Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena Pov. – September 23 Pov.
We had returned from our expedition to Wolf 1061, and immediately headed to the space I had created in the Dimensional Rift. Unlike last time, only a few of us were there. Besides Lucy and Rebecca, who were the reason we were there, Bella, GLaDOS, and Riveria were here, with Enid keeping watch in case anything went wrong.
I glanced to the side and looked at Skoll and Hati's corpses and smiled slightly. I was truly proud and happy for them; they had actually managed to kill Fenrir's children all by themselves.
The Guardian's abilities were truly unfair. Especially since you could prepare and devise tactics to maximize damage dealt in a short amount of time. It was practically a mandatory requirement that Destiny enforced against Raid bosses.
They had devised a plan and executed it flawlessly. And the corpses in front of me were the trophies of their victory. Rebecca looked thrilled as she bounced around. Lucy tried to appear indifferent, but I could also sense the surge of excitement in her. I chuckled.
"Are you ready?" I asked them both playfully.
"Of course we are! Do the ritual now!" Rebecca exclaimed immediately. I raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure? We can always have Enid revive them, and we could keep them under control and give them to you. Don't think I didn't hear your request for puppies." I said gently to Rebecca. She stopped, her eyes widening slightly. Then she glanced at the dogs and finally at Lucy. Lucy just smiled and shrugged.
"It's your decision," Lucy said, not sounding truly disappointed. Rebecca just frowned. She glanced at the dogs one more time, then shook her head.
"No, continue with the ritual. One of those dogs belongs to Lucy; I'm not going to steal her kill." Rebecca snorted, crossing her arms. "Besides, we can go on a mission and get something better or buy it! I want a cute one!" Rebecca said firmly. I chuckled and nodded.
"We'll do it." I promised playfully. Rebecca seemed satisfied.
"Now, the ritual!" she demanded. I nodded. I gently grasped Cia before she transformed into the Circle of Usurpation. I raised the Circle above my head and cried out to the heavens once more.
"Oh Pandora, the all-giving woman, witch who brought forward all evils of this world and a shred of hope, claim these children as your newest daughters!"
The words tumbled out of my mouth without me even thinking, and I almost wanted to squint. daughters? That wasn't planned. I was thinking of doing one first and the other later, but the words and the ritual just fell into place.
Skoll and Hati. The children of Fenrir. The wolves that relentlessly pursued the Sun and the Moon, personified by the skies, until Ragnarok, the moment when they would catch up with them and devour the celestial beings, marking the beginning of the end of the world.
They were born at the same time. They hunted their prey at the same time, though in mirrored ways. And finally, they died at the same time at the hands of Rebecca and Lucy. They were together, they were a pair, they were a unit.
Skoll and Hati. Hati and Skoll.
I couldn't separate one from the other, so I continued the ritual.
"By the black arts that Epimetheus and you left behind, this is the sacred birth of two illegitimate children, shrouded in darkness, born of a fool and a witch. A secret of usurpation only made possible through the sacrifice of divine beings. May all those present bestow their blessings and their hatred upon these children!"
The sky blazed again and pressed down on me once more as the fury of the gods crushed me, but this time it was much more manageable, so I carried on. I focused mainly on directing the authorities. I couldn't do anything specific, but I could separate what both sides wanted.
Rebecca wanted something to attack with; Lucy wanted something to control, something to support. They were different, and I could do it. Both authorities were moving and reorganizing together. I frowned slightly. First, I focused on eliminating the unnecessary.
The authorities connected to wolves were quickly eliminated. Neither of them was truly interested in that aspect. Also, their ability to kill gods was redundant, but… perhaps not their ability to devour… interesting.
I could feel it, a dominion over the Sun and the Moon. They counted as part of Skoll and Hati. So I redirected all authority to that. Skoll had been killed by Rebecca; she would devour the sun. Hati had been killed by Lucy; she would seize the moon. More fitting than that. I didn't know what they would actually achieve, but I expected to see it.
"Pandora, grant your blessing to Rebecca and Lucyna Kushinada."
"So that they may be reborn as god-slayers."
"Kings of Kings."
"Campione!"
In my own words, the ritual was completed with a surge of divine power that consumed the corpses of Skoll and Hati and began to reshape Lucy and Rebecca. Both immediately fainted as their bodies adapted to their new physiology.
I breathed heavily as I wiped the sweat from my brow. The heavens had stopped screaming, and everything had calmed down once more. I was terribly tired, but I wasn't going to faint like last time. Was I getting used to the Circle? Or was it because Skoll and Hati were weaker than Thanatos, even together? I suppose I'd find out sooner or later.
I sighed and swayed slightly before feeling Bella and Ravel catch me. I smiled at them slightly, especially when Bella conjured a chair and let me rest.
I could see GLaDOS moving around and adjusting Rebecca and Lucy to make them comfortable while monitoring all their changes.
"So, what did they get?" Bella asked curiously as she sat on the armrest of the seat. My hand went around her waist, and I gripped her hip firmly.
"Something related to the Sun and the Moon. That's all I know. We'll have to wait and find out the rest." I said honestly. Ravel hummed.
"Sun and Moon. They can be... really broad and diverse." Ravel said, and I could only nod.
"They are. We'll find out what happened." I said easily. Then we waited for them both to wake up. To my surprise, we only had to wait half an hour before they both woke up almost at the same time.
"This might be the worst and best hangover I've ever had," Rebecca grumbled as she stood up shakily. I snorted amusedly as I walked over to her and helped them both up.
"How are you?" I asked them both. GLaDOS approached.
"Physically, they are fine. The changes shown in their bodies were similar to those Bellatrix experienced, so there are no abnormalities in them," GLaDOS said as she looked at the data in front of her.
"What she said. I feel good; in fact, I feel spectacular physically!" Rebecca said, finally recovering.
"Me too. I... oh," Lucy said, blinking. "My implants are working better," she said, sounding almost excited. "I can use a lot more of the systems GLaDOS put in me," Lucy said, letting out a small smile.
"That should be the improvement in your brain. With increased reaction times and greater mental processing ability due to the change, along with a much more robust and malleable brain, your cyberware, especially the neuralware, can be used to its full potential," GLaDOS said while humming. " I'll have to make some modifications to adapt them to your new physiology, but for the moment there are no problems," she added. Lucy nodded, completely satisfied.
"And mine?!" Rebecca asked immediately. "I mean, I don't have much in, but is that a problem?" Rebecca asked, looking at herself.
"Yours is purely cosmetic, so not really. The pigmentation of your artificial skin didn't change at all; it simply remained the same even though your skin became more resilient and harder to cut. Although… I would change the optics on both of you," GLaDOS said as she approached Rebecca and scanned her eyes. "Even though the optics were created and improved by me, enough to register high-speed fights, it wasn't the maximum capacity I could place them on."
"The amount of information, frames, and pixels your brains could handle was severely limited, but now that you both have more robust brains, I can create something better. Or I can simply remove them and let the new ones grow. According to the scans on Bellatrix, her organic eyes are far superior to what you both have implanted now," GLaDOS said with ease. Rebecca hummed before shrugging.
"Nah, just make some new ones, same design. I like these eyes," Rebecca said easily.
"Same here," Lucy said, nodding. GLaDOS just nodded as she stepped back.
"Alright, now for the fun part!" Rebecca said excitedly, looking at Lucy. Lucy just smiled and took a step back.
"You can go first. I'll be playing around and running some tests on my systems in the background to monitor performance and stress," Lucy said, shrugging. Rebecca's eyes sparkled, and she bounced with excitement.
Rebecca stepped back, closed her eyes, and finally opened them with a wide smile. Her eyes seemed to glow with a trail of fire as she raised her fist and then extended her finger. From the tip of her finger, a sphere of fire formed in a fraction of a second. No… was that a miniature sun the size of a tennis ball? I could only blink in confusion.
Rebecca also stared at the mini-sun in bewilderment. The mini-sun seemed to follow Rebecca's finger, then she waved her hand and the mini-sun shot out. When the mini-sun touched the ground, it grew into a sun large enough to cover a person. The sun remained, consuming everything and melting nearby.
"Is that all?" Rebecca asked, almost indignantly. "I can do the same thing with my solar grenades!" she exclaimed. Rebecca frowned, then took a deep breath. Then she extended her hand forward, and my eyes widened as dozens of mini-suns formed around Rebecca and began to rain down like a meteor shower.
Rebecca laughed joyfully as she kept firing a shower of mini-suns that grew into larger suns and lingered for quite some time. The field in front of Rebecca was a minefield of small suns that consumed everything.
"This is fun!" Rebecca exclaimed playfully before stopping.
"Is that all you have?" I asked Rebecca curiously. "That, as interesting as it is... doesn't exactly scream 'real authority,'" I said, confused. Rebecca just blinked. She nodded and paused to think once more. Rebecca raised her hand and pointed her index finger toward the sky.
The Devouring wolf draws near!
Shine, Sun, Shine!
Shine one last time before the end of the world arrives,
before your flames are extinguished and your light vanishes from the skies!
Burn, Sun, burn!
Burn with all your might, take your rightful place in the sky,
shine upon the world, and let every flame burn alongside you!
Rise, Sun, rise!
For as long as the Wolf has yet to reach you,
Your light shall continue to reign over the day!
When Rebecca finished the chant of her authority, a small sun formed in the sky; it was about the size of a person, but what surprised me most was how it felt.
That… that was a real sun. Rebecca had summoned a real sun.
Or at least, my magic registered it as such. Some spells improved or diminished with sunlight, and Rebecca's sun somehow registered as a real sun. That… that was incredible. And not only that, I could feel a huge improvement related to the sun, fire, light, vitality, regeneration, and even physical strength.
Wow, that was a pretty broadly supported authority.
"It's... incredible," Ravel said beside me, sighing as she gazed at the sun almost placidly. "It's... a real sun," Ravel said, fascinated.
"You noticed too, huh?" I said simply.
"It's growing," GLaDOS said without hesitation. I squinted and shielded my eyes, then looked directly at the artificial sun. Yes… I could see it growing, growing larger every second.
"Rebecca! Can you do anything else? Or do you have any idea why it's growing?" I asked, confused. Rebecca just stared up at the sky.
"I'm hungry!" Rebecca said, looking at me. I stopped and looked at her, confused.
"Do you want to... eat?" I asked, confused. Rebecca approached quickly and looked at me with hungry eyes.
"Feed me," Rebecca said, almost salivating with anxiety. I looked at her worriedly before entering her mind. I could only feel and hear hunger within her, but... not for food. She... was hungry for the sun. My eyes widened slightly. I licked my lips, then raised my hand and created a burst of flame.
Rebecca's head spun around instantly; she physically grabbed my fire, snatched it away, and began to eat it. I felt my magic drain as Rebecca devoured the flames.
"Oh... I guess some of Skoll's essence remained." I said, genuinely fascinated. Then I didn't even hesitate. I began creating different fires and intensities: magical fire, sky flames, solar light, and even demonic fire. Rebecca consumed them all indiscriminately.
I could even feel her own power growing, but more importantly, the sun in the sky grew larger as Rebecca consumed more flames. If it was previously the size of a head, it now had a radius several times Rebecca's body.
When Rebecca seemed completely satisfied, she just looked up and began to laugh uproariously. She raised both hands, then seemed to physically grab the sun in the sky and then drag it down.
BWOOOOOOOOOOM.
My eyes widened as I heard a horn pierce the sky. The Gjallarhorn? Was it heralding the end of the world? I could only stare at Rebecca's sun, then watched in horror as it began to fall.
" Rho Aias!!" I exclaimed quickly as I drew everyone in and positioned them behind me. I didn't create just one Rho Aias, but dozens—multiple petals and translucent shields, hundreds of them forming in front of me. Just in time, Rebecca's sun fell and struck the ground.
A massive explosion erupted, engulfing the entire world in a sea of fire that consumed everything. More than half of my shields shattered like paper. The rest barely withstood the onslaught for fractions of a second before breaking. I gritted my teeth before unleashing more magic, finally withstanding the colossal attack. I gritted my teeth as I felt the very dimension tremble. It wasn't designed to withstand such a powerful attack, so I had to stabilize it at the same time.
To my surprise, Rebecca broke free from my grasp and leaped into the explosion, laughing hysterically. To my astonishment, the fire and blast stopped before receding, as if imploding, or… as if being sucked into a vortex. And at the center of it all was Rebecca.
My eyes could see her through all the devastating fire. Rebecca was devouring the sun. The fire was devouring everything until nothing was left.
Once it was over, everything went silent. Then Rebecca exploded in flames. She no longer resembled Rebecca; her entire body seemed to be made of fire and solar energy, like the very embodiment of the sun. The ground melted beneath her from the immense heat.
That's... okay, it was incredible, and very, very flexible and dangerous.
Rebecca could create suns. Tiny ones as a base, and a real one with her authority. A real one that grew and could empower fire, sun, and light magic, and much more, without any problem. A real sun that could be fueled by other sources of fire or solar energy consumed by Rebecca. A real sun that, once it grew large enough, Rebecca could drop to use as a colossal explosion, and then devour its remains to empower herself. That… was incredible.
"Oh, come on! Why couldn't my authority be something like hers, and mine only allows no one to die?!" Bella asked incredulously, with a hint of jealousy. I snorted, amused. Rebecca burst out laughing and started hitting things around or throwing bursts of solar energy.
Each blow was much stronger and faster than usual, and the fire practically melted everything in its path. I could only shake my head. Luckily, it only lasted a few minutes before the effect wore off. Even so, Rebecca had caused a great deal of damage.
Rebecca just walked over and let out a completely satisfied burp.
"That was so prem!" Rebecca exclaimed, bouncing with excitement. "Ha! It's fantastic!" Rebecca wore a huge, excited smile. I could only look at her, then sighed and shook my head. "Your turn!" Rebecca said excitedly, looking at Lucy. I just looked at Lucy, who looked back at Rebecca, amused.
"Very well," Lucy said simply. Then she began to walk away toward a place that wasn't as destroyed, though Rebecca's authority had burned or charred everything.
Lucy positioned herself in the middle, then swiftly moved her hand. A crescent-shaped slash shot from her arm, cutting through everything in its path. She hummed softly before her Monowires extended, then shifted her body. Each slash with her Monowire unleashed a crescent moon that followed in its wake, slicing through everything in its path.
I suppose that was her own manifestation of authority; I could understand how it was similar to Rebecca's since the ritual was performed at the same time. If we followed Rebecca's example, then Lucy could…
The Devouring Wolf draws near!
Shine, Moon, shine!
Shine one last time before the end of the world arrives,
before your light is extinguished and the night is left without its guide!
Glow, Moon, glow!
Shine with all your light! Take your rightful place in the skies,
watch over the night world as you always have!
Rise, Moon, rise!
For as long as the Wolf has yet to reach you,
Your light shall continue to reign over the night!
Just as I expected, Lucy had summoned a moon. I breathed heavily as I felt the enhancements of Lucy's moon. Just like Rebecca's, Lucy's moon counted ontologically as a real moon for my magic and moon-based races. I did not doubt that a werewolf could transform under Lucy's moon.
In addition, I had improved at all lunar magic, shadow magic, darkness, and dark magic. There were also… mental enhancements. My mind seemed to have expanded, and illusion magic improved too, as did any mental magic. Interesting.
Truly the complete opposite of Rebecca. Rebecca was sun, fire, light, and strength. Lucy was moon, darkness, shadows, and mind.
"Are you hungry?" I asked Lucy. She just looked at me and nodded. Then I began to cast different kinds of magic in her direction: shadows, dark magic, curses, manifestations of Darkness, illusions, and every other kind of mental magic.
Lucy could physically grasp each one and begin eating them. I monitored her mind and sensed that, unlike Rebecca, Lucy was experiencing enhanced perception, memory, concentration, processing, and control, all while the moon grew larger and brighter.
Finally, Lucy looked up at the moon. She raised her hand toward it as if trying to grasp it, then made a fist.
BWOOOOOOOOOOM.
The same horn-like noise echoed throughout the pocket dimension as the moon tore apart and then began to fall like a meteor shower. Each fragment of the moon triggered a massive explosion, so it felt like a continuous bombardment.
Then, like Rebecca, Lucy opened her mouth, and all the remnants of the moon were sucked in. Lucy ate every piece of her created moon until none was left.
Then Lucy changed. She began to glow faintly, as if power and magic were emanating from every pore, enveloping her like a second layer. I could see her magical power grow immensely, but that was nothing compared to the mental enhancement she had received.
Her processing power increased again, but more importantly, her multitasking capabilities multiplied enormously. She could now perform multiple tasks with the same processing power, vastly improved. And from what I could see, unlike Rebecca, who had transformed into a walking sun for only a few minutes, Lucy's transformation seemed to last much longer.
Lucy was delighted and practically immersed in her new ability; GLaDOS also approached to study her closely.
Truly interesting. Both authorities were very similar, yet perfectly suited to each other. It was truly wonderful. There was so much to prove.
Author's Notes: I think I've mentioned it, but creating authorities and chants is complicated! I hope you liked it!