# GUIDING GODDESS OF LIFE
The Guiding Goddess of Life ruled over 52 thousand dimensions. The previous ruler installed her into the meta-dimension only 500 years prior. But during her half-millennia rule, she flawlessly executed her duties.
One day, she grew bored of the monotonous unchanging worlds she ruled. And so she began interfering with the life she governed. She would grant boons to some, or have the dark gods create demon lords. Occasionally, she swapped mortals between dimensions, in so-called transmigrations.
The transmigrators—unused to the new technology and magic of their new world—breathed fresh air into the stale worlds. She made some into heroes and others into demons. Some upended their worlds, while others settled into quiet peaceful lives. No matter the result, their unique actions represented events that couldn't take place without the Goddess herself.
But eventually, her extraneous actions led to a single misstep.
"This transmigrator function is pretty fun," she laughed to herself one day. A blue holographic menu in front of her presented hundreds of dials and sliders to configure. Using the menu, she searched through the tens of thousands of dimensions she ruled over.
"Hm, this one looks fun," she continued talking to herself. "A dimension where humans conquered the stars, filled with unfathomable technology. If I pull one of these mortals into a backwater-boring world, I'm sure things would get interesting."
The menu informed her of statistics and information about the targeted dimension. Using the blue holographic buttons, she selected a mortal at random. But as she confirmed the summon, a new menu popped up with a warning.
"Huh? Are you talking back to me?!" She shouted at the pop-up warning. After centuries of fulfilling her every request, the menu finally denied her request. But without thinking, the foolish goddess overrode the warning.
She clicked the button on the window, and a vast intricate spell circle appeared on the floor of the audience chamber. Standing up, she smoothed the wrinkles from her white toga and activated her aura of light.
# FARMER, DAMIEN
The once-farmer rubbed his eyes in disbelief. In an instant, a shining marble temple replaced his surroundings. At the apex of the white-stone stairs, a brilliant shining form shouted down to him.
"Heed my words, Mortal!" a booming feminine voice shouted down to him. Light cloaked the goddess' form and beams of intense golden light shot out in every direction.
Damien raised a hand to protect his eyes. "Huh? Where is this? Who are you!" he shouted back. He squinted into the dazzling display. But like staring into the sun, her form burned to look at for even a short time.
"Heed my words!" The voice echoed down again. "You have been chosen as a hero! Your duty is to slay the demon king! Will you accept this honor for the sake of another world?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," he shouted back and he pulled up his hoe, wielding it towards the strange figure. "But if you want to fight, have at it!"
"Wait… Wasn't your world supposed to be more high-tech?" The voice suddenly asked in a much more subdued manner. "What's with that old-fashioned hoe?!?"
Damien squinted further, but made no move to lower his hoe.
"Err… Let me rephrase this… The world of Twid U'lh Ixas is threatened by a new Demon King! Will you take up arms to protect this fair world!?!"
"I ain't got no idea what you're talking about!" he shouted back again.
"Ugh, I can't be bothered. Just get out of my sight," a defeated voice finally replied. In an instant, a damp dark cave replaced Damien's surroundings.
"Just what the heck is going on!?!" He shouted out into the strange cave.
# GUIDING GODDESS OF LIFE
The Guiding Goddess of Life opened her menu again. Spinning a dial she called up the Demon God.
"Hey, I decided to transmigrate another mortal to a different realm," she said into the blue holo-menu. "Can you, like, make a new demon king there or whatever?"
"Goddess… You don't- sound- well." A gravelly voice replied in a stuttered fashion.
"I know right? Like, I'm so bored, and this transmigrator wasn't behaving, so I sent them off without any boons too. Oh yeah, so like, make the demon king more manageable please."
"That- Isn't what- I meant…" the voice replied. "Static… Static coming- from your- end."
"Static… Now that you mention it, something's kind of static-ey… But isn't that from your end?"
"No. From- your end…" The stilted voice replied. "I can check- for you…"
"Well, hurry up!" The goddess shouted into the holographic menu. But as she waited, tapping her foot, the static grew louder. "That sound is really annoying! Can't you do anything about it?"
"I see… You did something bad, Goddess." A new, smoother, voice replied.
"Huh? Put back on the Demon God again! Don't make me go through minions. This is urgent!" The Goddess shouted into the menu impatiently. The static sound grew louder and she grit her teeth, annoyed.
"It is because it is urgent that I am speaking for my master," the voice replied swiftly. "You summoned a mortal from a quarantined world, did you not?"
"Huh, quarantine? I don't know what you're talking about."
"In any case, we have limited time left. Which world did you send this mortal to? Which world did you want the demon king created in?"
"It was that twidldy world or whatever," the goddess replied off-handedly."If you'll do it, then fine. I'll end this call." The static, now a roar in her ears, grated on her nerves. She wanted to end the call at all costs.
"My master sends his regards. If this is our last time speaking. He wishes to communicate his respect for your work. Even if our acquaintance was a short one, thank you for your service…" The voice from the blue menu replied.
"Whatever, I'm ending the call!" The goddess shouted over the static and she hit a button on the blue menu, closing the call.
But that roaring static sound did not disappear.
The goddess stumbled back, clutching her head. A splitting headache screeched behind her eyes. She sat down on her throne, groaning in pain. But the strange static now vibrated in every fiber of her being.
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She pulled away her hand, staring down at her fingers. "What… What is this…" She asked, her words muffled by the thundering static. The white porcelain of her hand cracked, and as she formed a fist, the cracks spread up her arm.
Large sloughs of white porcelain flaked off her arms. Cracks burst further up her arms and legs, then began to crumble. Her held-out hand fell, disintegrating into dust before it hit the floor.
The Goddess opened her mouth, the porcelain of her jaw creaking and popping as cracks formed up her face. She froze in place, unable to utter a word of protest to her collapsing body. Until finally, her body burst into a thousand pieces.
Her body shattered into fragments. And as every fragment fell, they too fizzled into a fine powder. The white powder of her body collapsed into a pile on the seat. The once body of the goddess, now no more than dust hanging in stagnant air.
"What… What is this…" her static-ey voice echoed one final time from the ash pile. But it was no more than an echo of her former consciousness.
The white marble temple floated, now empty, through the silent void.
# FARMER, DAMIEN
Damien coughed in the dank cave. A light shone through the darkness, and he followed it out to the exit.
"Seriously… What is going on," Damien complained as he stepped out. An unfamiliar landscape greeted him.
The cave mouth opened into a rocky mountainside. To the left, vast fields stretched into the distance from the base of the mountain. To the right, a forest rolled over the hilly land. Leading from the cave mouth, a path split towards the field and forest separately.
"I guess, forest is better… I'm so hungry…" Damien muttered to himself. Throwing his trusty hoe over one shoulder, he descended the mountain towards the forest. But every so often, he coughed to himself.
"Dammit… I bet that damn cave was moldy or something," He complained through coughs. "And seriously, what is going on!?" He shouted to himself as he tripped over an obvious boulder.
Despite the sun beating down on him, a chill raced down his spine. The cough eventually dissipated, but the chills only got worse. His eyes drooped as he shivered to himself. He kept tripping over stones he normally would have easily navigated.
"Just… Just a little more," he said to himself, panting for breath. Despite the sun high in the sky, shadows clouded his vision. His hands prickled in pins and needles and the cold seeped into every inch of his body.
"Please…" he whispered as he staggered into a forested area. He collapsed into the softened dirt of the forest floor. "Food, please… I need to eat something… Fast…" He begged the trees.
His trusty hoe thudded onto the soft ground next to his prone body. He tried reaching out for it, and felt the familiar coarse wood in his palm. But his arm hadn't moved. His mind hallucinated this one last comfort as his motor functions gave out.
The chirping of birds and the wind of the forest gently faded away. The final air trapped in Damien's lungs escaped in a sigh. His heart slowed to a stop and the chill fully consumed him.
His body laid on the forest floor for hours. Flies and scavengers approached, biting off small portions. But they too would be consumed by the same chill that ended Damien, their small corpses forming a circle around his body.
"..."
A finger twitched on the corpse. As the shadows deepened in the forest. The farmer's body stirred once more.
Ligaments popped and creaked as the body pushed itself up. Defying its own rigor mortis, the body took hold of the trusty hoe beside it. Its fingers ripped and tore as they forced through death's stiffness. Wrapping around the handle of the farming instrument it raised it up.
The body opened its mouth, its jaw tearing through more clotted blood. It raised the wooden hoe up to its dangling mouth. Despite the previous owner of the body's faithful dependence on the tool, it began eating the tool without hesitation. From the metal end first, it stuck the hoe deep into its mouth.
Enzymes and acid in its mouth dissolved the metal. The dried lips of the corpse tightened around the metal and its insides contorted, sucking the liquified goop down into its stomach. In several long slow bites, it ate through the thin metal end of the hoe, and the wooden handle put up even less resistance.
As the body finished eating the hoe, it turned towards its surroundings.
Carrion-eaters sat, chewing on the corpses around the entity. But as the body's neck snapped and popped, turning towards them, they froze. For a brief moment, the countless scavengers stared at the animate corpse in horror. Then they split, running and flying off as fast as their legs and wings could take them.
The body stared down at the countless corpses circling it, and then it continued to feed.
# SALAMANDER
The Salamander sat at the top of the food chain in the forest. Surrounding it, molten stone burned any would-be assailants to a crisp.
When hungry, it walked in large circles through the forest. The trail of lava cut off any escape for the prey. It took days for the slow beast to complete even a single circle. But when it did, the fires left the cornered targets helpless to escape, and it easily picked off their corpses in due time.
The salamander rested in a large field of magma. After finishing off the final corpse of its prey, it sighed contentedly. It would sleep for several months before its next active period. But until then, the salamander could be at peace from the gnawing hunger. Yet, as the beast sunk into the warm lava, it spotted a figure approaching.
A strange humanoid form sprinted across the lava flat. Its arms and legs pumped mechanically, reaching speeds beyond human limits. But flames licked at one side of it and bloody guts coated the other. Smoke trailed off the burnt soles of its feet. Countless wounds and holes peppered the body's form. Yet it continued running unceasingly.
As the Salamander spotted the rapidly approaching figure, its instincts told it to flee. The lava around it protected against all danger. No enemy had ever penetrated so deeply. It lacked the experience to properly fight back. At the ghastly uncooked sight, it wanted nothing more than to run away.
But inside its chest, the magic crystal of the monster glowed briefly, and the eyes of the monster—normally a deep brown—glowed a bright red. Its previous will to escape disappeared in an instant, and the salamander roared menacingly at the approaching figure.
But the burnt figure ignored the Salamander's growl. In seconds, it reached the Salamander's position. Without hesitation, it thrust its hand out towards the thick scales of the beast.
Its fingers and flesh smashed into the beast. With all the power of its sprint, it attempted to pierce the thick hide. But no matter how much speed it had, the hand was only flesh against the lizard's magically enchanted skin.
The bones of the fingers and wrist of the body shattered. Flesh smashed to paste against the sturdy wall of a Salamander. The bodies' congealed blood painted the beast's scales and the Salamander reared back its head, preparing to go in for a bite.
But the Salamander froze. The body pulled back its hand, and a shower of blood exploded from the Salamander's chest. Thick metal wires sprouted from the wrist of the figure. From its stumpy wrist, the magic crystal of the beast dangled from steel wires. The stone glowed once, and then faded to a dull dark-red color.
The salamander collapsed, crashing at the feet of the bloody figure, and the once magically heated lava field began to finally cool.
With its enemy felled, the body started eating once more.
# DEMON GOD
Master, the intruder has finished consuming the Salamander. A giant Minotaur projected its thoughts to the Demon God, kneeling respectfully.
I see, the scaled black dragon replied. It brought up a blue holographic screen, showing an image of the transmigrator. The human-shaped entity sat in the corpse of the salamander, panting for breath.
Black sludge-like waste surrounded the corpse of the salamander, coating the now cold stone ground. Half-eaten ribs and bones stuck out of the steaming carcass. The bi-product of its feeding, the dark ooze, dripped from the body of the former magic beast.
The wounds covering the once corpse had long since healed. Yet it didn't look any more human than its previous bloodied state. No hair remained on its smooth fleshy form, and the black eyes of the body swirled in dark liquid eddies. Its blank stare defied all attempts at understanding.
As the black dragon watched the screen, the corpse slowly turned its head. It looked directly at the source of the image, appearing to meet eyes with the dragon.
The demon god shifted up to its feet, flapping twice. Glaring at the transparent image, the dragon roared, shaking the empty void around it. I've seen enough, it thought down to the Minotaur. Have all magic beasts prioritize the eradication of that intruder. Seal it away if you have to.
As you wish, the Minotaur lowered its head further again.
It seems we need to clean up her mistake…