Angel Monarch

Darkness desperately tried consuming Sera. After the first few seconds, she really began hating Faith's ability. It was awful to fight a shadow manipulator at night.

Everything became a weapon around Sera. With quick movements, her claw-like fingers cut through the dark tendrils, trying to ensnare her.

Her body glow brightly, while her gauntlets burnt with golden fervor. The Angelic Metal fractured and multiplied the already bright light, which further dispelled the encroaching darkness.

Wild laughter escaped the Angel's lips, while her golden-green eyes stared into the void, consumed by bloodlust.

Hundreds of tendrils tried breaking through her bright aura, but the mad woman simply cut through them with a few lazy swings.

"Come on! Is that all you got! You stole Faith's shadow manipulation! Can't you do something more impressive?!… You're pathetic!"

Sera's shout seemed to anger the surrounding darkness. Strange, since monsters usually didn't understand speech, however, Abominations might've gained some intelligence upon evolving.

The tendrils began multiplying. With each second, more attacked at once. One hundred. Two hundred. Three hundred. A thousand. Five thousand… At some point, it seemed that a globe of darkness tried crushing Sera's light…

As the globe closed in, Sera giggled to herself. For a singular moment, she turned off her light and beat her wings.

She flew further up into the sky, and just as her body would've hit the wall of shadows, her light turned back on, instantly destroying them.

"Not bad, but I want more! Faith could control an entire city worth of shadows! Don't tell me your puny powers can't even fight against a lone woman!"

A loud roar shook the area. The shadows stopped attacking Sera. They seemed to retreat in a specific direction… Towards the Abomination…

It wasn't easy to see for most people, but Sera's vision stared through the night's infinite darkness perfectly. Within the natural shadows, something much darker loomed.

The darkness connected to each other, building itself until it formed an enormous shadowy figure. However, the shadows then became corporeal and a metallic black armor grew around the Abomination's form.

The shadowy knight stood about two, maybe three kilometers tall, dwarfing the land beneath. Sera's light looked like a tiny spark compared to the massive void before her.

Strangely, though, surprising the shadowy knight, Sera didn't fear the creature the slightest. Instead, a wide grin appeared on her face, and she slowly clapped.

"Wonderful! Now that's extraordinary! You're truly worthy of the Class Abomination!"

The giant knight tilted its head in confusion, then with little care for the tiny angel, it summoned more shadows. They grew out of its right gauntlet, forming an enormous greatsword.

Above them, the sound of thunder echoed, and soon dark blue lightning struck the shadowy knight. Beneath the black armor, an ethereal glow appeared, and soon two cold, blue eyes stared out of its helmet.

However, it didn't stop there. Suddenly, its armor burst into dark crimson flames, which also got absorbed. Then came the hurricane-like winds, which danced around its massive body.

Vines seemed to climb, its legs connecting with the black armor, making its shiny surface rough and sturdy. Then came the yellow lasers, which ignited all over its body, further strengthening the knight.

Dozens of other buffs and strange phenomenons happened, before the shadowy knight finally stopped.

The glow within its body turned dark, nearly black purple, while the same energy danced along the enormous greatsword.

A small chuckle echoed from Sera's mouth as her eyes turned even brighter, blood-red.

"Now that's what I'm talking about! Use all your powers at once! I want you to hit me with your strongest attack!… I wonder if I can survive even one hit… Well, I'm about to find out!"

Suddenly, the shadowy knight took a step forward and slashed vertically with its greatsword. Since the Abomination was gigantic, its sword seemed to move much more slowly. However, that was nothing but an optical illusion…

The distance between Sera and the sword closed in faster than her own top speed, and because of its size, dodging it wasn't possible either.

The mad angel laughed once more, and out of self-preservation, she summoned her armor. The six wings also layered atop each other, creating a protective barrier. Finally, she summoned light, golden flames and even Angelic Metal for protection.

The shadowy greatsword came crashing down with the sound of thunder. It hit Sera's cacoon of protection with so much strength, she immediately went flying. A moment later, she hit the ground, while a loud explosion echoed around her.

The greatsword hit the ground, making the causing an earthquake in the surrounding hundred kilometers. The shockwave of the weapon also continued and split open dozens of mountains in a row.

Sera laid between one of these, most of her defenses broken, yet still alive. A pained giggle escaped her lips as she crawled to her feet.

All of her bones broke at the moment of impact, but luckily her quick regeneration took care of everything. Her wings also barely clung onto her back, but the pain only fueled her bloodlust.

They mended themselves with impressive speed, and the Angel took flight once more. She flew straight towards the monstrosity, staring at her with cold, dark purple eyes.

It tilted its head again in an act of surprise and maybe curiosity. The greatsword disappeared from its massive hands, and it quickly closed the distance, while reaching towards Sera, who just continued laughing.

"Yes! Come take my abilities, you Essence Devourer! I know you want it! The power flowing through my body, the pure angelic potential within me!… I can see the greed under that cold outlook… Just a little closer…"

The few kilometer distance seemed to disappear as the shadowy knight took step after step. However, when the black gauntlet nearly enveloped Sera's glowing body, the Angel screamed at the top of its lungs.

The knight stopped momentarily, confused by its prey's action. It could've never guessed that the scream entailed its immediate defeat!

…

Faith sat silently atop the great tree where Sera placed her. It somehow survived the onslaught between her Goddess and that thieving Abomination.

The tree provided a great vantage to their fight, and Faith didn't look away even for a second. Her face stayed emotionless, while her sweaty hands played with the silvery dagger in her hand.

She watched in awe and worry as the giant shadowy figure struck Sera on the ground. The earthquake following the blow nearly broke the branch where Faith stood, but luckily, it held on for a while longer.

It wasn't certain Sera's plan would work, but that's the only shot they got. For Transcended, no matter how powerful, it was impossible to defeat an Abomination in one-on-one combat.

Even the plan wouldn't work without perfectly timing it. So Faith waited miserably, watching as the monster's gauntleted hand nearly grasped her Goddess's glowing body.

Then suddenly, just when she lost sight of Sera, a scream shook the surroundings…

Faith didn't hesitate. She lifted the shiny dagger, and without thinking, she plunged it into her right eye socket, killing herself instantly and painlessly.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, Faith's body plummeted towards the ground far below. However, as she fell, her skin began to darken and dissolve into the shadows.

Slowly, her entire body turned dark and incorporeal. By the time she would've hit the ground, there was nothing left of Faith's corpse.

…

The gauntlet tried grasping Sera to steal away her essence, but the shadowy hand simply went through her body.

A woman's mad laugh resounded while the Abomination seemed extremely shocked.

"You dumbass! You didn't steal the essence of a shadow user, but from an actual Shadow! And one thing you should learn about Shadows… While their Lady is alive, they themselves can't die!"

The gigantic shadow creature full of contained energy began falling apart, as each of its limbs turned incorporeal.

Suddenly, Sera's body burst into light, dispelling the remnant shadows. All the energy converged around the Abomination's actual body, but it wasn't stable and would explode at any moment.

"Oh, no, you fucking won't! Don't dare steal my kill by exploding yourself!"

The bloodlust made Sera's eyes glow in the darkness. A small trickle of blood left her nostril as she flew after the falling Abomination.

She screamed with hatred, from the top of her lung, and within moments, she attacked the creature.

Her silvery claws burnt with righteous, golden flames. Through the waves of different colored energies, Sera spotted the Abomination's widened eyes. She saw herself, a mad angel, reflected in its purple depths.

With one swing, her claws struck deep into the Abomination's flesh. After the second, the claws reached the spine. And, by the third, the monster's head flew in a different direction than its body.

Sera laughed madly as her opponent died. However, her joy didn't last long as all that pent up energy released at once, creating an explosion comparable to a nuclear bomb.

Different colors and elements danced around as the hellstorm rapidly approached Sera.

She couldn't dodge it, or run away from it. There was no way to stop or slow it down and even her vast defensive arsenal wouldn't worth much against the powerful wave of pure energy.

Since she couldn't do anything, Sera just closed her eyes and awaited certain death. She flew in the air with her arms spread, while the cloud of hellish energy crept upon her.

However, just when she felt Death's grasp on her throat, an impossibly dark shadow began devouring her. A moment later, Sera's eyes snapped open just when the world ended.