*
Personal strength, expansive power, an unending resolve. She always wanted to picture what lay at the end, would she tire of it all and bring the end herself? Or would someone else come to relief her of her duty, propping up a sweet successor for herself? Everyone desired a peaceful end, with this disaster wreaking havoc all over the planet, she could never rest easy or forgive herself if it all ended here. Her desires melt with a molten passion, running counter to what reality demands. Her resolve is so steel willed that it couldn't dream of bending, there is no hesitation nor consideration.
Here she is, the goddess of the garden, the guardian deity of humanity. In all her majestic... Glory. She looked to be like a normal frail girl, aged around 20. She seemed only slightly more mature than Yggdrasil and Sariel, but they understood deep inside that they were facing an ancient being with the minimum age of 11508. Despite pushing onward so selfishly, after all is said and then, Yggdrasil couldn't guess what was the first thing inside Eterna's thoughts as she stared down these unruly visitors.
"It's you..." (Eterna)
There was no magical aura in the air, yet an overbearing pressure delicately flattened her watching soul. This was the biological pressure emanating from a deity, a superior being. Even as a magical girl, she felt compelled to kneel and offer her head. Moreover, she was demanding another give up their life. The significance of which only hit her after receiving Eterna's visage, did a deity's life not matter?
She gripped her fingers tighter, resisting against the pressure with her entire body's weight. Her legs tensed and she stood stiffly, feeling like her head was being pushed down without rest. How? How could she so easily suggest the murder of another? Murder was still murder, if this was the way she went about defeating Ledaine... Wouldn't that make herself a criminal whose subjugation is also justified? What separated her from evil? Unilaterally declaring the fate of another is worth less than others... That is evil.
Her fingers trembled as she turned her gaze towards Eterna. Red eyes, long blond hair, a white sun dress that stretched below the shins. It was the type that left her shoulders exposed and bound her arms to her chest with a ring of frills. Below that ring were long puffy sleeves that embraced her skin all the way to her wrist. Slender chalk white fingers poke out, their purity and supple smoothness unmatched. On the surface, she looked like an exceedingly pure girl, a higher being with a greater purpose that couldn't be deduced at first glance. A natural atmosphere that obscured cognition veils her.
"... I... Failed." (Yggdrasil)
Her words slowed to two measly syllables, her breathing was gradually going to lose control. Air was escaping her throat, and she forgot she could inhale, with the guilt plaguing her.
"So you paid with your life, and it wasn't enough. How many more lives will you be dragging in, can you confidently say I will be the last?" (Eterna)
Her hands stop shivering.
"Would it be better if I did nothing, and let Ledaine steam roll over what is left of us?" (Yggdrasil)
She looked up, her eyes getting a good look at the other party. She owes her at least this much, instead of averting her eyes and using a 'deity's pressure' as an excuse.
"What pushed you this far? A hero complex that whispers sweet nothings to you? How are you so sure your approach is the only way to defeat Ledaine?
Could you accept it? Finding a better alternative after all is said and done. " (Eterna)
"... Yes. Because someone has to do it. " (Yggdrasil)
It's clear what Eterna is doing. Provocation? Ridicule? No, nothing so petty. It's encouragement. Yggdrasil raises her right hand to her side, a great sword of dark red light materialises. There's no blood on a newly formed magic energy weapon, an energy unique to {Feed}, of {Feed}. Yet the faintly glowing edges that betray destiny and birth a slightly more vibrant red seemed to exude a deathly aura that invoked the fear of murder.
Eterna smiled, Yggdrasil's heart exploded in anxiety, but her body was as calm as a lake's undefiled surfaced. Would she retaliate? Yggdrasil would not blame her if she perished here. She finally breathes in, regaining undeserved composure. She's going to be a murderer.
Felling the last deity. Surely this would be the worst sin in history, Eterna could bring infinite prosperity to humanity and unlimited resources for 11508 years. What can Yggdrasil do? That's where their roles precisely differ. A goddess of humanity, human value, balancing decadence with prosperity and achieving flourishment. Compared to that, she's an unknown being, someone with possibly outsider origins from beyond the garden. One forged on violence and defeat.
Is it possible to bring her back later? It's too late to think about that. Before she noticed, her blade had already plunged into the frail girl in front of her. Eterna had never meant to dodge, she had never meant to evade such a fate. Yggdrasil advanced, and she didn't move a single bit. Not even the feeling of blade against flesh or the sound of her body tearing apart had registered in Yggdrasil's mind.
She was determined to let humanity continue from the start. The goddess of humanity declares that her love for humanity is infinite without words. The clock strikes midnight. The tears blur out the stranger standing within breathing distance, her sword dematerialises and the body in front of her falls limp, leaning against her with a fading warmth. Her worries are uncontrollable, her emotions erupted into an all time high.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..." (Yggdrasil)
She hates it, she detests such a fate where sacrifices are necessary. She wants to let her emotions go wild and destroy the planet, but that would render everything that she's achieved meaningless. She wasn't the same Yggdrasil as last time, as the time the great tree first appeared at 2A. This is too much, but... As she mentioned before, someone has to do it.
"Thank god. You did it before midnight. Reading the future was difficult, spurring your sword was harder.
I'm entrusting... The future to you. Take my withered divine core." (Eterna)
"... I'll do it... I'll take back the future for you. " (Yggdrasil)