Starlit Heroics: A Spectrum of Hate

Zora flailed and growled in her dragon's grip as the throes of her episode came on again in full force. How dare she? How fucking dare she threaten death on her pal. What nerve! What absolute... nerve... wait a minute, her rational side argued finally having gotten fed up and shouting over the anger. Stop right there. She sounds absolutely depressed. There's more at play here than someone unreasonably being a mad cunt.

Well that was just great. She hated moral ambiguity. It made it harder to know who to punch to make herself feel better.

She slumped as she dangled from the dragon's maw and stared at the ground. She was gonna have to bring all this up to her therapist. And her sister. Probably sister first. She always knew just what to do about things. She was the best.

She thought to the dreams she had been having, which always felt so real. Jax said they might be space-related, but how? Besides, perhaps, the coherent cast of characters and storylines. That didn't normally happen in dreams, and this was coming from someone who didn't have normal dreams for a while there.

Sometimes they were nice. A nice day on the town with a handsome gentleman, or getting to go to a super high-tech virtual reality dungeon to do battles in a world where Pokemon existed. Tantric yoga with a divine angel, or running a stream with her sister.

A lot of them were nightmares. In one, she nearly killed her beloved sister, believing her to be a dark doppelganger. In another, dear sister was kidnapped and tortured and when she found her she was on the floor broken with scimitars through both knees. In yet another her and a team of others came across the body of a dragon, slain by a cult, and all she could see was Tempest in its place.

She had difficulty telling anymore whether they were post-traumatic symptoms or not. But gods, after this did she need help.

"It... it's fine..." She called back. But she sounded distant, mentally. Somewhat tired, even.

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"Much better." Tiamat growled as she sat back down. "Yeah, I've heard that story. Never heard just what turned him into a tremendous grade-A dickbag, though. Maybe he just has metaphorical scorpions in his asshole, I dunno." She rubbed her temples. Maybe she should just... go to the bar like she was originally going to.

"Hmm... I'm concerned that there's even an evil Puritus in this world to begin with. That can't be good for us... even more so if there's an alternate universe counterpart to Suprema as well." - Queen Diana scowls.

Telgard runs past Nintendria and flash steps into the path ahead. He finds himself a far distance away from the castle and looks around for Adanna.

"Man, where did she go? Jeez. The last time I had to do this, I didn't have to look very far." - He sighs.

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Candelabra raises an eyebrow upon noticing Jack and Jax's confusion.

"Huh? It's one of the Eight Kingdoms, dude - the Balance one? It's where me and my family live. Unless... Hmm, what's the name of the planet we're on right now?" - She asks.

"Trust me, we're not so happy about our Puritus either," Daniel said. "And yep, we have a Suprema too. She's Puritus' wife, but went crazy as well. Every once in a while she likes to take over and possess someone."

Meanwhile, Nintendria continued looking for the girl. "Chase after young girls before?" he asked Telgard. "Whatever. She probably went into the city."

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Adanna sat on a bench, sniffling and wiping her eyes. This was a mistake, she thought. She should have just stayed with her Auntie in her little cabin home. She had no idea the people here could be so mean... Well, not like they all were. She couldn't let this one bad experience ruin her adventure. But still, she was feeling very alone.

"Are you alright?"

Adanna looked up. There as a man in a black jacket looking at her a few paces away, frowning slightly.

"Fine..." Adanna said.

"Looks like you've had a bad day to me," the man said. "Happens to the best of us. Come on, I'll buy you a meal."

Adanna wasn't keen on chatting with any more random strangers today, but it was hard to leave him standing there with the door open. And she was a bit hungry. She huffed, and followed him into the clubhouse across the street. The two sat at the bar and the man simply asked for two of something. He must visit this place often, Adanna thought.

"So," the man said, "like I said, bad day?"

"I guess..." Adanna grumbled. "It's kind of stupid though."

"Those are the worst, aren't they? Because then you feel bad about feeling bad."

"Yeah..." Adanna contemplated whether to go into details, but the man was obviously going to pry regardless. "I met up with this group of people who claimed to be princesses and royals... And gods even! Then they yelled at me for not believing in them. They were really mean about it..."

"...huh," the man responded simply. "I guess that is a bit difficult to believe. After all, it's not like the gods will just go out for drinks with any old mortal. You're not from around here, are you?"

Adanna cocked an eyebrow. This conversation seemed a bit odd. "I'm from Cerphixen," she said. "Me and my Auntie live out in the countryside. We don't hear a lot of news, if that's what you're saying."

The man smiled kind of dumbly. "That's pretty far, isn't it? And you're traveling all by yourself? You have a teleporter stone, right?"

"Uh..."

"What!? Well hold on!" The man instantly disappeared from existence, leaving Adanna dumbfounded. Several moments later, he reappeared in the same spot. "Here's one that goes to the countryside, hope it's close to your home but hey, closer than here right?"

Adanna could barely speak. "You teleported all the way to Cerphixen and back? That's awesome! How'd you do it?"

The man grinned again. "Sometimes people are more exciting than you first expect."

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"Uhhhhh..." Jack tilted his head. "Xephixir, are we talking about the eight kingdoms of Xephixir? Because I think you're talking about Nintendria."

"Th-thank you." Sephii stammered, her voice filled with many emotions. "S-sorry for bothering you..."

And she bolted.

"... Okay, Zor, you need to talk?" Minuki asked, dusting herself off. "Because now you sound even worse."

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"Mmmm." Itsuki muttered. "So what's your Suprema like? Seems you're just as fond of her as we are... meaning not at all."

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"Yeah... that's Nintendria." Jax said. "Wait... are you from another planet?! That's... AWESOME!"

"...There she go..." Zora murmured, before shaking her head out. "Oh, er... it's... fuck it, why lie?" She huffed. "I need help. Between that back there, and the dreams I've been having... I've seen too much shit, Minuki. I've seen a lot of fucked up shit. Jax says that shit is Space-related, but I'm not Space, I've never been Space, I've always been Time. I just don't understand... I don't want to see these things. But I do. Sometimes they're okay. Nice, even. Most of the time they're not."

Tempest gently set her down. "Maybe it's time to call an emergency session with Queen Mother Glacientyr..."

"Maybe, maybe... Something's gotta break, though. If I ever see that four-armed racist or that fucking gecko creature in my lifetime it'll be too soon."

"I doubt you will. What would be the odds? Come on now." Tempest licked her face.

"I guess you're right..."

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"Just for some context, our Suprema is a grade-A one hundred percent batshit crazy all the screws loose fuckwit who likes mind controlling depressed women and turning them into thralls." Tiamat grimaced just as she said that. "She got a friend of ours a while back. Our goddess of love and souls chases after her and frees whoever she can from her control."

"Oh no... She sounds a lot like ours, actually. Well... ours created a series of superhuman demons capable of regenerating their entire bodies if their hearts are left intact. To be fair, even they don't like her and we're good friends with at least five of them." - Queen Diana remarks.

"You mean Candelabra and her siblings?" - Titania asks as she lays down an empty tea cup on the table next to her.

"The very same. It could be possible that they were brought here as well, given the presence of this world's Suprema..." - Queen Diana states with a solemn stare.

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"I have a wife, you know." - Telgard says with a cocky grin.

He peeks at the city ahead with a hand over his forehead.

"The city, huh? We could lose her by then."

As Telgard kneels forward for a dash, he catches faint voices belonging to Adanna and the cloaked man.

"Hey. Do you hear that?" - Telgard remarks as he motions over to Nintendria.

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"You could say that. I'm from the planet of Divixus and we have elemental kingdoms where I live too. Given how there's two different balance kingdoms but the same Glacientyr... I can only conclude that this is a parallel universe to where I live. Damn, and to think this was going to be a boring day." - Candelabra muses as she slams a hand to her forehead.

"Geez, she sure sounds pleasant to be around," Serafina said sarcastically. "And... regenerative super demons... Good thing we don't have any of those here."

"Well, we do have Xers," Dante said. "They're not demons... But I don't know, maybe something like that exists in the depths of hell?"

"At least Shelly's around to keep anything like that locked up."

"Wait, more of you?" Daniel asked. "Then, should we send out a search party? They must be just as confused as you were."

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"Hm?" Nintendria closed his eyes and amplified the sound waves around him. "You must have good hearing in order to pick up..."

His eyes burst open. That voice...! Nintendria took off in a mad dash, boosting himself with whatever velocity enhancing magic he could, towards the city. He nearly ran straight past the crookity old clubhouse where the voices originated. He didn't even bother open the door, and instead burst straight through it, and ran up to the man by the bar.

"S-Sir R-R-Ranthael! I was so worried where did you go we haven't seen you in forever you aren't mad are you Zora was afraid you were mad at her for becoming mortal and then these other people came in from a different dimension where you have rabbit ears and..."

Ranthael teleported away by a few feet and placed an audio suppressant spell onto Nintendria. "Okay, we're going to mute you... I knew it was too risky coming to this place. I'll have to leave before..."

"Wait!" Adanna interjected. "You can't just leave me... with him!"

Ranthael looked to Nintendria, who was still nattering despite being completely muted. "Hm... I guess you're right... And I don't want to bail on this gig..." He summoned a chair and folded Nintendria into it. With a flick of his wrist, an aura appeared around Nintendria's legs below the knees.

"There. Now he won't be able to talk or go anywhere. Well, he can still teleport... if he wants to lose his legs."

"Wow!" Adanna cheered. "That's amazing! How do you know all this?"

"Well, I guess some call me a god... OF THE TURNTABLE!" Ranthael produced two records and spun them above his outstretched arms. "Come on! Let's go lay down some sick beats!"

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Jack was even more confused. "Well, I guess that's not too different from Zora. I mean, she's from a different universe as well... Although she's from a place called Earth, and it sounds pretty different. This Divixus sounds kind of the same... Ah who cares who you are and where you're from, you want to go inside and warm up? It's kind of cold out here..."

"If you suspect there's even more universal transfers, it would be best to start forming search parties. Or at least let the royals of all the kingdoms know, so they can look out for stuff like this." Itsuki said. 

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"....Holy shit." Minuki muttered. "I think going to Glacientyr would be a good idea. I knew you had PTSD, hence why I got you out of there the way I did. But....these dreams. Maybe Jax is right, but maybe you should see a professional. Jax is not a professional, so..."

Minuki grabbed Zora by the arm.

"Come on, Fartswami, we're going to Glacientyr." Minuki said.

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"Yeah, Earth as she explained it was really weird sounding." Jax said. "They didn't even have magic. But at least your world and our world have a lot of common ground. But yeah, let's step inside."

Jax opened the door, motioning Jack and Candy to come inside.

Zora smiled a little, even chuckled at the term 'fartswami'. If there was one thing Minuki could always do really well, it was cheer her up. It was reassuring to have someone care about her like this. Besides sister, of course. She couldn't bother Anya all the time with this stuff. Having friends was nice.

"Sure thing, Dickprince. Let's go..."

"That's the idea. the Queen Mother will know what to do." Tempest nodded sagely.

"I hope so... I want to be normal again. I want to be happy."

"I know, my dear. I know. Would you like to fly, or shall we walk?"

"Let's walk, I think. It's a nice day..."

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"The myths say that she used to be a good person. Goddess of Beauty, far as I know. It was Puritus' corruption that ate away at her sanity, till finally she broke when he cheated on her." Tiamat shrugged. "Might not be the same over there. She sure doesn't have indestructible demons here."

"Of course, that isn't to say that demons should, in general, be painted in a bad light." The woman from before finally spoke. "In Xephixir cosmology, much as the Angels are responsible for being attendees and guards to the gods who hold their permanent residesnce in the realm of Heaven, so too are the demons of Hell to the gods who play a more somber role in the world. But of course, things could be different. They could be very different. I don't pretend to know."

"Alerting other nobles about this would be a good idea. This could be happening everywhere, seeing as lady Diana wound up in a different kingdom." - Titania remarks.

"The Goddess of Beauty... It really is a different world than ours. Our Suprema was the Goddess of Destruction. Based on what I've both read and seen, she was the one who caused a war between Heaven and Hell... just because she could. It took our Ranthael and Puritus combining forces to stop it." - Queen Diana states with a grim tone.

She tips her hat downward with a scowl on her face.

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Telgard notices Nintendria blitz ahead and followed suit. As he goes inside of the clubhouse, he notices the scene with Ranthael and a muted Nintendria strapped to a table.

"... Uh. Well, that's a bit weird even by my standards." - He says with a confused look on his face.

He glances over to Adanna with a shrug.

"I came to apologize on behalf of everybody back in the castle. I'm not normally from around here, but I can tell that wasn't a normal day for them." - He remarks.

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Candelabra nods and follows them into their house. She stretches her arms and sighs.

"Okay, I feel better now that I'm not freezing. So this is your home, right? It's pretty nice." - She says as she looks around.

"Ranthael and Puritus' combined forces, eh?" Dante muttered. "If only our versions of them listened to the ancient proverbial advice of 'Bros before Hoes.'"

"Geez, your Suprema sounds like she's double the pain of ours. Maybe that's why we get two evil gods here, just to even things out," Serafina mused.

"Really? Nothing? I thought I was funny."

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Ranthael glanced over to the new entrant with a deadpan expression. "Wherever your mind is right now, get it out of it."

Adanna ducked her chin into her chest and shrugged. She knew she was supposed to say that she forgave him and the others, but...

Ranthael let out a deep sigh and ran his fingers over his head. "These friends of yours, the ones Adanna was telling me about, having a bit of a rough time, are they?"

Nintendria rocked back and forth on his chair, clearly trying to yell at him.

"Well I know you're not having a good time."

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"Oh, thanks," Jack said, plopping himself down onto an armchair. "Royal family of Nintendria helped pay for it. Said I was dirt poor, being from a corrupted planet and all. Well, sort of true, I got paid off from some odd jobs here and there, but figured it was better to ditch the money since it was kinda... bad money. Gave it to some half-dragon guy and told him to buy booze with it. Wonder what happened to him..."

"Yeah, it's a pretty nice day." Minuki muttered. "Nothing like that humidity I've been hearing about in Magmarne. I mean, damn, it's getting harsh over there. Fuck humidity."

Minuki leaned into Zora.

"Also, eat some chips, you chipfiend."

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"Gods, your Suprema is really a piece of work." Cameron said in disbelief.

Despite her disbelief, she still let a snicker out at Dante's comment.

"Agreed." Itsuki said. "In fact, if I recall legends correctly Puritus didn't just cheat on our Suprema once, but uh.....more than that. A lot more, if legends are to be believed."

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"Yeah, isn't Jack so sweet? Giving away his money like that." Jax sighed contently, "I'm pretty sure he's doing fine. The dragon-guy. I mean, I certainly hope so."

"Fuck it right in its stupid moist sweaty ass." Zora nodded along. "And I mean, this is coming from someone who likes summer and being warm, fuck humidity. I sure do love coming inside from my exercises and leaving literal puddles on the floor and being super gross. Humidity serves no purpose beyond turning me into a stank golem and it's awful."

After a brief pause, she broke out into a fit of giggles. "Oh yeah? Choke on a cake pop, cacklad!"

Tempest sighed and rolled her eyes. "At least it's a distraction."


The group soon crossed the gates signifying the tips of the kingdoms, and began passing by headstones and grave markers. They passed what looked to be a large white mausoleum, and the tower containing the entrance to Ethernealrus soon came into view, as did the gates to the other seven kingdoms. At the Crossroads Tower, Zora stopped and looked in the direction of the Glacientyr gates, from which even from here the tundra was visible.

"Bluh... she's such a nice lady but I hate the cold. Can we stop off at Jax's first? Just to warm up."

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"I can get into contact with Mom back home." Tiamat nodded. "If Angel and Kaze are still off doing 'target practice', and by that I mean they're totally getting handsy, then I can call them up too."

"...handsy?" The older woman asked.

"Yeah, you know. Cannodley. Frisky. They're boning."

"... So you're this universe's Ranthael? Interesting. The one in my universe has longer hair and bunny people as working as his servants." - Telgard says with an amused grin.

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Candelabra walks over to the couch but notices a series of unwashed plates littered around the kitchen sink. She frowns for a bit before rolling back her sleeves and grabbing a sponge.

"Hey, guys. If I'm going to stay here, things need to be clean. Are you okay with this?" - She questions.

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[Theme I would use here: Singing Mountain]

A strong wind brushes past through the forest-topped mountains as two pale-faced women with lavender hair admire the cloud-covered skies from the edge of a cliff.

The first of the women was young and small wearing a lacy black and red dress with a black hat. She holds onto her hat and has a bemused look on her face.

The second is taller, more mature-looking and has a black and blue kimono. She has fox ears and a large bushy tail along with black eyeshadow and markings on her face. She gently floats through the air as she smokes out of a bronze pipe.

"Oh dear. I believe we're lost." - The older kitsune-looking woman remarks with a small frown.

"But the view is really pretty, though. Where do you think we wound up, big sis?" - The younger woman questions as she sits at the edge of the cliff.

"I'm afraid I don't have the slightest clue, Canopy. Mother is going to have a heart attack when she notices we're gone..." - The older woman remarks as she blows out a ring of smoke.

"Maybe we should see if there's a city around here." - Canopy questions as she rocks her legs back and forth.

"Kaze better be getting some action," Serafina grinned. "I'll get to the bottom of her bottom."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, I'll warn her about other dimensional wanderers," Serafina muttered as she pulled out her phone. She went to Kaze's number and typed out "Be on the lookout for strange characters who claim to be from here but not really. Long story. Send them to Nintendria. Or 'Librata.' Same dif.

"P.S. You and Angel get it on yet?"

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"Excuse me?" Ranthael replied. "Y-your Ranthael? Bunny people?"

Nintendria rocked back and forth in his seat to get Ranthael's attention. Ranthael sighed and lifted the muting effect from him.

"Please don't be loud..."

"That's what I came here to tell you about!" Nintendria lied. "This man... Telgard... he's from another universe where you have rabbit ears!"

"That did not clear anything up."

Nintendria took a deep, slow breath, and then spoke again. "There is another universe which is similar to ours. There are eight kingdoms, some of which are similarly named and some aren't. You exist in this other world but are obsessed with rabbits. Telgard and a few others have travelled here from that world but they don't know how they got here."

"...Huh." Ranthael stroked his chin. "More rips in space time I presume... It made some logical sense with Zora's world, but this is concerning... Probably not something I can just ignore..."

"Oh great, you're one of them."

Adanna crossed her arms. "God why is everyone in this city so damn obsessed with this fantasy you created? What God are you supposed to be?"

The two were silent.

"She did hear you call me 'Ranthael', right?" Ranthael whispered to Nintendria. "What corner of the universe did you find her again?"

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"Uh... sure, yeah," Jack said, watching Candelabra starting to wash the dishes. "I mean, thanks I guess." He glanced over to Jax, who didn't seem to approve. He just meekly smiled and shrugged.

"I mean, someone has to do those dishes."

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Teruchi took a deep breath in. He could do this. The technique wasn't difficult, and with wind magic it should be a breeze. He bent his knees and counted. One... two... three!

His body didn't budge. After a moment of realizing that he was too chicken to actually do it, he flopped down onto his back. He looked up at the sky. When he was young, Teruchi could pull off a number of acrobatic moves, backflips included. Then he hit a growth spurt, and practically overnight the distance between him and the ground seemed to double. No more flips for him, at least not without the instinctual fear of landing flat on his head.

Besides, his father wasn't too keen on him spending his time doing "silly things" like practicing for the circus. Not that it was a realistic idea anyway, but running off to join the circus was a lot better idea than running off to a Magmarnian colony in the middle of summer. The only thing he found there was blistering heat, homelessness, and proof that you really shouldn't hook up with the first girl you meet on your travels.

In truth, Teruchi was homesick. Well, he also really wanted to see the festival this year, same thing. That's what got him nostalgic for trying out acrobatics.

At least no one saw me... he thought. How embarrassing would that be? On that note, he glanced over to the edge of the cliff and saw two girls by it. ...shit.