In a forest where the trees were carved from obsidian and their branches bore golden leaves, an unconscious girl lay among the silver grass. She was no ordinary girl. Her flesh shimmered like a nebula, semi-transparent, stars glistening faintly within her skin as though she carried a fragment of the cosmos inside her.
From her head sprouted not only hair but two colossal arms, each with hollowed palms that twitched with restless life. She was adorned in a violet gown traced with golden jewelry, her feet fitted in ruby-red heels that gleamed even in the dim light.
Then, at last, she stirred. The monstrous arms moved first, steadying her as she sat upright. Her eyes opened revealing them to be the color of molten amber, like smoldering embers that threatened to ignite. But instead of rage in them their was evident confusion plastered on girl's face.
This confusion morphed into horror as she finally seemed to realized her surroundings were wrong. 'Nonono this cannot be happening I must be dreaming this isn't possible! Becoming you game character maybe but this?' Looking down seeing herself or rather her current attire worsened the panic.
'Nononono! Why this one?! It had to be the most evil one I made so... no calm down [Yltharae]... that's not my name it should be [Yltharae]! Oh god is this how Momonga had felt in his undead form? Like nothing was wrong? Alright let's try this. My name was Riley, and I was human. Ok so I can acknowledge it but...
No actually what world am I even in? I know I'm in [my] divine realm which if I remember correctly is called Nullbloom Grove but doesn't it have Voidspawn? Which are pretty much Grimm from RWBY with the inverted color filter applied. I guess walking around wouldn't hurt me that much. I'm lonely anyways.'
This very thought triggered something deep within her subconscious a sort of memetic virus that was dormant but with her close proximity to a certain world of heroes, and villains the cognitohazard infiltrated the mind of a singular orphan girl.
(Meanwhile on Earth)
Maria's eyes fluttered open, but this was not her bed in the orphanage. She stood in a forest of impossible beauty—trees of black glass stretching into the sky, their branches dripping golden leaves like falling coins. Silver grass brushed her bare feet, cold as needles yet leaving no wound.
Above her, the heavens churned in shades of deep ocean blue, broken by wine-red clouds that swam like blood in water. And presiding over it all was a crescent moon of luminous amethyst, glowing like an unblinking eye.
Something inside her whispered that this place was wrong. But before fear could root itself, a voice pressed against her ear.
"Give up yourself." The words were soft. Too soft. Neither male nor female, but something that slipped between the two—gentle as a lullaby, yet carrying the weight of command.
Maria gasped, clutching her chest. The whisper didn't echo in the air; it echoed in her bones. She tried to run. Her feet carried her deeper into the grove, silver grass bending and parting for her as though guiding her forward. She cried out for help, but the sound seemed swallowed, eaten by the obsidian trees.
Then she saw her.
A figure standing in a clearing, draped in violet, gold glinting across her form. Her skin shimmered with stars like a night sky trapped in flesh, and from her head reached two vast arms, twitching, waiting. Her eyes burned like molten amber, but when they turned upon Maria, the girl didn't feel terror.
She felt home. Tears welled in her eyes as she stumbled closer. The closer she came, the warmer she felt, like sinking into her mother's embrace. Memories sharp and jagged just moments ago began to soften, slipping through her grasp.
Her parents' faces blurred. The sound of the orphanage children's laughter dulled. Even her own name trembled on her lips, a word she no longer trusted belonged to her. "Give yourself up." The voice again, closer now, echoing with every heartbeat. Maria reached the girl and fell into her arms.
The warmth became total. Suffocating. Perfect. One by one, her memories unraveled. Her grief, her loneliness, her anger all bled away. Soon even the concept of Maria Valentine was gone, devoured by the embrace.
(Back with Yltharae)
Yltharae stumbled as if struck, the obsidian grove tilting around her. A rush of images not her own flooded her mind—small hands gripping a stuffed rabbit, the cold of an orphanage cot, laughter that wasn't kind, screams drowned out by Joker's mad laughter. And then silence.
She pressed her small hand to her temple, gasping. "What—what was that?" The memories weren't hers. They belonged to someone else. Someone who no longer… existed.
"Maria Valentine. Fourteen years old. Human. Orphan." The name and its weight dropped into her mind like a stone into water. For a moment she had a second of self reflection but that was suppressed, and the reality of her situation came crashing down. "She gave herself to me… I killed a child..." Her voice broke filled with dread. Which also vanished as quickly as it arrived leaving a deathly calm.
Yltharae's monstrous head-arms flexed with twitching hunger, but her molten amber eyes narrowed as the truth crystallized. This wasn't just some dreamscape. This was all real, and consequences were already showing up from her merely existing.
"This isn't a narrative device in one of my many projects anymore it's real... very real. Next is the issue with the memories I ate? Debate on it later because this is Earth." A brief pause before she spat out the next words like a curse. "This is DC. I'm in the goddamn DC Universe."
Her laugh was full of a combination of, disbelieving, and caught between hysteria. "Out of every world who greenlit sending me here? The threats to me are on all sides... Superman, Wonder Woman, Darkseid, Brainiac. Just to name a few. Oh well I'm the strongest being in this universe anyway."
As she stopped talking outloud the obsidian trees around her groaned like they understood. This somehow felt like reassurance causing her panic to die morphing into something quieter, heavier. Acceptance. The kind only gods wore.
Her gaze then shifted, drawn by an invisible tether. In the silver grass not far from her lay the girl's astral form. Maria's empty shell. The chest still rose and fell, the face soft in a dreamless sleep, but the spark behind the eyes was gone. No resistance. No soul. Just a vessel.
Riley's molten eyes dimmed, and for a moment, her humanity pushed to the surface. "She's just a kid..." The thought lingered, bitter on her tongue. But then the other part of her. The part shaped by her own pen whispered into her ear."…No. She's ours... yours now." a moment of silence, and for a period it seemed like her humanity was winning, but Riley is or was pragmatic above all else.
"It seems i should embrace you now after all in this kind of world filled with rot niceties are nothing. Strength is the only thing that matters so if I must become Yltharae then I guess it's better I do so willingly than being forced to. So I accept my new life or rather i embrace it with open arms welcoming a new me."
A sudden surge of information flooded into her mind like a deluge. All of it helpful like what powers she could use, how to use them, not to mention knowledge she shouldn't know like how to build well anything a human has made like cars, firearms, even a toaster. Or science like engineering, astrophysics, ect.
Then as if she's always done it she uses the colossal arms sprouting from her head to reach outward, palms opening like gaping mouths. Shadows bled from the holes, winding toward Maria's still form. The air trembled with pressure, like reality itself bending under the act. As the tendrils coiled around the vessel, Yltharae lowered her head down to Maria's saying only two words. "Thank you."
And with that, Yltharae prepared to step into mortal skin for the second time then the shadows thickened, winding tighter around Maria's slumbering projection. Her lips parted as if to scream, but no sound left her the emptiness inside her had already swallowed the last fragments of who she was.
Yltharae reached out, lowering herself toward the vacant shell. Her nebula like skin shimmered as the colossal head-arms stretched forward, palms pressing against Maria's chest. A sound like glass cracking rippled through the grove. Reality buckled. Space Seemed to warp
Maria's astral bpdy convulsed once, twice then the girl's head shattered into shards of light. Yltharae's essence then turned into a black tar like bile before slithering inside, sinking deep into the child's soul. Then darkness consumed Yltharae's
(Earth)
Yltharae's eyes shot open.
But they weren't molten amber anymore. They were hazel green her hair was black as natural hair could get while also being incredibly unkempt. Her human face, with tears drying on its cheeks. She felt a heartbeat fast, mortal, fragile, and slamming against her ribs. Fingers clenched against rough sheets, clutching at the edge of a thin mattress. Then she looks around the orphanage dormitory.
Children still slept in nearby cots. The air smelled faintly of dust, bleach, and cold soup. For a moment, she lay frozen in Maria's body, dazed by the crushing smallness of it all. Her hazel eyes darted down to her new hands small, trembling, human hands. She flexed them, perplexed by their weakness.
And yet… beneath the frailty, power coiled. A small miniature singularity. Maria's body was no prison. It was a vessel waiting to be used. Yltharae whispered aloud, Maria's voice soft but unrecognizable, carrying the weight of something far older: "…so this is what it feels like to possess someone."
She then chuckled softly before looking around the dark dormitory once more before laying back down with a smile on her face.