Charcaria, the fourth member of the Mega Family like Kosarak did not originate from this earth. Rather she came from one of the worlds within ours.

As we explained earlier in Jocaziah’s chapter, every single world within our universe is a mini universe in a way, as each planet contains what are essentially mini worlds that can only be accessed through one portal. There are 25 documented mini worlds in total across our earth alone.

Charcaria’s mini world meanwhile, which we would come to know as the 8th sea’s portal existed on the famous lost 8th continent known as Zealandia. Whilst Zealandia is completely submerged in our age, it only sunk 35 million years ago. Prior to that it was teeming with life, and many of its life forms, from Synapsids to Dinosaurs to prehistoric mammals would escape the disasters that killed them off through the portal to this mini world. When Zealandia did sink however, it would flood the mini world too. This is one of the few documented examples of a mini world not being able to escape the calamities that had befallen its host planet.

In time Zealandia’s mini world became an ocean, with five small islands dotted around it for the Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals to exist on. Naturally competition would become a lot more fierce on these isolated lands.

The submerging of Zealandia however would in time lead to marine life forms being able to enter the portal too and surviving. Among these included the mighty Megalodon, a prehistoric species of Shark that could grow to over 60 feet long and weighed in at over 30 tons. The Megalodon’s were the apex predators for a period of over 20 million years, before a combination of many different factors would drive them to extinction 3 million years ago, including a cooling of the waters, depletion of its prey, and finally competition and even possible predetation of its young from Great White Sharks.

However a small population of Megalodon evidently stumbled through the portal to this mini world, where they would ultimately thrive, remaining the apex predators whilst they died out in the rest of the world.

Over the course of millions of years however, some Megalodons would stumble their way back into our world leading to sightings and even conspiracy theories that the Megalodon still lives in our waters. These were dismissed by mainstream science of course, as Megalodon is extinct in our world, and indeed many of the Megalodon’s that fled back to our world would die not long after, and their existence covered up by the authorities. It’s worth mentioning that the 8th sea was not the only place that the Megalodon’s in the modern age come from. Some Megalodon’s have been revived through magic, much like the Dinosaurs on Jocaziah’s island. Still certainly a large percentage of these ancient Sharks originated from this mini world, including obviously Charcaria.

However Charcaria was not a normal Megalodon. Again much like her robot brother Kosarak, the Shark woman was really two different life forms merged together into one, though unlike Kosarak only one of them would be in control.

The more dominant, human side of Charcaria was a descendant of one of the mightiest civilisations on earth. Atlantis.

Thought to be a myth by modern scholars, much like the surviving Megalodon’s. Atlantis was a project created by the Gods themselves, when they ruled over the earth.

The deities of multiple pantheons wanted to create a perfect civilisation, that could utilise the full effects of the Gods technology and wisdom. Only their most loyal, intelligent, and strongest servants who had proven themselves were allowed to live in Atlantis. In time the Gods hoped that Atlantis could help guide the rest of the world, better than even they could.

However Atlantis would sadly later be used to try and conquer the rest of the world, on the Gods orders, when Ares war began. As many of the people sided with Ares after he used the Mystic Realm to devastate the planet (and blamed it on the Gods.) Then the other pantheons would fall back on Atlantis. Unfortunately however the Atlanteans, having prided themselves on being a peaceful and noble society, were more reluctant to take part in this war than the Gods had hoped, which even briefly led to a civil war in Atlantis.

Atlantis fate would be sealed in the time of the Great Flood. This cataclysm was created by one of Ares most devastating weapons, that was used by an agent of his in an attempt to kill Posiedon in his ocean lair. Instead however the weapon disrupted the balance of the oceans, causing them to spread throughout many corners of the earth, submerging several civilisations. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the event, but Atlantis would ironically be able to persevere for a little longer. Unfortunately however the Gods were unable to help it as they were too busy trying to prevent the flood from spreading to all corners of the earth, as well as deal with Ares, whose followers in turn tried to capitalise on the disaster, and claim that had been the Gods flooding the earth to make humanity pay.

Atlantis in its arrogance believed that the Gods would prioritise them over the rest of the planet from the flood. After all they were the Gods elite, but for whatever reason the Gods allowed them to slowly sink under the ocean. Some believe it may not just have been because of the priority in saving the greater population of humans, but also because of the Gods anger towards the Atlanteans for not helping them stop Ares sooner.

Among the other survivors of the areas that were flooded aside from Atlantis were those in Noah’s Ark. Noah was a loyal follower of Yahweh, a dangerous and unpredictable God, who did not belong to any single pantheon. (All of the other Gods grouped themselves into pantheons, with a base of operations in one area that was theirs, IE the Olympians lived in Greece, Odin and his followers lived in Norway etc.) Yahweh however operated entirely on his own, and was not above venturing into different territories either, which made him among the most detested by other Gods, though never to the point where he became their outright enemy like Ares or Loki.

Noah meanwhile was given secrets and magics that virtually none of Yahweh’s other followers had gained access too. No one is quite sure why Noah was given this special treatment. Many different theories have been proposed, with some arguing that it was because Noah was a pure soul, others however conversly argue that it’s because he was the most ruthless and willing to do what it took. Some state that it was simply Noahs own unique skills as a wizard that interested Yahweh, but whatever the reason, Noah would eventually be tasked by Yahweh into constructing a shelter that could protect a select group of humans and other life forms on the planet, in case the war of the Gods ever escalated. Unlike the other Gods who in their arrogance never believed that their hubris could destroy them, like it had done to many human civilisations. Yahweh was paranoid and felt that so many Gods on one planet was a disaster waiting to happen. He was ultimately proven right. In fact Yahweh had been the first to openly despise and distrust Ares. Zeus had believed that Ares being put in charge of the armies to defend Greece would calm his more volatile nature down like it had done to his most beloved daughter Athena, but Yahweh from the start could see Ares had his own ambitions. In many ways however Zeus understandably did not want to believe that his son was beyond redemption.

When the great flood finally struck, Noah would be given a few days by Yahweh who held the waves back as long as he could, to get as many people into his shelter, which had been christened the arc, as well as animals. (including even Dinosaurs that had been revived through magic in this area of the world.)

Once the flood hit Noah’s arc, it would convert its outside appearance into a craft capable of floating through the water. (The shelter had been designed to cover many different alternatives. If need be it could even survive in space to escape the planet. Whilst its outside shape would change to suit its environment, its inside size always remained the same. It was essentially a city with a gigantic zoo, contained within a boat.)

Noah would spend many years during the great flood, travelling to other islands and outposts and helping them. He also battled Ares soldiers, and horrors from the deep, including the angry spirits of those who had drowned, Krakens, Cecelia’s etc.

Eventually however Noah’s arc would stumble upon Atlantis, which had mostly sunk into the sea by this point. With the final Atlanteans clinging to life having become resigned to their fate and even turning their backs on the Gods who they felt had abandoned them. Fortunately Noah by taking a tiny piece from his ark, was able to create a forcefield around the last chunk of Atlantis that would protect it when it sank into the ocean.

Atlantis would fall so deep into the waters, that even after the flood subsided, it would still remain submerged beneath the waves. The end of the great flood also marked the end of the war with Ares, and the Gods would leave the planet not long after.

The last part of Atlantis meanwhile would remain trapped beneath the waves, and continue to survive for many thousands of years, unknown to humanity. For the most part the Atlanteans could not leave their city, due to the unstable nature of the forcefield. They could only send small parties at a time to explore the oceans around them.

Eventually however even the noble and seemingly perfect Atlantis would fall victim to war and corruption, which would see this final outpost of the Gods perfect city finally collapse. Its final few survivors subsequently fled through the oceans, desperately searching for a new life. They did not want to move to the surface world. Given how much more advanced they were at that point. The Atlanteans understandably were terrified that if they travelled to the surface world, either they would be taken as demons, witches, or that they would conquer them and abuse their power. At the very least the surviving Atlanteans it seems had learned some lessons from their downfall.

The final Atlanteans would eventually discover the portal to the mini world on the sunken Zealandia. They had heard stories about the supposed lost 8th continent, having assumed that it had fallen during the great flood, and hoped of finding perhaps another surviving sunken civilisation, but instead found the portal.

The Atlanteans would come to colonise three of the 5 islands of this mini world that they would christen the 8th sea. The two largest of the 5 islands were populated by mostly Dinosaurs, (though there were a few large mammals, such as the Megaprimatus Kongs) and were too dangerous for them to live on. Instead the Atlanteans ventured to islands that were populated by Synapsids and mammals. Which animals existed on which island was not due to which was more successful. It was simply which territories had survived the sinking of Zealandia millions of years ago.

In time the three civilisations would come to perfect their magics to a greater extent than they had even in Atlantis. They had always been constrained in both versions of their city, either by the Gods themselves who didn’t want them to learn too much, or by Noah’s force field.

Now however they’d use all that knowledge and power to its full extent. Over time however, the Atlanteans magic would eventually pollute the waters of the 8th sea, causing them to turn gold, the colour of magic, and the life forms to become larger and even more powerful. In some cases they’d be horribly mutated too.

Sadly however as always, the different human civilisations would eventually find a reason to clash with one another. Two islands, known as Yajax and Keston warred over Keston’s reckless use of magic which Yajax believed would eventually disrupt the entire natural order of the 8th sea. The third island Jysteria, would remain cut off from the other two completely after the war began.

Their war had been going on for centuries by the time Kessel, the human component of Charcaria was born, in the Keston’s civilisation.

Kessel was a born warrior. Even when she was a child she demonstrated incredible potential and bravery. (According to some of the legends she even used to swim alongside bull sharks as a child.)

Undoubtedly many of the incredible stories about Kessel are the usual propaganda, but honestly if even a third of them are true, she was still an incredible woman.

In spite of this however, Kessel was a controversial figure as unlike most of the soldiers from both sides of the war, she still had at least an ounce of mercy and compassion for the opposite side. She never killed anyone who surrendered, and even in the midst of battle, she preferred to avoid killing wherever she could. (Her skill meant that she could often knock out an enemy before they even realised.)

Kessel’s strong sense of honour came from her father. He was part of a lineage of ancient Atlantean warriors, who unlike the other survivors that forsook the original, failed Atlantis. They had remained devoted to the ancient customs. Kessel’s father had actually retired from the war just before her birth, believing it to be unjust. Initially she wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a Synapsid trainer and farmer. After he was assassinated by Yajax warriors however, she willingly joined the war. There are some who believe that her father may very well have been assassinated by Keston agents instead to encourage Kessel, who was younger and the only person to carry this line of warriors blood in her veins, to take up arms.

Indeed the propaganda that would come from the last of these great warriors now wanting vengeance against the Yajax was very useful at first.

Still in spite of her skill and popularity with the people, it didn’t take long for Kessel to clash with the leaders of the Keston. She would eventually be rarely used on missions, before her destiny would take a strange turn, when the leading wizards of Keston finally found a way to merge a human being with a Megalodon.

Since before recorded history, humanity has been able through magic to create Shark/human hybrids which we refer to in the modern age as Caradons. The process sees a human and a Shark placed in an area of water that is doused with a special kind of magic. The Shark is compelled by the magic to devour the human completely. Both’s souls then merge into a single being, that is neither, but has elements of both. Namely the Shark’s predatory instinct heightened and the human’s craftiness to some extent, as well as unique magical powers.

Some special, powerful magics however can allow the human to retain their full intelligence and personality after becoming a Caradon. Megalodon’s meanwhile were different to modern Sharks in that because they were so huge, then one human would not be enough to merge with them. Dozens of humans would be needed to merge with a Megalodon in most normal cases, and as a result of this, no human soul can be powerful enough to control the body afterwards.

The wizards of Keston meanwhile (whose magics had corrupted the 8th sea and led to the war in the first place.) Finally found a way to allow a single human to merge with a Megalodon and retain control. The magics used to do this were considerably more powerful and would make the resulting Caradon stronger too.

The wizards wanted to select the greatest warrior to be their new Caradon, who would be their greatest weapon. Kessel was chosen not even so much for her skills, but ironically her honour. Whilst there were safety measures taken to try and control the Caradon in case it went rogue, ultimately the wizards wanted someone who would never turn on them, or abuse their power.

Whilst she may have no longer been the greatest supporter of the war, Kessel was ultimately a willing participant.

She felt that if she were the Caradon, she could stop its power from being used to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, unlike the other more zealous soldiers they would have surely used in her place. Furthermore she also wanted the war to end for both cities and felt this was the only way. Finally Kessel also did not have much reason to cling to her old life. Her mother had died when she was just a girl. She and her father had lived alone throughout much of her adult life, and since joining the military, well her more old fashioned personality hadn’t exactly endeared her to the patriotic soldiers around her.

To be fair however, Kessel’s lineage also gave her a certain sense of superiority to the other citizens of Keston too, which often made it hard for her to form any kind of relationship. Meanwhile from a professional point of view, on the one hand the government would never allow her to return to her old ambition of being a farmer, yet she was also now being kept away from seeing any conflict either.

The spell would be performed with Kessel and a captured female Megalodon (as females, just like with all Shark species are larger than the males.)

The resulting creature that was created, would be christened Charcaria many centuries later by westerners, though initially she would just refer to herself as her old human name. As the centuries passed, even Kessel would eventually abandon her old human identity and came to embrace the name Charcaria.

Charcaria like all Caradons stood on two legs, had a human torso, two arms, (with fins) a Sharks skin, and head and fin. Unlike most Caradons who were just savage beasts, driven by an instinct to hunt and kill. Charcaria still retained her complete personality and morality. The experiment was a success, and Charcaria’s first task would be to destroy the Yajax main line of defences. Yajax had by this stage more or less lost the war. Still its defence was ironclad, which allowed them to at least pretend that they had a chance for a while longer, which in turn led to more pointless deaths in the prolonged conflict.

The giant Shark/human hybrid was able to infiltrate their island and shut down the defences by swimming deeper than any ship had could, after which she tunnelled her way from beneath the island and emerged on its inside. She caught them completely off guard, not that there was much they could do anyway, and she destroyed the generator for the island’s forcefield.

Charcaria however would also disable their other weapons from the inside to make the surrender quicker and stopped her own forces from attacking any civilians.

The war was over, and Charcaria was hailed as a hero by her own people afterwards. She would then go on to travel the golden waters of the 8th sea battling other magical, mutated creatures that were a threat to Keston.

Sadly however Charcaria’s people would soon carry out their greatest atrocity yet. The question of what to do with Yajax preyed on her people’s minds. Most soldiers and civilians wanted the island to pay for its sins, whilst the leaders themselves did not want to waste any time and resources on helping it rebuild either. The government would eventually transfer its power on the matter to the wizards who were even less forgiving of Yajax. The island had essentially waged war on the wizards themselves.

The punishment the wizards would conjure up for the Yajax, which the government fully approved and the public largely supported would see the island sink into the ocean, much like the ancient Atlantis. The next day however, it would rise, and all of the people would revive with it. At first they would have no memory of what happened, until the flooding started again that night, after which they would remember their previous deaths before the island sunk again. This process would repeat every single night indefinitely, condemning the people of Yajax to eternal suffering.

Charcaria was utterly horrified and tried her best to rescue the people of Yajax, but sadly even she couldn’t tear through the forcefield around Yajax which was designed to prevent any of its citizens escaping during the day.

The wizards in response to Charcaria’s supposed treachery attempted to use their fail safe and control her. Her will proved to be so strong however that she was able to resist, though the strain of doing so nearly killed her. Knowing that she couldn’t resist a second time and not wanting to serve such a disgusting civilisation. Charcaria fled the 8th sea into our world.

It’s not known the exact date that she fled into our world, but there have been reports of Charcaria from at least the 17th century.

She would continue to use her great power to battle evil wherever she could in our world, and even became worshipped by some as a divine god of the oceans. Many sailors in particular came to revere the Shark goddess, who would always rescue them if they ran into trouble from storms, or became lost. At the same time however, she also earned the ire of many others, as she would also protect animals such as whales from needless slaughter by the humans too. Her greatest enemies during this time would be the Dragurs, ocean dwelling vampires, whose city she would help bring down, though she would also battle creatures like Krakens, her own kind Caradons, Cecelia, Mermaids, White Whale’s and Sirens. Whilst the ocean was naturally where she lived and mostly operated. The supposed Shark Goddess would venture onto the land, and even in rare cases into other mini worlds too.

In time her reputation came to rival that of Jocaziah. In fact it arguably exceeded it in the years before they joined the Mega Family, though only because Jocaziah was mostly confined to his island during that time.

Much like Kosarak however, Charcaria was a loner. She sadly didn’t think the outside world was any better than the 8th sea she left behind. She famously claimed that if the nations of the world could, they’d condemn their enemies just like her people did. Whilst she believed that most people were still innocent, hence her desire to protect them. She also believed that the corrupt would always find a way to dominate, and therefore shunned any society, preferring to live on her own.

That would change however when she encountered Jocaziah, Kosarak and Daharain. Charcaria arrived on Delquahan on the third day of the others battle with Coraziax.

The Demons attempts to widen the existing rip between realities at Point Nemo had led to many portals to hell dimensions opening up near Delquahan, causing hundreds of lesser Demons flooding the island. Though these creatures were, compared to the robot, the Dinosaur and the mutant vermin, there were so many of them that all three were briefly pushed back. The Demons also despite being small and weak had no fear, given the reality they had come from. They were just desperate to escape it above all else.

Whilst the other three were busy dealing with the onslaught of creatures meanwhile. Charcaria was able to use her old trick of tunnelling under the island from the ocean. She travelled right the way into the centre of the island and attacked Coraziax from below, being able to sense that he was the centre of this upheaval.

Whilst she wasn’t a match for the Demon alone, her gambit worked and disrupted the spell to such an extent that Coraziax was forced to flee. This rip between realities according to legends had been created by the Gods themselves. Just before they left the earth, the Gods apparently pulled their resources together to create multiple copies of our solar system to exist in other universes. Contrary to popular belief, no two universes in our Omniverse at least have the exact same history. Every single planet is unique, but the Gods reportedly created copies of our planets in these other realities to confuse any other life form searching for the earth to find the Mystic Realm.

The strain of the Gods actions on the barriers between our universe however, very nearly caused the entire area collapse, but the Gods sealed the portal before fleeing, with this reputedly being their last action on earth. Sadly however even the Gods were unaware of the damage they had caused and in the thousands of years since, the area has begun to unravel again, becoming a hot spot for interdimensional travel.

Coraziax meanwhile was playing a very dangerous game. Whilst the portal was only suited to interdimensional travel between different versions of the earth, he hoped that by completing what he started on Point Nemo, he could deepen it to allow the creatures from his reality to enter ours. Had he not been stopped Coraziax could have either created a permanent rip, or pulled our world into his own hellish universe.

When Charcaria stopped him however Coraziax ritual became out of control and started opening portals to multiple realities across multiple realms. Not only Demons, but Beasts and unknown creatures from other realms started to emerge, and in the chaos, Coraziax knowing that he could never complete the ritual with these creatures here, fled.

Meanwhile Vanessa and her team did their best to try and undo the effects of Coraziax’s ritual, before the portals tore the earth to pieces, by pulling it into multiple different realities at the same time.

Daharain, Jocaziah and Kosarak held off the hostile creatures, though even they would be overwhelmed by a creature from an unknown realm.

it was a gigantic, white amorphous, hairy mass, though the skeletons of other strange alien creatures littered its body. Clearly they belonged to its previous victims, and the creature soon devoured several Demons, monsters and even Vanessa’s men and women in a similar fashion of simply pulling them into its body. Though they all became trapped, they did not die. Clearly this entity whatever it was kept them alive for a prolonged period afterwards in order to feed on them. The entity also had the ability to separate parts of its body which then transformed into copies of Jocaziah, Daharain and Kosarak. Though these copies were crude and completely white just like the monster that created them. They were roughly as strong as the Dinosaur, the robot and the mutant and held each of them off whilst it headed towards Vanessa and her agents. It is believed that this is how these creatures may hunt in their home reality, using their copies to wear down or bring their victims to them. That is wherever their home reality is.

However just like before Charcaria used her underground tactic. She burrowed from under the creature and used her powerful jaws and arms to rip right through its flesh until she came bursting out of the top of the creature. All of the beings that were trapped in the monsters body were instantly released.

The others were completely taken aback, with Charcaria herself even being a little perplexed at the sight of Kosarak and Daharain. Whilst she had no prior dealings with the Tyrannosaur, Dinosaurs were at least something she had grown up with.

Unfortunately however the monster was not dead yet and its wound began to close with Charcaria inside it. She bit and clawed as fast and frantically as she could, but the more she tore through it, the faster it began to heal. Before it could seal up and crush Charcaria completely, Daharain, Kosarak, and Jocaziah all climbed the monster that was now too preoccupied with Charcaria to create more doubles.

Jocaziah and Daharain pulled the wound open until it was wide enough for Kosarak to pull Charcaria to safety and drop her on the nearby ground. The robot then flew up a second time and fired the weapon on his arm into the monsters open wound. It tried to close its wound as fast as it could, but Kosarak’s fire power was too strong and burned the creature from the inside out.

All four of these strange creatures then started to work together to hold off the other creatures and monsters long enough for Vanessa and her team to close the portal.

Many of the unknown monsters had fled back into their home realities, whilst those that hadn’t had mostly been restrained by the Mega Family who never killed unless they had too. The blob creature’s death was unfortunate. Who knows if it was simply lashing out because it was scared, but sadly had they not acted then it would have killed everyone there.

Charcaria only stayed afterwards thanks to Vanessa, who had earlier worked with someone who had encountered Charcaria. One of Vanessa’s students in fact at the Black Mosque, whose ship had been sunk by Dragurs who then picked the survivors off one by one, until Charcaria intervened.

Vanessa had also read extensively about the creature herself, having hoped to recruit her long before now.

Ultimately Charcaria only agreed to help them because it was the right thing to do, though she warned none of them to get in her way. Kosarak was quick to remind the Shark lady that they had saved her life as well, but he also could understand her reluctance to have to work with others.

Whilst they were far from the Family they would later become. All four members of the Mega Family were finally together, and ready to face Coraziax who was certainly not beat yet.

Kosarak, the famous robotic titan from the stars, was in reality two very different life forms merged together through strange alien magics.

Not as much of his history is known when compared with either Jocaziah or Daharain for the obvious reason that he came from another planet. All that we do know of him comes from Vanessa Shoniwa’s interactions with the Mega Family. Whilst she had the strongest bond with Daharain, she ultimately ended up becoming the friend and in some cases the protector of the entire Mega Family. Despite their power, they still needed someone to watch over them and keep them safe from the outside world.

Still even Vanessa would struggle to understand or know Kosarak, until one important mission when the robot was near death saw Vanessa use a similar mind reading spell on Kosarak to access memories that were buried. She needed to do so in order to learn how his machine worked to make repairs.

What Vanessa saw from both life forms memories almost overwhelmed her. In fact the knowledge very nearly put her in a coma. Thankfully an alternate method was found of saving Kosarak, by infiltrating a base from his people, (though more on them later.) Over time Vanessa was able to process at least the basic outline of Kosarak’s history, and subsequently write down a fair idea of both sides of this incredible creatures life.

One of the two life forms that would become Kosarak was originally a machine creature named Tersia, who belonged to a race known as the Mysophians.

These robot creatures originated from the planet Draska several hundred thousand years ago. They were created using magic by a highly advanced species, the Drask. Like many species across the universe, the Drask’s society changed as soon as they discovered magic, which they used to build great machines and eventually robots. The magic however would grant the robots sentience, but fortunately the Drask, who by this stage were all wizards and all connected to the magic in their world, recognised the Mysophians as sentient beings and treated them as equals, with both races living in peace for many centuries.

Unfortunately however as both species continued to progress, the robots and the machines kept requiring more and more magic until they eventually drained Draska dry, which would lead to the Drask and the Mysophians expanding to and eventually draining other worlds. The more they expanded the greater their needs became until eventually they developed a fully fledged empire.

At first they only targeted uninhabited worlds, but eventually they soon discovered that the magic from living creatures was more potent and eventually both species set out for inhabited worlds, becoming conquerors, though they did not drain them dry like they did the uninhabited worlds.

In the resultant war against numerous other great powers, the Drask would be killed off. Not only where they less powerful than the Mysophians, but the fact that they still reproduced naturally meant that they were easier to pick off, and took longer to create armies.

The Mysophians mourned their creators and would later seek to exterminate the races involved in their creators destruction above all else. Prior to this they would allow races they conquered to still exist as long as they served them. The would even reward certain races that proved loyal. Believe it or not, certain species even wanted to join their empire to reap the benefits of their magic. In this case however, even the worlds that surrendered were still butchered, which would turn many of the Mysophians allies against them, as well as set a terrible precedent for the Mysophians in dealing with other enemies. By the time of Korsarak’s creation they had wiped almost all of them out.

Tersia meanwhile was one of the oldest of the Mysophian warriors, having been created not long after they first left their home planet.. He was single mindedly devoted to his duty, and had even rejected numerous offers to achieve a higher rank throughout the centuries, simply because he always wanted to be out there on the battle field. Even among his own kind Tersia was both feared and respected. According to the legends he had never lost a battle, and wherever possible he preferred not to take prisoners. In the early years this approach had ironically temporarily led to Tersia being dismissed from the service. As time went on however, and the robots became more ruthless. Tersia soon became the standard by which all other soldiers were to be measured in terms of doing what needed to be done, though thankfully very few would ever live up to it.

Tersia’s time however would come in the final war against the people of Glosiak. This was the last planet in the alliance that had destroyed the Drask. Like the others, surrender was not an option for the Glosiak.

Their only hope lay in their leading scientist and warlock, the 500 year old Hastar. Ironically Hastar had retreated from the war many centuries ago. He too objected to the alliance’s final strike that killed off the last of the Drask population. The alliance hadn’t actually wanted to destroy the Drask, rather the Drask’s last colony was simply seen as too important a strategic point to miss. Even then however Hastar argued that they kept blitzing the planet even after it had surrendered. Of course this was always denied by the alliance’s leaders, but Vanessa knew it was true when she read Kosarak’s mind.

After this genocide, Hastar flew the solar system to a remote colony where he would live in isolation for centuries. He had no idea what had become of the war, and it was only when one of his own descendants approached him that Hastar saw what had happened to the other worlds, and was shocked that even the Mysophians had gone that far. Hastar soon became desperate to try and make it up to his people and the other races who had died as a result.

In the few years he would work with them after his exile, Hastar discovered how to reactivate one of the robots after it was destroyed. It wasn’t the same as bringing it back to life. The robots magical soul was still gone, but within the machine another life form could take its place and control the robot’s body. Naturally Hastar wanted to use this tactic to try and infiltrate the Mysophians base of operations, but he would need a more senior robot to take over in order to get in deep. As the Glosiak’s final defences began to collapse, Hastar was able to lay a trap for Tersia, and finally make the monster pay for his sins, with a special weapon that shut him down. Afterwards, Hastar hollowed out the centre of the robots body, removing its soul and then placed himself inside it. None of the Mysophians either knew that Tersia had been captured, or indeed what Hastar was working on, allowing the warlock/scientists to successfully infiltrate the Mysophians base. Sadly however before he could do anything to sabotage their weapons system, Hastar suddenly found himself falling under the seemingly dead robots influence.

Not all of Tersia’s soul had been removed as Hastar had believed. Small traces survived and were able to slowly merge themselves to Hastars body. Tersia, unlike the other lowly robot that Hastar was so old, that over the centuries a combination of the magic that powered him building up, and his own upgrades had enabled him to develop resurrection powers. Little did Hastar know, Tersia had in fact died many times in battle. Of course this had always been covered up, as Tersia himself didn’t want anyone to know that he had ever lost.

Still whilst Hastar had been more thorough in scooping out the vile robots soul than previous attempts to kill him, unfortunately parts of it were not only able to survive, but soon began to reform, and with Hastar now in the souls traditional place, both soon fought for control over the body, with the soul ultimately winning.

Hastar was literally trapped, unable to move inside the cold metallic casing, as Tersia returned to the battle fleet and took part in the complete slaughter of the Glosiaks.

The warlock wanted to scream out at his friends and allies who expected him to help when Tersia arrived at their base, but there was nothing he could do.

Hastar would remain trapped inside that monster for the next year or so. Tersia could and in retrospect, should have told the others about what was inside him, but he didn’t for a number of reasons. First of all again his own vanity meant that he didn’t want to admit that he had been tricked and defeated. Second he wanted to make Hastar suffer for attempting to use him that way. The evil robot butcher made it clear to Hastar, that only when he was bored of the latter’s suffering, would he finally destroy him.

The magics of Tersia kept Hastar alive without the need for food or water and again completely inanimate as he was forced to watch Tersia not only kill off the last of his own kind, but numerous others as well, which Tersia did with a renewed vigour just to make his prisoners torture all the more potent.

After a year of suffering however, Hastar would gain his chance at revenge, when the Mysophians came up against the Federation of Magic.

Founded by witches and warlocks from all over the entire galaxy, the Federation consisted of worlds where magic had overtaken the natural order, though it did have many close alliances with non magical worlds too. It was not a magical supremacist empire. It absolutely respected other planets rights to avoid magic, it simply wanted to supply help to those who were magical.

The Mysophians had long wanted to conquer the Federation of Magic not just to gain access to their knowledge, but because the Federation had provided a more peaceful alternative to desperate worlds that needed magic for help.

Ultimately however the robots ended up biting off more than they could chew, and Tersia in particular would suffer the most, when a particularly powerful witch named Klos, sensed the presence of another life form within Tersia, struggling to get out and performed a spell that merged them into one. She could sense that both individuals hated one another, and also that their morality and drives were conflicting too.

Klos wanted to make Tersia pay after he had launched a successful attack against a small planet on the outskirts of the Federation. The Mysophians hoped to use that world as a base to begin their war, but little did they know, Klos, one of the oldest and most powerful witches was particularly fond of that world. It was a place she could go to relax and be anonymous.

The witches spell did not simply free Hastar however. Klos whilst overall devoted to peace like the rest of the Federation, could nevertheless be very cruel and ruthless if she was wronged and sadly the chance to punish Tersia mattered to her more than saving Hastar. There are some who argue however that Klos could sense the important role that Kosarak was to play, but whatever her reasons, Klos’ spell essentially destroyed them both as individuals.

In their place was a new being that we would know as Kosarak, that had the memories of both, and personality traits of both. Physically it still resembled Tersia, with Hastars body inside, though now Hastar’s body could not be removed without killing both. Whilst most have viewed Kosarak as a new being, some have argued that it was still just Tersia’s mind but with Hastar’s memories and aspects of his personality, whilst others have argued that it was the reverse. Some have even argued that Kosarak is both minds operating at the same time in perfect sync with one another.

Vanessa said that even Kosarak itself wasn’t sure who it really was hence why it felt responsible for both of its predecessors actions, but whatever his real identity, this new merged mind retained Hastar’s morality and felt guilt for the horrors that Tersia had carried, which would ultimately drive the robot to atone for them. The name Kosarak which the merged being christened itself, is from Harstars language. It means hero, which reflected how Tersia’s arrogance and ego still played a huge role the new beings personality.

Kosarak’s first act of atonement would be to fight against the Mysophians and help drive them back from the Federation of magic, after which he would travel the stars, battling all manner of demons, monsters and hostile alien threats from all over the galaxy.

Over the course of several centuries he would become a hero to many worlds, though not only would he be hunted by the Mysophians, but also many of their former enemies ironically, who could not forgive Tersia.

Sadly many of these adventures are lost to time, as they spanned such a long period, that Vanessa was barely able to take them in.

Vanessa did know however that Kosarak almost never travelled with a partner or a companion during this time at all. A unique combination of Hastars self loathing, which prevented him from wanting anyone to see him like this, and Tersia’s arrogance in not trusting anyone to be as competent as him, made the strange robot hybrids life very lonely for centuries.

The Robot’s final adventure before coming to earth however, would see it go up against what would be the Mega Family’s first major adversary. The demon known as Coraziax.

This creature originated from one of the darkest of the demon worlds, near the centre of the hellish realm. (The centre of the hellish realm is the most feared place in all of creation. It is where Khastran, the father of all of vampires is said to have originated.)

The further a demon universe is away from the natural realm, the harder it is to travel to and from, from our universe. Still it is possible with the darkest and most powerful magics.

Sadly that is exactly what would happen on the planet of Aixos. This world existed within the Andromeda galaxy, and was famed for being the most hostile and demonic planet in that galaxy. It had been overrun by its own corruption many centuries ago, when its mightiest civilisation, that had conquered all of the others, embraced a demon king known as Carax. They did so because Carax, despite it being known he was a demon, proved to be an effective ruler who single handedly crushed their enemies and rebels. Unlike most other natural civilisations, the people Aixos came to see demons as strong supermen who simply had the courage to do what their human rulers should have in crushing their enemies.

Slowly over time the Aixos people came to see becoming a demon as an honour, an ascension and eventually the planet not only became overrun with them, but soon became a haven for demons from all over the Andromeda and even other galaxies.

As a result of this it soon became a target for many other intergalactic powers and whilst it was able to hold off the invaders for a long while, eventually when Kosarak stepped, its demon rulers soon attempted to recruit help from one of the darkest demon realities.

They were only able to harness one demon from this reality however due to the fact that their power had been reduced by the constant bombardments. (Before they were beaten back, even the demons of Axios did not want to summon anything from the darker realities, as even they feared them. This was their last resort.)

The single demon that was unleashed, Coraziax, proceeded to decimate the planet of Aixos, by tricking them and using the Aixos demons own weapons against them to desolate its surface, whilst he remained safe in an interdimensional bubble. It did so because it wanted to make their enemies believe that the planet had been destroyed, so that it could then use the Aixos demons magics to allow the rest of its kind to escape into our universe, as its army to ravage billions of worlds.

Kosarak however was suspicious of how easily the demons had been defeated. The others were so eager for victory, they accepted that one of the demons own weapons must have gone off and destroyed them, but Kosarak wisely felt there must be something else going on.

He and Coraziax would battle it out over the now dead planet, with this demon causing Kosarak more trouble than any of his other enemies until now. In the end however Kosarak managed to win by disrupting Coraziax’s spell, which ultimately ripped the entire planet of Aixos apart.

The planet was completely uninhabited at that point after Coraziax’s attack, but Korsarak was still horrified at what he had caused. As corrupt as the Aixos were, they were still a race with a history, culture and art stretching back hundreds of thousands of years, that was nowall lost forever because of a petty battle between a robot and a demon.

Coraziax would flee through the universe, searching for another planet with dark magics powerful enough to allow him to free his kind. He eventually found it, with our world, earth.

Whilst earth is famously invested with dark magics and demonic energy to a greater extent than most planets in the known universe. It was the weakening of realities around Point Nemo that the demon was really drawn to, believing that he could perhaps use this hot spot of interdimensional travel to create a portal to his world.

Not long after the demon arrived on the island, his experiments with its unique magics (which involved killing and dissecting several of the native creatures.) Drew the attention of Jocaziah and Daharain. Both giant monsters found themselves out of their depth however against Coraziax, who attacked them with a wide range of alien magics he’d found on his journeys through the universe.

Vanessa would soon lead another team to Point Nemo to try and contain the threat, but they too failed.

It was only with the help of Kosarak that Jocaziah and Daharain were able to stop the demon from completely shattering the weakened out barriers between universes around Point Nemo.

Kosarak however despite his own limited success against the demon, initially did not want their help, or Vanessa’s. At the very least he could communicate with Vanessa verbally, as his magics allowed his language to be translated to that of any species, and vice versa.

Still he felt they had nothing to offer him, considering earth to be something of a degenerate planet, due to its mix match of different magics, which he felt had to be as a result of the natives abusing them. Both the Hastar and the Tersia sides of him would have been undoubtedly disgusted at our misuse of magics throughout the centuries.

Another battle with Coraziax however would leave the robot wounded and vulnerable to the other creatures on Point Nemo, who attempted to tear Hastars body from his damaged armour. The robot would only be saved by the combination of Jocaziah and Daharain who held the monsters off long enough for Kosarak’s self repair unit to function.

Following this he reluctantly agreed to work with them for now, though even the combined might of the robot, the Dinosaur and the mutant were not able to destroy Coraziax, though they were at least able to drive him from Point Nemo. Unfortunately however, the demon was still able to create a small rip in the barriers between realities. Though Vanessa and her team managed to close it on Point Nemo’s end, the energy from the rip still spread across the world, until it reached another area where the barriers where weak the island of Delquahan, where it would create several portals to demon worlds.

Kosarak, Jocaziah, Daharain and Vanessa would instantly travel to Delquahan, where they would encounter the next and final member of the Mega Family. The Shark woman Charcaria who had also been drawn in by the influx of demons, and in the next chapter we will not only explore her history, but the battle she, Kosarak, Daharain and Jocaziah would endure against the creatures from the rip between realities.

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.

Drawing by Caio Corsini Filhio

Family can mean many things to different people and culture’s, but I think most would agree that the defining feature of any true family, is a unique bond that unites a group of individuals together no matter what. Culture, heritage, and even blood are all ultimately of secondary importance to that key bond.

Perhaps no group better demonstrates this than the Mega Family, a collection of creatures who weren’t even of the same species as one another. (In fact one of them wasn’t even from the same planet) but who nevertheless established a strong connection that would see them through many battles and trying times ahead.

To the general public, the Mega Family are looked on as nothing more than an urban legend, like Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster, but in truth they were among the greatest heroes this world would ever see and we can all only hope that one day they will return. (To be fair the truth behind both Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster are also not quite what I’d wager any of you would expect, but those are stories for other times.)

Wherever this ragtag group of dinosaurs and robots and shark women may be now, two things to be sure of are that they will be fighting the good fight against the forces of darkness, and that they will be together.

The Mega Family consisted of a Tyrannosaurus named Jocaziah, a shark woman named Charcaria, a gigantic cybernetic creature named Kosarak, and finally a large amphibian, humanoid named Daharain. All naturally came from very different backgrounds, though all at least were created by magic which would ultimately be what brought them together. Before we examine their initial adventure as a family however, it is important that we explore who or what they were before as well.

In this chapter we will explore the life and history of Jocaziah, who would also be known as the king of beasts. Worshipped as a god by some, viewed as a monster by others. All who knew of him would agree however, that even by the standards of the Tyrannosaurs, the most dangerous predators ever to walk the earth, Jocaziah was a truly formidable creature.

Contrary to popular belief Dinosaurs have not been extinct for 66 million years. Well if you’re paleontologically inclined you probably knew that anyway, as birds are classified as Dinosaurs. Still the non avian kind who have become a byword for extinction in our age, do still exist in certain remote corners of the earth.

Just as certain powerful spells can restore people to life, then so have many incredibly skilled wizards, warlocks and witches used their power to resurrect Dinosaurs and other ancient creatures from their bones. Sadly however at the same time, just as most resurrection spells are unable to bring someone back as they once were. Then many of the resurrected Dinosaurs throughout our history have been grotesque caricature’s of the great reptiles or distorted in some way. Then there is also the fact that in many instances the Dinosaurs have been brought back to use as weapons, and tampered with deliberately by magics to be more powerful and blood thirsty too. Finally the fact that we still don’t know much about how the Dinosaurs were 66 million years ago, means that even sincere attempts to revive them can still be distorted too. For all we know no Dinosaur to exist in our time even comes close to how the ancient creatures actually looked.

Still arguably one of the greatest havens for resurrected Dinosaurs was Jocaziah’s home, the island of Taskrov, which in the language of magic means “rebirth.”

Now this island was originally founded not with the purpose of bringing Dinosaurs to life, but instead to contain a great evil known as Daskensia. This monstrous entity was ironically the creation of an order known as the Deaneria, who were devoted to protecting and in their minds redeeming mankind from the influence of the supernatural. Though they had access to many powerful forms of magic they were also somewhat naive, believing that mankind had only been corrupted by demons and that if they eliminated their influence, then humanity could finally be free. Unfortunately however a renegade member of their order, Macaran would use a combination of black magics he had built up over the centuries, and his own powers to manipulate people’s darkness and hatred, and demonic energy from creatures the Deaneria had slain, to create a new creature, made up entirely of humanity’s darkest urges which he named Daskensia. This abomination would continue to spread misery, hatred and discontent even in its creators absence for centuries to come whilst being opposed primarily by the Deaneria.

Eventually the council of warlocks and witches after centuries of being helpless in the face of this abomination, would find a way to imprison Daskensia, who even they could not destroy on a remote island, which would later christened Taskrov. They felt the further he was away from people, who were always warring and fighting the less powerful he would be, as our own darker urges and actions literally made him stronger. Whilst their prison held him, doing so was an extremely difficult task, and eventually the Deaneria would be disheartened by the fact that Daskensia no matter how hard they had tried, had always been able to grow in power from the corruption of humanity in the world around him. This was would ultimately lead to the Deaneria renouncing their previous beliefs, (ironically like Macaran had always wanted) and shut themselves off on Taskrov too.

A huge city would be built in the centre of the island over Daskensia’s prison. Whilst the Deaneria were strong enough to defeat any threats that came their way, they soon became paranoid at the prospect of Daskensia influencing humanity to free him, and so they created creatures to help protect their island, by resurrecting great prehistoric beasts from the ground using magic, or creating hyberdised forms of animals. The most successful of these protectors would be the Dinosaurs.

Outside of their city, the Deaneria also created a jungle paradise for their animals to thrive in, only keeping a select few in the city as bodyguards. Though the city would come to see itself as the only paragon of virtue in the world, at the same time it was not above experimenting on the animals to some extent. These experiments though unethical, were nevertheless deemed to be necessary for the greater good. Many monsters would inadvertently be created with some even escaping into the jungle and the outside world beyond that. There would be some successful creations however such as the hybrids and even simply larger and stronger Dinosaurs through exposure to magic.

The experiments coupled with the Deaneria’s own lack of knowledge about Dinosaurs (who weren’t even known to mainstream science at this point) would lead to the Dinosaurs on their island being distortions of the originals in many ways, though by no means the worst.

The Deaneria’s self imposed exile would last for centuries until the 15th century, when their latest leaders who began send their Dinosaurs and other giant monsters out into the world to help battle evil. The end of the exile was a slow process truth be told. At first it was only if there was a threat to the world at large including them, but gradually the more they reconnected with the outside world, the more the Deaneria would begin to resume their original mission of protecting all of humanity, but now using their monsters so they didn’t have to get their hands dirty like before. However the first recorded instance of one of their monsters leaving the island to battle a threat that had nothing to do with Deaneria was in the 15th century. When a Kraken of their design destroyed the most infamous group of vampire pirates, led by Captain Tucker. Unfortunately Tucker would later make his way to the island and became one of its most notorious enemies from there on.

Jocaziah meanwhile would be born sometime in the 17th century. He was bred in the city itself rather than out in the wild and was the latest in a long line of heroic Tyrannosaurs stretching back centuries, though Jocaziah’s reputation would end up out shining them all. Jocaziah measured almost 70 feet long and weighed in at over 30 tons, and stood close to 30 feet tall. His posture was slightly more upright like a Kangeroo than that of a regular Tyrannosaur, though he did not drag his tail. The Dinosaur possessed super strength even by the standards of his kind. He was also immune to many of the strongest magics and demonic powers too. Arguably the Tyrannosaurs greatest weapon however was his intelligence. Not only could Jocaziah understand and follow commands perfectly, but he actually possessed a degree of sentience that at times appeared to rival even that of a person. He could not speak, but certainly based on numerous accounts over the centuries the Dinosaur appeared to be intelligent enough to communicate to some extent in other ways, use more advanced techniques when fighting his enemies, as well as develop strong attachments to his allies as we will soon see.

The Tyrannosaur was not raised by its parents, both of whom were sadly killed in a mission to stop a powerful army of demons from rising. Instead Jocaziah would be raised by the witch named Anjelica. By far and away one of the greatest and most skilled witches in the entire kingdom. Anjelica was also among the most controversial. She was openly critical of the Deaneria, believing that despite their whiter than white reputation, there was just as much corruption in their city as the outside world. Still she had ultimately not become a renegade like many other citizens who had voiced similar concerns over the centuries, believing the city to still ultimately do more good than bad. This resulted in her being hated by both sides, not that she cared as she thought they were all pathetic. As long as she could do her work for the greater good, she had no interest in who was giving her help. She did however have ties to certain renegades, though none of her many enemies in the city were ever able to prove it as she covered her tracks well.

Still in spite of her disdain for the city, Anjelica did have genuine affection for Jocaziah, refusing to allow him to be part of any experiments (which the leaders were always pushing for due to his strength.) She commanded a loyalty from the Dinosaur that no other trainer possessed on the island.

Whilst not all of Jocaziah’s exploits are known, there are still many noteworthy tales of the Tyrannosaurs bravery, and savagery from all over the world from a period of over 300 years.

Not surprisingly the Tyrannosaur made many enemies during this time, but he also made many friends and allies beyond Anjelica, who together would become his first family.

His first ally from outside Taskrov was the demon woman known as Lekinsa who the Tyrannosaur first met when she was imprisoned in Xastion, an underground demon prison.

Xastion was created originally as a sanctuary for demons from all over the world where they could meet on neutral ground to trade, sort out differences and even rarely begin alliances. Even vampires and vandals despite their centuries long hatred could meet here.

Eventually however the Deaneria themselves would seal the place in a bubble. They did so to prevent an alliance of over 100 Demon species from forging an army, whose leaders were meeting in Xastion. Even the Deaneria did not have the power to kill that many demons at one time, at least not at that point in their history. This was before they had even established an island. Instead the Deaneria used the demons own defences against them, by tampering with the force field around their base.

Ironically they were only able to accomplish this with the aid of Lekinsa, who had managed to infiltrate Xastion, gaining a lowly job as one of the guards. She brought the necessary equipment and spells to tamper with the force field, but unfortunately she was not able to escape in time and remained trapped with the others.

The Deaneria did not make any attempts to try and rescue her. Lekinsa had been part of a programme by the wizards and witches to see if they could redeem even demons. Several infant demons were taken. (From families killed by the Deaneria) and raised on their supposedly superior values. Lekinsa meanwhile was among the only demons to genuinely remain loyal to the Deaneria, and had provided vital help to them on many important missions, but sadly they only ever viewed her as a monster and expendable. None of the other demons had remained loyal to Deaneria, which caused them to abandon the experiment. Though many have viewed this as proof that demons were incapable of remorse or changing, personally I and others have felt it was more proof of how corrupt the Deaneria were.

Lekinsa would be tortured for years, but fortunately for her the demons would eventually turn on each other. The vast underground caverns became a dog eat dog no man’s land as the demons tore into each other, with Lekinsa only being able to survive by hiding.

One of the demons would eventually find a way to dominate the others after several centuries. It was ironically a low level grunt, who was among the first to die, but its spirit not only found a way to survive, but would later be able to absorb the spirits of other demons. Many believe this creature had similarly arrived in Xastion with this purpose in mind. Some have argued it may even have somehow known about Lekinsa’s plan. Whatever the case in time this unknown demon became vastly powerful through the souls it ate, to the point where its spirit was able to build a body out of the corpses of the other demons. This new body was not only exceptionally powerful, but also lacked the weaknesses of those whose bodies and souls it had stolen (as many of the different species strengths cancelled out the others respective weaknesses.) This monster that would become known as King Damancus also possessed a great immunity to the force field as a result and started to dismantle it.

Jocaziah and Anjelica were subsequently sent in to deal with the creature before it completely broke down the defences, being able to enter thanks to the force field already being weakened.

There they would be assisted by Lekinsa. Not surprisingly the years of imprisonment and torture had made Lekinsa bitter and hateful to the point where she attacked Anjelica at first. The witch only kept her alive for information, but after scanning the demons mind with her magic she took pity on Lekinsa, and convinced the demon to help them.

Despite the witch, the Tyrannosaur and the demon’s best efforts, King Damancus was able to escape from the prison, though doing so still drained him of his powers to the point where not long after escaping, Jocaziah, Lekinsa and Anjelica, only through working together were finally able to destroy the demon hybrid.

Following this Lekinsa would go on to forge her own path and travel the world, fighting both demons and evil humans. During their time in Xastion, she and Jocaziah had both saved each others lives many times and had developed a degree of trust and respect, but it wouldn’t be until their second meeting when she would become arguably the Tyrannosaurs best friend outside of Anjelica.

The second meeting Lekinsa took place several years later when King Damancus returned. The demon’s spirit had managed to survive its second death and just as before, through absorbing the spirits of numerous other deceased and powerful demons was able to build a new body for itself. This new form would then go on to begin absorbing both living demons and humans into its body in the hopes of becoming a god. Once again the unlikely trinity of a witch, a demon and a Dinosaur were able to defeat Damancus, though the monster was also able to escape into the ocean where it would create a new race of monsters. Damancus and his vile children would battle Jocaziah many more times after throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries becoming his greatest enemy. What really caused Lekinsa’s bond with both Jocaziah and the witch to grow during their second battle however, was the fact that the demon king was briefly able to control Lekinsa, but rather than simply kill her, the Tyrannosaur and Anjelica did all they could to free her from its control. In contrast to the people from Deaneria who had raised the demon, and had simply let her rot, and even before that never saw her as anything more than a monster. Anjelica even if she didn’t admit it at first, clearly thought that Lekinsa was worth saving, which deeply touched the demon. In time Anjelica would develop a very close, surrogate mother daughter relationship with Lekinsa, with Jocaziah being something of a family pet.

Lekinsa however would never return with the witch and the Dinosaur to Taskrov, which she still understandably despised. As a result Anjelica and Jocaziah would both spend more time away from the island in order to help Lekinsa, only really returning for the odd mission.

Another important ally of the Dinosaur, was captain Brandon Rodriguez. Born in London in the year 1917 to a Spanish father and English mother (who had met during world war 1, when she was a nurse and he was a soldier.) Brandon would move with his family to the town of Portlock in Alaska in the mid 30s, having been raised in London before that. At first his life there was happy, with his father having come into money and Brandon himself meeting a girl named Sophia who he intended to marry. Sadly however Brandon’s world came crashing down in 1940, when Portlock was attacked and decimated by savage, monstrous ape creatures. These Yeti’s as they are known to us, were actually rogue creations of Taskrov. Aside from Dinosaurs, the Deaneria’s most successful creations were Yeti’s, large ape like creatures who originated in the lost magical land of Shambhala, in Tibet. This land for centuries had been home to some of the most powerful magics on earth, and was a place that you could only enter if you had achieved a certain mastery of magics and the wisdom to use them. It is believed that the legendary time travelling hero, Professor Fang originated from this land, when he was a human. It is known that after becoming a vampire he learned much of the black arts at the school Scholomance. Still many argue that his use of lighter magics came from this mythical place.

The Yeti’s first appeared after Shambhala fell. So little is known about the kingdom however, that is possible that they existed before then. Some have even speculated that they were guard dogs. Other theories for the Yeti’s origins are that they were people who tried to enter the kingdom, without achieving the enlightenment, and were transformed into beast men. Others state that they were merely animals that had been mutated by the magics of the kingdom when it fell. Some meanwhile argue that they may have been created as great warriors to protect humanity in the last days of the kingdom, when its last few survivors knew they would soon die, but they were unable to complete them in time and the Yeti now just wander the Himilaya’s on their own as simple beasts.

Whatever their origin, the Yetis are magical creatures who possess a completely unique structure and are among the strongest and if provoked most vicious magical creatures on earth.

The Deaneria would travel to the ruins of Shambhala after they had established their island, in the hopes of both finding any left over spells they could, and perhaps information on how this magical kingdom had fallen, so they could avoid the same mistakes. Whilst the latter would remain lost to time, they did at least discover several Yeti which they would take back, and experiment on.

Numerous new sub species of Yeti would be created by the Deaneria, including giant species, whose size rivalled the likes of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Tibetan Yeti’s were usually only about 7 feet tall.

Sadly however even more so than with their Dinosaur experiments, many of the Yetis would become twisted into monsters and break free of their control. The magic of the Shambhala was still unknown and dangerous and even the Deaneria had to be very careful when trying to either utilise or corrupt it for their own ends.

Several of the renegade Yeti would escape and travel the world, leading to sightings of these creatures all over the earth. The famous Big Foot is one such famous example of a renegade Deaneria Yeti, though like I said before his exploits are a story for another time.

The Yeti’s of Portlock meanwhile were not only a lot bigger and stronger than Bigfoot, but unlike that heroic renegade. They were completely unstable and would slaughter more than half of Portlock including all of Brandon’s family and his fiance Sophia.

Brandon would with the aid of the other few survivors eventually slay these renegades, after many gruelling weeks of having to survive them in the woods outside of his former home. He did so by setting a fire in the woods and trapping them there.

Brandon became obsessed with hunting down other Yeti like creatures to prove their existence to the world. The second world war however halted his search, with Brandon becoming a respected Captain and war hero in the meantime. Afterwards however Brandon’s reputation would sadly take a knock when he poured all of his time and the resources he’d made from his distinguished military career into searching for monsters. In 1953 his determination would eventually lead to Brandon discovering the location of something ultimately far greater. A world within a world.

As their name would suggest, worlds within worlds are basically mini worlds that exist within a planet.

There are twenty five documented mini worlds on Earth, but there believed to be mini worlds on possibly every planet in the universe. Mini worlds on both Mars and Venus have been explored, whilst sources such as Professor Fang and The Circus Family have documented hundreds of mini worlds on planets all throughout the universe. Each of the mini worlds recorded are said to contains their own skies, lands, and some even contain small oceans. The natives of each mini world are usually made up of unique creatures that are exclusive to them, and animals from the host planet that have made their way in. Every mini world on earth, or indeed any planet, can only be accessed through one portal each, which is often hidden, making them very difficult to locate.

No mini worlds are anywhere near as large as their host planets however. The biggest on earth known as the 8th sea, which will be exploring in greater detail later isn’t even a quarter of the size of our world.

In a way you can think of it as simply that existence has several different layers. Mini worlds exist within planets, which in turn are held in solar systems, that are housed within galaxies, that together make up the universe, which is part of one of billions of multiverses, which together form the omniverse. Beyond the omniverse meanwhile is the void, an endless nothing where realities of all kinds can emerge through any means necessary as there are no laws.

So far it would seem that mini worlds represent the very bottom of creation, whilst the void contain’s everything, but its possible there may be more beyond both. After all humanity has had a tendency to assume it as at the centre of everything, or that it could even possibly begin to grasp the vastness of creation around it before.

The mini world that Brandon discovered was known as Qazrek. It contained a large ocean and 7 islands. There was also many animals from earth history such as Dinosaurs populating it too.

The only entrance to this world meanwhile was contained on the remote Kerquelen islands. Brandon was drawn there by reports of Yeti’s. Ironically these beasts were not native to the world of Qazrek. In fact a handful of them had been sent there by the Deaneria to deal with a creature from Qazrek that was posing a threat to the outside world. Brandon would encounter the last survivor of this group of Yeti and found himself surprisingly helping the wounded creature, which he soon saw was not like the other members of his kind. Sadly he wasn’t able to save the brute, but would soon explore the entrance it had discovered after which he would soon be caught up in the problems of Qazrek.

The cities kingdoms had come under attack from an evil, tyrannical monster known as the Driak. This creature was a sentient, magical Brontosaurus, that had not only developed sentience through its magics, but incredible powers too. Driak commanded an army of Shark men known as Caradons from his underwater lair that he used to conquer two of the seven islands, with the monsters end game being to utilise all 7 of the islands power to build an empire that would eventually be able to spread out and claim the earth too.

Brandon would soon find himself working with the former queen of one of the two kingdoms that Driak had conquered, named Shelena, who had been the one to earlier summon the Deaneria for help.

In time over the course of several years, Brandon would end up becoming a great hero among Shelena’s people and it would be at the end of his time in Qazrek that he would first meet Jocaziah. After dealing with the first group of Yeti’s, Driak would place a barrier around the entrance to this mini world not long after Brandon had arrived, which would stop anyone else from either escaping or entering for 7 years, before it finally broke down thanks to the efforts of Brandon and Shelena. Jocazia and Anjelica would then instantly be sent in.

With Jocaziah’s help, Brandon would finally destroy Driak, albeit at great cost. He and Anjelica would remain close afterwards, though much like Lekinsa it would take him a while to forgive Deaneria whose dabbling with magics had cost him his family.

Following his departure from Qazrek, Brandon would continue to travel the world, battling evil, and he would also explore and document many other mini worlds too. His time in Qazrek had also granted him immortality through exposure to certain magics.

Brandon would have many more encounters with Jocaziah during this time, with the two’s bond only strengthening. Arguably the greatest sign of the Tyrannosaurs loyalty however was when Jocaziah helped to rescue Brandon from one of Driak’s followers. The shark man known as Hokensa, who had once been Driak’s right hand man and had been forced to flee Qazrek swore revenge against Brandon, and would later capture him and take the former captain to an ancient torture chamber in the antarctic known as Jorrackas.

This nightmarish place was constructed by a high level demon for anyone to use. The chamber was capable of creating pocket dimensions for individuals where they would suffer an eternity of torture. It could not be destroyed, and was not guarded. The demon hoped to prove how corrupt and decadent humanity was, by giving them something they could use to inflict eternal pain on their enemies. Sadly just as he had predicted many people would use it to imprison their enemies over the centuries.

Though anyone or anything could use the prison, only one person could use it at a time, and in order to prove worthy to use it, they would have to undergo numerous tests which would force them to do horrible things. Sadly Hokensa had no trouble doing that.

The tests still would buy Brandon’s cousin Gemma enough time to summon Jocaziah for help however. Gemma who had always been close to Brandon when they lived in London had searched for him after his disappearance and in the process had learned about the supernatural, becoming something of a hunter and expert herself. She had also worked with Anjelica and Jocaziah too on a previous mission and instantly went to them for help when Brandon was snatched in front of her eyes.

Travelling the world, they were eventually able to track down Jorrackas. There they would do battle not only with the many monsters that had arrived either to torture their own enemies, or had just been drawn here by the dark energy, but also against the damned souls who Hokensa was able to take control (as anyone who wishes the torture chamber temporarily can.)

Fortunately however they were able to fight their way through the horde of demons and damned souls and rescue Brandon who finally killed Hokensa himself.

The Tyrannosaurs’ final most crucial ally during this time was the gigantic ape like creature, Ginko. This beast was actually the creation of a member of the Frankenstein family. This infamous family first turned to the black arts and shall we say unconventional science in the 17th century, through Professor Victor Frankenstein who attempted to create a man, from the pieces of other men. This experiment was a failure, with the brain he used being rejected to some extent by the new body which led to the creature becoming unstable. Victor would try and create numerous other patchwork creatures over the years, each one a bigger failure than the last, and whilst he considered himself a man of science, later in life he turned to the black arts and even began experimenting with certain life forms souls.

The Frankenstein family would attempt to distance themselves from Victor, but sadly their reputation would never return and over the ensuing centuries, many of them would even attempt to follow in his footsteps. The most infamous of these was Peter Frankenstein, born in the year 1913. Following several horrific experiments with the dead, in the 1960s he fled to an area in the Amazon Rainforest, that had become a safe haven for demons. Having turned to the black arts, Peter hoped to create a life form from different animals and demons. The result would be Ginko. Though he bore the traits of many different demon species, Ginko was primarily a Yeti, one of which Peter had slain when ironically the Deaneria sent it to capture him.

Unfortunately for Peter however, Ginko proved to be as unstable as his other creations, and the difficulties of keeping it under wraps in such a hostile jungle eventually allowed Ginko to escape.

The Yeti hybrid would soon become one of the top beasts of the area. Despite containing demon DNA, Ginko however soon developed a degree of affection for native Kayapo woman named Manko who would help the beast keep its more violent urges in check. She first discovered the giant ape when it had been driven from its territory, by the combined might of several demons, who had only bandied together to stop this new threat to their domain.

Manko would help nurse the gorilla back to health, before using it to defend her people from several demons of the forest. After this the two would develop a friendship akin somewhat to that of Anjelica and Jocaziah, with the native girl being able to call on the ape in a way that no one else could.

Jocaziah and Anjelica would have their first encounter with this unique creature when the Deaneria learned that Peter Frankenstein had tampered with one of their Yeti and wanted Jocaziah to either destroy or capture the beast. Though the Tyrannosaur and the Yeti would confront one another, Jocaziah soon saw that unlike the majority of the other Frankenstein’s creations, he was not a monster.

The two after stopping Peter from creating another monster, would part on good terms, with Anjelica getting into trouble with her superiors for not capturing the beast. Luckily for her, she was too vital to them to suffer in the same way as other renegades, but it still hurt her standing.

Jocaziah and Ginko meanwhile would reunite against other adversaries, including a battle against King Damancus. Jocaziah would also save Ginko when the great ape was captured by a former member of the Deaneria. Known to world at large as the fantastic Raymond O’Brien. This renegade ran a circus which showcased captured and tame supernatural creatures as freaks. Ray however was more than just a ring leader as whilst his Circus helped him become a wealthy man to carry out his experiments. His ability to train demons and beasts that he learned from Deaneria would allow him to sell tame and loyal unique monsters around the world for his own profit. The Deaneria wanted to arrest him, but he threatened to reveal several of their secrets if they attempted to, secrets that very few, including even Anjelica were aware of, but that he had made sure to discover before he left their island.

Ginko was showcased to the public as a unique animal and went through great suffering at the hands of O’Brien in an effort to tame, to the point where his violent instincts overcame him. The Yeti eventually escaped during one of O’Brien’s shows and went on a rampage throughout the city of San Francisco. Jocaziah would be sent in to stop him, with the two having a battle atop the Golden Gate Bridge. The Dinosaur ultimately triumphed over the Yeti, and after regaining his senses, Ginko would help Jocaziah defeat the other escaped monsters of O’Brien’s that were loose in the city, with Ginko personally crushing O’Brien.

This event was an absolute nightmare for the authorities to cover up, but they just about managed it, though Anjelica had arguably even a harder time convincing the Deaneria not to exterminate Ginko. The fact that he had killed one of their most notorious renegades obviously counted in his favour.

Fortunately for Ginko however, he wouldn’t have to worry about the Deaneria for much longer. In the 1980s, their city and order after several thousand years would finally collapse.

It was a combination of their age old enemy Daskensia, the atrocities of the 20th century and finally the Deaneria’s own corruption.

Daskensia had spent centuries entombed, but he had always managed to retain some degree of power within his cell thanks to the Deaneria’s experiments on animals, and the odd renegade. It was never enough to break free, but as time went on it would be enough for him to cause the Deaneria many problems and even corrupt several of their order.

Things would change however during the 20th century. The suffering and horrors caused by the two world wars and numerous other atrocities would only increase Daskensia’s strength to the point where he was able to transform an entire section of their city into monsters known as Glochenia in the year 1950.

A civil war very nearly tore their city apart, but the few surviving Glochenia would escape to a nearby island, where aided with stolen Dinosaurs and magics and creatures, they started to build their own city. The Glochenia would then attempt to build an army of magical and demonic Dinosaurs and Yetis and other beasts in order to gain dominion over the earth.

For thirty years their efforts would be opposed by the Deaneria, but as the war took its toll on both cities, the Glochenia would become more desperate and soon began to create a magical plague that could wipe out all life on Deaneria, though even the Glochenia did not know what to do if the plague spread beyond their island. (They would be immune as they were no longer human.)

Before the Glochenia could perfect this plague however, Anjelica, Jocaziah, Lekinsa, Brandon Rodriguez and Ginko would infiltrate the Glochenia’s island. The Deaneria had launched a full attack on the island, with both’s forces being taken up by this final conflict. Anjelica once again clashing with her superiors decided to adopt a more stealthy approach. She summoned Brandon, Lekinsa and Ginko on her own violation, as the others at Deaneria would obviously have never allowed them to take part.

Together the Tyrannosaur, the war hero, the Yeti, the demon and the witch were able to make their way through the Glochenia’s island of monsters, demonic Dinosaurs and Yetis and not only stop their plans to create the plague, but cause the island to sink beneath the waves after tampering with the Glochenia’s black magics.

For a short while, Anjelica was hailed as a hero by the Deaneria, but unfortunately one of the Glochenia had survived. Specifically their leader, who had just managed to get off the island in time. Now completely on his own, the monster sought to make the Deaneria pay, by any means necessary and would a little over a year after the sinking of his island, find a way to finally release Daskensia. The ancient monster had tried to contact the Glochenia since it first created them, but they all knew too well how dangerous it would be even for them, if Daskensia escaped. Now that the leader of the Glochenia had lost everything however, it didn’t care and if anything wanted to bring the entire world down with it.

Using both its own knowledge of the prison, and Daskensia’s guidance the leader easily infiltrated the weakened Deaneria’s city and released their ancient enemy. Almost the entire Deaneria were wiped out overnight, except for Anjelica who fled to the jungles with Jocaziah.

Lekinsa, and Brandon were sadly unable to help as not they had become trapped in another mini world. Under the circumstances there was nothing any of them could have done anyway. Brandon and Lekinsa had actually become romantically involved over the course of their adventure against the Glochenia. Sadly however after the death of his fiance, Brandon would never be able to commit in the same way, and he would go through many failed relationships throughout his life.

At the very least however Anjelica would be able to summon Ginko for help.

Upon his release Daskensia hoped using the corruption of the modern world, to spread his dark magic to a greater extent than ever before and potentially transform billions into monsters. Anjelica however, working with both her loyal Tyrannosaur, the Yeti and the last of the renegades, including Captain Tucker in the jungle, who only helped her to save themselves, was able to defeat Daskensia, tragically at the cost of her own life. Anjelica used what had always been a back up plan from the Deaneria in case their enemy had escaped, to literally blast the abomination into space where free from humanity’s influence it would wither away, though not die. The Deaneria however ultimately did not go through with the plan as it was too risky and they had been caught off guard by Daskensia’s escape before they could even attempt to implement it. Now with no choice, Anjelica activated it, whilst Jocaziah and the others kept Daskensia distracted.

Anjelica’s gamble paid off and blasted Daskensia to the furthest corner of our solar system, though unfortunately the magical feedback not only vaporised her completely, it caused more than half of Taskrov to sink into the ocean. Jocaziah and Ginko were only barely able to survive the disaster and life afterwards would be very tough for them and all the survivors on the island.

Not only would many of the animals and Dinosaurs be mutated but there was now so much less terrain for the numerous species of carnivores and herbivores to survive on.

For over ten years until the late 90s, Jocaziah would be forced to live on this now hellish place, though to some extent he was still able to establish himself as the king of the island, it was a position he was nevertheless constantly forced to defend.

During this time however the Tyrannosaur would make new friends. A cruise that had been overtaken by pirates would crash land on the island, not long after Anjelica’s sacrifice. For centuries the island had been concealed by magics that would influence any passing traveller to leave the area without even being aware of not. Now that had unfortunately vanished with the city and this ship simply stumbled into this lost land of Dinosaurs, Yeti’s and monsters.

The survivors of the cruise and the pirates would be forced to work together against the island’s inhabitants, though Jocaziah was at first apprehensive of the strangers (particularly when the pirates started to attack him.) He eventually came to befriend at least some of the crew, thanks to a kind hearted woman named Laura Delussey who helped Ginko when the latter had been wounded by a band of renegades led by Captain Tucker, who would also transform several of the pirates and crew who had landed on his island.

The Yeti and the Dinosaur would become the unofficial protectors of this band of humans until they were able to escape the island several years later in the early 00s.

As harsh as the remains of Taskrov were however, the island nevertheless became a new home for the Tyrannosaur and the Yeti, to the point where when Brandon and Lekinsa finally escaped their mini world after ten years, neither wanted to leave it with them. To be fair it’s not like the outside world would have accepted the Dinosaur and the Yeti either and at least here they both knew they could handle the monsters and threats.

A few years later however, Jocaziah and Ginko would willingly leave the island with Brandon and Lekinsa, (whose relationship had since broken down.) To help defeat Jocaziah’s old archenemy, King Damancus. The battle was long and hard and though Jocaziah finally managed to destroy his old archfoe, sadly Brandon would meet his end in the process. He died in Lekinsa’s arms, though not before telling her that he loved her.

Following this Lekinsa would go her own separate ways, needing time to be alone after Brandon’s death. This time the Tyrannosaur did not return back home however. No one was quite sure why, but it was believed that he may have wanted to stay here to make sure that King Damancus could never return. Ginko meanwhile was also believed dead during the battle, but was instead merely wounded and would drift off through the ocean until he washed up on another island which he would make his adoptive home for many years to come.

The next few years would the quietest of the Tyrannosaurs life, but his very presence would soon draw the attention of another organisation. The black mosque.

Founded and run by Vanessa Shoniwa, this organisation whose headquarters were based in Timbuktu were devoted to hunting down and containing the supernatural. Worried that Jocaziah would alert people, Shoniwa’s team were eventually able to capture the Tyrannosaur. Not wanting to deposit him back on the ever crumbling remains of Taskrov (which she was sure would soon sink into the sea.)

Vanessa instead felt that the Tyrannosaur would be better placed on Point Nemo, the most remote island on earth, where her forces were already struggling to contain a dark power.

There the Tyrannosaurus would meet the first member of its new family, an amphibian monster named Daharain and in the next chapter we shall explore this creatures incredible history.

Drawing by Caio Vincent Corsini.

Dionne’s old archenemy had somehow survived his death, but much to his chagrin, Dionne was more angered that she had failed to avenge Trian than scared of what Jakarian might do.

She hadn’t failed quite as badly as she had thought however. Dionne had completely destroyed Jakarian’s body all those centuries ago (thanks to her magics, she also ensured that Jakarian actually felt every cell in his body exploding.)

However as a result of all the magics Jakarian had sampled over not just his time as king, but his journey’s with the Hylexans, the vampire’s spirit had become stronger and more durable to the point where his ghost wasn’t instantly sucked into the afterlife for vampires.

Just after he created the book from which all vampires would originate. Khastran created the beginnings of a pocket dimension that was linked to it, which would eventually form over several hundred years. (A relatively insignificant task for the former master of the hellish realm.)

The souls of all vampires, as well as Khastrans other creations and even the creations of those loyal to him, such as the Turok Han and werewolves (who were created by his loyal pets the Lycans) would be sent to this pocket dimension after their deaths. In some rare cases, certain vampires were powerful enough to send the souls of their victims to this dimension too. The dimension itself resembled the earth when Khastran last walked it, a mostly desolate wasteland (as a result of his visit.) All of the vampires and creatures within this dimension could still be killed, but they would return to life the following day, meaning that they were forced to hunt each other for all eternity.

Carlene and Amy had both made their peace with the fact that they were going there in spite of how many good deeds they did. No magic on earth could save a soul permanently from this dimension. It was possible for some vampires to be resurrected, and Khastran himself could bring any soul he wanted out from it. (Which is what he did when creating the vampire horde, though even then his power was so depleted he needed to use his book and the restorative power of Tairos itself.) It was the same way that no magic on earth could cure the curse of vampirism. Khastran was very careful in making sure that his curse, his only lifeline could never be undone. Even after the victims died.

Carlene however did admit to Dionne that when she first found out that she was destined for his dimension, she had a mental breakdown and very nearly gave into her demonic nature, believing that it didn’t matter since she was doomed anyway.

Still Carlene eventually found peace in the fact that whilst she might not be able to fight Khastran’s curse, she could at least get back at him by using it to do good throughout the universe, and stop his curse from growing, wherever she could.

Jakarian however was seemingly the one exception, though even then, his spirit was only able to barely cling onto this world and was so faint that it couldn’t influence it at all, not even to the tiny extent that other ghosts could. It was a living hell for Jakarian, who would be forced to endure this for 100s of years. At any point he could have let go and fallen into Khastran’s afterlife, but he refused because he knew that there were plenty of vampires waiting on the other side to make him suffer. Those who viewed him as a traitor, for renouncing his kind when he came to help humanity in the war, those who hated him for betraying the earth, and finally even those who had served under him. They’d all be wanting for a chance at revenge.

Still the powerless state the former vampire king found himself in, as well as seeing how the world eventually came to forget him, would drive Jakarian even further down the path into madness.

The horrors he had committed, though still having an effect centuries on. Would ultimately be eclipsed by the final years of the vampire war, with both the Queen of the vampires and obviously the Emperor carrying out even greater atrocities in their desperation. Jakarian soon faded from memory as the irrelevant ruler who had been killed in the earlier years of the war, before the important battles.

Even his role in betraying humanity to the Hylexans had been somewhat forgotten, with most simply referring to it as the Hylexan invasion of earth.

In his later years Jakarian clung on, not just out of fear, but a desperation to remind the people of Tairos who he was. He hoped for centuries that someone or something would sense his presence and find a way to bring him back to the world of the living.

That chance would come from the most unlikely of places. The father of all vampires. Khastran himself. Just as before this vile monstrosity was able to cheat death to an extent. The magics that the allies used to destroy him were not as powerful as those of the Angels and the gods, and his weakened spirit was able to cling on for a short while after. Much like Jakarian however his spirit was so weak the demon god was unable to influence the world around him, and drifted harmlessly throughout the world he had devastated.

After centuries however eventually his spirit would sense the presence of Jakarian’s, who he instantly contacted.

Khastran did not have the power to possess one of his children like before, and even if he could, none of them would have let him after his betrayal. Jakarian however, Khastran knew had no loyalty or beliefs and would happily side with anyone who could help him, or indeed grant him power. Even Jakarian however was skeptical of helping Khastran at first, but soon realised this might be his only chance, and that Khastran could help him avoid ever going to his afterlife.

The two spirits then merged into one hideous creature, though both’s consciousness survived and would take it in turns to control the new demonic spirit.

Both meanwhile had set their sights on Dionne for a reason beyond simply revenge. Even this spiritual form couldn’t hold together indefinitely. They needed a new body that would be strong enough to contain them, which no even vampire, demon or warlock was capable of being. Their spirits were simply too unstable and would rip the bodies of the creatures they tried to possess apart. The unique magical structure of Dionne however would be more than capable of holding their essence, as buried deep in Dionne’s body were magics from when Khastran had last walked the earth, that had long since vanished. Jakarian had seen Dionne being transferred into the past, and had monitored Friaj, knowing full well when Dionne was to return. Jakarian had only spied on Dionne at first in the hopes that he could use whatever spiritual power he may have had left to influence the world in some way to destroy Dionne, but thankfully he didn’t have any.

Now however Jakarian’s knowledge would come in useful for Khastran, and the two monsters buried themselves deep in this church for over 100 years until they knew Dionne would arrive.

The church was the perfect place to hide, as little did the villagers know, it had been desanctified. A powerful demon who had been an ally of the humans against the vampires, and had even helped set up the church, had also devised a spell that would allow him to enter the church whenever he wanted. After the war was done, he would use it for human sacrifices, which eventually desanctified its holy power. A desanctified area contained a darkness that was more potent and powerful for demons and warlocks to utilise, as it represented evil triumphing over good.

Thankfully the demon was slain before he could put his plan into action, and the church afterwards was abandoned out of fear by the locals, though over time propaganda would cause this tragedy to be forgotten about. Ironically the demon responsible had been a great hero during the war (though only because of the mutual threat of the vampires.) Many did not want to admit that they had been duped by him, particularly the founders of the settlement nearby. As horrifying as it was for the victims, he was rewritten into being a hero who had died slaying the “real” killer of his victims.

Sadly however Khastran/Jakarian could sense the darkness in the church and it became the perfect place to keep their spirit stable for the century until Dionne arrived. However even then the church was not enough on its own, and both demons would frequently make a trip to the black woods, to absorb a little of the Terrible One’s magics. Even they were mindful not take too much as in their weakened state it could consume even them. Still these magics along with the church helped keep their spirits alive, and even now and again allowed the demons to satisfy their sadistic urges and inflict pain on the unsuspecting citizens of Tairos. In fact Dionne speculated that they were behind many of the more recent natural disasters that according to the Karsen library, had become more common in the last century or so. Many assumed that it was down to the magical upheaval of the land, but it certainly wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility that both of these demons were responsible for at least some of the disasters.

Dionne laughed at the two demons, telling them that most of her magics had depleted anyway, and that she only had a tiny fraction left. Jakarian however told her that actually, deep down, she was as powerful as she ever was. The later incarnation of the Circus Family had placed barriers around the magics in her body when she was sent backwards in time. Jakarian didn’t tell her why of course, not that it would have mattered anyway.

The two great demonic spirits attempted to fuse themselves to Dionne’s body, but using what little power she had, even with the barriers placed around her powers, she fought them off. It was more her will and hatred for Jakarian that drove her however. In spite of the desanctified church preserving them, both Jakarian and Khastran were weak as they had used up a lot of the power from the black woods when torturing the inhabitants of the nearby settlement. Even now both monsters couldn’t help themselves when given an opportunity to hurt people. Sadly however just as Dionne was about to push them back and flee outside to warn the Circus Family. Jakarian conjured up an image in her head, for just a brief moment.

The image revealed that Trian’s spirit was trapped in a special holding dimension of Jakarian’s, where he would send the souls of his worst enemies to suffer unimaginable pain and agony. The only way Dionne could find out where it was, would be to let Jakarian possess her, otherwise Trian would suffer for all eternity. Dionne knew that it had to be a trick. Jakarian never had that kind of power, and even if he did, why not advertise it to further strike terror into his enemies hearts

Still the possibility that her love might be suffering like that, for all this time, whilst she was unaware was enough to make Dionne let her guard down. She swore to me that it was not intentional. After all she knew that Jakarian would never keep his word, even if it was true, but sadly the anger and sorrow it provoked, caused Dionne to become more reckless in her attempts to destroy the spirits. She didn’t have anywhere near enough power to destroy them as it takes quite a lot of power to destroy a spirit, even a weak one completely. She should have fled outside. Maybe the Circus Family working together could have brought them both down, but sadly Dionne’s recklessness, allowed both spirits to by pass her more easily and enter her mind.

Once that happened Dionne had no chance of expelling Khastran. The demon god instantly destroyed the barriers around her powers from within and then merged itself to her ancient magics, increasing its power and making its hold over her seemingly iron clad.

Now in complete control of Dionne’s body, Khastran/Jakarian went outside to face the Circus Family.

The two demons instantly took control of Carlene before the others could even see anything was wrong with Dionne, and forced her to attack Samuel. The rest of the Circus Family naturally focused their attention on Carlene, whilst Dionne/Jakarian/Khastran prepared another attack. Friaj meanwhile along with the Gorgonopsid fled the area, though again none of the others really had time to notice. Saumel was barely able to evade the vampires attempts on his life, and was only saved by the intervention of Amy. Whilst the werewolf and the vampire were battling, Samuel used one of his gadgets designed to hold vampires, to restrain Carlene. He was extremely reluctant to use it on one of his best friends, but obviously he had no choice. Anck Su Namun and Tarkan meanwhile were busy still trying to hold off the Gargoyles who had instantly attacked again when the Circus Family’s attention was drawn to Carlene.

Tanith on the other hand soon turned her attention back on Dionne. She knew the the tell tale signs of possession (being something of an expert herself) and attempted to expel the unnatural power she could sense controlling Dionne. Unfortunately however, now aided by the magics in Dionne’s body. The demons instead were able to reverse Tanith’s spell, and used it to very nearly rip her spirit out of the body she was possessing.

The thought of going back to the nightmarish in between state she had been trapped in for centuries was enough to genuinely terrify Tanith, to the point where she screamed “No! Please!” At the monster inhabiting Dionne. Normally she was too proud to show any fear towards her enemies, and after what she had been through Tanith did not fear actual death. She knew however that whatever was possessing Dionne would quite happily condemn her to that fate again, when a cruel smile appeared on Dionne’s face. Somehow whilst it wasn’t telepathic, it could sense people’s worst fears. (This was also why it had set Carlene on Samuel, as her worst fear was giving into the demon inside and letting Alex turn her into a monster like him.)

Fortunately Amy was able to tackle Dionne before it could tear Tanith’s soul from her body, though Amy’s strength was still dwarfed by the beast that subsequently threw her over 40 feet through the air.

Tarkan meanwhile wisely tried a softer approach and tried getting through to Dionne, reminding her of how her hatred of Jakarian had almost convinced her to change history before, and how she had the strength to overcome that and become a better person.

Ironically Tarkan had no idea that it was Jakarian possessing her, but his words nevertheless gave Dionne just a seconds strength to overcome the two great evils inside her to the point where she retreated from the area and flew into the forest ahead. Sadly however her control only lasted for a few seconds, and once again both demons overpowered her, vowing to make Dionne suffer, so she would know her place.

The two demons instantly headed for the nearby settlement, where Jakarian/Khastran singled out Ajian, who they knew from Dionne’s own memories and transformed him into a hideous, vampiric demon. Dionne fought as hard as she could to try and regain control, but it was hopeless and she had to watch every second of it, as Ajian’s daughter begged and pleaded with her to stop, whilst her fathers body became twisted and mangled into a disgusting abomination.

Khastran was attempting to create a new race of children who would replace the vampires. He didn’t want monsters that would infiltrate humanity and understand them like the vampires were. In his mind that had made the vampires too human and weak. Now he wanted a race of demonic warriors who would claim this earth as their own in no time.

Again however trying to create these new and perfect warriors was a difficult task with his somewhat unpredictable new powers, but he certainly wasn’t going to have any problems trying.

Khastran/Jakarian would turn another 9 people in the settlement into similar monsters before flying through the air over the forest. Below they would transform hundreds more Dinosaurs, passing traders and even some bandits into twisted abominations.

Again Dionne was powerless to do anything, and Khastran taunted her saying.

“You’re a shallow, pathetic creature. Always so desperate for people to accept you. Both in your own time with that awful noise you made, and in Tairos with your cheap heroics. Now your face will be the one that slaughters countless innocents, that destroys worlds, that will be hated by all sentient creatures in the cosmos.”

Dionne could hear Jakarian laughing in the background of her mind. He soon piped up.

“You will repay tenfold for what I have suffered.” The former vampire king said through his twisted cackling.

“The centuries I spent unable to feel, unable to touch, to influence the world around me, drifting helplessly, whilst watching my legacy be forgotten. You’ll endure that. Unable to move in your own body as we tear everything you tried to save down.”

Worse than their petty taunts however, was the fact that Dionne could see both Khastran and Jakarian’s lives. Thankfully she could only see flashes of the atrocities they had carried out, but that was enough. Entire worlds burned by Khastran’s cruelty, whole species wiped out in an instant. She also saw and felt Jakarian’s joy when the Hylexans burned his own world. Billions of lives wiped out in an instant, and all Jakarian could feel was the satisfaction of his own petty little revenge.

The two demons soon took Dionne to Karsen. As possibly the largest settlement in the area it would make a perfect demonstration of Khastran’s power.

Flying in front of the wall, Khastran through Dionne spoke to the guards.

“You thought you had seen the last of me, Khastran, father of the vampires? You thought you were free? Unfortunately you didn’t even win this miserable excuse for a world. I will crush what’s left of humanity, finish what I started and burn this already dying planet to nothing but cinders and then with my new children, nothing in all the realms will stand against us. Be grateful though, at least some of you will be given the honour of following me.” Khastran said as he turned all of the guards on the wall into hideous, vampiric demons who descended upon the city below, whilst Khastran/Jakarian flew over the city, burning some people to a crisp, (destroying not just their bodies but their souls too.) As well as transforming others into abominations. Eventually Dionne/Khastran/Jakarian reached its target however. The force field that it destroyed with Dionne’s own sword.

The cities forces were completely overwhelmed. Karsen’s forces had become somewhat idle, having not faced a real threat for some time, but even the best army would have been overwhelmed by not only the power, but the cruelty and relentlessness that Khastran attacked with.

Meanwhile Jakarian was arguably in just as much pain as Dionne. He wanted to shout to the people of Karsen that he was back, that they would remember him for all time now, but Khastran deliberately did not let him speak. Whilst the demon god still needed Jakarian for stability, he was nevertheless naturally the more dominant of the two and was at least able to keep the former vampire king in check. Khastran had absolutely no reason to stop Jakarian from getting what he always wanted, other than just because the thought it was funny. Trust me, he and indeed most of his vampiric children didn’t need any more reason than that to completely crush a man’s dreams. Jakarian would most certainly have done the same thing in his place.

Dionne herself couldn’t help but muster up a brief chuckle, despite her plight at Jakarian being deprived of everything he wanted. “Even when you win you still lose.” Dionne said to him.

In the middle of the slaughter however, Friaj suddenly emerged from the crowd, not phased on the back of the Gorgonopsid, which roared to get the demon god above’s attention.

Khastran flew down to confront her directly.

“I thought you’d been wise enough to flee, mind you, where could you run too. I suppose it makes sense you just want to cut to the chase and get it over with.” Khastran speaking through Dionne taunted.

Friaj however just laughed. Both Dionne and Jakarian were unnerved, having never seen her show that much emotion before.

“You expect me to bow before you? Jakarian? You’ve failed at every single thing you ever tried. You failed to be a hero, failed to be a villain, failed to earn your place in history, no matter how low you tried to go to stand out from the rest of those animals.” Friaj said.

“I am in control.” Khastran shouted, as he lifted Friaj into the air, but she didn’t even acknowledge his presence and continued to taunt Jakarian.

“She beat you before, she’ll beat you again.”

It was at that point that Dionne realised why she had been able to take control before. Jakarian as always, was the weak link. Even though he wouldn’t admit it, he was scared of Dionne. She had after all killed him the most horrible way and condemned his soul to wander the earth for centuries. Even if it was an unconscious feeling, buried deep down, the terror of going back to that state, much like with Tanith was enough to make Jakarian briefly lose his grip. It hadn’t been Tarkan’s belief in Dionne that had given her the strength in herself back at the church, rather it had been Jakarian being reminded of how much stronger his archfoe was than he that terrified him. Sadly for Khastran as they were linked, then that also affected his control over Dionne.

Friaj continued to taunt Jakarian with the memories of being trapped in that nightmarish state as a ghost, telling him she knew he was watching her and she was laughing deep down at him, being so powerless he couldn’t even kill his arch foe when she was in a coma, helpless. Eventually it became too much for Jakarian who in a moment paniced, giving Dionne her chance to wrestle back control of her body and fly it away from Karsen and straight into the desert of Dynamos, where they crashed.

Sadly just as before Khastran soon took control again, though this time it wasn’t quite as ironclad as he had hoped. The demon god screamed at Jakarian to help him, but this time Jakarian refused.

“I’m not going to trade one prison for another.” Jakarian said.

“It seems you need me more than you thought. Unless you allow me control I will see all three of us burn.” Jakarian said.

Whilst it would have been sensible for Khastran to try and at least reason with Jakarian, the demon god was of course too proud to even consider indulging one of his own measly creations and the two fought with one another.

Little did they know however, Dionne hadn’t just brought them here by chance. She had flown specifically into the mountain she had first encountered the Drasker. Hoping that it would possibly be drawn by the magics that were eminating from her body and that whilst they were distracted holding it off, she could attack them. Either that or it would kill all three of them, which would still be preferable.

Several other creatures were drawn here, namely zombies which Khastran dispatched, as well as a few Vitox. Fortunately however Dionne was able to briefly control herself and warn them to flee, which they only did when she fired a beam of magic at the ruins of the mountain, vaporizing them in a display of her power.

The more that Khastran had to fight off the easier it became for Dionne to regain control, with Jakarian even in these circumstances still not wanting to give the vampire god control over Dionne’s body. As he said, Khastran would simply imprison him within their shared body and prevent him from being able to interact with the world, just like when he was a spirit. At least this way it would be over.

However Dionne’s plan backfired somewhat ironically when the Drasker came into view. The terror this beast invoked in Jakarian, caused him to temporarily forget his differences with Khastran and allow him control.

Khastran used Dionne’s powers to hold the giant Dinosaur mutation off and weaken it. Dionne however, still didn’t give up and spoke with Jakarian, or rather contacted him telepathically.

She played on his insecurities. Having seen him, when he was the great hero against the Hylexans, she now knew how much he loved being seen as a hero, how people believing in him, had driven the vampire to do those uncharacteristically heroic things. She taunted the vampire king that deep down that is what he still wanted, and that even if Khastran restored his place as the evil vampire king in the history books he would still lose, as that wasn’t what he really wanted either. Even the mightiest god after what he had done, could restore him to ever being the hero again. Of course Jakarian’s desire to be seen as a hero was not out of genuine altruism or guilt for his actions. It was entirely down to his own ego, though admittedly Dionne did admit to me, that she thinks that perhaps during his time helping humanity, he may have for a short while experienced something approaching a genuine desire to do good. Still now certainly, all he was motivated by was his hatred and desire to make the world be sorry for rejecting him. Dionne however, who in some ways knew him better than anyone else ever had, for just a second gave Jakarian a moment of hopelessness, which allowed her a chance to attack Khastran, whilst the latter was using all his power to try and finish the Drasker.

With all of her strength, Dionne took control of the magic inside her from Khastran, and used it to push both demons from her body, regaining control again, with the strain almost killing her.

The two demonic spirits tried to possess her again, but this time Dionne, now able to harness her magics, wielded her sword against them. Still not giving up however, Jakarian and Khastran flew into the now dying body of the Drasker. Even when it was healthy, they would have worn it out eventually, but for now they had no choice.

Khastran and Jakarian (who again were now working together out of necessity) whilst possessing the body of the Drasker picked Dionne up in one hand and prepared to devour her. It seems that they both hoped they could consume the magics in her body as well and mixed in with the Draskers strength, become virtually unstoppable.

Dionne however, used her magics to literally blow apart the Draskers hand. It took a large section of her power to do so, as even dying the beasts body was still ferociously powerful, and was now mixed in with Khastran and Jakarian.

Then, flying through the air, Dionne used her sword to slice the monsters throat, before taking its head clean off. She made it clear to me how much she regretted what she had to do to the Drasker that was still just trying to survive, but obviously she had no choice and it was dying anyway.

Sadly however the spirits of Jakarian and Khastran were still not dead, and both would attempt to possess Dionne once more, taking her by surprise when she believed they had gone down with the monster. Whilst it took an even greater strain than slaying the Drasker, Dionne managed to not only fight them off, but hold their spirits in place long enough to then strike them both with her sword. She channelled all of the magics in her body through her sword for that final strike.

Jakarian’s last words were a wretched “Khastran, Khastran, protect me!” Ultimately however the combination of all of Dionne’s magics channelled through her sword was now enough to completely destroy Jakarian’s soul for good. Just like on the sky city against Jakarian’s minions, Dionne could feel his spirit literally break apart. Ironically however Jakarian in a way ended up winning as now his spirit would finally be at peace, and be spared Khastran’s cruel afterlife. As for Khastran, well Dionne felt the same thing for the destruction of his spirit, but who knows if a small part of him still managed to survive. It would hardly be the first time that wretched creature had escaped death.

Channelling her power proved to be such a strain, that just like before Dionne was left completely drained and collapsed to the desert floor. She didn’t fall into a coma this time, but she could still barely muster enough strength to move her arms. Fortunately the presence of the Dresker had scared off most other creatures of the desert at first, but after an hour or so, several vultures would be drawn to its carcass.

Several of them descended around Dionne, but whenever they got too close, a quick jerk from her hand, head or leg would usually be enough to send them away.

A Pterosaur, similar to a Pteranodon soon arrived, and Dionne knew she was in trouble. Unlike the vultures it wasn’t here to scavenge. Rather it knew she was alive, having been drawn by the smell of fresh meat. As the giant reptile prepared to take a chunk out of her leg however, a deep, more mammalian roar suddenly drew its attention.

It was the Gorgonopsid, with Friaj riding on its back. The Pteranodon tried to stand its ground and opened up its wings, but the Gorgonopsid was having none of it. It’s safe to say it had seen far worse, and as soon as the reptile like mammal charged at it, the Pteranodon took to the skies.

Friaj helped get Dionne onto the back of the Gorgonopsid, who then took them through the desert and back to the Tent, which had been protected by a special magical shield, that even rendered the Tent invisible. Friaj however, somehow had a device to override its defences (which had been given to her by the future Circus Family) and used it to enter the Tent, where she placed Dionne down upon her bed.

Friaj then explained everything to Dionne. She was there when the later incarnation of the Circus Family, who were led by Anck Su Namun herself, limited Dionne’s power and even took part in it. She was also given instructions by them on how to guide Dionne when she next arrived in Tairos. They did so not only to preserve the timeline, but also to ensure that Dionne did not use up the limited power she had left in her body before she could face Khastran. After she had destroyed Jakarian’s weapons the first time, there were still tiny traces of the magic in her body. Enough to slowly regrow over the decades she was asleep for. Now however, she had used the last of it up to destroy Khastran’s spirit, for good.

Of course Dionne still didn’t entirely trust Friaj, though it’s worth mentioning that she never used any magics afterwards. Dionne later told me that if she had had the strength, she would have strangled Trian’s own sister, for helping to steal her power, manipulating her, letting her be possessed to the point where she would be made to kill innocent people etc. Ultimately Dionne knew that Friaj had no choice and that the timeline needed to be preserved, and that Khastran needed to die, but she would still harbour a hatred for the man she loved’s sister for the rest of her days, as well see the images of the people she killed whilst under Khastran’s control alongside others she had failed, for the rest of her life too.

Nevertheless before Friaj departed with the Gorgonopsid, Dionne told her that there was a possibility that Trian’s soul was trapped in a holding dimension of Jakarian’s invention. She still didn’t think it was true, but if there was even a hairs breath it was true, then she had to let Friaj know about it. Friaj told Dionne that she would search Jakarian’s island and do all she could before leaving with the Gorgonopsid back through the desert. At the very least, Dionne got to say goodbye to her beloved pet this time.

The rest of the Circus Family meanwhile were busy cleaning up Jakarian/Khastran’s mess. First they dealt with the monsters he had created at the settlement. Amy much to her regret was forced to kill Ajian in front of his daughter, who he was about to devour.

The Family then headed to Karsen, which was being torn apart by Khastran’s new, twisted children. The Circus Family, including even Carlene who had regained her senses (though she would be left shaken by what had happened for a long while afterwards) managed to save the city and slaughter most of the infected. Unfortunately however just two of Khastran’s new children would escape into the woods outside and continue to infect others, leading to the creation of a new race of demons who would plague Tairos for many centuries to come, the Khastriaks. Fortunately these monsters without their father to guide them would never be able to become the threat that the vampire horde were. Many demons would attempt to lead them however by claiming to be Khastran (whose apparent final death at Dionne’s hands was never known.) These frauds however would always be found out eventually.

After the city of Karsen was saved however, the Circus Family were not celebrated as heroes, but rather ran out as traitors who had helped to revive Khastran. It was easier to think that, than to believe that they had simply let Khastran slowly grow in power again.

The Family were forced to go on the run in the woods of Tairos whilst searching for Dionne/Khastran, until eventually Dionne, after she had recovered, was strong enough to pilot the Tent to the others. (With the Tent being linked to Tarkan, making it easier to find him. Whilst only Tarkan could pilot it through time and space, others could still make it travel across short physical distances.)

Sadly even the Circus Family at first took some time to be convinced that Dionne wasn’t still possessed, but after they accepted her, the Family took off from Tairos. Dionne would never return again.

Dionne would also only travel with the Circus Family for another few months. Things between her and the rest of the group were hard for a short while. She found it hard to forgive Anck Su Namun for limiting her powers, but soon understood that ironically Anck Su Namun (who was the only member of this Circus Family who would be part of the future one. Even Carlene had left them by that point) was ironically only working on her orders to limit her powers. In fact when hearing about it at first, Anck Su Namun refused to believe it. Still it obviously created quite a large rift between them for most of Dionne’s subsequent time in the Family.

Tanith and Carlene meanwhile felt uneasy around her. It wasn’t anger, it was more just that seeing Dionne reminded them of of what Khastran had done to them. How he had reduced Tanith to begging, something she always believed she would be too proud to do. Carlene meanwhile had been long believed she had conquered the demon within, but to be reduced to a savage animal, attacking the people she loved again reminded her that no matter what, the potential for it to take over was always there. She almost had another breakdown, but ironically the fact that Dionne had ultimately triumphed over the father of the vampires, Khastran, gave Carlene hope that despite their supernatural power. The vampires could always be overcome.

Ironically just before the end, she and Dionne’s bond would become closer than ever as a result of this.

The only three members that Dionne had no problems with where Amy, Samuel and ironically Tarkan who she was able to make some peace with. After she explained everything that had happened in order for the information to be passed onto the next Circus Family to complete the stable time loop. Tarkan admitted that he had misjudged Dionne somewhat, as he was amazed that she was willing to set up a timeline where she would suffer to such an extent. Having seen first hand the extent at which Ajian’s death had affected her. Dionne had demanded to know what had happened to the settlement and Karsen from the others. They all didn’t want to, to spare her feelings, but eventually she forced it out of Amy, who was forced to share every detail, and how Aijan’s daughter swore to make both Dionne and Amy suffer.

Still in spite of that, for the greater good of the timeline Dionne wasn’t going to change history, and Tarkan later told her that he wasn’t even sure if he would be willing to make that sacrifice.

Sadly however like many of the Circus Family members before her, Dionne’s time with them would come to an end, as she was needed to stay behind in her own time. To be fair those are the lucky members of the Circus Family. Many don’t have the luxury of leaving alive, never mind going back to their home time.
Still the time had come, and just before she left, Tarkan was forced to de-age her in the same way as before.

It was one of the hardest days of Dionne’s life, saying goodbye to the Circus Family. Even the normally stoic Tanith struggled to contain her sadness, whilst she and Anck Su Namun in some ways made peace with each other too. Still again at least unlike the first time, she was able to properly say goodbye to her old life.

From the world’s perspective, Dionne had only been gone for a few minutes from our time.

Just as before it took her a while to adjust, but thankfully she was able to keep out of the public eye. Her own record label dropped her (by text) due to her previous erratic behaviour and her own failure to produce anything else a few months after arriving in our time. Not that she was complaining. Whilst the way they dropped her was low, cowardly and unprofessional, if she had wanted, she could have easily released her own music independently. Ultimately however she sadly just wasn’t interested anymore. What Jakarian had put her through in the camps all those years ago had made it impossible for her to enjoy the very thing that had once been her greatest passion. Even killing that wretched monster twice failed to take away that pain. It was more than that however. The fact that her music had gone from being something that she was passionate about to, something that people exploited her with or because, whether that was the gutter press peering into her life, or Jakarian using it to torment her, or even the people of Mosterik who had plucked her from her own time, caused Dionne to now see it as something that she wanted to hide from the rest of the world.

It was tragic that she would never release anything else, though towards the end a part of me did think that she was maybe beginning to rediscover her passion. She would often play for friends and family. Like I said before, she even played a few pieces she had written in Tairos for me. There were even rumors that she was planning another album just before her death. I’m afraid I can’t tell you if there was any truth in those rumors as she was always very guarded about her music. I hope they are true, as not only does it mean we may get more great music from her one day, but it would also be lovely to think that she had finally overcome the last of her issues with Tairos.

It’s also worth nothing that whilst Dionne never made any music of her own during this time, she would still set up her own label that would launch the careers of many other artists. In fact some of the most popular and acclaimed songwriters of the past 30 years would emerge thanks to Dionne. Really in her later years, her passion for music was channelled almost exclusively into finding others and making sure that they didn’t go through the same experiences that she did. Some of her most die hard fans argued that she changed music just as much by giving indie artists more of a chance in the limelight. Personally I think that’s a huge exaggeration. Sadly she may have helped a few who otherwise wouldn’t have been noticed, but ultimately in the grand scheme of things I don’t think one person could ever really change the industry that much. Killing vampire gods yes, making record execs treat their artists better? Now you’re stretching things.

Whether she did change the industry or not however, Dionne, through taking a more background role, and cut off from the cruel media was eventually able to move on with her life. She met and married a good man named James Harbour Sande who she would eventually have a child with, Shingai.

Whilst the media after her death would try and paint these years as sad and lonely, I know from experience that they were anything but. Dionne had a truly wonderful life with her friends and family for over 40 years.

Still it must be said that even after she was able to share her secrets with me, the weight of Tairos still preyed on her mind. How could it not? Some people think that getting over something means you never think about it again, but honestly unless you’re a robot. Your past will always stay with you to some extent. It’s just the extent at which it does that matters, and ultimately given how well things ended for Dionne, and what a wonderful person her daughter ended up being. I’d say she was able to overcome her troubled past as well as anyone could.

Dionne passed away at the age of 78. Her death was sudden and unexpected. I’ve always suspected that it was the magic that de-aged her that may have worn Dionne down to some extent. Despite the suddenness of her death, she had begun to rapidly age in her last few years. She had lived a healthy lifestyle, and didn’t have anything wrong with her according to her doctors. To be fair maybe it was just the life she had led in Tairos and with the Circus Family catching up to her after all that time?

Whatever the reason, a few days after her funeral I would finally get the conclusive proof of her exploits in Tairos that had eluded me for so long, when the Circus Family arrived to pay their respects. For the most part I had always believed Dionne. My own experiences with the supernatural, mixed in with the trust I had in her, allowed me to have confidence in even some of her wildest claims most of the time.

Still I guess deep down maybe even I had some trouble in believing all of it. I never thought she was lying, but perhaps I may have felt that some of her wildest claims were the result of some demon or sorcery tricking her. When I actually saw all of those strange characters Dionne had told me about around her grave, it was terrifying. I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.

The only reason I had arrived there was Tanith, who had summoned me with her magics.

As Tarkan would reveal to me, after Dionne left, this incarnation of the Circus Family would visit Tairos a few times more. Whilst thankfully they told me that Khastran’s death seemed to be final. Sadly Dionne was now remembered as a monster in the age of Tairos who had sided with Khastran and created a new race of monsters to terrorise the world.

The Circus Family told me that I was to write a memoir using the knowledge I gained from Dionne, (with knowledge that she had never even been able to share with them) that they would pick up from me on the 7th of November in the year 2109.

Whether or not it was to preserve the timeline I am unsure. They simply said that this would be help restore Dionne’s reputation in a time far beyond the age of Tairos. Whilst Dionne having seen what had become of Jakarian no longer cared about being remembered or her legacy, at the same time the Circus Family understandably did not want her to be remembered as a monster, and told me that when the time was right, this would help restore things.

This is the real reason I have chosen to write this memoir. In one weeks time it will be delivered to the Circus Family who will meet me by Dionne’s grave.

I have decided to keep one copy for myself, if I’m allowed to that is. Whilst I obviously won’t be publishing it in my lifetime, at the very least it will help me to make more sense of everything that has happened.

In some ways I knew Dionne better than anyone else. She certainly had as big an impact on me as any other major person in my life, perhaps more. Not all of it has been positive mind you. There are times where like I said I’ve been terrified at the prospect of coming back as a Vasta. Where any positive development or step forward in society has left me feeling cold, as I know that in just a few centuries it will all be reset. Writing this memoir wasn’t easy either, as I was terrified if I got anything wrong and history didn’t go the way it ought to then I’d have been sent to the Abyss.

Still overall I feel privileged to have been among the only people to know the true life story of a great woman, who was sadly so often misunderstood in both her own time and in the age of Tairos. A woman with a truly special talent and a big heart, who was forced to deal with the most crushing tragedies and responsibilities, yet rose above them all in the end.

I only hope that in the future, she is finally understood for who she really was.

The End

Drawing by Caio Vincent Corsini.

The metropolis of Karsen was in many respects more beautiful than any of the cities Dionne had seen during the apparent golden age of Tairos.

It was surrounded on all sides by a gigantic wall, though as Dionne would later learn, it was actually something inside that provided the key to its defences.

The time travellers were greeted very warmly by the heads of the city. Whilst Karsen may have become isolationist, it nevertheless did not harbour any prejudices towards outsiders. As long as they were not hostile, then the Karsen’s would treat them with respect. That said however the fact that the Circus Family were there on the recommendation of the Vitox undoubtedly helped their case.

Tarkan talked with the heads of the city about why he had come here. Surprisingly they were familiar with the Circus Family, though it had been a later incarnation they had worked with in their respective past. At the very least they knew that there had been multiple Circus Masters and expected the change by this stage.

Whilst Tarkan told the leaders about the mission and discussed plans, the others were free to explore this beautiful metropolis and even learn a bit about its history and the history of Tairos. Dionne naturally was the most eager to find out how the war had ended, and what had become of her beloved Gorgonopsid. Sadly however she could not find any historical records pertaining to her in the local library, touted as having the most complete historical records in all of Tairos. Even with events that she was a part of, such as the Dragons graveyard and the fall of Mosterik and most notably the death of Jakarian, who according to history books was killed by the armies of the sky city.

The answer would soon become clear when she was visited by two old friends. Friaj, Trian’s sister and Dionne’s trusty pet Gorgonopsid, both of whom miraculously were still alive. Dionne almost didn’t notice Friaj at first as she was so overjoyed to see her favourite pet alive again, which still recognised her even after all these centuries.

Friaj would explain to Dionne that after she was placed into suspended animation, Friaj wandered Tairos on her own. She did not take part in the war for years. Unlike her late brother, she surprisingly felt no desire for vengeance as she had been made numb to virtually everything around her.

Friaj wanted to see if she could experience joy again and so she travelled the world with Dionne’s trusty Gorgonopsid by her side sampling the best of what she could from the cities around Tairos, avoiding the vampires and slowly but surely mastering what little magics she could.

Eventually however Friaj would be drawn back into the war again, when one of her favourite sanctuaries fell to the vampires. Realising that if not stopped the bloodsuckers would rip the joy she had rediscovered from her again, Friaj however said that she was still not motivated by anger or hatred, but simply practicality to finally help eliminate the bloodsuckers from the face of the earth.

Friaj and the Gorgonopsid were present on the final day of the war alongside many other great heroes of Tairos such as Gina, the Queen of the Forest and the Mysterious Mr Diassa, when the vampires lost and the Emperor was finally killed. She told Dionne that the stories she had heard in her day about the Emperor were wrong. The Emperor wasn’t simply a mutated vampire that had survived the Hylexans attack. Rather he was in fact Khastran, the ancient demon that had created vampires in the first place.

According to legend Khastran was the oldest and most powerful of all demons. He is known to have visited our earth twice. First when his spirit crashed into the planet 66 million years ago at the end of the age of the Dinosaurs. Khastran had previously ruled over the hellish realm, but an alliance of gods, angels and even demons who had enough his cruelty, led to the demon finally being destroyed.

Some of his lackeys, centuries later would attempt to revive him however, but they were only able to awaken his spirit which was forced to flee to earth to escape. There Khastran’s spirit would proceed to take over the body of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, after which he would exterminate the Dinosaurs (except for those he turned into Demonic creatures like himself.) Aided by his new army of demonic Dinosaurs, Khastran would return to the stars and inflict a bloody reign of terror across the omniverse for millions more years to come. At the time of early man however the demon would return to our earth once more still inhabiting his Tyrannosaur body, though what for is still a topic of debate, at least among historians. Either way he was destroyed by another alliance of demons, gods and angels, who made sure that his spirit was eradicated this time. Just before his death however, Khastran who knew that he could not stand alone against the angels and the gods, attempted to create a race of lesser demons, who could bring him back to life centuries later. His first attempt were the savage Turok Han, who were deemed a failure as they were too monstrous. The second however were the vampires, who were created from a book he made, bound in his own flesh and inked in his own blood. Each page of the book could transform someone into the first of a new breed of vampire.

The vampires were more than just Khastrans creations or his children as many referred to them however. They were linked directly with him to the point where when they outnumbered the dominant natural creatures on earth. The humans, then he would live again.

This had always been the goal of the vampire race, to kill off humanity, but again they had failed ironically due to the fact that they were such vicious, power hungry, backstabbing monsters.

The Hylexans dark magic meanwhile had allowed the few scant traces of Khastran’s spirit, scattered over the earth to reform briefly enough to the point where he was able to possess the corpse of a fallen vampire, one of his “children”. The host body allowed Khastran’s spirit to remain on earth in one form, though his power was obviously depleted to a huge extent.

At the very least however in this body, Khastran could not only bring his children back (though still only using his book which it took years to find), but he would also be able to influence them to a certain extent, at least enough to work together under him, which had ultimately been what created the vampire horde in the first place.

According to Friaj, the Emperor had concealed his true identity to prevent any of the gods or angels from finishing him whilst he was vulnerable. As the war came to a close however, the Emperor/Khastran in desperation actually attempted to drain the life force from all of his children to gain at least a fraction of his former power to destroy his enemies.

Whilst Friaj was never exactly clear to Dionne what role if any she had played, she nevertheless saw Khastran’s final attempts go up in flames and the ancient demon who had caused so much pain and suffering endure its final end.

With Khastran dead, the surviving vampires he hadn’t already sacrificed were no longer united. They scattered and fled across Tairos, becoming mere shadows of their former selves. Dionne herself meanwhile was at some point after the war brought backwards in time by the Circus Family themselves. Though it was not this incarnation, but rather a later one. Dionne had always suspected that it may have been them, but she didn’t want to probe, knowing how delicate time itself could be. In the decades that followed Khastran’s death, several historical records would be lost of the war as the cities struggled to survive, but in the case of Dionne, they would be lost on purpose. Many people had come to worship Dionne as a god after her final battle against Jakarian, coming to place all hope that she would return and smite the vampire horde. Even after the war however many hoped she would return and rebuild the world as it was. The founders of Karsen felt that relying on her was not a good motivator for the people. Also it must be said that many of the founders would rewrite history so that the cities they had come from, had been responsible for Dionne’s and other great figures victories as a useful form of propaganda.

In time given how hard life was in the new Tairos, even compared with the original, it became easier to belief that a beautiful goddess was not watching over them and the myth of Dionne faded until virtually no one knew her name.

Friaj herself for the record protested the removal of Dionne from the records in Karsen, but eventually she became bored of Karsen and the other survivors petty arguments and returned to wandering the earth on her own, with her magic keeping her and the Gorgonopsid young and strong.

In spite of what Friaj told Dionne about feeling joy and happiness again, she still spoke in every bit as monotone a voice with a blank expression as she had done when she first got out of the vampires camps, centuries ago. Even Tanith and Anck Su Namun, two literal walking corpses were somewhat unnerved by her.

Friaj however had also been told that this would be the day when Dionne would return to Tairos by the Circus Family who brought Dionne backwards through time. She demanded Dionne and the others come with her now, stating that they couldn’t afford to wait for the city of Karsen to come to a decision. The cities leaders as always were somewhat ineffective. Their city generally didn’t need to do much in order to protect itself, thanks to a powerful force field that served as its real protector. The wall was simply to mark the end of the force field and serve as a back up. The force field was generated in the centre of the city, by the statue of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Who were naturally still regarded as the kings of the forests.)

Whilst the statue appeared to be gold, in actual fact it was made out of magic. (Remember that gold is the colour of magic.) The statue had been created from the most powerful surviving warlocks, wizards and witches from numerous destroyed cities.

The combination of the city having the perfect protection, and its isolationist policy meant that it very rarely ventured into the outside of Tairos anymore, unless there was something in it for them.

Instead the city would just send the 7 heroes of Karsen out to deal with any other problems. The 7 heroes, who were known as Karsen’s 7 or Jameela’s 7 (After their founded) had been protecting the city and in some cases the rest of Tairos for decades now. They had first formed to retrieve the Tyrannosaur statue after it was stolen by a demon. The group were not formed by the leaders of Karsen who were too busy trying to stop the demons forces from climbing over their walls. Rather they were formed by the witch Jameela, a fairly low level member of the city who had long questioned their isolationist policy.

The 7 successfully retrieved the statue and were hailed as heroes, and subsequently allowed to explore Tairos as much as they wanted, unlike the other citzens. They acted on their own mostly, but if Karsen ever needed them, they would have to return right away.

Typically the leaders rather than waste their own resources, simply told Tarkan to wait on the seven returning to Karsen. They were away on a mission on the other side of the planet, though with the magics of Tairos that wouldn’t necessarily be a long time. Still understandably the Circus Family weren’t going to want to wait that long, and whilst Tarkan was distrustful of Friaj to some extent. (He was a bit distrustful of everyone truth be told.) He agreed to go with her.

Just before the Circus Family left Karsen however, Friaj would make sure to give Dionne her old weapon that the sky city had constructed for her all those centuries okay. Her sword, that only Dionne could wield because of the magics in her body. Technically others could pick it up, but only in Dionne’s hands would it possess its unique powers. Sadly however due to how badly her powers had been depleted, even in Dionne’s hands it was now nothing more than a sword. Still Friaj had faith that Dionne could find the power to use it.

Friaj took the Circus Family to the other side of Karsen, away from the black woods, telling them that what they were looking for had already absorbed the power from the Terrible One’s cave and was ravaging the countryside.

The Family soon came upon a small settlement of mostly farmers who had got by on a few tame, prehistoric animals such as Indricotheres, Entelodonts and some Hyeanodons as both protection and in some cases food.

The latest threat to the settlement however had been too much, even for their prehistoric mammals. A large, powerful spiritual creature that had been abducting settlers and transforming them into hideous demons. The creature however hadn’t attacked them in two days.

One of the settlers, a young man named Ajian, told the Circus Family that the creature had just two days ago had abducted his daughter, who had been out playing with her friends near the edge of the settlement when the creature came unexpectedly during the daylight hours. He personally rode on his pet Hyeanodon into the woods to try and find her, battling many of the mutated horrors this entity, whatever it was had created. Eventually however to his surprise, the mutants suddenly collapsed, and he found his daughter as well as her friend, crying and scratched, but otherwise unharmed on a nearby rock. Up above he saw the entity, which had taken on the form of a black smoke drift quickly through the sky until it reached the ruins of the old church, which had ironically been used as a sanctuary for survivors during the vampire war.

Of course he didn’t follow it as he had his daughter to think of, though admittedly in the two days since, no one else had been brave enough to go there.

Hell even the Circus Family themselves weren’t too keen, but they knew this was what they were here for, and wasting no time the unlikely band of vampires, mummy’s undead aliens, werewolves and rock stars headed through the woods to the church.

Along the way they encountered the corpses of the numerous mutants this spiritual abomination had created. One of them was still alive, though it was not a threat to the Circus Family. It could barely move, and was clearly in the most heinous agony. All of its bones looked broken, in fact some were poking out from under its skin. Numerous other parts of its body looked torn, with its transformation having clearly been haphazard and unfinished.

All of the Circus Family, even Tanith were horrified at the state the creature had been left in, so much so that Dionne held its clawed, broken slimy hand whilst Tarkan put it out of its misery.

Once they reached the church they could feel a dark presence right away. Carlene in particular felt uneasy. Two of the Gargoyles meanwhile that adorned the church’s roof came to life and began to attack the Circus Family. These beasts were actually a simply security system, that all churches in Tairos once had. Still they were enough to give the Circus Family some trouble, and in the middle of the fight, one of the creatures zeroed in on Dionne and dragged her a few feet through the air and through the church doors, which then slammed shut behind her.

As Dionne tried to use her sword to cut it down, she suddenly heard a voice taunting her from behind.

“My dear Dionne. What’s it been several life times. You haven’t changed a bit. I meanwhile well that’s a different story.”

Dionne knew that voice only too well. It was Jakarian.

This wasn’t the Tairos that Dionne knew at all. The effects of Jakarian’s bombs and the many more devastating weapons created and used by both the vampires and the allies since had destroyed huge sections of the forest.

Before Tairos looked beautiful, but now its ugliness was there for all to see.

The Circus Family had landed in an area that now looked like a vast desert, with a few barren mountains. It was actually where the great city of Dynamos had once stood. Having been the most powerful metropolis in all of Tairos through its trade of Dinosaurs during most of the war. Dynamos sadly had never really recovered from Jakarian’s attack, though many of its people were too proud to admit that and accept help from the other cities. Instead they tried to rebuild the city on their own. A final attack from the vampires would see the then leader of Dynamos activate a self destruct button to ensure that none of the vampires would get access to their magics and Dinosaurs.

Like all time travellers the Circus Family were mindful not to change established history. Their travels took them to important periods in both the past and the future, where they had to create history. For example it was only because of the Circus Master stopping an attempt to build an army of vampires in Victorian times that said army didn’t overtake the earth back then.

The Tent itself would tell them, or rather the Circus Master what to do in order to ensure history went on the correct path, via images contained within the fountain inside the Tent, which also served as the controls for the vehicle.

The images were often vague however and would only give the Circus Master an idea on what to do, as knowing too much about your future could end up disrupting it. According to the vision for this journey there was a great evil rising in the ruins of the black woods, specifically in the Terrible One’s cave, which Dionne knew only too well. If this evil, which appeared to be spiritual in nature were not stopped then it would absorb the magics from the Terrible One’s cave and end up consuming the entire world.

Dynamos was not far from the black wood, and so the Circus Family (who were also known as the Circus Folk) would have to make a long trek through the perilous desert ahead.

The Circus Family at this stage, aside from Tarkan, Carlene and Dionne herself included four other members. They were the werewolf Amy Tunstall, the mummy Anck Su Namun, alien Tanith and a vampire hunter named Samuel Williams.

Amy Tunstall was born in Glasgow in the year 1940. Much like Carlene she had tried to make it as a singer, before she was infected by a werewolf. After becoming a target for other demons and hunters as a result. (Vampires contrary to popular belief were among the only supernatural creatures who did not despise werewolves, as the curse of lycanthropy could poison and kill almost every other kind of supernatural creature except for vampires.)

Amy eventually fled to Darrow too, which was something of a hotspot for supernatural creatures. There she became a part of the criminal mastermind known as mad Lord Paul’s empire, which included many supernatural creatures too. (Lord Paul was one of Carlene’s greatest adversaries.)

Amy however soon turned against Lord Paul’s orders, being unable to comply with his ruthless actions. She soon became a thorn in his side and would now and again help Carlene against him. Still in spite of this however, the two were initially enemies, as Amy still turned to crime in order to make ends meet, though she never killed anyone. Carlene who eventually convince Amy that she didn’t need to give into the curse and could still be a good person, after the two rescued another street girl named Sally Chappell, who Amy had taken under her wing from one of Lord Paul’s demonic servants. Amy had taken pity on Sally after vampires had killed her family, though she had only intended to look after her for a short while, the girl grew too attached to Amy for her to just abandon her. When Sally was caught up in her feud with Paul Amy would surprise herself with the lengths she was willing to go to protect her, including even sacrificing herself.

This finally convinced Amy to take Carlene’s advice to heart and she and Sally eventually left for Paris where they would spend many years battling evil, with Amy becoming every bit as great a hero as Carlene herself. The two would remain in contact and became best friends until Carlene’s disappearance in 2007.

Carlene always said that the reason the two got on so well was because Amy was a Glaswegian and Carlene was a cockney. She joked that Glaswegians and cockneys are soul brothers or sisters in this case, as they are both so similar. Both are stereotyped as violent, drunken thugs, with links to gangsters in the media. (Something which to be fair, both play up to for humour.) Both in spite of the stereotype however have a strong artistic streak, and are quite left wing. Finally both even have their own rhyming slang too.

Anck Su Namun meanwhile was a former Egyptian princess who had fallen in love with her high priest Imhotep. In her attempts to use the black arts (stolen from a book of Imhoteps) to escape from and punish the Pharoh who had chosen her as his latest concubine. Anck Su Namun would end up uninentionally unleashing a dark plague upon Egypt which she would die from.

Several thousand years later, she would be revived by a wizard in the hopes of harnessing the plague that she had unleashed. Fortunately however Anck Su Namun would escape from his control and now an undead creature with unique powers. She would become determined to make up for the deaths caused by her plague and for causing her lover Imhotep to go down a dark path in his attempt to bring her back. Despite her background as literal royalty, Dionne always said she found Anck Su Namun to be among the most down to earth approachable and sweet of the Circus Family. This was probably due to the fact that Anck Su Namun hated almost anything associated with her original life. From the trauma of being forced into a marriage she hated, to the unintentional pain and suffering she would cause, to what ultimately became of the man she truly loved, Imhotep. Anck Su Namun always considered her second life her true life.

Tanith on the other hand was something of a wild card among the family. She was an alien queen who came from a far away planet, which she had conquered through magic. Tanith had actually been the first to discover the black arts on her world, which made her conquest all the easier. Whilst she was always utterly ruthless in dispatching her enemies. At first Tanith was a beloved ruler at least among the masses. She used her magic to cure diseases, end poverty and restore the lands that had been devastated after the wars of her predecessors. (She had only discovered magic in the first place to restore her land that had been left to rot by the elite after the way.)

Ironically she didn’t even want to become queen at first. She only wanted to dispose of the corruption at the top, and aid her people. Unfortunately however they all mistook her for a goddess and insisted on following her regardless. In time it didn’t take long for Tanith to see herself as a goddess either.

Tanith would rule over her planet for many centuries using magic to prolong her life. Eventually however others would discover the secrets of the black arts and whilst none ever became as powerful as she was individually. A revolution of sorcerers and sorceresses was soon mounted against her, which eventually ended in her death. By this stage her own power had corrupted Tanith to the point where she was in many ways no better than those she had disposed. There would even be parties held in the streets to celebrate the once loved monarch’s murder. Thanks to her magics however, Tanith’s spirit survived, and in order to stop it from being exorcised or destroyed by her enemies, the last of Tanith’s followers cast her soul into space in a spaceship containing her corpse. They lacked the facilities to resurrect her after Tanith’s palace was destroyed (and even if they had it would have been pointless anyway.) All they could hope for was that Tanith’s ghost would find a way to restore itself.

Unfortunately for Tanith however she would remain in space for centuries. The torture of going from having the power of life and death over a world, to being trapped as a mere echo in a cold, dark room, floating aimlessly through space would cause Tanith to go completely insane. Years later she told Dionne that she sometimes wondered if her servants had done this to punish her? She wasn’t exactly the most generous and loving master and perhaps this was their way of ensuring that she wouldn’t be let off so easily for her crimes?

Either way her torment would eventually end, when a lone earth ship stumbled upon Tanith’s vessel after it had drifted far away from its home. Tanith’s spirit would take over the body of a woman on board, ironically one of the lowest ranked members of the ship to avoid detection. The weakness of a human body however meant that Tanith’s powers were greatly reduced from what they once were. (They had also depleted from the centuries of solitude as well.)

Having lost any morality she once had through the centuries of power and then solitude, Tanith killed the rest of the crew, except for a few she made into slaves before heading back to her home world, a journey which took many decades. Much to Tanith’s horror however, she discovered that her people had been killed off in the centuries since she left. The magics she had introduced them too had led to further wars which eventually transformed the planet into a desolate, hell world, filled with magical mutations and monsters.

This revelation was enough to penetrate even Tanith’s arrogance and snap her back to sanity. She became determined to make up for all the suffering she had caused to her people. Sadly she could not release the woman whose body she had taken over, who was long dead, but she did release her slaves (one of whom, a man named Fraska, who was the lover of the woman Tanith had taken over, would become obsessed with destroying her afterwards and became Tanith’s greatest enemy.)

Tanith would travel the universe for many centuries, fighting evil wherever she could to make up for her past sins, before joining the family.

Despite her remorse however, Tanith could still be arrogant and often clashed with Tarkan’s leadership. She was also by far the most ruthless member of the Family too.

Finally Samuel Williams was an experienced vampire hunter who had previously assumed the costumed identity of the Demon of Datheca to fight monsters on the streets of his home city. The years of magics he had used to help in his battle had somewhat affected him, granting Williams some limited magical abilities, though his real power lay in the numerous magical gadgets and weapons he had created in his war against the supernatural. Samuel had taken the longest to adjust to being part of the Circus Family as he had previously preferred to work alone. Ironically however it would be Tanith that he would become the closest too. Dionne always suspected there was something between them, but she wasn’t completely sure.

In spite of the difficulties with Dionne’s attempt to change the timeline in slaying Jakarian, the family still cared for one another, and this adventure would arguably push them to their limits in this respect more than any other.

The desert of Dynamos was populated by many nightmarish creatures and distortions left over by both the war, and the final self destruct spell. The first monster to attack the family was an undead Dinosaur, nicknamed a bony Dinosaur by Dionne. It was literally the reanimated skeleton of a Charcaradontosaurus, a large member of the Allosaur family that could grow to over 40 feet long. Whilst only a skeleton on the surface, the undead creature was far stronger than it had been before, through the magics that gave it life, or rather unlife. Whilst devoid of any flesh, it did have eyes of some sort, specifically giant red magical flames in its eye sockets.

Tanith’s magics had no affect on the monster and it chased the Family for miles. Tarkan tried to lure it away with his floating head, but he wasn’t as fast as he thought, and the undead Dinosaur sent his head flying across the desert with a well placed strike of its tail.

Dionne, Anck Su Namun and Carlene fled after Tarkan’s head, (along with his body, which could survive for up to an hour headless) whilst Tanith, Samuel, and Amy did their best to lure the Dinosaur away.

Tanith was eventually able to best the Dinosaur in her usual ruthless way. Given that this area represented the ruins of a civilisation that had been abandoned, there were clearly a lot of corpses and skeletons left under the ground. Tanith had a talent for reanimating the dead. It was how she had been able to restore herself to life in the first place. The others however did not like her using this power for obvious reasons and even in these circumstances, Amy tried to stop Tanith, but true to form the arrogant alien summoned up a small army of twenty or so corpses from the ground. The resurrection magic was as basic as could be. The corpses would only “live” so to speak for half an hour, and they were nothing more than extensions of Tanith’s will. This was how the alien often justified using the bodies this way, claiming that she wasn’t really bringing them back, though again even someone with my limited knowledge of magics, knows that the most basic resurrection spells can still inadvertently rip someone out of their afterlife, even if they are not placed into their new body. It can also disrupt their rest in other ways too. Clearly someone of Tanith’s power would know that too, but she either felt she could control it, or perhaps just didn’t care. Even at her best, Tanith could still justify carrying out small evils to stop greater threats.

In this case the reanimated dead did manage to hold off the bony Dinosaur long enough for Tanith, Amy and Samuel to flee, though unfortunately they were forced to flee in the other direction, deeper into the desert.

Dionne, Anck Su Namun and Carlene meanwhile would soon by ambushed by another gang of magically mutated humans, survivors of the fall of Dynamos. These creatures known as the Vitox were not like the Vasta in that they were not completely unhinged. They were capable of loving one another, and even had something at least resembling a culture and a code of honour, though sadly as the desert of Dynamos was such a harsh and unforgiving place, their first instinct is still often to attack.

The Vitox stood over 7 feet tall, and had the shape of a humanoid, but little else in common with us physically. They possessed a single line of spikey hair similar to a hedgehog that ran from the tops of their heads straight down their backs. Their foreheads meanwhile where thick and robust like a Neanderthal mans, whilst their skin was a dull grey and scaly, somewhat akin to that of a reptile. (Dionne said that some had speculated that these humans had been merged through the magical blasts with some of the Dinosaurs in Dynamos.)

The abominations also only had three fingers on each hand, and three toes on each foot all of which were clawed. Their eyes meanwhile were bright yellow circular dots, whilst their noses were small and pug like.

Their mouths however, according to Dionne were the most unusual and disgusting part. Their lips were thin and wrinkled looking, but when they opened their mouths, the lips would pull back the way, much like a monkeys, though unlike a monkey, their mouths were filled with green slime. Rather than a set of teeth however, each of the monsters had a long retractable tongue which was covered in teeth and could be used to strike at their victims, ripping off a massive amount of flesh in the process.

The creatures much like the Vasta were skilled hunters, and though Carlene, Anck Su Namun (in particular) and Tarok were still stronger than them, (even without a head) the monsters still proved to be too much. In the middle of the fight however, Carlene was able to help Dionne escape using a gas bomb which she kept in her hair. Carlene wore a beehive haircut, which had been in fashion when she was turned in the 60s. Since then she kept it, not only as an affectionate reminder of her human life, but also because she had converted it into a magical weapons chest that was bigger on the inside than the outside.

The gas bomb only briefly distracted the monsters, but it was enough for Dionne to escape. When she finally got clear of the gas, she could see that Carlene Anck Su Namun (who had briefly reverted to her mummy form to try and fight them off) and the headless body of Tarkan were being restrained by several of the Vitox at once. Carlene who spotted Dionne screamed at her to go, saying she should get the others. With no other choice, Dionne was forced to flee through the desert ahead. to escape. Carlene, Anck Su Namun and Tarkan meanwhile were brought to the Vitox’s cave. The monsters had already decided Carlene’s fate. They knew she was a vampire. Carlene had done her best to conceal it knowing how vampires were viewed at this point in history, but they had been around them long enough to know.

They planned to dispose of Carlene and Anck Su Namun who they knew from her transformation was a walking dead of some kind, the same way they did for any vampire or zombie that came here. They’d leave them out in a small closed off, but open area at the back of their cave, where their pet vultures would devour them alive. Dionne knew these vultures only too well. They had been created during the final days of the vampire war, or rather the final days before she was placed into suspended animation.

They were simply vultures who had not only been made larger and more powerful through magic, but had also been given a craving for undead creatures such as vampires and zombies. The Vitox used these birds to protect themselves form the numerous zombies that stalked the desert mostly, but any vampire unlucky enough to stumble into the desert would be offered up as a special sacrifice to the birds. In many ways this spectacle was more of a treat for the Vitox than the vultures.

Carlene and Anck Su Namun were tossed into the pit before they could even attempt to explain themselves, not that they would have believed them anyway. Fortunately however the creatures didn’t remove Carlene’s beehive as obviously they had no idea it was a weapon. The creatures also foolishly untied both women’s arms before throwing them in as they did to all vampires. It was not out of altruism, but simply because it was more entertaining if the vampires had a sporting chance. To be fair that’s still more than the vampires would have given them under the same circumstances.

Unfortunately however the vultures could only be killed by a certain kind of weapon. One made of diamond to be precise. Whilst Anck Su Namun did her best to hold the swarm of monsters off, Carlene searched through her beehive. She kept weapons made from all manner of natural sources to fight off demons and magical creatures and diamond was a weakness of many breeds. Fortunately she found one diamond knife, but sadly even with this weapon and Anck Su Namun’s help, Carlene was only able to bring down two of the vile birds, as they were so fast, numerous and relentless.

Thankfully the two women held out long enough for Tarkan’s head to find his body. It had been looking for the others as much as they had it. The head made its appearance, first by flying into the vultures just as they had overwhelmed Carlene and Anck Su Namun. Tarkan’s head couldn’t harm the vultures but it was considerably faster than them which distracted the demonic birds of prey long enough for Carlene and Tarkan to climb back up the pit and fight the Vitox. The vampire and the mummy in turn distracted the Vitox long enough for Tarkan’s head to fly back onto his body, allowing him to take some of the Vitox by surprise.

Another few gas bombs from Carlene allowed all three to escape from the cave and out into the desert with the tribe of angry Vitox in hot pursuit.

Dionne meanwhile had become lost in the desert, though at least she had appeared to lose both of their attackers. She did however witness a few vultures overwhelming and devouring a zombie. Whether it was one of Tanith’s she didn’t know, but it was a truly disgusting sight all the same.

Eventually Dionne would stumble upon a different flying terror, a large Pterosaur chasing what looked like a child Vitox. What was strange though was that the Pterosaur was not attacking the child from the air. It was chasing it on the ground, galloping on all fours.

The Pterosaur was a Queztacoatlus and it was gigantic, at least the size of a Giraffe. The winged reptile (though at a glance it was hard to tell that it was a reptile as its skin was fuzzy rather than scaly,) was trying desperately to snap the little mutant up in its huge bill, and Dionne, despite knowing what the Vitox were like, obviously couldn’t just leave it. Armed with no weapons, Dionne did her best to try and distract the Pterosaur. Sadly her magics were again no use. Recently her already limited powers had begun depleting, though for why she wasn’t quite sure. Dionne was instead forced to throw rocks at the creatures face, and at first it tried to shrug them off, before Dionne managed a lucky hit in the beasts eye. As it turned its attention to her. Dionne wisely fled, trying to keep ahead of the carnivore, but it was too fast, as clumsy as its movements may have seemed the Pterosaur grabbed hold of Dionne’s left arm in its huge bill like beak. The animal then hoisted her up through the air, dislocating her arm in the process before it threw Dionne over ten feet face down into the sand. Dionne was knocked out instantly, but as the great Pterosaur then prepared to scoop her up in its beak, the young Vitox intervened. It jumped onto the Pterosaurs small, almost vestigal tail and climbed up its back and onto the reptiles head. The animal instantly started to panic and flap its wings around, with its bird like screeches waking Dionne. The great reptile managed to throw the Vitox off just as it took to the air. Dionne then grabbed the young Vitox in her other arm and head off in the opposite direction as the Pterosaur continued to circle them from above, being able to cover twice as much area from the air.

Eventually the winged terror swooped down at Dionne and the Vitox child from the front (having easily flown ahead of them.)

Dionne barely managed to jump out of the way and in the process fell on her dislocated arm.

The Pterosaur meanwhile crashed onto the desert ahead of them. It continued to flap its wings and struggle to get back up off the ground, and Dionne knowing that it would kill them as soon as it did, wasted no time. She popped her arm back into place, lifted up the nearest large rock she could find and brought it down on the Pterosaurs skull just as it had almost pulled itself up. She was forced to strike it another two times to put the reptile out of its misery.

A most disgusting and vile act, that Dionne was ashamed to talk about decades later to, but she knew it had to be done. The desert of Tairos was every bit as brutal as the jungles, and you had to act quickly or else you’d be the next carcass the vultures would pick clean.

Still even in the darkest of places there was room for compassion, mercy and pity, which Dionne had shown to the Vitox child. In response, the child whose name was Vitanna, promised to take Dionne back to her tribe, stating that they would reward her for helping one of their own.

The way back through the desert however was difficult. In the distance Dionne and Vitanna would spot the bony Dinosaur, battling a gigantic Dragon made of fire. It seems Tanith’s zombies hadn’t lasted as long as she had hoped, but at least the Dragon now occupied their former pursuers attention.

They also stumbled upon a fight between two Pteranodons and a gigantic spider like creature, with the Pterosaurs literally ripping the spider in two with their beaks.

Their most perilous encounter however was with the Drasker, a monster that was the result of several Dinosaur species merged together. This creature had been created by the magics of Dynamos that had leaked out when the city fell. Dynamos in its heyday had created via magic many hybrid species of Dinosaurs, such as the dreaded Tyrannosaurus Al, a hybrid of Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus.

In this case however the magics consumed several of their normal Dinosaurs at a time and fused them into one monstrous creature. Measuring over 200 feet long, standing over 60 feet tall and weighing in at over 150 tones. This animal or rather mutation had the body of a Brontosaurs in terms of size and overall shape, the skin of an Anklyosaur the legs of a Hadrosaur that could allow it to adopt both a bipedal and semi bipedal stance. There was also a raptor like claw on each of its feet and claws of a Spinosaurus on each of its hands. The dorsal plates of a Stegosaurus ran down either side of its back (with the sail of a Spinosaurus running down the middle.) It’s head meanwhile resembled that of a Tyrannosaurus, whilst finally the end of its tail possessed an Anklyosaurs club with spikes on either side.

The creature was the undisputed king of the desert. Indeed the only reason it didn’t rule beyond the desert was simply because it didn’t care enough to venture out of its territory.

Dionne first saw the animal when it literally came crashing through the side of a small mountain and devoured a Brontosaurus. Dionne had spotted the lone sauropod in the distance and knowing how aggressive these animals could be despite their reputation as gentle herbivores, she kept herself and the Vitox hidden until it passed them.

However within seconds this mighty Dinosaur was literally ripped apart before it could even defend itself. The Drasker, first grabbed the Brontosaurus’ neck in its jaws and then pulled its entire neck and head clean off, before going on to tear all of its legs off and toss them aside (with one of the Dinosaurs legs very nearly hitting Dionne.)

Dionne could see both the bony Dinosaur and the flame Dragon become distracted from their fight by the roars of the Drasker, and they both instantly turned and fled in the other direction. The former singer and the mutant soon followed suite and ran as fast as they could, too scared to look behind them in case the monster was following. Eventually however Dionne would run straight into Carlene Anck Su Namun and Tarkan as Vitanna was leading Dionne back to her cave. Before a fight could break out with the other Vitox who were not far behind, Vitanna stopped it, telling her tribe how Dionne had rescued her from one of the Pterosaurs. This still didn’t stop some of the tribe, from wanting to attack Carlene, but they were held back by the leaders.

The Vitox agreed that Dionne and her friends would be reward as much as they hated giving shelter to either a vampire, or anyone would would work with a vampire. Once they arrived back the cave, the leader agreed to shelter Dionne and her friends for one night, which is less than they would normally do under the circumstances.

Vitanna would also be greeted by both of her parents, who were elders in the tribes. The young Vitox had only ventured out on her own to try and prove her worth. Even though both of her parents had always said they were proud of her, the other children in of the tribe, knew how favoured the elders children were and often teased Vitanna that she was a third rate hunter who would never be picked if it weren’t for her father and mother. Sadly however her embarrassing failure wouldn’t help her reputation any time soon, though right now she was just grateful to be alive.

Vitanna’s father insisted on a rescue mission for Dionne’s friends. Even if one of their number was a vampire, he thankfully didn’t let his prejudice blind him to the debt he owed Dionne.

Tanith, Samuel and Amy meanwhile after escaping the bony Dinosaur had now been cornered by the deserts most common and persistent predators. The Kovras. These monsters were gigantic snakes that grew to over 30 feet long and weighed in at over 3 tons. Their skin and teeth appeared metallic, though they were not robots. In fact both their eyes and blood were bright yellow. They were the main predators of the Vitox, particularly of their young, though they would take any prey they could.

Four of them had managed to corner the three time travellers against a small hill.

Tanith did her best to try and hold the metallic reptiles off, but she had suffered something of an unexpected power drain from raising the corpses. It was her own fault. After the bony Dinosaur easily dispatched her zombies, she summoned up several more, and more after that, all just so she and the others could keep a head start on the Dinosaur. Whilst it had worked, unfortunately she had pushed herself somewhat. Amy meanwhile instantly morphed into her wolf form, which was over 7 feet tall and bipedal. Her claws and teeth were strong enough to pierce the snake creatures hides. In her first few strikes she sent all four back somewhat, before focusing her attention on the largest, alpha female of the group.

Samuel meanwhile did his best to try and protect Tanith who needed a rest after her ordeal. Despite his lack of overt powers, Samuel more than made up for it with his weapons and gadgets. He discovered that the inside of the monsters mouth was its weak spot, when one of his bombs landed on the tooth of the alpha female and sent the giant serpent scurrying back further than even Amy had.

Still whilst Samuel and Amy were able to hold off the snake monsters for a short period of time, they were not able to overwhelm them, and the largest female snake there soon returned, just as Amy had managed to drive back three more, and landed a surprise hit with its tail, sending Amy flying through the air until she hit the small hill Tanith and Samuel had been cornered against. She was knocked out cold.

Samuel then tried to be more aggressive in his approach, but instead the alpha snake latched its jaws around his foot and dragged the former costumed hero across the sand and swung him through the air like a rag doll, before another snake grabbed onto his arms, with both snakes preparing to tear him in two. (This was a favourite method the beasts used to kill the Vitox.)

Spurned on by her fury Tanith unleashed all of the magic in her body, which was powerful enough to send three of the snakes flying over twenty feet through the air. Even in her weakened state however she also had enough power to hold Samuel in the air and stop him from being sent away with the snakes. The largest female snake however was able to remain on the ground and pushed through Tanith’s force, and as it opened its jaws and prepared to strike, Tanith made her final move and blasted the snake’s mouth in the wound that had been created by Samuel, which caused its entire head to explode.

The strain was enough to knock Tanith out, and as all three of the time travellers lay unconscious on the ground the other three snakes returned and prepared to swallow them, but thankfully they would be saved by both the Vitox and their four companions. Together, they dealt with the snake beasts. Carlene took a high explosive out of her beehive and lured one of the snakes away from the others with the help of Anck Su Namun, who jumped into its mouth. Using her supernatural strength Anck Su Namun kept the snakes jaws open long enough for Carlene to leap into them and drop the bomb down its throat before both women jumped out and ran as fast as they could. The snake was blown apart completely from the inside. Tarkan meanwhile using one of the Vitox’s weapons flew his head inside the snake, then released the weapon from the inside. (The weapon was designed to poison the creature.)

On the outside Dionne said the snake’s entire body appeared to rust before it collapsed on the earth, after which it dissolved into a puddle of yellow slime, which soon dried up completely and was blown away in the wind.

Dionne and the rest of the vitox meanwhile struggled somewhat with their snake as their weapons were more basic. They were able to cut the monsters strong skin, with Dionne producing a nasty cut in its forehead. Carlene, Anck Su Namun and Tarkan soon joined in, but even they were not able to get past the snake. Tarkan tried the same trick again, but the snake this time swung round with its tail, as unlike the other snake it was more cautious after its wound. The tail missed Tarken but caused him to drop the poison which soon congealed on the floor. At the same time the tail hit Dionne, Anck Su Namun and Carlene, as well as several of the Vitox, knocking them all backwards. The snake then turned round and scooped up two of the Vitox, but before it could swallow them, Samuel threw one of his weapons into the wound created by Dionne’s sword, which blew out its eye, causing the beast to drop the Vitox and collapse to the ground.

For a second they thought it was dead, but when Dionne and two of the Vitox got near the snake reared up and went in to bite them both, only for Amy to then jump onto its head. Though the snake still had enough strength to thrash around, Amy was able to dig her claws into its eye wound and rip the entire top section of its head above its jaw off completely.

Again even though they were monsters, Dionne felt sick at the sight around her. They all did except for the Vitox who were dancing with joy at having slain some of their enemies. It had been a long while since any of them had been able to take down four of these monsters at the one time. For a moment the Vitox even seemed to forget that Carlene was a vampire and one of them even tried to dance with her.

Samuel would carry Tanith back to the cave with the others, who were all given a warm welcome this time for helping to slay the snakes.

The leader promised to allow them to stay two nights in the cave before they would have to move on. Tarkan however, not wanting to waste the opportunity instead asked for their help in finding the dark wood.

As soon as that name was mentioned, the leaders good mood instantly vanished. He wasn’t angry however, but terrified.

“When you see the kind of place we live. The horrors we deal with every day, and then consider the fact that even we are terrified of going near the black wood. Only a fool or a madman would even try.” The leader warned Tarkan.

Just then however Dionne interrupted. Though Tarkan was the leader, he understood that Dionne had more experience of Tairos than anyone there, even if this was a very different Tairos to the one she knew, and he basically let her take over.

“I have been there. I even entered the cave of the Terrible One, yet here I am. We, I know exactly what we are getting in for, but we have no choice. Please.” She asked.

The leader did not know what to say. He felt Dionne had to be insane. No one could possibly have survived the Terrible One’s cave. Dionne actually thought it would be a historical fact by now about her previous adventure into the Terrible One’s cave, but sadly at least around these parts it wasn’t and even with everything they lived alongside, they found her claims of having travelled through time somewhat improbable.

Still at the same time the leader knew he now owed Dionne and the others again for helping to kill some of their enemies, and so he agreed to help these strange travellers by summoning an old ally, the city of Karsen.

Dionne had never heard of it, as the metropolis had been founded sometime after the vampire war by survivors of the cities that had been completely destroyed. They hoped through pulling their resources together that they could create a city that would help the other surviving cities recover and unite them. It eventually became largely isolationist however, as the problems with the warring cities and tribes petty problems became too great after they lost the mutual enemy of the vampire horde. Though some have argued that Karsen simply wanted to take them over. Either way however, Karsen had surprisingly remained close to the Vitox.

It had come from when one of the Karsen’s rival cities had wanted to build a base in the ruins of Dynamos, in the hopes of gaining access to its secrets on how to build and hyberdise Dinosaurs. The Vitox sided with the Karsen, who though also interested in gaining access to those secrets, were smart enough to try a softer approach with the Vitox, not only helping them drive out a force that wanted to colonise their area, but supplying them with help in other respects. The Vitox for their part would allow the Karsen to utilise some of their secrets, though both parties would largely remain separate, and there would still be some conflict between the two.

Overall however at least their current leader had a great relationship with the Karsen, and as soon as he contacted them via magic, a small rescue team was sent out, which arrived by the end of the day.

The rescue team travelled through the desert inside a Triceratops. Using a combination of their own magics and those from Dynamos, Karsen had created Dinosaurs that had their centres hollowed out and could be piloted as vehicles themselves.

These Dinosaurs were not only larger, (obviously to accommodate having humans inside them.) They were also stronger and more durable too. The Karsen always insisted that the Dinosaurs did not suffer. They were placed into a trance like state when given commands and had no idea of what they were doing, when carrying them out, only waking up once the command was done. The rest of the time they could enjoy themselves and actually lived better lives than the animals who had been used as beasts of burden by other cities in a more traditional way.

Still many naturally found the practice cruel and exploitative and Dionne herself resented having to travel this way.

Sadly however the Family had no choice, as ultimately whilst the leader didn’t promise anything. The city of Karsen would be much more likely to help them, given their resources than the Vitox.

When the Triceratops arrived, the Family could see right away that it was no ordinary Dinosaur. It stood over 30 feet tall, and was over 70 feet long, whilst its skin was bright gold, though its horns appeared to made of platinum, whilst its eyes were green.

The Dinosaurs back opened up straight down the middle and a stair case soon emerged from the left hand side, which the family climbed up.

Inside the Dinosaur was rather fetching, at least Dionne begrudgingly admitted to me. There was a bar, a comfort area with several couches, a book case and even a television set.

Dionne instantly headed for the bar, as did most of the family after the day they’d had.

The Vitox bid them all farewell as the Dinosaurs back closed and the giant, golden Ceratopsian made its way through the desert ahead. The Dinosaur was too big to be bothered even by most of the horrors in the desert.

There was a scanner on each side of the inside of the Triceratops which allowed the family to see outside.

As much as Dionne may have hated the exploitation of a Dinosaur, she couldn’t help but admit that she was glad she didn’t have to walk through that nightmarish place.

Among the many sights they saw on the journey to Karsen, included a large Griffin creature scooping up a centaur in its claws, in much the same way an Eagle would a rabbit. They also saw a large area of the ruins of Dynamos, which appeared empty from a distance, but once they got closer to them, dozens of horrible mutations emerged.

These creatures had long, thin, crest like heads, pale white skin, mouths transfixed into hideous toothy grins, and no other facial features. Fortunately they didn’t give the Triceratops much trouble other than throwing rocks at it.

They also passed a vulture eating the corpse of a human, only for the corpse to come alive and devour the vulture. Dionne definitely needed a drink or two after that one.

However after an hour or so of travelling, they soon came across the one creature that could harm them. The Drasker.

The creature crawled over a nearby hill and very nearly pounced on the Triceratops, being a lot faster than its gargantuan body would have suggested.

The Triceratops ran as fast as it could, but not only was the Drasker fast, the entire ground around the Triceratops was shaking from the Draskers presence, making it hard to keep its balance. Carlene and Tanith attempted to hold the monster off, by climbing out of the monsters open back, and hurling whatever they could at the hybrid Dinosaur.

Tanith hit it with all the magic she could, whilst Carlene threw the most powerful explosives she had in her beehive at the Dinosaur monster. Nothing even slowed it down for a second. Even when they deliberately went for its eyes, the Dinosaur didn’t even blink and carried on with just as much relentlessness. Tanith very nearly fell from the side of the Triceratops the ground shook so badly, though fortunately Carlene managed to catch her in time.

With no other choice, one of the rescue team climbed to the top of the Triceratops and held up a glowing sphere. This device was capable of attracting any magical creature in the nearby area. It was only be used as a last resort for obvious reasons, but there was literally nothing else they could have done against the Dinosaur.

Just then several more bony Dinosaurs emerged from around them, including a Styracosaurus, several Kentrosaurus, Brachiosaurus and Hadrosaurs, as well as many gigantic, griffins and even a few flaming Dragons. Whilst all would normally flee at the sight of the Drasker, the sphere temporarily had too strong a hold over them, though it could not control them completely, it simply influence them.

The Drasker started to attack the other monsters, who as a response were instantly snapped out of their trance and began to fight back.

The Triceratops, narrowly managed to slip past the monsters and make its way out into the wider desert. Before they retreated back inside, Carlene and Tanith saw the Drasker from the distance kill most of the attacking monsters, before driving the few survivors away. Fortunately for the Family however it had two dead Griffins to feast on now so it wouldn’t given them any more trouble.

After another couple of hours, the Triceratops finally reached their destination, the city of Karser. Now the real mission could begin.

Illustration by Caio Corsini Filho

The Spinosaurus eventually tore through Dionne’s forcefield, though doing so had produced many gruesome wounds all over the animal, to the point where the golden waters went red with its blood. The sail backed beast didn’t seem bothered at all and let out another massive roar, before bringing one of its huge clawed hands down on Dionne who only barely managed to evade it.

As the animal thrashed around in the water to try and find its small prey, Dionne did all she could to try and conjure up another spell to use against the monster, but not surprisingly she couldn’t focus clearly having to constantly dodge the Dinosaur’s bites and even just its massive body thrashing around. At one point however her fear became so great that she unintentionally produced a magical blast. This came just in time for Friaj, as the Spinosaurs was about to consume her whole.

Unfortunately for Dionne however it just drew the animal’s attention back to her. Her trusty Gorgonposid, despite struggling to stay afloat in the water itself, nevertheless came to her aid and bite the side of the Spinosaurus’ neck. It held on so tightly that when the Spinosaurus reared its head out of the water, the Gorgonopsid was still holding onto its neck. One quick whack from its claws however sent the Gorgonopsid crashing back into the water.

Still the beasts distraction had not only bought Dionne enough time to get some distance, but for the shark to return. The Spinosaurus blood that had filled the water, not to mention Dionne’s strange and unpredictable magics had drawn several red sharks to the area beyond the original, which had survived the Spinosaurus’ attack.

Not being one to back down the Spinosaurus instantly began to attack the sharks. The sea monsters became engaged in a truly vicious fight, which Dionne could barely make out due to the thrashing, and the blood. She was however almost hit by one of the dead sharks that was thrown over twenty feet through the air, and that’s stomach had been sliced open by the Spinosaurus claws.

After a few minutes of searching Dionne found the others, and together they all swam as fast as they could away from the bloodbath ahead, not being sure which of the great beasts had emerged victorious.

Another hour or so passed as the escaped prisoners swam aimlessly through the golden waters. There was some trouble with a curious Plesiosaurus, though the Gorgonopsid managed to scare it away. Even though the Plesiosaurus was much bigger, like most normal predators, it was not looking for a fight, but an easy meal and therefore one snap from the Gorgonopsids mighty jaws to its face when it leaned in close was enough to make the brute think twice, before it sank back beneath the waves.

Thankfully help would soon come for Dionne and the others in the unlikely form of the winged, feathered Gorilla’s from ape island known as the Tyrak. Having been sent by Dionne’s old ally Corlax. The apes had detected Dionne’s magical blasts against the sharks and the Spinosaurus from miles away, as had many other great powers, including the vampires themselves. Luckily for Dionne the apes found her first and she had no objection to being taken to them, though Moska did try to resist at first, he was easily overpowered.

Upon arriving on ape island, Corlax would personally greet Dionne. Being somewhat friendlier to her than he had ever been during their alliance. After the former prisoners were given time to recover from their ordeal, and to eat and sleep, Corlax would tell Dionne about what had happened.

Sadly the vampires after conquering the sky city had gone on to take many more important strategic points. Unlike the inhabitants for the sky city, they had no problem with dropping bombs from above. (Even the sky city would not go that far, out of fear of contaminating areas and causing magical mutations.)

Even worse the access they gained to the sky cities studies on the magics within Dionne (That she had willingly taken part in.) Allowed the vampires to modify the sample they had extracted from her to create even greater weapons. Many of the largest cities had fallen to the vampires in just a matter of weeks, such as Dynamos, a city that traded Dinosaurs, and held out against them for centuries before hand.

These developments were enough to terrify even the apes into breaking their second period of isolation. Corlax however also finally revealed the reason the apes had cut themselves off from the war again to Dionne.

At the centre of their island, the apes had discovered the greatest concentrated form of the Hylexans magic that had originally laid waste to the earth. This small sample had become buried underground, when the earth was restored, rather than destroyed like the rest of it. The earliest samples of the Hylexan magic that had been discovered years ago, had ironically been the spell that Dionne along with Trian had originally been sent to the island to retrieve in the first place. However at that point even the apes didn’t know the full extent of what it was, and those samples had been diluted as well, through exposure to the magics that had rebuilt the earth. The most dangerous and undiluted Hylexan magic that had been buried deep, the apes did not want unleashed. They feared that their island would first be made into more of a target by the humans and the vampires to harness the magic, and that the humans would not only be reckless in using it against the vampires, but each other and that it would destroy the earth a second time.

To be fair the apes didn’t even trust their own to have knowledge of it, and for a long while it was kept secret, except for a tiny elite. Now that the vampires however were almost on their doorstep, they knew that it was better to side with the humans, but even here Corlax was still mistrustful of the humans, that is except for Dionne.

Part of the reason that Corlax trusted Dionne, it must be said, was because she was not of this time, and therefore lacked any true loyalty to any individual city or settlement, like almost everyone else did. From a practical point of view there was also the possibility of her going back to her own era, taking any secrets with her. Finally due to the unusual nature of her powers, she could potentially use a sample of the Hylexans magic to cripple the vampires defences around the sky city and pass it off as her own powers.

Dionne was still reluctant however to help unleash such a devastating weapon, and at one point, along with Friaj and Moska and her Gorgonopsid, she even attempted to flee the apes island, though her attempt was stopped not by the apes but a horde of Caradon soldiers from the ocean. These monsters had been drawn by the trail of magic left behind by Dionne to the island, and had been waiting for the right moment to strike, knowing that they could never take the island itself.

Dionne once again was able to conjure up magics to hold the Caradons off long enough for the apes to show up to fight the shark men. Though the Caradons were ultimately driven off, sixteen of the Harvia were killed in the process.

Corlax was furious with Dionne. Had she not been a time traveller, he would have surely killed her in fact. Instead however he was able to use Dionne’s guilt over the deaths of the Harvia to convince her that she owed it to him and the rest of the island to protect them from the vampires, which she reluctantly agreed too.

To this day however, whilst she knows it was the right thing to fight back against the vampires, she still wished she hadn’t been so weak in giving into Corlax. The horrors that would be unleashed by her guilt would endure for many centuries to come.

Dionne would train for a few more weeks to try and harness her powers. It didn’t take her long to realise that it was her emotions that were controlling the magics inside her. She thought back to all she had endured in the camps. Seeing the man she loved, even her beloved pet being degraded and humiliated, as well as all of the innocent people the vampires king had killed in front of her. She thought about ripping the king to pieces, about burning all of the vampires, repulsive, frail bodies into nothing but ash, and the rage as well as ecstasy of that, made her magic so powerful that on her first test alone she fired a blast strong enough to rip through a mountain.

Some of the apes even argued that with Dionne they didn’t need to use the Hylexans magic, but ultimately Corlax believed that it was a safer bet as Dionne’s magics were still unpredictable.

Friaj and Moska meanwhile would be sent to live in one of the few settlements that was still safe from the vampires, where he would be reunited with his wife and children. Sadly however Friaj it seemed had been left completely broken during the ordeal and said barely anything to Moska. Dionne would never meet Moska again, and like I said before it would be one of her biggest regrets that she would not be able to make peace with him.

After gaining control of her magics to some extent, Dionne would fly to the sky city in a forcefield and deposit the sample of the Hylexans magics. In an instant it wiped out the main defences around the city, allowing the apes to launch a full scale attack. Almost all species of the apes took part in the fight. Dionne meanwhile at first could only stare down in horror at what she had unleashed.

Normally she had no problem with killing vampires. From the very first time she had killed them, ironically during another attack against the sky city, she had never seen them as humans. However the way in which this dark magic tore the demons apart. It wasn’t just their bodies that were destroyed, but their very essence. Somehow Dionne could literally see their souls being ripped to pieces. She couldn’t describe it to me, but she just knew that was what she was looking at, and it was enough to make her wretch. For a few minutes afterwards she just floated there, almost numb to the warzone below her. Vampires and apes tearing each other apart, giant gorilla’s battling the Dinosaurs that the vampires had managed to control and tame into being beasts of burden. Her Gorogonopsid which was being ridden by none other than Corlax himself also took part in the battle and killed many vampires.

Eventually however as the magics keeping her afloat began to fade, Dionne mustered up her old rage and actually the prospect of seeing the king die like the soldiers began to excite her.

With her magics Dionne easily ploughed through several of the vampires and even managed to knock a few Dinosaurs off their feet, including an Allosaurus. She definitely even with her magics would not have been powerful enough to make her way through them all alone, but fortunately the apes occupied most of the vampires attention.

True to form the king, Jakarian was getting ready to flee on the other side of the city. As soon as the fight began to look fair, the monster naturally didn’t to be part of it. Just before his departure however the king ordered that all the weapons be fired below. Doing so was a risk that not even the vampires were willing to take at this point as that amount of dark and unknown magic could permanently contaminate the land of Tairos below, even for the vampires themselves. Jakarian however did not care. He wanted to send a message to the humans what would happen if they tried anything like this again, as well as possibly to cripple the city responsible. Dionne however also believes that it may have been because he knew she was going to kill him and wanted, much like before to take the entire earth down with him.

Dionne stopped the cowardly king’s craft just as it was about to escape the city and sent it crashing through several buildings.

When the king emerged from his craft however, he was not completely helpless. He held a young girl, no older than 13 by the neck and threatened to rip her heart out if Dionne did not let him go.

Years later, Dionne told me that was the hardest moment of her life, to fight the urge to just tear the king apart, regardless of whether he could kill the girl in time or not. She told me that she had always tried to convince herself that it was the magic that was compelling her to not care about the girl, but deep down she knew that wasn’t true.

Thankfully Dionne’s better side won out, though as soon as she let her guard down the kings guards instantly began to attack her. They struck Dionne with magical ropes that had what looked like knives on the end of them. Each one cut straight through her, though they did not despite appearances, cut through her flesh. They were spiritual knives which would pierce a persons soul only causing greater pain. These weapons had ironically been created from the very magics in Dionne herself.

The vampires used the ropes to pull Dionne to the ground and proceeded to whip her with them. The pain was greater than anything she had even felt in the camp, and as she lay there too weak to barely fight back, the king became cocky and even started to kick Dionne, breaking her ribs and then standing on her hand until it snapped. He also spat in her face several times too.

Sadly the apes and even Dionne’s pet Gorgonopsid were too preoccupied with the vampires, who despite the apes weapon still had the upper hand. As the vampires stabbed their knives into her once more however, Dionne this time used the pain and the anger it caused to power herself up. She sent the darkest, most powerful magics in her body through the blades and the ropes they were attached to, into each vampire that was holding it causing them all to burn away into nothing but ash.

With the magic now producing a golden glow that surrounded her entire body to such an extent that almost every fighting creature in the city was distracted by her even just for a moment. Dionne rose over thirty foot the air to confront the king, who again hid behind the girl like the wretched coward he was.

“I’ll kill her if you move an inch.” Jokarian said through trembling teeth.

Dionne however was completely silent for a few seconds, before the king suddenly felt a great surge of pain run through his body, enough to drop him to his knees, allowing the girl to escape.

“That’s okay. I don’t need to move to kill you.” Dionne said calmly. She had finally mastered control of her magic in such a way that could never be accomplished through training. This was her hatred, her fear, but also even just her confidence, to not give into this dark power, to master it finally coming together to give her complete control. Ironically it had only been through the king’s cowardly attempts to hide behind a girl that Dionne had gained that confidence as the fact that she had not given in then, convinced her that she was stronger than any dark forces in her body.

Dionne used her magic to quite literally rip the king from the inside out. She caused his entire body to explode in front of his vile horde. Right to the end the King pathetically begged for his life, even trying to convince Dionne that Trian was still alive and that he could take her to him. Thankfully she wasn’t fooled. After the king was no more, Dionne turned her attention to the vampire horde and with a powerful scream and blast of her magic she sent hundreds of the vampires flying through the air, whilst none of the apes were hurt. The rest of the bloodsuckers, having no idea what she was capable of, all fled as fast as they could. Dionne however didn’t let them off that easily and used as much power as she could to destroy hundreds of the vampires and send hundreds more of their ships crashing back down to earth where they were vaporized completely before hitting the ground. She also destroyed countless more vampires on the ground below, delivering a devastating defeat to the monsters the likes of which had never been seen before. The apes that could all cheered and started chanting Dionne’s name and her pet ran up to her, with Dionne giving it an affectionate stroke of its mane one last time. Unfortunately however, Dionne still had the kings weapons to stop.

Several of them had already struck the cities they had been sent too. Millions would die that day. It was arguably the single most devastating event in the history of our planet since the Hylexans invasion. Had it not been for Dionne however 100s of millions more would have perished.

Dionne flew through the air to a couple of hundred feet off the ground and using her powers was able to stop several of the blasts in the air before they reached their targets. Doing so as well as forcing the magics to dissipate until they became harmless took a tremendous amount of power, so much so that it took Dionne, even with her new mastery over magics several days to do so, after which she was left almost completely drained of power and fell back down to the earth.

Only the tiny left over residual magics in her body prevented her from dying in the fall, though she still fell into a coma. The survivors of Dynamos would find her just a few days later. Dionne would be proclaimed the greatest hero Tairos had ever seen as a result of her actions, and the surviving cities would place her body in a state of magical suspended animation to help her recover.

The war meanwhile would next enter into its final phase. The devastation inflicted by the kings weapons had changed the face of Tairos, making things more difficult for both the humans and the vampires, who had both suffered huge losses.

In spite of how difficult things would become, Dionne at no point would be brought out of her suspended animation, even after her body had healed. Whilst the official reason given was that Dionne was dead, or that she had earned her rest from the conflict. In truth the leaders of the new alliance were terrified of Dionne, who had for all intents and purposes from their point of view become a goddess. Whilst there were temptations to release and unleash her upon the vampire horde, ultimately none of the heads of the alliance were willing to be forced to bow down to a Goddess afterwards.

Sadly despite Corlax’s efforts to conceal the nature of the Hylexan magic. A team sent by the human alliance to the ruins of the sky city would discover samples of the Hylexans magic which they would use to create other weapons of that kind, which would in turn force the vampires to up their use of the black arts. More of Tairos’ jungles and forests would be laid bare as a result in the final stage of the war, which saw some of the most brutal battles in the planets history take place.

Still ultimately humanity won out over the vampire horde. Whilst what followed the war would be anything but a golden age, at the very least humanity was finally free from the greatest army of demons that had ever been assembled.

At some point after humanity’s victory, Dionne would be sent backwards in time. She is still not exactly clear of how she was sent back, but either way this time she retained her memory of everything that happened in Tairos. As far as she was concerned, one moment she was falling from the sky, and the next she was back in her living room, which from her perspective she had last been in ten years ago.

Her powers were mostly gone. Even after all that time in suspended animation, she had still burnt most of them out fighting against the king’s weapons. Adjusting back to 21st century life for Dionne was hard to say the least.

For a long while she was sure she must have gone insane and dreamed the entire thing. The spell to send her back had also de-aged her in order to make sure that the timeline was not altered. However she would get proof that it was real, every now and again when her powers would return usually for just a few seconds at a time.

To the general public, this would be the time when Dionne began to spiral out of control somewhat. I don’t like writing about it. Even already I feel like one of those gutter trash articles, wallowing in her despair, and pushing the bullshit tortured artist cliche.

Still it’s safe to say that for two years, Dionne shunned everyone around her from her record label, to her friends and her family. She’d only make public appearances when she was getting into trouble for something, as she quickly turned to drinking to help block out the pain and the stress that one day her powers could return and change history.

In spite of how horrifying Tairos had been however, she also missed Trian and her pet Gorgonopsid, both of whom she had been denied a chance to properly say goodbye too.

Eventually however this dark period would come to an end when Dionne would be visited by another time traveller. The fourth Circus Master.

The Circus Masters were a lineage of great heroes who commanded a group of time travellers known simply as the Circus Family, named so because they travelled through time and space in a magic circus. In actual fact the Tent as it would become known, was a complex time and space machine, constructed by the vandals, when they were in power in Europe. The original Circus Master was a renegade, reformed vandal who stole the Tent from under them and use it to travel through all of time and space, battling evil wherever he found it. The reason it was called a tent was because the mix of different magics used to create it, left it with several bright colours, which the first Circus Master, through some modifications was able to disguise as a Tent.

In time the first Circus Master would assemble a team of creatures from all over time and space who would become known as his family. The Circus Master gained his name, not just from the fact that he was the leader of the team, but also because he shared a special link with the Tent. After the first Circus Masters death, a successor would be chosen by the Tent itself and so on and so on. In total there were seven Circus Masters, all of whom over time would recruit different heroes and monsters and creatures to be part of their Circus families.

The fourth Circus Master was a scarecrow brought to life through magic. He was known as Tarkan and was originally created to protect a small village just outside of Wistman’s woods, a notorious hot spot for supernatural creatures. After it fell he would join the circus so to speak, being selected to become its new master.

Tarkan was in some ways the most unpredictable Circus Master. Dionne in particular could get quite annoyed with his childish humour, such as taking his head off and making it fly around and chase people.

Dionne’s best friend in the Circus Family, ironically would be Carlene, a vampire from 1960s London. Carlene like Dionne had once been a singer, but was sadly turned into a vampire by a deranged fan who had stalked her in life and wanted to force her to be his vampire bride.

After escaping and slaying her insane stalker. Carlene fled to the town of Darrow where she would learn to control her thirst. Working alongside Detective Cushing, she would battle many monsters and vampires and creatures, becoming a hero. She would later travel the world, eventually coming to settle in Aviemore in Scotland in the early 21st century. Following the great monster break out of 2007 in the highlands (an event which most people would know by the official cover story, the earthquake of 07.) Carlene would be blasted back through time into the Victorian age by a supernatural force, where she would live for several decades, doing what she always did, fighting evil, until she joined the first iteration of the Circus Family.

Carlene was by the time of the fourth Circus Master the only original member left. As a result in some respects the others all deferred to her, including even Tarkan, though ultimately he was still the leader.

Dionne naturally clashed with Carlene at first. Having trouble believing that a vampire could be anything other than a monster. I must confess that even I found it difficult to believe at first.

Vampires however are far more complex than you would think initially. It’s true that there are hundreds of different species of vampires, all created from the pages of the book of Khastran. All share a number of traits such as a need to consume the blood of natural creatures, immortality etc.

Still overall all vampire species can be grouped into four different categories. soul vampires, pure vampires, born vampires and savage vampires.

The differences between these categories is entirely down to how each species is created. The majority of vampires reproduce through infecting a human with the demonic energy in their bodies, which over time causes a human to transform into a similar demonic. Different vampires can infect humans in a number of different ways, through a bite, a drop of blood, making a human consume their blood etc. Sometimes the human can still be alive whilst this process happens, other times they are dead, but the result is always the same.

In the case of a savage vampire, the demonic energy quickly grows into a demon, that ejects the soul from the body. The soul, as seen with ghosts, is where everything we are comes from, our minds, memories etc. Savage vampires therefore are not people at all, simply a demon occupying a human body (which in turn has been transformed into a demonic body.) They are generally as single minded as animals and have no desire but to kill and torture their victims. They are among the strongest and most feared vampire breeds, with the likes of the dreaded Jiang Shi belonging to the savage vampires.

Pure vampires meanwhile are when the demonic energy transforms the human soul into a demonic one. They are still the people they once were technically, but all positive emotions such as love, compassion, remorse, and empathy are extinguished from the soul once it is transformed into a demon, and not only is a killer instinct added, but any negative emotions and traits the person had in life are also amplified too. These can be traits the person was aware of, or darker urges that were buried deep in their sub conscious. Either way pure vampires in many respects can be seen as twisted demonic caricatures of the people they once were. They embody the darkest side of humanity and of demon kind. (Khastran the creator of all vampires was quite possibly the most evil creature in all of creation.)

Pure vampires are also by far the most common. They consist of roughly 95 percent of all known breeds.

Born vampires meanwhile are the rarest, but also the most powerful and evil. As their name suggests they are the children of two vampires, and were never human. Only a very few species of vampires are capable of having children, and all are pure vampires. Born vampires also unlike other breeds do age, at least at first. They will start out as children and mature over the course of at least a century, though it may take longer in some cases. Born vampires not only possess greater strength, but a number of other great powers, and both before and after the age of Tairos, they were usually ranked first in any kind of vampire hierarchy, with many believing the Emperor to have been a born vampire. Unlike all other breeds born vampires are not capable of infecting or transforming someone into a member of their kind.

At the bottom of the vampire hierarchy meanwhile are the soul vampires. These bloodsuckers are created when the demonic energy grows into a demon inside the humans body, when they are either dead or alive. The demon however does not cast the soul out. Instead it keeps it there, and continues to allow the soul to control the reanimated, now demonic body.

The demon however does still influence the human soul. Not only does it add the killer instinct, but it eliminates all positive emotions such as love, compassion, remorse, guilt, empathy, and just like with pure vampires it heightens any negative qualities a person has in life, either conscious or unconscious.

The difference between soul and pure vampires however is that it is theoretically possible for a soul vampire to fight the demons influence. As the human soul still exists, it’s capacity for love, compassion and remorse are still there, just trapped under the demon, unlike in pure vampires where the human soul has now become a demon soul.

It is exceedingly rare, but there have been a few documented cases of soul vampires fighting their demonic urges and rediscovering their humanity. As a result of this and the fact that they were generally the weakest vampires, The soul breeds were looked down on by the others, and are only ever used as foot soldiers in any vampiric society or organisation. Ironically however Jakarain was a soul breed, though again he was the exception in terms of his high rank. Professor Fang, the vampire time travelling vampire hero was probably the most famous reformed soul vampire of all time. Dionne would even meet him a few times on her journey’s with the Circus Family.

Carlene meanwhile was probably the most famous (to those who knew about the supernatural of course) example of a soul vampire overcoming its dark urges successfully from the entire 20th century. She later told Dionne however that ironically it was probably her anger at her sire that drove her to overcome the demon’s influence. Prior to being turned, Carlene’s stalker had ruined her life for months, making her terrified to play any gigs or even leave the house. The idea that he now damned her was too much to take and she became determined to control her vampiric nature to show that he had no real power over her, even after she finally slayed him.

Even with this knowledge however, it still took Dionne quite a while to trust the reformed vampire, something she later told me she deeply regretted. Still Carlene understood as she had more than enough experience of people treating her differently, and in time she and Dionne came to be best friends, bonding largely over their shared love of soul music, which Carlene helped Dionne rediscover somewhat after what Jakarian had done in the camps. Sadly however it would never quite be what it had been before, hence why she wouldn’t release any albums afterwards.

Still Carlene ironically despite what she was, became the friend Dionne needed at that stage in her life and gradually Dionne was able to put at least some of the pain from her last year in Tairos, and the death of Trian as well as her regrets over how she had treated his family behind her.

Dionne would go on many adventures with the Circus Family. Surprisingly though she didn’t share many of them with me. I think that unlike Tairos however she felt she didn’t need to, as they didn’t have the same traumatic impact on her. That’s not to say that they weren’t dangerous and scary at times, but still unlike in Tairos, Dionne now had an entire family of people to help her.

She would spend from her perspective 5 years with the Circus Family. During that time she travelled to hundreds of different planets and even a few new universes too. She famously told me about one universe that was literally made of music. I’m not joking. The life forms, the planets, the stars were all different musical vibrations. Needless to say contact in that universe was a little difficult.

She also fought the Hylexans many times. These octopoid monsters were the most recurring adversaries of the entire Circus Family. Dionne later told me that she couldn’t help but feel more than a bit satisfied at giving some back to the monsters who created the nightmarish world she had found herself trapped in.

Dionne would also encounter her archenemy Jakarian a few times when travelling with the Circus Family too. This was obviously earlier from his perspective, though at least it explained how he recognised her before and did not underestimate her.

Dionne first met Jakarian from his perspective ironically when he was helping humanity against the Hylexans. She found it hard to conceal her hatred from him at first, and was even forced to help save his life from a Hylexan scout party, which was probably more painful than anything she went through in the camp.

Still over the course of their first adventure together, whilst Dionne hated him right the way through, she nevertheless admitted to me that she saw a somewhat different side to Jakarian, when the vampire unexpectedly returned the favour and later saved her from the Hylexan’s commander. In doing so, Jakarian actually took a risk pushing her out of the way of a blast that very nearly killed him. When Dionne later asked him why, he simply told her “You saved my life. It’s the least I could do.”

Her hatred would soon be mixed in with guilt at being forced to leave him to his fate. She often wondered afterwards if perhaps she and the Circus Family had taken Jakarian with them and supported his attempts to get clean from blood, that he could have maybe ended up like Carlene or Professor Fang. Obviously she knew it was out of the question to attempt to change history in this way, but that still didn’t stop her from feeling responsible. Carlene however didn’t agree. She reminded Dionne, when she was first turned she literally had no one to support her. She couldn’t go back to her family and her boyfriend, the vampires regarded her as a freak and traitor. The only support Carlene had to begin with was Detective Cushing, but even he was skeptical of a vampire being anything other than a monster.

Furthermore Jakarian’s evil had arguably eclipsed that of even his fellow vampires, in betraying his entire planet out of nothing more than spite. Whilst Carlene wasn’t completely unsympathetic, she also did not think that Jakarian’s evil was entirely down to what he was.

Dionne herself would get a nasty reminder of how cruel the future vampire king could be in her second meeting with him as part of the Circus Family. By this stage Jakarian was working with the Hylexans and he used his former experience with the Circus Family to lure them into a trap for their old enemies.

Dionne was so overcome with rage at having been tricked by him again, and having been stupid enough to feel sympathy for him at one point, that she very nearly ripped the vampire apart when she got free of the Hylexans. Over the course of her adventures with the Circus, Dionne’s powers had slowly begun to resurface. They would still never get to the point that they were when she would later (from his perspective) kill Jakarian, but she was nevertheless able to control them to a greater extent than she ever could before.

That is except for this moment when the anger and hatred she felt was so great, she almost ripped the vampires body to pieces, not caring about the effects on history. Fortunately Tarkan would stop her just in time, though Jakarian would remain terrified of Dionne for many years after. This also explains why he was so desperate to make her suffer in the camps years later and also why he did not simply kill her, as even he would not dare change history.

Dionne’s attempt on Jakarian’s life would drive a wedge between her and Takran, who for a long while afterwards found it difficult to trust her not to interfere in established events.

Eventually however Dionne would get a chance to prove herself when the Tent took the Circus Family back to Tairos, many years after the war between the vampires and the humans was over.

The vampires had three rulers in the age of Tairos. The Emperor, the king and the queen, with a supreme council ruling below them. The Emperor who it is believed lived through the aliens destruction of the earth, and was responsible for bringing the rest of his kind back, was their overall ruler, though he was a shadowy figure that most hadn’t even seen. In fact Dionne said that she wasn’t sure if he was a myth or not for most of her time in Tairos. Either way the King and the Queen took a more direct part in commanding the vampires. Of the two the Queen was far more powerful and also a much more competent leader, though admittedly she had help from her right hand, the Caradon known as Marachai. Caradon’s were magical Shark men, created from a ritual that fused both Sharks and humans together via a spell into a new life form. Most Caradon’s were vicious predators, but Marachai for some reason was able to retain his intelligence and possessed a loyalty to the vampires. He was a brilliant tactician and many believe that most of the vampires greatest strategies and battle plans originated from him.

Jakarian the vampires king meanwhile whilst not the most skilled leader, was nevertheless arguably one of the most evil creatures ever to have lived on the planet. His cruelty and sadism were certainly unmatched in the age of Tairos. Whilst almost all of the battle plans were left up to the supreme council on his end, Jakarian still retained his position as the Emperor found his sadistic nature to be a far greater piece of propaganda to terrify the humans with. Many argued that both the king and the queen were nothing more than figureheads to the rest of the vampires, and that neither really did much of anything. The king and the queen only met one another three times in total. (And like everyone else the queen found Jakarian to be utterly repulsive.) Still they both did possess authority, and not only had the final say on any plans, but the supreme council were also in most cases forced to allow the vampire king to indulge in any sick little games and desires he wanted.

The council all to the last despised the king for many reasons. First and foremost, he took credit for their work (as a further part of the propaganda.) Also the king was actually part of a lesser breed of vampire, that was normally looked down on. It was entirely through his brutality that he had been given this position. Furthermore, ironically whilst his breed were often looked down on for their supposed greater humanity than other species of vampire. His cruelty at times shocked and disgusted even the council. Finally however the real reason the king was despised not just by the council, but almost all life forms in Tairos, was because he had been responsible for the Hylexans winning the war and devastating the earth in the first place.

The king had originally taken part in the Hylexan war on the side of humanity. For a while he was even a celebrated hero, who was held up as an example of how even the darkest and most evil creatures can change. Vampires at first due to their treacherous and evil nature, even by demon standards were not allowed to fight in the Hylexan war, but eventually when the aliens began to gain the upper hand, out of desperation many vampires were recruited including Jakarian who at that point was nothing more than a common vampire, hunting and killing to survive.

Jakarian who apparently even as a man, had led an unremarkable life, found his calling in battling these aliens, and on some level at least according to certain historians wanted to change and better himself. Surprisingly Dionne herself believed that to be true, though why I’m afraid I can’t quite say just yet. Still either way whilst his spirit may have been willing, Jakarian was also a weak man in many ways, and began to give into temptation and feed on some human survivors from colonies the human forces rescued from the Hylexans. When the higher ups found out, they initially not only covered up Jakarian’s killings, but even supplied him with people to feed on. The leaders of the resistance ironically much like the Emperor felt that Jakarian was too useful to simply dispose of. His great heroism had helped inspire people not give up, as if even a vampire, the most evil, bloodthirsty demons on earth were capable of changing then humanity would have no choice but to unite.

Sadly however the more Jakarian fed, the more out of control his bloodlust became and eventually he would be exposed ironically by a former Hylexan collaborator, who escaped from him. Traitors and deserters made up the a large percentage of those that were sacrificed to not only Jakarian, but other demons too.

Jakarian was thrown under the bus by those who had supported his bloodlust and forced to go on the run. Fuelled by hatred for all of humanity for betraying him and devastated at his reputation being destroyed, Jakarian would eventually come to work with the Hylexans and played a pivotal role, due to his inside knowledge in helping the Octopus aliens break through humanity’s defences and launch the missiles that would destroy almost all life on the planet, except for the survivors camped out on Point Nemo.

Jakarian would then travel with the Hylexans for a short while afterwards helping them carry out other atrocities, before fleeing from the octopoids. (As he did not want to simply be their slave.) Travelling the universe on his own, the former vampire of the people continued to give in to his sadistic urges, becoming one of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy, before he finally returned to his home planet earth after sensing the return of his kind. (He also felt it would be the perfect hiding place as everyone else believed the earth was dead.)

Upon arriving back home however, Jakaria would instantly fall under the emperor’s control, though rather than be punished, the emperor at least according to the legend, sensing his hatred and appetite for destruction, appointed the traitor to the position of king not long after. Much to his minions fury and disgust.

By the time Dionne had arrived in Tairos, Jakarian had long given into his demonic urges to possibly a greater extent than any vampire before him. Another reason he was made king was because he had once been seen as a hero. The Emperor in contrast felt it sent out a better message that vampires could never redeem themselves and that the more they did, the worse their relapse would eventually be.

Dionne and Trian meanwhile possessed an even greater hatred of the vampire king than most others in Tairos, if that were possible, as the monster had been the one to lead the attack against Mosterik. Again the battle plans were drawn up by his subordinates, though as always he took the credit for it to the masses. Still Jakarian was the one who not only singled out the city, but put more effort and resources into taking it. He even personally took part in the slaughter. To Dionne’s shame, both she and Trian took tremendous risks at the possibility of revenge against the monster in the early days of their time with the sky city when they had more pull.

When the king found out about their hatred of him, at first he actually grew scared. Despite his power, he was still a disgusting coward, having lost all of the bravery due to his comfortable life on Tairos. The king was terrified that Dionne’s unique magical powers, which had also been sensationalised due to more propaganda could allow her to tear down his defences. He also more than any other vampire took Dionne seriously as a warrior, despite having seemingly never encountered her up close.

Eventually however, after seven years the vampire king would discover something that he could use to draw his two archenemies out. Trian’s little sister Friaj, who had survived the initial slaughter by the vampires, and had spent the last seven years in a vampire camp. Those the monsters didn’t turn they simply put in their camps, both as slaves to harness magic and resources from the earth, and to use as test subjects.

Friaj had been through many horrific experiments to the point where she had been horrifically disfigured and completely broken mentally. The King however would figure out her identity, ironically after his first battle with Trian.

The vampire king and Trian first came into direct conflict, when the king was taking part in the capture and slaughter of a small town, for no reason other than his own enjoyment.

Initially the sky city did not want to bother protecting the town from an attack (they knew it was coming as several vampires had been preparing the town for something big.)

The sky city simply viewed it as another standard raid by the vampires, designed to recruit either new vampires or slaves. As horrible as it may have sounded, the sky city didn’t have the time or resources to waste on smaller settlements across Tairos. Trian however believed that this raid could be reserved the king, knowing about his love of taking direct part in the action when the victims were helpless. Hardly anyone else who had been involved in Jakarian’s raids had ever survived, as the vampire only made sure to take part in them when there was no escape for the enemy.

After successfully convincing the leaders to help through his experiences in Mosterik. Trian was successful in fighting off the bloodsuckers and even came face to face with the king himself. Though he had once been a powerful warrior, centuries of indulgence and having servants do everything for him had not only rendered Jakarian a coward, but also relatively useless in a fight, and he only barely managed to escape from Trian’s wrath, earning a nasty scar down his face as a result.

Following this the king would train hard, rediscover many of his old skills and soon ironically became obsessed with making Trian pay, as word of his humiliation soon spread among both the vampires and their enemies.

Jakarian would also begin all kinds of new and twisted experiments on the prisoners and slaves in his own personal camp. One area where he did take a more active role was the experiments, not just to satisfy his own cruelty, but also because of his knowledge gleaned from visits to other worlds. The camps inmates were all made up of survivors of cities and villages he had personally conquered over the years. Perversely he referred to them as his collection. It wouldn’t be long however after fighting Trian before the bloodsucker would discover that his archenemies sister was still alive. When she was selected for yet another experiment, the king this time instantly detected something familiar about her scent. The blood trace which he could smell from her wounds, instantly matched that of her brother, and after further questioning and torture, the young woman admitted that her brother was called Trian, which led to the king setting a trap.

Announcing that he had Trian’s sister and that he would tear her to pieces unless he came to face him alone. Jakarian made it clear that he just wanted to restore his reputation in a fair fight, but of course Trian and Dionne wisely didn’t trust him and prepared for a double cross. Dionne insisted on being part of the team along with her trusty Gorgonopsid, despite her and Trian not being on the best terms at that point.

Sadly however Trian and the others were hopelessly outmatched by the vampire forces, thanks to a new weapon that the king decided to unveil. It was a special kind of magic that could allow life forms to phase through solid objects. The vampires had been working on this for many years, and had recently made many great advancements, though in spite of this the king went against orders by using these test subjects, and all but one of the vampires slaves given this ability, proved to be so unstable their bodies were unable to reform properly a few times after phasing. Most of them died instantly when trying to reform, some’s bodies however slowly collapsed over the course of several days. Still these creatures were at least able to catch Dionne and the others off guard with their new unstable power (two of them actually reformed whilst phasing through two of Trian’s guards, causing them to fuse into a single monstrous being, which died in agony a few hours later) allowing the vampires to then surprise and capture them.

Trian didn’t even get to fight the king for that long before he was forced to surrender to save the others

All of the soldiers were butchered by the vampires, with Dionne only being spared alongside Trian on the king’s order. The other soldiers bodies were strung up in the place Trian and Dionne had been captured for the rest of the sky city to see.

Dionne alongside Trian would then be taken back to the king’s own island and placed in his personal camp, where she would endure the worst year of her life. This would be the part that she unsurprisingly was not always eager to share, and the few times she did would always be very difficult.

The king would allow his vampires to practice their experiments on Dionne during the day to try and extract the magical patterns from her body. There were no words to describe the pain these experiments caused her. They burrowed into her very soul.

Trian meanwhile endured all the tortures and humiliations that the king and his vile subordinates could think of for the first few months, until eventually the vampire grew bored and instead sent Trian to work in the mines. This however would be a greater torture for Trian, as he was forced to take part in helping to construct some of the vilest and most twisted weapons that the vampires would use to slaughter other cities like they had done to Mosterik. Sadly Trian had no choice as if he didn’t, then they would have tortured his sister. Still being forced to help the vampires in their war effort it seemed finally broke Trian after all he went through. Jakarian would often torment Trian by bringing in survivors of the other cities he had butchered to show them how their once great hero had taken part in the construction of the weapons for their slaughter.

Perhaps the cruellest punishment the king would inflict on Dionne however would be turning her against her greatest love, music. For a few months every night the king would force Dionne to sing for him and his twisted followers. If she didn’t meet their satisfaction however he would subject both Trian and his sister to a night of the most horrific torture. The songs she would be forced to sing would often be demeaning, humiliating, or virtually impossible, and the vampires would boo her, throw feces and rotten fruit at her to throw her off. Not surprisingly she very rarely amused the king who relished in letting her know that the torture of the man she loved was her fault. Now and again however he would let them off, and even compliment her singing, though this was only to give her a sense of false hope that she had a chance to save them each night.

Eventually towards the end of her time there, the king would bring out prisoners that they didn’t need and kill them if Dionne’s singing didn’t amuse him. He would also force Dionne to watch as the vampires tore them to pieces.

Even after her escape Dionne would never forget the faces of every single person the vampire king slaughtered in front of her.

Dionne’s Gorgonopsid was also not spared from the bloodsuckers cruelty. The poor animal was chained in the darkest, foulest cave of the camp, where every day it would be shaved, though in most cases its hair would be ripped out in huge clumps. Its sabre teeth would also be pulled violently from their sockets, only to be made to regrow the next day with magic. It would also be starved, whipped, muzzled, and even spat on regularly by its jailer. Dionne would also be taken to see it every day after her ordeal in the lab.

By the end of her year in the camp, the king’s forces had managed to extract a sample of the dark magic from Dionne. The process almost killed her, and she was rendered comatose for several weeks.

Still the magic extracted from Dionne would allow the vampires to build new weapons that would give them a considerable edge in the fight. In fact they would even be able to overrun the sky city itself, just like they had done to Mosterik. Trian was forced to watch as the bloodsuckers slaughtered his new home city just like his old one.

This time, his brother Moska would not escape and would be brought to the king himself, who wanted to execute him in front of Trian and Dionne.

Fortunately however when Dionne awoke from her coma, she would be different. The vampires experiments had tampered with her body to such an extent that she could now harness the unique magics in her body in a way that not even other witches could. Dionne’s body contained a combination of magics that could never have existed otherwise.

Upon awakening, thanks to the magics, Dionne, overcome with new power and a burning rage and hatred for the vampires instantly started to slaughter the vile bloodsucking monsters. She would ensure that her Gorgonopsid in particular would have its revenge when she not only released it and restored it to full health, but locked it in the same room as its vile jailer. According to Dionne the jailer pathetically begged her and even blubbed when the Gorgonopsid approached him. His pleas however fell on deaf ears as the Synapsid slowly crushed his head in its jaws.

Whilst Dionne freed most of the slaves and killed many of the guards, unfortunately however her powers began to wane once she broke through the more advanced defences for the kings castle. In fact she was so weak after using them that she collapsed. The king meanwhile instantly called for help, whilst he and his elite did their best to squash the rebellion. The prisoners did outnumber the vampires, but they were sadly still no match for them as just one vampire could kill four people easily.

Trian, both of his siblings, and the Gorgonopsid took Dionne to a nearby ship in the midst of the battle, but unfortunately the king followed them there, wanting to make sure personally that Dionne couldn’t escape. Whilst the Gorgonopsid fought off the king’s men, Trian and the king himself fought each other one on one. Sadly however the king’s training, matched with Trian being weak from the year of torture and imprisonment meant that Trian had no chance. This time, overcome with rage and also still fearful for his own wretched life, the king would butcher Trian by tearing his heart out of his chest. Still Trian’s actions allowed Moska, Friaj, Dionne, and the Gorgonopsid to all slip away on the boat.

Dionne was lucky that she was unconscious and didn’t have to see the gruesome sight, though she would always feel a tremendous amount of guilt for not being there. She also however blamed Moska at first for not trying hard enough to save his brother. At the same time however Moska blamed Dionne for encouraging Trian to take part in the war in the first place. After being rescued from Mosterik, Moska had simply returned to civilian life, married and had several children (who had luckily been able to escape thanks to his efforts from the sky city.) Moska constantly urged his brother to do the same. This had sadly led to a rift between them, with Trian even branding Moska a coward.

Dionne later said to me that she felt tremendous guilt over what she said to Moska in the heat of the moment, and that she wished she had told Trian not to take part in the war. Sadly however she would never get a chance to tell Moska how guilty she felt over telling him he didn’t do enough to save his brother, and she would carry that with her to the very end.

The journey away from the island was extremely hard. None of the makeshift crew had any idea where they were going, and when Dionne awoke an entire day after, leaving, aside from the tensions between her and Moska, he also put constant pressure on Dionne to use her powers. As much as she wanted too, for some reason she just couldn’t, and for a few days the crew were forced to scrape by on the meagre supplies left behind in the boat. Whilst the vampires themselves may not have needed food, their human slaves did.

Friaj was a lot easier for Dionne to deal with, though that was only because she barely said anything, to anyone. She’d often just stare into the vast golden oceans around them, even when Dionne and Moska were arguing.

The ship was constantly followed by sharks meanwhile of various different species, though fortunately none large enough to damage the boat, they still made the journey more than a little unnerving. On their fifth day however, the ship would be attacked by a large, red shark, unlike any in our time. It was over 40 feet long and over 20 tons in weight. It could have been mistaken for a Megalodon at first, but this monster was merely an extension of a dimension that we know as Davy Jones locker. Legend has it that this pocket dimension was created by Poseidon itself to punish humans who dared meddle in his domain. Either way it survived long after the gods left the earth. Davy Jones locker in our time, only has power over the dead. Those who die at sea are in danger of being sucked into this pocket hell dimension for all eternity, though fortunately there are numerous spells that can overcome this and only a very few are taken back to the locker.

Davy Jones Locker will survive the Hylexans attack on the earth and endure after the oceans are restored by magic to beautiful golden waters. Sadly however the magic of the new seas will allow Davy Jones Locker to extend its reach, creating hideous abominations capable of dragging living people in the ocean and even on the land back to the locker.

The red sharks send anyone they devour straight to Davy Jones Locker forever. Their only purpose was to hunt humans and other sentient creatures in the ocean. The shark would have surely sunk the boat, had it not been for Dionne who was suddenly able to conjur her power and drive the demonic fish away.

She didn’t realise it at the time, but her magics, much like the ectoplasm of a ghost were linked to her emotions. Only when they were at their strongest, could she harness them. Back on the island, her seething hatred and anger towards the king and the vampires had driven her, but now it was her fear of the shark. It didn’t help that she’d always had a phobia about sharks. It was their cold black eyes that freaked her out the most. Well that and the fact that they can you know eat people.

Fortunately that old childhood terror helped Dionne summon up the magic, though as she had no idea how to use it at the time she couldn’t finish the shark and it soon returned within a few hours.

This time however Dionne wasn’t able to quite muster up the necessary fear, ironically because she had faced the shark before. In the back of her mind, she felt that her magics could easily defeat the beast, and this grain of reassurance ironically prevented her from having access to those very magics. The shark soon sunk the boat, being strong enough to literally rip it apart with its jaws and send all of the crew tumbling into the water below.

As the shark circled them however, waiting for the right moment to strike, Dionne noticed that the beast was not alone. A large aquatic meat eating Dinosaur known as a Spinosaurus soon emerged from the golden waters, to confront the shark. This Spinosaurus was similar to the Vasta in that it was mutated magically. Normal Spinosaurs were among the largest meat eating Dinosaurs of them all, but again this mutant was far larger, being close to 70 feet long. It also like the Vasta looked as though its skin was wrapped directly over its bones, and lacked any lips, which made its long teeth stick out all the more. Finally like both its human and Tyrannosaur counterparts it was also completely unhinged.

Though the Spinosaurus was initially drawn here by the scent of the humans. (Dionne also thought it may also have been because of her magics.) The great reptile now focused all of its attention on the shark rather than the crew. Despite being somewhat smaller than the Spinosaurus, in the water the sharl was faster and delivered many devastating bites to the larger Dinosaur. The sharks jaws were not only dangerous because of their strength, but also because they contained numerous different forms of poisonous black magic. It was a testament to the mutated Spinosaurus’ strength that it was still alive after that many shark bites.

Eventually the Spinosaurus gained the upper hand and grabbed onto the red shark’s tail with its long, slender jaws. Despite the demonic fish weighing in at over 20 tons, the Spinosaurus flipped it dozens of feet through the air like it was a haddock. The Spinosaurus then turned its attention back to Dionne and the others. As its mighty jaws lunged towards Dionne in particular, again she found the terror to conjure up her magic and repel the monster. Unfortunately however the Dinosaur was not as easily driven back as the shark.

More than a few hours passed before Dionne woke up in a cage, surrounded by six other people. All survivors of the city of Mosterik, who like Dionne had fled into the woods and been captured by these monsters.

Outside the cage meanwhile was a huge campsite where the mangled bodies of several Dinosaurs and people lay gathered together in different piles.

In the distance however, there was one living Brontosaurus that was being restrained by several Vasta using ropes. Now and again the Vasta would capture the odd Dinosaur and use magics to place it under their will, though this only lasted a short while. The Vastas as Dionne would later discover had been having some trouble in their hunting grounds and hoped to use this creature to try and clear the area.

All of the prisoners, were thumping on the gates and causing as much of a disturbance as they could. They knew there was nothing they could do, but at the very least they were going to give these monsters as much trouble as they could. The Vasta however sadly were used to screams and didn’t seem phased as they dragged in more bodies and parts of bodies from their latest hunts.

Hours passed, before the Vasta lit up a huge fire in the middle of the forest which caused the Brontosaurus to become more agitated. Those in the cage including Dionne were intended to suffer a far worse fate than those the monsters simply hunted. The Vasta, being magical creatures, could sense when a life form had special and distinct magical patterns. All life forms possessed magic in their bodies, though only certain people and beings with enough skill could harness their magic and in turn use that to control other forms of magic in the world through specific enchantments and rituals. Those who had fully mastered this process would become witches and warlocks, whilst those who had altered their magic to such an extent that they were now magical creatures, were known wizards.

Certain people meanwhile possessed distinct magical patterns for various reasons which could potentially allow them even greater power. In Dionne’s case she would later discover that her unique pattern was due to her time in the vortex. With the others from Mosterik it was most likely due to the strange magics the city itself utilised. The Vasta meanwhile would extract these magical patterns from a living creature, by placing them in their special flame, itself created through the black arts. The flame literally burned everything but the magic in a persons soul away. However even then the process had to be slowed, as the power that created the flames was so hostile to natural organisms that it was in danger of burning their bodies up too quickly and destroying their souls completely, including the magics with them. As a result of the process being slowed however, the flame would keep its victims alive for in some cases days, in a state of constant agony as it slowly burned them away. Even once their bodies were burned to nothing, the soul would still suffer even greater pain. Despite their savagery, the Vasta still knew how to use magics, and were not above even trading the magics they extracted with the vampires, bandits and other renegades if they needed too.

The other prisoners fell deathly silent as soon as they saw the flame being lit. They had all heard horrific stories about the flame, but had hoped they were nothing more than propaganda from the Vasta. Soon some of the prisoners started to genuinely panic and try to push against the cage, and this time the Vasta began to react, by laughing in that repulsive, hyena like cackle of theirs.

Luckily for the prisoners however, before the Vasta could place their first victim in the flame, the Brontosaurus broke free and started to attack them. The Vasta for once genuinely looked terrified and struggled against the giant reptile that provoked even further by the sight of the flames, was almost determined to crush every one of the vile creatures around it. Before the long necked giant could reach the cage however it was suddenly opened by a young man, who one of the prisoners, another young man instantly hugged. Their rescuer had also been the one to release the Brontosaurus when the Vasta were distracted with the flame.

“Brother, I thought those vampires had torn you apart.” The prisoners who had hugged their rescuer said.

“I escaped, but I’m afraid I am the only one. I checked in our city this morning and there was nothing. Not even the wail of a ghost. We are truly all that is left” their rescuer said with despair.

None of the survivors had any time to take it in however, as most of the Vasta’s had either been squashed or scattered by the Brontosaurus and if they didn’t move they would be next.

Along with the rest of the prisoners, Dionne fled deeper into the forest, until they all eventually reached a long and wide river. With no other way forward, the prisoners cobbled together a small raft made from bits and pieces of trees and logs which they tied together with vines from the forest.

None of the crew had even talked to Dionne, never mind recognise her, as they were too busy just trying to stay alive.

As the raft drifted down the stream, the former prisoners realised that the Vasta were no longer following them, for some reason. Dionne thought they had just lost the creatures, or that they cared more about the Brontosaurus. Sadly however she couldn’t have been more wrong. The Vasta always placed a greater importance on harvesting unique magics, and indeed with the collapse of an entire city, this had marked potentially their largest harvest in a long while.

Little did the prisoners know they were drifting into an area that even these monsters were terrified of. They soon caught the first glimpse of what they were in for with the sight of numerous remains of other Dinosaurs, including a Hadrosaur, a few Triceratops and even a large sauropod all scattered throughout the woods and even along the river bank. At first Dionne was terrified that they had stumbled into another Vasta camp, but it soon became obvious that this was something else. A large Triceratops soon emerged from the forest ahead of the raft and began drinking along the river bank. Triceratops were among the strongest, and most aggressive herbivores, but only if provoked. Even the Vasta were wary around them, hence why none had been hunted in the ambush that had captured Dionne.

The prisoners were very quiet as they drifted by the giant reptile, but after they got about ten or so feet away, they suddenly noticed the trees behind the animal moving. Something was actually about to pounce on the horned Dinosaur from behind. It was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the most famous and ferocious of all Dinosaurs. It looked somewhat different to how Dionne had always been used to seeing it in media growing up however, though the overall shape was instantly recognisable at least. The Tyrannosaurs body was a lot thicker, and bulkier than it was normally depicted as, whilst lips covered its infamous set of teeth. Despite the Tyrant Lizard King’s size of over ten tons, it was almost completely silent as it crept through the woods. Dionne told me that she was conflicted, as on the one hand she didn’t want to let the Triceratops fall victim to the Tyrannosaur, but on the other if she alerted the Triceratops and it fled rather than fought, the Tyrannosaur would then turn its attention to them. As hard as it was, she and evidently the other prisoners felt it was better to let nature take its course, though not that anything in these woods could be called natural.

Little did the former prisoners know however, they were also being stalked by another Tyrannosaur from the other side of the stream, that similarly moved silently through the forest. Whilst the Tyrannosaurs weren’t the fastest runners among the meat eating Dinosaurs, they were still capable of short bursts of speed, and the animal was only on the river bank for a seconds before it leaped out, and scooped up one of the prisoners, a young woman closest to the edge of the raft.

All of the prisoners except for the brother who had released them from the cage, let out a scream at the gruesome sight of the second Tyrannosaur crushing the prisoner to a pulp in its jaws. Dionne told me that even after all these years, she never forgot the sound of the prisoners bones crunching in the jaws of the Tyrannosaur. At the very least though her death was over in an instant.

The prisoners former rescuer meanwhile tried to pull one of the logs free from the raft to use as some kind of deterrent for all the good it would do. Unfortunately however another one of the prisoners who had been standing near the woman who had been devoured, was knocked over board by the Tyrant reptile when it originally attacked. As he struggled in the water the T. rex then emerged again and stood over him in the stream. The others tried desperately to row the raft upwards to help, but it was no use.

The Tyrannosaur attempted to scoop the prisoner up like a falcon grabbing a fish in its beak, and though the prisoner at first dodged the reptiles jaws and attempted to swim to safety under the water, the second time the Tyrannosaur grabbed him by the leg from under the water and lifted its prey high into the air. As it tried to shake him around however, the strength of the Tyrannosaurs jaws actually caused the prisoners leg to rip off in its mouth, with the prisoner then falling head first onto the river bank, where he was knocked unconscious.

The others could only look away as the Tyrannosaur literally ripped its victim to pieces on the bank, though Dionne did see his blood ripple down stream to their raft.

The prisoners screams meanwhile had alerted the Triceratops who began to panic at the sight of the Tyrannosaurus in the stream, and the second Tyrannosaur in response forgot its more stealthy approach and tried to attack the horned Dinosaur before it could notice. Sadly for this king of the Dinosaurs, the gamble didn’t pay off, and the Triceratops was alerted by the noise of the predator now running from behind.

The Triceratops impaled the Tyrannosaurus that tried to creep up on it, just as the predator lunged towards its intended victim. The herbivores left horn cut straight through the T. rex’s side and the Triceratops would then bring its horn down, cutting straight through the Tyrannosaurs entire stomach. Killing it almost instantly.

The other Tyrannosaur meanwhile, being alerted by its kin’s cries soon turned its attention to the Triceratops and engaged the three horned giant in a brutal fight. This time it would be the carnivore that won out. The Triceratops did manage to knock the Tyrannosaur off its feet when the T. rex tried to bite down on its frill, but before it could impale the Rex, the meat eater, grabbed onto one of the Triceratops’ horns with its three clawed foot and then scratched it down the side with the other. Whilst the Triceratops screamed from its wounds and briefly retreated, the Tyrannosaurus, with help from its small but surprisingly strong arms, hoisted itself up and delivered a bite to the Triceratops’ backbone.

The bite force of a Tyrannosaurus Rex was so great that it could not only pierce the strongest hides, but crush bone too. Absolutely no animal, apart from those with literal supernatural powers could survive a Tyrannosaurus bite, and even then most supernatural creatures were still not strong enough to withstand that force.

The Triceratops let out a bird like screech after being bitten that echoed through the entire forest, as it stumbled into the stream.

Despite the grievous wound however, the animal still attempted to stand its ground for a few seconds, but eventually even standing became difficult for this giant animal, and the Tyrannosaur, having still been careful of those horns, delivered a second and final bite to the Triceratops neck behind its frill.

As revolting as the sight was, with Dionne almost being sick at the Tyrannosaur ripping the Triceratops guts out afterwards. At the very least for a few minutes, she felt somewhat safe that the ferocious predator at least had no reason to pursue them anymore.

Deeper down the river however, the prisoners would soon have to deal with another threat. Three smaller meat eating Dinosaurs who seemed to be drawn by the prisoners themselves, and would prove to be even more persistent than the larger carnivores.

These were actually juvenile Tyrannosaurus. They looked remarkably different to the adults however, to the point where Dionne at first assumed they had to be different animals. The juvenile’s in contrast had very slender bodies, small heads, and longer forearms. They were clearly built for speed and were evidently excellent swimmers as well. The prisoners former rescuer, who had clearly taken over as the leader, tried to bat them away as best he could with his log when they dived into the water. Fortunately the animals weren’t working together and two at the back even started fighting each other. However one of the juveniles soon swam under the raft and burst out through it from below, managing to bite the leader of the teams brother by the leg in the process. Luckily for him, juvenile Tyrannosaurs teeth were better suited to slicing, unlike the bone crunching chompers of the adults, and the others including even Dionne were able to drive the little Dinosaur away with a series of kicks and punches. It still left a nasty wound however.

The raft then drifted into a large very dark cave, where it was difficult to see much of anything ahead, but a horrific stench still pierced the darkness and it was soon followed by another screeching, bird like noise.

This entire area was a nesting ground for the Tyrannosaurus, who could actually be very social creatures, though they still hunted alone, even as juveniles. The Dinosaurs had only moved into the area a few months ago, and had even driven the Vasta out. This was why the Vasta had captured the Brontosaurus, hoping that the larger Dinosaur could help them drive at least some of the Tyrannosaurs back. Despite being skilled at hunting Dinosaurs, even the Vasta were terrified of the Tyrannosaurs, who just as they had done 66 million years ago, dominated any area they occupied.

The Vasta would ultimately never succeed in driving the Tyrannosaurs out and in the decade Dionne would spend in Tairos, this area would actually become one of the largest and most prosperous Tyrannosaur nests in all of Tairos, with many powers from all over Tairos attempting to try and capture and control the Dinosaurs in it for their war efforts, and almost all failing.

This cave meanwhile belonged to the alpha of the group, who soon made his presence known to the terrified prisoners. Whilst they could barely make him out in the darkness, Dionne could still see that this Tyrannosaur was gigantic, even by their standards. In fact he was almost twice as big as the others outside. Once again however despite its tremendous size, the Dinosaur proved fast enough to scoop one of the prisoners up in its mouth, though this time however the animals jaws also smashed the raft to bits in the process too and sent all of the survivors tumbling into the water.

They quickly headed to the shore, with Dionne seeing very faintly that the stream ended at the very back of the cave. Unfortunately that was the only way to go as the alpha Tyrannosaurus was blocking the way back. The survivors all fled, not bothering to check and see if their comrades were okay, they were so scared.

As Dionne ran through the darkness, she heard the Dinosaurs bird like screeches, followed by the screams of another two of the prisoners, a young woman and their bones subsequently crunching. The Tyrannosaur could see perfectly in the darkness unlike the humans. Their species possessed the sharpest sense of vision and smell in arguably the entire animal kingdom. (This had been how the adults outside had been able to pinpoint the exact location of the prisoners in the jungle by picking up their scent from possibly miles away.)

Dionne soon hit the end of the cave, and with no choice she was forced to climb up the wet, slimy rocks. When she got higher however she not only heard the Dinosaurs screech, but felt it too. To her horror she turned around and saw that she had come face to face with the alpha Tyrannosaur. Dionne was literally frozen with fear, in fact she told me she almost went catatonic as the Dinosaur opened its jaws. Even describing it all these years later she still froze for a few seconds.

“I should be waking up any moment now. Any moment, any moment, any moment.” She kept saying to herself as she faced certain death.

Just then however the Tyrannosaur closed its mouth and looked up. Before it could do anything a hand reached down from above to Dionne. It was her former rescuer, who along with his brother had managed to climb up ahead and reach a ledge which led to the outside.

Dionne instantly snapped out of her petrified state and with his help pulled herself up to the ledge, that was just above the Tyrannosaurs height, whilst her rescuers brother kept the Tyrant Lizard King distracted by throwing rocks on its head.

Once it saw its prey was out of sight the Dinosaur let out a final screech before retreating back into the darkness of its cave. From this point, Dionne could see a bit more of the cave including the corpses and remains of the Tyrannosaurs many other victims.

The three survivors followed the ledge which led to outside. Thankfully they had escaped the Tyrannosaur territory for now, but on the other side of the cave was arguably something worse.

It was a pit designed by the vampires both to torture and enslave their victims, made up of the darkest forces from Tairos that they had harnessed. The pit would twist its victims into hideous monstrosities whilst also putting them through the most unspeakable agony. Only the very strongest would be able to crawl out of the pit. Even then however they could only escape it permanently if the vampires wished, after which they would then be brainwashed to be loyal foot soldiers to the vampires.

These monsters, who were simply known as Abominations, were among the most deadly of the vampires servants as they could not be threatened, or scared or feel any pain due to their experiences in the pit.

Over two centuries ago however, the founders of Mosterik were able to drive the vampires from this area, which was a large part of why the bloodsuckers had not only be so determined to reclaim it, but also make the people of Mosterilk pay (other than for the usual vampiric sadism.)

Despite many attempts however the people of Mosterik had ultimately been unsuccessful in eliminating this stain on Tairos, or in even freeing many of the damned souls still trapped within. The vampires meanwhile had thankfully been unable to reclaim it due to the Tyrannosaurs moving in.

The two brothers knew exactly what this place was, but unfortunately there was no way forward but to go around the pit. During the daylight, of which there was still a little left, the pit looked like nothing more than an empty chasm. Much like the vampires themselves it was inactive, and in fact it didn’t even exist during the day. The brothers were desperate to get across the wide chasm as fast as they possibly could before nightfall. There was an exit of sorts on the other side that had been made by the vampires years ago. The other sides of the chasm meanwhile were all surrounded by large walls that were too steep to climb. The brothers warned Dionne that if she held them up, this time they would leave her.

Fortunately Dionne had done some rock climbing as a girl, so she wasn’t completely useless. Ironically the wounded brother ended up being more of a liability as the injury got worse, the more he walked on it.

At one point he had to rest, and whilst both the brothers in all fairness told Dionne not to wait on them, she decided to stay. She later admitted it was more out of fear of being alone in this horrible place, but either way for the first time in this ordeal it earned her genuine trust among the survivors.

For one thing the brothers both finally revealed their names to Dionne. The wounded brother was named Moska, whilst the other was named Trian.

Moska thought he knew Dionne from somewhere, but she quickly played it down, being scared they might see her as dead wood if they thought she was just a spoiled 21st century celeb who didn’t know what she was doing.

After a few minutes rest, the three travellers pressed on once again, but unfortunately despite their best efforts, by the time they had almost reached the end of the chasm, it was night fall. The bottom of the pit suddenly turned into a green, swirling ocean in resoponse. Moans and screams started to emit from it as did some clawed and mangled hands.

As they almost reached the exit on the other side however, Moska suddenly felt a hand grabbing onto his wounded leg. He and his two companions looked down to see a horrible slime drenched monstrosity. The monster had begun as nothing but a large puddle of slime crawling its way up from the lake, but as soon as it got near Dionne and the brothers however, the upper torso of a man emerged from the puddle. The upper torso was completely white, had no features, other than a mouth with no teeth, with both the bottom and upper lips being connected at certain points via strips of slime.

When Moska tried to kick it in the face, the slime started to crawl its way up his leg and pull him down the cliff edge. By this point dozens of even more disgusting and horrific creatures began to emerge from the green lake, and slowly crawled and squelched and scuttled their way up the cliff towards the three prisoners. Trian of course stayed to help his brother, whilst Dionne though once again having the option to flee, nevertheless also stayed to help. She always played it up to me as just being because she was scared of being alone, but honestly I don’t think that is why she helped the brothers. Knowing the kind of person she is, I think it was a genuine desire to help them. Remember as far as she knew there was no way she could fight off the monsters from the pit. If she was really just scared, well a safer option would still be to take your chances in the jungle up ahead.

Still whatever the case, Dionne and Trian both tried to pull Moska to safety, but the slime monster was much too strong and began to drag all three of them down the cliff, yet neither let go and continued to pull as hard as they could.

Just as all hope seemed lost, then suddenly several of the monsters emerging from the lake were struck down by what appeared to be bright lights, in reality magical blasts.

Dionne looked round to see several soldiers dressed in strange armour coming from the exit. Their weapons did not kill the vampires former servants, but they helped to repel them long enough for Dionne and both of the brothers to escape. The three former prisoners of the Vasta were then taken by these mysterious soldiers to outside of the exit of the pit, where they could see several glowing, circular crafts, each one no bigger than a lorry. They were all instantly hurried into one. Dionne at first was scared, but that faded when she saw that the brothers were relieved the soldiers had shown up. In fact Trian was angry that it had taken them this long. The soldiers all then fled into their crafts not just to escape the monsters who were coming in droves out of the pit, but the Tyrannosaurs who were emerging out of the jungle ahead, having been drawn by the lights.

One of the crafts wasn’t able to take off in time however and fell victim to a Tyrannosaurs that grabbed hold of it in its jaws by rearing up. Not only did the Dinosaur bite through the hull easily, but the animal then threw the craft to the ground, killing the pilot instantly. Finally the Tyrannosaurus then tore the craft open with its jaws and devoured three of the men inside, with the last only barely managing to escape. However another of the Tyrannosaurs then chased him into the direction of the monsters, some of whom then tried to attack the Tyrannosaur itself. These monsters unlike everything else in Tairos did not fear the Tyrannosaurs, though that didn’t give them any more of a chance against them. The Tyrannosaurus crushed all of the attacking monsters under its feet rather than eat them, as it could smell that they were too toxic to eat. Even the slime monster couldn’t stand against the Dinosaurs, as whilst it could wrap itself around one’s foot, it wasn’t big enough to consume it completely or strong enough to even attempt to pull it away and had to retreat. Escaping alive however at least meant it had done better against the Dinosaurs than the others.

The ship that had rescued Dionne meanwhile did its best to try and rescue the other soldier who was being swamped by the monsters, but as soon as it got near another one of the Tyrannosaurs grabbed onto the vehicle with its jaws. Fortunately for Dionne and the others however, the Tyrant Lizard had only managed to bite the tip of the vehicle which it still broke off, but not enough to make it crash. However the Tyrannosaur still not giving up then rammed the vehicle when it was close enough, sending it hurling through the air and almost into the green lake ahead, with the pilot only just managing to pull it out in time. As he flew back out however, the pilot saw the soldier they had tried to rescue being dragged down by the same slime monster that had attempted to consume Moska and knowing there was nothing he could do, with regret the pilot flew to safety with the other soldiers.

Dionne and the brothers were taken to a literal city in the sky, that appeared to rest on several clouds, though as Dionne would later discover, the clouds were naturally made of magic, as was the city itself.

The soldiers of the city had been too preoccupied with their own battle against the vampires to help Mosterik and had only actually been drawn to Mosterik after the slaughter when they detected a major magical upheaval, in reality Dionne arriving via time travel. They were able to trace Dionne from the portal she arrived in from the vortex, straight through the jungle, due to the unique magical pattern caused from her time in the vortex, though even they did not quite understand what it meant at first, having never seen a pattern like it. Still they eventually traced her to the vampires pit. Sadly they lost 15 men in total going through the Tyrannosaur territory.

As soon as she arrived, Dionne was placed into their prison, much to the protests of the two brothers. Several of the guards (including one who had been to her concert with Freddie Mercury.) Knew who she was and after their leaders realised that she was behind the magical upheaval placed her in the cell to ensure that the timeline couldn’t be changed.

Sadly however the secrets of time travel were lost with the destruction of Mosterik, and for the time being, Dionne had to be kept in isolation.

The brothers constantly put pressure on those in command to free her, but it was no use. The leaders didn’t even want to investigate the unique magical pattern she had out of fear it would change history. Dionne herself later told me that she started to go temporarily mad during her time in prison after everything she had been through, and even started to attack the guards when they arrived to feed her every day. A few weeks after her imprisonment however, they would be forced to release Dionne when the city fell under attack from the vampire horde.

Riding on the backs of their tame Triceratops, the vampires slaughtered their way through the cities armies, but Dionne proved to be surprisingly useful during the fight when she discovered she was immune to the vampires mind control thanks to her unique magical pattern. This particular breed could place anyone they bit under their control completely, and even the strongest magics were unable to reverse the process. This had been how the vampires were able to attack the sky city in the first place by biting one of their soldiers on the ground and then using him as a secret agent. Dionne however was able to turn the tables on the invading vampires, by pretending to be under their control after being bitten and then using one of their explosive weapons to slaughter a large number of their forces, including their leader. She told me that she had no problem with murdering the vampires. After seeing what they had done in both Mosterik and the sky city, she didn’t see them as remotely human. She did however also say that prior to the weeks in Tairos she doesn’t think she would have been able to. That world brought out the worst in absolutely everyone.

Dionne was hailed as the saviour of the city afterwards, and the question of locking her up again became impossible among the public. In fact the previous leaders who had ordered it were forced to resign in part due to this and the vampire attack. Dionne meanwhile was also able to demand that the city work on a way to try and send her home, not wanting to be part of their war. Sadly however the new leaders would insist on her taking part, not just because of the propaganda that could be drummed up around her now, but also because of her unique powers, which she had only just begun to explore.

Again the reason for Dionne’s strange magical pattern, was because in the vortex, her body had become fused with many ancient forms of primal magic from throughout history. Normally exposure to these kinds of magics in the real world would have either killed, or twisted a life form beyond all recognition, but as Dionne was outside of the vortex and therefore outside of the natural laws themselves. They had fused to her body over time in a unique way. When she arrived in Tairos, most of these unique magics had remained trapped in the vortex, but a few scant traces remained in her body, not enough to mutate her, but enough to make Dionne immune to numerous, though not all forms of magic in Tairos. There would be no way to extract the ancient magic from her body however, at least not yet. Not only would it have most likely killed Dionne, but if unleashed from her, these alien, prehistoric forms of magic could end up creating more mutants or having unintended side effects. They also advised Dionne not to try and harness them for her own ends, though they didn’t have to worry about that as Dionne wasn’t a witch.

Still they hoped that her unique magical constitution could be used as a weapon, though they did not force her as doing so would make them guilty of changing the timeline. Dionne completely refused to be drawn into their conflict, until Trian was captured by the vampires on a later mission.

In contrast to Dionne, Trian despite his dislike of the sky city, (even more so for them seemingly abandoning Mosterik until they thought they could exploit Dionne) was eager to take part in the war against the vampires and make them suffer. Moska wasn’t his only sibling. Friaj, Trian’s little sister of only ten years hadn’t made it out of the city, along with his parents and even his pregnant fiance. Whilst he may have seemed brave and loyal to Dionne, sadly the only reason Trian had survived was because he fled. The vampires had terrified him so much, that he ran in the middle of the chaos, and didn’t even notice that his fiance was not behind him until it was too late and one of the bloodsuckers had her in its grasp. There was nothing he could have done as the vampires instantly tore her throat out before he could attempt to run back, though he always doubted that he would have. He also did not go back for any of his family either, fleeing until he reached the forest, only returning several weeks later. It was only through being forced to survive for weeks in that hell of a forest, that Trian was finally able to work up any kind of courage, but it was too little too late. Worse the presence of the vandals meant that he now knew that he would never be reunited with his loved ones, even in death either.

In many ways all Trian had left was his hatred and his guilt.

Still Dionne felt she had seen a different side to him and after he rescued her twice she wanted to return the favour. She took part in a secret mission to save him from a vampires castle where they were torturing him for information about the sky city. The castle was guarded by Allosaurs. Dionne’s unique magical constitution didn’t prove to be any use in this mission and at times her anger at the vampires very nearly put the team in danger, but they were nevertheless successful in rescuing Trian, though the team still suffered one casualty at the jaws of one of the Allosaurs.

Following this experience, Dionne would vow to help battle the vampires, both to help her new friend and also because she had come to realise after six months that there was no way the sky city could return her home. Not only did they not have the know how, but despite what they said, they weren’t really devoting any time to it. All of their resources now had to go into fighting the vampire horde who were stronger than ever.

Over the next year Dionne would spend all of her time training, as well as testing through small samples, which magics were and weren’t effective on her. She became a very skilled and powerful warrior, able to hold her own in one on one fights with vampires, demons and other creatures. She and Trian would also develop a very close relationship over this time, with Dionne being the only person he would eventually share the truth with about what had happened with his family. Even his own brother didn’t know that he had just fled. Dionne however did not judge Trian too harshly, as she understood what it was like being in that forest, with no way of defending yourself, death lurking around every corner. She understood that sometimes instinct just kicks in. Very few of the others in the city had been in the helpless position they had endured. The sky city, which was actually known as Carresa, was ironically originally established to escape the chaos of Tairos. It had been formed in the days before the vampire horde emerged, in response to the civil war brought about by the resurrected animals. It was now the oldest surviving city in Tairos as a result. As the vampire horde grew in power however, eventually even Carresa realised that it couldn’t hide any longer. These monsters were a threat to all sentient life on Tairos.

Still in spite of that, whilst they had certainly taken a more active role in the war, even then most of the cities inhabitants had been shielded from the horror of the forest below. Even the soldiers would only dare venture down into that hellish jungle for short periods and missions. Very few could understand what Dionne and Trian had been through.

Their bond as well as their skills would be further strengthened on many important and dangerous missions together as Caressa would be pulled into more and more conflicts, just to survive. The unprecedented vampire attack on the sky city had taken its toll, and now Caressa was forced to rely on other more powerful cities for protection, which soon dragged it into their other petty conflicts beyond the vampires themselves.

Dionne and Trian meanwhile were always eager to go on any mission they could, and over the course of 7 years, they would arguably become the cities most skilled and respected warriors.

Among the missions they would embark on together included a journey to ape island, which as its name suggests was dominated by nothing but various species of apes. Among its native species included the gigantic Megaprimatus Kong, the prehistoric Gigantopethicus, the mythical Yeti, the ape men known as the Harvia, Neanderthal men, the flesh eating Monkeys called the Harkissen, the scaly Baboon known as Leannax (which was a crude attempt via magic to create a Dinosaur primate hybrid), the winged feathered Gorilla’s who looked more like harpies known as the Tyrak and finally the Gorra, a hairless aquatic ape, so immense in size it dwarfed the mighty Kongs.

Dionne and Trian’s mission to ape island was largely a disaster with the entire crew of 20 all being brutally killed except for Dionne and Trian. They had originally been sent there to steal a new form of black magic that the Harvia had developed, but these seemingly primitive ape men proved to be a greater challenge than they had predicted. In the end however Dionne and Trian were able to convince the leader of the Harvia, known as Corlax to part with some of the magic for the greater good of stopping the vampire horde. The Harvia and other primates of the island generally tended to shun the world of humanity and its petty problems. The vampires however had launched several devastating attacks on their shores recently, and now much like the sky city, ape island knew it couldn’t hide for much longer and really more for its sake than anything else, the Harvia allowed Carresa and other cities to use their new magic formula which increased the strength of several soldiers to greater than that of the average vampire, though it could not do so indefinitely.

The apes would prove useful allies in other respects for the next few years against the vampire horde and Corlax would also end up becoming a close ally of Dionne as well.

The alliance with the apes however would eventually collapse, though no one was really sure why at first. For some reason the apes appeared to lose all trust in humanity and once again resigned themselves to live on their island, cut off from the rest of the world.

Still whilst it was short lived the ape alliance did help push back the vampires significantly and for that alone Dionne was celebrated.

Aside from Trian, Dionne’s other closest companion during this time would be a creature known as a Gorgonopsid. These reptiles existed from before the time of the Dinosaurs. They belonged to a group known as the Synapsids who came in many shapes and sizes and ruled the earth for millions of years in a period of earth’s history, called the Permian era. Sadly the Synapsids would be killed off by a disaster, which allowed the Dinosaurs to become dominant in the first place. One group of Synapsids however, the Cynodonts would later evolve into the first mammals, whose descendants would ironically take over after the death of the Dinosaurs.

From our perspective the Gorgonopsid resembled something of a cross between a reptile and a mammal. It measured over 20 feet long, was covered in a light fur coat (except for its legs and feet, which were still scaly.) It also had sabre teeth and stood on all fours like a mammal. Its skull however was more akin to that of a meat eating Dinosaur, whilst its tail was also thicker, longer and more muscular like a Dinosaurs too.

Dionne would acquire her Gorgonopsid within her second year on a mission to stop a mutated Tyrannosaurus Rex, that was to their kind what the Vasta were to our kind. These mutant Tyrannosaurus grew up to sixty feet long, had no lips, and much like the Vasta they had no muscles, only skin covering their bones. Once again however, much like the Vasta they were not only stronger than any natural Tyrannosaurus, but possessed significantly greater strength, durability, and were also unstable too, hunting for seemingly no reason other than sadistic cruelty.

These monsters were among the most feared in Tairos and even just one of them was capable of decimating several settlements. This Tyrannosaur had slaughtered a small city and almost all the life forms in the surrounding area, including the Gorgonopsid’s family. Dionne personally slew the monster with a special sword that only she could wield due to her unique magical constitution. This was the first time that it had been used, and it would become her signature weapon from this point on, helping Dionne slay many other powerful beasts and monsters. The Gorgonopsid meanwhile would be taken in by Dionne because she always was one to take in stray animals. Prior to arriving to Tairos she had almost never been without a pet of some kind since she was about 8. Granted she told me that at first she thought the Gorgonopsid was just a cute little animal the size of a puppy, but when it grew to full size in just a few years, she found it a little harder to cope with. Still she loved it as much as any of her pets, and when she told me about it decades on, she spoke with such affection that at times it felt like she was talking about another child instead!

Another important mission for Dionne and Trian however would be their journey into the Dragon graveyard. Centuries ago in the early days of Tairos, the Dragons gave their lives against a great evil that had been created from the magic used to restore the earth and create Tairos itself. Magic of that scale often comes with a price, and in this case, the price was a creature named Vaskalia, made of concentrated dark magic which laid waste to many areas of Tairos and transformed others inhabitants into monsters. The Dragons nobly sacrificed themselves as part of a huge spell to destroy the monster once and for all. The sight of their and Vaskalia deaths would remain untouched for generations afterwards out of fear of disturbing the spirit of the creature.

One Demon however, named Dakeria would dare to venture to the Dragons graveyard, in the hopes of harnessing their spirits. Dakeria was one of the oldest Demons in all of Tairos, being among the first to be revived when Tairos itself was born. Like most Demons he desired power and after failing to get it for so long, he finally became desperate enough to tamper with the Dragon graveyard. Most of the Dragon spirits had long since vanished, but a few scant traces remained and through those, Dakeria was able to revive them. At first he was only able to bring the Dragons spirits back at the sight of the graveyard which at least allowed him to secure it, but eventually he was able to stabilise them to the point where he could send certain spirits beyond the graveyard, still completely under his control to ravage certain towns, cities and settlements belonging to both the vampires and the allies.

Dionne’s unique magical constitution however when mixed with certain magics belonging to the sky city, was able slip past Dakeria’s defences and battle the Demon directly. Though his control over them was vanquished by Dionne, the Dragon spirits soon went rogue. Crazed and feral, Dionne and Dakeria were both trapped in the graveyard. Worse the unpredictable spiritual energy and magic from the ghosts was also allowing Vaskalia’s spirit to rebuild itself. The sky city was forced to destroy the entire area to sever the spirits link with the world, but Trian bravely fought his way through the Dragon ghosts, who without the demons control were more feral, and rescued Dionne, whilst Dakeria was left to die. The Dragons however, though feral in their last moments were able to help Dionne and Trian keep Vaskalia’s spirit trapped in the graveyard until the entire area was destroyed by the Sky city.

This mission more than any other showed Trian the extent at which he cared for Dionne as more than any other he genuinely thought he was going to lose her in this mission, and it very neatly tore his entire world apart, as much as the death of his fiance had done years earlier. By this stage they had been working together for three years, and Trian had clearly begun to develop feelings for Dionne. Indeed most believed that they were involved anyway, given the amount of time they spent together. It wasn’t just all of the life and death situations that had brought them together however. Trian was fascinated by the era Dionne came from, when things were so secure that they could delude themselves into thinking that vampires were nothing more than myths. He also loved her singing, which even in these circumstances Dionne appreciated. Arguably even more so considering that Dionne’s music hadn’t exactly reached the sky city due to its bad relationship with Mosterik other than a few exceptions (though even the guard who had gone to her concert was more of a Queen fan, than a fan of hers.)

With encouragement from Trian who always told her to never stop singing, Dionne rediscovered her love for music in Tairos and the new songs she would make even became quite popular in the sky city. She even wrote an anthem to inspire the allies against the vampire horde that would endure for many years to come, and eventually be adopted by other cities. She sang it for me one night actually, though she assured me it wasn’t as good as it sounded in the future. Apparently through their use of magic, the people of Tairos had created all new kinds of sounds that she didn’t even think were possible, though I often wondered if that was just an excuse. She could be so self conscious about her voice, amazingly enough.

Whilst the Dragons graveyard made Trian realise that he loved Dionne, he wouldn’t tell her until their journey into the black woods, the most feared area of Tairos a few months later.

The black woods was the one area on earth where the restorative powers of Tairos had not worked, at least not completely. They had restored some life to the area, enough that it was a forest, rather than just a waste land, but the life forms that were restored were transformed into hideous creatures. No one knows quite why the land was twisted in such a way, but it is believed that it was because it was the area the Hylexans missiles containing black magic had struck the earth and therefore was the most concentrated.

Whatever the case, the black wood was somewhere that even the vampires were terrified of. Dionne and Trian meanwhile were sent into the most dangerous area of the wood, the lair of the Terrible One. This horror had once been arguably the most feared creature within the wood, but it was finally slain several decades prior to Dionne arriving in Tairos by Mr Diassa, one of the original wizards who had helped to create Tairos itself.

The monsters lair, which on the outside resembled nothing more than a small cave still remained and nothing even within the black woods itself had dared venture in there. Dionne however once again proved immune to the lairs magics, and was sent on a mission to try and retrieve further samples of the Terrible One’s black arts to use as a weapon. It was a huge risk even for her, but Dionne agreed that it was too golden an opportunity to waste.

Trian meanwhile despite having grown up terrified of stories of the black wood like everyone else in Tairos, absolutely would not let Dionne go into those woods alone.

At first the mission went well, with Dionne managing to retrieve samples from the Terrible One’s cave, but unfortunately the spirit of one of the creatures of the cave was able to hitch a ride with one of Dionne’s samples and soon escaped into the black woods. This creature was made from the magics the Hylexans had used to destroy the earth itself made flesh. The Terrible One’s cave were where the magics of the wood that even he was scared had been sealed off.

Dionne and Trian were forced to work with other monsters of the black wood to try and contain the beast, as well as return the samples that she had stolen, with Dionne realising that they should never have been released, not even to try and stop the vampires.

Over the course of their adventure however, Dionne would very nearly succumb to the creature she had released’s poison, and thinking she was going to die, Trian finally confessed that he was in love with her and had been for almost as long as he had known her. Dionne however would be cured by the other creatures of the forest who still needed her to enter the Terrible One’s cave. Fortunately for Trian however Dionne felt exactly the same way and the two would soon begin a relationship.

Sadly however it wasn’t to last. Whilst Trian did love Dionne, he still couldn’t get past the guilt of what had happened with his family, and would suffer nightmares of leaving Dionne behind in a vampire attack too. Furthermore Dionne and other higher ups also felt that she and Trian’s feelings for each other were affecting their ability to do their missions properly. Something she later regretfully said she might have agreed with

After just a year together the two separated, though they tried to remain friends, they eventually drifted apart. Furthermore Dionne’s position within the sky city had also fallen considerably after the black woods mission. She had ultimately returned all of the samples back to the Terrible One’s cave, as well as the creature she released. Even in her old age, she never regretted it for a second, but others in the city, particularly as the vampires began to recover their losses and score more victories, came to hate Dionne.

For the next three years, Dionne and Trian would keep a low profile, though Dionne would still be sent on some important missions due to her unique magical constitution. She would ultimately be less celebrated, which she was actually quite happy with.

Eventually however after 7 years in Tairos, Trian and Dionne would be brought together once again to combat their greatest enemy. The vampire king known as Jakarian.