Even though Lynka was in phantom form, Rei could see her face twitching, trying—and failing—to suppress her sheer terror with attempts at forming a smile. Her arm went up in a salute, before she opened her mouth again.
"Too late." Maria was using Lynka's voice, but she seemed to have this uncanny ability to squeeze the softness and warmth out of every word. "There's no need to update me on the mistakes you made, after I was gone. I've seen it all, and I've seen enough."
Lynka was still holding her arm up. Her lips didn't move again, as Maria walked towards her, puppeting her real body.
"How I tried to toughen you up." A sigh, "Hoping you'd eventually grow a spine. Instead, you just wallowed in your weakness until the very end. And I do not accept salutes from cowards."
Slowly and shakily, Lynka's arm dropped back to her side.
"I thought I could beat the weakness out of you. Failing that, I thought you'd eventually take my advices to heart." Another sigh. "You wanted to kill your human weaknesses too, right? Seeing how they had reduced you to a sobbing mess at the hour of my sacrifice?"
Lynka nodded, before lowering her head. It was met with a sneer.
"If you did, you didn't want it strongly enough. And if my death in defense of Tari couldn't spark enough anger in you, make you seek revenge against Ruby Heart and that brat..."
Maria fell silent as she eyed Lynka. Rei was intensely familiar with that gaze. It was that of a predator looking for openings, ready to deliver the killing blow.
"How wrong I'd been. Now I understand," she said. "You were not plagued by your human weaknesses. You are my human weaknesses."
Whatever these words meant, it hit Lynka like a truck. She clenched her fists together, to stop her hands from shaking, but the violent spasms soon spread to the rest of her form.
"When the Sharecite created a Candidate, it took out all the fear and cowardice and wrong feelings that would harm Tari, and made them into a single person. Why else would it reject you after my death?" A pause. "It knew better. You would have run Tari into the ground out of spite, had you actually managed to complete the succession ritual."
It was a strange sight, the two Lynkas standing face to face, staring into each other's eyes. The phantom was flickering, while the dark flames around Lynka's body had only grown stronger.
"You hate me because you can never be me, right?"
Lynka was shaking her head like crazy now, but Maria didn't stop talking. "You want me to die, don't you? So that no one would see you for the useless, sniveling coward you really are? So you could mold my true successor into a spoiled brat who's just like yourself? Well, you sure had your revenge."
Rei's breathing was getting shallower and quicker, as Maria contorted Lynka's face into a monstrous mask of disdain and hatred. It was blending together with so many other faces she had seen before.
The man screaming at her to fuck off, go die in a ditch, and stop wasting his time with these stupid fliers, the little kid who pointed at her and commented, oh-so-innocently, that Mom, that lady is acting funny...
"Tari ended at your hands, because you are a selfish weakling who couldn't smite the weakness out of her, and make her into the mighty warrior the nation needed."
The angry store owner who grabbed her by the collar upon hearing her apology—sorry, sorry, did you only know that one word, the girls who snickered at her weak protests, telling her that if she thought they were mean, then she clearly hadn't met any real bitches. Oh, look at her, there she goes, crying her eyes out again...
"Why do you even exist?"
She heard the same question in her grandparents' disapproving frowns, in that man's rude demand for a refund, in her classmates' cruel laughter, in the weird looks strangers gave her.
Over and over again. This ugly chorus didn't ever stop, even when the singers were long gone.
"Really, by sacrificing yourself for a more worthy person, you've done something right for once. The truth is, cowards like you don't deserve to live." There was a twisted approval in those words, which disappeared as quickly as it came. "But you didn't think it through, did you? Realize what your failures had done to her? Even if she was brought back, she would lack the power and might to rebuild Tari. The CPUs of this world would just kill her again."
Lynka's eyes widened at these words.
"So, become one with me. Become one with this last fragment of Lady Cyan Heart's power. That way, you can finally die for good, and let her finish the job that should have been yours." Maria extended a hand towards Lynka. Dark tendrils of energy snaked down her arm, and coalesced into a flame inside her palm.
"Let Tari's last Goddess return to this world, with none of these shameful human weaknesses, and become the vessel of Lady Cyan Heart's righteous fury."
Lynka's phantom squeezed her eyes shut. Slowly and shakily, she reached out her hand, towards that flame.
"Hurry up. Get it over with—"
"NO!"
With a ferocity she never knew she possessed, Rei rammed into Lynka's body, knocking her off balance, and both of them fell to the ground. The dark energy burnt her exposed skin once again, as Rei grabbed her by the collar, but there was a stronger heat inside her own chest, growing more intense with each passing second, until it blocked out the pain entirely.
Maria didn't remain stunned for long. She was not resisting, but her expression could only be described as one of pure boredom, mixed with the barest trace of amusement.
"Take a good look at this woman here," she said, as she turned her head towards Lynka's phantom. "Take a good look at this pathetic specimen—"
"SHUT UP and leave her alone!" Rei screamed, and gave the body another shake. "Get away from her!"
"This is how Lady Cyan Heart used to be like, before she gained her Heart title. Meek and weepy and spineless, embodying the worst of her people, who could only cower in fear as the jackals closed in on Tari from all sides. Unpatriotic cowards, abandoning their homeland for greener pastures at the first signs of trouble."
"But she conquered her human weaknesses and slew her old self. She became strong, ruthless, terrifying." There was a dreamy fervency in Maria's eyes, as she manipulated Lynka's face into squeezing out a smile. "She forged herself into the weapon that could save Tari from the brink of destruction, crushed those jackal-like neighbors, and brought Tari to greatness! That is a true divinity, the most perfect and flawless being that had ever graced the soil of the continent!"
"You are wrong! No good Goddesses would look down on their people, and if you reject everything that's h-human in you..." Rei gritted her teeth, "Then you are nothing more than a monster!"
"I see," Maria said. "This is the replacement you find. The real Lady Cyan Heart would slay this disgusting imposter without any hesitation. But you get attached to this worthless human look-alike, because she allows you to be as weak and weepy as you like. There isn't a single bit of divinity in her. All human weaknesses, just like you."
"Y-You depend on their weaknesses to exist! Feelings, kindness, and..." Rei closed her eyes, "A-All these things you look down upon, they are the reasons why we band together, why we want to make things better—"
Without warning, the heel of her palm slammed into Rei's face. It was nothing like the slaps she was used to, intended to "teach a lesson" and nothing more. No, it hit like a sledgehammer.
Rei tasted copper on her lips, as Maria shoved her off, and her face hit the ground. Amidst the little stars that were flying all over her vision, through her cracked glass lens, she saw Maria standing back up, tidying up Lynka's suit and skirt with a scowl on her face.
"Some people never learn that actions speak louder than words." She shook her head. "Granted, your body is fragile and not capable of many serious actions. But even a sorry excuse of a divinity can still kill humans with ease. I'm not wasting my time on such a banal act, however."
Lynka's phantom fell on her knees, with a look of sheer horror on her face. Her form flickered again, before fading back into a pair of floating eyes.
"Now, are you coming to me, or do I have to chase you down myself?"
"Run!" Rei cried out, and immediately held a palm to her face when the stabbing pain hit again. "Please, don't...listen to her!"
"Oh, the folly. She thinks I need your permission to pass on this power." Maria pointed to the dark flames in her chest. "With or without you, it will become hers, as the faith in your body gets siphoned back into that crystal, together with Lady Cyan Heart's power, and you disintegrate into nothing, so she can be reborn again. Now, the process is going awfully slow, for some reason..."
"But I'm willing to offer you a chance to be strong." She stretched her arms out in an embrace, even though there wasn't a single bit of tenderness in her voice and expression. "To become the very essence of true power. Share the good experience, as a responsible sibling should."
Rei scrambled up from the ground and made another clumsy swing at her, trying to grab onto her skirt. It was dodged with ease. The next second, a kick connected with her stomach. She fell on her side, gasping and coughing, white hot pain surging through her nerves.
"Stay down," Maria said, without looking back.
"N-No, I won't, I won't let you..." Still holding a hand against her stomach, Rei reached towards the blurry silhouette and dragged herself forward, inch by inch, with her other hand, "...Turn anyone into a monster!"
Only then did Maria stop in her tracks and spare a glance at her, like she had spotted a particularly grotesque insect. "You can't do anything to me, and you don't know what you are talking about."
"Oh, I know it now, I know what...that version of myself really is." Rei wiped the blood away from the corner of her mouth. "Every, every single time I wished I could be as mean and angry and strong as them, so they'd never ignore me and push me around anymore..."
Maria snorted. "Just wishing is not enough. Go make a real effort at gaining strength, if you can get out of this place alive—"
"That's NOT strength! That is weakness, letting them get to me like that! Make me wish...I could become another bully!" In a burst of anger, Rei finally propped herself up, and jabbed a finger towards Maria, "Well, guess what? I-I may be a stuttering, useless screw-up who can't do a single thing right, but I won't be a coward anymore, and people like you...are the biggest cowards EVER!"
Lynka's body reeled back at her words. The shock in her eyes soon faded away, replaced by what could only be described as pure, murderous fury, as she turned and made a beeline for Rei.
Before Rei could even start panicking, the heel of her shoe slammed into her temple, followed by a stomp.
"Coward? Coward?"
Rei felt like she was floating in a pool of liquid. Boiling, acidic liquid. Through this suffocating haze, something seized her by the collar and dragged her up. Lynka's face soon filled her vision. Her glasses were gone, yet she could see that demonic snarl with perfect clarity.
"Have you ever rebuilt a nation from the grounds up? Fending off all these threats on your own, while your people just sat there, squabbling, holding onto their old grudges?"
Smack. Her ears were ringing before the slap, and the noise had only gotten louder, as pain washed over her cheeks.
"Threatening to break Tari apart again, with all of their 'sail back to PC Continent' babbles," Another slap, "Even going so far as to create another CPU for their illegitimate federation, just so they could become the top dog amongst some PC barbarians?"
"No. You haven't even killed before." She spat. "Imagine that! The first CPU you slew is not from an enemy nation, but a filthy usurper! Powered by your own traitorous people's faith!"
But she had hurt people before, really badly...what was that teen's name again...and that other Rei, she killed everyone she thought was a traitor...
Black spots were all over her vision. They scattered like flies when another slap came.
"Even if you won, could you have kept the nation together after that? Calved out enough space for it to survive, while Lowee was gobbling up territories and gullible peasants like a giant Wac monster?"
More slaps. She was losing count.
"Dedicated your entire life to restoring Tari's glory, imitated the ancient Keenanites, and infiltrated Lowee's 'impenetrable' fortresses—"
Her eyelids were getting heavy. After she got slapped for a few more times, even the pain was fading into a dull numbness, together with the words.
"Have you ever fought against Lowee's second CPU? Whose strength can only be rivalled by Lady Cyan Heart herself? Knowing that you didn't stand a chance, yet still fought tooth and nail to your bitter end?"
At some point in time, the back of her head hit solid ground again. Between all the slapping and yelling, everything was spinning into a blur.
Rei closed her eyes.
No, falling asleep...couldn't be good.
But she was tired, so tired...she wasn't slacking off, she swore...
"You are just as dim-witted and ungrateful as the people I was trying to bring together. People whom I had to protect. Whom I died for." A pause, "Well, since you are not my adherent, I will have no qualms ending your miserable existence. For slandering a CPU of Tari."
Rei's eyes snapped open, as Lynka's hands wrapped around her throat and started squeezing.
She clawed at the hands with all of her meagre strength, but these fingers were as cold and unyielding as a pair of iron shackles, choking all the air out of her with a deliberate slowness. The darkness came back, encroaching on her vision, leaving a small bit of clarity that was shrinking with each passing second.
Her arms soon went limp, and she couldn't feel her fingers anymore.
Just like that, it would be all over. She'd die here, alone and forgotten, under the baleful gaze of a CPU's ghost.
Without accomplishing anything in her short, insignificant life.
Without making up for all the terrible things she did, while she was...
A pair of translucent hands wrapped around Lynka's head, covering up these hateful eyes. There was a glint, a few sparks, followed by a shrill shriek.
The grip on her neck loosened. Rei sucked in a mouthful of air, just as Lynka's body fell, clutching her eyes. Her phantom was standing over her, staring at her hands, as if she couldn't quite believe what she had just done.
Maria was rolling on the ground in agony, making frantic swipes at thin air. The dark flames bursting out of Lynka's body flared up, swallowing her entire torso, just as a power symbol appeared in its midst. A smile crawled up her face, before Lynka's body raised a shaky hand, and reached towards it—
Rei was faster, however. Driven by her last bit of remaining strength, she lunged forward, closed her fingers around the symbol, and yanked it out of Lynka's chest.
It burnt, it burnt so fiercely that she didn't even have enough time to feel the pain, as the dark flames wrapped around her arm and surged into her chest, engulfing her entire body in a matter of seconds.
Then it burnt away her thoughts too, leaving nothing behind but darkness.
A/N: This chapter, and the previous one, are difficult to write because of very personal reasons. As someone who had been on the receiving end of some vicious bullying before, I can safely say that if all my childhood revenge fantasies came true, the results would be downright terrifying.
...And that's my interpretation of Hyper Rei's personality change. It's not that power automatically corrupts, it's that when you are taught that you deserve to be treated like crap because you are powerless and weak, it becomes very easy to associate strength with the brute force and cruelty that others used to keep you down. And hope that you can gain the same strength, become the person dishing out violence to those who "deserve" it.
But, as she eventually realized, that's not strength.