Angel Monarch-Chapter 538: Spirit Realm

Bea’s pupils went wide, absorbing the entirety of her eyes. Her vision went completely blank, while her hearing, sense of smell and taste also disappeared. Only her sense of touch remained, and upon feeling Sera’s warm, gentle hand on her shoulder, a calming wave spread across Bea’s body.

A burning pain appeared in Bea’s chest. It gradually spread over her chest, stomach, limbs, and head.

She took quick gasps as she lost her last lifeline to reality, her sense of touch. Her entire body felt weightless, consumed by endless suffering and despair. Nothing existed outside the agony, as she fell deeper into the void.

"What’s happening to her?" shouted a familiar, distressed voice somewhere far away.

"I don’t know! I Evolved into Stellar without issues. Yes, it hurt and felt extremely uncomfortable, but I stayed conscious throughout!" answered a different, more feminine voice.

"Fuck it. I’m not letting her suffer any longer!" shouted the first voice, then a moment later, warmth flooded Bea’s body.

At the edge of the infinite nothingness, a bright light shone into Bea’s eyes. The pain subsided momentarily, and the closer Bea got to the light’s source, the better and saner she felt.

The light soon absorbed the emptiness, leaving Bea standing on a colorless white plain. Before her, she felt a strange pull connecting her heart with something farther than she could see.

She took a hesitant step while glancing around the white surroundings...

"Where the hell am I now? If I’d known evolving into a Stellar was so much trouble, I would’ve remained a Transcended!"

While mumbling annoyed curses, she followed the feeling in her heart. However, she soon realized that the pull didn’t get stronger, like she was walking in place.

Minutes passed, or maybe hours, yet her progress remained nonexistent. After a while, she simply stopped and tried figuring out a solution... That’s when the same warmth appeared in her heart...

Suddenly, a silver-gold glowing line appeared before her eyes, connecting the faraway emptiness with her chest. The same warmth spread through the line, and with a hesitant hand, Bea grabbed it.

The pull became stronger, and after taking a few steps, Bea felt progress. She pulled on the line while walking towards the object it connected to.

It felt as if an eternity passed when she finally stopped and gazed forward. She saw a small, glowing sphere floating a few meters away. The silver-gold glowing line connected her heart to the sphere.

Just glancing at the orb, Bea knew exactly what it was. It glowed in white, gold and silver colors, but deep within, she saw a greenish tinge... The sphere was Sera’s soul!

Bea raised her hand, about to touch the sphere, but she hesitated. She didn’t know if touching the orb would lead to any repercussions for Sera.

The magnificent woman didn’t want to hurt her lover, so her trembling hand stayed a few centimeters away from Sera’s soul. However, just as she tried solving this new conundrum, she felt a powerful tug on the line.

She lost her balance and instead of touching the sphere with her hand... she hit the glowing orb with her face...

Light and color exploded around her as the white emptiness changed...

Bea glanced around in confusion. She found herself inside the sphere. The walls, ceiling and floor glowed gently, creating an odd artistic picture of Sera’s three colors. They kept moving around, creating more images...

Each image held deep meaning behind them, or at least, Bea understood what they depicted.

A white surface met with specks of gold, which Bea quickly translated... it depicted Sera’s hair and skin color...

The soul was the perfect reflection of a creature. They were like DNA, carrying immense amounts of information in a compact form. However, unlike DNA, they didn’t just carry biological data, but spiritual ones too.

Inside each soul, one’s true nature would appear. They revealed one’s powers, emotions, thoughts, personality, literally everything that’s related to the soul’s owner.

As Bea’s eyes moved around the surfaces, she saw all this information related to Sera. She saw that her favorite flowers are sunflowers, that she hated coffee and loved pastries.

However, when she saw a small green dot appear within a white circle, she glanced away with an embarrassed and ashamed expression.

"I should stop prying into Sera’s soul..." she whispered to herself, while her face burned bright red.

Finally, Bea turned towards the soul’s center, where a tall tree, covered in bright green leaves, grew. Between the leaves, three different flowers bloomed, each with seven petals. There were the usual blood-red and golden ones, but now a few light blue flowers appeared too.

However, what surprised Bea was the fourth type of lower, which were only buds. They did appear any color... all of them looked translucent...

"How strange..." she said while reaching for a bud.

As her hand touched the small flower, a feeling similar to getting shocked ran across Bea’s entire body. The feeling was painless and passed so fast Bea began wondering if she only imagined it.

But after touching the translucent bud, a gentle glow appeared in Bea’s chest. The previous line reappeared, connecting her to the blooming tree within Sera’s soul.

The line’s pull became more powerful, and Bea couldn’t stop herself from being forcefully yanked into the tree’s trunk.

"Oh, fuck... My head..." said Bea, while groaning in pain.

She lay on the cold, lifeless ground, which cooled her overheated body. Beads of sweat ran down her skin until slowly her inner temperature regulated itself.

The pain soon subsided, and she opened her eyes. She gazed towards the bright sky for a few seconds, confusion settling on her face.

Bea felt uncertain whether she woke up in the real world or inside another strange place. The sky, which should’ve been dark, now appeared bluish-red, as if dawn had arrived.

"Damn, you really took your time with that Evolution," said the same familiar voice as before. Now Bea remembered its owner though, and soon a joyful smile stretched across her face.

Without waiting, Bea jumped up and wrapped her arms around Sera. Soundless tears ran down her face as gentle sobs shook her body.

Sera didn’t say anything. She simply hugged Bea back and pulled her closer, letting her partner cry on her shoulder.

The sadness of losing Sera overwhelmed her, while the relief she felt for having her resurrected, broke her wall of pent-up emotions. She couldn’t do anything but sob for a few minutes until eventually Sera’s hug calmed the World Tree down.

Soon, Bea ended the hug, or at least tried to. But when she glanced into Sera’s golden-green eyes, the Angel’s hand moved away from her back. It gently grasped Bea’s jawline, pulling her lips closer.

A tender kiss lasted for a few seconds between the pair. It reassured both women and stabilized their pounding hearts.

They sat down near the shoreline, about two hundred meters away from Jörmungandr’s rotting corpse.

"How’s everyone doing?" asked Bea in a soft voice, which nearly disappeared under the sound of waves.

They leaned against each other while staring towards the western horizon. The sun had come up about an hour ago and now burned brightly behind their backs.

"They’re doing fine, but everybody’s exhausted. David used most of his Essence to set my state back to the moment before my death. I sent them away while waiting for you to wake up... Speaking of which, where were you?"

A tiny blush appeared on Bea’s cheeks as she glanced away in shame. However, when she turned back towards Sera, she saw a wide, cunning grin on the Angel’s face.

"You knew?!" shouted Bea in outrage.

"Of course I did! You think you could enter my soul without permission, or without me noticing?" answered Sera, and she soon burst into laughter upon seeing her partner’s embarrassed expression. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Sera placed her arm on Bea’s shoulders, then leaned in and kissed the top of her head. That brought back the World Tree’s smile, since the giddiness in her heart could overpower any sad feelings.

They fell into comfortable silence and watched the waves crawl along the sandy shoreline. The beautiful, peaceful moment ingrained itself into both women’s minds.

In that moment, the timing felt perfect, so Bea glanced towards Sera with an excited yet hesitant smile. She reached down, lifted her free hand and gave a gentle kiss to her fingers.

"You know, Sera," began Bea. "You spoke those magic words during our last date, but because of our needy desires, I didn’t have time to reciprocate... I apologize for making you wait..."

The Angel’s heart pounded fast as Bea moved before her. They kneeled on the sandy shore, the sun’s rays brightening Bea’s magnificent face. Her usual greenish-tan skin tone gained a hint of gold, which mixed with the brighter glow over her skin.

She gently held both of Sera’s hands, which were covered in sweat and trembled from excitement.

After a deep intake of breath, Bea steeled her fears and grinned at her lover...

"Seraphine... I truly appreciate everything you gave me... Thank you for giving me and this relationship a second chance... I love you more than anything, Sera!"

The World Tree, after declaring her love, leaned in and gave a deep, tender kiss to her love. There was no hunger or burning desire inside their bodies as their lips met.

They savored the kiss while engraving the moment into their memories...

Neither moved away for an entire minute, then when the moment passed, they continued watching the waves, their hands, hearts and souls all intertwined.