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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Klokinator on 2025-07-05 19:24:29+00:00.
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…
(Part 001)
January 27th, 2021, Earth, USA.
A tiny dot of light streaked across the United States of America from the west coast to the east coast. It moved in singular bursts of straight lines with momentary pauses between each movement, and each flicker of movement itself occurred at the speed of light. This dot of light sent bursts of lightning scattering in all directions at the start of its movement, and at the end.
After traveling the length of the USA, it then spun around and raced back the other direction. Despite its brilliant light and shocking movement speed, it barely drew any attention. Satellites were not able to keep up with it, and ground-based radar only noticed a flicker of energy before that flicker instantly disappeared.
As it returned to the west coast from whence it started, it charged toward the base of Mount Whitney in California, the tallest mountain in the USA outside of Alaska. In the blink of an eye, it snapped up to the peak and exploded with energy, obliterating a small group of humans that had recently climbed to the mountaintop a few hours before, annihilating them before they could register what happened.
This ‘blip’ of lightning turned out to be none other than Emperor Ose. She breathed evenly and looked around the world in a 360-degree radius, hardly noticing and definitely not caring that her arrival had blasted apart a handful of men and women who had just scaled the peak for fun. Their deaths meant nothing to her.
Ose wrinkled her nose at the blood and gore that now stained Whitney’s peak, then focused her eyes to the northwest. Her body fired off across the sky and she traveled more than two hundred kilometers in the blink of an eye, arriving back at Crescent City, CA, where her home base was located.
Ose struck the ground outside the city limits and skidded to a stop, electrical energy crackling around her. She adjusted her neck, dusted off her white dress suit, and stood up a little straighter.
It seems my ascension to Emperor has not enhanced my maximum speed at all. I am firmly locked to instantaneous bursts of lightspeed. Ose thought to herself. I cannot turn when transmitting myself, and I can only move in straight lines. However, my tolerance for rapid-transmissions has increased greatly. I can chain bursts with ninety percent less downtime than when I was a Baron.
Ose looked around. She found a random cliff-face nearby, then zipped over to it with a flicker of lightning.
On arrival, she assumed a fighting posture. Then she began throwing kicks and punches as quickly as possible at the cliff-face.
Boom-boom-boom!
She held back much of her Emperor-level strength, not wanting to obliterate the mountain, but even so, her speed was fast enough to leave after-images. She struck the mountain ten times every second, her fists and legs leaving massive imprints on the cliff’s bare wall.
After a full minute of unrelenting offense, she stopped and assessed the damage.
My striking power is roughly 100 times greater than when I was a Baron. Before, I could pick up and throw a small vehicle with a bit of strain, but now I can lift one of the humans’ heaviest tanks with contemptuous ease and throw it multiple miles into the distance. My striking speed is faster, but only because my inner strength has been enhanced. I can finally keep up with the strain my lightning powers put on my body.
Ose turned away from the cliffside. She started running as quickly as she could, charging into the distance without actually flickering her body around at the speed of light.
Before long, she found an empty back road with only dirt and no cars on it. Using this as a makeshift race track, she accelerated to her fastest possible speed. Her feet lightly tapped the ground, leaving no imprints, and she pitter-pattered across the dirt while only causing the sound of buzzing insects to emanate outward.
That’s it? Only about 200 miles (321 KPH) per hour? Ose thought, frowning to herself. Her ordinary running speed was fast, but nowhere near as fast as her instantaneous flickers.
Ose reached the end of the dirt road, spun on her toes, then rushed back the same way she came. This time, she deliberately struck the ground with her feet as hard as she could. This caused rapid explosive sounds to blast outward, which startled all the local wildlife and increased her speed by another fifty percent. She realized that if she opted to go loud and intimidating instead of somewhat stealthy, she could increase her running speed by another level!
Ose skidded to a stop at the top of the dirt road. She turned to look behind herself at the massive potholes she had left in her wake. Unfortunately, any humans who encountered this road in the future would be left bewildered by the state it was in, wondering if Bigfoot had stomped through here recently.
If I want to traverse great distances, my instantaneous flickers are still the best. But if I want relatively fast speeds along with maneuverability, my top speed without flicker-movement is pitifully low.
Ose mentally chastised herself, but if any other demons were to hear her inner thoughts, their heads might explode in rage! Even Belial, who was quite fast when she sprinted, could only top out at 100 miles per hour, less than half Ose’s speed. Almost all the other demons were slower than that.
After thinking for a bit, Ose flickered away and traveled into a nearby forest. She disappeared into its greenery, sliced at a tree with the side of her hand, and felled it to make a perfectly flat stump. She sat down in the lotus position with her legs crossed, then closed her eyes and began to think.
My body’s fault tolerance capabilities have shot way up. My striking strength is higher than ever. I can maneuver and fight in the big leagues now. Perhaps if I fight that Archseer again, I can quickly kill him. However, one must never underestimate a Trueborn. He won’t fool me so easily.
My biggest problem is that even though I can speed up and slow down my perception of time, I cannot be both fast and slow at the same time. This is a critical vulnerability I must immediately ameliorate! If my perception speed is fast, I can sense danger but cannot converse normally with other Sentients. But if it is slow, I cannot sense danger and incoming sneak attacks. It would be most pitiful if that Cat Mask managed to assassinate me with a well-timed sniper round! Hmm. Is it possible to achieve both at the same time? Can I somehow become both fast and slow?
Of course I can! This is a matter most simple to execute.
Ose focused her mental energies. After less than a minute, her Mind Realm began to distort. Then… it split in two!
Two halves, each one equally Ose, became capable of perceiving the world. They quickly entered internal dialogue with one another.
[I shall be the Primary.]
[I shall be the Secondary.]
[Secondary, how should we split control of the Main Body?]
[Perhaps as Primary you should always be in control. I should only take control when I detect a threat.]
A few minutes passed.
[This arrangement will not work, Secondary. If I am controlling the Main Body, you are not. You cannot control the eyes or limbs.]
[Noted. It seems rapidly switching control is not possible either. I attempted to switch with you but failed. My perception is currently set to 1000x realtime speed, but because yours is set to 1x realtime speed, I am forced to slow down to your level when attempting the Main Body control transfer.]
[This is inefficient. If we come under threat, even a single second is more time than we can afford to swap control, Secondary.]
[Agreed. Let us think of another solution.]
This time, a full five minutes passed. Both halves of Ose’s brain accelerated their perception of time to the absolute maximum speed, a full 1,000,000x realtime speed. For each second that passed in reality, a million passed inside her Mind Realm. Thus, five million minutes, or approximately ten years, passed inside her Mind Realm. They constantly discussed many different solutions. But eventually, they settled on one.
[Archangel Michael is indeed a good example of this theory in practice. Very well. Secondary, you will assume total control of the right arm, and partial control of the waist. As Primary, I will control the rest of the body and rely on you for momentary instantaneous defense before swapping total control during a battle scenario.]
[I have another idea, Primary. Since we have already s…
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