Angel Monarch

Damien and Agnes watched as Bran fell to his knees. His chest began glowing brighter as he slowly lost control.

Both knew that death was approaching. When all that pent up energy released, neither would survive.

Sad tears ran down Agnes's face. Behind them, everyone had left long ago. The portal was already closed. Vicky didn't want to risk any explosion getting through.

Damien, still desperate for revenge, continued scanning the area near the imploding machine. Its metal surface bent and broke, leaking more energy into the vast hall.

Above them the Abomination burrowed further into the earth, destroying the facility layer by layer. The two Stellars slowly got back on their feet and collectively decided that dying wasn't worth it.

Napoleon stepped through the metal floor. He dissolved and became part of the earth, moving away fast underground.

Amygdala just angrily looked around and stepped into empty space. Reality bent around her, and she seemed to teleport away, taking her dreadful aura away.

The facility continued shaking as Bran's body became worse. His skin melted while his blood boiled away.

Agnes's crying intensified, but Damien's eyes stayed focused on the area around the machine. He was slowly losing hope, but just as the energy began leaking from Bran's body, he spotted his prey.

In a burnt, ash covered white coat, Harold appeared, looking especially pissed. Confusion marred his old face. His usual welding glasses covered his eyes as he scanned the machine, trying to salvage anything from the imminent destruction.

Before Damien even recognized him, his legs were already sprinting towards his target. His vision swam in red, his blood fueled by rage and deep, uncontrollable hatred.

Agnes tried keeping up, but her Ascended body was much weaker than Damien's Transcended self. She cried out for help, but her man remained too absorbed in revenge.

He ignored all her calls of despair and instead summoned his sword. Damien jumped towards Harold, prepared to impale him. He already felt the sweet taste of vengeance, but as he closed in towards Harold, his eyes widened.

The Mad Scientist turned around with a wide grin. He raised his hand, which held a small innocent looking handgun. Harold pulled the trigger, and the concentrated explosion sent a seemingly normal bullet cruising through the air.

In his hateful, rage-filled approach, Damien forgot to summon his armor. The bullet cut a straight line, right into his chest.

His flesh parted before the bullet, as it carved deep inside his chest, entering and stopping in Damien's heart. Blood flew through the air as his body went limp.

The gunshot echoed inside the chamber, and soon Agnes's desperate, sad cries followed. Harold just laughed as Damien struggled.

His regeneration tried healing the wound, but the bullet wasn't as simple as it looked. Like the Husks' weapons, the bullet had identical properties. It prevented any Evolved from using their powers, making them mortal.

Agnes continued sprinting and eventually managed to reach Damien's dying body. Behind them, Bran's body began evaporating.

She continued sobbing as Harold raised his gun to Agnes's head… She didn't care… If Damien would die, then she didn't want to live, either…

Bran's body evaporated. Around the giant room, a moment of silence reined, then the energy held inside his body exploded like a dark flare. It consumed its surroundings instantly, turning metal into overheated air.

Harold prepared to pull the trigger, when something strange happened. He sent out the mental command, but his finger didn't move.

Everything happened so fast, his eyes couldn't even follow. The gun rested in his right hand, but just as the explosion began consuming the chamber, someone appeared nearby.

The being's wide, pristine white wings seemed to cover the world. Her fierce golden-green eyes filled with hatred. Pure, glistening silver armor covered most of her body.

In one hand she held a curved silver blade, dripping with blood, in the other she held… A hand holding a handgun…

Harold stared with widened eyes, then his gaze fell upon his right hand, where only a stump remained.

Suddenly, horror gripped his heart. Something he never felt before consumed Harold's mind… Pure dread, an inexplicable feeling of mortality… Upon looking at Sera. He felt like death itself stared back at him…

Desperation took hold of him, and he prepared to quickly teleport away, which was exactly what Sera wanted.

As his body began turning translucent, Sera moved quicker than even a Transcended could follow. With one hand, she gripped Harold's bloodied arm, with the other, she held Agnes's shoulder.

Since Agnes continued holding Damien's dying body, all four of them teleported away with Harold.

The dark energy spread quickly through the empty room, vaporizing everything inside. The pipes still full of energy joined the dark energy, and together they continued the overwhelming destruction.

When it reached the machine, its walls finally gave in. All the joint energy began expanding through the already broken roof.

The Abomination's shrieks became louder as the pure energy touched its roots. Its thick skin held on for a few seconds, but eventually, even the Abomination got vaporized.

The energy continued expanding until the entire island and the surrounding sea turned to nothing. It went higher into the sky, reaching even the clouds.

A wall of fire ignited above the remains of Malta. The sound of the gigantic explosion reached the farthest corners of Earth. Even on the other continents, its sound echoed… The last shout of a dead man…

For a full minute after the explosion's sound reached everyone's ears, silence reined. Across Europe, the fighting stopped, as soldiers, civilians, Evolved, and even monsters looked towards the sky, the origin of the sound.

They each felt the change move through Earth. Something monumental had happened, a change resulting in unforeseen consequences.

Across battlefields, the moment of respite led to clarity. People looked left and right, to their dead friends, brothers and sisters. The question popped into each of their minds upon staring at the destruction… 'Why are we fighting for?'

Such a simple question, with so many possible answers, yet, when faced with death and utter ruin, everyone's mind went blank. They couldn't think of a single reason, which could warrant this pointless war.

Many thoughts crossed the soldiers' minds. They looked at their supposed enemies with suspicion. Guns stayed pointed at each other, but no shots were fired. Their hands trembled, eyes full of fear and hope, stared down at the barrels of guns.

For endless minutes, this silent stalemate persisted. Everyone desired peace, ceasing the pointless violence; however, trust proved elusive.

Everyone felt afraid. They feared putting their weapons away would give an opportunity for the 'enemy' to shoot them down.

Without trust, the stalemate persisted, people sweated, fingers moved to triggers. It seemed that the bloodshed would continue when something entirely unexpected happened.

Above wide battlefields, streets full of soldiers, destroyed buildings. Everywhere in Europe, where the fighting was the thickest, small portals opened.

These portals weren't wide enough to fit even someone's body through, but that wasn't their purpose.

Within each tiny portal, a single feminine voice echoed, reaching the ears of every soldier across the war-ridden plains of Europe.

"The war is over! Everyone, put your weapons down! This is an order! Anyone going against it will be judged and prosecuted!… And if anyone's curious about who won this war. If you are truly curious about the outcome of this pointless bloodshed… I can only tell you one winner… Humanity. Humanity won!… Now follow my order!"

Most found the voice unfamiliar. It wasn't the Deathless Phoenix, as many initially assumed.

Not like it really mattered. For the soldiers, it could've belonged to a random woman. Her authoritative tone commanded attention, and they were quick to accept the new order, not caring for its origin.

The order was heard loud and clear.

From the narrow streets and factories of The Broken City, to the hydroponics farms at Lizbone. From the capital of the Federal Alliance, to New Paris. From the hell consumed streets of Wien, to the broken plains around Buda-Pest.

The soldiers began tossing their weapons away. The first few still had trust issues, but afterward, everyone's weapons landed on the ground quickly.

Weaponless, the soldiers felt like an extremely heavy weight lifted off of their shoulders. Many broke down crying, looking at their hands, feeling the lives they took.

Everyone celebrated and mourned. They were happy since they survived, and they felt sad, since many of their friends didn't.

Across Europe, people cried and laughed, coping with their new future. But, this wasn't the case everywhere… At the plains around Pragua, only silence remained…

From the army, which assaulted Pragua's walls, nothing remained. Between the corpses, a lone human walked, wearing a dark, feather-like coat.

Around him, ravens flew through the air, thousands, millions of them. They landed on corpses, devouring eyes, eating the flesh of the dead.

The man took firm steps. Bea's voice reached him too. However, her words left him untouched. Currently, he only had eyes on one prey.

A woman, barely conscious, stared up at the cloudy sky. A strange feeling overcame her; it was daytime a moment ago, with clear skies.

Her blurred vision stared above, but all she saw were the midnight black clouds moving across the sky, faster than they were supposed to.

Slowly, a man's face appeared in her vision. Recognition appeared in the woman's eyes. She coughed up blood as she tried to speak.

The man just laughed as a lone raven landed on his shoulder. He reached up and gently scratched below its beak. The raven croaked with affection and pushed its small head closer to the man.

"You… You lied… You lied to everyone…" Said the woman between coughs of blood. Even her Stellar regeneration failed when faced with the man's power.

The man glanced at the woman's broken form and laughed.

"Of course I lied! But does it really matter to you? You're already in front of the precipice of death, just need a little push to venture forth…"

His deep voice had a strange scratchiness to it, like he rarely spoke aloud.

He reached up and gently grabbed the raven's body. The raven squeaked with joy as the man crushed its small body. In his hand, only the creature's skull remained, with its sharp beak reflecting the rays of sunlight.

A grin spread across his face as she widened her eyes in surprise.

"Be sure to send me a postcard from wherever you end up!"

With that, the man moved and pushed the sharp beak into the Stellar's skull, sending her straight to Death's cold embrace.

Her lifeless gaze remained skyward as blood flowed from the new wound. The man just spread his arms, and whispered into the air…

"Feast…"

The ravens, like rabid dogs, flew down, and began devouring every dead corpse's flesh, starting with the Stellar.

The man just smiled and laughed joyfully, painting a deep contrast to the morbid atmosphere around him.

When no corpse remained, only their bones, the ravens returned to him one by one. They flew into his coat, becoming part of the material.

Only when the last raven returned did, the man spread his own dark wings, and flew away towards Castleburg… Towards his home…