Chapter 185: Banished
In the past few days Sera had really thought about what to do with Hector. It seemed like he won't going to give her a chance to kill him. He stopped causing issues and actually started to act more well-behaved.
She also noticed him spending a lot more time alone. He always seemed to be talking with someone on his watch.
Instantly Sera got suspicious, but with no real evidence of him doing anything wrong, she couldn't use it as an excuse for execution.
Seeing him sitting there with Dwight and his team, gave her an idea.
Walking to their table, they only noticed her when she plopped down in an empty chair and put her armored boots on the table. The dining table sagged a bit under their weight.
All six of them looked at her with dissatisfaction and most of them with outright hostility, but she had to give it to Hector. His expression stayed neutral and undisturbed, like her presence was equal to a small fly buzzing around his head.
She didn't really care and just leaned back in her chair, while placing her hands behind her head. From the outside she looked to be extremely comfortable, but a keen eye would instantly notice the difference between her left and right gauntlet.
One of them was the exact same as her armor, but the other was much more elaborate, with small ornamentations and carvings all over its surface.
While walking towards the table she summoned her weapon in a gauntlet form and it melted into her armor near seamlessly.
"The fuck do you want?" Asked Dwight, in his usual whiny, annoying voice.
"I just wanted to get to know everyone! We are going into battle together in a week, I would feel much better knowing the people who will cover my back." Her voice sounded serious, but non of them believed a word she said.
Sera looked each in the eye while smiling. Dwight's team looked exactly like how she imagined them, roguish and hostile, with scars all over there body. One was a woman, the other three man. They had the same sense of style for clothing, dirty and bloody, with a lot of tears and holes everywhere.
They looked the most hostile, even Dwight wasn't as bad as they were... At least until he stayed silent, which was unfortunately rare.
"The fuck you want to know?" He asked with a bit more annoyance and wrath than the last sentence. But Sera needed him angrier.
"You know your speech pattern is very predictable. You should really expand upon your vocabulary. It would greatly enhance your sophistication!" As Sera spoke his face soured further.
"Keep talking that way and I will shove my sophistication right up your ass!" His voice became much deeper as he spoke, but Sera only smiled and said, "Invite me for a dinner first! At least I could be disappointed with a full stomach!"
Hearing that the only other female at the table suppressed a laughter, and the other members of his team seemed to be struggling to keep their angry expression.
Suddenly Dwight jumped to his feet and held out his hand to the side, about to summon his weapon. Sera's face stayed impassive as she stared into his eyes. This standoff lasted for a second before, out of nowhere her head snapped towards Hector and she spoke in her most haughty and authoritative tone.
"Hector, Dwight has attempted to hurt me. Kill him!" His previously neutral expression changed to pure bewilderment, this was also reflected on every single person sitting at the table.
Even Dwight looked at Sera, like she had lost her mind.
"S-Sera... My Lady... He didn't... What do you mean?... He just stood up abruptly, because of your teasing... That's nowhere near an attempt on your life!" His voice sounded a bit panicked, but Sera had none of that.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she said, "Do you dare disobey me?"
The panic slowly seeped out of his face and resolve took its place. Behind the farce though, Sera saw the terror, which brought quite a lot of satisfaction to her.
"Yes. I won't follow stupid orders!" His voice was steady, but she saw the small tremble in his hand.
The silence lasted for a few long moments. The people sweated at the table, anxious to see what Sera would do next. They never expected to hear the mad laughter that exploded out of her. She clapped with her hands too, applauding Hector's bravery.
Suddenly her expression snapped back to normal as quickly as it appeared. The whole reaction seemed very unnatural. It creeped everyone out at the table.
Her eyes bored into Hector. Below her gaze, his previous confidence seemed to crumble and as she spoke with an ice cold tone, his every hope turned to ashes.
"Hector, Dark Fiend! From today until I live, you are banished from New Athens! Everything you own that's been left in the city is now the government's property! In the next few days you will receive an official update to your status, which is now unemployed. If you want to you can write an appeal and shove it up your ass since that's where it belongs!"
The people sat stunned around the table as Sera stood up. On her face a smile appeared, which held no humor.
"As I said a few times now, I gave you one final chance! Since you failed to follow my clear instruction, then I don't need you in my fold. I like my followers and team members to be obedient and trustworthy... You are neither!" With that she walked away without saying another word.
Back at the table Hector's expression was strangely tranquil. On his face a small smirk appeared, which was mirrored by the others five people next to him.
"Nice play Sera, but you are a bit too late with that!" He whispered to himself and everyone at the table laughed, like hyenas before a hunt.
...
The next place she walked to was Frank's house. She deemed it a good idea to follow Jill's suggestion, but there was one small problem... she had no idea where he was located.
Sera:
Hey Frank! Where is your house?
As an answer he just sent his location and a small message.
Frank:
Don't bring mushrooms!
Without further ado, Sera set out to find his home. It didn't take long, but when she stopped in front of the supposed building, she thought it was the wrong place.
The building was large and made of concrete. It had a large garage door and nothing else. There were no windows or anything that would suggest that this was a place where people lived.
After checking her watch ten more times to make sure this was the exact location, she moved forward and knocked on the garage door. It was made of some kind of light metal and her knocks echoed loudly down the street.
Behind the door Sera heard footsteps, they were small, like a child's. The large door began rolling upward until a tiny head popped through the small gap.
It was the previous girl's head. She was the one who led Frank away. Her long green hair was touching the dirty ground as she stared into Sera's eyes. Her face showed nothing but awe.
Sera smiled down affably. She went down on one knee, to the girl's eyelevel and she spoke with her kindest voice.
"Hello there. I don't think we have met before. My name is Seraphine, nice to meet you!" The girl was stunned for another moment, then she suddenly went into attention like a soldier.
Sadly this caused the garage door to slam back down since she was the only thing that held it off of the ground. Behind the door Sera heard a muffled curse, then the door quickly rose again, this time to a height that would let Sera enter the building.
While walking inside she looked around. The building was actually just one giant room. It was packed full with machinery, worktables, electrical instruments and a bunch of boxes that were full of supplies.
In the far side of the building was five beds, a small kitchen area, a dining table and a sealed off shower.
Sera stared at everything with great interest, but her eyes eventually returned to the green haired girl. The garage door slammed down again, and the girl went into attention again.
"Good day, Ma'am! Ascended Maya, reporting for duty!" Her posture was straighter than most evolved Sera had seen, her tone sounded sincere too.
"At ease, Maya... Hmm, ascended? Really?... That's quite impressive!" The girl grinned for a moment from the compliment, but her face quickly returned to its seriousness, with only a small blush showing her embarrassment.
Sera walked to her with a smile, then ruffled her hair. Maya giggled and tried to stay serious at the same time, which caused a hilarious emotional battle on her face.
Suddenly behind Sera a small explosion sounded, which caused her to instantly jump into action. In her hand the gauntlet turned into a glaive. She turned around ready for anything.
Without even knowledge Sera stepped closer to Maya, keeping her safe from anything that could threaten her. This wasn't even a conscious action, just a reflex.
"Goddammit! That was close..." Said Frank from one of the workbenches.
In front of him a bubble was glowing. It was like an explosion that was stopped in time, but also different. It swirled inside the bubble trying to escape.
Behind Sera her wings appeared, she would shield herself and Maya if anything happened, but her fears were thankfully in vain.
She watched with quite a bit of surprise as Frank's hand moved in the air and the bubble began to shrink. It started as a half meter diameter ball, but he shrank it down to the size of an eyeball, then he went further, until it became the size of a small fingernail.
At that point a few plastic and metallic bits rose all around it, and enclosed the explosion.
Frank's hands stopped moving and he sighed in relief. The result was a small ball of explosive that sat on his workbench. He grabbed and looked over it thoroughly, then without giving it much thought he tossed it into a large pile of similar balls.
Sera flinched as the explosive ball hit the others, but nothing happened.
Still a bit uncomfortable, Sera dismissed her weapon and wings. Her whole body was taut as she slowly walked towards Frank, while constantly keeping the explosives in her line of sight.
Somehow Frank still haven't noticed her, and only when she tapped him on the shoulder did he actually react. He jumped up from surprise and screamed, so high pitched that the sound could've been made by a little girl.
"Oh... Sera... Don't scare me like that..." He said while out of breath, but she ignored him and pointed at the explosive pile.
"What The Fuck Was That?!" Shouted Sera.
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