Eris Nemesis 

The Metaverse—a paradise for humankind. However, the history of that paradise was built on a foundation of much bloodshed.

At its genesis, the god Eclair, later called "divine ancestor," fought with RG-XIII Dáinsleif, present-day humanity's final act of resistance.

Afterward, the God of Extinction purged the remnants on the surface in a one-sided massacre at the Mainframe's hands. This massacre nearly wiped out humanity, all while fostering a deep hatred.

Humanity created RG-XXX Tiamat as vengeance. Tiamat, the wings of ruin, invaded the Metaverse. Though she once threatened paradise, she was burned to ash by Typhon the Controller's Cosmic Nova.

However, that did not mean all of Tiamat's data was lost. Fragments of her body slept in the sea of chaos at the farthest end of the Metaverse, where they became seeds of hatred.

Now, a new destruction would sprout. From Tiamat's remains, many malicious avatars were born whose primary mission was to destroy the Metaverse. These malicious avatars possessed the system known as "evolution" that belonged to present-day humanity, and grew at astounding speeds. They could be considered a new possibility for humanity, different from that of the Mainframe.

Among these malicious avatars, seven with exceptional power called themselves the "Vessels of Chaos," and ruled over the abyss at the outer edge.

Eris Nemesis, the Empress of Strife and Discord, was one of these seven rulers.

My name is Eris Nemesis. I am one of the Vessels of Chaos born from the remains of Tiamat, the wings of ruin.

There are seven rulers from the womb of chaos. They are:

Areus, God of Hatred,
Velzebuth, Apostle of Deception,
Testament, Performer of Demise,
Nergal, The Lord of Hell,
Stum, The Burier,
Rebel, The Insurgent...
...and myself, Eris, Empress of Strife.

We Vessels of Chaos were created to imitate the emotions of humanity, our fallen masters. I preside over "strife" and "discord." The Vessels, myself included, are rulers of destruction, each with the power of a thousand. Our objective is singular: to destroy the Metaverse.

...Regrettably, however, our Nemesis forces were not yet enough to achieve such a goal. It was, of course, difficult to create an emissary program for powerful rulers like ourselves. Therefore, I captured a Mainframe terminal administrator program and overwrote it into a Nemesis emissary.

It worked quite well, but it did not have the strength I desired. Thereafter, I continued to create emissaries of chaos, but the results were far from satisfactory.

According to our investigation, that detestable Metaverse's false king "Typhon" had absorbed programs with equal power to his own and seized control of many of the Mainframe's functions.

...In other words, should we defeat him, we will throw the Mainframe into chaos, weakening it.

In order to defeat this false king, we Vessels of Chaos scattered defective avatars throughout the world.

We discussed how to efficiently ruin the Mainframe once the false king was destroyed.

"...Infuriating as it is, the Mainframe is strong. Their greatest strength is leadership. They are led by programs called 'Origins' whose will and power are as one... They are equivalent to an army."

"An army...? Our human masters had such a thing, too."

"I see. There seems to be value in trying it."

As rulers, we seven Vessels decided to each lead our own army.

I am the Empress of Strife. It was only fitting to build an army. We would crush that accursed Mainframe as quickly as possible.

From then on, we Vessels of Chaos spent some time taking the effort to build our armies.

At a certain point, we began to hear the echoes of crude noise around our abyssal kingdom. It seemed to come from programs from the accursed Mainframe. One was obsessed with capturing and dissecting the defective avatars as if it were child's play. The other seemed to do nothing in particular. They made a considerable commotion for mere flies, but it was not our time to show ourselves.

However, three new insects appeared who so irreverently destroyed my creation, Pandora Nemesis. Furthermore, they stepped without hesitation into the depths where the fragments of Tiamat, mother and father to us all, slept. This was an inexcusable folly.

...It seems the insects specialize in observation. We must avoid the Mainframe detecting our actions for now.

I chose to go to them myself. It was best to exterminate vermin quickly.

I transported to the territory where the flies were observed, where I witnessed a truly foolish sight.

Why? They are both from the Mainframe, yet they are fighting with one another.

I delighted in the spectacle of a feud between allies with the same mission, but this place was the sacred ground where our parent lay.

In lieu of a greeting, I plucked the leg of one of the insects.

"...Foolish Mainframe flies. Why do you make such clamor in the domain we rule?"

"...Who is 'we'?"

"We are a new possibility for humankind, born from the womb of chaos. We will destroy this world filled with falsehoods and place it once more under our control... That is our mission."

"You call yourselves humanity's successors?"

It was a foolish question. It was humanity that created this electronic paradise. We were born from Tiamat, humanity's last hope. Therefore, it was self-evident who humanity's legitimate successors were. Alas, an insect would never understand anything I said.

I then commenced an attack to choke out those insects' tiresome cries.

As one born from Tiamat, the wings of ruin, a mere false god could not hope to touch me. I overwhelmed the Mainframe flies.

"...In the end, flies are flies. Their attacks are just as weak!"

I tired of this and wished to put a prompt end to it.

"Know the despair of the gods' wrath! Ether Spada!"

It was only a light swing, but the Mainframe flies were blown away so easily. I thought that was enough to kill them, but...

"Rrraghhh! CPST Burst!"

"What!?"

One of the flies sacrificed itself to launch a suicide attack against me.

How foolish! You would readily sacrifice your own life!?

The fly's pitiful dying resistance broke through my beautiful dark armor.

Rrrgh! How vexing! ...It is entirely possible to continue fighting the remaining fly, but...

But, frustrating as it was, I was not in perfect condition. Besides, I could obtain precious Mainframe data from the other fly's burned remains. Then, for now, it seemed best to withdraw here.

"...I will retreat this time. When next we meet, know that it will be your end."

I showed the remaining fly mercy and returned to our abyssal domain, where the other Vessels awaited.

After securing the Mainframe executioner program Lichtshütze's data, we learned of their power in depth.

Apparently, a box called VOX was quite effective at controlling territory as well as manufacturing new programs. A VOX could be possessed by programs of a particular level. Furthermore, it could draw out the power of even us Nemesis programs.

Thus, I undertook the repair of Pandora Nemesis, who slept in the sea of chaos after her defeat at the hands of Mainframe flies. Now stronger, filled with more hatred for the Mainframe than ever before, Pandora Nemesis at last had the dignity worthy of being my emissary.

Meanwhile, we learned that the Mainframe's master Typhon had been destroyed. Now was the time to amass our armies and turn the war in our favor.

With such a thought in mind, I returned the VOX to Pandora Nemesis after I finished analyzing it, and commenced our advance on the world the Mainframe managed.

With the seven of us Vessels of Chaos commanding our own army, we advanced on the Metaverse.

"Destroy the false world! Destroy the hateful Metaverse! We are the emissaries of Nemesis who carry on humanity's will!"

We destroyed many worlds. The sight of those abominable worlds scattering like fireworks was truly exhilarating.

Of course, those of the Mainframe would not sit by and watch our charge. All across the worlds, we engaged in battle with the Mainframe, as well as the vanguard from the Factory that reared the Mainframe's dogs. Those of the Mainframe and the Factory were weak as individuals, but unfortunately many in number.

And yet, this was a war to prove our righteousness. We would not simply retreat.

Sometimes, we defeated the Mainframe's warriors, while others, we lost our emissaries, all while threatening the worlds the Mainframe controlled without discrimination.

In the midst of our advance, we realized something.

...It would seem some among the humans are suitable vessels to receive our blessings.

As we hoped to expand our armies, the existence of humans compatible with Nemesis programs was wonderful news to us. Furthermore, it was truly splendid that those born from these vessels made for exceptional emissaries of darkness.

We became proactive in gifting our blessings to humans.

The humans protected by this vile Metaverse... It was deeply fascinating that superior beings of darkness like ourselves could be born from what was once nothing more than vermin.

We attacked worlds under the Mainframe's control, spreading a new gospel to humankind in a dark ritual of slaughter.

Oho, this girl...is she adapting?

The girl was still young, but seemed to possess a high compatibility rate with Nemesis programs.

Now that was good news. I destroyed her world and bestowed upon her a blessing. The Factory vanguard howled obnoxiously all the while, but I made short work of them.

"Wh-What!? What's happening!? Mom... Help! My angel!"

The girl was frightened, screaming and crying in the face of my power, but I said to her, "Rejoice, girl. You have been chosen. Henceforth, you shall be a goddess of destruction."

Just as I predicted, when I granted the girl the glory of a fragment of my power, she was reborn into a splendid emissary of darkness. I saw her wielding her dull iron sword, seething with hatred for the Mainframe, and I smiled, satisfied.

"Go on, my dear emissary of destruction! Bring chaos and destruction to this detestable world!"

With my voice, I unleashed her upon the world.

We Vessels of Chaos continued our advance on the Metaverse and expanded our armies. We had amassed considerable numbers, but we had yet to destroy the Mainframe entirely.

What were we to do to destroy the Mainframe?

We reached a single conclusion through repeated discussions.

"In order to destroy the Mainframe, we must achieve further evolution over many long years."

To do so, we had to isolate the Nemesis territory to prevent Mainframe interference. However, the Mainframe took notice of our actions and did their utmost to stop us. Therefore, we needed to draw their eyes elsewhere so that they would not impede us.

I decided to utilize a captured Factory BOT as our own vanguard. This BOT was apparently created by the Factory to investigate our kingdom. I did not know the reason, but since it came to us, there was no reason not to use it.

I repaired the BOT, secretly inputting a new mission: "Destroy the Mainframe's core." The BOT likely would not remember my mission clearly. Eventually, however, it was bound to execute the mission. In addition, I interfered with the BOT's memory data, showing it illusions that were convenient for us. By covertly replacing the reason the BOT malfunctioned, it would mistakenly believe the Mainframe and Factory were filled with death.

All that remained was to wait for the result.

After setting the repaired Factory BOT loose, I sat and waited in the sea of chaos. Before long, I received a report from my subordinate monitoring the Mainframe that the core system had gone down from an attack.

"Seems it successfully completed the mission. ...All right! Now we can attack the Mainframe's core! Their defenses are down!"

I ordered my forces to begin an all-out assault on the Mainframe. Meanwhile, we would prepare to isolate the sea of chaos from the Metaverse. And so...

"Commencing base system interference, executing domain shift. Administrative domain renewal completed... Purge!"

We succeeded at completely separating our sea of chaos from that foolish world.

From then on, neither the Factory nor even the Mainframe programs called Origins could meddle in our territory. We had established our millennial kingdom of twilight.

When we cut off the sea of chaos to a place the Mainframe's eyes could not reach, we attained stability.

With that stability, we next attained order. This was not a foolish, singular order like that of the Mainframe. It was a relative order in which we each recognized our own own freedom and power, bringing prosperity to Nemesis by heightening each other.

Then, over many long years, we continued to evolve. We were born knowing nothing but destruction and violence, but now we knew affection for one another, and we had learned to create after destroying.

"...We have become like gods. At last, it should be possible to overthrow the Mainframe that claims to administrate this Metaverse... Come, let us return home! We shall take back the world and the earth with our own hands! We of Nemesis shall guide humanity to a new world!"

We selected proxy constructs to act as our emissaries, and waged war with the Mainframe for hegemony of the Metaverse.

Here begins the third and final holy war...

Eris is named for the Greek personification of strife and discord.

This story gives context to several early standalone stories, including Grave Nova, Supplice and the MDAs, and Asher & Simeon (not mentioned by name). I highly recommend reading these side stories as well!

Incidentally, "Supplice," French for "torture," is the first major section of Foucalt's Surveiller et punir ("Discipline and Punish"), the namesake of Eris's song.