Memory for immortals might work a bit differently than others, but a few events still take root in their minds. For Matriarch, she remembers a lot of her early life. She remembers her birth vividly, and how her consciousness and existence took hold in that gorgeous blue and green void, within a pocket realm of Yggdrasil. She remembers a lot of her recent years, when she took over Gnosis Genealogia and their various ventures. It was the in between events that seemed to blend together, as is the nature of an entity that can walk through time and space. Parallel dimensions and timelines function mostly the same, though there’s always something different. An election going in a different direction, or a random car accident cancelling out what could have been.

The Matriarch found herself in a realm much like any other. The early 2000’s, making her way into a city named Lost Rook. A midwestern, mostly tucked away town nestled within a mountainous valley. It hosted roughly ninety thousand in population, and was generally rather tight knit. It was here that The Matriarch made her first foray into creating her initial seat of power. She had recently taken over Gnosis as an organization, and only some decades prior had she settled on a gorgeous Carnival mask as the extension of herself. It was pristine, not a single painted in crack. As pristine as the woman herself, still boasting her orange eyes (though she did still have a full iris and pupil at the time, the color being otherworldly but otherwise did not turn many heads) as well as clean, tanned skin. Unscarred by the fate she would undergo in the months to come. Regardless of her clean visage, she still did not remove her mask very often as per Gnosis culture.

In this particular timeline, vampires were common but just beneath the surface of public awareness. The culture had not quite broken through but there were still many rumors and conspiracy theories circulating the news. The CDC had announced a sort of disease they had discovered in a decent portion of the population that gave people paler skin and a sensitivity to sunlight, but they had little data to go on. The Matriarch saw this as a diplomatic opportunity, and made contact with their hierarchies to aid in a peaceful transition and discovery that was very likely to happen within the next decade.

It was an uphill battle. The upper echelons of society were incredibly corrupt, having feeding cells in most major cities and spent a lot of their funding covering a grand amount of murder that some of the newly turned found themselves in. It was quite the racket. People were turned, and then left to their bloodlust until they resorted to the inevitable. Once such a despicable crime was committed, the local vampiric authorities would swoop in and take care of it in exchange for the criminal’s servitude. In some way, most vampires were slaves to the upper hierarchies of vampire society. It was a difficult thing to root out. At this rate, once they were fully discovered, it would not take long for the humans to turn on them in short order once their crimes were discovered.

Eventually The Matriarch found a handful of old school nobles that did not like the way things were going. Her biggest ally was an older Count named Skürsgrad, a fellow diplomat and had quite the reputation for ending a few underground wars before they had the chance to begin. He was particularly effective at easing tensions between his kind and the various werewolf tribes that hid themselves out in the forests.

It was a long and difficult road, the vampires were just far too set in their ways and it was a multi million dollar industry, keeping people in line. Murders and other heinous crimes were expensive to cover up, and every time The Matriarch, Count Skürsgrad, and both of their respective organizations attempted to cancel out the corruption they were typically met with violence. To their collective frustration. This went on for a few years, before a timeline breaking event that would come to negate the problem altogether.

Despite the event spanning over the course of a few weeks, it happened faster than anyone could react because the details were completely foreign to them. Matriarch got a call from one of Skürsgrad’s people, talking about a metaphorical glitch in the aetherial flow of the planet. Magic use took a massive hit, witches found their spells to be failing or somehow being negated at an incredible rate. The Matriarch seemed unaffected, as she was a deity who pulled her power straight from the flow of the universe, not the planet itself. As was her custom, she kept that detail to herself. Within the same timeframe, the vampire population seemed to have a plague burning through them. The death rate was small, but it was especially effective at targeting the higher ranked vampires. This of course put a lot of them on alert, and tensions were rising as conspiracies arose about a grand assassination scheme, but nothing could be proven. It was also too widespread for that.

Everyone involved knew something massive was coming, but all of The Matriarch’s research came up with nothing. She even fled to her home realm briefly, with her massive monolithic libraries. While time passed differently, it still passed in some fashion and she could not remain there indefinitely while her current chosen timeline suffered. She had some documents on such things being the precursor to an attack but there was a link in the chain that was consistently missing from multiple sources. For the life of her, she could not determine what the next steps were.

Several answers were given one day. On an early evening, the skies of the planet erupted in green energy. Sharp, crackling portals opened up from the sky and incredible ships emerged from within. They were sleek, in silver and green trimming with an ornate “V” adorning their decals and flags.

The news cycles panicked while an entire fleet engulfed the planet, both in atmosphere and in orbit. They did not open fire at all, but were shifting at certain points across the globe. Together with her allies, Matriarch surmised that they seemed to focus on the highest populations of vampires, but that fact was still unknown to the public at the time.

A massive, ornately designed flagship drifted out of orbit and well into the Earth’s atmosphere proper while several major portals remained open. As if protecting an asset, the fleet drifted towards each of these. The various militaries of course convened quickly, focusing on surrounding the cities in case there was a proper on-ground invasion.

The Matriarch had quickly sequestered Skürsgrad and his ilk into a safer location, that of her controlled territory of Lost Rook, while they monitored the situation on television and computer, both private and public recordings. They had little to say on the matter but The Matriarch could not help but feel incredibly uncomfortable. She could feel the energy emanating from the flagship, something unstable.

A few nervous hours passed, in which very few people on the planet could not handle attempting to sleep at all. Tensions were high but there was no contact from these spaceborn invaders, but there was a development. Within the portals, emerged a massive technological spike that landed in the clearest spots in various cities. At least, as clear as it could handle. They seemed to have focused on highways and plazas but if none were available, these massive monoliths drove right through entire buildings without a care. Of course, there were already evacuations en masse just to get away from the immediate areas that the invaders focused on. The military kept trying to contact whomever was listening, but no response was ever had.

Once they exited the portals and were in full view, these technological spires were massive in scale. Their size was comparable to the skyscrapers that they tore down to replace, each one rivaling the Empire State Building with ease (and indeed, New York had become host to one of these of their own, but in a different location). They did not look like buildings, but they seemed to be like strange syringes with a thicker base to remain balanced where they were. Earth may have had a hundred or so of these, implanting their massive mark in major cities across the entire world. This was when contact was finally made. Each ship hosted a screen, a crisp hologram that was certainly far beyond what Earth had at the time. Of course, that part was obvious to everyone at this point.

The screen had one figure. A muscular man, with his “V” sigil on flags behind him. He looked to be in a sort of throne room but lacked a chair, but it was very official and regal, not entirely unlike what a President would stand in front of while addressing their entire nation. The man himself stood out more than his background, heavily armored, powered up like something people may have seen in movies. He held a hammer in his hand, which seemed like an ancient artifact more than anything technological, and had the magical hue to match the vision. His eyes glowed orange right along with the hammer, and his teeth were inhuman and warped.

He began his address, witnessed by millions and was undoubtedly being recorded through every video streaming service that any television or computer could muster. This was, in essence, first contact.

He spoke with a deep and guttural voice, something The Matriarch recognized as thinly contained rage, a subtle irritation in his words.

“Earth. I am Matthias the Soul-Eater, Emperor of the Vanguard. We are a time travelling paramilitary that has devoted a great deal of time and energy on defeating the undead. You have a problem, Earth. A pox within your ranks, leeches that are sucking the literal lifeblood of your cities. You’ve seen it in your news but you have forsaken its truths. Everything you thought has gone bump in the night is real, to a degree. The Vanguard at its core are monster slayers, and we are here to slay your monsters.”

“We ask for nothing in return, except that you remain out of our way when we do our business. Of course, it is unlikely you will take my attack lying down. That will be your choice to make, but my army will respond to all authorities with deadly force if we are fired upon. When our business is completed, your monsters will be dead and you will ultimately thank us for this service.”

He then bore his mutated teeth in the most vile of grins, ending his speech with a, “So we begin.”

After that, the spires that had implanted themselves seemed to glow with incredible energy finally detonating into a pulsating blast, firing multiple times and engulfing entire cities that hosted hundreds of thousands to millions in number.

Cell phones rang, the news circuits went wild as humans recording their streets noticed that a certain percentage of cityogers seemed to be destroyed in green ash. Not everyone was affected, except perhaps being knocked down by the force of the massive device. Vampires and various other forms of undead were being erased from existence, and The Matriarch was stuck in stunned silence (along with her compatriots and acolytes) as she watched the screens. In an instant, thousands of vampires dropped, and the number reached to five digits as people struggled to keep count.

After that, open war broke out. Not quite understanding how only specific people were dying when the same device hit the entire planet, the military fired upon them. The ships broke apart, spawning smaller dropships which then came footsoldiers. The Vanguard seemed too technologically advanced, and the Earth’s military was crushed in short order. Their soldiers had thin armor, where kinetic bullet weaponry seemed to have no effect on them. Worse still, there were these elite units named Templars that hosted massive powered armor not entirely unlike what Emperor Matthias wore but of variable design. They seemed to be impervious to everything, as cell phone recorded footage had them seen being shot by rockets and grenades, including high powered armor piercing rifles only to have no effect. These Templars were siege breakers, breaking down all manner of estates that vampires hosted (as there were still many points of power with vampires that did not fall into those Spire’s radiuses) and destroyed several households single-handedly.

The Matriarch’s heart sank. Within these first few hours, Skürsgrad had already fled to his estate to be with his people and discuss plans of survival. The Matriarch had a different plan, to speak to this alleged Soul-Eater and attempt to have him stand down. Deep down, she knew it was already far too late. At the very least, locating him would be a valuable learning experience to figure out exactly who he is and where he is from.

She had ordered Gnosis to stay where they were, and even summoned a pocket dimension for some of the more undead elements of her cult to remain within and out of reach. The rest, to merely monitor the situation and keep her updated as her quest began. The Emperor was incredibly easy to keep track of, not a single subtle bone in his body as he was recorded (from long range devices, of course) joining in on battle, crushing all foe with his hammer and cackling maniacally all the while doing so. Until she met him proper, she wasn’t sure if he was a lunatic or just a bloodthirsty warrior. Perhaps both, as those two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

Either way, after some travel through teleportation, she found a window of a battlefield where they just finished clearing the area. She had seen the Vanguard gun down fleeing vampires, and it just made her sick. She was in for a very strange conversation. It was a small town she found herself in, she could see one of the Spires from miles away across a leveled city. Smoke and flames billowed everywhere, and all she could think of was how quick it all was. She had no time to react to it all, but she just had to know what this was all for.

Locating the man, he was surrounded by a couple of templars and a few soldiers. As she emerged from some rubble, weapons were pointed at her while the Soul Eater himself was cleaning his hammer and hands off of un-ashed vampire blood. He seemed to give her a nod of respect, and shut his men down quickly.

“Stand down, probably couldn’t kill her if you tried. I’d rather not waste good warriors,” he grinned at her.

“How do you know this, Emperor Matthias?” She spoke, her voice remaining steadfast and doing a deep dive into every diplomatic bone in her body to keep the encounter peaceful.

He waved a hand off, “Just Matthias. I only expect honorifics from people who work under me,” he paused, letting go of his hammer and allowing it float next to him with some unseen magical force.

“Your aura. Some kind of god, yea? I could smell it as you approached,” he sniffed the air, as if he was taking in the carnage surrounding them. He then peered at her with that grin, which she found incredibly unsettling.

“Born of Yggdrasil, yes. I am known as The Matriarch, and I do not like to claim godship, just that I am an immortal. My domain is knowledge, and that is exactly my mission with this meeting.”

She took in the surroundings a bit more. She could hear the clicking and metallic grinding of the Templars as they shuffled around, keeping ever vigilant of sudden movements by her person. She could hear the subtle booms in the distance, the telltale sign of cannonfire. The Vanguard seemed to utilize both kinetic and laser-based weaponry. So the sounds were a little foreign to her, but it became all too familiar far too quickly.

“To claim a domain is to claim godship, is that not so?” Matthias argued.

“I have… not officially met with my Norse kin.”

Matthias grinned widely, offering an “Interesting.”

Her heart sank again, her eyes winced slightly as realization hit her. She overshared, basically communicating to the man that nobody would come to save her.

He continued, “Mmm, we have something in common. I have no true pantheon. Some call me mad, but some say my domain is War. It’s all the same to me. I was not born, but made. A super-soldier program of some planet nobody has ever heard of. That’s what you’re here for then, yea? To learn more about me?”

She nodded, but with a correction, “Partially. I am also here to ask you to complete your business here. You’ve killed enough, please leave.”

He croaked out some laughter, which would almost seem natural were it not for the unstable energies emanating from him. “Well that’s what I’m in the process of doing! Completing my task, and I won’t be done until the vampire population is appropriately culled. Down to the numbers my scientists deem appropriate. We’re pressing the reset button on their garbage society. Don’t worry, it won’t be a total clear. Just a handful, is that too much to ask?”

The Matriarch gave a hand gesture to the surroundings, “With how you’re leaving the land, yes. None of this was necessary. The spires made a mess on their own but you do not have to raze cities. You’ve made your point, Matthias.”

“I disagree. Have you been around humans long? They have this phrase, ‘give them an inch and they’ll take a mile’. Vampires took to the dregs of society for centuries, and have gone unchecked. As they always do, and always will. The Vanguard is here to check them.”

The Matriarch shook her head, this was going nowhere. “Sir, for the survival of my friends and loved ones, I cannot allow this to continue. What exactly needs to happen for you to signal a full retreat?”

“A clever question, little godling. I have some good news, it’s actually quite simple: Defeat me. That’s all there is to it. Any creature that can defeat me in combat can very likely handle my army in decent fashion, so when I fall, my Vanguard has a protocol to retreat the realm and pick me back up wherever my body regenerates somewhere else. Believe me, it’s incredibly inconvenient and halts my order’s advance for decades. Simple, yea?”

“You’re clearly an experienced warrior, there must be more to that,” The Matriarch asked in an attempt to wring further information out of the encounter.

He may have noticed, but in his hubris he gave in. “Well, I’ll let you in on a fun little fact. I’m very old, and so far I’ve only been defeated by two entities,” he paused, playfully motioning around like The Matriarch did earlier, “And I don’t see either of them here right now. Think you can take me?”

The Matriarch drew her blade, an ornate enchanted broadsword that had served her well. She wasn’t one for monster slaying but did have some experience taking down corrupt regiments of knights, as well as the occasional demon. This however, she knew was going to be a different story with a very different outcome. By all rights, she had to make the attempt for the honor of the realm she called home.

“Atta’ girl,” the man said, taking his levitating hammer by hand. His officers dispersed, some of them outright running off into the distance but his Templars remained closer, as they can certainly take an errant hit.

There was no fanfare, no sizing each other up. Nothing like in television shows or movies, no speech or monologuing. Matthias was a warrior to the core, advancing upon his foe immediately and swinging with his spare fist, leaving his hammer to the side. The Matriarch utilized her swordsmanship to deflect and quickly discovered another unnerving fact; a couple of slices in and she noticed that her blade did not pierce his exposed flesh. She barely had time to calculate this information before he landed a punch right into her center mass, sending her flying several feet backward. No wound on him, and he hits like a truck. Both useful points of information, but still highly dangerous.

She adjusted her style to be more fluid and defensive, utilizing hand to hand martial arts to supplement her movement to be more agile to balance out against this massive foe. Unfortunately, the realization came upon her that this entity likely had many thousands of years of combat experience over her, where she spent a good majority of her first thousand years holed up in a glorified library. The imbalance of experience was quickly noticed by both parties, as Matthias began to work to end the fight as quickly as possible. His movements were rigid but quick, barely utilizing any martial art beyond some basic brawling. He clearly had the experience, but he did not seem to waste his energy on the much less experienced fighter, and only moved as he needed to.

The Matriarch attempted a singular slice into his arms, the only places anything exposed could be noticed. He grabbed the blade in mid thrust, and finally used his hammer to bring it down upon it and shattered it immediately. It was specifically enchanted to not be destroyed so easily, but the nature of the hammer seemed to ignore that entirely. The fight lasted all of two or three minutes, and he swung his hammer once more to Matriarch’s lower legs. She didn’t have time to react before she felt the pain of shattered bone within her knees, causing her to collapse backward onto the ground.

He then stepped on her crotch to keep her from moving her midsection in a way to escape said grapple, and began to bring his hammer down on her. All she could do was reach up and grab the head of the hammer and cry out;

She felt the crackling orange energy enter her arms and weaken her entirely. It was painful like she could never believe, like fire burning through her veins. She had been shot, stabbed, set aflame, poisoned and all manner of things that would have easily killed the usual mortal and handled it with naught but a shrug but this was the first time she felt something actively hurt physically.“I yield! You’ve won!” she cried out in pain.

“You think I’m stupid, godling? Young or not, I will not allow a god to remain here who seems bent on stopping what I am doing here. No, I think you die here. If that’s all the same you, haha!” He cackled again as he used his considerable strength to force the hammerhead down on her, effectively attempting to crush her with it.

Gods, it hurt so much. She felt an energy she did not recognize, a fiery, profound pain entering her entire body. It burned, and her breath faded as she felt herself suffocating, another sensation that she did not recognize and thus led to immediate panic. Her eyes flooded with red, blood pouring out of a few orifices. Everything burned, her mouth and gums as well.

Barely two steps out into the universe. So much time learning, and then adopting a magic-based faction for a little while only to be slain by the first of her kind she came across. What a legend this would be for nobody to ever hear about, she thought.

She was left with a single idea. Mustering up what little strength she had, she disengaged a single arm to place upon the ground and tried to draw a rune in the stone that she was pinned on. This left a single arm to hold back the hammer, and she very quickly felt her bones crack beneath the force. Matthias seemed to notice but instead of interrupting her rune (perhaps not recognizing its intent), he doubled down and forced the hammer down further. Her left arm essentially dissolved with orange energy. Flesh and bone remained but deeply rendered and bloody, and she then felt the hammer crushing her chest with nothing left to hold it back. Everything hurt just so goddamn much.

What her rune was, was a teleportation spell. Mustering up the final thought of magic she had left on such a depleted planet, she managed to transport herself back to her home realm. She was in the field of her birth. Her estate was in the distance, as well as the monolith of a library flanking it, perhaps two miles away or so. She couldn’t move, and was hoping the pain would go away but what happened was worse. She could barely move, but she turned her head and noticed the orange energy she absorbed was poisoning the realm. The crackling orange tendrils of this magic began to burst from her in slow pulses and began eating away at the field. It was incredibly slow, something her dying mind made note of and thought there still might be time.

She looked up to the branch of Yggdrasil, which loomed over her realm like a tree a child would go to in their youth for safety and comfort. She did something she had never done before and prayed. To the Allfather himself, to Yggdrasil, to anything she could think of. Only two words, over and over.

“HELP ME.”