The Hunter

It’d been about six months since Minju had begun dating Taehyun, their relationship was oddly normal for a human-angel couple.

Minju liked it that way, she could just be his girlfriend without thinking about her immortal lifespan. 

Taehyun was sweet and made her heart flutter, they’d even gotten intimate a handful of times. 

But she tried to limit it (much to her boyfriend's disappointment), as if she got too carried away she could drain the life force out of his body. 

She’d seen it happen before, not by  her but one of her siblings. Back when they were still 17 and before the schism that led to them fighting, when she went by her original name. 

She missed those days,  when life was simpler. When humanity was simpler, but she also loved the life she’d built and wanted to keep living it. 

Her days started with her waking up in her apartment  she shared with Moka and another roommate, Taehyun still lived in the dorms and he was a self proclaimed good boy who didn’t sleep over often as he “didn’t want to mooch off you” his own words not Minju’s. 

Today was just another Thursday, Minju woke to the quiet hustle and bustle of her roommates  moving around the apartment.  She slipped out of bed and stepped out into the hallway, where she saw Moka across the hall walking into the kitchen while their roommate Liz  was carrying a hamper full of dirty laundry to their laundry room. 

She made her way to the kitchen, still wearing her pajamas. She didn’t have any classes until the afternoon and Taehyun was away at some hockey tournament;he'd gotten on the school's hockey team after the coach saw him playing a recreational game with some friends. 

Now enough of self monologue, she has a day to begin.

“What are you making?” Minju spoke softly, stopping next to Moka as she was pouring something onto a skillet.

Moka spoke without turning her head. “I’m making French toast.” 

Minju smiled. “Sounds delicious, call me when its ready.”  She requested, turning on her heel to exit the kitchen right as Liz walked in. 

“Oh hey.” Liz said softly, a tired look in her eyes.

Moka grinned at Liz. “Rough night with your boyfriend?~” she teased.

Liz’s face turned the color of a tomato as she froze in place, stuttering. “H-hey!” 

Minju snickered. “Be nice to her Moka, can’t you see the girls tired?” She nudged Liz before walking back to her room to grab some clean clothes before heading to the bathroom to shower. 

She closed the bathroom door, locking it before she began undressing.  In the mirror you could see the scars along her back where her one injured wing  was, a space she usually hit with ancient magic.

She turned on the shower, letting the water warm up as the silent bathroom became an echo chamber of water hitting the tiles. Checking the temperature every once in a while before stepping in. 

She let the warm water envelope her, closing her eyes and letting her shoulder drops. That’s when the feeling hit her.

Minju froze. It was a feeling she hadn’t felt in years.

The first time she’d felt it was when she’d been forced to slay her corrupted sisters, this feeling was similar to that but there was something calling to her. 

She snapped herself out of it and began to wash herself.  She assumed it was just another trick caused by her body after using  her powers too often.

It happened when she used her magic to cover her wings a lot. 

“It’s fine.” She told herself.

She turned off the water, dried off and got dressed. 

She then took off out of the apartment without telling Moka or Liz and began walking across campus, she was letting the feeling guide her.

Eventually when  she got to the edge of  campus, she continued walking. 

She reached the edge of the small city they lived in, and she kept walking.

Eventually she made her way into a forest along the outskirts of the city………….guess what?

She kept on walking.

She walked until she got into the deepest depth of the forest,  as she got closer the power resurgence she’d felt earlier became stronger and the forest began showing signs of a battle. 

Trees with gashes in them, the size of fists.  Small shallow trenches from something being dragged through the earth. 

All of it leaving a trail deeper into the woods that she continues to follow, but not before channeling some energy into her fists for defense if necessary. 

She found a sword stuck in a tree trunk. It was an old broadsword, a type of weapon she knew well from the days of old. 

She wrapped a hand around the pommel and pulled it from the tree trunk without much effort. 

She examined the blade, it had no blood on it so it means that either the fight was knocked out of the losers hand or the winner had put it there after killing its user.

She twirled the sword in her hand, surprising herself as it’d been about 120 years since she had used one back in 1906.

She continued down the path of the fight, finding that it ended along a cliff with a narrow  canyon   forest and river running through.

She stepped off, floating down to the canyon floor. She looked around.

Hm, looks like the fight ended here.” she talked to herself, she spotted blood stains that formed a trail through some brush.

The blood trail led her to the crumpled  body……………..of her sister Kazuha.

Minju gasped, dropping the sword and  running over. dropping next to the body she pulled the body into her arms, it was still warm so her sister was still alive.

She placed her hand over the pulsing stomach wound and tried to heal it, but Kazuha’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.

“Seraphine……..stay with me.”

Minju spoke her sister true name, the one she had used before the fall. 

Kazuha’s eyes opened and they took in Minju’s face. “Lunarael…” She gasped out.

At the sound of her own  old name, Minju finally broke down into ugly sobs.

“Who…Who did this to you?” Minju choked out from between tears and sobs. 

Seraphine choked for a moment, gasping for  breath. “It was……Katarina, she’s coming for us.” 

Seraphine’s hand fell, her body going limp as her body turned gray. 

Minju started shaking,  she started shaking Seraphine desperately trying to wake her back up.

“Sister, wake up….please.” she choked out.  

After a few moments she lay her sister down on the ground, stood up and screamed. 

This wasn’t just a normal scream, it let her powers out. 

She lost control of her angelic glow so a large arc of light shot up into the sky for about 2 minutes before she fell back onto her knees. 

When she calmed down, and began to collect her thoughts her mind wandered to her 5 other sisters.  Were they still alive? Or had Katarina gotten to them as well? 

Seraphine’s body began to dissipate, cutting off Minju’s chain of thought.

Minju kneeled there, frozen as she watched  Seraphine’s body dissipate  into a cloud of golden dust, floating up into the sky to be returned to the heavenly realm to be used to create more angels. 

The dust’s ascent was slow, as if the creators were toying with her sister's life one final time.

Seraphine had already suffered enough in her long life, she’d  had seen her  try (and fail) to save villages during the dark ages. 

Minju used to wonder what death was like,  back when she first took  the name Lunarael- before the fall and she hadn’t lived amongst the mortals. 

But that was before  her immortality  felt like a curse, when she saw it as a blessing.  

Now? She didn’t want to even think about it. Now fate had forced her hand, since Seraphine had still been alive when minju found her- that meant Katarina was probably still in the woods.

Minju wanted revenge, but Katarinal was the strongest of the 17 original fallen. she’d been their leader until the split, It’d taken the combined might of all 7 redeemed sisters to even get her to retreat with the survivors. And even that caused them to get injured severely, Minju’s wings hadn’t recovered since. 

Despite that, Minju was feeling lucky today.  She stood back up, letting her powers surge and she summoned the dropped broadsword to her hand again. 

She used her power surge to call out to Katarina, it took a few minutes but she felt a return in power and saw something moving  towards  her direction through the trees in the valley.

A moment later, Katarina appeared.  Her face still had the same porcelain skill Minju remembered.  But now with a more sinister edge. 

“Lunarael, I was wondering  if I’d be able to find you next.”  She spoke, taunting her as she twirled twin black blades in her hands

Her posture was confident, after all she had just won a fight against the strongest of the Redeemed. 

Both of them stared each other down in silence after that, their demeanors were what kept the moment charged.

Minju was charged with anger, Katarina was calm after a victory.

“Come at me little sister, let’s see if you can protect all you love~” Katarina taunted.

Minju lunged forward, swinging her broadsword at speeds only angels could reach aiming for her sisters neck.

Katarina  easily stepped to the side, dodging it before taking a swipe of her own at Minju’s side. 

Minju parried the swipe,  slashing at Katarina. 

Their blades lock as they tried to shove each other, Katarina got the upper hand and kicked Minju’s left leg out from under her. 

“You’ve grown weak, I expected better from you Lunarael.”  Katarina taunted as she swung down, minju rolling out of the way in the nick of time.

Minju quickly recovered and  channeled more energy into her hands as kneeled before delivering a devastating punch into Katarina’s side.

 It sent her flying across the valley, crashing through 3 trees and hitting the ground. 

Minju was on her before she could get her bearings, swinging savagely. 

“DIE!” “DIE!” “DIE!” Minju screamed as she swung at Katarina, who dodged and parried all her attacks before kicking Minju in the stomach. 

Minju flew back a few feet before Katarina, now back on her feet lunged. 

This time, Katarina drew first blood. Her black blades cut Minju’s arm slightly. 

Minju hissed, she’d forgotten what pain had felt like. Coursing up her arm like red hot lava and into her nervous system. 

Katarina grinned, but didn’t continue attacking.  She just looked at Minju.

“As much as I'd love to play, I have places to be. You still have some spark left in you Lunarael, i expect you to fare better next time we meet.” 

And with that, the corrupted one  ran off. 

Minju  pursued her for a while but eventually lost her trail. 

“No, no, no NO!” she screamed, taking her rage out on a tree. 

She sent the sword to a pocket dimension where she and her sisters kept weapons,  before checking the slash wound on her arm.

The cut was deep, she was still bleeding but it was nothing she couldn’t heal.   Except She kept all her healing supplies in her bedroom.

 As a fallen angel she no longer could access celestial healing energy and relied on ancient mortal healing magic that required special powders. 

“Ah crap, how am  i going to explain this?”  She muttered as she made her way back through the forest and into the city. 

This time thought she took her sweet time so  when she finally  got back  onto campus it was late in the afternoon. 

And at her apartment were her roommates, their friends, her boyfriend and several of his hockey teammates. 

Liz spotted her first, and gasped at the deep cut Minju was trying to conceal. “Minju oh my god!” She ran over and crushed the angel in a hug. 

To be continued.