Arachne saw Shana, the spider queen's eyes widened as she saw her torso with its protuding extra breast. "What... happened?"
Shana took a little breather resting onto a tree. "I... the... magic. I... i think I just became magic girl three?" Shana looked down at her chest. She... she couldn't really even fathom it. She didn't even want to believe it was possible. She was already getting used to just having breasts, now she had an extra one! This was just... urgh! She tensed as she felt a flow of energy through her. "I-It hurts!" She screamed as she felt the magic course through her form.
Arachne frowned. "You were fated to bring the power of Three here, not to actually become the new Number! Gods!" The spider-queen clenched her fists in anger. This complicated matters greatly.
Shana forgot about the pain as she saw the curious woman by a flower bed, that was now cacooned in spider silk. It was almost like some kind of shrine, with a strange magic circle around her. "Who... is that?"
"That is the goddess Gaia," smiled Arachne. "beautiful isn't she?"
Shana stared at her. She was so beautiful... she felt something stir in her that was so humbling to be before the being that they all depended on for... for life? She was the Mother Earth itself... she knew it, she could feel it. Perhaps because of her connection to the strange number power she had now.
"Shana..." Arachne said softly, with sadness. "I... I have to tell you. I'm sorry... but... this power you have, it's going to kill you."
Shana tensed. "W-what?!"
The elder spider woman looked so grim, practically white as a sheet. "That you are able to wield it at all is a minor miracle... no doubt brought by my ministrations of your fate. I wanted you to bring the number here... i knew you would succeed... they always do... but I didn't want you to become an actual number! Not like..." she couldn't even say it. She just... didn't want to think on it. Shana reminded her so much of... of her own daughter.
The young spider girl could almost feel the magic burning inside her. "Well.. get it out of me then!" said Shana terrified. She didn't even want the power! She only used it to escape the temple.
The spider woman looked to the younger girl approaching her warily as if she would explode. "I can't. It's... it's going to kill you. I don't have the power to manipulate a number! Nobody does!"
Shana didn't like what she was hearing. "What exactly is going to happen to me?" She demanded to know feeling helpless.
Arachne paused for a bit as if... remembering. "You will burn from the inside out. The magical fire will consume you, killing not just your mortal form, but your very soul. It... it will be a ... a very unpleasant death... twice over. Then the magic will return to the temple."
"Do something!" Shana demanded.
The spider-woman looked at her... and nodded, with a sad resigned look in her eyes. Arachne took out a knife from her robes. "As you wish..."
"No!" Shana took a step back. "Are you out of your mind?!"
The spider woman looked at her tearfully. "... what else can I do. I don't want to see you suffer... at least this way your soul will survive. I... I don't want to see this again, not again!" she said with fury. "Damn you gods for doing this to me!"
A ripple of magic burned inside Shana again making her wince. She could feel the energy hurting her. Pain was starting to form, as if it was burning her very soul. She cried out in pain clenching. "H-Hurts..."
Arachne placed another spell over her. "This will dull the pain... but the damage is still there."
"Is there nothing you can do?"
"Not me... only... only if we find the true magic girl three... back on Earth. Stay away while I work this magic. I need to bridge my Age, to the current age of Earth."
Arachne went over Gaia, slowly touching the hair of the beautiful woman, with her soft white hair, and blue skin.
*With the new dawn arisen,
A past now uncertain,
an age of monsters forgotten,
return beasts of mortals...
return... return... return!*
Gaia's body seemed to shift and change very slightly, as if something was opening within her skin. Something the Earth goddess contained... the various creatures of the previous ages, locked away... so many of them. hundreds... thousands. A giant serpent that crawled out of her belly, lashing on waves resting upon her chest... a giant bird, taking flight on the mist that was her hair... just a drop in an entire ocean of them all.
Arachne smiled.
The New Age of Earth had no past... until now.
This was a new change.
A subtle change.
The world was having its history constructed from nothing. it had no real 'history' besides that of what happened in the previous age. Because this was a new age, circumstances was still being written.. and could be re-written by anyone in the meta-verse.
Most things were the same in what happened, but certain circumstances were different. Every age brought with it a certain challenge, and ended when that challenge was met. For the Age of Technology pre-sun change, it was in perceiving the unperceived. That which was called 'The Enemy'... named as such for its nebulous and unknown abilities. However there were other challenges before that...
The challenge of the previous age of earth was the enigmatic beasts that people saw in nature and immortalised in story and art. The small gods and demons that inhabited every culture, was now well and truly... real. Of course, many humans took their shape... but now, they had returned.
It had 'always' been real.
The Gods watched silently, unable to intervene in the meta-verse. That place was forbidden to them, as it was the very life blood of all existance.
"Only the Four Elemental holders will know... the truth," sighed The Lady.
