The sky is red, is the first thing that comes to 11’s mind, followed closely by, why am I in a place where the sky is red?

She tries to look around, but her head feels heavy, as if there is a black hole somewhere above her, sucking her towards it. It’s not a sunset-red, either. It is a disgusting red, dark and bumpy and shiny. Almost like it’s the…

Her thoughts are cut short by a bunch of hissing, slimy serpent heads, slithering into her view. Their crimson eyes flash with hunger as forked tongues lash out at the air. 11 looks down, and sees the mountain demon hanging from the sky.

Oh, no wait. I’m the one who is wrongly oriented.

The demon lifts 11 higher into the sky, clamping down hard on her limbs and torso with its many sets of razor-sharp teeth. 11 feels her blood leaking out of her wounds, streaming hot paths down her body and dripping into her eyes. She blinks them away, and tries moving, but the demon’s fangs have sunk too deeply into her in too many places; she’ll tear herself apart before she can break free. So, she lets the demon hold her in the air, for now.

One of the demon's serpentine head drops downwards, positioning itself directly below 11. With a loud pop, it unhinges its jaw wide open, ready to swallow the God Gier whole. Meanwhile, the rest of Gargoloth’s heads come to surround her, fangs dripping with venomous saliva as they speak.

“In all my years of ruination, I have yet to face a foe like you. Know this, foolish mortal, that you have shed the blood of GARGOLOTH THE UNDYING! Take this pride with you into the afterlife, for you are without doubt the strongest champion ever to come out of this realm. Take heart, in these final moments of your life, and rejoice in the knowledge that you have stood against the greatest power in this world – GARGOLOTH, THE DESTRUCTOR OF KINGDOMS, THE ENDER OF CIVILIZATION, THE GOD OF RUIN!”

“I wonder if having your heart ripped out is as painful as this.” 11 closes her eyes briefly at remembering what it was she had held in her hand. She can almost still feel its muscles twitching between her fingers. “Would it be the same as dying? Or would it be worse, because you die knowing your heart is in another’s grasp?”

Do you require aid, 11?

“Oh, no, not at all," 11 says with a slight shake of her head. "I was just… thinking. Could you please run a deep malware scan on me after I’m done here, Mother?”

I see no reason to waste energy and time on doing that. You have already been scanned and cleared three times in the last three months.

11 sighs. “But this time I really did see-”

There is a fleeting moment of relief and weightlessness as Gargoloth opens his mouths, and lets 11 fall.

“DESPAIR, mortal!” screams the demon, its mouths salivating with twisted joy. “DESPAIR and DIE!”

As 11 plummets, she reaches out a hand as if to break her fall somehow. Haunting laughter echoes from the opened maw below and the eleven heads all around, as they watch the God Gier plunges to her oblivion.

11 closes her eyes.

I’m sorry. But I cannot die just yet.

“Firing Dual ARC Cannons. 5% power.”

A torrent of energy blasts from both of 11’s arms, eviscerating the head below her and sending her high into the sky, too fast for the demon’s stunned and confused heads to snatch her on her way up. Then as she passes above the peak of the demon’s mountain, 11 twists her body in the air and aims her cannons at the center of the demon.

Her calculations tell her just 28.5% power will be enough to do the job, but 11 decides she’s just about had enough of this slimy turtle-crab, with its illogical biology and psychotic ramblings.

“Dual ARC Cannons, firing at 100% power.”

Permission denied, Gier 11. A level 74 D.E does not warrant such destructive use of your weaponry. 30% will be more than enough.

“Fine. Firing at 50%.”

Permission denied.

“Alright, alright. 30% then, I guess.”

The particles inside the cannons begin to whirl with incredible speed, emitting a shrill so loud shockwaves ripple through the air. 11 keeps her arms steady through the violent vibrations, feeling the massive amounts of energy draining from her body into the super-weapons in her arms. They begin to glow, swallowing her world in a blossoming of blue and white, and when 11 cannot hold it in any longer, she takes aim, and lets it all out.

There is a moment of stillness, as if a piece of time has been sliced out of the fabric of reality.

The Devourer of Worlds looks up at the star above him, growing brighter and hotter than even the sun itself, and his stone heart quivers with a feeling he has never once felt in all the centuries upon centuries he has lived.

He will walk no longer. He knows this. And he is afraid.

The Magnificent Being of Stone thinks back to all the times in the past, when he conquered the realm’s greatest heroes and guilds. He had crumbled them all to dust, shedding not a single drop of sweat in the process. But now, he sees what those two-legs must have seen then; the fast-approaching of an inescapable end, when life as one knows has come to a complete and immovable conclusion.

In that moment, as the stars burst forth from the sky, Gargoloth has never felt smaller.

He closes his eyes.

But to be stopped by a star…

who but him, will ever have such an honor?

A deep, booming explosion drowns out every other sound under the blistering sky, including the demon’s screams of agony as the torrent of energy bathes it in its entirety, mountain and all, and eviscerates it all to nothing.

The monstrous blast burrows deep into the ground, disintegrating anything and everything unfortunate enough to be caught in its ungodly heat. Rows upon rows of towering trees topple like twigs as the earth shakes itself to pieces. Bright blue bolts of lightning scorch the ground to charcoal as black tumbling smoke smothers the air.

11 keeps her aim steady as she rockets further and further into the sky. The blast stops as she breaks above the clouds, but she keeps flying, her momentum carrying her away from the mess below, all the way to the edge of the atmosphere. She breathes in deeply, enjoying the cool nothingness that fills up her lungs and combs through her hair.

"Target exterminated."

Yes, but you have sustained multiple injuries to your chassis integrity in the process.

A sub-optimal performance for a first battle.

11 huffs. “Like you would know. How could the most advanced super-computer ever created fail to protect itself from being breached by something as simple as a cyberattack?"

11 waits for a reply, but none come, even as she starts to fall back towards the earth, rapidly picking up speed like an android-shaped comet. But just when 11 decides to forget about Mother and focus her thoughts on how to not end up as a splatter against the ground, she hears the quietest, most begrudging response,

Running malware scan on God Gier 11...