Angel Monarch

Chapter 176: The Wraith of the Strait

Sera's body trembled from the cold that attacked everything around her and David. The strait before them, the whole Dardanelles had frozen solid within seconds after the creature's appearance.

At first she couldn't understand what the monster was supposed to be. It looked like a glowing white blob of some strange ethereal substance.

Whatever it was, she knew it was absurdly strong. Going on a hunch she opened her watch's scanning feature. She hadn't used it for months since most of her battles didn't need it, or she just simply didn't have time... But now she needed to know more!

'Scanning in progress...'

Said the feminine voice of the watch's A.I. inside her head.

It's been a long time since she heard the voice. Two years ago she had turned off most of the talking features. It had become annoying very quickly when she would slaughter hundreds of monsters and the voice would name each and everyone of them.

Same went for items. It was a rarity with monsters, but every time she would just look at it, upload the description into a giant database and then donate it to her army. Nearly all items were useless to her, and the ones she wanted could be made by one of her crafters.

She did have one interesting item when she had awoken two years ago in Flensburg, but nearly immediately Harold took it away from her. Sera didn't know why, or what the item's power was. She only remembered its name... Dragon Pendant.

'Scanning Complete... Results... Error... Error... Entity too high level... Abomination Detected!... Run... Run... Run...'

Hearing the message inside her mind brought little comfort to her and judging by David's pale expression he got a similar answer from his scan.

Slowly Sera turned back towards the supposed Abomination and watched as it floated through the air. Below her feet the ground started to whiten and freeze as well. The creature's very presence was starting to kill everything around the strait.

The monster itself started to look more clear and at this point Sera could see what it actually was.

Its size was about the same as an average human's. It wore a large glowing white robe, which perfectly hid everything that could've been below it. The robe was blowing on a phantom wind which didn't exist since slowly the air itself started to freeze.

The closer the entity moved to them the colder it got and the more both of them trembled, not just from the freezing temperature, but because of its presence.

It felt like if Sera would stare at it for too long, she would become an ice sculpture.

She let herself look at it for another couple of seconds, then she grabbed David's hand and slowly moved away from the cliff they were crouching upon.

They were deathly silent for a long time and only after they reached an area – which was definitely outside of the wraith's influence – did they stop to take a breather.

When they were sure it was safe, both of them plopped down on the ground and just stared at nothing for half an hour. The silence was broken by David, after he had calmed himself down enough.

"Was... Wa-was... T-t-that, a-an... A-actual A... Abomination?" He asked between chattering teeth, his body was still really cold and was attacked by shivers every moment.

Sera looked down at her own trembling hands and soon the pair of flame wings appeared behind her. With a thought a tiny fire came alive on her hand, filling both of them with magnificent warmth.

"Yes... I think... S-so, at l-least... I haven't s-seen my scanner do something li-like that... ever!" As Sera answered she was still feeling very cold. It was like every cell in her body got the warmth seeped out of it.

David got up and as his whole body shook, he made his way next to Sera. She placed the small fire on the ground, which she kept from burning anything and it only radiated warmth to both of them.

They also began hugging each other sideways, trying to use their body's warmth to keep the cold away.

It worked, even though it was really slow. After about ten minutes they both only shivered a little bit. It was a great relief and both of them sighed, but haven't moved away from each other.

"Did it feel this horrible?... Seeing that gigantic Abomination swallowing Skyros?" Asked David, but Sera didn't answer. Her mind was still on the wraith floating above the strait.

Just by looking at it, the sight which should've been terror inducing or maybe exciting, was only sad in her opinion. That creature was extremely strong, but also lost.

Sera never truly understood what it was like to be under the spell of Madness. Did they keep some of their previous personality? Were they just husks of their lost selves? Or maybe they were just monster's which were closer to the grave, than to a living creatures...

The sight of the Abomination wasn't as scary, it was more lonely and heart-wrenching in her opinion.

From this memory other monster's she had fought over the past two years came to her mind. Most of them were just simply Mad and tried to kill her without hesitation, but some even had a bit of their past personality remaining.

The first creature she had noticed this strange behavior in was the captured monsters in the New Athens Zoo. They were small and not too scary.

At first they were really aggressive and tried to kill everyone they saw, but after a few months they were kind of calm and even seemed happy.

This discovery sent Sera in a spiral and she used some of her scientists to try and tame a monster. The research was still ongoing, but slowly they started to get results. It wasn't quite taming, but they could definitely be controlled to some extent, also they are very food motivated.

What they currently knew about Madness and his corruption is that It didn't control any creature manually, or at least not most.

While knowing this was great news, this also meant that these creatures were corrupted and left there to die. Their existence was horrifying. It was like getting tortured and just waiting for someone to kill you, which was the only way you could earn your freedom.

After seeing that lonely wraith, which only showed itself after the Sun went down, Sera got another stupid thought inside her head. This one was only a goal for a long time from now, but she would swear to whatever god cared enough, that she will liberate every single creature that was trapped under that monster's spell.

Only now did she realize that calling those victims monsters was misleading. In reality they were only beings of instinct, while the real monster, the real evil was doing everything on purpose!

A real horrible creature wouldn't just try to kill and eat you. They would torture you and break your very soul for fun... or maybe force you to die and resurrect hundreds of times!

Unknowingly Sera's hand was trembling more than when it was from the cold, but this time it was pure rage that boiled inside her. She didn't feel any of it of course, but the symptoms somehow still showed.

David looked at her then and his previous pale expression returned. He didn't understand why had Sera became so angry, but he also didn't really want to know.

Looking at her, he had became a bit torn up. Should he ask what's wrong, or should he just continue his silent support.

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Eventually he decided to go with the first option. They are technically friends after all, which meant they should help each other, especially when one of them really needed it.

"What's wrong?" He whispered to her, which caused Sera's trembling to stop. For a moment she got spooked, totally forgetting about David's presence, but soon her golden eyes focused on his whirlpool ones.

With a large exhausted sigh she leaned onto him a bit more. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her turbulent mind. After taking a couple deep breaths, she answered his previous question.

"It's nothing... I just hate evil monsters..." Her voice which should've been emotionless sounded sad. It was so surprising that it stopped David's thoughts for a moment, but he soon focused on what she had said.

"Like the ones we are about to fight?" He asked, which caused Sera's sleepy eyes to look at him confused.

He made a few pointed glances at his watch indicating their ability to listen in on their conversation. On Sera's face a small smile appeared, understanding exactly who they were about to fight.

Slowly her eyes closed again and she laid down on the ground putting her head in David's lap. Her mind which just minutes ago was absorbed in rage, turned strangely tranquil and at some point her breathing became calm as well.

It took only a minute for her to fully fall asleep, which left David astounded.

He carried her back to the camp and put her down near one of the campfires. The rest of their teams, those who were still awake, looked at the pair with goofy smiles.

David knew exactly what they thought about their relationship, but he didn't correct them. He just let them believe whatever they wanted to believe, just like he had always done.

Before going to sleep though he did make sure there was a watch arranged for the night and he even quickly recounted the events at the strait, not failing to mention the Abomination.

After that he left them there trembling from fear, and he went to lie down next to Sera.