CHAPTER 587: HALL OF MIRRORS

Sera woke up in a strange place, outside of Earth’s reality. The laws of physics seemed to bend in this space, creating a surreal, dauntingly magical atmosphere.

She stood in a vast space, or maybe a small room. It was hard to tell either way.

First, she glanced down at herself, making sure her armor and body were both intact. Afterward, her gaze moved away from herself and stared down into an infinite space.

From below, a familiar reflection stared out, or rather hundreds, thousands, millions of reflections. Every second reflection showed her from above, creating a strange illusory picture.

It made her queasy to stare into empty space, from which her reflections gazed out from. However, as she turned away and glanced ahead, her nausea only increased.

All around her, more mirrors created infinite reflections of Sera. Half stood facing her, while the other half turned away, as if afraid of laying their eyes on the Angel.

The uneasiness in her stomach grew as she turned in one place, looking at all the reflections. She felt her identity slip away, and after a few seconds or maybe years, she didn’t know which reflection was the real Sera.

Reality was slipping through her fingers. She tried flying into the air, causing all the reflections to copy her movements. It only gave her a better view of this bizarre environment, though, which only made everything worse.

Suddenly, she found herself falling... All around, below and above her, millions of other Seras fell as well. By this point, Sera wasn’t real anymore. She became part of the reflections, one of infinite...

How could she determine the true one? They all looked like perfect copies with nothing distinctive about the real one!

She felt her identity disappear, just as a deep pain grew within her soul... It was tearing itself apart!

Souls were the force that held together every creature. They gave the body shape. They stored every memory and changed relatively freely with the owner’s experience.

If someone lost a limb or received a permanent scar, the soul would store that. Any person who can rewrite souls could change the nature of a being, bending them to their desire.

Harold, for example, never managed to fully break Sera, since he couldn’t manipulate souls. He could lock away her memories, but eventually, her soul would’ve eroded those locks.

Right now though, Sera’s soul was dissolving. The force that held it together, Sera own sense of identity, became compromised.

Even after death, the souls stayed intact because of their owner’s will. If everyone would’ve lost themselves while dying, the Afterlife would’ve remained empty forever.

However, the issue Sera faced wasn’t simply dying. She needed to do something! Otherwise, her soul would face full erasure!

Sera stared into her reflections, or maybe her reflections stared at her? It was impossible to tell, which made her job much harder.

The light of her soul continued unfolding, dimming. In the last moments of her life, a memory of the fight with Castiel popped into her mind. She had nothing to lose anymore, and her newly formed plan might actually work...

She had a pretty much useless ability named Lightbringer. It could create light, which didn’t seem useful in the slightest, since these rays of energy carried no hidden power. They were more of a party trick than anything else.

Ironically though, this party trick became quite useful when facing mirrors. These objects reflected light at perfect angles, so they created a reflective surface. However, what if she took away their reflective ability by overwhelming them with light?

That’s exactly what she did. The infinite amount of reflections all burst into light.

If you stood inside a room made of mirrors and turned on a powerful light, the room would become bright as the sun. All the mirrors reflected the light infinite times, increasing their power, devouring even the tiniest of shadows.

However, since Sera could see perfectly in any brightness, for her only one change happened inside the room... All her reflections disappeared, leaving only a singular, real Sera floating within infinite light...

A relief went through her entire body, and a moment later her soul began stabilizing itself. Sadly, this left her open to attacks, and before she realized, she felt something pierce her chest.

Pain erupted in her mind as her gaze moved down to the axe blade, dripping with her blood, sticking out from her sternum. A moment later, she began coughing as blood filled her airways.

She placed one trembling hand on the wound as her eyes moved away. Slowly, she turned around to see the Executioner’s bearded face stretch into a wide, cruel grin.

Sera also dismissed her helmet just as Castiel pulled out the weapon from her chest. Suddenly, her body became incredibly heavy, and she fell forward onto her knees.

The weapon must’ve only grazed her heart, since she wasn’t dead yet. Her body tried healing the wound desperately, but it wasn’t nearly fast enough to save her from Castiel.

"Don’t worry, Last Angel. You did better than most! You should be proud of how far you managed to push me... However, while our fight was fun, it’s time we ended it! See you in the Afterlife, Seraphine..."

With that, Castiel raised his polearm, and Sera watched as it arced towards her neck. Blood and saliva dripped from her mouth as she closed her golden-green eyes and accepted her fate without any struggle...

In her last moments though, something strange happened which caught Castiel off guard.

The Last Angel, broken and close to death, didn’t show despair. Her face didn’t look shocked or terrified. Instead, a wide grin stretched across her face, and laughter echoed from her lips.

Castiel felt something was amiss, yet her weapon was past the point of stopping. It separated Sera’s neck cleanly, killing her with ease.

Her head flew into the air, trailing her golden glowing hair, like a falling star. It fell right into the Executioner’s hands, who glanced at the Angel’s grinning expression of concern.

He still couldn’t figure out what was wrong, and even began questioning his own memory... Maybe the Last Angel wasn’t laughing? Or maybe she laughed out of desperation and anxiety?

There was something he missed. He knew all of Sera’s abilities, yet he couldn’t figure out the issue.

It took him a few moments, but eventually he realized the answer. The revelation came when he tried using Sera’s head to Evolve, but the question didn’t appear in her mind, which meant only one thing... She wasn’t truly dead!

As this thought appeared in Castiel’s mind, Sera’s body began burning with cleansing golden flames much hotter than the flames she used previously. A cacoon of silvery metal encased her body, sturdier than anything she created during their fight.

The Executioner’s whitish-gold eyes went wide with shock. Sera’s head tumbled from his head onto the mirror-like ground, then a moment later it evaporated from the powerful heat.

The cacoon floated into the air, and from its depths, blinding light seeped out. Strangely, even Castiel couldn’t pierce this light and had to cover his eyes by summoning his helmet.

The sound of crackling glass echoed all around them. The room, the Hall of Mirrors... It cracked!

Castiel had never seen anything like that. This place should’ve been impervious to damage, since it didn’t even have a physical manifestation!

Terror filled the Executioner’s heart as mad laughter echoed from the cacoon’s depths. In that moment, he realized how vastly he had underestimated Sera’s strength!

This wasn’t just an upstart Angel carrying a title with an inflated meaning behind it. Her accomplishments already reflected that, yet Castiel was blinded by his own hubris.

He knew about Sera’s resurrection ability, but he would’ve never guessed that during their fight, she only used her Transcended capabilities...

While Castiel was reflecting on his mistakes, the silvery cacoon cracked, and a bright, feminine shape of pure light climbed out from within.

Her previous silvery wing was now accompanied by two other pairs. First, a wing covered in pristine white feathers, with maddening bloodshot yellow eyes gazing at Castiel. Second, a wing made of cleansing golden flames, which burned away any impurities from reality.

The Hall of Mirrors cracked further as Sera floated to the ground and stood before Castiel’s scared form.

The light around Sera’s face disappeared, but continued to cover her naked body. Her long golden hair floated around her, defying gravity, creating a glowing halo behind her head. She looked like a saintess, yet her golden-green eyes held no mercy within their bright depths.

She chuckled upon seeing the Executioner’s pale expression, then a cruel, cunning, almost hungry grin grew on her face.

"What? Did you think it would be this easy? Chopping off my head after catching me off guard?" She said with another bout of laughter, which frustrated Castiel.

He seriously doubted that his attack had caught her off guard. That armor of hers should’ve distributed the blow. Even though he used Copied Strike, it shouldn’t have penetrated her body.

Either way, the frustration chased away the fear and brought clarity. The fight wasn’t over yet! She might’ve been strong, maybe even stronger than Castiel himself, but he would never give up without a fight!

However, there was something bothering him, and he wanted answers before either he or the Last Angel died...

"To be honest... Yeah, you really shocked me..." answered Castiel honestly, surprising Sera. She expected him to get angry and enraged, yet his voice remained firm and impassive.

"I’m actually quite curious about how you fooled me? You fought me as a mere Transcended on even ground, which was supposed to be impossible... Could you enlighten me before we end our duel?"

Sera stayed silent for a few moments, keeping her eyes focused on Castiel’s, searching for hints of deception. She couldn’t find any though, and since only one would leave this room alive, she had nothing to hide from a dead man!

"The answer is simple," she said with a mischievous smirk. "I just killed myself hundreds of times!"