Angel Monarch

One thing even Harold didn't know about her power was, that she could change how fast she resurrected. Most of the time she tried to stay dead as long as possible since that's when she could take a break, but on the field of battle she does it as fast as possible.

Her eyes closed for only a second, but her body was already starting to heat up.

The transcended scrambled and tried to push Sera away, but her dead hands held onto his arms. They had unnatural strength, very different from an ascended.

He desperately tried to move away, but Sera stayed put. The air started to boil around her and the ground melt. The man screamed as his skin liquified where Sera held on.

He gasped and tried to drink down air, but it was so hot that her lungs blistered. He started to sweat, but it instantly got evaporated.

At this point his brain already stopped working from the pain, he still tried to get away, but that was only a reflex, not a conscious action.

Eventually Sera's eyes opened. Two golden flames stared into the man's own eyes. The heat seemed to double, triple, quadruple, there was no real way to tell. The only thing the man knew was that he won't survive another moment... He wasn't wrong.

Suddenly the kinetic and heat energy exploded from her body. It destroyed everything in a few hundred meter radius, including the transcended who's body evaporated. She wasn't expecting to kill him in one fell swoop, but he was really overconfident.

He didn't summon his armor, or change forms. He was probably a rookie, and this was his first ––and last–– real battle.

Sera rose into the sky, leaving the ball of fire like a butterfly exiting their cocoon. The fighting stopped below her and both army stared at her glowing form.

On her body her signature golden armor formed, and in her hand her glaive appeared. She felt the air crackling with potential energy, it came from all these soldiers, their attention.

Sera glanced towards the fight in the sky and smiled genuinely. It would be a lie to say she wasn't proud. Cassandra had survived for so long, and she didn't even seem to be losing.

After that she sighed turning her attention back towards her troops. At that moment each soldier felt the change in the battle. It haven't even really start, but it was already reaching its end.

"Let's make sure they stay loyal when shit will go down..." She whispered to herself, then raised her glaive in the air and shouted her warcry. It was something others began saying long ago and she shamelessly stole, using it a few times over the years.

"FROM THE ASHES!" Down there the soldiers shouted the second part of the cry. "WE WILL RISE!"

The battle continued in earnest on the ground. Sera spotted the Black Crusaders cutting through the army, she also saw David in his large serpent form. A bit further south at the gate, she saw the Angelic Order wreaking havoc.

Death was dealt left and right on the ground, but non of that truly mattered. There was only one fight that counted, but that was fought high in the sky.

Sera flew with speeds previously unnatural to her. Cassandra fought the other two transcended a few kilometers above ground, and Sera arrived only in a few seconds.

...

The battle began about 20 minutes ago, but for Cassandra it felt like an eternity. She was in a battle of attrition with two transcended. Neither could make the breakthrough in the fight and deliver a mortal blow.

The fight began okay. She held her ground as best as she could, but it was clear that these two had much more battle experience than her.

Technically she should've died in the first few minutes, but thanks to her mother's genetics and careful evolution, her power was much higher than a regular transcended's should've been.

Remembering her mother, Cassandra's mood worsened. Cassandra was usually a calm and kind woman. There was nobody she truly hated, except her mother. In conversations she only referred to her as 'that bitch'.

She didn't even know who her father was, and neither did her mother. When Cassandra was around six years old, she asked her mother about him. She only said 'It could be any of those dozens of miserable men, since I fucked a lot before and during my pregnancy'... She used these exact words.

Luckily most of her life was spent without her mother since she was busy all the time.

Cassandra grew up with only a handful of maids for company, they were also her guardians back then, and most were just as awful as her mother.

When she was around twelve, she finally got her watch. There was a lot of money on it, and using it she moved out of her mother's mansion. One of the maids, the kindest one moved in with her and they stayed together since. She even accompanied her to this place.

But it wasn't only her mother and her cruel genes that helped in this fight. That week of training inside the camp made all the difference. The others couldn't really do much other than giving a few helpful tips, but that was more than enough for her.

Using their knowledge she got creative and uncovered a greater extant of her previously boring power.

As the fight began she transformed. Her body brightened until it was pure white light, then it splintered and turned into a rainbow of colors. It was like the outside of her body was a prism, which turned the pure light into different colors.

The two transcended changed as well. One was a woman, at least that's what Cassandra thought. It was hard to judge since they were so far apart.

Her body changed and grew, it wasn't easy to determine what was exactly happening, but the end result was quite terrifying.

She was the size of a large building, about 40 meters in length and 7 in width. The monstrous figure had the body of a wasp.

Her giant wings shimmered in the morning light. They moved fast causing the few clouds to dissipate. Her wingspan was about 60 meters.

The worst part was her head. It was really strange, where a wasp's insectoid face should've been, a large bear head rested. It's color was the same black as the wasp body, but it had a few yellow lines as well, like the abdomen.

Seeing the creature a shiver went through Cassandra's colorful body. Her eyes then landed on the other transcended. He was a man, and luckily his transformation was much less horrifying than the bear-headed wasp.

His body dissolved in a cloud of smoke. It swirled and grew until it was similar in size to the wasp. It resembled a bird-like creature, but as he moved closer the form changed constantly. Sometimes the wings looked feathered, other times reptilian.

There was no words exchanged between either party. They just simply increased their speed and tried to attack Cassandra.

The smoke bird stayed back and he let the wasp attack. The transcended with the bear head chomped down on Cassandra's shimmering body, which exploded into crystalline fragments.

They imbedded themselves into the bear's mouth, causing her to growl in annoyance and start to look around, trying to find Cassandra.

The smoke bird began to fly in circles leaving a dark smog behind him. From the ground it looked like a large dark cloud appeared. He had the ability to feel every small movement in the cloud, but even after that, Cassandra was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly the wasp grunted in anger. Her wings glowed a bit, causing every illusion to break apart. This ability wasn't too strong and she couldn't use it often, but it was necessary to fight against an illusionist like Cassandra.

After a few seconds Cassandra appeared a hundred meters away, but the wasp hadn't realized what her illusions were holding up.

One interesting information about Cassandra's power is, that her illusions can be semi-real. Not very strong, but if she made a small platform floating in the sky, it could hold a large load, which is exactly what she did.

Invisible to everyone, Cassandra placed a few large bombs atop the cloud of smoke, floating on illusionary platforms. At the moment when the wasp dismissed all her illusions, the ones holding up the bombs disappeared as well.

They rained down on the two transcended and exploded with a large force. The smoke mostly dispersed, but neither transcended took any real damage.

The smoke bird didn't even look affected by it, and the wasp only had a tiny break in her left wing. She roared in rage and flew at Cassandra again.

Around the two laughter sounded as Cassandra broke into crystal fragments again, then reappeared atop the wasp to stab a meter long crystal in her neck.

The wasp made a barrel-roll causing Cassandra to fall, but she broke into crystal fragments the moment the bear bit down on her.

The smoke bird watched all this with clarity. He was the smarter of the two and he quickly realized that this fight won't end well.

Suddenly another bomb went off around him, but it was different from the others. Somehow it hurt him more, but at the same time felt unreal. The pain passed a moment later, like it was just a mirage.

He screeched in anger and flew at Cassandra. It surprised her a bit, but she managed to avoid getting killed.

This dangerous dance would go on for long minutes, but eventually Cassandra's luck would run out...