Angel Monarch

Sera knew it was bad, but she literally couldn\'t feel bad. It was a confusing contradiction, which she struggled with at times like this.

After a while when the screams and shouts died down a bit, she began walking through the camp. Her weapon changed into a tiny spark that stuck close to her hand. It gave her quick access in case of a surprise attack.

Her hollow eyes looked at the corpses around her. The people with actual wounds were the evolved that survived the initial wave of plague.

Then there were people wearing the uniforms of the United Front. White and blue, that was their color. It supposed to represent freedom and justice, but Sera knew them well. She was always curious what propaganda did the United Front spread about the Federal Alliance.

From the outside it might seem like they had the moral high ground, but the United Front lost that about a year ago.

Back then Sera wasn\'t nearly as prominent of a fighter and leader. She was already in control of New Athens, but her rule was still unstable. One day there was a new major operation not too far from her home. The target... Venice...

A city built onto the Adrian Sea. She saw it before the end, it was one of the most beautiful sights Sera had ever witnessed. The streets next to the waterways, the buildings of the classical Old World\'s architectural style, the people so happy and full of life. It was a city of splendor...

It\'s gone now...

One of the cruelest of the United Front\'s generals lead the defense. It was one of the largest offensives of the Federal Alliance\'s campaign. The city didn\'t really hold anything special other then a way to connect the Balkans with the Italian Peninsula. Venice had a strategic purpose.

If they managed to capture it, the armies didn\'t need to cross the Alps in the middle or the Pyrenees in the west of Europe. Sadly Napoleon knew that too.

He is one of the best general this world has ever seen. He named himself after a very successful general of the Old World, after he had won many victories to the United Front... but Venice was an unwinnable battle.

It was one of the few offensives where people of the stellar rank had gotten involved. The battle itself was a massacre. Both armies had nearly hundred thousand evolved with another few thousand ascended. They weren\'t the strong kind of ascended, just cannon fodder, Sera killed hundreds of them in that battle.

The real deciding factor was the transcended forces. The United Front had about twenty or so within the city, while the Federal Alliance brought nearly thirty. The battle should\'ve been a clean victory, not an easy one, but also not too hard... It wasn\'t...

Not long after the battle started, the enemy started to lose ground and troops swiftly. Artillery fire shook the earth, tanks rolled through the battlefield crushing everything in their paths.

The scales of the battle was so large they weren\'t even near the city, but the Federal Alliance slowly pushed them back. Eventually they used the city walls as the anvil and their attack as the hammer.

Somewhere far away the two stellars fought. After the battle Sera went up in the mountains to see what scales their battle had. It left her speechless. Where mountains should\'ve been the ground was destroyed and a gigantic hole was in their place.

Napoleon was one of the stellar who fought, but he lost. Sadly killing stellar weren\'t easy, so he managed to run away, leaving one last gift for both armies.

The ground rumbled as a more than two hundred meter tall wave rose from the Adrian Sea. It hit and washed away both armies, but Napoleon was cruel.

He knew that leaving Venice intact would make it a large supply depot for future attacks. The first to fall would be the Balkans, then the Carpathians, then they would make their way north and defense would be nigh impossible.

He made the decision that a real tactician would make...

On that day Venice\'s population was close to forty million. Men, woman, children, civilians all. The city was destroyed by the waves and earthquakes...

People still talked about who won that battle, but everyone knew who lost. On that day the United Front truly lost their moral high ground. They sacrificed an entire large city-state to halt the Federal Alliance\'s war machine.

Forty million lives... It was a number few can visualize. For the higher ups they were just a number on some paper. But Sera was there. She watched as the magnificent buildings fell, the amazing streets got flooded and the happy citizen got washed away.

The sight was something she would never forget, even though in reality there was no pain or sadness within her heart. It just felt right to remember them, to all those people who died because of other people\'s greed.

The same feeling rose within her as she walked between the corpses. Back then she didn\'t know that her powers will cause similar destructions, but on a much smaller scale.

Sera walked between the corpses of soldiers and civilians alike. There were man, woman and even children in the midst of the dead. She didn\'t really understand why there were this many civilians on a forward outpost.

Stopping in front of a few children corpses, she shook her head. "What a waste." She whispered.

Without looking back she moved on closer to the place where the sounds of fighting still persisted. Eventually she found a few evolved who stood in a circle, terrified. Some had blood running down their faces, other looked sick and nauseous.

When they saw Sera in her armor, they immediately dropped their weapons and went to their knees.

"Please... *Cough* Lady, please! Spare us!" Spoke one of them.

"We are only here for the money... We aren\'t even true soldiers!..." Said another.

"Please... Just let us go... We will never fight against the Federal Alliance again!"

Each and everyone of them begged for their lives. Slowly in Sera\'s hand her glaive formed. She leaned on it for a bit, and looked towards the sky. The people on the ground didn\'t even breath while they waited for Sera to answer.

After a minute of pretending to be thinking, she looked back towards the small group, then with one quick motion beheaded them all. While walking away she said one word... "No."

It was safe to say that she was a perfectionist when it came to following orders. The camp slowly turned silent as the last of the evolved had finally died.

Every single one dead. No survivor, no person who escaped, no one spared from someone\'s kindness. She was asked to kill everyone and she did her job splendidly.

In the middle of the camp the 23 of them got together. They all waited for Sera\'s next command. Currently she was examining the gear of the individuals within the camp. The material the ascended used was awful. Whoever gave them supplies made a really shitty job.

Eventually she threw the melted armor away and looked up at her soldiers.

"Great job everyone. As always when we get back you will receive your bonuses and a week long holiday." This was always the reward for a successful missions. Sera watched the faces of the evolved. Every time they told her that they didn\'t do it for the money or free time, but non dared to refuse her generosity.

Instead they just stood there awkwardly. Percy and Melinda didn\'t really care, since they didn\'t get rewards like the evolved. As captains they already had many bonuses which meant they have to do more work too.

After staying silent for a bit, Sera stood up and motioned for the group to move out.

The journey back to New Athens was a lot quicker. It took them only three days to reach the outer city gate. As they walked through the city grounds the citizen cheered for them.

Sera forced out a small smile and waved her hand a few times at the crowds, which made their cheering even louder. It always went like this after every successful mission.

Today at night, celebrations will be held all over the city. The amphitheaters will be packed with people. In the taverns the alcohol will be flowing like rivers. But Sera won\'t be their for any of that.

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Just like always she will attend the real celebrations within the military encampment. But that will happen later. Now she only wanted to take an ice cold shower and go to sleep.

Sadly a good leader\'s job never ends. She still had to write a long report to central command and even after that she had no time to relax.

It was a bit tiring to have so many responsibilities, but she needed to be here for her future goals.