***
She crashed into a large cool room. No, a hallway. Well, a hallway could be a room just a very long one. Ugh, whatever.
She started to walk down whatever this premise was, wobbling from side to side occasionally thumping into the wall. Or was it actually a wall? It could just be a floor connected to a wall. wait, then that'd make what she's walking on a wall. Ugh, whatever.
Why was she here again? That's right! She's here to see her boss. Or was it just a being higher than her in the ladder? She's on a ladder? No, she's walking down a hall right now she can't be on a ladder. Wait no she's not she's opening a door.
She walked through the door, stepped forwards slightly allowing the door to close behind her, and fell to her knees basking in the radiance of a being standing above her. Standing above her? No, he was sitting on a throne looking down at her. And that light, that wasn't coming from him, that was coming from behind the throne. Or maybe it was. It's hard to tell considering who this is.
"Lord Orion, I've failed you in my quest of eliminating Namulenza's kin. It's left quite the unpleasant taste, I know, I myself am also greatly disappointed in my failure. So, I shall accept whatever punishment you deem worthy for me."
He signaled her to come hither. Come hither? Since when does she use the word hither? Whatever it doesn't matter. She walked up the flight of stairs before his throne and stood before him.
He slowly moved his hand towards her; she squinted hard and bit her lip. A slight tingly feeling at the top of her head telling her to move away. Her legs protested against it, only complying once it was too late and his hand was already around her neck.
He gripped her neck tightly. This caught her by surprise and although she tried to hold it in, a smile slowly creeped across her face.
At the slightest hint of a smile he let go, "Using Killjoy isn't good for you. Quit relying on it."
She whipped her drool and nodded, "Sorry sir, I'll try to do better sir. I do have good news for you though."
He looked at her expectantly.
Her hand rippled and morphed about until a golden prism finally came out of it with a bunch of bits of icing and cream on it.
"Sorry about the icing and cream. I only managed to retrieve it after having to retreat. You see, the Sparrow of Heaven was there for some reason. And some faker pretending to be some sort of important person for Rico was also there. It got way too messy to properly go ahead with the mission."
"You should've started with that. Get the last Nail we managed to collect from Menti and force both the Nail and the Artifact upon them. Preferably a citizen from Rico so we can keep control over Triste's economic center."
"But that's the last Nail we have we can't--" he shushed her.
"It'll boost the spread of the artifact. We take down Triste; we take down a trade spot between the Western and Eastern continents. This is the last one we have remaining to make trading between continents more difficult. Which means we can intercept shipments and gather more nails until we eventually gain control over the entire world."
"And everyone will be able to try my sweets," she smiled at that thought. "Okie dokie! I'll get right to it then. See ya' boss, love you!" She melted into icing.
"Can I get a cleaner?"
*Ellen POV*
She flew down to where Kala, Francois and Mr. Comedian had gathered up to watch the fight.
And to her shock for the first time ever, Kala slapped her across the face with as much strength as she could muster in her arm.
"What the hell is wrong with you?! This has happened so many times now. You find someone new that shows a lot of promise, we get attached to them, and then in the heat of the moment you send them on a suicide mission! Or--Or mid suicide mission you show up and guarantee their death! Don't you learn from your mistakes?!"
Ellen's eyes widened as though she was seemingly taken aback, "I never really realized I was doing that. I'm sorry."
Kala slapped her across the face again but this time with her tail so that she could hit her harder, "You say this every time! Just because you can live for practically ever it doesn't make you any less human! How doesn't this hurt you? For once I thought I was going to be able to make a longtime friend like Tundra and Clint because Hirune has Namulenza with her like Tundra has Cuelebre with him. Yet you still somehow found a way to get her killed."
Ellen put Kala into a white hole and sent it elsewhere, "Just go home."
Mr. Comedian sighed, "You're still doing this?"
Ellen looked at him, "I'm sorry."
"You lost that opportunity years ago for me. I'd recommend you fix that flaw sooner rather than later or you might lose that girl too," he took Francois hand as he turned away. "Come on Francois, let's go home. She clearly can't change."
Ellen reached for Francois but stopped herself, "Take care of yourself honey."
"Just because you're my creator it doesn't mean you're my mom. You disappeared the moment you finished me and that caused me a great sum of pain."
She sighed, 'I'll fix it next millennia. Well, if we even last that long.'
She looked up at the sky and sighed, "I should probably pay her a visit so I can at least give Hirune a proper funeral."
Though, what she would see when she visited Vereta would change the course the course of everything as the world knew it completely.
The moment her white hole spit her out at the round table of the gods her heart dropped into her stomach. All around it the gods lied in a bloody mess. Each of them barely clinging onto consciousness.
"What the hell happened here?" Ellen asked casting a veil around them.
Luna, the goddess of the moon coughed up some blood and answered, "Demonia caught us by surprise. Vereta is--" She started coughing violently.
"It's okay you don't need to say any more. I understand the situation," Ellen quickly took a golden vial out of one of her white holes and gave it to Luna.
Luna instantly recovered and sat up, "A vial of Ichor. Clever, too bad none of us thought of having some of those."
"Yeah, whatever take the rest and give them to the others. I'm going to help mom," she promptly ran out.
Right outside Vereta and Demonia were clashing with various incantations. Luckily Vereta seemed to have the advantage in this battle, though she was still struggling.
Demonia took a glance at Ellen and smirked, "Even better than I planned."
"Void Harmonization!" The space around Demonia cracked open and an ensemble of various beings from another realm started to pour out from it playing unheavenly noises.
"Heavenly Orchestra: Defensive Symphony!" A small section of an orchestra appeared around Vereta, their melody barely holding back the effects of the Void Harmonization from her. The rest of the orchestra appeared around Ellen. Without even looking at her, Vereta could just feel that she was here.
Ellen took a deep breath, preparing to use her trump card. then Demonia chuckled, "Bingo."
"Fate Severance!" A bunch of red strings attached to Vereta's back. Demonia made a peace sign with her hands and a huge pair of scissors appeared hovering over the strings.
Vereta scowled, "What's your goal here Demonia?"
"Why would I tell my enemy that?" Demonia closed her fingers together, causing the scissors to cut the thread. Though right before she managed to sever Vereta from this world she managed to get one last incantation out.
"Transference: Totalitas - Target: Ellen Chronologia!" One moment, Ellen stood there watching as her mother became nothing but ash, someone that would never be remembered by anyone who's living ever again. The other, everything went black and she fell to the ground.
It didn't take long for her to wake up though, but she was a completely different person. As she had seen everything that has been, is, and could. She looked up and noticed her head was on Luna's lap.
Luna barely opened her mouth before Ellen interrupted her, "Demonia retreated to the Lost Archipelago. She won't come for the next thousand years-- hundred-- no, which reality is this? Whatever! In a long time."
Luna smiled at her, "Well look at you being as disrespectful towards a goddess as usual."
"What happened to mom?" Ellen asked looking around at all the other gods. Vereta wasn't among them.
"Mom?"
"Vereta! You know, the original goddess! The one who gave you a second chance at life."
"I'm sorry but there is no Vereta. If you mean whoever the previous goddess of time was, that's you now."
Ellen looked at Shisme on the verge of tears.
Shisme looked at her and smiled, "Don't worry. I'm half dead so I still remember her."
Ellen walked over to her and clung onto her tightly.
Sol tilted his head and looked at his sister Luna. She shrugged.
Aka closed her eyes and focused on traces of the Devourer. It took her longer than expected but she eventually found Hirune.
'Hey! Hirune! You there?'
Hirune held a finger up towards Axia who was showing her some really pretty corals, "Hold on someone's talking."
'Yeah, I'm here.'
'Can you connect me to Namulenza? I have suspicions about something but only someone who's dead can answer them.'
'Long story short. I've found myself with Axia and she's severed my connection with Namulenza. Sorry to let you down Ms. Aka.'
'It's fine. Just try to find one of my old shrines once your connected with her again so I can ask her about it.'
Aka opened her eyes and sighed. Things with the gods we're calm for the first time in a while now that Ellen had suddenly found herself being the new goddess of time.