Celestia, the only structure that survived the changing of eras, not even just a few, but forty times, living up to it's name as the Indestructible Realm. Though, it still failed to live up to all of its many other titles, such as Realm of Gods, Bringer of Peace and Prosperity. Since the death of its Founder in the eighth era, it only seemed to slowly degrade till the forty eighth era.
These were thoughts of only a select few by now, the majority of the inhabitants of Celestia having welcomed the new aristocratic regime. Skills and knowledge were the most important in the older Celestia, but it slowly gave away to greed, of both wealth and power. Even after the death of the Founder, the new rulers of Celestia were the wisest of those who inhabited it, but over billions of different rulers across eras, the rule shifted from wisdom and knowledge to wealth and power.
The organisation that brought peace and prosperity slowly turned to one that took more than it ever gave, leeching off different worlds from the safety of the untouchable floating island. Even during the Founder's time, even in his battles against The Empress, he did not once use Celestia as a weapon, despite knowing even She would not have been capable of destroying or defending against it. Vaults and rooms previously filled with books and all kinds of technology were now filled with precious metals, powerful artifacts, and other items of little importance to the old Celestia.
Of the few who despised what Celestia had become, only one openly expressed her opinions, though in an attempt to convince them to change. This however, did not lead to any results, other than the frowns and scoffs of the current ruler, an old fat man, who could barely even support his own weight let alone the weight of such an organisation, one of the few opinions she did not openly voice after her elder sister did and then disappeared just a day later.
The current ruler, like the previous many million generations of rulers, reached the position by killing the one who possessed it earlier. Billions of years ago, this promoted more powerful rulers, those could handle themselves in combat even against dragons despite being human. Now, it promoted rulers with weapons that could kill even gods within the matter of seconds, or make a godly being disappear over a night, no matter how weak they themselves might be.
It did not do much to draw her loyalty to this ruler when he kidnapped her and her sister from their parents after finding out they would be two of the strongest beings in the current era. As it turned out, he brought the two of them so he could dispose of the more rebellious one, and keep the more obedient. Unfortunately for him, neither turned out to be quite obedient.
Even when ordered to kill other aristocrats who could threaten his rule, she spared them, doing nothing more than giving them a scare or breaking a piece of their jewellery. This did end up with her having to sit in a very dark room many times, but nothing worse than killing someone with her own hands. From what her father told her, she knew killing once is all it takes, beyond that point, it wouldn't feel as wrong to kill, the reason she did not yet kill the ruler.
She checked herself in the mirror, eyeing the two silver ear cuffs on her left ear, and the much similar but thinner ones on her right. Running her fingers through her long black hair she poked the two short black horns on top her head, slightly curved inwards after bending away, right in line with her eyes. Fixing the two half black-red ribbons on the sides of her head, halfway between her ears and horns, she straightened the patch of pink hair just above her left eye, allowing it to lay over her shoulder, dripping towards the front, just like a strand of black hair on the other side.
Her red-pink eyes hovered over the pin in her hair, where her hair hung between her eyes, the emblem of the current Celestia, or it's ruler more specifically, a pink traingle with a white line under it, and a pink line running through it and then starting again a short distance after the white line. Even after much wondering and asking, she never discovered its meaning.
Tying the short, thin black collar around her neck, made of dragon leather, primarily for signifying her status as the ruler's weapon, secondarily to protect her from attacks to her neck, or so they told her so she would wear it, even though it barely covers even a third of her neck. Positioning it's metal latch towards the front, she clasped the small silvery chains, embedded with many heart-shaped gems, onto two hooks on the sides of it, two on the right and one on the left, pinning one of the two to her white shirt, under a black clasp on her chest, halfway to her heart, the three then connecting just over her heart and then hanging loosely as one thicker strand of silver.
Sliding her black jacket over her hands she popped the buttons in the middle of it, a third of the way down, allowing it to sit perfectly on her left shoulder while it hung half off her right, revealing it's pink underside. Fingering the two deep red jewels used as buttons for a moment, she brushed her fingers against the outside of it, bumping it against the lines of pink fabrics that ran over the black outside, and the several heart shaped gems that dotted the outside, similar to the buttons in color.
Finally, buttoning the collar of her white shirt, clasping the thin black metal band around it, with a pink heart for a clasp, she hovered her eyes over mostly plain black pants, a bit too wide halfway down her legs for allowing her to move freely, checking the silvery chains that hung from her pockets till her knees, several heart-shaped red jewels embedded in them, clinking together as she moved to another corner of the room.
With a sigh, she picked the black belt from a metal rack in one corner, giving the pink-black bed and mostly black-white-pink-red of the rest room just a cursory glance, most of it just being cabinets and doors built into the walls. Sliding the belt through hooks at the waist of her black pants, she tightened it before picking two black leather pouches and pressing them against the belt on either side, in line with her pockets, lightly tugging on them to make sure they were stuck in place.
Moving to other side of the room, she tapped the wall by the mirror as she passed it, barely glancing as the mirror slowly folded and slid backwards into a thin horizontal gap in the wall, closing perfectly. Knocking on a part of the wall, she pulled open another drawer, below and to the side of where she knocked, while she waited for it to open. Tossing the plastic packet from it into the air, she caught it back with one hand and inspected the rack that pushed out from the wall.
After eyeing the two long black sheaths for a short while, and the black-pink handles that stuck out from them, she picked the one of the right, before sliding out the two L-shaped cases. Barely balancing them with one hand, she pressed the sheath to her belt like the pouches, checking that it stuck before placing the packet in the rack alongside one of the cases.
Opening the other case, she retrieved the object inside before closing it. A pistol, shaped like ones found in worlds of the developing period, around fifty to a hundred years after the creation of guns. Brushing her fingers against the shimmering pink-red metal, marked with black dragons, she slid it into one of the black pouches, pressing it in till she heard a click. Retrieving the other case, she opened it and placed this one, possessing red-pink flames and phoenixes over black metal instead, into the other pouch, on her right.
Taking back the plastic packet she knocked again on the rack, allowing it to slide back in as she glanced around while ticking things in her mind. Walking to the door, she lightly kicked the wall to the side of it, curling her fingers in as she almost bent one the wrong way. Her hands busied themselves with gently opening the packet without spraying the contents all around, while her eyes and legs wrestled with the shoes, the right pink-red with black dragons, and the other black with pink-red phoenixes.
Tripping towards the door just as she adjusted her shoes, she slammed it open and stumbled a few steps ahead before regaining her balance, and glancing at the startled and scared faces looking back at her. Rolling her eyes she kicked the door close before walking down the white-gray hallway, lit by dim blue-golden light panels in the roof and floors.
Maneuvering through the people that walked across the hallways, who usually moved to the corners on noticing her, she turned to one of the doors, leading outside, and pushed it open with her shoulders, still struggling with the packet. Walking through the paved path between the gardens that covered most of the outside of Celestia, she glared at the packet while her fingers clawed at it's top, attempting to find any spot where it would be willing to budge without showering everything on her head.
"Rose!" A voice bellowed, startling and causing her hand to slip, bursting open the packet in a cascade of tiny dark-brown spheres.
"Oh great..." Rose mumbled, her eyes drifting between the many spheres slowly lifting through the air, ready to fall in a moment. Taking a deep breath she narrowed her eyes, breathing a sigh of relief within another moment as all the brown spheres disappeared from the air, back in the packet, which she ascertained by slightly shaking it.
"Rose! Did you go deaf or are you disobeying me?" The voice roared, louder and angrier now.
"Here, here." Rose sighed, tossing one of the brown spheres in the air and letting it fall in her open mouth as she stopped by the owner of the voice, an old man, fairly fat, and not much taller than her, despite her not even being an adult.
"Good grief, late for your last assignment even." The ruler grunted, pushing the other man who stood by him ahead, almost off the edge of Celestia.
"Yes, milord." The servant, dressed in navy-blue and white clothes, like many other servants, bowed to him despite his shaking voice, and turned to issue orders to lower ranking servants, who wore a lighter blue outfit.
Rolling the sphere between her teeth for a few moments, Rose crushed it and allowed it to melt before turning in the direction the ruler's eyes were fixed, straight ahead of Celestia's edge, towards a massive golden-brown and pale yellow building, supported by darker-brown pillars on regular intervals, reaching all the way to it's top.
The Library Of Knowledge, Rose gasped in recognition, the only structure that has survived multiple eras other than Celestia. If I remember the history right, The Empress created it herself, when Celestia begun to misplace or destroy the records it kept to replace them with other things. She bought all the knowledge in Celestia for a planet worth of jewels, and then stored it in this library.
"As some scouts have informed me, some god has taken residence in the library, and it's very powerful." He mumbled, paying little to attention to what she did as she popped another sphere into her mouth. "I want you to drive it out, not necessarily kill it if you can't."
So it's come to that, huh? Rose sighed in her mind. Since I am not obedient, you plan on using me to defeat this god and then recruit them. Afterwards, you will make me disappear just like you did with my sister. Fine then, let me show you, no matter how hard you look, you won't find someone stronger than me, not after you people killed off all the other True Gods.
As Celestia drifted through the air, closer to the library, lowering itself to stop at the edge of the mountain. Having been built on the side of a mountain, on a fairly large flat surface, which The Empress probably carved out herself, the library overlooked the plains and forests that stretched out in front of it, the edges of a tundra visible on the left, and a desert on the right, and the setting sun visible right behind Celestia.
Jumping over Celestia's edge, Rose slowly walked towards it, not quite surprised to find the god in question sitting just outside. It did not surprise her that this god, also a girl, happened to be around her age, perhaps younger even, and a bit shorter. Small pins of silver-blue twinkled like stars in the mess of her long blue hair, causing it to glimmer like the darker side of the sky at dusk, visible just above the mountain's peak.
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Noticing her as Rose allowed her energy to seep into her surroundings — a sort of intimidation tactics her parents taught her — the girl looked up with her shining eyes, as if a part of the dusk sky — half twinkling with stars and turning a darker blue, half a bit brighter with slight hints of purple seeping through the bottom — got trapped between the white clouds of her sclera. One of her pupils seemed dark, but not black, a darker blue-purple in the middle, while the other seemed lighter color than the rest of her irises, their shape between a circle and a four cornered star, like a tear in the sky.
Placing the leather-covered book to the side, between the field of flowers surrounding her, she got up on her feet, sending ripples through the white cloth that covered her entire body. It seemed to be a simple piece of fabric at first, without any sleeves or anything of the sort, but when the girl moved her arms Rose noticed the fairly well defined sleeves, gathered in folds as if they were far too big for the little girl, which the entire thing seemed to be on a closer look.
The circlet of flowers sitting on her head fluttered in the strong winds that begun to pick up as the sun dipped farther below the horizon, flowers that Rose had never seen till now, and much different from the ones circling her. On a closer look however, Rose could identify some of those flowers.
Origin Blossoms, she gasped as the recognition hit her and the images from the old book flooded her mind. There's the Spirit Blossom, the Midnight Bloom, the Blood Blossom, the Hell Blossom, and so many more. They are small though, the book said they should be bigger. And each Origin Blossom is between one of those white flowers, and they have a hint of pink and blue and purple too, those are not Origin Blossoms, and I have never heard of those.
Without much prior thinking, Rose tossed one of the brown spheres to the girl, startling her as she barely managed to catch it after almost dropping it twice. Tilting her head at Rose she waited for a few moments, deciding it's safe to eat with a nod once Rose also tossed another into her own mouth. Emptying the rest of the packet, about seven more, into her mouth, Rose quickly chewed them before crushing the packet in her hand and igniting it, burning it away without leaving a trace of its existence.
Pulling out the pistol from the left pouch in one quick movement, Rose pointed it at the girl and pulled the trigger, looking through only one eye as a bolt of red light shot towards her. Colliding with the girl's forehead, it bounced into the air, the small rose-silver metal reflecting the sunset glow as it fell to the ground and bounced a couple times, rolling to a stop by Rose's feet. Even without turning around, she could feel the joyful smile on the ruler's face, his realisation of how powerful his new weapon would be.
Not if I don't let her be. Rose grunted in her mind, shooting out five more similar bolts at her.
Raising a hand to her head, the girl formed some sort of translucent blue barrier. Deflecting off the barrier, all bolts bounced away behind her, a few causing small blasts of gray dust as they smashed into the mountain rocks. Placing the pistol back Rose retrieved the one on the right, holding it carefully aimed towards the girl as red-pink lines surged through her hand, giving the flames and phoenixes a flame-like glow. Pulling the trigger Rose stumbled a step back, just as a red-pink bird of flames shot towards the barrier.
Phoenixal flames can't be stopped by barriers. Rose smirked, expecting for the bird to slam right through the barrier, and being shocked when it slammed against it. The ruler gave a delighted chuckle, almost convincing Rose to push *him* off the mountain's edge right there. Not going to kill anyone, killing is wrong. She reminded herself, bringing her thoughts in line as she placed back her pistol.
The flames died down, the girl still unharmed, and somewhat confused, as if she couldn't understand what all the shiny and glowing things are for, which really seemed to be the case when she passed her fingers through some of the phoenixal flames still alight on the grass right outside the barrier, not burning anything there however, or her hand even as she let it sit between the flames for a few moments. They caught onto her hand, but left no burn marks or anything of the sort, very uncharacteristic for phoenixal flames.
Unsheathing the katana as the barrier disappeared, she allowed the rose-pink edge of the mostly black blade to catch the setting sun's light, making it seem as if on fire, which only seemed more true as red-pink lines surged through the black blade, and lit the rose-pink edge in an even brighter glow. Dashing forward Rose swung it towards the girl's neck, stopping just short of it, her whole body tensing up before starting to shiver slightly.
She is not a local god, Rose thought, too powerful for that. There are no markings on her face, not even like the barely noticeable redness under mine, so not a True God. But, she feels like something greater, something above a True God even. This is how I expected The Empress to feel, but she doesn't look like that.
"Who are you?" Rose inquired as the girl raised her fingers to the blade, pressing them against it's sharp edge without the slightest hint of worry on her face and lowering it.
"My name?" She questioned, tilting her head at Rose, sending ripples through strands of darker and lighter blue in her hair. "Ea, I think."
Rose felt as if the world crumbled beneath her, caving in and swallowing her whole. Or as if the sky itself slammed down on her, crushing her to oblivion. "Ea?" She echoed, all the knowledge she stacked in her head for the years tumbling down to crash upon her.
The Goddess of Reality from the eighth era, The Supreme Goddess, the grandmother of The Empress, and just as powerful as her if not stronger. Rose sifted through the many threads of information about the goddess Ea. No, no, this girl is not that Ea, she simply shares her name. The Goddess Ea looked somewhat like The Empress, who looks nothing like this. Maybe she is just using the name to scare me, she could have read about her in one of the books. But then why does she feel like she actually is someone like that, a being with powers beyond comprehension.
Rose snapped back to attention with a low yelp, glancing down at her hand, before looking up at the girl's face, her jaws lightly clamped around her hand. "I read that, in one of the books." She explained in her defense, the calm and gentle expression on her face now leaning towards mild excitement. "Like, if someone looks like they are zoning out, you should pinch them, but I don't know what a pinch is, so I thought maybe biting would work." After awkwardly returning Rose's hand, by pushing it to her chest, the girl ran her fingers through her hair, her eyes glancing at the ground with a hint of alarm.
Following her gaze Rose noticed the bright blue flower she almost crushed, having bent it's stem almost entirely. Dragging her feet slightly back she noticed the relief washing over the girl's face, as if she could feel what the flower felt. Wait, no, can't be. Rose argued to herself in her mind before turning to the girl, and grabbing her shoulder with her free hand. "Can you tell what I am feeling right now?"
"Um, uh, this is, uh, what?" The girl stammered, glancing back and away at Rose, who got too close to the girl. Taking a step away, while carefully avoiding the flowers, Rose waited for the girl's response. "Worried? Kind of excited, but mostly worried, and a bit of fear, and oh, now it's just excited and 'oh my god'."
"Excellent." The ruler's voice called from a few steps behind before Rose could say anything else. Turning around, Rose stepped between the girl and the ruler, tightening her grip on the katana's handle. "Step aside, servant." He ordered, and Rose did, though not on her own.
My body moved without me telling it to, and now I can't MOVE IT? Rose exclaimed in her mind, not even being able to open her mouth to speak even. Her eyes, at the very least, seemed to be moving according to her. Well that explains how my sister disappeared without a sign, this has to be the doing of... The collar, of course it's that, dragon leather is easy to enchant as well, should've seen that coming.
Walking past Rose, the ruler studied the girl from a step away, his hands raised towards her as if feasting his eyes on the world's greatest treasure before stealing it. The girl glanced towards Rose nervously, before taking a few small steps towards her.
"I want you to serve under me." The ruler informed, closer to commanded, inching closer to her as the girl hid behind Rose, seemingly unaware of Rose's predicament. "Worry not, you will be treated like a god, like you deserve to be."
Ha, the same words he used on us, not that it mattered in our case, we were too young to win against the previous god he weaponized. Rose thought, remembering the man who mentored them for a couple of weeks before disappearing into thin air.
"I don't think I want to, and I don't like how you feel, greedy and weird." The girl mumbled, pressing herself against Rose.
The ruler stared at her for a few moments before sighing. "Rose, tie this around her neck." He ordered, dangling a collar similar to the one on Rose in his fingers.
No, no, I don't want to, body stop, I order you to stop, LISTEN TO ME. Rose exclaimed as her body slowly took the collar from his hand and turned to the girl, still looking up at her with a calm and gentle smile, reaching till her shoulders. Now I want to kill him, killing when absolutely necessary can't be wrong, right? And those are kind of thoughts that make you kill more.
After looking at Rose for a moment, as if assessing her thoughts, the girl slowly lifted her hand towards the ruler. "Disappear." She ordered, and as if obeying her, the man disappeared into thin air without even a trace, all the items he carried dropping to the ground.
The leather collar dropped from Rose's hand as she regained control of her body, though mostly as her eyes widened on realising what just happened. "Tha-that's, it's not– it was Reality Manipulation." Rose mumbled, knowing it is the only answer even though a part of her brain attempted to argue her away from it.
"Oh, that sounds cool." The girl murmured, clinging to Rose even more tightly. "The weird human is gone so let's talk more, I wanna know about everything. Reading all of that would take too long, hearing from someone who has already read it would be so much more fun. Tell me everything, first about this Empress, and the Ea I saw in one of the books."
Without resisting, Rose allowed herself to be lead into the library, only glancing back and seeing the servant already gone, most likely to alert everyone the previous ruler died so someone else can take his place, but to get away as quick as possible before that.
"Oh right, I almost forgot about that." She tapped her head as she turned around, pointing her finger towards Celestia. "Attach to the mountainside and stay here, don't try to leave without us."
That won't work, even The Empress could not do anything to Celestia with her Reality Manipulation, not even in the forty-fifth era. Rose remembered, but as if to disagree with her, the stone at Celestia's edge slowly built itself outwards and connected with the edge of the mountain, forming a staircase of short stairs leading to the platform. "Just what are you?" Rose gasped, her eyes widening in terror, of someone who possesses such power, and unlike The Empress, who never unleashed her full power in her entire life, is more than willing to use it so carelessly.
"A Pure God? I think? It just comes to my mind when I think about your question, I don't know why." The girl shrugged after giving it some thought, unable to find any reason. "Let's go now, I want to hear everything, or we can do it here if you prefer."
Well, she is powerful, but not dangerous, not if I can use her trust and interest in me to steer her away from the path of becoming dangerous. With a sigh Rose steeled her resolve, smiling at the girl as she tilted her head. "Let's sit here then, and talk for as long as you like, the new ruler of Celestia, Ea." Well... Surely this will be fun...