“Computer, where am I?”
“Captain Gastev, we are located outside of known coordinates.”
Aleksandra sighed as she slammed the dashboard of her ship with the heel of her hand and jolted out of her chair. As she anxiously walked on the metal grating of her ship with head in hand, fear rushed through her system.
“I should have taken the wider route past the vortex eclipse! It’s the beauty of Stratoclysm again!”
Aleksandra leaned against the countertop and cracked open a canned cold beverage, downing it in a chug. The ship itself began to shift in color, time slowed and her anxieties were suppressed as her immortal cybernetic parts tingled. Alexsandra ran a hand through her hair and took a deep breath as she crushed the can and tossed it into the atomic recycler.
“Is this punishment for my chemical weapons…?” Aleksandra shook her head. “Nah.” She cleared her throat. “Computer, are these stars familiar at all?”
“Captain Gastev, the star field matches none of our charts. We are in unknown regions past even the outer reaches.”
Aleksandra’s eyes wanted to roll into the back of her head until she realized she hadn’t done two very important actions.
“Wait.” Aleksandra rushed back to her seat and pressed a button.
“Audio addressment disabled.”
“I don’t why Lana keeps turning that on.” Aleksandra cleared her throat. “Now, computer, activate the rear camera.”
“Rear camera, enabled.”
A wave of relief washed over her, the bizarre jade vortex was still there.
“It seems I can return…” Aleksandra’s attention shifted to the strange planet before her. “But before I do…”
Aleksandra smiled as the spark of adventure surfaced again.
In a place, ever so close.
“I finally achieved it…”
Elezakh sat upon their dark clouds in ivory squalor, peering from outside the atmosphere. With almost omniscience, he felt the five finally arrived. Elezakh leaned in and twiddled with their copper fingers.
“If I deciphered their knowledge… if my theory is right… now to watch the scene unfold…”
Below the dark clouds of an alien sky.
“WHERE IN THE HADELIAN FREE HELS AM I? THIS IS NOT DIVINERA.”
Verathaal yelled, enraged in his demonic mockery of a human form. Blasts of infernal fire ruptured through the shadowy atmosphere as his searing hands and obsidian eyes spasmed.
“Raagh!” Verathaal roared. “I was finally summoned so I may wreak havoc and yet…!”
Verathaal took a deep breath.
“How did I get here!?” He screamed.
Despite the rage, panic began to set in. As Verathaal reached towards the sky, very little magic could be absorbed with only a small stream trickling into himself.
“FU— ”
Across the land, was a lost duo.
Kiya Toku’s eyes darted back and forth as her grimoire floated before her, prepared to cast a spell in the blink of an eye.
“That was spatial magic…” Kiya carefully stepped forward, surveying the rolling hills as she placed down her hood and released her long, black hair. “… where am I?”
The shadowy sky swirled with light and darkness in a shifting symphony as billowing dust blew through the sea of grass. An angry din permeated the air but she tuned to it at the last second.
“—CK!”
Kiya swung her hand and her grimoire opened with flipping pages of power, glowing with might. Scanning the area, she witnessed an explosion in the distance with a fiery plume of destruction. Kiya felt an intense power, mana in origin much like where she was from.
But it was different.
A fairy appeared over Kiya’s shoulder with a burst of watery light. She wore a beautifully fluffy, black dress and had golden spiky hair with long locks.
“Astana, do you sense it?” Kiya said.
“It’s dark, powerful, evil…” Astana said. “I’ve never felt it before, even across the many we faced. I don’t feel the presence of fay… anywhere across the land.”
“What we saw in the warp was real, we are in a different world.” Kiya said.
Azure electricity crackled with power, flowing through her hands, up her body, and culminated in a flaming fountain of sparks. It was warm, thrilling, invigorating, and powerful.
“We will purge like the many before us!” Kiya said.
She shined with lightning, launching into the fray. In a split moment, Kiya saw a strange object far into the sky.
“What is that…?”
“Kiya! Focus!” Astana said. “We might be in the fight of our lives!”
Kiya shook her head.
“Right!”
The entity watched.
“The pieces are… in place…”
Elezakh gripped their throne with a wide grin.
“A crossroads of interreality battle.”
And so the entity studied.
Verathaal cocked his head towards the glowing horizon as a surge of energy screeched forth as a pillar, leaving a long crater and a flickering atmosphere.
“Huh!?” Verathaal sounded.
Verathaal barely moved out of the way as the pillar detonated into an expanding ring of lightning before fading.
“By the hels, how is it this quick!” Verathaal said.
I’ve evaded countless lightning strikes but that was too fast!
“You!” Verathaal saw Kiya hovering at an impeccable speed. “Who are you to strike an almighty duke of the seven hels such as I!?”
Verathaal’s hands ruptured with a torrent of flames that weaved unpredictably.
“Trapper’s Pyre!” Verathaal casted, a myriad of flaming strings appeared between them.
As Kiya rushed at him, she dodged the burning web through its narrow openings.
“Tsk! Tide of Darkness!” Verathaal conjured a wide wall of deathly shadow that ate the world around it, forcing Kiya to back off. “I have ruined entire kingdoms and laid low the false angels! The fires of hatred and rage tempered into my form, ascending as a beacon of magic energy! What hope do you have!?”
Kiya and Astana halted with Kiya pressing against her chest proudly.
“I’ve studied magic and learned from the empyrean avatar of heavy weather, blessed by the elements of storms. I am the seasons as they are one with me and I have bested many demons across the fields of skies. What is but another demon?”
“I will break your soul!” Verathaal yelled. “My Aura of Fire will seethe!”
This mage is strong… Verathaal thought.
The demon channeled a burning atmosphere around him that ate at Kiya.
“I’ve endured worse and always came back stronger, your fire is nothing to my skin!” Kiya smiled with a shrug. “A mere cleanser, an exfoliator.”
“It is merely the first step, mortal, as I don my court of flames.” Verathaal opened a gate, revealing a shifting river of screaming faces. “The agonizing souls in me will let you see the true pain of their punishment!”
The colors of the surrounding world were distorted with pale greyness and dark blood.
“Burial of sins.”
Unfathomable weight was upon them, twisting and tearing every fiber of the world around the demon.
“Not on my watch!” Kiya’s grimoire flipped wildly as she raised her curled fingers. ”Storm of Redemption: Monsoon of the Skywrath!”
Dark clouds churned and swirled above them. It pulsed with the shocking hammer of the norse gods and breathing the gale of the atmosphere as a deluge of the sky’s blood poured forth.
“Whuh?” Aleksandra watched as the rain, the ‘sky’s blood’, trickled down the window of the ship. “Where did these clouds come from?”
“Sensors indicate the source is below.” The computer said
“I…” Aleksandra deflated onto the ship’s dashboard. “Am so curious but don’t want to die.” She sipped her drink. “Ever since they brought magic, it has turned Stratospace’s chaos further into a nightmare.”
“Aleks?”
Aleksandra jolted, as she turned her chair.
“Lana, don’t suddenly appear like that!”
Lana yawned as she scratched her long blue hair.
Standing before Aleksandra was Lana Trotsky, the daughter of a revolutionary from Yuhakoruzch that took inspiration from ancient stories on earth.
“Aleks, the political climate of Stratospace was already set to explode regardless. There were already psionic powers like in the Nisorantai Phoenix Suns so adding other magic doesn’t make it the sole source of the chaos. It was because few people learned of the hidden histories, those people sought it out without learning the consequences—or did want it—and with the interstrato war, wala: the Stratoclysm.” Lana blinked as she adjusted her glasses. “My brain is fried, I need some water. Where are we?”
“A… uh…” Aleksandra quickly looked around. “Slight detour! Check that out!” Aleksandra pointed down but shook her head as she felt sprinkles. “Stop putting salt in my hair.”
Lana had a mischievous, tired grin that changed by looking at the scene below. She saw the battle between the mage and demon, a spectacle of lights, fire, lightning, darkness, bones, and little bit of everything else. The entire landscape shifted to their destructive might and the air was ravaged by the chaotic power.
“What the hell!?” Lana planted her hands against the window. “I’ve never seen fireworks like that that wasn’t from a mech!”
As they watched the two, it seemed as if they were evenly matched but a closer look revealed a different story. The fight appeared bizarre, in a way she was not expecting.
“They seem to move fast but they’re… slow? It looks like they’re distorted, like reality is not in sync with their actions.” Lana cocked her head to Aleksandra and adjusted her glasses. “Aleks, take us down. I’ll get our gear prepped.”
They’re precise and reactive, I can see that, Aleksandra thought. But why are their forms occasionally ‘sliding’, jutting, and flashing between positions or oscillating? It is as if they are quicker in their perception but sluggish to us.
Aleksandra sighed before placing her hands on her hips. “Well! That’s the confirmation I needed to defy fear!”
The ship descended.
The world ruptured with waves and strings of fire and lightning, bone and water.
The human mage and mighty demon danced in a symphony of battle across the land.
Flames bellowed from the earth and sky followed by screaming bolts of electricity.
The shadows of the demon ate the life around it as the light of the mage scarred and ceased the expanding darkness.
Their endless power clashed against one another in streams, rings, rays, blasts, and sprays.
To the demon’s dismay, he was slightly losing.
It was unfathomable to Verathaal.
Elezakh watched closely.
In their world, Verathaal must be a being that could shatter grand armies and entire nations. A mere human blessed with mana and a fairy spirit able to match their power must drive him mad. None of the demon’s powers here match its destructive might on its own territories but regardless he remains strong. The lack of mana has nothing to do with this. This… Kiya is powerful, like her reality is overpowering his own. Now, what of these two on that strange… ship?
“Aleks, the exomecha’s ready, it’s the Herald-Raider. You wanna have a go at it?” Lana slammed the mecha’s panel shut.
“I want more personal control, I’m going in power armor today.”
“Light, standard, or heavy?” Lana placed the toolbox into a metal rack.
“Hm,” Aleksandra tapped the ship’s controls nervously, “Light.”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I think mobility’s the best option here, if they can break through reinforced armor, I want to dodge it. I’m going with the lasa-repeater.” Aleksandra flipped some buttons.
“You got it.” Lana pulled out a rifle from a weapons chest.
“Artillery’s online, auto-pilot’s on, I’m coming down.” Aleksandra hopped out of the seat.
“Roger-dodger!” Lana said.
Kiya skated across the field, twisting a streaming flurry of cyan fire as Verathaal threaded through its deadly power.
“Your existence is impossible!” Verathaal yelled, throwing a fist of darkfire at the mage. “No human can achieve this power!”
“I labored beyond your hellish visions to achieve this power with the aid of my friends!” Kiya clapped her hands with thunderous gleaming energy as Astana raised a hand swirling with heavy weather. “Face my storm!”
Verathaal stepped back, charging with hands of hellish energy to meet Astana, their gazes locked to one another with the hatred of battle. The lights of the world tuned out as theirs overwhelmed it. They focused on one another, ready to fight to the death. Then a loud flash of light burst forth like a gunshot, gathering the two’s attention.
“Hey, you lot, let’s have a little talk now.” Aleksandra held up her freshly shot lasa-repeater, still smoking. “How about let’s calm down and get to know each other. It’s kind of amazing you didn’t hear the exomecha approaching.”
A thought raced in Lana’s mind.
Strange, they’re no longer… oscillating… glitching? How else to describe it…?
Verathaal, Astana, and Kiya looked at them, puzzled and confused at the strange armor and designs before them. It was like nothing Verathaal or Astana had ever seen: a human woman with a seemingly skintight clothing aided by plates of metal with odd markings, holding what seemed to be an outlandish crossbow or short polegun, backed up by an armored metal golem sporting bizarre shapes and patterns with varying craters, barrels, and another human woman underneath glass. Kiya was absolutely in awe of the futuristic technology.
“You two… three? Are interesting, let’s chat instead of fighting.” Aleksandra placed the rifle on the back of her shoulder. “Us two here are out of place and it seems like you all are too.”
“Who are you to presume!” Verathaal shouted, placing himself into a stance. “I am the mighty duke of demons, Verathaal! No mere human can harm the destroyer of nations and slayer of monarchs!”
Aleksandra aimed at him with Lana.
“Stand down, Verathaal!” Lana blared over the exomecha’s speakers. “The Herald-Raider can stand up to foes three times its class and even slithe and light class mechs! I don’t doubt it can take a, uh, demon!”
Thoughts rushed through Lana’s mind.
I still can’t believe demons are real… let alone those demons that are casually tearing holes from gods knows where back on Kalis Reach in Stratospace…
Verathaal ignored her, letting loose a barrage of shadow-touched firebolts. The firebolts soared across the landscape, ravaging the ground to a fate of darkness and fire.
“Damnit!” Aleksandra rolled out of the way as a firebolt glided past her.
Lana opened fire with a burst of heavy ballistic gunfire that rattled through the air. Verathaal, Kiya, and Astana were taken aback at the sound and Verathaal soon found metal bullets piercing his body in droves. The demon’s blood splattered far and wide as large gaping holes now adorned his body. Verathaal twitched, in awe at the immense pain that ravaged his senses. Astana and Kiya were shocked at the demon’s fate.
“Wha… what in the hels…” Verathaal fell on his knees. “Graaaagh! How can a… human with no magic… dodge…”
Verathaal locked up his body, trying to regenerate from the damage as his flesh wriggled and expanded to close up the wounds.
“Y-you… you will pay!” Verathaal panted. “What trickery!?”
Aleksandra and Lana were surprised at his resilience but nonetheless they remained ready to act.
Kiya was shakened. She charged her hand with electrical sparks followed by Astana wielding an aura of power.
“Don’t try it!” Aleksandra yelled.
Kiya swiped her hand as bolts of lightning sparked from the nether, striking Aleksandra and the Herald-Raider. While the Herald-Raider only flinched—holding firm yet its sensors disrupted—Aleksandra was sent flying. Aleksandra’s suit systems were disorientated and herself stung by a thousand ringing and stabbing needles, the pain was alleviated by the suit’s armor and medical systems.
“Aleks!” Lana shouted as she let loose a volley of screaming short-strike missiles that tore through the air with ripples, the Herald-Raider quickly accelerated towards Kiya with stomping fury.
Fear entered Kiya’s eyes as she wrapped her hands around her own body and disappeared with a lightning strike, barely evading the destructive barrage of missiles. The ground ruptured in fiery plumes and smoky trails. Kiya appeared back in its stead in amazement as the Herald-Raider’s whirling ballista-cannons were prepared to fire.
“Lana, stop it! Stop it! I’m fine.” Aleksandra struggled to get up as she breathed heavily, the cannons whirled down. “There is no point to this battle, I beg you all, let’s talk.”
Kiya and Astana put down their hands, the glow of fight dimmed as Kiya then raised her hands over her head.
How do I surrender? Kiya thought.
Verathaal scoffed, glowing red with eyes of fire. “I will not talk to mere—”
“Oh shut the hell up!” Aleksandra shouted. “You goddamn dumb demon!”
Laser fire blasted into Verathaal’s arm, then leg, and across his body as new holes decorated him.
“Submit, damnit! For the love of stars, submit!” Aleksandra yelled, rapidly approaching closer and closer. “Get off your power fantasy bullshit! Submit!”
Verathaal struggled against the fire but Aleksandra kicked him down. Her heel slammed against his chest as the gun’s barrel turned red. Kiya winced at the brutality.
“Graagh! I submit!” Verathaal said, coming to terms with the situation and new reality.
The gunfire stopped as Aleksandra quickly retreated away. Verathaal gasped in pain and agony, barely breathing.
“Damnit, listen to when a person is trying to understand what the hell is going on!” Aleksandra hovered over Verathaal who tried to look at her but was completely beaten.
It took all of Verathaal’s strength to stand up on his knees as the wounds slowly healed.
“Yes, master, I will.” Verathaal said as he kneeled. “Of the world Divinera, Verathaal is at your command.”
“Yes, we can finally get somewhere…”—Aleksandra’s eyes widened—“Wait. What. What do you mean ‘master’?”
“It is merely the hierarchy of the situation and the ruling law of Hadelian demons.” Verathaal placed his hand on his chest. “I have been beaten and I must submit.”
“Oh no, no, no, no! You’re not my sub.” Aleksandra grimaced.
“Aleks, we should move on.” Lana grinned, happily tapping her controls as she rested lazily on the console.
“Wha—I’m clearing this up!”
“Move on.” Lana teasingly chuckled.
Kiya tilted her head. “A sub… like a sandwich?”
“Fine.” Aleksandra said, avoiding Kiya’s remark. “This one is Verathaal apparently.” Aleksandra pointed at Kiya and Astana. “You there and tiny person, what are your names?”
Astana scoffed. “How dare you call me—!”
“My name is Kiya,” Kiya placed a hand on her chest. “I am a Japanese mage of Owlraziem of earth currently under the care of the ArcaNation of Veralore in Talderon on the Great Planet of Sarra Vy.”
“That’s a mouthful and… wow, you look like you’re from hi-skhol!” Aleksandra was taken aback, frightened. “Are… are you 17?”
“16.” Kiya said nonchalantly. “Don’t underestimate me, like the others.”
“You shot me with lightning,” Aleksandra chuckled as she talked, “I can’t underestimate you if I tried, but why is a teenager on the battlefield!?” Aleksandra held her hands up to her dimples. “I’ve heard of child soldiers but… this… is a lot to take in—wait, earth!?” Aleksandra froze. “Earth… or Terra… as in… Triumvirate Overwatch earth, under the Tri-Council of Outer Heaven… earth?! Earth!?”
Kiya eyed her curiously. “No?”
“We almost thought you were from Stratospace.” Lana shot up from her resting position.
Lana and Aleksandra looked at each other, their mouths moving in unison.
“Alternate universes!?”
A shockwave reverberated through Aleksandra, Lana, and Kiya at this revelation. The implications were endless and Lana was visibly excited as she slapped the windows of the exomecha.
“There is much we don’t know but we may infer knowledge from one another!” Lana was gleeful. “Where are my manners, I am Lana, Aleks’ play—”
“Moving on!” Aleksandra gritted her teeth. “Lana, there’s a teenager here! Not appropriate!” She then spoke up. “Now you, small winged one. What’s your name?“
Astana sighed. “I don’t like you, Aleks!”
“It’s Aleksandra, Lana here just calls me Aleks.”
“Fine! Aleksandra, my name is Astana the Great Fairy Spirit of Storms, how dare you all attack my sweet Kiya!”
Aleksandra eyed her and sighed, swinging her arms. “I wanted to talk, you all did not. What did you expect?”
Astana stuck her tongue out, sparking a short arc.
Then, a contorted voice sounded from the unknown.
“Well, well, well, this was an outcome I was not expecting.”
The alien voice shocked them. Kiya, Astana, Verathaal, Aleksandra, and Lana readied themselves prepared to fight.
“Oh please calm down, I am only this world’s god.”
In front of them was a whirlwind of elements and of dark and light that formed from the ground and sky. Arising in its epicenter was the form of a humanoid opaquened by darklight. As it manifested, the humanoid form broke into two bodies: one was as an ethereal shadow and the other was a strangely shaped entity as if the collision of shapes. The ‘god’ took form of an old androgynous being with a crescent moon wreathed with eyes piercing through their head, replacing where a human’s eyes should be. The being’s hands were wrapped in shifting chains as two intersecting rings of eyes orbited their chest. The body was cloaked in feathered energy and fiery pale chromatic light.
“I am Elezakh, the watcher of this graveyard.”
“What in the fu—you’re horrifying.” Aleksandra said.
“My old self would smite you for those words… but I am nothing.” Elezakh sighed “Be not afraid of an empty vessel of hubris that has seen the paths to the beyond.”
“Be not afraid, my ass. What are you talking about?”
“The great crossroads of inconceivable realities and all of their infinity!”
Elezakh’s voice boomed as the world lit up in a rainbow of lights around them.
“One of the many crossroads that eternally lie with the units that frame realities! The Truthpaths!”
Reality unraveled into a dark vision of chromatic crystal fractals. Elezakh spread forth their arms, with shadowed echoes that formed more fractals.
“Come and see the threads, my dear summons, through my memories! I have brought you in an attempt to understand how realities converse with one another…”
Several blinding suns filled the strange vision of fractaled space as it split into realms of collective galaxies. Along the realms were impossible channels of oceanic rivers of stars flowing across as endless convergent and divergent roots. The nebular shades and pigments painting the sight fluttered wide in vibrant colors, shifting and changing, growing and shrinking.
“A vision, simple, of realities merging, diverging, unifying, destructing, and constructing. The sight, condensed, by a warped entity I know not of but still it is the very one who had changed my world, this world, and forced itself into my mind. I know not its name nor the truthpath.”
Kiya and Verathaal stepped back in shock while Aleksandra and Lana’s interest were piqued with not only shock but love and affection.
“You seem to be in a hurry, telling us all of this.” Aleksandra said.
“Those are some of the ways they interact?” Lana said. “Hm, interesting. So let me get this straight: we were all summoned from vastly different areas from Stratospace to Divinera to Sarra Vy and alternate earth.” Lana adjusted her glasses. “We were brought to test how realities interact, right? Like the ‘oscillating’ and motional irregularities earlier?”
Elezakh shifted around, their eyes blinked in unison as the vision dissipated.
“You are quite intellectual for a mortal.” Elezakh said.
Lana squinted her eyes at the god. “Being immortal doesn’t make you inherently able to connect the stars to a constellation, a metaphor. Like you, we’ve been the subject of strange new religions that wish to ‘journey’ through the ‘truths’. Stratospace has been faced with the icy Hypersyboreans who claim the ‘truth’ of the Borealeyan Sun as the ancient heritage of humanity and its ascension. Then there are the star goths who also claim to follow a ‘truth’ called Heaven’s Breath with iconography of old terran abrahamic religions… besides the star pope that isn’t related.” Lana raised her finger. “Now, I want to present a question: was your summoning a precise effort?”
Elezakh’s eyes bugged in intrigue.
“No, it was not. I touched upon the unknown power of the warped one that… whispers in the recesses of my mind and touched similar shades of power to the ones that fell to this world from the dark of space. The voices speak the nature of the truthpath as the philosophy of reality and the labyrinthian tenets and ways.”
“The fu—” Aleksandra shook her head. “Isn’t it dangerous to act on things you don’t know? Especially the mysterious whispers?”
“Isn’t curiosity the very thing that brought you here?” Elezakh leaned in. “Where you defied the threat Kiya and Verathaal posed?”
Aleksandra opened her mouth but found no retort.
“Good point.”
Kiya stepped forward, holding in her irritation. “Can you return us to where we were? Astana and I wish to have nothing to do with this.”
“Only these two star travelers can return through the vortex beyond the world.” Elezakh said. “The nature of the spell was left to the will of the cosmos.”
Kiya, Verathaal, and Astana were slack jawed. Kiya tapped her temples furiously.
“How dare… how dare you! How dare you do this to us!” Astana flailed around in the air, punching the god with her harmless hands.
“However unfortunate it may be, it was fascinating to see you all fight. Verathaal here is from a world that would see him as a worldly threat and yet here, he is diminished.”
“You!” Verathaal shouted. “Are you the reason I am weak!”
“No, I am not, it’s your reality that is melding with the others. Your reality is trying to… I believe… ‘understand’ more ‘stable,’ complex, and integrated realities. It is why you are equalized… of course, I could be wrong…”
“That’s why my powers shifted from earth to Talderon and back.” Kiya held her own chin. “Astana, what do you think?”
Astana took a deep breath to calm down, gathering her thoughts.
“I am vaguely aware of the relation of realities. Moving between the planes and planets oft finds one in a precarious predicament of self uncertainty and diminishment whether it be the senses or conjuration of energy. Yet it has never been this pronounced. Also the opposite can be true as well.”
“Wow, you are much smarter than I thought you were, and not just using big words.” Aleksandra was baffled.
“What’s that supposed to mean!” Astana swung her arms and a shocking bout of static struck Aleksandra’s hand.
“Youch! Quit it” Aleksandra shook her hand. “I’m pretty sure your lightning would have hit me worse if I wasn’t wearing this suit—which was very rude I might add. You should be glad I didn’t clip off your wings with my gun.”
Astana puffed her cheeks. “No, you’re wuude.”
Aleksandra chuckled at her pronunciation.
Verathaal took a deep breath and looked towards the sky before kneeling to Aleksandra.
“I am weak, master, let me become strong under you.”
Aleksandra flinched. “Please don’t call me master, it is weirder than the Boston Shogunate.”
“Let me serve.” There was a firm obedient disobedience in Verathaal’s voice.
“Lana help.” Aleksandra said.
Lana smiled wickedly to Aleksandra’s dismay. “Let the fella serve you breakfast or something.”
Aleksandra glared at her and then looked at the demon. Verathaal gazed at her with wishes.
“I will do anything you ask of me, whether destroying your enemies or managing your domains.” Verathaal said.
“… what about cleaning or making food?”
“Anything is anything, I will act so.”
Aleksandra sighed. “Well strap in, because if you’re from a hell in an old feudal world, you will have a lot to learn.”
“Strap… in…?” Verathaal looked down. “I will learn and I will serve. Thank you for accepting my services.”
Aleksandra scratched the back of her head. “Hard to believe he was so hard headed earlier.” She then stood upright. “Listen, all of you, we need to discuss this more. I just don’t feel safe here considering you, a god, was broken by who knows what. Let’s just leave this planet you called a graveyard considering who knows what is coming from space. We can go to stratospace and be relatively safe.” Aleksandra took a deep breath. “Yeah, let’s just leave. You can tell more about the whispers on the way.”
“I would like that, I crave no more solitude.” Elezakh said as they gazed into their palm. “My hollow kingdom of dust is but inhabited by the whispers that grow ever louder in this very moment.”
Aleksandra froze, staring at Elezakh with fear like the others. “What in the ever living hell is that supposed to mean?”
In that moment, a cold shadow loomed over them that eclipsed the sky to a new cosmic vision of all in frozen malice.
“TREMBLE FLAWED MORSELS AND DESPAIR…
WORLDS WILL SHATTER…
THE TRUE VISION COMES.”
In the corner of Aleksandra’s vision was a swirling vortex of concentrating power. Rings gathered from nothing to a centrum of dark silver lights as ethereal roman numeral clocks marked its rising might. The world shook as if it was collapsing.
Elezakh flinched and began to scream. “We need to flee, now!”
Lana, Kiya, Astana, and Verathaal were jarred by the god’s reaction as an infinite chill slowly ate at them.
“Don’t need to tell me twice!” Aleksandra was already long sprinting to the ship. “Everyone, follow me and Lana! Whatever friction we had with one another, we better get over them quickly!”
Lana’s exomecha floored it in a stomping stampede as Kiya, Astana, and Verathaal hurried aided by Elezakh’s faded divine magic. The gathering energy continued as explosions of grey lightning struck the world around them. Anything and all things were completely annihilated as the air stabbed with the essence of a malevolent cold screaming its desire to change them. Ringed waves blasted forth like a crashing ocean underneath their feet with the reverberation of frosty oblivion. The sky shifted to a flowing ocean of stars wrapped in amber, obsidian, and marble. A frozen entity shrouded in abyssal darkness, golden hatred and silver antipathy had arisen. Its icy, argent, blackened hands wrapped in yellowed veins were held out to the sky.
“FALL BEFORE THE HERESIARCH OF THE NEMESICE…
DLN’KVK.”
“The name of the truthpath… Nemesice.” Elezakh despaired.
“Anyway, time to start blasting!” Aleksandra clicked a button on her suit and pointed at the glacial epoch of adversarial heresy. “Watch the artillery fire!”
The ship raised its long barrels with a whir and thundered the might of artillery. The barrels retracted by the recoil as plumes of fire and smoke trailed the explosive shells.
“Master has let loose the fires of hell!” Verathaal smiled. “And I will too!”
Verathaal blasted a barrage of hellish fireballs towards Dln’kvk, using the kickback as further propulsion.
“The artillery’s a distraction! I do not have many rounds for prolonged attack!” Aleksandra ran to the ramp of the ship as more volleys blasted. “Get on, now!”
As Aleksandra hopped into the pilot seat and flipped the switches to manual, Lana mounted the exomecha in the cargo bay. Kiya, Verathaal, and Elezakh stood near the ramp as they watched the eldritch monstrosity manifest and distort the world.
“Keep it back!” Elezakh’s heavenly voice boomed, unleashing godly light beams that ripped through the air that scarred the atmosphere in a delayed but explosively destructive trail. “We can only flee but we must fight!”
“Already had that in mind!” Aleksandra brought the ship up to flight. “Hold on!
Kiya and Astana exploded with circling torrents of raging gale and sparkful storms that gracefully wrapped their bodies and into widespread arcing blasts of elemental power that shifted the worldly air.
“Atmospheric Fury!” The pair yelled.
“I’ll defend my master with my life as my pact decrees!” Verathaal shouted.
Dark crimson and obsidian energy with the souls of the damned lit up the demon’s veins and escaped to swirl around his body as a hellish web. The web snapped into a whipping stream of blackened spiritfire that screamed a wail of pain.
“Oblivion’s Agony!”
The collective might of the three reverberated into a symphony of roaring power. It charged and explosively clashed into the strange entity that dared to bring itself before them. Their powers erupted into a unified display of rupturing sparks of lightning, twisting rivers of deathly decay and fire, and starry lights of incineration that struck at Dln’kvk, blasting the Heresiarach.
“PITIFUL.”
The Nemesician Nightmare was practically unscathed, standing triumphant from their combined arms.
“THE DEATH OF STARS COULDN’T PHASE ME. WHAT HOPE HAVE YOU?”
The motley crew shuddered at the entity that shrugged off their attacks, as if they never attacked at all. Elezakh fell on their knees and vomited an ethereal, green, glowing muck.
“Are you okay, Elezakh!?” Kiya yelled.
“I’ve never witnessed such power…” Elezakh gently swayed in disbelief, sick to the core.
“Don’t scare us like, damnit!” Alexandra screamed through the ship’s intercom. “That cosmic asshole is scary enough! Continue firing… casting… whatever! We’re out of artillery rounds!”
Lana came through the intercom. “I’m working on amplifying the engines!”
“FALL.”
From the Heresiarch’s raised arms came a pale swarm of silver, glowing spheres of shifting ice and twisting skulls, tossing up a torrent of earth into the air. As the spheres existed, the surrounding reality was scratched and clawed by an abominable cold that obliterated the world in its radius. The spheres moaned and wailed as an unnatural and cursed existence.
“DARK SOULS GLACIER.”
They then swung their arms as the icy spheres shot forth, leaving a mirroring trail that held a vision to a vibrantly argent dimension of eternal malicious ice.
“Done!” Lana said. “Aleks, we need to go faster! Come on, chop chop!”
“The he—THE HELL do you think I’m already trying to do on my end!? I should kick your ass for saying something so stupid!” Aleksandra placed a vial with a blue crystal into a fuel slot. “Hold on, moron!”
The thrusters of the ship lit a starry bright blue as the sudden force caused them all to sway with the shaking ship. The screaming frozen spheres of skulls encroached upon them with blazing speed, turning and twisting to follow them as Aleksandra curved to outmaneuver them.
A smile adorned Lana as she moved into the bay that flashed with the powers of the four fantastical spellcasters. “I just know how to tick her off. Good way to release her stress. Alright time for the big gun.”
Lana grabbed the front handle of a smooth, tubed, and curved plasma caster with a long ringed barrel of four long prongs. Kiya and Astana gave her a dubious stare as they continued unleashing their power, detracting from the horror beyond the ship.
“What?” Three switches on the caster’s side were clicked and Lana cranked its starter, sparking it to life with a hum. “We established this relationship.” Lana shrugged as Kiya and Astana leaned away.
“I know you want to distract each other from the horror beyond the cosmos, but here it comes!” Verathaal said.
Verathaal raised his infernal hands as the sheer power of the Heresiarch ahead slowly crystalized his skin. The demon flared its fires that rushed as waves of hellish plumes, barely halting the masses of impending scarred ice.
“Master! I am failing!”
“I am not your mas—ugh, just hold on for dear life!” Aleksandra yelled.
“Roger, Aleks!” Lana locked herself down with her magnetic boots and firmly leaned against the hull. The plasma caster sparked with viridian lightning as plasma streams shot out in rapid succession with a discordant whistle. “You four are spellcasters? Well, I got a plasma caster!”
The Heresiarch flared their palms outward with a cracked silver silver glow.
“FRACTURE.”
From the Heresiarch’s hand, as the glacial power still chased them, were polygonal cracks in reality that skipped forth with a trail and imploded everything in its path into an existence of hateful ice. These cracks were the splintering of mirroring ice and its sight to the alien dimension.
“I feel the planet’s corpse screaming worse than it has ever done with the touch of that crystalline antipathy!” Elezakh said.
“Are you kidding me, Dln’kvk!” Astana shouted as her hands lit up with arcs of lightning. “You aren’t hurting our new friends!”
Aleksandra tilted her head as Astana blasted forth screaming, crackling streams of nature’s lightning.
Friends? Really, miss fairy? We’re friends somehow? I guess battle definitely brings us together… Aleksandra thought. A fairy… It still is so surreal magic exists.
“Huh. Damn, well, I can’t let you die if you feel that way, comrade-in-arms!” Aleksandra sharply swerved. “You still need to tell me how you exist!”
Dark souls brushed against the ship as Aleksandra shifted its course, tearing its armor plates apart into vapor. The hull narrowly avoided destruction as they dodged its terrible, curving path.
“It’s gonna be a close one!” Aleksandra pushed her piloting skills to the limit, weaving through the glacial pathways of skulls that passed by them. “Come on!”
The fracture slowly, but surely, inched to them in jumps with its crackling imprisonment of annihilation that ate the space around it. Following its path, to the terror of the fleeing motley crew, was the Nemesice Heresiarch in its successive dimensional leaps of deathly frost sparks.
“SUFFER THE SHADOW OF A FROZEN ETERNITY AS I HAVE.”
“I don’t like the sound of this!” Aleksandra shouted.
“It’s worse than you think!” Lana saw the Heresiarch in its dance of death, glowing with alabaster ice and blackened gray shadows.
“With what little I have left, I will do what I can!” Elezakh stopped their divine assault and raised their hands high. “As I am the beginning of the planet, I too am its end! Magnetarend!”
The lights of the sun and the auroras of the earth fueled the planet’s god, the energies distorting the equidistance between the Heresiarch and the ship. All around them came great winds from the atmosphere and the planet itself cracked.
“I am tearing apart the core of the world and its great skies to bend the elements against this entity.”
Sheer radiant power channeled from the god’s hands as pale chromatic lights swirled and flowed around their body, whatever souls that remained on the world joined together to face the eldritch entity. The enveloping powers wrapped the Nemesice Heresiarch in an array of elemental lights from fire and water to earth and air. The powers flashed and the Heresiarch was held still. Yet, its overwhelming power still flowed true.
“I have too many regrets.” Elezakh whispered. “I want you all to bear witness to what existed here.”
“I want to show you Stratospace and see where that goes. It’d be funny.” Aleksandra said.
“I hope we survive Dln’kvk’s power, I too would like to see Stratospace.”
The Nemesice Heresiarch raised its shadowy hands wielding crackling fissuring frozen fire.
“It comes.” Elezakh said.
Dln’kvk’s power roared as a streaming storm of blackened shadows soared across reality with a ring, following it was a cascade of unusually violet spheres that bursted with expanding bands of energy and sang a twisted, cutting cacophony. Thin bolts of plasmatic ice explosively scattered like an array of rapid flak cannons as great, frosted, imploding spires of oblivion collapsed from the astral nether to the earth below.
“Altogether now! We will purge its colden embrace of us and go unto salvation together!” Elezakh boomed, posing as he lit up with golden rays of shimmering lights.
Great paths of vibrant lights descended as a heavenly strike.
“Whatever power you strange magical folk have left, cast it now!” Lana yelled, flipping two more switches on her plasma caster. “I’m playing Yuhakoruzch roulette now! My caster may explode! Don’t let this pain be in vain!”
The caster’s furious, lightning-like, plasma bolts accelerated in succession as the weapon glowed green through its crevices.
Kiya and Astana nodded to one another as they spoke together, glowing with azure electricity. “We will give it our all.”
The air lit up in a screaming whirlwind, a great orbit of energy warped the fields with distortive magnetism and gravity.
“I will learn more about my master and her ‘Stratospace.’ Whatever she wishes to defend, I will be her sword and shield!” Verathaal screamed with an ensemble of damned souls, glowing as charred coal and blood. “My blood, fire, and bone are hers!”
Aleksandra slapped her own face, grinning maniacally. “What a demon you are. Regardless, I’ll deliver you to safety!” A light chuckle escaped her mouth. “Don’t fall, because we’re breaching the outer atmosphere and I’ll need to weave around those spires! Life support field is online and the vortex is in sight.”
Space lit up in a flurry of light and darkness, power against power. The spells and attacks collided against one another as the vividity of armageddon. Dln’kvk’s attacks faltered against their own, annulled by the counter. Then, the fabric of reality shattered as mirrors of grey ice were joined by discordant blaring rays of golden darkness.
“You have my heart, body, and soul!” Verathaal’s body ruptured in gore.
The spray of viscera turned into a torrential, flaming, bloody bolts of screaming souls. The souls collided against the rays, nullifying the attack and spreading itself across the air.
“You are horrifying!” Aleksandra yelled, swerving between the imploding frost spires. “Fantastic! I love it!”
“Words of master’s praise!” Verathaal amplified the torrent, his eyes booming with blood.
“Are you alright!?” Aleksandra leaned in.
“Just a little blood, that’s all.” Verathaal panted.
Then, it was upon them.
They were interrupted and terrified into silence. They attempted to comprehend what just happened. It was then the first realization spoke.
“What…!?” Lana adjusted her glasses. “The fracture!”
It had snuck up from behind the other attacks. It radiated sheer power that dwarfed the others as if it was a black hole. They felt themselves being pulled in and the pain of a cold that slowly ripped apart on the atomic level. It rapidly approached as it shook off Verathaal’s attack.
“BE SEALED IN FROST.”
“No, no!” Aleksandra shook. “We’re almost there!”
The motley crew scrambled. Elezakh held up their hand, teeming with aurora lights, and then clenched it. Their perceptions were distorted, it felt as time slowed down yet their reactions were quick.
“We have only a few moments.” Elezakh calmly said.
“Kiya! Do you still have mana?” Astana said.
“I’m low…!” Kiya said.
“This thing is at its breaking point!” Lana pointed to her caster.
“Hell will not freeze over!” Verathaal swirled with bloody energy for a last stand, prepared to be defiant.
“This ship is going as fast as it can!” Aleksandra said.
Elezakh eyed the twisting fracture before holding the rings around their body. They quickly pressed against the rings and let out a warped scream and dissonant wails.
“Hey, hey, hey! Why are you harming yourself!?” Lana said.
Kiya, Astana, and Verathaal watched with shock, the blood energy ceased.
“Yo god, what the hell are you doing to yourself!?” Aleksandra said.
The rings were agonizingly dislodged from their body, bleeding and emanating vibrant lights of holy and unholy. It was as if the heavens were ripping apart by the mere act
“I’ve failed this world, my home, but I won’t fail you all who’ve come by my foolish experiment.” Elezakh shook. “These are of me, they are the echoes of myself and they shall serve you. They are perhaps my chance to see Stratospace and beyond.”
The rings flung from their body and into the cargo hold as Elezakh watched the Fracture approach closer.
“I will save your glimmers of light as my last duty of godship.”
“Hey God!” Aleksandra said.
Elezakh looked up.
“Life deals us bad hands all the time and we make mistakes, but I’ll make sure that this isn’t.” Aleksandra nodded.
“I’ll ring you up sometime.” Lana said.
“Lana…” Aleksandra rubbed her temple.
Elezakh chuckled softly.
Kiya, Astana, and Verathaal watched in silence.
“Kiya, Astana, Verathaal, you three get along now.” Elezakh said. “You three have problems compared to these two.”
“H-hey!” Astana stammered.
“And that’s why I will learn from my Master.” Verathaal said.
“I don’t see it.” Kiya shrugged.
Elezakh cackled softly before facing the fracture.
“Aleksandra and Lana,” Elezakh sighed, “good luck with these three here.”
“You’re telling me.” Aleksandra said.
“Live free.” Elezakh slightly smiled.
Without warning, Elezakh dove into the fracture. The fracture absorbed the god as all the weight and power collided into them, crackling them as a breaking mirror. Its edges then expanded, preparing to burst. However, the god within pulled in the energies and prevented it from exploding. It stood still.
All of them were silent as they watched the shadow of Dln’kvk appear before Elezakh. Its shadow loomed far and wide as reality fizzled apart into static nothingness, trapped in polygonal crystals of dominating malice. The world collapsed into gray ice as the sun was eclipsed. The Nemesice were dwarfing every conception they’ve ever dreamed of.
A whispering voice spoke as their senses were then warped, experiencing every millisecond as forever. Every echo itched in a pain that shouldn’t exist, wrapping their senses like a tidal wave.
Know the truth.
Know perfection.
See your flaws.
Feel your fragility.
Witness your adversary.
Watch the nemesis.
The imperishable.
The supremacy.
Eternity.
Strive true to legend.
And the truth will free you.
It spoke ceaselessly and en masse, only to fade with the ominous image before them. They disappeared into the stellar vortex and entered a river of jade. Their senses returned, leaving nothing but silence for minutes. Their minds tried to process it all, especially how it spoke to them, but they were hardly able to acknowledge it.
Aleksandra leaned back and broke the quiet. “That was closer than I expected…”
Lana slumped against the wall, pressing a palm against her head. “What… what just happened…?”
Kiya shook and looked at her hands before Verathaal tapped her shoulder. Astana and Kiya turned to the demon.
“Our antagonism was nothing but petty compared to what that was.” Verathaal’s breathing was erratic, frost still scarred his skin. “Truce?”
“Yeah,” Kiya blinked as she jittered, “truce.”
Verathaal dropped hard on his knees to the fright of Kiya.
Now that the god was gone, they felt it gone. They realized their minds were propped up by its presence. The god was the very thing enabling them to persist against the indomitable threat. Slowly, but surely, the fear of the Nemesice and its Heresiarch was eating at them.
“Ugh…” Lana adjusted her glasses as she entered the bridge. “I don’t need more voices in my mind, I already have my own.”
“Drink this.” Aleksandra held out a beer. “After what we’ve been through, we can’t stay sober.”
Lana slightly smiled and adjusted again. “Thanks Aleks.”
Over Lana’s shoulder, Aleksandra saw Kiya.
“We got juice or soda, you may be in hi-skhol but if you want beer, just ask.”
“B-beer?” Kiya nervously said.
Astana appeared over Kiya’s shoulder. “Are you trying to get her to drink?”
“You wouldn’t offer a drink after all that?”
Astana eyed Aleksandra before sighing. “I guess I would, I need one myself.”
“There’s plenty.” Aleksandra opened the fridge to a myriad of drinks.
“Praise Aleksandra!” Astana flew into the fridge.
“Praise my master indeed.” Verathaal slowly lumbered, utterly exhausted.
“You… don’t look good.” Aleksandra said.
“It is but a mere scratch…” Verathaal coughed up blood.
“Whoa, whoa!” Aleksandra pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it against his mouth. “Do we need to get you to the sick bay—um, I mean, heal you?”
“Thank you Master,” Verathaal nodded, “but I just need some food.”
“Well… uh, I don’t know what demons need but I have plenty of sausages I prepped, I also got fresh vegetables from our hydro-garden.”
“Please forgive me Master, but if I may be so bold, that would be fine nourishment.”
“Uh, okay, yeah.” Aleksandra pulled out several blackened sausage links from behind the drinks. “Here, and I’ll be back in just a moment.”
Aleksandra quickly walked through the doorway, almost tripping on the frame. Verathaal achingly placed the sausage in his mouth.
“How do you get this open?” Astana shook a beer can.
“Here.” Lana pressed the can’s pull tab, it fizzled with foam.
“I guess I’ll take a soda.” Kiya said.
“Huh? Yeah, the Cotola, Admiral Spice, and Fay-Cit are sodas,” Lana pointed in the fridge, “the Redwind and Buzar are not.”
“I… I am… parched…” Verathaal panted as he chewed a sausage. “I require juice…”
“The jug with the green liquid is bumbi fruit with a bit of citrus tang, uh, it’s a mellow taste.” Lana nodded as she rested against a side table. “Help yourself. If you want alcohol—wait.” Lana opened a cabinet. “Ah, so we do! We have some high quality Yuhakoruzch vodka we plundered in a raid if you want to mix it up.”
“Mix it in…” Verathaal moved wobbly.
“You’re about to fall over, wonderful specimen!” Lana said. “Let me help you.”
Lana moved Verathaal into a seat. “How’s the sausage?”
“It tastes of… animal blood… good…”
“It’s a blood sausage that uses pork.” Lana pulled a large metal cup from a cabinet, and knocked it closed with her hip. “Aleks is a good cook, she uses old recipes from earth a millennia ago, I kind of wanted her to use my blood.”
Kiya and Astana halted their conversation with one another and eyed Lana.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding!” Lana awkwardly looked away.
“I must learn… from Master…”
“Don’t worry, you’ll have a lot to learn.” Lana ominously smiled as she poured ice into the cup. “I’ll help you.”
“I… appreciate it…”
Lana was caught off guard by the gratification, pausing in the middle of pouring the juice and vodka. Even Astana and Kiya were given pause, eyeing the demon.
“Why, you’re very welcome.” Lana’s smile turned warm as she brought the drink to him.
“I will repay your unusual kindness, it is my debt.”
“Think nothing of it.” Lana waved her hand and sipped her beer.
“I got you a bounty of salad.” Aleksandra hurried, carrying a large bowl of various shapely, green, blue, and purple vegetables. “They don’t necessarily have ‘magical healing powers’ but they’re nutritious, there’s some tang-isle dressing in that little cup there if you wanted some.”
The bowl was planted on the table counter next to Verathaal as Aleksandra pulled out a fork.
“Thank you for this blessing, my Master.” Verathaal struggled to bow. “I am not worthy.”
“Blessi—” Aleksandra retched. “Never say that again.”
“Your wish is my command, my Master.” Verathaal grabbed the fork and slowly devoured the food.
Aleksandra turned around. “We still got vodka?”
“Hell yeah we do.” Lana smiled mischievously and shifted her brows.
Aleksandra darted her eyes between Lana’s sweet brown eyes and the tall vodka bottle.
“You thinking what I’m thinking later?” Aleksandra said.
Lana stepped forward and wrapped her warm arms around Aleksandra. Aleksandra leaned in and kissed her sweet lips.
“You know it.” Lana grinned.
“I need it after all that.” Aleksandra chuckled before stepping back. “So, hey, you all, if the return route’s the same length, we should be exiting the vortex in a couple seconds. Prioritize rest, down the hall and on the left are the guest rooms. It seems we’re going to be stuck together for a while.”
“Aye, aye captain.” Kiya said.
Lana hid a burst of laughter. “A c-captain…”
“Did… did you really say that?”
“I’ve never rode a sci-fi spaceship before.” Kiya shrugged. “Surprisingly, I’m not freaking out about how I can’t get home.”
“Just don’t think about it too hard.” Aleksandra sipped her beer. “I know you planet-hopped before, but homesickness can strike at any time.”
The green channel was distorted and reformed into a vision of space and stars. Nearby, taking up a good portion of the window’s view, was an orange planet that swirled with rosy clouds and was ringed with stones and water ice. Sunlight shone on its surface as a crescent of its shadow lined the planet’s lower regions.
“That is so beautiful.” Kiya said. “I’ve… I’ve always wanted to see this!”
“Didn’t you see it when we were escaping?” Aleksandra said.
“You think I had time to observe the planet or fully realize what was going on?”
“Good point.” Aleksandra leaned against the wall table.
“So… w-w-where are wee?” Astana slapped herself against the window, almost spilling the beer can.
“Welcome to Stratospace.”
Aleksandra pressed a button and opened up a blue, holographic star map of a myriad of constellations and planets.
“It’s a corner of the galaxy rife with war.” Aleksandra nodded. “Always has been.”
“What are we going to do?” Kiya said. “Will we be safe?”
“Don’t worry about it, we’re not in any dangerous territory or anything.” Aleksandra kicked back into the pilot seat.“We’re going to dock at a station on that gas giant there. We’re going to rest first, however long that takes.”
“Now that I think about it, there are elves, jactuu, diprats, dwarves, and the alike that have appeared since the Stratoclysm.” Lana said. “Maybe one of them knows how to get you three home.”
The attention of Astana, Kiya, and Verathaal were piqued.
“Sa-wha-what now?” Astana floated over.
“They’re elusive and very protective.” Aleksandra said. “After all, they were targeted as the spark for the devastating stratoclysm that led to the horrific Imperial Republic and the devastating Strato Reclamation Pact.”
“But they are not the cause of it.” Lana added, followed by Aleksandra’s nodding. “And that was decades ago.”
“What?” Kiya shook her head. “My apologies but you both look like you’re in your twenties.”
“Aww.” Aleksandra said as she turned to Lana briefly. “Thank you.”
“H-how? You’re humans, right?”
“Mhmm.” Lana said.
“Our cybernetics were stolen from people who stole from the Triumvirate Overwatch. Ethically sourced.” Aleksandra smiled. “A little thievery brought us what seems to be immortality, despite still being mostly flesh and bone.”
“How does that work?” Kiya said.
“Apparently, cellular regeneration and restoration on an extremely complex level, especially by causing us to generate something derived from stem cells.” Lana said.
“But enough about that.” Aleksandra stood up. “Let’s put our priorities out here.”
“Okay, Captain Gastev.” Lana smirked.
Aleksandra growled before sighing. “We’ll learn from each other and we will seek out any mystical being—elf, zouani, vaeryubian, whatever. We’ll question them for any clues on how to get to your worlds, and we’ll study Elezakh’s rings for any answers.”
A moment of silence was held for the god.
“The god brought us together against our will but at least they sacrificed themself for us.” Aleksandra turned to a whisper. “I hoped I was going to be able to cause some chaos with them.”
“What was that?” Kiya said.
“Nothing.” Aleksandra shook her head. “But for now we rest and get drunk!”
“Woo!” Astana wobbled clumsily in her flight. “Frensss—hic.”
“Is she drunk?” Aleksandra said.
Kiya eyed the fairy. “I… think so.”
“Well, we’re certainly far behind.” Lana chuckled.
Aleksandra and Lana tapped each other’s cans together and hugged in a warm embrace as Verathaal struggled to raise his vodka juice.
“I’m glad we’re still alive, Aleks.” Lana whispered into her ear, eyes to the stars.
“Me too, Lana.” Aleksandra smiled as she softly held her cheek, Lana snuggled into her palm.
The pair parted as Kiya stepped to look at the star chart.
Kiya’s eyes lit up with wonder. “A space adventure awaits.”
“And people to take care of.” Aleksandra whispered underneath her sigh before turning to a smile. “Along with chaos to bring.”
Zelastar 