Angel Monarch

Sera woke up to the feeling of strong winds hitting her. She was very disoriented and confused, her last memory was the excruciating pain and the sorrow of dying... again.

'Uhh... What happened? Where am I?...'

Slowly she tried to open her eyes, but they were sealed shut, or at least it felt like that.

With a bit of panic and fear she tried to move other parts of her body, but nothing worked, she had no control over anything. Her breathing started to become more erratic and through her eyes she saw a blinding light originating from her.

Finally someone noticed her distress and in the next second Kastral spoke in her mind.

"So you finally decided to wake up! Took you long enough..." His voice sounded angry, but also relieved.

"Well, it's not like I was taking a nap!... What happened?... I only remember nearly dying... And where are we?"

With a very loud voice Kastral shouted into her mind. "YOU DIDN'T JUST NEARLY DIE! YOU WERE GOING TO DIE!... If Lucy didn't come back to life in time, you would be dead!... And me too..."

His voice turned painful, sad and small at the end. Sera felt like her heart was pierced by something sharp, she never really thought about it like that, but if she dies her mount dies as well.

Her eyes must've turned teary since she felt something wet running down on her face.

"I'm sorry... I will be more considerate with my plans next time..." Her voice was full of hurt and suffering, just the thought about losing her new friend was horrible.

The hippogryph sighed loud enough to be heard over the wind.

"It's okay... I know what I signed up for, but from now on don't think of yourself as just one of the soldiers. You're a leader, even if you fight on the front lines that won't change. Be More Careful!'

"You...*sigh* You are right... Is everyone else okay?"

There was only silence for a while, then Kastral recounted everything to Sera. He told her about how her sacrifice gave Lucy a chance to kill Azriel. He talked about Lucy dying and going to a place named limbo where she met Death.

'Limbo?... Death?... They sound so familiar, but from where?... Maybe from some description I read, or from somewhere else?'

No matter how hard she tried the origin of the feeling stayed a mystery to her, but she did note that it felt like something she had forgotten. Strangely her mind ignored this weird memory loss and continued to listen Kastral. He was quoting every single description about Lucy's abilities.

'So she has a chance to become Empyrean too. The more the merrier!'

Her mood was improving swiftly, in fact she was so happy that one more of their prey was defeated that she forgot to ask one very important detail.

"Hey, Kastral! Why can't I move?"

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From the front there was a few chirping sounds, Sera already learned that this was his form of laughter.

"Oh, that... It's nothing really, just some remaining brain damage... Bea was about to heal it at our next stop."

"And when is that exactly? It's not very comfortable... Being unable to move!"

His voice seemed to turn a bit cruel and mischievous as he replied, "Well, think of it as a punishment for your recklessness!"

Sera just sighed loudly and stayed silent. They flew for an hour more, when she felt Kastral's body turn and the wind's direction change. Steadily they descended and shortly they were standing on the ground.

The other hippogryphs landed all around her, then she heard the sound of hurried footsteps. Kastral made some chirping sounds and next came an angry shout from Bea.

"Why didn't you say anything! I could've healed her already!"

He made another few sounds then laughed. Bea's voice was still annoyed, but Sera knew that there was a small smile on her face.

"Well... You are not wrong, but still..."

Sera was growing angry and began shouting down the bond at Kastral. Eventually he took pity on her and made Bea hurry up.

Someone was approached her slowly, then a cold hand touched her face. Through her eyelid she saw a green light... Bea's light.

At first nothing changed, but gradually the ability to move returned. Her fingers moved, then her arms and legs spasmed, and finally her eyes opened. It was dark, but the east had already started to turn purple... Dawn was approaching.

Her eyes slowly focused and a beautiful woman's face came into view. With a very hoarse voice Sera said, "What's up?"

Bea's face turned angry, and she slapped Sera.

"'What's up?' That's all you got?... You nearly died... again! This time even I couldn't even save you!..."

Before she could say more a sound came from behind her, small feet hitting the grassy ground at high speed and soon Vicky's face popped up next to Bea's. Her eyes were teary and she sniffled constantly.

Even Bea's angry expression quickly turned gentle, they all began crying and hugging from joy. Sadly the happy atmosphere was broken by a frustrated sigh coming from Kastral, because at this point all three of them were on his back. They climbed down and while giggling went towards the others.

The first person Sera walked to was Lucy. Just as Kastral told her, she changed quite a bit, her skin was deathly white like a corpse, which weirdly made her more beautiful. Her black shoulder length hair seemed even darker than before.

What made Sera stumble though was her eyes, they seemed strange... older. Like she lived way longer than her actual 20 years.

'Must be the time she spent in limbo. It took a toll on her soul...'

The feeling appeared again, she had no idea why but when she thought of limbo a vast empty space came to her mind... It felt like a memory. Soon the sensation and memory went away, and Sera seemed to forget what she was thinking about.

'Why do I have the feeling that I'm forgetting something important?...'

While she was occupied with these thoughts Lucy approached her with Clockwork in tow.

"It's nice of you to finally wake up. Right before arriving to our next destination too. You have great timing!" She was grinning at Sera, and she just shook her head, smiled, and hugged her.

"Thank you... For bringing me back!"

The warm hug only lasted for a few seconds. While smiling at each other kindly for a few moments, Clockwork just stood next to them awkwardly. Eventually Lucy spoke again.

"Your welcome! But don't make it a habit! It only worked because of my race change, without it probably both of us would be dead right now."

The joyful atmosphere took a fast dive into sadness, so Sera quickly changed the topic.

"So where are we right now?"

Both of them turned to Clockwork, who reluctantly and with a roll of his eyes answered.

"We are currently about ten kilometers from the sea. If we keep heading north from here we will reach the exact position where the Colossal Sea Devourer was spotted."

The distance between Brema and the sea shore was about the same as Hannover, so circa 120 kilometers. If they were only 10 kilometers away, that means they had been travelling for quite a while. This raised another question in Sera.

"How long was I out? And why did we stop here and not near the shoreline?"

For a second they looked at each other with a bit of confusion, then with a strange expression Lucy answered.

"We... have been travelling for about two days... and we stopped here because that's what we talked about before setting out on this hunting trip... Don't you remember? It was your idea?"

'My idea?... I don't remember it at all... Very weird, I don't usually forget stuff...'

"Oh yeah... I forgot. Must be a side effect of nearly dying! Anyway thanks again..."

With that she quickly went away to find Bea, but when she reached her, only a lingering feeling of disregard remained.

Since there was nothing else to do here, the group ate a quick breakfast, than continued out towards the sea. Their next stop was a small island a few kilometers off-shore.

They didn't have to wait long, and soon Sera saw the sea for the first time in her life. The bluish-green waves hit the sandy shoreline, gently washing it. The Sun was already up and as the light hit the waves it reflected into a magnificent picture.

For a long time she just stared speechlessly at the magical sight.

'If I react like this for something as natural as the sea, how will I act when we go to other realms?'

She didn't know the answer to this self-imposed question, but one thing was sure... This was the best part of their journey so far.

The group landed on the small island, it was about seven kilometer on its longer side and two on its shorter. It also had some remnants of a town, which by the looks of it was abandoned even before the Last War.

They didn't even care about it, and just went straight to the northern side of the island, then they started discussing their next steps.