Angel Monarch

Sera's head was still hurting and she heard shouting coming from all around her. With confusion she tried to get up, but the darkness persisted in her vision... Or at least that's what she thought.

Going on a hunch she held out her hand and summoned a small globe of light. She never really used her light making ability since she could see in the dark and her flames were much more powerful

She only used it now to test something. The small light illuminated their surroundings instantly, which meant the darkness wasn't in her vision at all, but made artificially by some creature.

Putting more essence into the light, its brightness greatly increased. It illuminated everything around her for about a dozen meters.

Her vision went to the ground where David was still lying unconscious. The hearing in her ears were still muffled and her headache only grew.

Still she didn't dare lose focus. Something bad was happening and she needed to figure out the situation as best as she could.

Slowly her armor weaved itself into existence including her helmet. In her hand the beautiful golden glaive appeared. On the armor the small healing elephant charm got placed, which gradually elevated her headache.

With her mind clearer she summoned even more essence and placed it into the light, which originated from the top of her crown-like helmet.

It brightened everything for about 50 meters. She could finally see most of the group fighting some very strange monsters.

They were dark, almost shadowy and nearly formless. When they attacked a claw formed out of nowhere, or a large maw full of razor sharp teeth. One of the sword-bearer's of the Ouroboros Cohort managed to cut one, but the monster just dissolved into dark smoke.

One thing she noted was that they stayed at the edge of her light, seemingly afraid of it.

She placed even more essence into the light and didn't stop until the dome of illumination reached for a few hundred meters.

All the shadow monsters dissolved, but Sera knew they weren't dead. She was sure that those creatures weren't even alive, they were just weapons summoned by some large meaner monster.

The group quickly ran towards Sera. They were all accounted for, but they looked battered to say the least, especially Kathy, who seemed to be barely clinging to consciousness.

"My Lady... Thank you for the save!" Said Kathy before falling down next to David. Her breathing was heavy, but even. She passed out the moment her head hit the grass ground.

"Status?" Asked Sera from the rest of the group. One of the Ouroboros Cohort's members stepped forward. They all wore armor so she couldn't determine who spoke, but it was definitely male.

"We are approximately 50 kilometers from Tekirdag. After the Lady and David had fallen unconscious we tried to make as much progress as possible. We fought multiple relatively easy battles, but as the Lady can see... or more like can't see... Something ambushed us!"

Sera nodded along thoughtfully. If they were 50 kilometers from Tekirdag, that means they already walked 150 kilometers from the point she had lost consciousness. This would've been great news, if their circumstances would be better.

"Any idea of what are we facing?" She asked with her usual emotionless voice. It should've been really upsetting and uncomfortable in most situations, but funnily enough currently it had a calming effect on the soldiers.

Her voice made everything seem less bad since she didn't sound distressed at all, which spoke of her confidence. Of course not everyone was fooled. Percy and Hector knew exactly that her tone meant no such thing.

"We aren't exactly sure, what we figured out is that those shadow monsters are nothing more than conjured smoke. They can still fight and their bites and scratches hurt like a bitch, but they aren't really alive..." Said a woman from the cohort.

"It must be some other larger creature controlling this darkness! We were running towards the gathering point, when this darkness suddenly fell around us. After that these creatures came out of nowhere and we were fighting them ever since." Said another male member.

Sera's face didn't reveal any of her thoughts and she comfortably leaned on her glaive, which was propped up.

"Have you asked for support yet?" She asked and the soldiers nodded.

"Yes. We did after it became clear that we can't progress in this darkness. They said that help will arrive in an hour." Said the man who spoke first.

"How long has it been?" Sera asked and the same man answered again. "Ten minutes."

For a long moment Sera looked towards the black nothingness in the sky and her eyes glinted for a moment. Suddenly a large grin spread on her face, which the others hadn't noticed because of her helmet.

The glaive in her hand transformed into a two and a half meter long throwing spear. She held out her left hand which was seemingly empty, then with a very quick move she threw the golden spear straight into the darkness.

There was nothing for a good few seconds, but then the darkness started to dissipate.

Her left hand which seemed to be holding onto nothing, trembled. It was like something heavy and uncontrollable was contained within.

For a second she looked at her empty hand and whispered to herself... "Perfect!"

The whole group looked at awe as the surroundings slowly brightened and the Sun finally appeared. The light also disintegrated from above Sera's head.

While the others were still looking around she just walked to David. Her armor and spear were already dismissed, but the small stone elephant stayed in her hand. She gently placed it in his hand, then waited for a few seconds, before giving him a small kick to the side.

"Fuck... Did you just kick me?!" He asked in outrage, but his eyes soon focused on the terrain in confusion.

When they fell unconscious they were in a forested plateau, but now they were in a grassy, hilly area.

"How long was I out?" He asked, but Sera just shrugged and said, "Don't know. Ask the others." She said, then dismissed the small elephant and summoned it again, placing it into Kathy's palm.

David was talking with the others and they all stared at Sera with confusion. They were waiting for an explanation about how she had defeated whatever creature was causing the darkness.

Currently she was looking at a specific item's description within her soul. She had already came up with a good enough lie, but she first wanted to make sure of something.

<Nothing>

Description: It's nothing! What did you expect?

Attribute: Does nothing...

Contained Souls: <Dark Summoner – Horror of the 1st Tier>

Seeing the change in the description would've brought a bright smile to her face, but she controlled her facial muscles not letting it reveal anything.

Slowly Kathy was finally awakening. Her eyes tried to open, but the sudden bright light caused her face to scrunch up.

"Weren't we in darkness? What the fuck is going on?" She asked and the others looked at Sera with raised eyebrows as well.

Without any fanfare she turned to them and said her prepared lie.

"I saw through the darkness. It was controlled by a very strong corrupted of the 3rd tier. I threw my spear hitting it, but it didn't die and it managed to get away." Since her voice was emotionless they couldn't guess her lie, still they seemed a bit skeptical, especially Hector.

His eyes narrowed, but after a few seconds he just turned and walked away. The others dropped the topic as well, non of them were dumb enough to try and call out her easily noticeable lie.

The only person who held her eyes was David. He wasn't skeptical, just curious. After a few moments Sera made a small nod indicating that she will explain it later. David just smirked as an answer.

Her eyes turned away from the group and went to the Sun above their heads. There was still close to half the day left, which meant they could make it to Tekirdag if they hurry.

David seemed to have the same idea.

"Okay everyone! Take a small breather, we are moving out in half an hour... Oh, and someone call off the support..." He turned to Sera and smiled as he finished his sentence. "...Seems like we didn't need help after all!"

With just those words David made most of the group forget about her small lie. It was truly amazing how much better he was with leadership than her.

The people she lead was because they trusted her blindly. He on the other hand has earned all of his soldier's respect.

Each of them took some time off. Sera and David ate a lot since they were starving. The others just watched in bewilderment as Sera devoured about ten kilogram cooked monster meat, even David looked at her with a strange expression.

After the half hour was up, they each grabbed their packs and began walking northeast on the last stretch of their journey.

As always Sera and David went a bit away from the rest. They stayed silent for a long while, but eventually it was time for her to reveal another large secret to him.

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