Angel Monarch

The hippogryphs landed near the mansion, bringing them back before departing with the rest of the soldiers.

Everything slowly became more hectic, but Henry only cared about Vicky's wellbeing. He let go of the raven, letting her girlfriend fly around, full of curiosity.

Lucy, Leslie, and Lilith came to stand next to Henry. Together they watched the Princess fly around, seemingly carefree.

Fast, small footsteps sound behind them, and suddenly a bad feeling came over Henry.

"Bad bird!"

Little Nick's shout reached their ears, just as the one-year-old flew towards Vicky's unsuspecting form.

"Fuck!" Spoke Henry, cursing under his breath.

He moved a lot faster than the baby and managed to grab Vicky's brother before he reached the raven.

Vicky finally noticed her brother and croaked happily at the child. Nick's eyes went wide while muttering… "Sister"

The raven flew down, landing on Henry's shoulder, croaking at the baby. He just giggled and tried grabbing Vicky again, but the large bird was faster than the child.

Slower footsteps approached them, and soon Cass appeared with a worried expression.

"Where's Vicky! You didn't manage to save her in time?… Is that another one of the attackers? Let me kill it!"

As she raised her hand to attack Vicky's raven form, everyone jumped in her way, while screaming 'NO'.

Cass looked bewildered, staring at the raven, which seemed angry for some reason. Its white eyes with dark blue dots stared daggers into Cass's soul…

"Wait… White eyes with dark blue dots… Don't tell me they… What the fuck did they do to my favorite niece!"

Henry just sighed in both relief and exhaustion, then motioned everyone to follow.

"Let's talk inside. There's a lot we learned, but we need to wait for everyone else before discussing it!"

Unfortunately, it took a few hours for everyone to arrive. Without instantaneous teleportation, travelling over long distances took time.

When the sun was setting, they all sat around the large dining table, and finally decided to discuss everything they learned.

"Okay, as you all know, our new enemies turned Vicky into a raven. From what I gathered using the captured kidnappers' memories, we should be able to turn her back by pulling out one of her feathers… The problem is we don't know which one!"

Percy snorted hearing this and stood up. While walking towards Vicky, he spoke…

"Well, if we don't know which one, then I guess we just have to pull out every feather!"

Vicky croaked in protest and fear, her beak overflowing with pieces of meat she had been munching on.

When Percy was only a few meters away, multiple weapons appeared around him. A pair of toxic green shortsword, a long golden spear, a glowing white warscythe, and even a large clawed hand.

"You dumbass! Sit your ass back down, before I beat you up!" Shouted Morren, pulling her boyfriend away, while continuously smacking his head.

Everyone else sat back down too, but Kim's and Astrid's eyes stayed on the idiot of their group.

"That wouldn't work, idiot! If we pull out the wrong feather, she will die or something akin!… We need to isolate the possibilities by decreasing the number of fake feathers!"

Said Henry, while gently rubbing Vicky's head. The large bird let out a cheerful, satisfied chirp and continued devouring the meat.

"And how do we achieve that? If we can't pull the wrong feather, how can we isolate the right one?"

David's question was on point, as always.

Henry didn't outright answer the question, and instead his eyes fell on Lydia, who eagerly watched Vicky's bird form.

Slowly, everyone's gaze fell on the girl, and upon feeling their eyes, she looked around, confused.

"Uh… Did you need something? Why are you all staring?"

Henry ignored Lydia's confusion and turned back to the group.

"We will use Lydia's matter changing ability to transform Vicky. Even in different forms, the raven feather we need should still be on her!… It will be quite unpleasant, though, but I have faith in Lydia's ability to succeed!"

A wide smile stretched on Henry's face, while giving his friend a thumbs up.

Lydia just rolled her eyes and whispered to herself… "At least one of us is confident in my abilities…"

Vicky listened to the entire conversation as well, so she knew exactly how bad everything would get for her.

Her best friend stood up from her place and walked to Vicky's trembling body. She couldn't help feeling fear as Lydia reached out and grabbed her form.

"I'm sorry my Lady…"

Lydia's words barely registered in Vicky's mind as the girl's essence flowed into her body, changing its molecular structure.

She made painful croaking noises as anguish filled her existence. Her entire body burned from excruciating pain, as if all her bones were breaking and healing at the same time.

The miserable sounds she made sent shivers down everyone's spines. They watched Vicky's raven form slowly disintegrate into an unsightly, strange blob of living matter.

Sadly, Lydia's power didn't work well on living matter. She could make minor changes, like eye or hair color, decreasing someone's natural beauty. She could even lock someone's abilities to lower levels, making Transcended have the power of mere regular humans.

What she couldn't do was macro changes on the body. She couldn't change body proportions, or full body changes. This also included changing someone's skin color, or taking away a bird's feathers!

When she tried it once with Vicky, it made her original organic structure fall to pieces. She became a large blob of human tissue, and they needed Bea's help to heal Vicky.

That was one of the few times when she actually decided to help her daughter.

Lydia now used that knowledge and removed all of Vicky's feathers until only one remained.

Vicky's painful wailing stopped a while ago, as her vocal cords, beak, respiratory system, everything disintegrated.

Everyone's eyes filled with empathy and sadness as they watched their friend suffer.

The number of feathers gradually decreased as they all joined the blob one-by-one. Henry stood near Lydia, prepared to pull out the raven feather immediately.

Their number continued decreasing until only ten or so remained. Henry perceived time slowing while the last few feathers merged into the blob.

When only a single feather remained, and Lydia nodded towards him, Henry finally moved. His hand seemed faster than lightning as it grabbed onto the lone raven feather and pulled it out.

Just as the feather left the blob, a flash of light appeared, blinding everyone momentarily.

Cass recovered quicker than anybody else, so she spotted Vicky first.

On the table, a thirteen-year-old girl laid unconscious and naked. Her beautiful, milky-white skin gently shone under the room's artificial light.

Pure joy ignited in Cass's eyes, but soon reality hit her as everyone else began to turn towards the young girl.

As quickly as possible, Cass summoned an illusory clothing around Vicky, saving the girl's decency.

Gradually, everyone turned to the spot where the blob was, and collectively, the entire table breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Henry gently touched his lover's head, swiping her white hair out of her face.

"James, check her vitals!" Ordered Lilith, while trying to hold back her tears.

The cyborg was already standing nearby, and after a few seconds, he looked through any medical problem Vicky could have.

"There's nothing out of the ordinary… Her heartbeat is okay… Her breathing is even… Her blood structure is perfect… It seems she's just severely exhausted and very hungry. Both are probably the unorthodox transformation's side effects!"

While speaking, he looked at Mary, who tossed him a similar vial of clear liquid, like the one Henry drank.

"She will probably wake up, if you give her this. Currently, all her essence flow is still blocked, so her Evolved immune system hadn't kicked in yet!"

Henry nodded in acknowledgement, then reached down and lifted Vicky's head. James broke the glass vial and poured its contents down Vicky's throat.

She began coughing as the serum flowed down her throat.

Slowly, her face reddened, and her breathing became uneven. Everyone turned scared once more, as Vicky's face sweated heavily, while scrunching in pain.

It took her a few minutes, but eventually her face turned back to its usual pale color, while her eyes began fluttering open.

With a long, deep sigh, Vicky's eyes opened. Her vision was still blurry, but she could instantly guess who stood above her. She would never mistake her boyfriend's golden hair and dark blue eyes!

"I got to tell you… Getting turned into a raven truly sucks!" She said with a tired giggle, then she began smacking her lips as if tasting something weird.

"Why does my mouth taste like strawberries?" Asked Vicky in confusion, and Henry didn't miss a beat with his reply, "Does it really? Let me check!"

His words left no time for refusal as he immediately leaned in and kissed his girlfriend. Vicky got caught off-guard at first, but soon she let go of herself, enjoying her lover's lips on hers.

Across the table, Mary giggled while responding to Vicky's earlier question.

"Well, Henry wanted the serum to have taste, so I added strawberry extract! I think it turned out pretty good!"

Others laughed around the table as well, as the pent up anxiety finally left their bodies, leaving everyone exhausted.

They all waited for Henry and Vicky to stop kissing, but neither seemed to care. After a minute, Cass rolled her eyes and walked up to the pair.

"Hey, lovebirds! Keep that to the bedroom! We have a war to plan!"

Henry pulled away from Vicky and glared at Cass. Vicky just rolled her eyes and giggled at the obvious joke.

With the kissing over, Vicky took her place next to Henry and the war meeting finally began.