Angel Monarch-Chapter 356: Illusion of Choice

Inside the Cathedral of Light, the attendants began running to the exits in wild panic. A few even managed to slip outside before the automatic doors shut closed.

They continued banging on the doors, but to no avail. The civilians wailed in desperation, begging for someone to save them.

From above, Vicky watched their terrified forms with disgust. She watched as they trampled down one another in order to preserve their own lives.

A few seconds after the transmission cut out, Vicky turned towards Lilith and Adam. Just from one glance, they understood their purpose and jumped down from the floating platform.

The High Priest and Priestess carried enough authority to calm everyone with their presence only. They went to all seven main entrances and broke down the gigantic doors.

The people fled the Cathedral, with calmness inspired by their faith's leaders.

Vicky and Henry stayed on the moving platform, and guided it downward. They stopped near the area where the envoys and all their friends sat.

Solutions were already in effect, but they needed entry to the lower chambers in order to achieve anything worthwhile.

"James, prevent all external communication to and from this building! If they want to explode us, they'll have to do it manually!"

Henry's shout reached James, who was already working on it.

Back in the chamber, Tai cursed under his breath, "Dammit! They blocked all signals! We can't just leave with the detonator, someone has to stay here to explode it!"

Back on the top floor, Vicky was already teleporting every envoy away to safety. Kim, Astrid, and a few others went with them, just in case.

She also sent Cass away to defend Nick at any cost. She teleported everyone else down into the lower chambers, but there was one problem.

"We have to assume someone down there has some form of space manipulation! I won't teleport you into or near the control room! You will appear a few corridors away, and you probably have to fight through enemies to reach it! Everyone understands?"

All her friends nodded with serious expressions. Even the Lucy or Will, who usually loved joking in stressful situations, were now completely full of anger.

Attacking them was one thing, but threatening to destroy this Cathedral with hundreds of thousands inside? Even worse, threatening to kidnap Vicky's brother?

All their bodies burned with hate. Silently, they all swore to kill whoever that woman was, just for the sheer audacity to threaten them!

Lucy, Will, Leslie, Sarah, James, David and Joan ventured down. The others had other duties or weren't suited for close-quarters combat.

Just before Vicky teleported everyone away, the reports began piling in. Other locations besides the Cathedral faced attacks too, thus some of them helped out in other cities!

Only Henry and Vicky remained, floating atop the slab of stone.

"They just arrived!… Let's see… It's Time Snake, Fish, Weather, Demon, Death, Cyborg, and the last is unknown!"

Tai's shout reached Xinya's ears, causing her grin to widen. The insectoid man watched as the soldiers marched down the corridors in full-clad war gear.

Xinya already sent the others out into the corridor to intercept the elite soldiers. They were fighting with the few Ascended still alive previously, but now they had bigger fish to fry.

Each person with a designated callsign was someone of extreme danger. Even a single one worth dozens of people with the same Rank. The only advantage they possessed was the element of surprise.

Luckily, during the time since their fame, the Order of the Raven gathered enough intel to guess their capabilities and powers.

An Asian woman approached Tai, peering at the holo-screens displaying the approaching killers. She recognized all of them instantly, even the one without callsign.

In her mind, her mentor's words echoed as he described all of them.

'Cyborg: One of the weaker Transcended, but his powers are unpredictable and vast. He has lots of tricks up his sleeve, and could fight multiple Transcended with ease!'

The man wore a glowing suit of power armor, with energy blades growing from his wrists. On his shoulder, arms, and chest, many different weapons glinted in the corridor's low light.

'Weather: The woman has a lot of unique abilities, but her fighting capabilities are restricted to enclosed spaces. Don't annoy her though, since her emotional state is very volatile!… Also, if you kill her, I will personally torture you to death!'

Her mentor was the most strict about Weather. The woman didn't seem too special to Xinya. However, there must've been some connection, which made her mentor sentimental.

She wore a dark gray armor, seemingly made of storm clouds. Her hands stayed empty of weapons, but supposedly she used a trident to kill her foes.

'Time Snake: One of the best large-scale strategists alive. His abilities also nothing to be trifled with. Even I'm not sure his powers extant, or who it works exactly. By other Raven's account, he could create time loops, or something similar… Depending on the situation, he can kill dozens of Transcended!'

On camera, the man wearing a black, serpentine armor appeared underwhelming. But Xinya saw footage from his fights against stronger opponents. It was nothing short of extraordinary!

'Fish: Out of water, the man is just a stronger Transcended with psychic powers. Do not engage when near large bodies of water! Even Stellars would fall against that form of his!'

The callsign Fish was pretty accurate considering the man's dark blue, scaly armor. He also used a large shield and spear, both similar in quality to his armor.

Even her mentor couldn't acquire actual footage of Fish's transformation. But by later accounts he could change sizes from a few meter long sea monster to even a kilometer length leviathan.

'Half: Her name is Joan, someone new so her callsign is still unknown by most. She Evolved using her twin sister's corpse when Fear tortured her. The woman's actual abilities are still a mystery, but her achievements are already well beyond powerful… Don't stand close to each other when fighting her!'

Each time Xinya remembered her callsign she giggled. 'Half', as in half of the twin sisters.

The woman wore a light-blue armor with electricity dancing across its surface. In her hand, she carried a rod-like sword, which she used to guide her electricity.

'Demon: Only engage him with overwhelming forces, while having one Stellar on standby. His physical strength could destroy most Transcended alone, and that isn't even accounting for his natural defenses, armor and fire manipulation… If he's enraged, run the other direction!'

Xinya felt quite curious about the Demon's fighting ability. He was one of the few who her mentor found interesting.

Angelic Order's high-ranking members were impressive in their own way, but only a handful seemed actually strong in Xinya's eyes.

The Demon looked strong and terrifying. He wore a heavy, dark metal armor. Each step shook the corridors nearby. In his hand, he carried a halberd with its blade on fire.

His tail swung from side-to-side. Each time the dagger-like tip touched the walls or floor, it left deep gashes within the reinforced metal.

The terrorist woman's hand played on her sword's hilt, eager to draw it and test the Demon's strength, but sadly she couldn't… Exactly because of the shorter woman standing by the Demon.

'Death: Do not engage! No matter the circumstance, you turn the other way and run! Her Reaper's Scythe only need's to scratch you to die! Her aura alone could kill anyone too weak! She's among the select few capable of defending against you! Only Stellars are allowed to fight her!'

Xinya's lips twisted into an excited smile as she watched the woman approach.

Everyone around her wore some kind of armor, but Death continued wearing her black dress. Dark green smoke-like substance danced around her, oozing from her scythe's blade.

Even Tai, who seemed incapable of showing emotions, looked terrified by the short woman, carrying death in her grasp.

"What should we do? Do we ask someone to stay behind and explode the bombs?"

Tai was personally chosen by Xinya for this job. He was amazing when it came to tech, but the insectoid human was a coward at heart, with no real fighting skills.

He also knew how bad things will get with Death and Demon nearby. He was just like a cockroach, wanting to preserve its miserable life.

"Not yet! We will hold them up! You just disable everything inside the building! Elevators, the floating platform, lights, everything! When that's done, inform Chang!" freeweɓnovel.cøm

With that, Xinya drew her blade and ran towards the only door. Outside, the sound of fighting echoed into the control room.

Tai worked quickly and soon every electronic inside the Cathedral turned off.

Above, Vicky and Henry discussed their next move, when suddenly the floating platform plummeted.

She prepared to teleport herself and Henry away when she heard a loud explosion and saw debris falling from above.

Part of the ceiling's roof collapsed, and all the elevators fell, too. Below, people began panicking again, as they ran from the falling pieces.

From the hole above, she saw about a dozen ravens fly in. Everything happened too fast, and before she realized, a small needle pierced her skin.

A small giggle escaped Vicky's lips as she figured out what happened…

It was all a farce, a distraction, so nobody would stay behind defending either her or Henry.

The explosion below the Cathedral, Nick's attempted kidnapping, the attacks in every other city, these were never the target… She was the prize they were after!

She felt the poison from the needle course through her veins. It wasn't deadly, but she was slowly losing consciousness. Next to her, Henry was already out cold.

But before Vicky fell asleep, she summoned as many portals as she could. She teleported all the falling debris, elevators, and the platform away, saving everyone's lives below.

Vicky also used the confusion to open a portal below Henry, so at least one of them would stay out of the Order of the Raven's hands.

Her vision continued to darken as her laughter echoed. She watched as the ravens flew around looking for Henry, to no avail.

She blinked once more and felt a raven land on her head. It carried a dark feather in its beak and placed it between Vicky's white locks of hair.

Immediately after the feather touched her scalp, she fell unconscious.