Angel Monarch

After the sudden teleportation, the six children woke up confused. Henry looked around, and with the low light shining through the windows, he noticed the change of rooms quickly.

He didn't remember falling asleep on the couch. He was quite certain they were in his bedroom.

While the others stretched and seemed just as bewildered, he soon noticed a missing person. Vicky was nowhere to be seen. The thought entered Henry's mind when his room echoed with fighting.

He was no genius, but he quickly figured out what could've happened. People must've tried to assassinate Vicky, and he teleported them away from the fight.

At first, Henry thought the only target was Vicky, but upon hearing the explosions below, this fantasy shattered fast. Through the window, the six kids watched as towers crumbled, people screamed, and died.

Henry wrote message after message to her mother, the castle-guard captains, and the city's generals. As the sole prince, even though young, he held all their contacts in case of emergencies. This event exceeded an emergency; it approached a crisis.

They watched the destruction through the window. A potential attack caused the elevators to shut down, preventing Henry from escaping with his friends. Only a long, internal ladder allowed them access to the lower floors.

They could've easily climbed down and left, but it wasn't necessarily the best option. The inside of the castle was vast, and they couldn't predict what was waiting for them below the tower.

It also wasn't smart to stay in a tower, since it was a potential target, but to be honest, Henry didn't want to leave. From his bedroom, they all heard Vicky's screams, mixed with the assassins' cries of pain. He would've rather stayed there, not caring about the danger.

He raised all these concerns and solutions to his friends, and they all knew that leaving was a terrible choice. They trusted Vicky to take out the assassins. Even though they only met her a few hours ago, during that time, they all grew quite close.

All six went into the panic room, located inside Henry's kitchen. An unremarkable chamber featured walls, ceiling, and floor composed entirely of thick yet soft monster hide. Even if the tower broke, the panic room's design ensured its survival in the crash, keeping everyone safe within.

While hiding there, Henry continued to communicate with everyone, and after much thinking, he even sent a message to Sera. She, of course, was too busy to read it, but he still felt better by warning her about Vicky's situation.

The sounds inside his bedroom only worsened as time passed, but any sign of fighting was good, in Henry's opinion. Each noise was a mark of Vicky's status.

Henry continued to communicate with the many different forces inside the castle. He grieved the attack's high casualty count and felt terrified by the enemy's inhumane nature.

As he read their description, he became quite perplexed. Evolved lacked a simple method for permanent extermination, complicating the situation.

Henry was sure his mother could kill them with ease, but she still hadn't answered his texts, which brought another round of worry to his heart.

It was a true turn around when he began getting random reports of the husks dying for no apparent reason. Everything seemed to turn for the better.

The small panic room was finally silent. No sounds of explosions, fighting, and dying reached them. But this didn't bring relief for Henry, on the contrary. The silence felt wrong to him. He was forgetting something, and it drove him crazy.

Only when Sera finally messaged back did he realize what was wrong… His bedroom became quiet too…

This, of course, could've meant Vicky had won, but it wasn't a certainty. He quickly wrote back to Sera, telling her which was his tower.

It took the Deathless Phoenix a few seconds to arrive. Outside of the panic room, a large crashing marked her entry inside the living room.

Henry exited the panic room with the other children. They hadn't even registered who they were seeing. All of them were more curious about the bedroom and Vicky's state.

Sera gazed questioningly at Henry from the damaged balcony. He swiftly pointed at his room's door, not like it wasn't obvious from the blood leaking through the cracks.

The doors inside his apartment closed near hermetically, so the blood only trickled at a few places. Still, if they managed to leak through, it meant the other side held large amounts.

Approaching cautiously, Sera activated the door sensor with a gentle touch. Nobody, not even Sera, was prepared for the bedroom's state.

The vile smell hit everyone so hard that all the children vomited simultaneously, and even Sera's iron guts took a real hit. The smell was indescribable, a mix of iron, blood, excrement, and death. It was like a thousand fresh, rotting corpses rested inside the large room.

Next came the wave of red. Blood flowed from the room like an unbound river. It was a bit above ankle height when enclosed. Upon opening the door, though, it began spreading out inside the apartment, coloring every floor blood-red.

Bits and pieces of flowed on top of the blood. Hundreds of hands, legs, arms, heads, and other body parts. This caused another round of puking, and even Sera couldn't hold it back anymore.

The disgusting sight was even worse inside the bedroom. After vomiting her guts out, Sera went inside looking for her daughter. There wasn't a clean spot inside the bedroom, the walls, ceiling and floor all covered in gore.

With worried eyes, Sera searched the place thoroughly. It took her a few long seconds to finally find Vicky. Her daughter blended in with the room. The scene's carnage paled in comparison to her body's state.

She tried calling to her, but Vicky was unresponsive. She laid on her side, eyes closed, chest barely moving.

A sudden terror took hold of Sera. She ran inside, grabbing her daughter, then without care, she flew straight out through the wall.

Henry and the others only got a glimpse of Vicky's state, but they all became worried, and ran towards the elevator door. Following the end of the assault, they resumed operation.

They weren't sure where Sera had taken her daughter, but they opted to head straight to the makeshift hospital established at the castle's edge.

After the assault, many needed regular human medical care, since no Evolved healing elevated their injuries. Many already succumbed to their wounds, since human medicine was much less miracle work, and a lot more science.

Extensive wounds simply prevented aid for some. Their only cure remained a quick death.

The six children waltzed into the busy makeshift tents. Doctors, nurses, and other medical workers rushed from patient to patient, trying to keep everyone alive.

Hundreds of injured laid on beds, or on the ground. Some only had a few deeper cuts, nothing too bad, while others had missing limbs, crushed bones, and life-threatening wounds. Many bled out right before their eyes.

Henry rushed inside, leading his friends. Nobody tried stopping them. The guards knew who Henry was and dared not order him around. The doctors were too busy to care. They couldn't concern themselves with a few rampant children.

The six kids moved from tent to tent until they found a small one a bit further from the rest. The Deathless Phoenix was in front of it, pacing back and forth, mumbling under her breath.

They weren't sure if approaching her was the best option, but she already noticed them. In a few seconds, she already stood there, with an emotionless face, seemingly judging everyone.

The boys began trembling with fear. They weren't certain if what they heard about Sera was true. They feared the angelic woman would blame them for her daughter's injured status.

Lydia trembled too, nearly passing out. She wasn't afraid of Sera. Instead, she was so excited that she could barely control herself. Her right hand continued playing with her seven-pointed star necklace, while her eyes never left the angel's face.

The only person who kept his emotions under control was Henry. Sera's gaze fixated on him, seeking something unspoken in his expression.

After a few endless seconds, she seemed satisfied, and done something unpredictable. The woman who many consider their god bent down and firmly hugged the boy prince of London.

"Thank you for giving me a heads up! Without it, my daughter wouldn't even have a chance for survival!" Said Sera, whispering into Henry's ear.

While everyone else stood shocked behind him, Henry only focused on Sera's words. In a trembling, hopeful voice, he asked. "Will she make it?"

Sera pulled away from him and stared into his eyes. Her face stayed impassive, but within those golden-green eyes, hope and sadness mixed, neither taking control.

"The lead surgeon expressed optimism, yet the outcome depends entirely on time. Her lungs got punctured and all her ribs broke from blunt force trauma. She also suffered significant blood loss from numerous wounds… She was a step into the grave when I brought her here…"
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Henry couldn't even make a sound. He was stunned to silence by the news. The others behind him stayed quiet as well, in fear of breaking the somber atmosphere.

Henry checked his watch, reviewing military dispatches while awaiting the surgeons' report. Most of it wasn't interesting, but one report made him curious.

The report concerned Bran and Bea; however, it contained unfavorable news. He read through it a few times, before turning towards Sera. She already resumed her anxious pacing.

He felt this wasn't the best time to tell Sera, but she deserved to know, anyway. After thinking for a few more seconds, he decided to tell her.