Private The Last of Her

[Onrai]

Inanna Harth

Erakhis

The death of a city left an immutable scar on the surface of a world. It was the sort of scar that pierced deeply, a great dent in reality just waiting to be fully punctured through. Such was the perfect place for a familiar presence to one of the planet's occupants, an occupant that currently journeyed with a number of the insane Dark Side cultists on the world's surface to the center of the nexus itself. Yes, this would be it - a means by which to successfully test whether or not she had the power to shatter through reality. The means to break open the barriers between dimensions and allow the monsters of the ethereal realms to break through once more.

Hopefully no one would interfere.

 

[Inanna Harth]

The Great Shallows, Erakhis
The Yomins’ Homestead

“Inanna! Wake up!”

Hal was shaking her. Opening her eyes, she stammered something incomprehensible in her grogginess, ending it with a rasping “Wha?”

“You were screaming in your sleep,” Hal said. “Again.”

In the room next door, she could hear the loud, offended wailing of an infant whose sleep had been rudely disturbed. “I must’ve been dreaming,” she said, rubbing her eyes. Her limbs felt heavy and stiff, as if she had been straining against something. “I don’t remember what it was about.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Hal muttered, settling back down underneath the blankets. “You woke the baby, and anyway it’s your turn to deal with it tonight.”

“It is not. I don’t believe you…” But as she turned, blinking in the darkness, to gaze at the scoreboard, she saw that he was right. “...I just did it last night!”

“The night before, you mean.” Hal fluffed his pillow.

She glanced at the clock and groaned. “It’s way too early for this. Let him resolve it for himself. He can’t keep crying forever.”

But she could only lay there in the dark listening to that wailing for so long. As she stood up and headed out of the bedroom, she heard Hal utter a soft chuckle.

She crept into the baby’s room, over to the crib, and scooped out the swaddled bundle within. “Mommy had a nightmare and was roaring like Wookiee in her sleep, huh? Well, now I’m definitely wide awake. And you need to shut the feth up, okay? Uh-huh? Yeah, baby Galahad is going to shut up so Mommy can go back to bed as soon as possible,” she cooed in the gentlest, most soothing tone possible, cradling the Keshiri boy as she kissed him. Reassured that nothing was amiss, he started to settle down.

Then the comm rang, which set him off again. Glaring murderously, she marched down the hall to the nearest comlink, balancing the shrieking kid on her hip as she answered, “Do you know what time it is, fethface?”

“Mrs. Yomin, I’m terribly sorry to disturb you, but something has happened—” She recognized the voice of Eugene Benedict, an archaeologist from the Bannoc Institute who was sort of her friend, mostly because she had agreed to act as a go-between from Benedict to Nimdok and vice versa. She knew him well enough by now to consider him all right in her book.

He could also talk a mile a minute. “Hold on, slow down. What happened?” she asked.

“A spontaneous mass migration of the inhabitants of the ruins of Arctrius. The drone footage picked it up—the hidden cultists we keep hearing about are on the move. Some of the tourists at the memorial also claimed to have seen, or felt, a strange woman passing through. Someone who gave off an unpleasant aura.”

As he spoke, Inanna opened the freezer, pulled out a chilled pacifier, made her way to a chair and sat down. She was directly in front of a large window which offered an underwater view of the Erakhian ocean. It was mostly just plant life here in the shallower end, but sometimes fish and other sea animals came to gawk at the landlubbing idiots living in a partially-submerged house. As the saying goes, better the fish than the FIB.

“So, what do you want me to do?” Inanna asked, pressing the cold pacifier into Galahad’s mouth.

“I would normally ask you to contact Professor Nimdok about such an occurrence, but since you’ve told me he is away on, uhm, sensitive business, I was hoping that you could stop by and investigate.”

With Galahad now silent, she sighed in relief and prayed that the ensuing quiet would last. “I’m sorry, did you just say you wanted my help?”

“Yes.”

“Is this some kind of joke, Gene? Because if it is, I’m really not in the mood.”

“N-no, not at all. I’m being completely serious. It’s just that, I thought—”

“You thought that, because I trained to be a space wizard, I could go in and do some spring cleaning,” she finished for him, her lip curling. “Even though I told you that I had given all of it up.”

“You told me that you were beginning to manifest some new abilities. Considerably powerful ones.”

“I also told you that my blood looks like blue acrylic paint because I had someone shoot energy through a lightsaber focusing crystal in order to purify my body.” She rolled her eyes. “Listen. I don’t want to get involved. Giving up on trying to play hero was the best decision I ever made. I’m not going back to it just because the Magical Bullchit Brigade decided to invade my… my home.” She trailed off, her brow furrowing as she watched her son teeth his way into unconsciousness. “... oh hell.”

“Mrs. Yomin?”

“I’m fine,” she replied, reacting to the concern in his voice. “I just… can all this wait until morning, at least?”

“Er, possibly? The local authorities are taking this matter very seriously. They still don’t know who or what is causing the disturbance. I’m not sure what they might do.”

She got a bad feeling just hearing that. “They’ll get themselves killed, is what they’ll do.”

“Well, I can’t stop them. But if you or someone else could deal with this beforehand—”

“You said Arctrius, right? I’ll be there in an hour.” She ended the call before he could respond. “Cais ned’jin.”

An hour later, she was stepping off a boat onto the shores of Arctrius. Eugene Benedict was there, along with a dozen or so stern-looking folks in suits and a scattering of military types. There were drones flying around overhead, and clueless tourists being herded onto ferry boats headed back to the cities. It all reminded her, somehow, of the nightmare she’d forgotten in waking.

Benedict ran up to greet her. “I’ve explained everything. They’ll allow you to pass through on your own, monitoring your progress from afar.” He gestured vaguely toward the drones.

“What exactly did you tell them about me?” she asked in a low voice.

“I told them that you were a Force Adept and a Shi’ido. That’s all.” He paused. “I may have also mentioned that you adopted those war orphans, to drum up some sympathy.”

“Great PR work, Gene,” she muttered. Turning her gaze toward the foreboding-looking ruins, she gnawed on her lip. “I’m gonna need all the sympathy I can get.”

She started walking. The suits and the military guys all gave her a wide berth, leaving her wondering if Benedict had hyped her up to be a powerful, ultra-skilled sorceress. Maybe they’d be disappointed. Maybe they’d wind up scraping her remains off the ancient cracked pavement. Maybe the whole planet would be gone by dusk. In this chaotic galaxy, who knew?

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

It was the surprise of Onrai that there were in fact so many cultists in the blighted ruins of this otherwise peaceful world. She had experienced no issues, certainly, when traveling through the populace in disguise, but here her twisted form was most beneficial in intimidating the acolytes and neophytes who comprised the Dark Side contingent of this world. It was unlikely she could ever adjust their behavior for the better - so for now she decided to simply play the part and gain their worship as a malevolent entity. Already they had begun bowing to her in submission.

Soon the center of the nexus was reached. It was a torrid place, and even now wisps could be seen out of the corner of one’s eyes, a phantom of the carnage barely seeking to manifest itself from the pain and suffering of the fallen populace. Onrai smiled, her lips Nearly indistinct against the rest of her face and form. Her hand embedded itself within the inky mass of her existence and withdrew the gleaming yellow crystal.

“Your service to me is admirable. The servants of the gods once forgotten will walk here again this day. Begin inscribing the circles into the dirt, and build the altar.” She looked at the Sunstar - if this ritual were successfully completed, it would finally puncture through the Force Nexus and allow penetration into a dimension beyond. The knowledge in question of such a profane ritual came from the faintest of memories is the primordial entity whose thoughts still were ever more closely melding into Onrai’s own. The Kashi Mer Dynasty has once been willing to commit such egregious and abominable deeds in the name of the pantheon. So it was that their knowledge would allow for such again.

Perhaps.

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

As Inanna entered the ruins, she was filled with a sudden sense of foreboding. She knew there was a Force Nexus here due to the massacre that had happened centuries ago, so it didn’t surprise her, but it was quite overwhelming.

Eugene Benedict, who had agreed to follow her part of the way, let out a gasp. “Mrs. Yomin, you’re… your skin is…”

She looked down. All visible flesh (she was wearing a polyweave ski suit) on her body was bubbling and rippling in a rather grotesque manner. The sensation wasn’t painful, but it was bizarre and a little uncomfortable. She raised a hand to her face; it felt as if it was melting like wax.

“I’m okay,” she said. “I think. It must be the nexus affecting me.”

“But… how? Why would it cause… this?” He gestured vaguely.

“Probably because I’m a freak. Or even more of one nowadays than I used to be,” she replied dryly. “Let’s go.”

The subject having been dropped, they continued walking. Eventually Inanna’s flesh settled, adjusting to the new environment. It wasn’t long before the pair encountered someone.

“Wait,” Inanna said, pointing. “Somebody’s behind that fallen pillar.”

A second later, a figure in a black cloak jumped out, wielding a blaster. “Stay back!” he cried. “Or I’ll shoot!”

In response, Inanna telekinetically yanked the weapon out of his hands. The cultist blinked, then produced a lightsaber and ignited the red blade. Inanna turned it off again and tossed it through a broken window.

“Look,” she said, spreading her hands. “I don’t want anybody to get hurt. Let me just ask you a question—do you know what’s going on in these ruins?”

“I won’t tell you anything!” the cultist sneered. “I’ll never betray the goddess!”

“Goddess? What goddess?”

“The goddess Onrai!”

“Thanks for the clarification, but I don’t know who that is.”

“Onrai is a mythological figure,” Benedict chipped in. “She is the agricultural and fertility goddess of Seoul IV. According to myth, she was tricked into turning into a snake and devouring her own tail.”

“Sounds like she won’t be much trouble, then.” Inanna glanced back at the cultist, who was trying to retrieve his lightsaber. “Where is Onrai? I’d like to, uh, talk to her.”

“I’ll never tell!” the cultist repeated.

“Okay then, I’ll make an educated guess. She’s at the center of the nexus, drawing power from it to fuel herself or some kind of ritual that will give her more power.”

The cultist gulped. “I… I’ll… you can’t talk to her! She’s a goddess! You’re beneath her!”

“I’m sorry, but I get the impression that this is just some witch pretending to be a deity to gain gullible followers.” She sighed. “Where have I heard this before?...”

“The Sith Empire?” Benedict suggested.

“A Sith witch pretending to be a goddess. Typical.” She shrugged. “Welp. Time to get going.” She waved goodbye to the cultist, tossing his lightsaber further out of his grasp in the process.

They encountered more cultists further ahead, only they were smarter and better armed than the previous lone idiot. Inanna managed to disarm and knock them all unconscious while Benedict hid behind cover.

“Looks like this is the end of the line for you, Mr. Benedict,” she said. “It’ll probably get even more dangerous up ahead, so you better stop here.”

“I agree,” Benedict said. “I wish you well, Mrs. Yomin.”

“Same to you. Goodbye.”

After the two parted ways, Inanna was left alone to wander the ruins. Without pleasant conversation to occupy her, she took greater notice of her forlorn surroundings. The Freehold of Arctrius had once been a glorious city, full of towering spires and grand architecture rarely seen in the modern galaxy, but much of it was crumbling now. Curiously, there were no signs of wildlife, and none of the collapsing structures were overgrown. Probably the nexus’ doing.

A third group of cultists, this time all armed with lightsabers and enhanced Force abilities, were waiting for her around a corner. She whipped up a whirlwind that sent them spinning end over end, knocking heads together until everyone lay in a blacked-out heap. Inanna examined her shoulder, where she knew one of them had gotten past her defenses and poked her with a saber. She was very puzzled to find the flesh had healed with no sign of even a scar from the wound.

“Must be the nexus,” she blamed it for the third time that day. “Force Nexuses are bullchit.”

She was drawing very near to the center of it now, toward the alleged “goddess” and her most powerful followers. Better stay on her toes.

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

The circles had been inscribed and the altar had been constructed. Onrai stood on a raised plinth before the many cultists, a smile on her face as the work was done. The cultists now came to the ring of the circle, as instructed, their athames raised in preparation.

"Now you will aid me." She said, before her language changed, formed into the linguistics she could in no way, shape, or form comprehend were she still a mortal. The cultists simultaneously slashed their palms, the blood flowing from them melding together in the middle. The result was a rippling of red crystal that soon returned to the cultists, encasing them in an ever-tightening pillar that soon crushed them, leaving more blood in the area that flowed through the trail and further crystallized. Bones soon fell into the great pool of sanguinity as the very life force was drained from them, fed further into the nexus in an attempt to better puncture it.

In the altar, the Sunstar was slowly rotated, hopefully twisting reality and finally opening a proper gateway between the planes.

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

As Inanna drew near the center of the nexus, the wrongness of the place intensified to a crescendo. She started seeing things that weren’t there.

It began with the appearance of a long-dead childhood pet. Sakura, a small orange turtle-like creature, crawled across the street. She stared after him, bewildered, until he turned a corner and was gone. Following him, she nearly collided with someone and let out a scream.

“Dad!”

Tammuz Hoole stood before her, clad in a robe as red as blood. Beside him was her mother Lilith, wearing a long dark coat. They held each other’s hands and peered at her with great sadness in their eyes.

“Mom…” Inanna moaned, her pain and longing instant. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Come home, Inanna,” Lilith pleaded. “We will welcome you back.”

“I can’t,” Inanna whispered. “I can’t. I’m not the person you knew. The daughter you raised… I’ve become something else. I don’t even know what I am anymore.”

“You don’t need to redeem yourself,” Tammuz said, holding out his hand to her. “You only need to return to us. We won’t turn you away.”

She gazed at his outstretched hand, then shook her head vigorously. “No. This isn’t real. You’re not really here. You can’t be!”

She squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, her parents were gone. Breathing hard, she gathered her wits about her and ran across the street, toward the source of the horror.

Something was happening there. She could see a strange glow emanating from a structure that seemed newly built. Wisps of energy ghosted about. There was blood on the ground surrounding it—blood and bodies. But there was no way of telling whether it was a hallucination or not.

A figure like the shadow of a woman—presumably the mysterious Onrai the cultist had spoken of—stood in the midst of all the carnage, enshrined atop a platform upon which lay a makeshift altar constructed from decaying steel. The source of the light was some sort of object on the altar, perhaps a crystal or even just a ball of energy. It was too bright for Inanna to tell.

“Hey!” Inanna called out to the shadowy figure. “Who are you? What’s happening?”

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

Onrai turned her head away from the ever-developing tear in the fabric of reality, her head soon locking onto the form of the woman who now questioned exactly what it was she was doing. A smile crossed her lips as she continued to observe before finally responding.

“Hello, Inanna. It’s been a long time.”She said, stepping away from the open rift as she withdrew the Sunstar from the plinth it was in and the stone returned into her form’s amorphous depths. “I did not expect you to be living here in exile.” She responded. “The deed is done. There is no more boundary between the planes. I can come and go as I wish. Won’t you join me...” she paused for a bit.

“my apprentice?”

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna gaped at “Onrai” in disbelief. Was this another hallucination, the nexus playing tricks on her? Or was this really… really happening?

“Vanessa?” she blurted. “Vanessa Vantai?”

It was true. Vanessa was here. Inanna was looking at her former master, the woman who had broken her, physically and mentally, all in the name of converting her to that vicious, grotesque, twisted cult of power the Sith believed in. Never mind that, once upon a time, Inanna had let her do it, believing she had no other choice.

"I am not your apprentice," Inanna growled. "Not anymore."

Beyond the shock of “Onrai”’s identity, there was the looming threat of what she was doing. There is no more boundary between planes. I can come and go as I wish. Had she opened a portal of some kind? A portal to where?

“What the hell are you talking about?” Inanna demanded. She jabbed a finger toward the Sunstar. “What is that thing, and what have you done with it?”

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

“At one time, yes, but not now.” She replied, her form shifting as color returned to her nonexistent skin, her appearance soon taking in the look that Inanna would have remembered. She laughed at the defiant statement of Inanna. “Oh, don’t kid yourself. You can try to be as good, wholesome, and pure as you want to be, but the truth is you will always be the same girl whose vices ruled her. I did what I did to you not because I wanted to but because I had to.” She frowned. “Your vices were too strong and the only way to break you off of them was overexposure.”

In response to the petulant jab of Inanna’s finger at the portal and the Sunstar, she sighed. “There’s still so little you understand, Inanna. But you will learn. What you see before you is a tear in the fabric of reality. A place specifically where other dimensions bleed into this one. The death of these cultists has allowed me to punch through the thinned fabric here at the center of the nexus. To what dimension I do not know, but that’s part of the fun.” She smiled, hand open as she eyed Inanna. “Come. Join me and we will explore the unknown - conquer it as become the gods we were meant to be.”

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

Oh yeah, sure. It was Inanna’s vices that were her real problem, rather than a symptom of much deeper issues. As usual, Vanessa was content to live in a fantasy, believing whatever she wanted to believe instead of seeking the truth. It was pointless to try and argue with her, so Inanna didn’t even try.

It didn’t matter anyway. Vanessa had killed these people in order to open a portal to another dimension. The pieces of the puzzle were beginning to fit together—the cultist’s calling her a “goddess” and her own words about becoming gods in another world. She had, for all intents and purposes, gone insane. But rather than disabling her, madness had only made her even more dangerous.

“If I go through this portal, it’ll be to stop you,” Inanna replied. “Assuming this tear in reality doesn’t destroy you first.”

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

"It won't." She said. "I'm not stupid, Inanna. There are rifts like this one that have already existed, but this is the first one I have been able to create myself. A puncture between dimensions, a hole between planes allowing for travel between them - and allowing what's contained within that dimension to come to this one." She sighed. "You couldn't save yourself from your sins. Your friends couldn't take you away - I sent you away. Why bother resisting when you can be ascended to godhood, Inanna? Imagine complete and total control over all the facets of the universe."

She motioned to the Shi'ido. "Nevertheless, if you really want to try and stop me, now's your chance." She began to slowly walk towards the rift in question. Whether this went to the netherworld, to otherspace, or to another dimension was unclear.

They would have to find out together.

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

Vanessa was always so sure of herself. So convinced that she knew what she was doing. But Inanna would believe this portal was stable when she saw it for herself.

Of course Vanessa brought up what had happened at her base on Nathema. The failed rescue mission. It was the most obvious, predictable response. You and your friends couldn’t stop me then, so how do you intend to stop me now? Yet for all her alleged omniscience, Vanessa remained arrogant. She didn’t know that things had changed. Inanna had learned from her mistakes and grown stronger. Much, much stronger.

“Sorry Vanessa, but I’m not interested,” she replied. The smirk on her face made it clear just how ridiculous and pathetic she considered her former master’s desire to be a goddess. “As long as I’m alive, you’re not going on any more homicidal rampages or wreaking havoc in any dimension.” It was quite a confident statement, and Inanna delivered it without hesitation. She wasn't going to put up with any more crap.

Vanessa turned and walked through the portal. Inanna started to follow her, then paused, glancing at the Sunstar. She might be able to absorb its energy, sealing the rift and trapping Vanessa inside. But if there really was a means of achieving "divinity" waiting for her on the other side, it wouldn’t be able to hold her for long. No, Inanna would have to go in and stop her.

As she passed through the portal into the unknown, her flesh rippling and writhing disgustingly at the exposure to strange energies, Inanna’s thoughts were of home and whether she would ever see her family again. Her husband and children would wonder what had become of her. She hoped that they would be able to come to terms with the loss if she never returned.

For now, she tried to focus on the matter at hand: stopping this mad harpy.

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

There would be a great ripple, a flash of light swarming around Inanna as there had been with Onrai herself - soon she would find herself amongst the ruins of a dead civilization, of a place once formed and left to be swallowed by the ancient sands that ran across this unnamed world. Like many elsewhere in here, a civilization had been born here and was eventually judged unfit, succumbing to the overarching maladies of the Charon or the predations of Ooradryl itself.

Ahead of her stood Onrai. "Welcome to the laboratory of the gods. Welcome to otherspace." She said, smiling. "Here countless species were formed and countless species have died. The strongest entered the galaxy as conquerors. The weakest were forgotten." She paused momentarily. "Hundreds of thousands of years of countless evolution all condensed in a single planet. Remarkable."

She smiled.

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna took a few moments to adjust to her new environment and get her bearings. She saw the ruins, looking not dissimilar to what they had left behind in Arctrius. Nimdok would have been eager to explore it all. But for Inanna, dead civilizations crumbling to dust held no such fascination.

“All right, Vanessa,” she began, standing with her feet apart in a combat stance. “I don’t know why you think I give a chit about any of this, let alone why you’re still talking. But this ends here.”

Reaching out with the Force, she commanded the sands around them. First Vanessa would feel the dust shifting beneath her, then the ground would begin to suck her down like quicksand. Her feet would disappear first, then her knees, and so on until she was totally submerged and smothering, buried in the sand.

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

"Think about it." She said as the sand began to devour her. "If one has the ability to break from plane to plane... then one has the ability to break to the place between planes." Her form was soon consumed entirely by the sand, and for a moment, things remained quiet.

Then around Inanna herself, smoky shadow expelled itself from the ground, filling the space she was in with dust and dirt. Onrai chose not to yet make an attack against her former apprentice, for this was a deliberate action, an attempt to incite her into potential mistakes. "Even after your turning your back on me, there was still a place for you at my table. And you rejected it. You spat in the face of the one who could grant you the ability to fulfill your deepest desires."

When the dust cleared, Onrai's hands were raised, bolts of the blackest lightning streaming from each towards Inanna, ready to tear at her very flesh with the power of their current.

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

Inanna leaped out of the way as soon as the shadows started steaming up around her, rolling her eyes as Vanessa spoke as if she were the victim.

“Oh, please. It’s a cheap, tacky table with decades’ worth of chewing gum stuck to the bottom of it. Why would I want a seat at that?”

Then came the black lightning. Not this chit again, Inanna thought to herself, raising her hands to catch it. Her flesh rippled, distorted by the energies as she absorbed the electricity.

Then, she did something that would make an archaeologist cry tears of blood. She reached toward the ruins and began to telekinetically dismantle them. She flung massive boulders of weather-beaten stone at Vanessa, then followed it up by commandeering a durasteel pole scavenged from the skeleton of a skyscraper and viciously clubbing Vanessa with it, each hit hard enough that it made the pole resonate like a gong. She spoke haltingly, her words interrupted by the strikes of her makeshift blunt weapon.

“When—are you going to learn—that you—are not the fething victim here?”

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

Onrai raised her fists to the boulders as they came, the projectiles shattering and fragmenting as she destroyed them. The strikes from the pole made her grimace as she was flung back, but on Inanna’s last strike, she grasped the pole, preventing it from smashing her.

“There wasn’t any victim. But there’s going to be now, Inanna.”

As Onrai advanced, the great rod of metal in her hands, another pair of arms grasped around Inanna like the tension of snake’s coils. Inanna would feel the very essence of her life force beginning to drain as the second manifestation of Onrai lifted her before slamming the Shi’ido on her neck with a duplex and maintaining the hold as both ended up on the group, the first manifestation still approaching with the section of skyscraper frame.

“Devouring one of Waru’s kin... sure does have its advantages...”

Once the first manifestation was close enough, it attempted to slam the post down onto Inanna overhead, the second manifestation dissolving into smoke as it did so.

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

“Well, you sure do act like a victim. All this whining about how ungrateful I am for betraying you—or is that just you being bitchy?”

Inanna released the pole as soon as Vanessa caught it, reaching for other projectiles to fling and harry the Sith with. Arms suddenly wrapped around her from behind, trying to drain her. She grinned, releasing the energy she had absorbed earlier in an explosive rush, then used her own weight to body slam the double like a wrestler.

She didn’t expect Vanessa to literally drop a house on top of her. The Shi’ido liquified, hiding underneath the duplex before the double could slam the post down on her head.

“What is this, the Wizard of Oz?” she yelled from beneath the building. “If anything, you’re the Wicked Witch and I’m Dorothy!”

The wind began to howl, whipping at both Vanessas faster and faster, gathering into a dust storm, then a tornado. Inanna wriggled out from under the house, her arms outstretched as she controlled the whirlwind. Laser focused on dealing with them, she was unaware that several somethings had entered the rift in order to follow them.

“GREETINGS, CITIZEN. THIS AREA IS UNSAFE. YOU MUST FIND SHELTER.”

Bewildered, she turned toward the sound of the robotic voice and found a spherical droid hovering nearby. Behind it were several more of its kind, and a few other droids that looked like trampolines. More still were pouring through the rift, along with Erakhian military types.

The sphere droid focused on the Vanessas.

"YOU ARE UNDER ARREST. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RESIST. WE ARE AUTHORIZED TO USE LETHAL FORCE IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY."

Onrai​

 

[Onrai]

The second manifestation had completely dissipated for now as Onrai sighed. “What the hell is a Wizard of Oz?” She asked. As the cyclonic vortex formed, a burst of energy was built up by the false goddess that was soon expelled outwards, dissipating the twister right as the droids attempted to shoot her.

“Oh come now.” A hand raised and the droids crumpled to the ground, their internal circuitry twisted and tended within their metallic shells. “It’s not that easy.” She reached a hand out towards Inanna and tensed her fingers, seeking to choke the life out of her former apprentice as she came closer before shoulder-blocking her with such force that the two flew back through the portal... which did not lead back to Erakhis.

No, they were along the shores of a charnel river, in a place Onrai had not visited since Akala had walked the face of the galaxy.

“This is new.” She paused momentarily. “I guess the portal’s still unstable... welcome to the afterlife, Inanna. We’re in the Netherworld.”

Inanna Harth

 

[Inanna Harth]

Before Inanna could strike back against the Force choke, Vanessa abruptly knocked them both back through the portal. Only they didn’t land in the ruins of Arctrius. Instead, they were on the banks of a river in a strange, dark place.

Vanessa’s words only served to baffle Inanna. “What?” she blurted, her voice echoing through the valley. “The Netherworld?... Are you serious?”

Evidently, she was. Inanna had heard Nimdok’s stories. His spirit had wandered this place as he searched for Arimanes Bosch, meeting him at last in a fortress near the Field of Blades. It was an incredibly dangerous place, full of monsters, ghosts, and other terrors.

“Does this mean that the portal on Erakhis… is closed?” she asked, wanting to know whether she was well and truly trapped here.

Onrai​