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TO Rewrite: B4 — 3. Blood and Divinity
🕑 Added 2025-05-27 22:14:29 +0000 UTCHow will our long-eared anti-heroine manage to stop the golden tsunami that is Butter! How would our undead empress Elinor respond to her little sister's antics on Earth >.> Butter's getting a little out of hand!
PoV:
1. Scarlet (Our Ms. Scarlet Fangs!)
2. Rachel Park (Our Awakened MC!)
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The Montana air hung heavy with divine tension as Scarlet stepped forward, her heart hammering against her ribs like a caged bird. The blood scythe materialized in her grip, crimson energy swirling around the curved blade as she faced the terrifyingly hospitable villain that had come through the Crystal.
Five minutes. Just five minutes to buy Rachel time, Scarlet, she internally reassured. That’s not long at all…when this blonde showgirl is making every instinct in my chest scream to retreat. I didn’t even feel this way with Twilight.
No! Pull yourself together. You’re supposed to be the end boss, Scarlet! You’re no pushover…which is why she’s looking at me as if I’m going to give her a challenge… Wow, I need to figure my shit out!
Grace cleared her throat behind her, tone tinged with dark humor. “Well, sweet fangs, you’re up against basically a literal goddess. Don’t fumble the milk!”
Scarlet forced a shaky grin, fangs glinting.
What’s that even supposed to mean?! Don’t fumble the milk?
Her bravado cracked as she stared at Butter’s serene stance, her cane held loosely at her front as liquid sunlight radiated from the very floor she’d infused with some kind of life energy.
Scarlet’s vampiric vision only saw a radiant star in front of her, but not of sunlight, but raw Positive Force; a titanic amount of Positive Force.
And, perhaps worse, the divine woman’s aquamarine eyes studied Scarlet with the kind of curiosity a child might show when discovering a fascinating new insect.
What would Rachel do? The thought stabbed through her confidence like a blade between the ribs. Rachel would analyze, strategize, find the perfect weakness to exploit. Right, so, what do I know?
The blonde merely waited, Wakalapi moving slightly away from her to get a better attack angle. The more they stared at each other, the more Scarlet realized she wasn’t Rachel.
I don’t know anything! She’s super calm. Super ego driven. Super powerful. And I don’t know, can turn people like a flipping Mexican folk hero into worshiping her! She’s…like an actual living goddess, or at least that’s what it feels like…
Rachel would probably already have three backup plans and a way to turn her strength against her, like using karma or misfortune or something, but I’m…supposed to be super OP, too. I’m the Blood Throne, whatever that means! I have to do something… No, no, I just need to buy time! If…
“Eldritch soul? Hello, Ms. Scarlet!” Butter sang, flipping her cane up and doing another flourish as every eye followed every motion. Her golden hair caught the unnatural light, creating a halo effect that would have been beautiful if it weren’t so terrifying. “I can’t understand if I’m misreading you or not, but, darling…are you afraid of me? Surely you aren’t going to waste your precious five minutes with the ever-so-humble me…staring into my beautiful eyes?”
She tilted her head, and somehow that simple gesture carried more weight than mountains, adding pressure against Scarlet’s ribs. “Blue Eyes, now isn’t this fun? I finally found someone besides Priss who makes me nervous, and…she’s too petrified to make a move. Why, with all that coiled power waiting to strike like a serpent? Instead…her knees are shaking.”
Wakalapi’s amber eyes flashed as he moved to step between them, sacred smoke billowing from his pipe in thick, protective clouds. The coyote spirit within him snarled at the divine presence pressing against them.
“Breathe, Scarlet,” he quietly said as spectral coyotes began materializing from the smoke around them. “Your power is clear to our enemy—she recognizes what you are, even if you do not. Take courage in that and act, even if you do not understand what you do, action alone is required.”
The ghostly coyotes circled Scarlet, their ethereal forms weaving between her legs and around her shoulders like living comfort; they blotted out the onlookers, making her squirming stomach feel more like stage fright.
“Actually, uh, I don’t need to breathe, but thanks…that helped.”
I’m not alone…
“The shaman comes in with the support,” Butter chimed with genuine delight, allowing her cane to stand on its own to clap her hands together. “Oh, how wonderful! Your soul does burn bright against the divine current, coyote child. And look how your little spirits rally to protect our trembling reaper!”
Scarlet tensed as Adoncia’s crimson aura flared and she felt a wave of visible impatience leak out of the maid. Her grip tightened on her iron club as she tapped it against the ground.
Butter’s melodic laughter rang out like silver bells in a cathedral in response, shifting to give her maid a smile. “Oh, Adoncia, you’re such a dear. But where’s the fun in speeding things up? I want a good challenge, not to stomp over everyone. It’s not every day I meet someone like Scarlet,” she whispered, dancing eyes drifting back to her.
The blonde’s smile widened, showing perfect white teeth that somehow made her look more dangerous, not less. “I so rarely meet someone who makes me cautious. Besides, you just advanced a Grade thanks to our lovely masked friend. Shouldn’t you be thanking him with a dance and learning more about his interest?”
“Ahem,” El Santo coughed. “Gran Reina, I do not think this is the time for such festivities. We must show them the errors of their ways.”
Sighing dramatically, Butter gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Patience, darlings. All in good time. Now, where were we?” she asked, giving Wakalapi a blinding smile as his form began to blur and multiply, dozens of identical copies surrounding Butter’s golden barrier. “You were giving Ms. Scarlet a pep-talk?”
Scarlet felt the spectral coyotes’ warm energy seeping into her bones, confidence flowing through her veins like liquid courage, but mainly through feeding off of the energy itself. Her fangs tingled, experiencing a sensation she hadn’t felt quite since the First Oscillation—it wasn’t just blood she could feed on.
Grip tightening on her scythe, she finally found her voice—four minutes to go.
“You’re right,” she said, her words gaining strength with each syllable. “I am afraid…mostly of my own power. Of what I could do. But you know what?” She looked up at Butter with eyes that blazed like rubies in firelight. “I’m more afraid of disappointing my sister than I am of you.”
Scarlet raised her scythe, blood swirling around her like crimson ribbons in a hurricane. The holy water surrounding Butter hissed and steamed where it met her blood, creating an otherworldly mist that hung between them like a curtain of judgment.
The moment they touched, Scarlet felt something pulse through her heart, but not pain—familiarity. Her vision took on a new distinction, gold mixed with blinding white, making her vision widen as she centered on the effulgence around the blonde’s bust.
The amulet, like Wakalapi said, but it’s mixed with her own blood… The power from the amulet is an amplifier, which means all of this…really is her power.
“Ohh! You’re fighting yourself, are you? Now I can relate to that to some degree,” Butter stated conversationally, watching the spectral beasts surround her and waiting for the chance to attack with Wakalapi. “You know I used to be a goddess in my past life. I know, hard to imagine,” she giggled, flipping back her golden locks and showing off her radiance with a wink.
Scarlet was too focused on her blood ramming against the holy water in a spiral assault, the Native American mystic watching the interaction intently. The worst part was that her blood was being eaten away—ultimately, she’d lose.
Still, she lashed out, knowing she had blood bags ready to absorb nearby if needed. One of Tom’s many backup plans they’d discussed the previous day.
“I’m trying to be patient, but you’re learning rather slowly,” Butter observed, her voice carrying the tone of a teacher addressing a struggling student. Her ornate cane flourished with golden light as she raised it to press against the blood lashing out at her. “Despite what you said, you’re holding back.”
“And how would you know!” Scarlet shot back, glancing at Wakalapi’s narrow-eyed examination of the woman. “Can I get a little help?”
Butter almost looked like a disappointed mother. “You sweet thing, have you not noticed? It’s because I haven’t given him an opening I wouldn’t punish. I’m trying to give you the spotlight. Dance with me! It’s almost like you’re trying to swim while refusing to get wet. Your automatic spiritual defenses are doing all the work while your soul sits idle… We’re running out of time for me to actually have fun.”
The words hit like physical blows, each one finding its mark with surgical precision as she twisted to almost lazily vaporize some of her blood with a burst of holy water.
My blood is supposed to be hyper corruptive… It forced one of those toad monsters to rip off its arm for crying out loud! It’s why I’ve tried not to use it, but now… Why am I scared to go in close? Is she right? Is it…that I’m afraid of myself?
Her stomach twisted into a knot, recalling everything Rachel told her happened when Seed Scarlet was released. How she’d almost killed thousands of young girls under Elizabeth’s protection. Then, she saw the tens of thousands of soldiers and personnel around them—all rendered basically helpless against this woman’s dominating presence, even if it was the amulet that gave her the amplification, there was something more…special about her than the item.
It was in every action she took.
Scarlet’s grip tightened on her scythe as the truth of it burned in her chest.
She’s right. I’m afraid of losing control. Of becoming…that thing from my nightmares. The monster that lives in the Red Sea… I don’t even know what the Blood Throne is or if I’m good for what I did. But what I do know is…I have to win! What would Rachel do? She wins!
“You’re relying on your Seed far too much,” Butter continued, twirling her cane with casual elegance as a coyote closed in, growing in size only to be speared through the head by the tip of her wooden baton. “And not utilizing your whole soul. Old Man Coyote here is almost ready to pounce and all you’ve done is internally panic. If you actually embraced what you are, you’d be matching me beautifully. I think I’ve given you enough time. You made me sad, Ms. Scarlet.”
Wakalapi’s sacred smoke swirled more intensely around his coyote form. The very air seemed to thicken with spiritual fire, allowing him to stand in the presence of divinity.
“You speak of one who holds great power, yet it flows from another,” the mystic intoned, his voice carrying layers of meaning that resonated in dimensions beyond the physical. “Unlike Ms. Scarlet, the pendant is merely a conduit for something ancient and of the higher planes—something not human.”
Butter’s expression brightened with genuine appreciation. “See, there you have a little insight, if somewhat skewed by the sheer volume. Your soul burns bright, shaman. Finally, someone who understands at least how to mold their spiritual energy.”
She shifted her stance slightly, the golden water around her beginning to pulse with a different rhythm as Scarlet cursed inside.
“Oh? You’ve brought back to memory something I’d forgotten from my previous life.”
“When you were a goddess?” Scarlet shot back, her blood hardening into multiple spears to try and pierce the waters, only for Butter to sidestep every one with the practiced grace of a dancer. “How did you end up falling this hard?”
“You can do better than that, sweetheart. Sharpen your fangs!”
“Easy to keep up when facing power borrowed from a trinket,” Wakalapi countered, his form beginning to blur and multiply. Dozens of identical copies surrounded Butter’s golden barrier, each raising a staff wreathed in spectral fire.
“Interesting theory,” Butter replied with delighted laughter. “The difference is, darling, I have held power far greater than this in my previous life. Ascension has its privileges and comes with innate knowledge.”
Their battle erupted with mystical fury that made the air itself scream. Wakalapi’s coyote spirits darted through golden streams and her blood like arrows of pure intention, each one carrying the weight of a higher being’s guidance. The spirits found purchase where others had failed, leaving ethereal claw marks across Butter’s protective barrier.
But Butter’s movements turned defense into art, each gesture flowing into the next with impossible grace. The golden water responded to her will like an extension of her body, weaving between the illusions and raw destructive energy bombs until it found the real Wakalapi—not cutting through him as it might have done to others, but pushing him backward with respectful force.
The mystic rolled with the impact, using the momentum to create distance while his amber eyes blazed brighter. “She fights like flowing water,” he called to Scarlet, who was circling for another angle of attack, internally chiding herself for hesitating and using her blood to extract the packets of blood Grace collected without being asked. “Strike where she will be, not where she is. She reads your spiritual attack patterns”
What does that even mean?! Spiritual attack patterns. I’m not trained in that stuff!
Scarlet’s grip tightened on her scythe. Still, she let instincts guide her. Instead of another direct assault, she let her blood sink into the asphalt beneath their feet, spreading in thin veins through the cracks and fissures to cover the golden glow the blonde initially created.
“Oh, now that’s more like it,” Butter cheered, her tone shifting from playful to genuinely engaged. She planted her cane against the ground, and the golden water around her began to pulse in a new rhythm—not defensive, but exploratory. “You’re finally thinking strategically instead of just throwing power around and panicking.”
The blood beneath the surface erupted in a coordinated strike from six different directions, forcing Butter to actually move instead of simply redirecting attacks. She danced between the crimson spears, but for the first time, droplets of her golden water scattered as if she couldn’t perfectly control every angle.
Yes! Wait, really?!
“Better!” the blonde laughed, spinning her cane as the scattered droplets reformed around her into like floating gem-like dew. “But you’re still thinking in two dimensions, darling. You’re thinking physically. Dig deeper!”
Scarlet felt her stomach drop as Butter’s form began to rise, the golden liquid carrying her upward like a living throne as the droplets scattered in all directions like bullets. Blood swiftly rising to shield her, she winced as every hit felt like Butter was jabbing at her chest.
“Wakalapi!” Scarlet shouted, vanishing into shadows her blood created as a concentrated beam of holy water carved a smoking furrow through the asphalt where she’d been standing, fully eradicating her blood—the first time anyone had been able to do that. “How do I do this spiritual crap! The only thing I know how to do is Soul Expansion!”
The mystic didn’t hesitate. Smoke billowed from his pipe in thick, concealing clouds that somehow tanked the holy bullet storm better than her blood, but instead of the usual spiritual manifestations, he wove something different—a maze of mist that distorted sound and sight, making it impossible to track movement accurately, even for her own vampiric vision.
“I am unaware of this Soul Expansion, and I cannot teach you something so advanced in the middle of the fight, but I can provide you a method to strike. She had no fear of Ms. Grace’s bullet, yet for you, she weaves and dances. She does not wish to come into contact with your soul. Find the opening and strike her through the heart!”
“Clever teamwork,” Butter’s voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. “But I can hear your heartbeat, Mr. Coyote, I can smell your fear-sweat…feel the vibrations of your footsteps through my water and on the wind…”
A tendril of gold shot through the smoke, grazing Scarlet’s shoulder and leaving a burning sensation that made her gasp. She didn’t feel pain. Not since changing. But this, this was different, not pain—something worse. A feeling of wrongness, as if the divine energy was trying to rewrite what she fundamentally was.
“Ugh!” Shocked out of panic, she vanished again, retreating through her blood this time by sinking into it. “That’s not holy water It’s something else entirely!”
“Life Force, a reconstructive force at its core level,” Wakalapi’s voice drifted through the smoke. “She’s weaponizing the fundamental energy of existence itself. Which…can you not absorb? Is that what I feel you doing now?”
Another tendril whipped past Scarlet’s face, close enough that she could feel the alien pressure of it. If it got a solid hold on her, she didn’t want to know what would happen.
The pieces were starting to fit together. Butter wasn’t joking around. This power was probably on the level of Izanami’s before she was corrupted, and worse, she knew how to use it.
“Two minutes,” she muttered. “Has it only been three minutes?!”
But as the smoke began to thin, revealing Butter floating serene and untouched above them, Scarlet realized they weren’t buying time anymore. Those aquamarine eyes were becoming predatory. The training wheels were off.
“Time for a lesson in advanced theology,” Butter announced, raising her cane skyward. The golden liquid around her began to spin faster, forming complex geometric patterns that hurt to look at directly. “Let me show you what happens when divinity stops playing with its food and I actually use this amulet’s power instead of just as an amplifier.”
The very air began to shimmer with heat that had nothing to do with temperature. Scarlet felt her recently discovered automatic spiritual defenses flare to life, and something deep stirring restlessly in the depths of her soul—the Red Sea was responding.
Not yet, she told herself firmly, glancing around as the swirling wind revealed all of the soldiers; every face showed a mix of unsure defeat. Their weapons glowed red, abandoned at their feet as if a new law was written into existence that robbed them of the ability to hold them. I can’t lose control. Not with all these people around. Whatever it takes… I have to win!
“Wakalapi, I’m—”
The words died in Scarlet’s throat as Butter’s form suddenly dissolved, her solid shape collapsing into tens of thousands of golden droplets that scattered like rain. For a heartbeat, there was nothing—just empty air where the divine woman had been floating.
Then she reformed directly in front of Wakalapi, materializing from golden mist. The mystic’s eyes slowly widened, his staff half-raised in a defensive posture that would never complete in time and his smoke seemingly being converted into the golden aura the blonde radiated.
The world lurched into slow motion.
Scarlet felt it like a physical weight pressing down on every cell—Butter’s spiritual presence pulsing outward in a wave that made reality itself seem thick as molasses. Her limbs moved like she was swimming through honey, every motion requiring tremendous effort just to shift an inch.
She tried to dissipate into shadows.
[Shadow Walking: No shadows available]
Her blood?
Currently being overtaken by the golden glow—Butter was literally conquering her own blood, making it a part of her own territory.
Move! she screamed internally, watching Wakalapi’s face register the same sluggish realization that they were caught in some kind of temporal distortion. I have to move!
But even her thoughts felt sluggish, as if the divine pressure was affecting her very consciousness. Around them, the golden droplets from Butter’s dissolution touched the asphalt with delicate precision just as her feet met the earth—and where they landed, the black surface rippled like disturbed water.
The transformation spread outward in concentric circles, asphalt turning to liquid gold that reflected the artificial daylight with mirror-like perfection. Within seconds, the entire parking lot had become a shimmering sea that stretched as far as the eye could see, with only the tips of abandoned military equipment breaking the surface like metallic islands.
Every person around them soundlessly sank into the honey.
Butter stood at the center of it all, untouched by the temporal distortion that held everyone else in its grip. With elegant leisure, she reached into the air and pulled forth an ornate fan that expanded to reveal intricate patterns that seemed to shift and dance when viewed directly. Every clone or copy of Wakalapi dissolved into the same liquid gold.
She snapped it open with a flourish that would have made dancers weep with envy. Then, with a simple sweep of it, a funnel of radiant, hurricane-like wind burst forth like a lion’s roar, carrying the Native American into the distance at impossible speed.
Just like that, he was gone.
The former goddess turned those devastating aquamarine eyes directly on Scarlet.
“Oh, darling,” Butter said, her voice the only sound that moved at normal speed through the crystallized time around them. She winked, the gesture somehow carrying the weight of planets. “I do hope you’re planning to tap into that delicious Eldritch soul of yours very soon. Because we’re about to find out who’ll still be standing when your dear Rachel finally arrives.”
The fan twirled in her fingers like a deadly flower as her smile turned razor-sharp.
“After all, didn’t you promise you could handle little old me? Time to prove it, sweetheart, before things get really unpleasant around here. My patience only stretches so far.”
The golden sea beneath them began to bubble and churn, and Scarlet realized with growing horror that Butter wasn’t just playing anymore. The kid gloves were off, and if she didn’t do something drastic—right now—there wouldn’t be anyone left for Rachel to save.
Something bloomed within the depths of her soul, responding to her desperation and the memories of what Twilight had told her resurfaced. A force rippled outward, seen only by the effect on Butter’s golden light, pushed backward as Scarlet’s trembling hand lifted to her breast.
Butter vision sharpened. “Interesting, your soul is harmonizing in a way…you should not understand. This is the Seed’s support. And the effect is…flawed, but extremely potent.”
Taking a more defensive stance, the blonde’s smile shone as she whispered, “Show me something new.”
Rachel, whatever happens. Forgive me. I did my best, as little as it was.
Reaching deep within herself for power she still didn’t fully understand, her fingers phased through her shirt, into her skin, and wrapped around her heart.
A bloody tear fell down her cheek as she said the words she’d heard in her nightmares, but this time, her focus was solely on the goddess in front of her“Eldritch Soul Expansion: Swim in the Red Sea.”
Reality screamed.
The golden ground, the sky, the very concept of solid earth vanished as if they had never existed at all. Crimson liquid engulfed everything, rushing up from impossible depths—emerging from within every molecule—to swallow the world in blood-warm darkness.
Time stopped.
Not slowed, not distorted—stopped. The flow of causality itself seized like a broken clockwork, leaving only the gentle lapping of blood-warm waves against nothing and everything at once. They floated now in the murky depths of an ocean so vast, the word infinity paled to describe its breadth.
Not atop the crystalized surface, where her crimson throne waited.
No, below the surface, in the riptide of the unknowable, violent, and unpredictable. The Red Sea. Not a place, but a state of being. Not a dimension, but beneath the Blood Throne herself with all its corruption laid bare.
Yet, Scarlet managed it.
Across from her, only the golden-haired lady of conquest herself floated, surrounded by a tight body of radiant liquid, yet her smile had faded.
She’d isolated Butter.
“This…is far more than I envisioned, Ms. Scarlet. Do you hear those voices?”
Scarlet shivered, feeling fingers crawling up her spine as she felt invisible eyes watching her from every angle. Yet, she was victorious.
“You…hear them?”
Thousands upon thousands of voices whispered in languages that she didn’t quite understand, but knew she should, their words weaving together into a chorus of the forgotten, the lost, the willingly damned—voices that haunted her.
But it was one voice that rose from the deepest currents that made even Butter’s perfect composure crack for the first time. “Look who decided to drop in for a visit. You can’t hold the beast that crawls through your veins forever, Scarlet… She stirs. But welcome back to my domain.”
A reflection emerged from the blood like a predator surfacing from an ocean trench, making Scarlet shrink back within the pool, unsure exactly how she moved but doing so instinctively.
“You’re…my Seed.”
“Is that so?” Butter hummed, vision narrowing and blinding necklace flickering slightly as the current swept them into motion further into the dark blood. “I’m intrigued…and alarmed, to be quite honest, sweetie. Do you truly understand what this means? Where we are?”
Her mirror floated up to hover between them, bound by thin ruby thread that disappeared into the darkness. Not the frightened girl, but something Revilla tried to create through Twilight to replace her, not that she’d told Rachel about her conclusions yet.
Her Seed moved with absolute confidence, reality bending around her cage as if the very concept of limitation was a quaint suggestion she could ignore at will.
“Look around you… Still pathetic. I thought you’d grown a little but you still lack all drive to delve into your true nature. By the way, is this our first true introduction since you…chained me?” she asked, glancing down at herself. “And what is this… A friend? No, that soul of hers is hiding something truly magnificent. Can I have your body, guest?”
“Wait, that’s an option?” Scarlet choked. “No, you’re my Seed, you can’t leave me!”
Butter kept her distance, taking a more defensive posture now as her vision wandered. “Eldritch, Positive, Negative, Neutral, Hell, Heavenly Force…and many more I can’t even identify. What an absolute mess that Eldritch shell of yours was hiding, Ms. Scarlet. And oh, so…tragically corrupted. As for you…”
The blonde goddess’ imperial gaze fixated on her smirking reflection with a tight smile. “I only just recently obtained a body again, and my older twin sister’s old corpse, at that. So I’m going to have to decline. I haven’t even had my first meal yet with Priss.”
“A shame,” the Seed sighed, vision returning to Scarlet. “You are so misguided, trusting in Rachel. You understand she’s going to kill you in the end, right? Why do you think she manipulated events to make you this…pathetic, when you have this much power? Twilight thinks she knows what she’s doing but she’s a pawn.”
“I don’t have to listen to you!”
“Hold on, sweetheart,” Butter chimed, teeth flashing as she took a more casual stance to face her Seed. “Let’s not smack a bug when it produces music for us to sing to… Your Seed has insights you should listen to. There is something more fundamental about you than you realize. You cannot be afraid of your own power…but face it with grace and an indomitable will to conquer.”
Scarlet hissed, fangs stinging as she scratched her head and yelled, “Who’s side are you even on?! I don’t know! You’re so…not evil, but you’re also an enemy—I don’t know anything! I hate making decisions like this because everything gets so complicated! Give me an evil vampire again that I can spike in the heart!”
Soft laughter exchanged between the blonde and her reflection, further deflating Scarlet’s ego when she should be the one holding all the power right now. And…maybe that was what Butter and her Seed were getting at, as contradictory as it felt.
Her Seed ended first, head tilting. “And you think you’re any better, goldilocks? You have no clue what stirs within your own soul… I can feel your doubt. The fear bubbling within that corrodes that perfect image of conquest and beauty. A broken, afraid little girl, crying that it isn’t fair… No one will save you. I could be your avenging angel.”
Scarlet stiffened at that, yet Butter didn’t respond with a biting response, instead, the blonde hummed and glanced off to the side.
“Intriguing… You somehow are permeating my spiritual defense and peering inside my Core being. Or…no, it’s that this entire place—the Red Sea, I believe Ms. Scarlet called it—is what permeates my own soul, on such a fundamental level, I’m not aware.”
“An intelligent soul, this one, Scarlet,” her Seed warned. “Also…a ticking time bomb. It’s only a matter of time before she implodes and is erased.”
“Ominous foretelling, Ms. Seed,” Butter chimed. “I’ll take that under critical self-examination. What a lovely person you are, looking out for my well being.”
“No need for thanks,” her Seed chortled. “After all, when the Second Seal breaks, we’ll wake up. The judges will be judged. And…” her vision widened before her voice dropped an octave. “I would be cautious of that soul you’re linked to, Butter…or should I say Ashrit? It is connected to a rather terrifying leviathan.”
Feeling like a 3rd wheel and trying to take advice from Rachel instead of them, Scarlet huffed, “How can you even trust anything she says? It’s probably all twisted and lies.”
“Lies?” Butter pondered, fan tapping against her chin. “No, perhaps omitted facts and misframed subjects, but never lies. Lies are too…muddy and simple. No, the best deception is in framing!”
“Spoken like a true propagandist cult leader,” her Seed mused.
“Why thank you! You are full of compliments today. I might get the wrong idea,” she winked. “In any case, Scarlet, I think we should sideline our talking prisoner here and get to the real fun.”
Seed Scarlet’s predatory smile widened as she moved closer until her threaded chain became taut, floating several feet from the unintimidated blonde.
“Trying to evade me? You can see it, can’t you? The cracks in her divinity. She's powerful, yes—more than anything you’ve faced, Scarlet. But she’s a newborn goddess playing with forces she inherited rather than earned.”
The shadow-self leaned closer yet Butter didn’t flinch. “This is your chance to end a threat before it learns to patch its vulnerabilities. She plays the glamorous star but has always been overshadowed by her twin. Strike now, while she’s fascinated instead of defensive.”
A tremor rippled through the water below, causing Scarlet to clutch her chest as pain spread through her body; warning signs flashed through her awareness.
“Do it,” her Seed hissed, her form flickering as her crimson threads began to glow neon red. “Show her what the Blood Throne really means. Show her why you chose corruption over—”
Butter’s smile faded with each word but instead of attacking her Seed, the blonde floated toward her, sobering concern replacing curiosity. “Darling, your soul is attracting something else within this vast place, and it’s straining you… I’ve had my fun but not at the expense of such a unique lady such as yourself. Now it is trying to buy time. That’s enough.”
“W-Wait, I can’t—stay away!” Scarlet groaned, wincing as she glanced down to see the veins along her arms beginning to glow the same color as the thread binding her Seed. “You’re just trying to…to fool me!”
“Oh, you do have listening problems,” Butter sighed, shaking her head. “Perhaps we can fix that in time.”
Her Seed mirrored the blonde, rolling her eyes. “Are you really going to use your Soul Expansion for the first time and not actually…use it? Boring.”
Scarlet’s skin felt as if it had been lit on fire, her gut twisting as the current began to drag them further into the black.
“Not boring,” Butter chimed in response, her delicate fingers now finding her chin and raising it to examine her like a doctor would a patient, “but enlightening. Unlike you, I am not a destroyer, or like my twin, obsessed with order and death, but simply a humble, divinely blessed woman invested in growth and life. Here, sweetie…”
Unable to even raise her hands now, she couldn’t stop the motherly blonde from placing a hand on her chest, sending a flood of positive energy into her core…that she effortlessly absorbed, like a starving child.
The Red Sea dissolved like morning mist, reality reasserting itself with a violent snap that left her collapsed on the radiant ground, ears ringing and souls aching. Yet, as Butter’s soft hands left her chest, she felt better, more stable.
Once again, they stood in Montana’s supercenter parking lot, but the taste of impossibility lingered on their tongues like copper and starlight.
She blinked, unable to believe the sight of blood running from her nose, her ears, the corners of her eyes—yet, they didn’t return to her body but fell to the golden pool to be purified.
The whispers of the Red Sea still echoed at the edges of hearing, and somewhere in the distance, Seed Scarlet’s knowing laughter faded into silence.
“Mark my words, Scarlet, Butter will try to subjugate us both by the end of this little volume in our lives. She’s unstable…and lives too much in her sister’s shadow.”
Shut…up.
“Holy shit,” Grace breathed, lowering her rifle as she stared at the place where reality had been twisted into something else entirely. “Sweet fangs, what the hell was that? I felt like I was lookin’ at somethin’—”
Adoncia was immediately between them, the oni maid trying to come between them, yet Butter waved her off.
“High Queen!”
“Have more faith in me than that, Blue Eyes! Ah, you returned sooner than expected. Good on you!”
Wakalapi returned from his impromptu flight across what Scarlet would have considered a county, his eyes still glowing with Old Man Coyote’s power but his movements careful and measured. Snow fell from his shoulders as he approached, his gaze fixed on Scarlet with something like concern.
“I…don’t sense the same hostility. What did you do, Ms. Scarlet?” he quietly asked. “The Old Man is…quite invested in whatever you manifested. He says, Child, you hold something that was never meant to exist in our reality.”
“No need to overwhelm her,” Butter chided, standing between them now like a mother hen defending her chick and throwing Scarlet’s already bewildered brain into a frenzy.
Lucky, she’d bought enough time.
Rachel landed beside Butter and her with practiced grace, but her movements were careful, calculated. Instead of raising a weapon or assuming a combat stance, she held her hands visible at her sides—not what Scarlet had expected.
Every soldier was on-edge, some with their fists raised, ready to charge in on command, even if their weapons didn’t work. The airship crew seemed to have gotten control of their flying battleship again, cannons aimed at a grinning Butter, who, once again, waited patiently by stepping back, next to her scowling maid.
Tom was in the background, on the phone with someone—probably the president, his face grim while studying all of the soldiers, myths, and legends, who still stood on Butter’s side, eyes radiating her golden light.
Kneeling down beside her, Rachel’s large ears rose slightly, focused on Butter. “Scarlet, are you okay?”
She forced a toothy, fanged smile. “Hurting…all over. I think I know a little of how you felt when you got out of Conner’s Legend Quest, but yeah. Butter…is weird. I really don’t know what to do, Rachel. She’s confusing. I don’t know—”
“Hey,” Rachel interrupted, rubbing her head and giving her nose a short flick, “don’t sweat it. We can talk about it later. I want to test something. General Dallas…”
The general’s wary gaze immediately snapped to her and he whispered a few things before making his way over. “Rachel, as you can see, things aren’t exactly going as planned. Is our guest willing to talk now?”
All eyes darted to the blonde, whose hair elegantly bobbed against her shoulders as she shook her head. “Oh, absolutely not! I’m having too much fun. Besides, I wouldn’t want to dampen the hard work Ms. Scarlet and our shaman here put in for our mysterious hare girl that just showed up. I’m so looking forward to my next dance partner.”
“I was afraid of that,” Tom growled, vision hard. “You’ve taken a lot of hostages…”
“Hostages? Isn’t that rude,” Butter huffed, placing a hand on her hip. “I did nothing of the sort. They chose to serve my glory.”
Yet, even the wind seemed to hold its breath as Rachel showed a rather neutral smile. “Let’s skip past all of this building tension and psychological games, General, Butter. Are you interested in an experiment, and can I try something, General?”
Scarlet’s throat constricted as everything came down to this.
Tom breathed out his frustration, rubbing between his eyes, but Scarlet knew as much as he did that they were out of options. From what Butter had already shown she could do. The last answer he had was literally…the nuclear option. And after what she’d felt in the Red Sea, she wasn’t even sure if that could keep Butter down but it certainly would piss her off.
“…What do you have in—”
Butter’s delighted laughter rippled through the air like music played on crystal, her earlier motherly defense giving way to curiosity about this new player. “Oh? How refreshing!” Her aquamarine eyes sparkled with genuine interest. “Most people either worship or attack when they meet me. What did you have in mind? And might I add you have rather gorgeous ears and lovely eyes!”
All Scarlet could do was wait for her response.
As usual, everything fell into Rachel’s hands, which put the thought in her mind… What if her Seed was right.
I know Rachel manipulated things with her misfortune. But it’s not like she consciously did it all those years. That…also means Rachel’s powers were working before The Oscillation. Huh. I haven’t really talked about that with her. How is that even possible?
* — * — *
Rachel’s eyes narrowed as she extended her senses, probing carefully with the threads of misfortune that had become as natural to her as breathing. The strands reached out, seeking purchase—and slid off like water on glass.
For the first time, I’ve met someone immune to misfortune. Wait… No, not the first time.
Her thoughts returned to the colossal threads that Nungal moved, hidden in darkness and acting like pillars of existence itself.
Her comment about not exciting Butter too much makes sense now. If she can survive the Red Sea and Scarlet without so much as a scratch or stress, then she’s far beyond our current ability to stop. That amulet… Could I snatch it from her?
Immediately, misfortune shifted hard against her.
It’s suicide… Any antagonistic action…is suicide.
In one of the few instances since her change, Rachel felt as if she were facing a giant, and one who couldn’t be beaten by brute force. Potentially, even if she still had her Unique Moons.
Interesting. If misfortune doesn’t work, what about…
“Can you give me a high five?” Rachel asked, putting on her most charming smile while stepping closer.
Tom looked utterly bewildered by her approach, yet Butter’s brow furrowed with cautious curiosity.
“How sudden. What an odd request. A probe into my spiritual proximity? A test of a Feat that requires contact? Perhaps some sealing attribute or reactionary process?”
She’s far too observant, but also like a cat. Unable to help her curiosity.
Dancing forward, she held up a hand, not for her but to her maid as she lurched forward. “Don’t be reactionary, Adoncia. Temper those emotions…”
The maid’s grip was white against her club, clearly wanting to smack either her mistress or Rachel in the face with it, but she held it at her front as ordered.
“Now, like this? You’ll have to forgive me,” the blonde giggled, skipping forward with a bounce of her dress. “Believe it or not, I used to be only an ethereal butterfly a few days ago.”
“That’s a story I’d like to hear,” Rachel returned, raising her own hand. “Just like that, and we slap hands together like…”
[Limit Break: Karma - Retribution]
Crack!
For just a moment—barely a heartbeat—Butter’s perfect composure flickered. Her aquamarine eyes widened slightly, and her breath caught. But the effect was heavily muted to what should have happened, like shouting into a hurricane and hearing only the faintest echo return.
“Wow! I felt that tingle… A reverberation of colliding spiritual connection. You actually found a way to bypass a tiny fragment of my spiritual defenses. Brilliant! I like you. You should return to our empire! I bet Priss would love you.”
“I’m flattered,” Rachel chuckled, rubbing her hand—she’d felt that impact recoil.
Not even Black Hat or Seed Scarlet felt this resistant, Rachel reasoned, her tactical mind filing away the information for later analysis. Whatever she is, she’s fundamentally operating on a completely different level. But there was something there. Karma’s power wasn’t totally ineffective.
“Alright, how about stage two? A challenge?” Rachel inquired, ears shifting to the side with her smile. “You seem like someone who appreciates games.”
The word ‘games’ lit up Butter’s features like sunrise over water. She clapped her hands together with childlike delight, the sound somehow carrying more weight than thunder. “Always! I absolutely love a good challenge!” Her grin widened, showing those perfect white teeth. “What do you propose?”
“You accept the terms?”
“Oh, I believe I can win anything you have to throw at me, beautiful hare,” the blonde stated, vision narrowing with a gleam. “State your game.”
Around them, the converted soldiers and mercenaries remained kneeling in worship, their golden eyes reflecting Butter’s radiance. Grace kept her rifle now trained on the divine figure, knowing it was useless but needing to do something with her hands. Tom Dallas watched from nearby, the President no doubt on the line, listening with his hand over the red button—they were literally one mistake away from wiping Billings Montana off the face of the map.
I hope this doesn’t get put in the history books, Rachel internally groaned.
“Simple,” Rachel continued.
“Pick a number between 1 and 10.
“If your number is lower than mine, you continue your conquest—but you do it as part of my team.
“If it’s not lower, you end your conquest, and I'll join yours instead.
“And if we pick the same number, we both walk away winners.
“How about a flipped coin to decide who goes first?” she concluded with a grin.
Butter’s eyes sparkled with genuine appreciation for the elegance of the proposition.
“How delightfully straightforward. No hidden clauses, no complex rules — just pure chance and psychology. Whoever wins the luck… wins the game.”
She tilted her head, amused.
“I accept your challenge, Rachel.”
“Good,” Rachel said, her smile becoming something sharp and predatory as she heard the clanking of chain-like laughter from above. “Anyone have a few coins in their pocket?”
She turned to a soldier a dozen meters away, actually recording with his phone—she’d heard the most jingling from his pockets, and she needed volume. “You have quite a few. Want to join me, Butter? We can pick it out together.”
“How bold and civil of you… I see where you’re going, and I adore it. I am enjoying her, Snow. In fact, why don’t we have Fable’s CEO pick it out?”
Rachel felt that blade at her back, making her tail want to stiffen, but she’d chosen him for a reason. Misfortune may be impossible to affect this flesh-given goddess…but that didn’t mean it didn’t affect everything else.
“Go ahead.”
She watched Gray and Black’s tense postures as their stunning CEO moved without a hint of defiance to the soldier, showing an encouraging smile while holding out her hand.
“Have faith, soldier.”
“Right… Just, one of these? Is my coin going to decide the fate of this, eh…war?”
“Maybe you should frame it. I hear that’s popular on Earth,” Butter chimed in. “Oh, pick the shiny small one, Snow!”
“No, I think not a dime,” Snow returned, pulling out a rather tarnished-looking penny. “This is one cent, High Queen. The lowest form of currency in the US.”
Butter snickered. “I suppose you’ve figured out the trick. Go ahead, Priss would scold me, but I enjoy the journey, not the end result, as she often does. Well, maybe that’s changing, to be fair… My big sister is so confusing sometimes. I don’t know what she wants from me! Agh. Now I’m getting frustrated. Let’s play this out! Do we…call it out?”
“When it flips, typically,” Snow returned.
“Perfect! Let me hold it real fast… Mmm. Interesting design. A head and…”
“Tails, High Queen.”
“Wonderfully strange name for it, but sure. I’m ready.”
“Ready,” Rachel casually returned, holding her elbow behind her back in a lax posture while maintaining eye contact with the eager blonde.
Snow swept her lush black locks behind her ears before holding it between them and flipping it into the air.
“Heads,” Butter chirped. “The weight favors that side, after all.”
Rachel didn’t say a word.
When it landed, she didn’t need to look to see the results, not that it mattered in the end.
“One.”
The silence that followed was absolute. Even the wind stopped blowing.
Then Butter’s entertained laughter rang out, pure joy radiating from her divine form. “Oh, you clever, clever thing! Not in the game itself, but in actually getting me to rush into the game before knowing the rules.”
She spun in a circle, her golden hair catching the light like spun sunshine. “You went as low as possible, ensuring that anything I chose would be higher. Well played, Rachel Park. Well played indeed! Priss would be smacking my face right now, saying I’m too ego driven. I admit defeat, I picked 7!”
Rachel’s smile faded as the blonde turned and gave her a rather devious grin, and with a graceful gesture that turned simple movement into art, Butter began to withdraw her golden influence. The divine radiance that had bathed the parking lot started to fade, and the converted soldiers and mercenaries blinked in confusion as their golden eyes returned to normal colors.
“You…could have chosen one.”
“But where’s the fun in a game where no one wins or loses?” she returned with a bouncing laugh. “I can concede to a fun little game like that. Besides, what kind of a benevolent friend would I be to Snow if I just ran over her home planet?”
She held out her hand as if they were just becoming acquainted. “Hello, my name is Butter, High Queen of the Undying Empire. And you…”
“…Rachel Park, CEO of Omen, a private military company, working with the United States…of Earth.”
She shifted to the side as the murmurs of those who had been under Butter’s influence shook off whatever affected them. They felt lighter somehow, better, as if they had been carrying a weight they hadn’t realized was there. But they were also uncertain, confused by gaps in their memory and the lingering taste of something transcendent on their tongues.
El Santo shook his head as if waking from a deep dream, his silver mask gleaming in the returning natural light. “¿Qué pasó?” he asked, looking around in confusion. “I remember…light, so radiant and warm. And a voice like…music.”
Paul Bunyan staggered slightly as Blue trotted back to his side, the massive ox’s eyes no longer glowing gold but filled with their usual gentle intelligence. “Blue? Boy, what happened to us?”
“That,” Red said quietly, her crimson cloak billowing in the wind as she rose from her knees, “was the closest thing to Heaven I ever want to experience. And I never want to feel it again.”
Adoncia stepped forward, her dual-colored aura flickering as her horns cracked and vanished, her power leaving her. “High Queen, may I have permission to bring White and Mika through and inquire where your living arrangements will be while on Earth?”
“Absolutely!” Butter’s smile was radiant as she addressed her maid, her voice carrying infinite patience. “Now, General, I believe we have much to speak about. This conversation promises to be far more entertaining than simple conquest ever could be. After all, there are many more splendid opponents awaiting our glorious entrance!”
Scarlet glanced at her in disbelief. “Is that…really all it took to make her join our side—what?! A guessing game, Rachel?! How the hell was I supposed to guess that?”
Rachel shook her head. It was far, far more complex than that beneath the surface, but that was a discussion for another time. Right now, she had one person to thank for this outcome, and it wasn’t any goddess connected to her.
The sound of rattling chains echoed through her mind, the violet-haired Primal Goddess’ cosmic gaze lingering inside her internal vision.
Nungal… What game are you playing?
“Major?” Adult Nia’s voice carried through their spiritual connection. “I take it everything worked out and I’m not required? Can I tell Alexa and the others? Butter seems…different. In a way, a bit like our fake Aurora.”
For now, at least, she muttered, following Butter’s provocative and flirtatious behavior as she got to know the rest of Fable. And, not exactly like Aurora. Butter is…far too honest and support driven to be like that succubus. I can already tell Butter is a brilliant tactician with perhaps a few impulsive flaws, but those are extremely niche and limited compared to her full talent kit…
Honestly, just listening to her actions, as flashy and over the top they were… She was always in control. In a way…I have to wonder if she even let me trap her in that game. It’s obvious she never wanted to truly escalate things…but she’s also not above it if challenged.
“A rather dangerous individual.”
A rather powerful ally, and one we can learn from and grow stronger.
The real game, Rachel knew, was just beginning.
-----------------------
