A new world, a new abusive pantheon to free it from.
Godhunter Base burst into existence in orbit around the planet Earth, the rift in spacetime it had passed through collapsing the nanosecond it was clear. Scans started immediately, computer systems connecting to the local Internet and news outlets, and parsing out relevant information to feed to Zynnia.
It was quite rare to find a world this technologically advanced, Zynnia thought, watching a thousand webpages flash over the command bridge's viewscreen, faster than even she could follow. Most species failed to even achieve the steam engine before dying for one of a thousand different reasons - nutrient depletion, cosmic rays, meteor impact - and those that did progress that far often destroyed themselves in some other way - climate change, nuclear war, overpopulation.
Not that she was complaining, of course. Information is so much easier to find when it's all already gathered in one place.
It was almost ten minutes before all the available information was exhausted, and the details relevant to Zynnia's mission were tucked into a single digital folder for her perusal.
Zynnia Godhunter closed her eyes and scanned the folder. There were gods in this world, active and mingling among the mortals, no doubt poisoning their minds into zealotry. Some were more active than others - several economic and news reports referred to the actions and orders of a god of commerce, who had created the current economic system that dominated the majority of the planet. A greedy system that ground workers into dust for the benefit of the wealthy minority, with this commerce god at the very top of that pyramid.
Bastard. Out of all of them, she'll be happiest to run her spear through his heart.
A list of all the gods been compiled from the gathered data. Zynnia was just about to go down it when alarms began blaring. "WARNING. CYBERATTACK DETECTED."
Her eyes flew open and darted to the command screen, which was displaying a feed of a satellite a few kilometers away, a bright red 'WARNING: CYBERATTACK DETECTED' at the top, and near the bottom, a status bar representing the attack's progress, already half full. Someone was actually trying to hack into Godhunter Base. But who? How?
No time to ask those questions. She had only seconds before the attacker gained full access to the base's systems, and had to act quickly. "Computer, target that satellite and destroy it." She ordered. The base weapon systems activated immediately, the satellite was blown up by a plasma beam, and the hacking attempt was interrupted with only an estimated second to go.
"Well, this sucks." She muttered to herself, relaxing back into the captain's chair. Someone must have noticed her computer's trip through the Internet. She had hoped to get enough time to take out at least one god before the people of this world discovered her presence, but it looked like she'd squandered the element of surprise. And destroying a satellite surely would not have earned her any allies down on the surface.
No matter. She's done this on her own before, she can do it again. Her attention turned back to the list her computer had created. The first on the list, and thus the least dangerous, was the goddess Regius, whos domain included livestreaming and video chats. Zynnia couldn't help but laugh when she read that. Surely it was a mistake? But no, several blog posts and videos confirmed this fact. The computer had given Regius an abysmal threat level of four percent, well below the twenty percent threat level of the next on the list.
Regius would be her first target, then. Finding her was easy enough, as her home was public knowledge. She beamed down to the target location, and appeared just outside of Regius' home in an upper-class neighborhood, within the iron fence. Exclamations of surprise and confusion drew her attention to the gate, where a group of people had gathered with homemade signs proclaiming their love for Regius, all of which were now staring at Zynnia. Most of them already had smartphones pointed at her, taking videos and pictures.
Zynnia turned away from the gawkers and moved towards the manor's front entrance, silently sending a signal to Godslayer Base to locate, hack into, and destroy the phones recording her. The less evidence there is of her presence and actions, the easier it would be to complete her mission.
A swift kick was enough to break the door off its hinges, and she stormed inside. The living room was devoid of life, and she saw nobody in the kitchen or dining room visible from this room. The rest of the home was accessible by a staircase, which Zynnia swiftly ascended. It terminated in a hallway with three doors, two open and one closed. The closed door was nearest, so she went there first.
As soon as she opened the door and stepped into the room beyond, something metallic slammed into her back, but had no effect on her own metal chassis. She immediately turned her head to see Regius, holding a lamp with a shattered bulb in one hand and a terrified look on her face. "What the-"
Whatever she was going to ask was interrupted by Zynnia's spear springing out of its slot in her arm and unfolding to its full length of three meters, and the head being thrust through Regius' neck. The look of shock on her face was swiftly erased by her body exploding into thousands of emojis, which hovered in the air for a few seconds before fading into nothingness, leaving no sign of the goddess' brutally ended existence.
Good. Zynnia returned her spear to its slot and turned to leave. Her attention was grabbed by a monitor across the room, however. A monitor on which she could clearly see herself - violet chassis, black hair, crimson eyes - and the room she was in.
Dammit. Regius must have been in the middle of a stream when Zynnia broke in. She swiftly moved over to the monitor, and saw that the viewers numbered at about three million. And judging by the content of the stream's chatroom and how quickly it was moving, none of the fools were pleased at what they had just witnessed. This definitely couldn't be covered up like the pictures and video from the Regius fans. But perhaps this represented an opportunity, rather than a problem.
She adjusted the camera to angle it at her face, allowing the viewers a better look at their savior. "You may not recognize it now, but I have just done you all a favor. Regius' control over your attention spans and desire for content has been broken by my hand, and you no longer have to listen to her vapid words and divine propoganda. And soon, the rest of the pantheon will follow suit."
With that speech done, Zynnia raised her fist and smashed the monitor, the desktop computer it was connected to, and the camera that had captured everything before beaming back up to Godhunter Base. The other gods would know about her within hours, if they didn't already. That was something she had hoped to avoid happening before she got more than one god, but it won't matter in the end. And surely she would be able to find allies in the mortals of this world, those unwilling to submit to the cruel rule of the gods but unable to do anything about it, until now.
Her mission will be completed, and the gods will die.
Zynnia's internal monologue was interrupted by alarms blaring once again. Another cyberattack? No, an intruder. A physical intruder had somehow gotten onto the base. With a terse swear, Zynnia equipped her spear and stormed to the intruder's location, directed by the camera feeds beamed into her vision. A human, or something that looked human, wearing a beige suit and a thick, white beard was standing in a storage room, looking directly at one of the cameras, as if waiting for Zynnia.
Within a minute, the door to the storeroom he was in flew open, and he turned to face Zynnia, standing in the doorway with spear in hand. "Ah, good, I was afraid I'd have to go find you myself." He said with a smile barely visible through his beard. Zynnia reacted to his cordiality with aggression, pointing her spear at him.
"Who are you, and why are you here?"
He ignored her question and the threat from her weapon. His hands remained clasped behind his back as he spoke. "You've made quite a name for yourself, you know. Murdering Regius not only during one of her streams, but her biggest stream event of the year, and then threatening the rest of the pantheon! Quite foolhardy. I would think something as advanced as you would know better."
Zynnia made an annoyed growl and quickly closed the distance between herself and the intruder to grab the front of his suit. "Answer my question. Who are you?"
He was still wholly unconcerned, responding as if she had politely asked for his name. "Ah, of course. I am Incredulitas, god of atheism and disbelief. As for why I'm here, I simply want to offer my help to you. In return for a favor, of course."
"Your help for what?"
"Simple. I'm certain you didn't come here just to kill one god, especially the weakest of our number, and I can give you information you need to more easily take out the others, who even now are preparing to defend themselves."
"…You would betray your fellow deities?"
"Of course. Atheism and divinity don't go well together, you see, and I despise them all. But I never had the means to destroy them myself. You, though…"
Finally, Zynnia released Incredulitas and took a step back to make a comfortable distance between the two. "Why should I trust you?"
"Honestly, what part of 'god of atheism' do you not understand?" He replied, sounding exasperated as he fixed and smoothed out his suit where Zynnia had gripped it. "I want to see this pantheon destroyed. And, as you've already proven yourself capable of killing immortals, I want your help to do it. Considering you've already made yourself public enemy number one by eliminating the most beloved of our number, and Notita-Machina has eyes on this ship, I think you need all the help you can get."
Zynnia paused for a moment before responding. He was right, of course. An ally, even one as unusual as this Incredulitas, could be helpful. If she could even trust him not to sabotage her… However, the claims he'd made so far were supported by the folder she'd been given. Incredulitas, god of atheism and disbelief, threat level thirty-three percent. So that much, at least, wasn't fabricated.
"Alright, fine." She finally said, collapsing her spear and stowing it back in its slot. "I'll accept your help. What is it you want from me in exchange?"
"Simple." Incredulitas replied. "After all the other gods are dead, I want you to kill me."