What would one consider a god? Perhaps a being of great power, or is it a being that was fundamentally different from all other lesser creatures?
To Aqua, all of them were the same; if someone considered themself a god, they would inevitably be corrupted by their own power. It was merely a matter of time before they would succumb to the sweet call of tyranny.
The only way to avoid it was to truly be humble in your great power. However, divinity had never been known to be humble; instead, they used their power to dominate and subjugate everyone and everything.
If anything, Aqua had known how it was to be worthy of the Supreme God's attention. He had taken everything from her, kept her imprisoned in preparation to make her nothing but a concubine; he had sent his lackeys to kill her family. They pillaged her home and sent her mother's head rolling before her.
It had been centuries since then, but she had never given up. Despite having to spend her childhood running and living like a beast, she had found help. She had teachers who were willing to make her into what she was.
Even the world soul itself had lent her the aid. Thus, she swore that she would never again lose her freedom. The Crimson Magister would never again be kept in a cage, no matter how pretty it was.
She now stood in front of an immense being of light, its form was blinding, and its size easily eclipsed the sky itself. However, it was not enough; she flicked her wrist, and another massive pillar of crimson fire descended upon the being.
Her lips curled up into a sadistic smile as she used enough mana to level continents, yet the full power was concentrated on this singular titan of light. When she had arrived, he had worn a mask of a human, yet now he could not afford to don it.
The being of light burned away; its form disintegrated with each passing moment. After all, he was not facing a mere mortal. He was facing the sum total of all those whom he had hurt, tormented, and the wrath of the world itself.
She was the Blackflame Twilight and The Crimson Magister. And appropriately, some called her Divine Devourer. She chuckled at those titles; she had lost her name, but she had kept the titles. The Sun God, the world soul, had called her The Crimson Magister, and thus it was the only title she had fully embraced.
Her flames would consume the Supreme God, and at long last would rid the world of the most persistent Divine Parasite. His followers would lose their blessings, the lands would lose their fertility, and even the flying monuments and temples that were created in his image would crumble and collapse.
"I refuse to end here, you filthy mortal! I am the supreme ruler of this world!" The God shouted; his voice strong enough to shake the very realm the Devourer had invaded.
He refused to let it happen; no matter what, he would remain the undisputed ruler of the world. Even the Sun God would fall to him. It was his birthright.
"You will regret opposing my will! Die! All is destined to serve me!" A beam of energy rushed towards the young elf woman. Her smile was short-lived as the holy light engulfed her.
As the light disappeared, all that was left of the elf was ash. The god drew a sigh of relief as his last-ditch attack worked, but it only lasted a moment, a spectral clock appeared where she once stood, and then with a single backward tick, she returned.
In one moment, she was dust, and now she stood before him unharmed with a smirk on her face. Oh, how much he hated that smile now. He wanted this elf for himself for so long that he decided to exterminate all that she held close so that she might turn to faith, turn to him.
For hundreds of years, he had plotted and made sure his plan was successful. Ever since she was born, he made sure there was nothing else other than faith in him to turn to. In the beginning, it was fine despite her attempts to hide, but suddenly, she vanished from his sight.
He knew whose fault it was. It was the fault of the Sun God, the wretched world soul. Despite being the Supreme God, he could not do anything to the Sun God, and what was worse, the moment he had decided to exterminate the elves and get his prize, the entity had dared to threaten him.
Despite establishing perfect order with himself at the top, the Sun God was far too powerful to dominate.
His gaze snapped back at the elf in front of him. Even now, he wished to take her to his bed and ruin her body. However, that was no longer possible. She stood at the brink of his oblivion, and the target of his desire was the architect of his downfall.
But what went wrong? Why did she decide to kill him? he didn't know. For all his power, he wasn't omniscient, but she should have been his; she should have been in his bed as all others before her to use her body and discard as he wished.
He couldn't accept it; no mortal could hope to scratch him. What was so different about this one? For untold millennia, he was able to get as many mortal wives as he wished, he could murder and bless and rape mortals with no restrictions, and none of them were able to even gaze upon him.
He enjoyed his power; he established the perfect order in which all who deserved could thrive. And on top a perfect being like him would decide what was right and what was wrong.
So why, why was this woman, wielding such immense power, capable of obliterating him? Not just flames, the power of time itself was bending to her will; such control allowed her to make most of his most devastating attacks null and void; such mastery of magic was unheard of for a mere mortal race.
He launched attack after attack as the flames continued consuming him, exhausting what little power he had left.
Nothing worked; whatever he threw at her was either countered or just had no effect on her. Any blessing he withdrew from the mortal world to empower himself was not enough; he took away the power of all of his subjects, and yet it was not enough
It was impossible. He, the ruler of this world, the undisputed god, absolute ruler of both death and life, would die here. He would lose to a mortal.
"If I die, so will you!" he screamed, making the sanctum echo and shake with his voice. The mortal world itself suffered damage as the Supreme God's voice crackled through the air.
"Begone, worm!" he screamed before he tried to unleash one last explosion by sacrificing himself and his remaining essence, but it was not enough. The explosion should have killed her, and yet she stood there unscathed.
The God of this world has died, the age of divinity had ended, and the mortal that slayed this god would usher in a new age of rebirth, or that was how it was supposed to be.
***Aqua's POV***
In a way, she felt ecstatic that she was able to burn the parasite. His tyranny had inflicted so much pain that, despite her kind nature, she wished for nothing less than to make this divine tyrant suffer.
She placed her fingers on her circlet, and she moved her index finger across the center ruby. This gemstone was all that was left to remind her of her family and her entire race.
How many of his temples has she burned? She couldn't remember; so many kingdoms were reduced to nothing, so many millions of his followers died.
It was truly fortunate that, in his arrogance, he had failed to stop Sun God from teaching her. And now she was in front of him, in front of her tormentor; his agony was truly music to her ears.
"If he weren't such an asshole, I would even feel sorry for him," she whispered to herself.
In a moment of distraction, a beam of light hit her without any defenses. She was instantly turned to ash; however, [Altered Time-Reversal] Activated. In a single moment, she found herself as healthy as ever.
It was a truly magnificent spell, altering time itself to attain the desirable result, and yet playing with time was incredibly dangerous; a small mistake could cause consequences spanning all space and time.
She preferred not to rely on this spell but instead on some other death countermeasure, but against the Supreme God? She couldn't afford not to use her full power.
She smirked at the so-called god as she reveled in his face contorted by anger, before she increased the power she pushed into the flames that now consumed the god; it was almost over.
With a flick of her wrist, two massive circles appeared above and below the supreme god, and then another massive pillar of crimson fire consumed him.
"Soon the world will be free of your tyranny, and so will I, this is for all you have taken from me!" She shouted, but it fell on deaf ears as the god sacrificed the last of his essence to attempt and eliminate the elf.
God's divine form bloated more and more; his entire being was about to detonate.
"If I die, so will you!" the god's voice echoed around her, the power washing over her, almost knocking her back.
As she noticed this, she decided to surround herself with a barrier of crimson flames, but as the holy energy surrounded her, she noticed something strange.
It was not destructive; instead, it acted like a leash, wrapping around her and pulling her.
Before she could even react, both her and God's remnants found themselves in the skies of the unknown world, They were quickly hurtling toward the ground, but with the divine corpse disappearing within her flames, she knew it was over, and yet he got another small victory over her; he was able to pull her to another world.
"No! Asshole, just accept defeat! I am free of you!" She screamed at him as the dead god slowly disappeared from existence, consumed by her black flames. Tears welled up in her eyes, yet she pushed them down.
She conjured her flaming wings and, with great speed, rushed towards the remnants of the dead god. With her touch, she conjured a burst of power. In a moment, the corpse was enveloped in the Black Flame.
As any opponent consumed by her black fire, she absorbed his essence, and she felt herself become something more, more than she ever was before.
Her blue eyes gained a ghostly glow that left a trail of blue fire as she fell, her fiery wings gained an angelic form whenever she called upon them, and her circlet turned into a halo of fire floating above her head, with her family ruby in the center.
She felt her entire being change, her power growing more than she could even imagine. She felt divine energy surge within her, and her soul generated more and more of it.
As she floated above the new world, she looked at her hands, and she knew.
"I have become something divine, and yet I have no desire for it, no ambition... I feel nothing," She said softly. Perhaps it is because she does not wish to become like the former supreme deity of her world. Perhaps she should just continue as she did before.
In the current moment, she had considered burning herself; she had become divine, something unforgivable. She conjured the black flame; she had to put an end to herself right here.
No, I must not become like him! I have fought too hard for my freedom to die now!
However, she decided against it; while she now carried that tyrannical divinity within herself, she vowed never to become like the supreme god.
She thought as she gazed around the heavily forested area with only a narrow stone road stretching across it that perhaps she should think of how she should call herself in the future, how people of this new world would know her.
Only she and the Sun God had known her true name now; however, her endurance despite the cruel god's whims and her rapid growth in power earned her the moniker 'Crimson Magister'.
Despite all, she still embraced the title. In her old world, she only called herself by the title, but now, perhaps, she should introduce herself to this world as her original self, as much as is left of it.
She crossed her arms and nodded her head as she came to a conclusion
"They shall know me as Aqua, The Crimson Magister." She smiled. The title was as much a part of her as her name was. She could at long last feel pride about both her name and the title.
With a flap of the Fiery Angelic wings, she rose into the air, yet despite coming to a new world, she felt the divine entities attempting to establish a dominion over her.
No, you won't! Even the new gods would learn that they should not play with the crimson fire.
She slapped the pesky divinity away as she scanned the surroundings. After a moment of search, she noticed a group of people locked in a bloody fight. She leaned forward and flapped her wings. In an instant, she found herself above the battlefield.
"Bandits…I suppose I stumbled upon an Ambush…" Aqua shook her head.