Sometimes, she wondered why she had been born into this world.
No, that was... a lie. She wondered all the time. Every day, she wondered...
When parents she had once considered loving handed her over with kind smiles on their faces to faceless men, she wondered. When she understood the racist, Nazi garbage these... people were trying to feed her, she wondered. When she was punished for rejecting their brainwashing, she wondered. When she was locked in a dark room, so silent she could hear her own heartbeat thunder in her ears, she wondered. When she was subjected to mental attacks from masked individuals that threatened to rupture her grasp on reality... she wondered. When she was surgically picked apart and put back together on an operating table, left to recover... and then subjected to it all over again...
When the torments and stressors came in every maddening flavor and size, she stopped wondering and started praying.
And when it all became a cycle, a cold, clinical process trying to- to break her, her wavering will and tremulous sanity, oh gods how she prayed.
Prayed for a hero. For salvation. For a miracle. For just a single fucking glimmer of hope. For a light at the end of the tunnel! One chance! An opportunity to liberate herself from this existence! She prayed that she would become the parahuman her captors wanted.
But not one of those wishes was answered.
Past a certain point, she became certain that... she was already broken, that if it were even possible for her to Trigger, she would have. And it was with that realization that... hope fled her, and she could only begin to wonder again. Why had she even been born? Why even be reborn in on this filthy mudball world? Powerless. Helpless. Broken and ground underneath the heel of Earth Bet's grim-dark. What sort of rotten isekai was this? She was just here to suffer and die, alone and inconsequential, and she couldn't begin to imagine what she had done to deserve it.
She was cracked. There was no room left for naive hope, only-
Perhaps it was her imagination. Maybe it was a delusion born to retain some measure of integrity... to stop her mind from collapsing completely and becoming clay to mold beneath Gesellschaft's fingers... but she could have sworn at times that she heard a voice. A voice promising freedom. A voice promising safety. And, perhaps most importantly... a whisper promising vengeance... promising resolution to the seething spite and hate that clawed desperately for the surface within her.
And in a dark, lonely place, a little girl with the crumbling mind of a once adult man listened to the whispers she could barely hear...
And said but a simple, "Yes."
Once upon a time, a little girl wondered why she had been reborn into this rotten, forsaken world.
And as golden eyes, split by cross-shaped pupils, opened, the Apostle of God wondered no longer.
This world was long beyond saving. Festering with corruption, stagnation and, worse, regression. Inexorably infested by parasites. Parasites that poisoned the populace with a fundamental incapacity to band together in harmony, to set aside their differences to make a better future. A world where monsters roamed and conquered unopposed. A world where repugnant traitors loving parents could sell their own children into slavery with a smile. A world stripped of hope and light, goodness and all that was once beautiful within it.
She now understood that her suffering indeed had purpose. It had not been needless. For it had been all to show her the truth of this world, of humanity. She was not born to die. God would not let her die, not she who was to enact His Will upon these worms.
She no longer wondered. For she knew she was born to save this lost world from itself.
She finally understood that she was reborn to enact Judgement.
At one time, the girl had not considered herself vengeful.
But the Apostle could not have been happier to comply.
And she would start with this monument of bile.
"Subject J-312 has Triggered!"
She could only feel glee, as gunfire entered invisible distorted space, sending shots from Blaster powers and mundane weaponry either ricocheting off the walls or flying right back where they came from.
"Where is Plan-Z?!"
The filthy power-nullifying Trump that she knew all too well was one of the first to reach her... He had been personally present at nearly every one of her torments, a looming pitiless shadow existing solely to subjugate her should she break as they wished. A final measure to crush even the hope that new powers would save her and drive the nails into her mental coffin. His power was... interesting to observe on a spacial level in its fruitless attempts to tell her, the Queen of the [Void], that she was not allowed to access her Authority. It was interesting for the five seconds it took for her patience to wear thin with its impudence, before she -with a dismissive flick of the wrist- promptly twisted the space around him and the body within like one might a wet towel. Though, unlike a wet towel, the spray of once-internalized liquids was much more "exciting" to behold. Decorative too. The Apostle did not sully herself by gracing the stained walls and floor with her touch, gravity carrying her down the hallways in an inexorable approach.
"Unknown miasma-based bioweapon has been deployed! Gas masks and full skin coverage mandatory for engagement!"
As much as she took vindication from her glorious work, so too did she exercise mercy. Her mere presence was already a death sentence for everyone within this facility. From the moment she had awoken, her divine power had begun to seep into the world on a massive scale. In all honesty, her personal intervention in their fates was completely unnecessary; for the humans that ran this facility were all already dead men walking. She was just getting some personal retribution out of this.
"Stop her! She's tearing through the holding cells! Massive casualties being reported among faculty and subjects!"
But for those like her... those that had been used, broken and abused... They too were doomed, and nothing would change that. So, she put them out of their misery as one. With her spacial awareness, upon a grand scale, she located every last prisoner left in the facility and introduced her holy lances to the back of their heads in a single killing blow. For those that had been infected with the parasites, she'd aimed for the tumors that infested them, ensuring that no surprises would save them at the last moment. Near to a hundred lives, granted all the mercy she could offer, and she could only smile at finally ending their suffering.
"The enemy is deploying Master projections of a minimum Brute 4 classification! Avoid melee engagement without appropriate counters!"
God's foot-soldiers cleared a path. As the miasma thickened, her holy warriors finally gained the dimensional foothold needed to form bodies from the ether. Carapaces of white and glowing pink clad her soldiers, as they bravely threw themselves into the fray, eager to accomplish their Queen's Will and fulfill their purpose. Winged seraphs plowed about like living bullets. Ape-like hulks demolished supporting structures and bounded straight through ceilings, walls and floors, creating fresh gaping holes in the defense for the rest of the growing swarm to pour through. Knights barrelled down straight hallways, punching through resilient defensive lines. And paladins acted as steady bulwarks with their shield and lance. Everywhere they went, divine influence spread, and with it, so came yet more of their brethren, an endless army, nearly exponential in growth, to sweep aside all resistance.
And all the while... a small part the Apostle's quivering, battered mind wondered if this all didn't feel familiar to her. She wondered at length why these powers came so innately to her, how she understood the intricacies of manipulating space and time without a second thought despite not training a day in her life, and then disregarded the thought. For the solution was simple. What else but God's Will and Blessing guiding her hands?
"The lower floors are lost! They're making it to the surface!"
Up and up she ascended, rising from the pit, from hell on the wings of an angel. Her divine host preceded her, as the facility was laid waste to. The pathetic worms and their puppet hosts cast every measure they could against her, but all came to nothing. For while her armies were limited individually and died in droves, they were endless and relentless. For her own part, the Queen of the [Void] could only laugh with a curled lip of disdain as the insects attempted to wield her own domain against her. It took hardly any effort beyond a mere consideration to end them. Effects of all kinds crashed against her defenses like less than hot air, both the traditionally elemental and the exotic. Conjured projectiles simply dissipated in her presence. Enhanced strength could not reach her, nor durability weather her lances. Speedsters and teleporters could not breach her personal space. So-called "Strangers" could not hide from her sight, not with their parasites blaring their presence to all and sundry. Every manner of mental attack washed off her like water, as she simply [Denied] them the Authority to act upon her person.
And why? Because every last fool laughably thought to fight her with her own Authority. No, a mere shadow of her Authority. It would almost be insulting if it weren't for how amusingly confident and defiant they were... right up until she -with but a snap of her fingers- simply cut them off from the powers that didn't even belong to them to begin with. Every last one of them sought to use dimensional manipulations against her, and neutering them was as easy as deciding she no longer tolerated their impudence.
These fools merely adopted the [Void] without even understanding what they had. And she? She did not simply command the [Void]. She was the [Void]. The [Void] was but a mere extension of her Will, as if moving her body. The very concept that they could wield it -her own body- against her? Laughable.
All told, Judgement continued apace.
As it turned out, contrary to her initial expectations, the Gesellschaft's base was not located in an isolated segment of wilderness. In spite of the expansiveness of it, somehow, that monument to filth and the worst of sentience had all but lounged beneath the surface of a peaceful German city. That pit of despair going either unnoticed... or deliberately ignored.
Just typical of humans really.
Floating resplendent above a city in chaos, the Queen of the [Void] smiled with something approaching glee, as the worms below swarmed like insects, like a disturbed ant's nest, as the warriors of God performed their divine task with a collective ruthless efficiency. And like ants, the humans could do nothing to retaliate against the giant in the form of the Queen that was drowning them under a tide from above.
"Monster!"
The Queen scoffed, as one of the flying parasites buzzed around her amidst a shower of projectiles hurled by allies, darting through the gaps in space opened by portals and flowing through twisted space unharmed. If she recalled, they were supposed to be one of those "Breakers", able to shift into a misty cloud with a size of apparent mass -according to her senses- equal to their true form. A holy lance punched through their gaseous form and flashed away to simultaneously smite a barrier-wielder, who had been making one entrenchment of pests more troublesome than she permitted it to be. The lance promptly exploded on impact in a mass of wild space-warping energies, pulping both the Shaker shielder and those that were nearby being protected by him.
In all honesty, it would have been easy to simply cut all these insects off from their parasites. At any moment, she could render them completely powerless at her leisure. But in a way, this was more... satisfying. Dragging it out, making them feel like they actually had a chance. At every step, she would allow them to try with all their hearts, give them hope, a taste of success, of a light at the end of the tunnel, before ripping it all away to show them just what kind of worms they had always been from the start.
A tremulous part of her wondered if this is what the Endbringers felt.
The flying cloud Breaker darted and flowed around her defenses, shifting midair to draw forth a gun at point-blank range at the back of her head- Only to look quite pleasantly surprised when the hole the Queen had punched through their form remained, causing a gush of mortal necessities to suddenly slop freely from the orifice. The Queen did not even afford them the courtesy of turning her head to face them. They were not worthy of her gaze. Her spacial senses had told her enough, as they plummeted from the sky. They would be dead before they hit the ground, and if not? The divine power already seeping into their form would finish the job without fail.
"You are already dead," she announced to the defenders below, the wriggling roaches that sought to oppose her. Something about that phrase made her smile inside, trying to jog something inside her crumbled mind-
Omae wa mou... shindeiru-
But she shook it off. If it was important, she was sure it would be restored with the rest of the mind God was helping her rebuild. "That you have trespassed upon my presence -an Apostle of God- without my permission has sealed your fates." Her proclamation was a lyrical echo, a whisper upon the wind, a twist of the air that all could hear. Spreading her arms, she smiled brightly, not that they could see it. For her form was shrouded in blinding light, the glow denying these unworthy heathens the right to gaze upon her divine form. Her true body had long since been encased within a shell of Imaginary energy, bigger on the inside, portraying a visage of physical maturity once lost to her.
Even were these pests able to pierce her "skin", they would never reach her true body by far, tucked away within a pocket dimension. As a side effect of this "hollow" body, many unseen threats were further nullified outright, like attempts at gassing her, lucky sniper hits and more. While a small part of her couldn't help but be insulted at taking inspiration from Zion for this, the worm, she had to admit, it was effective. But she would graciously accept his offering in the form of such a useful technique and save his annihilation for last... just as long as he didn't outlive her mercy first. "Look around you, o' false champions~! See the brand of God's judgment crawling upon your bodies! Upon the bodies of your comrades and people! Look upon those that have already succumbed, and see the truth!"
She could feel their hearts pounding in their chests, feel the vibrations of the air as communications and curses were thrown about. She could sense the miasma creeping in their bones, and she could see those that had already given in to God's Will, the "zombies" now laying waste to civilization in hoards... not that they had any chance of resisting.
Golden eyes, split by amber crosses for pupils dismissed the chaff below, as the Queen turned her vision to the horizon, gazing upon her handiwork. In all the madness of monsters running rampant and streets running red where they weren't twisted into kaleidoscopes of space-time glory, one might have expected there to be noise, screams, and sirens galore. But no. Aside from the groveling worms below her now, the air was still, pillars of smoke and fires crackling softly in the distance. She had long since silenced the petulant "Endbringer alarms" that had pierced the air since her awakening, and the divine miasma of her presence had already reached the edges of the city, encompassing all that remained within to some degree or another. Evacuations had certainly been attempted -even successfully to some degree, but they had not been ready... The only things left in Frankfurt were the dead, dying, and Honkai, and they certainly weren't breaking her reverie.
Her divine foot-soldiers were many things: powerful, loyal, and endless chief among them, but noisy? Hardly. Such was reserved for those that could be classified as "Emperor" and above, none of which had yet to manifest... not that it would be long before they did. Even the "zombies" conducted themselves rightly in the presence of their Queen, going about their work with relentless, silent endurance. Her gaze fell upon many of those soldiers now. A perimeter, a hoard surrounding the battlefield she hovered above. Loyally, they waited solely for her command to intervene and otherwise stood only at attention, respecting her playtime. Only she had the right...
To end the very last lives in this city.
"H-hey, this silence..."
"No..."
"Oh?" the Queen intoned towards the remainder. It seemed they had finally taken notice of their position. Chuckling, she lounged back upon the air, summoning forth a throne of solidified energy. "Do you finally understand now?" Their looks of confusion, horror and hate truly made her recoil warmed her heart. It was all they deserved, wasn't it? For opposing her Will, for defending this stain on the world that tolerated the vile existence of scum like those that had taken everything from her, that denied her a happy life, that twisted her parents into the sort of monsters that would turn their own daughter over to be broken as they had... wasn't the only true mercy afforded to them a swift and painless death?
Ah, but what a shame, she had little mercy left to offer.
For these unfortunate few, she still had use.
Screams of alarm and fear uttered from the throats of the "capes", as the Queen hoisted them up from the earth, grasped within her power. Several of their parasites attempted to intervene, but a twitch of her finger silenced their connection to their hosts. With a smile, she felt words bubble to her lips, strangely familiar, yet paraphrased appropriately. "You are failures." Their panic intensified. "Humans are all failures." Curses and pleading washed off her senses like water upon a duck's back. "Your people have fallen... You are the last." One was actually sobbing. Horrifying. How unsightly. Another had slumped into lifeless despair. "Your nation shall be next, and then your world." More curses from the most defiant of them, but with a snort, her telekinesis silenced them all, manually staying their tongues. "This is the end of humanity."
Her smile was one of victory, as she reached out for her first victim. Before anything else, before she could properly perform God's Will, she must eliminate the parasites empowering this world's defense. So long as they remained, there existed the chance -no matter how minute or much she'd wish to say otherwise- that she could be defeated. It had been fun to play around in the low-stakes slaughter that was her debut, but overconfidence was a killer, even to a divine being such as herself. She understood this with a surety that rankled her, a confidence that humanity would somehow come out ahead if she didn't start and end with overkill.
And so, her first step would be to tear the Shard network apart. Without hesitation, she would use these parahumans for the vulnerability that they were and annihilate the dregs of the Entities' Cycle. And once she had, once she had torn out Scion's authority over the hive-mind, once what remained of the Shards had devolved into madness and chaos, she would capitalize upon them, the parasites now her tools to inevitably tear apart the world in their desperate flailing even if she somehow failed...
And again, there was this absolute surety of this knowledge that she... had learned...
When...
When... what? When God had... No, not then. A large part of her tried to justify it as a blessing from the heavens, as divine knowledge bestowed upon her to better destroy her enemy, but again, she was struck with that dissonance, a feeling she recognized. It was the sensation of remembrance, of having something on the tip of your tongue that refused to fully manifest into your thoughts. This wasn't knowledge she was being given...
It was knowledge she'd always had since birth.
The world suddenly seemed so much louder, like it was screaming in her ear- Oh, that was the parahumans again. It seemed she had dropped them. Ah, it seemed she'd released the block on their parasites' connections too... They'd all been a decent ways up, so it seemed like at least one had died from the fall, landing on their neck in the plummet. The others were either screaming at each other or her, retreating or hurling several last fruitless attacks at her still form. None of them hit, of course; her defensive spacial fold was still intact at least. Her beasts soldiers continued to remain passive, not bothering to hunt the fleeing survivors, still respecting the Queen's last commands. Beyond instinct, there was no impetus for them to pursue anyway; the corruption divine power had already infested every last one of them thoroughly and lethally from the defender's close proximity to the Honkai Monarch.
The smile on the girl's face hadn't changed, but...
What was this...?
Why... was she... here...
She was... was... to save this world? By destroying... it? Humans? Why...? For what purpose? It was... God's will... right? No, that was... the... Honkai... And the Honkai was... was her... right? But... wasn't she human? She was, wasn't she? Hadn't she been?
The girl's hands were shaking. Both her true body and her energy puppet.
The attacks hadn't stopped. Ah, it seemed as though long-range artillery of some sort was being utilized, possibly from beyond city limits. It had been... how long since she'd begun her purge? She didn't know, but it seemed like the out-of-city -perhaps even national- support had finally arrived. She... wondered if Dragon was there. Or was that too early? How... did she know that? Who was Dragon supposed to be again? What year was it? It was definitely 2022... No, it was 2001.
Her head... hurt.
Not just her head. It felt like... like she was burning up inside. Not physically, but- Her/her puppet's palms came away from where they'd pressed against her/her avatar's upper face and forehead wet. For a moment, she almost panicked at being injured, but... the fluid was clear and stinging, not red.
She was... crying?
Why...? For who...?
Her head was thrumming like a drum. Her pulse pounded in her ears. She had memories she shouldn't, not for her age. She knew things she shouldn't. Her thought processes- Her talent and proficiency with her Authority the moment she received it- All these little phrases and factoids- She had... had.... been born into this world to...
No...
Reborn.
How could she have forgotten that she-?
Four minutes later, the being that would come to be known as the Weeping Angel, which had abruptly gone apparently catatonic and reverted to acting with seemingly purely instinctual defensiveness, disappeared into a pitch-black tear in space... never to be seen again...
Or so the world would pray.
TLDR: Me thinking that Veronica's parents were people that had gotten got Night/Fog style or something similar before her birth, causing her to end up experiencing the worst of the Gesellschaft, get broken (though not quite as they wanted) and with her apparently poor "waking self" control of Honkai energy (along with her traumatized/trauma-regressed brain-meats) proceed to get high as shit on sweet sweet Imaginary energy right up until her scrambled brains start leading her down paths of thought other than what her drunk Herrscher self was one-tracking on in despair/rage/triumph. Proceeds to finally reconstitute enough of her broken memories to realize she done fucked up and gets the hell out of there after having a far shorter than she probably deserves trauma-guilt-fueled cry/panic attack.
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