Chapter 1] Rage and Ruin

Tanya drummed her fingers on the desk, her gaze lingering on the half written report sitting before her. Her pen sat half forgotten nearby, her coffee slowly cooling, its bitter aroma struggling to sooth the reincarnated human's mind. After another moment of idle thought, she picked up the page and began to reread what she had written.

Training of the new recruits was going well, but the war was not. Sure her collegues in the army were making great gains in certain areas but Tanya knew that wouldn't last. With nearly the whole world allied against the fatherland it didn't matter how advanced their tactics, or how powerful their spells. The weight of numbers would crush them regardless, their advantages meaningless in face of an essentially endless enemy.

Tanya hummed to herself, and took a sip of coffee.

She was about to resume her report, and make note of how well training was going when she heard the distant sound of booted feet sprinting towards her. Given that no alarm had been raised, and no shots fired, the battlefield commander assumed it wasn't an attack. She could also tell from the weight of the steps exactly who was sprinting towards her with all due haste.

Sure enough a moment later the door was flung open and 2nd Lieutenant Viktoriya Ivanovna "Visha" Serebryakov appeared in the opening.

"Whatever it is, it can't wait ten more seconds," Tanya preempted. "Take a breathe leiutenant."

Visha nodded, and took a moment to gather herself before stepping forward and snapping a quick salute. "News from high command, ma'am."

"That was quick. We still have a week on the training program," Tanya muttered.

"We haven't been ordered to move," Visha replied.

"Oh?"

"The unified stated… they've joined the war," Visha exclaimed.

"That's not a surprise. They've been supplying our enemies for months at this point," Tanya remarked.

"They've made it official," Visha added, slapping a piece of paper on the desk. "A declaration and everything."

"Let me see that," Tanya murmured. "As of oh three hundred hours the unified states of america have declared war against the fatherland. We hereby order…"

Tanya's eyes widened, and she speed read through the rest of the document before falling back into her chair.

"They actually did it," Tanya whispered.

"What does this mean?"

"It means we're getting the shit end of the stick… again," Tanya muttered.

Scowling, the girl hopped off her chair and began to pace, her mind struggling to grapple with the full realization of what had just transpired. Until then victory had been slim and though the possibility wasn't great, there was at least a chance of her getting that coveted posting somewhere far from the front. Now however, that was gone. There would be no winning this war, and no way she would ever get the job she actually wanted.

Being X had closed off any chance of Tanya emerging from this conflict as anything but a corpse. Sure she might get lucky, and somehow survive until the end but the chances of that happening were shrinking by the day. Despite how much she hated to admit it, even to herself, being X was going to win this conflict, and the fatherland was going to lose.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" Visha asked.

Tanya stopped mid stride, only then aware of how she had been chewing on her knuckle with such fervor that she had drawn blood.

"I'm fine," Tanya spat. "Just give me a moment to think."

Visha nodded.

Turning in place, Tanya peered out into the evening sky beyond her window, her lips drawn into a thin line. Dark, unfortunate thoughts roiled within her mind, while before her the horizon was clear, promising a cloudless, star filled night. The longer she stared, the more it became apparent to the girl that her current position was untenable.

Fine. Tanya thought to herself. If I can't have a cushy job, then I can at least secure a cushy prison cell.

"Gather private Johnson. Private Gustav and private Williams," Tanya barked.

"What for, ma'am?"

"I'll be leading the northern night patrol personally," Tanya replied. "I need to clear my head."

"Ahh," Visha muttered, seemingly relieved. "Right away ma'am."

Tanya watched the leuitant depart, her footsteps echoing further and further into the distance. Only when she was sure she was alone did Tanya begin to move. The first thing she did was reach into one of the drawers and pull out a large, heavy journal wrapped in protective enchantments.

Brushing off a little of the dust, Tanya stuffed the book into the interior pocket of her uniform. With that done, she strode off towards the barracks, a scowl on her face.

[-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

Flying through the early night air, Tanya took a moment to simply revel in the small joy that came with free unrestricted flight. It wasn't a pleasure she'd likely ever be able to enjoy again, so she was making sure to drink her fill while she could.

Around her flew the three others she had ordered to accompany her, each equipped for a potential fight. Despite this, they looked relaxed. Not that Tanya could blame them, the sun had set only a few short minutes ago and the night was beautiful.

Already stars filled the sky, and though the breeze was cool, it was infrequent, only occasionally nipping at them. Even as they crossed over the ocean, and they drew closer to enemy territory, their formation remained loose.

At the back, Tanya took note of each of the soldiers that had accompanied her, starting with Gustav. The man was a bit heavier than average, though he bore little fat and was mostly muscle. Williams was the opposite, with the woman so thin that she appeared emaciated at first glance. Johnson was the plainest of the trio, his features unremarkable, and his face so normal that Tanya struggled to remember it.

"Nearing international waters, ma'am," remarked Gustav.

"Good. Continue westward and keep your eyes open," Tanya replied.

The three soldiers all nodded or grunted their affirmation, their relaxed posture being replaced with one poised and ready to attack. Though most gripped their weapon loosely, Tanya could spot Gustav's knuckles going white he was squeezing his rifle so hard. The atmosphere, once relaxed, almost jovial, became tense, as if each one expected fighting to erupt at any moment.

"You know," Tanya began. "During wartime, an officer of the imperial army may excecute anyone they know to be a spy without trial."

Tanya could smell a hint of perspiration on the breeze, though none of the other three soldiers glanced back at her.

"Furthermore, this isn't just the standard operating procedure of the empire either. Both the Commonwealth and Ispagna have given similar orders to their officers," Tanya paused. "I am not sure about the Russy Federation however. What do you think, Gustav?"

The soldier cried out in rage, and drew his weapon only for Tanya to shoot a hole through his chest before he had the chance. Williams drew as well and nearly managed to level her gun at Tanya, but the young girl was quicker, dropping the spy with a single shot to the head. Johnson wasn't quite as fast as his counterpart, and the man found himself staring down the barrel of Tanya's rifle while he fumbled with the safety.

"Well, go on then," he spat. "Do it already."

"Drop your weapons," Tanya demanded.

The man seemed confused, but after a moment of hesitation, dropped his rifle into the ocean.

"All of them."

Once more the man paused, and once more he complied, pulling out his pistol and dropping it along with a knife he had been keeping in his boot.

"Good."

Tanya dropped her own weapon a moment later before drawing her pistol and removing the magazine, tossing it away as well, though she kept the bullet already in the chamber. A moment later, her radio equipment joined her rifle in the watery deep.

"Contact your handler," Tanya demanded. "Tell them you've secured a high value target over the edge of Empire waters."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's a little late to be playing dumb, agent Johnson," Tanya retorted.

"You're surrendering then."

"I am."

"Why?"

"Don't you know not to look a gift horse in the mouth? Or is that not a saying in your country?" Tanya prodded with a smirk. "I offer you the commander of the most feared battlegroup in empire history and you waste time asking rhetoricals."

"Why?" The man pressed.

"Because I am nothing if not spiteful. Now inform your superiors," Tanya shot back.

The man paused again, and after a moment withdrew a small radio barely larger than his thumb from a hidden pocket. With a click, he activated the device and began whispering into the receiver, hastily relaying Tanya's order. After it was done there were several long moments of silence followed by a short affirmation.

"They'll be here in fifteen minutes," he remarked.

"Good. Now I'm going to give you my gun. But before I do," Tanya exclaimed, pulling the leather bound journal from an interior pocket. "I am going to inform you that I hold considerable valuable intel which I am willing to bargain with."

"Hard to bargain in good faith with a gun to my head."

With a flick of her wrist Tanya chucked the pistol into the air. A moment later it was in the hands of the agent, the barrel now pointed at her.

"There. Now are you willing to consider my proposal?" Tanya pressed.

The man nodded.

"I want two things from you, agent," Tanya held up a pair of fingers. "One, I want a promise that I won't be executed. Immediately or otherwise."

"That is… possible," he muttered.

"Second. I want news of my capture to stay out of the paper. Disappear me into some government black site if you must, but ensure that noone knows where I went," Tanya continued. "Do that and not only will you have all current and previously used codes but you'll also have my full cooperation."

The man's thumb depressed the trigger on the radio, and a short, terse conversation ensued between him, and his superior. After several minutes the man relaxed and he looked down at the girl with a mix of disgust and respect.

"It's done. A cover-up is already in progress," he remarked.

"Good."

"Does none of this bother you?" He pressed, gesturing back in the direction of the empire. "You are betraying your country. Betraying your brothers and sisters in arms, yet you stand before me unbothered. As if all that meant nothing to you."

"Of course it meant something, and it is because it did that I am doing this," Tanya shot back, her upper lip curling into a snarl. "The sooner this war ends in the empire's inevitable defeat, the less pointless fighting occurs and the less manpower is wasted."

"You speak of your comrades like they are ones and zeros on some ledger. Did you ever value their lives?" He continued.

"I told you this already, didn't I? Yes, I valued them, as I still do. They were excellent employees and the best subordinates I've ever had," Tanya said dismissively.

The agent stood there, a confused look on his face.

"Any more stupid questions. Agent Johnson?"

The man flew quietly before her, pistol drawn, though his finger had left the trigger.

"I thought not," Tanya declared after a long pause.

[-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

Tanya sat quietly at the bench, the young girl peering over the lip of the table and up at the trio of generals whispering amongst themselves at the back of the room. Seated in an elevated section large enough to house a dozen men, it was clear to Tanya that the Commonwealth was prepared for something like this. The courtroom, despite being half under construction, was large enough to seat almost the entire high command of the empire at once. While still having room for a considerable peanut gallery, a witness stand and space for about two dozen reporters.

She was not alone at the bench, for beside her sat a young, steely eyed sergeant.

He was not her representative in these proceedings, and the man was no lawyer. There was no presumption of innocence here after all, rather, he was her observer, a job the hawkish man did not take lightly. Tanya had not seen him blink even once, his gaze forever sweeping back and forth as if he were just waiting for someone to come and try to rescue his charge.

No such thing had happened during the last month she had spent either being interrogated, or sitting alone in a cell at the top of the tower of Londinum. Though boring, Tanya had few complaints to speak of.

The food was surprisingly good despite the beating the commonwealth had taken. The unified states was probably the only reason she hadn't been forced to eat nothing but gruel or old MREs taken from the common soldiery. Either way she was eating better than she had back in the empire. So much better in fact that the Tanya was certain she had put on at least a few pounds since arriving on enemy shores.

A commotion from amongst the generals drew Tanya's attention away from her musings, and back to the trial. The agent with whom she had initially surrendered to all that time ago stepped forward, a grim expression on his face.

"With the authentication of your intelligence now no longer in doubt. This court has chosen to grant you... Clemancy," the man spat, as if the word struggled to leave his mouth. "You will be held as a prisoner of war until a peace accord is signed. At that time you will be offered a job at the foreign intelligence bureau. The details of which are still pending."

Tanya blinked owlishly, her mind reeling with the most recent news. Not only had she slipped the hangman's noose, but she had also dodged a lengthy prison sentence on top of securing a job. Sure, she'd need to sit in a cell for another few months, or maybe even a year but that was a small price to pay.

"Thank you," Tanya replied in somewhat shaky English.

"You will now be transferred to a larger facility a few miles north of the city," the agent concluded.

"And the cover up?" Tanya inquired.

"It is complete," the agent dismissed. "Intercepted communications between your top brass indicate that they have bought the story of your valiant death fighting a surprise seaborne invasion. You've even been granted another medal."

"Oh goodie. Tell them to send it to me in the post," Tanya muttered, chuckling to herself.

"That is all."

Tanya's guard stood, and a moment later, she did as well, the girl filing out of the courtroom back the way she came. The rest of her escort who had been left at the door fell in behind her, though an unusual companion also joined a moment later.

"Agent Johnson," Tanya remarked, returning to her native tongue.

"It was your age that did it."

"I figured that would be the case."

"Even with my promises, and your intelligence there was a concerted effort to see you stand before the firing squad," Agent Johnson remarked. "But then you just had to remind Sir Brown of his daughter and suddenly all that was off the table."

"A shame," Tanya remarked mirthlessly.

"Agreed," added the agent.

Together the small group strolled down empty hallway followed by empty hallway, the silence hanging heavy over them. Tanya however, was elated, and the former salaryman had to resist the urge to jump with joy.

"I know that line about conscription was bullshit. Most of the generals did too."

"Yet here I am," Tanya exclaimed.

"Damn their overly large hearts," spat the agent. "And damn you for fiegning ignorance of your crimes. In this life or the next you will suffer for what you've done."

Tanya sighed. "Is that all, agent Johnson?"

But the man was already gone, his heavy footsteps echoing down a side hallway.

The former salaryman shrugged, a smile returning to his face.

[-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

Without a word, Tanya was marched into her cell, her guards taking position on either side of the exit immediately after the door shut behind her. Alone once more, Tanya found herself in a comfortably sized concrete room complete with all the necessities of life.

Her bed, although bolted to the floor, was easily large enough for her, and was covered in a comfortable blanket. A small shower was present, along with a toilet and sink. Though she would be afforded no illusion of privacy. A window allowed her jailors to peer in on her, while nothing present in the room was capable of creating even a temporary bit of cover.

There was even a desk, atop which sat a small wooden soldier that Tanya immediately recognized.

"Come to admit defeat?" Tanya asked the empty room.

Glaring at the toy for several long seconds, the former salaryman began to wonder if this really was the entity that had tormented her for so long. Only for it to suddenly speak just after she had begun to question her own sanity.

"You set aside your stubborn pride," remarked the 'god' in a flat, monotone voice.

"No. If anything I embraced it," Tanya dismissed. "The true war. The war that mattered was not between these nations or peoples. It was between me and you."

"Still. You gave up, you gave in," Being X pressed. "I won."

"I define what victory means. Not you!" Tanya snarled. "In your childish, desperate need to be right you may have set the world against me but I don't need to best the world to win. The only person I need to beat is you. Only you."

"Besides," Tanya continued. "With no chance of winning did you really expect me to keep fighting?"

"Yes."

"Then you are stupidier than I thought," Tanya declared. "If you had anything in that empty wooden head of yours, you would have kept me away from the coast. You wouldn't have given me enough operational freedom to effectively dictate my own hours. And you certainly wouldn't have fallen for my trap and given me those spies after I widened the recruitment net."

"You couldn't have known the unified states were going to join the war."

"Couldn't have known? Are you kidding me? It was obvious for months!" Tanya shouted, throwing her hands in the air. "Of course they are going to join the war! Not only were they heavily invested in material and manpower but it was obvious from the outset that you intended for things to go this way. I was doomed by the narrative you spun for me."

Tanya chuckled.

"And I saw this all coming from the moment war broke out, and more nations were drawn into the muck and the mire of conflict. From then on, I knew that I just had to bide my time while you grew fat and complacent," Tanya concluded. "And I knew you'd grow arrogant. You speak of pride, of winning the same way a child does. It would be pathetic if you werent some parasite suckling at the teet of humanity's worship."

"Do you not fear the berserker? Do you not fear my wrath made manifest?" Being X pressed on, his composure slipping and his voice wavering on the brink of rage.

"The commonwealth wouldn't go back on their word at this point. The only possible way she finds me here is if you tip her off through some dumb, convoluted bullshit," Tanya retorted. "At which point you may as well just smite me. Oh what am I suggesting? You have no such power, parasite."

"Silence!" Bellowed the entity, its voice freezing Tanya in place and keeping her from offering another cruel retort. "Fine then, you want me to say it so badly, I will. You win."

Tanya would have frowned had she been able to move her face.

"I'm done playing with you. I don't want your submission. I don't even want your worship. All I want, is for you to suffer," continued Being X, its voice becoming more alien and less cohesive by the second. "I want you experience agony the likes of which this reality isn't even captable of producing."

The toy soldier rapidly rotted away, its paint peeling away to reveal the blackened wood beneath.

"You thought being the project of one god was bad?" Being X spat, his words crawling into

Tanya's ears and caressing your grey matter like a horde of shadowy insects. "Get ready to be made a slave to one, and then a plaything to four others, each more cruel than the last."

Shadows crept in from the corners of the room, swallowing what light remained and leaving only a small island of floor amidst an endless ocean of darkness.

"In time you will regret what you've done. You will regret claiming victory, and spiteing me so. You will look back at this moment and realize that your pride wasn't worth it and then, only then will I allow you to truly die for one final time," the dark, alien voice declared.

A single frantic heartbeat later the floor gave way to darkness, and Tanya felt herself fall through a crack in reality. Her body tumbled through the air, limp and unresponsive, the former salaryman unable to even scream. The void closed in, and all at once Tanya understood what true darkness really was.

Then another opening emerged, and she entered a new realm, this one a stark, maddening contrast from the previous empty space. Here she tasted her own terror, smelled the too bright colors whipping past her, and felt the touch of a forgotten memory trickling down her spine. It felt as though she were experiencing every moment of her previous two lives at the same agonizing second.

Most would have cracked under this deluge, their mind shattering after having gone from the darkness of the void to the chaotic nightmare of this new hellish realm. Tanya was not most people, and even as her brain struggled to grapple with all that occurred around her, she held on. Squeezing tight to the edges of her own sanity with a death grip, she held a single solitary emotion in her mind, using it as her anchor.

Spite.

Spite directed at being X. Spite against the world that had allied against her. Spite at everyone who had uttered a prayer directed at the creature that had set itself against her.

Someday! She screamed within her mind. Someday I will kill you being X! You and every last one of the entities who clothe themselves in the vestemants of divinity!

I will be your ruin! I Swear it!