Cantia and Sonia were flying through the air at high speed while surging with their individual Elemental Glow; Cantia radiating red aura and Sonia radiating blue aura that surrounded them. The wind was blowing rapidly against them, which made them activate barriers around themselves to keep the wind from hitting their faces and keep their eyes open to see the path of their flight.
It had been several minutes since they departed from the Floria Kingdom’s castle with the mission of finding Serabella, the Demon King and bringing her back with them. This was something that their husband, the Phoenix Titan, Lakshman Chand, asked off them because he believed she will stop the Calamity Titan. His request puzzled them but, not knowing the fully picture, merely agreed and flew off without wasting time.
“This is taking long!” Cantia shouted to Sonia, who was flying next to her.
Sonia turned her head and raised an eyebrow before using Telepathy magic and speaking directly into Cantia’s mind, “Use your telepathy spell, otherwise, you’ll be swallowing a lot of insects and stuff that hangs in the air.”
Cantia’s eyebrows flinched at that piece of information and immediately shut her mouth before she telepathically said, “Right. Anyway, isn’t this taking us long? I mean, it feels like we left the Human Continent for ages!”
Sonia smiled sadly and replied, “That could possibly because a lot of land near our house and near the Teleportation Zone was destroyed.”
Cantia looked amazed and asked, “That’s true, however, I think we’re about half-way there? Look! We’re just about to reach that land of ice!”
“You mean the Sigamand Continent?” Sonia asked in confusion.
“Sigamand Continent? Is that what the Angels named it? We just left it blank since it was difficult to set foot on it despite it possessing a Teleportation Zone. I heard that it’s ridiculously cold there!”
“That’s right. Even we of the Angel Race will struggle to maintain our strength because of the sheer cold that seems to affect the whole continent. Actually, it’s a strange continent that’s been abandoned since the ancient times, it seems. According to the information we had from ancient history, it I a desolate place that is always cold, but it does not give any explanation as to why.”
“Oh well. We’re not going there, so let’s just ignore it and keep going!” Cantia replied firmly.
They continued to soar through the air for several minutes in silence and flew over the cold barren land of the Sigamand Continent, except that it was not barren. Instead, the continent seemed to be covered in snow with murky clouds covering it completely from the sun, but they saw trees growing as well as small movements that looked like animals that must be dwelling on the continent.
Sonia watched this while they flew during those several minutes before asking, “Cantia.”
“Yeah?”
“The little bit of your story that you told us with your time when Lucky was still a kid; have you ever told it to him?”
“No. I didn’t, and I didn’t plan on sharing it with anyone since, you know, it’s something special,” replied Cantia in a voice that sounded like she was feeling embarrassed about it. “So, Lucky remembering all that and then saying something great about how we wouldn’t be without each other made me feel like I was finally part of a family!”
Sonia blinked in surprise at that statement and asked, “Huh? Finally feel part of a family? Does that mean you haven’t been feeling like that with us all this time?”
“Ah! No! I didn’t mean it that way,” said Cantia quickly, trying to clear up the misunderstanding. “We of the Camdra Beast Clan are mostly individuals who follow the lead of a strong leader but, for me, destiny had already chosen whom I would be with. That’s fine and I met everyone, who are lovely great people, but I felt like I was not part of it entirely. Sometimes, after hard work, Lucky congratulated me or showered me with love, but I wanted more; I wanted to feel like I belonged in that place after, you know, losing my original home and my people in the incident involving the Rodfox Kingdom.”
As she said those words, tears began streaming from her eyes and left a trail of water that dispersed in an instant. Sonia watched in sadness at how emotional her sister was feeling when her next few words flipped that feeling around.
“Even the ancient times, I felt like we were there, just the ten of us pretending to be a family when it’s only us that felt like we belonged with him. Today, in this present time, he finally told me, no, told us what all of us had been hoping to hear from him for so long! That’s why, I love Lucky; not him from then, but him of today! Don’t you agree, Sonia?”
She turned her attention to the angel flying beside her with an eager smile on her face. Sonia made a sorrow expression on her face and did not immediately meet her eye contact as she remembered her life in the past. During the time, where the Phoenix Clan was waging its war to dominate the world, she was a princess that went as a sacrifice to appease the Phoenix Titan and spare her kingdom from the crushing blow he had dealt to many others that failed to bow their heads to him.
During that time, she found that he had already the company of eight other women that surrounded him, and he readily accepted me without much thought. After that, he spoke very little to her as he continued to wage war until he finally he and his clan became the dominators of the world. Once life seemed to settle, he seemed to relax and started smiling more, which made his nine wives to start showing him affection in order to support their own kingdoms.
“Won’t you seduce him to help your people?”
That was the question that Sonia remembered being asked during one of the sessions the nine of them had to discuss on how to deal with their powerful husband. She did not know who asked the question, but seeing them in action made her decide on acting for the sake of her people and dedicate her effort to use her charm in a way to benefit her people by having him support them financially, food support and anything else that was needed but she, including the other eight, did not know that their forced feelings eventually developed into genuine feelings of love for him.
With no war, with peace and harmony reigning supreme, they started to see him changing and becoming warm towards them. Once he ignored their approach, now welcomed them and began staying together with them, smiling, playing and laughing with them. In the process, they learnt of his past, the death of his parents and his determination to make a peaceful world for his brother to live in. This made them realise the affection he had for them was real, their own loyalty for their kingdoms was drowned by their love and respect for the man, who would do anything for his family.
Still, despite all the love he showered them with, they had longed to hear the meaningful words to confirm that he needed them. Instead, it felt like he was showing affection for them out of pity that they had to come to him as sacrificial pawns in the grand scheme of protecting their individual kingdoms. While this made them feel sad, they still somehow managed stay by his side and go along with him pretty well.
Then came the time when Chandra, who had left the capital with his wife and returned after transforming into a demon, began waging war against his brother. The Phoenix Titan’s nine wives felt depressed by this and wanted to resolve this issue without the two brothers spilling each other’s blood. Thus, they arranged for a meeting with the first Calamity Titan, but it turned out to be a trap, and he destroyed them, but not before they saw the arrival of their husband to witness their demise.
All nine of them remember the scene before their demise, seeing Asura arrive at the scene with Lagron behind him. They clearly saw his facial expression changed to that of utter shock, disbelief and despair as he witnessed the destruction of his beloved wives in front of him. That was the last thing they saw, the despair on their husband’s face, before everything went black. Now, in the present time, where Asura, now known as Lakshman, was softer, showering them with more love than he ever did and, finally, said the words they had been wanting to hear for a really long time.
“If we didn’t have each other, then none of us would be together like this.”
His words reverberated in her mind, and she smiled in joy at how happy it made her and almost felt like her chest would jump out with overexcitement. Still, she calmed herself and thought back to the question that Cantia posed her. She did not need even a second to find an answer to that, as she spoke in a calm voice with a loving smile on her face.
“Yes. I definitely agree.”
While speaking together through telepathy, they flew over the icy land and approached the Demon Continent, where the war between the Vampires and Werewolves against the Demons was still waged. They witnessed as the Werewolves used their incredible speed and brute force to cut their enemies in half, break their necks and fire energy cannon attacks from out of their mouths to decimate them. The Vampires, on the other hand, seemed to flip in and out of their enemies before either sinking their teeth into the side of their neck to drain their victim off their blood, or transform them into a controllable subordinate, who followed their every command mindlessly.
Cantia and Sonia came to a halt, watching the brutal scenes of their allies taking their enemies down. Sonia winced each time a neck was ripped, a body was slashed and blood was spilled out of the victim’s body. Cantia, however, showed a sign of excitement at the sight of battle that was slowly decimating their enemies.
“I think Lucky made the right choice of bringing Vampires and Werewolves into this,” she said with a grin on her face.
Sonia glanced at her and, after seeing the expression of ecstasy on her face, sighed and said in a serious voice, “Focus, Cantia. We have our own work to do.”
“Ah! Right!” Cantai said, tearing her eyes away from the brutal battle and began scanning the ground for where the castle would be. “Wow! It looks like this continent got a massive hole over there.”
“Probably the only sign that a massive battle between super powers occurred there,” said Sonia, noticing it and raising an eyebrow in amusement. Then, she turned a little and saw a castle that looked intact, despite the destruction around it, which made her say, “Look! I think that’s the spot.”
Cantia looked towards the place Sonia was pointing and nodded her head in agreement. Together, they flew towards the castle and descended before landing neatly on their feet compared to all the men, who would land with such force that the ground would momentarily shake. There were a few guards protecting the castle and, as they stepped forward to bar their way, Cantia made a beastly grin on her face before transforming into a large beast can with two tails. At the same time, Sonia activated her wings, which sprung from out of her back and gave her a majestic look.
“Under the command of the Calamity Titan; we shall not let anyone pass!” The Serprad Demon Clan warrior said, holding a spear that had a set magic stone embedded near the tip.
“Get out of the way or die!” Cantia growled in her beastly voice, glaring menacingly while showing her sharp fangs.
Realising the battle was inevitable, the leading warrior shouted, “No chance!” Then, he addressed the men behind him and said, “Charge!”
Screaming with rage and surging with power, the Serprad Demon Clan charged at their enemies with their spears held at the ready. Cantia roared like a beast and unleashed a fearsome fire from out of her mouth, which caused the wave of enemies to quickly dart out of the way while the unsuccessfully ones got scorched and burned. Sonia followed up by using her wings and firing energy lasers at them from the wings, stabbing into their arms, legs and chest before bringing the warriors down.
“Not yet!” The leader of the attack force shouted as he closed in on Cantia with his spear held at ready to stab at her.
Several shouted similar words to their leader as they closed in on both women, but the wives of the Phoenix Titan are not to be underestimated. As they closed in her on, Cantia growled and caused her entire body to become engulfed in flames before she swung her head at them, causing the fire to spread around wildly, scorching and burning the people that got near her. The group attacking Sonia, instantly fell to the ground as the gravity round them increased so much that their legs broke and they fell flat on their faces.
“Damn you!” The leader and several of his men, who had managed to survive the attack, leaped at Cantia with their spears ready to strike.
Cantia did not let them get near her as she spun around rapidly on the spot and smashed them with her two tails. The force of impact was so strong that their bones cracked and broke as they flew away at super speed before coming to a crashing halt. In Sonia’s case, she had to avoid spears that were hurled at her by the surviving attackers before extending her hand at them and activated a magic spell by saying its name out loud.
“Light of Destruction.”
A magic circle appeared in front of her before a blinding ray of light hit the warriors rushing at her, causing them to suddenly scream in intense pain and crashed on the ground as their bodies slowly disintegrated. The effect was quick and, soon, the attacking warriors turned to dust, which got carried away by the wind.
“D-Damn!” The leader, who was the only surviving warrior in the attack, shouted angrily.
He glared fiercely at his enemies while clenching his hand on his spear before he made a split-second decision by shouting, “Berserker!”
In an instant, the magic stone shone brightly before a dark mist seemed to exit from its depths and envelop the warrior. He began to laugh hysterically as the pain and suffering was replaced by a strange sensation of changing, which was revealed when the murky darkness, that surrounded him, vanished a few seconds later. He had grown taller, grew muscular and had his body transform into that of a vile demon with two horns sprouting out of his forehead and black wings extending out of his back.
“I’m going to destroy you!” He roared at them and caused the wind to buffet them with his shout.
“Destroy us with that?” Cantia, in her beast form, asked telepathically with her mouth held open in amazement. “I’d be amazed if you can actually do anything to us in that stupid form.”
“I quite agree,” said Sonia, nodding her head in agreement. “It looks like a crossover between a demon and a fallen angel and, while it should’ve looked good, this man makes the whole appearance seem lame.”
He had widened his eyes in shock by the casual manner in which his enemies spoke about his appearance and power. It was as if they were much stronger than him, which greatly angered his ego and made him begin to scream with all his might. Something strange started occurring from his scream, causing many shock waves to move in all directions and made the wind buffet the women, who were taken by surprise.
“Damn!” Cantia exclaimed, before opened her mouth wide and letting out a wild billowing roar.
Her scream was much louder and far stronger than his, which instantly destroyed the shock waves and sent the wind in his direction, causing him to widen his eyes in shock. The wind smashed into him and sent him flying into the castle wall, which shook as cracks appeared on all sides of the wall.
“Let’s go,” said Cantia, walking towards the castle entrance while being followed by Sonia, who flew overhead.
Inside the castle, they met up with more bodyguards that were stationed to protect whatever they were supposed to. Once again, Cantia and Sonia dispatched them with relative ease; Sonia using Light of Destruction and several other magic spells while Cantia blasted them with her fiery breath and smashed them using her paws. The two women did not participate in battle in over two years, but they are Emperor Ranked warriors and they each used their respective skills to take out their enemy with no problems.
“I think I know what they’re protecting,” said Cantia, and Sonia nodded in agreement as she also suspected the same.
“They must be desperate to protect the Demon King, but I can imagine the threat the Calamity Titan put to them,” said Sonia, looking around at all the corpses with a sad look on her face. This made her feel a little worried about the future of her husband and his brother and voiced it out loud by saying, “Even if they reconcile, I am worried about whether Chandra can return to normal with all the damage and destruction he had caused?”
“But, we’re the ones who killed these people,” said Cantia telepathically, not truly understanding what Sonia just said.
Sonia chuckled lightly and replied, “Not them, Cantia. I meant about threatening the world, destroying a portion of the Human Continent near the Floria Kingdom and attempting to invade this world by bringing demons and starting a war around the world.”
“Oh…! That…!” Cantia said, realising the bigger picture and glancing around before replying with, “I guess… we’ll find out.”
Sonia smiled to that because she was grateful for how vague Cantia sounded due to the mysterious future that awaited them. Truth be told, she wanted to avoid all of this mess and somehow clear Chandra’s name and this was a sentiment shared among the Phoenix Titan’s wives, however, they also understood his crimes cannot be ignored and forgiven. It did make her and Cantia sad that maybe, at the end of this war, the two brothers would, once again, separate.
They pressed on and finally, after battling many warriors, they arrived at the deserted throne room. Looking around, they saw a door to the right near the stairs leading to the throne chair, which they bypassed and headed for the door instead. The reason for their confidence to go to that specific door was because they had interrogated one of the survivors for details on what they were protecting.
“What are you trying to protect so desperately?” Sonia had asked the warrior, who was kneeling before them with a worried look on his face as sweat appeared all over his skin.
“Uh…!” He began and gulped hesitantly before saying, “I am told not to tell, otherwise, I will anger my master!”
Sonia raised an eyebrow, and Cantia coughed in a beastly manner before the angel woman asked, “The Calamity Titan is not here, so tell us if you know what’s good for you.”
She was speaking in a smooth voice, but it did not penetrate the fear the man had for the Calamity Titan, as he resolutely said, “No! The Calamity Titan will kill me if I tell you, so no!”
Sonia raised an eyebrow in amusement as Cantia growled dangerously while telepathically saying in a threatening voice, “If you don’t answer us right now, you’ll be joining your friends in hell!”
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This time, he considered his options from the mighty sight of the beast form of Cantia before gulping and saying, “Y-Yes… Um… Master told us to safeguard the throne room because the Demon King, Serabella was sleeping there and that, if we were to disturb her sleep or allow enemies to enter, he would slaughter our families!”
“Where inside the room?” Sonia asked quickly.
“Inside the throne room… next to the stairs leading to the throne chair…” he said quietly, worried that the walls might be listening to his confession. Then, he began pleading with them by saying, “Please, spare me! I have children back in the Demon World, and I only volunteered because of the high pay we were receiving! Please…! Don’t kill me!”
Sonia nodded thoughtfully at the information they received and said, “Right. That’ll be all. Thank you for your service. Cantia, deal with the man.”
“Right,” said Cantia telepathically, closing in on him as Sonia stepped away, as he stared at the huge form of the beast cat in horror.
“No! Please don’t—!” He cried out loud.
His cries were cut off when the beast opened its mouth wide and let out a huge bellowing roar that echoed inside the castle. The ground shook for several seconds due to the shock waves released by the shock waves. She continued to scream for several seconds before stopping and stepping back, only to see the man was staring at her with wide eyes that were not focused. In the next moment, he fell backwards and began twitching like a fish that had was separated from the ocean.
“Pathetic,” said Cantia telepathically, making a low growling noise before moving past him along with Sonia walking beside her.
“I thought you might kill him, but you didn’t. Is it because of his background that he pleaded us with?” Sonia asked, looking sidelong at the beast with a curious expression on her face.
Cantia seemed to shrug her shoulders with a movement of her beast body and telepathically replied with, “Meh. Anyone would start blabbing nonsense when they’re about to die, so I didn’t believe him. No. I didn’t him because he was weak, defeated and couldn’t fight back. It just wasn’t worth killing such a man and anyway, I don’t think Lucky would’ve agreed to killing a defenceless man with a crushed fighting spirit.”
Sonia thought about those words and said, “You’re right. If it were Asura, he would’ve ordered to kill him, but Lucky would’ve definitely spared him, regardless of whether the enemy had family or not.”
And so, the situation moved to them opening the door and proceeding through, that was only after Cantia was forced to transform into her humanoid cat form because of the small room to enter through the door.
“Damn this door-nyaa!” Cantia said, staring at the door frame in annoyance.
They walked through the corridor for several seconds before arriving yet another door, which seemed to be locked. Cantia tried punching the door open, but it did not work and, instead, they felt a powerful force fighting back at them. Realising a powerful barrier was set in place, Sonia stepped forward and placed her hand on the door frame before activating the spell her husband had taught her.
“Maga Distrab.”
In an instant, there was a loud sound of shattering glass before the multiple barriers, keeping intruders from opening the door, were cancelled. Now, they were finally able to open the door and, when they entered the door, they were surprised to see a large comfortable bed located in the centre of it with a woman sleeping peacefully on it. The surroundings were covered in bookshelves, some utensils and such that consisted of womanly needs.
“Um… Okay,” said Sonia, raising an eyebrow in amusement at how the room was arranged. Then, shaking head and focusing on the woman, she smiled and said, “Right. She must be it.”
Cantia was the one to walk forward first and took a look at the sleeping figure of Serabella. Instantly recognising her as the wife of the Chandra in the ancient times, they guessed that she must mean a lot to him in today’s time as well. After all, the Calamity Titan had memories of them, so it was natural that he would have memories of his wife and would go as far as threatening people into protecting her and erecting barriers to keep her safe while he was away.
Cantia turned over her shoulder and replied, “Nyaa… I’m worried-nyaa. I mean, she does seem to be sleeping peacefully and
“I think we should wake her up?” Sonia asked nervously, wondering what to do next now that they got this far.
Cantia shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Not sure-nyaa. Lucky did tell us to convince and bring here back with us, so might as well wake her up-nyaa? I guess-nyaa?”
She was hesitant a little bit she was cautious of what might happen once she wakes up. It could be that she had no recollections of her memories of her life in the ancient time, which did not surprise the Camdra Beast Clan woman. As far as she could think, not all of them might have awakened to their past memories since, two-years ago, it was Tetra and Silvera who regained their memories of their past before the rest of them did.
“I think so too,” replied Sonia in agreement while looking cautiously at the sleeping woman.
Sonia moved forward to stand next to the bed and hesitantly looked down at the bed before lowering herself to gently shake the sleeping woman. For a moment, the woman remained silent and still, seemingly in a deep sleep, so Sonia began to push her a little harder, but even that did no affect in waking her up. It was as if she was under a spell that kept her constantly sleeping while ignoring her surroundings, which puzzled Sonia since Maga Distrab should have destroyed all the active spells in that room when she previously used it in order to enter the room.
Realising she has to forcibly wake this person up as time was running out, Sonia aimed her hand at Serabella’s face and said, “Awaken.”
In an instant, a magic circle appeared above the Demon King’s face and slowly seemed to surround the woman’s body with its light, which lasted a few seconds before dying out. A moment later, Serabella started making low moaning sounds and opened her eyes by a fraction, looking as if she was still in a sleepy state, blinking several times before finally opening them wide as if she was surprised.
“W-What the?!” She suddenly exclaimed, sitting up straight in an instant as if alarmed by the situation she was in. “W-What am I doing here? W-What’s going on…? W-Who are you people…?”
She finally turned and noticed the two women standing near the bed, with Sonia at front and Cantia a meter or so behind her. Both women stared at her in surprise and, then, looked at one another as if confused as to what to say before Sonoa turned to Serabella and spoke in a soft voice.
“Uh… We came to check the castle and found you sleeping and got worried, so we woke you up!” Cantia said, doing her best to sound bright and cheerful despite feeling nervous in her chest.
Serabella blinked at her in confusion and asked in an anxious voice, “What?” Then, as no response came from both of them, she began looking around and said, “This doesn’t make sense. I was sure I was with the Calamity Titan and then… um… everything feels blurry…”
“So, he put her into a deep sleep, conjured powerful barriers around the room to stop forced entry and made sure there are strong warriors that were capable of fighting off warriors that were King Ranked,” thought Sonia and Cantia in unison, not realising they had thought about the same thing at the same time.
As the sleepiness and tiredness slowly decreased, and her mind became sharp, she realised something odd and asked, “Who are you people, and why are you in this castle?”
The big question finally dropped on them and they instinctively knew the answer will put her into battle mode and fight them. When Sonia tentatively said, “We’re the wives of the Phoenix Titan,” she instantly saw the Demon King’s eyes sharpen as energy began to surged towards her because of finding two enemies within a few centimetres distance.
“You’re the wives of the Phoenix Titan?” Serabella asked in a voice that was resonating strongly with anger. “That means you’ve come to kill me!” As she drew to the one conclusion that her mind could think of in that situation, both Cantia and Sonia inwardly sighed as they watched as Serabella leaped off the bed to the other side and shouted, “So, the Phoenix Titan sent his wives to do his dirty job?!”
Boiling with anger, she raised her leg, amplified energy into it and kicked at the bed. Reacting in an instant, Sonia cast a barrier around herself and Cantia just in time before the bed smashed into them, shattering into pieces and sending them soaring through the wall behind them, arriving in the throne room. Breathing a sigh, Serabella went after them with a furious look that was building on her face.
“Cowards!” She shouted, and immediately extended her hand out towards them and shouted, “Tectonic Wave!”
In an instant, a green wave of destruction was unleashed and it soared straight towards them, who were still protected by the barrier. Upon contact with the barrier, the wave split apart and flew in different directions, smashing into the walls and soared through them until they exited the castle walls.
As the wave left a burned groove mark on the ground, Sonia deactivated her barrier, which made Cantia step forward while saying in annoyance, “Look-nyaa! We didn’t come here to fight you; we came to bring you back with us!”
“So, you came to kidnap me in order to top the Calamity Titan; my husband?!” Serabella exclaimed with an incredulous look on her face and prepared a fighting stance. “I don’t know what happened during my sleep, but I won’t be kidnapped by the like of you!”
She thought this might shock her enemies, but instead, both of her enemies merely sighed as if they had expected this reaction. The reason that Cantia and Sonia were able to predict her behaviour pattern was simply because they knew how she once behaved in their past life. This was made evident when they muttered to each other in unison.
“The same as ever. Always jumping to conclusions and never listening to anyone, except for her husband and her brother-in-law.”
“What are you muttering?” Serabella asked in a sharp voice, that made them stop whispering to stare at her in amazement. Her eyes narrowed as she thought about something and asked, “You know where the Calamity Titan is, right? Where is he? Tell me!”
Sonia decided to get serious with the girl and reveal her past in order to forcibly awaken her memories. She believed this was due to the certain situation in which all of her and other wives of the Phoenix Titan’s memories were recovered. It was during the time when Evander, the current Angel King, came to pick Sonia up and the girls came to her defence, which was when all of their memories of their past were recovered. So, doing something similar would force Serabella’s memories to recover as well.
“I don’t know if you believe it, but you are not who you think you are!” Sonia said, which startled Serabella and made her go silent while watching in shock. “You are a reincarnated person, just like us and your dear Calamity Titan, who is currently fighting my husband, who is your brother-in-law in the past! We were once a family, Nandana!”
As soon as Sonia called the Demon King by the name given to her in her past, Serabelal instantly widened her eyes to the point that they were big circles. In the next moment, she instantly closed her eyes and winced sharply while placing her hands on her forehead, which suddenly began to pound with intense pain.
“Ugh!” She cried out in pain, losing her balance and falling to her kness.
“Nandana!” Sonia said, calling Serabella once again by her past name.
“UGH!!” Serabella cried out in more pain and gritted her teeth tightly.
With her eyes closed, she saw visions flying by at an alarming rate and they kept coming back over and over again. These were scenes that she never knew, nor remembered being in, and the place, in which these scenes were depicted her in, were places she does not remember being in. Once again, her head throbbed with intense pain and made her cry out loud while the unstable memories of her past swarmed her head and threatened to collapse her mind.
“What have you… done to me…?” She croaked, managing to articulate her words in a slow manner due to the intense pain before beginning to writhe in it.
“What’s happening to he-nyaa?” Cantia asked, looking thoroughly shocked by the sudden pain Serabella was experiencing.
Sonia briefly thought for a moment and came to the conclusion that she fully did not understand, however, she could guess the issue and said, “I don’t really know, but I guess the main problem is that her past memories are awakening, but her present self is rejecting them without her realising it. That’s why, the struggle between the past and the present is causing a heavy load to fall on her mind and the result is this.”
Cantia was thoroughly bewildered by the guess that Sonia made and asked helplessly, “Okay-nyaa! Then, do something to stop it-nyaa! It’s driving her to the floor-nyaa!”
“It already is,” thought Sonia, but she quickly focused on what she must do in order for the memories of Nandana. After a moment’s pause, she asked Cantia, “Didn’t Lucky use some kind of magic spell on us to read our memories and make them easier to coexist with our present personas? I don’t quite remember the spell since he had done it over two-years-ago and only once at that.”
“It’s something about Memory Road or Memory Lane or something-nyaa,” replied Cantia, staring wide eyed at the incredible pain Serabella was going through as she clutched her head tightly.
“Right! Memory Road!” Sonia said, clapping her hands together in recognition. “That’s our chance!” She quickly extended both of her hands towards Serabella and said, “Healing Harmony!”
In an instant, a magic circle formed underneath the woman and green light began emitting it to enclose the frame of her body. Once the frame was complete, the throbbing pain in her head lessened, but the pain was still present.
Exerting her muscles, Sonia focused her energy and exerted her power while saying, “Memory Road!”
In an instant, she felt her mind leave the present and zoom straight into the mind of Serabella. A moment later, she found herself standing on an empty road that was glittering with fancy light effects on all sides. Focusing on what’s ahead, she saw fliting images of scenes that moved back and forth within a set frame and saw multiple of these floating on the side of the long road that stretched into the darkness ahead.
Slowly and steadily, she began walking forward and saw scenes of Nandana’s past, which showed her childhood being abused by her parents, who did not share the slightest bit of love for her. Then, in another panel, her village was attacked by monsters and witnessed, first hand, as her parents were devoured with her own eyes and was saved by a man riding a horse, who turned out to be none other than Chandra, the Phoenix Emperor and the younger brother of the Phoenix Titan.
The next frame showed Nandana being brought to the castle and looked after with utmost care before being visited by the Phoenix Titan. Asura seemed to be telling her to look after herself and told her to ask for anything she needs as she is a special guest brought in by his brother. The next scene showed how her treatment had improved greatly thanks to the brothers, to which she swore her utmost loyalty. Many scenes after this showed her ignoring orders from anyone, other than Asura or Chadnra. A moment later, many scenes flitted by, revealing the romance that developed between Chandra and Nandana.
In the next frame, the scene shifted to the Phoenix Clan castle, where Chandra introduced her to Asura and proposed their marriage. Asura was seen looking down at her curiously before making a wide smile and agreeing to the marriage very easily. After that, the frame shifted to Asura speaking to her in an isolated location, telling her to look after his brother and explaining her to be Chandra’s bone of support since he would be leaving Asura’s shadow shortly.
The next frame revealed the marriage, which was done in the utmost grand fashion, making the best day of her life. Soon after, the scene moved to Chandra and Nandana standing outside the castle with Asura and his nine wives, bidding the two couples farewell as Chandra wished to lead a new life outside the castle walls. Asura agreed reluctantly with a little push from his wives, but requested Nandana to take care of his little brother, to which Nandana agreed to readily with a wide grin on her face.
By this time, Sonia had arrived at the end of the road and saw that there was more road that was leading into the depths of darkness. Realising that something mysterious inside it was keeping more memories from revealing themselves, she began walking forward and soon felt the presence of a twisted being, which showed itself immediately as it walked out of the darkness into the semi-light that illuminated the road ahead.
“I see. A Dark Spirit,” said Sonia, realising the sinister energy emanating from the being, which held two scythes like weapons in its hands while its face was covered by the hood it wore. Taking on a fighting stance of her own, she muttered, “I guess this is the thing that’s rejecting the memories past this point and causing Nandana so much pain.”
The Dark Spirit began waving its two weapons in quick movement, unleashing black slashes at Sonia. The angel girl quickly aimed her hand to the front and cast a barrier, which blocked all the attacks. In the meantime, the Dark Spirit came rushing towards her at super speed and began slashing her weapons against the blade, which started to crack from the power of the attacking force from the enemy.
“Get lost!” Sonia said in an angry voice.
She immediately cast another magic spell, which caused a sudden wild blowing wind to occur and push the Dark Spirit away several meters away. During its flight, Sonia cast more attack magic spells, which formed into magic circles in front of her before firing several magic spears straight at the dark creature. The Dark Spirit recovered by landing firmly on its feet only to get stabbed multiple times by the magic spears it did not see coming.
Sonia cast more magic, which materialised magic circles near the Dark Spirit and made chains extend out of them, bound the creature in it and kept it firmly in position. While walking towards the monster, Sonia used her magic to summon a blade that shone with immense light out of thin air with a look that gave away her next action, which was to cut the Dark Spirit in half. The Dark Spirit let out a shrill scream before crumbling to dust and disappearing into thin air.
With the Dark Spirit, which kept the rest of the memories blocked, the darkness quickly disappeared and revealed the rest of the ancient memories of Nandana. Sonia momentarily saw them and was horrified by what she saw but could not move forward because, at that moment, a violent force suddenly caught her off guard and pushed her consciousness from out of Serabella’s mind.
Back in her body, Sonia released a deep sigh, which made Cantia realise she had returned and made her urgently ask, “How’d it go-nyaa? Did it work-nyaa?”
Sonia did not respond, she kept staring at Serabella, who had fallen to the floor with a thud while clutching her head. She could not forget the unbelievable and gruesome scene she had witnessed while on the Memory Road in Nandana’s memories. It depicted the horrifying events of how she was murdered, which happened right before watching her husband being forced to transform into something he never chose to be by someone she vaguely recognised.
“Where have I seen that face before…?” Sonia thought, narrowing her eyes in trying to remember where she had but, unfortunately, she could not remember him at all.
At that moment, Serabella moaned and brought Sonia back to the present, and they watched as the woman rose to her feet while clutching her head.
“Ah… That hurt…” she muttered, gently rubbing her head with her eyes closed. A moment later, she opened them and, upon laying eyes on them, her eyes widened in great surprise, and she exclaimed, “Eh?! Eh?!”
“W-What-nyaa?!” Cantia exclaimed, alarmed by the woman’s sudden cries.
Serabella pointed at them and slowly said, “I… remember you…! I… know you…!”
Sonia nodded and said, “You do because your memories of the past when we lived together… as sisters.”
Her remark made Serabella go quiet for a moment before a board grin started to form on her face, and she said, “S… It’s true! My memories are back. My memories are back! I remember everything! Sisters! We’re together again!”
She suddenly yelled the last sentence out loud and bounded to them before hugging Sonia very tightly. The angel woman felt her breath broken by the sudden hung and desperately tried to push her away in fear of an attack. Cantia, however, raised an eyebrow in amusement at the sudden declaration and the hug that followed it.
“You really are a strange girl-nyaa,” she commented finally, which was heard by Serabella, who turned to look at her with a severe look on her face.
“There’s nothing wrong with hugging people you haven’t seen in… I don’t know… ages!” Serabella replied, a bright smile on her face, which was nothing like it had been previously. She finally let go of Sonia, who took two steps back and released a sigh in relief, before she asked them, “So! Where is everyone? Where’s Maya, Nike, Nina, Rin, Madhu, Hikari and Melaina? How are they all? Where’s brother-in-law, and where’s my husband? Why isn’t everyone here?”
Sonia blinked at her in surprise and wondered whether the release of her past memories temporarily pushed her present memories to the back. It seemed likely because she was not showing any signs of remembering what she was doing moments ago.
Cantia could not believe what Serabella was hearing and exclaimed, “Are you serious?! Do you know what’s happening right now?!”
That question made Serabella look at her with a puzzled look on her face, and Cantia elaborated.
“Lucky and Chandra are battling it out right now-nyaa.”
Serabella was momentarily puzzled and asked, “Who’s… Lucky?”
“Lakshman-nyaa! We call him Lucky-nyaa! It’s Asura’s current name-nyaa.”
“Uh… So, it’s Lakshmannyaa?” Serabella asked, looking thoroughly bewildered by the name. “It’s such a bizarre name.”
“No-nyaa! It’s Lakshman… nyaa!” Cantia said firmly, speaking slowly to separate the name and the suffix.
Serabella blinked twice and looked irritated as she said, “Yes, Tierra. What you’re saying is Lakshmannyaa!”
“No-nyaa! It’s not-nyaa!” Cantai retorted, getting irritated by the second.
Sonia quickly said, “Asura’s current incarnation’s name is Lakshman, but we call him Lucky.”
“Ah! Now, that makes more sense! Thanks for the clarification, Era,” Serabella said, nodding in understanding and turned to look accusingly at Cantia. “Tierra, stop adding ‘nyaa’ to the name. In fact, why are you adding it to every end of sentence that you speak?”
“It’s the speech pattern of the Camdra Beast Clan-nyaa!” Cantia exclaimed, her ears prickling upward and her tail standing on end as the irritation was clearly emanating from her whole body.
Serabella looked unimpressed and said, “You’re so weird.”
“Dammit-nyaa!”
Ignoring her, Serabella turned to Sonia and asked in a serious voice, “You’re saying Asura and Chandra are fighting?”
Sonia nodded, but made a frown and said, “Yes… Also, Asura’s current nickname is Lucky.”
“Asura sounds way better!” Serabella replied without hesitation, which made Sonia sigh while a small smile appeared on her face. “Lucky sounds like a girl’s name!”
“This isn’t the time for name picking,” said Sonia, which made the two of them focus on her in surprise after hearing the serious tone in her voice. “Lucky and Chandra are engaged in a fierce battle and small portion of our continent has already been destroyed because of it.”
Her words made Serabella realise the present situation, which caused her to clap a hand onto her forehead in horror and said, “Oh no! This is bad! Chandra’s probably fighting for revenge!”
“He’s under someone’s control-nyaa! We know that-nyaa!” Cantia replied in a tight voice, but Serabella shook her head as a disagree to Cantia’s statement.
“You’re right in thinking like that, but Chandra’s memories were probably altered to make him hate Asura to a great amount! I mean, he strongly believes Asura destroyed our livelihood and killed me!”
This piece of information took both women by surprise and they exclaimed in unison, “What?!”
Cantia opened her mouth with a question, but Serabella was not in the mood to answer any, as she waved a hand to dismiss it and said, “We have to go and stop them before it’s too late!”
Then, without another word, she marched out of the room with a grim expression on her face. Cantia watched her go for a moment in silence before turning to Sonia, who was looking worried.
“Um… What did she mean by Asura doing those things-nyaa…?”
Sonia merely shook her head without saying a word, unable to take away the image of what she saw in the Memory Road. During the final frames, she caught the glimpse of someone torturing Chandra and injecting a mysterious dark power that was transparent before he walked towards Nandana as the scene slowly faded to darkness.
“Just what is going on…?” Sonia thought worriedly, but did not have time to dwell on it as her shirt was pulled by Cantia, where she was indicating at the door. Understanding the meaning, she smiled a little and said “Let’s go! She may need our help!”
Together, they walked out of the room and prepared to follow Serabella back to the place, where her husband and his brother were engaging in a fierce battle.