The sounds of dice rolling fill the air as a session of a popular TTRPG go forward. The shouts of success and failure rang out as the group of friends let their imaginations run wild and the campaign that was 5 years in the making drew to an end.
"I'll attack Victoria with my legendary sword!!!!" A dice roll followed with a shout of pure excitement. "Natural 20!!!!! Confirmation 20 too!!! Double max damage!!!" A boy shouted with glee. His character successfully rolling a massive blow to the enemy.
"I'll follow it up with a fireball, my skill letting me keep him out of the blast!!!"
"Victoria succeeds her save half damage taken!" Nicole says with excitement as she looks at her friends. Years of adventures, characters lost and comeback victories making for a wonderful story.
A dice roll later the announcement comes. "Victoria is on her last leg. Her beautiful dress is burned to a crisp as she looks down at the singed wound. Her once elegant figure adorned in a dress fit for a succubus queen.
"I will attack her from behind coming from stealth with the sacred dagger to purify her soul!" Another shouts as they roll without waiting. "28!!!! It does 32 radiant damage!!!!"
"Its a shame this is how we come to meet... Are you ready Nicole?"
Nicole froze looking around. Who's voice was that? It sounded like the one she envisioned for Victoria. Her heart started to race. The thunder in her eardrums as she thought she spoke, but it was only a thought.
"Who are you? Where are you?"
The voice let out a demonic chuckle. Echoing through her head as the world seemed to flow around her. The dice hadn't stopped rolling. Her hands and body were moving on their own. Lips moved, cheers clearly ringing out. Nicole however couldn't hear a single word.Â
"I am Victoria. My life was one filled with evil. I destroyed entire nations. I seduced those more powerful until there were only gods standing as my rival. A group chosen by the true god. Nicole, the goddess of all. A deity above deities. She sent a group to grow strong enough to cut me down." The voice was filled with sadness. "A group that was successful or so they thought. The holy dagger meant to end my life would bring me to a new start. A new life. I used what power I had left to drag that goddess. That evil goddess to my new life. We will switch places and she will start anew. I will only give her a fraction of her power and leave her to find me. I am fair. I am graceful. I am merciful."
Nicole couldn't hear more. She interrupted as she screamed "I was not evil! You were! You destroyed a nation! For what?"
Victoria responded with a clearly smug tone. "Did you forget goddess? That nation had tried to imprison me. Not for crimes I had committed for being born to a human woman. A devil queen only brought to this world because she wanted a memory of the love she was ripped away from. The man that had dared to call for equality and an end to slavery. He refused to treat the other races as lesser just because they were demidemons, orcs, demihuman. He dared to speak his mind and was executed for it. Then came me. They thought me merely a demihuman. A demonic father and a heretic mother. Did you ever ask what I went through? Did you even consider what they planned for me? I would work in the fields for days on end. Abusing my ability to sustain myself on raw emotion. What emotion did they feed me with? Hate. Hatred of my kind."
Nicole interrupted again "I didn't plan that. You were supposed to just be born as an evil that would change the world."
"And change the world I did. I destroyed that nation before they could start on their next plan. They wanted to spread their insanity to the rest of the world. Destruction was the only way to stop them. Your chosen few may have stopped me, but now I will make you live a life like your chosen few. Will you mindlessly attack the villain of your lifetime? Will you just try to hide away? Will you even understand the power you will have? I look forward to watching you struggle. Because you will start just as I had. A child. Seeing the world as I had to. Because the next nation to bring forth that hatred was spared thanks to you."
Nicoles world began to fade. The friends she had known were slowly turning to shadows. Her racing heart that and thundered in her ears turned into silence. A deafening silence that held her like a coat made for only her.
It didn't take long. The world she knew was gone and now she stood before a woman. The woman stood 6'6" tall her raven black hair in a single braid slung over her shoulder. Her eyes were heterochromatic one red and one a beautiful ocean blue. The signature style for Victoria. Her outfit an elegant dress, but as Nicole knew it was tougher than full plate armor. It's shine confusing the eyes as it was black as an abyss.
Gazing at her Victoria smiled. The human she dwarfed was who she had been so angry with. She didn't stay quiet however. Her voice wasn't its normal booming tone. Soft. It was soft. If you weren't looking at her Victoria's voice was like a warm blanket on a cold winters night. She constantly hid this with a basic spell she had learned as child.
"I do want to tell you I don't hope you suffer. I want you to have a life full of happiness. However I want to warn you. I am not sending you as a human. Your godly powers will be locked away. You will be a demon queen like me. They will try to use your power for their own. Don't let them. I left a beginners spellbook and a few things to help you in the forest outside of the village. You'll find it on your own, but you'll know. Just remember how you began my life."
"But... I... I didn't mean to... I wanted to give my friends a story of a lifetime. You were supposed to be the final boss. The one that would capstone their story." She didn't even think before she had started to speak. Looking down at the void as she didn't believe this was happening.
"I know. You didn't understand your power. You didn't think it would go beyond. Now you will deal with the consequences of that choice. I believe in you, and please don't think this is revenge."
"What is this then? You rip me from my life and then are throwing me into the worst possible life! You don't think that is revenge?!" She screamed finally realizing they weren't speaking. They were linked. Mentally able to listen to each other.
"Just as you spurred me forward I will help you. I hope you like cryptic ideas of what you should do. That's all I have for you. Due to restricting your power we are at the limit to speak here. May you find true happiness."
The void broke. Not fade. It broke. The sound of magic ripping apart made the loudest jet engine seem like it was silent. Her mind ripped to a new world. She knew it well. She had made the world itself and she wasn't being cut off from her memory.
The final words from Victoria rang in her ears. Nothing else for what felt like ages until finally she found a light. It may feel unfair, but Nicole found herself reborn. Literally as she had to listen to her new parents and the doctor looking at her with a mixture of excitement and devastation.
Why did they look like something was wrong? I was just born and it isn't like I didn't make it. Then the words came. "She took after her mom... she's a demidemon."