To know which to butcher,
And which to keep.
----------------------------------------
“What are you thinking about, Tiamat?”
A memory. Tiamat could tell from the smell, sound and touch. A familiar memory.
The two girls stood in a massive hallway which seemed to stretch from horizon to horizon. The sky was a bright blue and the deserts were deep yellow as one side of the wall vanished from view, exposing the castle to the elements while the opposing side was filled with doors, antiques and finally, a colossal portrait. The demon lord’s castle was currently under repair — it was perpetually under repair under the demon lord Ereman.
“...What do you think?”
“Hm… Let me guess… Are you thinking about me?”
Tiamat turned to face Ubermarin. She had prepared her luggage which a small demonic servant was carrying. The creature was like an ant, carrying mass multiple times its weight. However, the similarities ended there, as while ants were creatures of the natural world, the demon was an artificial creation. It was a poor imitation of life.
Life was light shining in the eternal void of the dead universe. Demons were like the moon, merely reflecting the light, never emitting it.
‘Where does the line end and begin?’ wondered Tiamat, ‘Could demons transcend artificiality and become natural?’
All around the castle, the denizens of the newly built Sonosis were constructing various buildings and facilities to better their lives. The eternal raincloud above them kept the demons in darkness, but they saw it as good — better than being in the sun. However, were they truly living? Tiamat did not believe that life could be so easily created. She did not believe the demon God could not do so — and the Goddess as well. Life was something that lay beyond, though Tiamat couldn’t quite describe it.
By her definition, neither Tiamat nor Ubermarin were truly living.
“If one eats, reproduces, and dies, are they not alive?” asked Ubermarin.
“It’s not so simple,” replied Tiamat, “life is something sacred, beyond the likes of ourselves... The demon servant next to you, for example, was born with a function, and will die with it as well — how is that life? Life is free, unfiltered, brutal and chaotic, unlike the demon folks.”
“Well then, what are we?” said Ubermarin as she patted the strange creature.
Tiamat pondered for a second before deciding on the proper response.
“We are World Beasts. We are functions of Sol-Aegis. To live by our functions, to die by our functions. That is what we are.”
Tiamat turned to the right to face the portrait. It was of the demon God ██████, or so he taught them was his name. In reality, most referred to him simply as the demon God. As the brother of the Goddess, he held similar authority over the world. How exactly such circumstances came about is unknown, but the era of the first hero and the first demon lord was what shaped the power structure of the universe, and the demon God and the Goddess were left to rule the Western Sphere. Tiamat could not recall what the portrait looked like. She could not recall many things.
“But you know,” said Ubermarin, “the first life must’ve been created from non-life, which means that inorganic matters combined to create organic matters. What if World Beasts are the same? Even if one starts as a blade, they can become a piece of art, a piece of history, or tupperware or scrap — the possibilities are endless. The demon God is not fate, and there’s no telling what could happen tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. What day was tomorrow again?
“...You’re leaving.”
“Now you remember?”
“No… I remembered. I was thinking about it.”
“Sure…”
“So… How long will you be staying at Wundergartenn?”
“Who knows? Weeks, months, years… but it’s important work, you know?”
Wundergartenn. It was a dangerous world out there, especially with the rumour circulating that the new hero supposedly mirrored the second hero Reginn in many ways, being a demon-slaying supersoldier, almost like a replacement for the recently sealed Goddess.
“The Goddess… It’s still unbelievable that she was sealed away…”
“That’s just how it is in this world, isn’t it?” said Ubermarin, “There are no absolutes and anything can happen — just like mana. This universe is no different than a single particle of mana, capable of becoming anything, as long as a strong soul wills it.”
“Anything?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“All your dreams can become reality — you just need more power.”
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More power…
In front of the World Beast stood the minuscule humans of Wundergartenn. As the current demon lord, it was Tiamat’s duty to bring destruction upon the enemy kingdom, even if their Goddess was subdued. Even without her light, it seemed that new heroes kept appearing for every eon due to the efforts of the lasting children of the Goddess.
The surrounding area was already transformed into a sandy desert as the colossal titan loomed over the hero Acata. The human did not have an expression on her face, staring like a statue, a model waiting for her cue, composed and ready. Like Tiamat, she too was a weapon of war, trained and manipulated to do the bidding of the kingdom. The humans viewed her as their new Goddess, or at least a few succeeded in deluding themselves as such. However, while the golden-eyed, white-haired warrior of immense beauty and power emanated great authority in aura, she was like the Goddess in appearance only. It must’ve been a tiring role, replacing the mother figure of humanity.
However, their similarities did not inspire sympathy in Tiamat, for she knew the exact world she wanted. It was a world to destroy everything for. A world of true raw nature, without the artificial evil of humanity and even demons. Without them, Sol-Aegis would be a cleaner, quieter place, and as selfish as it was, Tiamat wanted to live in such a world, where she would not be able to blame anyone else except herself. Such was the burden of intelligence.
Well then, it was about time to make the dream a reality. It would no longer be a vision of the future, but the images of the past and present. The time was now.
“Let us see which of our world is worth defending, for while you stand in front of a wicked empire of the past, I stand for the perfect world of the future.”
“...”
“Farewell, hero.”
Tiamat swung her arm toward the hero, destroying several buildings in the way as if they were made of sand. However, the hero was simply too agile like a mosquito, annoyingly surviving and weaving through her attacks. Acata retaliated by finally unleashing her two blades from their sheaths, a double-edge and single-edge. The resulting explosions from Tiamat’s rampage accelerated rubble in every direction, but the shear force from baring the blades produced enough force to shatter the projectiles.
As chaos continued, each of the World Beast’s steps fragmenting a major percentage of Cadra, the earth and heavens slowly began to merge — bue beneath, brown above, but those too the hero was able to defend against by slicing through the projectiles like cutting through the water. She calmly analyzed her surroundings, predicting the preparation of a sky-bridge which would lead to her destination. As the land masses began to return to their rightful places, Acata used this opportunity to sky-walk by jumping between falling platforms.
After calculatedly jumping off of a tall tower soon destroyed, the hero landed on the shoulder of the titan and anchored both of her blades into the flesh to stay on, nearly slipping away on the World Beast’s scaly exterior. She must’ve been aiming for her neck or eyes — Tiamat’s most sensitive spots. Thankfully she had already anticipated such a move and used the situation to her advantage. The World Beast tightened the muscles on her shoulder, and held on tightly to the swords — now the hero couldn’t leave the spot. She was not quite strong enough to destroy the blades themselves, those probably being divine artifacts or at least comparable, but it was still tactically advantageous.
With the blades in place, Tiamat rammed her shoulder through the buildings of Wundergartenn, standing about half of her standing height. Tiamat was used to being on her knees, and combined with her size, the hero accelerated at an incredible speed while being tested by the impact of the concrete.
After passing through almost half of the capital city, Tiamat checked her shoulder and sure enough, the hero was still hanging on to the blades, covered in rubble and dust, but still holding on to the handles. While it was not preferred, the World Beast now loomed her finger over the hero. If the city wouldn’t do the job, she would simply lodge the blade into her shoulder to remove the weapons from her opponent’s possession.
As the World Beast began to push against Acata, the human bravely held on with her arms, the entirety of her shoulders and back. To her, it was like lifting the entire nation of Wundergartenn above her, but for Tiamat, it was as if an ant was resisting being squashed against the ground. The hero was barely holding on, about to fall against the gravity at any moment when—
Crash!
Suddenly, the loud thunder penetrating the atmosphere caught the World Beast’s attention, and immediately afterward, an explosive projectile assaulted the demon lord’s face, breaking her concentration and letting the hero free. As Acata retrieved her blade and escaped, Tiamat staggered a few steps back and when she regained her sight, the demon lord saw that back-up had arrived. The human soldiers were using their artificial devices, perversions of nature as weapons to sate their lust for violence, for humans were the only animals capable of creating weapons. The blades too were only for killing, exemplifying how the world would be a less bloody place if all humans were gone.
Tiamat did not find glee in the murder of the humans as other demons did. In fact, she was usually averse to violence — unless the situation called for it.
She knew it was foolish to believe that such thing as ‘violence to end all violence’ was but a dream, as seen with the first end of the world and the End of Eden war, but she could not help but grasp the dream of the forest dearly in her heart, and hoped for a better reincarnation.
“The suffering ends with me.”
The World Beast revealed her core from the center of her chest, its bright blue glow penetrating the dusty surroundings and shadows of rubbles. From the sphere began to emerge a stream of pure mana, forming into a sort of a star. At first, the star burnt red, then blue then green. As the celestial body began to grow, the hero knew that this would be the end — either for the world or the two of them. Acata entered a new stance, this time choosing only the divine blade over the single-edged, still sheathed but waiting to explode onto the scene.
“...I hate dreamers like you…”
This was the first time Tiamat heard the hero speak, and she could feel the intense animosity spew from her tone. It was unmistakable, a hatred which far outweighed the World Beast’s own, originating from the bottom of her heart.
Dreamers… Tiamat supposed that she was indeed a dreamer. She dreamed of a better, idyllic world. To her, her dreams were as valuable as reality, perhaps more, for reality held only suffering and struggle, while her dreams showed the path to the potential salvation of all souls. To dream was to live, and it was her dreams which carried her through life.
Ah, it had been many years since she last saw Ubermarin.
Perhaps in the next life if not the one now, the circumstances would be different.
In the end, Tiamat did not feel any regret in releasing the star above Wundermastenn, killing millions of innocent civilians. She knew death was an inevitability, and perhaps through this death, the world would be reborn in the ashes of the sins past.
And that was how it ended, Tiamat’s first final stand, defending her kingdom of dreams.