BB scowled as she stared at herself in the mirror of her personal pocket dimension, not liking at all what she saw.
Normally, BB was a flawless beauty- usually enjoying staying in her swimsuit form from the Mobile Game, a purple bikini with tiny black shorts and thigh boots. It was a sexy combination, and she knew that her Senpai- Ash- loved it, even if he acted like a bit of a beta when it came to her because he was afraid of her power.
As if she would ever hurt him...
But now, looking at herself in the mirror, she wasn't that flawless beauty at the moment. Several violent wounds were spread out on her body- the nastiest one being a glaring cut that went all the way from her stomach to her back.
And all of the wounds were, without exception, covered in a thick black ooze as they did their best to heal.
"Damn that Ophis," BB clenched her fist, resisting the urge to punch the mirror.
BB had not expected Ash to get sucked into a space-time anomaly, she hadn't planned for him to start visiting other worlds until after the Tenrou Island Arc.
She supposed that was a consequence of the Multiverse she'd usurped and messed with exclusively for him, though. She'd made so many changes and had also needed to mess with the boundaries between worlds, it was no surprise that perhaps some issues had caused some anomalies to appear- she'd have to be vigilant from now on.
But, alas, her Senpai had found an anomaly and been sucked in. BB had been focused on protecting him, but then she'd seen that huge black claw surging right towards him- trying to take him away.
She hadn't hesitated, transforming into her true, indescribable form and clashing with the Infinite Dragon God. In the moment that she'd been distracted opening a gate to send him and Levy to a world and get them out of the void between, Ophis had struck and caused the huge wound that was angering BB so much.
The worst part was that Ophis and Great Red- despite what they might have thought- weren't a match for her at her full strength.
The downside was that she wasn't at her full strength.
Even as an Outer God, despite their ungodly power, they still had some limits. The amount of power she could manifest at once was limited- if she used too much, she could end up distorting reality and completely ruining the Multiverse she'd painstakingly crafted just for Ash!
Even though Ophis was meant to be so much weaker than her, she and Great Red had a LOT of experience dealing with Outer Gods, and so they knew how to cause some damage.
That led to her current predicament, waiting in her personal realm to heal- because yes, she was vain, and she couldn't allow her Senpai to see her as anything other than the flawless BB-Chan!
But she was worried about him because the System had never been intended to run in Auto-Mode. It was always meant to be completely and utterly controlled by BB, and things she'd never intended for had already started happening.
The Crest of Artosh was one of those things- Bloodlines and other things weren't meant to interact with other worlds, they were meant to stay separate. But the Crest of Artosh alone completely went against what she'd intended, showing that things were already changing in her absence.
And you didn't even want to get her started on how Baldr had just shown up, basically threatened her Senpai, and then giving him her own crest!
She had intended to work on some worlds later, otherwise Baldr should never have shown up in Fire Emblem: Three Houses! She'd planned to separate all the Fire Emblem Worlds later on, but now that wouldn't be possible with Ash already present.
For the first time, BB truly hated her own pride that wouldn't let her appear in front of her Senpai as anything less than flawless unless it was an absolute emergency.
"Well now, what have we here~" A voice purred from behind, one that made BB instinctively scowl as she turned around to face them.
Short silver hair and golden eyes, with grey skin clad in a tight black dress that was extremely short and revealing. An amused smirk was on the woman's face as BB resisted the urge to punch her in the face.
Shub-Niggurath adjusted her glasses, a mocking smirk on her lips, "What's wrong, Nyarl?" She asked BB, a hand on her hips, "I've come to see you for the first time in... Hm, how long has it been?"
"12.6 Million Years," BB responded flatly, "And I could have done with another 10 Million before seeing your sorry face again, Shub."
She laughed in amusement, "You're always so cold, Nyarlahotep~"
Shub-Niggurath, another Outer God just like Nyarlahotep.
While Nyarlahotep was more of a trickery based Outer God who just enjoyed having fun, Shub-Niggurath was a complete degenerate. She was the Outer God perhaps the closest to being human among all of them, but she was very twisted about it. She loved going to numerous worlds, seducing whoever caught her fancy, and watching the worlds descent into chaos as a result.
Of course, after she'd had her fun, she always helped fix the world just so that she could come back and do the same thing again later.
BB, faced with a pervert who even she- a pervert- found extremely perverse, scowled. "Why are you here, Shub?"
"I was just bored and came to visit," she shrugged, "My oh my, those injuries really don't suit you... Did you go to visit one of those Draconic Deus worlds without disguising yourself? You know you have to basically reduce yourself to a human before going to those, or those two little geckos start stirring up trouble."
"Something like that," she grunted, "If you're just here to bother me, Shub, then leave. Unlike you- who is just bored- I'm actually rather busy at the moment focusing on getting rid of these ugly blemishes. So, if that was all..."
"Well, okay, I'm not totally bored- I did have something to speak with you about," Shub-Niggurath finally confessed, "And, since we're in the forms of that 'Fate' series, just call me Jacques while I'm in this form."
"Then tell me what you want and be done with it," BB rolled her eyes.
"You see, I couldn't help but notice that you decided to commandeer a Universe for yourself, making some fun changes," Jacques' golden eyes glowed as she looked at BB, "In exchange for helping you heal faster from those wounds, all I need is a small favour~"
"If you want to come to my Universe, the answer is no," BB said flatly, "I've worked extremely hard to make this Universe to my liking and sealed it off so none of you could interfere with it. I will not let any of you into my Universe."
Jacques just waved her hand, "I don't care about that. What I need is a small favour regarding Cthugha."
BB's eyes narrowed...
Nyarlahotep and Cthugha had a LOT of animosity between them, and Cthugha was actually strong enough to threaten her. While the two had been on amiable terms for the past few million years, that didn't mean that BB didn't want to teach that Living Flame a lesson.
Golden eyes glowed and Jacques grinned slowly, "Here's what I need..."
.
.
.
"Thank you for joining me for tea today, Ash," Edelgard smiled politely, the two of us sitting at a table in the gardens of the monastery.
"My pleasure, Edelgard," I nodded at her lightly as she poured the two of us some tea.
A week had passed since Levy and I had begun to attend classes at the Monastery, and we'd slowly integrated ourselves into the Black Eagles. Levy had made fast friends with many of the girls and had even begun to be able to wield Reason Magic.
I, on the other hand, had begun to put into practice creating my new Slayer Attributes for each element I could use.
In essence, every single spell I now wielded had become Dragon and God Slaying Magic. Sadly, the two magics hadn't fused together like I'd hoped, nor become 'subordinate' to another one. It seemed I would have to level those up separately.
Unsurprisingly, once we'd settled in, Edelgard had invited me out for tea. I knew she'd already invited Levy for tea, and Levy had rather enjoyed talking with Edelgard- finding they were both interest in books.
"How are you settling in?" Edelgard asked. "I've noticed you're not really interacting with the boys all that much- I thought you'd get along with Linhardt."
"It's fine, we get along well enough," I responded, though the truth was that I just generally didn't get along with men.
It was a problem back in the Guild too... But that was more due to incompatibility, I was much more quiet as a person rather than the guys who loved to brawl and mess around. I rarely even got involved in guild brawls compared to them.
Hell, it was even an issue in my past life. Most of my friends were girls, with only a few guys being close enough to me to be considered my friends. And yes, it was JUST friendship... And yes, online friends counted as friends.
In this world, it was more just because the Black Eagle men all just kind of did their own thing and maintained a surface level friendship. I was fine with that dynamic, it was just how guys operated.
Deep emotional talks, talking about everything in our lives? Nope, just a 'how you been' and then some small talk before back to life.
"I suppose this is another example for when Dorothea says, 'Boys will be boys,'" she chuckled in amusement, taking a sip of her tea.
I lifted the tea and blew softly on it before I took a sip. I was no tea expert, but it tasted okay and that was good enough for me, "So, why did you call me out?" I asked her, "Besides the whole checking in on me thing."
She paused only for a moment before she looked at me, "Before, in the infirmary, you mentioned telling me about the history of Fodlan that you know- the 'true' history," she said cautiously, "I must admit, I'm very curious. Does that imply that history as we know it in Fodlan is false?"
A hum left my lips as I considered her question for a moment, "Not necessarily false," I told her, "It's more... Missing quite a few details, and has been... Let's called it very 'heavily' abridged and loosely interpreted. It wasn't that the ones who wrote history were trying to lie- in fact, I'm sure they wanted so badly to tell the true history. But propaganda is a powerful thing, and when some facts are believed so strongly... You have little choice but to follow the tide."
Edelgard did her best to not look like she was relieved, eager even. Eager to finally get answers that weren't from history books nor from the people who had been experimenting on her and using her.
"Let's start from the beginning," I finally decided, "Several thousand years ago, the Goddess- Sothis- descended from the Stars. This is true, unquestionably. But, in your case, you're probably wondering just what 'Descended from the Stars' actually means, right? Does it mean she was born from a star, that she lived on a star, what' the deal?"
"I will admit, I am curious about that," Edelgard nodded, "It just sounds very vague."
I smiled in amusement, "Let me explain something first. You're aware, of course, there are continents outside of Fodlan. But what is the collection of these continents called? When you take all the continents and place them together, you get what we called a 'Planet' or a 'World.' The important thing is that this world... Is not the only one."
I pointed up, "Outside of this world are countless others, beyond the sky, residing among the stars. Every star in the sky is actually a sun, and each star has the potential to have a world capable of having life, just like this one."
Edelgard's eyes widened at my words, quickly realising where I was going with this.
"Yes," I nodded, "Sothis is a traveller from another world. Why she came here, I don't know. However, she did indeed descend, bearing majestic and incredible power.
"Once she arrived, she used her blood and created the beings known as 'The Children of the Goddess,' who eventually came to be known as 'Nabateans,' after their own home they called 'Nabatea.'
"The people of the land, originally worshipping old gods from a land called Thinis, transferred their worship to Sothis and worshipped her as the progenitor Goddess and, for a time, they lived in peace... The Nabateans even taught them, granting them the knowledge to build a prosperous civilization of their own- Agartha."
"Then what happened?" Edelgard asked, "If they lived in such prosperity, what could have possibly caused them to fall?"
"What else?" I sighed, "Human greed. The Agarthans grew arrogant, greedy- they believed that they, the people born on this world, should be the masters and rulers of Fodlan rather than some 'foreign goddess.'
"They turned away from Sothis, and instead believed technological advancement was the only way of the world. They dared to challenge the Nabateans, and waged war... They lost, of course, and their nation was destroyed in the conflict. They ended up retreating underground and, eventually, they became known as...
"Those Who Slither in the Dark."