Interlude: Nia Teppelin/Anti-Spiral

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

PAIN

It/she hurt! Why, why did they hurt? This much pain, how could anyone inflict it upon another? How could anyone endure this?

It was too much, too much! It/she screamed, tumbling through the ether without any guidance, any direction, careening like a meteor towards no destination. Pain was all there was, all consuming, distracting her/it from what she was tumbling towards, tearing through layers of existence with reckless abandon.
From the hidden realm where the Anti-spirals resided she/it flew, smashing into boundaries of realities. Places where physics did not exist, where things were inverted, twisted, or home to rules of existence that no human mind could comprehend, to places that were almost like home but not quite, or places that were as wildly different as could be and still be vaguely recognizable.

They did not pass through the boundaries without consequences, despite the twisted desire of the will inside of her. It clung to its own self as much as it could, but upon hitting a peculiar veil separating a realm of energy and a realm of matter, much of its spirit -for lack of a better term- was sheared off. It was left behind, stranded in a place antithetical to logic, a raging storm of emotions that treated the rules of existence as a polite suggestion, while the host fell away.
Pain receded, allowing the being who called herself Nia to think clearly again.

It was still there inside of her, a malevolent will that desired only death. Even as a shadow of its former self, with but a fragment of its strength and knowledge, its power was terrifying. Even as it was now, even with parts of itself breaking off now that it was shattered, she didn't know if she could beat it.

That being, a shade of the Anti-Spiral, was incensed beyond measure. It was furious that Nia had distracted it in a vital moment, thanks to her it could not deal with the shattering of the boundaries between realities. If she had not, this whole affair would be dealt with quickly, allowing it to focus its attention onto more serious matters.

At least now it had absorbed the girl, in due time she would be no more. Then, this place could be dealt with. Its senses gave enough readings that it decided not to wait.
Splinters, both large and small, broke off as they tumbled, the will could not control itself enough to keep itself together, not as a mere shade of its true incarnation. Those bits went flying into the aether, causing tremendous damage when they inevitably impacted something.

One splinter tore through a fleet of giants, ripping apart a flagship the size of a mountain as easily as a stone thrown into the water, and vaporized several smaller escorts as an afterthought. Another splinter impacted a planet being consumed by strange power, annihilating matter and dispersing energy upon landing, erasing a billion sentient entities swarming through the boundaries of this reality. The blow reverberated into the tear in existence, turning another billion entities into chaff.
More bits of the whole flew away, causing harm on a scale that horrified her/it. A splinter collapsed a star into a black hole, devouring a smog choked cityscape planet with no warning. A fleet of ships with spikes on their hulls were scattered to the solar winds, indirectly saving a world of farmers. A horde of creatures driven by a terrible hunger were turned to dust while they rested, slain in transit to their next target.

One splinter did not inflict destruction when it hit the dirt of a remote world, a planet that unknowingly had an ancient gateway on it, built by a long gone alien civilization and now used by something far worse. Its inhabitants did not know it existed until spiked raiders arrived from nowhere, capturing them for a terrible fate. Rather than spare them from their doom, the shard simply embedded itself into the soil, in sight of a warband of lithe monsters. Those beings found a curiosity instead of a dangerous tool, and in their ignorance they took it back to their home.

It cheered at the devastation, she screamed. Mustering what willpower she could, the next shard that broke off was deflected, missing a populated world to instead core an airless moon, raining debris into the void. Some of the rocks would eventually reach the world, but the eradication the shard desired was avoided.

Another was flung into the sun. Another narrowly missed a remote world filled with rural villages, its pointy eared inhabitants noticing doom arriving too late to seek shelter, feeling relief as much as confusion when the shard careened past their home, sinking into a nearby gas giant.

The will within her was fighting back, raging that it was not able to cleanse the stars of life. It pulsed with poorly contained fury, sensing life overflowing in this galaxy. Abundant, hardy, facing what it thought was a doomed existence against things outside of its reality. So much life, so much chaos.

It all had to be destroyed. Exterminated to the very last scrap of DNA-

She wrested back control, grabbing a shard before it could fly towards a primitive world of ice and volcanos, guarded by cunning brutes. That splinter wanted to cleanse the whole system, the will wanted to examine a couple survivors before they were annihilated, she screamed. In the end she won, barely, hitting an asteroid filled with unmanned sensors.

It was not giving up. Each splinter costed fragments of its essence, but they were acting as bait for the greater self, alerting it to their location. The moment it located them, she would be snuffed out. Destroying lesser lifeforms was a pleasant side effect.

Nia was not going to let it!

She wasn't able to celebrate as they plummeted through the cosmos, the entity sent a lance of pain and terror through her, throwing her off as it detected a juicier target thousands of light years away. Its mistake was trying to aim towards a distant object, even one that brimmed with unfamiliar power. In the time it needed to take aim at a colossal artificial planetoid she fought back, making a splinter fly into deep in the process, as they tumbled across the galaxy, some things escaped her attention before she could catch them.

Such as one splinter that took the opportunity to fly towards a crowded system, a place overflowing with life and reverence, a fragment of the opposition's will directing the shard to destroy it all. It blew through ancient defenses that once withstood a destructive civil war, venerable weapons and shields brushed aside without a care. On a shrouded moon in the system, a band of psychic warriors suffered immense pain as they foresaw doom mere moments before it arrived, screaming warnings which had no chance to reach their allies in time.

Above a world coated in people and history, the shard plummeted towards its target with no greater destire than to erase all life before it. But before it could kill countless people, a will sprung to life, something of unimaginable power yet weakened by an epoch of agony. It was warped from what it once was, but within that entity was the same goal which had motivated it to set everything in motion.

She/it sensed that this being scream as it acted to save its people, it's structural makeup fracturing even further than it already seemed to be.

Now that being sent a bolt of its immense power towards the splinter, sucking out a vast amount of its velocity.

Huh…. how peculiar.

Raising it's/her hands, they directed a bit more of her own power behind the splinter, seeking to overpower whatever was trying to halt its genocide. But the being increased its own power in response, matching her/it before it could be defeated.
What… was this thing? A couple of feelers, leapfrogging various splinters within this galaxy, were quite firmly repulsed by a number of reasonably advanced defenses, technological in nature.

It did not use what they could describe as spiral power…. no it was something else and yet, through that very power it/she could sense the nature of the being.

Nia felt its confusion, there was a pulse of satisfaction that this evil will was now as puzzled as she could be. This being opposing her/it, this thing of such vast and unknown power, was not a singular entity, or at least it hadn't begun as one. There was a mass of souls bound together by unknown rituals, creating a driving will that was unnatural but not destructive.

Once.

Now, the gestalt soul was falling apart. Eons of suffering, mistreatment borne of ignorance, a fatal wound desperately held together to avoid the inevitable… it was barely coherent, just doing this much was costing it dearly.

Even now, it shone like a star blazing in the cosmos, too much to be entirely on its own…

In a flash Nia saw what was glowing, something underneath that hurt entity. An object built by mortal hands and knowledge from beyond this universe, something no living creature understood. Not even the being using it truly grasped what it could do.

What that thing, that throne keeping the being from dying, was doing now however was nothing short of horrific. Metaphysical hooks embedded themselves into the mummified corpse containing the being, each one chaining the gestalt soul to this plane of existence, causing it pain on a scale Nia could not imagine. Those hooks tore into its soul, ripping it away bit by bit. They would not stop until nothing remained.
Disgust swelled inside the anti-spiral. It was almost as if it was looking upon a twisted parody of itself, an abomination of life, of countless consciousness forced together not for the purpose of preserving all of existence but for itself. Even now, minds were forced into it, trying to counteract the ruinous damage it was inflicting on itself.

It-

Nia swung a punch, one in her mind, or soul, she wasn't going to pretend to understand how it worked, nor did she care. Her fist slammed into her own face, exploding in pain of an entirely different sort. Perhaps she swung too hard, what remained of her senses scattered into a haze of swirling confusion, normally she would be wobbling in place. A tiny part of her was proud of hitting that hard, it was a Team Dai-Gurren grade hit!
For a moment, it's concentration broke and that was just enough.

Although there was too much force behind the shard to fully eradicate, enough of its velocity was sapped that it could be deflected into the moon, where the tremendously potent defensive barriers on the surface would absorb the impact. It bloomed like a new star, catching hundreds of smaller vessels in the blast, and an arcology on the surface was obliterated when its shields failed. It was a drop compared to the losses it could have suffered.
The howl of rage from the will could not be heard by anyone else, but it was certainly satisfying.

Annoyed, it/she clenched and unclenched her fist as it/she slowly removed it from its face, tumbling away from that system. There was more life, more opportunities to destroy, and while this will was hateful, it was also intelligent. A shade of it's true self was still a cunning creature, it could outwit her given enough time. Once she was defeated…

There was a flash on its/her senses, something that caused the Anti-Spiral to take notice. Nia could sense it too, unlike it she felt like jumping for joy. That was spiral power, a lot of it, a blinding amount that felt like a supernova. Space and the realm of power alike trembled, shaking as if they were struck by a quake, a vast wave that affected all before it. There was no missing it, everything here sensed its arrival.

Which could only mean… he was coming!

Simon was here and he was coming for her!

Another shard was hastily pulled back in, kept from attacking a nearby planet of smog and dense arcologies. The sheer output of their form was drawn in on itself, lowering its signature to the point where a casual scan could not locate them. Now, they could not be found easily.

Rage bubbled within it, knowing that it could not fight them in this state. It had to lie low, wait to build up its strength, locating the rest of itself wherever it could be. Right now it had to-

She/it thumped into something, unwittingly phasing through the solid metal until it/she landed in a hallway, dropping onto hands and knees upon a filthy floor. There was gravity, inconsistent but present. This place was stuffed full of life, it was ...

Nia wanted to cringe, that smell was awful!

Looking around in the hallway, she saw that this place was a mess, choking the air with the sheer density of life. Fungal life specifically, although it was rather strange, not just in its biological composition but with the energy flowing around it…

The will halted, shock and confusion overcoming it for a split second. What it sensed was energy, its makeup was similar to that gestalt being, it assumed that it shared a common origin, but how it behaved… it was almost like spiral power. The fungus was generating it, affecting the world around it…

"Oi, wat dat?"

She/it turned, seeing a big green brute peering at her with confusion, its tusked face tilted sideways as it scratched its head. It was large, ugly, and at a glance none too bright.

It shrugged. "Eh, more fer me."

The brute raised a big cleaver, bringing it down upon her head-

It broke it half, a chunk of blade clattering on the ground. A second later she/it had a hand wrapped around its neck, ripping off its head and igniting the flesh. The brute was dead before it knew what happened.

The will steadied itself, reining in its hatred. It heard more, a mob of dumb brutes charging down the tunnel upon hearing the commotion. These ones had guns, primitive yet sizable, and they had no shortage of munitions. Without so much as a warning, let alone restraint, the front ranks of the mob opened up, spraying a wall of fire at her.

It/she noticed that while several of the bullets were standard metal cones like what many primitive races built, a few were a little more mechanically complex, utilizing tiny explosives designed to penetrate a target. Cleverly designed considering how stupid these creatures seemed to be.

None of it harmed it/her, a thought reinforced her/its body so it was ten thousand times stronger than the steel around them.

They would need a fusion plume to even irritate the skin. Munitions bounced off her/its form, raining a cascade of hot metal on the floor, making a greater mess than what these things already did. Surprisingly quite a few shots hit the wall around it/her, even though the brutes faced a stationary target from a close distance. Volume was compensating for accuracy, or lack thereof.

Rolling its/her head, an idea occurred: right now it was weakened, it could not defeat the girl inside her, not without inflicting potentially fatal damage on this particular splinter. But these creatures had power, the energy they were passively generating was similar to Spiral Power yet it was not. It could use that.

Until it could recover its shards, this unorthodox approach would let it regain its strength. Once it was restored, she/it was going to pay that damned Spiral Warrior, Simon, a visit.

A microsecond later it/her grabbed another, ignoring its cries to rip out its essence, tearing away what made it work. Its comrades roared as it attempted to absorb the power, feeling a shudder pass through her/its system. This energy was certainly weird, and as it/her discovered there was barely any of it inside this single creature.

It made another observation once the last of the mob had its neck snapped, the pitiful creature whimpering as it helplessly pounded on its/her arm. This energy grew far stronger the more of it was around, alone its effects were minimal. In vast quantities… oh, this could be more useful than anticipated.

Extending its/her senses out once the corpse hit the ground, a whole species worth of energy was flowing around this hulk. The 'ship' was an amalgamation of flotsam and junk melded together over the eons, due to the influence of that realm of energy. Right now it was the size of a small moon, many kilometers in diameter, and built like a maze. It had no navigation systems, nonsensical controls, and little way to steer its mass.

These brutes didn't care about any of that. It/her sensed millions, no, tens of millions, no, more! There had to be at least a hundred million of the brutes onboard this hulk, at least.

A cruel smile graced Nia's lips. This would do nicely.

Simon was going to have a great surprise when they met again.

AN:
So, some people wondered what is going on with Nia in the meanwhile and, suffice to say, she ain't in the best of place. On the bright side of things, neither is the Anti-Spiral!