Angel Monarch

"Report."

Sera didn't need to say more, she spoke very little which often unsettled most people. Of course when she makes a public appearance like interviews and announcements she tries to mimic facial expressions. It helps some amount, but the speaking part still wasn't her strong suit.

In the past two years she improved a lot though. When she first came and took over New Athens, her first speech to the masses was barely one sentence. At this point she only spoke like this with her captains, who knew about her condition.

"Not much happened in the past weeks since you had been away..." *cough* "I mean since the Lady has been away..." Said Melinda a bit awkwardly, but Bran soon came to the rescue.

"Earlier on November 1st we had the usual Remembrance Celebrations. Their were a few unruly citizens there, but nothing concerning. Then later on a patrol found a small horde of Jumping Lizards heading our way, but they cleared them out without any issue. No deaths or even injuries."

The others nodded along agreeing with Bran's report.

"I also compiled a lot more detailed report, which should've already arrived to Lady Seraphine's watch!"

Sera opened her watch's interface and quickly brought it up. After reading though it for a few minutes, she looked to the right and made a nod of thanks towards Bran. In answer he made a small proud smile, it didn't take much to satisfy his needs of approval.

"And all of you should've gotten my record on the Sofira operation. What insights do you have for me?" Her voice sounded the farthest away from interested, but she asked for their opinion after every operation.

It helped her as a leader to learn what other people would've done in her place. Most of the times her decisions were the right ones, but unlike the public believes she does make a lot of mistakes. Never big ones that could turn a victory into defeat. It was more like not making the most optimal of choices, which could increase the casualty rate by a large margin.

She pressed a few buttons on the table's interface and soon her report came up on everyone else's personal screens. Other than Bran and Melinda everyone began reading it with great interest. It was clear who payed the most attention to her messages.

The three of them waited patiently for everyone to get an idea of those events. Eventually they all looked up with a bit more admiration than before. Sera just stared at them silently, waiting for someone to begin.

"Well, first of all congratulations for another recent victory. It was truly amazing how the Lady had defeated them with only half the numbers they had..." Sera slowly raised her hand and Kathy turned silent.

"Don't discredit the others, the plan of attack wasn't my idea because it got overruled by the others. You should also know, we could've suffered much more casualties if we would've we went with my plan." Said Sera in her usual empty voice. She turned her head to the side a bit and stared at Kathy curiously.

"I expected those two not to read my report, but not you... interesting." Kathy's face turned red, like literally a bright red color. It was strange how expressive a shapeshifter could be. As she was about to make some excuse, Sera just raised her hand which instantly silenced any protest.

"I'm not mad at you or disappointed since I can't feel either. I also don't care if none of you read my reports, what I care about is that you provide insight to make better decisions in the future. Yes, you are the strongest ascended in this city, but you can be strong without the need to be captain."

The not so covert threat was obvious to everyone. If you wanted to stay at the top of the hierarchy ladder, you have to put more effort in the leading part of the job. Hector and Percy looked the most scared out of the five, since they did the least amount of work.

Melinda and Bran on the other hand were just smiling gleefully at the others.

"So I ask everyone again. What do you think?" Throughout her speech she never raised her voice.

That was another important detail, which made everyone pay more attention to her, or fear her a bit. If you can't judge another person's character by how they act, it makes you wary about said individual, since you can't predict what they will or won't do.

"Since those three have no idea what happened in Sofira, I will begin. First, I don't know why, but the attack on the left flank fell apart too quickly, which provided time for the enemy to reinforce the mid and right flanks. As the report showed the left was the weakest out of the three, but it definitely shouldn't have been underestimated."

As Bran talked Sera nodded along, this was the biggest issue during the siege. They attacked the wall from three sides, but for some reason the scouts made the wrong estimate for the left side, which caused a near total collapse in the offense.

The only reason they didn't lose the whole left flank is, because the leader of the middle noticed it quickly and gave them enough support for a proper retreat. This also made Sera's job on the right much harder, but since that part of the wall was farthest from the left, she managed to break through before the reinforcements arrived.

"Yes, very good. Sadly this was a problem with the scouting and not with the actual siege. Anyone else?"

"It says that the wall was full of Autocannons that shredded a large part of the infantry. They should've been destroyed sooner, by either our own tanks and artillery, or some evolved with ranged destructive capabilities."

Sera made a small nod of acknowledgment towards Percy. What he said wasn't bad either, if he wouldn't be so lazy and lustful, he could be a great commander.

"Good, they had an ascended with a power that gave energy shield coverage for that whole section of the wall. It took me a while to kill him, and in that time they caused a lot of destruction to our forces."

The captains absorbed what she had said and everyone arrived at the same question eventually, but non dared to ask it.

"Anyone else?" Asked Sera, but they stayed quiet. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Melinda just couldn't stay quiet any longer.

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"Uh... Lady Seraphine... Why didn't you die?" The question might seem strange and utterly insane to most people, but Sera instantly knew what she was referring to.

"Previously before the siege I got asked away by Harold to help with his research. As you know that's never pretty, so I wasn't able to provide help that way during the siege."

In these two years she made many discoveries about her new ability and how to properly use it. She could die once a day and resurrect more powerfully than before. This power-up would last an hour and in that timeframe she could even fight against weaker transcended.

Sadly this power was also the main reason Harold liked to use her as a lab rat. By her count she had died 389 times. Most times during an experiment, other times during battles, and rarely from assassinations.

They even cleared a giant field next to her home, where she could resurrect without destroying a few streets and killing thousands of citizens.

Since there seemed to be no more insight about the siege, Sera decided to continue with the real reason for the meeting.

"We had gotten a new directive from Central Command. There is a small outpost a few hundred kilometers north of New Athens. Our mission will be to kill everyone in their camp."

As Sera spoke Bran was writing everything down on his watch.

"Their numbers?" Asked Hector. When violence was on the table, he quickly became very interested.

"About a hundred evolved and ten ascended. No regular soldiers as by latest account, but this could've changed in the past few days. We don't know what their plan is, or why did they get so close to our territory, but our job is not to ask questions." She said with her hollow voice, then looked to her right and spoke only to Bran.

"I leave the control of New Athens in your hands, I will take Percy and Melinda with me. Also choose twenty other evolved for the mission, only people who can travel fast. I don't want to be outside for too long."

Bran nodded along as he wrote everything down. On the other side of the table Hector was fuming, he seemed to be a bit angry for not choosing him for the mission. Sera didn't even look at him.

"Okay this was all for today. Percy and Melinda, we will leave in a few hours. Be ready." She was still speaking, when she stood up and walked towards the door. Her last sentence was said form the corridor and then she was gone.

Non of the captains were surprised because of this behavior. Their leader was like a storm, you couldn't stop it, only weather it.