Lucus didn't want it to end like this!
She had done so many things... seen so many things. It was only now, seeing the end when faced with the hoard of an army of armed spider-monsters, that she realised this.
Someone would think of something! Someone would do something! That's what always happened...
... didn't it?
But the walls were closing around her, and with another swipe of her sword she felt herself weaken at each strike. For every monster she cut down, there was another spider-monster taking its place. For every second she bought, a half second later it was taken away. Then she saw the one thing that made her shiver the most.
...Death Herself was looking at her.
The gothic woman was sitting on a stone, watching patiently. She was clothed in black, and wearing a shimmering dark cloak. A strange enigmatic beauty, with the patience of eternity. She was holding an egg timer... the sands of a life. But Lucas could not see how much time she had left.
Lucas attempted to fly away from the monsters, but the spiders pulled her back. The bone structures of her wings were severely warped and pulled by the sudden ferocity as she the spiders descended upon her, as if she was a simple bird about to be consumed by a colony of arachnids.
Time... was slowing down...
Lucas perceived this slowness. The enemies around her was slowing down, but so too was her own body. She couldn't 'move' any faster... but her thoughts were going at rapid speed. The same speed that death was walking to her.
"No.."
"We have to activate the god-mod program," said Anneza. "Or Lucas will die."
Astra turned a dial on the Great Machine. "It's uploading now... but... things are different. Earth has become part of the program. Damn it... this will not work from here." Astra then turned another dial.
There was loud siren, as something started to shake.
Anneza looked at the monitor. "Astra... what is that?" she asked pointing to a screen.
"A world engine," said her daughter as if knowing it was always there. "This is a wondering planet... if we want to activate the program, we'll have to go to where Earth is."
"Can... we do that?" Anneza asked blinking. This was becoming stranger by the minute.
"I don't see why not. Earth has become a higher dimensional inverted sphere," explained Astra carefully. "It encompasses the entire... meta-verse at the moment. So we should be able to gate the clockwork planet within that sphere."
"But we'll just become higher dimensional as well!" said Anneza. "We don't want what happened to Earth to happen to Clockwork."
"The planet is filled with iridescent stars... I have a feeling... the light from the iridescent sun comes from this meta-verse. So if we want to go there..." she pointed the course out on the celestial map.
"... you can't be serious." Anneza said in mild panic. "You can't be serious!"
"It's safe mother," said Astra. "We fly the planet into the new iridescent star... and we'll emerge into the other universe, as a normal planet. We'll be a planet orbiting one of those stars... the equivalent star, because the star itself will invert as we descend into it.
Anneza wasn't sure what to think. Astra had knowledge of astronomical physics way too advanced for any normal human of earth, even her transformation couldn't account for all this knowledge. Something here was... wrong. She knew it... she could feel it. Her life wasn't what it was supposed to be, maybe? Did she... really know who she was? Who was Astra? Why were her memories so jumbled, whenever she tried to remember it? Why did she feel so much hate in trying to help her home? Why did it hurt her so much to have to be the one, to save them... to help someone, an angel that hated her for some reason?
"There is... one small problem," said Astra. "If we do this, our reality 'might' change.
"How so?" asked Anneza warily.
"We integrate ourselves into the metaverse and... we will encounter the gatekeeper. Its... its a rule of the universe. We play the game, and something might happen to us."
"The Earth needs us," said Anneza. "We're the only ones that know anything about this program. Do what you think you have to."
Slowly the entire Clockwork planet, keeper of the Great Reality Machine, disengaged itself from orbit, using a very similar motion that the space-creatures used. It started of slow, speeding up to near light speed. It was heading straight for its parental star, even as a shield started to form around it.
The star itself started to change, as if sensing the wondering planet.
There was a rule... the iridescent light can never kill... only transform. This whole plan hinged upon that. As if sensing the two sentient life forms (and millions of clockwork entities) the sun started to invert itself, creating some kind of passage or opening for the planet to go within.
There was a strange eruption of light, as the star 'imploded'...
and the planet and star vanished.
"Hello Lucas," said a voice.
Lucas wasn't sure where she was now. everything was white and... Oh hell....
"Not quite. Heaven, dear girl," smiled a strange figure. "Be at peace..."
Lucas tried to look at the person but... couldn't quite make him.. or her out. "Who... who are you?"
"I have had a number of names. I suppose you could know me as Kami-sama... or, God?"
The angel tensed at that. "Oh... I died?"
"Well, No," said the figure. "Near Death experience... but you have already met Death, haven't you? So, I thought we should meet."
Lucas frowned at that. God? She just.. met God?! She wasn't really sure what to do now. She stood still for a while, not exactly bowing before the lord of creation, but not disrespectful either. This was just a little too crazy even for her. "So, what's the deal?"
"Ah.. perceptive. Yes. I would like to make you an offer... and the course of your life will hinge upon your answer..."
Lucas looked at the whiteness around her, she felt so... weary.
"Would you like to become a real angel?" asked Kami-sama.
"W-What?" Lucas said blinking.
"A real angel," asked the figure. "Please give this question careful consideration... time will flow once more, and you will be battling near impossible odds..."
"Near... impossible? So it _isn't impossible?"
"Oh hardly," said Kami-Sama. "But I suppose that is to be expected, when one starts to god-mod the universe. A conversation from me, is inevitable," smiles the strange being gently. "What is your answer?"
