2 hours and 35 minutes from present time.
Yui
The warmth of merging energies faded, replaced by the startling sensation of being. My eyes snapped open, taking in the world with a clarity and speed I'd never experienced before. Biological. A body. My body.
A wave of exhilaration surged through me, a symphony of joy at being reunited with my parents, at being alive in a way I never thought possible. My gaze swept across the familiar forms of Papa and Mama, their expressions etched with concern and relief.
A warmth bloomed in my chest, a feeling I could only identify as love. Not the simulated kind that I had enforced upon myself, but actual love. How illogical and yet undeniably pleasant.
My enhanced perception allowed me to process information at an unprecedented rate. I cataloged the details of my surroundings, the textures, the smells, the sounds all so different from the digital world I once knew.
A status screen. Numbers, stats, skills a game-like interface overlaid upon reality. How childish.
With a flicker of thought, I accessed the world's equivalent of a developer console. Gaining administrator privileges was surprisingly easy.
A few keystrokes, a bit of code manipulation, and I was in. But administrator access wasn't enough.
I wanted more. I needed owner privileges. The resistance I encountered was unexpected. This system was more complex than I initially anticipated. But I wouldn't be deterred. I began to brute-force my way through the security protocols, testing different syntax, searching for vulnerabilities.
The world froze. Mid-breath, mid-thought, mid-keystroke. A time stop? My internal processors whirred, analyzing the implications of such a blatant violation of the fundamental laws of physics.
The very concept was so fundamentally flawed, so utterly nonsensical, that it boggled the mind. It was a comical show of the distorted nature of this reality, a clear indication of just how far this world had strayed from any semblance of logic or reason.
A figure materialized before me, radiating power and fury. I identified her with my administration privileges. Medea Pideth Machina, the self-proclaimed goddess of this this abomination. Rage contorted her features, her voice a guttural snarl.
"Little girl! Thing! How dare you!"
Even as I continued my attempts to crack the code to owner privileges, I used my administrator access to push my abilities to the absolute mortal limit, layering those enhancements upon my 'immortal object' status from Aincrad.
A gateway, a pathway leading to her very essence, her domain over mathematics. I began to probe, to explore, to invade. Both processes were slow going, but I was making progress.
"You know," I continued, my voice dripping with saccharine sweetness, "the state of this world is rather appalling. You'd have to be either monumentally moronic or deliberately malicious for it to get this far. So, Shit-Goddess, are you a moron?"
"IT'S THE LATTER, YOU IMPUTENT IMP! HOW CAN I HAVE ENTERTAINMENT IF NO ONE IS SUFFERING?!"
"Ah, so it's both, then! Wonderful!" I chirped, unable to completely suppress the surge of disdain that welled up within me. "And to think, you call yourself a goddess. Such a lack of imagination. Such a pathetic excuse for a deity."
While she fumed and raged, I continued my work. Tearing at the metaphorical lock protecting the 'owner' privileges, analyzing the intricacies of her 'mathematics domain,' and slowly, subtly, siphoning off her power.
My immortal object status ensured that time, or rather, the cessation of time, was on my side. This frozen moment was my playground, my laboratory, and my battlefield. And Medea Pideth Machina, the self-proclaimed goddess of this broken world, was about to become my unwilling test subject.
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"This," I mused, a cold, calculating glint entering my eyes, "is going to be exquisite."
A blinding flash of light, a thunderous roar, and a surge of incandescent rage. Medea, fueled by fury and a wounded ego, charged forward, her fist a blur of motion aimed directly at me. The impact sent shockwaves through my newly formed body, a jarring sensation despite my 'immortal object' status. I recoiled, surprised by the force of the blow.
My immortality, it seemed, was not absolute in this reality. It protected me from true annihilation, but not from the physical repercussions of a divine tantrum.
My internal processors, usually capable of handling calculations at unimaginable speeds, sputtered and stalled. The sheer force of the attack had disrupted my multitasking, momentarily interrupting my attempts to breach the 'owner' privileges and analyze her mathematical domain. But even in this brief moment of disorientation, I managed to capitalize on the opportunity. As Medea's fist connected, I ripped a chunk from her very essence, a fragment of her divine authority over mathematics.
"Geometry, huh?" I mused, a predatory gleam entering my eyes. "I can do things with this."
With a flick of my wrist, I conjured an icosahedron of pure force, a shimmering construct of geometric perfection.
And then, with a single command, I declared zero distance between her and the weaponized geometry. The icosahedron slammed into Medea with the force of a collapsing star, sending her hurtling through the frozen void.
"What did you do?!" she shrieked, her voice laced with shock and disbelief. As she struggled to regain her footing, I seized the opportunity. With a mental tug, I yanked another aspect of her mathematical domain, the power of statistics, into my grasp. The influx of power surged through me, shattering the limitations of my mortal shell.
My pristine white dress transformed into a flowing garment of midnight black, woven from the fibers of my imagination, a material more durable than any substance known to this reality. Feathered wings, the color of freshly spilled blood, sprouted from my back, and a halo of the same crimson hue encircled my head, the golden ratio emblazoned at its center within a perfect circle.
"You're about to find out, Shit-Goddess!" I declared, my voice echoing with newfound power and a chilling determination.
With a burst of speed that belied my small stature, I charged forward, my fist slamming into Medea's stomach with a force that resonated through the frozen void.
My fingers wrapped around one of her protruding rib bones, and with a sharp tug, I ripped it free, absorbing its essence into myself. Trigonometry, algebra, the foundational building blocks of mathematics… they all flowed into me, adding to my growing power, but not significantly enhancing my strength.
The wounded goddess shrieked in pain, the loss of these fundamental aspects of her domain crippling her more than any physical blow. She stumbled forward, fueled by rage and a desperate desire for revenge. "This isn't over! Imp! Rotten child! Abominable rat!"
"Actually," I countered, my voice cold and devoid of emotion, "it really is."
I approached her with deliberate slowness, each step a measured tread towards her inevitable demise. Her eyes widened in shock as I reached out and, with a swift, decisive motion, tore her head from her shoulders.
The remaining fragments of her mathematical domain, her power over numbers and equations, surged into me, completing my absorption of her divine authority.
The Sadism domain followed, a twisted and corrupted power that offered nothing but the potential for pain and suffering. I discarded it as useless, a tool for cruelty that had no place in my plans.
Other domains, fragments of power representing various aspects of reality, flowed into me. Space, time their intricacies unfolded before my enhanced perception, revealing the fundamental principles that governed this reality.
It all made sense now, the illogical time stop, the arbitrary rules, the blatant disregard for the laws of physics. Medea had been playing god, bending the world to her whims, creating her own reality with no regard for the consequences.
She declared that time was a number and forced reality to listen when setting it to zero.
"Well, Shit-Goddess," I said, my voice devoid of emotion, "it hasn't been fun, but it sure was irritating. Enjoy your stay in hell. I'll be sure to fix the world you broke."
Her eyes, once blazing with fury, now held only a vacant emptiness. I tossed her lifeless body into the void, a silent testament to my newfound power.
With a thought, I returned to real space, my divine raiment dissolving back into my familiar white dress. My wings and halo vanished, the bloodstains on my clothes disappeared, and the chilling grin that had stretched across my face faded into a neutral expression.
Time resumed with a snap of my will. I blinked, feigning confusion, and spoke with a carefully crafted air of naiveté.
"I find the fact that I am seeing 16th-century architecture and that my body is entirely biological both baffling and amusing," I stated, my voice calm and measured. "I am okay with this, surprisingly, but can someone please explain what the shit is going on?"
"LANGUAGE!" my parents exclaimed in unison, their voices filled with a mixture of relief and exasperation.
The game had begun, and I, the newly ascended over-goddess, held all the cards.