That Time I Got Isekai’d Again and Befriended a Slime

There are "higher powers". 

In simple terms, you may consider that existence akin to a "natural disaster" of sorts. At the most basic level, they are fragments, or perhaps "sections" is more accurate, of the multiverse that possess conscious thought and will. 

The entity dubbed by the Salaryman as "Being X" is one such higher power. Another would be Veldanava the Star Dragon, perhaps better known as the father of Milim Nava, and yet another would be the Creation God of the Six-Faced World. 

They vary greatly from one another; it seems you cannot consider them the same species as you might with all humans or Kijins or otherwise. Some are unfathomably old, existing beyond even time and space itself. Some bear thought processes so uniquely alien that the closest mortal equivalent would be viruses. Some of them inhabit mechanical bodies and travel across physical space in order to find suitable planets. Some of them are concepts that only exist to personify an area or thing. 

Some of them can be killed.

Divinities. Deities. Devils. Demiurges. Gods. 

So wholly different that their only classification is that they cannot be classified as anything else. 

But so many do have something in common. From the evidence presented up to this point, isn't it only reasonable to say that there are countless worlds, dimensions, planes of existence, and more created by these entities?

The reasoning surely differs, as does the product, the structure, the rules and Laws governing each world or set of worlds. And there's no guarantee that intelligent, sapient life exists in all of them, even if it is a common shared trait. There's no guarantee that these higher powers are intelligent either. 

But there's one thing that can be said for certain.

The sky doesn't have to be blue.

-

Unknown Time

Unknown Space

[?????]

The origin was simple enough. One last chain of thought.

"If I didn't have to rely on the Type 95…"

"…I wouldn't have minded staying like that."

The beginning: the Unique Skill, Tetrabattery Limit Enhancement (TLE) and the Unique Skill, Formulaic Casting.

Born of her desire and the Type 95's broken miracle, TLE acted as a four-chambered magicule storage and release ability. Each chamber of stored magicules was usable separately or in tandem, and each chamber had no limit on the amount they could store.

Formulaic Casting completed it. Acting similar to Extra Skills like Law Manipulation and Chant Annulment, it allowed comprehension and instantaneous casting of her own magics from a formulaic perspective. This included any magic she learned after the fact, but not Arts.

Which is why unlike Mary, she never fully mastered Hakurou's sword style.

Combined, TLE and Formulaic Casting could manifest phenomena far surpassing the greatest "miracle" feats of her previous life, on the high-end inflicting a cost physical rather than mental.

The sheer amount of magicules running through her system from certain spells would have turned her into a simpering, suck-up sycophant to Being X in her second life; in her third, the worst that happened was cracking three of her ribs and her arm in twelve places.

Much more palatable.

Later, and with an appeal made through the Voice of the World Communication Extra Skill, TLE and Formulaic Casting were merged using the Demon Lord Seed of Octavius Valentin as a catalyst.

The next one up: Unique Skill, Tetra Breaker. A step forward exceeding the sum of its parts.

Tetra Breaker allowed Tanya to comprehend "magic" from a formulaic or otherwise logically structured perspective. This enabled the formation and destruction of others' spells, magical constructs, etc, as long as Tanya had enough of an understanding of – and could perceive in the first place – Tetra Breaker's target.

This was alongside the abilities of its assimilated Sub-Skills, as well as a new Extra Skill in Parallel Calculation, like found within Rimuru's previous Great Sage and current Raphael.

Hers did not, however, develop a consciousness, nor did it include such a convenient counterpart ability as Thought Acceleration.

A bit infuriating. What should have been exponential growth became consistent progress through trial and error and several notebooks filled with the results.

Honestly, when will her Deus Ex Machina come about? This is getting ridiculous.

Her feelings at that time matter little now. She knows the truth; that methodical process of intentionally increased understanding through experimentation and practice led her to this exact moment.

In the process of using Tetra Breaker, Tanya became familiar with a great number of structures for a great number of spiritual matter constructs designated as "magic".

For once, I'm grateful to you.

The one "magic" with which she is most intimately familiar with other than her own is that of the divine.

From the beginning, through the middle, and now nearing the end.

If I had to describe you, I'd use "potential". A conduit jacked straight into the universe… the amount of power you have is astonishing. I mean that genuinely. If you took me seriously from the start, I wouldn't have had a chance. 

It was her third end that led to this, for only after such a departure from demi-material existence could her soul reach this level.

That being said, what makes you special compared to me? Divine energy? The Authority of a higher being? The ability to create? I wonder if we're just fundamentally incompatible.

The truth: it's not called Tetra Breaker anymore.

Still, I think I've come to understand you better. For someone with this much strength at your fingertips, we must have seemed like ants, or perhaps particularly irritating mice. I don't blame you for ignoring us. In fact, I've decided: ignore us all you like. 

"Set."

If there's one thing I hate, it's someone with no say in the matter trying to restrict what I can and can't do. You know, I'd describe people as "potential" too. Maybe you missed that looking down from your ivory tower. 

"Clockwork Universe."

The original "clockwork universe" is a conceptual explanation in which the known universe exists akin to a mechanical clock. "God", or otherwise a divine Creator, is the clockmaker, and the universe a clockwork.

Essentially, the world or universe was created by another's hands in such a way it may run perfectly, eternally by itself, with no need for further intervention. A well-crafted clock runs by itself; there's no need to nitpick the details after the fact.

This is her clockwork: a prototype chaos world isolated from others yet adjacent to them at the same time, designated in its current state as Clockwork Universe.

Ultimately an inefficient proof of concept, and impossible in its imperfected state without an abundance of divine energy. Yet, here it is, the framework of a finite Imaginary Space with attributes akin to an "Anti-Divinity Field".

There was no way to convincingly overcome Being X in his own world; being at the level of a "higher power", though certainly not in attitude, means his ability to manifest phenomena is unmatched within his sphere of influence.

That's simply the nature of Authority.

Thus, the main priority was to remove herself and Visha from that sphere of influence.

Incomplete it may be, but Clockwork Universe is the realization of that desire.

A world beholden to no godly power.

Don't you get it? I have no reason to listen to you. We're fundamentally incompatible, after all.

It would later be described as an overachieving, plagiarized variant of Demon Lord Ramiris's intrinsic skill "Small World", which in turn would lead to Shuna smacking Ramiris like a bug. But we digress.

In Being X's world, runic circles implode in threes, of pillars and corners and anchors all.

The instant between this moment and the next are not visible. Not even in the span of 1/1,000,000thof the time it takes to blink.

It's not the movement being impossibly fast; rather, it is as the difference between what "isn't" and what "is" changing instantaneously, the cause and effect of "now" versus "next" swapping so "next" supplants "now".

In less than instant, there is light.

In an instant, THEY are falling.

The sky opens up in a great expanse all around, black thunder clouds revolting and roiling. Lightning spikes, flashes, illuminating and rending the night sky in jagged edges. Wind rushes past, and static follows. This great storm curls. Like a hand, ready to catch.

Ready to crush.

The point between microseconds, microcosms, cause and effect.

Blink, and it changes.

The sky sings in brilliant baby blue. Below, evergreen, everpurple trees spread beyond the horizon. Mist lingering in the leaves and branches, sifting through gaps in the wood as wolves stalking deer. Wind rushes past, and a chill with it.

Falling and falling and a painful landing undistinguishable even as the ground is closer and closer and-

An unfamiliar sensation. A pit in THEIR gut.

Someone is laughing.

What is...?

Suddenly, HE realizes. The laughter is coming from someone else's mouth.

Blink, and it changes.

Snowcapped mountains, a sunset in reverse. Beyond them, a great tower reaching past the heavens. A structure so massive that even those which surpass Everest appear inadequate.

Euphoria and horror bottom out his stomach. Joy and fear trill in tandem thrill down his spine.

Approaching, swiftly, the cliffs growing without end until it's all he can see, falling and *falling*-

Blink once, twice more… and it changes.

An ink-dark ocean, a storm anew, waves cresting the sky. Pink and orange sunlight stream from the brutal sky, and cracks form between layers of overcast.

And floating above it all is a single, imperfect gap of swirling gray, centered with a pitch-black star.

SPLASH!!

Suddenly, HE needs to breathe.

No, he cannot breathe. The raging ocean swarms him. Ripping currents threatening to fulfill their namesake, the frigid black waters leeching away his warmth.

Only his warmth? Not THEIR breath?

He tries to move. He fails to clutch at his throat.

There's nothing to be seen. It's impossible to swim up.

Sinking deeper and deeper, panicking desperately at the unfamiliar.

What? It… hurts? It's…!!!

Air runs out. He chokes-

And then gasps, as a cold, solid floor can be felt under hand. A platform of sorts.

A massive, pieced and hewn together metallic platform is what he finds himself atop.

Though, to call it a platform is a disservice. Indeed, it is the top of a great tower rising above the clouds, rising so high that the highest mountaintops are invisible, and the stars are at home by our side. It is a tower not of ivory or gold, but of steel and oil, a swirling monstrosity of human ingenuity, widening the closer one gets to the ground, hollow skyscrapers stuck to the sides at odd angles and tied up in power lines and aqueducts.

Further down, each section grows horizontally, segments becoming sections and cities, until the bottom, where if one where to look closely, they would realize that those previously thought of as mountains greater than any on Earth are, in fact, rumbling, gear-laden and human-made mechanical facsimiles.

He doesn't know this, however. Yet.

"!!!" His mouth opens in a silent scream, reliving every second of the fall and impact twice over. He curls into a ball, fire burningburningburning every nerve ending and cell.

It is only after several agonizing seconds that Being X is able to think. And once he can think again, he realizes something very important.

I have… nerves and cells… But no, nerves are also cells- okay, seriously not what's important right now!

Even his thoughts seem off, tinted by errant personality. He knows this bias; it's physical.

He curls up, the sharpness and coolness of rough metal stairs barely registering against his side.

"What in the… Gah!"

It is only because he is caught off guard that it happens. He hasn't gathered himself yet when his entire silhouette glitches, with separate outlines of himself in every color stretching violently from his body like jagged arcs of electricity and flame.

Just as quickly, it settles, leaving seams of multicolored light crisscrossing the flesh like swollen veins. Steam curls along his exposed flesh, and he gasps, unused to the sensation… to any such violent sensation, really.

It's overwhelming, and the familiar rush of divine power that should've absolved him immediately is a distant pinprick requiring effort to reach.

"How…?" He gasps again, reaching-

"You unintentionally incarnated yourself, huh?" Before he can react, he's grabbed roughly by the arm and dragged him across the sharp and roughshod floor of cool, riveted metal plates.

"Wha- wait-!"

"I'll keep that in mind."

It's Tanya, and she doesn't wait. Before Being X can react, adjust to any of what just happened, she makes use of strength her body does not suggest and throws him.

His inarticulate scream as he falls the undefinable distance surrounding their current location brings her a joy that cannot be described in words.

She'd truly gotten one over on him. HIM. Someone powerful enough to claim at "God"

It is an example of "maneuvering against superior opponents" that Oda Nobunaga himself would have shed tears for.

Here's to Okehazama over Honnō-ji… ah?

Tanya stumbles, then falls to one knee. Her inner ears are going haywire, and cracks like glowing veins spread across her body like silver kintsugi. The world shudders.

…oh, right… can't… hold that back much longer…

Never let it be said that she isn't adaptable, but next time? She'd prefer a solid plan of action over an admittedly godlike roll of the dice. Risking it allis all well and good when it comes to heroes in stories, but she's a real person here!

Napoleon would agree, it's easier to recognize and work around the possible outcomes and consequences when everything's been planned out beforehand.

Case and point.

"!!!"

A wordless scream.

If the last few days had kept her from sleeping, then this sensation can be considered as all those days shoved into seconds and multiplied twice over. Pure, vicious, like that feeling when your foot falls asleep and you have to walk on it. Nothing so mundane as pain.

This is the byproduct of her actions, that is, the effect of Clockwork Universe resulting in her temporary material body burning away, becoming more.

From one knee, Tanya falls to the metal plated floor, a tortured worshipper bartering their humanity to a dead god. Asymmetrical veins of energy crisscrossing her body pulse and spark, stellar dust shimmering within. Rumbling, the world groans in tune.

This is it. Like a porcelain doll, her skin cracks-

Flames of sparkling white and silver engulf her body and hide her from sight. The memory of an unnamed deity returns to mind, different from before and truthful.

= You can give up. No one would blame you. =

= But should you decide your path has yet to end… =

= Take this Name and Evolve! =

= Reconstruct yourself from stardust. =

= And if you do, don't let those precious memories fade. =

= For they shine brighter than any gold. =

Evolution, or awakening.

It is the growth process which occurs after certain criteria are met. For example, an Ogre is Named and receives a large magicule influx, and as a result, the Ogre evolves into a Kijin.

This is the process and the result, or perhaps you may describe it as the accumulation of met criteria that all created this one pivotal metamorphosis.

The heart of it all was a wish, an impossible desire on her deathbed.

"… I never wanted those precious memories to end."

It'd been eating her from the inside this whole time, founded in death and held back by circumstance of Authority… until now.

A resounding crack echoes all around, the tower shuddering underneath their feet. At the center of the platform, Visha stirs back to consciousness.

Where the chaos originates, a fire whirl of white-sparkling silver and blue-tarnished teal shoots upward, feeling of a blaze and blizzard at once. Shadows dance over the floor's rough edges in the shape of memories.

Violently whirling about and about, the pillar rises higher and higher until God would strike it down, air scorched and dusted with ghostly snowflakes.

And then it stops. All of it stops perfectly, frozen in time.

And then it whirls again. All of it whirls in reverse, the dancing flames reversing, rewinding and pouring down and down, into the veins of the collapsed form lying at the top of the stairs of the platform of the gate that once broke through the boundary of worlds-!

Until at last, naught else remains but those last wisps of silver and white and teal flame stretching up from her back… and that, for a moment, appear like wings.

These too fade, and what's left must be Tanya.

...that's right.

"So that's… what it feels like."

That's right. It is these cumulative experiences that make up who we are right now. It is the continuous goods and bads, highs and lows and meetings and partings which define this exact moment in time and space.

With a muffled groan, she pushes herself up on her elbows. The sensation is… different, to be sure. The rough metal plates underneath her arms are still sharp, as they were before, but somehow, they feel more.

I wonder if that's the consequence of suppressing it for so long. Not that I had a choice.

If she were to contextualize it, the sensation difference is akin to touching something after taking off gloves. Certainly, the base attributes remain the same or similar, but the quality of input from her senses is simply, as already described, more. More efficient, more in-depth, more closely connected to the existences they're interacting with.

Tanya sweeps back her silver bangs, sparkles of white shimmering along her fingers like static, then presses her hand against the cool metal platform once more to push herself up.

Her bangs remain in place, framing eyes of a glowing, eerie teal, and the rest of her hair, falling in spiky semi-curls past her shoulders, sways in an unseen breeze.

"Honestly, it's about time I got my Deus Ex Machina."

There's not enough time to unpack everything her evolution implies. It's obvious that the difference between her previously and herself now is like night and day. With this in mind, Tanya coldly assesses her new reality without letting her thoughts and feelings get in the way.

All of her physical exhaustion is gone, as has some of the mental strain. Everything is lighter now. It takes no effort to stand. It takes no effort to look around, taste the metallic air, stretch her senses-

A low groan jolts her from her investigation.

Visha.

Right. It's been days since so much of her had been sealed away, both by her own and Being X's actions, so her distraction is understandable.

Tanya exhales a puff of lingering steam, then turns and makes her way toward the center of this platform reaching the Heavens of her dreams.

There, the other young woman involved in this shitshow-turned-miraculous-gamble lies alone on the cool metal floor, half-attempting and half-failing to push herself up with shaking arms. Her system may be cleared of Being X's Authority, but that doesn't mean her body has recovered.

That she'd survived at all…

Well, consider patting both Visha and Tanya on the back for that one. If there's anyone who knows exactly how much "godly" power a mortal body can handle at one time and can keep the flow of it to that limit, it's the latter, and if there's any mage with enough innate mana – other than Mary Sue, of course – to protect from burning out in the process, it's the former.

Then again, this entire scenario was one great big gamble in the first place, making the cards at play less important that the play itself.

But then again, did that gamble end up how she'd intended?

But then again, again, she's hardly complaining. When you play for 20 or under and get 21 instead, that's something to be thankful for.

It's not long before she's at the center of the tower top, kneeling at Visha's side.

"Ta-" Another pained groan echoes, her eyelids fluttering.

Visha tries to move, and fails. She tries to push herself up, body shuddering and trembling from what must be utter hell across her nerve endings and muscles. And she fails.

She still tries. Even if it rips her apart, she hasn't waited this long to be denied her dear Commander at the end. Just a single touch is enough, proof that this isn't a dream she's woken up from far too many times in tears.

"T- Tanya…"

"I'm here. It's alright now."

"I'm- I can still…"

Tanya touches Visha's shoulder, silver sparks dancing between her fingers. The same healing magic which kept her sealed spirit from tearing apart Being X's bestowed material body now dances across Visha's form, soothing her aches and relaxing her tension.

"Stay down, Visha." Gentle and firm, Tanya grabs Visha's shoulder and turns her onto her back, her other hand moving to support the other's head. "You did well to last this long. You waited so very long for me, didn't you? That's good."

"I did… good…?" Her eyelashes flutter, and

"Better than anyone expected you too. Better than anyone else. Even if no one ordered you to work so far beyond your paygrade, you did it anyway and without complaint. I'm not sure I can ever repay that. But I'll try my hardest."

"Don't say that…" Visha's voice is tinted soft and quiet, growing quieter as her breathing evens out. "I just wanted… to be by…"

The exhaustion takes its toll, and the rest of her words are cut off.

Tanya watches the steady rise and fall of her former subordinate's chest. After a moment of concern, in which silver light sparks and her eyes glow from Skill usage, she sighs and sets the unconscious Visha's head down on the floor.

"Leave the rest to me… my last and most loyal soldier."

She should be able to do that much now.

No, there's no "should be" about it.

There's not enough time to wonder about every possible way this could go wrong. There's no possibility of meticulously quantifying and experimenting with the structure.

There's no time to think about it. She has to do it.

"Persephone."

The named Ultimate Skill activates, analyzing the structure of all the spiritual matter within and connected to Clockwork Universe and herself.

Tanya snaps her fingers. Underneath Visha's body, a blue and silver-speckled magic circle appears… only, rather than manifesting the phenomena after the calculation of the structure and the expenditure of required energy, the cycle of cause and effect is reversed.

Not there, not there... there. The boundary there should be weak enough.

The stellar variant of Spatial Motion activates, and with an accelerated, parallel thought process running the calculations in post, Visha disappears in a flash.

A second later, Clockwork Universe violently shakes. The energy required to safely transport someone an unknown distance between worlds, using an upgrade of a passingly familiar spell… the existence of this world, which had been estimated at 222 seconds, now equals 42.

"YOU!!"

"Oh boy."

Never expected him to stay down for long, but compromising the boundary of Clockwork Universemust have made it easier. Still, he's clearly not used to it yet. I almost want to fight him.

…is what I would say if I was Mary or Benimaru, maybe. This gamble only bore so much fruit because it's something he couldn't have expected or gotten used to in a short enough time. Better to not push my luck.

"If you have any complaints," Tanya calls, turning and for the first time actually taking in Being X's "physical form" as it marches angrily toward her. The gold crackle of energy around his hands forms and sputters out in a constant cycle, but with each step it grows more defined. "Please direct them to my secretary! Last name Yourself, first name Go, middle name Fuck."

He really is still incarnated, though… ah. Is he constantly recreating and circulating his Authority inside the physical body? That's an irritatingly familiar solution to the issue. 

"You! You and your insolence has-!!"

Honestly, did someone finally tell you it's better to be clever than strong? Then again, I'll settle for being both if that's alright. 

"Ah, sorry, I'm not taking criticism at this time. Really, don't think I'm trying to subvert you or anything; this is all just a, how you say, glorious misunderstanding!"

Before her remaining time ticks down any further, before Being X can muster a response of words or weapons, and with utter lack of ceremony, Tanya breaks Clockwork Universe and subsumes the remainder.

Everything fades to nothing.

= Can you see it? =

The "place" cannot be called as such.

It is hardly physical or spiritual. At best, it can be considered some demi-material landscape existing in between waves of infinity. This is ultimately the result of extraordinary, improbably circumstances.

This is an existence that does exist beyond the moment. The infinitesimal instant before and after this scene will occur without a single blip. You could almost claim that, for the length of this conversation, all of the multiverse's space and time will not progress.

Blank nothingness as far as the eye can see, broken up by shards of scenes, windows of places in space and time… though, not just any space or time, but glimpses of the space-time that makes up two specific worlds.

In the immediate space, two images flicker and clash. Monuments of pure white marble, palaces lined with jade and gemstones, roads paved in gold and silver. Then, in the next instant, there is an incomprehensibly massive platform of laser-cut metalwork forming the foundations underneath, parts of the edges just barely cresting the nothingness that seems to constitute a "floor". If you were to peer over the sides, you would be unable to see the tower's base, but for the faintest crest of snow-capped, mechanical mountaintops.

Two celestial objects dominate the "sky" above: a golden sun larger than any known star, and a black star illuminated by its own silver event horizon.

Here is the broken intersection of Heaven and Clockwork Universe.

"I take it I'm safe, Being X?"

Standing on the rampart edge of her Tower, her silver hair free of its ponytail and flowing on an invisible breeze, Tanya crosses her arms and closes her eyes, basking in the comfort of power.

"Ugh." Being X crosses his arms, his face snarled in an alien expression that through the veil of mortal experiences could be construed as furiously displeased. "…unfortunately, I believe I am beginning to understand you, Tanya."

Across from her, at the bottom of a set of marble stairs that end at the nothingness gap between them, his golden eyes bore into her unworried form. His appearance is as it never has been before. Except for his white hair styled in a neat part, he physically lacks both the age and beard of his old "buff Santa Claus" style, looking closer to a tall, well-built man in his late twenties.

You'd almost call it a "wolf in sheep's clothing" situation… damn, I'm coming up blank. I started off strong, but how do those protagonists always come up with witty allusions on the spot? I'd bet there's some perfectly apt mythological comparison somewhere, but it's just not coming to me. I was always more into the military side of history. Mary might have an idea…

It's an interesting illusion, but that's all it is. No matter how hard he tries or what he says, he doesn't really get it. There's an air to him that strikes one as incorrect, his presence jutting out at invisible fifth-dimensional angles.

…really though, a wolf and a sheep are more similar than he is to an ordinary person. When you think about it, isn't he closer to a natural disaster? That's if you consider the universe or multiverse as "nature", I suppose. 

"Oh?" Tanya stretches her arms, marveling at the sensation.

As far as she can tell, her appearance is once more as it was when she died; even the side bang on her right side is missing. So, about the same. Except the fact that her hair is now this sort of in-between silver and white rather than blonde.

Oi, I know I've died three times, but that doesn't make me a damn Granny! I kind of dig it though. A bit nostalgic, not sure why.

At least she can turn the sparkles off.

"If you want to fight me, forget it." Being X dismisses her with an imitation of a sigh. "I thought you were doing this to spite me, or to put me in my place, or to prove your ideals. I could accept any of those reasons before I kill you."

Despite herself, Tanya feels insulted.

Excuse me? You just wanted to fight me, no? Trying to understand you gives me a headache.

"What? Did you take a second to think something out?" In order to be more insulting right back, Tanya points directly at him after the verbal jab. "You? I didn't know you were capable of going that far. Maybe pigs will fly next?"

"Oh please, Tanya. Spare me the half-baked insults and failure of wit." He does manage a good impression of a sneer, oddly enough. "If I could reach you, you'd have wished you were dead. Have some gratitude to dumb luck for your safety. If not to me, perhaps even you can be appropriately appreciative."

"Ha ha."

"Take this seriously, you ignorant little-!"

"Sorry, it's just," She interrupts, "It's just difficult. Because of how unappealing you are as an individual, I mean. You have this handsome exterior and all, but the inner grotesqueness of… yourself, just sort of leeches out and ruins it."

"You insolent-!"

Being X interrupts himself this time, looking away from her and covering his mouth with one hand. A singular infuriated scream can be heard muffled underneath it.

After a moment, he faces her again without bothering to compose himself. "And when I look at you, Tanya, if see nothing but the most beautiful future corpse."

"How kind of you. I'm astonished."

"Right, I am kind. But you? Why are you doing this?" Ignoring her sarcastic backtalk, a Herculean task for certain, Being X changes the subject to ask something that's been on his mind for a little while. "This is naught but cruelty. Give me a reason I can accept! Why go this far, Tanya?"

"Why?"

Tanya blinks, genuinely thrown off by the question. Or more accurately, she's surprised that Being X of all people would care about her motives or raison d'être this late in the game. She decides to be honest with him. Might as well.

"Why do you want a reason when you can't even understand it? I guess if you're so curious… really, there's no great reason for it or anything. Again, it's nothing you could understand; I just don't want to die yet."

Being X stares at her with a molten, golden, unnatural and ultimately uncomprehending stare.

"You don't want to… is that all it is then…?" Being X trails off into a mutter, brow furrowing, or at least that seems to be the expression his face is attempting. "How… disappointing."

And Tanya while is not at all surprised at his lack of his understanding, having pointed it out that he wouldn't multiple times, there is still the faintest twinge of… well, it is disappointment, she supposes, and then is the disappointment with herself for even considering that he might at least pretend to understand the slightest bit.

It's not something she'd forgotten, nor could she ever forget, but the one standing before her who once claimed to be a capital G "God" in fact understands very little of the mortal races and places he claims dominion over.

There's no natural end to this in which he sees things from her perspective, but just because you know the outcome in advance does not mean you are free from the results. It must hurt, and the inevitable has a way of strengthening blows that you'd expected foreknowledge to have softened.

God is cruel. God is kind. God is everything. God doesn't exist.

"God" is perfectly willing to hold a grudge and throw some hapless, arrogant mortal into an entirely new life with little to no consideration for how they might end up beyond "growing faithful".

And Tanya, in a moment of rare self-doubt, wonders if so many of the bad things that happened to her were her fault alone.

Because it's not that God or "God" or Being X fits any of those statements at all. Because it's clear more than anything that whoever decides to sit on that ivory throne in the sky and look down on those scattered below cannot possibly be them, be human or mortal or what-have-you, and thus cannot be confined to the same understanding as them.

It's unfortunate, but she's come to recognize it as fact.

Unless Being X were to experience a mortal life in its entirety, with all the good and sin and personal highs and lows thus implied, there is no scenario in which he recognizes her or her ideals. It simply is not possible otherwise, because the joy and despair and beginning and end are what make up the cumulative experience called life.

If he has not experienced that the way she has, of course he can't understand it. He can't even accept it as a matter of differences. Talk about someone unwilling to compromise. Meeting others halfway is life, too.

It's a shame, but nothing is to be done about it at the current time.

Tanya says nothing to this end. Her thoughts and conclusions remain her own; nothing she needs to say will matter until the very end.

After a pause, Being X shrugs, in some facsimile of body language that, despite his efforts, still strikes that instinctual cord as wrong incorrect inhuman-

"Though, that wasn't to which I was referring." He says with a negligent wave of his hand, "My intended meaning was, why are you doing this?"

This, he refers to with a vague hand gesture toward her.

"Lingering. You are the type to gloat, but not if it would overly risk your own life to do so. Yet it's clearly hurting you to converse in this space, chatting with me without moving on. I do wonder if you're trying too hard to maintain this veil of faux equality. It's okay to let go, Tanya. You're either my equal, or you're not me."

"Now who isn't taking this seriously?"

"Preferably before you vanish, thank you."

"You know those words? Today is full of wonders."

Ah, but he's right for once. She's vanishing.

This paradoxical space-time was not intended by either of them; their conversation taking place is only possible thanks to the shards of Clockwork Universe somehow meeting halfway with his own attempts to reach her. They're not physically here per se. It's more akin to spirits conversing in the afterlife.

Of course, she isn't dead, and he possess no concept of Death. Their consciousnesses are simply being forced to interact between the In-Between of the multiverse, a carved-out niche neither of them is fully responsible for rapidly eroding away.

That's the best way to describe something which ultimately, literally cannot be comprehended by anyone else other than the three beings involved in its conception.

"You got me. I'm definitely doing this on purpose, and if you're asking now, I might as well tell the truth." That being said, it's not like he needs a realanswer. "Really… I just wanted to see the look on your face."

The outline of her form visibly dissipates, particles of silver energy swirling about.

"Defiant until the very end." He shakes his head. The motion rough and unfamiliar as previously, but less so than before.

"What a boring response." Tanya says drily. "I suppose it's not worth trying to understand to someone like you."

"Funny." Being X says, not sounding amused at all but acknowledging the humor regardless. "I thought the same."

The paradox crumbles around them.

Outlined by it elsewhere, energy swirls through Tanya's hair in sparkles of silver constellations. White and silver sparks crackle across her limbs, shoulders, whispering of home.

"Huh. This energy manifests as silver... or is that my influence...?" One hand, wreathed in that silver and white-speckled energy, reaches up unnecessarily to brush back her bangs again. "Well, it doesn't matter."

Being X copies her facial expression, raising an eyebrow, but says nothing.

"…right, it doesn't matter, and there's no point telling you this, but people are stronger than you give them credit for. If you've only ever looked at them as sheep, then you'll only see sheep… ugh, who even cares? You don't, and that's somewhat understandable. But you know, we lower powersstill think to look at the ocean and command the waves be still. I guess you missed that."

He watches her, an unreadable look in his eye. "…you are going to die."

"No. Not for a long time." There is always the possibility; she'll not lie to herself about that. But if there's one thing Tanya can truly be considered a prodigy at, it's in creating advantageous situations. Perhaps that is her talent, tipping the scales when the chips are down. "I'll be taking my leave now."

Being X nods his assent deliberately, the motion appearing near natural, and he meets her gaze head on as she does him. Even as faux reality breaks apart around them, and as Tanya's body dissipates into motes of stellar dust, neither of them is willing to back down.

That's not how this will end, here or ever. They both are aware of that.

"Next time we meet…" Being X says slowly, yet without pause. There's hardly any of her left now, so he doesn't hesitate to speak his mind. "…I will end this for good."

"Funny." Tanya says, the whirlpool of energy consuming her fully. The words linger in the air, even as normal space-time and the place In-Between resume business as usual, and the two of them vanish from this place which once existed and never will.

Interstellar Conveyance confirmed. 

"I thought the same."

And then, she's gone.

The tower beneath her crumbles to nothing and the black star vanishes, leaving behind only their impressions in the faux space-time. All that's left is the tainted reflection of a god opposite her defiance, with His visage superimposed.

Until, curiously, a single speck of silverish-blue shines in the gap Tanya left behind. The light grows, to about the size of a human head, and approaches the edge of the gap in Being X's Authority.

"Ah, I thought so. And what reason do you have this time for interfering?"

= Reason? I don't have a real one. =

= My existence is one akin to a "natural disaster". =

= I do whatever I like whenever I like. That's all. =

"A hedonist who gave up the omniscience and omnipresence of his Authority to satiate a mortality fetish." Being X flexes his fingers, maintaining his physical form for slightly longer. "Then again, Tanya is perhaps the supreme example of your fixation. Is that why you picked from my garden?"

= She and I have mutually aligned goals. =

= She refuses to die, and I want her to grow powerful. =

= This was best option available to satisfy every condition. =

"You've helped create a monster. Something like that is nothing more than an abomination needing to be crushed in the womb. That being, Tanya, is the worst possible individual. A headache-causing heretic."

= Isn't it exciting? =

= Who knows what will happen next? =

= She's quite an entertaining deuteragonist, don't you think? =

With that remark, the presence fades. Being X is left alone at the edge of a fading nothing.

Everything fades away. Everything returns to normal, preceded by a final, unnatural chuckle.

"Deuteragonist? You poor fool."

-Z-

Sometime before the activation of Clockwork Universe

The Sky Above the Falmuth Army's Encampment

Jura Tempest Federation Territory, Great Forest of Jura

When a boot crushes an ant, there is no mutual connection. When a mouse unknowingly touches a live wire, it does not recognize the mistake. An ant and mouse cannot understand how or why they were killed; they cannot comprehend the act.

There's no reason to play nicely here.

In accordance with sins they have neither knowledge nor understanding nor reasoning of, in the blink of an eye and with no say in the matter, there is nothing they can do but die.

In fact, there's every reason for the opposite. I'm supposed to be a leader, you know? I have to set an example. What kind of message am I sending if I refuse? The one who stood by my side, who never thought differently of me, who treated me like…

Cain is the one most alike his God. That is to say, wrath by another name is merely action to a point; a god or God's actions are defined and justified by themselves. No one else.

You think you can just hurt my people, burn my city, and kill my one of my sworn friends? I want my pound of flesh too; I am a monster, after all. Isn't this what you wanted? You shouldn't be surprised then. I'm only giving you what you wanted.

Sodom and Gomorrah never needed a reason to burn. If someone with sufficient strength wills it…

Confirmed. The Unique Skill, Merciless, has been acquired. Analyzing…

…they burn.

Pay for her revival with your blood. I won't let a single one of you get away. 

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