant room. It was packed full with machinery, worktables, electrical instruments and a bunch of boxes that were full of supplies. In the far side of the building was five beds, a small kitchen area, a dining table and a sealed off shower. Sera stared at everything with great interest, but her eyes eventually returned to the green haired girl. The garage door slammed down again, and the girl went into attention again. "Good day, Ma''am! Ascended Maya, reporting for duty!" Her posture was straighter than most evolved Sera had seen, her tone sounded sincere too. "At ease, Maya... Hmm, ascended? Really?... That''s quite impressive!" The girl grinned for a moment from the compliment, but her face quickly returned to its seriousness, with only a small blush showing her embarrassment. Sera walked to her with a smile, then ruffled her hair. Maya giggled and tried to stay serious at the same time, which caused a hilarious emotional battle on her face. Suddenly behind Sera a small explosion sounded, which caused her to instantly jump into action. In her hand the gauntlet turned into a glaive. She turned around ready for anything. Without even knowledge Sera stepped closer to Maya, keeping her safe from anything that could threaten her. This wasn''t even a conscious action, just a reflex. "Goddammit! That was close..." Said Frank from one of the workbenches. In front of him a bubble was glowing. It was like an explosion that was stopped in time, but also different. It swirled inside the bubble trying to escape. Behind Sera her wings appeared, she would shield herself and Maya if anything happened, but her fears were thankfully in vain. She watched with quite a bit of surprise as Frank''s hand moved in the air and the bubble began to shrink. It started as a half meter diameter ball, but he shrank it down to the size of an eyeball, then he went further, until it became the size of a small fingernail. At that point a few plastic and metallic bits rose all around it, and enclosed the explosion. Frank''s hands stopped moving and he sighed in relief. The result was a small ball of explosive that sat on his workbench. He grabbed and looked over it thoroughly, then without giving it much thought he tossed it into a large pile of similar balls. Sera flinched as the explosive ball hit the others, but nothing happened. Still a bit uncomfortable, Sera dismissed her weapon and wings. Her whole body was taut as she slowly walked towards Frank, while constantly keeping the explosives in her line of sight. Somehow Frank still haven''t noticed her, and only when she tapped him on the shoulder did he actually react. He jumped up from surprise and screamed, so high pitched that the sound could''ve been made by a little girl. "Oh... Sera... Don''t scare me like that..." He said while out of breath, but she ignored him and pointed at the explosive pile. "What The Fuck Was That?!" Shouted Sera. Chapter 186: Insanity and Explosives "What The Fuck Was That?!" Shouted Sera. Frank seemed oblivious of her problem. He just had a dumb expression, not understanding why she was shouting. With a large exasperated sigh Sera turned away and grabbed one of the strange metallic balls. She held it with two fingers, fearing it would spontaneously explode. The ball was small, its diameter about 5 centimeter. While she was carefully examining the explosive device, Frank just stared at her like she was an idiot. He walked to the pile of balls and grabbed one as well. He was much less careful with it. While Sera was terrified it would explode for no reason, Frank just tossed it up into the air and caught it like it was a regular ball. Each movement caused Sera''s heart to skip a beat. After a few more throws she finally had enough. "Could you stop throwing that device into the air?" Frank zoned out while tossing the ball up and down, but when Sera spoke he perked up. He caught the ball in his hand, then with a wicked grin dropped it onto the ground. Before it even landed Sera''s wings were fully out and her head was covered in the armor as well. She jumped back covering Maya from the explosion that never came. Behind her a small sound of metal hitting concrete could be heard. After a few moments of nothing happening she turned back towards the explosive device, but it just sat on the floor. What was even worse, that both Maya and Frank were dying of laughter. She dismissed her wings and helmet, when Frank saw her eyes, which were really angry, his laughter turned into coughing. In the next second he pretended nothing had happened and he put the explosive back onto the pile. "So... Sera. Are you curious about my explosives?" He said as a change of subject. She just walked to the pile and carefully placed back the ball she had taken a minute ago. "Yes." Was the only thing she said. Turning around she saw Frank nodding along, then he moved towards his workbench. Sera followed stopping next to him. "I make bombs. My ability makes it really easy to do so!" While speaking his hand reached to the side and grabbed a handful of some pus. He then violently slapped it with his other hand, which caused the unstable explosive to ignite. The explosion that should''ve killed both of them on the spot was stopped in a similar bubble like last time, but much smaller. The fiery energy was contained between Frank''s hands. "As you can see I can freeze explosions and can even decide to make their yield larger or smaller. Plus I can concentrate it, so even a small ball like that can hold onto a much more destructive bomb!" She proceeded to press on specific squares and place flags on others. For Sera there seemed to be no pattern, but the number next to the bombs slowly decreased, until only one remained. There were two gray squares and she seemed to conflicted about which one to press. When she pressed one of them a small animated explosion showed, and it wrote ''Game Over'' in the middle of the screen. "What was that game?" Asked Sera, causing Maya to nearly jump out of her skin. She was so absorbed in the game, that she haven''t noticed Sera lurking behind her. "It''s just something I coded! It''s based off of a retro game I have read about, I think it was called Minesweeper or something... Anyway, did you want something?" For a moment Sera stayed silent. What she had just said was a great achievement in and of itself, Sera had never heard of anybody who can code these watches with ease. They were made of some special material that arrived with the Apocalypse, and the A.I. somehow comes pre-downloaded on it, with all the functions. She didn''t even know that customization to that level was a possibility. But this gave her another idea, and it reminded her of the actual purpose of this visit. "Yes actually... You seem quite familiar with the watches and how they operate. Could you maybe see if anyone has placed some tracking and/or spying software on mine?" Maya didn''t even question her request and just said, "Sure!" She seemed very enthusiastic, which was really cute! Sera quickly gave her the watch, which she immediately started to type on. Following, whatever she was doing, was impossible for Sera. Watching the windows pop up and go away faster than she could''ve read them, caused a deep headache. While waiting on Maya, she began to explore the warehouse-like home. At the workbench small explosions could be heard as Frank made more and more little bombs. The room was much cleaner than it should''ve been. Seeing all the workbenches and tools, one would think that the whole floor and wall would be covered in oil or machine grease, but it was actually really well kept. But that was only the room. When Sera looked at the state of the workbenches, she second guessed her previous praise. The tools were all over the place, some hanging precariously on the edges of tables. There were nails and bolts everywhere. This whole home was truly just a large workshop! "Hey, uh... Ma''am!" Shouted Maya. Sera was in the process of examining one particular machinery, that looked like some large stationary drill. Without looking towards her she shouted back, "You can call me Sera! No need for formalities between friends!" She took a small glance at the girl. Her reaction was just simply adorable. Her whole face was red and she looked very flattered. Slowly Sera walked towards her, and she quickly pulled up the watch''s interface. Chapter 187: The Wonders of Coding When Sera stood next to Maya again, she pressed a few buttons on the watch''s interface, which brought up something like the inner code of the software. "Okay, so... I went through your whole watch and you were definitely right! I have found at least twelve different spy programs!" She spoke while continuing to type away. Sera didn''t even dare to look at the interface, lest she gets another headache. "Could you find out who put them on, and can you remove them?" Maya typed for a few more seconds, before pointing at specific lines of code while talking. "I can''t find out who put it on, but I know exactly when it was placed and where was the watch while the software was uploaded onto it... Hmm, odd." She suddenly said while reading the code. "What''s wrong?" Asked Sera, but the answer only came a few minutes later. "About one thirds of these programs where placed on the watch at the same time and place... What I found strange is that the location is unknown, like the the signal was blocked from going out." She continued to press buttons and scroll in the code even more ferociously. "That is indeed strange, but I think I know why it''s like that... Can you check what the person looked at with the programs?" Maya looked at Sera curiously. She really wanted to know more about who placed the software on the watch, but she knew better than to ask questions she shouldn''t know the answers to. Instead she smirked and snorted with contempt. "Can I do that?... Who do you think me, some shitty computer engineer?!" She said a few other gloating remarks before pressing a button one final time. A gigantic list appeared, which contained every action the owner of the software made. There were thousand of entries. Maya was about to make a few more statements about her own talents, but seeing the large list made her stop. "Uhh... Sera... I don''t want to alarm you, but you probably have a stalker of sorts..." She scrolled down the list fast, Sera didn''t even try to read any of the entries. She knew the exact person who was this interested in her. "What is the oldest entry?" Sera asked curiously. The scrolling speed increased further as Maya tried to get to the bottom of the list. There were multiple reasons Sera wanted to know when the list started. First and foremost it would give the exact time when the software was installed, or at least an approximation. The second and much more important reason was, that she noticed something on her watch a while ago. The watch kept an exact record of everything happening to its owner. This information was carried between watches and was kept in some kind of cloud, but when Sera tried to check on her records... they were erased! Her first record is dated at 25 ATA October 23rd and it said, ''Regained consciousness after blunt force trauma!'' That was the exact date when she woke up without her memories. Sera watched with great interest as the line sped away. Eventually they were nearing the bottom of the list, so Maya slowed down. There was finally a chance for her to learn the answers to most of her questions, but she couldn''t do anything about it... Not yet anyway! What Maya had done to the watch wasn''t easy. The spy software would alarm its owner, so removing them had to be done carefully. In reality they were still on her watch, but Maya wrote an entire program that will send both false and true information. This feature could be enabled and disabled. It would give Sera the ability to control how much her enemy knows about her movements. This will give her a great advantage, but what she was going to do will be much grander! Soon the answer arrived from Jill. Jill: We have already started. Come to the northern gate! Sera had no idea who ''we'' referred to, but she also didn''t really care. Without wasting time she went towards the gate. After walking for ten minutes she had finally arrived. The place was in a much better state than she thought it would be. People were running around, most of them were evolved, which was also great news. Looking around Sera couldn''t see where Jill was and eventually she had enough. A soldier was about to run past her, purposefully ignoring her presence. Poor guy wasn''t at all prepared for what happened next. Sera grabbed onto his elbow firmly, which caused him to stop dead in his tracks. His eyes only took one glance at her before they turned to the ground. He mumbled something that she couldn''t make out. "Have you seen ascended Jill?" Asked Sera. The man''s whole body trembled as he tried to make a coherent sentence. Eventually he just pointed in a certain direction. Sera turned there and she spotted a few black armored individuals moving through the crowd. She turned back to the man which increased his trembling quite a bit. "Thank you!" She said before leaving him without another word. The soldier continued to stare at the ground for a few more seconds, then his eyes went to the elbow Sera had touched. His whole body was swimming in sweat and after he took a deep breath, he proceeded to pass out in the middle of the street from stress. The people shouted and scrambled to help before someone would accidentally trampled him. By the time people took him away, Sera was long gone. She walked towards the black armored people, they were each doing something different. Some of them were talking with soldiers and evolved, some were furiously typing on their watches and some were seemingly talking to themselves. When Sera stepped near them all the conversations and typing stopped. She, in her glistening golden armor, brought every single person''s attention to herself. She looked over the people in black armor, but she didn''t see Jill anywhere. The six of them looked at each other for a moment, then they all snapped to attention before Sera. "The Black Crusaders are reporting for duty Ma''am!" Said one of the six people. Chapter 188: A Weird Family Sera stood there examining the group of six people. There were three men and three women, but they all looked different. The one who spoke, was the tallest by far. His voice was deep and without humor. He had shoulder length black hair and dark eyes. His height was of course his most defining feature, but Sera did notice that under his armor was a muscular body. He was also quite handsome, and Sera could see why Jill chose him as one of her husbands. "What have you done so far, and where is Jill?" Asked Sera, waving their attention away. The six of them changed posture into a more comfortable stance, but still way too serious for the occasion. Looking at each for a second time Sera spotted a person of interest. At the back, avoiding eye contact stood a woman with blood-red hair and the same colored eyes. She looked much more shy than the rest, but that wasn''t why Sera had found her interesting. On the upper left part of her black breastplate a small seven-point star was painted in golden color. This was the mark of evolution and also the secret symbol of the Angelic Order. They created this mark a while back to identify agents of the Angelic Order''s secret service. If the woman wore this mark, it meant she wasn''t just a regular ascended of this strange family, but one of Sera''s secret elite soldiers. Slowly her eyes moved staring into Sera''s own. She made a tiny, near imperceptible nod towards her, then the act snapped back and she continued to be shy. "Jill is away on an errand. She asked us to help you with the clean-up!" Said another woman. She was much more enthusiastic than the others. Her hair was long and blue, which were similar in color to her eyes. "And what exactly have you done? Also could all of you introduce yourselves, its weird talking to you without knowing anyone''s name!" "Sure!" Said one of the man. He had close cropped silver hair and light blue eyes. His build was average and he wore glasses, which he adjusted every few minutes. "My name is George. The giant here is Dean. The silent muscle-head back there is Louis. The shy beauty hiding there is Helena. The blue haired woman, who can''t seem to stay silent is Faye. And the short blondie, who''s yellow eyes seems to always scan for traps, is Diane!" As he finished the whole area turned silent. The quiet didn''t last, after about the third second passed, each member of the family started shouting different things at George. He just laughed loudly, at least until the blue haired girl called Faye stole his glasses and threw it to the giant named Dean. He held up the glasses, way above George''s reach and taunted him with it. The others laughed as he tried jumping and catching it, but it was clear that his powers didn''t give any outstanding physical boost. Even Sera thought it a bit hilarious, but she didn''t show any emotion on her face. Suddenly George decided to stop trying to jump that high, and instead began climbing Dean. Sera watched in amazement, disgust, confusion and shock as he climbed so high that they were eyelevel, then out of nowhere they kissed. Their kiss lasted only a few moments, but the befuddlement for Sera had only just began. They were walking to some other part of the camp, when a message arrived on Jill''s watch. Currently only the three of them were there. The others were away again, and Sera didn''t even want to think about what they were doing. When she read through the message her face turned a bit strange, and she began writing to both Sera and Helena. Jill: Cassandra asked for my help with something. You two can go on, I will catch you later... At least you can finally talk about whatever you want to keep hidden from me! As she watched Sera''s and Helena''s expression turn surprised she began walking away, but only after she gave a long kiss to her wife. While that happened Sera sent a quick ''Thank you'' to David. He was the one who asked for Jill''s presence, using Cassandra as a proxy. This way Sera would have a bit of alone time with Helena, and she could ask for some information. Minutes after she went away the two of them stood in the middle of the mostly empty street awkwardly. Eventually they continued to walk. Sera glanced to her left where Helena walked, her expression confused and conflicted. For a moment Sera thought of what to say, but in that moment Helena finally spoke for the first time since they met. "It''s nice to finally meet you My Lady... My brothers and sisters from the Order talked a lot about you, but non could describe your presence and beauty..." Her voice sounded meek and very shy, it was quite cute. Sera definitely understood what Jill saw in her. "Thank you, but I won''t join your strange family no matter how many compliments you give!" Said Sera as a joke. Helena''s face turned to the same red color as her hair from embarrassment. "Jill should learn to stay silent about details..." She answered, causing Sera to laugh. "And my family is not that strange! It is definitely healthier than most people''s! WE at least love each other more than anything!" Said Helena with pride and only a small amount of red in her cheeks. "So what would happen if you had to choose between which family member to save?" Asked Sera curiously. She was quite interested about how these people worked. Helena looked her straight in the eye and just smiled without revealing anything. There was something she wasn''t telling her, but Sera knew not to dig since that would only alienate her. After that the silence persisted for another few minutes. Eventually Sera finally asked the question she needed the answer to. "As you probably noticed I had been trying to talk to you for the whole day..." While speaking Helena looked at her solemnly. Only at this moment did Sera spot the serious undertone of her shy persona. "The reason is pretty simple. We will soon assault New Constantinople, but before the battle starts I need eyes in the city. I want to speak with the Angelic Order members hidden inside, but my watch had a peculiarity for a long while now, and it only got fixed recently." "What do you need me to do, My Lady?" She asked in a firm tone, causing Sera to smirk a bit. "Could you transfer me Lilith''s contacts since she is currently in the city! I need to talk with her, preferably before the attack!" Chapter 189: The Angelic Order Helena just stared at her with wide eyes. The Angelic Order was a close knit group. They called each other brothers and sisters, but they also rarely met with one another. This was especially true for their leaders, Adam and Lilith... The two of them were the founders of the Angelic Order. Back then they were only regular humans, but after getting free from Harold''s control, Sera realized a way to use this strange religion. One day when the church was mostly empty Sera walked in and secretly talked with Adam and Lilith. They were married by that point, but their devotion was larger than their love. When Sera asked them to organize a large force of ascended in secret, they done so without questions asked. She only ever talked with them on that day. Bran still had some very secretive way to contact them, but they were mostly left independent. Even now she only knew that Lilith was in New Constantinople because of Frank. Contacting her won''t be straightforward at all, mostly because she didn''t actually own a watch. Sera heard that at one point Lilith got afraid of being tracked, and she ditched it. The only way she was able to communicate was through one of her sisters or brothers, and Sera hoped that Helena got at least one of their contact information. Currently Helena was trying to process this news. She probably haven''t met with any members of the Angelic Order since her recruitment, which could only be done by one of the higher ups, maybe even Lilith or Adam themselves. "Is... Is she truly there?..." Her voice sounded more emotional than usual, and on her face a tiny tear made its way down her cheek. After another moment, she remembered who she was talking to and her whole demeanor changed. "I... I will try to send you one of their contacts!" Sera nodded and continued to walk like nothing happened. A step behind her Helena followed, her eye scanning the ground while she was absorbed in her thoughts. "You know, you will be able to meet them again. After we take the city of course." Said Sera after staying silent for a while. Helena didn''t look at her as she shook her head. "Not possible... Jill is already knows that I''m hiding something from her. If I went away she would notice..." She spoke in a tiny voice, trying to disagree with Sera as politely as she could. Sera slowed down her steps a bit, so she walked beside Helena. "Do you love her?" She asked while looking ahead. There was no hesitation between question and answer. "With my whole being!" Next to her Sera sighed, finally understanding the situation, but still she couldn''t just say it out loud... She had to lead the conversation there. "If you love her, why don''t you try and recruit her into the Angelic Order? I didn''t know her for long, but she seems to be a rational and honorable person. I''m sure she would make the right decision, especially if You offered it." "Dying takes a lot of energy." Was the only thing she said, while continuing to eat. Cassandra looked surprised for a moment, then out of nowhere her eyes became tender and warm. Without saying a word she reached out and touched Sera''s left hand, which was currently empty. She slowly looked up and into Cassandra''s pink eyes. "What is it?" She asked with a mouth full of potato. David couldn''t keep a straight face and he had to look away to stop himself from laughing. Cassandra on the other hand didn''t even really react. "I''m sorry you have to go through that, but luckily for you this siege won''t require your unique and horrible ability!" She tried to sound cheerful and supporting, but Sera did spot a tinge of sadness and fear as well. When the siege would arrive she would need to fight one-on-one with a transcended. This meant she might not survive the attack if she didn''t perform well, which in turn would lead to a large part of her army dying. The pressure on her shoulders wasn''t easy to bear... Sera knew that all too well... "How was your speech, I missed it." Said Sera between bites, trying to change the topic, and the atmosphere. Cassandra''s expression suddenly brightened and it held quite a lot of pride. "It was amazing! Everybody cheered and clapped! Their moral should be through the roof!" She said, but Sera''s eyes were on David. "It was okay. Her speech pattern was pretty good, but she was moving around way too much, articulating every word with a sudden body movement. I''m pretty sure half those cheers happened because of her breasts nearly popping out from below her way too tight outfit!" Sera laughed at that, while Cassandra pouted and grumbled under her breath. For some reason she still wore the same revealing clothing, even though David spent at least two hours trying to convince her about modesty. Eventually Sera convinced him to try not to change her whole outfit, but only a small portion of it. He seemed to actually listen to her advice, because Cassandra at least started to were a bra, which she previously called ''Breast Prison''. The three of them talked for a while longer, then after Sera had finished with her meal, each of them went their own way. When she got home. She took a quick shower and climbed under the covers of her bed. Her clothes were still getting cleaned, which meant she would have to wear her armor tomorrow as well. In her bed she read a few more entries about her past, but when she was about to go to sleep a message came from Maya, the green haired teen with the coding obsession. She finally finished Sera''s request. She didn''t waste any time and forwarded the file Maya had sent her. She sent the program to Bran, who after reading her message would send it to everyone part of their ploy. This night the whole communication system of the Angelic Order got revolutionized. They will be finally able to talk directly without the use of proxies. After sending a few messages back and forth with Bran, she said goodnight and went to sleep with a smile on her face. Chapter 190: Change of Plans Just like that six days have passed. They spent all this time training and planning. The attack would happen earlier tomorrow... If everything went as they thought. By their latest intelligence the defense of New Constantinople was miserable. They are vastly unprepared. Sera didn''t trust this information though. The scouts were sent by Dwight and they communicated only with him. He and Sera haven''t talked once since that morning, but she knew that Hector was part of his group now. It wasn''t dark yet, when they finished the last of the preparations. Everything was seemingly ready for tomorrow, but while walking home Sera had a weird feeling. There was something that she was missing, like some obvious sign or threat she was ignoring. It felt like she was under a guillotine waiting for it to drop on her neck, but she had no idea where this strangling feeling originated from. The plan they made, the preparations they had, the army they brought... It was too perfect. At this point she knew that sieges were never easy, there was always night raids on the attacker''s camp, or they would try some guerilla tactic. There was nothing. They spent the whole week with not even a hint of attacks. It was like they made themselves easy targets, like they wanted to be attacked... Her thoughts have been moving around this subject for hours, but she felt like something was missing, which made it impossible to get to the truth of the matter. As she stepped inside her room a message came. It was from Helena... Helena: I sent you Lilith''s contact. Sorry it took so long! Sera knew why it wasn''t easy to get her contacts. Helena only had one or two contacts who were in the Angelic Order, which meant that she had to forward Sera''s request to them, then they had to forward it as well, until eventually it reached Lilith. Then this whole process had to be repeated with her own contacts, so it only made it back to Sera now. "Finally!" She mumbled to herself, and wasted no time. Immediately after checking on its validity, she sent a message to her. Sera: Hey Lilith! I need information about New Constantinople''s defenses. Is it true that they are severely underprepared? After a few minutes the answer came, but it wasn''t good news... Lilith: Lady Seraphine! It is so nice to speak with you again, and wish it would be in better circumstances. I don''t know what your scouts had reported, but this city is anything but underprepared! Sera made a confused expression while reading the message. Sera: What do you mean? Our scouts reported only one transcended and fewer ascended than we currently possess, same goes for the evolved. Were the scouts off? Lilith: I think you should get better scouts, or kill them because they are spies... There are 3 transcended and about 500 evolved, lead by a 100 ascended. They didn''t even really try to hide their numbers. My suggestion is you retreat, the numbers are overwhelming especially for a siege. Seeing their eyes, that desperation, that confusion, that need for guidance... In her mind a buzzing noise appeared. This noise happened every time when people looked at her like this. The noise wasn''t loud at all, but it was there always, never fully silenced. And the worst was that it got louder each time. She felt it increase yet again. It was the overwhelming responsibility on her shoulders that was slowly crushing her. Once Sera read about an execution method, where people stacked large boulders on a person, until they got slowly crushed to death. The feeling felt similar to that, but not physical, only mental. ''It''s fine... I can take it... I will take a break some other time... Later...'' On her face a reassuring smile appeared, because that''s what the others needed to see. It pained her a bit and caused the buzzing to increase in volume, but she didn''t let on. The other''s instantly looked more comfortable seeing her confidence, and even David didn''t see through her facade. "I know this looks really bad, but not all is lost. We just have to change the plan a bit... Well, a lot actually!" After that they spent the next two hours planning. It was fully dark by the time they managed to come up with something that could work. Frank went away to prepare a few larger explosives that will be necessary for the attack. Jill went away to spend some time with her family before the attack. Everyone knew how she would spend that time, but they made no comment on it. Tomorrow might be the last day of their life, so they should spend today however they felt comfortable. David went away to prepare the soldiers and tell their officers the changes they made. Sera and Cassandra stayed in the conference room alone. Sera was still talking with Lilith relaying the commands and objectives they need to complete. There was a lot that needed to be taken care of, and little time to do it properly. Cassandra sat in her seat looking shell-shocked. This was supposed to be an easy siege, where she could finally prove herself to the people who mocked her, and her parents who sent her here. This was a dream that turned into a nightmare within hours. A previously easy siege, got turned into a really hard nearly impossible one! When Sera finished giving out orders she turned to Cassandra, who was silently sobbing. She changed a lot since the first time they met, but she was still new to all this. She haven''t gotten used to the struggle and expecting the unexpected... ''And they sent her into a fucking warzone without preparation... Assholes!'' Sera stood up from her seat and walked next to her. There she sat down on the table and watched Cassandra silently. Slowly she looked up with red rimmed eyes. In that moment her training kicked in and she tried to compose herself. This was something Sera had taught her... ''Never act out of decorum in front of your soldiers!'' This of course only referred to ones that she didn''t consider close friends, but it worked like a reflex with everyone. Sera just grabbed her trembling hand and said, "It''s going to be alright..." Somehow this sentence actually calmed her a bit, which was really surprising, but what she said next was so out of pocket, that Sera could''ve never be prepared for it. "I love David..." Chapter 191: Killing is Easy "I love David..." She said while staring at nothing. Sera looked at her in confusion. "Well... Can''t say I expected this change of subject..." They both chuckled at her comment, but there was no real humor in it. In the past few days Sera did notice that Cassandra spent a lot of time with David, but she didn''t think it was any reason like this. She also didn''t care the slightest, but if this would cause Cassandra to not have her full attention on a fight, then she had to solve this quickly. "I don''t know where you are going with this, or why you revealed this information to me, but you have to forget it for now. Tomorrow, after the battle, you can do whatever you want, but for now focus only on the fight that''s about to come... This plan we made relies on you the most!" Sera made her voice as kind as possible. It wouldn''t have done any good, if she agitated Cassandra right before the big event... And she didn''t lie when she said that their victory depended on her. "That''s an awful lot of responsibility to place on someone who haven''t even killed yet!" She laughed to herself, while her eyes glistened. There was no joy in her laughter, only self-deprecation and sadness. Sera looked at her for a few minutes trying to find the right words, but she realized that the only thing she could say was the truth. "Can I tell you something that only a handful of people know?" Cassandra was absorbed in her brooding, but hearing that her ears instantly perked up. She loved gossip and secrets. "Two years and about a month ago, I lost all of my memories... Well, lost isn''t exactly the right word. It got stolen... with part of my soul..." Her voice returned to its usual hollowness, which only made the story sound more depressing. Cassandra''s expression got angry, her previous melancholy got replaced by outrage on Sera''s behalf. "Who stole it? Can we get it back?" What she said brought a small smile to Sera''s face. She had no idea when they became a ''We'', but it always felt nice when someone offered to help her with this personal crusade. "That''s dangerous for you to know, maybe after the siege we can talk about it... For now let''s get back to the important part..." Cassandra nodded, while Sera took a deep breath. "Two years ago I appeared in this world with not the slightest clue who I was... Yes I remembered how to fight, but that didn''t equate to actual fighting experience. The first kill I remember was against an ascended that thought he can take me out with ease... He died with one quick cut right through his chest..." Cassandra listened to the story with great interest, deeply invested. "It was easy... In the midst of battle you can''t think of stuff like morality, you either kill or die, no in-between. Hesitation leads to death!... Tomorrow you will go on the field of battle, leading an army of hundred thousand men and women, you will kill and not think of the consequences while fighting..." "If you see one of us die, you turn away and avenge us. Mourning can only be done if you stay alive, and if you know you can''t survive, you make sure to take as many enemies with you before the inevitable end!" Her voice became very animated, but when she reached the next part it turned solemn. "The hard part won''t be the fighting... After the battle, don''t be alone... It hurts more if you are alone..." Cassandra didn''t quite understand what she referred to, and since she was a curious person, she asked without reservation. "Oh really? And what kind of partner did you have, if they are so good?" After that Cassandra looked away with a large blush on her face. She mumbled something under her breath, which Sera didn''t hear. "What was that? I didn''t catch it." Cassandra groaned with annoyance. "I-I haven''t..." She said in a whisper, but Sera was still confused. "You haven''t what?" Suddenly Cassandra''s eyes snapped at her, and she shouted with irritation. "I never had sex, okay?" After that the room turned silent. Sera stared at Cassandra with mouth agape, while she was looking in a different direction, trying to hide her embarrassment. "But... Isn''t your title Succubus Princess?... I thought..." She trailed of as suddenly Cassandra snapped at her again. "What? That I''m a whore? You know just because I evolved using mostly succubus demons doesn''t mean I inherited their sex drive! They are one of the most powerful illusionist species, but everyone only remembers them as the bitch race!" If Sera''s mouth could hang lower, it would be already touching the floor. This seemed to be quite a sore subject to her, which Sera made sure to exploit as much as she could... It was simply too entertaining to see Cassandra''s expression constantly jump from annoyed to abashed! "But then why are you wearing those slutty clothes?" Cassandra''s eyes widened. "What do you mean ''Slutty Clothes''? You know that most women wear these kinds of outfits in the capitol! This is called fashion, but nobody in this backwater knows anything about it!... Why are you laughing?!" Sera was rolling on the table from laughter. She would''ve never thought that dressing like a whore was a fashion choice. It took her a flat minute to calm down, all the while Cassandra stared at her without amusement. "Sorry... Sorry... It''s just so ironic. You as a virgin getting the title of the most sexually active race in the history of the universe..." She laughed a while longer, and in the end a small smile creeped on Cassandra''s face as well. After that they only chatted a bit longer before Sera said... "Anyway, I think we should head to bed... I have to wake up in a few hours, and it would be nice to spend some time sleeping before that..." Cassandra sighed a bit and nodded. They both stood up and went out of the headquarters, there they said goodbye and each went to their own place. The night was only beginning, but Sera would have to move out before it ended. The camp seemed awfully silent as she walked towards her house. There was no laughter, no music, no cheering... Only the somber reality of the situation. Today people would spend their time mentally preparing... Tomorrow, the siege will begin! Chapter 192: Lilith Sera and David crawled through the undergrowth. They were about one kilometer away from the city wall. By Lilith''s latest report this part of the city was the least defended, which made it the perfect infiltration point. They were in the northern segment of it. The waves of the Black Sea hit the shoreline only a few kilometers behind them. This area only had bushes and large grass for cover, but they made do with what they had. The two of them were currently watching the wall, waiting for the moment to infiltrate. A bit further behind them, David''s cohort and Sera''s own ''group'' waited. Sera turned towards east. The horizon was still dark, but that wouldn''t last. They had time until the first rays of sunlight hit the surface. "Are you sure about this?" Asked David. He sounded calm and even a bit excited. He was always like that. Calm and collected, very different from Sera. She felt her heart beat more rapidly by the moment. As the time to fight loomed closer, the small buzzing in her mind increased. If this plan, her plan doesn''t work, then all the soldier deaths will rest on her cracked soul... One had to ask the question, how much more can such soul bear before it gets crushed... At this point the question is not IF, but WHEN will she finally lose it... Sera only hoped that she could last after all this blows over. After the war, when everything turns peaceful, then she will have time to rest... ''What a nice dream...'' She thought to herself, ignoring David''s previous question. He stared at her for a few more moments, then sighed and turned back towards the wall. The patrols were still moving back and forth, with a bunch of them staring out into the darkness. They were watching them for the past half an hour, but it seemed Lilith was late. Sera was about to write a message and ask what''s taking so long, when something changed. On the wall something very strange happened. At one moment everyone moved normally, in the next they all fell over. There were hundreds of people on the wall ranging from regular soldiers to evolved. There were no ascended thankfully. Every single one fell over or began leaning against the wall, like they suddenly fell asleep. Sera spent another minute scanning the wall, before she finally saw the person she was looking for. In the midst of a bunch of sleeping evolved stood a form. She wore a large black robe with the hood up. Slowly she raised her hand towards Sera and waved once. Behind Sera the others began to arrive on the wall as well. Lilith quickly stood up and looked towards the ground, hiding her face. Each person nodded towards her, and she nodded back. Everyone remembered about the no speaking rule... Almost everyone... Percy opened his mouth in an attempt to speak, but suddenly another slap arrived at the back of his head. He gave Kathy an angry and annoyed look, but stayed silent. When everyone was ready they moved down from the wall. On the other side the ten metal boxes were put into a nice pile. The stronger members of the Ouroboros Cohort each grabbed one, while Percy lifted four with his purple magic. He grinned proudly at Morren, the woman he was trying to bang for nearly two weeks now. She didn''t even look at him, but Percy didn''t get the obvious refusal. When Kathy saw this reaction she snorted in amusement and walked off. In the front Sera walked next to Lilith. Her height barely reached Sera''s shoulder, but her actual presence was actually kind of close to hers. In power she was pretty close to Sera since Lilith''s evolving was done under her guidance. The only real difference between them was that, while Sera was a frontline destructive fighter, Lilith was an assassin mage of sorts. Her powers worked more like debuffs and killing an opponent while not even seeing them. It was terrifying, but not nearly as destructive as for example Bran, Melinda or even Percy. She led the group of 16 towards south and a bit to the west. They weaved through the side streets and alleys with ease, missing every patrol that could spot them. For a moment Sera actually thought that Lilith learnt the city layout so well, but when they were crossing a larger street, she saw a figure jumping on one of the tall roofs. The other members of the Angelic Order were nearby, and they guided them towards their destination. They also scouted ahead, making sure nothing unexpected happened. They reached the safehouse in about twenty minutes. The two-story building was made of wood and looked abandoned. Weirdly enough Lilith didn''t approach the front door. Instead she walked to the side, where a double metallic door was hidden below a bit of rubbish. She opened it quickly, the hinges groaned loudly, which caused multiple people to wince and look around, waiting for a patrol to come running at them. Luckily no patrol was near enough to hear it, and this was the industrial part of the city, which meant all the surrounding buildings were currently empty. From the opening a low light streamed out. Lilith quickly stood to the side and ushered everyone inside. The cohort members looked a bit skeptical, but since Sera and David already went downstairs, they had to follow them too. When everyone was inside Lilith spent a few seconds moving the trash back into place, then she closed off the door and engaged the small lock on the inside. It wouldn''t keep even an evolved out, but it was a great alarm if someone tried to break in! Chapter 193: The Oracle As the door closed of behind them Sera looked around the large basement. The first thing she spotted was the large table at the far end of the space. Around it four people stood. They didn''t wear the robe that Lilith had, but all their faces were obscured by their armor. As they saw Sera moving in their way they turned towards her and went down to one knee. None of them said anything and they lowered their heads, like they dreaded to stare at her. "Rise." She spoke with just enough satisfaction, to flatter her soldiers. They stood up instantly, and nodded towards the rest of the cohort. While standing Sera made sure to look each of them up and down once. Two were male and two were female, but each had very similar armor. Its material was metallic monster skin, every Angelic Order member had one given at their initiation. They were painted white, with a gold seven pointed star in the middle. They were also made into items, with attributes that were wearer specific. Their weapons were special too, but not as uniform as their armor. Each used weapons that they were best with, and some didn''t even get weapons. Instead they opted for charms or other items that could increase their magical fighting potential. The cohort members, Kathy and Percy all were on edge seeing the gear of the four of them. They looked at Sera and David with curiosity. Neither seemed surprised, but they didn''t say a word about it to them. The distrustful atmosphere lasted until Lilith came back. She looked at the cohort once, then pulled down her hood. Even Sera got shocked by this. She didn''t expect her to reveal her appearance to anyone outside of the Order. "Nice to meet all of you! We haven''t met yet, but I''m a confidant of both Lady Seraphine and David. These four are my fellow Brothers and Sisters who will help you take this city. If after the battle you have any questions about who we are, we welcome anyone at the church of Angelic Order." Her voice sounded commanding and authoritarian, like a preacher in front of a large crowd. It made a strange sight in comparison to her small stature and adolescent face. Without the hood Sera could see her features more clearly. Her hair was longer since they last met, and it was painted to a similar color as Sera''s own, the only difference being the few dark point at their root. Sera once heard that it was supposed to symbolize her closeness to her deity, but the darkness is the reminder that she is just a mere follower. It was strange, but Sera didn''t mind it. Until they didn''t do anything too weird or harmful, she would let them do whatever they want. The cohort seemed to calm down a bit, and they even looked quite curious. Everyone wanted to know more... Everyone except Kathy, who looked a bit terrified. Her eyes kept glancing at Sera, like she was silently asking for help. Lilith spoke a bit more, but Sera''s attention was elsewhere. Sera: What''s wrong? She sent the message to Kathy. Her eyes lit up as she read it, and for a moment a pained expression appeared on her face. Kathy: Don''t let her reveal anything important! There is something inside me! I can''t lie to it, and it constantly asks questions about you! I will explain it further after the siege, but make sure she stays silent about anything out of the ordinary! For a long moment Sera stared at Kathy, watching her every move. Every once in a while she seemed to spasm and her face turned pained. Lilith was still speaking when Sera raised one fist into the air. Her speech instantly stopped and she looked at Sera piously. "Tell me... Have you brought The Oracle here?" Asked Sera. Lilith''s eyes widened for a moment. She turned towards one of her Brothers, and without a word he went away to fetch her. "Yes we did, My Lady. What do you require it for?" She asked with a small tremble in her once monotone voice. "One of my people has a small problem. Someone implanted a spyworm in her. You know the drill!" Answered Sera and next to her Lilith nodded. David looked between Kathy, Sera, his soldiers and the Order members with desperation. He hadn''t got the slightest clue of what was happening, so he couldn''t determine a correct response to the situation. Lilith looked the calmest out of everyone, but even she fidgeted with her hands from stress. Just when Conrad was about to summon his towershield and spear, Kathy''s movements stopped abruptly. From her bleeding nostril a fat grub-like worm crawled out. It moved straight into The Oracle''s hands and she gobbled it down quickly. The Brother next to the cage lifted her up instantly. The only sound in the room was the loud chewing as The Oracle ate the grub. After a few seconds she swallowed, then loudly burped. She had a satisfied smile on her face, but it soon turned into desperation. "More... I need more for my meal! A small grub contains nothing, I need the real deal! Give me more, I need her brain. An old lady needs sustenance to see who shall be slain!" Her head snapped towards the Brother carrying her, then she began to trash trying to reach Kathy''s still unconscious form. When it was clear that she wouldn''t reach her she began to scream and wail. Lilith raised her hand and used all her power to shut her up. The Oracle didn''t go to sleepy, but her erratic movements and loud screeching stopped. While the Brother carried her away, she stared at Sera intensely. "The time is neigh, the end is near. What shall remain isn''t clear. Gods will fall, gods will rise. It will happen, before you realize But after comes the tragedy. The fall of the great, the death of many. Will she survive, time will tell, But to you, it shall be hell. The Monarch rides, as the universe trembles. Where she will land, lives will crumble." Her poem sent a shiver down everyone''s spine, but she wasn''t yet finished. Just before she was carried away, the last sentences of her rhyme echoed through the large basement. "When darkness prevails and worlds die. The two shall meet at the end of time. Which will win, no one knows. Where heaven is, hell follows!" Chapter 194: Before the Siege The room turned silent after that. Each person stared towards the area where The Oracle was taken... Everyone except Sera... What the hag said meant little to her, but she knew for a fact that it wasn''t a lie. She never lied. Only spun the truth until it seemed like a lie. This was the second time she met The Oracle, but it was the first that she talked about her future. The Oracle was a special kind of creature. It wasn''t an evolved, at least the watch didn''t classify her as such, but she held a very peculiar power. She could see anything in the past, present and future. This would''ve made her the most powerful asset one could acquire, but this Sight ability gave her a serious problem... She was really fucking insane. This insanity was caused by constantly seeing everything that happened, happens and will happen. It literally drove her crazy. Luckily there was an other less dangerous and disturbing use for her. Her favorite food is anything related to minds... and actual minds. For example the Spyworm inside Kathy''s skull was a true delicacy to her, so using her power she could easily fish out the little grub from anyone''s skull. After that though you have to move her away immediately, because then she would devour the inhabitant''s mind too. It''s also nice that she could smell out any such creature, so they could use her as a hound to hunt such monsters. While Sera thought about everything a groan came from the floor. Conrad instantly rushed to Kathy, which scared the shit out of her. When she opened her eyes and saw a large man running at her, she yelped and quickly changed into a large gecko. She scurried away onto the wall, then onto the ceiling in less than a second. Everyone''s eyes was on her. The small lizard head moved frantically and her eyes scanned the people''s faces. Her small chest heaved up and down really fast, but after a few seconds she calmed down and reverted back to her human form. "What the fuck happened?!" She shouted, looking at Lilith. She was still staring at the bend in the corridor where the hag had disappeared to. After another few seconds she sighed and turned back towards Sera. Her face was full of concern. Nobody else in this room knew better than her that what the hag said wasn''t a lie or something made up. It was the truth given to them by an insane person, but she knew exactly that everything she said will come to pass one way or another. Future was tangible only until you have no idea what could happen. If you learn anything specific, then there will be a 99.9 percent chance of it happening. This was the first time she heard The Oracle speak such a long rhyme, which caused great worry for Lilith. She was so absorbed in her thoughts, that she didn''t care to answer Kathy''s angry question, which only increased her rage. The pain was excruciating for her and everyone waited to hear her scream... It never came. Her eyes turned teary and her face became red, but not the tiniest of squeals escaped her lips. After the mark was gone Sera released her hand, which Lilith just stared at for a few seconds, before letting it hang by her side. "I removed your mark, but I''m not cruel. You made one mistake and you will make more since nobody''s perfect. Your mark will be earned back depending on how you perform during and after the siege." Said Sera in an even tone. "Thank you Lady Seraphine!" She spoke while bowing her head and placing her disfigured hand onto her opposite shoulder. "I see where I had gone wrong. I tasked Bran to write a long list of rules that you have to follow while recruiting and training. I had let you do your own thing for a year, but that seems to be a mistake, from today forth I will be closer to the Angelic Order. The leadership will still be in your and your husband''s hands, but each of you have to make constant reports about anything worth noting!" Lilith was still bowed as she nodded. "I understand My Lady. Your grace is truly a shining example of humanity''s greatness." While she spoke a small giggle escaped her lips, Sera just sighed and rolled her eyes. "Shut the fuck up Lilith, and let your Brother heal your hand. We still have to do a bit of planning and place all those stupidly large bombs. The Sun will be up in about an hour and a half, so we got to hurry!" Said Sera. She then turned and walked towards the large table, which held a giant map of the city''s southeastern segment. The cohort watched with bewilderment as Lilith smiled brightly, then gave her disfigured hand to one of the Brothers. He touched it with his large gauntleted one, it was so much bigger that it basically devoured Lilith''s own. There was a large bright flash, and a small yelp. When the light passed and she raised it again, the skin on the hand was fully healed. The mark was still missing from it though, and she wouldn''t be replacing it without Sera''s permission. The five Order members walked to the table as well, and Lilith motioned for the cohort to come too. Hesitantly they all approached it and looked down on the map. There were a lot of different markings everywhere, basically everything important. There were enemy battle placements, Cassandra''s battlelines, the places where the wallbreakers will focus on, but the most important and what they had to worry about right now were the explosives. There were only five markings, two at gates and the rest near the wall where the wallbreakers will assault. They still had to find five different strategic placements for the rest, and they had to do it fast. They all stared at the map for a few minutes before Sera sighed, straightened and looked at each person inside the room. "Let''s get this over with." With that sentence ten minutes of planning began, then they spent an hour placing each metallic box. They also informed Frank, Jill and Cassandra about the places to stay away from. When everything was ready, the Sun was already near rising. Sera stared at the rays of sunlight hitting the city street. Somewhere far away an alarm sounded, which was soon echoed by the whole eastern part of the city. It was time... Chapter 195: The Siege of New Constantinople (1) The first part of the plan was fairly simple. Sow as much chaos as possible, and disturb the enemy lines, while causing destruction. One of the Angelic Order''s member had infiltrated the enemy command center during the previous day and they learnt the larger parts of the enemy battleplan. Also, they managed to acquire the soldier placements of each unit of evolved. From there they learnt a lot of important information, which would determine the movement of their own army. For example there were three main artillery stations at the east side of the wall. During the night these were places where they put one of Frank''s bombs. Outside the alarm still screamed and people''s shouting echoed down the street. The ceiling rumbled as large vehicles moved along the road. These were the self-propelled artilleries and tanks. Taking them out will be the Ouroboros Cohort''s first objective. Lilith had already left with the Angelic Order members. Their objective will be to stop enemy reinforcement movement along the southern main avenue. Percy and Kathy will be on their own in the northern reinforcement route. Their job was to cause general mayhem in larger crowds of soldiers, killing as many as they could. Then there was Sera. She stood in the large empty basement watching the city map. There were a lot more markings on it than a few hours ago. Her hand was shaking and the buzzing in her mind just kept growing, the pain returned as well. She sighed with exhaustion that shouldn''t be possible to bear for someone so young. She stared at the map a while longer, thinking of every possible outcome that she could''ve missed. Above her something large went down the road. For a moment she glanced at the dust falling off of the wooden ceiling. She held out a cupped hand and let the dust settle on top. "I will rest after the siege..." She whispered to herself. Somewhere in the city something exploded, this was her queue. She took a staggering step towards the exit of the basement, then an other and kept repeating it until her movements reflected confidence. Her hands still shook a bit. She knew exactly what''s going to happen. The worst part was knowing beforehand, its much easier to die without expecting it. With a quick push she slammed open the door and walked out into the cacophony of sounds. Soldiers ran past the street where large abandoned house stood. Non of them even looked at towards her. Sera wore civilian clothes and her hair was changed to a blood-red color using her item. It was necessary for the plan to work that nobody knew her real identity. Turning around she moved into the alley where the basement door laid and she ran towards the the area between the two gates. There the fighting will be at its apex from start to finish, but only after the Federal Alliance army had broken through the wall. Until then Sera will entertain the soldiers there. Her main mission was to lure out the third transcended. The first two were already in place, at least that''s what Cassandra wrote a few minutes ago. She will possibly have the hardest job out of everyone. Until Sera could help, she will have to hold both transcended''s attention. If she dies while fighting the whole siege will be over, and everyone in the army will either die or get captured... If they take prisoners. It wouldn''t be the first time that one army slaughtered the other indiscriminately. With this in mind Sera prayed that she and David prepared Cassandra enough. Her power was much stronger than a normal transcended, but it was still two on one. People started shooting into the crowd, they got killed left and right. It only took a small seed and the terrified soldiers were instantly plunged into self-destruction. Kathy only changed her form about half a dozen times, and started fights at different places. The few thousand regular soldiers started killing each other instantly. They thought that some enemy soldiers had infiltrated their group, but in reality they were only killing their fellow soldiers. Kathy watched them from the roof for a few minutes. Eventually they calmed down, but at that point more than half of the group was killed. After that she moved onto another group and did the same. Then onto the next. Only after the fifth one did an ascended caught her. She was about to leave the self-killing group, when a sword nearly decapitated her. Kathy was fully prepared since there were literal eyes on the back of her head. They were hidden behind her hair, but there was just enough gap left to be able to see. Usual she would''ve turned into some large beast, but she had to stay low profile. The skin on her empty hands changed, turning metallic. Her fingers also changed, they elongated and turned into large claws. With that done she blocked the ascended''s sword, stopping it with her left hand. She looked the man up and down once, but it wasn''t easy because the guy was huge. At least three meter in height, with muscles that bulged out unnaturally. The man wore no armor and he only had a large, plain, 2 meter long greatsword, which looked like a regular sized sword in his hands. On his head above his nose one large eye stared down at Kathy. There was only anger on his face as he gritted his teeth. This whole observation lasted less than a second, and after that moment she had to dodge to the side and escape the cyclops''s sword. His strength was much higher than Kathy''s, and he was way too fast for his size. She ducked under a swipe, then rolled to the side avoiding getting hit. Around them the chaos continued and some bullets accidentally hit the ascended''s large body... He didn''t care and just swiped again. This time Kathy remembered her training in the past week. She spent a lot of time with Conrad, especially at his favorite place... The training area of the camp. They worked a lot on making Kathy more versatile. She had learnt to change small things about her body in a matter of moments. Her hands were one of these changes, but she used something else this time. The sword was headed her way about to cut her in two at the shoulders horizontally. But just before it connected, Kathy''s size drastically changed, nearly halving her. As the cyclops''s eyes went wide, it was already too late. Kathy travelled towards his head like a bullet. Her size only a little bit larger than the ascended''s head. Her two claw-like hands were still regular sized and they went straight into the cyclops''s throat. With a bit of effort she moved her hands to the side, decapitating the ascended. She landed on the ground at the same time as the head. Her whole body was covered in blood, but after a quick transformation it was gone. She was about to head to find another group when her eyes snapped behind her. All over the city the stationary artilleries began to open fire on the approaching Federal Alliance army. They managed to fire one barrage of their salvo before three giant explosions went off... Chapter 196: The Siege of New Constantinople (2) A few minutes before the explosions David and his cohort was hiding in a small room in a factory. A window overlooked the large square that the self-propelled artilleries were going to use as a staging ground. There were dozens of the vehicles, and still more pouring in. By their intel they expected at least 50 to be sat up, with 25 more in reserve. The whole place was guarded by about thirty ascended and a hundred evolved, and that was with ignoring the five thousand regular soldiers. They were moving down there like ants. Some evolved went door-to-door, checking each building for any enemy troops. They were still a few minutes away from their large factory. David spent another few seconds watching everyone, then turned towards the woman standing close to him. Relma''s ¨Cthe scout''s¨C eyes were glossy as she watched the square from a bird''s eye view. Her ears were projected to one of the ascended commanders on the ground, listening in on his conversation. After another minute her eyes focused on David and she became a bit wobbly. Some other member held her up, while she made the report. "They will start open fire in two minutes, but the stationary artilleries are going online in less than a minute!" She said, now standing on her own. David nodded and glanced outside for a moment. The evolved inspectors are about the enter their factory. It wouldn''t take long for them to find the cohort. David: After you hear the first barrage blow the three artillery sites! Frank: Got it! Kill all those mushrooms for me! He didn''t understand what the fuck Frank was talking about, but David knew not to think about it too much. Turning towards his cohort he summoned his own armor, which was different from the cohort''s. The armor slithered onto his body covering everything except his head. It looked very similar to his snake-form''s skin. It wasn''t an item, but something he gained with his heritage. From his vambraces one long fang-like blades protruded out on each arm. His shoulder plates had two snakeheads atop. He looked really scary in the armor. The cohort were already in their full kits with weapons, armor and everything else out. "We move out when the explosions will go off! Formation 3! Make sure to destroy as many artilleries as possible, don''t get stuck fighting with other ascended, and don''t get surrounded!" "I will enjoy showing your head to that fucking WHORE!" She cackled as she screamed the last word in pure rage. She was in the air in the next moment, her sword''s tip only a few centimeters away from David. There she floated in the air, stopped in time. David wasn''t stupid and didn''t try attacking her. Instead within the second of stopping her, he turned around and stabbed both of his vambrace-blades into the disoriented person behind him. The man screamed silently as he was tossed straight at the Empress. In that moment the freeze stopped and her swords pierced the confused man''s skull. The blades sizzled as they entered through the helmet. There was no resistance as they burned through the armor. She didn''t even care about killing a fellow soldier. Her blades moved upwards cutting a straight line out of the corpse''s head. She screamed in anger and was about to run after David, who used the distraction to get away, but at that moment she noticed two small balls about a meter away from her feet. With a grunt of annoyance she crouched low to the ground and placed both blades in front of her, making an ''x'' shape with them. The two alive ascended didn''t know even see the balls. Both died in the upcoming explosion. David continued to run without looking back. Behind him the Empress''s shriek echoed through the battlefield followed by a few more explosions, as more and more artilleries got destroyed. From the remnant stationary artilleries a barrage went off. The three explosives weren''t enough to fully destroy all of them, but they prepared for that as well. Each of his cohort''s group would make their way to one of the sites and take care of the remaining artilleries. David would also take one group and make his way to the place where Sera should already be massacring the enemies. He ran on while weaving between broken vehicles and thousands of corpses. In front of him an ascended appeared, but David didn''t even slow down. The man seemed a bit disoriented, but his eyes quickly focused when he saw David sprinting towards him. He raised a summoned polearm, but just as he raised it and was about to slam it down on David, his movements stopped. He couldn''t move a muscles as the blade on David''s vambrace entered his skull. The fight didn''t even start and it had already ended. His running speed didn''t decrease one bit, instead it increased. Behind him, he heard the wrathful shouts and angry screams of the Empress. He didn''t think the bomb would kill her, but he hoped that it would stun her longer. Suddenly the whole eastern part of the city got shaken. His head turned towards the wall between the northeastern and southeastern gate... The wallbreakers were in place... Without care for the Empress he ran faster while furiously typing to the group that was supposed to accompany him. Eventually he met up with the others and the four of them ran to the square to assist Sera! Chapter 197: The Siege of New Constantinople (3) At the southern part of the city the reinforcements were making their way towards the frontline. They were moving along a very wide road, that let six tanks pass side by side. There were more than a hundred tanks, self-propelled artilleries, APCs, and other military vehicles moving fast. The convoy was defended by 20 ascended and two hundred evolved, plus tens of thousands of regular soldiers. The road was straight and empty. They were making good progress, it would take another 5 minutes to reach the first of the reserves. The convoy was lead by a small car, which held this company''s commander. An ascended of no real renown. He was an alright leader, nothing too outstanding or degrading, but there is a reason he held the same position in the past two years. The ground shook below their feet again, causing the evolved driver to freak out a bit. "Calm down, its just the wallbreakers. Our walls are more than thick enough to last until we arrive. Not like we will be needed. After the transcended take care of that whore they call leader, everything will be much easier." His voice was calm and seemingly bored, but he had to wipe his sweaty hands on his pants every few moments. "B... But... She is here too..." Said the driver in a squeaky voice. The ascended knew how he was talking about, heck everyone would''ve known. Even a random homeless person heard of the Deathless Phoenix. "Well, she will be taken care of by one of the transcended, but we don''t need to worry about her. We just concentrate on our part and..." He was about to say more, but suddenly the driver slammed down on the brakes. "Why did you stop?" He demanded. Behind them the whole convoy came to a staggering halt. "Someone is standing there!" Said the driver while pointing. The ascended followed his finger and sure enough someone stood in the middle of the road. The person was about fifty meters away, which made it harder to make them out. They were of smaller stature, their body was covered by a dark robe, hiding everything about them. The weirdest part was that the person just stood there, unmoving. The commander looked at them for a few seconds, before deciding to take care of the obstacle quickly. "Open fire with all high-caliber machineguns! Try to keep the road as intact as possible!" He spoke into his watch, transmitting his voice to every vehicle in the convoy. It only took a second for the message to get through, and soon all the weapons roared as bullets rained concentrated to a specific point. The gun smoke made it impossible to see if the person was dead or not, but there were very few people below transcended that could''ve survived such barrage. The area was deathly silent as the commander waited for the smoke to clear, which happened quite quickly. His eyes bulged as he saw the sight in front of him. The woman smiled a bit cruelly, the babe cried in her arms and she started breastfeeding him. "Am I not real? Isn''t this my body, my voice, my judgement, my temper? You think this isn''t your son? He was born a few months ago, you know... You never even came to visit him! Do we really mean that little to you?" She said angrily, but as the baby started to squirm she calmed down a bit. The ascended knelt on the ground. His hands holding his head. His mind was all confused. He didn''t know if this was real or not, but he wanted it to be... He wanted nothing more than to be with his abandoned family, to make the past right. "Are you truly real?" He asked in desperation, his eyes teary. The woman looked at him with contempt, but then it turned into an uncertain smile. She knelt down next to him with the baby in her arms. "Do you think he isn''t real?" She asked, while moving it towards the ascended. The baby seemed a bit uncomfortable, his little arm kept grabbing onto things, like her mother''s hand and the cloth he was wrapped inside. His eyes turned to his father, it was the exact same color as the commander''s. He slowly reached out with a finger and the babe immediately began grabbing onto it. "Do you really want this to be reality?" Asked a voice, that was similar but a bit different from his wife''s. The ascended''s eyes never left the baby. On his face a bright smile rested as he nodded. "Yes... More than anything..." He answered in a choked voice. "Just take my hand and it shall be yours!" She said, the voice wasn''t even remotely similar to her wife''s at that point, but he was too focused on his son to care. A small feminine hand appeared in his periphery and he took it without a single thought. His body instantly went rigid and he began to float. He felt his soul leave his body and move towards the four meter monstrous figure that appeared at some point. She reached out her hand where the soul landed. The ascended watched in terror as the same scene repeated itself on all the other islands. On each of them people were crying and accepting hands, only to give away their souls to this monster. He turned back to the creature and with his last breath he asked, "Who... Are... You?" The female laughed on every single island. Only now did he realize that they were the same person. She stared at the soul inside her long clawed hand, then with a quick move crushed it. The last thing the sad and scared ascended heard was the answer to his question... "I''m The Sleepwalker... Goodnight!" Chapter 198 The Siege of New Constantinople (4) In the middle of the road stood Lilith. Her arms were still stretched out. She was standing like that for the past minute. Suddenly she took a deep breath. Below the hood her eyes opened. Slowly her hands lowered and she quickly started typing on her watch. Lilith: Convoy stopped! Blow the bomb! She sent it to David, who would forward it to Frank. While waiting for the explosion her eyes turned towards the front of the convoy. All the vehicles were stuck since every person in the front was dead. Her powers were really scary, mostly because there was no real defense against it. One ability provided her the power to make people fall asleep, but the second ability and her transformation was the true terror. After making someone fall asleep, she gains the ability to enter their Dream Island, which was a name she made up. Every time she entered someone''s mind, she appeared on an island, which represented one person. Around her multiple similar islands would appeared, filling in the empty space. She could affect all of them if she was in range, but only sleeping people''s islands appeared. This is where the name Dream Island came from, because people dream the island. On this island she had control over what to show the individual. She would also gain access to the person''s desires and fears, making it easier to snatch people''s soul. In her other form she could consume other people''s souls, which gave her a little more power. The only problem was that they had to give up their souls for it to work. That''s why she had to pretended to be a loved one from their dreams, or some horror from their nightmares. After she causes enough longing or fear, she would ask them if they want this to be true or if they want her to go away, if they say yes, then she would snatch their souls. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire The only real way to defeat her was with mental fortitude. If a person possessed a strong will, then they could say no and she would be banished from their Dream Island. But this was very rare, and happened only a handful of times. It was actually part of the Angelic Order''s training to be able to banish her from their island once. This was one of the hardest part of the training. The power increase from the souls weren''t that potent either. These thousands of souls caused her power to increase by about one percent, and mostly because of the three ascended she had killed. She looked at the sky where the evolved and ascended from the back began flying towards the front of the convoy. Some were using items, others had transformed, but all were going to die! At the back of the convoy a large explosion shook the ground. Those idiots haven''t even noticed that in one of the ammunition trucks there was one more metal box... One of Frank''s bombs! It was placed at a specific truck, that they knew would be at the back of the convoy. Lilith immobilized the front and the bomb immobilized the back. The middle of the convoy had nowhere to run. There were side streets along the road, but each time a vehicle tried to go that way, another small explosion went off. They boobytrapped each of the alleys and roads. The whole convoy was boxed in and waiting to be slaughtered. Next to Lilith 5 people stood. Each were hidden behind her by one of their ability, which could make them invisible. The shield that turned away the bullets was another one''s ability. The six of them ran towards the convoy, while heavy machinegun fire assaulted the people in the skies. There were turrets placed on the roofs, and inside the houses. When their blades touched enemy soldiers they withered and died. The Black Crusaders ran into the stunned enemy army in a wedge shape, cutting them down like weed. When a large ascended force appeared and tried to stop them, they had to slow and fight. The 2.5 meter tall giant, lifted his warhammer and slammed it down in the middle of the enemy formation. It killed non of them, but he split the group in two. On his right a woman laughed with insanity. She brandished two black handguns, each bullet she shot had a different effect, and they always seemed to find their target. On his left stood another woman, but her attitude was much more rational. She had no weapon, but her fists broke through armor with ease. Behind the three stood the others. They were either buffing them, or using some magic to wreak havoc in the enemy soldiers. The smallest man gave the crazy female''s bullets extra accuracy, and increased all three''s speed. Another man ¨Cmuch more serious than the others¨C had one hand on the ground, causing the stone to change to liquid under the enemies'' feet, stopping their movements momentarily. Next to the two stood another woman. She had a golden seven pointed star painted on the left side of her chest. She seemed to be in deep concentration, with her hands raised. The gauntlets of her black armor glowed with a crimson energy. On the battlefield people began coughing up blood or straight up die from brain aneurysm. Behind the six stood a lone female. Her armor was clean, her sword bloodless. She was somehow the scariest of the seven, but she didn''t engage in the fight at all. What was even stranger when someone targeted her with any kind of attack, the others would jump in front of the blows. The crazy woman even died once, but as her lifeless corpse hit the ground a black energy appeared around her, and after a few seconds she was back on her feet, resurrected. Jill gasped as one of her wives was brought back to life. This was her family''s greatest strength and weakness. Until she lived they couldn''t die, but when she died all of them would as well. But even the resurrection wasn''t foolproof. Each time someone died and was brought back to life her essence got drained further. They could do this until all her essence ran out. Plus it won''t work if their soul or their whole body gets destroyed in the process. Jill took a deep breath and looked at a point in the sky. High above the field of battle, the real war happened. From down there it wasn''t easy to make out, but in the sky Cassandra was desperately fighting the two transcended, she had held out for this long, but will it be enough? The answer came in a gigantic whitish-gold explosion. The ball of fire happened in the middle of the enemy formation, and soon she saw a sight that momentarily stopped the fighting in the whole city. From the ball of fire Sera flew out. Her wings that were previously about three meter in length, changed to twenty or even more. Her whole form was glowing, radiating with her holy flames. She raised the few meter long glaive in her hand and shouted. Her voice cut through the battlefield, reaching every single person''s ears. "FROM THE ASHES!" The army screamed their answer. "WE WILL RISE!" With that she flew towards the fight high in the sky... The Deathless Phoenix has finally joined the battle and she brought the holiness of heaven with her... Which means hell shall soon follow... Chapter 199 The Siege of New Constantinople (5) About fifteen minutes earlier Sera stepped out from an alley and she walked straight into the forming enemy lines. The buildings were hundreds of meters away from the wall. It was filled with about fifty thousand regular soldiers, and hundreds of evolved. Some were setting up smaller mortars which they will pepper the approaching army with. Others were running around delivering munitions and other supplies. But most of them were just standing around, waiting for the inevitable. Each knew that even if they won, there was a high chance of dying. The soldier death ratio in a victorious army was about 10-20 percent. Which meant every fifth person standing here would be dead in a few hours. And that was the best outcome. Sera in her civilian clothes walked between the soldiers. She watched their despair, their hopelessness, their regret, their sadness. The unit commanders tried to shout encouragements, to bring up their moral, but it was for naught. They knew the pointlessness of this war more than anyone. They knew that no matter who won today, the city and its citizens would be fine. Their deaths were unnecessary, which brought down their moral. As she walked the buzzing in her head roared. It would be a lie to say she was doing this for them, but it would also be the truth. Everyday she woke up asking the question of what''s the point, and every single time she reaches a simple question... When will it end? When will the suffering and war be done? Humanity has tried to destroy itself since its existence, but when will they succeed? When will be too late to stop the fighting?... When will it all end? The answer usually comes soon after... It will end when we let it! Every war is a fight between order and chaos. There is no such thing as good or evil, those concepts are for philosophers or historians. On the field of battle there are people against you and with you, but neither are right or wrong, and they fight for the same thing... Order. Everybody fights for order, but the kind of order differentiates per person. So when Sera wakes up and asks the question why continue to fight, the answer is simple. She fights for order, but also something else... Revenge! With this in mind she stopped upon reaching the middle of the army. The people around her started to realize that something was wrong, but she didn''t care. Her hearing was mostly gone from the ever increasing buzzing sound, but she did fell the explosions go off a while ago. On her right hand a golden gauntlet formed. The soldiers next to her instantly panicked, but their shouts were soon drowned out by their screams. Sera moved faster than any of them could react. Her fist slammed into a soldier''s face, which promptly exploded and showered gore on the people around. It also sent a small fiery wave burning a dozen soldier''s face. Without looking at them she grabbed a dropped automatic railgun and opened fire. Her aim wasn''t the best, but the soldiers couldn''t really get out of the way of her bullets. By the time the magazine was empty close to a thousand soldiers were dead. The only problem was that the destruction caused the fifty or so ascended to notice her. The man''s speech turned angrier, and after a few more unanswered sentences he seemed to give up. At that exact moment the walls finally shook, and that''s exactly what she was waiting for! As the four ascended''s feet wobbled around her. She stabbed forward with her sword, trying to pierce one of their necks. The armor was stronger than the sword, but she used a bit of her flame to heat it up. The sword slowly slipped inside and killed the ascended. It also ruined the sword, but she didn''t let that stop her. The three recovered quickly, but not quick enough, and soon another fell over with a thrown golden dagger sticking out of his helmet. The other two looked at one another, then back at Sera. They made the smart choice and ran. Behind them Sera laughed madly as another round hit the walls. The wallbreakers were gigantic cannons that shot large explosive projectiles from a hundred meters away. The walls of New Constantinople were 40 meter in height and 7 thick, which meant it would last for about 5 minutes under constant barrage. Around Sera the square cleared. While fighting she hadn''t noticed that every soldier left the area. About thirty or forty meters away tanks were aiming right at her, from every directions. She chuckled again, as more and more insanity crept in. She felt it in her bones. The end was near again... The sweet release of death, the only time when she could truly rest. While laughing to herself she typed a quick message to the artillery commander, which consisted of coordinates... Her own coordinates. As the tanks opened fire she knelt on the ground and covered her head. The shells were about to hit her and everything around her, when the beautiful golden armor appeared and her wings closed around her. She was like a turtle hiding in their shell. The shells hit and were stopped or melted, but those weren''t the issue. From the other side of the wall the artilleries changed targets and opened fire. Everything for a hundred meter around Sera exploded. All those tanks got destroyed and thousands died in one concentrated barrage. The only person who stood up after the destruction was Sera. Her wings hurt like hell, and she had to put them away to be able to move. Her armor disappeared as well, revealing a bruised body underneath. Her armor had only one ability. It negated a large portion of an attack and it distributed it equally around her body. This also meant that the barrage could be felt all over herself. As her body slowly changed to the color purple she stood on unsteady legs. At that moment she felt it in the air. The buzzing had stopped and only silence remained... Sera took a deep breath and prepared herself to the inevitable and necessary blow. As she exhaled a hand pierced through her chest. She watched with a small smile as the hand held onto her still beating heart and crushed it. With her last sane thought Sera jumped and held onto the transcended who killed her. She laughed madly seeing the surprised face of him. But as her sight darkened she saw the man''s expression change to pure horror. He just signed his own death sentence! Chapter 200 The Siege of New Constantinople (6) One thing even Harold didn''t know about her power was, that she could change how fast she resurrected. Most of the time she tried to stay dead as long as possible since that''s when she could take a break, but on the field of battle she does it as fast as possible. Her eyes closed for only a second, but her body was already starting to heat up. The transcended scrambled and tried to push Sera away, but her dead hands held onto his arms. They had unnatural strength, very different from an ascended. He desperately tried to move away, but Sera stayed put. The air started to boil around her and the ground melt. The man screamed as his skin liquified where Sera held on. He gasped and tried to drink down air, but it was so hot that her lungs blistered. He started to sweat, but it instantly got evaporated. At this point his brain already stopped working from the pain, he still tried to get away, but that was only a reflex, not a conscious action. Eventually Sera''s eyes opened. Two golden flames stared into the man''s own eyes. The heat seemed to double, triple, quadruple, there was no real way to tell. The only thing the man knew was that he won''t survive another moment... He wasn''t wrong. Suddenly the kinetic and heat energy exploded from her body. It destroyed everything in a few hundred meter radius, including the transcended who''s body evaporated. She wasn''t expecting to kill him in one fell swoop, but he was really overconfident. He didn''t summon his armor, or change forms. He was probably a rookie, and this was his first ¨C¨Cand last¨C¨C real battle. Sera rose into the sky, leaving the ball of fire like a butterfly exiting their cocoon. The fighting stopped below her and both army stared at her glowing form. On her body her signature golden armor formed, and in her hand her glaive appeared. She felt the air crackling with potential energy, it came from all these soldiers, their attention. Sera glanced towards the fight in the sky and smiled genuinely. It would be a lie to say she wasn''t proud. Cassandra had survived for so long, and she didn''t even seem to be losing. After that she sighed turning her attention back towards her troops. At that moment each soldier felt the change in the battle. It haven''t even really start, but it was already reaching its end. "Let''s make sure they stay loyal when shit will go down..." She whispered to herself, then raised her glaive in the air and shouted her warcry. It was something others began saying long ago and she shamelessly stole, using it a few times over the years. "FROM THE ASHES!" Down there the soldiers shouted the second part of the cry. "WE WILL RISE!" The battle continued in earnest on the ground. Sera spotted the Black Crusaders cutting through the army, she also saw David in his large serpent form. A bit further south at the gate, she saw the Angelic Order wreaking havoc. Death was dealt left and right on the ground, but non of that truly mattered. There was only one fight that counted, but that was fought high in the sky. Seeing the creature a shiver went through Cassandra''s colorful body. Her eyes then landed on the other transcended. He was a man, and luckily his transformation was much less horrifying than the bear-headed wasp. His body dissolved in a cloud of smoke. It swirled and grew until it was similar in size to the wasp. It resembled a bird-like creature, but as he moved closer the form changed constantly. Sometimes the wings looked feathered, other times reptilian. There was no words exchanged between either party. They just simply increased their speed and tried to attack Cassandra. The smoke bird stayed back and he let the wasp attack. The transcended with the bear head chomped down on Cassandra''s shimmering body, which exploded into crystalline fragments. They imbedded themselves into the bear''s mouth, causing her to growl in annoyance and start to look around, trying to find Cassandra. The smoke bird began to fly in circles leaving a dark smog behind him. From the ground it looked like a large dark cloud appeared. He had the ability to feel every small movement in the cloud, but even after that, Cassandra was nowhere to be found. Suddenly the wasp grunted in anger. Her wings glowed a bit, causing every illusion to break apart. This ability wasn''t too strong and she couldn''t use it often, but it was necessary to fight against an illusionist like Cassandra. After a few seconds Cassandra appeared a hundred meters away, but the wasp hadn''t realized what her illusions were holding up. One interesting information about Cassandra''s power is, that her illusions can be semi-real. Not very strong, but if she made a small platform floating in the sky, it could hold a large load, which is exactly what she did. Invisible to everyone, Cassandra placed a few large bombs atop the cloud of smoke, floating on illusionary platforms. At the moment when the wasp dismissed all her illusions, the ones holding up the bombs disappeared as well. They rained down on the two transcended and exploded with a large force. The smoke mostly dispersed, but neither transcended took any real damage. The smoke bird didn''t even look affected by it, and the wasp only had a tiny break in her left wing. She roared in rage and flew at Cassandra again. Around the two laughter sounded as Cassandra broke into crystal fragments again, then reappeared atop the wasp to stab a meter long crystal in her neck. The wasp made a barrel-roll causing Cassandra to fall, but she broke into crystal fragments the moment the bear bit down on her. The smoke bird watched all this with clarity. He was the smarter of the two and he quickly realized that this fight won''t end well. Suddenly another bomb went off around him, but it was different from the others. Somehow it hurt him more, but at the same time felt unreal. The pain passed a moment later, like it was just a mirage. He screeched in anger and flew at Cassandra. It surprised her a bit, but she managed to avoid getting killed. This dangerous dance would go on for long minutes, but eventually Cassandra''s luck would run out... Chapter 201 The Siege of New Constantinople (7) It was all going great. Cassandra kept up the stalemate with ease. One thing she was great at is survival, when she transformed no physical attack could land on her. Her opponent would either have to stop her from making illusions, or they would have to use mind and soul attacks. Luckily neither transcended had such abilities, only the wasp woman had something against her illusions, but those were kind of useless as well. But that wasn''t all. While they could hit her with any attacks, she could hit them. She was constantly summoning large spikes made of crystal, or bombs that would instantly explode. The damage they caused wasn''t real, or at least wasn''t physically real. They were mind attacks caused by her illusions. The wounds they left would instantly heal, but they felt all the pain it caused. As the fight went on, they seemed to get more and more annoyed as well as more exhausted. Cassandra was constantly appearing and disappearing using crystals to hurt the wasp. She could make any kind of material with her illusions, but for some reason crystals were the easiest to make. One more interesting fact was that the longer the fight lasted, the better and more comfortable she was with her powers. At first she could only summon one or two spikes, but now she could summon hundreds. Her essence usage was more refined as well and the illusions became more believable. It was going great really, but then something strange happened. In a crucial moment her power malfunctioned. It happened for less than a second, but it left her too stunned to react in time to the incoming attack. The wasp was flying straight at Cassandra. It stopped trying to bite down on her since every time she exploded into shard, which got embedded into her mouth. The bear-wasp opted to attack with her gigantic insectoid legs, using them to pierce her. She was about to move out of the way, leaving an illusionary copy there, but at that moment her illusion disappeared causing Cassandra to get pierced by the leg. The insect''s leg entered her stomach and exited behind her back. It was so wide that she nearly got broken in two. The wasp seemed really surprised by this outcome, but the smoke bird did not hesitate. While Cassandra was fighting with the pain she took deep breaths, but after an exhale suddenly there was no air around her. It was like she breathed in pure smoke. She instantly began coughing causing her wound to greatly increase in pain. She was still impaled and slowly suffocated. Her mind tried to scramble for a thought, something to help her, anything... But she came up empty-handed. In the last moments before losing consciousness her life went down before her eyes. She closed her eyes and relived her happiest memories, which were mostly made-up of this last week. It was strange that the best part of her life was only beginning, but it would soon end. The wasp was moving her abdomen forward. She had a few meter long thin stinger at the end, which she already tried to attack Sera with. Unlike the last few times, Sera didn''t wait for her to arrive. With one wing-beat she moved at the surprised wasp. Around her a large funnel of pure fire appeared, its point aimed straight at the wasp''s thorax. The world seemed to freeze for a moment. Many people on the ground stopped fighting to stare up at the sky. Everything turned silent. A few kilometers away in the sky Sera slammed into the wasp''s most armored part. Up there the world exploded in a fiery ball. The funny part was that the sound travelled too slow and by the time it arrived everyone saw the result. The sound of the explosion was so loud that it shattered eardrums and windows. The evolved fell to the ground clutching their heads, and even the ascended felt a lot of pain. At the southeastern gate, the members of the Angelic Order didn''t show any pain. They just bowed towards the explosion once, then resumed their killing spree. David laughed at the sight. He felt a great pride towards both Sera, but mostly towards Cassandra. She grew a lot in the past week, which really showed in the fight between her and the other two transcended. Jill looked at it as well. Below her mask a small smile appeared and she glanced towards Helena, who made a small bow towards the flames too, but she tried to make it less obvious. Jill chuckled soundlessly at the sight, then ordered her family to continue the killing. At this point there was no reason for the murder, but an enemy army only stopped fighting after their moral breaks, or when all of them dies. Most soldiers still stared at the sky, when the fire dissipated. The wasp looked stunned, but she soon began to plummet. She wasn''t dead yet, but her chitin armor broke to pieces, revealing the organs below. Sera wasted no time. Her head was pounding from pain and disorientation, but she still went and delivered a fatal blow to the wasp. Her previous glaive turned into a spear, which pierced the transcended''s heart, killing her before she even hit the ground. In the sky Cassandra wasn''t idle either. While Sera fought she began to decrease the size of the box, until it was only a few dozen meters in diameter. She was concentrating as hard as she could, but the smoke bird had already figured out her trick and he used all his power to escape. Before he could do anything though, Sera came to stand next to Cassandra. Using close to two thousand essence she made the inside of the box explode with her flames. It costed all her essence and the large expenditure caused her body to weaken, but it also killed the last transcended. Sera didn''t even recognize that. She suddenly felt dead tired, and if Cassandra didn''t provide support, she would''ve already plummeted to the ground. The box Cassandra made couldn''t hold against all the concentrated energy inside, so they began moving away fast before it fell apart. They made it a kilometer when the walls finally broke. The dark morning sky lit up above New Constantinople. This giant explosion marked the end of the siege! Chapter 202 The Aftermath As the sky burned behind them, Cassandra and Sera floated towards the battlefield. The fighting had stopped with the explosion, and the defenders of New Constantinople quickly put down their weapons. Sera barely registered any of this. Her mind was in constant pain and she felt exhausted. She also felt cold and her skin was really pale. The only thing keeping her up straight was Cassandra''s firm hold on her waist. They moved towards the ground where people began to cheer. Sera winced at the loud sound, which caused the migraine to greatly increase. Cassandra saw this as well, and she quickly made the sound illusionary for Sera. She closed her eyes and breathed in relief. But Cassandra didn''t stop with making the sound disappear. Unknowingly to Sera, she made a copy of her, and made the real Sera invisible. A few meters in front of Cassandra she floated. The copy was quite accurate. Cassandra was sure most people would be fooled by her. The fake Sera looked at the crowd fiercely. Her wings were still huge. Her golden armor glistened and she held her signature glaive in her right hand. The cheers slowly died down as the soldiers prepared to hear her speech. A few hours later, when Sera will regain consciousness, she will be mortified to learn about this. Cassandra really shouldn''t have used her illusion to speak to the soldiers, but Cassandra was too caught up in the glory of victory and she was really grateful to Sera. In her mind this speech was supposed to be a gift. "Soldiers! Evolved! Ascended! Today is a great day! We have won a great victory yet again, causing the United Front to back down further! But this isn''t enough! We won''t stop until every city is liberated from their oppression!" She shouted and the crowd cheered. "We killed three transcended today, and we will kill as many as needed to achieve final victory!" The crowd roared their response. "With this battle we now control all the south of Europe, and there is nothing stopping us from marching north and take the rest of their cities!" She took a quick breath and before anybody could cheer she continued. "Next we take Buda-Pest, who hid in its mountain bunker all this time, but we won''t stop there! We will take Wien, then march on to Pragua and Stuttgart! We will fight and conquer until the gates of New Paris are broken!" This time she left time for the cheers. In the crowd David looked towards Sera with concern. This behavior was very unlike her. The cohort stood around him, including Percy and Kathy. They each survived the battle, not entirely unscathed, but better then the enemy. "My soldiers! My evolved! My ascended! MY ARMY! Tonight we celebrate, tonight we mourn, tonight we pay respect to our fallen brothers and sisters! But tomorrow we move on! Their deaths weren''t in vain and until you follow my lead, I guarantee you never be alone or lost!" The crowd roared with anticipation. "I''m Seraphine! The Angel Monarch! The Deathless Phoenix! I hereby declare MERCY to the enemy soldiers and if anyone''s got an issue they can take it up with me!" With this last declaration she raised her glaive into the air, but before she could shout her warcry, the crowd began to chant. They weren''t shouting in unison. Some shouted "From The Ashes We Will Rise!", others said "Deathless Phoenix!", while a few who were followers of the Angelic Order, went down to one knee and bowed their heads. Strangely enough this action by a few people caused a landslide to happen in the crowd. The chanting slowly died down, while everyone went down on one knee. Even the enemy soldiers and evolved done the same. The only people left standing was David and his cohort, but eventually they bowed down as well. Cassandra used this opportunity, while everyone was looking away, to disappear. The illusionary copy of Sera broke into pieces, and she quickly carried the real Sera back to the artilleries and other support vehicles. Frank was there too and he quickly took her away. Cassandra trusted him enough to leave Sera in his and his group''s care. After that she flew back towards the soldiers. There was a lot of work to be done. The walls had to be patched, the gates fixed, patrols set up, citizens taken care of... It felt overwhelming and liberating at the same time. The battle was horrible and she nearly died, but somehow she felt more alive than ever. She even felt excited about getting the city back in working order! ... "Give me more, I need her brain. An old lady needs sustenance to see who shall be slain!" She didn''t exactly say it to him, but at the last word the hag clearly looked at him. He didn''t really think it to be true, but he should''ve known better... When you learn about the future, you lose the ability to escape it! The two other sisters screamed in anger, but the Empress gave no time for them to process what happened. She pulled her sword out of the man and moved towards the woman with the longsword. The Empress swung one sword, which the female defended against, but she wasn''t fast enough to stop the other from cutting her on the leg. She grunted in pain and backed away a few steps, just as another arrow sailed past the Empress. The woman didn''t understand why, but the Empress turned away and ran at the archer. She wanted to help and was about to pursue, when her legs suddenly gave out. She fell on her face, while her mind was absorbed in pain. With the help of her sword she managed to climb on one knee. She looked up just in time to see the Empress decapitate her Sister. Her strength and power was failing her, and she had no idea why. Between gasps of pain she looked down at the festering wound, but her armor was in the way, so she didn''t see much. Slowly she looked up again. The Empress stood above her with a bright smile. The woman didn''t understand how could someone look so happy after killing two people. "Come now, stop playing with your food! We have places to be!" After the Empress said that, the woman felt something moving in her body. It caused an extreme amount of pain and she felt herself trying to scream, but couldn''t since something was blocking her throat. From her mouth a snake slithered out. It looked at the woman''s terrified expression, then attacked her right eye. It bit down on it and swallowed the whole eye. The woman trembled in terror, pain and everything in-between, as the snake slowly moved and entered her skull. She felt relief when her brain got pierced and her suffering finally ended. The Acid Empress stood above the corpse for a moment, when slow claps sounded from one of the alleys. Her body stayed unmoving, full of potential energy, like a strung up arrow ready to move if needed. Read new chapters at empire The alley was dark, darker than it was supposed to be. The clapping sounds came closer as a man exited the mouth of alley. He was of average height, he had dark blue hair, with similar colored eyes. His once handsome face was mostly burnt up, which made him very ugly. "So you are the famous Acid Empress. The one who fought the Deathless Phoenix to a stalemate. It''s an honor to finally meet you!" He said while bowing deeply, but also mockingly. She was about to speak, but the burned man spoke before she could. "I think we have a common enemy. I heard you felt really angry how your last duel with the Phoenix turned out... Would you like to try again, this time on a much more ''fair'' battleground?" He asked with a cunning grin, which looked almost menacing because of his wounds. The Empress quickly put two and two together. The burn marks made it obvious why he wanted revenge on Sera, and after thinking for a bit she realized there was no reason for her to refuse. With any even scarier grin the Acid Empress said... "I''m listening!" [End of Part 1 ¨C Flames of War] Chapter 203 Triumph When Sera woke up a few hours after everything went down she was quite confused and disoriented. She was perfectly fine physically, but mentally she felt dead tired. She wanted to act lazy and stay in bed, but knew to get up and check on how everyone was doing. Luckily she didn''t even have to leave the small room she slept in. Maya ¨C¨Cthe 14 year old girl¨C¨C was in her room, watching over her wellbeing. They spent the next hour talking and she even showed Sera a video of the speech she didn''t actually make. Before Maya could finish bringing her up to speed, Sera rushed out and went to find Cassandra. She was sleeping in a makeshift room inside the city, it was close to the wall, and she still smelt the blood that was spilled a few hours ago. Without much care Sera moved on and began walking in some random direction. The clothes she wore were mundane. They were different from the ones she had on in the battle, since those got burned to crisps. It was also nothing like she usually wore. She had a pair of white running shoes, with knee-length khaki cargo shorts. The upper half of her body was covered by a size too small pink t-shirt. The whole setup looked ridiculous, but it was a great incognito. Not a single one of her soldiers recognized her, since wearing anything like this was just impossible for someone like Sera. While walking, she texted David and asked him where Cassandra was. He sent the coordinates and she quickly got to the location. The area was strange. Sera needed to check multiple times if she got the location right, but there was no mistake. The whole place was a gigantic construction sight, which was busy with hundreds or even thousands of people. She recognized this place. This was where she resurrected and killed a transcended with her explosion, but a lot had changed in the past few hours it seemed. Sera stared at the people moving around. There were also large trucks carrying different kinds of building materials. It was clear they were about to build some structure here... Something gigantic. With curiosity Sera moved towards David and Cassandra, but as it turned out they weren''t alone... When Sera got through the crowd, who were finally starting to recognize her, she was really surprised to find a third person next to the pair. They stood with their back''s to her, but she instantly recognized the girl standing next to them. Her hair was long and golden, except at the roots where it stayed its original black color. She wore a robe just like always. On its back a large seven pointed golden star marked her beliefs. As Sera stepped closer they all turned around in sync. They looked at her a bit strangely, marking her weird choice of clothing, but Sera felt even more surprised. Both David and Cassandra had small pins that looked like seven pointed stars on their clothes. With confusion Sera turned her head and looked at the working people around her. Only now did she realize that all of them had similar looking pins. Hearing that Sera didn''t know what to say. It somehow felt nice to be recognized in such way, but also very strange and uncomfortable. Eventually she decided to stay silent and watch the people move about. At this point everyone began talking between each other, while they all made subtle points towards Sera. The incognito was nice while it lasted. Stay connected via empire There was an area with a bunch of tables and different papers all placed around a group of individuals who were probably the engineers and architects working on the planning of the church. Slowly Sera began walking towards them. Behind her Cassandra, David and Lilith silently followed. The civilians noticed her a bit too late. Seeing Sera standing close by made them jump from surprise, then look at each other with confusion. They weren''t sure what to say or do, but Sera didn''t even glance at them. Her eyes were on the papers with the different measurements and plans. The cathedral was going to be gigantic. First she examined a side shot of the building, which showed its planned height of 300 hundred meters. Its gates are planned to be about the size of the actual city gates. The next one she looked was the shot drawn from above. The building''s structure will look like a seven pointed star, with seven different entrances. There was a lot Sera didn''t understand in these drawings, but when she got to the inside view she shook her head in self-deprecation. The inner building supposed to have dozens of different floors, and the whole structure will be built around a gigantic statue of Sera, which would be visible from every point inside the building. Seeing the architects rendition of her, made Sera burn the paper of the statue. The architects and engineer jumped from surprise. They began to cower and beg for their lives, but Sera knew exactly who was responsible for the weird statue design. She turned to Cassandra with an exasperated expression. Lilith just shook her head while giggling to herself, she saw and approved the statue even though she knew Sera wouldn''t like it... It was just simply too funny to not use it. The statue was supposed to be a rendition of Sera standing on top of the transcended woman''s bear head. Her glaive was placed with the butt down on the ground. Her eyes were fierce and her expression serious. These were all fine. The problem was her clothing, or more like the lack of it. She was practically naked on the picture, only a few tendrils of flames hiding her breasts and other inappropriate parts. "I don''t mind the church, even though its kind of a waste of perfectly good resources. But that statue has to change. As everyone knows I don''t care what happens to my image, but I won''t let an undignifying statue like that be raised in a place of worship!" Cassandra didn''t even look surprised, it was like she knew that Sera wouldn''t approve of it. "I understand. Then I guess you just have to pose for a picture, in selected clothes, make-up, facial expression and everything else. Yes, I do think that''s a much better idea. Thank you for suggesting it!" After this David, Cassandra and Lilith all began to laugh, while Sera just shook her head again. "How the fuck did I walk into that..." She grumbled under her breath, then walked away to inspect the city and its defenses. Chapter 204 Change of Clothes As Sera began walking away from the construction site, Lilith quickly ran after her. A lot has happened in these past hours that Sera had no idea about. They walked side by side for a few minutes. The area near the construction site was packed with thousands upon thousands of people. Some were soldiers, some were construction workers, some were devotees, but most of them were simple civilians. Luckily they didn''t yet realize who she was, so they got past the crowd easily. Sera told David and Cassandra, that she was going to inspect the defenses, but that was a lie. After about ten minutes of silence, she subtly motioned for Lilith to lead her to the Angelic Order''s hideout. The large underground structure was in the middle of the city, quite far from their current position. Luckily they managed to catch a ride from a nearby convoy that was making its way to the western side of the city. They didn''t question where Sera was going with a random priest, and they tried not to stare at her weird choices of clothes. Stay tuned for updates on empire Sera was still emotionless, but even her nerves were reaching their end. It was really annoying that everyone kept staring at her, but she couldn''t use her armor since her essence regen would decrease by a lot. Without much choice she and Lilith got off a bit sooner than anticipated. They entered a random clothing store. The building only recently opened up, since everyone hid in their homes for the battle happening a few kilometers away. The store was mostly empty with only a pair of cashiers talking to each other. Sera approached them with Lilith a few steps behind. She already placed her hood back on and her arms were hidden in the long sleeves of her robe. From Sera''s angle nothing could be made out of the girl. The shopkeepers were both female about the same age or a bit younger than Sera. While walking towards them, they looked her up and down once, then began to snicker and giggle between themselves. Lilith made an annoyed grunt behind Sera, but she made no move or said nothing. Instead she watched with a hidden smirk what''s about to happen. It was clear that neither of the civilian girls recognized Sera, they didn''t even seem to know that she was an evolved. Eventually Sera stopped a few meters away and looked down at the two girls. They were short, not as much as Lilith, but their height wasn''t even close to Sera''s own. Their hairs were made of different colors, one had a mix of golds and browns. The other was more colorful, with the chosen colors being red, green and black. Their clothes were the same revealing style as Cassandra''s, which probably meant they cared about fashion. They both were above average, but not particularly beautiful. At least that''s what Sera thought, but her view of beauty was quite skewed, since she was always with evolved who were generally better looking than normal people. "ENOUGH!" She turned towards Lilith, who finally noticed that she went too far. "Lilith we had already talked about this! This is your second mistake two times in a day! Am I really that worthless to you?... ANSWER ME!" Hearing Sera''s shout Lilith''s bones trembled. This was something she never felt before. It was horrible. Worse than anything she ever felt. Lilith knew that Sera wasn''t really angry, only disappointed, which made it even more awful. "No, my Lady!... You are the most important person for me!" She said it with pure fear and devotion, fully expecting anything Sera would ask of her. Even if she got thrown out of the Order, her devotion wouldn''t lessen. *Sigh* "Dammit Lilith... You have to act better then them! That''s the whole point of the Order! We don''t fight and act like they do! We do everything not just to defeat them, but defeat them while staying on the moral high-ground!... What''s the point of this war, if we lose ourselves fighting it?" Lilith slowly looked up at Sera. Her face wasn''t angry like she thought it would be, or even disappointed, but concerned and worried. Sera slowly reached out one hand and placed it on Lilith''s shoulder. "What happened Lilith? This isn''t how you usually behave." Her voice was full of kindness and warmth, nothing like how she previously spoke. It was so surprising, that Lilith''s mask broke for a moment and a small tear exited her eyes. "My Brothers and Sisters... They died... I couldn''t protect them..." With these few words, the mask fully disappeared and she began crying. Sera wasn''t exactly sure what she was talking about, but she knew that it was neither the time or place to ask for specifics. Instead she just leaned forward a bit and gave Lilith a big motherly hug, letting Lilith cry on her shoulder. They spent the next few minutes like that, but eventually it was time to leave. Sera quickly gathered a few clothing items and changed into them. She wore a black leather jacket, with a pair of black jeans combined with black military style boots and a t-shirt that had some band''s name written on it. It had a skull, which she liked. While she changed clothes Lilith made sure to pay a lot of money as compensation for the two cashiers. The only real issue was that Lilith had no real concept of what anything''s worth, and she was using Sera''s watch to pay. They left the store a few minutes later. Leaving enough money for the girls, that they wouldn''t need to work for the rest of their lives. After Sera and Lilith left the two of them just sat down in their chairs and stared at the ceiling. They were really fucking confused about what the hell just happened, and now they had no idea what to do. Eventually a few hours later they closed down the store, and went home. After this event they and their family''s became deep believers in the Angelic Order, and they would even volunteer to be part of Heaven''s Army... But that won''t happen for a long time yet... Chapter 205 Old Eyes The hideout was very large, and it really begged the question how the previous leadership haven''t noticed it. The whole place was hidden under a large residential area. There was only one entrance, but a lot of different exits. To enter you would need to go into a specific room inside the basement of a random apartment complex, which had a loyalist sitting at the front desk all day. About three people rotated as receptionists, and all of them would report if someone was snooping around. Entering the hideout wasn''t simple either. One had to disable a bunch of different deadly traps and alarms. Lilith led Sera inside the main room of the safehouse. It looked like a mix between a large cave, a temple and a gym. The design was quite fascinating to look at. The middle was dominated by a large shrine, with a huge seven pointed star atop it. Sera was hundred percent certain, that after the statue was made of her, every one of the churches and worship areas would build one. Cassandra was already bothering her, trying to ask the exact time for the photoshoot or whatever she called it. At some point Sera just started ignoring her texts. Around the shrine in one direction there were chairs facing a raised podium. This was the place where they congregated each day or so. Sera didn''t really know much about her own religion, which meant she had no idea what happened in these masses. Another large area on the opposite of the chairs was taken up by many different gym equipment and mostly training mats. Sera and Lilith stood atop an alcove about fifteen meters above the actual main room. They watched as the future prospects of the Angelic Order beat the shit out of each other on the mats. There was about two dozen of them, but their numbers would grow exponentially after the recent victory. This reminded Sera that she still needed to ask David to reveal a few things to Cassandra. It would''ve been amazing to get a transcended onto their side. They were currently really lacking any heavy hitters, which would hopefully change when the others arrived. But that will still be at least a month from now. It was strange to think about it. Sera had been planning all this for more than a year and the time was finally close. It filled her with a weird sense of accomplishment and fear. She had made the necessary plans, and thought of most outcomes and possibilities, but there was just simply too many variables and unknown information. Planning for the future can only go so far, at some point she and everyone else will have to improvise and that''s when shit will go down. For now she let go of these thoughts and instead focused on what Lilith had said to her. There were twelve ascended from the Angelic Order in New Constantinople, or at least that''s how many was before the siege. But after everything calmed down a bit, they found a Brother and two Sisters brutally killed. Lilith showed pictures of the scenes and it was instantly clear who was the culprit. After quick message David had confirmed her suspicions... The Acid Empress was here! "I didn''t say nobody will hunt her, but we have other priorities too. For example we still haven''t found traces of Dwight and his group. It''s also still a question what happened to Cassandra during the fight." Sera said while still watching the blood drip. "Yes, I heard of it too... It''s quite strange, just abruptly losing her powers for a fraction of a second. Also the fact that the singular second nearly cost her life, since it happened the exact worst time... It wasn''t some coincidence or fluke, but deliberate!" Answered Lilith while staring at the mats below. The evolved who trained there started to clear away, their training session was over it seemed. "It is concerning and we have to be careful. I will ask the Black Crusaders with the help of Percy and Kathy, plus a few members of the Ouroboros Cohort, to try and find them all..." As she spoke her usually empty face was full of badly hidden fear and uncertainty. "What''s wrong, my Lady?" Asked Lilith while looking up at her deity. Sera just sighed and stared at her shrine down there. "It''s the Acid Empress... She is too unpredictable and powerful. Not knowing where she is, but fully aware that she is nearby... I''m doubtful. Things are about to speed up, and it will get much more dangerous from now on!" She said, but Lilith saw through her lies. Well, they weren''t really lies, but she was definitely not telling her the whole truth. Sera took a glance at Lilith''s doubtful and worried expression, and she laughed self-deprecatingly. "I''m scared Lilith..." She said eventually. Her voice stayed frim, but it was visible in her eyes, a rarely seen emotion... Fear... "I''m scared because if I have to fight with the Acid Empress again, I will lose..." Lilith was about to start and object, but Sera held up her hand, which quickly shut her down. "Please, let me finish... She isn''t stronger always, but she is much more cunning! Back in Sofira we fought, while both of us were unprepared, but it still nearly cost me my life... She will never fight me while unprepared ever again!" Lilith still wasn''t fully convinced, but saying that wouldn''t be helpful. Read the latest on empire Instead she turned her head towards the ceiling. Some of the younger evolved spent their time decorating it with different drawings. They were the stories people told each other about Sera, but a few weren''t from the past two years. A few people remember Sera, before she became the Deathless Phoenix... Lilith stared at them while thinking. Eventually her eyes stopped on a very peculiar one. It depicted a derpy looking creature, with a bird-like front and horse-like back. The strange creature looked very proud and majestic, even though the drawing was quite awful. Sera was still staring at the lonesome shrine. But as Lilith stepped closer she turned her head, and looked at her with curiosity. Lilith smiled brightly as she spoke. "If you are truly afraid of being unable to defeat her alone, or getting ambushed, why don''t you ask for help?" She said while pointing at the picture of Kastral. Sera stared at it for a few seconds. Her previous fearful expression was almost fully gone, leaving only contempt and cruelty in its place... Chapter 206 Going to Sleep A week has passed in relative normalcy. Currently Sera and everyone else sat in a large room around a table. It was inside the mansion Cassandra has chosen for herself, but most of them lived in the same building as well, since there was no point in having their own. The building was huge with about two dozen different size bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. There were five different kitchens and many different dining and recreational rooms. The mansion was so big it took one person a few minutes to walk from one side to the other. The room they were in right now was previously a recreational room with a few different tables for games. But to Cassandra''s dismay they changed the setup quite a bit. They took out every non essential furniture and brought in a large round table in their stead. Maya ¨C¨Cthe little girl in Frank''s group¨C¨C turned one wall into a whole different variety of monitors and TVs. They each showed something different. Some were hooked up to city camera''s, or other important pictures, like maps and such. The whole place was nice and organized, for which they thanked Cassandra''s maid. Her name was Agnes, and saying that she was just a maid was quite the understatement. She was the one who took care of everything mundane. Starting from the house, their clothes, laundry, food, cleaning, basically everything that they had no actual time for. Agnes was more of a housekeeper than a maid, she hired actual maids for these mundane tasks, but she made sure that all of them done their assigned tasks perfectly. Not like any of them dared to make mistakes. Working in the house that contained the whole city''s leadership was a great honor for all of them. They were very respectful and shy. Sera only met a few in the past week, and only some of them passed out from stress. Around the table six people sat. With the fireplace to her back Sera was leaning back in her chair. To her left was Cassandra, next to her David, then Frank and Jill. To Sera''s right sat a new person, one that many only recently got accustomed with. Your journey continues at empire Lilith wore her usual robes, but there was something new on her too. She finally got a watch, which she hated. Once she got late from a meeting, because she didn''t know the exact time, so Sera made sure she began wearing one. Lilith wanted to grumble, but with the watch she had gotten another gift. Both her left and right hand now had one mark on each. Sera made them with her flames, burned right into her skin, which was a special kind of honor for Lilith. It was a seven pointed star... Who could''ve guessed... The burning hurt, but her excitement was so big that her pain receptors malfunctioned. After that she spent hours showing to everyone in the Angelic Order, it was really cute, like a girl getting a new dress and showing it off to all her friends and family. All of her Brothers and Sisters, oohed and awed. They even began asking her how to get one themselves, which proved to be a great motivational opportunity. Sera told each that in order to get one, they would have to prove themselves! After speaking, Sera turned away and began to try to think, it was getting harder each day. From her right Lilith gently placed her hand on Sera''s. Her red veined eyes snapped to Lilith instantly, but she didn''t pull her hands away. Lilith tried no to flinch at this sudden movement, or from the look on Sera''s face. "I think you should sleep..." Said Lilith in her gentlest voice, but Sera response came quickly... "I don''t need sleep, that''s what death is for!" They didn''t understand what she meant by that, but how could they... Non of them felt the calmness and quietness of the sweet embrace of death. It was both liberating and tranquil. Sera''s mind was so absorbed in its insanity, that she thought killing herself just to get some respite would be a good idea. Cassandra looked at each of the worried faces, then spoke with anger, that she didn''t even knew she had... "I had enough! Sera, as your superior I order you to go to your room and sleep! I forbid you from leaving your room for the next two days! If you need anything send a message to Agnes, but you aren''t allowed to leave! UNDERSTAND?!" The people looked at Cassandra with pure surprise, but nobody was as shocked as her. For a moment she became a bit scared that Sera would be angry at her, but her fears were unwarranted. Sera stared into Cassandra''s eyes with pure boredom, and without any prompt she placed her head down on the table and passed out... Everyone stared at her sleeping form in pure bewilderment, then eventually they all began to laugh... Non of them thought they would see the famous Deathless Phoenix get defeated by one of the most mundane things, exhaustion. While laughing David and Jill gently lifted her and they brought Sera to her room. As they entered, they realized just how little it was used. Her clothes weren''t even put away, they were just haphazardly thrown all over the place, which meant the maids were afraid to even enter her room. The bed was perfectly made, like she never slept in it, which was an actual possibility. After getting her tucked in, which was quite funny, since nobody thought that they will put the famous Angel Monarch to bed, like a child who tried to stay awake, but couldn''t. With this small turn of events the meeting ended abruptly. Everyone went to their own rooms, except Lilith. She stayed with Sera, and even ordered some of the nightly maids to clean the room. The few men and women walked in the room and cleaned everything without looking up even once. Their eyes never left the floor, or the object they were holding. While leaving Lilith commended them for their professionalism, then sent them on their way. As Lilith stayed inside the room, she asked some her Brothers and Sisters to take watch outside. They would immediately report if anyone unwanted was approaching. They spent the next 14 hours like this, that was when Sera finally decided to wake up... Chapter 207 Grounded As Sera lazily turned on her other side for the tenth time in the past few minutes, she finally decided that she had enough sleep. With tiredness still in her eyes, she reached to her nightstand and was about to turn on the light, when she realized that her eyes had already auto adjusted to the room''s brightness. She chuckled self-deprecatingly, then turned her head towards the other side of the room and she nearly jumped out of her skin from surprise. In the corner Lilith sat. Sera''s room was large and it even had a small living room area, with a couch and two armchairs. Lilith turned one of the chairs, so it faced Sera''s bed. "Dammit Lilith! You scared the fuck out of me!" Grumbled Sera as she began to climb out of bed. Lilith just laughed to herself in the corner. "Good morning, my Lady! Was your sleep good?" She said with a mischievous chuckle. Sera stared towards her with narrowed sleepy eyes, then yawned and stretched her arms. "Yes, it was great... How long was I asleep?" She asked, then promptly laid back on the bed. She stared at the high ceiling, while listening to Lilith''s answer. "It was about 14 hours... Did you have any good dreams?" She asked with a giggle. Sera''s head snapped to her, and she stared at Lilith suspiciously. "Why do you ask?" "Oh, no reason at all... Its just sounded like you really enjoyed yourself..." It took a hot minute for Sera to remember what she was referring to, and when she did her face turned a bit red from embarrassment and shame. "What?! You can blush!?... There''s no fucking way... I thought you were emotionless! Emotionless people don''t blush!" Lilith said, her voice way too loud for Sera''s recently awakened ears. Sera stayed silent about the dreams she had... Most of them consisted of her killing or getting killed by the Empress, but what Lilith was referring to... Was a bit different. Sera couldn''t remember the last time she had erotic dreams, or if she ever had one, but it seemed like her tiredness took over and showed her deepest desires, even though she wasn''t feeling like that anymore. Her embarrassment and shame didn''t originate from the fact that she had such dreams, but because of who she had the dreams with. There were more than one during the night, most of them with Bran, but some... Some of them were with someone else... She couldn''t see the woman''s face, but she knew her very well, at least it felt like it. Her memories were still gone, but Kastral and her watch''s history recorded a lot... She knew this mystery woman''s name... Bea... Just thinking about her and what she done to her in the dream caused the shame to deepen. Her mind and heart was confused. She knew that the last time she was in an emotional state she confessed her love to Bran, but with the end of the year looming by, Sera couldn''t help herself. She was in doubt. Did she make the right choice by saying it? At that moment she felt like it, but currently there was only hollowness inside her heart. The biggest question and fear she had was... How will Bea react? Will she accept the current situation, or will she get angry. Will she not help them because of Sera''s stupid emotions? Her mind was absorbed in these thoughts as she finally got out of bed and walked inside the bathroom. The bath was already filled with cold water, just how she liked it. ... As Cassandra made her way towards Sera''s room, she noticed many strange things. There was a bunch of maids moving back and forth from the room, each carried either an empty bowl or other container, while others headed the same direction as she did, bringing copious amounts of snacks. With confusion Cassandra entered the room as another maid exited. It was a girl who made a small bow and mumbled a greeting, then she quickly hurried away, presumably for more snacks. The sight in front of Cassandra was truly picturesque. Sera was splayed out on the couch, the only clothing she wore was a very long gray shirt that reached below her knees. The shirt was very dirty, covered in crumbs and other snack leftovers. Sera''s mouth was in a similar state. She was constantly chewing, while she stared at the holo-screen on the wall. The small table in front of the couch was covered in different kinds of bowls. They were filled with dozens of different snacks ranging from chips, cookies, chocolate, crackers, a bowl full of a mix of nuts, and there were even one filled with fruits. "Come on! What the fuck are you doing! You should''ve attacked, there was a clear opening!" Sera shouted at the screen, while spittle and food remnants flew from her mouth. Curiously Cassandra turned to it as well. The holo-screen showed two individuals fighting in a duel. This was one of the most famous TV dramas. It was called ''Through Sweat and Tears''. The premise was that the main guy loses his lover, because an Evolved decided to do with her what he wanted. After learning that, the main character goes on a journey to try and kill the Evolved who raped and murdered his lover. The whole point of the series is that, he as a regular human tries and eventually succeeds to kill the Evolved in a ''fair'' duel. The concept wasn''t the worst in Cassandra''s opinion, and there are a lot of interesting points made by the show. It supposed to be a social commentary about the Evolved, and how they shouldn''t have so much power over regular human''s. The thought was noble, but the execution wasn''t the best. People don''t watch these shows to learn more about societal issues, they watch them to forget about the real world. The show''s drama part is quite awful, the fight scenes are pretty good in Cassandra''s opinion, but Sera obviously wasn''t agreeing with her. "You DUMBASS! That was a clean killing blow!?! How the fuck can you miss something so obvious?! Oh my god, are non of you know how to properly parry and riposte?... That''s what you call a block?! If one of my soldiers fought like you I would execute them on the spot!" Cassandra began to giggle. She never saw this side of Sera, but she couldn''t get enough of it. As she was about to scream another round of insults to the screen, Cassandra stepped forward and took a strawberry from the very full fruit bowl. Sera took one glance at her, but then she turned back to the fight, seemingly oblivious or uncaring about her appearance. "Who are you rooting for?" Asked Cassandra, while turning back towards the fight. The moves were way too over choreographed, it was very unnatural, but at least entertaining to watch. "Neither, I want to kill both of them! People who can''t use swords shouldn''t fight with them, its disrespectful towards the weapon!" Cassandra laughed at that, then took the bowl of fruits in her hand and pushed Sera''s legs away, so she could sit on the couch as well. After that they both continued to watch the show, while making comments about its stupidity. Chapter 208 Cure for Insanity Sera and Cassandra spent the next hours watching a bunch of different channels. At some point they moved from the couch and laid down on the bed. They even asked Maya to make the Holo-screen''s projection bigger. She did so, while watching with a bewildered expression as Sera and Cassandra obnoxiously talked and laughed together. The bed had a bunch of different bowls all over it, and quite a few of them had spilled their content''s onto the nice white sheets. The leaders'' state wasn''t much better. They both wore extremely long shirts, that covered their bodies, and it was filthy. They each ate copious amounts of snacks, and at some point they ordered drinks too. Now the two drank the famous Critter Bite, making them both inebriated. Maya done her work quickly and soon she left leaving the two women to do whatever they were doing. Inside the room Sera and Cassandra watched some weird drama about a human falling in love with a robot. This was one of the dramas that were a leftover from before the Apocalypse. It was full of references and jokes neither of them understood, but they laughed anyway. Stay connected via empire Most scenes were very graphic too, especially the romance, but they just laughed even harder at those. Nobody, not even the showrunners knew that this drama was actually a porn series from the past. It was so old that even the few individuals who survived both the Last War and the Apocalypse had no idea. That''s exactly why the sex scenes were really graphic, but it wasn''t like either Sera or Cassandra cared. They were way too drunk, and just laughed it off as one of the past era''s quirks. "Hey Sera, would you fuck a robot?" Asked Cassandra, with a bit of burp and slurred words. Her transcended nature was handling the alcohol much better than Sera, who was half asleep already. She turned towards Cassandra with a goofy smile. Her vision was pretty foggy, but it eventually focused on the woman lying next to her. "Well Cass... If they move like that... Then I would fuck it till it explodes!" She said while making an explosion sound, making both of them burst out in laughter. "What about you?" She asked after the laughter died down. She was currently devouring a whole chocolate bar, which was about a thousand calories in and of itself, not like it mattered for her metabolism. "I don''t know about that... I''m still a virgin, and starting with something like THAT... I would like David to be my first!" She proclaimed proudly, causing Sera to giggle. "And why haven''t you had sex with him yet... Hmmmm???" As Sera spoke she reached to her side, taking her eyes off the porn. She then proceeded to poke Cass''s huge breast, which caused her to yelp in surprise. "Does he not like your boobs... I think they are a bit too big for comfort, but everyone has their own preferences..." She then continued to poke them, while Cass just chuckled, which made them bouncy. "It''s not them... He will probably love them... We just hadn''t had time, with all these things going on, like the hunt..." Before Cass could say anything else Sera placed her poking finger on her lips. "Who is he?" Asked Sera, while pointing at the elderly gentleman. "That''s professor Collins, he is the most famous scientist in the world. He specializes in evolution, he was the one who helped me choose the specific monsters to evolve with!" Cass seemed to be quite excited to see him on the screen. He was a very kind and nice gentleman, but he was also very introverted. If Cass didn''t have the right family background, he would''ve never helped her. They are actually good friends and still keep in touch. Cass noticed Sera''s silence, which caused her to look at Sera. Her eyes were narrowed and she seemed to be in deep focus. Slowly a small smile crept onto her alluring face. "He knows about it too... Interesting..." Sera talked to herself not noticing Cass''s weird stare. "What does he know?" Asked Cass, while looking between the Holo-screen and Sera. She didn''t answer her question and instead sent a quick message to Bran. Sera: Tell Mary that she should find a person named Professor Collins. He could be great help to us, if she can convince him to help! Bran instantly answered with a quick ''okay''. He never questioned these kinds of orders, he never really questioned any orders to be honest, but he did ask for specifics a lot of the times. Cass didn''t ask any more questions about what she was doing. Cass just kind of went with the flow, and changed channels to where one of her favorite dramas was playing. They spent the next few hours watching the Holo-screen, talking, and generally having fun. When the Critter Bite arrived again, they got drunk yet again, but eventually all parties needed to end. It was well past midnight by the time they became too tired to continue. They didn''t even turn of the screen before falling asleep on the same filthy bed. Sera felt strange throughout the day. It was fun to turn off her brain for once and just do something without any real purpose other than her own leisure. Unknowingly the previous buzzing that haunted her every waking day, went away. In her drunken stupor she didn''t even notice its absence, but deep down she knew and it felt amazing. Who knew that the cure for insanity is just to simply not care about everything at the same time, and just let go of all your problems for at least a day! Tomorrow she would go back to work, since that''s what she truly loved to do, but she also knew that this wouldn''t be the last time when she let go of herself! With these strange thoughts she fell asleep next to her friend. At some point David would visit them throughout the night. He would watch them sleep peacefully for a while, then he would place a blanket over the two, and leave them to it. Chapter 209 Mother The two party girls were knocked out until midday, when Agnes finally had enough and she ordered the maids to start cleaning the room. Sera opened her sleepy eyes and looked at the maids moving around, taking all the dirty dishes away and cleaning everything. Without much care for the ruckus, she burrowed her head in the soft pillow she was sleeping on. Only after Cass yelped in surprise did Sera realize what the soft pillow actually was. With a bit embarrassed, but mostly tired expression she turned away, and hid under the covers. Cass just giggled next to her, and done the same. They tried to sleep in as much as possible, but Agnes didn''t let them. She ordered a few of the ascended that lived inside the house to take the leaders into the bathroom. They got unceremoniously dumped into the bath filled with cold water. Cass gasped and began cursing, while Sera just felt great. She always loved cold water, since it helped calm down her turbulent mind. Eventually Sera fell asleep in the bath, even though everyone was moving and shouting all around her. The people left her alone and after a few minutes the bathroom cleared of any unwanted people. Only Sera, Cass and Agnes remained. "How is she doing?" Asked Agnes after everyone left. She didn''t know Sera well, but a person had to be blind to not see Sera''s struggle. She couldn''t imagine how much burden she carried each day on those slender shoulders. It was truly inspiring. "I think she is doing better, but it''s clear that she never takes time off and only works..." Cass answered, she had already taken her dirty shirt off and currently she was waiting for the bath water to warm up. The bath was huge and it could fit about five people without any of them touching. It was also luxurious and had a heating feature, so you wouldn''t need to refill the whole thing with hot water. "That''s not good... She needs to learn to have fun in life and ask for help..." Agnes said while she began to peel of the disgusting gray long shirt from Sera. Find more to read on empire "I agree, but I don''t think that will be easy for her. It is quite sad really, since she always had to rely on herself, and had to put up a front, she only has her eyes on her goals... It is unhealthy and it will lead to either death or failure..." Spoke Cass, while she slowly eased inside the now smoldering hot water. With a moan of pleasure she full submerged her body, until only her head stuck out from the water. Her long purple hair swam atop the water, spreading out all around her. She was naked, but since it was only Agnes inside she didn''t feel even a little bit uncomfortable. Agnes was the only real family Cass had ever had. She was like a mother to her, the only real mother she got to know. And it wasn''t like Agnes had never seen her naked. She was the one to give her baths after some extreme nights out, where Cass had drunk herself to unconsciousness. Without even thinking about it Agnes moved and began to clean the sleeping form of Sera. "What do you think, will she help us?" Asked Agnes, while applying soap to Sera''s arms and shoulder. Cass stared at the ceiling with a wide grin as she said... "Oh yes... I can''t tell you what she is planning, but let''s just say that the killing of my mother is part of it!" Agnes looked very surprised, but her hands hadn''t stopped their cleaning. She applied soap to her chest and stomach without any shame or particular care. Cass slowly turned to the side, her pink eyes focusing on Sera''s golden ones. She had a small smile, but her eyes were a bit confused. She looked herself over and was a little surprised to find every part of her clean. "Thank you Agnes, it''s very kind of you to help me out!" Said Sera after turning around. She didn''t seem even a little bit embarrassed by her nakedness, but neither Cass or Agnes said anything about it. Agnes smiled brightly and warmly, a true motherly smile. She bobbed her head a bit as acceptance for Sera''s thanks. After that she turned back towards Cass and she let herself float atop the water as well. "So, what''s the plan for today?" Asked Sera after a few minutes of silence. "I have no idea... We should probably check on the construction and the soldiers. I would also like to make a few announcements to my citizens, and we still have to prepare for my mother''s arrival!" Sera turned her head and stared at Cass with confusion. "Who is your mother?" She asked, and only now did Cass realize that she never even told this to anybody here. It wasn''t surprising since she mostly referred to her as ''That Bitch'' or ''The Whore''. Still she felt a bit ashamed about it, mostly because they would all learn this fact a few days before her arrival, giving them no time to mentally prepare. "Nobody special, you probably won''t even know her." Said Agnes with a giggle, causing Sera''s interest to deepen. It was clear she was sarcastic, which meant that Cass''s mother was probably very famous. Cass looked a bit uncomfortable, but after taking a deep breath she told her this secret. "You know of the Stellar named Amygdala right?" She asked with a meek voice. Next to her Sera laughed, understanding what she was saying. "That bitch is your mother?" As she said it Agnes began to die from laughter and she nearly fell from her chair. Cass just straightened herself and stopped floating. She stared at Sera, like she was a ghost or something. "You really think that, people usually think of her as a hero or something, since she fought so many battles and killed so many of ''our enemies''." She made quotation marks with her hands, while speaking. Sera just laughed and said... "Oh yes... Enemies... No civilians at all... That''s what they tell on the news anyway... She probably killed ten times as many civilians than soldiers during this war, and they weren''t collateral at all. She just loves to kill and watch other people suffer... Sadistic Whore!" She spit those last words and her face twisted into an angry grimace. Agnes began to laugh even harder, while Cass''s eyes turned teary. Suddenly she jumped on Sera and gave her a huge hug. "Thank you... I always hate when people talk about her like she is good or something... She is truly one of the worst if not the worst being''s I have ever met!" Cass pulled Sera in a very tight hug, causing her to blush, like really blush. Sera''s whole head turned bright red and she didn''t know what to do. On one hand she wanted to support her friend, but on the other, it was very strange to hug someone naked. Eventually she decided to embrace her embarrassment and let Cass cry a bit on her naked shoulder. Chapter 210 Message Delivery A few day later Sera, David and Cass stood at the cathedral''s construction site. The workers were making great progress and currently the three of them stood next to Sera''s feet. In the past few days they had that promised photoshoot, and now Sera''s statue was already getting built. Currently they were done with her feet and ankles, but more were getting built each day. She cringed a bit just by thinking about it. She argued with Cass for over an hour about what she would wear and what pose she would stand in for the 3D rendition of her body. Eventually they made a compromise. Sera wore a golden dress the exact same color as her hair. She managed to convince Cass so her cleavage wouldn''t be showing, but in turn her arms, shoulders and nearly her whole back was. Also, to her utter dismay, she couldn''t wear shoes, so her feet stayed bare. Her rendition had a face of a serious woman, but also a kind one. It was strange and a bit unnatural in Sera''s opinion, but Cass and Lilith really liked it, so the facial expression stayed. For the position they decided to show Sera''s two most symbolistic parts, her glaive and her flames. In her right hand the glaive stood straight, with its butt a bit off the ground. Her left hand was placed at a 90 degree angle with her palm facing upwards. They didn''t rendition the flames, and instead they would build a gigantic pyre in her palm, which would have actual flames burning inside it, just like the Everlasting Bonfire in New Athens. Sera stared at her feet for a few more moments, but as the atmosphere changed, she turned back towards the front of the church, where the skeletal structure of the walls and one of the gates was already standing. She stood on Cass''s right side, while David stood on her left. It wasn''t the first time he will meet Amygdala, but it will be the first time since he began dating her daughter. Cass hid her trembling hands behind her back, not like it mattered. Her whole body was shaking from fear and anger. She haven''t spoken much about her childhood, but Sera had great imagination and she knew how bad Amygdala was. Agnes was the one who told a few stories about her. After hearing only a few of them Sera became glad that she was an orphan and not a child of a living monster, like Amygdala. Sera stared at the gate where something was finally happening. They were waiting in this place for the past hour, since that''s when she was supposed to show up. Beforehand they stopped the constructions and sent every worker away. Sera didn''t want any of them to get hurt or permanently damaged by Amygdala''s presence... Or killed on a whim by her. In the gateway a dark aura coalesced into the shape of a two meter tall female. She stood naked, her only clothing being her extremely long black hair. It covered her breasts and nether area. It was also constantly moving around, like a snake weaving its way over her sinful body. Her bare feet weren''t touching the ground. She walked a few centimeters above them, on air. As she took one step and her aura finally appeared as well. Next to Sera Cass and David fell to their knees, their faces absorbed in pure terror. They haven''t even noticed Sera''s bored expression, but Amygdala did. With a couple of steps she arrived a few meters in front of the three. She stood a lot further away, but with each step reality bent, giving her the appearance of a mirage. Also upon closer look Sera saw that no part of her body was actually touching the statue. Amygdala only stared at Sera as she spoke... "Daughter, take your dog for a walk, while I speak with the little angel alone!" She said with a grin. Cass and David looked at each other, then at Sera. They didn''t want to leave her alone, with Amygdala, but after a nod from Sera they left while giving her pitying looks. When the place was clear of everyone other than Amygdala and Sera, she spoke again. Her face had nothing left of her previous grins and giggles. She stared down at Sera, like she was only an ant compared to her. "I have a message to give you." She said spitting out each word with more and more annoyance, like it was a very lowly thing to deliver it. "How is Harold doing?" Asked Sera with a wide grin. Her eyes contained no humor, and the left side of her face ¨C¨Cwhich was still withered¨C¨C wasn''t working properly. Amygdala''s eyes narrowed, which caused Sera''s body to tremble. Her focused gaze was enough to cause a small amount of pain in her mind. From her right nostril a trickle of blood made its way down to her mouth. "Did I give you the permission to speak? I will deliver his message, then I can finally leave this shithole and continue to have fun on the frontlines!" Her deep black eyes turned reminiscent, as she probably imagined some new way to kill and torture innocents. Sera learnt from her mistake. Using her hands, she cleaned off the blood the best she could, then stared at Amygdala. It took her a few minutes to get back to reality and continue delivering the message. "Since you finally saturated your core, he will need you to stay with him for an extended period. He wants to finish your testing before you advance to transcended!" With that she began fading out of existence, leaving the last parts of her message echoing through the empty site. "He will come soon, so get everything done here as fast as possible. You will be staying with him for about a week, but probably more... I hope you have lots of fun there!" The last thing Sera heard was Amygdala''s Mad cackle as she went back to the western front... After Amygdala left, Sera just stood there silently. Her eyes stared at the ground, while her hands trembled by her side. The memories of all those past experiences flooding her mind. She nearly jumped out of her skin, when a hand touched hers. Sera''s head snapped to the side where Cass and David stood. She must''ve been standing here for a long time if they dared to return. Cass said nothing. She just forced out a smile, and while holding her hand, she led Sera away... Chapter 211 A Walk in the Park Staying hidden in New Constantinople turned out to be a really easy task. Knowing Sera it should''ve been way harder, but as it turned out only a small portion of the city was actually occupied by citizens. Most of the place was either abandoned or ruins. The seven of them found a large house that was very unstable to be inside, and they used the basement of this structure for the past week. The basement was quite small, definitely not large enough for seven people, but they made do with what they had. Hector sat in one of the corners, skulking as he usually done. Dwight and his group were laughing and drinking in the middle. They had a small table, where they could play poker and other dumb games. Currently they waited for the Empress to come back and make her usual report. In the past week they were quite busy, and soon they would be able to make their move. Just by thinking about it Hector''s hand trembled in rage. He would enjoy quite thoroughly when he would get his hands on that traitorous bitch! As he was imagining his revenge, suddenly a rumble came from upstairs and soon the previously blocked off door to the basement opened. The woman walked down the stairs, like she owned the place. She looked at the five people sitting at the table with disgust, then she went to her small cot at the side and began to undress. She was very comfortable with her body and she didn''t seem to care as everyone stared at her. She changed out of the usual stretchy body suit and instead put on a short skirt and a t-shirt. When she was done, she turned back to the people, with even more contempt than before. "How was your outing? Did you learn anything new?" Asked Dwight with a small annoying smile. His face didn''t move right, because of the burn marks, it looked very unnerving in Hector''s opinion and it gave Dwight a much more terrifying aura. The Empress leaned down to the bag she had been carrying and through its contents onto the table. The head rolled along its length until it reached Dwight. From its eye sockets two average sized snakes slithered out. They looked at the people around, then moved back towards their mistress. They slithered onto her arm, making sounds of love and comfort, then they moved behind her back and disappeared. Dwight hadn''t taken his eyes off of the Empress, but he was too curious. The head in front of him was a woman''s. Her expression was one of pure terror and pain, which wasn''t surprising. "Who is she?" Asked Hector from the corner. "She ''was'' one of the maids working in the Phoenix''s mansion." With that the Empress moved back and lied down on her cot. "And what did you learn from this little bird?" Asked Dwight while lifting the head by her short hair. This was a very peculiar hotel. In the basement it had an illegal brothel, and every room was soundproofed. The Empress used her watch to enter the room. She headed straight for the bathroom. It was covered in blood and on the floor a naked woman''s body laid. Her head was missing and her body was full of puncture wounds where her snakes burrowed inside her. She looked at it for a moment, her face solemn... "I''m sorry for this. You probably deserved much better, but in life we have to make sacrifices... I hope you find peace somewhere..." After whispering that to the dead maid''s body, she moved out of the bathroom and began to change her clothing. On the bed the maid''s whole outfit was placed in a neat pile. She quickly took of her skirt and shirt, then put on the long black and white dress. She tied her hair back, and applied a lot of make-up. Looking inside the mirror her whole appearance was altered, so nearly nobody would realize who she really was. With that done she left the hotel behind and headed towards the gigantic mansion where Sera and the others lived. From the maid she acquired most of the building''s layout. She knew where everyone''s room was, which would prove to be really helpful. While walking towards the house a few evolved tried to stop and ID her, but they ended up dying without even uttering a single word. She only left broken stone and dust behind. She walked inside the building without any real issues. The Empress moved with a bit hurried steps, like she was late from somewhere. The other maids and ascended didn''t question her presence. They took one glance at her, then moved on. It was all going perfectly, until she found herself facing Sera and Cass. They were comfortably talking, while moving along the corridor with slow steps. The Empress took one look at them, then turned around and started walking away fast. They didn''t even notice her. She was breathing really fast and her hands were trembling. She tried to calm down, but just by taking one glimpse at her most hated enemy, her emotions started to affect her mind. As she basically ran away, she found herself in a predicament. She needed a place to calm down a bit, but she was currently standing in a dead-end, and behind her she heard Sera''s voice... They were heading this way too! Without much options the Empress went inside the last room down the corridor. Just like all the other rooms, this one was huge as well, but much smaller than the others were. It was also immaculately clean, but at the same time lived in. There were a bunch of framed pictures all over the place, but before she could look at any of them, she heard a door open. She turned around quickly, but it wasn''t the room''s entrance. It was the bathroom door, where a middle aged woman stood. Her clothes weren''t anything special, it was a bit similar to her maid''s uniform, but in different colors. The woman''s eyes looked the Empress up and down once, then she took a step back and summoned an ornate longsword. "Who are you and why are you wearing Lily''s uniform?" She asked. Her whole body suggesting trouble. The Empress quickly assessed her opponent, and determined that she wouldn''t be easy to kill, not if she fought fair at least... Chapter 212 Petrification Growing up, Agnes was taught two lessons in life. The first was to always be kind to everyone who deserved it. The second was to always be the meanest son of a bitch when the time required. With these principles, she lived her life in relative peace. Agnes was young when she lost her parents. It was at the start of the Last War, which she somehow managed to survive. She was about eighteen when the Apocalypse happened and she managed to become an evolved. Those were trying and hard times, but they were also much less hectic than the current ones. During those years, she had killed a lot of monsters and even quite a few fellow humans, but eventually, she decided to retire. That''s when she got a job offer as the personal maid to a newborn baby. The offer came from one of her acquaintances, but they didn''t tell her who the baby belonged to. At that point, she was already an ascended, but she was a bit reluctant to take the job. Eventually she decided to accept it, since it seemed something new and interesting... That was probably the best decision in her entire life. She watched little Cassandra grow up and helped her at every possible moment. She raised her like she was her own child, not caring what anyone thought. Agnes, throughout her life, only loved one person truly, and that was Cassandra. She dedicated her whole life to that little girl. She protected her when it was needed; she pulled her when she fell; she didn''t judge her, and only did everything in her power to make Cassandra''s life better. She was there when Cassandra became an evolved, then an ascended and after that surpassing even Agnes... A transcended. That little girl had grown up by that time, and Agnes couldn''t be prouder. She followed Cassandra even to the frontline of a war neither of them cared about, and now she stood inside her own room ready to kill the person who infiltrated their mansion. Agnes had a special passive ability. It provided clues about items and people, like a special interface. When her eyes landed on the strange eyed woman in the maid uniform, it initiated the ability. Item name: Black and White Maid Uniform (female) Owner: Lily Description: Wore by maids. The clothing became popularized a long time ago and somehow made a comeback after the Apocalypse. The clues usually were more annoying than helpful, but in this case it was quite the opposite. Since Agnes was the one who hired each maid personally, she knew who Lily was and how she looked. The person wearing her uniform wasn''t even similar to her, and after a closer inspection, Agnes recognized her. Still, she pretended to be oblivious and said... "Who are you and why are you wearing Lily''s uniform?" Saying this seemed to confuse the woman for a singular moment, which Agnes immediately used. She had already summoned her sword, and using the brief window, she charged the Acid Empress. ... Seeing her move surprised the Empress, but it also excited her. She didn''t like to kill defenseless people. It left a bad taste in her mouth and reminded her of her own family. The middle-aged woman moved quickly, and the Empress chuckled to herself, realizing her mistake. The question was a distraction and her hesitation caused this situation. Find adventures on empire She tried to move as quickly as possible, but the sword still managed to cut her. They were both smiling and seemingly very happy. The girl held onto the woman''s hand, and if someone ignored their lack of resemblance, then they looked exactly like a mother and her daughter. Curiously, the Empress turned the photo and read the small text written on the other side. Agnes and Cassandra, (my adopted daughter) Taken near The Broken City on Cassandra''s 10th birthday Agnes was still trying to reach for the picture. Her mind was in shambles, struggling to process the pain. The only thing she could think of was to hide that picture, her most precious possession. She still remembered that day, like it was yesterday. It was her best memory. Agnes wanted to do something special for Cassandra''s 10th birthday, so she had taken her on a small hike in the safe area near The Broken City, and they both had an amazing time. The best part for Agnes was one specific moment, when Cassandra accidentally called her mommy instead of Aunt Agnes, which she usually used. The picture was taken by her only a few minutes after she said it, and she wrote ''adopted daughter'' on the back as a secret. Nobody was supposed to see that. This was her thought as she reached for the picture... ''Nobody should see that. It''s my secret, my dream!... Nobody should see it!'' On the ground, she whimpered as the pain gradually increased. The petrification was already near her midsection, and it started to appear on her arms as well. The Empress stared at the picture, not sure what to do. Her hands trembled and memories assaulted her mind. Memories about a small family burning in an instantaneous explosion... Memories of people running around the streets, screaming in pain, while on fire... Memories of herself staring at the ruin of her once beautiful city... She didn''t know what to do. At that moment, she felt horrible. She looked down at the woman laying on the floor, still trying to reach for the photo of her most loved person, like it was the most important item in the world, which maybe it was for her. The Empress looked down at her sword, and in that moment she felt something strange... Disgust... She only felt like this when she saw the Phoenix, the person she hated the most. But in that moment, she felt it again, but this time not towards Sera. Next to where the Empress stood was a large mirror, and as she looked at her own reflection, she felt pure loathing for the woman who stared back. She stared into her own green eyes, then at the clothes she wore... A dead woman''s clothes... An innocent woman''s clothes... A tortured woman''s clothes... The reason she fought against Sera was clear, but at that moment the lines blurred. The hate she felt towards herself was much more than she ever felt towards the Phoenix. The sword dropped from her hand and clanged on the floor loudly. She fell to her knees and reached out her hand, touching the reflection in the mirror. The cut on her hand left a bloody mark on it, and she smeared it all over her reflection''s face. She felt confused and afraid. Something was changing inside her, and some truth began to crawl out, something she never wanted to know, but it was inevitable, that she had done so. "Who are you?" She asked her reflection, but it only mimicked her movement, not answering the question. "Who am I?" she said in her insane ramblings. As she closed to a nervous breakdown, the fear, pain, anger and disgust finally cleared from her mind, and she finally remembered the events of that fateful day in never before felt clarity... Chapter 213 That Fateful Day Two years ago, in the city of Marseille, a girl of about 16 years of age run down the street, with thousands of others. The Federal Alliance has attacked the city. The surprise attack prevented the city defenses from preparing. The girl had a small stature and Asian features. Her hair was shoulder length and black, while her eyes were light brown. She was at school when the sirens began sounding all over the city. Marseille was a large city in the southern part of West Europe. Over 30 million people populated it, and a Stellar led it. This city faced the first attack following the Federal Alliance''s emergence. The girl and the citizens were close to the wall, which caused the large panic. They sprinted towards the closest shelter, but if Stellars fought, it wouldn''t matter. With desperation and fear, people poured into the underground shelter, but by the time the girl made it to the door, it was already closed. The people left outside banged and screamed to let them in. The girl looked around desperately, but there was nowhere to run. The next closest shelter was a few kilometers away and her legs were already failing her. Breathing heavily, she leaned against the side of a building. The surrounding people realized the situation. Some continued to bang and shout, some began running away from the wall, some just stood there, unsure what to do next. The girl looked over the crowd and she spotted one of her best friends from school. The two of them got separated while running, but it seemed she didn''t make it inside either. "Oh god, Kim... What are we going to do?" Asked the girl''s friend, while giving Kim a hug. A violent tremor wracked her frame, each shudder a testament to her terror. The only thing keeping her up was Kim. Unlike her friend, she didn''t cry or act desperate. She had already resigned to her fate, which seemed to be very close to its end. Kim was about to say a few comforting lies to her friend, but at that moment, the shelling of the city started. All around them buildings exploded, the girls whimpered. In that moment, Kim''s fake confidence broke into pieces and pure terror took its place. An artillery shell landed near the two girls, and its power sent both of them flying. Kim tried to hold on to her friend, but she wasn''t strong enough. She hit the ground in a painful heap. She felt her head spin as it hit the remnants of some wall. It took her a few seconds to gather enough power and try to look around. Her vision was foggy and blurry, it was gaining a red tint as blood flowed from a wound in her head. Kim watched as people ran around like headless chickens. Some were missing limbs, while others just sat on the ground, either in shock or injured. There were many people who didn''t move too, but Kim only had her eyes on one person. With all her remaining strength, Kim crawled to her friend. She was still breathing, but each breath was shorter than the one before. By the time Kim got to her, she was already dead. There was a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of her side, and as Kim leaned and hugged her body, she became bloody as well. It was also the first time she killed a transcended, which made her famous in the Federal Alliance army. It also earned her infamy in the not yet existing United Front. It was a glorious victory, since an enemy Stellar has fallen in the fight. They had also killed multiple transcended and captured the city... Only to be slaughtered later by Amygdala. The soldiers think of this battle as a monumental victory, but for Sera, it was a clear defeat. This was the first time she ever used her resurrection in battle, and since she wasn''t that used to it, she done it too late. It always bothered her. It wasn''t quite guilt, but more of a feeling of uneasiness. She always thought of herself as a good person, but she killed hundreds of innocents during that battle. After that she payed extreme attention not to make the same mistake again, but her failure wasn''t without a price. She saw the broken looking girl kneeling on the ground. The girl had a strange complexion and facial structure, one that Sera hadn''t seen before. She walked towards the girl, and when their eyes met, she saw the deep hatred inside her. It was only a few weeks after losing her memory and emotions, so Sera was still awful at pretending. Her face was bored and emotionless, even though she tried to make it kind. She went down to be eye level with the girl... "I''m sorry for all this. I didn''t mean to kill innocents..." Sera''s voice sounded anything, but honest, it was like she didn''t even care. At least that''s the impression Kim had gotten. "I''m going to kill you..." she said in a near inaudible whisper. Sera looked down at her with confusion, like she didn''t understand why her comforting didn''t work. "Why? It''s not like I had a choice. I''m pretty sure that transcended guy killed me first, making me use my resurrection. Why don''t you blame him?" Asked Sera in a perplexed tone. Kim just stared at her like she was an idiot. "The fuck you mean it wasn''t your fault?! You killed my whole family! What gives you the right to murder innocents? Why are you the one who gets to decide that?" Shouted Kim, spittle flying from her mouth. Tears flowed from her eyes, her emotions catching up to the initial shock. What Sera said next would always be one of the worst mistakes of her life. Even two years after this conversation, she would still replay all of it and think of something better to say... It would''ve been better if she said something nice and compassionate, or even just apologize again. Instead, she chuckled to herself... "You think I''m the one who decides that? You are fucking nai?ve! I''m just a pawn here, same as every other soldier!... If you want to be the one to decide, I suggest you become stronger. When nobody can push you around, then and only then will you be free to do as you wish!" With that, Sera stood up and walked away, leaving a broken girl to fend for herself. She didn''t hear from Kim for a long time after, but eventually, rumors spread about a young woman with strange foreign features. Her name was unknown by everyone and people only called her by the title she gained... Acid Empress! Chapter 214 Opportunistic Trap Sera and Cass were walking while chatting. They were both in a great mood and had a bit of fun. They wanted to have a few drinks with the others, and currently they were approaching Agnes''s room to ask if she wanted to join them. As they approached the room, both of them felt uneasy... Something was wrong! Cass stepped forward and pushed the door open. The room was dark, but they both saw how trashed the whole place was. They looked over the broken furniture and other items until their eyes landed on Agnes''s petrified form. Only her head and chest were free of the stone at that point. Cass broke down in tears next to her, while Sera''s more rational and cunning side took control. Her eyes scanned the room, and it dropped to a familiar figure kneeling before a mirror. It took one second for her glaive and armor to appear, but it was just enough for the Empress to see her. For a moment, her face was uncertain; instead of fighting, she leaped toward the nearest window and broke through it. The room was on the second floor and she plummeted to the mansion''s courtyard. Next to Sera, Cass screamed in outrage, but before she could run after her, Sera took her arm firmly. "You stay here and try to slow down the petrification with your essence. Also, message David and ask for a healer!" A powerful command resonated in Sera''s voice, silencing all chances of protest. Before Cass realized what happened, she was already kneeling next to Agnes, helping her try to stay alive. Sera looked at Cass for another second. She was sobbing while she used all her power to keep Agnes alive. It was a sad sight that should''ve filled Sera with anger, but as her eyes turned towards the place, the Empress run off, only regret remained... She knew, just by one look at Agnes. Any normal healer couldn''t stop the petrification... But she kept that a secret. Telling it to Cass would only make things worse than they already were. But this wasn''t the reason she felt regret. That feeling came from much deeper... It came from the day that she created the Acid Empress. The biggest regret of her current life... With a sad sigh, Sera climbed out the window and flew after the young woman with uncertainty. ... Kim ran down street after street, not caring if anybody saw her. She was running fast, way faster than any human evolved or ascended could''ve, but she knew it wouldn''t be enough. One thing she was sure of was that after the Phoenix saw her, there would be no escaping. It was fight or die... What was even worse was that she wanted to do neither. Her mind was still in disarray and the only reason she ran was because she was terrified. At that moment, she saw the Phoenix''s eyes change. On public appearances, she acted kind of like a normal human, but deep down under the facade, there was a killer. A calculated murderer who wouldn''t hesitate to kill anyone in her way. It brought Kim back to that fateful day two years ago. In that moment, she felt 16 again, and the only thought in her mind was to run as far away as possible... So that''s what she did, but as she reached the end of the lived in part of the city, she felt a bit of regret. Over the years, she heard stories about the Phoenix. She never quite understood them, since she always saw her as a monster, but most people believed her to be a living saint. Even in the United Front, people praised her fighting and commanding style, which tried to decrease the casualty count on both sides. She never believed those rumors, but now she believed her judgment might have been biased. In these two years, she killed her fair share of civilians too, even though she tried not to... Using the increased power, she left the rebounded blow to carry her straight at the soldier standing next to him. She stabbed her broadsword into the soldier''s eyes slit, causing him to back up a few steps, then fall to his knees. Kim lost her grip on her sword, but that wasn''t the worst. The soldier whom she stabbed straight in its head was still moving. He reached up and tried to grab the blade''s handle. When he got hold of it, he dragged it out and let the blade clatter on the ground. It had blackish blood all over it. The soldier stood straight and began marching towards Kim. In her stupor, she let the soldiers surround her, and as her eyes scanned the crowd, she did not know what to do. Her powers still weren''t working, and she couldn''t summon anything. She didn''t even know what these soldiers were and how she could kill them. The first soldiers swung and stabbed, but she evaded with relative ease. They were slow, but very strong. The circle decreased in size and more of the soldiers swung at her. This time, one cut her on the thigh. She tried to fight back the best she could, but there was nothing she could do. In all her life since she became an evolved, she never felt this powerless... By the third volley, all the fourteen were close enough to attack. Most escaped her by a wide margin. Some nicked her, but one was truly dreadful. The soldier she stabbed in the head cut her right calf''s tendons. With a scream of pain, she fell over and watched as the fourteen soldiers raised their swords. And were about to stab down when a meteor landed nearby. Kim only saw a giant flash of light before she had to turn away to avoid getting blinded. The soldiers went flying around her and she tried to look at the bright sight in front of her. Facing all the soldiers and Dwight stood an angel. Her usual golden armor enclosed her body, and she held her signature glaive. Behind her back only one pair of wings appeared, they were pristine white feathered, and they glowed with a bright light. As the zombie soldiers were about to charge, Legion held up his hand, stopping them. The grin on Dwight''s face hadn''t disappeared yet, which made Kim concerned. "So you finally showed up... Took you long enough!" He said with a mad cackle. Sera stood straight, her mouth a thin line and her eyes narrowed. They went between Legion and Dwight. They passed over Hector like he wasn''t even there. It only took her a few seconds to put the picture together, which didn''t surprise Dwight. "Which one sent you to kill me? Was it Alton, or maybe his bitch Swordmaster? It was Beast Lord, wasn''t it?" She said while chuckling. Kim looked at her with confusion. She never heard even a single one of these names. She never even met this Legion. "Does it matter? Maybe it was none of them, maybe it was all. Just know that someone wants you dead, and they sent me and Legion to take care of you!" Said Dwight, his grin never leaving his face. Sera glanced back at Kim for a moment. Her eyes were uncertain, and she looked at her with pity, but once she turned away, her emotionless mask has resettled. She raised her glaive and was about to charge when Dwight closed his eyes and raised his hands... Seeing this sent a shiver down Sera''s spine, and she knew things were about to get much more complicated... Chapter 215 A Fight on Equal Footing It turns out Dwight had lied to them about his actual powers. They had nothing to do with space... It was much scarier than that... She only took one singular step before she lost her connection with her essence. Her wings, armor, and glaive dissipated into specks of light. Her whole body felt weaker, and she stumbled a bit. Dwight chuckled in front of her. In his hand, a mean looking serrated blade appeared. There were no more words exchanged. He attacked with precision and anger, while Sera dodged. The blade passed her by, and she closed in the distance to deliver a powerful punch to his face. Just before it connected, a full body armor appeared on him, preventing Sera from doing any serious damage. It hit the metal helmet with a crunch. The punch was strong enough to send Dwight back a few steps, but Sera was worse off. She took a sharp intake of breath as pain assaulted her. Severe pain shot through her right hand; several scrapes bled, and two of her fingers were dislocated. With little care, Sera grabbed the fingers and popped them back into place. Her facial expression stayed emotionless. Behind his helmet, Dwight laughed... "You are a crazy bitch!" He whispered before attacking again. Around them, the fifteen soldiers stayed close to each other, while Legion and Hector watched the fight with obvious glee. Kim remained on the ground because her blocked essence prevented regeneration. She had a terrified expression on her face, and each time Sera made a close evasion, her heart skipped a beat. It was strange to feel scared for the Phoenix''s life, but currently their lives were tied together. Dwight swung his sword, aiming for Sera''s midsection. She leaned away just enough, so the blade cut through her clothing, but didn''t reach her skin. Her lean gave her leverage, which she used by kicking out Dwight''s dominant leg. He toppled over and hit the ground hard, his armor clanking loudly. Sera wasted no time. She ran to the sword, which had fallen in Kim''s fight. She spent a moment examining it, then twirled it once before nodding to herself. Although made of an ordinary alloy and quite blunt, she could use the sword to block or parry Dwight''s weapon. Behind her, Dwight stood up. His previous jovial attitude changed, and judging by his serious posture, he had enough of playing. "I think we should fight on a bit more... equal footing... Don''t you agree?" He said, as his body changed. His limbs elongated as well as his neck, but the rest of his body stayed the same. Behind his back two large bat-like wings grew out, they were hollow and incapable of flight, but also terrifying. The sword also changed, and grew to the size of a great sword. He was about 1.9 meters before, but now he stood well over 2, maybe even reaching 3 meters. The arms were abnormally long and skinny. They reached down to just below his knees. The sword was about two meters as well, which made the large serrations look even scarier. For a moment Sera was unsure what to do, but when Dwight moved she was out of choices. The great sword cut towards her in a vertical line. The power behind the move was severe, and Sera knew that there was no stopping or even deflecting it. She rolled to the right as the sword cut the air and hit the ground with a loud bang. Dirt and parts of the road rained down as the weapon imbedded itself deep in the concrete. With one clean pull, Dwight got the sword out and swung it at Sera again. She moved below it and tried to stab at Dwight''s leg, but she had to dodge his fist that was aimed straight at her head. The dodge wasn''t perfect, but instead of her dying on the spot, she was just sent flying for a few meters. In the air, she turned, so she landed on her legs, giving her the chance to evade another of Dwight''s attacks. Her body hurt like hell and she felt a trickle of blood running from her nose, which was broken. That butcher''s sword came at her again. Her muscles burnt from all the movement, but there was no time to even take a breath. Each dodge was deadly, each mistake would''ve cost her life. There was no opportunity to attack at this point. Dwight was too fast and strong for her to do anything about him... Luckily, she didn''t have to. Time was passing, and that''s all that mattered! Sera watched as Cass cried with faked sadness. She knew how much pain she was in, but she was second guessing herself... This decision, if she went through with it, could ruin everything. Their timetable would turn to shit, and worst of all, she would suffer... Sera asked herself a very important question... Would she trade her life for someone who was unimportant? A good person would say yes without hesitation and a bad person would say no... Which one was she again? As Sera thought about it, she realized it didn''t matter. Good and bad were judgments she never cared about. For a long time now, there was only one principle she followed... ''No matter how bad things get, always stay true to yourself. If others think you are wrong, change their minds by being better, by showing the way. Be the light that guides them! The one who brings them out of the darkness and into the light...'' This was something Bran had said to her more than a year ago. By then, she should have realized his love for her, but her broken state kept her focused elsewhere. In this second, which seemed to last forever, she only wanted to be with him one more time. A tear ran down her face as she typed on her watch. When she was done, she turned to the sky. "Go back to your nest... Will see each other some other time..." She sent the mental message to Kastral. She then ignored all of his worried questions and walked towards Cass. She was kneeling on the ground, hands covering her face. Her body shook with each breath. Sera knelt down in front of her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulders. Cass looked up, her face red, her eyes puffy. "It''s okay... She will be fine..." Said Sera choking on the words. Cass looked at her in confusion, not understanding what she was saying. Another tear ran down Sera''s face as she leaned in and gave Cass a tight hug. "I want all of you to prepare for the future... I don''t know how long I will be away, but I need you to be especially brave..." Sera whispered. Her body trembled in fear. "What''s wrong Sera? What do you mean, she will be fine? What did you do?" Asked Cass, her voice full of confusion and a bit of terror. Sera ignored the question and just jumped to the next topic. "Don''t punish her... She''s just a confused and terrified girl, who didn''t know any better... I want you to escort her to Bran and Melinda. They will take care of her..." Cass''s eyes turned towards the girl, who had passed out after the choking. She looked so frail and tiny, but she nearly killed the most beloved person in Cass''s life... Her mother... "I can''t..." Before she could''ve said anything else, Sera broke the hug. She placed both of her hands on the sides of Cass''s face. Her eyes contained immense sadness and terror, something that Cass didn''t understand. "Promise me... Do what I told you... Please..." she said in a meek voice, one that Cass had never heard before, at least not from Sera. It left no room for argument, and with a deep sigh, Cass nodded. "Thank you..." Sera whispered, while putting on a fake smile. Around them, the wind changed, and Sera looked upon the person of her nightmares. The person she feared wasn''t a monstrous figure, like most people would think. He wasn''t even as tall as her, but just his outfit locked down Sera''s body. Her nightmares contained no monsters or soldiers... There was only one person she feared... It was a frail looking old man with a pair of welding glasses, gray and thinning hairline, and his most signature characteristic... A white lab coat... "Hello my little angel. Did you ask for help?" Said Harold with a terrifying grin. Chapter 216 The Sacrifices We Make Sera released Cass''s hand and stood to her full height. She tried to hide her terror and revulsion well, but Harold saw right through her. She hid her trembling hands from him, but both Cass and Kim saw the display. They looked at the old man with confusion, not knowing who he was and why he made Sera so scared. "You saw my offer. Can you help or not?" She asked in a firm tone. Harold just grinned and began walking towards the mansion. Before going after her, Sera turned around and spoke to both Kim and Cass. "You two, get everyone hidden right now! He will heal Agnes... But I don''t want any other casualties... I have sacrificed enough for you already..." she whispered the last part, while turning around and walking after Harold. Kim still lay on the ground, her right leg unresponsive. After this display and command, Cass had finally stopped crying. She turned towards Kim with hatred. At that moment Kim was sure her life was forfeit, but when Cass stood above her, she didn''t attack. A wave of essence flew into Kim''s wrecked body. It instantly broke the spell Dwight had placed on her, and the healing process started. It took her only a few seconds to walk again. Cass didn''t wait for her. She was already running towards the mansion while typing something on her watch. By the time Kim realized, she was standing in the enormous yard alone. She did not know what to do next. First, she looked towards the mansion where both Sera and Cass went. She could''ve gone after them, but that old man looked way too creepy. Next, she turned towards the city. She could''ve just left this place, this city, and go somewhere peaceful. A place where she could get her head straight. She spent the next few minutes looking between the city and the mansion. A decision had to be made, one that would change her life forever. Either leave and stay the same confused person, or go into the mansion and change into someone else. Maybe a person who wouldn''t disgust her... Her legs took one step, then another, and the next, it went on until she reached the mansion''s entrance, where she stopped. With hesitation, she reached out and opened the door. Her knowledge of the mansion''s layout returned, and it took no time for her to find the room where she hurt that woman. The door was wide open and two people stood outside, staring in. One was Cass and the other she only recognized as that man from the siege, the one who threw bombs at her. They were whispering to each other in anger, but as Kim closed in, they became silent. She only caught the last part of what Cass said... "We can''t let him take her..." Kim said nothing. She just turned to look inside the room. On the ground, the woman looked an inch from death, but the petrification, which was near her heart, seemed to decrease in size. Sera stood above her, watching with both a worried and scared expression as the old man was pouring something into the woman''s unconscious mouth. She coughed a bit as the liquid passed down her throat. The de-petrification process doubled in speed and even her missing legs began to regenerate. Kim watched all this with her mouth agape. Re-growing limbs were near impossible for even the strongest of healers, but this old man just poured some potions or something in the woman''s mouth and started healing her. The whole healing only lasted for about a minute. Afterward, Agnes stayed unconscious, but she would be fine. Sera watched as Cass gently lifted her form and took her away. Her eyes then moved to David... He knew what was about to happen... As they ran towards the wall, Dwight was cursing himself. He was stupid and arrogant. He thought that just because Sera lost her powers, he could take her out with ease. But that wasn''t even the actual issue. If that stupid beast hadn''t saved them, then they wouldn''t need to evacuate the city... Just as they neared the wall, all seven of them stopped and fell to their knees. Pure terror paralyzed them. They didn''t dare to move, and their whole bodies were shaking. Dwight was in the front, his eyes staring at the ground in front of him. He heard movement, but he couldn''t look up. The sound came closer and in his view, two bare feminine feet appeared. "What do we have here? Some new playthings?... Oh, your terror is so delicious! That''s just what I needed... Dessert!" Her voice should''ve been beautiful, but it was abhorrent, sending shivers down Dwight''s spine. In a desperate attempt, he tried to use his powers on the individual, and for a split second, the feeling of terror disappeared, only to reappear again with twice the strength. More than one person puked from the overwhelming fear behind him, and just as Dwight thought all hope was lost, something strange happened. The fear decreased, and he regained the ability to move. His eyes travelled up the tall woman''s sinful body. The only clothing on her was the long strands of abyss black hair. He wanted to look upon this magnificent body''s face, but he felt like it would drive him insane, so instead, he continued to stare at the ground. "That''s an interesting power you got there worm... Dammit! I really wanted to consume all of you, but it seems like this is your lucky day... Or more like unlucky, depends on your standpoint, of course." Her voice sounded regretful and sad, like someone presented her a cake, but then said they couldn''t eat from it. "Who... Are... You...?" Asked Dwight through gritted teeth. He already knew the answer, but his brain wasn''t working properly, so he asked it anyway. The woman didn''t answer his question and instead asked in a curious tone... "With this power you should''ve killed the little angel. How did you fail?" Dwight took a deep breath before speaking. Someone behind him wailed, while others were hyperventilating. Enjoy new tales from empire "We... Shouldn''t... Have... She... Had... Help..." It was close to impossible to speak, while being assaulted with so much fear, but he knew that staying silent wasn''t an option. "Who?" she asked, her voice turning lower. Dwight coughed up blood, and he felt his nose and eyes bleed... "A... Strange... Creature... Hawk... Head... Horse... Body..." This was all he managed before his body had enough, and he fell down unconscious. At that point, all seven of them were in similar states, and above them stood Amygdala. Both anger and vengefulness consumed her beautiful face. Hearing the creature''s description, she knew who he talked about. "That little angelic bitch... She tried to play us... I admire her stupidity!" She laughed to herself, which caused the surrounding reality to bend. Objects flew away, houses fell apart and the road below her cracked. Eventually, she stopped and looked down at the seven unconscious figures. With a roll of her eyes, she swiped at the air. With that, she and the seven figures teleported away, leaving only the broken structures behind. Chapter 217 Leaderless The conference room was silent. Only five of the six seats held people, and the absence of the sixth person was felt by everyone. The monitor on the wall showed two people sitting together. One was a woman about the same age as Sera. Her hair was whitish-blond, and her eyes were two different colors, one blue, the other green. Her face was beautiful, like every other Evolved. The sides of her mouth had a few laughing lines showing, which marked her usual jovial attitude. But that cheerful face showed only sadness. There was no joy on her face, and her eyes were red rimmed, like she had been crying. The other person held himself together much more. He sat with a straight back and emotionless face, and if he didn''t blink every once in a while, people would think him a statue. His hair was dark brown, while his eyes were a light hazel. Cass stared at the man with curiosity, but she couldn''t read his emotions, which were nonexistent. It was a few days since Sera''s ''kidnapping'', as everyone called it. The news of her fate was already spreading in the public. Nobody knew who in the leadership leaked it, but nobody cared either. As one could imagine, the people became angry, but for now, they were under control. It did wonders for the recruiting, though, which was at least something. This was the first meeting since the kidnapping, but after the introductions, everyone stayed silent. They were all leaders of this makeshift revolutionary alliance, but there was only one person each of them obeyed. With Sera''s disappearance, everyone just sat there, waiting for someone else to step up. "Could someone fucking begin already?!" Shouted Lilith. Her face was a crying mess, and as she spoke, she sniffled. Out of everyone, she took Sera''s disappearance the worst. She spent the past few days doing nothing but training with her Brothers and Sisters. The only one who was even worse off was Agnes. Learning about what her life cost broke her. She hasn''t left her room since that day. She spent hours on end cleaning everything, and let nobody help her. Cass tried to spend as much time as possible with her, but she wasn''t talking to her. Every time she visited, she would find Agnes in her bed. She always held that one stupid picture they had taken about ten years ago. Seeing her like that broke Cass''s heart. The worst part was that she did not know how to help her... She could only watch as Agnes'' melancholy consumed her. As Cass''s thoughts wandered, a deep raspy voice spoke through the microphone. It echoed in the conference room, demanding everyone''s attention. "How is the girl doing?" Asked Bran, his voice conveying no emotion. "Her name is Kim, and she is doing... She is doing as good as everybody else, I suppose. I tried talking to her and learn a bit about her, but she seems very untrusting... The only question she asks most of the time is when will we she leave to be with you two!" David felt very weird talking about Kim. She was close to the same age as Cass, maybe a year or two younger, but her maturity was missing. Sera had asked Cassandra about taking her to Bran and Melinda, and she seemed to want to follow Sera''s order. The only people left in the room were Cass and David. They both looked exhausted, neither getting enough sleep, David from working, and Cass because of her nightmares. Every time she closes her eyes, she finds herself kneeling next to Agnes. Her body slowly dying under Cass''s hands, and she could only watch. "How are you holding up?" Asked David, while reaching out and holding her hand. Cass produced a weak smile, but said nothing and just enjoyed the warm feeling inside her as she looked at David. They stayed silent for a few minutes, but the moment which they loved was passing by, slipping through their fingers. They cherished these few quiet minutes. Even though everything was awful and the future was uncertain, at least they had each other to get through... Unlike Sera. Who was alone... This thought seemed to appear in both of their minds and sudden guilt washed over them. With a sad sigh, Cass stood up and, after giving a long kiss to David, she left the room and walked towards Agnes''... It was time to say goodbye! Her room was silent as Cass stepped inside. The lights were on, and she was staring at the same picture. At one point, Cass thought of taking it away from her, but even the thought made her sick... That picture seemed to be Agnes'' only respite, and taking it away seemed to be a cruel punishment. She walked to the bed where she lay and sat down next to her. Agnes''s eyes watched the picture without focus. It broke Cass''s heart to see her like that. "I''m going to escort the little girl to New Athens... I came here to say goodbye, since I don''t know when I will be back..." Cass watched her mother lay there for a few more seconds. A lone tear ran down her face as she moved in and gave a small tender kiss on her forehead. The woman who brought her up and loved her throughout both of their lives didn''t even react and just continued to watch the picture. One time, while Agnes was asleep, she picked up the picture and read the writing on the back... It was a mistake, since it made her heartache increase tenfold... She never got the chance to tell her she considered Agnes as her mom too, and as she watched her broken mind, Cass felt like it was too late for that now... With a depressed sigh, she rose from the bed and walked towards the door, and as she reached out, a sound came from behind her... "Why?" asked a raspy feminine voice. Cass''s body trembled. Turning around, she saw Agnes''s eyes focus on her. After days of looking at that picture, she turned away for a moment and looked upon her daughter... One that was real and not just a captured memory. "Because Sera asked me to... She begged me to spare her and get her to New Athens before her abduction..." It took Agnes a while to process those words, but when she did, she said something that Cass didn''t expect... "I''m going too." Chapter 218 The City of the Phoenix It was early morning when the hippogryphs arrived. The three majestic beasts landed in the mansion''s courtyard with grace. They cleared the area of people beforehand. Only four people stood in waiting. Each carried a pack with some supplies, not like they would need them. Their journey to New Athens would only take a few hours at most. The hippogryphs walked towards the four people, their eyes scanning and judging them. Two were a beautiful black like the night sky, and one was a very light brown, close to white. He was one of Kastral''s own, and by far the fastest out of the three. His name was Castor, and he led this small group. Without care, he walked towards one specific person, the robed woman. He nuzzled his gigantic head to her chest, and with a small giggle, Lilith scratched the beast. They weren''t bonded in the same way as Sera to Kastral, but they sure as hell behaved like they were. Next to them, the other three women watched in both excitement and a bit of fear as the other two walked towards them. All three were colossal beasts, close to four meters, while over six meters in wingspan. Castor''s ¨C¨CLilith''s mount¨C¨Chead was the size of Lilith, and it was obvious that their true leader''s blood flowed through his veins. The two hippogryphs sniffed at the three other women with suspicion, but after a screech from Castor, they became compliant. Lilith mounted him, while the three other women mounted the other two. The three of them made seating arrangements beforehand, or more like Agnes made them, since she just ordered Cass to go on alone, while she would take the girl named Kim. Even now, Lilith''s blood boiled just by looking at her. This little girl killed two of her Sisters and one of her Brothers. The only reason she was still alive was because Sera had asked them to take care of her. Lilith was a vengeful woman, but she was also obedient and kept her priorities straight. She would follow Sera''s orders no matter what, even if it went against her personal goals and interests. Also, deep down, she felt bad for the girl... She wasn''t even a girl. She was older than Lilith, but every time she looked at Kim, she only saw a timid and terrified child. They still didn''t know what happened to her, and why did Sera want to help her, but it was clear that her life was harsh. She learnt the wrong lessons and went down on a dark path, one that only held lots of death. Somehow Sera helped her on a different path, but there were still so many questions about her. Lilith watched as Agnes helped her climb the enormous beast, then the older woman climbed her as well, and sat down behind Kim. The other reason Lilith felt a bit of forgiveness towards the girl was because of Agnes. She was able to put her near death behind them. If Agnes could do it, why couldn''t Lilith as well? With these thoughts, she watched as Cass climbed the male hippogryph next to Lilith. Terror consumed her face as the beast moved beneath her. "Don''t be scared; it''s going to be fun!" Shouted Lilith with a chuckle, below her Castor screeched his agreement. Cass turned towards Lilith with an annoyed expression, but as the hippogryphs sped up, she bent down and, while hugging the mount, she shrieked in fear. In her sixteen years, Lilith has never heard a Transcended scream as loudly as Cass. The sound echoed through her head throughout the few hour flight. She laughed each time she remembered and she couldn''t wait to bring it up in future conversations. Kim and Agnes stayed kind of calm, but clearly, the girl wasn''t having fun at all. Her small hands clenched the poor hippogryph''s feathers so much that they turned white. She sighed in annoyance and just continued to watch the ground. All three hippogryphs screeched to each other a few more times... They were near their destination. Explore more adventures at empire The three of them entered a small cloud, then began their descent towards New Athens. With curiosity, Kim looked around, trying to get a glimpse of the renowned City of the Phoenix, as some people called it. But the cloud blocked out her vision. She saw Cassandra flying next to them on her hippogryph. Her face had been pale since the start of their flight. She seemed even more terrified than Kim, which made the girl feel better. Lilith and her mount were a few meters in the front. They led the descent until all three of them stopped in the air. The cloud was still blocking most of their vision, but Kim saw Lilith turn around with a grin and, while spreading her arms, she shouted over the wind... "Welcome! To New Athens!" As her words echoed, the cloud cleared, revealing a magnificent sight. On the ground, a wide city stretched out. Its gigantic walls were a beautiful creamy white color, with carved intricate designs on them. Tall towers broke the wall, with soldiers manning each. They faced one of the four gates the city had. The gate was eastward-facing, displaying two carved dawning suns on each, with the Angelic Order''s seven-pointed star at its center. Kim watched all this in awe, but as her eyes moved towards the cityscape, she gasped at its beauty. The houses displayed vibrant colors and intricate details, or they featured whitish-gold colors with roofs painted like the Phoenix''s flames. Most houses had small fires burning on their roofs, or candles in their windows. Their silent support for the city''s true leader. The well-kept streets had people and cars moving over them. Each person''s clothing differed in style and color. They were all intricate and elegant, but also modest and just amazing. There weren''t two people with the same outfit. Some wore dresses, others preferred warmer clothes, like suits, and most just put on something simple, like shirt and pants. Many people ¨C¨Cmostly woman¨C¨Cwore leather jackets, with pants and military boots. These were in all sorts of colors too, but the style was part of the fashion Sera had created. Seeing all these different colors and outfits, Cass became speechless. All her life she thought about the Federal Alliance Capital as the true home of elegance and fashion, but looking down at this city of wonders... She never felt stupider than at that moment. The only person who didn''t show too much surprise was Agnes, but even her emotionless face crumbled at the sight of true beauty. In the front Castor screeched again, and the three hippogryphs made their way to a specific walled off area within the city limits. There they landed in the middle of a road, in front of the city''s military headquarters. Two people already stood there, waiting. Chapter 219 Revenge or Forgiveness Kim watched as Lilith jumped off from Castor''s back with ease and ran towards Bran and Melinda. She giggled like a little girl meeting her friends after a long time away. Seeing her like this finally made Kim realize how much younger Lilith was. Lilith gave both of them two big hugs and began talking with them. Kim''s full concentration was on her mount, so she couldn''t hear what they were saying. Agnes helped her jump and land on the asphalt. Looking to the side, she saw people walking along the road, watching the enormous beasts with awe. After everyone got off, the hippogryphs took to the sky once more. Kim watched them fly southward, and she wondered how many of these creatures existed. She stood there, in the middle of the road, staring until their forms were only specks in the cloudy blue sky. "Beautiful creatures, aren''t they?" Asked a male voice next to her. She looked to the side, then up and stared into Bran''s brown eyes. He tried to make a comforting smile, but it was a clear failure. From one look it wasn''t obvious, but Kim saw through the facade without a problem. It was hidden there, in those hollow eyes... He was in pain. Not physical, of course, but it was there. Kim turned away, back towards the sky, where the hippogryphs weren''t visible anymore. "What are they?" She had seen nothing like them. Throughout her years, she had only heard rumors of creatures that weren''t trying to kill everyone in sight. Even in the past two years, she never met any. "They are a race called hippogryph, created by the angelic beings in a Realm called Aerin. They made them to be fast war mounts, and after the Realm''s destruction, they sought refuge on Earth." He recounted the creatures summed up history with ease, having read through them loads of times in the past two years. It was lucky that they had a giant archive of this information. It made searching for specific entries much easier. Also, Sera tasked a group of researchers to find and manage any information connected to Aerin. Bran did not know why she tasked them with this, and in his curiosity, he spent a lot of time reading up on that specific Realm. "Why are they here helping you?" She asked, turning back towards Bran. His eyes still stared towards the sky. He seemed to reminisce about some past happy memory. Whatever it was, it made him sad. "Why else... It''s because of her, of course!" He answered in a whisper, his voice melancholic. Kim knew who he was talking about. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, not sure what to say or ask. After a few tries, she just sighed and asked the question that interested her the most. The question she never cared to ask before... "Who is the Phoenix?" Hearing the question, Bran looked surprised, then chuckled with a small genuine smile on his face. The smile was weird and unnatural on his usually depressed face. Without saying a word, he began walking inside the building. Kim followed a step behind him. Only now did she notice that everyone else had already left the area. The military headquarters was colorful, red and gold, the dominant colors, with a few splashes of pure white here and there. The designs on the walls were lavish for Kim''s taste. There were also a few statues depicting a female wearing dress and holding a glaive. This was the real reason she wanted to know more. In her mind, maybe if the Phoenix was a great person, and that was just a single accident, then she could let go of her revenge and try to cope with her emotions in another way. "I''m not lying. I wanted to kill the Phoenix, since she deserved it, but now I''m not so sure..." She looked away towards the large window and watched the soldiers move on the street. On the other couch, Bran chuckled to himself, which brought Kim''s eyes back to him. "Lies yet again... Wait, let me finish... Before you try to explain yourself again, try answering this question first... What caused this change in you? Why do you want to know more about the person you hate the most? Why do you want to find a reason to forgive her for killing you entire family?" With each question, he drove the nail further into the point he wanted to make. It took no thought this time for Kim to answer. "Because when I looked into a mirror, I couldn''t recognize myself, and I hated myself more than I ever hated the Phoenix..." she said with sadness, finally understanding why Bran called her a liar. She was, in fact, lying. This quest for answers had nothing to do with Sera... She just wanted to find a reason to forgive her, and then maybe she could find a reason to forgive herself, too. "Say her name." Bran''s voice echoed in the small room, demanding Kim''s attention. She looked at him with confusion, then with a small tremble in her voice she said... "Seraphine." Saying it out loud felt like pulling teeth. In her life, she never referred to Sera by her name. It was always ''the Phoenix'' for her. She didn''t want to name the person of her nightmares, but now things were different. As the name left her mouth, something tiny changed inside her. With this, she gave a name for the monster, which then gave her a face, a personality, a life... It was easy to be angry towards a faceless monster who killed her family without remorse, but hating an actual person was way harder. Hearing her answer, Bran nodded with satisfaction... "You have a choice to make, Kim. You can follow this path of revenge, and maybe you will succeed, but it will be hollow and it will leave you hating yourself. Killing from hate is never fulfilling, and it won''t stop the nightmares... There is only one remedy for that." Kim already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from his mouth... "What is it?" "To let go... The past has already happened, we can''t change it. Sera to this day hates herself for that one mistake and I give you the same advice as I gave her... Forgive her and yourself, let go of the past..." Bran spread his arms, encompassing not just this room, but the entire city. "This here is a new start. That''s what Sera wanted to give you... She can''t make the past right, can''t bring you family back to life, but she can give you a chance..." He stood up, and while walking towards the door, he spoke... "I will leave this room and return in about half an hour. You have until then to figure everything out... This is a fresh start. You can either go back to your revenge, or maybe join us and help the world... You can also just leave, and be a regular person... It is your choice." With that, he left the room, leaving Kim with her thoughts as the only company. She walked towards the large glass pane window and stared at it until she saw her own reflection. The tiny young girl stared back with green eyes. The words continued to echo inside her head... ''Fresh start''. Maybe that''s what she needed... Or maybe not. She did not know. "Revenge or Forgiveness." she said the words in a whisper, trying to find the answer to this question. Discover exclusive tales at empire On her reflection, a small confident smile appeared... She made her choice... Chapter 220 The Temple of Eternal Flame A few days later, Kim walked down on one of the major streets towards a very special building. Agnes was walking a step behind her. She had been shadowing her all this time. Kim tried to get rid of her, but the woman was stubborn. Kim''s every attempt met with silence, as if she were talking to a wall. Not like she wanted to send Agnes away too much. It was nice to have someone so stoic around. Nothing interesting happened in the past few days. Kim spent most of her time training alone or with Agnes. It was interesting and enlightening. Agnes was weaker than her, but only if they used everything in their power. On a fair one-on-one fight, Agnes beat her ass 9 out of 10 times. Her progress was slow, but Kim hadn''t given up. The place which she was visiting would help her even more... If they accepted her apology, of course. A few hundred meters down the main street loomed the ominous giant building. It was the shape of a heptagon, with one tower at each of the angles. Golden flames burned atop the seven towers. According to some, the flames had been burning since the temple was built. This was The Temple of Eternal Flame, which housed most of the Angelic Order. This was the Order''s largest church because the one in New Constantinople was not yet built. Over the last few days, Kim learned a great deal about how this side of the world operated. After waiting for half an hour in that small room, Bran found Kim sitting on the couch, while sipping some soda she found in the fridge. He didn''t look surprised, which was a bit infuriating, but at least he seemed approving. They spent a few hours talking about everything she needed to know. It was strange how many secrets he told her. It made Kim wonder... Was Bran stupid, or just didn''t care about those secrets too much? In the end, she didn''t care. Bran didn''t give her any orders, he only told her to train and be prepared for the future... Whatever that meant... They placed her housing inside Sera''s former mansion. Cass and Agnes lived there too, which wasn''t a problem since the building was huge. It was also quite convenient, because there was a gigantic training building right next to the mansion. Kim spent most of her time there, but even with Agnes''s help, it wasn''t enough... She wanted to train with the best of the best. Discover exclusive content at empire Back when she killed those three Angelic Order members, it seemed quite easy, but again, she didn''t fight fair. Kim asked about it and everyone told her the same. If she wanted to get better in actual combat, she had to seek out Lilith. So that''s what she did. The enormous gothic temple had a large underground complex beneath it, which held Earth''s largest secret army. That was her destination. Walking towards the temple entrance, Kim felt worried. She wanted to train with the Order, but their leader ¨C¨CLilith¨C¨Chated her guts. Kim didn''t know what to expect. She sought Bran''s advice, and he supposedly spoke to Lilith about it, but Kim wasn''t convinced. Nearing one of the seven entrances, there was a constant stream of people, some entering, some leaving. Their faces were a mix of anger, sadness, determination, and hope. These expressions didn''t surprise her, and she felt them even more than the regular citizens did. After learning where Sera was and what she was enduring each day... Kim felt that her own suffering after losing her family wasn''t even comparable to what Sera went through every day. "You best remember this if you planning on joining us!" With that, Lilith turned around and began walking away. For a moment, Kim wasn''t sure what to do. "You should go after her." Said Agnes from behind her. Kim looked at the older woman with confusion, and only now did she realize she would proceed from here alone. They haven''t talked about it; they haven''t really talked about anything. Kim just assumed that Agnes would continue to shadow and help her. With a sad sigh, Kim looked towards the passage where Lilith had disappeared to and followed in her footsteps. The corridors were dark. The only illumination the Order used were torches, which was weird and medieval. It also created a nice, creepy aesthetic, Kim just couldn''t get enough of it. She caught up to Lilith a few minutes later. She was standing next to a tall, younger woman. They were talking, or more like Lilith was talking, and the other woman just nodded along. When Kim came close enough, Lilith stopped and turned towards her. "This woman here is Astrid. She will help you get settled. Someone will bring all your stuff from the mansion; you don''t have much anyway... Astrid will help you with everything. Congratulations on joining the Angelic Order!" With that, Lilith walked away yet again, leaving both Kim and Astrid standing in the middle of a hallway. The two women stared and gauged each other for a few seconds. The tall woman had long, whitish-blond hair, which was placed in an uncomfortable-looking braid. Her irises were white, which was a bit unsettling. She stood straight as a nail, her whole body covered in the Order''s signature armor. It didn''t nothing at hiding her voluptuous body though, nor her defined muscles. Looking down at Kim, Astrid smirked, then began walking away without saying a word. Kim followed close behind, trying to keep up with the giant woman''s bounding steps. She led her to a stairwell, then down another corridor and another stairwell. They repeated this a dozen times. The whole place seemed like a labyrinth, which wasn''t a coincidence. An attacking force would have a very hard time fighting when they did not know where to go. Each stair was in a different place, which further complicated the design. After a few long minutes spent in pure silence, the pair had reached a corridor that differed from the others. It had a few people in them, with many doors opened. People were chatting, laughing and just having a great time together. The place reminded Kim about the time she spent in school. Many greeted Astrid by name, but she just nodded at them, keeping her quiet, taciturn persona going. These same people looked at Kim with both confusion and interest. Some tried to greet her as well, but she was too overwhelmed to notice. Astrid led her to a door at the end of the packed corridor. She opened it and entered, with Kim in tow. The room was not too big, but also not too small. It held two beds, a small kitchen area, a table for dining, a wardrobe on both sides and a night table for each bed. The kitchen had a mini fridge, a microwave, a hotplate, a coffee machine, and a few drawers. There was a door inside the room, which led to a small bathroom. The place was cozy looking. Astrid walked towards one of the beds, then plopped down and said her first words to Kim... "Welcome to your new home, Tiny!" Chapter 221 Mary, the Scientist ¨C¨C300 kilometers south of New Athens¨C¨C On a large island named Kriti, a woman stood on the shore watching the sunrise. She stood in typical scientist''s clothing. She wore an orange sweater with her lab coat over it. She also wore dark jeans with comfortable running shoes. Her brunette hair was placed in a neat ponytail. Her eyes were blue, and she had glasses on, which she straightened every few minutes. A light pink color adorned her nails, and she wore a small amount of makeup. It made her look a bit more elegant, but also exciting. The woman stood on the seashore, but her eyes weren''t on the rising sun. She was typing on her tablet without care, her eyes jumping between paragraphs and pictures. The man next to her watched it all with a small headache. He was old, much older than the woman. He had already lost most of his hair, and the remaining had turned gray. His wrinkled face stared at the sunrise with a small, content smile. His eyelids were closed as he enjoyed the sun''s first warming rays. "Huh... That''s interesting..." muttered the woman to herself, and doubled her typing speed. "What did your insane brain think out now, Mary?" asked the older man, while chuckling. Mary didn''t answer. Her focus was only on the tablet and the information she was writing. After spending a lot of time with her, the man got used to her strange behavior. It was close to impossible to discuss anything with her, if she got some idea. The typing slowed after a few minutes, then eventually she looked up at the old man with a grin. "What is it, Collins? Are you jealous of how amazing I am?" "Well, I wouldn''t call you amazing, more like pure insanity and madness incarnate!" Hearing that, Mary burst out laughing. "I''m not that insane!" She said to her defense, but Collins dismantled it with ease. "If I remember correctly, you spent a whole evening trying to create a small stabilized black hole because you didn''t want to take out the trash!" He said in outrage, while Mary just continued to laugh. "Okay, that was one time. Everyone has bad days!" Collins just stared at the woman with wide eyes. Her shamelessness left him speechless. "ONE TIME?! How about the time you created an A.I. to help with your research? Or when you were bored and tried to create the cutest animal in the world by gene splicing a tarantula with a Golden Retriever?" Mary just shrugged and turned towards the sunrise. Stay updated via empire "The A.I. wasn''t a bad idea. It''s not my fault he got sentient and tried to kill everyone in the research facility! And even you have to admit, Brian is the cutest eight-legged golden boy you have ever seen!" Collins shook his head with a sigh... "Only you think spiders are cute!" Professor Collins thought about all of this. They transported him here only a few weeks ago, but he already learned everything about Mary. He wasn''t as much of a genius, but his field of science was scarce and unusual. He was already a middle-aged adult when the Last War ended. He was a professor in one of the Old World''s universities, and he continued doing research even after the Apocalypse. There was one thing he was especially interested in, the Evolved! He spent the past 27 years researching them. In this world, he knew the most about evolution, Evolved, abilities, Items, powers, Heritage. If an Evolved had it, he knew everything about it. Many people looked down on Collins, same as Mary. They thought of him as just some old man sprouting nonsense. This was even more true for most Evolved! Each time when they asked him to help, they looked down on him. They didn''t say it out loud, but he saw it in their eyes, that question... ''How could this old regular man know more about Evolved than me?'' Only a select few showed profound respect. Cass was one of them, and when she reached out to ask for his help, he jumped on that offer without a second thought. Since then, he spent most of his time researching in an environment that valued his talents and knowledge. The two of them stared at the sunrise for an hour, chatting and laughing. Until they got news from the other side, neither of them had anything to do. Behind them loads of screeching and chirping sounded, and the two turned towards the sky with bright smiles. There was a large flock of flying creatures moving around in the small hilly, mountainous area of the island. Most of them were small and uncoordinated, but the older ones helped them stay in the air. Their species was very fascinating, and Collins spent a lot of time in their nests studying them. They weren''t even too wary of him, since even the smallest children could''ve killed him with ease. He also felt safe around them, because their leader, Kastral, had assured him. The hippogryphs were strange and fantastical. When he arrived here, the fellow researchers and attendants had talked a lot about them. It is said that there were only a handful of them two years ago, and they were close to dying out, but Sera bonded their leader and saved the whole species. Seeing their nests now, Collins would''ve called these people liars. There were hundreds of eggs waiting to be hatched, and by his count, there were close to four hundred actual specimens living there. He felt amazed. Those guys were so close to disappearing from the face of the world, but using their claws and hoofs, they climbed higher and higher. With a bright smile, Collins turned to the side, and was about to say something witty to Mary, but seeing her shocked expression, he decided against it. She was staring down at her tablet, reading something intently. "What is it?" Asked the Professor with curiosity. Mary blinked a few times, then closed the tablet and looked towards the sky. Out of nowhere, she laughed, while repeating the same sentence over and over again... "They answered!" Chapter 222 Angelic Order Research Facility The two of them ran towards the facility''s entrance with excitement. Mary was way faster than the old professor, but she didn''t leave him there, even though she was jumping out of her skin from eagerness. The Angelic Order Research Facility''s entrance was concealed beneath the hippogryph nests. They provided an additional defense for it. Not like it was needed. The whole place was well hidden and unless someone knew where to look, they would never find it. The two of them walked into a small natural cave and went through its labyrinth-like system until they reached an unassuming wall. Mary stepped forward and knocked on the random cave wall. Nothing happened for a few seconds, then the wall moved inward without making a sound. A team of soldiers stood in the doorway in their golden armor. They each saluted and greeted the pair, but they were too excited to notice. The facility was enormous. They needed a lot of space for their machines and research areas. They also needed living quarters, of course, and recreational rooms for everyone. The whole place was made within a week by a few Evolved. Their powers were perfect for excavating extensive areas, and with the help of a few advanced digging machines, the place was setup with ease. The entire facility comprised five different floors. The first contained the entrance and the soldiers'' quarters. The second was the recreational area and the attendants'' quarters. The third held the researchers'' quarters and a few office-like rooms for cataloging. The fourth held the entire facility''s life support and generator systems. The fifth and last floor held all the research areas, with the different machines and experiments. Mary and Collins were headed there. Movement between floors was done by both elevators and stairs, but before they could reach either, a team of soldiers with the facility''s head of security stopped them. They were both sweaty from running. Collins had to lean against the side of the corridor to not pass out. He hadn''t run for the past twenty years; it didn''t sit right with his current age. "We heard the news. We will escort you and prepare for whatever happens next!" said the lead officer. He was a tall and taciturn man who wanted the best for everybody. He was also strict and followed each order to the letter. One soldier moved and helped the professor walk towards the large elevator. The entire team comprised twenty men and women, plus Lee, the lead officer. They fit in the elevator with ease, leaving a lot of space empty. Experience more on empire They designed its size to facilitate the moving of machinery. They also used it to move large quantities of food and other non-renewable resources. The elevator doors rumbled as they closed shut, then with a sudden jerk, they started moving downwards. The entire journey took less than half a second, and soon they were already exiting the elevator. The fifth floor was in disarray, all the scientists running around carrying papers or tablets, writing while walking. They saw the doors of the elevator open and breathed a sigh of relief when Mary and Collins stepped out. A few scientists ran to them, but before any of them could say anything, Mary spoke... "What was their response?" The researchers looked at one another with anxiety, one of the younger woman answered, her voice meek and scared... "''Message received... We will arrive in... Ten minutes...'' Ma''am, that was nine minutes ago!" Collins was about to berate them for not forwarding the complete message, but then something happened... The girl with closed eyes raised her small hands, and the picture became clear in the next second. She breathed a sigh of relief, then turned away and gave a small nod to the other eight. A tall man with white hair and beard held out his hand and touched the Gate. It came through without resistance, and after taking a deep breath, he stepped through. He looked himself over once, then motioned for the others to follow. Mary and the rest of them just stood there, speechless. The soldiers had their weapons out, but their position was non-threatening on purpose. A cautiousness, born of uncertainty, colored their view of these supposed allies. All of them stepped through one by one. The white-haired, tall man looked down at the soldiers with freezing-blue eyes. His facial expression revealed nothing but calculated coldness. The next to step through was a blue-haired woman. Her long hair, though braided neatly, almost reached the ground. Next to her walked a well-muscled man. His hair was blue too, but a different tone. The woman''s was more of a grayish-blue, like a storm cloud, while the man''s was more like the ocean''s deep blueness. Both of their eyes were blue too, and they stared down at the soldiers with curiosity. The fourth person was another woman. Her skin was an unnatural pale white, while her hair and eyes were, in its exact contrast, pure black. Her hair only reached her shoulder, and in her hand she carried a wicked dark scythe. Next to her stood a man... Or more like a cyborg. As Mary watched him, it wasn''t clear where his actual body started and where it ended. His arms and legs seemed robotic. His face was normal, except for the pair of robotic eyes examining everything inside the room. His hair was messy and brown, and in his hand he carried a blue energy sword. Behind them entered the next person. A tall man in dark red armor. He moved with proud confidence, and a straight back. His hair and eye were a deep crimson, which resembled the color of blood and fire. Close to him, two people entered. One was a woman, the other was the previous girl. The woman held the little girl''s hand and watched everyone with dark eyes. With a single glance, Mary knew that the woman would protect the child, and would kill anyone who dared to threaten them. Her black hair was like deep shadows as they danced on phantom winds. The little girl looked much more innocent, but deep in her white eyes, there was unmeasurable sadness. Her body trembled as she held onto the shadowy woman. Her pure white hair was styled in two pigtails on either side of her head. The last woman didn''t step through after the girl. Everyone watched in awe as the giant roots of the enormous tree dug through the ground and went through the Gateway. They knocked over machinery and dug straight into the metal floor of the warehouse. The brown-haired woman, with green eyes and greenish skin tone, stepped through the Gate. She wore a brown dress that seemed to grow out of her skin. Her face was pure nonchalance, but with just one step, the entire room changed. One moment they were in a large warehouse; the next, they found themselves in a lush forest. From the metal floor grass, bushes and trees grew out, obscuring the lights above and plunging the area into darkness. The woman stepped forward until she stood in the front of the other eight. Her eyes scanned the other 23 people in the room and judged each. She stood there for a few seconds in silence, then she spoke. Her voice was full of authority and demanding obedience... "Where is Seraphine?" Chapter 223 Home, Sweet Home The room was silent. The question echoed in everyone''s heads, but nobody seemed to know or want to answer. The woman in the front watched all of them with both curiosity and annoyance. Her long, brown dress resembling tree bark, and as she took one step closer, it moved unnaturally, like it was part of her. "Where is Seraphine? I won''t ask again." The threat was obvious to everyone. The soldiers tensed a bit, and some raised their weapons, which caused all the nine newcomers to summon weapons too. The tall, older white-haired man coalesced into a long sword by cooling down the surrounding air. The blue-haired woman summoned a trident, which had lightning zapping over it. The man next to her held a spear, which seemed to be made of water. Two of them had weapons already drawn. The pale woman changed positions and leaned on her wicked scythe, while the cyborg next to her whirled his blue energy sword. The tall man with his hellish armor summoned a halberd out of crimson flames, while the woman next to him fashioned a rapier out of shadows. The white-haired girl had disappeared somewhere, but nobody noticed her absence. The greenish woman in the front held her hand to the side, and the right sleeve of her brown dress elongated. It grew into a long sword, made of wood. She pointed it towards the metal ground, and it easily passed through it, proving that it wasn''t, in fact, made of regular wood. Lee, the head of security, stepped forward and tried to calm the situation. "Our Lady is not available, but her close friend would like to have a few words with you and explain the situation on Earth." He was the only one without a weapon, which gave him a bit of an edge in the conversation, but the newcomers weren''t that interested in talking. "Where is she?" demanded the shadowy woman from the back. Her face held pure annoyance and anger, causing the shadows around the room to turn darker and deeper. "I don''t know. My rank is too low, and it''s sensitive information. But I''m sure you could ask our Lady''s second in command, and he would tell you..." Before Lee could''ve said anything else, another person cut in. The white-haired man took one step forward too, his face consumed in rage. "Where is Harold?" said the man through gritted teeth. "I don''t know who that is." said Lee in confusion, but the white-haired man seemed to have had enough. He was about to storm out of the room, but a few soldiers stood in his way, stopping him. "Do you wish to die?" asked the man with a deep, angry growl. Lee held up his hands while looking at his soldiers with annoyance. "We do not wish to fight, but we also can''t let you leave yet. Please, just talk to Bran and he will explain everything." Lee sounded desperate. Things weren''t going as they were supposed to and it was only getting worse. "You won''t let us? I''d like to see you try!" said the pale woman, while changing into a more aggressive position. As he was talking without notice everyone inside the room teleported a few hundred meters above the facility. They stood in the middle of the hippogryph nests. The soldiers, scientist and Brian looked around with wonder, while the nine newcomers cringed from the sudden assault of light. They spent two years in semi-darkness, causing their eyes to hurt from the sun. They also shivered as the sun''s warmth hit their skin, and each breathed in the warm air coming from the sea. All around them, confused and scared screeching and chirping echoed. But they all turned silent when two enormous shadows moved across the sky. The largest of the hippogryphs landed with grace. His whitish-gold feathers looked divine as always, their ends still on fire. Next to him was a smaller, but still huge, hippogryph female. She looked regal too, her feathers brown, like tree bark, with green eyes that scanned the newcomers. Her eyes stopped on the brown-haired woman, and they both teared up a bit. They ran towards each other, and the woman hugged Alyrine, the Hippogryph Queen''s head. Next to them, Kastral screeched with joy and walked to the white-haired girl. She giggled and petted the snout of the enormous beast. Mary and Collins looked at one another in confusion. The soldiers felt similar emotions; they did not know what to expect or do. Lee was the calmest of everybody. He just stood there, waiting for what would happen next. They stood there for a few endless minutes in pure silence. Even the screeching of the hippogryphs turned quiet as they waited for what would happen next. While everyone was on edge, the newcomers seemed to be bored, and after a while, they had enough of waiting. The tall, white-haired man stepped forward and placed a hand on their leader''s shoulder. Alyrine growled in annoyance, but the man didn''t care. "Bea, what do we do next?" The woman named Bea looked away from the enormous beast with a brittle grin. She was both happy and sad, like she received a mix of good and bad news. "We will talk to that Bran guy, of course! Alyrine said that he knew the most about the world''s and Sera''s situation!" Hearing this, the soldiers and scientists looked at each other in amazement. It was one thing to communicate with a hippogryph through body-language, but to talk to one... They only knew one person who could do such a thing, and that was their Lady! "And where do we have to go to meet this guy?" asked the tall, hellish knight in a deep, scratchy voice. Bea just smiled, while climbing atop Alyrine''s back... "Nowhere, he will come to us. Now is you''ll excuse me, I have 2 years of flying to catch up on!" And with that, the Queen of Hippogryphs kick away from the ground and flew into the air. Her speed increased until it reached the speed of sound. Down on the ground, even the newcomers were surprised by this action, and they looked at one another with uncertainty. Mary was still staring towards the sky when she felt a small pull on her lab coat. Looking down, she saw the white-haired girl stare up with excitement. "Excuse me lady, do you have snacks? I lived on monster meat for the past two years and would like to have some!" "Oh, I support that idea!" said the pale-skinned woman with a large, wicked grin. In the end, they all went back into the research facility, where they went straight for the recreational rooms. Chapter 224 A Strange Bunch They all went to one of the largest rooms. They didn''t teleport this time, and on their way, they told the staff that they were safe to return to the facility. They also informed the scientists to not approach the room where the Gateway was located. A few soldiers went down there too, to make sure nobody did anything to destabilize it. Only Mary, Collins, Lee and the newcomers went to the recreational room... And Brian, since the little girl didn''t want the enormous spider-dog to be alone. She travelled on his back, while giggling, and as they entered the large room, Brian went around the place sniffing every corner... Even the ones on the ceiling. The large room had a lot of different games, some electronic, some more conventional. There was even one of the weird new chessboards that Sera had brought here. There was also a large kitchen area and a dining table. They brought a bunch of snacks and drinks to there, then sat down in silence. Other than the girl, ¨C¨Cwho was still playing with Brian¨C¨Cthey all looked at each other, not sure what to say. Since the newcomers were very awkward and had no intention of starting the conversation, Collins decided to speak first. "I think we should begin with the introductions. I am Professor Collins, a scientist here in the Angelic Order Research Facility. This, uh... Lovely lady here is the lead scientist, Mary. And the grumpy-looking man is the head of security, Lee." Hearing this, the eldest of the newcomers, the white-haired man, introduced everyone on their side, then stared at the Professor with curiosity. "So you are the famous Professor. Didn''t expect to see you in such a place. Last I heard, you were living the best of your life in your mansion... And what is the Angelic Order?" As the conversation started, they munched on different kinds of cookies, chips, chocolate and other types of snacks. "Then you haven''t heard about me for the past ten years. I retired back then and only helped a select few with their evolution. I spent more time researching, which was a lot better than listening to spoiled brats who think they know better than me..." Before he could''ve continued to grumble under his breath, Lucy ¨C¨Cthe pale woman¨C¨Ccut in. She had already made herself comfortable, with her shoes off and her legs placed on James, the cyborg guy''s lap. "Why would anyone ask for your help with evolution?" Asked Lucy, with her mouth full of food. Damien, the older white-haired man, stared at her with a smirk. "For no reason, he is just the single most knowledgeable person when it comes to Evolved... But why would anyone ask for his opinion... Maybe if you would''ve asked for his help, you wouldn''t have accidentally changed races!" Hearing this, Lucy just shrugged and continued to feed herself and the cyborg. "Ah, I wondered why you were so different... Hmm, your pale skin and scythe suggest a connection to death, and you control The Essence of Life and Death¡ªthe green fog... You changed races into either a revenant or a reaper... Was my guess correct?" He asked mockingly, causing the entire table to laugh at Lucy''s ridiculous expression. She murmured something to the cyborg, and they both walked away towards one of the game tables. "You still haven''t answered. What is the Angelic Order?" asked Damien again, but instead of Collins, Lee provided an answer. "It''s a religious organization, and a secret military force all behind our one and only Leader, the Deathless Phoenix, the Angel Monarch, Lady Seraphine!" "You know, I''m tired from all the previous events. Can''t you just leave me alone to my thoughts?" Her voice was louder than she intended, causing everyone to stare at her. They all looked either disturbed or scared... Everyone except the Professor. He just sighed with sadness and shook his head. With kindness and warmth, he stared into Bea''s eyes and spoke in a whisper, so the others wouldn''t hear. "I''m sorry for your loss..." Bea''s face scrunched up in confusion. She said nothing that could''ve indicated such a response... "I haven''t lost anyone. What are you talking about?" The Professor chuckled to himself, with no joy... "I have survived multiple wars, the Last War and even the Apocalypse. Throughout my long life I saw many people lose loved ones, and one thing was common between them... That look in their eyes. That deep sadness, which is within yours as well..." "Who did you lose, if you don''t mind me asking?" Bea stared at him for a while longer, before sighing... "Alyrine told me... She told me a lot about everything that happened... I have lost no one, not in the physical sense at least, but a lot has changed in the past two years..." Seeing that the previous scene was over, the conversations around the room started again. While from one corner, Brian''s snoring rumbled the floor. With melancholy Bea stared at the cookie in her hand, then was about to eat it, when a small portal opened between the cookie and her mouth. Her eyes snapped to her daughter, who was happily giggling and munching on her stolen prize. Seeing her brought a bright smile to Bea''s face, making the sadness disappear in its entirety. Collins was about to speak further, but the door to the recreational room opened and five people stepped inside. Other than Lee and Collins, nobody knew who they were, but seeing that Lee bowed to them, it was clear that their ranks were high in their leadership hierarchy. In the front stood a slim, tall man with dark brown hair and light hazel eyes. His expression was serious as he scanned each of the people''s faces. A step behind him stood two women. One with a luscious purple hair, which reached down to her ankles, and pink curious eyes. Next to her stood a woman with whitish-blond hair and two different colored eyes. Her bearing was more serious than Cass''s, but still not as solemn as Bran. Behind the two stood an interesting pair. Each wore long robes, which hid most of their features. One was a man, the other a woman. One was tall, the other short. Both of their hairs were golden, except at their roots, which were black. The man was very handsome and looked much older than his actual age. He also seemed exhausted, like he spent the past few months not sleeping right. The woman looked much more healthy, and she kept glancing up into his orange eyes with concern. Their robes had a large seven-pointed stars embroidered on them, marking their allegiance. The room turned silent yet again. Bran scanned the crowd, spending a second longer on Vicky, then her eyes fell on Bea, who was staring at him too. "Let''s talk." said Bran, then seated himself at the dining table. Chapter 225 Awkward Conversation The room was silent, even though over fifteen people were inside. They were all seated around the large dining table. Bran sat at one end while Bea sat at the other. They were staring at each other with serious and even a bit hostile expressions, but neither was inclined to begin the conversation. Everyone at the table felt that something was wrong. These two individuals never met before by their knowledge, so why would they act like this? The only people who seemed to have an idea were Cass and Melinda, but they didn''t want to take part in the silent argument. After a few more minutes of this display, Bea finally had enough and through gritted teeth she spoke... "So you are the Bran I have heard a lot about. You don''t seem too impressive to me... Why would we trust you if you are all so weak?" She was referring to Bran mostly, but didn''t want to single him out, so she insulted all of them. "I don''t care if you trust us or not. I''m here representing Sera... I will ask you only once. Do you want to help or not? If yes, then I will tell you everything, but if you aren''t, then get the fuck out of here!" Both Melinda and Cass stared at him with surprise. Neither had heard him talk like this before. Usually Bran was very formal and nice, but something in Bea seemed to irk him. At the other side of the table, a wide grin crept on Bea''s face. She seemed to enjoy this exchange a lot. "We are going to help Sera and kill Harold, regardless of what you want!" "That''s good, then let''s talk about what to do next..." Before Bran could''ve said anything else, Bea held up her hand and cut in. "First, I want to know how strong you all actually are. Again, why would we want the help of weak Evolved?" Next to Bran, Lilith had enough. She rolled her eyes and sent a full-powered wave of exhaustion to every member of Bea''s group, except Bea. They each reacted differently. Will, Sarah, and Lucy fell asleep within a few seconds, while Leslie and James took a bit more time. Both Damien and Bea jumped to their feet in concern, and in the next moment, shadows consumed the room. "Hey! Who turned off the lights?" Shouted Vicky. She was playing some game on Brian''s back and hearing her shout; the dog barked loudly. The five members were only out for a few seconds, and each woke up with fear in their eyes. Faith felt that they were fine, so she dismissed her shadows. The lights came back on, and everyone took their seat like nothing had happened. The five people stared at Lilith with a bit of terror, and she just smiled at them. Back at his place, Adam smiled at the child, while Lilith held his hand and whispered to him with a pouting face. He laughed to himself and made another statue for Lilith too. She took it with even more excitement than Vicky, which was a strange sight. The mood around the table brightened for a moment, but then it got plunged back into darkness as Bran began to recount the past two years'' events. Discover more stories at empire "After sending you away, Sera got punished by Harold severely. Using his powers, he broke Sera''s soul and took a shard away from it... The effects were unrepairable. She lost all her memories, and she stopped feeling any emotions." He paused after saying this. Everyone at the table had their eyes on him... They were a mix of anger, sadness, and guilt. Many of them secretly blamed Sera for getting stuck in that other Realm, but hearing how bad she suffered, just for that small attempt at saving them... They felt horrible... But as Bran continued; the feeling got a lot worse... "But... Harold wanted more... Sera could die and regenerate each day once. She became his personal lab rat... He killed her in different ways, while doing tests on her..." He could hardly speak from the pure rage burning inside him. The few plants around the room began to whiter as his aura got released. "How many times?... How many times did she die?" asked Bea, her anger boiling too. They looked into each other''s eyes, and Bran whispered the answer through gritted teeth... "More than four hundred..." The plants that were slowly dying suddenly burst back into life. Bea''s aura hit them too, which caused the withering process to reverse. The room was silent. The meaning behind his words settling in everyone. They couldn''t even imagine how much suffering she went through. This information was new for even Cass and the married couple. Collins was already lost in this topic, but even he felt bad for Sera, even though they never met. "That''s where she is now, too. Getting tortured each day... Getting killed each day... We need to help her and make Harold pay for what he did!" Everyone at the table nodded in agreement. Everyone except the little girl in Bea''s lap, who upon hearing all this, began to silently cry. Bea tried to hold her close, and calm her down, but in the next moment she teleported back to Brian. The spider-dog looked at Vicky with concern, and they cuddled together on a carpeted area. From her seat, Bea watched this with both worry and sadness. She tried her best to substitute for Sera in these past two years, but it was clear that Vicky had missed her very much. It also probably brought back memories of their time in Nightmare''s custody... Remembering Nightmare was hard for Bea, too, but for a different reason. In the past two years, Damien told them a lot about Harold, and how he played with people... He was the one who caused Nightmare to fall into the hands of Madness. Everything that they suffered through in Havel was because of him! With another source of anger, Bea stared at the Island of Malta, where the Mad Scientist lived. Slowly her eyes moved until she was staring at Bran... "What''s the plan?" Chapter 226 Relocation Bran spent the next few hours explaining everything they had learned. The plan he and Sera had made months ago still needed a lot of prerequisites completed before it was ready. Listening to him, Bea''s face went reminiscent. She remembered all those times she and Sera had made plans. Hearing this new plan brought Bea hope. She wanted to believe that she could reclaim Sera''s lost memories, soul, emotions, life, and everything. Eventually, they decided to not do anything rash, and first they would do something very important... Power up their defense systems. In the past few months, when they had to wait for the message to reach Bea''s group in that other Realm, the research facility wasn''t idle. Each of the cities under the control of the Angelic Order had a church, and below those churches were gigantic generators, which could defend a city even from a Stellar''s attack. It wasn''t foolproof, and it was untested, but if their intel was correct, then the Federal Alliance''s Stellars will be busy in the upcoming months. "...So we will use the window of the United Front''s large-scale assault to declare our independence? That could work, but it''s very risky." said Damien while analyzing the map. "Everything we do is risky, but this will work. The problem is that power the generators requires a lot of energy. We found a way to power it by using the souls of lower Tier Horrors, but that''s not sustainable." said Melinda, while showing off the schematics of the shield generator. James, the cyborg, was eagerly looking over it and nodding to himself. He seemed to understand a lot about it. Next to him stood Mary, who came back up after Bran requested her presence. "What do you suggest?" asked Bea, while standing next to Bran. They both seemed very uncomfortable by the proximity, but they pushed past their differences to help the person they love. Mary pushed up her glasses and began pointing at the generator, explaining a few details. "The shield generator can convert any form of energy to power the shield. What we lack of is sustainability. Even using a Transcended''s power, their limited essence restricts us. For this plan to work, we need to find a way to break thermodynamics and create something that makes constant energy out of nothing!" As she spoke, she sounded more and more excited. She loved to break the laws of the time before the Apocalypse. They were already breaking thermodynamics by using essence as energy, but to create an environment that creates constant energy was something she always wanted to do. Most people around the table just stared at Mary without a clue of what she was saying, but Bea seemed to get the gist of it. "And how do we do that, exactly?" Mary''s enormous smile widened into a grin. She stared at Bea without blinking... It was very disturbing. "With your help! I spent the past few hours analyzing and examining that tree on the other side. It creates doesn''t just block out the snowfall, but controls temperature, weather and even provides food. It''s truly magnificent!" "What?! Did you go through? Why did you ask for permission?" said Leslie, the hellish knight, with annoyance and anger. "Why? Did you plan on hiding all those people there? Please, while the Gate was opening, the machines had already counted the nearby lifeforms. They are nice people, by the way, unlike some of you!" she said while staring at Leslie. Her hands began to move, and at the same time, a hole in the fabric of reality opened. It was widening much faster than the Realm Gate, but it still took a lot of strain on Vicky. She opened a few meters tall and wide portal, then stayed on the grass while panting. All of her muscles ached, and sweat covered her body; but as her mother leaned down and lifted her, all her pain vanished. Bea carried Vicky, like a princess, and the little girl snuggled close to her mother. She leaned in and gave a small kiss on her white-haired head, causing the little girl to giggle. Hearing her child''s laughter was like a melody to Bea, and she wanted to shower her in more kisses just to hear it again and again. But instead she just leaned in and whispered... "You know, I''m really proud of you, my little angel." Vicky''s eyes opened, and her mouth turned into a bright smile... "I love you mommy!" She whispered back, causing Bea''s eyes to turn teary. She leaned in again and gave another longer kiss on her forehead. Behind them, the soldiers moved through the portal. They payed no heed for the mother-daughter display and just let them have their peace. Lilith and Adam were chatting away with Faith. After they had a bit of time to talk, the three of them became best of friends. They easily bonded over their devotion to Sera. Cass, on the other hand, spent time talking with Damien and Collins. She did not know how to get a better understanding of her powers, so she asked for their help. Mary was walking next to James. They talked about some invention she was working on. Will, Lucy and Melinda talked and giggled with each other. They were happily talking about some useless topic, which was unrelated to their current situation. Close to them walked Sarah and Leslie. Neither were engaged in the conversation, but if you played close attention, you could see them listening in. All of them moved towards the portal... All except one. Bran stood a bit further back. He watched as Bea and Vicky were talking and giggling. He had learned about Sera''s child a long time ago, and she was okay with it. The problem was that back them Sera hadn''t confessed her love to him, and now he yet again didn''t know what to do. He loved Sera with all his heart and wanted the best for her. That was the reason for his confusion... Wouldn''t it be better for Sera if she would be with her daughter and previous lover? With these thoughts, he stared down at the ground and walked towards the portal. He wiped away his tears silently, not revealing any of his emotions to anyone else... When everyone was through, the portal closed and the grassy field returned to normal, like nothing had happened. Chapter 227 Life in the Order Kim was living below the Temple of Eternal Flame for more than a week. It was a bit bland as they were always either training or studying. Her first impression was quite correct. It really felt like she was attending school again, but also different. They haven''t learned regular subjects like in most schools. Instead, they studied whatever people wanted. No one assigned the subjects everyone could choose by their own interests. Since Kim did not know, or more like didn''t care, what she learned, she took the same subjects as her roommate Astrid. The taciturn woman was silent most of the time, unless they talked about fighting, or monster hunting, or strangely enough art. The giant woman loved to paint. The only problem was that she didn''t use a canvas. The walls inside their dorm room were already full with a bunch of different paintings. Some were normal, like flowers and animals, but some were a bit more disturbing. She painted a few of her most gruesome kills on the walls, and she was also kind enough to paint a scary monster right next to Kim''s bed... To help her sleep. There was also a portrait of the Order''s Leader, Sera. Then there were a few caricatures of both herself and Kim together. It would''ve been quite sweet if she didn''t constantly portray her as a very small person! People were already calling her by that stupid nickname Astrid had given her... Tiny! They weren''t mean about it and Kim took it as a joke, but it was still annoying. The classes she took were art, history and a lot of Evolved related subjects. They were related back to either hunting or killing monsters as well as humans and other creatures. She had no actual need for those classes, but she had nothing better to do, so she went anyway. The only thing she cared about was training, which she was improving in quick. Her previous knowledge was already way above average, but it was still far behind the others. They trained the Evolved in a strange way. They tried not to focus on their abilities too much, and instead get them to develop their fighting style. This gave them a much better overall fighting chance. It also made them much more powerful than regular Evolved, who only train with their abilities. They segmented them into hundred people groups. There was no logic behind selection, it was purely random. Of Kim''s group, Astrid was the best fighter by far. Her ability wasn''t anything special. It gave an enormous boost to her strength and speed, while her transformation further increased her size. She didn''t even have a title yet, but if we only judged melee fighting, she was much better than everyone else. Usually, she had to fight at least three opponents at the same time, and even then, she only struggled a bit. Another interesting detail was how everyone evolved further. Only after they unlocked all three of their Heritage were they allowed to move forward. Kim knew about the race change beforehand, because she had done the same before becoming an Ascended. She still wasn''t sure what the race change actually meant, but she was very curious to find it out. Having all their Heritages unlocked gave the Order another edge in battle. Their armor and weapons weren''t even Items, but part of their evolution. She noticed Kim and watched with great interest as she dropped her towel and began to dress up. Her choice of clothing was a simple long shirt and leggings. "Hey, Tiny! Have you heard the news?" asked Astrid from her bed. "What news?" "They closed down the main hall and a whole living quarter. If someone wants to leave the facility, they have to use one of the secret exits!" answered Joan, while staring at Kim''s bare chest as she pulled on a shirt. "I told you two already. I''m into men, so stop staring." said Kim with little care for what they saw. On the bed, Astrid laughed, and the twins smiled down at Kim. "Well Tiny, stop showing what you are packing and we will stop staring!... Anyway, what do you think? Why did they close down the most important place in the entire facility?" Kim stared at the two with a raised eyebrow... "Most important place? You mean the gigantic statue of the Phoe... of our Lady? Maybe they are renovating it or adding details to it. I don''t know..." Kim''s pretended indifference couldn''t mask the intense curiosity simmering beneath the surface. Unlike most members of the Angelic Order, she knew what happened to Sera, so she payed extra attention to anything out of the ordinary. In her opinion, the Angelic Order should''ve already tried and rescue their Leader, but it was like they were waiting for something... Or someone! Seeing Kim''s expression change from thoughtful to excited, Astrid had a bad feeling. "What are you planning, Tiny?" The small girl with milky white skin grinned down at her friend... "Nothing special. I was just thinking if they guarded the ventilations for those areas, too." On the bed Astrid rolled her eyes, understanding what her friend wanted to do. The twins just shrugged... "Don''t think so, but I doubt even you can fit in there!" "Guess we''ll just have to find out, don''t we?" said Kim with a giggle, then began to change her clothes. She took out her tight fitting leather armor and quickly put it on. Astrid didn''t even look at her, while the twins spent the entire time staring at her non-existent curves. "Hey... Uh, Tiny... You sure you don''t want to..." Before Jane could finish, Kim cut in... "I''m not interested in either polygamy or women, but thanks for the offer!" She spoke while grinning and giggling, then walked towards the door. Behind her a booming laughter sounded, which was Astrid''s. The three other girls stood up as well and walked after Kim. They were curious to find out what was happening inside the restricted areas too! Chapter 228 Weird Child The four of them stopped under a ventilation shaft in an empty corridor. Astrid basically threw Kim up there with one arm. She was so light that even though Astrid tried to be as gentle as possible, she still hit her head on the rock ceiling. With a curse, she grabbed onto the ventilation shaft''s edge and pulled herself up with ease. The three girls on the ground giggled, and Astrid mumbled ''sorry''. Kim payed no attention to them, and instead brought up the map that the twins had. They didn''t tell her why they had the entire facility''s map, but she had a pretty good idea of how they acquired it. Just because they couldn''t get into a long-term relationship, it didn''t mean they had no fun at all. Kim was pretty sure the girls had been with most men and women in the Order at least once! On her watch, the map appeared. She was a level above the restricted area. To reach it, she had to crawl for a while, since the ventilation system didn''t follow a direct route. First she had to reach a large air conduct, which connects each level, and only from there could she go to the living quarters. She spent a few minutes reading through the map, and when she could recall the whole route, she began to crawl. The ventilation shafts were so small, even she had to lie flat to fit. It was lucky that she wasn''t claustrophobic. It was a struggle to move through the vents, but she managed. It took her a flat ten minutes to reach the main vent. Carefully, she crawled out of the vent she was in and looked around. The round main air vent was a few meters across, and vent on for hundreds of meters, both up and down. More than a thousand air shafts connected into it on every level. It was very loud and windy because of the constant air flow. With slow and methodical movements, Kim climbed down a level and entered the required vent. This vent shaft was bigger and she could move through it while crouching. The restricted area was quite close by, so she moved with very slow speed. She didn''t wear any shoes. Her feet were only wrapped tightly in the same leather material as her armor. Because of this, her steps made no sound as they touched the metal floor. Astrid and the twins bombarded her with messages, causing her watch to buzz every few seconds. For now, she ignored them, and just payed attention to her surroundings. There was an opening next to her, and looking outside, she saw the guards standing at the entrance to the restricted area. Kim smiled with excitement and continued to sneak past them. Slowly, she reached the first of the rooms inside the living quarter, but most were either empty or had people sleeping inside. There were also a few that she left behind real fast, since she had no intention of watching real life porn. It took her a few minutes of searching before she found one of the quarter''s recreational rooms. There were about two dozen people inside. Most of them were unassuming, but she still heard tidbits of a conversation. "...The boss said we will attack some island in a week or so... Man, I thought getting back from that cold shithole would be better. Who knew we will find ourselves in the middle of a war!" said a woman with a drink in her hand. The girl spoke in a whisper, while raising a finger to her lips and making a ''shh'' sound. Kim looked at her sword, then at the girl with confusion. She did not know what was happening, but she had no intention of hurting the girl, so she dismissed her sword. When she looked at her again, the girl had disappeared. "What the fuck?" said Kim in a whisper. "You shouldn''t curse. Both of my mommies said that cursing is wrong, even though they both do it. It''s quite hypocritical if you ask me!" The voice came from behind Kim. She turned around fast, only to see the same little girl sitting cross-legged with a chocolate chip cookie in her hand. She was munching on it with a content expression, baffling Kim even further. "Uh... What''s your name?" asked Kim awkwardly. The girl''s face lit up, and she grinned, showing off her chocolate covered teeth. There were a few missing places where her baby teeth had fallen out. She reached out a chocolate-covered hand, which Kim hesitantly took... "My name is Victoria. Nice to meet you!" Seeing her smile like that brought a small smile to Kim''s face, too. A few seconds passed, but the girl still didn''t release her hand, which meant she was expecting Kim to introduce herself too. It would''ve been very stupid to use her real name or title... "My name is Kim, nice to meet you too!" Experience tales at empire Only after saying it out loud did Kim realize her mistake. Luckily, the girl didn''t seem to care that Kim was inside the vents. She just continued to eat the cookie until she ran out. She then wiped her mouth on her beautiful white dress, and Kim watched in surprise as the girl disappeared from right before her eyes. "Why is your skin so white, and why are your eyes different?" asked the girl, this time from Kim''s left side. Again, she didn''t sound racist or anything like that, just very curious, which was understandable at her age. Kim turned to her with a small smile. This time, she was munching on a blueberry muffin. "My family is not from Europe. They are from Asian descent, that''s why I look so different from most people." The girl nodded in faked understanding and continued to eat her muffin. "Uh... Victoria. Who is your mother, exactly?" asked Kim with curiosity, but the answer was so surprising that she could''ve never prepared herself. Vicky looked at her with a reminiscent and sad smile... "One of my mother is Bea, the green-haired lady, who is growing a tree in the main hall... My other mother needs no introduction, probably. She is Sera, the Leader of both this city and the Angelic Order!" Chapter 229 Powerful Child Kim stared at the little girl in awe and terror. It was obvious that she was strong and important, but Kim never imagined her to be on this level. "T-the... The Phoenix?... You... Y-you are her... C-child?" said Kim with a stammer. The white-haired girl turned her head to the side thoughtfully. It took her a few seconds to understand Kim''s question. "You call her ''The Phoenix''?... You people are strange." After saying that, she teleported away again. Kim prepared herself this time and faced Vicky before she reappeared. The little girl held a sandwich, and she happily devoured it. Somewhere nearby, a man''s deep voice echoed... "Hey! Who took my sandwich?!" Hearing that, Vicky giggled and continued to munch on her stolen food. The little girl looked very cute, but Kim couldn''t think of her as anything but terrifying. She was only Sera''s adopted daughter, but Kim was still scared of her other mother, Bea. Whoever that she was, Kim had no intention of meeting with her. "Okay... Victoria... Uh... It was nice talking to you, but I have to leave..." The girl stopped in mid bite and looked at Kim with sad puppy eyes. "You have to leave? But weren''t you having fun? We can go and play some game? This place seems really uncomfortable." Kim was about to reject her, but the kid looked so sad that the words stuck in her mouth. She sighed... "Dammit, I''m going to regret this!" she mumbled to herself, then turned towards Vicky with a fake smile. "Fine, you can come too, but stay close to me. Understand?" The girl''s face instantly brightened, and while they crawled through the vents, she continued to eat the sandwich. They reached the main vent soon, but Kim stopped there. She didn''t want to endanger the kid, so she tried to think of a way to move to the level above. "Hey, Vicky. How on point is your teleportation?" "My mom said that I shouldn''t reveal the extant of my abilities to anyone!" Kim sighed in annoyance, then rephrased her question... "Can you teleport to a level above, into the other ventilation shaft?" She didn''t answer, just closed her eyes, and in the next second both of them got teleported. Kim looked around with confusion, then bumped her head into the much lower ceiling. "Fuck... Could''ve warned me before you do that!" She said while looking straight into the little girl''s white eyes. She had a mischievous smile on her face, and Kim felt like she wasn''t the first victim of her sudden teleportation. Vicky looked around the cramped ventilation shaft... "Uh... Kim? Why are we here? Can''t we just use the corridors to move around? I''m pretty sure they were designed for that." Hearing this question, Kim really wanted to punch herself in the face. The reason they were still inside the shaft was because there were no exits nearby, but Vicky could teleport them out anytime! "...And then she turned her sword into a lance, and let the bird monster fly into it! The beast exploded into bloody mist, and it rained down on Sera!" Vicky was explaining, in an awful lot of detail, how Sera killed some Tainted monster. She had been talking about the different creatures she had killed as an Evolved, from the time before the war. Kim was very interested, and wanted to learn more, but at that moment they reached their destination, and she found another problem... ''How the fuck should I introduce her?'' They stopped a few meters away from the trio. They were looking between Kim and Vicky, but before anyone could speak, the little girl stepped forward. She showed off her big, bright, gap-toothed smile, and reached out her hand. "Hello There! My name is Victoria! Nice to meet you!" The twins were so overwhelmed by her cuteness that they didn''t know how to react, but Astrid wasn''t as emotional. She firmly, but also gently, grasped the child''s small hand, and introduced herself. "Nice to meet you Victoria! My name is Astrid! And the twins here are called Eula and Joan. Eula is the one with the longer hair..." She whispered the last part, like it was a secret. The pair looked ridiculous next to each other. Astrid was well over two meters in height, while Vicky barely reached her stomach. She was around one and a half meter tall, and still growing. After the handshake, she moved back towards Kim and seeing them next to each other caused the twins to burst out into laughter. Experience more tales on empire With confusion, Kim looked towards Vicky, and realized why they were laughing. The girl was much younger than Kim, but they were close to the same height, with only about half a head difference between them. "Yeah, funny I''m small. Can we move on?" said Kim while rolling her eyes. Hearing this, Vicky looked Kim up and down, then turned towards the twins with a pout... "What do you mean she is small? We are the same height, and I''m tall!" This did nothing to calm down the pair, and at some point Astrid joined them too. Kim watched them for a few seconds, then turned away and talked to Vicky. "So Victoria. What do you want to do?" The little girl jumped up and down from joy, while saying over and over again... "I want to see my mommy''s city!" When the trio heard this, their laughter stopped, and they stared at the little girl in both awe and terror. Seeing this display, Kim smirked at them, then turned back to the girl. "Then we will do exactly that! Joan, where is the closest exit!" she said while pointing at her. The shorter-haired twin stammered a bit, before giving up on speech and just showed it on the map. "Oh... That''s quite far... Wait! Victoria, couldn''t you teleport all of us to the surface, preferably somewhere out of sight?" The girl didn''t even answer. Just closed her eyes and in the next moment, the five of them appeared in an alley on the surface... Chapter 230 Attack on the City The five of them wandered around the streets for a few hours, and now they sat inside a cozy restaurant. It was well over midday, so the place was mostly empty. They sat at a corner table with Vicky in the middle, Kim to her right and Astrid to her left. The twins sat in front of them, each sipping their own glass of red wine. The two of them still took wary glances towards Vicky. They have spoken little during their outing, which was perfectly fine for everyone. Vicky spent so much time talking that it was hard to get a word in. They were still waiting for their food. From the corner of her eyes, Kim spotted the waiters whispering and pointing to their table, which meant they recognized them as Evolved. It''s a shame, Kim always liked to be treated as a regular person. She hated the extra attention. Explore stories on empire Vicky spotted them too, but unlike Kim, she began acting like a fucking princess. She scrutinized each of the utensils and dishes like she was a health inspector. The waiter watched the eleven-year-old girl with a terrified smile and trembling hands. When they sent him away, Kim could''ve sworn that the man was close to passing out from stress. Throughout the past hours, they have done nothing interesting. Astrid and the twins led both of them around the city. Neither Kim nor Vicky had seen the famous buildings and beautiful parks hidden within. They had a lot of fun, and after a quick pep-talk, Kim convinced Vicky to not randomly teleport away. Their first destination was one of New Athens'' famous Amphitheatre''s. There were no rehearsals going on, so they just kind of wandered inside and looked around a bit. After that, they went southwest until they reached the wall. There was a tall tower placed there, with a large burning fire on top. People nicknamed it the Lighthouse, even though no boats moved in the water. The New Athens Military used it as the tallest lookout point, and since all five were Ascended, they could enter easily. The tower is twice as high as the wall around New Athens, so about a hundred meters. From there, they could admire the entire city. Vicky especially enjoyed that one, since she could sit out onto the railing and give a heart-attack to the regular soldiers. They all had terrified expressions on their faces, while Vicky just swung her legs while humming a cheery tune. From there, they visited the zoo, which Kim didn''t even know about. The New Athens Zoo had a wide selection of animals, starting with the ones from the Old World, like elephants, tigers, lions, gorillas, etc. Then there were a few more exotic ones, which were created in labs by a special scientist. They were all hybridized. One of the combination was giant snakes with cats, which made a strange fluffy snake, with a very cute head. They were friendly, and the five of them spent a lot of time petting the long snakes. The next creature was a combination of bears and eagles, which turned them into terrifying creatures. They had the size of an average brown bear, with the addition of two giant wings, that gave them the ability to glide from trees. Their heads were also more eagle-like, but much larger. Seeing them caused a shiver to run down Kim''s spine. She could''ve easily killed them in a fight, but that didn''t make her feel much better. There were a few more strange combinations, like ants and scorpions, which were disgusting in Kim''s opinion, but the twins seemed to like those the most... Weirdos.No?v(el)B\\jnn After the hybrid section, they went to the few monsters they kept in the zoo, but they weren''t nearly as interesting as the regular animals. The five of them had killed thousands of similar creatures, so they weren''t anything special. "Victoria! What did I tell you about trying to joining in fights!" asked the woman in a berating tone. The little girl grumbled under her breath, then spoke with a deep, exhausted sigh... "That I''m only allowed under an adult''s supervision... But this is my mom''s city! Please, Aunt Faith. Let''s help them fight! I promise I won''t go near the front lines this time! Please!" The four women watched the interaction with confusion, but they were even more surprised when the shadowy woman named Faith rolled her eyes and agreed... "Fine, but get the lazy trio too, just to be safe!" The little girl began jumping from happiness and gave the woman an enormous hug. She chuckled and petted the girl on the head affectionately. Without warning, all six of them were teleported atop the northern wall. The sudden change in atmosphere made each of them alert. There was a lot of shouting around them, and few people even pointed their guns. "Idiots! Those are ours! Point your weapons outside of the fucking wall!" The regular soldiers didn''t say a word of apology, they just moved away from them and began shooting outside of the walls. Kim was about to turn around when three more people fell in front of them. She recognized them instantly. It was Cassandra and the other two who spent their time watching tv-shows. They groaned as they stood up. Their faces were full of annoyance. The blue-haired guy was still shirtless, which piqued the twins'' and Kim''s interest. The pale woman''s eyes went to the little girl, then she ran at her and began violently tickling her sides. "Oh, so you are in the mood for teleporting! Let me teach you another lesson!" said the woman playfully, while Vicky was laughing without stopping. "No... Stop Aunt Lucy..." She didn''t stop until she heard the artillery going off behind the walls. Only after that did she spend time to actually look around her surroundings. When her dark eyes landed on Kim, she looked her up and down once, then snorted to herself... "So you were the one crawling through the vents. You seem to fit in those easily." The woman grinned down at Kim, who just rolled her eyes as a response. "Okay guys, you know the drill. Whoever kills the most gets a point, whoever kills the strongest earns additional points. Let the best win!" said Will, then he jumped over the wall and run straight into the giant monster horde. With mad laughter, Lucy grew out two black, cloudy wings, then flew at the horde too. Cassandra just stared at Kim with silent contempt, then went near the wall and watched as the fight played out. "So... What do we do?" asked Joan, while staring at the monster horde. "What we are supposed to do, silly. We kill them all!" said the little girl in her tiny voice. She then concentrated and opened an enormous portal in the middle of the monster formation... Chapter 231 Surprise Siege Bran stood atop a tower, watching over the approaching horde. They had known about them for the past few days, so he wasn''t worried at all. Next to him stood Damien and Bea. They were the safety measures if things went astray. There were also about a hundred Angelic Order members placed at strategic points around the city-walls, and they kept the rest of the army ready too. The horde was only a few hundred monsters, the strongest of them being Horrors of 1st Tier. They were nothing special, but Bran had a strange feeling about them. The monsters attacked with too much coordination, and they were heading straight for New Athens... It all seemed too coincidental to him. That''s why he took so many preventative measures. He watched as the first artillery shells hit the beginning of the monster formation, then the larger cannons placed over the wall shot at them as well. Dozens of them died, but the rest just trampled over them, and ran straight towards the wall. When they got close enough, the Evolved with ranged abilities shot at the creatures, too. It was all going well, nothing surprising, when Bran spotted some idiot running towards the monsters. Close to him, a dark-winged woman flew with a scythe in her hand. They were began slaughtering the monsters without issues. Tainted, Rotten, Corrupted, and even Horrors died by their hands. People all over the wall began to shout at each other in confusion and awe. Bran, on the other hand, just stared at Bea with a questioning glare. She just shrugged... "It seems like they wanted to join in on the fun..." Her next words got stuck in her mouth when she spotted a portal opening in the middle of the monster formation. "Motherfucker... I will flay that idiot!" Bea looked over the wall until her eyes landed on a small white-haired girl and her caretaker, who was supposed to keep her out of trouble. She was about to stomp off when Damien grabbed her arm... "You were right Bran. They aren''t normal. They are being controlled!" As he said it, sirens began to blare around the city. There were different sirens for different attacks or disasters. This one marked one of humanity''s worst opponent... Goblins! Warning flares launched from five different areas of the city. Bran instantly got dozens of new messages from different military commanders, each reporting a large horde approaching by different means. There was one coming from the sea, by either boat or on the backs of monsters. There was one coming from the south by different flying vehicles and beasts. From the east, they either drove strange cars or moved on the back of other creatures. The rest came from the northwest. There were large worms digging a tunnel in which they managed to travel without getting noticed. The fifth and last group was one even Bran easily noticed. They were using the monster horde as their cover, and now they ran towards the walls, too. The reports also said that there were many different colors and goblin looks, which meant everyone of these were from different tribes. There were dozens of goblins tribes. Some lived in mountains and used flying to move back and forth between raids. Others lived in caves, while some used their strange, badly maintained vehicles to move around. As Bran saw the massive number of monsters and armies, he realized something at the same moment Damien spoke. Bran watched the destruction for a bit, then began reading the reports from the other fronts. They were all maintaining control for now, but things were slowly starting to turn worse. The flying army was getting taken out by James and Leslie in their transformed selves. James was shooting his giant laser cannons straight into the enemy formation. Using his smaller weapons, he strategically wounded the monsters, or destroyed integral parts of their machines. Leslie, on the other hand, flew straight into them with his demonic wings, and, using his halberd, cut their formation right open. The water front was doing the best by far. A combination of Sarah''s weather control and Adam''s sand control, they were melting through the disembarking army with no problem. Bea already patched the section of the wall to the north up, and now she was collapsing the tunnels, and trying to kill the giant worms. Melinda was there helping her by killing the weaker goblins with ease, and fighting the stronger ones in a melee. Each of these places was also supported by the Angelic Order, as well as humans and Evolved from the regular military. The problem was that each of these armies had dozens of Transcended mixed in, which were very problematic. Luckily, goblin Transcended are weaker than human ones, but they are still stronger than most Ascended. People like Sera, Bea, Kim, etc. could fight them, but most would get killed in a confrontation. On the vehicle front, Lilith was fighting each of them in their dreams, but it was always hard, since their dreams and fears were just as horrible as their regular desires. Each fight was a struggle, but she tried to kill as many as she could. When the army got close, Bran helped kill them too, which held them up even longer. The real fight wasn''t happening on any of these fronts, though. To the northeast, they made a desperate attempt to quickly end the battle. Will and Lucy were still killing all the monsters, while Astrid and the twins were destroying the goblin forces. In her giantess form, Astrid easily overwhelmed any warrior who dared oppose her. Using her spear, she delivered death quicker than the goblins realized what was happening. The twins were a bit more careful. They each used a slender longsword as their weapon, while both of their bodies were in whitish-blue armors. It wasn''t anything too special, but the metal was very good at conducting electricity, the same as their weapons. Their ability was also remarkable and unique. When they touched each other''s weapon or armor, they could send giant shockwaves of electricity. It had the power of two Ascended and it could fry even a Transcended goblin with ease. Further back, Will was using his spear to kill, but as he moved through the monsters, their previous coordination turned into a mad frenzy, and they began to murder each other. To his left, Lucy wasn''t even really paying attention. Any monster that got cut by her scythe died within the next second, and with each kill, her power grew further. Each had their own struggle, but the real fight was happening further to the north, where Kim, Damien and Cass were closing in on the Goblin Warlord! Chapter 232 Transcended Goblin As Kim stepped through the portal, a strange calm took hold of her. This was a feeling she had never felt before, belonging. Fighting against the Federal Alliance and trying to kill Sera was something she never truly agreed with. Each kill went against her principles, but she pushed through since it was for the ''greater good''. When she joined the Untied Front, she didn''t feel like she was part of them. Her only purpose was completing her goal of getting revenge. But as Bran ordered her, she felt like part of the team, part of something bigger and better. She took this opportunity to look into herself, and she liked the person she was changing into. The road was still long and hard, but the healing process had already started, and she would be ever grateful for Bran. He saved her from a path that would''ve held nothing like the current satisfaction she felt. So when she stepped through the portal and into the goblin horde, she did it with a wide grin. Damien and Cassandra also stepped through behind her. The portal then closed, leaving them stranded. The tall white-haired man grew in size, until a giant, white saber-tooth tiger stood in his place. The edges of his fur had small frost particles on it, while his eyes stayed its chilling blue color. On her other side, Cassandra broke into glass-like shards and disappeared. Kim felt confused for a moment, and it only got worse after she saw the goblins'' reactions. They ran around with terrified faces. It was like some deadly creature was chasing them, but in reality, they were running from nothing. Or at least Kim saw nothing, but she was a hundred percent certain that Cassandra had conjured something vile to sow chaos. The tiger soon ran off too, leaving a simple order for Kim to follow... "Find the Stellar!" With a skeptical look on her face, she surveyed the battlefield. There were explosions going off everywhere, and she saw dead goblins flying away from artillery shells. For a moment, she breathed in the familiar smell of death, then she opened her emerald green eyes and summoned her swords. She twirled them once and stared out at the approaching horde. The goblins were even smaller than her, and she already imagined the amount of tiny jokes she was going to get from the twins and Astrid. The memory of them, of her friends, brought a smile to her face. From here she couldn''t quite see where they fought, but she could hear lightning and the loud screams, which marked their movement. The first of the goblins approached. It was only five in shitty metal armor and blunt looking weapons. Kim took a step forward, and with each of her sword she beheaded a goblin. They tried to block her fast strike, but they were too slow or her sword simply cut through theirs. The last three fell within a second, one with a quick stab to the eye, the seconds by dismemberment and the third by disembowelment. She didn''t even look at the corpses and just ran on into the mist of the horde. Each goblin she cut down without a fight. Even the Evolved and Ascended didn''t slow her down. With a quick move she jumped over several goblins, and landed on an Ascended, piercing his skull with ease. From there, she broke into a sprint and cut the legs out of another two goblins. She dodged a spear aimed at her spine, then swiftly cut off the goblin''s hands. Kim didn''t want to use a lot of essence in this fight, since she might need it against the Stellar. So, instead of using her petrification, she used her snake body. Much faster than the goblin could''ve expected, she moved towards her. The green scaled snake tail was mesmerizing to look at and by the time the female noticed what happened, it was already too late. Kim climbed over the female''s large body and, using her snake body, she restricted the goblin''s movement as best as she could. The Transcended goblin screamed and shouted in outrage. Then she looked into Kim''s mesmerizing emerald eyes. Their head were only a few centimeters apart, close enough for her hair snakes to smell the fresh meat. A couple moved out of her hair and crawled over the goblin''s green face. She wanted to shout again, but a snaked burrowed right into her neck, while another entered and moved down her throat. A few more found places to enter, or made their own. The goblin female did not know what to do, and by the time a snake plucked out her eyes, it was already too late. She fell over dead in the next second, sending out a shockwave. Her fat jiggled disgustingly. One by one, the snakes returned to Kim''s hair, and she left the enormous corpse without taking a second glance. She didn''t turn back from her transformation. She just re-summoned her swords and began making her way through the goblin battle lines, searching for their leader. Behind her the fighting grew heavier, and on each of her sides, the two Transcended slaughtered. On her left Damien''s frost killed everyone in sight, while on her right Cassandra''s illusions caused the goblins to kill each other, or simply die of brain damage. Kim''s movement speed increased a lot after she started using her snake body. Her killing speed increased, too. She used her snake body to move low to the ground, and with her swords, she cut legs and torsos in half with ease. When someone tried to attack from behind her, she used her long snake tail as a whip and sent the goblins flying. As she moved closer to the army''s edge, the number of Ascended increased, which meant she was closing in on the target. Sure enough, she soon found him. The tall goblin, close to two meters tall, sat in a throne made of bones, surrounded by about a dozen Transcended females. Each sat close to him, or in his lap. They were many shapes and sizes, but most of them were similarly fat as the last one she killed. They were part of his harem. They noticed Kim''s approach and with a shout ordered the Ascended to stop attacking. The army let her through without care and she stopped a good twenty meters away from the harem and the Warlord. The goblins stared at Kim''s naked body with hunger and desire, but none of them said or done anything. Instead, they looked towards their owner for approval. The tall goblin wasn''t as bad as the rest. He could even be called handsome if you ignored the long nose and few imperfections. His hair was long and pure black, while his eyes were an exotic light green. He wore a shining armor, like the knights of old and behind her a long slender blade was stuck in the ground. These were all surface level examinations though. Just because the outside looked better, the inside was still rotten. He looked Kim over once, his eyes full of desire and lust. He spoke a few words to his harem in the goblin language, which caused all of them to snicker and stare at Kim. A few of them stood up and began walking towards her, with terrifying grins... Chapter 233 Warlord Kim stood alone on the grassy field as the four Transcended approached her. They were all similar in their ugliness, but their bodies differed a lot. The furthest to the right was tall and thin. She held a glaive with a serrated blade at its end, and she wore some kind of body armor that only protected her chest and nether area. Most of her skin was showing, which was very dumb in Kim''s opinion. The one next to her stood even smaller than Kim, and she looked much more robust than the first. She held a battleaxe, which was larger than her small stature. Monster skin formed her armor, and she used the creature''s face for a helmet. On her right walked one of the fattest person Kim had ever seen. The ground trembled with each step the fat goblin took. She held a large whip, which she cracked loudly in the air. A strange black, plastic-like outfit contained her whole body. The one on the left was the most normal out of the four. Her face wasn''t as ugly as the rest, and she was the only one who wasn''t grinning from ear-to-ear. In her hand, a lone sword rested, and she wore a simple leather armor for defense. Kim''s focus instantly landed on this female. From her movement, it was easy to tell that she was the strongest out of the four. The females stopped a few meters away from Kim and looked back at their owner. He shouted something in the goblin language while staring at Kim. The female on the left translated it. "Change back into human and beg for mercy. My Lord doesn''t want to kill you, and if you try anything, you will meet a fate much worse than death or slavery." Her voice was a monotone, and human-like. Her translation and talking pattern was much better than any goblin Kim had heard before. It took her a few seconds to realize her situation. She could''ve tried to fight these four, and maybe she could''ve won, but one mistake would equal a death sentence. She also had to account for the Warlord, who was a lot stronger than she could manage. For now, she needed one thing and one thing only... Time. Her twin short swords dissolved into green fog, and her snake tail turned into a pair of slender legs. The snakes on her head changed back into a shoulder length green hair. The scales on her body turned back into her usually pale skin. She then began to re-summon her clothing, but before she could''ve, the tall goblin grabbed onto her hair and tossed her right before the Warlord''s feet. By the time she reached the ground, her armor covered her nakedness, but her face still landed in the dirt. With a small groan of pain, she climbed to her feet... Or at least tried to. A firm foot kicked into her spine, and she went back onto the ground. The foot stayed on her and kept increasing the pressure until she couldn''t breathe. All the goblin females snickered, but the male''s booming laughter was louder than any of them. He spoke a few words, which Kim didn''t understand, but soon a clear female voice spoke right into her ear, translating it. For a moment, Kim saw the goblin''s skeletal structure, then she saw her flying away. By the time she hit the ground, she was dead. Kim heard loud footsteps rapidly approaching, but was pleasantly surprised to see their owner. Astrid ran to Kim in her giantess form. Her enormous feet moved along the ice with ease, never slipping or slowing down. She leaned down and grabbed Kim with one hand, pulling her up without effort. Behind her, the twins were running too, but they were much worse on the ice. They kept slipping and sliding. "Thank you... For the rescue... Fuck me... That asshole was about to turn me into a goblin, I think..." said Kim, her voice heavy with fear and relief. She couldn''t see the others'' expression, but they looked to be terrified by what they heard. One of the twins seemed to want to ask something, but before she could, a loud bang brought their attention away. The four of them turned towards the sound, where the Warlord was fighting with the giant Tiger and a colorful flying figure. They were throwing everything in their power against him, but the male just laughed it off. "Can you help them?" asked Astrid, while watching the fight with angry eyes. Kim remained silent as her sight was fixed on the fight. Damien summoned a few hundred ice spears behind him and launched it all at the Warlord. At the same time, Cass locked him into an invisible box, with thorns on the inside, so it would stop his movements for a moment. The Warlord stared at them with a wide grin, then his body turned ethereal for a moment. Only a greenish outline was visible, and he soon appeared outside the box. With his long and slightly curved sword, he cut towards the approaching projectiles, and each of them exploded into splinters. He laughed with madness and rage, then pointed towards Kim and shouted a few words. In that moment, the four of them saw that several female harem members had survived. There were five of them, including the woman who translated to Kim. Astrid grabbed Kim by the shoulder, and said with a serious voice... "Try to help the two Transcended, we will take care of these bastards!" Kim wasn''t so sure that the three of them could defeat all those females, but they didn''t have time to argue. What she knew for sure was their need for the Stellar to die or leave. She spent a precious second to turn towards the walls and saw as the waves of goblins and monsters were already below them. With a deep, calming breath, she turned away from the city''s doom and focused on the task needed to be completed... Chapter 234 Taking Risks Astrid watched as Kim ran towards a fight she shouldn''t be taking part in. Her blood was boiling with hatred and disgust, but she hid all her feelings under her mask. Years of abuse fueled her anger, yet her rigorous training kept her from losing her composure in a fight. Next to her, the twins stared towards the approaching woman with more fear than anger. Unlike most, they had a pretty good life. They were helping Mary as attendants in the Research Facility. There was some experimental monster that escaped. One thing led to another, and they killed it. Eula and Joan did the killing blow, with a long metal pipe, that they could only lift together. That''s when they got their strange power, which was extremely strong, but only worked if they were physically touching each other. After a few tests done by Mary, they got transferred to the Angelic Order here in New Athens. They weren''t too into training, and they weren''t too useful in close quarter fighting. They were the polar opposite of Astrid. They sucked with regular weapons, but their ability was so powerful that they did not need to use weapons. They also weren''t in any war situations before, but they tried their best. Now Astrid looked towards them, and wasn''t sure how well they would perform, but she had no more time to think. The first of the goblin female had arrived. Astrid in her giantess form reached about 2.5 meters, which meant that the goblin female was nearly half as tall as she was. She wore a red plate armor, which didn''t seem to impede her movements at all. In her hand, she carried a long sickle-like sword with serrated edges. She grinned at the tall woman, then snickered and jumped towards her. With quick reflexes Astrid move out of the blow, and was about to punch the Transcended out of the air, when she felt the sickle bite into her skin. On her right, below her shoulder, blood flowed down on her whitish-gold armor. She had no idea how it got there, since the female stood way out of reach. She attacked again, this time towards her leg. The sickle only hit the air as Astrid moved out of its way, but when it finished moving, a new deep wound appeared on her left calf. She gasped in pain and anger. With this second attack, she knew what was happening, and she didn''t let the goblin make another cut. The sickle cut through the air; it was aimed towards Astrid''s neck this time. It was about to complete its arc when an unexpected powerful force knocked it away. With one long step Astrid got a few meters closer to the female goblin, and with a swipe of her spear, the weapon was not only stopped, but knocked away. The female goblin''s eyes went wide, and she screamed as Astrid grabbed her head with one hand. She lifted the still screaming goblin into the air and applied pressure. It exploded into a watermelon, raining green blood everywhere. The shouting from the other increased, but when Astrid turned around, there was only three left. The one with the human-like features seemed to disappear from their midst. Each was a few meters away, and they prepared their weapons to deliver unstoppable blows. In that moment, the familiar smell of ozone hit Astrid''s nose, and she watched in awe and glee as the three goblin females got hit with lightning. Imagining all this brought a bright smile to his face, and he snickered. He said a few words to Damien, but he didn''t speak the goblin''s language. The Warlord didn''t care either. He just said a monologue for a few seconds, then out of nowhere, attacked. Kim was still a few dozen meters away, and her powers would only work from within ten. The Warlord unleashed an onslaught of attacks on Damien. With a quick step, he cut at the large tiger head. Damien''s eyes glowed for a moment, freezing the Warlord thoroughly in the air. He tried to bite down on the frozen goblin, but he turned ethereal and Damien only bit the ice sculpture. It exploded into tiny shards. In the air, the Warlord became physical once more. He floated for a moment in front of Damien''s widened eye, then pushed the point of his sword inside. The saber-tooth tiger howled in pain, while turning back to human. The Stellar laughed and punched Damien in the chest, breaking all of his ribs. He went flying like a rag doll; the sword falling away in the process. He was still alive, but his right eye was impaled on the slender blade. The Warlord walked towards it and plucked the eye from his mouth. He made a few satisfied noises, like he was eating a gourmet meal. Then he stood up and went towards Damien with a wide grin. He lifted his sword in the air to kill the unconscious Transcended, but in that moment Kim had finally arrived. With little thought, she jumped in the air and transformed. She was about to land on the Stellar, but suddenly he turned his sword and stabbed behind his back. Kim''s own weight impaled her on the sword. It went into her abdomen and exited behind her back. The two meter long blade stabbed through his spine. She lost her neural connection to her snake tail, and her body got weaker each second. The Warlord turned around with a giggle and stared into Kim''s eye. His hand got covered in the green energy again, and this time he touched Kim''s face. At that moment, she felt a strange connection being established. She felt it try to change her DNA, her race, her sense of self, everything. She held onto herself as best as she could, but her control was slipping. As a last ditch effort, she tried something that had a high chance of killing her... She burned away all her essence at once. Her essence reserves were 8000, which was about four times as high as a regular Ascended, and even close to a normal Transcended''s. She activated her petrification ability, and with a scream of excruciating pain, she sent its full force through that connection. In that moment, she instantly lost consciousness, and was sent flying with so much force that she landed about ten kilometers away. On the battlefield, Damien was pushed away too, which brought him back to consciousness. It took her a few seconds to realize what had happened. His chest had already mostly healed, but his eyes couldn''t regenerate that easily. But at that moment, he didn''t care about that at all. His lone eye solely focused on the Warlord. He and a fifty meter radius around him turned to stone, and upon seeing the statue''s expression, Damien laughed. The goblin Stellar''s eyes were wide with both surprise and terror. It captured the moment of his death perfectly! Chapter 235 With a Foot in the Grave The world felt numb. No matter how hard she tried, Kim felt no connection to her actual body. It was like she was floating in water, or how she imagined space would feel like.No?v(el)B\\jnn Her eyes were open, or maybe she didn''t even have eyes. She had vision, but all she could see was a sea of darkness. The place where she floated was strange and empty. It also felt wrong, like she wasn''t supposed to be here, not yet anyway. "You are correct, Little One. But I needed to say a few words to you before I let you back." Still absorbed in the calmness of the endless space, the sound which should''ve been terrifying only made her curious. A sudden force spun her around, and she saw a tiny warm light an infinity distance away. Her eyes quickly left that light though and landed on the figure that was seated in a comfortable-looking chair. A long black robe hid His whole body, and behind Him a large golden scythe floated. Kim looked the Being up and down a few times... "I''m not little!" she said with annoyance after a while. The creepy guy chuckled, which sounded like bones grating. "You know, other than a special person, few dare to joke with me. I''m Death by the way. One of your friends has already met me, so ask them for details. I won''t going to hold you for long, but I need you to forward a message to Bea from me." Kim''s head spun with this new information, but she tried to stay focused. She knew this person had to be extremely powerful, and she didn''t want to disrespect Him. After thinking for a few seconds, Kim nodded for Him to continue. "A lot is happening in the Universe''s vastness. Forces previously passive are moving again after millions of years. For now, your little planet is in the eye of the storm, but eventually it will be swept into it, too." The tall robed Being shifted in His chair, making Himself more comfortable. "You don''t have to worry about them for a long while, but you need to do something with that scientist. What he does goes against the natural order, and he needs to be taken care of... Before he makes some irreversible damage." The person named Death sounded very annoyed and even a bit angry. He stared at Kim for a while, then suddenly and without warning, the world fell apart. ... The feeling returned to her body, which should have been a good thing, but it was too painful for that. Her whole body hurt, and she still couldn''t move. It was like every cell in her body was tired. This was caused by the burning of all her essence at once. It was even a miracle that she survived. She kept groaning as the burning pain stayed persistent. Her senses were slowly returning. Her eyes were closed, but she could see some kind of light shining through her eyelids. Her mouth tasted like blood, while she felt the grassy ground underneath her body. She also felt some hard object behind her, like a rock or boulder or maybe a tree. In the air she smelt something burning, like a campfire, and in her ears she heard the crackling of said fire. With a groan of pain, she tried and managed to open her eyes. Her vision swam with colors for a good few seconds. The edges were dark, and the left side of her vision had a slight red tint. She then stabbed a nearby stick through it and placed the dead animal atop the flames. The sizzle of flesh echoed in the small chamber, and soon, a delightful smell of cooked meat hit Kim''s nose. "That smells delicious!" she said with little thought. The goblin woman yelped in surprise and scrambled to grab her sword. Kim watched the terrified expression of the goblin with a large smile, and she couldn''t hold back her laughter. The woman watched in confusion, as Kim just chuckled for no apparent reason. This situation was just too ridiculous for her. She couldn''t move anything other than her neck, so her being scared was just too funny. The woman seemed to realize this again, and she lowered her weapon with a shameful expression. After laughing for a while, Kim looked at the woman''s face in the better light. She wasn''t nearly as ugly as any other goblin Kim had seen. She wasn''t beautiful either. Her figure was too thin and her face was more handsome than pretty. The goblin looked Kim over as well, and after a while said... "How are you doing?" For a long moment, Kim stayed silent. She was unsure how to answer her question, but staring into the goblin''s eyes, she saw no malice in them. Her eyes were calm, and even a bit worried for reasons that Kim didn''t know. "I feel fine, but I can''t move anything below my neck, so I would appreciate if you didn''t rape me." The goblin''s face went pale after hearing that, then turned red from anger. "I would never! I''m not like those other ones!" She was screaming and shouting, but Kim just watched all this with a small smile. Her initial assessment was correct, and this goblin was unlike any other. She seemed much closer to humans in the way she acted. As this revelation appeared in her mind, she recalled what the Warlord was about to do to her. Kim turned nauseous. Just the thought made her sick. She stared at the woman, and now that she knew what to look for, the answer was obvious. This woman wasn''t always a goblin. She was changed by the Warlord, which is what he wanted to do with Kim. Suddenly, all of her actions made sense. She was very timid, since she didn''t trust humans anymore. Kim knew dozens of people who would kill her just because she looked like a goblin. It also made sense why she wasn''t with the other goblins. In a way, she was a prisoner too, but with a fate much worse than a regular human''s. Kim stared at the woman for a long time, then with an emphatic smile, she spoke... Chapter 236 A Tragic Story "So... You aren''t really a goblin lady. That''s good, since I don''t like your kind much. One of my good friends had suffered by their hands for quite a long time, and I love to help my friend get her revenge!" The goblin woman stared and Kim with widened eyes, then burst into laughter. It had the undertone of the usual goblin cackle, but it was also like how humans laughed. It was a strange mix. "Well, if it makes you feel better, I hate goblins more than anybody on Earth. She suffered by their hands for years, imagined becoming one of them... Also, I''m not a lady, just so you know." She... He felt a bit embarrassed saying that last line, which made Kim even more curious. She looked the goblin up and down once more. Kim miss-gendered him, because all the other members in the Warlord''s harem were female. Also, he didn''t look manly at all, but that can probably be attributed to his malnourished state. His voice also sounded higher pitched, like every goblin''s. "What''s your name, anyway? I''m Kim." she said, then watched as the goblin carefully turned on the meat, so its other side would cook too. "I don''t remember my name before My Lord changed me... They named me Gnozz, so I guess that''s my name." His voice sounded depressed, but also hopeful. Kim stared at the goblin with narrowed eyebrows. "Hmm... I don''t like that name. It''s weird... I rename you Sam!" she said with a giggle. The goblin''s eyes went wide, then turned confused, and eventually he just nodded. "What? You don''t even try to argue?" The goblin shrugged with resignation, and while taking the rabbit off the flames, he said, "Since that''s what my Lady decided, that''s what it will be." Kim had no idea what to say to that, so instead she watched in silence as the goblin took out a pair of wooden plates and placed parts of the still steaming rabbit on it.No?v(el)B\\jnn He took out wooden utensils too and was about to hand Kim her plate when he realized she couldn''t move. His face started to get a reddish tint, and his eyes jumped around the room. He seemed to be embarrassed by something Kim didn''t understand. "You know, you will have to feed me. My hands are a bit inoperable at the moment, and I''m famished!" Sam''s face turned even redder. This was the first time Kim had ever seen a goblin blush, and she was hundred percent certain that he was the only one able to do it. "That would be inappropriate, my Lady... It''s considered an insult!" Kim just sighed and shook her head. Finally, understand the issue... "I don''t care about goblin traditions. I''m a human female, who is getting more and more annoyed... And why are you calling me ''Lady''?" The goblin looked around the room uncomfortably, then stood up and walked to Kim''s side with her plate. He cut a piece of meat off, then using a fork, he moved it towards Kim''s mouth. His hand trembled, and his expression was terrified, but Kim held back her laughter. Below the blanket her stomach basically roared for the nutrition, so she let the goblin feed her like a child. She opened her mouth and Sam placed the meat inside with a reverent expression. He seemed to act like this was a holy ritual of sorts, which was strange. After feeding her a few pieces of meat, he began answering her question... She didn''t know what else to say. During her 18 years, she heard countless accounts of people spending months in goblin camps. Those usually have a lifelong trauma, or more often, they simply kill themselves. Astrid, her current best friend, only survived because she became obsessed with the idea of being indebted to Sera. She also had a lot of help, mostly from Lilith. Kim didn''t know anyone else who survived longer than Astrid... Until now... Sam smiled with sadness and lifted another piece of meat. "Don''t be. It''s over now. I won''t ever go back there... I would rather die..." He fed her in silence after that. It was awkward at first, but as time passed, they grew more comfortable in each other''s presence. Afterward, Sam washed the plate in a small pond, which Kim hadn''t noticed. There was a small trickle of water filling it constantly. He also brought a large cup full of water, which Kim drank without question. As an Ascended, she didn''t have to worry about any mundane disease or contagion. She drank close to five cups before she was satisfied. Sam then put the cup down and knelt next to Kim, his expression turning red again. "I would like to check on your wound," he said, while looking away from Kim''s wide eyes. "Wound? I didn''t even know I had a wound? How bad is it? Where is it?" She bombarded him with a couple more questions, then waited for him to answer. "It''s your spine. Most of your vertebrae are dislocated. I am a Transcended and I have a healing ability, but it is difficult to heal your wound. This is why you can''t move, by the way..." "Your body was bruised all over, and most of your bones were broken when I found you. Since then I healed everything other than your spine, which is a very delicate procedure... So? Can I check on it?" They looked into each other''s eyes for a moment before Kim nodded. Sam didn''t waste time. He pulled the blanket from her naked body and laid it out next to the fire. Kim didn''t even have time to be surprised, as Sam bent down and lifted her onto the blanket. He then turned her over, so she laid on her stomach. Suddenly, it made sense why Sam blushed before asking her and she couldn''t help but blush as well. Kim didn''t care who saw her naked, but even she wasn''t comfortable with strangers touching her. She felt Sam''s hands touching all over her spine area, not missing any parts, even the ones that were dangerously close to her bottom. She didn''t even understand why she couldn''t move, but she could feel. When she asked Sam about it, he knew neither, which was understandable. Just because he could heal, didn''t make him a doctor. He pressed his hands all over her back, which felt kind of like a massage. After a few minutes, the Kim''s well-fed and tired body couldn''t take it anymore, and she fell asleep in comfort. Chapter 237 Unbearable Anger Kim had spent a couple of days inside the cave. The healing that Sam provided was slowly doing its job and now she could move her upper body, like normal. They had been having a great time, but every attempt Kim had made to leave or send a message to her friends was met with a roadblock. Sam didn''t want to carry her to the city, since he was afraid of getting killed on site. This was something Kim had fully understood and even agreed with. She had also tried sending a message on her watch, but that broke in the fight. She didn''t mind being in this cave with Sam, but it did bother her that her friends had no idea if she was alive or dead. Other than worrying, she spent most of her time talking with her new friend, who never wanted to leave her side. She had learnt a lot about his life. He talked about how badly he was treated, even though he was more powerful than most of the camp. They beat him into submission every time he got out of line, and thousands of goblins raped him one after another. The Warlord watched it all and laughed at Sam''s cowering form. After hearing all this, Kim let him cry on her shoulder. She tried to comfort him as best as she could, but his trauma ran too deep to be fixed by a few days of conversation. It did help him when she opened up about her past as well. She told him about how her city got destroyed, and how her family died. She mentioned nothing about Sera, since at this point, she wasn''t angry at her. The story of Sam was eye opening in a way. What he lost, or more like never had, was much more awful than what she experienced. And, while she told her own story, the resentment that always gnawed at her inside was finally gone. She felt much more free and liberated, like a heavy weight she had been carrying was gone at last! They were fine together, and as the days passed, her spine was getting better, which meant she could leave in a couple more days. Sam wasn''t too fond of the idea, since he didn''t want to lose his only friend, but Kim assured him that she would never leave him. For obvious reasons, he didn''t believe her, and she hadn''t brought it up again. The truth was, she did not know what to do. Nobody would accept Sam, even though he was basically a human in a goblin''s skin. These problems seemed so far away for her, and as the days went by, she didn''t expect to find herself in a hard situation so soon. It was a simple night, like all the others. Kim rested her head on Sam''s shoulder while he made gentle strokes along her back. There was nothing sexual about this interaction. Kim was pretty sure that the goblin wouldn''t want to do anything like that for the rest of his life. They were listening to the crackling of the fire in comfortable silence, when a sound brought both of their attention away. It was the snap of a metallic trap, which Sam had placed in the cave entrance. A curse and a groan of pain followed it. Loud footsteps echoed in the small cave entrance. Sam jumped to his feet immediately and lifted his sword. In an instant, vines grew out of the ground, restricting even Astrid''s powerful body. She screamed and shouted in rage, but the vines were much stronger. From the wall on the opposite side, a large flower grew out, with an extremely beautiful woman inside. Her skin had a greenish tint to it, while her hair was long and brown. She had many different colored flowers growing all over her body. She wore a brown dress, which grew out of her skin, too. Her leaf green eyes scanned the room until they landed on Kim''s crumpled form. They then moved to Sam, kneeling before her. His face was still full of worry, and he was terrified. Unlike Kim or Astrid, Bea had a special connection to nature, and she noticed Sam''s origin instantly. Her face went from neutral to confused, then settled on calm and relieved. She walked to Sam with slow and comfortable steps. Each time her bare feet touched the ground, a grassy patch grew there. Sam didn''t say a word, just made sure to be between Bea and Kim. Bea walked in front of him and looked down with a small, comforting smile. He felt less on edge, but he still stayed between them. "Can I heal my friend? My daughter would be quite upset if she died." Her voice sounded like a warm summer breeze, or the sound a waterfall makes, or the rustle of leaves. It was the sound of nature. He still wasn''t sure, but upon looking down on Astrid''s struggling form, he didn''t think he had any other options. Deciding to trust this woman, he moved away a bit, but made sure to be close to Kim if anything happened. Bea didn''t fail to notice this either, and she smiled at him approvingly. She reached out her right hand, which got surrounded with green energy. After that, she gently placed it on Kim''s face. The energy entered her body. Sam watched in awe as it spread over her broken form, reaching every part. A few seconds later, Bea lifted her hand away, then placed it on Sam''s hand, where a large piece of his sword was imbedded. He didn''t even notice the pain, and just continued to stare at Kim''s rapidly healing from with uncontrollable happiness. It took her a few minutes to get healed, but when Kim stayed unconscious, Sam began to panic. "Don''t worry. She will be out for the next few hours. That''s plenty of time to get reach New Athens, and tell me your story." Sam visibly calmed for a moment, only to get anxious again. His eyes turned teary as he watched Kim sleep in peace. "I can''t... I''m a goblin... They would kill me..." he said in a sad voice. "No, they won''t, because I and my friends won''t let them. Now let''s get going, so Kim could rest in a proper bed." While Bea spoke, she typed something on her watch, and before Sam could''ve refused, they all ¨C¨Cincluding Astrid¨C¨Cgot teleported away. Chapter 238 True Friendship Kim''s eyes slowly opened. She was lying on a double bed in a giant room. Her vision was still not perfect, but her ears were already working. She heard the sound of talking and giggling. She distinctively heard two people''s giggle, one was like a goblin, the other was a girl''s. With a groan, Kim tried to sit up, but her body felt unbearably weak. The sound got the attention of the two other people, and soon they were on the bed next to her. Her eyes were still a bit foggy as she looked upon the child and the goblin. Vicky was watching Kim with a concerned expression, which was nothing compared to the face Sam was making. He was borderline exploding from joy and excitement. Kim looked between the two individuals, then spoke in a scratchy voice... "What the fuck is wrong with your hair?" She smiled as she spoke. Both of their hairs were braided tightly, with a bunch of flowers placed on it. It looked normal on Vicky, but Sam''s long blackish-green hair looked ridiculous. The goblin and the girl looked at each other in confusion, then back at Kim. Their dumb expressions caused Kim to laugh, which soon turned into a cough. They rushed towards her. Sam lifted her up as gently as possible, while Vicky brought a large cup of water over, which Kim downed in seconds. Afterward, she took a few minutes to collect herself. Her breaths came heavy, like she was exhausted. Vicky said it was normal for the rapid healing Bea had done. The two of them told her everything that had happened after she got knocked out, and in the past two days. It shouldn''t have taken that long, but it seemed the strain on her body was too much, and it took a brief break. The past two days were much better than Sam had hoped for. They got teleported into this very room, where they put Kim into bed. This was actually Vicky''s room, and she was staying here with Sam, watching over her. The two of them were anxious about Kim, but Bea reassured both a lot of times. Kim also asked them about Astrid, which angered Sam a bit... "That brute got taken away by that young married couple with the blond hair. The small girl sent her to sleep, while her husband carried the brute away. We haven''t heard of her since," said Sam, his voice containing a lot of pain and anxiety. The picture of Kim''s broken body was still very fresh in his mind. He was terrified at the thought of meeting her again. "Don''t be so harsh on her. She had suffered at the hands of goblins for years, before getting rescued..." while speaking, Kim trailed off. Her words came from the right place, but sounded fake, even for her. That rage in Astrid''s eyes was something she would never forget. She wasn''t just angry, but straight up, lost her mind. She wasn''t even able to recognize her best friend and nearly killed her. The three of them stared at the door with concern, but as Vicky was about to teleport them away, a large shout shook the room. "HEY! What the fuck are you all doing here? This is a restricted area!" It was a man''s sound, and his voice made the angry screams stop. Through the door, Kim clearly heard the answer of the enraged Order member. "We do what''s right! We will take revenge on our fallen Brothers and Sisters! Goblins are the enemy of humanity, and we will eradicate them!" Many others shouted in unison, and Kim felt Sam''s trembling increase. Her anger grew, but sadly, her body wasn''t well enough to act upon it. "The Angelic Order doesn''t stand for petty revenge! Our Lady leads us into a better future, one that has nothing to do with our horrible past! How can we make that future happen if we build it upon war and corpses?" Silence momentarily fell over the angry crowd, but the voice''s owner wasn''t finished. "We have to put past are differences! We don''t fight the goblins because we hate them, but because they want to enslave us. The man inside that room isn''t one of them. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and had suffered more by the goblins'' hands than any of you!" Kim gave a reassuring squeeze to Sam''s arm. His eyes were turning teary, and he sniffled. "But don''t take it from me, because I have a leader bias! Take it from one of your Sisters. She has already met Sam. Come on Astrid, tell them your opinion!" There was a bit of shuffling outside, and the sound of large footsteps, followed by Astrid''s booming voice. "A lot of you know me! I have suffered under the hands of these creatures for years, before our Lady rescued me and many more people! I have also fought and killed these monsters for the past two years, and let me tell you, the one inside is nothing like the barbarians we fight!" "All of you have already heard about what Kim, our Sister, had done. She would''ve died if that goblin hadn''t saved her. And when I found them, he wanted to sacrifice himself, because he thought I was there to kill my friend..." Her voice choked a bit at the end, which was something Kim had never heard. It took her a few seconds to continue. "I''m ashamed... When I save him, my anger took the better of me, causing me to nearly kill my best friend... But... But, I have learned from my mistake, and tried to put the anger behind me. A good soldier moves on instinct, not emotion!" As her speech went on, Kim began to cry, too. She never knew that Astrid held her in such a high regard. "We are not savages! We are highly trained soldiers of the Angelic Order! We are fighting for a better future, which is only possible if we are better than our world! Violence is never the solution. It''s only a means to an end!" "Now, all of you! Leave to the temple and ask for forgiveness!" Not a single angry comment was said. The shuffling outside grew in volume as the crowd dispersed. Soon a knock came on the door, and Vicky let Astrid and Adam inside... Chapter 239 Aegis System Active When Sam saw Astrid, he took a step forward and stood in front of Kim. His whole body was still trembling from terror, but he still moved to protect his friend. This display caused Astrid to look away, ashamed. She was still angry when she saw the goblin, but Kim seemed to trust him, so she tried to calm herself, too. It felt strange, like getting kicked in the guts. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, but no words came out. The five of them just stood there, watching each other with distrust. Adam was the one to step forward and begin the conversation. From the three of them, only Vicky had met him, but she didn''t have trust for him. "I think we should start with introductions. My name is Adam. I''m one of the Angelic Order''s commanders, and I have come here to apologize for our questionable hospitality." He took an annoyed glance at Astrid while saying, which caused her to be even more embarrassed. Kim placed on a warm smile, or at least she tried to, but at this point her skin was paler than it usually was, and when she reached out for a handshake, she began to fall. Luckily, Sam reacted fast and caught her before she landed on the floor. He then carried her back to the bed and placed her under the covers. "No. I can stand, I just need something to lean onto," she said in a way to protest, but everyone could see that she was not ready for that much movement. Adam took a few steps closer and stared into Kim''s eyes with a serious expression. "I think you should consider yourself lucky. I haven''t heard of a single person surviving the usage of all their essence at once. As your superior, I order you to rest! If you protest, I will ask my wife to send you to sleep forcefully!" He smirked a bit at the last sentence, causing Kim to relent and chuckle. Astrid stayed at the door. She seemed to rather be anywhere else than in that room, but she stayed anyway. The room got plunged into silence again. Both Vicky and Sam stood over Kim protectively, while Adam just stood there, waiting. After who knows how long, Astrid had gathered enough awareness to speak. She took a few steps to the bed, which caused Sam to borderline panic, but Astrid stopped a step away from it. She then surprised everyone by going down on one knee. She was so tall that even on one knee, Kim clearly saw her bowed head. "I apologize for everything I had done and beg for your forgiveness. My hatred got the better of me, but after a bit of self reflection, I realized how much of a mistake I had committed..." As she spoke, Kim saw a few tears leaving her eyes, which broke her heart a bit. Astrid was always emotionless, so seeing her like this made Kim realize how genuine she was. "Kim... In these past years, you are the only person I considered a friend... I understand if you can''t forgive me, but just know... You will always have a special place in my heart and thank you for everything..." By the time she finished, Kim was crying too. She took a few moments to calm herself down, and with a heavy heart, spoke. "I forgive you Astrid, but I''m not the only one you hurt... The one who has to forgive you is Sam, since you caused the most issues to him..." It was hard to say those words, but they were necessary. This was something Astrid understood as well, and through gritted teeth, she spoke. "I''m sorry... Sam... Because of my past, I''m angry at your kind, but I acknowledge that you aren''t a born goblin... I apologize..." "While you were working up here, we were adapting the system downstairs. We checked and the roots are in place. The energy the Tree of Life makes is very potent, and will be more than enough for the Aegis System. We should actually head there, since that''s where the convertor is!" After that, all six of them headed downstairs, to the lowest level. This place was full of scientists and other attendants. They were making separate research here, ones that are not dangerous to the public, or not highly secretive. They each saluted to Bran, Adam and Lilith. They also said hi to James and Mary, since they were basically colleagues. The only person none of them recognized was Bea, but she was fine to keep it that way. After what they will do today, word will get out quickly inside the Angelic Order, and her identity shall be revealed. She had mixed feelings about that, but she had no say in the matter. In the past week, she still hadn''t got time to discuss anything personal with Bran, and it felt like he was actively avoiding her, understandably so. The only person she had a few conversations with was Melinda. They were getting along alright, but after learning about Bea''s and Sera''s relationship, she kept her distance too. But all this personal crap didn''t matter to her. She just wanted to save Sera, since she owed her that much. After that, they will figure out what to do! The six of them walked through corridors until they reached a large door, which led into an enormous hall. The ceiling was overgrown with the Tree of Life''s roots, with the main one hanging in the middle of the room. To the sides, machines buzzed. Without a word, Mary and James walked there, and they quickly checked if everything was in working order. Bea also checked on the roots and her tree. It was healthy and full of untapped energy. When growing it, she focused most of the energy dispersion into the roots, so the room was overgrown with plants too. Lilith and Adam stood at the door, making sure that nobody entered. Bran walked into the middle of the room where a large podium stood. He walked up on it. The end of the main root hung in front of him. He turned towards Mary and James, who were talking in whispers with each other. A few minutes later, they checked everything out, and Mary shouted... "Began the energy transfer, try to aim it at the large red circle on the wall!" It didn''t take a genius to know that, but Bran appreciated the order anyway. With one nervous hand, he touched the root, and he pointed the other towards the red circle. His ability was supposed to work in an area around him, but after a week of training and a lot of talk with the professor and Damien, he found another way to use it. The root glow with a bright green energy, which flowed straight into Bran. It went through his whole body until it reached his other extended hand. The energy converged there, then when enough of it gathered, it shot out like a laser, hitting the middle of the red circle. A constant line of energy flowed from Bran to the red circle. Its color had changed from green to grayish-black. The circle''s red outline began to glow, then continuously brightened until it lit the entire room. After ten minutes of constant focus, a loud ping sounded in the room, and a robotic feminine voice spoke loudly... "Aegis System: Active!" Chapter 240 Irreversible Changes The Aegis System was active, which caused permanent changes around all the city-states. At first, it was only New Athens. From the Temple of Eternal Flame, a giant line of energy shot up towards the sky. The people around the city started to panic, but soon came an announcement, which called everyone down. Now they watched in awe as the energy reached its apex, and spread in a circular direction. Slowly, a large dome of energy encased the entire city. The energy barrier ended about a hundred meters from the city wall, but it didn''t stop. The energy burrowed into the ground, encasing the city not just from above, but from below. A few seconds after the barrier was fully established, it became transparent and invisible. Out of curiosity, some soldiers shot at it, but the projectiles were stopped with ease. But the changes didn''t end there. Bran was still focusing on the energy of the Tree of Life. After entering the red glowing circle, it split into four ways. Each leading to a different city-state. The way they transferred the energy was truly magnificent and even magical. After discovering how to open Realm Gates, Mary implemented her knowledge. They opened four different Gates, each leading to a different Realm. Four more Gates were opened in the different city-states, connecting to the Gates in New Athens. It would take a lot of energy to create human-sized Gates, but these were only as big as a couple molecules. They were perfect for transferring energy. The same light show happened in all the different cities, and the barriers had been created... The Aegis System was working! ... Before that day, another big event happened. On the western front, deep within the Pyrenees mountain range, the largest army of the United Front had amassed. This army consisted of 6 Stellars, dozens of Transcended, thousands of Ascended, hundred thousand Evolved, and a few million regular troops, with military vehicles. They were about to take the fight beyond the mountain range. This information was, of course, easily leaked, and the Federal Alliance was ready on the other side. Their infamous military mastermind, who just calls himself Napoleon, led the Untied Front army. He was a Stellar, and the main leader of the United Front. He was born in New Paris, the largest city-state in Europe. From childhood, he loved military history, and when it came to this war, he named himself from his favorite military strategist. "This is probably our only chance to rescue Sera, and we won''t going to fuck it up because of lacking intel! We have to make a foolproof plan, or we don''t make a move at all!" said Bea, maybe a bit louder than she was supposed to. David grimaced and was about to object, but Melinda raised her hand, which shut him up. She was reading something on her watch with a serious expression. With her hand raised, everyone stayed silent and waited for what she would say next. Her eyes moved along the lines, widening, and the more she read, the paler her face gotten. After a few minutes, she sighed and looked at everyone in the room. "I just got an urgent message from Bran. There was something he and Sera had discovered previously, but he forgot to tell anyone up until now..." The people awaited what this new important information was, but Melinda instead turned toward Damien, and in a serious voice, asked... "What are Harold''s abilities?" He was taken aback by this question. Out of everyone here, he knew the Harold the longest, since he hunted him for more than two decades, but even he didn''t know the full extent of his power. "Well... He can teleport. He can summon creatures out of thin air. He can use illusions. He can manipulate memories. He can transmute objects, and maybe even living beings. And he can create objects out of nothing... That''s as many as I know of." A few people were surprised, others just waited where the conversation was going. Melinda was about to continue, but Cass had to chime in. "How can one person have so many different abilities? You listed half a dozen, and these are just the ones you know about!" She was a Transcended too, same as Damien and Harold. Her abilities weren''t nearly as numerous as Harold''s, and the same went for Damien. This question caused a bit of murmuring in the room, but when Melinda began to explain, everyone''s attention landed on her. "That''s the issue. These powers might seem different, but they all relate back to a single ability. It took Sera a long time to finally realize how Harold''s power worked, and she only shared it with Bran..." She took a deep breath and glanced at the message again, just to make sure she was understanding it. "He can manipulate reality to some extent!" she said, causing everyone to stare at her with confusion, but before anyone could''ve asked something, she continued. "He can''t teleport. He connects to points in space, then takes a step. He also doesn''t summon creatures, but does the same thing with them. He can also change a person''s reality, so they believe the exact scenario he planted in their mind..." "He can make illusions by changing the nearby light''s property. He can change the state an object is in, and its atomic structure, which transmutes said object. And he can do the same with air molecules, so he creates objects out of thin air!" The more she spoke, the wider everyone''s eyes got, and by the time she finished, everyone was staring at her in shock. Everyone of them thought Harold was really powerful, since he had so many abilities, but as it turns out, he was just extremely versatile. This didn''t necessary made their job easier, but with this knowledge they would have a chance fighting him. Not long after, the planning process continued and ended. It was already night by that point, so everyone went on their way to take some time off before the main event tomorrow... Chapter 241 Rescue Operation The next day, by the time the sun had risen, everyone was ready. They gathered in the large gym behind Sera''s mansion. It was enormous and had more than enough space for everyone to fit. Everybody was there already. There were 40 people in their full gear. Looking at the large crowd, even the bravest soldier would be scared shitless. In one corner, Jill was chatting with her family of 6. A few other people were with them, some of the Ouroboros Cohort, Lucy and Will. They actually seemed excited about this rescue. After these past few weeks, Helena wasn''t the only one with the seven-pointed star on her armor. Each of the Black Crusaders and Ouroboros Cohort members had one. As the Angelic Order''s presence became more prominent in New Constantinople, they joined their ranks, too. Even Percy and Kathy had these as well. They were both intimately speaking with their partners. Much has changed in the past few weeks, and the biggest surprise was Percy. Each day, his character became more tolerable in Kathy''s opinion. At night, he officially ended his relationships with his wives. He gave them enough money for life, and said his goodbyes. They weren''t heartbroken at all, since they were only in it for the money. He knew that as well, but didn''t care. After ending everything, he went straight to Morren''s place, and after courting her for more than a month, they were officially together. Kathy was happy with Conrad, too. Everyone still keeps joking about their intimate lives, but they just ignore them and enjoy each other''s presence. At another place, Cass, David, Damien and Agnes were talking. Their atmosphere was much less joyful. Other than Cass, all three of them were very serious people. She tried to make jokes, but the air was full of tension. In the past week, Cass spent a lot of time with Damien, and occasionally brought along Agnes too. To be honest, he like the older man a lot, and kind of looked up to him. They trained together, not just using her powers, but with actual weapons. It took them a while to find the best weapon for Cass, since she was awful with every single one they tried. Eventually, they gave up on weapons, and she learnt hand-to-hand combat. She was pretty good at it, and her Transcended strength would bridge most gaps in experience. Cass also secretly took her adopted mother, Agnes there, just so she could get to know Damien better. They weren''t talking much, at least not when Cass was looking. David''s arrival brought another complication in the status quo, and Damien seemed very judgmental about him at first. He quickly warmed up, though, since both had the same cold mentality and rational thinking. Adam, Lilith, and Faith were on standby. They were trembling with excitement. Each moment caused them to become more annoyed with everyone else. If it were up to them, they wouldn''t have waited for the night. He was still deathly pale and sickly looking, but he wanted to see them all before the main event. Out of nowhere, surprising everyone, even Bea, Bran turned towards his lover''s ex and gave her a tight hug. Bea''s eyes widened in bewilderment, but then a small, awkward smile grew on her face, and she hugged him back. "I know we don''t like each other, but we both love Sera... Bring her back, no matter the cost, and kill Harold if you can... But she is more important than revenge. We can always go back to kill him, but if we fail in this operation, there are no second chances!" he said in a whisper, so only Bea could hear him. Her smile grew a bit, and thinking about Harold, she became angry. She released Bran and put him at arm''s length so they could see eye-to-eye. "She is the priority. She was always my priority. Don''t worry about the operation, everything will be fine. Just go and rest. Sera will probably freak out that her boyfriend looks like a zombie." After Bea said that, the atmosphere started to turn uncomfortable, but they didn''t let it. Both Bran and Bea burst out in laughter, which stunned even more people. From their point of view, the two of them acted like good friends. It was the exact opposite of the previously observed cold behavior everyone witnessed. They only laughed for a few seconds, then Bran said goodbye and left the gym. The place was silent once again, and as the smile faded from Bea''s face, the atmosphere turned solemn. Without saying a word, she walked to Vicky, whispered some words to her, which turned both of their eyes teary, and then the operation began. The forty people went into six groups, four held 7 people, while the last two held six each. Each group was led by a single person, which were: Bea, Damien, David, Melinda, Jill and Adam. They mutually decided that they were the best at leading, since most were experienced war veterans. Vicky stood a step away from everybody and knelt down on the floor. She focused all her powers and soon six separate portals opened, each leading to different parts of the same island. This approach was the most secretive, and also the fastest. They hoped it didn''t alert Harold, and whatever security system he had, but even if it did, they had plenty of time to make their way into the facility, then rescue Sera. The portals widened until they became human sized. They saw through each. On the other side, a jungle-like terrain stretched. Everyone''s expression was serious, and each unit moved with confidence and fear. Today, their leader will be rescued! Each of these people would give their lives for the success of this mission. If they failed, there were no second chances, no do overs. Failure was not an option! Each unit went through their own portals, and after everyone left, they closed... Chapter 242 Legion The portal closed behind Bea and her unit of five people. They looked around the jungle with curiosity, then began to walk south. They were on the north side of the island, and the entrance was supposedly in the middle. The jungle was dense. Vines hang down from the trees and the foliage prevented seeing more than a few meters away. Bea felt great in this environment, but also strange. She touched the vines and trunks, but they sent a shiver down her spine. They were alive, but also dead, and when one of the vines moved, she quickly realized why. It attacked Vicky, but she teleported away before the vines could entangle her. Another attacked Faith, but she just turned into a shadow. Lucy and will couldn''t dodge so easily, but using her power over death, she killed any vines that approached. The last person was Connor. He was part of the Ouroboros Cohort. The man was tall and stocky. He carried a long axe, which was close to a halberd in size. He wore the cohort''s signature armor, with their symbol on his chest. His helmet was the only thing defining him from the rest of the Cohort. It was shaped like a bull, with glowing red eyes. The vines enveloped his arms and legs, but he just walked on without care. The vines tightened and tried to hold him back, but eventually they just snapped, raining blood on the green foliage. This picked his interest and knelt down with his axe''s butt to the ground. "What the fuck is that?" he said in a whisper, causing everyone to look at the torn, bloody vines. They wriggled on the ground, squirting blood, then eventually died down and dissolved. The six of them watched with wide, disgusted eyes as the forest absorbed the vines. The sight was awful, but it confirmed some of Bea''s suspicions. Without waiting, she opened her watch''s scanning feature and scanned the jungle. It took a few minutes, in which they started walking again, but they payed much more attention to their surroundings. "Fuck me... That''s bad..." Bea mumbled to herself as the results came back. The others just looked at her with confusion and wariness, so she elaborated. "It seems the whole jungle is one giant monster. It''s definitely an Abomination, but it''s probably sleeping or something." "How do you know that?" asked Connor, while looking around the forest, his expression hidden behind the bull mask. Bea just giggled to herself and continued to walk calmly. After a few seconds, she answered, "We are still alive, aren''t we?" Connor understood the message, and they moved on towards the facility entrance. Bea also warned everybody of their discovery, but most of them already figured it out. It was lucky that communication on the island was possible, they just couldn''t send messages to the outside. Cassandra and Damien had seen them too, and after the last of the dead Transcended died by their hands, they ran towards them. Both of them have lost their connection to their essence too, which meant that these two were Transcended too. Bea ran with her unit to help the five other teams, but suddenly a Horror jumped out in front of them. With the loss of their essence, they couldn''t summon their weapons and their armor. The beast was a ten-legged spider with human legs. On its face, a human torso grew out, with two wicked scythes in place of its arms. The head was terrifying. Its head had dozens of eyes all over it, and there were four mandibles in its mouth. The thing didn''t make a sound as it swiped towards Bea. The attack was slow, so she dodged to the side with ease, but she had to dodge a second time to avoid the other scythe. From left and right, Lucy, Will, Faith and Connor attacked, while Vicky stayed back, looking at everybody with concern. The human spider scurried closer to Bea and tried to trample her. She evaded the first two feet and got below the spider. It then tried crushing her with its extremely heavy weight, but Bea jumped out at the last moment. With its body on the ground, the other four attacked like demons from hell. They used their Ascended strength to further immobilize the monster, giving Bea ample time to get up and face it. She ran towards its head, grabbed onto it, and with quick move snapped the spine. For a second, she thought it was over, but the body of the spider still moved. With a groan of annoyance, she dragged the broken necked body closer. She used its body as leverage, and with all her strength, she pulled the head clean off. Her body was covered in yellow blood, which was very disgusting. Next to her, the spider stopped its struggle. Everybody breathed a sigh of relief, and they continued to run towards the front line. Damien''s and Cassandra''s attack was in a stalemate. If they both had their powers, there would be no question about the winner, but now it wasn''t so clear. While running, Bea watched them, and quickly realized their problem. Those two needed to die for them to be able to leave, but they also had to hurry with the rescue. Bea was sure Harold had already known about the assault, and the more time passed, the more afraid she got. He could''ve come here any time in the past minute, and his victory could''ve been achieved. But seeing that nobody from the six units had died yet, she was really curious about what he was planning. The dead soldiers were fighting adamantly, but they never seemed to go for killing blows. Her mind was racing, but after a few more seconds, they reached the front line, and she lost focus of her thoughts. Chapter 243 Zombies After Bea and her team''s arrival, the fight at the entrance turned. They pushed the armored dead back and beheaded them. Some managed to grab swords, like Kim, who, with the help of Astrid, was massacring them. The pair was a truly powerful duo, and with the help of Adam and Lilith, they were spearheading the breakthrough. Bea was helping them as well, but she had to grab a sword before she could begin the killing. On the flanks, David''s and Melinda''s unit was pushing and holding out. The rest of them tried to push until they were fighting near the entrance. Using her looted weapon, Bea beheaded a soldier, then had to step back, so the other three wouldn''t hit her. She dodged one sword by stepping to the side, then another by bending back, and the third by jumping over them. Bea landed behind the three soldiers, who were slow to turn around. She cut the sword arm off of one, at the joint where the armor was weakest. She also kicked another at the back of the knee, causing them to fall backward. The last was already turned around and was attacking. She deflected the dead soldier''s sword to the side, then moved a step closer and pushed her blade through its neck. She then pulled to the side, beheading the monster. With a sigh, she was about to kill the other two, but someone else had taken care of them. Near to her, Kim and Astrid were fighting at the entrance. They made a perfect pair, each move they made was like a request for the other to act as well. When Kim bent backward to dodge a strike, Astrid would wait for the enemy to overextend and with one punch, she would send it flying. When Astrid moved to the side to avoid a blow, Kim would move to the opposite way, and while the zombie was turning, she would behead it. Now as they approached the small building in the middle of the clearing, only ten more soldiers stood in their way. Kim made sure to grab another dropped sword, while Astrid just teared down two chest plates to use as shields. The ten soldiers ran towards them without coordination. Kim and Astrid looked at one another and they grinned. The first three of the soldiers arrived, and Astrid ran at the knocking them over with her shields. Kim ran behind her and beheaded each before they got up. Another three attacked, and this time Astrid had to back off. She stepped out of the way of an attack and blocked another. One soldier left Astrid and tried to kill Kim, but failed miserably. She blocked its strike, moved below the blow with a pirouette, and cut both of the soldier''s calf muscles. The zombies felt no pain, and would continue to attack until they were beheaded, but even they were constricted by basic biology. If a muscle was cut, it couldn''t be used anymore. If a bone broke, it stopped supporting that part of the body. The zombie began to fall over, and while still in motion, Kim cut off its head with her other sword. She then had to dodge again as two more soldiers attacked her. She blocked their blows with ease, but couldn''t find the way to go on the offensive. He wore nothing but a set of trousers and a face mask that had a smiling face painted on it. His muscles bulged unnaturally, and his veins glowed green. If the three girls didn''t know any better, then they would''ve thought the man to be a large hairless gorilla. He looked down at each of the woman, then opened his mouth and roared. The sound was very loud and sent a shiver down each of their spines. From inside the building behind him, dozens of soldiers ran out and joined the fight. They ignored Bea, Kim and Astrid. The large man on though, had only eyes for the three of them. He roared again, then punched the ground so hard that a shower of dirt shot in the air. He then jumped towards the three of them, but at that point, they were already running in three separate directions. This seemed to confuse the creature, but soon he ran after Kim. Without saying a word, the three of them had communicated the same information... They couldn''t fight this thing. It wasn''t clear if it was a Transcended human, or a Horror, but without their powers, they would never defeat him. They were left without options, but as it chased after Kim, she got an idiotic idea. The creature seemed mindless, and she was willing to test out just how dumb it was. The monster closed in behind her, but just as it was about to catch her, she jumped to the side. She rolled a few times, then began sprinting in a different direction. The enormous creature was much worse at coordinating. He ran straight into a bunch of soldiers, trampling and killing most. With a roar of anger, he turned and ran after Kim again. She used this same trick a few more times and eliminated a few dozen soldiers. Sadly, at that point, the creature was starting to understand what was happening, and the next time she tried it, he stopped before killing the soldiers. Kim cursed under her breath and switched to Plan B. She began running again, but this time with a clear destination in mind. Her legs moved faster than she thought possible, but the monster chasing her was much quicker. She moved around small skirmishes, avoiding anything that could slow her down. The monster just cut through them without care, sending both the zombies and people flying. Kim hoped they were alright, but had no time to actually think about them. As she approached the edge of the clearing, the noises of fighting turned quieter, but a new sound took over. In front of her, Cass and Damien tried desperately to defeat the two Transcended. When Kim arrived, the four people looked towards her, and behind her an earthshaking roar resounded. Chapter 244 Mutants This was the first time Cass had to fight actually strong Transcended. Technically, she should''ve already died in the fight, but these two seemed just as brainless as the zombies. After seeing them closer, Cass recognized Legion''s armor, and the zombies provided another clue of his identity. She didn''t understand why and how he became a Transcended, but it made his powers much more terrifying. The other one, she didn''t recognize, but there was only one person she knew of who had the power to block essence flow. She couldn''t believe that this person next to Legion was Dwight, but she was also sure of it. He wore a similar armor as Legion, but also a bit different. The armor could stretch, and that its parts weren''t tightly connected. His weapon of choice was a great sword, which was longer than his height of nearly two meters. Legion, as always, didn''t use or had any weapons. Damien and Cass approached them with caution, and they stopped a few dozen meters away. They stared at each other silently for a few seconds, but Cass grew tired and tried to converse with them. "What do you want?... Why are you here?... Why don''t you leave us alone?" she said with an even voice, hiding her fear. Legion and Dwight both turned their heads to the side, in a questioning manner, then they said in sync... "Kill..." Their voices sounded like metal grating against metal, but somehow, it wasn''t threatening. After they spoke, they slowly began walking towards Damien and Cass. The two of them went on high alert immediately. "Something is wrong with them. I met both before months ago, and neither acted like this. They are even a bit similar to the zombies!" said Cass, her voice sounding more concerned than she wanted to show. "I agree. Harold must''ve done something to them, changing them. I will try to draw both of their attention, and you try to attack when they aren''t looking," he said in a serious voice. "That''s a shitty plan." She said with a small smile, while looking into Damien''s cold eyes. He grinned as well. "You got a better idea?" Before she could answer, the mindless duo closed in and it was time to act. Damien and Cass moved with inexplicable coordination. Damien ran straight at the approaching duo while Cass backed off and tried to move around the pair, so they stood with their backs to her. Neither seemed to care about Cass, and when Damien was in range, they both attacked. Legion''s right hand glowed with a black aura, and he shot out a projectile towards Damien. It was some vile black goo that would''ve surely killed him since he had no essence. Luckily, it was quite slow, so he evaded it with ease. He didn''t even slow down, and when he was close enough, the giant great sword moved like a guillotine. With quick reflexes, he rolled to the side, in order to not get cut in two. The sword rose and fall faster than a regular human could''ve processed. It was close to teleportation for the untrained eye. It hit the ground with a minor earthquake, shooting dirt into the sky. Damien didn''t wait for him to use the sword again. When he got his footing back, he jumped towards Dwight and kicked him in the head with so much force that the helmet went flying. His roar turned demonic, too, but it got cut short when a black projectile hit his head. It stunned the monster for a few moments, and in that time, Dwight closed the distance. His great sword cut the air so fast the air exploded. It hit the demon monster''s legs, but only left a shallow cut. Cass and Kim ran until they were at least a few hundred meters away. Damien was close behind, and from there they watched the battle between the mutants unfold. After giving him a cut, Dwight had to dodge back. Two fists hit the place where he stood, and the earth literally cracked below the fists, creating a small crater. Another projectile hit him, this time in the chest. The man roared in anger, grabbed a large rock and tossed it towards Legion. He wasn''t fast enough, and the rock clipped his right side, making him back away. Using the attack as a distraction, Dwight moved in again, and this time, he stabbed the sword in his inner thigh. It done much more damage, and the gorilla fell on one knee. He swiped at Dwight and hit him square in the chest. The armor caved in a bit, and he flew a few dozen meters away. Legion then peppered the monster with dozen of his goo projectiles. Most of them hit the creature, causing him to lose balance and fall on his back. With one hand, he tossed another rock, but Legion managed to evade it this time. Dwight ran towards the fallen gorilla. He jumped in the air and landed on his enormous chest. With a twirl of his sword, he stabbed down using all his strength. The sword resisted at first, but then it penetrated the monster''s thick hide and entered the gorilla''s heart. With a last ditch effort, the monster grabbed Dwight in one palm and squeezed. An ugly loud crunch echoed down the clearing. It was the sound of Dwight''s body being broken. The monster then looked at Legion and threw Dwight''s lifeless corpse at him. This act seemed to surprise Legion, and he had no time to evade. It hit him with so much force that he flew away and landed with a crunch. The gorilla then tried to get up, but the sword in his heart stopped him. His chest moved a few more times, but eventually that stopped as well. Stay connected with empire Kim, Cass, and Damien stared at the field of destruction for a few moments, unsure of what to say. "How did you know that the monstrous man would fight Legion and Dwight?" asked Cass, after regaining some of her thinking ability. Kim just continued to stare at the three dead Transcended, then shrugged... "I didn''t know... I guessed, hoped and prayed..." After this answer, the three of them looked at one another and they collectively burst out laughing. It took them a few seconds to stop, but they eventually went away to regroup with the others. Chapter 245 Experiments Everyone on the battlefield breathed a sigh of relief when the zombies fell and their powers came back. All of them had smaller injuries and close to a dozen were in critical states. Bea healed all of them, which was tiring, but necessary. About ten people were still unconscious, so they sent those back to New Athens. All the Black Crusaders and a fourth of the Ouroboros Cohort were out. The rest congregated in front of the broken building. Bea looked at everyone with a serious expression. They all had their swords, armor, and charms out. With Bea in the lead, they walked into the building. There were a few splintered furniture around the room, but her focus was only on the wide staircase in the middle. Its steps were glowing, and without hesitation Bea went down, with the others following close behind. At first the walls and stairs were dirty, but after reaching the bottom, they became cleaner. After a few meters, the walls were clean and white. Above, bright lights shined down in the hallway. They made a small, near imperceptible buzzing sound. Nobody said a single word as they moved along the hallway. Eventually, they reached a T junction, and they stopped to talk things through. Together, they made the decision to split up into two groups of 15. They then continued their exploration. Melinda went with Bea, and she kept a constant connection with David, who was with the other team. They made sure to check-in every minute, and they reported every notable feature. Read the latest on empire The hallway moved along with lots of bends and junctions. After reaching another T junction, they decided not to split up further, and instead they began marking the direction they went. It was obvious after a few more junctions that the place was set up like a labyrinth, and they found quite a few marks they left behind. At some point, they even found places where the other unit was beforehand. They must''ve spent over an hour before something changed. At first it was just a loud screech coming from seemingly everywhere. Then they heard an approaching thumping sound, like heavy footsteps. With it came another sound, the breaking of glass. Bea and her unit watched in curiosity what was approaching, but then the lights began to explode. They only saw darkness, and it was getting closer by the second. Cass was with them too, but whatever the creature was, she had no way of defeating it, since even she couldn''t see through the darkness. The thumping came closer, and when it finally reached their hallway, the darkness was almost upon them. "RUN!" shouted Bea, and they all sprinted in the opposite direction. Melinda was quickly typing David about their discovery, but what he said wasn''t better either. David: We have the exact opposite problem. Some creature is following us, but it makes the lights extremely bright, blinding everyone. What should we do? While running, Melinda informed Bea about their situation. They were manually mapping out the labyrinth, but there was a lot of missing information and unexplored hallways. As another junction was approaching, she made a hard decision. It was a crossroad, one that none of them explored yet. "Everyone! Spilt into three units of five, and choose a hallway! Me, Vicky, Melinda, Lucy, and Faith will move to the middle!" Bea stood with Vicky and Faith. They looked around for a moment, then they looked at each other and nodded. Harold watched with curiosity as Bea threw a seed onto the metal floor. Faith made an enormous bubble of shadow around them, so even Harold couldn''t see what was happening. When the shadow disappeared, the seed grew into a small tree. It had a doorway-like opening, and the inside was hollow. On another screen, Harold saw the tree''s roots. They burrowed through the metal with ease. With Bea''s lead, the three of them exited there. Then, just as Harold was about to press another button, Vicky opened a portal and they teleported away. He grunted in annoyance and spent a few minutes entertaining the other groups. Each was in a separate hallway or room. One group was in a room with no doors, and upon pressing a button, the room began to fill with water. Another group was fighting off a bunch of hand-sized fire-breathing ants. A third was in a room, which had a very tall ceiling. The walls on the sides had a bunch of handholds and platforms. Below them, acid rose, and all three had to climb fast, so they wouldn''t melt. The rest of the groups suffered in similar experimental rooms, but even after a few minutes, Harold had no sight of Bea''s. After the portal, the three of them disappeared, and as time passed, Harold became more and more annoyed. He watched each of the cameras, and after another few minutes, they popped up again. The trio looked around the room until Bea saw the camera in the corner. Her mouth widened into a grin, and soon they teleported again. This happened a few more times until eventually Harold left the room. A few seconds later, the portal opened into the empty room, and the trio stepped out. Their eyes went to the holo-screens. Upon seeing what each of the groups was suffering, Vicky began to teleport everyone out. When the thirty of them were in relative safety, they took a few minutes to destress. At that time, James looked over the data on the holo-screens. It was full of information about the different sick experiments Harold had done, but they ignored that. He scrolled through it fast until he found what they were looking for. It was the exact map of the facility. The place was gigantic, with over a few hundred floors and thousands of rooms. Each had a different label, but James was only looking for one... Sera''s location. They were on the 163th floor. This floor was empty of experiments, and it mostly housed the data servers. It took him half an hour to look through everything and find Sera''s location. The room was labeled little angle on the map, and it was on the 378th floor. Luckily, they didn''t have to use stairs to get there, since with the map came exact coordinates and Vicky could teleport everyone there. After a bit of discussion, they decided that not everyone was necessary. Vicky opened a portal to the room''s outside hallway. Bea stepped through first, followed by Vicky, Faith, Melinda, Damien, Adam and Lilith. Others wanted to go as well, but it just wasn''t feasible. The portal stayed open though, so everyone could see when they opened the room''s door, and in that moment, their heart dropped. Chapter 246 Seed of the World Tree The six of them hid most of the inside, but what they saw was enough. The room was white and bright, just like Sera described it. There was a large glass pane window on the far end, which showed the cave-like outside. The room was mostly barren. There was a white nightstand and a basic bathroom to the side. Only one dominant feature was in the room... A bed. After seeing the person lying on it, Bea broke down crying. Faith moved fast and hid the sight from Vicky, but it was already too late and she was screaming in anger and pain. Similar emotions coursed through the others, freezing them with shock and sadness. Sera was alive, but her state was horrible. There was nothing left of her. Most of her body was surgically removed. Her arms and legs were none existent. Her lower torso was missing as well. Her chest was opened, with her ribs bent to the side. There were tubes moving in and out of her chest cavity. There were machines built into her lungs, heart and other vital organs, each making sure she stayed alive. All over her body the skin was removed, same as most of her muscles. Her spine was visible and a metal structure kept it straight. The worst was her head and face. Her eyes, ears, nose and most of her facial muscle was removed. She had no teeth and in their place, a small metal spike stood out. She had no tongue either. They watched her for a few seconds, then, out of concern, Damien took a heavy step closer. All of Sera''s still working muscles contracted and her breathing and heart rate increased. "Oh, my god... She is conscious... Just how much pain is she enduring?" said Melinda, and with that, the realization hit all of them. Bea took a few deep breaths and composed herself. They couldn''t move her in this state, so she had to heal her first. Her steps were slow and gentle, trying to keep Sera calm. "Hey there... You probably won''t remember me, but we were quite close once... I''m going to help you... Don''t be afraid, the nightmare will soon end..." Continue reading at empire She was sobbing while she spoke. With each step, she felt worse and worse. By the time she reached her past lover''s side, she was trembling and barely keeping her sanity. There was nothing else she wanted more than to cry herself into unconsciousness and wake up from this hell. With her right hand, she tried to reach out, but did not know where to touch her. Each part of her body was flayed, but the nerves were kept intact, so she could still feel pain. Sera continued to breathe frantically until she suddenly stopped, and it became normal. Bea turned around and looked at Lilith. Her eyes were full of pain and sadness. She nodded towards Bea, then turned and buried her face in her husband''s chest. They hugged each other while they shed silent tears. "She is stronger than any of us. She went through more than all of us put together in only eleven years. She will understand it, and will forgive me," she said, still whispering. On her cheeks, tears ran down, as the possible cost of this action weighed down on her soul. Damien watched her for a few seconds, then gave a firm nod, and moved back towards the others. He didn''t argue, since there would be no point. Her decision was final. Bea took another deep, shuddering breath, and moved the small seed towards Sera''s chest cavity. She stopped her hand above the barely beating heart, and before dropping the seed, she recalled its description. Description: You, as a Dryad, have the chance of becoming a World Tree. That road is difficult though, and requires sacrifices, the first one being... Choosing a place to settle forever. The last word still echoed inside her hand as she let the seed fall into Sera''s chest cavity. It fell right onto Sera''s beating heart, where it burrowed inside it. The heart then stopped beating. Bea watched in horror as her lover died. She was about to break down crying when something strange happened. The veins in Sera''s heart began glowing with a slight green light. It slowly spread around her body, and when all of her veins were glowing, the regeneration started. It was a very slow, but steadily her muscles grew back, her ribs closed, her bones healed themselves. The machines that kept her alive were ejected from her body. No one made a sound in the room. Everyone watched with hope as Sera''s libs grew back. At first there were only bones, but then came the muscles and skin tissue. Her face healed, too. The small metal spike got displaced by fresh teeth. Her skin, facial muscles, nose, ear and tongue all grew back. When all of her skin was repaired, on her bald head a shower of golden lock grew rapidly. They grew until they reached her waist. After that, the glowing stopped, but she still wasn''t breathing. Bea gently reached forward and touched Sera''s wrist, but she felt no heartbeat either. Her touched caused something else though. She felt a connection growing between them. It was like the roots of two trees, intertwining. It was small at first, but the more time passed, the firmer it got. It took a few minutes to be fully established, and by that time, a green glow appeared in Sera''s chest. It brightened and brightened until it disappeared for a few seconds, then came back even stronger. The brightening and fading intervals decreased until her whole body exploded in green light. It was so bright that they all had to turn away. Then it faded, and they heard a large, overly exhausted sigh that echoed through the room. They all turned back and watched as Sera''s chest rose and fell. Behind her eyelids she moved her eyes, then they slowly opened. Her two golden eyes had changed, and now there was a hint of green lost in its depths. She looked at the ceiling, then turned to the side and stared at Bea in confusion. Chapter 247 Fearful and Broken Everything was wrong. She could see again. She didn''t remember the last time she had vision. Maybe it was a minute ago, or an hour, or a day, a month, a year, forever? She didn''t know... The sudden light was overwhelming, but the sound was even worse. She heard a constant buzzing coming from above her. It was really annoying, but also felt like a melody. It was a beauty to hear again, after so long of living without even the sound of silence. The smells were also something she missed. She smelt blood, sweat, dirt and other awful smells she missed. Her body was still mostly unresponsive, for reasons she didn''t know. It was probably because of the destruction of her body. She felt that the damage had been repaired, but her nerves were still malfunctioning. It was great to feel with her skin again, but her body was still absorbed in the constant phantom pain which she had experienced for so long. Right now, her mind was confused. It didn''t understand where the pain went. With effort, she managed to turn her head to the side, and with her recovered vision, she saw a woman standing next to her bed. She wore a dress that was like a second layer of skin, made of wood. Her hair was long and brown, while her eyes were a piercing bright green. She cried as, but the tears weren''t sad. She seemed to be overjoyed. The woman looked familiar, but Sera couldn''t remember. She felt there was a connection between them, but it was foggy and unclear. Her memory was full of missing pieces, and inside she still felt that brokenness. The feeling of her soul being broken. The feeling of something missing. Sera began confused for a moment, then her eyes widened in terror as the green-eyes woman reached out towards her face. Without a thought, Sera jumped away, placing the bed between her and the woman. She also saw a lot more people around the room, some more familiar than others, but all were strangers. The woman went around the bed and walked towards Sera, but she just continued to back away until she was in a corner. She and others were saying something, but Sera''s mind was absorbed in fear, so she understood nothing. Enjoy new chapters from empire Her breathing turned frantic, and she sat in a fetal position. She began to wail and plead, but her mouth still hadn''t gotten used to being able to speak again, so everything came out as a mumble. Bea and the others looked at each other in anger and self-deprecation. They were so absorbed in healing the physical wounds; they haven''t even noticed the scars that ran deeper. After suffering weeks in this state, they were even amazed that she had some mental capability. She was in constant pain for so long, any normal person would''ve lost their mind''s way sooner. She hid her hands behind her back, since they were trembling so much. Deep down she was terrified, but her outside expression only showed boredom. The dark beast moved closer until its head was near the portal. Even after that, Vicky kept it open. It growled again, then made a screeching sound and pounced. In her mind, Vicky saw everything in slow motion. The beast slowly left the ground and flew towards her. Part of its head went through the portal, but it remained open. After most of its head came through, two hands entered as well. Despite that, Vicky didn''t act. Only when the beast''s head was fully on the other side did Vicky raise her hand. The constant flow of essence that kept the portal open suddenly halted for a moment, then resumed, but this time it wasn''t keeping it open... It was closing it faster! It took less than a fraction of a second for the portal to fully close. Vicky could''ve sworn that the dark beast''s eyes widened in that moment, but it was already too late. In front of Vicky, a head and two hands plopped down, with a quirt of black blood. She watched the remnants of the beast with disgust. Then another portal opened, teleporting the head, hands and blood to the bottom of the sea. The floor turned back to its perfect, bright whiteness, but in her mind Vicky still saw the blood. The room''s silence was palpable. Even the sobbing had stopped, but in Vicky''s mind an uproar was happening. This was the first time she had ever used her powers to brutally kill something. She had been warned about this, about how dangerous and powerful she was. But that warning came from an unreliable source, so she dismissed it. Now, she felt different. She felt a change coming her way. She didn''t even turn around or say anything. Outside the room, screeches were approaching, so she opened a portal below everyone. They all teleported back to New Athens. They stood in Sera''s mansion. Vicky didn''t know why, but she teleported everyone here. Sera had fallen asleep in her crying, and Melinda carried her away. She also silently requested Lilith to inform Bran about everything. She just nodded in agreement, gave one pitying look to Sera and went away. Vicky stood and watched as her mother was carried away. Her face stayed plain and emotionless. A few seconds later, Bea tried to give her a hug and talk with her, but Vicky pushed her away. It seemed to hurt her mother, and she gave up on trying to give her affection. In the next moment, Vicky teleported to her own room, alone. She then broke down, her emotions finally overwhelming her adrenaline. The long day had taken its toll on her mental state. She was so tired, the moment she was alone, she fell to the carpet and cried herself to sleep. Chapter 248 Healing It''s been a week since Sera had come back, but not much had changed around the place. In the past week, she hasn''t left her room once. She does mainly two activities each day, sleeps and cowers in a corner. She can''t even sleep properly, since after an hour, she wakes up from a nightmare. After the first night, they decided for someone to always keep her company. This was to keep her calm and help her in healing. They were also afraid the trauma would overwhelm her and she would harm herself. There was no evidence of that, but they didn''t want to chance it. There were only a few people she wasn''t afraid of. Bran and Melinda, obviously, but she also accepted Cass, Agnes, Lilith, Adam and, weirdly enough, Kim. They didn''t quite figure out how Sera''s brain worked, but the main consensus was that her guilt overruled her trauma, so she remembered Kim. It was a strange theory, but that''s what Lilith had come up with. Each day, she spends a few hours with Sera. She usually sends her to sleep and explores her mind. After the first attempt, she realized how dangerous it was. Sera''s nightmares aren''t real for her, but when Lilith enters her mind, they can hurt and even kill her. The first attempt was a close one. Her mind is full of unimaginable terrors that are extremely dangerous. She was afraid to do it the second time, but after a referral from Bea, Lilith asked for Will''s help. His ability was focused on water manipulation, but after becoming an Ascended, he gained the ability to control mind waves. With his help, she had a bit of protection inside Sera''s nightmares, and she actually began to make progress. After a week''s treatment, she could give one-word answers to a few of their questions. Bran was really excited by this. He spent most of his free time with Sera. She felt the most comfortable with him, and they usually just cuddled throughout the day. She can only sleep peacefully when someone is holding her, which is both cute and disturbing. They need their leader back as soon as possible. The fighting on the western front had become a stalemate yet again. They still could not retaliate for the uprising, but David judged that by New Year, the first of the attacks would be launched. They were all curious if the Aegis System would work properly, but they would rather not find out. Another issue was Bea. After their successful rescue, she only saw Sera while she slept. She spent most of her time either alone in training, or with her daughter crying. Many people were like them. They all wanted to rescue Sera, but they weren''t prepared to find her in this state. They chatted for a bit longer, but then a raven flew to a fence''s post, and it loudly croaked. It scared Sera, and she sprinted back to her room, where she started to have a panic attack. Bran quickly ran after her. He calmed her down, and they continued to have idle conversation. They stayed away from serious topics. Sera asked a lot of questions about how everything was around the city, how all her friends were doing, and eventually came the dreaded topic... She asked about Bea and Vicky... "What do you remember about them?" asked Bran, his voice not showing the worry in his eyes. Sera just shrugged as she huddled close to Bran. Her arms were around his torso, while her head rested on his chest. Bran''s hand made idle strokes along her long golden hair, and she made purr-like noises now and then. "Not much. I remember what Kastral said about them... That Bea was my past lover, and Vicky was my daughter... I also remember the long notes of information on my watch... I can''t recall anything from that past life though..." She sounded sad and confused. Deep down, she wanted to know more, but she also feared to learn anything else. Currently, she was content with Bran, but she wasn''t sure if that would stay the case if she remembered everything. Right now, she could remember most of the past two years. There were still a few gray areas, but those were getting filled in after each session with Lilith. "Do you want to remember?" asked Bran with a voice full of fear. He had the same concerns as Sera. With those memories, she would change, and he was afraid she would send him away. Sera moved away from his chest and looked into his hazel eyes. She noticed the emotions he was trying to hide, the same ones that ate her mind away. Read latest stories on empire She leaned in closer. Her face burned from a deep blush, and Bran couldn''t help himself. He smiled gently and put an arm around her waist. "I do want to remember. I have to remember. I feel broken without those memories. I have a constant feeling that something is missing... But rest assured. Even if I remember everything, there will always be a place for you in my heart." After saying that, she leaned in close and kissed him deeply. They were both afraid of the future, and didn''t know where this path they had chosen would take them. But right now, in that moment, they let all the worry go and just enjoyed each other''s company. They kissed for a long time, then cried a bit, then laughed and finally they fell asleep. On the balcony''s railing, a raven perched itself. It watched with great interest as the two of them slept, then, without warning, it flew into the sky, disappearing from view. Chapter 249 New Years Eve After another few days had passed, the New Year came. It was basically the only holiday people still celebrated. A remnant of the Old World. People usually celebrated by giving each other presents, singing songs, drink and eat heavily, then party through the night. Many clubs opened this time of year to let the people celebrate in masses. In New Athens, it was a bit more reserved. People spent this day with their families, but there were also activities around the city. All the Amphitheaters would stay open during the night. There were a bunch of plays, food and drinks served, and other fun activities like dances and amateur acting. Some people preferred the open air, though. Many people celebrated in parks and squares, where they could let out all their yearly frustrations by partying. In Sera''s mansion, preparations had also been made. At first, they weren''t sure if they wanted to celebrate or not, but the day before New Year''s Bran began planning and inviting people. He seemed really excited, but he didn''t tell anyone why. He just told them he had a present for everyone, and that they wouldn''t want to miss it. He invited a lot of people, starting with the forty who went to rescue Sera. He also said that everyone can bring a plus one, but not everyone did. He invited Professor Collins as well, and James had already indicated that Mary would come. There were a few people who were with Bea in the Realm of Eternal Frost who got invited as well. Kim also said that Sam would be her plus one, which was obvious to everyone. The twins, Eula and Joan, will also bring their dates. Bran was afraid that they would cause a lot of trouble, but since they helped in Sera''s rescue, they got the same invite. He also invited a few of the regular soldiers'' commanders, as an honor for their service and loyalty. Overall, there would be close to a hundred people attending, so he, Melinda, Lilith and Adam spent most of the day stockpiling food and drinks. Discover hidden tales at empire The mansion''s main hall, living room, dining room, recreational room and lounge area would be the evening''s theater. There was even a dress code issued, semi formal wear. Woman had to wear dresses or suits. While a man had to wear either a suit or at least a button-up shirt. Armors and military uniforms were prohibited. Lilith was very much against this idea, since she couldn''t wear her robe. The other person who hated it was Astrid, since she only wore her armor.No?v(el)B\\jnn Bran just laughed at them and said to suck it up for one night. Lilith didn''t appreciate this comment and had given Bran the silent treatment for the past two days. Otherwise, nobody really cared about the dress code, and everyone was excited for the evening. The invitations were sent out, and the party would start at 8 pm. The mansion was decorated with regular New Year''s decoration, like colorful lights and evergreen tree branches. Nobody was exactly sure why people used these as decoration. They speculate it''s related to the Old World, but the reasons were lost to time. In secret, Bran even asked Bea to grow a few evergreen trees, which then they brought inside and decorated with ornaments. The mansion now truly had a festive look. When the clock hit 7 pm, the people started arriving. Bran wore a nice black suit with a black vest and shirt. The first to arrive was, of course, Melinda, Lilith and Adam. They lived inside the mansion, so they didn''t technically arrive, just got ready. The last to arrive were Bea and Vicky. They came inside the room, right when the clock hit 8 pm. Bea''s dress was especially beautiful. It was green and made of leaves. It connected over her right shoulder and moved along her sinful body. Vicky''s was much more modest, obviously. It was black, in perfect contrast to her white hair. The dress had long-sleeves, and it reached to her ankle. It also had a seven-pointed star embroidered on it. Bran greeted them cordially, then looked around the room, making sure everyone was accounted for. His watch vibrated as a message arrived. After reading it, he giggled a bit, then shouted into the main hall, where everyone was gathered. "Hello everyone! Can I get all your attention for a moment? Thank you!" The conversations around the room turned silent, and they all turned his direction. Bran stood a few steps on the stair inside the hall, so he would be above the crowd. It also gave his voice much needed volume. "This was a hard two years for all of us, and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel, but that''s okay! We will keep fighting and struggling until we win or die!" "What we fight for is a better world, and until our cause is noble and our path is true, we will reach our destination!" The crowd was nodding along, and they all raised their glasses in solidarity. "These past few weeks were especially hard! We have lost the most important person, the one who began everything, who showed us the way out of the dark tunnel! The one who provided light along this desperate journey!" The few commanders who hadn''t received the news yet looked sad, but as Bran continued, they became curious. "I''m happy to announce that our light is back! Everyone, please welcome wholeheartedly our leader! The Angel Monarch! The Deathless Phoenix! Seraphine, the Unbroken!" He basically screamed the last words, sending shivers down everyone''s spine. From the top of the staircase, slow and methodical steps echoed around the deathly silent hall. The hundred or so people inside the room all held their breaths as the sound came closer. A few seconds later, a heavenly woman appeared at the top of the staircase. Her long golden hair had been braided with white ornaments woven into it. Her pure white dress was modest at the cleavage, but also revealing on her thighs and sides. She walked like a contradiction. Someone who harbored hatred, but was also kind. Someone who was terrifying, but also compassionate towards others. Someone who shouldn''t be able to walk after how much trauma she endured. A person who continued to defy the odds, and remained standing even with so many expectations placed on her. Someone who broke, but instead of giving up, she waited and endured, until she had the chance to rise again. A truly Unbroken individual... Chapter 250 Mother and Daughter Sera looked down at the crowd of people. Unconsciously, her bored expression turned happy, and a small smile appeared on her face. The room exploded into cheers, started by the commanders who did not know about the rescue mission. The crowd chanted her name and title, which brightened her smile even further. When the shouts reached their apex, she spread her arms and summoned her wings. The pristine white feathers glowed with a small, radiant light. Her wings of golden flames ignited the very air with their pure presence. The hundred people around the hall abruptly turned silent. They watched with awe and love as Sera rose a few centimeters above the ground. The silence in the room was palpable. The cheers didn''t start again, but a new sound appeared as people fell to their knees at the foot of the staircase. Lilith and Adam were the first, but Bran and Melinda quickly followed. The people slowly got knocked out of their trance and each of them went on one knee until only Bea and her group remained. They stared at the crowd and at each other awkwardly. As Sera''s eyes landed upon them, a few of them caved. Faith was already on one knee, but soon everyone other than Bea and Vicky were kneeling. Without beating her wings, Sera gently floated to the daughter and mother. Their eyes were teary, and Bea tried to speak, but no word left her mouth. Sera landed in front of them and looked both up and down carefully. Her wings closed in, but stayed summoned. Vicky''s eyes never left them, while Bea could only stare at the ground. She tried to hide her face, which was blushing heavily. Sera stared at them for a bit longer, then reached out her hand. "Good evening. As you probably know, my memories aren''t intact, so I would like to introduce myself. I know this is hard for you both. I heard stories about my past, but I''m sorry to say that we have to start everything from the beginning." Her speech still wasn''t perfect. There were quite a few pauses and placing emphasis on the wrong words. It also sounded rehearsed, but neither Bea nor Vicky cared. They each took her hand and introduced themselves, one after the other. Vicky''s hand was especially trembling, but what Sera said next calmed her turbulent emotions. "Nice to meet you Victoria. I heard a lot about my daughter, and how much she had accomplished. I hope we can rebuild at least some of our previous relationship." This brought tears to Vicky''s eyes, and before anyone could stop her, she jumped up and put her arms around Sera''s neck. She hugged her tightly as she cried and mumbled. Quite a few people gasped at this revelation. Most of them hadn''t heard about Vicky''s and Sera''s previous mother-daughter relationship yet. They all watched with wide smiles and teary eyes as Vicky hugged her mother. Sera placed one trembling hand onto Vicky''s back and made a few gentle strokes. They stayed like that for a few minutes, before Sera bent down until her small feet were firmly on the ground. She seemed to get the message too, and with reluctance, she let go of her mother''s neck. After finishing her own, she took out a smaller glass and poured a little at the bottom. "Here you go, but I warn you, you probably won''t going to like it!" Vicky took the glass in both hands with excitement, giggling all the way. That giggle brought a genuine smile to Sera''s face, which was strange since her emotions were still mostly turned off. She walked to one of the armchairs, and just as Vicky would''ve sat in another, Sera grabbed and placed her on her lap. One of her arms held the large glass of wine, while the other hugged around her daughter. Vicky smiled radiantly, then giggled a bit more. That sound. Her laughter sparked something deep in Sera''s broken soul. It wasn''t quite love, but the feeling of comfort, of warmth, of being at home. Her arm unconsciously closed further around her daughter''s torso, pulling her into an even tighter hug. Vicky''s white eyes turned watery as she stared into Sera''s own greenish-gold ones. "I missed you... Every day I have spent in that Realm... Every hour I thought about you... Please... Never leave me again..." Tears ran down Vicky''s face, but she wasn''t full on crying. Sera pulled her even closer, and let Vicky rest her head on Sera''s chest. She leaned in and gave a kiss on the top of her braided white hair. Then she placed her own head on top of her daughter''s. "I''m sorry for everything that happened. I hope you can forgive me, since it was partially my fault you all got stuck in that Realm... I will never leave you, and if you want to, I will try to be part of your life again... Would you like that?" Sera spoke in a whisper. Her words were blunt, and she didn''t sound nearly as emotional as Vicky. But her heart was in the right place, and Vicky understood that. "There is nothing to forgive. I had forgiven everything a long time ago... And yes, I would love for us to be a family again... Mother Bea would love it too..." This caused both Sera and her daughter to laugh. It was an obvious attempt of brining her parents back together, but Sera wasn''t ready for that topic. Not even close. Before touching that beehive, she wanted to reconcile and spend time with her daughter. "I can''t say what will happen between me and Bea in the future, but you will always be our priority! Even if we stay apart, we won''t neglect you. We both love you very much, and will stay with you until and after the universe ends!" This brought another round of tears to Vicky''s face, but they weren''t sad at all. If her mother wouldn''t be holding her so tightly, she would be jumping around the room from joy! "I love you too!" she said ecstatically, then she lifted her small glass and tasted the wine. Sera watched as her face scrunched up, and she immediately spat it right on Sera''s dress. This caused Sera to die of laughter, while her daughter made disgusted noises. She teleported both the glasses away, and the wine from Sera''s dress. Then she joined in on her mother''s laughter. Chapter 251 Festivites The atmosphere in the main hall stayed awkward for a few minutes. Only after someone started blasting music did people disperse and had fun. After a few drinks, people actually began celebrating. The shock factor of Sera''s recovery passed and now everyone was just joyful. The fast music with the hall''s surround system caused people to start dancing in the middle of the hall. The twins, with their partners, took the lead, since they were already close to rock-bottom on the drunkenness scale. Lucy quickly followed behind with Will in tow. The two of them were getting awfully close in the past few days. Since the breakup between Lucy and James, she found herself spending more time with Will. He and Sarah had a falling out soon after they got stuck in the Realm of Boundless Frost. Actually, not a single couple stayed together after that event. Leslie and Faith had separated too, but that was solely because of Faith''s depression. Losing Sera was very hard on her. She was close to losing her mind, and only after ascending did she regain her sanity. Leslie tried to help her as best as he could, but she just kept pushing everyone away. He currently danced with Sarah. They were both emotionless on the outside. The only sign of their happiness was the near imperceptible smile on their faces. Some people preferred to stay away from the dancing, like Astrid and Sam. Astrid hated loud music and parties, while Sam was just really uncomfortable. Discover more content at empire However, Kim was with them, and she firmly grabbed their hands and dragged them to the dance floor. They tried to protest, but the small woman was much stronger than she looked. Jill with her family and the Ouroboros Cohort members joined the fun too. While most people danced, drank and enjoyed the evening, some followed Sera to the lounge room, which was thankfully noise proof. Bea, Bran and Melinda arrived first, but Mary, James and the professor soon followed. They were surprised to find Sera and Vicky cuddling and giggling. It gave everyone a stop. Most of them had never seen Sera this happy. They even began to second guess themselves if Sera actually got her emotions back or not. The mother and daughter turned towards the entrance when they heard the sound of music. Vicky grinned towards Bea and gave her a small wave, before jumping on Sera and resuming her cuddles. On Bea''s face, an enormous smile grew. She hadn''t seen her daughter this happy in a long time. It filled her with hope for the future. Next to her, Bran had the same smile on, but for different reasons. He had never seen Sera this happy. Even in her brief emotion filled state, she was nowhere near like this. He didn''t feel jealous about Sera''s daughter, even though nobody else could make her laugh like that. He only wanted Sera to be like this always. If he needed to take a step back for her happiness, he would do it in that second. They each took drinks for themselves and sat around the couches. The room stayed in comfortable silence for a few minutes until the professor had enough. Her skin prickled a bit upon touching the icy surface, but otherwise she felt alright. She left her shack to look around, but immediately her mood worsened. Things were looking bad around the camp. Food and water weren''t an issue. There were hundred of monsters running around, and Will could summon water anytime. The problem was the cold. They had no way of fighting against it. Bea could summon a bit of wood and plants, but they weren''t able to keep a fire going. This Realm had no vegetation, and burning animal fat wasn''t a good solution. A few people had already died since the Gate''s closing, and by their count, more would go each day. If they wanted to survive, then they had to find a way to increase the temperature. Bea thought about it for a long time, and the only viable solution in her mind was a gamble. The only way they might survive, if she manages to become an Ascended. She had read her prey''s description hundreds of times, so she knew exactly what to expect. The gamble part was that they couldn''t guarantee what ability she would gain from evolution. But as Bea looked out at their frozen town, she realized how little time they had left. Even though she herself wanted to give up, she didn''t want all these people to die. After standing in the cold for a few minutes, she took a deep breath and let out a shuddering, sad sigh. A tear ran down her face, but it only made it to halfway across her cheek, before it froze. Bea took her first step, which was hard, then the next, which was easier. She didn''t start looking around for Vicky, and instead walked to the pedestal where the Gate once stood. In the middle of the pedestal, a woman knelt, absorbed in shadows. Faith hadn''t stood up from that place since she came back. A few days after the Gate closed, she just disappeared. The people of the town looked all over the place, but they hadn''t found her. After spending a week looking, she just appeared here, kneeling. She was only an Evolved when she disappeared, but now she was an Ascended. She hadn''t talked to anybody since the Gate closed, but Bea still hoped. She hoped her friend was still inside there, waiting. Bea walked in front of Faith and knelt onto the snowy ground. She stared into the shadows, and she had the feeling that the shadows stared back. "I have a task for you. I''m planning on evolving. There is no other way to save the town. I want you to watch over Vicky... Please." Faith didn''t react, which made Bea angry. Her patience was non-existent, and this wasn''t the time for the silent treatment. She jumped to her feet, her eyes full of ire. "If you were ever truly devoted to Sera, then watch over her daughter!... At least until I come back!... SAY SOMETHING!" Faith stayed silent, and after a few minutes, Bea''s patience truly ran out. With a growl of anger, she turned and stomped away, but she only made a few steps before a sound brought her attention back. When she turned around, Faith had disappeared. Chapter 252 Tree of Life after talking with faith, she met up with the others and asked for their help as well. they all looked miserable. all five of them were cooped around a small fire, that hellfire kept alive. this trick would only work until his essence lasted, but it was more than most of the town had. bea spent a few seconds examining her oldest friend. he was down since faith had disappeared. they hadn''t talked yet, but it was obvious to everyone that they weren''t together anymore. he also stopped using his title, hellfire. now everyone just calls him leslie. he was close to giving up, just like everyone else in the town. they all felt that the breaking point was approaching. the endless chasm of despair was close to swallow everyone. that''s why she had to gamble. they only had one chance of surviving this desolate plain, and bea wasn''t ready to jump down the chasm. after she talked with everyone for half an hour, she left their shack and approached one of the town gates. there was one person she had to talk to before leaving... on top of the town wall, damien stood stoic as ever. he was the only one whom the frost hadn''t affected at all. sadly, he could only summon it and couldn''t control it. bea walked up next to him. they stared out at the empty icy plains. there wasn''t anything alive out there, other than the monsters, of course. they knew little about the realm of boundless frost. the main consensus made by researchers was that this realm never had living organisms. from gates, monsters populated the realm, but there was nothing else. the only ruins the scouts found came from other realms and accidentally ended up in this one. they had found multiple of such realms before. the researchers called them dead worlds, since these places were never supposed to support life. they watched the plains for a while longer, before damien finally had enough. "what do you want?" he asked in his growling voice. "i might have a way to save the town, but i need your help and we have to hurry." she still wasn''t looking at him, but what she said piqued his interest. he narrowed his eyes and stared at her with doubt. he didn''t trust her at all, but if there really was a way for the others to survive, then he would help without a second thought. experience new tales on empire it was painful to watch all his soldiers die before his eyes. especially from something that wasn''t affecting him at all. "care to elaborate?" he asked, and bea began telling him everything. after a few minutes of quick explanation, damien nodded. "i know the monster you are talking about. i haven''t been there myself, but i have met the scouts who discovered it. there is a high chance this won''t work, but we have no options." he said nothing else, just jumped over the wall and transformed in the air. he landed on his four enormous paws in his white saber-tooth form.no?v(el)b\\jnn bea jumped after him without protest. she landed on his fluffy back, blinked, and soon they disappeared in a snowy wind. the most interesting and terrifying part was that the monsters who wandered here just took it. they walked as close to the trunk as possible, then fell asleep. they were food for the tree. from here damien and bea saw hundreds of horrifying creatures, just peacefully sleeping and withering away. "well, shit... i didn''t think there would be this many. this tree supposed to be only a 3rd tier corrupted. how can it send even horrors to sleep?" damien didn''t answer immediately. he just began walking towards the tree, with bea in tow. the skeletons broke and crunched under their feet, but they both tried to block out that sound. "i think it evolved into a horror too, but even before that, it could probably send horrors to sleep. the problem with forced sleep as a power was that there are no sure ways to counter it!" bea looked at him with confusion, and nearly stumbled as a large bone broke in two below her feet. "i don''t understand. with this pain method you use, i can stay awake. isn''t that a simple solution?" damien just chuckled. "it only works because the tree is passive, and its power is broken between hundreds of creatures. imagine its concentrated effect! we couldn''t even react before falling asleep!" a shiver went down bea''s spine, and it wasn''t from the cold. she yawned again, and another wave of pain washed over her. "damn, that sucks!... wait, how are you staying awake?" she asked out of curiosity, since she hadn''t seen him spasm in pain yet. with his other hand, he reached below his shirt and pulled out a purple necklace. there was a strange emblem hanging from it, with a black crystal in the middle. "it''s a charm. it keeps me awake at all times. it makes mental and physical fatigue disappear." bea pouted and grumbled under her breath about being a lucky bastard. damien just chuckled and sent another wave of pain, causing bea to yelp. they stopped dead in their tracks, but the creatures didn''t seem to care about the loud noise. they just continued living in their tranquil death sentence. bea and damien breathed a sigh of relief and made a silent agreement about shutting up. the tree''s trunk was only a few dozen meters away, but as the monster count increased, they had to move around them. some of them made sighs or growls as they walked past them, causing bea''s heart to beat faster and faster. her hand was trembling by the time they reached the trunk. but then another problem arose... "uh... how do i kill it?" she said in a whisper, but damien didn''t answer. he dragged her around the tree, while intensely looking all over the place. bea was starting to believe that her friend had lost his mind when the ground cracked under them. it wasn''t like when the bones were breaking, but a much louder and deeper crack. "oh-oh," said bea, before the ground broke below their feet and they fell into a deep pit. Chapter 253 A Trees Heart bea and damien fell for a few seconds before they hit solid ground. damien was fine after the fall, but a few of bea''s bones needed to be mended. they spent a minute getting their bearings and looking around the large hall. the ceiling and walls glowed with florescent moss, which provided sufficient light to see. the first place bea looked was above. about three dozen meters away, light shone through the opening which they fell into. the roots moved above them, and the ray of light slowly disappeared. all over the walls, ceiling, and below their feet, roots ran. bea leaned in closer and saw small glowing green lines in each. they were like veins transporting energy. she examined closer where the roots were running to, but before she found it, a small earthquake shook the room. bea face planted into the roots, breaking her nose and bleeding on them. they absorbed the blood in front of her eyes, and red flowers bloomed on the place she bled. "what was that?" she asked, but damien didn''t answer. his eyes were looking at some place behind and above her. curiously, she turned around and tried to figure out what she was seeing. about a hundred meter away, on the ceiling, a large green glowing growth was slowly expanding. it became bigger and also brighter with each passing moment. when bea thought the growth would pop, it deflated so fast that it caused another slight earthquake. this time bea was more prepared, so she only fell to her knees, scarping them and creating more blood flowers. she didn''t care though, because she finally realized what the growth was. "it''s the tree of life''s heart! that''s what we need to destroy!" she exclaimed happily, but soon found another problem. "this seems a bit too easy. i don''t believe that something this powerful wouldn''t defend its only vulnerability with something more potent than a weak sleep spell." bea gave an annoyed, side-eye glance to her friend, and in that moment the roots moved erratically around them. "you just had to say something, didn''t you?!" bea shouted and jumped away so the roots wouldn''t grab onto her. damien summoned a bubble of frost around him and froze every root in his proximity. after this, there was silence for a few seconds, then every single vine and root exploded into movement... the tree of life awakened! bea instantly got tossed into a wall, stunning her for a moment. blood flowed down her face and more red flowers grew where it landed. she felt something slowly wrapping around her legs. without thinking, she summoned her sword and cut the vines that grew around her. in the next second, she jumped to her feet and tried to dodge all the small roots. they tried and failed to trip her, and she even summoned a few vines of her own for distraction. while running, she took one glance towards damien. he was holding off the roots with ease, but only because the larger ones hadn''t gotten close enough. when she looked in a specific direction, the feeling grew stronger. since she had no better idea, bea treated this as a compass and began walking towards the feeling. it took her no time to reach her destination, or maybe it took her forever. she couldn''t tell the difference. it felt like she took only one step, but walked an infinity distance at the same time. concepts seemed to change in this environment, which caused her sense of time and distance to malfunction. the sight in front of her was disturbing, to say the least. she stopped in front of a mountain of corpses. a ray of light landing broke the darkness on top of the mountain, exactly at the small sapling growing from the corpses. the sapling had green glowing leaves, and red flowers grew all over its branches. it was only a few meters in height, but its presence felt enormous. bea felt pure life energy radiating from it, which was ironic since it fed on corpses. after taking a few deep breaths and calming herself, bea began climbing the mountain. it was strangely easy, and the closer she got to the top, the more at ease she felt. her vision started changing, too. the corpses turned into red flowers, with seven petals and a yellow middle. they had a calming presence and with each step; she felt herself doze off more. it was like the flowers were talking to her, asking to give in to temptation and sleep there. bea knew what this meant, and she tried everything to not fall asleep. when the feeling started to get overwhelming, she grabbed one of her fingers and broke it off. blood sprouted from the wound, causing more blood flowers to grow, but the pain provided enough sense to go on. she was halfway up the mountain when she had to snap off another finger. by the time she was 2/3 of the way up, she lost two more fingers. at 3/4, she lost her fifth finger from her left hand. the closer she got, the more potent the sleepiness got. since one of her hands was missing all her fingers, she had to resort to biting. with each lost finger, she screamed louder, but the closer she got, the less the pain affected her. it took her to lose all five fingers from her right hand to reach the top. as the ground of corpses leveled, she fell to her knees, panting. the forced exhaustion had stopped affecting her mind, but physically she was dead tired. while breathing heavily, she looked up at the large sapling. it didn''t look too special; it looked more pretty than dangerous. bea used all her leftover strength to approach the tree. she walked around it, but found no signs of the heart, or anything similar. it took her a few minutes of thinking to finally realize what the place and tree were. bea laughed to herself and walked towards the sapling. her laughter increased and turned mad as she laid her broken hand on the sapling''s trunk. ''do you wish to evolve?'' bea laughed one last time, before answering aloud, "of fucking course!" Chapter 254 Stories of the Past "from there on, i don''t quite remember what happened. damien said that we made a quick escape because all the creatures the tree was keeping asleep awakened." as bea finished the story, everyone just sighed and became silent. professor collins was close, jumping around with excitement. he was the most invested in the story out of everybody, other than sera, of course. after finishing, sera watched her ex with fresh eyes. this was only one story about the past two years, and it was close to ending in tragedy. it made her think, how many more such stories everybody here had? life was like a tightrope they walked on. each decision felt like jumping up on the rope and hoping to not fall to the abyss of death. professor collins contained his excitement enough to speak again. "bea, if it''s not too much to ask, could i perhaps read through your status page? i''m really curious to learn more about the world trees and such." he was nervous, since it was rude to ask for someone''s status, but bea didn''t mind. she just shrugged and showed the page. name: bea title: queen of nature 1st kill: world tree, horror of the 1st tier 2nd kill: tree of life, horror of the 1st tier life essence absorbed: 10000/10000 abilities: passive abilities: heritage: items: - overall, her status changed little after her evolution. and became stronger, and she got a new ability. explore more stories with empire her heritage changed too, which she still didn''t understand why. she was very curious about what her new heritage could do. sadly, she had already realized how useless most descriptions were. they didn''t outright tell what the ability could do. instead, they just suggested what it might do, and sometimes they cautioned against the over usage of said ability. the was like this too, and when the professor opened it, bea read it again too. description: "sera... how many transcended have you killed?" bea was the one who voiced the question everyone had. even vicky seemed interested in the answer. sera just shrugged without looking up. "about two dozen, maybe over thirty. i never really counted or cared. they stood in front of me, so they had to die." her voice sounded empty and even defeated, like she already made peace with being called a murderer. after hearing her mother''s sad voice, vicky leaned in and cuddled closer. on sera''s face, a small smile appeared, and she gave a small kiss to the top of vicky''s head. the room turned awfully quiet. bran, melinda, and david already knew all this, but the others were in the dark. a shiver went down their spines collectively, as they imagined how powerful sera would become. if she as an ascended could kill multiple transcended, would she be able to kill stellars upon evolution? the thought was unimaginable and even scary. damien knew the best out of everyone here how large the gap is between an ascended and a transcended. but upon hearing what sera had done, the distance seemed much smaller than he previously thought. "at least i understand why you have your own religion now..." as bea said this comment, the room burst out laughing. the solemn atmosphere broke, and soon the topic changed. they all began telling stories about the past two years. some were sad, some were happy, some were ridiculous. they laughed through all the pain and suffering of the past. after an hour, around 2 hours before midnight, more people arrived in the lounge. each time the door opened, the music got worse, and the room got merrier. they were all talking, drinking, playing games and just enjoying the moment. sera just continued to sit with her daughter. they whispered to each other, telling how much they loved one another. both knew that sera was lying, since she couldn''t feel love, but in that moment neither cared. just because she couldn''t feel it, she could know it, and she was a hundred percent sure that vicky was the most important person in her life. during the past two years, she never felt so warm, and even happy. her mood was always uncaring and bored, but now she was joyful and excited. she kept on asking questions about her daughter. since she forgot everything, she wanted to relearn all her favorites. vicky was much more laid back. she curtly answered her mother''s questions and even had a few of her own. but she would''ve been perfectly content staying silent while continuing to hug her mother. eventually, professor collins ended writing all his thoughts about the world trees and whatever else he was thinking. afterward, he walked to sera and vicky with an excited grin. "excuse me, sorry to bother you two. i would like to know more about little victoria''s evolution. if you don''t mind, could you perhaps tell me how it happened?" the smile on vicky''s face froze, and her breathing turned quick. her face went pale, with a fearful expression. before anyone could react, she teleported away... Chapter 255 Mysterious Stranger victoria was confused and terrified. even her mother, bea, didn''t know the story of her evolution. that mysterious person asked her not to tell anyone. in panic, she teleported to the place where she usually ran to hide... she stood in the small forest bea had created in the gate room. the place had changed a bit since the last time she saw it. there were much more cobwebs on the trees and ceiling. close to her, barking noises approached, fast. brian, the spider-dog came running out of the forest, with his tongue hanging loose. he jumped on top of victoria and started furiously licking her face. the strange dog''s presence and affection turned her mood. she even started to giggle and laugh as the dog didn''t stop. "well, can''t say i was prepared for a trip to a strange indoor forest... is that one of mary''s creations? i never understood why she loved spiders so much." the voice surprised both vicky and brian. they jumped to the attention, and prepared to fight, but upon seeing the golden-haired woman leaning against a tree with a kind smile, vicky deflated. brian walked in front of vicky and began growling at sera, but her daughter quickly calmed the large pet down. he began bumping into her small body, demanding pets. with a small giggle, vicky obliged, and while she scratched brian''s ears, she turned towards her mother with a guilty expression. "i''m sorry i teleported you away. i didn''t mean to, but when i''m emotional, my precision decreases." she looked down at the ground with a sad expression, but soon she felt her mother''s hug, and she felt much better. "i''m happy you brought me with you. it''s clear you were distressed, and i would like to know why... only if you don''t mind sharing, of course. i''m just here to give you much needed support and love." the words didn''t feel too sincere, but they calmed vicky all the same. she brought her arms around her mother, hugging her even tighter. they stayed like that for a few seconds. that''s when brian had enough of the lack of attention, and he shoved his large head between them. both sera and vicky chuckled, then they started petting the large spider-dog. they spent a good ten minutes just showering him with love, but eventually vicky felt a sense of guilt. she wanted to tell sera everything that happened, but that person said to keep it a secret. the more time passed, the more she realized her lack of care about that strange person. she wanted to tell her mother everything, and if this decision would have consequences, she would deal with them accordingly. sera noticed the change in her daughter, too, but said nothing and let vicky deal with her problems on her own. when vicky was comfortable enough, she began to tell the story to sera... ... vicky flew through the snowy plains in her ghost form. the monsters crawling around the place were terrifying, but in the past one and a half year, she got used to hiding. with a curious expression, vicky approached the fire, and noticed a woman sitting nearby. she wore a bodysuit, which should''ve provided no warmth in this weather. her long, light brown hair hung in a neat ponytail, and she wore a pair of large sunglasses for some reason. the realm of boundless frost never seen unobscured sunlight, which made the sunglasses even more ridiculous. in her hand was a regular stick, with some white thing at the end. the woman held it into the fire and watched it turn crispy brown. when she seemed satisfied, the woman put the white food on a cracker, and she happily ate it. "oh, that''s fantastic. why don''t you people have marshmallows? i wonder if you lost it during the apocalypse, or even sooner in the old world. you definitely had it. i was in your past before all the crazy space travel, and i could swear you had it." vicky watched as the woman rambled to herself. at first she thought her insane, but the more she spoke, the more confused vicky had gotten. "i mean, it''s probably good you lost it. marshmallows are unhealthy. they are basically fluffy sugar, which we caramelize and melt over an open flame. strange what foods people come up with..." "have you ever eaten the fish eggs? they are disgusting, and people once held them as luxury items. that''s why i always say money doesn''t make someone smart, they only make them lucky." suddenly, the woman turned to the place where vicky was standing in her ghost form. "why are you still standing there? come, sit close to the fire or you might catch a cold!" vicky looked turned around, but there was nobody else here. only the two of them. her eyes widened as the realization set in, and with widened eyes, she turned back to the stranger. "wait, you can see me?" she asked, in a disturbed voice. the woman just chuckled, like vicky had told the best joke she ever heard. then the woman jumped to her feet and grabbed vicky''s arm. everything happened so fast that vicky couldn''t even question how did the woman interact with her nonphysical self. the woman yanked on her arm, and she fell to her knees. it took vicky a few seconds to realize what had happened. she felt the ground beneath her feet; she felt the cold stone biting through her makeshift clothing. the woman didn''t just touch her noncorporeal self, but she somehow reunited her soul with her body. even worse, somehow she teleported the body right here. thoughts circled around vicky''s mind. what the woman done supposed to be impossible, but again, the word impossible didn''t exist in this world. this revealed one information to vicky, though. whoever this woman was, her powers were beyond vicky''s comprehension. the woman sat back in her place and used her stick to cook another marshmallow. she continued to grin at vicky, too, which was very frightening. "now, this is much better! it''s great to finally meet you, victoria!" Chapter 256 The Huntress vicky froze after hearing her name. the woman just continued to smile. she looked normal, like any regular human. her smile was normal too, but somehow it really unnerved vicky. "how... h-how do you know my name?" she asked in a trembling voice. the woman just shrugged and stared into the small campfire. the flames danced to the rhythm of the bitter wind. it was mesmerizing to stare at, and for a moment, vicky thought the flames were alive. read new adventures at empire "why don''t you come closer? i don''t bite. not unless you are a marshmallow... are you?" "am i what?" asked vicky, already losing the tread of the conversation. the woman chuckled again and said, "are you a marshmallow?" vicky stared at the woman with uncertainty, then just shook her head. "see, then you have nothing to worry about! come, sit on the opposite side of the fire!" her fear grew, and she looked around for an escape, but she was about a dozen kilometer away from the town. if it came to fighting, she would die really fast. with no other choice, vicky moved to the campfire while keeping the woman in her vision. she sat on the opposite side, just like she told her. she was a bit surprised by the fire. she felt no warmth radiating from it, but somehow it melted the white stuff at the end of the woman''s stick. the snow melted around them too, which she also didn''t understand. "now, isn''t that much more comfortable? we can finally talk!" suddenly, the woman slapped herself on the forehead. "oh, i''m so stupid! i haven''t even introduced myself!... huh, what name should i use... this is always so hard, making up names on the spot..." "hmm... you people really love using titles, so what would fit me... ah, fuck it! just call me the huntress!" after saying her name or title, she looked very satisfied with herself, like she just solved one of the world''s greatest puzzles. "that''s a strange title," said vicky in a whisper. the huntress''s smile froze and her brows furrowed. "hey! i thought very hard on that!... by the way, you have no right to talk shit about other people''s titles, miss soul keeper!... ridiculous..." vicky couldn''t hold herself and giggled a bit at the woman''s rambling. the huntress just leaned back and ate her other marshmallow. neither said anything for a few minutes. the woman was content with the silence, but vicky was uncomfortable. she still didn''t know who this person was, or why she brought her here. "come on. ask away... i know you want to!" said the huntress, while smiling cunningly at vicky. a shiver went down her spine, but she pushed through her discomfort and fear. "why did you lure me here? how do you know me? who, or more like... what are you?" she just sighed and looked at the huntress with defeat. "and why exactly do i need to use this creature for evolution? how does me becoming an ascended help us get back to earth?" each moment spent with this stranger caused vicky to turn more annoyed. her fear had already gone away, leaving only anger behind. she just wanted to spend her time slowly fading away, and now some random person brought her here. vicky didn''t care about anything she had to say, but there was something keeping her stuck to the stone ground... hope... there it was, deep in her soul... about one and a half year ago, she lost hope of returning, of seeing her mother again. but now, with this new revelation, the small ember came to life, illuminating her dark hopelessness. now the question was, should she keep grab this small flicker, or let it die out... "oh, little girl. you people do not know about what evolution is! even most of the gods, the so called empyreans, are mostly clueless..." "what''s happening right now, in this universe, is nothing special. right now, you all walk the path of higher beings. they play with your life like little chess pieces... but, they aren''t omnipotent either..." the stranger stood up from the dead flames of the blown out campfire and began walking away into the snowy wind. as she faded from existence, she let her words echo through the world. "the world you know doesn''t exist. you can become free from their control, but with freedom comes duty. if they realize you aren''t under their control, that you aren''t following their plans..." "then you will turn into their enemy. keep your hand close to your chest, little girl. don''t let people you don''t trust get a sneaky peak. also, keep our conversation to yourself, or don''t... i don''t really care..." with her last sentence, the woman fully disappeared, and suddenly vicky found herself standing knee deep in the snow. the campfire, the melted circle, the stick the woman used, nothing was left of the sight. it was like the place never even existed, like it was just an apparition. or maybe everything happened in her imagination. vicky stood in the cold, shivering. her mind raced, unsure of what to do. she took looked at her watch, and saw the town on the map. it was 15 kilometers to the south. with a sigh, she put the watch away, turned towards the south, and was about to take a step. in the snow in front of her, a single sentence was written... ''if you truly want to help your mother, head north!'' vicky watched the writing for a few minutes. she didn''t look away until an additional layer of snow covered it up. afterward, she lifted her leg and took her first step. it was hard moving through the snow, but she struggled and took another, then another, and a fourth. with each step, she moved closer to her goal... saving her mother... Chapter 257 Unknown Creature The freezing winds of the Realm of Boundless Frost hit Vicky''s small body like a hammer. When she began walking north, a snowstorm just hit the area. Her clothing had already frozen to her skin, and with each small movement, more and more pain appeared all over her. She even glimpsed at trickled of frozen blood where her skin broke, but the cold got rid of any open wound. The snow was to her waist at this point, making moving much harder. With each step, she felt herself closer to the gates of death. The temperature was nearly unbearable, and funnily enough, the only reason she was still alive was her frozen clothing. All the small holes in the fabric had an icy layer on, which stopped the wind from getting through. The wind had other surprises, though. In combination with the large snowflakes, the wind carried tiny ice shards, too. These wouldn''t be a problem, since they couldn''t pass through her clothing, but her face and hands weren''t covered. With each minute, more and more minor cuts appeared, causing a stinging pain. Vicky took deep breaths and pushed her limits farther than she had ever done before. In the past two hours, she made little progress. Judging by her map, she had travelled only three kilometers, and her average speed was getting slower as more snow fell. The Huntress only told her to go north a few kilometers, but now Vicky realized how stupid she was. She should''ve asked for exact numbers, since ''a few'' could differ drastically per person. Another issue she needed to clarify was which north she should head towards. Saying north means nothing, when she was looking for an exact position. Even a one degree difference could mean finding or missing the location. In her mind, Vicky cursed at herself and at The Huntress. She was stupid to not ask more questions, and The Huntress should''ve made everything more understandable. Deep down, Vicky knew The Huntress did it on purpose, probably to test her abilities or something. But it was still very annoying. Her anger and hope were the only emotions keeping her going. She swore that the next time she finds a mysterious person offering help, she would be much more careful. She lifted her frozen foot and placed it down on the thick snow. Each movement was heavier than the previous, and it took a lot more energy to keep going. When she was about four kilometers away from the site where she met The Huntress, a sound pierced through the screaming wind. It was strange and otherworldly, nothing like she had ever heard. It was a high-pitched rumble that shook Vicky''s very existence. A sudden fear began consuming her body, but somehow her legs still moved. A few minutes later, she heard the sound again, but it was much closer. The direction was impossible to determine, since it echoed all over the empty plain, but she didn''t stop. At this point, she couldn''t stop. If her feet didn''t move for a few seconds, she would freeze on the spot. Only her movements were keeping her alive... And her willpower... In the next minute, the sound was so loud she had to cover her frozen ears, but still her legs didn''t wait for her mind. She watched the ridge widen slowly, then out of nowhere it opened and swallowed Vicky. Her face and body slammed into a sticky, hot something. Vicky groaned in annoyance and exhaustion. The fall wasn''t big, only a few meters, but her body still wasn''t recovered. She turned and looked over the place, but nothing seemed to change. The ground was still black below her feet; the wind was still blasting and the snow still fell. The only perceptible difference was the permanent stickiness, which was very disgusting. She moved her feet up and down, leaving trails of some liquid behind her. After a few steps, the blackness below her feet constricted until it was only a few meters in size. Next to the blackness, the ground was pure white, with large lines that resembled veins... Vicky wanted to laugh to herself at the ridiculous metaphor, but as she walked further, the blackness below her feet followed. At some point her walk turned brisk, and eventually she was running, but the blackness kept up with her. She just didn''t want to believe it, even though at this point she knew very well what was below her feet... Vicky was standing on an eye... The feeling of dread washed over her again, but no matter how far she ran, there was no end in sight. Only now did she remember walking for close to an hour on the closed eyelid before finally stopping. The dread turned into pure terror as she started to realize just how gigantic the creature was. If just its eye spread for who knows how many kilometers, just how large was the actual monster? As the fear froze her blood, she fell to her knees. Her body trembled, and she felt hopeless, like she could die at any moment. Vicky closed her eyes and waited for her death... It never came... This confused her. If she was correct, then the creature literally just had to blink for her to be crushed. But something didn''t feel right. Curiously, Vicky stared below herself and looked into the creature''s pupil. It was wrong. There seemed to be no life left in it, like the eye only watched her because it was a reflex. It felt like a corpse''s eye. At this point, Vicky figured it out. She knew this was the creature The Huntress wanted her to kill. Vicky took a couple of deep breaths, collecting all the scattered pieces of her mind, then she began the slow process of destroying the creature''s soul. Strangely enough, it only took her a few minutes, which meant the creature was really close to death''s door and just needed a tiny push to get through. Still, the entire ordeal required all her essence, and afterward she fell to her side breathing heavily. Enjoy exclusive chapters from empire Because her whole body was touching her prey, the long awaited question popped into her mind... ''Do you wish to evolve?'' Chapter 258 Spatial Form "After my evolution, I woke up in an empty field of snow. The gigantic creature was nowhere to be seen, and any evidence of its existence got erased." Sera and Vicky cuddled while leaning into Brian''s soft fur. He was snoring happily, while Vicky recounted the encounter with The Huntress and the Unknown creature. With one hand Sera made gentle strokes on her head, which helped her calm down, when the memories became overwhelming. Vicky had her arms wrapped around Sera''s waist, like she was afraid of her disappearing. "Does anyone else know how you became an Ascended? Does Bea know?" Vicky just slightly shook her head. "I was afraid of telling them. I didn''t know if The Huntress would be mad at me, or try to kill me. She didn''t seem like a vengeful person, but she was also insane, so who knows?" "I also did not know how to tell it to anyone. The descriptions of my new abilities didn''t help me much either." Sera''s ears perked up at that, and she grew curious about Vicky''s status window. "Can you show it to me?" she asked, and with reluctance, Vicky let go of her waist and brought up her status on the watch. Enjoy more content from empire Name: Victoria Title: ''Unknown'' 1st Kill: ''Unknown'' 2nd Kill: ''Unknown'' Life Essence Absorbed: 50000/50000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: Transformation: Heritage: <''Unknown''> Race Change Status: <''Unknown'': 2/3> Items: - As Sera read the first few lines, she frowned in confusion. There were so many ''Unknowns'', which was very weird. She still didn''t fully comprehend. How could there be creatures that the watch''s A.I. couldn''t name? It seemed to use ''Unknown'' as a placeholder for missing data. When her eyes landed on the Life Essence count, she didn''t know what to think. A normal Ascended would have essence from anywhere between 2000 and 5000. A strong Ascended had been between 5000 and 8000. An irregular Ascended would have between 8000 and 10000. The last category was so rare that in Europe Sera could count these people on one hand. The white-haired girl turned away with a heavily blushing face, and answered in a meek, embarrassed voice. "I don''t know... After finding out I can open Gates, I spent every waking hour trying to get back here... I didn''t even know how strong my previous abilities became. I only know that became much stronger..." "With each kill in my proximity, I gained hundreds or even thousands of Life Essences. We only had to kill about a hundred creatures to raise it to the maximum amount." Sera didn''t know what to say to that, so she just slowly stood up and motioned for Vicky to follow her. Her daughter was a bit reluctant, since laying on Brian was so comfortable, but eventually she grew curious and went after her mother. They went to the other side of the inside forest, so they wouldn''t bother Brian. When Sera was satisfied with the distance, she turned around and knelt down, so she would be on Vicky''s eye level. "I think you made a huge mistake in not trying out your new transformation. It could''ve made you stronger, and maybe you could''ve opened a Gate back here much sooner." Vicky looked away, ashamed, but Sera cradled her chin, bringing her sight back to her face. She smiled and spoke in a warm tone, without judgment. "I understand you were probably scared, and you weren''t thinking straight... But now we have a chance to test out your powers... Together." On Vicky''s face, a wide smile spread, and she threw her arms over Sera''s shoulder. They hugged only for a few seconds before Sera nuzzled her daughter away. "Let''s start with your previous form first, just to get a better understanding of the changes." Vicky nodded profusely, then laid down on the grassy ground and focused her mind on the transformation. The result wasn''t like anything she expected. Instead of having her usual out-of-body experience, her whole body disappeared in front of Sera''s eyes. She was still in her ghost form, but now her body wasn''t left behind as a weakness. Her movements were also much faster, and when she touched a tree, she felt it. Unlike before, she could actually interact with the physical world, even though it couldn''t interact with her. She spent a few minutes in this form, when a small feeling appeared in her mind. It was like the call with which The Huntress lured her, but it didn''t come from anywhere. The feeling came from her soul and got stronger each second. It felt like a storm waiting to be unleashed. Vicky struggled longer, before the feeling became overwhelming, and she gave in. She appeared a few meters away from Sera, but her body vastly changed. Her skin turned smooth and black, like the Unknown creature''s. There was also a burning white spot in the middle of her chest, which looked like a star from Sera''s point of view. After seeing her daughter like that, Sera wasn''t sure what to do, but since she looked to be in pain, Sera approached her. The only problem was, she couldn''t. She got only a few steps in before gravity seemed to increase rapidly. She didn''t fall to her knees, but it took much of her willpower to stay standing. Vicky looked distraught. She was trying to say something, but Sera couldn''t hear her over the pounding in her ear. Gravity kept increasing in a dozen meter circle around Vicky. Trees broke apart, the grass got flattened, and the metal floor below screeched in protest. Sera''s own body was close to giving up, but just as she was about to fall, an alternative source of energy appeared in her soul. Her eyes closed in pain and discomfort, and the next time they opened, there was a deep green glow inside the golden irises. Chapter 259 Soul Connections The source of energy wasn''t unfamiliar. In fact, it was the polar opposite. It felt like arriving home after a long journey. Sera felt her soul ignite and grow. It was unlike anything she had experienced before. On the day of her rescue, she felt something similar, but those days were like dreams for her, and the feeling was much more tamed back then. Bran and Melinda told her that Bea used some strange object to heal her, because Harold somehow locked her body, so regular healing wouldn''t work. They haven''t gotten time to talk privately, so Sera had no idea what she had done. But somehow she knew that this feeling originated from her. The unbearable gravity kept increasing, but strangely enough for her, it stayed the same. It was still barely tolerable, and it still took most of her power to keep herself standing. The feeling in her chest and soul kept growing more prominent and more powerful. Her golden eyes glowed in pure green color, and at some point her skin started to shiny as well. The feeling and glow kept increasing until Sera felt it reach its maximum capacity. When that happened, the glow disappeared for a second, then suddenly her whole body exploded in pure green and whitish-gold light. Vicky watched all this with both worry and curiosity. Bea told her everything she knew about The Seed of the World Tree, but the problem was that even she had no idea what it did. She knew her mother was really looking forward to exploring this power with Sera, but it seemed life had other plans. As Sera''s body exploded in the light, Vicky quickly covered her eyes. She still didn''t have control over her power, but at least she regained her bodily functions. The blinding light only lasted for a few seconds, and when it went away, everybody was surprised by the result. ... The lounge room was in disarray when Vicky and Sera teleported away. Luckily, Bran and Sera chatted in secret, and he communicated her and her daughter''s wellbeing to everyone. Afterward, the mood took a minor hit, but when more people retreated from dancing, it became better. Most of them were so drunk they couldn''t even stand. Kim and Sam, for example, had to be carried away from the dance floor, because they both passed out in the middle of it. Astrid took them into an empty room, but she accidentally went into one which was occupied by Eula and Joan, plus their dates. They were in a pretty precarious position, and even though they offered Astrid to join, she left the room as fast as she could. Will, Cass, and Lucy lay passed out in the lounge room. Glitter covered them, and Cass wore a pink boa around her neck. When David asked about it, everyone who danced just shrugged or laughed. Others also had glitter on them, but considerably less. At this point during the night, only a handful of people were truly sober. Even Melinda and David had started drinking after Sera''s and Vicky''s teleportation. Faith, Adam, and Lilith were drunk too, but out of everyone who danced, they were probably the most sober. Her two mothers walked to Vicky''s side and looked over at her new transformation. Sera explained a bit to Bea, so she wouldn''t be in the dark. She seemed a bit hurt because her daughter didn''t even tell her about a new transformation. But she wasn''t stupid. She knew that the past two years weighed especially hard on her daughter, and she would never get mad at her for keeping secrets. It would be better if Vicky told them everything, but everyone had the right to keep their secrets. After a few minutes of walking around and talking, Sera tried to touch Vicky. She only got a few centimeters from her smooth skin. After that, an invisible barrier stopped her hand. "That''s interesting. Wonder how strong the barrier is... Anyway, Vicky, try to get control of your power!" said Bea, while looking over her daughter''s body with curiosity. "I... I don''t know how... It feels like I opened a door, which I can''t close!" Vicky''s breathing turned more frantic, and as she became more scared, the radius of her power increased. The sound of trees breaking echoed in the large chamber. The metal continued to groan below their feet, and cracks began to appear around them. Sera and Bea looked at each other with worry, then continued to find a solution. "Vicky! Focus on my voice! We are here, you just have to calm down, and everything will be fine!" said Sera as calmly as she could. Her daughter''s breathing lessened and with it her power output decreased, too. "Good! Now try to find the door, which you opened! Keep your calm, and slowly close it!" Sera''s advice was on point. Vicky took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and kept her cool. With each moment, the suffocating atmosphere grew thinner. Bea and Sera encouraged her, and soon the increased gravity fully disappeared. Afterward, Vicky''s skin changed back, and her body grew limp. She began falling, but both her mothers were there to catch her. She was awake, albeit barely. Her small body swam in sweat. On her face, a small smile appeared and her tired eyes finally closed. Her breathing turned calmer as she fell asleep. Bea and Sera knelt above their daughter, and they began chuckling. "Well, can''t say I ever had such an exciting New Year''s before... I hope the next one will be much calmer." As Bea spoke, they heard a branch breaking behind them. They turned around to see who it might be. They thought it might be a scientist who heard the commotion and came to check on the place, or maybe Brian waltzing around the place. Instead, a lone figure stood behind them. She wore a leather armor, making her gender easily discernible. A large hood covered most of her face, only her scarred mouth was visible, where a creepy grin spread. On her hands, two shiny silver gauntlets reflected the artificial light of the chamber. "Well, I don''t think you have to worry about the next New Year, since neither of you will make it that far!" The woman''s voice sounded scratchy, but also familiar. Before either of them could recognize it, though, she attacked like a whirlwind. Chapter 260 Mad Lady The woman laughed madly as she ran towards Sera. From the gauntlet on her right hand, a two meter long curved silver blade grew. She moved faster than any Ascended should''ve, which caused alarm bells to ring in Sera''s mind. In less than a second, her golden armor covered her body, and she summoned her glaive to defend against the incoming blow. Next to her, Bea''s body changed as well. Her brown dress changed shape and became Bea''s armor. From her gauntlet, an ordinary long sword grew. It looked to be made of wood, but Sera quickly recognized it as a deadly weapon. By the time the woman''s attack reached them, they were ready... Or at least they thought so. The silver blade cut the air in a wide arc. Sera tried to block it with her glaive''s handle, but there was too much power in the blow, and she nearly lost balance. On the right, Bea came to the rescue, and while the silver sword was still carrying momentum, Bea''s own sword hit it in the middle. The two forces hit cancelled each other in a loud bang that echoed through the giant chamber. The woman''s grin widened under her hood, and with a pirouette, she turned and cut low with her blade. Sera''s wings were already out by that point, and just as the sword was about to hit Bea''s legs, Sera grabbed her and flew a few meters in the air. They quickly had to drop back to the ground, though, since Vicky was still passed out not far away. Sera dropped Bea behind the woman while she continued to fly off, then turn in the air. Her glaive turned into a five meter lance, and she went into a dive aiming at the woman. Bea tried to take her attention away with a well-timed attack. She swung her longsword in a vertical slash, but just before it reached the woman''s head, her empty gauntleted hand caught the blade with ease. At that point, Sera was close to hitting her, but her lance never reached the woman. She cut the air faster than Sera could perceive movement. The silver blade hit the lance in the middle. The force of the blow pushed Sera away, and she crashed heavily into the ground. The woman then lifted Bea by the blade and threw her right next to Sera. She landed much more gracefully, but was still a bit shaken up. The mad lady laughed hysterically. "Is this really the best you can accomplish? You are truly worthless without me! Pathetic worm!" Bea stared at her with confusion, anger and worry. While Sera just frowned at her words. Something was wrong, but she simply couldn''t figure it out. This woman was so familiar, like Sera knew her all throughout her life. With her right sword, she slashed towards Sera''s waist, and with her left, she stabbed at Bea''s shoulder. The blades moved fast, but not fast enough. Sera took a step back and leaned away, dodging the sword by a few centimeters. She then raised her glaive and slashed at the woman''s right elbow, giving her another much nastier cut. The glaive''s blade went so deep that the bone was showing, and a river of blood flowed. On the other side, Bea raised her empty left hand exactly where the blade was about to hit her. From her armor, a small wooden buckler grew, and the green energy concentrated on it. The silver blade hit it with full force, but the energy negated most of it. Even then, the small remaining percent was enough to crack the buckler and break Bea''s arm below her vambrace. She groaned in pain, but in less than a second the damage was healed and she was already moving in for her own attack. Her wooden blade entered and exited the woman''s left thigh. It went straight through the clothing, skin and muscles, and exited on the other side. Bea then grabbed her own blade and with an abrupt move broke it away from her own hand. The whole blade was left inside the thigh, and in Bea''s hand a new longsword grew. The mad lady kept on laughing as she backed away a few steps. Both Sera and Bea wanted to attack, but the woman began swinging wildly, so they had to back away. Eventually, the mad woman fell to her knees, and she let the blades retreat into her gauntlet. "I must say. I didn''t expect to use anything other than my prowess with the blade, but you two were full of surprises... I mean, it''s not like I wasn''t prepared, but every girl can have their fantasies!" With her left gauntleted hand, she felt around a bit until it landed on the wooden blade sticking out of her thigh. Her grin widened as she grasped the blade and slowly dragged it out. It was like the woman found pleasure in the pain, and purposefully elongated it by drawing out the blade slower. After a few seconds, the blade was out, fully covered in the woman''s blood. She stared at it for a while, then lifted and licked her own blood. "Uhh... Delicious! I can only imagine how the two of you taste like!" The woman''s leg regenerated quickly and her right arm had returned to normal a long time ago. "So you two might wonder who am I. Even though I gave you an abundance of hints, your stupid brains probably still wondering..." The silver gauntlets on the woman''s hand turned similar to liquid, and they began climbing up her arm. From there, they spread to her shoulders, chest, back, stomach, waist, and legs. In a few seconds, most of her body was covered by a shiny silver armor, everywhere except her head, which was still hidden by her hood. "This will be amazing for both of you, and you probably won''t understand shit... Not like I care!" Slowly the mad lady raised her hands, and with one quick move, pulled the hood off of her head. Finally revealing her identity to Sera and Bea... Chapter 261 The Other Half The artificial light from above finally revealed the woman''s face as she pulled back her hood. At the same time, two wide silver metallic wings spread behind her. It cast shadows on both Sera and Bea. They both took a step back and their faces went pale. The wings didn''t even register for them, because they were too absorbed in the woman''s face. Once beautiful, now full of scars, cut marks and burn wounds. As her smile widened, a few recent wounds'' skin broke and began oozing blood down her cheeks. Her shoulder length hair was a divine golden color, while her fierce, mad eyes were a mix of gold and green, just like Sera''s. The woman''s face was something they both recognized. Now, Sera realized where the sense of familiarity came from. The scars couldn''t hide the face beneath, but even if they could, those pair of eyes were something Sera would never forget, because... She saw the exact same eyes when she stared into a mirror... As the mad lady watched the realization dawn on their faces, she turned towards the metal ceiling and howled her laughter. It echoed in the large chamber and lasted for a few endless seconds. "So you finally know who you are dealing with! Let''s see if you can kill yourself, my other half!" From the Scarred Sera''s gauntleted right hand, a curved blade grew out, but this time it wasn''t as big as previously. It was the height of the other Sera and its silver edge was serrated for the extra terror effect. When the silver sword fully formed, a silverish-golden flame ignited along the blade and over her wings. She brandished the blade once, cutting a deep line into the metal floor. It passed through the metal, like it was air, and they both felt that their defenses wouldn''t be enough to stop it. "How is this possible?!" asked Bea, when she noticed movement behind Scarred Sera. From the corner of her eye, she also saw where Vicky was lying, but she wasn''t there anymore. Deep down Bea hoped she was alright and could help them get away. Sera, on the other hand, had a blank expression on her face. She secretly spoke with Kastral and ordered the entire island and research facility to be evacuated without raising alarm. It was all going great, but there was a fact neither Sera nor Kastral expected. Since Scarred Sera was literally the other half of Sera''s soul, she had the same connection to their Eternal Mount. Her smiled turned even wider and creepier. She stared specifically at Bea as she answered her previous question. "You should probably ask Harold about it. He created this body using that whore''s excess energy, which she ejects with each resurrection. He combined it with half of our soul, giving me life!" While talking, she walked slowly towards them. Her presence became more suffocating, and they felt the upcoming violence in the air. "You are asking the wrong question though... Who cares how I got here? The bigger question is... Why?" Scarred Sera stopped about 20 meters away and stared at Sera''s helmet. "The question is, why am I here? Why now? What do I want to accomplish? What is the goal of my existence?... There are so many more questions waiting to be answered, but ''How?'' is not in any of them!" Bea wanted to ask another question. She needed to keep the other Sera talking longer, so everyone could escape, but the mad woman had other ideas. "Even Harold didn''t expect the stunt you pulled, which is quite the achievement! I don''t actually want to kill you, but I want to be reunited with my other half and, sadly, you need to die for that." The silver blade rose in Scarred Sera''s hand. Upon closer inspection, Sera saw runes etched into the blade, and as the blade fell, she felt that her life came to an end. In a last, desperate attempt, Sera tried to continue their conversation. "How much do you remember?" she asked just as the blade was about to pierce her chest. The curved blade''s point stopped less than a millimeter from her skin. Sera felt the flames scorch her body under her tattered armor. Scarred Sera stared at her curiously, then looked away with a sad sigh. This was the first time Sera saw normal emotions showing on the mad woman''s face. There was regret and pain etched into those much too familiar eyes. "I remember everything... The reason your memories are lost is because my half of our soul contained everything. After many failed attempts, Harold realized his normal mind writing wouldn''t work on us..." "He then tried to break the part of our soul, which contains all our memories. If it didn''t exist, then you wouldn''t be able to remember..." This information brought a lot of information into new light. Sera never understood why haven''t Harold tried to erase more of her memories. With Sera''s passive ability, no mind manipulation would work on her, but it always seemed strange to Sera that Harold never even tried. Now she knew he figured noticed a long time ago that the manipulation wouldn''t work. At least not on long term. But this revelation brought new questions to Sera. "Then why do you obey Harold? You have all the memories. You know exactly how awful he is! What do you get out of this?" Scarred Sera smiled with pure sadness, and she side-eyed Sera. "You spent a few weeks in his care... Imagine more than a year of that torture!... You don''t have to tell me how horrible Harold is, I know it more than you!... The reason for my obedience is simple... I don''t want to suffer any longer!" Sera finally realized what this woman was. She wasn''t simply mad or insane, but truly broken. She fully obeyed Harold''s every request, just for the torture to stop. He managed to find a way around the memory issue. Harold wanted Sera to be fully obedient, but with her emotions and memories outside of his control, that couldn''t be achieved. Instead, he separated the rational and emotional part of the soul, and tortured each separately. Sera was sure that if the emotional, broken half absorbs her, then the result would be an obedient slave. Scarred Sera would do anything Harold asks, even if she gets stronger, that wouldn''t change. This truth appeared in Sera''s mind as her other half raised the sword for a second time. Her eyes were still sad, but they were also determined. "I''m sorry it had to be like this..." On Sera''s lips, a small smile appeared as she said, "Yeah, me too!" With that, she bashed the side of her head into a nearby spike. It broke her skull and entered her brain, killing her on the spot. Enhance your reading experience by removing ads: Remove Ads Now Chapter 262 Battle of Angels As the first blood droplets ran down Sera''s broken head, the temperature was already rising. Scarred Sera didn''t know if she wanted to curse or laugh. On one hand, Sera ruined her previous plans, and this trick to get near her wouldn''t work again. On the other hand, she had to give credit to her rational side where it was due. Taking your own life with such ease must''ve been extremely hard, even if she knew she would come back. Sera''s body glowed and began melting the metallic spikes. The mad lady just shook her head in self-deprecation. She knew that expecting Sera to go down easily was out of the question, and she still somehow underestimated her absurdity. While Sera''s body turned hotter than the surface of the sun, Scarred Sera let her armor encompass her head, too. She beat her wings once to get out of the explosion''s reach, but those few seconds of thinking cost her time. She only got about two dozen meters away, before Sera exploded with blinding light and melting flames. The shockwave brought Scarred Sera down to the ground, and she had to act quickly, since Sera was already on the move. She wasted no time. Immediately after the resurrection, she flew straight at her other half. She didn''t even wait for her glaive to appear and just swung with her gauntleted hand. Even though Scarred Sera got up from the floor, her reaction time wasn''t fast enough. The punch connected with her jaw, sending her reeling backwards. In less than a second, two more punches arrived, one into her gut, another into her face. The metal armor held and distributed most of the damage, but the punches held enough force to knock her back. After the third punch connected, Sera''s glaive finally appeared and the next attack came with a much deadlier power. The blade held her Transcended flames, and in a few moments, the metal floor below them turned red hot. It actually melted wherever Sera stepped, but that meant little to either of them. The glaive cut in a horizontal arc and hit Scarred Sera on the side. It hurt quite badly, but with using the blow''s force she extended the distance between them. She flew into the air, and Sera quickly followed. From her gauntlet, her curved silver sword grew out, but for it to be usable, she had to suffer another devastating blow from Sera''s glaive. Sera''s weapon glowed in pure light and golden flames. It concentrated on the tip of the blade. Her four wings beat behind her once. She lifted her glaive above her hand, and in a vertical strike tried to cut Scarred Sera in two. The silver blade rose in for defense, and she beat her metallic wings to gain the same momentum Sera had. The two blades connected, one absorbed in silver flames, the other alight by the cleansing golden ones. For a moment, everything turned silent, then the concentrated energy at the end of Sera''s blade constricted until it reached the smallest size. With a blinding light, the energy violently expanded. The blow focused in the front of Sera''s glaive, exactly where Scarred Sera floated. The sound was overwhelming, and Sera felt her eardrums rupture. They healed back in the next second, but she still felt the blood trickle from her ear. Your journey continues at empire When the light and flames subsided, she finally saw the destruction she caused. She grabbed both of her silver metallic wings and delivered a double kick right between them. It wasn''t strong enough to rip the wings off, but it held so much power that Scarred Sera crash landed into a few buildings. She demolished at least a dozen stone structures of the previously emptied town. They were already on the other side of the Gate, but neither payed attention to that. In the shadows of the Tree of Life, their fight continued. Scarred Sera got up from the ground with her curved blade in hand. From the outside, her silver armor seemed unhurt, but her movements weren''t nearly as fast and eccentric as before. She seemed to turn more calculated and cunning, almost wary. Sera just stayed emotionless. The only good part of the hollowness she felt was her inability to lose control of her emotions. Even in constant pain, and in the deepest of sufferings, she could keep her mind straight. Her other half flew straight at her, but before she could''ve gotten too close, Sera''s hands glowed in especially strong flames. Scarred Sera expected her to make the same fake out attack and decided to keep her distance. Instead of punching the air, Sera smiled behind her helmet, then threw the fireball as hard as she could. The mad lady was about a hundred meters away, and the fireball, which was the size of an apple, increased in size with each passing meter. It also moved faster than the speed of sound, and Scarred Sera had no time to move far enough away. The fireball had a few meter diameter by the time it reached her and exploded. The explosion destroyed much of the town and lit the Tree of Life''s lower branches on fire. The flames spread quickly, but soon a green energy took hold of the tree. It extinguished the flames, and the branches regrew with new leaves. But the energy didn''t stop there. It spread over the tree and suddenly red flowers grew all over it. The previously beautiful green leaves turned blood-red with a hint of yellow at the center of each flower. The green energy moved from all over the tree, and from one of the inner branches a human-sized flower grew. Its red petals closed in, hiding the inside. The green energy headed for the flower, turning red upon reaching it. In a few seconds, all the energy reached it, and the flower bloomed. Sera expected to see the yellow middle of the blood-red flower with seven petals, but instead it surprised her to find a naked woman inside. Her hair was brown as the tree''s trunk, while her eyes were green as its leaves. Bea looked out of the flower with an annoyed expression. A brown armor grew around her seductive body, and from the back of her armor, two giant branches grew. Leaves and flowers spread all over the branches until they resembled wings. She made a few trying beats with them, then, seemingly satisfied, she stepped off the flower and flew towards Sera. Enhance your reading experience by removing ads: Remove Ads Now Chapter 263 Second Phase It took a few seconds for Bea to realize what had happened... She died... In her Evolved life she had suffered a lot of mortal wounds, but her body could always heal it without trouble. One thing she never experienced was getting thoroughly destroyed. Not a single cell of her body remained after the silver flames alighted on her skin. With no intact part, there was no chance of regenerating, or at least there shouldn''t have been. There was something she hadn''t counted upon... Her Tree of Life... It gave her loads of buffs, especially now that she was so close to the main tree. But now she figured out another ability the tree provided... Immortality! Bea quickly figured it out. Until the Tree of Life had energy, it would continuously revive her. At least, that''s what she hoped for. What she was sure about was her inner rage. She felt every moment of those few minutes of torture, and she was pissed, to say the least. With her newly gained wings, she awkwardly flew towards Sera. She used all her knowledge about flying, and all those times Sera took her in the air. She imitated her as best as she could, but it wasn''t nearly as easy as Sera told her. By her account, flying was instinctual. She never had to learn it, since her evolution came with the knowledge. Bea was really jealous of this, but she had no time to think such thoughts. Sera floated a few meters away. She stared at Bea, like she was a ghost or something, which was understandable since she had literally died. Her surprise didn''t last long though, and soon she re-summoned her helmet. "Glad you are back, but pleasantries can wait. We have to somehow trap my other half in this Realm. We have no chance of defeating her otherwise!" It was hard for her to admit, but even in her Transcended form, she could only gain a small upper hand. There was also a chance that Scarred Sera could resurrect, too, and she really didn''t want to find out her strength in that form. Bea watched her for a long moment, then nodded and turned towards the destruction. Seeing the place she called home for two years go up in flames wasn''t easy. Even though this Realm was her prison, this town was her sanctuary. The fire spread around the town, slowly demolishing everything. It pained her to see it all destroyed, but at least it further fueled her hatred. The two of them floated towards the center of the destruction, keeping a constant lookout for Scarred Sera. She had caught Sera off-guard once, and she didn''t plan to make the same mistake twice! The ground had melted at its center, but the cold air served as an excellent coolant. Combining it with the previously melted snow, the liquid ground turned back to stone for a minute. It wasn''t easy to find Scarred Sera, but they soon realized why. A bit off center, the cooled down stone ground had a few smaller cracks on it. With each passing seconds more and more cracks appeared until a distinct rhythmic banging echoed in the ghost town. Bea watched as the branches, leaves, flowers all got absorbed by the silver flames of Scarred Sera. Experience tales at empire Sera moved as fast as she could, and within a few seconds, they reached the Gateway. "CUT THE ROOTS AND CLOSE IT!" shouted Sera, as they moved through the Gate. Their daughter was waiting on the other side. Her pale face reflected pure terror and shock. When she saw her mother die, she nearly had a heart attack from the sudden blast of grief. Then her other mother died and resurrected, which gave her a rollercoaster of emotions. Now both of them got back and looked seemingly alright, so she didn''t know what to feel other than numbness. Sera sat Bea down a few meters away from the Gate, and she instantly began cutting off the roots. She was using them to keep the Gate opened, so by cutting them off from the main Tree, they would wither and die. Sera rushed to Vicky. In her mind, if she had the ability to open Gates, she could probably fasten the closing process, too. Her daughter jumped into her arms, but they had no time for it. After a quick explanation, Vicky walked to the Gate and focused on her power. As the last of the roots got cut, the Gate began to close, faster than it was supposed to, but not fast enough... On the other side, they saw the whole town melt. In its place, a pit of lava shined. The Tree of Life was fully burnt by that point, and the ashes slowly fell into the molten stone. From the middle of the pit, a form rose into the bitter air. Liquid stone fell from her pale, naked, scarred body. The very air shimmered with the heat of her presence. She spread her arms, and behind her three pairs of wings spread. Pristine white feathers made up the top pair of wings. Golden flames formed the bottom pair of wings. Silver metal comprised the middle pair of wings. They were dozens of meters in length, making her actual body seem much smaller in comparison. Silver flames spread over her body, hiding her for a few seconds. When they disappeared, the heavenly silver armor covered Scarred Sera''s body. The Gate was only a couple of meters wide at that point, but it would still take too long to fully close. Scarred Sera raised her hands towards the sky. Above her, a giant silver fireball appeared. It was a dozen meters in diameter. In the few seconds it took for the fireball to form, the Gate closed to only three meters. The problem arose at the fireball''s release. It moved faster than even Sera could see. The few hundred meters between Scarred Sera and the Gateway got eaten up in a fraction of a second. Sera stood in front of the Gate, and using most of her essence, she summoned a golden wall of fire. The silver ball of flame hit the wall with an impossible force... Chapter 264 Impossible Fight Milliseconds felt like years as all of Sera''s essence burned away in one blow. From her hands, golden flames flowed into the makeshift barrier placed right before the closing Gate. It barely covered it before the silver fireball arrived and exploded. All three of them turned blind and deaf by the explosion. The only reason she had an idea about what was happening was because her hands still kept up the barrier. The two flames met at the edge of two Realms, and a hard battle ensued. Sera used all her power keeping the barrier alive, while the silver flames hadn''t lessened and, in fact, increased in power. She felt the energy concentrate more as the Gate slowly closed in further, but it didn''t make her job any easier. The longer she held, the more her exhaustion increased. She felt small trickles of flame cut through her barrier and lick her skin. The silver flames felt like they burnt her very soul. She opened her mouth and screamed from the top of her lung, as a pain she never felt before hit her. Her scream was silent for her and her family''s ears. They were all deaf and blind. Even so, somehow, she felt her daughter''s and past lover''s worries. The pain continued to consume her mind in endless torment until a cool hand touched her naked shoulder. Her armor had disappeared with the rest of her essence, and only her will kept the barrier together. With the hand, she felt an additional source of energy. It didn''t quite substitute for her missing essence, but it was enough for her to repair the barrier and ease her pain. Unknowingly to them, the barrier took on a golden-green hue, and became much stronger than before. It meant little as Scarred Sera closed in on the Gateway, focusing all her released energy on the human-sized opening. The silver flames didn''t just try to break through Sera''s barrier, they also tried to keep the Gateway open. That was much harder to achieve, though. Vicky''s power was especially designed to open and close Realm Gates, while the silver flames were just energy that served as an obstacle before the Gate''s edge. With Vicky''s near endless reserves, it didn''t make the job that much harder. Scarred Sera was getting closer to the Gate though, and if she manages to reach it before it closes, that would mean the end to them. They were running out of time, and had no other tricks left to use. Their bodies slowly regenerated after the initial explosion, and at some point, their hearing returned. Only two sounds existed in the chamber: the crackling of fire and the screaming of Sera. She felt her body slowly shut down, as the energy got seeped out of her. The constant pain and suffering was overwhelming, and she got closer to giving up with each passing second. The only reason she kept going was because of the cool hand on her shoulder, and the closing of the Gate. The woman with the face of her mother seemed to watch her with cruel curiosity. Veins popped out over her face as she struggled to widen the Gate. "What is it Victoria? Do you want a hug from mommy?... Don''t worry, I will be there in no time!... It would be faster without you actively sabotaging me, but we can work out our differences after I reunite with my other half!" She giggled as she spoke, but Vicky payed her no heed. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her transformation. Her body suddenly disappeared, only to reappear in her Spatial Form. Her small body turned black, with a white core glowing in her chest. Her skin turned smooth, and her blackness seemed infinity, like a whole other universe was hidden right below her skin. This time, she kept her control. The adrenaline, fear, anger, and love were more than enough for her to stay sane. Vicky raised one black arm towards the Gate, and in that moment Scarred Sera''s progress halted. It was nearly impossible to see, but Vicky had a small smirk on her face, which really annoyed her mother''s imposter. "You little whore! Don''t you want your mother back?... I have all her memories!... I AM HER!... LET ME THROUGH!" Vicky glanced back at both of her mothers, and she couldn''t help herself. A loving smile spread over her face. "I have two mothers already... Don''t need a third!" With that, Vicky waved her arm in front of the Gate, sending a large amount of essence out. There was no sign or slow progression. The Gate shut closed in less than a second. Scarred Sera didn''t even have time to remove her hands, so ten fingers fell to the still warm ground. Vicky watched the fingers melt from the heat, but it wasn''t enough for her. She opened ten tiny portals, sending each finger at separate points in the Solar System. Afterward, she took a few deep breaths, then walked to her mothers. Bea was staring at her in pure awe, while Sera seemed to be mostly passed out. Vicky was about to suggest leaving when a banging noise shook the ground. All of them had a sudden bad feeling, as more and more banging followed the first. The noise reverberated in their bodies, but it wasn''t really a physical force. It felt like reality itself was groaning in pain, as the tethers of this world were slowly abolished. In a few seconds, dozens of bangs echoed in the large chamber, or maybe even the entire island. The three of them trembled from the sound and they all watched the place where the Gate once stood. There, they noticed something strange, like a crack in the fabric of reality. With each bang, the crack widened, until it finally gave out and a fist-sized hole appeared. On the other side stood an extremely angry Scarred Sera, whom continued to pummel the break in the world with her fists. She was about to scream something, but Vicky gave her no time. With one move she opened a portal below the three of them, escaping the impostor''s clutches... Hopefully... Chapter 265 Happy New Year As midnight approached, the celebrations died down. By now, only Bran was still sober. Even the Professor got bored and began drinking. Melinda tried to get Bran to drink with her, but he refused and instead continued to pace in worry. Since Bea''s disappearance, they got no word from Sera. He felt something was wrong, but the extend of the issue never surfaced in his mind... Not until it was too late. About fifteen minutes before midnight, an urgent message came to his watch. It was from one commander, watching over the walls. The message was brief, but troublesome. It spoke about a large horde of flying beasts heading straight for the city from the south. With a lot of fear, Bran left Sera''s mansion. Nobody noticed him leaving, which was sad, but he didn''t care about that right now. The commander''s description was on point, and he instantly realized what the beasts were. They were all the hippogryphs living above the Angelic Order Research Facility. There was only one reason they would evacuate that place... It got compromised... Bran headed straight for the Temple of Eternal Flame. The streets were full of people celebrating the new year, but Bran paid no attention to them. He sprinted through the streets, entered the temple, then went down to the lowest floor. Read new adventures at My Virtual Library Empire The Aegis System''s generator was under constant surveillance, in case of malfunctions or other complications. He ordered the scientists there to lower the shields for a few minutes. They did so without question, and Bran informed the commander to let the hippogryphs in. A minute later he got conformation about their landing. It seems they carried away all the researchers and other attendants too, which was a great relief. After every hippogryph had entered and landed, the Aegis System went back online, and he left the building. He arrived as quickly as he could to the grass field in front of the wall. Hundreds of hippogryphs stood there, frantically trying to keep their eggs and young safe. There were also a few hundred humans running towards the wall. They looked terrified and sick. Most had to stop running because they lost balance or they had to vomit. Hippogryph riding was never intended for regular humans, not even for short distances. Bran ignored all of them and headed for the two largest hippogryphs. Kastral and his mate Alyrine moved between their people, making sure everyone was alright. They both noticed Bran and headed for him. They couldn''t really talk, but with a few ''yes or no'' questions, they informed him about Sera''s status. She was indeed in danger, but she explicitly ordered them not to return. Kastral tried to argue with her, but at some point she just stopped answering. He also felt another person''s presence in their conversation, which was very strange. It wasn''t the first time he felt like that, but those in the past were like vague feelings of unease. Now he could sense the person clearly. It was the same connection he had with Sera. He did not know how it was possible, and he was certain Sera was fighting with this person. Kastral could feel both of their emotions through the bond. Sera was mostly emotionless, with a hint of fear and anger, while the other person was unstable. The emotions he felt through the bond were all over the place. One second, the person seemed overjoyed, in the next they wanted to burn down the world. It was pure insanity. When everyone was there, Vicky excused herself and crawled below the covers next to Sera. In the next second, she was already fast asleep. For a moment, Bea stared at her with a bit of envy, then she shook her head, and focused on the task at hand. Everyone''s attention rested upon her, and so she began telling them about the past half hour... "So, we finally know where the other half of Sera''s soul resides... That''s going to be a pain in the ass to get back..." said Lucy, with her eyes halfway closed. She was still very drunk, just like most other people inside the room. But after hearing Bea''s recount, they all tried to pay as much attention as they could. "That''s the least problematic part. We still have very little knowledge about Harold''s true goal. It seems he used Sera''s excess energy to create this Scarred Sera, but she had died and resurrected close to 400 times under his watch..." Bran''s words caused many people to turn curious. They each had an idea about how much energy Sera put out during each resurrection. There was no way he used all that energy just to create Scarred Sera. "Another issue is Scarred Sera''s power. An Ascended couldn''t possibly do what you described! Fighting you and Sera on equal footing, using no power other than her physical strength?" Said David, and most others nodded their agreement. "Physically only a Transcended could stand against you two, and even for them it wouldn''t necessarily be an equal fight... And what you said about her resurrection?" "It destroyed the entire village, which stretches for a few kilometers and it turned the Tree of Life to ashes?... Just how strong is she?" Leslie seemed to pale as he spoke. Even Damien wouldn''t be capable of such destruction, and he is one of the strongest Transcended they know of. "You all are ignoring her most baffling achievement!... Do any of you know how hard it is to break through a closed Gateway?" asked Mary, her voice full of awe. When Bea got to that part of the story, she immediately began taking notes and until this point, she hadn''t looked up from her tablet. "Uh... I''m pretty sure nobody other than you has any idea what ''breaking through a closed Gateway'' actually entails... Could you perhaps explain it to us?" James''s words surprised Mary, then she realized nobody else here was an actual scientist. The Professor was probably the only person who could''ve understood her, but he was asleep after drinking too much. "Sure I guess... Let''s start with a quick explanation about the formation of Realm Gates... They form by connecting two points in space with a tunnel moving through a different dimension..." "For us, they seem to look like two points connected perfectly, but in reality, an invisible tunnel connects them..." A few people were already losing interest in the topic, but they tried to pay attention to the best of their abilities. "When we close a Gate, the tunnel doesn''t disappear instantly. At first we just place a cover over both ends, then the tunnel slowly begins to unravel into nothingness..." "Now, in theory... Well, I guess it''s not a theory anymore... Anyways, in theory you can destroy the cover from both ends of the tunnel, before it unravels, so immediately after the Gateway closes it can be reopened!" The few scientifically inept people lost the thread of the conversation, but Bea payed as much attention as she could. "How strong one need to be to reopen a Gate using only physical strength and maybe some buffing ability?" Mary didn''t answer for a few minutes. She got out her pen and began doing calculations on her tablet. They all waited patiently for her to finish whatever she was doing. "Well, it is just a broad guess, but if my counting is good, which it always is, then the strength requirement would be close to a Stellar''s physical power..." The room turned silent afterward, as everyone''s spine shivered. At that moment, they all felt hopeless and terrified for their future... [End of Part 2 ¨C Embers of Love] Chapter 266 Inadequate Sera''s gym was full of people training. The most notable was the circle in the middle, which everyone left alone. There, Sera trained alone with Damien. They weren''t using powers, only physical strength, so obviously Sera got her ass handed to her repeatedly. She dodged his training sword, then moved her glaive in a low sweep. He back flipped over it and delivered a kick in mid air. It hit Sera on her jaw, stunning her momentarily. Damien then doubled down with a clean stab, that Sera managed to push away just as it was about to hit her midsection. She moved as fast as she could. While turning in a pirouette, she took a step back and attacked Damien with a vertical strike. He didn''t even place extra strength or speed into his sword, but still parried her glaive with ease. Even in his minor blow, there was enough force for Sera''s glaive to fly a few meters away. She didn''t let the move unbalance her though. Her golden eyes turned angry and annoyed. When Damien''s move finished, his expression became surprised, as he saw Sera standing in front of him. With her hands bowled into fists. One connected with Damien''s stomach, and the other with his chin. She got a few good punches in, but then Damien retaliated with a quick jab using the butt of his sword. It hit Sera square in one eye, sending her crumpling to the ground. She growled in anger and was about to push herself up when Damien placed his feet on her back, preventing her from doing so. "I think we should take a break, don''t you?" Before she could say anything, he was already moving away towards the rest area. He tossed his sword to a random Angelic Order member standing nearby. He walked straight to Bea, Bran, and Melinda. The three of them spent the past few hours watching Sera train herself past exhaustion. In the past two weeks after waking up, she barely left the gym. She either trains with other Order members, or she goes into virtual reality to fight in specific scenarios. Bran had checked out the scenarios, and the new ones left him worried about Sera''s state. In most of them, she fought against Scarred Sera in her strongest form. The VR was mostly useless in simulating anything at Transcended or higher level, but Sera still made multiple scenarios. Everyone feared Sera''s mental state. She spent two days passed out, then one day in bed, but awake. After she could walk and fight again, she had spent more time in the gym than anywhere else. By Lilith''s account, Sera''s dreams are full of Scarred Sera. Those few minutes while she held back her other half''s flames left her mind with deep scars. But that wasn''t the main issue. When her energy ran out and she could only watch as Scarred Sera tried to come through the Gate, to kill them all, did even more damage to her psyche. It left her with a deep feeling of inadequacy, which in turn, caused her to train a lot more, even though training would never close the distance between her and Scarred Sera. Hearing this story brought smiles to all of their faces... It seemed memories weren''t the only core part of one''s personality. Just because Sera had no knowledge about any of this, she still acted exactly like when she was younger. They continued to watch as Sera fell to the ground again and again, losing to the four women constantly. Out of curiosity, Bran timed how long she lasted each time, and the answer wasn''t surprising to any of them. After each loss, she lasted longer. It was only a few second difference, but the increase was linear and ever present. At first she barely lasted a minute, but after fighting for close to two hours, she lasted well over three minutes. It wasn''t only her stamina and defense that improved. At first, she couldn''t even land a single hit, but as time passed, she got more and more hits in, and at some point, she managed to take Lucy out. Then at another time, Faith fell, or Kim, and even Astrid, the best out of the four, had fallen once. The speed with which Sera improved was nothing to scoff at, and they were certain that given enough time, she would''ve been able to beat all four at once. Sadly, unlike her, most people only spent a few hours training, so after two hours, all the four women went away, leaving Sera alone once more. Enjoy new chapters from My Virtual Library Empire She looked around the gym, which was mostly emptied by now, and upon seeing no potential opponent, she took a break too. This didn''t mean Sera would stop training, but instead of doing it physically, she does it mentally. She placed down her training glaive, then sat on the mat cross-legged. She then closed her eyes and revisited all her mistakes in her previous fights. This way she not only realized what she had done wrong, but she mentally corrected the mistakes and thought of solutions to the problems. Bea and the others weren''t certain it has any effect on her fighting, but they took every moment she spent without getting beaten up as a small blessing. They wanted to give Sera as much time as she needed to get her head straight, but with the news coming from Rome, their time had run out. Adam had already returned there, since a bit of insurgency popped up in the city. But that wasn''t the biggest issue. The Federal Alliance began testing the strength of the Aegis System by sending a large force against Rome. The news only arrived in the morning, but they still hadn''t informed Sera, but they were running out of time. They just wanted her to have as much free time as possible, before leadership would inevitably suck her back in. When she finished with meditating and she was about to search for opponents, Bea, Bran and Melinda approached her with the news. Chapter 267 Show of Force In one of Rome''s largest squares, a large crowd assembled. The news spread about the Deathless Phoenix''s arrival, and now the people got together to see their legendary leader with their own eyes. Since the capturing of Rome, these people were quick to accept Sera as their leader. This was mostly because of Adam''s control over the Angelic Order. He was a charismatic leader, unlike his wife. With speeches, promises, and placing doubts into the citizens'' minds, he made quick work of the city''s leadership. Now, he stood at the mass''s front with piety and devoutness. He wore the Angelic Order''s golden armor, even though he hated it. He would''ve rather worn his usual robe, but this was a special occasion. Drones with cameras flew around the square, capturing the moment of Sera''s arrival. It was a live feed, transmitted to each and every place within Europe! They still got the regular news channels, since the Aegis System only kept out physical and energy attacks. It did nothing to different, smaller spectrum waves. Everyone who wanted to could watch either the Federal Alliance''s or the United Front''s propaganda. It really didn''t matter to the Angelic Order''s future. Most people didn''t just accept Sera as their new leader, but actually wanted her. When the news came, she took over Rome, people celebrated, and now that she was arriving here, everyone was excited. Her arrival would only be late afternoon, just as the sun closed towards the western horizon. Quite a few people had been waiting since early morning to get the best places in the crowd. Adam stood with his retinue. Around and behind him, more than a hundred Ascended stood, waiting for their leader''s arrival. They all wore the golden armor, but they also had their helmets on, making them much more fearsome. The anticipation grew as the hour finally came. On the western side of the square, a large cordoned off area got chosen for the entrance point. The citizens watched in awe as a ten meter tall and fifty meter wide portal opened. The crowd gasped in sync as they stared at the dark portal. A thick layer of shadows hid the other side, and the first of the forces cut it through, giving them a mysterious effect. Find more to read at My Virtual Library Empire First came the regular military. Enormous tanks, self-propelled artillery, and APCs pushed through the shadows, their weapons aiming at the drones with the cameras. At least one seven-pointed star adored every vehicle. Between the giant machines, soldiers walked with their rail-guns on their shoulders. Gold paint covered their uniforms and armor, and each soldier had sewn a seven-pointed star into their fabric.@@@@ For the next half an hour, the Angelic Order''s war machine walked out of the portal. They moved along the streets of Rome, taking the long road to the military encampment, their destination. A few drones followed them along, transmitting the army''s size to anyone and everyone. Thousands of vehicles covered in monster skin, and more than a million soldiers walked out of the portal. But this was only the appetizer. When the last soldier walked through the shadows, they let the anticipation and excitement rise for a minute or two. Behind Sera''s back, her four wings spread wide, making her appear truly divine. Her face held a small, kind smile, and she let her golden hair fall onto her back. As the largest of the hippogryphs took to the sky, Sera''s hair trailed and whipped behind her. He was the only hippogryphs without armor, since his feathers had enough defense. But Sera wasn''t the last person to arrive. Next came Alyrine with Bea riding on top of her. She wore her wooden armor, and let it grew around her ride as well. She and Sera flew towards the sky one after the other. The crowd screamed and chanted their leader''s name as she flew to her army. In the sky, they made a few rounds, then flew back to the square where they all landed. The portal closed as the shadow moved through and entered one of the hippogryph''s shadow. Sera landed right before Adam, with Lilith and Bea by her two sides. Adam bowed as the hundred Ascended knelt. "Rome welcomes the Deathless Phoenix! The Angel Monarch! Lady Seraphine, the Unbroken!" shouted Adam, and the loud square turned silent. She nodded towards Adam from Kastral''s back. Her eyes looked over the enormous crowd. They turned deathly silent, and a few even passed out from excitement. Her face twisted into a wide grin as she raised her hand and began her speech... "Greetings to all of you, and thank you for the warm welcome! I haven''t been here for long, but I''m already loving your city! It looks especially beautiful from the sky!" With her next words, the grin turned a bit more solemn, but she tried to hold her small smile to the best of her abilities. "Sadly, this isn''t the visit I was hoping for! Our enemies are massing and approaching our walls this very moment! They want to keep us shackled to them, to destroy the future we are trying to build!... Will we let them?" Her question was purely rhetorical, but the crowd screamed their agreement all the same... "NEVER!" "Just as I thought! You can all see our power; in fact, we transmitted this entire showcase to our enemy! They can see how little we care about their wants, and if they try to force us, we will burn them to ashes... And, unlike me, they will never rise again!" The crowd shouted their approval, then Adam began the chanting. Everyone shouted the same words, that became the motto of the Angelic Order! "FROM THE ASHES WE WILL RISE!" shouted the citizens in the crowd... "FROM THE ASHES WE WILL RISE!" chanted the Ascended around Sera... "FROM THE ASHED WE WILL RISE!" screamed the entire city without fear and full of hope! Chapter 268 Rome Out of every city that survived the Last War and the Apocalypse, Rome was possibly the oldest. Perhaps New Athens existed longer, but before the Apocalypse, people mostly abandoned it. In comparison, Rome''s population always remained high. From the period of its founding, throughout the height of its republic and empire, into the future as the center of the world''s largest religion, and at the end, as a tourist destination. Rome''s reputation and history remained intact, as far as everyone knew. Its population was between 25-30 million, its walls stretched high, and its people were loyal to the bitter end. After seizing the area, the Federal Alliance disregarded the people''s input in decision-making. This caused a serious discord in the populace, and Adam''s propaganda only widened it. Right now, about ninety percent of the population was loyal to the Angelic Order. Another nine percent stayed on the fence. After the recent changes, though, and the coming siege, they were sure most will change their minds. Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire Especially after Sera''s arrival and show of force, the attendance within the Angelic Order''s churches increased by quite a lot. Adam, Lilith and Faith also spent their time hunting spies and insurgents. In the past week since their arrival, there had been a few attempts at terrorism, but the enemies did not know what they faced. Lilith''s ability to go into people''s dreams gave her a chance to figure out their motives before they acted. Faith was a bit different. She spent most of her time in her shadow form, exploring. It was an invasion of the citizen''s privacy, but she alone found dozens of spy circles. None were Evolved, but even a regular human could cause a disturbance if sufficiently devoted. The problem wasn''t only the enemies within the walls. By now, the Federal Alliance army was only a few days away, but not long after Sera''s arrival, the news came... The larger army headed for them from the north, while a smaller army came from the south. There was a city far below Rome called Catania. Its population was half of Rome''s, but they still had military strength. Each army had more troops than Rome, and together, they could cause a lot of trouble. They all hoped the Aegis System would hold. Mary and James had made adjustments to it, which in theory should make it more versatile. Throughout the week, every defensive plan had been determined, so now they could only wait for their enemies to arrive. They spoke about raiding the enemy, but overall, it seemed like a rubbish idea. The real damage would''ve been killing the Transcended within their armies, but that was simply unachievable with a raid. Because of the sudden free time, Sera and Vicky spent the days exploring Rome. Bea came along a few times too, but Sera still wasn''t feeling comfortable around her. Their strange connection only caused her distrust to increase, but for Vicky, she made sacrifices. She hummed some song she heard playing on New Year''s eve. Sera never listened to music. It was too emotional and gave her a constant reminder of what she was missing in life. But she had to admit, listening to it with friends and family gave her a strange sense a gratitude. It didn''t exactly cause her to be happy, but made her cold heart feel warmer. She definitely understood why people loved to listening and dancing to music. It was a pure form of expression, like having sex, but less intimate. In the past three weeks, she and Vicky had no heart-to-heart talk, but even Sera with her social stupidity could sense how anxious Vicky was. She was on the edge of asking something, but just couldn''t bring herself over it. They silently watched the horizon darken, and eventually, Sera had enough. "So Vicky... When will you tell me what''s bothering you?" True emotionless fashion, Sera made no leading small talk, and instead jumped straight to the problem. A moment of shock gave way to Vicky, considering a lie, but after a few seconds she just dejectedly sighed. "Can''t hide my tenseness from you, it seems... It''s nothing really, not a real problem, but more of a curious question... You spent the past few weeks with us, and you know most of your past..." The lead up to the eventual question was very annoying to Sera. She had already guessed what her daughter was going to ask, but felt it would be rude to interrupt her, so she just suffered in silence. "I know a lot had changed, and the future is uncertain at best, but have you considered what happens after this war?" Vicky''s voice sounded meek, like she feared Sera''s answer. Her mother stopped brushing her hair and stared into her white eyes with a small, comforting smile. "You want to know about me and Bea, don''t you?" she asked, and her daughter gently nodded. Sera sighed and pulled her daughter into a tight hug. She stayed silent for a few minutes, then whispered into her ear. "My future is uncertain. I will reclaim my soul''s other half, which will change me. I don''t know how extensive or destructive the change will be, so I can''t make promises..." She pulled away from the hug and stared into her daughter''s teary eyes. "But I and Bea will always love and take care of you. No matter what, you will never have to worry about that!" Vicky nodded with much more understanding, but the answer didn''t seem to satisfy her. "We can revisit the relationship status when all this craziness had ended. I can''t even feel love right now, so making big decisions is out of the question!" Hearing this brought a small reserved smile to Vicky''s face, and they cuddled a bit more before the night fully set. Chapter 269 Defense of Rome (1) The night fell on the ancient city of Rome. The icy wind of late January blew through the large grass plains surrounding the city. The stars and moon shined down, blessing the world with their presence. No clouds dared obscured their light. Like the Gods of Old, the celestial objects stared down at the dark emptiness with anticipation. The grass danced to the wind, as the music of nature played, but soon another sound drowned out the peace... The distinct sound of machines of war... From the north and south, two separate armies approached the seemingly peaceful city. Their soldiers counted millions upon millions. Their tens of thousands of machines, ready to destroy everything in sight. A few kilometers away, both armies stopped and readied themselves for the eventual siege. The commanders awaited their higher ups to make the order, while the soldiers sent one last prayer to the whatever god cared about them. None of them wanted to be there, walking towards a city of beauty, fighting in a war, without purpose. They all heard the rumors and had their doubts. The Federal Alliance kept up the propaganda. They continued to preach how awful the Deathless Phoenix was. They made her seem like a dictator. None of the Central Command realized the irony of the situation. In the eye of the masses, Lady Seraphine was a fair leader, who got disillusioned by the current state of the world. When she consolidated her power over her five city-states, she had spilled no civilian blood. She only killed people who were selfish and had opposite interests with the public. Even now, many soldiers were thinking of deserting. A large amount of them had partaken in the initial siege of Rome, and they all saw the Deathless Phoenix fight. Nobody in their right mind would go against such force. She wasn''t simply an Ascended like the propaganda tries to show her. She is an artist who only works with one color, red. At the end of the fight, you either die a quick death as she turns you into ashes, or a slow one as you get dismembered. The footage of her army got leaked too. Many people still didn''t understand how she hid such large force, and everyone questioned what else did she hide from the Federal Alliance. With fear, the soldiers marched on until Rome was in sight. The gigantic city was only a small dot glowing on the horizon. Most of the army marched on, while the self-propelled artilleries took aim at the walls. Both the northern and southern army coordinated their attacks. When both got the green light, they released their first barrage. Thousands of salvos flew, leaving behind smoke trails. None of them made it to the wall. As the first salvo got to a few hundred meters close, a previously invisible shield rippled, and the shell stopped. It was like the shell hit an impenetrable wall. The metal cartridge crumpled from the force, then fell to the grassy ground below.@@@@ Thousands of other shells followed, and a magnificent light show ensued. Each salvo sent a new ripple through the invisible shield, making it glow light blue. The broken shells piled before the shield, but even then, not one penetrated it. The ripples lasted a few seconds after the last shell hit, and eventually the shield returned to its invisible form. The Aegis System stood strong and awaited the next barrage... Parts of the shields cracked under the constant hits from this many sources, and after a few minutes, sections of it fell apart. Both, on the south and north, sections of the Aegis System spider-webbed, then broke to pieces, which disappeared into nothingness. The next barrage of shells went through the cleared out section and hit Rome''s enormous walls. They shrugged off the artillery, but the Transcended didn''t care. Getting rid of the shield meant their troops can finally approach and attack the walls. There was only one problem, which none of them noticed... They walked into a trap... With Mary''s and James''s adjustments to the Aegis System, the shield had made broke into sections. This meant even though they broke through the shields, most of it stayed intact. They made their threshold adjustable and purposefully weakened the two broken sections. Basically, they let them break those two sections. The Aegis System would''ve easily held against twelve Transcended, but they didn''t want them to waste all the energy Bran transferred each day. Sera also wanted to show how powerful the Angelic Order was. And what was the best way to showcase might?... Destroy a much larger force with minimal casualties. The six Transcended on the southern section laughed to themselves and joked as they calmly walked towards the wall. At that moment, none of them noticed a new star appear behind them in the sky. But the star didn''t stay there. In fact, it fell towards them at speeds barely observable. The regular soldiers stopped in their tracks; the tanks stopped moving towards the opening in the shield; the artilleries stopped their barrage; the Evolved and Ascended froze in their movements. The falling star moved so fast the sound couldn''t possibly catch up to it. Multiple explosions echoed, as it broke the speed of sound time and time again. Enjoy more content from My Virtual Library Empire By the time the Transcended noticed it, time was already up, as the star closed in the last kilometer in a fraction of a second. The star burned with golden flames, and just before impact, a loud screech marked the beginning of the battle. The Transcended saw the star just before the impact. Their eyes widened in surprise, as the creature with its rider hit the middle of their formation, exploding the surroundings. A wave of fire went out in a circle for a few hundred meters. The edge of the fire even signed the walls of Rome, but didn''t do any real damage to it. It also sent out a shockwave, and the earth quaked in its wake. The shockwave was strong enough to send the Evolved and Ascended, who stood too close, flying. Quite a few tanks got upturned too, and many regular soldiers died as the very air hit them with unexpected force. Ribcages cracked and bodies crumpled under the increased pressure. From the site of the explosion, a gigantic mushroom cloud rose into the sky, and soon more screeches echoed, as the Angelic Order cut through the smoke! Chapter 270 Defense of Rome (2) A day before the siege, the leaders sat together to discuss the plan one more time. Behind everyone''s back, Veronica and Kastral already made plans of their own. When she informed everyone of their intentions, most of them had strong opinions about her intelligence. "Are you stupid?! Or you just simply want to kill yourself?... Your plan is closer to a suicide plan than an actual strategy!" Just like always, Bea declared her opinion, without reservations. From everyone, she received the news worst. Her fists clenched and unclenched constantly while she gritted her teeth. Sera was pretty sure she would''ve punched her already, if Vicky wouldn''t be standing nearby. Instead of showing her emotions in an aggressive, physical way, Bea took a few deep breaths, then returned to insulting Sera. "I just don''t get it. Why do we even have to engage those armies? The Aegis System can defend against any of their attacks with ease, so if we stay here, they would eventually have to leave!" A few people around the room nodded their agreement, but most just shook their heads or stared at Sera. This was another dividing factor in their talks. Fighting seemed like a waste of resource, when they can just wait it out safely. These concerns were, of course, only raised by people who didn''t know Sera''s thinking.@@@@ In war, she never just defeated her enemies, but destroyed them, like she took personal offence because they dared stand in her way. With this thought process, it wasn''t surprising she didn''t want to seem like a coward hiding away. But this wasn''t the only reason. She wanted to send a message to the Federal Alliance, the United Front, and their citizens. It was more of a warning, and a way to increase recruitment. It was a warning, since it sent an obvious message about Sera''s intentions of staying independent through force. People would also flock and stand behind her after her first independent victory. For now, many people only see Sera as someone who took advantage of this conflict. But as everyone knows, power equals legitimacy. Her first victory would give her a larger claim on her five city-states. Bea knew all this too. She just didn''t like her plan, which was understandable... No sane person would like to see their loved one die, even if their death wasn''t permanent! While Sera wanted to stay nice and polite, Lilith didn''t have the same filters and self-control. She treated any critique about Sera as a personal attack. "Frankly speaking, nobody cares about your concerns. We have already decided on the plan, so just accept it so we can move on!" Bea considered herself a calm person. She would''ve never hit her daughter''s mother. But she didn''t have the same problem with Lilith. She took one quick step, moved her right hand back, and decked Lilith in the face, or at least tried to. Her husband, Adam, moved just as quickly, and he stood between the punch and his wife. Because Bea was aiming at Lilith''s head, the punch only reached Adam''s chest. Her fist travelled fast, but when it hit Adam, it felt like she punched a brick wall. A few grains of sand fell from his robe, but otherwise he showed no signs of caring. Bea''s knuckle split and a few drops of blood fell from her clenched fist. In the next second, the wound had already healed, and she turned away from Adam, like nothing had happened. Below her hand, Sera felt Kastral''s neck vibrate as he made the approximation of a hippogryph chuckle. "Bran is a good man. He''s probably beating himself up, since he can''t help you!" Sera''s lips twisted into a small smile as she snorted... "What do you mean ''can''t help me''? He''s single-handedly the most important person in this entire operation!" Kastral screeched again before speaking through their bond. His voice was full of seriousness and annoyance. "You know what I mean! You never ask for his physical help, and you keep using his goodwill!" Sera raised an eyebrow as she stared at Kastral... "What do you mean?" He glanced back at his rider and watched her confused facial expression. After a few seconds, he let out a strong exhale, similar to a sigh. "You really didn''t know... When was the last time you helped him with something? Have you ever?... He was with you at your worst moments, always helping and nurturing you back to light!" His voice turned from annoyed to straight up angry. "After every torture session with Harold, he was there! At every moment of weakness, when you felt like death would''ve been a blessing, he was there! Every time you were losing your sense of reality, he was there to bring you back from the edge!" He stayed silent for a bit, and let his turbulent emotions calm. His next words hit Sera harder than any blow throughout her life. "He sacrificed everything for you! Unlike Lilith and Adam, he isn''t helping you because of devotion! Unlike Melinda, he isn''t helping you because of the past''s memories... He truly loves you, and you use this love to your advantage!" Sera couldn''t even look at Kastral anymore. She hung her head low in shame. Even though it was never her intention, she understood why Kastral saw everything in that light. From his viewpoint, it seemed like she actively used Bran as an emotional support and a servant. He followed her every order, down to the last word. He would do anything to her, purely because of love. The worst part was, she never could reciprocate his love, purely because of her lack of emotions. And now that Bea had returned, he was even questioning if they would ever get together, even after getting back her emotions. But what really made Sera''s heart ache was his helpfulness. Even though he knew very well what could happen, he helped open the Gate to the Realm of Boundless Frost. He actively helped Bea get back, knowing the possibility of never getting the love he deserved. Kastral felt her distress through their bond, and he shook his gigantic head. "Sera... You have to decide. Not now, but as soon as possible... You can''t let him live in false hope just for you to dump him when you finally receive everything you wanted!" Sera''s eyes turned clear as she stared ahead into the darkness. After weeks of confusion and indecision, she finally understood what to do. "I know..." she whispered through the bond, then a larger flash of light brought both of their attention away from the previous conversation. Without a word, Kastral turned in the air, and turned vertically towards the ground. Their speed quickly turned close to unbearable, but neither cared... It was showtime! Chapter 271 Defense of Rome (3) The oxygen in the air burned around them as their speed kept climbing. All their previous worries went out the window when Kastral dipped to the ground. In the first few seconds, they became faster than the speed of sound, but their acceleration didn''t stop there. With each passing moment, they got closer to their destination. At first they couldn''t feel much, since without air, there was no air resistance. But with each second, it got worse. After the first ten kilometers, the pressure increased so much that each air molecule hit her like a small needle. Her body constantly suffered and healed. Stuck in this painful loop, they reached the thirty kilometer mark. "Are the payloads secured?" asked Kastral, and Sera glanced towards his back. There were about a dozen giant metal object fixed to Kastral''s rump. They were precariously moving as they sped up, but it seemed they would stay in place. Frank cooked these bad boys up for this special occasion. He wasn''t exactly sure about their payload, but he made sure not to damage the city''s walls. With them, hopefully, they could cause serious damage to the Transcended in the southern army. "They are good. Let Vicky know we are ready!" Answered Sera through their bond. Kastral said nothing else, but after a few seconds, it became obvious that the message reached her daughter. The surrounding gravity increased rapidly, further speeding their fall. This happened around the ten kilometer mark, and from there they reached the ground in only a few seconds. The air constantly exploded around them, as they entered the last kilometer many times faster than the speed of sound. They fell towards the ground like a falling star, a meteorite. Not a single Transcended had time to react as the hippogryph and his rider hit the ground with extreme speed. "Good luck!" said Kastral before impact. "See you soon!" answered Sera. There was no pain in their death. Upon hitting the ground, the dozen bombs behind them exploded. At that moment, their whole body got vaporized, but the speed of their impact still sent out shockwaves every way. Combining it with the gigantic explosion of the many warheads, the destruction was more than anyone would''ve expected.@@@@ The best part was its concentrated nature. Even though the explosion was enormous, it didn''t spread everywhere, and stayed focused on the six targets. One of them died immediately, but the other five survived the initial destruction. They got stunned though, and none of them were prepared for the secondary explosion. They only noticed the increase in temperature when their feet began melting into the ground. In just a few seconds, the site of the explosion heated up, and before even the mushroom cloud dissipated, another explosion shook the world. Stay updated via My Virtual Library Empire This time it was much smaller, but also more destructive. For a moment, people thought the sun suddenly reappeared in the middle of the night. Sera and Kastral flew above the city of Rome, like some sort of comet. From the southern side, they reached the northern in under a few seconds. Both of their power was close to a Transcended, so moving fast wasn''t an issue. They flew to the north side, only to find themselves in pure madness. The northern army seemed to hold their ground much more firmly, and they already reached the walls. Dozens of Wallbreakers shot their salvos constantly, making the giant walls of Rome tremble. These tanks were designed to take down city walls, and even the reinforced wall made with monster material couldn''t hold against it for too long. Artilleries also bombarded the walls and the city behind. Sera''s own troops delivered their payloads as well, but there was something else Sera had noticed. Their own artilleries shot explosive salvos made by Frank and his team. What Sera noticed, though, was that these artilleries shot into the sky, then the shells just disappeared. They then reappeared in the most unexpected places around the battlefield, exactly where they were needed. None other than her own daughter caused these inconsistencies. Vicky allowed the artillery to fire into her portals; afterwards, she distributed them according to orders and necessity. With this technique, she took out large groups of soldiers, both regular and Evolved. Another person who proved to be especially deadly when dealing with regular troops was Melinda. She moved through the enemy army like a goddess of disease. People fell around her dead for no apparent reason. When the Ascended soldiers tried to kill her, the Black Crusaders and Ouroboros Cohort defended her, like they were her personal guard. At some other part, a small storm raged. It took and tossed people as well as vehicles. Sarah created a cyclone that destroyed everything it came across. Will was also close by, making people fall over with bleeding nostrils and eyes. They seemed to die from some sort of brain damage. When an Ascended attacked them, Astrid and Agnes were near to help them out. They had no crowd control abilities, but in a melee, both were outstanding. There were many more small skirmishes between the Angelic Order and the Federal Alliance. Ascended fought Ascended, and Evolved fought Evolved. The Angelic Order was much better trained, but the Federal Alliance''s army outnumbered them by a large margin. For now the stalemate continued, but with the six Transcended still alive, they had no chance of winning. In the sky, Leslie led the assault in his demon form. All the different flying transformations fought one another, slaughtering everyone who got in their way. Bodies rained down on the soldiers below as both sides killed each other mercilessly. Leslie was a true menace. His wings of flames burned anyone who came too close, while his dark red halberd killed everyone within reach. His black armor made the most confident Ascended rethink their life decisions. He killed everyone who came too close and defended all his comrades to the best of his abilities. Sera took all this fights in while moving higher into the sky. There, on a glowing, mesmerizing, illusory platform, the actual battle happened. Kastral didn''t even think twice, and he headed straight for the platform, since that''s where all the remaining Transcended fought... Chapter 272 Defense of Rome (4) Sera and Kastral flew towards the floating platform, which glowed with the colors of the rainbow. The circular platform was paper thin and a few kilometers wide in each direction. Atop the platform, pure mayhem ruled. The time between the breaking of the Aegis System, their resurrection, and their arrival to the platform was close to two minutes. The fighting had barely started, but it was already coming to its breaking point. Two Transcended and a couple abnormally strong Ascended could hold back six well trained Transcended. From just one look, Sera determined the difficulty of the fight, and the odds weren''t in their favor at all. The six Transcended fought like a singular unit, each with their own job in maintaining order in the midst of chaos. Sera''s own people, on the other hand, weren''t used to fighting side by side. They were all strong in their own regard, but they lacked in synergy, which quickly showed as they suffered more and more powerful blows. The fighting turned into smaller skirmishes, with one person at its center. One of the six Transcended stood in the middle of the platform. The man wore white robes, covering every part of his body. His presence had a healing and buffing effect on his comrades, while it debuffed and slowed healing for Sera''s group. He also seemed to mutter something under his breath as he watched the skirmishes like a hawk. He obviously relayed commands to the rest of his cohort. There were five skirmishes, but overall it boiled down to two dominant sides. On one, Cass, Lucy, and Kim fought against two of the Transcended. One of them was a massive woman, wearing an armor made of some shiny material that resembled the chitin on the outside of bugs. She used a gigantic three meter greatsword as her weapon. Both her armor and weapon were dark, almost black, purple. She wasn''t very useful when she fought with the weapon, but no matter what they attack her with, her armor never gets penetrated. The only person who managed to do damage to her seemed to be Lucy. Her Reaper''s Scythe ignored armor, and could kill much stronger beings. For this reason, the second person focused mostly on her. It was a giant monster, over five meters tall, with seven arms growing out of its body at random places. Each had seven sets of claws that seemed to cut through everything. It stood on three massive, spider-like hairy legs. The head was canine-like, full of rotting teeth, and with a putrescent breath. Pieces of blackened, scorched clothes hang from its hairy black body. Fighting against it, Lucy wore a smooth black dress, made with the smoky substance of the Essence of Life and Death. Each time the beast touched it, a part of its soul got absorbed. Her intricate black scythe had a similar smokiness to it, making the weapon even more deadly. Cass and Kim held the beetle woman up while Lucy fought. They didn''t like each other at all, but on the battlefield they fought with exceptional synergy, like some invisible connection existed between the two. Both Sera''s and Kastral''s eyes widened a bit in weirdness and disgust. Sera never knew she had hatred towards amphibians, but upon staring at the last Transcended, she wanted to vomit. Experience more on My Virtual Library Empire In front of Damien''s armored saber-tooth tiger form, a gigantic toad crawled around. The thing had no armor or weapons, but just its presence was enough to cause issues. Around the toad, a cloud of purple vapor rose, which slowly crawled over the battlefield, poisoning everybody. It made no difference if they were allies or enemies, but with the white-robed healer in the middle, the six Transcended would outlast Sera''s group. Another problem with the toad was its very tough, dry, brown skin. Each attack Damien threw its way didn''t seem to hurt it at all. The ice attacks broke to pieces, while his claws only left shallow wounds that healed quickly. As things turned for the worse on the battlefield, the reinforcements had finally arrived. Sera and Kastral spent a second looking through the battlefield, deciding on the best place to lend their support. They didn''t even have to talk, since the answer was very obvious. They flew a few hundred meters away from the platform, and as Kastral began moving, he went past the speed of sound in less than a second. He sped up as much as he could, so they reached the white-robed man without giving him time to react. The plan worked greatly, or at least it should''ve. But as they flew above the toad, it opened its mouth, sending a long, slimy, revolting pink tongue their way. It intercepted Kastral and brought him down to the ground. The toad''s mouth wasn''t large enough to fit the giant hippogryph inside, but it tried anyway. Kastral''s flames didn''t even bother it, and a pulling contest began between the two beasts. Sera had already left her mount behind, and instead, she flew straight towards the healer in the middle. They had run out of time, and with the white-robed man''s constant buffing, they had no chance of winning. With the five meter lance in her hand, she beat her wings as fast as she could. She kept some of Kastral''s momentum, which further helped with her acceleration. While the fight between the toad and the hippogryph distracted the white-robed man, Sera dropped from above, like an eagle, onto its prey. Her long golden lance became alight with her cleansing flames, and as she sped further, the air burned around her. Eventually, the man noticed Sera''s missing presence, but by that time, it was already too late. As he looked around, confused, Sera''s lance entered through his skull and exited through his crotch. The white flames then exploded, making his whole body vaporize. A large chunk of the platform''s middle also got destroyed, but Sera just floated above the opening without care. Her eyes were already looking for her next victim! Chapter 273 Defense of Rome (5) The rainbow platform repaired itself, as Sera looked around the field of battle. Her eyes moved between potential targets, but only one fight seemed truly precarious. With a few wingbeats, she closed in the distance. Her long lance reformed into her golden glaive, with her flames dancing at its edge. She moved back her arm and cut vertically, trying to catch the Transcended from behind. The woman wearing black leather armor and using a katana moved just as fast. She took one step to the side, and let Bea''s blade fell short. She didn''t punish the mistake and instead changed her stance. The glaive cut a clear arc through the air. Sera meant to cut the woman in half, but she used her katana expertly, and deflected the incoming strike with relative ease. Bea didn''t let the opportunity go, and immediately after recovering, she attacked too. The wooden blade moved to disembowel the woman, but by taking a step back, she evaded Bea''s strike. In the next few seconds, Sera and Bea perfectly altered between attacks. The woman used all her power to defend or evade their attacks, but she got no chance to retaliate, and it was only a question of time when the first strike would go through. Sera''s glaive gave her the first wound. A clear cut on her upper arm appeared, and got cauterized by Sera''s cleansing flames. After the first wound, the next two appeared within a few seconds. While Sera attacked, Bea moved to the side and slide behind their opponent. She cut the back of both thighs of the woman, seriously restricting her movements. They started to heal fairly quickly, but without their healer, it would take too long. Sera and Bea didn''t give a breather to the woman, and continued their onslaught. By the time the other Transcended came to help their comrade, she already gathered dozens of wounds. None were life threatening, but they all limited her range of moves. The first to arrive was the beetle woman. Sera finally saw her transformation and whished she hadn''t. Hundreds of fist-sized dark purple angry beetles flew towards them. With her flames Sera tried to kill them, but only a few got burned. It was like their chitin armor had a strong flame resistance, which made sense. Unlike the southern army, they specifically sent this army to kill her. The Central Command wouldn''t be dumb enough to send people with clear weaknesses towards her abilities. They dispatched Transcended whose powers can restrict her own. It would''ve been a great plan, but they miscalculated. None of them knew of Bea, Damien, and the others. Their potential and power level came as a surprise to these six killers, and with them being distracted, Sera could take out their healer and communicator with ease. Without him, their overwhelming suppression came to a halt. Adding Sera and Kastral into the mix, the easy battle turned into a losing combat quickly. Sera tried her best to stop the approaching swarm, but her crowd control failed, and she didn''t want to explode the platform. But since the fight became more focused and chaotic, other''s from their group arrived to help. First, a cloud of freezing air hit the swarm. It did no damage to them, but their wings froze solid, stopping their movement. The cloud stayed persistent, and the water vapor in the air electrified, as the twins sent an especially powerful bolt into it. Sera, Kastral, and Bea fought with the toad, not making much progress, but keeping the noxious gases away from everybody else. The three of them were immune to its poison for various reasons. Sera''s and Kastral''s flames cleansed their bodies from any debuffs and harmful effects. Bea just simply healed faster than the damage applied. Damien, the twins, and Cass fought against the beetle woman. They were making much better progress than Sera''s team, but the end of their fight was nowhere near. Out of the three, Lucy and Kim had the easiest fight. The already crippled woman didn''t last long against their onslaught of attacks. Kim also began the petrification process on her, and after a few dozen seconds, her legs gave out. At some point, she tried to change her balance, but her feet and ankles were already stone. With a clean cut, Kim got rid of those pesky outcroppings. But before the woman could even hit the ground, Lucy''s scythe cut her head off, too. Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire She did the exact same process of absorbing her corpse, and with it, her power grew. By the time she left the shrivelled headless, feetless corpse behind, the Essence of Life and Death was her personal companion. Lucy ran straight at the beetle woman, and before anybody could react, her scythe passed through her impenetrable armor, killing her on the spot. The potent essence entered her body, but she absorbed it too fast. She felt lightheaded, and Damien had to catch her before she fell over. While Lucy struggled with empowering herself, the fight with the toad was coming to its end. As a bait, Kastral flew into the sky, letting the toad target him. It turned towards the hippogryph and shot its enormous tongue at him. Before it could''ve reached him, Sera intercepted the tongue, and as the toad''s eyes widened, she used its tongue to spin him around herself. The toad lifted off the ground, faster than it expected, and after making a few circles, Sera let go. It went into the sky, flying away, but Kastral went after him much faster. Since they had no way of penetrating its skin, they let nature take care of their problem. In the sky, Kastral caught the toad and flew even higher. When he was high enough, her claws let go of it. The giant toad spun around itself, falling with terminal velocity towards the platform. They didn''t think one fall would be enough, but they were prepared to do this repeatedly, until they got the satisfactory result. That''s what Sera and Kastral thought, anyway. Lucy had other ideas, though. When she assimilated both Transcended''s essences, her eyes went to the falling toad. Her grin widened as she took a step forward. On her back, a pair of dark green smoke wings appeared. With her scythe, she flew into the sky, straight at the falling toad. The poor Transcended could do nothing as death approached it. Lucy''s scythe passed through its body, cutting it cleanly in two. A shower of purple blood covered Lucy''s body, as the last of the six Transcended finally died. Chapter 274 The Angel and the Dragon Lucy stood above the toad''s corpse. The large body fell through the rainbow platform and landed in the middle of the battlefield.@@@@ But calling it a battlefield was a bit of an exaggeration. The fighting had mostly stopped when Lilith and Adam arrived with the Hippogryph Legion. Their numbers barely depleted in the fighting on the southern front. Upon their arrival, the northern army broke quickly. With no Transcended left to support them, they had no reason to continue the battle. The potent, dark green, almost black smoke moved around Lucy''s body as she slowly absorbed every drop of the toad''s Essence of Life and Death. With each kill, her power greatly increased, and after killing and assimilating 5 Transcended, she felt extremely close to the next Rank. Unlike normal human Evolved, her evolution had changed with her race. Instead of collecting normal essence from each monster and Evolved kill, she had to absorb them. Killing them gave a small amount of her required essence, but by assimilating them, she increased her strength much faster. By killing Transcended, she basically stepped into the doorway to the next evolution. She just had to find something to evolve with to make it official. Her power was already potent enough to fight with most Transcended on equal footing. Right now, she could defeat even Damien. At least, that''s how she felt. In reality, she would probably lose just because of experience and lack of diversity in abilities. A Transcended wasn''t someone with only an increase of pure strength. With every evolution, most people acquired new abilities, which greatly increased an Evolved''s versatility and adaptability. Your journey continues at My Virtual Library Empire On top of the new abilities, their old ones get more powerful, and could get extra effects. Even if Lucy had the physical strength of a Transcended, she wouldn''t be able to fight someone as experienced as Damien. But, just like she had done with all her previous problems and shortcoming in her life, Lucy ignored this difference and just acted like the queen of death. Her title was Sovereign of Death for a reason. After the initial shock of her new strength passed, she began going around, telling everybody how she killed 5 Transcended alone. She conveniently failed to mention every time that Sera killed the first Transcended, and without the first kill, she would''ve killed none of the five. The healer''s regeneration and other buffs were simply too strong to fight against, combining that with the debuffs he put on everybody, and winning was outright impossible. While Lucy ran around like a child, telling everyone how amazing she was, Sera and the others discussed what to do with the prisoners. Lilith and Adam made a rough headcount. There were more than a million who dropped their weapons. Thousands of them were Evolved. The regular soldiers weren''t hard to take care of, but the Evolved needed constant watch. For now, Sera gave the order to bring everyone behind the Aegis System. They needed to get the shields back online as soon as they could. Sera wasn''t certain, but her gut told her the fighting wasn''t over just yet. But, this feeling explicitly felt like an order. Everyone fell to their knees, even the Transcended. Even Scarred Sera and her flames obeyed the command to some degree. A large portion of the silver flames extinguished, while others changed direction, hitting the grassy ground underneath. The majority of the flames still headed towards the city without stopping, but just as they got to about hundred meter away from the edge of the shield, a different fire went against it. Above everyone gigantic wings beat, and black flames met with silver ones. The two fire met and weaved through each other. They didn''t stop one another, not for the first few seconds at least. The silver and black flames mixed, then suddenly exploded. They were polar opposites of each other, and so when they connected, they began dismantling the other''s structure. The black flames were much more overwhelming. The silver flames had no chance and after a dozen seconds, they got extinguished. Scarred Sera stood a few hundred meters away, and even though her expression was hidden behind her silver helmet, Sera knew she was pissed. The other person''s presence was still quite strong, but with each moment it grew thinner, and soon the stronger willed could stand again. The enormous wingbeats approached, and finally everyone could lay their eyes on the being that saved them. The gigantic dragon landed in front of them, outside of the Aegis System. His scales were black, like the clear night sky. The noble presence around him, was something only a Stellar could have. While landing, its long neck turned, and he glanced back at Sera and her group. The gray, draconic eyes stared at everyone with recognition, but when they landed on Sarah, the eyes turned sad. The taciturn, seemingly emotionless woman, broke down wailing after seeing the dragon. Most of them didn''t recognize him, since they either never met him, or forgot their meeting. Only Bea, Damien, Will, Leslie, and Sarah knew who he was. Bea, Will, and Leslie remembered him from their time spent in Castleburg, while Damien got his assignment in the Realm of Boundless Frost from him. But Sarah had a much deeper connection to him. How could she forget how her own brother looked like? His size changed quite a bit. Last time she saw him, two years ago, he was only about a few hundred meters in length, but now he wasn''t small even compared to a large city like Rome. The black dragon stood straight on his four legs, and spread its gigantic wings to the side. It roared loudly towards Scarred Sera. Everyone had to give her credit though. The mad lady didn''t back down. She took a stance, and charged the dragon many times her size. The black dragon roared again, then leapt forward accepting the challenge. With that a deadly battle began between Otto, the Second Prince of Castleburg, and Scarred Seraphine, the Broken Angel. Chapter 275 Unbearable Destruction The angel flew towards the dragon. The curved silver blade in her right hand moved to the side as she prepared to strike her opponent. The dragon didn''t wait for his adversary. With one wingbeat, he flew at her too, sending everyone behind him reeling. The large gust of wind sent everyone flying and shook the city''s walls.@@@@ Its strength was so huge, a few roofs got swept away, and the closer tanks got knocked over. Sera and a few others held out and tried to protect everyone behind them. They watched both in awe and terror, as Scarred Sera''s sword cut the air so quickly it was impossible to follow. Otto didn''t even try to evade the strike. He just turned a bit, so the strike hit him on the side, instead of the belly. Everyone expected to see blood flowing from the wound, but instead, all they heard was a metallic plink sound. It was loud enough to reach even the regular soldiers'' ears. The silver blade didn''t even penetrate Otto''s scales. Scarred Sera seemed just as surprised as everyone else, but she had no time to ponder. A growl vibrated through the dragon, and soon a massive maw tried to rip her wings apart. With an annoyed sigh, she moved away, dodging the attack with no effort. But the attack didn''t stop there. The dragon''s enormous clawed hand attacked with surprising speeds. Scarred Sera barely had time to react, and one gigantic claw managed to knick her feathered wing. It stayed pristine white, but a few bloody feathers fell away. She moved even further away, then turned towards the approaching dragon and summoned silver spikes from the ground. They were hundreds of meters long and were in the way of Otto. He flew straight into them. The silver spikes groaned in pain and broke apart. Otto roared in rage and pain as the spikes scratched his scales, but didn''t break his skin. A few went through his wings, though, which restricted his movements quite a bit. Scarred Sera tried to use this opportunity to attack and kill Otto, but as she approached him, a large cone of black flames headed her way. Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire The silver spikes melted under the heat, freeing Otto from his makeshift prison. The mad lady had no chance of evading the flames, so she sent her own silver fire against the black inferno. The two flames met again, interacting with each other in an explosive manner. The two flames were exact opposites, one pure and cleansing, the other foul and corrupting. Many of Sera''s original group recognized the reaction between the flames. It was the exact same reaction Sera''s sword had when she used both the Dragon Pendant and her own flames on it. All of them remembered it like it happened yesterday. When Sera used her sword to strike down two Transcended and a Stellar, while she was barely an Ascended. The power between the blow was enough to send Damien flying, and it was only in small concentration. The flames Otto and Scarred Sera threw at each other were on a whole other level. Their destructive properties were extremely high without the exothermic reaction. But combined, they slowly melted everything in their proximity. James figured that much too, but there wasn''t anything they could do. The System had enough power to withstand the attack; the problem was its output. While it''s able to store a lot of energy, it''s unable to put out as much. Overloading the System would lead to its destruction. They had to find a solution that kept the System alive even after the attack. "What are we going to do, then?" asked James, and soon came the answer as the room''s doors opened. Bran questioned nothing. He just followed Mary''s instructions and ran onto the raised platform. He took his place near the main root and prepared to convert energy into the machine. "It''s easy! We can''t use the stored power, since the output would break the System, so we will power it manually!" James watched Bran grabbed the root, then raise his hand towards the red circle. He looked very pale. It hadn''t even been a day since his last conversion. "Are you sure? This could kill him! If too much power courses threw him, it will do permanent damage, mostly leading to a very painful death!" Whispered James to Mary as she prepared the machine for the sudden power increase. She sighed, but continued to work. "I know. He knows too. I wouldn''t have let him up there without giving him all the information. David told me they were already working on a solution at their end. We just need to make the shields last longer!" James didn''t say a word. He turned back towards Bran as he prepared to sacrifice himself if necessary. He saw Bran in a new light. To this day, James didn''t understand what Sera saw in this guy. He wasn''t that good looking, nor really powerful. In everyone''s opinion, Bran was normal and a bit boring. They talked a lot about this topic with the other group members, but they never found a conclusion. But now, James finally saw it. The man might not be exceptional in fighting or in looks, but on the inside, he was truly one of a kind. He was reliable for once, and he loved Sera more than anything else. Even now, James could''ve sworn that the small tremble in his outstretched hand wasn''t there because of fear for himself, but worry of failure. Bran was probably thinking; ''What if I fail?''; ''What if I can''t hold out long enough?''; ''What if I do something wrong?''. It was a pain to admit, since Bea was James''s close friend, but currently Bran seemed a much better partner than her. Even through all these hardships, he never once blamed Sera for anything, and always stayed by her side. As he got absorbed in his thoughts, Mary shouted, "NOW BRAN!" The green energy appeared and covered his left hand. It moved through his body and exited from his right palm. The black line hit the middle of the red circle and began transferring power immediately. Chapter 276 One of Us Will Die The city''s relief was fleeting. The silver-black flames spread over the shields, making them spasm in a bluish color. The shield continuously endured the intensifying waves of flame. Each time the flames touched the shields, it glowed with a bluish light. When that happened, people began panicking again. Their eyes filled with terror and sadness. Many of them began to pray for the only god they knew... Their leader... They all knew she wasn''t some omnipotent being, but it wasn''t the time for rational thinking. It was the time for hope, since they could do nothing else. Their end arrived, and they could only watch. The Angelic Order''s churches filled to the brim. Even people who never gave a crap about the religion attended the prayer led by the Sisters and Brothers. Some sought shelter; many returned home to their family. They tried to ignore the cataclysm outside, and just spend possibly the last minutes of their lives with their loved ones. Explore hidden tales at My Virtual Library Empire While Rome slowly lost hope on the outskirts of the Aegis System, Sera and her group tried to find a solution. It was impossible to see through the sea of flames, but judging by the noises, the fighting had only gotten more serious. At one point, they actually saw Otto hit the shield, suddenly bringing shadows to the constant bright light. The difficulty lies not in the occasional clashes, but in the continuous mixing of the flames. The destructive mixture degraded the shields way too fast. Neither Otto nor Scarred Sera could do it alone. Leslie brought this up, and with this revelation, the solution came too. To stop the firestorm, they needed to remove either side of the equation. They either had to make Scarred Sera or Otto stop shooting their flames in whatever way possible. They had no way of contacting Otto, and didn''t know how to stop or at least move them away from Rome. After spending a minute or two brainstorming, they only had one idea left.@@@@ Vicky climbed onto Kastral''s back, and the giant hippogryph took her away. They flew fast and reached the sphere''s top in no time. They stopped only a meter away from where the sea of flames spread. Upon reaching their destination, Vicky took a few deep breaths, then turned into her Spatial Form. Gravity bent around her, but Kastral held his ground, keeping Vicky afloat. Her power even affected the flames on the other side of the shield. A small dome grew, which let Vicky see through the flames. It took her no time to find Otto''s position, and with it, the second part of her job began. Vicky reached out her hands and concentrated with all her power. What she was attempting was unlike anything she had ever tried. Opening a Realm Gate was arguably harder, but that was only because she needed to learn how to concentrate perfectly. For her next trick, she needed nothing else, only pure unyielding power. Her Spatial Form gathered all the informations necessary, and after a minute, she determined where Otto will be. She used her powers on Damien to grow back his eye after the fight with the Stellar goblin, but that was much easier. She guessed the difficulty increase was because of their Rank difference. Otto was obviously of Stellar rank, and even in this form, his tail was gigantic. Bea used nearly all her essence, but she could only grow back half the tail. With a pale expression, Bea fell over, but a pair of firm hands caught her before she hit the ground. A pair of gray eyes stared out of a handsome, dirty face. The prince reverted to his human form, faster than anyone could''ve expected. For a split second he stood knelt there naked, holding Bea, but in a blink, a scaled black armor weaved itself around his body. While Otto and Bea stared at each other for a bit too long, Sera''s attention went elsewhere. The flames died down even further, only scorching the bottom part of the Aegis System. Without saying a word, Sera flew into the sky and headed to the edge of the shields. On the other side, her twin waited with a wicked grin. She scraped one gauntleted silver hand over the shield, sending ripples down on it. Out of nowhere, she punched it with all her might, but it was ineffective. "Well, well, well... This battle was certainly unexpected. Castleburg''s leader seems to finally choose a side in this war... I hoped our fight would destroy this pathetic city of yours, but I should''ve known... You never seem to run out of tricks!" After speaking, Scarred Sera began hysterically laughing, while Sera just kept her hollow expression. While staring at her broken twin, she felt nothing but a tiny sense of pity deep in her heart. "No matter. One day you will run out of tricks, and when that comes, prepare yourself... We will die soon, at least one of us will... I wonder, who will come out victorious, and what will happen after reuniting..." Sera''s mouth twisted into a smirk, which seemed to annoy her other half quite a bit. "What is it? Your omniscient scientist friend doesn''t know the answer?... Did that idiot gambled everything on a whim, on a chance?" "Don''t eve talk about him like that!" shouted Scarred Sera, and hit the shield again, but it was much too strong. The smile on Sera''s face grew into a grin. "I wonder what will happen to you, when you fail... Will Harold throw you away, like all his other toys? Maybe he will turn you into a monster, a new beast to his guard his lab!" The mad lady growled in hatred and fuming rage, but she controlled herself, and let her boiling blood turn into a cold vengeance. "This isn''t over yet... You may have won another battle, but the war is far from over..." said her other half, as she began moving away... "Remember my words, little angel... Ones of us will die!" The woman began flying faster, and just as the last of the flames extinguished, she disappeared towards the purple horizon. Sera stayed in the sky and continued to listen. Even though the mad lady had disappeared, her words still echoed in Sera''s ears... "One of us will die!" Chapter 277 Priorities A lingering gaze passed between Bea and Otto before she blushed and jumped away. She walked off without saying another word. For a moment, she expected judging eyes from all around her, but not a single person cared as they gazed upon the night sky. With confusion, Bea looked up and realized where their interest came from. The two angels floated next to one another. No one could understand their words, but Sera returned, troubled. Bea rushed to ask what Scarred Sera said, but before words could leave her mouth, Sera''s watch buzzed. Some message came, which made her frown. "Vicky! Could you open a portal to New Athens for me?" Their daughter already looked tired, but she fulfilled her mother''s request without question. The human-sized portal opened, and Sera went through without another word. She seemed worried and even a bit fearful. Before the portal fully closed, Bea saw a glimpse of Sera sprinting out of her mansion. Concerned, Bea wrote a message to her watch, but no answer came. She furrowed her brows in annoyance and stared at the holo-screen for a few more seconds. "Trouble in paradise?" asked the tall man walking up to her. Otto''s hair got even blacker since the last time they met. His gray eyes also seemed darker and had more depth in them. "You won''t even be going to thank me for recovering most of your tail?" she asked, dodging his question. He just smirked and looked towards the scorched ground outside. "I will thank you once you thank me for saving your asses!" Bea''s expression turned angry upon hearing his remark. "You might have saved us, but without my daughter forcefully teleporting you away, you would''ve destroyed everyone here!" The stupid grin stayed on his face as he began walking towards Sarah, who stood nearby. Before leaving, he whispered a few words... "Thank you very much, and nice to see your alluring self again!" Otto walked away and started chatting with Sarah and Leslie. For a few long moments, Bea stood at the grassy plains, alone and confused. She looked down at her watch once more, but no answer came. With a sad sigh, Bea turned to the destruction outside the Aegis System. Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire The land still smoldered and a few spots of lava still needed to cool down more. For as far as she saw, the ground looked wavy and black. Everywhere around the city, the plains melted and resettled. Bea''s eyes turned teary as she looked upon the destruction. Her emotions had nothing to do with the plains, but she didn''t want to stare at the city. Even out at the edge of the shields, the sound of laughter and celebrations echoed. After the previous scare, people needed time to relax and let off some pent up steam. While everyone in Rome was happy, Bea felt sad and depressed. Upon her return to Earth, she desperately attempted to restore the past, but to no avail.@@@@ Once more she checked her messages... Nothing... Every time he remembered, a shiver of discomfort assaulted his body. In those moments, the warm bed was especially good. He took a deep breath, breathing in the pleasant fragrance in the air. The perfume smelled familiar, but he couldn''t recall whose it was. After the deep breath, he heard shuffling next to him, then felt a chilly hand touch his sweaty brow. With the touch, another important fact hit Bran''s mind, like a brick. He felt the cover right on his skin, which meant someone had removed all his clothes. His nakedness, combined with his lack of knowledge of the owner of the hand, made him extremely self-conscious. It mattered little, since he could move away even if he wanted to. Every small move caused his head to scream with a mind splitting headache. The hand kept touching his brow, cheeks, neck, and even his chest. Whoever it was, they made no noise, and he couldn''t judge the person by their hands. He knew of a person whose hand was always cold, but she had no reason to be next to him, much less checking on him. That woman had a much too busy life to spend time like this. The hand soon left him alone, but a few seconds later, a new feeling appeared. Someone gently placed their head on his shoulder and had one arm hugging his chest. He finally figured out the person''s gender. There were many telling signs, starting with the long hair he felt all over his chest and shoulders, or the feminine sigh the person made after getting comfortable. But the most convincing information by far, were the pair of breasts pressing his side. The woman wore clothes, but he could still feel them through it. Out of desperate curiosity, Bran forced his eyes open once more. The brightness was much more bearable this time, and after a few long seconds, he could actually see. First, he saw the familiar ceiling of the room, then he looked at the familiar furniture around the room. The bed was also something he recognized, and finally his eyes stared down at the woman on his shoulder. Her locks of hair fell on his body like a shower of gold. Her arm''s soft skin felt like an angel''s touch on his body. Those fierce golden-green eyes stared at him with deep worry. With difficulty, Bran opened his mouth, but couldn''t find the words to say. There was so much he wanted to say, and even more he wanted to ask, but staring into those bewitching eyes made him lose his mind. Right now, he only wanted to say one sentence to Sera. He had been debating it for a long time, and after nearly losing his life, he didn''t want to wait any longer... Screw the consequences! "I love you, Sera..." he said in a horribly scratchy voice. Sera''s eyes gradually widened and her mouth fell open in shock. Bran felt the small tremble going through her body after he said those words. Now the only one question remained, was that a good sign or not? The answer came quickly as a bright smile spread across Sera''s face. He couldn''t remember when was the last time, he saw her this happy, if ever. She propped on her elbow and gave a long kiss to Bran. His eyes widened with surprise, but then he fully embraced himself in Sera''s mouth, and with that, all his worries and pain had disappeared. The kiss lasted for long, beautiful minutes, then Sera moved her head away, and while still smiling, she said, "I love you too, Bran!" Chapter 278 Moving On Rome celebrated. The streets overflowed with people, citizens, soldiers, Evolved. It didn''t matter. Everyone attended the party... Well, most people did... A few had to take care of the prisoners. Melinda, David, Damien, Cass, and a few others went to overlook the situation. They expected everyone to be more unruly, but the prisoners were just as grateful. Not a single one of them complained, and they even thanked them. In their minds, Sera had no reason to take them away from the battlefield. She could''ve left them, and let the flames consume them. But by saving them, they felt indebted to her. Many soldiers opposed the siege of Rome; however, the Federal Alliance punished desertion hard. People also liked to pretend and be honorable when they wanted to. They would''ve rather died in the fields of battle, then leave their posts. This approach had limitations, though. Upon facing seemingly unstoppable forces, like Transcended, they would rather surrender than die useless death. While some of them took care of their new ''guests'', most enjoyed the free drinks and music. In the middle of Rome, a large square stretched in all directions. A Sera statue sat in its middle. Her noble expression looked towards the east, where the sun was about to rise. Her glaive was nowhere to be seen, and she spread her arms wide, embracing the world. Behind her back, two pairs of wings stretched wide. On her body, a nice, elegant dress covered all of her body, not revealing even a glimpse of skin except for her hands and head. The celebrations were especially strong near the statue. The square echoed with music from large speakers set up by the statue. People danced all around Sera''s statue, and some even placed tables nearby. They also served drinks for everyone. The Evolved drank their Critter Bite, while everyone else consumed their choice of beverage. Within the first hour, most people were already drunk, but one stood out from the masses. A woman sat alone at a small table. In front of her, many empty bottles sat, and she kept drinking more. Her long brown hair seemed disheveled, while her beautiful forest green eyes had red rims around them from all the crying. A few people kept checking on her, but she dodged every attempt at accepting their sympathy. She knew most of them thought she acted like a child, and maybe she was. Bea never went through a breakup in her life. Her last and only significant other turned into a maniac and got killed. This time, though, she still needed to meet with her past lover, the mother of her child, daily.@@@@ It weighed hard on her soul, and she only felt somewhat better when her mind wasn''t working properly. It was a sad attempt at escaping reality, but until it worked, she didn''t care. Her heart ached, and the only cure was at the bottom of each bottle. "She and that Leslie guy went away to ''check on the prisoners'', which is definitely a lie. They are probably having intimacy at some place within the city." Otto made a disgusted face as he spoke, which brought a small smile to Bea''s miserable face. The handsome man grinned at her, which unconsciously made her blush. "Ah, so you aren''t gloomy all the time, good to know! You should definitely smile more. It makes your already beautiful face truly extraordinary!" Bea turned away to hide the redness in her face, and she ignored Otto''s attempts at flirting. "So... Uh... How is life in Castleburg?" she asked, desperately trying to change the subject. Otto just chuckled, and while continuing to smile, he answered. "Nothing changed, really. I actually convinced my brother to stop worshipping our father, so now there are two Stellars on your side..." The man had a wicked grin on his face while speaking. Bea''s eyes widened, by the implications of what he was saying, but then they narrowed in suspicion. His wording was very peculiar, and she didn''t like how he spoke. Explore more stories with My Virtual Library Empire "Why are you here?" Otto leaned back in his chair, and his wicked grin turned into a comforting smile. His viper-like dark gray eyes pierced into Bea''s own green ones. "I saw Sera''s little show-off and saw my sister flying on one of the hippogryphs. At first, I wanted to come here immediately, but then I thought that would ruin your little plan..." "Only when I saw Sera''s clone approaching did I decide to intervene... Your welcome, by the way!" They both stayed silent for a few minutes after that. Bea still wasn''t sure about Otto''s intentions. Everything he said made sense, but it all felt a bit too convenient. His arrival was way too close. As a Stellar, he could move through the whole of Europe in less than a minute, so he either cut it really close, or purposefully slowed down for dramatic effect. Bea wasn''t sure whether to trust him, but this wasn''t a decision she could make on her own. Her expression started turning troubled again, since she needed to talk with Sera about it... Currently, she would''ve rather done anything, so she could escape that conversation. Her eyes fell onto the bottle again, and she quickly downed everything left inside. With determination, Bea stood up and immediately tripped. Before she could faceplant the ground, two firm hands caught and pulled her up. She stared at Otto as he held her. A shiver went down her spine at their closeness. "Do you perhaps want to dance or something? You definitely shouldn''t drink more." Said Otto with a concerned look in his eyes. Bea didn''t know what to say, so she just blurted out something intelligible, then walked towards the dancefloor. She still held onto his hands, pulling him along. Chapter 279 The Last Thread The sun was already approaching the western horizon by the time Bea woke up. Her head was bursting with pain, and she felt sick to her stomach. Never before had she felt so hungover. The last dawn was a blur. She remembered feeling extremely sad, then she began drinking, and after that... Nothing. Her last memory was approaching the dance floor with Otto. She groaned as she tried to sit up on the bed, but it caused the headache to increase tenfold. Finally, she decided to remain in bed, pulling the covers over her head to avoid the sunlight. Sadly, a nagging thought prevented her from sleeping. Out of curiosity, she tried opening her eyes. At first, everything was blurry and her vision split into four separate pictures, but after a minute or two, it kind of stabilized. Her body was mostly numb and tingly from being hungover, so she didn''t notice her lack of clothes at first. This wasn''t too surprising, since she only wore clothes made with her powers. It wasn''t the first time she fell asleep, and let the clothes disappear. Something was physically wrong with her, though. She saw and felt both of her arms, but there was a third more muscular and manly arm wrapped around her midsection, precariously close to her breasts. Realization that the extra arm wasn''t hers dawned on her embarrassingly late. As this recognition set in, a content sigh sounded from behind her. With a curious but fearful eye, Bea looked behind her. Her view offered little detail. She saw a muscular naked chest pressing close to her back. She also felt something hard near her backside, which instantly sent an uncomfortable shiver down her spine. Suddenly, she felt even more nauseous. Impulsively, Bea leaped from bed, exiting through the nearest door. Later, she regretted her decision to not survey the room before rushing off. Since then, she would''ve seen the open door to the bathroom behind her. Instead of the bathroom, she opened the door to the house''s living room, and since it was late in the afternoon, most people were already awake. Even then, she was quite lucky, since only a handful of people sat inside. Most of them were the responsible ones, like David and Damien, plus their respectable partners, Cass and Agnes. Lucy, Will, and a few others were also sitting and chatting. They were having a great time. Nobody drank too much during the morning, other than Bea, of course. As she stepped out of the room, all eyes went straight to her. For a few seconds, everyone stared at her, then they all quickly turned away upon seeing her naked body. Bea''s emotions became turbulent. Her face burned with shame, while the horrid feeling in her stomach turned unbearable. She took another awkward step, before bending over and vomiting her guts onto the carpet. As she puked, someone from the crowd approached her. Bea couldn''t see who it was, but the person placed a blanket over her, and led her to the nearest bathroom. The same person held her hair while she continued to vomit. Somewhere far away, she heard people talking close-by. They all sounded feminine and she made out four distinct voices. She needed no other context to know who she referred to. There weren''t many people who could consume food as fast as she did. In fact, there was only one other person Bea known off... Sera... As she remembered her, a sudden wave of sadness and despair washed over her. In the past hour since she woke up, Bea purposefully ignored any thought about Sera. But now, she couldn''t escape her feelings. She placed her head in her hands and began sobbing. The weight of her stupid decision finally began crushing her. Previously, she didn''t know if Sera would want a relationship with her or not, but now that ship has sailed. There was no going back. She let herself be with someone else, burning the last bridge connecting their hearts. Even though the technically weren''t together, they hadn''t broken up either. Their relationship hung only by a thread, and with her last action Bea cut that thread, letting everything that mattered to her fall into the abyss. The couch groaned next to her as Agnes sat beside her. She put an arm across her shoulder, pulling her head onto her lap. Bea continued to cry, while Agnes just hummed. Her hands stroked Bea''s long brown hair, which felt comforting. The overwhelming emotions became more manageable with each passing moment. After she calmed down sufficiently, the other three women entered the room as well. Bit embarrassed, Bea asked the question she should''ve started with. "Where is Vicky?" The women looked at each other and began giggling, or at least most of them. Sarah continued to stay pissed off, but she seemed calmer than half an hour ago. "Oh, don''t worry about her. She danced throughout the morning, and by midday, she couldn''t even walk properly. Faith, Lilith, and Adam stayed with her throughout, and now they are sleeping in one of the rooms." Bea breathed a sigh of relief, then she smiled at the image of her daughter having fun. This brought another sound of shame, but she quickly pushed the emotions away. She turned towards Sarah to apologize for her actions, but before she could, a fifth voice spoke from behind the doorway. "Can I come in now, so we can talk like adults?" The voice belonged to a man, and not just any. With a sigh, Sarah walked to the door and opened it, letting the tall, muscular, black-haired, gray-eyed man inside. He looked around the room for a moment, then his eyes landed on Bea''s stunned face. His mouth twisted into its usual annoying smirk. "Did you enjoy our dance?" he asked with a chuckle. Next to him, her sister moved quickly. Even as a Stellar, somehow he couldn''t react to the angry woman''s slap. Chapter 280 The End of Something Special "Okay... I definitely deserved that, but to be fair, I was only joking!" said Otto. He wanted to make another joke, but when he saw Sarah giving him a deadly glare, he decided silence was the best course of action. Inside the room, all the women stared at him with annoyance. Everyone except Bea. She just stared at her reflection in the turned off Holo-Screen. The sight was quite sad, even for Otto''s uncaring personality. Before disclosing yesterday''s details, he planned to add a few more remarks; however, witnessing Bea''s distress, he regretted withholding information. With a deep sigh, he turned towards Sarah, who gave a pointed nod. No words needed to be exchanged. Otto walked towards the armchair next to the couch and sat down while staring at Bea.@@@@ "You know, we haven''t been together during the morning." As he spoke, Bea''s eyes snapped to his. They were full of curiosity and hope, which caused a minor pain to appear in Otto''s heart. A feeling came with the pain, but he suppressed it. "What do you mean? What happened?" she asked with badly hidden desperation. "Okay, let''s start with the beginning. How much do you remember from the day?" he asked, and Bea immediately answered. "Not much. I remember standing up and pulling you towards the dance floor. Then the next thing I remember is waking up next to you." Bea suppressed a shiver from moving along her body. Even saying these words felt wrong, but she kept a straight expression. Otto stared at her for a moment, then chuckled. "You really drank a lot, didn''t you? Goddamn, you don''t remember most of the day..." He saw Bea''s and the others'' annoyance grew, so he refrained from laughter, and instead began explaining everything that had happened earlier that day. "After entering the crowd, we spent about 5 hours dancing. You spent most of that time with me, but you also danced with random strangers, and... You ground against and made out with a few of them..." "Before you ask, no, we didn''t make out on the dance floor. Afterward though... That''s a different story..." Bea''s face burned with shame. Hearing Otto deny having sex gave her hope, making her forget intimacy wasn''t the only way to cheat. She felt significantly worse than before. At least back then she believed to be cheated by only one person, but now she knew how worse everything was. "What happened after we left the dance floor?" she asked, her voice full of fear. On the couch, Otto shifted uncomfortably. He knew how much pain his next words would cause, but he also knew they had to be said. Whatever happened next, it wouldn''t be his fault. "We kissed a lot on our way here. We found the nearest vacant room and continued to kiss for a short time. You began undressing, and so did I. Eventually, we were both naked on the bed, and you laid atop me as we continued to make out..." "You then began kissing my body lower and lower until you reached... Uh... You know what..." Ladies'' facial expressions varied. Lucy and Cass looked flabbergasted and angry at both Bea and Otto. He should''ve stopped her from going so far, but Bea also shouldn''t have engaged with him before talking things out with Sera. With this move, Bea betrayed her, and this was something neither could overlook. Sarah continued to be enraged towards her brother, while Agnes seemed the most sympathetic out of everyone. She placed no blames, and just felt awful about the situation. Between sobs, she told the entire story to Sera, which later got confirmed by Lucy, Adam, and Faith. After Vicky cried herself to sleep, Sera went to Agnes''s room and knocked. She heard shuffling inside, but before anyone could open the door, she barged inside. An inexplicable anger took hold of her. It was a rare moment of emotion on her part, and she could barely control herself. Stepping inside the room, Cass stood a few meters away with a shocked expression. The other women turned towards her too, but before any of them could''ve said something, Sera shouted. "All of you! Get the fuck out!" Nobody moved a muscle... They were simply too stunned... They all known Sera for years. Either before losing part of her soul or after, she never gotten so angry to actually raise her voice, at least not with friends. Only after seeing her like this did everyone begin to realize how bad the situation was. Sera opened her mouth to shout again, but another voice spoke before she could. "Thank you everyone, but it''s time for me to face the consequences of my actions... Please, leave..." They all looked at each other, uncertain of leaving the two alone or not. This indecision caused Sera''s anger and annoyance to grow, and as she prepared to shout again, the four women left the room. They didn''t go far, and stayed by the door if anything unpredictable happened. Inside the room, Bea stood up and walked towards Sera. She stopped about a meter away and continued to stare at the floor. She felt so many conflicting emotions, she couldn''t possibly address all of them. The main ones were shame at her actions, anger towards herself, sadness because of her new reality, and hope that the woman she loves can forgive her. Bea took a deep breath, looked up into Sera''s golden-green eyes, and as she opened her mouth, something hit her. Before she could react, Sera''s hand slapped her so hard in the face she staggered back into the couch. The left side of her face turned red, and even her skin broke under Sera''s powerful slap. The wound healed in less than a second, but a blood drop escaped her face before that. With a trembling hand, Bea reached up and touched the blood. She stared at it in disbelief. Not a single time did she see Sera actively spill a friend''s blood, even just a drop. In that moment, Bea finally realized... There was no solution... It was over... "From now on, your aren''t part of the Angelic Order, or my army. You can live in any of my cities as a citizen, or a normal soldier, but you shall never receive my people''s respect! You can talk with the others, and if they want to, they can go with you..." "I don''t care what happens to you. You''re dead to me from this moment forward! Neither me nor Vicky ever want to see you again..." Bea fell to her knees, and she wanted to beg, but her words came out incomprehensible from how hard she sobbed. She crawled towards Sera''s legs, but she just moved away. As Bea looked up at her face, there was no pity or sadness there, only contempt and disgust. Seeing the woman she loved staring at her like that broke the remnants of her heart. Sera stared at her for a moment longer, then she turned away without a word, and walked out, leaving Bea on the floor, wailing... [End of Part 2 ¨C Embers of Love] Chapter 281 The Strongest Weapon The news about The Second Battle of Rome spread through Europe like a wildfire. Within a day, everyone was talking about the recent Anglic Order victory. As their popularity grew, it was time to use the strongest weapon in Sera''s arsenal... Information. All the hidden members of the Angelic Order came further into the light. The recruitment process in each city-state started, and using them, the religion became more favoured than ever.@@@@ Both the Federal Alliance and the United Front tried pushing their propaganda on the general populace, but they failed miserably. They built their propaganda upon Sera''s barbaric, warmonger nature, and the Angelic Order''s suppressive behavior. They told everyone that Sera wanted to rule above everyone, because she has a god complex. These arguments fell apart quickly. The news of how the battle ended spread as well. The Sisters and Brothers of the Angelic Order were responsible for revealing the truth. They preached how gracious Sera was, because even though two armies came to take her life, she spared everyone who stopped fighting. This alone made most doubt the truthfulness of the propaganda. It didn''t help that Sera treated all prisoners well. They had the same treatment as her normal citizens, with the only difference being the constant guards and segregation from everyone else. The propagandas fell apart, since there was no merit in either. The main populace of many cities became unruly, especially in the Federal Alliance. They demanded to know why they sent two armies against Rome, if Sera wasn''t a threat to either nation. The Central Command stayed silent in all this uproar. The unrest in both nations caused the fighting in the west to halt. Soldier desertion became a lot higher, and even civilians began leaving the city-states. Sera couldn''t let that happen. The Wild would kill most Evolved, not to speak about regular soldiers or citizens. Instead, she had another idea. Discover exclusive tales at My Virtual Library Empire A few days after the siege, every hidden Angelic Order member received a detailed plan about evacuating anyone who didn''t want to stay in those cities. It was a simple plan. Every week, on a specific day, Vicky would open a portal to New Constantinople. The citizens, soldiers, anyone who wanted to could use it. The portal would stay open for an hour, then it would close, and another would open in a different city. They chose New Constantinople because almost half the city lay abandoned. The space could accommodate tens of millions. It also overproduced a lot in food, clothing, raw materials, all essentials for living a normal life. It can easily support a larger population. Although not yet implemented, the plan had already attracted thousands of volunteers for relocation. Most were normal citizens with families, but every deserted soldier wanted to escape prosecution, too. The people who stayed either had nobody to lose, or wanted to help the Angelic Order by joining their ranks. They found hundreds of new Evolved among tens of thousands of candidates. But New Paris wasn''t the only place that felt threatened. Many city-states within the United Front felt things turn for the worse. They began recalling their soldiers, which lead to mass desertion. In just one day, they executed millions. It took that many people for all the protesting to stop. But it didn''t stop, instead it became silent. The support for the Angelic Order grew exponentially within every United Front settlement. There was another big change, which nobody was prepared for. With Napoleon''s aggressive move towards his own people, the unaligned cities reconsidered their stance in this whole ordeal. Not even a day passed after the news of the executions reached them, but all their leaders and representatives were in a meeting. What they talked about was a mystery to all, but the conclusion of their talks was obvious. Following this, the Queen of London issued a decree. She denounced Napoleon''s claim as an Emperor and ridiculed the chosen name of his nation. She also vowed to support every city-state who wanted to exit the United Front, and the other unaligned city-states supported this as well. And last but not least, she spoke directly towards the Angelic Order and Sera. She congratulated her victory in Rome and offered to open discussions about the future of Europe. The next day, Sera graciously accepted the offer on live, and she also denounced everything Napoleon and the Central Command had done to keep people in line. Later, the discussions began, or more like the planning for the discussions began. Every hour, another city-state leader did something similar to Sera and the Queen. They criticized the Federal Alliance and the United Front, then asked to be part of the planning for the future. It took them half a week just to get everything in order. The meeting was going to be held virtually, even though Sera offered everyone to teleport together. For obvious reasons, nobody really trusted Sera, so they all respectfully denied. Sera took no offense, either. She knew none of them would accept, but by offering, she made her intentions more clear. She was serious and fully committed to a bountiful collaboration. They just had to wait for Otto. He left for Castleburg a week after the battle, and if rumors were true, Bea travelled with him. After everyone learned about her ''cheating'', many people stopped talking to her. Lucy, Sarah, Leslie, and a few others stayed by her side, but even they felt conflicted. Eventually, the pain of her actions became too much to bear. The only person who stayed with her, comforted her, was Otto. Their closeness caused even more people to turn away, and eventually, only Sarah remained by her side. Otto was her brother, and Bea was her close friend. She couldn''t dismiss either, even though she really wanted to. Leslie didn''t blame her for supporting Bea, but he told Sarah outright that until Bea remained friends with Otto, he would keep his distance. Others told Bea this as well, but since she never stopped her friendship with Otto, everyone left her. She had nobody in Rome, or New Athens, or anywhere else. Vicky and Sera hadn''t spoken to her since the ''banishment''. It pained her heart, but she needed a new perspective on life, and moving seemed like the best option for that. It took two weeks for everything to change. Europe''s power dynamic was in a state of flux, and this next meeting would decide the fate of the war. Chapter 282 Virtual Meeting For this meeting, Sera returned to New Athens. Much remained undone in Rome, yet David and the others handled it all. Sera''s role was solely supportive and symbolic. The prisoners acted much more nicely when she stood nearby. They usually stared at her like she was some legendary person, which wasn''t entirely inaccurate. It was surprising how well all the prisoners acted. Sera was afraid they would cause trouble, and would annoy Rome''s citizens, alienating them from the Angelic Order. These concerns quickly disappeared. She ensured her cities received live feeds from both the Federal Alliance and the United Front. The prisoners became especially angry when the news spoke about the Second Battle of Rome. They essentially labeled each surviving soldier a deserter, forbidding their return to the Federal Alliance''s cities. Sera knew exactly what the Central Command was trying to accomplish. To negotiate for the prisoners, they would need to open communications with the Angelic Order. People would see their opening of communications as backing down and admitting defeat. They also didn''t want the prisoners spreading information about Sera and the Angelic Order. She let a few select prisoners to explore the city, however they wanted. Groups of prisoners ventured from the restricted zone each day, only to return shocked. Their leaders sprouted propaganda about citizen welfare. They were told Sera was a dictatorial, iron-willed ruler. This obvious lie quickly fell apart after the first group returned. Currently, after two weeks, every ''deserter'' had a new permanent home assigned within the city. They also spoke with their family members, and most agreed to the relocation. Rome required further work, however, this meeting held greater significance. She also wasn''t doing much there. Her leisure time mostly involved her daughter; however, Vicky had a heavier workload. She constantly needed to open and close portals, teleport between cities, and hold back her tears. Vicky wasn''t adjusting well to living without Bea. Each night, she cried herself to sleep while clutching Sera, like she feared abandonment by her other mother. This caused Sera''s hatred to grow towards her past lover. Vicky might''ve been angry with her, but instead of giving her space for a few weeks, she ran off with her affair partner like a coward. She didn''t understand how, but thinking about Bea caused her anger to surface. It was similar how she felt a small amount of love towards Vicky, but much stronger. The feeling destroyed her emotionless state, which was very much impossible. Sera talked a lot with Bran about it, but he had little insight to give. He was still bedridden since the incident, but at least he can go to the bathroom on his own. She and Melinda took turns taking care of him, and a few times, even Vicky joined them. Her daughter seemed much more open to Bran, and he didn''t push her away. They were bonding faster than Sera had expected, and only now did she realize why Bran never tried before. At first Sera thought, he didn''t like Vicky, but seeing how much fun the two had, the truth became obvious. If he would''ve tried to bond with Vicky before breaking up with Bea, then everyone would''ve considered his actions to be alienating. Sera plastered a small smile on her face, which helped bring the other leaders'' walls down further. Her joke even got a few chuckles, mostly from Otto, but that still counts. "Indeed, so we should get to the point. I assume everyone heard what happened in the past two weeks, but if you didn''t, Ms. Seraphine will remind everyone, since she was the perpetrator of these events." There was no accusation in Elizabeth''s voice. She even seemed a bit impressed. The Queen''s assignment didn''t offend Sera either. It even made sense in her opinion and gave her more control over the conversation. "As you know, the Second Battle of Rome went down two weeks ago. The Angelic Order won an overwhelming victory, with Otto''s help. I used my agents to push our victory past everyone''s propaganda, which led to Napoleon and the Central Command showing their true colors." Sera took a deep breath and looked straight into the camera. Her face was full of anger towards Napoleon''s and the Central Command''s actions. But her eyes told a different story. In them, they could clearly see exhaustion. "Both parties killed millions of their own people, just because they disagreed with their rulers'' actions. This alone is horrible, but if it wasn''t enough, both Napoleon and the Federal Alliance have a singular goal in mind... They want to conquer Europe!" The lack of surprise among the leaders was evident, yet most of them appeared uncomfortable. They all knew the truth already, but they hadn''t accepted it yet. "To be honest with all of you, I had enough of all this war. Everyone has their own problems, and I would rather focus on my people''s wellbeing, then send them to die in faraway places. The problem is, if we want to stop the war, we have to fight!" On the leaders'' faces, acceptance and agreement began to show, while both Elizabeth and Otto nodded along. After a few seconds, the Queen spoke. "For this meeting to have any significance, we need to make one simple decision before we continue. We all have the same goal, and we all have the same enemies. I propose an alliance between all our cities, armies, etc. Everyone who disagrees should leave before we start making plans!" Your next journey awaits at My Virtual Library Empire Elizabeth stayed silent, waiting for anyone who wants to leave. Nobody did. A small satisfied smile grew on her face, and she nodded once with delight. "Good, then let''s begin. We have a lot to talk through, so I hope all of you freed up your next few hours!" Everyone chuckled a bit, then the planning began in earnest. It took them half a day to work out an agreeable alliance, where no one would be the dominant party. There were other discussions too, for example about armies, generals, where to strike next, how to defend attacked cities. Sera led most of these conversations, since she was the most experienced in war out of everyone. After the meeting, Sera headed to her room. It was late at night, so when upon entering, she found Vicky and Bran sleeping peacefully in her bed. Sera quickly changed out of her usual clothes and climbed into the bed as well. She fell asleep quickly, cuddling the man he loved and her daughter.@@@@ Chapter 283 Lonely and Hopeless Bea woke up in her room alone. On her arrival to Castleburg, she got a room assigned to the gigantic castle, which stood in the middle of the even larger city. She didn''t just receive a room, but she got one of the dozen towers built atop the castle. Each had their own quarters, Otto and his brother, Victor, lived in ones, too. Since her arrival a week ago, she still hadn''t met with Victor. She spent hours each day talking with Otto, her only friend. She asked about Victor multiple times, but he never wants to meet. It''s not like he''s busy, but by Otto''s account, he''s very introverted, to the point he hates talking with any strangers. Bea was perfectly fine with this. She presently avoided making new friends. The pain of losing everyone still stung. It left a void in her heart that only time could fix. Therefore, she remained secluded inside her room. It was perfect, spacious, and lacked any people who could judge her. A large living room, master bedroom, and three guest bedrooms, each with a private bath, constituted the space. There was also a large lounge and dining room below her apartment, which she never used. Her favorite place by far was the balcony, which faced west. The sight was extremely beautiful, especially at night. The city extended to the horizon, its limits defined only by its massive walls. On most days, she sat outside and watched the city. Sometimes birds flew towards her, and she grew seeds in her palm. The ravens happily flew on her lap, shoulder, arm, and even head, to devour the seeds. Bea never questioned why so many ravens lived in Castleburg. Each day more came for seeds, and after a few days, Bea began feeling obligated to feed them. Some even brought jewelry, or other shiny items, as payment.@@@@ Taking care of the birds felt great, and therapeutic. She improved every day. Her guilt never went away, but she realized a while ago that hating oneself leads to nothing but despair. She needed to accept her mistake, then get on with her life. She also needed to get past her feelings towards Sera, which was by far the hardest task of her life. Luckily, Vicky began talking to her a few days ago, so she didn''t need to grieve the relationship with her daughter as well. The reason she contacted Bea bothered her a bit. Bran was the one who suggested that she should keep in contact. Vicky spent an hour yesterday fawning on about how great Bran was. It hurt to hear, but Bea graciously supported her daughter. It really annoyed Bea that she was simply incapable of hating Bran. He was a great person, someone who would support Sera without question. Even she started enjoying his company, before her banishment. They devoted themselves similarly to Sera, but not fanatically, like Lilith, Faith, and Adam. There was a mutual, silent understanding between them, and even through their lacking conversations, their correlations were obvious. Bea always woken up late in the past two weeks, but today she felt especially melancholic. She knew about the meeting between Otto and everyone else, including Sera. Since Otto was away, she didn''t feel like getting out of bed. Because she was basically a tree spirit, she needed no food, or even water. She could just lie under the sun and gain sustenance. The hours went by quickly. The sun rose and fell, but even then, Otto didn''t come. Bea cried herself to sleep multiple times that day, and to put salt into the open wound, Vicky sent a picture of her and Bran playing. She now understood why he helped her out, why he was always kind, why he flirted with her immediately after meeting again. Bea just thought about him as a good friend, but now she didn''t know what to think. His behavior in the past wasn''t at all like in the past two weeks. Back then, two years ago, he simply stayed away from their group. Everyone thought he was simply a recluse. Even Sarah didn''t question his actions. But it was obviously just an excuse to stay away from her. It must''ve pained him to see the person he loved act intimate with someone else. In fact, Bea knew exactly how it felt, since she saw and heard how much fun her daughter had each day with Bran. The pain was so unbearable, she would''ve rather killed herself than suffer it. Otto must''ve felt the same way, but somehow he ignored and suppressed his feelings. What he did was honorable and kind, making Bea feel even worse about her previous attempt. She was weak and selfish, thinking nobody would care if she was gone. Bea stared at Otto curiously, waiting for his next words. He became silent for a few seconds, both gathering strength to continue and giving Bea a chance to interrupt. Only when he was certain she wouldn''t bolt did he continue. "I want to be with you, Bea. When I saw all of you in Sera''s show of force, I was relieved to see my sister, but upon seeing you, I completely broke down... I wanted to run to you in that exact moment, but later convinced myself against it..." Otto took a deep breath, which came out shuddered. His eyes turned teary as he talked. Enjoy more content from My Virtual Library Empire "I wanted a good reason to be near you, and the siege was the perfect opportunity. But when I saw that other Seraphine heading towards you, I lost my mind. I wanted to burn her to ashes and lost control of my emotions, which nearly destroyed Rome..." Bea sniffled and hid her face in Otto''s chest. He felt his shirt become wet under her face, and with one hand, he began gently stroking her hair. "After Vicky teleported me away, and you placed your hand on me, I wanted you even more. The best part of these two years was when I finally saw you again... I even became hopeful when I heard that you and Seraphine were taking a break, but I never intended for any of this..." As one more sob shook Bea''s body, she looked up at Otto with teary eyes. His hand, which stroked her hair, somehow made its way to her cheek, brushing away the falling tears. "I know... I know you didn''t mean to put a wedge between me and Sera... That was purely my stupid decision, and I take full responsibility for it..." Bea''s cheeks turned red, as she tried to say something else, but began stammering. After a few sentences, she turned silent, took a deep breath, and started speaking coherently. "From all that happened, I never... I never regretted getting close to you... It might make me a bad person, but these two weeks made it clear how much you care about me... If... If you want to, we can try to be in a relationship... But nothing physical, I''m not ready to be with anyone for now..." Otto''s eyes widened as his whole body shuddered. He was in shock for a few minutes, before his face split in to a wide grin, and he began laughing happily. It was so ridiculous that even Bea''s awful mood turned for the better. A small smile appeared on her face as she hugged Otto. They stay cuddling throughout the night. Neither said anything, but both felt perfectly comfortable. Every few minutes, Otto would start giggling and hugging Bea with even more love and care. This was the first time in two weeks that Bea actually felt her life turn for the better. Chapter 284 Touring Europe Discussions continued another week before an in-person meeting felt possible. The chosen city was none other than London. The Queen herself suggested her own city, since neither previous factions had connections to it. Everyone trusted her the most, so it took little to convince them. The problem derived from somewhere else... Travelling... Many city-states lay in Eastern Europe, making continental travel dangerous and difficult, even for Transcended. Reluctantly, everyone agreed to let Vicky teleport them to London. This marked significant progress towards a better future. It required a lot of trust on their end from them, to even think about accepting. For the meeting, everyone could send either a three person envoy, or attend themselves, while bringing maximum two people along. This wasn''t for safety reasons, since nobody was stupid enough to provoke the Queen''s wrath. Everyone knew Her Majesty was proud and did not tolerate insubordination. Sera spoke with her advisers, or, in other words, friends. None of them wanted to attend this event. People like Lucy and Cass were interested in the city, but would''ve rather fought a battle than suffer through politics. Experience exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire Many shared that feeling, including David and Damien. They also didn''t want to meet or even be close to the Queen. Her reputation wasn''t the best. She treated all her guests well, but her ego could barely fit inside her gigantic castle. Previously, while tracking Harold, he encountered the Queen. In his opinion, meeting her once sufficed for a lifetime. Since nobody else wanted to, Sera decided to make it a family vacation. A week later, Bran could finally walk and even run again. He still looked extremely pale, but otherwise, he was okay. Sera took Bran and Vicky to London. They already needed to transport several others, thus requiring her daughter''s presence. They departed early. Their first destination was the city-state furthest to the east, named Odesz. The smaller city laid on the northern shore of the Black Sea. A married couple led Odesz, but at some point they introduced elections. They still get voted to lead the city every year. They were one of the cities which stayed unaligned. After a quick introduction, Vicky teleported all of them away to the next city. The wife managed everything while he was away, taking two advisors for the meeting. The next city on their list was Kiev. The city was one of the larger ones, close to the size of Rome, both in expanse and population. The man leading it was a sort of dictator. He held no elections and ruled with an iron fist. His citizens, oddly, accepted his rule. Though a dictator, he was just aiming solely for their betterment. It was definitely a weird arrangement. The man was also very sexist and only spoke with Bran, who ignored his every word. The air turned awkward after that, so they moved onto the next city. Vicky had talked only a little about her feelings with Sera. Sadly, she knew her mother''s emotional state couldn''t provide the support she needed. But that''s where Bran came into the picture. During Sera''s preparations and virtual meetings, he and Vicky spent most of their days together. She had a lot to do, but opening portals was easy. She didn''t even have to be nearby to open them. The first week, they just played and got to know each other more thoroughly, but after that, they became quite close. Somehow, he became her close confidant. She shared all her emotions, worries and pains with Bran, and he advised to the best of his knowledge. He suggested Vicky to stay in contact with her mother, and to be more accommodating to her. This wasn''t necessarily for Vicky, even though Bran knew the girl hated being away from her other mother. In a way, Bran felt guilty about the entire ordeal. He never wanted for Bea to leave. Even if eventually Sera would''ve chosen him, he wanted Bea to stay with them, for Vicky''s sake. Vicky felt conflicted about contacting Bea. She knew how hurt Sera felt, and wanted to be supportive towards her mother, but she also wanted to keep a relationship with her other parent. This decision was tearing her up on the inside, so Bran helped her. Afterward, Vicky began sending messages, and even video chatting with Bea. This didn''t mean she forgave her mother, in fact, she was using the communication as another form of torture. Bran thought nothing of it. In his opinion, his support of keeping the relationship alive elevated the guilt. He wasn''t responsible for Vicky''s vengeful upbringing and vindictive compliance. She wanted to hate her mother, and at the same time, have a relationship with her. The only way she could manage both was by being toxic. It was most definitely unhealthy, but all of Bran''s remnant guilt evaporated upon seeing Bea. The woman, whose entire world fell apart only a few weeks ago, now laughed and joked with the person she cheated with. They weren''t actively being intimate, but only a blind and deaf person would think they weren''t a couple. Bran hadn''t once heard Bea laugh so wholeheartedly. She also seemed a lot more happy. Bran turned towards Vicky with concern, but all he saw was a calm expression. He hadn''t even notice, that the little girl found Sera''s hand too, and now the three of them walked together. Sera wasn''t taking it nearly as well as Vicky. Her head was slowly turning red from anger, and her empty left hand trembled, her knuckled turning white. Her nails even dug into her palm, drawing a few drops of blood. A suffocating atmosphere appeared around the love of his life, and for a split second, Sera''s eyes glowed green. Bea was raising a glass of some drink to her lips when she suddenly dropped her drink and cursed while clutching her head. After a few seconds, her eyes widened, and she began looking around the room. When her eyes landed on the three of them, they turned melancholic. Vicky even rubbed salt on the wound by not even greeting her mother. She led the three of them away, to a large balcony, which connected to the lounge room. There they waited until Queen Elizabeth finally showed up. Chapter 285 The Queen and The God Few more hours passed before the few missing individuals showed up. Friendly conversation masked the underlying tension in the air. It didn''t help that Sera still hadn''t come inside after her arrival. The reason for her absence escaped most, but the more cunning ones saw her reactions upon noticing Bea. People immediately began asking who she was, and why Sera hated her. It had gotten so bad, Bea had to excuse herself and cool down in the bathroom. This angered Otto, and when Bea was gone, he went off on everyone. It scared them all, since he was still of Stellar Rank, able to kill all of them with his aura alone. However, a question persisted amongst those present, though not posed to Otto or Bea. Funnily enough, not a single one dared to speak with Sera. They would''ve rather angered a Stellar, then annoy the Deathless Phoenix. Sera, Bran, and Vicky stayed on the balcony. They stared out into the vast city of London, marveling at its beauty. The city had a large river bisecting it, called the Thames. Queen Elizabeth built her castle on the northern shore, giving Sera and her family a magnificent view of the southern side of the city. The balcony they occupied was a few hundred meters in the air, but even then, the skyline wasn''t that clear. Tall concrete giants stretched towards the sky on the other shore, obscuring their view. The castle was still the tallest building by far, but since they weren''t in one of the towers, which went up higher, they didn''t have the best view. They could see along the Thames, but the city seemed boundless. They couldn''t even see the walls, which indicated the city''s immense size. Sera spoke little, fully focusing on their upcoming meeting with the Queen. She needed to control her emotions during the discussions. Everyone''s life depended on her not acting like a raging, jealous fool. Bea being here caused a lot of her suppressed hatred to surface, but she was gradually calming down, or more like turning numb. The sudden surfaced anger was receding, leaving only her hollow, broken soul behind. Next to her, Bran and Vicky laughed as they pointed to places around the city, which they wanted to check out. Seeing and hearing them have fun, even though what happened, brought a smile to Sera''s face. She made a note to herself to ask the Queen permission to spend time exploring the city. They were already going to spend a few days here at least, since this meeting wasn''t a simple one. If they failed to solve their problems and create an amicable alliance between the city-states, they would lose the war. Napoleon already wrestled New Paris under his control. Now he''s in the process of getting his army back in order. Vicky, in coordination with the Angelic Order spies, got a good percentage of the army away. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire All the survivors of the culling deserted, and the soldiers from different city-states were living in New Constantinople. This was another topic of discussion for the meeting. Most soldiers wanted to get back to their own homes, but that required the city leaders'' approval. Another problem was the Federal Alliance and Central Command. They were awfully silent and inactive during the past week, which meant they were preparing for something big. The Queen only heard rumors and received secondhand information about Sera''s personality and desires. Even through screens, she could only see what Sera wanted her to see. This in person interaction was the first time she could judge Sera, and so the Deathless Phoenix decided to show her warrior side. The one that never backs down, even if the odds are wholly against her. Elizabeth remained unconvinced initially, so she continued to pressure Sera, but to no avail. When she became convinced about Sera''s willpower, she felt satisfied. "It is nice to finally meet the famous Deathless Phoenix, in my humble city!" People around the room held their laughter about her sentence. But the joke already served its purpose, elevating the serious atmosphere. "Humble? Really?! Your city has more people living inside, then my five own!... Anyway, the pleasure is all mine, Your Majesty!" Sera didn''t bow, as per required. Just because she showed respect and acknowledged the Queen''s status, she would never act like a subordinate to her, and Elizabeth understood this perfectly. They spoke for a while longer, then the Queen went around the room, greeting everyone personally. Most people bowed before her. In fact, everyone except Otto and Bea did. Afterward, she went to the lounge room''s door and waited for all of their attention. Her face held a small smile all throughout the welcoming, but now a grim, cold expression took hold of it. "Many of you have already noticed that Genf sent no representatives. We ourselves only received the news a few minutes before my arrival..." The crowd murmured as the Queen spoke. Sera herself noticed their missing presence, but thought little of it. Genf was a small city, with only a singular Transcended defending it. Elizabeth took a deep breath, and Sera noticed a small tremble in her closed fists. The Queen was furious. "Our spies reported the Federal Alliance''s new leader destroyed Genf. The entire city is gone, all its 6 million residents are either dead or worse..." The people continued to talk, but by this point Sera couldn''t hear them. Her mind went blank upon hearing the Queen''s words. The only noise inside was the persistent buzzing that was silent for a long time. "Who is this new leader?" asked one of the representatives, but the Queen''s eyes solely remained on Sera, gauging her reaction. "We no little about him, but we suspect he was behind the Federal Alliance all along. Our reports say he is an older man, wearing a lab coat and welding glasses. He is most likely an extremely powerful Transcended, who loves to experiment on anything alive..." Queen Elizabeth''s eyes stayed focused on Sera. There was a hidden understanding inside them, which meant she knew a lot more than she let on. "What''s his name?" asked someone else. The Queen was about to answer, when another voice answered. "Harold... His name is Harold..." Said Sera through gritted teeth, causing the room to fall into silence. Chapter 286 Alliance "...I just don''t understand why you can''t tell us more about him? If he is as bad as you make him out to be, why don''t you provide some evidence?" Asked the dictator of Kiev. After Sera''s initial reaction, the entire group went to a different room. This one had a large circular conference table with monitors on the walls and holographic screens in the middle of the table. Despite lasting over an hour, the meeting showed no sign of concluding. With her statement Sera began explaining why it was a problem that Harold came out of his hiding. Most people believed her, including the Queen, but there were leaders like the dictator, or Buda-Pest''s prime minister, who disregarded every single word Sera uttered. They believed her, but they wanted to take away her control over the conversation. Neither like Sera, but they needed her to survive, so instead of insulting her, they just made the discussion more difficult. "I won''t provide any evidence or explain my connection to him. But believe me when I tell you this, if he decided to show his face, then we are running out of time!... Now, can we talk about the actual reason we came here?" Around the table, heads nodded; before the dictator spoke, Elizabeth steered the conversation. "I understand why Seraphine refrains from explaining everything. She has some kind of past with Harold, and she doesn''t feel like sharing... I don''t know about all of you, but the only evidence I need and want is what I can check for myself..." "Genf is gone. Destroyed. The method remains unclear, however, this is unimportant. We know enough, Harold was the culprit. I don''t care what he had done to Seraphine. I don''t need evidence from her, since we already got enough to know his intentions aren''t good..." As she spoke, pictures of Genf began playing on the monitors. It reminded Sera of Newber, her home city. No buildings remained standing. There were holes in the ground where the bunkers were supposed to be. Harold didn''t simply destroy the city. He made sure not a single person remained alive. Everyone, from Evolved to normal humans, from soldiers to civilians, from mother to their children... Dead, all of them... Every single question, or disbelief, went out the window. There was no denying, whoever Harold was, he didn''t care about human life. Whatever his goal was, the price to achieve it was never too high. "As you can see, we fight something much worse than a corrupt person or government. This Harold is a pure evil individual, and the Federal Alliance with all its power is behind his back... So, let''s stop bickering and begin this fucking meeting, shall we?!" Queen Elizabeth was becoming increasingly annoyed. Nobody dared disagree with her, so everyone dropped the Harold subject. They will have other times to discuss the threat further, but there were more pressing matters currently. "First, I think we can all agree that the first enemy we need to deal with is Napoleon. He still hadn''t got all his army under control, so we have a significant chance to end the war with a single decisive blow." Her statement made perfect sense, and everyone was onboard, so the planning began. "What are his numbers currently?" asked a councillor from Wien. "Today''s session has been going on for a while now, but we have another important topic that we need to talk about..." The Queen looked at everyone around the conference table until her eyes landed on Sera. She already guessed what Elizabeth was going to say, since it was fairly obvious. "As you all know, after Seraphine''s victory in the Second Battle of Rome, the popularity of her religion increased quite a bit. The Angelic Order controls our civilians and their views, which makes it harder for us to lead them..." People nodded around the room in agreement, and they all gave a few angry glances to Sera. She just continued to sit silently under their scrutinizing gazes. "I''m sure this alliance between our city-states would go a long way, if you would kindly stop meddling with our cities'' inner politics!" This time, she couldn''t hold herself, and Sera began laughing at the Queen. A wave of emotions travelled through the golden-haired woman''s face, but at last it settled on boredom. "The Angelic Order isn''t under my control. Each city has its own chapter, which isn''t opened by my agents. Sure, I could take control away from them, but that''s not what the Order stands for..." "They aren''t there to cause chaos, but to serve the people. If your citizens don''t like how you treat them, or lie to them, then it isn''t my or my religion''s problem!" This wasn''t the answer the Queen wanted to hear. She was also a person who used propaganda to a greater degree, but the Angelic Order revealed every misinformation and lie she ever spread. As their leader and a narcissist, Queen Elizabeth couldn''t handle getting caught in her own lies. She would not reprimand her citizens, but she wanted to continue using information to control her image in the people''s minds. She wanted, or more like needed, to be revered by them. Her ego couldn''t take anyone''s rejection, so she also didn''t take Sera''s ''no'' well. The Queen opened her mouth, and Sera prepared herself for the beat down, but before she could''ve said anything, Otto spoke for the first time during the meeting. "Seraphine... How about you let everyone get in contact with the Angelic Order in their own cities? I''m sure it would go a long way if you would at least open a line of communication between them!" Sera stared at Otto with an annoyed expression, then she glanced at Bea, who hid behind the tall man. Obviously, this was Bea''s suggestion. Otto cared little about the Angelic Order, since he didn''t care about his image at all. With gritted teeth, she was about to reject the idea, but luckily for her, Bran was the ever present voice of reason next to her. She was about to make an emotional decision when she should''ve stayed calm. "We will talk with the Angelic Order''s leaders, and they will ask each chapter what they want. This decision will solely depend on them, but I''m sure they would want to be as civil as possible, since their whole religion stands for a better future!" This seemed to satisfy everyone, and soon the first meeting ended.@@@@ Chapter 287 The City of London The conference room emptied as the meeting concluded. Everyone got a map of the castle, with their own rooms highlighted. They also received maps of the city, with all its relevant landmarks. Exploration required an escort, though, so Sera and the others couldn''t just explore independently.@@@@ Many went to their rooms, while Sera and her family headed for the elevators, where a crowd was already waiting for them. They were their guides for city exploration. A young boy approached them, and he nervously muttered an introduction. "Good afternoon, Lady... S-Seraphine... My name is Henry... I will be your guide today!" The boy had short, golden hair and mesmerizing dark blue eyes. He was around twelve or thirteen years old, with pale white skin, like his mother''s. It wasn''t hard to guess the boy''s lineage, since his facial structure and hair color were the exact copy of Queen Elizabeth''s. The boy looked unnaturally nervous for a prince. He had no trouble looking at Sera or Bran; however, Vicky''s gaze prompted a swift blush and averted eyes. Read exclusive content at My Virtual Library Empire Sera turned towards her daughter, who also wasn''t staring at the boy, and had a similar blush on her face. Bran giggled next to them while Sera shook her head with an incredulous expression. "It''s nice to meet you, Your Highness!" said Sera, causing the boy to blush even harder. Vicky''s eyes widened with surprise. She hadn''t realized that Henry was the Queen''s son, which meant he was the Prince of London. This only worsened her reaction, though, and as they entered the elevator, a long, awkward ride commenced. Vicky and Henry stood as far away apart as they could, using Bran as a wall to hide. They, of course, stole glances at each other, but each time their eyes met, they blushed. Sera just stared at the elevator wall. The previous meeting and the upcoming discussions during their weeklong stay still occupied her mind. There was still a lot that needed to be discussed about their fragile alliance. Luckily, things had ended on a better note, mostly because of Bran and Bea, which she had mixed feelings about. On one hand, she was glad that the two of them subtly reigned her in, while on the other, she was still furious at Bea. Sera wasn''t even sure what she was angry about, since her ''betrayal'' happened nearly a month ago. Every time she thinks about that evening, she just feels an inexplicable anger... Or maybe it''s not anger, but something else, like fear, sadness, or disappointment. Even while suffering with amnesia, Kastral always talked about Bea, and how much they loved each other. Sera, of course, didn''t feel any love upon meeting with Bea for the ''first'' time, but she felt an obligation to her. Like everyone expected her to get back to Bea. Henry raised an eyebrow at her sudden question. He asked nothing though, and just pointed at the exact building on the map, while keeping his eyes on Vicky''s face. She didn''t even realize how close they were, and immediately after seeing where Henry was pointing, she teleported all of them there. The people walking up and down the street got very confused when the four of them disappeared, only leaving a strange boyish yelp behind. At the restaurant, which was Vicky''s target, gentle music played and the murmur of the guests sounded all around. A sudden scream coming from above the building abruptly broke the perfect, tranquil atmosphere. A few people rushed out immediately, to see four people falling towards the ground fast. In all her prideful determination to impress her crush, Vicky accidentally teleported them a few dozen meters above the restaurant, instead of at its entrance. Currently, they each were in freefall. Bran, Sera and Vicky were perfectly calm while Henry was screaming his lungs out in pure terror. Just as they were about to hit the ground, Sera opened her wings wide and swooped all three of them up. With Bran in one arm, and the kids in the other, she landed on the pavement as gently as she could, which meant she cracked it badly, leaving her feet imprinted on the concrete. People on the street, in the surrounding buildings, and even in the passing cars, stared at Sera in disbelief. Her wings were recognizable enough, but her clothes, hair, eyes and divine facial features were just as noticeable. Everyone froze as the realization settled inside them. The Deathless Phoenix stood only a few meters away. A few of them passed out from the shock of seeing her, while others, mostly the followers of the Angelic Order, went down on one knee. A few even had the seven-pointed star sewn into their clothes. Sera looked at the crowd for less than a second. Instead, she placed the three passengers on the ground. Vicky and Bran were alright, and had enormous grins on their faces, while Henry was... Stunned... He obviously wasn''t an Evolved yet and had no experience in a fight. The boy stood there, about to burst out in tears from the fear that still hadn''t left him. Sera was about to say something when her daughter came over and grabbed Henry''s hand. She gently led the boy away, towards the restaurant, with Sera and Bran following close behind. They entered and walked straight to a table that had the best view of the Thames. None of the staff members stopped them, especially after they realized that the pale boy was their prince. They took their seats. Sera and Bran sat on one side, and the children on the other. Vicky still held Henry''s hand, which had stopped trembling. He seemed to feel much better, but they continued to hold each other, which was quite cute. It took a few minutes for life to resume around the restaurant, but eventually a waiter came to take their order. Chapter 288 Tranquil Evening While waiting for their food, everyone ordered drinks for themselves. Vicky asked for a non-alcoholic cocktail while Henry got a glass of water. Sera and Bran each ordered glasses of red wine. They didn''t specify what kind of wine, so of course, the waiter brought the most expensive one. The young girl they assigned to their table was a nervous mess. Her hands trembled as she poured water from the pitcher, and she had to return to retake their order, because her handwriting was unreadable from the shaking. Bran tried making a few jokes to lighten the girl''s stress, but she only managed an awkward laugh before scurrying away. Several tables watched them, yet they remained unfazed. They were all significant political figures, so getting attention just by existing wasn''t new to them. Vicky was the only one feeling uncomfortable. She was a shy girl who stayed far away from the center of attention. She liked to stay hidden, so being watched always felt strange. Luckily, Henry''s presence was the perfect distraction. Being close to him made all her crowd-related stress disappear, yet she started overthinking every slight movement and gesture he made. Each time Henry reached for his glass, Vicky perked up and moved her hand closer to his side of the table. Henry ignored it; either from being unaware, or perhaps fearing he''d seem creepy. They remained quiet for a long time. Sera pondered, while Vicky and Henry tried ignoring their closeness. They were obviously very confused, since they were both young and uneducated about relationships and feelings. Sera knew they will have to broach this topic in private. Vicky''s education remained incomplete. She never went to school, and Sera was always too busy leading some group, city, or nation to pay attention to her daughter''s education. This issue required future correction. The list of her problems just kept growing the more she thought, so Sera made a bold move. She grabbed her glass of wine, leaned back, took a sip, and closed her eyes. All her tense muscles eased at once, and she sighed. A sound, born of deep-seated anxieties and accumulated pains, emerged from her. All the stress from the past two years left her body at once, and finally, after all this time, she relaxed. Everyone around the table stared at her with confused expressions, but for the next few minutes, she ignored all of them. Eventually, though, she took another sip of wine, opened her golden-green eyes and turned towards Henry. "Prince Henry, how old are you?" The boy didn''t flinch or make any expression about the question, he just answered immediately. "I will turn thirteen in a few months, Lady Seraphine. Also, you don''t need to use titles. Just call me Henry!" Sera nodded and opened her mouth to ask something else when her daughter spoke in a shy voice. "Can I call you Henry too?" He stared at her, clearly confused by the question. "Well, of course! Why couldn''t you Princess Victoria?" After the meal, they decided to walk along the Thames, while watching the sunset. The city had a large walkway built next to the river, which was full of people at that time of day. Vicky and Henry walked in the front. The two children constantly talked and giggled with each other, each one having the time of their lives. Behind them, a few meters away, walked Sera and Bran hand-in-hand. The sun touched the horizon, turning the sky and the river''s reflective surface bright red. Gusts of wind played with the branches of the leafless trees planted alongside the walkway. At the height of winter up north, the environment differed a lot from New Athens. The temperature went below zero during the night, and often snow covered the entire city. Even the Thames''s top layer would freeze at times, albeit that hadn''t happened for years. The atmosphere was truly peaceful, and Sera let herself take a deep breath from the fresh, cold air. A smile spread on her face, and next to her, Bran chuckled. The sound of small running feet shattered the surrounding peacefulness. When Sera opened her eyes, Vicky stood in front of her with an excited expression. "Mom! Henry has video games at his home, and he invited me to a sleepover! Can I go? Please!" Sera smiled brightly at her daughter, then looked to his right, silently asking for Bran''s opinion. He turned towards Henry, who stood a few meters away awkwardly. "Only the two of you will be at this sleepover?" he asked in a firm, fatherly tone. Henry shook his head, "Uh, no sir! A few of my classmates will be there as well!" "Then my lovely girl can attend too!" said Sera, then bent down and kissed Vicky''s forehead. In return she jumped up, and tightly hugged her mother, while repeatedly saying ''thank you''. After a few seconds of hugging, they continued to walk. Vicky stayed next to Sera, holding her other hand. She had a small frown on her face and seemed to be deep in thought. A few minutes later, Sera became curious and asked, "What is it, darling?" Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire Vicky flinched a bit from surprise, then looked at her mother with confusion. "Mommy, why have you stopped calling me Little Angel..." Her daughter might''ve said something else, but Sera''s might already shut down by that point. The small buzzing, which disappeared during the evening, suddenly turned into a violent scream inside her head. Sera''s fight or flight kicked in by those words. She took a step away from a confused Vicky and a worried Bran. In her palm, a golden glaive appeared, while on her back four wings spread wide. Within the next second, her intricate golden armor covered her body. She immediately began scanning the terrified crowd for signs of Harold. Her breathing turned heavy, while her heart pumped as fast as it could. It took Sera a few endless seconds to realize what had happened. Slowly, her armor and weapon disappeared, but she was too embarrassed to look at her daughter. With teary eyes, Sera flew into the sky, leaving the Bran, Vicky, and Henry on the walkway alone. Chapter 289 Cordial Conversation Night arrived to the city of London. The skyscrapers burned brightly with artificial light, while further down the Thames family houses warmly glowed, inviting the weary workers home. The city looked beautiful during the day, but at night its true magnificence showed. Undoubtedly, the castle was the most amazing. The giant structure stretched above the city, looming over the skyscrapers. It had a large empty park around it, making the building even more prominent. Each of its long towers had different lights glowing on their roofs, while large reflectors illuminated the main building from below. It gave the entire castle an ominous but also wonderful aura. The city looked beautiful from an aerial view, and since Sera sat atop one of the castle towers, her view couldn''t get any better. She stared out at the city with red-rimmed eyes. She spent the last few hours crying about her past. Sera never truly realized how far her trauma had gone. Even just hearing that terrible name Harold always called her brought a sudden influx of memories of her torture. Each death weighed heavy on her soul, and hearing that name made her feel suffocated. Her flight or fight reflex kicked in, but since Harold wasn''t there, she got a strange sense of fear. Faced with either terrified stares or questioning looks on the street, Sera felt compelled to flee. She flew to the top of a skyscraper, where she hid until night fell. Afterward, she changed places to this very tower, so she could cry with no one bothering her. The chilly night air absently played with her long golden hair. She had both her pristine white wings draped over her, like a shroud or cloak. It kept her warm, even though her heart felt frozen. A few hours ago she wrote to Bran, telling him she was fine, but needed time. As always, he understood her perfectly, and knew exactly what bothered her. He was truly the best. These past two years, Sera''s survival seemed impossible without him. All the suffering sacrifices felt less when she had someone to share her burdens with. Even now, in her depressed state, she couldn''t hide the smile that grew on her face just by thinking about him. Sera remembered how love felt only vaguely. It resembled her current feelings, and just the thought of loving again made her thrilled. Her emotions absorbed Sera so completely that she didn''t hear someone appear beside her. "What are you grinning about?" said a familiar feminine voice from right beside her. She yelped and nearly fell off from the unexpected newcomer''s voice. After stabilizing herself, Sera turned towards the newcomer. On her right sat a beautiful woman with a seductive body and bright brown hair. Bea held a hand to her mouth, trying to hold back her laughter. Sera averted her gaze, shame visible, then sighed and began laughing. With it, Bea couldn''t hold it any longer either. Her laughter soon followed. It took Sera a few minutes to gather herself. She lowered her wings, showing her tear-marked face. There was an inexplicable sadness within those golden-green eyes, but there was no anger towards Bea, which was quite surprising. "I''m sorry Bea... I''m sorry how I treated you... I''m sorry I lead you on... I''m so sorry that I''m broken... I''m sorry I lost my love for you..." She needs to take a few deep breaths to gather enough strength and continue. "I could name all the excuses in the world, and they still wouldn''t be enough to justify my actions... I don''t expect forgiveness, I just want our daughter to live in a happy family, even if we aren''t together... She needs her other mother. She acts like she doesn''t, but she always talks about you with Bran..." Bea just stared at her speechlessly. She tried to bring herself to interrupt, to apologize too, but instead it only made her anger boil over. Just as Sera was about to continue, Bea''s hand moved quickly, delivering a slap to her ex. "NO! You don''t get to apologize and dismiss everything that happened! You know how much I suffered?! Oh, you suddenly feel bad for everything you did?!... No FUCK YOU! You just want to absolve yourself, so we can be cordial co-parents! You don''t give a fuck about me! You only care for yourself!..." Sera''s sad expression slowly changed, and a frown grew on her face. While Bea''s shouts still echoed in the night, Sera interrupted. She didn''t raise her voice, her anger wasn''t blazing, but cold and calculated... Terrifying... "You suffered? Have they ever told you how many times I have died in the past two years?... Close to 450... A few were deaths I suffered in battle, but most happened under Harold''s care... That means I would get tortured and killed each day, only to resurrect and do it all over again..." Bea opened her mouth, but no words came out. She couldn''t refute anything Sera had said, and she even felt bad for overlooking her trauma. Since she said nothing, Sera continued. "I only care about myself? I might be selfish with my personal life. I''ll give you that... Yes, I fucked around in the past two years, because those were the only times when I felt something, but never say I only care about myself..." "A whole religion, five city-states with millions living inside, and our own daughter would refute your claims, anyway... I have lead people through suffering, through the darkness, into the light, and I never asked for anything in return!" While talking, Sera stood up and walked towards Bea. Sera seemed terrifying as she stepped towards her, and for a moment, Bea felt what all of those people Sera killed must''ve felt. In that moment, she wasn''t her past lover, or her daughter''s mother, but the warlord who conquered five cities without a single battle fought. The one who is weaker in power than any of her opponents, and still feared more. The person who felt no fear and would walk straight into hell for her daughter. She stopped a meter away and looked down at Bea with cold eyes. "I wanted to have a cordial conversation with you, about our and our daughter''s future, but it seems you still need some time... Understandable, and I''m truly sorry for what happened... Contact me when you want to talk!" With that, Sera walked to the edge of the roof and stepped off, leaving Bea in stunned silence. Bea watched as her wings opened and she made an arc towards her room''s balcony. The roof turned quiet again. The only sound was the lone raven''s croak. Chapter 290 Sleepover After Sera left, Vicky became really sad. Her words caused the strange reaction, and so she blamed herself for distressing her mother. Luckily, Bran was there to calm and comfort her. He told her it wasn''t her fault, and that her words brought back Sera''s trauma. He spoke kindly and with as much warmth as he could muster. It took nearly an hour to convince Vicky that she wasn''t the one to blame. Henry stayed near Vicky all this time, listening to their words silently. He continued holding Vicky''s hand, which Bran didn''t like, but since it made Vicky feel better, he didn''t feel right about stopping it. Following sunset, they headed back to the castle. Vicky stared at the glowing buildings stretching far into the sky around her. She had never seen anything like this. New Athens was a magnificent city, but it has ancient beauty, while London was more modern, and flashy. Both were amazing in their own way; however, she favored New Athens'' tranquility. Yet, she acknowledged London''s artistic value. The buildings were less unique, but they were more gigantic. The people seemed less happy, however, with their numbers, contentment was a good enough compromise. Upon seeing the castle, Vicky stopped breathing for a few seconds. She opened her mouth, yet no words came out. A stunning, picturesque sight stretched in front of them. As reflectors lit the castle from below, it made everything more enormous. Its foreboding presence loomed down on everyone who looked up, and from above dozens of different colored towers stared down at humans, like they were ants. She stayed staring at the building for a few minutes, and only after Henry''s small but persistent pulling did she begin moving. Bran followed them close behind. Explore more adventures at My Virtual Library Empire They entered the castle with no problem. The guards knew who all of them were and had no reason to stop them. They moved towards the elevators, but before reaching them, Bran stopped the two children. "Could I speak with the Prince for a moment? Just between the two of us." Vicky stared at them with a raised eyebrow, then shrugged and moved away to the elevators. Henry watched her leave with a small smile and only after she was out of sight did he turn towards Bran. He said nothing, but her eyes were full of curiosity, prompting him to speak. "We haven''t really talked about it, but Vicky probably still wants to go on the sleepover, if you don''t mind... She is a sensitive kid you know, so don''t hurt her feelings..." Henry stared at him with a raised eyebrow, full of confusion. "Why would I hurt her? I never hurt my friends, and they never hurt other either!" Bran just laughed at the child''s naivety and jumped onto the real topic he wanted to discuss. As the elevator stopped, her anxiety spiked. They had to walk to a separate elevator, which went up to Henry''s tower. On the way, neither said anything. They just both awaited the inevitable meeting. The elevator crawled upward ever so slowly. Vicky''s heart beat fast, but she kept her cool on the outside, or at least she tried to. But only when Henry grabbed her hand did the stress decrease. She didn''t even notice when the elevator opened. Vicky stared at Henry, when something soft, bur firm hit her head. A snickering laughter echoed in the room, but it quickly died down as Vicky looked inside. Four kids stood there, three boys and one girl. They looked at Vicky with shocked expressions. With confusion, Vicky looked to her feet where the object, which hit her head, landed. It was a white ornamental pillow, the kind people used to decorate their sofas and beds. She bent down and picked it up. For a few seconds she looked at it, then tossed to the four kids. They didn''t react as it landed at their feet. Each of their eyes kept jumping between Vicky and Henry. The connection of their hands likely contributed to their bewilderment. They stayed standing in the elevator for a few seconds, staring at each other. Vicky began feeling awkward, so she turned to Henry and whispered, "Why are they staring at me?" In that moment, it was like a thunderbolt hit Henry. Whatever trance he had fallen into came to an end, and with an embarrassed expression he stepped forward, hiding his and Vicky''s hand behind him. "Uh... Hey guys! I made a new friend today, and I invited her to the sleepover too!... I hope you don''t mind... Uh..." Henry was unsure of how to proceed, so Vicky took things into her own hands. This wasn''t the first time she had to introduce herself, albeit she never done it with people her age. "Hello everyone! My name is Victoria. Nice to meet you!" She said with a cheery voice, while waving towards the four kids. Their postures visibly changed as the invisible tension dispersed into the air. They each gave Vicky a few interested looks, judging her appearance and nature. None of them were stupid. Each of them saw how remarkable Vicky looked. Even as a child two years younger than them, she was much more beautiful than any teen they had seen before. Her hair and iris were also unnaturally white. Her milky white skin had a glimmer to it, making her even prettier. They quickly put everything together and figured out she must''ve been an Evolved. What they couldn''t figure out was whose child she was. Luckily for them, Vicky took the elongated silence as an invitation to say more. "Uh... You might''ve heard about my mother... Her name is Seraphine... Oh! By the way, I''m an Ascended!" Now this freaked all of them out! Chapter 291 New Friends Henry held and shook his head as those words left Vicky''s lips. He regretted his silence during the elevator ride. It was a mistake not giving suggestions to Vicky, so she could better communicate. He would''ve definitely advised to keep her familial background hidden from his friends, or at least not dump everything on them in the first minute of their meeting. The problem wasn''t how famous Sera was. In London, everyone knew Henry''s mother, and they all loved her. But Sera was different. She wasn''t just a city''s leader; she wasn''t just an Evolved; she wasn''t just a warlord. That woman was a straight up legend! A myth people always discussed, but never imagined meeting. This is what Sera''s presence meant for most. But others, the worshippers of the Angelic Order, were much weirder. Unlike most, they didn''t think of Sera as a mere legendary character, but like an actual god who walked their plane of existence. Even worse, there was one person in his friend group who was part of the Angelic Order. The other girl watched Vicky; disbelief, joy, hope, and adoration warred within her gaze. Henry''s friends slowly came back to their senses. It took them a while, but eventually, they managed to turn away from Vicky. The shock lingered, but lessened with time. Vicky''s understanding remained nonexistent. She knew her mother was famous, and worshipped, like she should be. She only received such treatment when Sera was nearby, never alone. It made her quite uncomfortable, and she was uncertain if she wanted to stay or not. As she started formulating an excuse to depart, the shy girl approached and extended a hand in greeting. The girl was smaller than Vicky, even though she definitely looked older. Her auburn curly hair went down to her waist, only kept together by a lone hair tie. Her large, gleaming, light blue eyes couldn''t look away from Vicky''s white ones. She was a very pretty girl, but also rather shy. Vicky felt her hand tremble as she grasped it and gave a gentle, but noticeable shake. She clearly heard the woman''s heartbeat increase, and her breathing became uneven. She took a few deep breaths before gathering enough strength to speak. "N-nice... Nice to meet you... Princess Victoria... M-my name i-is... Lydia!" Her meek voice tried to talk further, but the emotions overwhelmed her, and after introducing herself, Lydia passed out. She fell towards the floor quickly, but just as she nearly hit the wood, a portal opened below her, teleporting her unconscious body to the nearby gigantic couch. This display did nothing to calm the others down. Henry shook his head again and decided to finally interfere. "Okay everyone! I know this is unexpected, exciting, and amazing, but please stop acting like weirdos around my new friend! Yes, she is the daughter of the Deathless Phoenix, yes she is an Ascended already, even though she is only eleven! Now, could we get on with the evening?" It was actually really similar to how Henry talked when not behind closed doors. He had to learn how to talk formally, since his status was London''s only Prince. They imagined Vicky went through something like that as well, just much more thoroughly. For Vicky''s sake, they did nothing too extreme on the sleepover. The seven kids made popcorn, then popped a horror movie into Henry''s oversized Holo-Screen. Vicky did not know what a horror movie was. She wasn''t even sure what a normal movie referred to. They all sat down on the couch. Vicky stayed near one edge, with Henry close by. Most of the boys gave him a wink upon seeing their closeness, but he ignored all of them. Lydia sat close to Henry, but it wasn''t because of him. She wanted to stay near Vicky, hoping to befriend her. Few people knew, but she was a devout follower of the Angelic Order, so meeting with her gods'' daughter felt elevating. Next to her sat Glenn, trying to get close, but not close enough to make Lydia feel uncomfortable. Glenn was clearly attracted to her, yet his usual talkativeness failed him when it came to expressing his feelings. Continue reading at My Virtual Library Empire His fathers weren''t much help in this regard, either. They just kept pushing him to ask her out on a date, but couldn''t provide actual advice on how. Max, Jamie, and Dan sat next to him. They were happily munching on popcorn as the movie went on. The movie wasn''t particularly gory, but it had its scary moments. Each jump scare made them all jump and scream. Well, everyone except Vicky. The movie was about a regular human and his family. They get attacked by some scary monster in their own enormous home, and it hunts them down one by one, quickly and silently, until only the main character remains. At the end of the movie, he manages to kill the monster after losing all his family, by blowing up his childhood home, with him and the monster still inside. During the movie, Vicky couldn''t stop asking questions about the monster''s abilities. She also complained a lot about how inaccurate the depiction of the monster was, or how unrealistic and ineffective its hunting was. It should''ve been really annoying, listening to Vicky''s constant commentary, but with each question or complaint, she provided a personal short story, which always ended in gore and death. When the movie came to its end, none of the kids payed attention to it, and instead they attentively listened to Vicky''s every word. She finished her story soon and looked at Henry with curiosity. "This was fun. Even if it wasn''t accurate at all, I can see why people enjoy watching these! What do we do next?" She asked with excitement. Before Henry could''ve answered, Jamie suddenly appeared nearby and with a mischievous smile said, "Let''s play Truth or Dare!" Chapter 292 Truth or Dare After a quick explanation, Vicky was really excited to play Truth or Dare. She always loved playing games, but there wasn''t anybody who she could play with. The only person who also loved playing with her was Sam, the human turned goblin. Due to the Second Siege of Rome and various other reasons, she hadn''t met him in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for updates on My Virtual Library Empire Her mood was mostly gloomy, but her new supportive friends made her feel much better. With them all, her worries seemed to disappear, and she slowly remembered how a girl of her age should act. All seven of them sat down around the coffee table, which they had previously cleaned off of useless items. Only a lone bottle was placed sideways in the middle, waiting for someone to spin it. Jamie turned towards Vicky, and with a wide, excited smile said, "The newest member spins the bottle first!" Vicky just shrugged, then gave a gentle spin to the bottle, which for an Evolved meant letting it spin for a good twenty seconds. Eventually, it stopped pointing at Lydia. The girl looked nervous as Vicky asked the obvious question. "Truth or dare?" "Uh... Truth!" she said with excitement. Vicky was glad she didn''t ask for a dare, since she had no clue what that implied. She understood the requests supposed to be unusual, possibly repulsive in nature, yet its boundaries remained unclear. Like should she ask the person to lick the floor, or bloody someone up? Her worldview differed significantly from the norm, so knowing the limits of the requests was crucial. She would''ve rather avoided making herself look like a fool. With questions, though, she couldn''t go wrong! "Lydia, have you ever seen someone die before your eyes?" There were indeed wrong questions to ask. This fact settled in Vicky quickly, since every single person stared at her, like she was insane for even thinking about death. The awkward atmosphere persisted until Henry began laughing. It wasn''t from pity, and he wasn''t mocking her. The sheer disbelief of Vicky''s personality caused his laughter to explode out of him. With him, the silence broke, and every started chuckling. Vicky just stared at them with confusion, still not fully comprehending why her question brought this reaction. For her, seeing people die was a normal occurrence. Quite a few of them died from her own abilities. But her thoughts soon came to an end when a hand gently patted her head. She looked to her right and saw Henry looking at her with those remarkable dark blue eyes of his. They seemed to shine under the room''s artificial light. There was a strange gravity inside them, bringing her closer to Henry. Before she even realized, her hands wrapped around the prince, and she gave him a warm hug. The laughter abruptly ended, and the snickering began between the boys. "Yes... Yes I have!" he answered, but Jamie wasn''t satisfied. "None of this half answer. Just because I technically didn''t ask for her name, doesn''t mean I don''t want you to say it out loud... Come now, don''t be a wuss!" Henry took a deep breath. He hid his trembling hands, then stared into Jamie''s eyes as he spoke through gritted teeth. "Victoria..." The room plunged into silence. Vicky''s eyes widened and a small smile appeared on her face, which she tried to hide, but failed miserably when a giggle escaped her lips. They all exchanged glances, then erupted into loud laughter. Nobody joked or made fun of their obvious connection. They were just poking fun at them, having a great time. None of them wanted to actually offend either Vicky or Henry. The bottle spun again and again. Several questions and tasks later, Vicky was having the time of her life. She was playful, mirroring her peers, her new friends. She felt strangely at home, wishing the night would never end. The bottle pointed at her repeatedly, but she always choose truth. The questions weren''t anything too special, at least not for her. The most interesting ones were: ''What was the strongest monster she killed?'' ''Is having Sera as a mother, good or bad?'' ''What was killing like?'' She answered each question truthfully, even when it was uncomfortable to say it out loud. ''Her watch couldn''t even classify the strongest monster she killed!'' ''Sera was the best mother!'' ''Horrible, when done to your family and friends, amazing when delivered as justice to bad people!'' The last answer surprised most of them. They all believed that killing was always bad, but when Vicky went into a thorough explanation of its philosophy and morality, their opinions became inconclusive. Only Henry and Lydia agreed with her fully, but the others didn''t try to argue either, since they had no experience with death. Even Max, with his Evolved fathers, knew little about the subject, since they usually kept him away from such topics, and dodged his attempts at learning more. Other than these questions, they were all having fun, until inevitably, the bottle turned towards Vicky again, and she finally decided to do a dare. The four boys grinned while Henry tried to dissuade Vicky. She, of course, didn''t understand why they were acting so strangely, so she ignored Henry and moved on with the dare. That was when Dan, with a giggle, said, "I think we all know what the dare is!... Kiss the prince!" Vicky''s eyes widened from shock, and she glanced at Henry, blushing in the process. The prince was about to object to their dare, since Vicky seemed uncomfortable, but before he could, the white-haired girl moved faster than his brain worked. One moment, she was sitting next to him, blushing heavily. In the next, she was in front of him, pressing a small kiss to his lips. It lasted less than a second, but for Henry, it was like an eternity. Their lips barely graced each other, but he yearned for more. He wanted nothing else but to feel Vicky again. With a small smile he turned to his left, where Vicky hid her blushed face behind her arms, while everyone else giggled and cheered. In that moment, Henry made the decision... He would marry this girl! Chapter 293 Night Terror After the kissing incident, everyone got bored of Truth or Dare, so instead they sat back on the couch and played some video games. Vicky, yet again, was unfamiliar with these types of games, so she never managed to win. Henry nearly let her once, but after giving him a chilling stare, he stopped holding back. The games were nothing too exciting. They played a racing game, and a fighting one. They invented characters, all of which disregarded physical laws and moved in impossible ways. To be honest, Vicky enjoyed these games a lot more than Truth or Dare. She laughed hard when everyone mocked and insulted each other playfully. She found the friendly banter to be a new and exciting experience. They refrained from badmouthing her, though, which was kind of a bummer. She wanted them to treat her like they treat each other. But Vicky also knew that they weren''t close enough. She hoped in the future she could fully integrate herself, so she could have true friends of her age. They continued to play for a few more hours, but eventually they all got tired, except for Vicky. She could''ve stayed awake, playing for days, but sadly her friends didn''t have the same Evolved constitution. Enjoy exclusive chapters from My Virtual Library Empire Each of them took a quick shower. Everyone had spare clothes at Henry''s home, except Vicky, who had to borrow some from Lydia. The smaller girl''s clothes didn''t fit her well at all, but she was still grateful for her kindness. Lydia probably would''ve rather slept naked, giving away her only clothes, just so Vicky could wear it. After showring they all went to Henry''s bedroom. It was gigantic. The room''s sizable bed easily held them all, yet barely took up space. The bedroom had its own lounge area, with its own Holo-Screen and video game console. His wardrobe alone could be a bedroom on its own. His closets and chests overflowed with toys, many never used. He also had a desk with its own Screen. Neat piles of papers, books, and notebooks were stacked atop one another. The room was really tidy, everything in perfect order. It reflected Henry''s personality to a great extent. It was the room of a kind, calm person who definitely had a mild obsessive-compulsive disorder when it came to keeping everything under his control. They all crawled inside the bed, then with a voice command henry turned off the lights. Unlike how Vicky expected, they didn''t go to sleep immediately after darkness consumed the room. Instead, they began chatting with each other. They joked about teachers at school, made fun of each other. Vicky couldn''t remember when she laughed so hard. She wished the night stay endless however, everyone eventually quieted as they drifted into deep slumber. Vicky laid next to Henry, and when she was sure he wouldn''t notice, she gently hugged him from the side. A subtle smile touched her lips as sleep claimed her, and she entered the realm of dreams and nightmares. ... They ran past Vicky, like she didn''t even exist. Hundreds of human, wearing strange clothes. It was like a bedsheet wrapped around their bodies. They also wore sandals, which proved hard to run with. A few men seemed like soldiers. They wore scaled shoulder and body armor, and a few even had helmets on. Some held short swords, others carried spears and shields, but all of them were running from the threat behind. It took Vicky a few more seconds to finally lay eyes upon the creatures. They were monstrous beings between 2,5 and 3 meters. Behind them, a pair of gigantic bat-like wings spread, carrying them towards mayhem and slaughter with ease. They wore hellish black heavy armor. From their helmets, horns protruded out, revealing their identity to Vicky. Their wicked weapons broke human bodies with ease, and they seemed to enjoy the sight of death, blood, and gore. The demons casually chased after the humans while chanting. They weren''t even running, like they enjoyed the chase and the sound of screams more than delivering death. They were closing in where Vicky stood, when suddenly they stopped. Their chanting abruptly turned silent, and their entire demeanor changed. They turned towards the sky, a deep growl reverberating through the surroundings. Vicky watched in awe as the dark sky above the city spilt open. A bright light shined from its depths and with it, thousands of angelic forms descended. Their divine, white-feathered wings carried them gracefully towards the battleground below. They wore intricate golden armor and weapons burning with heavenly fire. From all over the city, a different chanting rose, and with it, every single demon took flight. It didn''t take long for the two forces to meet and deliver death to their foes. Corpses rained down as the demons and angels fought. The sound of fighting within the city grew as well, since not every angel or demon died in the fall. Some only had broken wings, while others had more deadly wounds. The fighting eventually reached the street where Vicky stood. The few surviving humans got caught in the fight, and that''s when she realized the angels weren''t their saviours at all. They watched them die and even killed humans if they got in their divine way. Each angel was there with a single purpose, and that wasn''t protecting, but the opposite... The wanted to eradicate demons and like true warriors, they did their best. The angels outnumbered the demons heavily, and it seemed the lights from heaven brought strength to allies and weakened foes. In the sky, less than a hundred demons still fought when something changed. Vicky smelt something strange in the air, a mix of blood, metal and sweat, the smells of war and fighting. With curiosity and concern, she turned around. A few kilometers away, atop a hill''s ridgeline, she saw a lone rider watching over the city. He sat on a fiery horse, colored with blood. In his hand, a giant greatsword awaited the slaughter. His armor hid his face except his eyes, which held a deep satisfaction within its depths The man''s blood-red eyes scanned the city until it landed on Vicky. He turned his head for a moment, then raised his enormous greatsword, pointing it right at her. "WAKE UP!" she heard the voice more clearly than ever, and she finally remembered who the voice belonged to... The Huntress... Chapter 294 Spilled Blood "WAKE UP!" screamed the voice inside her head. She recognized it... The Huntress, that strange woman who helped with her Evolution. This realization regarding the voice proved fleeting. As the terrible rider''s blood-red eyes landed on Vicky, a strange feeling took over her heart. It consumed her, the need to destroy, to kill, to slaughter and maim. She felt the need to fight, exterminate any resistance against her will. She wanted; needed to conquer; to claim what was rightfully hers; to rule over the world as its heir. Vicky felt the call of battle, of struggle, of bloodshed... Of War... The red horse neighed on the hill, and its rider took off towards the city. Within his wake came the uncontrollable slaughter. Around Vicky demons battled demons, angels slayed angels, and humans, the final survivors, began fighting amongst themselves. Everyone screamed around her, but she didn''t care as her blood pumped and her heart pounded. She desired combat, yet she knew she couldn''t, since this was only a dream. Just as the killing reached its height, everything suddenly stopped. The city seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as every sound of battle went mute. Above Vicky, a loud neighed echoed through the buildings. Everything turned peaceful as, from the split sky, a rider descended. Her winged-horse was deep blue, carrying tranquility in its wake. Its rider wore a full battle armor, hiding all of her body, except her eyes, which were serene, light blue. In her hand, she carried a long lance made of some divine metal. She rode down to the ground, and clashed with the red rider outside of Vicky''s view. She didn''t see them meet, but the blow reverberated through her whole being. The sound of metal meeting metal rang inside her skull as the final dream fell apart. ... The feeling hadn''t passed as Vicky''s eyes snapped open. The need to destroy and kill it overwhelmed her mind. In her confused and wild state, she nearly hadn''t noticed the disturbance in space. Darkness consumed the room, yet Vicky sensed her environment without sight. A few meters away, she felt forms moving in the darkness. At first she believed it was one of her friends, but no, they were too tall and muscular to be thirteen-year-olds. Some were even more gigantic than Aunt Astrid or Uncle Leslie. She felt seven forms moving in the shadows, approaching the bed with weapons drawn. As the realization of danger hit her mind, a strange sense of tranquility took hold of her. In her mind she carried the peace of that woman, riding the blue winged-horse. While in her heart, she carried the war of that man, riding the red horse. Vicky felt unbound by human emotions like worry, confusion, anger, and fear. She felt the threat approaching, and without giving it much thought, she acted. First, she checked on all six of her friends. Each of them calmly slept on the gigantic bed. She felt Henry lying partially on top of her, which was a bit distracting. Only the archer remained. Vicky did nothing too extensive with him. She just reached forward, through a portal, then grabbed onto something, and pulled her bloodied hand out. Within her grasp, the man''s still beating heart rested. She stared at it for a few seconds, then let it fall on the stained floor. It landed the same time as the archer''s body collapsed. After a short wait, Vicky opened a final portal on the ceiling. Through it, the free-falling man entered with terminal velocity, breaking the wooden floorboards as his body crumpled into a pile of broken bits and pieces. With bloodshot eyes, she looked around at what remained of Henry''s bedroom. The furnitures, including the enormous bed, broke into splinters. Gore covered everything from the broken floor to the ceiling and walls, with two semi-intact bodies contributing to the disgusting decor. She took a few deep breaths before transforming back into her human form. Her own body wasn''t much better than the room, but at least her own blood remained inside her body. She felt a bit proud of herself. Fighting off this many enemies in a surprise ambush wasn''t easy, but she managed to do it without getting hit once! Her only disappointment was nobody remained whom she could interrogate. Curiously, she walked up to the archer''s corpse. His armor hadn''t disappeared, which was quite strange. It meant he wasn''t wearing an Item, but a real, physical armor. The weapons also remained after everyone''s death. With her Locator passive ability, she easily sensed the space around the man''s face, creating a mental picture of his appearance. Extensive scarring marred his face and body. Not a single portion of his corpse was left untouched. She also noticed weird inaccuracies over his body. For example, none of his fingers were the same length, even his arms didn''t match. He was also missing his reproductive organ. Intrigued, Vicky walked to the woman''s corpse, and checked her body too. She had similar defects and scars. Her breasts weren''t the same size, her ears were also different, and the legs differed in length. Sadly, examining the other corpses proved impossible. But even examining only these two caused a horrible feeling to spread over her. These corpses didn''t feel right. Even how they acted during the fight seemed inhumane. They felt pain, but otherwise didn''t care, or had any real self-preservation. Enjoy new stories from My Virtual Library Empire It felt similar when they fought those zombies back on Harold''s island. They lacked strength and exhibited wild behavior. They were closer to uncontrollable beasts than humans. These felt almost human. Their combat skills rivaled trained fighters'', while their physical prowess exceeded most Ascended''s. If Vicky would''ve been a melee fighter, she would''ve most likely lost the battle. Another issue rose in her head, and the thought terrified her. For some reason, they all had different body parts, almost like someone artificially made them... And there was only one person capable of such... As this thought hit Vicky''s mind, a strange feeling came over her. Something was wrong, but it took her a second to figure out. A meter behind her, a third corpse appeared. Confused, Vicky turned around, but it was already too late, as she felt the cold metal pierce the skin of her chest... Chapter 295 Room Full of Gore She felt as the cold metal pierced her clothes and entered her skin. Blood trickled down her chest as the sword pushed on, seemingly unstoppable. By the time her scream of pain echoed in the room, the sword already passed her layers of pectoral muscle and broke her rib. The cold metal cut its way inside her. In that moment, genuine fear gripped Vicky''s soul, something she never experienced before. In her mind, she was already dead. The sword continued to move past her rib until it entered her left lung. The pain was indescribable. She screamed so loudly her throat began to ache. Tears ran down her face as she felt her meeting with death approaching. As the sword neared her heart, internal change occurred. Like a glass shattering, she felt a well of power within her soul. This power had nothing to do with her Evolved status. This was her human heritage. Her will, her strength, the source of her defiance towards mother nature''s constant attempts on her life. A power like no other. She felt her resolve settle, and her pain disappear. Her pupils dilated as adrenaline flowed through her body. Her iris turned blood-red, and she continued to scream, but this time it wasn''t from pain, but pure anger. Vicky screamed with her determination unbroken, with her will to live, stronger than ever. The purest human emotion spread across her being... The instinct to survive at all cost... Just as the sword''s tip touched her heart, she opened a portal within her own body. Vicky took a step backward just as she closed the portal. She severed the blade''s tip, saving herself, then let it exit through her bloody chest. The pain reddened her vision, but she didn''t care. Rivers of blood flowed from her open chest wound, but she didn''t care. Her breathing became heavier and wet, as her left lung filled with blood, but she didn''t care. Her senses were all focused on her opponent. She heard him grunt his annoyance, then she felt him move to attack. Vicky''s body transformed, turning pure black. The pure star in her chest turned blood-red from her gore covered body. As the broken blade tried to pierce her neck, gravity increased by a lot. Even Vicky wasn''t sure how much power she used. She also concentrated all that power on the man''s upper-body, making him explode into minced meat. Blood rained from the ceiling, dripping down heavily on Vicky. Not like it mattered. Blood already covered every bit of her body. She took a deep breath, gasping at the piercing pain in her chest. Her wound wasn''t healing, which was definitely not good, but using her Locator ability, she quickly realized a more disturbing issue. Right now, she felt more bodies reforming. Everyone she killed got back up. There mix and matched bodies growing back to their previous forms. Previously, Vicky was curious what abilities did these Evolved possessed. She thought they had some sort of physical strength increase, but as it turned out, their actual power was extreme regeneration. On Vicky''s face a few paths cleared of blood, as her tears washed the redness away. She lifted her trembling hands and summoned a portal on the closest assassin''s neck. It cut through skin, muscle, and bone, separating his head from the rest of his body. The man stopped for half a second, then near immediately the wound regenerated, and his arm caught Vicky''s throat. He lifted her body like she had no weight at all. He possessed no weapon in his other hand. Her portals destroyed every weapon, except for the lone dagger still stuck in her leg. He eyed her thigh, gripped the embedded dagger, and swiftly removed it. She screamed as the weapon left her body. Her vision blackened, and she passed out for a few seconds. Despite that, she could still feel the cold metal as the man sliced a clear line through her body. From her right hip to her right chest, he cut deeply, then stabbed the dagger as far as he could inside her right lung. Most of her ribs broke by the sheer force of the impact. Vicky couldn''t even scream as the giant wave of pain took hold of her whole being. Her eyes drooped as all the fight, anger, hatred, and the urge to kill left her beaten body. She desired life, yet perceived no path to it. The man pulled the dagger out again, then let go of her neck. She fell into the lake of blood, nearly drowning in it. With her Locater, she felt the seven move closer, preparing to end her life. She spared them one defiant look before trying out her last desperate plan. Your journey continues at My Virtual Library Empire When the fight started, the dream''s weird emotions consumed her, and forgot a very important detail... She didn''t need to fight to achieve victory... The seven moved towards her, raising their remnant weapons. Vicky gathered all her remaining power, and using all her essence, she opened a portal around all seven assassins. She made sure no part of them hung outside of the teleportation, then she made all seven of them disappear. Through the portals, a large amount of water entered the room too, diluting the knee deep lake of blood. Vicky sat with her back to the wall. The bloody water reached her neck. She could barely keep her head high enough to breathe. The seven portals closed fast, teleporting all the assassins to the bottom of the ocean. Vicky wasn''t sure they would die there, but even if they survive, some monster would definitely devour them, feasting on their flesh for eternity. A shiver went down her spine just by thinking about it. Dying and resurrecting eternally inside some creature''s stomach. A true hellish existence, one that all seven of them deserved. With the danger gone, the adrenaline quickly left her body. Her eyes closed just as a line of light shined inside the room, and the sound of rushing water echoed in her air. Vicky heard a worried shout, before the darkness consumed everything, and she fell into unconsciousness. Chapter 296 Surprise Attack Sera landed on her room''s balcony with disappointment evident on her face. Seated in the living room, Bran immediately saw her standing outside. He went straight to her, concerned. He stepped outside, and both stayed there silently staring out at the vast city. Bran purposefully stayed quiet, waiting for Sera to begin the conversation. It took Sera a few more seconds to gather her thoughts. She turned away from the magnificent sight towards Bran with a small smile. He knew the smile was fake, hiding her annoyance and anger, but he always appreciated seeing any emotion on his beloved''s face. "I know you tried to be nice, but before you send my ex to speak with me, at least message me beforehand." Said Sera, then leaned in and gave a small peck on his lips. Bran grinned and pointed at Sera''s watch. "I did sent you a heads-up, but it doesn''t matter if you ignore the message!" Sera checked her watch, then blushed as she read Bran''s message. The expression was truly beautiful for her usually emotionless face, causing Bran to lean in and kiss the top of her head. She just sighed sadly and looked up into Bran''s hazel eyes. With one hand on his waist, and the other gently brushing his face, she smiled again. This time there was nothing fake about it, filling Bran with a warm feeling in his chest. Sadly, her next words weren''t something he expected. "We will both need to talk with Bea later..." Bran snorted as he spoke. "So that''s how bad things went. At least I understand why you look so grumpy." Her smiled brightened a bit, and she playfully punched his arm, which caused to turn numb. Bran remained physically frail since the incident, while Sera''s strength always surpassed his. She giggled as Bran brushed the place she punched, then she leaned in and gave a kiss to the area. Her smile slowly faded though, as she recounted the gist of their conversation. Afterward, Bran hugged Sera. She embraced him too, and they stayed like that for a few long moments. Bran opened his mouth to speak when a sudden explosion shook the ground. Their heads snapped towards the castle. They saw as one of the many towers breaking at its base and crumbled over itself. Then another explosion happened, crumbling a second tower. By this time, Sera already jumped over the railing flying towards the chaos, while Bran ran towards the room''s exit, and out into the hallway. That''s when he heard the screams. This part of the building held all the guest rooms. Each one was gigantic, with multiple bedrooms, huge living rooms, kitchens, and dining rooms. All the other ambassadors with their escorts resided nearby, and the screams sounded awfully close. Bran ran down the corridor towards the closest sound. Rounding a corner, he peered down the hallway. At its end, he saw a tall woman wearing a futuristic armor, fighting against two opponents, each wearing some makeshift armor, and seemingly normal metal swords. The two dead assassins were climbing to their feet. One had a badly bent breastplate where the general kicked him, but otherwise he showed no signs of being hurt. The general decapitated one, halved the other; however, all their injuries vanished¡ªregenerated, actually. Bran started draining those two as well, but the effects of his ability would only show later. For now, they needed to survive. The general also observed the resurrected pair. Only now did she realize those other four were the ones she previously killed. When all six were ready, they circled Bran and the general, then eventually moved in to attack. Their coordination was pretty good, and their speed surprised Bran, since they were much faster than him. The assassins, after a few strikes, largely disregarded Bran, concentrating on the general instead. They battered her from all sides, but with her energy blade, she parried each blow with ease. Only one enemy stayed on Bran, taking up all his attention. The man swung his sword horizontally. Bran was too weak to deflect or parry the blow and evading proved impossible as well. With all his strength, he blocked the weapon, sending him reeling back. Following it came a swift second strike. He deflected it, then countered with a punch to the helmet. He took back a staggering step, grunting in annoyance. Behind Bran, the general gasped in pain, but he couldn''t spare a moment to check on her. The man turned more aggressive and angry. His next attack arrived sooner than Bran anticipated. He parried the blow the best he could. Afterward, he immediately stepped forward, stabbing towards the man''s chest. The man easily parried Bran''s blade by pushing it to the side. What he didn''t realize was that the blow was a faint. On impact, he transferred the overly strong momentum from his sword to Bran''s. He used it to turn and crouch down. His sword whipped out, cutting low at the man''s legs. It seemed spending long days and nights duelling with Sera actually proved useful. His melee fighting improved bounds, even though Sera always beat him with ease. Those duels might''ve saved his life, since he could''ve never imagined fighting someone this strong without a greater battle experience. The man never expected this maneuver, and before he could react, Bran cut his legs out from under him. He fell over like a sack of potatoes, and Bran quickly stabbed his sword through the man''s head. As he died, a sudden wave of energy filled Bran. It was much more than a normal Ascended could''ve provided. In fact, he believed a weaker Transcended wouldn''t have as much life essence. A small laugh escaped Bran''s lips as he realized why this was the case. He planned on removing the man''s helmet, but before that, he heard a muffled cry from behind him. His head snapped around quickly. The general was barely holding back the five assassins. Multiple wound already bled through her futuristic armor, and they weren''t healing for some reason. Bran glanced down at his hand, where a large amount of black energy condensed. A grin spread across his face as he moved in to help the general. Chapter 297 Overloaded Bran stepped behind the closest assassin, a woman wielding dual daggers. Black energy consumed his right hand, and with one swift move, he grabbed onto the woman''s helmet. The energy immediately began consuming her life essence, and in less than a second, she fell over, dead. She tried to scream, but just as her mouth opened, her life ended. Four others remained unaware; this proved disastrous, as the woman''s absorbed power made Bran strong enough to easily kill them. Two defended against the general, while the other two attacked from her blind spots. They were in mid swing when a strange feeling came over their body. All four felt unnaturally weak. Their heads snapped to Bran, who was grinning wide. Both his hands consumed by dark energy, he pointed towards them. Four lines of pure energy went out, hitting each in the chest, killing them on the spot. But they didn''t just die, their whole body shriveled up. Then, as they toppled over, dust clouds rose from the armors... The only remnant of their bodies... The four individuals'' life essence entered his body too, empowering him even further. The general coughed as she walked out of the dust cloud. "I guess..." said the woman between coughs. "I guess I understand why the Deathless Phoenix keeps you around... What do you think? Will they resurrect from this much destruction?" Bran looked around at the six armored piles of dust. Their weapons and armor weren''t Items it seemed, so they stayed where they fell. He couched down and held one hand above a pile. Bran closed his eyes and concentrated on the dead remnants. No life, not even a single cell, remained within the piles. "I don''t think so..." said Bran. "I feel nothing living there, but I''m not sure if they need a part of their bodies to stay intact for resurrection, or they only need their soul staying alive... But I think we need not find out, let''s bring these civilians to safety before we do anything else!" The general nodded and walked up to the six terrified individuals. She said a couple of hushed words, then they all walked down the hallway, towards the sound of destructions. While heading towards the elevators and stairs, they checked each room, and sadly, they found more dead ambassadors. Pragua wasn''t the only one who lost their leaders. The Transcended Councilman from Wien died in his bed. Kiev''s dictator and Edinburg''s President also died in their own rooms. They also found quite a few of dead guards and civilians who worked within the castle. A few of the six rescued civilians vomited as they went past them. Bran ignored all of this and continued to scan the surroundings with his power. He sensed hundreds nearby, yet each minute fewer remained. The assassins'' count remained unknown, which wasn''t ideal, but with no other choice, they pushed on ahead. The general stayed ahead in case of surprise attacks. Her wounds still hadn''t healed, but they weren''t enough to impede her movements. A short corridor remained before the elevators; however, a turn revealed three armed assassins in waiting. Bran raised his arms to blast them away, but just as his black energy appeared, they ran away. Bran saw her swing with the enormous energy greatsword, sending her enemies reeling back. It didn''t hit anybody, but her plan wasn''t to kill them all. She just needed to buy time for Bran. He momentarily fixed his gaze upon the general. Only after making sure she could hold them back long enough did he start collecting all the essence within himself. They flowed through his veins, exiting into his palms. He kept his hands together, condensing the black energy more and more. Around him, the surrounding plants withered and turned to dust. Even passively, the condensed life essence brought death to everything in close proximity. The energy he took from the six assassins fueled even more killing. The sphere of darkness grew in both size and depth. Even staring at it could''ve caused normal people to die. Bran was luckily immune to his own power, so he couldn''t die from it. The large energy flow still wasn''t comfortable, and it hurt a bit, but he was almost ready. The black energy sphere was nearly a meter in diameter. He was ready, but before using it, he needed the general to clear some space around herself. Currently, she defended each blow with her tower shield, while tried to increase the distance between herself and the husks. "CLEAR OUT!" shouted Bran, and the general acted as quickly as she could. She punched her tower shield on the ground, then jumped back near immediately. Everyone around her needed to back away, so they wouldn''t get hit. Just as a small space appeared the general and the assassins, Bran shot the sphere towards the ceiling. It flew for a dozen meters in an angle, stopping right above the sixteen husks. The black sphere darkened and deepened. It turned more unstable with each passed moment until it couldn''t hold itself together anymore. One second was all it took for the sphere to explode and send tendrils of dark energy in each direction. Each husk got hit by one, turning them to dust instantly. A few nearly hit the general as well, but her shield proved strong enough to withstand the overcharged energy waves. Bran took a deep breath, then screamed in agony as all the sixteen dead husk''s essence entered his body at once. He felt all that energy coursing through his veins, consuming his own soul from the overload. Following the last wave''s repulse by her shield, the general ran to him. Bran took shallow, uneven breaths, and with her help, he climbed to his feet. "What''s wrong?" she asked, but Bran couldn''t even speak from the constant pain consuming his soul and body. To elevate the pain, he tried expanding his essence senses, and that''s when he began to realize how much boost his power had received. A painful laugh escaped his lips as he straightened up. The general looked at him with a raised eyebrow and badly hidden concern, but Bran just grinned. "What''s wrong? Nothing''s wrong!... Now if you''ll excuse me, I have some pest controlling to do!" With that, Bran sat down on the ground cross-legged and began to concentrate. Chapter 298 Pest Control Bran let his senses reach every part of the castle, going through walls and moving between levels. He felt every single living being within the structure. He felt the little viruses floating in the air; he felt the birds flying over the carcasses outside; he felt the worms borrowed into the ground. He felt the civilians running from their lives; he felt the Evolved fighting the husks... He felt everyone living, and could differentiate between life sources. His abilities had clear limits in the area it could affect, but no matter how much essence he consumed previously, he never was able to determine which life source belonged to whom. But his power reached its current highest peak yet. The range of his power stretched far and wide, while his ability to kill with discrimination became much better. He could target each individual life source with his power. "This is going to be fun!" whispered Bran to himself, giggling in the process. He then went back to concentrating, since what he planned on doing took all his mental capacity. ... Dozens of terrified civilians hid inside a dark room. Outside the barricaded door, screams, shouts, gunshots, and much more sounds of mayhem reached their ears, causing more fear. All of them trembled and huddled together, like their proximity, could''ve done anything against those lifeless demons massacring everyone within the castle. They whimpered and jumped at all the noise. However, the moment a shadow shifted behind the door, everyone froze like statues. The shadow and sounds of footsteps approached the door. The shadow stayed there, standing, waiting. The civilians held their breath, waiting for what happened next. The other person remained still momentarily, then moved away with audible footsteps. Just as they thought the threat had passed, a sudden bang shook all of them to their core. The barricaded door suddenly exploded inside, breaking into splinters and landing on the horrified civilians. They all collectively began crying and hugging each other for support. They couldn''t survive a fight against these monsters. They all watched them kill Evolved guard after Evolved guard, and even when they died, it wasn''t permanent. Demons¡ªthat''s all they were¡ªhow could a normal civilian fight against such creatures? The worst part was their lack of emotion as they killed. They didn''t seem to enjoy the act. This was like a job to them, something they were ordered and needed to complete, no satisfaction or happiness. They were like husks of humans, something dead in every sense of the word except biologically. The demon stepped inside the room, walking to the nearest cowering human. He raised his sword, about to kill the civilian in a single cut. The terrified woman covered her eyes, waiting for death to take her. The killing blow never came, though. She yelped and jumped in terror when the loud clattering noise filled the small room. Metal armor and weapons hit the ground, while a cloud of dust rose into the air. Survivors glanced around, bewildered, unsure of the demon''s whereabouts. Nobody realized they were all breathing in the assassin''s remnants. After killing the last of the husks, Sera glanced at Bea. Her expression mirrored Sera''s; bored emotionless. Bea arrived shortly after her, and they fought against them together the whole time. Their anger towards each other remained unresolved, yet they chose to set aside their differences for the greater good. The two of them walked towards the soldiers. Sera opened her watch and suddenly stumbled. Without saying a word, wings spread behind her back and she flew straight towards one tower. Bea didn''t question her decision, and even though a bad feeling grew in her stomach, she talked with the soldiers and explained the situation to her understanding. She was a bit surprised to hear that someone had already killed all the enemies in the castle. Her shock ended quickly when the soldiers explained the state of the corpses. There was only one person Bea knew who could kill that way, and she was certain his powers would stop the husks'' resurrection, just like Sera''s flames. Her assumptions soon proved correct when the report came about Bran. He killed hundreds of demons all over the castle, eliminating every single one, but now an additional problem arose. His essence became so overloaded that he literally turned into a gigantic bomb, which could level a large portion of London. Before the soldier could fully explain the situation, Bea turned into vines and moved through walls until she reached the exact level where Bran was located. Upon entering the elevator hall, she changed back and stared at Bran with pure bewilderment. He floated in the middle of a gigantic bubble of pure black energy. Cross-legged and with closed eyes, he continued to float, not letting himself lose concentration. Bea was certain only his concentration kept the bubble of energy stable. Bea lacked expertise in energy release, yet understood instant annihilation would befall Bran from such a surge. She had to free him from this stifling weight before the city''s destruction. A very stupid idea popped into her head. At first she dismissed it, but then the bubble grew a bit larger as Bran lost a bit of focus. She had run out of time. It was time to act! Everyone, soldiers, civilians, and guests, all watched in horror as Bea stepped forward and placed one hand over the bubble. She thought there would be some resistance, but all she met was excruciating pain. She watched as her hand turned to dust right before her eyes. Scarred, she pulled out of the bubble, and watched in relief as the tissue regrew itself quickly. People around her watched in awe and fear. Several fainted seeing her hand regenerate. Bea took a few deep breaths, then reached inside with her right arm, letting it dissolve. This time, she left it there, allowing the dark energy bubble to perpetually destroy her regenerating arm. The pain was near unbearable, but the bubble''s size near imperceptibly decreased, which meant it was working. She took a few quick breaths, then pushed her other arm into the bubble. A loud scream escaped her mouth this time, as the pain doubled. She wanted nothing more than to remove it, but upon visibly seeing the shrinkage of the bubble, she decided to weather out the pain. Chapter 299: Unresponsive After the sudden teleportation, the six children woke up confused. Henry looked around, and with the low light shining through the windows, he noticed the change of rooms quickly. He didn''t remember falling asleep on the couch. He was quite certain they were in his bedroom. While the others stretched and seemed just as bewildered, he soon noticed a missing person. Vicky was nowhere to be seen. The thought entered Henry''s mind when his room echoed with fighting. He was no genius, but he quickly figured out what could''ve happened. People must''ve tried to assassinate Vicky, and he teleported them away from the fight. At first, Henry thought the only target was Vicky, but upon hearing the explosions below, this fantasy shattered fast. Through the window, the six kids watched as towers crumbled, people screamed, and died. Henry wrote message after message to her mother, the castle-guard captains, and the city''s generals. As the sole prince, even though young, he held all their contacts in case of emergencies. This event exceeded an emergency; it approached a crisis. They watched the destruction through the window. A potential attack caused the elevators to shut down, preventing Henry from escaping with his friends. Only a long, internal ladder allowed them access to the lower floors. They could''ve easily climbed down and left, but it wasn''t necessarily the best option. The inside of the castle was vast, and they couldn''t predict what was waiting for them below the tower. It also wasn''t smart to stay in a tower, since it was a potential target, but to be honest, Henry didn''t want to leave. From his bedroom, they all heard Vicky''s screams, mixed with the assassins'' cries of pain. He would''ve rather stayed there, not caring about the danger. He raised all these concerns and solutions to his friends, and they all knew that leaving was a terrible choice. They trusted Vicky to take out the assassins. Even though they only met her a few hours ago, during that time, they all grew quite close. All six went into the panic room, located inside Henry''s kitchen. An unremarkable chamber featured walls, ceiling, and floor composed entirely of thick yet soft monster hide. Even if the tower broke, the panic room''s design ensured its survival in the crash, keeping everyone safe within. While hiding there, Henry continued to communicate with everyone, and after much thinking, he even sent a message to Sera. She, of course, was too busy to read it, but he still felt better by warning her about Vicky''s situation. The sounds inside his bedroom only worsened as time passed, but any sign of fighting was good, in Henry''s opinion. Each noise was a mark of Vicky''s status. Henry continued to communicate with the many different forces inside the castle. He grieved the attack''s high casualty count and felt terrified by the enemy''s inhumane nature. As he read their description, he became quite perplexed. Evolved lacked a simple method for permanent extermination, complicating the situation. Henry was sure his mother could kill them with ease, but she still hadn''t answered his texts, which brought another round of worry to his heart. It was a true turn around when he began getting random reports of the husks dying for no apparent reason. Everything seemed to turn for the better. The small panic room was finally silent. No sounds of explosions, fighting, and dying reached them. But this didn''t bring relief for Henry, on the contrary. The silence felt wrong to him. He was forgetting something, and it drove him crazy. The six children waltzed into the busy makeshift tents. Doctors, nurses, and other medical workers rushed from patient to patient, trying to keep everyone alive. Hundreds of injured laid on beds, or on the ground. Some only had a few deeper cuts, nothing too bad, while others had missing limbs, crushed bones, and life-threatening wounds. Many bled out right before their eyes. Henry rushed inside, leading his friends. Nobody tried stopping them. The guards knew who Henry was and dared not order him around. The doctors were too busy to care. They couldn''t concern themselves with a few rampant children. The six kids moved from tent to tent until they found a small one a bit further from the rest. The Deathless Phoenix was in front of it, pacing back and forth, mumbling under her breath. They weren''t sure if approaching her was the best option, but she already noticed them. In a few seconds, she already stood there, with an emotionless face, seemingly judging everyone. The boys began trembling with fear. They weren''t certain if what they heard about Sera was true. They feared the angelic woman would blame them for her daughter''s injured status. Lydia trembled too, nearly passing out. She wasn''t afraid of Sera. Instead, she was so excited that she could barely control herself. Her right hand continued playing with her seven-pointed star necklace, while her eyes never left the angel''s face. The only person who kept his emotions under control was Henry. Sera''s gaze fixated on him, seeking something unspoken in his expression. After a few endless seconds, she seemed satisfied, and done something unpredictable. The woman who many consider their god bent down and firmly hugged the boy prince of London. "Thank you for giving me a heads up! Without it, my daughter wouldn''t even have a chance for survival!" Said Sera, whispering into Henry''s ear. While everyone else stood shocked behind him, Henry only focused on Sera''s words. In a trembling, hopeful voice, he asked. "Will she make it?" Sera pulled away from him and stared into his eyes. Her face stayed impassive, but within those golden-green eyes, hope and sadness mixed, neither taking control. "The lead surgeon expressed optimism, yet the outcome depends entirely on time. Her lungs got punctured and all her ribs broke from blunt force trauma. She also suffered significant blood loss from numerous wounds... She was a step into the grave when I brought her here..." Continue your adventure at My Virtual Library Empire Henry couldn''t even make a sound. He was stunned to silence by the news. The others behind him stayed quiet as well, in fear of breaking the somber atmosphere. Henry checked his watch, reviewing military dispatches while awaiting the surgeons'' report. Most of it wasn''t interesting, but one report made him curious. The report concerned Bran and Bea; however, it contained unfavorable news. He read through it a few times, before turning towards Sera. She already resumed her anxious pacing. He felt this wasn''t the best time to tell Sera, but she deserved to know, anyway. After thinking for a few more seconds, he decided to tell her. Chapter 300: Bomb Defusing Pain, and only pain... Nothing else existed in Bea''s mind. Overwhelming, controlling, excruciating pain. She felt it kill over and over again, yet she never actually died. Only her mind couldn''t differentiate between her body breaking down and regenerating. A vicious cycle of never ending suffering. Bea''s body burned, even though only her arms stayed inside the bubble of darkness. The sphere of destruction turned her arms into dust, then it began regenerating, only to die again. Bea experienced the birth and death of each cell. Their deaths left small scars on her mind and soul. Her mind turned blank after a few minutes, seconds, or moments. Time went by fast, but also agonizingly slowly. Her sense of time and space stopped existing, as more pain took hold of her already fragile mind. Screams, pants, groans, and other noises of misery left her lips. Sometimes loud, sometimes barely audible, but no matter how hard she tried, the sounds always escaped. The people still standing nearby could hear her begging and pleading with some higher entity that didn''t exist. She wanted to pain to stop, but shockingly, no matter how much suffering she endured, she never took one step back. Her stumps, where her arms should''ve been, stayed inside the contained destruction, continuously dying within the darkness. She screamed from the pain, but she never stopped to take a break. With every second, the bubble''s size decreased as her body absorbed the dark energy. Each time the bubble destroyed even a single cell of Bea''s arm, it weakened an imperceptible amount. She already needed to take a few steps towards the center, so her arms stayed within the sphere. The bubble remained huge, which meant Bea''s suffering had only begun. With a teary face and a lot of screaming, she pushed herself further... One step, two step, three step... She continued until exhaustion, then exceeded her limits, refusing to yield. Her legs shook from the pain her body endured. At some point, she closed her eyes tightly, so she couldn''t see the stumps anymore. Her heavy breaths moved her chest fast, while her heart felt like it would stop at any moment from overwork. All the senses left her, no sight, no hearing, no taste or smell. Her touch had gone too, leaving only the sweet pain behind. Her lips trembled and her shoulders shook from sobbing... Pain and nothing else existed in this world... After god knows how long, Bea took another step and finally felt a change from the constant suffering. She felt her legs give as she began falling forward, right into the sphere of destruction. But just as part of her nose touched its edge, turning to dust, she felt a pair of firm hands grip her midsection tightly. The hands pulled her away and laid her down on the ground. Still not fully at her senses, Bea tried opening her eyes. All over her body phantom pain brought convulsions to her muscles. Though pain ceased, the constant destruction marred her mind, and the brief respite failed to mend the damage. Gasping and convulsing, Bea looked up at Sera. Those divine golden-green eyes stared at her with hollowness and hints of anger. Sera''s fleeting appearances were all she witnessed before she left for the sphere. She examined it closely for a few long moments, even touching it with her fingertip. Her expression stayed bored as the finger turned to dust right before her eyes. Bea became surprised for a moment. That small action would''ve made her groan in agony, but Sera didn''t even seem to notice. It was only at that moment that Bea started to understand the true extent of Sera''s torment, considering her pain tolerance was significantly higher. Something that brought excruciating pain to Bea didn''t even register for the heavenly woman. After a few more seconds passed, Sera''s examination concluded, and on her back four wings spread. One pair of pristine white feathered, and one pair made of golden flames. Sera didn''t let her mind to react. Before hesitation could affect her, she turned around and took one step back. All four wings entered the deep black bubble. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists, trying to hide her expression from the crowd. She instantly knew keeping a straight face was going to be impossible. The people watched as Sera''s eyes snapped open. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Her eyes widened visibly, while her whole body began to shake. The crowd around the hall witnessed something they could never forget. The moments felt like an eternity, as Sera''s face scrunched up, and her mouth opened wide. As her wings got attacked by the sphere of destruction, a blood-curdling scream left her mouth. The sound was unbearable. It shook the entire castle, and even the surrounding area echoed with it. The thought of Sera''s pain made everyone else shiver with terror. A few people even began crying by the sheer hurt carried in that scream. The four wings on Sera''s back took much longer to fade than Bea''s arms. It felt like watching each of her feathers pulled out one by one, and witnessing her flames weakening each second. A truly depressing sight. Her pristine wings turned to dust, her everlasting golden flames becoming only embers. Her pains hadn''t stopped, but after the initial scream, no sound left her throat. This pain, though not her worst, overwhelmed her. When she''s getting tortured, she''s in a specific mindset, which lessens what she feels, but here, in front of all these people, in front of Bea, she couldn''t hold it back. After the initial release, she got herself back under control, and while feeling every bit of pain, no noise escaped her. The suffering lasted for a few minutes before all four wings fully disintegrated. The pain hadn''t lessened and only grew stronger as time passed. When both her wings were gone, Sera took a deep, shuddering breath and fell to her knees. With the pain gone, she was like a marionette with all her strings cut. Her body felt useless, weak, and broken. Her limbs didn''t want to obey her, and after a few seconds, she lost balance and fell on her side. With closed eyes, Sera let the cold floor cool her overheated body. The blood pumping through her veins felt like scorching fire, but as her heart realized the absence of pain, the time between beats slowed considerably. She may have lain there quite while. For her, the hard stone was comparable to the softest beds. Sera wished to stay there, into unconsciousness, anything but thinking about her next steps... But she had no such option... People gazed in admiration and reverence as Sera lowered her hands and began pushing herself up. Her muscles struggled, her arms shook, but with a groan of discomfort, she sat up. Her eyes went straight to the sphere of destruction. Its size diminished by a lot, but it still hadn''t fully disappeared. Sera took a shaky breath, then turned towards Bea. She was already standing, with her newly regenerated arms crossed before her chest. Sera saw much emotion in her eyes; however, she lacked time to process or care for them. She summoned her glaive, and using it, she pulled herself up. Her weak body relied on the long shaft''s stability to keep straight and not topple over. On shaking legs, she walked up to Bea. Those green eyes, full of worry, stared right at her. Sera didn''t acknowledge the sympathy and pain within Bea''s gaze, and instead said only two words... "Heal me..." Her hoarse voice was barely audible, like a whisper on a windy day. Her words came and went, while Bea continued to stare. For a moment, Sera believed she might''ve not heard her, but then she reached out, gently placing her new hands on Sera''s arm. A cool liberating force coursed through her veins, elevating all the remnant pain, and healing her broken parts. Behind Sera''s back, four wings grew out bit by bit. A minute later, Bea had completely healed both pairs of wings, and all her pain vanished. She felt something else as well. The deep power hidden inside her, coming to life. Bea turned her head with widened eyes. She felt the power too, but neither was sure what it meant. They lacked time for reflection, though. The dark bubble became more turbulent, and its perfectly spherical shape distorted. It was slowly unwinding, destabilizing, which meant they had to diminish its energy quicker. Sera walked back towards the sphere, and Bea followed close by. Upon reaching it, she prepared to push her wings back inside. The memory of pain made her hands shake, yet she lacked time to contemplate. She lifted her leg, taking a step back, but just as her wings went inside, a cool hand caught her arm. Bea stayed there, pumping energy inside her, elevating her pain, anchoring her mind. With her help, she barely felt anything as the wings broke apart. They also regenerated faster than the darkness dismantled them. As feathers turned to dust, they grew back immediately. The darkness diminished much faster than expected. To keep her wings inside the bubble, Sera frequently required to step back. The crowd gasped in awe, as all the destructive force wasn''t strong enough to destroy the Deathless Phoenix''s wings. The deep darkness broke when face this unconsumable light. Each moment, the sphere diminished, until there was barely anything there. With the bubble''s radius only a few meters, Sera took a daring step inside. From the darkness, only her arm stuck out, which Bea still held on firmly. She increased her energy transference, and in only a few seconds, the black sphere disappeared. Bea let go of Sera''s arm, so she could catch Bran''s falling unconscious body. Chapter 301: Apologetic After the incident in the hall, Sera told Bea everything about Vicky. Bran stayed unconscious as they hurried back to the makeshift hospital. All six children remained nearby, and most of their parents subsequently arrived. Vicky''s surgery was still ongoing, but Henry informed them that the hard part was already over, and she will pull through. When Sera heard this news, a heavy weight disappeared from her shoulder. She became lightheaded, and her legs gradually gave out. The night''s exhaustion finally hit her, and she soon passed out from overexertion. Luckily, Bea carried Bran, so he didn''t fall over. Henry tried catching Sera, but as a 13-year-old normal human, he had no chance. The Deathless Phoenix, the Angel Monarch, a living god for many, plopped onto the muddy ground unceremoniously. The two Evolved officers standing nearby¡ªGlenn''s fathers¡ªquickly helped Sera up, and someone else went to bring beds for both Sera and Bran. Soon the small tent had a large extension next to it, with lots of beds set up for everyone. Bran and Sera slept on separate beds. Bea looked at both and healed all their physical injuries. She asked a nurse to examine them too; however, they were both fine. They were simply tired. Bea wasn''t feeling the best either, but she stayed awake, waiting for Vicky''s results. The six children also tried their best, but after they brought in the beds, only Henry and Lydia didn''t fall asleep. The two kids stood near the small tent''s entrance, where Vicky was operated on. To get her mind off her daughter, Bea joined in the parents on their conversation. They were quite a bit surprised by Sera''s entrance, even though Henry and the others brought them up to speed the best they could. Also, since they knew both of Henry''s mothers personally, it wasn''t the first time they met an important figure. They all greeted Bea kindly and introduced themselves; however, her mind was too chaotic to remember any of it. She could barely recall the children''s names. The pair of brothers were called Jamie and Dan. Their mother and father worked normal jobs. A small office employed her as manager; meanwhile, he worked as an engineer at a subterranean hydroponic farm. The child named Glenn, whose facial features were like Kim''s, had two fathers. They were both Evolved working as officers in London''s military. Among the initial reinforcements, they were the first to arrive. Max, the dark-skinned child, only had his father here. He was a stay-at-home father, while his wife worked as a CEO of some company. They possessed the greatest wealth out of every parent here. She would stay in a meeting during the night, so they still couldn''t reach her. Upon looking over the parents, Bea quickly realized Lydia had none there. When asked, all of them turned awfully quiet, and in whispers, they informed Bea about Lydia''s parental status. "Both her parents died in an accident a few years after her birth. Luckily, London''s orphan care system works with great efficiency. They placed her in foster care almost immediately." Said Max''s father, leaving Bea just as confused. "Then why are the foster parents here?" Parental expressions mirrored sorrow, which made Bea anticipate their following words. One of Glenn''s father spoke with remorse. "They perished as well. It happened less than a year ago. Later, Lydia rejected further family connections, including staying with us. Instead, she somehow got affiliated with the Angelic Order. She had been staying at their church for the past months." Bea was unsure of her reaction to the news. All the parents took passing glances at Sera''s peacefully sleeping body. Only now did Bea notice how much reverence was in Lydia''s gaze when she looked at her religion''s god. A tense, awkward, and sad silence followed; then, as Bea prepared another question, a fierce gust rocked their tent. Outside, a loud bang marked the landing of something huge. Bea rushed out, the others followed close by. They saw two people rushing towards their tent. One was a tall, muscular man with black hair and dreamy gray eyes. The other was a tall, pale, lithe bodied woman. Her long blonde hair reached to her waist and a pair of dark golden eyes stared at everything with fierce anger. The Queen of London and The Second Prince of Castleburg finally arrived more than an hour too late. Elizabeth quickly hurried to Henry and embraced her son in a teary hug. She quickly left without catching a glimpse of Bea, eager to learn about the night''s events. All the parents joined her too, and Bea cringed when she heard all of them berating her. They all accused their queen of not caring for her son and her people. Bea didn''t care for her. Those bright green eyes only had one person in their sight. She rushed towards Otto, and he ran towards her with open arms. They both embraced each other, and Otto gave a long kiss on her lips. Tears of worry glimpsed in the small light of the moon and stars. Bea hadn''t given Otto much thought during the events. Everything was simply too hectic, and they didn''t exactly leave things on a pleasant note. He was against her meeting up with Sera, and they had a small fight. Following an angry exit, Otto messaged Bea about catching up with Elizabeth and two other leaders away from the castle. While hugging, Bea made a quick recount of the events, and Otto listened silently, in shame. After finishing, he stepped back, eyes brimming, gazing down at Bea. "I''m so sorry I left... If I would''ve stayed, none of this could''ve happened... I know I am a horrible person for leaving like a child, but I hope you can forgive me. I even promise to never leave you again, unless you want me to, of course..." Otto was truly apologetic, which made Bea feel at least a little bit better. She reached up with one hand, cradling Otto''s face. "I have nothing to forgive... You were right about staying away from Sera. It''s clear I wasn''t ready to discuss our future, but please understand that at some point, me and her will need to have a calm, cordial conversation... We need to find a way to co-parent Vicky." He briefly frowned, then inhaled deeply, shook his head, and smiled with radiance at Bea. "Of course, I understand. I just really don''t like her after what she had done. I know you want a relationship with your daughter. Prioritize getting over everything first, so you won''t make the same mistake twice..." A brief silence preceded a deeper, more threatening tone. "Did she apologize, at least?" Bea dismissed the change in tone and just rolled her eyes. "Yes, she did, but I dismissed it because I felt it wasn''t sincere enough." Otto snorted and looked towards the moon before replying, "Well, that makes sense. After all, she''s quite damaged!..." She raised an eyebrow when she heard his words, but before she could''ve said anything, Otto continued. "Oh, don''t give me that look. You know what I mean! She is simply incapable of feel empathy, so expecting honesty and kindness is insanity!" Bea didn''t want to argue, so she decided to change the subject. "Why haven''t you answered any of my messages? Also, why didn''t either you or Elizabeth saw or heard the explosions?" Embarrassment took hold of Otto, making him avoid Bea''s gaze. He sighed sadly before replying to her veiled accusation. "I''m sorry... I should''ve kept my watch on, but Jonas convinced us to turn them off. We also went to an underground club at the farthest side of the city. We couldn''t feel, hear or see the explosions... Again, I''m so sorry! I won''t ever do something so stupid!" For a few seconds, Bea said nothing. Her mind occupied by what Otto said about Jonas. He was a Transcended and also a Council Member in Wien. It seemed Otto would start to panic because of her silence, so she eventually replied. "I''m still not mad at you. This was just some unfortunate accident... Hopefully..." Otto''s ears perked up and a bright smile spread across his face, but soon it turned into a frown. Bea''s words had a singular obvious meaning, and he was really curious about her thoughts. "What do you mean, hopefully? Do you think someone deliberately made us leave?" He searched his mind, eyebrows creased, for a culprit. But it took Bea to explain further for him to finally understand. "You said Jonas asked all of you to disable your watches, which means because of him, none of you got any messages! Who suggested the underground club? Was that Jonas too?" His expression slowly worsened as he became angrier. "That fucking son of a bitch!... He told us to keep our watches off for privacy reasons. He wasn''t the one to suggest the club, though. That was Antal''s idea." This brought doubt to Bea''s theory. Antal was the Prime Minister of Buda-Pest, and a Stellar. Few leaders demonstrated such dedication to their people and democracy. Every year he held elections, but the people loved him, and always voted for him. He had his flaws, of course. For example, he harbored underlying prejudice against any leader who didn''t lead a democracy. He respected Elizabeth, but disliked her royalty status. He also hated Sera''s theocratic leadership, so he dismissed Sera''s ideas. Bea could''ve never imagined him as a traitor. She, Otto, and Antal spent a good while talking before the day''s events. Antal wasn''t a fan of Otto''s leading either, but they were old friends, just like with Elizabeth. Jonas wasn''t in their initial group, and by Otto''s account, he just kind of tagged along. Elizabeth wanted to discuss something with Jonas, so she brought him along. This seemed suspicious, yet Bea believed Elizabeth''s innocence. She would''ve never endangered Henry, and without Vicky''s help, his chances for survival were close to zero. Otto looked angry, fuming with rage, and before Bea could''ve asked anything else, he stopped dead in his tracks. He took a deep breath, then rushed inside the tent without even looking at Bea. Chapter 302 Chapter 302: Traitor Henry explained everything to her mother in detail. The near destruction of her city mortified her. She felt especially thankful for Vicky, but she couldn''t thank her yet, since her surgery was still ongoing. She apologized, yet froze when questioned regarding her whereabouts. She couldn''t in good conscience justify turning off her watch, and now she cursed herself for listening to Jonas. Contemplation only deepened her confusion. Jonas told them all to turn their watches off, but his reasons weren''t the best. They just kind of went along, so he would stop annoying them, which should''ve been alarming. Just as the realization of Jonas''s guilt hit her, Otto rushed inside the tent. His face was red from anger and his emotions were so turbulent, his aura began leaking. Everyone other than Elizabeth felt suffocated. The subtle initial pressure on their bodies gradually intensified, eventually making it hard to breathe or stand. That''s when Elizabeth noticed everyone''s strange expressions. She stepped forward and gave a firm slap to Otto. She didn''t need to say a word, as he quickly realized his mistake and began controlling his power. All the normal humans fell to their knees. The sudden disappearance of the constant pressure knocked them off their feet. Elizabeth wanted to berate Otto, but she didn''t get a chance as Bea ran inside. She delivered a much stronger slap to his face, finally knocking his lights back on. He looked away sheepishly, with shame, and tried to mumble an apology, but Bea was having none of it. "Stop acting like a child and get your shit together! Yes, we were betrayed, yes you messed up, but that doesn''t give you the right to lose control! If we want to catch Jonas, we need to think with leveled heads, not fuming hatred!" Her words got to Otto. He stood up straight, nodded towards Bea, and gave a firm, sincere apology to everyone. His shame also disappeared, and a deep, calculated vengeance took its place. The parents and children accepted his apology, while Elizabeth just stared at him with annoyance. After a few seconds, she began walking out, motioning for Bea and Otto to follow. "We need to discuss this betrayal with the others. The problem is that nearly nobody survived the attack. By Henry''s account, only you two, Antal, Sera and her group, El the general from Pragua, the representatives of Warsaw, Krak and Odesz, had survived." Bea gave the queen a questioning eyebrow raise, prompting her to elaborate. "Ignacy, Zofia and Fabian, Krak''s and Warsaw''s representatives went out before the attack to explore the city. Pavlo, Odesz''s representative, actually fought and survived with only a few injuries. Everyone else died, though, which is a significant loss, since many were actual leaders of their cities." This was awful news. Bea finally understood who thorough the attack was. Other than four city-states, everyone else lost either their leader or a council member. Harold, with one decisive strike, ensured no giant alliance formed or at least made the process much more difficult. Elizabeth typed on her watch, asking every survivor to meet up for a tactical meeting. Bea and Otto walked along with her to the same room where they discussed their future in the afternoon. So much had happened since then. The hope of a well-working alliance fell apart, but they survived to gather the pieces, and until they lived, nothing was truly lost. The large room with the round table looked bleak, with so many empty seats. Earlier, double the number of leaders and representatives were present; now, only eight remain. Everyone was silent for a few moments, as the situation''s weight hit them all hard. Minutes had passed before anyone remembered how to speak. The first one was Otto, who still held suspicion towards his old friend. He looked to his left with an unreadable expression, staring straight at Antal. "Why did you suggest that place? You know how many lives we could''ve saved, if we at least heard the attack?" He asked in a hushed tone, barely containing his anger. Bea placed a calming hand on his, which affected him quite a bit. His breathing evened out, and his rampant heart became steady. A few seats away, Antal sat. He was possibly the most handsome person Bea had ever seen, and even though she wouldn''t admit it, she felt a pull towards him, similar to gravity, but on an emotional scale. This pull had nothing to do with her actual feelings. Antal''s powers used emotions and manipulation, so even passively, people felt a connection with him. Otto warned her against prolonged eye contact, lest she become captivated. Bea couldn''t deny that those light purple irises felt like an endless abyss as she took glances. His long, dark pink hair flowed behind his straight back like the sky when the sun sets. Despite not appearing happy upon hearing the accusation, the handsome man comprehended Otto''s perspective. He just sighed with self deprecation and shook his head sadly. "It wasn''t my fault. Jonas and I talked quite a lot when the United Front was born. We also spoke and caught up upon arrival here. He suggested a lot of times to visit that club, and I thought we can have fun there... I apologize for what happened, and my part in it. Jonas fooled me, just like all of us!" Otto disliked his shirking responsibility, but Bea''s hand calmed him enough to stop further accusations. Elizabeth, across the table, nodded, then surveyed the room. Her eyes held contempt and curiosity as she judged them all by their expressions. Whatever she saw in their eyes made her convinced, and with a deep exhaustion, she turned towards the glowing map at the middle of the table. The previous blue that marked the members of their alliance turned to gray. "As you can see, our position became much worse. Our alliance retains most city-states, and even those others might still join, but that''s uncertain." "All the grayed-out cities remain unaligned. Their new leaders will determine the continuation of their place within our alliance. Also, with the sudden loss, their position to fight against either Napoleon or the Federal Alliance is questionable at best." The silence returned as everyone examined the cities. The biggest problem was the heart of Europe. Except for Prague, all the other cities appeared grayed out. Only Prague, London, and Castleburg remained in the west and central Europe. The east remained strong with Buda-Pest, Odesz, Krak, and Warsaw, the same went for the south with the Angelic Order''s territories. Their enemies remained in the west, though. With Vicky, troop transportation wasn''t the biggest issue, but with the lack of closeness providing support and influence will be a pain in the ass. Out of everyone, El¡ªPragua''s Transcended general, and only representative¡ªbecame the most concerned. Her city was in an extremely precarious state. Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire Wien''s proximity alarmed them, given their few living Transcended and lack of Stellars. Budapest was even closer; however, Antal''s position improved their situation. "What do we know about Jonas? And what''s Wien''s position in this betrayal?" she asked, trying to hide the tremble in her voice. Bea couldn''t determine if the tall, olive-skinned woman felt fear or anger; either emotion was valid. Prague was the next target for Napoleon and Harold; this was common knowledge to everyone. They had the weakest position by far out of every city-state, and their strategic importance was vital for further expansion to the east and south. But El still held hope. Were Jonas the sole issue, Wien could remain neutral, perhaps even join. He was only one member of their council, so it was a possibility that they didn''t condone his actions. Unfortunately, her hope didn''t last, as Antal informed her of the news he recently received via his watch. "Jonas had escaped the city, that much we know. Regarding Vienna, I have some updates... While the attack was happening, a planned coup occurred there. Most of their council either bent the knee to the Federal Alliance, or got executed." A few curses echoed in the large chamber, as everyone hoped for the opposite. Elizabeth ended the silence quickly. "We can''t really make plans until Seraphine or Bran awakens, but I''m sure we can work out a defensive plan for Pragua, so they at least had a chance against a potential attack... Ideas?" The Queen looked between Antal and Otto, since their cities laid the closest to Pragua. They also had the most excess Transcended to send as an expeditionary force. "I can send about a dozen Transcended." said Antal, and Otto quickly followed up. "I will also send a dozen led by my brother, Victor. I''m sure a Stellar would be crucial during a siege." Everyone''s, even Elizabeth''s, and Antal''s eyes, snapped towards Otto. Sending a dozen Transcended was already extremely kind and helpful, but a Stellar too? El couldn''t even react. Her mouth agape, she stayed frozen for a few moments before mumbling an awkward thank you. Her shock didn''t wear off until they actually began discussing the timetable for the supports. They needed the reinforcements there as soon as possible. The attack could arrive any day, so preparations needed to be done quickly. The general really stood up for her city, and in under half an hour, they finished planning. Because of Sera''s absence, they could do nothing else for the night, and they also needed rest before making any big decisions about revenge. Everyone left the room, while they each continued to communicate with their own city''s'' leadership. Bea even informed Melinda about the events, and she suggested preparing for the worst. Chapter 303: Battle-Scars Vicky pretended to sleep. Her body felt like a massive wound, every movement sending a new spasm of pain through her body. Despite her intact memory, yesterday felt dreamlike. She could recall each scar on her body, and all the pain each of them caused. Most weren''t too bad, just some light skin tears or maybe flesh wounds. These only needed a few stitches. A couple of others went deeper, scratching even her bones. One of the worst by far were the two stab wounds on her chest. They permanently disfigured her body. She only dared look at them once before she broke down crying. Luckily, Bea healed her ribs, so they weren''t a source of pain and discomfort. Every wound and injury not caused by the blades could be healed; thus, any broken bone or bruise disappeared. The damage to her chest wasn''t the worst. Her face''s disfigurement felt much more traumatic. She took one brief glance, then immediately regretted it. With a scream and inexplicable sadness, she broke down, only stopping after doctors sedated her. Even then, her Ascended constitution worked overtime, like it felt guilt for the irreparable injuries. The sedatives lost their effectiveness quite fast, and now she pretended to sleep, so nobody talked to her. Both her mothers and Bran stayed inside the room, talking about the future. They still ignored personal topics, but the cordial conversation was a great start. From their talks, Vicky learned everything about the current state of the war. The odds weren''t great, especially because most of the plans depended on her powers of portal making. It felt good that everyone needed her help, but it also brought an enormous pressure on her. That, combined with her recent facial disfigurement, brought a wave of dark depression over her radiant soul. Currently, the war was the last of her worries. She would''ve rather withered in this bed, then get up and acknowledge her new reality. Vicky knew it was wrong, and she should push through her personal troubles, like Sera always does, but she simply couldn''t. With this dark cloud weighing on her, her lack of will to live, and the shame and guilt both these emotions brought, she decided to stay asleep. The pain continued eating away at her body, but it wasn''t close to the pain consuming her soul. Vicky only perked up once. Her parents stopped discussing the war, changing the topic to her mental state. They talked about bringing the other kids inside so they could cheer her up. This filled Vicky with dread. She didn''t want her new friends judging her appearance and dislike her because of her new looks. Even worse, she hated the idea of Henry seeing her face, and making a disgusted expression. Just thinking about it broke her already fragile heart. Bea and Sera were both against the idea, while Bran suggested only bringing Henry and maybe Lydia inside. After waking, all three listened to everything that had happened during the sleepover. The children awoke sooner than either Sera or Bran, so all of them took part in the tale telling. The other parents also listened in. Most of it wasn''t anything special, just normal kids having fun. Sera and the others were a bit surprised when they heard about Truth or Dare, and the kiss between Vicky and Henry. Bran brought the connection and the kiss up to convince the two mothers about bringing Henry inside. At his point, Vicky couldn''t hold it anymore, and while hiding under the covers, she wept silently. The voices around the room abruptly stopped as they all realized Vicky was awake. The room''s silence felt louder than any noise, but Vicky cared little. She just continued sobbing from the overwhelming, suffocating pressure. She felt the bed''s mattress shift as someone sat down at its edge. Vicky heard voices speaking to her in kind and warm tones, but the meaning of each word escaped her. She couldn''t focus on anything her parents said, like they were talking in a different language. Vicky wasn''t sure how long they tried to console her, but eventually the voices stopped and the weight on the bed disappeared. Outside of Vicky''s tent, the three of them spoke in hushed voices. Trying to find a solution to Vicky''s depression. They were so occupied with their argument that neither noticed as Henry and Lydia snuck inside. The two kids noticed Vicky under the covers. It shook with every sob. Henry and Lydia exchanged uncertain glances. They thought leaving might be the best option, since they probably underestimated the issue, but neither wanted to let Vicky suffer alone, so in the end, they stayed. This decision lacked a plan or approach, however, Lydia swiftly remedied this. As she walked around the tent with curiosity, she accidentally knocked over a metal plate full of tools. They hit the ground so loudly that it was a miracle nobody outside heard. Vicky wasn''t as oblivious though, and upon hearing the sound, her flight or fight reflexes kicked in. She jumped out of bed, expecting to see an intruder attempting to kill her... Instead, she came face-to-face with her crush... Henry''s eyes widened the moment he saw her. The injuries covering her body were only a small portion of the surprise. What he really didn''t expect was Vicky''s lack of clothing. She only wore some sort of hospital fabric, which covered her lower half, but left her stomach and chest exposed. Vicky, at age eleven, hadn''t reached puberty yet, but the situation proved awkward, anyway. Henry quickly turned around with a heavy blush, feeling shame for glimpsing at Vicky. Vicky just jumped back under the covers, continuing to cry. Vicky thought herself so ugly that his crush couldn''t look at her any longer. This, of course, wasn''t the case. Henry did examine most of Vicky''s injuries in that brief second, but there was no change about his thoughts relating to her. Yes, it was surprising, especially her face, but it was nothing too serious. Lydia watched this exchange from the sidelines. She alone understood each side''s feelings. She really wanted to berate Henry for turning away, but she also understood why he had done so. She also guessed Vicky wasn''t ready showing her injuries to anyone, but leaving her alone to fume in her self-hatred wouldn''t do her any good. With little options, Lydia did something bold by her standards. She sauntered to the side of Vicky''s bed and climbed under the covers. Vicky wept with her back towards Lydia. She clearly saw the cuts and deeper wounds all over the flesh. They didn''t look too bad, and even after fully healing, they would leave scars, but scientific medicine was amazing in its own regard. Everyone always talked about how miraculous the Evolved are with their healing powers, but few spoke of the doctors and their medicine. The surgeons excellently stitched Vicky together, and with some blood coagulating medicine, they were already mostly healed. Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire Vicky noticed Lydia''s approach, but she couldn''t care less about her nearness. In the depths of her depression and self-pity, she couldn''t think properly. With a gentle hand, Lydia turned towards Vicky, so they saw eye-to-eye. She allowed Lydia to turn her, but kept her face covered with her hands. The first scars Lydia noticed were the two ugly ones on her chest. On her right side, the blade went through her areola, permanently removing her right nipple. The left was better. The blade entered above her left areola, missing it. But the assassin must''ve twisted the blade, making the scar much messier. The other injuries were insignificant. Only the two scars proved terrible, yet her beauty remained largely unaffected by them. The only parts of Vicky''s body she couldn''t see were her legs and face, but she doubted any serious damage happened below her waist. This meant Vicky''s real problem was the face injury, which she kept hidden even now. Lydia took a deep breath, then leaned over and hugged Vicky. Her crying stopped for a moment, then she felt Vicky''s small hands wrap around her shoulder while she continued to weep. With one hand, Lydia gently stroked Vicky''s white hair as she began whispering into her ear. "You shouldn''t feel ashamed about these scars. Each one marks a victory over odds, your survival through suffering... Also, I don''t think they are ugly at all, even though you do. I think they are stunning!" Vicky''s crying lessened as she listened. She spoke, sniffling slightly, for the first time since her surgery. "You are lying... They are hideous, just like me!" "That''s not true... To be honest, I''m kind of jealous... I always dreamed of having battle-scars, but unlike you, I might not get a chance to even fight... I want to be an Evolved, part of the Angelic Order, but not everyone has such privilege..." "Anyway, I think you underestimate how little care about looks these days. Especially people who love and support you!" Gently, Lydia pushed Vicky away, so she could look at her face. After a bit of hesitation, Vicky let her. Her teary eyes stayed closed, not daring to look at Lydia''s expression. Lydia felt a bit surprised. She wasn''t expecting the terrible, ugly scar that made Vicky break down be so... Mild... It wasn''t a horrible disfigurement, like Vicky thinks, but just a long stitched up line running from the middle of her eyebrows to her left jawline. In reality, Lydia felt a bit underwhelmed, and she could hold in her laughter. Vicky was about to cry again, so Lydia quickly elaborated on the situation''s ridiculousness. "You know, it''s hilarious you think that scar makes you ugly. I think it makes you even more attractive. Every other Evolved has perfect facial features, perfect skin, hair, everything. But, people like imperfections, it makes people more exotic, it makes them stand out." Vicky finally opened her eyes. She continued to stare at Lydia with disbelief, which brought another giggle out of her. "Oh, don''t look so surprised. If you want proof, show yourself to Henry. I''m sure he won''t see you any lesser... But maybe consider wearing real clothes... Or stay in these hospital pants if you want to see him blush again!" This time, they both chuckled, and Vicky swiftly dressed up with her newfound confidence. Chapter 304 304: The Scar of the Angel Sera and the others continued to talk outside the tents for twenty minutes straight. They eventually asked Henry to speak with Vicky, but upon returning, the tents seemed emptier. Many parents went home or to work, leaving their children here. Everyone waited for Vicky, playing together; however, they were now gone. They all looked at each other, then rushed towards the smaller tent''s entrance. Before entering, they heard laughter echo from inside, but none of them processed it. They let their worry towards Vicky lead them. All three stepped inside with concerned expressions, but what they found was truly heartwarming. Sera feared the other kids might bully or make fun of her daughter, but the exact opposite happened. They were all sitting on her bed, painting each other''s arms, necks and faces with ink, making lines similar to Vicky''s scars. They all laughed and giggled while doing so. Vicky was painting a seven-pointed star on Lydia''s forehead when her parents burst inside. In that moment, she felt a bit of dread, but instead of hiding, she grabbed Henry''s hand for support. His nearness brought a calming effect on her, and she also needed to stay conscious while holding hands. If she squeezed too hard, his hand would break. Henry gave her hand a reaffirming squeeze while he watched the adults'' reaction. Confusion gripped them, then joyous grins erupted on their faces. Pride filled Bran''s eyes as he spoke first. "Well, what''s going on here? You think you can just sneak inside without a word... Even worse, you are having all this fun without even inviting us?... This just won''t do! I demand someone paint me too!" This declaration shocked everyone, but especially Vicky. She just stared at Bran with bewilderment, but before she could process it, Bea also stepped forward. "Oh, I want one as well! Preferably one that matches my daughter''s beautiful face!" declared Bea ecstatically. Vicky''s eyes turned teary by her words, and both Bea and Bran sat down close to her. Sera still stayed at the entrance, looking at everyone with an unreadable expression. She remained bewildered, speechless. She felt perplexed by their interaction, and simply couldn''t find the right words to express herself. After losing her emotions, Sera learned many people value actions more than words. So instead of saying anything, she summoned her glaive as a thin needle covered in her flames. While staring into Vicky''s white eyes, she moved the needle to her face and made a quick cut. Blood boiled as the needle entered her skin. A diagonal line ran from between her eyebrows, across her left cheek, ending by her jaw. The exact same scar as Vicky had now existed on her mother''s face. Everyone stared at Sera with either awe, disgust, shock, or love. Most of the kids felt disgusted by the smell of burnt flesh, except Henry and Lydia. Henry froze in pure shock, while Lydia stared at her god in pure awe and reverence. Bea and Bran just shook their heads with self-deprecation. Naturally, she topped them both. Vicky''s eyes felt wet, and soon tears made their way down her cheeks. Before Sera could''ve reacted, her daughter already teleported into her arms, sobbing on her shoulder. A small line of blood left her burnt flesh, but Sera quickly wiped it away while continuing to hug her daughter. As happy tears wetted Sera''s shoulder, a warm fuzzy feeling grew within her heart, and a small smile spread across her newly scarred face. A few minutes later, Vicky ended the embrace, and regarded her mother with surprise. The scar on her face hadn''t healed yet, which was odd considering her Ascended constitution. "Mommy, why is your face not healing?" asked Vicky curiously. Sera''s smile widened as she knelt in front of her and gave a small kiss on the top of her head. Vicky giggled as her lips brushed her white locks. Afterward, her golden-green eyes looked into Vicky''s white ones with intense love and protective care. "Its not healing, because I decided it won''t. The scar will remain as a permanent mark for my love towards you, my perfect... My perfect little... angel..." Uttering those words proved incredibly difficult; Sera fought back a recoil as a shiver went down her spine. But all the effort was worth it, just to see Vicky''s reaction. The largest grin Sera had ever seen spread across her daughter''s face, and she quickly clenched back onto her. Getting Vicky to end the hug was a challenge, but eventually they ended up on the bed with everyone else. They continued to paint each other. Sera''s presence weirded the kids out at first, but every time anyone took a glance at her, Vicky began growling. She continued hugging Sera''s hand throughout the evening. Later, she felt comfortable enough and left Sera alone. Instead, she climbed onto Bea''s lap, and let her other mother braid her long, white, lustrous hair. When the sun was setting, Sera, Bea and Bran all left for the next planning session between the city-states. Vicky remained with her new friends, under the watchful eyes of the other parents. Before leaving, Max''s father informed them that the kids would go to his and his wife''s place for the night. He asked if Vicky could go with them, and both Sera and Bea agreed. Knowing that separating the kids after a distressing night and morning wasn''t the best choice, the parents collectively agreed to another sleepover. It wasn''t a school night anyway, since it was Saturday. After further discussion with the parents, Sera, along with the others, departed for the operations room. A large-scale war demanded planning, which meant a long, sleepless night awaited them. ... The dark corridors were barely lit by the few lights above. Cells extended endlessly on either side of the hallway. In each cell, about ten human-like beings sat patiently. They each glanced at the woman walking down the corridor, but they would quickly lose interest in her. The scarred woman ignored the cells. Her eyes remained bored as she walked down towards the end of the corridor. There, at the end, sounds of misery and hopeless pain echoed. The screams brought a smile to Scarred Sera''s face. The residents didn''t even seem to notice the screams, but why would they? It was like background noise, similar to the sound of water drops hitting the damp stone ground, or the sound of metal cutting flesh. It was all part of the atmosphere. Scarred Sera continued to the source. The corridor felt unusually long; however, this was just an illusion. She quickly reached the last cell, where the screams originated from. This cell differed from the rest. Nobody lived inside, and the only furniture was a long bloody metal table with a young woman strapped to it. Above her stood an old man in a hospital gown covered in the woman''s blood. In his hand, a syringe and a scalpel rested, waiting to be used. "Why are you still screaming so loudly?" Said the old man under his breath. "You should''ve already lost your mind... Hmm... Ah, how forgetful of me! I forgot to cut away part of your frontal lobe! Let me fix that real quick!" Harold muttered quietly while he grabbed a saw and began working on the woman''s skull. Her screams became guttural as she felt every bit of pain. She couldn''t even fall unconscious. Every time her body tried to save her from the pain, Harold pushed the syringe inside. The syringe''s contents revived the woman, renewing her screams. "Stay there, Reject! Be with you in a moment!" said Harold, without looking at Scarred Sera. He always referred to her as Reject. In Harold''s eyes, she was much worse than her twin. Her emotions always convoluted everything. He tried wiping her memories, changing her personality, giving her enough trauma to last for many lifetimes, but nothing worked. Scarred Sera always stayed unstable, but that''s not what Harold needed or wanted. With instability came confusion, questions, and worst of all, order rejection. Well, she didn''t outright refuse orders, but her instability caused frequent failure. She tried not caring about the nickname, but it especially hurt when her twin''s nickname was Little Angel. She knew it was only a stab at Hollow Sera''s feelings, since that''s her daughter''s nickname, but it was still much better than Reject. But Scarred Sera wouldn''t show any hurt on her face. She learned to bottle up all her turbulent emotions in front of Harold. With emotionless eyes and a bored expression, she watched as he carefully lifted the piece of skull, and with the scalpel cut away from the woman''s brain. Her screaming continued to intensify until suddenly it stopped. She didn''t fall unconscious. Her eyes remained open; however, no life left within her gaze. There was nothing left of the woman. The tiny glimmer within each person''s eye vanished from hers without a trace of its existence. "Finally!... Now just the last step..." he murmured, then placed his hand on the woman''s chest. A small glow appeared there, and the woman''s body spasmed. A few seconds later, all her muscles contracted, and a silent gasp resounded within the room. A faint glimmer reappeared in her eyes; however, she remained lifeless, but not like a corpse, instead she was similar to a puppet. Harold approved the outcome, dismissing the woman to a nearby cell. The Puppet didn''t make a single noise. She arose and left; leaving them alone. While wiping the blood off his hands, Harold nodded at Scarred Sera to begin the report. "The Puppets were a great success, Master! Their resurrection proved extremely difficult to deal with for most Evolved, while their weapons were great at killing or permanently damaging them!... They will be invaluable on the battlefield!" Harold just nodded dismissively. "Yes, I know... It proved to be a good choice to use Dwight''s and Legion''s powers when making the Puppets. Their resurrection, and zombie-like control, combined with your resurrection, made the perfect obedient army that no Evolved can stop!" For a few minutes, he stayed silent, consumed in his thoughts, then he noticed Scarred Sera was still there. With an annoyed expression, he explained his next thoughts. "The final battle is near. The lines had been drawn, the armies are readied, and now everyone waits for the first group to make their move... We need to be those! So get all these Puppets ready! When the time is right, we march to war!" Chapter 305 305: Future Arrangements The next few days went by fairly quickly. Sera, along with her fellow leaders, spent their time planning in the operations room. During these days, two other city-states came back to their alliance. Edinburg, who lost their president in the attack, sent an envoy/ambassador to join the planning. While Kiev asked the leader of Odesz, Pavlo, to represent them as well. As it turned out, Pavlo''s wife politically conquered Kiev after the Dictator''s death. She coerced them into a co-leadership, like the arrangement between Krak and Warsaw. They were quick to accept, since otherwise they had no one to lead them. Sadly, Stuttgart, the third city-state, which lost its leader, hadn''t contacted them. They either chose neutrality or switched sides. From the Angelic Order presence within Stuttgart, they learned the city was still standing, so something else must''ve happened. The public is, of course, concerned, but their leading council had made no public appearance yet. Wien, and more importantly, Jonas, wasn''t as silent. He took control of the entire city and made his allegiance public. There was even footage of Amygdala appearing within the city, and Jonas kneeling before her. He made up a bunch of fake reasons why he joined the Federal Alliance, but everyone saw through the facade of lies. Jonas wanted nothing else but full control over Wien, which Harold gladly gave provided. The spies within the Federal Alliance couldn''t report much. Behind the fog of war, the enemy moved, preparing for the upcoming battles, but nobody had a clear idea about their plans. Napoleon was similar, but even more ambiguous. He still did little since taking control of New Paris. The spies speculate his control was lacking, and he wanted an absolute force before making any large-scale movements. But Elizabeth and Otto didn''t believe that. They both knew him before the war. He was always an introverted, rational person. He hated making mistakes, since he was a perfectionist. Whatever he''s planning, it won''t be easy to handle. On their front, they made lots of plans, then dropped most as time passed. Right now, they felt pretty good about their state, but in war, certainty was a luxury, and they were piss poor, so they made plans, then fail-safes for the plans, then fail-safes for the fail-safes. But at some point, planning needed to stop, and the worst part of every war began, waiting. Their plans needed time, and so they waited. Another week passed with nothing important happening. As everything calmed down before the storm, Sera and Bea found time for their much needed conversation regarding Vicky''s and their futures. They met up alone at Sera''s apartment. Bran took Vicky to the other children, giving them ample time for the discussion. Unlike two weeks ago, they both went into the conversation with calm and clear minds, ready to make all the decisions related to their future. Following a cordial hug, they settled on opposite ends of the sofa, ready for a lengthy discussion. The issue began with uncertainty regarding the start of the conversation. Beforehand, both spent a long time gathering their thoughts, but upon facing each other, nothing remained from their preparations. Several endless minutes later, Sera initiated, since she was the primary culprit in the events leading here. Sera looked into Bea''s beautiful green eyes, and she spoke with as much sincerity as possible. "First, I again apologize for my behavior... As you know, my emotionless state causes me to not see patterns within interactions. I never imagined everything to snowball so quickly, into this intricate mess... This, naturally, isn''t justification; I now understand my actions'' impact..." Bea didn''t cut into her words like last time. She just nodded with sadness, recognizing Sera''s apology. She felt no hypocrisy this time, making acceptance easier. But Bea was still confused. "Why did you do it? Is it only your emotionless state, or was there something else?" asked Bea with curiosity, and after a long, uncomfortable silence, Sera answered shamefully. "It played a part, but no... After all of you came back, everyone constantly pushed me towards you. None of you ever acknowledged what I wanted, and that brought discomfort every time we were close... I also realized how much Bran had done for me, and how much he meant to me..." Sera avoided Bea''s gaze, even though her eyes held no judgement, only regret. A deep breath, then a long, weary sigh¡ªmonths of pent-up emotion released at once. She wasn''t stupid, or emotionally inept. Bea noticed how uncomfortable Sera would get anytime someone mentioned their past relationship, but she never knew the reason. This truth felt liberating, like a heavy pressure finally lifting from her shoulders. With a calm smile, she turned towards Sera. "Do you love him?" The question wasn''t surprising, unlike Bea''s smile. With embarrassment, Sera blushed and averted her gaze. "I''m not sure... Emotionless, remember?... But I imagine, when I get my emotions back, I will finally feel it!" She sounded so excited that Bea couldn''t keep a straight face. Sera''s flushed face and hopeful eyes made her look especially cute. They became silent for a moment. Bea never took her gaze off of Sera''s face. In her mind''s eye, she recalled the ups and downs they experienced, leading to a sudden realization... Their relationship was doomed from the start... When they met, they were both broken. Their cities destroyed, their families dead. They needed companionship, someone to rely on, but their connection was never healthy. The two year long separation also proved enlightening for them both. They realized one was or another that staying together wasn''t the best option. This knowledge simplified everything, since holding onto false hope wouldn''t have solved anything, anyway. Instead of reminiscing about the past, she decided to work on her future. For this, she needed to let go. For this reason, instead of feeling sad, an enormous smile spread across her face. She moved closer and gave Sera a warm embrace, shocking her in the process. It lasted for a few long seconds, but its meaning was obvious. Bea pulled away, and while continuing to smile said, "I forgive you, and wish for both you and Bran a happy life together." The surprise quickly worn off, and soon Sera''s face reflected Bea''s smiling expression. "Thank you! I wish the same for you and Otto!" These words felt wonderful for both, like an inexplicably heavy weight lifting off of their heart. A few minutes passed in silence. They just enjoyed the calm moment while it lasted. Eventually, the conversation had to continue, since there was still a lot they needed to discuss. Most important out of all, their daughter. "Have you talked to her yet about what she wants to do?" asked Bea, breaking the comfortable, quiet atmosphere. Sera just shrugged and giggled. "Somewhat... I asked about her future plans after the war, and she was really excited to tell me..." She stayed silent for a moment, making Bea annoyed with the wait. After a few seconds, and lost of grumpy looks, Sera continued with a wide grin. "She wants to stay here, in London, and start school with her new friends." Bea''s eyes widened from shock, then she burst out laughing with Sera. She should''ve already guessed something like this would happen, but it still caught her off guard. Their chuckling continued, lasted a few seconds, then eventually both calmed down and resumed the conversation. "That''s great. I''m really happy she managed to make such good friends so quickly, but we must extensively discuss this new arrangement with her before agreeing." Bea declared firmly, allowing no argument¡ªnot like Sera had any. "Of course! We haven''t talked about anything extensively, since I wanted to include you in those discussions!" Sera grinned while Bea blushed, looking away. She felt a warm, fuzzy feeling inside her heart, which she had been missing for a long time... Someone actually cared about her opinion... It wasn''t exactly love she felt, but more like overwhelming joy combined with a significant amount of gratification. The feeling was similar to the love one feels towards their friends and family after they receive a compliment. She quickly composed herself, or at least tried to, but before she could''ve said anything, Sera blurted out something ridiculous. "I think the first should teach Vicky about sex education!" Bea''s eyes widened for the thousandth time during their conversation. She intently watched Sera, inhaled deeply, then spoke as calmly as she managed. "WHAT?!" shouted Bea. "What do you mean?! She is way too young for sex education! She is only eleven for fuck''s sake!... Is she getting that close to Henry?" Sera just giggled and shrugged. "Not really. I just wanted to tease you... By the way, your reaction was priceless! They are very close, but according to Bran, they mostly just hold hands and cuddle. It''s more cute than inappropriate..." This didn''t seem to convince Bea, instead she became much more anxious. "What do you mean, cute?! There is nothing cute about this!... That little prince is seducing my daughter! We need to do something, before it''s too late and we lose her to this charlatan!" Sera laughed throughout Bea''s long monologue. After a while, Bea herself realized how stupid she sounded. It wasn''t like she hated Henry, but she wasn''t ready for her daughter to begin dating. But she also knew how important this relationship was for Vicky, so eventually she dropped the subject. Their conversation changed a few times, and they ended it when Sera sent a message to all of their friends, detailing all her past feelings, insecurities, and grievances. She also asked everyone to apologize to Bea for their past behavior. She didn''t really need to, since even before sending her message, the apologies began rolling in on Bea''s watch. Bea read all the texts from her friends. She cried a lot as everyone acknowledged their horrid behavior, and thank her for all the sacrifices she had made. By the end, Sera hugged and caressed her head. This moment differed from their past shared as lovers. Now, they were just two close friends, and co-parents, nothing else. It took Bea half an hour to calm down and leave Sera''s apartment. Just as they walked towards the door, it opened wide and Bran came inside. They chatted a while longer, then Bea went on her way. Since night has fallen, Sera decided it was time to close the balcony window, which stayed open during their entire discussion. As she closed it, a lone raven flew away from his nearby perch. Chapter 306 306: The Calm Before the Storm Time went by quickly as everyone prepared for war. Well, over a month had passed since the attack on the castle. Warm, early May breeze swept through the streets of New Athens, as Sera stood on her house''s balcony, with Bran beside her. She watched with a small smile as Vicky and the other kids ran around playing tag. Their parents sat nearby, enjoying their ''vacation''. In reality, it wasn''t really a vacation. New Athens had the strongest defenses out of every city-state. This was the Aegis System''s origin, so it lost barely any power when activated. Parents, including Sera, Elizabeth, and Bea, decided where the children would be safest during the fighting. The Queen was against sending Henry away at first, but after a quick reminder of her castle''s state, and the demolished towers, she relented. The parents also didn''t want to leave their kids, so everyone came to New Athens to stay in Sera''s mansion. Her enormous house contained numerous rooms, so even though her friends occupied most, there was still plenty of space for guests. Her friends didn''t disappoint either, and held a large party for the new arrivals. Bea and Otto attended as well, which proved a bit awkward at first, but everyone was mature and kept their opinions to themselves. Vicky was especially ecstatic. She became much happier after the uncomfortable distance between her mothers disappeared. Like a dark veil finally lifting from her mood, Vicky turned back to her usual excited self, which she lost after the breakup. After the celebration, the parents and kids spent lots of times exploring The City of the Phoenix, as her citizens often referred to New Athens. Vicky happily showed them the best places, acting like a tour guide. Sadly, she couldn''t do it a lot, since unlike the other kids, she needed to work. As the drums of war beat over Europe, people began panicking. The refugee count grew by leaps and bounds. The Angelic Order faced an exponential increase in help requests, meaning the time and rate portals needed to be opened went up too. Despite continuous portal maintenance, Vicky didn''t complain. Instead, she spent time with Henry. Everyone knew not to bother her, while she kept portals open, since it took quite a bit of concentration, but Henry was the exception. He always stayed nearby, especially when she needed to focus on work. At this point, Henry knew her schedule better than she did, and he gladly coordinated everything around her work schedule. Bea wasn''t exactly the happiest for the elongated length they spent one-on-one, but Otto was there to comfort and shower her with attention. She, and everyone else, was pretty busy with the upcoming battles. They spent a lot of time preparing, Sera especially. She couldn''t explain why, but she felt the need to practice fighting without using abilities or transformations. Something in her had changed after that defeat on New Year''s eve. Since then, she felt compelled to improve, and after each fight lost against Damien, a deep sense of approaching doom grew in her chest. The idleness was eating her up. She spent most days the same: waking up, working out, eating, working out again, attending war conferences, working out a third time, and finally going to sleep. This exceeded mere waiting-related stress. It was purely obsessive, and she couldn''t figure out where her anxiety stemmed from. Even standing on this balcony with Bran next to her, she felt the uneasiness grow. Her hands slightly trembled, and she wanted nothing more than to enter the gym and fight against a stronger opponent, who would certainly defeat her. Only at Bran''s and Bea''s insistence did Sera stop. They were concerned about her spiraling behavior, and they also didn''t want to cause Vicky any further stress. She thrived in this new environment, and neither parent wished it to end. They allowed Vicky a peaceful existence, despite the war''s imminent arrival and the fleeting nature of happiness. Henry was not as easily deceived. The little prince payed more attention to his surroundings than most Evolved. Luckily, he agreed with the parent''s mentality keeping Vicky stress-free. Bran only had to speak with him once, and he agreed wholeheartedly. That talk was a week ago, and no incident happened, so it was safe to say that Henry kept his word. From her balcony, Sera watched as the kids chased each other around her garden. Although Vicky''s enhanced body was much faster than the other children''s, she always allowed herself to be caught, to keep the fun going. Their laughter echoed around the mansion, bringing a smile even to Sera''s otherwise troubled expression. "You know, you should smile more often. It looks good on your face, enhances your beauty!" As Bran spoke, he came closer and placed a hand on hers. Sera just snorted and continued to watch the kids play. "I don''t know if you have noticed, but I don''t exactly have reasons to smile often..." Sera trailed off by the end, as her imagination ran wild with the upcoming slaughter. Her mind began spiraling again. Bran felt the tremble in her hand, and so he reached forward and gently moved Sera''s face, so their eyes met. Those bewitching golden-green eyes stared at him with a deep sense of worry. "Stop it!" said Bran in a low voice. "Stop what?" asked Sera, pretending to be confused, but her voice sounded so lifeless even she didn''t believe her words. "You know exactly what..." Said Bran, then shook his head and sighed with exasperation. "Look, I understand things will worsen. Believe me, I know it more than you..." For an imperceptible moment, Bran''s eyes widened at his own words, but like nothing had happened, he continued. Sera became a bit confused by his words and reaction, but her own troubles overpowered her lingering curiosity. "Yes, the war is approaching, and maybe none of us will survive..." Before continuing, Sera cut in with another snort and a tiny smile. "Wow, you are amazing at cheering people up! The possibility of death always brings me joy!" Bran chuckled for a split moment, then leaned in to give a small kiss atop Sera''s head. Her golden hair felt like silk under his lips, their smoothness incredible and stunning. During the small kiss, he couldn''t help himself. His left hand stayed on Sera''s, while his right slipped behind her back, gently caressing and playing with her long, shiny hair. Sera''s smile stayed persistent throughout this ordeal, and as Bran moved away, her eyes noticeably brightened. She also leaned in closer to Bran and placed her own empty hand on his firm chest. A prolonged gaze passed between them until eventually Bran continued speaking. "We should enjoy these moments, this calm before the inevitable storm... Our survival is uncertain at best, so let''s spend as much time together... If the worst happens, I wish to leave this world without regrets within my soul." There was a deep sadness in his light hazel eyes. Sera couldn''t understand why, but something felt wrong with his gaze. Bran must''ve noticed the change in Sera''s expression, since in a blink the sadness was gone, like it never existed. For a split moment, Sera even questioned her own sanity, since the change was so abrupt. Before Sera could''ve raised any concern, Bran leaned in and gave a long kiss on her lips. She didn''t object. With both her hands over his shoulders, she pulled him even closer. Bran did the same. His hands moving in circles across her back. She arched, pressing her body against Bran''s. A few minutes later, Sera ended the kiss but stayed close to Bran. She wanted to pursue the reason for the sadness in his eyes, but Bran shook his head gently, his eyes full of desperation. He didn''t want to talk about it, and so Sera, instead of asking a question, moved back to continue their kiss. She knew it was a mistake, that she should''ve pressed him, but right now she didn''t want any sad truths. Everything was already bad enough. Sera wanted comfort. She needed peace for as long as it lasted. For this reason, she abandoned the topic, and instead enjoyed the tranquility. The children''s laughter continued to echo around the yard, and the closeness of her lover brought indescribable happiness to Sera. As the kiss ended, only a few centimeters long bridge of saliva separated their lips. From the side they heard approaching footsteps, but neither payed attention. Their eyes only held each other. Faith stopped in the doorway and forcefully coughed. Bran glanced at her and blushed a bit from the sudden audience witnessing their intimacy. Sera didn''t seem to care, though. With one hand, she gently brushed Bran''s face and gave another small peck on his lips. She then leaned in and whispered into his ears. "This isn''t over yet. We will continue when I come back... Prepare, my love, for a lengthy night!" Both Faith and Bran blushed extremely hard as Sera moved away, walking inside the mansion. Faith followed close-by, and together they went away to the last war conference before the war tomorrow. They walked down the stairs towards the garden, so Vicky could teleport them to London. Before reaching the door, Faith collected herself, finally voicing a persistent question. With one hand, she stopped Sera, who stared at her with curiosity. She noticed a long time ago how Faith looked at her. She wasn''t like most of Sera''s followers, her devotion rivalled even Adam''s and Lilith''s. Sera wasn''t exactly sure where her piety stemmed from, but she was interested in learning more. So she stopped and silently awaited Faith''s next words. Chapter 307 307: Brightest Light Casts the Darkest Shadow Confronted with the reality of her decision, Faith froze momentarily. A few seconds ago, she made up her mind, but now the second guessing began, causing a deep sense of confusion and worry to appear instead of her usually bored expression. Sera didn''t comment or say anything. She just continued staring into Faith''s dark eyes with curious concern. This caused Faith to rethink her decision. She wanted nothing more than to follow Sera, but she distrusted this Hollow person. Faith''s conviction about her identity wasn''t certain. This feeling of doubt stemmed from a lot of minor details she noticed after the rescue. This woman, devoid of feeling, differed greatly from Sera''s past self. She had no compassion, felt no fear, and led her people with a cold, calculated demeanor. But even worse, her treatment of Bea and at first Vicky simply felt wrong. Faith questioned if this individual was truly Sera or some awful copy made by Harold. These second guesses only worsened when she learned about Scarred Sera''s existence. In Faith''s opinion, neither of the two women were the real Sera. They were just two halves separated by Harold''s horrible ability. The rational and the emotional part of Sera''s mind split in two. Since neither sufficed as the true Sera, Faith didn''t pursue her Heritage... But then, things changed slowly. The shift was invisible to most. Even Faith, who observed Sera with deep scrutiny on every public occasion, missed the behavioral changes at first. As weeks passed, Sera''s smiles became brighter. Her show of intimacy with both Bran and Vicky turned much more frequent. Faith couldn''t find the reason, but it seemed Sera''s emotions were returning, or at least she showed more. Even now, the curiosity and worry in her gaze wasn''t something she previously demonstrated. However, it was stranger than displaying a wide variety of emotions. As time passed and the date of war came closer, her demeanor took changes, reverting to her older self. In war councils, she became more active. Her plans became less optimal, but provided the least casualties, both civilian and military. With these changes, Faith became doubtful again. Her judgment may have been faulty, or Sera''s soul might not have been as damaged as everyone assumed. Faith didn''t know or care, she just felt glad her idol, her goddess, changed back to her formal glorious self. The apology to Bea also caused Faith a lot of confusion. She tried to ask subtle questions from the others, but only Lilith and Adam noticed the changes in Sera. Faith trusted both fully, so she told them her Heritage, and what she needed to achieve to continue on her evolutionary path. Unlike what she thought, they didn''t suggest go straight to Sera, instead they wanted her to wait until she felt certain. She took their advice to heart, and in the next few weeks, she spent most days with Sera. Either they trained together, or she watched her duel with others. Faith also spent a lot of time in her shadows, with her permission, of course. This extended period convinced her it was time to act. The only issue was now that she needed to explain her situation and ask for Sera''s permission to be her shadow. After taking a few deep breaths, Faith managed to calm herself. Sera still just waited patiently while continuing to look concerned. That small gesture confirmed Faith''s decision, and with a newfound purpose, she began her explanation. "I know we have spoken little since our arrival a few months ago, but as you probably already saw, I was a similar close follower to you in the past, like Lilith and Adam are now..." She needed another moment, as anxiety came over her once more, but soon she wrestled all her turbulent emotions and overthinking brain under control. "My title is Devout Shadow, but nobody other than me truly knows what that entails... I want to ask you something... It''s nothing small, at least for me, but it would benefit both of us, I think... I know the decision not simple, believe me I thought about it day and night, but I would appreciate if you agreed..." After finishing her sentence, Faith continued to stare into Sera''s eyes with an anxious, but hopeful, gaze. A few seconds of silence passed, and the atmosphere began turning awkward. Sera forcefully cleared her throat, then tried to smile kindly as she spoke. "Faith, I understand you are probably stressed, but before I make any hard decisions, could I perhaps know what I''m agreeing to?" Faith''s dark eyes widened and her pale white cheeks turned bright red with a heavy blush. She felt extremely embarrassed, but took quick hold of her overwhelming emotions. "Uh... Yes, of course... B-but, it might be easier to show you..." Instead of trying to explain it, she decided that showing her status window was a much better option than failing miserably while constantly stuttering. Sera didn''t say a word. She just came to stand next to her and watched with great curiosity as Faith opened her status. Name: Faith Title: Devout Shadow Lord/Lady: - 1st Kill: Forsaken Shadow, Rotten of the 3rd Tier 2nd Kill: Root of Darkness, Horror of the 1st Tier Shadows Absorbed: 5000/5000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: Transformation Ability: Heritage: Race Change Status: Items: - Faith didn''t show any of her abilities, since they served no importance. Her only concern was the Heritage tab, and after opening it, Sera''s eyes widened with shock. Description: After reviewing the tab, Sera frowned slightly, then faced Faith. This expression wasn''t at all something Faith had expected, so she immediately began overthinking everything. She also read through the tab again, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Faith looked at Sera, waiting for the explanation behind her angered state. "Did you really think I would abide to slavery? I will never agree to servitude from anyone unable to reject my requests, and that is the very essence of this ability!" Sera''s words left a deep impression on Faith. She never thought of serving Sera forever as slavery. For her, it was a privilege. Adam and Lilith even showed signs of jealousy, since neither could offer eternal servitude to their Lady. For a few seconds, Faith stared at Sera with mouth agape, then, after slowly recovering, she realized that getting Sera''s acceptance proved much more difficult than she imagined. "I understand your concern, but for me, this isn''t slavery. You don''t remember when we met and how I became an Evolved, so your knowledge isn''t perfect for making such an important decision..." Faith''s dark eyes turned teary as she remembered the time they spent in Havel, all the friends they lost, all the suffering they went through. It was tragedy after tragedy each day, but they hadn''t given up, and with Sera leading them, they triumphed over improbable odds! "You saved me, not just physically, but in every sense of the word. I had no sense or purpose, no reason to live for. But you illuminated the path for me and others, leading us out of darkness and into the light." As Faith spoke, Sera''s deep frown broke, and she continued listening with sorrow in her eyes. Slowly, Faith went down on one knee before her Lady. "In that moment, you already gained my eternal servitude, but I couldn''t make it official... Now though... Now I have the power to honor our relationship properly, so please... Please accept me as your eternal shadow!" Sera couldn''t find the words to describe how she felt. It was a mix of anger, sadness, confusion, hope, and curiosity. With all these combined, she didn''t know what to do, so instead of politely refusing Faith, she also explained her point of view. "I''m glad you still have some much... Uh... Faith in me... But I don''t think this is a good idea. I know you trust me, and I can swear I would never misuse your devotion, but as you know, I''m only part of my soul..." A small tear ran down Sera''s face as she remembered her other half... Scarred Sera... As time went by, all her hatred and anger evaporated against Scarred Sera. She wasn''t some evil person, but just another victim of Harold''s disgusting, twisted personality. She wasn''t someone sent to destroy Hollow Sera. She was her sister, her other half, her emotional side. Scarred Sera was much more susceptible to Harold''s influence, since she had no rational thinking. Sera believed that regardless of the winner, the result of their upcoming struggle would yield identical results: a broken person. Her two parts reunited. Two distinct minds, barely resembling a person, forever traumatized by years of torture and abuse. She stayed silent only to take a deep shuddering breath, and soon her golden-green eyes turned back towards Faith''s still kneeling posture. "I can''t accept your servitude... I don''t know what I will become after I reunite with my other half. Maybe I turn into a psycho like her, or I stay an emotionless wreck like me... Maybe something even worse happens, but the result is purely unpredictable!" "I don''t want you to serve an evil person, especially if it''s me... So please, understand... I appreciate your trust in me, but it''s not the right time to make such commitments!" As Sera finished her sentence, Faith sighed with melancholy. Looking up at Sera, she played her last trump card, the only possible way to gain acceptance. "We march to war tomorrow. Our enemies are many, and our assets few. You read the Heritage. To unlock my abilities, I need a Lady... Wouldn''t you want someone stronger defending your daughter on the battlefield?" Sera opened her mouth to protest, but she was still mostly emotional, and a lot more rational than normal people. Her expression changed from uncertain, to annoyed, then angry, and finally, the face Faith had been waiting for... Acknowledgment... Chapter 308 308: The Eve Before Ruin* The sun dipped below the horizon hours earlier. Outside, the tranquil night hid the underlying tension and the approaching catastrophe for Europe. Despite everyone''s belief that the world would end the next day, Sera strolled through her mansion''s halls with a serene and confident smile. She knew better than anyone how bad things would get, but she dismissed those thoughts, letting the peaceful atmosphere sweep them away. Sera''s doom approached. Her whole life felt uncertain, so she anchored herself with the people she loved. On the outside, she maintained her confident facade, while inside, she screamed. Her every step felt like a lie. She felt incomplete and a fraud, deception in its purest form. Sera couldn''t help these thoughts. The deep sense of self hatred overruled any kind of rational logic. She had no clue where all the sudden influx of emotions stemmed from. It was like the closer she came to tomorrow, the more real everything felt. She sensed a connection between this and her plans for reuniting with Scarred Sera, yet the changes in her current state remained a mystery. The more such thoughts appeared, the faster her steps became from fear. Eventually she was running towards her room, where she knew safety and reassurance awaited in the form of her lover. Sera nearly broke down her door as she went inside. Bran, who had previously sat on the couch in front of the burning fireplace, jumped up upon hearing her loud entrance. He noticed her distressed state immediately and rushed to comfort her within seconds. As the door closed behind Sera, her confident state changed abruptly. She broke down crying for reasons she couldn''t fathom. Like an influx of emotions attacked her, and she lost control over her outlook. Bran''s firm arms gently lifted her, and with small steps, he guided her to the couch nearby. There they sat. Bran''s right hand stroked Sera''s golden locks while her face stayed buried in his side with her arms wrapped around his chest. She continued to cry in silence for a few minutes, before the emotional overload either became less overwhelming, or she just got used to it. Regardless, the outcome was the same. Slowly, she moved away from the comfort of Bran, and she stared into his glimmering, light hazel eyes. She instantly saw the deep love and concern within his gaze, and she couldn''t help her heart from melting a bit. With one quick move, she changed positions. Sera sat on his lap, leaning close to his face. Her emotions quickly changed from her confused, sad, angry, and scared state. A wild sense of need and lust took hold of her. She could barely control herself from devouring Bran on the spot. He raised an eyebrow at her strange expression. Her golden-green eyes fully dilated, her hands trembled as they moved along his well-muscled body, going lower and lower with each small movement. Her breathing turned heavier as her heart beat like a drum. In that moment, she remembered what this pressing feeling in her chest was. Like chains wrapped around her heart, pulling it closer to Bran. The need to stay near him, to never leave him, to have him all to herself... This was love... An enormous smile spread across her divine face, stretching the small scar on her left cheek. Bran raised a hand, gently gracing it across the wound. Sera giggled as his fingertip brushed against her perfect skin. "Why are you so happy?" whispered Bran as he leaned in closer. Sera put her arms around him, pushing Bran back onto the couch, then whispered her answer onto his lips. "Because I''m in love!" With that, she leaned all the way, pressing her pouty lips on Bran''s. He could barely react as her mouth opened and her tongue knocked on his teeth, demanding entrance. His mouth opened after a few seconds, and their tongues engaged in their usual dance. With their breaths turning heavier, they began sharing the very air, connecting them on a much deeper level. Sera couldn''t stay still. Her hands constantly moved across Bran''s back, while her hips kept grinding on his lower half. She already felt his sword press close to her entrance, and with the feeling, all her reservations went out of her mind. With fervor and quick movements, her leather jacket and dark shirt landed on the carpet near the fireplace. Their kiss barely broke for a second as Bran''s shirt landed next to hers. She pressed her chest closer, with only her sports bra separating their skin. They savoured each moment like it was their last time on Earth. Bran''s hand fumbled around her butt, then went down to her thigh, calf and eventually her feet. While the kiss continued, he pulled off both of Sera''s combat boots, then unbuckled her belt. All the clothing landed on the growing pile. She continued to grind, now only a black undergarment separating her entrance from his pants. Sera wasn''t idle either. She pulled out his belt, then pushed her right hand inside. It quickly found the prize, and while grabbing onto his base, she gave Bran a few gentle strokes. A small moan tried escaping his mouth, but Sera pressed closer, not letting them separate even for a moment. Her right hand never left Bran''s sword, but her left hastily began pulling off his pants and undergarment, until it inevitably landed on the top of the pile. As the barriers separating them lessened, Sera pressed her hips closer, pinning Bran''s sword between his abs and her entrance. She continued moving her hips up and down, each stroke causing another moan of pleasure. Bran lasted a few seconds before he had enough of this treatment. With one hand, he grabbed and teared off Sera''s bra. Their lips separated so quickly Sera couldn''t even follow, but within less than a second unimaginable pleasure coursed through her sensitive body. She felt the warm lips that were on her mouth a second ago press right on her bare breast. She felt the tongue that danced around her mouth, now play and tease her nipple. She felt as Bran pushed his head closer and sucked on her naked chest. A shiver went through Sera''s body, and a loud moan escaped her trembling lips. Her eyes became blurry, as pleasure previously unknown ignited a deep flame in her heart. She finally felt the difference between having sex with someone just for the act and making love with the person of your dreams. Her body came close to climax just by the sheer proximity of Bran. She felt his lips on her breast sucking and his hands on her butt kneading, much more vividly. The pleasure was like electricity as it coursed through her body. The sweet feeling built up in her body until one of Bran''s hands began touching her thigh and crotch area. When the lone hand finally fell on her clit, Sera''s back arced and a loud scream echoed inside their room. She closed her eyes as her body swam in the pleasure. It felt like only a second had passed, but when she opened them again, she became confused. Sera wasn''t in Bran''s lap anymore, but on their bed. Bewildered, she started surveying her surroundings, then pleasure overwhelmed her yet again. She felt Bran''s lips kissing all over her sensitive body. A kiss on the neck, cleavage, nipple, lower breast, stomach, crotch, and around her thigh. It felt some kind of torture. His lips kissed around her entrance, but never on it. The teasing lasted for a few endless seconds until Sera couldn''t hold her tongue anymore. Flushing, she lowered her gaze towards her nether region. Her panties were gone, and Bran''s lips stayed only a few centimeters away. She felt each breath gently touch her entrance, sending small shivers over her body. Her love grinned as he stared into her eyes. The smile was extremely cruel in Sera''s opinion, but she couldn''t deny how attractive it was. She grinned as well, while breathing heavily, and using every ounce of remnant strength, she whispered. "Please... Don''t tease me... Anymore..." As the words left Sera''s mouth, and another mouth moved as well. Bran didn''t even wait for her to finish. He just pressed his lips on top of her entrance and, in the next second, his tongue tasted her most sacred place. "Oh, fuck!... YES!... Please, don''t STOP..." Screamed Sera while she move her hips, pushing herself closer to Bran. Slowly, one hand crawled across her body, until it reached her wet nipples, and started playing with them. Sera''s body shook from the multiple front attack, but Bran wasn''t even close to being done. His lips moved away from her entrance and began sucking on her clitoris above. Sera growled in annoyance for the sudden disappearance of pleasure, but soon two fingers pushed inside her, sending more tendrils of electric lust over her body. She screamed as the finger moved all over her tight entrance, touching every part, examining for all her weak spots. It took only a few seconds for Sera to lose the remnants of her mostly broken mind. "YES!... Bran!... FUCK!... Don''t stop... I''m so close... Please... I love you so much!... I''m... I''M CUMMING!" Shouted Sera as her body tensed. Just as she screamed, Bran gently bit on her clit, pushed his fingers deeper inside and pulled on her nipple. The tiny amount of pain caused an immense amount of pleasure. Her thighs closed around Bran''s head as loud moans continued to echo around the room. From her entrance, her love juice continued shooting out, straight into Bran''s face, and inside his open mouth. He slurped it out, not letting it go to waste. Sera''s orgasm lasted for close to a minute, and even afterward her body kept shaking with the feeling. From her entrance she continued leaking, and even shooting out more liquid. With heavy breaths and blurry vision, she stared into Bran''s light hazel eyes. She couldn''t help the large smile spreading across her face. She tried to get up and move closer, but Bran leaned on top of her. He pressed his body close, making her immobile. At first, she tried protesting, but with a kiss she got easily persuaded. She moved her nails across his muscled back, while her tongue tasted every part of his mouth. She felt his sword twitch near her soaked entrance, eager to get a taste of his own. Sera couldn''t help press her hips upwards, pushing herself even closer. Bran''s moved behind her back and head, pulling her into a warm embrace. After a few amazing seconds, he reluctantly pulled away, and they shared a small smile. Their lips glistened in the low light, and it made really hard for Sera to focus on Bran''s next words. "This is what I have been waiting for all this time, my Seraphine... I love you with all my heart, now and forever!... Tomorrow might be the end, but tonight I want to make love to you, until the sun rises!" For a moment, that same sadness from earlier today reappeared in his gaze, but like an illusion, in a blink, it was gone. Most of the words escaped Sera''s overwhelmed horny mind, but she caught the last part. A large grin spread across her face, and she gave a small peck on Bran''s lips. "Of course... My love!... Fuck me until I forget everything again!" Bran needed no more words of encouragement. With a small chuckle, he moved back and lifted Sera''s legs, giving him a divine view for her most private part. He placed the tip of his sword atop Sera''s entrance and watched her squirm for a moment. With slow gentle movements he pushed the tip inside, causing both to moan from the pleasure. Before proceeding, he stared up at Sera with glazed eyes, awaiting her consent. She groaned with annoyance, then her golden-green eyes filled with love, and with a small nod, she said everything Bran needed. With slow but constant movement, he leaned down atop Sera, while his hips moved closer and closer to her entrance. He felt Sera''s tight insides squirm as they both moaned and groaned in from pleasure. He continued pushing until he reached the end, and Sera''s entrance touched his base. Bran''s head came close to Sera''s, and he leaned in to continue their kiss while his hips pulled his sword out, then pushed back in with more passion. Waves of pleasure washed over them with each thrust, bringing them close to climax in a matter of seconds. Just the sheer thought of being connected with their love caused the pleasure to increase tenfold. They moaned into each other''s lips as Bran increased his speed and intensity. He continued as their moans turned into subdued screams of bliss. As they both neared the end of their ropes, Bran lifted Sera, his hands supporting her back and head. Just as they reached orgasm, he pulled her as close as possible, and they screamed into each other''s mouth. Bran poured everything he had inside his lover. Sera''s sacred place squirmed and tightened, pulling everything out of him. She also squirted over his stomach, but neither noticed as they shook from the intense heavenly feelings. Moments later, exhaustion overcame them, and they fell to their sides. Bran stayed connected to Sera, on both physical and emotional level. His sword started turning softer, but seeing the lust and love on Sera''s face caused him to harden even more. They continued making love throughout the night. During hours of intimacy, they never separated, and even after they stopped, Bran''s sword stayed sheathed inside Sera. The horizon was already turning purple as the sun began rising. They ended the fun sooner, so they could get at least an hour of sleep. Sera fell asleep the moment they stopped, while Bran laid awake with his eyes staring at the brightening ceiling. His lover slept on his stomach, her breathing calm, and her lips smiling. With one hand, he gently stroked Sera''s golden hair, while the other made small circles along her back. Each movement caused to purr like a cat, but Bran wasn''t even paying attention. He sighed sadly as the sun rose, and while tears ran down his face, he whispered to the emptiness inside the room. "So this is it... 23 years... It was a good run... Especially the ending..." A small smile spread across his face as he glanced down at Sera. He leaned in and gave a small kiss on her head, causing her to squirm a bit. After she settled looked out the window with a sad smile. "Let''s see this through. Maybe she lied, or her prediction was wrong... I at least hope my sacrifice will be worth it!" Chapter 309 309: Europe Aflame (1) A new morning''s sun illuminated the land of Europe. All seemed relatively peaceful as the warm early May air breezed through the large continent. The sunny day felt pleasant as the warm wind danced around grassy plains, flowery forests, stoic mountains, and dangerous seas. The warm wind reached every part of Europe, like an unstoppable wave. A harbinger of the approaching violence, pain and destruction. It didn''t stop upon reaching the cities of Europe. It moved around buildings, entered open doors and windows, bringing its pleasant warmth inside every household. But these cities'' dwellers felt none of it. The houses stood empty, with doors ajar, leaving most belongings untouched. A few individuals made their way towards the nearest bunker, while most left their homes during the prior night. Large, sprawling cities full of millions of citizens stood empty. Their homes, their lives, their future danced along a tightrope, with eternal suffering and endless destruction waiting below. Bunkers, built by the survivors of the Apocalypse, used as safe havens against monster attacks, now hid the citizens from their own kind. The wind continued, unperturbed by the lack of humans. It reached the walls of cities, where soldiers stood ready to take on any threat. It found the military encampments, prepared to lay siege to cities and test the soldiers upon their walls. Everyone felt terrified. Both attackers and defenders appeared conflicted about this war. They all heard their own leaders'' propaganda and understood the reason they fought for, but in the face of imminent war, their fears became louder. They knew the fighting was pointless. In a world already destroyed what reason they had for more bloodshed. But there was a deeper power affecting everybody. Humans are creatures of emotions and rational thought. Combatants on both sides recognized surrender offered a straightforward path to the avoidance of conflict. But surrender meant defeat, and nobody wanted to lose. Both the Federal Alliance and Napoleon spun their stories about a better future, a united Europe. Most citizens didn''t believe their words of peace through war, but the soldiers, especially the Evolved, ate up the propaganda. The Angelic Order tried to convince as many as they could, but their plates were already full of helping citizens. Throughout the past month, they rescued millions of citizens from New Paris, Madrid, and other city-states. But their job didn''t stop there. They also spread the word of Lady Seraphine, collecting people for their cause. These new agents helped dissuade regular military officials from following orders, but the Evolved, as always, stayed prideful. They would rather follow orders they didn''t agree with, then turn their back towards their duty. Several developed inflated egos, resulting in the deaths of numerous agents. Other Brothers and Sisters hunted these individuals down the next day. The Angelic Order accepted if they refused their help, but they couldn''t turn away from the merciless massacring of their fellow Brothers and Sisters. Their judgment was quick, and their blades true. Each day, the number of bodies grew. As the last night ended, the Angelic Order within enemy territories prepared for the war. They made sure all the citizens hid safely in the bunkers, then when the sun rose, they waited for their Goddess''s signal! Sera stood alone atop a lone stone outcropping within the sea. Behind her, New Athens stretched far and wide, but the Deathless Phoenix''s gaze turned away from her famous city. Her eyes scanned the farthest point of the western horizon. There, close to a thousand kilometers away, a lone island awaited her. She couldn''t see it, of course, but she knew it was there, waiting, calling for her return. As the sun continued crawling upward, Sera sighed deeply, and eventually turned away from the endless Mediterranean Ocean. On the shore, her friends and family waited. Each wore their armor and held their weapons. They all stood prepared for war. Above, a small army of hippogryphs circled above, with the two largest: their king and queen¡ªKastral and Alyrine¡ªleading them. A small, sad smile appeared on Sera''s face. Unsure of their fate or their chances of survival, she took solace in the collective determination of the people present to fight for justice, peace, and revenge. Sera spent a few seconds observing everyone. Her eyes landed on the fifteen men and women in dark armor, with a snake biting its tail on their breastplate. The Ouroboros Cohort, now their number increased by both Percy and Kathy, stood strong and ready. In front of them, their leader''s, David''s dark skin glistened under the warm rays of the sun. Cass stood by his side, wearing a rainbow colored armor seemingly made of glass. She worked hard on her Heritage and with the Professor''s help; she was now ready to take the next step towards becoming a Stellar. Close to them stood Damien and Agnes, hand-in-hand. The white-haired man shook from excitement and vengeance. Other than Sera herself, Damien had the most reason to hate Harold. Sera wasn''t certain about the details, but what Bea told her ignited an even deeper hatred in Sera''s heart. About fifteen years ago, Damien lived happily as a low-level Evolved with his family. He had a beautiful pregnant wife, a nine-year-old son, and a calm life. Damien avoided talking about specifics, but after a bit of prying, Bea got the full story from him. One day, he came home to an empty house with signs of fighting. He knew his family was in trouble, so he did his best to find the culprit. After about a year of searching, he found Harold and his family. Both his pregnant wife and son got turned into horrible monsters who tried killing him. In self defense, Damien killed both, then tried ending Harold, but he was too strong. For reasons unknown, Harold left Damien alive, and enjoyed as he scoured Europe for his trail, only to be defeated again and again. This vicious cycle only ended when he ran into Otto, and he gave Damien a job in another Realm. He found tranquility, briefly, until a coincidence brought Harold back into his life. Now the call for revenge echoing louder in his mind than ever. There was no going back for him. Damien would rather die than failing again, and Sera felt similar. Close to Damien and a bit farther from the rest stood Jill, with all her wives and husbands. They stood in their black armor, ready for a crusade through fire and blood. Sera never imagined they would be such great friends and allies for her cause. Same with Frank and his mad explosive making team. They weren''t present on the shore, since they were hard at work, making more explosives for the front lines. In the middle of the formation stood a few strange individuals. Four women, one towering and powerfully built, wore an intricate golden armor and carried a long golden spear. Next to her, a much smaller girl, similar in height to a child. Dark green, snake-like scale armor covered her body, and she held two green blades in each hand. To their side, two women with normal height and build wore the exact same electric blue armor. They each had a longsword, which resembled their armor in both style and color. The four stood at attention, same as the young pair in front of them. It was strange to see Adam without his robe, but today he wasn''t the High Priest of the Angelic Order, but the commander of an army. Covering his tanned skin, an armor of sand and glass reflected the bright sunlight. His towershield and greatsword rested nearby, but made with the same materials as his armor. Lilith continued wearing her robe, since when the fighting will start, she won''t stay in her human form. Her Heritage didn''t provide her with any armor or weapons, but it greatly empowered her transformation. A bit further away from Lilith and Adam stood the rest of Sera''s friends. Leslie, in his hellish armor and wicked halberd. Sarah, with her dark gray armor resembling stormy skies, and her light blue trident. Will wore his dark blue armor seemingly made of fish scales, and to his side, his spear and shield rested. Next to him stood Lucy, with a truly terrifying outlook. She stood in a void black armor, but it had no helmet, only a hood, which revealed even more darkness within. Her hand held a dark scythe, ready to claim the lives of those who defied her. A dark green smoky aura filled the air around her body and weapon, giving everyone chills. James stood a few steps away, with Mary at his side. He wore a bionic metal suit of armor. On his hands, weapon barrel like protrusions glowed with deadly energy. He had many other tricks up his sleeve, but they stayed hidden away. Mary wore a similar armor, albeit hers wasn''t an actual Item she could summon or dismiss. Sera was against her coming along, but they might need her scientific expertise, so James and Mary easily convinced her. Two individuals, a man and a woman, stood before everyone else, their eyes resting upon Sera, full of devotion and love. The woman, her best friends through most of her life, Melinda. She wore an armor which was a mix of blood-red and greenish bits. Her weapon, an overly long odachi, stabbed into the ground. They both gave off a disgusting atmosphere, making everyone nauseous if they stood too close. Only Bran could ignore the smell, since his mind was too focused on his lover. He wore his usual golden armor and longsword, nothing special like everyone else''s. Sera watched everyone, taking in all their expressions, ranging from boredom to excitement, anger, sadness, happiness, and emptiness. Her eyes stayed glued on Bran for a few moments, before she took a deep breath and whispered into the wind, seemingly to nobody. "Come out... I have a gift for you before the day starts!" Behind Sera, her shadow moved unnaturally, taking shape. Dark tendrils moved out of the dark ground until a black armored woman knelt in front of her. Behind her back, a long black cape danced on the sea''s refreshing breeze. Faith didn''t say a word. She just dismissed her helmet, letting her black hair dance to the wind''s music too. Sera said nothing else either. In her hand, a lone Item appeared, and she gently placed the circular object atop Faith''s head. As she touched her dark hair, she also transferred the Item to Faith. The moment it touched her head, she glanced up at Sera with confusion. On Faith''s head, the Midnight Crown rested, one of the few Items Sera actually kept to herself. It wasn''t anything special. It gave all her devoted followers more power in a general area. The crown''s strength scaled with her Ascended status, but its range wasn''t the best, so Sera didn''t use it much. "Since you are my Shadow, my followers are your followers too! Now rise Faith, and spread the word! The Deathless Phoenix marches to war!... Let chaos spread!" Faith''s eyes turned teary, then she nodded and dissolved back into the shadows, but she didn''t stay near Sera. Her Shadow disappeared and began her journey around Europe. In the next minute, she would deliver Sera''s message to every city-state within Europe, and the war will officially begin! Chapter 310 310: Europe Aflame (2) A lot has changed since Sera accepted Faith, and she became her Shadow. It gave her powers she didn''t even know existed, and increased her strength by a lot. The absence of free will presented the only issue, but Faith easily overcame it. Her permanent connection to Sera''s soul eliminated the need to Evolve further. Upon Sera becoming Transcended, she too would rank up. From all her new abilities, seemed the most useful at first glance. The ability was fairly simple, giving her the ability to travel through darkness within the earth with insane speed. While moving towards her first destination, Faith recalled her new status window and everything it held. Name: Faith Title: Devout Shadow Lady: Angel Monarch Shadows Reserved: 10000/10000 Abilities: Passive Abilities: Transformation Ability: Heritage: Race: Items: She possessed impressive new powers; however, she only tested during last night. Description: Like the Roots of Darkness, you can travel through the world with exceptional speeds. The had quite a lot of potential as well, albeit it depended upon how strong it was. Description: As a Shadow, the surrounding darkness protects you from harm. While these two proved great, the transformation mostly confused Faith. Its description helped little explaining, or at least giving her an idea about the power the ability held. Description: Turn into an Umbra, and wreak havoc in the purest form a Shadow could possess. Faith eagerly sought to test her transformation, yet insufficient time proved insurmountable. Despite their significance, she hadn''t had time to show Professor Collins the descriptions yet. The final description proved to be the most enigmatic, but also the most interesting. She did not know what it meant, but she was pretty sure it related to her and Sera''s soul connection. Description: You accepted your purpose and became something more than a mere forgotten shadow. Your life is now tied to your Lady, take care of her, and you will have eternal prosperity! Since this was her Heritage, it made Faith really excited. She and Sera talked a bit about what it could mean. They came to the conclusion that until Sera lived, she would also stay alive, and if she died, Faith would also perish. This brought up even more questions, since Sera could die and resurrect, which meant Faith would also die and resurrect, hopefully. There was also a chance she would simply stay dead. Either way, today they would figure out the truth, since part of the plan included Sera''s death. Faith felt a bit of terror about that part of her future, but she was more excited about her possible resurrection! With her increased speed, she arrived at her first destination in about half a minute. Catania was a city under the Federal Alliance''s control. It was located 750 kilometers west from New Athens, and 500 kilometers south of Rome, on the eastern edge of an enormous island called Sicilia. The city was pretty small compared to others, with only about twenty million residents. Most of their defenses got destroyed when they marched to Rome, and the Federal Alliance didn''t want to reinforce the settlement. Faith visited the Angelic Order''s Catanian Chapter, so they could make sure the city would never be a problem again. Their plan wasn''t to destroy the city, but to take control of it. After making sure everything was in order, Faith continued towards the next settlement. Through the ocean, Faith made her way to the shores of Barcelon. A city-state of medium size, with 35 million residents. One of the core cities within the Federal Alliance. The Angelic Order''s job here wasn''t taking control, since that was simply impossible. It held way too many soldiers behind its walls, because of its close proximity to the Pyrenees mountain range and the northern border. They would only cause havoc within the city, by destroying military infrastructure, and prevent the soldiers from sending reinforcements to the real prize. From here, Faith went on towards further west and south, close to the Atlantic Ocean. There lay a city spreading even further than Barcelon. Lizbone was a truly marvelous place. The giant city held 50 million citizens within, but supported way more. The city''s sole purpose, from the Federal Alliance''s perspective, was sustaining the Iberian Peninsula''s food supply. Below Lizbone, levels upon levels of hydroponic farms stretched. They used the old technologies left behind by their ancestors from before the Last War to provide sustainable food source to the city-states. From hydroponic farms, to artificial meat growing, material cloning, and atomic assembly, they could easily convert energy to food, clothes, and other necessary products. The Evolved made the growth faster and more efficient. The Angelic Order had no plans to destroy this bread basket, but to increase their control over the region, they planned on taking control of the facilities, locking the soldiers out. This achieves little, since each city possessed sufficient provisions lasting them for over a year, but they planned on using the fear tactic on the defenders of Lizbone. Replicating this old-world technology proved impossible for many; thus, destroying the machines risks widespread famine. The Angelic Order counted on the soldiers'' terror, and they planned on threatening them, while keeping the farms as hostage. When Faith made sure they were all ready to act, she moved on to the last two cities within the Iberian Peninsula. These two were the real prizes. The Broken City way down to the south, and Madrid the beating heart of the Peninsula. The Broken City was once one of the largest military facilities left behind after the Last War. Now it was a giant hive-city with over 85 million residents. A place of true suffering. Around the city, the air permanently smelled of smoke and rust. While Lizbone served as the breadbasket of the Federal Alliance, The Broken City was the heart of its industry. Factories pumped out smoke day and night, people working along the lines, assembling weapons, vehicles, ammo, everything a war machine required. Sera specifically put a plan together about how to improve the city. But before they could start building a better future from this trash pile, it needed to be knocked down, consequently causing the Federal Alliance to lose their industrial complex. The plan with Madrid was much simpler. The Angelic Order just meant to cause as much chaos and destruction around the military parts and city defenses as they could. After Faith made sure the plans were clear for everyone, and she delivered the new orders from Sera, the Iberian parts of the Angelic Order burst into action. She left the place to burn and continued on her journey to the north. New Paris was especially nice in early May, even though the largest city of Europe was full of enemy combatants. Napoleon''s propaganda or fear-mongering tactic worked great, it seemed. His army increased by a lot in the past month, and with two Stellars by his side, he proved to be a genuine threat to both the Federal Alliance and the Angelic Alliance, as everyone began referring to it. The Angelic Order''s presence was the weakest inside New Paris, but they still had jobs to do during the continent wide war. Their job was both the easiest and hardest, keep the citizens safe, and save as many as they could. Napoleon closed down all the bunkers, so nobody could hide from their approaching doom. Vicky tried helping as many people as she could escape from the city, but it was impossible to help millions upon millions of citizen. They were now stuck in a city, which prepared for an upcoming siege. The citizens could only hide in their homes, or, if they were lucky, inside their basements. Faith''s arrival brought hope to the lost, but she soon had to leave for her last destination... Wien... One of the most beautiful cities in Europe, with close to 45 million residents living inside. It was a shame their leader was such a horrible traitor. As with most other cities, the citizens weren''t in agreement with Jonas''s dictatorship, but they lacked the power to oppose his rule. But that''s why the Angelic Order was there. During the past month, they smuggled in thousands upon thousands of weapons, armor, and most importantly, manpower. They weren''t just planning to cause chaos within Wien, but straight up overthrowing their current government. This was Faith''s destination. Sera gave her one job during the war, take Wien one way or another, and she wasn''t planning on failing. From the shadows Faith stepped out of. Her body covered in dark smoke-like armor, in her hand a lone rapier rested, while atop her head, connected to her helmet, the Midnight Crown glowed gently in the council building''s low-light. The guards took a few long moments to notice her presence, which became a deadly mistake on their part. Chapter 311: Europe Aflame (3) In a well-lit hall, twelve Ascended stood guard. They were ready to defend their new leader, even sacrificing their lives for him. Behind them, a pair of gigantic metal doors separated the hall from the main council building, where Jonas held another session of ''war council''. Most people believed that their new dictator at least cared enough for his city to keep a daily council session with all his strategists. In reality, the guards were glad the walls and door were soundproof. It filtered out all the sounds of debauchery and revelry from inside. Jonas hadn''t worked a day since he took control. He spent his days with all the traitorous friends he gained with his coup. Inside the council building, he held orgies, with not necessarily willing participants and lots of alcohol. The only reason the city hadn''t fallen apart was because his military officials were still competent. They kept the citizens in control with sheer force and threat of violence. But everyone knew Jonas''s failure and death were inevitable. Maybe he knew it too, and that''s why he spent every living moment inside someone. His actions had consequences, and whatever deal he made with the Federal Alliance didn''t provide enough safety. The guards had little idea about anything. Their pay was good, so they stood close to the double door, covered in plate armor and with weapons drawn. In their minds they only had to worry about regular humans revolting, or Evolved from the Angelic Order attacking... Wishful thinking, that''s all they had... Perhaps they didn''t remember, or never learned, that Sera detested traitors more than anything or anyone. If Jonas would''ve decided sooner to abandon the Angelic Alliance, and join the Federal Alliance, things would''ve been different. But instead, he decided to betray them, stage a coup, kill innocents by the thousands, and weaken the Angelic Alliance''s integrity. Now this was something Sera couldn''t forgive, so she sent her Shadow to carry out her sentence over Wien... Death to Traitors! Faith took her Lady''s order to heart. The room, which was lit by both the sun shining outside, and the artificial lighting inside, gradually darkened. It took the guards a few seconds to notice how the shadows danced in unnatural patterns. Tendrils of darkness moved from behind the pillars and in the guards'' own shadows. From the hall''s distant end, Faith emerged, her confident stride carrying her towards the guards with slow and steady steps. They were already in partial panic, but Faith''s appearance gave them both a target and a distraction. The twelve Ascended sprinted down the hall, but not a single one made it to Faith. The first four got stopped by a wall of shadows, while dark tendrils grabbed the second fours legs, dragging them to the side, behind the pillars. Around the hall, the sound of breaking bones and dismemberment echoed. They couldn''t even scream before all four died. The first four were the next victims. They were still recovering from running into the wall of shadows, but in the next second, Faith attacked. She stepped out of a guard''s shadow. With her rapier, she found the armor''s weak point and stabbed through it with ease. The dark blade went through chain mail, skin, muscle and organs, ending its journey within the guard''s heart. Faith didn''t even pull out her rapier. She just returned to the shadows as the guard''s body collapsed. In the next second, another one followed. Only when she attacked the third did they regain their senses, and tried to fend her off. The dark blade met with the guard''s own sword, or at least it should''ve, but the interesting property of shadows was their lack of integrity. Faith could control the darkness, give it shape, strength and weight, but if she stopped controlling them even for a moment, they fell apart. Her rapier turned into black smoke for a mere moment, then it regained its sturdy piercing sharp nature, and cut through the guard''s armor, killing him instantly. She heard the rapid footsteps and disturbed breathing of the last guard in her close proximity. Faith felt the guard''s shadow move, lifting its arm, attempting to fell her with a single heavy blow. Faith just took one deep breath and took a step backward. Her body turned into a shadow, becoming formless and ethereal. The guard''s eyes widened as he stepped into Faith''s remnant body. His armor turned dark as the shadows stuck close to him. The man took one last breath before his whole body exploded into bits and pieces. Faith looked around, standing inside the field of gore. Not a single drop of blood landed on her black armor, even her rapier stayed clean. The last four guards watched in terror as Faith''s eyes landed on them. Even in the hall''s darkness, the black stone in her dark crown glinted, as if a small point of light constantly shined upon her. With an unhurried gait, Faith closed in the distance. The four guards exchanged glances. A silent understanding appeared on their faces, and they all ran in the opposite direction towards the gigantic metal door. They planned on asking Jonas for help, but before any of them could''ve reached the entrance to their salvation, something strange happened... They stopped... A heavy pressure grew in their chests, halting them in their desperate escape. They heard the steps coming closer and closer until they stopped. The guards tried turning around, but instead, all four fell to their knees, coughing up blood. Their breathing became harder with each passing moment. A few meters away, near the metallic door, a woman''s voice¡ªperfectly clear¡ªreached their ears. "Shadows are such interesting creations. They are both the absence of light, and the darkness suffocating said light... Before I couldn''t control them with such ease, but receiving my Lady''s acceptance, I can do so much more..." The woman''s judging gaze met the four guards'' upward glance. Her face was pale and extremely beautiful, but the most disturbing part was her pupils. Instead, of its usual dark color, hers was the purest white, with the deepest darkness surrounding it. "Darkness exists all over the world. Even the purest light creates shadows. There is darkness within every structure, every hall, every object or living being. They all cast shadows..." Faith''s face stayed emotionless, her voice a bored monotone. Only upon hearing the guards cough up more blood did a small giggle of amusement escape her lips. "The darkest spot on Earth, where light never penetrates until death, is none other than the human heart." With the echoing of these words in the hall, the four guards finally comprehended their situation. One could easily interpret her words as a metaphor for evil, but they felt her power, the contracting pain in their chests. The woman''s neutral expression suddenly twisted into a wicked smile as she saw the understanding in their eyes. The four guards opened their mouths to beg for their lives, but in that moment Faith casually waved her hand in the air, and all four died in an instant. They groaned in pain as their hearts and lungs exploded within their chests. The shadows within their bodies didn''t stop expanded even after death, and soon only blood and gore remained. Faith wasn''t even paying attention to the killing and dismemberment behind her. Her focus and shadow perception remained entirely within the council chamber. She felt dozens of bodies moving inside, in patterns easily recognizable. Her face twisted into an angry frown. Some bodies had chains hanging from them, and judging by their desperate movements, not everyone was a willing participant. With an angry huff, she prepared to murder every single rapist inside the council hall. From the unbothered movements, she believed her element of surprise stayed active, and nobody on the inside noticed her presence, but she was awfully mistaken. Just as she prepared to step inside the shadows, the metal doors slammed open, and a flaming demon dashed out at unimaginable speed. Faith had no time to examine her new opponent. She didn''t even have time to react and evade the attack. A flaming fist connected with her midsection, sending her flying across the hall. She reached the other side within a second. Her body was about to slam into the ground, the shadows cushioned her fall. In hindsight, she should''ve become a shadow herself, but the sudden attack caused an ample confusion in her brain. She also suffered considerable damages over her body, and the only reason she stayed alive was because of the dark barrier, defending her from much of the damage. With a groan of pain, Faith climbed back to her feet. Her eyes scanned the room for half a second before they inevitably fell upon the flaming demon at the other end of the hall. From the aura within the air, she instantly guessed who the transformed person was... Her primary target, Jonas... He was a Transcended, possessing significant power. Faith had no chance against him in a fair fight, or at least, she shouldn''t have, but she wasn''t about to abandon her Lady''s order. She gritted her teeth and re-summoned her crowned helmet. The flaming monster seemed surprised by her lack of fear. He definitely expected Faith to die from his punch, or at least run away in terror afterward. Faith did neither. Her face stayed solemn as she prepared for the fight of her life. The wounds over her body healed at unnatural speed, and within a few seconds, she was back to perfect physical health. Upon feeling prepared, Faith transformed into a terrifying creature that caught even the flaming demon off guard. Chapter 312 312: Europe Aflame (4) Jonas stood confidently in his transformed flame demon form. Being Transcended, he feared no Ascended, yet the sight emerging from the darkness gave him a chill down his lengthy back. He was six meters tall, with a few horns, bright red skin, and a muscular body. On the length of his spine, sharp spikes grew, and they continued into a tail, which eventually ended with a spike the length of a shortsword. With a few nervous swipes, he created gashes in the stone floor below, while his body''s warmth overheated everything nearby. Over his red skin, flames danced, coalescing into a makeshift armor. The fire covered most of his body, except his head. He had four eye sockets, each containing a small ball of fire. How he saw anything was a mystery, even to himself, but since it worked, he didn''t particularly care. His demonic face rested in a constant, angry state. From his lipless mouth, sharp uneven teeth grew, ready to bite and devour anything in sight. As Faith''s body changed, the flames of his armor spread down to his enormous hand. Inside, a long flaming sword appeared with no actual shape. The fire kept dancing and changing, not willing to obey and stay in the right form. Jonas wanted to stop Faith from transforming, but he was also curious what she would become. He was also overly confident in his abilities to destroy whatever her new form was. The hall darkened until the only light came from his own flames. The metal doors behind him stayed closed, so he felt truly isolated in the shadows. He also had a strange feeling, like the darkness was alive, watching his every move. Another shiver ran down Jonas''s spine, and with an annoyed groan, he stabbed his formless weapon into the ground, creating a colossal explosion of fire. The darkness receded under the sudden glimpse of light, and Jonas finally laid his eyes upon the dark beast, or at least he tried. Whatever the small woman changed into wasn''t comprehensible for Jonas''s quick glance. She seemed to be one with the darkness, but also separate from it. Her form changed at each moment, but Jonas felt as if her state stayed constant. It wasn''t easy to realize where her head stared and where her body ended. In one second she had one scaled head, with an enormous maw full of razor-sharp teeth, with dozens of white eyes staring at him, like he was just a prey. Her height, overbearing even for his elevated, transformed state. But in the next moment, her head split into ten smaller heads, each eying him, snapping their jaws his way. Her long body, with multitudes of legs and arms, gave her unmatchable versatility. Dozens of arms, growing out at random places, each full of sharp claws, or holding two-handed rapiers. Jonas couldn''t even judge where to start. He saw no obvious vulnerability, and he knew not to underestimate his opponent. His cocky nature quickly got humbled by Faith''s terrifying appearance. He still thought, or at least hoped, it was only a bluff, a trick. Jonas knew certainly that Faith was only an Ascended, which meant she should''ve no chance in an actual fight against him. But he was clueless about her abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Her most obvious vulnerability was light, yet essence expenditure limited his fire''s effectiveness. A field of fire surrounded Jonas. He couldn''t lose focus, or the fire would extinguish. But even if it stayed active, it drained his essence fairly quickly, since his actual power had nothing to do with fire control. If he wanted to kill the woman and win, he needed to act now! With an angry huff, he released more flames and ran towards Faith''s shadowy form. He moved quickly, much faster than someone so huge should''ve, but as he swung his sword of bright fire, her form disintegrated. The sword hit the floor in a ball of explosion, releasing tendrils of heat everywhere, illuminating the middle of the hall. Shadows receded under the sudden brightness, but soon they crept back, consuming the light. Frantically, Jonas turned around, and in that moment a piercing pain assaulted his back. From the corner of his eyes, something moved through the darkness, leaving droplets of blood behind... His blood... On Jonas''s back, five bloody marks stretched, made with Faith''s sharp claws. The injury was insignificant, healing near immediately. The attack only annoyed and angered him. With increased hatred, he burst into movement, rushing through the darkness like a falling star in the night sky. The hall illuminated around him, and he saw the beast again. Faith moved in to attack again, but this time Jonas wasn''t oblivious. As her colossal form closed in, he swung his flame sword, parrying a multitude of attack at once. Two rapiers and five claws either missed or got deflected by his quick movements. Even Jonas felt a bit surprised by how easily he blocked Faith''s every attack. With the darkness and ambiguous atmosphere partially removed, he could react to her movements. Because he saw when the attacks came, using his Transcended speed to block them was much easier, then predict where the shadows moved. After a few seconds of defense, he eventually managed to get the upper hand. With three more blows parried, Jonas moved in. Jonas used his empty hand to grab onto Faith''s neck and teared her head off. The beast-like scaly head squirmed and shrieked as it fell apart, turning back into shadows. He briefly thought the fight finished; however, this hope vanished just as quickly as it appeared. The shadowy beast seemed confused as it looked around, headless. No blood or anything similar squirted from the wound. Something moved within the stump, and soon another arm grew out, holding a rapier. The weapon''s sudden approach left him too shocked to react. His eyes widened as the blade partially impaled his face. A swift retreat saved his life, but couldn''t prevent the rapier from piercing his right eye. At the end of the dark blade, a small fire flickered. His eyes weren''t a physical object during his transformation, but somehow her shadows plucked it out all the same. A small giggle echoed around the hall, like the darkness was laughing at him. Only now did he saw, more heads appearing from the darkness, and he realized how badly he misjudged his opponent. Faith moved back into the comfort of her shadows, taking the burning eye with herself. Its flame got extinguished soon, making Jonas half blind on his right side. Despite still having three eyes, losing even only one impaired his coordination. Suddenly, Jonas wasn''t so sure about this fight. He had no clue how to defeat his opponent and felt that he needed to end it sooner rather than later. Outside, he heard explosions echo throughout the city. He grumbled under his breath. He would''ve rather defended his position on his own, yet urgency and uncertainty of triumph compelled him to seek aid. He saw the darkness move again, but Jonas ignored it, and ran towards the exit. He knew, despite the fight''s uncertain outcome, she couldn''t possibly prevent his escape. Even then, Faith tried raising walls of shadows, and attack Jonas, but alas, he pushed through every obstacle and ignored every damage. In just a few seconds, Jonas burst through the enormous hall''s exit. With a few large bounds, he was already outside, running away from the council building. Inside, Faith watched his form disappear. She desired to pursue him, yet sunlight significantly weakened her combat abilities, which made her hunt uncertain. Instead of trying to fight him in a disadvantageous position, she turned back to her human form and walked towards the metallic doors separating the two rooms. She walked to the room and used her shadow perception to check on everyone inside. The lack of movement inside suggested the party''s end. Faith sensed the only people still left inside huddled near the far wall. Seconds later, she knew all the slavers and rapists, like Jonas, were gone. Still, she remained careful as she entered the room. She didn''t open the door, and instead went straight into one of the terrified human''s shadow. Faith surveyed her surroundings from the safety of darkness. The room wasn''t overly large. At the center of the room, a raised metallic podium marked the area where the council''s speakers would''ve stood. Facing the metallic double doors, wooden seats and tables formed a tiered semicircle around the raised podium. Men and women, gripped by fear, found shelter at the highest tier of the semicircle, hidden behind expensive desks and chairs. Around twenty crouched there, partially or fully nude, seeking warmth and solace in each other''s closeness. They all shivered and silently sobbed, awaiting their fate. Their faces showed no fight, however, hope remained present within their eyes; a positive indicator. Faith seen an awful lot of people lose their will to live after traumatic events. She was glad they still had life in their gazes, and hadn''t truly given up. Faith briefly considered a non-frightening approach, then acknowledged its impossibility and went straight to the point. A few meters away, she stepped out of the darkness, her armor and crown replaced by a simple mantle weaved of darkness, hiding her face. At her chest, a seven-pointed star reflected the light, making her allegiance obvious. The women and men scream in terror, and tried running or even crawling away. They all tried escaping except a singular man who noticed the markings on her robe. He gulped, eyes full of fear and hope. With slow and deliberate moves, he went down on his bruised knees, and while staring at the ground, he awaited the shadowy woman''s next words. The others noticed his strange behavior too, and after a bit of panic, they knelt down before Faith as well. Understanding escape was improbable, they chose compliance. Behind her veil, Faith frowned. She reached out with her arm, and using the darkened state of the room, she pulled all twenty of them to their feet. They whimpered, and a few soiled themselves from fear, but Faith''s next words felt reassuring amidst all the chaos. "Don''t kneel before me! I''m just Lady Seraphine''s Shadow, nothing special! You should only kneel before my Lady!" Confusion showed on their faces as the shadows lifting them faded. A few fell back down, but quickly gathered their sense and jumped back to their feet. Faith gave them another passing glance, before turning away, leaving only a few words before disappearing back into the darkness. "The Angelic Order''s agents are already on their way. They will assist you, and help you leave, but beware, Wien won''t be the same after this day!" Just as she finished her sentence and disappeared, the building shook from a nearby explosion. Outside, shouts, screams, gunfire, and other sounds of war echoed. Chapter 313: Europe Aflame (5) While hunting Jonas, Faith sent the request to help the people from inside the council building. A few civilian Angelic Order members went straight there, but no military personnel were available. Wien''s revolution wasn''t unfolding as Faith had hoped. The chaos around Wien still held strong, but the Angelic Order''s forces were being routed on multiple fronts. The primary theater for the battle happened near the military encampment, where the Angelic Order went and took a large portion of Wien''s vehicles of war. With them, they deterred most enemy forces. Tanks, APCs, and other vehicles moved along the empty streets. All over the city, gunfire, explosions, screams, and death echoed. They put up an amazing fight against the barely prepared military forces. Faith got a few reports of great successes and progress, but after Jonas escaped, everything stagnated. At first, confusion reined over everyone, unsure what was happening. Numerous units unexpectedly went dark for no apparent reason. This lasted until the first reports rolled in, and exactly what Faith feared happened. Her soldiers reported squads of seemingly insane men and women wearing normal metal armor and wielding regular weapons. The Angelic Order members quickly caught on their enemy''s identity. These were the so called Husks, as everyone referred to them. The initial problem was the speed with which the first units died. They simply couldn''t report their presence in time. Now, it was too late to contain their presence, since they spread all over the city, fighting on every front. Faith moved through the darkness below the streets, containing every Husk she came across. After weeks of discussion and planning, they eventually found a somewhat foolproof solution for the Husks. There was no obvious solution at first. Some could eliminate them because of their unique abilities, whereas others, like Faith, had to find alternatives while dealing with the Husks. The answer was actually quite obvious, but it took them a long time to realize its potential. The solution originated with Sera and Mary, who possessed a knowledge of a specific object that inspired their idea. Previously, when they weren''t sure if Bea could help them power the Aegis System, Mary and a few Item artificers came up with a remedy for their energy problems. They created an Item, which had the power of containing souls of Horrors of the 1st Tier. Mary then could''ve turned the souls into a makeshift power source. Sera received this Item, which was jokingly and for safety reasons named , but she never truly used it. With Bea''s appearance and willingness to create a perpetual energy source, they didn''t need to use . But the Husks'' appearance gave the Item a new purpose. After a bit of tinkering, they made a smaller version, which couldn''t contain as many powerful souls as , but it could house a lot more weaker ones, like the Husks''. The artificers named these small crystal balls , a permanent mark of their stupid sense of humor. Pre-war, they produced hundreds, gifting one to each powerful soldier who could not vanquish Husks completely. Each Something could contain about two dozen Husk souls, but they didn''t hold them perfectly. The energy constantly leaked, which meant after a few minutes, it could hold even more souls. Despite lacking empirical evidence, Faith found the Item functional and without issues. She moved along the Earth''s darkness, killing the Husks quickly and efficiently. In order for Something to capture souls, the Husks needed to die first, and Faith excelled in effortlessly killing them. As she moved below battlefields, Husks just randomly exploded into bloody bits and pieces, often saving a soldier''s life. Needless to say, Faith''s soul carrier filled up way too fast. Not like she minded. Her primary target wasn''t the Husks. They were just a side project, while she hunted for the main prize... Jonas... The fire demon seemed to vanish after his escape. Faith found no sign of him, and no report contained his sighting. Wherever he hid, it wasn''t easy to find, so Faith decided to ask for a bit of guidance. In an enormous room, amidst holo-screens, people stood around a large conference table. The air buzzed with frantic chatter focused on maps of Wien. This was Wien''s military command center, and the people inside were the commanders trying to make sense of the sudden attack. The issue started with the appearance of the Husks, whom, unlike their soldiers, didn''t obey anyone. It was like they received commands from an invisible source. After every minor victory, they just moved on to the next battlefield like thoughtless puppets held up by imperceptible strings. There were even reports of Husks killing Wien''s own troops, because they ''stood in their way'', or something along those lines. The entire war was a mess. A shift in the tide yielded incomprehensible chaos for the commanders. Right now, they planned on recalling their own soldiers and letting the Husks do their job. This proposal generated vehement opposition because of their distrust in these unkillable soldiers. Their lack of control in receiving commands gave them much to doubt. From the shadows, Faith watched their discourse for a few seconds. Upon confirming the absence of any surprises inside, Faith exited the darkness and entered the well-lit room. Several Ascended near the entrances noticed her presence, but just as they tried to move, all of them immediately fell over, dead. Blood trickled out of their mouths, while their lifeless eyes stared into the nothingness. The constant conversation ended quickly as the commanders laid eyes upon Faith. She was back in her war-gear, decked out with dark metallic armor and the Midnight Crown embedded in her helmet. The Crown felt strange upon her head. It wasn''t supposed to have any effect on her, but wearing it, she felt closer to the darkness, and moved with seemingly higher authority. It was also a gift from her Lady, so she wanted to wear the Crown always. The commanders stared at her with terror in their eyes. They were all Ascended, or at least Evolved, but not the frontline fighter kind. As Faith walked closer, they were unsure of their next actions. Just taking a glance at the dead guards near the door, with no visible wounds on their bodies, they felt that a fight against her would end badly for them. The well-lit room became darker when Faith finally stopped a few meters away. Her helmet fully enclosed her face. There were no eye sockets, which raised questions in the commander''s mind. They hoped maybe she couldn''t see, but were too afraid to test their theory, so they just continued to wait for her next action or words. "Where is Jonas?" asked the feminine, serious voice from behind the dark helmet. A shiver went down their spines, but they tried to hide their fears. A female commander found the strength to answer first, her voice betraying all her hidden emotions. "W-we aren''t sure... B-by our latest... By our latest account, he was last seen near his home palace... Please... Don''t kill us... We never wanted to take any part of this war... Jonas perpetrated everything... He forced us to work under him..." As the pleading began, a wide smile spread across Faith''s face. They couldn''t see it behind her helmet, but soon she burst into laughter. She read the reports from the Angelic Order''s agents. No one ever forced these commanders into servitude. They happily killed off their regular human colleagues, just to receive more power over the army. When the commanders heard Faith''s laughter, their hopes for survival abruptly broke, and they realized that the consequences of their actions had arrived. A few cried, others continued to plead, some tried running, while one or two prepared to fight. Darkness absorbed the room, covering everything. Their screams echoed for a few seconds, and as the shadows receded, only corpses remained. Faith left them there. She moved towards Jonas''s palace, where the trap awaited her. It wasn''t hard to guess. Jonas escaped way too soon into their fight, which either meant he was extremely weak, or he had some other much more reliable plan. Since Faith assumed Jonas wasn''t a coward or a dumbass, he must''ve had a plan. Fearlessly, Faith moved closer to the building, and quickly noticed a problem. She couldn''t sense any shadows inside. The entire building, every room and hallway, was in pure darkness. No outside light shone in, so neither objects nor people cast any shadows. Faith chuckled as she moved towards the building''s entrance. Funny how not light, but pure darkness, fooled her perception. It felt kind of ironic, and she couldn''t hold in her laughter. Her chuckling continued as she stepped inside the dark building. It echoed down the halls, making the atmosphere even creepier. Unaware of precise enemy positions, she found comfort only in the darkness, her home. For Jonas, though, it was the worst place he could''ve been. He eagerly awaited the trap''s activation, so he might leave the ever-present dark surroundings. It only took minutes for the long awaited moment''s arrival. Faith reached the middle of an especially large hall, when light burst out from every corner and wall, shining straight at her. The blinding light felt overwhelming and even painful. She screamed and groaned, as her shadow perception overloaded. Faith fell to her knees, stunned momentarily. With her confused sense she couldn''t see as Jonas moved towards her with his sword raised. He laughed maniacally as he prepared to kill her, but then something strange happened. Just when he planned on stabbing Faith, she began convulsing on the ground, and suddenly, for no apparent reason, she died... Jonas couldn''t understand what had happened with Faith, but soon, he and many others all around Wien figured it out the hard way... Chapter 314: Europe Aflame (6) As Sera released the hounds of war across Europe, Vicky''s workload suddenly increased by a lot. She had to transport tens or even hundred thousand soldiers between city-states. She kept dozens of portals open for civilians to escape the most war-ridden areas. Vicky felt both mentally and physically exhausted before even midday arrived, but her worries made the tiredness unnoticeable. Late morning, she opened a single portal, sending her mother and most of her friends right to Harold''s doorstep. They still hadn''t heard from them, which was understandable considering the importance of their battle. Vicky desired to join their fight against Harold, seeking justice, but alas, it simply proved impossible. Her current job was much too critical for the war effort. With this in mind, Vicky stayed in New Athens with Bea. She also had strong opinions about taking revenge, but after long conversations, Sera, Bran and Otto convinced her to stay behind. It was solely for strategic importance. Neither Sera nor Bea wanted to leave their daughter without a protector for the multitude of attacks. Amidst all the chaos, an assassin could easily take her out, which would destroy the high mobility of the Angelic Alliance''s Army. For this reason, Bea never left her side, and they both stayed near the Aegis System''s Center. Because Bea''s connection to the Tree of Life strengthened her, this location offered the greatest protection within New Athens. Mary and James also reinforced the room quite heavily, and put up multitudes of security measurements, which they kept as a secret to everyone. When Bea inquired about the additional defenses, they just laughed and ignored her, so she dropped the topic as well. Since Bea had nothing to do while defending Vicky, she explored around the gigantic room. She found a few strange holes near the doorways and vents, plus a bunch of protrusions along the walls. These were likely part of the defense system; therefore, she avoided them. Hours went by with nothing happening, but Bea''s anxiety continued to grow. She feared what would happen to her friends and family, to Otto, who was supposed to fight a Stellar, the mother of her child, to the entirety of Europe. Everything hung in a frail balance. One wrong move from any party could have broken it. While everyone fought for their people, their future, Bea felt guilty for staying in perfect safety, defending someone who needs no help. As Bea walked up and down, full of anxiety and fear, her daughter just calmly sat cross-legged under the Tree of Life''s roots. Her calm breathing continued, and even drenched in sweat, she kept opening portals across Europe. Henry sat next to her, constantly typing on his watch, whispering every new order and request into his crush''s ear. He hid his terror much worse than Vicky, but he never hesitated and always stayed professional. His mother was also supposed to fight against a Stellar, but no news arrived from their fight yet. Other than Otto and Elizabeth, two more Stellars fought for the Angelic Alliance. Viktor, Otto''s and Sarah''s elder brother. He was based near Prague supporting and defending the city from the approaching threat. The other one was Antal, who was defending Buda-Pest currently. The Federal Alliance launched a surprise attack just an hour after Sera declared war. The Federal Alliance had five Stellars, while Napoleon, including himself, had three. This suggests Federal Alliance victory, yet war''s complexity surpassed simple assessment; Napoleon understood this profoundly. Each Stellar could''ve taken out armies and level cities with ease, but capturing and holding territories just wasn''t possible for a single person. Even though Napoleon had the least Stellars at his disposal, how he used them was the primary cause of either victory or defeat. Except for Amygdala, they accounted for every Federal Alliance Stellars'' position. It wasn''t hard, since they were all currently engaged in warfare. Napoleon, though, stayed awfully quiet throughout the first few hours, and they still weren''t certain of his plans. Out of everyone, Sera feared him the most. He was a truly amazing strategist who would sacrifice all his troops if it meant the enemy couldn''t win. He knew exactly how unlikely his victory was, and that''s what made Sera worried. Even if he couldn''t win, Napoleon would make sure no one else did! Since these thoughts weren''t helping to calm Bea''s nerves, she tried to clear her mind from useless thoughts and fears. She sat down close to Vicky and Henry, trying to meditate. As Bea''s eyes closed, she sensed a strange feeling and noticed a disturbance in the air, reminiscent of the scent of ozone preceding lightning. While looking around with curiosity, she took a deep breath and summoned her armor and weapon. Henry noticed this as well, but didn''t raise any concern to Vicky. He also stayed put, so she could emergency teleport them away in case something bad happened. Bea sniffed repeatedly, but the smell''s source remained elusive. It was definitely getting stronger with each moment. It took a few more seconds for her to see the smell''s source. A few dozen meters away from the raised platform, suddenly a field of electricity appeared. She finally laid eyes upon the invisible intruders. As electricity coursed through their bodies, it must''ve disabled whatever device kept them hidden, and they all died between screams of agony. There were at least a dozen of them in armor, holding regular looking metal weapons... Husks, all of them... As the realization hit Bea, she began summoning Something, to capture their souls, but she didn''t need to. Mary and James already implemented a solution in the defense system. Sound of gunfire soon interrupted Bea''s summoning of the small crystal ball, which can contain souls. Small lines of fire arced through the air, landing near the area where the Husks died. Meter long tongues of flames came alive, burying their remains in ever consuming fire. There were two sure ways to kill the Husks, by Bea''s knowledge. First, destroy their soul completely, which was exactly what Bran, Lucy, or Lilith could do. Second, destroy their bodies until not even a cell remained. This was Sera''s and Leslie''s speciality, since their flames burned at high enough temperatures to destroy everything organic. The traps'' flames lacked Leslie''s strength and Sera''s purifying effect. However, they fully eradicated the Husks'' bodies, leaving no trace of them behind. Bea breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived, since soon more Husks appeared, all of them getting caught by different traps. Husks burst out of the vents violently, but their entrance was short-lived, as the flamethrowers activated. Their metal armor, weapons, and organic bodies melted quickly under the high temperature flames. The few who managed to push through the fire and flames were either running around, with their armor melted onto their skins, or they sprinted towards Bea with mad determination. From the walls, a hail of turret fire met the approaching Husks, ending their movements after a few steps. Not every bullet burst into flames, though. The majority of the bullets were designed to penetrate armor, which caused the Husks to die quickly. The turrets with the flaming rounds only opened fire at corpses, making their destruction much more effective. Bea watched in awe as the modern weapons killed and destroyed opponents who were a perfect counter to most Evolved. Harold created these indestructible, obedient killing machines, to significantly increase the difficulty of every battle involving Evolved. What he failed to consider is how effective modern weapons were against them. The main entrances for the hall soon opened as well, which made Bea realize what was actually happening. Hundreds of Husks entered the room in quick succession, but their target wasn''t Bea, or even Vicky. Harold couldn''t have predicted they would hide inside here, which meant they had only one target... The Aegis System! Bea''s eyes widened as the first Husk managed to survive the gunfire and attack her. With his metal sword raised, he jumped towards Bea, but didn''t make it far, since vines caught him midair. They stretched over his body until they had a firm hold on his head, which then got slowly pulled off. Blood rained on the metal floor as the Husk fell over dead, and subsequently got shot by dozens of flaming bullets. "HENRY! Call for reinforcements!" Bea couldn''t look back as she shouted through the loud gunfire, but she sure as hell hoped Henry heard her command. More and more Husks pushed through the constant barrage, and a few even began shooting arrows at the turret positions, destroying them. In Bea''s hand, the small crystal ball appeared again. In the other hand, her lone longsword remained. She took one deep breath before the Husks came closer. For an endless moment, she closed her eyes, finding calm amidst the chaos. Her beautiful green eyes gently opened to a world of pain and suffering, but on Bea''s face, the opposite shown. A wide smile spread behind her wooden helmet, and a small giggle escaped her lips. Bea was ready to avoid the war and defend her daughter even with no danger present. But the universe answered her silent prayers, bringing the fighting to her doorstep. She wasn''t a battle junky, but sitting out a war such as this, while all her friends and family fought and died for their people, simply felt wrong. Bea felt useless, but now, she gained a new purpose. If the Husks destroyed the Aegis System, all the cities under the Angelic Order would become vulnerable. With the shields gone, Bea couldn''t even imagine the destruction that would soon follow. Therefore, she proudly, joyfully confronted the approaching horde, prepared to kill as many as she could. Bea was even prepared to die, if it meant the shields and her people would survive. She took a deep breath once again, then brandished her sword, and raised it towards her rapidly approaching enemy... Chapter 315 315: Europe Aflame (7) Henry trembled as he watched Bea prepare to fight. Next to him, Vicky still sat cross-legged, barely paying attention to her surroundings. He was certain Vicky would teleport them away, if the threat was truly unbeatable, and he also knew she wasn''t blind to what was happening. It was all a ruse to keep the Husks guessing, while she continued working on the faraway portals. While knowing that their situation wasn''t hopeless, Henry still felt conflicted about Bea fighting alone against a horde of these creatures. Henry wasn''t a great fighter by any means, but he certainly believed Bea couldn''t hold on until reinforcements arrived... Oh, how wrong he was... As the first two Husks moved closer, raising their weapons to attack, Bea didn''t stay still either. She expertly evaded the first one''s sword, then before the second came even close, she chopped off the Husk''s arms. While maintaining momentum, she spun around, beheading both with a single strike. In less than a second, both Husks fell to the ground, headless and dead. But Bea didn''t stop there. She took a few steps back, centered her mind, and awaited her next opponent. Back below the Tree of Life''s roots, Henry just stared at Bea in awe. His mouth hung open in shock. The fight ended so quickly his regular human eyes couldn''t even process what had happened. The small crystal ball glowed in Bea''s hands as it absorbed the souls of the Husks. Her wooden sword slowly consumed the blood on the blade. The blood flowed through the wood''s veins, into the armor, giving it a red tint. A few moments later, a small blood-red flower with seven petals grew out of Bea''s right pauldron. She didn''t seem to notice, but Henry grew curious about what the flower meant. He, of course, kept his curiosity in check, since everything was turning from bad to worse. Instead of watching the incomprehensible fight, he tried ignoring everything, and continued delivering new information to Vicky. The white-haired girl, sitting comfortably, continued to concentrate, fully believing in her mother''s ability to protect both her and Henry. Bea looked upon the destruction for a spilt second. Each second, more turrets fuzzed out under the return barrage, and still dozens of Husks were moving towards her. A few Husks even rose again because the remaining turrets couldn''t completely destroyed their bodies. Another three Husks approached her position fast, so she took a deep breath again, and prepared for their arrival. They moved towards her, in near perfect coordination. One wielding a spear, while the other two held axes in their hands. Bea assessed the situation, and in a spilt second she was already moving. Her speed and strength enhanced by the proximity of the Tree of Life, bridge the advantage the Husks held over her. Every Husk was close to the same physical strength as a weak Transcended. But with the Tree''s buff, she wasn''t far behind either. As the three Husks ran, roots and vines grew out of the metal floor. The growths entangled one of the axe wielders'' legs, then with a second delay, they held back the one with the spear, too. By the time the third one noticed them missing, it was already too late. Bea crouched as she cut with her sword, sending the first Husk to the ground in a shower of blood. His legs fell away, and soon the vines from the ground killed him gruesomely. They went through his skin, growing in his organs, moving up his throat and entering even his brain. From his eyes, mouth and all over his body, the exact same blood-red flowers grew. Bea ignored the dying Husk, as her focus went elsewhere. The other two Husks managed to free themselves faster than Bea expected, but since she could eliminate the first one without interference, the other two caused little trouble. The spear-wielder stabbed towards her chest, which she parried with relative ease. The axe was much harder to predict and evade, but she managed. In a vertical strike, the axe fell towards her head. The blow''s force was overwhelming; unable to deflect, parry, or block the weapon, she rolled aside, closing the distance to her other attacker. Bea ended her roll right below the woman''s crotch. She carried the dodge''s momentum and stabbed her sword into the Husk''s midsection, disemboweling her with a single strike. Amidst screams of pain, the Husk fell to her side, and vines grew over the newly made corpse. Ignoring the corpse again, Bea rolled away, dodging the axe. Upon regaining her feet, she sprinted straight at the Husk. The axe-wielder swung horizontally, trying to decapitate Bea in one fell blow. While running, she fell backwards, leaning back so far that her back nearly touched the ground. Her legs momentarily turned into roots. They made sure she didn''t lose speed from the maneuver, and they even stopped her from going past her opponent. The roots caused an abrupt stop to her forward movement, just as she went behind the Husk. She leaped up, plunging a blade into the Husk''s back, piercing his heart. The man toppled over dead, heavy armor clanking on the metal floor. The fight lasted longer than before¡ªa few seconds at least¡ªbut thankfully, the other Husks hadn''t advanced significantly yet. Bea stepped back again, staying near Vicky and Henry. Few turrets remained, yet their devastation was astonishing. Burnt corpses smoke all over the battleground, ashes blew in the wind caused by the running Husks. A few more enemies sprinted towards her, but as she prepared to fight them, a commotion came from the entrances. The sound of fighting reached her ear from outside the large hall. A small smile appeared on Bea''s face as she saw the glimpse of a golden armor outside... The reinforcements had finally arrived... The few dozen Husks inside the chamber got taken care of fairly quickly. Bea held her ground, keeping all the attackers at bay, while from the other side of the room, the Angelic Order''s Brothers and Sisters pushed in with ferocity, killing everything in sight. Unlike the guards at Elizabeth''s castle, the Angelic Order excelled in non-transformed combat. Sera knew how often the circumstance makes transformation impossible, so she ordered Lilith and Adam to set up training sessions which purely focused on physical fighting capability with no power usage. The constant training, combined with their excellent sense of duty and their religious environment, made all the Angelic Order''s soldiers a pure elite force, capable of taking down stronger foes with relative ease. Even though the Husks were stronger and no worse fighters, they lacked the sense of cooperation that each soldier possessed. The Angelic Order''s lines remained unbroken as they marched on their enemy. They cut the Husks to pieces, but made sure only troopers carrying Something¡ªthe crystal orbs¡ªmade killing blows. The few dozen Husk got dealt within minutes, leaving the chamber full of gore and corpses. After making sure nobody survived, the unit''s leader stepped forward and greeted Bea. It wasn''t easy to recognize her at first, since her normal wooden armor had a bunch of blood-red flowers growing over it. Upon approaching the center of the room, the unit leader observed a strange sight. The same flowers covered most corpses, creating a field of red around the Tree of Life''s roots. Seven-petaled flowers bloomed, nourished by the spilled blood. The leader''s gaze shifted from the surroundings to Bea''s armor, his face full of curiosity. On her pauldrons, breastplate, vambraces, back armor and leggings, a few of the flowers grew, fed by the blade in her hand. When Bea noticed the unit leader''s approach, she quickly changed her armor into a dress, dismissing her sword in the process. The dress, similar to her armor, had a red tint instead of the usual dark brown. Most flowers disappeared, but a single one remained over her heart. Bea''s green eyes stared at the unit leader with fierce determination, but this was just a facade. In reality, Bea had to actively hold herself from bursting into laughter. She would''ve never admitted it, but fighting with purpose was extremely fun for her. She loved defending the vulnerable, especially if they were close to her heart. Bea also loved fighting in general. A strange sense of calm and beauty always filled her when she fought someone with equal expertise. It had a meditative effect on her mind. As she continued to hide her actual feelings, Bea began looking around, confused. Her heart continued pounding like crazy, even though the adrenaline had already left her. Her breathing turned uneven, and suddenly she felt weak. The unit leader noticed her pale expression, and just as she collapsed, he rushed and caught her. Bea''s lips trembled and turned purple for seemingly no reason. The few healers and proper doctors ran to her, thinking she might''ve suffered some injury that couldn''t heal, but even after careful inspection, they found nothing. Her breathing became weaker with each second, and slowly her heartbeat faded as she passed away. Angelic Order members exchanged puzzled glances; Bea''s death remained a mystery for them... But not for everyone within the room... Vicky''s eyes snapped open. She turned towards Bea''s corpse, sighing with worry and sadness. The people turned towards her, their eyes full of curiosity as they awaited her next words. A brief silence hung over the chamber. Vicky continued staring at her mother''s body, absorbed in her own thoughts. Eventually, Henry had to elbow her, so she would notice the other people''s stares. Her eyes widened for a moment, then she blushed from embarrassment, but didn''t let her emotions sidetrack her thoughts. Resolute, she addressed the soldiers, her voice strong, firm, commanding. "Don''t worry about Bea, the outcome of the Sera''s battle will decide her life... We can''t do anything for her now, other than defend this chamber and wait for Sera to win her own battle!" The people didn''t fully comprehend her words, but they still felt inspired. They cheered for a few seconds before they began setting up better defenses around the chamber. Vicky and Henry went back to the middle, where she soon returned to her concentration. The war continued raging across Europe, so her job remained unfinished. As she began opening and closing portals again, her small hand trembled from fear. The real battle had only begun now. This was just a mere taste of the future''s despair and slaughter. Luckily, she wasn''t alone with her feelings, and soon a much sturdier hand held hers. A small smile played on Vicky''s lips as Henry held her hand. The trembling slowly lessened, while all her worries and fear disappeared. A few seconds later, her face became emotionless once more, and she continued transporting people across battlefields. Chapter 316 316: Europe Aflame (8) Just as Sera''s declaration of war went out, she and everyone else mounted their hippogryphs. Kastral spent a few moments with Alyrine, his mate, and Castor, his son. They rubbed their gigantic heads together, with their eyes closed, while making chittering noises with their beaks. Sera looked at them, and a pang of pain appeared in her heart. So much could go wrong with her plan, and if she permanently died, Kastral would die with her... What would happen with the hippogryphs then? Would they survive without their leader? Will Alyrine and Castor be able to live with the pain of losing their loved one? As more of these questions popped up in her mind, she realized what was happening... She was projecting her situation to Kastral. She felt fear, or more like worry, towards the future... Would her family and loved ones survive her failure? Could they move on from her death? How many of her citizens and followers will die if her plan doesn''t succeed? Sera''s mind began spiralling just when Bran came to stand next to her. His presence brought a nice calming effect over her turbulent mind. She took a long, deep breath before turning away from Kastral and his family. She looked up at Bran and gave him a gentle hug. He leaned in and took a whiff of her hair. They stayed together for a few seconds, then eventually separated and went to their mounts. No words needed to be exchanged. Everything they needed to say was already said, and what they forgot wasn''t important, anyway. All soared into the sky and, after circling for a bit, they witnessed a large portal opening in front of them. In the portal, the jungle of Malta stretched for a few kilometers. They ventured inside with zero hesitation. The portal silently closed behind them after everyone was through. They were fairly close to the lab''s entrance, only a few hundred meters away. Since they were pretty high in the sky, it took them no time to find the empty patch of land. The vanguard unit, meaning Sera, Kim, Astrid, Leslie, and Adam, all hit the ground in a roll, jumping off of their hippogryphs. The others waited for a few moments before they all landed nearby. While they sorted themselves out, the vanguard unit was already inside the lab''s entrance, securing the area. There was nothing in the small structure. The staircase stood wide open, each step lit from the side, inviting them in. They saw no apparent security measurements on top or near the stairwell, however, they wisely didn''t venture down. The rescue mission to free Sera provided them with sufficient intel about the bunker''s layout. Why choose to enter the deathtrap stairwell, when they prepared a much more fun and a lot louder alternative? The others filed into the structure, too. Outside, the hippogryphs took to the sky and waited for Sera''s call. They would stay near the island, but high in the sky, so nobody from the ground would notice their presence. When everyone was inside, Mary and James stepped forward. They carried over a large metal disk with a bunch of holes at its bottom. It stood on three small legs, which kept it away from the floor''s surface. They moved near the walls, away from the device, waiting for James. He typed on his watch quickly, sending commands to the device. It quickly sprang to life. The ground rumbled as the machine''s inner generator energized the disk. "I suggest everyone look away for this part. It will get quite bright!" shouted James over the loud rumbling. People began turning towards the wall with closed eyes. James''s and Mary''s visors snapped down, covering their eyes and filtering the light. Sera, of course, didn''t care about the brightness, since her eyes ignored any changes in the lighting. After making sure nobody looked towards the device, James pressed another button, and the drill activated. From the holes at the bottom, bright light illuminated everything. The middle of the drill began spinning in circles at high speeds, while the brightness increased. Only after moments, the entire room turned pure white from the light. Small tendrils of pure energy exited the holes as the drill spun perpendicular to the ground. The metal floor turned red, then orange, and eventually white. It liquified under the increasing pressure, heat and energy transference. The energy turned brighter and stronger until the small tendrils transformed into half meter long arms. When these lines of energy touched the molten metal, it started vaporizing it. The room became intensely hot, even for Ascended; however, Damien easily controlled the temperature. He built an ice barrier around the drill, directing both heat and metal vapor upward through the roof. The drillbit continued to spin, and after it reached high enough energy output, the clamps connecting it to the three legs released. There was already a dozen meter long tunnel below the drill, so when gravity took hold of it, there was nothing to stop its momentum. Mary and James designed the drill, so the faster it fell, the stronger its energy would become. It also needed no manual controlling, since it would fall towards Earth''s center until something could stop it. The room suddenly went dark. It took everyone a few seconds until their eyes readjusted to the loss of unbearable brightness. While they all dried their wet eyes, Sera walked to the newly made entrance with a small smile. Inside, she was laughing at how dumbfound Harold must''ve looked, when he saw what their plan was. Sera was certain he already had something prepared deep down in the laboratory, but this time, she felt fully prepared to confront him. But solely after having a long awaited meeting with her Scarred self. She continued staring down the hole until everyone gathered around her. She looked intently at them, each stare more determined than the last. They held her gaze and gave reassuring nods, accepting whatever happened next. Everyone knew they reached a crossroads. After they went down, they only had to option victory or death. This marked their last opportunity to run like cowards. Everything until this moment they prearranged. They knew all the possibilities, chances, surprises, but upon entering Harold''s layer, they could only improvise. The plan wasn''t the best. It held a high chance for failure, but Sera wasn''t about to give up right at the finish line. Two years. That''s how long she waited for this confrontation. For her, retreat was never an option. She needed to push forward and get her revenge or perish while trying. From the moment she woke up at the destroyed Gateway two years ago, vengeance fueled her heart. Initially, the path to redemption escaped Sera''s mind, but the longer she suffered under Harold''s ''care'', the more hatred built up inside her. Now that her emotions turned more apparent inside her heart, the rage and anger began surfacing. She felt her blood boil in her veins, begging for justice. As Sera looked upon everyone around the hole, they held similar anger towards Harold. Maybe not as strong, maybe even stronger than hers, but nobody remained untouched by his Madness and cruelty. After a few seconds of staring, Sera inhaled and exhaled deeply, full of exhaustion, then her eyes turned towards the roof. The molten metal vapor created a hole above them, and through the hole, Sera looked up towards the cloudless, blue sky. All her dedication over the past two years... All the suffering she endured... All the hell she pushed through... All the people she murdered... Everything happened for a reason, for her and everyone else to be here... It was time for everything to change... It was time to end the current world order, and begin a new one... It was time to end her story one way or another... But most importantly, it was time to die and reunite... Unlike everyone around her, for Sera, it didn''t truly matter if they won or lost. Triumph won''t alter the outcome for Sera. She will die either way, at least this Hollow part of her would. She would fight with her Scarred self, but ultimately, the outcome won''t make a difference. Whoever wins their reunification didn''t matter, since both would die to create a new Seraphine. She confided this secret to no one, not even Bran. She didn''t want to worry them before the war, and telling them wouldn''t have changed anything. Reunion meant certain, permanent death for both Hollow and Scarred Sera. It also didn''t help that she felt afraid. Sera didn''t want to die when her life finally became perfect. She had a loving partner, an amazing daughter, and a perfect woman to co-parent with. Friends surrounded them every day, making her life feel whole. Sera recognized the necessity of this step, this sacrifice; however, selfish desires remained. She preferred remaining her current self instead of just a part of some new iteration. As these thoughts zipped around her mind, Sera closed her eyes. In that moment, she let all her worries, desires, and terrors wash away. Upon opening them, the two golden-green orbs seemed to glow with fierce determination. Slowly, her golden armor''s helmet crawled back over her head, enclosing it for the last time in her life. She took another deep breath, then looked at the molten hole below, and without saying a word, she stepped forward, letting gravity take hold of her body. The others soon followed her, and they all began descending with ever-increasing speeds. A few hesitated near the hole, but eventually everyone jumped after Sera, and to their certain doom... Chapter 317: Europe Aflame (9) The air felt scorching inside the tunnel. The surrounding walls still glowed red and orange from the drillbit''s melting energy tendrils. They fell through the super-heated air, fast, making breathing even harder. At some point, they entirely given up, and instead held their breaths until they reached their destination. Through the walls of the tunnel, they saw room after room fly past them. Their falling speed gave them no time to thoroughly examine the rooms and hallways, only receiving glimpses of their interior. Most of them were white, with different machines, devices, and other scientific equipment. They also went through quite a few warehouse like halls, and holding areas with gigantic cells. They saw no living being anywhere, which concerned Sera a bit. They were truly in the dark now, with no idea what will happen next. Hundreds of floors whipped past them as they fell at terminal velocity. James and Mary programmed the drill to stop at the last floor, since that was their destination. Sera at the front, already saw the drill stop way below them, and so she began slowing herself by summoning her wings. While still moving quite fast, she took off the device off her back and began activating it. This was another one of Mary''s insane ideas, and James''s even worse design. Its exterior presented a simple, smooth circular surface, centrally featuring a small interface, which controlled the device. As Sera closed in on the drill, she activated the device and tossed it towards the molten ground. A barely perceivable energy barrier filled the tunnel. This energy didn''t stop Sera''s fall, though. Upon touching it, a strange sensation took hold of her body. It slowed her fall speed, and in general made every movement harder. In just a few seconds, she fully stopped. Sera moved to the edge of the energy with slow, difficult steps. The substance had a strange effect on bodies. With each step, tons of pressure pressed down on her body from every direction. The energy or substance¡ªSera wasn''t sure exactly¡ªalso had a weird stickiness to it, like a much too dense gel. She climbed out of the tunnel and fell to the floor. With the sudden overwhelming pressure gone, she could barely move or stand. It took her a moment to adjust. By the time she regained mobility, most of her friends were also on the ground nearby. Quite a few were still missing, but gradually everyone entered the strange substance. Watching everyone plop into the gel, slowly falling towards the tunnel''s side, was quite amusing. It was even funnier to hear everyone complain. "Why the fuck did I need to fall through that... thing? I have wings! I can slow myself down!... Couldn''t we create two drills for individuals with wings and those who enjoy swimming in goo?!" Everyone laughed upon hearing Lucy''s complain, but quite a few shared her point of view. "Well, I can''t fly, but that was a truly miserable way to enter? Couldn''t you two make something less disgusting and suffocating?" Will questioned James and Mary. Surprisingly, the goo hadn''t affected either of them. The scientist pair exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing. "Of course we could''ve! But it was quite fun to see you all struggle, and I think we need all the joy we can have before..." He didn''t need to finish the sentence. All the laughter and smiles ended as the reality of their situation finally settled on their shoulders. A somber mood settled as everyone slowly emerged from the goo pit. While they continued to struggle to their feet, Sera led the vanguard to look around their point of entry. James and Mary followed close behind, scanning for energy sources, waves, signals and everything else they could find. The room the drill hit wasn''t too big. The ceiling was only a few meters above, while the walls stretched about a dozen meters in every direction. Dust coated the largely vacant room, suggesting prolonged disuse. The lights still tried to shine, but the drill must''ve cut through some wiring since it kept flickering off and on. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all white, obviously, like every other room in this accursed facility. Other than a few miscellaneous furniture, like a bed and desk, nothing else remained. The eerie atmosphere pressed down on them just as much as the weird gel''s suffocation. Sera, Leslie, Astrid, Kim, and Adam all walked towards the only door inside the room. It was a heavy metal door with no hinges or a handle. It didn''t even have a keyhole, which was quite strange. The vanguard waited for James and Mary to scan the surroundings. They found nothing particular, only some strange readings on the door''s other side. The readings mostly displayed elevated fluid movement through pipes on the other side, and an above average energy signature. Nothing too special, but also a bit unusual. Intrigued, they discussed their options for a second, then proceeded to forcibly enter the door. Since there was no manual way to open the door, and James couldn''t access the electric opening mechanism, Sera turned towards Astrid and nodded once. The giantess of a woman stepped forward, her body growing even larger, while her golden armor stretched, covering her increased size. In a few large bounds, she stood before the metal door, and while leaning back, she unleashed a devastating punch. The metallic door didn''t just bend under the singular concentrated blow. It made a miserable sound as both all four sides bent inward and eventually broke away. Like a projectile, door fragments shot inside the room, crashing into furniture, lab equipment, and some glass structure by the sound. The breaking noises inside continued to a good ten seconds before the silence returned. Astrid stood before the broken door, staring down at her clenched fists with embarrassment and shock. She didn''t mean to bring down the door so violently, but she also expected it to be much sturdier. When she looked back to say sorry, her eyes met Sera''s, and she sensed something move behind her. A loud shriek shook everyone to their core, and before Astrid could''ve reacted, something took hold of her body. Upon glancing down, she saw a thick, dark tentacle wrap itself around her torso. She prepared to summon her spear, but in the next moment she was already flying through the door, and towards some terrifying creature''s maw. In just a blink, she transitioned from facing the others, to staring down at some Horror, while it held her above its wide maw. Astrid''s strong body trembled before the sight. The Horror had hundred''s of enormous eyes staring in every direction. Its circular maw had thousands of razor-sharp teeth in rows going down into its throat, ready to devour everything. From its enormous body, long tentacle arms flailed around, grabbing every object within the room. An abundance of water covered the floor, and it kept increasing around the monster. To the side, Astrid spotted the remains of a gigantic aquarium, probably where the creature resided, before she sent a metal door crashing through its wall. The speed with which the Horror created water was truly terrifying. Within seconds, it grew at least a meter in height. Despite partial drainage through the open door, the water''s rapid growth in volume proved insurmountable. Its color was also different from normal water. It held a deep blueness, similar to the Horror''s dark blue skin. Still a bit stunned, Astrid observed everything about the beast while she continued to summon her spear. She saw as the tentacle slowly brought her closer to the maw. She tried wriggling free, but the tentacle''s muscles held her with ease. Astrid briefly closed her eyes just as her spear materialized. She then took a deep breath, and with her mind calm, she used all her transformed strength to plunge the spear into the tentacle. The skin was harder than she thought. Even so, the power in her blow pierced it with ease. The spear didn''t stop at the skin, though. It went straight through the tentacle, exiting below in a shower of bright blue blood. The Horror shrieked in pain. Astrid lost the grip of her spear and held her head in pain. The sound gave her a mind splitting headache, and she couldn''t focus on anything around her. She felt herself falling through the air for a brief second before she eventually landed on something hard and sharp. At first she thought the monster tossed her to the side, but upon opening her eyes, she realized the mistake she took. The tentacle was holding her right above the creature''s mouth. Why would the monster toss away a good meal when it could simply release her from its grip? When the pain subsided, Astrid managed to open her eyes and look around. She didn''t like her new surroundings in the slightest. She was a few meters inside the creature''s wide maw, with large teeth covering the walls of its mouth. Astrid tried to move, but a sharp pain assaulted her hip and right shoulder. She took one glance at herself and saw teeth piercing her armor through and through. Their ends poked out of her body, covered in her own blood. In that moment, all her training seemed to vanish, and pure panic set in. She desperately tried pulling away from the teeth, but then noticed a strange yellow liquid rise from the creature''s throat. It reached her within seconds. The yellow liquid was dense, sticky, and suffocating, similar to resin. Gradually, it covered her whole body, making every movement extremely difficult, essentially trapping her. The yellow liquid filled the monster''s mouth. It lifted her off the teeth, which Astrid should''ve been happy about, but instead she felt terrified, since she knew exactly what would happen next. She closed her eyes in fear as the gulping sound echoed through the liquid, and a large force pulled her down into the creature''s throat... Chapter 318: Europe Aflame (10) Everything happened too fast. One moment, Sera stared into Astrid''s ashamed golden eyes, and in the next she was flying through the air, dragged by a giant tentacle. Sera barely blinked once, and she was already gone. It took her another second to gather her thoughts and order her body to move. She, with the vanguard close behind, ran towards the enormous monster. This circular chamber dwarfed the room they just left. With its few dozen meter inner height, and at least a hundred in diameter, the monster should''ve looked small. But as it flailed its tentacles, they reached even the farthest walls and could easily touch the ceiling. They tried running towards the monster, but more water spread around it and flying wasn''t a good option because of the hundred giant tentacles moving with unnatural speeds. Above, they watched Astrid struggle. Upon seeing the creature lower her towards its maw, they tried reaching it faster. Kim especially felt desperate to save her friend. They watched Astrid try to wriggle out of the creature''s grasp, then Sera silently cursed as the giant woman summoned her spear and stabbed it through the tentacle holding her. Sera couldn''t understand her actions. Astrid destroyed the only thing keeping her away from the monster''s maw. What did she expect to happen? Just as she silently predicted, the tentacle''s constraint lessened until it wasn''t holding Astrid anymore. When that happened, she fell straight into the creature''s mouth. Sera was close enough to fly up and try to save her, but just as her wings appeared, the creature''s attention changed to them. Tentacles beset them from all sides. The blue water, which they all stood inside, rapidly increased in volume, until they couldn''t even stand. Sera and Leslie took to the skies, leaving Adam and Kim in the water. They both transformed too, though, so the water wasn''t an issue anymore. Kim, with her snake body, easily swam through the increasing waves, while Adam''s whole body turned to glass. He floated on top of the water, then after getting his bearings right, he began walking atop it. In this state, his physical density was smaller than the blue water''s, but his actual strength and defense increased by a lot. Their small groups coordination was near perfect. Sera and Leslie flew around the monster, distracting it from the actual attack. Sera threw burning spears at the monster''s eyes, and every time a tentacle came too close, she would cut out a good chunk of it, using her glaive. Leslie was much less confrontational. His fiery wings couldn''t maneuver as good as Sera''s, so he stayed away from the tentacles. But his attacks were also much more devastating. Large fireballs flew towards the monster, exploding on impact. He aimed mostly at its eyes and into its maw, hoping the creature might vomit Astrid out if he burned its throat. The monster continued flailing, trying to catch them, but it wasn''t stupid. Some tentacles moved around its face, covering all the vital parts they could aim for. It also continuously shrieked, which became was extremely annoying. All four of them suffered from a constant headache as they fought the creature. While Sera and Leslie continued pelting the defensive tentacles around the creature''s face, Kim and Adam arrived at its body. The distraction worked perfectly, and the monster hadn''t noticed them until it was too late. Kim and Adam both arrived next to its body at the same time. In her snake form, Kim tried using her ability on the gigantic monster, but it either didn''t work, or its effects were negligible because of its size. Adam just stood there for a moment, thinking about their approach. Eventually, he turned towards Kim and shouted over the constant splashing and shrieking. "When we go in there, you try to find its stomach and rescue Astrid! I''ll take of the beast!" Kim stared at him with a raised eyebrow, which looked ridiculous on her wet snake-haired face. "What do you mean ''when we go in there''?" She inquired, despite the already knowing the answer. Kim just didn''t want to accept it. The tall glass knight took one glance at her before chuckling. In his hand, a large greatsword appeared, and with two lightning quick cuts, he opened up the creature''s side. He wasted no time and began cutting his way further into the monster. Behind him, Kim silently cursed, then quickly went after Adam. The monster definitely felt the cuts. With each movement either made, a new shriek echoed through the large chamber. Luckily, the large amount of flesh served as a great muffler for the disturbing sound. After following Adam for a few meters, Kim went in a different direction, towards where the beast''s throat. At least that''s what she assumed, but locating the organ wasn''t as easy. With her two bright green swords, she cut through the monster''s flesh, like it was paper. Her slippery snake-body made movement especially easy, and the large amounts of bright blue blood served as a great lubricant. The real problem was her nausea. With every meter travelled, a new wave of disgust hit her stomach. After only seconds, she had to stop and vomit. But since blood and water from the tunnel she carved filled her surroundings, her puke also stayed near her, floating. She couldn''t breathe below the sickening water mixture, not like she wanted to, especially after she reached the beast''s guts. It wasn''t hard to guess when she finally reached its intestines, since they were full of bones, feces, and other barely digested remains. Cutting through its wall was the worst mistake of her life. She vomited again, but began crawling through the guts until she found the stomach, or some similar organ. With a clear slice, she cut through the tissue, sending a large amount of acid right on top of her head. Her whole body burned from the pain, but she pushed upward, escaping the horrible liquid mixture. Inside there, she made the mistake of taking a deep breath. The smell was worse than anything she could''ve imagined in her worst nightmares, and she puked for a third time in the past few minutes. Afterward, with her body covered in every imaginable bodily fluid, Kim looked around the fairly large stomach. Piles of dead things laid around the place, waiting to be digested. It took her a few seconds to find Astrid''s signature armor between the corpses. Kim quickly crawled to her, and using her snake tail, she pulled the giant woman out. She lost her helmet at some point, but since her armor hadn''t disintegrated yet, she was still alive, albeit barely. The stomach acid gruesomely melted part of Astrid''s face, but otherwise she had no life-threatening wounds. Blood stained her right shoulder and hip, yet the wounds seemed to be healed. She was also unconscious, which made the escape process much more difficult. Kim began dragging her friend towards the opening she cut, but she couldn''t seem to find it. "Fuck... It must''ve healed... Dammit!" Concurrently, she cursed while plotting an alternative escape route. It didn''t help that standing straight became a difficult from all the movement. Whatever was Adam doing, it made the beast screech like never before. Following some rolling due to increased motion, Kim decided to cut a new passage through the monster while dragging Astrid with her. Gradually, she approached the stomach wall and brandished her blades. Right before she could cut a hole, something huge appeared to strike the monster outside. Kim and Astrid flew to the stomach''s other side. Around them, the sound of rushing water echoed, and Kim soon felt the blue water lick her snake-like body. Still a bit stunned, Kim looked down in confusion. She felt something large and slippery gently grab her body and lift her off the ground. For a moment, she became panicked, but upon seeing the tentacle''s black and color, she calmed down. It wasn''t the monster''s arm, but instead Will''s transformation. Will rarely transformed, since it worked best in vast amounts of water. But as he pulled her and Astrid out, Kim saw the state of the giant chamber. The water level was close to filling the room completely, meaning even Will, with his 60 meter length, could swim relatively freely in the blue water. With his tentacles on his back, he carefully moved Kim and Astrid through the enormous hole he had bitten out. After they were safe, Will moved back for seconds. His maw devoured the colossal beast. The sharp appendages over his body easily cut away any tentacle that tried grabbing him. The monster couldn''t even shriek anymore, since its throat was missing. Kim trembled at the sight. She never imagined the sweet, goofy Will who took nothing seriously could transform into a... monster. Her thoughts weren''t negative. However, the scene was jarring, and the word used to describe him was too accurate. In her stunned state, Kim barely noticed when she entered the air bubble created by Sarah on the ground. Everyone was there, all watching Will kill and devour every piece of the dying monster. Only when nothing remained of the beast did Kim remember an important detail. She searched the bubble''s occupants frantically, but Adam was nowhere to be seen. Resolute, she prepared to re-enter the water, when Will''s voice began echoing inside her head. "Don''t worry, Adam is fine! I accidentally swallowed him, but he will be back in a moment!" Just as the sentence finished, Will''s shark-like head appeared nearby, and he basically spit Adam into the air bubble. Chapter 319: Europe Aflame (11) With a sore body, Adam slowly climbed back to his legs. His previously pristine glass armor now had a few cracks and chipped parts on it. Around his armor, gore dripped to the wet ground, similar to Kim''s own body. Even their smells matched, long-dead corpse marinated in puke, piss and feces, a truly disgusting scent. A few people were already gagging and vomiting just from their proximity. Adam looked down at himself, then he turned towards Will with an angry expression. The shorter man with long blue hair laughed as he transformed back and entered the bubble. "Hey! Don''t give me that look! It wasn''t my fault you were inside there... You should even thank me. I killed the beast and saved your life!" Adam scrunched his eyebrows and spoke in a low-voice, full of annoyance. "I was already at its brain, hacking away with my sword, you dumbass! It was dead by the time you attacked!... And why did you eat the whole monster, even after killing it?!" Will just smiled innocently and shrugged his shoulders. "Why would I waste such an excellent meal?... Anyway, sorry for swallowing you... You are quite chewy., by the way..." He whispered the last part, loud enough for everyone to hear. Sarah and Leslie shook their heads in disappointment, hiding their amusement, while Lucy and Cass both burst out laughing. Adam just took a deep breath and sighed in exhaustion. Lilith was already standing next to him, carefully removing the larger pieces of dead flesh from his armor. Will approached Lucy, attempted a kiss, but he got rejected immediately. "Stay the fuck away from me with that mouth! You will need a lot of mouthwash before we ever kiss again!... Where does all that food go anyway, because it''s clearly not in your human body!" He laughed at her reaction, but didn''t try pushing the boundary. It was a joke anyway, since he knew Lucy wouldn''t let them kiss in this state. "I don''t know, but I will definitely have diarrhea for the next couple of weeks, and I probably won''t have to consume any food!" Few people made gagging sounds, while others simply laughed. While everyone continued to talk, Sera walked to Kim and Astrid. The healer from the Ouroboros Cohort stood nearby, still fixing the giantess''s face. She was already conscious, but still looked quite miserable. Her golden eyes were full of shame as she turned away from Sera''s approaching figure. Sera understood her friend''s feelings and knew empty compliments wouldn''t help to elevate her bad mood. Instead, Sera opted for a more lighthearted approach. "How you doing Astrid?" asked Sera with actual concern in her voice. The tall woman''s gaze showed disbelief as she looked at Sera. For some reason, Astrid seemed surprised by Sera''s acknowledgment and worry. She also felt stunned by hearing her name used by her Lady. Astrid felt stupefied for a long second. Kim had to gently kick her back, so she would show some reaction other than shock. "Uh... Thank you, my Lady for your... concern! I''m healthy and can fight without issues. Just need another minute before my face fully heals!" She tried jumping into attention, startling the heal holding onto her face. Astrid blushed from her childish mistake, causing Kim to giggle next to her. Sera just gently smiled and nodded. "That''s good! We will need your special ramming capabilities and interesting ways of exploring unknown terrain!" The healer snorted a laugh, while Astrid just stared at Sera in awe and stunned silence. Kim was already rolling on the floor with laughter, and even Sera giggled a bit at her friend''s expression. It took the healer a few minutes to reconstruct Astrid''s face. The pain was overwhelming at times, but it was manageable. The room slowly began to drain, but waiting wasn''t an option. Instead, they began walking towards one of the smaller doors. There were also hangar-like giant hatches, which were used by the giant monster most likely. Sarah''s air bubble held out well. They reached the door with ease, and luckily, this one had an actual interface that James could operate. The bubble covered the entire doorway so no water could leak through. James transferred data about the next room''s properties, but they learned nothing interesting. The door allegedly opened onto a hallway, and sadly, that''s all the new information James received. After making sure nothing scary waited for them, he punched in the downloaded code and opened the door. Despite suffering in the previous attack, the vanguard again led the group through the opening. They decided on the five of them to lead every charge, since they either had the best melee capabilities or the most defense. Substitutes were available, for example, Damien and some Ouroboros Cohort members. But, for now, the current five were perfectly fine to lead. Sera marched through the door first, with Leslie and Adam close behind. She looked both ways, not getting surprised by the bright environment. The walls, ceiling, floor, everything was bright white, and above fluorescent light buzzed gently, illuminating the wide corridor. They stepped outside to secure the area, but the whole place felt empty, almost abandoned. Everyone filed out of the water filled room. Sarah was the last to leave, and after James closed the door behind her, she finally released the air bubble. A sudden blast of air released in every direction, while Sarah sighed and stretched with satisfaction. While everyone stood guard in deathly silence, James and Mary opened a panel in the wall and began looking through the floor''s plan. They could map the entire floor just by analyzing the energy lines, plumbing pipes, electrical cables, and other scientific methods like sound or electromagnetic waves and the structure''s vibration. It was simply mind-blowing how much new information they could gather from such unimportant places, like a random wall. The only problem was, the mapping and analyzing process took ten minutes at least, which made them prime ambush targets. After learning how much time they would require, Sera began setting up a defensive plan. In less than a few minutes, her prediction became reality. From one side of the hallway, a blindingly bright light appeared, while on the other end, mist filled the way and gentle, beautiful singing echoed from inside. There were also lots of screeching sounds, and soon they spotted the unnatural monsters running in their direction. Despite the corridor''s immense length, the mutated monsters'' speed meant they would arrive in about a dozen seconds. Sera looked between the two sides, but eventually her eyes settled on the bright creature. Unlike everyone else, she easily saw through its mirage, making her the only person who could fight it. The mist creature was a different issue. By everyone''s account of the rescue mission, this monster attacked the mind, which made it extremely dangerous, and meant only one person could reliably fight it. Sera glanced down at the small woman standing beside her. Lilith''s swirling purple eyes stared into Sera''s own, understanding reflected in its depths. They didn''t need to exchange words. Both nodded at each other, and soon Sera was flying near the low ceiling with her wings out, heading straight for the bright monster. Lilith, on the other hand, stayed put and grabbed Will by his shoulder. He seemed surprised momentarily, then glanced towards the approaching mist, and understood what she wanted. With an exhausted sigh, Will closed his eyes and placed his hand on top of Lilith''s head. He raised a strong mental shield around her, which empowered her dream ability. Lilith then transformed, closed her eyes, and did something very dumb... She entered the mist monster''s mind. The group standing in the middle of the corridor watched as both the mist and bright monster halted in their imminent approach. The sound of fighting echoed from the blinding light, while the mist receded closer to the creature''s body, but still hid it well. The relentless monster onslaught left them scant time for consideration. They quickly went into formation and awaited their enemies'' arrival. The monsters were seemingly 3rd Tier Corrupted or maybe 1st Tier Horrors. Nothing too outstanding, but something felt wrong about them. The feeling was hard to describe. The creatures seemed strange, almost unnatural. It was ironic to call monsters unnatural, since they were all inherently artificial to some degree; however, that''s what the gist of the feeling everyone had. Monsters were normal Evolved beings corrupted by Madness, but these felt different. They were less Mad and more coordinated, like they actually received commands instead of mindlessly running into danger. There were also dozens of different types of beasts within their ranks, each more terrifying than the last. What brought even more curiosity to everyone was their uniqueness. Every creature looked different. From everyone inside the group, nobody saw any of their kind before, which was basically impossible. Humanity''s exploration of Madness-ravaged worlds revealed a commonality among corrupted beings. The similarity wasn''t easy to pinpoint. It wasn''t a physical disfiguration, since all of them looked nothing alike. It wasn''t a common behavior either, because some Mad monsters acted like mindless beasts, while others could retain some of their consciousness. Madness''s corruption felt perfect, unbreakable, permanent. These monsters, however, were the complete opposite. They might''ve gained full control over them, but the authority over their minds seemed much more brittle. The source of the unusual feeling, and its implications, remained unknown. For now, it didn''t matter. Everyone put these thoughts to rest and instead stood firmly in the formation, preparing for the approaching horde of death. Chapter 320: Europe Aflame (12) For everyone else, it seemed Sera was flying towards a wall of pure radiance, but in her eyes, there was nothing. She could differentiate between brighter and darker areas, but no matter the brightness, she saw everything with crystal clear clarity. As Sera flew above the hordes of monsters, she finally laid eyes on the creature hiding beneath the light. She was quite a bit surprised to see no actual monster. In fact, she saw a person standing in the empty corridor. The light moved, weaved itself around him, like it was part of his body. In his white glowing eyes, there was lucidity. He wasn''t like all the monsters sent here to kill them, but he also wasn''t normal. The man appeared neither Evolved nor even human. He had elongated, almost pointy ears and tall stature. His lithe physic, carried strength hidden from the naked eye. His face held much androgynous beauty. At first, Sera couldn''t even determine his gender, but seeing the lack of curves, she had to guess. Even the person''s attire was breathtaking. Millions of white strings closely attached to his breastplate and pauldrons fell over his athletic body. They seemed lighter than feathers, while also having a slight glisten to them. The excessive light seemed to break apart when it landed on each string. Sera concluded the man wasn''t controlled like all the other monsters. He also most certainly wasn''t human. He definitely originated from a different realm, similar to goblins, which made him a different species than humans. It was rare and improbable, but it happened a few times over the years. Outsiders from the other more superior Realms would occasionally visit and explore Earth. Surprisingly, no powerful entity ever appeared from these other Realms. Like no one above the level of Ascended could visit Earth. Sera questioned the rule''s origin. She felt uncertain whether it stemmed from the other Realms'' leaders or from Earth''s diplomats and Ethereals; regardless, it felt very unusual. Everything they knew about the other Realms was vague. Either the Ethereals who regularly visited these places kept secrets, or there was some deeper mystery which nobody had noticed. Sera wasn''t sure either way, and currently she didn''t care about such issues. She came to this lab with a purpose, and if this person obstructed her, she would eliminate him. After flying over the horde, she landed close to where the man''s light began, but she didn''t enter. Instead, with one hand, she reached out and gently touched the blinding light. It wasn''t solid, but as she ran her hand through its edges, she felt something move between her fingers. Tiny particles, flying through the air around the man. She reached a bit further inside, and that''s when the searing pain began. Her armor ignored most, but she still felt a burning sensation everywhere the light touched her. The man watched curiously as Sera pulled her hand back from the light and dismissed her gauntlet. Below the golden metal, red, swollen, blistered skin, peeled away. Her regeneration was already taking care of the damage, but she should''ve been on her knees screaming in pain. She did no such thing. Instead, Sera stared at her hand for a few seconds, snorted in amusement, then summoned back her gauntlet and stepped into the light. Pain absorbed her body, but it wasn''t anything new for her. She felt her skin burn everywhere, but her steps remained firm. The man''s eyes widened in confusion and disbelief. He saw many people enter his light, but no Ascended ever walked inside it so nonchalantly. She could also see through his blinding light with perfect precision, which also brought great interest to him. Sera walked over and eventually stopped half a dozen meters away. Her signature golden glaive rested close at hand, but her body language suggested boredom and cautiousness. The man was unsure how to respond. He held no weapon, but he most definitely wasn''t harmless. They stared at one another for a few long moments, unsure to begin fighting or engage in conversation. They gauged each other''s patience, enduring the silence to determine who had the more superior composure. Unlike Sera, the man couldn''t see her facial expression, which brought advantage to her. Behind Sera the sound of fighting reached their ears, but neither payed it any mind. She continued staring at the tall man, making him increasingly uncomfortable, until he finally broke. With a slight smirk on the side of his mouth, he began speaking, without acknowledging his loss. "So you are the famous Deathless Phoenix everyone has been talking about! Very nice to meet you, my name is Darunia..." His voice sounded like a beautiful melody, echoing around the hallway with perfect harmony. The voice, though lacking supernatural power, briefly halted Sera''s thoughts with their magnificence. Darunia was about to continue when Sera quickly cut in, disrupting the man''s flow. "So what race are you, Darunia? I can tell you aren''t human, and you seem too tall for a goblin... What are you doing here exactly?" After hearing her statement, the tall man''s laughter echoed around them, then it morphed into a creepy, cunning grin. "Oh, how rude of me! You haven''t met my kind yet. How unfortunate... I''m an Elf from Asyren, the Realm of endless forests, pure blue lakes, music and beauty!..." Behind her helmet, Sera''s eyes widened with surprise and curiosity. She never heard of the species called elves before, so meeting a new intelligent race was quite exciting. Unfortunately, Sera was certain Darunia wouldn''t reveal more about his birthplace, and his next words confirmed where their conversation was heading. The elf continued to grin, and Sera didn''t miss the small step he took towards her. She halted her muscles from moving, while keeping her eyes on every part of Darunia''s body. He kept his hands hidden behind his back. Small muscle movements over his arms suggested he was either nervous or fidgeting with something, possibly a weapon. As Sera tried not to react to his every near imperceptible twitch, she listened to his words very carefully. "Are you curious about my presence? Isn''t it obvious?... I''m a mercenary hired by Harold for base security! My job requires me to eliminate every unauthorized personnel, and sadly not you nor your friends are supposed to be here." His eyes narrowed and his fidgeting stopped. Behind her helmet Sera took a deep breath, and said, "Sad indeed... I assume you wouldn''t back off if I asked you nicely?" The tall elf snorted, his creepy grin changed into a mischievous smile. His voice became lower, hiding imminent danger within its depths. "I think the answer is obvious to us both." Behind her helmet, a sly smile grew on Sera''s lips. Her voice changed only a little, but it was definitely more cruel and cold. "It sure is..." she breathed before springing into action. Darunia''s eyes widened in surprise. He didn''t expect her to react so aggressively, but he liked it! It was never much fun to fight someone unsuspecting. He watched in relative calmness as the few meter distance disappeared in less than a moment. Sera''s glaive cut through the air, aiming towards his head, but just before touching him, something strange happened. The light around his body became more apparent and real. It seemed to turn into a solid object, abandoning all of its previous properties. The small particles formed a thin wall around the elf''s head, saving him from the deadly blow. The glaive''s blade connected with the wall in an explosion of blinding light, which Sera ignored entirely. The elf, who was still smiling a moment ago, suddenly frowned in confusion. From just one blow, his small wall cracked and splintered. It wasn''t supposed to be so weak against any form of attack. There was something he missed, but he simply couldn''t think about it since Sera didn''t stop after the initial miss. Her glaive moved again, this time aiming for his chest. The light particles moved again, obeying his silent command. They formed into a thicker shield this time, but even that wasn''t enough to fully contain Sera''s weapon. With a loud crack, it punctured the shield, sending sparks in every direction. That''s when Darunia saw it! As Sera attacked again, her glaive caught on fire. Pure golden flames danced around the blade, holding white light within. The weapon shined momentarily before it touched his newly made defensive wall. It hit the shield with such impact that the elf flew back a few meters after its inevitable explosion. Sera almost killed the elf, then hesitated, noticing something in the elf''s gaze. It was full of surprise, anger, confusion, annoyance, and, above all, terror. She couldn''t understand what had changed. The man''s confidence seemed to evaporate. He stared at Sera, like she was the most horrifying creature he had ever faced. Initially, she linked the man''s weird reaction to her purifying flames, since it only occurred post-usage. Her light also could''ve caused this sudden change in behaviour, but she fought with it all this time. Even before the battle between them, she guessed his attacks and defenses would involve light, so she used her own ability to give her weapon and armor the same property. It worked extremely well against his defense, so that might''ve caused his terror, since only a handful of creatures could use light that way. She wasn''t certain, and the elf wasn''t much help either. Still lying on the ground, Darunia''s whole body trembled. In a shaky voice full of despair, he whispered three words... "It''s you..." Sera just continued staring at him with confusion. The elf grabbed the opportunity, gathered his thoughts, and decided upon a quick getaway. She wanted to follow, hunt down, and eliminate him, but something in his demeanor changed her mind. Somehow, Sera knew he wouldn''t be a problem anymore. The light disappeared as he sprinted away, slowly becoming more transparent with each step, until nothing was left of him. Still bewildered, Sera watched the elf disappear, then turned and went back to help her group, putting this encounter away for less hectic days. Chapter 321: Europe Aflame (13) Lilith, in her faceless tall monster state, sent out a full force attack against the mist monster. The singing abruptly stopped as the beast went to sleep, and after taking a deep, calming breath, Lilith followed. The sight in front of her appeared strange. She''d explored monster minds before, yet this one was profoundly different from those experiences. Instead of a relatively large island, which represented the creature''s mind, Lilith stood on a lone rocky outcropping within an endless ocean. It was daytime seemingly, even though the sun was absent from the sky. The waves crashed into the rocky cliffs a few meters away, showering Lilith and everything around her in seawater. She stared across the approaching waves, towards the horizon, which seemed endless. It made no sense. Mind islands typically possess distinct boundaries; however, this one felt uniquely tangible. It felt real in some capacity. It was also extremely wrong. Every mind island had and needed a boundary, an edge to prevent thoughts from slipping outside of your influence. It also stopped other islands from affecting you. Without a defined boundary between the monster''s mental island and the others'', information would flood her constantly, overloading her mind. Maintaining sanity was simply impossible amidst the influence of every surrounding mind. While Lilith thought about this, the mist monster''s singing began echoing around the ocean. The voice held no power, but its beauty itself felt enthralling. It originated from behind her, so Lilith quickly spun around, prepared for a fight, but the sight wasn''t what she expected. Instead of seeing a monster ready to attack her, she only saw a relatively small woman, with long, bright red hair and milky white skin. She sat sideways, with her bare back towards Lilith. The gentle wind played with her wet hair, while waves kept showring her body, which glistened under the nonexistent sun. The woman would''ve been normal, but one feature stood out from the rest, her legs... She had none. A long, azure-green fishtail replaced them, occasionally slapping the wet rock. The singing continued for a few minutes. Lilith tried staying alert, but at some point, her attention slipped from the woman, and focused on the song. She couldn''t understand a single word the half-fish, half-human person spoke. The language somehow felt familiar. It had some relation to the human language, but it was definitely much older. Even then, Lilith recalled that a few elderly residents in New Athens spoke similarly. Her words weren''t the same, though. They felt much older, full of emotion and power. Lilith knew that long ago, when humanity wasn''t as united, people spoke different languages based on their birthplace. These languages survived centuries, holding onto their cultural significance. These languages mostly perished during the Last War and Apocalypse, leaving no surviving speakers. Europe was luckier than most, since in most ways they won the Last War, but even they lost most of their previous cultures. New Athens and its surroundings stayed unharmed in most ways, and its elders knew everything about their old culture. They thought their young about it too, including Lilith. She knew the language the woman used was called Greek, albeit a much older version of its current state. Lilith couldn''t understand even a word, but she felt the emotion in the singing... It was sad, full of anger and despair... When the song finally came to an end, Lilith found herself back in her human form, with tears streaming down her face. She instantly went back on high alert, but the fish-tailed woman stayed unmoving. Upon careful consideration, Lilith decided not to transform, and instead waited for the woman''s next words. She didn''t turn around, but her alluring voice echoed around the outcropping, reaching Lilith''s ears with ease. It wasn''t loud, but cut through the sound of crashing waves without issue. "You know, I to love the waves and seas. Just spending my days staring out into nothingness, singing to my heart''s content..." The woman wasn''t talking in ancient Greek, so Lilith actually understood what she said. Her voice held a strong accent, which made a few pronunciations scuffed, but otherwise, it was alright. Her reminiscent voice was full of joy. Lilith could hear her smile as she spoke. "I would go swimming all day, talk with fishes, laugh and braid my hair with my sisters. We were peaceful and kept away from society." She paused for a long moment, then continued, her voice turning angrier. "But you people couldn''t stay away. You moved your ships too close to our cliffs! Our singing was never meant for human ears, only for the gods!" Rage visibly shook the woman as she drew a deep breath. She continued with her charming voice full of venom. "You stupid humans came near our cliffs, heard our singing, and drove your ships straight into the rocks! Then you dared blame us for murdering you and even began hunting our species!" Finally, the woman snapped and turned her body towards Lilith. She wore no clothing, but her long, bright red hair covered her voluptuous breasts. Her angry face was one of the most beautiful sights Lilith had ever seen. Her beautiful, frowning mouth had the same redness as her hair, while her eyes were azure green, just like her tail. She looked Lilith up and down once before turning back towards the ocean, ignoring her presence. Lilith raised an eyebrow at the dismissal, but didn''t question it. She waited for the woman to continue, but she seemed content with the silence. Eventually, Lilith had enough, and tried engaging again. Lilith found her words captivating, prompting further inquiry, hoping to learn as much as possible about this woman. "I think I haven''t introduced myself yet! My name is Lilith, Co-Commander of the Angelic Order, and loyal servant of Lady Seraphine, the Angel Monarch!... Can I ask your name please?" Despite her best efforts at kindness, the woman''s response surprised her. Her ears perked up at something Lilith said. Her anger lessened, shock replacing it as she turned. The woman''s facial expression continued to change as thoughts zipped around her mind. After a few seconds, she remembered Lilith''s watchful eyes, so she forced her face to stay neutral. Her voice became also emotionless as she answered her question. "My name is Aeleophia, and I''m one of the last Sirens... It seems you are much more interesting than I initially assumed, Lilith. Let me ask you this, before we continue this exchange... How much do you know about the past?" Lilith stared at Aeleophia in confusion, not understanding the question at first. After momentary silence, she just shrugged and recounted her very lacking knowledge about history. Her words painted a picture of the Last War, the Apocalypse, and the subsequent 28 years. As she finished, the siren seemed bewildered. "That''s it? You only know a few hundred years of humanity''s history? What about the old religions and mythologies? Ever heard about ancient Egypt or Greece? Ancient Rome? The medieval period? Norse mythology or the Celtic pantheon? Nothing? What about Asian or American religions?" Lilith just shook her head in a lack of understanding. Rome, the city, was familiar to her; however, she knew nothing about ancient Rome, nor ancient Greece. She also knew a place called Egypt from older maps. It was a state in northeast Africa, but sadly, most of it got destroyed. The Last War had a large impact on Earth. Europe lost relatively few places, but not every continent fared so well. Africa was one of the richest places on Earth before the Last War, but its close proximity to Europe was its downfall. Weapons of mass destruction landed on the continent, eliminating everyone, destroying the landscape, and cracking the earth. By the time the war ended, the African Continent was ninety percent underwater. The bombs broke the ground, leaving gigantic craters, which filled with seawater. Africa''s land got flooded as the Arctic ice melted from the war, resulting in the region being commonly called the Mediterranean Ocean now. Aeleophia''s mouth tightened as she saw Lilith''s blank stare. "I assume you know nothing about these places and cultures. That''s too bad. It will make everything harder for you. Anyway, I don''t have nor the time or patience to explain everything..." Turning back towards the sea, the siren hesitated before jumping. She seemed to struggle with something inside her mind. Before leaving, she glanced back at Lilith and spoke in a serious tone. "Let me give you one unsolicited advice before I leave... Do not go against the prophecy. We Greeks know exactly how inescapable fate is. Just accept it, and move on with your life. It will be better for everyone!... Be sure to forward my advice to your Lady!" Lilith, utterly bewildered, watched the siren turn away again. She splashed her strong tail and jumped down from the cliff into the endless seawater. Her singing echoed throughout the ocean, and mist rose everywhere, obstructing the infinite view. Lilith saw the mist creep up, absorbing everything. She blinked once and suddenly she was back in the corridor. Quickly, she turned towards where the mist monster, Aeleophia, was, but she saw nothing there. Not even a hint of the thick fog remained. Around her, the fight continued, but Lilith simply couldn''t push the siren''s words out of her head. She knew nothing about prophecies. The closest encounter she had gotten with fate was through The Oracle, but she sensed this wasn''t as simple as the nonsensical ramblings of that peculiar hag. Aeleophia''s words felt especially ominous. Lilith couldn''t understand it, not yet at least, she need to know more! But not now. The day wasn''t over yet. She placed the thought in the back of her mind and joined the fight alongside her family and friends. Chapter 322: Europe Aflame (14) The fighting hadn''t lasted too long. The combination of everyone''s exceptional strength and coordination gave them a clear edge during the battle. The hordes of creatures fell and died in front of the immoveable wall of human determination. When Sera joined the fray, the battle was already close to its end, and by the time Lilith came to her senses, only a few monsters stayed standing. These, too, died quickly, with a few strikes from Lucy''s scythe. After the battle, Sera walked up to Mary and James, who also finished with their job. He brought up a large holographic map of the floor''s energy lines. It was pretty confusing for Sera, but the two scientists explained everything. "There are multitudes of different energy lines running around in the walls and floor. There are electrical cables, pipes full of some scorching liquid, and even some strange radioactive energy." James motioned to the different colored lines on the map as he spoke. They all zigzagged around, entering and exiting every room, except for a single line, which ran relatively straight. It was the only one colored golden-white. Sera pointed to that one after James stopped talking and asked, "What''s inside the golden-white one?" Before James could talk, Mary cut in with excitement. "That''s the one we''re looking for! I ran some diagnostics and made a few comparisons. That line is full of your own energy. It comes from one of the upper floors, presumably from the room where you died all those times!" It took a little effort to ignore the small comment Mary made, but after a few seconds of contemplating, Sera moved past her feelings. "So, where does my energy go? And what''s its purpose?" James and Mary exchanged puzzled glances, then shrugged simultaneously. "We are not sure. Some enormous machine or device uses the energy, since by our count, the amount running through those pipes every hour is enough to power the Aegis System for an entire year." Sera''s eyes widened with surprise, but before she could cut in, James continued. "The energy transference is simply massive and also very unstable, so we should be careful not to puncture the pipes. It could crack this entire island into pieces. Even that Abomination would perish in such magnitude explosion." Sera''s face instantly lost its shocked expression. Her lips tightened in seriousness as she ordered Mary and James. "Continue communicating with Henry as we move along. We might need a much quicker evacuation plan than the hippogryphs!" The two scientists nodded, and soon the group moved out. Their destination was the room where her energy line ended. They weren''t just here to get revenge, but to finally receive some answers. The destination of her energy bothered Sera for a long time now. Especially after explaining the situation to Mary a year ago. She counted out how much energy she put out after each resurrection. The number was enormous and, more importantly, very dangerous. Should Harold weaponize her energy and exploded a bomb on the surface, a large portion of Europe would be destroyed. If he placed it below the surface, in a tectonically vulnerable area, it had a chance of cracking open the planet. Sera doubted Harold would do anything destructive using her energy. He was cunning and insane, but he done nothing purely to cause chaos. Harold was wickedly smart and rational in a fucked up way. His plans would have calculated and long-lasting results. This didn''t mean what he planned was any nicer than destroying the planet, but at least its effect wouldn''t be as apparent. The main consensus between Mary, Sera and James was that he planned on opening Gates. This much energy suffices for opening Gateways, and any other application escaped their minds. Currently, they worried more about why Harold wanted to open Gates, and where they led. Everyone else hoped to stop him before he made his move, but Sera knew exactly how late they were. Harold must''ve already initiated his plan, since he hadn''t provided sufficient resistance to stop their approach. Sera just pretended that this mission was a preemptive strike, when in reality, this was nothing but damage control. They needed to figure out what Harold had already started, so contain its hazardous effects as much as possible. Led by James''s map, they walked down empty corridors towards the end of the energy line. The lowest floor was much larger than the rest of the facility, but also strangely empty. They encountered no other resistance after the first gruesome fight. But this only caused their concern to skyrocket. Confronting a foe felt easier than waiting for the inevitable conflict. Bran constantly used his power to scan for any life in the surrounding rooms, but every time Sera asked, he just shook his head sadly. Sera sensed his inner troubles, but lacked the time to properly pry about his thoughts and emotions. Her own feelings were all over the place, as well. With each step, she felt herself closer towards Scarred Sera. She was here, in this facility, waiting for their reunification. She felt like drowning while they marched towards the enormous room, their destination. Her feelings became more real, and they slowly overwhelmed her mind. On the outside, she maintained a straight emotionless face, while inside she screamed at the top of her lungs. Thousands of thoughts zipped around her mind, slowly driving her mad. Understanding her intense feelings'' origin took considerable time. At first, she believed Scarred Sera''s mind somehow affected hers, but that wasn''t the case... It all came from within... A two-year accumulation of unexpressed emotions hit her suddenly and powerfully, like a battering ram punching her skull. There was no fighting against this flood of feelings, since it wasn''t a mental attack, but simply the absence of her usual hollowness. Sera knew only one possible solution. She let go of her mind and felt every emotion running through her body. An immense pressure pushed down on her shoulder, but she didn''t lose herself in the whirlwind of feelings. She felt everything, but kept her rational mind in control, never absolving her mind from the pain. Behind her helmet, silent tears ran down her cheeks, as all the suffering of the past two years suddenly hit her. She never actually realized how much pain she carried each day. Sera understood how much of a blessing her emotionless state was. If she would''ve felt all these emotions during her torture, she would''ve already killed herself. But now, her emotions weren''t all bad. She finally felt love towards both her daughter and her lover. She also felt love towards her friends, and she realized how much they loved her. Initially, the tears running down her face were sad, but soon she was sobbing with joy. Even a few silent giggles escaped her trembling lips, and a permanent grin persisted on her face. The others were so absorbed in their worry that they didn''t notice Sera''s strange behaviour. They kept looking at intersecting corridors, waiting for an ambush, which never happened. They reached the room''s enormous door with no issue. By that time, Sera''s emotional control became much better, and grim determination took over the joyous expression. They stopped in front of the door, waiting for James to override its controls. But as he tried entering the system, suddenly a loud sigh echoed and the enormous doors gently slid open. The interior was fairly dark, but Sera saw everything clearly. Hundreds of pipes and cables moved around the floor and walls, heading into different devices. Large whiteboards full of mad scribblings were haphazardly placed, ignoring any rational usage of space. The machines and devices hummed, sending vibrations through the metal floor. A constant beeping and the sound of liquid mixed with the gentle hum, creating a monotone background noise. The main attraction, where every pipe lead, was something Sera couldn''t comprehend. It wasn''t a Gateway, like they assumed it would be, but a gigantic machine, with cables and pipes attached to it. Sera curiously entered the room without thinking. Motion activated lights immediately illuminated the dark, so everyone could bask upon the abomination at the room''s opposite side. A few people gasped, while others just stared ahead in confusion. The more ground and less curious, started observing everything for threats, while Mary and James just mumbled to each other. They proceeded a short distance further into the room, then the doors slammed shut behind them. Luckily, everyone made it inside beforehand, so they hadn''t gotten separated. Sera barely noticed the change as she walked up to James and Mary, who were eager to discuss this horrific machine. "So, what''s that? I expected a Gateway, not this pointless looking monstrosity!" They regarded her as an idiot for even posing such an obvious question. When they realized she was serious, they both burst out laughing, which further annoyed Sera. "Oh dear," began Mary, while pointing at the machine. "That''s a Gateway albeit a unique one. You see, the energy it receives could open many Gates at once and it can open it anywhere on this planet!" Silence followed her words, only broken by a familiar laughter. A shiver went down Sera''s spine as she slowly turned towards the laughter''s origin. There, in front of the horrific machine, stood Harold, his long white lab coat gently moving from some exhaust wind. His signature goggles covered his Mad eyes. His wrinkled mouth twisted into a wide grin chuckled at Mary''s statement. "Interesting, someone who understands my machination, albeit only on a surface level. Hm... Where has my little angel hid you for all this time? You could''ve made my job so much easier!" He stared straight at Mary as he spoke. James stepped ahead, which made Harold smirk, as he noted their affection. "Ah, no matter! Following this, your assistance will prove valuable; however, I require a conversation with the two Seraphines first!" Chapter 323 323: Europe Aflame (15) Sera blinked once, while staring at Harold, and suddenly she found herself next to him. She summoned her weapon as quickly as she could, but before she could''ve acted, someone else appeared. She felt her presence immediately and laid eyes upon her in a few seconds. From the seemingly empty air, a tall, alluring woman walked out. Her long, black hair wrapped around her curvaceous body, covering her milky white skin. Just her existence brought immense despair to everyone. Sera''s entire group fell to their knees with their eyes on the ground. Sera herself fared much better than the others, but with her returning emotions, she wasn''t invincible from Amygdala''s aura anymore. She felt the same fear everyone else felt, albeit in a much tamer form. With all her willpower, Sera glanced up, but only saw Amygdala''s bare legs floating a few centimeters above the floor. Her laughter, a grating, annoying voice echoed as she walked towards Sera. "Oh my, oh my, you are finally not immune to my blessing! How fun!" Sera felt a hand grab onto her helmet, and with one quick move, Amygdala ripped it away. The power, which distributed strikes, couldn''t do anything against a Stellar''s power. The tall woman grabbed Sera''s golden hair, slowly lifting her up to eye level. Before Sera could''ve stared into Amygdala''s dark wells of despair, she closed her eyes. "Now, now, that''s cheating! What''s it, little angel? Are you scared? How does it feel to be so hopeless, to finally feel despair? Believe me, I''ve been planning for this day! I can finally punish your insolence!" The pressure around Sera''s body increased, and she began coughing up blood. Pain absorbed her soul. She couldn''t even scream as her body shook with fear. A hand tried prying her eye open, when an angry sound cut through her suffering. "That''s enough, Amygdala! We still need her, you stupid whore, so stop playing! Look at all those people down there! Go, feast, and leave me to my work!" After hearing Harold''s shouting, Amygdala stopped torturing Sera. She snorted at his comment and let go of her golden hair. She fell hard to the ground and continued vomiting blood for a few seconds. With her weak limbs, Sera tried to rise, but only managed to sit up. A few meters away, Harold stood with his back towards her. He continued to type on some holo-screen connected to the giant machine, not even paying attention to Sera''s presence. "I''ll be with you shortly, my little angel! Just a few more adjustments before the grand finale, and I''ll be done! Make yourself comfortable while you wait!" He chuckled at his own joke, then stayed silent. Sera tried to summon her glaive, or order her legs to launch towards the old scientist, but nothing seemed to work. Her whole body felt a thousand times heavier. Behind her, the sound of screams reached her ear, and Sera finally realized the failure of her mission. They knew it was a risk; attacking while Amygdala''s presence was unknown. Not like they had any other choice. Failure was highly probable, yet this operation was still essential for future success. She wasn''t ready to give up yet, though. There was still a chance, a miniscule one, but a chance none the less. Sera took one glance at the machine and knew what her only option was. She sighed deeply, accepting her fate once more. The glaive transformed into a dagger and she moved as quickly as she could. Aimed at her eye, the blade closed in, then suddenly it stopped. As if an unmoveable force pushed down on her weapon, she couldn''t lift it further. As she glanced up, a familiar face stared down with a wicked, scarred grin. "No, my twin, not yet!" said Scarred Sera in a whisper. She then grabbed the blade of Hollow Sera''s dagger and tossed the weapon away. Her twin then angrily glared at Hollow Sera, and with a quick punch, knocked her out cold. Harold sighed after hearing the sound of bones crunching. "I hope you only knocked her out, you idiot! We still need her alive for the reunification!" Scarred Sera watched as blood dripped down from her gauntlet with sadness. She trembled just from hearing Harold''s grating voice. "Yes, of course! I would never disobey my master!" Harold just snorted in amusement and continued preparing the machine. The energy flow inside the pipes increased, and the humming grew louder with each passing moment. The ground shook below everyone''s feet, reaching even Bran''s kneeling form. He watched with great regret and melancholy as Sera stayed knocked out. He hoped the blow would kill her, so his job wouldn''t be so gut-wrenching, but fate had a cruel sense of humor. His friends'' screams echoed around him. He tried watching what Amygdala was doing, but it was too horrible to witness. They were all dead, everyone. The fight was already over... But, just because their fate was sealed, doesn''t mean they couldn''t take Harold and Amygdala with them! Bran closed his eyes, blocking out the constant machine noise, the screams and begging of his friends, and the sound of Amygdala''s joyful laughter. He concentrated all his energy on his surroundings. While walking towards this door, he lied to Sera. He told her nothing was alive down here, which wasn''t true at all. In reality, Bran sensed thousands of Husks on this floor, waiting to be used for energy. He spent no time thinking. After establishing connection with the Husks, he sent out wave after wave of pure energy, killing all of them exponentially. From the previous fight, he gained enough energy to take out ten Husks. These deaths then gave him power to take out twenty. Those twenty then empowered him further until more than a thousand Husks died. Everything happened quickly. In a few seconds, an unprecedented amount of energy moved around his still kneeling body. Amygdala, too absorbed in the torture and killing, hadn''t noticed him until it was too late. With widened eyes, she tried concentrating her fear aura around Bran, but it wasn''t working. Right now, his energy levels were close to a Stellars, so a simple aura attack wasn''t enough to hurt him. Bran gently floated in the air, not even looking towards Amygdala. His gaze fixed solely on the two Seras. He reached out his hand, pointing at both. Tears ran down his handsome face, which was consumed with anguish. "I''m sorry... My love... Please... Forgive me!" He whispered before sending out a wave of energy strong enough to destroy everything in front of him. Scarred Sera looked at him with confusion before she knelt down next to her twin, accepting her fate. Harold wasn''t as content. He twirled around, his eyes full of hatred and Madness. He watched the wave of energy disrupt the energy flow. Inside the pipes, the pure white resurrection energy blackened from Bran''s own power. "NOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" His last words echoed around the chamber before Harold simply disintegrated when the wave touched him. Like a mirage, his parts turned to dust and eventually disappeared. Bran saw the two Seras die, which was the main part of his plan. His energy couldn''t affect non-organic material well, so the machine stayed mostly unharmed. He did notice the change within the pipes, and the machine seemed to dislike the different type of energy entering its systems. The ground shook as the machine''s humming turned into a quiet scream. Exhaust valves burst open, letting scorching air fill the room. A loud crack echoed in the enormous room. Bran thought it came from the machine, but an even louder crack followed. He glanced above and saw a clear line separating the metal ceiling. Suddenly, a giant rumbling shook the room. It came from above. The crack continued to widen until Bran saw the sun shining down through it. A short time passed before Bran understood it wasn''t just the gigantic room, but the whole island was shaking! The sizeable gap gradually widened until it was close to a dozen meters in width. The crack went through the whole facility, breaking apart every room it touched. After it became large enough, a lone human gently floated down from above. His dark blue coat bellowed behind him as he descended. Amygdala watched in unveiled hatred as the shorter man touched the ground a few meters away. He wore an old-looking, fancy, dark blue coat with white pants. On top of his head, he wore an unusual wide hat, with a single feather placed on it. The man''s signature looks didn''t escape Bran. He recognized him instantly... Napoleon... He smirked at Amygdala as the ground began shaking with much more violence. The beautiful woman''s expression darkened further as she realized what the man had done. "You son of a bitch! You woke IT up! You are insane!" Napoleon just laughed at Amygdala''s words, then began examining his surroundings, noting the gigantic machinery and the kneeling figures. Bran still struggled with both the control of the exorbitant amount of energy and understanding of their current situation. He couldn''t figure out what caused the shaking of the island, but upon hearing Amygdala''s words, he could guess. On the surface of Malta, an Abomination slumbered, but when Napoleon opened the earth and entered the facility, IT must''ve woken up. This provided both an imminent threat and an opportunity. Bran was gradually losing control of the barely contained energy, so he had to act fast! While neither Amygdala nor Napoleon payed attention, he ran to James and Mary. Out of everyone, they suffered the least under the terrifying woman''s hands, probably because of Harold''s silent order towards Amygdala. They were still shaking from the experience, but with the absence of Amygdala''s fear aura, they were slowly turning back to normal. Bran stopped and knelt next to them. Numerous questions arose in their minds, yet he lacked time to explain. "Message Henry! Get everyone out now! I will try holding these two back until you leave!" Both Mary and James wanted to protest. But Bran had already started running back to the two Stellar. Bran hadn''t even glanced back as he ran. There was no point. He would try giving his friends as much time as he could before his inevitable end. The turbulent energy already began affecting his surroundings, but with deep breaths and lots of effort, he controlled the unbearable power. As a fight between three Stellars under an Abomination began, another much more important fight happened in Limbo... Chapter 324 324: Reunification The primordial darkness consumed everything around Sera. She opened her eyes, even though she had no eyes in her spirit form. Confusion permeated her mind. She knew her suicide attempt failed, but then how did she end up in Limbo? She looked around, looking for answers. Only endless darkness and the distant light of Afterlife filled this empty plain. Slowly, images appeared in her mind, but Sera couldn''t focus on their meaning, like something was blocking her from accessing specific memories. "Hmm... Not yet, child... There''s much to do before you remember..." A grating voice, like bones scraping against each other, echoed in the endless plain. Sera recognized the voice, but she couldn''t figure out why. Quickly, she twirled around and found herself in a cozy room. To the side, a campfire crackled. It solely illuminated the room, casting shadows throughout the small space. In front of Sera, a lone figure sat in a comfortable leather chair. He wore long black garments, hiding every part of His body. A large hood covered his head, leaving only eternal darkness in its place. To the side, the figure''s weapon floated in the air. A large golden scythe, with screaming faces etched into the metal. The faces changed constantly. They moved around as if they weren''t faces at all, but actual people trapped inside the weapon. Sera unconsciously gulped upon laying eyes on the scythe. She knew who the person sitting there was since He couldn''t be mistaken for anybody else... Death... "The one and only..." Came the deep rumbling voice from below His hood. A shiver went down Sera''s spine just from hearing His voice. Like millions of dead whispering at once. Despite having no body, Sera felt the coldness in the non-existent air as she gazed upon Him. "Come now, my friend, no need to act so sheepish... You made it here with your other half in tow, just as planned... You should be celebrating..." Death''s voice sounded amused. He even made a strange, horrible grating noise, which most likely equaled to laughter. But Sera didn''t care about the weird sound. She instead stayed focused on His words, and the meaning behind it. "Oh, yes... The other Sera died in your significant other''s attack too... Now, it is time for your reunification... Feel that pull on your soul?... It wants to become whole again!..." Sera did feel a strange sensation inside her body. Like a constant pressure, similar to gravity pushing her towards some destination far away. Though initially easy to resist, the feeling grew stronger over time. "What''s happening?" She asked, trying to hide the distress in her voice. "We have already talked about this friend... Ah, yeah, you have forgotten..." Death sounded a bit embarrassed, or at least that''s what Sera imagined. His voice stayed monotone, and she wasn''t certain this being could feel human emotions. "Let me give you a quick reminder, just so you know what will happen next!..." The whole became dark again as the cozy room dissipated. The Afterlife still glowed brightly behind Sera, but her eyes stayed focused on something else entirely. Some unmeasurable distance away, Death stood with a small, white, broken-looking spirit floating next to Him. Sera took one ''step'' and appeared close to them. She recognized the spirit instantly, because the pull originated from her. The white spirit was Sera''s other half. The two spirits exchanged sorrowful, uneasy glances. They knew what followed, and neither felt particularly joyful. They didn''t want to die, even partially. "Now that you both are here, let me give you a quick rundown of what happens next... Your soul is in two pieces, each holding an equal amount more or less... But, for you to become the dominant half, you need to defeat the other..." One of the spirits immediately tried to attack the other, but an invisible force stopped her. Death''s horrific laughter echoed through the space, and ignoring this event, He continued. "As spirits, neither of you can use any abilities, and you have to fight with bare hands... The one who can make the other submit wins... Good luck... I will wait for the winner, so we can discuss everything..." For some weird reason, he chuckled as he ended the conversation and disappeared into the darkness. The Seras felt unsure of their next step. By Death''s account, they needed to fight for dominance, but is that truly what they wanted? Scarred Sera''s previous turbulent emotions calmed down quite a bit after Death left them alone. Even her madness seemed to elevate in the tranquility of Limbo. She felt her troubles slowly dissipate. Hollow Sera stayed on high alert, but made no move to attack. She just watched in silence, awaiting her other half''s next move. It took her a long time to speak, but eventually, Scarred Sera''s timid voice echoed in the empty space. "How''s our daughter doing?" She asked, trying to hide her intense fear, curiosity, and sorrow. The sudden question took Sera aback. She expected her to ask about their current situation and how to peacefully resolve it. Instead, she went in the opposite direction, inquiring about Vicky. Bit surprised Hollow Sera quickly composed herself and answered as concisely as possible. "She''s doing really good... Uh, she found herself a boyfriend of sorts. They were spending a lot of time together. She also made a few new friends, and she is planning on starting school soon... After the war..." The melancholy around Scarred Sera deepened. She looked towards the white light, thinking about all the people she sent there. "Thank you... For taking care of her, even through all the suffering you endured... Anyway, how do you wish to proceed? Do we fight each other? See who''s the strongest?" She sounded strange, like she wasn''t talking seriously. It wasn''t easy, but Hollow Sera detected quite a bit of sarcasm in her other half''s speech pattern. "Is that really what you wish? To fight yourself and determine who will be the dominant half?" Scarred Sera scoffed in disgust and looked away with anger. She stared at the Afterlife, while lots of thoughts moved around her mind. "Of course not! But that''s what Death and everybody else thinks we should do! It doesn''t matter to me, since whatever comes out of our reunification, it will be neither of us!" Slowly, Hollow Sera took a ''step'' closer, and she looked out towards the Afterlife as well. The two of them stayed silent for seemingly an eternity, albeit Limbo was unaffected by time. "I don''t want to fight either. It''s simply pointless. If you win, our new self would be more emotional, while if I win, she would be more rational. Neither of those are good options. What she needs is balance!" After listening to Rational Sera''s words, her other self turned away from the Afterlife and looked towards her twin. "You what are you suggesting?" She asked, full of curiosity and hope. Rational Sera turned towards her twin too, and a small smile grew on her nonexistent lips. "What else? We do our own thing!... I don''t know about you, but in these past two years I grew weary of following orders and suffering because of my powerlessness! I suggest we reunite on our own terms, not caring about others'' opinions!" Emotional Sera felt surprised for a moment, then she chuckled and spoke with a sly grin on her invisible face. "You see, quite hopeful. Aren''t you supposed to be the rational one?... I don''t think Death would take kindly if we went against his instructions!" The other Sera just shrugged, while taking another ''step'' closer to her twin. The pulling power between them became stronger every second. It took a lot of effort to resist it. "Death won''t care either way. He has no control over living beings, and currently because of our phoenix ability, we are technically still alive." Emotional Sera looked at her with pure confusion and even more curiosity. "How do you know all this?" She asked, but Rational Sera wasn''t certain. She glanced at the endless darkness, trying to find an answer hidden within its depths. Somehow she knew the answer, and she was certain about its truthfulness, but she couldn''t pinpoint where the memory came from. After staying silent for a long while, contemplating the answer, she eventually let go. Instead of finding nonexistent answers, she steered the conversation back to the main topic. "That doesn''t matter... Let''s get back to the problem at hand... Do you wish to reunite with me and see where this new road takes us?" Rational Sera took one more ''step'' and finally stood next to her twin. She reached out one of her spirit hands to shake her other half''s. Emotional Sera stared at the hand skeptically. Many emotions went through her face, from anger to sadness, to fear and joy, pain, relief, but eventually it settled on hope. Vehemently she reached out her hand, and was about to touch her twin''s when a question popped into her mind. "Wait, what would happen if we Evolved using our own soul? Technically, we are both separate entities, and we could both Evolve separately... Should we try?" For a moment, Rational Sera just stared at her sister with pure disbelief, then out of nowhere, she burst into laughter. Emotional Sera turned away with embarrassment, thinking her twin was laughing at her, but after hearing her words, she realized that wasn''t the case at all. "And you call me the rational one? That''s a genius idea and we are hundred percent doing it!... Now let''s not waste anymore time!" Before Emotional Sera could''ve gotten a word out, her sister reached out and grabbed her hand... Chapter 325 325: Complete Once More As the two Seras hands touched, a searing pain scorched both souls. They wanted to scream at the top of their lungs, but they had lost control over their bodies. Their hands stayed in contact and slowly melted into each other. Seconds, or perhaps an eternity passed, it was impossible to tell, but at some point, the hands fully melted together. The pain only worsened thereafter. Where their hands once were, now an inevitable, strong pulling force, grabbed hold of both souls. In a rather crude way, their bodies slowly became formless. The force continued pulling. Their arms melted together, then their other hands, and eventually their legs and lower bodies. When their chests started turning formless, the pain became a thousand times worse. A shriek left both of their mouths containing the worst pain imaginable. The pull hadn''t slowed even a little, but after their chests became formless, the pain lessened quite a bit. They hardly felt it when their heads finally connected. After the reunification, only a formless bright light remained. In its depths, shapes seemed to move, trying to gain some sort of form. The two partial souls slowly continued to melt within the blob. Both Seras still held onto some kind of consciousness, so when the question appeared in their connected minds, neither hesitated. ''Do you wish to Evolve?'' Asked the mysterious force. Both parties immediately responded with a simple word: ''YES!'' The formless blob of pure white light suddenly exploded into an unparalleled wave of energy, spreading through the endless darkness. Limbo seemed to shake under the forming of Sera''s new body. In fact, the wave was so strong it reached the end of the infinite space. The stronger creatures in the Universe felt the wave, albeit they had no idea what it meant. Other than the Conceptual Gods, only one person knew what the wave entailed. Inside a supermassive Blackhole, a lone figure slumbered. Once the wave reached Him, He yawned, turned to His other side, and returned to sleep. Following this slight shift, the surrounding space acted strangely; reality itself became chaotic, unruly... Or more like Mad... Galaxies fell apart near the Blackhole, like their atomic structures decided to fall apart. Energies took on unseen forms, constantly expanding and constricting. The supermassive Blackhole moved across space, gobbling up all the matter end energy, further increasing its mass. The man in slumber seemed unconscious, but soon after the wave reached Him, a small smile appeared on His flawless, heavenly face. He murmured something in His sleep, and He chuckled at something, which caused another galaxy to fall apart. Eventually, all His movements stopped, and he went back to His deep slumber. Back in Limbo, Sera''s new body was still forming. Death watched it from nearby, awaiting the result with as much excitement as He could muster. This was His plan all along. He never wanted the two Seras to fight, and he was fairly certain they would resolve their issues peacefully in this tranquil space. In Limbo, all of Harold''s previous influence became nullified, so Emotional Sera could think for herself. And since she was Sera''s conscience, she made the right decision by accepting their reunification. Rational Sera was never an issue. In their previous talks, Death made sure she had a clear idea of future events. Even though she couldn''t remember their meetings, because of her broken soul, a small imprint still stayed deep in Rational Sera''s consciousness. Now, with their unification and immediate Evolution, Death awaited the results of His labor. He expected something truly extraordinary. Nobody had ever tried Evolving with their own soul fragment, which meant whatever happened next was unfamiliar territory even to someone as old as Death. Since he was alive before Time and Space was born. He had seen a lot during His life. Finally, experiencing something new and extraordinary made all His troubles worthwhile. Death, of course, hadn''t helped Sera from boredom. He had His reasons, which He wanted to keep hidden for the time being. Other than Death, only one other person knew, and He was certain She would keep His secret! With excitement evident in His demeanor, Death continued watching Sera''s struggle. The bright soul pulsated with inner brightness. Something moved behind the light, forms taking shape. The feeling around Sera became holy, and something happened even Death didn''t expect. He was already curious to see what would become of someone who Evolves with their own soul, but Sera''s soul fragments weren''t on the same Rank. Through some malicious, unnatural way, Harold pushed Emotional Sera to Transcended Rank without having her Evolve. This both meant she could still Evolve through reunification, but technically, she was already a Transcended. This appeared inconsequential at first, yet ultimately, it made a significant difference. Even Death didn''t understand the reason, but the dual Evolution somehow thought Sera''s emotional half was an angelic being. The reunification didn''t just made Sera complete once more, it also allowed her to Evolve using an angelic being. She didn''t just became a Transcended, but also abandoned her humanity, and changed race... She turned into an Angel... Inside the formless light of Sera''s soul, pointy objects took shape, which were awfully similar to feathers. They connected to each other, attaching themselves into the distinct shape of a pair of wings. Soon, through the bright membrane, the wings exploded, bringing light to Limbo. The gigantic pair of wings glistened in metallic silver colors. The feathers looked more like weapons with their sharp edges, but as they beat in the emptiness, they seemed extremely light. The soul began taking melding into form, yet it still fell far from a humanoid shape. Inside it, something else began to form. Bright golden flames blended together, weaving themselves into shapes. Unlike most fires, which burned hot and felt destructive, these had distinct purifying properties. Through the soul''s membrane, the golden wings burst out as well, bringing holiness to the surrounding hollow space. The two pairs of golden flame wings spread just as wide as the silver ones... But Sera hadn''t finished yet. Her soul became distinctly humanoid with two wings connecting to her back, but her actual body still hadn''t formed. Behind the veil of overwhelming brightness, more shapes appeared, gradually materializing into existence. Pristine white feathers connected to each other, forming a third pair of wings. They broke out of Sera''s back with impossible power. Through Limbo, a sense of intense dread engulfed everything, as the wings expanded wider than the rest. Something moved below the feathers, and as Sera''s body reformed, eyes began opening upon its surface. Each eye imbued a sense of despair over their surroundings. They scanned over the empty space, looking for threats... Or prey... Sera''s soul finally became an exact rendition of her actual body, and slowly she turned corporeal. Her skeletal structure formed, then muscled weaved the bones together. Veins, nerve endings, organs grew out of the muscle tissue. Finally, all her body got wrapped in a tight layer of tanned skin. Death began approaching Sera, thinking her reunification was coming to an end, but then he became surprised once more. Around Sera''s newly formed body, a deep green aura grew. Death recognized it immediately as Life energy, His Sister''s power. The absurdity of the situation finally overwhelmed Him, and he began chuckling. He only planned on orchestrating a self-evolution, but He really should''ve expected Sera to provide much greater entertainment. The Life energy spun around Sera''s body, pushing into every tissue, every cell, every molecule and atom. It even entered her soul, empowering her more than any other Transcended who has ever lived... Except one, but Death didn''t count Him, since what He did was impossible to repeat... Slowly, the green aura around Sera''s newly formed body cleared away. Even her wings imbued some of the Life energy, giving them a hint of green, along with their usual colors. Sera''s eyes remained closed for a bit longer, then eventually she reached consciousness. Two piercing bright gold globes stared out from a divinely beautiful face. There was a bright green circle around the gold one, giving her already fierce eyes a more powerful outlook. She looked angry for a moment, but it passed quickly, followed by a lot of confusion. Sera explored her unfamiliar environment, as if she has never been here before. Death looked at her state with excitement and curiosity. He let Sera gather her thoughts for a while longer, before He couldn''t wait any longer. When He appeared in front of her, she went on high alert, taking a defensive stance. But as her eyes turned towards His hooded figure, with the golden scythe in tow, recognition appeared in her eyes. One memory triggered a cascade of remembrance. Some happy, some terrible, and most of them full of suffering. She fell to her knees and screamed from the top of her lungs while holding onto her head. The memories came back like a flood, destroying all her inhibitions. All the times she died. All the times she killed herself for tactical advantage. All the times she cried in fear, awaiting Harold''s next torture. Every memory hit her at once. It felt like every death happened to her a second time. The pain was intolerable, yet somehow Sera weathered through it. She couldn''t figure out how long she spent kneeling in the empty darkness. The Limbo confused her sense of time, or more like took it away entirely. After a period of time, Sera regained all her memories, stood up, and shot Death an annoyed look. "We need to talk." She said with barely contained anger. Death just chuckled at her brazenness and sat back on His leather armchair, which suddenly appeared with the usual cozy room. To the side, the fireplace crackled. Unfazed by the room''s sudden appearance, Sera calmly took her seat. She continued to glare at Death, as their conversation began... Chapter 326 326: Deaths Friend The silence within the cozy room became awkward fairly quickly. Death sat in His chair, staring towards Sera from behind His dark hood. Unlike most people, Sera sat in her own chair, with confidence and little care for the Conceptual God in front of her. Her metallic silver and burning golden wings were long gone. Only her pristine white-feathered wings remained, with the terrifying eyes hiding behind the feathers. Now and then, an eye would poke out, and stare at Death with annoyance, since it couldn''t affect the God''s emotions. The white wings draped over Sera''s newly formed body, hiding her nakedness from Death. Not like He cared for mortal feelings such as lust or beauty. Since He had no facial expressions, and His body language was non-existent, Sera even doubted He had emotions. They continued staring for an impossibly long time. Strangely enough, Sera wasn''t the one who eventually broke the silence. "So, friend... What did you want to talk about?" Despite lacking a face, Sera could hear the smile in His deep, rumbling voice. They both knew her questions and issues, yet neither felt ready to broach the topic. As with many hard conversations, Sera didn''t jump to conclusions, and instead let the conversation flow there naturally. "Why did you try to make us fight?" She began with a sly smile spread across her lips. "I mean, I get you tried to miss lead us, but you spent so long convincing us about fighting being the only option... Why?" Death stayed silent for a second before bursting out into laughter. The horrible sound of bones grinding echoed inside the cozy room, but Sera didn''t even blink. She heard this exact sound lots of times before. It was awful to hear it at first, but after hundreds of deaths, she got used to it. "No real reason... Truthfully, I did this merely for my personal enjoyment... I knew neither of you would fight, and even if you did, it wouldn''t have mattered... Just touching each other once would''ve begun the reunification..." Sera raised an eyebrow at Death''s first sentence, then snorted in contempt and amusement. She knew most of this beforehand. Emotional Sera''s memories provided a much wider picture of Harold''s manipulation and tactics. He didn''t wish their simultaneous demise, since his influence here, in Limbo, vanished. Both Seras were perfectly free, and they could reunite by choice. Instead, he wanted Emotional Sera to kill Rational Sera in the physical world. Harold would''ve used his reality manipulation to control their reunification, making the perfect puppet by the end. Luckily, for Sera, Death was already aware of his unnatural powers, and so he acted accordingly. After both Seras'' death, they arrived in Limbo, where time didn''t exist. Sera could''ve spent lifetimes on this plain, yet nothing would''ve changed in the physical world upon departure. He spent lots of time talking with both, convincing them of their next actions. It wasn''t easy, since they couldn''t exactly remember their time in Limbo. After each death, their subconscious would slowly remember snippets of ideas, which would then turn into actions. This explains Rational Sera''s obsession with fighting Damien in hand-to-hand combat. Death already planted the idea of the upcoming fight for reunification, and so she trained as much as possible without even knowing the reason. Throughout the two years, there were other instances when Sera followed subconscious orders. It rarely worked for Rational Sera, since her mind was much stronger, but Emotional Sera listened to Death quite often. She talked with Him about all the new powers Harold''s experiments given her. How much stronger she became after each resurrection. But the most important conversations were about Rational Sera. The reason Emotional Sera didn''t kill anyone on New Year''s Eve was because of Death''s quiet influence. She was much stronger than either Rational Sera or Bea, but her body unconsciously hesitated multiple times. Death has been guiding them on this path to reunification. But His reason wasn''t for pure amusement. He had plans, which included Sera, and she needed to be much more powerful to complete them. The joyful atmosphere around Death turned cold within moments. The fireplace dimmed, as He stared at Sera with much more seriousness. "I know what you want to ask, and believe me, I had my reasons for this roundabout approach towards your reunification... Mainly, I didn''t want Harold to find out before its too late for him to change his plans..." Sera''s face stayed neutral as she listened to Death''s words. Seemingly uncaring for anything He could say, but a small tremble in her wings showed her actual emotions towards Harold. She ground her teeth against each other as her newly formed soul boiled in unbridled rage and hatred. Death didn''t seem to care, and just continued with his explanation. "He couldn''t find out about my plans either... There are much larger forces at play here, ones that you can''t possibly understand yet... He and Amygdala are both Messengers of Madness... If either recognized my influence in you, then Madness would''ve learned about it too..." These were the first sentences that actually surprised Sera somewhat. "What do you mean? What could Madness do against you? Isn''t He just a powerful Empyrean? And what does Messengers of Madness entail?" Death turned His hooded head to the side, staying silent while thinking about a viable answer to her questions. "He isn''t just a powerful Empyrean... I only told you that before because its too complicated to explain the situation, and frankly, you still don''t need to know such details... Once you learn about His past, you will realize how powerful Madness actually is..." His voice stayed a continuous monotone, indicating a lack of care about the topic. "As for His Messengers... They are normal people who decided to follow and even worship Him willingly... He never corrupted or controlled them, like He does with most creatures... They follow and complete every order He gives, and they get rewards in return..." Sera stayed silent, even though she had more questions. Death might''ve been actin nice with her, but she it wasn''t from the kindness of His heart. "This brings us to our next topic... Harold needs to die..." Sera smirked and was about to ask a question to annoy Death, but he quickly continued while reading her mind. "No, I can''t kill him... As you already know, I can''t interact with anything outside of Limbo... Hmm... Are you curious about why I want Him dead so much?... I already told your friend..." Sera recalled the conversation with Kim when she nearly died. Death told her Harold was unnatural, but He wasn''t too keen on details about His abnormality. Even though Sera had a clear idea about his reasoning, she wanted Him to elaborate on it. "Fine... Harold needs to die, because he never supposed to have this power over creation and reality... Somehow Madness gave it to him..." "At first the power seemed innocent... He could teleport and cause illusions, but Harold wasn''t a normal human... He was already a scientist before the Apocalypse... And he was insane back then too..." Sera, of course, already knew this. Throughout her torture sessions on both sides, Harold often talked about his past life, before the Apocalypse. He spent years learning everything about genes, evolution, and mutations. His unethical research and sadistic behavior caused widespread exclusion by the scientific world, forcing him into seclusion. "I see you know a lot, but not nearly enough..." Started Death, bringing Sera''s attention back to him. "He was the first person on Earth who found out about other Realms... Consequently, he also learned about Madness, and started worshipping him even before the Apocalypse..." Sera felt where Death''s words were going, and He soon confirmed her suspicions. "His worship was like a beacon... With the Last War slowly destroying your planet, Madness''s influence broke into Earth, and brought the Apocalypse... Harold is responsible for all that destruction..." She didn''t know how to react. His words shocked Sera and sent her spiraling. The implication of Death''s words proved daunting. Inside her mind, Sera screamed in increased rage and hatred. Death didn''t seem to care at all, as he finally arrived at the last point of His speech. "But that''s not the reason Harold needs to die... That''s just to give you some motivations... As a scientist, his ability to be creative was unmatched... His reality manipulation proved way too powerful, and as he learned more about it the more dangerous, he became to nature..." "His new creation, these Husks, are the last straw... Everything in this Universe has some connection to nature, but the Husks are purely artificial, soulless even... And those were just prototypes..." Sera didn''t argue at all. Maybe she didn''t fully grasp the Husk''s danger implication, but that didn''t matter. She would''ve killed Harold even before their talk, but now she had more than enough reason to achieve his demise. Now only a single problem remained. "What was that machine he created? And how do I destroy it?" Death stared at Sera in silence for an elongated period. There was something in His gaze, similar to curiosity, but more sad... Pity... "You don''t have to worry about the machine... Your friend already took care of it... It was supposed to open Gates around the world, flooding every city with monsters... He wanted to use your pure resurrection energy, but your friend intervened and corrupted the energy flow..." "What does that mean?" She asked, her voice sounding desperate. Her hands trembled just by thinking about Bran. "The machine will explode, but it will still have effects on the planet... Even I can''t predict what might happen next... Be prepared Seraphine... Your life will only get harder, especially because..." Before Death could''ve finished His sentence, the darkness stirred around the cozy room, and soon a new light appeared in Limbo... A new soul... Chapter 327: Full of Energy Bran rushed towards the middle of mayhem caused by the two Stellars'' battle. Behind him, his friends gradually left the area through the portal made by Vicky. They even took the dead with them too... At least what''s left of them... While most tried to save themselves and others, Melinda watched with teary eyes as her best friend rushed to his death. She tried following him, so he wouldn''t be alone in his last moments, but the others held her back. Simultaneous screams and sobs escaped her as they dragged Melinda through the portal. While most continued running away as fast as they could, Damien scanned the area near the dying machine. He didn''t believe for a single second that Harold had died from Bran''s attack. Agnes stood nearby, anxiously looking at the unfolding battle. "Come on Damien! Let''s leave before it''s too late!" She shouted, trying to make her voice sound over the constant loud noises and explosions. As if mesmerized, Damien didn''t seem to hear anything. Even when Agnes tried physically pulling him away, he continued standing firm, his eyes focused on every minor movement across the battlefield. He watched as Bran joined the fight between the two Stellars with great curiosity. Bran rushed in from the side and punched Amygdala with impossible force. The impact carried through her body and broke the metal floor behind her. The blow did not really hurt her. She only took one step back, then looked at Bran with annoyance and anger. Amygdala took one step towards him, but she had no time to react because soon Napoleon''s attack arrived as well. He held a long curved saber made of some dark, shiny stone, maybe obsidian. He was about to cut off Amygdala''s head, but her hair suddenly shot out, grabbing and halting the blade''s movement. A smile spread across Napoleon''s face, as the blade became scorching hot, burning Amygdala''s hair. She grunted with hatred and used more hair to suffocate the flames. She then took one step towards Napoleon and was about to slice his throat open using her elongated nails. But before that, Bran stepped in and, with a concentrated energy blast, he sent Amygdala flying. Her laughter echoed inside the crumbling chamber, as she stood on air. Above, the Abomination was getting closer to fully awakening. Its roots started absorbing the upper floors of the facility, while its shrieks reached even to the lowest depths. The malfunctioning machine was also in awful shape. With each passing second, more pipes burst open, leaking dark, grayish energy. Exhaust filled the air, and at places fires appeared. It was close to blowing up. Both Napoleon and Amygdala were well aware, but their attention stayed focused on fighting each other. This, combined with Bran''s suicidal assaults, made everything much harder for them. As the fight went on, Bran became paler. A constant layer of cold sweat persisted on his body, and a small dark light grew in his chest. The energy slowly overwhelmed him. An Ascended body couldn''t possibly hold a Stellar''s energy reserves. He fought hard against the pair, but sadly, his control waned. He got closer to death''s door with each passing moment. Each surge of energy drained him more, breaking down his body slowly and painfully. While he screamed internally, he also felt confident and oddly at peace. Most everyone had already left, except Damien and Agnes. Bran had a feeling they wouldn''t leave this place alive, either. Neither Damien''s presence nor Agnes''s lingering held no mystery for him. He knew why both stayed. Their story''s conclusion was unfortunate, yet Bran lacked leisure for any deeper reflection upon their issues. After barely dodging Napoleon''s sword, and kicking Amygdala in the side, he took one step back and fell. The metal floor suddenly began shaking below his feet, but the earthquake was strange, unnatural. His eyes widened as realization hit him. As fast as he could, Bran rolled forward. Behind him, where he stood, the ground broke apart, creating a sinkhole into some dark abyss. Napoleon laughed as Bran nearly fell, then immediately cursed when Amygdala attacked. Her hair elongated and grabbed onto Napoleon''s arm. The chilling, fear inducing aura thickened, and Napoleon''s fingertips began to wither. He didn''t scream in pain, just ground his teeth with an angry expression, and began hacking at the black hair. Bran took the momentary respite to gather his thoughts. The energy inside his body turned even more unstable as he summoned enough power to blast both Stellar away. Black energy condensed in Bran''s hands, and with a deep breath, he released two devastating beams of power. Both Napoleon and Amygdala got hit in the chest, sending them flying in each direction. The energy wasn''t nearly enough to kill either, but that wasn''t Bran''s plan at all. He felt his life waning and wanted to give one last chance for everyone to safely escape. While the two Stellars tried to reorient themselves, Bran fell to his knees. The dark glow in his chest grew brighter, and even spread through his limbs, reaching for his face. He tried standing back up, but it was too late for that. A laughed one last time as the scorching energy began boiling his body away bit by bit. Still, he didn''t scream or cry, even through pain and suffering he laughed. Why would he be sad in his last moments? Fate might''ve cut his life short, but he wouldn''t change anything about it. Despite facing hardship and suffering during these two years, he cherished every moment wholeheartedly... Especially the end... A wide smile spread across his brightening face as he remembered Sera''s beautiful face. Bran wished he could''ve kissed and hugged her one last time. He wanted to say a proper goodbye, explain everything, and beg for forgiveness. His laughter slowly died down as the sadness finally hit him. He would never again see Sera''s grumpy face after waking up. He would never again hear her joyous laughter when with her daughter. He would never again feel the touch of her sweaty skin after they made love. He would never again smell her distinct burned metal scent. He would never again taste her red lips. This was the end. Bran''s sole regret in death was not spending more time with Sera. He should''ve confronted his feelings sooner, and acted upon them even when Sera couldn''t reciprocate it. He felt so stupid, thinking he could live without her, and now it was too late to rewrite the past. His breath shook as he took one last deep sigh. His lungs burned away as the energy expanded. His eyes, staring towards the mostly obstructed sky, vaporized. Bran shook his head in denial as a lone tear boiled away from his blistered face. The last mental images inside his head wasn''t about Sera. Instead, he remembered the day a year ago, when everything changed. He and a few other Angelic Order members explored a city ruin near New Athens, when they found a small shrivelled creature. She looked humanoid, similar to an extremely old hag. The creature managed to kill a few members before Bran caught her. They placed her inside a cage, and after she calmed down, she began spouting nonsense... At least that''s what they thought at first... She told a man that he would never truly die, and she was correct. He was one of the first people Kim turned to stone, immortalizing his image forever. The hag also predicted for a Sister, that after enduring lots of pain and suffering, she would eventually take her own life. The hag was right again. The woman was already pregnant by that point, but her child died at birth. She soon killed herself afterward. She prophesied everyone''s death, and eventually everyone who was there for her capture died... Everyone except Bran... His prophecy was much stranger than the others''. The hag smiled, especially wickedly as she read his future like an open book. In Bran''s last moments, the Oracle''s words echoed in his mind: ''The Earth shakes, the sky rumbles. The Machine whirrs as Europe crumbles. Death walks the streets, taking the frail. His Scythe reaps as their hearts fail. You walk with the Angel, running towards death. But it follows you close, taking your last breath.'' ''The Earth shakes, the sky rumbles. Abomination wakes as your feet stumble. Ravens fill the air, as ashes cover the dead. Europe is aflame, with its streets painted red. You see, the Angel fall before her greatest threat. You take a step forward with a heart full of regret.'' ''The Earth shakes, the sky rumbles. The cries of pain die when you fumble. The Angel is dead, the Phoenix still lives. But Life takes just as much as She gives. While your heart fills with love, you finally remember. That Fate doesn''t care when your flame turns to ember.'' ''The Earth breaks, the sky fills with smoke. Death goes back to slumber, as the raven croak. The Angel flies high, while her enemies die. The world shakes before her silent, sad sigh. The battle was won, justice delivered. But it cost a lot, and so her hand quivered.'' ''Madness consumes, likes darkness the light. Even the Angel loses something to blight. She walks alone now, as you finally perish. But in her stomach, she finds something to cherish. Her heart fills with sorrows. Where heaven lies, hell soon follows!'' As the old hag''s monologue ended inside Bran''s mind, he could''ve sworn a croaking laughter echoed from somewhere. But instead of feeling more sadness, Bran began chuckling as well, and within the next second, his body turned to ash. Chapter 328 328: Final Goodbye Many people believe that dying is painful, they are wrong. The road to death is very painful, but being dead was the exact opposite. When the vast energy finally overwhelmed Bran, all the pain he had been holding disappeared. He didn''t even realize the amount of suffering he had been enduring, but upon their departure, he could finally breathe again. His soul floated carefree as he let go of all his worries and pain. The surrounding darkness of Limbo gently enveloped him, bringing a tranquil atmosphere to his turbulent mind. He closed his eyes and just continued floating through emptiness for a long time. The pain''s disappearance left a large scar across his mind. All over his soul, phantom pains appeared suddenly, then went away like they never existed. His soul-like arms even spasmed a few times, from the memory of his previous suffering. Bran tried taking deep breaths, calming his mind as much as possible, but soon a deep sense of regret washed over him. The reality of the situation finally began settling upon his tired body. When he couldn''t take it anymore, his eyes snapped open, and he began scanning the surroundings for signs of Sera. She hadn''t resurrected by the time he succumbed to the energy overload, which meant he had a chance to meet her one last time. Hope flared inside Bran''s soul as he moved across the vast, hollow space. Afterlife''s glow beckoned, yet Bran knew Sera wouldn''t be there. He turned away from the bright light and went the opposite direction. Nothing... There was nothing around him... Bran''s eyes scanned the darkness, looking for something, any structure or sign of Sera''s presence. He also looked for Death to ask for His help with finding Sera. Lilith and Kim taught him enough regarding Death. Deep down, he expected to be welcomed by Him, but it seemed his connection to Sera wasn''t enough to warrant a meeting. He wanted to feel offended, to be deemed so insignificant, but a strange, scary figure''s appearance before him banished these thoughts quickly. A tall person, wearing a black cloak, with a hood hiding impenetrable darkness below. Next to Him a lone, golden scythe floated, with screaming faces carved into its metal. Bran wasn''t someone who usually judges people by their looks, but this individual could only be one person... Death... "You know, it''s getting really trying that everyone instantly recognizes my appearance... I am not that unique looking..." His voice sent chills across Bran''s body, making him tremble. It was similar to the screech of metal and the crunch of bones. While His voice felt horrible to hear, His words were a bit ridiculous. Bran raised an eyebrow in confusion, then pointed to Death''s scythe as he spoke. "Maybe don''t carry that weapon around. It''s pretty unique... Also, I don''t know about you, but I haven''t seen many people walking around covered in the darkest cloak I had ever seen..." Death glanced at his golden scythe and sighed, but as Bran continued speaking, His hooded head snapped towards him. His confusion was evident, even though Bran couldn''t see His face. "What cloak?... I''m wearing a cloak?!..." He stayed silent for a moment, then cursed to Himself in a language that just by hearing it caused pain to Bran. "I really look like that?... How awful!... Where''re my colorful outfits?... And my wings!... People always love to depict Me with wings!... I will need to talk about this with Seraphine... She has to change humanity''s view on Death... This is simply unacceptable!..." Bran continued staring at Death with confusion, trying to keep all his questions and opinions to himself, but he should''ve known better. Death continued to read his mind, nothing stayed hidden from Him in His Realm. "Hey!... I don''t like when my image is depicted with such shallowness... Death doesn''t need to be depressing you know!... And, yes my looks change in the perception of others... Every species, or even person has a different outlook on life and death... As a Conceptual God, I take on forms you feel like I should have... I have no actual form on my own..." With mouth agape, and widened eyes, Bran listened to Death''s blabbering. He didn''t know what to say. It felt like diving deeper into Death''s image issues would''ve been a terrible mistake. Also, Bran still needed to find Sera, so before Death could''ve continued with His tirade, he cut in His speech. "Uh, I''m sorry to interrupt, but I don''t know how long I have... Is Sera still here?... I would like to say goodbye..." Bran''s voice turned sad, and luckily Death stopped talking about not having pink in His outfit. Instead, He turned silent and motioned behind Him. He only saw the darkness surrounding them, but soon the environment changed, and Bran found himself in a cozy room. Death wasn''t here, but Bran barely noticed His lack of presence. His eyes stayed focused on the woman seated nearby. She sat with her body covered by her own pristine white wings. Her beautiful face held deep confusion, which slowly turned into sadness and despair, as reality dawned on her. "No..." She spoke with a broken voice while tears ran down her face. Sera''s body trembled as she looked Bran up and down. She blinked slowly, hoping when she opens her eyes again Bran would disappear, like a mirage. Like a bad dream, she would wake up from this nightmare. For a few seconds, her eyes stayed closed as her sobs increased in volume. She felt a gentle touch upon her cheek. This simple contact finally broke her, and she fully let go of her inhibitions. She jumped up and pulled Bran into a tight hug with both her arms and wings. She felt Bran''s arms wrap around her waist as they both cried on each other''s shoulders. They remained motionless for a long time. Sera''s eyes stayed closed, still afraid to look upon and acknowledge the loss her heart ached with. Eventually, Bran pushed her away so he could look into her eyes. She finally opened them. Her golden-green eyes looked especially sad as she stared into Bran''s beautiful light-hazel ones. Puffiness and redness marked both faces from all the crying. Tears continued running from Sera''s eyes. Bran reached up with both his hands, wiping away her tears. Across his face, a small melancholic smile spread, and after a bit of struggle Sera mirrored his smile. "How are you doing?" Bran asked, only now realizing Sera'' soul wasn''t broken anymore. She actually muster enough strength to chuckle, but soon her happiness turned back to depression. Her mouth was a thin, quivering line as she answered. "I... I''m fine... I can remember everything, mostly... It''s all a jumbled mess right now, but I''m sure after I return to the physical world, everything realigns itself..." Sera stayed silent for a few seconds before she spoke again, barely holding back her sobs. "Why... Why did you do that?" Bran turned away from Sera''s judgmental, sorrowful eyes. He laughed sadly, trying to gather his thoughts. Eventually, a much wider and hopeful smile spread across Bran''s face. "Why?... Isn''t it obvious?... I would never let you die... I love you Sera, more than anything in this world... You really think I wouldn''t sacrifice everything, even just for a chance to save you?... Was that the impression I gave you?..." Sera giggled as a few more tears escaped her eyes. These tears were different, though. A mix of sadness and joy hid inside them. All the memories of Bran flooded Sera''s mind. She could finally recall their meeting in the goblin camp. She remembered their actual meeting afterward. She recalled helping Bran become an Ascended. Bran spent every moment after their initial meeting helping her. He never asked for anything in return, simply content by their close proximity. He saw a different kind of sadness appearing in Sera''s eyes, and he quickly shut it down. "I don''t regret a single moment of our time together... I just wished I would''ve confessed sooner, so we might have more intimate moments, before... Before the end..." Sera gently pulled his hands away and leaned in to kiss him one last time. Her hands burrowed into his hair as they shared this intimate moment. Both of them smiled and cried as their lips pressed to each other. When Sera pulled away, she grinned widely. Even though the smile stayed brittle, Bran appreciated the effort. Sadly, he couldn''t mirror it, since he felt too much sorrow and fear. The cozy room broke around them, and his eyes immediately went to the glowing horizon. His new home... The Afterlife... Sera gently guided his face, so his eyes stayed on hers. "Don''t be afraid... This isn''t the end... I won''t accept that!... I love you Bran, and will continue to love you throughout my life... One day we will reunite, and until then, I will cherish every memory we had... Don''t be sad because it ended, be happy because it happened..." She pulled the love of her life into a final hug as Death appeared nearby. Bran leaned in close and whispered into Sera''s ear. Death cocked His head curiously. He couldn''t seem to make out Bran''s words, like some external force kept them hidden between the lovers. Whatever Bran said, Sera''s face became sad and angry. She sighed deeply and nodded. "I promise..." She whispered, tears running rampant down her cheeks. Bran leaned in once more, giving a small peck on her lips. He continued, smiling sadly, as Sera started turning translucent. "I love you... Don''t forget us..." He said as Sera slowly disappeared. "I love you too... And will never forget you..." She answered. Her voice continued echoing in the empty space, as Bran''s soul moved towards the ''Afterlife''. Chapter 329: The Last Shout of a Dead Man Damien and Agnes watched as Bran fell to his knees. His chest began glowing brighter as he slowly lost control. Both knew that death was approaching. When all that pent up energy released, neither would survive. Sad tears ran down Agnes''s face. Behind them, everyone had left long ago. The portal was already closed. Vicky didn''t want to risk any explosion getting through. Damien, still desperate for revenge, continued scanning the area near the imploding machine. Its metal surface bent and broke, leaking more energy into the vast hall. Above them the Abomination burrowed further into the earth, destroying the facility layer by layer. The two Stellars slowly got back on their feet and collectively decided that dying wasn''t worth it. Napoleon stepped through the metal floor. He dissolved and became part of the earth, moving away fast underground. Amygdala just angrily looked around and stepped into empty space. Reality bent around her, and she seemed to teleport away, taking her dreadful aura away. The facility continued shaking as Bran''s body became worse. His skin melted while his blood boiled away. Agnes''s crying intensified, but Damien''s eyes stayed focused on the area around the machine. He was slowly losing hope, but just as the energy began leaking from Bran''s body, he spotted his prey. In a burnt, ash covered white coat, Harold appeared, looking especially pissed. Confusion marred his old face. His usual welding glasses covered his eyes as he scanned the machine, trying to salvage anything from the imminent destruction. Before Damien even recognized him, his legs were already sprinting towards his target. His vision swam in red, his blood fueled by rage and deep, uncontrollable hatred. Agnes tried keeping up, but her Ascended body was much weaker than Damien''s Transcended self. She cried out for help, but her man remained too absorbed in revenge. He ignored all her calls of despair and instead summoned his sword. Damien jumped towards Harold, prepared to impale him. He already felt the sweet taste of vengeance, but as he closed in towards Harold, his eyes widened. The Mad Scientist turned around with a wide grin. He raised his hand, which held a small innocent looking handgun. Harold pulled the trigger, and the concentrated explosion sent a seemingly normal bullet cruising through the air. In his hateful, rage-filled approach, Damien forgot to summon his armor. The bullet cut a straight line, right into his chest. His flesh parted before the bullet, as it carved deep inside his chest, entering and stopping in Damien''s heart. Blood flew through the air as his body went limp. The gunshot echoed inside the chamber, and soon Agnes''s desperate, sad cries followed. Harold just laughed as Damien struggled. His regeneration tried healing the wound, but the bullet wasn''t as simple as it looked. Like the Husks'' weapons, the bullet had identical properties. It prevented any Evolved from using their powers, making them mortal. Agnes continued sprinting and eventually managed to reach Damien''s dying body. Behind them, Bran''s body began evaporating. She continued sobbing as Harold raised his gun to Agnes''s head... She didn''t care... If Damien would die, then she didn''t want to live, either... Bran''s body evaporated. Around the giant room, a moment of silence reined, then the energy held inside his body exploded like a dark flare. It consumed its surroundings instantly, turning metal into overheated air. Harold prepared to pull the trigger, when something strange happened. He sent out the mental command, but his finger didn''t move. Everything happened so fast, his eyes couldn''t even follow. The gun rested in his right hand, but just as the explosion began consuming the chamber, someone appeared nearby. The being''s wide, pristine white wings seemed to cover the world. Her fierce golden-green eyes filled with hatred. Pure, glistening silver armor covered most of her body. In one hand she held a curved silver blade, dripping with blood, in the other she held... A hand holding a handgun... Harold stared with widened eyes, then his gaze fell upon his right hand, where only a stump remained. Suddenly, horror gripped his heart. Something he never felt before consumed Harold''s mind... Pure dread, an inexplicable feeling of mortality... Upon looking at Sera. He felt like death itself stared back at him... Desperation took hold of him, and he prepared to quickly teleport away, which was exactly what Sera wanted. As his body began turning translucent, Sera moved quicker than even a Transcended could follow. With one hand, she gripped Harold''s bloodied arm, with the other, she held Agnes''s shoulder. Since Agnes continued holding Damien''s dying body, all four of them teleported away with Harold. The dark energy spread quickly through the empty room, vaporizing everything inside. The pipes still full of energy joined the dark energy, and together they continued the overwhelming destruction. When it reached the machine, its walls finally gave in. All the joint energy began expanding through the already broken roof. The Abomination''s shrieks became louder as the pure energy touched its roots. Its thick skin held on for a few seconds, but eventually, even the Abomination got vaporized. The energy continued expanding until the entire island and the surrounding sea turned to nothing. It went higher into the sky, reaching even the clouds. A wall of fire ignited above the remains of Malta. The sound of the gigantic explosion reached the farthest corners of Earth. Even on the other continents, its sound echoed... The last shout of a dead man... For a full minute after the explosion''s sound reached everyone''s ears, silence reined. Across Europe, the fighting stopped, as soldiers, civilians, Evolved, and even monsters looked towards the sky, the origin of the sound. They each felt the change move through Earth. Something monumental had happened, a change resulting in unforeseen consequences. Across battlefields, the moment of respite led to clarity. People looked left and right, to their dead friends, brothers and sisters. The question popped into each of their minds upon staring at the destruction... ''Why are we fighting for?'' Such a simple question, with so many possible answers, yet, when faced with death and utter ruin, everyone''s mind went blank. They couldn''t think of a single reason, which could warrant this pointless war. Many thoughts crossed the soldiers'' minds. They looked at their supposed enemies with suspicion. Guns stayed pointed at each other, but no shots were fired. Their hands trembled, eyes full of fear and hope, stared down at the barrels of guns. For endless minutes, this silent stalemate persisted. Everyone desired peace, ceasing the pointless violence; however, trust proved elusive. Everyone felt afraid. They feared putting their weapons away would give an opportunity for the ''enemy'' to shoot them down. Without trust, the stalemate persisted, people sweated, fingers moved to triggers. It seemed that the bloodshed would continue when something entirely unexpected happened. Above wide battlefields, streets full of soldiers, destroyed buildings. Everywhere in Europe, where the fighting was the thickest, small portals opened. These portals weren''t wide enough to fit even someone''s body through, but that wasn''t their purpose. Within each tiny portal, a single feminine voice echoed, reaching the ears of every soldier across the war-ridden plains of Europe. "The war is over! Everyone, put your weapons down! This is an order! Anyone going against it will be judged and prosecuted!... And if anyone''s curious about who won this war. If you are truly curious about the outcome of this pointless bloodshed... I can only tell you one winner... Humanity. Humanity won!... Now follow my order!" Most found the voice unfamiliar. It wasn''t the Deathless Phoenix, as many initially assumed. Not like it really mattered. For the soldiers, it could''ve belonged to a random woman. Her authoritative tone commanded attention, and they were quick to accept the new order, not caring for its origin. The order was heard loud and clear. From the narrow streets and factories of The Broken City, to the hydroponics farms at Lizbone. From the capital of the Federal Alliance, to New Paris. From the hell consumed streets of Wien, to the broken plains around Buda-Pest. The soldiers began tossing their weapons away. The first few still had trust issues, but afterward, everyone''s weapons landed on the ground quickly. Weaponless, the soldiers felt like an extremely heavy weight lifted off of their shoulders. Many broke down crying, looking at their hands, feeling the lives they took. Everyone celebrated and mourned. They were happy since they survived, and they felt sad, since many of their friends didn''t. Across Europe, people cried and laughed, coping with their new future. But, this wasn''t the case everywhere... At the plains around Pragua, only silence remained... From the army, which assaulted Pragua''s walls, nothing remained. Between the corpses, a lone human walked, wearing a dark, feather-like coat. Around him, ravens flew through the air, thousands, millions of them. They landed on corpses, devouring eyes, eating the flesh of the dead. The man took firm steps. Bea''s voice reached him too. However, her words left him untouched. Currently, he only had eyes on one prey. A woman, barely conscious, stared up at the cloudy sky. A strange feeling overcame her; it was daytime a moment ago, with clear skies. Her blurred vision stared above, but all she saw were the midnight black clouds moving across the sky, faster than they were supposed to. Slowly, a man''s face appeared in her vision. Recognition appeared in the woman''s eyes. She coughed up blood as she tried to speak. The man just laughed as a lone raven landed on his shoulder. He reached up and gently scratched below its beak. The raven croaked with affection and pushed its small head closer to the man. "You... You lied... You lied to everyone..." Said the woman between coughs of blood. Even her Stellar regeneration failed when faced with the man''s power. The man glanced at the woman''s broken form and laughed. "Of course I lied! But does it really matter to you? You''re already in front of the precipice of death, just need a little push to venture forth..." His deep voice had a strange scratchiness to it, like he rarely spoke aloud. He reached up and gently grabbed the raven''s body. The raven squeaked with joy as the man crushed its small body. In his hand, only the creature''s skull remained, with its sharp beak reflecting the rays of sunlight. A grin spread across his face as she widened her eyes in surprise. "Be sure to send me a postcard from wherever you end up!" With that, the man moved and pushed the sharp beak into the Stellar''s skull, sending her straight to Death''s cold embrace. Her lifeless gaze remained skyward as blood flowed from the new wound. The man just spread his arms, and whispered into the air... "Feast..." The ravens, like rabid dogs, flew down, and began devouring every dead corpse''s flesh, starting with the Stellar. The man just smiled and laughed joyfully, painting a deep contrast to the morbid atmosphere around him. When no corpse remained, only their bones, the ravens returned to him one by one. They flew into his coat, becoming part of the material. Only when the last raven returned did, the man spread his own dark wings, and flew away towards Castleburg... Towards his home... Chapter 330: The Angel Harold couldn''t quite concentrate as terror consumed his mind, so he only managed to teleport everyone a few kilometers away from Malta. They landed on a barren, rocky island barely a kilometer in diameter. Sera spent a moment looking around the island, then unconsciously, her head snapped towards the eastern horizon. The ground rumbled, and the island cracked as the loud explosion echoed in everyone''s ears, blasting their eardrums to pieces. Agnes took the shockwave especially bad. Her agonizing scream went unheard. First the earthquake went through below their feet. Next came the explosion''s sound, bringing temporary deafness to everyone. Then came the heavy wind, which nearly pushed them all off the island. Finally, they saw the towering cloud of pure energy reaching up into the sky, covering the horizon in grayish dark flames. It didn''t reach their tiny island, thankfully, but even then they felt the heat on their skin. The water began boiling around them, and Damien fell into unconsciousness, so the temperature stayed scorching. Sera took a deep breath. The air''s temperature was high, but she felt no discomfort. It even brought a strange calmness to her mind. This scorching air. This boiling sea. This giant cloud of energy... That''s all what remained of Bran... Her heart ached with love and grief. She took one more deep breath and pushed away all the sad memories. Tears welled in Sera''s eyes as she turned around. Agnes coughed blood nearby, still healing from the shockwave. Damien laid unconscious, and very pale. Sera spotted his chest''s slight movements, which meant he was still alive. She took less than a second to glance at her friends, but the hatred began overwhelming her mind, and so she looked away and walked to the origin of her pain... Harold... The Mad Scientist appeared awful. Blood flowed from the side of his mouth. His white coat, marred with soot and scorched at many places. The glass in his welding glasses was either missing or broken. Sera stared at him for a moment, surprised. Was this really the person who kept her awake at night, haunting her dreams? Who brought suffering to both her halves? She couldn''t understand what had happened. Perhaps newfound knowledge or a fresh viewpoint caused the change. Either way, as Sera looked upon her most hated enemy, she only felt pity. This wasn''t the sadistic scientist who tortured her all those times. This man appeared pathetic, weak, and frail. Briefly, Sera considered mercy as a feasible option, but then a new understanding dawned on her. Harold''s eyes narrowed as her grin grew wide and she began walking towards him. She could barely contain her anger, and even began chuckling to release some of her emotions. "That ploy? You actually believed it''d work? You tried manipulating me for two years, and even split my soul, to achieve your goal! You think your mind tricks have any effect on me anymore?... Please, I grew immune to them a long time ago!" After hearing her words, Harold shook his head in self-deprecation, then began laughing, too. He remained unhinged; however, Sera perceived a near imperceptible change about him. She technically spent four years with him. She knew all his tells and body language in a conversation... He seemed nervous... Sera held her arm to the side, summoning a long curved silver blade. Her laughter turned manic as she walked towards her greatest enemy. "Don''t need to be afraid! It will be over soon..." Harold gritted his teeth as he took one step back. His only hand shook from the fear spreading across his body. Behind Sera, her pristine white wings spread, revealing eyes below the feathers. Harold''s despair seemed to double, and he froze as Sera closed in. She raised her sword, poised to end him once and for all; however, Harold still held a few tricks up his sleeve. While still terrified, his body disappeared and dozens of identical Harold''s appeared around Sera. Her concentration broke as she became confused for a split second. This slight hesitation gave Harold enough time to use his ability. He manipulated reality, summoning dozens of Horrors around Sera. They all looked surprised, but upon seeing new prey, they blitzed towards Sera. She watched the Horrors rush towards her. Some were Tier 1s and other Tier 2s, not like it mattered for Sera. Her laughter echoed across the small island, surprising both monsters and humans. Then she did something even bolder... She dismissed her lone sword as a wide grin spread across her face. The monsters weren''t stupid. They saw this display of confidence, and second guessed their decision to eat Sera. They felt something wrong with her presence, but couldn''t figure out the strangeness. In the middle of the island, Sera spread her arms wide, motioning for the monsters to attack. "What is it? The fearsome Horrors fear a tiny woman?... Or perhaps you can smell it! The difference between species!... If I was human, you would''ve attacked already, don''t you?... But what about an Angel?" She laughed in the face of the Horror horde, nevertheless; they didn''t attack. Several backed away upon hearing the word "Angel". They couldn''t translate human language, of course, but there was no need. Just hearing the words gave every single one of them chills. The Angels were a dead species. Relics of a bygone era. The destruction of Aerin caused their near extinction. But for millions of years, they ruled the Universe. Even Gods knelt before their leaders. The subservience towards and fear of Angels existed in every species'' blood. So, as Sera''s maddened laughter echoed through their ranks, a deep fear gripped the hearts of monsters. She spread her wings wide and jumped into the air. From above, she looked down upon the creatures nearby, like the ants they were. Sera''s face broke into an angry, hateful smile as she stared at the monsters. From the top of her lungs, she shouted a single word, something that needed no translation... "RUN!" The monsters immediately turned around and ran towards the sea... Sera gave them a second head start before she giggled and went after them. She used no weapons, only her hands covered in pristine silver gauntlets. Sera moved faster than any monster could follow. They blinked once and found themselves facing The Angel''s wrath. She moved like a whirlwind. With perfect precision, she flew towards a tall monster. She grabbed its throat and decapitated it with a single move. Without missing a beat, she continued flying. Her gauntlet entered another monster''s chest. She held the barely beating heart in her palm, then while laughing, she tossed it towards one of the Harold clones. It broke into pieces, like a mirage. Monsters screamed as Sera continued the slaughter. She punched one''s head in, then disemboweled another. Her gauntlet grew claws, and with them she cut through bones and broke bodies apart. Blood covered the small island as their screams intensified. When the first monster reached the island''s edge, it tried jumping into the sea, but never made it. Giant silver spikes grew along the edges of the shore, impaling anyone trying to leave. Her laughter echoed in the monsters'' minds, like a monotone voice of death. They trembled in fear as Sera continued delivering death sentences left and right. Many jumped into the spikes, rather than dying like their fellows. Sera didn''t care until they died. She dispatched numerous monsters; some by beheading, others by burning, and from some, she took hearts. With her hands, she took them apart piece-by-piece. Each time she caught a lone body part, she tossed it at Harold''s clones. Dozens already disappeared, but a few still ran around in panic, pretending to be their owner. Harold was still there, on the island. She was certain, but finding the real one proved to be a pain in her ass. She continued flying around, killing the few monsters still alive, but she was getting frustrated by the abundance of Harold clones still running around. When only about ten Horrors remained, she finally grew bored. Sera landed back in the middle of the island. Gore dripped from her pristine silver armor. Her wings stayed just as white as usual, while her golden hair turned blood-red. "Enough of these games!... Let''s end this!" As her voice echoed in the rocky plains, silver spikes grew out of the ground. They impaled all the remaining monsters, killing them instantly. The Harold clones each broke to pieces as the spikes pushed through them. Sera listened curiously, and when she heard the cries of pain, a joyful giggle escaped her lips. "Gotcha, you son of a bitch!" With a wide grin on her gore covered face, Sera turned around and stared towards the real Harold''s impaled body. She struggled as the silver spikes went through his legs and arms, but this didn''t satisfy Sera. While walking towards him, she summoned more spikes. All the times she suffered, now it was time for payback. She recalled when, before each death, he would take samples of her piss and excrement. For this, one spike entered his rectum and exited through his stomach, while the other pushed through his manhood, exiting through his back. It missed his spine on purpose, so he could feel every bit of pain. Next, she remembered the time when Harold skinned her alive. She took inspiration from her master''s teachings. From the spikes, thin silver metallic sheets spread through Harold''s lower half. His screams felt like music to Sera''s ears, as all his skin separated from his muscles. Her laughter echoed louder as the spikes became scorching hot, making his blood boil. In the next few minutes, Sera inflicted every kind of pain she could, and only stopped after Harold was a barely breathing corpse... When he was finally broken... Only the vital parts of his upper body and head remained by the time Sera finished. He took small, brittle breaths as his eyes stared at Sera''s bloody face. "You are a real... Sadistic bitch... You know that?..." He said between coughs. Sera just giggled and bowed from the waist mockingly, as if Harold''s words were a great honor. "Don''t compliment me so much, I might blush... I learned from the best you know, and waited for a long time to show how much attention I paid during our lessons..." Harold actually chuckled at her words, which caused a vast amount of blood to leave through every orifice on his barely functioning body. "Out of any mistake I made... My only regret was... Taking your halves apart... It would''ve been so much more fun to... To break this... Sarcastic, carefree person... I would''ve loved to hear your quips... Between screams of agony..." Sera looked away from Harold, towards the sky. Her eyes glistened as she pretended to reminiscence about the past. "You know why I hate you so much? Why you deserve everything that''s headed your way?" Her eyes slowly moved back towards Harold''s dying body. With one hand, she reached forth and pushed one finger into his broken spine, touching all his nerve endings, sending unimaginable pain coursing through his body. As he screamed, Sera leaned in closer. Her face showing nothing of the previous mocking, sarcastic person. "It''s not because you tortured me. I would''ve ended you quickly if that was the case... It''s not because you killed my friends, albeit your death would''ve been much slower then too... It''s not even because you caused the Apocalypse..." Harold''s screams died down, and he looked very surprised by Sera''s last sentence. She leaned in even closer until only a few centimeters separated their faces. "It''s not even because you killed the love of my life. I now know that''s not your fault, since he was destined to die down there, in your facility..." He raised an eyebrow at her choice of words and finally asked the question she was waiting for... "Then... Why?..." Sera leaned in and whispered her answer into Harold''s ear. "Because you are a pathetic little worm, following orders without question... You know Harold, I realized something recently, and I didn''t enjoy this new information... I also made a promise, which I intend to keep..." With a wide smile creeping onto her face, she said, "I won''t follow the orders of others... When I''m done, even the Gods won''t be able to hide their true faces anymore..." She moved away to see eye-to-eye with Harold. Her haunting laughter echoed in Harold''s mind as her hand reached into his broken chest. "Sadly for you, that''s something you won''t ever witness..." With a quick pull, Sera held Harold''s beating heart. A spark from her finger set the dripping body part aflame. His own burning heart reflected in Harold''s wide eyes as he died. Chapter 331: The Afterlife Harold found himself in an unfamiliar darkness. He recognized the place from descriptions, but he didn''t want to accept it. After all this time. After all he had done. He couldn''t believe this was his destination. Where he would end up. When his eyes landed on the bright horizon, on the Afterlife, he fell to his knees in despair and hopelessness... This was it. He was finally dead after over 80 years of living... Even worse, all his research was gone. The worst outcome wasn''t the loss of his facility; death meant the permanent loss of every information inside his head. His sacrifices for a better future remained unknown. The good his research would''ve brought. His name would remain tarnished, and he would be forever remembered as a sadistic scientist. "You deserve to be remembered like that!" A dreadful voice spoke from Limbo''s eternal depths. His voice echoed around Harold, as if the very darkness surrounding him spoke into his ear. The man''s words held full authority, and judging by the commanding tone, Harold didn''t take long to figure out the person''s identity. From the darkness, a ghost-like figure stepped out. A white cloak covered His translucent body. In His skeletal hand, He carried a staff with a lantern attached to its top. A golden flame burned brightly in the lantern, zipping around in its confines. The flames perpetually changed shape, taking unnatural forms. They looked like screaming faces. A shiver went down Harold''s spine, just from witnessing this being. But His words left a deep impact on Harold, and his pride overtook his sense of fear. "I don''t deserve such treatment! Yes, I committed horrible atrocities, but they were all just means to an end! A few more years, and everyone would''ve celebrated my genius..." He wanted to continue, but at that moment Death''s awful laughter echoed in Limbo. "The sheer audacity you speak with is truly impressive... But tell me this Harold... How many?..." Harold stared at Death, like He was insane. "What?" he asked in confusion. Death stayed silent for a few seconds, or maybe an hour. He stared at Harold from behind the white cloak, which hid any expression he could''ve made. His voice turned serious, and even angry, causing pain to Harold just by hearing it. "How many?... How many lives were you willing to sacrifice for this greater good?... Would people celebrate you from their graves?... Would any of them show concern for the living?... Would they feel happy to die for your greater cause?!..." His voice became a scream by the end. Harold fell to his knees, holding onto his head, which was consumed by deep suffering. He felt a sudden force crawl around his body, lifting him to the same level as Death. Harold stared at the terrifying creature, as his body trembled with fear. "Let me tell you this... I''m the Shepherd of Souls... I''m the God of Reapers... I''m Death incarnate... Every soul passes through Limbo... Even Gods end up here at the end of their lives!... I see into every soul... I know their desires and regrets... And you know what every soul you''ve sent here has in common?... They all want you tortured to death!..." The power suddenly disappeared from around Harold, making him fall to the non-existent floor. His body shook as he crawled up on his knees. Harold intensely glared at Death, searching for a way to escape Limbo. But his thoughts only caused Death to chuckle. "It seems you don''t understand the graveness of your current position... You are dead, by my request towards Seraphine..." Harold''s eyes widened at that, and he couldn''t hold in his mad laughter. "So that''s how she broke from my spell! Of course! How can I be so blind?" He began mumbling to himself, but Death''s voice quickly silenced his every word. "No... That''s not how she broke it... The truth is Harold, you could''ve never controlled her from the very beginning... Her fate isn''t to be some idiot scientist''s attack dog..." "What do you mean?" Harold asked with confusion. Death looked away from his kneeling figure and stared towards the Afterlife. His eyes looked past the brightness and stared into each and every soul within. All the souls that weren''t destroyed ended up in the Afterlife... Except a select few... The ''Lucky'' ones... He knew everything they knew, and even the vast knowledge of all the dead brought no clarity to the future''s events. "Everything changes... The order, which existed before Time was born, is close to its dusk... Seraphine is destined for a greater future than you could ever imagine, while you would''ve always died by her hands..." Harold gritted his teeth. Death''s words explained nothing and only brought more questions. Harold hated unanswered questions more than anything. "What does that mean? Change? Destiny? I don''t understand!" Death just chuckled at Harold''s confusion. "You weren''t supposed to understand it, but... Why not?... You''re already dead, so anything I say will stay hidden... Very well... Here''s a quick explanation to think about while you still exist... But beware... You asked for this!..." A shiver went down Harold''s spine, upon hearing Death''s words, but before he could''ve asked more questions, Death pointed his staff at Harold, causing mental images to appear in his mind. The first image depicted a tiny, decrepit, old woman. Her creepy, toothless, wrinkly face stared up towards the night sky. In her white, blind eyes, the Universe itself reflected. The image changed. The second one showed a small room with a single object inside. An old barely functioning loom, with a bunch of different colored lines connecting together into a beautiful tapestry. The old woman sat near the loom, hands working with years'' worth of efficiency. Within minutes, the tapestry was done, and as she lifted off the loom, Harold saw what it depicted. Harold saw a man''s head and chest depicted on the tapestry. Blood dripped from his broken body, and in front of it, his heart burned in a feminine hand. He recognized the image immediately. It was hard to mistake his own heart burning in Sera''s hand when he died. She surveyed the tapestry with satisfaction, then tossed it onto a nearby pile. She then went back to her loom and began making a new tapestry. She sang some old song while working, but Harold wasn''t certain, since the language the woman used was unfamiliar to him. The image changed again. It returned to the first one, but the initial image felt altered. Harold couldn''t explain the feeling until it was too late. The elderly woman gazed skyward. The stars were replaced with bright lines, each reflecting, shining in the depths of her eyes. Harold stared above in awe, as more lines constantly appeared. Thousands, millions, trillions, an infinite amount of bright string weaved into the tapestry of the Universe. Each symbolizing a life, a soul, an existence. The strings connected and broke apart, some randomly snapped, while others appeared out of nowhere. A sudden pain assaulted Harold''s mind. The strings covering the sky tried to burrow into his skull, bringing endless depths of suffering with them. In that instant, he understood these strands were beyond what mortal perception should''ve ever witnessed. The elderly woman smiled, her gaze shifting from the strings above to Harold''s prone form. Her milky-white, blind eyes held unimaginable understanding and insanity. It was unlike Madness. Her insanity was much more pure, it came from the overwhelming knowledge. From the secrets nobody should ever witness. Her mouth didn''t move, but Harold heard her voice echo inside his mind, absorbing all the pain from the strings. "A Hag unlike any sitting in her room. Her hands moving quickly, weaving on her loom. Her eyes are blindly staring into the world''s doom. Her cackles echo while she creates all your tomb. Who might this Hag be? You might seem curious. Wonder if the truth will make you furious. She stares up at the sky, watching the Strings of Fate. Her hands move with them, changing all their state. Her whims become the world, as you figured it out. But let me introduce myself just to clear some doubt. I''m the Hag of Truth, the Weaver, the Goddess of Fate herself. And you, small man, are already dead, so take care of yourself!" As her rhymes ended, the world around Harold fell apart, and he found himself back in Limbo. With a groan of pain, he climbed back to his feet, and stared at Death with annoyance. But after gritting his teeth for a moment, he stayed silent. Harold finally realized that he couldn''t do anything to reverse his death. He conceded defeat, making any further complaint futile. "Good... I''m not Life you know... I could''ve never brought you back to life... Anyway, let''s get this over with..." Harold turned towards the Afterlife and sighed. He tried walking towards the light, but some force stopped him. "What are you doing?..." Asked Death from behind him. With confusion evident on Harold''s face, he glanced back at Death. "I going into the Afterlife. Isn''t that the final destination for all the deceased?" After hearing his words, Death burst into laughter. It wasn''t just a small chuckle, but a full body, roaring laugh, something he rarely done. His levels of amusement only increased after seeing Harold''s dumb, bewildered expression. "The Afterlife doesn''t exist!... That light on the horizon is where I dumb everyone''s souls, but it''s not paradise or heaven or whatever... Also, that''s not where you are going!..." Still confused, Harold glanced between Death and the ''Afterlife''. A few moments later, he blurted out a simple question... "Then where am I going?" Harold heard the smile in Death''s deep, hoarse voice. "The absence of heaven doesn''t rule out the possibility of hell... Let''s just say your reservation''s been waiting..." Harold''s expression turned shocked, as Death gently reached up and opened the lantern. The sound of unending scream of suffering and despair echoed around Limbo. The golden flame in the lantern flickered, trying to escape, but an invisible force prevented it. This wasn''t the case for Harold, though. His soul instantly got sucked into the lantern, joining its fellows within the golden flame. Death closed back the lantern and watched as the flame took form. A new screaming face appeared in its depths... Harold''s old, pain-filled, screaming face... Chapter 332: Breaking the Rules Sera took deep breaths. Her vision swam with red, her whole body dripping from blood, and pieces of organs. In her trembling hand, she still held Harold''s broken corpse. The ashes of his burned heart gently flew away on the sea''s breezy winds. She glanced at the destruction around, then her eyes surveyed the tortured corpse in her hand. Her vision slowly cleared, and reality hit her all at once. She dropped Harold''s body, then fell to her knees and vomited onto the blood covered rocky ground. Her emotions and thoughts ran rampant. The satisfaction she felt from killing her most hated enemy went away quickly, and only hollow regret remained. She felt sick as she stared at her bloodied, trembling hands. This wasn''t her. This destruction, slaughter, torturing¡ªshe never meant to do any of this. Sera felt confused. It was like her body acted on its own accord upon catching even a glimpse of Harold. She felt overwhelming hatred and a desperate urge to kill. However now... Now only emptiness remained... But it wasn''t gone. A distant yearning subtly tugged at her thoughts, seemingly far away, but always nearby. Sera knew whatever was happening with her... This was only the beginning... She took more deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She bent down, continuing to vomit for a few minutes, then eventually she gathered enough strength to climb back to her feet. Bit wobbly, Sera took one step after the other. Her eyes scanned the destruction, looking for Agnes and Damien. It didn''t take her long to find them. Even in her bloodlust consumed mind, Sera didn''t forget to build a metal cage around the two, protecting them from the monster horde. She dismissed the silver, metallic spikes, which revealed a few meters'' patch free of gore and blood. With slow, firm steps, Sera walked over to Damien''s unconscious body and Agnes''s hunched form. Her sobs already reached Sera''s ears, but only after arriving next to them did she figure out the source of her sadness. Damien''s chest, previously rising and falling with each shallow breath, now lay motionless. Agnes held her face on his chest, waiting for it to move again. Even knowing he was gone, she stayed by his side, not caring about anything happening around them. A tear ran down Sera''s face, just by the sight... It felt all too familiar... She continued staring at the pair, listening to Agnes''s desperate sobs. Sera''s hands trembled as anger began consuming her mind again. This time it was different, though. Her rage and anger had no focus. She was simply angry at the Universe itself for letting her friends die by the hands of her enemies. Redness seeped into her vision again, but before it could take hold of her mind, Sera took a deep breath, and assessed the situation with relative calmness. She knelt down next to Agnes and placed a hand on her shoulder. It left a bloody imprint there, but Agnes didn''t seem to mind. Her sobs slowly died down, and she turned around. Her face looked depressed, with tear marks clearing away the soot of the explosion. When her eyes landed on Sera, she jumped up from surprise and terror. It took her a moment to realize who knelt beside her lover''s corpse. "S-Seraphine... Is that really you?... What happened?" She asked while looking around, confused. Agnes''s eyes widened even further as she saw the gore covering every inch of the small island. Sera laughed awkwardly as she brushed the blood-covered hair out of her face. After a few moments, she just shrugged with innocence. "You know... We teleported here. I tried to kill Harold. He summoned an army of Horrors. I massacred them with my bare hands. They I sent him to the grave too... Nothing special..." Her words brought even more bewilderment to Agnes''s face. She never heard Sera talk so easily, with so little thinking, and using sarcasm perfectly. It was like her emotionless state was a simple illusion hiding this weird person beneath. Many questions filled Agnes''s mind, yet one dominated them all... "C-can... Can you save him?... Please..." Tears began running down on Agnes''s face again, as Sera''s face turned from embarrassed to grim. She looked down at Damien''s corpse and quickly examined all his wounds. He possessed minimal injuries except a single bullet wound in his chest. "I''m not sure," she said, while glancing up at Agnes. This wasn''t the news she wanted to hear. Her sobs intensified as she fell to her knees. Sera saw the brokenness in her form, the lack of hope. She had no hatred inside her, just despair and sadness. It made Sera angry to see someone in so much pain. To see her friend experience the sorrow, which was crushing Sera''s heart constantly. She looked down at her bloody hands and the surrounding corpses. It made her wonder¡ªwas this truly all she was? A killing machine? A weapon ready to be used when the time required it? "No..." She whispered, causing Agnes''s sobs to decrease. She looked at her with confusion, thinking Sera spoke to her, but she wasn''t... "No, I won''t let it happen! Not again!" She said louder, while staring up at the clear sky. Slowly, she placed her hand on the ground and raised a small metal spike into her palm. She grabbed onto its top and broke a few centimeters long piece off. She stared at it for a few moments, then she closed her eyes while concentrating on the silver sliver of metal. "Enough people died today, and I won''t let another soul cross the border to Afterlife!... I sacrificed more than enough, and Death owes me big time... So, if I say you won''t die... Then my word is fucking LAW!" Sera gritted her teeth as the surrounding atmosphere changed. Her armor disappeared, leaving only a few tattered rags covering her blood-soaked body. From her skin, a deep green aura seeped out, and entered the silver metal in her hand. It made small veins along its surface, and a few minutes later, it began glowing. Sweat made trails appeared all over Sera''s tired body. It washed away the blood, soot, and dirt. When enough green energy entered the metal, she took one deep breath, and went to the second part of her insane plan. She held out her other hand, where her golden flames appeared in full force. While groaning in pain, she summoned more fire, condensing it into a tiny spark floating atop her palm. "The Angel is dead, but the Pheonix still lives, you motherfucker!" Her whisper seemed louder than any shout to Agnes''s ears. She watched with concern Sera''s painful expression as she moved her hands together. In her right, golden flames flickered not bigger than a lone ember, while in her left green energy seeped from the small silver piece of metal. Her palms close to touching, Sera glanced up at the sky and smirked. "Let''s see how you like when I''m the one breaking your rules!" With that, Sera pushed both her palms together. For a singular moment, nothing happened, only silence reined. But then the world exploded with energy. Two vertical lines weaved into the sky in a helical pattern, neither overpowering each other, keeping themselves in balance. The two lines merged slowly. They continued moving higher, through the clouds and reaching even the atmosphere. The golden flames joined the green energy, creating a joined helix. When their balance became perfect, the energy tower slowly began receding, until all the energy entered the small silver metal. Sera gently spread her palm and looked at her newly made stone. The silver metal turned into a crystal. Inside its seemingly infinite depth, the gold, silver and green colors mixed, creating something unique. "Let''s hope this works!" She whispered to herself, and before Agnes could''ve done anything, she moved faster than her Ascended eyes could''ve followed. Sera held the crystal between two fingers and pushed it straight into Damien''s chest, into his heart. With the same move, she grabbed the bullet on her way, freeing his body from its regeneration blocking effects. Agnes stared at Sera with wide eyes. Blood welled around the fist-sized wound on Damien''s chest. "Why did you do that?!" She tried to keep her voice straight and outraged, but she couldn''t hide the concern seeping into her every word. She didn''t understand what Sera had done, but seeing the vertical line of energy brought back all the hope she needed. Her hands gently weaved through Damien''s long, white hair. She felt his cold scalp below her fingers, even so, she wasn''t ready to give up. Sera just stared at the widened wound with narrowed eyes. Her hands trembled in anxiety as she awaited the outcome of her actions. "To bring him back to life... Why else, you think?" She said, while grinning widely and confidently, hiding all her doubts behind layers of sarcasm. The crystal''s gentle glow radiated in each direction, and slowly the energy began leaking from its surface. It mixed with Damien''s cold blood, entered his dormant veins, and spread across his motionless body. The lines of veins glowed in golden, silver, and green colors. They spread everywhere and then began the regeneration process. All his scrapes healed in under a second, while his chest ever so slowly closed in. When the skin, muscle, and bones healed in Damien''s chest, the crystal moved. It took the place of his heart and began glowing even more brightly. The bright light spread across his body. The energy seemed to do its job perfectly, but still Sera saw no movement. A few minutes later, the light receded. The crystal''s glow stayed strong, but Damien''s chest wasn''t moving. Both Agnes and Sera held their breaths, waiting, hoping. Seconds felt like years, as suddenly, out of nowhere, Damien''s eyes snapped open. Chapter 333: Not Dead Yet Damien''s head felt both consumed with pain, and strangely tranquil. Like he just wake up from a deep slumber, which was slowly devouring him. With a deep sigh, he opened his freezing blue eyes. He stared up at the empty sky with confusion. Wasn''t he at the bottom level of the facility a moment ago? His head still wasn''t right. Most of his senses weren''t working properly, only his eyes and ears sent useful information to his brain. From the right, he heard gentle, silent, joyful sobs, while from his left a clear sigh of relief reached his ear. With a groan of pain, he managed to move his head and glance to his right. Before he even recognized the woman, through the blur in his vision, Damien''s hand was already reaching for her. She gently took his hand and lifted it to her face. A wide smile lighted Agnes''s face as tears ran rampant down her cheek. "Why are you crying?" He whispered, with his deep raspy voice. Agnes''s eyes turned sad again, but she pushed all the doubts out of her mind before they overwhelmed her. "It doesn''t matter now... I''m just glad you''re alright..." She said, then turned towards Sera. Her face turned solemn suddenly, and she bowed her head. "Thank you for saving him... I owe you everything..." Sera just shrugged and grinned down at Damien''s confused, terrified expression. "Oh, you heard that right! You aren''t dead yet, but came very close to it... No, that''s actually a lie. You were as dead as one can get, but don''t worry, I fixed your broken heart issue!" While continuing to smile, Sera pointed at Damien''s chest, where the crystal glowed even more brightly. He glanced down as well, and with an exclamation of surprise, he tried to jump to his feet. He managed to sit up before falling back to the rocky ground, squirming and holding onto his chest. Pain consumed his mind, originating from the crystal in his chest. "Hey! Dumbass! If you want to kill yourself again, you can go ahead, but I won''t make you another crystal! Don''t worry, the pain will probably pass, but do try to keep movements to a minimum until your body gets used to its new heart!" Sera''s new speech pattern brought so much surprise to Damien that his heartache immediately stopped. He continued staring at the angelic woman with narrowed eyes. Then he eventually looked around the area, and finally laid eyes on the gore surrounding them. He also didn''t miss a similar gore covering Sera''s body. "What did you do?" Sera began typing on her watch, then looked at Damien with a raised eyebrow. "I saved both your asses, that''s what I did... You should''ve left with the others, using the time my lo-... Using the time Bran bought... Now if you''ll excuse me, I need to order our evacuation!" Before either could''ve said anything, Sera stood up and walked off, hiding her face, even though the shaking of her shoulders showed clear signs of her pain. While she sobbed silently, guilt took hold of Agnes''s heart... It seemed unfair that the person who saved Agnes''s love couldn''t do the same with her own lover. "Life is truly cruel and has a fucked up sense of humor..." Whispered Damien, then stayed silent for a few minutes. His body slowly began feeling better, and with the help of Agnes, he sat up, with his back propped against a large boulder. While propped up, he could see the killing field with a lot more clarity. His eyes scanned every corpse and didn''t miss the only human body in the mass of dead monsters. "Is... Is that?..." He couldn''t even finish the sentence. His hands began trembling as tears welled in his eyes. Agnes looked behind her, and upon seeing Harold''s broken corpse, she just turned back and nodded. That was all Damien needed. With a deep heaviness clouding his heart, Damien began crying. His tears were a mix of joy, sadness, and exhaustion. His lover gently guided his head and let him cry on her shoulder. She hummed a calming melody while her hand stroked his long, white hair. His emotional state was a complete mess. He was glad Sera had ended Harold, but he also felt sad, since he wanted to kill him, deliver justice... Or at least revenge... He, of course, knew this would''ve never worked. Harold was simply too powerful and had too many tricks up his sleeve. Tears continued running down his cheeks as he stared towards the sky. For a moment, in his blurred vision, he could''ve sworn he saw the form of his late wife and child. A smile spread across his face just by remembering them as humans. He still had nightmares every night. He dreamed of what Harold did to them, the monsters he created for his own amusement. But as soon as he saw them human again, he felt the heavy weight pressing down his shoulders since he could remember, finally lift away. Damien took a deep breath, then reached out and summoned a single Item. Agnes watched with wide eyes as a pair of rings appeared in his palm. Both were golden, with some decorative embellishments, but pretty normal-looking for an Item. His hands trembled just by seeing the rings again. He blinked once more, and now he could see his late wife''s ghost-like form a few meters away. She looked down at Damien with a gentle smile, then nodded once before disappearing. Damien interpreted the ambiguous experience¡ªa dying hallucination or something much stranger¡ªas guidance. He closed his hand around the two rings. A cold aura surrounded it, and as he opened his hands, the metal rings broke apart. "Didn''t you want to keep those rings? To remember her?" Asked Agnes in a whisper, bringing Damien''s attention back to her. A wide, slightly sad smile touched his lips as he released the fragments, and with them, the past. "I don''t need a piece of jewelry to remember them... My memory is more than enough to recall all the happy times we had... They are gone, and justice was already served... I had to let them go as well, so they could finally rest in peace..." He stayed silent for a few moments, then his smile turned sly. "I also think I''m ready to move on. I''m sorry I never reciprocated your feelings, but that was simply impossible until now. I''m also sorry about how stupid I acted, and how much danger I brought to your life... I love you, Agnes..." Agnes tried to hide it and downplay it, but her grin was impossible not to witness, but then her smile faded as she recalled the past hour. "I understand... Rage consumed your mind, but promise me you will never do something like that again. You dying nearly killed me as well. When Harold shot you, I just knelt down beside you, and waited for him to pull the trigger again... I didn''t want to live without you... I love you too, Damien..." They stared into each other''s eyes, then slowly move closer, until their lips nearly touched. An exhausted groan, followed by Sera''s voice, broke the moment. "Uh, finally... Come on, lovebirds! Let''s get back home, shall we?" A portal opened nearby as Sera spoke, and with a cunning smile, she motioned for them to enter first. "I think she might''ve became a bit too talkative... I liked when she silently contemplated everything, and used less sarcasm." Said Damien, while Agnes pulled him up on his feet. "I heard that!" Shouted Sera in fake outrage, while Agnes just giggled and helped Damien through the portal. Sera moved behind, but just before entering the portal, she held up her hand and snapped her finger. A sudden fire appeared and consumed the small island, melting and vaporizing the rocks. Smiling, Sera entered the portal, letting the island succumb to the ocean''s waves. The portal led to the room, which held the Aegis System. Every survivor of the initial attack now rested there. Sera''s smile turned into a thin line as she looked upon the dead. Most of them survived, but the number of deaths still felt crushing. All the Black Crusaders laid dead. Jill was one of the first victims of Amygdala''s sadism, and she took immense pleasure in killing the rest. Half the Ouroboros Cohort didn''t make it either, and Eula, one of the twins, died too. Her sister, Joan, sobbed so hard so fell unconscious. A few others only gotten injured, like Adam and Mary. Both got beaten near death, but with Bea''s quick assist, they managed to pull through. As Sera stepped through, everyone''s eyes went to her. Somehow, between all the dead and injured, she looked the worst. Gore still covered her armorless body, with only a few ragged pieces of clothing, saving her decency. Her eyes looked depressed, carrying incalculable pain. Even though no injury was visible on her body, in her soul, a human-sized wound bled constantly, unable to heal. She glanced at everyone inside the room, and right now, she wished to have her emotionless outlook again. Without it, she couldn''t hide the pain from showing on her face and in her voice. "Congratulations everyone... The war is over... We won..." Her voice held more suffering, she wished to show, and after taking a deep breath, she walked out of the room without saying another word. Behind her, no sounds of celebrations echoed. Only the sound of death existed, surrounded by the guilt of the survivors. As Sera walked, her hands trembled, and the pressure increased in her mind. Her heart ached as her steps became faster. She ran out of the building and flew into the sky until she reached her mansion. Tears ran down her face. Her breathing turned shallow and her vision went red from rage. She landed heavily into the muddy ground, rolling on the ground for a few meters. She then slowly climbed back to her feet and stared at the cloudless sky. Her eyes began glowing with golden flames, and she opened her mouth wide, releasing all her pent up hurt in the form of a loud scream. The two golden flames in her eyes suddenly shot out in a line. It went on until it reached the Aegis System, which managed to stop the flames from escaping. Sera continued to scream and release all her energy until there was nothing left. She continued kneeling in the mud as her gaze fell upon her hands. Her body began shaking, shoulders quivering. Tears landed in her palms as she sobbed. With all the pent up anger gone, only sadness remained. Each breath became heavier until her sobs turned into something more sinister... Laughter... Mad laughter... Chapter 334 334: The Angels Shadow Jonas stood next to Faith''s corpse in confusion. He was about to kill her, but she just fell and died before he could''ve crushed her. The Husks stood nearby, just as confused. The bright lights continued shining, which began annoying Jonas. He turned away and ordered the Husks to turn off the lights, when a sudden loud explosion shook everyone to their very core. Everyone''s eyes went towards the southern horizon, the origin of the explosion. Nothing was visible, which meant the explosion originated from much further. While the loud noise still echoed in everyone''s ears, it left an almost tranquil atmosphere behind. The constant sound of gunshots, explosions, and screams suddenly stopped, leaving only pure silence behind. Hesitation gripped Jonas momentarily, stemming from his immense confusion. He lacked understanding regarding the explosion''s cause; however, he recognized its significance. He turned away from the horizon and glanced down at Faith''s corpse. His eyes widened the moment his vision landed on the empty floor... Her corpse was gone... Jonas immediately raised his arms, awaiting Faith''s attack, but only her laughter echoed around the room. A shiver went down on even the Husks'' spines, and fear gripped their hearts. "Looks like my Lady won, and she became something more!... I must provide an appropriate gift for her triumph! I wonder if she would like Wien as a gift... Well, not like it matters. She is getting it either way!" While her voice echoed in the large hall, a sudden darkness consumed the entire building. "You idiots! Why did you turn off the lights!?" Shouted Jonas, but before any Husks could''ve answered, Faith''s laughter continued. "Turned off? They haven''t turned them off... I just decreased the visibility they provided, but if you truly want to see, then... Let me help you!" The darkness around the room moved towards the center. The lights stayed muted, but now Jonas and the Husks weren''t a hundred percent blind. But as their vision came back, they rather stayed blind from the truth of their situation. Darkness coalesced, forming Faith''s small shape at the hall''s center. She stood in her armor, without her helmet, so the wide grin was visible to everyone. She spread her arms wide as she spoke. "So you want to see? Then let me show you something truly amazing!" Behind Faith''s back, a pair of large wings grew out of darkness. They were seemingly made from dark feathers, an exact copy of Sera''s own pristine white wings... Or more like its shadow... Upon seeing Faith''s new form, Jonas unconsciously took a few steps back, same as the Husks. He transformed quickly, turning into a six meter fire demon. The fiery armor covered his body, and the fire took on its usual blade-like form. While pointing his sword at Faith''s smiling form, he shouted to the Husks, "Attack you worthless pieces of shit!" He took a single step before the shadows consumed the hall again. They soon disappeared, leaving Faith laughing in the middle with her wings spread wide. Her wings and body shook from the joyful, and a bit insane, chuckle. She spread her armored arms and turned in a circle. It took Jonas an embarrassingly long time to find the source of her merit. He looked around, confused. The hall, which was full of Husks moments ago, now only held two people. Jonas''s mouth quivered as he tried to find answers to where the near hundred Husks disappeared to. He didn''t need to wait for long, as Faith easily settled all his guesses. "I just wanted a bit more privacy, if you don''t mind. All these lifeless eyes staring gave me the creeps..." Faith giggled upon seeing Jonas''s horrified expression. She extended her palm and formed the darkness around into a head. "Oh, don''t worry! I hadn''t killed them... They''re just taking a small vacation in a dark place... I''m sure my Lady will appreciate them more alive rather than dead. I''ve carefully wrapped them, as one would should with gifts... Anyway, let''s get this over with, shall we?" Her hand''s darkness morphed into a Husk''s severed head. It momentarily appeared lifeless; then rapid regeneration ensued. Slowly, its eyes moved, and it nearly came back to life. Upon seeing this, Faith giggled again, and crushed the head with a simple squeeze. Blood and brain matter flew through the air, but not a single drop landed on the ground as the shadows consumed them all. With the head gone, Faith stared at Jonas for a long moment, then summoned her signature rapier, and ran towards the fire demon. He raised his own weapon, ready to defend himself. His four eyes blinked once and Faith was already in front of him. The blade made of fire met with Faith''s rapier in the air, sending a shockwave in each direction. Her wings beat fast, pushing her forward, overwhelming Jonas''s elevated strength. He seemed shocked as Faith pushed back his body, even though her size was barely a quarter of his. She continued smiling, and with a powerful push, sent the fire demon reeling back. Jonas took a few steps back, then raised his weapon again, blocking another one of Faith''s blows. This one was somehow even stronger. He stumbled and destroyed the wall leading to the outside. Faith flew after him and delivered a devastating dropkick to his chest. The fire demon fell through the air, landing heavily on the grassy ground. Darkness consumed everything around the mansion. Only Jonas''s transformed fiery body provided minimal illumination. He placed a hand and tried pushing himself up, but Faith already stood there. She moved fast as lightning, her rapier turning into a giant, curved, black blade, that severed tendons, muscle and bones with ease. Jonas''s empty, bloody hand plopped on the ground, severed from the rest of his arm. His eyes widened as the sudden disappearance of support brought his body crashing down. A loud scream of pain and despair escaped his mouth, while Faith continued to fly around, like an eagle circling its prey. Her weapon cut three more times, severing each of Jonas''s limbs with perfect form. She pushed the shadows further, bringing pure darkness to Jonas''s surroundings. His body reverted back to its human form. The man''s sobs were his only company as blood flowed like rivers from the severed limbs. "This fight was quite disappointing, you know! I expected better from someone so bold. But maybe you were foolish, not brave... Not like it matters. The defiance you showed against my Lady''s will sealed your fate even before my arrival..." Jonas''s vision blurred as he stared up into nothingness. He felt a cold blade pressed against his throat, but no matter how hard he tried, the darkness remained permanent and unpierceable by his eyes. "Please... Please, spare... Spare me..." He whispered, while continuing to bleed out. He whimpered as the silence stretched. The icy blade eventually disappeared, making Jonas hopeful, but then Faith''s laughter brought back his despair. "No, I don''t think so! Firstly, I my Lady ordered me to kill you, so that''s a death sentence on itself. Secondly, I saw those terrified people in the senate building... I don''t think they would appreciate leaving you alive..." Her voice turned angry and dangerous, and without hesitation, Faith appeared in front of Jonas. She allowed him to see the horror of his own death. The darkness moved around him, morphing into something truly horrible¡ªa giant beast, possessing thousands of eyes and an enormous maw. He screamed in terror as the mouth closed in around his body, devouring him whole. Its teeth, made of shadows, pierced his body, breaking every bone, severing muscles and organs, drawing even more blood. He died a slow and painful death, exactly what he deserved. Upon completion, Faith released her hold on the shadows, causing their immediate disappearance under the bright sunlight. Not a single drop of blood remained of Jonas. She smiled up at the cloudless sky, then turned towards the silent city. Faith closed her eyes, and let her shadow perception spread across Wien. She saw every street, every building, every square, clear as if she used her own eyes. Soldiers on both sides stood around confused, unsure of their next action. She saw their hands tremble, and fingers move to the triggers. Everyone took aim, but before anyone could''ve released them from this stalemate, a clear voice spoke all across Europe. Faith immediately recognized Bea''s speech, ordering everyone to put their weapons down. Her incentive was understandable, and Faith was certain it worked on most soldiers, but Wien was still full of Husks, who stood around orderless. They brimmed with violence, waiting for their enemies to attack. Within seconds, the Husks prepared to attack the bewildered troops of the Angelic Order. But Faith didn''t let them. With her eyes closed, she focused her power, and whispered under her breath, "Let''s see how much power I actually possess!" Suddenly, behind her back, two more pairs of wings appeared next to the first. One made of black, metallic feathers, the other from dark flames. Each a shadow of Sera''s own. Faith burst into laughter as she felt her new power spread over the city. "This is amazing!" She said, while watching the Husks through her shadow perception. They brandished their weapons and prepared to attack the Angelic Order''s lines when their own shadows grew heavier and consumed their bodies. The Angelic Order members couldn''t see what happened. They only heard the Husks'' screams. When the shadows disappeared, not a single Husk remained... As if the shadows devoured every single one... Chapter 335: The Hag and the Monarch Sera stared towards the blue sky, still kneeling in the mud. Tears ran down her face uncontrollably, as sadness filled her heart. The world seemed so empty. She felt Bran''s missing presence with each heartbeat. But it was worse than simply missing her lover. She knew exactly where he was. She knew where Death dropped every soul off. Heaven, afterlife, paradise¡ªnone existed. The lucky souls got dumped like garbage, while the worst suffered in hell. Sera hated this knowledge, knowing her lover would never find peace. But she couldn''t succumb to hatred either, since that wouldn''t end great for anyone nearby. It lingered there, a silent call, prompting her to act, to kill and destroy. Its origin remained a mystery, but Sera knew better than to invite Madness into her mind. There was nothing she could do. Stuck between endless rage and despair, she found no way out. She stayed kneeling in the mud until her tears stop, and she made a decision. Slowly, she rose to her feet and began walking in a random direction. The streets were still mostly empty, so nobody could bother her. A few minutes after she began walking, a change went through the air. Sera stopped and glanced at her shadow with a serious expression. "Report." She said to seemingly no one. Her shadow began stretching, and soon Faith appeared kneeling on the ground. Behind her back, the pair of black feathered wings stayed pressed close to her body. Just like Sera''s own pristine white wings, hers hadn''t disappeared either. This wasn''t just their transformation anymore. As an Angel Sera couldn''t just dismiss all of her wings, and since Faith was her Shadow, she couldn''t either. Sera took a moment to stare at Faith''s new wings while she began the report. "Wien is under the Angelic Order''s full control, my Lady!" Her Lady continued staring at the black wings, then nodded absently. "Great job... And what about that dog, Jonas?" Faith glanced up with a wide grin, then swiped her hand on the ground. She created a large bubble of darkness, and upon dismissal, Jonas''s head appeared, perfectly depicting his terrified expression. "I took care of him and all the Husks, but I must disagree with your analogy... Dogs are meant to be loyal, while this pest hid in his mansion. He''s more like a rat than a dog!" Sera raised an eyebrow and couldn''t hold her laughter. With a small, satisfied smile, she bent down and touched the head, immediately turning it to ashes. As the winds carried Jonas''s remains away, Sera began walking again, with Faith only a step behind. They stayed silent for a few minutes, but eventually Sera collected all her thoughts, and sighed with heavy exhaustion. "Faith, I have a new mission for you!" Said Sera while glancing towards Faith. "Yes, my Lady?" She answered with a confident smile and full of determination. "Find my daughter and ask to meet me alone at sundown. Keep this mission a secret! Don''t tell anyone else. I want only you two there. Understood?" Faith nodded, then paused; a new question emerging in her mind. "Uh... My Lady. Where do you want to meet us?" Embarrassed, Sera stumbled, while her face flushed. With a small cough, she cleared her throat, and using the moment of respite, she dismissed all her stupid thoughts. "Yeah, I forgot... Meet me in the tallest tower on New Athens''s wall, the one overlooking the sea... Now go and only return with Vicky in company!" Faith said nothing, just nodded and returned to the shadows. Sera continued walking. After another few minutes, she reached and took off her watch. She still hadn''t checked her new status window, but with hindsight, it didn''t matter. What she learned from Bran explained a lot, and she planned on using this knowledge to her advantage. She stared at her watch for a few seconds, then squeezed her hand. The destroyed pieces fell towards the ground, but before they landed, each of them turned to ash. After watching the ashes get carried away by the wind, Sera turned away and continued towards her destination. She walked into an unmarked building in the middle of New Athens and went straight to the basement. Behind a packed bookshelf, Sera found her prey. A massive metal door with a hand scanner next to it. Sera reached out her palm, but hesitated. Her hand trembled from uncertainty, but her mind took control and she pushed through her reservations. After a moment, the scanner beeped. A loud screech followed the scanner''s noise as the vault door moved, rolling on tracks to the side. Silence descended when the door finally stopped. From inside the dark room, a strange sound emerged, echoing in Sera''s ears. It was like an old lady''s humming. Hesitantly, Sera stepped inside, causing the humming to end. The dark room stood empty, with only a single object placed in the middle. On a desk stood a small cage, holding an even smaller old hag inside. She sat on the cage''s floor, her hands moving through empty air, like she was weaving. "Oh, my! Is it that time already? How could I forget to get ready? Come! Please step inside, young Monarch! Come! Please, don''t be afraid of the dark!" The Hag''s old voice sounded inside the room, sending shivers down Sera''s spine. She kept her cool though, and walked up to the cage with a straight, serious, unamused expression. "You know Death always mentioned Fate and Destiny during our talks, but I always found his wording strange. He always referred to them like they were a person. He even used female pronouns a few times, like ''she'' or ''her''... Weird, isn''t it?" The Hag didn''t react to her words. Her hands moved along the air with extreme proficiency. Sera let a few seconds of silence creep in before she continued. "But... After what Bran told me..." Said Sera, then choked on her words. Just saying Bran''s name brought tears to her eyes. "After I learned more... Everything made much more sense. You prophecies, which always tend to come true. Your vast knowledge about the future. Your hunger for minds... It was already strange I met one Conceptual God in my life, but I never expected to meet two of them... Or am I wrong... Fate?" The Hag''s insane chuckled echoed inside the room. Her hand stopped weaving through the air, and She finally turned towards Sera. "I''m glad you are finally aware. Talking to you was like speaking with air. Yes, I''m indeed Fate, as your friend figured it out. It''s sad he couldn''t make it, but at least he stayed devout." A painful, angry expression took over Sera''s previous calmness. "Did you cause his death? He told me your prophecy. Was that the reason he died? Because you willed it?" On the Hag''s face, a wide grin spread as she laughed at Sera''s questions. "You think being Fate means I can control the world? Having everyone''s strings around my fingers curled? Must be nice being so stupid and nai?ve. But it will cause many people to grieve." "Fate isn''t some invisible force¡ªpredestination. It isn''t something to determine your damnation. I can see everything, past, future, and present. And let me tell you, it is anything but pleasant!" "Imagine seeing every person ever born live and die. Survive against all odds, only to lose when their time''s nigh. I can''t change anything. As for a God, I''m lacking splendidly. My prophecies are hints, advices for you to evade your destiny." Sera didn''t seem too surprised by Her words. She just listened to everything silently, then stared at the ground with saddened eyes. She eventually sighed, turning her gaze back to the Hag. The Old Woman''s eyes were still full of insanity, but She didn''t seem so heartless anymore. "So, you''re just as much of a pawn as everyone else... That''s disappointing. I hoped you would give me a reason to hate you, but that doesn''t seem to be the case." One lone tear managed to crush through her defenses and escape Sera''s eye, but she soon summoned back her bored, serious expression. "You''re Fate, but You have no control over our destiny. All You can do is give us insight, trying to push us on a better path, or warn us about our fate... What I don''t understand is why haven''t Bran tried to escape his death?... You told him enough, but he did nothing to stop it!" This time anger began overpowering Sera, and while she regained control, Fate giggled like the old insane woman she was. "It''s not as easy as it may seems. Escaping Fate wasn''t in his means. Some events happen regardless of space or time. His death was inevitable. That''s the world''s crime." Sera narrowed her eyes as the Hag''s words settled inside her. The truth was painful to accept, but she couldn''t deny it any longer. "Some fates are inevitable, it seems. He knew there was nothing he could''ve done to stop his death, so instead he used his time on Earth the best he could... And now it''s my time to continue his work..." The Hag''s eyes widened as a grin spread across her face. For a moment, Sera saw strange glowing lines glimmer in her eyes. Several snapped at once, which Sera found odd, but otherwise didn''t question it. The air felt different around Sera. She smelt a change coming, as her mind finally cleared from the constant overload of despair and anger. A strange calm came over her as she began walking towards the vault door. Before leaving, she stopped and glanced back at the Hag one more time. "You already know where I''m going... Could you provide one of your... ''Advices'' before I leave?" The Hag''s face became transparent as she slowly disappeared, leaving her words echoing in the small metallic chamber. "The Angel flies high, leaving heaven behind. Anger, Despair, Madness, companions of her mind. Her wings lift her up high, flying like the Raven. Wherever she lands, for the weak it will be haven." "She carries a war within, following her doom. Only bloodshed helps in elevating her gloom. Dying isn''t an option, or the fetus might suffer. It''s a miracle. Last night wasn''t its last supper." "The Angel leaves her life behind as a necessity. She couldn''t just stay here and follow her destiny. Her wings take her far away into the wild. Not far enough, though, to stay near her child." "The Old Gods rise from their graves, something unexpected. Sadly, this change is devastating. Everything will be affected. When Heaven''s door opens, and the gates of Hell burst wide. The Angel rides back home to save and kill all her kind." Sera listened to the words echo in the room, then placed one hand gently on her stomach. Weeping, she exited the basement, emerging onto the streets. The sun was already close to setting, which meant she had a meeting with her daughter... Chapter 336 336: Walking Away Sera stumbled along the streets, tears welling in her eyes. She clenched one hand so hard, blood began flowing from the wounds her nails made, while the other was its perfect contrast. Her right hand gently stroked her belly, where something small and beautiful was growing. The pain she felt in her heart, and the joy she felt in her mind, made her nauseous. She continued stumbling until she couldn''t hold it anymore. She entered a small, filthy alley and began violently vomiting. Her stomach was empty, so only acid came out of her. Its familiar burning sensation caused physical pain along her throat''s lining. It seemed pain was her constant companion. Something she could never escape. In this time of mental crisis and confusion, the familiar sensation of being hurt settled everything in Sera''s mind. The pain brought calmness with it, just like it did whenever Harold tortured her. Sera heaved, still leaning against the alley''s wall. Stomach acid dripped from her mouth, which she tried to wipe away, only to realize how dirty her hands were. She hadn''t showered or even washed hands since Malta. Dried blood, mud, dust, soot, and other disgusting materials, including her own vomit, covered her entire body. Sera glanced at her dirty hand for a moment before turning from the alley and proceeding towards her destination. Her right hand stayed on her belly, gently stroking it. She couldn''t help the small smile from creeping onto her otherwise grim face. After the Apocalypse, many people already considered pregnancies as miracles. It broke humanity when most of the population died in the Last War. For most families, having children was treated as a blessing. There were also cases of abortion and a lot of violence surrounding these events. People often got murdered both for aborting their own children, or hurting pregnant woman. The law also treated people who hurt pregnant woman as one of the highest offences, only preceded by actual murder. But there was an even greater miracle. An event rare enough that each one led to city-wide celebrations... Evolved pregnancies... The reason for these pregnancies remains a mystery. Unlike normal women, whose menstrual cycle determines their fertility, Evolved women have nothing like that. They menstruate once a year for an entire month, but their hormonal levels stay the same, and they don''t bleed. Their emotions are the only major change, which turns more erratic for the month. Evolved women''s pregnancies remained a mystery. Each birth didn''t just bring a regular baby into the world, but an Evolved one, making it an even greater miracle. For these reasons and a bunch of others, Sera felt especially ecstatic by learning this news. Yesterday, she doubted she''d survive the day, but now she felt unstoppable. A new sense of purpose arose in her. She couldn''t let herself die. She couldn''t give up now. She needed to live, so her baby could be born! With a lot more determination, she hurried towards the tower, but upon seeing the large structure stretch above, she stopped. Doubts rose in her mind. Her hand kept stroking her belly as she glanced down at her filthy body. The decision she made wasn''t as certain in her mind anymore. Was it really the right choice? Will she truly survive? Will her baby? So many questions, yet no true answers. Sera inhaled deeply, then gazed upward at the tower. The doubt gradually cleared from her mind as she recalled Fate''s last words: "When Heaven''s door opens, and the gates of Hell burst wide. The Angel rides back home to save and kill all her kind." This decision may prove disastrous, but her options were limited. There might''ve been a future for her if she stayed in Europe, yet Sera knew she couldn''t. The mental pressure already began growing back, and letting it fester for too long could lead to terrible consequences. With a heavy heart, Sera took one step after the other, walking towards the tower. As it loomed closer, firmness appeared in her steps, and when she arrived, all her doubts perished. Her pristine wings spread wide, and with a single stroke of her wings, Sera flew more than a hundred meters into the air, landing easily on the tower''s top level. Towards the west, the sun continued crawling below the horizon, its last rays reflecting on the sea''s gentle waves. The atmosphere felt especially peaceful. Sera leaned against the railing and watched the sunset of these shores. She perfectly imprinted the scene in her memory, knowing returning was distant hope for now, nothing else. A lot of memories and emotions pressed against her mental walls, but she kept everything intact. She didn''t have the luxury of losing herself in this current state. In silence, she waited and immediately after the sun set below the horizon, a portal opened right next to Sera. She sighed deeply and shook her head, but couldn''t help the laughter escape her lips. "I thought I explicitly said I only wished to see my daughter and my Shadow... What are you doing here, Henry?" Her words held a perfect monotone, but she couldn''t turn around, since the smile on her face betrayed her tough mother act. "Uh... I''m sorry my Lady! I tried convincing Vicky, but she wouldn''t come without Henry in attendance." Sera smirked, then slowly turned, eyeing the three people standing nearby Her daughter looked adamant, but also embarrassed, while Henry just seemed scared. Faith couldn''t even look into Sera''s eyes, shame evident on her face. "That''s no problem, actually it''s good that Henry is here. I would like to get a report of our standing in Europe before we proceed with our affairs!" Henry couldn''t hide the surprise from his face, even though he tried. After taking a deep breath, he opened up his watch and began summarizing a report he previously made. "The Angelic Order lost one-third of its number during the war and gained control of Wien, The Broken-City, and Lizbone! Also, after Bea''s declaration of the conflict''s end, Catania, Warsaw, Krak, Odesz, and Kiev all pledged their allegiance to us!" Sera nodded at the new information, not missing Henry''s last word, ''us''. It might''ve been a slip of his tongue, but Henry never made mistakes while talking. It didn''t matter for her at this moment, since something else that Henry said surprised her. "Catania? Really? How did that happen?" "Since they were the closest to the explosion of Malta, they all became terrified, and the moment Bea''s voice ended the conflict, their leadership immediately surrendered. The city''s now controlled by their Angelic Order Chapter." Sera became thoughtful, then nodded to herself as a new understanding settled in her mind. "Thirteen city-states, am I correct? That''s the extent of our control?... Okay, then let''s visit each. I need to do something before my resurrection''s power boost runs out... Starting with New Athens!" Without delay, Sera soared into the sky and unfurled all three sets of her wings. The air turned heavier to everyone still standing atop the tower. They watched with wide eyes as Sera''s body burned with golden flames and shined with pure light. The pressure in the air increased, and with a loud groan, Sera''s power shot out in a straight line, hitting the ground near the edge of the Aegis System. In a shower of dirt, everything exploded there, and silence followed. Soon the ground began shaking, and every soldier standing on the walls watched in awe as the energy circled the entire city. When both sides met, and the circle became complete, the Sera''s energy glowed with even more ferocity. From the ground, silver, metallic walls rose high into the sky, dwarfing the ones where the soldiers stood. It was also wide and on four points, large gate-like holes appeared in the walls. After finishing it, Sera returned to the trio, and together they travelled to each of the thirteen city-states. She raised similar walls at each, surprising all the soldiers standing on guard. Lizbone was the last, and after completing the wall, Sera fell to her side on the grassy plains near the newly formed wall. She panted, trying to keep her eyes open, not letting the exhaustion overwhelm her. With Faith''s help, she rose back to her feet and smiled down at her daughter. Tears welled in her eyes for the thousandth time today. Sera bent down with a slight groan and hugged her daughter. She felt her small body shake as her reservations broke, and she began sobbing. Even though Sera still hasn''t shared her plan yet, they all felt the change, the finality of the moment. Something has ended. They reached a journey''s end, and now they embark on a new one. "Don''t worry, my little angel. You can visit me whenever you want, but I need to leave..." Vicky sniffled as her arms tightened around Sera. "Why?... Why can''t you stay?... We won, didn''t we?... So why leave after victory?" Gently, Sera pushed her daughter away, so she could look into her beautiful white eyes. "I''m uncertain myself, but I know it''s the right option... After my previous Evolution, something happened in my mind. I need to figure it out, and solve it before it''s too late... Otherwise I will lose myself to bloodlust..." Vicky''s eyes widened, and she was about to suggest a myriad of solutions, just so her mother would stay. But before any word could''ve left her mouth, Sera giggled joyfully. "I also have some good news as well before I leave... You are going to have a baby sister or brother. I''m pregnant..." Sera gently brushed her belly while everyone else just stared at her in utter shock. Strangely enough, Vicky was the least surprised by this new information. She smiled down at Sera''s belly and whispered, "It''s a boy..." "How do you know?" Asked Sera while raising her eyebrow. Vicky seemed surprised by both the question and her own words. Eventually, she just shrugged. "I just do!" Sera didn''t raise any more questions, even though she had her suspicions Vicky wasn''t telling the whole truth. Instead of interrogating her daughter, Sera just accepted and changed the subject. "Well, then... If you are so certain, I give you the job of naming him after his birth!" Vicky''s face froze in a mix of joy and fear. Sera chuckled at her daughter''s weird expression, then leaned in and gave a small kiss on the top of her head. With one hand, she gently brushed her finger along Vicky''s facial scar. She did the same with her mother''s own. They hugged one more time, before Sera finally rose from the ground and walked up to Faith. Sera didn''t need to say a word, and she already disappeared into her shadow. Together, they walked a few meters away and waited for Vicky to open a portal. Faith had previously sent the exact coordinates of their destination to Henry, so Vicky knew exactly where the portal will lead to. Tears filled her eyes as she reached out her small hand, creating a wide portal for Sera to pass through. She smiled, looked back at her daughter, then turned away from Vicky and Henry. Sera stepped through the portal, leaving Europe behind. The portal eventually closed, and Vicky broke down crying. On that day, when the war for Europe''s future ended, The Angel left her home to seek a remedy for her misery. She left her continent after bolstering her cities'' defenses, knowing full well her friends would protect all her people. People at first became angry at Seraphine. Their goddess. They thought her selfish for leaving in their time of need. But after a while, a rumor began spreading amongst the faithful. Many believed a great danger was approaching, and upon their time of need, their Goddess would return, saving them from certain doom once more. Nobody was certain where the rumor originated from. Even Lilith and Adam stayed clueless. The few accounts spoke of an old lady preaching in rhymes about the future. Some witnesses even referred to her as a... Hag... [End of Part 3 ¡ª Ashes of Vengeance] [End of Volume 2 ¡ª Rise of the Phoenix] Chapter 337: Routine The sun''s warmth illuminated Europe as a new day began. Vicky followed her daily routine, which became quite monotone in the past two years. She woke up next to Henry, who was already wide awake and getting ready for school. While she was still groggily looking around, he was already assisting the maids in preparing breakfast. They always tried sending him away, but he was adamant about helping, and since they couldn''t order a prince around, they awkwardly accepted. The others woke up after him and gradually trickled into the dining hall for breakfast. Henry woke first, followed close by Lydia. Max, Glenn, Dan, and Jamie''s orders always change, but Vicky''s late arrival is permanent. Their parents also attend breakfast most times, since they all live in the same house now. Not long after The War of Three Alliances, Henry had a falling out with his mother, and together all their families moved to New Athens. Now, the parents worked in the city, or just simply enjoyed living carefree lives, while the kids attended one of the best schools in New Athens. While everyone was beginning to eat, Vicky only just climbed out of bed. She yawned the sleepiness out of herself, then walked into the bathroom, where she spent a good half-hour getting ready. When she stepped out, her nightgown was gone, replaced by a magnificent midnight black dress, which was seemingly woven from the night sky. She kept her shoulder-length white hair in a neat ponytail. Her fierce, joyful white eyes held dark blue spots inside them, making their presence even more magnificent. Vicky also applied a bit of makeup around her eyes. She also used a tasteful amount of fake blush on her cheeks and a light pink lipstick on her mouth. Her heavenly features appeared even more divine with makeup on. While wearing the makeup and dress, she looked like a night-goddess. Even more so because of her delicate pale skin. Her girlish body held no inadequacies, almost. A long scar running from the middle of Vicky''s eyebrows to the left side of her jawline was her only imperfection, and even though she used makeup, the scar stayed visible. Initially, there may have been some odd looks directed at her, but when Sera''s scarred face was revealed to the public, it set off a new trend. At first, people self-harmed to give themselves scars, but that soon got outlawed, and Evolved always healed their facial injuries. Following that came the tattoos. Vicky and others deemed it strange, but had to accept the compromise. Now thousands sported Sera''s facial scar as a mark of their goddess and for dedication to their faith. While continuing to yawn occasionally, Vicky made her way downstairs and into the dining hall. The children had already finished eating, except for Henry. He always waited for Vicky to arrive so they could eat together. Everyone smiled and greeted each other, but Vicky had eyes for only one person. In a raised chair sat a one-year-old with brownish-gold hair. His golden-hazel eyes angrily glared at one of Glenn''s fathers as he tried shoving food into his mouth. The baby didn''t cry or do anything bad in particular. He just continued glaring, while keeping his mouth closed. Glenn''s father tried forcing his mouth open, but even with his Evolved strength, he couldn''t. While struggling, adamantly denying to eat, the baby scanned the room. His judgmental eyes scanned the room, only brightening, when Vicky appeared. Upon stepping inside the room, she could barely greet everyone before the child was flying through the air. His pristine white wings held a few black feathers, making them a bit mysterious and truly breathtaking. With one strong wing stroke, he flew straight into her sister''s arms. His chubby face lit up with pure joy, while staring into Vicky''s eyes. "Nick! I already told you! No flying before breakfast!" While Vicky berated her brother, he made a grumpy expression and tried grabbing her ponytail. She just giggled and placed him back in his chair. She then took the plate of food and spoon away from Ben¡ªGlenn''s father. Every morning, he tried feeding little Nicholas, but he only accepted food from Vicky. Surprisingly, this occurred only in the morning. He ate and drank whatever offered later on during the day, but Vicky alone could feed him breakfast. Nobody really minded this. It made Vicky felt special, which made everyone happy. They never talked to her about it, but everyone, especially the adults, worried about her mental health. After Sera''s disappearance, she became depressed for a while, only returning to normal when Nick appeared in her life. It also didn''t help that Bea rarely visited. It was close to two months since her last visit, and even though they communicate regularly, Vicky always seemed happier when her mother was nearby. While Vicky fed her brother, Henry stood up and stopped next to her. She turned to him with a smile and stood on her tippy-toes to reach him. Still, he had to bend down to kiss his girlfriend. In the past two years, Henry went through a rapid growth for multiple reasons. First, he inherited both her mother''s genes, and since both were gigantic woman, his growth was already unnatural. Second, in the past two years, through lots of struggles and obstacles, he managed to evolve, becoming an Ascended. Henry was only fifteen-years-old, but his height already reached 1,9 meters, which made him over 30 centimeters taller than Vicky. He was also muscular. If one ignored his adolescent face, he could easily be mistaken as a grown man. It also didn''t help that his mannerism stayed princely, and he always wore elegant, expensive suits. They chatted while feeding Nick, then when he ate everything, the small winged baby took to the air and began flying around the mansion. One maid ran after him, cursing under her breath. It wasn''t necessary, since Nick was smart enough to stay in the mansion''s proximity, but he still was only a one-year-old baby, so someone needed to be with him at all times. They weren''t worried about his well-being. The actual issue rose from the public. Nick''s existence and origin was the biggest secret only known by the few individuals living with him, plus Lilith and Adam. Even the maids who cared for him daily remained unaware of his background. Lilith also regularly checked their memories and even changed a few when necessary. The maids knowingly accepted the job''s implications, even if it involved some privacy infringement. Also, all of them were trusted members of the Angelic Order, so they wouldn''t snitch about Nick''s origin, even if tortured. When Nick finally finished eating, Vicky and Henry began as well, while the others packed for school. After everyone was ready, all seven of them went outside with their bags. They walked a few steps along the road, then stopped. Vicky glanced up into the sky. There she saw a bird flying, but something was strange about it. The bird stayed still in the air, as if frozen, but somehow it didn''t fall. She continued staring at the frozen bird while Henry raised his hand and swiped through the air. A sudden blast of warm air hit everyone in the face, as if a barrier kept it away from them. Above, the bird burst into action, continuing flying like nothing happened. They let the influx of air settle, then everyone turned towards Vicky. She took a deep breath of the fresh, salty sea breeze, snapped her fingers, teleporting all seven of them into an empty classroom. Teachers and students were absent from most of the school, since it was still quite early. But, despite two hours of preparation at the mansion, the seven of them arrived sooner than any faculty member. This was thanks to Henry''s Ascended ability. Upon waking, he encircles the mansion with a temporary time barrier, allowing preparation. Every hour spent inside the bubble equates to a single second outside. Henry, of course, kept his powers a secret. Even his mother was unaware of the power he possessed. It wasn''t easy to gain this ability, alone it wouldn''t have been possible. Luckily, Vicky wasn''t the only person who had help with Evolution. After arriving in the classroom, Lydia walked up to Vicky, who sighed in annoyance. Why must we do this every time? I don''t care if the others recognize me!" Lydia just smirked and gently placed her palm on Vicky''s left jawline. "We already talked about this, my Lady! It would inconvenience everybody if they figured out either yours or Henry''s identity! Now don''t be a baby and stay still... Or you want me to accidentally turn you ugly?" Vicky grumbled a bit more, but she stopped moving when Lydia began working on her face. In the past two years, she became an Ascended too, but her powers were considerably less impressive than either Henry''s or Vicky''s. She could change materials to a certain degree. With inanimate objects, it was very strong, but for flesh, bones, skin, and any living tissue wasn''t easy to manipulate. Lydia used her powers mostly to change both Henry''s and Vicky''s facial structures, making them uglier. Even using all her power, both of them kept their amazing features, but at least they weren''t Evolved level beautiful. Vicky also kept her scar, and when Lydia tried removing it once, she teleported her friend above the school''s pool. She had to spend the entire day dripping wet, and it also ruined her leather jacket. Lydia learned a valuable lesson that day: good intentions don''t justify overstepping boundaries, especially when it comes to her friends. Other than changing their facial features, Lydia also changed their hair color, turning Vicky''s light brown and Henry''s black. Vicky''s eye color also needed changing, so Lydia turned them dark green. With their disguises finished, Vicky turned towards her boyfriend with a smile. He giggled at her expectant expression, then bent down and kissed her. While occupied with one another, their classmates began arriving as the school day was about to begin. Chapter 338: School Day The schooling within the Angelic Order''s territories was simple. Children of all ages needed to attend schools, until they had enough general knowledge to venture into the world, either entering the workforce or pursuing higher education. The schools taught the same subjects with similar curriculums. Every child must learn about math, sciences, literature, history, art, and world knowledge. Some of these subjects were seemingly less important. For example, losing considerable knowledge from before the Apocalypse resulted in history classes focusing on the past thirty years. Many people also looking down upon the arts and literature, deeming them worthless. Fortunately, the educational leaders, who decide the curriculum and subjects, know the importance of art in a functioning society. Art is the fuel of the human soul. A necessary part of society. Without art, the people''s morale will crumble, leading to depression, high suicide rates, and even possibly rebellion. Nobody argued against math and sciences. Most children hated these subjects, but accepted their importance. However, the most significant subject was, of course, world knowledge... This course aims to fully educate students on the world. They learn about fighting both unarmed and with weapons, monster classification, survival techniques, political climate, laws, religions, everything they might need in the future. This subject''s singular focus is preparing children for the harsh reality of the world, with no sugarcoating or propaganda. Another important part of every Angelic Order school was the lack of religious and political ideologies. Children objectively study these worldviews. The teachers have to keep their feelings in check when teaching the curriculum, so the students can form their own opinions later. Even a devoted Angelic Order follower must teach from an objective perspective. Lots of parents don''t agree with objective teaching, especially the religious fanatics. Only when the Angelic Order accepted the school''s teaching methods did the masses calmed down. While world knowledge was the most important and exciting subject for most children, Vicky found it extremely boring. "...And that''s how you disarm an opponent stronger than you! Anyone have questions?" Asked their instructor, a young woman barely in her twenties. She was a veteran from The War of Three Alliances, fought on the front lines near Barcelon. She was also an Evolved, and part of the Angelic Order. For most schools within the fourteen city-sates, it was rare that an actual war veteran came in to teach, but in New Athens, the heart of the Angelic Order, it was a regular occurrence. The students adored their teacher, and loved these fighting classes, but since Vicky''s, Henry''s, Lydia''s and Glenn''s strength surpassed any normal adults, they couldn''t participate. "Nobody? Good! Then let''s begin the exercise! Every go to your assigned partner and try disarming them!" The teacher''s shout echoed around the room. The students faced each other with their swords or spears and the grunting and panting commenced. Vicky stared at them for a while, then glanced at Glenn nearby. He enthusiastically described fighting styles and warfare tactics, while Lydia responded once in a while. Her eyes always scanned their surroundings, looking out for potential threats. Just from looking at them, one would never discern their romantic relationship. But Vicky easily saw through their ruse. She saw when Glenn gestures with his hand and accidentally touch hers, a small blush always creeps onto Lydia''s face. On the other hand, Glenn''s excitement was a clear tell of his crush. Vicky continued watching them for a while, only turning away when Adam bumped her arm. The instructor walked towards the four of them, her eyes serious, her face unreadable. On her uniform, right at her heart, a golden seven-pointed star declared her allegiance. She stopped next to Vicky and Henry, then turned away, staring towards the dueling mats. The students continued fighting each other, disarming or defeating their classmates. "Is everything well, my Lady? You don''t need to stay. I won''t report you!" The instructor whispered under her breath, trying to not draw attention. Vicky just sighed and shook her head. "No need, I''m good here... How''s your leg, Miss May?" She asked, while glancing at the brace around her right leg. The woman felt taken aback by the question, but after blushing from embarrassment, she resumed her serious expression. "It''s not too bad. Just a souvenir from Barcelon... Those Husk blades are quiet nasty, and we still hadn''t found a way to properly heal them... I wonder if we ever will... I got off easy, some of my friends lost limbs, or suffered permanent organ damage... They could never fight again..." Miss May''s eyes turned sad as she remembered those times. Despite only two years passing, her memories felt distant. Barcelon, unlike most places, resisted capture. Their purpose was to destroy and cause as many casualties as possible. They brought many Federal Alliance soldiers down, but when the Husks appeared, they had to retreat while suffering heavy casualties themselves. Only Madrid fared worse. Few of the initial thousands of Evolved and Ascended returned, while no regular soldiers survived. Compared to Barcelon, Madrid was a true hellscape. Millions died, and they couldn''t even capture the city. Even now, two years later, Madrid and Barcelon stays strong. From the Federal Alliance''s five Stellars, three managed to survive and return to the city-states. New Paris also stayed strong against capture, with Napoleon and his two lackeys surviving The War of Three Alliances. May continued staring at the mats, while remembering all the horror, but soon a gentle voice brought her out of the reverie. "We are working on it. The Angelic Order''s lead scientist already has a prototype solution, but it requires more testing before we could heal everyone... Don''t worry, Miss May. Soon you will walk properly again soon!" A small smile crept up on Miss May''s lips, and she blinked the tears of relief away. "Anyway, what''s your kids'' plan for the Peacemaking celebration? It''s only two days away!" Vicky turned away with sad eyes. May 12th was approaching, the day when The War of Three Alliances ended by Bran, the Peacemaker''s self sacrifice. For the public, it was a joyous celebration, but Vicky spent that day mourning. She never was particularly close to Bran, but throughout the months she grew quite fond of him. At some point, towards the end, he even became a kind of father figure for Vicky. This meant losing him hit her hard, and hearing the happy celebrations on his death''s anniversary felt like an insult. After a few second silence, May''s gaze dropped to Vicky''s tear-streaked face with curiosity. Upon seeing the girl''s sad expression, May''s heart nearly stopped from fear. She was close to begging for forgiveness when the bells sounded, marking the end of the class. Vicky wasted no time to retreat into the female locker room, and Lydia followed close behind. The other students also left the training area. Each looked more tired than the last. Sweat ran down their faces, and a few even had some bruises, which were quickly healed by the school''s Evolved nurse. Vicky didn''t make it far into the locker room before she fell to her knees and began weeping. Lydia gently hugged her side and lifted Vicky onto a nearby bench. The other girls trickled into the locker room too. They laughed between each other, then became awfully quiet upon seeing Vicky''s state. They began whispering and snickering, thinking neither Lydia nor Vicky could hear them. "Look at Viola. She''s crying again!" Said one girl, while pointing at Vicky with little subtlety. Viola was the name Vicky chose as an alias for school. Henry also renamed himself to Hayden while attending. "Isn''t she like thirteen or fourteen? Why is she so childish?" "Not just childish, but stupid as well! Have you seen the results of her math tests? She is by far the worst, not just in our class, but in the entire school!" Lydia''s hands trembled in anger, but when she was about to confront them, Vicky caught her hand firmly. Their eyes met, and while Lydia was full of fury, Vicky stayed sane and cautious. While Lydia struggled to control her emotions, more girls stepped inside, continuing the snickering remarks. "It''s not just math, but world knowledge! Why does she never train with us? She must suck so much the school had to make exceptions!" "I bet that''s why Hayden never trains either. Solidarity to her weakling ''girlfriend''." "Or maybe he just doesn''t need training! Have you seen his physique? I bet he could beat up even the instructors!" These comments hadn''t bothered Vicky, but when she heard one particular girl''s voice, her blood began boiling. "I heard a rumor he only dates her out of pity. I mean, look at her pathetic behaviour, and that small lanky figure! She looks like a starved puppy! Hayden must''ve explicitly told her not to fight, since she would probably die from one kick to her head!" The other girls laughed and giggled while surrounding the tallest of their bunch. Thea was by far one of the most distinguished student in their school. She was tall, reaching 1,8 meters. Her beauty was unparalleled, and even as a fourteen-year-old, her body was already developing well. Most other girls envied her curves, including Vicky. Thea also excelled in every subject, bringing only perfect scores on most tests. She was also very athletic, and well trained in many martial arts. Furthermore, she hailed from a military family, with Ascended parents and siblings. They raised her to be a soldier from birth. As a fourteen-year-old, she was already an Ascended with lots of monster kills on her hand. Henry alone outperformed Thea on each subject, which ignited the girl''s rivalling spirit. She tried to raise her scores in math and other subjects, but since Henry never missed any question on tests, that proved impossible. Thea then tried beating him in fighting classes, but since Henry never participated in those, she had to think of something else. Since Thea had found no way of beating Henry, she took pride and pleasure in bullying his girlfriend as much as possible. Vicky never told Henry about her bullying, and she generally managed fine, but even she had her limits. "She must be an orphan or something! Has any of you seen her parents! I bet they are ugly, just like her! They probably died in The War of Three Alliances. That''s why she always cries!" Thea''s laughter echoed in the locker room. It took her a few seconds to realize that other than her, nobody else was laughing. Everyone stared behind her, where Viola stood with a hateful, furious eyes. Unconsciously, Thea took a step back as a shiver went down her spine. Viola''s anger didn''t scare her. But something else brought Thea worry. The small girl with short light brown hair and dark green eyes grinned as she moved her arm back and punched Thea in the face. Chapter 339: Bully Thea felt sweat trickle down her face as she watched Viola angrily flying at her. A frightening contrast existed between her wide smile and the viciousness in her eyes. She watched as the small pale fist closed in towards her face. Everything felt like it happened in slow motion. The girls who stood around Thea jumped to the sides, while Lydia desperately tried to catch Viola. But unlike most of these girls, Thea wasn''t a regular human. Even surprised, Viola''s attack seemed predictable. It might''ve been faster than Thea anticipated, but since this was the exact result she hoped for, in mind, she had prepared for the attack already. This bullying was only a farce to rile Viola into attacking. Every school treated every student fight seriously, and most times only the perpetrator got suspended. As Viola''s fist approached her face, she couldn''t help but smirk. The fist connected with Thea''s left cheek, and she leaned into the punch perfectly, so she wouldn''t get hurt seriously. Her eyes widened for a moment as she felt the unexpected strength behind Viola''s fist. Thea reeled back a few steps until her back hit the lockers so hard it bent the metal. She coughed and spat some blood on the ground, which also surprised her. Before she could''ve done anything, Thea heard Viola''s rage-filled grunt as she continued running towards her. The small girl bent her knee and jumped into the air. She turned and executed a perfect roundhouse kick. The power within her feet was enough to seriously hurt a regular human, maybe even killing them. Thea''s eyes widened again, and she bent down, pushing herself away from the wall of lockers. Viola flew above her, hitting the lockers with her devastating kick. The sound of metal screeching echoed in the small room, and everyone watched in awe as Viola''s kick broke the lockers. Still facing the lockers, Viola took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, when a sudden powerful force grabbed her from behind. "Are you out of your fucking mind, you freak! You could''ve killed someone with that kick!" Thea shouted in Viola''s ear, then grabbed her small body and sprinted out of the locker room. Viola barely recognized what was happening as the force grabbing her disappeared and she felt her limp body fly through the air. Heavily, she hit the dueling mat, rolling for a few meters before coming to a stop. Viola wasted no time. She immediately jumped to her feet and defended against Thea''s onslaught. The tall girl sprinted towards Viola. Her expression stayed calm as she moved back her arm and tried punching Viola in the face. The small, pale girl evaded the punch with ease, then, using her momentum, she turned from the waist and crouched. She swept her right leg, trying to put Thea on her back, but the much stronger girl already read her move. She flipped into the air, evading Viola''s leg, and landing behind her. Viola''s eyes widened at the unexpected move, and she felt Thea''s shin hit her side. The tall girl, though trying to restrain herself, still held the strength of an Ascended. The small girl flew about five meters, then landed on another dueling mat. The air got knocked out of Viola, and she felt the heavy footsteps approaching her weak body. Viola coughed up blood, then tried pushing herself up from the mat. Suddenly, she felt a strong palm grasp her light brown hair. She glanced into Thea''s calm silver eyes before she slammed her face into the mat below. Thea repeated the move a few times until a satisfying crunch marked the breaking of Viola''s nose. Her small smirk became a wide grin as she lifted the small girl by her hair and tossed her onto another mat. The only issue was... She missed... In her riled up state, Thea''s aim was a bit off, and instead of landing on a firm but otherwise harmless mat, Viola flew straight into a concrete pillar. The stone cracked, and fragments rained down upon Viola''s crumpled body. The small girl made a whimpering noise as she tried to move, but since most of her limbs broke, she couldn''t do much. Thea''s wide grin turned into a face of pure horror. One of Viola''s bones stuck out of her arm while a scratched up face leaked blood on the ground. "MY LADY!" Came the scream from behind Thea. She saw a blur run past her, and within less than a second, Lydia knelt beside Viola''s broken body. She tried touching her face while whispering, but before her fingers could''ve landed on Viola, the pale girl grabbed Lydia''s arm, stopping her. The two girls'' whisper screamed at each other, and no matter how hard she struggled, Thea couldn''t make out their words. Seconds later, Thea heard a commotion behind her. She glanced back only to see a few other students running towards Viola. Thea recognized all of them, but her eyes only focused on Hayden. Thea, like the other girls by the door witnessing the whole fight, found her mouth watering and took deep breaths while gazing at Hayden. It seemed that Hayden had misplaced his shirt while emerging from the boys'' locker room. Every girl blushed heavily just from taking glances at his muscular body. But while all the girls hungered for him, Hayden only cared about Viola. The small girl placed her arms around his neck, and Hayden lifted her in a princess carry. When the girls saw him lift Viola, their mood instantly took a turn for the worse. They began grumbling between each other while glaring at Viola''s bloodied figure. Thea still couldn''t figure out her next move. She went too far, that was obvious, and since the schools hated violence between students in uncontrolled environments, Thea knew her time was up. She probably would get suspended indefinitely. She could never pursue higher education, and the Angelic Order''s military would never accept her. As all her fears piled upon one another, she felt fast footsteps approaching. As quickly as she could, Thea looked behind and saw Lydia fly towards her. The air around her hand condensed and changed form until a metal dagger appeared in the usually timid girl''s hand. Lydia moved so fast Thea couldn''t react. She saw the dagger approaching her skull. Her memories flashed before her eyes as she felt death grip her soul. Right before the dagger could reach her right eye, something strange occurred. A tiny circle appeared before her eye. The dagger passed through the circle, then immediately it disappeared, taking the blade to somewhere unknown. Lydia glanced at the remnants of her dagger, then turned towards Viola and walked away without saying a word. She tossed away the handle, but before it could''ve landed, it turned back to air. Thea still felt shaken by the encounter. Her breathing was uneven, her heartbeat elevated. Her whole body shook with fear as tears ran down her face. Despite her experience of killing many monsters, she never felt afraid for her life. Her parents, or other soldiers, always stayed nearby, providing help when necessary. While terror continued gripping Thea''s heart, she couldn''t even think about what Lydia did. She definitely saw her use some Evolved ability, which was strange since every Evolved student needed registering and they were always announced to the entire class. Despite intense curiosity, Thea faced more pressing matters. It seemed a few girls ran away and got Miss May to help separate Viola and Thea. But the girls became shocked when Miss May''s expression went pale and horrified. Miss May didn''t run towards the training hall, since this event was out of her jurisdiction. As quickly as she could, she wrote a message to the Angelic Order''s military, who reacted immediately. Instead of a single instructor coming to berate two students, a full military squad arrived in the training hall. The students all watched with awe and terror as five armored soldiers marched through the training hall''s door with weapons drawn. In that moment, Thea fell to her knees and began weeping. She knew something was wrong, since an incident like this wouldn''t warrant military attention. She couldn''t figure out why they arrived, but upon seeing Viola''s state, four soldiers separated from the unit and ran to Thea. There was nothing Thea could''ve done as a soldier punched her head, while another placed handcuffs on her arms and legs. As blood poured down into her eyes, Thea saw Viola speaking with the unit''s leader. Thea''s entire body felt limp and soulless. It felt like her life ended, like she was already dead. Two soldiers lifted her, while the other two pointed guns in her face. Together, they walked to their unit leader, who seemed extremely annoyed and exhausted. The unit leader sighed, turning back to Viola. "You sure about this? She deserves a good whopping, at least! Shouldn''t we teach her a lesson?" Behind Hayden and Viola, Lydia stepped out. Her face held no emotion, only a content smile and hidden cruelty. "I think you heard my Lady''s order, unit leader! I personally would put that dog down, but since that wasn''t what my Lady asked for, follow her... Request." Lydia received a brief glance from the unit leader, followed by a sigh and an exhausted shake of his head. "Okay, let''s take the girl to the principal''s office for interrogation. Let''s go!" Thea barely registered anything. She glanced up towards Viola once more before the soldiers turned a corner. What really surprised Thea was Viola''s expression. After fighting and nearly beating her to death, the small girl shown no signs of pain, fear, sadness, or anger. Instead, Viola looked straight into Thea''s eyes while smiling. Even worse, just before they turned the corner, and she lost sight, the pale girl winked at Thea playfully, treating this whole ordeal as some sort of game. Chapter 340 340: Free to Go The soldiers stayed silent while escorting Thea into the principal''s office. The lavish room stood empty. Only a steaming cup sitting on the desk''s edge marked the principal''s quick departure, leaving his office free for the interrogation. They pushed her into a chair while keeping the handcuffs on her hand. Out of reflex, she tried moving her hands and feet, but the handcuffs held strong... Unnaturally strong... From curiosity, Thea glanced down at her legs, and her eyes widened in surprise. The legcuffs glinted in the bright room. The silvery metal seemed like a perfect mirror as it reflected its surroundings. But Thea''s shock didn''t stem from the metal''s strength. It was obvious where the silvery metal''s inner hardness came from... It would be quite embarrassing if The Angel''s own metal couldn''t restrain an Ascended... Thea or even any other Angelic Order resident could''ve recognized the material. All their city-states had gigantic walls built from the exact same silver metal. While she wandered about the metal''s origin, or how the handcuffs were made, the unit leader opened up a holo-screen and began talking to Thea. "Hmm... Miss Thea, is it?... A prospering student from a prestigious and rich military family... Acquired Evolved status in February 16th 29 ATA... Acquired Ascended status in November 24th 29 ATA... Dreams of joining the Angelic Order''s military, like your family..." The unit leader read everything out in a monotone voice. It made all of Thea''s hard accomplishments seem trivial and boring... Nothing special... She wanted to feel offended, object to his remarks, or defend her honor in any way, but when she opened her mouth, a soldier placed her hand on Thea''s shoulder. She glanced up and saw the soldier shake her helmeted head once. Thea understood the warning and took the shaming seriously... Not like she didn''t deserve it... "Nearly perfect grades, excellent training results, and high knowledge of warfare and politics... Your Ascended powers are strong and useful... The emotional chart is not the best, too competitive and not loyal, with a sever lack of close connection to fellow students..." The last part caused especially lot of shame to Thea. She knew her problems, but until confronted, she never thought of them as a genuine issue. "All-in-all, you would''ve needed a psych evaluation and maybe a few social classes, but you could''ve easily joined the military with no issues... So tell me, Miss Thea... Are you fucking retarded?!" The unit leader nearly screamed the last words, his face turning red from anger. His reaction took aback Thea. She it was stupid. A dumb mistake. What made the unit leader so angry about Thea fighting with some random girl? As this thought appeared in her head, did Thea begin to realize... Viola wasn''t normal at all... She couldn''t have been a regular girl. The kick and movements she performed, while lacking in strength, were still much faster than any thirteen-year-old girl could''ve physically been capable of delivering. Viola also survived her kick with only a few broken limbs. A regular human girl would have been near death after hitting that pillar, but Viola even tried getting up afterward. "Who''s Viola? Who are her parents?" Thea''s words cut through the silence, and soon the unit leader''s laughter echoed in the room. "So you still have some sense left... Good! Her identity is a secret, and she hadn''t given permission for us to reveal it... Let''s just say she is from a powerful family, with lots of influence... A person you shouldn''t make an enemy of!" The unit leader''s words didn''t help in calming Thea''s already miserable emotions. In fact, it only agitated and worried her. She already knew hitting Viola was a big mistake, but she never imagined something like this. If they kept her identity secret, then she didn''t just belong to a regular, rich family, but from a truly powerful one. As thoughts moved through her mind fast, Thea recalled Lydia''s attack. They also failed to introduce her as an Evolved, which was illegal except for those above the law. Thea''s entire body trembled as she felt death closing on her again. Tears leaked from her eyes as her breathing became frantic and her heartbeat irregular. The unit leader lifted the principal''s smoking cup of coffee and took a sip. He then chuckled at Thea''s state... "Oh, for the Goddess! Are you going to piss yourself from fear? We hadn''t even told you everything and already given up?... With this attitude, you would''ve never made it into the military!" Sadly, these words did nothing to calm Thea down. Her anxiety continued growing until she was on the border of a panic attack. As her breath quickened, the female soldier behind her flicked the side of Thea''s head. Her gauntleted finger''s sharp end bit into Thea''s skin, ripping it open. A few drops of blood fell on her lap, but soon the wound closed seamlessly. The sudden jolt of pain brought Thea out of her self-pity, and she continued awaiting the unit leader''s words with newfound composure. "Much better!... Now let''s talk about your sentence! In my opinion, you and your entire family should be executed for insubordination, but since our Goddess always valued fairness, I would be fine only killing you!" Thea''s eyes widened, but she kept the panic from showing on her face. It would be useless anyway, but she also felt a bit of hope, because of the unit leader''s word usage... He said ''would'', not ''will''... The man watched Thea for any reaction, and when he found nothing obvious, a satisfying smile grew on his face. "But, luckily for you, it''s not my call to make... As you saw, I already spoke with Viola, and asked for her sentence... I tried convincing the girl, but she was adamant on letting you go with no reprimanding." Thea''s eyes widened even further from shock. She either had bad hearing, or the unit leader was stupid, since there was no way Viola would''ve let her go without causing any issue. "B-but... But there must be evidence of my actions... Don''t you have an obligation to arrest me, even if she disagrees?" The training hall had dozens of cameras aimed at the dueling mats, so there should be plenty of footage of Thea beating Viola up. The unit leader took another sip and pointed at Thea with a wide grin. "You are correct! Even though she could resist our arrest, we would be lawfully obligated to take you in... However... Mysteriously, every camera, which could''ve recorded your fight, was destroyed before the fight began... Convenient, isn''t it?" The man narrowed his eyes, gauging Thea''s face, looking for signs of guilt, but only confusion marred her. "And what about the others? The girls? They would''ve confessed everything!" Said Thea, but the unit leader just waved his hand in the air. "They did, but their testimonies contradicted each other. Also lawfully, we can''t prosecute somebody with only witnesses as evidence... Anyway, as I said, you are free to go!" Thea continued, staring at the unit leader, waiting for him to laugh at his own stupid joke. But as seconds passed, reality began to dawn on her. Suddenly, both hand- and legcuffs clicked. They fell to the carpeted floor without any noise. With slow movements, Thea looked down at her trembling hands. The cuffs left purple marks, since they were much too tight, but as the moments passed, the bruises healed. Tears streamed down her face as she looked up at the unit leader. He leaned back in his chair and yawned from boredom. Thea pondered her response, but at that moment, only one issue interested her. "Is Viola okay?... I didn''t mean to harm..." Before she could''ve finished, the unit leader''s eyes snapped open, and he angrily shouted at Thea. "Shut up, you stupid girl! For now, ''Viola'' insisted we write off this event as an accident, so it doesn''t appear on your record... But, if you bring it up again, and even admit to causing harm, then all her work becomes worthless! We would be obligated to arrest you! So shut the fuck up and get out of my sight!" For a second, Thea continued shaking in her place, then she quickly stood up, and ran towards the exit. But just as she reached out, someone grabbed her shoulder... The female soldier... "Before you leave, Viola left this letter for you!" She said, while pulling a golden envelope out of her pocket. The woman then leaned in closer and whispered into Thea''s ear. Viola is a delightful girl who overcame much trauma. If you are kind to her, she will repay it tenfold... But if you try hurting her, you won''t need to enter hell, since she will bring it right to your doorstep... Good luck, and don''t be stupid!" The female soldier giggled at Thea''s terrified expression, then she walked out of the room alone. Thea went after her and saw the woman''s armor turn glass-like. The light coming from above broke on the glass armor, creating a rainbow shininess around it. The beautiful soldier took one step, then, like a mirage, she disappeared. Before leaving, Thea took one glance at her pink, playful eyes. She felt her face burn and heartbeat quicken. Despite Thea being strictly straight, the woman''s eyes were captivating enough to ignite a deep desire in her. Luckily, this feeling vanished with the woman. Thea stood in the corridor alone, trying to calm her feelings and the inexplicable heat of her body. When she felt her emotions normalizing, she glanced down at the envelope in her hand. A divine golden paper formed its exterior and a single red seal kept it closed. On the seal, the Angelic Order''s seven-pointed star marked its origin. With shaking hands, Thea broke the seal and opened the letter. There wasn''t much written inside, but even the few sentences shocked Thea to her core. ''Dear Thea, I, Viola and my boyfriend Hayden decided to invite you and your entire family for dinner tonight. I already made reservations to the Empress''s Joy. As you are probably aware, it''s the most prestigious restaurant in New Athens, so please dress accordingly! I understand if you can''t make it, or feel uncomfortable meeting me, but if you seek answers I could explain more, and introduce myself properly! Anyway, a car will arrive at your home at 9 pm to pick you up, and bring you to the restaurant. Please be ready by then. Yours Sincerely, V. and H. PS: There aren''t any repercussions for lack of attendance, and your record will remain clear either way!'' Thea read the letter a few more times, then sighed to herself. While walking towards the school''s exit, she mumbled under her breath, "Now you did it Thea... You had to play stupid games, and now you have to spend the night in a stupid dress... Why does the Goddess hate me so much?..." Chapter 341 341: Empresss Joy A day came and went. The sun set on the horizon an hour ago. The city''s artificial lights came on in most households, especially the mansions. One particular mansion, though, stayed mostly dark, only a few rooms burning brightly in the early night. Thea brought the invitation home, but couldn''t explain the reason to her parents. The shame still scorched her heart, and she couldn''t bear witnessing the disappointment on her family''s faces. Instead of telling the whole truth about her mistakes, Thea lied and told that a friend invited them to dinner. She told them to dress fancily, and so when the time approached 9 pm, everyone stood ready in the living room. Thea''s father, Marc, wore an elegant and very expansive military suit, and a matching cap, which hid his bald head. His light blue eyes burned with joy as he stood and joked around with his son, Marko. Marko wore a suit of similar cut, but with a lot more vibrant colors, like light green, purple, pink, blue, and red, making his outfit quite chaotic. It matched perfectly with his long neon green hair and bright purple eyes. Their mother, Luzia, sat quietly. Her dark gray eyes kept glancing at her daughter, noting the nervousness in her body language. Luzia wore a long, flowing golden dress on, which highlighted each of her beautiful curves. A single crystal hair clip depicting a flower adorned her shoulder-length light gold, almost white hair. Thea''s fierce silver eyes stared out the window in silence, waiting for her doom to arrive. She wore a shorter dark red dress, only reaching her mid thigh, and revealing her shoulder. The maids braided her long, bright gold hair, weaving a long strip of dark red cloth and a few jewelry into it. Each of the family members had already reached Ascended Rank, so every single one was above any natural beauty standard. From the four, Thea was the smallest with her 1,8 meter. His older brother reached just below 2 meters, while both her parents were above that, her father even reaching 2,2. They were athletic, thanks to rigorous training, and each possessed a unique magnetism. Even Marko, the family introvert, grabbed the attention in every room he stepped into. While the two men enjoyed a nice drink and friendly banter, Thea''s hands continued to sweat as she watched a car pull into their driveway. The car didn''t look special at first sight. Just a large black six-wheeled SUV style truck, capable of carrying a dozen personnel at once. It had a militaristic outlook, like all the other cars Thea had travelled with her parents. But when the driver stepped out, something extremely strange happened. The SUV turned fully invisible right before Thea''s eyes. Even more strange was the driver. He wore a full-body golden armor, like the ones the Angelic Order had. On his long, flowing blood-red cape, a single large seven-pointed golden star marked his affiliation. He approached their door, rang the doorbell, and went back to the SUV. When he touched the car''s door, it appeared again, and he sat back inside. The family marched outside, leaving the maids in charge of the property. Thea''s father and brother inspected the black car with great interest, while Luzia just continued staring at her daughter with rising suspicion. The car''s interior was quite luxurious, with dark wood panelling on the floor, and a minibar to the side. Marc and Marko immediately attacked the drinks, even though their Ascended nature rendered them immune to normal alcohol. When the car began moving, Luzia had enough of her daughter''s strange behavior. "Thea, where are we going exactly? You told us one of your friends invited us for dinner. What''s her or his name?... Why haven''t you told us anything?" Facing many questions, Thea breathed deeply to compose herself. But her emotions stayed turbulent, fear and anxiety consuming her mind. The car jolted awake and began moving at an unnatural speed. Thea yelped in surprise as the car moved through the streets, evading vehicles by inches. The Empress''s Joy was about a twenty minutes drive away, but with this car and reckless driver, they made it there within five. Thea didn''t even have time to answer her mother''s questions. They all gasped as the car slowed, and when it came to a full stop, they all breathed a sigh of relief. All four exited the vehicle unsteadily. Luzia wanted to have a quick exchange with the driver about his recklessness; however, upon exiting, the car turned invisible and sped away. Upon realizing she couldn''t scold the driver, Luzia turned to her daughter, who was staring at the restaurant in awe. Many believed the Empress''s Joy was the best, most famous restaurant in New Athens, but they were wrong... The restaurant''s and food''s reputation spread through Europe and even other continents on Earth. The Empress''s Joy allows reservations for a day on January 1st, and during that time, the restaurant gets fully booked for the entire year. Reservations beyond the initial year are unavailable, with exceptions, of course... There are always individuals powerful and influential who can get tables whenever they desire... It seemed Viola was such a person... All four stared at the restaurant''s beautiful, yet reserved, and elegant exterior. Even Luzia''s anger vanished when facing such a magnificent building. It took them a while to compose themselves, but soon reality began dawning on them. They all knew how impossible it was for their family to acquire tables at the Empress''s Joy and knew exactly how much influence a person needs to get an emergency reservation. Thea''s three parents and sibling showed deep anxiety and curiosity on their faces. They became a lot more interested in the dinner now and awaited the meeting with Thea''s ''friend''. On shaky legs, Thea took one step towards the restaurant, then another, until she began walking with faked firmness. Her family followed close behind, eyes glowing with awe. The large building''s interior was even more luxurious than the outside. Upon stepping in, Thea saw a large desk, with a young woman smiling kindly, behind it. She wore an elegant feminine suit, with a long skirt, and bowtie. Her shoulder-length hair, clipped to the sides, extenuated her neck, bringing additional beauty to her already gorgeous face. "Good evening, ma''am! Do you have a reservation?" While her smile seemed kind, her eyes moved across each family member, examining their outfits, determining their prices. From just one look, she easily gathered most information about their family''s background. "Not exactly... Uh, we were invited to dinner by my... Friends... Is there a reservation as Viola or Hayden?" The young examined her holo-screen, pressing buttons fast with great efficiency. Her smile became thoughtful for a moment, then she looked back at Thea with a strange boredom behind her smile. "There is no reservation by the name of Viola or Hayden, sorry? Can I help you with anything else?" Thea''s hand swam with sweat from this new obstacle. She looked around curiously, waiting for a divine intervention, so she wouldn''t feel embarrassed. A crimson blush stained her cheeks, while she wondered why no reservations existed. She suspected Viola, or perhaps that soldier pranked her, yet the car''s timely arrival refutes this theory. With no explanation, Thea became helpless, and just as she opened her mouth to speak, the young receptionist began speaking with someone through her earpiece. "Really?... But they have no reservations... WHAT?!... I understand!... I won''t hold them up further... Thank you, ma''am!" Throughout the one-sided conversation, the young woman''s face turned paler and more terrified. At some point, she actually shouted from shock, then immediately became submissive. When the conversation reached its conclusion, she took a deep breath, and stared at Thea with a wide, trembling grin. Sweat dripped down her beautiful face, and she hid her shaking hands below her desk. "Sorry for causing a fuss! Your friends are already here, waiting! Proceed through the entry and a waiter will escort you!... Sorry for the disturbance again, and I assure you it will never happen!... Enjoy your meal and please don''t mention this to your... Friends..." The receptionist continued to shake, with pure horror in her eyes. Thea and everyone else felt a similar coldness as they walked through the door. The waiter greeted them accordingly and led them to the occupied main hall. Not a single empty table existed, but the waiter didn''t stop at any. He led them behind the main hall, where private rooms stood prepared for VIP guests. He guided them towards the most lavish one. The door stood seemingly made of gold, with lots of intricate embellishments. It slid open, with barely any noise, revealing an even more luxurious inside. The waiter ushered them all inside, then left the area, leaving Thea and her family alone with the two other guests. The door slid closed and Thea finally gathered enough strength to look Viola in the eye. But to her utter surprise, the person sitting at the large round table wasn''t Viola. She was much more beautiful with short, shoulder-length white hair. The most amazing piece of clothing Thea had ever seen covered her body. The night sky seemed woven into the knee-length dress. Small points of light kept appearing and disappearing on the dark fabric. Her milky white, pale skin contrasted the dress perfectly, giving her small stature a regal beauty. The girl''s youthful face showed a tasteful amount of make-up, making her age a few years. But a single scar stretching from her eyebrow, to her left jaw, took away from her perfect image. Thea knew Viola''s age, yet those piercing white eyes revealed someone other than the thirteen-year-old she remembered. While her body was of a teen''s, her eyes told a different tale, one full of suffering, pain, and sacrifices. Thea and all her family trembled at the sight of the girl, but she either didn''t notice or care. She just stood up with a wide smile and spread her arms encompassing the entire room. "Welcome everyone, to the Empress''s Joy! I''m sure Thea introduced me as Viola, and my boyfriend as Hayden, but as you can probably tell, we lied to her about our real identity!" ''Hayden'' stood up next to ''Viola'', towering over her meagre height. He wasn''t as different compared to his school looks. His black hair became golden, and his already handsome face became even more perfect. His dark blue eyes scanned the faces of Thea''s family. He wore a suit tailored exactly to his well-muscled, tall body. Its material was unlike anything Thea had witnessed before, likely made of some monster''s skin. The young man held a similar smile as his girlfriend while addressing them. "You can probably guess why we hid our identities, and by the looks on your faces, you recognized both of us. Either way, let me introduce ourselves more properly... My name is Henry, Prince of London, and this is my girlfriend, Victoria, Princess of the Angelic Order!" Chapter 342 342: The Prince and the Princess The words echoed in the awfully silent room. It took a second for their meaning to register, but soon every member of Thea''s family knelt before Victoria and Henry... Everyone except Thea... She just continued standing and staring at both. Despite attending the same school for a year, she never once suspected the girl whom Thea bullied daily was the daughter of the most influential person in their world. Her mind couldn''t comprehend it. She wanted to kneel out of respect for their leader''s daughter, but none of her muscles obeyed her desperate commands. Her face showed increasing fear until tears began streaming down her pale cheeks. She believed her execution was neigh, since there was no other reason Victoria would''ve invited her. At this point, Thea had already accepted her own death, but she still wanted to beg for her family. They didn''t even know the invite''s purpose! They didn''t deserve to die for her own stupid mistake! Thea opened her mouth as sobs escaped her mouth, but before any words could''ve left her throat, Victoria spoke again. "You don''t need to kneel. I invited all of you as guests. Today me and Thea got into a minor altercation, and I grew curious about her familial background!" Said Victoria while continuing to smile. From the ground, Luzia shot a death stare at her daughter, for causing even the smallest inconvenience to their Goddess''s daughter! Victoria waited seconds before her patience ran out, and she intervened. She sighed in annoyance and reached her hand through the fabric of reality. Her hand passed through one portal. Simultaneously, three others emerged close by. From each, her right hand reached out and gently lifted every family member. Thea watched in awe as Victoria''s one hand tripled, but it was even more amazing to see her actual portals from up close. Thea momentarily forgot the situation, then heard angry footsteps approaching.. From the corner of her eye, Thea saw her mother''s hand approaching her face rapidly. She covered before the palm, waiting for the stinging pain of her mother''s slap... It never arrived... Her mother''s face passed through another portal and stopped a centimeter away from Victoria''s own cheek. The small girl''s expression turned solemn, and the seriousness within her gaze intensified. Suddenly, Luzia felt like a prey in sight of a predator, like death itself stared up at her. Her lone hand trembled as Victoria smirked. "What is it Mrs. Luzia? Won''t you hit me, just like your daughter?... Please tell me... When did I give you the right to use violence in my presence? Or perhaps you are stronger and better than me, so you can ignore me?... Are you truly that powerful?" Victoria''s voice became lower with each word, and as Luzia tried pulling her hand out of the portal, it grew as small as her wrist. "Maybe I should keep your hand as a souvenir of your insolence! If you are only using it to beat your child, I don''t think you deserve it!" A line of blood appeared around Luzia''s wrist as the portal closed down further. Thea''s mother took a glance at her hand, then looked towards Victoria and bowed her head, keeping her decorum intact by not showing pain. "I deeply apologize for acting out! I never usually hit my children, but when I heard about the incident with my daughter, my anger took over! My actions are inexcusable, so take my hand or my head as payment for my daughter''s life!" The silence creeped back in. Thea stared at her mother with teary eyes, as her words continued to echo inside Thea''s mind. "You would truly sacrifice your life to save your daughter?" Said Victoria, after thinking for a while. Luzia stayed bowed and nodded. "Of course, my Princess! I would give up everything for my children, even my or my husband''s life!" Blood continued to drip from Luzia''s wound as the portal cut deep into her wrist. Moments later, Henry reached his limit. He placed a hand on Victoria''s shoulder and addressed his girlfriend. "My Love, I think you scared them enough. Can we get back on track? This wasn''t the reason for inviting them!" Victoria''s eyes grew wide, as Henry''s words brought her out of the trance-like angry state. She blushed from embarrassment and released Luzia''s hand. The woman calmly lowered her hand, gazing at Victoria. Though the portal''s wound rapidly healed, blood still fell in droplets from her fingers. Thea hurried to her mother''s side, wanting to check on the wound, but Luzia was having none of it. She bowed in front of Victoria and prepared to thank her for the generosity, but the small girl was faster. "Sorry, Mrs. Luzia... I got carried away... I also won''t hurt any of your family, including Thea... I wanted to apologize to her as well, since it was my loss of control, which caused such a huge issue earlier today..." Victoria bowed from the waist, in a gesture of humbleness, stunning everybody except Henry. Her boyfriend just gently smiled at this display, while scanning the four guests'' faces for any malicious intent. "It wasn''t my intention to cause such a problem, but your words hurt, and my mind went blank in that moment... Luckily, most of my abilities stayed locked, so I didn''t cause anything permanent!" Thea''s eyes widened once more as she recalled her own words. She called Victoria an orphan and said her parents died in The War of Three Alliances, which wasn''t entirely untrue. Her adoptive father did perish in the war. Everyone knew his name, including Thea... Bran, the Peacemaker! The man who ended the war. Whose own celebration was on May 12th, two days from now! The already wide pit in Thea''s stomach grew. She felt the need to vomit from embarrassment, shame, anxiety, fear, and anger towards herself. She couldn''t believe those words left her mouth. Thea thought herself a kind person, but upon realizing her own words and bullying, she began hating herself. Since she already faced monsters, and was well on her way to join the military, she treated school as a joke, where she could release her stress, even if it hurt other people. Her only luck was Victoria''s generous, kind, forgiving, and humble nature. Anyone else would''ve sent Thea straight for execution, but Victoria even apologize for something she didn''t make. "There is no need to apologize, my Princess... It was all my fault, and I''m deeply sorry for all the hurt I''ve caused... I''ve no excuse for my behavior throughout the year, and will accept any punishment!" Thea closed her eyes as she awaited Victoria''s next words, which would determine her entire life. If the girl decided, Thea could get executed, or banished from the Angelic Order. She could also punish her by banning Thea''s entry into the military, which would bring immense shame to her family. Victoria had lots of punishments she could''ve used, each justified in Thea''s opinion. However, the small girl wasn''t nearly as vengeful as her mothers. She smiled gently at Thea and reached through space to touch her face. Thea''s dark silver eyes opened and stared into Victoria''s own white ones with specks of dark blue hidden in its depths. Her scar stretched with the smile, creating a strange contrast of violence and joy. "I faced much worse people than a mere bully, but if you truly want punishment, then I give you one... Come and enjoy a meal with me and Henry! That''s your punishment!" Thea stared at Victoria with her mouth agape. Behind her, both her father and brother chuckled, finally breaking the solemn atmosphere. "Oh, my, that would be divine indeed! Thank you for the invitation, my Princess, and Prince Henry! I always wanted to taste the Empress''s Joy''s cuisine, but as a lowly administrator in the military, I never managed to make a reservation!" Marc, Thea''s father, spoke with a bright smile. He walked up to Henry without fear and reached out for a handshake. The prince returned the smile, extending his own hand and grasping the father''s solidly. "Low administrator, my ass! You command thousands of soldiers! You were even responsible for part of the assault on The Broken City! Your and your wife''s tactical thinking made it possible for our troops to take the city!" Marc''s eyes widened in surprise, and his speech became less firm. "Y-you... You read the report?... B-but aren''t you too busy? My commanding officers must''ve made better, more concise accounts of the battle... They never would''ve mentioned me!" Currently, the Angelic Order''s military was still in peril. The leadership and rankings remained undefined. Some regular commanders had higher ranks than Evolved, which brought discourse to between the two groups. Most Evolved believed no regular human should command them, while the regulars wanted the opposite. Sadly, this conflict continued on, since nobody had the time to fix it yet. There was also the problem of middle management. Lieutenants, Captains, Sergents, Majors, even Colonels were missing from the command structure, bringing disarray to any military action. Henry was working on developing a new structure that would fit their current enormous military, but lacked free time to make any significant progress. "I enjoy reading reports from the lower members of the command structure. Those higher ups always leave out important details, or ''fail'' to mention other people''s bravery during conflicts!" While Marc was still stumped, Henry took a step away and reached out towards Marko, Thea''s brother. His face stayed much more stoic, showing no emotion even when grasping the prince''s hand. "And you must be Marko. I read you provided excellent support in The Battle of Barcelon. I''m sorry for the lives lost in that battle... We miscalculated about the Stellars, and didn''t expect them to return so soon..." Henry showed shame on his face, as if it was purely his fault so many died in that battle. Marko just snorted and smirked, which surprised Henry. "It wasn''t anyone''s fault. Stellars are way too powerful to be predictable... Also, even without their help we would''ve never captured Barcelon! Our attack diverted attention, enabling the conquest of other city-states! Everyone died in that battle, knew this beforehand, so don''t shame them by taking away their sacrifice!" A moment''s silence passed between them before Henry''s exhausted sigh and nod. He continued making small talk with everyone, including Luzia and even Thea. Afterward, he spread his arms and motioned for everyone to take their places at the round table. Chapter 343: Territorial Expansion The dinner continued fine. After the initial awareness of class disparity, Thea''s family realized that neither Victoria nor Henry acted haughtily when spoken with. They were closer to regular children, who carried way too many responsibilities on their young shoulders. Victoria''s way of speech became especially apparent to everyone at the table. She didn''t speak like a princess, or the daughter of their Goddess. It was similar to a soldier''s, and not an officer''s, but a frontline trooper''s speaking pattern. She seemingly strove for minimal cursing, yet a couple always slipped in. Victoria immediately apologized afterward, even though everyone just laughed it off. Henry always found her embarrassment endearing, while Thea''s family just couldn''t believe how bashful Victoria was. They only saw her from afar at events, and for all her speeches and interviews, she put on a mask of confidence, hiding the cute little girl beneath it. The night continued as they ate and talked. Victoria and Henry sat next to each other. On Victoria''s right sat Thea, then her mother, brother, and father completed the circle. Thea felt especially terrified when she took the place next to Victoria, but since she insisted, Thea had no right to refuse. She tried to keep out of conversations, but neither hosts felt like leaving her alone. "So Thea, is this your entire family? I remembered you mentioned having three siblings." Asked Victoria, clearly uncertain of this information. "Yes, my Princess! My youngest brother is Marko here, but I have an elder brother and sister too!... They are away with the expeditionary forces. You might''ve heard about them. Yannick is my brother, and Yvonne is my sister!" Both Henry and Victoria nodded in understanding. They heard their names quite often, from the reports written by Kim and Melinda. Both Yvonne and Yannick gained serious fame in The War of Three Alliances. They fought in Wien, keeping everything under control while Faith took out Jonas. Their skills in leadership was admirable, but even more interesting was their battle prowess and the ferocity with which they killed. After the war, hundreds of Ascended applied for permission to continue their Evolution into Transcended. Yvonne and Yannick were one of the first getting accepted. "Yes, we''ve heard about them. They are elite soldiers, judging by their military history, and I''m sure this assignment will only bring further glory to their names!" After Henry''s words, Marko''s ears perked up, and a bit hesitantly, he asked. "Uh... Prince Henry... Is there any news you could share from the Expeditions? My siblings refused to tell us anything about their work or what''s happening, since they aren''t permitted to." Henry considered, then looked at his girlfriend for guidance. Victoria just shrugged, revealing her lack of care about the subject. "Well, there isn''t much to share. That''s kind of the problem. As you all know, we established expeditionary outposts to the north of Europe, on Antarctica to the south, Asia on the east, and South America to the west a year ago." Both Thea, Luzia and Marko nodded with understanding, while Marc and Victoria just seemed confused and lost. Henry glanced at his girlfriend, and seeing the look on her face, he couldn''t help but chuckle, bringing further embarrassment to Victoria. She attended every meeting regarding their exploration, expansion, and establishment. Hell, she was the one opening portals to these places! The problem stemmed from how uninteresting those meetings were. She might''ve been there in body, but her mind stayed far away, literally. Every time she got bored instead of daydreaming or trying to focus, she just stepped out of her body and explored the surroundings in her ghost-like form. It took a lot of convincing on Henry''s part, so that Vicky didn''t immediately leave classes she found boring. Her grades became better, even though she constantly complained about her lack of understanding in most subjects. Overall, even though she attended every class and every meeting, Victoria lacked knowledge of both. When Luzia saw the expression on both her husband''s and Victoria''s faces, she sighed in disappointment, and began explaining the situation from the beginning. "A year ago, when everything stabilized within Europe, the Angelic Order decided to explore the other continents. We sent out groups of explorers into unknown territory, who by virtue, luck, and strength prevailed in establishing outposts!..." Luzia tried to keep condensation and annoyance out of her tone while she spoke. Even though she really wanted to smack her husband for his lack of care. "With these outposts'' help, exploration became a lot easier, and much more thorough. We even found other settlements, some the size of smaller cities, like Sofira... Sadly, they are distrustful of our intentions, so communication suffered, and now we''re trying to prove our good intentions by helping them!" Henry nodded in appreciation of Luzia''s explanation, then turned back to Marko. "So the answer to your question is, we have no clue. But Melinda and Kim, plus many others, plan on coming home for the Peacemaking Celebration, so we will get full-fledged reports soon. Their new discoveries will be publicly released soon, so please be patient." Marko nodded graciously and turned away, seemingly deep in thought. Thea''s curiosity broke the moment of silence soon. Throughout the evening, there was one question bothering her, and no matter how hard she tried, it was impossible to dismiss it. "Uh... Viola... I mean, my Princess!... I-I wanted to ask... I wanted to know how I beat you today! I''m just an Ascended, while you are one of the strongest Transcended to ever exist!... I don''t understand how I even wounded you quite badly... It shouldn''t have been possible!" Her words plunged the table into stunned silence. Luzia''s hands trembled, aching to give her daughter a beating. Both because of her daughter''s insolence at bringing this matter up again, and the fact she actually hurt their Goddess''s child. Her father and brother just felt a bit of shame at having Thea be part of their family. Henry and Victoria just stared at Thea with confusion, then when realization set on their face, both burst into laughter. "Oh, that''s because of Lydia''s ability. Each morning, she changes our facial structure, since our looks would immediately reveal our identity!" Henry began answering, only for Victoria to take over. "Yeah, but it''s not as simple as changing the body. To make our regal, Evolved aura disappear, she needs to lock most of our powers away. This lock isn''t unbreakable, but you have to consciously dismiss it, to regain full Evolved power!" The entire family stared at them in awe and a bit of horror. They all knew how powerful it was to disable an Evolved''s regeneration, so how much worse would it be to lose all your powers during a fight? Thea felt especially surprised. She never imagined the silent girl, who always followed Victoria everywhere to hold such scary power within her grasp. "So that''s why... I only beat you because of your weakened state... Now it makes sense!... Thank you for the explanation, and sorry for bringing it up again!" As she spoke, a strange feeling came over Thea... Disappointment... For a moment, after meeting with Victoria, she thought her fighting prowess leant her victory over the Princess, but as it turned out, she only survived because of dumb luck. Despite its silliness, the childish thought saddened her a little. Victoria noticed her expression as well. With a kind smile, she reached out and placed her hand over Thea''s. "Just so you know, without my abilities, you would''ve most definitely beat me! Although I''m a Transcended, I can''t use my strength effectively. I also never learned melee combat, since I never needed to... Even lacking in strength, your skill and battle experience would''ve been enough to subdue me!" Thea chuckled at this statement, clearly thinking Victoria was joking. But when nobody else laughed with her, she realized it wasn''t a joke. "What do you mean you never learned? I thought Kim and Astrid taught you! They are one of the best melee fighters in the world!" Victoria turned away with a heavy blush and laughed in embarrassment. "Well, yeah... To be honest, I tried it''s just so fucking... I mean it''s really boring, and useless for me! It''s the same reason I haven''t learned math or other subjects... I just don''t care enough." While Victoria continued to blush, Henry chuckled at her bashful expression, then leaned down and gave a tender kiss on the top of her head, causing her to giggle. He reached over and held her small hand gently. They stared into each other''s eyes in a clear sign of love, bringing smiles of cuteness to everyone at the table except Thea. After hearing Victoria''s words, she became thoughtful, and while the pair acted all lovey-dovey, she blurted out something she couldn''t take back... "I could teach you!" Everyone''s eyes suddenly snapped to Thea, surprising the young girl. Realization dawned on her too late, making her words were irrevocable. So instead, she doubled down. "I could teach you both melee fighting and other school subjects. You might think you don''t need either, but I''m certain you can utilize the knowledge in some way... Also, how do you know it''s useless if you haven''t even studied these subjects thoroughly?" Marko and Marc stared at Thea in surprise. They considered their daughter/sibling was a self-centered, even a bit narcissistic person, so they had their doubts when hearing her kind offer. Luzia just glared at Thea, seeing through her facade of kindness, believing there was some alternative motive behind her daughter''s words. Henry seemed doubtful as well, but he only awaited Victoria''s words. The small, white-haired girl only grinned widely. Her cute, embarrassed expression was all gone, taken over by the bright joy glowing in her white eyes. She opened her mouth, prepared to accept the offer, when her head snapped to the side. Her eyes narrowed as she seemingly stared through the walls. "Well, that''s unfortunate fucking timing... It seems a Realm Gate is opening nearby, so we have to cut this dinner short... Thea, I''d love for you to teach me! We will talk about the details later!" With that, both Henry and Victoria teleported away, leaving Thea and her family in confusion. Their shock didn''t last long, though. Soon all of their Watches blared the same message repeatedly. "Gate Opening Imminent!" Chapter 344: 3rd Tier Realm Gate Henry and Vicky emerged onto the deserted street, at New Athens'' other side. Every citizen already received the warning, so they left for the nearest shelter. The night''s lateness also meant there weren''t many people outside, especially since this was the calmer part of New Athens. On either side, family homes stretched along the wide road. The dew on their perfect lawn glinted under the bright moonlight. Behind the two teenagers, the military vehicles began arriving. While the soldiers evacuated the buildings, Vicky walked around looking for the Gate''s exact position. It would''ve been ideal if Realm Gates only opened in unoccupied spaces, but life wasn''t perfect. Vicky walked towards a four bedroom, two-story family home, and stopped at the edge of their lawn. "Looks like we will need to pay for damages again... Great!" She whispered to herself, then turned to Henry. "Is this house evacuated?" "Yes... Try minimizing the destruction this time! It costs a lot to build new homes!" He spoke with a sly grin, which Vicky mirrored. While giggling, she turned back towards the home, closed her eyes and pointed her hand at the structure. All the shuffling and shouting came to a sudden halt, as soldiers and citizens alike stopped to look at Vicky''s handiwork. The small, pale girl continued to concentrate, and as power flowed through her body, space seemed to bend around her. It accumulated and eventually shot out towards the large house... That''s when something truly amazing happened! They needed to remove the home, so the Gate would open on an unoccupied space, making containment much easier. For this reason, the soldiers usually demolished the structure, even if it''s a skyscraper, but Vicky wasn''t a fan of such wide scale destruction, so she used her power to contain the building. The space around the family home bent and twisted. Gradually, second by second, the two-story building became smaller. It kept its scaling. Walls, roof, and foundation maintained consistent relative dimensions to each other, but the entire building rapidly decreased in size. The two-story became a single-story, then tiny¡ªchild-sized. It continued turning smaller until the large house was the size of a hand. Sadly, the house''s weight, though more compact, prevented its removal. But Henry got a fix for that! He swiped her hand across the air and sent the small house one second into the future relative to the current time. This meant the house would never reappear until he willed it. The space where the two-story family home stood was now empty, except for a few broken pipes, which sprayed water and sewage everywhere. Behind Vicky and Henry, the soldiers shook their heads in disbelief, while the few civilians froze in awe. Even though everyone was aware of the Prince''s and Princess''s Evolved power, watching them work still felt like seeing miracles happen right before their eyes. With the house gone, the regal couple lingered close by while the soldiers returned to work. Their job was clearing the perimeter and killing any monster that could slip away from Henry''s and Vicky''s wrath. It took the Realm Gate ten minutes to reach Earth and connect the two with its invisible tendrils. Upon establishing the connection, the Realm Gate opened! Reality broke on a small point, and the portal slowly stretched in every direction. Fearless, Vicky approached the Gateway, mentally surveying the opposite side. "Seems like a 3rd Tier Gate. Nothing exciting. Just lots of Corrupted and a few Horrors¡ªnothing we can''t handle!" Henry wrote all her words down and sent orders to every unit nearby. They all prepared for the approaching horde, even though a 3rd Tier Gate wasn''t a big problem. "How is the other Realm? What''s its name?" He asked, while continuing to type away. Vicky concentrated on the ground below the monsters and received a mental image of the Realm. "Desolate with toxic wastes, large amount of radioactive and solar radiation. The Realm is planet-like, but the proximity to its star, and possibly outside interference, made regular life impossible. Its name... Sterquil!" They stood next to the widening Gate, while Henry transcribed Vicky''s every word. He then relayed new orders to every unit and ordered toxic waste management teams for possible cleanup duty. After Vicky gained every information she could, the two backed away. Henry took a moment to change into more appropriate clothing and summon his weapon. Unlike Vicky, he wasn''t a Transcended just yet, so he needed some extra assurance. From his feet, a cloud-like layer rose over his body, leaving a midnight black armor with glowing white lines behind. It moved across every inch of his body until nothing stayed uncovered. He held his black gauntlet to the side, and from its metallic depths a long staff grew. At its end, a long sharp blade formed, bringing Henry''s warscythe into reality. Henry twirled the warscythe once, letting it cut through the air. When its blade touched the grass below their feet, it began rapidly wilting, like it reached the end of its lifetime. Satisfied with the result, Henry turned towards the widened Gateway. He watched the monstrous horde, each beast more repulsive than the other. They stood near the opening Gate, ready to attack at any moment. Vicky stood next to him, still wearing her magical dress resembling the night sky. She could seem careless to most, but Henry knew her too well. In his eyes, Vicky seemed attentive, ready to kill any monster that wanted to enter their Realm. Her body language even suggested agitation and worry, so to lighten her mood, Henry leaned in whispering, "So, why haven''t you told me about Thea''s bullying?" Vicky''s head snapped to the side, her mouth a thin line. She was clearly unamused by the question, which brought further joy to Henry. "Seriously? Now? This isn''t the setting to discuss my PERSONAL fucking issues!" Henry just chuckled at her flustered, angry expression, then stayed silent for a moment. "So why didn''t you? I would''ve helped you if asked!" He whispered, causing Vicky to sigh in dejection and regret. "I know... That''s why I didn''t tell you..." Henry glanced at his girlfriend in confusion, worry evident on his helmeted face. "What''s that supposed to mean? You don''t want me to help you? Was I too overbearing?" She shook her head and looked away in embarrassment. "Yes... No... Maybe... I don''t know... I like when you help me, but it also caused a bit of resentment to build up inside me... I want you to help me, but I also want to figure things out on my own... Do you understand?" Henry chuckled after hearing her words and said, "Not even the slightest. If you didn''t want my help, why didn''t you ask? I can''t read your mind. That''s Lilith''s power!" Vicky groaned in annoyance, then glanced at the Gate, which finally widened enough for monsters to step through. She stared at them for a moment, then turned back towards her boyfriend. "Okay, let me explain a different way! I want you to help me at times, when I''m struggling, but I don''t want your help every time!... The entire point of attending school was to find myself, but it feels like I don''t have a personality! Like I can''t solve anything on my own!" Henry dismissed the helmet from his face and looked down at Vicky''s small, shaking frame. With his gauntleted hand, he gently touched her shoulder and spoke in a tender, calming tone. "You can solve everything on your own, but you don''t need to. That''s why I''m here! To help you!" A tear ran down on Vicky''s face as she continued staring at the ground. "But you won''t always be... Everyone keeps leaving me... My mothers left me... Bran left me... My friends left me... I keep finding new people whom I get along, then eventually they all leave me... You will leave me too... Just like everyone else..." The more she spoke, the more tears ran down her cheeks. By the end, she was sobbing. Henry breathed a sigh of relief, finally finding the crux of the problem. Vicky felt helpless and feared abandonment. Given these issues, Henry recognized his next steps. He reached down and lifted Vicky''s face so their eyes met. While Vicky sniffled, he leaned in close and gave a gentle peck on her lips. "I will never leave you! No matter what! That''s something you can count on!..." Vicky didn''t look convinced, but she continued listening in silence, letting Henry''s words calm her turbulent mind. "I also understand your need for independence, and I think it''s a good idea! But please, when you come across something harmful, like bullying, tell me! I won''t solve your issues if you don''t want to, but I can always listen to your venting and provide helpful advice, if you ask!" After finishing his sentence, he leaned in, giving another peck on Vicky''s lips. She closed her eyes, absorbing the moment, so she would never forget. As the kiss ended, a sad sigh exited her, and she blushed from shame. "I''m sorry... This is neither the time nor space to explode like this... I don''t know what''s going on... My feelings were all over the place these past few days... Am I losing my mind?" Henry laughed when hearing her words. He had a pretty good guess for Vicky''s emotional fluctuation. She was correct, however; a battlefield wasn''t the setting for that discussion. "I think you should share these thoughts about your emotions with someone else... Preferably an Evolved woman!" Vicky pondered, eyes downcast, while Henry redirected his sight towards the Gateway. "That''s probably enough..." He whispered to himself, and released the time sphere he had been holding. He placed the time sphere strategically, when Vicky became emotional. Monsters jumping through the Gate were stopped in time instantly. But Henry''s manipulation and careful thinking didn''t end there. He also pushed each monster into different points in time, so every single one occupied the same space. The time sphere''s removal ended their separation, bringing everyone back to the present. Hundreds of monsters appeared at once, shooting a fountain of blood dozens of meters into the sky. Gore rained down on the nearby soldiers and buildings. Reddish mist, blood-tinged, filled the air near the Gate. The soldiers stood frozen, watching the horrific image in both fear and awe. Chapter 345 345: A Sight to Behold Thea and her family hurried to the Gate''s location. It was quite far away, but as Ascended, they moved across the city fast. In less than a few minutes, the four of them stood near the military encirclement and stared out onto an irregular, terrifying sight. The once green lawns now glinted dark red under the bright moonlight. Misted blood floated around the area. A few soldiers tried cleaning their vehicles, removing body parts and exploded organs, which littered everything. Amidst the death and destruction, a girl''s giggle and a boy''s joyous laughter reached Thea''s ears. Through the blood mist, it took her a while, but eventually she stopped the unhinged couple near the Gateway. They moved between Corrupted, like it was a mere game, instead of a life and death situation. Vicky dodged the monsters'' attacks with ease, then opened portals around their necks or other body parts, killing and dismembering each. Thea couldn''t even see what kind of monsters the regal couple were fighting, since each died too fast for observation. Henry was a blur moving across the battlefield. He was near Vicky once, then took one step, and appeared a few dozen meters away, leaving a trail of withering corpses behind. His long warscythe dripped with blood, which fell away quickly as if the blade actively repulsed the gore. The black armor with white glowing lines also stayed clear, similarly to Vicky''s own clothing. The couple moved through the battlefield like whirlwinds of death, but also like beacons of hope. Even the gore of the destruction couldn''t stain their perfect bodies and souls! While Thea stared at the killing field in awe, Luzia moved up to her daughter. She placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and while pointing towards Vicky; she whispered. "You have to teach her proper fighting techniques... This is unacceptable!" Suddenly pushed out of her reverie, Thea glanced back at Luzia and spoke with an evident smirk. "She seems to do just fine without using any techniques... Why would she need to learn melee combat, when her power allows so much destruction and mobility?" For a second, Luzia turned away and watched as Vicky dismembered another monster using her portals. Bits and pieces flew into the sky as blood showered the gore below. Through the blood mist, she spotted something truly concerning. As Vicky dealt death to the mindless beast, a wide smile spread across her face. When Luzia saw the smile, a small chuckle escaped her as well. "That''s what you see? An independent person without need for guidance? I thought I raised a smarter daughter, but it seems I overestimated your judging capabilities!" Her hold on Thea''s shoulder hardened, nails biting into her skin. "I only see a scared thirteen-year-old, who grew up only knowing violence. Someone who takes pleasure in killing, and who''s on a dangerous path towards complete insanity!..." Luzia''s hand further tightened, and her whisper turned louder. "What I see is a girl with no moral values of her own, but also someone who has enough power to kill everyone in this city on a whim!... She''s probably the most powerful Transcended alive, but she doesn''t take fighting seriously, which could lead to her doom!" A line of blood flowed down from Thea''s shoulder, but she didn''t pay attention to it. Her eyes stayed firmly on Vicky''s fighting. All the fast movements; all the killing; all the giggling; made Thea''s perspective on the Princess shift. Her moves, albeit fast, were clumsy, full of useless theatrics. She only used portals to kill, which worked on mindless beasts, but who knew its effect against an actual smart opponent? Then there was her attitude... "What did I teach you, Thea? What''s the first principle of combat? How can you win most battles before even summoning your weapon?" Her mother''s words echoed clearly in Thea''s mind, and after sighing deeply, she stared into her dark gray eyes with a serious expression. "We fight not to kill, nor to survive! We take no pleasure in claiming lives! Our mind stays clear, and only when there''s nothing else do we kill! We don''t draw our blade without intention! We don''t let emotion cloud our judgment! We stay true to ourselves! Death is our companion, but we aren''t its followers!" Luzia nodded and couldn''t hide the proud smile creeping onto her lips. "Exactly! Right now, Princess Victoria kills because she always needed to! She has no regard for death, and doesn''t understand the value of life! For now, while she only fights monsters, this isn''t an issue. However, when she personally has to kill humans, while looking into their eyes..." She didn''t need to finish the sentence for Thea to understand. Her eyes went back towards the killing field, where now she saw a clear contrast between Henry''s and Victoria''s fighting styles. Despite seeming carefree, Henry''s actions were deliberate and strategic. His attitude was only a mask, which kept his emotions at bay. "When she needs to kill humans, or other sentient beings, it will be the end of her... Princess Victoria''s mental state won''t survive that hurdle..." Whispered Thea, while her mother nodded in agreement. "That''s why you need to teach her not just the physical aspect, but the reason behind fighting! She needs guidance and moral values she can rely on!" They stayed silent afterward, watching as the regal couple killed the last of the monsters. When nothing seemed alive, Thea turned and whispered to her mother again. "Isn''t it sad? I have to teach a thirteen-year-old about how to kill... Is this really what our life is? Killing our enemies more effectively so they don''t kill us?" Luzia smiled sadly, while staring at the Princess across the blood mist. "You know, you are only a year older than her, and I have been teaching you since you were a child... It''s neither fair nor good, but it''s necessary! Think of it this way: If the Princess masters the art of killing, other children will have hope of living in a peaceful world!" Thea''s face reflected her mother''s smile as her eyes moved towards the city-scape. "Sacrifices... Isn''t that what you always said?... While we fight and die, others can live and prosper... While we endure pain and suffering, others can find happiness and peace... What horrible ideals you place on children!" Her words might''ve been sad, but her tone was sarcastic. They exchanged a glance, then began laughing. Both had a distinct understanding of life, and Thea held no ill will towards her mother. Despite lifelong rigorous training and study, she never resented Luzia. Unlike her other siblings, she always felt exactly like her mother, and she willingly accepted her role as a sacrifice to humanity. Something Thea didn''t consider, though, was how her mother felt. Each time she accomplished anything great, or done exceptionally well, her mother''s eyes always conveyed two emotions, pride and regret. The same feelings appeared in her dark gray eyes now, too. "I never wished this life upon you. I had Yvonne and Yannick early into the Apocalypse, so they naturally had to adapt. I wanted Marko to become a leader, not necessarily military, but someone of higher stature... But you..." She sighed deeply, shame evident on her face. "You were supposed to be my only child who stayed out of war... Then life decides to bless me with the only child who shares my exact values... What a cruel joke..." Everyone of her subordinates knew Luzia as a soldier of virtue, someone with unbreakable will, a woman with unmatched charisma. She could convince a meek, fearful bunch of civilians to charge against a horde of monsters, and with her tactical abilities, she could even achieve victory. Although everyone adored her as a leader, people also knew her to be strict and stoic. She rarely showed any emotion other than anger and disappointment. Even for her family, it was unusual to see her happy or sad, so when Thea saw a single tear ran down her face, she froze. Not once during her fourteen years did Thea see her mother cry. But right then, on the edge of a battlefield, surrounded by soldiers cheering on two killing machines; Luzia couldn''t hold her tear. Thea looked at her mother with shock, then took a step towards her and wrapped her arms around Luzia''s midsection. With the height discrepancy, Thea''s head only reached below her mother''s shoulder, so Luzia a bit awkwardly bent down and kissed her daughter''s forehead. "Perhaps you envisioned a simpler life for me. However, that choice wasn''t yours to make... I always wanted to be like you!... Peace is overrated, anyway! I''d rather help those in need than pursue a mundane profession! Luzia chuckled and pulled her daughter closer. "I guess you are right... I always felt like leaving you alone would mean you wouldn''t choose to be a soldier, but I was wrong..." Her mother stayed silent for a moment, as if struggling to say her next sentence. After a few seconds, she just sighed and whispered in an embarrassed tone. "I''m proud of you Thea... I don''t say this enough to you, or your other siblings, but I''m proud of you all... And I love every single one of you!" While her words echoed in Thea''s mind, Luzia quickly turned away and rushed off. She hid her face from Marc and Marko as well, but even they saw how strangely Luzia acted. They ran straight to Thea, bombarding her with questions regarding her mother''s behavior, but she couldn''t answer. Happy tears ran down her face as she sobbed and laughed simultaneously. After she cried enough, Thea summarized their conversation. The end surprised everyone, especially Marko, who accused Thea of lying. But their father, Marc, just laughed with pure joy, and ran after their mother. The night went by quickly after that. Vicky and Henry went through the Gate to check out Sterquil. Sadly, the place held no importance, only existing as a wasteland. Afterward, Vicky closed off the Gate, and soon the cleanup crews began their work. When the lawn was clean enough near where the Gateway initially opened, Henry made the family home reappear, and Vicky changed it back into a two-story house. The cleanup procedures continued during the night, while most soldiers returned home. Chapter 346 346: The Essence of Combat Vicky''s morning routine went by the same as yesterday. She got ready, summoned her usual attire, went down and fed her brother, then ate breakfast herself. But since it was May 11th, the schools didn''t hold classes because of its proximity to the Peacemaking Celebrations tomorrow. This pleased every child, except those burdened with Europe''s welfare, like a Prince or Princess. While her friends ran around playing, training, exploring, Vicky and Henry stayed home working. They read reports of yesterday''s cleanup, which went well. The households, which required evacuation, received reparations for their troubles. When they read all the reports from New Athens, it was time for the international ones. Numerous global reports arrived; however, Vicky focused her attention on her friends'' reports. Each planned to return for the holiday. Vicky instantly grew excited. She hadn''t seen any of them for an entire year. They didn''t even know about Nick''s existence yet. With much more enthusiasm, Vicky continued reading reports until midday. After eating lunch, she left her home and teleported to a much smaller mansion in New Athens. After the fight near the Gateway, Vicky ran into Thea once more, and they discussed meeting up, so she could learn how to fight properly. She wore her usual night sky like dress, with high-heeled shoes. Her pale skin seemed to reflect light under the bright sun. Her shoulder-length white hair gently blowed in the breezy sea air. Vicky''s white eyes curiously scanned the surroundings, watching as the trees danced and listening to the birds sing. She walked along the street until she reached the gate to Thea''s property. Instead of teleporting straight into the mansion, Vicky wanted to be polite, so she stood before the gate and pressed the ring bell. Immediately after pressing the button, the gate opened, letting her inside. Along the driveway, the family''s wide property stretched, revealing tall trees, hedges, and even a chicken coop. Several buildings made up the family''s property. The driveway led to the main building and the garage next to it. On the other side, a smaller building stood where the maids lived. While even farther back, several training facilities stood. Vicky, using her powers, quickly scanned the area, and found Thea waiting below a gigantic oak tree. Even though teleporting would''ve been faster, Vicky decided to walk across the grassy ground, towards the enormous tree. The oak stretched up dozens of meters into the sky. Its trunk was definitely a few meters across. Thea leaned against the tree while staring at the empty field surrounding the oak. She received a notification about Vicky''s arrival, but was surprised to see her walking instead of simply teleporting. When she arrived, Thea couldn''t hold her curiosity. "Why didn''t you just teleport? Isn''t that easier and much faster?" Vicky just laughed, thinking of Thea''s sentence, like a naive girl''s words. "I was like that at first! When I received this power, I only teleported and opened portals, never taking a single step..." Vicky gently touched the tree while staring at the branches above, her eyes full of reminiscent splendor. "I realized it fairly quick though, that sometimes arriving fast takes away from the journey. I wanted to observe the trees, breath in the fresh air, listen to the birds'' singing! I''d avoid all that via teleportation!" Thea felt surprised by the Princess''s mature words. She didn''t expect someone so young to acquire this sense of reality. It took Thea a moment to adjust her mind. She had to remind herself that this small, seemingly fragile-looking girl was vastly more powerful than her. And even though her young age, her life experience went past what any thirteen-year-old should''ve ever witnessed. Silence followed the initial conversation. They basked in the moment, observing the leaves above swirling with the wind. Thea sat down by the tree, beckoning Vicky to do the same. They faced each other with their legs crossed, and Vicky awaited her new teacher''s words with great curiosity. "Let''s begin today''s lesson Princess Victoria..." Said Thea, but before she could''ve continued, Vicky interrupted. "Please, calm me Victoria or Vicky. There is no need for formalities!" For a moment, Thea lost her thought process. In the morning, her mother ordered Thea to only refer to Victoria by her title, since that was appropriate. But Victoria ordered her the exact opposite, to use her real name instead of the given title. Thea''s mind stuck between an order from her mother and an order from her Princess. Luckily, though, she was her mother''s daughter, and knew exactly which request outweighed the other. "Of course, my Lady! From now on, I''ll refer to you as Victoria!" Vicky raised an eyebrow at the formal talk, but didn''t say anything, and instead listened to Thea''s words with great interest. "You might wonder why we aren''t at the training areas. You might also wonder why I have no training equipment with me... The answer is simple, it''s because we won''t be training until you are mentally prepared for combat!" The confusion on Vicky''s face was evident, and before Thea could further explain, she cut in. "I think I''m as prepared as one can get. You saw me fight yesterday! You saw me kill all those monsters! Would you really call me unprepared?" Thea didn''t answer for a moment. Instead, she reached down and lifted a fresh leaf off of the ground. "Yes, I saw you fight mindless beasts. You were great at killing them, but your ways are unrefined and clumsy at best... Oh... Don''t take this as an insult... Let me explain it!" Vicky''s face turned grumpy at Thea''s description, which caused the older girl to sweat, but she soon regained her previous state of mind. She lifted the leaf, showing it to Vicky, then asked, "Kill this leaf!" Not truly understanding what Thea meant. Vicky summoned a tiny portal and bisected the green leaf. As the wind blew the two parts away, Thea shook her head before lifting another. "That''s exactly what I mean! You could''ve chosen hundreds of ways to destroy the leaf, but most of them were inefficient! Any leaf would die by cutting its stem, but instead you destroyed most of its surface!" Vicky still wasn''t grasping the lesson Thea tried to teach. "But I got the job done, didn''t I? The leaf is dead permanently! Isn''t that the reason why we kill? So the being wouldn''t bother us anymore?" Thea couldn''t help but chuckle at the Princess''s words, causing the girl to pout in annoyance. "Nope... Not even close... Killing is required from us. It''s a sad necessity to survive in our current reality! We kill when we have to, but to reach a better society, we eventually have to leave our murderous intent behind!" Vicky just sighed and lifted another leaf. She began twirling it in her hand while listening to Thea''s words. "The first lesson any soldier needs to learn in order to keep their sanity is that killing is wrong! It''s something horrible, which nobody should engage in!... However, the soldiers don''t have the luxury to stay pacifist! They need to kill, they need to sacrifice themselves for all the civilians'' wellbeing!" Thea''s silence held a moment, her gazed fixed curiously on Vicky''s white eyes. "There was a question my mother asked when I decided to follow my family and become a soldier, too... Tell me Victoria... What is the essence of combat?" The curiosity and intensity deepened in Thea''s silver eyes. Vicky considered the question briefly. She could''ve named a few different answers, but only one felt right... "The essence of combat is to defeat your opponent!" A wide grin spread across Thea''s face. This exact answer was what Thea expected from someone with so much pent up anger like Victoria. "An interesting way of thinking!... Victory is one of the major driving factors while you fight, but what if winning becomes impossible? Do you just give up fighting?... What is the essence of combat, Victoria?" Once more, the Princess became thoughtful, then declared the only other reasonable answer in her mind. "Well, if it isn''t winning, then I guess it''s murder! If you kill you opponent, then even if you die, you can achieve partial victory!" Thea''s grin widened, and a small giggle escaped her lips. "Murder? Really? Are you some vengeful fool with no care for life or death? Would you send your friends to death with no regard for their lives? Will you kill your every opponent until nobody left to oppose you?... Are you a Princess or a Tyrant?... I ask you again! What''s the essence of combat?" Vicky wanted to growl in annoyance, but instead she looked up towards the giant oak''s branches, and really considered the answer. "So it isn''t winning, because victory isn''t available every time... It isn''t murder, because killing is not the only solution when fighting... What did you say about soldiers? They shouldn''t kill, but they have to... As a sacrifice!" Her white eyes widened as she felt like she found the right answer. Thea couldn''t help but sigh with pure admiration and jealousy. "Damn... When my mother asked me, I needed an entire day to find the right answer!... You aren''t as hopeless as I initially thought!" They both laughed at Thea''s weak attempt at making a joke, and afterward, she further explained what Vicky already figured out. "Sacrifice is the right answer! You don''t fight for yourself, but for an entire nation! We need to kill, so the civilians won''t ever need to carry such heavy burdens! We sacrifice our body, mind, and soul! We don''t expect any repayment for our sacrifice, since that''s our duty!" Thea then spent another hour further explaining this mentality until Vicky fully understood and accepted The Essence of Combat! Chapter 347: Family Pet Their lesson ended fairly soon after Thea explained everything about the essence of combat. Vicky tried coaxing her into learning more, but Thea was adamant about ending the session. She sent Vicky home with one instruction: "Think about the Principles of Combat." She, of course, didn''t explain more about what she meant, which frustrated Vicky, but also made her excited. Unlike most lessons in school, she actually enjoyed learning with Thea. Thea''s unique background, or perhaps their similar ages, made Vicky understand her teachings better than any other instructor''s before. She awaited their next session, which would only be after the Peacekeeping Celebrations tomorrow. As she remembered the holiday, Vicky''s jolly attitude took a nosedive into melancholy. She returned home in the late afternoon. The sound of laughter echoed from the backyard of the family mansion. But instead of meeting up with her friends, Vicky teleported to her room and climbed back into bed. For the next hour, she tried falling asleep, but her mind stayed wide awake, too turbulent with today''s lessons and useless emotions. Vicky almost abandoned her attempt at sleeping when a new notification appeared on her silver watch. It was a simple message from Mary. ''Mary: We are currently at Lucy''s outpost, so open a portal, please!... We have a surprise for you!'' Her excitement immediately came back as she teleported away into a separate building near the mansion. Here dozens of different machines and lab equipment filled the large, warehouse-like room. Reaching the room''s far end, Vicky opened a portal. She expected to see Mary and James on the other side, but instead she only saw a giant golden furry rocket barreling towards her. Even using her Transcended reflexes, Vicky couldn''t react in time, so the creature pushed her to the ground with his heavy weight. Her life flashed before Vicky''s eyes as she saw an enormous maw approaching her head. She waited for the pain of getting devoured alive, reach her mind, but to her utter surprise she didn''t get hurt. The wide maw with razor-sharp teeth approached her face, and soon a long wet tongue licked it! Vicky coughed from the disgusting smell and laughed at the familiar feeling. She could''ve recognized that tongue anywhere! Before the creature could''ve licked her again, Vicky teleported above him, landing on his furry neck. She hugged his head close, burying her face into the soft fur. Her eyes caught glimpses of the creature''s eight legs, and his dog-like body. "Dammit Brain! You ruined my surprise!" Said a female voice from behind Vicky. Hearing the voice, Vicky promptly turned and caught sight of Mary and James entering through the portal. She hadn''t changed much in the last year since Vicky saw her. Her long, curly hair bounced as she walked. Her average height and small stature stayed the same, and her blue eyes held the same amount of curiosity and insanity. Compared to her, James seemed like a completely different person. His latest Evolution brought made his looks quite ridiculous. Short, spiky, light blue and neon green replaced his normal brown hair. His eyes changed light blue, and they seemed to glow as he looked around. His smaller stature now grew in height, making him lanky. Without waiting, Vicky jumped off Brian and ran towards the couple. While grinning and giggling, she hugged them both. "It''s so nice to see you two again! How did you find Brian, though? Weren''t you two supposed to be near the northern outposts?" James lifted Vicky and spun her around once, causing her to laugh with joy. Mary chuckled as well, while answering her questions. "It wasn''t us, but Kastral, who found him! He went to explore the ruins of the Angelic Order''s Research Facility, and there he was, creating enormous webs between rocks and trees! He quickly grabbed and brought him to us in the north!" As Mary talked, Brian snuck up behind Vicky, and ''gently'' bumped her with his enormous head, nearly knocking Vicky over. She turned around and began scratching the large spider-dog''s chin. "Then I will have to thank Kastral for his efforts! I''m sure little Nick will love our new pet!" It took Vicky a moment to realize what she''d said. She glanced back and saw the curious expression on both scientists'' faces. "Who is Nick? I thought you were still with Henry!" Asked James, causing Vicky to blush with shame. She felt shameful for not informing her friends about Nick. Sera never ordered Vicky to keep her little brother''s existence a secret, but in a way, it was a punishment towards everyone who left her one year ago. Now, though, she had no reason to keep him hidden... "Yes, Henry is still my boyfriend, but Nick is someone even more important to my heart!" Both James and Mary frowned at that. "Victoria! You should never cheat on your partner! Is that how we raised you?!" Vicky became confused at James''s words. Then her eyes widened and she quickly corrected her mistake. "No! Nick isn''t my lover or whatever you think, you sick idiots!... Nicholas Bran is his full name!... He is my brother!" The couple''s eyes widened as they stared at Vicky in shock. "Y-you mean... Did Bea have a child?" Asked James in a trembling voice. Vicky just laughed, as if his words were a joke, but after a few seconds, she realized he wasn''t joking. "Of course not! He is Sera''s and Bran''s child! He was conceived before Bran''s death and was born on February 14th 29 ATA!" James continued staring at Vicky with a bewildered expression, while Mary was close to exploding from excitement. Her entire body shook as thoughts flew through her mind, and after a few more seconds, she couldn''t hold herself back anymore. Without saying a word, the Angelic Order''s lead scientist ran out of the lab, while giggling like a little girl. Vicky, James, and Brian ran after her, but the regular human''s feet were quite fast. When they exited the lab, she was already booking it towards the main mansion, where the sound of children''s laughter echoed. Before she could''ve gotten close though, Vicky opened a portal, teleporting her back near James. The tall man acted immediately, restraining the crazy woman as she tried to claw her way free. "Let me go! I want to see the child! Sera changed into an Angel with her last Evolution, which means the child is an Angel too, but he is also human since Bran was still a human! And Sera became a Transcended while pregnant, so what''s the boy like?! I need to know! LET ME GO!" Mary continued explaining her thoughts too fast for Vicky to understand. She also shouted more and more profanities at James, who continued holding her back adamantly. In the meantime, Vicky typed a message to both Henry and Lilith, warning them about Mary''s intensified insanity. After the quick exchange, Vicky opened another portal, and let Lilith through. Upon appearing near the struggling couple, they moved stopped moving and looked towards the woman with curiosity. The two years changed little about Lilith''s appearance. She hid her long golden hair, with its dark roots behind her usual dark robe''s hood. From its shadows, a beautiful face stared out, expressing her boredom and annoyance. Her face reflected the same scar as Vicky''s own. Her two swirling purple eyes examined the couple with interest, especially Mary. The silence stretched between them, until eventually Lilith smirked and stepped forward, inviting Mary into a hug. "It''s nice to see you, Mary! Welcome back to New Athens!" Mary wrapped her arms around the girl, and got surprised by Lilith''s body. Feeling suspicious, Mary pushed her friend away. She began walking around Lilith while looking her up and down. "Something''s different about you... You look... Old... and fat?... No, not fat... Hmm... A yes! You grew in height and your body became more feminine with bigger tits and ass! You finally turned into a full-fledged woman! Congratulations!" After hearing Mary''s words, Lilith pulled her hood further down, trying to hide the heavy blush marring her face. It didn''t help that Mary kept prodding and groping different parts of her body. "Strange... I didn''t imagine that Evolving into a Transcended would give such significant improvements to your body!... I''ll need to discuss the body''s change after each Evolution with Professor Collins... But first, let me see the child!" Out of nowhere, Mary began sprinting towards the mansion again, but after a few steps, she fell over asleep. Before she could''ve face planted into the grass, Vicky opened a portal, teleporting her into James''s arms. He held her girlfriend gently, then turned towards Lilith and nodded her thanks. Together, they walked to the mansion and put Mary into an empty room where she can sleep peacefully. Brain also tried following them into the building, but it soon lost interest, when he heard the laughter of children. The parents watched in terror as the eight-legged gigantic spider-dog jumped around the children, trying to play with them. He even found a few meters long tree branch for them to toss. Vicky spent only a few minutes inside, but by the time she left the mansion, her brother Nick was already flying around Brian. Nick giggled every time the enormous dog tried to bite him. While they enjoyed this weird game, each attempt made by Brian caused a minor heart attack to the maid responsible for Nick''s wellbeing. The afternoon soon ended, and night approached. They housed Brain inside the gym building behind the mansion, which had more than enough space for the enormous spider-dog. Chapter 348 348: Realm Gate Research Mary didn''t wake up until it was time for dinner. Even then, it took half an hour to calm her down. Eventually, after Lilith threatened to make her fall asleep again, she took hold of herself, and with a newfound tranquility, they entered the dining hall. Her eyes went by everyone, until it reached the table''s end, where Vicky happily fed her brother. Without thinking, Mary began walking towards the one-year-old, but a small girl quickly jumped in her way. "If you try bothering them, I will make your eyes disappear!" Said Lydia with a wicked grin. Mary planned to protest; however, Nick suddenly jumped up and flew away. The scientist''s mouth fell open in shock and excitement. "He... He... He has wings?! Is he an Angel too?... But why are there black feathers, instead of Sera''s pristine white?!..." "Wait! Bran''s ability had a close connection to death, which is often depicted as dark or black... He inherited parts of both her parents?!... I need answers! I have to do tests! Why can''t I see?!" As Mary went on a tirade, Lydia used the opportunity to touch her face, changing its structure by making her eyelids stuck closed. Behind Mary, James sighed with exhaustion, then led her to an empty seat near Henry and Vicky. It took her a minute to calm down again, but eventually Lydia made the change revert. Before she could stand up and try to find Nick again, Henry tried changing the subject. "So Mary. What''s your report on Realm Gates?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but soon a wide smile spread across her face. "I learned a lot! I also may have found the purpose behind Harold''s machine, and what actually happened after its destruction!" Everyone still at the table grew curious, while Vicky just seemed lost. "Uh... What were you researching again?... Sorry, Henry handled all the scientific discoveries, so I have no clue what you two were doing this past year." Vicky tried to hide her sadness and pain, but James''s sharp eyes quickly noticed it. He leaned in close and whispered something into Vicky''s ear, which brought a small smile to her otherwise depressed face. Unlike James, Mary wasn''t as capable when it came to emotions. She didn''t even notice Vicky''s sadness, and instead passionately explained the reason for their absence. "A year ago we embarked on a journey across Europe, visiting forgotten, destroyed places. Malta was also our first destination... Sadly, Harold''s research facility yielded no important discoveries..." Mary could barely breathe as she dumped all her pent up information on everyone listening. "From there, we ventured into places, which were known as Harold''s previous hideouts. Each place gave snippets of information and led us further to the east! Eventually, we found something amazing..." While Mary talked, James placed a circular object on the dining table, which projected a holo-screen into the air. It showed pictures of some frosted over laboratory. "In the middle of the Siberian Plains, about 3 or 4 thousand kilometers from here, we found one of Harold''s past facilities!" "Nobody visited it for over a decade or two, but we acquired lots of leftover data! They mostly related to genetical engineering, but we also found information about Realm Gates!" The circular device displayed new images of an older, less frozen research facility. "Sadly, the facility hadn''t yielded the necessary clues we needed, but it held a database of all the different facilities, which were still operational!" "It also showed labels of their intended purpose, and so we went to the one related to Realm Gate Research! Luckily, it was near Lucy''s outpost in the northern part of Europe!" The pictures soon changed from the labs of the northern facility to actual schematics and research data. Vicky could barely recognize the machines displayed, but they all looked familiar in ways she couldn''t describe. They also felt incomplete for some reason. "This facility gave us the necessary breakthrough, but we also found something much more interesting..." Said Mary while pointing at a particular schematic. This one even Vicky recognized, and she finally understood why the previous machines seemed incomplete... Because they were... They were all part of a larger, gigantic machine, the exact one Bran overloaded and exploded. "We found the blueprints for ''The Reality Breaker'' as Harold had named it! Sadly, the schematics didn''t properly mention its intended purpose, but James and I made some highly likely assumptions using them!" Mary stayed silent for a moment and prompted James to take over the conversation. "Our best guess is still the same. Harold wanted to use both Seras'' resurrection energy to open Realm Gates to different places. But, something interesting we figured out was the required energy he wanted to use compared to the amount of Gates he could''ve opened..." The schematic changed into graphs of energy, time, Gate Opening, etc. Vicky couldn''t understand any of it. "The ratios made little sense! He planned on opening a few dozen Gates, using ten times the amount of energy required! Further investigation into this discrepancy unearthed some old files pertaining to the Realm Gates'' property." Images showed the files, but Vicky couldn''t read the quickly scrolling words. She only managed to read the date on them... 5 ATA... James took a deep breath and glanced at her girlfriend, who was eager to continue. "Despite my lifelong research on Gates, Harold was significantly superior at it! Early into the Apocalypse, he noticed the difference between Gates. Some stayed open longer than others, and he didn''t understand why, so he measured their inner energy..." The pictures showed different Gates with an energy graph next to it. Each Gate to various Realms had unique energies, yet those leading to the same destination used equal energy for opening! "Each Realm has a specific energy requirement for a Gate to open. However, there''s something more intriguing... As you know, a Gate in reality is two Gates opening in both Realms, connected by an invisible path, which means both Gates require energy to open!..." "Guess Earth''s energy requirement!" Everyone around the table glanced at one another, then they all collectively shrugged. The image transitioned to a European map highlighting numerous Gate Openings in the past two years. "I don''t know, but judging by the large amount of Gates, I would say it requires little energy." Said Henry, then watched as Mary''s already large smile twisted into a wide grin. "That''s what any sane person would assume; however, it''s entirely false!" The image changed, showing another Realm Gate, but its destination was unusual... Earth... More surprising than the image was the adjacent graph. It clearly showed that the Gate''s inner energy was dozens of times larger than any other Gates''. "Fascinating, isn''t it? Even Harold didn''t know the exact reason for this energy requirement! His best guess was that around Earth some sort of barrier kept Gate Openings restricted..." "This would explain why the Gates only let through monsters below Cataclysm Class, and regular beings below Transcended Rank!" Mary became silent for a moment, and using the opportunity, Lilith asked, "What is the source of the energy that opens the Realm Gates, and who opens them? Madness? Also, who made the barrier around our planet?" James reached over and turned off the device, while Mary grinned at Lilith. "Amazing questions, but no true answers! The barrier''s appearance is unclear. It was here longer than modern humanity, but it''s impossible to measure it!... As for the Realm Gates..." She became silent again, seemingly deep in thought. Eventually, her eyes widened and the usual wicked smile appeared. "They have little to do with Madness! The Realm Gates are a natural phenomenon, but the barrier around our planet stopped their appearance for a long time..." "Only at the height of the Last War, when the energy on the planet''s surface reached high enough levels, did the barrier crack, letting the Realm Gates appear again!" Most of the faces reflected deep curiosity, while Vicky fought with sleep. Out of everyone, only Henry caught Mary''s words. "Did you say ''again''?! You mean, this isn''t the first time when Realm Gates appeared in human history?" James and Mary shared a knowing glance, and they both sighed with deep exhaustion. "Yes, this isn''t the first time... Thousands of years ago, Realm Gates opened all over the planet, letting creatures through. These weren''t monsters though, just a bunch of powerful beings, whom the early humans worshipped as gods, creating lots of dumb religions!" Before Mary could''ve launched into a religious critique, potentially offending Lilith and Lydia, James intervened. "We have to speak with Professor Collins about these old religions, since he knows much more about history. But as far as we could tell, someone locked away all these different beings long before humanity''s modernization..." "Huh? Locked away? Can someone do that? Who?" Asked Vicky, strangely enough. After hearing about the old religions, her interest got piqued. "The barrier''s maker, most likely. Harold only guessed these, so we aren''t sure... However, he had clear evidence about the existence of these beings..." The silence felt like a living being, as everyone hung onto James''s every word. "After searching for years, the mad scientist found them... More than a dozen Realms. Each Realm has one Gate leading to Earth, but all the Gates are currently locked..." They all breathed a collective sigh of relief, but the worry in James''s and Mary''s eyes hadn''t lessened... They still hadn''t told everything... "For now, they are locked, but eventually they will open... The energy from Bran''s sacrifice damaged the planet''s barrier even more, and these cracks let more Gates appear throughout the world! We also think the locks on those Gates were partially destroyed!" Everyone''s eyes widened from shock and fear, but soon their resolve and experience took over. "Well, that explains why the Gate Openings around Europe increased drastically... Do you have an idea when will those locks fail?" Asked Henry, but unsurprisingly, the two scientists shook their heads. With a tired sigh, Henry stood up from his seat, and Vicky immediately followed suit. "For now, don''t think on this too much... Tomorrow everyone else will arrive, and after the celebrations we can hold a proper meeting, discussing these issues... Anyway, we''re off to bed..." As the regal couple walked towards the door, they waved back and said a half-hearted ''goodnight''. Chapter 349: Peacemaking Celebrations During the night, Vicky couldn''t sleep. For hours she tried, but eventually she gave up with an exhausted sigh. A soft chuckle reached her from the other side of the bed. Before she knew what happened, Henry''s muscular arm wrapped around her, pulling Vicky into a cuddle. They continued to chat throughout the night, enjoying each other''s company. He held Vicky more firmly when her emotions about the celebrations surfaced, and tears ran down her face. Together they laughed and talked about the future until eventually the sun shined through the windows. It was a new day. May 12th to be exact... Outside, the Peacemaking Celebrations already began! ... The first year after Bran''s sacrifice, people''s morale was down. The numerous deaths caused them profound sadness, shaping a bleak outlook. With the rising tide of depression, Henry suggested making May 12th a national holiday, a time of celebration. On this day, working wasn''t permitted, and everyone had to solely focus on enjoying themselves, in remembrance of their lost loved ones. People were skeptical in the upcoming weeks, but soon the Angelic Order announced a nationwide praying event, which Queen Seraphine''s daughter, Victoria, also attended. The rise of Sera''s religion also increased after the war''s end, but with their Goddess missing, many people turned away from the faith. Rumors rose about Sera abandoning everyone. Some even believed she died during the war, and the Angelic Order only hid it to keep their hold on the city-states. These rumors continued intensifying, and no matter how hard Lilith and Adam tried, they couldn''t find its source. Pushed into a corner, the Angelic Order was at the brink of collapse. The civilians stopped listening to their orders, and the Gate Openings became ever more frequent, causing disasters left and right. Amidst all this chaos, nobody noticed Henry''s and Vicky''s missing presence. They disappeared before autumn. Henry was only a regular human, while Vicky was an Ascended. The attacks grew in number until eventually the Pragua Disaster happened. A Mass Gate Opening, as the scientists called it... Dozens, if not more than a hundred, Gates opened at every corner of Pragua... Their council cried for help, from any other city-state, but nobody cared. The Stellars turned away from Pragua, each having their own reason for abandonment. The only nation that sent help was the Angelic Order. Thousands of warriors, using their hippogryphs, flew to Pragua''s aid. The streets got flooded with the blood of monsters, Evolved and regular humans. But even after that many sacrifices, the city''s destruction seemed inevitable. When all hope seemed lost at the end of winter, something amazing happened. Like a Goddess arriving to save the city, Vicky stepped out of a portal in an unseen form. She walked across the bloody streets, wearing nothing but a long dress seemingly woven from the night sky. Wherever she walked, the nearby Realm Gates forcefully closed, killing any monster trying to climb through. Only an hour after her arrival, every single Gate closed within Pragua... But there was still much to do... Pragua''s streets swarmed with thousands of monsters, causing widespread death and destruction. Vicky hadn''t relented. She swept through the streets, leaving only corpses in her wake. She met lots of surviving soldiers from both the Angelic Order and from Pragua''s defenses. They all kneeled before her, conveying their gratitude and obedience. The regal Princess only nodded at the soldiers before moving on to kill more. People who watched Vicky fight also reported a strange blur, which always stayed near the Princess, causing just as much death as the young girl. It didn''t take long to figure out the blur''s identity. It was Henry, London''s Prince and Vicky''s boyfriend. The news about the Prince''s power shocked Europe, eventually reaching her mother''s Queen Elizabeth''s ears. By that point, the two barely spoke, but the last straw for Henry was when her mother ordered him home after he helped save Pragua. As a response, Henry released his messages with his mother, asking her help to save the city-state, and her clear refusal. While the civilians of London became enraged at their Queen, the Angelic Order and Pragua enjoyed their newfound connection. After long discussions between Henry and Pragua''s council, they came to a compromise... Pragua would join the Angelic Order''s territory if they could keep their inner governance, but accept the Angelic Order''s faith citywide. These were acceptable conditions, and on April 15th ATA 29, Pragua officially became the 14th city-state within the Angelic Order. This was surprising to every other city-state nearby. The Angelic Order already controlled the southern and eastern parts of Europe, but they slowly crept closer to the north and west. While the other city-states tried keeping their citizens calm, because of the backlash of not helping their fellow humans, the Angelic Order enjoyed their new upcoming holiday. With Vicky''s new fame, and restored hope in the Angelic Order, the people became excited for the Peacemaking Celebrations. Another good news, which further increased everyone''s enthusiasm, was that the New Constantinople cathedral was finally ready. Nearly two years'' construction payed off. Vicky personally opened the Cathedral of Light, only days before the celebrations. They didn''t plan on naming the cathedral, but when everyone saw its glowing splendor at night, people began referring to it as the Cathedral of Light. Its new name perfectly described the intended effect of the cathedral... To bring hope... The building had seven entrances, each leading into its own separate churches. At the end, the seven buildings connected with the main structure, a gigantic open space, with a hundred meter tall statue of Seraphine as the centerpiece. Around the room, wide, open elevators let people travel to the upper floors. The building comprised seven floors, decreasing in size, but even the top floor could accommodate a few thousand individuals. For the Peacemaking Celebrations, everyone assembled inside the Cathedral of Light and many other churches around the Angelic Order. Lilith, Adam, Vicky and Henry stood on the top of a floating platform, which moved around Sera''s statue. They used a wireless device, which amplified the voice of anyone atop the platform. From there, Vicky addressed the hundreds of thousands assembled inside and outside the Cathedral of Light. Her speech also got broadcasted all over Europe. Everyone with a holo-screen could listen. Vicky''s speech was awkward at first, but she held on firmly until she reached the end. Her speech was very moving and beautifully composed. Henry put a lot of effort while writing it for his girlfriend. After her speech, Lilith and Adam spoke to the masses as well. Then the real celebrations began. Before noon, most civilians were already drunk, enjoying games, celebrating their lives and mourning their lost ones. While the entire nation celebrated, Vicky and Henry spent their time quietly in the empty mansion. All the other kids and their parents were out having fun, while Lydia volunteered to help keep the peace. Drunk people often don''t mix well, leading to fights breaking out quickly. Even the maids were off duty during the celebrations, leaving only his sister and her boyfriend to watch over little Nick. Vicky''s brother wasn''t even three months old, so leaving him alone wasn''t an option. He was born on February 14th, less than two weeks before the Pragua Disaster. Following the birth, which Vicky and Henry assisted with, the child was taken from its mother only days later. By that time, everyone of Vicky''s old friends tried establishing their outposts thousands of kilometers away, so Vicky and Henry had to tackle the Pragua Disaster alone. During the celebrations, Vicky felt especially sad and lonely, so spending time with only Henry and Nick felt like a breath of fresh air. After the Peacemaking Celebrations, nothing too important happened. The year went by in relative peace, with Gate Openings becoming more frequent, but also less dangerous. The celebrations inspired lots of people. The Angelic Order''s military rapidly grew, and all the Evolved they lost during the Pragua Disaster got replaced by ten new recruits. With this increase in number, a new problem arose across Europe... They were running out of monsters... The hunting parties had to travel further each month. All the new Evolved hunted any monster below Horror to extinction. But even the Horrors weren''t safe, since the Transcended count increased too, reaching more than a hundred. Interestingly, two solutions existed for the monster problem... People either waited for Realm Gates to open so they could kill as many as possible, or they volunteered to join an outpost on another continent. The more patient and people who didn''t want to risk their lives stayed defending the city-states. However, bolder individuals explored volunteered at the outposts. This emigration of soldiers caused the Angelic Order''s influence to grow across the globe. More outposts needed to be established. More soldiers became stronger. More people ventured out of Europe''s safety. During the year after the first celebration, the Angelic Order''s position skyrocketed. By popularity and influence was a two-sided blade. Other factions didn''t spend the time idly, either. As May 12th approached, the shadows moved and prepared making their move. Vicky knew nothing of this. The young Princess was blissfully unaware of the crap storm heading in her direction. She just felt immense joy at finally reunite with her old friends following more than a year''s separation. After getting a proper breakfast, she ran to the science building and began opening portals atop the podium. The early morning mattered little to everyone, since they all came from different time zones. Vicky opened about a dozen portal, each leading into slightly different areas around the world. Some opened into jungle-like forests, others into frozen tundras, rocky plains, mountain ranges, whimsical forests, and even deserts. Each path led to enchanting destinations, yet Vicky''s gaze remained fixed on the approaching individuals... Chapter 350: Happy Reunion The portals opened to four general areas, where outposts got set up. North, west, south, and east. North referred to the northern part of Europe, the Scandinavian Peninsula''s top. The area was full of higher Class monsters, while its geography was a mountainous tundra with fields and forests covered in snow. Lucy and Will led the first expeditions there. Despite having intel on the area, facing the high-class monsters was a real headache to deal with. For better coverage, they both lived in separate outposts, so they entered the lab through different portals. Neither changed much in the past year. Will still had his short, dark blue hair, but now the beginnings of a beard grew over his jaw. His dark blue eyes seemed to light up as it scanned the surroundings and eventually landed on Vicky. He tried to scoop up the not so little girl, but before he could, a black-haired, deathly pale woman was already hugging her. Out of everyone, Lucy changed the least. She continued wearing her gothic black dress, which further enhanced her petite beauty and milky white skin. In comparison, Will seemed like a wet rat with his tanned skin, cargo shorts and sleeveless white shirt. They both hugged Vicky tightly, then looked at each other, surprised. The setting up of outposts prevented frequent contact between them, so they hadn''t met in a long time, either. "Fuck me, how the hell do you still have a tan?! I haven''t seen proper sunlight in months! And what the fuck are you wearing?!" Will just shrugged and smiled. Without a word, he lifted Lucy by the waist and spun her around, while continuously kissing her. Vicky giggled at their display of joy, then turned back towards the portals. The west referred to the South American continent. Large jungle-like forests, enormous, swampy rivers, and tall mountains proved a great annoyance, hindering exploration. Leslie and Sarah led the outposts there, with more or less success. It wasn''t easy to find a good region for setting up camps. It also didn''t help that parts of the South American continent suffered greatly in the Last War. The destruction was so bad towards the north, they couldn''t even traverse the plains, and after getting in contact with a few survivors, they realized that the landmass connecting South and North America didn''t exist anymore. This hindered their explorations a bit, but also provided valuable intel. At first, they planned on mapping both South and North America, but after what the locals told them, they refrained from traveling north. Instead, they stayed and tried negotiating with the few city-state on the continent. They were quite welcoming and excited to meet other survivors. Upon hearing Leslie''s and Sarah''s return to Europe, they jumped at the idea of sending envoys, furthering the bond between the continents. Through the opened portal, Leslie and Sarah entered, leading about a dozen people wearing strange colorful clothes. Lucy and Will changed somewhat during the year, Sarah and Leslie felt like completely different people. The tall, taciturn man, with a commending aura, now seemed permanently angry, with a terrifying outlook. Towering over two meters, he possessed two black, bat-like wings. From his long, bright red, disheveled hair, a pair of dark horns grew. A long, black tail, tipped with a dagger-like protrusion, swung with every step. His face still held its otherworldly beauty, but now, deep within his blood-red eyes, a strong inextinguishable anger burned. The man looked at everyone and smirked upon seeing Lucy and Will. He didn''t rush towards them though, instead he moved and bent down to give Vicky a well-deserved hug. Even through his monstrous changes on the outside, his mind stayed the same. "Wow, you grew a lot since the last time I saw you! If you continue like this, it won''t take long to surpass me!" Vicky just giggled at Leslie''s remark, but soon something changed. The air pressure felt stronger, and the room filled with the smell of rain. A humanoid cloud coalesced before Vicky and Leslie, taking up the shape of a breathtaking woman. Sarah''s body became a lot different with her next Evolution. Her bluish-gray hair reached the floor and constantly danced on nonexistent winds. The surrounding air formed into a magnificent flowing blue dress, which covered most of her body, showing ample cleavage. On her face two stormy eyes stared at the people nearby, while her face supported unreadable, constantly changing emotions. "Hello everyone! Long time no see!... Is that you Vicky?! Why are you hugging my man!..." Confused, Vicky let go of Leslie and stared at Sarah''s approaching figure. She also bent down and hugged her, which felt similar to being hugged by a cloud. "Oh, I missed you so much!... But if you hug my man again, we will have a problem... I love you, Vicky!" Her words sent mixed emotions, making Vicky even more bewildered. Leslie sighed nearby and glanced at Lucy''s and Will''s curious expressions. "Since her last Evolution, Sarah turned into a weather elemental, which means she became unstable and very emotional... Just act like nothing happened and it will be fine!" "Hey, I heard that! You know if I didn''t love you, you would already be dead!" Shouted Sarah angrily, while continuing to hug Vicky, her hand gently petting the small girl''s head. "You are upsetting little Victoria!" Leslie quickly consoled Sarah before separating her from Vicky and leading her away from the portals. Luckily, the envoys were too curious about the lab, so they hadn''t noticed Sarah''s strange behavior... Either that, or they got used to it! The portals leading to the east mostly referred to Asia''s eastern part. These portals opened to the most diverse terrain, starting from wastelands, to simple grassy plains, to gigantic mountain ranges, and jungle-like dense forests. Through these portals, Melinda, Kim, Astrid, Joan, Sam and two unfamiliar figures, a man and a woman, entered the facility. The eastern expedition had the hardest task out of everyone. Unlike the other three, they actually had intel of the surviving Asian city-states, they just had to establish contact with each. The issue came when Melinda realized how xenophobic these cities were. They all united under a single mega city-state, which dwarfed even New Paris. An Ethereal supposedly led them, but Harold''s maneuver four years ago locked away every Ethereal on the planet. Dozens of Stellars now ruled the city, viewing the European envoys with contempt, looking down at their low Ranks. Through long negotiations, Melinda acquired some relevant information about the state of the Asian continent. The Japanese Isles sunk from the Last War. Bombings transformed much of the Indian Peninsula into a wasteland consumed by radiation. Dozens of Abominations took South-East Asia over, constantly fighting each other. Australia sent only a distress call, mentioning monstrous spider-like creatures causing widespread destruction. The few scouts sent by the Asian city-states never returned, so they deemed the area a death-zone. Melinda''s question regarding the envoy''s absence prompted only amusement from the Stellars. Later on, a Transcended servant explained that in the leadership''s eyes, sending an envoy would mean lowering themselves to weaklings. Since they had made up their minds, Melinda dropped the issue and now came home, perpetually annoyed at her own failure. Her face only brightened upon landing on the little girl standing not far away. Melinda, like Lucy and Will, didn''t change on the outside. She kept her whitish-blond hair, and her blue and green eyes. She did seem stronger and more dignified. Each step carried a newfound grace and confidence. Even though she grinned at Vicky, her eyes held an infinite well of sadness. When Bran died, Melinda broke in many ways. It wasn''t easy to adjust to the new reality without her best friend. She herself volunteered for the expedition, so she could get away from New Athens and all the memories it held. The formerly depressed individual''s demeanor seemed to change. The year of freedom changed Melinda for the better. Her eyes still held the sadness within, but it lessened, and even her smile seemed more genuine. Another person with a similar change was Joan... Two years ago, she lost her sister mysteriously. In amidst the chaos, they didn''t notice Eula''s missing body, and Joan was unconscious during the rescue. Joan eventually explained Eula''s death... Amygdala treated everyone cruelly, but the twins suffered the most. She saw how close each was to Evolving further. With her fear aura, forcing Joan to kill her own sister, and use her corpse for Evolution. The event was so traumatic Joan couldn''t speak or move for months. She was like a living corpse, slowly withering, but never dying. Melinda spent a lot of time in her room, talking to her. It was easier, because Joan never responded, never judged or tried solving the problem. She could freely vent to someone without any repercussions. When the news about the expeditions reached Melinda, she somehow convinced Joan to join. The two women departed together, shattered by their losses, but returned, appearing alive and even somewhat joyful. They both gave Vicky tender hugs and kisses on her forehead. Kim and Sam didn''t show the same gentleness. Like a rocket, Kim slithered towards the Princess. Her changes were the most apparent out of everyone''s, since her previous transformation became permanent. From the waist up, she remained mostly the same. Unnaturally pale skin, slender build, beautiful face with a hair of small snakes, each colored either green or brown. Her slit-like eyes glowed dark green as it stared down at Vicky. From the waist down, a three meter long, silvery-white snake-tail stretched, moving from side-to-side as she slithered towards Vicky. A specially made dress covered up her upper body and waist, hiding any intimate parts. It looked quite funny on the snake woman, but Vicky tried holding in her laughter. "You can laugh at her all you want! I already said she looks ridiculous, but for some reason, she never believes me!" The high-pitched voice belonged to the tall, lanky goblin grinning behind Kim. Sam didn''t change much over the year. His face stayed androgynous, with long, blackish-green hair covering his head. Dark green eyes scanned Vicky, while the smile widened on his face. "Oh, my Goddess! You grew so much in only a year! I can''t believe I missed the time when you surpassed Kim in height!" Both Vicky and Sam giggled as he lifted the child and spun her around a few times. "Hey! I''m now much taller than any of you!" Shouted Kim in outrage. "We don''t count your tail," Said a deep feminine voice, Astrid''s voice. The woman was tall before, but now she grew monstrous, with her 2,3 meter height. She wore her usual golden armor, which was now covered in embellishments, and under her arm, she carried a winged helmet. Other than growing a lot taller, the most prominent change on Astrid''s body was the pair of golden-feathered wings growing from her back. It matched perfectly with her whitish-gold hair and eyes. While Astrid walked towards Vicky, Kim used the opportunity to steal the child from Sam and give a hug of her own. She pressed the Princess''s face to hers, letting all the small snakes give kisses. It made Vicky a bit uncomfortable, but also gave a fuzzy, warm feeling in her stomach, so she let the snake kisses continue. Astrid showed respect by kneeling before the small child. But whatever Astrid expected to happen, Vicky didn''t care. She jumped away from Kim''s arms, leaving her pouting, and sat down on Astrid''s neck. "Stand up Astrid! I want to be tall!" Demanded the Princess and with a booming laughter Astrid obliged. From her newfound height, Vicky watched the rest of the people''s approach. She watched the two individual. They both seemed familiar, like she saw them before. They also looked similar, as if they were siblings or other close family members. They both knelt before Vicky, but they clearly didn''t carry the same respect as Astrid. Not like Vicky cared. After giving up on remembering their names, she turned away and looked towards the rest of her friends. Chapter 351: Antarctica The southern expedition proved uniquely bizarre. They had basically no intel about Antarctica''s state after the Last War. Prior to the Apocalypse, Antarctica accommodated billions of humans who had relocated there centuries ago. Before space exploration became the norm, Earth suffered from serious overpopulation, but as the southern icecaps melted, a solution arose. Each continent sent millions of ''undesired'' humans, and they built cheap cities which could support themselves. Large corporations owned these cities and used their population as slave labour. The Antarcticans tried rising up against their oppressors, but each attempt failed miserably. Their slavery continued until the space exploration began. Slowly, year-by-year, decade-by-decade, people forgot about the Antarctican population. The automated defenses continued keeping them in line until eventually those failed too. Their population continued growing, and when they had enough, the Antarcticans freed themselves, killing all their oppressors, destroying their factories, taking over their homes. From then on, Antarctica fought for its freedom, and barely a decade later, the other continents accepted its sovereignty. They eventually matched technological advancements on other continents, later leading to their own space exploration. The Antarctican vessel became the best, since Earth''s magnetic field was the strongest at its poles. Their vessels needed to surpass the physical drawbacks of their position. Their citizens, once enslaved, now lived lavish lifestyles. They assembled their own military, which mostly used long-range missiles and gigantic aircraft carrying thousands of drones. Its isolation meant Antarctica seldom needed mechanized or armored infantry, which, as it turned out, was a horrible oversight. In the Last War, they managed keeping their casualties minimal, by being mostly passive and defensive... This couldn''t be said about the Apocalypse... When Gates opened across Antarctica, the lack of infantry became noticeable quickly. All the high-tech missile guidance systems, or aircraft and drone navigation, failed. They had no real defence against the monster hordes. Cities fell one-by-one. Billions died within months. The destruction was incalculable. But from the rubble, the survivors rebuilt their cities. They adapted to their new world, just like they did centuries ago. The Antarcticans possessed strong will, so it''s no wonder even the Apocalypse couldn''t break them. Damien led the first expedition to Antarctica, and soon they found the survivors. Together, they established communication and shared information about Earth''s state. Antarctica stayed united after the Apocalypse, but they had no means to travel far distances, like Vicky''s ability. They also needed to sort out monsters before finding survivors on the other continents. They tried sending people to South America, but an Abomination resided near its southern tip, so every mission ended in failure. The Antarcticans felt ecstatic upon learning how well Europe fared. For the past 30 years, they thought everyone else inside the Solar System had died, making them the only humans left alive. Like the few South American cities, they also happily sent envoys so they could establish a closer connection with other continents. Damien led the first expedition to Antarctica, accompanied by his wife Agnes, David, Cassandra, Percy, his girlfriend Morren, Kathy and his boyfriend Conrad. They didn''t really have outposts, since after discovering the Antarctican city-states, they mostly lived behind their makeshift walls. Damien didn''t change at all since the last time Vicky had seen him. He was still a Transcended with white hair and beard. What Vicky noticed was a change in his behavior. His usual coldness seemed to vanish, and the fierceness, hidden anger didn''t penetrate Vicky''s body, when those icy-blue eyes stared down at her. But the most surprising change was Damien''s mouth. There was something wrong with it. His mouth twisted to both sides, curling up almost as if... He was smiling! The facial expression felt uncanny on the older man''s face. Like something out of a horror movie. "Don''t worry about it, Princess! You get used to after a while!" Said a female voice from behind Damien. The tall black woman looked unfamiliar to Vicky, but she could guess her identity just from the cunning grin spreading across her face. Her hair color was different since the last time they met, but Kathy changed both her hair color, style and even her eye color each day. Now she sported light blue dreadlocks, held in a ponytail, while her eyes were a beautiful, dark hazel combined with bright red. She looked unnatural. Judging by her waist to hip ratio, it should be physically impossible for her body to support the size of her bust. Despite this, she walked straight, hand-in-hand with a handsome, absentminded man. Vicky''s acquaintance with Conrad developed gradually after Malta, primarily via reports. His reports were always perfect, highlighting a lot of battle details and tactics they should''ve used. His reports were somewhat fun and educational, unlike Percy''s or Kathy''s, which were a few sentences at best. Sometimes they just promised to send it later, then never actually wrote it! Conrad was a tall, muscular man, with light gray, weirdly gentle eyes. His skin held onto a dark tan, which was strange since they came from Antarctica, which got little sunlight this time of year. He had no hair, and the top of his head held lots of tattoos, each depicting a different type of weapon. After Kathy''s remark, Conrad leaned in and whispered... Or at least tried to whisper, but his booming voice echoed in the entire facility! "What do you mean, you get used to it? I''m still scared whenever he turns to me! That smile is unnatural!" Damien glanced back, which caused Conrad to yelp and hide behind Kathy. The dark-skinned woman just sighed with exhaustion while shaking her head. Upon hearing Conrad''s words, the next couple came through the portal, absorbed in their amused laughter. Percy and Morren looked like one side of the same coin... After the Ouroboros Cohort fell apart, since they lost more than half of their members, Morren could finally live out her most wanted desires, and wore whatever she liked! Right now her one side of her hair was buzzed down, while the other freely fell to her shoulder, partially covering her face. She also dyed it yellowish-orange, or maybe that was her real hair color... Vicky wasn''t certain, but either way it looked weird! This hair style wasn''t anything new, but her other facial modifications were... Mouth, nose, eyebrow and ear piercings covered her face. From her neck, a bright red flame tattoo crawled up the side of her face, reaching and circling one of her orange eyes. She wore an outrageously tight pants and crop top, which revealed and accentuated most of her curvaceous body. Next to Morren, Percy seemed like a trash diving raccoon. She was nearly a head smaller and even had less muscle than her girlfriend. He sported a black mohawk with purple stripes, matching his purple eyes. His flame tattoo, similar to his girlfriend''s, was dark purple instead of bright red. The short, vicious-looking man walked up to Conrad and pulled him down, so he could whisper into his ear. "I don''t know how can you think Damien''s scary... Have you seen her wife? She''s like one of those Abominations we saw at the Titan Peninsula, except her attitude is even worse! If pregnancy makes you such an emotional mess, then..." Before he could''ve finished the sentence, Morren reached over and pulled him away by his ear. "Then what?!... What if I get pregnant? What will you do? Leave me, eh!?" While still holding onto Percy''s ear, she continued to shout, while the raccoon desperately apologized. Vicky just raised an eyebrow at this strange interaction between lovers. Despite their apparent argument, Vicky noted their joyous expressions... This was a game for them... She tried wrapping her head around it, but no matter the efforts, it didn''t make sense to Vicky. "Don''t think too hard, little Vicky. We lived with them for a year and still can''t make sense of their interactions!" David''s voice instantly brought a bright smile to Vicky''s face. Her mother''s long-time friend didn''t change much during the year. His black skin became more scale-like, and he still had no hair atop his head. His viper-like eyes were now a constant purple. His long tongue had a slit in the middle, also similar to a snake''s. "Uncle David!" She shouted in excitement, jumping off Astrid''s neck and into his arms faster than anyone expected. Out of everyone, Vicky spoke the most with Uncle David and Aunt Cass, plus Kim and Sam, but she had no serious conversations with either. David and Cass always asked about her wellbeing and emotional state. They helped especially a lot, when she felt depressed about Bran''s death on the first Peacemaking Celebrations. A long embrace ended when Vicky withdrew, her gaze confused, scanning her surroundings. "Is Aunt Cass not joining us? I thought she would come too?" Vicky''s voice sounded heartbreakingly sad, but just before tears appeared in her eyes, she felt an ample chest press into her back, while long, slender arms pulled her into a hug. "Oh, my dear! I arrived well ahead of them. My excitement proved too much to handle, so I returned a week early... I have been watching over you and the ''new family member'' for a while now!" Cass whispered the last words, so silently even David couldn''t hear them. But Vicky understood everything, and immediately guessed who the ''new family member'' referred to. With a wide smile, Vicky spun around and was about to hug Cass, but getting hit by the woman''s allure stopped her. From everyone gathered there, Cass changed the most. Through hard work and many trials, she achieved something nobody else, not even Sera managed yet... She Evolved to Stellar Rank! Chapter 352 352: The Succubus When Cassandra Evolved to Stellar, she also changed races, fully becoming a succubus. Her power over illusions turned into an extremely strong weapon, while her beauty became unmatchable and borderline dangerous. She constantly needed to suppress her allure aura, so people wouldn''t fall in love with her just by batting her eyelashes once. Cass''s hair stayed purple, but now it grew beyond her waist. The light fractured upon hitting the purple river flowing down her back, creating a mesmerizing illusion of rainbows. Her bright pink eyes seemed to pierce through every being''s soul, gauging their deepest desires. Behind her back two large, dark purple, bat-like wings spread, similar to Leslie''s own demonic ones. She had similar horns as well, albeit smaller, and more cute than dangerous. Near her backside, a long, dark purple tail moved seductively. It had no dagger-like protrusion at its end, but it wasn''t any less deadly than Leslie''s. Upon appearing, everyone''s heart rate rose, and they all looked away with heavy blushes. Vicky alone remained unfazed. She was just stunned by her Aunt''s beautiful face. Even without makeup, Vicky had seen no one even remotely as gorgeous. She wore a long, flowing dress made of some glass-like material. It was partially see through, which defeated the purpose of a dress in Vicky''s opinion, but it also blurred everything... The dress revealed all of Cass''s body and also hid it in plain sight. Still, no matter how much she blurred it, her protruding assets couldn''t stay hidden, no matter the fabric used. "Damn David! I''m quite jealous of you!" Said Percy loud enough for everyone to hear. Morren didn''t even glance at her boyfriend, and instead nodded in agreement, "Me too! Do you want to swap some time?" This jolted Percy from his reverie, igniting a new dispute between the ''happy'' couple. Both Vicky and Cass laughed at them, which further brought everyone back to reality. "What do you mean, you''ve been here for a week? I never opened a portal for your return." Vicky sounded confused. Even as a Stellar, Cass couldn''t have come back from Antarctica, since the Mediterranean Ocean stretched between them. That''s over 10.000 kilometers! Cass just glanced towards David with a cunning smile and waited for her man to explain. "After reaching Stellar Rank, Cass unlocked a lot of new abilities, using her illusions. She could leave illusory avatars wherever she desired, and change places with them any time... She didn''t arrive here a week ago, in a way she never truly left!" Everyone''s eyes widened in surprise at hearing David''s words. "But wait! If you were here this entire week, why have you stayed hidden?" Asked Vicky, while the alluring woman giggled, causing a blush wave amongst the people. "Because I wanted to observe you alone for a bit... And it isn''t my fault you hadn''t noticed me! I was one of the maids who watched over little Nick! I was also the soldier you gave the letter to!... Why didn''t you recognize me, eh?" Vicky just stared at her aunt in disbelief. None of the maids looked like Cass, so she obviously used illusions, but she explicitly remembered giving the letter to the female soldier. As the memory of that day popped into Vicky''s mind, she finally remembered why that man and woman seemed familiar... They were Yvonne and Yannick, Thea''s older brother and sister! Just by looking at them, it wasn''t easy to figure out. They both had the height of Thea''s family, Yannick being around two meters, while his sister was ten centimeters shorter. Their facial features also reminded Vicky of Marc, their father. The way they carried themselves, though, their jovial attitude was the opposite of their mother''s Luzia''s or their little sister''s Thea''s. Those two always moved with serious expressions and perfect dignity. Yannick and even more Yvonne weren''t like Thea. They seemed to constantly joke, tease and generally annoy each other, like any true siblings pair would. Yvonne was the oldest out of the four siblings. She was born shortly after the Apocalypse. With her 1,9 meter height and powerful body, one could even mistake her for a man, but her face showed great natural beauty. Her long metallic gray hair followed to her mid-back, firmly held together in a ponytail. Two fierce, piercing gray eyes stared at her surroundings, as if waiting for a hidden opponent''s attack. On her face, a permanent grin spoke about her personality and hidden degrees of lacking sanity. Her brother, Yannick, seemed more of a silent type. His most prominent feature were his eyes, which stayed closed constantly. However, the lack of sight didn''t impede his movements at all, which made Vicky curious. She could do something similar using her Locator passive ability. It wasn''t quite seeing, more of feeling everything everywhere in a wide range. Other than his eyes, nothing he showed nothing too prominent. His face held the beauty of any Transcended, his build was lanky in a way feminine. Atop his head, long, black, disheveled hair flowed down to his shoulders. The two Transcended noticed Vicky''s stare, and they both raised eyebrows simultaneously. It looked especially ridiculous with Yannick''s closed eyes. "Is there something you need, Princess?" Asked Yvonne with a small, kind smile. The officials sent by the Antarctican and South American city-states looked at Vicky with newfound interest. Somehow, they only just realized who she actually was. Yvonne glanced at the dozens of strangers, her smile widening a bit. What Vicky mistook as kindness was the exact opposite, but through her cunningness, she hid her real intentions well... But not well enough... Vicky took one step, teleporting before the sibling pair. The surrounding room turned awfully quiet, everyone watching the interaction between them with deep curiosity. Right now, nobody other than Cass truly understood the changes Vicky went through during the year. But she didn''t plan on interrupting the scuffle about to unfold! Vicky mirrored Yvonne''s previous smile perfectly as she stared up at the tall siblings. "You two should''ve really learned from Luzia and Thea! When they learned about my real identity, both begged me to spare them, while you dare to mock and insult me?... I can''t decide if you truly have missing gears in your skull, or you just pretend to be so degenerate!" The insults and threats hit home as Yvonne''s face turned red from blind rage. She acted purely on instinct and anger, without any planning or reason. Her right arm shot forward just as a slender longsword appeared in her palm. Vicky watched as the blade''s point approached her neck, but she didn''t even blink or do anything to evade the weapon. It closed in, but just before it could''ve made contact with her skin, a golden spear stopped it. A moment ago, just when Yvonne''s sword appeared, Astrid flew unnaturally quick, and summoned her own weapon. With her spear, she blocked the deadly blow. Yvonne blinked once in surprise, realizing the huge mistake she made. She tried taking a step back, but upon glancing down, she saw her legs turn to stone. The petrification grew up her waist, nearly touching her internal organs. Luckily for Yvonne, Kim could now control and even reverse its disturbing effects. As the tall woman''s terror grew, she noticed a long, black scythe blade in front of her neck. A dark green smoke oozed from the weapon, giving her the imminent feeling of death. "Now, now, attacking the Princess? I thought you were better than this Yvonne... Are you perhaps a traitor?" Cass''s illusory voice echoed in everyone''s ears, while her mouth didn''t even move. She just continued observing the amusing scene with a calm, mischievous smile. After Cass''s words, Vicky quickly concluded the situation. With a swipe of her hand, Vicky opened a few portals, teleporting Astrid, Kim, and Lucy further away. She also dismissed the petrification, which surprised even Kim. During the past years, she met people and monsters immune to petrification, but she never seen anyone reversing its effects so easily... Even Harold needed time to fully heal Agnes! Vicky took one step forward with narrowed eyes. Yvonne''s heightened anger ended fast, and she even took one step back out of fear. The little Princess stared into Yvonne''s metallic gray eyes. She watched the offender squirm under her gaze, then, with a haughty expression, she finally spoke. "Yvonne, for your offence today, I revoke your invite from attending the Peacemaking Celebrations with us in New Constantinople! Yannick and the rest of the family can come, especially Thea, since we are good friends!" The room became silent once more. This time, though, instead of fear and curiosity, pure shock took hold of everyone. Vicky''s intense stare had previously unnerved the envoys, but now they looked at one another in confusion. By their knowledge, Vicky was a Princess of the Angelic Order, and Yvonne had just tried murdering her. This was an offence punishable by death, or at least it should''ve been. Yet, Vicky just basically uninvited her from a party as the punishment... Even Vicky''s old friends looked at her with bewildered eyes. The little white-haired girl wasn''t the person they left here a year ago. Yvonne and Yannick appeared most perplexed. Neither met Vicky before, so they didn''t know what to expect, but she certainly wasn''t the small, kind girl Kim and Sam always talked about. To them, Vicky seemed like a regal ruler stuck in a thirteen-year-old girl''s body. Even the way she carried herself had no signs of a meek, anxious girl. Instead, she resembled a proud leader, experienced beyond her years. While everyone still looked at Vicky, Cass''s booming laughter dispelled their shock. In that moment, the final person walked through the portal... Breathing heavily, Agnes looked over the situation in confusion, then with an angry expression, she turned towards Damien. "Thanks for waiting for me!" She shouted sarcastically, while holding onto her protruding belly. Chapter 353: Pregnancy Not long after Bran''s death and Sera''s departure, Damien and Agnes got married. With the burden of Harold gone from Damien''s shoulder, and with his past family avenged, he felt ready to finally move on. The ceremony was small, only their close friends gathered to celebrate. The Angelic Order promoted marriage, but nobody deemed it necessary for any relationship. Cass alone planned the entire venue, and she, of course, chose a very special place for Agnes. Not far from The Broken City, at the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula. They gathered atop a large cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Ocean. This was the place where Cass called Agnes, her real mother, which was one of Agnes''s most fond memories. They withheld the wedding location from her, so upon stepping out of the portal, she instantly broke down, crying. In the Angelic Order, the brides wore long golden dresses, while the groom wore a white suit. They adopted the clothing style from the past, but used the Angelic Order''s colors. This wasn''t the only tradition the Angelic Order stole. They also had flower girls, for example, and Vicky stepped up to the job with grace and a bit too much enthusiasm. She was supposed to throw handfuls of white rose petals along the rolled out carpet, but instead she teleported thousands of petals, making a road of flowers. Cass wanted to give Vicky an earful for ruining her perfect wedding planning. But she chose not to spoil the girl''s happiness. Other than her, nobody, including Agnes, cared. The black-haired bride felt too emotional to notice the flowery road. Her eyes only focused on Damien standing near the cliff face under a beautiful crystal gazebo. The sunlight fractured on the crystal perfectly, embracing anyone standing under the gazebo in a rainbowy shadow. Agnes walked along the flower petals, already sobbing from joy. Her light make-up flowed away with the tears, landing on her beautiful golden dress. Reaching the gazebo, she had to hold herself from kissing Damien. He looked especially dashing in his white suit. It perfectly matched his well-groomed hair and beard. Below his chest, a golden-green glow marked his new heart. Its brightness lessened in the past few weeks, which worried them at first, but later Bea confirmed it to be fine. She and Otto also attended the wedding. The dragon-man looked quite a bit uncomfortable, but since Bea seemed ecstatic, he stayed silent, and even tried enjoying himself. For many attendees, this unexpectedly marked their last meeting with Bea. After the wedding, she rarely visited New Athens, neglecting her daughter for months. Adam officiated the wedding and made the gazebo. Mary and James were responsible for taking photos and videos. Lucy and Will planned the after-party regrettably, making the day even more memorable. The wedding marked a new chapter in everyone''s life, a true sign of peace. It brought hope to the bleak, and joy to the depressed. Life returned to its routine following the wedding. Neither Damien nor Agnes mentioned they were trying for a baby, and since they were both Evolved, their chances weren''t high either. This made the news even more surprising, and they decided to keep it a secret until their return to New Athens. Now, everyone who wasn''t with them in Antarctica looked bewildered at the pregnant lady chewing out her husband. "Thanks for waiting for me! You useless husband! Why did I even marry you if you just going to leave me behind!" Damien''s usually pale face instantly turned red from shame, and he desperately tried hiding behind David. It looked quite comical since he was large, both in build and height. Agnes just marched up to him without care for David and tried slapping sense into her husband. But Damien moved quickly, catching her hand, and with a deft move he turned Agnes, hugging her from behind. "My love, you are a very capable Transcended! And you always ask me to give you space and don''t baby you!" His gentle, kind tone belied the exhaustion etched into his expression. He looked extremely tired and worn down. "Yes, I am a Transcended! A PREGNANT Transcended! You can''t imagine the experience of carrying a new life within you! The least you could do is help me walk!" Damien just sighed and whispered, "Well, and you don''t know what dying feels like, yet I don''t complain..." Agnes glanced behind into her husband''s icy-blue eyes, with coldness and anger unknown to even Damien. She gritted her teeth, preparing another slap, when she felt a small finger poking her enormous belly. They both glanced down in surprise. Kneeling before them was Vicky, who continued poking without care for everyone''s gaze. "Hmm... I don''t want to be mean, but you gained a lot of weight in Antarctica..." Suddenly, she stopped poking and turned towards the envoys sent by the Antarctican city-states. "Is your food so good she couldn''t stop eating? If so, I hope you brought some as a gesture of hospitality!" Said Vicky while licking her lips. Just imagining the dishes made her salivate. The envoys studied the Princess, questioning her sincerity. They weren''t certain if bringing food was a European tradition, and they didn''t want to deemed rude by coming empty-handed. Agnes''s and Cass''s laughter soon broke their thought process. They all seemed to simultaneously remember that Agnes wasn''t fat, just pregnant. This meant the little girl''s request wasn''t tradition, she just simply didn''t know what pregnancy was. Soon the joyous laughter spread across the room. Only Vicky didn''t understand the origin of their amusement. In confusion, Vicky''s hand stayed only Agnes''s belly, and it seemed the baby had a sense of humor as well. When she wasn''t paying attention, the baby decided to kick the exact spot where Vicky''s hand was. She yelped in surprise and jumped away, instantly on high alert to whatever attacked her. Instead of a potential opponent, Vicky only saw Agnes about to collapse from laughter. "Oh, my Goddess!... I can''t breathe!..." Said Agnes while taking deep breaths. While a few people continued to laugh, Cass walked up to Vicky and tried explaining Agnes''s situation as gently as she could. But she soon remembered how lacking Vicky''s understanding of human reproduction was. Instead of a lengthy, awkward explanation, she addressed the matter directly. "Agnes didn''t put on weight. She is pregnant, like your mother was! She''s going to have a baby soon!... I won''t go into detail about how child making happens, but be sure to ask Thea in the next session!... As punishment!" She whispered the last two words to herself, not like Vicky cared. The little Princess focused solely on Agnes''s protruding belly as she understood the new information. Vicky spent a lot of time with her mother during her pregnancy with Nick, and she knew pregnant women grew out their belly. Still, somehow this information evaded her in that moment, but Cass''s words made her remember. Understanding her lack of knowledge about human reproduction, a newfound curiosity ignited in Vicky''s mind. Far away, Thea felt a shiver run down her spine and a sense of foreboding washed over her. As if something horrible had just happened and she would suffer soon. When the laughing died, Vicky closed all the portals, which fascinated the envoys. They all began introducing themselves, but Vicky wasn''t paying much attention. She was quite rubbish when it came to entertaining guests, but luckily, she had a nice boyfriend who was the exact opposite. Vicky opened another portal, this one leading into a lavish building in New Constantinople. "We will attend the Peacemaking Celebrations in the Cathedral of Light, but it won''t start for another few hours. We prepared a room for you to wait inside. Prince Henry and High Priest Adam are already waiting to entertain you!" As Vicky spoke, she pointed towards the portal, and the envoys made their way through. Cass and David also followed them, same as Astrid. They all previously discussed everything. Since there were about two dozen envoys, two people couldn''t entertain them easily... And Astrid was there for protection. Her sole job for today was keeping all the envoys alive, which shouldn''t be too difficult! Following the closing of the portal, everyone else made their way to the mansion, except Yvonne and Yannick. They both went home to inform their family about the invitation to the Celebrations... After careful consideration and giving a proper apology to Vicky, Yvonne was also reinvited! While they walked towards the mansion, Vicky continued prodding Agnes''s belly just like she did with Sera''s. The baby must''ve felt Vicky''s enthusiasm, and kicked a lot more times than usual. Each time, both Vicky and Agnes giggled with joy, which brought smiles to everyone''s faces. "It''s great to have another baby at home! Nick will finally have someone close to his age to cause mischief with! I already fear how much trouble they will get into!" Vicky''s words brought the entire procession to a halt. Everyone stared down at her, confused and curious. She didn''t understand why they gave her those looks. Only after Agnes''s question did she realize her mistake. "Uh... Who''s Nick? Did a parent have another child?" In that moment, Vicky froze while cursing herself. She wanted to inform them about Nick, but not without preparations! She opened her mouth to explain the situation as clearly as possible, but it was already too late. Behind her, heavy footsteps approached, as Brian came rampaging, knocking Vicky to the ground. Even worse, flying near him, Nick chuckled as Vicky tried to evade the massive spider-dog''s tongue. All of her friends stared towards the flying child with pure shock as they all recognized her feathered, pristine white wings. Vicky struggled back to her feet and felt Nick''s arms hug her head, while pressing his face into her white hair. Nick also had a great sense for comedic timing, because at that moment, with nothing but confused friends around them, he decided to shout his first word... "SISTER!" Chapter 354: The Celebrations Begin A few hours later, everyone gathered around after cleaning themselves and changing into formal clothing. The preparations took a bit longer than planned. By Lilith''s account, there was some malfunction with the elevators and the platform''s levitating mechanism, but James fixed everything. The disaster with Nick''s introduction got quickly fixed, when Vicky suggested explaining everything later. She told them that Nick was Sera''s and Bran''s child, but for now, she kept the details about the pregnancy and delivery a secret. Overwhelmed by this information, nobody protested, and instead they took the few hours to reorganize their thoughts. Now they were all mentally prepared for a gruesome, boring ceremony. Besides those arriving that morning, Lydia and the children also wished to attend. Their parents stayed home, watching over Nick. Her brother, interestingly, didn''t want Vicky to leave. In the past hour, whenever she wasn''t in eyesight, the little boy began wailing. It took lots of bribing using sweets to sneak away from him. Even then, a strange knot continued clenching Vicky''s stomach. She felt something was wrong, but attributed the weird feeling to her stage fright. It was her job to open the ceremony, and she always hated making speeches. Vicky opened two portals for the Cathedral of Light, one for herself, the other for everyone else. Since the platform wasn''t too big, only the Prince, Princess and the High Priest and Priestess would float around. Everyone else had special places prepared at the top, with the envoys and other special guests, like the ambassadors of every Angelic Order city-state. Nobody from outside the Angelic Order received invites, not even Bea. It was a petty revenge on Vicky''s part, because she knew her mother would watch the entire celebration on the holo-screen. Deep down, she also hoped Bea would finally reach out and they could meet up, but that was unlikely, considering her past behavior. Through the portals, the loud cheering reached Vicky''s ear, and she quickly dismissed the depressing thoughts. The others filed through their own portal, while Vicky waited. When everyone took their place, and the crowd became less loud, she enter. The moment her face came through the portal, the cheering became deafening. More than a hundred thousand people screamed from the top of their lungs, all chanting Victoria''s name! Vicky tried her hardest to steel her face, but a small blush still tinged her face. The platform was rectangular, about four meters wide and six meters long. Vicky and Henry stood at its edge, looking down at the crowd on the bottom floor. Behind them, Lilith and Adam stood straight in their robes, hoods hiding their faces. They represented not themselves, but the entirety of the Angelic Order. For this celebration, they would remain faceless. Around the platform, tiny drone cameras zipped around, capturing and broadcasting every moment of the event. Vicky forced a smile on her face and raised her hand, waving at the crowd. The cheering grew even louder, especially when Henry clasped Vicky''s hand and raised it for everyone to see. They both continued waving while holding hands as the platform jerked and moved into the air. It levitated upward, making circles around the enormous Sera statue. The platform slowed down near each level, and made a full lap, so everyone could see their Princess. But even after her departure to a different floor, gigantic holo-screens broadcasted every moment of the celebration inside and outside the Cathedral of Light. Upon reaching the top, Vicky''s smile turned genuine as she waved to all her friends. Thea and her family sat near them too, and even after all the mishaps in the morning, Yvonne''s scream was louder than anyone else''s. After the platform made its last lap around Sera''s head, it slowed down. Vicky took one step forward, while Henry backed away to stand next to Adam and Lilith. All of the sudden silence hushed over the gigantic crowd. More than a hundred thousand people attended the celebration''s opening, yet even a pin drop would echo inside the deathly silent building. Vicky stood in a long golden dress with a large silver seven-pointed star embroidered on her chest. The only accessory on her head was a lone golden tiara with a large, dark blue gem in the middle. The tiara gently pushed her short, white hair back, so her side profile stayed clear from any obstruction. She wore only eyeshadow and a touch of light pink lipstick. It brought life to her milky-white skin. Her white eyes with dark blue dots stared at the large, silent crowd. From the top of the platform, all the faces blended together. Vicky took a deep, shaky breath, then turned towards the cameras, and began the speech Henry wrote for her. "Welcome, everyone! Thank you all for celebrating this special occasion with me!" Crowd roared their approval. It took nearly a full minute for them to calm down. "As you all know, this is the second anniversary of the day, when my father, Bran the Peacemaker, sacrificed himself, bringing peace to Europe once again!... Let''s remember him with a minute of silence!" While Vicky''s voice boomed from speakers all over the building, everyone became even more silent. It seemed like nobody even breathed during the minute of silence. On the holo-screens pictures of Bran appeared. It depicted him both during formal events and during private, family times. Vicky even placed a few pictures with Sera into the montage, hoping Bea would see it and feel bad. She faced the cameras again once the minute ended. "Two years ago, Bran''s sacrifice brought a new era to Europe! We finally achieved peace within our borders!..." The cheering grew loud again, but it only took seconds to die down. "We''ve been quiet regarding our projects for quite some time now! You might even assume we just sat idly, enjoying the peace! But no matter what others want you to believe, this isn''t true!..." The people didn''t cheer this time, just curiously listened to Vicky''s next words. "As some of you already know, we began sending Evolved outside Europe''s borders, hoping to discover more survivors across the globe! The brave soldiers from these expeditions only returned now with great news!... There are cities outside Europe!" The people in the crowd whispered excitedly, and soon the holo-screens changed. They weren''t showing Vicky anymore, but all the envoys from the different cities. "These are the envoys sent by city-states of South America and Antarctica! Please, everyone, welcome them with a round of applause!" Vicky''s commanding tone made everyone act on instinct. The chant ''Welcome to Europe'' became a crowd favorite quickly. All the envoys stood up and bowed in appreciation towards Vicky. She glanced down and nodded as well, with a genuine, beautiful smile. "They''ll stay with us for a while! Hopefully, we can arrange stronger continental connections with each other!...." The last part was a veiled message to any other city-state within Europe. By treating the Angelic Order as the entire continent, they basically just denounced every independent city-state. "But our soldiers aren''t the only ones with brilliant discoveries!... Through tiresome work, the Angelic Order''s Lead Scientist, Mary found a way to make permanent Gates between city-states! Not long from now, anyone could travel between the cities of the Angelic Order!" A less loud cheer went up from the civilians. Some of them seemed skeptical about the new Gate-system proposed by Mary. But that was understandable. Even Vicky, the plan''s linchpin, had doubts about its success. Mary proposed her plan not too long ago, so more calculations were needed before releasing any concrete information to the public. There were also plans to open permanent Gates to both South America and Antarctica, but they wanted to downplay how close the connections between continents were. Vicky raised her hands into the air, and she looked up and into the Sera statue''s enormous golden eyes. "But I know you didn''t gather here for my announcements, so let''s get this show going!... Today on May 12th 30 ATA I, Victoria, Princess of the Angelic Order, daughter of Seraphine the Angel Monarch, officially open the Peacemaking Celebrations!" The crowd''s roar was became the loudest by the mention of their Goddess''s true name. Vicky just giggled at their reaction, which thankfully wasn''t amplified by the speakers. She retreated, then seated herself upon her golden throne. She tried protesting when they made the throne, but Henry convinced her, saying it elevated her position from the rest of them. Henry didn''t have a seat of his own, so he just stood close to Vicky''s side. Lilith and Adam took center stage, commencing the ceremonial side of the celebrations. The cameras'' focus moved away from Vicky, which meant she could finally breathe freely. "You are getting better at this. Your pronunciations were perfect, and you masterfully modulated your voice... Also, whoever wrote that speech deserves an award, it was amazing!" Henry''s whisper reached Vicky''s ear, causing her to giggle and roll her eyes. "I would''ve thanked him if he acted humble, but I guess I''ll just have to take all the credit now!" As Lilith began her speech, Henry slowed down time for a few seconds, sneaking a kiss onto Vicky''s lips. Before she realized what had happened, everything became normal again. She looked up at Henry with an annoyed smirk, but he just played innocent. Vicky shook her head, and giggled once more, then turned towards Lilith. The ceremony would supposedly last at least an hour or two, so she made herself comfortable. Everything was going perfectly, until suddenly Lilith''s voice cut out, and someone else''s voice took over the speakers. Chapter 355: Order of the Raven ¡ªA few minutes before Vicky''s speech¡ª Below the Cathedral of Light, the chambers for the Angelic Order''s soldiers were still being prepared. Each church within their nation had similar gathering points and living quarters. Nevertheless, the Cathedral of Light, being the largest, would have chambers of according grandiose proportions. For now, mostly the top layers were finished. That''s where all the controlling mechanisms for the Cathedral were located. They had to be finished for the Cathedral''s operation. The chamber''s security was exceptionally tight. The area, lacking apparent entry points, contained a guard of over one hundred Ascended and a small number of Transcended. The underground chamber had no entrance. Vicky personally teleported every guard stationed there. By all their knowledge, the chamber was inaccessible without teleportation... And they knew nobody else who could open portals... About a dozen Ascended and four Transcended soldiers stood near the entrance to the control chamber. People inside worked tirelessly, checking on every system, making sure no mishaps happened during the ceremony. The soldiers outside suddenly felt a shiver run down their spines. The air turned colder as the air pressure dropped. They exchanged confused glances, then one of them pointed to the end of the hallway. A glowing, dark blue ''X'' appeared out of nowhere. They initially thought the item was on the wall; however, they were mistaken... The ''X'' floated in the hallway, blocking access to the opposite side. Suddenly, its sides burst open, and a lone woman walked through the portal. Behind her, a wide, dark blue vortex floated with mesmerizing patterns. The woman stood at above average height, wearing a light blue, long-sleeved robe-like outfit. She carried a long, single-edged sword, with a gentle curve near its tip. Strange foreign symbols etched its shiny, dark, metallic blade, making the weapon both beautiful and scary. She was more divine than her weapon. Her face looked foreign to most, but the four Transcended instantly recognized the similarity with one of the top ranking soldiers within the Angelic Order... Kim... Her fierce, dark blue eyes seemed a bit too big for her delicate, pale face. Her small mouth had deep dark red lipstick highlighting it. She kept her silvery-white hair shoulder-length and held back by two identical golden hairpins. A wide, scary grin spread across her face as she took in the soldiers standing nearby. She raised her sword threateningly and spoke in a clear, commanding voice. "I will ask one question! If anyone can find the right answer, I will spare their lives! Deal?" Soldiers exchanged puzzled looks. They were unsure: was her indifference born of immense power or profound foolishness. There were four Transcended inside the corridor, for Goddess''s sake! "Here it goes! What''s the point of your lives? Aren''t you all tired of cleaning up after someone who will never give a fuck about you? Wouldn''t it be better to do something meaningful with your miserable, weak lives?... So? What''s the answer?" The soldiers frowned behind their helmets. They doubted her sanity, yet remained cautious about her strength. If she would''ve been weak, she couldn''t have gotten down here. The portal also remained open, which was another cause for concern. One of the Transcended soon sprung into action, commanding everyone else. "Take this stupid woman into custody, preferably alive! I will inform the leadership about this issue!... Damn, this will warrant an evacuation order. They couldn''t fucking wait a day or two..." The Transcended soldier sighed and raised his silver watch to type a message. Meanwhile, everyone else approached the woman with a persisting grin on her face. Slowly, she changed positions, turning from threatening to calm. With the first Ascended nearby, the woman moved incredibly quickly. Even the Transcended couldn''t follow her speed. She cut through empty air twice, then became calm once more. For a second, nothing happened, then out of nowhere, the corridor filled with blood. It was as if the woman''s sword cut through reality and common sense. The sixteen people inside the corridor exploded into little pieces, each body suffering thousands of cuts. Even the Transcended couldn''t survive whatever power the Asian woman possessed. Her seemingly permanent grin stayed on her face as she walked through the blood-filled corridor. Behind her, from the portal, ravens flew out, changing into Evolved human or other humanoid. There was only a handful of them. They pushed along a large cart, its contents hidden below a large tarp. The control room at the end of the corridor stayed closed. A heavy vault door covered its entrance, with no opening mechanism on the outside. Unconcerned, she approached the vault door, brandished her sword, and sliced through the metal with ease. Along the cut, the metal door bent inward, then suddenly exploded into fragments, raining down atop the terrified soldiers. These were soldiers, too, but they hadn''t seen any real combat. They were the cogs in the Angelic Order, silently managing supplies, electronics, and whatnot. Right now, they controlled every electronic device within the Cathedral of Light. Cameras, elevators, levitating mechanism, holo-screens... Everything! The woman''s wicked smile sent shivers down the soldiers'' spines. They wanted to attack, or at least try fighting, but they also saw the bloody corridor behind her. Before any of them could''ve acted, the woman raised her sword, pointing at the closest terrified girl seated behind a holo-screen. "Hey, you! Show me how to operate the holo-screen up there! No, actually I don''t care! Tell it to one of those fools!" While speaking, the woman pointed her weapon towards the others entering the large chamber. The already terrified, trembling girl nearly screamed upon seeing what had stepped into the chamber. The creature was barely a meter tall, with a dozen bug-like eyes, four insectoid arms and a pair of legs. He wore a similar strange robe to the woman''s, but it looked much strange on the humanoid insect. He disregarded both workers and the woman, heading toward the room''s main terminal. The chief sat behind the terminal, but he quickly backed away upon seeing the insect''s approach. The small man clearly possessed great understanding, and immediately began working upon seating himself before the main terminal. It took him no time to find the outside holo-screen and audio controls. Vicky''s speech was already well past its starting point, so the insect man worked quickly. He found a small clip-on microphone and tossed it to the woman, who was picking her nails using her long sword. She caught the microphone without looking, then clipped it onto her strange robe. She also sheathed her weapon, which then turned into light particles as she dismissed it. A tiny camera probe floated before the woman, waiting to transmit its data to the holo-screens above. "I''m ready, Xinya! We can begin whenever!" The insect-like man spoke in an unnatural scratchy voice, while typing on the holo-screen. He was trying to access the Angelic Order''s files, but luckily, none of these holo-screens had a connection to the mainframe. There were also thousands of encryptions on the data. It wasn''t too hard to access it, but downloading anything could be considered impossible. No matter the talent one possessed, James was part machine. He understood electronics better than anyone on this planet. "Not yet, Tai! Let''s wait for the Princess to finish... It would be rude to interrupt her last speech!" The workers cringed upon hearing the woman''s words. Some attempted using their watches to communicate with the outside, but the other terrorists noticed them before they sent the messages. They didn''t kill them though... Their shock value for this next part was a necessity for the plan to work! Vicky''s speech slowly came to an end. When Lilith''s face appeared on the main screens, the woman named Xinya watched her for a few seconds. She cleared her throat, made a few neck curls, then turned toward Tai, the insectoid man, and nodded. He pressed a few buttons and the tiny blinking red light on the camera meant it was recording and broadcasting. There was a second or two latency, but soon all the main screens above changed, showing Xinya''s beautiful, Asian face. Her fierce, dark-blue eyes stared into the camera with disgust and anger. On her lips, a twisted, hateful smile appeared. "Sorry to interrupt this day of celebration, built upon the backs of corpses! But I have a bone to pick with this so called Princess!..." For a moment, insanity glinted in Xinya''s eyes, but she soon took hold of her emotions, boxing them away. "People suffered enough under your and your whore mother''s rule! They died in a war no one asked for! You sent millions to their deaths as a distraction! I hear the grass before Madrid permanently stained red from all the blood spilled before its walls!" Even though dozens of meters of reinforced metal and concrete, Xinya swore she heard the crowd''s outrage, upon referring to their Goddess as a whore! She wanted to laugh, but her mood only turned worse with each word uttered. "And you dare preach about the sanctity of this peace? About the importance of discovery? How interconnected the city-states will be?... Have you ever asked about your citizens'' desire? Do you even care about them?... Or are you and your so called Goddess just hypocrites?!" This time she actually laughed, because nobody shouted in uproar this time. The hundred thousand citizens inside the Cathedral all watched the screens with curiosity. "No need to answer... I know you are! Isn''t that why you secretly had meetings with officials from other continents? Have you sweet-talked them into starting a new war? Are they your new puppets?" The crowd stayed silent this time too, which wasn''t what Xinya initially intended. She wanted to continue preaching about Vicky''s hypocrisy, but the people weren''t stupid. They didn''t believe something, a random, nameless woman said. "I guess it''s time for Plan B..." She whispered to herself, causing the other terrorist to spring into action. They pushed the cart behind Xinya and pulled off the large tarp covering its top. "Now, Princess Victoria! Show me your leadership skills! Behind me, there are enough explosives to destroy the entire Cathedral of Light! I also sent soldiers to your home, since I heard a very special boy lived there!" She giggled with insanity, while imagining the face Victoria was making. "I prepared a few other surprises too, but I won''t reveal everything just yet! For now, it''s time to pick!... Who will you save? Your citizens gathered to celebrate your father''s sacrifice? Or his child!... Your brother!" A terrorist walked up to Xinya and handed her the detonator, while she continued staring into the camera. "Either way, let me introduce ourselves before the fun begins!... You are the Angelic Order right?... Well then, call us the Order of the Raven!" Chapter 356: Illusion of Choice Inside the Cathedral of Light, the attendants began running to the exits in wild panic. A few even managed to slip outside before the automatic doors shut closed. They continued banging on the doors, but to no avail. The civilians wailed in desperation, begging for someone to save them. From above, Vicky watched their terrified forms with disgust. She watched as they trampled down one another in order to preserve their own lives. A few seconds after the transmission cut out, Vicky turned towards Lilith and Adam. Just from one glance, they understood their purpose and jumped down from the floating platform. The High Priest and Priestess carried enough authority to calm everyone with their presence only. They went to all seven main entrances and broke down the gigantic doors. The people fled the Cathedral, with calmness inspired by their faith''s leaders. Vicky and Henry stayed on the moving platform, and guided it downward. They stopped near the area where the envoys and all their friends sat. Solutions were already in effect, but they needed entry to the lower chambers in order to achieve anything worthwhile. "James, prevent all external communication to and from this building! If they want to explode us, they''ll have to do it manually!" Henry''s shout reached James, who was already working on it. Back in the chamber, Tai cursed under his breath, "Dammit! They blocked all signals! We can''t just leave with the detonator, someone has to stay here to explode it!" Back on the top floor, Vicky was already teleporting every envoy away to safety. Kim, Astrid, and a few others went with them, just in case. She also sent Cass away to defend Nick at any cost. She teleported everyone else down into the lower chambers, but there was one problem. "We have to assume someone down there has some form of space manipulation! I won''t teleport you into or near the control room! You will appear a few corridors away, and you probably have to fight through enemies to reach it! Everyone understands?" All her friends nodded with serious expressions. Even the Lucy or Will, who usually loved joking in stressful situations, were now completely full of anger. Attacking them was one thing, but threatening to destroy this Cathedral with hundreds of thousands inside? Even worse, threatening to kidnap Vicky''s brother? All their bodies burned with hate. Silently, they all swore to kill whoever that woman was, just for the sheer audacity to threaten them! Lucy, Will, Leslie, Sarah, James, David and Joan ventured down. The others had other duties or weren''t suited for close-quarters combat. Just before Vicky teleported everyone away, the reports began piling in. Other locations besides the Cathedral faced attacks too, thus some of them helped out in other cities! Only Henry and Vicky remained, floating atop the slab of stone. "They just arrived!... Let''s see... It''s Time Snake, Fish, Weather, Demon, Death, Cyborg, and the last is unknown!" Tai''s shout reached Xinya''s ears, causing her grin to widen. The insectoid man watched as the soldiers marched down the corridors in full-clad war gear. Xinya already sent the others out into the corridor to intercept the elite soldiers. They were fighting with the few Ascended still alive previously, but now they had bigger fish to fry. Each person with a designated callsign was someone of extreme danger. Even a single one worth dozens of people with the same Rank. The only advantage they possessed was the element of surprise. Luckily, during the time since their fame, the Order of the Raven gathered enough intel to guess their capabilities and powers. An Asian woman approached Tai, peering at the holo-screens displaying the approaching killers. She recognized all of them instantly, even the one without callsign. In her mind, her mentor''s words echoed as he described all of them. ''Cyborg: One of the weaker Transcended, but his powers are unpredictable and vast. He has lots of tricks up his sleeve, and could fight multiple Transcended with ease!'' The man wore a glowing suit of power armor, with energy blades growing from his wrists. On his shoulder, arms, and chest, many different weapons glinted in the corridor''s low light. ''Weather: The woman has a lot of unique abilities, but her fighting capabilities are restricted to enclosed spaces. Don''t annoy her though, since her emotional state is very volatile!... Also, if you kill her, I will personally torture you to death!'' Her mentor was the most strict about Weather. The woman didn''t seem too special to Xinya. However, there must''ve been some connection, which made her mentor sentimental. She wore a dark gray armor, seemingly made of storm clouds. Her hands stayed empty of weapons, but supposedly she used a trident to kill her foes. ''Time Snake: One of the best large-scale strategists alive. His abilities also nothing to be trifled with. Even I''m not sure his powers extant, or who it works exactly. By other Raven''s account, he could create time loops, or something similar... Depending on the situation, he can kill dozens of Transcended!'' On camera, the man wearing a black, serpentine armor appeared underwhelming. But Xinya saw footage from his fights against stronger opponents. It was nothing short of extraordinary! ''Fish: Out of water, the man is just a stronger Transcended with psychic powers. Do not engage when near large bodies of water! Even Stellars would fall against that form of his!'' The callsign Fish was pretty accurate considering the man''s dark blue, scaly armor. He also used a large shield and spear, both similar in quality to his armor. Even her mentor couldn''t acquire actual footage of Fish''s transformation. But by later accounts he could change sizes from a few meter long sea monster to even a kilometer length leviathan. ''Half: Her name is Joan, someone new so her callsign is still unknown by most. She Evolved using her twin sister''s corpse when Fear tortured her. The woman''s actual abilities are still a mystery, but her achievements are already well beyond powerful... Don''t stand close to each other when fighting her!'' Each time Xinya remembered her callsign she giggled. ''Half'', as in half of the twin sisters. The woman wore a light-blue armor with electricity dancing across its surface. In her hand, she carried a rod-like sword, which she used to guide her electricity. ''Demon: Only engage him with overwhelming forces, while having one Stellar on standby. His physical strength could destroy most Transcended alone, and that isn''t even accounting for his natural defenses, armor and fire manipulation... If he''s enraged, run the other direction!'' Xinya felt quite curious about the Demon''s fighting ability. He was one of the few who her mentor found interesting. Angelic Order''s high-ranking members were impressive in their own way, but only a handful seemed actually strong in Xinya''s eyes. The Demon looked strong and terrifying. He wore a heavy, dark metal armor. Each step shook the corridors nearby. In his hand, he carried a halberd with its blade on fire. His tail swung from side-to-side. Each time the dagger-like tip touched the walls or floor, it left deep gashes within the reinforced metal. The terrorist woman''s hand played on her sword''s hilt, eager to draw it and test the Demon''s strength, but sadly she couldn''t... Exactly because of the shorter woman standing by the Demon. ''Death: Do not engage! No matter the circumstance, you turn the other way and run! Her Reaper''s Scythe only need''s to scratch you to die! Her aura alone could kill anyone too weak! She''s among the select few capable of defending against you! Only Stellars are allowed to fight her!'' Xinya''s lips twisted into an excited smile as she watched the woman approach. Everyone around her wore some kind of armor, but Death continued wearing her black dress. Dark green smoke-like substance danced around her, oozing from her scythe''s blade. Even Tai, who seemed incapable of showing emotions, looked terrified by the short woman, carrying death in her grasp. "What should we do? Do we ask someone to stay behind and explode the bombs?" Tai was personally chosen by Xinya for this job. He was amazing when it came to tech, but the insectoid human was a coward at heart, with no real fighting skills. He also knew how bad things will get with Death and Demon nearby. He was just like a cockroach, wanting to preserve its miserable life. "Not yet! We will hold them up! You just disable everything inside the building! Elevators, the floating platform, lights, everything! When that''s done, inform Chang!" With that, Xinya drew her blade and ran towards the only door. Outside, the sound of fighting echoed into the control room. Tai worked quickly and soon every electronic inside the Cathedral turned off. Above, Vicky and Henry discussed their next move, when suddenly the floating platform plummeted. She prepared to teleport herself and Henry away when she heard a loud explosion and saw debris falling from above. Part of the ceiling''s roof collapsed, and all the elevators fell, too. Below, people began panicking again, as they ran from the falling pieces. From the hole above, she saw about a dozen ravens fly in. Everything happened too fast, and before she realized, a small needle pierced her skin. A small giggle escaped Vicky''s lips as she figured out what happened... It was all a farce, a distraction, so nobody would stay behind defending either her or Henry. The explosion below the Cathedral, Nick''s attempted kidnapping, the attacks in every other city, these were never the target... She was the prize they were after! She felt the poison from the needle course through her veins. It wasn''t deadly, but she was slowly losing consciousness. Next to her, Henry was already out cold. But before Vicky fell asleep, she summoned as many portals as she could. She teleported all the falling debris, elevators, and the platform away, saving everyone''s lives below. Vicky also used the confusion to open a portal below Henry, so at least one of them would stay out of the Order of the Raven''s hands. Her vision continued to darken as her laughter echoed. She watched as the ravens flew around looking for Henry, to no avail. She blinked once more and felt a raven land on her head. It carried a dark feather in its beak and placed it between Vicky''s white locks of hair. Immediately after the feather touched her scalp, she fell unconscious. Chapter 357: Time Loop James accessed the security system while running down the corridors and watched the footage of the terrorists'' arrival. He asked everyone to halt when the sounds of fighting gotten close. "We can''t just rush in there! Whoever this woman is, she has similar abilities to Vicky! How can we fight someone like that!" While everyone looked at each other and the footage with concern, Lucy began thinking. "She is strong, that''s for sure, but not on Vicky''s level. Her abilities are lacking and she needs to use her sword as a conduit to channel her powers... I''ll take care of her! Now let''s move! David, Time Loop!" The man wearing snake-like armor nodded. His height expanded, and his body bent backwards until his head touched his heel. From the outside, it made a perfect dark circle, which gently glowed. "Sarah, Will, defend him! Joan, James, you provide support from the back! Leslie takes the lead, covering us from most attacks! I stay behind him, and rush that woman immediately! Okay, let''s go!" The few Ascended, still alive from the initial guard, laid injured to the sides. Parts of the corridor looked scorched and bloodied, with spots where the metal melted. Leslie walked in the front. His spread wings covered the hallway entirely. Behind him, James and Joan prepared their long-ranged attacks, while Lucy hid her presence as much as possible. The still conscious Ascended watched their procession, eyes glinting with hope. The demon stepped into the hallway, and instantly a dozen different projectiles hit his armored body. Each one had the power to kill Transcended, so obviously, he didn''t survive either. Leslie''s corpse fell to the floor. Behind him, the terrorists caught a glimpse of Lucy''s smiling form before something strange happened. Like a glitch on a holo-screen, the falling demon, Lucy, Joan and James, disappeared. It took them a moment too long to figure out the glitch''s origin. At the corridor''s end, Leslie entered again, but this time with his wings tucked close to his body. On his right, James shot out thousands of bullets from all his guns. On his left, Joan''s sword filled with electricity, and when she pointed it towards the terrorists, a flash of lightning left her blade. Both bullets and electricity decimated the dozen or so Transcended terrorists. Several died immediately, while others escaped with only minor injuries. The suppressing fire continued, letting Leslie get closer to their line. When he was only a few meters away, four Transcended jumped at him, while four more shot back towards Joan and James. Caught off-guard, the two elite Transcended died, only to glitch away again. They suddenly appeared back where they stood, and with the ambush triggered, they moved behind makeshift covers, evading the projectiles. Leslie already engaged the four Transcended, while Lucy lingered nearby as a dark green smoke. She observed the control room entrance, awaiting the woman''s inevitable arrival. Lucy saw her killing those soldiers. She saw the wide grin as she massacred them with only two moves. That Asian woman wasn''t sane and loved killing people, especially anyone stronger than her! She could never resist a chance to fight someone as strong as Lucy! It didn''t take long, only a few seconds since the fighting begun, and the woman wearing traditional Asian robes stepped out with an insane grin. She eyed Leslie, then readied her weapon, mimicking her previous actions, attempting to kill him with one fell swoop. Xinya moved faster than any Transcended, yet the cut didn''t finish. A black scythe, oozing with dark green smoke, stopped her sword. The already large grin widened on her face as she stared into the young woman''s scary black eyes. "So you are the famous Death everyone keeps talking about!... Nice to meet you, my name is Xinya!... Can I ask you a question?" They continued applying pressure on each other''s weapons, trying to overwhelm their opponent. When Lucy heard Xinya''s words, a grin crept onto her face as well. With a swift move, she disengaged, took one step back, then crouched down and tried to cut off the Asian woman''s legs. Xinya stabbed her weapon down, stopping the scythe once more. "How rude! I just wanted to..." Before she could''ve finished, Lucy attacked again. This time, she cut upward, trying to bisect Xinya from crotch to head. She sidestepped, barely managing to evade. A small fabric of her clothing floated through the air, as Lucy''s scythe cut it away. Lucy moved again, taking a step closer. She attacked with her weapon, but just when it would''ve connected with Xinya''s sword, she dismissed it. A cloud of dark green smoke rose into the air, blinding her target momentarily. She wasted no time. With a quick move, Lucy grabbed both of Xinya''s arms, and head-butted her nose. She felt the bone give with a satisfying crunch. The stunned woman fell when Lucy kicked her legs out. With a few moves, she restrained Xinya, putting her into a headlock. "Here''s a future suggestion," Lucy said, adding more pressure to the woman''s neck. "When in a fight, don''t waste time chatting with your opponent!" With that, Lucy tried breaking Xinya''s neck. She applied more pressure, but just before the beautiful crunch of her spine breaking could''ve reached Lucy''s ear, Xinya''s hand shot out. Only her fingertip reached Lucy''s face, but it was enough. Suddenly, lines appeared on Lucy''s face, blood running down her neck. Out of nowhere, her entire head exploded, raining blood onto Xinya''s chuckling body. "Who the fuck are you, making suggestions to me!?" She said, while climbing back to her feet. The dark green fog stayed persistent, so she only managed to block the incoming weapon out of luck. Xinya''s sword shot out, barely catching the black blade aimed at her head. She recognized the weapon, and the voice who spoke... "When it comes to killing, I suggest listening to advice from Death!" Said Lucy, dismissing the dark green fog. In the past few seconds, Xinya lost sight of the corridor, so she didn''t know exactly what happened. Her eyes widened as she noticed the lack of fighting noises, and she soon saw why. All her underling now laid on the floor either dead or dying. Even stranger, nobody suffered any wounds on Lucy''s side. This annoyed Xinya quite a bit, but while fighting Lucy, she noticed something. Her defeat was complete, survival hinging solely on Death''s overconfidence... If she didn''t hesitate with the execution, Xinya wouldn''t be alive... Xinya loved fighting. To some extent, that was her sole purpose in life. However, Lucy proved to be too strong of an adversary. She required improvement to avoid another lopsided battle... And for that; she needed to escape alive! Luckily, entrances and exits were her speciality! The Demon closed in, trying to deliver a devastating blow with his halberd. Before that could''ve happened though, Xinya pushed away from Lucy, and cut the air two times in rapid succession. Everyone backed away, fearing she would use that dreadful technique. Instead, she opened two portals, one for herself and the other for Tai. They both jumped through. Before anyone could''ve come after them, the portals closed. Xinya and Tai landed inside a tall forest. This was the gathering point they discussed before the mission. They quickly spotted Chang and his team celebrating. Inside the tall man''s palm, a cage hung with a lone raven safely enclosed inside. She waved to them and took one step, when Tai caught her hand. Xinya glanced back with pursed lips and pulled her hand away, while shaking off the disgusting bug grime. "What is it Tai? I told you not to touch me with your fucked up appendages!" The insectoid human didn''t care about the insult, and just showed the holo-screen he was holding. "We finally have footage of the Time Loop..." His whisper didn''t sound too enthusiastic. It was even a bit depressed, and Xinya soon understood why. The Time Snake''s ability was nothing less than remarkable. Xinya''s sole focus on Lucy prevented her from seeing the fight in the corridor. However, the cameras recorded everything. Cyborg, Half and Demon all received dozens of deadly wounds, but each time they died, reality seemed to glitch and they reappeared! "H-how... How is this possible?!" Tai just shook his head sadly, while mentally rewriting the danger level of each enemy combatant with callsigns. Time Snake just jumped into the top five most dangerous. "Time Snake seemingly manipulates time flow within a limited region. When any of his allies receive mortal wounds, he pushes them back a few seconds before it happened. It saves their lives and gives them the advantage of surprise..." The insect man suddenly glanced up at Xinya, grimness showing on his usually expressionless face. "But that''s not the worst... He can push them back in time however many seconds he wants, making his powers unpredictable... Also, while his powers are active, basically everyone within a certain range is immortal!" Xinya''s eyes widened in shock as she continued watching the footage. Anyone killed by a lucky bullet, or by overwhelming their opponent, was near instantly resurrected... This was a power they couldn''t solve by brute force, only by smart thinking... "So, how do we stop him? There must be a way. Every power has some flaws!" Tai quickly brought up another footage, showing the Time Loop''s source, with Fish and Weather guarding it... No, him! "Time Snake seems to be vulnerable while using his power. If we can kill him, then the problem''s solved... The issue is, they know his weakness too, so assassinating him won''t be easy!" Xinya finally sighed from exhaustion and began walking towards Chang''s group. "Good job, Tai... Let''s inform the mentor about your discovery when we get back!" She still felt a bit under the weather as she stepped before Chang, but soon she heard the sound of wings beating. A grin instantly spread across Xinya''s face as she saw the raven climb to its small feet, looking around in confusion. "Ah, Princess! You finally awake! Good, we have a long journey ahead of us!" Chapter 358: Successful Kidnapping Disappointment showed on Lucy''s face as she walked into the control room. At first she held back during her fight with Xinya, hoping to capture and interrogate her, but after a few exchanges she realized the dangers of her plan. Still, she hesitated before killing her. Now she had to live with the regret of her failure. She stared down at the cart carrying the bomb with a scoff. Behind her, the surviving workers cried tears of joy and relief. Strangely, they hurt none of them. James ran in soon after Lucy and began disarming the bomb. A few seconds later, his eyes narrowed. "Motherfucker..." He cursed under his breath, then turned towards Lucy''s curious face. "This bomb didn''t have enough power to destroy the Cathedral! It would''ve barely damaged the ground floor! They probably assumed we used regular concrete and metal while building, but our reinforced structure wouldn''t have gotten damaged!" Lucy''s pale face turned red from anger. She moved quickly. With her scythe, she slashed the bombs into pieces. The workers cringed and hid below their desks, while James only shook his head. The dark green fog around Lucy''s scythe deconstructed the bomb''s molecular structure, turning them to dust without any explosion. While Lucy still fumed with anger, Leslie walked in. He saw the dust where bombs once were and assumed the threat was neutralized. "James, contact Lilith or Adam! We need to get our bearings! During the fight, I felt rumblings from above, like explosions! I want to know the situation ASAP!" The tall demon rolled his shoulders and winced. He reached behind his back and pulled a dagger out of his left shoulder. "Dammit! I can''t believe I died so many times, just to keep those idiots alive!... I hope at least we get some intel out of them..." He continued curling his shoulder until the wound his wound healed. That''s when he heard a loud curse from the corridor. Leslie rushed outside, closely followed by Lucy. Their eyes widened in surprise... The surviving terrorists laid convulsing on the ground, with foam overflowing their mouths. Both Will and Sarah tried to keep them alive, but there was no point. In seconds, they were all dead. The angered demon turned to the wall and punched it in rage. "GODDAMMIT! Why the fuck did I struggle to keep them alive, if they just going to kill themselves!" Everyone understood what he meant, and his anger was justifiable. Leslie''s demonic powers specialized in destruction, so keeping opponents alive during a fight was extremely hard for him. He needed to die more than a dozen times, so he wouldn''t accidentally kill either of the four Transcended. It would''ve made anyone annoyed if those deaths turned out to be pointless. While Lucy and Will looked at the newly dead bodies. Sarah turned into a gentle cloud and calmed down her partner. As the situation appeared to calm down, James burst into the corridor. His face showed clear signs of anxiety and fear. Everyone had a bad feeling, but the outcome was worse than they could''ve imagined. "They kidnapped Vicky!" When they heard James''s words, everyone''s blood ran cold. For a few seconds, nobody said anything, then Lucy suddenly burst into laugh. "So that was their plan! Good to know! Now I won''t feel bad for killing every single one!" As she finished speaking, her scythe appeared in her hand, and without care for structural integrity, she began digging upward. Since the lower chambers lacked any access to the outside, she had to make her own. The reinforced concrete melted under her weapon. Behind her back, a pair of dark green wings pushed her upward. She had to dig through about thirty meters of concrete, but soon sunlight glinted down the hole. Lilith and Adam already waited for her appearance nearby. Their expressions showed deep-set hatred and shame, both understandable in their circumstance. The daughter of the Goddess they worshipped got kidnapped, and they couldn''t do anything to stop it! Lucy didn''t blame them either. She understood directing anger toward friends, not adversaries, was unwise. Also, she didn''t think there was much either could''ve done. Their scheme was cleverly conceived, nearly flawless. The only imperfection came in the form of a tall fifteen-year-old boy who escaped their attack, with Vicky''s help. While everyone else climbed out through the hole, Henry slowly walked towards their procession. His suit was in shambles while he dragged one bloodied foot behind. Even then, his face only showed pure determination and hatred unlike any. He pulled a small needle out of his neck and tossed it towards James. The cyborg caught it and smelled its tip, wincing at the poison within. "They used that to knock me and Vicky out! Even worse, the poison stops my essence flow, so I''m powerless for the moment!" Said Henry through gritted teeth, then looked into James''s eyes, a silent understanding settling between them. The shorter man sighed and reached into his pocket. He brought out a small vial of clear liquid and tossed it to Henry. "We haven''t tested it, but not like you care! Be sure to share your experience with Mary afterward!" The young Prince just chuckled and downed the vial, cringing at the awful taste. "What''s in it?" Asked Lucy while staring at Henry''s reddening face. "As you know, we encountered problems with people who can stop our essence flow, or prevent us from regenerating. Mary''s worked on a solution for some time... That''s the prototype!" Everyone turned towards Henry''s struggling form upon hearing the explanation. For safety purposes, they hadn''t been told about any technological advancements James and Mary made. Although now it was clear, they hadn''t taken enough precautions. Only a handful of builders, workers, and guards knew the information about the lower chambers below the Cathedral of Light. Yet the enemy precisely located the control room. Their attack seemed too on point to be merely a fluke. The coordination was impeccable, their distractions perfectly removing and defense between Vicky and the terrorists. The only miscalculation came from underestimating the Princess''s powers. She managed to teleport all the debris, and even save Henry, before getting caught. The image of Vicky''s falling stayed deeply etched into Henry''s mind. Even as the serum burned through his veins, he felt nothing but anger. Slowly, the obstacles blocking his essence began to lift. His regeneration started working soon, healing all his wound from the fall. It took a few minutes, but eventually his essence flow normalized. Sweat trickled down his pale, nauseous face. He tried straightening up, but the nausea overpowered him, and he began vomiting. As the black, disgusting liquid left his body, he felt much better. "James... Tell Mary... Tell her to give it some good taste... That was awful!" The cyborg just chuckled and continued typing on his holo-screen. Behind them, Sarah began bringing out the surviving people, including David, who looked miserable. While Time Loop was an extremely powerful weapon, keeping it up wasn''t easy. It required lots of essence to push people back in time. He breathed heavily while staring at the rest of them, desperation glinting in his eyes. Henry glanced at him briefly and sighed with exhaustion. "Me, Lucy, Lilith and Leslie will go and rescue Vicky. The rest of you get in contact with our forces, and spread the news!... Terrorists attacked our Princess! The peace officially ends now! The Angelic Order marches to war once again!" David wanted to protest and help rescue Vicky, but one look from Henry shut him up. In this state, he would only slow their approach. Nobody else protested either, but Lucy grew curious. "How will we find her? Those ravens could''ve taken her anywhere!" Henry just turned towards James, making the cyborg halt in his typing. "Just as we can track Gate Openings, we can read where smaller portals like Vicky''s opened. Assuming that Xinya used similar methods of transportation, we can estimate their position... They are fifty kilometers north of New Constantinople!" Lucy nodded in acknowledgement, but then realized a new problem. "Fifty kilometers? How do we get there in time?" Just as her sentence finished, a loud screech echoed from above. In the sky, two dozen Hippogryphs approached rapidly, Castor, Kastral''s first-born son leading them. The four of them mounted the Hippogryphs quickly. The other twenty already had riders clad in their war-gear. Together they flew into the sky, heading north to Xinya''s last known location. Lucy, flying alongside Henry, raised a question everyone seemed to ignore. "Hey, what if they aren''t there anymore? I saw the camera footage! They can turn into ravens and fly away! Even with our speed, they can fly below the treeline, escaping our eyes!" Instead of the angry expression Lucy expected, Henry only chuckled at her concern. "Oh, don''t worry! We have time!... You didn''t think the Angel Monarch would leave her daughter defenseless, did you?" Back in the forest, Xinya reached inside the cage and pulled out one of the raven''s feathers. The small black bird, with white eyes, suddenly changed back into a thirteen-year-old girl with short white hair and an annoyed expression. The Asian woman laughed in the Princess''s face, while playing with the feather between her fingertips. "Let''s have a chat before proceeding! I always wanted to meet royalty!... Tell me little Victoria, do you think yourself better than everyone else? Otherwise, what gives you the right to send other people to their deaths?" Xinya wanted to continue her monologue, but Vicky''s delightful chuckle halted her. She only now saw the powerless girl''s fearless demeanor. A bad feeling grew in Xinya''s stomach. As quickly as she could, she lunged to stick the feather back onto Vicky''s head, but it was too late. The small girl''s even voice was perfectly clear as she spoke... "Aunt Faith, I request your assistance." Xinya managed to place the feather back onto Vicky''s head, turning her back into a raven. Still, she couldn''t breathe a sigh of relief, because in the next second... Vicky''s shadow moved on its own! Chapter 359: Prince Everyone backed away from the cage as the shadow below the raven expanded. The shadows left the cage, growing in size, forming into a humanoid body. At first it looked like a blob of darkness, but soon its limbs became apparent. From her legs upward, a black armor began covering the shadowy woman. In only seconds, she stood full clad in intricate black armor, which hugged her voluptuous body. Her beautiful, pale face formed as well, with two terrifying wells of darkness serving as her eyes. The woman''s pupils were the only white part of her eyes, making her even scarier. From her head, long shadowy hair flowed down to her mid-back, gently shining below the sunlight. The woman rolled her shoulders, while making a face of discomfort. Suddenly, with a grunt, two large, dark wings made of shadows grew out of her back. The kidnappers took more steps back as their eyes filled with terror. They all recognized the woman, even though the mission briefing hadn''t included her... Faith, the Angel''s Shadow! Seraphine''s most loyal subordinate. Many believed her existence was nothing but a myth, yet she stood before them, furious. Faith contemptuously eyed the many enemies, then glanced behind at Vicky''s raven form with questioning eyes. "Now tell me..." Asked Faith while turning back towards the small crowd. "Which one of you knows how to turn my Lady''s daughter back to human? Anyone kind enough to show me gets to keep their lives!" A twisted smile appeared on the shadowy woman''s lips. It seemed like she wanted them to deny answering, so she wouldn''t need to leave anyone alive! While Xinya''s brain overworked itself, trying to find a viable solution, Chang seemed to leave him at home... Or maybe he never had one to begin with! The tall, thin man took a step forward and pulled his two revolvers out of their holsters. A wide smile spread across his face, as his blood-red eyes stared out from below his wide-brimmed leather hat. "Now lady, that''s not how one introduces themselves! Have your mother never taught you how to converse with strangers?... Guess I just have to help you learn!" The tall idiot pointed both revolvers at Faith and pulled the trigger on each. The bullets travelled much faster and stronger, while glowing red. Chang was extremely strong when it came to killing enemies. Caught off-guard, he can even take out Stellars! However, the Angel''s Shadow was his power''s bane. Not something his bullets can solve! The two bullets hit Faith straight in the chest, or more like they passed through her. They didn''t even slow after leaving her body, like nothing physical was there. The Shadow chuckled at their useless attempt. "Really? That''s all you have? I expected better from you! Kidnapping the Princess must''ve been hard, so why can''t you kill me?" This annoyed Chang even more. He began shooting bullet after bullet, but they all passed through her without doing any harm. Even though his revolver''s chambers spun with each shot, Chang never seemed to run out of bullets. The reason was fairly simple; he didn''t use bullets! Chang just shot out his concentrated essence. In reality, he doesn''t need weapons to shoot, but he enjoys carrying them around, like one of those cowboys from old movies! He always loved watching those as a child or an adult. Throughout his childhood, he felt a strong bond with the western world, despite clearly having Asian features. In Xinya''s opinion, he looked quite dumb, always wearing cowboy hats and stupidly colored ponchos! It would''ve been fine if Chang didn''t have the intelligence of a rotting apple, but unfortunately, this gunslinger wasn''t too bright. After shooting a few dozen bullets, he finally stopped and stared at Faith with wide eyes. The woman just stood there, arms crossed, with a small, satisfied smile. "Any more attempts? Come now, don''t be shy!" Her words finally sparked something in Xinya''s mind. Out of curiosity, she summoned her dao sword and cut the air. Reality broke where Faith stood, creating a portal which closed a few seconds later. Nothing happened to Faith, which was exactly what Xinya expected. A knowing smile grew on Faith''s lips, as Xinya began to laugh. "So you figured it out! Good! Sadly, I was quite busy so couldn''t send my actual body! But my illusions were enough it seems!... Good luck fighting my friends! You''ll need it!" Xinya''s laughter abruptly halted as Faith''s form regressed into the shadows. From above, the sound of heavy wingbeats echoed, and soon loud screeching filled the air. Through the trees, gigantic beasts flew, dozens of them! They landed around the kidnappers, and the soldiers sitting atop began to dismount. Chang turned towards the nearest group and pull the revolvers'' trigger a few times. The red bullets flew through the air, faster than even an Evolved eye could track. They nearly hit a hippogryph and its rider when a blur appeared. All the bullets shot by Chang suddenly fell to the grassy ground, each cut into pieces. A shiver went down Xinya''s spine as a bad feeling came over her. A reflexive action, or maybe premonition, caused her to react swiftly, raising her sword just in time. Sparks flew off her sword, as its blade met with Henry''s signature glowing white warscythe. The fifteen-year-old boy stood a head taller than Xinya, a situation that should''ve been amusing, yet she wasn''t laughing. At that instant, their gaze met, making Xinya remember her mentor''s words regarding Henry prior to the mission. ''Prince: Don''t underestimate him! Even I don''t know the full extent of his abilities! It seems he can manipulate time to a much greater extent than Time Snake! He''s also amazing in martial arts and has a great strategic mind! I suggest not engaging him without at least a Stellar backing you up!'' As she looked into the Prince''s dark blue eyes, a smirk appeared on his face. With a powerful push, he separated from Xinya and ran towards her comrades. "Well, fuck... We need to leave right now!" Said Xinya before grabbing Tai, saving his life from an arrow aimed at his head. Near to them, a cloud of blood appeared as Henry pushed a terrorist into the other. He placed one a moment further in time, then when they made him reappear once they shared physical space. Lucy and Leslie also joined the fight, and the kidnappers began falling asleep. Xinya didn''t even register these events. With her weapon, she cut a hole into space, then tossed Tai through. Chang was still shooting at the enemy. One of his bullets managed to graze a hippogryph, triggering a horrible, painful death for the beast. As blood began flowing from the wound, the surrounding cells began exploding. This caused a chain reaction, until a few seconds later, only a bloody mist remained from the creature. Upon seeing this, Prince put in more effort to defend his subordinates, not letting even a single bullet hit anyone. Slowly, Chang backed towards the portal, and eventually jumped in as well. Xinya went after him, but paused momentarily. A short distance off, the Princess''s cage lay overturned, with the white-eyed raven desperately croaking inside. That was her mission. She only needed to grab the cage and get it through the portal... It sounded so simple... Her comrades continued dying, and using them as distraction, she ran towards the cage. She grabbed it with one hand, tossing it through the portal. Without thinking, she ran after it and closed the entry before anyone could follow. The three kidnappers landed in a lavish room. Both Tai and Chang sat in a nearby crouch, breathing heavily with exhaustion. Xinya wasn''t faring much better, but the smile stayed persistent on her face. She walked towards the cage, which seemed awfully silent. At first she assumed the Princess was knocked out, but soon her eyes widened and filled with anger. "FUCK! That stupid motherfucking Prince! I will kill you and your whore lover!" The cage laid empty on its side, with no sign of the Princess. The Asian woman continued to curse while repeatedly smashing the cage into pieces with her bare fists. Leslie and a few soldiers in the killing field moved the surviving kidnappers to the hippogryphs. They were still under Lilith''s spell, and when she gained every information they knew, she would personally execute them. Lucy walked around in confusion, looking for Vicky. Anger and desperation crept back onto her face when Henry motioned from behind a tree. A deadly aura cloaked the woman as she rushed toward Henry, curiosity in her gaze. "Did you find her?" She asked with little patience. Henry looked at the soldiers nearby, then whispered so nobody else could hear. "I did, but she isn''t in her usual form, and I don''t want rumors to spread!" The concern on Lucy''s face got replaced with pure confusion. That''s when Henry slowly raised his hands, revealing a raven sitting in his palm. "What the fuck is this?... That''s Vicky?" Before Henry could''ve answered, the raven croaked while nodding, clearly understanding Lucy''s words. She even winked, bringing attention to her beautiful white eyes with dark blue dots. Lucy just stared at her with mouth agape, then reached out and gently rubbed the raven''s head. Her eyes turned teary as the raven leaned into the scratches. "I''m so sorry... If I didn''t leave you alone... If we were smarter... If..." Lucy tried holding back her sobs while continuing to rub the raven''s face. Vicky let out a gentle croak, then turned towards Henry and narrowed her eyes. The tall boy nodded, as if understanding the bird just by one look. "You shouldn''t blame yourself... This Order of the Raven seems very strong and secretive! We could''ve never anticipated an attack like this... It''s worthless to brood about the past! Let''s focus on the future instead!" Lucy wiped away her tears and nodded. Together they moved towards their hippogryphs, while hiding Vicky''s raven form from everybody. Chapter 360: A New Enemy Xinya, Chang and Tai walked down on a beautiful corridor. It''s been a few hours since they arrived back home, and now they went to deliver the news of their failure. They had to shower and change into clean clothes. It would''ve disrespectful to make a report without proper decorum. Xinya changed out of her dirty light blue dress, and into a similarly cut pinkish-white one. It was a dress style commonly used thousands of years ago, but lost its cultural significance over time. Now, after the Apocalypse, people in Asia began using it again, calling it hanfu dress. The dress''s structure was similar to a robe, but with longer skirt and sleeves. It hid most of Xinya''s body, except her face and neck. By the side, she carried her dao, ready to draw at a moment''s notice. Next to her walked Tai, or as Chang referred to him, cockroach man. He wore a hanfu too, but his was dark brown, matching his limbs'' skin tone. The insectoid man hadn''t stopped analysing the information they gathered. Even though their primary mission became a failure, they still learned much. As Xinya''s mentor always said: ''Information and intel are the greatest power in war! Even one person can defeat the strongest armies with enough knowledge!'' Tai embraced that quote to heart, since other than thinking, he wasn''t good at anything! Then there was Chang. A human being so stupid a rock could provide a more meaningful conversation. He wore his usual clothing. Leather pants, combined with a shirt, a leather vest, poncho, and boots, with strange metallic stars at its heels. He also wore his dumb-looking cowboy hat, even though they were indoors! At his side, a pair of dark silver revolvers glinted under the corridor''s artificial light. Together they walked along the long corridor until eventually they reached a large double-door with two ''servants'' on either side. Everyone always referred to them as servants, even though both were Transcended. But when you work under dozens of Stellars, they will treat you as mere servants! These twos job wasn''t protecting their Masters. They simply stood outside, so nobody could bother them. Xinya stopped in front of the door and waited until the servants opened it. Since all three of them got summoned, the servants didn''t send them away. They both pushed the heavy, intricately designed door, letting the three inside the gigantic chamber. Upon opening, the double door revealed a circular room with tables lining the sides and a wide podium at its center. Behind the tables, the leaders of their nation sat, idly chatting with each other, not even acknowledging Xinya''s presence. She took a deep breath and led her friends toward the podium. While all the tables swam in darkness, from above, a single line of bright light fell onto the podium. The tables seemed to disappear when standing below the bright light. The eyes simply couldn''t adjust to the change in brightness. The conversations slowly began to die down as the double doors closed once more. Xinya, hearing a chair scrape, knew a Master had risen from their seat within the shadows. Everyone went silent across the room. The trio''s breath caught in their throat as they awaited the questioning. "Hmm... Your report says you retrieved neither the Prince, nor the Princess... You also didn''t manage to kill any person with codenames... Why did you even bother to return, Orphan?" Despite the old-sounding voice, Xinya knew each Stellar in this room appeared no older than thirty... Blessings of Evolution, the remedy to aging! Even if you reach a hundred, as a Stellar, your aging either stops or slows down so much it doesn''t matter anymore. Even as a Transcended like Xinya, she could live for centuries, maybe even millennia! A frown twisted on Xinya''s face as she heard the usual nickname, the Masters, referred to her as... Orphan, an obvious mockery of her past and familial background... Even though she wanted to act out, it wouldn''t achieve anything. Instead, she did the smart move, and knelt before the Masters, as subserviently as she could. "This foolish servant is sorry for her mistakes and begs for forgiveness! I have failed my mission and will happily accept any punishment the Masters deem necessary!" Behind her, Tai and Chang went to their knees too. All three bowed their heads before the Masters. "An appropriate punishment, you say?... How about spending a few years in the Seclusion Chamber? Or maybe some torture as a lesson to avoid future disappointments!... Any objections?" The last question obviously wasn''t aimed at Xinya. While every Master stood above her in rank, they could veto each other''s commands. With the older voice''s questions, the Masters murmured between each other, but nobody outright objected. Xinya sighed in disappointment and fear. She tried hiding her shaking hands in the folds of her clothing. The Seclusion Chamber was by far the worst torture she ever had to endure. Years ago, an old Ethereal created the Chamber, where time doesn''t exist. While inside, you can''t age or die. Years spent inside equated to mere hours outside. The torture part came through isolation and hunger. The Chamber looks like a plain room, with nothing to keep yourself entertained. You feel hunger and thirst inside, but without any food or water, and basic immortality, you spend years suffering inside. Most people go Mad before the first year''s end, while others simply regress into a broken state. Xinya was one of the lucky few who stayed sane and didn''t turn into a monster upon leaving the Chamber. She found solace in isolation, training as much as humanly possible. But it seemed the time spent with training blinded her improvement. Without training with someone else, she believed her abilities went beyond anyone on her Rank. This harsh failure proved just how much more she could learn. Even though she feared the Seclusion Chamber, she knew it could provide a great opportunity for improvement. Xinya took a deep breath, preparing to ask for the Seclusion Chamber as punishment, but just as she prepared to speak, the air became heavy. Since Xinya worked with Stellars¡ªeither Masters or servants like herself¡ªshe already gotten used to the passive aura they emitted. However, there was someone even the Masters feared. Above the trio, a shadow moved through the hatch, through which the sunlight fell upon them. A lone raven gently flew down, landing near Xinya. It instantly turned into a tall man. His presence alone brought terror to everyone''s souls. A gentle smile graced the man''s face as the room filled with the smell of blood. He wore a large cloak made of dark raven feathers. Atop his head, a top hat hid his unruly, long, black hair. While his lips smiled, his black, glowing eyes only held contempt. In his right eye, he wore a monocle, making his expression older and more terrifying. The man took a deep breath and stepped forward. In his hand, a cane made of some blackwood made a loud bang as it touched the podium''s floor. At its top, a crystalline raven skull made his cane even more elegant. The man''s appearance scared the shit out of the Masters, but Xinya only smiled brightly at her mentor. "So you want to punish little Xinya for her first failure? Yet, you all ignore the fact that her mission would''ve been successful given enough resources! Why haven''t any of you ''Masters'' helped her capture the Princess?" His voiced sounded like a melody in Xinya''s ears. And when her mentor basically spat the word Masters, her heart fluttered. Silence reined over the chamber for a few seconds before the previous spokesperson cleared his throat and tried talking in an even tone. "We... We couldn''t risk ourselves being seen! That would''ve caused a clear war between us and the Angelic Order!... Without the Princess, we would be at a severe disadvantage!" The Master''s words actually surprised Xinya. She never expected these old, useless fools could make an actually good argument. Indeed, Plague, Half and a few others had already met with the Masters, so they would easily recognize them, sparking a war between continents. The argument made sense, if the Angelic Order was as foolish as the Masters. However, they weren''t stupid and could put the picture together fairly quick. Her mentor knew this too, and when hearing the Master''s excuses, his smile widened. "You are correct! Without the Princess''s portal opening, we can''t move our army fast enough to rival the Angelic Order!... But don''t fool yourself, thinking we are still at peace! Maybe you should listen to the news!" Suddenly many holo-screen ignited around them, lighting up the Masters'' faces. They all read different news articles, but the headlines were the same on each... ''The Angelic Order marches to war once more!'' Xinya really wanted to laugh upon seeing the Masters'' expression change from contempt to annoyance. "As you can see, the worst outcome already happened! The Princess and her group already figured out your identity! Luckily, for all of you, Xinya managed to gather valuable intel, which will give you a significant advantage in the upcoming war!" While speaking, her mentor''s eyes went glassy. This happened to him quite often, every time he personally watched something through his subordinates'' eyes. Out of nowhere, the tall, scary man burst into laughter. "Oh, clever! You already figured that one out too! One point to the Prince!" His voice sounded amused, and like always, nobody understood what he was saying. Her mentor''s eyes changed back, and he turned towards Xinya. He reached down with one glowed hand, which she took and let herself get lifted to her feet. A gentle smile played on his lips while staring down at Xinya. She gazed into his dark, glowing eyes as a small blush crept onto her pale face. "Anyway, I suggest making a formal declaration of war. You can write whatever you want as casus belli. Nobody will care either way!" The tall man spoke while walking towards the exit, still holding Xinya''s hand. Without turning around, he raised his cane, pointing it towards Tai and Chang. The two reacted immediately, turning into ravens and flying towards the man''s cloak. When their feet touched the cloak, they suddenly turned into feathers hanging from the clothing. He continued walking alongside Xinya, smelling the air every now and then. "Can you smell this little Xinya? The smell of blood, of pain and suffering... Can you smell war''s approach?... People thought the War of Three Alliances was bad... They have no idea what''s heading their way!" The man''s smile widened as a joyous giggle escaped his lips. Xinya just continued watching the man with glinting eyes. She always loved seeing her mentor this excited. "A war between a few puny city-states... What a joke!... Let''s see what happens when the full force of Europe and Antarctica fight against Asia!... I wonder what the outcome will be!" Chapter 361: Raven Form The hippogryphs landed near the mansion, bringing them back before departing with the rest of the soldiers. Everything slowly became more hectic, but Henry only cared about Vicky''s wellbeing. He let go of the raven, letting her girlfriend fly around, full of curiosity. Lucy, Leslie, and Lilith came to stand next to Henry. Together they watched the Princess fly around, seemingly carefree. Fast, small footsteps sound behind them, and suddenly a bad feeling came over Henry. "Bad bird!" Little Nick''s shout reached their ears, just as the one-year-old flew towards Vicky''s unsuspecting form. "Fuck!" Spoke Henry, cursing under his breath. He moved a lot faster than the baby and managed to grab Vicky''s brother before he reached the raven. Vicky finally noticed her brother and croaked happily at the child. Nick''s eyes went wide while muttering... "Sister" The raven flew down, landing on Henry''s shoulder, croaking at the baby. He just giggled and tried grabbing Vicky again, but the large bird was faster than the child. Slower footsteps approached them, and soon Cass appeared with a worried expression. "Where''s Vicky! You didn''t manage to save her in time?... Is that another one of the attackers? Let me kill it!" As she raised her hand to attack Vicky''s raven form, everyone jumped in her way, while screaming ''NO''. Cass looked bewildered, staring at the raven, which seemed angry for some reason. Its white eyes with dark blue dots stared daggers into Cass''s soul... "Wait... White eyes with dark blue dots... Don''t tell me they... What the fuck did they do to my favorite niece!" Henry just sighed in both relief and exhaustion, then motioned everyone to follow. "Let''s talk inside. There''s a lot we learned, but we need to wait for everyone else before discussing it!" Unfortunately, it took a few hours for everyone to arrive. Without instantaneous teleportation, travelling over long distances took time. When the sun was setting, they all sat around the large dining table, and finally decided to discuss everything they learned. "Okay, as you all know, our new enemies turned Vicky into a raven. From what I gathered using the captured kidnappers'' memories, we should be able to turn her back by pulling out one of her feathers... The problem is we don''t know which one!" Percy snorted hearing this and stood up. While walking towards Vicky, he spoke... "Well, if we don''t know which one, then I guess we just have to pull out every feather!" Vicky croaked in protest and fear, her beak overflowing with pieces of meat she had been munching on. When Percy was only a few meters away, multiple weapons appeared around him. A pair of toxic green shortsword, a long golden spear, a glowing white warscythe, and even a large clawed hand. "You dumbass! Sit your ass back down, before I beat you up!" Shouted Morren, pulling her boyfriend away, while continuously smacking his head. Everyone else sat back down too, but Kim''s and Astrid''s eyes stayed on the idiot of their group. "That wouldn''t work, idiot! If we pull out the wrong feather, she will die or something akin!... We need to isolate the possibilities by decreasing the number of fake feathers!" Said Henry, while gently rubbing Vicky''s head. The large bird let out a cheerful, satisfied chirp and continued devouring the meat. "And how do we achieve that? If we can''t pull the wrong feather, how can we isolate the right one?" David''s question was on point, as always. Henry didn''t outright answer the question, and instead his eyes fell on Lydia, who eagerly watched Vicky''s bird form. Slowly, everyone''s gaze fell on the girl, and upon feeling their eyes, she looked around, confused. "Uh... Did you need something? Why are you all staring?" Henry ignored Lydia''s confusion and turned back to the group. "We will use Lydia''s matter changing ability to transform Vicky. Even in different forms, the raven feather we need should still be on her!... It will be quite unpleasant, though, but I have faith in Lydia''s ability to succeed!" A wide smile stretched on Henry''s face, while giving his friend a thumbs up. Lydia just rolled her eyes and whispered to herself... "At least one of us is confident in my abilities..." Vicky listened to the entire conversation as well, so she knew exactly how bad everything would get for her. Her best friend stood up from her place and walked to Vicky''s trembling body. She couldn''t help feeling fear as Lydia reached out and grabbed her form. "I''m sorry my Lady..." Lydia''s words barely registered in Vicky''s mind as the girl''s essence flowed into her body, changing its molecular structure. She made painful croaking noises as anguish filled her existence. Her entire body burned from excruciating pain, as if all her bones were breaking and healing at the same time. The miserable sounds she made sent shivers down everyone''s spines. They watched Vicky''s raven form slowly disintegrate into an unsightly, strange blob of living matter. Sadly, Lydia''s power didn''t work well on living matter. She could make minor changes, like eye or hair color, decreasing someone''s natural beauty. She could even lock someone''s abilities to lower levels, making Transcended have the power of mere regular humans. What she couldn''t do was macro changes on the body. She couldn''t change body proportions, or full body changes. This also included changing someone''s skin color, or taking away a bird''s feathers! When she tried it once with Vicky, it made her original organic structure fall to pieces. She became a large blob of human tissue, and they needed Bea''s help to heal Vicky. That was one of the few times when she actually decided to help her daughter. Lydia now used that knowledge and removed all of Vicky''s feathers until only one remained. Vicky''s painful wailing stopped a while ago, as her vocal cords, beak, respiratory system, everything disintegrated. Everyone''s eyes filled with empathy and sadness as they watched their friend suffer. The number of feathers gradually decreased as they all joined the blob one-by-one. Henry stood near Lydia, prepared to pull out the raven feather immediately. Their number continued decreasing until only ten or so remained. Henry perceived time slowing while the last few feathers merged into the blob. When only a single feather remained, and Lydia nodded towards him, Henry finally moved. His hand seemed faster than lightning as it grabbed onto the lone raven feather and pulled it out. Just as the feather left the blob, a flash of light appeared, blinding everyone momentarily. Cass recovered quicker than anybody else, so she spotted Vicky first. On the table, a thirteen-year-old girl laid unconscious and naked. Her beautiful, milky-white skin gently shone under the room''s artificial light. Pure joy ignited in Cass''s eyes, but soon reality hit her as everyone else began to turn towards the young girl. As quickly as possible, Cass summoned an illusory clothing around Vicky, saving the girl''s decency. Gradually, everyone turned to the spot where the blob was, and collectively, the entire table breathed a deep sigh of relief. Henry gently touched his lover''s head, swiping her white hair out of her face. "James, check her vitals!" Ordered Lilith, while trying to hold back her tears. The cyborg was already standing nearby, and after a few seconds, he looked through any medical problem Vicky could have. "There''s nothing out of the ordinary... Her heartbeat is okay... Her breathing is even... Her blood structure is perfect... It seems she''s just severely exhausted and very hungry. Both are probably the unorthodox transformation''s side effects!" While speaking, he looked at Mary, who tossed him a similar vial of clear liquid, like the one Henry drank. "She will probably wake up, if you give her this. Currently, all her essence flow is still blocked, so her Evolved immune system hadn''t kicked in yet!" Henry nodded in acknowledgement, then reached down and lifted Vicky''s head. James broke the glass vial and poured its contents down Vicky''s throat. She began coughing as the serum flowed down her throat. Slowly, her face reddened, and her breathing became uneven. Everyone turned scared once more, as Vicky''s face sweated heavily, while scrunching in pain. It took her a few minutes, but eventually her face turned back to its usual pale color, while her eyes began fluttering open. With a long, deep sigh, Vicky''s eyes opened. Her vision was still blurry, but she could instantly guess who stood above her. She would never mistake her boyfriend''s golden hair and dark blue eyes! "I got to tell you... Getting turned into a raven truly sucks!" She said with a tired giggle, then she began smacking her lips as if tasting something weird. "Why does my mouth taste like strawberries?" Asked Vicky in confusion, and Henry didn''t miss a beat with his reply, "Does it really? Let me check!" His words left no time for refusal as he immediately leaned in and kissed his girlfriend. Vicky got caught off-guard at first, but soon she let go of herself, enjoying her lover''s lips on hers. Across the table, Mary giggled while responding to Vicky''s earlier question. "Well, Henry wanted the serum to have taste, so I added strawberry extract! I think it turned out pretty good!" Others laughed around the table as well, as the pent up anxiety finally left their bodies, leaving everyone exhausted. They all waited for Henry and Vicky to stop kissing, but neither seemed to care. After a minute, Cass rolled her eyes and walked up to the pair. "Hey, lovebirds! Keep that to the bedroom! We have a war to plan!" Henry pulled away from Vicky and glared at Cass. Vicky just rolled her eyes and giggled at the obvious joke. With the kissing over, Vicky took her place next to Henry and the war meeting finally began. Chapter 362: Council Between Continents For hours, they talked through all the Angelic Order''s defenses and fighting capabilities. The number of regular soldiers was around five million, while the Evolved count went above three hundred thousand. Among the Evolved, two hundred thousand held the lowest Rank, while about ninety thousand were already Ascended. Currently, they only had a few hundred Transcended. They mostly stayed in outposts all over the other continents. These figures represent offensive troops only. Each city-state has its own defenders, which the purposefully left out from counting. While preparing for war, the problem everyone failed to solve arose once more... They didn''t have an appropriate command structure! It fell on Henry to find a viable solution; however, until now, he remained unsuccessful. Sadly, the looming war necessitated increased effort on his part. During the long discussions, Henry spent most of his time working out a command structure with David''s and Damien''s help. When a preliminary defense plan was ready, the command structure''s framework became complete as well. First, the main problem arose when regular soldiers stood above Evolved, commanding them. Even though both Vicky and Henry tried preaching the importance of humbleness and order, Evolved were prideful by nature. With this in mind, only one option remained. He desperately sought to avoid it; however, time constraints and impending war forced his hands... He need to separate the regular and Evolved command structure! Since the regular troop count vastly exceeded the Evolved soldiers, and they didn''t want to be commanded by someone with less power, Henry chose this solution. For the regular soldiers, he just used some older ranking system. 5 generals led the army, each commanding ten colonels, who in turn commanded 20 capitans, then 10 lieutenants, and finally 5 sergeants. A pretty basic command structure, and the different war machines like tanks, APCs, or self-propelled artilleries, needed specific commanding officers. With five million soldiers, each general had one million under their command. Their vehicle and weaponry counts were identical, giving them equal chances on the battlefield. The Evolved soldiers didn''t need such an intricate command structure, since their numbers vastly differed. 50 commanders led the army all together, each one a Transcended with commanding experience from the previous war. Vicky and her group didn''t count into this 50, since their commanding power outvoted even the regular army''s generals! Their command got structured into units. Each unit consisted of 2000 troops. Below the unit, the army''s structure further decreased into cohorts. An Ascended cohort leader commanded them, each comprising 20 Evolved soldiers. Regarding Evolved, only hippogryphs presented a structural issue. Despite a dramatic increase over the last two years, sufficient quantities remained unavailable for every soldier. Another issue came in the form of 300 Transcended. They had no commanding experience, but their fighting capabilities couldn''t be ignored. Henry decided to create a third group for these soldiers. They were outside the main command structures, and only Vicky''s group could give them orders. He named them Lone Operatives, even though they worked in groups too! By the time he finished the command structure, they had to move on to a different war council. Since conveniently, the envoys were inside the Cathedral when the bomb threat happened, they now eagerly awaited to join the war effort. Unlike Europe, neither continent suffered from inside conflicts, but that didn''t make them weak. Mass Gate Openings plagued entire Antarctica, until its citizens became strong enough to defeat the monsters, and establish safe havens in the form of city-states. Antarctica had the highest Evolved count from every continent, since not many regular humans could survive the onslaught. South America suffered from a different, and in a way much more horrible, issue... Goblins! Many of their cities were raided, their citizens kidnapped. They might have little experience fighting humans, but most of their soldiers already killed thousands of goblins! Before leaving to the meeting with the envoys, Henry sent out messages to each of the chosen Commanders and Generals. They each received the new command structure''s template, then left everything in their capable hands. The news of the upcoming war already reached the public, so none of the new or old leaders felt surprised. As the army started working across Europe, Vicky, Henry, and a couple of others teleported into a lounge with a few occupants. Kim and Astrid still stood guard, while Sam kept everyone company. Only two of the twenty-four envoys remained in the lounge. Henry easily judged, which was the South American envoy, and not just because of the obvious difference in skin tone. The South American envoys all had a deep tan on their bodies, while the Antarcticans were white as snow. But even if the two envoys would''ve been identical twins, Henry could''ve easily guessed their origin by their expressions. Strangely, the Antarcticans had little exposure to goblins, so the envoy joyously enjoyed the conversation with Sam. The South American envoy, on the other hand, possessed deep hatred towards goblins. His face showed his disgust at sharing a room with Sam. The goblin turned human. Even after he heard Sam''s story, it only ignited the spark of a pity inside his heart. Luckily, Sam didn''t take his hate seriously. He understood it more than the envoy realized. In the past two years, everyone had gotten used to his green skin and goblin-like features, but he still carried the regret of being alive. He would''ve probably already killed himself without Kim''s and Vicky''s support. While looking at the young Princess, he didn''t have the heart to make her sad, even if it meant suffering in this miserable green skin! Kim was a different topic. He didn''t want her to get sad either, but deep down, there was also something more when thinking about Kim... Like an aching in his heart... He always banished these feelings, since he didn''t understand them. It was similar to lust, but also much pure... Either way, as a goblin, it was in his nature to feel lust towards everyone, so he never acted upon these feelings... Upon entering the lounge room, both envoys stood up and bowed before Vicky and Henry. "It''s nice to see you in good health, Lady Victoria! We heard the news about your kidnapping, and that awful affliction they used on you... Truly despicable!" The Antarctican envoy sounded angry, even though she tried hiding her real emotions. "Indeed, Lady Victoria! Glad you spared time, so we can discuss our next move... I''m Fabiano, by the way, nice to meet you both!" Suddenly, the other envoy''s light blue eyes became excited, and a small blush appeared on her pale skin. "Oh, I forgot! My name is Inari! I''m Antarctica''s representative during our upcoming discussions!" Both Henry and Vicky nodded in acknowledgement, and together they sat before the representatives. Damien, David, and Melinda were with them as well. David and Damien were the best war strategists the Angelic Order had, while Melinda had excellent skills managing the citizens. When everyone made themselves comfortable around the small table, Vicky sighed and played with the raven feather, which caused so much pain for her. "Thank you for your concern, but it''s unwarranted. I was never in actual danger, but it was still an awful experience... Also, I apologize for today, even though we expected something similar to happen!" Both Fabiano and Inari nodded in agreement. While a bomb threat during the Peacemaking Celebrations caught them off-guard, every envoy already knew something could very likely happen. Their three continents worked well together, and by how Asia''s leaders acted, whenever Melinda approached them. It was quite obvious they wouldn''t take kindly to Vicky''s attempt at a unified Earth. All of them seen footages about those Masters. They were all powerful Stellar, who wanted nothing more than control over everyone. "They already sent their official declaration of war. Their casus belli was, I quote: ''Those despicable fanatics in Europe kidnapped one of our benevolent Master''s grandson! Luckily, our operatives managed to rescue him!''" The white-haired, pale woman from Antarctica couldn''t hold herself back and burst into laughter. "Did they really use our casus belli to declare war? How brazen and vile! Their greed truly knows no bounds!" Vicky nodded at Inari''s words with a small smile, while Henry brought the conversation to the main topic. "Their casus belli doesn''t matter. For now, we should focus on our defenses! Did your city-states bring the Gate Tracking Matrix online, and are the Gateway outlines ready?" The Gate Tracking Matrix was the name of James''s and Mary''s device, which tracked potential Gate Openings in advance, and it also showed any regular portal openings like the ones Vicky and Xinya uses. Europe''s coverage was incomplete given the Matrix''s limited tracking range of a few hundred kilometers. But using the device would prevent any surprise attack from Asia! The Gateway outline was a simple gigantic doorway, which would connect every city-state under the Angelic Order''s control with the other continents! With the Gateways, their armies would gain extreme mobility. In case of an attack on any city, millions of soldiers could instantly teleport to offer assistance! Both envoys glanced at each other, then nodded at Henry''s question. "While waiting, we contacted our leaders and they should''ve brought everything online by now!" At Fabiano''s words, Vicky opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly her silver watch came alight with a new emergency message. It caught Henry''s attention too, and they both read the brief message. Afterward, they looked at each other, confused and full of doubt. The envoys watched in awe, as both of the regal couple''s faces changed extremely fast, while high-pitched whispering noises filled the air. Henry enveloped them in a miniature time bubble. They engaged in an hourlong conversation while only a few seconds passed outside. When their discussion ended, Henry turned back towards the envoys, while Vicky opened a portal and furiously typed on her holo-screen. "Unfortunately, something urgent came up... It seems the other independent European city-states decided to have a meeting this very moment, probably about the upcoming war! We will crash this meeting, and afterward, we can discuss our options to go forward!" Henry''s words surprised both envoys, but they both understood the importance of attending that meeting. Soon both Henry and Vicky left through the portal, leaving David, Damien, and Melinda to continue discussing their continents'' defenses. Chapter 363: Friends and Foes Queen Elizabeth felt the irony of her situation. This meeting between every independent city inside Europe turned out to be extremely boring. They held it in her city, though, since everyone felt comfortable entering London''s borders. When Otto contacted her about the meeting, she wasn''t surprised at all. Just like all the other leaders sitting at the table, the Queen also had her spies infiltrate the Anglic Order. She knew about the attempted kidnapping and bomb threat before anyone else. What surprised her was the declaration of war by both the Angelic Order and their allied continents, and Asia! Elizabeth still remembered vividly about the War of Three Alliances. Despite fighting only in the final battle, she still felt the blood dripping from her hands... The thousands she had killed without moving a finger... Their screams continued to haunt her. Before the war, she never had to kill other humans, but humanity always loved destroying themselves. Be it power, money, or something more profound like control, a single reason that''s all it takes to march towards death! But humanity isn''t just a creature of destruction. They are also amazing in adapting to the situation. It took barely twenty-five years for everyone to adapt and overcome the Apocalypse brought obstacles! When fighting for survival came to an end, humans continued waging their wars, for reasons unknown to the Queen. In all her life as a leader, she only wanted peace for her citizens, yet the ones believing in faith, in the Angelic Order, eagerly awaited the next war. Elizabeth simply didn''t understand. She never felt compulsion as most humans. She never wanted to kill others. And she never had reasons to fight... Until now! "So what do all of you think? Is this plan sufficient for everyone, or do you have objections, perhaps better suggestions?" The person speaking was none other than Napoleon. The brilliant strategist and horrible human being escaped Malta and took control of New Paris once more. Most of his soldiers already deserted or died. Recruiting also proved impossible, since not a single citizen wanted to fight for a tyrant! Elizabeth still couldn''t believe this horrid leader now sat at the same table... At her table! But he wasn''t the only surprising guest. From across Napoleon sat another familiar face. His name was Alton, one of the three Stellar who survived the war on the Federal Alliance''s side. Beast Lord and Swordmaster¡ªthe two other leaders¡ªdidn''t attend this meeting. Same with Napoleon''s two underling Stellars. It was a strange sight. Two alliances who fought in the past war, now sat at the table of the third alliance... How ironic... Other than them, two more leaders attended this meeting. Antal, the Stellar leader of Buda-Pest and Otto, the Stellar leader of Castleburg, with his sidepiece, Bea. Elizabeth''s eyes kept glancing at the young woman''s beautiful face. Her skin had a greenish glow, which was mesmerizing to look at. Her shiny brown hair seemed longer and more disheveled since the last time they met two years ago. The woman''s green eyes now held gold in its inside, but that wasn''t why she brought interest to the Queen''s eyes. The woman seemed tired. Dark circles grew around her eyes. She kept fidgeting with her shaky hands, and she only stared at the floor. Even worse, sometimes when Otto articulated with his hands, Bea clearly twitched and leaned away, as if afraid of being hit. These were all assumptions she made purely based on body language, but compared to the proud, free woman she saw two years ago, Elizabeth felt pity for this miserable person. The conversation went on between the four, while the Queen''s boredom grew. She watched these people argue and laugh together like they didn''t send their citizens and soldiers into death''s embrace. Just witnessing this exchange felt disgusting, but she needed to hold on! "What do you think, your Majesty? You''ve been awfully quiet during this discussion, even though we''re in your city! Should we consider Asia''s offer?" Otto''s words brought Elizabeth back to reality. She only half-heartedly payed attention, but she still understood the gist of Asia''s offer. They wanted the independent city-states in Europe to join on their side, attacking the Angelic Order. In turn, they could distribute the captured cities between each other. Initially, Asia''s superior Stellar count made the offer attractive. However, only a fool would accept such a proposition. "I thought you people were smarter than openly walking into slavery. You really think that fighting the Angelic Order would lead to you gaining more power?" A small, cunning smile grew on Elizabeth''s bored face. "Back in the Old World, there was a famous saying... Divide and conquer! It means destroying many smaller forces is much easier than fighting against an orderly, united nation! Why do you think Asia hates the Angelic Order so much?" Her question meant to be rhetoric, yet Alton wasn''t smart enough to realize that. "Because that stupid ''Princess'' tried kidnapping one of the Masters'' grandson! Didn''t you hear the news?" For the first time during the meeting, Bea''s gaze moved away from the floor. Finally, Elizabeth saw glimpses of the proud woman in her greenish-gold eyes. Just by hearing her daughter being referred to as stupid, bought fury to her presence. The shaking in her hands suddenly stopped, becoming deathly still. The few plants around the room rapidly grew just from her passive anger. The Queen noted another change in the woman... Her Rank! Two years ago, she was just a mere Ascended, but not anymore! Elizabeth stayed silent after Alton''s words, curiously awaiting what Bea would do. However, something she already expected happened. Just as Bea nearly leapt over the table to attack the Stellar, a firm hand landed on her shoulder... Otto''s hand... He whispered a few words to Bea, which turned her anger into worry and fear. Her eyes soon returned to the floor, and her hand fidgeting continued. The Queen''s gaze lingered on the broken woman for a few moments, then she sighed sadly. Her eyes then went back to Alton. "You are a dumbass if you take their casus belli as truth... The reason they want the Angelic Order destroyed is because they stand for order! They don''t want excess power, or control! They want to unite the world!" Both Alton and Napoleon scoffed at her obvious bias, but neither had anything to rebut her argument. Otto still kept on smiling gently, but the more Elizabeth gazed into his dark gray eyes, the less genuine and more cunning the smile seemed. "Well, I guess you made your point quite clear. I''m not saying I agree with it, but I do see some merit in your ideas. I also think we should stay out of the conflict for now... Let''s see Asia''s forces, then make an educated decision!" Suddenly, Antal, Buda-Pest''s Prime Minister stood up with anger evident in his expression. "I told you during the discussion! No matter what, I won''t go to war against the Angelic Order! Most of my citizens already follow their faith! If I ordered my army against their Goddess''s daughter, they would immediately impeach and replace me!" Otto exhaled deeply, a clear sign of him trying to maintain control. He then glanced up at his old friend with a not so friendly smile. "My citizens also follow that strange religion, but unlike you, I don''t rely on them to fight my battles! If you''re so worried about impeachment, then rule as a tyrant, a king, emperor, dictator, whatever you want to call yourself!" A sudden chill filled the room as Antal narrowed his light purple eyes. An insane laughter escaped his pursed lips, and with a sudden move he slammed onto the table, splintering it. "You little piece of shit! You might not care about your people, but I fucking do! They have the right to decide if I''m fit to lead, or not! Taking these rights away isn''t an option, and frankly, you disgust me just by suggesting it!" Otto continued to smile, while slowly he stood up. Next to him, Bea''s trembling increased while her eyes focused on the ground, like an animal gripped by fear. "Get off your high horse, Antal! Your aura passively influences people and their emotions! You think Buda-Pest''s elections are fair, when you are the person running for office? How could a regular human ever win against someone like you!" Antal''s expression became even angrier as he stepped up to Otto. "Are you suggesting I cheat during elections? That I fake my votes? That I influence my voters? Fuck you!" Elizabeth watched with curiosity the two men''s threats. She wanted to intervene, since if those two began fighting here, it would''ve cost many of her citizens'' lives. However, she didn''t need to. When they were close to exchanging fists, a portal opened nearby, and the surprise guests finally arrived to the party! Princess Victoria and Prince Henry walked through in their regality. Close to them, Joan, Lucy, Leslie and Cassandra followed. Each of the six while couldn''t outright defeat Stellars, they could most definitely hold their ground against them. The Princess''s eyes went to the two men standing nearby, recognizing them both. She couldn''t see Bea, since Otto stood in the way, but her mother saw the Princess. Her bright golden-green eyes glistened with tears at the appearance of her daughter, and she seemed on the verge of jumping out of her seat. That''s when Otto''s hand landed on her shoulder once more, freezing her blood and excitement. Her planned actions ceased abruptly, and she looked back down at the ground with teary eyes. Elizabeth frowned at the strange display of emotions on Bea''s face. Her previous sadness now held a glimmer of hope, and a small smile even crept onto her depressed face. A deathly silence fell upon the room as the regal couple, and their entourage appeared. Suddenly, a small, cunning smile grew onto Vicky''s lips, and she glanced up at the rafters above, right into the dark eyes of a lone raven staring down. Behind her, Damien moved quickly. Before the bird could''ve flown away, he shot out a small streaking of crimson flame, burning the creature to ashes. Chapter 364: Conspiracy "Do you have a newfound hatred towards birds?" Asked Otto with a small, cunning smile. Vicky just shrugged, bent down, and grabbed a handful of ashes. This raven strangely wasn''t an Evolved in disguise, but it also wasn''t a normal bird. It hid in the rafters with a clear intention of listening in. Vicky easily noticed it, though. Instantly, as she stepped through the portal, her space perception noticed the creature, and Leslie acted quickly. Slowly, she let the ashes fall out of her palm while keeping eye contact with Otto. "Why haven''t I''ve been invited to this cozy meeting?" Said Vicky, while walking towards an empty chair, the head of the table. She sat down and glanced towards the other end, where Elizabeth sat with a bored expression. Otto also shuffled a bit, still keeping Bea hidden from sight, but as Vicky''s friends began to move alongside the room''s wall, her presence became obvious soon. Lucy spotted her first, and immediately noticed the strange way she sat there, motionless, trembling. Before her brain even sent out the command, her black scythe already appeared in her hand. Upon noticing the broken woman, everyone else done the same, except Vicky and Henry. The young Princess stayed seated, with her regal knight standing guard behind her chair. Lucy opened her mouth as her head became red from anger, but before she could''ve said anything, Vicky raised her hand. All four armed individuals froze and calmed. Emotions might''ve got the better of them, but they weren''t stupid. It would''ve been insane to fight against one Stellar in this room, much less four. Vicky ignored the demanding expressions of her friends, and Otto''s concerned eyes, looking between the Princess and her mother. Instead, she turned towards Napoleon, who watched all this play out with amusement. "How dare you show your face to me? After what you''ve done with your petty war! The millions you killed by not wanting to rule! I feel disgusted just by existing near you!" Napoleon just chuckled at Vicky''s statement, which deepened the Princess''s frown. "Excuse my unsightly appearance, your Highness! I''m sorry I came to attend the meeting, which I was invited to! Rest assured, it won''t happen again!" His mocking voice and following laughter further angered both the Princess and Prince, but still they maintained decorum, and Vicky even forced out a smile. "Good! Now tell me! Why did you organize this gathering without inviting the most Europe''s most influential power? Could you enlighten me, Otto?... Since you gathered everyone here..." Otto''s eyes remained fixed on Lucy and her scythe. He didn''t care about Vicky''s question at all, and so he didn''t answer the question, but someone else did... The stupidest of them all, Alton! "Why would we invite you, a thirteen-year-old wannabe leader! Most influential power in Europe, my ass! You couldn''t even defeat us with all your power!" Vicky''s gaze moved from Otto to Alton. Her smile widened, turning genuine, hiding her fuming hatred towards the man. "You''re correct, and so very wrong simultaneously. We couldn''t defeat you in combat here and now, but power isn''t only personal! While you might control your citizens with fear, we control them with faith and order! Tell me, how many citizens are part of the Angelic Order in Madrid?" Again, the idiot couldn''t recognize a rhetoric question, but Vicky plowed on without waiting for the inevitable interruption. She even raised her voice to drown out the Stellar''s words. "How many? Ten million? Twenty? A quarter, or maybe half? Could be more, even I don''t know the exact numbers, and I''m one of its religious figureheads!... Now answer this question! What would happen if I ordered them to stop obeying to you? Which would win, fear or devotion?" A lone sweat drop ran down Alton''s face, as he imagined the outcome of such command. A nation''s leaders only last as long as their citizens let them. But if they fail at their job, then two options remain, peaceful impeachment, or revolution! Alton couldn''t help but glance at Antal. The handsome, long, dark pink-haired man stared at the Princess with a surprised expression. The man became thoughtful after hearing Vicky''s words. New ideas popped into his mind, and a new understanding of leadership widened his view of reality. But Vicky wasn''t done yet. Her eyes moved to Napoleon, who was considerably less amused than before. "Even three Stellars couldn''t contain all those more than a hundred million souls inside New Paris! They obey you, because I tell them not to fight. Don''t believe for a second you have any true control!" Napoleon narrowed his eyes, then shouted while pointing at the Princess. "Don''t you fucking threaten me, you little bitch! If I even witness the beginning of a rebellion, I will kill every single human inside New Paris, and level the FUCKING CITY TO THE FUCKING GROUND..." His screaming suddenly came to a halt, as Vicky opened a portal right on his neckline, bringing the Stellar''s head only a dozen centimeters from her own. The man''s face showed clear surprise, but no fear, which was quite surprising. She did achieve her intended effect though... Shutting up Napoleon! "Listen to me, you fucking freak! If you dare kill any of your own citizens, I make sure you go to hell! I even drag you down with me if necessary!" The old strategist narrowed his eyes while staring into Vicky''s white ones. A flicker of understanding appeared in his mind, while reevaluating his judgments about the girl. He should''ve known better, but pride and power could blind every eye, even his. The appearance of a thirteen-year-old, frail girl made him miscalculate slightly. First, he assumed the Princess was nothing, but a puppet guided by her other half, the much more capable Prince. However, as the conversation escalated, it became obvious this wasn''t the case. Victoria wasn''t a mere puppet. She was the puppeteer, ordering her mother''s nation around, like it was hers. A true legacy of the mighty Angel Monarch! In a split second, he made new judgments, and adjusted all his plans accordingly. A smile twisted across his face. His words came slow and tedious, full of confidence and pride. "I''ve studied you Princess... It takes abruptly three tenths of a second for you to close a portal this size, more than enough time for a Stellar, like me, to escape!... Come on, try to behead me, YOU WHORE!" He laughed loudly, into the Princess''s face, but it quickly stopped as Henry pressed his warscythe''s blade to Napoleon''s neck, drawing blood. Napoleon became shocked once more, yet the reason for his surprise changed. His eyes widened with the appearance of the glowing white warscythe. Henry moved so fast, Napoleon couldn''t even perceive it! Like he didn''t even move, just merely appeared at his destination, right below Napoleon''s neck. Since the first time during their discussion, he actually felt a bit of fear. What every strategist hated the most were variables, and right now, Henry''s unknown powers proved fearsome for the greatest strategist. "I think this conversation is over, don''t you? Any lingering thoughts or feelings? Maybe another childish insult? I''m all ears. Please share!" Napoleon scoffed at Henry''s remark, but with each small movement, his blade cut deeper. Eventually, he gave up, and pulled his head out of the portal, which closed soon after. Both Napoleon and Alton stood up and walked towards the exit without saying a word. Otto grabbed Bea''s arm tightly and followed after the two, not leaving enough time for her to speak with Vicky. Just as they stepped out of the room, Bea caught her daughter''s eyes glancing at her. Tears welled inside there, and she mouthed a few words, bringing a small hopeful smile to Bea''s face. Soon, only Vicky''s group and two Stellars remained in the room. Antal still seemed deep in thought, not caring about anyone else. He continued sitting in his place, while Elizabeth stood up and walked before her son. "You got my message, it seems!" She said, forcing out an awkward smile. Henry tried keeping eye contact, but the control of his emotions started slipping. He needed to look away before he did something he might regret. "Yes, we did! Thank you, your Majesty, for the heads up! We owe you one!" Vicky said, taking Elizabeth''s attention away from her son. The Queen was surprised to see how little emotion showed on Vicky''s face. Even after seeing her mother''s state, she held her perfect discipline... Like a true leader! "Could I perhaps use the favor now? If it isn''t much trouble, of course!" Vicky raised an eyebrow in confusion, then shrugged while saying... "Sure I guess. But nothing too extraordinary!" A small smile spread across the Queen''s lips. She turned away from the Princess and stared down at her son. Her dark golden eyes pierced into Henry, making him squirm under her mother''s gaze. "I want nothing more than to have a chat with my son alone! Could you accomplish that, Princess Victoria?" The Princess pursed her lips, while looking between the Queen and her son. Her narrowed white eyes gazed deep into the woman, trying to glimpse any malicious intent behind her cunning smile. "Only if Henry agrees. I''m not his slave master to order him around! In fact, he''s older than me, so he can make decisions on his own!" Elizabeth didn''t quite like Vicky''s answer. She hoped the young girl would simply order her son to have a chat. However, she knew her hopes were misplaced, since Vicky would never force anyone to do something they didn''t want to. The Queen sighed sadly, already prepared for Henry''s disappointing answer... "Okay, mother... I accept!" He said, shocking the Queen of London to her core. Chapter 365: Mother and Son Henry and his mother walked away from the conference room, leaving Vicky chatting with Antal. Deep down, Henry felt worry about his girlfriend, but currently his mind couldn''t focus on anything other than Elizabeth. The tall woman changed little since the last time they met. Her long, blonde hair fell down to her back, glistening under the corridor''s artificial light. Her piercing dark golden eyes stared forward, desperately avoiding her son''s presence. They walked in silence, which became awkward near immediately. Henry had no intention of beginning the conversation with his mother, which forced Elizabeth to take the first step and break the uncomfortable atmosphere. "You became taller, and more muscular... You must''ve inherited Valerie''s genes with your body. But at least you received my beauty!" Henry snorted at her mother''s attempt at lightening the mood. Out of his two mothers, people always considered Valerie as the less beautiful. She was tall, 2,4 meters, and muscular, which looked esthetically pleasing, but not quite the regular feminine beauty Elizabeth possessed. He also inherited Valerie''s dark blue eyes, while his golden hair came from Elizabeth. "Are you saying Valerie isn''t beautiful?" He asked with a cheeky smile, causing Elizabeth to stumble in her step. The Queen coughed in embarrassment, while trying to wish away the heavy blush from her face. "What?! Of course not! She is the best, hottest woman in the Universe!..." While her mother went on a rant, why Valerie was the best, Henry laughed hysterically. It took Elizabeth an entire minute to realize that Henry''s words weren''t serious. By that time, the blush persistently deepened, to her utter dismay. "You little bastard! I thought I raised you better than to make fun of your parent!" There was no malicious intent behind her words. Even though they sounded cruel, Henry didn''t take offense at all. Instead, he used this opportunity to make another remark. "Bastard, eh? Did you cheat on her? That''s why I''m a bastard?... Don''t tell me I was born outside of marriage!" Elizabeth just rolled her eyes and sighed deeply. "You know you weren''t actually conceived, right? And yes, technically you were born outside our marriage, since neither of us gave birth!" Henry''s laughter stopped as he recalled her mothers telling him about his ''birth''. For the longest time, humans struggle to find a solution to same gender reproduction. They made facilities where you can adopt children, or you can even impregnate a random woman, basically paying for a baby. However, in the Old World, they perfected genealogy. They could edit a person''s looks even before birth, by changing their DNA. Even after birth, and during adulthood, anyone could''ve changed their gender. They could also reproduce with the new organ. These technologies either didn''t work, or were lost during the Apocalypse. It took years to gather enough information and hire the right doctors. With their help, they finally achieved their dream by having Henry. The doctors changed Elizabeth''s egg, so it could facilitate what a man''s reproductive organ produces. They then took out one of Valerie''s eggs and made Henry inside the lab. They used a machine, which facilitated a woman''s womb. This was necessary, since putting the inseminated egg into either mother could''ve brought unknown complications. When two Evolved have a child, they become part of the mother''s essence flow for nine months. That''s why most child born from Evolved parents are Evolved as well, inheriting the parents'' abilities. This, although amazing for raising a powerful populace, it also made every Evolved semi-infertile. The reason the doctors didn''t place Henry back into either mother, because it would''ve killed him instantly. The outside conception also meant the fetus was a regular fetus. A Stellar''s or even worse, and Ethereal''s essence flow would''ve destroyed the fetus instantly. At least that''s what the doctors believed, and neither mother wanted to chance it. Sadly, this meant Henry wasn''t born as an Evolved, but that didn''t stop him from achieving the status! They continued to walk in silence, but the awkwardness lifted from between them. A few minutes later, they arrived in a random, cozy lounge room, where they sat on the sofas facing each other. Near immediately after seating themselves, Henry stared into her mother''s dark golden eyes, and spoke... "So, what did you want to talk about?" Elizabeth took a deep breath. Her eyes kept jumping all over the place, trying to avoid gazing into her son''s dark blue, judging eyes. It was clear the Queen struggled to say her next words, and Henry soon understood why. "I wanted to apologize for how we parted ways... I''ve said many awful things that I didn''t mean... I also sorry for not contacting you for nearly two years, but you know me... I''m quite stubborn... I understand if you don''t forgive me, but... I just wanted to get this off my chest..." Henry stared at her mother with mouth agape. Tears welled in the woman''s eyes, and finally she forced herself to stare at her son''s surprised expression. "Are you dying or something?" He blurted out before he could''ve reconsidered. The sadness and regret left Elizabeth''s eyes, and only confusion remained. A small frown grew on her face as she narrowed her eyes at her son. "No. I''m quite healthy actually, since I''m a Stellar... But why do you ask?" The young teenager looked away with a heavy blush as he realized how insensitive his words sounded. Especially when her mother was in such a vulnerable state. "Uh... Nothing... It''s just... You never actually apologized to anyone throughout my life... Even when you clearly done something wrong, you just brushed it off... It''s strange you took accountability for your actions!" After hearing her son''s words, a series of emotions went down on Elizabeth''s face. At first she became offended, then thoughtful, and finally regretful. "You are right... I never felt the reason to apologize, because of my position and nature. But since I plan to change a lot of things around here, I''ll just add my personality to that long list!" They both chuckled a bit, then afterward, they stayed silent for a moment. When their emotions calmed down a bit, Henry glanced up and smiled at her mom. "I forgive you, by the way... I''ve forgiven you for a long time now... I just wanted you to contact me first, but you never did... Anyway, let''s not talk about the past anymore, and instead strive for a better future! So, what did you actually wanted to talk about?" Elizabeth chuckled at her son''s bluntness and incredible perception. He was always great at reading people''s real thoughts, even when they could hide it amazingly, like Elizabeth did. "You are correct, as always! I wanted to apologize for my mistakes, but I also wanted something else from this meeting... Something that would make both your and Princess Victoria''s lives easier!" Henry leaned back on the sofa, his expression changing serious... "I''m listening." ... Back in the conference room, Vicky happily engaged in an educational conversation about leadership with Antal. The handsome Stellar had some seriously backward ideas about freedom, but throughout their conversation, he seemed to get more interested in Vicky''s theocratic leadership. "...But isn''t that unethical? You simply placed yourself as a leader of your religion, which gave you control over all the Angelic Order''s city-states... Isn''t that the exact same as deciding to be a dictator or a king?" Vicky smiled at the grown man, as a parent would smile at their curious child... It was quite humiliating, but Antal didn''t even notice, as he seemed too absorbed in the interesting conversation. "I understand it seems like it, but believe me, I didn''t choose this job... In fact, I would be much happier if someone else took my place! I don''t think if you''ve noticed, but I''m a thirteen-year-old girl! I would rather go to school and play with my friends, instead I''m stuck leading a war!" Antal raised his eyebrows in surprise and looked Vicky up and down once. The realization only hit him now. Because of Henry''s homeschooling about speech patterns, word fluctuations, and increasing her vocabulary, Vicky easily spoke like any adult. She also gave quite a few speeches to the masses, so her young voice seemed full of wisdom, her words holding a lot more meaning. When Antal finally noticed how young she looked, he felt a bit embarrassed, but continued the conversation. "I understand you never intended to take control, yet here you are. Just because you don''t want it doesn''t mean you can''t reap the benefits of leadership! People often misuse their power just to make their own lives easier! A leader supposed to guide the people, not control them!" Vicky nodded in both understanding and agreement. "I agree, but elected officials can also misuse their powers! Consider this, a person can hide their real intentions until placed into power, then he can abolish the system, which can impeach them. Also, sometimes, the masses aren''t correct, so voting for a leader could yield awful results!" Antal seemed confused by her words, but at least he didn''t get offended by bashing at his favoured voting system. "Okay, think about it like this. You look down on me, because I''m not elected officially. But by proving myself, I convinced everyone I''m fit to leading, and they all accepted me, even the ones who aren''t part of the Angelic Order... Isn''t that basically unofficially voting me into power?" The handsome man looked away from Vicky, pondering on her words. While he was still thinking, Elizabeth and Henry both stepped inside the room. They seemed to resolve their differences and looked more comfortable standing by each other. Her boyfriend stepped forward to speak, but before any words could''ve left his mouth, her mother, the Queen of London, knelt down. Everyone stared at the woman, surprised, as if she lost her mind. But her dark golden eyes held perfect sanity as she looked up at Vicky. "The talk with my son led me to a single conclusion! I don''t want to be apart from him, and I don''t plan on sending him to danger alone! For this reason, today at the end of the Peacemaking Celebrations, I officially renounce by queendom, and offer London to the Angelic Order..." They all continued staring at the kneeling woman in stunned silence, while a smile grew across her face. "I only ask one thing in return... You''ll have to marry my son!" Unlike whatever Elizabeth expected to see on Vicky''s face, she never would''ve guessed the young girl would grin widely after hearing her offer. "Really? I can? That''s amazing! Aunt Cass! It seems you have to organize another wedding. I hope that''s not a problem!" A shiver went down the Queen''s spine, as if she just committed a terrible mistake, which she would regret! Chapter 366: Misunderstandings and Border Expansions Everyone stared between the Queen and the Princess in confusion. Even Henry seemed surprised by her mother''s request, since she hadn''t mentioned anything about marriage during their conversation. Vicky''s reaction, on the other hand, surprised Elizabeth as well. She seemed quite eager to start the marriage preparations immediately, even though only a minute passed since Elizabeth made the proposition. She kept on blabbering to Cass about her ideas for the wedding, not caring that her Aunt still tried to process everything. "Wait! Wait, Princess Victoria! Don''t you have anything against marrying so young? Don''t you want time to consider the offer? Why did you accept without hesitation?" Elizabeth desperately tried gaining more information about why Vicky seemed so eager. The girl had no hesitation when it came to accepting the forced marriage. Her words brought confusion to Vicky. She stared down at Elizabeth like she was dumb. "I mean, I love Henry, so why wouldn''t I want to marry him? We already spend every day together, and even sleep together! Marriage would just mean I can officially be bound to him for life! Isn''t that every girl''s dream, to be bound to their loved one?" Multiple groans echoed from the four bystanders as they shook their heads. Vicky might''ve been amazing in many ways, yet her pure mentality was still child-like. Poor girl didn''t even notice that her words could be easily misunderstood! Slowly, Elizabeth''s eyes widened as she mumbled to herself in shock. With a sudden move, she jumped to her feet and stepped towards Henry, who froze like a deer in headlights. "What did she mean by sleeping together?! You''re fifteen and she''s only thirteen, for goodness'' sake! I and Valerie taught you better, then to be with someone so young! That''s disgusting, and simply wrong!" Henry''s mouth trembled as he tried forcing words through his throat, but his shock and fear felt overwhelming under her mother''s righteous fury! Elizabeth took a deep breath after screaming at her son. She then tried using calmer, more well-mannered words to get her point across. "I understand... In your young age, I had urges too, but I never even considered someone younger or older than me!... I''m sure Victoria would accept if instead of using her, you found a classmate of your same age to... Uh... Who you can release your urges with!" Her mother''s words brought a headache to Henry and a heavy blush on his face. He tried looking away, but to the side, he only saw his friends giggling at Elizabeth''s words. She looked around with confusion, not understanding why they laughed. Again, Henry tried opening his mouth, but the embarrassment was too overwhelming for words to form. Vicky simply felt lost. She didn''t understand neither Elizabeth''s words, nor her friends'' amusement. Her eyes kept bouncing between them, yet no revelation came to her young mind. "What''s wrong? Why are you all laughing?" Asked Vicky, when she had enough of feeling confused. Sadly, her words only amused the four friends more. While their laughter increased, Elizabeth turned around, staring into Vicky''s white, annoyed eyes. A new realization dawned on the Queen, as she saw how lost Vicky was... The young girl didn''t understand what she was talking about! "Victoria... Do you know what sex is?" The white-haired girl just shook her head, still bewildered. Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief, but thinking the girl could be lying, she pried further! "Then why did you say you slept with my son?" By this point, Vicky felt that her state of confusion would stay with her for life, but she answered Elizabeth''s question, anyway. "Because I sleep with him, of course! We sleep together every night, in the same bed! He even cooks me breakfasts in the morning!" Vicky smiled widely, with love basically oozing from her eyes. Elizabeth just stared at her, finally understanding what Vicky was talking about... She meant they literally slept in the same bed... It wasn''t a euphemism for sex! It felt like years'' worth of stress had been lifted off of her shoulder. With one hand, she swiped the sweat off her forehead, and with the other, she smacked her son''s head. "You stupid child! Why didn''t you explain everything before I made a fool of myself!" Henry rubbed the back of his hand while grinning up at her embarrassed mother. "It''s your fault. You shouldn''t have expanded on the deal without discussing the new clause with me!... Anyway, when will we marry Vicky?" The young girl''s beautiful smile brightened the room as she looked up at her boyfriend. "We can do whenever you want, but I think it''s distasteful, since we just entered into a war with another continent... Let''s wait a couple of weeks at least!" Elizabeth looked between the two children, her expression fuming, her hands trembling with anger and shame. "NO!" She shouted, bringing everyone''s attention back to her. The Queen took a moment to compose herself, while taking deep breaths. "I changed my mind about my request!... I''ll still give up on London''s leadership, but you two can''t get married until both of you turn 18! And you can''t be ''intimate'' until then!... I''m too young to be a grandma yet..." She whispered the last part to herself, but her words still reached everyone''s ears, causing the small room to burst into joyous laughter. Eventually, the laughter died down, and they conversed regarding London''s new state. They had no intentions of announcing the change in leadership, but they also knew keeping such a gigantic change hidden was simply impossible. To keep up the rouse, Elizabeth will stay acting like a Queen. While the Angelic Order''s recruitment and the spreading of the religion will begin in full force. The military will also start its integration. Luckily, the new commanders and generals hadn''t made any significant progress yet, so more troops shouldn''t cause a huge issue. Even more surprising was Antal''s reaction. He stayed silent throughout the conversation, but showed a clear interest in the deal''s details. When they finished talking through everything, and were about the leave, the handsome Stellar finally spoke after hours of silence. "You know I''ve been thinking... I finally have some amount of understanding about why I was failing so much as a leader... The conversation with the Princess also enlightened me, but now that I listened to you discuss the future, I finally grasped it!" Antal stared down at his perfect hands, with no bruises or calluses. A hand of someone who never worked too hard, of someone who killed a lot for freedom, yet never grasped its true meaning... Until now! His eyes moved away from his hands and landed on Vicky''s. She held a gentle smile, hiding her deep confusion. "My view on freedom, on life, was too narrow. I never really engaged in conversation about these topics, so I never received different points of view... This was a huge mistake, as now I began to realize!" A sad smile grew on his face while he maintained eye contact. "I never had any real friends who could correct these mistakes. Before I knew it, dozens of yes-men surrounded me, agreeing to whatever I said, just to get ahead in life, or keep their miserable, high position in society..." Elizabeth sighed with understanding and compassion. This was a similar situation she found herself in after Henry left. People flocked to her in disguise. They offered a helping hand, yet tried bleeding her dry from everything, like positions, money, status, power. Luckily, she figured out soon enough, and managed to keep them away, which raised another, even sadder problem... She found herself alone, with no friends or family to support her... It already wasn''t easy to be a Queen, but doing it alone felt worse than anything. Her loneliness became overwhelming, but her stubborn side refused to try contacting Henry. This push and pull of her mind nearly made her go insane. She was already near the edge when Otto contacted her and provided an opportunity to make amends with her son. Otto might be a two-faced, abusive piece of shit, but in a strange way, he saved Elizabeth from insanity! She felt something similar was happening with Antal. The Stellar leader of Buda-Pest never had any friends or companions. He always worked alone, since nobody ever seemed fit for his narrow view of the world. He led the city-state since the Apocalypse, so if Elizabeth felt so lonely after two, just how bad Antal must feel? The pain in his eyes told everything Elizabeth needed to know about his state of mind... The man seemed desperate, but deep down below the depression, hopeful light glinted in his light purple eyes. It seemed Vicky noticed the same glimmer. She sat a bit farther away, so her hand moved through a portal and exited near Antal''s. Her small hand gently touched his. A shiver went through his body, as if nobody in a long time made such a genuine and kind gesture towards him. "What do you mean, you never had real friends? Then what am I, Antal? A mere acquaintance? I believed we had a great conversation and considered you a friend! Did you not think of me in such a way?" Vicky''s firm, yet tender, voice calmed Antal down, and her words brought a wide smile to his face. He even blushed a bit, which on such a handsome face could''ve attracted even the straightest man! Eventually, Antal''s eyes turned away from Vicky''s hand. As a lone tear went down his handsome cheeks, the man stared into her white eyes with a serious expression. "You are my friend, and as a friend I hope you can help me... I''ve led Buda-Pest for thirty years! I never even experienced life outside of being a leader... Help me achieve this dream by taking care of my city!" Chapter 367: Sleepy Thea Antal stayed true to his word, and along with London, Buda-Pest also joined the Angelic Order. Two of Europe''s most prosperous and populous city-states finally came under their control. The two cities had close to two hundred million residents. They also had strong, capable, and battle-tested armies. As predicted, they managed to keep this information hidden for a day or two. The Angelic Order received some public backlash, especially from Buda-Pest. The people believed Vicky somehow forced both Elizabeth and Antal to give away their cities. Even after the two leaders gave their speeches about this being their own decision, everyone ignored them, and continued causing trouble for the Angelic Order''s full integration. After nearly a week passed, Vicky, Henry and Elizabeth came up with a solution. The past Queen''s people didn''t want to accept Vicky as their new leader, since she had no connection to their chosen Queen. With this in mind, and to Elizabeth''s dismay, the regal couple officially announced their engagement. They told the public about their plans to get married after the war''s end. However, they conveniently failed to mention how long after the war''s end would they get married. Even though Vicky tried, but Elizabeth hadn''t relented about becoming 18 years old beforehand. As punishment and to annoy the past Queen, Vicky began calling her soon-to-be mother-in-law. Her plan worked a little too well, and now she isn''t allowed to address Elizabeth directly. Everyone made this decision unanimously, after Elizabeth got so annoyed, she nearly beat up Vicky. A hectic week has passed since the attempted kidnapping on May 12th. Everyone had their jobs in directing and leading. Mary, James and Vicky tried opening the Gates to connect every city-state, but they ran into newfound problems, which halted their progress. Henry still struggled with managing the new army. Some Transcended grew cocky and tried asking him for commander rank, so in turn he beat them all up. Nobody gave any more complaints after that. The two armies of the newly gained city-states'' integration was a struggle on its own. Luckily, the appointed generals and commanders carried most of the burden. They did an amazing job, coordinating such enormous forces. In under a week, they made noticeable progress. Otherwise, the week felt peaceful. Asia stayed silent during this time, which felt like a small blessing considering the state of the Angelic Order''s army. Melinda and a few others travelled back to their outposts, keeping everything in order. The eastern outposts were especially susceptible to attacks. They already moved farther away from the Asian city-states, but their position still felt precarious. They reported strange attacks and deaths, which is why Melinda went to investigate. Soon after she left, other outposts began making similar reports, and not only from the East. North, South, and even West encountered inexplicable deaths, and weird behaviour when it comes to monsters. Lucy and a few others left on May 18th, and now everyone curiously awaited their report. As the week ended, Vicky found herself in an abundance of free time. Henry and everyone else continued working tirelessly, but she couldn''t do much in terms of management. She also didn''t want to play while everyone worked, so she decided to continue her studies of war and combat. Vicky teleported to Thea''s family house. Like last time, she politely stayed outside the gate and pressed the nearby ring bell. However, there was something Vicky only realized after pressing the button. Unlike last time, she forgot to message ahead and ask Thea if she was available to teach her. It was also early in the morning. The sun hung low near the horizon, while the bitter morning breeze gently moved the bright green leaves of nearby trees. Immediately after Vicky pressed the button, an annoyed voice came through the nearby speaker. "Stayed your identity and reason for arrival!" The voice sounded feminine, bored, and monotone. Its owner acted like Vicky''s mere presence was an offence of the highest degree. "Uh... I''m Thea''s friend!... I might''ve forgotten to call ahead. Could you tell her Vicky wants to see her?" When Vicky''s cheerful, girlish voice reached the security guard''s ears, she burst into laughter. "Get lost, kid. Lady Thea is still asleep, and I don''t have a death wish to wake her up!" The woman''s voice became more awake, but stayed just as rude! Since she didn''t want to let Vicky in, two options remained open for her. She either messaged Thea, hoping she would answer instantly, or she could teleport in, which would lead to immediate results. Suddenly, as thoughts passed through Vicky''s mind, she noticed a camera staring at her above the gate. With a thoughtful expression, she decided to try one last time with the security guard before doing anything drastic. "Uh... Miss Security Guard? I will leave, but before I do, could you look at me with the camera above the gate?... I think my face will convince you more than any word I could say!" Through the speaker, Vicky heard the woman''s annoyed, almost angry sigh. The security guard didn''t say anything else for a few moments, then Vicky heard a barely audible... "Shit..." The white-haired girl stared into the camera, while smiling gently and waving. The security guard said nothing, but soon the gate began opening. While Vicky watched the gate part ways, she heard a loud bang through the speaker. In a small room inside the mansion, a woman laid passed out near a wall full of holo-screens. Her face stayed bright red from embarrassment, even after losing consciousness. Vicky didn''t care at all, she just happily walked down the long driveway, towards the mansion. To the side, a few gardeners cut bushes into different shapes. When they saw the white-haired girl walk in a long, flowing dress resembling the night sky, they all fell to their knees, while staring at the ground. The Princess just smiled at their show of respect and moved along towards the mansion''s main entrance. She walked up the few dozen steps before reaching the large double doors. There she stopped and gently tapped the metal knocker on the door. Mild bangs resounded inside the mansion, and soon a pair of footsteps approached. The hefty door opened on silent hinges, and a lone maid stood in the doorway. She was about the same height as Vicky, maybe a bit taller, so their eyes met near instantly. The maid needed less than a second to recognize Vicky. Her breath caught in her throat, and she quickly fell to her knees, trembling as dozens of different emotions overwhelmed her body. "Good morning! I came to see Thea, but I was told she''s still asleep! Could I wait inside the mansion, or should I come back later?" The poor maid couldn''t even bring her emotions under control. Vicky''s words made everything worse. The woman nearly burst into tears at how respectful the Princess was. As a powerful Transcended, she could''ve entered without regard to anybody. As Princess, nobody could''ve ordered her to leave. Yet, she didn''t enter without permission, and even offered to leave! The maid tried to find her words, but it was just a futile struggle. At some point, she just wished the Princess would enter and leave her be, however instead Vicky stood above her, looking concerned. "Are you alright, Miss Maid? You look a bit pale." The Princess''s calm, kind, girlish voice, combined with a bit of worry, finally overwhelmed the poor maid entirely, and she passed out. Surprised, Vicky reached down to check on the maid, when another pair of fast footsteps approached, as if someone was running. Thea suddenly appeared from one of the corridors. She wore a white nightdress, her long, disheveled golden hair stood in every direction, while her sleepy, silver eyes barely registered Vicky''s presence. "What are you doing here so early in the morning... And why haven''t you messaged me beforehand!" The sleepy girl''s voice sounded annoyed and tired. She kept reaching up to wipe her eyes, while constantly tried suppressing her yawns. Vicky looked away from Thea with shame evident on her face. "Sorry, I forgot... I just have a lot of free time, and decided to do something productive... I became too excited with the thought of learning more, and hurried here... But it''s clear you aren''t in the mood to teach me, so I''ll message you later..." With a sad, ashamed expression, Vicky turned back towards the garden and teleported away. It took Thea an embarrassingly long few seconds to register Vicky''s words. When she finally did, her face went pale and terror gripped her heart. She glanced at the unconscious maid, who, after waking up, would definitely tell her mother about the Princess''s arrival. "Then she will question me about her whereabouts! And she''ll know I chased her away!... Fuck... Fuck!... FUCK!" As fast as she could, Thea ran up to her room, got dressed, brushed her unruly hair, and messaged the Princess. ''Thea: I''m sorry for lashing out at you! I was still grumpy for being awakened from my sleep. I''m also easily annoyed in the morning! I''d love to teach you, if you still want to, of course!'' She sent away the message, and a few seconds later, Thea felt a slight a slight breeze touch her neck. "That''s great, and will we finally fight?" Said Vicky''s cheerful, excited voice from behind Thea. She breathed a sigh of relief, and silently thanked Vicky for being such a forgiving person. Upon turning around, Thea couldn''t hide the small smile forming on her lips. The young Princess grinned up at her, excitedly awaiting her next words. "No, we won''t fight either. Today I''ll teach you about the Principles of Combat!" Chapter 368: Principles of Combat They soon moved outside of Thea''s room, to the same spot below the giant oak. The bitter morning air felt especially awful for Thea, but she hid her discomfort. In reality, she feared Vicky would ask them to go inside, and that''s something Thea would hate. It''s already bad how her mother would act around the Princess. It''s even worse with Yvonne. Her eldest sibling nearly beat up Thea after hearing what she had done. Even after Vicky''s initial humiliation of her sister, Yvonne''s dedication in the Angelic Order only grew stronger. Luzia''s hour-long screaming and scolding of her daughter brought about this change in her attitude. For the past week, Yvonne constantly asked when will their next lesson be, so she could properly apologize. Sadly, her mother and sister weren''t the only overenthusiastic people. Her two brothers and father also became a menace when together. With her crazy family in mind, Thea opted to stay away from the mansion, even if it meant suffering in the cold. Vicky also didn''t mind, since she loved the fresh air and the beautiful open space. It calmed her mind while helping her focus on Thea''s teachings. First, Vicky repeated everything Thea taught her about the Essence of Combat. Surprisingly, Vicky remembered perfectly to Thea''s every word. This made the sleepy girl remember all those times when Vicky failed in school. A few times she even miswrote her name, yet when it came to combat, the young Princess had a perfect memory! Thea didn''t know whether to celebrate her teaching capabilities, or cry in despair for Vicky''s laziness! "Okay, great, so you paid attention! Now we can move onto our next lesson, Principles of Combat! What do you think this subject entails?" Vicky looked up at the tree''s long branches, stretching towards the clear blue sky. Loose green leaves landed around them as the wind danced with the tall oak. "Well, judging by the word ''principle'', it''s about the foundations of combat, or in other words, the rules of combat!" A small, gentle smile stretched across Thea''s face as she leaned back towards the tree''s trunk. "Pretty much so... My mother taught me and my siblings the five Principles. These are all important facts to remember while fighting to the death, or simply training with someone!" As the wind played with her long golden hair, her piercing silver eyes landed on Vicky''s white, curious ones. "Every Principle has a specific number, but none is more important than the rest. Depending on the scenario, some can gain more significance than others. However, never forget about any of them!" After finishing, Thea stood up, then reached down and helped the Princess to her feet. "Come, let''s walk around while I tell you about each Principle!" Vicky was unsure why Thea suddenly decided to take a walk, but she felt too invested in the current subject to care. They walked down the small hill, away from the large oak. Not far off, they headed inside a well-maintained garden. Beautiful flowers bloomed left and right, bringing an abundance of color to the greenery. Within the garden, a few carved statues and flowing fountains made everything more elegant. After nearly a minute of silence, Thea knelt down next to a few pink flowers and smelled them gently. "So, Princess... I mean, Vicky... Can you guess the First Principle?" Vicky watched as bees zipped around the flowers, collecting pollen. After a few thoughtful seconds, she just shrugged and guessed. "I''m not sure. Maybe ''don''t kill innocents''?" Thea chuckled at Vicky''s shy voice, and she glanced behind at the young Princess. "Pretty good guess, but no, it''s a bit more complex than that!... The First Principle of Combat is pretty simple: ''Only kill when necessary''!" She gave Vicky time to process her words before continuing. Silently, they walked along the garden and stopped before a statue of Seraphine. The Goddess''s design seemed much more artistic than realistic. It depicted Sera in her armor, standing straight with her glaive in hand. Sera''s statue made her seem like a regal and just ruler, but also a powerful fighter. As the sun''s rays landed on the statue, a slight glow appeared around it, like a halo of light. Only then did Vicky notice the well-placed mirrors around the sculpture, creating the illusory holy glow. While gazing at the statue, Thea elaborated on the First Principle. "Only kill when necessary. Sounds easy. However, it''s much more complicated than you would initially think!..." Vicky''s face brimmed with curiosity and confusion, while listening to Thea''s words, not fully grasping their meaning. "When stepping into a fight, a lot of times you decide if someone lives or dies. You should only draw a weapon with the intention of possibly killing your opponent!..." "Death is a necessary part of life, however in battle we can control it. Just because someone''s your enemy doesn''t mean their life has to end! Your opponents don''t have to die for you to become victorious!" Absentmindedly, Vicky nodded while staring up at her mother''s helmeted face. They soon moved away from the statue, in a much more somber mood. "But what if I can''t decide? If I don''t have the power or time to leave my opponent alive?" Asked Vicky, in a small, shy voice. Thea frowned down at the Princess. They finally reached the most important part of this training... "It''s simple really... Then you have to take their life! Sometimes you can''t decide who lives and dies, which means you have to kill!..." "It will be awful, and you will feel disgusted by yourself, but you remember that this is war! In war people die, a lot of times by your own hand!... However, every time you kill someone, remember the Second Principle: ''Never fight emotionally''!" While walking, they stopped near another statue. This one depicted Sera standing atop a dead monster, wearing her civilian clothes. Her glaive stayed inside the beast below her feet. The wind blew her golden hair to the side. However, even as an angel of death, her face stayed serene, emotionless. Again, Thea left some time for Vicky to process her words, but soon she continued elaborating on the Second Principle. "In the heat of battle, emotion could easily be your demise. Never fall for insults, since anger will distract you! Never become overjoyed when defeating a strong opponent! Most importantly, never, ever dare letting your guard down!" While talking, Thea pointed at Sera''s statue. "Our Goddess, your mother also fought emotionlessly, with pure logic and strategy. She hadn''t lost a single battle, and eventually won the War of Three Alliances because of her attitude!" Thea looked at the statue, especially proudly, and Vicky didn''t want to break her bubble of illusion. What most people, including Thea, never realized was that Sera''s emotionlessness didn''t come from a conscious decision, or show of superiority. It was more of a curse bestowed upon her by the splitting of her soul. This, of course, didn''t change the truth of Thea''s words, though. Engaging in combat while your emotions aren''t under proper control was a weakness! It just made everything funnier in Vicky''s eyes. However, she kept her fun to herself, and hid her real emotions behind a mask of curiosity and intrigue. "Anyway, I think the Second Principle is the most self-explanatory, so let''s move onto the Third!" In silence, they walked to another statue, which yet again depicted Sera in a different state. The Goddess stared down at a fresh corpse with her head bowed. Her face absorbed in a solemn, almost respectful expression. Blood covered her civilian clothing and dripped along the length of her blade. The corpse knelt before Sera, his eyes calm and peaceful. He clutched his wounded chest with one hand, while reached towards the Goddess with the other. As if he wanted to grasp the angel, to carry him into heaven! This statue felt especially holy. Also, unlike the previous two statues, Sera had her pristine white wings tucked behind her back. "The Third Principle: ''Respect your opponent, never look down on your enemy''." Thea sounded less enthusiastic to talk about this Principle. There was some pain hidden in her silver eyes, but Vicky didn''t pry. Instead she listened to every word of her friends, taking her advice to heart. "Don''t ever fight your opponent like you''re better than them. Always give it your all, so nobody could catch you off-guard... War isn''t a joke, and you should never play with a weaker opponent, since it takes one lucky cut to end your, or someone else''s life!" For a few minutes, Thea hadn''t said a word, but Vicky noticed her inner struggle. Slowly, she reached up and gently touched her hand, providing silent support for her friend. Initially, Thea felt surprised, but then a small smile crawled onto her face, taking over her sad expression. "I led people in the last war, but I wasn''t a great leader. I left my soldiers to fight against an enemy Ascended, who I managed to kill... Sadly, I made the mistake of taking my time with him... In the meantime, most of my soldiers died..." A lone tear escaped Thea''s eyes as she reached out and touched her Goddess''s statue. "There is something you need to remember. It isn''t one of the Principles, but it''s just as important!" Her gaze drifted away from the Sera statue and landed on Vicky''s kind, white eyes. Just glancing into those eyes brought a gentle smile to Thea''s face. However, she pushed away any emotion, and spoke in a reflective voice. "Never take pride in killing someone... Killing is inherently wrong... Every time you take a life, a piece of your humanity gets abolished... If you ever feel like some lives have no worth, then do the world a favor and kill yourself!" Chapter 369: Coward or Survivor "...then do the world a favor and kill yourself!" Thea''s words were harsh, but she showed no malice while speaking. Her voice stayed even and without emotion. Vicky didn''t take offense either. Instead, she turned towards her mother''s statue, while thinking through the meaning behind Thea''s words. It took only a few minutes for her to fully grasp its meaning. If you kill too much, then life itself will become worthless. At that point, each death caused by your hand will lose its significance. No matter how many lives will stand in your way, it''s a price you are willing to pay! When you''re so far gone, it''s better to die, then live on causing misery to others! They stayed standing near the statue for a few more minutes, before silently moving onto the next. Along the way, though, a pair of footsteps approached them from behind, and Thea''s worst fears came true as the newcomer''s voice reached their ears. "Good morning, Little Sis! Good morning, Princess Victoria! How are the lessons going?" The two girls turned around quickly. Vicky held a small, calm smile, while Thea seemed more annoyed than happy. The newcomer was none other than Thea''s only sister, Yvonne! Her mid-back length metallic gray hair stayed in a neat ponytail, so only a few loose locks danced in the morning breeze. A pair of similar colored eyes gazed into the Princess''s own. The tall woman held the same smile as Vicky, while waiting for her answer. She wore nothing but a black tank top with long skintight pants and a pair of running boots. Her outfit left nothing to the imagination, showcasing all her beautiful assets and powerful body. Thea wore training clothes too, but she had much more layers to keep out the morning''s cold. While staring up at her sister, she really didn''t understand how she wasn''t freezing! However, then she recalled what Vicky was wearing. A long, flowing dress colored like the night sky... To Thea''s knowledge, there was nothing below the dress, and she could clearly see that the Princess wore no shoes! A shiver went down Thea''s spine, just by thinking of these two warm-blooded idiots! "Pretty good, we already talked about the first three Principles! Now Thea planned on explaining the Fourth! Want to join us? You might provide some insight into her teachings!" Yvonne narrowed her eyes at Vicky''s generous offer. She couldn''t decide if the Princess only invited her to be polite, or if she actually wanted to hear her opinion. The young girl just held her kind smile, which hid all her emotions perfectly! Thea stood a step behind Vicky and shook her head from side-to-side. Her communications had the opposite effect on Yvonne, though! When she saw her little sister desperately trying to send her away, the tall woman grinned, which instantly deflated Thea. "Well, if the Princess asks, I will graciously accept the invitation!" She said, while bowing deeply from the waist. She placed one hand on her voluptuous chest and she held the other straight on the side. The three of them soon walked on towards the fourth statue. It depicted Sera wearing her usual golden armor. With her glaive, she gracefully beheaded multiple opponents at once, making a perfect cut through their neck. Thea took a deep breath while looking at the statue, then, with hidden annoyance, she continued their conversation. "So, the Fourth Principle: ''While fighting aim for precision and speed, brutality is forbidden''! Strangely enough, this Principle is what most Evolved struggle with, including you Vicky and even my Big Sister here!" Yvonne just shrugged with a sly smile. She felt not even a hint of shame when hearing her sister''s words. "What can I say? I like to destroy! When you kill someone with enough bravado, all their comrades give up fighting entirely!..." The tall woman grinned widely. Then, impossibly fast, her expression became somber as she stared into Vicky''s white, curious eyes. "This doesn''t mean you should do the same, Princess. I can fight both with extreme precision and devastating brutality! They are both tools, which I use when the situation requires it!" Thea looked at her sister with a raised eyebrow. She didn''t expect her to say anything productive during the conversation, however, her words had great merit! "I actually agree with Yvonne! Our mother taught us that brutality is overkill when fighting, but it has its usage!... Not for you though, Vicky! First, you''ll learn to fight with a chosen weapon, then we''ll work on techniques to use with your ability!" Suddenly, a wide grin spread across Vicky''s face, which surprised Thea. She hadn''t even noticed how big of a mistake she made! "Can I choose my weapon? Really?" The younger sister facepalmed, while the elder happily derailed their previous conversation, to the topic she excelled in... Weapons! "Of course you can! I''ll even help you! I don''t know if you''ve heard, but one of my abilities is that I''m a master of every type of weapon!... The only limiting factor is your own ability to make them!" Yvonne used a mocking voice, as if doubting Vicky''s ability to create weapons. She herself, however, only grew curious. Never before did she try creating weapons or armor from her power, since she never needed to. Also, after Evolving into a Transcended, and changing into an Unknown, her watch stopped showing ability descriptions. Maya¡ªthe green-haired teenager who knew a lot about watch coding¡ªrigged her up with a makeshift watch made with her mother''s silvery metal. It displayed basic information, like her name and essence count, but nothing else! As Vicky''s curiosity grew, she held out her hand and imagined summoning a sword. A bright light appeared in her palm, but instead of a sword, only a beautiful, intricate dagger appeared. It was longer than any usual daggers, with its blade about twenty-five centimeters long, plus a ten centimeter handle. The dagger felt extremely light, and with each small move it seemed to disturb the space surrounding its heavenly blade, which resembled the night sky in color, just like her dress. Both Yvonne and even Thea stared down at the blade, full of intrigue. The elder sister reached forward to touch its surface, however, before her finger could''ve reached it, the younger one stopped her. She said nothing, just reached down and plucked a flower out of the ground. Thea then carefully dropped it on the blade. The flower fell on the dagger''s flat area and entered the night-sky-like blade. It fell out on the other side, cut to tiny pieces. "Well, I''m glad you stopped me from touching it, Little Sis... I think... I think for now, you should put the dagger away Princess! You should focus on the last Principle, since that''s important even in my opinion!" Vicky nodded and dismissed her strange dagger. Together they walked on in silence, towards the fifth and last statue! This one depicted Sera flying away from a horde of monsters, her body covered in wounds, yet her face remained serene and beautiful. "I know these statues are depicting scenarios made up by mom, however this one is simply ridiculous! The Angel Monarch never ran from any battle and even died while fighting multiple times!" Yvonne''s outrage was met by a curt nod from her younger sister. "Yeah, I do agree that choosing our Goddess for representing the last Principle wasn''t the best choice by mom... She never ran from any battles! In fact, she did the opposite, fighting even when the situation was hopeless!" Before they could''ve ridiculed the statue more, Vicky glanced at them with a grin. "Actually, you''re both wrong! My mom did run away once! It was on New Year''s Eve, two years ago!..." Vicky began telling them the story, while explaining Sera''s split soul and the fight between them. Upon reaching the end, both siblings stared at her with a pale face and wide eyes. "Wait! What happened to the Scarred Seraphine? Did she die when the Angel Monarch Evolved into a Transcended?" The young Princess just snorted at Yvonne''s words, but didn''t explain more. She didn''t trust them enough to reveal everything, and both girls understood that as well. After a momentary silence, Thea stepped forward and introduced the Fifth Principle. "So even our Goddess knew the merit in the Fifth Principle... Interesting! ''Running away is better than dying for no reason''! That''s the last Principle!" Compared to the previous four, the last one needed no elaborate explanation. It simply meant that often times surviving was better than dying without purpose. Vicky nodded in understanding, however Yvonne had her own opinions about the last Principle! "I think anyone who runs away from a fight is a coward! The strongest steel is forged in the hottest of flames, so you have to suffer in order to achieve greatness!" Thea pursed her lips and stared into her sister''s metallic gray eyes with annoyance. "You''re an idiot, Yvonne, and your analogy is stupid. Metal might be forged in hot temperatures, however constantly increasing the heat will melt any weapon! You need to periodically cool the weapon in order to make the best steel!" The older sister just snorted at her sibling''s well-thought out argument. She then turned towards Vicky and asked, "What do you think, Princess?" Vicky glanced between the two sisters, their silver and gray eyes full of curiosity. "I think circumstance dictates action! There are times when you can''t run, and there are times when self preservation is your only option! You could be either a coward or a survivor, depending on the reason for your retreat!" Chapter 370: News From the Outposts Both sisters stared at Vicky, baffled by her wisdom. They then glanced at each other, bursting into laughter simultaneously. "Well, I guess you''re right! Who knew someone so young would have such an interesting perspective!..." Yvonne''s praise ended abruptly, as something seemingly popped into her head, ruining her mood. She looked away with embarrassment and spoke in a tiny, barely audible voice. "I just remembered why I came here in the first place... My mother asked me to apologize again for my behavior last week... Also, she wanted you to punish me in some way!" Vicky stared at the tall woman in confusion, while Thea just sighed sadly. Luzia was always a righteous woman, with a perfectly clear moral compass. Her sense of justice also stayed clear, and she punished everyone to equal standards, including her children! "I don''t really want to punish you, but I do need someone to teach me fighting, so I guess that could be your punishment..." A large grin twisted onto Yvonne''s lips, but before she could''ve accepted, Thea interrupted. "That wouldn''t be much of a punishment, since Yvonne loves sparring! Think of something else, Vicky. Is there some unpleasant task you need completing? Or maybe something you want to know? You can ask anything from her, and she will explain it!" Vicky glanced towards the clear sky with a thoughtful expression, while Yvonne''s eyes stared daggers into her little sister''s overjoyed, smug face. It took her a few minutes, but eventually, she recalled something Thea was supposed to teach her about. The young Princess spoke with a curious, emotionless expression. "Yvonne, are you a virgin? Have you ever had sex?" Both sisters'' eyes went wide with surprise. Yvonne even blushed from the abrupt and inappropriate question. "W-why... Why do you ask?" Said Yvonne, with struggle. Vicky raised an eyebrow at their weird reactions. She believed her question was normal and innocent, but it seemed she missed some social cues. "Aunt Cass said I need education about human reproduction, and I thought you could teach me! That''s why I asked if you''ve ever had sex, since that''s a big part of it... I think, at least!" The explanation only made Yvonne''s face turn redder, while her sister began chuckling at her sister''s misery. "Yeah, that''s a perfect punishment! I''ll leave you to it!" Said Thea, while walking towards the mansion. Yvonne just stared angrily at her sister''s back, then turned towards earnest little Victoria, and sighed sadly. "Dammit, why do I always have to run my mouth!" She silently cursed at herself, then began explaining human biology. To her utter despair, Vicky seemed interested in the subject, so they spent the next few hours talking about reproduction. ... While Vicky educated herself about intimacy, Henry sat at the dining table alone, reading reports. His untouched food had already turned cold, as his eyes widened more and more. "What... The... Fuck?! How?! That doesn''t make sense!" Similar words echoed in the room. His confusion continued to grow as he read everything. Absorbed in the reports, he failed to notice three people stepping inside the room. Eventually, after minutes of pondering, Henry turned off his silver watch''s holo-screen and looked up at the three newcomers. "Are those the reports from the outposts?" Asked Damien, while taking a seat near Henry. Lilith and Adam also done the same. Nobody else from the main group stayed in New Athens, so their gathering was awfully small. Henry glanced at Damien''s tired expression, trying to hide his gleeful smile. "Yes... How''s your wife?" Damien just sighed with exhaustion and placed his head on the wooden table... Or more like head-butted it... "Painful, and I''m not even the pregnant one! She constantly craves something weird, so I have to run errands nonstop! The baby will supposedly come in the next week... I can''t wait!" While the soon-to-be father groaned in inner pain, everyone else chuckled wholeheartedly at the table. However, once Henry glanced back at his watch, all the merriment ended, as grimness took over his face. Everyone else became silent too, and Damien lifted his head. All the exhaustion was gone from his icy-blue eyes, leaving only determination and curiosity. Henry took one deep breath and summarized the reports. "The reports are still mostly inconclusive. They tried gathering as much information as possible, however, they mostly received strange tales from the soldiers... It''s not good, that''s for sure!" While talking, he forwarded the reports to all three so they could follow along. Four people made reports altogether. Melinda from the Eastern Outposts, Asia. Lucy from the Northern Outposts, Northern Europe. Leslie from the Western Outposts, South America. David from the Southern Outposts, Antarctica. Everyone''s eyes widened as they read the reports. Each telling about weird, inexplicable incidents happening at every outpost. "Let''s start with the West, Leslie''s report... As you can all see, many soldiers experienced strange bouts of anger towards their comrades. A lot of these ended in fights breaking out. A few even beat each other to death..." "Other soldiers had the same symptoms while they were on patrol or hunting. They ruthlessly killed any monster coming their way, with no regard for self-preservation... Most of these people died in combat!" Leslie thoroughly described each event and even provided a few photos of the fights'' aftermath. "Luckily, everyone who survived made quick recovery, but strangely, none of them remember what happened, or why they attacked their friends. They just felt a need to kill and destroy... Now onto the next type of incident in the West!" They all brought up a different report, also made by Leslie. This one was less disturbing, but even weirder! "In other outposts, the soldiers reported the exact opposite... Everything seemed fine. Everyone went out on patrols, as usual. That''s when, for some reason, they laid down on the ground, peacefully. The monsters teared most apart, the few left alive got saved by a Transcended!" "They also recovered quickly, and remembered nothing about the incident, other than a strange feeling... Peace... Calm... Tranquility... Their minds totally gave up on fighting, and they all felt content lying down, even if it meant death!" Henry only told a very basic summary. Everything was more complex in reality, however, he already jumped to the next part. "David''s report from Antarctica was awfully similar, however the people experienced different feelings, and died in even stranger ways. Also, unlike South America, even regular civilians from the city-states reported similar instances!" David also provided pictures with his report, but everyone wished he hadn''t. The photos depicted bloated corpses, people who literally fucked each other to death, and a few who simply stopped breathing until they suffocated! "By the Goddess, what the fuck is happening?!" Exclaimed Lilith, while continuing reading David''s report. "Nobody knows. David reported two types of deaths, ones from indulgence, others from starvation. Some people felt extremely hungry, so they ate themselves to death. Others felt by lust, so they had sex until death..." "They acted as if a strange famine consumed their minds! They wanted nothing more than to satiate their deepest desires!" Damien nodded, then looked at Henry, concerned. "And what about the other type? How did these people suffocate?" "Those are the opposite of the famished. The few who survived told David how they felt... Prosperity... As if their bodies had plenty of resources, so they wanted to give back the air in their lungs to nature!" Next to Lilith, Adam sighed and shook his head. He already read ahead, and knew how bad things had gotten in both North and East! In the North, people experienced sudden death for seemingly no reason. Both monsters and humans died, but strangely, some of them resurrected soon after. As if life fought death for dominance. A strange plague, which quickly killed off many consumed the Eastern Outposts. Melinda managed to save a lot of people, however hundreds of Evolved still died in anguish. The ones weren''t affected by the plague, just knelt down and began praying. It didn''t matter if a monster attacked, they just continued praying. Henry introduced all this with a grim expression, then afterward stayed silent, waiting for their opinions. "Are these attacks perpetrated by the Order of the Raven? They are extremely strange, however, the timing of their attack would make sense!" Lilith and Damien nodded at Adam''s words, each feeling the same concern. Quickly, Henry''s dark blue eyes skimmed through the reports once more, and he couldn''t fail to note, yet again, how weird the attacks were. They weren''t even attacks truly, more like something passively affected the weaker Evolved''s minds. "Maybe, although I don''t think so. These attacks are random, and not very effective. If the Asian city-states wanted to destroy our outposts, they would''ve put a lot more effort into it... This is something different... Something worse!" A shiver went down their spines then they continued reading the reports. They tried finding some hidden meaning behind the attacks, however there wasn''t much to learn. For some reason, Henry''s mind kept going back to the discoveries Mary and James made in one of Harold''s labs. "Dozens of locked Gates... Beings older than humanity... The Barrier''s Maker locked them away... Bran damaged the Barrier and the locks on the Gates... Cracks big enough for creatures to slip through..." Nobody else at the table understood Henry''s mumbling, but soon he pushed away from the table and jumped to his feet. He seemingly figured something out, but instead of explaining himself, he just began furiously type on his watch. A few minutes later, he seemed to deflate, as if he just received some awful news. "Another week, huh? Dammit Professor, we need your help now!" Chapter 371: Combat Training Another two days went by quickly. Henry brought everyone up to speed about his discoveries and theories, however, they needed Professor Collins''s help to confirm anything. He travelled to Antarctica a few months ago, to learn more about the continent''s culture and history. In other terms, he was taking a vacation. The professor was already eighty-years-old, and unlike many others, he wasn''t an Evolved. With current technologies, he should survive until hundred, but that''s not a guarantee. Because of this, Henry stayed silent about everything. The impending war had already cut his vacation short, and his immediate presence was unwarranted. While everyone worked towards the upcoming war, Vicky travelled to Thea''s residence again. This time she even messaged ahead! She stepped out of the portal, and the gate immediately began opening. The young Princess felt both surprised and embarrassed. She could''ve entered so much easier last time, if she would''ve been thinking straight. In the past two days, she met up with Thea a few times. She continued explaining and expanding Vicky''s fighting knowledge, to prepare her for today... Because today, her training with Yvonne will begin! Vicky didn''t head towards the main mansion. Instead, using the map provided by Thea, she went to a smaller building at the edge of their property. The building''s door led to a bright passage underground. That''s where the gym and training area were. Curiously, the young Princess moved down the stairs. She could already hear the sound of training weapons clashing. The young girl''s excitement continued to grow as took one step after the other. The passage leading down felt unnaturally long, but upon reaching the end, she figured out why. The training hall was gigantic. The metal ceiling hung about two dozen meters above them. The square hall took up about thirty meters in length. A large dueling mat occupied the middle of the room. Yvonne and the eldest brother, Yannick, fought each other there. To the right, nearly a hundred different gym equipment collected dust. Even though they must''ve tweaked them, so more weight could be lifted, anyone above Ascended couldn''t use such machines to increase strength... When you can run close to the speed of sound, a treadmill becomes pretty useless... To the left, an unnecessarily large and very deep swimming pool and recreational areas, like saunas, took up space. Currently, Thea and the younger brother, Marko, sat there, watching their elder siblings fight... Or at least they tried to watch... Even when neither used abilities, following the fight of two Transcended, was extremely hard for even Ascended. Vicky also stared at the fight in awe, while she slowly made her way towards the younger siblings. "Good morning, Thea and Marko!" Said Vicky, not taking her eyes off the fight. Both Yvonne and Yannick used regular training swords. Their blunted metal blades were chipped so much it could be considered sharp. The physical capabilities of Transcended were truly amazing, even for Vicky. She always watched in awe as two skilled fighters dueled. However, she quickly noticed the difference between their skill level. Yannick swung his sword wide, and her elder sister moved to parry the blow, but just when the blades would''ve met, he took one step back. Somehow keeping his momentum, Yannick stabbed forward, aiming right at his sister''s chest. Yvonne, still stuck in her previous movement, couldn''t evade the blow. However, Vicky''s eyes widened even more as the tall woman grinned at her brother. While mid parry, Yvonne let go of her sword. Her other hand caught its blade before it even moved an inch. With the newly gained control, she deflected her brother''s weapon, then kicked him in the ribs. Yannick went flying at least ten meters into the air until he eventually hit the training hall''s metal wall, leaving a clear indent on its surface. Only now did Vicky notice they made the entire room from metal. She also noticed how chipped and broken the metal was in some places... Transcended training wasn''t an indoor sport! Vicky winced as Yannick''s crumpled fell towards the ground, but while falling, he turned and landed back on his feet. A laugh escaped the lanky man''s lips as blood dripped from the side of his mouth. "Well, sister... I think that''s enough for today... I''ve broken enough bones, and your new pupil is here!... Good morning, Princess!" Yannick bowed from the waist elegantly. Even as sweat and bruises covered most of his naked chest, he showed as much decorum as possible. "Good morning, Yannick!" Vicky smiled widely at the tall man, and couldn''t help but wonder why he kept his eyes closed. As her voice echoed loudly in the hall, both Thea and Marko yelped in surprise. Even though she greeted them after arrival, they were too absorbed in the fight to notice her presence. Soon they all exchanged greetings, and after a few minutes of chatting, both brothers left them alone... Or more like Yvonne ordered them away... Since this will be Vicky''s first training session, she didn''t want anyone to make her uncomfortable. When they left, Vicky turned towards the sisters, with a wide grin, excitement evident on her face. "What should I do first?" She asked, while trying to contain herself. Thea and Yvonne glanced at each other, then looked at the young Princess''s clothing with judgmental eyes. She wore her usual, night sky colored dress, which wasn''t exactly suited for fighting practice. "Thea, could you give the Princess something better for training?" Before Yvonne even finished her sentence, Thea was already walking away towards the training hall''s changing room. They had multiple training clothes prepared for anyone. While she was away, Vicky glanced down at her dress in confusion. She couldn''t understand the problem with her clothing. "In combat, everything matters. You have to pay attention to every minute detail in order to survive! A flowing dress could get caught on something, and could even block your own movement if your weapon gets entangled!" Vicky nodded with understanding, finally realizing her mistake. "This is why everyone wears either close-fitting uniforms or armor. Less hindrance is what everyone should strive for while fighting!" As Yvonne finished her speech, Thea arrived, carrying a tight-fitting trainer shorts and shirt. Thea opened her mouth, to tell the young Princess where the changing rooms were. However, Vicky wasted no time. Without warning, she dismissed her dress, confirming Thea''s previous hypothesis... She didn''t wear anything underneath... Both sisters turned away as quickly as possible with heavy blushes. They wanted to berate Vicky, but before either could''ve spoken, the young Princess''s joyful voice echoed. "I''m ready! What''s next? Can I choose my weapon now?" A deep, exhausted sigh escaped both sister''s lips as they turned back to Vicky. Thea just tossed her a hair tie without saying a word, then went to the nearby bench and sat down. While Vicky tied back her shoulder-length, white hair, Yvonne explained the plans for the day. "We don''t even know if you can summon any weapon other than the dagger, so for now, you won''t choose a weapon. Instead, we''ll work on general reflex and coordination training. You have to understand your body''s movement in a fight before I let you choose a weapon!" Vicky''s joyous expression went away, solemnity and calmness taking its place. She listened to Yvonne''s every word with intense seriousness. "Normally, we would use dummies until you reach a basic level. However, we lack time, and your Transcended strength would break any dummy with one hit. Instead, I''ll train you the old-fashioned way, by beating the knowledge into your body!" Fear appeared in Vicky''s white eyes as she watched an insane grin spread across her supposed teacher''s face. "Yvonne, don''t break her, please. She''s the leader of our nation! Everyone needs her in top condition!" The tall woman didn''t seem to hear her younger sister''s advice. She just walked to the weapon rack and tossed a longsword to Vicky, but didn''t take one for herself. "Don''t you take a weapon for yourself?" Asked Vicky with short-lived worry. Yvonne continued to grin as she pointed to the middle. "You have to earn that! I''m the worst without weapons, so only after forcing me will I use any weapon! Now go and show me everything you know, but remember, using any ability is forbidden!" Vicky gulped and went a bit pale as she approached to the training mat. With one foot, she stepped on it and realized that it wasn''t soft at all... It was even harder than the concrete floor! A small tremble went across her body as she imagined getting slammed into it. While preoccupied with her future pains, Yvonne snuck up behind her, leaned in and whispered into her ear. "Let''s go Princess, we don''t have all day!" Vicky yelped from surprise and jumped away, her scared face covered in sweat. The tall woman just chuckled and moved towards the center. When both stood there face-to-face, Vicky began taking deep breaths containing her terror and excitement. Yvonne continued grinning, which was unsettling, but something else appeared in her eyes too. "Okay, Princess. The rules are simple: No abilities, no killing. When you land a blow or can''t move anymore, we reset! Understood?" The Princess nodded, doubtfully, and soon Yvonne motioned for her to attack. She waited a few seconds, then suddenly raised her training sword, and attacked with all her power. Vicky wasn''t a total idiot when it came to close-quarter fighting. She knew how to swing a sword, and could even chain a few moves together. Her sword arced towards Yvonne''s smiling face, and that''s when Vicky realized what the look in her eyes was... Revenge... "This is for making me explain sex to you!" Shouted Yvonne, and the next thing Vicky noticed was the hard floor meeting her face. Chapter 372: Beating Knowledge Into Victoria One swing, that''s all she managed before ending up on the hard ground. Vicky didn''t give up, though. She jumped to her feet immediately, to Yvonne delight. After reorienting herself, she tried stabbing with her training sword. The tall woman moved quickly, much quicker than Vicky could''ve reacted. She grabbed her overextended arm, then using the leverage, she tossed the Princess over her shoulder. Vicky landed with a heavy crunch a few meters away while her sword stayed in Yvonne''s hand. "Don''t stab forward with your entire body. Every time you make this mistake, you''ll end up on the mat! Also, don''t swing wildly, it''s very predictable!... Now, reset!" The young girl''s white eyes snapped open, and with a stiffed curse she climbed to her feet. A moment ago, when she landed, her shoulder dislocated, but her Transcended regeneration already healed all of her wounds. She prepared to attack again, but with a clear plan in mind. In less than a second, she made a plan of attack! The young Princess stepped forward, her arms moved with improved speed and precision. The sword arced towards Yvonne''s neck, and she began bending away from the weapon. That''s when Vicky turned her weapon mid swing and changed its direction to Yvonne''s side. The smile on the tall woman''s face widened as the weapon nearly hit her. However, she was still fast enough to evade it. Yvonne then stepped forward and tried punching the girl in the face. Luckily, Vicky recovered quick enough, and she tried swinging at the woman''s neck again... A mistake on her part... The swing was a perfect replication of her first, and Yvonne recognized that too. She didn''t intend falling for it twice. Instead, she ducked below the swing. With her right foot, she kicked out Vicky''s legs, then while the Princess still fell towards the ground, she punched her in the face. Vicky felt her nose shatter under Yvonne''s fist. Her legs already broke partially from her kick. As she hit the metal ground, a few ribs and the back of her skull fractured. She gasped from the sudden pain, but her tolerance was much too high. The pain felt closer to a nuisance, an annoyance. In fact, she was more concerned about her failure than the broken bones. A few seconds later, she climbed back to her feet, while spitting blood and a few teeth on the ground. Bloody marks stained her skin and the metal mat below, even though all her wounds were already healed. Even Yvonne couldn''t hide her surprise. The Princess''s regeneration was truly impressive! However, while this will be a saving grace in battle, in training, quick healing meant more pain and suffering. "First, never repeat moves! Second, your stance isn''t wide enough, so you can''t dodge appropriately! And third, try evading my blows for fuck''s sake!... Reset!" Vicky didn''t say a word. She knew full well the mistakes of her every action, but Yvonne''s pointers helped her a lot. Her will to learn hadn''t dimmed even after these beatings, and so she treated Yvonne''s advice like the word of god. The next few hours went by fairly quick. Vicky continued finding new problems, and Yvonne happily beat the solutions into her body. After each failure, Thea winced, still watching from the bench. She knew her sister wouldn''t do any permanent damage to the Princess, however the brutality of her punches sent shivers down Thea''s spine. Quite a few times, she shouted for her to be less intense, but Yvonne either ignored her words or hadn''t heard her. Luckily, as time passed, Vicky''s beatings lessened. Not because Yvonne held back her strength. Her fighting capabilities simply increased in rapid rates. Even Yvonne felt pleasantly surprised by how quickly Vicky learned. At first, she lasted maybe one or two attacks. By the first hour, she could endure a dozen exchanges before getting hit... Right now, a few hours later... Vicky stood in front of her dueling partner. Her stance seemed much more confident than when she began. Even a small smile appeared on her face while staring into Yvonne''s metallic gray eyes. She twirled her sword once before stepping forward with unimaginable speed. Her blade stabbed forward, aiming at the tall woman''s heart. Yvonne grinned widely as she leaned away from the thrust. However, Vicky turned her weapon, and using her momentum, closed the distance into a horizontal slash, aimed at Yvonne''s neck. Her teacher ducked under the sword with a hint of disappointment. While crouched, she tried sweeping Vicky''s legs. The young Princess learned from her mistakes, though. She flipped over the woman''s legs, while jumping high enough that even Yvonne''s unnatural height couldn''t catch her. She landed behind the tall woman and stabbed towards her back. But the blow only hit the metal ground as Yvonne rolled forward. In the next moment, she was back on her legs, running straight at Vicky. Her grin came back and even widened with genuine joy. Her fists aimed at Vicky''s face, chest and side, but the young Princess moved like an eel, evading every blow. She sent her right fist towards Vicky''s jaw. The young girl ducked below the blow, then rolled to the side, avoiding Yvonne''s kick. With a handspring she shot back onto her legs, just in time to lean away and dodge her teacher''s mean left hook. That''s when Yvonne made a mistake by overextending. Vicky''s eyes widened in surprise and moved in to punish immediately. All the strength in her small body culminated into her arms as she slash vertically towards Yvonne. They were too close, so dodging her weapon was impossible. Yvonne realized this too, so to avoid getting hit on the head, she raised her arm in defense. The metal sword connected with Yvonne''s arm. A sickening crunch echoed in the wide hall, as both bones in her forearm cleanly broke. Vicky took a deep breath, her smile growing. For a singular moment, she let her guard down... That''s all Yvonne needed! While in her mind the young Princess celebrated, she blinked once. As her eyes opened, she saw Yvonne''s other fist centimeters from her face. Another even more sickening crunch echoed in the hall as Vicky''s face crumpled. She fell heavily on the metal ground, while coughing up blood. A second or two later, all her injuries healed, and after spitting out more teeth, she turned towards Yvonne with an angry expression. "Hey! You said when I land a blow, we reset! You lied!" The tall woman flexed her left hand while wincing from the pain. Her wounds mended themselves a lot slower than Vicky''s. She took deep, painful breaths while the bones moved back to their place and connected. Eventually, she sighed heavily, then turned towards the young, angry girl with evident shame. "Yes, I know... Sorry Princess! I let myself get absorbed in the fight, and before I realized my fist moved towards you... I try my best to stay in control, but it might happen again..." Yvonne done a few hand curls, testing her muscles and bones. Her metallic gray eyes then turned back to Vicky with pride. "This is actually another lesson for you! Never let your guard down, when in combat!... Anyway, you finally landed a blow! Great job! I thought it would take you much longer, at least a week... You''re full of surprises, little Princess!" The tall woman began stretching her recently broken arm, while moving towards the edge of the fighting mat. "Break time! Let''s go eat breakfast!" Said Yvonne without turning around. Vicky followed close behind and stared at the woman with confusion. "What do you mean, breakfast? It''s already noon!" Shamlessly, Yvonne shrugged while walking towards her younger sister. "Then we eat both breakfast and lunch! Perfect!... Hey Little Sis, are you coming?" Thea didn''t react to her sister''s words. Her silver eyes stayed glued to the dueling mat, which had splatters of blood and sweat covering its surface. A strange mix of fear and powerlessness overwhelmed her, however soon she felt pure awe. Unlike those two Transcended monsters, she witnessed their fights, at what she saw amazed her. As an Ascended, she could barely recognize each move. They attack each other maybe two dozen times, but it was probably more, since her vision simply couldn''t keep up with the monsters. But what truly made her awestruck was how fast they moved. They exchanged dozens of moves... In under three seconds... It was also clear both could move faster, but Vicky''s inexperience didn''t let either to fight at their full potential. While she stared at the mats, her elder sister leaned in, grabbed her shoulders and ''gently'' shook her. "Hey! Little Sis! Arey there anyone home? Should I call mom to train with you?" Suddenly, Thea''s eyes widened and she jumped to her feet, looking around in fear. After she saw Luzia was nowhere to be seen, she breathed a sigh of relief. Yvonne just giggled at her sister''s reaction. This little trick always worked on everyone inside their family... Luzia''s training truly left all her children traumatized! The trio left behind the gym and went straight to the mansion''s kitchen, where the maids already worked tirelessly, preparing lunch. However, they didn''t appreciate two bloodied, sweaty person in training clothes trying to steal food. Most of Thea''s family was away. Only Marko remained in the house, but he always ate alone in his room, so the trio ended up eating breakfast and lunch together in the dining room. The maids in Luzia''s household were truly skilled cooks. Both Vicky and Yvonne ate themselves full, which meant they consumed several families'' worth of food. While Thea found their fighting monstrous, their eating habits were even worse. She even began to wonder if her sister possessed the young, diligent Princess Thea taught in the past few weeks. This Vicky appeared entirely unlike her usual self! After eating, they sat out in the garden. There they waited until they digested enough of their meal, so they could return to the dueling mats! Chapter 373: First Victory "...Then, while running away from the stone monster, she fucking stumbled! How does a half snake woman manage to stumble?" While sitting in the garden, Yvonne began telling stories from the expedition to the East. Both Vicky and Thea died of laughter as Yvonne told them a story when she and Kim went on patrol in the wilderness alone. They ran into a few Horrors, but they were some sort of stone monsters, so Kim''s power didn''t affect them... She found that out a bit too late though, which meant she had to scurry away! "Anyway, I jumped forward immediately, and together we took those creatures apart! We thought they only had stone skins, but after cutting them open, we only found more stone... How do they even survive without organic tissue?" Vicky still giggled about the earlier part of the story, while Thea regained her ability to speak. "I mean, they were Horrors. Those are basically Stellars corrupted by Madness. As a Transcended neither of you really need food to consume, it''s just the body''s habit to demand nutrition!" Yvonne and Vicky looked at Thea aghast, like she just blasphemed and cursed all their ancestors. "But food is amazing! I love to eat! I don''t care what my body thinks! If I want food, I''ll eat!" The tall woman placed her large arm around Vicky, and while staring daggers at her sister, she said, "Wise words, new Little Sis! We eat for enjoyment! Nutrition is our lowest priority." Thea raised an eyebrow at her sister, then sighed and shook her head with a small chuckle. They continued sitting in silence for a few minutes, basking in the late May warm sun. The nice breeze felt especially great in Vicky''s sweaty clothes. After an hour''s break, they all got up and began walking towards the underground passage to the training hall. "Hey, Vicky. Where''s that auburn-haired girl who always followed you around in school? I thought she would accompany you even to my teaching sessions, but she never came!" Thea asked, while Vicky just shrugged and smiled at the ground. "Lydia''s also training! She wants to become a Transcended as soon as possible! Astrid and Kim taught her how to fight before they left for the expedition, and now that they returned, her training continues!" "Huh, really? So that''s why she beat me without much effort..." Mumbled Thea to herself. She remembered her last school day, when she beat up the Princess. Back then, Lydia effortlessly took her down... Well, it wasn''t like she even tried to resist! "You know, if you want to join them, I''m sure they would happily teach you too! Lydia is only an Ascended, so fighting against Transcended must be awful... I''m sure she could use a training partner on her Rank!" Thea, still preoccupied with her thoughts, just absentmindedly nodded at Vicky''s words, without actually processing them. Only Yvonne placed her long arm around her little sister did Thea react. She looked up at the tall woman with confusion and scrunched eyebrows, clearly showcasing her annoyance. "Then it''s settled, Little Sis! I''ll talk to Astrid! She always loves to teach and beat up people!... Anyway, I''m sure you''ll be fine!" The younger sister''s eyes gradually widened as she recalled Vicky''s offer and her accidental agreement. Her eyes widened in terror, and she opened her mouth to refuse the offer. However, before words could''ve left her mouth, she realized how beneficial such training could be. While attending school, she began slacking off in her physical training. With the approaching war, she needed to get back into her best possible shape... It would be perfect if two of the best fighters within the Angelic Order taught her! She could even improve, becoming more powerful than ever! A small glint appeared in Thea''s eyes as her greed for knowledge and power grew. She didn''t say anything else, letting both Vicky and Yvonne believe she actually paid attention to them. They soon arrived back at the gym. Thea went back to her bench, while Vicky and Yvonne walked back onto the metal mat. The maids cleaned off all the blood and sweat while they ate. However, the mat''s cleanliness didn''t last long, as the fighting began! It seemed Vicky didn''t forget her progression during their break. She kept up with Yvonne''s fists and continued improving. Thea watched her improvement with amazement and deep concentration. Her clumsiness from the morning was almost fully gone. Everyone of Vicky''s movements had thought behind them. She didn''t just swing her sword, hoping to hit Yvonne. The practice blade carried precision and cunning intent behind each slash. Each movement became more refined. Her firm steps provided enough power to match Yvonne''s brutality. As the hours passed, their exchanges lengthened. Initially, their fights lasted about three seconds, since they only exchanged a few dozen moves. They also constantly had to reset, since either Vicky landed a blow on Yvonne, or she got knocked into the metal mat. Then gradually, their session grew longer. Even Thea hardly noticed it at first. However, when they fought for nearly four seconds, it became obvious. Strangely, Vicky wasn''t the only one getting better. As her ability to fight grew, Yvonne''s hand-to-hand combat also increased. This meant their fights remained mostly the same, except both moved much faster and with greater precision. The sun was already touching the horizon when Luzia came down to check on the Princess''s training. Nobody noticed her entering through the passage. Thea stared at the ongoing duel with mouth agape, while Vicky and Yvonne couldn''t see anything beyond the training mat''s edge. They were in their own world, where nothing existed except the need to beat their opponent! Yvonne leaned away from Vicky''s sword while trying to stay close. She punched into the Princess''s side, sending the small girl flying. She landed a few meters away, using her off-hand she stabilized herself and sprang back to her feet. With the momentum, she thrust her blade forward faster than anyone could''ve tracked. The tall woman''s reflexes kicked in, barely avoiding the blunted weapon. However, Vicky never intended for the fast stab to do any real harm. Its only job was to halt Yvonne''s approach. Her actual attack came in the form of a dozen well-placed slashes and thrusts. The Princess aimed at her neck, then just as her teacher leaned away, she pulled her arm back and stabbed towards the torso. Yvonne took one step back, so only the tip of Vicky''s blade caught her stomach. She winced at the sudden pain, but didn''t let her movements slow. Vicky chuckled at her teacher''s expression and pressed forward. Her blade cut at Yvonne''s midsection. Reflexively, she leaned away from the blade, giving the small girl time to jump forward and deliver a kick to her head. The tall woman stumbled a few steps before regaining her stance. Even so, Vicky provided no opportunity to counterattack. Like a beast let out from her cage, Vicky prowled onward. She stabbed forward once more, and just as expected, Yvonne stepped into her blow instead of evading it. A grin appeared on Vicky''s face, while she whispered to herself... "Got you!" Yvonne''s left hand caught Vicky''s sword arm, while her other tried delivering a clean right hook. Suddenly, Vicky let go of her sword, then crouched down, dodging Yvonne''s fist. With her leg, she swept out her teacher''s own. The tall woman began to fall, but her right arm stayed firmly on Vicky''s. That''s when the young Princess grabbed the still falling sword''s handle with her off-hand. She hit Yvonne''s left wrist as hard as she could, breaking most of her bones. As pain assaulted her teacher''s mind, she lost her grip and fell heavily on the metal mat. Yvonne tried jumping to her feet, but she was too late, and soon Vicky pressed her weapon''s tip right to the woman''s neck. Time seemed to stop as both Vicky''s white eyes met with Yvonne''s metallic gray ones. Both girls breathed heavily, as if they ran a marathon. Sweat covered their bruised, bloodied bodies, but neither cared. Her teacher''s eyes glowed with pride and a bit of surprise, while Vicky''s showed clear excitement and uncontainable joy. As seconds passed, they both burst into exhausted laughter. Vicky moved her sword away and held out her hand. Yvonne graciously accepted it and let herself get pulled to her feet. While continuing to chuckle, she hit the young Princess on the back, nearly pushing her to the ground. "Congratulations, Princess! This is your first actual victory! How does it feel?" Vicky took one deep breath, sighing away her exhaustion. She then turned towards Yvonne with a wide grin. "Pretty fucking good! But also kind of painful..." She said while touching her side, which Yvonne hit during their fight. A few of her ribs broke, but they were already healing themselves nicely. "You''re telling me?! Look at my wrist!" Yvonne''s wrist indeed looked much worse than how Vicky felt. A few bone fragments even pierced her skin, letting blood well in the wounds. "Anyway, that''s it for today! Since you improved much faster than I predicted, I will also use a sword tomorrow, so be prepared!... It won''t be as easy to beat me!" Vicky snorted and shook her head after hearing Yvonne''s words. "Easy? You think this was easy?... Actually, don''t answer that! I don''t want spoilers for tomorrow!" Even after getting her ass kicked most of the day, Vicky''s excitement hadn''t wavered. It only grew, as she finally came over an obstacle after countless tries. While Vicky and Yvonne chatted on the mat; at the sidelines, Thea continued gazing into emptiness with a shocked expression. Luzia stood next to her cross-armed, however her daughter failed to notice her presence. The older woman stared at her eldest child and the Princess with a satisfied smile. "Her progress is monstrous, as expected from the Goddess''s daughter!" She whispered to herself, causing Thea to yelp in surprise. Luzia didn''t seem to care though. Her eyes stayed solely focused on Vicky''s laughing form. Chapter 374 374: Relaxing Dinner Thea felt even more horrified and awed by the final fight between Vicky and Yvonne. They moved with such ferocity, speed and accuracy, that she only partially saw the moves they made. What truly shocked her, though, was its length. Previously, the longest either lasted before resetting was around ten seconds, but this latest fight went on for nearly half a minute! They must''ve had a few hundred exchanges before the match ended. Even more surprising, Vicky managed to win! Thea stayed occupied with her thoughts about the fight, so she never noticed her mother standing beside her. But when Luzia mumbled to herself, her daughter yelped in surprise and jumped to her feet. Her actions were loud enough for Vicky and Yvonne to turn their direction. Both girls seemed surprised by Luzia''s presence. They quickly walked off the bloodied mat and greeted the woman with grace and respect. "Good evening, Mrs. Luzia! Did you enjoy our fight?" Instead of saying anything, Luzia bowed before Vicky, long enough to showcase her reverence towards the Princess. "The fight wasn''t something my weak eyes could easily follow, however I saw the end result. I must say, you come a long way, Princess. I''m sure Yvonne will experience many more defeats in the upcoming days!" Slowly, Luzia rose up from her bow, and smiled cunningly down at her daughter. While Yvonne was much taller than Vicky, her mother dwarfed even the tall woman. Vicky hated standing near these people. She felt even smaller than her actual low height. It made her remember Kim, and how short she was before becoming a Transcended. A pang of sympathy grew in her heart, and she felt sorry for always making fun of her height! Yvonne didn''t get angry at her mother''s words. She even hoped Vicky would improve and beat her many more times... She always hated one-sided battles! "I see you''re done with today''s training. Princess, would you like to attend a dinner with me and my family?" Asked Luzia, with all the respect she could muster. Vicky''s eyes brightened, and a wide smile stretched across her face. "I would love to, but before that I''ll take a shower and change my clothes! It would be a bad for my image if I looked so bloody and sweaty the Luzia household''s family dinner!" With that, she turned away and began walking in a random direction. A second later, Thea ran after her and guided the young Princess towards the changing rooms and showers. Yvonne stayed standing near her mother, both looking at Vicky''s laughing form. If you ignored the blood and sweat, you could''ve never guessed how dangerous and powerful the young Princess was. However, neither woman showed any signs of joy while watching her. Instead, their expression was grim, but hopeful. "Will she be ready?" Asked Luzia without turning towards her daughter. The tall woman shrugged and smirked, an opposite of her mother''s aloof attitude. "Hard to tell. She''s like a sponge, sucking up every piece of knowledge thrown in her direction. She never made the same mistake twice and even pretended to making mistakes to bait me. I''m sure she will be ready to fight in a week or so!" Luzia scoffed and glanced down at her eldest child. "That''s not what I meant, so stop evading my question. Now, I''ll ask again. Will she be ready?" Yvonne''s smile disappeared, sadness and pain taking its place. "I think her mentality is already good enough. We won''t see until the need will arise... I''ll train her the best I can, but you know the real crucible will happen later! Nobody can prepare her for that! No amount of knowledge will give her the intent to kill!" Her mother sighed and shook her head. She turned away and began walking towards the passage. "I know... Will see if she can kill people or freeze and die... Let''s hope she''ll survive that test as well!" Luzia went back to the mansion, informing everyone about Vicky''s attendance. Yvonne went after Vicky and Thea, since she needed a shower, too. After getting ready, the three of them went to the mansion together. Every other member of the family already waited around the square dining table. Luzia and her husband Marc sat on one side, the two oldest children on another, while Thea and her younger brother Marko faced their siblings. Vicky sat opposite of the host. She wore her usual beautiful dress, but for fun she also summoned a tiara with a midnight black gemstone. It gently glinted under the room''s warm light. Vicky greeted them all with a kind, charming smile, then waited for the maids to bring in the food. Her stomach constantly rumbled, demanding vast sacrifices! A few maids stumbled and nearly fell over when they saw their Princess sitting at the dining table. Even though word gotten around since midday, her presence from the sweaty, bloody, food devouring girl, now held immense regality, which they weren''t prepared for. After placing the food on the table, they hurried away. Their eyes continued taking glances at Vicky''s calm form. The young girl ignored them all, and tried not to salivate on the table. She only held the food in her vision. For her, nothing else mattered until she ate her fill. Yvonne looked awfully similar to the Princess, the opposite of Yannick''s silent contentment. The lanky man didn''t even look hungry, which explained his thinness. Vicky couldn''t help but stare at the man''s closed eyes. She still hadn''t received a proper explanation for their purpose... She also never asked, deeming the question rude, but curiosity overruled her decorum. Yannick turned towards the Princess with a small smile. He knew exactly the question on her mind; however, he didn''t plan on making things easy for her. "Is there something wrong, Princess? Perhaps you have a question?" Suddenly everyone turned towards the Princess, waiting for her next words. The young girl didn''t care about the sudden attention, but she did smirk at Yannick''s question. This was the last push she needed. "Yes actually! Why do you never open your eyes? Can you even see?" Other than Luzia and Thea, who kept their poker faces intact, everyone smiled knowingly at Yannick. The lanky man also smirked at Vicky with amused cunningness. "Interesting question. My eyes are closely related to my powers, or more like my eye sockets... You see, I don''t actually have any eyes, but before you ask, I won''t show the sockets... They are quite disturbing, especially for people seeing it for the first time!" Vicky nodded in understanding. She really wanted to see Yannick''s empty sockets. However, since it wasn''t an option, she settled for the explanation. "For your second question... I can''t see the way you and everyone else can, but I''m also not blind. I can sense the void between objects, the empty space covering every particle. Using this void, I make accurate guesses about the placement of objects and people!" To immediately showcase his ''sight'', Yannick grabbed his glass full of some liquor and took one sip. After swallowing, he turned back to Vicky. "It''s actually quite similar to your space perception, but it has a smaller range, and it''s also more accurate!" The young Princess nodded again, then began placing food onto her plate, until she made a small tower. The others watched in horror as she began devouring everything placed on her plate, while Yvonne just giggled and built a similar tower. "Well, you certainly inherited your mother''s appetite!" Said Luzia with a small chuckle. Vicky glanced up from behind her tower with surprise and excitement. "You met Sera?" Suddenly, Luzia leaned back in her chair, with a small prideful smile. She squared her shoulders and stared into Vicky''s white eyes. "Yes. Me, Marc, Yvonne, Yannick and even Marko met her personally. We lived in New Athens and were one of the first soldiers who followed her into battle. Sadly, Thea was too young to fight alongside our Goddess..." Her eyes jumped between her children and husband as she spoke until it landed back on the Princess. Luzia''s smile turned a bit more cunning and hopeful. "But judging by your progress with Yvonne, she''ll at least fight alongside our Goddess''s daughter. Our Princess!" Thea sat straighter, hearing her mother''s words. It also reaffirmed the youngest child''s thoughts about joining Lydia''s training... She needed to get stronger, to make her mother proud! For a few minutes, everyone ate in silence, until eventually Marc began a new conversation. "I got to say, Princess. The Prince is a true genius with this new command structure! It solved so many issues, and we can implement it quite quickly!" The man spoke with a genuine smile, which brightened the entire room. Compared to his still-faced wife, Marc never hid his actual feelings, always expressing everything! "I''m glad to hear that! Did any of you get important positions?" Asked Vicky, while biting down on a large piece of meat. "Yes, Yannick here received one of the few Commander positions, and he appointed me, my wife, and Marko as Cohort Leaders!" Vicky nodded, then glanced at Yvonne and Thea. She tried chewing fast to ask her next question, but the jovial, bald man answered it already. "We wanted Thea to lead as well, but her youth and lack of experience wouldn''t serve her right. The veteran soldiers might even disregard her orders, which would lead to command structure failure. A true disaster, when on a battlefield!... Yvonne though..." Marc''s face pulled into a strange expression, as if at a loss for words. Luckily, his daughter wasn''t as clueless. "I specifically asked Astrid not to give me command. Instead, I''ll be joining the Transcended Lone Operatives. I work better leading small teams, and love fighting on the front lines, so it''s the best for me!" Luzia sighed when hearing her eldest daughter''s words. Clear disappointment showed on her face, but said nothing. It was obvious Luzia wanted all her children to become leaders, especially Yvonne, since she''s the eldest. In her eyes, she should guide her younger siblings. Instead, she went in the opposite direction. The evening went by the same. Vicky chatted some more while consuming copious amounts of food. She arrived home late, with Henry already asleep. Without waking him, she climbed into the bed and they cuddled throughout the night. The next day, she got ready early and went to the Luzia household. She felt even more excitement than the day before, since today she finally won''t be fighting against a weaponless person! Yvonne already stood ready near the bench, however Thea was nowhere to be seen. It took Vicky a second to remember where her friend went. The Princess quickly changed into her usual training clothes, then walked to the mat with Yvonne, both carrying a training sword! Chapter 375 375: Sword Against Sword After the first hour of training, Vicky''s enthusiasm towards learning began to wane for the first time. Unlike her progress yesterday, she barely learned anything. Yvonne''s mastery of the sword always overwhelmed her within a few moves. It was painful and annoying, as if yesterday''s training was useless. Vicky continued laying on her back, while staring up at the metal ceiling. She got there after Yvonne parried her sword for the thousandth time. It also didn''t help how much fiercer her teacher got after grabbing an actual weapon. Like a beast released from her cage. Vicky felt like a piece of meat waiting to be devoured. She needed to get up from the metal mat. She had to continue training, so she wouldn''t die in the upcoming war. These thoughts made perfect sense. However, she saw no point in continuing, if she made little to no progress. Yvonne must''ve seen the hopelessness in her eyes. The tall woman didn''t berate her or coerce her into getting up. Laid down beside Vicky. "You''re making amazing progress, Princess. You might not see it from your perspective, but believe me, you''re improving much faster than I expected. The distance between our skill levels is still far apart. However, I''m sure you''ll keep up with me in a few days'' time!" The young Princess sighed, then glanced into Yvonne''s kind metallic gray eyes. "Thank you for your words, but my problem isn''t entirely because of my slowed progress. My main issue is with this sword... It doesn''t suit me!" Vicky lifted her training weapon and watched as the light reflected on its surface. "I didn''t feel it when you used your hands, but now it became obvious. Compared to you, my handling of this weapon is horrible, but I have a feeling it''ll never become perfect..." "When I fight with a sword, I constantly have this strange knot in my chest. As the weapon is wrong, and I shouldn''t use it!" Her teacher slowly climbed back to her feet and stared down at her student with a wide smile. "Well, I already guessed as much. It probably relates to the weapon you can summon. It''s only in dagger form, isn''t it? That means you would feel more comfortable fighting with a long dagger... Hmm... How about this? If you can keep up with me for three seconds, I''ll let you use a dagger!" Vicky stared up at the tall woman, shocked. She felt her excitement return, and slowly, a small smile appeared on her face. However, a bit of confusion still remained in her mind. "Fine, but why? Why can''t I change weapons now?" To Vicky''s annoyance, the tall woman just shrugged and leaned forward. "I''m not here to teach you how to fight with a dagger. I want to teach you a basic understanding of combat, and the fastest way you''ll learn is with a handicap... Come now, the break''s over! Let''s reset!" With that, Yvonne reached out and grabbed Vicky''s shirt. A quick pull later, the small girl stood facing the tall woman, prepared for another round of training. She still didn''t fully grasp why she couldn''t use a dagger, but as the fighting began, she stopped caring. Instead, Vicky focused on her new goal... Survive for three seconds! This task, however, proved more difficult than she prepared for. With newfound determination, she slashed towards Yvonne''s belly. Her sword near immediately got in the way, parrying the blow. The force and speed of her teacher''s weapon sent Vicky reeling. She took one moment to regain her balance, but soon she had to dodge Yvonne''s next attack. The training sword cut the air, faster than even Vicky could''ve followed. Her loosened locks of white hair got slashed through by the blade. Even with its blunted form, it carried enough speed to cut them away cleanly. Vicky bent away from another blow, then barely deflected a thrust. Sweat ran down her face as she took one step towards Yvonne, stabbing towards her throat. The tall woman moved in to parry, but just as their blades would''ve met, Vicky pulled back and slashed towards her thighs. Her blade moved closer and closer. It was about to touch the tall woman''s skin, when suddenly everything became dark, and a strong headache assaulted the Princess. She took a deep, painful breath and opened her eyes. The usual metal ceiling greeted her vision as she laid on the uncomfortable mat. Multiple bones broke in her body, but as she regained consciousness, they knitted themselves together. The back of her head hurt the most, which wasn''t surprising since part of her skull shattered on impact. The blood tinged her beautiful white hair, to a light red color. She couldn''t even recall what hit her, but it was clear her attempt at slashing Yvonne''s legs failed miserably. The young Princess sighed again, before her teacher''s voice echoed inside the large hall. "Don''t lose sight of your opponent! You nearly got me this time, but you committed to the attack instead of paying attention! You were great otherwise, now reset!" Vicky groaned while climbing back to her feet. When everything healed, she looked at her sparing partner and charged again... And again... And again... Each time she ended up back on the metal mat, and each time she got up to fight! As her pain and suffering grew, she finally, after hours of training, felt progress! It was miniscule, barely noticeable. She noticed Yvonne''s approaching swing a tiny bit faster. She felt her arm move faster and stronger. She expected what her opponent prepared to do. A picture began to form in Vicky''s mind. A picture of the path forward! As the hours went by, her progress hadn''t decreased. The handful of moves, before losing. The fight for survival against Yvonne. The pain of her every defeat. They all pushed her along the path, closer to her goal. By the day''s end, her slow crawl of progression accumulated. The handful of moves turned into nearly a hundred. She began chuckling during the fight, not only surviving. The pain persisted though, but it only gave her more power! Each time she fell, she got up stronger! Her knowledge increased! Her experience grew! When they finally called it a day, her best time nearly reached one second! This time, she didn''t stay for dinner, and instead went home sooner to spend some time with her brother. The maids and other parents took care of Nick. However, after the attack, Vicky felt guilty about leaving him alone for too long. Each time she left the mansion, she felt terrified. A constant weight pressed down on her small shoulders since that horrible attack. Luckily, the Order of the Raven assumed Nick was weak, since he was only one-year-old. Vicky could still vividly remember the piles of dust left in their backyard. Nick was an angel, after all. He inherited both her mother''s and father''s abilities, or at least a form of them. A dozen Transcended attacked the mansion that day, but Nick somehow erased them into dust. Nobody was certain how his powers worked, and since he was too young to communicate properly, they had to wait before getting answers. However, this revelation about her brother''s power didn''t calm Vicky down. It only increased her worries and made her even more guilty. She was supposed to be his older sister. Someone who would always help and protect him from harm... But she let him down and left Nick to fend for himself... His first birthday was only months ago, but he already had to kill humans! While guilt continued eating her alive, Vicky tried spending as much time with her brother as she could. She played with him, taught him new words, and most importantly, let him ride Brian. The spider-dog and angel-baby became quick friends. He always wanted to play with the family pet. It took serious coercing and bribing with chocolate, so young Nick wouldn''t sleep in Brian''s house¡ªotherwise known as the mansion gigantic gym... Other than spending quality time with her brother, Vicky went to speak with Kim. Lydia and Astrid still hadn''t come home, but the snake-woman returned hours ago. She found the snake-woman stretched across a large sofa, with her tail''s end playfully enveloping Sam''s stomach. They were watching some show on the side holo-screen, while the lanky goblin massaged Kim''s snake-tail. Vicky wasn''t even remotely surprised by this sight. Everyone already got used to Kim''s and Sam''s strange, intimate, yet platonic relationship. They always acted like a couple, but persistently denied being anything more than friends. Sam''s denial was especially strong. He even got offended when anyone implied more to their relationship. At some point, people just stopped caring, and acted like he gently caressed Kim''s tail just because of his ''friendly nature''. As the Princess stepped inside the room, both of them turned towards her with genuine, radiant smiles. "Hey, Vicky! How was your training? Did you beat that towering weapon-lover?" She smiled back as well, although she faked her happiness. The lack of progress was still a really sore spot for Vicky''s ego. "Not yet, but I''m sure I''ll beat Yvonne soon enough!" Kim chuckled at her words, then moved her tail, so Vicky could fit on the couch as well. They silently watched the holo-screen together, until a few minutes later, Vicky spoke. "By the way, I wanted to ask. How did Thea manage on her first training with you guys?" Both Kim and Sam glanced at each other with a strange expression. While Sam wasn''t a fighter, he also attended every training session, since Kim was also there... Real ''friendly'' of him... "To be honest, she was better than either me or Astrid expected. She fights well for someone her age... The problem is with Lydia. That girl sill holds a grudge against Thea since she beat you in school. Each time they dueled, Lydia went all out, beating the girl into a pulp..." Kim shook her head sadly. Her green snake-hair also hissed with similar emotions, while also rubbing their small heads against her face as comfort. "That''s why Ms. Astrid stayed back with young Lydia. It''s punishment for her misbehaving. Hopefully, she''ll learn to control her feelings, otherwise it could endanger both her and Your Highness!" Vicky just sighed and leaned back on the couch. Sam''s words provided some relief, and she truly hoped Astrid could beat some sense into her friend. "If she doesn''t behave tomorrow, message me immediately, and I''ll talk to her. I won''t accept someone holding a grudge in my name!" Sam nodded with a serious expression. "Understood, Your Highness!" The Princess smiled at the goblin, then leaned in and gave a small kiss on his green, androgynous face. "Thank you!" She said, while jumping to her feet and marching out the door. Behind her, Sam blushed heavily while Kim laughed her ass off. Chapter 376 376: Painful Change Another two days went by. Training became much more interesting and painful as her steady progression continued. By the second day, after going sword against sword with Yvonne, Vicky could consistently fight for one second. She even came close to two seconds a few times, but that magical number continued eluding her. Only on the third day did she eventually reach it! After reaching two seconds, everything somehow became easier. Yvonne''s fighting prowess hadn''t decreased, but for Vicky, she seemed slower. She could predict her moves to some degree. Finally, after thousands of failed duels, she felt a change coming over her. A deeper, more elaborate understanding of combat. Instead of preparing moves in her head, then trying to implement them, she stopped thinking and let her body go. Her mind became free, and somehow her fighting prowess increased. She stopped thinking about her next moves, or how to respond when Yvonne attacked. There was always a bit of latency between thinking and action, so removing thinking increased her reaction speed. At first it scared her, but soon she realized what Yvonne tried teaching her all this time. This exercise was never about learning to fight or increasing her knowledge of combat. Yvonne beat her to a pulp each day, causing Vicky to slowly grow stronger and last longer. However, her goal wasn''t teaching Vicky combat, but helping her reach this mindset. After enough beatings and advice, Vicky''s body learned to react reflexively. Her mind finally became free, and she could let her body do its best. Vicky finally realized why she fought with a sword. Even though the weapon greatly restricted her potential, she could reach this state of mind easier... This Clear Mind... Sadly, when she turned off her mind mid-combat, it caused her to stumble. She hit the metal mat soon after, when Yvonne''s blade hit her chest, breaking most of her ribs. The tall woman stood above her with a confused expression. Vicky didn''t even last one second this time around, which was unlike her. At this point, she always lasted way more than a single second. Yvonne looked down at Vicky''s groaning form, then sighed with slight disappointment. "Let''s end it for today. It seems I pushed you too far, and going further will only hinder your progress..." Before Yvonne could''ve said anything else, Vicky suddenly jumped to her feet with a wide smile. She pointed her sword towards the tall woman. "One more! Then we can end it!" Her teacher raised an eyebrow, confusion evident on her face. She felt something was different about Vicky. The young Princess seemed much more confident. A small, prideful smile appeared on Yvonne''s face as well, as she guessed what might''ve caused this change. "Fine, show me what you got!" Neither said anything else as both fighters burst into action. They slashed with their swords, fast and true. The weapons met with a loud clash, sending spark flying. Yvonne''s height and strength clearly overpowered Vicky''s small frame. She stumbled back a few steps, which provided an opening for the tall woman. With a sigh of sadness, Yvonne stepped forward, her sword moving towards the girl''s temple. If Vicky thought about dodging, she wouldn''t have time to actually move away. However, she didn''t let her brain command her body, instead she relied on the reflexes beat into all her muscles. Impossibly fast, she brought up her sword and deflected the incoming blow. She then used Yvonne''s momentary surprise to slash at her stomach. Yvonne barely managed to evade Vicky''s sword by leaning back. Her shirt still separated and a bit of blood tinged it red. A glancing blow, barely scratching Yvonne''s stomach, but it still shocked her teacher. Not once during their exercise did Vicky even came close to touching her... But after this new change... The tall woman grinned widely, while whispering to herself, "Finally!" The Princess didn''t care for the woman''s grin as she continued battering her. A fainted slash turning into a thrust midway through, only to end it with a simple kick to Yvonne''s legs. A parried attack, which used her opponent''s momentum to turn and slash at her back. A clean stab towards Yvonne''s belly, which, even after deflection, managed to cut her side. Yvonne could only defend as the small girl continued attacking without thought and precaution. Each time she tried turning the tide, Vicky relented for a single moment, before resuming her previous almost animalistic attacks. Vicky didn''t try to block any blows like she did in previous attempts. Instead, she solely relied on her smaller frame and lighter weight to evade and control her opponent''s position. Her body deflected each blow perfectly, always giving her the better position. Attack after attack landed on Yvonne. She evaded or blocked most, while she entirely gave up on parrying or deflecting. Minor cuts accumulated all across her body, but she made sure nothing serious landed on her. The tall woman continued grinning as Vicky''s attacks hadn''t relented. The young Princess''s movements even increased in speed as the fight went on. Previously, before discovering Clear Mind, she could manage about a hundred moves per second. Now, though, that number doubled and continued to grow. Time moved fast for Vicky. Her body felt in perfect harmony as she continued attacking. Her thoughts became sluggish until her mind blanked out. Nothing existed in her mind, just this single fight. Everything became dark around her until she stood in the void with Yvonne. Vicky''s refined movements bashed against the tall woman''s perfect defense. Neither let the other gain a serious advantage that could lend victory. However, as the seconds passed, the world continued to darken. The Princess felt something trickle from her nose. Somewhere far away, she heard a shout, but her body felt heavy. Soon, a piercing pain appeared all across her body. Everyone of her muscles felt like exploding, and her brain screamed in agony... Or maybe that was coming from her mouth? The darkness and suffering persisted for seemingly an eternity. She felt a hand gently caressing her hair. Her head, still enduring a severe migraine, didn''t feel as heavy as if she was lying on something soft. Far away, Vicky heard humming. It reminded her of Sera''s humming on those dreadful days back in Havel. Even then, the memory only brought her joy, reminding Vicky of her mother''s similar caresses. It was close to two months since the last time she met with her mother... Too long, but also not yet enough... Sadly, Vicky couldn''t visit her anytime she wanted, since that would endanger her position. Especially with the upcoming war, keeping her mother hidden was of the topmost priority. She also recalled Bea, and the pitiful state she was in the last time they met. Vicky wrote to her multiple times during the past week, but alas, no answer. Something was definitely wrong, but without intel, she couldn''t begin any operation against Castleburg and Otto. More and more rational thoughts began popping up in Vicky''s mind. Before she realized, the headache and all the agony consuming her muscles disappeared. Her white eyes slowly flickered open and stared upwards, at the woman smiling gently down at her. With the bright light shining behind the woman''s head, Vicky believed Sera looked down upon her... However, soon recognition struck her... The woman''s hair wasn''t the bright gold of her mother''s, but a metallic gray, exactly like her fierce, joyous eyes. Yvonne''s hand continued patting Vicky''s head, each caress bringing her back to reality. "You did great, Princess. Now you understand the point of this training, and you passed with flying colors!" Vicky took a deep breath, then tried to speak, but her mouth felt too parched. She began coughing, and soon she felt a glass of water pressed to her lips. She drank the entire glass, as if she never had any water in her whole life. Above her, Yvonne giggled, then began explaining what happened. "The state you were in moments ago is called Zone. It takes an extremely high concentration to maintain this state of mind, and if you hold on for too long, you will experience a heavy drawback. The first is always the worst. You probably won''t even lose consciousness next time!" This didn''t bring Vicky too much joy. The agony consuming her body and mind was enough to end the fight prematurely. Losing consciousness was probably a mercy, since the pain also disappeared. "Does it ever... Will it be less painful?" Asked Vicky, while wincing from the pain in her throat. The tall woman just giggled and nodded. "Sure, but you''ll suffer through the pain repeatedly before that. Believe me, it will suck, but it''s worth it! Eventually, you''ll be able to maintain the Zone for as long as necessary!" Finally, a small smile appeared on Vicky''s face, and she asked the most important question... "How long did I last? Was it three seconds?" Yvonne raised an eyebrow and stared at the Princess as if she lost her mind. Vicky''s smile waned. While fighting, she couldn''t really feel time''s passage, but it was definitely more than three seconds! Her teacher''s confusion persisted, then she suddenly burst into laughter. For a straight minute, she continued chuckling, until eventually she managed to get herself under control. Still, a wide grin persisted across her face as she spoke. "You weren''t kidding? ''Was it three seconds?'' Princess, you lasted over a fucking minute!" The young girl''s white eyes widened, and she burst into laughter too. She did it! She lasted well over three seconds, which meant it was time to change weapons! Chapter 377: Weapon of Choice After Yvonne explained a bit more about the Zone¡ªas she referred to it¡ªVicky headed back home. It was still quite early in the evening, so she decided to spend some quality time with Nick. However, this last fight took more energy than the Princess expected. She yawned a few times, while watching her brother, then slowly her eyes felt heavier and she fell asleep on a couch. Little Nick, noticing her exhausted state, decided it was the perfect time to test his artistic capabilities. The maid nearly had a heart attack when she walked into the lounge room and saw Nick painting his sister''s face. Eventually, Kim and Sam took Vicky away. They cleaned her off and put the young girl to bed. She slept there like a dead person until noon. Still a bit tired from the usage of Zone, Vicky grabbed an armload of food and teleported straight into the Luzia household''s training hall. Yvonne and Thea were waiting for her arrival since the morning. Neither blamed her though, since they knew how awful the first experience with Zone was. They let the young Princess eat her breakfast and lunch in peace. Vicky chatted with Thea while eating, asking about her own training with Lydia. Luckily, after Astrid talked and punished Lydia, she stopped acting on her grudge. It made Thea''s training much more enjoyable, and with enjoyment came rapid progression. She already began catching up with Lydia. Even though the distance was still far, it didn''t seem so insurmountable anymore! Kim''s and Astrid''s training was much less hardcore, then Yvonne''s. The tall woman wasn''t joking when she spoke about beating knowledge into Vicky. Even though the suffering and despair Vicky felt during each of their fights, she couldn''t deny the results. A wide grin always appeared on her face when she remembered that magical number... One minute! It took less than a week and she could already fight for one minute against such a formidable opponent! Just remembering yesterday brought her immense joy. Her excitement also continued to grow as time passed, since it was time to change weapons! The young Princess quickly devoured several families'' worth of food. She then went to change into her usual training shorts and shirt. After dressing up, she walked to the giant weapons rack, where Yvonne and Thea were already waited. Her teacher already held multiple long, training daggers, trying to determine which would suit the small girl best. "Hmm... Princess, could summon your dagger?" "Sure thing!" Said Vicky enthusiastically, and soon the intricate, breathtaking dagger appeared in her palm. Its twenty-five centimeter blade seemed to reflect the night-sky, while its ten centimeter long handle gently glowed with a deep, dark blue color. Yvonne gazed at the dagger, staring into its endless depths. She began comparing the other training daggers until she found the right kind. "Okay, Princess, you can put it away now!" Vicky nodded and let the dagger dissolve into pieces of bright light. She watched as each small speck disappeared while listening to her teacher''s words. "Today, we won''t duel as much. First, we''ll test out your dagger''s capabilities, then figure out how to use it properly! We need to test if it''s only one dagger, or more. We also need to know if holding it is a requirement for the summoning, or throwing, is an option..." Yvonne continued listing tests, and with each second, Vicky''s excitement lessened. She really wanted to fight against Yvonne, but it seemed today was solely for discovering her dagger''s potential. Silently, Vicky sighed in sadness, but then she realized something... Since today was about discovering everything about her dagger, this meant she would get to use it! Her intrigue skyrocketed once more. She continued listening to Yvonne''s words, with a lot more interest and joy. Thea also chimed in with a few ideas, and after talking through everything, they began testing! They all walked to the metal mat, where Vicky summoned her beautiful dagger. "Okay, Princess. First, try to increase its size, or change its shape! We need to know how versatile your dagger can become!" Vicky nodded and concentrated on her weapon. All three looked at it with curiosity, hoping it would change! After a few seconds, the blade began to elongate, reaching 40 centimeters. Then the blade gently curved to one side. She could also will its width to change, making it thinner or thicker. "Hmm... Is that the maximum length? It''s like a shortsword, and the curve could also prove helpful in combat. The width change will be amazing if you can throw it, so let''s test that one next!" Yvonne suddenly pointed at a painted circle a few dozen meters away and shouted. "Throw it, Princess!" With a confused expression, Vicky glanced down at her dagger, making it smaller. With its original length, but narrower width, she aimed at the red circle and threw her weapon. However, there was one problem with Yvonne''s order... Vicky had no idea how to throw a dagger... Instead of reaching the red circle, it hit the ground before the wall. To everyone''s amazement, the dagger didn''t stop, but cut through the concrete floor, leaving only a hole behind. A few seconds of stunned silence later, Thea turned towards the Princess. "Uh... How far did it go exactly?" Vicky continued staring at the hole in shock. With her spatial perception, she could clearly feel where the dagger was. However, there was a slight issue... "I can''t really answer that accurately since... It hadn''t stopped yet!" Said Vicky, while keeping her eyes on the hole. She felt the dagger move away, keeping its momentum, as if the matter before it didn''t even exist! Even stranger, its direction stayed straight, like Earth''s gravity had no effect on the blade. It took nearly a minute for Yvonne to find her voice again. "Okay Vicky, dismiss the blade... So you can throw it. That''s good!... However, it isn''t corporeal when thrown. I wonder if you can change its property... Try sticking it into the ground, while concentrating! Will it into existence!" The young Princess took a deep breath, then summoned her dagger once more. The magnificent night sky still reflected in the blade, but she willed the weapon to change. Gradually, the bright beauty of the blade changed, until the infinity darkness with white spots turned into a dark blue metallic surface. The white spots also changed, becoming embellished glowing lines, keeping its intricate beauty in a different shape. Slowly, Vicky bent down and touched the blade to the metal mat. It broke the metal surface, but only after applying a bit of pressure. Finally, with a small tremble in her hand, Vicky let go of her dagger''s handle. The blade stayed stuck in the ground. A few stressful seconds passed before Vicky glanced up at the two tall girls with a wide smile. Yvonne and Thea just breathed a sigh of relief. At first, having an unstoppable weapon might seem like a great idea, but sadly, such a weapon could easily turn into a serious hindrance on a hectic battlefield. The dagger wouldn''t stop either for foe or friend. Everyone in its way would become a target! However, if it can turn corporeal, then this disadvantage would turn into a dreadful, secret weapon! "That''s amazing! Now let''s test if you can summon more daggers!" Vicky nodded, then reached towards her dagger, but before her hand touched the handle, it suddenly flew out of the ground and into the Princess''s palm. All three girls stared at the blade in shock. Suddenly, summoning more weapons became less interesting. "Change of plans... Let''s see if you can control your dagger without touching it!" With clear excitement, Vicky concentrated on her dagger. Slowly, it left her palm and began floating above it. She continued controlling the weapon, letting it fly around the training hall. At first it flew with predictable, robotic movements, however as Vicky got the hang of it, the weapon''s flight became a lot smoother. It made circles in the air. When given the command, the dagger stopped immediately, then resumed its movements just as quickly. But she also felt something more. As the dagger flew towards one of the room''s corners, Vicky ordered it to be in the opposite corner. The dagger, without opening a portal, disappeared from one corner and appeared in the opposite. The Princess chuckled with excitement, and glee as she continued controlling the dagger''s flight. She also began teleporting it everywhere randomly. For minutes, she played with her weapon, while Yvonne and Thea just watched in awe. However, something else began bothering Vicky. There was something more to her dagger. While concentrating on this feeling, she accidentally opened a portal before the dagger. It entered quickly and exited on the other side... Or at least it was supposed to... Only one dagger entered the portal; however, two exited on the opposite side. Both began flying around, while Vicky''s laughter echoed. "Well, shit... Just how many daggers can you summon?" Asked Thea, while watching as the daggers stopped moving. They gently floated down behind Vicky. The small girl grinned widely as she crossed her arms. Suddenly, more and more floating daggers appeared behind her. The two became a dozen, which soon turned into a hundred. Their numbers continued to grow until an army''s worth of beautiful dark blue daggers floated behind the Princess. "How many daggers?... As many as I need!" Yvonne''s and Thea''s eyes widened as they stared up at the floating weapons. After a few seconds, the tall woman burst into laughter, while mirroring Vicky''s grin. "Good! Now we can begin the actual training!" Chapter 378: Long Awaited Message With most discoveries done, as Yvonne promised, they began the actual training. First, Yvonne showed ways to use multiple daggers in combat. Next, she showed throwing techniques to Vicky. Even though she could control the flight of her daggers, it''s better to learn how to actually throw the weapon. Finally, she gave two long, training daggers to Vicky, and they spent a few hours duelling. As ordered, Vicky tried using Zone as many times as she could physically endure. It didn''t make her unconscious, and even the pain lessened. By the end, she could endure the agony for nearly five minutes. Also, just as Yvonne predicted, her fighting prowess with the dagger was much greater than the sword. A few times she even gave trouble to her teacher, but still she only managed a few glancing blows. When they began duelling, Thea had already gone away to her own training with Lydia. By the time evening approached, Vicky could barely stand. Phantom pain circled throughout her body, and her vision constantly turned blurry for no apparent reason. After a refreshing shower, she summoned her clothing and prepared to teleport away. That''s when her silver watch lit up as a new message arrived. Vicky had to read the person''s name dozens of times before actually accepting it... Bea, her mother, finally written back! The young Princess''s hands trembled as she brought up the message. It was quite long, and also heart-wrenching... ''Otto finally left, and I managed to find some peace from the guards. I''m sorry I haven''t written anything all this time, but I simply wasn''t able to. Otto took away my watch, after I tried visiting you the last time...'' ''I don''t exactly know what happened to him, but slowly, he became more and more possessive. He constantly accused me of horrible things, and even hit me a few times when consumed with rage. He always quickly apologized afterwards, but still his state got worse...'' Tears welled in Vicky''s eyes as she continued reading the message. ''By the time I stopped contacting everyone, his mind was already lost. I did my best to help him at first, but after his beatings and jealousy became unbearable, I tried to leave. However, he and his brother caught me somehow...'' ''They locked me away for a long time, probably months. Only after promising Otto to never try escaping again did he let me out. Still, he made my life a living hell, with strange ravens always following me, watching me...'' Her entire body shook, while continuing to curse herself. "Dammit... I know something was wrong... Why didn''t I reach out sooner!" ''In secret, I tried contacting the Angelic Order, but Otto discovered it. Strangely, as time went on, he stopped punishing me. Instead, he found a much better way to make me cooperate. He used his own people...'' ''If I somehow misbehaved, I would hear the news the next day... Unexplained explosions, strange monster attacks within Castleburg, burnt corpses popping up in alleyways... He never outright said it, but I knew it was his doing!'' Vicky took quick, shaky breaths as tears continued running down her cheeks. ''He kept up this act for the entire time. After the first few occasions, I stopped trying to contact any of you, which also ended the constant deaths... However, this stalemate ended when we saw you two weeks ago...'' ''After leaving the gathering, he outright threatened me. He said if I try contacting you, he would kill everyone in Castleburg... But I just couldn''t let it go. After seeing you healthy and proud, I decided to contact you!'' A small sad smile grew on the young Princess''s face. She believed this entire time, Bea hated her, and that''s why they lost contact, but the truth was much worse... Somehow that made Vicky feel better... ''I stole this watch from one of my guards. It instantly connected to my status window, and that''s when I saw all your messages...'' ''I want you to rescue me, but only if you can guarantee the safety of Castleburg''s citizens. I would rather rot here forever than cause the death of hundreds of millions!'' Somewhere far away, in the real world outside of this long message, she heard a kind, feminine voice call her name. Vicky, however, stayed focused on Bea''s last words. ''Lastly, something''s happening here. Otto has begun leaving the castle and the city way more frequently. It has something to do with his brother, Victor. Maybe Sarah could provide some insight about their relationship...'' ''These strange ravens keep popping up everywhere. There are thousands of them flying around the castle. A few even lived in the castle''s rafters, always watching over everything...'' The message ended abruptly, and without proper conclusion. She felt something might''ve happened, and that''s why her mother couldn''t finish it. A shiver arced across Vicky''s body as she imagined how much Bea must''ve endured in the past year. She continued crying for a moment, before suddenly a large hand landed on her shoulder. The young Princess yelped in surprise, jumped away and summoned her daggers. However, upon glancing at the hand''s owner, she dismissed her weapons and wiped away her tears. Yvonne looked down at her in confusion and worry. "What''s wrong Princess? Did something happen? I saw you reading something on your watch and didn''t want to bother you, however you seemed to be crying... Who sent the message?" Vicky sniffled once more, then slowly a deathly serious, bored expression took over her scarred face. She ignored all of Yvonne''s questions and instead summoned a portal. Before stepping through, she stared into Yvonne''s metallic gray eyes. Her own white eyes held great fury within. "Yvonne, summon every available Transcended! Today we escalate the war!" Her voice, which Yvonne heard constantly for the past week, felt different this time. It wasn''t the young girl, absorbed in her training, instead it was the matured Princess, ready to march into war! She couldn''t even react to the Princess''s words, since the next moment she already went through the portal. Yvonne wasn''t certain what to do, so she ran to her brother, Yannick. As she explained the Princess''s order, the blind man just nodded and began writing summons to every Transcended off duty. There were about a hundred Transcended available. Yannick wrote to each and every one, however soon an official notice went out from Henry requesting their current positions. All over the Angelic Order''s territory, portals began opening, each leading to the same destination... In the heart of New Athens, below the Temple of Eternal Flame, the Angelic Order''s headquarters stretched for hundreds of meters below ground. Vicky stood in its main hall, with Astrid, Kim and Henry by her side. They all wore their war-gear, perfect for the occasion. Before arriving there, Vicky let all three read Bea''s message. They all felt angry as well and agreed with Vicky''s plan to rescue her. Hundreds of portals opened in the main hall, summoning a formidable army. Everyone wore their armor and walked with their weapons in hand. A pair of portals opened behind Vicky, from which Lilith and Adam stepped out. Cass also suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Mary and James didn''t get teleported to the main hall, since they were already preparing for the operation in Castleburg. All the Transcended walked out, both confused and excited. They didn''t understand the sudden summons, but they were more than happy to escalate the war! Yvonne and Yannick walked at their front, leading them closer to the young Princess. When everyone exited the portals, they all closed simultaneously. Each Transcended knelt down before Vicky. Some glanced at their Princess with religious fervor, others with respect, while a few seemed contemptuous. The Evolved were always extremely prideful. It felt wrong kneeling before a weak-looking, small girl. They never witnessed Vicky''s fighting prowess, so they didn''t value her authority. However, if they continued standing, that monster behind her would''ve definitely punished each individual... The shorter woman with swirling purple eyes and long golden hair with black roots. She had the same scar as her Goddess and her Princess. Lilith, the Dreamweaver... Her reputation skyrocketed upon reaching Transcended. She became the Princess''s personal inquisitor, acquiring information from everyone''s minds directly. A truly terrifying power, with no actual counters. So, instead of trying their luck and experiencing any nightmares, they bit their pride and knelt before the Princess. Vicky stared down at all of them with a bored expression, hiding the deep rage beneath the surface. She took one step forward, separating from Henry, and spoke for the first time without any prepared speech. "You know why I ordered everyone here. Today we strike back! With a recent intel I got, we can begin something we prepared long ago... From now, Operation Castlefall is in effect!" The soldiers began whispering between themselves. They only heard rumors of Operation Castlefall, but they weren''t completely in the dark about the plan. "James and Mary are already prepping the Aegis Transmitter and Generator. Our job is solely to exterminate every raven in the castle and the city!... Don''t bother taking prisoners. Lilith will take care of any interrogation on the spot!" Smiles spread across the faces of the Transcended. Even the ones not accepting of Vicky''s leadership felt ecstatic about this attack! "Cass will take care of Otto, but he shouldn''t cause any issues if everything goes right! All of you will split into groups of five, but don''t stick to each other. This is an extermination, after all!" Suddenly, Vicky opened about a dozen portals, each leading to different parts of the castle. The Transcended took a few seconds to split into groups, then entered separate portals. While everyone was leaving, Yvonne stood up and looked at Vicky. The young Princess moved towards a different portal, but before she could''ve stepped through, the tall woman caught her arm. "I''m coming with you! You''ll need someone to watch you back! Neither of us knows the exact situation and the numbers of our enemy!" Vicky had no reason to object. Adam already followed her as a bodyguard, but two is better than one. They also presumably headed for the most guarded area within the castle, so Yvonne would most definitely be useful! Soon everyone stepped through their own portal, and Operation Castlefall officially began! Chapter 379 379: Operation Castlefall The night felt heavy above Castleburg. Ravens croaked loudly while flying above the cityscape. Bright lights shined all across its main castle, illuminating the cloudy, dark night. Unexpectedly, dozens of portals opened all across the castle, and soon the massacre began. The Transcended soldiers, wearing the Angelic Order''s seven-pointed star, killed every raven and resisting guard. The deadliest were a gigantic woman with golden wings, a half-snake half-human turning every enemy stone, and something much more horrific... A woman in a dark robe, who sent everyone into a dream, to their death... Their attack took up most of the enemy forces, leaving Vicky, Adam, and Yvonne to the rescue operation. They exited their portal near the living quarters. The Young Princess instantly scanned the surrounding rooms, but something felt off. Space itself felt heavier, as if a sticky substance covered reality. It became so bad; she had to turn off her spatial perception after only a few seconds. "I can''t scout. We''ll have to find her the regular way!" Said Vicky, before beginning to walk down a random corridor. Suddenly, Yvonne grabbed her arm with a serious expression. "I''ll lead, and Adam will hold the back. You won''t engage the enemy! You''re not ready for an actual life and death battle! If someone attacks you, don''t fight, just escape! Understand?" The young Princess looked up at her teacher and slowly nodded once. Even though a heavy fog of rage settled on her mind, she wasn''t stupid. She never fought in any battle, not at the front lines, at least. Her powers provided amazing utility and logistics, so fighting on the front was actually a liability! Yvonne moved ahead of Vicky, while Adam moved behind. She watched them both move, with an obvious difference between their sense of style. Adam wore his usual glass-like armor, with a heavy great shield and a spear. Yvonne, however, wore nothing but civilian clothes and held no weapons. Along the way, even Vicky changed her usual dress into a body enveloping cloak, so seeing someone so nonchalant made her curious. "Yvonne, why aren''t you wearing armor?" Asked the Princess after minutes of useless pondering. The tall woman glanced back with a smirk, then continued scanning the surroundings. Her words came slow and silent, trying to not draw any unwanted attention. "You should know already, Princess. As a Transcended, wearing armor has little to no benefit. Only special ones, like your mother''s or yours, worth anything. Most enemy blades will cut through any regular Transcended armor. Isn''t that right, Adam?" The taciturn blond man didn''t even glance back. He clearly took his job as Vicky''s defender, a lot more seriously than Yvonne. "You''re right. I only wear it, because it helps with my ability. Otherwise it''s mostly useless." Vicky stayed silent after hearing Adam''s answer. They continued walking along the corridor until they heard the croaking of ravens from above. About a dozen Transcended dropped down from the rafters, surrounding their party of three. They instantly identified the Princess, since she was the only one wearing a cloak that looked like the night sky. Without hesitation or exchange of words, the Transcended attacked. Five of them moved towards Yvonne, while another five attacked Adam. The last two moved towards Vicky. They all wore different armors, which hid their expressions. They also carried an abundance of weaponry, no formality within their ranks. Yvonne recognized their weapons, most of them were from Asian origin. The tall woman gritted her teeth, then shouted to Vicky with a grin splitting her face. "You know, I don''t think I ever demonstrated to you how is it when I use the Zone! Let''s treat this ambush as a learning experience, shall we?" The corridor''s width prevented any normal Transcended from transforming, but Yvonne had no such issues! Her transformation was pretty useless on most occasions. However, combat against humanoid opponents is what she excelled at! The five Transcended with their summoned weapons attacked. Their coordination was miserable, but each held formidable powers. Two of them were larger than the rest, carrying more physical strength in their step. One held a gigantic one-sided curved blade with strange rings at its top, while the other used a long, glaive-like weapon. Around Yvonne, a strange, metallic gray aura appeared. She stepped forward to meet the two Transcended. The aura formed into a spear, which landed in Yvonne''s hand. The two Transcended raised their weapons, attempting to slash the tall woman in two. "You are too slow!" Came the shout from Yvonne. She sidestepped her enemies and impaled both through their heads without breaking her stride. She also let go of the spear, which quickly fell apart, returning to its aura-like state. The other three Transcended lasted a bit longer, as they realized who they were facing against. "Dammit, it''s the Weapon Artist! You take care of the Princess! I''ll help the others!" One of the two men near Vicky spoke while pointing at Yvonne''s back. He then ran off instantly, his hands glowing with some spell. The world around Vicky moved in slow motion. She watched as the man raised his hand preparing to fire at her teacher''s back, while she still fought against the three Transcended. The young girl''s hands trembled under her cloak. Time continued passing slowly. The man raised his hands, red energy forming between his fingers. Vicky didn''t know what to do. Panic began setting in her mind, as fear overwhelmed her body. That''s when she heard Thea''s voice... ''Second Principle: Never fight emotionally!'' Immediately, the young Princess breathed in deep through her nose, and out through her mouth. Her nerves began to calm as raised her hand from below the cloak. A beautiful, dark blue dagger formed in her palm. Across its slender blade, glowing white lines danced. She arced back her arm, preparing to throw the blade, when she suddenly hesitated. Should she kill him? Is there no other way? Thea''s words echoed in her mind yet again... ''First Principle: Only kill when necessary!'' Vicky took another deep breath, her intricate dagger glinting in her palm. She recalled everything about the First Principle, then quickly made a decision... There was no point leaving this man alive! Her arm resumed its movement. She let go of the dark blue dagger, letting it fly straight towards the Transcended''s skull. The glow in his hands grew, and just as he prepared to shoot Yvonne in the back, a third eye formed on his forehead. Blood dripped from the newly formed wound, through which Vicky''s dagger stuck out. She breathed heavily as the man fell, like a puppet with its strings cut. Her hand still hadn''t returned below her cloak. Her mind instantly became doubtful... Was this the right choice? Could she let him live? Did he deserve to die? No answer came to her, however, she forgot about her surroundings for a split second. The other Transcended used this moment to snatch Vicky''s arm. Out of reflex, the Princess summoned a portal across the man''s neck, but before it fully formed, something strange happened... The world became dark! Vicky knew for certain she didn''t fall unconscious. She was still awake, but the Transcended used some kind of strange power. Was this the real world consumed by endless darkness? Or perhaps something more sinister? She wasn''t certain... She lifted her hand and saw her milky white palm. Also, looking down at herself, she saw her entire body, but below her feet, nothing seemed to exist. Out of curiosity, she tried using her spatial perception. Immediately after activating it, she fell on her knees, consumed by vertigo. The sticky feeling from the corridor now felt like swimming in glue. She couldn''t perceive anything, like nothing existed in her surroundings other than the glue-like, invisible substance. She also couldn''t make portals or use any of her powers. The only power she could use was making daggers. However, she couldn''t float or control them after releasing from her grip. The dagger also stayed material, even when ordered otherwise. It was as if this dark plain existed beyond reality. While Vicky still tried figuring out her whereabouts and way of escape, she glanced at something moving through the endless darkness. A humanoid shape, not quite perceivable by her eyes. She could barely guess its movement. However, there was certainly someone or something nearby. Distance didn''t exist in this endless plain of nothingness, so guessing the shape''s place and speed was nigh impossible. The best she could do was see its movement''s direction. Since the shape didn''t move either left or right, it was either moving backward or forward... It didn''t take a genius to know where it was heading! Vicky took a deep breath, calming her mind, then summoned more daggers into her hand. Her breathtaking cloak also disappeared at some point. Luckily, this time she listened to Yvonne''s teachings. Below her cloak, she wore her usual training shorts and shirt, but she still had nothing on her feet. It was strange. She could clearly feel some kind of ground beneath her bare feet, but when glancing down, only pure darkness existed. The shape continued walking towards her, slowly more became visible from its figure. A humanoid fairly tall with its entire body covered by dark metal armor. He carried a lone greatsword in one hand. The darkness seemed denser around his body, and some viscous fluid kept dripping from its blade. Vicky took up a defensive stance while constantly checking her surroundings. Usually, she would rely on her spatial perception, but sadly, the environment didn''t let her. She''ll have to thank Yvonne. When teaching her how to fight, she never let Vicky use even her passive abilities. This was she didn''t become overly reliant on them giving her a strong chance at achieving victory. Chapter 380: First Kill The black knight walked across the darkness with its greatsword held to the side. Some dark, viscous substance dripped from the long blade, letting join the nothingness below. Vicky kept her breathing calm while scanning the surroundings for signs of danger. She only perceived the black knight, but she also remembered the Third Principle: ''Respect your opponent, never underestimate your enemy!'' She summoned four daggers in each hand and held them like fans. It made throwing easier, while also giving a larger surface area for deflection and parry. The only downside of this hold was the lack of blocking ability. It was quite difficult to not break any fingers while defending herself. However, she never actually blocked blows, so this issue was easily mitigated. The tall figure walked without hurry. The actual distance played tricks on Vicky''s mind, but she could clearly see his form growing in size. Each step shook the surrounding darkness, but made no real sound or vibrations. Like the ground didn''t exist beneath their feet. Out of reflex, Vicky took one step closer. She felt the ground below her bare feet, but even her own steps made no noise. The black knight continued walking. This time, it was noticeably closer. It lifted its long blade, twirling it absently. From this distance, Vicky could judge its height. The black knight stood about two and a half meters tall, close to a meter higher than Vicky. The problem with fighting against Transcended was their monstrous regeneration. It took them less than a second to heal the glancing blows, and even the more devastating ones couldn''t kill them. Other than using some ability, the best way to kill was either by damaging the brain or destroying their heart! Since the black knight stood so high, and Vicky only used daggers, beheading seemed like an impossible task. However, its black armor also looked unpenetrable in this eternal darkness. "Dammit, this would be much easier using my powers!" Said Vicky, while trying to determine the best plan of attack. The large black knight grunted. His booming laughter soon echoed through the emptiness. "Of course it would be easier! That''s why I brought you here, where you''re powerless! I''ve been stationed near your bitch mother for an entire year, waiting for your rescue attempt!" Vicky narrowed her eyes at the black knight. He''s acting quite haughty, which means he''s confident in his victory. If they stationed him here, because of her possible appearance for an entire year, it meant Otto was working with the Asian city-states for the past year! The Princess gritted her teeth as her blood began to boil. Her calmness persisted on the outside, however, her heart raced from rage. One thing Vicky despised more than anyone was liars! If they wanted to join her enemy, that''s okay, but these backhanded manipulations really angered her. "We were assigned to watch over that dumb whore. I still don''t understand what the Master''s brother sees in her. Each night she wines about her daughter and some past lover... How pathetic!" Vicky took one step forward, anger nearly consuming her mind. The black knight continued closing in, and it took all of her willpower not to run towards him. "Second Principle... Never fight emotionally... Second Principle... Never fight emotionally..." She said repeatedly, using it as a mantra to calm her turbulent rage. "Eh? What are you mumbling? Are you so scared you began praying to your Goddess?... Just as pathetic as your mother!" A small smile appeared on Vicky''s face as she stared up at the tall black knight. He stood barely a few meters away. In her mind, Vicky continued her mantra, but she also focused back her attention on the surroundings. Something felt wrong around her, but nothing moved around her other than the knight. Just in case, she concentrated and activated Zone. The black knight stopped in his tracks and pointed his greatsword at Vicky. The black fluid continued dripping from his blade, falling into the abyss below. "Let''s end this Princess! I was ordered to keep you alive if possible, but I don''t quite feel like it, so... Die!" Vicky''s eyes widened as the man''s shout reverberated through the empty space. The surrounding darkness became even darker and sharp tendrils shot out, trying to impale the small girl. Her body moved without the need to command. With the long daggers held in her palm, she cut away most tendrils, while also dodging their sharp ends. She moved like a whirlwind, destroying every source of danger. Even without wearing any protective gear, they couldn''t even land a glancing blow. The black knight cursed under his breath, while watching the Princess''s movements. By his Master''s knowledge, she should''ve little to experience fighting in close combat. However, the young girl moved like someone born on the battlefield. She didn''t lack any experience. Her movements were near perfect, well-calculated and extremely fast. As she cut away more tendrils, the black knight decided to join the fray. He raised the greatsword and slashed down at the Princess like a foot trying to crush an ant. He aimed to bisect the young girl, but as his greatsword arced, she used her daggers to guide away the devastating weapon. She then stepped closer and tried cutting through the black knight''s armor. The darkness became tangible above the plate armor, making any attack useless. The Princess jumped away, as dozens of tendrils shot out in her direction. The black knight chuckled beneath his armor, then stepped forward once more. He bent down, and using all his power, he slashed horizontally with his sword. Vicky cut down a few tendrils, then flipped into the air, evading the greatsword. That''s when another dozen tendrils shot out from the eternal darkness. Below the helmet, the black knight grinned. While falling, the Princess had no chance of evading all these attacks! The young girl just took a deep breath and prepared her mind for the approaching pain. She didn''t try to cut away any tendrils, instead she placed the fan before the first tendril. The speed with which the pointy tendril hit her fan sent the small girl flying backward. She lost the grip on the daggers in her right hand, but at least not a single tendril damaged her. She landed back on the ground, and using her regained footing, she dodged and cut away every tendril, while slowly closing the distance towards the black knight. He swung his greatsword again. The same horizontal sweep, since that nearly worked the last time. The tendrils also attacked simultaneously. Instead of jumping away, Vicky sprinted and fell backwards. She slid past the greatsword and tendrils. She kept her momentum and stood up before the tall knight. From her left hand, she threw all the extra daggers at him, until only one remained. Another dagger also appeared in her right palm, and with the two weapons she tried stabbing the black knight''s chest. Her three thrown daggers also hit him, one on his right leg, another on his left shoulder, and a third aimed at his helmet. The darkness thickened around his body once more, defending against every blow. However, after backing away once again, Vicky noticed a tiny scratch on the black knight''s helmet. The Princess kept her calm, but in her mind, she was already celebrating. She finally saw the way forward and had a plan to kill the black knight. Still, she repeated each Principle in her mind, not letting the minor victory lead her astray. Tendrils attacked once more, but her body cut them down with ease. She barely thought about them, while closing in the distance for a third time. She sprinted across the empty plains as more daggers appeared in both her hands. Yesterday, during her training, Vicky figured out how many daggers she could throw accurately at the same time... Her record was six, with each hand! A dozen daggers flew from her hand, heading at different parts of the black knight''s body. As all the daggers flew, the man lost sight of Vicky. He frowned below his helmet and summoned the darkness around most of his body. With the increased number of attacks, a few daggers would reach his armor, but none would penetrate it... At least that''s what the black knight believed... Suddenly, the Princess appeared at the corner of his eyes. She held a dagger in each hand while flying towards the tall man. He tried raising his greatsword, but Vicky moved too fast. As a last ditch effort, he summoned thicker darkness near the area where the Princess''s blade would land. Exactly as her blades hit his chest plate, the other dozen daggers hit other parts of his body. The darkness, which he used for defense, became overwhelmed, and most of Vicky''s daggers penetrated his armor. The tall knight grunted in pain as the blades reached his skin, muscles, and maybe even bones. However, not one damaged his heart or brain. The pain quickly passed as his monstrous healing kicked in. Quickly, he reached towards Vicky''s small form, still stuck to his body. His gauntleted hand oozing with darkness nearly reached Vicky, when a sudden head-splitting pain appeared in the knight''s mind. He fell back, while screaming in agony. Something was horribly wrong... His entire body felt weak for some reason, as his head felt like exploding... Slowly, his vision became tinged red as blood flowed into his eyes... "What?... W-what''s happening?!" He whispered, while trying to touch his head. Vicky sighed in relief, while cautiously walking towards the man. Two more daggers appeared in her hands. The black knight saw her small approaching form, exactly when his hand touched something sticking out of his helmet... A dagger! "W-when?... H-how?... I didn''t..." As he continued mumbling, memories flashed before his eyes. When Vicky threw that dozen daggers at him, she tossed a thirteenth! He didn''t see it, because the dagger wasn''t aimed at him, not directly at least... He tossed it above, into the nothingness! She used the jump attack to push him right into the falling dagger''s trajectory. It easily penetrated his helmet, since the other attacks overwhelmed his defenses! "You... Y-you little..." He tried speaking, but a coughing fit came over him from the blood flowing down his throat. Vicky didn''t take her eyes off of the black knight, even though he could barely raise his gauntleted hand. She carefully walked around until she stood above his head. The man blinked slowly, staring into the young girl''s white eyes. Instead of the joy of victory, he only saw sadness and pity in its depths. "I''m sorry it ended like this. I couldn''t save you from this terrible fate... I promise I''ll get stronger and better, so I hopefully won''t have to kill my next opponent!" The black knight blinked once more, and the young Princess disappeared. Instead, he saw two dark bluish, glowing points approaching his eyes rapidly. He took one last, deep breath, before Vicky''s daggers entered his skull, taking his life! Chapter 381: Mercy Is Not an Option Adam looked down at the Transcended corpse with a beautiful, intricate dagger stuck in its head. He poked it with his spear, but he was truly dead. Footsteps approached the blond man wearing a glass-like, bloodied armor. The tall woman stopped by his side, her long metallic-gray hair gently swaying and lips twisted into a wide grin. "This was her first kill, wasn''t it?" Asked Adam from Yvonne. "Yes, I suppose. However, killing using a thrown dagger isn''t the same as taking a life in close combat!" He just grunted, then looked upon the corpses Yvonne killed. His eyes slowly narrowed, then he turned towards the tall woman with an accusatory glance. "You could''ve easily reached him, but instead you let Her Highness take him out. Why?" Yvonne smiled even more widely, then pointed behind her as she spoke. "I could''ve killed this guy, but his friend was even closer to the Princess. I didn''t want her first kill to be a moral dilemma! It makes the second kill much easier!" Adam continued staring into the woman''s metallic-gray eyes, then a few seconds later, he turned away. He approached the floating black orb, which oozed with some kind of dark, viscous liquid. His right hand reached out, but before it could''ve touched its surface, Yvonne caught it. "I don''t think that''s a good idea. It''s some kind of small pocket dimension. We don''t know what''s within!" The tall man snatched his hand away and turned towards Yvonne angrily. "The Princess is fighting in there, for the Goddess''s sake! I won''t let harm come to her! I''m going in!" Yvonne just shook her head and laughed. "You have that little faith in the Princess''s abilities? Well, you didn''t train her, so you wouldn''t know... That little girl is a true monster! She learned what took me years, under a week!" Suddenly, Yvonne reached over Adam''s shoulder and grinned at the floating black orb. "This, right here, is just another test! With her powers and fighting capabilities, there is barely any Transcended who could cause her issues! However, she needs to learn how to kill, not just from a range, but in close combat... Otherwise, it''ll break her..." Adam opened his mouth to disagree, but even he couldn''t deny the merit of Yvonne''s words. Her methods might not be the safest, but they''ll definitely provide the fastest results. He wanted to keep Vicky away for harm, however she also needs to grow as a leader and fighter. The best way to keep her safe was by letting her learn, so she wouldn''t rely on others! His hand stayed in the air, but soon it fell to his side, while he sighed with despair. "Dammit, my wife will kill me after this!" He said, causing the tall woman to burst into laughter. "I''m sure Lilith will understand. She''s a smart girl, a bit too fanatical, but nobody''s perfect!" Adam turned towards Yvonne with a raised eyebrow, signalling her stupidity. "Lilith and understand in the same sentence? She told me if I let Vicky out of my sight, then I''ll have to do what she says for an entire month!" The tall woman glanced at the younger married man with a stupid smirk. "Isn''t that what you always do? I thought husbands are supposed to obey their wives!" He turned towards Yvonne with an angry glare, while she burst into laughter. Eventually, he just sighed and shook his head with self-deprecation. "That''s not what I meant. Since Nick''s birth, Lilith had baby fever... She keeps pestering me to have a child of our own, but I told her not until the end of this war!... But now she''ll use this as an excuse to try for a baby!" Yvonne didn''t laugh at his words. She just smiled at him genuinely. Even though he complained, just speaking about his wife brought a wide smile to his face. He truly loved her! "I think you should wait with a baby. How old are you two? Nineteen? Twenty? I''m close to thirty and don''t even have a partner!" This time, Adam grinned wickedly at the tall woman, his deep orange eyes full of mischief. "Thirty? I didn''t know you were elderly! Also, why don''t you have a partner? I''m sure many men would enjoy your... Uh... They would find something likeable in you!" Yvonne furrowed her eyebrows, then began laughing with her entire body. She even hit Adam on the back, which nearly sent him into the black floating orb. "I thought the young should respect their elders!... Anyway, I''m sure many men would find me enjoyable, especially in bed, but I would quite like their presence... I''m more into other type of people, ones with curvier bodies, especially near the chest!" She winked at Adam, who didn''t seem surprised by her answer. "Ah, yes. I heard!... You''re even in pursuit of one of these big chested individuals, aren''t you? A tall one, with long golden hair and similar feathered wings? Someone taciturn? Who''s best friend is a snake-woman and a goblin?... Am I right?" The tall woman spat on the ground while gritting her teeth. A small blush appeared on her strong face, which made it quite adorable. "Did Kim tell you? I swear that woman can''t keep anything hidden!" "That''s the price when everybody likes you. You''ll become a gossip machine!... But, don''t worry. I''m sure Astrid still doesn''t know. That woman is extremely clueless about everything!" His words did little to cheer Yvonne up. She hadn''t told Astrid anything about her feelings yet, because like any normal human being, she''s scared of rejection. "Yeah, I know... Ah... It makes my job so much harder! Why can''t she learn my feelings from an outside source, then either ignore it or confront me!... Also, why is this the hardest task I''ve ever done in my life!" Adam just laughed while Yvonne sulked about her future confession. "Don''t worry, I''m sure Astrid feels the same way. She''s just much less comfortable showing any emotions! Just ask her out for dinner or whatever single people do for dates!" The tall woman snorted, her lips twisting into a small, thankful smile. She ''gently'' bumped into Adam. He nearly touched the black orb again. "Shut up, Mr. Married Man! You have it easy, so don''t look down on us single folk!" They both chuckled a bit, then turned silent as they continued waiting for Vicky''s arrival. "Who''s Nick?" Asked Yvonne, after minutes of silence. "You said Lilith has baby fever because of him, so who''s this Nick?" Adam''s eyes suddenly widened. Inside his mind, he began cursing himself for revealing Nick''s name. He looked around, desperately finding an excuse or a lie. Yvonne saw his distress too and grew even more curious. Luckily, he didn''t need to answer. Just as his despair grew, the black orb began rapidly growing in size until it eventually popped. From the dissipating darkness, Vicky''s kneeling form appeared. Before her, a tall black knight laid with a bunch of daggers sticking out of his body and three daggers from his head! "Wow, I didn''t expect you''d make him into a pincushion! Couldn''t you do it with fewer daggers?" Yvonne obviously tried to abolish the solemn atmosphere immediately. Her attempt, however, only met silence. Vicky continued staring at the corpse with an expressionless face, then slowly she rose to her feet. Adam quickly walked to help her, but she raised her hand, stopping his movements. "I''m fine, just a bit nauseous... Let''s keep going... His ability suppressed mine, and that''s why I couldn''t scout, but now that I... Now that he''s dead, I know exactly where every enemy is hiding!" The Princess began walking, and her two protectors fell behind her. Neither questioned the changes in their formation. Vicky seemed much more confident, but they also saw the jumpiness in her eyes. She actively ignored thinking about her first kills, which wasn''t the healthiest coping mechanism. Adam was about to say something inspiring or calming, however, Vicky was faster "The black knight revealed a bit of information before the fight began. It seems Otto and his brother worked with the Asian continent for the past year or so. At least that''s how long he guarded my mother!" "Wait, what?! We have only known about their existence for less than a year!" Said Yvonne, while both outraged and impressed. "Otto and Victor... The older brothers of Sarah... You think she also knows about everything? Did she betray us?" Asked Adam, while his hands trembled from anger. Vicky glanced back, but continued walking. She seemed thoughtful for a moment, before finally shrugging and answering. "I''m not sure about Sarah, however... The black knight believed I had little to know fighting knowledge. We obviously kept my capabilities a secret from the public, but Sarah and all my other friends knew about it... If she was a spy, then the enemy should''ve prepared for me better!" Both Adam and Yvonne breathed a small sigh of relief. They would rather not question anyone''s allegiance... Distrust is a slippery slope, accusations alone could have devastating consequences! "We''ll have Lilith check her out, just in case. We won''t keep our suspicions a secret, and judging by her reaction, we''ll determine her allegiance... If she''s with us, any information about Victor or Otto will prove helpful!" They nearly reached the end of the corridor when Vicky abruptly stopped. She turned around and stared seriously into her bodyguards'' eyes. "These people were sent here to either kill or capture me! I would love to show them mercy, but I''ll not allow them to threaten my or my mother''s life... Mercy''s not an option! I''ll lead the charge, while you two support me from behind! Understood?" Yvonne nodded with a proud grin, while Adam narrowed his eyes. He tried gauging any doubt on Vicky''s face, but she looked confident and rational... She seemed even calmer than Adam himself! Eventually, the blond man nodded too, and together they turned the corridor, engaging the Transcended assassins! Chapter 382: Ensnared Perfectly The Princess walked down the corridor confidently. Since she liberated her spatial perception from the black knight''s strange power, she could feel every raven and Transcended inside the castle. They hid behind pillars above in the rafters and in the rooms along the corridor. Every single one turned back to human upon Vicky''s appearance. Close to twenty Transcended, each clad in armor holding a weapon or prepared to shoot some projectile. Vicky took one deep breath and summoned a single dagger. It floated by her shoulder, pointing at the enemy. Behind her, the strange aura appeared around Yvonne, while Adam''s armor became liquid glass. They both curiously awaited Vicky''s next action. The Princess looked into the enemy''s eyes, then spoke with unmatched authority. "I already deemed you all beyond saving, but just in case, let me give you one more chance! If you kneel and drop your weapons, I''ll promise no harm will come your way! You won''t be tortured or interrogated! You''ll be prisoners of war!" The twenty Transcended looked at the small girl, then they shared a long glance. One of them, standing at the front, began laughing, and like a chorus, the rest followed. "I think you failed in math, little girl! Even though you might be more powerful individually, the disparity in our numbers closes the power gap easily!..." "But we''re merciful as well! If you and your friends put down your weapons and call off the attack across the castle, we''ll promise not to harm you!" Vicky just sighed and mumbled under her breath... "At least I tried!" Without any warning, she sent the dagger flying straight into a portal. As she attacked, the Fourth Principle came to her mind: ''Aim for precision and speed, unnecessary brutality is forbidden!'' Only one dagger entered the portal. However, a moment later, similar portals opened behind every Transcended''s head. From them, the exact same dagger exited! Half of the Transcended reacted in time and managed to evade the weapons. The less fortunate fell forward with a dagger sticking out of their skulls. With their numbers suddenly halved, the ten Transcended looked at the confident Princess with boiling hatred. Vicky wanted to offer them another chance at surrendering, but seeing their combat stances, they had no intention of letting her live. She took another deep breath and summoned her cloak. It enveloped her entire body, reflecting the night sky. Soon after, her enemies began sprinting towards the Princess. Instead of engaging them on the spot, she teleported away. She didn''t need to open any portals, since her cloak was already a portal! The young girl appeared behind the last melee Transcended. From her cloak, two hands with daggers reached out, stabbing the woman in the chest, piercing her heart. She fell over dead, while the three Transcended, shot different types of projectiles at Vicky. The Princess didn''t even try evading them. The bullets, arrows and spells entered her cloak and disappeared. In the next moment, Vicky''s body teleported as well, behind the three shooters. They tried fighting against the small girl by summoning their own close-combat weapons. One Transcended raised his sword to block Vicky''s dagger, but it looked different. Instead of the previous dark blue, its blade had the same pattern as Vicky''s cloak. He expected his weapon to block the blade, however it did nothing. The dagger cut straight through the Transcended''s weapon and landed in between the man''s eyes. From the cloak''s infinite depths, two more daggers flew out. The other two tried defending as well. However, no physical barrier could stop Vicky''s daggers. By the time she killed them, the other six Transcended died too. Both Yvonne and Adam walked up to Vicky with calm, measured steps. They had quite a bit of blood over their bodies, especially Yvonne, who seemed to have bathed in some poor soul''s innards. "Hmm... Thea didn''t lie when she said you love brutality... Disgusting!" The tall woman chuckled at Vicky''s words. Then, without saying anything else, they moved on. The Princess''s perception guided them along the corridors. They only had to fight a handful of times, and soon they reached a large, fancy double door. Behind it, Vicky felt at least five Transcended, waiting to shoot their projectiles at the door. She didn''t care about them though... In the corner of the room, she felt a sixth presence! Vicky took one shaky breath as a small smile spread across her face. She glanced behind at her two bodyguards and whispered... "Be right back!" The young girl disappeared and soon screams echoed from inside the chamber! ... Hope filled Bea''s body while looking at the beautifully carved double door. She knew sending that message would begin something like this, however she didn''t expect her daughter to act so fast. It''s been barely an hour or two since she sent it, but her rescue party has already arrived. She felt their presence beyond the doorway, but she couldn''t identify them. Bea three living human presences outside the doorway. Deep down, she hoped Vicky wasn''t one of them. All these five Transcended standing guard were extremely strong. They were personally keeping watch over Bea for the past year. They didn''t mock or looked down on her, which was strangely pleasant. Their entire demeanor suggested strict professionalism... Now they stood ready to kill anyone dumb enough to open that door! Bea stayed in the corner, with her legs pulled up to her chest. Chains bound her arms to the wall, restricting her mobility. Months ago, one of the guards pulled out a syringe and drugged her with something. It stopped her essence flow for days, sometimes even weeks. This surprised the guards. Supposedly, the drug should''ve made any essence flow impossible indefinitely. However, for Bea''s body, it took less and less time after each drugging attempt. Now, its effects barely last for an entire day! Sadly, they drugged her just when the assault on the castle began, so most of her essence stayed locked. She could passively sense living creatures, but that''s about it. She took deep breaths, keeping her calm, trying to not alert her guards. Even then, she accidentally took a sharp intake of breath when one of the humans disappeared. Bea blinked once and suddenly a small, cloaked person appeared inside the chamber. She stood at about 160 centimeters, with a cloak that resembled the night sky. The other five Transcended hadn''t noticed the girl yet, and she didn''t give them the chance. Nearly a hundred floating daggers appeared around the girl. They shot out towards all the Transcended, turning every single one into pincushions. None of them died yet, but all of them screamed in pain. After they fell to their knees, she opened a portal at each of their necks, decapitating them all. Vicky took one moment to stare at their corpses, then turned around towards her mother. She looked down at the chains binding Bea with disgust. She prepared to cut the chain, but then her white eyes met Bea''s beautiful forest green ones. Surprisingly, instead of relief, only terror and panic showed in her mother''s eyes. Bea opened her mouth, trying to speak, but no words came out. Only then she remembered... They cut her vocal cords when the assault began... While still panicking, she began frantically pointing behind Vicky, where the five ''not so dead'' Transcended got to their feet. Just like the black knight, these five were also sent here to counter and capture Vicky. Since she could use surprise attacks any time, they needed to fool her. They knew she would come straight to Bea, to rescue her. They also knew how easily she can move around and kill. That''s why one of the five Transcended had the power to heal all of their wounds, even deadly ones. The power used a lot of essence, but it proved perfect for counter Vicky. That wasn''t the worst, though. The other four didn''t just carry weapons, they specialized exactly in attacks Vicky couldn''t defend against... Mind and soul attacks! The Princess, seeing her mother''s distress, quickly turned. Just as her eyes widened in surprise, a multitude of attacks landed on her. A beautiful female Transcended, who wore no armor, opened her mouth. She said a single word while pointing at Vicky... "Ensnare!" Suddenly, Vicky fell to her knees. She couldn''t move a single muscle, as if bound by some invisible force. Another Transcended, a man looked into Vicky''s confused, desperate white eyes. His swirling white and black eyes mesmerized the Princess. Her thoughts became sluggish, and she lost the will to teleport away into safety. The third Transcended walked up to Vicky. His hands began glowing, and he gently touched the cloak enveloping her body. It turned into specks of light, leaving Vicky defenseless. The fourth Transcended, another beautiful woman, but shorter and younger, approached Vicky as well. She placed her hand on the Princess''s forehead, causing her experience excruciating pain in her soul. Vicky opened her mouth, prepared to scream from the top of her lungs, when suddenly the last Transcended, the one who revived everyone, moved. He, using Vicky''s own dropped dagger, stabbed the blade through her throat. It cut her vocal cords and even her spine. He left it in, so Vicky couldn''t heal from the severe wounds. In excruciating pain; her body unresponsive; her mind sluggish; without outer protection and her spine cut... There was nothing she could do, as the last Transcended moved towards her with syringe in hand... The trap was perfect. The five Transcended knew exactly how to counter Vicky''s powers. Even her training couldn''t prepare her for such an extensive attack. What truly surprised even Vicky was the lack of malice in her attackers'' eyes. They showed no emotion whatsoever, like this was nothing but a regular job. With was perfectly ensnared, but the five Transcended miscalculated at some point... They severely underestimated a mother''s desire to protect their child! Chapter 383: A Mothers Wrath After such a long time, Bea finally met her daughter. Her eyes welled with tears just from Vicky''s near presence. But then her guards attacked in perfect unison. They eliminated all of Vicky''s defenses and didn''t even let her call for help. Bea screamed soundlessly, as her vocal cords were cut as well. She rattled her chains in desperation, trying to get free and help her daughter. Then came the syringe. That horrible emptiness that coursed through her very own veins. The feeling of being cutoff from your essence. That suffocating hell... She didn''t want her daughter to suffer like she does! A strange calm took over Bea''s body. She took one deep breath and felt the world slow. Her eyes closed for a moment as she collected all her power. A moment later, they snapped open. Two glowing orbs, but also another color... Deep within her eyes, a bit of gold seemed to appear... Suddenly, she felt her blood boil as her anger grew. She swore to be compliant, so no citizens of Castleburg would get hurt, but every mother had one limit... Their child! Bea''s greenish skin began glowing too. Slowly, she felt the connection with her essence reestablish. The Transcended also noticed the strange glow, and turned towards Bea, their faces showing clear surprise. "Get... Your Fucking... Hands Off... MY DAUGHTER!" She screamed with all her rage while her muscles flexed. The chain bounding her arms broke without issue, and she instantly jumped forward, like a rabid animal. Her essence still hadn''t fully unlocked, but she could feel her Transcended power returning. A longsword grew from her right palm. It felt strange holding a weapon again after a year of absence. For a moment, a pang of fear appeared in Bea''s heart... Does she remember how to even use it? While her mind stayed confused, her muscles had no such issues. She jumped forward in a whirlwind, cutting away a Transcended''s arm, stabbing through another one''s leg, slashing at a third''s back. Before the five Transcended even realized, three of them laid on the ground. Bea breathed heavily, her body still struggling with the poison. Sadly, she failed to kill or incapacitate the only Transcended who could stop her... "Ensnare!" Said the woman from the back. Behind her, the other surviving Transcended regenerated his friends'' wounds. Bea stayed standing. However, her muscles stopped working. Her entire body trembled as she struggled to move. The woman pointed at Bea once more; her face still showing no malic or joy... "Break!" Suddenly, Bea fell over as every bone broke in her body. She couldn''t even scream. The pain was too sudden and overwhelming. Her vision blurred as tears appeared in her eyes. She laid near her daughter''s unconscious form. The woman, still pointing at Bea, began walking towards her. She knelt before the angry mother, with her hand only centimeters away from Bea''s forehead. "Someone message Xinya! We need evacuation immediately!" Shouted the beautiful woman, kneeling before Bea. Her bright grayish-green eyes turned back towards Bea. She leaned a bit closer and whispered into her ear. "Our Master said keeping you alive is top priority, so I won''t kill you, but I sure as hell can make you suffer! Try cooperating, and everything will be fine, both for you and your daughter!" Bea''s quick regeneration kicked in, and all her bones mended themselves instantly. She stared into the woman''s eyes as a wild grin spread across her face. "I won''t let you leave with either me or my daughter!" Suddenly, Bea''s entire body dissolved into the ground, and moments later the world began trembling. The entire castle and most of Castleburg felt the earthquake shaking everything. The citizens, soldiers, everybody went out to the streets and balconies. They watched through their windows, pointing at the city''s monument, the giant castle in the middle. The enormous building shook. Its walls fractured and towers broke. Vines began spreading over the stone, suffocating the building. With a loud bang, a tree''s giant trunk broke through the roof. Its branches moved across walls and rooms. It continued growing higher. After reaching hundreds of meters towering over the castle, its branches began spreading wider, until the tree took over even the castle''s surrounding fields. Green leaves grew on the branches, and flowers... Beautiful, giant, crimson flowers with seven long petals, appeared on every branch, painting the tree red... The moon''s rays seemed to dance around the newly made crimson tree, welcoming it into the world. Back in the chamber, the five Transcended panicked. They saw magical, horrifying and outright impossible events, but this wasn''t something they could ever prepare for! A branch grew straight into the chamber. A single human-sized flower appeared on the branch. Something moved in it, and soon the crimson flower bloomed! Bea stepped out from the flower, clad in intricate crimson armor, with a long sword growing out of her hand. Behind her back, a pair of glowing green energy wings appeared. "Shit, message Xinya! We need EVAC right now!" Shouted the ensnaring woman, while another Transcended furiously typed on his watch. Bea''s eyes snapped at the person typing. She took seemingly one step forward and appeared before the Transcended. Both his hands flew through the air, blood dripping from the wounds. The wooden floor below began blooming smaller crimson flowers wherever the blood drops landed. He tried screaming, but soon roots grew out of the floor, enveloping his entire body. They penetrated his skin. They moved through his veins and muscles until they reached his heart. Thorns grew from the roots as they enveloped the man''s heart in a suffocating embrace. In the next moment, he died, leaving only blooming crimson flowers behind. From the giant branch, vines grew and slowly moved along the floor. They reached Vicky''s unconscious body, gently enveloping and lifting her. They pulled her towards the main branch, where a large, blooming flower hugged her small body. It enclosed and kept her safe, while Vicky''s mother deals with the threat. The ensnaring woman cursed once more as she watched their prey disappear. From a single look, she knew exactly that opening that flower wasn''t possible for them. While her enemies were still distracted, Bea moved towards the second Transcended. His whirling eyes made Bea''s brain sluggish, slowing her thought process. Her body, however, didn''t need the brain to operate. With a single slash, she bisected the man from crotch to head. The two halves plopped to the ground, his innards falling out. More crimson flowers grew around the second corpse. The ensnaring woman typed on her watch, sending message after message to Xinya. Finally, after many excruciating seconds, she received a simple answer... ''On my way!'' Bea rushed towards two more Transcended. They tried summoning weapons, but Bea''s speed overwhelmed them too quickly. They fell to the ground in a shower of blood, causing a field of crimson flowers to grow. The last Transcended pointed at Bea and opened her mouth. Before any words could''ve left her lips, Bea appeared before her, with the woman''s hand separated from her arm. She then stabbed forward with her longsword, aiming for the woman''s widened, terrified eyes. Just as the blade was about to impale her, suddenly, it broke into hundreds of wooden splinters. As fast as possible, Bea jumped to the side while turning around. A sixth Transcended appeared inside the room. The woman wore some kind of robe. Her silvery-white hair gently blew in the night''s breeze. Her piercing, dark blue eyes stared at the ensnaring woman with obvious disapproval. What truly fascinated Bea was the magnificent, dark, curved blade held by the strange newcomer. There were strange symbols etched into its surface, making the weapon even more breathtaking. The pale woman had similar features to Kim, but she also seemed different. Her paleness wasn''t just from her natural skin tone, but from exhaustion. Under her fierce eyes, dark bags hinted at her tiredness. She clicked her tongue a few times, while looking at the corpses and shaking her head. "You''re all so useless... Can''t do anything on your own. Pathetic!" The ensnaring woman fell to her knees, blood still trickling from her hand. While avoiding looking into the newcomer''s eye, she pointed at the large crimson flower. "That''s where the Princess is... She''s still unconscious..." The woman snorted haughtily, then began walking towards the crimson flower, without even glancing at Bea. Bea, of course, didn''t care if the woman ignored her. She just grew another sword and attacked the woman faster than anyone could''ve reacted. Xinya just sighed sadly and cut the air with her dao. Suddenly, Bea''s body exploded into blood and little pieces of flesh. The Asian woman just continued walking with a sad smile... "Dammit, my Mentor won''t like this outcome. We should''ve kept her alive!" "Don''t worry, asshole! I''m not dead yet!" Came the shout from behind Xinya. She halted and glanced back, surprise evident on her pale face. The pieces of flesh knitted themselves together extremely fast. Xinya''s eyes widened and she cut with her dao once more. Again, Bea exploded into a bloody cloud, only to regenerate a second later. Her laughter echoed inside the chamber as she took one step closer to Xinya. The Asian woman tried slashing Bea again, and again, and again. However, each time Bea exploded, she regenerated faster and faster, closing in the distance. After about the hundredth cut, she didn''t even explode. Only cuts appeared over her body, which knitted themselves immediately. The next cut, Xinya tried to make, was stopped by Bea''s own weapon! Chapter 384 384: Tree of Light The wooden blade met with Xinya''s dark metal dao. Even though her weapon was metal, Bea''s wooden longsword easily stopped it. The woman''s crimson armor grew blood-red flowers wherever her own blood spilled. But it wasn''t just her armor all over the chamber. The walls, ceiling, branches, ground, everywhere the floors bloomed! Their seven petals opened graciously, and as the night breeze danced around them, small golden specks of pollen fell from the flowers. The air began feeling heavier around Xinya, and she reflexively stopped breathing. The ensnaring woman, however, wasn''t as smart. After a few breaths, she began coughing up blood. In her veins, dark roots appeared, and soon they broke her skin, blooming more flowers. She continued coughing up blood, and while falling on her back, more flowers grew out of her throat. The seven-petalled crimson flowers seemed beautiful in contrast to the dying woman. Even though Xinya held her breath, a few specks of pollen still reached her lungs. She felt them growing inside her body. Soon she began coughing up blood too, but still she kept her eyes on Bea. Vicky''s mother dismissed her armor, and instead wore a flowing, magnificent crimson dress, seemingly weaved from flower petals. She even made her sword grow back into her palm, deeming Xinya harmless. "Don''t worry, it''ll be over soon. My flowers will take care of you and anyone trying to harm my daughter!" Slowly, Bea walked up to Xinya. Vines grew around her legs and as she held out her palm, a single blood-red flower bloomed there. She leaned in and took a deep breath from the pollen filled air. "Isn''t it beautiful? Just from looking at it, you wouldn''t think it can kill you so fast... Anyway, you really shouldn''t have underestimated a Worldtree. Thinking you can deal with me, with that puny dismantling trick..." Bea laughed to herself, then raised her palm and blew pollen straight into Xinya''s face. The pale woman''s eyes widened, and she immediately slashed with her blade. Bea expected getting cut to pieces once more. However, the woman didn''t intend to fight anymore. Her weapon cut open the fabric of reality, opening a portal right behind her. She took one step back, and the portal closed off immediately. "Huh... Didn''t expect she would run away so easily... She seemed like a feisty one, but I guess the pollen in her lungs was enough to scare her... More importantly!" Suddenly, Bea turned away from the corpses and rushed towards the gigantic flower. They slowly spread open, revealing Vicky''s unconscious form. She breathed in the pollen too, however it had no effect on the Princess. In fact, many of the Angelic Order''s soldiers breathed it in, since the pollen spread from the millions of blooming flowers all over the castle. While the soldiers experienced no changes, their enemies all fell to their knees, coughing up blood. The ravens, trying to get away from the castle, began blooming flowers too, and soon fell to their deaths. While holding her daughter, Bea stepped on the large branch, which began rapidly growing once more. They broke out of the remnant chamber and stood below the beautiful night sky. The moon shined brightly as a flying figure flew into the sky. A golden-winged and armored woman moved around with her spear, killing every raven still alive. "Hey! That''s cheating! I can''t fly!" Came the shout from behind Bea. The brown-haired woman glanced back and saw a few familiar faces approaching. Kim, Adam, Lilith, Cass, and a similar-looking tall man and woman walked up the branch. They all glanced at Vicky''s unconscious form, then at the woman in a crimson dress, gently cradling her. While Kim and Cass hurried to Bea''s side, Lilith just pulled Adam away angrily. Their loud shout reached everyone''s ears, even from inside the castle. When Yvonne and Yannick tried to approach, Bea''s guards instantly went up. She hasn''t met either yet, so letting them close to her vulnerable daughter was out of the question! They also noticed the hostility and distrust in Bea''s eyes, and decided to stay further away. Neither planned on ending up like all the corpses inside the castle. "You don''t have to be so wary of Yvonne and Yannick. They are siblings who both helped during the eastern expedition. Yvonne also thought Vicky how to fight, and judging by Adam''s praise, she isn''t half bad!" Kim''s words brought a different look to Bea''s eyes. She glanced at both the tall woman and her taller brother with closed eyes. After a few moments, she just snorted and turned back towards Astrid''s flight. "We''ll see if you''re good enough to tech Vicky... For now, I''m curious. In my message, I told Vicky to only help, if she can guarantee the safety of every Castleburg citizen. Otto will definitely be mad when he learns about this!" A shiver went across Bea''s body, and she needed all her power not to show the pain of her heart. Even though Otto betrayed her and everyone Bea cared for, she still loved her a year ago. It made his betrayal much worse, causing severe pain to Bea''s already broken heart. The worst was her lack of knowledge. She had no clue why Otto had suddenly snapped... Or maybe it wasn''t sudden, she just ignored the signs... Before the feelings could''ve overwhelmed her, Bea bottled everything up and instead glanced down at her daughter, peacefully sleeping in her arms. Cass walked up beside her, placing one hand on Bea''s shoulder. She glanced back at the divinely alluring woman, but strangely, no lust showed in her eyes. Even the most devoted married couple, like Adam and Lilith, would blush when looking into Cass''s bright pink eyes. Whoever, Bea didn''t seem the care the slightest. She just gracefully smiled, then turned back to her daughter. "You don''t need to worry about the citizens. We prepared for Operation Castlefall a long time ago!" Said Cass, while leaning in and pointing towards a specific point in the sky. There, a few ravens managed to escape both the golden pollen and Astrid''s spear. They continued flying higher and higher into the sky until eventually they hit the barrier... The Aegis System! The ravens desperately pecked away at the barrier, with no result. "Mary and James already made Aegis System Generators to every city within Europe. We haven''t activated the ones in Paris, Madrid and Barcelon, but with the addition of Castleburg, nearly all of Europe is under our control!" Bea nodded in understanding, watching as Astrid flew towards the desperate ravens. Suddenly, metallic arrows began raining down atop the flying creatures, each hitting one or more. They all turned around and saw Yvonne load another arrow into her strange metal bow. She loosed one arrow after the other with perfect form, never missing her target. After a few seconds, she stopped and looked at her friends in confusion... "What is it? I couldn''t let Astrid have all the fun!" Yannick, Cass, and Kim giggled at her response... "I''m sure you didn''t just try to impress her!" Said Cass, while watching the ravens die in the sky. The tall woman''s face burned red, but she didn''t refute the succubus''s claim. Instead, she turned back towards the sky, and continued shooting arrows. Bea watched it for a few moments, then glanced down at Cass standing by her side. "What I don''t understand is where you get the energy for the Aegis System... Bran is... Bran isn''t with us anymore, so how do you power it?" Her words caused both Cass and Kim to turn away, sadness evident in their eyes. The alluring succubus took a few seconds to compose herself, then turned back towards Bea while faking her smile. "I have no idea. James told me they created some machine that imitate Bran''s power... It''s not nearly as efficient, and uses a lot more energy. The tree you''ve planted couldn''t even keep up, and it''s slowly dying... Could you maybe heal it?" Bea just laughed at Cass''s request. The branch below their feet changed as more leaves and flowers began growing from it. A few seconds later, Bea gently placed her daughter down on her newly made crimson red sofa. She also sat down and placed her daughter''s head into her lap. With one hand, she gently brushed Vicky''s white hair out of her face, letting the moonlight reach her. Yvonne and Yannick stared at Bea in awe, while Kim and Cass just rolled their eyes. However, Bea wasn''t done yet. Behind them, the tree began rapidly growing again, climbing up towards the barrier. It was a few kilometers above the city, and the tree easily reached it after a few minutes of rapid growth. When direct contact was established, the Aegis System began glowing with a bright green color. The tree''s vines or roots spread across the shield, making it even stronger. But something even stranger happened... Across the tall and wide branches, golden flowers began blooming. They also had seven petals, but were in a different shape than the crimson ones. As they opened, gentle light shone down upon the entirety of Castleburg. A few seconds ago, the city''s natural light disappeared, when the gigantic branches hid the moon. However, with the golden, glowing flowers, Castleburg became as bright as in the day. The citizens watched this and everyone else watched this all in awe. The light slowly dimmed until it was only bright as the moon''s glow. Bea made them, so their brightness would cycle between day and nighttime, so the citizens wouldn''t lose track of time. Cass''s eyes slowly moved from the amazing sight above, down at the grinning lady, wearing a flowing crimson dress. "''Could I maybe heal it?'' Please... I can make it much better!" Chapter 385: Operations End The enormous tree''s presence made Henry''s job much easier. While Astrid, Yvonne, Kim and Yannick hunted down the rest of the ravens, he ran straight for the military headquarters. When he stepped inside the conference room, without even saying a word, every military official bent the knee before the Prince. They witnessed the disparity between their military might and Bea''s power. They also valued their own lives a lot more than their allegiance and loyalty. There were even Angelic Order spies in their midst! The military officials also ordered any guard and soldier to stand down. Most citizens were already on the Angelic Order''s side, since most people followed their faith. Operation Castlefall ended as a resounding success. Other than a few wounded Transcended, whom Bea swiftly healed, everyone was fine. About a hundred Transcended attacked, and not a single loss of life. The citizens celebrated this event as their liberation day. Otto''s rule was fine at first, but they weren''t stupid either. The people quickly figured out the cause of the strange deaths. Slowly, every citizen began hating Otto. However, they couldn''t do anything against a Stellar. They couldn''t even escape the city, since for regular humans, it''s a death sentence! They suffered under his hidden cruelty, fearing the moment he would finally snap and kill everyone. News about Castleburg''s revolt quickly spread throughout the world, reaching every important ear, including Otto''s. The dragon-like man became so enraged, he nearly burned down one of the Asian cities. Luckily, his brother was there to calm him down. A day after the operation. Henry and everyone else worried about the Order of the Raven''s retaliation, or Otto''s desperate attack. Surprisingly, nothing happened. Even after dealing all those deaths, the Asian city-states released no statement of the attack. Obviously, they tried to hide their involvement! While everyone was healed within hours of the attack, Vicky only woke up two days later. Bea healed all her physical wounds, but even she couldn''t heal her daughter''s soul. Out of the five Transcended, the man who touched her forehead caused the heavy damage, plunging the young girl into a short coma. While nobody could heal her soul, given time, it''ll always mend itself. Two days after the operation, Vicky''s eyes began fluttering. The young Princess took a deep breath and groaned from the pain in her chest. Her eyes gradually opened, revealing a horribly blurry world. She blinked a few times, confusion evident on her face. Suddenly, her white eyes widened, and she jumped to her feet, terrified. "Mom!" Shouted Vicky, then fell to her knees, while coughing up blood... "Fuck... What happened?... Where''s Bea?" She continued coughing, while fast footsteps approached. The young girl glanced at the nearby wooden door, vision still not clear. Someone, possibly a woman wearing a bright red dress, stepped through the doorway. Vicky blinked frantically, trying to escape the blurriness. But before she regained her vision, the woman suddenly lunged at her! The young Princess fell back, her face full of fear. She tried summoning her dagger, however, her essence was in disarray. Vicky opened her mouth to scream for help, but before any voice could''ve left her vocal cords, she recognized her ''attacker''s'' scent. The scent of fresh flowers. The scent of the forest after rain. The scent of dewy morning grass. The scent of life. The scent of nature itself!... Her mother''s scent! Tears welled in Vicky''s eyes as her mother tightly embraced her seemingly fragile body. She instantly felt the shakes of Bea''s shoulder as she began weeping. The sobs soon arrived at Vicky''s body as well. She threw her arms around Bea, relived and joyous about her wellbeing. They stayed hugging for long minutes, maybe even hours. The long year apart took its toll on both mother and daughter. Neither could bring themselves to begin the conversation after spending so much time apart... Not like either needed to... Just their closeness spoke volumes of their feelings. It told everything either wanted to know, and instead of bringing up the past, they worried about the present. First, Bea explained everything about the current state of Castleburg, bringing Vicky up to speed. The Princess continued smiling as her mother spoke. With her head in Bea''s lap, she enjoyed her gently patting her white hair. While Bea continued talking, Vicky glanced around her room for the first time. It was a cozy chamber, with a tall ceiling and wide windows covered by curtains. Strangely, only natural materials like wood and leaves made up the room. Even the lighting above their heads, a small golden flower gently glowed, illuminating the chamber. She reached out and touched the bed below, and just as she guessed, it was made of moss, leaves and flowers. The material was extremely soft, but also firm. "Mom... What is this place?" Asked Vicky, in confusion and curiosity. Bea just gently smiled. She placed her daughter down on the bed and walked to the large curtained windows. The leaves pulled away on their own, revealing a breathtaking sight. More than a kilometer away, a gigantic tree''s trunk stretched high above into the sky. It reached even the Aegis System''s barrier and somehow connected to it. Golden flowers glowed brightly all over the tree, bringing the light of day to the enormous city. Vicky couldn''t even recognize the city. The tree''s roots spread all over the place, crawling over houses and streets. It brought a natural aesthetic to the otherwise modern infrastructure. Smaller trees, reaching only a few hundred meter height, also grew from strange places. Atop buildings, from the middle of roads, in parks, all over the city. They all bloomed with golden and crimson flowers, bringing light and beauty everywhere. "Is this... What is this?... Where are we?" Asked Vicky, still in awe, her eyes glinting with the city''s allure. Bea chuckled at her daughter''s words and walked back to her side. She placed her arm over Vicky''s shoulder, pulling her closer. With her other hand, she pointed towards the few kilometer tall main tree. "See that ruin below the Tree of Light? That was a gigantic castle once!... This is Castleburg, but I remodelled it a bit! Do you like it?" No words came to her mind while staring out at the magnificent, glistening city. Even more surprising was the laughter and joy echoing from the streets below. Curiously, she walked to the nearby window, which was actually a balcony. This cozy chamber was part of a larger structure of different houses, all built upon a smaller tree. Its trunk grew in a strange way, forming a staircase leading up to its branches. A few dozen meters below, there was a larger platform where people sat, drank and celebrated their recent victory. She instantly noticed Kim''s snake-body and Astrid''s golden wings. Other Transcended attended the gathering too, and a lot of faces Vicky didn''t recognize. "They are the military and civil leaders. We thought inviting them was the right choice, since their main headquarters is now a giant tree trunk." A small smile grew on Vicky''s lips, listening to the familiar voice coming from behind. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she recognized his voice. With a beaming, bright grin, Vicky turned around and sprinted into Henry''s arms. She hugged her with the speed of a rocket, then proceeded to give her lover a big, long kiss. "Okay! That''s enough, you two! Can''t believe you''re so shameless to kiss your boyfriend in front of your mother!" Said Bea in faked outrage, but she couldn''t wipe the obvious satisfied smile from her face. She spent a bit of time with Henry, talking things through with him. The young boy was extremely polite. Even after a few minutes since meeting him, Bea''s mind was already at ease. He seemed to truly love her daughter, which was all that mattered to Bea. Henry even told her about the ''engagement'' between him and Vicky. Bea couldn''t help but laugh when he told the story about Elizabeth''s misunderstanding. She also felt at ease when learning that nothing more than kissing happened between the two. Henry even swore there will be nothing more between them before marriage, which Bea obviously didn''t believe, but appreciated the boy''s lie. The two lovebirds soon separated. Henry even apologized for his discretion, while Vicky just turned away, trying to conceal her meek, shy, adorable blush. They walked back to the balcony and leaned out, staring at the celebrating masses. "How did they receive the change in leadership?... Well, judging by their happiness, they don''t seem too heartbroken about losing Otto!" Henry''s joyous smile soon turned grim. He took a deep breath before glancing down at Vicky''s curious eyes. "No, they don''t care, but... Lilith managed to interrogate hundreds of enemies, and it''s not looking good... Their knowledge about us and our plans is vast. Secrets that were supposed to stay hidden!" Vicky stretched her arms while curling her neck. Her bones cracked from the lack of movement in the past two days. She sighed deeply after a few moments, her eyes regaining its regal clarity. "So... Where will they attack first?" Asked Vicky, perfectly guessing what Henry didn''t want to bother her with. Both Henry and Bea glanced at each other with worried, unsure expressions. They weren''t sure if telling Vicky was the right option, however they knew that concealing was impossible. A simple message to Lilith or Adam, and both would tell her everything. So, instead of trying to keep worry off of the young Princess''s shoulder, they helped her carry the weight of her people! "Their target is... Antarctica... And they are already there!" The Princess glanced at the tall Tree of Light as a sad smile spread across her face. She turned back towards her mother and her lover with hope and determination. "Rest is for the weak anyway!" She said, as the people''s joyous celebration contrasted the young girl''s inner fear. Chapter 386: Josephine Even though Lilith''s intel about the supposed gathering forces around Antarctica was pretty much confirmed, Vicky and the others didn''t rush to the other continent. They had other obligations beforehand. Most importantly, Henry went to talk with Inari, the Antarctican envoy. Fabiano, South America''s envoy, also attended the meeting. Lilith went along, since she could literally show the information she gathered. In only a few minutes, she brought both envoys up to speed. Then came another problem, since Elizabeth and Antal also needed to be informed about both Castleburg and the approaching assault. That job fell on Adam''s and Cass''s shoulders. Kim, Astrid, Yvonne and Yannick all led their own forces to Antarctica, where they met up with David and his lieutenants. Hours after waking up, Vicky already had motion sickness... Or maybe that was overexertion... Bea seemed worried about her essence balance, since the soul damage. She could barely hold open portals! Because of her sustained damage, Vicky abstained from teleporting everyone further than New Athens. Kim and the others travelled to Antarctica on hippogryphs, which was an extremely grueling journey. They tried moving carefully, fearing retaliation, but alas, they arrived safely hours later. While everyone worked hard, Vicky and Bea went to meet a two new family members. They both arrived at Sera''s mansion, where the warm air was filled with the laughter of children. Some sounded older, early teens, while one other... One sounded barely a year old! Bea felt confused as she arrived at the garden with her daughter. A few dozen meters away, a large golden furred spider-dog chased after some small flying creature. The creature giggled while beating her overly large, pristine white wings with a few black feathers. A maid also ran after them, panic evident on her face. She shouted angrily while pointing at the creature... "Nick! Nick, come down here this very moment! Miss Victoria won''t be happy if you roll around in the dirt with Brian again!" The creature... No. The child, hearing his sister''s name, looked down at the maid with confusion. He then began looking around, trying to find Vicky. Suddenly, a wide smile spread across the one-year-old''s face, as his golden-hazel eyes landed on Vicky''s smiling face. "Sister!" He screamed, while rocketing towards Vicky. He basically teleported to her, with arms hugging the Princess''s neck. The maid, seeing the Princess, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, which didn''t last long as a Brian''s tongue suddenly met her face. Bea just stood by the sibling duo, long between them in shock. From further away, she couldn''t recognize the child''s features, but from up close, there was no denying it... This was Sera''s son! "What?... When?... How?... Whose is he?" She continued bombarding her daughter with questions, while Nick''s arms slowly suffocated her with brotherly love. After a minute, she managed to pry her small arms off of her neck, regaining the ability to breathe. Vicky turned towards her mother, about to introduce her to Nick. However, the small child suddenly seized her hand with narrowed, angry eyes. "What is it Nick?" Asked Vicky, clearly worried about the sudden change in her brother''s emotions. "Sister hurt! I heal sister Victohia!" Said the young child proudly, while failing to pronounce his sister''s name. The Princess smiled gently at her brother. She leaned in, prepared to comfort his anger and turmoil, when she fell to her knees screaming. A burning pain assaulted her chest. It barely lasted for a moment, but it still sent nearly knocked her out. Bea immediately separated the siblings, concerned for her daughter''s wellbeing. Little Nick went pale, his face full of terror and worry. His small hands trembled as tears welled in his eyes. "I thorry, Sister!... I thorry..." He apologized, while sobbing. Vicky took a few seconds to recollect her thoughts, then she took a sharp intake of breath as a smaller pain assaulted her chest. Her eyes suddenly widened with surprise. Curiously, she jumped to her feet, ignoring her mother''s concerned shout. She reached out and opened a large portal without trouble... Whatever Nick had done; it stabilized her essence flow and healed her soul! With a wide smile, she rushed towards her brother and scooped up the sobbing child. She laughed happily, confusing everyone who heard her scream. "Thank you, little Nick! You healed my soul!... Don''t worry, that wasn''t pain I felt, it was just surprising, and I accidentally screamed!" Vicky lied without batting an eye, but it caused her brother to smile widely, which was all that mattered. After gently placing the one-year-old down, she looked into his golden-hazel eyes with a serious expression. "While I appreciate you healing me, we already talked about using your powers. Only in emergencies! You can''t control them perfectly, and we don''t even know what you''re capable of... Anyway, thank you once again!" Nick seemed a bit ashamed, but he shily nodded at his big sister''s words. Vicky just leaned down and wiped away the remnant of tears. She then gave a tender kiss on the boy''s head. Afterward, when Nick calmed down, Vicky finally introduced him to Bea. "Little Nick, this is my mother, Bea! Bea, this is Nick Bran, the daughter of Sera and Bran!" Bea already guessed as much, but having it confirmed brought the wind out of her sails. She just stared at the divine boy in shock. Nick wasn''t shy at all. His golden-hazel eyes looked between Bea and Vicky, while his brain tried making sense of the situation. "Hmm... Sister... Victohia mommy... Hmm..." After a few seconds, little Nick''s eyes went wide, as he seemingly made some grand discovery. He pointed at Bea with one hand, his face beaming with excitement. "Victohia mommy!... Victohia brother!... My mommy!" The small child declared, then without waiting for anyone''s answer, he jumped up, hugging an extremely surprised and confused Bea. Vicky stared at her brother with a similar expression as Bea, then suddenly she burst into laughter. Her mother, taken out of her reverie, stared down at Vicky''s amused form. With an annoyed whisper, she nearly screamed at her daughter. "What do you mean, mom? Does he think I''m his mother? I didn''t give him birth! Sera is his mom!" Her words only made Vicky laugh harder, which further brought out Bea''s annoyance. The greenish skin on Bea''s face began turning red, while the plants around the garden began rapidly growing. Vicky quickly stopped enjoying the moment, after noticing her mother''s anger. She walked up to her mom with a small, satisfied smile. "Like it matters whether you gave him birth or not! Neither you nor Sera gave me birth, and I consider both of you my mother!... Also, a child can never have enough amazing mothers!" Her daughter''s words moved Bea greatly. She felt tears welling in her eyes, and unconsciously, her hands moved around the young boy''s body, enveloping him in a tight hug. Nick smiled widely at her newfound mother, then soon he flew out of her arms and went back to play with Brian, like nothing happened. Vicky and Bea both watched the angelic boy fly around the spider-dog with gentle smiles on their faces. After watching the boy for a few minutes, they went inside. Vicky had one more surprise for Bea! They went through the mansion, reaching an unremarkable door. However, from inside the room, a baby''s cries echoed. Bea glanced down at her daughter with a questioning look. Vicky just smiled with clear mischief and knocked loudly on the door. A few curses later came a grumpy shout from inside the room... "Enter!" Vicky opened the door with a giggle, revealing a tired-looking Damien and a joyous Agnes still in bed. The older man stood over a cradle where the wailing originated from. "Ah, Vicky! It''s good you arrived! How do you make her stop... You know... Screaming her lungs out¡ª" Damien stumbled over his words as his eyes landed on the woman entering behind Vicky. Even Agnes looked shocked as she slowly climbed out of bed. For a few long moments, they just stared at each other, neither prepared to break the sudden silence... Wait, silence? The new father''s head snapped around, full of worry. He spent the past hour trying to make his daughter stop crying, so he feared why she suddenly stopped screaming. However, the answer was obvious. Vicky gently cradled the few days old baby in her arms, while humming some unfamiliar tune. She already possessed a lot of experience with babies, since she took care of her brother for the first few months of his life. Damien breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to Bea with a kind, exhausted smile. He reached out and hugged her, while holding back tears. Agnes just went to Vicky''s side. The young Princess was already a tiny bit taller than the new mother. They watched as Bea tearfully hugged Damien. "I''m sorry I couldn''t help you. I wanted to be there for the rescue, but someone forgot to tell me!" Said Damien, while glancing at Vicky angrily. The young girl just shrugged her shoulders and answered, "I didn''t want your wife to give birth to this beautiful girl alone!" While Damien continued looking annoyed, he didn''t seem the least bit angry. Agnes''s eyes glanced at Vicky, mouthing, "Thank you!" They continued hugging for a while until eventually Bea''s curiosity couldn''t be contained. She walked up to the newborn baby, full of excitement. Bea reached out with one finger, touching the baby''s tiny hand. She continued sleeping peacefully, while her hand grasped Bea''s finger. "What''s her name?" She asked, her eyes purely focused on the baby. "Her name is Jo, short for Josephine!" Answered Agnes, while looking at Damien, her eyes full of love and care. Bea''s eyes slowly widened as she glanced up at the new mother. She then looked towards Damien, whose freezing blue eyes reflected both sadness and joy. "Josephine... Wasn''t that the name of your late wife?" Damien opened his mouth, but he choked on the words as his eyes turned red. Agnes walked up to her husband and placed one supporting hand on his waist, while leaning into his side. "I named her Josephine, to commemorate her sacrifice... And so her memory would live on!" Vicky just continued humming, unconcerned by the adults'' conversation. While staring at Jo''s face, she couldn''t help but remember Nick and his birth... Her mother''s screams as he arrived into this world! While she hummed, her other mother walked up to Damien and gave a small kiss on his cheek. She smiled gently at the older man... "What a beautiful name, perfect for your child." Her words finally broke Damien''s stoic demeanor, and he soon burst into tears. His hands wrapped around Bea''s shoulders once more as he spoke in a trembling voice... "It''s so good to have you back, Bea... We missed you so much!" Chapter 387: Southern Outpost Vicky spent an hour with Jo, which the newborn peacefully slept through. In that time, she and Bea told everything they learned in Castleburg. Damien wanted to join them in Antarctica, too, but when the surrounding women stared at him with annoyance, he momentarily stopped to think things through. His eyes kept glancing down at her newborn daughter, held by Vicky. After a minute of careful pondering, he sighed in exasperation... "I won''t go to Antarctica. Instead, I''ll stay here and guard little Nick!" This was nothing but an excuse he used to stay out of harm''s way. However, Vicky still felt grateful for his sacrifice. Agnes and Bea also wanted him to stay safe, so they had no objections, either. They continued conversing for a while until, eventually, Vicky and her mother left the mansion. They stopped to say goodbye to Nick, who seemed displeased by their quick departure. Luckily, they could visit him anytime. With Vicky''s teleporting, distance wasn''t an issue. After saying their goodbyes, Vicky met up with Henry, the two envoys, Inari and Fabiano, and Lilith. The six of them put on warmer clothes, and the Princess soon opened another portal, leading to the largest Antarctican outpost! ... In the past, people remembered Antarctica as some hellish frozen plain. However, during the centuries, all the icecaps melted and after a bit of genetical engineering, they created grass and smaller trees that could survive its harsh living conditions. Now, grassy plains covered most of Antarctica, with a few larger rocky mountain ranges. The Last War''s usage of nuclear and even more destructive explosions actually warmed up Earth''s atmosphere even further. However, Antarctica stayed permanently cold. It rarely snowed down there, and when it did, all the plants devoured the frozen liquid. The problem with surviving Antarctica was the strong, frosty winds. At night, even the Realm of Boundless Frost didn''t feel as bad as the Earth''s southern side. Sadly, since it''s the end of spring, only night exists in Antarctica''s inner regions, while the ones near the shore experience a few hours of daylight. Vicky and the others stepped into the harsh weather, their bodies trembling already. The strong winds hit their bodies, trying to pummel them down. Fabiano especially looked miserable. His deeply tanned skin already began turning red and purple. He wore nearly ten layers of clothing, but the strong winds cut through them with ease. While the South American envoy tried hiding behind the Transcended, Inari just stretched out her arms and took a deep breath from the freezing air. She smiled widely while closing her eyes. Her long white hair danced around in the wind, while the nearby artificial light reflected on her pale skin. Inari spent a few seconds reminiscing about her home. After a few days, she even began missing her continent''s harsh love, but now... She finally returned home! Soon she motioned for the others to follow, and together they went down into the trenches. These were all dug by David''s first expedition, as a way to move around without the freezing wind assaulting everyone''s bodies. The main outpost was part of a larger cave system below ground. Inari led them straight to the closest entrance, where the guards immediately recognized her. "Ah, Cold Lady! Back already from the vacation I see!" Said a guard, while grinning Inari. Inari was the first Antarctican to establish contact with David''s expedition. She met most of the expeditioners personally, so they quickly gave her the nickname Cold Lady, since she actually enjoyed Antarctica''s harsh weather. They soon learned, though, that most Antarcticans loved the cold, but the nickname still stuck on her. "I wouldn''t call it a vacation, more like a work trip! I visited your warm city and have to say, I prefer the cold!" Another guard leaned closer to Inari and spoke in a playful whisper... "Maybe you just hadn''t met anyone who could truly warm your cold soul!" The envoy giggled and leaned closer until only a few centimeters separated her from the guard. "You know, we have a bit of a tradition here in Antarctica. For our first intimate session with another person, we prefer doing it in the cold... I doubt you could get it up out there!" She suddenly moved away with a giggle, leaving the guard with a heavy blush. The others just laughed at Inari''s words, then turned towards the people entering behind her. All the laughter immediately died down, as their eyes landed on the young child with white eyes. Every guard simultaneously fell to their knees, their gaze focused on the ground. Vicky smiled at them brightly, then clapped once, bringing everyone''s attention to her small frame. "At ease, soldiers! Please, continue working like I''m not here!" Her authoritative voice felt like a command, while her beautiful smile brightened the room. The soldiers slowly climbed to their feet, but continued averting their gaze, purely out of respect. These guards weren''t like the haughty Transcended whom Vicky attacked Castleburg with. These were all chosen soldiers from the Angelic Order, deeply devoted to Sera and, by extension, to Vicky. Behind everyone, Lilith silently commended their actions, and soon Inari led the small group further down the outpost. Artificial lights illuminated the large cavern, and they even built shacks along the way. However, their destination wasn''t some shabby wooden scrap house! After a few minutes of walking, Inari led them to the Antarctican Outposts'' headquarters. A mansion built right into the cave wall! Geothermal rivers ran to the sides, warming up the air. Around them, grassy patches grew, which somehow managed to survive the scolding water. The small group had to stop, their eyes glistening with awe and shock. Before the double door leading into the mansion, a large fountain sprouted vaporized air. It condensed midair and fell down on the fountain''s surface in liquid form. Behind the fountain, the mansion glowed brightly. Its walls, elaborately carved, depicted events of the Angelic Order''s past, and above the main door, a large Sera statue hung. Her wings spread wide, depicting her mid-flight. Still astonished by the mansion''s beauty, they moved through the makeshift garden and arrived to the front door. Inari didn''t wait for a single moment. She just lifted the metal knocker and let its sound echo through the stone house. Heavy footsteps approached the door, and soon a giantess with golden feathered wings opened the door. Astrid bowed her head before Vicky and let their small group enter the mansion. The double door led to a wide hall with many corridors and stairs leading away. The walls weren''t as fancily carved as the outside, but the abundance of sculptures and paintings made the decor excellent. Astrid led them upstairs and down a corridor. The hallway''s sides had wood panels as decoration, while below their feet an endless dark red carpet stretched. Vicky watched the paintings on the walls. Most of them depicted either the past war''s triumphant victories or her angelic mother. However, as they reached the corridor''s end, Vicky spotted two familiar people hanging from the wall. A girl with glistening, shoulder-length white hair and gentle white eyes. Her lips stretching into a small, satisfied smile, while an ugly scar ran down from her mid-eyebrow to her left jaw. By her side stood a tall young man, with his arms gently wrapped around the girl''s waist. His short golden hair deflected the sunlight, while his piercing dark blue eyes stared into everyone''s soul. The girl wore her usual flowing dress depicting the night sky, while the boy by her side stood in his regal suit. Vicky and Henry continued staring at the painting for a while before moving on. As they continued walking, Vicky''s pale hands enveloped her lover''s. "We should commission an actual portrait... Of our family I mean... After Sera''s return, everyone will be here, so someone could paint us!" Henry chuckled a bit, then lifted his lover''s pale hand, and gave a tender kiss to her small fingers. "That''s an amazing idea. I will certainly arrange it!" He said, with a whisper, causing the young Princess to smile brightly. A few meters away, Bea glanced back and smiled at her daughter''s joy. Even after missing a year, her kind heart never changed! However, there was also a minor ache in Bea''s heart. Just hearing Sera''s name brought back all the pain of their tragic past... But that wasn''t all! Even deeper, below all the pain, she felt sad... While both their love stories might''ve ended in tragedy, she couldn''t forget the good times they had! A melancholic smile appeared on her face, while remembering those times. It felt like a different lifetime ago, since they confessed their love in that destroyed city, Havel. Bea took a deep breath, and let the memories move away, back to her subconscious. This was neither the place nor time to reminiscence! They continued walking for another minute until Astrid led them through an arch into a strange garden. Immediately after walking onto the grassy field, Vicky glanced up. Her eyes widened with awe, since instead of the usual rocky ceiling, the open sky stretched above, far and wide. A thick glass layer protected them from the harsh weather, while providing a breathtaking sight of the starry sky! Dozens of footsteps approached their position, but Vicky simply couldn''t look away from the beauty above. Only after a familiar old voice spoke did she turn away... "Ah, I see you and the sky decided to dress the same today! Good choice! It makes you both beautiful!... But I prefer the Princess''s look, I think! It''s more contained and less infinite!" Said Professor Collins, while grinning up at the young girl. Chapter 388: Gathering Storm Clouds "I missed you so much, Professor!" Said Vicky while tightly hugging the old man. In the months spent apart, Vicky now stood half a head taller than the Professor. It was ridiculous seeing a thirteen-year-old tower over the eighty-year-old. Time wasn''t kind to Professor Collins. His already thin, gray hair became basically non-existent. The area around his greenish-brown eyes looked especially wrinkled. However, even though he looked much too old, his body felt fairly young. He stood and walked with his back straight, and had no problem doing physical tasks... He could even survive Vicky''s tight hug! "It''s nice to see you too, Princess. I hear you''ve been learning how to fight, and you''re pretty good! Someday you might even beat me!" Everyone chuckled at the Professor''s sarcastic remark, except Bea. She just snorted with pride while staring at Yvonne''s form suspiciously. After hearing about Yvonne''s teaching session, Bea grew curious. She wanted to know more about the tall woman''s skill, if she''s even worthy to teach the Princess. Yvonne also noticed Bea''s glance, but she quickly averted her eyes. She didn''t fear Bea, but prolonged eye contact might cause trouble, like provoke a duel between them. Currently, wasn''t the time for such foolishness... Maybe later though... While Yvonne became distracted, imagining a fight between herself and Bea, David also appeared with his lieutenants, Percy, Morren, Kathy and Conrad. They all bowed to the Princess with respect, then motioned for everyone to follow. While walking through the open-skyed garden, David briefed Vicky and Henry. "We''ve been looking into the clues sent by Lilith, but didn''t find their base yet. The best we got is dead monsters that weren''t killed by our own patrols, but were definitely killed by humans!" The regal couple nodded simultaneously as they arrived at their destination. Down, floating above the grassy ground, an enormous holo-screen stretched, depicting the Antarctican Continent. Blue dots marked all twenty Antarctican cities-states, while green dots marked the dozen outposts. Then there were the red dots. Each obviously indicating a site where they found a dead monster or some other clue relevant to the hidden invasion. But there were a few fourth colored dots, which confused everybody. "What are the purple markings?" Asked Henry with a serious expression. Before David could''ve answered, Kathy stepped forward... "They are raven sightings I made while patrolling the skies!" There weren''t many purple dots, but even one was troubling news. Normal ravens would never survive Antarctica''s harsh weather, so they are all enemy spies! Henry examined the wide map for a few more seconds before glancing up into the vast, starry night sky. "From now on, when you see a raven, you kill it! The enemy''s knowledge about our plans is much more elaborate, because they were spying on us for at least an entire year! If you come across any ravens, you hunt them down!... Understood?" The people nodded their affirmation, then continued discussing the findings. Sadly, there was little else, since all the purple and red dots were scattered, with no real pattern. Even beginning the search wasn''t possible, without at least an idea about the enemy''s placement. Antarctica was a gigantic landmass. Nobody could search through everything, without at least knowing the general area of the enemy. However, it seemed they didn''t even have time to try searching... "As the weather pattern and time suggests, a storm approaches Antarctica. Every year around the end of spring and beginning of summer, a giant storm always forms. It rains for a week or two, all over the continent!" They listened to Inari''s words with deep curiosity. Her knowledge regarding the continent was simply invaluable! "The storm will bring heavy rain, full of minerals and tiny metal particles. It will restrict communication between city-states and outposts... It seems like the perfect time for the enemy to attack!" Henry looked at the map once more, pondering on their next steps. Eventually, he just sighed while wiping his eyes. "This is terrible news... We can''t rely on James or Mary to fix the communication issue, since they''re still working on the Gates connecting the city-states..." "We also can''t bring our own forces, since splitting them twenty ways would be worthless against a well-prepared frontline attack... How long do we have before the storm arrives?" Inari didn''t answer immediately, as she typed on her watch. She was constantly sending messages about their plans to the city leaders, her bosses. "If I had to guess, about a week. But the storm will approach from a single direction. I don''t know which one, though... We''ll only know a few days before it arrives!" The Prince cursed under his breath. His eyes kept jumping all over the large map, trying to figure out a solution. "Okay, we need to do wide scale reconnaissance if we plan on finding them. Their attacks might seem random, however there has to be some pattern. We just can''t see it!... We also need a better map, which can show Antarctica''s geography..." Henry went on a tirade, thinking up ways to find and eliminate the enemy. He even contradicted himself a few times. After about a minute of listening, Vicky reached out and grabbed his hand. All his thoughts stopped suddenly, as he glanced down at the Princess, smiling up at him. "We appreciate your worry, but this problem won''t fix itself today. I think we should take a break for today! Tomorrow we''ll visit the sites and see if there is any clue about the Ravens'' whereabouts!" Everyone standing around the map breathed a small sigh of relief. David already tried everything, Henry suggested, since he went on the exact same tirade two days ago. While people began leaving, Vicky continued staring up into her lover''s deep blue eyes. It wasn''t easy for Henry to turn away from the map, but it was even harder not to gaze into the Princess''s white eyes. After a few moments, he leaned down and gave a tender kiss on the top of Vicky''s head. She giggled cutely and hugged the tall boy. "Thank you, Vicky... For keeping me grounded. I always lose myself in the current obstacle, but you somehow manage to wrangle my mind back to reality!" Henry closed his eyes while deeply breathing in Vicky''s scent. Suddenly, he felt a small hand brush his face, prompting his eyes to open. The dark blue orbs focused on his lover''s approaching face as Vicky stood on her tiptoe and kissed Henry. "You don''t need to thank me. Whenever you want, just lose yourself. I''ll always be here to bring you back to reality!" The Prince smiled at the Princess with a wide smile. He gently held her pale hand, tenderly kissing her finger. "You promise?" He asked, and Vicky leaned in for another kiss as a clear answer. The beautiful moment stretched between them until suddenly they both felt a strong arm pull them close by the neck. Small snake tongues kissed both their faces as Kim''s boisterous laughter echoed through their bones. "Okay, lovebirds! Since we have nearly half a day until tomorrow, I think we should have a bit of a competition!" "Competition? What kind of competition?" Asked an excited, deep, feminine voice from behind them. "The best kind Yvonne! A fighting competition, of course!" Yvonne''s booming laughter soon arrived, and Kim echoed with the same sentiment. Astrid and Yannick just stood a few meters away, awkwardly shaking their heads in disbelief. Suddenly, Kim let go of Vicky''s neck, with a surprised yelp, and Yvonne''s even more muscular arms appeared in the half-snake''s place. "So, Princess? What do you say? Want to test out your prowess against other fighters? It''ll be a great learning experience!" Vicky tried to speak, but Yvonne''s hug was too tight, obstructing her airway. After a few seconds of trying, she just rolled her eyes and teleported both herself and Henry a few meters away. With their sudden disappearance, the tall woman nearly fell on her face. While Kim laughed at her annoyed friend, Vicky took a step forward. "Thank you for the offer. I would love to attend this so-called competition, but..." She glanced back at Henry with a smile, who mirrored her expression. "...But I''ve been neglecting Henry in the past weeks. We barely spent any time together, just the two of us! So if you''ll excuse me, we would like to retire for the day!" The tall woman narrowed her eyes suspiciously and pointed at the young Princess. "You can spend time together, but I hope you don''t plan on doing anything naughty! We talked about this! You can''t have sex until you''re eighteen!" Henry had to turn away, his face burning red, while Vicky just snorted and pulled her boyfriend along. As she walked away, she shouted over her shoulder... "That was literally the contract condition for London to join the Angelic Order... And I''m always true to my word!" The Prince''s face blushed even more, as he recalled that awkward conversation between Vicky and his mother, Queen Elizabeth. While the regal couple moved away, only Yvonne, Kim, Astrid, and Yannick stayed in the garden. However, suddenly a fifth person''s voice appeared... "I would also like to join this competition! I became a bit rusty in the past year, but I''m also deeply curious about how strong my daughter''s teacher is!" The four Transcended all turned towards the woman wearing a flowing crimson dress made of flower petals. It accentuated her beautiful figure, while also keeping everything perfectly hidden. As she walked along the grassy floor barefoot, blood-red flowers grew from her every step. On her face, a small, curious smile spread as her greenish-gold eyes stared into Yvonne''s metallic gray ones. This time she didn''t avert her gaze, instead she proudly straightened her back, while grinning down at Vicky''s mother. "Sure, but we''ll move outside, since we wouldn''t want to damage anything here. I hope you have warmer clothes!" Chapter 389: The Best Duelist Yvonne''s words were true, even though she said it as a remark. While Transcended wouldn''t be too bothered by the outside temperatures, it would still feel fairly uncomfortable. As they walked outside, Astrid wore nothing but some training clothes and running shoes. Yannick had a similar getup, however he also put on gloves. Kim couldn''t do much with her snake body, so she wore a long, thick dress, which covered all of her human parts. She also had a pair of comfortable knitted gloves and bright patterned hat, which kept the small snakes out of the cold. They dressed for the occasion. Yvonne, though, only wore a tank top, shorts, and shoes. Her tightly braided metallic gray hair desperately tried to escape with the wind. She stood proudly in the wind, holding onto her training sword. However, her attitude became chilled as her opponent stepped out. Bea didn''t change at all. She wore her majestic, flowing crimson dress, her bare feet walking on the freezing ground. Her long brown hair, though unbraided, stood still even in the extreme wind. As if the weather itself obeyed her will, she took step after step; her satisfied smile never waning. The young woman also carried a sword, her favorite weapon. Yvonne opened her mouth to explain the rules, but before she could try shouting over the wind, Bea raised a finger. The magnificent woman bent down and dug a small hole in the frozen earth. She held out her palm and a small seed appeared from thin air. She gently placed it below the dirt and covered the hole. All four spectators, curiously, watched what Vicky''s mother planned on doing. Unlike most of Bea''s older friends, Kim and the others had no idea of the scale of her powers... They weren''t in the Realm of Boundless Frost with her! Bea closed her eyes, green energy concentrating on her palm. It continued flowing through her hand, into her index finger. When the green energy burnt brightly, she touched her finger to the ground. "I think you should back away!" She said with a wide grin, as the world exploded into dirt, bright green light and falling leaves. From the ground, a Tree of Life burst forth. The weather immediately became more bearable, the wind quieted down, and the sky became obstructed by the giant tree. Yvonne and the others stood before Bea and the Tree of Life in awe. They breathed in the warm air, and dismissed all irrelevant pieces of clothing, like gloves and hat. Bea then proceeded to use nature and grow a large podium out of wood. She even added seats on the side for the spectators! "Ah, much better!" She said with satisfaction while approaching the podium. Yvonne, Yannick and Kim burst out into laughter, and even Astrid''s usually emotionless face had a wide smile on it! Yvonne found that smile especially attractive, but she averted her gaze from Astrid''s, fearing she would blush. "You really did all these theatrics, just to build a better duelling area?" Asked Kim, barely managing to control her amusement. Bea just shrugged and climbed atop the podium with her training sword in hand. The others quickly followed her. They were all surprised how sturdy the podium stood, even though it was seemingly ordinary wood. Yvonne even stabbed it with her training sword, but it didn''t even scratch its surface. "Don''t worry, it won''t break. Now, Yvonne, let''s spar!" Said Bea, with strange excitement. She didn''t think it would feel so exhilarating to finally duel against somebody. The tall woman shared the same sentiment as a wide grin spread across her face. Together they walked to the middle, while everyone else sat down in the spectator seats. "Before we begin, let''s get the rules straight! We''re forbidden to use any ability passive or active! We can only use our fighting prowess, our bodies and our weapons! I''m sure the losing conditions are already obvious." Bea nodded thoughtfully. She already guessed all these rules, but getting a confirmation was still nice. After the explanation, they turned back to back and walked a dozen meters in opposite directions. They then faced each other and prepared to attack. "Go, Yvonne! Show Bea how amazing you are!" Shouted Kim, with a small giggle. Next to her, Yannick leaned in close and asked in a whisper, "Do you think she''ll win?" Both Kim and Astrid snorted at the same time, trying to hide their amusement. "Well, she hadn''t dueled for over a year, so maybe Yvonne will last longer than most. However, during the War of Three Alliances, Bea was given a nickname by the soldiers..." Before Kim could''ve finished her sentence, the two women clashed with a loud bang. They moved extremely quickly, but soon it became fairly obvious who was the better fighter. Yvonne stabbed towards Bea''s chest, then she tried turning it into a faint and slash at her opponent''s midsection. However, before she could retreat, Bea deflected the blow upward, then ducked under it and backhanded the tall woman. She staggered back, surprise evident in her metallic gray eyes. But she had to defend against Bea''s next attack immediately. Her sword cut through the air so fast, Yvonne could barely follow it. Bea''s blade slashed towards her neck, and the tall woman easily parried it. Strangely, though, Bea''s attack didn''t carry enough power to cause any issues, and Yvonne soon learned why! Just before their swords made contact, Bea halted her weapon''s movement, and let Yvonne hit it with full force. Her body absorbed all the momentum, and with a clean pirouette, Bea stabbed towards Yvonne''s stomach. The tall woman leaned back, but still the tip of Bea''s sword cut through her shirt and drew blood. A few droplets landed on the wooden podium, causing crimson flowers to bloom. Bea didn''t relent, her attacks rained on Yvonne one after another. Slowly, meticulously, she deconstructed the tall woman''s defense, causing minor cuts to accumulate all over her body. Blood stained Yvonne''s shirt and pants, while she drew not a single drop from her opponent. The majestic woman''s greenish-gold eyes stayed sane throughout the fight. Not a glimpse of emotion showed on Bea''s face. She felt no pride or joy, only pure determination and deep concentration. Each move seemed flawless, and the woman didn''t even seem to care! Yvonne, on the other hand, felt nothing but amazed. A wide smile spread across her face as Bea slowly beat her ass. Never in her life did Yvonne feel so outclassed by someone. Bea''s prowess didn''t even come close to hers, Astrid''s or even Kim''s. She was much better than all of them! Bea continued battering away at Yvonne''s defenses, making the tall woman more excited. When one of Bea''s slashes came close to disabling her, Yvonne finally snapped. She concentrated and activated Zone. The game ending blow came faster than she could''ve reacted. However, her arms moved on their own. Her off-hand touched the flat of Bea''s blade, pushing it away. She then used her own sword to impale the flawless duelist. The first time during their duel, Bea''s greenish-gold eyes widened. She let go of her own sword and grabbed the blade of Yvonne''s with both hands. Bea''s blood painted the sword''s blade bright red as it cut her palm. It fell on the podium''s wooden floor, creating more crimson flowers. While her hands firmly held onto the blade, she pulled Yvonne off-balance, then kicked out her legs. The tall woman lost grip on her sword as she fell backwards. Her hands managed to land before her body, so she easily pushed herself away from Bea''s approaching attack. Somehow, her perfect attack ended with Yvonne losing her weapon to Bea. She couldn''t understand how, even with Zone, Bea continued to obliterate her! The match didn''t last long after that. Even though Yvonne evaded most attacks, she couldn''t close the distance to the dropped weapon, and eventually, Bea''s sword stopped near her neck. The two women breathed heavily. All of Yvonne''s small cuts healed, while Bea stood straight, with only her hands bloodied. In the spectator seats, Yannick''s eyes went fully wide, while next to her Kim finally finished her sentence with trembling lips. "The soldiers nicknamed her... The Best Duelist!" While the spectators stared in awe, Yvonne just laughed full of joy. Suddenly, the motivation to get stronger, which died about a year ago, reignited in her heart. She wanted to get better, to keep up with Bea and maybe even rise above her talent! "You''re truly amazing, Lady Bea! But I must ask... How did you beat me so easily, even when I use Zone?" Bea tilted her head, looking confused, and Yvonne soon realized why. "Oh, Zone is what my mother named the ability to dissociate the mind from the body. It greatly improves the reaction speed of any fighter! I already taught it to Vicky too, and she''s quite the prodigy!" Suddenly, hearing Yvonne''s explanation, Bea''s eyes widened with realization. A small chuckle escaped her lips, bewildering the tall woman. "Zone... I see... So that''s what you call it! Interesting name, but not the best... I usually refer to it as Clear Mind!" Yvonne became even more surprised, since Bea seemed to be already aware about the Zone. However, she knew it by a different name, which made Yvonne very curious. "Clear Mind? Where did that name come from? It''s pretty good!" Another chuckle escaped Bea''s lips, and soon a sad smile stretched across her face as she remembered the name''s origin. "Clear Mind is what Sera received from her first Heritage! So, when she taught me how to use it, we always referred to it as Clear Mind!... I used it against you as well, but..." Suddenly, blood began running from Bea''s nose, and her feet became weak. Before she could''ve fallen over, Yvonne quickly caught her. "...But I hadn''t used it for more than a year... I forgot how bad the after effects would get without constant exposure... Could you help me to the seats... I need to lie down!" The tall woman quickly carried her over to the spectator seats, where she explained everything to the others, so they wouldn''t be worried. Yvonne then cleaned off Bea''s face and hands, while Yannick and Astrid went onto the podium for their own duel. "Clear Mind, eh?... Sounds much better than Zone!" Whispered Yvonne to herself with a small, satisfied chuckle. Chapter 390: Geothermal Bath Bea listened to the battle between Astrid and Yannick with closed eyes. She let go of her body, while the mind splitting headache passed. Kim and Yvonne cheerfully conversed next to her, but she couldn''t concentrate on their conversation. Her headache only lasted a few minutes, but it felt much longer because of the extremely painful migraine. Even after it passed, Bea continued lying on the seats. Her body felt weak, and she didn''t want to make any sudden moves, fearing another round of headaches. As her mind cleared from the pain, she could finally concentrate enough to hear the women''s conversation. "...You lasted much longer than I expected! Three whole seconds! Congratulations!" While Kim sounded sarcastic, Yvonne knew her long enough. The half-snake woman never acted serious. However, her compliments were always sincere! The tall woman grinned at Kim, and ''gently'' elbowed her... "Wonder how long you would last! Let''s test it out after Lady Bea wakes up!" Kim chuckled, but her bright green eyes showed concern when she glanced down at Bea''s comfortable form. "Maybe some other time. Bea should probably rest after everything... Also, why are you calling her ''Lady''?" The tall woman just shrugged, while cunningly smirking at Kim. "I call her ''Lady'' because she earned it with her flawless fighting prowess! She beat me so easily, it earned my respect!" The snake-woman frowned, and spoke in an annoyed tone, "I beat you quite a few times as well. You should be calling me Lady Kim, too!" Yvonne just chuckled while glancing down at Bea''s seemingly asleep form. While it was true, Kim beat her most of the times, she wouldn''t hold up against Bea''s fighting style. But, even though it was the truth and both were aware, she didn''t want to insult her friend! "I can call you Mrs. Serpent if you really want an official title!" Kim snorted at Yvonne''s words, then looked away with a thoughtful expression. Slowly, confusion appeared in her serpentine, green eyes. "Why Mrs. Serpent? I''m not married as far as I''m aware." Suddenly, Yvonne burst into laughter, which raised Kim''s guard immediately. She just walked into some trap that will most definitely anger her! After a few long seconds, Yvonne stopped chuckling, but the stupid grin stayed persistent on her face. "You''re not married, yet. However, as soon as Sam figures things out, I''m sure you''ll make a great couple! It''s only a matter of time!" A small growl escaped Kim''s lips as she stared at her tall friend with deep frustration. Her previous assumption was very much on point, and she indeed gotten angry. Unconsciously, she balled her fist, prepared to punch Yvonne in the face. However, she soon realized the tall woman would definitely enjoy that, so instead Kim tried to get creative. Slowly, a small, cunning smile spread across her face. The small snakes of her hair hissed with delight as she opened her mouth. "You have no right mocking me and Sam! Might I remind you that there is a winged beauty fighting down there, whom you still haven''t asked out! Maybe you should begin listening to your own advice!" Yvonne''s face turned red from a heavy blush. She glanced away with embarrassment, but her eyes landed on Astrid''s form. The giantess looked especially alluring as she fought with her spear. Yvonne watched mesmerized as the sweat moved down her face, to her neck, then lower on her... The third woman''s chuckle interrupted Yvonne''s dirty thoughts, while Kim yelped in surprise. Bea''s greenish-gold eyes slowly opened. She stared up at the starry night sky with a small smile. "How long have you been listening, you vixen!" Said Kim in faked outrage, but it didn''t manage to hide the relief in her eyes. The majestic woman just yawned and sat up in her seat. She stretched her arms upward, accentuating her dress''s cleavage. Yvonne couldn''t help but glance at it, but she quickly turned away, this time with a much lighter blush. "I listened long enough to know that both of you have miserable love lives! Welcome to the club I guess!... Anyway, is there some place I can clean myself?" Neither answered immediately, as worry overcame both women. Bea hadn''t talked with anyone about her experience in Castleburg. She didn''t seem too traumatized by it, but she could be acting. Everyone knew how messy Bea''s love life was. The breakup with Sera nearly ruined the poor woman, and now her new lover turned into a controlling freak! They couldn''t help but feel sad regarding her. It also made their own love life seem much better! "There are showers, made connected to the geothermal water source. I can show them to you!" Said Yvonne after a long silence. Bea glanced sideways at the tall woman. Her eyes slowly moved up and down Yvonne''s body as she took in all of her alluring curves. She couldn''t help but blush under Bea''s gaze. However, the heavenly woman wasn''t done yet. While leaning in close, her breasts nearly touching Yvonne''s arm, she whispered seductively into her ear... "Only if you''ll show me everything else too!" A shiver went down Yvonne''s spine. Next to her, Kim giggled as the confident, prideful woman became a shy girl from Bea''s flirting. Suddenly, Bea jumped to her feet, scaring the tall woman. While smiling, cunningly she declared... "You know what? I have a better idea!" She said, then walked towards the edge of the spectator area. Bea stopped there and raised her hand. More wood grew from the ground, making a few meters wide, deep basin with a hole in the middle. Roots grew through the rocky ground below, creating a pipe-like system. She used her senses to find the underground geothermal water source. Immediately, as her wooden pipe connected, high pressured, scolding hot water began filling it, until eventually it spilled from the basin''s hole. The newly made bath quickly began filling with water. Steam rose from it as the scolding liquid met with the night''s cool air. When the bath began filling, Bea glanced back at Yvonne with a wide grin. "There''s no need to take a shower. When I we can have a bath!" Said Bea with excitement, then she winked at the tall woman, and jumped into the water. Her crimson dress turned dissolved and disappeared, leaving her naked in the bubbling hot tub. She sighed in satisfaction as the hot water touched her skin. While a regular human would boil alive in this water, Bea, as a Transcended, found it perfect. The wood stood out at the edge of the basin, making seats all around the bowl. Bea sat there, with her arms holding onto the sides. Bea closed her eyes as she let her body descend into the comfortable water. Only her head and arms stuck out of the bath, while the extensive vaporizing bubbles hid her naked body. As she sat there, she heard a yelp and shouts from the spectator seats nearby. Suddenly, with a loud splash, two more bodies landed in the water. Kim took off her clothes beforehand, while Yvonne still wore her training shorts and white tank top. Not like her clothes hid much as they got wet. Yvonne glanced down at her chest, while blushing. She awkwardly crossed her arms, hiding her ample breasts. However, she didn''t leave the scolding water. Instead, she slowly descended until the water reached her neck. Her metallic gray hair danced between the bubbles as she took a deep, calming breath. The snake woman watched her friends with envy. Unlike them, she couldn''t go as low below the water, since her snake hair would feel comfortable. She sat with her chest out, hands spread to the side. Like Bea, she didn''t care about nudity, especially since the scolding water felt heavenly on her scaly tail. For a few minutes, nobody said anything. They just enjoyed the comfortable, scolding hot bubble bath. After a while, Yvonne opened her eyes. She stared up at the starry sky, calmness overwhelming her tired body. Curiously, she glanced to where Bea sat, trying to get a glimpse of her naked body. However, the woman disappeared! Confusion and a bit of panic rose in Yvonne, but suddenly, she felt an arm gently move across her shoulder. Soon, the same seductive voice from before reached the tall woman''s ear. "Now that we''re here, don''t you want to have fun? I''m already naked and you''re pretty wet yourself, so we might as well spend some time getting to know each other better!" Yvonne yelped from surprise. She slipped off the seats and her entire body quickly submerged. Bea''s firm hands quickly caught her arm and pulled her out. However, as Bea pulled her out, Yvonne got a bit too close to her. She felt the majestic woman''s breasts pressed right onto her arm. She quickly tried backing away, while mumbling sorry and trying to hide her embarrassed expression. That''s when a pair of heavy footsteps arrived. "What the hell is going on here?" Asked Astrid, who looked angry for some reason. The emotion stood out especially, since the giantess rarely showed any. She usually kept her taciturn expression going, making her unreadable most times. Suddenly, Yvonne''s embarrassment turned into pure terror. She still sat quite close to Bea, who was obviously naked, since her upper body stood out of the water. "I-I can explain!... I didn''t... It... This isn''t what it looks like!..." Astrid gazed at Bea with narrowed eyes, which Yvonne misinterpreted as hatred. She immediately got out of the water, revealing her transparent clothing. Even Astrid couldn''t keep her golden eyes away from Yvonne''s voluptuous body. However, right now, Yvonne didn''t care. She fought through her heavy blush, grabbed Astrid''s arm, and quickly led her away, leaving Bea and Kim alone. When the tall woman and the giantess were out of earshot, they both burst into laughter. Kim grinned and held out her fist towards Bea... "Nicely done! If Yvonne doesn''t manage to get her relationship started now, then she''s a lost cause!" Bea just chuckled and fist bumped the snake-woman. Her gaze then turned towards the spectator seats nearby, where Yannick sat with closed eyes. "By the way, you can join us too! The water is amazing!" Chapter 391: Complicated Relationship "...So let me get this straight! You made this bath and flirted with Yvonne in front of Astrid to make her jealous. You also set up my sister to waltz off with her practically naked?... Somehow, this is both disturbing and kind of impressive!" Yannick''s voice sounded a bit estranged and awkward. Either because of the thought of her sister currently having sex, or because he currently sat in a hot tub with two beautiful naked women. "Yeah, pretty much! She needed a bit of a push though, but Kim took care of that... Literally!" Said Bea with her eyes staring up at the sky. Slowly, her vision moved away from the stars above, and landed on Yannick sitting awkwardly. "Don''t be so prudish. Neither of us really cares about you intimately. You can relax!" With his eyes closed, Yannick turned towards Bea. He listened to her advice, and let his naked body fall below the bubbling water. "I''m not prudish, just considerate! I didn''t want to disturb your peace! Also, I didn''t want to glimpse at any inappropriate places!" Kim snorted, with her eyes closed, her snake tail stretched out along the seat. Her snakes gazed at the lanky, feminine man with mockery, while hissing at him. "Unlike Bea, I actually know your powers, Yannick! I know you can sense everything below our clothes, or below the water, so stop lying! Everyone is basically naked before your Void Perception!" Yannick blushed a bit. However, he didn''t seem uncomfortable and even smiled innocently. "Well, I just wanted Lady Bea to feel comfortable around me, so I lied. It''s not like I can just disable my Void Perception, that''s literally how I see!" While speaking, he turned to Bea with no remorse or desire. But at least, Bea finally realized why he acted so nonchalant near two beautiful naked women... It wasn''t the first time he saw them naked, since technically he always perceived everybody with and without clothes simultaneously! "I apologize, Lady Bea, for lying! However, I won''t turn off my ability. If that makes you uncomfortable, I can leave, but rest assured, I have no desire towards either of you!" Instead of sending him away, Bea leaned back and placed her hands behind her head. She stretched out her legs and made herself even more comfortable. "You have no sexual desire towards me? Am I not beautiful enough? Your expectations are quite high, then!" Both Kim and Yannick chuckled at Bea''s attempt at changing the subject. "That''s not it Lady Bea. You''re one of the most beautiful people I have ever laid eyes upon... However, when you observe the emptiness in the world constantly, you''ll feel less drawn to any physical wealth, like an alluring appearance!" He stared up at the sky without observing any of the stars. Yannick''s face looked a bit sad, but also hopeful. "I can''t see anything with my eyes, so looks have little interest in me! I also don''t care about gender or power... I''m only looking for emotional connections with someone. A person who understands me and loves me with all my flaws!" As he spoke, both women looked towards the night sky. While they each had their preferences when it came to partners, they both understood and yearned for the relationship Yannick described. That''s most people''s dream, meeting a person who''s perfectly compatible with you and loves you with all their being! "I hope you find this person. Everyone deserves a chance at happiness!" Bea''s words brought the attention of both Yannick and Kim. Through the steam and bubbles, she caught the glimpse of a single tear running down the majestic woman''s face. Yannick simply felt the void near the tear, and the emptiness within! "Thank you, Lady Bea, but I''m already happy. However, I couldn''t fail to notice that from the three of us, you''re the only one pretending..." She didn''t deny Yannick''s words, but she also stayed silent about her feelings. "When you called me prudish, you said ''neither of us cares about you intimately''. I understand Kim''s lack of care, because of her undefined relationship with Sam... But you... Lady Bea, what''s your preference for a partner?" Unlike Kim, Yannick barely knew anything about Bea. She was Vicky''s adoptive mother, and they had a falling out more than a year ago. He also knew she was with Otto before that. His question, though, brought back more memories to Bea. When she imagined her preferred partner, only a single person came to her mind... For a few seconds, Bea stared up at the stars, a small, melancholic smile stretching across her lips. Kim opened her mouth, prepared to change the subject, but before she could''ve said anything, Bea finally spoke. "My preference? I''m quite specific... I prefer women with long, golden hair. Piercing, relentless eyes of the same color. A person of unshakable will and immense willpower. Someone who never gives up..." "The embodiment of perfection. A person who''s kind towards everyone, but can also destroy her enemies with ferocity! Someone full of love and sadness. A woman who lost everything multiple times, but continued moving even when she had nothing left!" As Bea talked, her words became more excited, and soon Yannick realized the mistake in his logic. While he knew Bea was Vicky''s adoptive mother, he never considered the Princess''s other mother. He suddenly felt really stupid not realizing the connection between these two women! "I want someone whose pristine white wings can shield me and whose nearness can flutter my heart. A woman who can empower my soul, just with a touch of her hand. A person I loved before... Someone who I can never love again..." Her words suddenly turned sad, which made Yannick curious. He wasn''t sure if asking any more questions would''ve been inappropriate, but judging by Kim''s surprised look, he should pry further. "Why can''t you love her? I mean, by your description, you''re definitely still in love with this ''unknown'' woman!" Bea giggled at Yannick''s obvious emphasis on ''unknown''. Her eyes slowly moved away from the sky, and as she lifted her hand, a small golden flower grew from her palm. As it bloomed, a gentle light appeared in its center. She stared at the glowing flower as she answered the lanky man''s question. "I can''t love her, because I tried before and it didn''t end well for either of us..." She sighed with sadness, and closed her palm, extinguishing the golden flower''s light. "Back then, both of us were young, nai?ve, and broken in some way. Sera lost her family weeks ago, while my past boyfriend turned into a psychotic maniac because of Harold''s manipulations!" Bea squeezed her hand in anger. Her nails dug into her skin, drawing blood. On the other side, Kim sat up straighter while listening to Bea''s words. Even she didn''t know this part of Sera''s past. Nobody really talked about the events before their team reached Castleburg. The only person who sometimes mentioned Havel was Vicky, but she also didn''t go into detail. However, Kim knew that whatever happened it was something so horrible they would all rather forget it! "We were both in an awful place, and used each other''s pain as our crutch to move on. Our relationship was unhealthy and unstable, especially after..." Whatever Bea was going to say brought physical pain and anger to her soul. Her hand shook as her nails dug in further until they were scraping her bones. The blood flow turned the water red, but before it could''ve reached Kim or Yannick, crimson flowers appeared on the surface. They absorbed the blood, which continued trickling from Bea''s wound. They couldn''t even imagine what happened, that could''ve caused such pain in the majestic woman''s heart. But, they preferred staying in the dark about it! "It only became worse after Castleburg. On the road towards the Realm of Boundless Frost, we rekindled our love, but it wasn''t the same... The traumas of the past haunted us both, until it finally caught up to us!" Bea''s anger finally relented as melancholy took over. "After losing her memory, and spending so much time apart. Our relationship ended... I still hoped, while locked away in a different Realm, but by that time, Sera was already with Bran emotionally and rationally..." "I was angry at her for giving up on us, at Bran for coming between us, at Harold for separating us, at the world for destroying us, but most importantly... I hated myself for not fighting hard enough!" Her eyes turned teary as she glanced up at the stars above. "Maybe if I struggled more and worked harder, we could''ve made it out of that Realm sooner! Everything could be different, but at some point, I... I gave up, thinking I''ll never leave that horrid place..." "I already forgiven everybody... Well, everybody except Harold... I''ve forgiven Sera for leaving me, since all her love for me disappeared when Harold broke her soul. I''ve forgiven Bran, and even feel thankful for him, since he helped Sera, when she lost everything!" Suddenly, the sad woman turned silent. Her eyes glistened from the tears welling within. The sound of moving water echoed, and soon Kim''s pale hand grabbed Bea''s greenish-brown, bloody palm. "Have you ever forgiven yourself, though?" She asked, in a gentle, but serious voice, very unlike her usual cunning, mischievous tone. Bea couldn''t help but smile at the snake-woman''s tender touch. The closest snakes of her hair gently bumped into Bea''s own, their long tongues giving reassuring kisses. "I tried, and for a while, I felt good in my skin. Believe it or not, Otto was a very nice person at first. He always acted kindly towards me, keeping distance whenever I wanted, and never pushed me to further our relationship..." "However, there were obvious signs I ignored... He always tried to keep me far away from my friends and family. Slowly, he tried to poison the relationship between me and my daughter... A year ago, he managed to separate me!" Kim gently reached over Bea''s shoulder, giving her a comforting side-hug. But Bea didn''t seem sad about Otto''s betrayal. She just looked numb and disappointed. "Strangely, Otto had done nothing horrible. He just kept me locked away in a tower, so I couldn''t leave. Sometimes, he came to have dinner with him, where I had to wear a specific pink dress and had to pretend I''m his wife..." "The experience itself wasn''t that awful, just extremely weird. I felt like a treasure kept hidden and guarded by the dragon! If he didn''t murder all those people, I might''ve even forgiven him!" That last part was an obvious lie. She might not have felt so much anger towards him, but forgiving wasn''t an option! As she finished her sentence, silence reined over the hot tub. The constant bubble popping was the only sound echoing through the darkness. After a few minutes, Kim gave an actual hug to Bea, which was fairly awkward because of their nakedness. Then slowly, she moved away, towards Yannick. "I just remembered that unlike all of you, I haven''t dueled with anyone yet! Congratulations Yannick, you can be my opponent!" The lanky man opened his mouth, but then closed it. He felt the intent behind Kim''s words. She didn''t really want to spar. Kim just wanted to leave Bea alone with her thoughts and emotions. Without any protest, he stood up, and they both walked away from the comfortable bath, leaving Bea alone. Not long after, they left, the constant bubbling met with another the sound... The sound of sobs! She kept it all locked away during their conversation, but she couldn''t lie to herself anymore. Her emotions mixed together, she felt sad because of the past, fearful towards the future, and confused about the present. Tears ran down her beautiful face and landed in the scolding water below. Slowly, golden flowers grew wherever her tears fell. They bloomed, gently lighting up the surroundings, creating a heavenly contrast with the crimson flowers. Two colors, different in every way, yet in the right circumstances, perfectly fitting together! Chapter 392: Visions of the Present Whenever Bea thought back on her current life, an unbearable sadness washed over her. Even with her friends nearby, with her daughter loving her, Bea felt an inexplicable loneliness. Nothing made sense in her mind. She let herself float atop the bubbling water, while her teary eyes stared up at the stars above. "Wonder if she''s seeing these beautiful stars too... I don''t even know where she is... Is it day or night there? Is it cold like Antarctica, or hot like a desert? Maybe there is raining there... Does she have any shelter, or home..." The words left Bea''s mouth in quick succession. These were her locked away thoughts, which she kept locked away from everyone, even herself. She was barely aware of their meaning as her mind moved on. "I should ask Vicky for her location. Maybe she can schedule a meeting?... But what if she doesn''t want to see me... Or even worse. What if she can''t see me?... What if the reason she ran away still plagued her... Is she suffering? Is she safe? Does she need help?..." Bea sighed deeply and closed her eyes for a few seconds. In the darkness, images popped up... Memories of the past, of better times. When life was easier and the pain in her heart didn''t exist yet! She remembered her first meeting with Sera, not on that horrid rooftop, but back at their base in Havel. A small shiver arced across Bea''s body when she recalled getting pinned to the wall. She would''ve never admitted it, but her heart skipped a few beats when she felt Sera''s hands on her body. Back then, when Bea first laid her eyes upon Sera''s clean face, she couldn''t believe someone could look so perfect and divine. Now, however... Her opinion hadn''t changed! That look in Sera''s golden eyes was one Bea would never forget. Even after everything she suffered, she had no fear. Her eyes hid immense confusion and a bit of anger, but never fear! A small smile appeared on Bea''s face while her eyes stayed closed, enjoying the moment. Her thoughts took a naughty turn as she remembered the first night she spent together with Sera. The joy she felt when she confessed her love. The warmth in her body as they devoured each other ferociously. Another shiver went down as her face blushed heavily. While remembering the moment was enjoyable, it also felt wrong somehow. Especially recalling Sera''s perfect heavenly body. It seemed wrong to remember Sera''s naked body, like she had no rights seeing her like that anymore! She shook her head gently, chasing away the dirty thoughts, and instead remembered a much more wholesome memory. The first time Bea met Victoria, the girl already knew everything about her. Even before they made it official, the small girl already treated both Sera and Bea as her mothers. Throughout all the suffering she endured, her bright spirit never became tainted. Her cheerful, joyous self on brightened as time went on. Bea was extremely proud of her daughter. She knew Vicky''s self-growth wasn''t because of her parenting, but she still felt immense joy when thinking about the young girl. Lots of happy memories appeared in her mind. Like both Vicky''s and Sera''s first time at the sea, or their meeting with Kastral. The time she spent together with Sera on that rooftop, in some destroyed city... Her lips twisted into a permanent smile as she remembered all her best memories, but the more she thought about Sera, a strange feeling came over Bea. At first she just shivered, like an icy wind hit her body. However, she still floated atop the scolding bath, while the nearby Tree of Life provided a temperate environment. The feeling felt stronger than a mere wind. It was closer to a powerful feeling of dread, like the coldness touched her very existence! She tried to suppress the feeling, the terror, the constant fight against losing control. Her muscles flexed as she struggled against the infinite pressure. Slowly, bloodlust washed over her... Somehow, even through her struggle, Sera never left her mind. She felt closer to her than ever, even through the distance between them... North America was quite far away! Suddenly, Bea''s reddened eyes snapped open. She panted quickly as the bloodlust and dread gradually left her. She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to her dark surroundings once more. Slowly, she looked down at her hands. They were bloody from her nails digging into her palm. "That... Those feelings... It wasn''t me..." She said, while calming her breathing. "But then who?... Wait! North America?... That''s where Sera and Faith are... But how do I know that? I never asked Vicky... Those feelings... They were hers..." As her thoughts aligned once more, everything became clear. Somehow, she connected with Sera''s mind. She felt all her emotions, and even received a bit of knowledge, like her current position. Suddenly, Bea burst into laughter, as sadness filled her heart and tears ran down her face. "I guess I should''ve known! The famous Angel Monarch would never run away if she had no reason to!... You''re suffering greatly, I''m sure of it!" With the sadness came clarity. Bea glanced down at her bloody palms once more. The crimson flowers grew from her blood, while the golden flowers grew from her tears. Slowly, her the melancholy left her, as a determined look appeared in her greenish-gold eyes. "I don''t know how much you''re suffering, or if I can do anything to help you. However, I might as well try!... How can I say I still love you, then leave you to suffer alone! I might not be the vest person, but I''m never hypocritical!" Bea chuckled to herself, then leaned back atop the water and let her mind roam free. She focused on Sera, tried remembering everything about the woman. Her shiny, golden hair. Her fierce golden-green eyes. Her strong, perfect body. Her holy, pristine wings. As she concentrated on Sera, a picture appeared in her mind. It wasn''t a memory; it didn''t even feel real. She just saw abstract shapes and colors moving in a vast emptiness. Strangely, unlike the abstract shapes, Bea held onto her body. She stood naked, her feet pressing into some alien material. It felt both soft and hard, while being hot and cold simultaneously. "Now that I think about it, this entire place feels like that. It''s both gigantic and miniature. Everything feels both menacing and beautiful. The colors are full of life while reflecting death... Even my voice..." Only after a few seconds of talking did Bea realize her own voice felt only like a whisper as it vibrated her vocal cords. However, as it left her mouth, it sounded like an extremely loud shout! Curiosity took hold of Bea, and soon she began walking to the right. Or maybe left? It also might''ve been up or down. Or backward and forward simultaneously? Reality itself felt wrong in this strange space. It bent on itself, distorting everything. The abstract shapes moved and changed without uniform, purely chaotic. Bea tried not staring at the shapes. She felt like those strange shapes could drive her insane... Or more like Mad! As this thought appeared in Bea''s mind, a loud noise shook her very soul, while a gentle, annoying buzzing echoed inside her skull. The noise was similar to amused laughter, while the sound of clashing weapons quickly followed. She moved towards the direction of the fighting, while the buzzing continued in her head. But even after minutes or maybe hours of walking, she hadn''t gotten any closer. In fact, she felt like the noise was coming from the opposite direction she had been walking. "I hate this fucking place. How is this abstract bullshit related to Sera''s suffering? I don''t understand anything and this stupid buzzing is driving me Mad!" As her anger rose, she swiftly took a few calming breaths and closed her eyes. Slowly, the buzzing became more silent, but never quite went away. "Okay, if this is Sera''s mind or something, then I must have a way to find her!" She took another deep breath, cleared her mind from any useless thoughts, and summoned Sera''s image once more. The fighting, which echoed all around her, suddenly came from a singular direction. Slowly, step after step, Bea followed the sound while keeping her eyes closed. The sensory overstimulation became much more manageable blind, and only seconds after beginning following the sound, she heard it getting closer. Excitement grew in Bea''s heart, but she didn''t lose focus. While continuing her concentration, she walked towards the sound, until she felt close enough. Bea took a deep breath once more, and slowly opened her eyes. The colors and abstract shapes overwhelmed her near immediately, but after a while, the picture became clear in front of her. Her breath caught in Bea''s throat as she gazed upon something barely comprehensible. A dark, void-like shape moved between the abstract ones, attacking its opponent. The bright, ever consuming light fought off the void''s attacks while delivering her own. She had no clue what the void was, but just from a glance, the light''s identity became obvious. While it held no obvious shape, within its depths, Bea saw a tiny green sapling, grown from her own seed... The Seed of the World Tree! The light also held a holy, pristine, flawless beauty within. Only a very special individual would possess such traits. Someone whom Bea once loved more than anything... The light decreased in size, until only a 1,8 meter tall woman stood on the abstract battlefield. Behind her back, three pairs of wings stretched far and wide. Her only weapon was a pair of silver gauntlets with deathly sharp talons. The divine woman grinned widely at her opponent, then laughed with insanity and dismantled the darkness with ferocity! Chapter 393: Regrets and Sorrows As the silvery gauntlet met with the abstract void, the darkness reeled back from the light. Sick pleasure consumed Sera''s face as her talons cut off pieces of the void, slowly destroying it. While it moved backward, the heavenly woman just laughed insanely and continued taking it apart. A while later, when nearly nothing left of the void, it screamed loudly with anger or maybe despair. It began growing in size, and moving towards Sera. It tried to consume her, but just as the void closed in, Sera also jumped forward. Her six wings closed around her, creating a cacoon of protection. The darkness closed around her, just as her laughter echoed through the colorful space. Nothing happened for a few seconds, then suddenly a bright light appeared inside the void. Suddenly, Sera jumped out, while laughing maniacally. She held a strange, dark orb, oozing with black energy, in her silvery gauntlet. The Angel grinned at the orb madly, then without waiting, she squeezed. The dark orb exploded into oozing energy, then it slowly dissipated into nothingness. With the orb''s destruction, Sera''s insane laughter stopped. Her grin slowly disappeared and a serene, sad expression took its place. She sighed deeply, while letting her gauntlets dissolved into specks of light. "Well, I certainly wasn''t expecting that... Whatever that was!" Sera''s head snapped in the familiar voice''s direction. However, her eyes immediately widened in surprise upon glancing at its owner. Bea stood a dozen meters away, looking at her with a mix of emotions, the strongest of which was clearly concern. They stared into each other''s eyes for a long moment. Bea''s beautiful bright green, with a hint of heavenly gold at its middle. Sera''s a divine gold with a hint of alluring bright green at its middle. Neither could force themselves to speak, especially not Sera, who just continued staring at Bea, like she was a ghost. The abstract shapes and colors continued dancing around the place, while Bea stood awkwardly, both hands covering her privates. Sera also noticed her weird stance. She tilted her head in confusion, and unlike what Bea expected, she didn''t seem to care about her nakedness. "Why are you standing like that?" Her question surprised and confused Bea. The greenish skin of her face turned bright red as she blushed and glanced away from the angelic woman. "To cover my body, of course! It wouldn''t be appropriate to meet for the first time in two years, without at least covering my privates!" The redness of Bea''s face deepened as Sera''s laughter echoed around the place. It was nothing like the previous mad chuckle. It held pure joy and even a bit of amusement! "Bea, this is my subconscious. I see you how I perceive you in my mind! I would never imagine you naked! You only see yourself as such!" "Well, that makes one of us!... Uh, I mean... Thank you for not imagining me such way, that would be quite inappropriate indeed!" Sera continued to laugh, while Bea desperately sought a change to the subject. "Anyway, so this is you subconscious?... It''s very... How should I describe it?... It''s very everything and nothing at the same time. Extremely confusing!" Slowly, the Angel''s laughter died down, and she looked around the surreal place with saddened eyes. "Yeah, the subconscious is always abstract. At least that''s what Lilith thinks... Mine looks especially confusing because of Madness''s constant attacks. It warps reality, pushing everything to its limits!" Sera bent and reached down, grabbing the non-existent ground beneath her feet. She lifted a handful of strange dust, which somehow glowed brightly and showed immense darkness at the same time. It reflected every color imaginable, while also looked see through. Just holding it felt like grasping the hottest flame and feeling absolute zero. The dust confused every sense. It smelled like a field of fragrant wildflowers and excrement combined with vomit. As the small particles hit each other, they played a beautiful melody, while also seemed to scream in pain. "Don''t look at it for too long. It can drive you Mad!" Said Sera, before placing the dust back into the empty ground. Bea stared at the angelic woman with wide eyes, the meaning behind Sera''s words slowly reaching her mind. After a few seconds, she nodded thoughtfully, with a serious expression. "Okay, I understand why everything is so fucked up here. Wait!... Didn''t you say... What do you mean by ''Madness''s constant attacks''?" Sera tilted her head again, remembering her own words. Suddenly, she began chuckling self-deprecatingly while shaking her head. "I said Madness huh... That was supposed to be a secret. I haven''t even told this to Vicky when she came to visit a few months ago... I didn''t want to worry her. She already has so much on her shoulder because of my inadequacy!" The Angel''s eyes turned reminiscent, as she remembered her daughter''s latest visit. Both Vicky and Henry grew much in the past two years, slowly growing into little adults, however, Sera wasn''t able to witness it... She felt incompetent. A worthless leader, and an even worse mother. Her own nation and religion barely held on before, and now another continent sought to destroy them! Bea could only watch her suffer alone. She had no words of encouragement, since she knew exactly how the angelic woman felt... It was easy to empathize with her, because she felt that exact same uselessness. "I guess we''re both horrible mothers... Thinking back, I wish we could''ve spent more time together, just the three of us... But other it seems many forces worked to destroy us from the beginning..." Sera caught a glimpse of the sadness in Bea''s eyes. She looked the woman up and down. Something felt different about her demeanor... Something must''ve happened between her and Otto, otherwise she wouldn''t be here, in her ex-girlfriend''s mind... "How''s Otto doing?" She asked as cautiously and warmly as she could muster. Bea smiled sadly, a depressing chuckle escaping her pursed lips... "It''s that obvious? We broke up to put it lightly..." Quickly, Bea summarised the past year she spent with Otto. It wasn''t easy to speak about these events, however, the sincerity in Sera''s eyes constantly prompted her to continue. By the end, the angelic woman''s hands trembled as she squeezed them tightly from anger. Slowly, she hid them behind her back, trying to maintain her calm appearance. However, nothing could''ve hidden the dark, pure hatred in those golden-green eyes. Bea shivered under her gaze, from the fierceness in her stare. "Did he do anything to you? Did he hurt you in any way?" Suddenly, realization hit Bea like a rock. She understood why Sera seemed to take Otto''s treatment so personally... It reminded her of her suffering in Havel... Bea gently smiled and walked up to Sera''s angry form. She took a big leap of faith, reached out and hugged the golden-haired woman. The Angel froze under her hands. Her brain shut down while warmth filled her body. "Don''t worry Sera, he didn''t do anything horrible... Not to me at least... He only treated everyone in Castleburg awfully, while keeping me locked away, in perfect safety... I''m perfectly fine, just very pissed off for wasting so much time with such an asshole!" She whispered everything into Sera''s ear, causing her cheeks to blush. Slowly, Bea moved away and stared at Sera with a gentle smile. Her breathing and heart rate slowly went back to normal, and after a few seconds, her shock disappeared. She smiled back at her ex, a bit awkwardly. "Well, that''s good to hear. Then I''ll only have to kill Otto and don''t have to torture him! That''s saves me a lot of trouble!" They both chuckled at that, even though Bea certainly knew Sera wasn''t joking. Not like she cared if Otto lived or died. She already wanted him gone. This just provided an opportunity to deepen her friendly connection with Sera! "Okay, but only if we do it together! Or do you want to take away my chance at revenge?" Asked Bea sarcastically, while batting her eyelashes like a schoolgirl. Sera laughed again at the majestic woman''s ridiculous expression. "Not at all... Sure... Fine!... Let''s do it together!" She said with an exclamation. Their laughter slowly silenced, and they continued staring into each other''s eyes. After the hug a while ago, Bea ''accidentally'' continued holding Sera''s right hand. However, the angelic woman didn''t seem eager to let go. Her golden-green eyes glinted in the abstract place''s weird lighting. There was something strange in her gaze, like a deep concern. Something seemed to bother Sera, but when she spoke next, it wasn''t what Bea expected. "How''s everyone holding up? Is Vicky doing okay? I had Faith check on her a few times, but not after the attempted kidnapping!" Sera balled her hands into fists once more, but before the anger could''ve taken hold, Bea gave a reassuring squeeze. The Angel took a deep breath and smiled at her friend, thankfully. Bea didn''t say anything at first, unsure where to begin. However, soon a specific tall woman with metallic gray hair and eyes popped into her head... "After the attempted kidnapping, Vicky has been taking lessons in combat! She uses daggers, which she can summon and control! They are really powerful, but she still lacks experience!" The angelic woman''s eyes glinted with pride and wonder. A small, satisfied smile grew on her kissable lips. "Who''s teaching her? Kim, or maybe Astrid? Or you?" The majestic woman snorted at Bea''s question, as a similar proud smile appeared on her face too. "Neither. She''s a new Transcended named Yvonne. She says you''ve met before, but I doubt you remember her or her family... Anyway, she and Astrid will make a delightful couple!" The name Yvonne felt familiar to Sera. However, she couldn''t recall her face. Suddenly, the angelic woman''s eyes went wide as her mind processed Bea''s last sentence. "WHAT?! Astrid has a girlfriend? That giant, taciturn woman who only speaks with Kim?... Okay, tell me everything you know!" Bea laughed at her reaction, then began retelling everything she learned in the past few days. Chapter 394: Constant Fight for Sanity "So let me get this straight... Agnes given birth, Astrid has a girlfriend, Vicky acquired three city-states in Europe, she learned how to fight and even had her first kill?... All this happened in the past two weeks?" Sera stared at the majestic woman with pure shock. Faith had little to report in two years, but it seems everything became hectic very quickly. Bea just smiled gently, seeing the worry in Sera''s eyes. She gave a small reassuring squeeze to the Angel''s hand, which she still desperately held onto. "Everyone is fine, by the way. There were a few close calls, but we haven''t lost anyone since the attempted kidnapping!" The angelic woman nodded thoughtfully, but it was clear something bothered her quite a bit. Her eyes glanced around, as if revising her knowledge. "Bea, don''t you think it''s strange, how suddenly everything is moving faster? Faith had little to report in the past two years, but in under two weeks, so much happened... I wonder if it''s already beginning..." She only whispered the last sentence, but Bea heard it clearly, even though she hadn''t understood it. Eventually, Sera sighed deeply, letting go of her frustration about the topic. The comfortable silence stretched between them, each occupied with their own thoughts. After a while, Bea remembered their earlier conversation. She swiftly turned towards Sera, full of curiosity. "You never actually explained anything about this place, or Madness. How can we even exist inside your subconscious?" "Ah, well, that''s a long story and fairly complicated. Let''s begin with the easier explanation... Madness!" Sera took a deep breath while compiling everything she knew about her current circumstance. "I left Europe, because after reaching Transcended, I got partially corrupted by Madness. Probably my emotional half carried the seed and when reunited, it bloomed inside of me!" "Immediately after becoming a Transcended and resurrecting, a strange bloodlust took hold of my mind. Even after quenching it by killing hundreds of Horrors, it came back a few hours later. So I decided to leave... To keep everyone safe from myself..." Bea never learned about the reason Sera left. Nobody really knew, other than Vicky and Henry, but even they kept it a secret. Now, she finally understood what the look in Sera''s golden-green eyes was... The angelic woman felt ashamed! She left everyone without any orders or goodbye. Her nation, built upon the Angel''s image, became leaderless and fractured. Vicky and Henry managed to pull everyone back together. However, it didn''t make Sera feel any better. Her actions caused a pair of children to take her position. It forced her daughter to step up, because of Sera''s inability to control her bloodlust! With this understanding, Bea squeezed Sera''s hand once more, while gently smiling at her. The shame slowly left her eyes, and she even gave a quick, fleeting smirk. "Anyway. I wasn''t certain, but as time went on, everything became more obvious. After the first year, Madness''s influence became more predominant. My subconscious constantly fought against it, while my body wanted to kill everything in sight!" "That''s when I learned how to enter my own subconscious. With Clear Mind, my body continues to fight on autopilot, while I can destroy the Seed of Madness here!" While speaking, Sera lifted her arm and made a sweeping motion, accentuating her words with body movements. "That void you saw was the Seed of Madness, while the light was my subconscious fighting against it. When I gained form, that''s when my actual consciousness entered the fray!" Bea nodded, even though she barely understood the meaning behind Sera''s words. "But how can I be here? I assume only my mind is here, so does that mean my body is still just floating in the hot tube, unconscious? I should probably leave then. The others might get worried!" Sera just raised an eyebrow, trying to suppress her amusement. "You don''t need to worry. Time goes by extremely slowly in here. We could spend days talking, and only minutes would pass outside... Anyway, hot tub?" Asked Sera with a bemused smirk. A small blush took over Bea''s greenish face. She took a deep breath and shrugged innocently. "It''s cold in Antarctica, so I dug into a geothermal water source and built a hot tub. It''s really comfortable, you would love it!" The angelic woman snorted and giggled to herself... "Well, maybe we can try it out when I''m back..." Bea glanced into Sera''s loving eyes, but found mostly sadness within... "And when''s that?" She asked curiously. Sera just shook her head dismissively... "I don''t know exactly, but soon. Everything moves faster, the locks will soon break and the Gates will tear open... ''When Heaven''s door opens, and the gates of Hell burst wide, The Angel rides back home, to save and kill all her kind!''" The quiet left by her statement quickly turned awkward. Bea never heard of Fate, so in her mind, Sera just began rhyming for no apparent reason. She felt a bit creeped out, so instead of asking further questions about those strange words, Bea steered back the conversation to its main topic! "So, you''re fighting against Madness in your mind, while your body also struggles with the bloodlust. When do you rest?" This question pushed Sera out of her burdened silence. She chuckled for a few moments before sighing deeply. "Rest? Who needs rest? I hadn''t actually slept for the past few months! Even when I''m not fighting either here or in the real world, I can''t sleep. If I lose consciousness, it''s game over..." Bea raised a concerned eyebrow while looking at Sera''s face closely. Her flawless beauty hid most of the telltale signs of exhaustion, but Bea''s keen eyes and nature sense found them quickly. "What do you mean ''it''s game over''?" She asked, unable to hide the worry from her voice. The angelic woman just glanced at Bea like she was stupid... "It''s a metaphor used for death. You know, in video games, when you die..." Before she could''ve continued, Bea raised her empty hand and flicked the Angel''s forehead. Sera yelped from surprise, then giggled at her friend''s annoyed expression. "Fine, sorry! It was just too great of an opportunity to miss!... Anyway, if I lose consciousness, even my subconscious can''t fight against the Seed of Madness in my head. That means I''ll immediately get corrupted by it!" Bea already guessed as much, but hearing it only filled her heart with more fear. She trusted in Sera''s ability to hold out against Madness''s influence... But how long will she need to? Throughout the rest of her life? Can the Seed be destroyed? All these questions popped into Bea''s mind. However, she didn''t ask any of them. It was useless to worry about it, instead she needed more information, so she could find a way to help! "So is that how Madness works? All monsters we ever fought against got corrupted just like you?" Sera made a wobbling motion with her empty hand, while staring at Bea appreciatively. They knew each other well, so hiding the intent behind her questions was impossible. "Yeah, the more powerful ones who can resist. However, most creatures can''t even struggle against Madness. Then there are His followers, like Harold or Amygdala, the acolytes. They don''t lose their minds and even gain benefits from the corruption!" Bea paid attention to the angelic woman''s every word, trying to find clues within. "Hmm... So the Seed causes all these issues, and succumbing to it means losing your mind forever to Madness... Then I guess we just need to destroy the Seed!" A cheeky smirk spread across Sera''s face as she pointed at Bea... "I like your optimism! However, removing the Seed isn''t as easy as beating it in combat! We need someone with a specific power that could help!" The majestic woman nodded, but Sera''s next words shocked her... "I already found him, but removing the Seed isn''t optimal for now!... I''ll need the bloodlust in the upcoming battle. Without it, I''ll lose!" Yet again, Bea ignored the Angel''s creepy words, and instead focused on the new information she gained. "Where is this man? Maybe we can ask for his help and keep him safe until you need to remove the Seed! It would be safer to have him on standby constantly!" "Good thinking, but it''s unnecessary. Faith already scouted him out, so if we need him ASAP, Vicky could teleport there anytime... Also, he''s on the other side of the world, in Australia!" Bea felt surprised hearing this. By Lilith''s and Adam''s account, out of every continent, only Europe, Asia, South-America and Antarctica survived. It was nice to hear, some humans survived in Australia too! They both fell into silence once more. Bea looked around, glancing at the abstract shapes, then down at herself. At some point, clothing appeared on her, which she hadn''t even noticed. But her confusion appeared for a different reason. "Sera, I have one final question! How am I here exactly? How did my mind travel into your subconscious?" Sera also became thoughtful, hearing her question. She wasn''t quite certain, but had an obvious guess. "I''m not sure. However, it''s probably related to the Seed of the World Tree you used on me! It didn''t just heal me, but boosted my regeneration and gave me a bunch of abilities. It even changed my eye color and yours too!" Shock appeared on Bea''s face as she remembered everything that happened after she placed the seed inside Sera''s chest. "I guess so. It''s weird. The description had mentioned nothing about its purpose. It was merely a last ditch effort to save your life!" Suddenly surprising Bea once more, Sera reached out and hugged her, while whispering into her ear. "I don''t think I ever actually said it, but just in case... Thank you for saving my life. My rational half didn''t care about such formalities as appreciation, but I''m glad for your help!" Bea just awkwardly stood while Sera hugged her. She could barely form a thought under her gentle arms. Her voice felt sweet as honey, as her close breath brushed against Bea''s ears. The majestic woman''s face turned red as a tomato, while her hands shook with excitement. "N-no... There''s no need... There is no need to thank me! I just did what any friend would do... Anyway, I should probably head back home!" Desperately, while trying to hide her heavy blush, Bea tried pushing Sera away. However, the angelic woman''s arms stayed firm. "Do you really want to go? Don''t you have any more questions about the past two years? Aren''t you curious about what I went through? How I survived?... Who I''ve been with?" The trembling in Bea''s hands stopped immediately. Her blush also disappeared as if someone poured a cold shower on her head. Finally, Sera took a step back and smiled gently at Bea, who wasn''t so eager to leave anymore. "Well, I guess I could stay a bit longer!" She said while mirroring Sera''s smile. The Angel laughed at her sudden change of heart, and asked, "So, what do you want to know?" A cunning grin spread across Bea''s face, surprising Sera. The majestic woman leaned forward and said a single word... "Everything!" Chapter 395 395: Sleeping Beauty ¡ª2 years ago. 28 ATA, May 19th. Somewhere near the eastern shore of North-America¡ª Sera''s head felt like exploding. She couldn''t even open her eyes, and even the darkness in her vision felt too bright. Her entire body felt awful, too, exhaustion evident in her barely moveable limbs. After spending an eternity in pain, it eventually became bearable. She couldn''t move her body yet, but for now, she accepted the peace of not being in constant agony. Gradually, her senses began returning one-by-one. First, her sense of smell, which picked up an abundance of different pleasant and horrid aromas. The breezy air was full of the smell of pine, while she also perceived the smell of fire mixed with freshly cooked meat. However, from further away, her nose picked up the smell of blood and excrement. The putrid, disgusting smell couldn''t have belonged to any human... It was definitely some dead monster! Next came her sense of hearing, which picked up the sound of faraway fighting. A bit of worry rose in Sera''s heart. She couldn''t possibly fight in her current weakened state! Her concern, though, soon lessened. The fighting stopped after a few minutes, and soon the sound of confident footsteps arrived next to her. "Damn, she''s still asleep... Wonder how long she''ll need to sleep to recover..." The female voice mumbled to herself. Sera recognized it immediately. It was Faith, her loyal Shadow! With a bit of struggle, Sera managed to force her mouth open, then she tried to speak... "I''m already awake, fool!" She said with her weak throat, then instantly began coughing. Her mouth felt drier than a desert. Whatever Faith was holding, it fell to the ground, as the dark-eyed woman glanced at the Angel, frozen in shock. Tears welled in her eyes as she collapsed next to her Goddess! "My Lady! I was so worried about you! You haven''t shown any signs of consciousness... I thought you would never wake up... I was so worried..." Faith''s voice slowly devolved into relieved sobs. Her shaking hands gently held Sera''s own. The angelic woman concentrated all her willpower and gave a small, reassuring squeeze to Faith''s trembling hands. The Shadow, realizing what she''s doing, blushed heavily, and slowly placed Sera''s hand back on the ground, like it was some holy object. "Wa-ter... Water... Please..." Sera barely managed to push out the words before she broke into another coughing fit. When she could breathe again, Faith moved quickly and soon she felt a metal flask near her mouth. Water gently trickled from the opening and down the angelic woman''s throat. It felt like the best drink for Sera''s parched lips. Her body slowly reinvigorated, and soon she began gulping down every droplet within the flask! Afterward, she took a deep satisfied breath, and tried opening her eyes. Her eyelids flickered open, but her vision hadn''t gotten any better. Everywhere she looked, darkness surrounded her! "Fuck me, don''t tell me I became blind! I can''t see shit!" Somewhere nearby, Faith coughed awkwardly. She then giggled to herself, clearly embarrassed about something... "Sorry, that''s actually me. You''ve been lying here for a long time, so I raised a barrier of shadows surrounding us for a few kilometers in every direction. If anything enters, I immediately notice and can attack or take you away swiftly!" Slowly, the surrounding darkness brightened as Faith carved out the barrier''s core. The shadows stayed further away, letting a few dozen meters brighten by the campfire. Sera''s golden-green eyes glanced around, still lying on her back. Her vision stayed mostly blurry, but everything cleared gradually. Their campsite looked miserable. Faith had skinned some monster and used its fur as a makeshift bed. The only light source was a single small campfire, which slowly drowned under the falling grease from the meat cooking above it. Nearby the trunks of trees stretched widely. Each trunk stretched close to ten meters in diameter, which meant their actual height must''ve been gigantic. The sound of insect buzzing echoed around the campsite, and Sera spotted a few large moths flying around the campfire. "Well, this place looks like shit... Also, where''s this disgusting smell coming from?" Faith looked a bit surprised by her Lady''s question. She shadowy woman glanced around, her senses moving through the darkness nearby. There were corpses all around the campsite. However, Faith''s confusion stemmed from Sera''s inability to see them. "Uh, my Lady? Can''t you see through the darkness? There are monster corpses all around us, hundreds of them!" Sera looked confused for a moment, then she reached out her hand and tried summoning light. However, immediately after consuming essence, the strong headache reappeared. "I guess I need a bit more time before using my abilities again... Anyway, is the meat done cooking? I''m famished!" Faith''s eyes still looked concerned, but a small smile appeared upon hearing her Lady''s request. "I thought Transcended can survive without eating." She said, while reaching down and plucking a large piece of monster thigh meat. The angelic woman slowly sat up cross-legged and reached out as Faith handed her the meat. "Neither of us have need to eat. However, I''m hungry, so I don''t give a fuck!" With that, Sera turned her glistening, starving eyes to the juicy meat. She opened her mouth and bit away a large piece, barely chewing it. The meat was scolding hot, but for a hungry Transcended it was perfect temperature. Sera breathed out steam as her saliva boiled. Her eyes seemed like golden stars, as desire shined in them. Without taking a break, she ate the entire meat, then another one, then the next... After devouring about fifteen kilograms worth of meat, she finally felt full! "Faith, that was amazing! You''re the best cook ever!" The shadowy woman just raised a confused eyebrow while munching on her single piece of food. "I literally just cut it off a monster and placed it atop the flames. I didn''t even have salt or spices to use on the meat!" Sera just leaned back against the tree and shrugged with a content smile. "Well, the meat still tasted good, so whatever you did, good job!" Faith just sighed while shaking her head, suppressing her laughter. Slowly, she also ate her meal. In the meantime, Sera, with the help of the nearby tree, climbed to her wobbly feet. She stood there proudly for a few moments before her legs finally gave out. The Angel yelped in surprise, but just before she would hit the ground, the shadows nearby caught her wings and body. They gently placed her back on the monster''s fur, where the divine woman cursed under her breath. "Fuck, it seems like walking isn''t an option yet... Uh, dammit, the stupid headache came back..." She rubbed her forehead with an annoyed, pained expression, while taking deep calming breaths. "A brief word of advice for you, Faith! If you ever feel like Evolving, don''t do it while you''re dead!... The backlash is fucking awful!" This time, she couldn''t hold in her laughter anymore. The dark-eyed woman burst out suddenly, and Sera''s own chuckle soon mixed with hers. They both laughed for a few minutes, then fell into silence. The only noise surrounding them was the dying fire''s last few crackles and the insects'' gentle buzzing. "Faith, how long was I asleep, exactly, and what happened during that time? I remember arriving to North-America through Vicky''s portal. Then I just felt really tired and fell asleep... Did anything important happen?" Faith leaned back against the same tree''s trunk a few meters away. Her dark eyes staring above, through the extensive foliage and shadows, at the night sky. "You were asleep for about a week. I''ve been defending you all this time, killing every monster I could. However, I also ran across a few strong foes, whom I couldn''t defeat easily. I moved you lots of times whenever your safety became precarious." Sera nodded, while staring at Faith''s side profile with thankful eyes. The shadowy woman glanced to the side, into her golden-green eyes, and smiled affectionately, but also full of respect and reverence. "One week huh?... Then I guess you had some time to look around while rescuing me... What is your initial reconnaissance about North-America?" The smile disappeared from Faith''s face, like it never existed. Her mouth turned into a thin line, while her eyes became firm and serious. "The state of this continent is much worse than anything we hoped for. For comparison, Europe feels like a paradise to this hell! In just one week, I had to kill close to a thousand monsters, if not more!" Sera''s eyes went wide with surprise. Slowly, she was regaining control over her essence, so her passive Angel Sight activated again! She finally could see through Faith''s shadows! Around their campsite, the gigantic trees stretched far and wide. However, that wasn''t too surprising, even though Sera didn''t expect to see such enormous trees. What truly shocked Sera was the amount of dead monster corpses all around them. Because of the trees blocking her vision, Sera couldn''t see far, but even then, she counted about two dozen corpses! "Don''t worry. I killed these before setting up the campsite! You were safely tucked away in my shadows the entire time!" Slowly, a wide grin spread across Sera''s face. She took a deep breath of the gore filled air, and chuckled to herself. Her eyes moved to Faith''s curious and a bit worried expression. The Angel just winked at her shadow, and said, "This place might be hell, but it''s perfect for its intended purpose. It has lots of monsters that need killing... Just what I need!" Chapter 396: North-America It took early an entire day for Sera to finally walk again. With the restoration of her essence pool, her regeneration increased as well. However, while her body mostly regained its strength, her mind stayed exhausted. She and Faith began moving inward to the continent, away from the shore. They had no particular destination in mind. Most of North-America didn''t survive the Last War, and it seemed nobody managed to survive the Apocalypse. The exact reason for the missing human presence wasn''t obvious. The giant monster population was probably the most important factor, but Sera felt it wasn''t the core problem! "It''s quite annoying that we''ll probably never know," Said Sera, while using a random stick to help her walk. "There is nobody here! No survivors! Which means nobody can tell us exactly what went down 28 years ago!... Dammit, I''m so curious, because this isn''t normal!" The angelic woman waved her hands around the gigantic forest surrounding them. Previously, Sera sent Faith up into the sky to look around. Because Faith was her Shadow, she also turned into an Angel. Her black wings propelled the woman up through the enormous trees. Each tree was some kind of pine variant, but the width of their trunks reached ten meters, while their height climbed a few hundred at least! It plunged the foliage below into eternal darkness. No plants could survive the sunless environment, but with the increase in monster corpses, the mushroom population thrived! Faith spent a few minutes flying above the trees, then returned with some bad news... There was only the forest... They were at least twenty kilometers from the shore, and the giant forest just stretched on endlessly! "Indeed," Said Faith, "I haven''t seen trees grow this large in the wild, and there aren''t any records of them in the archives. At least Henry said there wasn''t!" Sera snorted with amusement while a small smile stretched across her face. "Well, if Henry said it, there''s no doubt about it! That boy''s way too thorough to miss anything inside those documents!... He''ll grow into an amazing leader, I just know it!" The shadowy woman nodded beside her. She had to walk extremely slowly, so her Lady could keep up. She tried coaxing Sera into getting carried by her Shadow, but the stubborn woman adamantly declined. It wasn''t like they had any destination, so taking their time wasn''t an issue. Lots of monsters tried to get close, but Faith still kept up her kilometer long dome of darkness. She killed most of them at the shadow''s border, but let a few tastier ones get closer. The Angel''s appetite hadn''t decreased, and her Shadow continued providing the best cuisine! They stopped multiple times each day to have lunch, dinner, breakfast, a second breakfast since the first one was always lackluster! As Transcended, neither women required sleep to survive. However, since Sera was still recovering, she slept through most of the days. Luckily, each day she needed less and less sleep, until after another week, her body finally normalized. They walked about forty kilometers inland by that time, but with Sera''s recovery, their movement speed increased tenfold, since both of them could fly! However, on the first day they tried flying, they quickly realized the skies weren''t safe either. They came across a few hordes of monsters, which they killed without much issue. On that day, their progress inland more than doubled, reaching a hundred kilometers. The trees still stretched far up into the sky, and the forest continued endlessly. The next day, they continued their journey. The battles in the sky became easier the more time Sera had to recover. Her maneuvering in the sky still didn''t reach its original levels. She also tried not straining herself too much, because of the possible baby growing inside her. It still wasn''t certain if what Fate told was the truth, however, she tried not taking risks, just in case! Sadly, she had no way to check her pregnancy, since Evolved didn''t have monthly periods. Her body didn''t feel any different, and she wouldn''t have any bump for the first few months. The second day''s flight proved much more fruitful than the first''s. While the forest still stretched endlessly, faraway Sera finally spotted a landmark... Mountains! "Hmm... Judging by the area where Vicky took us, those are the Appalachian Mountains. They don''t stretch too high above, and it seemed these enormous trees took them over as well. I think it''s a nice place!" Said Sera while munching on a piece of bone, breaking it with her teeth and sucking the marrow within. Faith glanced at her with veiled disgust and gulped down her vomit. "So, Faith? What do you think? Should we set up a nice base in the Appalachians?" For emphasis, she crunched down on the bone again. This time, however, there wasn''t any marrow... She was eating the actual bone! "I think it''s a good idea... And I think I need to take a walk to clear my head..." Sera just giggled with blood and bone fragments between her teeth, as her Shadow stood up and nearly ran away! Not long after she left, Sera heard the sound of vomiting nearby. She felt kind of bad, but not enough to lose her appetite, so she continued eating meat and bone, leaving nothing behind! By morning, they set out with an actual destination in mind! The mountain range stretched for a few hundred kilometers towards north and south. While its average height reached nearly a kilometer. If you add all the great trees, the top of said trees reached well above a kilometer from sea level. On the final day of their journey, they flew the last 20 or 30 kilometers pretty quickly, with little fighting. They only stopped upon finally reaching a suitable spot atop the mountains where they could settle for now. The height of the mountains provided the perfect place to set up base. They built their camp right next to a cliffside, then hid everything in Faith''s shadows. This way, there was one less direction from which monsters could attack, while they can still light fires since the shadows hid everything. When they chose the spot, Faith took out all their camping supplies from her shadows. After eating a quick lunch, the monsters near their chosen base began closing in. Sera climbed to her feet with a wide smile, grease dripping from her face. However, her Shadow gave a stern look, which left no room for argument. "You''re pregnant, my Lady! We talked about this. I can handle them alone. There''s only a few Horrors, lots of Corrupted and some weaker stragglers! You should just rest and eat in peace while I exterminate them!" The Angel plopped back against the nearby great tree while mumbling under her breath, like a spoiled child not receiving her most wanted present. Faith couldn''t help but giggle upon seeing Sera''s faked angry expression. She took a deep breath and glanced down at Sera with a small smirk. "If you behave nicely, I''ll ask Vicky to bring salt and spices when she comes to visit next week!" Sera snorted, but couldn''t hide the smile on her beautiful face. She nodded towards her Shadow with understanding, and without another word, Faith stepped through her darkness. Soon, the sound of fighting and the cry of dying monsters echoed throughout the mountaintop. Sera leaned back against a tree with crossed arms and a grumpy expression. Eventually, she let go of her dumb grudge and returned to her meal. After eating her fill¡ªwhich was close to 20 kilograms of meat¡ªshe looked to the side where the sun was slowly moving downward. A small smile stretched across her face while one hand absently stroked her belly. She still wasn''t sure about the baby''s existence, but just the chance of bearing Bran''s child brought happiness to Sera. While she wasn''t paying attention, a monster managed to sneak up the cliffs. A lizard-like creature with six grappling legs, a mouth full of razor-sharp, venomous teeth, and two leathery wings meant for gliding. It moved slowly, smelling the cooked meat in the air. When it reached the top, the monster glanced up and saw a beautiful angel staring down at it. Sera looked at the creature curiously, trying to determine its danger level. She soon realized how weak the monster was. Without waiting a moment longer, she summoned a gauntlet and punched the lizard in the face, breaking its skull, exploding its brain. She watched with a confident smirk as the corpse fell down the cliff. However, soon confusion appeared on Sera''s face... "I thought Faith kept up the shadow barrier, so this weakling shouldn''t have snuck through!" Suddenly, Sera heard fast footsteps approaching. She turned around to find Faith covered in gore. She held onto her shoulder, which bent unnaturally to the side. The trees broke behind the Shadow as she ran... Something gigantic was chasing her! "RUN! IT''S AN ABOMINATION!" Shouted Faith, while sprinting towards the cliffs. Sera prepared to jump off. However, the great trees turned into splinters, falling atop the running Shadow. For some reason, Faith didn''t turn into a shadow, and instead she struggled to push the giant log away. There was no time to wait! Sera, instead of jumping away, ran back towards her friend. Faith tried to protest and push Sera away, however the angelic woman didn''t care. With one gauntlet, she punched the tree so hard it broke instantly. She then lifted her companion and ran towards the cliffs. Behind them, an enormous roar shook the foundations of the earth, shaking the angels to their cores. Sera felt the creature close in, but didn''t dare look back. She took a few more stumbling steps before finally reaching the cliff. While still holding Faith, she jumped away. That''s when the monster finally caught up and reached out. Its claws barely graced Sera''s pristine white wings, and still it broke part of it. The Angel screamed in agony, while falling downward. However, soon two more pairs of wings grew from her back, and she managed to glide away from the mountain. The monster roared its farewell before moving back behind into the destroyed forest. Chapter 397: Screams of Help "Fuck, fuck, fuck! It hurts so fucking bad!... Uh, it''s been so long since I injured my wing... I forgot how fucking bad it is!" Sera flew further west, far away from the cliff and Abomination. Her left white-feathered wing had a serious injury where the monster slashed it. Each movement felt worse than anything imaginable. Even her years of near daily torture weren''t as bad as a serious wing injury! Sweat ran down her beautiful face, gently dropping into the great forest below. The sun already set, plunging the sky into shades of red and purple. She still carried Faith in her arm. Her body became limp a few seconds after their escape, because she passed out. Through the gore, Sera managed to spot multiple injuries, like broken bones, deep lacerations and a few stab wounds. However, none of them seemed too bad, but for some reason they weren''t healing! "Dammit, Faith, don''t you dare die on me! You promised me food with salts and spices! Don''t you dare become a liar!" With one hand she held onto Faith''s disheveled clothes, with the other she teared her own shirt and jacket up. Sera tried to apply first aid, but it was near impossible while flying. She went about ten kilometers to the west, when she finally decided to land on a wide branch two hundred meters above the ground. The teared up clothes quickly absorbed all the blood, and with applied pressure, the bleeding eventually stopped. Faith looked even paler than usual, while her breathing was uneven and wet. Sera quickly turned her on the side, causing blood and some other liquid to leak from her mouth. "Fuck me, this is bad! I have no fucking idea what''s wrong... Okay, where is your watch... I need Vicky to get help!" Frantically, the angelic woman searched through her Shadow''s arms and clothes, but her watch was nowhere to be found! Sera destroyed her own watch back in New Athens, so they had no way to communicate with Vicky or anyone else... They were on their own! "Okay, don''t panic... The bleeding stopped for now, but her lungs and other organs might''ve taken damage... I could try healing her, like I did with Damien... No, I don''t have the strength, since I was near Stellar Rank back then..." She took a few deep breaths, trying to calm her turbulent mind, but even then she couldn''t find any viable ideas. Desperately, Sera tried running her essence through Faith''s body, but it got rejected. Whatever was wrong with Faith, she didn''t have access, not just her own, but anyone else''s essence. As if her body wasn''t Evolved anymore, or something like that. Out of options, Sera fell to her knees near her friend''s dying body. Tears ran down her face as she held Faith''s cold hand. "I''m sorry... I don''t know what to do... I can''t save you... I''m so sorry, Faith... I failed you as a Goddess..." While Sera sobbed in sadness, suddenly she heard a sound not too far away. A sound that shook the Angel''s very core. An impossible sound... A human screaming for help! The Angel wasted no time. Immediately after hearing the scream, she lifted her dying friend and jumped down from the great tree branch. The screams echoed through the forest, however locating them wasn''t difficult. It sounded like a boy barely in adulthood, or maybe even younger! Sure enough, a few wingbeats later, Sera spotted the boy. He was a bit taller and more muscular than the average human, but he most definitely wasn''t an Evolved. He must''ve been around sixteen years of age with short, dark brown hair and terrified hazel eyes. The boy held a stick with a sharp stone attached to its end, a makeshift spear. Blood ran down his arm, where a claw cut through his clothing. Behind him laid an unconscious girl, about the same age, but with dark blonde hair and with a long, bleeding wound along her back. Near her body, a broken makeshift spear laid. "SOMEONE! WE''RE HERE! HELP!" The boy''s shouts echoed through the woods, grabbing the attention of every monster in the vicinity. Atop the branch, Sera lightly shook her head in disappointment. The boy and girl would soon die without help... Luckily for them, Sera arrived just in time. A giant, squirrel-looking monster jumped between trees, aiming straight for the shouting boy. The regular human couldn''t even react as the squirrel flew towards him. Desperately, terror etched on his face, he turned towards the monster with his wooden spear. However, he wasn''t nearly fast enough. The beast''s claws nearly reached his face when the squirrel suddenly stopped moving. A loud, painful screech escaped its salivating mouth before it died. The boy needed a few seconds to process what had just happened. He glanced down at the squirrel''s corpse, which floated before him. However, he soon realized why it hadn''t fallen to the ground. A large silvery metal spike impaled the beast, killing it instantly. Blood, guts and gore painted the silvery spike red, and filled the air with the smell of death. The boy bent down, heaving for air, then after a moment he began puking up everything in his stomach. Wingbeats echoed in the air, pushing the teenager out of the depths of his despair. He lifted his spear towards the sky, but when his eyes landed on the creature descended, his spear suddenly became heavy. It fell from his hand, rolling away on the muddy ground. The boy stared with his mouth open. He never seen such a divine creature before, and even though his mind couldn''t name the species, his soul instinctively knew... "Are... Are you an angel?... Did you come to save us?" The heavenly woman landed on the ground, all six wings folding behind her back. Only a black bra covered her upper body, while she wore some strange black pants, with dozens of holes in it... Luckily, the boy was oblivious to everything, his eyes only focused on her beautiful face. The angelic woman seemed perfect, except for the long scar running from her eyebrows to her left jawline. The Angel smiled with satisfaction, seeing the awe in his hazel eyes. However, she wasn''t anything like he expected. "Maybe, do you know any doctors who could help save my friend? She''s close to dying, you know!" Suddenly, she unfolded one of her pristine white wings, showing another unnatural beauty''s face. Her hair seemed to be weaved from shadows, while her face looked extremely pale and covered in gore! "Y-yes... My mother... She''s a doctor! Help me save Tadita, and I''m sure she''ll help your friend!" Said the boy, while pointing at the unconscious girl named Tadita. A few branches broke around them as monsters tried sneaking upon the trees. Even the boy heard them, as his hands began trembling once more. The Angel glanced around, spotting about a dozen monsters in their proximity. Her calm words reached the boy''s ears not long afterward... "I would like to help you both, however I can''t. Please, take my friend here while I kill every monster nearby!" She gently placed the dark-haired woman on the muddy ground, then grinned wickedly at the creatures nearby. The monsters screeched as one, and jumped towards the angelic woman, ready to devour her. As the dozen monsters flew, more silver spikes grew from the ground, impaling each and every one. Their guts spilled on the ground, and the boy fell to his knees in horror. "T-those... Those were monsters... More than ten monsters... And you killed them without lifting a finger... Why can''t you help me and Tadita..." Suddenly, the Angel''s golden-green eyes snapped towards the boy, silencing his whining. At the edges of her eyes, a bit of redness tried crawling in, but she didn''t succumb to it! "Because I can barely hold myself back! Now take them both and run, or I might kill you too!" Sera didn''t need to order twice. The boy''s muscles, which felt immovable moments ago, now became well-oiled and fast. He grabbed his friend and pulled her over one shoulder, then grabbed the dark-haired woman, pulling her over the other. The boy instantly began spirting through the forest, away from the Angel. Adrenaline gave him inhumane strength, and his will carried him faster than ever! Back at the massacre site, Sera laughed loudly, as more redness crept into her eyes. She smelt it in the air, after killing that squirrel... She felt the bloodlust once more! More monster, hundreds of them came running in her direction. Her laughter turned insane as a pair of silver gauntlets with sharp claws appeared on her hands. She didn''t summon any armor as her eyes became red. The armor would slow her movements, preventing her from killing more! The first monster appeared in her sight, just as her bloodlust took over... "Oh, man... You really all fucked up... You should''ve stayed in whatever hole you crawled out of!" A booming, vicious laughter exploded from the Angel as she spread her wings and jumped towards the first monster. Like a bullet, she flew through the beast, leaving nothing but gore behind. With one wingbeat, she arrived next to another, and teared off its head. Sera then tossed the head with such speed, it exploded through two more monsters! The Angel continued her murder spree, killing everything without thinking. She killed a dozen monsters in one second, then two dozen more in the next. The giant forest soon filled with two distinct sounds, the scream of monster... And Sera''s mad laughter! Chapter 398: Exhausted Killer Blood, death, destruction, despair, chaos, corpses... Corpses everywhere... More! More death! "Blood... I need more blood... I need to kill more... Kill everything!" Sera mumbled while she grabbed a Horror. With her silver gauntlets, she tore into the huge beast, and teared its body into two pieces. Gore rained down on her, and all the other corpses nearby. She continued, smiling wickedly, as she stuck out her tongue and swallowed the blood drops. She then immediately spat it, since it tasted disgusting! She coughed a few times while glancing around the graveyard she created. The redness nearly disappeared from her eyes, but a few monsters still tried attacking her... Ten Horrors closed in around her. Anything below Horror Class already ran off terrified, but these creatures either weren''t smart or had too much pride. The beasts were a strange mix of different animal parts. Their heads seemed similar to a lion or tiger, with the nose and tusks of a boar. Their body shined with golden fur and scales, resembling that of a lizard. They stretched five meters long, with their tails adding another two meters. The tail had some weird cacoon-like protrusion at its end. The monsters surrounded the Angel, jumping between trees until she had no escape route. Sera took deep, tried breaths. She fought for hours now, and killed probably a thousand monsters. Her essence wasn''t too low, since she mostly used her physical strength to dismantle every enemy. However, her mind and body felt awful. "Horrors of the Second Tier?... Of course... Can''t make it easy, right?... And I''m guessing you aren''t planning on running away?" The lion-lizard monsters screeched their answer. Half of them jumped towards Sera, while the other half firmly held onto their position, and aimed their tails. The protrusion at the end opened, revealing a glowing eye. Sera had a bad feeling about those eyes and soon realized why. From five different directions, each beast shot bright yellow lasers, which boiled the air and carved out the ground, while melting everything below. The moment the lasers shot out, Sera jumped into the air and maneuvered away with her wings. She summoned her full body armor and a pair of curved swords. By this point, her bloodlust disappeared, leaving only calculated, rational thinking behind. The five monsters who jumped at her didn''t back down. They easily kept up with her flight, and even closed the distance, until she had to stop and hold her ground! She stopped atop a giant tree branch, a few dozen meters off the ground. Three beasts immediately jumped at her. Sera raised her sword and parried each monster''s claws. She then instantly turned around, as a fourth beast ran towards her. The two silvery swords caught into the monster''s tusks. It pushed Sera for a few meters before she managed to stop it. However, just as she prepared to kill the beast, the fifth one charge from behind. There was no way for her to defend against it, so she let her armor absorb the impact. A gasp of pain escaped her mouth as the silver armor distributed the damage across Sera''s body. To the sides, yellow spots of light rapidly approached her position. Sandwiched between the two beasts with boar tusks, she couldn''t escape. All five laser beams struck her body at once, scorching her body below the armor. She screamed in pain, but even in agony, her mind stayed clear. Without command, she moved. The boar with its tusks stuck in Sera''s weapon soon went flying, when Sera tossed it away with her weapons. She didn''t have time to summon new swords, so instead, she used the silvery spikes growing from the branch. It stabbed through the monster behind her, killing it on the spot. Sera reached out and broke off the long tip of the spike. Her new makeshift spear was barely two and a half meters, the perfect length for her. Far away, five more yellow beams headed in her direction. They strangely curved between trees, trying to hit her from multiple directions. There was no place to run, so Sera summoned more silver spikes around herself. They gently curved away from her, creating a beautiful flower-like pattern, which reflected the laser beams. The giant trees'' branched broke, and while the leaves caught on fire. Sera herself began falling as the branch below her evaporated. In the air, the other four beasts jumped at her. With her wings, Sera turned in the air, and let one monster impale itself on her makeshift spear. She quickly let go of her weapon and caught the other monster falling towards her. Sera held its salivating mouth barely inches away from her head. The two gauntleted hands grabbed onto its upper and lower jaw, then with a quick motion she teared the beast''s head in two. It fell to the ground in agony, dying on the spot. Sera managed to fall on her feet, but the last two monsters quickly followed her. They jumped without self-preservation, screeching with hatred. The Angel didn''t even look at them as two giant silver spikes impaled both. She then glanced in the direction of the yellow lasers, but they never came. After about a minute, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and began walking away from the gory battlefield... With her golden-green eyes opened to a slit, she could barely walk. Her silver armor dissolved into specks of light, revealing her bruised, burnt body beneath. The healing already taken effect, however she was far from fine. Not like her injuries could be seen under the crusted blood and layers of dirty. She even had intestine and bone parts stuck in her long, golden hair. She yawned from exhaustion, revealing her bloody teeth with fur stuck in between. Her breath smelled horrific and the disgusting taste never left her mouth. Sera walked slowly through the trees without a destination in mind, like a zombie or a lost spirit. A few kilometers from the battlefield, she finally reached her destination when she heard whispers coming from the branches above. Without care, the angelic woman glanced straight at the people watching her. Sera''s blurred vision couldn''t distinguish them, so she just stared in their general direction. "Hey, all of you! Bring my unconscious body to my friend!" The people glanced at each other with confusion and fear, just as Sera fell face first onto the muddy ground. Soon, gentle snoring filled the air, as the Angel passed out... ... "Amayeta, we don''t even know who these people are! They probably came here to murder us, or even worse... They came to eat us!" Sera heard an anxious male voice somewhere far away while sleeping. Soon, a kinder, feminine voice followed. "Al, I love you with all my heart, but you''re a paranoid fool! This... I don''t know what she is, but Lusio called her an Angel! She saved not just your son, but your adopted daughter! Isn''t that enough to convince you about their intention?" The wooden floor croaked beneath someone''s heavy feet as they walked back and forth. "She could''ve saved them to trick us!... The hunters went to the site where she fought... There were hundreds, maybe thousands of corpses... Each ripped to shreds! Some even had bite marks!" The woman called Amayeta just snorted and giggled at her lover''s panicked voice. "Oh, I know. When I cleaned her, I had to take out fur from between her teeth... Anyway, she killed only monsters, right? Isn''t that a good thing? I think if someone saves my children and destroys anything that can harm the Village is my friend!" The man grumbled, but couldn''t find a valid reasoning against her words. "Okay, fine, they can stay, but they need to answer a few questions!... Where did they come from? I thought nobody survived outside the Village!" A strange noise echoed in the room, like wheels rolling on the croaking wooden floorboards. When Amayeta spoke next, it came from much closer to Sera''s ears. "Nobody knows what''s outside the Village. Even the Elders don''t know if anyone else survived... However, I have high hopes for this woman. She seems special!... Most of her injuries already healed on their own... Except for that strange scar on her face..." The woman gently hummed while tracing her finger along Sera''s facial scar. The Angel groaned as her eyes fluttered open. Her vision remained blurry, while her ears rang loudly. "Guards! She''s awake! Take arms!" Shouted the same man, named Al. Through the bed beneath, Sera felt more heavy footsteps approaching quickly. The door burst open nearby, and five men and women appeared, each holding makeshift spears. They all wore monster pelts and furs for both armor and as clothing. Not a single modern shirt, pants or boots in sight. The guards trembled while Sera sat up. She stretched her arms while yawning, not even glancing at the potential threat. "Oi! You brutes! Get out of my clinic! This is a private room, assigned to my patient and the Village''s guest! She is harmless to us, right?" Amayeta turned towards the Angel, desperately waiting for her to answer without causing more trouble. Sera just yawned once more, while glancing at the terrified soldiers. With no care, she fell back on the bed, pulled the warm covers over her naked body, and turned away from everyone. "Yeah, sure I''m harmless. Now get out and let me sleep!" Stunned silence followed her annoyed shout, and they all watched in awe as the Angel''s breathing slowed until she was asleep. "I guess... I guess we should let her rest..." Mumbled Amayeta, then she quickly ushered everyone out of the room, letting Sera rest in peace. Chapter 399: Amayeta, the Doctor Sera continued sleeping throughout the day and night. The guards standing outside her room kept checking upon her. However, she only awoke when morning eventually arrived. She yawned and stretched, while wiping the sleep away from her eyes. Still sleepy and tired, she glanced around the room she found herself in. Everything seemed made of wood. The ceiling, walls, floorboards, bedframe, closet, chair and table. The only non-wood items were the curtains hanging before the room''s sole window and the bedcovers wrapped around Sera. They were both made from monster fur. Slowly, Sera climbed out of the bed and placed her naked feet on the ground. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she glanced down at herself... "Where are my clothes?" She whispered, while continuing to investigate. With shaky legs, she stopped up and stretched out her spine while sighing with satisfaction. The floorboards creaked under her feet as she stepped forward to the closet. She reached out and opened the closet, revealing more furs inside. Luckily, these resembled clothing items. Sera took out a sleeveless leather tunic, a short skirt, and some undergarments. There was also some leather shoe, but Sera left it in the closet, since she didn''t need it. Quickly, she inspected each clothing item, and determined something very important! "Just amazing, none of these are my size!... Anyway, it''s not like I can waltz around naked. I need to make a good impression! Her clouded, exhausted mind could recall little from yesterday. She remembered the argument between the couple, but nothing else. However, even from their conversation, she easily determined how little these people trusted outsiders. They even acted like Sera was the first person they met from outside their village! This brought up interesting questions in Sera''s mind. But just as she examined these thoughts, the door''s room gradually opened on silent hinges. Sera glanced around, still naked, and spotted a young girl in the doorway, holding a tray of food. The teenage girl blushed heavily upon seeing the divine woman. She dropped the tray from surprise, but before it could''ve landed, Sera stepped forward and caught it midair. From the girl''s perspective, she basically teleported, since her movements were so fast. The young girl took quick breaths as the awe on her face turned into terror... "G-guards... Guards! She is awake!" Shouted the girl, as she ran out the door. The Angel behind her just raised a confused eyebrow. She grabbed the fur bedcover and hid her body with it. With the tray still in her hand, she sat down at the table and began eating, while listening to the panicked footsteps running to her room. The guards burst in, while Sera stared at the tray of food with a tiny frown... "Really? These are the proportions you give to an esteemed guest? This isn''t even one kilogram of meat! You want me to starve?!" About five guards stood inside the room, with a few more outside. Each heard Sera''s words, and not a single one knew how to react. They just held their makeshift spears in trembling hands. "T-that''s one portion for an adult... We didn''t know your kind eats much more..." Said the guard standing closest to Sera. She raised an eyebrow at his words, then glanced at her tray again and sighed... "Yeah, I guess you couldn''t have known... Anyway, is there some authority figure I can talk to? Preferably someone who doesn''t shit themselves from fear!" When Sera raised her voice, multiple guards dropped their spears outside, while the people in her room froze in fear. "Hey, everyone! Get out of my clinic! I swear, I''ll woop every single one of you! This isn''t how we treat guests!" Sera perked up at the distinct, feminine voice coming from outside. It was the exact same from yesterday! The guards, heeding to the woman''s words, quickly left the room, and let the woman walk... No, she rolled inside... The Angel''s golden-green eyes widened as she saw a woman in her thirties enter the room using a wooden wheelchair. She wore a similar leather clothing as the one Sera took out from the closet. Her brown clothing matched her red skin tone. Her braided dark brown hair fell along her shoulders and chest, nearly reaching her lap. The woman''s slanted, greenish-hazel eyes stayed firmly on Sera, her lips stretching into a small, apologetic smile. "Sorry for the rough welcome. As you probably already know, we don''t usually have guests in the Village... Actually, you two are the first ones!" She sounded excited, but deep down, Sera noticed the suspicion behind her jovial attitude. While she wasn''t hostile or fearful, this woman seemed extremely curious. However, Sera was extremely well-versed in negotiations and convincing people. She used her years of knowledge as a leader, and... She stood up from the table naked, and began dressing herself in front of the woman... With a loud yelp of surprise, the woman quickly, using her wheelchair, turned away from the Angel. All her curiosity and suspicion dissipated as a heavy blush settled on her face. "You could''ve warned me! I''ll let you dress yourself in privacy!" She began rolling towards the door, when the Angel''s voice reached her ears... "Actually, I could use your help. How do you wear these clothes? I don''t understand!" While covering her eyes, the woman glanced over her shoulder and through her fingers she saw Sera falling over, while trying to pull on the strange skirt and undergarment. The woman couldn''t help but giggle while glancing at the strange, angelic person. Someone who killed thousands of monsters in a few hours, yet struggles with simple clothing! "Fine, I''ll help you, but let''s introduce ourselves first. I''m Amayeta, the Village''s Lead Doctor, and one of its council members!" She bowed her head forward as a humble display. Sera just grinned while climbing to her feet. She reached out much quicker than Amayeta could react, and she gently but firmly shook the wheelchair woman''s hand. "Nice to meet you, Doctor Amayeta! My name is Seraphine, the Last Angel, but you can call me Sera. My friend''s name is Faith. By the way, how''s she doing?" Amayeta stopped laughing as a serious expression took hold of her face. Like the snap of a finger, her jovial attitude disappeared, and strict professionalism took its place. "Me and my surgeons saved her life. She had a few serious injuries throughout her stomach and chest, but we sewed all the damage back together. We also made splints for the broken bones. However, she still hasn''t woken up!" Sera looked away with a thoughtful expression. There was something extremely wrong here. Faith should''ve already recovered enough essence to heal herself, but it seems she can''t. Suddenly, she heard the floorboards creak as Amayeta''s wheels slowly moved towards her. She took the skirt undergarments away from Sera and showed her how to wear it. With a bit of struggle, she managed to put them on. It felt uncomfortable and restricted her movements, but that''s only because it wasn''t a good fit! After the first obstacle came the real problem... The tunic... As Amayeta lifted the leather vest, she and Sera simultaneously glanced at her pristine white wings. The one which broke yesterday already healed itself, but it still felt weak and wasn''t ready for flight. "Well, that''s a problem. I can cut holes into the tunic, but judging by how tight the skirt is, I think making a new tunic is the better and easier solution!" Said Amayeta while rolling towards the exit. "You just wait here and eat, while I commission a more fitting tunic!" With that, Amayeta left the room, leaving Sera sitting bare-chested on the bed. While waiting for the doctor, she quickly devoured the food on the tray, then laid down on her bed. She stared up at the ceiling, while gently stroking her rumbling belly. Soon Amayeta returned, with not just a tunic, but a new, better fitting skirt. Sera quickly put them on, then declined the doctor''s offer for shoes. "I don''t need them. I only wore my boots because I would''ve looked ridiculous without them. However, this prehistoric garb demands bare feet!... What happened to my clothes, by the way?" The doctor raised a confused eyebrow while checking out how well the tunic fit Sera. "Clothing? You mean that blood-soaked piece of garment that the monsters teared apart. I''m pretty sure someone tried washing it in the nearby river, and the fabric dissolved under their hand!" The Angel burst into laughter, while Amayeta just smiled up at her... "Anyway, now that you''re clean and dressed, it''s time we go! There will be a meeting held by the Village council. I would like you to introduce yourself and explain where you came from!" Together they walked towards the doorway, but Sera stopped Amayeta before she could''ve opened it. "Can we go see Faith beforehand? I would like to make sure she''s alright and check on a few things... You see, she''s a Transcended just like me, so she should''ve already healed from her injuries. Something''s definitely wrong if she''s still in a coma!" Only silence followed her words as she glanced down at the woman in her wheelchair. Her greenish-hazel was full of questions and confusion as she glanced up at the Angel. A small smile stretched across her face as she nodded towards Sera... "Obviously, we planned on making a detour to check on your friend. And while on the way, you could perhaps tell me all about these Transcended... I''m very curious to learn more about everything!" Chapter 400: The Forgotten Village Chapter 400: The Forgotten Village Sera said nothing upon hearing Amayeta¡¯s question. Her confusion deepened about the Village as they stepped outside. The giant trees didn¡¯t let sunshine reach the ground way below, however that wasn¡¯t the problem for the Village. The Angel stepped outside, stunned in awe. The room was an entire house carved inside the branch of the gigantic trees. A wide and long walkway led on either side to many more similar doors. Below them, they couldn¡¯t even see the ground from the foliage, but Sera estimated their height to be around 200 meters in above sea level. However, the Village wasn¡¯t just some long walkway along a branch. No multiple layered walkways, each connected by makeshift wooden elevators, ladders and stairs. She leaned against the railing and glanced around. Along the long branch, Sera could easily spot more than a hundred doors, just like hers. Amayeta stopped next to Sera, while smiling proudly... "Welcome to the Village, Sera! I¡¯ll show you around, after we visited your friend!" They began moving towards the left, further away from the great tree¡¯s trunk. Along the way, they ran into a few people, but upon seeing Sera with her wings, they gave a respectful bow to Amayeta, then quickly moved to a different floor. The Angel didn¡¯t even glance at them. Her eyes stayed focused on the marvelous architecture. Even though the walkways, railing, elevators, everything was made with wood, nothing seemed shabby or badly maintained. Unlike the room¡¯s flooring, the walkway didn¡¯t croak under pressure, and felt sturdy, similar to concrete. After a minute of walking/rolling, Sera couldn¡¯t hold her curiosity any longer... "Are these all the Village¡¯s houses? I didn¡¯t except there to be so many of you, seeing as you wear monster skin for clothing... How many of you are there?" Amayeta glanced at the Angel like she was a foolish child, asking dumb questions. She even dared to giggle! "Sera, sorry to tell you this, but these are only the hospital rooms of my clinic, nobody lives here! The Village encompasses this entire tree! There are about thirty thousand of us all together, I think, but sadly, the number is decreasing yearly..." Melancholy appeared in Amayeta¡¯s eyes, but she quickly dismissed it with a fake smile. They reached some kind of balcony, which stretched out further than the regular walkway. They stopped there momentarily, and Sera finally got a chance to really look around the enormous tree. She finally saw how much of the great tree the Village actually covered. "From the bottom up, we have the guard and hunter outpost who go out hunting daily and defend us from monsters. They also have a small emergency hospital, where they treat the critically wounded..." While speaking, Amayeta couldn¡¯t help but glance down at her useless legs... "What happened, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?" Said Sera, while staring into the doctor¡¯s sad, greenish-hazel eyes. She just smiled genuinely, happy to tell the story everyone in the Village knew. "About fifteen years ago, I was a proud huntress, one of our best! Even as a sixteen-year-old, I caught prey people feared to even look at!... However, it only takes one mistake to lose a fight, and every hunter could easily find themselves as prey..." "One of my oldest friends got attacked by a large beast, and I saved her by pushing her out of the way. The beast¡¯s claws raked part of my buttocks and fractured my spine. My legs are mostly useless now, and my back is in constant pain!" Even though it was a sad story, the doctor smiled brightly, while staring down at the Village. "Do you regret saving her by sacrificing yourself?" Asked Sera, while staring down at the seemingly ant-sized people moving across the branches. "Regret? I have no regret in life. Luckily, I already had Lusio by that time and we already adopted Tadita, so even though I can¡¯t have anymore children, I still have two!... And thanks to you, they¡¯ll live to grow into adults!" Sera smiled brightly at the doctor. Her closed fist seemed to glow with green and white energy, but just as Amayeta noticed, the lights disappeared. The Angel then squatted down and reached for the walkway below. Some strange silvery metal appeared out of nowhere and formed into a round object... A bracelet with a small empty socket... From her other hand, which glowed moments ago, she gently placed a greenish-white gemstone into the bracelet. "While Fate seemed to punish you for the noble sacrifice. I decided you shouldn¡¯t live in agony anymore. Take this bracelet. It¡¯ll heal your injury, albeit slowly... However, it will take the pain away instantly!" Confused and skeptical, Amayeta took the bracelet and placed it on her arm. She felt a surge of warmth rush through her body, and just like Sera said, the pain disappeared. Amayeta took a deep breath as her eyes turned teary. For years, she couldn¡¯t breathe normally without wincing from pain, but now she felt amazing. Her legs and lower body still felt numb, useless. However, the agony¡¯s disappearance was enough to make Amayeta overwhelmed with joy and gratitude... "Sera... No, Lady Sera... Thank you so much... Thank you..." She continued repeating herself until her sobs drowned out the words. Sera just rolled her eyes and placed a comforting hand on the paralyzed woman¡¯s shoulder. "Dammit, Sera! You always do this!... Stopping helping people or they might start worship you!... I make the same mistakes every single time, like an insane person!" While she whispered under her breath, scolding herself, she couldn¡¯t help but smile when glancing down at Amayeta. It was true that Sera hated being worshipped, but she would¡¯ve hated herself more by letting people suffer. If her slight discomfort was the price for making everyone feel better, then she will pay it every single time! "Hey, stop crying! You still hadn¡¯t described me all the layers of the Village. I¡¯m curious where the kitchens and pantries are?" The doctor laughed as she wiped away her tears. She rolled near the edge and pointed to the floor above the outpost. "The next floor is where all the guards and hunters live, but their children are kept a few layers above, with the school and library. This way, they aren¡¯t in danger if monsters try to attack!" Sera nodded with a thoughtful expression, while smiling at the beauty of the settlement¡¯s structure. "That¡¯s amazing and well-designed. However, what about the monsters which climb the other trees nearby and jump over using its enormous branches? What do you do against them?" Amayeta looked at the tree¡¯s trunk with a wide smile... "The Tree protects the Village! Throughout my life, beasts were never able to jump over, or land from the skies above! We are protected by the Tree!" The Angel raised an eyebrow at the doctor¡¯s statement, but she didn¡¯t prod her for more information. She felt a mystery surrounding this Village, and she wanted to take her time unravelling it! "Anyway, between the schools and hunter living quarters, there are usual housings where the other workers live. Above the school and library are the kitchens and pantries. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll serve you enough food. They might even appease your insatiable appetite!" Both women burst into laughter, while continuing to stare at the people moving around. "You don¡¯t have to appease my appetite. I can survive without eating and don¡¯t want you to waste food on me!" Said Sera while glancing into Amayeta¡¯s eyes. The doctor just shook her head while smiling. Her hand kept playing with the new accessory to her wrist. "It isn¡¯t a waste. The hunters are still bringing in more meat from the area which you oh so thoroughly exterminated. Currently, all the food will spoil, since the pantries are already full! We plan on feasting every day on fresh meat, so you might as well eat your fill!" Sera nodded in appreciation while she curiously stared at the next layer. A lot more people moved around there, each carrying some material... Mostly wood. "Those are the workshops. They make all the weapons, clothing and tools for everyone living in the Village. Sadly, we can¡¯t make anything better than stone tools..." This perked up Sera¡¯s ears and led to the question she was most curious about. "Why don¡¯t you have metal weapons? I saw the guards and hunters all carrying wooden spears with stones attached to their ends. They are pretty much useless against even the weakest monsters." Amayeta glanced up at the Angel, with her cunning greenish-hazel eyes, like Sera just walked into her well-laid trap! "For that, you should learn our entire history. Just know that most of our knowledge didn¡¯t survive the Apocalypse. We saved barely a few thousand old books that were kept hidden in some sort of bunker." The Angel¡¯s golden-green eyes widened with new understanding. She glanced around the Village once more, but this time without the lense of modern humanity. Somehow, they lost not just their cities, but all their knowledge after the Apocalypse. Everything they accomplished in the past 28 years was the sole achievement of human determination! The doctor didn¡¯t notice Sera¡¯s thoughtful silence, and instead moved on, explaining each layer. "Below the hospital is the chemical layer. From old science books, we know a lot about modern medicine and the importance of sterilization. They also make the alcohol there for the community and other materials like adhesive for the workshops!" "Above us are multiple layers of housing, and finally, at the top, there¡¯s the scout outpost. They¡¯re responsible for mapping the great forest!" Suddenly, Sera gently patted Amayeta¡¯s head while staring at everything in awe. "You did an amazing job! All of you! I¡¯ve seen nothing as incredible as this Village, and I¡¯m the leader of nearly an entire continent!... Anyway, I want to hear more about your history, but first let¡¯s visit Faith!" The doctor nodded with a proud smile. Somehow, under the Angel¡¯s hand, she felt like a girl again, being praised be her parents! Those golden-green eyes might¡¯ve been young, but they held an experience worth multiple lifetimes! Chapter 401: Lusio and Tadita Chapter 401: Lusio and Tadita Faith¡¯s room was near the edge of the Hospital Branch. It received much more sunlight, at least that¡¯s what Amayeta said to Sera. Only the more severe cases, like coma patients like Faith or people with recently lost limbs, allowed to stay there. They are the best rooms the Hospital Branch had to offer. Upon reaching the room, Sera and Amayeta found two people standing outside. They both looked familiar to the Angel, but it took her a moment to remember yesterday¡¯s fight... They are the children she saved! Both seemed to be teenagers, probably sixteen-year-olds. However, their similarities ended there. The teenage boy¡¯s features looked similar to Amayeta¡¯s. His skin tone and slanted eyes matched hers. The only difference was its color. Instead of Amayeta¡¯s greenish-hazel, his were only a darker shade of hazel. For a regular, he was about average height and build. Sera stood about half a head taller. His short, dark brown hair also matched his mother¡¯s, as Sera already guessed. However, his facial features seemed more masculine, most likely inherited from his father. The boy¡¯s hazel eyes widened upon glancing at Sera¡¯s near flawless face. Even on his brownish-red face, his heavy blush was all too obvious. Next to him stood a girl of similar height and muscular build. Strangely, her features didn¡¯t resemble Amayeta¡¯s or the boy¡¯s. Her skin tone was lighter, closer to how Europeans looked. A pair of sharp, wooden pins held together her shoulder-length dark blonde hair. Her clothes emphasized her ample chest, while her skirt perfectly hid anything below the waist. The girl looked beautiful for a regular human. However, judging by the callouses on her hands, she wasn¡¯t just pretty, but could also fight! Her fierce amber eyes narrowed upon seeing Sera. She didn¡¯t seem to fear her, or be in awe of her presence. Instead, the insane girl judged both the Angel¡¯s body and movement. Like a predator judging its prey. But even this proud, young girl had to take a second glance upon seeing Sera¡¯s face. Her amber eyes widened momentarily, then she eventually blushed when seeing the Angel¡¯s satisfied grin. "Oh, yes, you haven¡¯t formally met, yet! This useless boy here is my son, Lusio, while this beautiful little flower is my daughter, Tadita!" The boy graciously bowed his head while the girl lifted it even higher in defiance. Sera leaned down while watching them, and whispered to the doctor... "I think you exchanged their descriptions. Your girl is way more useless and rude!" Amayeta couldn¡¯t help but giggle at Sera¡¯s words, while Tadita felt embarrassed. Lusio elbowed his sister and gave her a pointed glance. "I¡¯m sorry for being disrespectful!" She said, while sighing and rolling her eyes, producing the least genuine apology Sera had ever seen. Lusio shook his head in self-deprecation and exhaustion. It seems Tadita¡¯s haughty, angsty act took a heavy toll on the boy. "No problem. I actually agree with your attitude. Respect is earned, not given!... Anyway, how¡¯s my friend doing? I assume you¡¯re standing here to watch over her... Oh, by the way, I¡¯m Seraphine, but you can call me Sera!" The two teens felt a whiplash as the Angel began speaking fast. She didn¡¯t even wait for their answers before marching through the doors into Faith¡¯s large room. Just as Amayeta said earlier, the room¡¯s multiple windows filled everything with sunlight. It was also wider and even a bit taller. Sera even felt a bit jealous, since her accommodations weren¡¯t nearly as good. Her eyes slowly moved towards the lone bed in the corner. There, a beautiful, mysterious woman laid, her dark, shadowy hair stretching along the fur pillow. She looked so peaceful, but her sight only churned Sera¡¯s stomach. With methodical, small steps, Sera approached her friend. Near the bed stood a pole with a round, glass object filled with some see-through liquid. From below the object, a tube went into Faith¡¯s arm, pumping the liquid into her body. "A makeshift IV-bag. Pretty good, but you should cover the opening up top, so the saline solution stays sterile!" The doctor looked at the Angel with curiosity while she checked on her friend. "Hmm... Her pulse seems normal. Her breathing is calm, and none of her injuries bled through the bandages... She should recover in a few days, but let¡¯s quicken the process!" With that, Sera opened her palm, and made another small gemstone by combining white and green energies. She then reached towards the ground and lifted an intricate necklace with a socket for the bewitching gemstone. Gently, she placed the necklace on Faith, then she held her hand in silence. Nobody dared say anything to Sera, even though they all had dozens of questions. A few minutes later, Sera let go of her friend¡¯s cold hand, and turned towards Lusio. The young boy stared at her with mouth agape, close to salivating onto the wooden floorboards. Next to him, Tadita growled like an angry cat and elbowed her brother in the side. While he coughed and cursed under his breath, Sera walked up to them. "Since you saved my friend, you can ask me one thing and if it¡¯s in my power, I¡¯ll do it!" Upon hearing the Angel¡¯s words, like a healthy teenager, he couldn¡¯t help but glance at Sera¡¯s voluptuous chest. Even though the tunic fit her perfectly, it couldn¡¯t hide her curvaceous body. He blushed heavily, just as Tadita¡¯s palm landed on his face, leaving a much redder mark. "Don¡¯t even think about asking her to sleep with you! Disgusting, pervert!" The young boy looked away shamefully, while mumbling under his breath... "I would never ask for anything inappropriate, but I couldn¡¯t control my mind..." Both Sera and Amayeta laughed at their interaction. They were both young girls once and knew well how hormones worked. Lusio thought for a few minutes. Strangely, he had everything in life, so asking for something useful wasn¡¯t easy. He also had no clue how powerful the Angel was, so he couldn¡¯t predict what was a viable wish. His eyes soon landed on his mother and her wheelchair. While he didn¡¯t need anything, he could ask to heal his mother¡¯s spine! "Uh... Could you please... Heal my mom, so she could walk again?" Tadita¡¯s eyes widened with surprise, while Amayeta just smiled at her child kindly. "That¡¯s truly a noble request. However, I already gave her something which will eventually heal her!... Is there really nothing you want or need?" The young boy thought a bit longer, then his eyes landed on his stepsister. Another idea popped into his head! "Then, since Tadita¡¯s spear broke when we were attacked. Could you make her a new one? I saw you summon your silver gauntlets out of thin air, and the scouts are still finding metallic spikes all over that battlefield you left!" Sera sighed a bit with disappointment. For her, this was an extremely easy request. She hoped the kid would ask something more ambitious, something she had to struggle to achieve! "Fine, I¡¯ll give her a new spear. Do you have any special requests? Specifics for carvings on the shaft, or maybe a longer blade?" Tadita looked at the people surrounding her with confusion. She barely processed her stepbrother¡¯s words before Sera began bombarding her with questions. "I... I don¡¯t know... I always preferred longer, but thin stones for blades, so they can pierce monster hides more easily... I had no carvings on them though, since they never last more than a handful of hunts!" The Angel nodded thoughtfully, then began walking around the young girl. Her golden-green eyes seemed to penetrate her body, judging the exact weight and length the spear will need! After a minute of uncomfortable silence, during which Tadita felt naked under Sera¡¯s piercing gaze, the Angel finally stopped and closed her eyes. She visualized the spear in her mind, then using her powers, she built it! Fluid, silvery metal appeared below Sera¡¯s feet. It gradually climbed higher, forming into the spear¡¯s shaft. Upon reaching just below two meters, the shaft stopped forming, and instead a long, thin blade grew. The spear slowly lost its fluidity, and on its shaft, a strange pattern appeared, similar to a bunch of branches with leaves and flowers growing all over them. They all began from the thin blade, which resembled the great tree¡¯s trunk. When the weapon fully formed, Sera tossed it to Tadita without a second glance. She caught it with ease, then immediately twirled it. Its weight was surprisingly light, even though it was made of metal. Its balancing also felt perfect for her height and body type. She could barely believe the Angel created such a perfect weapon, from thin air under a few minutes! In fact, Tadita felt so much in disbelief, she immediately tested out her new spear. With all her might, she stabbed it down into the wooden floor. The blade passed through the wood so easily, Tadita couldn¡¯t even feel resistance. Only when the shaft¡¯s upper ornamentation reached the floor, did the weapon stop pressing further into the wood. "Hey, be careful with that! It¡¯s a spear made of Angelic Metal! It will cut about everything with ease, and you don¡¯t have to sharpen it ever... Also, never spar with it, that can cause serious injuries to your opponents!" Next to Sera, the doctor just shook her head. The disbelief and confusion overwhelmed her so much, she couldn¡¯t even react to this display at all. Tadita and Lusio also stayed quiet, while staring at the weapon, still sticking out of the floor. Without any other words exchanged, Sera and Amayeta departed together for the council meeting. Finally, both the Angel and the Village will learn about each other¡¯s world! Chapter 402: Village Council Chapter 402: Village Council It wasn¡¯t easy to get to the council building, mostly because of Amayeta¡¯s wheelchair. While they built elevators, they weren¡¯t the modern kind with electricity. The mechanism which they worked with was quite interesting. A complex pulley system, which gave even a young child enough strength to raise the elevator, just by pulling a rope. The council building¡¯s location should¡¯ve been clear to Sera from the beginning. They lived on a gigantic tree, so obviously, the main governmental building is within the trunk! Its location was close to the residential area, so anyone with complaints could reach it with ease. While moving towards the council building, they went through multiple layers. Unlike the Hospital Branch, the other ones had a lot more people, so avoiding Sera became impossible. However, most citizens were more curious about the Angel than fearful. Only a few guards gave Sera strange looks, but nobody tried stopping her, mostly because of Amayeta. Everyone always smiled when the doctor rolled by them. She even stopped chatting with her people, asking about boring topics. Also, she greeted everyone by their name, which was impressive itself, since there were thousands of people living in the Village. "You¡¯re quite popular, it seems." Said Sera, while they moved down the last elevator. The woman in her wheelchair just laughed and smiled proudly... "It¡¯s a job of every good leader to know their people¡¯s needs and wants. By engaging in small talk, I can glance into everyone¡¯s lives, while I can also build a close relationship with my people!" Sera nodded in agreement, just as the elevator jerked to a halt. They left it behind and moved along an especially wide walkway leading towards the tree¡¯s trunk. Along the walkway, about a thousand guards stood watch, each looking at the Angel suspiciously. She just smiled and waved at everyone, which caused Amayeta to giggle. "Don¡¯t worry about them. They are just here to make sure you don¡¯t kill every council member!" Said Amayeta with a whisper. "Oh dammit! My plans are ruined! How will I kill them you all now?" Both women chuckled as they moved towards the large entrance. The guards looked at both with annoyance, but otherwise kept their cool. Upon reaching the gigantic doors, Sera finally realized something strange about this tree. It was much wider, nearly double the size of a regular great tree. Two especially tall and muscular guards pushed the intricately carved wooden door open, and let the Angel and the doctor inside. The wide and tall room plunged into darkness as the doors closed behind them. While Amayeta¡¯s eyes needed a few moments to adjust to the room¡¯s low light, Sera stared through the darkness without issue. Seven more people stood inside the room with them. On the way, Amayeta already talked about each council member, so Sera easily identified every single one. First, she glanced towards the grumpy man, a few years older than Sera. He stood maybe a head above her with his muscular arms crossed. However, his most identifiable features were his black skin color, which was a rarity in the Village. By Amayeta¡¯s account, there were maybe a few thousand of them. He was the leader of the guards, so his fierce eyes stared at Sera with suspicion. Whakan, the lead guard, was also deemed as the strongest fighter within the Village. Even rarer than black people were the whites, which barely reached a thousand citizens. That¡¯s why it was surprising to see two of them standing inside the council building. One, a short, fragile old man, who seemed close to seventy. However, he was only fifty-nine. His thinning, gray hairline and fatigued outlook was because of the lack of modern medicine and manual labour filled life. His name was John, the eldest person in the Village. His sole responsibility laid in the Education Branch, since he had the most knowledge about the Old World. Next to him stood her granddaughter, Pakwa. She was only in her early twenties, but she already climbed into the leadership position in the Scout Branch. The woman looked starved, judging by her short height and small stature. But, by Amayeta¡¯s observation, the young woman ate more than most adult man, she just couldn¡¯t gain weight. She had bleached white hair, which gently fell on her shoulder and bopped while she walked around with a thoughtful expression. Compared to the tiny girl, there was a much larger lady. Kaliska, the woman responsible for the Village¡¯s logistics and Cooking Branch. She stood at average height, and Sera felt the floor¡¯s pain as the woman stood with a wide, curious smile. Her body was well above healthy weight, her tunic probably required a horde of monsters to die... Maybe she ate the monsters too, judging by her size! Close to her stood a man of similar height and age. He didn¡¯t look too muscular, but below a bit of extra weight, Sera spotted a strong, working body. Aponivi, the man responsible for the Workshop Branch and the Village¡¯s lead engineer. He stood proudly, but his eyes reflected a kind, fatherly image. His bald head somehow managed to shine even in the room¡¯s low light. The last two council members stood closely... Kangee, the leader of the hunters, the man responsible for the Hunting Branch. Unlike most regular humans, Kangee looked extremely handsome, even reaching Ascended levels of beauty. Still, compared to Sera, he looked hideous, and that¡¯s exactly what brought his interest. He wore no tunic, revealing a scarred, not overly muscular, but aesthetically pleasing body. His eyes stayed glued to Sera¡¯s uninterested face, but he also glanced all over her body, like she was only an object. The woman standing by his side just looked at her friend helplessly. Migsi, the woman responsible for research and the Chemical Branch. She stood a head shorter than Sera, with a curvaceous waist and backside, but small chest, which she desperately hid by crossing her arms. Migsi wore a long, white leather lab coat and glasses, which seemed unusual for the Village¡¯s prehistoric technology. She kept her shoulder-length black hair pinned to the side, revealing her gorgeous face beneath. Sadly for the woman, while she kept glancing at her friend with love and desire in her eyes. Kangee just stared at the Angel¡¯s perfect form. "So, this is our guest. Fascinating. I must say, I really love your wings. They magnificently hide your vicious nature." Said Kangee, while staring into Sera¡¯s golden-green eyes with a disgusting smirk. His glance felt so dirty, Sera immediately wanted to take a shower. However, instead, she just shrugged while smiling calmly. "They aren¡¯t there to hide my nature, but as a warning to any living being. Even the dumbest, most thoughtless creatures know it in their souls, what I am!" For emphasis, she spread out her wings, which caused Whakan¡¯s hand to flicker for a moment. He stressfully held onto his spear, while his face became red with anger and annoyance. Her words, however, had a strange effect on everyone. Indeed, just as Sera said, they all had knowledge about angels. They never saw one, but at the back of their memory, hidden deep in their subconscious, a clear picture existed. Also, as she spread her wings, the small crowd of eight people felt two emotions. Either they were in awe of her regal appearance, or they feared her. Anyone without ill intentions felt a strange attraction towards Sera, like one feels for a great leader or a good parent. They wanted to kneel before the Angel and pledge their allegiance! The ones who weren¡¯t quite as friendly in their minds got consumed by despair. Images of the destruction she caused popped into their heads. They also wanted to kneel before the Angel, and beg for forgiveness! While everyone struggled with their own thoughts, John, the oldest person in the Village, walked up to Sera. He stared up at her with a small genuine smile and reached out his wrinkly, calloused hand. "Welcome to the Village! I couldn¡¯t help but recognize your accent... Are you from Europe, by any chance? How many survived the Apocalypse there?" Indeed, even though everyone on Earth spoke the same language, region specific dialects and accents already existed. Especially after the Apocalypse, the European accent became much more prominent. Sera gently took John¡¯s hand and shook it while smiling kindly at the old man. "I didn¡¯t think anyone would recognize my accent, judging by the state of everything around here... I¡¯m Seraphine, by the way, but you can call me Sera!" The old man chuckled while nodding along. "I¡¯ve fought in the Last War. It would be a shame if I couldn¡¯t recall my enemy¡¯s accent!... Not like any of that matters now. Funnily enough, I can recall many things from the Old World, but no matter how hard I try, I can¡¯t remember the cause of the Last War!" "It started way before I was born, and everyone only talked about ways to win. I¡¯m pretty sure even the oldest humans forgot the reason for that war... But enough about the past. I¡¯d like to know how well Europe fared!" After John¡¯s question, Sera looked away with a thoughtful expression. She began counting on her hand for a few minutes, then eventually she glanced down at the old man with a small, cunning smile. "Well, if my calculations are correct, there¡¯s about 980 of us. But let¡¯s round it up to a thousand!" The old man suddenly went pale, as all the reminiscent joy left his body at once. Sera felt so bad by his reactions, she near immediately leaned closer and whispered into his ear. "Sorry, I forgot to add the last part... There¡¯s about 980 million of us, but let¡¯s round it up to one billion!" Chapter 403: North-Americas History "O-one... One billion?... So many managed to survive?!" This news shocked John to his core, while everyone else in the room looked confused. They had no clue how much one billion was. Only Amayeta and the lead scientist, Migsi, had some idea about its enormous size. Sera just continued smiling kindly but proudly, while waiting for John to calm down. Eventually, he took a deep, shuddering breath and spoke while suppressing the tears in his eyes. "I see. That''s really fortunate... I hoped the other continents fared better than us, but I never imagined anything on this scale... For 28 years, I waited for anyone to contact us. I started to believe that nobody''s left out there... Thank you for bringing me hope, Ms. Sera!" The angelic woman nodded with appreciation. She gently patted the elderly man''s wrinkly hand, and asked the question that''s been bothering her all day. "I''m also happy to see other humans managing to survive, but I must ask why are there no Evolved here? Also, what happened in North-America during the Apocalypse?... As you know, every electronic fried after the Apocalypse, so we lost all communications!" John looked confused when hearing the word ''Evolved'', like it had no meaning in his vocabulary. He began thinking for a while, before finally realizing what Sera was referring to. "Ah, you mean people with those abilities! They all died when the great trees and monsters appeared. Some managed to survive for years, but eventually all of them died out, and nobody showed signs of power afterward." Sera nodded silently in understanding. A lot of people became Evolved when the Apocalypse happened. However, afterward only people born from Evolved showed any powers. It''s very strange, and Sera always wondered why no new Evolved are born from regular humans. Neither she, nor Mary or anybody else could figure out how or why it happened. Even Harold deemed it an unsolvable mystery. At least, that''s what he said to Sera while torturing her. He often times talked about his research, but Sera couldn''t really focus on his words while suffering from immense pain. But the more Sera thought about John''s words, the more confused she became. In Europe, they managed to survive the initial hordes of monsters, but this wasn''t the case for North-America. "I get why there aren''t any Evolved here, but I''m curious. What happened 28 years ago? What caused this mass extinction? North-America had a few billion humans, but now there are only thirty thousand!" John sighed with exhaustion and motioned for his granddaughter. Without question, Pakwa rushed off and brought a chair for her grandfather. His knees cracked loudly as he sat on the chair. "I''m unsure where to start exactly, but I guess the day when the Gates opened would be the best. I fought at the Martian Frontline near its moons, but just before the Apocalypse, they sent me back to Earth... That day was worse than anything I saw during the Last War..." He rubbed his sweaty, trembling hands against each other, while keeping his gaze on the wood floor. "It started off normally, people living their lives, news coming from the frontlines. There were no signs, at least nothing for us regular folk. We were enjoying the day, when suddenly these Gates began opening, and monsters poured right into our city centers!" The room stayed awfully quiet while John talked. Most of them were alive during Apocalypse, but they were all children. They might''ve remembered the fear, but they couldn''t recall exactly what happened. "The military could barely react... After just a few days, around ninety percent of North-America ceased to exist! Billions died, devoured by monsters!... However, something even worse happened afterward..." The old man reached down and gently touched the great tree''s wooden trunk. "A few weeks after the initial destruction, the survivors managed to build resistance against the monsters. We fought them and killed them, but one day, while hiding behind our walls, we heard a strange sound... Like the breaking of chains..." "By the next day, the Great Forest grew into existence. Some say it started in the middle of North-America, but we never received confirmation. These trees didn''t care about any infrastructure. They grew through buildings, destroying any surviving cities!" Sadness showed clearly on the older council members, since while they couldn''t fully remember the Apocalypse, they had clear memories about the Great Forest''s appearance. "The forest destroyed all our makeshift defenses. We had to leave our cities, because they became an easy hunting ground for the monsters! But the forests weren''t any better. Each day, we lost thousands from our already dwindling numbers." "We marched through the endless forest for months. At first, a million of us managed to escape the city. However, that large number soon led to starvation, culling the weak and old... After the first month, only half of the initial number remained..." John stayed silent, again struggling to hold back his tears. Amayeta slowly rolled up beside his chair and held the elderly man''s hand, supporting him. He glanced at the doctor''s hand, and saw the silvery bracelet with the whitish-green gemstone, gently glowing. There was a deep curiosity evident in his gaze, but instead of asking questions, he continued with the story. "Our modern weapons died down one-by-one, while our ammo count reached zero. After a few months, only the few Evolved could stand against the monster hordes, but they also began dying out..." "When we began losing hope, we found this Tree. Monsters didn''t come close usually, and they always attacked from the ground. We made this place our home, and founded the Village... Sadly, less than a hundred thousand humans made it here..." As John finished the story, Sera began walking around thoughtfully, while glancing at the room''s walls, ceiling, and foundation. While the story gave Sera much insight into North-America''s state and history, she couldn''t shake this strange feeling in her gut. Like someone was constantly watching her... Someone she couldn''t see... However, the bigger issue was the Village, or more like the Tree it occupied. Monsters don''t just ignore places for no reason. They only avoid areas, if it''s a much scarier beast''s territory! Confused, she knocked on the wood, but it did nothing. The wood felt ordinary, maybe a bit too robust, but normal trees couldn''t grow hundreds of meters tall, without strong support. After a few minutes of silence, during which everyone stared at Sera with either confusion or suspicion, the Angel finally smiled kindly and turned back towards John. "Thank you for the story! I''m sorry you had to go through something so awful, and I''ll help the Village survive... No, I''ll help you thrive!" John, Amayeta and Migsi, the lead scientist, all looked excited, while Pakwa, the lead scout; Kaliska, the lead cook; and Aponivi, the lead engineer, all looked bored. Kangee just continued staring at Sera''s voluptuous chest, and the only one with anything to say was Whakan, the lead guard. "And who the hell decided we need your help? We don''t even know anything about you! Are you even human?! Because the wings behind your back are telling me the opposite! How do we know you aren''t a monster!" Sera already had a feeling there would be at least one dislikable person within the council members. Humans were inherently selfish, so someone with the title of ''the strongest fighter'' didn''t want an even more powerful person near him. Luckily, she knew how to handle these people. Generally, she could recall two ways to solve this problem. First, she couldn''t beat the shit out of Whakan, which would break his high ego. It would also prove how little his title means, which would further crush him. The second method was more diplomatic and fun. She would tell everyone here her story. While this method wouldn''t work with a regular person, Sera''s life was the farthest from easy. She was certain, just by telling them her tale, Whakan would back down and she would even gain more people''s trust! With an annoyed sigh, Sera grew a chair from her silvery metal... Actually, it was closer to a throne, which was strange since she meant to summon an ordinary chair... Sera sat down and gazed into everyone''s awed eyes with a cunning smile. Most of them, other than John, couldn''t recall how powerful Evolved was, so this little convenient magic trick already grabbed everyone''s attention. "You''re perfectly right, Whakan! You don''t know me! None of you have any clue if I''m lying or not! I could be a monster, or something else entirely and you couldn''t even tell!... So, let me share my story with you all, and afterward you can decide if I''m human or not!" Everyone, including Whakan, nodded at her proposal. They all got chairs for themselves, then sat in a circle, waiting for Sera to begin. The Angel thought for a moment, unsure where to begin exactly. Should she tell them about Europe''s history? Or, just starting from the fall of Newber? Eventually, she decided to begin with the most obvious starting point... Her birth! However, before she began speaking to everyone, Sera leaned forward and whispered to the wooden ground... "Pay attention, whatever you are! I''m sure this story will interest you too! The tale of the Last Angel!" The floorboards suddenly croaked below Sera''s chair, which caused the angelic woman to chuckle silently. Her guess was indeed correct... The Tree was sentient! Sera straightened herself and leaned back in her chair. She glanced into everyone''s eyes with a small smirk as she began telling her own story. "Roughly 22 years ago, in a place far away from this Village, a child named Seraphine was born. This child was quite special, you could even say... She was a little angel!" Chapter 404: The Village鈥檚 Rapid Developement Chapter 404: The Village¡¯s Rapid Developement By the time Sera finished her story, nobody had any doubt about her humanity. She only cried a few times during her retelling, while her audience fared much worse. Everyone, even the most taciturn of the council members, couldn¡¯t help but sob with empathy. At some point, Amayeta rolled over and began holding her hand throughout the rest of her story. The doctor kept staring at the Angel with disbelief in her eyes. She never would¡¯ve guessed Sera went through so much suffering, since her confidence and kind nature were the exact opposite of her experience in life. Most people would¡¯ve begun hurting others, so they wouldn¡¯t be alone in their pain. However, Sera simply internalized and pushed away all her hatred. She rose above such useless emotions, and even guided others on the same path. Her achievements awed everyone, her sufferings made their heartache. Eventually, when she finished her story, the room quickly plunged into silence. Nobody dared ask questions or make any sound that could break this serene atmosphere. Sera just leaned back and stared up at the ceiling with a serious expression. Her story easily convinced every council member, but there was another purpose for her words... A gentle tremble went across the wooden floor below Sera¡¯s naked feet. Barely perceptible even for her sensitive skin. A tiny smirk grew on the Angel¡¯s face as her gaze made the Tree tremble. The other reason for her story was simple. Whatever this Tree was, it had intelligence, and anyone who can think has self-preservation instinct. The Angel just told her story, with all the amazing, impossible achievements she accomplished. Every intelligent creature would fear someone so strong. It was a bit of a gamble, since Sera wasn¡¯t certain about the Tree¡¯s exact Rank or Class. However, because it stayed hidden throughout the Village¡¯s history, it couldn¡¯t be too powerful. Eventually, Sera had enough of waiting, so she broke the silence. It was already past midday, and her work for the day wasn¡¯t close to finishing. "Okay, so I¡¯ll let you guys vote. Did my story convince you of my nature and good intentions? Or even better question... Do you want my help?" The council members continued sitting silently while glancing at each other. The obvious answer reflected in everyone¡¯s eyes, but nobody dared speak the words. However, after a few moments, all their sights landed on a single person, Whakan. The man who initially asked for proof... With a deep, exhausted sigh, the tall man stood up and bowed before Sera. "I¡¯m sorry to question your sincerity before, but I¡¯m sure you understand my intentions. We would love to receive your help, Your Majesty!" Sera just shook her head with exasperation at hearing that title. She accidentally forgot to keep the details about her queen-like status hidden, and now she suffered the consequences. She took a few moments to calm her annoyed emotions, then suddenly she jumped to her feet with a wide smile. "That¡¯s good to hear! Then I think this Village could use a bit of an upgrade! I see you mostly use wood and stone for your weapons and tools... Why don¡¯t we change that!" While everyone stared at the Angel with confusion, she just held out her hand. On the ground, liquid silvery metal appeared. It gently grew into the shape of a normal hunting spear. The confusion turned into surprise for most council members. Only John and Amayeta remained unaffected by Sera¡¯s display of power. Amayeta saw a similar display a few hours ago, while John lived with Evolved for years. They were both familiar with seeing the impossible. Sera¡¯s smile twisted into a grin as she tossed the spear to Whakan. The tall, muscular man easily caught it midair. He twirled it in his hands, surprised by the lack of heavy weight. Without a word, he turned around and used the spear¡¯s blade to cleanly slashed through his wooden chair. There weren¡¯t even splinters, as the chair fell into two perfectly cut pieces. A wave of astonishment echoed in the council building as everyone stared at the spear in shock. Slowly, they all turned back towards Sera, who just chuckled at their surprise. She held out her hand once more. They all prepared to see another spear appear from nothingness... However, that¡¯s wasn¡¯t exactly what happened... Suddenly, the liquid metal appeared on the wood again, but in much larger quantities. Like a lake of silver, it surrounded them. They all began taking shape. Hundreds of spears, knives, swords, other weapons and even different tools, like axes and pickaxes, grew from the ground. A loud laughter escaped Sera¡¯s lips as she glanced around the surprised and even fearful council members. Somehow, even though they heard her story and saw the killing field she caused, they still managed to underestimate her powers. Sadly, with the appearance of an extremely powerful and kind individual in a prehistoric environment led to an undesired outcome on Sera¡¯s part. The council members fell to their knees before her, like believers before their goddess. "For fuck¡¯s sake, not again! Why does this happen every time!... I just wanted to be kind... Why do people always begin worshipping me?!" Her grumblings caused the only person who wasn¡¯t kneeling to burst into laughter. Since Amayeta¡¯s legs still weren¡¯t functioning, she couldn¡¯t simply leave her chair. This meant she saw the annoyance on Sera¡¯s face when everyone fell to their knees. Also, she was sitting right beside the Angel, so she heard every single word clearly. After the initial shock value passed, every council member left for their Branch. They gathered a long list of weapons and tools they wanted made from Angelic Metal. Amayeta required surgical equipment, like needles, bone saw, hammer, scalpel, etc. Whakan and Kangee, or more like the guards and hunters, both asked for a lot more weapons, mostly spears and knives. John, as the lead teacher, didn¡¯t need any equipment, while her granddaughter, Pakwa, only wanted items which can help navigate the wild. It took Sera a bit longer, but she eventually managed to make compasses and sextants. She also gave the scouts extra weapons, even though they rarely fought monsters. For Kaliska, the lead cook, Sera gave lots of utensils for cooking. Sadly, pots and pans weren¡¯t an option, since Angelic Metal had an extremely great insulation against excessive heat. The pots would¡¯ve never heated up atop regular fires and using a blast furnace for cooking wasn¡¯t the best. At least the knives will make cutting meat much easier. These requests were the easy ones, though. Migsi, the lead scientist and Aponivi, the lead engineer, gave her a lot of trouble. They didn¡¯t just ask for regular tools for their jobs, but parts of different machines, which took a lot of time to design, visualize and make from Angelic Metal. Annoyingly, she needed to remake some multiple times, because of the metal¡¯s properties. The Angelic Metal was extremely strong, unbreakable by normal means, and can cut through any regular material. However, it had high heat resistance, low conductivity and couldn¡¯t be magnetized. After lots of tries, Sera managed to change the conductivity and magnetism property, but it still had high heat resistance and strong rigidity. Sera didn¡¯t even know nor care what Migsi and Aponivi used the parts for. She just felt happy and relieved when her job was finally over. Exhausted, she entered the canteen on the Cooking Branch. The sun already set, and everyone happily feasted on the monster meat Sera killed. She yawned while glancing at the large, gathered crowd. Obviously, Village¡¯s entire population couldn¡¯t fit inside the canteen, but there was enough space for a few thousand people. While walking down towards the attendants, she spotted some metallic silver weapon or tool on most people. She couldn¡¯t help but show a small, proud smile upon seeing her creation. Every citizen seemed excited about the new weapons and tools, which brought warmth to Sera¡¯s heart. The Angel tried sneaking through the gathered people, but after about reaching halfway, people began noticing her. It was quite obvious, really, since there were two large white wings behind her back. Upon witnessing the angelic woman¡¯s silent approach, a loud cheer went up across the room. People clapped with joyous smiles, and a few had clear signs of faithful reverence showing on their faces. Sera just sighed with immense tiredness and walked on towards the attendants. Amayeta already told them about Sera¡¯s large portion size, but they thought the doctor was only joking... She really wasn¡¯t... The attendants glanced at each other, unsure if they misheard the number, or it was reality. Since she skipped breakfast and lunch, Sera felt especially starved. She asked for about thirty kilograms of meat, which nearly caused a heart attack to the cooks. However, with her provided equipment and her hunted meat, they easily provided the impossibly large proportion. Silence reined over the entire canteen as people watched Sera in horror. She devoured meat after meat, without regards for her outside appearance. Bloody pieces of meat stuck to her cheeks and lips as she continued to eat. It took her barely ten minutes to eat everything. The seemingly flawless woman leaned back afterward and burped with a wide smile. However, the strangest, most bewildering part for everyone was when the Angel stood up. They expected to see a protruding belly full of freshly devoured meat, but instead Sera kept her perfect figure as she walked off. Without care for the eyes watching her, Sera went home, where she quickly cleaned herself using a bowl of water and a rag. She then took off her clothes, climbed into her bed and slept until midday. Chapter 405: Stolen Essence Chapter 405: Stolen Essence A few days passed with Sera helping the Village. Their hunting and scouting expeditions became wildly more successful with the weapons and tools she provided. They hadn¡¯t suffered a single casualty and brought home more meat than ever before. The scouts used the compasses and sextants to measure distances with greater precision. They finally began mapping out the surrounding area near the Village. Not much else happened during the few days. Sera continued making metal items for everyone, while also customizing the Angelic Metal¡¯s properties. She could now easily magnetize and increase its conductivity. However, the heat resistance still proved difficult to change. If she could somehow decrease its resistance, then she wouldn¡¯t need to customize every item. She could simply summon a sizeable chunk of metal and let Aponivi work it into the desired shape. As the days went by, Sera felt her bloodlust returning gradually, but it hadn¡¯t reached the boiling point yet. She made a plan with Kangee, the lead hunter, and Pakwa, the lead scout, to use her bloodlust strategically. They spent the days scouting out large hordes near the Village, so when Sera¡¯s bloodlust would inevitably boil over, she could find those hordes and exterminate them! The scouts worked tirelessly, and now they had multiple potential targets. Each horde contained more than a thousand monsters, most of them either Horrors or Corrupted. Perfect targets! Sera also continued speaking with the Tree, but it still hadn¡¯t shown up. It either had trust issues, or maybe it couldn¡¯t communicate properly. The Tree made acknowledging creaking noises, but that was the extant of their communication. While the days went by peacefully, Sera felt quite lonely in the Village. She spent time with Amayeta and her family, but it felt like taking care of children, since they had many questions aimed at Evolved and Europe. The only person who still stayed away from Sera was Alosaka, Amayeta¡¯s husband. Everyone else in the Village, even Tadita, accepted Sera, but Al stayed firmly untrusting and suspicious. She couldn¡¯t figure out why. Even after asking Amayeta about it, she just simply said, Al didn¡¯t like strangers... Like that explained anything... Well, it wasn¡¯t like Sera cared about what Alosaka thought. Instead of trying to appeal to a random person, she just began making jokes and constantly annoy him. It didn¡¯t change his opinion about the Angel, but at least it made everyone else laugh with amusement. Other than making items, Sera also taught fighting to the hunters. While they wouldn¡¯t need to fight against other humans, probably, it wouldn¡¯t hurt to learn a few moves. The lessons also provided a great bonding experience and built trust. Sera, in her loneliness, also spent a lot of time in the library, either reading books from the Old World or conversing with John, the lead teacher and oldest person within the Village. They shared stories about the past. John told her details about the Last War, while Sera shared more about Europe¡¯s past. Their conversation stayed on happy and interesting topics. They would rather not talk about the horrors they both witnessed. As time passed, Sera also visited her comatose friend each day and night. Her wounds were healing smoothly and with the necklace Sera made, it boosted her regeneration quite a bit. Eventually, while visiting Faith, the pale woman¡¯s eyes gently flickered, and she finally regained her senses! ... Faith¡¯s entire body hurt like hell, but still she powered through the feeling to wake up. The last memory she could recall was about Sera abandoning her own safety and rushing to save her from the approaching Abomination. As this memory popped into Faith¡¯s head, she tried to quickly open her eyes and glance around. However, her vision immediately blurred from the strong light. She only saw a wooden ceiling above, before she had to close her eyes. Confusion grew in Faith, since by her knowledge she shouldn¡¯t be below any roof. There were no survivors or buildings left in North-America by her knowledge, so they either left the continent, or maybe her Lady got bored and built a house. Either way, Faith had to find her. She needed to make sure she was safe! With a groan of pain, she pushed herself into a sitting position, and tried opening her eyes once more. This time, she kept them open long enough for the blurriness to disappear. Faith looked around the room curiously. She felt a pinch in her arm and where a syringe protruded out of her flesh. A line connected the syringe with some makeshift IV-pot. The shadowy woman¡¯s confusion deepened, and she slowly reached for the syringe. That¡¯s when she heard the beautiful, angelic voice... The voice of her Goddess! "Don¡¯t touch that, you idiot!" Said Sera, while glancing up from the book she had been reading in the corner. Faith¡¯s dark eyes immediately brightened, and she couldn¡¯t help but smile. Her Lady seemed perfectly fine, except for the strange prehistoric leather clothes. "W-what... What happened?... Where are... Where are we?" Yet again she leaned forward, trying to leave her bed, even as her body became consumed with agony. She scrunched up her face in pain, but soon she felt a gentle touch on her shoulders. Lightly, Sera pushed her Shadow back onto the bed, while kindly smiling down at her. "Don¡¯t worry, we¡¯re safe. As it turns out, North-America wasn¡¯t entirely destroyed in the Apocalypse. This place is called the Village, where the last survivors gathered together and survived!" She pointed towards the bright window while explaining, but from the bed, Faith couldn¡¯t see anything. "How long was I in a coma?" Asked Faith, pragmatically as always. "About 5 days... After leaving that cliff and the Abomination, your wounds weren¡¯t healing, so I continued travelling west until I heard a scream..." Sera told everything that had happened in the past five days. By the end, Faith couldn¡¯t hold herself back anymore and she soon burst into laughter. "They are already worshipping you, am I right?" The Angel just blushed heavily and looked away with embarrassment, causing Faith to laugh even harder. Eventually, Sera just scoffed and turned her back to Faith, trying to hide her joyous smile. "It¡¯s not my fault! I always try to be helpful and kind towards people, but every time they end up worshipping me! Do you know how annoying that is?!" The shadowy woman just shrugged with a wide grin. "How would I know? I¡¯m literally your biggest worshipper! Your literal Shadow! I find it endearing that other people see the same light I do every day!... Anyway, let¡¯s talk about the Abomination that attacked me." Sera shook her head in exasperation... "Good to know you¡¯re still extremely rational. You don¡¯t need any hugs or cuddling... After ten minutes of waking up, you immediately jump into action!" Faith straight up ignored Sera¡¯s sarcastic remark and continued talking about the topic at hand. "I couldn¡¯t feel the Abomination¡¯s presence, which was already strange, but when its claws raked my skin, my essence began rapidly draining away. I¡¯m certain that beast stole my essence, judging by how I still didn¡¯t regenerate my wounds!" The Angel¡¯s face also became serious as Faith explained what happened. "So, that Abomination can steal essence... Interesting... I guess we just have to kill it to restore yours, probably... Not like we have any other choice!" The Shadow raised an eyebrow at Sera¡¯s nonchalant attitude. Even though she was extremely strong, killing an Abomination wasn¡¯t simple. "How do you plan on accomplishing that, Ms. Pregnant Angel!" Sera just laughed at Faith¡¯s obvious reminder of her current bodily state. It would¡¯ve been way too risky to fight against an Abomination while pregnant. She could die easily, and the baby might not resurrect. She died once while pregnant, but the fetus was barely a few days old, so it also resurrected with her. She still wasn¡¯t certain why she didn¡¯t miscarry it afterward. Her current theory was that until the fetus didn¡¯t develop a soul, it could resurrect within her body. Sera, however, didn¡¯t want to test it and push her luck. "Well, I didn¡¯t say we¡¯ll kill it now. I definitely need to die and gain more power to fight against an Abomination. Sadly, this means you won¡¯t have essence for the next couple of months, until my baby¡¯s born!" Faith snorted while shaking her head with a wistful smile. "My Lady... I would rather live without any essence for the rest of my life than let you risk your own. However, I know better than trying to stop you, so I guess we¡¯ll just have to wait nine months!" The Angel walked up to her Shadow and gently patted her midnight black hair. "Yeah, that won¡¯t happen! I¡¯d never let my most trusted follower lose something so precious!" They both stayed silent after that. Faith continued staring at Sera, like she could disappear at any moment. However, as the minutes went by, her eyelids became heavier, until eventually she fell asleep. Sera stayed in her room a while longer, reading her borrowed book, but after about an hour, she had to leave and attend to her duties. After making lots of new machine parts, gears, and other objects. She continued configuring and customizing the Angelic Metal. When she got bored with the constant testing, she taught a few new moves to the hunters, and gave them advice about killing monsters. Later she ate dinner, then ran into Amayeta, to whom she reported Faith¡¯s awakening. The doctor seemed ecstatic and quickly moved off to check on her vitals. As night weighed heavily on the Village, Sera finally went back to her room, cleaned herself and climbed into bed.