In the sky Seraphine stared down at the eight of them with fire in her eyes. Then suddenly a maniacal laughter shook their very souls and their hearts skipped a beat from fear.
Only now did the group realize that Sera throughout the whole fight was holding herself back. They haven't even noticed that she didn't use her transformation, only her physical strength and speed.
Her Wings of Despair must've gotten an upgrade as well, since the whole group was trembling from terror.
Slowly she descended towards them, but just before she reached the group a large snowy wind blew her farther away. The feeling of hopelessness disappeared from Bea's heart and gradually she looked up.
In front of the group stood the tall man from the outpost. His long white hair was carried by the strong frosty winds. For a moment he turned towards Bea, his freezing blue eyes focused on her... he was angry.
"You should have told me Harold was here!... Dammit, I should've know this was his doing..." He turned away and looked at the man in the white garb. Harold grinned at the man and laughed.
"Damien, you finally joined us! I had been waiting for you!... Let's see if you can still keep up!" In the next moment he seemed to disappear into flecks of light. Damien turned to Bea and the others, and shouted, "RUN!"
They didn't need to be asked twice and soon they were already dozens of meters away, but still they haven't stopped. Everyone heard the stories about the scales of battle.
When first ranked evolved fought each other, they can hardly even destroy a building. But when ascended fight the damage can be from one building to a few kilometers. It only gets crazier. When transcended fight the destruction could be anything around them, there is no specific scales of damage... If they fight everything gets destroyed!
Above transcended the fight changes, at that point a city is just a piece of land that will definitely fall to their power. A very good example for that is Newber. It wasn't destroyed because of the Realm Gate, but the fight between two creatures of stellar rank.
Bea had no idea how big a battle's scale was above stellar, but only the thought of finding out was terrifying.
They haven't looked back even after running for a few kilometers. Behind them the first of the explosions could be heard.
...
Sera watched the fight between Harold and Damien with glints in her eyes. The pain, the destruction, the suffering... it was exhilarating. The only sad part was her lack of strength to join.
On the ground Damien was about to get punched by Harold, but when the fist connected to him, his whole body turned into ice and exploded into shards cutting up Harold's white coat.
He reappeared from a strong wind behind him, then with a blast of cold tried to freeze the old man. As the frosty wind hit him, the body froze and disappeared into specks of light. All around the place mad laughter echoed and soon dozens of Harold's formed.
They spoke at the same time. "It is nice to fight again isn't it?... Just like old times..."
On the ground there were about a dozen copies of Harold currently. All of them fell to the ground and began to change. The process lasted for a few minutes. Every single clone became some different horrible monstrosity.
Damien looked around, then tried to do his usual area attack. He pushed ice cold winds towards the beasts, but unlike with the copies, these ones simply ignored it.
He then changed tactics as well and transformed. His body grew in size and changed shape. It took a few moments, and when he was done a huge roar shook the snowy plains. From the ground icy spikes grew impaling at least half of the creatures.
In the place where Damien stood, a gigantic, white furred saber-toothed tiger was. His height extended about seven meters, while his length reached nearly eleven.
Without wasting a second he pounced on the next approaching monster. It was smaller than Damien, some kind of insect-like being. He tore it apart in seconds.
While he was preoccupied with a worthless battle, in the sky Harold held onto Sera's shoulder. She looked at him curiously and in the next second they both disappeared from the plains.
On the ground Damien continued to fight without noticing that his main adversary was already gone.
Meanwhile they just stood in the air staring out at the frozen outpost. He was still holding onto her shoulder. Slowly he made her turn and gave her a big hug, which she a bit reluctantly reciprocated.
She had many questions about what he wanted to do with her. Since most of her previous memories were gone, her whole personality and sense of self was all over the place.
Sera was angry at Harold, but there was also a feeling of indebtment. She felt bloodlust, but also a sense of protection. She wanted to kill those eight people, but also felt that it would be a big mistake... The only constant feeling she felt was confusion.
When they separated her eyes were teary, the worst thing was she had no idea why. At some point her brain started to hurt from all the constant emotional changes. Harold must've noticed her suffering and asked in a gentle voice.
"Do you want me to take away your pain?" Slowly Sera nodded and whispered, "Please... It hurts..."
On his face a small smile appeared, which could be interpreted as compassionate. Gently he held out his hands and touched both sides of Sera's temple. She could feel her memories, personality, sense of self change... Her whole reality was being rewritten.
It would've caused a great amount of horror, but the pain was gone and there was only relief in its place.
When her eyes opened, there was nothing left of her. No sign of the kind and warm person who adopted a girl when she needed a home. No sign of the leader who sacrificed herself multiple times for her friends. No sign of the lover, that found a woman she could love for the rest of her life...
There was no happiness, anger, love, madness, sadness, despair... There was not a single emotion in her soul...
Sera's face settled into a calm and bored expression. Her eyes that had a small glint in them turned empty. The soul that burned bright before, was finally snuffed out...