Prologue: The Universe's Secret, ATLANTIS
The claim that humanity had merely existed for less than a million years was flawed; completely erroneous and ridiculous. In fact, even the original lunarians were never the first to set foot on the moon and earth.
It was known that humans had existed for such a long time that even Heaven had not existed when humanity started. At that time, the ground was pure so there was no concern about death. In fact, it was said that the humans before the creation of Heaven were living in a utopia.
A world void of death.
A world without fear.
A world where all diseases were literally nonexistent.
A Pure Earth naturally untainted by impurity of any kind, not needing any type of artificial impurity prevention system.
A world where everything was explored deeply and thoroughly.
A world where everything could be explained through knowledge.
The humans of that era lived in a global country named Atlantis; a country that was known for its advanced technology and high standards of living.
It was said that even the lowest among them lived better than the best of lunarians at that time. That was how vast the difference in living standards between lunarians of today and the people of Atlantis from the past.
At the peak of the civilization, they could create Pure Lands with ease. While they were not expansionists, they had optimized their technology to their liking and at one point erased all earthquakes by creating a keystone that was also a Pure Land by itself.
For that reason, Atlantis remained as history's greatest civilization, unmatched even by the lunar capital itself.
However, the people of Atlantis had one major flaw.
As they lived in eternal bliss, they began to forget the gods and constantly enraged the gods.
They worshipped their own knowledge and abandoned the spiritual.
For the arrogant people, they believed that they were the gods; eternal and undying.
As punishment, the enraged god High Lord Amenominakanushi and a group of enlightened people lifted the keystone of Earth that was created by the Atlantis people through some complicated political planning and strategy and turned the keystone into another Pure Land known as Heaven. It remained as a perfect, untainted Pure Land even when exposed with impurities. It was a part of the lost Atlantis technology that lunarians could never replicate even after studying that world for thousands of years.
What followed was a major earthquake that crushed the whole civilization, turning everything into nothing. All life perished but a few humans that remained devout to the gods.
These humans would later be the noble gods as they received promotion from the All-Father, High Lord Amenominakanushi to rule over Earth and the solar system.
The lazy woman continued reading the ancient Earth history book originating from the lunar capital titled 'The Lost Civilization: Atlantis'.
She felt compelled to read the book after she found it while rummaging through Eirin's personal book shelf.
"As expected, Eirin really has a lot of books about these weird things that most people wouldn't even care about. But she's a super genius so I am confident she knows everything written here. Although it sounds like a fairytale even for me."
The knowledge regarding Atlantis was trivial to lunarians; it was common knowledge to them. However, Earth humans were clueless about the existence of this civilization.
As the lazy woman stretched her hands and flipped her body without any sign of motivation in her life, Eirin entered the room only to smile at the woman.
"Princess Kaguya, just what are you…"
Before she could finish her sentence, she had noticed the book that Kaguya was holding.
"Princess, since when are you interested with old Earth's history?"
The doctor gently asked as she approached Kaguya but the latter stared at Eirin with a face filled with curiosity.
"S-Say Eirin, do you believe in Atlantis?"
The doctor replied with a kind smile and a nod.
"So, it must be true then…about super humans roaming over Earth and this planet being a Pure Land before you were born. But then…" Kaguya stopped and thought, "if they were so great why did life on Earth perish after Great Grandfather created Heaven with his fellow gods? Couldn't they find a method to survive at least? Or foil All-Father's plans?"
The doctor stopped and thought for a moment. Kaguya's question was truly a brilliant one.
The doctor moved her finger and touched her chin as she tried to come up with an answer.
She was a super genius, a master of the mind, the fountain of knowledge even among lunarians. A sage among sages, known as The Brain of the Moon.
Yet she was not omniscient. There were instances when she could not fully predict something or come with the exact solution to something. Despite that, she was beyond any other being using the title 'Sage' in terms of intellect.
As smart as she was, she could not answer the question. To be more accurate, she would rather not answer the question because she was uncertain about the accuracy of her answer.
The only thing she could reply was: "Isn't that an interesting thing to ponder upon? They might have fled Earth for good. Just like how Lord Tsukuyomi and the rest of the founders of the capital left Earth for good."
Unsatisfied with the answer given, Kaguya poked Eirin's cheek playfully and said: "But you've returned to Earth after leaving it for so long."
Eirin replied with a pleasantly surprised look which subliminally agreed with Kaguya and said: "I'm home."
And laughter filled the room afterwards.
Yagokoro and Kaguya did not realize this but in a distant planet separated through space and time, with an estimated distance of 127000 light years from Earth there was an academic history class in a seemingly infinite-sized hall.
The hall was illuminated with golden light, yet it had a somewhat dark atmosphere within it. It gave the vibe of a cinema theater before the lights were turned off.
There were several hundred humans looking towards a single woman from beneath their seats as the woman spoke freely from her mind, without referring to anything.
"After the religious bigot known as Amenominakanushi, the last child of the last Prime Minister of Atlantis and his high-profiled pampered politician friends that were influenced by his lunatic religious ideas sabotaged the keystone on Terra and brought upon terror to the ordinary masses, our ancestors had no option but to flee from the chaos known as the Great Earthquake. While our ancestors never colonized other planets, faster-than-light travel was nothing new at that time allowing us to escape from the terror that wiped our traces on Earth to this world. Tyrador. Our home, our planet. To avoid the same mistake of not having backups, our ancestors have sent multiple spaceships to land in various planets in this region of space and colonize it as quickly as possible. Because of that, humanity has successfully become one of the most dominant species in the galaxy alongside our equal, rival and partner, the Meringians."
The students nodded as they listened thoroughly to their lecturer. They seemed to be fascinated by their lecturer's way of conveying the lesson in a narrative manner.
"Due to that reason, the current Tyradorian government formed a harsh stance on religion and has suppressed any attempts to revive religion and religious teachings to prevent the events of Atlantis from happening again. In many inferior civilizations, religion has been a cause for major wars and bloodshed. Crusades were launched, blood were spilled and opposing religion groups were slaughtered mercilessly in the name of some imaginary creatures created by the feeble mind trying to justify the reason behind the purpose of their existence. Among higher civilizations however, they have used religion as a tool to justify their lust for imperialism and expansionism. These civilizations played the roles of gods and demand worship from the inferiors arrogantly. We, as the most advanced civilization in the universe should never attempt to force our beliefs and system towards other existences. We should not bother to play the role of God and that is the harsh reality."
There was a woman in shrine maiden clothing sweeping the entrance of the Hakurei shrine diligently in the morning. She was smiling as she swept the dry leaves on the ground.
That woman, being a member of the Hakurei bloodline was crucial in maintaining the stability of Gensokyou although she seemed to be your average woman.
"Rukako!" another voice interjected.
The shrine maiden looked at the sky as she heard her name being called by someone. The voice originated from another woman that was flying on her broom and she landed swiftly and skillfully in front of the shrine.
"O-Oh…grandaunt Marisa! You're here!" the shrine maiden replied. "Lady Reimu is inside, drinking tea and enjoying herself."
"Oi, oi. Calling me a grandaunt makes me feel rather old, you know?"
"But you ARE old. Please realize that."
Ignoring the shrine maiden's words, Marisa slide the shrine door open and greeted her old friend, the shrine maiden of the Hakurei shrine when she was younger.
"Oi Reimu, are you just going to sit there and drink tea the whole day? Without me?"
The person drinking the cup of tea turned her attention to Marisa.
"Do you want to be exterminated, youkai? I suppose Rukako is not doing her job properly if she's allowing a youkai to enter this shrine."
Hearing that sentence, Marisa giggled. She recalled the old days when that woman would mutter words such as "Youkai Extermination Time".
"Hey now, you're slowly becoming like that old hag Kanako. Let that new habit of yours develop and you'll be the carbon copy of her someday. Literally. She might even take over the shrine"
"…Not in the slightest chance. Even though I'm a goddess now, I am still going to be like me when I'm still alive."
The magician sat beside the goddess of the shrine and took her cup of tea without any hesitation. That was the way it has always been since the old days.
"Why did you take so long to return? Waiting you for fifty years…it's a long time for me, you know?! I even ended up as a youkai in my current state."
During one of Marisa's magical experimentation some time ago, she had accidentally performed an anti-aging experiment which turned her into a magician like Alice and Patchouli. As such, she lost her humanity and had become a youkai magician like Alice. Despite that, she refrained herself from consuming humans and were considered harmless to humans.
As for Hakurei Reimu, she was worshipped after her death and subsequently received enough faith to oust the old Hakurei god and become the new goddess of her own shrine. However, unlike the former goddess she received plentiful amount of faith and as such obtained the capability to materialize in a physical form.
And fifty years has passed since Hakurei Reimu officially died and was replaced by her niece as the next generation Hakurei shrine maiden, only to be succeeded by Hakurei Rukako who was Reimu's grandniece.
In Gensokyou however, some things change while some do not.
The most obvious change was…
"GYAAAHH!"
It was the sound of Rukako shouting as loud as she could early in the bright morning, startling the two women inside the shrine.
"Reimu, you need to train that grandniece of yours even harder!" exclaimed another woman.
She had entered the shrine in a carefree expression and smiled at the two women.
Wearing a high school uniform, a black cloak and a sinister-looking hat, there was no need for introduction about the woman.
"…Sumireko," said Marisa.
The magician looked at the woman who originated from the outside world.
However, Usami Sumireko was no longer a human. She was a corporeal ghost akin to Yuyuko and had just descended from the Netherworld for some pleasure.
She passed away in the outside world a few years back and was judged to be a denizen of the Netherworld by Eiki. However, unlike other souls Sumireko's soul maintained a physical existence and took the corporeal form of herself when she first made her 'debut' into Gensokyou.
"Apologies! I just returned from the outside world after visiting my granddaughter Renko. She was visiting my grave. Obviously, she could not see me although somehow her friend Maribel sensed something about me…it gave me the shivers. A ghost being terrified by her granddaughter's friend, how funny."
Reimu and Marisa merely nodded as they listened to Sumireko's explanation. To the two who had experienced too much, that was nothing worth to be concerned about.
"O-Oh, by the way doesn't it feel that the barrier's a bit unstable these days?" the ghost continued asking. "I penetrated the barrier and definitely felt something weird about it."
Reimu merely sighed and pointed towards Rukako.
"It's her doing," Hakurei replied as she pointed at Rukako. "I was training her the ability to control the boundary between Gensokyou and the outside world. Man, this is all Yukari's fault for leaving Gensokyou for good after handing me all her abilities."
The three women stared at each other in silence as they remembered the youkai of boundaries, Yakumo Yukari.
After Reimu ascended to godhood, Yukari had given the new goddess all her boundary-manipulating abilities except for a few while exclaiming that she wanted to 'disappear for some time and enjoy herself', leaving Gensokyou under Reimu's absolute control.
"Yukari, that idiot of a youkai…I can't help but wonder about her well-being these days," muttered Reimu in a somewhat melancholic manner.
Marisa merely slapped Reimu's back and replied: "It's Yukari we're talking about. She'll be fine wherever she is, except at the lunar capital. Ehehe…anyway, isn't it about time you train Rukako today?"
For Reimu who has always been lazy, hearing the term 'training' boggled her mind. Even though she was not the one undergoing the training process, just overseeing her grandniece was a tiring thing to do.
"A-Ah…I'm so lazy to train her today…Can't we call it a day? How the heck is Kanako able to train that greenhead every day last time?"
Sumireko grinned.
"That greenhead…you mean, Kochiya Sanae?" the ghost replied.
The shrine maiden of the Moriya shrine from the outside world who entered Gensokyou before Sumireko did, the ghost found her intriguing as someone with a similar background.
"She's been missing with Nitori for a hundred years now. Rumors had it that they were already dead," replied Marisa nonchalantly as she recalled something from the past. "It happened after an explosion was heard at the mountain foot and besides the two, only Momiji was around."
"But if they're dead, wouldn't Komachi or Eiki know? Perhaps Hecatia?" interrupted Reimu, somehow unsatisfied with Marisa's answer. "Unless their souls wander off…and become vengeful spirits? Oh crap…I've exterminated a lot of vengeful spirits in my lifetime…I might have killed them as well."
It was not impossible for people dying in such tragedies to become vengeful spirits that were unsatisfied with life.
"Apologies Sanae, Nitori…rest in peace," Hakurei continued as she gave her prayers and blessings.
Sumireko merely scratched her forehead and gave a forced laughter as she heard Reimu.
(I'm glad I did not end up a vengeful spirit!)
There was a planet located 127,000 light years away from the solar system. It was located at a region of space at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy.
This planet was the planet where the descendants of Atlantis had called 'home' after the Great Quake. A Pure World that will never be tainted by impurity, this civilization has been at the pinnacle of the universe since establishment.
This civilization and this planet was exceptionally great that even the region where this planet was located had been named after it.
It was named Tyrador and the civilization living on it was known as the Confederation of Tyrador.
This planet resembled Earth in many ways. It was a blue planet with greenery and clouds covering the atmospheric layers of the planet. It was similarly sized and possessed many features that were similar to Earth.
However, there were two major contrasts Tyrador had compared to Earth.
Tyrador's seas covered only sixty percent of the planet unlike Earth which had seventy five percent of its surface covered with water. However, there were plentiful fresh water sources on the ground of Tyrador. Thus, the amount of water available in Tyrador was sufficient to fill the demands of three billion people living on the planet.
Secondly, the vast continents and islands of Tyrador were located at the northern hemisphere. There was only one island at the size of Australia located at the southern hemisphere and it was a major plantation site without any human settlement.
However, the view of Tyrador from space was different from Earth.
From the outside of the planet, numerous spaceships could be seen through various spaceports as people and items flooded the ports actively.
Alien cargos could be seen stopping by and going forth, trading goods and services in the ports.
Despite the majestic view of a prosperous space faring civilization that an earthling or a lunarian could only see in science fiction movies, things were quite different on Tyradorian soil.
Under the dim light of the stars and spaceships illuminating the dark sky of Tyrador, a certain green-haired woman was running frantically as she escaped her pursuers.
She looked around her and saw couples walking everywhere while doing sweet gestures. For the woman who has never dated anyone, it made her somewhat irritated to see couples walking while she was running away from her own trouble.
"This is crazy! Why am I wasting my life on such trivial issues! I am Kochiya Sanae, my destiny is surely meant to be greater than this!"
Even as she realized that her tone was somewhat awkward and forced, she forced her legs to continue running as her muscles continued breaking ATP and supplied her with the necessary energy to run.
Why did this happen to me?! Kochiya thought.
She turned her back only to observe the group of fifteen seemingly male teenagers chasing after her relentlessly. It was presumably a self-declared group that were nothing but delinquents causing trouble late at night.
Five of them were armed with psionic blades attached to their limbs. The blades were three meters long, and Kochiya did not want to fight anyone wielding such long weapons.
Psionic blades were sword-like energy weapons made by focusing psionic energy to focusers that were ring-shaped and attached to the arms of the wielder. Upon activation, the focuser attracted all psionic energy from the mind to the limb, creating an energy sword that could easily slice through diamonds of the highest class. Depending on the user of the focusers, a blade might even be able to slice through rigid buildings or even mountains.
For Kochiya Sanae who had been in the run for a tenth of an hour while covering a nonsensical distance of 120 kilometers across the endlessly stretching concrete forest, she could only fret inside her heart. She did not feel like going into a physical brawl against a group of people outnumbering her in terms of numbers and weapons.
The greenhead believed that if she could outrun them without even landing her fist onto their bodies she would proudly exclaim it as her victory. Incidentally, she believed that she had the stamina to continue running for at least two hours at her current speed without any rest while the group of people chasing her had already weakened their bodies and minds with alcohol.
"This bitch really has some endurance! Stop right there!" shouted the delinquents angrily as they chased her.
Sanae resisted the urge to reply as she wanted to conserve her energy as much as possible.
(Those failures should really thank me for saving their sorry asses from being wiped out!)
She continued forcing her legs forward.
After another thirty kilometers of sweaty and teary running, she exited the urban area and came to a large river. A large metal bridge spanned the river, about 300 meters across, and no cars could be seen on it. Not lit up, the plain metal bridge was wrapped in an eerie darkness much like a midnight sea.
She turned around only to notice that her pursuers were no longer running frantically after her.
(Did I outrun them?)
Feeling victorious, she bent her knees and wiped her sweat using her white sleeved coat drenched in her sweat. She was wearing a white coat that resembled a laboratory coat and formal work attire.
She could feel the moisture inside her long, black pants and leather shoes originating from the sweat excreted from her sweat gland. Her clothes were waterproof and would not turn smelly from sweat through some advanced fabric technology but the moisture accumulating inside gave her a sense of unpleasantness.
"A-Ah, I'm beat!"
Kochiya Sanae resisted the urge to sit down and lifted her gaze to the night, starry sky of Tyrador.
She had successfully resolved the issue without resorting to violence and it was something worth celebrating. Kochiya gave a sigh of relief.
"I can't believe that you actually think that you outran them, silly!"
Sanae's body froze as she heard the voice. She recognized the voice very well.
As she turned her gaze to the source of the voice, she saw the silhouette of a woman covered in darkness. A mere human from Earth would be uncomfortable with such situations, but the situation in Tyrador was totally different from the solar system.
"Hey, don't tell me…you didn't kill them, right?" Kochiya asked.
"Hmm…I did suffocate them, but I spared their lives. No doubt about that."
As Kochiya Sanae's eyes had finally adjusted to the intensity of light of her surrounding, she finally saw the person talking to her.
It was a light blue haired person with twin tails. She was rather short for an adult Tyradorian, and was wearing a blue dress shirt and a light blue pants.
"Sanae, do you think of yourself as a police officer or a prosecutor? Perhaps a teacher or a lecturer responsible to educate those delinquents?"
Indeed, the reason Kochiya Sanae was chased by the delinquents was because of the woman standing before her. She had never intended to save the woman from the delinquents, instead she was saving the delinquents from the woman.
That woman was someone with ability, and a very powerful ability on top of that. Someone like Kochiya could only hope to possess even a slight trait of such power.
"I was about to manipulate their blood flows and hospitalize them, but you went in my way and made them turn their attention towards you. What a benevolent person you are, hahaha!"
"Nitori, you don't have to go that far just to handle such people. Ga-ha-ha! Give me some time to breathe. Ever since I was discharged from the forced military conscription seventy years ago, I have never been feeling this low."
The woman named Kawashiro Nitori replied by looking at her surrounding region.
There was the sound of water flowing gently beneath the bridge.
"Well…you could have beaten them. They were using psionic blades so they aren't even that powerful if you think about it."
"I told you, I don't like putting my life on the line for ridiculous reasons."
"Is that so? Then I guess I should help you buckle up for tonight…"
As soon as Kawashiro Nitori finished her sentence, the water beneath the bridge rose and formed a powerful pillar that charged directly towards Kochiya Sanae. The pressure of the pillar was enough to crush the whole region apart, and it was beyond anything a kappa or a kishin could pull off.
In response, the woman swung her right fist and the pillar of water lost its formation immediately. It became ordinary water that quickly rushed over the bridge and made Kochiya wet. The greenhead's clothing was waterproof, but Kochiya could feel the chillness of river water running through her body.
"NITORI!" Kochiya screamed in fury.
The short woman could only laugh as she saw Sanae wet. The water somehow avoided the short woman and thus she remained dry unlike Kochiya.
"So, are you refreshed now?" asked Nitori after she finished her laughter. "But seriously, your ability is weird. Even after knowing you for a hundred years, I still wonder about your weird ability. Even though you undergo the Tyradorian Psychic Development Curriculum, I highly doubt that you can end up with such a weird power. If you wanted, you could even destroy the psionic blades with the touch of your finger. It's as if you're destroying miracles with that hand of yours."
Kochiya Sanae looked at her two hands and stared at them for a moment.
God Killer.
It was the ability to defy even the omnipotent being.
Every supernatural ability ranging from psychic powers as simple as telepathy and telekinesis to ridiculously overpowered abilities that could be attributed to God would be nullified by the woman.
God's miracles, psychic abilities, magical powers, divine powers and immortality meant nothing before her power. She would nullify everything and turn even the omnipotent God into a mere mortal.
She did not know for how long she had wielded this power. After losing her memories due to a certain incident with Kawashiro Nitori, she woke up in a hospital bed in this planet with Nitori lying beside her without any knowledge of her past.
The doctor in charge confirmed that their memories were impossible to retrieve even with the advanced Tyradorian technology since their bodies and souls were 'void of information'.
It simply meant that if Eiki used her Cleansed Crystal Mirror, she would not be able to see Sanae's past before her memory lost. That was just how ridiculous the situation was.
"Enough of that nonsense. Let's go home already," Kochiya replied as she looked at Kawashiro with a somewhat displeased expression.
Nitori replied with a cheerful smile carved on her face, and Kochiya was defeated by the smile of her housemate and lost her anger almost immediately.
Author's note: Finally. Lol, I feel like editing the story after being inactive for some time. Sorry for the change and the late update (blame my university life and Trump for that haha!). Anyway, as usual the influence of TAMNI, Starcraft, Steins;Gate and Zero no Tsukaima is there as I write this story. Enjoy, and please leave your review. (Slam me, if possible)