'Not fair! Not fair! Not fair! This is obscene! This is the most blatant manipulation by Being X yet!'

 

Major Tanya Von Degurechaff spends a precious few seconds in cover, struggling to catch her breath, taking any moment she can before the divinely powered monster's mana scans find her. On the bare edge of her hearing, she catches the high pitch whine of mana buildup. 

 

'FUCK!' 

 

Tanya barely dodges out from behind the ruined wall in time before a beam of pure mana, as thick across as her waist, pierces through the wall to hit where she stood a second ago. She pumps mana to the flight spell built into her flight boot, causing her to ascend just before the beam ignites the air and the entire ruined multi-story apartment building goes up in flames beneath her. 

 

Tanya catches a glint of glowing yellow Citrine eyes rapidly approaching, the same colour Tanya's own eyes become when she draws on the divine power of the cursed Type 95 computation orb. Tanya shoves her mana directly into her body, not even bothering with the flight boot, to forcibly change her momentum and direction a split second before the monster's bayonet would have skewered her face. She fires off a quick shot from her rifle as the monster passes by. As the enchanted round impacts the monster's shield, the rage-filled face of a young girl glares at Tanya as they fly past each other. Her opponent might look like a young girl, but Tanya knew she was a monster. No human being could hold that much mana without exploding. It was a fucking monster.

 

'Fucking fuck! Being X isn't even being original anymore. Is he trying to force me to use his 'Holy' orb by empowering another little girl? Does being X have a Loli fetish or something? That self-righteous bastard definitely would be the type to have been a pervert all along!' 

 

Tanya pumps mana into her flight boot, trying to gain distance from the monster. Even as she gains distance from her, Tanya can feel the overwhelming mana coming off the monster. She feels the mana signature spike. Without even looking back to confirm what type of attack it was, Tanya burns mana to directly impart force on her body to force her body downwards. Simultaneously she is magically reinforcing herself so the sudden g-forces don't crush her organs. She knows she dodged just in time when she feels the heat of the beam of mana that narrowly misses her back and sees it explode a row of apartments in front of her. Before the monster can fire off another of those attacks, Tanya flips around and imbues her rounds with an artillery spell before firing them off at the monster. The monster doesn't even bother to dodge them, just tanking the hits on her shield as she pursues Tanya.

 

'Did Being X just give this freak unlimited mana? She's not even bothering to enchant rounds. She's just shooting off pure mana beams like it's nothing! And even after firing off bullshit like that she can tank my artillery spells?!'

 

Now that Tanya has some distance from the monster, she can dodge the beams more easily by observing the monster telegraph her attacks. There was no skill to them, only pure power, but Tanya couldn't dodge forever, her mana reserves were not infinite.

 

'Fuck you Being X! How is this fair? How is just shoving this monster in my way supposed to teach me faith through adversity? If you just wanted to kill me you could have done it when I was a baby. You damn hypocrite!'

 

After a particularly large beam flies over Tanya's head, she massively reinforces her body and completely reverses momentum, heading directly towards the monster at over 300 kilometres an hour. If Tanya wasn't an expert at using magic to precisely counter the forces acting on her body, all of her internal organs would have been liquefied by the g-forces. No other mage but Tanya could have handled the split-second calculations needed to spell those counterforces, even with a computation orb.

 

'Let's see if her bullshit shield and bullshit mana lasers can protect her when I am up in her face!.'

 

Tanya is wearing a savage smile as she rushes into melee range with the monster, casting an overpowered mage blade spell on her bayonet, ready to pierce the monster's shields. She relishes the look of shock on the monster's face at how fast she managed to close the distance.

 

'They don't call me the ace of aces for nothing! You might have actually posed a threat if you had some skill to go with that power.'

 

Tanya swings down her bayonet, and the mage bade smashes against the glowing magical shield that flared up around the monster. The blade is cutting into it but much too slowly.

 

'what the fuck! I empowered that mage blade so much that it should be able to cut through a battleship! How is her shield so strong? Being X, you degenerate cheating piece of shit!'

 

The monster turns her head to face Tanya, not even caring that her shield was slowly getting sawed through. Tanya meets the gaze of a young girl whose face was twisted by an inhuman berserker rage, her eyes filled with the yellow Citrine glow that was the hallmark of channelling Being X's power. 

 

"In the name of almighty god! I will end your life! Devil! You killed my father!" The monster screams at Tanya before she brings her rifle in line with Tanya, the muzzle already glowing with charging mana.

 

"Devil of the Rhine was just Francois war propaganda! it's not literal!" Tanya complains at the monster as she uses magic to violently yank her own body down under the firing line of the monster's rifle.

 

The beam that Tanya barely dodges is as thick as a person. It would have taken a dozen A-class mages burning enough of their mana to kill themselves to give an attack like that enough mana. Even while having dodged it, Tanya can feel the heat of it burn some of her hair and steal the moisture from her mouth. 

 

"Die demon!" The monster's eyes are feral as she brings down her rifle for a bayonet slash, the muzzle still aglow with the heat from the last shot.

 

Tanya's muscles would not be fast enough to bring up her bayonet to block in time, so she magically propels her arm to move fast enough. She ignores the pain of tearing muscles as her limb moves in ways it was not meant to move. The impact of the monster's bayonet against Tanya's almost breaks her arm. 

 

'Of course the monster has enough mana to enhance her strength, as well as keep up that insane shield and fire off those insane blasts. Of fucking course she does.'

 

There is a splash against the monster's shield as mage rifle fire from elsewhere smashes against it to no effect. Tanya takes the opportunity to back off and looks towards the direction of the fire, seeing the familiar brown-haired form of Lieutenant Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov firing from altitude at the monster. 

 

'Visha!'

 

Tanya feels a flash of panic, imagining one of those beams skewering the person closest to her in this world. Tanya frantically taps her throat mic as the monster turns to face who is firing at her. 

 

"Visha get out of here! Complete the mission. I'll keep her occupied. None of you can hope to match her and the mission comes first!" 

 

Tanya knew she had to give her battle maniacs in the 203rd mage battalion a reason to not get involved. They would all happily dash themselves like eggs against the stone that was the monster's shields if Tanya did not give them a reason to stay away.

 

'Fine, Being X, I'll use your damn cursed orb. I'll say the pretty words you want to be praised with. But you are just still scum who thinks they are worth something just because they have some power.'

 

Tanya needed to put the monster down, now. Before the monster started using those crazy mana beams against mages who couldn't dodge as skilfully as she could, which was all of the mages. Even if she hates doing it, Tanya has to use the type 95 orb that Being X cursed to get past those shields.

 

"Let god protect the people of the fatherland and smite their enemies." 

 

As Tanya starts her invocation, she can feel the divine mana flow out of the type 95 orb, the quad cores of the computation orb only synchronising when she praises Being X. Tanya knew his plan was to force her to praise him to survive against this monster, she had no choice but to use the type 95 orb, no matter how sick it made her feel to sing his praises. 

 

"Oh lord, let your divine light sweep away those who would harm your people." 

 

Tanya knows her eyes are now the same Citrine shade as the monsters, the divine mana infecting her as she used the orb. But, with all this extra mana to pump into an artillery spell, there is no way the monster's shields would be able to hold up.

 

"HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT GOD, YOU DEVIL!" The monster rages, suddenly and horribly focused back on Tanya. Rushing towards her.

 

'Well at least she won't go after Visha now' 

 

Tanya keeps pumping all the divine mana the type 95 orb is generating into the artillery spell, planning to only fire it at the last second, giving it every scrap of power she can before she has to fire. 

 

"For in your light, they will find eternal peace."

 

The monster is right in front of her. This girl that Being X pumped full of so much divine mana that it should have made her explode a dozen times over. Her rage-filled eyes, infected with yellow divine mana, are so close that Tanya can see the madness in them, the madness that has taken over, the madness that turned her into a monster. When the monster's bayonet is barely a meter away from piercing Tanya, she fires.

 

The explosion from the empowered artillery spell is colossal. The explosion from such a short distance away shatters Tanya's shields instantly, even though she immediately flared her shields to maximum after firing. Tanya can feel her bones break from the concussive force as she is flung away from the blast. She barely has time to reinforce her body before she is slammed through the roof of a church and into the marble floor hard enough to crater it.

 

'With so many injuries... High command can't possibly deny me a transfer back to the rear now...' 

 

Tanya just lays in the crater, exhausted and broken, running a healing spell with the trickle of mana she has left.

 

Then she feels the familiar surge of divine mana from outside the church.

 

'No fucking way. There is no way she could have survived that. HOW! I HIT HER HEAD ON! SHE SHOULD BE PASTE!'

 

Tanya slowly climbs to her feet, she is barely holding on to her rifle and can barely stand. One arm and shoulder were severely broken, and she had multiple broken ribs, one of her knees was probably dislocated, and she was going to have one hell of a concussion.

 

"ARRRRGGHHH!!" The screaming voice of the monster is rapidly getting closer, before she bursts in, making a new hole in the roof. She smashes the rifle out of Tanya's hands. 

 

'I barely got past her shields! What the fuck! Being X, I fucking did the thing! I gave into your bullying and said your stupid prayers to activate the type 95. That's how this is supposed to work! You throw things so dangerous I need the type 95 to deal with them, I do what you want and praise you, and then I FUCKING GET TO DEFEAT THEM. IF THEY SURVIVE, THEN WHAT IS THE POINT OF MAKING ME DO YOUR LITTLE SONG AND DANCE IF THEY WILL JUST KILL ME AFTERWARDS ANYWAY! You fucking lying hypocrite! If you want to kill me give me a stroke in my sleep instead you cruel bastard!' 

 

Tanya is busy cursing out Being X in her mind when the monster steps closer to her.

 

"Y-you devil, how dare you use gods name when you do your witchcraft, I'll kill you for that." Even though she appears mostly uninjured, the monster's breathing is ragged and the mana signature from her is very shaky.

 

"Hah, you were going to kill me anyway, and it is the same god that empowers you that empowers me." Tanya doesn't actually care about convincing her. Tanya is just trying to buy time and maybe goad her into making some kind of mistake she could take advantage of.

 

"God would never give his light to you! You are a devil! A monster! You've killed countless brave and righteous men. Like my father! I've disarmed you, and now I'll make you pay for your wicked ways!" 

 

'She calls me a monster? For my divine power, I at least have to use an orb that Being X cursed to only work when I pray to him. She was channelling so much mana that she was a magical nuke in human form! She is the real monster here.'

 

"And when you fired off your fancy mana beams, slicing up whole apartment blocks as your attacks missed me, blowing up entire streets. How many righteous men did you kill then? Civilian men, and women, and children. People who did not sign up to fight. If your father was a mage, he knew what he signed up for. How many little girls did you deprive of a father who asked for none of this?" Tanya tries to push at weak points, she doesn't know this girl at all so she doesn't have much to go on, but she knows what the self-righteous and bloodthirsty types like these are like. She just needs to get the monster to come closer.

 

"Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up! You will not twist me with your words! God himself gave me the power to finish you!" She steps just a bit closer to Tanya, shaking in rage.

 

Just a bit closer, just a bit closer and Tanya can finish this, even with her body broken like this.

 

"Your 'god' played you. He only gave you power so that I would feel threatened and turn to him for comfort." Tanya spits on the ground in disgust, it's full of blood. "This was all set up to manipulate me into worshipping him because he is an egotistical coward that couldn't handle it when I told him 'no'. Your power is just him having a big tantrum because he revealed himself to me and I found him wanting." Tanya finishes her rant, the utter scorn and disgust for Being X clear in her voice.

 

Tanya has never actually revealed what Being X has been doing to her to anyone, it is a bit of a relief. She doesn't even need to worry about this girl telling anyone else and getting thought of as crazy, because she was going to kill her. Truly what a thoughtful and kind listener she was, to take Tanya's secrets to the grave for her.

 

"RAAARRRGH!" The monster is feral with rage now. She rushes forward towards Tanya, finally stepping into range.

 

The crack of pistol shots rings out, Tanya has drawn her Mauser pistol with her remeaning good arm. With her shields broken, even regular bullets with no enchantment could kill this monster of a girl. Tanya empties the entire magazine into the girl, watching her stumble as the bullets tear through her flight suit, seeing her fall over. It was finally over.

 

"Bringing your emotions onto the battlefield, you amateur." Rational planning saves the day again. This time she might even get extended leave due to her injuries. Maybe finally get some time off of the front lines. Sure, she was in incredible pain right now, but overall, things were looking up.

 

"Huehehehe... HAHAHAHAHAHA" The monster laughs while laying on the floor and bleeding out. 

 

'I have a very bad feeling about this.'

 

Then, Tanya suddenly feels the uncontrollable mana reaction of a computation orb overloading. The monster was going to blow them both up!

 

"I'll see my father soon! And you'll die like you deserve!" The glow of the overloading orb was visible through the monster's body as she lay on top of it, the light so intense it shone through her flesh.

 

Tanya tries to dump whatever scraps of mana she has left into her flight boot, but she barely makes it to the roof before the monster's orb explodes. Tanya passes out from the blast and suddenly comes to consciousness as she lands, feeling most of her remaining intact ribs shatter on impact.

 

'Well fuck, she got me. Guess that was my fault for being incautious... well, at least the rest of the squadron probably made it out okay, it would have been a terrible waste of good men if she had killed them...'

 

Breathing was getting almost too painful to bear. Tanya is pretty sure she's punctured a lung.

 

'At least Being X didn't win. The stupid bastard will never understand why people won't worship him if he uses stupid brute-force plans like that. Plenty of soldiers die an atheist even in the scariest situations.'

 

Tanya can hear the rasping sound of herself drowning in her own blood.

 

'I'll miss drinking Visha's coffee... She truly was an excellent subordinate... I probably should have told her about my feelings for her before I died, no matter how unprofessional that would have been...'

 

Then, for a short while, darkness.

 

When she next wakes, everything feels wrong. Her vision is blurry, her limbs feel the wrong length, and when she tries to move, the signals to her body don't work correctly. What feels like giant hands are holding her, and she can see giant faces staring at her from above. This... This was frighteningly familiar. She was a baby again.

 

'DAMN YOU BEING X!'