"Do they think I'm a cannibal?" Diane carelessly swirled her magic around. "Sacrificing people at random into the Volcano... Hah, my specimen cause quite unwanted troubles, truly."

Diane's sword was clamoring loudly and several times more than usual, occasional screams escaping from the trapped souls. They wouldn't see how helpless they were, with all her restraints and whatnot, but they'd fight for a hopeless cause just because the sacrifices provided them some Godly strength.

All the wrong way. Sacrifices and prayers meant for her benefitted the dead souls. How did that even work?

Why did the humans not understand that their time was up – sacrifice or not, death was absolute for them! But, no, they just had to form resentment and refuse to pass on, and then get trapped in that sword and clatter all day long.

Displeasing.

The noise was so displeasing.

"Disappear if you don't want to die." Diane clenched her fists, erasing the sword's contents into an endless void. "And these humans have to stop the sacrifices. Stop. Stop. Stop."

—The Goddess goes rampant if her required souls aren't sacrificed, said a legend passed down for centuries. She does not interfere with worldly affairs lest she's disturbed.

"Perhaps twenty years was too much!" Diane's fingers grew into talons, her wrath taking her towards madness. "It's been twenty years since I've burnt cities down, correct? Well, fear not, for I shall bring back destruction for all those who wished for it. Fire's getting too old, let's go with wires this time!"

Lyon was the first – blazed to ashes with her fury. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes became the second thereafter – wrung to death with her displeasure.

The region remained, its inhabitants not. No matter where the eye looked, only corpses lingered – their heads de-attached.

The Church was, however, left unscathed. The Nameless were ever grateful, finally gazing into the benevolence of their Lady – liars they were, Josephine and Josette, deceiving them with honey-coated words about the Goddess creating this dreadful existence of theirs.

They knew that their Goddess had brought about justice, that the ones who sneered at them were damned. Such an idea spread like wildfire, from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to the whole of France – maybe even beyond.

Though, looking at the situation objectively, perhaps it seemed that the Goddess was trying to bring down the two girls – who planted the idea of the Goddess being a fake – by winning the trust of the Nameless. But Diane had no such interests – it was a mere coincidence since humans make up anecdotes quite artfully.

Diverse were the thoughts and rumors, whilst Josette and Josephine grew infamous as Paris awaited their arrival – thankfully not within the reaches of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region at that point in time.

No one would, even by mistake, ever find out the reason the Church was left untouched. The truth was—

Diane feared the Nameless.

The Nameless began fighting for equal rights and such, so did the women – with their slogan, 'Heard of Equality? Certainly, you have. Heard of Gender Equality? Certainly, you have not.' – and hence, the two saw each other as allies, boosting the Nameless reputation whilst degrading males' reputation, thanks to the growing female support in these movements.

Suddenly the men and the Nameless found themselves in a situation that was never imagined, the latter now torturing the former having finally realized the superiority and extremity of their capabilities.

All this took place in the span of five hours, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes incident forgotten before it was even given a chance to be remembered.

Artists, Journalists and Authors unleashed their imaginations, newspapers and books flying out freshly printed in the press – completely ignoring the censorship rules, but the King, yet another casualty in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes incident, didn't remain to impose the rules either.

The Goddess' initial admiration – way back from the time when she was born under the Etoile, in a time where women did their best to conceive children in that particular day just to be awarded the title of Mother of Mankind – was re-torched.

And Diane didn't necessarily see this as a hassle, no matter how uphill or downhill her actions were considered. Whether it be in a moral way or an immoral one, popularity meant popularity.

In fact, it was only inevitable that she would not be dethroned from Godhood anytime soon.

A birthday that she finally enjoyed.

She must thank her two adorable children for their wonderful present of chaos. It was an attempt to shake Diane's system of France, but Diane was delighted with all of it – the human struggle to define themselves brought her endless fun.

Even though it had some pesky side-effects with it, Diane only cared about the result. Yes, the women's sudden rise in status would be quite hard to clean up but the chatterboxes of females would serve as a quite amazing network.

Diane never took things for granted. However, Diane's method of repayment was ruthless – she gave only what she received.

How would you like to see the future then? Diane wondered. Especially when you can't tell them about it, since revealing it won't bring the seen future to fruition?

This one, it would be for her dear Josette.

And as per Josephine, the one who promised to ruin her—

I'll ruin you too. I want to see what you'll do with the power to see a dead one's past, yet unable to bring them back even though you are capable of doing so for a freshly dead corpse – since you, out of everyone, know... Diane licked her lips. The price of resurrection, first-hand.

Josephine felt chills down her spine, how ominous. Seeing the people run about helter-skelter was one thing; sensing her heart do the same was another. Though she never admitted it, her gut feelings were enhanced to the point of perfect outcomes – and she truly despised that, because those predictions never brought fortune.

"—cannot be so easy," Josette contemplated. "It won't be just her Nom, that can be found in the central Holy Palace of Nom, that can bring her down – it would've been done by now if it were so simple. And, moreover, her immortality. She's nothing more than a human shell sheltering immortality. It can't be that she was made a Goddess; it is certainly that she found her way to Godhood. Perhaps her Magique is too strong? Or is it a type of Forbidden Spell? Lyon was burnt down the day she ascended Godhood – did she destroy all evidence that way? The won't it be—"

"The Legends that originate from Paris," Josephine nonchalantly said, "always come true, even if it happens by chance."

"And how do you know that?"

"Why do you think I resurrected in the first place, a child born dead?" Josephine's eyes were a bit darker than usual. "Because the Goddess truly doesn't allow feticide. Legend says, The Goddess hates it when cries of resentful unborn souls consistently ring in her ears. Hence, I was returned from death."

Just for a moment, as they locked eyes, Josette saw an image within Josephine's pupils – a vision of a future that shouldn't have existed.

Josephine was reading a book – not just any book; it was the Holy Book of Nom evident from its golden script – and beside 'Josephine', it was transcribed: Jacquelyne Abrielle.

Jacquelyne meaning Conqueror; Abrielle meaning God is my strength – Josette knew this thanks to her learnings from stolen books and overheard conversations.

...But Josephine had a Nom?

It must have been some other Josephine; it is quite a popular name here, Josette thought desparately. Besides, I might be hallucinating. I think... I think I should sleep for a while.

"You know..." Josephine uttered dreamily.

Josette was completely out of it; she didn't want to hear anything further. Yet, out of curiosity and some sense of foreboding, Josette went on to reply: "What is it, Jose? Do you... do you have a Nom, perhaps?"

"How ridiculous. You are in the dire need of sleep." Josephine scoffed. "I just... I just wanted another name, that's all! Like, you know, a name that doesn't remind me of that damn Church! It's not going to change the fact that I'm a Nameless; it'll just... stop reminding of Father. I really... don't... like him at all."

Josephine and Father had a complex relationship – something Josette never dared to provoke, because, at some point, Father became over-ambitious in earning rather than loving.

In addition, 'Josephine' and 'Josette' were nothing more than words that were supposed to refer to them – with meanings none bothered to remember, since it was related to God anyway.

The Naming Tradition for the Nameless in the Church started from an experimentation to find out whether the Nameless could acquire a Nom if named by people raising them. However, it didn't work out, so even though the Naming Ceremony continued till date, these similar-sounding titles were spoken as if the speaker was beckoning dogs.

There was simply no reason to keep them, the names.

"...Oh." Josette pondered for a moment, and then decided on destroying her vision from the root.

"You – Jacquelyne, and I..." Josette smiled, her eyes bright. "I'm Abrielle."

"Oh, my!" Jacquelyne burst out laughing, recalling the meaning of Abrielle. "You never miss a chance to ridicule Diane, do you?"

Little did Josette – rather, Abrielle – know that she had gazed into the future of a Josephine who had never resurrected, a girl never killed by her parents due to her gender.

That person was not the Jacquelyne that Abrielle cherished – she didn't even exist.

And now, upon Abrielle's revelation of the vision to Jacquelyne, that future was utterly meaningless.

~~

= 1650 words

A/N: Was the name change sudden and/or confusing?

~~