Angel Monarch

\'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!"

For a moment Bea stared into the tiger\'s eyes, then slowly nodded once. "Fine, how do we get back though? We are dozens of kilometers from the outpost!"

"Just climb on my back and we will be back there in a jiffy." He didn\'t have to ask twice. Each of them climbed onto his back and held his fur for support.

Damien closed his eyes and controlled the winds and frost around them. Then suddenly they snapped open and the very air exploded into shards of ice in a small radius. They couldn\'t even watch from the cold.

Bea felt a little movement bellow her and then heard the voice of Damien again. "We are here."

Gradually she opened her eyes and looked around. They were currently standing inside the outpost walls and about fifty or so meters in front of them was the gateway. The whole journey took less than a few seconds.

Everyone else began to open their eyes and stared at the buildings speechlessly. Their surprise didn\'t last long since they still had work to do.

Suddenly everyone\'s head snapped to the gateway. They heard the sound of an explosion and the gateway began to close. They ran as fast as they could. The gate was closing fast, its like keeping it open for so long increased the speed with which it disappears.

They reached the gate by the time it shrank to half its previous size. Bea and the others stared at the Earth side, where Harold and Sera stood.

She changed again... Her eyes were lifeless, her disposition bored, her existence hollow. The pain of loss came again. This time it looked permanent. The first time Harold rewrote her personality, Bea still had hope of saving her. The second time she lost that hope...

Now there was nothing...

"Harold! What have you done?!" Shouted Damien as the gate continued to close. He began channeling the snow and ice, then used them to stop the closing of the portal. On the other side the old man frowned.

"You came faster then I anticipated... So annoying... *sigh* Now I have to ask for help. Dammit I will never hear the end of this..."

He was shaking his head in dejection, then silently looked to a specific point in the sky. On the horizon a form was approaching fast. Bea watched with horror as the most alluring woman she had ever seen landed next to Harold and Sera.

"What is it old man! I was busy... Oh, so It wanted her... I knew she was special from our first meeting!" Spoke the magnificent woman while looking Sera up and down. Her black hair was nearly glowing in the sunlight, she used it as a clothing of sorts hiding the enticing parts of her body.

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The feeling one should\'ve gotten from her was pure desire and lust, but Bea had only felt inexplicable amounts of fear. Strangely enough the feeling wasn\'t as strong than it was supposed to be. Quickly she looked at Damien who was shaking. He still held the gateway open, but from every orifice on his face, blood began pouring out.

"Don\'t... Look... At Her..." He managed to say between gritted teeth. The woman\'s attention changed and she looked at each of the group members. Slowly on her face a cruel smile appeared.

"How rude of me, not introducing myself! My name is Amygdala, Terror Incarnate. It is nice the meet all of you little terrified food..." The smile on her face was the worst thing Bea had ever seen. It caused her blood to freeze over from despair.

The worst part was that Amygdala wasn\'t even using any powers. This was just her presence, it made everyone feel a great amount of fear in their hearts. She stared at everyone, enjoying their squirming, but soon she grew bored. Even watching Damien\'s struggle wasn\'t a good enough entertainment for her.

Slowly she turned back to Harold and said angrily, "Is this really what you needed help with? Don\'t tell me, that little transcended caused this much problem for you?... Since when are you this weak?"

The old man\'s nose flared as he shouted, "Just close this damned gateway so we can be on our way!" Instead she shook her head and smiled at the horrified group.

"Oh no. Since you called me here I will feast on them first, then I let the gateway close!"

She was about to take a step forward, when something strange happened. Behind Amygdala and Harold, Seraphine looked up. In her eyes a tiny glint showed.

From the other side Bea stared into her lover\'s eyes, then with all her power made a small nod of agreement.

In Sera\'s hand her flame sword burned in its usual white colors. On her neck the dragon pendant appeared as well and the weapons color changed. The white and black parts met and created an amazing grey fire. It seemed to be very unstable, so Sera quickly made a slash towards the gateway.

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 – Angel of Hollow]

[End of Volume 1 – Heaven Sent]