Book Two: Rise of Myth

Prologue Two: Little Girl

          Tanya was Panicking. She didn’t really know how to react, even though she had been in this war since she was eight years old. Visha was behind her, taking out Russy with her battle rifle.

          The rest of her men were all buzzing around the sky of Berlun. Berlun, for those not in the know, was the capital of the Germanian Empire. The Empire was currently losing the war they hadn’t even started. It infuriated the little girl, who knew the reason for all the bloodshed.

          The Federation of Rus was pushing into the streets of the capital in the east, with the Americans pushing in the west. All the while, the skies were bombarded by friendly antiaircraft guns and enemy mages alike.

          Her second in command Visha was behind her, taking shots at any enemy that Tanya herself didn’t see, which wasn’t many. The air around them was filled with noise. The explosions and light from the bombs bursting mid-air were filling Tanya’s ears with a ringing noise.

          “Commander, it appears the enemy is pulling back from our airspace. It also seems like their ground forces are retreating,” Weiss said over the radio.

          Tanya put her hand to her throat microphone. She looked down at the retreating ground troops of the enemy. To her, it was suspicious. They had successfully taken care of the empire; the only true forces of resistance were the aerial mages.

          Even then, there weren’t many of them. It made her mind kick into overdrive and her hand moved to the jewel on her neck. She had two of them of course. One was the cursed type 95, the other was the one that her hand was wrapped around, the type 97.

          Now, as a rule of thumb, she never truly relied on the accursed object around her neck, only the normal jewel that she had been given after she broke her old one. The reason behind this was the reason why her mind had started to speed up a notch.

          Being X. The whole reason why this war had picked up in the first place was because of him. She also correctly reasoned that was the reason why the enemy was pulling back.

          She then spotted it. Flying too high for any of her men to get too. It was a bomber plane. The large, flying fortress was, or looked like a b52 bomber. The very fact it was here screamed Being X. It reminded her of the nukes that had been dropped on Japan in her past life.

          That’s when she felt it. Being X had chucked this flying aircraft at her. It was carrying the bombs that would end this war. It was carrying death on board itself. The destruction of all she had built was on that plane.

          Her men wouldn’t be able to hit it at this distance. They couldn’t get the height. They would die. She would die. Visha would die. All the civilians would perish, all the wasted potential would go up in smoke.

          But with the type 95, she would be able to get to whatever that plane was carrying. She could stop the Americans from killing a part of this world. They didn’t know of the death they would rend; she could feel the lack of care in trail the plane blazed. She formulated a plan.

          “Visha! Tell the men to pull out of the city. Go as far back as they can manage. Tell them to put their shields to maximum!” she ordered her second in command.

          “Right!” she responded.

          Tanya then began to climb. Up she went, up and up. The air began to thin and chill. She was going to make sure that this plane went down. As far as she knew, the bomb needed to be armed, and it wouldn’t be if the people arming it were dead.

          Then she heard it, the tell tail noise of someone following her. She stopped for a second, and saw her subordinate right behind her. She hadn’t fled like the rest of the men as she had ordered.

          She was right behind the younger-girl-turned-murderous-psychopath. Tanya cursed under her breath slightly as the two of them looked at each other. Visha soon spoke up.

          “I’m not leaving you ma’am!” she shouted over the winds of their higher elevation.

          Sighing, Tanya turned back around and leveled her submachine gun at the plane as it flew in their own general direction. She then began to chant; she hated this part. She hated this blasted thing around her neck, she hated the feeling of helplessness it gave her. She despised the weapon she was forcing herself to be.

          But, before she could really start the chant, she heard the tell tail zipping of a fighter plane. She could see them make their own way to her and Visha. But they looked different than they were supposed to.

          The plane was fully silver, with what seemed to be jet engines on the sides of their wings. That was when she realized it. Being X was pulling out all the stops on this one, he was done playing games.

          The planes made their way to her, guns starting to rattle. Her number one put up an even stronger field around herself and started to prep her combat spells. Meanwhile, Tanya was starting to prep her own spells.

          She had to make sure to shoot down that flying fortress. She had to make sure that Being X didn’t win. She then started to chant once more. Yet the jets didn’t seem to care.

          They soon started their strafing runs on the static girl. Her subordinate couldn’t move that far from her commander of course, so she herself had to stay close and take potshots at the frighteningly fast jet fighters.

          “Oh lord, show these heretics your all power…” she started but soon had to stop when a plane’s machine guns opened up on her.

          She couldn’t pull away thought, the bullets were getting closer, and she had to take off her shielding to use all the power she had to shoot down the plane. Yet, as the bullet that would be her death came closer, Visha clung to her. This added weight of her closest confidante pulled her out of the line of fire… and into another one.

          As a separate set of bullets made their way to her and Visha, time slowed down to nothing, the only thing that moved was her own and Visha’s heartbeat. Wait, that wasn’t supposed to happen, was it?

          “Ah, my lost little lamb. How are you on this finely feathered day?” Being X taunted, but soon stopped, “Now, why has your fellow lost lamb not stopped with the rest of the world?”

          He seemed actually confused. Like this wasn’t meant to happen. It was as if he wasn’t some all-powerful god and instead just some being of power. It made Tanya smirk unknowingly.

          “no matter, you shall both perish under the hell fire I have wrought,” he said with finality then continued, “I am finished with this game we play little lamb. This shall be the last we talk to one another. This is the last chance to admit it, that I am the…”

          Then, a fire started to burn somewhere. The plan that had been carrying the bomb that would surely kill the capital of Berlun and Tanya and her only actual friend with it started to burn.

          The fire wasn’t that if true fire. It felt more metaphysical than that. Like, a deep and old power was starting to wake up because of some slightly annoying noise.

          Soon the fire began to fill Being X with panic. Tanya could feel it. Her smirk became one of a devilish child’s and she looked to where this power seemed to come from, then she remembered the older girl currently panicking while holding her.

          “Ma’am, what’s going on?! What is that weird voice in my head?! Is this what death is like?!” Visha began to panic.

          “No Visha, if we make it out of this alive then I will explain it all to you. But right now, something is happening,” she said so as to calm her panicked and rather confused second in command.

          Then, Being X’s voice picked up an octave.

          “NO! I can’t lose to this accursed flame once more! And not when I have her soul right in my grasp! No, it burns! It Burns! ARGGHH!!!” The thing screamed in the most pained voice one could imagine.

          It was as if his very soul was being burned by the mere presence of whatever this flame was. She reached out top the bomber, as if grasping for the flame her so desperately wanted to be rid of.

          This only panicked the dying thing. Tanya could sense it as well, Being X’s life was ending because of the flame. The flame that came from that Atom bomb. She called out to the girl holding on to herself for dear life.

          “Visha, grab that warmth, that bastard being X is hurt by it! Grab it!” she called out to the now determined corporal.

          “Right!” she called out once more.

          The warmth of this flame seemingly had no end. It filled Tanya and Visha as if they were cup, and it a pitcher. The screaming and shouting of Being X had simply devolved now, his screaming had started out with words, and now simply sounded like a beast with its voice box slit.

          The roar of fire could only be heard now. The roar of this Atomic flame. Then the word resumed. It was as if Being X had never even arrived to taunt Tanya at her moment of death. But the roar of the flame hadn’t stopped, only become more tame.

          The bullets hadn’t stopped though. They continued on their path and the two girls were soon pelted full of lead. The last of Tanya’s thoughts seemingly were drowned out and mellowed by this Atomic Flame. That day, the empire lost its capital and two of its best mages.

…

Zogsalken

This will be brought up much later in the second book, Tanya and Visha, that is. I got the idea for the crossover because I was reading so many different Youjo Senki fanfics and they were simply bad. No one seemed to understand Tanya. They simply seemingly used her as a self insert. I might accidentally do the same, but only time will tell.