Angel Monarch

As midnight approached, the celebrations died down. By now, only Bran was still sober. Even the Professor got bored and began drinking.

Melinda tried to get Bran to drink with her, but he refused and instead continued to pace in worry.

Since Bea's disappearance, they got no word from Sera. He felt something was wrong, but the extend of the issue never surfaced in his mind... Not until it was too late.

About fifteen minutes before midnight, an urgent message came to his watch. It was from one commander, watching over the walls.

The message was brief, but troublesome. It spoke about a large horde of flying beasts heading straight for the city from the south.

With a lot of fear, Bran left Sera's mansion. Nobody noticed him leaving, which was sad, but he didn't care about that right now.

The commander's description was on point, and he instantly realized what the beasts were. They were all the hippogryphs living above the Angelic Order Research Facility.

There was only one reason they would evacuate that place... It got compromised...

Bran headed straight for the Temple of Eternal Flame. The streets were full of people celebrating the new year, but Bran paid no attention to them.

He sprinted through the streets, entered the temple, then went down to the lowest floor.
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The Aegis System's generator was under constant surveillance, in case of malfunctions or other complications.

He ordered the scientists there to lower the shields for a few minutes. They did so without question, and Bran informed the commander to let the hippogryphs in.

A minute later he got conformation about their landing. It seems they carried away all the researchers and other attendants too, which was a great relief.

After every hippogryph had entered and landed, the Aegis System went back online, and he left the building.

He arrived as quickly as he could to the grass field in front of the wall. Hundreds of hippogryphs stood there, frantically trying to keep their eggs and young safe.

There were also a few hundred humans running towards the wall. They looked terrified and sick. Most had to stop running because they lost balance or they had to vomit.

Hippogryph riding was never intended for regular humans, not even for short distances.

Bran ignored all of them and headed for the two largest hippogryphs. Kastral and his mate Alyrine moved between their people, making sure everyone was alright.

They both noticed Bran and headed for him. They couldn't really talk, but with a few 'yes or no' questions, they informed him about Sera's status.

She was indeed in danger, but she explicitly ordered them not to return.

Kastral tried to argue with her, but at some point she just stopped answering. He also felt another person's presence in their conversation, which was very strange.

It wasn't the first time he felt like that, but those in the past were like vague feelings of unease. Now he could sense the person clearly. It was the same connection he had with Sera.

He did not know how it was possible, and he was certain Sera was fighting with this person.

Kastral could feel both of their emotions through the bond. Sera was mostly emotionless, with a hint of fear and anger, while the other person was unstable.

The emotions he felt through the bond were all over the place. One second, the person seemed overjoyed, in the next they wanted to burn down the world. It was pure insanity.

After their 'talk', Bran delegated the housing of the hippogryphs to some of the Angelic Order members who were guarding the wall.

From there, he went back to Sera's mansion, intending to inform everybody about the news.

There was only one problem, which he didn't account for. It was less than a minute until midnight, and as he entered the lounge, the people counted back from ten very loudly.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Happy New Year... What the fuck?!"

The shouts of 'Happy New Year' came to an abrupt halt as three people appeared near the ceiling and fell fast towards the wooden floor.

Luckily, just as they would've hit the floor, gravity seemed to turn around, but only for a moment. The sudden change in gravity caused many drinks to spill across the room as they floated out of their glasses.

Bea, Vicky, and Sera touched down on the floor as gently as they could. Bea also managed to place a soft moss bed below Sera's unconscious body before she fell.

She looked very pale and sweaty. Her golden dress hung from her body in tatters, barely preserving her decency.

Within the next second, Bea's moss bed grown atop her, covering most of Sera's body, like a blanket.

She also checked if she had any physical damage, but there seemed to be nothing wrong with her, other than the serious exhaustion and loss of essence.

People around the room stared at the three of them in bewilderment. Bea looked exactly the same, so she got the least stares.

They looked at Sera with worry, and in a few seconds, many people gathered around her.

Vicky, though, was a different case. Upon seeing her transformation, many looked at her with wary eyes, while others were mostly curious.

As her emotions calmed down, Vicky let go of her Spatial Form, and reverted to her human nature. She walked to her mother too, but the mass of people were in her way.

At this point, she didn't care even a little bit. Vicky opened portals below them, teleporting everyone away to the dancing area.

The only people left inside the room were Sera, Bea, Bran, Melinda, Damien, and Cass. Not a single one of them said anything about the teleportation. They were more curious about what had happened.

Bea looked around at each of them. Her eyes were full of exhaustion too, and she knew that sleep was still far off.

"Did everyone make it back from Kriti?" she asked, before climbing to her feet with a groan.

Her body felt like she had been sleeping for decades. All her muscles were sore, and even her bones seemed to ache.

"Yes, as far as I know. Couldn't really talk with Kastral, but from what I gathered, they rescued everyone and they haven't lost a single egg." Said Bran, then looked down at his lover with pain in his eyes.

"What happened to Kriti exactly? Kastral said Sera just sent everyone away, then stopped answering his questions."

Bea didn't answer, just shook her head and laughed self-deprecatingly. After a few seconds, she pointed at Sera and said, "Let's bring her to an actual bed first, then I explain what fucked up shit Harold done this time!"

This immediately perked up Damien's attention, and his mood soured even further.

Bran and Melinda lifted Sera and carried her upstairs, into her own room. There they laid her down on the bed and tucked her in.

The others followed them up and into the enormous room. There was a separate lounge area in here too, so they stayed to talk in this room.

They didn't want to leave Sera in the room alone, so everyone gathered here. Bea went to the dancing area and called a few other important people.

This mostly included Lilith, Adam, David, and the most sober people of Bea's own group.

When everyone was there, Vicky excused herself and crawled below the covers next to Sera. In the next second, she was already fast asleep.

For a moment, Bea stared at her with a bit of envy, then she shook her head, and focused on the task at hand.

Everyone's attention rested upon her, and so she began telling them about the past half hour...

"So, we finally know where the other half of Sera's soul resides... That's going to be a pain in the ass to get back..." said Lucy, with her eyes halfway closed.

She was still very drunk, just like most other people inside the room. But after hearing Bea's recount, they all tried to pay as much attention as they could.

"That's the least problematic part. We still have very little knowledge about Harold's true goal. It seems he used Sera's excess energy to create this Scarred Sera, but she had died and resurrected close to 400 times under his watch..."

Bran's words caused many people to turn curious. They each had an idea about how much energy Sera put out during each resurrection. There was no way he used all that energy just to create Scarred Sera.

"Another issue is Scarred Sera's power. An Ascended couldn't possibly do what you described! Fighting you and Sera on equal footing, using no power other than her physical strength?"

Said David, and most others nodded their agreement.

"Physically only a Transcended could stand against you two, and even for them it wouldn't necessarily be an equal fight... And what you said about her resurrection?"

"It destroyed the entire village, which stretches for a few kilometers and it turned the Tree of Life to ashes?... Just how strong is she?"

Leslie seemed to pale as he spoke. Even Damien wouldn't be capable of such destruction, and he is one of the strongest Transcended they know of.

"You all are ignoring her most baffling achievement!... Do any of you know how hard it is to break through a closed Gateway?" asked Mary, her voice full of awe.

When Bea got to that part of the story, she immediately began taking notes and until this point, she hadn't looked up from her tablet.

"Uh... I'm pretty sure nobody other than you has any idea what 'breaking through a closed Gateway' actually entails... Could you perhaps explain it to us?"

James's words surprised Mary, then she realized nobody else here was an actual scientist. The Professor was probably the only person who could've understood her, but he was asleep after drinking too much.

"Sure I guess... Let's start with a quick explanation about the formation of Realm Gates... They form by connecting two points in space with a tunnel moving through a different dimension..."

"For us, they seem to look like two points connected perfectly, but in reality, an invisible tunnel connects them..."

A few people were already losing interest in the topic, but they tried to pay attention to the best of their abilities.

"When we close a Gate, the tunnel doesn't disappear instantly. At first we just place a cover over both ends, then the tunnel slowly begins to unravel into nothingness..."

"Now, in theory... Well, I guess it's not a theory anymore... Anyways, in theory you can destroy the cover from both ends of the tunnel, before it unravels, so immediately after the Gateway closes it can be reopened!"

The few scientifically inept people lost the thread of the conversation, but Bea payed as much attention as she could.

"How strong one need to be to reopen a Gate using only physical strength and maybe some buffing ability?"

Mary didn't answer for a few minutes. She got out her pen and began doing calculations on her tablet. They all waited patiently for her to finish whatever she was doing.

"Well, it is just a broad guess, but if my counting is good, which it always is, then the strength requirement would be close to a Stellar's physical power..."

The room turned silent afterward, as everyone's spine shivered. At that moment, they all felt hopeless and terrified for their future...

[End of Part 2 – Embers of Love]