In the far-off world of Szetha, there was once a young girl named Rael.
Born into poverty, she lived in the shadows of the great houses that warred for power. This small, insignificant girl, would later shake the world when she found and bonded with one of their worlds mighty god-beasts, Kamish, the red shadow. With this awesome Goliath by her side, she would rise to topple the great houses, and unite the world under her rule for centuries in an unprecedented era of peace and progress, securing her legacy as the greatest ruler of the world.
Now, centuries after she first met her fated partner, Empress Rael kneels defeated, looking on in sorrow as Kamish, her oldest and closest companion, lay dead. His gigantic body pierced through by a dozen lances of brilliant red light.
"Y'know, you mortals always make a big deal out of it whenever you hear the word 'god'. It's a dumb word if you ask me." said the figure who had slain Kamish, who now sat lazily on his head, looking down at the vanquished empress.
"I mean, take this thing." the woman said, stabbing a dagger made of red light into one of Kamish's four eyes, "your people called it a 'god-beast' and automatically assumed it was invincible... at least now you know better. Where I come from, we would call it a 'celestial dragon lord', a rare creature to be sure, but in the grand scheme of things, utterly inconsequential. I'll admit, it was really feisty, I would've loved to keep it as a pet, but I got a little too overzealous in the fight."
"H-he had lived for hundreds of thousands of years," Rael stuttered, her voice quivering, "He has been here since before living memory of our people."
"Wow! Hundreds of thousands of years? That's such a long time," the other woman said, her tone dripping with sarcastic mockery, "Age is a weird thing, though. You people think this lump of flesh is impressive because it's a few hundred millennia old? Me and my siblings have been around for thousands of its lifetimes. Hell, I've been on this current campaign of mine for over a million years... well, I call it a campaign, but it's more of a side quest really."
Rael balked. A million years, on a side quest?
Above, the mighty floating citadels fell from the sky, in flames. Rael had once toured those castles with her daughters, and their daughters and granddaughters.
"You destroyed our sky castles," Rael noted, "Why? They had no armaments."
"They were in the way," the woman shrugged, "They weren't that impressive though, one nuclear strike and they went up like kindling. Such shoddy workmanship, it's a miracle they lasted as long as they did."
"So, what happens now?" Rael asked, looking the other woman in the eye, "are you going to kill me?"
"Nah, you're the strongest thing on this rock," the woman said, standing up and stretching her six scarlet wings, "I'm sure I'll find some use for you."
She looked back at the great 'god-beast'... what was its name again? Catfish? ...Karma-risk? ...Krakatoa? It didn't really matter anymore, since it was dead now. With a snap of her fingers, the giant lances that propped up its massive body vanished and it crashed onto the ground with a thunderous thud that shook the land.
She pets its snout, "Whatever your name was, you would've made a great pet; I'd take you on walks through the void, we'd crush a few worlds underfoot, it would've been so fun."
Another red-winged being descended behind her, this one baring four wings.
"Arnax, how goes the harvest?" she asks, casually
"We have located the World Tree, and will begin the extraction shortly."
"Good," she said, heaving a sigh,
"Is something wrong, my lady?" Arnax asked
"Our intelligence said this world was supposed to be formidable, yet it fell so easily." she lamented, waving her hand lazily at the apocalyptic landscape before her, "I'm a little disappointed honestly. I expected a bit more of a fight." she heaved another sigh, "Anyway, were we at least able to get any good stock?"
"Aside from the dragon you personally bested, the surviving World Pillars seem to meet our requirements," Arnax reported, "they will be processed shortly."
"Excellent," the woman said, "see to it that this mortal is processed. She was bonded to this thing, so she may share in its characteristics."
Then, a holographic window suddenly appeared beside her. She read it silently, her eyes widening in surprise.
"What has happened, my lady?" Arnax asked
"Arkaronn...?" she said
"The Deserter? Has he finally shown himself?" Arnax scowled, "Should I dispatch a team to apprehend him for judgement?"
"He's been shattered." she interrupted "and he was hiding out... near Uone, of all places."
Arnax stopped, "sh-shattered?"
"Only something of equal power to us could shatter a high titan," the woman said, an excited smile on her face, "Once we're done here, I need to look into this."
"Very well," Arnax bowed, "I will instruct the legion of the new heading."
"No." The woman said, "If we detour the whole campaign, it'll take us at least a few centuries to reach that planet? But if I go with a small elite force, we could move faster than light and easily reach the planet within a few years at the latest. It appears that old planet still has some more surprises left for me."
"Of course, my Lady." Arnax nodded, "I will draft a list of candidates for you."
"Good, see that you do." She said, "I'm going to go get a better view."
As she flew away, rocketing higher into the atmosphere at impossible speeds.
Rael looked up at Arnax, "I know what you are now,"
Arnax turned to her, as if only just noticing she was still there, "Oh? And what is that, mortal?"
"You are the Star Gods," she said, with a crazed smirk on her lips, "Kamish used to tell me tales of your kind; the things of starlight, and your endless war against the hungry dark. I thought you outer gods were just myth; a fairy-tale our gods told their children at night."
He glared at her with disdain, "You speak of gods as if the word actually means something,"
"Kamish knew of your kind well, but he never mentioned anything like her," Rael said, looking up to see the six-winged woman, throwing giant red energy bolts at the moon, carving some sort of marking on the lunar surface, large enough that it could be seen clearly from the ground.
"That, mortal, is her Ladyship, the 2nd Prime, Thea Po Kalyso, also known as the Lord of Ruin. Leader of the 2nd great titan legion, and your new master."
"She will pay for what she has done here today," Rael sneered, "that I promise."
"And what makes you think that?" Arnax questioned, "what can an insignificant thing like you do to something like her?"
"Nothing," Rael said with a smile, "but I don't have to. She said it herself; somewhere on another world is something powerful enough to slay one of you."
"Well, the one that was slain was barely a high titan," Arnax scoffed, "and to compare the likes of Arkaronn to the Prime is utter foolishness."
* * *
As Thea Po Kalypso stepped onto the Cosmic Plane, it felt good to shed her incarnate vessel. She needed freedom of motion to improve her penmanship on this moon. Writing was so hard for her.
It was at that time, when a gold flash of energy drew her attention.
She turned to see a two-winged titan, only this one was golden.
She beamed.
{Ah, come to check in on me, big brother?} she grinned
{When are you going to get over this million-year rut you've been in? Your detour is starting to annoy the others.} the golden titan said, with a voice and presence that wasn't it's own.
{They don't care about my detour,} Thea Po pouted, {they're off doing their own things nowadays, and barely care about anything anymore. Not since...}
{We do not speak of that time!} the golden titan snapped.
Thea glared at it, {You wouldn't mind if I shattered this envoy would you? I mean, it's just a two-winged grunt. You've got a million more, right?}
{No, every titan in my legion is precious.} the golden envoy said, its hand trembling slightly
{I'd bring you back all of its shards.} she promised, {don't you need more test subjects for your revival experiments?}
{No, we are already making progress with the shards we've been able to recover,} the envoy said, {we've already begun seeing promising results in reconstituting an ego from the shards.}
{Pity,} Thea Po pouted, caressing the envoy's face with her hands, {I've grown fond of the sounds they make as they start to crack.}
She presses her thumb into the envoys cheeks, as tiny white cracks begin to form across its face,
The envoy is frozen, it's fear evident, then Thea Po lets it go.
{I'll be good,} she said with bright smile. {He said not to break you, and I wouldn't want to make my big brother angry... not again.}
The envoy's eyes dart briefly to one of her six winds, which is shredded and cracked. The punishment she suffered for her actions on Uone a million years ago.
{By the way,} Thea Po started, {I'll be going on a personal trip for a bit, shouldn't take more than a decade.}
{Does this have anything to do with Arkaronn's sudden shattering?}
{You felt that too?}
{Of course,} the envoy transmitted, {I was actually going to ask you to investigate.}
{I already have a lead,} she beamed
{Good, let me know when you find something actionable,} the envoy said, before leaving
She watched it fly away at light speed, knowing she could easily catch up to it and shatter it if she so chose to.
She hadn't shattered one of her kind in ages, the others kept complaining, and big brother had to step in. She didn't understand why they were so upset with her? She was hand-crafted to be the embodiment of destruction. She was made to unmake things.
Shrugging to herself, she turned back to her work.
She flicked an orb of angry red energy, no bigger than a drop of blood, at the moon. Once it made contact, it left a massive impact crater as it pierced through the celestial object with enough power to slowly destabilize it, until it eventually broke apart and came raining down on whatever was left of the planet.
But that wouldn't be until much later, at least another century or so, if she'd timed it right. This would probably be the last world she could ransack with impunity, and she was strangely okay with that. Something interesting was finally happening, which meant there would be something worth breaking again.
"I wonder if I can trigger a conceptual collapse within the planet this time?" She mused to herself as she floated above her latest conquest.