Bašmu was a horned snake, so long its body stretched out to the horizon. It had six mouths and seven tounges.
Ušumgallu was a lion/dragon fusion monster.
Mušmaḫḫū was a fusion of a serpent, lion and a bird.
Mušḫuššu was a dragon with the hind legs of an eagle, the front legs of a cat, a long neck and tail, and a tongue like a snake.
The details of Laḫmu's appearance were impossible to make out because the creature was so hairy that the creature itself was hidden behind a veil of hair.
Ugallu was a storm-cloud with a lion's head.
Uridimmu was a giant dog with a human's head.
Girtablullû was a 'scorpion centaur' - the torso, head and arms of a human being were placed on the body of a scorpion in place of its head.
Umū dabrūtu was also a monster with an unknown form, cloaked as it was in storm clouds.
Kulullû was effectively a merman, swimming through what little of the Chaos Tide Tiamat had replaced after the inferno.
Kusarikku was a centaur with the ears and horns of a bull.
Alexandria's initial plan – to split up the monsters and have them fought one on one – failed almost immediately. The surge of energy she'd been feeling since Tiamat had first appeared had suddenly disappeared, replaced by a vague feeling of Déjà vu. By the looks of things, the others felt the same way – even the Dragon Suits seemed to be flying more sluggishly all of a sudden. Did one of the monsters have a strength-sapping power?
The eleven monsters did not wait for their opponents to recover from their sudden stumble, charging together as one group. Alexandria lost sight of the other group members almost immediately, her focus occupied solely on Ušumgallu attempting to bite her in half.
The monster was fast, but not as fast as Leviathan. The fact that it could hurt her was terrifying, but the Siberian had already dispelled that particular illusion.
So she weaved and ducked and evaded the teeth and claws of the monster. All around her she could hear pure chaos as her carefully planned assault devolved to a senseless melee.
She flinched at the sound of a Dragon Suit exploding, and Ušumgallu capitalised on her split-second distraction to snap at her with its jaws once again. She began her dodge just an instant too late, and her left leg was caught between the monster's jaws, her knee nearly bitten clean through.
She screamed in the mostly-forgotten sensation of pain, white spots appearing in her vision.
The sickening sound of flesh tearing as Hero was rent in half.
Eidolon's screams as he tried, desperately, to fix things, to make it that their world wasn't falling apart.
Legend, the only one still properly thinking, having long since given up on stopping the slaughter, and simply trying to save as many as he could.
The sensation of half of her face dripping down her body.
Alexandria shook her head roughly, forcing the perfectly-preserved memories out of her mind. Her screams changed into more of a roar as she grabbed onto one of the two teeth pinning her leg in place and pulled.
Ušumgallu roared as she ripped the tooth out of his jaw. Her leg freed, Alexandria flew clear – then turned the tooth around and plunged it into Ušumgallu's eye.
The monster's roar changed pitch, writhing around in a desperate attempt to dislodge her, but Alexandria put out the monster's other eye, blinding it, before flying back. Blood gushed from her leg and the monster's eyes, but the blood-flow from her leg was slowing as her flesh's time-stopped nature began to reassert itself.
Alexandria took a deep breath, then grit her teeth and flew down to the top of Ušumgallu's head, trying desperately to hold the monster's own tooth in place as the monster thrashed around.
Then she swung her other hand down like a sledgehammer and drove the tooth into Ušumgallu's brain.
Leaving the monster to it's death throes, Alexandria flew up above the battle to take stock of the situation. Seven of the eleven monsters were down, but so were most of the Dragon Suits and many of the flyers. Morrigan was fighting two of the monsters at once, now sporting upside-down bat wings from her head and waist and a savage grin on her face. Even as she watched, Cinereal's ash form was enveloped by Umū dabrūtu's clouds. She did not reemerge.
No no no no no…
Alexandria angled her body down, ready to fly down and assist however she could, but a great wail caught her attention instead.
Tiamat was writhing, straining against the chains that held her in place as her 'children' died around her. She was twice as large as she had been when Alexandria had last seen her, and as she watched the goddess turned beast continued to grow larger and more monstrous with each passing second.
No! Alexandria clenched her teeth. Not yet!
"Tiamat was eventually sliced in half, but she was actually killed when her belly was filled with wind and an invincible spear was used to pierce her heart. The closer you can match those conditions, the better your chances of this working are."
Remembering Index's last piece of advice, Alexandria whirled around to search the air above the battle field for her ace in the hole. Exalt was still there, but in visible distress as he watch people he'd fought alongside for years fall to the teeth and claws of monsters.
Alexandria needed Exalt to wait until the opportune moment – he was the only one who could generate the kind of winds they needed, but he was a one-shot cannon. Once he'd spent his charge, that was it.
The sounds of snapping chains rang out, and Alexandria turned back to find Tiamat had snapped her chains and was now twenty meters tall, and bearing a pair of red-feathered wings. She opened her mouth in what was almost song, and red beams of energy burst out of her body to rake though the assembled fighters.
And as she swelled and changed, Kumagawa's screws started to rust over…
"Anyone else feel like we've done this before?" 'Agent Timothy' muttered, lowering a pair of binoculars. He and another twelve people in militaristic, nondescript uniforms had set up a sniper's nest position 3 kilometres away from where the fight was, up in one of the stone altars.
"Sir!" Another one of the group, a woman wearing headphones that appeared to be plugged into a child's xylophone. "Emergency communication from Temporal Anomalies! We're reading major changes to the timeline!"
"Where are the changes focused?" 'Timothy' asked, though he knew there would only be one reason that Temporal Anomalies would be contacting a group of field agents.
Instead of answering, the woman just pointed to the distant battle between humans and monsters.
"Just there?" 'Timothy' demanded. "The changes don't affect us?"
The woman blinked, then grabbed a mallet and quickly played a series of seemingly random notes on the xylophone. She then listened into her headphones, apparently receiving a response. "No sir, TA confirms the only changes are to the Protectorate task force."
'Timothy' grunted to confirm he'd heard her, his mind whirling. Had they escaped the changes because the changer didn't think them important, or had their future selves done their jobs and made sure no one ever knew they were there?
If it was the second… they might still be able to recover from this.
"Bradley!" 'Timothy' barked. A younger man, who was manning a pair of what looked like cigar-shaped spotlights with no actual lights on the ends, straightened up.
"Sir?"
"Have you locked onto X201 yet?" 'Timothy' demanded, using the Foundation's temporary designation for Tiamat.
"Sir?" Bradley replied, confused. "Of course, sir."
"Good man. Activate."
"Sir!" Bradley protested. "These anchors are only rated to eighty Humes, sir! We can distract her, but she –"
"I read those briefings too, Bradley." 'Timothy' sharply interjected. "But we can either slow her down now and give the latex-wearing showboats over there a chance, or we can wait until they're all dead and try then. Which do you think is better? Oh, and that's a rhetorical question. Activate the Anchors, Bradley. That's an order."
"Yes sir." Bradley said meekly.
Suddenly, Tiamat's body stopped changing, stopped growing, and started to flicker, her edges blurring like a bad TV connection. Tiamat still writhed, screaming as her children fought and died around her.
Alexandria did a quick headcount – leaving out her and Exalt, less than ten fighters remained of their starting group of over forty.
Not all of the eleven monsters had been brought down, but they couldn't afford to wait any longer. "Exalt!" She screamed. "Now!"
The parahuman did as he was ordered, and there was an enormous burst of wind as an entire city's worth of air was shoved down Tiamat's throat. She gagged, visibly choking on the wind.
An invincible spear. Now they had to pierce her heart, and somehow hope that she hadn't thrown away all their lives because of the concerns of a fourteen-year-old nun who still believed in magic.
She was the spearhead. Her 'invincible' flesh would fulfil the legends description. It had to.
She flew down, past Legend and Eidolon tag-teaming one of the remaining monsters, past Armsmaster fighting valiantly to defend the last remaining Dragon Suit, past Morrigan bleeding from her mouth as she continued to fight.
She clapped her hands together, and flew into Tiamat's chest like a living spear.
Tiamat's flesh did not budge.
Alexandria had no hope of dodging the red beam that shined down from Tiamat's eyes. She couldn't see past the crushing despair that filled her entire being.
The beam crashed into her side, carving out a hole the size of a softball through her organs. Somehow, the energy had physical force behind it, and she was sent careening through the air. She failed randomly through the air, and it was more due to instinct than any rational thought that led to her grabbing the side of one of the stone altars as she flew past it, preventing herself from falling into the Chaos Tide.
The sounds of explosions filled the air as the surviving Blasters threw everything they had into one more volley, even as fresh monsters emerged from the Chaos Tide.
Alexandria stared up into the black expanse that formed the 'roof' of Tartarus. Well. This isn't how I thought I would die. Against the Nine, an Endbringer… I'd hoped to see the final battle against Scion so much…
"Hey, hey. It's a little soon to be giving up. Don't you call yourself a hero?"
Alexandria looked around to find the unnamed white-haired archer from before splayed out against the stone behind her. He looked even worse than she did – though his flesh was mostly intact, he was absolutely soaked in his own blood.
"There's no point." Alexandria said, feeling the hole in her side begin to petrify but not heal. "We need an 'invincible' spear to kill Tiamat, and I…"
The archer chuckled, blood dripping down his chin. "If you alone were enough to defeat Beast II, there would be no need for me to have been sent here, would there?"
Alexandria blinked slowly, her eyes now showing confusion along with agony. "What do you…?"
The archer shook his head. "Not now. No time." He held out a shaking hand before himself. "Trace on."
A glowing bolt of energy formed in the archer's grip, and faded away to form a long red spear, barbs protruding from the base of the blade.
The archer pressed the spear into Alexandria's hands. "Go. It will not remain for long." As soon as Alexandria's fingers closed around the hilt, the archer's body dissolved into small motes of light that quickly faded to nothing.
Slowly, her eyes moved back into focus, and the blackness at the edges of her vision halted in its encroachment. The sounds of the battle were still going on, though less then there were before. Were her friends winning? Had Tiamat killed them all since she had last checked?
Her grip on the spear tightened.
Somehow, she found the strength to get up.
Somehow, she found the courage to turn around.
Somehow, she found the will raise up the spear.
Somehow, she found Tiamat's chest with her eyes.
Somehow, nothing stopped her as she made one last charge.
Somehow, the spear sank easily into the flesh that had been so unyielding before.
Somehow, Alexandria knew it was Eidolon who had caught her, his hands already glowing green as he did his best to seal her wounds.
Somehow, mere mortals were able to kill a god.
Eventually, of course, everybody had to go home. As Alexandria had previously noted, the Clairvoyant couldn't see into Tartarus, so the group had go back the same way they'd entered – through the portal back to Earth Pe. (Except for Morrigan, who seemed to have disappeared when no one was looking.)
As they flew up to the exit (which was placed at the top of a flight of stairs hundreds of meters high, and had therefore been safe from the surge of Chaos Tide), they passed a giant three-headed dog. Cerberus growled at them as they passed, but did not attack. He seemed to know that they weren't supposed to be there.
Nobody said anything as they left. The loss of their comrades was still too fresh in everyone's hearts. Nearly everyone there had fought in Endbringer battles before, and this felt far too much like the aftermath of one.
Blessed light suddenly shined in the dim light of Tartarus, signifying that they had reached the exit. The group headed upwards, eager to escape the jail dimension.
And as they headed out into the bright sunshine of a nondescript field somewhere in Earth Pe, every single member of the group froze.
Laying on the ground before them was a bloody pile of meat. It took several seconds before even the most observant of the group recognised it as a living being, and it took those who knew who she was and what she looked like to recognise it as Princess Celestia.
She'd been scalped – her horn was gone too – and there were bloody stumps where two of her legs and one of her wings were supposed to be. Horrifyingly, her tail was still trying to wave in an ethereal wind, but coated in fresh blood as it was it just looked like a bloody worm wriggling in it's death throes.
The group only realised she was still alive when one of her eyelids opened ever-so-slightly, and a word passed through her lips in a dry, pained, agonised voice:
"Rrrrrruuuuuunnnn!"
It was only then that they noticed the other. The girl in a pure white outfit that somewhat resembled a wedding dress, standing patiently facing the group. Neither the dirt from the ground nor the blood from the dying pony had touched her, as though it was afraid of soiling her purity.
Eidolon felt all three of his powers change to long-range teleportation powers.
"Alexandria." The White Queen greeted her with a frown, Celestia's missing wing held on a hand that was pressed into her hips. "I'm even more upset with you now. This isn't a dress rehearsal – just because you screwed up your introduction doesn't mean you get a do-over."
The group wearily prepared themselves for battle, but Alexandria, slung over Eidolon's back in a fireman's carry, froze up. A look of pure panic was etched into the lines of her face.
Because she was facing backwards, she saw the moment Ajimu appeared out of thin air.
"My dearest apologies, your highness." Ajimu said as she gave a mocking bow. "But it was decided that you needed some light entertainment before your meal, and I was the only candidate. But since I wasn't here the first time around, they had to redo things to go get me."
Alexandria turned to Ajimu in shock, confusion now mixing with the terror in her eyes.
The Queen tossed aside Celestia's wing as though it was garbage. "Oh my, if it isn't the girl who despises both Plus and Minus. I didn't expect to see you standing against me. Have you gotten over your fear of fighting protagonists?"
Ajimu shrugged. "Not really, but I think I can fight a Final Boss for at least 15 seconds."
The Queen laughed, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. "Yet another idiot who thinks themselves cultured without actually reading any of the books they love to quote from."
Ajimu's eyes narrowed for a second, then they flew wide open in fear.
The White Queen, who spent most of her time trying to capture the affection of a boy named 'Alice (with) Rabbit', smiled. "So here's a question to ponder: was I always the White Queen, or was I promoted once I crossed the chessboard?"
"See? Despite the more challenging fight, they ended up in almost the same place."
"Standing before the Queen with none who could possibly hope to even annoy her."
"This round, I believe, goes to me…"
"Wait."
"When did that twelve quadrillion skills girl get there?!"
"What have you done, you stupid Gemstone?!"
Name: The White Queen who Wields the Sword of Unsullied Truth (iu – nu – fb – a – wuh – ei –kx – eu – pl – vjz)
Series: The Unexplored Summon:/Blood Sign
AUTHORISATION LEVEL CONFIRMED... ALLOWING ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED FILE
Disposition: Villain
Location: The "other world"
General information: In 1999, a sure-fire method of summoning and controlling the gods of mythology was devised. Odin, Ra, Zeus, Amaterasu, Gabriel - all of them and more could be forced to appear and fight by the side of their summoner in a form of ritual combat. The "Third Summoning Ceremony" worked by first summoning "Regulation-class" monsters ("Materials"), and building up more and more powerful summons until the summoner broke through into the realm of the gods - the "Divine-class" Materials.
However, when experimenting with the ceremony, something unexpected was discovered. If a summoner climbed all the way through the ranks of the gods, they would reach a third category - the realm of the Unexplored-class Materials.
And at the peak of the Unexplored that rules over the gods stood the White Queen.
Classification:
Mover unranked: No one has been able to successfully measure the Queen's speed - all we know is "faster than the eye can see", and "fast enough that Divine-class Materials cannot dodge her attacks". It may be a moot point, as the Queen can distort Relativity to affect the passage of time.
Shaker unranked: The PRT Shaker threat ranking does not go high enough to encompass how threatening the Queen's presence is. She is a "spiritual black hole" that distorts the rules of this world and the next by simply existing. She is even thought to distort causality and insert herself into historical events that have already finished.
Brute unranked: The PRT Brute threat ranking does not go high enough to encompass the Queen's raw power. Even when holding back as much as she can, her attacks still annihilate the space and time in the path of her attacks. Casually ignores the attacks of other Unexplored-class Materials, which can be compared to high-powered artillery at the lowest end. Has ignored alterations to the timeline by brute force.
Breaker unranked: The full extent of the Queen's possible transformations is currently unknown. She is believed to have at least 500 different forms with vastly different abilities.
Master unranked: The PRT Master threat ranking does not go high enough to encompass the Queen's ability to gather followers. While not actually a supernatural ability, the Queen's beauty and seductive aura of power cause all but the most strong-willed people to instinctively worship her. Even those aware of the effect have to constantly hold themselves in check.
Physical parts of the Queen's body - such as her hair - can burrow into people to control them. Once the brain has been reached the control is permanent.
Far worse than all of these, however, is her ability to "infect" human beings to turn them into Vessels around which she can summon further copies of herself.
Tinker unranked: The PRT Tinker threat ranking does not go high enough to encompass the power of the Queen's Sword of Unsullied Truth. Normally worn as the white dress the Queen usually wears, the Sword is capable of transforming into countless weapons. The Sword has, on past occasions, taken the form of billions of weapons at once: any one of which capable of one-shoting a god.
Blaster unranked: The Queen can replicate her space-time deleting ability in a white laser-like attack. This attack destroys even things that are supposed to be indestructible, and can be released from her body in an omni-directional blast.
Thinker unranked: The limits of the Queen's clairvoyance are currently unknown. She appears to be able to keep abreast of even secret events in the human world from the other world, and can make extremely accurate predictions about the future (though is not actually precognitive, and can be surprised). Can casually sense and react to events happening at the speeds she fights at.
Striker unranked: As before, can crush space-time with her bare hands.
Trump unranked: Casually defeated parahumans who had been guaranteed victory by Týr, the Norse god of victory (much to his shock).
Stranger unranked: Despite her enormous presence and aura, the Queen has on multiple occasions snuck up on people who have trained themselves to the point of paranoia to search for her influence.
Recommended strategies:
Those with knowledge of the Third Summoning Ceremony are split into three factions: Government (comprised of large organised groups like world governments and churches), Illegal (comprised of organised crime syndicates) and Freedom (comprised of individual summoners who do not wish to be part of Government or Illegal). The PRT is a member of Government.
This means that we have access to almost all information mankind has available on the White Queen, and we can definitely say this:
The White Queen cannot be defeated.
And that is the greatest disaster the world is facing today.
...
However, not all is lost.
The White Queen, as absurd as it sounds, does actually have a weakness: she cannot cross from the other world to this one though purely her own efforts.
(̶W̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶.̶)̶
That means that if she is sighted, that someone has summoned her. Forget the Queen - defeating her is impossible - focus on how she is summoned. If that can be cancelled, the Queen will be forced back to the other world.