Angel Monarch

Sera was on the doorstep of total hopelessness yet again. Looking down on the broken city she was losing it. 'What should I do next? Look through the city for survivors? Or just leave everything, and try to get to another city and ask for help? Would it even matter if I gotten help, the closest city was over 300 km away, any survivor would be dead by then.'

But then she remembered that it's already been a week. Any survivor would be either rescued by surviving Evolved, or they were dead.

In the end she decided that before doing anything reckless, she should think through her options properly. So she glided down gracefully to the crater with the angel and Beastbane, and began check herself out, last she remembered, she had broken ribs, leg and hand.

To her absolute surprise all her wounds, even the small scrapes were healed. She didn't notice it before, because she was very bloody, dirty and just beaten up in general. Her clothes didn't have a clean spot on them, and there were also multiple large holes. The only thing clean about her, were her wings which seemed to repel all the dirt around it.

"I guess the Evolution healed me? It could've cleaned the grime as well, but healing is better than nothing."

Now that she checked on herself, came the more depressing part, figuring out the next step.

"I... I probably should just go. Everyone is either dead or heading the same direction I would go... But... But, mom and dad..."

Remembering her parents she began crying in earnest. Even if there were survivors she couldn't do much, her evolution only happened recently. And that thought only added to her anguish.

Sera sat on the ground in fetal position. Her wings draped over her like a veil, hiding her suffering. She was crying without a care in the world.

After an unknown amount of hours, she finally put herself together enough to start walking out of the crater. She tried to grab the sword of the angel, but it still burned her soul, so she had to leave it.

Sera decided that she would go to the next city, and only after reaching it will she figure out her next move.

'Who knows, maybe my parents were rescued and will be waiting for me at that city.' She tried to believe this fantasy but in the end she knew the truth. Other than her, everyone was dead.

"Okay... Let's do this. Watch, which way is Castleburg?"

"Castleburg is 326 kilometers to northwest, from your position. The Watch upgrade included a new map feature, check it out!"

She looked down at her Watch and opened the map, there she saw all the known cities. And to the northwest was Castleburg a huge metropolis compared to even Newber. Population circa 100 million, 10 times as many as Newber.

She looked around again thinking: '10 million people, all dead. How did humanity survive this long? And it happened just a couple weeks after Copen's destruction? This can't be a coincidence.'

"Okay so what route to take. I could try to fly all the way there, but I'm not that good at flying yet and I would be prey to any flying monstrosity. But walking that distance would take weeks. The best option is to fly when I can but with a lot of caution."

With this in mind she prepared to take off but, just as she was about to go into the sky, something pounced on her and bit her wing.

Sera went down, with something heavy pushing her into the ground. She tried to turn and see what the creature was but the monster pushed her down further, and suddenly blinding pain ignited on her back between her wings.

Then the monster probably bit down stronger on her right wing, because a new pain appeared there as well. The creature lifted, and shook her body. While in the air, the beast released her from its yaws and she flew for a second before colliding and knocking down a wall.

Sera shook her head, and thanked the evolution for making her more resilient. She touched her back, it hurt a lot and her hand came away bloody.

She finally looked at her adversary.

"Fuck, of course it's you. You tracked me here did you, well you are going to be disappointed because I won't be your dinner."

There in front of here was a small truck sized dog-like monster with five legs and two heads, about to charge at her.

She didn't have any real fighting experience, but every child who went to school had to learn some amount of martial arts growing up. So she wasn't as defenseless, as she felt.

The Hellhound pounced on her and she tried to dodge him but failed to account for her wings and the left one got clipped.

"Goddammit" The monster couldn't pierce the wing, but it still hurt like hell.

Sera tried to recover from the blow, and managed to evade a swipe of the monsters talons that would've most certainly disemboweled her. She even managed to hit the beast in the face, but it did nothing.

Another dodged pounce and slash later it became very obvious, that she will lose going on like this.

'I have to think of something and fast.'

The hound attacked again trying to bite her neck, she backstepped and then rolled to the side escaping the deadly slash coming from the right, but she was either too slow or didn't notice the incoming talons from the left in time.

"Agh...Fucking hell!"

A new cut appeared on her left side, and it was bleeding quite badly. She was out of time and options.

'Okay, if this doesn't work, I'm truly dead.'

While dodging another bite her whole body began glowing and suddenly a blinding light appeared all around her. Of course she could see perfectly well, but the Hellhound probably couldn't.

Sera looked at the monster and the sight pleased her very much. It did not just get blinded but seemed to be afraid of the light.

She didn't waste a second and attacked the beast. They didn't really teach how to fight beasts the size of cars, so she just started raining down blows on it's head and every part she could reach easily.

The Rotten was surprised by the sudden onslaught and tried to recover, but was too late. A sickening crunch could be heard, as Sera hit the head of the beast for the 10th of 20th time.

The hound fell on it's side, heaving, dying.