Chapter 673: The Empress of Blood
Seras hadn't yet heard the tale of Abaddon's battle against the abyss hunters.
But not because no one had told her about it...
Hajun had actually tried to tell his daughter when the group first arrived home, but at that time Abaddon just so happened to be sitting across the room eating a peach.
...She couldn't have payed attention even if she wanted to.
Her husband had the most perfect lips in existence and due to past experiences she was well aware that he knew how to use them!
How could anyone expect her to focus on a story when her husband was twenty feet away from her, giving some fruit a treatment that rightfully should have been performed on her?!
It was grossly unfair!
"The Sacred Order of Shining Mercy... My family was wondering when you all would pop up again. We aren't properly aquainted, are we?"
"Oh? I don't believe we are." The woman retorted with a chuckle. "You'll have to forgive me for my rudeness. I don't believe any of you Nyasir have ever asked for my name before. It's Fiona by the way."
Bloodstained and beautiful, Seras smiled eerily as if she were tickled pink by her words.
"Nyasir..? You actually believe I am one of those small fry?" (Seras has conveniently forgotten that two of the seven are her parents.)
Fiona seemed to reasses Seras very seriously in that moment.
It wasn't hard to get information on Abaddon, or collect descriptions of him for that matter.
He had single handedly battled an entire army of gods in Asgard afterall. And threatened them all long before that. Many people could place his face.
But knowledge of the dragon god's forces was much more limited and hard to come by.
The only forces they were aware of for sure were the shadowy organization who snuck into Asgard but was caught by Odin.
Until this moment, they had only assumed that he had kept the tradition of Nyasir subordinates.
But they knew not their names, faces, or powers.
They also knew little of Abaddon's brides.
Though they traveled with him frequently, the amount of big appearances made alongside him was relatively low.
It was easy to see why Fiona had mistaken the woman in front of her for a common Nyasir.
"W-What is going on here..?"
Seras looked down at the old man shaking in her grip.
If she hadn't saved him, he likely would've been hurt by some sort of falling debris caused by that hail of bullets.
"Since when does your supposed merciful order jeopardize the lives of the innocent?" She glared at them.
Fiona simply shrugged.
"We could've patched him up if the need arose. But a quick dispatch was much more important I think."
Seras patted down the man and ensured that he was in one piece.
She gathered the pile of coins she'd collected earlier and returned them to their rightful owner.
"You should take these and get out of here, old man. I'm sorry that all of your wares were destroyed because of these bastards."
"T-That's alright, goddess… I will be able to replace them easily with all you have given m-"
"Goddess? What happened to 'Young Lady'?" Seras smirked.
"I-I didn't want to be disrespectful…"
'And I'm now fairly sure that you are considerably older than me…'
"I heard that."
"G-Gah!"
The old man scampered off the roof like he was afraid to face her divine punishment.
But just before he scurried away and out of her sight, he paused to give her one last farewell.
"I hope everything works out with that husband of yours! And your incestous lovers too!"
"I-I made it perfectly clear that we are not related by blood!!" Seras yelled with a red face.
"Hahahaha!!"
Fiona picked up a few key words from their conversation.
Her mind was like a children's puzzle; fitting in pieces bit by bit until she had the full, colorful picture.
*Gasp!* "You're one of his! Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow! Now we definitely have to capture you! Can't let the humiliation our leader suffered go unanswered now, can we??"
Seras hadn't the foggiest interest in communicating with this woman who was clearly missing a few screws upstairs.
"The Director? I'm afraid we haven't even met him yet. Much less done something to him." She dismissed.
Fiona's incredulous expression just kept getting wider and wider.
"Oh wow! I guess monsters are really no good at marriage, huh? To think your own husband hasn't told you about such an important moment."
The temperature outside rose dramatically.
Seras was already feeling tender about her relationship with her husband, even without this woman stepping on the proverbial landmine.
"…Judging by your tone I can only guess the meeting didn't go so well for you. And my husband is not the kind of man to tell me everytime that he steps on one little ant."
Now, it was Fiona who was feeling hot-headed.
Her knuckles cracked within her dark leather gloves and Seras readied herself for what was to come.
"Suppress her!!"
"YES!"
The squad of twenty brought by Fiona all fanned out across the roofs.
Seras knew that fighting here wasn't feasible since there was no way the old man from earlier would have gotten away in such a short amount of time.
So she had to get back outside the city. To the wasteland that she had already spent two days in.
Once she was in motion, she moved incredibly fast.
She left the humans behind in her dust as she kept from building to building and then into the air.
"After her, but be smart!" Fiona barked at her men.
The humans punched in buttons on their wristwatches.
Shining silver hoverboards appeared in front of their feet and they quickly hopped aboard to chase after Seras.
Fiona on the other hand casted some sort of spell on herself so that she could fly at a speed not far below Seras'.
It didn't take long for the humans to start going on the offensive.
More bullets flew through the air; each of them aimed at Seras' wings or back to inhibits her persistent flight.
'I just realized I've never been shot at before… Neat.'
Of course, Seras avoided all gunfire with ease that frustrated her pursuers.
So, they switched to heavier artillery instead.
Rocket launchers that fired strange blasts of electromagnetic energy, neural disruptors and other fantastical scientific weaponry.
Seras was becoming annoyed.
She didn't know that her husband had already met the abyss hunters, but she did know that they had already discussed not harming them.
After all, there was no reason for the two groups to have a bad relationship any longer now that the horrors were no longer being released into the wild.
In fact, they could have been working together.
If not for those things, Seras might've already attacked.
But since her restraint clearly wasn't appreciated, she was finally going to stop being so nice.
Especially since they were now far enough away from the city.
"I'll make you put those nasty things down myself..!"
Seras' flight was suddenly halted and she held out her outstretched hand towards her pursuers.
Fiona got a bad feeling and quickly tried to save her squad mates before things took a worse turn.
"Shields up!"
The next sequence of events happened in the blink of an eye.
Only half of her squad were able to listen and react in time.
The others endured the unfortunate consequence of losing their arms in the span of a second.
Disgusting popping noises and blood mist filled the air as their arms exploded from the inside out.
Their weapons were dropped, and they went down screaming as they fell from their boards.
But Seras was far from done as she collected all of the misty blood in the air.
A large chain made of the crystallized liquid appeared amidst the fray.
With a wave of her hand, Seras swiped it across the undersides of the hoverboards, knocking off their riders.
"I wish you didn't make me show such an inhospitable side of me… This is all terribly unbecoming, you know? Or so they tell me.."
Seras waived her hand over herself and finally pulled away all of the dried god blood covering her body.
With her full looks and beauty restored, as well as her continued use of hemokinesis, Fiona no longer had any difficulty placing the identity of this woman.
"You are number seven. The glorified maniacal blood fiend."
"…I've been called worse." Seras shrugged.
Her eyes suddenly regained their intensity and the aura around her became much more regal.
"But still, I am not very fond of enemies speaking to me informally. For the honor of my family's empire, I must insist you use your manners."
Suddenly, Fiona received an urgent message within her earpiece.
{Brigade Leader. We have detected a large anomaly moving above your current position. Be advised.}
Fiona warily looked up into the sky above her.
Thick, grey clouds were covering everything for miles, but she hadn't noticed them roll in.
And finally, she realized why.
A large mass was breaking through the clouds.
It looked like a giant red moon made out of blood; complete with several sets of mouths, eyes, and even weaponry spread all throughout.
Seras had been fighting the thirteen gods and the demon lord for two days straight.
Their regeneration was almost as good as hers.
For two days, they fought without an ending in sight.
Spilling so much blood in the middle of the process.
Blood that Seras had called as soon as she was far enough away from the city to use.
"I've never gotten to use this much at once before… You'll have to forgive me if I get a little excessive..!"