The Outlands

Lilith stood impassively in front of Tess, her very presence striking fear into the center of Tess’s heart. Tess was…no longer quite so sure that this duel had been a good idea. No lasting harm was going to come her way, yes, but she was going to make a fool of herself, she could feel it.

But…she was here, so there was nothing to do but make the best of it. She unsheathed her claws, her formal party suit melting away into the familiar sensation of her armor. Lilith’s partywear likewise faded, resolving into a simple shirt and shorts, a pair of pistols materializing on her waist.

“Um…begin?” Lia ventured, voice crackling to life over the speakers. “They can hear me, right?”

“We can hear you, Lia.” Lilith said calmly, making no move to draw her pistols. “Tess, would you rather I made the first move, or you? I’m fine with either.”

Tess grit her teeth. Lilith was definitely looking down on her, but that would only make Tess’s job a bit easier. She began stacking all of her Skills onto her claws, then rushed for Lilith. As she ran, she let loose Command of the Emperor, and watched in gratification Lilith flinched, and then…did nothing. Far from turning to run like Ilmir had, Lilith’s expression hardly even changed.

Tess used Flashstep to blink right in front of Lilith, claw mere inches from Lilith’s heart –

She stopped. Not because she wanted to, but because she was being held in place by some sort of tentacle that had grown out of Lilith’s stomach. “Not bad.” Lilith said. “You’re a lot faster than I had thought you were going to be. I suppose that just goes to show the difference in our worlds’ strengths.”

Tess Flashstepped out of the tentacle, only to be caught again the instant she rematerialized.

“FYI, I can sense where you’re going to appear.” Lilith said casually. “I –”

She was cut off as Tess slashed down into the tentacle that was holding her. They waited for a second before You Are Already Dead kicked in, and the hit properly registered, neatly severing the tentacle.

She expanded the list and blinked in shock at what she saw topping the list.

In fact, it appeared that most of her statuses had failed to proc. She had been standing next to Lilith for quite some time, and both Contamination Factory and Phoenix Fire seemed to be completely ineffectual against her.

“Ow.” Lilith said, sounding more impressed than hurt. “Looks like I was underestimating you a little.” She drew her guns, lazily twirling one of the pistols as she did. “I thought you weren’t going to be able to give me a real fight until you were older and more trained.”

Silky, Isabella, distract her! Tess ordered. I’m going to need to land more of those if we want to win!

Yes, Mistress! Silky said, leaping off of Tess’s shoulder and –

There was a crack as Lilith fired her pistol, neatly intercepting Silky with a bullet that sent the spider flying. Tess felt a disturbance from within her, and knew instinctually that Silky had just been killed. Or…not killed, just removed from the fight; Silky’s corpse had disappeared, and Tess could feel her reappear in the spectator’s booth.

“Sorry, didn’t think she could – eh?” Silky’s voice came in over the speakers. “Wait, how…”

“It’s fine, Silky!” Tess called. “You did your best!”

Isabella, new plan, focus on defense. We lose if one of those hits me. We’ll have to –

A shot grazed the air next to Tess. “Fight’s still going!” Lilith reminded her cheerfully. “I gave you that bit to recover since that whole speaker thing was a bit of a surprise, but I can’t give you all day!”

Isabella threw up a defensive wall while Tess turned and ran. Mountain out of a Molehill, now. Tess commanded. It’ll only buy us a little bit, but I need to think, we can’t approach this blindly.

Isabella obliged, an absolutely titanic wall of earth encasing Tess, looking for all the world like there had been a hill there the entire time.

Never fear, Fortune is here! Fortune’s voice rang out in Tess’s mind.

What? Tess said blankly. But you weren’t –

I just got summoned here and I have a vague idea of what’s going on. I’m going to Descend, alright?

Please do!

A sensation of omnipotence fell over Tess as Fortune fully slipped into her body.

So, I’m assuming our opponent has Worship, right?

Yes. She’s a Higher Being, with some sort of extra thing kind of like Monster Breeder tagged on? To be honest, I’m a little fuzzy on the details.

Is she from –

The wall broke as a worm-like creature tunneled through it, writhing and shifting before eventually resolving back into Lilith.

Tess?

Yeah?

We’re going to lose.

What?!

I can’t beat her. She’s highly resistant to status effects, and my probability manipulation is going to work at greatly reduced effectiveness. I’m not built for combat, and she’s built especially for combat.

“Oh, is this the god you’re working for?” Lilith asked curiously. “Pleased to meet you, my name’s Lilith.”

“Likewise.” Fortune said. “I’m Fortune. I don’t suppose there’s any chance of you going easy on us?”

Lilith flashed a grin. “I’m only using as much strength as I feel is necessary to win, if that counts.”

“Good enough, I suppose. Let’s go, then.” Fortune said. As if on cue, a spiderweb of cracks spread out from the tunnel Lilith had made, and the dome of earth collapsed in on itself, a trick of the sliding soil leaving a perfect space around Tess, which they were able to use to clamber up and away from Lilith.

“Ah, you’re kind of like Isa.” Lilith said calmly, emerging from the landslide completely unharmed. “Annoying, that. Suppose we’re going to be doing hand to hand combat, then.” She tucked away her guns and rushed forward, nimbly weaving around loose patches of dirt that hadn’t been there moments before as she sped towards Tess.

For their part, Tess and Fortune were doing their best to make Lilith’s life difficult. They stacked up Skills on their claws once again, and in the meantime cast small spells in an effort to make as much chaos as possible, even if it seemed ineffectual. Storm clouds had blown in from somewhere, and the wind and rain was already beginning to pick up.

As Lilith neared Tess, the storm finally built to the point where a bolt of lightning was able to discharge, but Lilith barely even hesitated, her skin taking on a distinctive rubbery sheen as the lightning struck her and harmlessly dissipated.

Or, no, there was some damage, but it very obviously wasn’t as much as the lightning would have otherwise done. The rubber melted away from her skin, replacing itself with a smooth black carapace. Lilith’s hand morphed into a large cudgel-like shape, which she brought down on Tess in one swift motion.

Tess and Fortune raised one clawed hand to block, an action that was met with a resounding crack. And, for the first time since she had obtained them, Tess’s claws chipped…and then cracked…and then shattered completely, the shrapnel unanimously choosing to fly towards Lilith instead of anywhere else.

Tess used the opportunity to swing her remaining claws down at Lilith, who calmly raised a carapace-covered arm to block. There was a horrible screeching sound, like nails on a chalkboard, and a dizzying array of impossibly-shaped symbols stopped Tess’s blow cold.

And then You Are Already Dead kicked in, and Tess erupted into flame. She staggered backwards in bewilderment as her Phoenix Fire absorbed the flame, prodding a deep gash in her arm where it appeared her own claws had made a wound. There was even a wriggling parasite inside, which Tess unceremoniously ripped out, wincing at the sensation. Pain may have been severely dulled in this place, but it didn’t make the parasite any less…gross.

Just as Tess was beginning to give up hope, Ellie appeared in front of her, a simple sword replacing the Blades of Death she normally wielded. She threw her hand back towards Tess, and a soothing sensation washed over her as Life’s power restored Tess to full health.

“Oh?” Lilith said, arching a brow. “More of you?”

“We wanted to see a fairer fight.” Ellie said, Life’s voice overlayed with her own. “And the four of us are apparently the ticket. Maven, Dungeons, don’t forget that Lilith is a dungeon herself!”

“Yeah, we weren’t forgetting anytime soon.” Maven and Dungeons responded, face screwed up in concentration. “One problem with that, we can’t do anything to her!”

“Oh, you’re doing things to me alright.” Lilith said, voice audibly strained. “This is supremely uncomfortable.”

She blinked out of existence before reappearing some distance away from the trio of avatars. “Alright then…” she muttered, pulling out her guns. “I doubt this will work, but it’s worth a shot.” She aimed one pistol at Tess and the other at Maven, then fired, the sound far louder than Tess thought such small guns should be making.

Ellie was already in the process of dashing forward, shield raised and a Skill activated, drawing the bullets towards her. The bullets, however, didn’t seem to care much about the Skill, only deviating slightly from their course of action.

Still, between that and the chaos that Fortune’s Descent was causing, it was enough to let both Tess and Maven remain unscathed. Lilith fired a third shot towards Ellie, then slammed her guns together, forming a new long-barreled gun that was clearly much larger than even both of her old pistols combined.

Ellie yelped as the bullet punched through her magically-reinforced shield like it was made of paper, hitting her squarely in the arm. She and Life cast some sort of healing spell, but instead of expelling one normally-shaped bullet, a spiderwebbing mess of some unidentified black material erupted from Ellie’s arm, badly mangling it before it sealed itself back up.

What can we even do here? Tess asked Fortune.

I think we’re the wincon. Fortune replied. “Ellie, Life, heal us in five seconds!” She shouted, bringing a clawed hand up to her throat.

With only a moment’s hesitation, they sliced their own throat open, nearly killing themselves from the damage and inflicting a massive bleed on themselves. Before it had time to tick, they activated Blood Magic, converting the bleed into a huge, temporary source of Mana. A moment later, Ellie and Life’s healing impacted them, bringing them back up to full health as they began to chant the most destructive spell in their arsenal.

There was a blinding flash and an earsplitting boom as Lilith’s gun went off, the projectile impacting Ellie’s shield, and, instead of punching a hole through it, crumpled the shield into a mangled mess which impacted Ellie, sending her flying what had to be almost ten yards backwards. But Ellie healed herself up once again, shakily casting off the ruined remains of her shield as she did.

“You’re still alive?” Lilith said. “Impress –” She cut off, skin writhing and shifting, as if a huge mass of worms had taken residence within her and wanted out. Tess and Fortune continued their chant as she struggled, and then, suddenly, whatever was happening to Lilith abruptly stopped. “It looks like the kid gloves are off.” Lilith said, grinning.

Two figures blinked into existence next to her, like they had always been there. One appeared to be a nearly identical copy of Lilith, but the other looked to be an angel child in a blood-red dress, holding a pair of swords far too big for a child her age. The three shared a look, and then took off, each running towards a different person. Lilith herself took the charge against Maven, her clone ran for Ellie, and the child came for Tess.

A wave of awe and terror impacted Tess and Fortune, and they faltered in their chant, the spell dying on their lips before it had even been halfway completed. They grit their teeth and rallied their spirits, shrugging off the foreign emotions as they tried to encroach on their shared mind.

They barely had time to bring up their claws as the young girl bore down on them, and while they were able to block one sword, the other sliced through their claws like a knife through butter and left a shallow gash in Tess’s skin.

In the back of their mind, they were aware that they had taken an incongruously large amount of damage from the blow, and were nearly dead. That sword is bad news! Fortune warned, a note of panic creeping into her tone. It’s like…like a conceptual antithesis to life in general!

A pulse of healing rang out, and Tess’s eyes flicked to the side, catching for the briefest of moments the glimpse of Ellie without one of her arms. The healing…didn’t quite work on the wound the sword had made, healing back only about half of the damage that had been done.

“Don’t get distracted.” The child said coldly, swinging that sword down for what would surely be the killing blow. Tess moved to Flashstep out of the way, but some unseen force completely stonewalled the attempt, and it was too late to –

She was thrown backwards as Isabella surged out of her, blasting her back with a spell before evaporating the moment the blade touched her. Rising to her feet unsteadily, Tess –

The child impacted her with a tackle, feeling for all the world like an unstoppable force as she bowled Tess over and forced her her to the ground. “Yield.” She said, placing her sword against Tess’s neck, the slight contact prompting a burning that would have been nearly debilitating had her pain not been dulled by this place. “You’re not beating me, and I’d rather not hurt you more than I have to.”

“I…” Tess paused, casting her eyes to her companions. Maven was nowhere to be found, and Lilith was on her way to help her clone take care of Ellie. And, seeing as how Ellie seemed to be constantly receiving grave injuries that were only healed because of Life’s Descent, she doubted Ellie would last much longer. Tess herself would be able to revive once or twice, but –

“Well?” The child asked impatiently. “Five seconds before I take your head off.”

“I yield.” Tess said, squeezing her eyes shut. In an instant, she found herself in some sort of viewing booth, Fortune at her side.

“Good job, you guys.” Rose said. “You held out a lot longer than Lia and I would have.”

Lia shuddered. “She’s a monster.” She whispered. “I knew she was tough, but…”

“In all fairness, the whole idea behind me in the first place was to be as strong as possible while completely ignoring any semblance of balance.” Lilith said. “And the three of them are not anywhere near their full potential yet. I’m sure that, were I to fight the three of them from the present, I’d be absolutely destroyed.”

“How far in the future are you?” Fortune asked.

“Fifty years, give or take.” Lilith replied. “Though I like to think that whoever is from the furthest in the future is from the “real” present, and I’m sure someone at this party is farther ahead in the timeline than me.”

“Jerry looked into this phenomenon at one of these parties.” Life mused. “I believe his conclusion was that all times people are from are equally the present. He had some reasoning that escapes me at the moment, but it boiled down to not being able to apply the normal rules to this space.

“And, though attempting to teach you anything is a pointless endeavor due to the nature of this place, I would suggest you three treat this as a lesson; Descents are the bare minimum for combat if you are to engage Higher Beings in combat, not the instant victory they are in normal situations.”

“It’s like…I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s not fair in the same way normal combat is fair.” Death said. She was nonchalantly sitting on a counter and kicking her feet back and forth, acting like she had been there the whole time. “Everyone’s got some stupid busted ability, and you basically have to be a Higher Being or otherwise infused with a lot of Worship to even have a shot at resisting those.”

The child nodded. “I’m also well suited for this style of combat.” She explained. “I basically double or triple dipped on Worship, so I’m more resistant than normal to whatever “unfair” stuff other Higher Beings have.” She paused for a moment, then looked as if she recalled something.

“Right. I’m Eve, she’s Nuwa,” Eve motioned towards the clone of Lilith that, now that Tess was looking closely, seemed just a little bit smaller than Lilith, “and you can’t see her, but Mae is in Lilith’s head as our resident numbers gal slash supercomputer. We’re all alternate personalities of Lilith, but are treated as the same person for the purpose of Skills and stuff.”

To be precise, I am distributed around all parts of her body in order to maximize processing power. A voice rang out in Tess’s mind. It is good to meet you.

“Wait, if you can do that double dip or whatever, why doesn’t everyone do it?” Lia asked. “Seems like a no-brainer.”

“I…don’t know, actually.” Eve admitted. “I never really thought about it.”

“I have.” Dungeons said. “Usually, it’s a matter of numbers. Creating a new Higher Being is expensive, and they usually perform a vital task for the planes they oversee. Not many people are able to mentally handle such strain, and I believe Lilith only can because of her unique circumstances.

“The offensive benefits of such an endeavor are usually low, too; their resistance to other tampering increases, but outside of a few cases, each individual ability they possess does not become harder to resist. And, as combat between Higher Beings only occurs in the wars for planes, it is often seen as wasteful to put all your eggs in one basket for an event that only happens infrequently, especially when it results in such an increased workload to the Higher Being. Lilith is the exception to this rule, however, being able to split her mind as she has.”

Lilith shrugged. “Eldritch stuff may have poor compatibility with most people, but my whole schtick is being compatible with everything, so I get to use it worry-free. Anyway…what was with those mid-fight powerups? At the end there, it was a very different fight to what we set out to try.”

“I wanted to see both of you put your full potential out there.” Rose volunteered. “Though…perhaps your capabilities were not as fully tested as I thought they would be.”

“Yeah, you didn’t seem to be using anything expressly unfair.” Ellie said. “Except for that one time you reflected Tess’s attack. Surely, you’ve got something, right?”

“Much of it isn’t great for this kind of friendly fight,” Lilith said, “and what is isn’t flashy. I have lots of stat increases, ways to steal abilities or permanently seal the abilities of my foes, and even an instant-kill if I’m willing to either spend enough Worship or dip into my own health to do it. I didn’t want to try that last one, since it’s a bit risky and I’m not sure it would even work against you all.”

“And I mostly command monsters.” Eve added. “Not that they allowed me any of mine.”

“They wouldn’t have been much help.” Nuwa said quietly. “They don’t have any Worship in them, except for Saria, and she doesn’t have enough to make a huge difference. Tess and Fortune alone likely would have shut them down by just existing.”

“What was with that sword of yours, by the way?” Fortune asked. “I haven’t seen anything quite like it.”

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Eve said, drawing the sword out from some unseen place and very gingerly setting it down on a table. “Perfect Chimeras are every species at once, so some genius got the idea to make a material specifically geared at combating them. This sword is…special, though. It was the first of these weapons to be produced, and people have already built up a mythos surrounding it. I’m pretty sure that like…I dunno, almost meets the criteria for it getting Worship? It doesn’t have any, yeah, but it definitely feels like…more than a normal weapon.”

“It is not uncommon for particularly notable weapons to obtain some power from how they are perceived.” Life said. “Though I must admit that I have never seen one with quite as deadly a base as that get the treatment.”

“To be honest, I can’t even touch the blade without gloves.” Eve admitted. “If I do, I get horribly burnt and it takes way longer than it should to heal. The only reason I even use it is because I can safely take it out of reach of anyone but me at a moment’s notice, otherwise that thing would stay locked up until the end of time. Not worth carrying my one weakness with me and all that.”

“May I?” Death asked, motioning towards the sword. “Oh, I’m Death, by the way. Life and I share Ellie as our appointed, two sides of the same coin and all that.”

“Go ahead.” Eve said. “Just be careful with it. I’m guessing this party won’t let you hurt yourself too much, but I don’t like to take risks with that thing.”

Death carefully picked up the sword, then stepped back from the others and gave it a few test swings. “Man do I wish I had this thing when I was making the Blades of Death.” She said approvingly. “I totally would have co-opted it into one of them.”

“Mind if I take a look at these blades?” Eve asked curiously. “I want to see how they stack up.”

“Knock yourself out. They’re not as good as your sword, but they also don’t have like…a story to them yet, so they don’t have that weird power bump. Give it a few hundred years or a particularly bloody conflict and they might well rival this thing.” Death said, a set of swords materializing on the table where Eve’s sword had laid previously.

She picked up the swords, absentmindedly growing another pair of arms so she had a hand for each of the four swords. “To tell you the truth, I would absolutely trade you if I could.” She admitted. “That thing is much too dangerous to me specifically, and it’s usually overkill anyway. These swords are much more fit for general use.”

“How did you get this thing storied so quickly, anyway?” Death asked. “It only feels a few years old.”

“A combination of a lot of things.” Eve said. “For one, it killed another of our personalities, and for two it’s kinda like the first atomic bomb in how it changed the dynamic of warfare. The fact that I’ve been publicly using it to great effect helps, too. We’re at a turning point in our planes, the kind of time when legends are made. It was the perfect storm, so to speak.”

“What is an atomic bomb?” Lia asked quietly. “And this sword killed one of you?”

“She got better.” Eve said nonchalantly. “Very long story, but the short version is that the ‘main’ personality –”

“Inasmuch as any of us can be called a main or side personality anymore.” Lilith interrupted.

“The main personality,” Eve continued, rolling her eyes, “was actually split from a previous soul that Kali messed up in reincarnating. And that other personality that died was the other half. She let herself get killed so the two could merge, becoming the Lilith you see before you today.”

“And, to answer your other question,” Lilith said, not giving Eve time to continue, “an atom bomb is an incredibly destructive weapon constructed entirely without magic, one strong enough to wipe an entire city off the map with one firing.”

“That strong?” Tess asked doubtfully. “I know bombs can level a building or two, but an entire city?”

“That strong.” Death confirmed. “We’ve very deliberately prevented that technology from being researched in any sort of detail; there are no good outcomes when nuclear weapons are involved, and the positives can be easily replicated with magic.” She paused, looking at Lilith. “Did they get any stronger since our day? Were they used again?”

Lilith sighed. “Estimates put us at three thousand times stronger before magic was involved, and five to six times that now that people have begun to incorporate magic.”

Life shuddered, the out of character act convincing Tess of the gravity of these weapons more than the words ever did. “You do have plans to curb their development, yes?” He asked. “This seems…excessive.”

“Eventually.” Lilith confirmed. “Once things stabilize.”

“Um…” Lia interjected, “don’t you guys do like…wars for new planes or something? Surely these bombs would be helpful there, right?”

“No.” Lilith said. “Most Higher Beings have ways to survive a nuclear weapon, and they can leave the land where they detonate uninhabitable for a long time to come. As Death said, there are no good outcomes when nuclear weaponry is involved.”

“But that’s a downer of a topic.” Fortune said, clapping her hands. “We’re at a party, let’s have a little fun with it! First off, introductions. I’m the god of Fortune, resident cool lady and the god Tess is an Appointed of.”

Everyone went around one by one and introduced themselves, and, once they had, Fortune began to speak again. “So, what’s on the agenda? More mock battles? Ooh, or maybe we could run a trial dungeon as a group!”

“That’s a thing here?” Ellie asked.

“Everything’s a thing here, as long as it’s entertaining.” Fortune said, waving a hand dismissively. “Though I can’t guarantee it’ll be much like the dungeons we know.”

“I…think I’ll have to pass on that.” Lia said quietly. “I’m afraid I won’t be of much use when all of you are around.”

“Nonsense.” Fortune said. “Anything is possible here, we can easily standardize our abilities so everyone has a –” She cut off, disappearing from existence abruptly.

A quick look around revealed that the other gods and Lilith’s Parallels had disappeared as well, and Silky and Isabella weren’t where Tess could sense them.

“I suppose they didn’t have a proper invitation, and their time here was limited.” Rose said. “A shame, but a smaller group is likely better for the time being, I think Lia was getting a bit overwhelmed.”

Lia nodded. “Sorry.” She said. “I know they’re important to you. And…literally you, I think?” She directed that last part at Lilith, a slightly confused look on her face.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Lilith sighed. “I know it’s confusing, sorry. It sort of comes with the territory of technically being an eldritch abomination.”

“Eldritch?” Lia asked, frown deepening. “The word’s been thrown around a couple of times but I’m not quite sure what it means.”

“A very esoteric section, forbidden section of magic.” Rose explained. “While it brings great power, those who use it tend to go insane.”

“It only even works for me because of the way I am.” Lilith said. “When your whole schtick is compatibility with everything, you get a lot of leeway in things like this. Up to and including the systems of other universes, though we haven’t tested that much. Just had a brief moment in their universe,” Lilith said, motioning to Tess and Ellie, “and then Amy shut it down.”

“Really?” Ellie asked. “What did your stats translate to?”

“Gibberish.” Lilith replied. “All my stats and growths had decimal portions, my level wasn’t even a number and was glitched out, as were Skills, Classes, and Titles. As Amy said, it was very broken.”

“But you did have numbers, right?” Ellie pressed. “What were they?”

“Fifteen hundred on the low end, twenty four hundred on the high end.” Lilith replied. “But I don’t think you should put much stock in those numbers, your system threw a fit and wasn’t handling me correctly. What’s the normal range?”

“For someone level forty to fifty? Two hundred and fiftyish.” Ellie replied. “The maximum growth you can get is ten, or one hundred for resources, and the highest leveled person on our planes is…level one sixty, I think? And his highest stat is only about fifteen hundred and fifty, so I think you might well have higher stats than would even be possible in our universe.”

Lilith shrugged. “Again, don’t put too much stock in those numbers. If my lowest is that close to your universe’s highest, then the details have to be wrong. What level are you guys?”

“Late thirties, early forties.” Ellie said. “I have the best stat spread and Tess has nearly the worst, so we’re not exactly good reference points, Maven would be better.”

“True as that may be, you did not move like someone with that much Agility would move, unless you were holding back significantly at the end.” Maven added.

Lilith shook her head. “I was holding back a little bit, but not a lot.”

“Then, yes, the stats you saw were indeed incorrect.” Maven said. “While my eye is still somewhat untrained, I would not estimate your Agility to be greater than one thousand.”

“Sounds about right.” Lilith said. “So, for real, what’s next?”

“Cards?” Lia offered. “I don’t feel like doing anything too physical at the moment.”

“I’m down to play cards.” Ellie replied.

And, after everyone else said they were fine with cards, they did. After cards they did a couple more activities, and just as Tess was beginning to get tired, she was back in her home universe, completely unaware of what had just taken place.