1 The Gods' Blight upon this New World

The war hadn't been easy, up to that point, but they had made it. Not together, and not whole, but they had made it all the same.

Tanya, Viktoriya, Rerugen, and the scattered portions of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion had made it that far. As needed, their number had been divided or split up, to spread their ability or to train the next generation of mages, but the best of them had stayed together, fighting side-by-side until the death.

In Dacia. The Legadonia Entente. The François Republic. Throughout the Southern Continent, and even as far as the Russy Federation. Tanya had even flown to 'Akitsushima' for a few days.

After her last… battle on the Eastern Front and her subsequent recovery, they had been given a bit of time off in one of the larger cities of the Empire, Dresdun, taking a day to rest. Tanya had been sure that as long as nothing unexpected had happened, they would have been able to survive the war, regardless of whether the Empire lost or won.

Regardless of the other members of the 203rd, all of whom Tanya was fond of, Tanya would have survived, no matter what. She had finally been given her choice of rear echelon positions, and any one of them were so close that she could taste the fine leather upholstery in the cushy offices behind lines.

She had been so close to securing her future and shoving a roughly-hewn wooden spike – roughly-hewn so that it had plenty of splinters – up Being X's ass.

And then… it had ended.

She had been having a drink – an alcoholic one, finally – with the rest of her troops at a local pub, when an explosion sounded above her and a burning sensation had overtaken her body.

As her soul had fled her body, she had remembered the usage of firebombs in the Second World War and the devastation they had caused in Japan. It stood to reason that the Cordiale would use them on the Empire.

And now she was here. A black, endless void.

She clenched her teeth.

No.

No, she had been so close. She had been so close to the rear, where she could survive.

Then, more thoughts occurred to her. She remembered those beyond her immediate person. Koenig. Viktoriya . Rerugen. Neumann. Grantz. All of them. They had died…

No. It wasn't fair. It wasn't.

Tears stinging her eyes, she beat the floor she was sitting on. They weren't supposed to die like that, miles behind lines. They were supposed to survive . She was supposed to foster their development and have their prowess reflect kindly on her.

She was supposed to protect people she had grown to call friends in the privacy of her mind.

She sat there, feeling quite numb. Her friends – dare she think it, her family – were gone. Burned to cinders or choking to death on ash.

Tanya took a deep breath. No, she couldn't have a breakdown in enemy territory. Not now. She needed to figure out what that thing's game was, and she needed to fight it.

She knew that, in a straight fight, she didn't stand a chance against him. He could pause time like she was nothing but a cheaply-made cartoon. His apparent obsession with turning her into his prophet was one of her only assurances that he wouldn't just toss her into hell and be done with her.

Regardless, she'd resist and spite him, as she always had, for as long as he took to admit to himself she wasn't ever joining him.

With that thought, she took stock of her surroundings and immediately ran what she personally liked to call her 'diagnostic check.' It reminded her of the technology of her first life, and it was much less disheartening than calling it a 'post-crisis checkup on her health and sanity.'

She looked down at herself, hoping that she might have her old body back.

No, still the body of a sixteen-year-old underfed girl. She sighed, and surveyed the body she still had. The Type 95 hadn't decided to move, either.

Well, she still had that cursed piece of jewelry, not that she'd activate it in his presence. She continued to look around, to see if she had anything besides what was on her.

Nope. She only had a few medals, a rumpled uniform, and…

No gun.

Tanya groaned and fought the urge to curl into a ball. Now, she'd have to try and fight a being of incredible power without a gun. Sure, she could use her fingers, hands, and arms as scepters to channel mana instead of her guns, but she'd have to rely on pure formulas instead of bullets, and if she messed up a particularly powerful one, well…

She'd end up as an amputee.

She chuckled mirthlessly to herself. As if she'd even get the chance to take a shot at him. Her situation was hopeless.

Viktoriya's face flashed through her mind, and Tanya took a deep breath.

Tanya would fight. If not for her own survival – because that wasn't happening – then to avenge her faithful adjunct and her friends.

She scoffed. Had she really become the firebrand soldier bent on fighting any battle, no matter how hopeless, that she had tried to make everyone think she was? No, she had just grown personally invested in those around her instead of only caring for herself, which was completely understandable considering how much effort she had poured into them.

Finished surveying her available resources, she looked around, into the black, inky void, wondering if this was some sort of purgatory where she'd slowly be driven mad by her own mind. It didn't seem like some sort of eternal damnation, like Being X had promised so many years ago.

She was still alert, of course. This could be some sort of test. What the thing was testing for, she couldn't fathom, but she'd play his game. For now.

Grimacing, she chose to travel in the direction she thought she had been facing when she had arrived. Hopefully, she'd find… something while walking.

Unknown to the misplaced protagonist was a simple fact: Being X was taking the day off.

No directing mortals, no taunting The Atheist, no having to deal with the various deities, no worrying about The Atheist getting to safety and out from under his heavenly thumb, no having to try and brainstorm ways of saving…

Well. He wasn't doing anything stressful. Nothing like that.

Just one day to relax and try to find some peace.

Naturally, everything had happened while he was gone.

Without his careful guidance, the mortals' firebombs had been used on the city of Dresdun, the place he was allowing his lost lamb to rest before he began the next round of attempted conversions, instead of some other city closer to their frontlines.

And with their attack, they had killed The Atheist.

Not that Being X knew yet. He was trying to take a nap.

Tanya continued to look around, unaware of her nemesis's sabbatical, and she eventually found a small area lit by some sort of overhead light. There were two chairs, a dark brown one and a light one. There was a desk next to the light chair, and a girl sitting in the chair, dozing.

Tanya slowly crept into the edge of the light, wary of a trap. She looked at the girl sitting in the chair.

The girl seemed to be beautiful, by western standards. She had a full chest, wore slightly revealing clothing, and had shockingly blue hair. She was currently hugging the light blue hagoromo that seemed to be trying to float in the air.

She also reeked of mana. It was on a scale that Tanya had only known in Being X and, when they prayed, herself and the so-called 'Bloody Valkyrie.' Tanya chuckled when she thought of that girl.

Her thoughts slowly spiraled towards what had happened after she'd killed her. The fall, her capture, her r-

She shook her head and bit down on the inside of her cheek. She wouldn't allow memories of the past to distract her, not here. Never, if she could help it…

Back on track, Tanya continued to study the girl, for a moment. Then her eyes began to drift down, to the creamy expanses of-

Tanya violently shook her head, biting her tongue this time. She wouldn't fall prey to and be distracted by the hormone-driven thoughts that puberty and her sexual preferences had been inflicting on her for three years, either.

She had better things to do – like trying to survive – than to let her thoughts stray in the middle of enemy territory.

After taking a calming breath, Tanya activated a few basic Observation formulas that she could utilize without needing a Computation Jewel. She searched the chairs, the ground, around the girl, and everywhere in sight that wasn't the inky expanse that surrounded them.

She found nothing that might resemble a trap or illusion. She found nothing at all, in fact. Nothing indicated this was a trap, or that Being X was nearby.

She had memorized his mana signature the one time her Type 97 had been nearby during one of his 'sermons,' and the memory of that signature was the only reason she hadn't immediately assumed that he had reincarnated himself into the form of the Bloody Valkyrie upon her repeated meetings with that crazy madwoman.

Still suspicious – what if the girl turned out to be some sort of fighting machine? – she walked closer to the girl. The possible lackey didn't move, or even seem to notice Tanya's presence.

Tanya nodded – she hadn't been rendered unconscious by the girl yet – and she snapped her fingers in front of the girls face. She needed answers, and-

No change.

Raising an eyebrow, she began to poke the girl, who remained unmoving. Tanya tilted her head in confusion, and pressed her finger into the girl's cheek.

She still wasn't waking up. Tanya furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to think of a way to wake her up.

Tanya shrugged as she raised a hand. It wasn't her fault the girl was such a monumentally heavy sleeper.

Tanya's hand fell, and a loud smack issued from the point of impact. A mark stained the cheek of the girl, who remained unmoving, besides a slight shift in position.

Tanya stared at her own hand, trying not to get whiplash from glancing between it and the girl.

Had… had she even hit her, or was she hallucinating this entire experience?

Now wary of the sleeping embodiment of blue, she enhanced her arm, hand, and upper body with mana. The Reinforcement formulas were, when kept weak, some of the easiest to do without a Computation Jewel.

"Here goes nothing," Tanya muttered, lashing out with as much power allowed to her by her mana and body.

SMACK!

The girl was sent sprawling and hit the ground, rolling for a few feet. Seemingly immune to the damage that Tanya had imparted to her, she yawned, and rubbed her eyes as she sat up.

"Whaa…"

"Stupid Eris…" the girl muttered, grumbling as she sat up.

Scowling, the girl looked back at where she'd been resting, finally noticing Tanya, and tilted her head. "Wait, you're not Eris. Who are you?"

Years of military training and the subsequent years of her identity being doubted – she didn't exactly look the part of a hardened war veteran, let alone a military officer – snapped into her mind, and Tanya quickly gave a salute. "Major-General Tanya Degurechaff, commander of the 203rd-"

The girl cut her off, tilting her head, an expression of mild interest coloring her face. "Wait, some war world is using child soldiers now?"

Tanya stopped her explanation abruptly. This girl…

She was, no doubt, related to Being X. The woman knew there were multiple worlds or dimensions, even if she wasn't him.

"How…?" Tanya began to ask, eyes narrowed in suspicion, when the girl cut her off with a negligent wave of her hand.

"I suppose you wouldn't know," the girl said, clearing her throat, "but I am Aqua, a goddess who guides humans who die young to the afterlife." She supplied this fact simply while standing and walking to her chair.

She paused, and Tanya had to fight to contain her palpable anger. Another being that claimed to be god?

In her first life, Tanya had loudly declared her disbelief in god. She hadn't thought that god would come down to lecture a middle class office worker on their lack of faith, and she had told that being, to his face, that he wasn't what he claimed to be.

She had spent every moment of the next near sixteen years regretting that decision. She had had to grow up in a knockoff version of Germany and had to fight as a child soldier with magic.

She wouldn't be repeating that mistake again, no thank you. She might have made some wonderful friends along the way, but she did not like having to play Being X's games.

No, instead, she'd see what this… Aqua had to say, and then she would leave her in the dust if she couldn't make herself useful.

Unaware of Tanya's thoughts, Aqua had been looking for something, searching the scant furniture for something that wasn't there. "Usually," she commented, "whenever one of you gets here, I get a book that tells me your entire lifelong sob story, but I can't find it…"

Unknown to Tanya, Being X had, once more, been the cause of this. He'd locked up the file of The Atheist when she had been reincarnated, to make sure that none of the others tried something. There were far too many trickster Gods and chaos Goddesses and annoying-son-of-a-bitch Deities that might try to mess with his plans simply because they could.

And, while Aqua knew the files were locked up, she didn't know that the puny, disgruntled, partially adorable girl in front of her was the fearsome Atheist.

The girl closed her eyes, and shrugged. "Well, what does it matter?" she said sitting on her chair, using the small table at her side as an armrest. "I don't need your files in order to process you."

Tanya was, honestly, personally offended by that. She might have gotten caught if this Aqua did have her book, obviously, but why wouldn't this person care about making sure that things were working correctly?

She was probably some sort of reject.

Tanya smirked. Heh. Reject god.