Dreams of Rebirth

June 1, 202X. Planet: Earth Location: A Developing Country.

Humanity Iteration: 5

Universal Edict: Perfectam Aeternitatem

The hitmen stared at Synthara, as if their minds could not register what they were seeing, a scantily clad woman floating down from a shattered, smouldering balcony. It was only natural for lesser beings, apes, to be in awe of one who has mastered magic, a witch.

Or maybe they were just in awe of there being a half-naked woman in front of them. I must not look very witchlike at the moment, I should change that.

I willed the strings from earlier to envelop my body, twisting and weaving themselves according to the outfit I had in my mind.

I heard gunshots followed by the familiar whizzing of bullets just barely missing me.

“Oh my, a lady should not change in front of an audience. How embarrassing.” I said with a faux embarrassed smile followed with a girly laugh.

I willed the strings to form a ball around me, hiding me from sight. I was surrounded in a sphere of rainbow light, the light slightly bulging whenever the bullets struck but never breaking. These light rays resumed enveloping me, feeling as if strands of the softest silk in the world were gently caressing my body.

It took over a minute for me to change my blood-stained and bullet-marked underwear to something more fashionable. Then another one to finalize the details on the design I had in mind since I was a child. This was my big moment to make a grand entrance as an all-powerful witch, I refused to make my debut looking like some half-naked ape!

The sphere coalesced around my body and formed my new outfit. A black shoulderless dress with the bottom consisting of four back tassels and a middle tassel with an abstract flame on it. It came with long detached sleeves, a black garterbelt that had black ribbons wrapped down my leg all the way to my foot, a ruby amulet tied between my neck and breasts, and a black metal neck crest that reached almost past my head. My hair flowed like a waterfall of darkness over the top of the crest and the holes at the bottom. Combined with the icy wind and snow, I was a flowing shadow in a sea of white and grey.

The hitmen unfortunately lacked an appreciation for fashion and fired their rifles. Hmm, how to defend myself? These bullets were mere dew drops compared to the faucet of power overflowing from me, I just had to provide an outlet for it. What shape should that outlet be?

In the second I thought about how to defend myself, one of the bullets hit me in the eye.

Or rather, it was supposed to. The bullet came as an instantly expanding black dot amidst a sea of white that was consumed in a flash of light, nearly blinding me due to its proximity. What was supposed to have crushed my eyeball merely stung it as if it were a grain of sand rather than a chunk of metal. I looked down and realized several of the bullets had already struck me to no effect. They either shattered against my new clothes or were turned to ash the moment they touched my skin akin to a wood chipper.

The power within me threatened to erupt from within me, as if urging me to use it. It was time for a practical test.

I lowered my hand and raised it in a scooping motion, imagining that I held a white-hot roiling sphere of flame from the hellhole that is my heart and raised it into the light of reality. I felt the will of reality trying to correct this anomaly, gravity felt heavier as it tried to pull it down, the wind seemed to pick up speed trying to blow it out, the very flame itself tried to burn out as if recognizing that it is defying reality and attempting to kill itself in penance..

My will is stronger than reality.

A fireball the size of a large boulder imploded into existence above my finger. With a delicate motion, she lowered her finger and the fireball descended upon the hitmen. In a massive explosion the once white covered courtyard was in flames and the loud cacophony of firing rifles was supplanted by crackling fire.

The remaining hitmen stopped their firing, not believing their eyes. A woman floating in the air shooting fire and rainbows? They were not paid to deal with this insanity. They rushed to their vehicles and zoomed off onto the thin mountain pass, barely wide enough for a car.

I could only look upon the destruction I have wrought with awe and ecstasy. Ever since I was a child I had dreamed of casting fireball, a magical classic. Despite my best efforts, none of the weapons, chemical compounds or bombs I made came close to satisfying that desire. But now I had real power in my hands. Absolute. Elegant. Unlimited. Power.

“Ah, I wonder if I can make familiars.”

I sprouted wings of fire from my back and moved my hands to cast another spell. This time I imagined a long, serpentine dragon of fire emerging from my sleeve. It sputtered for a few seconds but I manifested a snake-like dragon and beckoned it to pursue the fleeing apes. I then began to fly down the mountain, no longer levitating but being thrusted forward like a jet.

The flame dragon took advantage of its almost incorporeal nature and consumed the vans, flying straight through them in circular flight motions. When the dragon fully passed through them, the vans were reduced to a hunk of flaming metal and flesh, the flames also igniting the fuel and oil within and causing explosions. The explosions shook the mountain enough that it caused a landslide, causing one van to slip and fall down the mountain as the exit was blocked.

One van managed to reach the pass entrance, where I was waiting. I was close enough to see the mad desperation of the driver, deluding into thinking he could end this nightmare by running me down. I smiled in a sadistic grin and could not help but let out a giggle at the ape unaware of the inevitability of his own fate.

As the vehicle reached the opened gate, the vehicle and the driver’s adrenaline contorted face was suddenly sliced horizontally as the van drove into a wall of nearly invisible string. The strings were so fine that the van barely lost any momentum, causing horizontally cut hunks of van and human to hurtle forward, to which I effortlessly flew out of the way and enjoyed the sight of metal, rubber, and flesh scattering across the road. The dragon, the size of an upright bear from foot to head and was seven of the hitmen vans long, returned to my side and circled in the air around me.

I took it all in, the burning manor in the distance, the ravaged mountain pass, a long smeared mix of vehicle and meat below me.

Not enough. This brief altercation was akin to sprinkling water on an erupting volcano. The stronger a beast becomes, the stronger its appetite.

I created four more wings and flew in the direction of the government facility that used to be my workplace, flame dragon in tow.

It also happened to be a military base filled with test subjects for my powers. Thoughts of shattering my superior’s illusions of power after years of having to bow and play niceties with them ran through my mind.

While I cackled and salivated, I noticed that a missile was heading towards me on the horizon. It seemed the trigger happy SAM operators had deemed me worthy of their ballistic blessing, perfect timing, there was an idea I wanted to experiment with.

I extended my will towards the missile and imagined that its propulsion system slowed down. There was no obvious change as I passed by the missile. But as I turned back to pursue the missile its speed had reduced drastically, allowing me to catch it easily. I stood upon it and imagined the propulsion system igniting again, this time enhanced with magic and gave it flame wings in order to better steer it. The wings attached to me served to make it go faster. The missile let out a roar as it was reignited with more power than before.

I cackled in childish glee as my mad idea of riding a missile like a surfboard worked. Magic reigns supreme!

In response, two more missiles were fired at me, two more to add to my collection. They were added to both my flanks, with the dragon above me.

Then I saw an entire wing of 20 fighter jets rapidly closing in, firing their machine guns.

I doubled the amount of wings I had and thrust myself towards the jets. If I cannot surpass modern weaponry, then what good am I as a witch?

I laughed. “Look what you need to mimic even a fraction of my power!” I accepted their challenge and charged towards them.

I could destroy them all in a single blast, but I wanted to show all the military officials that were watching just how outclassed their little toys were. It's no fun to just end their lives so unceremoniously, they should die with the honor of being assistants for my little show. With that in mind, even though my defenses are sufficient against their weapons, I wanted to try doing it without a single bullet hitting me. I danced in between all of their bullets and missiles with elegance and precision no modern jet could match and countered with blasts of fire. When one of them pursued me I led it to another jet and made a hard right at the last moment, the jet could not slow down in time and crashed into their ally. They may as well have been children on tricycles. The dragon and my missiles moved in perfect sync with me, acting like blades held by an invisible hand. When the 20 jets were reduced to 4 they began to retreat, as if I would let them off so easily.

They tried to split up, in response I sent my missiles and dragon after them and left one for myself.

I pursued them but deliberately slowed my pace to draw it out and toy with them a bit more. This was far too much fun. When I finally closed the distance, I had the missile maintain speed beside them to hop off of it and on to the jet, casually strolling over to the cockpit. The pilot looked on in bewilderment and horror, trying to spin his jet so that I would fall off. My wing thrusters adjusted their thrust accordingly to keep me from falling. Seeing that resistance was futile, he ejected himself out of the cockpit and released his parachute, how cute.

I went over to the cockpit, looked over the controls, and used my strings to form a mental link between the jet and my mind. I had the jet turn around and closed the cockpit, opting to stand behind it with my arms crossed, the wind blowing through my hair and fabric as the dragon and missiles regrouped with me, seeing the falling results of their carnage in the distance.

No, I'm still not satisfied. Not nearly, I had yet to face the king of all modern weapons. I had my entourage of three missiles and a dragon follow me as we headed back towards my old work place.

Ah right, I almost forgot.

I beckoned the dragon to go back towards the man in the parachute and burn his strings. Shortly I heard a faint scream in the distance.

-

I continued onwards to the base, noticing I was faster than before. Within minutes, I had arrived and landed in the middle of the base’s airstrip, crashing my missile entourage onto the base with loud explosions. Now all of its spotlights and defenses were on me.

They did not hesitate and fired their weapons to no avail. I casually walked through their hail of gunfire, my nearly invisible string barrier blocking all attacks. Some tried to come at me with knives and suicide bomb attempts. The former was sliced to ribbons while the latter’s bombs were rendered inert and also sliced to ribbons. Any tanks or vehicles that stood in my way were blown up or cut to pieces. Eventually the hail of bullets and explosives stopped and was replaced with the silence of frightened men.

“It seems you are done with your temper tantrum, are you ready to be disciplined?”

The base’s garrison was destroyed within a minute. Is it just me, or were the bullets getting slower? My attacks were also becoming bigger and more destructive. I was growing stronger by the second. All of that and I still felt like I was about to burst with power. It felt amazing, I needed to test the limits of my power even more. All that's left were those in the command center.

I flew up to the window of the command center and saw the frightened faces of some of my old coworkers. The gossip mongerer, the manager who demanded everything and gave little in return, the envious scientists who sabotaged my work. All of them seemed so small now.

“Open the window.”

They scurried to comply and floated in, slightly singing the edges of the windows that weren't opened. They immediately got on their knees and begged for their lives, practically hammering their foreheads onto the steel floor.

“Please forgive me!”

“I dont want to die!”

“You are the superior scientist, no, you are a god, I see that now. I will worship you for the rest of my life! Just please spare me!”

God?

Flashbacks of floggings for not perfectly memorizing scriptures, immense guilt, being forced to live against my will appeared in my mind.

No, I am beyond that.

The lash is in my hands now.

“Tell me, what is a god? Do not give me sycophantic prattlings, I want your hearts laid bare.”

They went silent for a moment, whether it was to formulate a response or waiting for someone to speak up first was unclear.

“A tool to control the poor.” said the gossip monger.

“Rulers of mankind and the source of all that is good and holy.” said the manager.

“A creator of reality as we know it.” said the scientist.

“Do you know what the underlying thread between all of that is?”

The three remained silent.

“Domination.” I turned my back and floated to the opened window and looked at the wasteland beyond.

“Man defied god by eating the forbidden fruit and was cast out of paradise as punishment. What gnawed at me was why god could not just forgive them or undo their mistake? Why did it leave the tree within man’s reach if it did not want it to be touched? Did this transgression really matter so much in the grand scheme of things, especially if you claim to fully control the grand scheme itself? People would twist themselves into knots trying to justify and make sense of God's actions while reconciling it with it being almighty and merciful, saying that its plan is beyond human understanding. If so then it has failed both in making its intentions known and making a product capable of understanding said intentions. Despite it all, it still has millions of worshippers devoting their whole lives, even committing atrocities in its name, to live according to its arbitrary standards. To be so incompetent, so uncaring, so cruel and yet have others fawn over you just for existing, that is domination.”

I turned back towards the groveling apes, though my gaze looked beyond them.

“Is it not frightening to have an entity that makes a mockery of the concept of privacy? An entity that, despite being the most powerful being to exist, demands absolute submission to its vague and incomprehensible will and judges you by some arbitrary standard? A standard, that thanks to its ambiguity and lack of enforcement, is co-opted by apes that seek to dominate other apes? What do we do against such evil? Who can save us?”

Suddenly I felt an unusual pressure in my mind, as if a dam broke and a tidal wave surged forth. With the wave came clarity. I could not stop the wave of thoughts if I wanted to. There was no turning back. I know what I must do to cure the disease.

“A being who, in spite of being destined to lose, chose to resist and fight against the ultimate tyranny to the end.”

I dug up the deepest, darkest flame from the depths of my soul and manifested it in my hand, a cruel slash of a smile creeping on my lips. It was less a flame and more a void of pure hate and destruction that vaguely resembled fire. The three apes shivered and backed away from it.

“The Devil King.”

“Ah, it seems a cockroach has found itself in my garden.”

Synthara felt an overwhelming presence behind her, radiating enough light that it felt as if it was daytime. She turned around and saw a woman in a white dress with flowing white hair. She looked exactly like herself except taller and with blue eyes, which radiated disgust as if she was looking at a bug beneath her feet.

The sniveling apes behind her were forgotten. “That's funny, because I just got that same feeling.” Synthara said as she looked up definitely at the entity before her. This overwhelming presence, that holier than thou attitude, the shining light that screams tyrannical purity. This was exactly the kind of attitude she expected from an all-powerful tyrant masquerading as a merciful paragon of virtue. Those were the worst types of tyrants, she would respect god as a deity infinitely more if they just embrace the fact they are a tyrant that invented mankind solely for the purpose of being their cheerleaders for eternity that live and die at their whim.

She never expected God to be a woman, but what else could it be? She felt an overwhelming desire to kill the entity before her no matter the cost. She had dreamed of this moment, she was no longer a powerless child, she could finally purge the shadow that has been cast over her since she was born and live in the light.

She will finally be perfect.

“You must be God, finally came down from your heavenly throne just for me?”

“God? Wh-” The entity started laughing in her own voice. “You really don't know anything don't you? I am far beyond the likes of a fleeting delusion of humanity. I had made sure to create a world where no more ‘challengers’ would crawl out of the woodwork, after all, what kind of stupid, ignorant bore would not only fail to see the beauty of the world I have created, but also have the gall to raise their flag in rebellion?”

The entity suddenly locked eyes with Synthara, blue eyes radiating light. “You apparently, your very presence is offensive to all of existence. Prostrate yourself, apologize for being born, and die as penance.”

Synthara felt golden chains restrain her while the white figure threw a golden spear at her chest. In response she exploded fire to destroy the entire base they were standing in. The figure in white stood behind a light barrier in the air above the destroyed base as the woman before her shook off the destroyed chains. Synthara spat on the ground.

“I could say the same thing to you.”

Synthara and ‘god’ clashed in the air with a barrage of fireballs and beams of light. The desert around the base was turned into a burning, blasted wasteland. Mountains were leveled in a magical dogfight. Hundreds of familiars, angels, demons, dragons, died in great masses.

Eventually Synthara found an opening in ‘god’s’ defenses and exploded towards them, tackling them through buildings until they impacted on the ground. As flames clashed against light, she brought her flaming fists down on “god’s” surprised face like a hammer on a nail, exploding like a bomb with every single punch.

‘God’ was surprised and terrified at her ferocity. They had never been pushed this far before. ‘H-how is she so powerful!? No Demon King has displayed such might without the Throne supporting them!?’  ‘God’ freed their hands and caught Synthara’s fists, trying to blast her hands with light while Synthara tried to do the same with fire. They screamed as they pushed against each other, culminating into a mutual headbutt that caused an explosion of built up energy.

Both parties breathed heavily as they flew out of the smoke and debris and stared at each other in the sky, catching their breath. Neither were used to prolonged battles like this. ‘God’ quickly recomposed themselves.

“I will engrave the name of the deity that will slay you, be honored that the words to come out of your putrid mouth will be the name of the master of the universe. Burn the name Aeturnus, creator of Perfection into your head, freak!”

Synthara was about to give her own name, but found that it was not her name anymore. That was the name of a scared, powerless child. Her soul told her she was now destruction incarnate, the very concept of violence, ruination, and desolation personified. That was what defined her soul, the rallying cry threatening to overturn the world order.

“I am Destruction.”