Angel Monarch

The girl had a small stature and Asian features. Her hair was shoulder length and black, while her eyes were light brown.

She was at school when the sirens began sounding all over the city.

Marseille was a large city in the southern part of West Europe. Over 30 million people populated it, and a Stellar led it.

This city faced the first attack following the Federal Alliance's emergence.

The girl and the citizens were close to the wall, which caused the large panic. They sprinted towards the closest shelter, but if Stellars fought, it wouldn't matter.

With desperation and fear, people poured into the underground shelter, but by the time the girl made it to the door, it was already closed. The people left outside banged and screamed to let them in.

The girl looked around desperately, but there was nowhere to run. The next closest shelter was a few kilometers away and her legs were already failing her.

Breathing heavily, she leaned against the side of a building. The surrounding people realized the situation. Some continued to bang and shout, some began running away from the wall, some just stood there, unsure what to do next.

The girl looked over the crowd and she spotted one of her best friends from school. The two of them got separated while running, but it seemed she didn't make it inside either.

"Oh god, Kim... What are we going to do?" Asked the girl's friend, while giving Kim a hug.

A violent tremor wracked her frame, each shudder a testament to her terror. The only thing keeping her up was Kim.

Unlike her friend, she didn't cry or act desperate. She had already resigned to her fate, which seemed to be very close to its end.

Kim was about to say a few comforting lies to her friend, but at that moment, the shelling of the city started.

All around them buildings exploded, the girls whimpered. In that moment, Kim's fake confidence broke into pieces and pure terror took its place.

An artillery shell landed near the two girls, and its power sent both of them flying. Kim tried to hold on to her friend, but she wasn't strong enough.

She hit the ground in a painful heap. She felt her head spin as it hit the remnants of some wall.

It took her a few seconds to gather enough power and try to look around. Her vision was foggy and blurry, it was gaining a red tint as blood flowed from a wound in her head.

Kim watched as people ran around like headless chickens. Some were missing limbs, while others just sat on the ground, either in shock or injured. There were many people who didn't move too, but Kim only had her eyes on one person.

With all her remaining strength, Kim crawled to her friend. She was still breathing, but each breath was shorter than the one before.

By the time Kim got to her, she was already dead. There was a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of her side, and as Kim leaned and hugged her body, she became bloody as well.

Nearby explosions continued, yet she only perceived them via ground tremors and distant light bursts. Her hearing was gone, and she had a concussion, but miraculously nothing else happened to her.

She left her friend's body and began walking away from the wall. She needed to support herself on the wall while walking and she had to stop multiple times to vomit from the concussion.

There wasn't any clear destination in her mind, but her survival instincts told her to move anyway.

Only corpses and the nearly dead surrounded her. Fire consumed the houses, or they outright evaporated.

Her hearing slowly recovered, and she heard the fighting near the walls. The shelling of artilleries still continued, but it was dying down.

Kim moved on, not caring what happened. At some point, her destination changed from the next shelter and she moved towards her home, where her parents and younger siblings lived.

They had a secure basement that could serve as a shelter, but as she approached the area, she gazed up at the sky.

Multiple flying Evolved fought there, but Kim only watched one in particular. She couldn't discern the woman's features, yet her beauty was evident from afar.

Her golden hair moved gracefully with each dodge. Her golden armor glistened in the sunlight. Her glaive cut open each of her opponents with ease.

She had two sets of wings, one of pure white feathers which carried a dreadful aura inside, the other made of golden flames, which seemed to burn with holy fire.

The angelic being fought without care, killing all of her multiple enemies.

Kim stood there mesmerized, watching the woman kill with unnatural ease. Everything was going well for her until a Transcended arrived and struck her down with a single blow. Read new chapters at empire

The crumpled form of the angelic woman fell from the sky. Kim watched as her body landed only a few houses from her own home. She attempted to determine if the woman was alive or not, but stopped after a few steps and started to back away.

The air grew hotter; the ground liquefied near the woman's corpse.

She rose from the ground. Kim stood there watching in awe and terror, as the woman stood straight, her body glowing in pure golden flames.

She stared towards the sky where the transcended looked down in confusion.

Kim still watched on, and as the air became hotter and hotter, the awe disappeared and only pure horror took its place.

"NOOOO!" she screamed as the woman exploded.

Her flames destroyed dozens of houses with people still inside them, including Kim's own house. Worse, the primary structure's destruction wasn't the only devastation; the ground itself melted, obliterating the basement shelters.

Kim fell to the ground, like a marionette with cut strings. She fixed her gaze on the woman, soaring into the sky to battle the transcended on equal footing.

She didn't cry or feel sad. Her mind focused only on pure rage and hatred toward the beautiful angel. Soon the battle ended and Kim watched in fear as the woman approached her kneeling form.

...

The battle of Marseille was the first battle Sera had fought since losing her memories.

It was also the first time she killed a transcended, which made her famous in the Federal Alliance army. It also earned her infamy in the not yet existing United Front.

It was a glorious victory, since an enemy Stellar has fallen in the fight. They had also killed multiple transcended and captured the city... Only to be slaughtered later by Amygdala.

The soldiers think of this battle as a monumental victory, but for Sera, it was a clear defeat.

This was the first time she ever used her resurrection in battle, and since she wasn't that used to it, she done it too late.

It always bothered her. It wasn't quite guilt, but more of a feeling of uneasiness. She always thought of herself as a good person, but she killed hundreds of innocents during that battle.

After that she payed extreme attention not to make the same mistake again, but her failure wasn't without a price.

She saw the broken looking girl kneeling on the ground. The girl had a strange complexion and facial structure, one that Sera hadn't seen before.

She walked towards the girl, and when their eyes met, she saw the deep hatred inside her.

It was only a few weeks after losing her memory and emotions, so Sera was still awful at pretending. Her face was bored and emotionless, even though she tried to make it kind.

She went down to be eye level with the girl...

"I'm sorry for all this. I didn't mean to kill innocents..." Sera's voice sounded anything, but honest, it was like she didn't even care. At least that's the impression Kim had gotten.

"I'm going to kill you..." she said in a near inaudible whisper.

Sera looked down at her with confusion, like she didn't understand why her comforting didn't work.

"Why? It's not like I had a choice. I'm pretty sure that transcended guy killed me first, making me use my resurrection. Why don't you blame him?" Asked Sera in a perplexed tone.

Kim just stared at her like she was an idiot.

"The fuck you mean it wasn't your fault?! You killed my whole family! What gives you the right to murder innocents? Why are you the one who gets to decide that?" Shouted Kim, spittle flying from her mouth.

Tears flowed from her eyes, her emotions catching up to the initial shock.

What Sera said next would always be one of the worst mistakes of her life. Even two years after this conversation, she would still replay all of it and think of something better to say...

It would've been better if she said something nice and compassionate, or even just apologize again. Instead, she chuckled to herself...

"You think I'm the one who decides that? You are fucking naïve! I'm just a pawn here, same as every other soldier!... If you want to be the one to decide, I suggest you become stronger. When nobody can push you around, then and only then will you be free to do as you wish!"

With that, Sera stood up and walked away, leaving a broken girl to fend for herself.

She didn't hear from Kim for a long time after, but eventually, rumors spread about a young woman with strange foreign features.

Her name was unknown by everyone and people only called her by the title she gained... Acid Empress!