The Origin of Demise

This whole situation sucks.

That's all I can really say.

Especially since I'm sort of, you know, in the middle of something here.

Mary Sue out.

-=-=-=-

Late Morning

Base Level, Strategic Military HQ

Xerxes, Eastern Empire

Clang!

Sparks flashed through the air. Mary and Nin engaged in that same deadly dance, green magisteel against darkened metallic claws.

Clash!

They broke off for a split second. Nin swiped up, clipping Mary's eyebrow. She ducked back, squeezing one eye shut so blood didn't trickle in.

He's getting faster!

Nin got right back in her face before she could bring her sword up. Mary crouched, his arms swiping overhead, then rammed her shoulder into his chest, sending him flying backwards. Nin caught himself in midair, pushing off the ground with one hand and flipping back into a crouch.

Mary took the momentary reprieve to wipe the blood away from her closed eye, a light green glow shining briefly over the small gash in her eyebrow.

And he's using his abilities better, too.

She opened both eyes again, her gaze locking in on Nin's forearms and hands.

Instead of the single blade from earlier, both arms were transfigured, his forearms and hands covered in some thick metallic coating. His fingers ended in razor sharps claws, and spikes poked out from his elbows and knuckles.

That was annoying enough, given how shifty and flexible he was as an opponent. Even worse though, was-

Nin's hands slapped against the ground, red sparks following a wave of earth swiftly shooting her way. Mary jumped, spinning with her katana in a vice grip, a whirlwind of water magic following right behind as she blasted the attack to pieces.

Nin could change his hands into that, and still use his transfiguring ability. As long as they were still hands, he could do so.

Obvious, in retrospect, but clearly something he had only realized on the fly. The fact that he hadn't realized or done this earlier only solidified her impression of him: he was green.

Not like her katana, but like a rookie. He was a novice. The fact that he could fight this well was impressive, but his lack of experience showed.

That being said, Mary didn't really want to think about what else he might not have figured out. She planned to defeat him before this got any worse, thank you very much.

"Pathetic. Pathetic!" Nin yelled, red electricity trailing around him. "You weaklings are always so pathetic! No matter what, you keep struggling! You keep fighting! You never fucking learn!"

A pillar of stone, then a grapeshot of metal spikes.

Mary ducked past the first, slashing up and severing the earthen cylinder in several pieces. Orange magic crawled along her blade, shifting the now uncontrolled stone such that it landed in perfectly in her path. She ducked behind it, that same orange magic covering the chunk of stone and reinforcing it, just in time for the second attack to smash itself to pieces against her impromptu cover.

Mary darted out from behind it a second later, dashing toward Nin's position.

"We learn plenty!" She closed in on him, cutting down. Nin raised his arm in an X, blocking the strike with a flurry of scraping sparks.

"Humans can't change who they are!" He snarled up at her, even as she bore down on him, "Such a pathetic species, stuck in your ways, always doubling back, returning to the mud. No matter how far you advance, that will never change."

He uncrossed his arms, slipping back a step before cutting forward with an arm.

The same move-

Mary leapt back instead of taking advantage, right as a second swing moved to catch her.

Nice try.

"No." Mary frowned, sliding to a halt, "You're wrong. Humans can change."

After all, haven't I?

"The ones you call weak are far more than you think."

"What I think?" Nin laughed, straightening up and pointing at her with a clawed finger, "That's not what I think. That's what I know! Not just humans, either. You weaklings love this talk of growth, of moving forward, always looking ahead to something greater, brighter, better! And you're always, always, wrong!!"

He kept laughing.

"Weaklings are weak. It's in the name! They cannot be any more than that. Do you really think you can be anything more than pathetic? I wonder if those Goblinas you came to rescue thought the same. In fact, I hope they did! I hope they were just as stupidly optimistic as you are now."

Nin grinned unnaturally wide, his eyes shining with a violent, disgusting light.

"Because that makes their deaths at my hand that much sweeter."

Her blood roared in her ears. Mary's face went blank.

"Why are you laughing?" Her eyes glowed a bright, poisonous green. "I don't understand. What's so funny about this? Is this really entertaining? Amusing? Enjoyable?"

She stared at him.

"Is this a game to you? Is this how you get your kicks? What do you take life for, exactly?"

Nin froze.

What is this? This feeling, this... familiar pressure? I feel like I've heard these words before…

"Why don't you understand? How can you do such things? How can you say that and truly believe it? Aren't you human somewhere deep down, even if you won't acknowledge it? Aren't you based on a human image? Don't tell me you haven't realized. You just won't acknowledge it."

It was her that said them... Tasha...!!!

A slight breeze.

Mary vanished. Nin's eyes went wide. On pure instinct, he sidestepped.

It saved his life, in that instant.

She appeared in front of him, blade raised high. It came down like a supersonic guillotine, invisible to the naked eye. With his sidestep already in motion, Nin was narrowly able to avoid being bisected.

His former position, on the other hand, was split in two, green electricity sparking in the gap of a massive gash cutting through the earth.

He stumbled, to the side, then backwards, his expression belying his absolute shock.

Mary turned her head, glaring at him with nothing less than pure, unadulterated fury.

"Go ahead, Nin Gen. Pray for forgiveness. Repent."

She moved.

Her blade flashed up, somehow even faster than before. Nin jerked back desperately.

But not desperately enough.

The tip of her blade slashed through his cheek, then his eye and brow, a bloody gash opening across the right side of his face.

"Fucking-" He jumped back, his hand covering his face, "Bitch!!"

His uninjured eye widened even further.

She was right in front of him.

Shink.

Her blade stabbed through his chest. Neon crawled along her blade.

"I won't forgive you." Mary tightened her grip. "Don't expect your death to be a painless one."

Nin hunched over, blood leaking out between the blade and flesh.

"That's-" His arm blurred, his palm slapping over Mary's face. "-my line!"

He grinned, his expression one of bloody triumph.

It didn't last.

"Was that supposed to do something?"

Nin gaped. "Wha- why isn't it working?!"

He panicked, his fingers pressing tighter against the skin of her face. At the same time, a green glow shone through gaps in his digits.

Mary ripped her arms violently down and to the side. Her katana tore a bloody gash through Nin's torso, exiting just above his left hip.

Nin stumbled backwards, gripping painfully at his face and torso as he waited for his regeneration to kick in.

"I touched you! I definitely touched you!! Why didn't-"

His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground. Nin looked down, the bleeding from the massive wound through half his torso not showing any signs of slowing down.

"This doesn't make any sense." He gasped, dark maroon staining his lips. "My transfiguration didn't work. My regeneration is-"

He coughed, blood splattering on and around him.

"What did you do to me?!"

"Your ability allows you to morph yourself and other things to your liking. It's strong." Mary stood over him, resting the tip of her katana against his forehead. Cracks ran along her cheeks, neon green fading and leaving behind streaks of red. "In the hands of someone more experienced, it would have been a real issue. Fortunately, you had it instead."

"Wha-" Nin coughed. And coughed. And coughed, until his throat was scraped raw. "…How?"

"You're dying, so I'll just tell you." She smiled.

It wasn't a nice smile.

"That's my Unique Skill: Ability Severance in action. Since you're someone who relies entirely on his abilities to be strong, I'd say I'm a bad matchup for you."

Nin stared at her, his breathing growing more laborious by the second.

For a single, stark moment, he understood his position.

He wasn't perfect. He wasn't going to be a God.

He was going to die here, and now. And no one, perhaps not even Father, would care.

It was a bleak thought.

And in the face of this situation, with his abilities wholly unusable and the abyss roaring just behind, in front, and all around him, its gaping maw aching to devour the abomination of a soul amalgamate he was, that Drake had twisted various spiritual and human sacrifices into to create, there was really only a few things Nin could say.

His death would not be a glorious one. He would die here, in the dirt, bleeding and gasping for breath, just like those same weak, pathetic creatures he had so thoroughly denounced. Killed by some random human with a lucky Skill that allowed her to be his counter.

At the very least, he could go out with a good word or two.

"Well," He coughed, his lips splotched with crimson, "that's not fair at all."

"I'm sorry." Mary flipped her katana into an underhand grip, raising it slightly as neon burned along its blade. Tiny trickles of blood outlined her cheeks and jaw. "I don't give a fuck."

She stabbed down.

-=-=-=-

Around the Same Time

Deep Underground, Strategic Military HQ

Xerxes, Eastern Empire

Fuck!

This. Fucking. Sucked. There had been several moments in Tanya's multiple lives that she had this very same thought. Which spoke well to her surviving this, since she'd been through this shit before.

But then again, there was one time she'd thought this and then, well, died and ended up reincarnated for the second time, so maybe that wasn't a positive at all.

Let's lay down the brass tacks.

Tanya and Octavius had been going at it for what felt like forever now. That was bad enough. Exhaustion, shortness of breath, lowering magic reserves… these were all unfortunate byproducts of the still continuing conflict.

Really though, simply being tired was the least of her problems.

The wounds along her right arm and the side of her forehead hurt. They weren't bleeding, yes, but they were cauterized and only roughly healed.

She'd been slowly forced to rely more on her legs for exchanges rather than her arms, and even then, she was slowly being reminded why extended fights were something to be avoided no matter how well you continued to adapt.

Every punch and kick, Octavius's or her own, rattled her senses. Her nerve endings were on fire all across the board, stabs of angry flame shooting directly up to her brain and making her wince with every movement.

Even this wasn't the worst problem.

With enough magic backing up her reinforcement and enhancement formulae, all of the aforementioned was manageable. Not enjoyable, but tolerable to the extent that she could continue fighting near her full strength, even while she was effectively down her right arm and seriously lacking in breath and not lacking at all for pain.

Side note: it was a good thing she was ambidextrous.

The real, real problem with this battle was, she didn't know how much longer "manageable" was in the cards.

The reserves within her TLE Skill were rapidly running dry. Like, rapidly rapidly. As in, nearly as fast as people vacating a room when Shion decided to cook.

She was down to, at most, 18% or so of what she'd started the battle with.

Tanya grit her teeth as she deflected a shockwave-inducing haymaker. She fired a kick back, her boot crashing into Octavius's forearm as he narrowly blocked.

…17% was probably more accurate now.

In short, she was running out of juice.

The upside to that, if we were to look at this whole thing with an incredibly optimistic view, was that Octavius seemed to be waning as well.

His regeneration wasn't nearly what it was earlier, and his blood boosting ability was no longer a constant affliction. Instead, it seemed to flicker on and off in bursts. That was nice.

Additionally, Tanya was taking less hits overall, her skill, quickness, and overall fighting ability leagues ahead of the shut-in vampire who hadn't fought a worthy opponent in centuries.

Too bad that barely mattered if her TLE reserves ran out before she won. Octavius without his blood boosting ability was stronger than her without a certain level of TLE boosting her reinforcements and enhancements.

Ultimately, the battle had become one of attrition and time. Would Octavius outlast her, or would Tanya defeat him before that point?

It was far from an ideal situation.

Isn't this the point where I get a powerup or something? That's how this is supposed to work, right?

Tanya narrowly dodged another blow, the force of it enough to cut her cheek.

Come on already! Merge my Skills! Give me a new one! Grant me some absurd, OP as hell piece of magic!

She ducked, the wind from Octavius's punch ruffling her hair.

Come on world, give me something here! Haven't I endured enough? Haven't I felt enough pain, dealt with enough life-or-death scenarios? Why am I the one always drawing the short end of the stick?

She deflected a knee strike with her own knee, grimacing at the force behind it.

I never get it easy. Any power I've gotten elsewhere has always been followed by consequences. Why would that change now? There's not going to be some miraculous, Deus Ex Machina here. Get real.

Tanya stepped back, a backhand fist barely missing the tip of her nose.

That's right. The world's always been fighting against me; when have I ever been handed what I wanted? What I needed? No, my path is one I've carved with my own hands. So, I'll just deal with this myself, like always.

Another series of rapid punches flew her way. Tanya dodged and deflected to the best of her ability, bruises and cuts appearing wherever they connected.

This formula isn't one I've perfected yet, but it doesn't matter at this point. It works enough. My right arm is already fucked anyway. All I really need to worry about is managing the pain enough to not black out.

The last punch was a straight. She could see it a mile away, even in this state.

I just need a few seconds to breathe. That's all.

Tanya dodged under and inside, her right arm shooting for Octavius's abdomen.

BOOM!!!

A massive explosion, a concave wave of fire and smoke blasting from her palm, the air and shockwave curving forward and away from her.

A concentrated explosion formula, directed by the shape of her hand. Something she'd been working on in her spare time.

Octavius blasted backwards, his stomach now a gaping hole in his torso.

Though, it wasn't quite perfected. There was still some force that was unable to be properly redirected away from the user. It was something she'd fix in time. Time that she didn't have in the heat of battle.

Thus, a risk.

Fuck!

Tanya breathed, doing her best to focus despite the bone-deep ache along her right side.

Even with reinforcement and enhancement spells minimizing the recoil, it still hurt like a motherfucker. Not to mention, her shoulder had a cauterized hole through it. She simply couldn't raise her right arm high enough.

That was fine. Everything was fine. She'd known that beforehand. Her goal hadn't been to kill. Just to gain a few seconds.

It was a good thing she didn't actually need her right arm for this next part.

Tanya held her left arm tight to her side, her palm and the inside of her gloved fingers glowing red, then orange, then white.

There was something to be said about Tanya's use of fire magic. Generally, the flames Tanya produced were blue, with a tealish tint along the edges.

This is because the specific magic she used to create these flames was incredibly saturated with magicules. Created in a technically failed attempt at recreating Rimuru's Extra Skill: Black Flame, Tanya's own Blue Flame magic operated basically the same. The temperature could be adjusted based on the amount of magicules used, though in general, Black Flame's base state was hotter than Blue Flame.

However, Blue Flame was far more conductive to magicules overall, allowing it to absorb them faster and in greater total amount. This meant, if one had magicules to spare, then in the right circumstances, Blue Flame could become much, much hotter and much, much more powerful.

TLE reserves are at about… 15… maybe 16% what I started with.

Her hand flashed again, turning blue. Flames licked the air around her, bright blue fire lashing about and swirling violently. Sweat and blood trickled down her brow.

That's over three months' worth of stored magicules, gone in a single day. Damnit- no, that doesn't matter. Just use it.

The glow poured inward, peeling away from her fingers and palm and compressing in a tight ball. The flames around her gravitated towards it, swirling in tight and compact. Space almost seemed to warp around her, heat waves boiling the nearby air.

Use it. The rest of it. Level Four. Full throttle, everything I've got left.

The heat was painful to be near, even as the one using it. Blue Flame couldn't hurt the user, in theory, and yet… well, just keeping her focus was a hellish affair.

After all, this was far more than just Blue Flame.

This was something else entirely. Something far more… magical.

This was an evolution. Of sorts.

Her magic practically sang through her body, even as it burned.

Don't stop. Give it everything!

The rest of her TLE reserves. Approximately a month's worth, give or take. More than she'd shot Milim with during their battle all that time ago.

Naming your attacks is stupid. I stand by this. Yet…

"Ignite!"

Some hypocrisies must be allowed.

A fire willing to burn even a Deity, with enough magic.

Tanya thrust her arm forward.

A fitting name for that could only be-

"Babylon!"

The ball of compressed flame shot forward, filled to the brim with enough magical energy to kill a normal human just from standing near it, assuming the heat didn't kill them first.

A fire hot enough to burn, down to the smallest possible level. Burn, in such a viscious, hellish manner, leaving not even ash in its wake.

In the face of such heresy, the world burned.

Confirmed. Extra Skill: Flames of Babylon... successfully created.

-=-

A dull roar flooded the senses, alongside an incredible heat that drove any faint semblance of the earlier icy chill from existence. Flames danced, crackling and hissing as they flooded the area, vibrant blue slowly fading into typical red, orange, and yellow.

The hall was falling apart. It had been falling apart, in truth, from the very moment the battle had begun in earnest. An enclosed space, even one so large and accommodating, could not hope to remain intact in the face of such immense power as was wielded by these two blonde titans.

A quarter of the stone pillars had been demolished, with a quarter more showing some heavy extent of damage, whether it be craters or cracks circling the surface. The floor had seen better days; it was more likely to see a cracked tile, or to not see one at all, than to see an intact one. Chunks of ceiling, and the walls, fell to the floor at intermittent intervals, sending sparks flurrying and whipping up flames anew as they smashed to pieces upon their descent's end.

Barely, just barely, the hall was still standing.

It was not the only one here with this feature.

Near center of the hall, the flames fanning out in an arc in front of her position, Tanya stood as tall as she could. She lowered her left arm, the burnt, tattered remains of her glove disintegrating and falling away.

-=-

Art by @tanjaded

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