Interlude
Yami & Tamamo-No-Mae & ???
'Dream of Butterfly II'
"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter that a few of my dregs managed to crawl it's way here; you are the weakest 'Me' that exists."
While she had been shocked by her presence mere moments before, the black silhouette, the deepest darkness that had been rejected and festered and become a being that should have never existed in the first place, stands her ground at the approach of her third self; well aware that she was the most naive of the bunch, hands automatically rising as she falls into stance.
If it comes down to a fight, an actual confrontation for possession of the body, she is sure that she is the most powerful of all three of them at this point.
However...
"...You were hurting too, right?"
For some reason...
The Goddess that just keeps walking towards her without the intent to kill; no, without any form of hostility at all, unnerves her in a manner that she cannot put into words. She is attacking the physical world even now, starting up one of the strongest magics she knew, a spell to begin the symphony of destruction that would be her rampage across the surface of the earth, the other two should be burning with the desire to stop her.
Indeed, Tamamo-No-Mae is, she cannot forgive the self that would try to hurt humanity; it was that exact rejection that had allowed her to manifest from her in the first place.
But this light half, Yami-
"It's not just about the rage is it? We're desperate and lonely, and humans have been crying for eons and we don't know how to make them stop."
-Threatens her without threatening her at all; in a manner that was far more fundamental, piercing to the core-!
"Stay away from me! You can't do anything to stop it, so just sit down and accept it-! It's my turn to act! Mine!"
Without thinking about it, she fires a barrage of magic the way of her other self. Slamming into her without resistance, the blue-haired goddess stops for a moment, body shaking with what could only be pain as magic of all types slams into her at the rate of a machine gun, and with the force of divine phenomena...
"..."
Before continuing on towards her anyway without trying to throw so as a single punch in retaliation, or even speeding up her otherwise glacial pace.
It's intimidating.
It shouldn't be, but it is, and she takes a step back instinctively as a result.
"We're angry, angry that they did this to themselves, angry that they took away our friends by accident, angry that they refuse to help themselves, angry that we're angry, angry that we decided to run away from everything, angry that it looks like we'll never see them again... I'll admit it... I pushed everything I didn't want to see onto her... And she pushed it onto you. I accept that, I won't run from that anymore."
Intimidation turns into rage.
What the hell does this bitch know?!
The one who ran the furthest away, the dregs that had been happy even while the others had burned in an impossible hell-! She attacks, because she is rage and grief she attacks; this time physically, or as close to such a thing as they could get in this place.
Even so...
Once more...
Her other self just takes it. It would be admirable if it was anyone else, but the sheer fury of it being her who was refusing to go down, her who was smiling at her, acting as if she finally understood everything and that it would all be okay now just because she said it would be-!
Really, it drives the Goddess insane, and so in front of her other self, she finally does what both she and Tamamo had wanted to do deep down all along, punching and kicking and slamming and stomping and screaming at the one who just continued to take all of it with a sad smile that made it harder and harder to keep going.
Finally, the woman catches one of her strikes.
"You... I... We're lonely, right?"
When it comes down to it, she had never gotten over the deaths of her knights. It wasn't fair, that those who had loved the world had died to protect those that had always seemed to hate it; hate it with such passion that their sacrifice would be eternal so long as it continued to exist.
She wanted to see them again.
It was a desire that all of the parts shared, but one that only she had been ready to act upon. By destroying the world, by killing off humanity, she would both grant them the end to their existence they desired and be able to reunite with her own loved ones at the same time.
Dark as she may seem, there was more than just malice to it.
To her, it was actually a mercy kill; and one that would finally let her meet with her loved ones again after centuries of separation. Grief and Anger, left with only those things, boosted up by a God that preyed on those same things, the Goddess in blue was simply calling her out for what she actually was...
A lonely woman who wanted to be reunited with those she loved at all costs, the one who had had her happiness literally severed from her, who could only cling to times long past and try to recreate them to scrape up some sort of meaning in her own existence.
"...But destroying everything, that's not what they would want us to do, and it's not what we want to do either... Not if we really think about it. There's still so many more people to meet, things to do, things to see, things to protect, and promises to keep..."
Feelings are complex, there is no such thing as an absolute, and while there was certainly a part of her that could feel hate towards humanity, there was also a part, just as real, just as sincere, that loved them like nothing else. She had loved them from the start, had longed to feel things and experience the world like they did; and had found a family of her own amongst them that were closer to her than anyone else. She had loved the world, the people were so interesting, when they lived they did so brilliantly, and even though there was ugliness within it all that could match that beauty, she still thought...
That it was still more beautiful than it was ugly.
"Our happy ending isn't out of reach... But I don't blame you for thinking that it is," speaking softly, beaten half to death at her own hands, the woman that just won't shut up keeps talking back to a self that probably won't listen, "I pushed everything I hated and couldn't deal with onto the two of you... I'm sorry, it should have never turned out like this; the world I threw you into is not reality. It's not just pain, there's happiness everywhere... So both of you... Come back to me. All of the pain I threw away, I'll take it back, and all the happiness you lost... I'll give it back to you. We'll be able to bear it... Pain and Joy together are what give all of this meaning."
"..."
"If at that time... We still think the best thing for everyone is oblivion... Then so be it. But someone I met recently told me, and I believe... That more than anything else..."
"Yamuna-No-Okami loves this world in spite of it's faults. We don't have to be afraid of ourselves, and... We don't have to exist alone."
---
Mikagura Mika & Genbu & Tamamo-No-Mae & Amatsu Mikaboshi
'Shin Megami Tensei'
I have to.
It's a thought that often appears when humans are pushed into a corner, and a thought that serves to make them much more dangerous; the pure belief of desperation causing many to tap instinctively into what you now knew as 'Observation.'
Even so, you aren't thinking about that.
Crossing the distance in the span of a single instant, the power that you are forcing within Beacon causes the sword to burn with an azure light; one that grows in both intensity and purity as weapon and owner act in sync to maximize the output. While you had yet to test this function while Beacon was in this form, there is no need for such things; as a sword made by your father, one on par with the weapons of the old worlds, there is no threat of it simply exploding from the sheer strain of accepting so much power from so many willing donors.
Your body tenses up in expectation of pain.
Having been given only a few seconds in which to interrupt the Goddess, and having given Genbu leave to utilize her strongest spell, the reality is that you'll be caught in it as well. Because you share similar types of energy, it will do less damage to you than it will to the Goddess, but even so, recognizing it as a horrendously powerful magic from the records, you can only thank fate for the gift as you move to strike in unison with it.
"Ah, I see! Is that you Zerah?! Hahaha, so this was your fate?"
Watching it all with eyes that took only amusement from it, the Autumn Star finally comments on the sudden surge of power you had shown even as the man in question remains silent. While he can certainly see and hear what's going on, he doesn't respond to it, likely because of the concentration needed to manage your spiritual lines without burning you up from the inside and-
Right now, it's not important.
Light reigns, time slows down.
Cut her down.
Cut her down.
Cut her down.
Cut her down.
Cut her down.
Cut her down.
You gotta do it.
---
A pillar of white light accompanies the best efforts of the Summoner-Demon duo.
A wash-out of spiritual power, a clear white torrent that shot towards the sky even as another wave shot off into the distance, parting flames and purifying darkness as it went, the feeling the God of Darkness gets is one that it can only call insecurity.
The blast shouldn't have been enough to stop the artificial goddess, even so, the feeling that it gets, the sensation of something not just ceasing to draw on his power, but completely cut the connection between them, is one that causes the God to slowly rise to his feet, the crimson-black flames rising along with him as, for the first time, it senses that things are not quite going in it's direction.
It frowns.
The symphony of pain is joined by the sensation of moving through space.
Having cut through everything to stop what you must, your first thought is that you must have been knocked out due to all the stress running straight into all of that had caused you. It's white, the color and definition of the world is gone and your body feels almost completely numb; but the sensation of moving through space remains...
The white fades out.
The movement comes to a stop.
Someone puts you back on your feet.
"Ah, Mika... Sorry for putting all of that on you, looks like I went a little crazy huh? Your body okay? Genbu?"
"I'm... Totally... Fine..."
The voice is light, but no longer to the point of being almost sickeningly sweet; and while the look is vaguely apologetic, it's not so much that it comes off as overcompensation or insincerity, no...
"Really, sorry doesn't begin to cut it... But I'll make it up to you, to everyone; we'll get that happy ending... It won't all be for nothing."
Smiling brightly in spite of the scenario, Yamuna-No-Okami, the Artificial Goddess of Humanity...
Takes their side without seeming to question it at all, or rather...
She was only here because she had already found her answer.
"So, ready to kick this guy's ass?"
Ah...
Maybe... She was too much like a human after all.
That wasn't a very Goddess-like thing to say-!
Laughing at it, even she seems to think so.