Angel Monarch-Chapter 313: Europe Aflame (5)

While hunting Jonas, Faith sent the request to help the people from inside the council building. A few civilian Angelic Order members went straight there, but no military personnel were available.

Wien’s revolution wasn’t unfolding as Faith had hoped. The chaos around Wien still held strong, but the Angelic Order’s forces were being routed on multiple fronts.

The primary theater for the battle happened near the military encampment, where the Angelic Order went and took a large portion of Wien’s vehicles of war. With them, they deterred most enemy forces.

Tanks, APCs, and other vehicles moved along the empty streets. All over the city, gunfire, explosions, screams, and death echoed. They put up an amazing fight against the barely prepared military forces.

Faith got a few reports of great successes and progress, but after Jonas escaped, everything stagnated.

At first, confusion reined over everyone, unsure what was happening. Numerous units unexpectedly went dark for no apparent reason. This lasted until the first reports rolled in, and exactly what Faith feared happened.

Her soldiers reported squads of seemingly insane men and women wearing normal metal armor and wielding regular weapons. The Angelic Order members quickly caught on their enemy’s identity. These were the so called Husks, as everyone referred to them.

The initial problem was the speed with which the first units died. They simply couldn’t report their presence in time. Now, it was too late to contain their presence, since they spread all over the city, fighting on every front.

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Faith moved through the darkness below the streets, containing every Husk she came across.

After weeks of discussion and planning, they eventually found a somewhat foolproof solution for the Husks.

There was no obvious solution at first. Some could eliminate them because of their unique abilities, whereas others, like Faith, had to find alternatives while dealing with the Husks.

The answer was actually quite obvious, but it took them a long time to realize its potential. The solution originated with Sera and Mary, who possessed a knowledge of a specific object that inspired their idea.

Previously, when they weren’t sure if Bea could help them power the Aegis System, Mary and a few Item artificers came up with a remedy for their energy problems.

They created an Item, which had the power of containing souls of Horrors of the 1st Tier. Mary then could’ve turned the souls into a makeshift power source.

Sera received this Item, which was jokingly and for safety reasons named <Nothing>, but she never truly used it. With Bea’s appearance and willingness to create a perpetual energy source, they didn’t need to use <Nothing>.

But the Husks’ appearance gave the Item a new purpose. After a bit of tinkering, they made a smaller version, which couldn’t contain as many powerful souls as <Nothing>, but it could house a lot more weaker ones, like the Husks’.

The artificers named these small crystal balls <Something>, a permanent mark of their stupid sense of humor. Pre-war, they produced hundreds, gifting one to each powerful soldier who could not vanquish Husks completely.

Each Something could contain about two dozen Husk souls, but they didn’t hold them perfectly. The energy constantly leaked, which meant after a few minutes, it could hold even more souls.

Despite lacking empirical evidence, Faith found the Item functional and without issues. She moved along the Earth’s darkness, killing the Husks quickly and efficiently.

In order for Something to capture souls, the Husks needed to die first, and Faith excelled in effortlessly killing them.

As she moved below battlefields, Husks just randomly exploded into bloody bits and pieces, often saving a soldier’s life. Needless to say, Faith’s soul carrier filled up way too fast.

Not like she minded. Her primary target wasn’t the Husks. They were just a side project, while she hunted for the main prize... Jonas…

The fire demon seemed to vanish after his escape. Faith found no sign of him, and no report contained his sighting. Wherever he hid, it wasn’t easy to find, so Faith decided to ask for a bit of guidance.

In an enormous room, amidst holo-screens, people stood around a large conference table. The air buzzed with frantic chatter focused on maps of Wien.

This was Wien’s military command center, and the people inside were the commanders trying to make sense of the sudden attack. The issue started with the appearance of the Husks, whom, unlike their soldiers, didn’t obey anyone.

It was like they received commands from an invisible source. After every minor victory, they just moved on to the next battlefield like thoughtless puppets held up by imperceptible strings.

There were even reports of Husks killing Wien’s own troops, because they ’stood in their way’, or something along those lines.

The entire war was a mess. A shift in the tide yielded incomprehensible chaos for the commanders. Right now, they planned on recalling their own soldiers and letting the Husks do their job.

This proposal generated vehement opposition because of their distrust in these unkillable soldiers. Their lack of control in receiving commands gave them much to doubt.

From the shadows, Faith watched their discourse for a few seconds. Upon confirming the absence of any surprises inside, Faith exited the darkness and entered the well-lit room.

Several Ascended near the entrances noticed her presence, but just as they tried to move, all of them immediately fell over, dead. Blood trickled out of their mouths, while their lifeless eyes stared into the nothingness.

The constant conversation ended quickly as the commanders laid eyes upon Faith. She was back in her war-gear, decked out with dark metallic armor and the Midnight Crown embedded in her helmet.

The Crown felt strange upon her head. It wasn’t supposed to have any effect on her, but wearing it, she felt closer to the darkness, and moved with seemingly higher authority. It was also a gift from her Lady, so she wanted to wear the Crown always.

The commanders stared at her with terror in their eyes. They were all Ascended, or at least Evolved, but not the frontline fighter kind.

As Faith walked closer, they were unsure of their next actions. Just taking a glance at the dead guards near the door, with no visible wounds on their bodies, they felt that a fight against her would end badly for them.

The well-lit room became darker when Faith finally stopped a few meters away.

Her helmet fully enclosed her face. There were no eye sockets, which raised questions in the commander’s mind. They hoped maybe she couldn’t see, but were too afraid to test their theory, so they just continued to wait for her next action or words.

"Where is Jonas?" asked the feminine, serious voice from behind the dark helmet.

A shiver went down their spines, but they tried to hide their fears. A female commander found the strength to answer first, her voice betraying all her hidden emotions.

"W-we aren’t sure… B-by our latest… By our latest account, he was last seen near his home palace… Please… Don’t kill us… We never wanted to take any part of this war… Jonas perpetrated everything… He forced us to work under him…"

As the pleading began, a wide smile spread across Faith’s face. They couldn’t see it behind her helmet, but soon she burst into laughter.

She read the reports from the Angelic Order’s agents. No one ever forced these commanders into servitude. They happily killed off their regular human colleagues, just to receive more power over the army.

When the commanders heard Faith’s laughter, their hopes for survival abruptly broke, and they realized that the consequences of their actions had arrived.

A few cried, others continued to plead, some tried running, while one or two prepared to fight. Darkness absorbed the room, covering everything. Their screams echoed for a few seconds, and as the shadows receded, only corpses remained.

Faith left them there. She moved towards Jonas’s palace, where the trap awaited her. It wasn’t hard to guess. Jonas escaped way too soon into their fight, which either meant he was extremely weak, or he had some other much more reliable plan.

Since Faith assumed Jonas wasn’t a coward or a dumbass, he must’ve had a plan.

Fearlessly, Faith moved closer to the building, and quickly noticed a problem. She couldn’t sense any shadows inside. The entire building, every room and hallway, was in pure darkness. No outside light shone in, so neither objects nor people cast any shadows.

Faith chuckled as she moved towards the building’s entrance. Funny how not light, but pure darkness, fooled her perception. It felt kind of ironic, and she couldn’t hold in her laughter.

Her chuckling continued as she stepped inside the dark building. It echoed down the halls, making the atmosphere even creepier.

Unaware of precise enemy positions, she found comfort only in the darkness, her home.

For Jonas, though, it was the worst place he could’ve been. He eagerly awaited the trap’s activation, so he might leave the ever-present dark surroundings. It only took minutes for the long awaited moment’s arrival.

Faith reached the middle of an especially large hall, when light burst out from every corner and wall, shining straight at her. The blinding light felt overwhelming and even painful.

She screamed and groaned, as her shadow perception overloaded. Faith fell to her knees, stunned momentarily. With her confused sense she couldn’t see as Jonas moved towards her with his sword raised.

He laughed maniacally as he prepared to kill her, but then something strange happened. Just when he planned on stabbing Faith, she began convulsing on the ground, and suddenly, for no apparent reason, she died…

Jonas couldn’t understand what had happened with Faith, but soon, he and many others all around Wien figured it out the hard way...