CHAPTER 592: SPIRITUAL DISRUPTION

"Kill everyone."

Victor’s voice was like cold water being poured on Sera’s burning blood.

Even worse, after his words, the people in New Athens, standing at the edge of the roofs, stepped forward. Bodies rained down on the Angel’s streets, painting them bright red with their blood.

After the first volley, Victor’s watch turned off, and his disappointed sigh echoed through the air.

"At least I tried..." he whispered, then stepped forward and grasped the crystalline skull on his cane.

He raised the cane just as Bea and Faith flanked him. The gentleman tilted his head, a smirk widening into an excited grin.

Both the Shadow and the World Tree attacked, while Sera’s eyes went wide. Victor suddenly punched his cane onto the floating platform, while the Angel kneeled down and stabbed her swords into the Angelic Metal.

The moment his cane hit the floor, an enormous shockwave went across the entire arena. Faith and Bea went flying in opposite directions.

Bea’s body splattered against the Aegis System, causing the shield to destabilize momentarily. Faith, on the other hand, became a splash of shadow upon touching the energy wall’s surface, and a moment later she teleported back to Her Goddess’s side.

As for Sera, after the shockwave passed, she jumped to her feet and rushed towards Victor.

The death of her citizens and followers might’ve caused immense pain in her heart, yet her mind absolutely cleared of thoughts as the battle began. Her face became emotionless as she raised her swords.

The air crackled with tension. Sera moved faster than ever before. There was a noticeable difference between a Stellar and a Transcended. Also, the resurrection still empowered her body, giving her even more strength... not like it mattered...

She stabbed forward with her right sword while slashing with her left. However, Victor’s cane moved faster than anything Sera had ever seen.

He didn’t even attempt to block or parry her attacks. Instead, he simply punched Sera’s chest with the cane’s tip.

Her armor distributed the punch evenly, which meant every single bone broke in her body. She also went flying, but before she hit the Aegis System, her Shadow gathered around Sera, catching her easily.

Sera’s healing kicked in, her body regenerating every bone and bleeding muscle tissue barely a moment after she got wounded.

An exhausted sigh echoed from Sera’s lips as her wings pushed her away from Faith’s shadows. In her mind, Sera conveyed her exact plan to Faith and Bea, which might give them a chance to defeat Victor.

She, of course, doubted the plan’s success, especially after seeing the gentlemen standing on the platform, watching her every movement with an amused smile.

When Sera began flying at him, Victor’s smile widened. He raised his cane once again, hitting it on the floating platform, but it didn’t create a shockwave this time. Instead, a dozen feathers fell away from his cloak and turned into black ravens.

Like dark missiles, they flew to intercept the Angel. They flew faster than a Stellar could’ve reacted, but luckily she didn’t need to evade or kill them.

The moment they reached Sera’s proximity, the tiny silvery particles floating midair became unstable, setting off an enormous explosion, which consumed a quarter of the arena.

Victor raised a curious eyebrow just as Bea and Faith appeared behind her. They both jumped out of his shadow, giving him no opportunity to use his cane to create a shockwave.

While turning quickly, he tossed the cane in the air and grabbed it like a sword. The dark wood easily blocked both Bea’s longsword and Faith’s rapier simultaneously.

However, at that moment, a third person jumped out of his shadow, wielding a pair of curved blades. She slashed with one sword, aiming to behead Victor, while stabbed with her other at his heart.

On the other side, Bea and Faith applied more pressure, so Victor couldn’t just shrug their attacks off. There was no possible way to evade Sera’s attacks while continuing to block the Shadow and the World Tree.

The gentlemen didn’t panic though. Instead, he chuckled, a delighted smirk stretching across his face.

Just when Sera’s killing blow would’ve landed, Victor’s entire body exploded into a cloud of black feathers. Faith and Bea stumbled forward, while Sera’s attacks went wide.

All three women glanced around with emotionless eyes. From the cloud of falling feathers, ecstatic laughter echoed.

"Oh please! You didn’t actually think fighting against an Ethereal is that easy?! That’s insulting! I merely entertained you before the inevitable!"

Suddenly, all the feathers floating around them turned into meter long dark ravens with crystalline heads. They all aimed their beaks towards the three women and flew at them like loosed arrows.

Sera instantly turned the floating platform into a sphere of Angelic Metal. Faith summoned thick shadows all around the metal sphere. Bea’s roots dug into the metal, further empowering its defensive properties.

None of that mattered as the ravens’ skull burrowed deep into the metal, sending cracks along its surface. A moment passed, and the walls broke down.

The Angel stood as ready as one could get under such short notice. The second dozen ravens died before the first even hit the floor. Sera’s blades looked like golden laser beams as she killed everything inside the sphere.

The roots also grabbed onto a few and crushed them into orbs of gore and feathers. The shadows also impaled many of the birds, but it mattered little as more flooded the sphere.

A raven punched into Sera’s legs. Her armor broke under its beak, and went straight through her skin and muscle, only getting stopped by her thighbone.

Next, a raven punctured Faith’s chest, which caused her body to dissolve into shadows.

The next they missed pierced Bea’s chest, puncturing straight through her heart. However, the World Tree barely batted an eye at her wound. Like vines, the sinews of muscles regrow and even her blood-red dress repaired itself.

They survived another few dozen before another raven caught Sera off guard, puncturing her stomach. It made her stumble, and soon two more ravens punctured each of her shoulders.

Above, the final layers of the sphere crumbled, just as Sera fell to her knees. Blood dripped from her mouth as agony consumed her mind.

The ravens puncturing her body didn’t die. They instead began consuming her from the inside, digging ever closer to her heart.

On her side, Bea wasn’t doing much better. Her entire body turned treelike and killed every raven trying to attack Sera. Even these creatures summoned by an Ethereal couldn’t overpower a World Tree’s passive regeneration.

Faith also reappeared, this time staying in the shadows. Around Sera’s kneeling form, dark shadowy tentacles grew, stabbing any raven attempting to hurt her.

Their resistance was amicable, but the power difference was simply insurmountable.

A giant wave of ravens arrived, like a dark cloud of feathers and crystalline beaks. The three Stellars couldn’t defend against them, yet they were nothing but a distraction for the actual attack.

From the conspiracy, a tall form appeared wearing a cloak of feathers and a golden monocle. His smile would’ve haunted any sane person, but the ravens kept his form hidden.

He raised his dark wood cane and stabbed it into Bea’s tree-like form. Her regeneration suddenly halted, and unbearable anguish consumed her mind. She screamed at the top of her lungs until she passed out from the torment.

The ravens began eating the World Tree alive, while Victor stepped towards the pool of shadows.

He reached up and adjusted his monocle while crouching before the shadows. His glowing dark eyes stared into the pool, then at a random moment he reached inside and pulled out something formless.

The object spurted shadows, while it kept pulsing in Victor’s palm. This was a Shadow’s heart, basically the vessel that held Faith’s soul while she became part of the shadows.

Shadows couldn’t die until their owner passed away, but they could be damaged, which killed them for a short while.

When he crushed this heart, Faith died, and all the shadows dissolved around Sera, leaving her defenseless.

Victor walked before the Angel’s kneeling form and smiled. He pointed at her and said, "Now perish!"

The surrounding ravens all turned their faces towards Sera, and while screeching loudly, they attacked Sera, devouring pieces of her flesh, causing her to scream in agony.

The gentleman grimaced at the gruesome sight and was about to turn away when something strange happened. It felt like time froze for a single moment...

Around Victor, every single bird lost its head as tiny portals cut them apart. The conspiracy of ravens turned into a cloud of gore and feathers.

Blood rained onto the floating platform as Vicky kneeled beside her pale mother. Henry stood above the two, keeping his dark blue eyes focused on Victor.

The Princess sighed, her lips trembling and her eyes watering. She gently brushed Sera’s golden locks, revealing a disfigured, lifeless face... The Angel Monarch was dead...

"Henry... turn it back..." she whispered in a shaky voice, barely managing the words before she began sobbing.

Sera’s death didn’t just mean one of her mothers died. Her life was connected to Faith and Bea too, meaning that without the Angel, both her Aunt and other mom perished too... She couldn’t accept that...

The Prince took a deep breath. He felt something was off, since Victor didn’t try to attack or interrupt as Henry focused his mind and began turning back time.

However, the moment he activated the power, Victor chuckled. His voice echoed through the platform, sending a powerful shiver down the young couple’s spines.

"Spiritual Disruption!"

Suddenly, Henry felt his control slip and reality break apart, changing in unpredictable ways...