Chapter 322: Bastet
Listen While Reading: A.D.2016 ~The Grand Temple of Time~-----
I woke up the next morning feeling quite refreshed. After that talk I had with my masters, I felt much more at ease for some reason… Though, now that I remember everything, I feel a bit cringe. Dammit, did I have to be like that? What the hell happened to me? They were nice to me, but I bet they also felt a bit flustered with how I acted.
Ugh…
I don’t know; maybe it has to do with this younger body? I mean, technically the body of a 17-year-old; all the hormones are at full power all over my body, so I’m really emotional and stuff, ugh, a bit terrible. But I do remember being a bit like this in my previous life.
“Hahh…”
After having talked with them about that, I think I had a dream of my previous life, mostly one of those “memory” dreams where you just relive previous events in your life, albeit sometimes a bit twisted.
And yeah, now I can’t stop thinking about my fucked-up first life. I’m so grateful Reincarnation is a thing because if I had died ran over by a damn truck, I don’t know if I would have been able to handle it, to be honest.
It was…
It was a shitty life.
My god, how terrible was my damn life.
And all my self-loathing didn’t help there.
If it wasn’t because I didn’t remember my previous life and lived as Anna until waking up from my coma, I think my personality right now would be...
Like that of a depressed woman in her late twenties.
My god.
Really makes me think a lot about everything—about this situation, my life so far, and what I’ve gone through.
It truly feels like I am living a fantasy I always wished for, but...
Even with all the difficulties, why?
Why am I going through such nice things now?
I know there’s horrible things happening and so on, but overall.
I’m really… I’m happy.
The more I overthink this, the more my head feels like it’s spinning.
Why has my reality suddenly distorted to become so fantastic?
My first life was so mundane, so normal, so boring, so depressive.
It was as if I lived in a gray world, and once I reincarnated, the world suddenly started having all sorts of colors.
Was Fantasy what I needed to finally get my sh*t together?
Seriously, I’m pathetic, aren’t I?
I really am pathetic…
“Maybe we should just take away all those memories…”
“Nah, if we do that, she’ll lose her advantages; it’s not worth it.”
“Seriously, yesterday was an amazing day, and now you’re getting depressed?”
“Maybe I should take over…”
Suddenly, I felt my Aura fluctuating in many colors as the silhouette of my Egos emerged.
Huh?
"Okay, so this is a thing now?” I wondered, looking at the four of them.
Their forms weren’t as defined as when I summoned them directly, but I could easily notice those were my Egos. The Demonic Ego, the Angelic Ego, the Beast Ego, and the Cosmic Ego.
The Beast Ego in specific…
“Is this like… A manifestation of Myriad Self Arts?”
I asked my Egos and they looked at one another.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Or you’ve gone insane.”
“Nah, this is a manifestation of your powers. But if it could be said that Myriad Egos exists because of a necessity.”
“Huh? How so?”
The Beast Ego glanced at me, her golden armor becoming clearer and so her cat-like features over her body.
“It’s exactly because of what you were going through right now—overthinking things, feeling down for no reason,” she said. “You think you are already over them, but these mental scars… They are not going to heal so easily, Anna.”
“…”
I fell silent, glancing at her.
There was something peculiar about her; it felt like she was smarter.
“Why yes, I’m smarter, smarter than you too,” she gave me a pleasant smile. “It is nice that your abilities have improved to the point we can talk more openly, Anna… These feelings you feel—there’s no need to bottle them up. We’re here to talk with you and be with you.”
“W-What?” I was a bit confused. “You’re still me at the end, an aspect of myself.”
“Yes and no,” she said. “Yes, we are a part of you, but no, we aren’t completely you either. Even less myself! I am quite unique, if you haven’t noticed.”
“Just so you know, our existence is solely because you’re always feeling lonely.”
“You want people to be constantly with you, to talk with you, to hug you, to tell you that you’re not lonely.”
“You probably also wanted us to be here right now, to calm you down from your existential crisis… So here we are,” the beast ego said. Her sparkly golden eyes were unnerving to look at, especially because of how catlike they were.
And… I guess so.
They’re not wrong, I guess…
Skills, even Martial Arts.
They shape and transform based on our innermost desires.
Am I that desperate for attention and love?
Damn, I’m really pathetic!
I just can’t be the Sigma woman I wanted to be, damn.
Okay, with them here I might feel better, and there’s lots to do today as well.
Seeing my friends, training with them, using the items I got, then training my masters, spending time playing and training with Song too!
And also help Zero Two.
Yeah! There’s no point in feeling down.
There are way more important things than...
Than me, I guess.
“There it is again, always thinking like that…” sighed my beast Ego, patting my head. “You’re truly incorrigible. By always thinking that everything else is more important than you, you might sound humble, but you’re also self-deprecating yourself for no reason.”
“Uh? You can read my mind so easily; it’s annoying.” I groaned. “Would you girls go away if I told you to?”
“Yeah, kinda…”
“But do you want us to go?”
“We can talk more.”
“Hmm… I don’t know if talking with my literal Egos would be a good idea,” I said. “Unless I want to become schizophrenic!”
“It can’t be helped,” shrugged my beast ego. “Girls let’s go back to her Spirit Body for now. A new day’s about to start; let’s leave it to our champ.”
“Do your best, Anna.”
“You can do it, ok?”
“We’re here for you, so don’t feel lonely.”
The first three disappeared, until the beast ego remained.
I glanced at her eyes with suspiciousness.
“Stop, don’t go yet.”
“Hm?”
“You’re different than the rest, much different… I remember seeing messages back then about something… when I used the Demonic Beast Transformation Skill into a specialization… It was something about a Divine Fragment or something, about a Bastet,” I said. “I have no idea why I never paid attention to that, but you… your name is also Bastet in the Myriad Ego Skill. I remember nothing about getting such a thing or such a power. So… how?”
Bastet, a cat goddess of Egypt, is usually seen as a representation of the Eye of Ra, a Solar Goddess, Guardian, Protector, and the major representative of the “Gentler” side of things, the opposite of her lioness sister, Sekhmet, a War Goddess.
Why?
Just why would... this Divine Fragment Ego or whatever be within me, within that one Skill I acquired from the Soul of a Demonic Human infected by Leviathan?
“I recall that Skill was modified based on my powers, affinities, and my physique…” I said. “At that, I didn’t really pay attention to it. Cat form, sunlight, and a guardian… but the calls came together, even more when a message blatantly putting your name there appeared and disappeared. It was barely just a second, but I still remember seeing it.”
She remained in silence, smiling slightly at me.
“You’re not just my Ego. Similar to Uroboros, you were a completely different being that was assimilated into my soul and then became part of me…” I said. “Right, Sepa?”
“Geh…!”
Sepa quickly appeared out of my Cosmic Heart, glistening brightly. She was a bit shocked, but yeah, I figured out she also had something to do with this.
“You two are both from the Egyptian Pantheon of Ennead,” I said. “Sepa, you’re going to explain me right now… Why, just why did you put her inside of me?”
“Ugh…” She was sweating even though bugs don’t do that, her mandibles clicking nervously. “W-Wait, Anna! Don’t get mad at me… I can explain it, ok?! S-So just calm down! Bastet is… my friend!”
“Your friend?” I wondered. “Oh, okay, so you put the soul fragment of your friend inside of your other friend? Is that what Egyptian gods do nowadays?”
“W-Wait! Don’t look at me so angrily, ugh!” Sepa was melting out of all the panic she felt.
Yet suddenly, my beast ego patted my shoulders.
“There’s no need to take it on little Sepa… This was primarily my idea,” she said. “And yes, you nailed it, Anna. It was very obvious indeed; I am Bastet. Cat Goddess of Egypt, of Protection, Guardians, and the Vessel of… or well, the former vessel of the Eye of Ra.”
The Eye of Ra, a relic so powerful that many of the Egyptian Constellations waged war against one another to obtain, even though they belonged to the same Nebula.
“So I can assume it was stolen from you…” I said.
“…Yes, father left it as my inheritance,” said Bastet. “It is rightfully mine… yet, well… based on everything so far, I bet you can guess what happened to me.”
“More or less…” I said. “But still, do tell me, my dear ego.”
She quickly sat down over the bed, and as Sepa flew to her side and wrapped around her neck and shoulders, she caressed her head gently.
“Sepa here is my childhood friend; when the war for the Eye of Ra began, there was a faction of Egyptian Constellations that joined me in defending it; most of them either perished or ended up betraying me,” she said. “In the end, Set and Sekhmet created a hidden alliance. My dear twin sister, whom I trusted the most, backstabbed me with Set’s Blade, a sword forged by billions of human souls and made into something capable of even hurting the souls of constellations.”
“So that happened…” I muttered.
Set, son of Geb the Earth and Nut the Sky, a God of the Desert, Storms, Violence, and Conflict. Lord of the Red Land, the Desert, while Horus, his rival and counterpart, was the Lord of the Black Land, the fertile land.
In the original Myth Set is a villain that assassinated and mutilated his own brother, Osiris, whom Isis later reassembled and revived temporarily; this resurrection lasted long enough for Isis to conceive Horus. And then Horus sought revenge against Set for having slain his father.
Now, in this universe, this myth might be a little twisted, but Set remains as the same villainous Constellation as the original myth. To think he would ally Sekhmet from all other Constellations though, hah.
“Was Horus there?” I asked.
“Horus?” she asked. “How did you… Horus is not dead, but he was unable to defeat Set. He lacks growth; he’s still very young. He managed to escape alive after Nut, the Sky, protected him from Set and Sekhmet’s wrath. However, I was not so fortunate.”
It could be said Horus is similar to Little Song; in the original myth, he’s seen as some sort of “hero” destined to defeat the evil “villain” Set.
He’s blessed by Nut, giving him the power to control the sky, the winds, and fly, his greatest power… I guess it makes sense he could survive somehow.
Though, young, huh? Then that means that Isis most likely had him not so long ago… Well, not so long ago for Constellations can be thousands of years!
The thing is, it seems the myth is very close to reality, as Osiris died and became lord of the underworld, but Anubis decided to take the entire Egyptian Underworld for himself.
That’s the Son of Set for you, I guess, doing just like his daddy and fucking over Osiris even when he’s already technically dead.
-----