Of Metempsychosis and Paranoia | Calculations and Preparations
Prologue

Eons ago, there existed a Demon, the last of her kind, whose mere name was enough to strike terror into the hearts of those who knew of her feats.

She was brutal, merciless and cruel, wreaking havoc and leaving a mess everywhere she went for nothing but her own amusement.

She was so powerful that not even the ancient Gods and Goddesses wished to cross paths with her, for fear of death, as there was nothing she could not kill. Be it Gods or Dragons, nothing would survive clash with her, unless she expressly allowed it to. And those that were allowed to survive, would kill themselves or go into hiding in fear of facing her again, as to them, she had become their constant nightmare.

For several millennia, she terrorized the World, gaining nicknames and titles far too many for her to remember; however, only one had stuck to her as it was the very same one she was widely known by.

The Extinction Queen.

She had brought many races to extinction- races that no one were able to record down into History- for her own sick amusement.

She was a hedonist of the highest order, who sought pleasure through battles, blood, gore, death and sex. Her arrogance and pride were limitless, as she could not only back them up, but demonstrate the reasons for them with frightening ease.

She would feed on the darker emotions of Humans such as despair, anguish, hatred, rage, and disgust, and empower herself in and out of battles, and soon enough, she had become the Third Strongest Being in existence right after Ophis, the Ouroboros Dragon, and Great Red, the Dragon of Dreams.

Despite her arrogance and pride, she was intelligent, smart and level-headed, she knew how and when to choose her fights and avoid the ones that would end up in her death. Therefore, she never challenged the only two beings who were stronger than her, as fighting them would result in her death.

Ophis, the Ouroboros Dragon was the manifestation of the Concept of Infinity itself, born out of the Dimensional Gap. Fighting it would leave her exhausted and give the ones she allowed to live to kill her.

Great Red, the Dragon of Dreams also embodied the Concept of Infinity through the dreams and nightmares of every living being. As long as they dreamt or had nightmares, it would live and empower itself. Fighting it would be the same as an Ant striking an Elephant.

Unfortunately she didn't embody the Concept of Infinity, for she can empower herself from the Humans' darker emotions only for a certain amount, but not anymore than that. Which is why she couldn't risk fighting either of the bearers of the Concept of Infinity.

Then one day, someone fearlessly approached her. At that time she had wondered if the man was unaware of who she was, or if he was one of the brainless brutes that disillusioned themselves into believing that they could kill her with those sticks that they would later call Swords and Spears. She was about to swat him aside, effortlessly killing him as she was bored and didn't want to be annoyed by him, but stopped before she could hit him at the proposal he gave her.

"Kill all those Sumerian Deities for me and I'll give you my soul."

That proposal intrigued her. As far as she could remember, during her younger years, anyone that approached her would mostly demand she bed them and would end up dead for their folly. But, never had anyone walked up to her and handed her their souls in a silver platter for her to take, in exchange for doing something for them.

This unknown man had proposed to give her his soul to her in exchange for killing all of those jokes that were called Gods and Goddesses. Curious, she demanded he tell her everything, as she wouldn't accept the proposal otherwise.

As if expecting her to demand the entire truth, the man explained everything in details. He introduced himself as "King Gilgamesh of Uruk" and that was when it clicked in her mind, why he wanted her to kill those fools instead of doing it himself. She was well aware of who he was, and the events that revolved around him.

She was rather painfully aware of what it was like to lose someone's one and only friend. She did become who and what she was that day because of that loss.

So she understood where he was coming from and accepted the proposal right after he was done explaining. He even demanded that she take in all of his negative emotions and half of his soul as advanced payment, as a promise in staying true to his words. She accepted without any kind of hesitation and left two days later.

Simply put, he wanted her to avenge Enkidu on behalf of him by killing every Sumerian Deities, leaving Ishtar as the last one to die as he wanted her head to be the proof of her staying true to her words.

Then two days later, the beginning of the end of the Sumerian Pantheon began. The slaughter earnestly began in the night of one New Moon and ended in the night of the next New Moon. It wasn't easy, the slaughter was the longest battle she had ever fought in her life and was also the most joyous and thrilling one. By the end of it all, she was half-dead on her feet as she dragged the corpse of Ishtar with her towards King Gilgamesh's throne in the Human Realm.

She was dazed and almost out of it when she exited the Divine Realm, and thus she was unable to prevent herself from meeting her own end in the hands of the then upstart God, YHWH. Upon exiting the Divine Realm, all she saw was a vague humanoid figure and a flash, before blacking out.

When she woke up, she found herself in a void wondering what had happened. She was supposed to be celebrating for bringing an end to an entire Pantheon, yet all she saw was an unending void that seemed to stretch on forever. Then she recalled what happened and white hot rage surged within her. How dare him!? How dare he show her his ugly insolence and cowardice!? He should beg her for the sweet release of death!

And then that thrice damned upstart God YHWH had the gall to speak to her in that void without revealing himself like the coward that he was, and what she learned from, reignited a flame that she had long since believed to have doused. An all-consuming flame that burned with hatred, fury and vengeance, the very same flame that led her to creating her own flames that killed anything and everything.

Apparently, YHWH had destroyed her physical body when she left the Divine Realm half-dead on her feet after slaughtering the entire Sumerian Pantheon, then sealed her soul inside an artifact named Warlord Nightmare, the first of many which would later be named as 'Sacred Gear'. Then that upstart YHWH went on to explain like a child about what those artifacts will be, their use and everything he had planned for them.

She was so furious, she went all out and did her best in destroying the void she was in, to free herself and kill this upstart for his insolence. But no matter what she did, nothing worked and she was unable to free herself. Remembering what the purpose of the artifact was, she swore that she would get her revenge and waited.

She didn't know how long had passed since her sealing, but when her first Human host had awakened her from her slumber, she immediately killed him. He was a devout follower of that upstart YHWH and like Hell would she allow that upstart God to be pleased with the Human holding on to the artifact she was sealed inside of. It was one of the ways she had decided on to get back at YHWH. From then on, she would keep doing the same if they were his followers, killing them when they awakened her, until she got tired of it and decided to switch tactics.

Since the artifact she was sealed inside of should be capable of killing Gods, she decided to take over her host and invade Heaven to kill YHWH, only to fail as the limitations of the Human body held her back from pulling out her full power. However, that wasn't to say she stopped. She kept on trying and trying, but always failing to get her revenge due to the pathetic bodies that the Humans had.

By the time she had over 300 hosts, she was done with her constant failure and wanted nothing to do with YHWH, so she allowed her hosts to have access to only small portions of her powers, sometimes a quarter, but not more than that.

But then he became her host. Izayoi Hyoudou, the Human who gave up his own Humanity in order to protect it. He became a Devil. He was a small thing, only 13 years of age, short, cute, adorable and delectable. But more than those…

He was already stronger than her previous hosts before he became a Devil, and with the enhancements granted by the Queen Piece, he was strengthened even more, and at that moment when his soul changed and adjusted to the new source of power, she felt like she could entrust her goal to him.

Thus, she pulled him inside his soul, where she resided and destroyed the illusion he had about not having a Sacred Gear of his own. She was desperate and she knew it, yet she told him about Warlord Nightmare, and gave him a vague History lesson about how she came to be.

"You're hiding things from me."

She internally commended him for catching on to the truth. He was smart, cunning and sharp-minded similar to her yet vastly different. Moreover, he wasn't fearful of her. She had shown him everything she had done in her life by projecting her own memories, she had clearly shown him what she was capable of, and at the same time tempted him to ask for her power. She had completely believed that he would do so, instead he surprised her again.

"You want something from me. In exchange for full access to this… overwhelming and legendary power of yours, you want me to do something for you. Tell me what you want, and I just might do it."

Hearing that, she couldn't help but burst out laughing. He had the gall to tempt her, the Extinction Queen, and so fearlessly at that! Even though she told him she could kill him anytime she wanted, he just laughed it off and looked at her like he knew something she didn't.

"You said that this is my soulscape, the representation of my soul right? So tell me… what gave you the idea that your rules apply here? This is my soul, so my word is law."

She had belatedly realized that as long as they were in his soul, she could not harm him. She was weak in there and she hated it, and she knew that he wasn't any ordinary host that she was dealing with, because she was dealing with a monster just like her. Albeit the monster wanted to protect its kin that it no longer had any relation to.

"Your previous hosts were a bunch of illiterate fools, uncreative degenerates that had no sense or idea on how to utilize a power to its fullest. I bet you never pulled any of them inside their souls like you did with me, but then again, you wouldn't have pulled me in here either if you hadn't seen something in me. So tell me, what is it that you want from me? The fact that you went as far as tempting me with your full power means it's something big. Ask and ye shall receive."

She grit her teeth, pushed aside her pride and begged him to kill YHWH for her. He was her only hope and final shot at revenge. But then he dropped a bomb on her. YHWH was dead, had been dead for close to one and a half millennium and will remain to do so forever. At first she didn't believe him, she refused to believe him, but that was until he provided the truth to her, visualized it just like she did.

Her all-consuming flames that burned with hatred, fury and vengeance were doused with the proof he provided. The memories from his previous life, memories of the world he was reincarnated into, the world in which neither of them should exist. She had hoped her existence meant that the timeline was different and YHWH had survived the wrath of those two fire breathing lizards, but once again, he crushed that hope by confirming that YHWH was indeed dead in this timeline as well.

It probably didn't help that he would've refused the offer of her power even if YHWH was alive, as it would start a War that neither of the Three Factions could afford to take part in. Moreover, he loved his King too much for that. Her power meant nothing to him compared to the love for his King.

She had accused that he had basically manipulated her into loving him, but he just shrugged it off.

"I never planned to fall in love with her, heck I never thought I would even cross paths with her so early, but I did. Things happened, and this led to that, etc. I was planning to remain Human as long as I could, but now? Serafall Leviathan has unintentionally thrown those plans away by storming into my life, and I can't say I have regrets."

She envied Serafall for having someone so dedicated and loving as him on her side, but nothing could be done. YHWH was dead, she couldn't get her revenge and will forever be unable to come to terms with her grief. But then he had to ruin it again.

"If it means anything to you, I wouldn't mind killing the users of True Longinus for you. I mean, it does carry YHWH's will and the blood of Jesus. So if you want, I can kill them when they show up as long as they don't ally themselves with any of the Three Factions or those that will ally themselves with us in the future. How about it? But know that I'll need your full power for it. True Longinus is no joke, neither is its Balance Breaker. So, what say you?"

She couldn't help but the snort that had escaped her. Of course he would want to have access to her full power, who wouldn't? The power to kill everything to the point of manipulating causality and reality, and the power to make him nigh-invulnerable were both irresistible for him. Having access to her full powers meant that handling many of the things in canon would become easier for him.

But in the end she agreed to it. If she couldn't kill YHWH, then she could at least settle with killing the users of True Longinus. So they came to an agreement that she would train him in using her powers to their fullest, and master them until she deemed him worthy of the True Balance Breaker. Besides, it's not like she could half-ass it either, she had already shown what she was capable of doing with her full powers, so he would catch on quick.

She would rather not be questioned about it to the point of annoyance now that she knows she's powerless here, thank you very much.

The two of them sealed the deal with a proper introduction from both sides and a handshake.

"I am Izayoi Hyoudou, Queen of Serafall Leviathan. I look forward to mastering your powers."

"And I am Epis, the Extinction Queen. I'll make you eat your words."

"We'll see about that."

Thus began the life-long partnership between a Shota and an ancient Demon.