"What? You... You actually wish to stay? Even after seeing me like... This?" The wererat mumbled as she motioned to her form, looking at her partner, a short brown haired woman, who couldn't help but laugh.
"You always went on and on about how you were so scary and "Oh, you can't look at me, I'm too scary and frightening". ######, you look adorable. Did you think I'd just run away crying and screaming at the sight of your fluffy look?" She laughed, scratching the wererat behind the ear, making her purr.
"M-Maybe you are just saying that before you slay me!" She replied, trying to uphold her dignified tone, yet failing. "Heh... Maybe all the big scary Rat needs is a little Mouse to love instead." The other woman said with a teasing look, nuzzling against the Wererat's chest, making her more flustered.
The two remained together through the night in an old shack, and as day broke, they finished the last leg of their journey, reaching the peak of the Spire of Stars. They were met by the trio of gods Pandæmonium, Paradise and Penumbra floating in the centre, with a swirling portal floating between them.
"Come, young one. We shall send you home." Pandæmonium said as she raised a chained up hand towards the portal, motioning the brown haired woman inside. The wererat looked down to her feet, seeming saddened to see her love leave, but the brown haired woman clutched the wererat's hand, yelling to the gods; "I want ###### to come with me!"
The three looked appalled, mumbling between themselves before Paradise spoke up. "You know we can't allow her through. She's tainted by something that simply doesn't belong in your world. Now please leave."
######'s heart broke a bit at the words, hearing your own god say you can't follow was something she couldn't help but listen to, no matter how much it hurt. Yet #### wouldn't let up, yelling again and again for her to be let through.
"If you are gods, then why don't you just cure her of her affliction!?"
"Because that is how her fate is dictated." Penumbra said with a wave of her hand, silencing the other two. "She is meant to be a hero of this world. You have done nothing but interfere on her story. Everything that has happened to her was dictated by me. Now. Leave her."
"You mean... Everything that has happened, every single bad thing that ever happened was all done by you? The only good thing that happened to me was her! And that was what? An accident?" The wererat yelled, her tail standing on end.
The three looked between each other before penumbra spoke again. "She was meant to go to a different world... But she slipped through the cracks. ####'s presence here was a cosmic mistake."
The two women looked at each other before turning back to their backs and walking away. "Then I'll stay here. No harm in that, right?" The brown haired woman snickered, nudging her partner in the arm softly as they headed for the twin doors of the spire.
"####... I... Can't believe you would do that for me... Thank you-" As the wererat stared at her partner with a loving look in her eye, she was quickly snatched away by galaxy covered tentacles, ripping her away. Penumbra held the woman with a cold stare from her void covered eye.
"She will leave. You are the hero, Mollia. Not a love struck fool." Penumbra yelled as her voice began to distort in anger. Pandæmonium and Paradise didn't know what to do, as they watched their sister pluck the woman's heart out.
"We can't have her running amok in her world..." She sighed before calmly tossing her through the portal and shutting it close. Mollia watched in horror as she felt her entire world break down in front of her.
"Why did you do that?" Paradise asked in a saddened voice as she looked at Penumbra. "We could have let her stay, you know. It would have meant one more poor soul for me." Pandæmonium said with a smirk, summoning a throne of chains to sit on as she stared at her sister with all 7 of her eyes.
"I see no reason as to why that woman needed to interfere with our world. So, Mollia. Are you now ready to be the hero of our world?" Penumbra almost seemed smug, holding the plucked heart of ####.
Mollia was on her knees, crying, begging to be allowed to follow, but was met by an awkward silence by the gods. Penumbra let out a bored sigh that felt like it rumbled the stars themselves. She tossed the beating heart to Mollia. "Take it. You should at least be able to remember her. Even if she was a mistake."
Mollia looked at the heart, clutching it tightly as the anger in her heart began to manifest. She summoned her sword and charged at the goddesses, trying to slice at them. Paradise tried to calm her down with hollow words, but she was met by her ear being clipped by the sword. As her ear began to bleed, the three realised something that horrified them.
Someone could actually make them bleed.
Mollia's tail quickly scooped up the heart as she realised ####'s ability had activated despite her being gone. "####'s heart... It had the power to reveal a person's true strength. I guess that means... I can make you bleed!" She let out a feral hiss as she summoned hundreds of swords, swinging wildly and blindly at the three.
Despite the three being able to move stars, control the land how they see fit, they couldn't land a single blow on her. It was like she had lived through the battle hundreds of times over. Mollia had soon managed to blind 4 of Pandæmonium's eyes, leaving her unable to attack.
Penumbra raised a hand and began chanting in what sounded like hundreds of languages combined into one, true indecipherable language. Mollia could feel the world beginning to shift, as if it was rewinding back in time.
She quickly summoned pillars of light up to Penumbra, and before the goddess could finish her spell, thousands of golden swords sliced at her throat, silencing her voice. She tried to let out a scream of pain, but was only met by a distorted crackling instead.
She had lost her voice.
Mollia grabbed the heart and held it to her chest with a small smile, looking towards the three wounded gods.
"Thank you... Lily."
"Mollia's heart evolved in her fight against divinity, vowing her vengeance on the three gods before she left. And she eventually did. She sealed Peni away... She killed my mother.... Parfait told me that our adversary was a descendant of Mollia, I suppose to try and alleviate the troubles I had facing someone so strong.
I made her into a servant as petty vengeance, when really I should have just killed her."
Panila wrapped up her story with a snap of her fingers, chains shooting out behind her and wrapping around Rat's still warm body. "Why'd ya tell us that?" Ven asked with a sigh, preparing for a fight.
"Because I finally realised something. Lily's heart was forged into Desire's heart. And if it can make that bird worthy enough to battle Penumbra, then what did it do to Mollia?"
"Well, Mollia is dead right? Rat is dead too. So, we won." Ven smirked, but froze up once he heard the sound of a still beating heart. "No. Rat's heart ability was to create light constructs. The same as Mollia's. That's why I figured they were descendants. But I finally realised that Mollia's tainted existence was that she had another half. An insufferable plague that turned her into a beast at night. A monster with two hearts. I always thought it meant that she was a werewolf..."
"But it wasn't, was it?" Ven mumbled as he backed away from Mollia's heart beginning to beat faster, everyone stared as Rat's body began to float, the chains wrapped around began to fade and disintegrate, as if they were desummoned.
The blood that was still flowing from her wound began to flow backwards, like it was being rewound. Mollia's heart shot into Rat's chest as her hair began going from its pale white colour to a dark black and her Rat like features fading to dust.
Her usual outfit was replaced by a set of white and gold ornate armour, her rapier seemingly rewinding back into a beautifully decorated sword. She opened her eyes to reveal a golden amber glow as her usual smug and cocky look was now a stoic and muted expression of anger.
"Finally... I was so tired of being a rat..."
Once the prosses finished, she fell to the ground with almost no sound. Everything felt quiet, no one spoke a word as the woman plunged her sword into the ground. Suddenly, 7 different swords of pure light shot out from behind her back like wings.
"Oh... Mollia..." Everyone mumbled quietly, even Iyu and Nvr were in shock.
The woman pointed her sword at Panila with a cold stare before putting on a matching helmet.
"I am Mollia Chordarum. The Hero of The Iris."
Ven raised his blade, holding a hand to his chest as he took a deep breath.
"I, Artemis "Ven" Misa, Hunter of Hearts, challenge you to a duel to the death!"
Mollia seemed more focused on Panila, yet turned to Ven with a nod, stabbing her sword back down as she menacingly.
"Very well. I accept, Artemis."