Von Degurechaff Residence, Berun, 24 September 1932, 30 minutes later

Tanya closed the door to her residence , turned the key in the lock from the inside and entered her house.

Her house was a simple one, with little furnishings and decorations, almost spartan in all things except for the living room and the room adjacent, which was where she claims she slept.

Tanya sighed, taking a deep breath in and out. This was a new ability of hers that she had developed due to her inability in using magic of any form.

She can , by breathing in a certain way, disturb the mana in the air and use it to search for any mana-disturbing objects or beings in her vicinity.

As this is a new ability of hers, it was extremely volatile and untrustworthy in places she isn't already spending several dozen hours in, rendering most strategic uses for it moot, regardless if she actually wished to use it strategically.

She can only use this ability to tell that there is an object of a certain magical strength at a certain distance from her, regardless of what is in her way, but only up to a distance of thirty feet from her eyes.

She sighed once more. "I am not a member of the military any more," she reminded herself, "That door closed itself to me that day." and grinned, despite herself, for that day will forever remain with her, for all of her life, no matter how short it is."

"No, I no longer care about any of that. All that matters is that I finally freed myself and this world from the grasps of Being X, once and for all."

Tanya felt giddy at that, she had finally fulfilled her aim of spitting on Being X's face.

Except she did much more than just spit on His face.

At the (in her opinion) very small cost of binding over 80% of the power released by destroying four of his blessings at the same time, causing her soul to slowly burn up, like fuel, to maintain the blessings on herself.

In this process, all the 'corruption' laced in her soul was burned up first, then it fell upon her to hold off the eternally hungry flames of power from using her very self as fuel.

So, in pure desperation, she offered up memories, seemingly irrelevent ones, much to her anger. The flame ate up her memories and seemed influenced by her emotions, taming itself, changing itself, suiting itself to her needs.

So, without a thought, she struck out, giving out all the memories she deemed irrelevent.

This should have weakened her resolve, made her question herself, destroying her wholly and utterly.

But, instead, her resolve strengthened, birthing anger and frustration and all of her time as the Salaryman.

It would seem she had succeeded. She recalled herself recalling facts that she could recall presently, yet no knowledge of where the knowledge came from.

She knew that she was in her second life, and that she wasn't Tanya in her past life, but she had no idea of who she was, knowledge remaining or not.

And then, she saw Being X in all his terrible, terrible, horrifying, mind-numbing, incredible glory.

Not that it mattered, she was in so much pain she could be dead and she in hell and wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

He could have been a man, a woman, an insect, a bird, a mammal, a rock, a planet, or a star. It mattered not. He believed himself to have won, finally ridding himself of the Unbeliever once and for all.

And so, he manifested himself before Tanya, for she was the Salaryman no more, that person no longer existed.

The flames, much to Being X, for it was an unknown phenomenon, caused by a huge amount of his power attuned in different ways to different forms clashed.

As he reached to reclaim his power, he found that his hand, if the trickle of power he extended to the flames could be called that, were cut off from him.

He, in all of his claims of omniscience and omnipotence, could never have seen the consequences of his simple action of curiosity and greed.

Inside Tanya's mind, she was imagining a hellscape of fire and pain, consuming her and changing her, much to her chargrin.

The slight amount of power he fed the flames fed the flames for a second, which is all it took for Tanya to infuse all of her rage, indignity, pride, and most importantly, RAGE

She lost her memories of her childhood, her hobbies (not that she had any) and she threw her entire being in anger against the being that toyed with millions just to bring down one to his side.

The flames, while consuming her memories, healed her soul of all the times she tore it up, knowingly or not, for the act of killing another sentient was one that caused no greater pain to one's soul.

Tanya opened her inner eyes and found her soul
and wept.

It was covered in scars, crisscrossed from countless unwanted and unneeded lives.

She asked the flames to burn her soul,at first just to give her power.

But now, she asked the flames to burn her, to remove the problem from its roots.

For Being X was never truly a God, just as she believed.

He was never not human either.

He was all of the potential gathered in her soul, awaiting release, as Tanya slowly, yet surely stopped herself from listening, from being human, from learning emotions. She finally saw,heard and most importantly, learned of, from, and by the soul.

Her soul gladly offered itself up to the flames, willing to follow Tanya's every direction, and was destroyed entirely.

Outside of Tanya's inner mind, Being X widened his eyes and screamed, his consciousness falling apart, his power diminishing.

"H-How??? How did she figure it out? It has been many many years since I managed to free myself from the confines of that filthy soul, becoming a God in all ways that matter!! How did you manage to do this? You are but one soul amongst many!Not even your mortal vessel, who had been the most attuned to you, could hear you! HOW!" And the one referred to as Being X had the last vestiges of his power taken away.

At this, the world snapped, the night sky revealed itself to all.

The World itself heaved a sigh of relief as the magics warped by Being X righted itself and all things unnatural warped, snapped and vanished from time and memory.

A sweet tinkling laughter was heard as one tiny soul finally pulled itself together and was made anew.

The soul, being old and weary, gave its entire legacy to the one most worthy and passed itself to the next bright generation.

As a side benefit, the excess of their fight, merging and finally becoming one after many many iterations was not a small phenomenon in the least.

The Soul made herself a new body, the equal of what she held before, but with slight changes symbolising her new status as a being who earned the title of Alchemist, the very first of her kind in this world, of this world in all the ways that matter, and some that don't.

And so, she gathered up her newfound powers, and PUSHED for her will to be made true.

The world, unused to such flagrant misuse of her favor on this unknown being, protested, rendering the Alchemy of Tanya slightly unbalanced and caused her creation slightly imperfect.

This imperfection could never be fixed because the world had willed it into being.

And thus, she descended into her new body, with hair so blonde that each strand looked as blinding as a strand of woven silver under the golden sun, face perfect in its own way, where once it might have been described as an eerily beautiful doll, now it appeared as an angel descended unto Earth, with a soft smile, perfect teeth and nose, and skin ivory white and-

Tanya was not impressed by her soul's inner monologue of her body's perfections, she toned her beauty down for she needed no followers nor zealots behind her any longer, for, with the effective death of Being X, people of both sides of the war would find that there was an easier option after all, and thanks to the demonstration of the power of the Empire due to the spat between Tanya and Being X, well, the Empire had a big fucking gun indeed.

And so she added a few imperfections to her body and face, making her look slightly stern yet still a beauty out of the world.

She sighed, and immediately froze, looking at her eyes.

One of her eyes was golden, the same colour as molten metal, with the same heat, while her other eye was silver-blue, like a full moon on a starless night.

She then sighed, thinking that this is in fact, very appropriate for her sense of self was no longer the same.

She was not Tanya the soul, nor was she Being X, despite what his (surprisingly) huge ego was telling her.

Nor was she her prior self in the previous world which she would dub as 'Earth', for a very simple reason.

She had no idea who she was on Earth, she gave it all up to give the flame enough strength to destroy and remake her own soul in her image, purging all imperfections.

She was not the one dubbed as the Devil of The Rhine , for she forgot how to kill, and how to make others kill.

She was simply 'Tanya von Degurechaff'

She was no colonel.

She was no little girl genius, no matter how it may seem to others.

She was no reincarnated middle aged man hell bent on revenge against an otherworldly being who was simply himself through a twisted, cruel mirror.Although this might have once been true.

She was not a whimpering little girl, scarred by previous experiences that would change her forever, leading her to kill countless to find herself again, only straying further and further away.Although this might have once been true.

She was no brilliant young boy, guided by wise elders, healing any and all who need his help, needing them to but ask.Although this might have once been true.

She was no young man, blinded by the enormous clockwork known as society and aiming to be as big of a cog as possible.Although this might have once been true.

She was no orphaned little girl who saw the military as her chance to make it in the world, blinded by the cold logic of her prior self.Although this might have once been true.

She was no longer any of the things she once was.

And she had little over four years to tell the world that SHE.WAS.HERE.