The Mega Family: Part 2: Daharain

Drawing by Caio Corsini Filhio

Daharain, also known as the king of Point Nemo was perhaps the most unusual member of the Mega Family. Unlike all of the others, he was a truly unique creature, being something of an amalgamation of many different species, some not of this earth. At the same time however he was also once a man too.

In fact he was once a great man. I am sure it will shock all of you reading to learn that he was none other than the famous Russian hero astronaut, Dominik Voskov.

Born in Russia in the year 1957. Dominik had been fascinated with space since he was a boy, which eventually led to his incredible career as an astronaut and unintentionally his time in The Mega Family. Dominik had already been to space 12 times, his first one at 18, before his ill fated voyage aboard the Blue Star in 1985. This new and improved vessel’s mission was to journey further than any previous vessel from either the Soviets or NASA had ever gone before, to the very brink of the solar system. Tragically as we all know it would barely get beyond the atmosphere, due to the ships new form of engine, the Darowsky model which it was thought would increase the vehicles speed, but instead almost burnt it out instantly. Its designer, the famous scientist Petrov Darowsky, regarded as truly one of the greatest scientists ever to have lived in his heyday insisted until his own death in 2010 that the problem was costs had been cut in the building of the ship rather than the design, as the Soviet Union was in the final stages of collapse. The Blue Star was seen as their final hope in some respects, but whether the engine was badly designed or not we will never know. Darowsky’s political leanings would cause the post Soviet and western space programmes to disown him and much of his work (even if other inventions of his were still utilised, they would always be donwplayed as his, or even credited to someone else) and the Darowsky model has never been tested, though some have argued that it has nothing to do with politics. In fact some have argued that Darowsky’s supposed genius was actually political propaganda. Whatever the cause however thanks to the engine, the space ship of the future barely got out of the planet before it began to spiral out of control.

One of the crew of over 50 on board named Grigor however had a decent understanding of Darowsky’s model, enough to make minor repairs to the ship, to take it back into the atmosphere of earth properly, but sadly not enough to land. Dominik who due to his experience on past missions was the captain of the vessel would use what little was left of the engine and the ships guidance system to take it to the most remote place he could think of, Point Nemo, as the ships explosion would be comparable to an atomic blast. Point Nemo is the name given to literally the most remote place on earth. It is so far from any landmass, that the nearest people to it are in the space station. It has long been used by both the Soviets and NASA as a dumping ground for unmanned space probes and crafts when they had run out of power, which was how Dominik knew of it. No one knew there was an island there however including Dominik, as not only had no one ever actually visited Point Nemo, but the magics of the island also concealed it somewhat, in a similar fashion to Jocaziah’s island.

Dominik would be hailed as a hero back home for his actions, though sadly he left no family behind, with both his parents having passed on at this point. He had also never married as he was so devoted to his duty.

The Blue Star would fall straight onto the island of Point Nemo, but before it crashed and exploded, it was stopped in the air by a magical force. An old and powerful wizard named Yakara to be exact. After stopping the ship in mid flight which he was only able to accomplish with the magics from Point Nemo. The wizard would safely escort the entire crew to the ground and dismantle the blue star completely to prevent it exploding.

The wizard then sheltered the astronauts for the next several weeks in his castle, though he did not return them to Russia, claiming that their survival could help expose knowledge of the supernatural to the wider world and that he would need time to think about how to return them. Yakara explained to the astronauts that this island was inhabited by many strange, magical creatures and that they would be better off staying with him.

He also told them that he was only visiting Point Nemo to catalogue the life forms here, but in truth Yakara was a renegade who had been performing horrific experiments on the islands unique life forms to try and use them for his own purposes. He had also been performing experiments on several humans he had captured from around the world too, hoping to perhaps splice the natives unique powers to humans. The astronauts had unfortunately given Yakara a fresh new supply of humans, that no one would think to look for.

Luckily a member of the crew named Sofia would discover the wizards past experiments when one of his test subjects briefly escaped onto the lower level of the wizards castle, though even with her warning the crew were still not able to escape in time, except for Sofia herself. Two of the crew including Grigor would subsequently be horrible mutated in the wizards lab. The rest however including Dominik would be freed with the help of an unlikely ally. A persistent Griffin named Caran, who was the dominant predator on this part of the island, measuring over 60 feet long and with a wingspan of over 80 feet long.

The beast had sensed the magics from the wizards tampering and attacked his tower not long after his arrival. It was an intense battle, but the wizard had been able to drive the Griffin away, though in order to do so and create a protective force field he had to sacrifice many of his most powerful magics and experiments.

The Griffin however would return many times in the next few weeks, and with a little unintentional help from Sofia, it would finally conquer its enemy. Sofia would outwit the wizard by causing a stampede of giant Minotaurs in the direction of his fortress. Whilst he was too busy trying to stop the beasts from trampling his castle, the Griffin proceeded to launch a final attack which caused the entire building to collapse, not only destroying the wizards work, but his means of escaping back home, though sadly this also left the crew of the Blue Star trapped.

Most of the crew meanwhile, along with a few of the wizards experiments escaped into the wider island at large. The wizards experiments including Grigor would relentlessly pursue the surviving astronauts and Yakara for many years afterwards, becoming among the most twisted and monstrous creatures on Point Nemo.

Dominik and the others meanwhile would be forced to survive the horrors of Point Nemo, whilst gradually uncovering its origins, through later encounters with Yakara who had escaped the Griffin and other natives of the island.

Point Nemo was originally the creation of Ares the God of war. Many thousands of years ago, before recorded history began, vastly powerful beings from another dimension would settle on our world. We would come to know them as gods and even incorrectly came to believe that they had created the world itself. The gods at least at first were only too happy to indulge in this lie, as they genuinely believed that they were helping to advance humanity and in some respects they did lay the groundwork at least for our earliest civilisations. Eventually however after several wars between the gods for dominion over our planet, even they came to believe that their presence on the earth was holding us back and left, though worship of them would still carry on for many thousands more years to come.

One of their number however, Ares disagreed on how to aid humanity. He believed that the only way the human race could protect itself is if it became the strongest warrior race in the cosmos, though it is known that Ares would attempt to do the same thing on many other worlds, supposedly for their own good too. Many, including both Professor Fang and the fourth Circus Master have said that they believed Ares was only building an army to protect himself out of fear that one day another life form may be able to rival the gods.

Either way, Ares made many attempts to overthrow the earth and if need be kill his fellow gods, which eventually led to him becoming an outcast. He fled to the most remote place on earth to escape the wrath of his kin, and constructed an island there, which would one day become Point Nemo.

Here Ares, using black magic would summon forth many horrifying creatures from the hellish and other realms, though he would also using the few minions he had left abduct other creatures from all over the world and bring them here, all in the hopes of building a great army that could claim the world.

Eventually however Ares would abandon this plan when he discovered the existence of the Mystic Realm, a portal said to lurk under the earth which can grant infinite power to whoever is the first to access it. (Many believe this is the real reason the Gods arrived on earth.)

Ares would work with another one of his minions to try and open the portal, which would lead to massive disruption on the earth, killing many other gods and causing the world to fall into anarchy. Ares would then take advantage of the chaos and appeal to humanity, telling them that it was the gods who had caused their calamity. Many humans and demons all over the world would side with Ares which would lead to one of the greatest wars in human history, with this being the final war that afterwards would convince the gods to flee the earth, after Ares had been driven off.

Point Nemo meanwhile would simply remain hidden. None of the other gods were even aware of its existence, due to its remote location, though Ares had also placed a forcefield around it, which would further help conceal it from the outside world. Ares himself had been greatly frustrated with the experiment, finding the creatures he had gathered there too difficult to control when compared with the humans, hence why he had abandoned it.

In the millenia that followed the gods departure numerous species of supernatural creature Ares had placed on the island would continue to thrive, though they would later face competition, as the numerous magics Ares had used to summon life forms from other dimensions made the barriers between realities weak in and around Point Nemo. Gradually more and more monsters from numerous different realms would fall through these weakened areas and in some cases they would go on to settle on and inhabit Point Nemo, wiping out life forms that had existed on the island for centuries before hand.

There had truly never been such a mix of different supernatural life forms as those together on Point Nemo. Only a god could have brought all of these different creatures together.

Among the documented creatures on the island included hundreds of species of beasts, monsters and demons.

Now all three words in our modern age have come to refer to any savage, twisted, unnatural creature, but their original, true meanings refer to something far more specific (though forgive me if in the past I have used the term somewhat interchangeably.)

Demon refers to any creature born in the hellish realm. Our universe as I explained earlier is part of an Omniverse, specifically the Omega Omniverse, which is made up of different multiverses.

Each multiverse within the Omega Omniverse however has different laws, and are also referred to as realms. Our universe is part of what is known as the natural realm, and all of the realities in this realm follow what would refer to as the natural laws, whilst all of the creatures that exist within them from humans to Dinosaurs are referred to as naturals. The hellish realm meanwhile has its own distinct laws, and all of the creatures that exist within it are known collectively as demons, and are all drawn towards malevolence, though as we have seen with Lekinsa. It is possible for demons to fight that urge. Creatures like vampires, vandals, vasteeth, werewolves, succubi, inccubi and many hundreds of other supernatural creatures fall under the category of demons.

Beasts meanwhile are creatures that come from the savage realm. They are designed to hunt. They are not outright sadistic and are capable of affection and even love between members of the same species, but they are all driven by an urge to hunt. For many beasts it is all that they live for, though just as some demons can fight their urges to destroy and darker impulses, then some beasts are capable of fighting their desires. Centuries ago a group of lesser beasts launched an invasion of our planet, but they were defeated by the gods, who kept some of them around as pets. Among the known species of beasts that invaded earth included, Centaurs, Cyclops, Griffins, Rok’s, Minotaurs, Giants, Gorgons, Manticores, Questing Beasts, Kholkikos, Dracaene, Chimera, and Cerebrus.

Monsters meanwhile come from outside of our Omniverse. No one knows exactly where they come from. There have been many different theories, some suggesting that they were the creation of a rival creature to the creator of our Omniverse, others suggesting that they were the survivors of another Omniverse that fell.

Either way Monsters are driven by a desire to destroy all life forms in the Omniverse from naturals to demons, to angels, to beasts to gods. They have destroyed countless worlds across all realms, though not all monsters are united. They are in fact split up into numerous different groups, scattered across the omniverse. Several different groups have attempted to invade the earth at numerous different points, some survivors of which helped make up Ares’ intended army. Just like beasts and demons, there are thousands of different species of monsters. Among the most famous species include Echidna’s, Typhons, Hydras and Cecelia’s.

Whilst demons, beasts and monsters make up the bulk of life forms on point nemo, there were creatures from many other realms and realities, some of which are completely unknown to humanity too. The most notable of these was the hideous entity known simply as the Bloop, which was named after the noises it made.

The Bloop swam in the waters just outside the island. In their entire time on the island, none of the astronauts ever saw what the Bloop looked like completely as it was so massive, it was only ever able to partially emerge from the water.

Despite its size however the Bloop would still devour any creature that attempted to escape the island, regardless of how small they may have seemed. It is believed that it was created or rather captured by Ares from an unknown realm to be a guard dog of the island. Whatever its true origin, the creature most certainly does not belong to any known demon, beast or monster species on record. It is also feared by all life forms on the island too.

There was also a population of humans on Point Nemo too beyond the astronauts. These were descendants of followers of Ares who had vowed to fight for him no matter what, but who he had simply forgotten about when discovering the mystic realm. Over time however in order to survive, the humans would both interbreed with demons and beasts and alter themselves using magic into numerous different species.

The astronauts meanwhile would arguably only survive for the first few years on Point Nemo thanks to the centaur “god”, Hausan. Unlike other species of centaurs Hausen’s species were giants. Growing to over 20 feet tall and weighing in at over 30 tons. They lacked any kind of speech, like most cyclops (centaurs were members of the cyclops family.) The giant centaurs however though once top predators, had been usurped by the Kholkikos who had out competed and hunted their race to extinction, until Hausen was the only one left. The Kholkikos despite their reptillian appearances, were not related to Dragons in any way.

Dragons are Dinosaurs that have been transformed into magical creatures. Exposure to enough magic will eventually transform any natural creature into magical one. Wizards are the magical form of humans, whilst Wyverns are the magical form of Pterosaurs, Drakes are Synapsids, Wyrms are snakes and Amphitere’s are birds.

Kholkikos meanwhile, whilst reptillian in appearance are beasts from the savage realm. On average they grow to 60 feet long, have a body shaped like a Brontosaurus, a thick, flexible snake like neck and a large head shaped more like a meat eating Dinosaur, with two horns coming out from the back of the head. They also all possess a mane of metallic feathers at the top of their necks and a long row of metallic spikes down their backs until the tips of their tails. Very few monsters on the island are capable of standing up to a fully grown Kholkikos, not just due to their power, but also their bites which contain a potent type of poison that can infect almost any life form, supernatural or otherwise. Unlike the other beasts who fled here because they couldn’t compete, the Kholkikos were the kings of their worlds, and only fell through here by accident.

Hausen had only been spared the fate of the rest of his people thanks to a race of green skinned human/beast hybrids known as the Tanselia, who rescued him from a Kholkikos attack after his family were slaughtered. These creatures were also nearing extinction. They spared Hausen not out of altruism, but rather because they hoped to make the beast their guardian and protector. In order to do that however, they would have to make it stronger to survive against the Kholkikos, through their own powerful and unique black magics.

Unfortunately for the Tanselia any attempt to inject the centaur with black magics was met with resistance from the animal, and not having the resources to simply infect the beast through force. The Tanselia resorted to tricking the centaur by injecting the black magics into its prey, so that when it ate them it would be infected. They would also gradually gain control of Hausen through different magics using this method too.

Hausen would eventually become powerful enough to slay any beast that came near, and his protection allowed the Tanselia to build a large village, though even then it still had to exist within a large cave system.

The astronauts would have their first encounter with the Tanselia when the hybrid creatures attempted to hunt them for sport. Ten of the astronauts who were out fetching food would be attacked, with nine of them killed in the hunt. The last a woman named Rachael Alexander was captured by the brutes instead.

Rachael was the most experienced astronaut of the entire crew after Dominik, and she was only able to survive longer against the Tanselia, and actually managed to trick and kill one of their hunters thanks to her greater experience. Whilst she had obviously never had to deal with monsters before now, she had been part of a previous mission which almost went wrong like the Blue Star. That experience, at such a young age, had taught Rachael how to keep a cooler head in a crisis ever since, which ultimately allowed her, unlike the others to not only not be as intimidated by the hunters tactics, but to dispatch them when she could.

Sadly however even Rachael’s hard demeanour was not enough to save her from the Tanselia’s skills, but the monsters were nevertheless impressed with how she had managed to kill one of their own, and decided to make her the latest sacrifice to their centaur god. Normally they would feed it animals and monsters they had captured and spiked with their dark and controlling magics. (Even when it was under their control, the centaur would still recoil in horror if they tried to inject it with dark magics directly as its natural preservation instincts kicked in.)

Now and again however they would punish one of their criminals, or members of rival tribes by offering them up to the centaur.

Dominik and the others launched an attack on the village in response, but unfortunately due to the hunters skills and the natural defences provided by the cave, the astronauts were unable to rescue Rachael in time and she was offered up to Hausen.

The horse/man like creature took her away deep into its cave system, but Rachael would escape by throwing a rock in the centaurs eye when it went in to feed on her. Fleeing deeper into the caves, she eventually met up with Dominik and the other astronauts who followed her in there. The only other way out of the cave however, was into the area that Hausen had been protecting the Tanselia from that was crawling with all kinds of monsters and creatures. Still they had no choice.

Hausen and the Tanselia would follow the astronauts into the jungle on the other end. Following a battle with a particularly vicious Kholkikos which Hausen was only barely able to kill thanks to help from Rachael, the giant centaur would be left wounded and near death, with Rachael surprisingly coming to its aid.

Hausen’s powers were already beginning to fade as it had been too long since he had last fed on their magics. Rachael and the others had known that from their dealings with the smaller centaurs that these beasts had a policy where they would help those who had saved them. Despite being savage and brutal they still possessed a code of honour. Rachael had only helped the creature in the first place in hopes that this policy applied to the giant species too.

The centaur at first still tried to attack Rachael when she got near, but it was too weak to put up much of a fight. In the time it took her and the others to nurse the creature, the Tanselia’s magics began to fade from its system. Now in control of its senses again, the centaur repaid its debt and did its best to get the astronauts to safety out of the jungle, evading not just the monsters and beasts, but the Tanselia too.

Once they had escaped, the centaur ironically would come to protect the astronauts, developing a very close bond with Rachael. Sadly however without the Tanselia’s magics, it was much more vulnerable, and there would even be a few times that the astronauts would have to help the one eyed giant. Hausen also did not stay with the astronauts all of the time either and at times months could pass before they would encounter the beast again. Still he always returned to them at some point.

Whilst the centaur may have been their greatest ally, the astronauts greatest adversary was the wizard Yakara who be responsible for the deaths of more members of the team than anyone else. Arguably Yakara’s vilest action against the astronauts was the creation of the Spartoi, undead warriors who were born from a spell using the teeth of the Kholkikos.

No Spartoi prior to Yakara’s had walked the earth since before recorded human history had begun. During the age of the gods Ares had one loyal pet Kholkikos that he raised since it was an infant, though even then it was still somewhat unpredictable. Prior to his betrayal, the gods would use the Kholkikos to guard the golden fleece, until it was eventually slain by Jason (with help from Hera.) It’s teeth afterwards however were used to create the Spartoi who would hunt Jason all over the earth for the rest of his life. Even the magic of his witch wife Medea was not able to hold them at bay, which eventually led to Jason betraying Medea in the hopes that the Spartoi would hunt for her instead. Medea however would get back at Jason by murdering their children as part of a ritual to become a goddess. Alone, and heartbroken over the loss of his children, Jason would be picked off by the Spartoi not long after. Those the Spartoi killed’s spirits are forced to travel to Limbo, a special kind of realm, which was not the work of the creator of the omniverse like the other realms. It was instead the manifestation of trillions of life forms misery and suffering. Humans and all natural creatures are capable of producing psychic energy from their minds. Though it is often so small it has no impact on the world or universe around it at large. The combination of trillions of sentient life forms in not just our universe, but all of creation’s psychic energy, produced when they are miserable or suffering, would over time form into a new reality made from our despair and grief. The psychic energy is often unable to survive long enough in our reality, so it will either dissipate or be cast out of our universe where it will quietly fade in the nothingness between universes. In this instance however again there was so much energy over time that it created a new reality in that nothingness. At the same time our collective joy and happiness would also create a place known as Nirvana, whilst our anger and hatred would create another realm known as Thymos.

All three of these realms are much more difficult to access than the likes of the hellish or savage realms, but the great power of the Kholkikos would allow Ares to create this link between Limbo and the Spartoi. Those who are trapped in Limbo meanwhile will experience a far greater sorrow and grief than is possible in the natural realm. Literally the combined misery of trillions of life forms at once. It is the worst suffering in the entire Omega Omniverse.

Yakara knew exactly what he was unleashing upon the astronauts. He genuinely despised them that much. Travelling to Point Nemo had taken him many centuries. Most people, even those who were aware of the supernatural doubted its existence, but Yakara, through his forensic research at the black mosque, (whose history we will explore later.) Knew the truth about the island and knew that there was a treasure trove of ancient magics and spells left over by Ares and the monsters and creatures that had come to live here.

Now that his spell to return him home had been destroyed however, Yakara could not simply create another as it had taken him years, utilising spells from all over the earth to not only travel the distance to Point Nemo, but locate it in the first place.

All those years however had been a waste as now he was not only trapped, but largely defenceless too after the destruction of his fort. Arguably Yakara’s hatred was the only thing that kept him alive.

Tragically Yakara would get the teeth of a Kholkikos to use from one that Hausen had killed in order to save Rachael. Yakara’s Spartoi would follow the astronauts all over the island. No matter how many times the undead warriors would be destroyed or trapped somewhere, they would always find a way to return. Dozens of the astronauts were killed and sent to Limbo, whilst others even killed themselves to avoid being sent there.

The only way to destroy a Spartoi would be to find the original teeth that they had been grown from, but sadly despite their attempts to do so, the astronauts were never able to find their archenemy unless he wanted them too.

Aside from the wizard, another great, though perhaps more unusual threat to the astronauts, and one that would play an important role in the creation of Daharain, was the alien monstrosity known as Zaskeria.

It would be wrong to refer to Zaskeria as an individual. It was in fact an attempt to save the last remnants of a once great species, known as the Zaskeria. With their planet becoming uninhabitable and their being no inhabitable planets for many light years beyond their solar system. The Zaskeria sent a space ship that contained the DNA samples of billions of their kind. It’s job was to find a hospitable, but uninhabited planet and use those cells to create perfect copies of the originals, allowing their race to endure. Unfortunately on its long voyage, the Zaskeria ship would be damaged in a collision with an asteroid. The ship would then spiral out of control, eventually reaching our solar system in the year 1975, where it collided with an earth shuttle from NASA. The news was understandably covered up from the public at the time so as not to cause panic over a possible alien invasion.

The earth shuttle’s passengers survived the collision however and would investigate the alien craft. There several of them would be infected by the aliens DNA banks. After the damage sustained by both the asteroid and the collision, most of the DNA banks had collapsed, but those that didn’t desperately tried to find a way for the DNA to survive and using the last of the ships power attempted to grow them. Unfortunately without the full power of the ship, and due to radiation leaks on board. The DNA was incapable of growing into proper replicas of the aliens they were taken form and most of them died. A few however would be fused together and then onto one of the astronauts by the machinery in order to provide some kind of stability. This human quickly degenerated into a hideous monster that attacked the rest of the crew causing the already weakened ship to crash into the earth.

Just as Dominik would later do, the last of the brave astronauts on board piloted the ship into Point Nemo. The entire crew were killed in the crash, except for the alien/human hybrid that remained buried under the ground where the ship crashed.

It would be inadvertently freed, ironically by the astronauts themselves when they investigated the crashed vehicle for any equipment they could use.

The alien upon being freed attempted to create copies of itself using the equipment from the ship (it possessed memories of all the aliens that’s DNA had been used to create it, hence why it referred to itself as the Zaskeria.)

It would create a small army of alien monsters, though many of these creatures were even more deformed and twisted than it was. The presence of these aliens would help throw the already fragile balance of life on Point Nemo into absolute havoc.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the astronauts however. Over their course of their adventures, Dominik and Rachael would fall in love with one another and eventually have a daughter named Casina.

They hadn’t wanted too. Bringing a child into the world of Point Nemo in many respects was arguably the cruellest thing they could have done, and Casina would have a very tough childhood.

From the very beginning when she was just an infant she was captured by an ancient species of vampire, known as the Lamia. These hideous monsters, who had thankfully been hunted to extinction outside of Point Nemo, had a taste for infant blood. One of them captured the baby in the hopes of feeding off of it for a long time. The abomination lived at the top of the highest mountain on Point Nemo that’s cliffs were populated by Lamia’s and other horrors such as Harpies. It was probably the most difficult journey for Dominik and Rachael, who was still recovering from giving birth, but in the end they rescued their baby and from that day forth they became renewed in their desire to return home.

Despite the horrors of Point Nemo, the astronauts had long given up hope of ever returning home and had almost become accustomed to the monsters. During Rachael’s pregnancy they had attempted to delude themselves into thinking that they could raise Casina here, but it soon became obvious that was out of the question. At the very least Casina always felt loved by her parents who would have done anything for their child. Sadly some children born into even the greatest luxury are not guaranteed that from their parents.

Still Dominik and Rachael’s desire to free their child from this nightmare would lead to them and the other astronauts to take greater risks in trying to harness the unpredictable and dangerous magics of Point Nemo.

Eventually when Casina was 5 (which marked ten years in total the astronauts had been trapped on the island.) The astronauts who by this stage now numbered less than 30 would discover an entrance to Ares temple. Long buried by movements in the earth. The temple was feared by all on the island, including even Yakara, but the astronauts, now running low on men and women and hope braved the former war gods temple.

They soon discovered the secrets to a spell that could potentially transport them back home to Russia. Ares had used it to transport people and creatures from the mainland.

Unfortunately however whilst they would succeed in sending most of their party back home, including both Rachael and Casina, Dominik sadly would not be able to join them. The Russian’s reckless use of magics would inadvertently free an ancient creature that even Ares had found to be too dangerous and unpredictable. A Dragon named Koroi. Dragons were very rare on the island, as they and the Gods had been enemies that had fought for control over the earth for centuries. The Dragons had ultimately won out in China, whilst the Gods had won out in Europe and Africa.

Still Ares hoped he could use this Dragon, who was a notorious a renegade in Europe. Koroi had grown to despise the Gods so much he wanted to burn the planet to dust just to spite them. Naturally he rejected Ares offer of an alliance, forcing the war god to capture him (which he was only able to do through sacrificing many of his minions.)

Koroi was placed into a special kind of suspended animation until Ares could either find a way to control the Dragon or at least unleash it on his rival gods. Ultimately this never happened and Koroi was simply left to rot.

Unfortunately the astronauts use of the now unstable magics in the temple caused Koroi’s prison to collapse. The Dragon proceeded to rampage its way through the temple, destroying it and all of its magics, before Dominik and six other astronauts including Sophia and Rachael were able to escape.

Hausen would attempt to defend the Astronauts as he had always done, but tragically he was no match for the Dragon that easily slaughtered the centaur.

Koroi would subsequently go on to butcher hundreds more life forms on Point Nemo. All in an attempt to draw Ares out by destroying his creations and because the sadistic monster simply enjoyed it.

All of the astronauts except for Sofia and Casina, who would both be sent home using Ares transportation device in the temple, just before Koroi destroyed it were killed by the Dragon. Knowing that he could never reunite with his daughter who would be raised by Sophia back home, and overcome with guilt at what he had helped unleash and Rachael’s death. Dominik even contemplated killing himself, but he would be saved ironically by his old archenemy, Yakara.

The wizard was terrified of Koroi, having read the legends of the beast, it was why he never attempted to go near the temple. Now however with no choice, Yakara had scoured its remains and discovered small samples of the spell needed to trap Koroi that Ares had used. Still he would need help and with no individual monster on the island being capable of defeating Koroi. Yakara decided to make one.

With the aid of his Spartoi, Yakara finally captured the broken and defeated Dominik and would use the astronaut as a test subject in creating a new monster.

Utilising the magics he had accumulated and the samples of monster, beast, demon and even a small sample of the Bloop’s DNA. Yakara would transform Dominik into a hybrid the likes of which had never existed before. The key to merging all of these different life forms DNA together however came from the alien human hybrids, the Zaskeria’s technology as well as his magics. Samples of their DNA would also be used as well.

Eventually after several agonizing weeks, Dominik was transformed into a hideous, gigantic creature that Yakara would christen Daharain, which in the language of magic meant abomination.

In his new form, Dominik stood over 30 feet tall, and weighed in at over 40 tons. He resembled a gigantic amphibian like creature, with a frog like head, clawed fingers and hands, and spikes down its back.

Whilst Daharain may not have been the largest creature on the island, the rare combination of magics and creatures that made up its body gave it completely unique powers.

Sadly however Daharain was completely enslaved to its master, at least at first and the wizard instantly sent it to attack Koroi. The two monsters clashed in a vicious battle that took them all over the island. Whilst Daharain was still not quite a match for Koroi, he was aided by his master who would now and then jump in and distract the Dragon when it had the advantage over Daharain.

Ultimately the wizards spell was able to trap both monsters whilst they were in the middle of fighting with one another in a giant cavern, and they would remain frozen in this state, unconscious and unaware, right in the centre of the island for another five years. Yakara would also bury both under an avalanche of rocks to make sure that they could not be revived.

During the time they were imprisoned, Yakara tried to find a way off the now devastated Point Nemo, but sadly for him virtually none of Ares magics were left, at least not enough to take him across the vast oceans ahead, and by the Bloop.

Eventually in the year 2001 however, a new visitor would arrive on Point Nemo. The legendary demon hunter and saviour of Timbuktu. Vanessa Shoniwa.

At its height from the 12th to the 16th centuries, Timbuktu was the centre of Islamic learning and helped advance mankind’s knowledge in many areas from physics, to geography, to medicine, to natural history. It also through its trade routes helped to build up and sustain the Mali empire too.

Sadly however Timbuktu’s golden age would come to an end in the 16th century and it would subsequently suffer from exploitation from many different global powers for generations afterwards, as well as intense poverty.

Still the city’s reputation as a strange, almost mythical place would also live on for centuries to come, especially in the west, where many even came to believe it was a mythical place like Atlantis.

Ironically however, even the most extravagant and romantic tales about Timbuktu would always leave out one of its greatest accomplishments.

From the 12th to the 16th centuries, the supernatural was studied and explored in great detail in Timbuktu’s legendary dark mosque, which lay in the vast desert just outside the city.. Timbuktu itself did not have a particularly strong history with the supernatural prior to the Mali Empire, but when it became the centre for learning, then magic was seen as just as valid a subject to study and understand as any other by its leaders. There was always a controversy about the dark mosque however, hence why unlike the other Universities and mosques, it was situated outside the city in case anything went wrong.

Still despite the controversy, the dark mosque soon became vital to Timbuktu and the Mali empire’s economy. Vampire and demon hunters as well as warlocks and witches would come from all over the world for the mosque’s resources and knowledge and the sales its owners made on spells and magical weapons would increase the cities wealth and prestige to unprecedented levels.

Unfortunately however the black mosque would also make Timbuktu many powerful enemies too. Many African demonic sects and rogue warlocks and witches wanted Timbuktu gone for sharing their secrets to the masses and limiting their hold over them. After decades of attacks, one of the cities enemies was able to infiltrate the mosque and shut down its defence, allowing hordes demons and warlocks and witches to destroy and loot the legendary dark mosque.

The loss of the black arts left the city more vulnerable and open to attack by enemies of the Mali empire, which eventually led to the cities collapse by the end of the 16th century. The remains of the dark mosque meanwhile would later sink beneath the earth and be largely airbrushed from history until the late 20th century when Vanessa Shoniwa would work hard to uncover the dark mosque’s remains.

Vanessa belonged to one of the few rich families in Timbuktu, though her family had only moved there in the early 60s, just before Vanessa was born.

Her parents Laura and Askin were experts on the occult, and had made their money from the sale of spells and magical weapons, ironically like the leaders of Timbuktu had done centuries earlier. Naturally they viewed the site of the dark mosque’s ruins as a potential gold mine. Askin was actually born and raised in Timbuktu many decades ago, whilst Laura came from England. They first met in the 50s when he helped her family deal with their haunted house, which was also her first encounter with the supernatural.

Many had visited the site of the dark Mosque for similar reasons throughout the centuries. What was left of the Mosque could still be accessed through a small cave in the vast desert just outside the city. Sadly however all those who explored it, had never returned. Vanessa’s parents wisely spent years investigating the site before they even attempted to investigate with this in mind. Due to how dangerous the Mosque was and their other projects and work, it would take Vanessa’s parents over 15 years to even come close to penetrating the black mosque. Vanessa would be born during this time and though she was raised in Timbuktu which became her parents new base of operations, she would travel all over the world during her youth.

Tragically however Askin would be killed in the year 1985 by an old enemy that he had first fought, many decades ago before he left Timbuktu named Mangrocia. Despite being a fairly low level demon, that Askin had easily run out of the city when he was just a teenager. Mangrocia managed to get the better of Askin by making one of the warlocks spells turn against him.

Laura was crushed by the death of her husband and soon abandoned all research into the Mosque. Vanessa however would later continue the research towards the end of the 80s. She had always wanted to follow in her parents footsteps, and had shown considerable promise at a young age. She first accompanied her father on a vampire hunt when she was only 16 years old.

Vanessa continued her father and mothers already extensive research and by the year 1992 she finally felt confident enough to enter the dark mosque. Her mother had no idea, and would have obviously stopped her if she’d known. Laura had never approved of Vanessa following in their footsteps. Whilst she had helped teach the young Vanessa about vampires, demons and the supernatural for her own protection. She desperately wanted her daughter to have a normal life. Askin taking Vanessa on a vampire hunt when she was younger had even let to a temporary split between the couple.

The dark mosque was filled with violent spirits and spectres from both humans and demons alike, who whose spirits had been both kept and twisted by the black arts around them.

Unlike the others before her, Vanessa was able to combat the spirits by thoroughly researching the many demon species that had lived in the area throughout its history, some of whom had gone extinct since the fall of Timbuktu. Again however it was her parents had actually done about 90 percent of the work, she just finished what they had started. In order to fully exorcise a demonic spirit you needed to include whatever it was vulnerable too in life, IE particular metals, magics, elements in the exorcism spell. Many hunters going into the mosque had been caught off guard when confronted with an obscure, or otherwise dead species of demon. If just one demon survived in the mosque then it could revive all the other spirits too.

Fortunately however thanks to her parents and her own tireless work, Vanessa was able to banish all of the dark spirits from the mosque and gain access to its surviving records which, coupled with her parents wealth, she used to set up her own guild in Timbuktu to train vampire and demon killers and warlocks from all over the world. This guild would even be christened the dark mosque in tribute to the original.

Vanessa’s version of the dark mosque would during its heyday in the 90s train hundreds of vampire killers and release knowledge about the black arts that had been lost for centuries.

Unlike the previous dark mosque, Vanessa was not happy to sell the secrets to anyone who paid high enough. She would do her best to ensure that they would only be used in the battle against evil, and made sure all of her students were trust worthy and vetted before being giving access. She also did not feel happy charging anyone for the knowledge when they were desperate, unlike her parents, but sadly as time went on and she ate through her parents savings, she was forced to.

Still the money from the mosque didn’t just go to Vanessa. She would make sure that it would go into helping others in Timbuktu, which still suffered greatly from poverty and deprivation. This helped to make her something of a hero to the city, albeit a controversial one due to her use of dark magic.

Laura was proud of her daughter, frequently telling her that she was a better person than either of her parents, who had only really ever profited off of their knowledge of the supernatural. Still she continued to urge Vanessa to quit, fearing that even with the success of the mosque, Vanessa was getting in way over her head.

Sadly this would be proven to be correct to some extent when Vanessa began her search for the legendary magical island of Point Nemo,

Vanessa first found out about Point Nemo in 1995. It took her and her students years to uncover the full extent of the black mosque’s archives, but she would discover Yakara’s research on the island, and soon became obsessed with it finding it. Vanessa claimed that she wanted to make sure that her students were able to find this island containing unique magics before any other dark power was.

Underneath her altruism however there was also a certain arrogance to Vanessa at this point in her life. She had let her previous successes get to her head. Even though it had mostly been her parents hard work that had actually allowed her to banish the dark spirits from the mosque. Vanessa felt she had to do something equally as impressive as claiming the legendary dark mosque to make sure the people of Timbuktu didn’t forget about her.

Vanessa’s work on finding Point Nemo, involved finding a way to improve and perfect a teleportation spell. These spells had been common to the people of Timbuktu, as it was also a remote location, surrounded by miles and miles of desert, which since the fall of the original mosque had become inhabited by many dangerous supernatural creatures. The teleportation spell was how students from all over the world had made their way to Vanessa’s mosque in the first place.

However using that same magic to get to the legendary lost island of Point Nemo was trickier as the magic that covered the island would interfere with any other spells and enchantments from outside. Finally the distance from Point Nemo was also greater and therefore required much stronger magics anyway. It took her seven years, but by 2002, Vanessa had seemingly managed to complete the spell. Even then however it could still only take one person or object towards Point Nemo, but Vanessa had cleverly thought of a way round that by using the spell to transport her own private plane containing dozens of people with her.

She obviously was not going to travel to this mysterious magical land alone, but she made sure that everyone on the mission understood how dangerous it was. Sadly however, much like Vanessa they had all come to believe their own hype and were only too eager to go on this exciting new mission.

Over 30 people in total who were students or former students in Vanessa’s mosque and who came from all over the world joined Vanessa on the trip. The spell to take them to the island would be performed by Vanessa from a book (as it was impossible to memorise) on her private plane, as it circled around the mosque for 30 mins before it eventually teleported them half way around the world to the most remote island on earth.

As soon as they arrived however their plane would be attacked by several Lamia’s, which eventually caused it to crash. Vanessa’s book was also stolen by one of the Lamia in the clash. Despite all of their years battling vampires, demons, zombies and monsters from all over the world, nothing could prepare Vanessa or any of her students for Point Nemo.

Most of them were picked off dealing with the horrors of the island. Eventually however Vanessa would be aided by Yakara, who sensing they presence of new magics on the island instantly headed for them.

Appearing as a kindly old wizard to them, like he had done to the astronauts decades prior. The wizard similarly duped Vanessa and her friends into thinking he was their side and was even able to convince them, to let him help in finding the Lamia that took their book.

The vampires meanwhile started to fight each other over this rare book of magics which contained many spells from the legendary black mosque. In the ensuing conflict one of the vampires started to read from the book in an effort to scare off its rivals, which ended up unleashing dark magics upon the island, that mixed in with its already unstable magical structure led to great upheaval on the island, including the release of both Koroi and Daharain.

Daharain, now freed from his masters control instantly went after the wizard. At first Vanessa and the others naturally sided with Yakara, seeing him as nothing but an animal, but a later attack from Koroi who resumed his quest to destroy the island, led to Vanessa being separated from the others and rescued by Daharain. The beast found it hard to communicate with Vanessa, but its behaviour in caring for her and tending to her wounds, instantly let Vanessa know that there was something else under the surface. With Daharain’s permission, Vanessa performed a mind reading spell which allowed her to access his thoughts.

Upon seeing and feeling even just a fraction of the pain, Dominik had endured, Vanessa burst out into tears and vowed she would do whatever she could to help him.

Yakara meanwhile, working with the others, would eventually retrieve the book, following a confrontation with the vampires and Koroi. Yakara however would meet his end when he was devoured by the Dragon, but just before his death, he had attempted to cast a spell to take himself away from the island, which when interrupted instead created multiple portals around the island, allowing many of its horrors to escape, including Koroi, who fled through one portal to Timbuktu. Fortunately however Daharain, along with Vanessa and the other survivors followed the Dinosaur, and working together were finally able to slay Koroi, though it was Daharain who struck the killing blow, finally avenging Rachael and Hausen.

Vanessa soon shut the portals, but for the next few years, she and Daharain would have to work together to try and find and slay the numerous monsters from Point Nemo that had escaped through the portals all over the world. Many of these demons had died out in the rest of the world, with the secrets of how to fight them being lost, whilst others were entirely new life forms.

Vanessa’s reputation understandably took a huge knock. Even in her native Timbuktu alone, Koroi’s rampage had seen her go from a hero to villain overnight. She became determined to try and make up for it above all else, though deep down she felt she never would.

Aside from clearing up her own messes, Vanessa devoted all her time to trying to find a way to cure Daharain’s situation, but sadly she never came close, as the magics used to twist him were too alien and powerful even for the black mosque.

In time Daharian would return to Point Nemo, believing that was where he belonged. In many ways it had also become home for him now.

Fortunately however his second stint on Point Nemo would see the mutant finally defeat his archenemy Yakara. Though the wizard had been devoured by Koroi, his spirit survived and attempted to harness multiple different forms of magic and dark energy from multiple realities that were now linked to Point Nemo. In life he had never attempted this as it was too risky, but now that he was dead, the wizard had nothing to lose. Whilst his spirit was very nearly torn to bits, in some ways being a ghost allowed him to experiment to a greater extent that he ever had done when he was alive, and eventually he soon gained a level of power greater than he ever had in life.

Thankfully however his power was still unstable, and before he could fully master it, Vanessa and Daharain working together would find a way to disconnect him from the power and trap his soul. Though Vanessa wanted to take his soul back to Timbuktu and punish the wizard for his crimes. Daharain threw the pleading wizards spirit into the darkest hell dimension that was connected to the island to suffer for all eternity. Even after becoming a monster physically, Daharain had still never given into his demonic urges and remained the good man he was at heart. When dealing with Yakara however, his hatred was too great. He made it clear to Vanessa that even if she had cured him, he would have done the same thing after Yakara condemned so many of his friends to eternal torment in limbo. Personally I don’t see anything wrong in what Daharain did, as unlike the astronauts that Yakara condemned, he did deserve his fate, but Vanessa argued that what he did was never acceptable and things would remain frosty between them for a short while.

Eventually however Vanessa would turn to Daharain again when she needed to place the renegade, magical Tyrannosaur Jocaziah on Point Nemo. Vanessa hoped that the Dinosaur could help Daharain, as Yakara’s experiments had led to more monsters emerging on Point Nemo, with Daharain almost being unable to deal with them himself. Vanessa needed to get the Tyrannosaur somewhere he wouldn’t draw too much attention and felt this was a way of dealing with both of her problems.

However Daharain at first had trouble working with Jocaziah, as Koroi had been a Tyrannosaurus. In time however Daharain saw that Jocaziah wasn’t the same and the two forged a strong, if somewhat unlikely friendship battling against the demons on Point Nemo.

After a year of adventures together however, the two would soon encounter another terror from beyond the stars, far greater than any they had ever faced before. A monster so great, that even their combined might was no match for it.

Fortunately however they would be aided by the strange, magical robot named Kosarak and in the next chapter we shall explore his history.