Warrior Nun: The aftermath

Chapter 31

Only one more day before they will all leave in separate directions. As much as Camila was looking forward to spending time with Yasmine, it also meant saying goodbye to the others. For only two months, but it was still a farewell. It was nice to see that Ava and Beatrice had apparently gotten along again. This morning at breakfast everything was much more harmonious, compared to the day before. But the most interesting thing was Lilith's suggestion to test how strong Ava actually was. That's why they were on their way out of town. Beatrice had told how devastating Ava's powers could be for buildings. The last thing they wanted was to make innocent people homeless. An uninhabited area, which was off the beaten track and had little to no attention, was the ideal place for the tests. Just an hour later, the car stopped and Lilith, Mother Superior, Beatrice, Ava and Camila themselves got out. It was better to take only the most necessary people with you and involve them. Of course, Yasmine would be able to pull everything out of her nose anyway, but it was still the right decision. It took only half an hour to set up all the equipment and be ready for the first test. It was hard at first, because Ava had a lot of different skills and they didn't really know how to test them. In the end, they have come up with procedures that should actually work well.

"Okay, is everyone ready?" Beatrice asked, looking around.

Lilith was responsible for ensuring that there were no other people in the area and nodded. Camila looked up from her monitor and gave her okay as well.

"All right. Ava, you can," Beatrice said into the radio.

On one of the screens, the image of a camera was shown, with which they kept an eye on Ava. After a short nod, she crouched down a bit. What happened next exceeded anything Camila had expected. A bright light pulse, a bang and followed by a huge cloud of dust. Ava was almost a kilometer away from them, but the bang she caused could be heard very clearly. Like an avalanche, like an ever-growing cloud, rushed towards them. It took some time before the dust settled and they could all see the hand in front of their eyes again. Camila quickly turned her gaze to the transmission of the camera. Stunned, her jaw dropped. Immediately, everyone else looked at the screens to see what she was seeing. Horrified, Beatrice immediately grabbed the radio and tried to reach Ava.

"Ava? Ava! Can you hear me?"

Silence.

"Damn Ava! Give a sign of yourself!"

On the screen, where Ava had stood until a few minutes ago, there was only a huge crater. All the trees around it were bent or torn out completely.

In the middle of the 200-meter-long crater lay Ava's motionless body. It was only after several attempts by Beatrice to contact her that she finally moved and gave the thumbs up. Relieved, everyone exhaled noisily. Using the satellite Camila hacked, they looked at the big picture of Ava's power. It was incredible. If the other forces were also at this level, their chances against the new enemy were better than assumed.

"I'll get her." Lilith had already disappeared with a loud wash.

"What do you think about that?" Camila asked, looking back and forth between Beatrice and Mother Superior.

Mother Superior was still looking at the ever-increasing data on this test. Beatrice's attention, however, was completely focused on the transfer to Ava.

"It's very special. I would never have been able to do that." Mother Superior looked at the screen, still impressed.

"It always has been. Especially," Beatrice added.

It was also easy for Camila to understand how extraordinary Ava was. She hadn't been a part of the OCS for that long, but had done enough research to have sufficient knowledge. In the meantime, she had studied the diary, as well as all the existing reports on the warrior nuns. Before she could say anything, Lilith reappeared, bringing Ava with her. She was pale and looked completely exhausted. Of course, it took time for her to recover. The halo needed a lot of energy. As energetic as Ava always was, even she had to nibble on it.
Beatrice immediately approached Ava and helped her to the couch prepared for her. With nothing to do about it, Camila watched them and couldn't help but smile until Lilith pulled her out of the moment.

"Can you zoom in on the recording and play it slowly?"

"Sure," Camila replied exactly what Lilith had asked her to do.

In the video, you could see the energy from the halo being channeled into Ava's body and then into her surroundings.

"That's interesting," said a voice immediately behind her.

She glanced slightly back and saw the thoughtful look of Mother Superior.

"What do you mean?" asked Beatrice, joining them at the screens.

"I had suspected its force and the pattern would be more like a bomb, but it doesn't. It's fascinating how first the halo and then Ava herself start to glow before everything around her is razed to the ground."

"It doesn't matter how I do it. I didn't give quite one hundred percent and still jumped a huge hole in the ground and cut down wood for an entire village. It doesn't matter how it happens," Ava said annoyed on the couch.

"It's very relevant," Beatrice spoke again. "Once we understand how you do it, we can figure out how we can best help you."

"In what way?" Ava raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to hold hands when I use my powers?"

"Of course not. What I mean by that is that we could speed up your regeneration process, or that we could make your abilities even more difficult."

"Beatrice is right. The more we know, the better. As long as we roughly analyze the rest here, you're resting. You have more to show us today," Mother Superior chimed in again.

About an hour later, notes were taken, data was worked through and saved.

Already ready for the next attempt, everyone was in their positions. Once again, Camila casually thought of an important question.

"When are we all leaving tomorrow?"

"If you see fit," Mother Superior replied curtly.

With this answer, she could have saved herself the trouble of asking. From time to time, Camila wondered if Mother Superior had not taken a course with Reya on how to answer questions in a vague way.

"Are you done with coffee gossip? Can I start now?"

Somewhat annoyed, but also amused, Ava's voice penetrated through the radio. With a quick shake of her head, Camila turned away from her thoughts and focused again on what was to come.