Angel Monarch

Sera blinked once, while staring at Harold, and suddenly she found herself next to him. She summoned her weapon as quickly as she could, but before she could've acted, someone else appeared.

She felt her presence immediately and laid eyes upon her in a few seconds.

From the seemingly empty air, a tall, alluring woman walked out. Her long, black hair wrapped around her curvaceous body, covering her milky white skin.

Just her existence brought immense despair to everyone. Sera's entire group fell to their knees with their eyes on the ground.

Sera herself fared much better than the others, but with her returning emotions, she wasn't invincible from Amygdala's aura anymore.

She felt the same fear everyone else felt, albeit in a much tamer form. With all her willpower, Sera glanced up, but only saw Amygdala's bare legs floating a few centimeters above the floor.

Her laughter, a grating, annoying voice echoed as she walked towards Sera.

"Oh my, oh my, you are finally not immune to my blessing! How fun!"

Sera felt a hand grab onto her helmet, and with one quick move, Amygdala ripped it away. The power, which distributed strikes, couldn't do anything against a Stellar's power.

The tall woman grabbed Sera's golden hair, slowly lifting her up to eye level. Before Sera could've stared into Amygdala's dark wells of despair, she closed her eyes.

"Now, now, that's cheating! What's it, little angel? Are you scared? How does it feel to be so hopeless, to finally feel despair? Believe me, I've been planning for this day! I can finally punish your insolence!"

The pressure around Sera's body increased, and she began coughing up blood. Pain absorbed her soul. She couldn't even scream as her body shook with fear.

A hand tried prying her eye open, when an angry sound cut through her suffering.

"That's enough, Amygdala! We still need her, you stupid whore, so stop playing! Look at all those people down there! Go, feast, and leave me to my work!"

After hearing Harold's shouting, Amygdala stopped torturing Sera. She snorted at his comment and let go of her golden hair. She fell hard to the ground and continued vomiting blood for a few seconds.

With her weak limbs, Sera tried to rise, but only managed to sit up. A few meters away, Harold stood with his back towards her.

He continued to type on some holo-screen connected to the giant machine, not even paying attention to Sera's presence.

"I'll be with you shortly, my little angel! Just a few more adjustments before the grand finale, and I'll be done! Make yourself comfortable while you wait!"

He chuckled at his own joke, then stayed silent. Sera tried to summon her glaive, or order her legs to launch towards the old scientist, but nothing seemed to work. Her whole body felt a thousand times heavier.

Behind her, the sound of screams reached her ear, and Sera finally realized the failure of her mission.

They knew it was a risk; attacking while Amygdala's presence was unknown. Not like they had any other choice. Failure was highly probable, yet this operation was still essential for future success.

She wasn't ready to give up yet, though. There was still a chance, a miniscule one, but a chance none the less.

Sera took one glance at the machine and knew what her only option was. She sighed deeply, accepting her fate once more.

The glaive transformed into a dagger and she moved as quickly as she could. Aimed at her eye, the blade closed in, then suddenly it stopped. As if an unmoveable force pushed down on her weapon, she couldn't lift it further.

As she glanced up, a familiar face stared down with a wicked, scarred grin.

"No, my twin, not yet!" said Scarred Sera in a whisper. She then grabbed the blade of Hollow Sera's dagger and tossed the weapon away.

Her twin then angrily glared at Hollow Sera, and with a quick punch, knocked her out cold.

Harold sighed after hearing the sound of bones crunching.

"I hope you only knocked her out, you idiot! We still need her alive for the reunification!"

Scarred Sera watched as blood dripped down from her gauntlet with sadness. She trembled just from hearing Harold's grating voice.

"Yes, of course! I would never disobey my master!"

Harold just snorted in amusement and continued preparing the machine. The energy flow inside the pipes increased, and the humming grew louder with each passing moment.

The ground shook below everyone's feet, reaching even Bran's kneeling form. He watched with great regret and melancholy as Sera stayed knocked out.

He hoped the blow would kill her, so his job wouldn't be so gut-wrenching, but fate had a cruel sense of humor.

His friends' screams echoed around him. He tried watching what Amygdala was doing, but it was too horrible to witness.

They were all dead, everyone. The fight was already over… But, just because their fate was sealed, doesn't mean they couldn't take Harold and Amygdala with them!

Bran closed his eyes, blocking out the constant machine noise, the screams and begging of his friends, and the sound of Amygdala's joyful laughter. He concentrated all his energy on his surroundings.

While walking towards this door, he lied to Sera. He told her nothing was alive down here, which wasn't true at all. In reality, Bran sensed thousands of Husks on this floor, waiting to be used for energy.

He spent no time thinking. After establishing connection with the Husks, he sent out wave after wave of pure energy, killing all of them exponentially.

From the previous fight, he gained enough energy to take out ten Husks. These deaths then gave him power to take out twenty. Those twenty then empowered him further until more than a thousand Husks died.

Everything happened quickly. In a few seconds, an unprecedented amount of energy moved around his still kneeling body.

Amygdala, too absorbed in the torture and killing, hadn't noticed him until it was too late.

With widened eyes, she tried concentrating her fear aura around Bran, but it wasn't working. Right now, his energy levels were close to a Stellars, so a simple aura attack wasn't enough to hurt him.

Bran gently floated in the air, not even looking towards Amygdala. His gaze fixed solely on the two Seras.

He reached out his hand, pointing at both. Tears ran down his handsome face, which was consumed with anguish.

"I'm sorry… My love… Please… Forgive me!"

He whispered before sending out a wave of energy strong enough to destroy everything in front of him.

Scarred Sera looked at him with confusion before she knelt down next to her twin, accepting her fate.

Harold wasn't as content. He twirled around, his eyes full of hatred and Madness. He watched the wave of energy disrupt the energy flow. Inside the pipes, the pure white resurrection energy blackened from Bran's own power.

"NOOO! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?"

His last words echoed around the chamber before Harold simply disintegrated when the wave touched him. Like a mirage, his parts turned to dust and eventually disappeared.

Bran saw the two Seras die, which was the main part of his plan. His energy couldn't affect non-organic material well, so the machine stayed mostly unharmed.

He did notice the change within the pipes, and the machine seemed to dislike the different type of energy entering its systems.

The ground shook as the machine's humming turned into a quiet scream. Exhaust valves burst open, letting scorching air fill the room.

A loud crack echoed in the enormous room. Bran thought it came from the machine, but an even louder crack followed. He glanced above and saw a clear line separating the metal ceiling.

Suddenly, a giant rumbling shook the room. It came from above. The crack continued to widen until Bran saw the sun shining down through it.

A short time passed before Bran understood it wasn't just the gigantic room, but the whole island was shaking!

The sizeable gap gradually widened until it was close to a dozen meters in width. The crack went through the whole facility, breaking apart every room it touched.

After it became large enough, a lone human gently floated down from above. His dark blue coat bellowed behind him as he descended.

Amygdala watched in unveiled hatred as the shorter man touched the ground a few meters away.

He wore an old-looking, fancy, dark blue coat with white pants. On top of his head, he wore an unusual wide hat, with a single feather placed on it.

The man's signature looks didn't escape Bran. He recognized him instantly… Napoleon…

He smirked at Amygdala as the ground began shaking with much more violence. The beautiful woman's expression darkened further as she realized what the man had done.

"You son of a bitch! You woke IT up! You are insane!"

Napoleon just laughed at Amygdala's words, then began examining his surroundings, noting the gigantic machinery and the kneeling figures.

Bran still struggled with both the control of the exorbitant amount of energy and understanding of their current situation. He couldn't figure out what caused the shaking of the island, but upon hearing Amygdala's words, he could guess.

On the surface of Malta, an Abomination slumbered, but when Napoleon opened the earth and entered the facility, IT must've woken up.

This provided both an imminent threat and an opportunity. Bran was gradually losing control of the barely contained energy, so he had to act fast!

While neither Amygdala nor Napoleon payed attention, he ran to James and Mary.

Out of everyone, they suffered the least under the terrifying woman's hands, probably because of Harold's silent order towards Amygdala.

They were still shaking from the experience, but with the absence of Amygdala's fear aura, they were slowly turning back to normal.

Bran stopped and knelt next to them. Numerous questions arose in their minds, yet he lacked time to explain.

"Message Henry! Get everyone out now! I will try holding these two back until you leave!"

Both Mary and James wanted to protest. But Bran had already started running back to the two Stellar.

Bran hadn't even glanced back as he ran. There was no point. He would try giving his friends as much time as he could before his inevitable end.

The turbulent energy already began affecting his surroundings, but with deep breaths and lots of effort, he controlled the unbearable power.

As a fight between three Stellars under an Abomination began, another much more important fight happened in Limbo…