Angel Monarch

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—she 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—was 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.