Near the housing part of the military compound, a woman and a man were walking together. After careful consideration Melinda and Bran decided upon the twenty evolved who will accompany Sera on the mission.
They had sent messages about an hour ago, now they were going the brief them personally.
Melinda was really excited since it was rare that she got to go on missions with Sera. She changed a lot since they attended the academy in Newber. They were best friends back then, but the Destruction was very thorough.
Through many hardships and suffering she had managed to escape and survive for a while. Sadly eventually her luck ran out and the goblins captured her. She still held a deep hatred towards them, every time they had gotten close to New Athens, she would personally ask for Sera's permission to exterminate every single one!
Those days of suffering lasted for months, until her best friend from a previous life saved her from the torment.
Strangely enough Sera didn't seem to remember her and after a long time she figured out why. That monster named Harold took her memories, but also something else. Her every action felt soulless, like she was pretending.
Melinda figured it out soon before anyone else, or before Sera told her story to them. When she came back from Flensburg to ask them about wanting to join her army, Melinda was one of the first to raise her hand.
That was two years ago. Since then a lot had changed, not just with her and Sera, but the whole world. The war that still had no end in sight was raging across the continent.
Melinda born in 6 ATA (After The Apocalypse), which meant she never knew the Old World, like a few of the older folk. Some of them even travelled in space or were born on another planet within their Solar System.
But even in the apocalypse she had never expected a war of this scale to happen. In her eyes it was pure idiocy, but since her only remaining friend from her life in Newber was one of leaders in this war, she had no choice but to join.
Two years ago on that plain grassland she had made this decision and she had never regretted it. Since then she had killed hundreds of monsters, tens of thousand of regular soldiers, nearly a thousand evolved and dozens of ascended.
The watch gave her the title Bringer of Disease which fit her perfectly, since that's what her main power was... plague.
She can passively kill every non evolved and bring the evolved to near death. It can even severely weaken ascended, if they aren't from the stronger kind.
Her vast power can be thanked to Sera as well. She was the one who told them the secret of becoming stronger than most evolved. It gave both her and Bran the ability to defeat most of their enemies.
At first Melinda thought that her power would actually come close to Sera's, but when she heard about the horror she had killed... That thought went out of her head real fast.
Slowly she and Bran arrived at the designated gathering area. Unlike the other three captains the two of them payed more attention to soldier upkeep, moral, skill etc. They had expectations from them as well. This wasn't an army run on hopes and dreams, but on experience and discipline.
The twenty soldiers were in small groups talking, but when Melinda and Bran arrived every single one went to attention. Melinda hid her satisfied smile, it felt great being appreciated as a leader. It made her ego grew by a lot every time someone saluted to her. She didn't let it get to her head, but it felt nice.
One of the twenty stepped forward. He was the cohort leader for this mission.
"At ease soldiers." Said Bran in a calm tone, while typing away on his watch. He spent every waking hour on the damn thing. Always compiling some report or making preparations to some event. Long ago Melinda tried to out do him, but she quickly discovered how tall of a task that was.
Melinda herself didn't live in the compound though. Actually non of the captains did, except Bran. He decided to stay here since Sera was staying here too. Unlike everyone else she didn't have a choice. Next to her house was a circle with a few hundred meter radius.
When they first arrived there were buildings, houses and families there. Then the first successful assassination happened. Those idiots had no idea who they were trying to kill. Most of them died by Sera's own hands, but in the end she died there.
All those families who were sleeping in their beds, all those houses...
The explosion killed all of them...
Sera didn't blame herself for it. Within the hour of her resurrection she released her statement to the public and the list of casualties... 3859 dead... 1594 men... 1461 women... 804 children...
All burned away within seconds...
The people mourned the loss. She actually made it into a holiday for the whole city. It was illegal to work on that day for anyone who isn't essential for the city's function. Also she gave a lot of money to everyone who lost a family member or even a good friend.
When Melinda heard it for the first time, it melted her heart. It was clear that her old friend would never come back, but even then Sera decided to help. She also knew that Sera didn't feel bad about the destruction, since she couldn't, which made it all the more amazing that she didn't just turn away from her citizens.
A few days later they cleared all the rubbles away and now every time Sera needs to revive within city grounds, that's its designated place. People keep far away from it, since nobody wants another one of those accidents to happen.
Slowly Melinda's footsteps slowed and she finally stopped next to the gate. A dozen or so meters away Percy was saying goodbye to his four wives. It always made her feel weird, but they looked happy enough... At least that's what she told herself.
But she still saw the marks on one of the woman's wrists, and another one's clavicle. Percy seemed to love them and treat them well on the outside, but whatever he does to them in the bedroom was beyond Melinda's imagination.
It wasn't her concern though. She would gladly take Percy out if Sera or one of the wives asked her to, but they looked to be fine with this dynamic.
She walked to the twenty soldiers who were speaking between themselves excitedly. The cohort leader was a bit off to the side from them, constantly scanning the surroundings. He was either waiting for a surprise attack, or wanting to be prepared for her Lady's arrival.
He didn't even seem to notice Melinda, but she knew that wasn't the case.
"What's your name anyway?" She asked from the man in his thirties. He had a reddish-brown hair and similar colored eyes. His height was not even a head above Melinda's own, but at least his build was muscular.
Finally he turned away and looked at Melinda. "Glenn Chase, or Cohort Leader Chase, ma'am!"
A small smile appeared on Melinda's face as she whispered to Glenn. "Well, Cohort Leader Chase here is a small advice. It is useless to try and be prepared for Lady Seraphine. She has a supernatural power to only appear when you least expect it!"
"Is that so?" Asked a bored feminine voice from behind Melinda. She didn't turned around and just made a face to Glenn which roughly translated to 'I told you so!'.
With Sera's arrival the cohort of 23 personal moved out. Their destination, an enemy encampment with five times their numbers.