Angel Monarch

"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.

The death aura on his sword wasn\'t enough to kill or even disable her wing, but the feathers changed black. Sera didn\'t really pay attention to that, she just summoned her lance and tried to skewer Azriel.

He didn\'t expect an attack coming from someone he already cut so the lance hit his breastplate and drew black blood. His reaction was quick though and soon he backed away enough to look at Sera.

The aura around him changed, he seemed to be surprised and curious.

Around them the sky became dark and with a close thunder rain drops began falling. The downpour didn\'t distract either and they just looked at each other, waiting to see who makes the first move.

After a minute of just staring Sera had an idea. Since she couldn\'t defeat Azriel alone, and the others were frozen in fear, she needed to find a way to get them out of their reverie.

Behind her the two different colored wings spread and light began shining from them. She also activated the Wings of Despair ability to amplify her ally\'s hope. Then something happened that neither she or Azriel expected.

Her blackened left wing was shining with light and slowly the feathers cleared and returned to their bright pristine white color. The aura around the angel of death changed again, it gave off a feeling of familiarity... Like he was meeting with someone from his past.

Sadly this feeling only made him angry and in the next second he was already flying towards Sera.

She raised her weapon in longsword form just in time to parry the attack. But the angel wasn\'t done yet, His next attack came from the left which Sera leveraged just enough so it wouldn\'t cut her, she even tried to counter attack, but he was too fast.

The next attack came as towards her neck. Sera blocked it with her sword, but Azriel just began overpowering her, even with one hand holding the handle and the other the blade he was simply too strong.

Slowly the dark sword came closer and closer towards her helmet. Without another option she tried to back away.

The rain began falling heavily and lighting struck in the sky every minute or so.

When she tried to move away just as the the world got illuminated for a second came the slash of Azriel\'s sword. Sera had no chance of escaping it this time so she used her wing as a shield.

The sword separated skin, muscle and bone. Sera\'s right wing came away in two pieces and as she screamed from the pain, she fell towards the ground as a falling star... This time she couldn\'t stabilize and hit the ground hard.

Her body went through a broken buildings wall, then another and another. Eventually her momentum stopped, with ragged breathing and broken body she lay in a pile of shattered concreate.

After the fall she had a concussion and her eyes were very hazy. They slowly darkened at the edges while her body became very tired. There was only one thing still keeping her alive... Pain.

Her wing being cut in two hurt more than most things, it was so strong that the rest of her body felt fine in comparison.

The darkness wasn\'t only approaching from the sides of her vision, in the sky a dark figure was slowly descending. She thought it was an angel at first, but angels with dark wings don\'t bring life... Only death.

Her mind was scrambled and it couldn\'t focus on any thoughts, but gradually it settled.

Sera remembered how she got into this situation, what happened to her wing and she knew who the figure in the sky was... Her killer.

As unconsciousness crept in she tried to summon her sword for what she didn\'t know, maybe she just wanted to die fighting and not in a destroyed building, in a ruined city, with nothing but death around her.

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.

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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.