" Where did it come from?", she asked with a steady voice but the intensity was coiled beneath. There was a great urgency. People were already dead.
She was flying. Tearing through the sky and splitting the clouds wherever she passed by. cutting through the winds themselves. The winds of Cambridge
It was fact: Whirl Woman was flying well beyond 500 miles per hour. The ear piece attacked to her ear, the little thing it was threatened to crack open from the force of it. And her corresponder, he could not hear her message.
" What ? "
She can see the explosions from miles away. The creature is attacking something.
So the Howl repeated herself.
"I said where did this thing come from?".
" It's a sea fiend. We didn't see any signs of_ mnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn", a static, crackling false sounds roughing his words. She groaned in annoyance.
" _anything moving at fast speeds so it must have teleported outside one of the building ".
" Sea Fiends can't teleport?", she'd crossed London.
If you were on the London ground surely you'd hear it. First a massive gush of wind that would hit your face. Then she passed. And when you blinked suddenly the clouds had separated. After that ....
BOOM
The sonic Boom.
" No they can't ma'am ".
Then...she could see Thunotun.
As Whirl woman got closer she could see the battle clearly. If you could even call it a battle. It seems more like a massacre. Whoever it is that creature keeps pounding, they keep regenerating.
The titan class is about 2.18 metres tall and weighs somewhere around 80000 kg. It's a sea type. Has no weak spots and possesses extremely powerful scales reinforced constantly with arcane—Infuse. Such a being would scare any human to death. But not her.
Whirl woman is a Sentinel. Killing a titan class was something she's done before, something she'd do again.
In an instant. Hee trajectory went cut. ZOOP.
She kicked up her pace in an instant.
A loud ripple in the air. She had to be moving way faster than it. Because there was an absence. An absence of any sound. Nothing but her motion. A motion of sonic flight.
Her hands held out her sword and she was ready to cut off the fiends head. Anna's grip would turn diamond to molecules of air.
Most titan class Fiends can sense when a powerful opponent arrives and fights whoever is the biggest threat.
But yet it paid her no attention. It only served to prove—whoever it kept pounding so violently must be some sort of goal.
Certainly Anna—there was no time to hesitate.
It's a good thing he was there, taking the creatures attention from the people who ran. The bodies on the floor enraged her. But how
How was the question. How would a Fiend teleport so suddenly. There inlay no Archaic energy signals....nay. No readings at all.
He must be the fastest regeneration user She'd ever met. And she'd met man who was unkillable. All means considered. All means exhausted.
Whirl womans grip on the white metallic hilt only intensified. her white blades light glowed blinding to any who saw it. A bright white light that carried such will power.
The will to decapitate it in one smooth strike.
Yet as she flew ever nearer she senses something. Sentinel heroes can see the future and minutes into the past.
What she saw?
Death
She saw death.
This whole place is going to be wiped off the earth. All of Thunton. All around it. A giant hole in england
Whirl woman's eyes quickly divert from the scaled fiend to the running civilians. They'll be caught in the blast.
" Something's coming ".
" What ?", her corresponder can't hear her. But in her voice he heard something. Fear.
The sound of Anna's voice....it seeped into his bones. And he'd never forget. Eren would never forget that sound.
She flew as fast as she could carrying as many humans before the blast would commence.
It was a sight. Lines cutting the sky's. People vanishing where they stood. It was her. Anna was saving them.
They'd scream asking for their parents, their children. Ohh Anna had to be careful.
Careful she didn't fly us too fast that the violent opposing winds tore our skins off. Careful she didn't hold us too hard that our bones didn't crush against each other...or against her grip.
It's about to come. These people's death.
She has to fly them. Far away. Or they'd be erased, shirt, sand, metal, flesh.... everything would burn.
She could only perform one round. In grieving truth, there were still five people, including a child. They were trapped in concrete. Enclosed by the crushed remnants of a fell building.
But it didn't matter to her. She knows what she must do.
She descended, frantic but indeed her movements were without thought. She reached for the child first before gathering them all to one place.
She opened up her beautiful white feathered wings. Snow white—she would shield them.
As she has shielded millions before them. The Guardian Angel. Whirl Woman. She would shield them. As the millions__before them.
Because there really was no time to fly them to safety.
This blast could kill her but if it meant she saves these people then it's worth it. To Whirl woman, it would be worth it.
Her wings opened and expanded beautifully. A cold breeze, a howl, the smell of mid night rose...the image of twin high moons in an open plain. Salem.....the place she left. Her home.
Her wings glowed a beautiful white. White feathers flutter to the desolate wind turning. White sparks, an ember of hope to those who beheld It. An ember of hope to the little girl who was holding her head and screaming.
The archaic energy enveloped all of them.
An old aristocrat
A mother who saw her child burnt to crisps
A young school boy who'd lost his consciousness entirely
And a man who delayed his flight off Thunton for a day. Now the man cursed this decision.
Fearful panicking eyes, his body was held in a vice grip by whirl woman. This beautiful sentinel who was protecting him. W...was she about to die?
It would take much more than a nuclear war head to break this.It would take more than a....a monster to break her.
What caused this distress. The prophecy she saw. What was it?
Will you turn to see oh great woman of Salem.
She raised her head and she turned slowly to see. While she held the five of us in her embrace. To see what would kill her.
It couldn't be the titan fiend.
It was another fiend....Two. There were two fiends.
Eren could guess what she was trying to do. It all happened in real time he could not keep up.....the entire events happened in time. Time lesser than a single breath from poor Eren.
She saw it and what she saw was not of this reality. As if instinctively she held on to the civilians harder. They could tell from her blue eyes, as her teeth gritted in hopelessness. She was scared. Whirl Woman woman who wielded the dominion of the howl was scared.
The flesh and blood start to glow. The bones turn black. Now we stare at something of old. Among the beings we'll never understand. We saw the King.
The light blinds her. The terrible terrible eater of light. This unknown human like fiend. His hair is all glowing white. Or is it black, it distorts the reality around it.
The whole landscape, no, all of England has changed colour. It had bones protruding from its torso, flesh in places it was not supposed to be. A liquid of an unknown colour flowing through the grim white and solidifying into an exoskeleton. It was an adornment of death.
It's face was blurry, a crimson black shade of the unknown.
For some reason, primal to her soul—she wouldn't bear to look any longer than this glitch allowed her.
That reason was fear. A fear deeper than her heart. Fear was the soul now.
"Fear is what I command".
It was naked and its skin did peel out from itself. The body of the creature was transitioning between here and somewhere else. Between black and white. A deity beyond all things we know.
Whirl woman, rank sentinel no.6. One of the most decorated heroes in England.
This was the first time in a long time that she felt fear. How strong does a being have to be to make a sentinel rank hero shiver.
A cold sweat dropped down her chin and fell on the little girl she gritted her teeth against each other staring at her impending death. She looks back to the child and smiles, easing her. When she herself....just.....didnt want to die. Any second now. Any second now this place will cease to exis_
BOOM.
A white and black blast formed a dome-like shape. The dome rose beyond 20,000 yards over the seas of wot.
The dome destroys everything. Debris flew to all directions and the blast could be seen from space but there's a small portion it didn't affect. A part that's as if you cut a very narrow size from a pizza and didn't start from the centre. Something resisting the all consuming dome of none light.
That's Whirl woman.
Eren could see it. He switched to a camera from a near by satellite. And he saw it... That's Anna Edwin.
The momentary sound of the blast tore into him and his legs failed. Just the sound, all he heard was the sound of the Kings decree. And he couldn't stand
The ear piece which connected him to Anna fell and vaporised to nothingness. Touched by HIS Arcane.
The air of the Hero Tower was not present. No one could breathe. All watched....and felt it's presence. And her defiance against all of it. A true Sentinel.
She could feel the black and white energy burn through her archaic spherical barrier.
Then it erased her skin till her muscles and nerves were visible. She tried to regenerate but it was pointless. Effort was lie now. She was losing her life faster than she could resist death.
She could feel it. Arcane. She could feel his arcane.
It had reached her spine. The pain was slow and intense. She felt her bones themselves being obliterated.
She held the civilians hard, shielding them from the blast. At least they would be safe
Then she looked to the little girl in her arms.
At least she could die saving_
At least
" Oh. Oh why ".
The child was already a burning skeleton.
Then like the rest she crumbled to ash drifting to become less than the wind itself. A blast strong enough to erase people who don't touch it, potent enough to kill a sentinel.
Whirl woman held on the ashes. Her spine being burnt, she felt her life leaving and she saw true death embracing her, violent. This is how she would leave this world? Failing to save a child. Watching everything around her come undone. She took the ashes in her hands and covered her self in it.
She lost and she fell to the ashes of those who she couldn't save.
" Whirl woman "
Whirl woman!
Whirl woman !
Eren prayed. He prayed to the Enderin that Whirl Woman would live.
It took eight weeks. Eight weeks of potent healing and round the clock medical treatment to keep one of the world's most important heroes alive.
Enderin. The Enderin answered his prayers.
She thought she was dead. Yet the voice calling her name was familiar. It was her corresponder. It was that same resolute voice she always heard when she fought the most fiendish of Fiends.
And now she it was the first thing calling her from a darkness of her failure. Five..... failures.
She opened her lids. All the darkness left and she saw herself in a room of white walls. With thick but barely transparent curtains blocking out the sun's full might. It saved her the effort, the curtains let out just enough. A warm colour here in the room. The walls did seem orange....but they were white.
Tubes slender like flexible needles went from her fair soft arms to a daunting machine. An Arcane AutoHealer.
Soft arms where she saw the head of the little girl laying there. Staring back at her. Not for a moment. But constantly there.
When Annas turned...
It was filled with so much pain her stare. A purple patch of wrinkled skin laid under her blue eyes.
Her room was filled with all sorts of flowers and get well soon letters.
Then she looked to her other side and saw those tubes once again, covered by a tape.... inside her pale body. That was when it set in. When she remembered what she saw. The thing that killed those she failed to save.
" Where am I ", Anna asked in a shaky voice.
She sits up and uses her left hand to feel her back. Their gone.
Her wings are gone.
" You were lucky to survive whirl woman "., the voice of a fat old man with a long grey beard. He's wearing a lab coat and smoking a cigarette.
She's guessing he's the doctor.
" Are you feeling alright?", asks her corresponder as he stops her from getting up.
She holds her head hard and then tries to get up again.
Eren the corresponder tries to help her but she raises her hands finding the strength to speak.
" I'm fine ".
She sits on the side of the bed and lowers her upper body closer to her knees.
Anna Edwin was a beautiful woman. She was taller than most men and had snow white hair which she usually styled in long back braids. But now her hair was made to fall across her neck and back. Her skin was extremely soft and when she stands across you as the sentinel Whirl woman it's hard to keep things professional.
At least to Eren it was hard. She was so weak....he could see the ridges or her spine. He could even see her ribs for god's sake.
He averted his eyes from her back.
She's trying to regenerate her wings. They hear a wet cracking sound followed by a weak moan from Whirl woman as she realises it's beyond her power. It was all beyond her power.
She holds her head and stops herself from screaming as the image of that being brushes her mind.
" Your wings were severely damaged and so was the spinal column that they were attached to ", the doctor paused to take a longer sip of his cigarette, pulled it out and lets out the vapour from his hairy nose favouring each second.
" You won't be flying for a long time ".
The room is quiet. After the doctors last statement nobody has said a word. The only thing to listen to is the sickening grief and disappointment in the air.
" Doctor could you leave us ".
Eren says all while staring at Whirl woman who hasn't said a word but only grips her knees and hides her face. 5...5...5.. and a little girl.
She must be crying.
The doctor nodded and left through the door. The smoke from his cigar trailed along with his fleeting form.
Eren waited till the door closed and then waits some more. He's waiting for Whirl woman to say something.
Anything.
" What was that thing ", The English words were ripped out of her. Shaky. As it caused who the KING was.
" It was an Abyss ", Eren answers while sitting on a chair across Whirl woman's bed.
There's silence before he answers.
Whirl woman removes her face from her knees and looks at him with watery blue coloured eyes.
" Or at least it was supposed to be ".
" And what does that mean ". her voice is deep and calm yet on the brink of tears. It was stricken with great anger.
Whirl woman says in clear anger. Sentinels are so powerful that it's important they keep their cool when around civilians or crowded areas.
Other wise they release pure archaic energy that influenced the environment around them. Sometimes killing people by mistake.
" That thing that caused the explosion was trying to transform. It couldn't and that explosion was proof of that ", Eren said trying to ignore the tense air. He could barely speak in her presence.
" So you mean that wasn't supposed to happen. Those people. All those people just died because it failed to transform!"
"Ye_"
" NOO!",
Whirl woman screamed in range. Her archaic will burst out and caused all the windows in the 7 story hospital to shatter. The force of it brought Eren to his knees and left his ankle cracked.
____
Anna was...angry.
She turned her head to him. Eren looked at her from the floor. Her eyes are red and watery. The blue iris contrasted with the pain in her stare.
Whirl woman the sentinel. Whirl Woman the Old worlder. She always seemed to Eren to be invincible, beyond harm so he never had to worry about her.
But now..,
She looked away and turned her head to the floor.
" I am sorry ".
Her accent. Even now. That Salem accent was ....adorable to him.
" It's okay ".
Eren got up back to his feet ( the good one ).
So he tried to hide his sprained ankle as he reached back for his chair.
But off course it's pointless with a Sentinel.
Whirl woman extends her hands forward and it fires a grassy yellow energy to heal his ankle all while looking away. She couldn't look at a person. The faces of the child and those people appeared on his.
They trailed. The image had been replaying in her head since she awoken. Even before then when all she saw was darkness.
" Thank you ".
" You're uhh... You've been getting better at healing ".
Whirl woman lets out a large sigh and falls diagonally to the bed pressing both her palms on her eyes, her beautiful white hair spread around the white sheet.
" Just leave Eren. Go home to your wife and kids. ", the next words came out from her ribs. It hurts even just talking.
" I'm depressing to be around ".
Eren keeps silent. He has no children and he has no wife. He never had and he probably never will.
Yea but she couldn't know that. She couldn't possibly know that about him. A mere corresponder.
" I'm not married and..,
" And I have no kids ". He says while taking a deep breath.
Eren walks slowly towards Whirl woman and sits by her side. Slowly.
She turned her head and looks at him.
Eren was a striking man. Not cause he was 6'6 ( two inches shorter than Whirl woman ) Not because he was handsome. He had the face of an the every day 22 year old but infact he was 28. Eren was clean shaven and had very thick curled brown hair. His eyes were large and doe like. He had a visible cleft chin and slightly chubby cheeks. He looked a lot like a baby.
But what was striking about him, we're his expressions. His kind face. A face that is always beaming with great understanding of good and bad. She could feel a certain satisfaction with humble life the minute she met him 8 years ago.
Stammering and four eyed. Asking all too many questions about what Salem was like.
He turned to her and smiled as he said,
" I have no where to go. No where I can be useful but here, useful here, to you as I've always been ".
Whirl woman kept her crystal blue glare at him.
God her stare was intimidating and she was so beautiful. Her pale skin her sharp yet soft facial features. Sensually effortless.
Eren didn't even know what he was saying. He was just talking. Besides it'd be too late to pull back now.
" You're a sentinel whirl woman, you're almost invincible. But eight weeks ago, we saw something that made you temporary. Something powerful enough that it reminded the whole world, life is temporary ".
He looked down for a second.
" That scares you. It scares me too. You did what you could. There's beings on this planet in slumber that we can't stop, all we can do is not submit ....and you didn't Anne. That's why you're a sentinel."
Offcourse... I..a mere corresponder am giving pep talk to a sentinel.
" All those lives that were lost had value because you tried to save them. It's trying that matters Whirl woman not winning. Not saving everyone cause no one can save the world. It's trying to save people that matters most".
" Because we try...and we'll fail. But we try again ".
Whirl woman never stopped looking at his eyes the entire time. And he was using all his will to look back. A few feet away from a person so powerful and so beautiful.
Whirl woman smiled....Anna smile. She finally pulled her gaze from him and looked at the white ceiling.
" Can't believe I need a rousing speech ".
He chuckled self consciously.
Then she looked down and wiped her eyes.
" It's a shame you weren't a hero. You most likely would have done a better job than me ".
" No I'm, I'm too much of a scardey cat ".
" Are you ?"
( SILENCE )
Whirl woman gasped in fatigue.
" Well Eren ".
" Hmm?". He turned to her beautiful eyes answering quickly as he always did. He saw her face get flushed in a small smile.
" Can I lay down now ".
" Oh sure you can ".
( SILENCE )
Whirl woman chucked
" Well you're still in the bed ".
" Oh my ", Eren got up quickly, nervous holding his head and apologising as he always did also.
Whirl woman slowly lays down clearly still weak. She lifted up her blanket and covered herself to her shoulder.
" Tell the people I'm getting better "
" Will do ".
Eren had never seen a sentinel in such a fragile state. She almost seemed like a regular human.
" Em, how long will you sleep?".
Whirl woman stared at him, both of her brows were raised as if still trying to register his question.
" Maybe a week, or a month ".
" That's a relief ", he sighed. She could feel the heavy weight of his worry drop. "See trust me you'll be fine ".
Whirl woman turned to her right side away from Eren.
" I know and make sure no one touches me or the bed. I'll be releasing lots of Archaic energy. They could get burned ".
" Yes Mam ".
" Cover the fine for the broken windows ".
" Yes Mam ".
( SILENCE ).
There was another silence, the ringing kind. Eren didn't hear whirl woman say anything else and he couldn't see her face, because she'd turned to the other side of the bed. Away from him.
So he guessed she had already started her deep sleep.
He let out a shaky breath. Being around her was tiring. The type of fatigue that came with being away from reality.
When she stares at you, all of this. The world, the future the present. The world doesn't matter. A blue eyed glare that shook you to your bones.
He turned and stood across the door. He put his hand on the door knob and was about to twist it open
" Eren ".
" Yes ", his heart was pounding.
" Quis..fre...bahtanwaju...fikah ", she always spoke in Salem whenever she was....Anna. whenever she spoke as Anna and not Whirl woman
Translation:- ( You're a good lad. And a great corresponder )
she still wasn't turned to him but from the sound of her voice he could guess it was said in a smile.
A Corresponder Hugh.
" Anat ". He pulled the door open.
( Thanks ).
And he left in a smile.
Whirl woman had a vision. A vision of the past just as the door closed.
Half these flowers came from him