"I've already told you your duty."
The resplendent glory of Asmoday. Words did not do it justice. The goddess didn't shine as much as she burned, searing away anything that was not her. Baal could not tear her gaze away, even as primal awe and fear threatened to overcome her.
There was a part of her that did not mind the racing heartbeat, the all too mortal nausea. She had ascended a century ago now, and with every passing year something in her dulled. Evaporated. Faded. To grab at a compassion you had thought limitless and find it lacking- worse, to find yourself untroubled by the realization- it went against everything she once was. Soon, she feared, only the dedication to an ideal would remain.
And yet once Asmoday departed, the fog would set back in, and she would no longer feel the need to care for that dwindling sense of self.
"Of course. But to erase all of them for the crimes of one, it-"
"All are complicit. Do you believe the arrogation of one alchemist to be unrelated to the permission of the many? Khaenri'ah is a tumor. We will excise it. You will join us, or the third Electro Archon will."
"No!" Baal shot up from her throne. "Inazuma needs me. They have already lost one god."
"You will baptise the southern streets in lightning tonight. Astaroth shall approach from the southwest and meet you there. None survive."
"Yes. Of course."
Asmoday did not linger. Motionless, she was engulfed in block-like red arcana that twisted itself into being around her. Just as quickly, they were gone, and Asmoday with them.
Baal finally allowed herself to breathe. Deep, heavy breaths that betrayed that once familiar sensation of adrenaline pouring through her veins. Soon enough it had faded, and the Raiden Shogun had re-emerged from the shell of her former self. Celestia had called for a storm, and she would answer.
Charred, blistering skin, cracking and turning to blackened powder. One of few constants between mortality and divinity. The protectors of Khaenri'ah were charged with something astral, but even they failed to withstand the lightning's glow. They screamed, they cursed, they fought even as she cleaved their limbs and gouged their eyes, but they fell in the end.
A booming crack of thunder, a pinprick of purple light extended into a curved arc, and the last guard at the southern gate fell, his throat torn open so completely his head hung lopsided from the gash. No blood. That had been cauterized. As he keeled over, skull bouncing off concrete with a dull thud, Baal sighed. The bloodlust faded, and the fog returned.
She did not react as the concrete walls several feet ahead cracked, then burst open, bringing with them a torrent of ice and snow. Mangled, twisted corpses hung on every pointed sliver of ice, eyes wide, expressions only slightly shocked. Death had been merciless, but it had been quick.
The Tsaritsa, Astaroth, floated through the carnage she had made, glowing white eyes fading to a duller grey, the tips of her white hair fading and losing their divine luster. A snowflake shaped construction hovered in the palm of her hand, flecks of ice and snow spinning around it, caught in a singularity.
"Baal." She smiled, and reached out, cupping her fellow Archon's cheek in one hand, then leaning forward and planting a kiss on her forehead. Her touch was...warm. Warmer than she would have guessed. "We finally meet."
"Tsaritsa."
"Astaroth, please. I am not your Tsaritsa, as you are not my Shogun. We are equals here upon the battlefield." She looked away, never losing that smile of hers. "As much as we may call this a battlefield."
A plume of fire shot into the air, agonised screams following in its wake. Baal stared into the distance even as it faded.
"Murata's having fun, isn't she?" Astaroth folded her arms. "Tell me, Baal. Does this feel right?"
"No." She didn't even have to think about it. "This isn't what I wanted. This isn't the eternity I promised."
"It isn't love, either. It isn't freedom. War, maybe. Contracts...maybe." Astaroth gave a low hum. "We stained our souls tonight." She stated it matter of factly, as one would comment on the weather. Baal did not respond, eyes fixed on the horizon as a final flurry of sparks danced into the air. "Baal. I did not become an Archon to impose the will of Celestia on those who defy it."
"Mmm." Finally, Baal forced herself to look at Astaroth. She was still smiling.
"We may not see one another for a time after tonight, but I hope you remember our ideals. Eternity. Love. War ends, contracts fade, justice is rejected and freedom can be taken. But love endures beyond death. Beyond memory. I will show Celestia that truth, but there will be a cost. Will you stand for your ideal, when all is said and done?"
Baal's eyes narrowed, and she was about to reply when a blinding white light engulfed both her and Astaroth. She grunted, shielding her eyes, and heard Astaroth gasp.
Slowly the light faded, and Baal brought her hand down from her face. Her vision steadied and came into focus, but what lay before her…
"No…" The tallest spire of Khaenri'ah had been brutalised. Thick, thorny vines had torn gaping holes into the skyscraper, twisting in and around the structure in a grotesque embrace. Shards of metal and stone rained onto the city below, cacophonous crashes audible even from where they stood.
Before either Archon could speak, a cluster of red cubes manifested in front of them, crackling black sparks bouncing off the surface as they shifted through the air and peeled back to reveal Asmoday, looking more enraged than Baal had ever seen her.
Astaroth and Baal immediately dropped to their knees in silent deference as Asmoday paced back and forth, the snarl on her face slowly giving way to carefully crafted stoicism. She exhaled, then finally looked at the two gods, beckoning them to stand up with a sharp, irritated flick of her wrist. "We're leaving."
"Leaving?" Astaroth stood. "My lady, are we to spare Khaenri'ah?" Baal stood up as well. There was hope in Astaroth's voice. How dangerous, to hope in front of Celestia's envoy.
"Spare?" Asmoday laughed; a bitter, monosyllabic bark. "There is nothing to spare, girl. Khaenri'ah's people have sacrificed their souls for survival. Look around you."
Slowly, unwilling to break eye contact, Astaroth and Baal looked around. "What is this…?" Astaroth whispered, eyes wide.
The corpses of Khaenri'ah's protectors had changed, and changed monstrously. Some had shrunken into forms barely four feet tall, hairy and covered in tattoos. Others had swollen unnaturally, covered in similar clumps of fur, with shrunken eyes and enlarged, lion-like snouts. One or two had become smaller like the first, but become rounder, with glowing eyes and elongated ears. Even as they watched, their forms began to crack at the seams, disintegrating into black ash without any apparent catalyst, and leaving nothing behind.
"That is what the sinners of Khaenri'ah became to escape our judgement." Asmoday had fully calmed herself now. "Abyssal horrors. They have removed themselves. They reside beyond our authority. Arrogant wretches." She raised one hand slightly, commanding attention once again. "The Dendro Archon is dead. We will prepare his replacement. You are finished here. The Pyro Archon will purge this husk of the alchemist's folly."
Asmoday vanished as quickly as she had arrived, and for what felt like an age, Baal and Astaroth stood together in silence. Finally, Astaroth began to move. Snow whipped around her slender form, and Baal knew she would be gone soon. "Remember today, Baal. Remember our injustice. The world has no need of gods who would betray its people. We'll meet again, before the end." Baal did not reply as she dissipated into a flurry of mist and returned to Snezhnaya.
Was the Cryo Archon right? Was there no place in the world for her? Was she simply dooming Inazuma as the fog continued to take hold, obscuring and erasing all her mortal fervor?
...No. She could make this better. She could make Inazuma a paradise. It would take time. Years, centuries, even. But if she simply removed the instabilities, gifted Visions to the right people, and ruled justly, she could bring about a glorious eternal paradise. She would not concede.
"Concede?" La Signora, eighth of the Fatui Harbingers, scoffed. The Raiden Shogun, reclining in her throne, did not respond. "Baal, the Tsaritsa sent me here out of respect for-"
"Shogun." Signora stopped, narrowing her eyes as she looked up at the Electro Archon.
"Excuse me?"
"I am your Shogun. You have come to Inazuma. You stand in Tenshukaku. I am your Shogun."
"...Shogun." Signora all but spat the word. "The Tsaritsa told us you had spoken, that you understood this day would come."
"I did. But it has been five hundred years. She has changed. So have I." The Raiden Shogun lifted a hand from the armrest of her throne and formed it into a loose, lazy cup shape just below shoulder level. A miniscule localised storm formed within; flashing black clouds, tiny sparks of purple lightning, barely audible cracks of thunder. "This body is the noblest and most eminent of all in this world. It should hold absolute control over this world. It once promised its people a dream: a never-changing 'eternity.'". Baal uncupped her hand, and the storm within dissipated. "Withdraw your Fatui and depart my eternity, Harbinger. I offer you this kindness out of respect for your Tsaritsa."
On cue, her Shogunate stepped forward to escort Signora from Tenshukaku. The Harbinger shrugged off their hands on her shoulder and sent them retreating with a single glare, which she then turned on the Raiden Shogun. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but left without a word.
The room cleared of all but her most essential personnel. The Raiden Shogun closed her eyes and looked upon a man in Fontaine, one she had intended to bestow a Vision upon. He had killed in his own defense, yet the infallible justice of Fontaine had judged him guilty of murder. Two days ago, as she had prepared to send him his Vision, he had killed a number of guards and escaped into the wild.
He had never been worthy at all.
And in seeing that, the Raiden Shogun wondered to herself; why had she ever bestowed even a single Vision upon mortals? Even in those who would do some subjective, meaningless good, it was an instability. An inequality. Could she truly bring about her eternity with Visions and Fatui sullying a paradise in which all could live equally?
No.
"Sara."
Her attendant stepped out of the shadows and bowed. "Excellency."
"Summon the Triarchal Council." The Raiden Shogun looked straight ahead. "I have two new decrees to present." There was no going back. The fog had claimed her flaws and left only crystalline perfection behind. Baal was gone. Only the Raiden Shogun remained.