Angel Monarch-Chapter 355: Order of the Raven

—A few minutes before Vicky's speech—

Below the Cathedral of Light, the chambers for the Angelic Order's soldiers were still being prepared.

Each church within their nation had similar gathering points and living quarters. Nevertheless, the Cathedral of Light, being the largest, would have chambers of according grandiose proportions.

For now, mostly the top layers were finished. That's where all the controlling mechanisms for the Cathedral were located. They had to be finished for the Cathedral's operation.

The chamber's security was exceptionally tight. The area, lacking apparent entry points, contained a guard of over one hundred Ascended and a small number of Transcended.

The underground chamber had no entrance. Vicky personally teleported every guard stationed there.

By all their knowledge, the chamber was inaccessible without teleportation… And they knew nobody else who could open portals…

About a dozen Ascended and four Transcended soldiers stood near the entrance to the control chamber.

People inside worked tirelessly, checking on every system, making sure no mishaps happened during the ceremony.

The soldiers outside suddenly felt a shiver run down their spines. The air turned colder as the air pressure dropped.

They exchanged confused glances, then one of them pointed to the end of the hallway.

A glowing, dark blue 'X' appeared out of nowhere. They initially thought the item was on the wall; however, they were mistaken… The 'X' floated in the hallway, blocking access to the opposite side.

Suddenly, its sides burst open, and a lone woman walked through the portal. Behind her, a wide, dark blue vortex floated with mesmerizing patterns.

The woman stood at above average height, wearing a light blue, long-sleeved robe-like outfit. She carried a long, single-edged sword, with a gentle curve near its tip.

Strange foreign symbols etched its shiny, dark, metallic blade, making the weapon both beautiful and scary.

She was more divine than her weapon. Her face looked foreign to most, but the four Transcended instantly recognized the similarity with one of the top ranking soldiers within the Angelic Order… Kim…

Her fierce, dark blue eyes seemed a bit too big for her delicate, pale face. Her small mouth had deep dark red lipstick highlighting it. She kept her silvery-white hair shoulder-length and held back by two identical golden hairpins.

A wide, scary grin spread across her face as she took in the soldiers standing nearby. She raised her sword threateningly and spoke in a clear, commanding voice.

"I will ask one question! If anyone can find the right answer, I will spare their lives! Deal?"

Soldiers exchanged puzzled looks. They were unsure: was her indifference born of immense power or profound foolishness. There were four Transcended inside the corridor, for Goddess's sake!

"Here it goes! What's the point of your lives? Aren't you all tired of cleaning up after someone who will never give a fuck about you? Wouldn't it be better to do something meaningful with your miserable, weak lives?… So? What's the answer?"

The soldiers frowned behind their helmets. They doubted her sanity, yet remained cautious about her strength. If she would've been weak, she couldn't have gotten down here.

The portal also remained open, which was another cause for concern.

One of the Transcended soon sprung into action, commanding everyone else.

"Take this stupid woman into custody, preferably alive! I will inform the leadership about this issue!… Damn, this will warrant an evacuation order. They couldn't fucking wait a day or two…"

The Transcended soldier sighed and raised his silver watch to type a message.

Meanwhile, everyone else approached the woman with a persisting grin on her face. Slowly, she changed positions, turning from threatening to calm.

With the first Ascended nearby, the woman moved incredibly quickly. Even the Transcended couldn't follow her speed.

She cut through empty air twice, then became calm once more. For a second, nothing happened, then out of nowhere, the corridor filled with blood.

It was as if the woman's sword cut through reality and common sense. The sixteen people inside the corridor exploded into little pieces, each body suffering thousands of cuts.

Even the Transcended couldn't survive whatever power the Asian woman possessed.

Her seemingly permanent grin stayed on her face as she walked through the blood-filled corridor.

Behind her, from the portal, ravens flew out, changing into Evolved human or other humanoid. There was only a handful of them. They pushed along a large cart, its contents hidden below a large tarp.

The control room at the end of the corridor stayed closed. A heavy vault door covered its entrance, with no opening mechanism on the outside.

Unconcerned, she approached the vault door, brandished her sword, and sliced through the metal with ease.

Along the cut, the metal door bent inward, then suddenly exploded into fragments, raining down atop the terrified soldiers.

These were soldiers, too, but they hadn't seen any real combat. They were the cogs in the Angelic Order, silently managing supplies, electronics, and whatnot.

Right now, they controlled every electronic device within the Cathedral of Light. Cameras, elevators, levitating mechanism, holo-screens… Everything!

The woman's wicked smile sent shivers down the soldiers' spines. They wanted to attack, or at least try fighting, but they also saw the bloody corridor behind her.

Before any of them could've acted, the woman raised her sword, pointing at the closest terrified girl seated behind a holo-screen.

"Hey, you! Show me how to operate the holo-screen up there! No, actually I don't care! Tell it to one of those fools!"

While speaking, the woman pointed her weapon towards the others entering the large chamber.

The already terrified, trembling girl nearly screamed upon seeing what had stepped into the chamber.

The creature was barely a meter tall, with a dozen bug-like eyes, four insectoid arms and a pair of legs. He wore a similar strange robe to the woman's, but it looked much strange on the humanoid insect.

He disregarded both workers and the woman, heading toward the room's main terminal. The chief sat behind the terminal, but he quickly backed away upon seeing the insect's approach.

The small man clearly possessed great understanding, and immediately began working upon seating himself before the main terminal. It took him no time to find the outside holo-screen and audio controls.

Vicky's speech was already well past its starting point, so the insect man worked quickly.

He found a small clip-on microphone and tossed it to the woman, who was picking her nails using her long sword.

She caught the microphone without looking, then clipped it onto her strange robe. She also sheathed her weapon, which then turned into light particles as she dismissed it.

A tiny camera probe floated before the woman, waiting to transmit its data to the holo-screens above.

"I'm ready, Xinya! We can begin whenever!"

The insect-like man spoke in an unnatural scratchy voice, while typing on the holo-screen.

He was trying to access the Angelic Order's files, but luckily, none of these holo-screens had a connection to the mainframe.

There were also thousands of encryptions on the data. It wasn't too hard to access it, but downloading anything could be considered impossible.

No matter the talent one possessed, James was part machine. He understood electronics better than anyone on this planet.

"Not yet, Tai! Let's wait for the Princess to finish… It would be rude to interrupt her last speech!"

The workers cringed upon hearing the woman's words. Some attempted using their watches to communicate with the outside, but the other terrorists noticed them before they sent the messages.

They didn't kill them though… Their shock value for this next part was a necessity for the plan to work!

Vicky's speech slowly came to an end. When Lilith's face appeared on the main screens, the woman named Xinya watched her for a few seconds.

She cleared her throat, made a few neck curls, then turned toward Tai, the insectoid man, and nodded.

He pressed a few buttons and the tiny blinking red light on the camera meant it was recording and broadcasting.

There was a second or two latency, but soon all the main screens above changed, showing Xinya's beautiful, Asian face.

Her fierce, dark-blue eyes stared into the camera with disgust and anger. On her lips, a twisted, hateful smile appeared.

"Sorry to interrupt this day of celebration, built upon the backs of corpses! But I have a bone to pick with this so called Princess!…"

For a moment, insanity glinted in Xinya's eyes, but she soon took hold of her emotions, boxing them away.

"People suffered enough under your and your whore mother's rule! They died in a war no one asked for! You sent millions to their deaths as a distraction! I hear the grass before Madrid permanently stained red from all the blood spilled before its walls!" fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

Even though dozens of meters of reinforced metal and concrete, Xinya swore she heard the crowd's outrage, upon referring to their Goddess as a whore!

She wanted to laugh, but her mood only turned worse with each word uttered.

"And you dare preach about the sanctity of this peace? About the importance of discovery? How interconnected the city-states will be?… Have you ever asked about your citizens' desire? Do you even care about them?… Or are you and your so called Goddess just hypocrites?!"

This time she actually laughed, because nobody shouted in uproar this time. The hundred thousand citizens inside the Cathedral all watched the screens with curiosity.

"No need to answer… I know you are! Isn't that why you secretly had meetings with officials from other continents? Have you sweet-talked them into starting a new war? Are they your new puppets?"

The crowd stayed silent this time too, which wasn't what Xinya initially intended.

She wanted to continue preaching about Vicky's hypocrisy, but the people weren't stupid. They didn't believe something, a random, nameless woman said.

"I guess it's time for Plan B…" She whispered to herself, causing the other terrorist to spring into action.

They pushed the cart behind Xinya and pulled off the large tarp covering its top.

"Now, Princess Victoria! Show me your leadership skills! Behind me, there are enough explosives to destroy the entire Cathedral of Light! I also sent soldiers to your home, since I heard a very special boy lived there!"

She giggled with insanity, while imagining the face Victoria was making.

"I prepared a few other surprises too, but I won't reveal everything just yet! For now, it's time to pick!… Who will you save? Your citizens gathered to celebrate your father's sacrifice? Or his child!… Your brother!"

A terrorist walked up to Xinya and handed her the detonator, while she continued staring into the camera.

"Either way, let me introduce ourselves before the fun begins!… You are the Angelic Order right?… Well then, call us the Order of the Raven!"