Angel Monarch

Pain, and only pain… Nothing else existed in Bea's mind. Overwhelming, controlling, excruciating pain. She felt it kill over and over again, yet she never actually died. Only her mind couldn't differentiate between her body breaking down and regenerating.

A vicious cycle of never ending suffering. Bea's body burned, even though only her arms stayed inside the bubble of darkness. The sphere of destruction turned her arms into dust, then it began regenerating, only to die again.

Bea experienced the birth and death of each cell. Their deaths left small scars on her mind and soul. Her mind turned blank after a few minutes, seconds, or moments.

Time went by fast, but also agonizingly slowly. Her sense of time and space stopped existing, as more pain took hold of her already fragile mind. Stay updated via My Virtual Library Empire

Screams, pants, groans, and other noises of misery left her lips. Sometimes loud, sometimes barely audible, but no matter how hard she tried, the sounds always escaped.

The people still standing nearby could hear her begging and pleading with some higher entity that didn't exist. She wanted to pain to stop, but shockingly, no matter how much suffering she endured, she never took one step back.

Her stumps, where her arms should've been, stayed inside the contained destruction, continuously dying within the darkness. She screamed from the pain, but she never stopped to take a break.

With every second, the bubble's size decreased as her body absorbed the dark energy. Each time the bubble destroyed even a single cell of Bea's arm, it weakened an imperceptible amount.

She already needed to take a few steps towards the center, so her arms stayed within the sphere. The bubble remained huge, which meant Bea's suffering had only begun.

With a teary face and a lot of screaming, she pushed herself further… One step, two step, three step… She continued until exhaustion, then exceeded her limits, refusing to yield.

Her legs shook from the pain her body endured. At some point, she closed her eyes tightly, so she couldn't see the stumps anymore. Her heavy breaths moved her chest fast, while her heart felt like it would stop at any moment from overwork.

All the senses left her, no sight, no hearing, no taste or smell. Her touch had gone too, leaving only the sweet pain behind. Her lips trembled and her shoulders shook from sobbing… Pain and nothing else existed in this world…

After god knows how long, Bea took another step and finally felt a change from the constant suffering. She felt her legs give as she began falling forward, right into the sphere of destruction.

But just as part of her nose touched its edge, turning to dust, she felt a pair of firm hands grip her midsection tightly. The hands pulled her away and laid her down on the ground.

Still not fully at her senses, Bea tried opening her eyes. All over her body phantom pain brought convulsions to her muscles. Though pain ceased, the constant destruction marred her mind, and the brief respite failed to mend the damage.

Gasping and convulsing, Bea looked up at Sera. Those divine golden-green eyes stared at her with hollowness and hints of anger.

Sera's fleeting appearances were all she witnessed before she left for the sphere. She examined it closely for a few long moments, even touching it with her fingertip. Her expression stayed bored as the finger turned to dust right before her eyes.

Bea became surprised for a moment. That small action would've made her groan in agony, but Sera didn't even seem to notice.

It was only at that moment that Bea started to understand the true extent of Sera's torment, considering her pain tolerance was significantly higher. Something that brought excruciating pain to Bea didn't even register for the heavenly woman.

After a few more seconds passed, Sera's examination concluded, and on her back four wings spread. One pair of pristine white feathered, and one pair made of golden flames.

Sera didn't let her mind to react. Before hesitation could affect her, she turned around and took one step back. All four wings entered the deep black bubble.

She closed her eyes and clenched her fists, trying to hide her expression from the crowd. She instantly knew keeping a straight face was going to be impossible.

The people watched as Sera's eyes snapped open. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Her eyes widened visibly, while her whole body began to shake. The crowd around the hall witnessed something they could never forget.

The moments felt like an eternity, as Sera's face scrunched up, and her mouth opened wide. As her wings got attacked by the sphere of destruction, a blood-curdling scream left her mouth.

The sound was unbearable. It shook the entire castle, and even the surrounding area echoed with it. The thought of Sera's pain made everyone else shiver with terror. A few people even began crying by the sheer hurt carried in that scream.

The four wings on Sera's back took much longer to fade than Bea's arms. It felt like watching each of her feathers pulled out one by one, and witnessing her flames weakening each second.

A truly depressing sight. Her pristine wings turned to dust, her everlasting golden flames becoming only embers. Her pains hadn't stopped, but after the initial scream, no sound left her throat.

This pain, though not her worst, overwhelmed her. When she's getting tortured, she's in a specific mindset, which lessens what she feels, but here, in front of all these people, in front of Bea, she couldn't hold it back.

After the initial release, she got herself back under control, and while feeling every bit of pain, no noise escaped her. The suffering lasted for a few minutes before all four wings fully disintegrated. The pain hadn't lessened and only grew stronger as time passed.

When both her wings were gone, Sera took a deep, shuddering breath and fell to her knees. With the pain gone, she was like a marionette with all her strings cut.

Her body felt useless, weak, and broken. Her limbs didn't want to obey her, and after a few seconds, she lost balance and fell on her side.

With closed eyes, Sera let the cold floor cool her overheated body. The blood pumping through her veins felt like scorching fire, but as her heart realized the absence of pain, the time between beats slowed considerably.

She may have lain there quite while. For her, the hard stone was comparable to the softest beds. Sera wished to stay there, into unconsciousness, anything but thinking about her next steps… But she had no such option…

People gazed in admiration and reverence as Sera lowered her hands and began pushing herself up. Her muscles struggled, her arms shook, but with a groan of discomfort, she sat up.

Her eyes went straight to the sphere of destruction. Its size diminished by a lot, but it still hadn't fully disappeared.

Sera took a shaky breath, then turned towards Bea. She was already standing, with her newly regenerated arms crossed before her chest. Sera saw much emotion in her eyes; however, she lacked time to process or care for them.

She summoned her glaive, and using it, she pulled herself up. Her weak body relied on the long shaft's stability to keep straight and not topple over.

On shaking legs, she walked up to Bea. Those green eyes, full of worry, stared right at her. Sera didn't acknowledge the sympathy and pain within Bea's gaze, and instead said only two words… "Heal me…"

Her hoarse voice was barely audible, like a whisper on a windy day. Her words came and went, while Bea continued to stare. For a moment, Sera believed she might've not heard her, but then she reached out, gently placing her new hands on Sera's arm.

A cool liberating force coursed through her veins, elevating all the remnant pain, and healing her broken parts. Behind Sera's back, four wings grew out bit by bit. A minute later, Bea had completely healed both pairs of wings, and all her pain vanished.

She felt something else as well. The deep power hidden inside her, coming to life. Bea turned her head with widened eyes. She felt the power too, but neither was sure what it meant.

They lacked time for reflection, though. The dark bubble became more turbulent, and its perfectly spherical shape distorted. It was slowly unwinding, destabilizing, which meant they had to diminish its energy quicker.

Sera walked back towards the sphere, and Bea followed close by. Upon reaching it, she prepared to push her wings back inside. The memory of pain made her hands shake, yet she lacked time to contemplate.

She lifted her leg, taking a step back, but just as her wings went inside, a cool hand caught her arm. Bea stayed there, pumping energy inside her, elevating her pain, anchoring her mind.

With her help, she barely felt anything as the wings broke apart. They also regenerated faster than the darkness dismantled them. As feathers turned to dust, they grew back immediately.

The darkness diminished much faster than expected. To keep her wings inside the bubble, Sera frequently required to step back.

The crowd gasped in awe, as all the destructive force wasn't strong enough to destroy the Deathless Phoenix's wings. The deep darkness broke when face this unconsumable light.

Each moment, the sphere diminished, until there was barely anything there. With the bubble's radius only a few meters, Sera took a daring step inside.

From the darkness, only her arm stuck out, which Bea still held on firmly. She increased her energy transference, and in only a few seconds, the black sphere disappeared. Bea let go of Sera's arm, so she could catch Bran's falling unconscious body.