Angel Monarch

The hideout was very large, and it really begged the question how the previous leadership haven't noticed it.

The whole place was hidden under a large residential area. There was only one entrance, but a lot of different exits.

To enter you would need to go into a specific room inside the basement of a random apartment complex, which had a loyalist sitting at the front desk all day. About three people rotated as receptionists, and all of them would report if someone was snooping around.

Entering the hideout wasn't simple either. One had to disable a bunch of different deadly traps and alarms.

Lilith led Sera inside the main room of the safehouse. It looked like a mix between a large cave, a temple and a gym. The design was quite fascinating to look at.

The middle was dominated by a large shrine, with a huge seven pointed star atop it. Sera was hundred percent certain, that after the statue was made of her, every one of the churches and worship areas would build one.

Cassandra was already bothering her, trying to ask the exact time for the photoshoot or whatever she called it. At some point Sera just started ignoring her texts.

Around the shrine in one direction there were chairs facing a raised podium. This was the place where they congregated each day or so. Sera didn't really know much about her own religion, which meant she had no idea what happened in these masses.

Another large area on the opposite of the chairs was taken up by many different gym equipment and mostly training mats.

Sera and Lilith stood atop an alcove about fifteen meters above the actual main room. They watched as the future prospects of the Angelic Order beat the shit out of each other on the mats.

There was about two dozen of them, but their numbers would grow exponentially after the recent victory.

This reminded Sera that she still needed to ask David to reveal a few things to Cassandra. It would've been amazing to get a transcended onto their side. They were currently really lacking any heavy hitters, which would hopefully change when the others arrived.

But that will still be at least a month from now. It was strange to think about it. Sera had been planning all this for more than a year and the time was finally close.

It filled her with a weird sense of accomplishment and fear. She had made the necessary plans, and thought of most outcomes and possibilities, but there was just simply too many variables and unknown information.

Planning for the future can only go so far, at some point she and everyone else will have to improvise and that's when shit will go down.

For now she let go of these thoughts and instead focused on what Lilith had said to her.

There were twelve ascended from the Angelic Order in New Constantinople, or at least that's how many was before the siege. But after everything calmed down a bit, they found a Brother and two Sisters brutally killed.

Lilith showed pictures of the scenes and it was instantly clear who was the culprit. After quick message David had confirmed her suspicions... The Acid Empress was here!

"...We have to hunt that bitch down, and I will cut her into little pieces!" She had been spitting insults for the past few minutes.

It was clear she was very upset. Sera wasn't sure how it felt to lose a sibling, even an adopted one, but it must've been terrible. That wasn't an excuse for acting stupid though.

"You will do no such thing. Your and the Order's job now is to recruit and train as many soldiers as possible. We need an army, a giant one. We will have to bridge the gap between ranks by numbers and it won't be pretty..." She took a big sigh and stared at the few individuals dueling.

They were quite talented, or just well trained. Either way they will make great additions for the ever increasing army. It was even better in Rome, where Adam currently resided.

The victory over Rome happened about a year ago, but people still talked about the battle between Sera and a transcended. It increased recruitment numbers by a lot. The only issue was the leader of Rome.

He was a high ranking transcended, who took his job as mayor very seriously. He kept the place in perfect order, which meant Adam had to be really careful.

Lilith had much easier job here in New Constantinople. They were too preoccupied with the battle preparations to notice the scheming happening below their feet.

Sofira was the easiest to control. It had only a few million citizens, and the whole leadership was either on the Order's side, or just simply uncaring.

Lilith stayed silent thinking about what Sera said. She wanted to refuse, to hunt that bitch down, but it wasn't her place to go against a clear order... Especially because she knew Sera was right.

"Then who will hunt her down? She definitely haven't left the city! After the stalemate at Sofira, she probably wants your head more than anything!" Said Lilith not hiding her concern.

The hood was off, and the low lighting did nothing to hide her facial expression from Sera.

She stared into those mesmerizing eyes for a moment. It always felt strange looking at them, not because of their tiring property, but because of their age...

Lilith was young, but her eyes seen more than most veteran soldiers do in their lifetimes.

They weren't the eyes of a 17 year old girl, but of a person who went into countless battles and hunted hundreds of monsters. Someone who has seen too much, and someone who was very acquainted with death.

Seeing Lilith's eyes made Sera wonder... If her eyes, with only a couple thousands of people's blood on her hands, if those eyes look this bad... Then how bad were Sera's own?

At some point, she didn't know when, but after a few battles she unconsciously stopped looking at her face. Whenever she stood in front of a mirror, she only stared at her outfit, never her eyes...

She was terrified to see what hid inside them. How much pain and suffering they had witnessed, many caused by the witness's own hands... She couldn't bear seeing those eyes.

Slowly Sera released her clenched fists at her side. She didn't even remember closing them, and was surprised to find blood on her palm. She clenched them together with so much strength that her nails pierced her skin.

She watched with an emotionless expression as the blood made its way down her palm, then dropped on the stone ground below.

"I didn't say nobody will hunt her, but we have other priorities too. For example we still haven't found traces of Dwight and his group. It's also still a question what happened to Cassandra during the fight." Sera said while still watching the blood drip.

"Yes, I heard of it too... It's quite strange, just abruptly losing her powers for a fraction of a second. Also the fact that the singular second nearly cost her life, since it happened the exact worst time... It wasn't some coincidence or fluke, but deliberate!" Answered Lilith while staring at the mats below.

The evolved who trained there started to clear away, their training session was over it seemed.

"It is concerning and we have to be careful. I will ask the Black Crusaders with the help of Percy and Kathy, plus a few members of the Ouroboros Cohort, to try and find them all..." As she spoke her usually empty face was full of badly hidden fear and uncertainty.

"What's wrong, my Lady?" Asked Lilith while looking up at her deity. Sera just sighed and stared at her shrine down there.

"It's the Acid Empress... She is too unpredictable and powerful. Not knowing where she is, but fully aware that she is nearby... I'm doubtful. Things are about to speed up, and it will get much more dangerous from now on!" She said, but Lilith saw through her lies.

Well, they weren't really lies, but she was definitely not telling her the whole truth.

Sera took a glance at Lilith's doubtful and worried expression, and she laughed self-deprecatingly.

"I'm scared Lilith..." She said eventually. Her voice stayed frim, but it was visible in her eyes, a rarely seen emotion... Fear...

"I'm scared because if I have to fight with the Acid Empress again, I will lose..." Lilith was about to start and object, but Sera held up her hand, which quickly shut her down.

"Please, let me finish... She isn't stronger always, but she is much more cunning! Back in Sofira we fought, while both of us were unprepared, but it still nearly cost me my life... She will never fight me while unprepared ever again!" Lilith still wasn't fully convinced, but saying that wouldn't be helpful.
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Instead she turned her head towards the ceiling. Some of the younger evolved spent their time decorating it with different drawings. They were the stories people told each other about Sera, but a few weren't from the past two years.

A few people remember Sera, before she became the Deathless Phoenix...

Lilith stared at them while thinking. Eventually her eyes stopped on a very peculiar one. It depicted a derpy looking creature, with a bird-like front and horse-like back. The strange creature looked very proud and majestic, even though the drawing was quite awful.

Sera was still staring at the lonesome shrine. But as Lilith stepped closer she turned her head, and looked at her with curiosity. Lilith smiled brightly as she spoke.

"If you are truly afraid of being unable to defeat her alone, or getting ambushed, why don't you ask for help?" She said while pointing at the picture of Kastral.

Sera stared at it for a few seconds. Her previous fearful expression was almost fully gone, leaving only contempt and cruelty in its place...