Interlude 2 New adopted daughter (unofficially) get!
The Queen of the ruined world never thought that there would be a day when her patience would be tested to its limit like this again. Not since she was reminded of her mortality when her husband passed away many years ago.
The fact that it came about because of that accursed family made it even more infuriating; To think that just a child and two helpless retainers she kept around as her final emergency food/life force supply/torture/entertainment would still cause problems by attracting otherworldly people to rescue them, and destroyed the entire facility she painstakingly set up to give her the immortality. She would have called such a scenario unthinkable had it not happened just earlier!
The fact that she destroyed that floor in her rage flew over her head; The God Queen like her being wrong is just as preposterous! Heresy even! Anyone who suggested that would be executed and their soul fed to her, just like that incompetent Duc De Puce!
They must have slacked off and grown complacent over the years of her opening gateways to other worlds and found only barren rocks bereft of life to hunt and feed on the other side. The Queen thought angrily. A failure to be laid at those so-called diviners' feet for wasting her precious life force and power for nothing despite her magnanimity of letting them keep their souls back then so that they could help her find and conquer other worlds.
Truly, she was surrounded by incompetence! Even Duc Volpe, the ace commanding the defense of her castle, her personal attack dog that always gets things done, fell to the invaders!
Had those invaders been knights or mystics of some renown from the otherworld she wouldn't be this mad. No! Once they revealed themselves after the destruction of her prison/food stockpile, she found that said invaders were a human aristocrat lady and two of her maids!
Sure, they knew magic, but they were no fighters and Volpe still lost to them. So what did that speak about Volpe's competence?
'No matter' the Queen thought as she glared balefully at the group of intruders gathered dozens of paces away from her alongside her prisoners. She increased the magical pressure on the surrounding area, trying to smother and suffocate them to either death or unconsciousness without having to fight despite it being ineffective while they were still falling earlier.
After a moment, her displeasure grew as the vermin stubbornly held against her divine might. Or rather, it was that aristocratic lady who stood defiant of her will as she was the one projecting her power to counter the Queen to the point of drowning out the powers of the two maids entirely.
'So that other world has powerful being as well.' Such realization should have elicited an alarm in her head, but the Queen quashed it without a second thought and focused more on how many more lifespans and powers she would get from devouring this lady instead.
She could be another step closer to becoming a god, and it only takes consuming one individual instead of an entire planet which is too much time!
'Besides' the Queen's glare intensified at the transparent barrier that sprung up to block her barrages of magical projectiles with no sign of yielding to her might and thought. 'This noble lady has yet to fight back even now. And her maids weren't much of a threat to her from what her sense was telling. Volpe may have lost to them, but he could hardly compare to her, the God Queen after all.'
Queen of Heart let out a cruel smile as she looked through the myriad of lights from her mystical might at the blonde girl in that aristocrat lady's arms. The daughter of Sir Longarm still has fire in her eyes despite years of being her prisoner/livestock/plaything. Irritatingly defiant against the will of the god. But still, she has involuntarily lured this lady to her castle instead of having to comb through the otherworld, so keeping her alive seems to pay dividends after all.
But suddenly, she sensed something shifted, or rather, something that suddenly wasn't there! The Queen was bewildered to such a degree that she stopped the torrent of her magical barrage and let the vision clear up. And as true as her sense told earlier; the two maids were gone! Disappeared without a trace!
Had she accidentally killed them? No, the barrier was still standing despite the bombardment. So they either had turned invisible or teleported away. The Queen seethed at the prospect of two preys slipping through her grasp, but she calmed down somewhat by the fact that the aristocrat lady was still there alongside the weak little daughter of that rebellious Longarm.
'Fine!' She rationalizes. 'Small fry like those doesn't concern me. After devouring such immense power from this aristocratic lady, it will be easy to devour all life at the other side of the gate… but first…'
With her will, a long way away from the castle, the gate connected to the otherworld was closing, attempting to shut down the only known escape path for the prey in front of her in case she decided to try to run away. Invasion of the world on the other side could wait.
Again, her decision came a bit too late when she took that opportunity to peer into her minions' fighting there to regain control of the gate and found that the invaders had long fled instead of being trapped between the closed gate and her Grand Army. Even several of their brethren slain on this side were presumably recovered while retreating. And again, she cursed those diviners for suggesting the construction of this gate on the other side of the country instead of on her backyard, citing the effect of 'the heaven and earth' or the like making it more effective as a reason.
And now the distance came back to bite her as the people from the other side could retreat with minimal casualties.
Well, no matter, Duc Beauregard and Duc Truffe should be able to secure that place and wait there for another invasion. After she turns the aristocrat in front of her into her food, then opening another gate, or several gates, should be trivial.
Now, on to the capture of her target who stubbornly resisted her up to now…
When the Queen of Heart stopped her assault on Shinki due to her sensing Taylor and Yumeko getting teleported away back to Makai, Shinki also dropped the barrier without concern about any surprise attack that may come.
The girl in her arms didn't feel the same way, as her grip on Shinki tightened as much as a weak and malnourished prisoner could've mustered. Shinki responded by squeezing her hand in the hope of assuring her.
"Still resisting this inviolable Queen?" The Queen's voice boomed, breaking the silence. "How more insolent can vermin like you can get? Defying this Queen's wills again and again."
Shinki hardly paid any attention to the Queen's monologue as she continued to silently comfort the girl in her arms. The Queen noticed it, and the screech followed.
"Dare to play ignorance!? Dismissing of this Queen!? Think that such action will make this Queen have mercy on you!?"
The silver-haired woman looked up at the Queen's gigantic face. Her grey eyes locked with the beady black orbs without a hint of fear before her lips tugged into a small, barely visible smile before she responded with a matching jovial voice; "It would be hard to speak up when everything is trying to kill you. I hope Your Majesty wouldn't begrudge this one for defending herself."
Her words served only to infuriate the Queen. But surprisingly, the Queen of Heart didn't lash out with more magical barrages. However, the atmosphere changed a moment later, noticed by no one but the most capable mystics.
And from the narrowing glare of the girl in Shinki's arm, she was aware of what was happening too.
The Queen laughed haughtily at Shinki and the girl "I must commend you, for being so bold and so foolish! You should have tried to run when you still have a chance before I created the barrier to trap you all here now. Not that it will do much but prolonging the inevitable with my grand army waiting at the gate…"
A cruel smile morphed on the Queen's face as she pondered out loudly, no doubt wanting her prey to hear; "As you can see, there is no escape from this Queen. All of you will be brought to justice one way or another. Cease your meaningless resistance and submit to our will! This God Queen may make your experience as my power source more… tolerable."
Shinki's eyes looked downcast at the Queen's statement; "Is there a way for us all to reach a compromise and coexist as a civilized people between the two worlds without one of us seeing the other as livestock or someone to be ruled upon?"
And just like all prior interactions, that request was met with a furious gleam in the Queen's eyes as she bellowed out; "The audacity of you! To think yourself or any filths in a thousand worlds combined would equal to this Queen! You lot exist because this Queen allows it. And you lot will become this Queen's nourishment because this Queen demands it!"
Another invisible wave of mystical power exploded from the Queen focusing on crushing and incapacitating Shinki and the girl. But despite the power being many times greater than the previous showings, Shinki showed no sign of being affected by it, nor did her current charge.
"Why?"
The first word from the little girl in her arms caused Shinki to look at her puzzling face and ask her as if they were discussing the weather during tea time and not under attack from an angry, giant Queen's titanic magical power; "What's the matter, dear?"
The girl coughed weakly, before continuing; "It is… a waste of time… she never negotiates… My father… other lords… and the people…"
She sobbed quietly at that statement, to which Shinki responded by patting her on the back in disregard of the Queen's attempt at their lives.
Eventually, the Queen cast an even more powerful spell that resulted in the entire castle turning to dust with a thunderous boom with no warning. Yet again, Shinki and the girl weathered the attack without a scratch thanks to the former's erected barrier.
The smoke shrouded them from the Queen's sight, within the transparent dome that Shinki used to protect them from the spell and dust cloud, Shiki resumed the discussion with the girl in her arms with a solemn look on her face as she wiped a small drop of tear from the girl's eyes; "One should not stop trying to reach out to the others. Dear. Else we would all be solving disputes with might making rights, and become no better than animals…"
She sighed tiredly as her gaze wandered to where the Queen was despite the smoke from the destruction of the castle obscuring everything around them; "I still dare hope that this one will still able to see reason and further violence between my world and yours could be averted."
The blonde girl in her arms looked at Shinki in disbelief, and her next words reflected that thought; "How can… you still… think… to redeem this… Queen?"
As to emphasize her words, the girl's finger pointed toward the Queen that emerged from the dispersing dust cloud around them. Her visage was sculpted into a scowl at the sight of them being unharmed, again.
Shinki smiled at the girl before her face hardened; "There's still one more card for me to play, not what I'd like, but it's the last one…"
"What card?" The girl questioned quietly.
"I normally do not play this contest of raw strength. But sometimes, it is easier to talk when the other side realizes that their position is not as strong as they would like to imagine."
Not a second after that word left her lips, Shinki looked up at the Queen, and with a wave of her hand shattered the invisible barrier that was cast by the Queen of Heart without so much fanfare or spectacle to the normal eyes.
The Queen had no time to react. The moment her barrier was spontaneously removed, Shinki let loose a bit of her powers immediately after; the debris of the destroyed castle reassembled. Support pillars came first, with stone slabs and mortar rearranging and shooting upward to the dark sky. Stone arches came next, forming a support beam for the ceiling above their heads. The stone tiles that shattered and crumbled to dust beneath their feet rose from the ground, detailed right down to the smallest chip on the surface. Walls of stone and mortar formed around the throne room as pristine as it was before the fight, decorating flags, and emblems made of fabric that was torn to shed returned to hang upon the wall, finished off with a gate that was once splintered and debris by the Queen's action earlier.
And despite she could not see outside of the throne room when it was restored, the girl could sense that the entire castle was also restored to its pristine stage as well. All by the power of her rescuer.
"You called this… a show of… power…?"
The girl in Shinki's arms asked in disbelief as her eyes took in the sight of the restored castle around her. When she heard Shinki talk about 'a contest of raw strength' she never imagined that it would be about restoration or recovery at all!
Shinki responded by admitting to the girl with a smile; "It would be hard to discuss with a corpse after all…"
She then shifted her attention to the Queen of Heart, who seemed to be focusing on her castle than on the intruders for the first time, and then spoke loudly for the giant Queen to hear; "As you can see, your majesty. I can escape from your barrier at any time I wish. But for the sake of preserving lives on both sides… could you just hold off the crossing of your troops to the other side first just as the other side had withdrawn, so we can discuss without pointing weapons at one another?" She paused a bit before adding in a solemn tone; "Enough blood has been shed from both sides already."
Part of the girl's mind wished to retort that there were no people in this world anymore; Those Card Soldiers and their commanders were nothing but a facsimile of living beings, animated by the Queen's wills, or souls of those willingly serve the Queen and loyal unto death, literally. But she was too weak and too shocked at the display to speak, and Shinki didn't seem to care despite also knowing this truth either.
A laughter boomed from the Queen's lips after she stared incredulously at Shinki for a minute. The voice echoed in the newly-reconstructed throne room, amplifying its sinister vibe by an order of magnitude, along with sealing the final chance of peaceful dialogue before the Queen even declined that offer with her next haughty speech;
"Peace?" The Queen whispered as her laughter died down. Her eyes narrowed into a line on her face as she glared at Shinki before speaking in a much louder voice; "Your display is no intimidation to this Queen. Your power of restoration makes you more valuable than those wretched in your world. But you are nothing to this Queen. Bow before your God and accept your fate! It is the only way for your continued existence!"
Shinki's voice tinged with sadness as she responded; "Only poor gods will try to prove their superiority by tormenting and killing mortals for their amusement, or worse, to secure their existence. Gods prove themselves as one, not by sprouting it for all to hear or stomping everyone into accepting, but by their blessing and guidance to those below them toward the path of prosperity, and enlightenment…"
The Queen roared indignantly at the perceived insult and once more her mystical might exploded outward in an invisible, destructive wave of power that threatened to sweep everything away and disintegrate the restored castle they were in. But to her surprise, such a scene of destruction never came to pass as her magic was absorbed by a barrier that had been erected without her noticing at all!
"I must admit that I was too optimistic about you, Your Majesty." Shinki's voice rang through the air once again. But unlike the previous conversation she made with the Queen, this one was much colder and more oppressive enough for the Queen to pause her temper tantrum and refocus on the woman from the other world.
Before the Queen could respond, however, the invisible barrier surrounding the throne room contracted and encased her. In a panic, the Queen of Hearts tried firing a magical beam from her palm, but they were absorbed by the barrier!
"I extended to you the chance to end this hostility despite the atrocities you committed against your people and the fact that you attacked my world first without provocation." Shinki's voice rang through the air. But the Queen paid it little mind as she felt her life force getting siphoned away by the barrier around her slowly.
Her eyes widened to the size of a round table as she looked down at Shinki again with a demand that was tinged with an emotion that the girl had never seen on the Queen before. Fear. "Release me this instant! You're but a bumkin noble with more powers than your station! Don't you dare steal from this Queen what isn't yours!"
"The so-called 'your power' is nothing but a life deprived from other sentient beings of this world." Shinki calmly responded. Her voice was cold and emotionless as she met the Queen's gaze from below. And her gaze made the Queen pause and avert that gaze either with fear or apprehension, the girl wasn't sure.
"I tried to reach out to you despite there being other people who asked me to deliver justice for the deprived future of countless souls who once dwelled in this world in your mad quest for immortality and godhood. Do you know why?" Shinki continued as she slowly paced around in a circle in front of the trapped Queen of Hearts. Four pairs of ethereal, bat-like wings sparkling in myriad colors slowly grew from her back, expanding and showing its glory for all to see.
Shinki exhaled slowly as she stopped her pacing, with her gaze once more on the Queen multiple times her size, and replied to her question with a louder, and more intimidating voice with every word; "It's because the dead cannot be returned. But the one in the present can still use their knowledge and powers for the good of those in the future, should they recognize the burden of those they killed for their selfish desire and choose to atone for their past."
The aura of power surrounded the smaller silver-haired woman. The girl felt warmth and secure under its blanket despite the Queen's paling face and terrified realization expression suggested that she was feeling the opposite;
Her life force, the powers she stole from the living to the point of the entire world becoming a dead barren wasteland, were being forcefully taken away, siphoning toward the winged silver-haired lady she tried to force submission earlier. The Queen tried desperately to stop the flow of her lifeblood by her mystical might. But all it did was accelerate the process.
"No! No! Stop this at once!"
A desperation plea followed by a hellish scream as the Queen's bloated, gigantic body began to shrink as the life force stolen from other living was draining away in the form of a shimmering stream barely visible to naked eyes toward the six-winged Shinki who simply standing there holding the girl in her arms, and looking more menacing to the Queen's mind at this point.
Shinki didn't respond as she continued to stare at the shrinking form of the Queen of Hearts. Glowing balls of energy gathered on six tips of her wings, increasing in size as the Queen shrunk. Until the Queen of Hearts became a shriveling, old humanoid woman with wrinkles and thin, spindly limbs at the end of her lifespan, laying face-up on the throne many times her size, with her enchanted wardrobe shrunk down to fit her original form.
Unbeknownst to the girl in Shinki's arm, far away at the gate connecting this ruined world to Shinki's Makai, the Card Soldiers fall like puppets with their strings cut before crumbling to dust upon hitting the ground. Their commanders prolonged their lives for only a while longer after their life force was forcibly pulled away by their mistress in the futile effort to stop Shinki earlier. But ultimately, they too returned to the ground they belonged.
The gate that stood tall, etched into the cliffside, let out a wail like a thousand tortured souls being set free before the portal inside shut down. The structure then collapsed into piles of rubble and an invisible stream of malevolent magic made flight toward the castle.
Surprisingly, the Queen of the ruined world was still alive when Shinki and the girl flew over to stand on the throne. Her chest heaving with difficulty, with a wheezing sound coming out of her mouth. With little of her life force keeping the Queen among the living for now.
The Queen felt the approaching Shinki and the girl and tried to lift her greyed, sunken, wrinkled-filled face to look at them, but all her aged eyes could see was a blur overlapping with the bright aura perceived from her still formidable magical sight. Now that Shinki no longer conceals it, it dawned on the Queen how outmatched she was.
But that knowledge did little to dissuade her from striking, if not with the now-gone mystical might, then with words;
"You…" The Queen croaked out weakly "…defiled this Queen… this God… stealing what is… cough… cough… rightfully mine…"
Coughs escaped the Queen's lips. Her haughty, mightier-than-thou look earlier was gone, replaced with a frail woman who rapidly aged to the end of her life. The girl in Shinki's arm felt conflicted at the sight, as on one hand, this was the woman who ruined her and countless beings on this world, turning it into a barren hellscape without life and seeking to find and giving other world the same fate for the sake of powers and immortality.
But now, with the Queen now powerless and at the mercy of her rescuer, she also felt pity for the once terrifying and mighty Queen who dragged all living in chains into the glass prisons to be drained of their life force and magic to feed her ever-growing desire.
And then Shinki's solemn voice cut through the air and put the girl back to the present; "Sovereigns that only take and never give are not qualified to be sovereigns at all, let alone gods. For their subjects are not inanimate treasure, but beings with wills, dreams, and lives who look upon them for guidance."
The Queen's rasping laugh was the response she gave to the woman looming over her; "Ridiculous…! I was born… a noble… the rights… is mine… What of it… if I were to… use them… sacrifice them… for my ascension… my… godhood?"
Shinki's silver eyes narrowed at the unrepentant words. And despite knowing that her words would not be heard by this woman, she still has an obligation to herself to at least say it; "You wished to reach for the stars by building a mountain of corpses instead of putting effort in studying and searching of knowledge to enlighten one's mind. Such a path will not yield what you seek, for what you gained is never yours."
The condition of the Queen continued to worsen; coughs now sprayed droplets of midnight-black blood from the Queen's lips as well as breathing became more haggard by the minute. The girl averted her gaze from her father's killer to look at Shinki and whispered; "Can you not let her suffer like this?"
Shinki shook her head sadly; "This… is a backlash of what gives her powers and youth. I can potentially stop it…" She paused and then looked at the girl and whispered; "…but this type of person will never let go of their twisted desire. They will seek to consume and violate other lives for their selfish gain again and again in the future."
"I am… the conqueror of world… I am… a goddess… the inviolable…"
As if to reinforce Shinki's argument, the Queen with her eyes unfocused and staring up to the ceiling of her once majestic throne room, started mumbling like a mantra. Her arm slowly reached upward as if to grasp the sky.
"I… will not… die… not… die…"
Shinki shook her head again at the sight of the Queen and addressed the girl quietly; "As powerful as I am to rip her stolen powers from her and stop her from dying. A forceful change of someone's heart is their choice, and theirs alone to change it. Not even gods can do that."
The girl nodded weakly and silently, with her grip on Shinki's arm tightened when she felt something from afar enter the Queen, causing her to shudder violently and let out a hoarse, bloodcurdling scream as body and clothing started to become grey like chalk by the second.
And then, as she breathed her last, her body and clothing suddenly crumbled into a pile of ashes upon the throne.
Shinki bowed slightly at the pile of ashes, and despite initial hesitance, the girl followed along.
The pair stayed bowing in silence for another minute before Shinki stood up straight again and broke the silence; "Are you alright?"
The girl looked back at the pile of ashes that was once the Queen who brought ruin to her world and then turned toward Shinki; "At least… my father… can be at peace… our fight… was not in vain…"
Shinki flew up and made her way toward the exit of the castle in silence. But as they went past the great gate into the cloudy sky of the barren world, the girl finally asked about something that she hadn't commented upon earlier with her finger pointed at one of the glowing energy balls orbiting around the tips of Shinki's wings; "What are you… going to do… with those?"
Shinki gave the girl a reassuring smile as the glows became brighter by the second while she was hovering in place in the castle's barren courtyard; "Return them to where they belong."
As soon as she said that, the ball of lights detached from her wings, flew upward, and converged into one. The newborn sun made of magical and life force that the Queen stole from the living in this dead world shone bright, dispelling the dark cloud over the two's heads as it ascended toward the blue sky that was once hidden by the cloud. The ball of light ascended further and further until it was obscured by the light from the sun that never touched this world's surface for years.
And then the second sun bloomed. Its shining light temporarily overshadowed the actual sun as the gathered energy burst into a great wave of power that swept through the barren world.
The girl in Shinki's arms instinctively closed her eyes, but as seconds passed and nothing happened to her or her rescuer, she opened her eyes and looked around and widened; Green moss was rapidly growing to cover the stone wall of the castle. Grass and seedlings were sprouting from the soil that turned brown. Husks of trees and lifeless logs now had mushrooms growing on them. And the returning dark cloud overhead now begins dropping rain upon the land.
The girl tried to stretch her hand out to catch the droplet but was disappointed as Shinki's barrier shielded them from the wetting substance. She shot her rescuer a puzzling look and was greeted with a warm, yet sad smile; "You're still weak after a long time of 'imprisonment'. It wouldn't do to expose yourself to the element."
The girl lowered her hand, and then glanced at the still-growing plant life around them before muttering; "You have… recovered this world…"
Shinki nodded slightly; "Sadly, as I said back during our confrontation, the lives of the sentient beings will not come back. For their souls have long moved on in the cycle of reincarnation. The least I can do is to make this place hospitable for life to return once more."
The girl's eyes slowly filled with tears as she addressed the obvious fact; "But it won't be for years to come."
"It won't be for decades, centuries, or even millennia…" Shinki corrected her, before adding; "I will not allow people from my world to step foot here without your permission either. For it is disrespectful to desecrate a graveyard of a civilization that has been destroyed recently like this."
The girl nodded in agreement before requesting; "Can you… take me with you?"
Shinki smiled before she freed one of her hands and pointed to the side, creating a portal out of thin air as her answer.
The girl looked between the growing plant life around them, and at the swirling portal next to them, and finally back at Shinki and said; "There is nothing left… for us here anymore… let's go…"
And the pair disappeared into the portal, leaving the graveyard world that has begun a recovery process behind.
Author's Note: This may look like a stomp, but Shinki certainly doesn't feel like one considering her diplomatic effort.
Again, this may lag behind the SB a bit. Kind of keep forgetting that I have an account here. Heh.