The Dawn of the Stars

Blood. Blood is everywhere.

“The blood of my enemy flows freely.”A woman with crimson hair, donning dark steel armor stands forward. A large snake, which is profusely bleeding, is in front of her.Dying. It is breathing heavily. It is on the verge of losing the light of its eyes, but the snake remains defiant, even in the face of death.

Some of its flesh has fallen off, staining the ground with its blood. And the smell of its putrid decaying flesh is nauseating.“I can see it floating around me. The blood of this beast. And the smell of its putrid flesh. I am tired of seeing this abomination.”

Mountains upon mountains of their hot silverish snakeskin surround me, proof of the time we have spent fighting each other. She moves forward, colliding into the giant body that dwarfs mine many times over. Her bloodstained gauntlets tear into this beast. She grabs the skin, ripping off more of its skin off.

The beast unleashes a loud scream, which makes her eardrums ring.

“It has injured me greatly. The fangs have gnawed into my armor; its sleek tail has battered and bruised my body. It has pushed me towards the edge of death.”

“But I endure.” She braces her body, covered in many wounds. She is resolved.

“I will not falter here.”

“I have longed for this moment.”

“To kill this damned eyesore. I must kill or be killed; I have nothing left to lose but my life itself.” She gazes to her left. She can see shards of weapons fragmented and shattered. They were insufficient, many of those weapons broke earlier.

To the right, she sees a sea of broken parts. Machines that were destroyed earlier.

A flying shard smashes into her head, forcing her to let go of the beast. This sends her tumbling into the air.

She plunged through the sea of the dead, crashing through a rock that once formed a planet. As she gathers herself from the impact, there is something she recognizes.

“It seems quite familiar to me, strangely.” She thinks.

“Oh, now I remember. This planet, this rock, was once my home, the place I was born. It was a place I held dear.” She only spares a moment thinking about this. She is focused on her objective. Her goal.

“Now it is merely an instrument of my destruction.”

She stands on her feet, breathing heavily. She raises her hand, forcing the broken chunks of this rock into a mighty sphere, one that defies logic.

It grows.And grows.

Until the size of this rock has dwarfed even the massive snake she was staring at. The rock has reached the size of a small sun.

The snake seems to only look at her with disdain, unmoving. “It is waiting, which is unusual. I’ve grown used to its ferocity over time. Or maybe it grew tired, as well? I am not sure.” The sphere is sent cratering into its head. It forms an energy barrier, trying to protect itself.

She does not wait.

She teleports behind the snake’s head and raises her fist, attacking with sheer force. She shatters its feeble attempt at protecting itself. The sphere of rock descends upon it, smashing into its skull.

The sheer energy from the interaction causes a large explosion, sending her flying away from it. She maintains her position in the air.

“I have not sustained much damage from this.” The explosion did little to damage her.

Her body does not agree with her, as it begins heavily oozing out blood. Wounds from earlier are still open.

Blood drips out of every orifice of her body, staining the ground beneath her.

“I have been fighting for too long.” She is coughing up blood.

“Can I even remember the days when I didn’t fight? The days where I enjoyed a measure of peace. It is starting to feel like it wasn’t real.” She turns towards the beast, angry at both it and herself. She was angry. Angry at this thing that took everyone away from her. Angry how long this battle had lasted.

“You damned beast, why do you persist on living! All you bring is misery and despair. “She spat out, screaming into the void. She was beyond angry,she was livid. She coughs up more blood and takes off her helmet. The helmet is barely functioning; the guidance unit is broken.

“What a piece of shit.” She thinks. She throws her helmet away from her. It cracks a bit as the helmet bounces off a pile of circuits and rolls away, nearly as damaged as everything else.

“Clearly, I did not build it well enough. I will have to improve it later.”

The giant silver eyed beast groans, dazed from the boulder that smashed into its skull.

“That thing surely won’t stay that way for long.” She walks slowly through the pile of circuits. Machines that perished in this struggle, they met their end in this place.

“It is time I ended its pitiful life.” She looks around. She can see something in the corner of her eye and walks towards it.

“Luckily for me, I can see one last weapon remaining, that is lying in the pile of corpses.”

Corpses that bleed blue. Circuits strewn apart. Star forged metals imbued with chaotic energy.

“These machine warriors deserved better. Much, much better than dying here in this place. What a waste. “ She sighs.

“But they refused to listen to me. And this is the result. They chose their path.” She kneels in front of the weapon, covered in the blood of the snake.

“And I have chosen mine!” She forcibly pulls out the spear that was embedded in the flesh of the machinal corpse, causing a geyser of blood to sprout out of its body. She turns towards the beast, leaping high into the air. She descends into its open jaw, soaring into its body with ease.

She traverses its insides, slashing apart from within. Finally, she reaches the end of its body, tearing a giant hole through its tail, making an exit.

The giant beast screams in agony but does not move. It has lost the energy to do so.It is near death but not dead yet.

She grabs the spear one last time. The spear is cracked and damaged. The spear cannot take more punishment. She ascends into the heavens, gathering energy into the spear, then releases.

The spear soars into the middle of the monster’s snake body, radiating with pure chaotic energy. This energy overcomes the ailing beast, making it crumble.

“I have done it. I have slain this immortal snake monster.

A machine that came from nothingness, it was unstoppable. But she has stopped it, for now.

“I can sense its energy, still in this place, still in these machines.” She loses strength in her legs, falling to a knee.

Fear begins to overcome her senses. Fear for the future. Fear for the return of this monster.

She knows it in her heart that it will return. But she does not know if she will be able to defeat again

“Even after its death, the monster still plagues me.” Her body shakes. The spear she was holding fell out of her right hand she was holding it in. It falls to the ground, cracking even more.

“I know it is gone but I am afraid.” She mutters quietly.

“I feel it will come back, even though I just killed it.”

She falls to her knees, hands shaking.

“I have fought for too long. She feels the need to rest.

“But I cannot. No, I will not!” She forces herself upwards and walks towards the broken helmet, which was cast aside earlier. She accesses the data terminal inside of it.

“This data terminal contains a sentient battle program I designed that improves combat efficiency. It has a predictive model which can make somewhat accurate calculations.”

The perfect candidate for a control system, she thinks.

“I will use this as the primary foundation. As for these broken machines…” She stares at the piles upon piles of broken parts, some stacked as high as a mountain.

“They will serve me well. I can repurpose them into something useful.”

Those were her last thoughts before she fell asleep. She could not move any further. She falls, clutching her helmet in her arms.

Her automated recovery system has forced itself on, after she has endured too much damage. The crimson knight is powering down.

For a moment, she re-awakens, unexpectedly.

“I feel as if…I saw someone watching me, but I cannot remember.” Her eyes drift back to close, the shadow of someone at the edge of her vision. Data streams overcome her, as she enters her rest.

“I must sleep for now.”

The figure before her is wearing long robes, robes that cover her legs and arms. In her right hand, a large staff made of some kind of earthen wood. In her left hand, an orb floats precariously above it. She is a woman, viewing the horrific sight before her.

However, she seems completely unphased by it. The strewn parts of broken machines, the stench of blood reeking throughout the area, none of this bothers her.

She has come here for a reason and she has found it, laying down in front of her.

“The great demon lord, the mighty warrior who fought the otherworldly snake to a standstill.”

“The one who sacrificed many for her cause.”

“And the woman who forsook nearly everything she had, just for her to reach this state…” The woman speaks loudly, seemingly to herself. Her eyes dart over the broken form of the other woman, who has passed out. She walks slowly over towards her and kneels, eyeing her with great interest.

“With the power of Chaos, she was able to create many different realms and beings.” She smirks.

“But…this was the result. She was unable to defeat her nemesis, instead choosing to sever it into pieces.” The red-haired woman walks over to the demon lord and raises her right arm.

The demon lord is unconscious but still breathing.

Her body is slowly healing the damage taken from her long, drawn-out fight with the silver-eyed snake beast. The ground shakes. The woman in dark robes moves her right arm again. A giant circle appeared in the area, with stars in the middle rotating.

She was casting some kind of magic. She was a master of it, after all she thinks. Easy for her to do. Space begins distorting itself. A large blue, glowing hole opens in front of the two of them.

She slowly walks towards the hole in front of her, dragging the knight, who continues floating in the air behind her. The whole space behind them closes, leaving the scene of carnage behind.

They arrive in a strange place.

Time and space seem to have merged, creating an endless corridor of energy beside them. On either side, different places in time can be observed.

These places look nearly identical.

“Now I must wait for you to wake up. In this place. This chasm in between worlds, between universes…” She says to herself, without emotion.

“The pieces are in place. In time, we will see how they move.”

“Hopefully, they will find their way.” She sighs. The future will be difficult.

A struggle. Countless ordeals.

Many things they will have to face, many things they will have to overcome.

They will have to face them together. But she can only help them so much.

Children must walk on their own, after all.

The ancient magician sits down on the ground in this strange place made of blue energy. She can see the past, present, and future here. Somehow. Many paths in time are converging here in this one place.

This woman cannot accurately predict where all these paths will end, however.

She can only see that she will be part of all of them. The magician will be the star that guides the stellar warriors to the future.

There, they will truly ascend to their proper place.

A place beside her, the Magician, and her brethren.

“These five will guide us towards the future. I will place all of my faith in them. Even if the others don’t. I…will never give up on them. Or the people that live in the stars.” The magician thinks, as she looks upon the sleeping form in front of her. The Demon Lord is sleeping, recovering from her lengthy battle. A long arduous battle she had witnessed herself.

It was necessary. That was the first step towards her plan.

No, the plan they all shared together, she thought. And the demon lord would be vital to their scheme.

Time passes. A year passes by seemingly in an instant.

Hardly a long time for the Magician. She sees that the Demon Lord has partially repaired herself. Her breathing has normalized, compared to when she met her earlier.

The Demon Lord slowly stirs awake, seeing the woman, standing next to her floating body. She is not particularly bothered by the presence next to her.

As she was fighting the snake god, she could feel the energy of someone else who was watching her.

Watching her from the shadows. She simply gazes at her unflinchingly but respectfully.
She had a feeling that this person was stronger, more experienced than her. So, she chose her next words carefully.

“You. You have been watching me. God, for how long?” Unsurprised by the person standing next to her, she is more surprised by the place they are in.

This strange place where time and space converge. It boggles her mind that a place such as this one even exists. She turns her view towards the Magician, who is standing next to her, smiling. She is happy to see her awake.

“Yes. Here, we lay the path towards the future. You are going to need my help, hmm?” She says smirking. The demon lord merely laughs then nods. Something about this person. She felt like she could trust her, even though this was the first time they had met properly.

“Yes, I think I will need your help. What is your name, so I may address you properly? Woman that wants to help an ailing Demon Lord?”

“I am the Magician. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

The two, from then on, work together, hatching a great plan to defeat the snake god of destruction.

#

An eternity of time passes.

The universe they created together was built and rebuilt several times over.
Billions of years have passed since the Demon lord has fought the great cyber beast, the Ouroboros, to a standstill.

It has been eons. The memory of the battle has been erased from people’s minds.Though, fragments remain. Scattered throughout the stars.

The demon lord has created many star warriors, many that could aid her.

But almost all of them had failed. They had lost to the seductive whispers of the snake.

Or they lost themselves in their own hubris. People who thought they could do everything, save everyone. They had godly powers and strength bestowed upon them, but something more, something greater was needed to succeed.

Something which almost every single one of them lacked.

All who were warriors that died miserably, horribly, wretchedly. Many died in battle. Others perished amongst their friends. Many more were corrupted by the power of the Ouroboros.

It was truly a difficult enemy to overcome. The only way towards the future was a path forged through unity.

Strengthened through bravery.

And reinforced with perseverance.

The star realm has moved towards the present.

Towards the final hope of both the Demon lord and the magician. And perhaps, someone else. The universe was as desperate, frantic even, as the demon lord herself.

It was a living being, after all. It grew tired of the endless war, the endless battles. It wanted to reach a clear resolution in the not-so-distant future.

The environment has changed.

Now, an island is in view. An island floating in the clouds, powered by some machine. The energy from the machine was keeping the island afloat with a floating device.

A blonde haired android, in the form of an adult woman, is floating in the air. A godly machine made from science, though she was unsure of her true origins.

Despite looking intensely around the realm, the heavenly star realm, that she was born in, she found little that could aid her in her investigation. She floats down and lands. She starts walking into a building. This floating island is the size of a small city and the biggest building is in front of her.

She quickly walked inside. People are waiting for her, after all.

The lords of the island required her presence. They needed to talk about the state of this island. And taxes. And commerce.

“Boring stuff…” She mumbles out loud. She quickly opens the heavy doors to the building. Briskly walking past the front desk security guard, she walks down a hallway, filled with windows. She ignores the protest of the guard, who stands up, and starts yelling at her.

She just waltzed by him without checking into the council hall, after all. He gets a better look at the interloper, quickly realizing who he was bad mouthing.

He turns away quickly, dashing back towards his desk. Embarrassed. A wise decision, she thinks.

She quickly reaches her destination and opens the door with haste.

She is on a schedule, after all.