Angel Monarch

While everyone was taking a break, he spent the whole night taking things apart and upgrading himself.

As the Sun rose higher and higher the group had to face the facts... They had no food, no water and no mode of transport.

The water was easy to solve because two people in their group could just summon water. For food they needed to hunt something which also wasn\'t hard, but the way of travel... That was a problem.

Their next destination, Bream was more than a hundred kilometers away. Going by foot it would take them days, not to speak they had to travel even farther than that. They actually have to travel about four times as much, before reaching their current goal.

With very disappointed sighs slowly all of them stood up and without a word began walking towards the edge of Hannover.

When they reached it they stopped and talked out their options.

"So... I assume we have to find something else to fly with..." Said a very tired sounding Lucy, she didn\'t seemed to be too excited for her evolution.

"Yeah... But that won\'t be easy either... Okay, lets split up. Me, Hellfire, Lucy and Faith will scout in separate directions, the rest of you will hunt for food. We meet her at midday. Understood?"

Everyone nodded except Clockwork.

"Actually, I could help in scouting... With my new scanning ability I can basically see about a 20 kilometer radius."

He said a bit embarrassed, scouting wasn\'t his forte, but he wanted to help. Out of the whole group he was the most useless... At least that\'s what he thought. So every little bit more he could offer was a big step for him.

Sera looked at him for a bit, then simply nodded and before flying into the sky said, "Fine. You go towards north!"

And with that everyone went on their way.

...

The day went by fast. Currently it was 12 o\'clock exactly, Sera was already waiting for the others to arrive. She didn\'t find anything that could be used as a mount. The best she found was a wyvern, but it was a corrupted of the 2nd tier and taming that was impossible for Vicky.

Soon Bea and her part of the group came back with a bunch of meat and they started cooking it straight away.

Slowly each of the scouts came back with similar news, it seemed there was nothing flying and rideable in their relatively close proximity.

When they were about to fall into a pit of despair, the last scout arrive... It was Clockwork, but unlike the others he came back with a smile.

"I found a nest! They can carry us! There is about a dozen of them!" Before he could continue his excited ramble, Bea quickly interjected.

"What nest?" This was the question they were most curious of.

"Hippogriff! You know those horses with bird wings and heads. I found a bunch of them, the Watch said they are tainted of the 3rd tier, but they can carry our weight and fast enough to significantly increase the speed of our travel."

The group looked at each other, then each of them congratulated Clockwork on the find. It felt really good to not be useless for once.

They quickly ate themselves full and reinvigorated went to find those hippogriffs.

Clockwork could only get a general area and because he couldn\'t fly he didn\'t chance trying to get too close. But this wasn\'t a problem for Lucy, in her eagle form she flew just below the increasing amount of clouds.

Sarah was brewing not a storm, but just a bit of shadow from the Sun for cover.

This fight won\'t going to be easy, not because the enemy was too strong. They were actually quite weak, but they couldn\'t kill them. The group had to fight them without actually hurting them and they had to endure their attention until Vicky tamed them.

After a few minutes of flying and scanning the ground for movement she finally saw the nest. It was more of a graveyard since it was fully of bones and half eaten corpses.

\'These hippogriffs are the main predators in this area I guess. Well, not for long... Soon they just be mounts to make our journey faster.\'

Lucy quickly turned around and returned before they noticed her.

She told the others her finds, then they moved out. Faith stayed with Vicky to defend her body while her soul tamed each of the creatures. Sera walked in front and just before reaching the graveyard she turned and said, "Remember... No killing! We need them!"

They nodded and in the next second ran out from the cover of the trees.

In the nest Sera counted 11 hippogriffs. Their front half was like a hawk\'s and their back like a horse, they were about the size of one too... More than capable to carry the whole group, even Hellfire giant body. There wings were huge at least 4 meters on each side.

They were majestic creatures, their colors differed from light and dark brown, to gray and black... But there was only one that Sera wanted, the largest of them. It was a magical white hippogriff, it looked unnatural in a very beautiful way.

The group was about to attack, but something unexpected happened... The white horse came in front of the rest and screeched threateningly.

The other hippogriffs acted upon its command and took to the sky... They were running away.

\'Wait... Commanding?!... Running away?!... Don\'t tell me... They aren\'t Mad either? Are we just this lucky or something?

There should be very few actually intelligent creatures on Earth, other than humans of course.\'

With a very confused look Sera held up her right hand, the group immediately stopped charging and began looking around suspiciously. Other than Bea, the rest haven\'t realized, that these hippogriffs aren\'t enemies.

Slowly Sera walked towards the huge leader of their group. Its height was about 3 meters, maybe even more.

She stopped ten or so meters away and stared at the creature, waiting for its next move.

It didn\'t have vocal cords so it couldn\'t speak, but from its body language Sera deduced what it was thinking. It looked her up and down, then turned its head and looked at the rest of the group standing behind her.

The hippogriff looked confused, it expected a fight and was about to sacrifice itself so the others could escape. Instead it found humans, ones that weren\'t savage murderers... Like most of them.

It wanted to leave as well, go after the others and live safely, but suddenly it got surprised. The human woman in front of it had wings, they were feathered and white like the hippogriffs, but they weren\'t like them at all...

They were like their creator\'s...

Angelic...

The white hippogriff quickly lowered its head in submission. It was in its genes to be obedient to any kind of angel.

Sera stared at the hippogriff in disbelief, she acted upon her intuition. It suggested to summon and spread her wings, but she had no idea why... Now she knew.

\'These creatures... These hippogriffs... They have some relation to the Realm where the Archangel of Despair was from... Interesting...\'

Her instinct suggested something else now and since it worked the last time, Sera decided to act upon this one as well.

Slowly she approached the hippogriffs huge head. She was already only a couple of meters away, but the creature didn\'t try to run away. It just stayed there with closed eyes, waiting.

Sera placed one hand right between its eyes. Suddenly a question popped up in her head, she didn\'t understand the language it spoke, but felt familiar. Like part of her being was from there.

Luckily her Watch quickly translated the question.

"Do you accept –– Kastral, King of Hippogryphs –– As your eternal mount?"

\'That is a big commitment... Eternal mount?!... I never even heard of mounts and now I have to make a decision of this importance?\'

She was in a dilemma... This seemed to be a very important decision, so she didn\'t want to it without thinking it through first. Her intuition seemed to be screaming to just accept it already, but Sera didn\'t know if she could trust it or not.

After a few minutes of contemplating, she made the choice that seemed to be the best...

She accepted...

In her heart a burning sensation appeared, like something invaded it. She nearly fell down on her knees from the pain. Her soul was being rewritten, it was in the process of fusing with something else.

Sera screamed from the pain, but didn\'t let go of Kastral\'s head. The King of Hippogryphs screeched from the pain too, but didn\'t back away from her hand.

It lasted only for moments, but it was by far the worst pain she ever felt. It was worse than every torture or injury she went through... Even dying was better...

When the pain passed fully she looked up and into the creature\'s eyes, a small smile appeared on her face which slowly spread into a wide grin.

Kastral lowered its head and pushed towards her chest, Sera knew exactly what it wanted and she began scratching its feathered chin. He liked it very much and snuggled even closer to her.

The rest of the group just stared at the two with bewildered expressions, but out of all the people Vicky was the most surprised.

Unlike anyone else, she could see the souls of beings, so she saw the whole process of the two souls connecting with each other, Now she saw a white and gold cord connecting her mother\'s soul with the hippogriff\'s.