Angel Monarch

While Sera was melting Dwight's face, the others looked at her with terror. Even Cassandra was disturbed by her unhinged behavior.

Her hands were still on fire as their eyes met, there behind her hollow and neutral expression Cassandra saw something, which caused a deep fear to grow in her heart.

She heard the rumors of Sera's emotionlessness, but she also heard about her caring leader personality. Previously she judged her to be the second, but now she saw the truth.

As Dwight screamed in pain under her hand, her eyes stayed emotionless, like she had no remorse or even an ounce of care about others... She was like a machine that's only purpose was to complete her goal!

The whole interaction only lasted a few seconds. When she released Dwight his eyes were melted shut and he was unconscious from the pain. David quickly called in a healer, while Sera just sat back into her own seat.

She watched curiously as the terrified looking healer went to Dwight and healed all of the injuries on his face, or at least he wanted to do that. He finished healing Dwight's eyes and most of his facial features, but when it came to healing the skin's damage Sera stopped him.

"That will be quite enough, thank you!" She said emotionlessly. The healer looked between the unconscious man and Sera, he didn't know what to do. "Uh... My Lady... If I don't heal all his wounds now... It might cause permanent damage..."

Sera nodded, then pointed at the exit. The healer looked at the others in the room, but he found no support there, they were still trying to process everything that happened. The only person who met his eyes was David, but he motioned towards the door too.

Since the healer could do nothing else, he bowed and walked out. When the room only contained the six of them again, Sera looked at each with interest. Both Frank and Jill met her eyes, they didn't seem to really care about Dwight. Cassandra on the other hand was still looking at him with wide eyes.

"Now that the trash is finally silent, lets get back to the topic... We will up the patrols and have the evolved guard the gates, including at least one ascended at each. We also should have the people in reserves train. The regulars don't really need to, but the evolved acting like this is unacceptable!"

Jill and David nodded along, while Frank was writing something into his watch. Cassandra's eyes turned to Sera, but something was different behind them, she looked dejected and also a bit hopeful for some reason. Sera tilted her head a bit confused and in the next second the look was gone, so she just continued to the next topic.

"The siege was supposed to be a week from now. I hope you've at least have scouts in the city. What are the exact numbers we are facing?" She asked, not paying attention to Cassandra's previous expression.

Suddenly her watch pinged and a new message arrived from Jill. It was a well made report of numbers, soldier movements and enemy weaponry. It had everything Sera needed to know to make an effective plan of attack.

She looked at Jill and nodded in gratitude, which she returned. In that moment her watch pinged again, this time the message came from... Frank.

Without looking up Sera opened the file, she had expected it to be a document about mushrooms and how to destroy them, but instead it was something much more surprising... The file contained their army's exact numbers and every evolved's powers, including Frank's, Jill's, Cassandra's, Dwight's and even Sera's own.

The lists were remarkably accurate, which caused a suspicion to appear in her mind.

She looked up and her eyes met with Frank's. The previous insanity was all but gone, it was like a mirage compared to the steady brown eyes that were currently staring at Sera. He made a small wink, then they suddenly changed back to their previous craziness.

This exchange had escaped everyone else's attention, but for Sera it raised a lot of questions. She definitely had to talk with Frank privately!

For now she just quickly read through the numbers and forwarded both documents to David.

"So they only have one transcended, 20 ascended and 200 evolved, plus about a hundred thousand regular soldiers with not much heavy weaponry. If the numbers are right, this probably won't be a hard siege, but one thing I learnt was to always expect the unexpected... How reliable are our scouts?"

Asked David and since he was the most qualified general out of all of them, everyone even Cassandra let him to lead this part of the conversation.

"They are... good enough..." Answered a pained and furious voice from next to Cassandra. Dwight's eyes slowly opened and instantly focused on Sera. "You will pay for this bitch!"

Sera just smiled a bit, then turned to David. "What are our numbers?" She asked, hiding the fact that she possessed a document giving this exact information.

"One transcended, Cassandra. 50 ascended, lead by all of us and 375 evolved, brought by Cassandra. The regular soldier count is 95.321, they have heavy and light tanks, artillery, a few wallbreakers and even some amount of air support. Do you want to know the exact numbers of those too?" Answered David.

Sera shook her head, then thought of a plan of attack, but there wasn't much to think about. With these numbers they would break through their defenses with ease. An overengineered plan could be worse than a simple one in a lot of cases.

She was about to speak again, but Cassandra was faster this time. She still pretended to be outraged by Sera, though she had already noticed that something had changed.

"I think that's enough for today, all of you can leave except Sera. I would like to speak with you privately!" She put just enough ire to her voice, to convince everyone of her anger. David really wanted to protest, but one look from Sera caused him to leave too.

On her watch Sera sent a message to both him and Jill, to make sure the patrols and defense updates would be implemented.

The person to leave last was Dwight. He was staring at Sera with barely contained wrath.

"Dwight, I think I made myself clear! Get The Fuck Out!" He turned to Cassandra, then back at Sera. He spit on the ground, then went away while grumbling under his breath.

When the room only contained the two of them, silence took hold of the space. They were staring at each other waiting for the other to start. Luckily for Cassandra, Sera was way too tired and she really wanted to take a shower, so without much care she said, "What did you want to talk about?"

Cassandra raised an eyebrow and looked at her dubiously. She didn't believe Sera's innocent act for a second, which was fine, not like she placed to much effort into it.

"If you haven't noticed it yet, I'm the leader of this mission!" She said, but Sera's answer quickly shut her up.

"Then maybe start acting like one!... I can't fucking believe how inexperienced you are, do you even care about these soldiers, or their only purpose is to inflate your giant ego?!" Sera didn't even really try to sound hurtful, but her emotionless voice gave it a similar effect.

Cassandra looked away a small blush appearing on her face, she seemed embarrassed and... Melancholic...

This expression confused Sera, but she didn't stop with her shaming. If an attack would've came while she wasn't here, this place might've been destroyed!

"A commander should put their soldier's wellbeing first. Their purpose is not to be used as a tool, but to be wielded as a sharp weapon, you serving as the tip!... Logistics and preparations are just as important as planning, and right now this camp lacks everything, including good leadership... Please enlighten me, why did they sent an amateur as the commander?"

Sera voice held no malice, but on Cassandra's face a single tear ran down. She quickly smeared it away and tried to act like nothing happened, but the sadness persisted and she couldn't meet Sera's eyes as she answered.

*Sigh* "My parents are part of the Central Command... They thought of me as useless since I rather went to parties and had fun, instead of fighting in the war... I'm only a transcended because other people helped me... You were correct earlier, when you said I didn't have to fight for anything... And believe me I would rather be anywhere than here..."

Finally Sera started to understand what was happening here. Technically Sera and the others had no need for Cassandra for this siege, but it seemed like her parents wanted her to get some experience... or die...

Cassandra still hasn't looked up, instead she let her hair cover her face. Sera heard her sniffling and saw her trembling body... She seemed terrified about her future, and who wouldn't be?

She never had to fight for anything and now she suddenly found herself in a commander position. If she fucked it up, thousands of lives would be lost because of her.

Sera felt disgusted by the whole situation. Central Command was using the soldiers' lives, like training dummies. As if their whole purpose would be for the powerful to play chess with!

They stayed silent for a few minutes and as Sera listened to Cassandra's crying she made a decision.

"Okay Cassandra, from now on you will follow my lead in this room and act as a leader outside for the troops! Me and David will teach you a few things about leadership, but you will stop acting so childish. If you care about the lives of all these soldiers, you will let the more experienced people make plans... Deal?"

She finally looked up. Her face was full of tear marks and desperation. Looking at her like this made Sera realize how young she actually was.

At first she thought Cassandra was in her thirties, but now she seemed even younger than Sera herself. The previous petty, stuck-up lady behavior had fully dissolved, leaving only an earnest girl who wanted to do her best.

"Would you really help me?" She asked while sniffing. Sera just nodded.

Suddenly she got up and moved so fast Sera couldn't even react. In one second she was sitting in her seat and in the next she was hugging Sera. She felt her ribs and spine groan under the pressure.

"Thank You!... Thank you so much!... You are truly a person of honor, like the others say!"

Sera's head started to turn a bit blue and with a voice that was barely audible she said, "I can't breath..."

Hearing that Cassandra quickly released her and apologized. They both laughed a bit, then Sera proceeded to give her a few advices. Eventually they left the room, like they were friends who had known each other for years.

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