Angel Monarch
Chapter 405 - 405: Stolen Essence

A few days passed with Sera helping the Village. Their hunting and scouting expeditions became wildly more successful with the weapons and tools she provided.

They hadn't suffered a single casualty and brought home more meat than ever before.

The scouts used the compasses and sextants to measure distances with greater precision. They finally began mapping out the surrounding area near the Village.

Not much else happened during the few days. Sera continued making metal items for everyone, while also customizing the Angelic Metal's properties.

She could now easily magnetize and increase its conductivity. However, the heat resistance still proved difficult to change.

If she could somehow decrease its resistance, then she wouldn't need to customize every item. She could simply summon a sizeable chunk of metal and let Aponivi work it into the desired shape.

As the days went by, Sera felt her bloodlust returning gradually, but it hadn't reached the boiling point yet. She made a plan with Kangee, the lead hunter, and Pakwa, the lead scout, to use her bloodlust strategically.

They spent the days scouting out large hordes near the Village, so when Sera's bloodlust would inevitably boil over, she could find those hordes and exterminate them!

The scouts worked tirelessly, and now they had multiple potential targets. Each horde contained more than a thousand monsters, most of them either Horrors or Corrupted. Perfect targets!

Sera also continued speaking with the Tree, but it still hadn't shown up. It either had trust issues, or maybe it couldn't communicate properly. The Tree made acknowledging creaking noises, but that was the extant of their communication.

While the days went by peacefully, Sera felt quite lonely in the Village. She spent time with Amayeta and her family, but it felt like taking care of children, since they had many questions aimed at Evolved and Europe.

The only person who still stayed away from Sera was Alosaka, Amayeta's husband. Everyone else in the Village, even Tadita, accepted Sera, but Al stayed firmly untrusting and suspicious.

She couldn't figure out why. Even after asking Amayeta about it, she just simply said, Al didn't like strangers… Like that explained anything…

Well, it wasn't like Sera cared about what Alosaka thought. Instead of trying to appeal to a random person, she just began making jokes and constantly annoy him.

It didn't change his opinion about the Angel, but at least it made everyone else laugh with amusement.

Other than making items, Sera also taught fighting to the hunters. While they wouldn't need to fight against other humans, probably, it wouldn't hurt to learn a few moves.

The lessons also provided a great bonding experience and built trust.

Sera, in her loneliness, also spent a lot of time in the library, either reading books from the Old World or conversing with John, the lead teacher and oldest person within the Village.

They shared stories about the past. John told her details about the Last War, while Sera shared more about Europe's past.

Their conversation stayed on happy and interesting topics. They would rather not talk about the horrors they both witnessed.

As time passed, Sera also visited her comatose friend each day and night. Her wounds were healing smoothly and with the necklace Sera made, it boosted her regeneration quite a bit.

Eventually, while visiting Faith, the pale woman's eyes gently flickered, and she finally regained her senses!

…

Faith's entire body hurt like hell, but still she powered through the feeling to wake up. The last memory she could recall was about Sera abandoning her own safety and rushing to save her from the approaching Abomination.

As this memory popped into Faith's head, she tried to quickly open her eyes and glance around. However, her vision immediately blurred from the strong light.

She only saw a wooden ceiling above, before she had to close her eyes. Confusion grew in Faith, since by her knowledge she shouldn't be below any roof.

There were no survivors or buildings left in North-America by her knowledge, so they either left the continent, or maybe her Lady got bored and built a house.

Either way, Faith had to find her. She needed to make sure she was safe!

With a groan of pain, she pushed herself into a sitting position, and tried opening her eyes once more. This time, she kept them open long enough for the blurriness to disappear.

Faith looked around the room curiously. She felt a pinch in her arm and where a syringe protruded out of her flesh. A line connected the syringe with some makeshift IV-pot.

The shadowy woman's confusion deepened, and she slowly reached for the syringe. That's when she heard the beautiful, angelic voice… The voice of her Goddess!

"Don't touch that, you idiot!" Said Sera, while glancing up from the book she had been reading in the corner.

Faith's dark eyes immediately brightened, and she couldn't help but smile. Her Lady seemed perfectly fine, except for the strange prehistoric leather clothes.

"W-what… What happened?… Where are… Where are we?"

Yet again she leaned forward, trying to leave her bed, even as her body became consumed with agony. She scrunched up her face in pain, but soon she felt a gentle touch on her shoulders.

Lightly, Sera pushed her Shadow back onto the bed, while kindly smiling down at her.

"Don't worry, we're safe. As it turns out, North-America wasn't entirely destroyed in the Apocalypse. This place is called the Village, where the last survivors gathered together and survived!"

She pointed towards the bright window while explaining, but from the bed, Faith couldn't see anything.

"How long was I in a coma?" Asked Faith, pragmatically as always.

"About 5 days… After leaving that cliff and the Abomination, your wounds weren't healing, so I continued travelling west until I heard a scream…"

Sera told everything that had happened in the past five days. By the end, Faith couldn't hold herself back anymore and she soon burst into laughter.

"They are already worshipping you, am I right?"

The Angel just blushed heavily and looked away with embarrassment, causing Faith to laugh even harder. Eventually, Sera just scoffed and turned her back to Faith, trying to hide her joyous smile.

"It's not my fault! I always try to be helpful and kind towards people, but every time they end up worshipping me! Do you know how annoying that is?!"

The shadowy woman just shrugged with a wide grin.

"How would I know? I'm literally your biggest worshipper! Your literal Shadow! I find it endearing that other people see the same light I do every day!… Anyway, let's talk about the Abomination that attacked me."

Sera shook her head in exasperation…

"Good to know you're still extremely rational. You don't need any hugs or cuddling… After ten minutes of waking up, you immediately jump into action!"

Faith straight up ignored Sera's sarcastic remark and continued talking about the topic at hand.

"I couldn't feel the Abomination's presence, which was already strange, but when its claws raked my skin, my essence began rapidly draining away. I'm certain that beast stole my essence, judging by how I still didn't regenerate my wounds!"

The Angel's face also became serious as Faith explained what happened.

"So, that Abomination can steal essence… Interesting… I guess we just have to kill it to restore yours, probably… Not like we have any other choice!"

The Shadow raised an eyebrow at Sera's nonchalant attitude. Even though she was extremely strong, killing an Abomination wasn't simple.

"How do you plan on accomplishing that, Ms. Pregnant Angel!"

Sera just laughed at Faith's obvious reminder of her current bodily state. It would've been way too risky to fight against an Abomination while pregnant. She could die easily, and the baby might not resurrect.

She died once while pregnant, but the fetus was barely a few days old, so it also resurrected with her. She still wasn't certain why she didn't miscarry it afterward.

Her current theory was that until the fetus didn't develop a soul, it could resurrect within her body. Sera, however, didn't want to test it and push her luck.

"Well, I didn't say we'll kill it now. I definitely need to die and gain more power to fight against an Abomination. Sadly, this means you won't have essence for the next couple of months, until my baby's born!"

Faith snorted while shaking her head with a wistful smile.

"My Lady… I would rather live without any essence for the rest of my life than let you risk your own. However, I know better than trying to stop you, so I guess we'll just have to wait nine months!"

The Angel walked up to her Shadow and gently patted her midnight black hair.

"Yeah, that won't happen! I'd never let my most trusted follower lose something so precious!"

They both stayed silent after that. Faith continued staring at Sera, like she could disappear at any moment. However, as the minutes went by, her eyelids became heavier, until eventually she fell asleep.

Sera stayed in her room a while longer, reading her borrowed book, but after about an hour, she had to leave and attend to her duties.

After making lots of new machine parts, gears, and other objects. She continued configuring and customizing the Angelic Metal.

When she got bored with the constant testing, she taught a few new moves to the hunters, and gave them advice about killing monsters.

Later she ate dinner, then ran into Amayeta, to whom she reported Faith's awakening. The doctor seemed ecstatic and quickly moved off to check on her vitals.

As night weighed heavily on the Village, Sera finally went back to her room, cleaned herself and climbed into bed.