Declaration of War 2
It is, Tanya acknowledges, incredibly unsurprising that the situation turned out this way.
Countless knowns and unknowns colliding in one place at one point in time, creating a clusterfuck conflagration of a situation that no one knows the outcome to.
Visha told her about the others. Tanya knows what happened.
If circumstances were different, she'd allow herself to mourn them. But the truth is, she'd already grieved over never seeing them again, and if there's anything she's good at, it's suppressing her emotional impulses in favor of a rational, untainted perspective.
Right now, that is what's most important: keeping her logical side at the forefront. She can't afford to get bogged down here. Even if she's understandably, shall we say, rather cross with Being X right now.
She'd always known Being X was a vindictive bastard. But even then, something as petty as vindication or revenge simply cannot be the reason behind his actions. Perhaps there were ill-feelings involved, stemming from her, but Tanya knowshim. She knows how he likes to operate.
It's simple to assume that Grantz, Neumann, Koenig, and Weiss were simply causalities of a cruel god. It's easy to connect their deaths with her own, with her however unintentional "escape".
However, it's never just "simple" or "easy" with Being X. There's a greater intent here, some other goal he wants to accomplish. He probably has multiple different plans at once, in fact.
They key to this situation, Tanya thinks, is in what he's also done to General Zettour. From Visha's descriptions, he seems to have been consumed in a similar manner to how Mary Sue was once consumed.
It's not too difficult to imagine Zettour giving in willingly, all things considered.
The sensation around him, once he'd changed, Visha described it as a sort of leeching, sticky, instinct-scaring pressure. A heavy presence that fits a space greater than that of the person representing it. Uncharacteristic impulses that match an irrational, inhuman intent, and, most notably, exuding a strange power that can be felton a subconscious level.
Yeah. Familiar.
There's a few reasons Tanya can think of as to why Being X would drop to this level.
If his intent is to spread faith, then taking control of a prominent figure in the Imperial military could certainly feed into that. After all, he'd attempted to use her for the same purpose, and quite successfully at that, much to her own irritation. If he wants to create faith through war, then it wouldn't be difficult to start another one with the right pieces.
But that doesn't seem correct. It doesn't quite fit into the puzzle she's quickly piecing together.
If it were as simple as starting another war, then why hadn't he done so already? It's not like the political landscape of the Eurasian continents is exceptionally stable. And why resort to mortals in the first place? Habit? Necessity?
Maybe it's not just that she's missing pieces. Maybe Being X was, or is, also missing key pieces.
…herself?
It's possible that the term "Star" has a greater cosmological context than she is aware of. She'd already theorized a bit, but something she'd not considered before is if deities have culture. Do they have their own history? Is it even "them"?
There must be some wider meaning she's simply not privy to, being mortal herself.
How does a star relate to a deity? Or, how do they differ?
If all goes well, of course, none of this will matter. But it would be a mistake to assume that anything can ever go well when Being X is involved.
"It's this one." Visha tells her, pulling out a key from her uniform's front pocket and unlocking the door. Her hand spasms a bit, turning the key, but hidden by her body, the motion remains uncommented on. "I've… snuck in this way before."
Tanya sidles past her, taking in the immediate wall of what can only be called Germanian engineering at its finest, aka a bunch of technology that seems ahead of its time, but only because no one else was insane of enough to try and shove some many experimental parts and pieces into one.
Shuffling sideways until she finds a bigger gap, Tanya makes her way through the technological jungle that is the interior of this warehouse. By appearances, no one has been inside for the past several days.
Likely since her arrival.
I wonder, have they named it as an incident of some kind, or as a "successful experiment"?
She travels through the gap she found, a space between towers of interconnected mechanical structures and underneath orderly and silent piping. Visha follows behind her, and though it's not worth admitting, the utter silence of the warehouse at large is somewhat disconcerting.
Tanya ducks under a dangling cable, wary of getting shocked, and steps over a displaced gear in that was apparently forgotten about in the aisle. By now, she's recognized that general layout of the structures and equipment, that being an odd spiral shape. The aisle itself curls in toward the center of the warehouse, like being drawn toward the eye of a storm.
The part of her brain attuned to rituals and runes and the like can't help but notice a possible symbolic reason for this. Another part of her brain points to how it's a bit strange to be leading in this situation, rather than being led.
After all, she's never been here before.
But she recognizes it by sight, regardless.
There's an open space in the center of the warehouse, connected by a corridor to the closed hangar doors. Another curved aisle can be seen on the opposite side of the open space, leading off presumably to the ceiling-to-floor box of walls breaking away from the warehouse itself, that can be seen over the tops of the mechanical shelves and pipes and gears and whatnot.
Near the top of those walls are a series of small windows. That area, then, is likely a space that was converted into an observation bay and/or a control center.
More attention-grabbing, however, is what dominates the open space of the warehouse, rather than the far corner. That which she recognizes somehow, is the large upright ring atop a metallic dais. Wires and pipes stretch out from the dais and the ring itself, connecting to the towering structures filling the majority of the warehouse's space.
It's a portal type device. By her assumption, this is what's responsible for those space-time anomalies that had so vexed Souei and her.
If she had to guess, it's likely that hers and Mary Sue's death left a hole or rip or tunnel of some sort, and this device, and with Being X's assistance in some form, latched on to the remnants her magical signature wherever it happened to bleed through. The main case and point being where she'd first arrived in that World.
Then, when she died, Being X was able to find her… though, there's space between those two occurrences that still seems odd to her. It wasn't just that she'd died. Again, there's her being a "Star" to consider. There's also something significant about the number, "a third Death".
And speaking of which, that other deity, they'd done something. She'd have to look into them at a later date. Whether out of wary, tentative thanks – hey, if they'd helped, far be it for her to be ungrateful, even to a deity – or as preparation for someone else trying to fuck her over.
Her work is never done, truly.
"Where are the controls?"
"There's a glass-covered panel on the side, you can't see it from the front." Visha breaks her silence finally, something warring within her violent enough to bleed into her expression. Seemingly coming to a decision, she grabs Tanya's shoulder. "But Tanya, I need to-"
As if against her command, Visha's mouth snaps closed, cutting herself off. The look in her eyes can only be described as panic, and for good reason.
"Well now, what do we have here?" A new, yet familiar, voice echoes through the open space.
Visha inhales sharply through her nose, and Tanya glances back at her, noting how her expression has frozen.
It's not just panic. It's fear, no doubt about it.
Tanya faces the direction of the familiar, masculine, aged voice that bears a striking similarity to Hakurou's.
And, as expected, Hans von Zettour exits the aisle on the opposite side of the open space, hands clasped leisurely behind his back. He is accompanied by no one other than himself as he walks closer to them, looking for all the world as though he has naught a care about him.
I couldn't even tell he was here… is that my fault, or is he…?
"It's been a very long time since we last met, Colonel."
"I died, General. I think that relieves me of my title."
"You died, and yet here you are. Back from the dead." He tilts his head, stopping a few meters away. "How interesting… tell me, Tanya: do you believe in God?"
The last word is spoken in a hushed, oddly tinted tone of voice. One she is unfortunately familiar with. There's something to it… the fervor of insanity guised in the form of true gospel.
To give credit to whatever is wearing the face of her former superior, he wears the fervor well. The features of the original man are, in fact, well suited to such a thing. Even if gospel now is substituting war.
But still. She knew Schugel better than most. That fervor is fake.
"What have you done with him?"
How much is left of Hans von Zettour, if at all?
"Now, Colonel, calm yourself and use your words more clearly. I'm not quite sure what you mean-"
"Don't fuck with me!" Tanya snaps, taking a harsh step forward that has no visible effect on this Faux-Zettour. "It's always the same with you, but I'm tired of playing these games, Being X. We're too far past pretending at this point, so tell me what happened to the man you're parading around like a puppet on your strings."
There's a short pause in which he digests her words. The look on his face is not quite shock, but more like… right, that's it. It's amusement that stretches that stolen face.
"And here I thought you would deny, deny, deny, for as long as possible. But you…" Faux-Zettour chuckles, then laughs, head thrown back as the sound echoes unnaturally. It's as though he's unused to laughing.
Or, unused to human emotion, more likely. An interesting observation.
Behind her, Visha shifts nervously. Tanya stares ahead with a glowing gaze.
"…you have a rather intriguing tendency to surprise me, Tanya." His laughter bleeds away, and he meets her glare with a smirking one of his own. "And to think, I intended to play along. I forged an entire scenario with which to play around you, my own plan to drag you into your proper place, and yet you don't even want to play anymore? If my effort in acquiring this form were wasted, I might honestly be upset."
Acquire? That implies something different than hersituation.
"It would have been a brilliant war of words. But, oh well. I've already achieved the majority of my goals. Let us speak plainly for each other's sake. You do know, do you? You're aware of what's happened to this man? To your men? A terrible shame of events, don't you think?"
Tanya says nothing, nor does Visha.
He shrugs, unclasping his hands and bringing them forward.
"How unfortunate, the ever-cautious Vooren Grantz... caught in an uncharacteristic tragedy."
With his left, he presses one of the fingers on his right hand down. Counting.
"How unfortunate, that a man as strong as an ox, Rhiner Neumann... felled by mere chance, a lucky stab in the dark."
He presses down, counting off a second finger.
"How unfortunate, that such a sharp, considering man, Wilibald Koenig... it could have been anyone in that cab, I suppose."
A third.
"How unfortunate, that Matheus Weiss, healthy, in the prime of his life... yet, illness claimed him all the same."
Faux-Zettour, or Zettour-X as she mentally dubs him, chuckles, holding up four fingers. His lone remaining finger on that hand, his thumb, wiggles teasingly.
"Is the picture clear, girl? You already know, do you not? Must you make me demonstrate more? Do you understand yet?"
"...you know, I already knew that about you. I've always had a measure of your character, even if I couldn't understand it." Tanya glares at him. "You're nothing more than a devil- is what I'd like to say. But that's the point, isn't it? We will never understand each other."
"How quaint... but you know, Tanya, I wasn't only talking to you."
Zettour-X's smile sharpens at either end, stretching his face unnaturally. His metallic gaze looks past her, and in a low, scraped chalkboard drawl, he croons his next word.
"Viktoriya. Come to me."
"She's not-" There's motion behind her. Tanya pauses.
Visha steps out, jerkily as if forced, and avoids eye contact while passing by. It doesn't stop Tanya from seeing the golden glint glowing along the edges of her cheeks.
"…I see."
"Good. Good, child." Visha walks with stuttering, shaky step, her hands twitching at her sides, until she's standing next to him. Then she turns, expression dull and eyes tinted gold over the blue, as she silently takes a place at his side. Zettour-X chuckles. "Thank you, my child. Your… complianceis acceptable."
"What the hell did you do to them, Being X?"
"There's no need for harsh words, Tanya von Degurechaff." He says mockingly, laying a hand on Visha's shoulder. "There's a very simple reason for all of this setup. Did you know, something about your very nature equates to immunity from divine interference. Congratulations! You're free… for now. Because you see, little Star, that makes you a problem."
Tanya grimaces, a dark glint swirling in her eyes. "So because I'm a problem, you decide to take it out on everyone else like a pathetic, tantrum-throwing child? Was killing my former subordinates just revenge to you? Some all-loving god you are."
"Don't be so arrogant, or indeed, uncharacteristically hasty! I was getting to that part." The bastard is enjoying this. "I never claimed to be so all-loving, and I never made any illusions as to my intentions. That's the bare minimum required with you humans and your free will. It's not as though I sought them out for revenge. With your disappearance, it is only, how you might say, the next logical assumption that I would need to replace you."
He smirks, the expression malicious against the aged lines of Zettour's face.
"It just so happens that your dear friend required a little, shall we say, mental fracturing before she would give in. Those subordinates of yours would have been an excellent addition to the cause, otherwise… but I suppose the strength of her will and her resistance, as temporary as they were, were at least partially a product of her closeness to you. Despite myself, I will admit that it impressed me."
…like with Mary Sue and her father's death.
Silencing the agonized scream of rage in the depth of her mind, Tanya's hands clench and unclench at her sides. Logic. That's her focus. Think, Tanya, think.
There must be something about strength of will that even he can't suppress by itself, otherwise he could have just controlled anyone he wanted. Unless it's a self-imposed restriction of some kind, but then it doesn't matter.
"Is that it then?" Tanya asks, head tilted defiantly. "You needed a new pawn, and you had to break-" She spits the word out in disgust, unable to hide all of it. "-her to get her. All that tells me is it took you two years to crush the spirit and take advantage of an already emotionally vulnerable young woman. Am I supposed to be impressed? Honestly, if you intended to take control of someone close to me, I would have expected it in the years before I died. But now? Really, how do you get anyone to follow you? Anyone with sense can see how pathetic you are."
Is what I'm saying, and it's all well and good to act the part of the unconcerned pragmatist. But if I'm being honest with myself? Her shoulders are entirely too tense for anyone paying enough attention. She wants to ball her hands up into fists and beat that smug look off of his face. That's the problem with opening yourself up to these sorts of things. Right now, it's taking everything I have to just stand here.
Both emotionally, and physically. Her knee pulses, a flash of hot-cold spiking down from her hip to her shin. Dizziness strikes her, and is viciously ignored. The gaping void in her stomach also is no help.
"If it were anything less than necessary, I imagine we'd be having a different conversation." Zettour-X shrugs, genuinely unconcerned in comparison to her disguised fury. "But you should manipulate people when they're emotionally vulnerable, right? What's so wrong with it when I do it?"
Necessary, huh? Got it.
There's something preventing him doing whatever he likes. He stated outright that he needed to kill Grantz, Neumann, Koenig, and finally Weiss before he could acquire a replacement pawn. The use of "mental fracturing" gives the rest of the game away; it's something to do with willpower, or free will, or mental endurance.
Wherever the nuance is in that approach, being self-imposed or a World-restriction or whatever else it could be, Tanya doesn't care. All that matters is that such a restriction exists.
That means, if someone has a sufficiently powerful will or desire…
"I should also tell you," Zettour-X interrupts, "that I'm fully aware of your little scheme. Nothing my little puppets know is unavailable to me, and I'm sorry to say, but your little ritual has already been disturbed. Whatever its intent, I doubt something requiring five meticulously carved runic arrays can proceed without the latter two."
Then, one of the missing pieces from earlier snaps into place.
"Whenever you disappeared, you were actually going to one of your puppets." It's a statement rather than a question. And you know what, yeah, she really hates using that word considering one of the puppets in question is Visha. "The locker room, our discussion on the roof… earlier today, I imagine. Were you splitting your attention three separate ways this whole time?"
"I appreciate you pretending to keep your cool in spite of these revelations." He chuckles, oddly indulgent for the circumstances. "But I suppose I can answer that much. It's not resistance around you, but immunity. That's important. The only way to find you was, in fact, by physically finding or spotting you. And additionally, I knew that youwere aware of my own presence whenever I was near. To counteract this, I hid a reflection of my Ego inside that of my puppets. Thus, as limited as a physical disguise may be, the information I gathered directly from the source, both through our conversations and through those with Viktoriya, more than made up for it. Does that answer your- I'm sorry, are you rolling your eyesright now?"
She is, mentally exhausted just form listening to him.
"So what I've gathered is that, no, you weren't splitting your attention three separate ways. You were only in one place at one time, taking advantage of the fact that I can sense your presence to trick me into lowering my guard whenever I couldn't sense it. Is that about right?"
"…you know, Tanya, I was half joking earlier, but the fact that you are remaining so remarkably level-headed right now is concerning. Not for me, mind, but for you. Are you right in the head? What happened to the shouting? The anger? Have you actually cracked and it's just taking this odd form, or are you truly such a sociopath that this actually doesn't affect you? That's genuine question; I'm honestly curious at this point."
"Oh, no, I am beyond furious right now." Tanya says calmly. "But before I answer your question, let me ask another one of my own. Did Visha mourn me?"
"Did she… mourn you?" Zettour-X blinks, and so thrown off is he by it that he genuinely answers. "Well, I'd imagine so."
"Good."
But Tanya isn't referring to his answer or the idea that Visha mourned her. Because Being X just confirmed something very important.
"Then, with that out of the way, let's answer your initial question. No, I haven't cracked under the pressure. No, I'm not such a sociopath that your manipulations and murders of everyone I cared about in this world have no effect on me. As unimaginable as the thought may seem, I'm sure at some point in the near future I'll break down and shed real tears for that damage you've done to me and mine. But that's not important right now. Right now, I think I'm going to show you the results of your own arrogance."
Zettour-X raises an eyebrow. "Oh, are you now? And how do you plan to do that? With a couple of storage and release-type mana sinks? An incomplete ritual? The indomitable human spirit? I could go on, but I find that human amusement is remarkably overpowering when I let it take me, and would rather keep most of my composure for the time being."
Overpowering, he says.
"That's your problem." Tanya raises her hands, as if to clasp them together. "You always think you know everything, and because of that, everyone else should just shut up and follow along. Obviously, you know more, and obviously, you know better than anyone else… is what you think, at least. But you made one pretty fucking big mistake. You never should have left me alone."
At this, his hand blurs behind his back.
"Is that so?"
Shattering the tension is a familiar rending of the air. That is, the violent bang of a handgun.
"Gah!"
"Tanya!"
"Not so fast."
In less than a second, the situation shifts for the worse.
Tanya falls to one knee, sporting a bleeding bullet wound through one of her thighs. Visha loses her composure, seemingly breaking free for a second. Just enough to jerk forward and reach out a hand, accompanied by a shout. And Being X, still incarnated in Zettour's body, stops her.
He yanks her back, then swaps his grip from Visha's shoulder to the back of her neck.
"Just for that, I think I'll punish you a bit." Zettour-X says, as a golden glow begins to shine through the gaps in his fingers. "Just kidding. I was already planning on doing this."
Tanya clutches at her wounded leg, trying to stem the flow of blood staining her hands.
A gun? Being X, using a gun?! But, if he's really in a physical body now, of course he'd have reinforcement! Shit! Of course he'd react with that!
Despite the burn, and an inability to stand, she tries to get up.
"Visha, move!" Her body doesn't respond the way it should. She looks up, locking eyes with her former adjutant. "Visha!"
Visha looks back at her, and smiles. Her normally blue eyes glow, shifting and changing color.
"Don't make this harder on yourself than it needs to be. And assuming you were telling the truth," Zettour-X is talking to Tanya, they realize, "this should hurt."
But, before they change completely, an understanding passes between them. Without any need for words, they know what the other is thinking.
No, don't-!!
Golden energy erupts from beneath Zettour-X's fingers, engulfing him and Visha in translucent waves of almost-flame. The power – Being X's power, Tanya thinks, feeling his presence become heavier with each passing second – swirls and mixes, a whirlpool localized over two figures in violent, wind-causing fashion, until-
Abruptly, almost anti-climatically, it ends.
"Aah… now this…"
Zettour's body crumples lifelessly to the ground.
"…this feels much better. The benefits of health and youth."
"Visha" steps forward, away from the former puppet. Or perhaps host or even vessel is the better term here. Tanya personally likes "host", as it implies Being X as a sort of parasite.
"And, undoubtedly, of power."
Visha(?) balls her hands into fists, punching the air with a quiet huff of effort behind each blow.
"Such a gem you cultivated, Tanya. She's a remarkable specimen. For a mortal, that is."
That smug expression and smooth tone…
…don't belong to that voice.
Not-Visha crouches down, relieving the abandoned Zettour of the pistol still clutched in hand.
No, this is fine. It's fine. It's not-
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Not-Visha, or Visha-X if we continue the pattern, walks casually toward her downed foe. Though, in her mind, the word "foe" gives Tanya far too much credit.
"Well, isn't this adorable." Visha-X tilts her head, then smirks. Her voice, initially two-toned as if he and Visha were speaking at once, now settles into a single, deeper toned version of Visha's normal voice. "So, it turns out she couldn't mourn you. And what's this? I already knew you were hiding from me, but the true extent is just… I'm impressed, Tanya."
Is he accessing her memories…?
She lets her bloodied hands creep away from her wound, moving them closer to one another-
BANG!
Another bullet impacts the ground next to her. Tanya flinches, admonishing herself for it and for telegraphing her intent so clearly.
"Now, now. None of that." Visha-X lowers the gun to her side, chuckling. "I know the significance of hand signs myself. Next time, I'll skip the gloating and shoot you between the eyes. Oh, I do so hope you'll try again."
Tanya can't help the chill that runs down her spine.
At least he's admitting that it's gloating. She snarks internally, doing her best to distract herself from the litany of shitty fucking things happening right now. I can work with this. I can. This- this fucking shitshow…
It's not working.
"You knew?" She asks, less curious and more to keep him talking, if nothing else.
"Knew? You salty summer child, I've known this entire time." Visha-X approaches, disgustingly confident. This is likely due to the gun in hand, though Being X's own shitty personality is also a major contributor by virtue of itself. "I've known since I found you that you were hiding something. But, to your credit, you are remarkably good at hiding, and whatever you did to protect your soul like that, to bestow that immunity, I commend you. I can't read your thoughts or intentions even now, even standing this close to you."
By "this", she means "less than a meter away", as Visha-X stops and stares down at Tanya's kneeling, bleeding form.
"But I knew. Oh, I knew. And to think, you really thought you could pull the wool over my eyes."
"Thought? You mean succeeded." Tanya shrugs, then winces. It's almost inevitable to feel her body breaking down. "You weren't sure, were you? You knew something was wrong, but you didn't know what. So you waited, and did nothing. Is that right?"
"…you are such a fucking baffling, irritating mortal. Even if we humor the thought that you pulled one over on me, it doesn't change the fact that I did nothing because it did not matter. There's nothingyou could or can possibly do against me. What difference would one day or six make? What could you have possibly come up with? The answer is nothing! I've already ruined your pathetic excuse for a plan with only the barest hint of effort on my part, and you have the nerve to kneel in front of me and still act like such uncomprehending, idiotic, arrogant-"
"Are you done?"
Visha-X blinks, genuinely taken aback. "Pardon?"
"I asked if you were done." Then, she spits. The glob of saliva falls almost in slow motion, before splattering against one of Visha-X's boots.
There's a moment of stunned silence.
Stars explode across her vision, Tanya's head jerking to the side as Visha-X pistol whips her across the forehead. Before she can keel backwards, however, Visha-X bends down, grabbing Tanya by the collar of her white-button and yanking her upright.
"Oops. My hand slipped." The tone of voice is so utterly calm that it gives everything away. Anger seethes underneath the surface, a smothering rage that is so great it can't be expressed.
Blood trickles down Tanya's face from a gash across her brow, layering dizziness and a head wound on top of her already subpar physical condition. She's almost wanting to die, Being X might conclude here.
"That's… it?" She's being held barely off the ground, halfway kneeling and choked by her own collar; somehow, still, she's able to scoff in Visha-X's face.
"Defiant until your last breath-"
Tanya tilts herself closer, ignoring just how much the simple motion tugs at everything wrong within her, and spits again.
It splatters against Visha-X's cheek.
Inside the open space of the portal-containing warehouse, the air is deathly still.
Divine presence slams down on area around them. Like a dam breaking, Being X's divine aura, divine energy taints the air, burning with every breath and grinding against the barrier around her soul.
It's uncomfortably hot, like standing too close to a campfire.
But also, it's amazing.
"Do you somehow get off on this?" Visha-X's eye twitches. "One last fantasy before you're locked away for good? In case you've somehow forgotten, let me remind you: you are done."
There we go. Almost…
It's like Being X is merging those divine energies within the world, this World, itself. Instead of just creating a 4th dimensional gap and layering your sense of self on the empty space-time, as the World's creator, feeding into the original space just makes sense. That way, instead of just setting up the World with predetermined Laws, you might be able to…
How interesting. Something to experiment with later, certainly. Assuming there is a "later" here.
C'mon, you bastard.
"I'm… still breathing…" Tanya grabs the arm holding her collar, using it as leverage. "…you second-rate, devil-wannabe cunt."
Silence, yet again. Not for long.
Visha-X yanks up and slams her knee into Tanya's stomach, and Tanya falls back into a half-collapsed, curled in on herself kneel as the grip on her collar disappears.
This is possibly… the worst day… of my life…
No matter what though, this is easily the absolute worst five day stretch Tanya's experienced, ever.
Visha-X walks around to Tanya's side and presses a boot against her, shoving her over onto her back.
"You were saying?" That last word is spit out with a truly breathtaking amount of hatred.
If the divine presence, aura, energy before was a campfire, now it feels like being thrown directly into a bonfire. A pyre of her own making, one might conclude.
"That's enough. I've cottoned on to your scheme already. It's over, Tanya."
Visibly seething, eye twitching, Visha-X tosses their handgun to the side, steps across Tanya's fallen form, then crouches until she's straddling the other's torso.
"I can see it, you know. Viktoriya told you about how I'd already made Hans my puppet, didn't she? And there you were, planning for the worst. You always get that gleam in your eye."
Tanya tries to shove Visha-X off, and her hands get smacked away for the effort.
"'What if,' you thought to yourself, 'Being X can control Visha like that? What if she could resist him, like me? If I make Being X mad enough…' was along the lines of your thought process, right? I know I'm right. How uncharacteristically optimistic of you. But you're desperate, so it's alright to reach outside the box a little."
Visha-X meets Tanya's defiant, bloody, blue-glowing glare with a smirk. Another effort is made; Tanya grabs at Visha-X's hips and twists her own, biting her own lip until it bleeds as the motion aggravates her wounded leg.
The effort is strangely weak.
Visha-X doesn't notice, instead simply squeezing Tanya's torso with her legs and leaning down, keeping her center of gravity low and getting directly in Tanya's face at the same time.
"I have bad news: I thought of that too. That's the issue with wagering against your God; you never come out on top. You were wrong. But not about everything."
Before she can react, Visha-X grabs Tanya by her throat.
"After all, you were right to point it out; you arestill breathing."
It is doubtful whether or not Visha's face stares her down; the color and expression are all wrong, warped by Being X.
A smug grin, a dark glint in those gold-shining gaze. There's not even a hint of blue.
"I'll admit, when hooked you into that body, I was curious to see what you'd do. I wanted to see how you'd react." Visha-X says, gripping tight with both hands and slowly cutting off Tanya's airflow. Tanya tries to throw her off, to no avail. "To my own surprise, the process completed itself. That was my first clue, if I hadn't already known deep down; your self-image had changed, enough to subconsciously shape the process of that body. Very interesting. I wonder what other new powers you hold inside that protective shell of yours, little Star."
The aura intensifies. Visha-X's grip tightens. Tanya's hands fly up, pulling weakly at her wrists.
"And on top of that, managing to stay out of my sight, making yourself nigh untouchable to any external divine influence… the implications behind your disappearance are astounding. When you escaped, you were a problem. Now, you are a slightly bigger problem. An annoyance. A hindrance."
"Vi-!"
Just… a little more…
Visha-X chuckles, leaning closer until they're nearly nose-to-nose. Gold against blue. The weight of the sky pressing against Atlas below, locking the Titan in place.
"Well, I won't say I dislike the opportunity. It's been so long since I've been incarnated in the flesh, and the only way to ensnare your soul, Star, is to physically break open your shell and take it, then I'll gladly make myself mortal to do so."
Tanya's grip on Visha-X's wrists strengthens. Visha-X tilts her head, uncaring, and squeezes. The cut-off choking gasp nearly makes the deity-vessel laugh again.
"You would never give in, and I could not manipulate you from afar. God taking a physical form to save to World from a devil… this might as well be destiny, don't you think? That the more enjoyable candidates were all oh so close to you, just makes sense to me. And now, I'm going to kill you, and afterwards, I'm going to crack open that immunity of yours, steal the radiance of that Star, and lock you away for a millennium. Do you understand now? Everything you've planned, every little spark of defiance, each death, it all led you to this exact moment, the realization that nothing you do matters in the face of me-"
And that's what Being X just can't understand. As one who has lived for so long without experiencing Death, how could he ever claim that it means nothing? To him, perhaps, death is merely a spoke on the wheel of life and rebirth. It is a doorway one steps through at the end of life. Except, in his eyes, life does not end. It merely enters a new phase.
But for mortals, Death is an end. Not a new beginning, or a door. Memories, one's previous life, gone. If you lose everything, how can you possibly consider that nothing?
When Death had claimed her, it had been with love. Defiance means little to inevitability. They had embraced twice before, and with a third, like all the others, it asked her to stay.
Rest. It is time to rest. You have done enough.
Oh, how it called her.
Three is an important number. Symbolic.
It should have meant oblivion. Mortals are not meant to experience such a thing and remember, not as often as she had. She should be resting. She should have met her end.
I'm not done yet.
But regardless, she will not truly die. Not until such a time that she has lived the life she wants to live. Her soul burns, stellar, a fiery beacon against infinity. A special case, even among infinity.
Tanya is not a prodigy. But that's okay; you cannot BECOME as her through natural talents. It is something one must make THEMselves.
"Reconstruct yourself from stardust."
Divine energy surrounds the blue-glowing, abyssal black Star that is her soul.
It's about combining desire with reason. It's always been about how I want, why I want... what I want. What do I... want...?
Being X really can't understand it. But isn't it obvious?
Turning the tables when your back is against the wall, using whatever cards you have available to get the outcome you desire, that's exactly what makes mortal races so special.
Black spots stain her vision. A wave of dizziness and euphoria canvas her battered form. Tanya gasps to no avail, and doesn't care. Sweat and blood stick her silver bangs to her forehead, the rest dripping down her pained expression.
This, it's a gamble, but-!
And then, for the first time since feeling Being X's presence, since arriving in this World… Tanya releases the blue-tinted lock protecting and hiding her soul.
Tetra Breaker.
Three is an important number. And convenient, considering the circumstances.
And consider this: why in the world would Tanya plan without imagining the worst-case scenario? A plan is not a plan unless it has a possibility of success, no matter how slight.
The tide of energy between them shifts.
"What?!" Visha-X, Being X, whoever or both, flinches.
They're right about one thing, at least.
Everything, for better or for worse, intentional and accidental and all the mistakes they've all made over the course of this specific, unlikely situation… all of it led to this exact moment.
"You have to make a choice."
I'm want to keep living... I'm going to live however I want. I want to go home. I want to see them again. I want to win.
Golden waves like flames explode outward. Dancing flares of light, formerly under Visha-X's control, swirl violently around Tanya's soul, an event horizon of divine energy unable to escape the infinite gravitational pull.
I don't care if it's greedy or selfish. And…
Being X's divine aura flows down Visha-X's arms, from her body, through every place the two of them of connected.
…I'm going to take her back!
"Stop! What are you-?!" Visha-X tries to pull away.
But this time, Tanya is holding on and not letting go.
The jostle back, the former leaning back and Tanya leaning forward. Visha-X swings her captured arms forward, to bash in the other's nose. Tanya holds tight, the blow stopping before it can connect.
They stay connected. The air crackles around them, and the concrete beneath shudders.
"Are you an idiot?!" Visha-X yells, unsuccessfully trying to yank her wrists free. Her voice, once a single tone, now splits into two once more. Underneath her, THEM, Tanya's injuries knit themselves together with golden electricity. "You can't absorb all of it! You'll burn out your soul! You'll erase yourself from existence!! Do you really want that?!"
"What's wrong?" Tanya, keeping a tight hold of her wrists, shoves Visha-X off of her enough that she can sit up and meet THEM eye-to-eye. "For an all-powerful God of the Old Testament, you almost sound worried!"
Golden power surges, arcing bolts of divine lightning rippling between Tanya and Visha-X's arms, torsos, lower halves. The aura around the latter dims; around the former, it becomes denser.
"Don't do this! Your soul is better imprisoned than it is destroyed!! LISTEN TO ME!! YOU'LL BE DESTROYED-"
Tanya doesn't listen. She meets THEIR gaze with a blank glare of her own, unflinching.
"Say, Visha." Her tone, previously cold, now softens ever so slightly. "I understand now what it didn't back them. I know what's it's like to be willing to die for someone. To accept, as long as they live, it's an acceptable outcome. Even if it's a different kind… that's love, right?"
The event horizon crackles around them, a maelstrom of Aeonic origin threatening to swallow the both of them whole and leave less than nothing behind.
And suddenly, this is not as important as the realization being had right now. That is, the extension of Being X's Ego inside of the individual Viktoriya Serebryakov realizes that he'd made another mistake.
It's true that, as an Aeon with a connect to the Origin, the fabric of the universe itself, his energy is can technically never run out.
But like Tanya's original Unique Skill – the Tetrabattery Limit Enhancement, which molded to mimic Being X's miracle in the Type 95 – he can only release so much of that energy at one time. Further, it can theoretically be exhausted, though only a fellow Aeon could even conceivably bring him to such a point.
If we are to come full circle, you may think of it as a dam, with an unfathomable amount of water on one side. Even if you open up the floodgates, only so much water can escape at the same time, and perhaps at some point the dam itself will break down.
"Say, Visha. Isn't it about time you wake up?"
And by incarnating his consciousness into a mortal form and subjecting himself, if only partially or temporarily, to the laws of his own World, the amount that can be accessed is reduced even further, as a result of both a reduced karmic weight and the inherent limitation of a physical body harnessing an energy it was not designed to consistently access.
Eventually, this effort would still destroy Tanya. He knows this for a fact... right?
But even then, if she's fast enough, before that happens…
Visha-X's eyes flash, stuttering between gold and blue.
"TANYA!!" More than ever before, Being X's andVisha's voice come out of the latter's mouth, side by side and conflicting.
Tanya lets THEM go, and THEY scramble away, over to the handgun Being X as Visha-X had arrogantly discarded earlier.
THEY crawl over, and reach out with THEIR right hand, only for THEIR left to slam down atop THEIR wrist, just centimeters away from the weapon.
Inside the turmoil of THEIR mental landscape, Being X snarls and decides to cut his losses. He pulls away, intending to return his consciousness elsewhere-
Except, he can't.
"Say, Visha…"
Being X rages, his will against his vessel's. She cannot stop him from leaving.
"…are you still willing to die for me?"
"NO! I WON'T LET YOU!!" THEY both say, at the same time, yet meaning two separate things.
But, even if he wasn't limited by his own mistakes, by engaging in a battle of wills against someone within their own revitalized mental landscape, he'd be too late.
"You know," At some point during THEIR struggle, Tanya stood up. "I lied about settling for five arrays. In some ways, three is actually better."
The inside of her locker in the mage officer's changing room. The carved pallet hidden atop nearby warehouse. The underside of her bedframe in hers and Visha's room. None of which Visha, and thus, Being X, had been told the location of.
Extend your Sense of Self to an imaginary Boundary, then swap the World within with your own. Take God's place.
Her hands come together. Fingers extended, she keeps them straight and halfway laces them together, as if having moved to clasp her hands yet stopping halfway.
Hold on a second more, Visha.
"Set."
Her mouth opens, the Words coming to Her from within Herself, the World holding its breath around Her. Reality shifts at an oblique angle, tectonic subduction across fourth-dimensional layers of universal continuum.
"Clockwork Universe."
----
Known Skills List
<Error Resolved. Full Unlock of Skills Available. Reestablishing Connection...>
<Sealing World Egg… Adjusting for Space-Time friction… Establishing 4th Dimensional Boundary... Confirmed>
<Displacement from Demi-Material World, Designated by User as Earth-X, Confirmed>
<Authority of Deity, Designated by User as Being X, Registered>
<Converting Reality Disruptors Alpha, Beta, Gamma to Anchors...>
<Reality Anchors Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Confirmed. Sacrifice of Faux Material Body, Confirmed. Integration of Finite Divine Energy, Confirmed>
<Warning. Cannot Verify Individual's Name: "Tanya von Degurechaff". Searching for Alternative...>
<Alternative Found. Name: "Tanya ■■■■", Verified>
<Warning. Insufficient Energy for Self-Sustainment of Clockwork Universe>
<Calculating Time Before Collapse>
<Collapse of Clockwork Universe in… 3 Minutes, 42 Seconds>
<...Connection Reestablished>
<…>
Tanya:
Common Skill: Thought Communication
Extra Skill: Flames of Babylon
Extra Skill: Magic Sense
Extra Skill: Magic Aura
Extra Skill: Voice of the World Communication
Unique Skill: Tetra Breaker
Mary:
Common Skill: Thought Communication
Extra Skill: Magic Sense
Extra Skill: Magic Aura
Extra/Intrinsic Skill: Physical Enhancement
Unique Skill: Ability Severance
Shuna:
Common Skill: Thought Communication
Extra Skill: Danger Sense
Extra Skill: Magic Sense
Extra Skill: Flames of Babylon
Unique Skill: Analyst
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Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein