Subaru sat stiffly in her room, arms crossed, staring at the wall.
The realization had finally hit her—if she was supposed to be the final boss of this insane cult, shouldn't she be overpowered too?
She had already seen the side effects of her existence—mirrors cracked when she looked at them, plants died in her presence, food rotted in her hands. That wasn't normal. That wasn't human. And if she was going to survive whatever hell this was, she needed to figure out exactly what she was capable of.
Which meant testing.
She stood up, rolling her shoulders.
Alright. Let's start with the basics.
First up—laser eyes.
Subaru narrowed her eyes at the nearest object—a wooden chair, standing innocently in the corner of the room. She concentrated, focusing all her energy into her gaze, willing it to explode into a magnificent beam of destruction.
Nothing happened.
She squinted harder.
Still nothing.
She groaned, rubbing her face. "Okay, no laser eyes. Lame."
Next attempt—telekinesis.
She turned toward the chair again, this time lifting a hand and willing it to move.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, suddenly, the chair lurched into the air and violently smashed into the ceiling, shattering into a hundred splinters before exploding like it had personally offended her.
Subaru yelped, jumping back.
"Holy shit!"
That was… way stronger than expected.
The cultists outside cheered.
"A display of power!" one of them howled. "Her love takes form! The world trembles!"
"Such insanityful destruction!" another wept. "Blessed be our beloved!"
Subaru just stared at the mess, heart hammering in her chest. "Okay," she muttered. "So telekinesis is a yes. Just… needs some fine-tuning."
She took a breath, rolling her wrists. Next test—decay touch.
She needed to be sure if everything she touched rotted or if it was just food. She reached out, lightly placing her fingertips against the wooden table.
Immediately, darkness spread from her touch, veins of rot cracking through the wood, twisting and crawling like ink seeping through paper. Within seconds, the table collapsed into dust.
The cultists outside screamed in pure ecstasy.
"The corruption! The withering! The end of all things!"
"She blesses us with her divine entropy!"
"Such overwhelming love!"
Subaru took a slow step back, staring at her hand. "Right. Decay touch. Bad."
She flexed her fingers, suppressing a shudder. "Definitely gonna wear gloves from now on."
But that wasn't all.
She knew she had more.
She had felt it, deep in her bones, this swirling, endless power thrumming beneath her skin. She just needed to push it out.
She exhaled slowly, focusing.
Wind? No. Fire? No. Gravity? Yes.
The room shook.
The air compressed.
Objects around her lifted off the ground, trembling as an invisible force wrapped around them. The cultists collapsed outside, screaming in worship as the walls themselves groaned under the pressure.
Subaru immediately cut it off.
Everything dropped.
The moment the power vanished, the cultists began wailing in joy.
"She bends the world itself!"
"A love so great, even the heavens yield!"
"Her mere presence is a gift to reality!"
Subaru rubbed her temples. "What the hell is wrong with these people?"
Okay. Recap.
No laser eyes.
Yes to telekinesis—too strong.
Decay touch—horrifying.
Gravity manipulation—dangerous.
She sighed, running a hand through her hair. At least now she had a better idea of what she could do.
"Alright," she muttered. "That's enough world-ending experiments for today."
…Or at least until she figured out if she could fly.
Ē~Ē
Subaru sat stiffly on the grand, ancient throne they had practically begged her to take, gripping the armrests so tightly that her fingers dug into the worn wood. The entire church was filled with hooded figures, kneeling, swaying, whispering prayers under their breath, their voices overlapping in a sickening chorus of devotion.
She was controlling herself.
She had to.
Because right now, two absolutely deranged, completely cursed urges were warring inside her brain.
The first? The overwhelming, horrifying, utterly unreasonable urge to murder someone.
She didn't know why. She didn't even want to. But ever since she had woken up in this body, it had been lurking there, bubbling beneath the surface like some sick, instinctual craving. Every time someone groveled at her feet, every time Betelgeuse's disgusting voice trembled in worship, every time another cultist called her their beloved, her fingers twitched with the need to reach out and—
No. Nope. Not happening. She was not a murderer.
But then came the second problem.
The equally disgusting, equally cursed desire to hug herself. To kiss herself.
And it wasn't like, oh, I feel like I need some self-love today. No, this was worse. This was primal, instinctual, like some demonic force was whispering in the back of her head, "You are the most beautiful thing in existence. You deserve to embrace yourself. You should kiss yourself. Hold yourself. Love yourself."
And she wanted to vomit.
But she also wanted to do it.
Which made it even worse.
Her fingers clenched into fists, nails digging into her palms as she stared straight ahead, doing everything in her power to keep her face unreadable.
Betelgeuse was rambling again.
"Ahh, most beloved! Most divine! How your presence graces us! How the very air trembles beneath your love!" He was twitching, fingers spasming violently, his grin so wide it looked painful. "To be in your presence is to be in the arms of madness! Ahh, such joy! Such insanityful devotion!"
Subaru wanted to strangle him. She also wanted to grab her own face and smooch herself senseless.
She did neither.
Instead, she exhaled slowly, deliberately, and tilted her head ever so slightly, letting the mist around her curl ominously.
"Yes," she murmured, voice smooth, eerie, controlled. "It is... as it should be."
The cultists lost their minds.
More screaming. More sobbing. More worship.
Subaru kept her expression blank, her fingers twitching against the throne's armrests.
Inside, she was screaming.
TBC
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