Angel Monarch

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...\'

Lucy sighed in her mind and stopped trying to reach the light, instead she just watched from afar, thinking of all the people she lost.

\'They might be there... I hope they are happy...\'

Slowly she remembered each person, her parents, her friends, all those survivors that didn\'t make it and finally... Her brother.

Soon though her thoughts focused on other people, her group whom she loves with all her heart.

Sera, their leader, their queen... The fairest and smartest of the group, who is never afraid of any danger if it threatens the people she loves. Lucy didn\'t even know if she survived the encounter or not.

Next she remembered a person she basically considers a sister... Bea. She remembered her sword fighting that seemed more like an art than anything else. If anyone she could save Sera, Bea would never let her die.

Lucy also remembered the strongest and bravest of their group. A little girl who went through more suffering than any other person she heard of, little Victoria.

Then there was her oldest living friend, Hellfire or using his real name Leslie. He always hated that name, so after evolving and getting his title, he never used it again. Out of everyone Lucy knew him the most, even though after Nightmare they didn\'t talk much with each other.

When Copen fell, she never thought of meeting the world\'s most boring and at the same time intriguing man. A person who never really talked, but when he did you just had to listen. Will became her friend soon after leaving Copen, when they set out into the wild.

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She also remembered a similarly silent princess who was never in the wild before this expedition, but proved her power and reliability pretty quickly. Sarah was a person Lucy would\'ve hated just because of her status, she never thought to actually get to like her, but life had different plans.

The last person, she became sad remembering him. He was a very unique young man, but achieved something that no one, not even Lucy thought possible... He stole her heart.

That little nerd, who could barely be considered an adult managed to do it. And the worst of it all and what made Lucy really depressed, was that she never got to tell him... He never knew that she loved him.

If she wouldn\'t be only a soul she would be drowning in tears right now.

\'I so sorry James... If I could go back I would stop pretending... And would confess everything...\'

Clockwork or what Lucy liked to call him James was the best person she ever met. He was just some random guy before the Fall, and unlike Hellfire he actually liked his name, and hated his title. But he was never special, so he began using it just to show others that he wasn\'t useless.

While suffocating in her sorrow something began to change around her. There was something like a small wind blowing towards her.

Lucy got spooked from suddenly feeling something. Quickly she turned towards its origin, but what she saw wasn\'t at all within her expectations.

When she turned around everything around her changed. At one moment she was in a soul body watching a beautiful light which she would never reach, and in the next she was in her own body sitting on a comfortable sofa with a fireplace crackling next to her.

She looked around and saw that the whole room was made of wood panels, below her feet was a large wine-red rug covering most of the floor and in front of her was a large armchair.

Sitting in the said chair was a middle aged man in a weird robe made of black smoke, just by looking at the individual Lucy\'s blood began boiling and she turned away before her soul melted.

While looking at the fire the man began chuckling.

"Oh young one. Didn\'t they teach you in school that some things weren\'t meant for mortal eyes to witness. Always the curiosity, the need to know. But you were smarter than most, looking away."

The voice of the man was calm and charismatic, in other words... Inviting. Just by hearing it she had to use all her willpower not to look at the man. She even close her eyes and in a shaky voice asked, "What... What happened to most?... And who...

Who are you?... What is this place?..."

The man didn\'t respond for a while, in the room there was only the sound of the wood burning and... Writing?

\'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.