《The New Universes》


 The Void

    Humanity has always had a tendency to think that the tiny area it occupies represents all of existence.


    The original hunter, gatherer tribes believed that their forest was all there was. Similarly the first civilizations that emerged in isolation thought they were alone, then we believed that our world was the only planet in the sky. Even when we discovered there was an entire universe around us, we felt that must surely be the limit? Finally we opened our minds to the possibility that there were other universes, perhaps an infinite number. A multiverse.


    Unfortunately however even the multiverse didn''t prove to be the end. How could it be? If new universes are constantly being created and each universe is expanding, then logically there must be a place they are being created from, and a space that each universe occupies and is expanding into.


    The void as it would come to be known, by those unlucky enough to visit it represents the space outside of all universes and multiverses, and is where they all originate from either directly or indirectly. No one is quite sure how the void functions or if there is yet another space beyond it. For now however it would seem this strange chaotic place represents the limit of our understanding.


    In the void there are no rules or laws of physics as we would know them. It is at a base level, literally nothing. However ironically it is for this very reason that it became the fountain of life.


    Our own universe is governed by laws, as are all other realities, though obviously not all universes have the same laws. In our reality we know that a cat can''t suddenly turn into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, that a building can''t magically pop into existence as it would defy the natural laws. Therefore whilst life is possible in our universe, there are extreme limits on where it can form and what it can be.


    In the void however literally anything goes. There is no cause and effect, no up or down and therefore no limitations on what can and can''t happen. Realities of any kind can just pop in and out of existence. Many of these universes however are not able to form properly. It is known that some universes are brought into existence by the will of the creatures that could exist within them. (Who are able to affect their past due to the lack of linear time in the void.) In some cases that will might be strong enough to bring a whole universe around it into existence properly, in others however, only for a second before it fades again.


    It has to be remembered that the law of cause and effect does not even apply to most universes, never mind something as vast as the void. Again in the void there are no rules and therefore each universe doesn''t even need to have a beginning in the conventional sense as incredible a thought as that might seem.


    Some have even argued that all realities that could potentially exist are present in the void, but as invisible, ghostly apparitions. One of the few travellers to be trapped in the void for a short period of time without any kind of protective suit, the vampire explorer Carlene said that she could feel something constantly tugging at her from all directions. Hands, claws and goodness knows what else. She could even hear screams, some of which she said were aware of their situation, others however sounded more like echoes. Either way she described it as the most terrifying experience of her several hundred year long life.


    If this theory were correct, then it would mean that only a tiny fraction of apparitions in the void are able to actually manifest and become proper universes, whilst others are able to reach a half way point and become ethereal beings. Ethereals as they are known are a step up from the ghostly apparitions, but are still incomplete and according to Carlene they often fade in and out of existence, and are constantly in danger of descending back into apparitions permanently at any point.


    Sometimes ethereal creatures aren''t even aware that they are ethereal, and believe they have always existed, only to get a nasty shock when their world starts to collapse around them. Other times they cling onto life at all costs, but end up being driven insane by the nightmarish state they are trapped in. Some of these ethereal beings have also been known to try and drain the life energy from other members of their kind, or young, vulnerable worlds and realities to stabilize themselves. In some cases this can work, but they often end up becoming twisted caricatures of the creatures they would have been, and the life forms they have drained.


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    Other ethereal beings have been known to try and enter existing realities and become a part of them. This is difficult however as all realities have at least some kind of defense, though those without a higher power are the easiest to infiltrate. In a very few instances these ethereal beings can live in the universe they invade, but in others their presence can end up causing disruption as it is unnatural. Many believe this was the origin of the Devourer, a being that entered our reality billions of years ago. Whatever its origins the Devourer came from not just outside this universe, but our omniverse too. The tear that it created in our reality to get here lead to an endless darkness, that even the most powerful and evil demons and creatures were terrified of.


    Fortunately not all realities come into existence this way. Many universes are created through what is known as a stable time loop. Here a life form, or sometimes a natural phenomenon travels backwards in time to before its universes existence and creates it. These types of universes are ironically often among the most stable.


    Other universes meanwhile simply split off from the original that was created and again are often more stable than the original that birthed them. This type of collection of universes together is known as a multiverse. An Omniverse meanwhile is when several different collections of universes gather together to form essentially a super multiverse. Certain universes may gravitate towards one another for protection. Others meanwhile are created and placed together by what we would call deities.


    Now deities can come in all shapes in sizes in the void. Some are creatures that simply spring into existence. It''s not just universes as we would know them that can emerge from the void. Individuals, single worlds, even landmasses can and do just pop randomly into existence, and in some cases remain so as a totally different type of reality or being than any we could imagine.


    In many instances these singular beings of the void will create other worlds, or realities to inhabit. Other times they may be forced to create them in order to anchor themselves to existence. On some occasions they may simply create them as experiments.


    The creators themselves meanwhile may be vastly powerful beings who don''t belong in any universe, or they may be an ethereal being whose universe doesn''t form, but is able to will itself into existence by absorbing the power of various other ethereal beings until it has not only stablised but developed the power of what we would call a deity itself, and can either create, or even bring other ethereal worlds, beings and whole realities to life and redesign or rewrite them however it sees fit.


    Other deities meanwhile can spring up in universes themselves. Beings as mundane as humans can end up becoming creators if their society advances to the point where it reaches a level 5 civilization, which is able to harness all of the energy in its own universe and create realities of its own.


    Type 5 civilizations are exceedingly rare. In fact none has ever existed in our own multiverse, but again across the endless void. Anything is possible.


    Not all "deities" are interested in creating. Many of them simply want to rule or control existing universes. Not all higher powers are malevolent in this respect however. Many of them can serve as protectors of the universe, worlds, or multiverse''s that they take over from anything else in the void. All universes have natural defenses to some extent. They will all repel something that is unnatural such as an ethereal creature, but there is no denying that those with some kind of higher power are better protected overall.


    Our own multiverse was the creation of a higher power. Whilst it would be wrong to say that the Creator has done well by us, at the same time we can be grateful that our creation was helped along by another being. As difficult as our history which we will be exploring in this series has been. It is still better than being trapped in the nightmarish state of the ethereal creatures.


    We have only scratched the surface of the void. There are universes and gods out there that go well beyond our understanding. The fact that any member of our species has managed to explore the void in any way, is itself almost unbelievable. It''s doubtful any species will ever have a full understanding of the void however. For now it seems to be the limit for all species, but if history has taught us anything, it is to never assume that we are either at the centre of existence, or that we can even begin to understand how insignificant we are.

 The Creation of The Sentenza Omniverse

    The world we live in, is only part of a huge, seemingly never ending puzzle. Just when we think we have reached the limit of creation, and have seemingly worked out our place in it. Another piece comes into play that changes everything. Still that said it would probably come as a shock to most people in the year 2457, to know that the history, nature and the creation of the omniverse our world exists within is understood to a certain extent. Much of it still eludes even the greatest experts, but overall we probably understand its purpose at least about as well as we mere mortals could ever possibly hope too.


    Ultimately however this knowledge is kept from the rest of the world for two reasons. First to prevent the timeline from being changed. The information contained here, will also cover our future and will even help shape it, as well as our past by giving important knowledge to select future history makers. (Who shall be the only ones ever to read this.) All the information about the future comes from the time travellers known as the Circus Family.


    Another reason is that even if we could somehow change history, this information would most likely do more harm than good. In our never ending quest to figure out why we are even here. Humanity has clung to numerous creation myths as a source of comfort to the point that we most likely could not cope with the truth. From the belief of a benevolent creator watching over us, to the idea that we just sprang out of nothingness, and there is no higher purpose than our own destiny. These creation myths give us a hope that our own creator sadly never could, even when he was watching over us. Though that''s not to say that all of our myths were necessarily on the wrong track at least in some of their key ideas. We do have a creator for instance, but again as we will see he is not a being you should ever put your faith in. It would be wrong to call him a complete monster, but ultimately it seems there is no, truly divine being.


    This first section of the history of our omniverse, its creation, and the early life of its creator will be covered here. It should be mentioned that this document will focus largely on our own earth. Naturally we have more information about our planet than any other, but still at the risk of offending our Venusian and Zeta Reticulan friends, our planet has in all fairness often been at the centre of some of the most important events in the history of the omniverse. However at the same time that does not mean we are any more special than other species. Our planet has more been unlucky than anything else with some of the attention it has received.


    As we already explored in the previous chapter. All realities originate within a place called the void, an eternal nothingness. As there are no rules in the void, then anything can potentially happen. Worlds, realities and planes of existence we can''t even comprehend all regularly pop into being within the wasteland of the void through any means.


    Our universe meanwhile, or rather omniverse whilst coming from and existing within the void like all others. Has perhaps a more unconventional origin.


    The story of our plane of existence really begins in another universe within the void, where our creator originated. We still do not know the name of the creator. Whilst many civilisations have given him different names, ultimately this is all we will be referring to him as in this article. Contrary to what many religions and belief systems refer to him as around the world, the creator is not a god. The gods of many religions from the Odin to Yahweh are as much his creations as we are.


    Not much is known about the creators reality. Most of the information about his personal history. At least to us in the 25th century, came from when the Circus Family briefly travelled into the creators mind. (In an effort to heal him after he was wounded by the destroyer, though more on that later.) They saw glimpses of his memories, most of which were too vast even for these travellers. How exactly he was able to devise realities and life forms is something that they could not even begin to comprehend and it most likely will never be understood. Nevertheless the Circus Family were still able to piece together a brief outline of his history. This coupled with the myths that had already been built up around the creator on ours and other worlds around the galaxy that we have had contact with, and our own existing knowledge of the supernatural and other realms. Helped us to create a more complete, though still vague outline of the omniverse.


    According to the Circus Family unlike our reality, there was no space between the worlds of the creators home universe. There were still distinctive worlds, some even with their own rules, but they were all linked together to such an extent you could walk from one to the other.


    Sadly just as in our omniverse, several of the different sentient life forms of this universe came to war with one another over petty differences. Many believe this is why the creator would make the planets in our reality so far apart. Not that, that stopped there from being interplanetary wars.


    This war though beginning with just a few, primitive species eventually spread and engulfed almost all life forms of this universe. Entire cultures and species were destroyed and some worlds were rendered permanently uninhabitable. The being that we would one day know as our creator, (whose species were the most advanced and had tried to keep out of it) sought to bring an end to the wars, by uniting the warring factions under his rule. The creator ultimately triumphed where others of his kind had failed, as he was far more ruthless, utterly dedicated to his cause and a charismatic, powerful leader the soldiers could get behind. Furthermore his desire to effectively conquer these other worlds was framed as simply wanting to help them, to make up for their inaction in the war, which many of their leaders bought into at first. Meanwhile the only reason our future creator was able to conquer this universe in the first place, was because overall it was not as large as even one of our universes. It was at most the size of a few solar systems, with each world, only being half the size of our own. Still to have conquered even that was a truly incredible achievement, that was ironically forgotten in light of what he later accomplished.


    Eventually however the creators empire fell. Whilst it is not clear how exactly, it appears from his own guilt, that the Circus Family could at least feel. The creator was not as benevolent or effective a leader as he had hoped and after the fall of his empire, he was forced to flee his entire universe to escape retribution. Due to how small his universe was, unlike ours, his people had known about the void from very early in their history.


    Still even with that knowledge, there had only been a few expeditions to the void, most of which had been failures, but with no other choice, our creator travelled there in the hopes of finding another reality to hide in. Not long after he entered the void however, the creator''s ship was attacked by creatures known as ethereals.


    As we explored in the article about the void, though universes constantly keep popping into existence in the void through any means necessary. Only a small fraction of them are able to remain stable. Many either fade from existence completely, or degenerate into ethereal worlds and in some cases individual ethereal beings are left behind, trapped in a nightmarish, ghostly state.


    The creator however unlike other explorers to the void before him, realised that the ethereals could be used to benefit him, when one of these creatures broke its way into his ship and tried to possess the creator in order to have some kind of a body. The creators iron will allowed him to fight the creature and effectively absorb it into himself. In doing so he not only gained all its knowledge, of a world that had almost come into existence and other worlds like it. He became much stronger too.


    In time the creator absorbed millions of ethereal creatures into his body, allowing one at a time into his ship at first. The stronger he became however, the more he was able to absorb several hundred, even thousands of ethereals at a time. Eventually he was able to absorb entire ethereal realities, which gave him a power several million times that all of the beings we would later call gods combined.


    This power and knowledge changed his personality to a huge and in many ways catastrophic extent. Most believe that the creator had been driven mad, with the knowledge he absorbed into his mind being too much for any being to take. Some have even argued that a new being was created in his place, who was simply affected by the memories of the old. Still the creator did claim to the few of his creations he trusted, that his epiphany had been caused by seeing the suffering and pain from the ethereal beings and realities he had absorbed. For the first time after feeling their pain, the creator realised the full extent of the horrors he had carried out in his home reality and wanted to make amends. Unfortunately however that did not mean he would try and make it up to his people. On the contrary, he felt that as their war would never end. (Indeed since he left, the war had continued on to an even greater extent.) It was better to destroy his reality now, rather than allow them to suffer for centuries more until they inevitably killed themselves off. The creator had contemplated changing them to be completely different life forms, but he felt that would be no different to killing them, and he also worried given how inherently violent his people seemed. Any trace of their old selves could lead to corruption, and so he completely destroyed his entire home universe in an instant.


    Following the destruction of his old people, the creator developed his first multiverse, that one day would become the original part of our omniverse. Whilst it has gone by many names. Our omniverse is usually referred to as both the Omega omniverse and simply Sentenza. The former name was given to us by inhabitants of the Alpha omniverse who visited our reality first, whilst the latter was what the creator referred to the omniverse as. Apparently Sentenza is a word from his language, though no one is quite sure what it means. It has been suggested to be children, home, redemption, or rebirth.


    The first multiverse of Sentenza meanwhile was known as the heavenly realm. In this context realm is simply another word for multiverse. In total the heavenly realm contained several hundred thousand universes, all of which were similar to ours in some respects. They all had planets, a space between them, and stars. However unlike our reality, the space was white, whilst the stars were blue. The heavenly realm also had different natural laws, to either our reality, or even the creators.


    All of the native life forms within the heavenly realm are referred to collectively as angels and all of the worlds they lived in, from their perspective were paradise planets. The landscapes of each planet of the heavenly realm tailored themselves to fit each angels wishes to some extent. Angels were also compelled towards acts of benevolence too.


    The creator hoped the heavenly realm would be his perfect world, where suffering and hatred had no place, and he hoped in time that the angels could convince other life forms in other worlds throughout the void that there was another way. He did not wish for them to conquer other worlds of course, but simply show them what could be accomplished if they worked together and provided help if they wanted it. (Any worlds that were beyond redemption, the creator would destroy just like he had done his own.) The creator even hoped that the angels could help the ethereals find a way to exist too.


    Sadly however whilst the angels in their early days were able to help some other universes and realities outside of their own in the void. Eventually some of the angels became corrupted by the power they had over other life forms, as the creator naturally made the angels strong enough to defend themselves and granted them immortality. The creator however had seemingly prepared for the angels corruption, not only through in his mind eliminating it from their bodies, but by putting in a fail safe for any angel that still found a way to go against its nature. This fail safe wouldn''t kill an angel. Instead it twisted its form until the angel became a creature known as a devil. (These hideous abominations were then imprisoned within the lowest layers of the heavenly realm, in the hopes that they could one day be rehabilitated. Devils are not to be confused with demons who we will be exploring in greater detail later.)


    The creator was shocked and horrified that his seemingly perfect children were beginning to fall into the same trap that his own kind had, as more and more devils were born in each generation.


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    Eventually the creator came to see the angels as a failure. He believed that his mistake was in eliminating the concept of evil from their minds, meaning that when they were tested, (such as meeting less powerful life forms in other universes that they could exploit.) They had no strength to fight against it, or even recognise what it was. In their minds because they had always been told they were benevolent, then anything they did seemed kind and righteous even if it obviously wasn''t.


    Rather than destroy the heavenly realm however, whose inhabitants he still believed were greater than his own people. (Though that may have more been ego than anything else.) The creator devised another multiverse, known as the godly realm who could teach the angels and others the concept of evil and how to avoid it. Now this realm was connected to the heavenly realm. Travel between any universe within the heavenly or godly realms was possible, if a little difficult. It certainly required less than travelling from any universe in either the heavenly or godly realm to another reality in the void. (Something both the gods and angels were only able to accomplish this with the creators help.)


    The godly realm again had planets with stars, and a space between the worlds. The space however was purple, whilst the stars were green. All of the native life forms naturally were referred to collectively as gods, and they all possessed much greater power on average than the angels.


    Gods unlike angels had a concept of right and wrong, and the creator hoped that they would eventually choose right. He did somewhat guide them however, by giving the gods a desire to satisfy their own pleasures above the angels. The greatest pleasure for a god is the satisfaction from helping others, but unfortunately many gods misinterpreted this as worship and would do anything they could to obtain that. Other gods meanwhile believed they could derive just as much pleasure from other pursuits and became hedonists. Sadly however nothing could ever satisfy them as much as helping others, and the hedonistic gods often over indulged to an insane extent to try and get that same sense of pleasure. The creator also gave the gods the power to control the world around them, hoping that with this they would be forced to work together, and whilst that did happen in many instances. Sadly some gods through various means were able to gain power over other members of their kind too. Wars were fought, and whilst just as many benevolent gods as evil gods existed. The creator still regarded them as a failure, and worked to try and build another realm.


    The natural realm as it came to be known, was bigger than either the godly or heavenly realms. Both only had a few thousand universes each, whilst this realm had several million. The natural realm is the multiverse our reality belongs too. All of its creatures from humans to dinosaurs to any alien life such as our Zeta Reticulan friends are referred to collectively as naturals. As we know our universe and all others in the natural realm that have been explored are bound by very strict laws. All of the creatures have natural life spans, and all of them reproduce to continue their species, unlike angels and gods who simply create other members of their kind when they want. (Though even then they have to run it by other members of their kind first.) The creator had removed mortality from the angels and the gods because he felt that death was cruel, wasteful and unnecessary, (though only for his own children. Hypocritically he had no problem in dishing it out to unworthy life forms in the past.)


    Still after seeing the failures of the gods and angels he came to believe that it was necessary for progress. Only once one generation had passed and its mistakes were known by a new generation with a new outlook, could a race truly move on. Also he felt the fear of death motivated life forms to make the most of the time they had. Furthermore whilst there are more universes in the natural realm, they are finite too. Each universe it is believed has a life span of several hundred trillion years (though even then it can be hard to determine, as what may seem like the end of the universe for us, is merely it going through another phase of its natural life cycle to allow different kinds of life forms to exist.) Still all natural universes do eventually die, after which they are replaced by another universe and on and on the cycle goes. All universes in the natural realm run parallel to each other and all die and are replaced at the same time. This would prove a problem for our universe, as the survivors of the previous universe before ours survived its destruction and attempted to reconstruct our universe to suit them. As they had evolved from a different phase of their universe''s life cycle, then the first stage of our universe was not habitable for their kind.


    Unfortunately for these creatures however, time travellers from our universe'' future arrived to stop them, in order to ensure that their version of events could happen. These time travellers were led by the heroic vampire scientist/wizard, Professor Fang. This war, known as the battle for creation endured for many centuries before the time travellers won. It included time travellers from other realities and even realms, whose history would also have been affected had the creatures from the before universe won.


    The natives of the natural realm meanwhile, or naturals are all driven purely by a desire to survive above any inherent morality. Their bodies in contrast to the gods are also forced to adapt to the environment around them.


    The creator was giving the natural creatures a much harder life than those of his previous two children, but he was desperate. His own world, and now both of his creations had succumbed in some ways to evil, as had even many of the ethereal worlds. He was for the first time overcome with some regret at destroying his people and the other worlds he had cast judgement over. He realised that his people were not evil like he had assumed. They were no worse than any other species it seemed as all were capable of evil no matter how pure he tried to make them. The creator now even began to wonder if evil was stronger than good, and if he should just give into the evil inside him. The natural realm was an experiment to prove that good was greater than evil, with the creator hoping that the naturals, who were forced into a desperate existence would choose good over evil and work together to overcome their hardships.


    It should be noted that whilst the natural realm was certainly not as hospitable for its natives as either the heavenly or hellish realms. The creator did include a powerful force within it, that we would come to know as magic, which if accessed, could allow natural creatures to overcome the problems of their own realm.


    Sadly however the naturals were another disappointment. Like gods and angels there were just as many ruthless as empathetic natural creatures. There were just as many who wiped themselves out over the pettiest of differences, as those who bandied together in hard times.


    Following the failure of the natural realm. The creator who by this point had been pushed to his limit, but still did not want to give completely into evil. Devised another realm of darkness, horror and fear that would come to be known as the hellish realm.


    This multiverse, which was comparable in size to the heavenly and godly realms followed the same basic structure as the others, in that there was a space between worlds and stars. Though the space was red, and the stars black. However its laws were very different and its creatures, who were referred to collectively as demons, were all drawn towards acts of malevolence.


    The hellish realm was an even more hostile environment to its natives than the natural realm. Each planet had a molten core of a dark energy known as daimonac, that every few thousand years created hundreds of new demon species. Like naturals most demons reproduced, however like both gods and angels many of them were immortal, or at least had extended life spans, meaning that the new generations were forced to kill their forebears in order to survive. Some demons however instead fled to the natural realm. Demons on average were far stronger than the majority of natural creatures making the latter easy meat, though naturals could not only defend themselves with magic, but numerous natural elements on planets could also act as poison to demons. Examples of this include wood and the rays of certain stars such as our sun being able to kill vampires, or silver being able to kill werewolves.


    The creator hoped with the hellish realm to prove that whilst evil will always find a way to poison even the most perfect societies. At the same time even the most evil creatures such as demons can find redemption.


    Sure enough many demons were able to fight their urges and become decent, kind, even heroic creatures. Overall just as many demons became benevolent as angels became devils.


    Ironically the hellish realm in this respect could be considered the creators most successful experiment. It was certainly the only one where he got the results he desired.


    Nevertheless the creator was still unhappy as he was not sure if good was truly stronger than evil. All he had proven was that they were as strong as each other, and so he decided to conduct one final experiment with the realms he had already created.


    The creator gave a select group of demons vast power beyond all the gods and angels, to see if they could overcome the forces of good.


    The leader of these elite demons was Khastran, who according to legend was the first demon ever to exist in the hellish realm. He was also judged to be the most evil creature in any universe the creator had either originated or visited.


    Khastran and his vile horde destroyed thousands of universes and an incalculable number of planets before he was eventually slain by an alliance of angels, gods and natural creatures. Even then however Khastran only lost because one of his own minions, another member of his species known as Drasak, betrayed him. Even the demons were both disgusted at, as well as victims of Khastran''s cruelty.


    The creator was satisfied with the results of this experiment. He believed that it proved that good would always triumph over evil for the simple reason that evil will eventually destroy itself. Khastran, despite being more powerful than any individual god or angel, still lost because they were able to work together, whilst his cruelty turned his own kind against him.


    Following this the creator, now accepting that evil would always remain but never completely dominate, not only allowed his previous realms to continue existing. He created many more all of which would be attached to his original four realms, forming our omniverse. He did so out of both curiosity, and in his own mind to make up for the destruction of his and other people by creating more life. He tried to bring back the other worlds he had destroyed, but sadly that was beyond even his powers. He did however provide help to other worlds in the void and in this period he also took part, along with many other powerful life forms and advanced civilisations in the void in creating what we would come to know as the Great Beyond. This reality, which is not part of any omniverse, is nevertheless said to act as the afterlife for ours and multiple other realities. It also creates multiple copies of itself which act as afterlife''s for potentially all realities in the void. Some argue that even ethereals are sent there. The Great Beyond is referred to as such because it not only represents the final phase of life, but it is also completely unknown to us. Only very few people''s souls have returned from it with any kind of memory of the experience, and even those who do, only have vague flashes. They have all described it as peaceful however, and it seems that the creator after playing a part in developing it, felt he had achieved some kind of redemption. In fact he ironically became somewhat callous after this point in how he treated his life forms. IE being willing to create more realms like the natural and hellish realm that could be quite hostile to other life forms. Not to hurt them, but just out of curiosity. Many believe that he was more willing to do this as he knew that they would be sent to a happy afterlife for all eternity, with their difficult lives in his realms therefore only being a miniscule part of their existence. Still whilst the Great Beyond is the end destination for all life forms, as we will see, sadly there are some instances where souls can be diverted from it and even destroyed. (Even then however it is believed by some cultures that a destroyed soul will still reform in the Great Beyond, though there is currently no proof for this.)


    Among the other realms the creator devised during this period, included the aqua realm, where the space between worlds was an ocean filled with creatures (and where each planet had no water of its own.) The savage realm where all the creatures were compelled to hunt one another, and were referred to collectively as beasts, and finally a realm where magic was the dominant force.


    The creator generally did not interfere in the affairs of these worlds, as he genuinely wanted to see how the life he started would develop. Despite his power, the creator was not omnipotent and did not in fact control any life forms in his omniverse. Whilst he could create environments where life could develop and certainly influence life. Even he could be surprised by the forms it could take.


    Drasak meanwhile took over as the king of the hellish realm, with he and Khastran''s race, the hideous kardons still being at the top of the hierarchy in hell. Drasak proved to be an effective leader. Whilst cruel and sadistic, he did not believe in Demon supremacy, and never made any attempts to try and conquer the other realms like Khastran did. (To be fair Khastran never really believed in demonic supremacy either. He simply used it as propaganda to satisfy his own insane lust for power and sadism.)


    The new king of the hellish realm believed in the natural order and was happy for his demons to attack other realms, but never really offered any protection for them unless it suited his own interests. He viewed demons vs other life forms as a fair fight.


    Overall Drasak was more beloved by demons than Khastran, as they had more free will under his rule, being able to indulge in any of their twisted urges and desires, rather than Khastran''s war.


    Sadly however there were still Khastran loyalists who believed in demonic supremacy. 66 million years ago, the last of these Khastran loyalists attempted to revive their fallen ruler at the sight of his death, which was in our universe. In the next chapter we will explore how Khastran''s resurrection would devastate our planet and lead to the creation of humanities greatest adversary. The Vampire.

 The Birth of The Vampire

    Traces of Khastran''s spirit had survived his demise. Not enough to reform on their own, but with help from his few remaining demon followers and their powerful dark magics. Khastran''s soul was restored. Before his followers could revive his body (which they most likely would not have been able to do, at least not as it was without the creator.) Drasak, detecting the rise of Khastran''s unique spirit intervened. All of Khastran''s followers were slain in the battle, but Khastran''s demonic soul still managed to flee across the universe until he eventually reached our planet. Earth. This was no chance meeting however.


    Khastran had a history with out planet. He first visited it over 1 billion years ago, in a period of our history that is completely lost from the fossil record. The period in question spans over 1 billion years, and it is known during that time that a race of amphibian creatures called esquilons, completely unrelated to all life on the planet in our time were the dominant creatures. The akinsas meanwhile were the dominant life forms out of the esquilons and built a massive, thriving civilisation. Sadly its history is unknown. We are only aware that they exist at all because one of them became a member of the Circus Family, though he understandably wasn''t eager to discuss what became of his people.


    All esquilons were driven to extinction by Khastran. In fact the demon killed all life on the planet at that point and sterilised its surface. In spite of this other life forms did develop several 100 million years later. Single celled amoeba from which all life as we know it on earth today from mammals, to reptiles, to insects evolved. This amoeba however only appeared through completely unrelated means. Again one incarnation of the Circus Family travelling back and seeding the earth with these simple one celled life forms. The reason Khastran destroyed our world in particular beyond his usual cruelty, was actually because one of his former, treacherous minions had stumbled upon the planet and hoped to turn its people into an army against him.


    Still whilst Khastran killed all life on the planet. He did not destroy it completely as he would normally do. He sensed that it had a unique magical structure that could prove useful to him in the future. This had also been why his minion had used the earth too. Our world was somewhat unique in the universe in that it contained the magic from several different worlds. There are two kinds of magic in each natural universe. Universal magic that runs throughout each universe itself, and magic that is unique to each world.


    In the case of the earth meanwhile, it was created from two planets that fused together 4.5 billion years ago. One of these two worlds, known as theia was populated by a highly advanced race of wizards who attempted to prevent the collision which obviously was unsuccessful, or else we wouldn''t be here to write about it. Whilst the theians were tragically killed off, their spell did work in the sense that it preserved the magics rather than people of their world after the collision, which then merged with the magic of the the planet it had collided with, to create something seemingly unique in at least our universe. (Whilst other planets have collided, normally the magic of both worlds dies and is replaced by that of a new world.)


    Furthermore the theians spell would slowly but surely over the history of the earth draw in and preserve magic from dead planets across the universe. Normally when a world dies, its magics may linger on for a short while after before fading into the universe at large, but the earth now acted like a magnet, drawing these dead world magics in thanks to the theians preservative spell acting in a similar unintended way for these other worlds.


    Whilst this gave our people a wider and more powerful range of magics to utilise. At certain points this also spelled disaster for the earth. Magic evolves, just like natural organisms. (Though certain ancient spells can be preserved through rituals and enchantments.) Sometimes the magics from different planets in the earth could evolve in a way that was hostile to one another. Most of the time this simply resulted in the magics of the earth being unstable, but in some cases it could lead to abnormalities and in others it could lead to widespread disaster. The worst example of this was the Great Dying, an extinction event which killed off up to 90 percent of life on our planet in the Permian era over 200 million years ago. This was caused by two planets magics pulling at each other under the surface of the earth, which very nearly tore the planet apart. Among the casualties of the Great Dying, were the synapsids, a gigantic race of reptiles who had ruled the earth for millions of years. One group of synapsids did survive however, the cynodonts who several million years after the great dying, evolved into the first mammals, though even then our ancestors were suppressed by a group of reptiles known as the dinosaurs who took over after the great dying and ruled the earth for over 170 million years.


    Khastran remembered our planet 1 billion years later when his soul was desperate, and hoped to use the unique magics of the earth to help restore his body.


    Thankfully for the rest of the creation, even the powerful magics of the earth were not enough to restore Khastran completely, but he still used them to not only possess a dead Tyrannosaurus Rex, but mutate and twist its body to become strong enough to hold his essence. In this new Tyrannosaurus Rex body (which Khastran kept from now on.) He wasn''t even half as powerful as before, but was still stronger than any other demon and strong enough to take on any god.


    The first thing Khastran did in his Tyrannosaur body was to kill off most of the dinosaurs on earth. The few he spared, the vile demon transformed into his new army of hellbeasts which he took to the stars to corrupt more creatures into being part of his ever growing army to take back the Hellish realm. Ironically however had it not been for Khastran, then humanity would never have existed as it was only through his slaughter of the dinosaurs, that mammals had a chance to take over and humanity evolve in the first place.


    Still whilst the dinosaurs were driven to extinction on earth by Khastran, they survived on several other planets around the universe. Many centuries prior to Khastran''s visit to our world. A race of aliens known as the Raskians had abducted several dinosaurs in order to use them in battle. The Raskians, who originated in the solar system just outside of ours, were caught in the middle of a civil war. Having discovered alien life in our system, the more dominant side of the war were able to use mind controlled dinosaurs such as the infamous Tyrannosaurus Rex to slaughter their enemies.


    Following this the winners of the war expanded and created colonies on numerous other worlds, some of which they inhabited, others they transformed into breeding ground for dinosaurs, who they still utilised for a variety of means. Among the breeding grounds they used for dinosaurs included Venus, which at that point in its history was inhabited by nothing more than amphibian creatures, which the dinosaurs came to dominate.(Much like they did to the mammals on earth.)


    Tragically the Raskians home planet was also destroyed by Khastran after he took to the stars again, ironically in his Tyrannosaur body. A few isolated colonies, including Venus did survive however simply because Khastran overlooked them in his quest to find more advanced planets to take over. Whilst he had been happy to use the dinosaurs at first, he now wanted intelligent species who could build him magical weapons.


    The dinosaurs on these few surviving remote Raskian colonies continued to flourish and evolve into new forms over the course of the next 66 million years. On Venus, a race of highly intelligent dinosaurs eventually emerged who mastered magic rather than science. These dinosaurs understandably grew scared of the universe after witnessing several disasters and invasions of earth and the death of mars, and created a magical barrier around Venus to protect it from invaders. This barrier not only protected Venus physically however, it also created an illusion that Venus was an inhospitable planet to any life form that came near. This even fooled humanity for centuries into thinking that Venus was a gas giant. We later discovered the truth of course in the 23rd century, though we will cover that later.


    The creator meanwhile was devastated by Khastran''s survival. Even he had underestimated his power, and as the demon destroyed countless more worlds beyond earth and Raskia with a renewed vigor. The creator finally decided to stamp out evil throughout the omniverse. (By this stage he had created thousands of realms, all of which were linked. Again whilst travel was easier between universes that existed within realms. It was still possible to travel to any reality within this omniverse from another.)


    The creator believed that the only way he could eliminate evil is if the darkness was removed from himself. He did not think this would make him vulnerable like the angels, as unlike them he had experienced and committed evil both before and after he became the creator, and therefore could know how to avoid it.


    Sadly however the creator underestimated his own power. When he tried to remove the corruption from his body, it instead formed into a new being (due to having been created from the remains of ethereals who the creator thought were long dead.) The ethereals will to survive ultimately remained strong enough even within the creator after all these billions of years, to form a new entity from the darkness he removed. One of equal power to the creator, yet with none of his positive qualities. This entity came to be known as the destroyer. It and the new, completely benevolent creator were subsequently locked within a war for millions of years. The creator did his best to take the battle outside of the ominverse to protect his children, but sadly in the void the destroyer created his own realm of hideous abominations that were known as monsters. Much like the word demon or beast. Monster in the modern world has come to refer to any cruel, twisted or unnatural creature. I myself have regularly used it in such a way, and I apologise for any confusion. In its correct sense however, monster refers to any creature born within the destroyers, single isolated realm which is not part of the creators omniverse.


    The sole purpose of monsters was to destroy all life within our omniverse. At first the creator rallied his creations together to battle them, whilst he took on their father (who had built a protective force field around his single realm, that even the creator couldn''t enter.)


    The creator however, sick at having to sacrifice his creations in a pointless war, and curb their development. Devised a new realm within the omniverse, with a new race of life forms whose sole purpose was to fight the monsters. These creatures were christened goblins. The goblin realm was still part of the Omega or Sentenza omniverse, but travel from it to any other part of the omniverse was considerably easier, as was travel to the void too. The creator felt guilt at creating a race to battle against the monsters, but he had no choice. He needed help and a race of automatons could never hope to outwit living, thinking creatures like monsters. At the very least by creating a race who had no purpose other than to fight they would not know that there was any alternative like his other creations.


    Ultimately however even some of the goblins broke free from the creators conditioning, in much the same way as some angels turned to the dark side, and some demons became benevolent. These goblins deserted the army and became outlaws, travelling the omniverse, sampling whatever they could to satisfy their own hedonistic urges. The influence of these renegades ironically led to goblins being seen as greedy and selfish creatures in early earth legends and folklore.


    Whilst the war between the creator and the destroyer, and the goblins and monsters waged on. The rest of the omniverse was able to seemingly continue functioning. In secret however, the destroyer was preparing another weapon. The mystic realm.


    The destroyer for all his arrogance knew that it was a possibility that he might die, and so he created a back up plan to create another member of his kind so to speak. The mystic realm, was pure power, that was designed to latch itself onto the first truly sentient creature that entered it and make them as powerful as either the creator or the destroyer. The destroyer couldn''t simply travel into the omniverse and pick a successor as the creator would know instantly. Whilst neither were omnipotent, both could sense each other, especially within the omniverse. Instead by connecting the mystic realm to the omniverse from outside, the Destroyer could avoid detection for a short period. Furthermore once the mystic realm had time to latch itself onto the omniverse then removing it would risk unravelling the entire sentenza omniverse itself.


    Whilst there was always the possibility that a benevolent creature could enter the mystic realm, the destroyer believed that power of that kind would ultimately corrupt any being, leading to another creature like him eventually.


    Still in spite of this, the destroyer did attempt to ensure that Khastran would gain this power and placed the only portal to the mystic realm in the earth. Khastran who was still connected to the earth as he was still possessing a Tyrannosaurus, an earth creature, instantly sensed the presence of the mystic realm. He was also able to sense it above even the strongest wizard on earth, due to his power.


    It took the destroyer many years to construct the mystic realm, though this was also partly due to the war.


    It was finally ready during a period of earth''s history known as the age of magic. After the death of the dinosaurs on earth, mammals emerged to become the dominant land vertebrates and human beings eventually evolved from primitive primates.


    Early man then discovered tools, which later led to the discovery of primitive magics too, which they ultimately used to defeat their rivals the Neanderthals, after the latter had almost driven humanity to extinction and end the ice age. Over the ensuing centuries, humanity''s use of magic transformed the earth into a magical world.


    It is possible through repeated over exposure to certain strains of magic to rewrite the natural laws completely, transforming natural creatures into magical creatures. The magical counterparts of humans are known as wizards, whilst the magical counterparts to dinosaurs are dragons. Witches and warlocks meanwhile are merely people who use magic, but have not let it transform them completely yet.


    The age of magic is still an elusive and mysterious time for us. Some of the few records that exist from that period, paint it as a paradise, and it''s obvious that humanity was incredibly advanced. In some respects more so than we are even now. The civilisation of magic was able to build incredible crafts that could travel through space, and even discovered the secrets of time travel. Hundreds of thousands of years later, the vandals used the left overs of these spells, to construct the Circus Family''s Tent, but more on that later.


    Still at the same time many of the darkest curses and magics also came from this time, suggesting that it wasn''t quite as rosey as the few documents have made it out to be.


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    Whatever the truth, the age of magic came to an end when Khastran and his vile horde of demons invaded the earth. Wanting to see what the new power he sensed was, Khastran and his horde were merciless in their treatment of humanity. They exterminated most of the population, but kept a few thousand alive to torture and experiment on for their own amusement whilst Khastran investigated the earth.


    Khastran attempted to keep his investigation of the earth a secret, but soon one of his agents betrayed him to Drasak. Since his resurrection, Khastran had managed to reclaim half of the Hellish realm, whilst Drasak ruled over the other section. The only reason that Khastran wasn''t able to claim all of it, was because Drasak had help from numerous other realms that did not want Khastran to return to power. Outside of his base due to the vast amount of enemies had, even Khastran was vulnerable, but the vile creatures greed and desire for power overran his better instincts. After his location on the earth was exposed, a horde of demons, angels, gods and creatures from other realms attacked our world to try and finally finish Khastran.


    Drasak himself took part in the final battle. Hoping to strike the killing blow and finish his sworn enemy, and whilst Drasak was able to infiltrate the earth and confront Khastran. Their battle ultimately resulted in Drasark''s death. Khastran tore his rivals body and soul to pieces, scattering his physical remains across the earth.


    Whilst Drasak was denied of his chance for revenge. His final actions did at least distract Khastran long enough for the gods and the angels to infiltrate Khastran''s defenses.


    A battle was fought and whilst thousands of angels and gods would die, in the end Khastran was mortally wounded by his enemies. Knowing that there was no way he could escape back to his base. Khastran hid in a cave, where he hoped to ensure a means for his eventual revival.


    With the aid of his humans servants, Khastran sought to create a new species of demons that could bring him back at a later date after the gods and angels had left. Khastrans human servants were made up of the most twisted and evil people on earth who Khastran had spared (and who had to prove themselves to him. It''s not known what they had to do in order to accomplish that, but it''s probably for the best that we don''t know.)


    Khastran''s first attempt to create a new race of demons were the Turok Han, who though powerful, were savage creatures incapable of much higher thought. Khastran needed a race that could infiltrate humanity, and survive long enough to bring him back centuries from now.


    His next attempt saw Khastran create a book made from his flesh and inked in his own blood. Each page of this book, (which would simply be known as the book of Khastran.) Could transform a human into the first of a new race of blood drinking demons, who could then turn other humans into members of their kind. When these demons, the children of Khastran outnumbered humanity, the dominant natural creatures of the earth. Then Khastran would live again.


    The children of Khastran later became known to us as vampires, and they would be overall the most evil and persistent predators of humanity.


    After creating the book, Khastran also devised a small pocket dimension, which would only come into being over hundreds of years. (If it came into being now then the angels and gods would have surely sensed and destroyed it before it could permanently fuse itself to the earth.) This pocket dimension acted as an afterlife to the vampires, with all of their souls being sent there after death. This way if the vampire race were ever all exterminated, their souls could theoretically be brought back from this dimension. A vampires soul was only sent here if they had died on earth however. Finally Khastran also created demonic wolf creatures, zoltans whose job was to serve the vampires.


    After leaving the Book of Khastran with his vile human servants, Khastran went to face the army of angels, gods and demons who had been searching for him, (and had no idea about the creation of his children.) He took down hundreds of his enemies in his death throes, before the army finally destroyed both Khastrans Tyrannosaur body and his soul.


    After the demons destruction, the gods and angels returned to their own realms, whilst the hellish realm was thrown into chaos as many demons tried to claim Khastran and Daskaran''s throne. None of them were able to command the same power that either of these two demons had. Most of Khastran''s species, the kardons were killed off in their war too, though a small section that had become Khastran''s favourite soldiers were imprisoned deep within the earths core. They were trapped there by the warrior god, Astuke, who had accidentally botched the only weapon capable of killing these abominations and instead use its power to seal them deep in earth''s core.


    In the years after Khastran''s death, his cult created the first vampires from the survivors of the humanity. The earth had been left mostly barren by Khastran and his horde. Almost all magic had been drained from the earth, and there were only a couple of thousand humans, scattered across the planet into small communities, barely surviving. Just before his battle with Drasak, Khastran had figured out what the mystic realm really was. He hoped that when his vampiric children would revive him, he could then access it and not only rule over the entire omniverse, but absorb both the creator and the destroyer and other ethereal realities in the hopes of conquering and tormenting any world or universe that emerged from the void. The destroyer was aware of this, but didn''t care. As long as chaos and suffering infested the void that was all that mattered. That is assuming he didn''t kill the creator anyway after which he would simply destroy the omniverse and carry on his war against all life. Either way he won.


    This period of earth''s history after Khastran''s attack are known simply as the Lost Years. Aside from vampires, it saw the creation of many demonic races and creatures that continue to plague humanity to this day.


    The vampires sworn enemies the vandals were also created during this time. Ironically by the last survivor of the cult of Khastran. Initially this cult (who were granted immortality by Khastran, but not turned into demons) commanded and guided the vampires as they were supposed too, but sadly being Khastran''s children. It didn''t take long for the first vampires to turn on and slaughter the cult of Khastran, and use the book for themselves. For a while the vampires were able to work together to some extent and built a giant city in the wasteland of the earth. Ultimately however their treachery saw them turn on each other, which they would always do in some way or another and the book whilst indestructable to all forces on earth, subsequently fell into numerous different powers and individuals hands over the course of human history, which led to the creation of vampire species all over the world.


    The last of the cult meanwhile, known as Makensiac, vowed revenge on the vampires for their betrayal and searched for any way to destroy them. He eventually found it in the last piece of Dasarak. A tiny fragment of the former demon kings arm that had been scattered just below the remains of a mountain had endured. It had become a hot spot as a result for demons, but Makensiac, having witnessed the creation of the book of Khastran, applied a similar process, albeit crudely to create a similar book from Drasak''s flesh.


    Just like the book of Khastran, each page of the book of Drasak could transform a human into the first of a new species of demon, one which was able to devour the souls of its victims using its claws. These clawed soul devourers came to be known as vandals. They were similar to vampires in many respects, as after all Khastran and Drasak did belong to the same species. Like vampires the first of each species of vandal could transform others into members of their own kind, allowing their species to spread at a similar rate. Again however this book was crude when compared with Khastran''s. It was not indestructible like his book, and no matter how many vandals were created, Dasarak could not live again.


    Still at the very least this rival race of demons battled with the vampires throughout the remainder of human history. Whilst their creator Makensiac fed the vandals propaganda that the vampires were their enemies, their hatred for vampires endured even after the vampires found and killed Makensiac and largely airbrushed him from history. Their hatred of vampires was actually instinctive. It stemmed from their fathers Khastran and Drasak feud which had lasted for over 66 million years. Vandals and vampires who knew nothing about their history or creators, were still be driven to murder each other.


    Aside from vampires and vandals, werewolves were also created during this period. These demonic/wolf hybrids were the descendants of a race of ancient demons known as the lycans. Along with the kardons, lycans were among those the creator granted incredible power too for his final test between good and evil. (Though they were not anywhere near as strong as Khastran.)


    The lycans were simple beasts in terms of intelligence, though they still possessed a savagery and sadism unknown to any animal. They were Khastran''s favourite pets. Really they were the only creatures that he didn''t treat with cruelty. It has been speculated that he admired their simplicity and viciousness, but whatever the reason, the lycans were among those who remained loyal to him throughout Dasark''s entire rule. Their leader, or rather alpha, Hysken, even died on the earth defending Khastran. Hysken''s spirit however survived, unknown to the gods, though it still remained dormant for many centuries after Khastran''s death. In the Lost Years however, Hysken''s spirit was finally revived by a warlock named Darok. Magic had slowly begun to grow back since Khastran''s invasion, though only the most skilled could harness it in its current state. Darok meanwhile initially used his magic to battle the demons that were slowly infesting the earth which turned him from a simple farmer whose village was constantly under attack to a hero overnight. It wasn''t just vampires and vandals humanity had to deal with, but other demon species of various kinds left over from Khastran''s war. Furthermore many demon followers had arrived here in an attempt to try and resurrect Dasark, just to keep order, whilst others had arrived to visit the site of the legendary Khastran''s death.


    In time however Darok found a way to control certain strains of daimonac, which granted him power over demons like no other warlock before him. Sadly however this in turn slowly led to Darok''s corruption. He summoned an army of demons to gain power over many of the smaller villagers, believing that it was his destiny to unite both demons and humans together under his benevolent rule. Instead he united them in hatred against him and after losing his army and power, Darok retreated to the site of Hysken''s death. The area thanks to the lycans spirit had become another hot spot for demons, but Darok in his insane lust for power attempted to harness the dark energy there. (Being unaware that it was Hysken''s spirit.)


    Hysken awoke and subsequently possessed one of the wolves in a nearby forest, simply because it was the nearest body in Darok''s base where he conducted the ritual.


    Dazed and confused in this new wolf body, Hysken slaughtered his way through the woods, wounding Darok, before the warlock was finally able to put his soul to rest once more. (In the body of the wolf, Hysken was a mere shell of his former self both physically and mentally.)


    Unfortunately however, the wound Hysken inflicted on Darok infected him. Lycans had a special kind of poison in their claws and teeth called lycanthrophy, which could poison virtually any other supernatural creature, from other demons, to gods to angels. The only creatures that were immune to it were the kardons (and those they created such as vampires, vandals and later ghouls.)


    Lycanthropy however had a different effect on natural creatures and instead transformed them into similar, albeit less powerful lycans.


    The combination of Hysken''s spirit, mixed in with his new wolf body created a new strain of lycanthropy however, wherein Darok transformed into a hideous wolf/lycan hybrid. A werewolf.


    Darok whilst unable to cure the curse of lycanthropy, still limited its influence over him. The only reason he was able to do that was because the lycanthrophy had been diluted with wolf blood, and Hysken was weaker at the time too. Darok''s magic ensured that he only transformed into the lycan/wolf form on the night of the full moon, as well as all other nights in the week it came, as he had been bitten on the night of the full moon. (Having attempted to use its powers for his spell. The moon like any planetary body contains its own magics which can shine on the earth and be used by witches, demons and all manner of creatures for their own ends.)


    In this wolf form Darok had no control however, and become a complete monster. Whilst even Darok tried to restrain himself, sadly his attempts at restraint failed. In his wolf form, Darok subsequently infected more people and spread this new demonic curse through humanity.


    Still Darok constantly tried to find a way to cure himself, and whilst he never succeeded. He did find a way to control the wolf to the point where he could not only change whenever he wanted. He could control it too. This led to a new breed of werewolf, Lycanthropus Extremus, created from those Darok infected after his experiments.


    Other strains of werewolves would emerge in the ensuing centuries through other means, such as the famous white wolvron''s who were the children born of two werewolves, when the female was in her wolf form. White wolvrons had no humanity whatsoever and those they infected became less powerful dark wolvrons, who remained the wolf full time after changing.


    Wolfmen meanwhile who were the least powerful would be born to two werewolves in the female''s human form.


    Overall werewolves due to carrying the curse of lycanthropy became among the most feared demon species. Ironically vampires were among the few species that they allied themselves with, mirroring the relationship between their forebears.


    Beyond that however there was also a practicality to their relationship as most other demons who were vulnerable to lycanthropy hated werewolves and wanted to hunt them, whilst vampires were not only immune, but could use the werewolves as weapons.


    Relations between werewolves and vampires wasn''t always easy however, as many standard werewolves and Lycanthropus Extremis retained the same morality they had as humans, and in some cases hunted vampires the same way they would any demon.


    Still at the very least vampires often gave werewolves protection and wolvron''s certainly made great and even affectionate pets and foot soldiers to vampires.


    The spirits of werewolves were also sent to the vampires afterlife when they died too, as lycans bore the mark of Khastran, which bound many of his most loyal servants to him in death. Though the souls of lycans were too large and unstable to be sent into his afterlife, sadly the souls of their lesser descendants were much easier to pull in.


    Another major race to emerge during this time were the ghouls. These creatures were the creation of the kardons, locked within the earth''s core. One of their number was able to influence humans on the surface world, eventually transforming them into the first of a hideous race of demons that feasted on flesh. After the creation of the ghouls, a group of powerful warlocks and witches placed another barrier around the already existing force field surrounding the earth''s core, preventing the demons within from influencing the above world ever again. There were six ghoul species in total and they were all instinctively loyal to vampires, again mirroring their fathers relationships. The close relationships between vampires, werewolves and ghouls led to all three producing hybrid species, who in turn produced other hybrid species. Ghouls and all of their hybrid races are also sent to the vampires afterlife after death too.


    Aside from the descendants and creations of Khastran and the kardons. Other supernatural creatures to emerge in the Lost Years included zombies and dragons.


    Whilst both of these life forms were magical creatures, resurrecting the dead was not permitted in the age of magic. Granted we can''t say for sure that it didn''t happen. Still the first known zombies, who are simply dead bodies that have been reanimated via magic were created by renegade warlocks and witches as both slave labour and later as armies to fight back against demons and vampires. However resurrection spells are difficult to get right even in the best of times, and with the magics still rare and unstable after Khastran''s attack. Many of the zombies became feral and monstrous, leading to a zombie plague.


    Dragons meanwhile as we have explored are merely dinosaurs that have been twisted by magical until they become magical creatures. As far as we know the Lost Years marked the first time that dinosaurs were brought back from extinction by humans. They applied resurrection spells to their skeletons buried deep in the ground.


    Once again however many of the dinosaurs were not brought back quite as they were, though at the very least by the time the dinosaurs were resurrected, the witches and warlocks mastery of magic had improved dramatically so that they weren''t zombies.


    Whilst many of the dinosaurs were simply used as guard dogs, others were transformed into fully fledged dragons. Even then however the dragons were intended to be nothing more than glorified servants too, but the magical reptiles soon rebelled and become a powerful force in their own right.


    In retrospect it''s hard to believe the tiny pockets of humanity survived the horrors of the Lost Years, which lasted for over 800 years, but eventually a greater evil than any vampire or demon or zombie visited the dying earth. Set the Egyptian god of evil.

 Set and The Rule of The Gods

    After Khastran''s death. The creator had become aware of the mystic realm and tried to dismantle it. Unfortunately however his attempts to do so backfired literally and wounded him to such an extent, that he was unable to hold off the destroyer who returned to our omniverse properly. The creators dark twin decimated thousands of universes and visited untold horrors upon others.


    Set, who belonged to one of the most powerful races of gods, was among those who attempted to provide aid to one of the realities that the destroyer had devastated. What Set saw however drove him mad. He became convinced that the creator was completely evil, because the destroyer had come from him. Sadly however in time this led Set to believe that all life in the omniverse was evil as it was the creation of the creator when he and the destroyer were one.


    Meanwhile the creator was able to finally banish the destroyer from his reality and end the war at least for many hundreds of thousands of years. Even in his weakened condition, the creator devised another realm disconnected from ours, that he was able to throw the destroyer into and seal. Ironically using the same means as the force field the destroyer placed around the monsters realm.


    The creator however was also forced to sacrifice himself in the process, as he had to remain trapped within this realm in order to hold the destroyer there whilst his followers placed the force field around it.


    For the next several hundred thousand years, the creator and the destroyer remained trapped in this realm together, constantly at each others throats. Our omniverse was safe from both and seemingly anything else in the void, as just before his departure the creator also had the goblins place another force field around the entire omniverse to prevent any other great power from infiltrating it. This force field however would prove to be more unstable, as it was largely the invention of the goblins themselves rather than the creator. At least one group of the destroyers monsters was able to enter our omniverse, who have since spread out across many realms and have remained. Due to being able to multiply their forces with magic it''s doubtful we will ever be rid of these monsters. One such device designed to multiply monsters that was created on our earth was stone henge, which still has the power to create monsters even after all this time.


    Still for the most part the forcefield did its job, but sadly that did not mean that we were safe. Set became convinced that he had to destroy all of the creators children, before finding and destroying both the creator and the destroyer to protect all other life forms in the void from them.


    The renegade god found a way to absorb the life essence from other gods which over time granted him virtually limitless strength. Indeed not since Khastran himself had one of the creators children been so powerful. Set ravaged thousands of realities in the godly realm, before the combined might of the gods drove him from it. Still he continued his war against other realms, until eventually Set stumbled upon our world.


    Confused by the power source he could sense from our world, in reality the mystic realm. Set like Khastran before him decided to investigate our planet rather than simply destroy it. His experiments completely unravelled the natural order of the earth however. Set knew that he couldn''t find this strange power, whatever it was, by simply ripping the earth apart. Instead he would have to dig deeper and try and tear through the natural realm itself to find the portal. Whilst the overall structure of the planet earth remained intact, its creatures for the most part were twisted into monsters and abominations, the dead rose, people went insane and killed their loved ones, the lands became inherently hostile places where people''s worst nightmares became a reality etc.


    Still Set''s fascination with our planet ultimately brought about his downfall. The gods, angels, demons, and most powerful and advanced creatures from numerous different realms who had all united against him were given time by his experiments on earth to create a weapon that could harm him. Unfortunately however none of them were able to get close enough to use it, but one of the surviving dragons on the earth, who Set had dismissed as a simple beast. Slipped by the insane god and was given the weapon by the allied creatures.


    Even the dragon however knew that if it got near Set on earth he would simply vaporise it. Instead the dragon needed to find a creature that Set truly would regard as nothing more than an insect that he didn''t need to swat, and so it chose a powerful human warrior, who struck Set when he wasn''t even looking. The weapon took the form of a sword for the human to wield it.


    The human in question we would come to know as Leontine one day. She was a vampire killer who back in the Lost Years had managed to steal the book of Khastran from the vampires. She gave it to a witch who hoped to use the book to destroy the vampire horde for good. Sadly that was not possible, but she did harness the energy in the book to create several creatures and warriors to fight the vampires.


    The most successful of these were arguably the kresniks. They were humans who had the power to kill vampires using any weapon regardless of their weaknesses, as well as the ability to detect any vampire regardless of whether it was in its human form or not. Finally they also possessed shapeshifting abilities.


    Other than these powers however the kresniks were still completely human, and they could only create other members of their kind through mating with humans.


    Leontine meanwhile became the witches greatest individual warrior. The book of Khastran granted Leonine great healing abilities and immortality, though her body could still die if the wounds were too severe, such as decapitation. Still Leontine''s soul would then be transplanted into another body instantly. One that had recently died and whose soul had moved on. Said body would then be revived and restored for Leontine''s spirit to inhabit and granted her healing powers and immortality. Though the bodies appearance did not change to match Leontine. The vampire killers memories, personality and consciousness, all of which come from the soul, were completely unaffected or unchanged from body to body. Per her wishes Leontine would only be granted eternal rest when the vampires were gone from the earth. She hated the vampire race quite unlike anyone else and genuinely did not want to rest until they were wiped out. Sadly most of the details of Leontine''s life remain shrouded in mystery including her real name.


    Leontine was simply an alias she assumed sometime in the 17th century. It is believed to have come from her latest host body, and she evidently liked it enough to make that her permanent name. It''s not known how many bodies she had, but it is likely in the thousands. Still whilst much of her life may elude us, it is safe to say that no individual has done more to protect us from the threat of the vampires than Leontine, though even with her countless battles against the undead, her defeat of Set was arguably her greatest achievement. When she wounded Set with the sword, he instantly vaporised her too, but once again only her latest body was destroyed and she was instantly revived.


    Set''s wound finally made him vulnerable enough for the combined forces of the gods, angels and demons to destroy the insane god.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Following Set''s death, some of the surviving gods came to settle on the earth. They did so first because they wanted to help our planet that was still twisted after Set''s rampage. Whilst not all of the gods were kind and benevolent, the state of the earth was so horrific and desolate that even the most callous god took pity on us. In addition to this however, many of these gods home planets had been destroyed by Set too. Finally several of the gods also wanted to see what it was about this planet that made it stand out for Set and indeed Khastran as well. Khastran had never revealed why he was on the earth of course, but the gods always wondered what had lured him out?


    The surviving gods who came from multiple planets, grouped together into different pantheons and settled in different locations around the restored earth. Among these included the Olympians who settled in Greece, the last inhabitants of the planet Valhalla who settled in Norway, and the last of Set''s own people, the osirans who settled in Egypt.


    As these gods had essentially rebuilt the earth. The humans believed that they were the creators of our world. A lie which the gods were only too happy to perpetuate.


    To be fair to the gods however their reign over our earth, whilst having its own difficulties, would nevertheless aid humanity greatly. Even beyond simply saving us from Set''s attack.


    According to Leontine, just before Set''s invasion the vampires were winning their war, not so much through their ingenuity, but through the fact that even the iron will of humanity wasn''t able to stand against so many obstacles. From hundreds of demon species, a depleted population and a dying planet. Ironically had Set not shown up, then the vampires would have most likely killed us off.


    Thanks to the gods however humanity in its rebuilt earth flourished and prospered, with our population exploding like never before. Whilst the gods did limit humanity in terms of their magics and even technology so that we would not out grow them. Overall it''s fair to say that without the gods we would not be here. Not only did they save us, but the worship of these creatures laid the very foundations for our earliest societies.


    Sadly however some of the gods did become corrupted by the power they had over these mere mortals, and there would also be two huge global wars fought during the gods rule over the earth.


    The first was between the gods and the dragons. Though key allies in the fight against Set, and both had even helped in the rebuilding of the earth. (With the dragons role often being overlooked.) They had two very different ideas on how to guide humanity. The dragons favoured teaching humanity magic and allowing them to become strong enough to defend themselves from any future threat. The gods however argued that hadn''t worked before and that humanity may very well destroy itself in its current state if given that kind of power.


    The dragons meanwhile believed that the gods simply did not want humanity to ever not be dependent on them, which led to the clash. The gods ultimately prevailed in Europe and the west, whilst in mainland China and the east the dragons triumphed and came to rule. During the course of their war, the dragons brought many more species of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures back with magic, to transform into other members of their kind and allies. These prehistoric creatures were placed in small, isolated valleys, and islands around the world which were protected and shielded by magic. There the dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures could breed in sustainable numbers to supply the dragons with a constant supply of soldiers.


    Wyverns were the magical counterparts to pterosaurs, the flying reptiles who lived during the age of the dinosaurs. Drakes were the magical counterparts to synapsids. Wyrms meanwhile were the magical counterparts to titanaboa''s and finally Amphitere''s were the magical counterpart to prehistoric birds.


    The gods and the dragons did eventually call a truce, agreeing to stay out of each others territories. In spite of this however, conflicts continued right the way through the gods and the dragons rule over the earth. Many renegade dragons also fled to Europe as well, which coupled with the gods propaganda. Led to dragons being seen as evil, corrupt and greedy creatures in the west, whilst in the east they were worshipped and revered as much as our gods were.


    In China many great magical kingdoms were created by the dragons, including most notably the land of Shambhala. Centuries after the dragons and gods time on the earth came to an end, the great hero that we would know as Professor Fang was born in Shambhala


    Professor Fang arguably became the universes greatest hero, with his actions in the war for creation alone ensuring our very existence. If nothing else through the birth of Professor Fang alone, the dragons left behind a huge legacy on this earth, we will be exploring the life or unlife of this vampire in a later chapter.


    The second war meanwhile was with Ares, the son of Zeus who sought to turn humanity into a warrior race he could conquer the galaxy with. Ares argued that it was the only way for humanity to protect itself, but in truth he felt it was a better way of protecting himself.


    The war with Ares eventually led to an event known as the Great Flood that was caused by a botched attempt from one of Ares minions to kill Posiedon. In the end the gods were able to drive Ares from the planet, but afterwards they and the dragons finally agreed to leave the earth.


    Both parties felt they had caused more harm than good in the long run, with humanity having become completely dependent on them both. The dragons attempts to build a perfect magical civilisation that covered their entire territory meanwhile had also been met with failure every single time, with each society either collapsing or isolating itself. The dragons conceded that the gods were right that humanity simply wasn''t ready for this kind of power, whilst the gods admitted that the dragons were right that they wanted humanity not to advance and remain dependent on them.


    Both species during the course of their rule had also discovered the secret of the mystic realm which had very nearly led to another clash simply over what to do with it. Some radical gods even argued destroying the portal and the earth with it to protect the rest of creation. Thankfully for us however, both species leaders ultimately agreed not to harness it, feeling that kind of power would corrupt anyone.


    Now that both were leaving however, the dragons and gods decided to place agents and warning systems on the earth in case the mystic realm were ever breached. Sadly however over the centuries, most, but not all of the gods agents died, and the gods and dragons themselves would eventually split up, be killed in other conflicts etc. Leaving our planet once again vulnerable. Still at the same time the gods and dragons had created a fail safe in case their soldiers were ever disposed of, just before they left the earth. Using all of their resources, the dragons and the gods created multiple copies of our solar system in every single universe in the natural realm.


    Contrary to popular belief, no universe within the natural realm is a copy of another. Every single universe''s history is completely unique. As a result of this the gods and dragons created copies of our world in order to confuse any other life forms who may be drawn to the mystic realms power. Whilst the mystic realm could not be accessed from any of these other earth''s, they were still linked to it in such a way that it could be confusing to most creatures.


    Most of the other earths histories, followed on from the point just after the gods left, though some of their histories started from an earlier period of earth''s life, with subsequent events turning out differently if so. One earth even went back to the age of the dinosaurs, whilst others muddled periods of earth''s history up due to the unstable nature of the magics used to create them. For instance one earth''s history began with humans and Dinosaurs living together.


    No gods were duplicated on these other worlds, and also no creatures such as Khastran could be duplicated either. Still vampires did exist on many of them, but as there were not created directly by Khastran, then even if they overran their versions of the earth, it would not revive him. Similarly some left over magics and weapons from the gods were also duplicated too.


    At some point after the gods and the dragons left our planet, our official recorded history begins. The worship of the gods and dragons meanwhile did still continue for many thousands of years even after they left, with some believing that they could still hear our prayers from across the omniverse.


    In the next article we will explore our recorded history from the early days of the Roman Empire and its dealings with the paranormal.

 The Fall of Lucifer and The Trajan Wars

    The phrase recorded history is perhaps somewhat misleading. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that we have a clearer idea of our own history after the age of the gods and dragons, than before it. Much of our so called recorded history has still been intentionally edited. Namely the massive impact the supernatural had on shaping numerous societies and empires (and indeed destroying some like ancient Rome and the Mali empire.)


    Most of what you will have read about our recorded history, assuming you have read anything about it is true. I only say that some of you may be not familiar with our history, as I''m not even sure all of the select time travellers who read this will be human. We humans have tendency to think our history is the only one that matters, so forgive me if I come across that way. Even though we figured out we weren''t the centre of the universe hundreds of years ago, sometimes you wouldn''t know it.


    We obviously don''t have time to go over all of recorded history here so instead we will only be commenting on certain key moments that are linked with the supernatural, namely the examples that will one day be relevant to the time travellers who read it. We don''t know exactly what you will do with this information, but we were instructed to relay it regardless.


    The Roman Empire is known to have been one of the largest and most influential super powers in the history of humanity. Enduring for centuries and spearheading many important discoveries and advancements, whilst also being cruel and oppressive. What ironically most of the historians who helped shed light on its past don''t know however, is that it had several brutal conflicts with the vampire race. From the beginning there were reports of Roman centurians being overwhelmed by renegade groups of vampires, and it''s known that some vampires were captured and forced to fight as gladiators.


    The first major conflict however really began when two of Rome''s Emperors, Caligula and Nero were turned into vampires. In Caligula''s case it was when one of the vampire gladiators escaped and sired him, whilst with Nero he was a willing volunteer, as his paranoia had become too great in light of what happened with his predecessors, he felt it was the only way he could survive future attempts on his life. Both men even ruled the empire as one of the undead. Sadly both escaped their assassination attempts as a result of the empire not being familiar with their breeds, and they subsequently caused more havoc over the subsequent centuries.


    Whilst Caligula''s transformation was written off as simple madness to the public so as not to worry them. Nero''s transformation was not so easy to dismiss, as he continued to make several plays for the throne after his death. Though these were written off at first as impostors, eventually the truth became impossible to suppress when a cult of vampires and demons began to form around Nero. The presence of the vampiric Nero really woke Rome up to the threat vampirism possessed. How unlike many other species of demons they could infiltrate high command and widespread panic spread throughout Rome, with vampirism becoming one of the most important issues Nero''s successors had to address. Even then it wasn''t until the Emperor Trajan however that Rome waged a full out war against the undead. By the time of Trajan''s rule, the vampires had, under Nero''s leadership, built up an army like never before. Whilst the vampires were still cowardly, self serving monstrosities. The fact that one of their own had once been the Emperor helped to create an important figure head that temporarily united them. Caligula meanwhile still kept hidden. Unlike Nero he had no wish to continue being the Emperor. All he cared about was indulging in his sick, perverted whims, and he found that he could actually do that more easily on his own, without having any responsibilities. Ironically Nero most likely felt the same, and in life had actually believed himself to be a great artist who was wasted in office. As a man he had never even really wanted to be Emperor in the first place, having been pushed into it by his scheming mother. Still now that he had lost it Nero was like a petulant child, furious at other people playing with his toys. He also couldn''t bare the idea of his time as Emperor being condemned by historians, and hoped that at the very least he could be viewed as the greatest hero of the vampires after he had taken control and allowed them to dominate humanity.


    At the same time as the war against Nero however, Trajan ironically brought in a greater tolerance for benevolent supernatural creatures too, a controversial move after the mass panic caused by Nero, but ultimately one with huge benefits for the Empire. Trajan recognised that not all supernatural creatures, indeed not even all demons were the same and that their unnatural powers and abilities could also be of use to the Empire too. Granted historians who were extremely biased towards Trajan, have tended to play up his benevolent qualities perhaps a bit too much. There''s no denying that he was a great man, centuries ahead of his time, and undoubtedly the greatest Roman emperor of them all. Still his desire to welcome in the supernatural, was most likely a calculated move to simply win their support away from Nero, who was being touted as the Anti Christ that would deliver all of demonic kind to glory. Meanwhile there are other accounts that whilst certain laws and liberties were granted to the supernatural in Trajans time, widespread persecution in certain provinces did still carry on.


    Nevertheless Trajan proved successful in uniting several paranormal species together. He even caused the werewolves to briefly turn on vampires, by simply offering them a better deal. Whilst werewolves were among the only creatures that vampires didn''t treat with unbelievable cruelty. They still did see them as second class citizens, due to the fact that the werewolves father was a servant of Khastran. Trajan who promised to treat werewolves as ordinary citizens provided they secured themselves on the night of the full moon, not surprisingly caused most of them to turn on their vampire masters. This led to relations between vampires and werewolves breaking down for many centuries, with it not being until after the middle ages, in the reign of the vandals before the two races were forced back into their old alliance.


    Another species of supernatural creature to play a key role in the early days of the empire, were the angels. Specifically a group of renegade angels that hoped they could try and redeem themselves by aiding humanity. They had monitored the earth during the time of the gods, as they had been closely allied with some of the deities on earth for years before hand. Namely Yahweh, whose entire people had been destroyed by Set. The angels in many ways became a replacement for Yahweh''s people, though they did not live on the earth like the gods. Still Yahweh was so close with them, that he often trusted the angels advice more than that of the other gods. Not surprisingly his reputation among the other members of his kind was not too great, though they insisted it was not because of his love for angels. Many of the gods believed Yahweh to be arrogant, violent, unpredictable and in extreme cases, insane over the loss of his people. Ironically however whilst its true that Yahweh was somewhat unpredictable. He was nevertheless responsible for saving more people from the great flood than any other god, through his guiding of his favourite follower Noah to construct an arc to protect those the gods had abandoned when fighting Ares. There are some however who believe that he may have been swayed by the angels in this action which the angels did later claim, though others believe this was simply propaganda on their part.


    The group of angels who befriended Yahweh were not that pure themselves meanwhile. Many of them had been transformed completely into devils (such as Lucifer) prior to their alliance with Yahweh. After the gods had left the earth however, the angels saw the planet as a possible chance for redemption. They did not integrate themselves into society or make any attempts to take over like the gods having seen how that corrupted some of them. Instead they simply battled the forces of darkness around the world for centuries and set up organisations designed to counteract the worst evils of the world, with the longest lived and most influential being the Deaneria. Eventually after centuries of fighting evil, and not just in demons, but humanity''s corruption still enduring. The angels felt that the best way to truly help would be to create a perfect example for humanity to follow. An angel/human hybrid who would understand humanity''s flaws better than they could, but with his angel grace, rise above them. They accomplished this, through fusing angelic energy into a young, kind hearted woman named Mary which led to her giving birth to an angel/human hybrid Jesus Christ. The angels then attempted to guide Jesus (as well as playing his birth off as being from the creator itself.)


    Jesus however soon took his own path. He still used his powers to battle the forces of evil, but took a more peaceful approach than that of the angels. He preached peace, love and acceptance among all species and made a significant positive impact on the world like no other man either before or since. Sadly and ironically the corruption of humanity itself proved too great even for Jesus Christ. The humans he had sworn to protect turned against their messiah and tortured and killed him. Jesus'' legacy however did live on in the religion that was founded in his name, though sadly like many great figures throughout history. Jesus message has also sometimes been misinterpreted and warped by certain figures for their own gain at certain points.


    Still one of Jesus'' contemporary followers, John the Evangelist used the tragedy of his death to create one of the greatest weapons against the supernatural. Using a combination of Jesus'' blood, and white magics. John cast a powerful spell which linked Jesus'' holy power to the symbol of the cross and other artefacts that were important to Jesus and his people, including the Star of David. This allowed these artefacts to repel and in some cases even harm many species of demons. John''s spell also ensured that water blessed by one of Jesus'' loyal followers like him, could harm demons too. Not all demons it must be said were harmed by these magics. (Though many species of vampire were particularly vulnerable.) This also lead to problems for Christ''s followers from Nero when he was the Emperor. Aware of the crosses destructive power on his kind. Nero made it his mission to exterminate Christ''s followers. His horrific persecution of Christians is what later led to him being denounced as the Anti Christ in certain sects of their religion. A title which he embraced when rallying his demon and vampire forces against Rome.


    Other religions meanwhile which worshipped similar angelic and god like creatures to visit our earth through the centuries also utilised John''s spell, mixed in with the blood or artefacts left over by their holy figures to make their symbols harmful to vampires and other demons too. For example, the gods who founded the Hindu religion, (and were still worshipped in India after they had left our planet with the others.) Their holy symbol of Om was made just as toxic to the vampire horde. (Om in reality had been an important ingredient from the gods in rebuilding the earth after Set''s rampage. It came from the leader of the Hindu Pantheon Vishnu''s home planet. Being the only sample in fact left after Set''s destruction of Vishnu''s people and home.)


    Buddha''s followers similarly used this spell for his statue over the world, allowing it to repel vampires and demons. Buddha was in reality one of the worlds greatest sorcerers. Unlike most others, who channelled their magic through rage, grief or other negative emotions, even if they used it for good. Buddha was able to activate a greater power, through achieving a greater sense of peace with himself, known as meditation. He used his abilities to do incredible good in the world, and helped to enlighten others to access their inner magic too. However Buddha''s greatest achievement was in finding a way to use these magics to construct a new body after death. It was a similar process to the spell that had been used for Leontine, but rather than hijack a new body. Buddha created his new body entirely from the matter around him. Others would practice and master this process too, though sadly few were able to do it with the skill that Buddha demonstrated. Others ended up either creating unstable bodies, or sent their souls into other existing bodies. In most cases their memories vanished, except for a few that lingered, creating confusion for the host bodies. A belief around reincarnation emerged as a result of this. In some cases however, it was more than just memories that lingered. The previous souls magical energy could allow the host body to harness even greater magic than the average person, though these types of extra magical abilities could only be unlocked with meditation.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    It should be noted however that whilst others were able to replicate John''s spell. Only a very few were able to do so successfully. It was after all an incredibly difficult and delicate process and in hindsight it''s not surprising that only the founders of the worlds most influential religions had the power and resources to do so.


    The angels who had created Jesus in the first place meanwhile were left broken by his death, except for Lucifer. He felt more inspired than ever to wipe evil from the face of the earth. Lucifer believed that Jesus was right that it was better to try and redeem other life forms, than simply slay evil. However he also felt that Jesus had just been wrong in his more pacifistic approach. Sometimes Lucifer believed it was necessary to force life forms to act in their better nature, rather than give them the choice. This soon led to conflict with the other angels who simply tried to continue Jesus'' message half heartedly through peaceful means.


    Lucifer subsequently made his new base in a universe within the hellish realm. He took over several hundred planets and not only forced the demons to be his servants, but to commit benevolent acts across the galaxy. Lucifer hoped, just as he had gone against his nature through greed and selfishness eons ago and become a devil. That these acts of benevolence would change the demons and become second nature to them. In time his approach did actually work to some extent, with Lucifer gathering an army of seemingly benevolent demons, who he hoped could influence the rest of the hellish realm. Sadly however this proved more difficult than the fallen angel had hoped and in time he was forced to seal his universe off from the rest of the Hellish realm, though at least he had conquered other worlds in this universe, expanding his power to the point where almost this entire small universe would fall under his rule.


    Once his power was secure, Lucifier created a link between the earth and his base, which would send the wickedest human souls to his domain. Even with his new army he did not want to simply conquer the earth as it could lead to more death. Whilst the gods were gone, if another supernatural power had tried to claim the earth, they would have surely stepped in. Lucifer and his demons punished the souls that were sent to them in a fitting way, but it wasn''t just meaningless torture. It was designed to show them the full extent of the horrors they had committed and also give the damned souls a chance for redemption. Lucifer was not the first being to create an afterlife on the earth. Aside from Khastran''s pocket dimension where all of his children and other creatures who bore his mark were sent after death. The gods during their stay on earth had also created numerous pocket dimensions from the underworld to valhalla where they could store the souls of those they cared for, or those they wanted to punish. After the gods left the earth, these pocket dimensions were simply abandoned, as dismantling them would have been too dangerous, though each dimensions ability to draw in souls at least was gone.


    Lucifers base ultimately took in far more souls than any previous artificial afterlife however, except for Khastran''s, though it was only able to take in the souls of the wicked. In time he built up a great army of damned souls as well as remorseful demons who did many great things throughout the omniverse.


    The other angels however, after learning about Lucifers plans were disgusted and denounced him as a monster. In response they built their own pocket dimension for lost souls on the earth that we would come to know as the veil. This acted as something of a waiting room for lost or confused souls before helping them deal with whatever it was that was still tying them to earth, before sending them to the Great Beyond.


    Lucifer and the angels subsequently warred with one another for centuries over the souls of the earth though again their war was kept in secret away from humanity for the most part. Even then however whilst human society was able to carry on, human followers on both sides across the entire world became caught up in the angels battle. Sadly the angels weren''t the only enemies Lucifer had to deal with. The demons from the other realities in the hellish realm arguably despised the devil more than his fellow angels, and eventually, when Lucifer was distracted in an important battle against the angels. The demons launched a successful attack against his base in the 5th century, slaughtering most of Lucifers reformed demons (though not all of them were quite as reformed as Lucifer believed.)


    The demon who led the final attack over Lucifers former base, was Mephistopheles. One of the most powerful and evil creatures in the hellish realm. Mephistopheles and his vile horde proceeded to torture all of the human souls that were sent to the hellish realm thanks to Lucifer''s link.


    The angels tried to sever the link between Lucifers dimension and earth, but sadly it had become too strong by this stage. The angels did at the very least greatly limit the amount of souls sent from the earth to hell, by widening the veil''s reach. Sadly however they never completely eradicated its influence.


    Mephistopheles meanwhile was fittingly to suffer the same fate as Lucifer, centuries down the line when he was dethroned by his most sadistic follower. Satan, who then used Lucifers former base to further expand his power throughout the hellish realm. He became the closet thing the hellish realm had to an overall king after the age of Kardons. (There had been other rulers of individual hell universes since the Kardons, but none with as wide a reach as Satan. Though even he did not rule them all.)


    Lucifer on the other hand fled across the universe after he had been dethroned with the last of his loyal demons and attempted to find redemption for the souls he had condemned in his attempt to save humanity. Ironically whilst the name Lucifer became synonymous with evil on earth. (Thanks in part to his fellow angels propaganda, and thanks also to the fact that he, Mephistopheles and Satan became mixed up in numerous texts, legends and myths as the same being.) On thousands of other planets around the galaxy, the name Lucifer came to be associated with heroism.


    Finally the other angels who had played a part in Jesus'' creation, after seeing the horrors Lucifer had caused, and still feeling guilt for Jesus'' death. Wisely left the earth just like the gods had done centuries earlier to prevent their presence causing any more harm.


    Aside from angels and vampires. Humanity was also visited by Martians during the early days of Rome too. Specifically during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. Life developed on mars round about the same time as our world, and it eventually gave rise to a race of sentient humanoid creatures.


    Very little is known about the Martians however, other than that they were a more advanced race than us technologically speaking at that point. (To be fair they hadn''t experienced the same set backs we had.) The Martians however unfortunately had never had any experiences with the supernatural we had either. Naturally almost all demons had been drawn to our world over the centuries by its unique magics, skipping by our small red neighbour completely.


    Sadly however this meant that when the first group of Martians arrived on earth, hoping to establish contact with us. They were completely unprepared for the preternatural horrors of our world.


    The landing team were attacked by a vampire lurking in the woods. Unknown to the others, it infected the Martian it bit. In order to become a vampire a life form must have an intelligence level on a par with a human. It''s to do with how the human brain is better equipped to have a more complex soul which the vampire either corrupts or replaces. Sadly the Martians more than qualified for this. The vampire that attacked the Martians proved immune to their weapons, forcing the aliens to retreat into their space ship. The infected Martian however then turned on most of the other crew after his transformation. Only one, the ship''s captain, Keptis managed to escape being turned. Sadly however Keptis wasn''t able to stop the others from taking the spaceship back to mars, where the vampires then went on to infect more.


    With the Martians having no idea what this new virus was, or how to battle the vampires. The bloodsuckers soon overran and destroyed the Martian race with their own advanced weapons, erasing almost all traces of them from the red planets surface.


    Ironically the only Martian to survive the war was Keptis, who using the most primitive form of magic that his people had been forced to discover in the war against the undead. Fled back to earth near its end, when the Martian resistance forces had been crushed. There Keptis soon became part of Trajan''s army against the vampires. He utilised his martian technology, (which the Romans simply took for magic) to play a key role in the battle against the vampires of earth. Keptis was also fairly careful not to let his technology fall into the Romans hands just yet, so as not to accelerate their development too fast.


    The great Trajan vampire war often edited from our history books, finally defeated the greatest army of vampires ever seen at that point, and brought an end to Nero''s influence. Nero himself was denounced as a coward by his fellow vampires and demons when he fled the final battle and much like Caligula was forced to lay low for centuries afterwards. Many of the surviving vampires and rogue supernatural creatures meanwhile were forced to retreat to Scotland (one of the few places the Romans had been unable to conquer in Europe, which subsequently became a hot spot for supernatural activity.) After the war, Trajan then set up organisations to deal with and study the supernatural all over the world that were simply known as Trajans. They continued to endure for centuries after the Roman empire, though in time other organisations devoted to combating the supernatural replaced them such as Rentros. By the end of the 19th century, just one Trajan in all of central Europe was left.


    Keptis who also helped set up the first Trajans, was able to achieve at least some small measure of revenge against the bloodsuckers through his pivotal role in the war, but sadly a few years into the reign of Trajan''s successor, Hadrian. The vampires on mars, having now wiped out almost all of the native martians, soon sought out a new source of food, humanity.


    The combination of their martian technology and supernatural vampiric powers very nearly overwhelmed the empire. It didn''t help that as soon as Hadrian realised that Keptis belonged to the same species as the Martians he grew suspicious of him as well. (Before Keptis had always written his alien appearance off as simply belonging to an obscure demon species. Trajan did have his suspicions but ultimately ignored them as Keptis was too useful.)


    Thankfully however the original incarnation of the Circus Family arrived in the middle of the Martian vampire invasion in their Tent, and working with Keptis, together they finally destroyed the Martian vampire invaders and saved humanity. After the invasion Keptis joined the Circus Family, becoming one of its longest serving members. (He also made sure that none of the Martian technology was left behind on earth afterwards.)


    One group of Martian vampires however survived the Circus Family''s attack and escaped into deep space. They later landed on a small, primitive planet which they overran just as easily as they did mars. In time, many planets fell to the vampires who assimilated other races technology and in some cases unique powers to become an even greater force.


    However the treacherous and backstabbing nature of the vampire ensured that they were never able to build up a truly vast empire. Instead the vampire forces became fragmented around the universe. Still hundreds of thousands of planets were nevertheless destroyed even by these fragmented vampire forces, ensuring that the children of Khastran became a curse on the universe itself, not just the earth.


    After the Martian/vampire invasion, Hadrian clamped down harder on the supernatural than Trajan, and subsequent Roman emperors followed suit, believing they no longer needed them after Nero''s forces had been crushed.


    This however eventually backfired, as numerous supernatural creatures eventually united like never before to take down Rome, including the vampires and the vandals, who played a key role in causing the final fall of the Roman empire. The vandals subsequently took their name from the Germanic people who sacked Rome in an effort to perpetuate a myth that they were solely responsible in the middle ages. The demonic vandals had been known by many other names before, but vandal evidently stuck and came to refer to the demon group as a whole.


    The fall of Rome led to European civilisation itself descending into a backward and more primitive period known as the dark ages. The vampires and vandals naturally soon forgot their alliance and warred with each other throughout the entirety of the middle ages, in an effort to try and establish a new power base in Europe.

 Vampires vs Vandals and The Hooded Man

    The vampires and the vandals brutal war across Europe eventually ended in a triumph for the vandals. Even though they were less powerful on average, the vandals were ultimately able to work together more successfully and with other species which is what gave them the advantage. The vampires more chaotic personalities, didn''t exactly endear them to other species of even demons.


    By the start of the 12th century, the vampires had more or less been beaten throughout Europe, though the vandals had not merely crushed their blood sucking rivals, but had arguably conquered Europe itself. However unlike the Romans, the vandals ruled from behind the scenes. They did not want to follow the same mistake and make themselves a target for the oppressed. Furthermore when working from behind the scenes, a leader or even a political system could be more easily replaced or scapegoated by the vandals.


    Still the vampires weren''t completely defeated yet. In the 12th century, England would get not just one, but two vampires on the throne. Richard the Lionheart and his brother John.


    Richard was originally approached by a vampire leader who had managed to flee the vandals in Europe with the Book of Khastran. The bloodsucker concealed its own identity and claimed that the book could help Richard protect his people from the demonic threat of the vandals. The young Richard was foolishly drawn in by the vampires promises and his own ego. He didn''t know what the book of Khastran was to be fair, as virtually no one did back then, but he should have known at least that it contained demonic power. After becoming a vampire, Richard who arrogantly assumed that he could control any potentially dark supernatural force. Instead was overcome with blood lust to such an extent, he killed his own father. The history books later rewrote this as Richard''s father dying from an ulcer, but those of us who know better, know why blood was dripping from his mouth.


    Richard vowed to make amends. He was not driven by guilt however, as such emotion is alien to most vampires. Instead it was his own ego. Refusing to believe that a righteous, proud man such as he had been corrupted beyond hope by a demonic force. Richard sought to prove that he could still be a man of god, to the point that he took part in the Crusades to try and purge his soul. He once claimed that the work he did in the Crusade would allow him to one day touch the cross again without it burning his flesh.


    In his absence. Richard''s brother John took over, and the same vampire soon approached him. John was somewhat easier to corrupt. He wanted to hold onto the power he had. John also felt angry and bitter as he was in some ways a better statesman, yet nobody took him seriously compared to his brother, who essentially looted the country for his war. John not only hoped to hold onto his throne as a vampire, but potentially rule forever such were his delusions. Sadly however any even remotely positive qualities John had as a ruler were naturally purged as soon as the book of Khastran changed him


    Just as the vampire wanted. John spread the curse of vampirism throughout England like never before in just a few years. Vampires were placed into positions of authority, and literally bled the smaller towns and villages in more ways than one. Many of their citizens were rounded up to feed the vampires, or be hunted for sport or tortured to satisfy the vampires sick desires. Others were used as slave labour to build new magical weapons to use in the war against the vandals, or as test subjects. Only the richest who were able to pay the vampires were spared, though some noblemen and even some corrupt abbots who had no problem serving the vampires were given elite positions without too much expense to themselves, as their influence could prove useful. The vampires used the money they taxed from the people, not just for their own hedonism, but to buy weapons and gain allies throughout Europe to hold the vandals off from their shores, and eventually strike back at them and claim Europe.


    John''s two main accomplices during this time were the vampire Robert Vasey and the werewolf, Guy Rathbone, later given the title of Sir Guy of Gisbourne.


    Vasey had come from a poor background. His town had been unable to pay the vampires and were forced to flee into the woods as a result. Vasey however, knowing they couldn''t flee for long sold the survivors of his town out including his own wife and son (both of whom he had often physically and mentally abused in frustration for his own failures.) Robert however didn''t just sell them out in exchange for his own life. It was also to become a vampire. Robert had always been ambitious and hoped to rise through the ranks. Not caring one bit about damning his soul. To be fair he didn''t have much of a soul anyway it would seem, or at least he never seemed to let it bother him. The vampires turned Vasey simply because of his slimy nature, feeling that he would make an effective member of their kind. The darkest, most twisted and bitter humans always made the most notorious vampires.


    Within two years of becoming a vampire, Vasey rose through the ranks to become the Sheriff of Nottingham. Whilst John was in charge, the Sheriff was the one to organise most of the plans for running England and taxing villages, as well as rounding up which of the poorest villagers to feed the vampires, be tortured for amusement or hunted for sport etc. Whilst John was far more insane, hedonistic and unpredictable. The Sheriff who remained completely fixated on power, and was far more petty and vindictive, proved to be even more ruthless and cruel in dealing with the smaller villages.


    Prince John and his twisted regime of bloodsuckers though ruling for 5 years were opposed and ultimately brought down by the sorcerer Herne the Hunter, and his protegee. Robin Hood. Herne who had great psychic abilities, had foreseen a dark time for the world. If the Prince was able to continue ruling England and rally his army together (with the Sheriff''s aid of course.) This vampire army would not only devastate England, but reclaim certain areas in Europe, leading to a vicious war that would last centuries. Neither the vampires nor the vandals would win. In fact Europe would become a no mans land with the vampires, demons, vandals and other creatures ravaging the continent. Eventually however the leader of the vandals, driven insane by the loss of his empire, would use an ancient weapon created by Ares centuries ago to bring about the end of the world of man. Even the war god had never dared use the weapon as it would have destroyed the entire surface of the planet, and him along with it. Ares was not able to modify the weapon, before he was finally driven from the earth (with the other gods being unaware of its existence as naturally Ares didn''t want them to use it against him in the future, though he was also unable to return to to the earth to get it.) The weapon which became known as the hand of Ares was later unearthed by the vampires forces during the Trajan war, with the bloodsuckers similarly being terrified of it. Trajan after defeating the vampires hid the weapon beneath the centre of Rome. Neither he nor the vampires were aware of the full extent of its power, but both knew that it contained incredibly potent dark magics. The hand of Ares remained under Rome even after it fell, with seemingly no one else knowing about it except for Herne, and the vandal leaders who had similarly kept it hidden for their own sake. However if history were allowed to go down the path Herne had for seen, then the wickedest of the vandal leaders out of desperation not to lose to his enemies, would ultimately use the hand of Ares and turn the earth into a barren wasteland.


    According to Herne''s prophecy the only man who could stop this future from happening, was Robin son of Locksley. Sadly however Herne later discovered that he wasn''t the only one who had received this vision. A group of low level demons known as Xascers, had also foreseen that they would actually benefit from the eventual destruction of the surface of the earth. The prophecy gave them the time and the knowledge to create a force field to protect themselves underground. They would then emerge after the last human survivors had died and become the new dominant creatures of the earth. They had also foreseen that without this timeline coming into effect, they were destined to be killed off under the rule of the vandals.


    These demons attempted to murder Robin''s parents on the night of his birth, but Herne saved them and gave Robin''s family refuge in a very remote village in the woods where they lived a desperate existence for years afterwards as their son grew up. Prior to the demons attack, Robin''s family had actually been Lords.


    Eventually 20 years later when the vampires took over, the small village Robin lived in was overtaken by the Sheriff, forcing him to flee. In the process the Sheriff not only butchered both of his parents, but Robins first love. The huntress named Clorinda. Some have speculated that Herne actually led the vampires to Robin''s village in order to inspire him to fight the undead, but either way Robin subsequently gathered a team of vampire slayers, bandits and robbers together known as his merry men to overthrow the Sheriff and his bloodsucking allies.


    Herne also gave the merry men guidance and help on occasion, though Robin was always the unquestioned leader of the merry men. Robin slew hundreds of vampires during his battle against John and the Sheriff, though he also stole from the vampires and gave their money to the deprived villages, and destroyed the weapons the vampires had been building too.


    At first whilst his hatred of the undead drove him, Robin later began to have doubts about slaying the phoney vampire king of England simply due to the fact that the vandals would take over. Herne however lied and told Robin that he could guide him to stop the vandals afterwards as well. In truth Herne''s prophetic powers were limited and he had no idea what would happen after Prince John was slain other than that the bad vision of the future with the hand would be prevented.


    Robin''s most important ally during his battle against the vampires was Maid Marian. A witch who was originally the lover of Sir Guy. Marian had used her first spell to cure her ailing father from a local flu outbreak. Sadly however the villagers suspected her of causing the outbreak as a result, and tried to burn her and her father, who died getting Marian to safety. Alone and in the woods she met Guy, who had similarly been chased out by his village (and even his own family) after being infected with the curse of Lycanthropy.


    The two became lovers and protected each other in the woods of England for a few years, until the vampires took over. Werewolves by that point were rare in England, and the Sheriff offered Guy a place in his ranks as a result.


    At first Marian and Guy were only too happy to go along with the vampires, as both hated the rest of the England for the way it had treated them. Thankfully however Marian unlike Guy still had at least some semblance of a conscience and later turned on the vampires after seeing the extent of the suffering they inflicted on their victims. Guy however ultimately chose the new position and security the Sheriff offered him over Marian. Whilst he had some regrets over this, it was never enough to make him turn back.


    Sadly for Sir Guy, whilst he was given the chance to inflict revenge on his former home village and his family, all of whom he slaughtered without mercy. He was still often forced to endure Prince John and even the Sheriff''s cruelty. To be fair Prince John treated everyone around him with the utmost cruelty, except for the Sheriff, who was too valuable and also his own pet demonic snake. Even then however as John fell deeper and deeper into madness, some of his servants did observe him sometimes attacking the snake, claiming that it was talking to and even mocking him for being a coward.


    Marian meanwhile soon found Robin and his merry men, and her knowledge of the black arts proved most useful to Robin''s team. Whilst Marian was not exactly the most skilled witch, she had managed, just before fleeing, to steal several of the Sheriff''s most prized books on the black arts which proved to be one of the Merry Men''s most useful weapons.


    Another member of Robin''s merry men was Friar Tuck, an expert on the occult who helped translate much of the magic in the book, though Marian was always the one who performed it. Having been the last friar from a group who had devoted themselves to hunting vampires. Tuck had been on the Sheriff''s most wanted list even before joining Robin.


    Still whilst the book may have been Robin''s most powerful weapon, His most common and trademark weapons, were his bow and arrows. Robin was a highly gifted archer even before the vampires attacked his village, having enjoyed practising his aim with Clorina in the woods. Meanwhile Friar Tuck''s guidance on the weaknesses of the vampire as well as Marian and Herne''s knowledge of the black arts, allowed Robin to create arrows from several different substances, such as wood, silver and iron, to pierce the hearts of all the vampire species in England as well as numerous magical arrows to fight any demons or renegade witches they came across too. (There were dozens of different vampire breeds in England with the Sheriff belonging to a different breed to Prince John alone. The Sheriff''s breed were particularly useful as they could walk in the daylight.)


    After 5 years of being an outlaw, Robin finally managed to slay both Prince John and King Richard, after the latter returned from his crusade. Sir Guy was slain by the woman he once loved, Maid Marian, who by that point saw him rightfully as nothing but a monster. The Sheriff meanwhile, though stripped of his position after John''s death, nevertheless escaped. Vowing revenge on Robin not just for costing him his position, but also cutting off his arm and burning out his eye when he threw holy water in his face during a confrontation. The archer had managed to do this quite early on in his feud with the Sheriff, forcing the vampire to wear an eye patch, as well as a wooden hand, though the Sheriff later replaced it with a more demonic arm afterwards.


    Sadly however not long after the vampires were overthrown, the vandals claimed England and eventually Scotland and Wales as their own. Robin subsequently received no help from Herne, who fled to Europe, causing Robin to curse his former mentor, believing that he had been an agent for the vandals.


    Whilst the vandals may have seemed more benevolent on the surface to the people of England. Robin still distrusted them for good reason, and continued to rebel against the demons. Sadly however having lost many of his followers in the final battle against the vampires. Robin was forced to flee England to escape. Vowing to bring the vandal power base in Europe down. Robin gathered a new team of heroes. He and Marian meanwhile who had fallen in love during their adventures against the vampires were forced to split, as she was too busy trying to help her fellow witches in England survive the vandals. In time Marian founded a coven that worked independently of the vandals, throughout their entire reign, aiding many warlocks and witches over the centuries,. Marian became one of the greatest witches of them all. Her power and exploits became so legendary that some may day festivities and cults throughout England even began worshipping her as a pagan goddess.


    Robin''s new team meanwhile included Snow White, a creature known as the Beast, the famous wolvron hunter, Red Riding Hood, Morgan Le Fey and Pinnochio. All of these creatures and heroes in the ensuing centuries were written off as fairy tales, or mythical characters. In truth they were among the greatest if somewhat unconventional heroes Europe ever saw.


    Snow White was the latest in a long line of strong witches, whose power had been rendered dormant through the years. Her lineage in fact stretched right back to the time of magic. Regina her stepmother was aware of the proud lineage Snow came from, thanks to an ancient artefact she had discovered years ago, which contained the soul of a criminal from the age of magic that had been imprisoned within a small pocket dimension (that resembled a mirror on the outside.) The artefact had been buried underground for hundreds of thousands of years, but when Regina discovered him after an earth quake. The criminal slowly corrupted Regina, hoping to use her to inflict his vengeance upon mankind and find a way to free him. However he greatly underestimated Regina whose corruption soon took him by surprise to the point where she kept the criminal prisoner, carrying the device his pocket dimension was contained in around with her and threatening to bury it again unless she helped him.


    With her "mirrors" guidance. Regina infiltrated Snow''s family and killer her father. His blood however was too old and weak, and so she attempted to harness Snows, with the aid of one of the greatest supernatural hunters in the land known as the Huntsman. When he took pity on Snow however, Regina cast a spell that placed Snow into a coma in order to leech all of her unique magic. Regina ruled for a few years whilst Snow was asleep, where she proved to be an unfit, corrupt and ruthless monarch. Her people disparagingly dubbed her the Evil Queen as an insult.


    Ultimately Regina''s plan failed thanks to an agent of the vandals. Prince Charming. The vandals wanted to claim Regina''s kingdom, but she had managed to hold them off with the magics she had stolen from Snow. The vandals however gave Prince Charming a spell that could reverse Snow White''s condition after which he could then use her to topple Regina, before taking down Snow too. At first Prince Charming agreed to help simply because his own kingdom had been overrun by the vandals. Charming infiltrated Regina''s kingdom with the promise of an alliance (as his kingdom had previously been the most defiant to the vandals, with Regina having no idea that they had been overrun.) Unfortunately for the vandals however, whilst Charming''s deception was successful against Regina. He soon found himself falling in love with Snow for real. Together Snow and Charming overthrew and imprisoned Regina in the tower, and despite Charmings initial deception which he admitted. He and Snow soon developed a genuine relationship together. Snow and Charming as well as ironically the Huntsman that Regina had initially hired to kill Snow, subsequently all worked together to try and help both their kingdoms. Sadly however after a few years, the vandals ultimately overthrew both of them. Charming and the Huntsmen were killed in the final battle defending Snow''s castle, whilst Snow was forced to work with her wicked former step mother in order to escape. Both were then forced to go on the run from the vandals whilst continuing their bitter feud.


    Snow sadly despite her best efforts had not been able to master the magics inside of her as well as Regina had, though over time she did become a very powerful witch. It was sadly too late to save her kingdom.


    The Beast meanwhile as he was known, was once a handsome young prince, but at the age of just 22 he and his brother were attacked by a wolvron on a hunt. Their parents did all they could to try and find a cure, and whilst they were obviously unsuccessful. The magics and resources the brothers parents had access too, whilst not preventing the change physically at all, allowed both to retain their personalities after becoming wolvrons to some extent.


    Sadly however for the Beasts brother, this proved to be even worse. The brothers previously kind and honourable personality was twisted by the poison of the Lycans to the point where he became a sadistic killer, with a greater intelligence and capacity for cruelty than the average wolvron. In time the magics also caused him to grow larger and stronger than any ordinary, even white wolvron. The brother later became known as the "Big Bad Wolf" one of the most feared and hated creatures in Europe from that time.


    The other brother who was known simply as the Beast after his transformation meanwhile initially shut himself off, the more he felt the poison of Lycanthropy affecting him. However he was later ironically given the courage to fight it by a kind hearted young woman named Belle, who he had initially only taken on as a servant after saving her family from the vandals.


    After Belle''s death, the Beast was inspired to continue to fight his nature, and the supernatural all over Europe becoming a hero in his own right.


    Red Riding Hood meanwhile ironically was inspired to hunt both wolvrons and the supernatural after the Big Bad Wolf hunted and killed her grandmother. She and the Beast clashed, as even after all this time. He still wanted to try and help his brother control the demon within. Still at the very least they had a common enemy with the vandals.


    Morgan Le Fey was from an attempt to build a magical kingdom after the fall of Rome that was known as Camelot. It had been built by one of the last dragons on earth, that had returned after the others had fled, believing that he could still guide humanity. The dragon in question named Kilgharrah, hoped that Camelot could take over from Rome as the new major power in Europe. Sadly however it collapsed due to Morgan Le Fay''s own son Mordred. As much as Morgan Le Fay loved her son, Mordred did not care much for her, and fell under the influence of the malevolent Queen Mab instead. Mab originated from the magical realm, and was an old enemy of Kilgharrah. The two had first met when the dragon left the earth and travelled to her realm. At first the two were allies with Kilgharrah even helping Mab overthrow the previous, cruel fairy queen of her world. However the two became the bitterest enemies when Mab started to drain the life essence of entire worlds in the natural realm to postpone her own planet''s death. (As the previous fairy queen just before being overthrown had cursed Mab''s planet to a slow lingering death purely out of spite for Mab.)


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    When Kilgharrah found out what Mab had done, she was unapologetic. Believing that no natural world mattered as much as a magical world, as magical planets could potentially exist forever, whilst natural worlds and creatures all die eventually.


    Kilgharrah stopped Mab''s plan, which sadly led to the death of her world and people. Kilgharrah wanted to find an alternative way to save them with Mab, but as she did not want to even talk about it out of fear that no solution could be found, and with potentially hundreds of natural worlds about to die. Kilgharrah had no choice, and Mab vowed she would make Kilgharrah suffer. After he left the magical realm (via a portal which manifested itself in a large lake, just outside where Camelot was later to be built.) Mab followed the dragon there, unknown at first to him and worked against Kilgharrah''s attempts to build a perfect magical society on earth, at one point nearly luring Kilgharrah''s protege, Merlin away from him which finally alerted Kilgharrah to his nemesis'' presence.


    Mordred however unlike Merlin fell under Mab''s influence and proved to be the key in Mab tearing down Kilgharrah''s perfect civilisation. Sadly however Morgan Le Fay also played a huge part in Camelot''s downfall as she released her son after his treachery was exposed to Kilgharrah and he was sentenced to death. In spite of what Mordred had done, his mother still loved him, and Mordred''s escape allowed him to put the final part of Mab''s plan into action which destroyed Camelot from within. Kilhgarrah''s greatest wizard and protege that he loved like a son, Merlin met his end. The greatest loss however was arguably Camelot''s greatest king, the magical warrior Arthur, whose body was sent to the world of Avalon within the magic realm afterwards to possibly be revived.


    Morgan Le Fey was overcome with guilt and vowed to make amends and personally hunt down her monster son. Sadly whilst she did do many great things, both with Robin and on her own. Morgan Le Fey''s name remained forever synonymous with treachery for what she had done to Camelot.


    Pinnochio finally was an attempt to transform an inanimate object into a living being and whilst it seemingly worked when he was a child. As Pinnochio grew older, the magic began to fluctuate until he eventually became a strange, magical creature with unique powers.


    Together these heroes battled the vandals, and many other monstrous creatures and sorcerers, including the Horned King, Maleficent, the demonic Coachman (an old enemy of Pinochios) an invasion from giants through a bean stalk (in reality a portal to another realm.) The Gingerbread witch and even Kilgharrah himself, who after the fall of Camelot had become bitter, hateful and twisted. Kilgharrah had also taken on another ward, a young dragon named Aithusa, whose egg had been buried in a special chamber during the dragon/god war and then abandoned. Numerous other dragons eggs existed within these chambers, as they were designed to serve as a back up for a decisive battle in case the dragons lost. The magic that was to revive them would also have aged them to fighting age right away. Thankfully however when Kilgharrah discovered it and Aithusa he put a stop to that magic and allowed all of the baby dragons in there to grow at their own rate. This led to a brief explosion in the dragon population on earth, with among the others that were unearthed including the savage renegade Vermithrax and the benevolent Draco.


    Whilst Kilgharrah raised Aithusa to despise humanity, Morgan Le Fey convinced the younger dragon there was another way, and it soon developed a special bond with the witch as a result.


    Kilgharrah was furious with Aithusa''s betrayal at first, hating Morgan Le Fay perhaps more than anyone on earth at that time and cut off all contact with Aithusa. However he later came out of his depression and was redeemed somewhat, ironically after he was saved from the vandals by both Morgan Le Fey and Aithusa. He was genuinely moved by their clemency and forgiveness and even became something of an ally for Robin and his team afterwards. The dragons faith in humanity was not completely restored however, Truth be told it would never be what it was in the days of Camelot. Still just a few centuries later Kilgharrah took a major role in humanities affairs a second time when he established a new magical school, Scholomance, along with the former king of hell Mephestopheles. The two reached an agreement wherein they would train several humans with their powers and allow said humans to use it however they wanted. However one out of every 7 students they would keep as their own slave, to influence the world as either saw fit. Kilgharrah felt this was for the best, as he believed that evil could never be stamped out, but as long as he was controlling it to some extent through his alliance with Mephestopheles then it couldn''t triumph. He also believed in giving most humans their free will after the disaster with Camelot too.


    Through Scholomance which endured for centuries, Kilgharrah ended up having his greatest influence over humanity, both for good and for worse. Among Scholomance''s most famous students, included Professor Fang and Dracula, though more on the latter later.


    Robin and the others most persistent enemy however was still the former Sheriff of Nottingham, Robert Vasey who not only gathered a small army of vampires and other renegades demons from the vandals, but an elite group made up of Robin''s new friends archfoes. They included, the Big Bad Wolf, The Evil Queen Regina, Mordred as well as the sadistic, renegade Goblin, Rumplestiltskin.


    The former Sheriff not only wanted to make Robin suffer, but also hoped to find a way to bring the vandals down too through any means necessary. Having always been the calm, manipulative and level headed one of the unholy trinity of the Sheriff, Prince John and Sir Guy. The vampire was a lot more noticably unhinged after his fall from grace, and was more prone to psychotic, childish tantrums than before, which even his lackeys weren''t always safe from. He was still a formidable enemy however and responsible for many more tragedies in Robin and the others lives.


    The Sheriff''s main plan was to construct a weapon, that could eviscerate a persons soul completely, to the point where they were even denied an afterlife. This could not only be used to destroy his human enemies, but also the vandals who fed on souls. The Sheriff constructed it over several years, using magics he had looted from Prince John''s castle ( magic that had been handed down by generations to protect kings) and magics stolen from vandals. He also performed horrific experiments on ghosts and vandals too, slaughtering and torturing hundreds of ghosts in the process. Among the spirits that suffered greatly under the Sheriff and his sick vampire minions included that of Prince Charming and the Huntsman. Sadly whilst Snow was able to save Charming, the Huntsman''s spirit was destroyed after he sacrificed himself to save Snow and Charming.


    That said however the Sheriff also suffered arguably his greatest humiliation during this period too, when he came into conflict with a beautiful witch named Jadis.


    Also known as the white witch. Jadis came from one of the alternate earths created by the gods, just before they left. This version of earth was known as Charn, and magic had become the most dominant force on the planet, though still not to the same extent as the age of magic.


    Jadis'' was part of a royal family, though she was not the next to inherit the throne. That honour fell to her equally vile sister. Jadis however, much like the Sheriff was completely consumed with an insane lust for power and along with her teenage, spoiled, nasty son travelled to our world. Hoping to find some form of magic on this other earth that her sister was not familiar with to use as a weapon against her.


    As soon as she arrived however, Jadis was left weakened through unintended side effects of her spell. Her presence also created a great magical upheaval, that the vandals, Robins team and the Sheriff and his followers all sensed. The Sheriff however, through his willingness to sacrifice more of his vampire lackeys against the others, managed to rescue Jadis and her son first.


    Low on power thanks to the unexpected consequences of her trip. Jadis was forced to join the Sheriff''s group and seduced him, with the two becoming lovers. She was extraordinarily beautiful. Indeed all the people of Charn were thanks to their magics. The Sheriff normally wasn''t interested in women however. To be fair most vampires are largely asexual, caring only about the hunt. The Sheriff even used to regularly scorn and mock Sir Guy for his feelings for Marian. Nevertheless Jadis'' beauty, power and the fact that she had been royalty, all enticed him in a way he didn''t even think possible. He absolutely did not love Jadis of course. She was simply there to boost his ego. To show how he was a true king who had won the queen of Charn''s heart, to boast about to his enemies etc


    For the period Jadis and the Sheriff were lovers, she played up to being his idea of the perfect companion too. IE someone who worshipped him, agreed with him on everything, told him any mistakes weren''t his fault etc.


    The vampire though skeptical at first, actually came to believe Jadis loved him more than anything, his ego was so great, which allowed the white witch to double cross the Sheriff and steal the soul destroying weapon he had spent years building.


    Jadis wrecked absolute havoc in Europe using the Sheriff''s soul destroyer, killing scores of people and vandals, before Robin and his followers, forced into an alliance with the Sheriff and his team were only able to barely stop her from slaughtering millions. Jadis was killing so many simply so she could use their hollowed out corpses afterwards to create an army of zombies to reclaim Charn, and from there other versions of the earth too. After learning of their existence she wanted them all under her rule. Jadis had found a greater use for the weapon than even the Sheriff. He simply wanted to use it to kill, she realised that a corpse with no trace of a soul, which all corpses had even after death were easier to revive, and therefore she could create potentially the greatest army of zombies of all time with this weapon.


    After the power to the weapon was drained however by the Sheriff with Robin and the others help. Jadis destroyed it spitefully to stop the Sheriff from having any use afterwards.


    The Sheriff was utterly humiliated, though he gained some small measure of revenge against Jadis by slaughtering her son. For anyone else that would have been the worst thing the Sheriff could have done, but whilst Jadis was upset, she ultimately didn''t care that much for the vicious little brat. Indeed the Sheriff literally held a knife at her son''s throat, just as she was about to return to Charn, threatening to cut him open unless she surrendered. Jadis however didn''t even look back. Instead she instantly jumped into the portal without a word, with the Sheriff subsequently killing the boy in a fit of rage and hate.


    Jadis had only had her son in the first place so her legacy could live on through him once she had seized the throne, but Jadis plans since learning of the other earth''s grew larger. She knew she could never rule them all in one life time, and therefore sought literal immortality, which had been forbidden even among the corrupt monarchs of Charn. Her time on earth meanwhile was not a complete waste for her. Whilst with the Sheriff, Jadis had also learned from him the truth about the hand of Ares, which the Sheriff had earlier tortured out of Herne just before Jadis'' arrival. (Jadis was the only person the Sheriff had told, such was his foolishness at being taken in by her beauty.) After her plans on earth failed. Jadis soon made plans to try and find the hand of Ares counterpart on Charn.


    Herne meanwhile after escaping the Sheriff, warned Robin that his arch foe now knew about Ares hand. Despite his hatred of Herne, Robin thankfully heeded his warning and would do all he could to try stop the former Sheriff. Especially as after Jadis had destroyed his weapon, the vampire became more eager than ever to get the hand. The Sheriff obviously did not want to set it off. Instead he wanted to use it force the vandals to surrender, though if they refused, then he absolutely would be willing to use it to ensure that his enemies lost. He had not plans to commit suicide, hoping he could just flee to another earth, having learned of their existence via Jadis. He also planned at some point to use it against Charn to make Jadis suffer.


    Over the course of Robin and his teams battles with the Sheriff, an unexpected romance developed between Regina and Robin, which led to Regina betraying her team. Granted this wasn''t simply because of her love for Robin. It was more because of her hatred for the Sheriff who she always thought was a pathetic fool. She had only joined him in the first place out of desperation, but after the debacle with Jadis she lost any tiny bit of respect for him she may have had. Still ultimately Regina underestimated the Sheriff, who not only learned of her betrayal and used it to capture Robin and the others, but then had Regina tortured by placing her in searing hot, metal shoes. He even forced the Evil Queen to dance in them before throwing her outside to die in the cold. The witch however survived through her sheer will alone and was rescued by Robin and the others who nursed the Regina back to health.


    Regina then briefly joined Robin''s side to get back at the Sheriff. There were naturally tensions between her and Snow White. In the end however Regina proved vital in helping to stop the vampire from stealing Ares weapon.


    Though the vampire and his followers did find the weapon buried beneath Rome. At the last minute the Sheriff was betrayed by another one of his supposed followers Rumple who similarly despised him. The vampire killed the Goblin in response but ironically Rumple''s betrayal gave Robin''s team the time they needed to blast the hand of Ares, that could not be destroyed otherwise into space using a combination of Regina and Snow White''s powerful magics. There the former war gods weapon remained floating harmlessly through our solar system for over 1000 years, until the Hylexan war, though more on that later.


    The Sheriff was forced to go on the run afterwards with his team having completely disbanded. He remained in hiding for years becoming a shell of his former self, whilst Regina stayed with Robin for a long while. Among the threats she faced with Robin and the others included her old "Mirror". After the vandals overran Snow''s kingdom the mirror fell into their custody. The spirit was able to trick the vandals into releasing it after which it rampaged throughout the continent, hoping to regain its former power and make Regina pay. Ironically it was Snow who finally was able to harness the magics within her completely (albeit only for a short time.) That saved Regina''s life and destroyed the evil spirit once and for all. Sadly however whilst this could have been a turning point for Regina, her lust for power eventually turned her against Robin and the others.


    Robin''s team meanwhile a few years after Regina''s betrayal, had another battle with Jadis, who back on Charn had managed to overthrow her sister and hoped to lead her new army to conquer our world.


    Jadis army proved to be such a big threat, that Robin was forced to work with the vandals to keep them at bay. (The Sheriff meanwhile wisely kept completely hidden throughout the entire conflict. Whilst Jadis may not have cared much for her son, she still referred to learning about the hand of Ares as coming at a terrible price for her, indicating at least some feelings of regret. No matter how fleeting.)


    In the end Robin and the vandals were only able to beat Jadis with the aid of her vile sister who subsequently reclaimed the throne on Charn, with Jadis then being forced to retreat on her home planet.


    Unfortunately however, Jadis later rebuilt her forces on her homeworld and Charn was caught in a civil war for years afterwards. At first both sisters swore not to use magic simply for their own survival, but when Jadis'' sister broke that promise, Jadis followed suit. Jadis had learned more about the hand of Ares on her second visit to our world, to the point where she was able to find where it''s counterpart was buried on her own earth. She then fused the destructive spell to her body, ensuring that it became a part of her. This meant that its magics could not harm her, though it could also only be used once as doing so again would burn her up. All Jadis had to do to set it off was speak a particular phrase. The harshest magical curse in her language which would only amplify its power. She referred to it as the deplorable word. Jadis finally used the word when her sister won their decades long war, and broke into Jadis throne room. Having killed the last of her loyal men, Jadis'' sister declared. "Victory". Only for Jadis to coldly reply. "Yes, but not yours." After which she spoke the deplorable word, that activated the hand of Ares and killed every single life form on Charn. Jadis in her own twisted way had won, but she was now queen of a dead world.


    The only thing Jadis regretted was that the weapon had unexpectedly depleted Charn''s magics to the point where the witch did not have enough power left to transport herself to another reality. Trapped on this dead planet, Jadis used the last of the magics to place herself into suspended animation until someone from another world arrived.


    That would happen over 800 years later, when two children from another version of earth after performing magical experiments with their uncle Andrew were inadvertently sent to Charn. Jadis used them to piggy back to our world, where she soon escaped and went on another rampage through Europe, eventually becoming part of the Third Reich''s supernatural army. She caused much more pain and suffering before the two children and a repentant Andrew tracked her down and used the same magics to send her to another alternate earth. Narnia. There however Jadis continued her reign of terror, coming into conflict with Aslan, a god who had attempted to help guide this version of earth, though that is a story for another time.


    Not long after Jadis army were defeated on earth in the time of the vandals. Robin''s team finally split apart for various reasons, namely the fact that the vandals power became more absolute and their situation became hopeless. The former archer himself later joined the 7th and final incarnation of the Circus Family. Ironically his old enemy Rumplestiltskin was also part of the Family at this stage, having been resurrected after his death by one of his many protege''s. The goblin enjoyed abducting children from wealthy families and raising them to be outlaw sorcerers for his own amusement, having made many children murder their own families as adults without the children even realising it. Whilst the two clashed at first, to their surprise as they shared many incredible adventures together that shocked even them, Robin and Rumple soon found themselves developing a strong, albeit extremely grudging respect for each other.


    After travelling through time and space for years, Robin finally returned to England in the 12th century. A little over a decade after he had first left England for Europe.


    There tired of being on the run, he reunited with Maid Marian whose coven gave Robin protection from the vandals. The two soon resumed their relationship and were happy for a few decades. They even had a son named Roger. Sadly however Robin and Marian''s archenemy the vile former Sheriff, eventually re-emerged. The vampire who after recovering from his breakdown over losing the hand, had since continued to stir up trouble for the vandals though he wasn''t able to muster up anything like the army he had before. He was shocked to learn that Robin was even still alive, with the archer having kept a low profile. The Sheriff only found out thanks to an old enemy of Marian, a former member of her coven named Mortianna who had been kicked out for abusing her magics. Mortianna had initially bonded with Marian, due to having come from a similar background (with Mortianna having been kicked out of her village for similarly using magics to help her family.) Mortianna however after learning from Marian, went too far in cursing the entire village to an eternal torment, with Marian renouncing Mortianna and believing her to be no better than Guy.


    Fittingly Mortianna in response then sought out Guy''s old ally the Sheriff to help make both their enemies pay. The Sheriff was also aided by a coven of demon worshippers who had come to view him as well as the deceased Prince John as heroes for liberating demon kind during their rule. (Even if that wasn''t quite what either did during their time. Even demons it seemed needed comforting lies.) Whilst Mortianna kept Robin and Marian distracted, the Sheriff with the aid of his new followers, abducted Roger and used him to lure Robin into a trap. Tragically along the way, the Sheriff sired Roger, and when Robin tracked down the Sheriff''s new lair. The archers now vampiric son stabbed Robin through the stomach and left his father to slowly bleed out on the Sheriff''s orders. The Sheriff then forced Robin to watch Mortianna torture Marian who she had captured, promising to kill him slowly only once Marian had died.


    With his last ounce of strength however, Robin wounded his now vampiric son and finally killed the Sheriff with an arrow through the chest. This was no ordinary arrow however. It had been infected with powerful magics during Robin''s time on the continent and literally burned the Sheriff alive from the inside. Robin''s actions also distracted Mortianna and gave Marian enough time to turn on and finally slay her former protegee too, whilst their demonic son escaped.


    Unfortunately as Marian had used the last of her power to defeat Mortianna, she was unable to heal Robin. It took hours for her power to recharge, which Robin didn''t have and they were too far away from her coven with no hope of contacting them. With no other options, Marian took Robin to the nearest priory, Kirkless priory. Unfortunately, the prioress was one of the Sheriff''s new followers. In fact she was a vampire and drained Robin of his blood. The archer however managed to stake her just before he died. Most accounts state that he died at the priory not long after in Marian''s arms, but some more romantic accounts state that he had enough strength to meet Marian in the forest where he fired one last arrow, telling her to bury him where it landed. Given his weakened condition however, this seems unlikely.


    After his death, Robin''s real role in history was edited somewhat in subsequent decades by the vandals, with the true nature of his enemies being left out. In time most came to believe him as nothing more than a folk figure, though at the very least tales of his exploits have continued for centuries.


    Robin''s legacy however was ultimately so much more than the folk tales. He inspired a lineage of vampire killers known as the Hooded men who continued to battle the supernatural for centuries to come. The first of the Hooded men had been trained by Robin himself. Named Jason. Robin in his later years was less willing to risk his life to battle the supernatural, due to his advancing age, and ironically he also did not want to drag his son into it. However the stronger the vandals grip became, the more he realised he had to ensure that there would always be people to fight them and other monsters and began training protege''s in secret. Jason proved to be his greatest protege and Robin trained him in his final years very closely, with Jason in many ways being as much of a son to Robin as Roger had once been. The Hooded men all not only mastered or at least attempted to master the same archery skills as Robin. They passed down the secrets of his magical and unique arrows that he had developed over his life, some of which even contained magic from other worlds (that he had picked up on his travels with the Circus Family.) The Hooded men''s greatest adversary meanwhile, was ironically Robins own vampiric son, Roger who went on to become one of the most legendarily evil vampires throughout the history of Britain.


    Following Robin and the Sheriff''s deaths near the end of the 12th century. The vandals hold over Europe was absolute and remained for the next 400 years until the early 17th century, and in the next article we shall explore this period of history.

 Rule of The Vandals

    During their rule the vandals suppressed all knowledge of the supernatural from the general public. They did so purely for their own survival, as obviously prey that didn''t believe its predators were even real was much easier to hunt.


    The vandals also limited the actions of demons and witches in order to ensure that their ruse would continue. In time however most demons and witches actually came to embrace the vandals set up, though even then the limitations the vandals put on them still led to clashes.


    Vampires, werewolves, ghouls and their numerous hybrid races meanwhile were hunted regardless. Most of them fled to other continents which as we will soon see, were better for vampires. Still do not think that the vampire became extinct in Europe during this time, or that they were anything even approaching victims.


    There were still plenty of underground vampire operations and clans, even entire cities ruled by them, who after regaining their strength following the end of the 12th century; continued to strike out at the vandals wherever they could. The resistance as it were remained a very strong force for four centuries and ultimately did help to bring down the vandals empire.


    Still whilst the vampires certainly did not die out in Europe, numerous other demon species that the vandals despised were not so lucky such as the Xascars who the vandals killed off simply because they thought they were ugly, disgusting creatures. The period from the 12th to 17th centuries ironically saw more demon species wiped out than any other in recorded history.


    Whilst the vandals greatly influenced the world of the supernatural, and through it our perception of them. They actually did not have much of a direct influence on human affairs throughout this period. They did not attempt to either impede or advance human development, and for the most part were happy for the humans to war with each other and run their own lives. They simply forced all of the leaders of Europe to concede to them and give the soul devourers whatever they wanted for their own ends, magic, wealth, victims etc. Whilst many have attempted to blame the wars and other atrocities that Europe (like all continents) would be guilty of. In truth that was all down to us. At the same time however our advancements and achievements were not down to the vandals either, no matter how hard they tried to rewrite history to say otherwise.


    Ironically the vandals greatest contribution during their rule over Europe would be for the good of not just mankind, but the universe itself, though obviously this was not intentional.


    Using the vast supplies of magic they had access to, the vandals constructed possibly the first, working time machine in recorded history. A craft that became known simply as the Tent to those who piloted it.


    The Tent was based on enchantments and writings from the age of magic. After their run in with Regina''s mirror. The vandals became more interested in the age of magic, and did all they could to try and find any surviving artefacts and spells left over from it.


    The soul devourers eventually discovered that the sorcerers from the age of magic had at some point discovered the secrets of time travel. The gods themselves had also discovered the secrets from the remains of the age of magic too, buried deep within the earth. (It would be within the gods temples that the vandals in fact found them.)


    The gods much like the later vandals, had attempted to construct their own time machine, with the left over magics from the gods time travel experiments continuing to drift through the earth for centuries afterwards. Most of the time these left over magics were harmless, but in a few instances they granted certain people and demons knowledge of the future. Herne had been one such example, though it had partly been through his own dabbling with magic that he had become vulnerable to the gods left over spells.


    However in spite of the experiments, both the gods and the sorcerers of the age of magic before them ultimately abandoned their pursuit of time travel for good reason.


    It is not possible, within the Sentenza omniverse to change your established history. For instance if you were to go back in time and stop a disaster like say the Titanic from happening. In the new timeline you would never be inspired to go back and stop it, which would mean it would happen, and then you''d go back, but then it wouldn''t and you wouldn''t and on and on it would go forever. A paradox like this not only traps all of those involved in an endless loop, but can potentially unravel the vortex itself by destroying the process of cause and effect.


    In order to prevent this from happening, creatures known as the Guardians will appear, undo any changes that have been made and send the time traveller responsible to a place known as the Abyss, which is an endless waste land. There is no time in the Abyss and those who die do not stay dead either, meaning its prisoners will be trapped forever.


    No force in the entire omniverse can match the Guardians and it is not known how they were created. Some have speculated that they were simply the product of the creator, designed to keep order in his absence. Others have speculated that they were the creation of multiple realms in the far future, pulling their resources together to make sure that their version of history could happen? No one even knows where the Abyss is. Again many have speculated that it exists at the bottom of the Sentenza omniverse, but it may not even be part of the omniverse at all.


    That said however time travel is still possible in the Sentenza omniverse. In fact in some cases it is necessary to create history as we know it. For instance imagine you going backwards in time was somehow the reason that your grandparents met, before your parents birth when they were young, IE you introduced them to one another. You would be the reason your own established past where they marry and have a son that becomes your father exists. Ironically if you didn''t time travel in this case, you would fade from existence. The same applies to those who have visions, such as Herne. They will see multiple timelines, and know exactly how to create the one they want. If they just try and do things on their own, that will still create a paradox, as then none of the potential histories they have seen will have been possible, meaning the one they were supposed to bring about will have never appeared to them to have an influence on their life. Whilst Herne may have seemed ruthless to us, he really had no choice.


    The history of the omniverse meanwhile is filled with time travellers creating their own histories as we will soon see. At times however time travellers from two potential time lines can compete to make sure their version of history comes true. The losers will not be sent to the Abyss, but will merely fade away.


    The vandals were aware of this from their research, but they hoped that they could still influence history to suit them. It took over centuries, but near the end of their reign the vandals constructed a primitive time vessel. Unfortunately for them however it was stolen, ironically by one of their own. A renegade named Ron Baker.


    Over the centuries the vandals usually only turned those they regarded as the elite of society into members of their kind, but every now and again they transformed low level criminals and peasants to use as a disposable army.


    Ron who was born in the year 1548 in England, had in life had been a petty thief, who had turned to crime at first to provide for his wife and son. After his crimes were discovered however, Ron was forced to go on the run to save himself for years. Eventually he ended up in prison and was among a group of random prisoners turned into a small army of vandals to help crush a powerful group of Turok Han that had built up in Scotland. Normally these lesser vandals were disposed of after they had fulfilled their purpose, but in this case the vandal forces including the elites who commanded the army were killed by the Turok Han, with Ron being the only survivor.


    On the run with his own kind and of course their enemies wanting to kill him. Ron joined a group of vandal resistance fighters. They only took him in because he claimed that he had inside information. Though it soon became apparent that he did not, they nevertheless kept him around entirely out of desperation.


    As time went on, Ron was able to control his desire to consume souls (by consuming magics that helped serve as a substitute for them.) Ironically he became a better man as a vandal than he had ever been when he was alive.


    Eventually the resistance force learned of the vandals time and space craft, and with Ron''s help they infiltrated it. Using powerful magics Ron was able to absorb the soul of one of the elite vandals and briefly take on his appearance which allowed the rebels access. Vandals could not normally eat each others souls, or the souls of vampires or other demons. Only natural creatures. However these powerful magics could enhance the abilities of vandals to the point where they could devour one another, though even then the process was extremely unpredictable and could destroy the vandal that devours the other as well.


    Thankfully however in Ron''s case whilst it was extremely painful, he survived, though the complications soon exposed their ruse to the vandals. In the ensuing confrontation, Ron Baker and several rebels fled to the Tent. One of the rebels, a witch then activated the Tent via magic as the vandal forces were surrounding them. Her misunderstanding of how it worked as well as the unstable nature of the Tent itself caused it to not only fly through time and space to another planet, but burn itself out in the process.


    The rebels and Ron were trapped on this hostile planet for several years afterwards, during which time all but Ron succumbed to the horrors of this world. Ron however was after the others deaths visited by Professor Fang. Whilst neither particularly liked one another, probably due to the animosity of vampires and vandals. (It''s worth mentioning that Ron would go on to make friends with other heroic vampires, suggesting it may just have been Fangs caustic personality.) Fang knew what Baker and indeed his future "Family" were to do in the grand scheme of things, as their future selves had helped him in the war for creation. Fang not only repaired, but improved upon the vandals craft. He ensured that it resembled a circus tent as the vandals somewhat unstable magics made it appear brightly coloured, and the Professor felt this was a better disguise.


    After being told what a circus was. Ron came to embrace the theme, referring to himself as the Circus Master. However the title was more than just Ron''s own pretentiousness. The Professor created a link between Ron and the Tent, which allowed Ron to experience visions of what he had to do wherever he landed in order to ensure the timeline went ahead as planned. Much like Herne though, the visions were somewhat vague as according to Fang, knowing too much about the future can end up preventing it. As the Circus Master, Ron travelled through time and space, battling monsters, demons, vampires and numerous other evil creatures and saved the galaxy again and again.


    In time the Circus Master however gathered up other creatures, individuals, and in some cases reformed demons and even vampires to join him on his adventures throughout time and space. Ron or the Circus Masters new team of time travellers came to be referred to as the Circus Family or the Circus Folk. The Circus Master whilst still being the one who the visions were channelled through, later adjusted the vehicle so that the other members of the family could see them in the fountain in order to properly see what they had to do on each mission. The visions however would not exist were it not for the Circus Master.


    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Not all of the Circus Folk were willing volunteers it must be said. Some were forcibly taken as history said they had to play important roles in their own past.


    The different members of the Circus Folk also came and went over the centuries, with their technically being dozens of different Circus Families. The longest serving member of the Family was Carlene, a reformed vampire whose tenure spanned multiple Circus Families, though we will be exploring her history later. Even the Circus Master himself was eventually replaced when Ron Baker was tragically killed defending the earth. The Tent however having be programmed to do so by Professor Fang chose a new person to join with. The second Circus Master was a goblin named Deskina, who had initially fled the war between the goblins and the monsters and indulged in a hedonistic, selfish life on earth before joining the Circus Family.


    He truly got a chance to redeem himself as the second Circus Master, whilst he in turn was later succeeded by Jack O''Kent as the third Circus Master. Kent was a demon who had attempted to take over his home planet, only to be overthrown and sent to earth. As a further punishment he was forced to do good, which was torture for the demon. Nevertheless after hundreds of years, heroism eventually became second nature to the demon, who joined and became the third Circus Master in the 1970s. The fourth Circus Master meanwhile was a scarecrow named Tarkan brought to life via magic, originally to protect a village outside of the supernatural hot spot Wystman''s wood. The fifth Circus Master was Anck Su Namun, a former Egyptian princess who had been brought back to life as a Mummy and much like Deskina sought redemption through her time with the Family. The sixth Circus Master was a powerful witch/former magician from the 1920s called Pamela. Finally the seventh Circus Master was the former god Pan. Stripped of his powers and glory, which he sacrificed to save a dying planet (That he had become fond of.) Pan was the first truly reluctant Circus Master, ironically wanting a quiet life when they found him, but in time he rediscovered his old sense of humour and scheming, trickster nature which made him one of the most effective Circus Masters.


    Over the course of the 7 Circus Masters tenure''s there would be over 50 members of the Circus Families in total.


    Sadly however after the seventh Circus Masters death, the lineage came to an end in our reality. The Tent meanwhile remained on the planet of the seventh Circus Masters death, Vasteria for centuries before mysteriously disappearing. It was in fact pulled into the alpha omniverse, where there would be 7 more Circus Masters, all with their own families who''d play just as important a role in that omniverses history as our own.


    Overall the Circus Family, collectively were the greatest heroes our universe would ever see. Ironically they were the single greatest legacy the vandals ever left, though sadly for the demons themselves, they also never recovered from the loss of the Tent.


    Having spent so much of their resources, workers and magics in constructing it. The vandals struggled to defend themselves afterwards and by the beginning of the 17th century, their empire had more or less collapsed. The final blow came from an unholy alliance between the vampires and the Cushing family.


    The Cushings had emerged at some point as a major power in Europe during the 7th century. They had raided the remains of an old Trajan and used its knowledge and power to gain a footing in the chaotic, post Roman empire Europe.


    The Cushings initially were allies of the vandals, seeing the vampire menace as the greater threat.(The Cushings also had a personal hatred for the vampires that eclipsed all else. Originally the Cushings had been simple land owners, but the vampires destroyed their entire area, and forced them to go on the run before they discovered the ruins of the old Trajan.)


    For a long while the vandals continued to use the Cushings to help them hunt other demons that they wanted out of the way. The Cushings for the most part had 0 problem working with the vandals, as they believed that they were a necessary evil as they held the other demons in check. (Unlike during the middle ages when vampires, and sorcery ran rampant. The Cushings along with many others believe that this was partly why humanity wasn''t able to properly recover for centuries after the fall of Rome.)


    Eventually however one of the Cushings named Abraham turned on the vandals too. Abraham though canonised by many as a great man and a hero, was something of a fanatic. He viewed all supernatural creatures as evil and later established the organisation known as Rentros to purge the world of all unnaturals. Through both his own actions and Rentros, Abraham Cushing was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent supernatural creatures and witches. Still he was the one that ultimately used his families resources to help strike the killing blow against the vandals power base. Despite his hatred of the supernatural, Cushing was willing to ally with the vampires and together they destroyed the supreme council of the vandals from their base in Holland.


    With the head of their empire destroyed, the other vandal bases became more disconnected and were soon picked off over the course of the 17th century.


    Ironically after the destruction of the vandal base it was Abraham Cushing that betrayed the vampire king he had allied with. Destroying his castle and killing his entire clan, which in turn destroyed his power base. The vampire king known as Erik Von Causen became the sworn enemy of the Cushings, dedicating himself to hunting them. In the mid 1920s he finally had his revenge and brought down the Cushing family. From the 1700s to the 1900s the Cushings were arguably the most powerful family in Europe. Though they obviously didn''t have the same scope and influence as the vandals, they were nevertheless the most prolific family of vampire and demon hunters of that era, with many leaders and prominent figures turning to them for help, even above the few remaining Trajans.


    The first world war however depleted most of the Cushing''s resources, which gave Erik the opening he needed to attack their castle in Germany. Most of the Cushings were slaughtered in the attack, though a few survived and fled across the world. Some changed their names and tried to live normal lives, but others did attempt to carry on their legacy as we will explore later.


    Despite the fall of the vandals. Their suppression of the truth about the supernatural, as well as the rewritten history books continued to influence European society for hundreds of years to come. Both the supernatural and indeed many leaders and prominent figures (who were the only people the vandals kept in the loop about the truth) actively worked to keep it that way. The supernatural obviously enjoyed being able to hunt more easily, whilst those in power feared that it would return to the middle ages if the truth was let out. As always they lied to us for supposedly our own good.


    The vandals themselves meanwhile, though holding onto power in some small areas, even after the fall of their empire. Suffered greatly as many of their species were hunted to extinction as a result of the vengeful vampires and demons and werewolves and witches.


    Europe however was obviously not the only continent to have dealings with the supernatural.


    In India, the vampires were able to emerge victorious over the vandals. It all began in the middle ages. The Gupta Empire, which had ruled for over 200 years from the 4th century to the 6th century had come down hard on the supernatural. Having seen how Rome had struggled with its vampire emperors, they were much more draconian in dealing with them. Unfortunately however this led to the vampires of India going further than those in Europe and attempting to resurrect a fallen goddess, Kali.


    She had been killed during the final war with Ares and laid to rest in India where her followers had lived. The vampires meanwhile succeeded in resurrecting her when many previous attempts had failed, by using the book of Khastran. Aside from being able to create vampires, the book also had the power to create purely demonic creatures that required no host body, and who were larger and stronger than any vampire. It could only create a very limited number of these creatures however, whose goal was to aid the other children of Khastran. This sect of vampires who had stolen the book of Khastran at some point after the Trajan wars (though it would end up back in Europe again by the 12th century.) Were able to transplant the spirit of one of these creatures into Kali''s corpse, allowing it to not only keep its powers through her body, but also utilise Kali''s strength too. This spell would not have worked had Kali been alive.


    The creature using Kali''s body swept across India, destroying the Gupta empire. Though the empire had already been weakened following a crushing defeat from the Huna people of central Asia. This creature brought the empire''s complete destruction with her vampire armies subsequently ravaging India.


    The vampiric Kali''s reign did not last long however. Ironically the spirit of the original Kali returned, having been disturbed by the desecration of her body from these monsters. Kali sought out a new host body and chose a peasant girl named Anika. The goddess wanted to chose someone who was physically strong which Anika being a farmer was. However at the same time, Kali like many of the gods from that time, was also an elitist who only valued those at the top and partially chose Anika because she felt she was worthless and if she died fighting the vampires then it would be no great loss.


    Anika at first was a willing ally, as the vampires had killed her family though when she learned the truth, things became quite tense between her and the goddess. Kali wasn''t able to manifest herself fully in Anika''s body. The peasant girl still had control for the most part, and was only able to harness a fraction of the goddess'' power most of the time.


    Still she did have access to Kali''s memories giving her tremendous fighting skills and knowledge of magics, which Anika used to slay hundreds of the vampiric Kali''s minions before facing the demon possessing her body itself. For just a few moments, Anika was able to fully harness Kali''s powers, due to both''s determination and slew the demon inhabiting Kali, allowing her body to rest afterwards.


    Kali''s spirit meanwhile continued to possess Anika and for centuries afterwards the goddess and the peasant girl, despite their difficulties continued to battle demons and vampires across the Indian continent, becoming one of its greatest heroes.


    Despite the death of the demonic Kali, her vampire minions however did still continue to spread across India. The most prolific breed of vampire in India were the Vetala, and their large presence in India ultimately limited the influence and population of vandals there. Though it must be said that the vampires never completely took over Indian society like the vandals did in Europe.


    Mainland China meanwhile ironically given its history with the dragons adopted a more hostile attitude towards magic. After the last magical kingdoms such as Shambhala fell sometime in the 6th century. Most of main land China rejected magic and the supernatural. There were a few villages and cities that tolerated magic, but even then it would usually only be certain individuals that would be allowed to utilise it, usually the Taoist priests in each village. An organisation known as the righteous men, "Zhengyi Nanren" built up of those Taoist priests soon spread through the mainland to protect villages from the numerous rampant supernatural creatures (such as the Jiang Shi, a particularly powerful breed of vampire.) These priests did more to help keep China safe from the paranormal during many trying times ahead for the continent than anyone else.


    Africa meanwhile, whilst being home to many different supernatural creatures throughout its entire history, arguably endured its biggest confrontation with the supernatural when it brought down one of its greatest empires, the Mali empire, which had lasted from the 12th to the 16th centuries. The centre of the Mali empire was the city of Timbuktu which also served as the centre for Islamic learning globally. Mankind''s knowledge of areas such as physics, natural history, geography and medicine were greatly advanced through extensive studies in Timbuktu''s Universities. Again however something that is often left out of the history books, is that Timbuktu also became the centre of study into the paranormal in a building known as the black mosque. For centuries, Timbuktu unearthed many key and interesting secrets about the supernatural as well as new spell and enchantments. It provided aid to demon hunters all over Africa and beyond. Eventually however this led to numerous sorcerers and demons all over Africa uniting against the black mosque and destroying it for revealing their secrets. Following its fall, Timbuktu and with it the Mali empire ultimately collapsed.


    The secrets of the black mosque remained buried for several hundred years until the late 20th century when they were unearthed by Vanessa Showina. She built a new organisation over the ruins of the old black mosque. which trained vampire and demon killers, and sorcerers from all over the world with the black mosque''s knowledge.


    The vandals lies about the paranormal being mere myths eventually spread to other continents, via Europe''s influence. For example British Empire covered over 1 quarter of the earth''s surface. Furthermore the supernatural from other continents, after learning about the good deal the supernatural had in Europe, where they could hunt in anonymity worked to create a similar situation in their home land, and just like Europe, leaders eventually got in on the act, both to keep the peace, and maintain power for themselves. IE certain leaders could even rely on the supernatural''s support as long as they helped cover their tracks.


    By the time of the 19th century most of the people of the earth believed demons, witches, magic and vampires to be nothing more than myths and superstitions and in the next few articles we will explore how the 19th century in particular would be a time of great change, albeit from behind the scenes as dark and alien forces began to circle the earth like never before.

 Lam and Carlene

    There has perhaps been no more unusual partnership in the history of our planet, than that of Carlene and Lam. A time travelling, reformed, beehive wearing, Jazz vampire from the 1960s and a renegade, grey skinned alien from the planet Zeta Reticuli. Still their enduring friendship which spanned centuries demonstrates that all obstacles can be overcome. Indeed whilst sadly their true contributions to humanity were often overlooked (simply because for so long humanity could not cope with what was really out there.) One could argue that the foundations of the golden age we currently live in where humans and Zeta Reticulans are the best of friends were laid down with this vampire and renegade aliens relationship.


    Today in the 25th century as I''m sure contemporary readers will know, the Zeta Reticulans are all around us on the earth. Truly no other species of aliens enjoy such a close relationship with humanity than the Zetas. Granted a large part of this is because the Greys as they used to be known, have a greater knowledge of our history through monitoring it and in a way almost feel responsible for us. Still just as many humans live on Zeta Reticula as their kind do on earth, and the exchange of art, history and culture is far more common among our two species than anywhere else in the galaxy. There was even a Zeta Reticulan Beatles tribute band last year, which was the first ever tribute band to human music from extra terrestrials. (I actually went to see it. Despite having a completely different type of vocal chords to our own and standing about 4 feet tall and not using a simple translator. They actually did not a bad job.) There have also even been more than a few Zeta Reticulan/human relationships, with the most recent President of earth having a Zeta Reticulan woman as a wife. (There have however been no successful offspring produced from these pairings, as of yet.)


    Still in spite of this touching friendship, things have not always been quite so easy between us, though the first real steps of this bond were arguably laid down with Carlene, Lam and the Freakish Family in the 19th century, though before we look at their relationship, we shall have to explore briefly the history of Zeta Reticuli.


    Zeta Reticuli was part of an intergalactic federation of planets, which began before the beginning of recorded history on our planet. Ironically it was formed by two warring species. The Imperiosa, who were the descendants of small meat eating dinosaurs from one of the Raskian colonies that had developed sentience. Near the end of the age of the Dinosaurs, a race of aliens known as the Raskians abducted several species of Dinosaurs to use in a civil war. The winning side then deposited these great reptiles on numerous planets around the galaxy, including Venus.


    Along with the Venusians who shielded their world with a magic forcefield that hypnotised any species that passed by into believing their world was uninhabitable. The Imperiosa were among the few sentient creatures to evolve from the Raskians displaced Dinosaurs. The Imperiosa, incidentally for decades were later known as the Reptillians by humanity when they were first sighted on our planet in the 20th century. The others were a race of humanoid aliens, that we would refer to as the Nordics due to their blonde hair, though in truth the species name was actually Lenas.


    The Lena, Imperiosa war lasted centuries and devastated both planets completely. It eventually came to an end simply because both had to ally just to survive. After another few centuries of recovery. The Imperiosa and the Lenas who ironically had probably grown closer in the struggle for survival than almost any other two species except for humanity and the Zeta''s, vowed to never let the same thing happen to any other race they encountered. At first they travelled to any inhabited planet they could and tried to impose their own will on the natives, forcing them to bring an end to any wars as well as use their technology and knowledge to cure any other ills that were affecting other worlds. Sadly in most cases their interference simply led to more wars and damage.


    Following these disasters, the Imperiosa and the Lenas wisely changed their tactics and simply observed any world they came across, sometimes for centuries through different agents known as monitors who always made sure to keep hidden to prevent each planet''s development from being tampered with. Once the natives of each planet had reached a stage of maturity, both socially and technologically that was deemed capable of coping with the idea of alien life. Only then would the Imperiosa and the Lenas approach and aid them in whatever way they could. Gradually over the course of thousands of years, a federation of alien planets was established this way by the Imperiosa and the Lenas. No planets where magic was the dominant force were included as part of this federation. Whilst the Imperiosa and the Lenas did not hate magic or persecute it, they were still terrified of it. There was actually another federation of magic planets anyway, though it existed in another galaxy. The Zeta Reticulans meanwhile joined the Imperiosa and the Lenas at a much earlier stage in the Zeta''s development than most other races in the Federation.


    Unlike most other species, socially the Zetas were felt to already be advanced enough before they had even left their planet, and they became among the federation''s most prominent members in a fairly short time, more because of how peaceful they were. The founders of the federation even came to believe that the Zetas were the best at recruiting other planets due to their peaceful nature and the small, large headed, grey skinned, black eyed aliens did ultimately end up recruiting far more races throughout the federation''s history than any other species.


    The reason the Zetas were such a peaceful race was ironically because they came from an extremely hostile planet. Whilst we may know it as a paradise now, that only came after hundreds of years of terrorforming. Originally the planet (which we know as Z3 as it is the third planet from its sun in the Zeta Reticuli star system, though the planet has also been referred to as simply Zeta Reticuli too) was exactly like earth in terms of its position from its sun, but for some reason, near the start of the Zeta''s development. The planet drifted ever so slightly out of its orbit. Not enough to kill all life, but enough so that it was trapped in a permanent ice age.


    The Zetas were forced to work together to a greater extent than humanity ever was. Unlike us they had no time for petty infighting. Literally every single individual had to work towards the survival of their species.


    The cold temperature also affected their biology. Rather than hair to protect them from the cold however, they developed a thick, strong grey layer of outer skin, almost like an exo skeleton (on top of their internal skeleton) that could absorb the cold completely without any trouble to their internal organs. The Zetas also became much smaller on average to survive on fewer resources. The average male Zeta Reticulan stands about 4 feet tall. Contrary to the popular belief throughout the 20th century (which came from abductions or close encounters.) The Zetas eyes were not black. In fact they resembled human beings, but they did have a black eyelid of sorts that could come down over their eyes, which they could still see through. This eye lid was capable of absorbing more light (which again was limited) on their planet allowing them to have sharper vision and see more clearly than other races in the dark, though it could also still be used to help them sleep like our eyelids.


    Our earth meanwhile was singled out by the federation for possible membership some time in the early 19th century, though given our warlike and brutal nature. It was to be quite a long time before we were even considered for membership of the federation.


    In fact the Imperiosa and the Lenas by the middle of the 20th century more or less gave up on our planet. At first they aided monitoring it in the 1950s and 60s believing that perhaps if all three species worked together then they could make a more in depth assessment. Sadly however the reptillians and the nordics after witnessing the folly of mankind up close, simply became convinced that we would destroy ourselves in an atomic war. The Zeta Reticulans however having infested so much research into our world still insisted on continuing to monitor it, though they were forced to do so on a reduced budget, resulting in the number of their crafts being sent to the earth reducing from the 1970s on. Eventually however by the 23rd century even the Zeta Reticulans gave up on humanity, though we will explore why later.


    One Zeta named Lam however never gave up on humanity. He was among the first sent to monitor our planet in the 1850s. Unlike the other monitors, Lam developed a bit too much of a liking for our world and our people and frequently went against the rules of keeping a distance from the natives of a primitive planet. He made friends with several humans (all of whom simply took him for an escaped circus freak.) He went to taverns, sampled human culture in more ways than one and even used alien technology to help his human friends who were sick.


    Luckily for Lam his friends among the other Zeta monitors of earth at that time helped cover up his activities to the authorities. Lam was a very personable, friendly sweet guy who was well liked by his team mates. He even convinced a few of these inexperienced Zeta monitors to join him in befriending some of the humans.


    It should be mentioned that the another reason Lam got away with this behavior, was because the other monitors on the earth were very inexperienced.


    The more capable and experienced monitors were busy dealing with the more advanced worlds whose transition had to be more delicate. As far as the federation knew, the earth was just a random primitive planet that was largely isolated and therefore wouldn''t be in the process of joining for several centuries. Eventually however Lam''s luck ran out, and he was responsible for a blunder so huge that even his friends could no longer cover his tracks.


    One night when he was drunk after a whole day in his favourite tavern, The Rose and Crown. Lam attempted one of the few abductions he took part in on earth. Part of the Zetas and other monitors of the federation''s job was to abduct natives, not to harm them, but to simply analyse their bodies to see if they contained any viruses or toxins that could prove harmful to the federation, or alternatively if there were any toxins in the Zetas or other federation species that could harm the natives.


    In the past there had been many catastrophic instances of contamination from species being too quick to visit unknown worlds, both within and outside of the federation.


    These abductions were also conducted to see how the average humans could cope with the idea of dealing with aliens on other worlds psychologically. The humans were never intended to be harmed in the abductions, though sometimes the mental distress could have a larger effect than the Zetas had predicted. There were also many culture clashes as well. For instance Zetas never wore clothes. They didn''t need too as their skin was all the protection they needed. As a result when they asked humans to strip for some abductions, to simply analyse their bodies for germs. To the inexperienced Zeta''s it was nothing, but to the humans it took on horrifying connotations. Furthermore the Zetas were a also a little bit confused about how the humans only had one mouth. Their kind actually has two, with the second being where the stomach is on a human. This feature had evolved in their race as both a defensive weapon and as a way of removing any poisons from the body, with the stomach mouth being able to regurgitate any harmful substances instantly. The stomach mouth wasn''t like ours however in that it didn''t have any teeth. Rather it absorbed and in the process crushed any food that was brought near it. The first few Zeta''s infamously mistook our belly button for a tiny mouth of some kind. The aliens also had no idea what the human hair was for, finding it a poor protection against the cold. They assumed much like their clothes it was decorative, and that their skin must be tough like theirs, which often meant that they didn''t adjust the temperature on their ship, resulting in the humans catching pneumonia and other illnesses from their abductions.


    Finally the aliens were more than a little bit confused by human ageing. Their kind did not age in quite such a linear fashion. Aside from having much longer life spans, they''d go through four cycles. They''d start off young and then become old, and then de-age and become young, before becoming old and then finally dying. This was the species way of ensuring that their population always remained stable as infant mortality rates were sadly high in the early years of their development. Granted in later eras it meant that population control became a problem, but this was soon ironed out when the Zetas began to colonise other worlds.


    Still again the inexperienced Zetas who were first sent to the earth and had no previous dealings with aliens even within the federation, and very little training were perplexed by how humans only aged one way, which sometimes led to some tragic misunderstandings, as the aliens abducted older people, thinking that they were stronger than they actually were or in the process of becoming young again. They underestimated just how frail some of these humans could be, which resulted in some abductees dying of shock and heart failure at the sight of the Zetas.


    Lam tragically witnessed one such event when a kindly old woman was abducted by the Zetas, who simply wanted to gain her perspective on how her society had progressed in her life time, only for her to collapse of a heart attack as these strange, blank eyed aliens approached her. The Zetas had their black eyelids on whenever visiting alien worlds, as it helped their eyes adjust to the light of different planets. Sadly however this made them appear more sinister to us. Whilst Lam had not taken part in the actual abduction process which was often done through a tractor beam. He was still among the aliens that approached her on the ship, ironically to calm her down, which he would carry guilt over for the rest of his life.


    Many believe this was another reason the other monitors tolerated Lam''s antics as at the very least he helped them gain a better knowledge of humans and their culture through his friendships with them. Some have even argued that the death of this woman was what convinced Lam to make friendships with humans, in order to better understand them. Still it''s worth noting that he was always a bit of a hedonistic, fun loving ladies man even back on Zeta Reticuli and this interpretation is probably just his followers trying to rehabilitate his earlier careless antics.


    Truth be told the federation was simply overreaching itself at this point. It should not have sent untrained, inexperienced aliens to primitive worlds. These Zetas had incorrectly underestimated just how different humanity was to them due to how similar we were physically, as we both have a humanoid body plan through convergent evolution. (Or a Zetian body plan from their point of view.) Ultimately life can vary in any number of ways, some obvious, some less so. The Zetas weren''t completely ignorant. They had a basic understanding of human biology, such as that the fact that we were warm blooded, breathed oxygen etc. Still they were clearly not in any way trained to deal with the complex differences between homo sapiens and their kind. The only reason this group of monitors were sent off with so little training to earth, was because the federation was desperate to get any planet it could to be part of it, out of fear of a rival power developing as much as benevolence. As a result of this arrogance, many lives were lost or at least ruined on earth and various other planets around the cosmos.


    Some Zetas attempted to use memory wiping technology to erase any trauma from the ordeal of abduction, though even then this wasn''t always guaranteed to work. Traces and nightmares could still linger, in some cases enough for the humans to piece them together afterwards. Some monitors attempted to get round this by using hypnotic suggestion, putting the human into a trance where they were unaware during it, but again not only could the memories still slip out. The hypnotic process could produce other nasty side effects too.


    Lam, who never abducted any humans by himself before now, and had only taken part in a very few, found the whole process to be disgusting and an abuse of the federations power over less advanced life forms. (He only signed up for the agency to see other planets.) He almost always passed the buck when it came to abductions, but after being warned that he had to pull his weight or he would be sent back home. Lam was finally forced to earn his keep and abducted a laut who used to hang around the Rose and Crown. He hoped it would just be a straight forward abduction, IE ask him a few questions about aliens and then move on. Little did Lam know however, his target had been turned into a vampire since he last saw him. The Rose and Crown was a popular bar for strange creatures and freaks (hence why Lam went there in the first place.) It wasn''t quite a monster club. At least not until the early part of the 20th century, but it was the next best thing and Lam''s planned abductee had run afoul of one of its few vampiric patrons.


    With Lam having paid very little attention to the lore about supernatural creatures on earth. The vampire after being abducted easily escaped from his restraints and overwhelmed the grey alien. The ensuing fight caused Lam''s saucer to crash back down to earth, straight into Westminster bridge.


    The aliens were then forced to repair the building (which with their advanced technology took less than an hour) and then wipe everyone in the nearby area''s memories afterwards which led to much larger consequences among the human population. Whilst the aliens were just about able to stop Lam''s mistake from altering the development of humanity. Lam was still sentenced to the worst punishment imaginable. Life imprisonment on the federations prison planet Yaskor.


    His friends however aided Lam one last time, by helping him fake his death. Whilst they urged the now renegade to leave the galaxy, Lam instead went back to earth that he had grown attached too and kept a low profile. There wasn''t really much for Lam back on Zeta anyway. Whilst he did have friends, his family had passed away many years prior. (His parents had him in their last cycle of being young, which was unusual at that point for his people.)


    Eventually Lam returned to England, after the Zetas began to focus more on America. Whilst England was at the heart of the British empire, their previous activities meant that it was more difficult for them to stay hidden there. Not everyone''s memory of the aliens had been wiped. At least some retained flashes of the aliens crashing into and then repairing the building, and a conspiracy theory soon built up over alien invasions. In response to this the Zetas set up shop in America which became the aliens main base of operations for over 100 years after.


    Lam meanwhile having spent more time on the earth than any other member of his kind, meant that his eyes had adjusted to its light to the point where he didn''t need to have his black eyelids over them. This, coupled with a fake nose, thick clothes including a hat and gloves, helped him pass for a human for the most part in the streets. He got by meanwhile through a forged identity of Barney Sagan and a small detective agency he set up.


    In the year 1865 however, the aliens life changed, when a witch (who had retained her memory of the crash via magic.) Soon realised what Lam was and tried to harness his unique alien blood. Fortunately however the grey alien was rescued from the witch by Carlene, a reformed heroic vampire. She too had set up a detective agency in the area, with the two even being rivals. Lam had always suspected there was something wrong with her, but after this incident, they not only combined their agencies into one, but became best friends. Both could relate to being outsiders among their kind. Not only was Carlene a vampire, but she was not of this time either. She had actually been sent backwards via magic from the year 2007. Much like Lam she was trapped here, with seemingly no way of returning home.


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Aside from the standard powers of her vampire breed, super strength, speed, healing, immortality, senses and the ability to adhere to any substance. Carlene ironically learned a lot about magic from Lam in his personal future, from the 70s and the 00s to the point where she constructed a special magical weapons chest which she placed on the top of her head. It took the form of the beehive hair cut she always used to wear. (This had been a very popular hairstyle for women in the 1960s and was Carlene''s signature look along with black eyeliner, when she was a singer.) The weapons chest was also bigger on the inside and allowed her to carry dozens and dozens of weapons at a time.


    Arguably Carlene''s most useful powers however were her resurrection abilities. She was one of the few vampire breeds that could be brought back after death. However each time she was revived, her physical appearance was altered slightly. She always felt her nose was too big, no matter how much else changed. Granted back when she was alive, nasty music critics tended to comment on how she could joust with her nose, so it was clearly a sore spot for her. Still the Carlene stranded in the 19th century looked very different to the Carlene of the 1960s, despite her immortality.


    Carlene was born in the year 1934 in Camden in London. She became a singer with her band "Dangerous Hamsters" in the early 60s. Whilst they never quite achieved mainstream success, they were critically acclaimed and enjoyed a very devoted following. They were also well respected within the industry as well, with Carlene even playing as an opening act for the Beatles at the peak of her success, who were all big fans of hers. Well at least that''s what she said. In fact she said that John Lennon had called her the greatest female vocalist he''d ever heard. Oddly enough when she later lived in New York in the 1970s, she never took Lam up on his offer to meet up with their mutual acquaintance John Lennon, who Lam got to know after accidentally flying his craft too low over Lennon''s apartment in New York city circa 1974. Lennon was fascinated by the incident and talked about it several times afterwards. Fortunately Lam was able to talk to Lennon and his lover May Pang, who had also witnessed the event and convinced them both to keep quiet for the sake of their species, though Lennon left out the details of who Lam was, he did still bring up the UFO incident many times. Lennon meant no harm as given his persona, he believed that people would just think he was joking, though Lam still always got a bit nervous whenever the story was told.


    Sadly however, Carlene''s band soon attracted the wrong attention from a deranged fan named Alex. He had actually been there right from the very beginning of their career and had always had a huge crush on Carlene. At first she thought he was sweet and was happy to have such seemingly loyal fans, but soon his behavior started to get out of control when she became romantically involved with the guitarist of the band, Harry.


    He started to accuse her of being a lying bitch, leading him on, and even threatened Harry (who he had disliked from the beginning.) Carlene eventually got a restraining order against her former number 1 fan, but sadly that didn''t stop Alex when he was turned into a vampire. Alex had been chosen to become a vampire specifically because of his demented, violent behavior. (Carlene wasn''t the first unfortunate woman to become an object of his "affections" so to speak.)


    The vampire that sired Alex was part of a gang of bloodsuckers who were building an army in the London Underground. As soon as Alex was turned, the first thing he did was attack Carlene on her way home from a club in the year 1966. He turned her into a vampire, hoping that she would be his bride for all eternity.


    Instead Carlene, motivated by her rage at Alex for ruining and controlling her life, slew her sire. She then escaped from the underground base of the vampire gang he was part of, with the help of a local vampire hunter they had captured and were torturing, Stacey East.


    Upon being freed, Stacey and Carlene worked together to bring down the vampire cult, after which Stacey told Carlene to travel to the city of Darrow. Having long been a haven for vampires and demons. Stacey however told Carlene to go there specifically to meet her old boyfriend, Marcus Cushing (one of the last surviving members of the Cushing family of vampire hunters) who she felt could help Carlene.


    Decades ago when Stacey lived in Darrow, she and Cushing had hunted the paranormal together and she had clashed with him, and others over the fact that he believed it was possible for demons to control their violent urges.


    Carlene, who hadn''t fed on a single person during her battle against the cult and wanted to continue to abstain had genuinely challenged East''s beliefs. She was still skeptical, but felt that at the very least Marcus (who had since become a detective) would be a better person to understand what she was going through.


    Detective Cushing as he was known became a father figure and mentor to Carlene in Darrow, helping her come to terms with what she was, as well as training her to use her vampiric powers for good. Aside from Cushing, Carlene was also assisted by the ghost of a local woman named Lily Rose, who haunted the Darrow cemetery where Carlene lived. She had transformed a large Mausoleum into a rather comfortable living quarters, complete with a tv set, some recliner chairs, whilst below was a crypt that contained, eventually a bar, a pool table (which was Carlene''s favorite game) and a jukebox! The jukebox was actually given to her by students from the local Darrow university, who Carlene had saved from a vampire attack and donated it to her as a thank you.


    The Mausoleum actually belonged to Lily''s family, but she did not mind Carlene desecrating it. In fact she even helped the vampire. Lily''s family known as the Leick''s were among the most powerful in Darrow during her time, the 18th century, and continued to be up until the later half of the 20th century. Sadly however their wealth and influence came through cutting deals with the supernatural. Lily was initially ignorant of where her family''s wealth came from, but soon learned the truth when a young man named Jason tried to burn down her house in revenge for his parents being sold to a local vampire. Lily took pity on him, and even helped Jason escape with the two becoming lovers as they battled both Lily''s family and their supernatural allies for many years until they were both captured. They were betrayed by a young woman named Kirsty Wilson who had come down from Dundee as she had inherited a fortune from her wealthy aunt in Darrow. After recklessly losing her fortune, Kirsty had fallen in debt with the Leick''s. Lily and Jason helped Kirsty escape from their clutches and advised her to flee Darrow. Even here they found Kirsty to be a hateful, obnoxious, individual, but sadly even they truly had no idea how greedy, cowardly and self serving Kirsty truly was, and she subsequently betrayed them to the Leicks in the hopes of getting in with Lily''s family. Lily''s own father then handed Jason over to a particularly vicious band of vampires who hung, drew and quartered Jason, right in front of Lily. Fortunately Lily managed to escape from her chains before they could turn her, but she was unable to escape from her family castle and killed herself to avoid being turned into a vampire.


    Lily''s spirit wandered around the resting place of her body for two centuries, in a dazed state with it only being her guilt over failing to stop her family that tied her to this earth. When she saw Carlene desecrate her families crypt however, she was snapped back into consciousness and soon became Carlene''s best friend. Sadly Lily was barely able to leave her cemetery and therefore couldn''t help Carlene directly, but her knowledge of magics, the supernatural and indeed Darrow itself proved vital to Carlene again and again.


    In time Carlene became a hero to the people of Darrow, battling demons, vampires and common criminals on its streets throughout the remainder of the 60s. During that time she made many notable enemies.


    Among her most evil and dangerous foes included the zombie serial killer named Thomas, though he was better known by his gruesome nickname, "The Fiend of Darrow" (which considering what kind of town it was said a lot about the extent of his crimes.) No one knows exactly how many people he killed in life, as he often liked to claim responsibility for just about any unsolved crime, but it is believed to have been over 30 victims.)


    He was eventually hanged for his obscene crimes in the 17th century, but according to the most accepted legend, Thomas was revived by a witch with a grudge against the city of Darrow to be a curse on the town. There are others however who argue that Thomas was never human to begin with, and much of his origin beyond his original heinous crimes is still shrouded in mystery. Either way the zombie carried out his brutal killings for centuries afterwards. He was slain many times, but always somehow managed to return and sadly though she bested him many times. Even Carlene was not able to put the vile zombie down for good.


    Another major enemy was The Silent Clown, a hideously deformed and insane vampire. In life he had been a children''s entertainer and a very sweet, kind hearted man. Tragically however a party he was performing at was attacked by a horde of vampires, and everyone there was killed except for the man who would one day become the Silent Clown. For some reason the vampires decided to spare him and subjected the clown to horrific torture and disfigurement before turning him. They cut his nose off, and his lips so that his mouth permanently resembled a hideous grin. His breed were already somewhat inhuman looking, possessing greenish, white skin and yellow sharp teeth. Most would argue that the vampires don''t need an excuse to torture someone such is their sadism and cruelty. Others however have suggested that perhaps in contrast to someone like Alex being selected, the vampires could sense the Clown''s innocence and wanted to corrupt it.


    The Silent Clown as he came to be known due to his lack of speech began targeting children. Perhaps it was just a distortion of his previous life, or perhaps he somehow blamed children because he had been captured at a child''s party? Either way, The Silent Clown travelled from city to city, devouring the children. One unfortunate child however was always kept as a ghost and made to serve the vampire, helping the clown lure away and capture other children. The clown''s breed of vampire, much like their vandal cousins could manipulate and even harm and destroy ghosts, though they did not feed on them like vandals.


    The Silent Clown had visited Darrow many times prior to his first battle with Carlene, having always managed to evade the authorities and even the other supernatural forces who viewed him as a wild card.


    Carlene however was drawn into conflict with the monster, when a young girl she had befriended at the Union named Julia was abducted alongside her brother by the demon. Julia was able to escape with the aid of the Clown''s latest ghost servant, who briefly managed to severe the vampires control over him, whilst sadly her brother was devoured by the clown. Carlene with the aid of Detective Cushing not only saved Julia, but freed all the children the clown had captured and burnt his base to the ground. Sadly however the vampire escaped and would continue to battle Carlene many more times. Carlene meanwhile remained in contact with Julia, though she tried to stop her from getting involved in her battles against the supernatural. Julia however was determined and in time she essentially became Carlene''s sidekick and a formidable vampire hunter in her own right. It would be Julia that finally slew the Silent Clown, near the end of Carlene''s time in Darrow.


    The beehive topped vampire also faced the black Tyrannosaurus during her time in Darrow. Again nobody quite knows where this monster came from. Some think it may have been a weapon created by the Dragons to use against the gods that got out of control, but there have been sightings of it all over the world for centuries. The black Tyrannosaurus is larger and stronger than any real Tyrannosaurus. (Which is no mean feat.) However its greatest power is the hell dimension contained within its stomach, where those it devours are condemned to an eternity of suffering. Many of their faces appear constantly in its stomach screaming. In fact the Dinosaur has no roar of its own. When it opens its mouth all that can be heard are the screams of its previous victims. It also has the ability to release certain souls from its stomach to use as weapons. The black Tyrannosaur is believed to have settled underneath Darrow at some point after World War 2. The sewers of Darrow contain many horrors and strange creatures and dark magics that were imprisoned there in the early days of the city when it was run by vampires. Very few are brave, or stupid enough to even attempt to enter the sewers, but the black Tyrannosaurus became the apex predator of the underground. It was not a personal adversary of Carlene like the others. For the most part the Dinosaur was content to hunt the other demonic creatures of the sewers and Carlene was happy to let it do so.


    However she first came into contact with it, when a group of demons kidnapped Julia and held her for ransom in the hopes of forcing Carlene to help them. Their base was situated in what they thought was a safe area of the underground, but the Tyrannosaurus, not wanting anything to move in on his territory attacked and killed most of the demons, causing Julia to flee where she became lost in the sewers until Carlene, barely saved her from the Dinosaur.


    Carlene later came into conflict with its followers who brought, rare live Demons and magical creatures from around the world for the Dinosaur to hunt. The Dinosaur appeared to remember Carlene after these two encounters and would often fly into fits of uncontrollable rage whenever it saw her.


    Another major adversary of Carlene''s was the evil witch known as Lystenia, who ironically had once been a great hero like Carlene herself. Sadly an attempt to prevent a dark spell from spreading over the English countryside in the early 1900s led to Lystenia absorbing its power which both corrupted and drove her insane. Lystenia then spent the next several hundred years using her magics to cause trouble, and inflict horrific curses on people. She and Carlene fought for many decades until Carlene was able to remove the dark magics from her soul, after which Lystenia came to her senses and ironically became one of Carlene''s best friends, eager to make up for her past sins.


    The demon sorceress Sekensa however proved to be truly beyond redemption. She had an affinity for demons, so much so she was able to travel to hell dimensions and back and absorb the power from the darkest hell worlds that no one else on earth could reach. However she soon came to realise that in order to absorb the most powerful magics of hell, her soul would have to be condemned there, so she allowed one of her servants to kill her, in the hopes that after a few months they could then perform a resurrection ritual.


    Sadly for Sekensa her followers were tracked down and killed by Lily''s family (not out of altruism, simply because by that stage they now controlled most of the supernatural activity in the town and viewed Sekensa as a renegade.) She suffered in hell for 80 years, until her spirit was able to reach another person in the city who had similarly suffered as a result of Lily''s family, with Sekensa influencing her to bring the witch back, in Darrow cemetery where he body had been buried.


    The resurrection spell allowed many other horrors from hell into our world, with the cemetery being overrun. However Sekensa''s spirit was finally able to enter our reality and now fused with the dark powers of hell, she sought to inflict revenge on the city of Darrow, becoming one of Carlene''s most dangerous and evil foes in the process.


    Carlene also faced the legendary Ghost Guards many times too. In fact it is through her dealings with them that we know the little we do about these creatures.


    The Ghost Guards as they have become known are aliens from another world who travel from planet to planet using spells and enchantments. Eons ago they built up a vast interstellar empire, however it eventually fell, like all empires do eventually, but these aliens however decided to use more dirty, underhanded means. They felt that it they could not conquer the living, then they would conquer the dead and travelled from world to world, abducting ghosts and using them as slave labour.


    Through some basic magics a ghost could be made to interact with the world around it and be bound to a creatures will. These kinds of magics were nothing to the Ghost Guards. Furthermore most natural creatures either exorcised ghosts, or even denied their existence such was their own fear of death. Therefore the Ghost Guards could abduct spirits from all over the universe and use them as slave labour without most being aware. The Ghosts themselves meanwhile had no way of rebelling and in many cases were duped into thinking this was their natural afterlife anyway.


    In time the Ghost Guards species built up an even greater society that was able to keep itself isolated from the rest of the universe. Still they needed a constant supply of fresh spirits from all over the galaxy to maintain it.


    Carlene certainly wasn''t the first to encounter the Ghost Guards, but she did learn more about them and even became an enemy of theirs. Her first dealing was when the monsters attempted to abduct Lily, which Carlene foiled. The creatures vowed that they would abduct the spirit of anyone that Carlene got close too in order to spite her, a fear which stayed with Carlene and even led to her becoming reclusive for a few years after she left Darrow.


    Another horrifying enemy of Carlene meanwhile was The Ghoul of Darrow, who was no ordinary Ghoul. Using a combination of magics and his own supernatural powers, the Ghoul was able to fashion magical coffins that could keep the victims alive for years and regenerate parts of their flesh after he tore our their organs, or certain body parts to feast on. Many of his victims, whose coffins were kept hidden all over Darrow were kept in a state of perpetual agony for years on end.


    Carlene''s greatest adversary''s however were Lord Paul and Eliza Stansfield. The former was a descendant of Lily''s family. By the 1960s, they had become the most powerful family in all of Darrow and controlled most of the criminal and supernatural operations in the city, with Lord Paul controlling all of their operations. Over the course of her time in the 1960s, Carlene finally managed to bring down the deranged Lord Paul''s empire, and he continued to face her many times later, becoming obsessed with making the vampire pay. In time his magics slowly corrupted his body turning him into a hideous monster physically as well.


    Eliza meanwhile was a vampire of the same breed as Carlene. Like Carlene she had tried to control her thirst at first for the sake of her husband and their daughter. Sadly however it eventually became too great and she killed her husband. When her daughter saw what she had done, Eliza ripped her throat out and became one of the most infamous and brutal vampires on record. Everywhere Eliza went she caused chaos and convinced the vampires to take control. Naturally Darrow which was not only a hotspot for the supernatural, but was now effectively ruled by the human Lord Paul, was a very special project of hers. She and Carlene soon came into conflict in her attempts to stir up trouble, and whilst Eliza viewed her as a small annoyance at first, in time she became obsessed with breaking the beehive topped vampire.


    Some believe it may have been because the fact that Carlene could control her thirst, forced Eliza to face what she had done to her family. Before she had always written it off as vampires were incapable of controlling their bloodlust, but now seeing one who had, meant that she perhaps bore some responsibility as well.


    Eliza targeted Carlene''s loved ones and was responsible for some devastating losses, which eventually led to Carlene murdering her archenemy. Unfortunately however Eliza was resurrected, but her resurrection was botched somewhat thanks to Carlene, leaving her trapped into a hideous, emaciated, disfigured form. In this body Eliza became more than just an ordinary vampire and her hatred of Carlene soon took over her entire being. Much like Lord Paul she continued to battle Carlene for many decades afterwards.


    At the start of the 1970s Carlene following several devastating losses at the hands of her enemies, left Darrow and headed for America. After a year alone, she first met Lam from her perspective. Ironically he became a mentor to Carlene at this point in her life. (Keeping the fact that he knew her when he was younger secret to preserve the timeline.) By that stage Lam had become a powerful sorcerer and was very dedicated and no nonsense, often clashing with Carlene''s younger more rebellious nature. The two eventually moved their operations to New York where they gathered another team of vampire and demon hunters. Carlene however later left New York some time in the 1980s, and eventually ended up in Aviemore in Scotland at the start of the 21st century. Here she reunited with Lam and they helped form another team of demon hunters including Lindsey (future companion to Professor Fang) and former agent of Rentros, Daniel Winn. They would also be assisted by the Loch Ness Monster (an old friend of Lam''s)


    Finally in 2007 she was blasted backwards in time by a powerful magical force that threatened the Highlands to the early 19th century.


    Back in the 19th century meanwhile, Carlene now had to be the one to guide the much younger Lam into tackling the supernatural. Lam had previously focused more on solving human crimes in his agency before Carlene arrived, and so ironically the much older version of Carlene had to teach him magic in exactly the same way, as he had once done to her, or rather would do. One area however where Lam and Carlene always clashed, regardless of whether he was mentoring her, or she mentoring him was that Lam would never kill humans unless he had too, whilst Carlene viewed killing an evil human no differently than killing a vampire or a demon. Despite their strong friendship, both very nearly came to blows over these differences many times.


    Along the way Carlene and Lam built up a small but effective team of similar misfits and supernatural creatures in 19th century London just as they would do a century later in New York. Five in total who earned something of a reputation among the locals who referred to them simply as The Freakish Family and in the next chapter we shall explore their history and influence.

 The Freakish Family: Part 1

    The Freakish Family as they came to be known by some of the locals (which they eventually embraced) were the greatest heroes of the 19th century. Whilst history beyond a few who knew about the supernatural largely forgot them. It''s safe to say that were it not for this band of unconventional champions, we would not be here.


    Aside from Carlene and Lam of course, the Freakish family included three other very different heroes from different times, and in some cases worlds.


    The first to join after Carlene and Lam, was the very original of several monsters created by Professor Frankenstein.


    Victor Frankenstein was one of the greatest scientists of his generation. I''m sure most of you reading will know his story, of how a young, gifted scientists created a man, from the remains of several other men fused together in an effort to show that he could create life. Sadly however the unnatural strength and initially unstable personality of the man Victor created, caused him to attack his creator, seriously wound his servant Karl and flee into the countryside.


    Victors creation soon stabilised mentally, and actually proved to be an intelligent, articulate individual. (The brain that had been used was actually one of Victors mentors, which had sadly been damaged in the process, but memories of its former life nevertheless crept their way back in slowly.)


    Sadly however due to the creature''s deformed face and unnatural strength it was deemed a monster and chased by the population. After barely surviving against the baying mob, the so called monster sought Victor for help, but he turned his back on it. The creature then desired vengeance against the man who brought it into this world. Rather than simply kill Victor however, instead the monster wanted to make its father into an outcast like him. It left a trail of evidence for the authorities that allowed them to piece together that Victor had created it. Unfortunately however this led to the same angry mob that had tortured and nearly killed the monster to attack Victors house, destroying decades worth of research and murdering his wife and son when they burned his house down. The monster was horrified by the mobs reaction, having not dreamed that they would go that far. It even tried to rescue Victors son in the middle of the carnage, but sadly just as they had almost escaped the burning wreckage, the monster and the young Frankenstein were both buried under a flaming piece of debris, and the boy was killed instantly. The monster tried to kill himself afterwards in grief by drowning, but found that it was not enough to kill him. The only thing that could kill the monster thanks to his inhuman physique was complete dismemberment. Forced to live with what he had done, the monster, which was all it referred to itself now as, resolved to travel the world battling evil in an attempt to make up for its past mistakes.


    It''s story was passed down into folklore and eventually adapted as a novel by Mary Shelley. She met the real monster many years later however and ironically it became one of her best friends, with the two even hunting vampires and vandals together.


    Victor meanwhile now on the run also continued with his experiments, creating other similar undead creatures, all of which were failures for one reason or another. Over the years his constant failures, bitterness at his first creation and torture over the death of his family, drove Victor to madness.


    The Professor later started to deliberately create monsters to make humanity suffer and devoted himself to hunting down his first creation, with the two becoming the bitterest enemies.


    By the time the monster met Carlene and Lam however he had seemingly given up. He had been forced to kill his creator, seemingly in a final showdown in Antarctica. The monster had not wanted to kill his creator. Not just out of guilt over what had happened, but he genuinely came to believe that Professor Frankenstein''s experiments could be used to help humanity and tried to redeem his creator many times. Sadly however their last confrontation left the monster with no choice and he was broken by it to the point where he no longer even cared about fighting evil.


    In fact the monster was working as a circus freak just before joining the Zeta and the vampire. Lam was the one to bring him out of his slump after finding the monster drinking at The Rose and Crown one night. Though Frakenstein''s creation had also attempted to cover up his appearance, even at this bar, Lam wasn''t fooled. The monster never became a part of the official agency and still earned a living through the circus, but he nevertheless accompanied Carlene and Lam on most of their missions developing close friendships with the alien and the time displaced vampire in the process.


    The three later became a four, after a visit from one of the few other remorseful vampires aside from Carlene, Varney. We will explain later as to why Varney and Carlene were capable of controlling their blood lust unlike most other members of their kind.


    Varney in life was originally an English King during the 4th century. He was at least by the standards of his time a fair and just leader, but sadly his son and successor, Varsces was cruel, vicious and power hungry.


    Varsces tried to murder his own father when he was just 17, forcing Varney to go on the run. The guards were more sympathetic to Varsces. Unlike Varney who was more sympathetic to the people, and would never allow lethal force to be used in dealing with them. Varsces happily let the men punish the poor villagers in any way they saw fit. He himself even took part in it just for his own amusement. Varsces cruel nature came from his mother. She had married Varney, simply because he had proven himself to be a great warrior, and she hoped that he could help protect her. (Uprisings and riots were common, given how poor the kingdom was.) Varney meanwhile had been seduced by her beauty and status, but their marriage was not a happy one.


    Her entire family were corrupt and only tolerated Varney at best. Furthermore she spoiled Varsces terribly from when he was a child. After she was killed by an angry villager, Varsces blamed Varney for being soft on them, leading to their already hostile relationship becoming even colder. This also began the boy''s heinous treatment of the lower classes and peasants in his kingdom too, even by the standards of his degenerate family.


    After his banishment, Varney led an uprising against his vile son, but when that failed and he barely escaped with his life. Varney became more desperate and eventually turned to the black arts. A vampire who had also been run out of the kingdom, after feuding with Varsces grandfather. Offered to turn Varney, promising him that with his skills as a warrior and the supernatural strength of a vampire, he could easily slay the king. With no other choice, Varney accepted, and aided by his new vampiric powers. He managed to infiltrate the kings castle, catching him unaware and butchered his own son.


    In spite of how much of a monster Varsces was. Varney was horrified by what he had done. It wasn''t even just that he had been willing to murder his son, which to be fair he had always been after the horrors Varsces had carried out. The fact that he actually relished in it disturbed him, and Varney subsequently did his best to try and control his blood lust from this point on.


    Over the centuries however Varney went back and forth between attempting to control his blood lust and giving into it. He never killed indiscriminately however. Whenever his blood lust became too great. He was always very selective in who he fed on, and even when he did return to feeding on humans again. The vampire still always used his powers to help people.


    Varney became a notorious figure throughout Europe. Wanted and hated by vampires, vandals, demons and even many powerful and influential human figures. It''s perhaps not surprising to learn that he was actually killed many times, though his breed had advanced restorative powers much like Carlene, which allowed him to be resurrected many times too. Prior to joining the Freakish Family, his last resurrection had occurred during the time of Oliver Cromwell. Varney''s restorative powers were also always greater on the night of the full moon.


    By the 19th century, the vampire had come into wealth and influence from the Bannerworths. This family were haunted by a demon that one member had attempted to bring into this world as his slave. The demon however rebelled and killed its proposed new master, but in the process with the spell having not been completed. The demon was left trapped between worlds. Able to influence both to some extent, but not truly existing in either.


    The demon vowed to kill the remainder of the Bannerworth family as only then would the spell be broken and it could return to its own world.


    Whilst not able to kill them directly it could still influence other demons in our world to do so, and in rare cases even people too. The Bannerworths, having no real magical knowledge of their own (as the renegade member of their family who summoned the demons'' notes had been foolishly destroyed by the others before they realised they were being haunted.) The family approached Varney to protect them.


    During his time with the family. The vampire developed a friendship with two of the Bannerworth siblings, George and Flora. Indeed Varney actually suspected that the Bannerworth''s may have very well been his descendants, as during his time as king he and his wife had many affairs her with noblemen, he with the peasants, which led to many illegitimate children on his part. Most of these "bastard" children were put to death by Varsces, but a few escaped and may very well have led to the Bannerworth dynasty.


    Varney took on a fatherly role to the two children, taking the place of their actual father who died many years prior.


    Unfortunately however one of the children, Henry was in fact poisoning the mother, wanting to frame the demon for her murder, so that he could then forge her will to get all her money and finally cast out his siblings (who he had always despised.)


    The vampire however discovered what Henry was planning when he tried to kill Varney, and Henry in response actually formed an alliance with the demon. He promised to help the demon fully enter our world by completing the spell, which it preferred as back home it was a low level demon where as here it could be a wolf among the sheep.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    Sadly in the ensuing fight Henry, George and the mother were killed, and though Varney believed he had slain the demon. It survived and returned five years later to finally kill Flora.


    By that point Varney had left Flora. Though he had helped her through the death of her family, and she wanted him to stay. He felt that as long as he was in her life she would never be safe. Ironically this meant that he wasn''t able to help her when she most needed him. Nevertheless she still left her entire fortune to the vampire she loved like a father, and after her death Varney was so overcome with guilt he vowed to use her money and mansion to do good in the world.


    Varney first met his new family meanwhile when he came into conflict with Ronald Callaghan, the leader of a group of vampire worshippers known as the eternal followers. They had been been founded in the 17th century by a land owner who had lost everything to the vandals and genuinely believed that the blood suckers would be the next power base.


    Even after that evidently didn''t happen, the eternal followers were kept alive over the centuries through black magic, though they gradually faded in number. Callaghan however was a truly sick, twisted and perverted individual who genuinely loved the vampires, unlike many of the others who were there because they thought it could benefit them (Including the cults founder.)


    Ronnie as his followers knew him, particularly despised Varney. Unlike the other members of the cult, he genuinely knew about vampires, and viewed Varney as the supreme traitor. This was part of why he selected him for his greatest experiment.


    Ronnie wanted to try and use Varney''s restorative powers as a conduit to bring back the greatest vampires from throughout history from Khastran''s dimension. He had never been willing to try this before, as doing so could harm the vampire that was used. Of course in Varney''s case, Ronnie had no concerns.


    In fact Ronnie believed that this was a sign from Khastran himself that the supreme traitor should be used as a way to bring his more worthy children back.


    Ronnie successfully performed the ritual after luring Varney into a trap. The vampire however managed to escape and struggling to contain the dark power of several previous vampire souls that were now trapped within him as a result of Ronnie''s spell. He visited Carlene and Lam''s agency.


    Varney had heard of Carlene and Lam and he didn''t much care for them. He preferred to work quietly, though granted this was a more recent development. Prior he had been something of a braggard, far more than Lam and Carlene had ever been, but it had only ever caused him pain from being hunted. As we will see later however he had other reasons for wanting to remain hidden.


    Varney had actually tried to approach Carlene, Lam and the monster in the Rose and Crown at some point before his battle with Ronnie, to tell them to shut down their agency for their own sake. Naturally they didn''t listen to him.


    Thankfully the three didn''t hold it against Varney later and using Carlene''s knowledge of more advanced exorcism spells from the future. They extracted the demonic energy from Varney before it killed him. The energy, needing a home then transplanted itself into Ronnie, who had brought it into this world. As his body was not able to hold it however, it tore him to pieces and itself in the process. Worse than that for Ronnie however, the destruction of the energy in his body drew Ronnie''s soul to Khastran''s dimension, where the very vampires he worshipped tortured him in the most horrific way for their own amusement.


    Following this Varney later helped Carlene, Lam and the monster on another mission to repay his debt. During both of these missions however, he came to view them in a different light and slowly began to value them both, along with the monster. He continued to help the trio, always coming up with a different excuse each time to cover up for the fact that he enjoyed working with them. Thankfully they felt the same way and he soon without even realising it became part of their team. Varney once again took on a fatherly role to the rest of the group. He obviously had greater experience than they did, but even then he could be somewhat condescending to the others at times. Overall he came to view the trio as the children he never had in some respects.


    The final member of the Freakish Family was brought to them when one of Lam''s experiments went wrong. The primitive saucer he had fled to earth in, had burnt itself out on the journey here. Wanting to try and make it fly again. Lam tried to power the old relic with magic in the hopes of exploring the universe with his two best friends.(Varney was busy with something else at this point.)


    Lam''s dabbling with magic however catapulted his ship, along with his two companions into an alternate version of the earth. In this reality, the invasion of Martian vampires was never foiled in the Roman era. Instead Trajan was butchered, Rome fell and humanity was herded in a similar fashion to the Martians, whilst other supernatural creatures, especially the vandals were hunted and slaughtered. Most of our world was stripped clean, the human population dwindled to just a few thousand and the majority of demonic creatures on earth were driven to extinction.


    Before they completely slaughtered humanity however, the vampires left our planet to conquer other worlds, just like in our reality.


    The earth remained largely a no man''s land with the few demons, and humans left behind struggling to survive in isolated communities for centuries afterwards.


    By the time Lam, Carlene and the monster arrived. The demon and human populations had begun to recover somewhat, though not to the extent that either had rebuilt their society. Instead they still lived in groups scattered all over the world.


    Lam, Carlene and the monster meanwhile''s journey into this reality did not go smoothly. They actually became caught in the nothing between realities, (a truly terrifying experience for all involved.) However their ship was pulled through by some unknown to them force, in reality one of the worst creatures on the planet.


    Hyrak, the very original Martian to be infected on our planet with vampirism. Just as in our reality he had since set himself up as the emperor of the vampire Martians, and personally led their invasion of earth.


    However, though he ruled our planet for many years afterwards in this universe the vampire was eventually dethroned by one of his equally vile subordinates. Hyrak still managed to escape his planned execution however and fled into the wilderness of the planet he had bled dry.


    Rather than waste any time hunting him. The new vampire emperor thought it would be much better to leave Hyrak in the ruins of his former kingdom, to condemn him to a slow lingering death. At that point the vampires weren''t even aware that there were any humans left outside of their chambers.


    Still Hyrak survived and salvaging the left over technology from the Martian invaders, he built a large fortress both to protect himself and where he could carry on with his experiments.


    Hyrak operated on numerous demons, cutting into their brains, making them docile servants and warriors. His main aim was to not only leave the planet, but wage war against the vampires who had abandoned him and take control of more worlds. For that he needed a new army.


    Sadly for the former vampire emperor, he was not able to construct space ships capable of travelling beyond the solar system. He had foolishly bought into his own propaganda that he had single handedly destroyed both the earth and mars. In actual fact it was the Martian scientists who had constructed the interstellar vehicles, a process he knew nothing about. He was the original Martian ship to earth''s doctor in life, not its captain or engineer. That same medical knowledge is what allowed him to perform such vile experiments later on.


    The more and more failures to leave our solar system he endured. The more the vampire lost hope and eventually became content to exist in his fortress, taking his frustrations out on the surviving humans and demons around him.


    The magical anomalies created by Lam''s craft attempting to pierce this world however gave the former emperor hope for the first time in centuries. Believing it to be visitors, he used the little magics that he had built up from the ravaged planet to help bring Lam''s craft into his world completely.


    Lam''s craft subsequently arrived in an area populated by demons. The saucer did not have the power to travel back to our universe, but it did at least have the power to still fly. After barely surviving against the demons who briefly stole their ship. Lam, Carlene and the monster explored this new world, until they were captured by a particularly dangerous tribe of humans who had also been drawn here by the anomalies. This tribe were among the few on earth besides the vampire emperor that had been able to harness the left over magics and were in fact the only humans in the area. They were Hyrak''s greatest enemies, or so they believed.


    The tribe took Carlene, Lam and the monster for enemies, simply due to the fact that Carlene was a vampire alone. The three however were soon rescued by Hyrak, though the humans were at least able to make off with Lam;s craft. As neither, Lam, nor Carlene or the monster were aware of the Martians being taken over by vampires, they took Hyrak to be a harmless, even somewhat charming alien as he played the perfect host. After learning how Lam had come here from the grey alien himself. The vampire became fascinated at the idea of another earth. One he could conquer and utilise in a more useful way than he had done with this world. He was sure the combination of his age, alien technology and ability to dissect demons and humans and make them loyal to him would allow the Martian vampire to claim our world and make it the centre of an empire in no time.


    Lam and the others were soon restrained, after the monster discovered his true intentions, with Hyrak planning on making all three his slaves. They were ultimately rescued by one of the humans that had followed them here by latching onto Hyraks own primitive craft. A savage woman named Sycina Lawless. (The Lawless part was a nickname from Lam that she later took as a surname in England.)


    Carlene, Lam and the monster fled with Sycina back to her people. Along the way they repaid her by saving Sycina from one of Hyrak''s monsters. This earned them the debt of her tribe who agreed to help the three strangers get back to their home reality. Even with the debt however it was still not completely out of altruism. It was more so that Hyrak couldn''t get his hands on their craft and doom any more worlds like he had done to both his own and the earth. They couldn''t simply destroy the craft meanwhile as the alien magics inside of it would be released, which could have a worse effect. It was better to get it away from this world.


    Hyrak however came down hard on Sycina''s tribe. He could have killed them any time he wanted before, but he simply allowed them to live so that there would always be some humans he could hunt, torture and kill.


    It was a bloodbath, and all of Sycina''s tribe were killed, except for Sycina herself who escaped with Lam, Carlene and the monster back to our world.


    Unfortunately Hyrak was able to hitch a ride to our earth by grabbing onto the side of Lam''s craft just as it took off. Now loose in our world, the Martian vampire quickly began to build up his new and vast criminal empire.


    Sycina meanwhile not surprisingly found it the hardest to adapt to life in England, never mind the loss of her people. In spite of how harsh and difficult it was back on her earth, it was still her home. The others felt tremendous guilt as had they not arrived in her world, then Hyrak would never have wiped out her people. This proved a turning point for Lam. Before there had always been people to bail him out of his reckless actions, from his fellow Zetas to Carlene, Varney and the monster. Now however he was forced to face the consequences not just with Sycina, but Hyrak being loose in London. From this point on the alien adopted a more measured and thoughtful approach to his actions and plans. This evidently stuck, later leading to the more level headed and austere mentor to a younger Carlene in the 70s. Ironically Lam even earned a reputation for having a cold, machine like intelligence later in life. A far cry from the hedonistic, fun loving person he once was. Still his compassion and moral code always remained just as strong. This experience also taught him to really learn and be more careful with his use of magic, which also led to the Zeta eventually becoming the skilled sorcerer later in life.


    In spite of her anger towards Lam, Sycina nevertheless came to depend on this strange foursome. They were after all the only people in London who could relate to her feeling of loneliness to some extent and in time, she came to regard them as her new family. Her strongest bond however was with the monster.

 The Freakish Family: Part 2

    Aside from the constant threat of Hyrak who served as Lam, Carlene, Varney, the monster and Sycina''s greatest adversary during this time. The Freakish Family battled a wide range of other monsters, creatures and strange enemies and went on many incredible adventures together.


    Among their deadliest foes was Miss Havisham, a witch who sought to trap our world in eternal darkness. Havisham''s turn to darkness was caused by the possession of her fiance by a demon. On the night before their wedding a demon took over the man she was to marries body and jilted her at the alter, breaking Havisham''s heart. The demon then went on to commit many gruesome murders in his body, making him the most wanted man in London. Havisham became a recluse not just out of heartbreak that the sweet, kind, wonderful man she loved more than anything had become a monster, but also because people started blaming her (including his family) for turning him. Havisham''s family had a history of witchcraft, and though neither she nor her mother had ever used magic at that point, sadly the stigma still continued. Many today believe the demon actually did target her fiance as revenge for something her family had done to it in the past.


    The demon later abandoned Havisham''s fiance after 20 years, leaving him a withered out husk in an alleyway. He nevertheless survived through both his love of Havisham and hatred of the demon and afterwards tracked down Havisham, being able to convince her of what happened. Havisham then turned to her families magics to get her revenge on the demon. Though she was able to exorcise it, sadly her fiance was killed in the process, whilst saving her from the demon''s last attempts at lashing out before its banishment.


    Driven mad from the grief of the man she loved suffering to such an extent, the decades she''d wasted hiding from the public who blamed her, and hating him when it was not his fault. Havisham vowed to make the entire world pay, and delved deeper into her families magics to do that.


    Through her own families secrets as well as those of numerous other sorcerers she was able to reach through her resources. Havisham discovered an ancient spell which could force victims to live out their worst fears forever. She planned to amplify it using all of the magics of her family to spread out across the world, making everyone suffer.


    In order to make the spell work however, Havisham would have to get the tears of 12 broken hearted innocent boys. She groomed her young niece Estella to help her get what she wanted, making her as bitter, twisted and wicked as she was. Estella then seduced several young men and broke their hearts. The latest young man Estella tricked and hurt however, Pip was an associate of a demon named Abel.


    Years ago Abel was on the run from the mob in London, and after being wounded in a graveyard, the young Pip. Having no idea what a demon even was helped him escape. This act moved Abel to the point where he went out of his way to help others, gradually overcoming his demonic nature. As a result of this he came into contact with Carlene, with the two developing something of a friendship.


    Abel meanwhile knew what Havisham was like, having stopped her from stealing a magical artefact a few months prior. As soon as he found out Estella was linked with her, he summoned Carlene and the others. Together along with Pip, they confronted Havisham at her mansion as she was preparing to cast her spell.(As a final act of the spell, Estella had to be consumed by firey magics too.)


    Havisham summoned the tormented spirits of hell to try and fight off Carlene and the others. In the ensuing fight Estella was rescued by Pip, whilst Abel was killed sacrificing himself to save them both from a vengeful Havisham, who was finally consumed by her own firey magics.


    The five also came into conflict with the infamous Jack the Ripper. The serial killer whose identity was not known to the general public for centuries was in fact one of Peter Pan''s legendary Lost Boys.


    Peter Pan was the adopted son of the legendary Greek god of the same name. During the god''s battle with the dragons, Pan''s actions indirectly led to the death of a boy. Whilst they may have come over as callous, the gods, at least at that point in their history tried to avoid civilian casualties as much as they could. However Pan hid an important weapon in a small village, thinking it was the perfect hiding place as the dragons didn''t want to harm humanity any more than they did. Sadly however, Pan didn''t count on a renegade dragon being willing to attack the village to get it. One of the boys of the village, wanting to protect his family, stole the weapon and fled, being killed by the dragon in the process.


    Pan was so overcome by grief that he brought the boy back using magic. Unfortunately however Pan''s magics were so clumsy (given that he didn''t put as much practice in as the other gods, preferring to indulge in his own pleasures.) The boy was rendered an immortal. In fact he even developed certain god like powers, as Pan had used his own blood in the spell, in order to ensure its success. Sadly none of the other gods could undo what Pan had done afterwards, as if they removed his blood then it would be in danger of destroying the boys soul completely.


    The boy whose real name has been lost to history lived with his family for years until he eventually outlived them, after which Pan took a more direct role in his upbringing. He tended to spoil the boy out of guilt and even gave him his own island constructed entirely through magic called Neverland. Pan also regularly played with the boy, that he came to refer to as simply "Pan Jr." However after the war with Ares broke out. Pan naturally had less time to spend with the child and instead placed other strange creatures there to keep the boy company.


    After Ares defeat, Pan offered to let the boy come with him, but ironically Pan Jr in the years his adopted father spent away. Had actually grown to enjoy being the king of his kingdom of Neverland.


    Pan allowed the boy to stay, but cast a spell to keep Neverland hidden from the rest of the world, with even Pan Jr only being allowed to travel outside of it every now and again. He also couldn''t spend too long outside of the island. Pan Jr however agreed to this as he loved Neverland, which due to its magical nature could constantly change and keep the boy entertained.


    In time however even Pan Jr grew bored of the monsters and fairies of the island and began to abduct children to play with him for a short while before sending them home. These children were referred to as the Lost Boys by Pan Jr. Reportedly the first of them, who Pan Jr always regarded as being the brother he never had, was called Peter. In tribute to his friend. Pan Jr became known as Peter Pan.


    Peter Pan''s greatest enemy meanwhile was the renegade Pirate, Captain Hook, who had originally arrived on Neverland in the hopes of utilising the gods magic to destroy an ancient sea beast known as the Kraken that was destroying his home town. Hook had left decades ago to explore the ocean and slay the supernatural menace that lived beneath its waves. (His home village being a sea side village made it vulnerable to attack from horrors of the deep such as the vampiric Dragurs.)


    Whilst Hook was a great hero for many years whose knowledge of magics was so great that he was able to overcome Pan''s defences. Peter Pan still refused to let him have any of the magics in Neverland. Having been sworn to protect them from his adopted father above all else.


    Sadly Hooks home village was destroyed by the vengeful Kraken, which caused the Pirate to swear revenge on Peter Pan. For the next few centuries Hook was a constant thorn in Peter Pan as well as generations of Lost Boys sides, though as time went on, Hook became more obsessed with stealing the magics than his revenge, believing he could change the world with them for the better. His past exploits had gone to his head, with Hook genuinely believing that he was the best man to wield the gods magics and that it was his destiny to do so. He kept himself eternally young through other spells he had picked up on his journeys.


    In spite of the very real danger Hook represented, Peter came to enjoy the challenge of fighting him and allowed the pirate to continue existing. Whilst Peter had started out as a good natured child who was willing to sacrifice himself to save his family. Sadly in the centuries he had been indulged, Peter Pan had become corrupted and callous in his treatment of others, particularly his own Lost Boys. Still now and again flashes of his old heroic nature did sometimes resurface.


    The man who became Jack the Ripper meanwhile, was always a tear away. Living on the streets after his parents caught him attempting to strangle his sister. The young Jack was selected by Peter due to his seemingly rebellious nature, with Peter having no idea of the true extent of his crime. Despite being several thousand years old, Peter was still incredibly naive.


    Jack soon became one of Peter''s favourite Lost Boys and stayed with him for longer than a human lifespan. Peter was so amused by his antics, that he turned a blind eye to the horrific abuse Jack often inflicted on the other, supposedly weaker lost boys. However Jack''s truly psychotic nature was eventually exposed to Peter when he started murdering some of Hooks men. Jack did this simply because he had become bored of the pirates, whilst Peter still wanted to play with Hook.


    Jack was very discreet at first. He hoped that if more of Hooks men died, rather than try and replace them so soon Peter would just give up, as he was very lazy. However the latest mother of Pan''s lost boys soon rumbled Jack''s plan. Peter Pan always chose one young girl, usually slightly older than the Lost Boys (who were younger than Pan) to help look after the Lost Boys.


    As a punishment, Peter Pan cast Jack out of Neverland. Normally whenever someone left Neverland, they would undergo a specific process which allowed their body to adjust to normal air outside of Neverland. With Jack however, Peter was so angry he simply tossed him out.


    As a result of this Jack began to age at an accelerated rate a few years after arriving back in our world. In order to regain his former youth, Jack began killing people in order to harvest their blood for a ritual to make himself younger. He chose as his victims prostitutes, both because he believed that nobody would miss them when they were gone, and his pathological hatred of women. The fact that it had been one of Peter''s mothers that got him kicked out of Neverland, only strengthened his sick hatred.


    The Freakish Family unmasked Jack''s identity with help of Peter''s former mother who had him exiled in the first place. (The authorities had been unable too, as the criminal used magics to both conceal his appearance and cover his tracks.) The former mother of Neverland was named Marina and had left the island on her own violation, due to what had happened with Jack. (Peter despite being ruthless and callous in many areas, such as his dealings with Hook at least always respected his Lost Boys and mothers wishes to go home.)


    She was 23 when Jack began his killing spree and as soon as she realised that he was responsible, she went to Carlene''s agency for help. Even then however it was not an easy task as there had been no trace of Jack since his disappearance to Neverland several years ago.


    Nevertheless the five did eventually track the sick killer down to his lair which was guarded by deformed clones of the Crocodile from Neverland. Jack had a run in with the beast where he managed to steal one of its teeth, which he kept after being exiled from Neverland. He hoped that he could use it to harvest Neverland magic, but when it became obvious that he couldn''t. Instead Jack tried to create several clones of the Crocodile, all horrific and crude, but all still dangerous and loyal to Jack. Finally Jack had also stolen Hooks famous Hook hand, after a confrontation with the pirate, which was the very weapon he used to slice up his victims.


    Still Lam, Carlene, Varney, the monster and Sycina all managed to fight their way through these beasts, with Sycina finally being the one to slay Jack by ripping his head off with her bare hands.


    Another major incident the five were involved in was the alleged Great Moon Hoax


    Though this is how the authorities and the media referred to it. The truth of the matter was in the late 19th century, our moon became a temporary base for one of the most evil creatures in the galaxy. The last of the Vespertilio Homo, named Dasquela.


    The Vespertilio were a race of bat like humanoids who relied on magic rather than science. Dasquela was their strongest and most skilled wizard. He wanted to elevate his people to being among the greatest forces in the galaxy, believing their mastery over magic could allow them to build an empire.


    He was overruled by the other members of the high council of the wizards which led to a civil war on the planet. Eventually after centuries of infighting which permanently damaged the surface of their world. Dasquela sought to rebuild his people, but felt in order to do so he had to literally start from scratch.


    He constructed a powerful magical weapon with the aid of his followers, that not only blitzed the surface of his planet, but also contained its essence within a small magical orb afterwards. This could allow Dasquela to not only bring the planets inhabitants and even its landscape back on another world, but also rewrite them at the same time to be loyal to him, and in other ways that would suit Dasquela.


    Furthermore the orb could be used to create a seemingly infinite amount of copies of his planet too, allowing Dasquela to effectively create millions of copies of his people on uninhabited planets around the universe and rally them together as an army to conquer the galaxy.


    His first few attempts to rebuild his world on other uninhabited worlds however (which he chose to do so rather than his own world as it was too contaminated) didn''t go as planned. He was only able to make the copies of his people last for a few days before fading again.


    He had greatly underestimated his own power and even Dasquela was horrified at the thought that he may have killed his people for nothing. He became more desperate and even tried to reshape inhabited planets in the hopes of draining the natives life forces to provide stability. All he accomplished was in either wiping out the native life forms, or transforming the natives into hideous abominations.


    Eventually the alien wizard set his sights on earth. Intrigued by its strange, magical structure. The wizard didn''t want to simply use the earth like the other planets however, as he was afraid that the combination of so many different kinds of the magical strains could have unintended side effects.


    Instead he tried to turn the moon into a smaller copy of his former planet. Using just some of the magics from our earth that he could safely draw in isolation from our planet onto the moon. (Despite being smaller than Mars magic could be drawn from the moon much more easily than on Mars because it was closer.) Dasquela hoped after stabilising the new version of his planet on the moon, he could then use his new army to exterminate humanity. The earth and its blend of magics would then become a power base to stabilise billions of uninhabited planets to be turned into clones of his world. The clones of his people would then function as an army to take the universe. By this stage Dasquela actually believed it was better to kill off all of the diverse life forms and replace them with copies of his own people. One race, under one king, in his mind would bring an end to wars and differences.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The insane wizards first attempt however still only lasted a few days, but during that time, the famed astronomer Sir John Herschel spotted the new terrain on the bright side of the moon facing earth through a telescope. (This was in fact the only part of the moon to be terrorformed as Dasquela did not want to face what was living on the dark side of the moon.) Herschel''s reports were dismissed in the media as a hoax, but thankfully Lam suspected there may be some truth to it, and using his modified craft he and the others travelled to the moon. Lam had continued to work on the craft after its trip to another universe, though he was obviously more careful this time. At the very least it was capable of making small trips beyond the earth, though still not beyond the solar system.


    The five arrived on the moon not long after Dasquela''s second attempt. They were shocked to discover the moon filled with gigantic bat humanoid creatures, lakes, forests and strange animals. In the end however they were able to stop and finally put an end to Dasquela''s insane attempts to conquer the universe and slayed the monster once and for all. Unfortunately however in order to stop the new race of Vespertilio from conquering the earth and slaughtering humanity, as Dasquela had programmed them too. Lam undid the spell and killed them all. He had no choice, and they weren''t even really alive anyway, being nothing more than mindless automatons for Dasquela''s cruel will.


    Still the experience shook all five of them, and Lam afterwards kept the orb that could restart Dasquela''s people for centuries until he was ready to explore the universe again in the early 21st century, after which he gave it to the federation of magic who finally restored the Vespertillion on another world. The orb was kept in Varney''s mansion.


    Not long after they returned from the moon however. The orb began to leak on the earth, causing several Vespertillio to escape from it. The reason for this was because it had unknown to Lam and the others become damaged when they destroyed Dasquela. Using left overs of Miss Havisham''s magics (which Lam also stole after her defeat.) The family were able to place a magical band aid as it were around the orb stopping any more from escaping as well as trapping those who had already escaped back into the orb.


    One of the Vespertillio however clung on and stabilised itself using any kind of magic it could from nearby, stopping it from being sucked back into the orb like the others. The magics also had another affect on the creature however and allowed it to think for itself rather than follow Dasquelas plan. This Vespertillio was not evil, but it had a mischievous sense of humour and enjoyed causing panic throughout the city of London. It earned the nickname Spring Heeled Jack from the natives, and whilst he caused a lot of trouble for the five heroes, at other points he also became an ally of theirs too, though they didn''t quite became a team of six.


    The five were also involved in stopping the great magical plague of 19th century London. This plague had been brought to the city by the legendary adventurer Sir Jason Praed. In his lifetime Praed helped uncover many lost treasures and old relics. His work proved essential in uncovering vital pieces of our history.


    Sadly however the great adventurer got in over his head when he visited one of the remaining valleys the dragons used to breed dinosaurs during their war with the gods.


    The valley in question was in the middle of the Mongolian dessert, and like all dragon valleys, shielded by magic. Praed however knew about the supernatural. He had many dealings with it during his adventures and had even pocketed some other objects from the gods, and with a little time and effort he broke through the valley''s defenses.


    The valley was a primeval jungle filled with dinosaurs, pterosaurs, synapsids, and human followers of the dragons who were left to rot after the war. There were also several species of prehistoric demons too who had made their way here for safety during Gengis Khan''s war.


    Very few of Praed''s initial expedition to this lost valley made it out alive, but the adventurer himself was able to make away with a rare gold statue of a dragon. Ironically he was disappointed to only be going away with that as obviously he wanted to bring back one of the dinosaurs. Little did Praed know however, the statue contained an ancient weapon that the dragons had wanted to unleash against the gods followers, in order to force them to surrender in exchange for the cure. In the later years of the war, both sides eventually forsook their old rule of not allowing humans to be part of their war.


    Ultimately however the dragons didn''t release the weapon as they felt the loss of life would have simply been too great. Still they didn''t destroy it just in case and it was subsequently left in the valley.


    The statue had a self defense mechanism wherein the plague would spread if anyone tried to steal it who wasn''t one of the dragons servants.


    The five, who were among the few people immune to the plague, soon approached Jason, who again using the magics he had stolen from all over the earth had been able to postpone his sickness for as long as he could, though he knew that it only gave him a few extra days at best and then when the virus returned it would kill him instantly.


    Carlene meanwhile knew the statue belonged to the dragons, due to her dealings with them in her own time and that the virus was most likely to be linked too it. She also knew that given how much the dragons wanted to guide humanity, there is no way they wouldn''t have created a cure. Jason who had also learned about the dragons on his journey, agreed with her, and despite his selfishness and callousness to his previous team mates. Deep down he did feel guilt for what had happened and agreed to personally help Carlene and the others travel to his lost world in Lam''s craft.


    They had trouble finding the cure however, not just due to how elusive it was, but opposition from the demons, who knowing what it was wanted the plague to spread. The cure was held within a temple in the valley. Only those who completed the dragons tests within the temple were allowed access to the cure. The dragons didn''t just simply leave the cure and the plague side by side, where anyone could get both. In order to get the cure, you needed to be worthy. Lam, Jason and Sycina were the ones to undergo the gruelling tests, and in the end, Jason sacrificed himself to help the other two get the cure, which Lam then deposited into the air using his craft to cure London.


    The fives adventure in the dragon valley also led to them gaining a new ally in the form of a large male Tyrannosaurus Rex that Carlene christened, Abraham.


    This Tyrannosaur had initially attacked Lam when he stumbled into its nest. Abraham and his mate continued to chase Lam seeing him as a threat. However when the Freakish Family were overrun by the demons pursuing them who wanted to destroy the cure. The Tyrannosaurs also became caught up in the fight. The mighty dinosaurs killed dozens and dozens of demons (who normally wouldn''t dare approach the Tyrannosaur territory, but again they were desperate to let the plague spread.)


    The female Tyrannosaur was eventually overwhelmed and slain, whilst the male escaped only thanks to the intervention of Carlene (who had also become separated by the demons from the others.)


    Carlene helped the Tyrannosaur back to health and the creature soon developed something of a bond with the vampire. Tyrannosaurs were not just ferociously powerful, but incredibly intelligent animals too and the great reptile subsequently accompanied Carlene, who even rode on its back, and helped her rescue her friends. The dinosaur proved essential overall in stopping the demons and gaining the cure.


    Carlene continued to visit the Tyrannosaurus many times in Lam''s saucer and even enlisted its help in a few instances. Most notably against the giant alien robot, Dathamir who was actually an old enemy of Lam and the federation he used to serve. Dathamir who was also a Zeta had abducted life forms from all over the universe in an effort to combine useful traits from different species into his own body to become a super being. He planned to make himself the first of a new race of super predators that could conquer and assimilate the features of the entire federation.


    Dathamir had developed this mindset after witnessing many civil wars break out in the federation. Sadly despite the propaganda, the federation was not quite the pillar of virtue that it claimed to be. Many of the smaller species were still exploited to some extent, as we''ve seen from our own experiences, many of the aliens were unprepared for the new species they encountered and not all old rivalries between certain species were completely forgotten. Whilst Dathamir may have started out as loyal to the federation, the death, corruption and infighting convinced him that it was a universal way of life and that in order to survive he needed to be a super being to overcome all other potential rivals.


    Fortunately his experiments were discovered by another Zeta, the future leader of the group of monitors that Lam was a part of in fact. After several years living a desperate existence on the run. Dathamir later tracked down the commander of Lam''s monitors on earth and managed to kill him, though in the process he was also vaporized by Lam. He was the first life form that Lam ever killed, and he was so haunted by it, he never killed natural creatures again in combat for years. This happened early in Lam''s time on earth.


    Sadly however Dathamir was not quite dead yet. His spirit was sent into a robot within his ship (a safety measure he had always taken.) Unfortunately for Dathamir however, his ship had been damaged arriving on the earth and his robot body was therefore weak and broken down.


    Over the next several years, Dathamir cannabalized the technology in his ship along with whatever resources he could on earth to construct a new, steam punk robot body for himself that stood over twenty feet tall. With this body he also captured several humans, and forced them to build a machine that could allow him to brainwash the Zeta Reticulans on earth into being his servants whose technology he could then use to conquer other planets and restart his plan to construct a new, perfect body.


    After one of his experiments went wrong however and produced a psychic backlash that nearly killed the Zeta Reticulans on earth. Lam was drawn into Dathamirs plans, though he had to be careful as the other Zetas were also drawn in too.


    Lam underestimated his old enemy however and was captured by Dathamir who planned to use him as a test subject for his plan, but fortunately Carlene fetched Abraham. The Tyrannosaur easily fought its way through Dathamirs servants (the other mutants he had created) and battled his gigantic robot body in a one on one fight, which took them to the streets of Victorian London.


    Whilst the two giants fought, Lam and the others destroyed the last of Dathamirs technology and weaponry. The Tyrannosaurus meanwhile eventually won out and destroyed Dathamirs body, whilst his mind was captured by Lam before it could escape again. Lam subsequently kept the would be conqueror prisoner for many years afterwards in Varney''s mansion.


    The Zetas who arrived not long after erased the event of the Tyrannosaur/robot fight from everyone''s minds, though Lam was also forced to keep a low profile afterwards too to avoid being seen by the Zetas who investigated the strange occurrences, before eventually returning back to America. (Their presence also made it harder for Abraham to be transported home too.)


    The Freakish Family were also responsible for rescuing the time travelling spirit known as Marley, who came from the 23rd century. Marley in the future had discovered the left overs of the gods time travel experiments (the very same magics that had given Herne and others their powers.) and gained even greater psychic abilities than possibly any individual who has ever lived, but an unintended side effect of his powers was that after his death. Marley''s spirit rather than simply going to the great beyond, floated through time itself. Eventually he came to stabilise in the 19th century, where using his psychic powers Marley guided people and demons to fulfil their true destinies. The ghost soon earned a reputation around London as it helped some of the worst scoundrels change their lives for the better. Though Marley could offer psychic projections of possible futures, he also wasn''t above playing tricks on people either. Sadly however the ghosts reputation drew in the attention of a particularly vicious vandal named Maxon. Having once been one of leaders of the vandal empire in Europe, Maxon was one of the few to escape the Cushing and the vampires slaughter of the leaders.


    He had been forced to lay low for centuries, and whilst in the end, unlike almost all the other vandal leaders he escaped with his life. It wasn''t much of a life, as Maxon was forced to live in the stinking sewers, feeding on the homeless.


    Maxon first learned about the ghost of Marley when feeding on a beggar who had once been a cruel, wicked mill owner. Marley had attempted to warn him to stop what he was doing, but he arrogantly refused and even tried to exorcise the spirit, which led to Marley instead approaching others within his company that helped bring the tycoon down.


    The vandal had his own grudge against the former mill owner, who tried to buy his life by telling him about the ghost. Of course the vandal killed him anyway and devoured his spirit, but after learning about the ghost Maxon decided to hunt it down. Not to feed on it, but instead gain access to its knowledge. He hoped he could use the ghost to shape his future to restore the vandals power around Europe.


    Marley however was well protected, and the vandal was forced to turn to psychics to help lure it out. Though Marley was captured and tortured by the vandal, fortunately he was able to warn Lam in time, with the alien himself having been guided by the spirit of Marley at one point.


    Carlene fittingly slew the last of the vandal leaders herself.


    Possibly the most important incident the five were involved in however was the demon invasion of London in the year 1870.


    The invasion had been planned for centuries by Satan. He knew that a gigantic portal between his reality and our world would prove too unstable, so instead he and his demons worked on creating multiple small portals that could allow millions of his demons to enter our world.


    The first portal was created in London due to it being the centre of the empire, at that point the largest super power on earth.


    The portals spread like a disease, with there being over two dozen within the first week. The more there were however, the easier it became for them to multiply until they''d eventually spread around the world.


    Each portal formed in an enclosed space. Large enough for a demon to fit through, but generally small and insignificant, again to avoid detection. Spaces like cupboards, closets, carriages, under beds, even pendulum clocks were all ideal places for portals.


    London was soon infested with hundreds and hundreds of demons, and though the Freakish Family were able to discover the original portal and seal it, stopping millions from opening up over the earth. Not only did they still have to deal with the powerful demons that had escaped from hell. More portals to hell would still open up in enclosed spaces for the next several hundred years. In fact the most recent case was only a few weeks before writing this. A child who was very nearly dragged into a hell dimension that opened up under his bed, before his mother saved him. In spite of the Freakish Family''s best efforts there was a permanent damage to the fabric of our reality by Satan''s efforts. Whilst he could never send through his army as planned. Now and again portals to his hell dimension could still pop up at random.


    Furthermore the whilst shutting down the centre of Satan''s portals, Lam ended up being sucked into Satan''s hell dimension. The others were forced to travel through one of the remaining portals to get him, (with Carlene fetching Abraham to help.) It was a perilous journey through the worst hell dimension, but in the end with the aid of their pet Tyrannosaurus, the Freakish Family managed to rescue Lam.


    Sadly however, Satan was aware of who had foiled his plan and punished Varney by releasing his vile son Varsces from hell through one of the portals, with Satan also transforming Varsces into a powerful demon. The reborn former king proved to be the five''s most dangerous and recurring enemy after Hyrak. In fact whilst Hyrak was always the bigger threat, Varsces was a far more personal enemy, having no aims whatsoever other than to destroy his fathers life.


    In spite of these other threats and battles however. Hyrak did remain the groups most persistent enemy. They''d spend over a decade bringing down his vast empire of vampires, criminals and demons. Towards the end of their fight with the former vampire emperor, Hyrak exposed Lam''s survival to the other Zeta Reticulans living on the earth. New monitors had since been chosen who weren''t as forgiving to Lam.


    Still in spite of this, Lam was nevertheless able to help the team finally destroy Hyrak in a final confrontation in an underground village in Edinburgh, with it being Lam himself that personally killed the vampire.


    Following the death of their archenemy, Lam was forced to go on the run from the other Zetas. Varney accompanied Lam, believing that someone had to look out for him and another person look after London. Carlene was ultimately chosen to stay behind. Even though she had known Lam longer, Varney had some unfinished business on the continent of Europe to deal with, and Lam agreed to help him finally face it. They both promised they wouldn''t be gone long, but sadly from Carlene''s point of view she would never see either of them again.


    This marked the end of the Family and in the next chapter we shall explore what became of them after.

 The Freakish Family: Part 3

    Lam and Varney travelled Europe for a few years. Varney''s final bit of unfinished business was in Mount Vesuvius. Eons ago a powerful demon that had warred with the gods hid itself at the bottom of this volcano. It did more than hide however. It fused its demonic energy with the molten core of the volcano in the hopes that when it erupted the lava would not simply burn its victims. It would transform them into fire demons who could serve as an army to claim the world.


    The demons first attempt was the infamous eruption which destroyed the city of Pompei in 79 AD. This tragedy cost thousands of people their lives. The process did not go as planned however. Whilst an army of demons was created, many of those were trapped in the middle of their transformation. Frozen in demonic skin like statues, but still baring human souls. As the process was extremely painful, the people were trapped in a state of constant agony and madness.


    The demon was slain by the Deaneria a powerful group of sorcerers devoted to battling evil who eventually isolated themselves from humanity, but even they were unable to undo the effects the demon had on Vesuvius. Despite its death, the volcano was still contaminated and threatened to erupt again. The Deaneria monitored the volcano and tried and suppress the demons effects, but sadly even if they had seemingly erased it, the energy would always regrow. There were many more eruptions, though none quite as horrific as the 79 AD eruption.


    The last of the Trajans (organisations set up to combat the supernatural by the famous emperor himself) eventually took control of the volcano after the Deaneria isolated themselves from humanity. The emperor himself had actually placed a single Trajan base there, which had only survived the rise of the vandals, because they were terrified of Vesuvius and allowed the Trajan to continue their work on it.


    The Trajan eventually discovered that the only way to remove this permanent demonic stain on the earth, was through a ritual that required the blood of a demon. The demon in question however had to give its life voluntarily, through no force, in order to truly redeem the tainted earth.


    Not surprisingly there weren''t many demons willing to jump into a volcano, that is until the Trajan stumbled upon Varney before he came to settle in London. The vampire instantly agreed due to his restorative powers and even became part of the ritual, but just as they were about to carry it out, he learned that this would not be the same as his other deaths. In order to truly shut Vesuvius forever, Varney''s soul had to be completely destroyed.


    Even he was terrified of a death this permanent and fled. The shame of not giving his life to save others, especially those who were trapped in their burning demon bodies from the very original eruption constantly remained with him, throughout his entire time with the five.


    Now however that his family was breaking apart, Varney finally felt that it was time to face his responsibility though he also hoped to help Lam just one last time first.


    Eventually however his travels with Lam soon became another excuse to put off the inevitable, until several of the frozen bodies from the original eruption of Pompei began to come to life. The constant quakes and eruptions over the centuries had helped to progress their transformation through the demonic energy it spewed out, so that now they were ready to follow their dead masters will.


    These demons hoped to accelerate the process of the eruption as they contained pure, untainted demonic energy from their master that hadn''t been watered down by years of the Deaneria and Trajan''s magics. (Even their magics could not undo the process once it had taken root around a human soul.)


    As these demons overran the local area, with even the Trajan struggling to contain them. This spurned Varney to finally work up the courage and he and Lam went there, helping to fight off the demons. Realising that there was no other way to stop it. Varney ultimately threw himself into Vesuvius which finally stripped the volcano of its demonic energy. That said however the volcano was still dangerous as the constant magics had made it unstable. Still at the very least the demons plans were finally defeated and its previous victims allowed to rest.


    Varney did not want to say goodbye to Lam in person, finding it to be too difficult. He left a note with a local priest that he had saved the last time he was in Pompei, which explained everything. Lam later made sure the note was passed back to the Carlene and the others in London.


    Lam was absolutely devastated by his friends death and went into seclusion for decades afterwards. During that time however he mastered control over his magics, both to keep himself busy and as protection against the Zeta Reticulans, whose lack of knowledge of magic made them particularly vulnerable to it.


    By the end of the 1890s Lam finally came out of his seclusion, but by that point the rest of his family had long since gone from London and Lam was forced to travel alone for many years until 1940, when he came into conflict with the occultist Aleister Crowley.


    The self proclaimed wickedest man in the world was in reality nothing of the sort. In actual fact, though he had some skill as a sorcerer. Aleister Crowley used his magic for mostly mundane, albeit personal and selfish reasons and was more of a hedonist than a truly wicked man. Sadly however many genuine warlocks and demon worshippers were taken in by his image and the ridiculous hysteria built up around him by the media. Crowley through these followers was soon able to gather a large supply of magics from all over the world, that he had no idea what to do with. The followers of the demon king Abramelin would take advantage of Crowley''s naivety. Their master had once been one of the kings of hell before Satan overthrew him and overtook his hell universe. The demon king fled to earth as a result hoping he could plant sleeper agents via the souls that were sent to hell to slay Satan from within and gathered a team of loyal followers. Unfortunately for Abramelin however, in his weakened state he was finished off by the vandals who did not want to risk incurring the full wrath of Satan on the earth.


    Abramelin''s followers however needed to conduct a very complex ritual to restore Abramelin''s soul after the vandals had destroyed it. It could take up to six months and they didn''t have either the time or resources to do that. Crowley however gave them the sanctuary and the resources in his Boleskine house on the shores of Loch Ness, with Crowley assuming that it would be nothing but six months of orgies and parties.


    Lam was given a heads up by the Loch Ness Monster however. Centuries ago during the age of the gods, Loch Ness had been used as a prison for their criminals. (It contained a pocket dimension at the bottom.) The first prisoner was a gigantic magical Plesiosaurus that had fought on the side of the dragons, but was imprisoned rather than killed as it had been a useful ally in the fight against Set many centuries prior.


    Over the centuries the gods and the humans who later discovered the portal would use it as a prison for many creatures, who gradually became the original Loch Ness monsters family to some extent.


    Nessie and the other prisoners were able to leave the pocket dimension (which had everything they wanted) and swim about Loch Ness. Nessie could even leave the Loch and travel round the nearby area of land though that was as far as she could go. She was less willing to do that after a few bad experiences in the 1930s where she had been seen and even photographed. Leading to a monster craze (which would help keep the tourism in the local area alive for centuries to come!)


    The other monsters in the pocket dimension below never let Nessie forget the humiliation of seeing herself in the papers around the world.


    Still in spite of this the monsters did not remain completely reclusive. On the contrary they provided help to hunters and others around the area for centuries. Among the most famous examples being St Columbia who Nessie helped by pretending to be driven away by him. St Columbia was a great man and a hero, but he needed a big, public gesture to help win the people around and Nessie who believed in him was glad to help provide that. In truth however she was his greatest ally during his time in Scotland.


    Similarly, Nessie aided Lam when he detected the great magical upheaval in the area, and with her knowledge, he put an end to Crowley''s ritual just as it was nearing completion. Unfortunately however it was at a great cost. The spirit of Abramelin had already been constructed when Lam broke the ritual and in order to stop it from taking refuge in one of his most loyal followers, Lam drew it into himself.


    The spirit of Abramelin was weak, and without help would eventually die away within a decade or so. Lam just had to wait it out and his strong will, coupled with the demons unfamiliarity with Zeta bodies and souls meant that he was able to hold on for several years, though the alien was also forced to take powerful magics which slowly, but surely altered his body and appearance to some extent in the process too.


    In the year 1947, Lam lost control of his body and Abramelin used his saucer to go on a horrific killing spree around the world for six months as well as create an army. Lam however barely managed to regain control of his body enough to make his saucer crash in Roswell New Mexico, hoping it would kill both himself and the demon.


    Lam''s corpse was then discovered by the military who took both his saucer and the body back to their base, where Lam was dissected by the scientists. Unfortunately however the demon was not dead, and took control of his cadavar just after it had been autopsied and went on the rampage throughout the base, killing dozens of military personnel. The crashing of the saucer soon drew the attention of the other Zetas however, leading to a fight between the army and the Zetas. Seeing both the humans and his own people killed in a needless battle gave Lam''s spirit the strength to overcome the demon again. (His soul was still trapped in his dead body, as the demon needed it to help reanimate Lam''s corpse.)


    With the aid of one of the scientists at the base Lam''s corpse had been taken too, Area 51. The possessed alien stole one of the fallen Zeta''s saucers and fled the area with the scientist, named Doctor Noella with him.


    The Zeta''s meanwhile eventually overran Area 51 and destroyed all evidence of Lam''s autopsy and saucer, though one tape of Lam''s autopsy did survive which surfaced many years later. It was largely dismissed as a hoax by most.


    Not long after the crash, Lam was summoned by Aleister Crowley again. Having felt guilt for what had become of him. Crowley had used his vast resources to try and find a spell that could pull the demons soul from Lam''s body. There was no one spell strong enough for Abramelin, but through the combination of numerous exorcism spells he could perhaps accomplish this, though doing would be incredibly risky and may have very well either destroyed or pulled Lam''s soul into the hell dimension it sent the demon.


    Still with the Roswell crash having become news all over the world, Crowley knew he didn''t have time to try and perfect the process and summoned Lam through a process known as the Amalantrah Workings, which was a heightened form of telepathy.


    Lam arrived at Crowley''s new place in New York and with Noella''s help, they managed to finally pull Abramelin soul from Lam''s body and send it back to hell. Crowley sadly was killed by the strain of holding all the spells together, but in his dying moments he thanked Lam for giving him a chance to redeem himself, whilst Lam in turn thanked Crowley for finally freeing him.


    Lam continued to live even after the demon had been expelled, as it had reanimated him. The combination of the demons influence on his body and the magics he had taken to suppress it however had changed his body in many ways, now rendering him immortal. Unfortunately for Lam this was during his first cycle of being old, meaning that was the form he was stuck in from now, though at the very least he was not physically weak. On the contrary thanks to the magic he now possessed the strength of several Zetas.


    Finally Lam also absorbed much of the demon''s knowledge of magics too which allowed him to become an even more skilled sorcerer than ever before.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Lam and Noella spent the next few decades travelling the world, fighting demons and other monsters to make up for the horrors Lam had carried out when the demon possessed him. His main enemies became the demons he had created under the influence of Abramelin.


    During the late 40s, 50s and early 60s Lam was also still hunted by the Zetas (with Noella eventually leaving him to start a family in the 60s.) Lam however finally achieved redemption in the Zetas eyes in the early 70s when he exposed a criminal empire within the federation.


    Some of the Zeta monitors of the earth where involved in the capture and selling of human and other alien organs. Due to their alien bacteria and germs, human and other unknown species organs could be valuable weapons on the black market. The new head of the Zeta monitors on earth during that time was in on this vile racket, ordering that many of the humans and animals who were abducted be horrificly mutilated and killed in order to harvest organs. (With eyes in particular being very popular.)


    The leader of the Zeta monitors was bitter that he had been demoted to working on such a pathetic planet as ours and often enjoyed taking his frustrations out on its "ugly, primitive inhabitants." Following his exposure, which Lam did at a risk to his own safety. The Zeta high command punished all those involved, whose crimes were seen as a blight on the entire history of their planet.


    Lam meanwhile was also put on trial for his actions, but he was eventually not only let go, but sent back to earth when the now magical alien pointed out that without his influence the earth would have been destroyed many times over. Understanding that he was a positive force for good on the planet they allowed him to return. In exchange however Lam''s role in exposing the organ trafficking was covered up. The Zeta high command after all didn''t want to encourage more renegades. Lam could therefore never return to his home planet, but by this stage the earth was his home anyway.


    Not long after this Lam would meet Carlene for the first time from her perspective in the 1970s and their partnership that endured for decades began.


    Carlene and Lam travelled around America for a short while in the 70s, before eventually moving to New York. Aleister Crowley''s spirit once again summoned Lam. Crowley had not crossed over to the other side, fearing what awaited him there. He instead monitored his followers to make sure that nothing could be unleashed by them. Unfortunately however one of Crowley''s more twisted followers discovered an ancient spell in Crowley''s collection that could transform him into a species of demon that had long gone extinct elsewhere. Not wanting this species to be unleashed again, Crowley used the same"Amalantrah Workings to summon Lam from beyond the grave and helped the grey alien and the vampire slay the first of these reborn demons who were hiding and converting people in the sewers of New York.


    After this Crowley allowed them to use his flat and resources, whilst he finally had the courage to move onto the next life. Whatever that had in store for him. Lam and Carlene only lived in Crowley''s flat for a short while however, before moving into the Dakota building. Over the decades Lam had built up a fortune, though he was able to get by the famously snobbish board of the building due to his expertise in the supernatural, and the building had more than its fair share of hauntings and supernatural dealings.


    The team that Lam and Carlene assembled during their time in New York included Rachel Reed, Fritz Klaber and Gemma Shue. Sadly not as many of their exploits are known, though they were still great heroes nonetheless.


    Rachel was a trans woman, born Richard in the year 1947. She transitioned in her mid 20s and got a job as a designer in Paris in the early 70s. She did have some talent, but the truth as to why she was granted this cushy position at such a young age, was because something was manipulating her and others into Paris.


    Her family, centuries ago had been followers of a vampire king, who planted in one of them, a piece of vampiric dark energy. Not enough to turn them into a vampire, but strong enough to be passed down to their descendants, unknown to them. The power had absolutely no effect on the descendants either physically or emotionally whatsoever. The descendants were still 100 percent human.


    The fact that the power had been allowed to gestate for so long, meant that when the vampire king wanted to activate it. The energy would effectively rip the descendants to pieces and form into an incredible power source that if absorbed into him, could make the king into a god. He kept tabs on the family who spread out across Europe, and gathered as many of their descendants in Paris as he could to complete the ritual. He hoped to activate them all at once and then fuse their power together himself to become the most powerful vampiric creature the world had ever seen since Khastran.


    Rachel was spared from being ripped apart by Marcus Cushing, and Amy Tunstall. (Amy was an old werewolf friend of Carlene who had arrived in Paris with Marcus a few years prior. Marcus now served as her mentor much like he had done to Carlene.)


    After fleeing Paris, Rachel was advised by Amy to go to New York where her friend Carlene was. Carlene and Lam then removed the final part of the demonic energy from Rachel, and helped her come to terms with what had happened as well as train her to become a formidable vampire killer in her own right.


    Fritz Klaber meanwhile was an immortal demon hunter who came from Germany. He was born in the 17th century and it is known that he helped build the village of Arkin, which after the vandals demise became one of the most powerful villages in Germany and served as a prison for supernatural creatures all over the world.


    Certainly Klaber was responsible for many of Arkin''s powerful weapons. His mastery of magics in some respects eclipsed those of even Lam at this stage. In spite of this however he was not there when the village finally fell in the late 18th century and ironically became a hotspot for demons, vampires and other creatures from all over the world.


    Fritz travelled the world afterwards before finally settling in New York to deal with a creature that he had imprisoned years ago, and whose prison had fallen into the clutches of Crowley. Typically the faux wizard had no idea what it was and simply let it gather dust on a shelf, but eventually one of the demons followers freed it, drawing in Klaber.


    After Klaber helped Carlene, Lam and Rachel defeated the beast, the legendary vampire killed decided to stay in New York. At first he claimed it was because he needed to make sure the demon didn''t escape again, but in truth he had grown quite fond of this intrepid band of demon hunters. In time they became a new family, with Klaber and Rachel even falling in love with one another.


    Gemma finally was originally a normal Jewish girl from the suburbs of New York, who one night when she was just a teenager, babysitting her friends children was drawn into a battle between hunters and vampires on the streets of New York. Her boyfriend at that time Peter was a young, reckless member of a gang of hunters. All of her friends had told Gemma not to bother with him, and assumed he was another useless bad boy, but ironically Gemma was attracted to him because she could see that underneath his bravado he was a kind, brave man who wanted to help free his city from the undead monsters that were ripping it apart. Vampires had always been drawn to New York as it was the city that never slept, but the 1970s was a particularly prosperous time for vampiric activity. It wasn''t for nothing that New York even in tourist brochures earned the nickname "Fear city" during that decade.


    Sadly however whilst Peter may have been brave and noble, he and the other hunters he had allied himself with were amateurs at best, and after one battle where they were almost wiped out, Peter was forced to flee to Gemma''s house whilst she was babysitting, which soon drew the vampires wrath on their house, forcing Gemma and the children to flee into the streets of New York for the night.


    After barely surviving the night, Gemma cut ties with Peter. Whilst she still respected him, she did not want to be dragged into his world. 2 years later in 1973, Peter was killed and Gemma overcome with guilt at having turned her back on him soon began to take a more active role in battling the vampire horde.


    Sadly however he own lack of experience eventually caught up with her and in 1974, Gemma was turned into a vandal. She tried to control her hunger for souls and fed on animals, whilst hiding out in Central Park. Eventually Carlene found her, when several vampires had made a nest in Central Park.


    Gemma in spite of her condition, helped Carlene defeat the vampires, after which Carlene took her back to the Dakota. She and Carlene developed the closest relationship, with Carlene helping her control her hunger for souls the same way she had controlled her bloodlust a decade earlier.


    By the 1980s this new family broke apart when Carlene left to help Amy deal with demons in London, though Lam continued to operate from the Dakota in New York until the early 00s before he was reunited with Carlene again in the Highlands of Scotland where they would work alongside the likes of Daniel Winn and Lindsey. Following Carlene''s disappearance into the early 19th century in 2007 however. Lam grew tired of the earth. It was not that he disliked humanity, but he had originally set out to explore the universe and had now been trapped on this world for over 100 years.


    He soon gained an opportunity to leave in the early 2010s when the grey alien rescued a woman who had fallen victim to another group of renegade Zeta Reticulans. Ingrid Emerald.


    This group targeted the earth due to the fact that the federation, other than a few Zetas had largely given up on our planet. These Zetas however didn''t just simply extract organs. They actively mutated people into hideous creatures. Experiments on the harvested human organs had allowed certain renegade factions within the federation a mastery over human genetics to the point where they could be tampered with. The renegades then realised that they could rewrite the DNA of humans and other aliens on primitive worlds, turning them into useful foot soldiers and servants.


    Ingrid Emerald came from a wealthy family in Holland and found fame as a romance novelist. She was something of a snob, with a taste for the finer things, though she was also incredibly generous too. Unlike the rest of her family.


    Sadly however the Zeta''s targeted her due to her wealth and influence. Previously they had targeted people in more remote regions, but now the Zeta''s wanted the healthiest humans, which they believed they could get from high places.


    Ingrid was experimented on to the extent that she gained several incredible abilities, including enhanced intelligence capable of storing greater knowledge, and advanced healing capabilities. Before the Zeta''s could finish the grissly procedure, Lam infiltrated their craft and brought the cruel aliens operation down.


    Ingrid was the only mutant who survived. The others on board the craft were so far into the mutation, and many of them had already been lobotomised to ensure loyalty. Lam gently put these poor, tormented creatures out of their misery. Ingrid''s mutation could not be reversed, and Lam monitored her for the next few days to see that she didn''t transform into one of those horrors. Thankfully she did not, but her mutation soon caused Rentros as well as the Zeta monitors to chase her. The monitors wanted to destroy her to ensure that human development was not altered, whilst Rentros wanted to imprison and if need be dissect her to make sure Ingrid wasn''t a threat.


    Lam once again came to her rescue, which made him a renegade from Zeta Reticuli a second time. Using magic, the remains of the craft he picked up in Roswell and Ingrid''s advanced intelligence. She and Lam created a unique magical craft unlike any other which they used to travel the universe. They were also assisted on their journey by Reg, a former Rentros agent who also turned on them to help Ingrid and Lam escape.


    Together this new trio saved hundreds of planets in their adventures through the universe together, though they did return to earth many times to help it. Again Lam never completely gave up on humanity. Sadly however it is not known what became of him after this. Some believed he died fighting the Hylexans, others believe that he is still out there somewhere. The last confirmed sighting of him on the earth was in the year 2035.


    The other members of the Freakish Family meanwhile went on to similarly do great things, though not quite as many of their exploits are known to us.


    The monster and Sycina eloped together not long after Varney''s death. The two had always been the closest of the five. Sycina who was used to nothing but running and fighting for her life, appreciated the monsters kindness and support. Meanwhile the monsters frightening appearance did not bother Sycina at all. She was used to far more frightening, disgusting creatures than a tall guy with some scars on his face.


    The two continued to fight vampires and creatures on the continent of Europe for the rest of Sycina''s life. They also had to face Victor Frankenstein, who it turned out was not quite as dead as the monster had believed and was eager for revenge. In spite of these troubles however, the two had a very long and happy life together, before Sycina passed away in the early 20th century. The monster''s story continued however, though we will see how later.


    Carlene was left on her own for several years in Victorian London. The monster and Sycina did return to visit her, but gradually as their lives drifted apart from the beehive topped vampire, their visits became less and less frequent. Carlene continued to fight both vampires and criminals, which was much easier now thanks to Varney having left his mansion and fortune to Carlene. She eventually closed the agency and came to work unofficially for the London police, helping them deal with supernatural threats. This led to even greater attention from the public than before however, and sadly very little of it was positive. Many locals and even members of the police force found her to be somewhat sinister, simply because she was reclusive and always there when something strange happened. It was a lonely and hard time for Carlene, but it came to an end in the last decade of the 19th century when she joined the Circus Family and explored all of time and space with them. Carlene ended up being the longest serving member of the Circus Family, with her tenure spanning multiple Circus Masters. Her mansion and wealth were left to a young boy named Daniel that she had rescued from vampires, and he continued to use her resources to fight evil throughout the 20th century, as would his descendants.


    During Carlene''s final years in 19th century London she did gain a new ally. He was not her friend like the others had been however. Their relationship was strictly professional and though they respected each other, things were often uneasy between them. The ally in question was Professor Lawrence Van Helsing, truly one of the greatest and most influential vampire hunters of all time.


    In the next chapter we will explore his life and battles with the most evil vampire of them all Count Dracula.

 The Van Helsing Legacy: Part 1

    Lawrence Van Helsing was born in the year 1822 in Holland. He came from a fairly well off family and had aspirations of being a doctor from when he was a young man. Ultimately however fate took Lawrence''s life in a very different direction.


    The young Lawrence had his first dealings with the occult when he travelled to the town of Janssen to attend its prestigious university. He rented a flat with another local student Frances Gough. The two became great friends in a short time, sharing a number of interests and were a great help to each other during their first academic year. It all changed however part way through the first term, when Gough''s girlfriend Valerie suffered a terrible tragedy. Her father, who had always been a kind man in a happy relationship, suddenly and inexplicably killed her mother before killing himself. Valerie refused to believe it even in the face of overwhelming evidence and kept searching for something to prove her fathers innocence, as futile as that may have seemed.


    A few weeks after the tragedy, her fathers ghost began to haunt her however, appearing as a mirage for several nights. At first Valerie thought she was going mad and moved out of her house into Lawrence and Frances flat. Even there however, her fathers spectre which was tied to her, continued to appear sporadically, which alerted both Van Helsing and Frances to what was really happening.


    Frances decided to visit Professor Abercombe, a local expert on the supernatural who worked for Janssen''s mysterious Library, at that point the single largest source of information on the occult in Europe (outside of the Cushing''s base.)


    The reason this seemingly innocuous town contained such a Library, was because Janssen had been near the vandals base in Holland. Whilst the vampires and Cushings made off with most of what they could of the vandals magics after killing the demons. A secret bunker of supplies eluded them and was found several years later by a powerful warlock named Kamfa.


    This warlock however did not use the vandals magics and secrets for his own gain. Rather he built, using his own magics, the Library to supply all of the vandals information and magics to the people of Europe to aid them.


    The Library as it was simply known, was guarded by a spectre of one of Kamfa''s worst enemies, a power hungry warlock named Lasinka that had fallen completely under his control thanks ironically to the vandals magics. (Not surprisingly their knowledge of how to bind souls was second to none.) Any attempt by Lasinka to escape or use anything in the Library for his own ends would cause his soul to be sent to the very worst hell dimension, Quortoth. Reportedly even Satan kept out of that dimension, finding it to be too wild and unpredictable. Finally Lasinka was also compelled to only give the secrets and magics from the Library to people who were judged worthy to use them by Kamfa''s magic, that the wizard claimed could see the pure intentions of someone.


    Aside from Lasinka however, there were numerous humans and witches who helped keep the collection safe and organised, and Professor Abercombe was one of them. He had not been selected by Kamfa himself however. The Library had stood for over 40 years, whilst Professor Abercombe had only arrived in Janssen 10 or so years ago when he was hunting a powerful demon known as Askerely. This demon was a former torturer of Satan that had gone rogue. He was tired of only being able to torture those who Satan wanted, and began torturing lost human souls on earth, regardless of whether they were wicked or not. Abercombe, had been alerted to the demon and the existence of the supernatural, when Askerely targeted Abercombe''s fathers ghost who had died of natural causes. Abercombe''s father was tortured to madness by the demon and the Professor subsequently spent decades chasing Askerely, whilst honing his skills as a hunter overall.


    It was only with supplies from the Library who deemed Abercombe''s intentions worthy that he was able to finally gain the magics needed to slay the beast and avenge his father.


    After this, the Professor who had sacrificed so much in chasing the demon. Decided to stay, as the Library provided everything to those who worked in it, accommodation (Which was in the Library itself) and food. Abercombe''s days as a hunter were pretty much over anyway due to his advanced age (by that time''s standards) and a history of injuries.


    It was a relatively calm and peaceful life in the Library for the next decade or so barring the odd attack from a rogue demon and witch who wanted to try and steal the Library''s collection. Even then, the staff rarely had to battle the creature, with the Library''s defenses dealing with most threats.


    Frances meanwhile had first met Abercombe when he slew Askerely. In fact the old hunter had even saved Frances'' life, as the demon had captured the boy along with several others in an effort to use their blood to restore its strength, after the professor had wounded Askerely with the weapon he got from the Library. Whilst Frances parents thanked Abercombe and even hailed him as a hero. Frances tried for so long to convince himself that what he saw was a trick, and that the demon was just a lunatic. It got so bad that every time he saw Abercombe walk down the street, Frances would go in the other direction. Abercombe wasn''t hurt by it. He was used to people having that reaction to the truth about what was out there.


    Among some of the locals of Janssen it was an open secret about the supernatural, but most flat out denied it and viewed the Library as just a creepy place run by the local weirdos and chancers.


    Either way hardly anyone from the village ever visited it, with its customers almost all coming from around Europe.


    Now faced with the reality of Valerie''s father however, Frances couldn''t shut off what he knew to be the truth about the supernatural anymore and approached his former rescuer. Abercombe was happy to help, though he wasn''t willing to give up anything from the Library. Even though he believed their intentions were pure, the Library still did not allow someone to use their magic if they were inexperienced for their sake. Fortunately however Abercombe felt he wouldn''t have to rely on the vandals magics for what he assumed was a simple exorcism.


    However when the Professor captured Valerie''s fathers ghost during his next visitation. He discovered that her father actually wasn''t responsible for the murder of his wife after all. Valerie''s father had been possessed by a demonic spirit named Zerkan that had arrived in Janssen a few weeks prior, wanting to steal the books from the Library. It was one of the few intruders to get by their security, forcing the Library''s staff to banish the creature to hell. Zerkan however managed to cling onto her fathers body in an effort to survive. Demons were always harder to banish when they were in a host body.


    However the strength of the Library''s magics still pulled Zerkan out, but in an act of pure spite and malevolence it killed Valerie''s mother first in its death throes. However the demon was still not completely banished yet. It managed to cling onto this world, just about using the spirit of Valerie''s father who it also made kill himself (as it would be easier to control his spirit when he was dead.) It was literally teetering on the brink of hell, unable to to affect our world, but also limiting her fathers soul''s existence within it, hence why he could only appear fleetingly.


    This was a rare species of demon. Even the Library didn''t have information on it, though that said their magics were still powerful enough to ultimately repel the monster, but it still evidently had a few tricks that shocked even them.


    In order to ensure that Valerie''s father was not pulled into hell with the demon, which completing the exorcism would have done. His soul was taken to the Library by the Professor where they could separate them, though this ultimately allowed the demon to get into the Library itself through him.


    With the aid of the other Librarians, Abercombe finally purged the demon and sent it to Quortoth. Valerie''s father was then able to cross over, though not before sharing a final goodbye with his daughter.


    This experience not surprisingly had a profound and moving effect on Van Helsing, and afterwards he developed an interest in the supernatural. Though he later admitted that he wasn''t sure if this interest was more paranoia, as the terror he felt in the presence of the demon was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. He never wanted to feel it again.


    Ultimately Van Helsing didn''t get any information on the occult from Abercombe''s Library, as it did not at least at that point consider him worthy. Still he, Valerie and Frances kept in touch with Abercombe who supplied Van Helsing with knowledge from his own personal collection, and even served as something of a mentor to Lawrence during this time.


    The trio were also soon forced to help the Professor deal with another supernatural problem in the town, just a few months later.


    A former member of the Library, Hamilton had stolen one of its books and used it to bring the dead back to life. His aim was to create an army of slaves to take the Library by force and use its magics to create a new power base in Europe, one which could take the place of the Vandals, but in his mind benefit the world.


    Zombies began to rise throughout the village, attacking and murdering its people. Van Helsing, Frances and Valerie helped Abercombe deal with the zombie menace before it could spread throughout Holland, though ironically at least according to his memoirs. Van Helsing was actually the least willing to take on the zombies and to his shame at one point fled and left Frances and Valerie who barely escaped afterwards. Ultimately however he came through in the end and helped the library undo the effects of the zombie plague.


    Despite helping to stop the plague however Van Helsing was left with a crippling fear of zombies when he saw several of them devour a fellow student. He didn''t know the student very well, having only spoken to him a few times, but to see someone he''d known in any capacity die in such a horrific way stayed with Lawrence. The initial terror and trauma in fact could very well have ended his career there and then. Thankfully however Van Helsing was given a chance to overcome his phobia of the supernatural at least, just a few weeks later. A follower of Askerely arrived in Janssen looking for its revenge. The creature was able to capture and torture Abercombe, who underestimated it, but Van Helsing, Valerie and Frances managed to track it down, using Van Helsing''s own knowledge of Abercombe''s studies and rescue him.


    Abercombe was impressed by all three of them, and ashamed of himself. He had become lazy and weak in all his years in the Library to the point where a lowly demon had been able to capture and torture him, then there was also the mistakes he''d made in dealing with Zerkan and allowing Hamilton to join in the first place. Abercombe was desperate more than ever to prove that he wasn''t a sad old relic, and foolishly tried to throw himself back into the fray. It wasn''t that Abercombe was simply too old however. Truth be told he was never that much of a hunter. He was brave and determined and his motives were pure, hence why the Library trusted him, but in terms of skill, he was fairly average. Enough to wield a weapon, but even the Library should not have trusted him with anything greater than that.


    Still the combination of the Professors hurt pride and his faith in Van Helsing and the others would later led to him inviting the three of them to take part in a mission against the most evil creature he had ever faced. Count Dracula.


    Now Dracula''s history has been somewhat misinterpreted over the centuries by a combination of fact and fiction. Bram Stoker. A student of Van Helsing, later wrote a book based loosely on their final battle in London, which soon entered popular culture. At the same time however Dracula''s life as a man, where he was known as Vlad the Impaler also entered the history books, though obviously with many revisions.


    In truth the real Vlad Dracula''s reign of terror spanned several centuries, with the after effects of his monstrous actions still affecting the world even today.


    Born in 1428 to Wallachian royalty. Vlad ruled Wallachia and Transylvania just twice. (Unlike the history books which state he ruled them three times. The third time was simply an impostor to help keep order.)


    Vlad''s first rule occurred shortly after the death of his father and elder brother in 1448. This reign however barely lasted a few months and later that same year, his army was crushed by his enemies and prince Vlad was forced to flee to the Ottoman empire.


    During this period Vlad with no other options, turned to the black arts and eventually joined Scholomance. Kilgharrah was unhappy at the prince''s inclusion. Normally in order to be eligible for Scholomance you had to have mastered magics to a certain degree, but in Vlad''s case Mephistopheles took him in despite his lack of experiences for two reasons. First his influence. If Vlad reclaimed the throne, he could obviously spread darkness to a greater extent. Second of all, Mephistopheles could sense the darkness and bitterness within Vlad, that was quite unlike anything he had ever seen before.


    Luckily for the former prince he proved to be a natural at the black arts, though even then it is speculated that Mephistopheles may very well have helped Vlad cheat the final exam, so that the prince could make his own way in the world, rather than be a slave to either himself or Kilgharrah. Mephistopheles was excited at what Vlad could accomplish with this power and his own cunning and ruthlessness.


    During his time at Scholomance Vlad had a romance with another student. Eva Ernst. She resented Vlad at first due to his lack of skill as a sorcerer compared to the other students, but in time she came to admire his ambition and brutality.


    After graduating the two travelled the country gathering followers, both human and demon with Vlad planning to take back Wallachia and have Eva be his queen. Together he hoped their magics would allow them to rule indefinitely and expand his empire.


    Their twisted affair eventually led to Eva becoming pregnant. She decided to keep the baby however, only so she could use its blood in a ritual to give herself greater power. This spell in question, one of the darkest that none of even Scholomance''s students had dared use before, could grant someone control over the most powerful form of dark magic a, but demanded the ultimate price, the death of their own infant child. Even for the most evil of Scholomance''s students this was too much to ask, but Eva was simply upset at having to wait on the baby for 9 months while it grew. Vlad meanwhile also had no problems about killing their baby either. He didn''t want it in the first place, as in his mind children end up usurping their parents. His only problem was that he did not want Eva to gain more power than him, blissfully unaware that at that point she could have torn him apart if she wanted anyway.


    Thankfully however, one of Scholomance''s other students, Gloria Zaleska who knew about Eva''s pregnancy, having fought with the twisted couple many times since graduation. Stole the baby before the ritual could be completed and subsequently raised it as her own.


    Eva continued to experiment with dark magics after the loss of her daughter, including even those that Mephistopheles was scared of in Scholomance. She was determined to become the strongest and most powerful witch. Whilst she did develop incredible power, sadly it came at a price. Her humanity was literally eaten away and Eva was transformed into a hideous, deformed monster. It was at this point that Vlad abandoned her. Naturally his "love" for her had only ever been in the shallowest way possible. She was an incredible beauty before her transformation with her huge nose, dark hair and eyes and striking cheek bones.


    Now however her hair had fallen out, her eyes had become blood red with no pupil and her skin had become scaly and slimy.


    Still she regretted nothing. The power Eva gained allowed her to not only take over several witches covens, but transform hundreds of witches and warlocks into monstrosities similar to her, albeit less powerful.


    Eva essentially created a new and twisted form of magical creature in herself and the others she infected, though she would still refer to herself and the others like her as witches, which only sadly further contributed to their demonisation.


    In time Eva became known as the Grand High Witch and commanded an army of similar monsters around the world to inflict horrific curses and spread dark magic. The more dark magic there was in the world, the stronger Eva became, with her ultimate aim being to spread enough dark magic to the point where she could become a goddess. These witches enjoyed targeting children most of all for two reasons. Eva''s own disgust with children after what happened with her own daughter. Incredibly enough she actually came to resent her daughter for robbing her of the power. (That was her last chance for it to work, as whilst she could still have children, they would now be creatures of magic with the spell having specified a natural creature.)


    The other reason was that due to their innocence, curses against children increased the presence and strength of dark magic tenfold, giving Eva and her vile subordinates greater strength.


    As the Grand High Witch, Eva became one of the most evil, despised and feared women throughout all of history, responsible for the death''s of thousands directly, never mind how many through the other monsters she created.


    Vlad meanwhile after abandoning Eva was forced to flee, having underestimated her new power. Most of their followers took her side out of terror. She obviously did not love or even really care for Vlad. Her interest in the prince was every bit as shallow, but she bitterly resented the insult of being rejected by a failed prince.


    Fortunately for Vlad, one of their few minions who had remained loyal to him (more out of loyalty to his father), had earlier discovered the book of Khastran. It had been brought to Wallachia many years prior by a pack of vampires, simply because the region was just out of the vandals reach by that point at least.


    These vampires had hoped to build an army here, but they were slaughtered by ironically Vlad''s father. This servant meanwhile, who had been a loyal follower of Vlad''s father at the time and had only joined his son and Eva''s ever growing cult for that reason. Remembered the victory over the demons and searched the area, discovering the book which had simply been left to rot. Vlad''s father due to his dislike of the vandals, ironically despised all supernatural creatures and refused to ever use magic. Even the servant had been reluctant to reveal it to Vlad at first out of fear of what the book would do to his prince.


    Sensing a huge power from within it, Vlad''s greed and ambition overcame everything else and he spoke from the book transforming himself into the first of a new breed of vampire. One that would become the most common throughout Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. This breed of vampire was extremely powerful physically and possessed great hypnotic abilities. Their greatest strength however were their restorative powers. They were easier to resurrect than most others. At the same time however, Dracula''s breed also suffered from many traditional vampire weaknesses, such as wooden stakes, crosses, and sunlight in particular.


    Upon becoming a vampire, Vlad instantly drove back Eva''s followers, forcing his ex to retreat for the time being. It would be quite a while before she was able to build up her own power base to challenge her former lover. Vlad''s breed of vampire also possessed a greater immunity to magic making them particularly dangerous enemies for Eva and her followers. Still Eva didn''t give up and the two remained bitter enemies for centuries afterwards.


    After defeating his equally vile former lover. Dracula headed for Wallachia with an army of vampires and easily took control of the region. For the next 20 years Wallachia and other regions the prince conquered such as Transylvania became a hot spot for vampires and other supernatural creatures. Most of its human population were kept in cages and tortured and devoured by the vampires and demons. Vlad''s brutality as a ruler far eclipsed even that of Prince John and the Sheriff. Vlad is believed to have tortured and killed over 80 thousand people during his second reign, though even that is a more conservative estimate.


    One of Vlad''s favourite methods of execution was to impale those he couldn''t be bothered to feast on, with wooden stakes. This was Vlad''s way of making a mockery of the fact that wooden stakes through the heart were a fatal weakness to his and many, many other vampire breeds. This earned him the gruesome title of Vlad the Impaler, which he wore with pride.


    During his time as the ruler of Wallachia, Vlad also went under the title of Vlad Dracula (after the order of dragon that his family had long been a part of.) This would eventually become the name he was most associated with over the years.


    Dracula held the vampires and demons together through tyranny and fear like no other before him. His reign also saw the supernatural fight back against the vandals, not just from his own armies, but he inspired vampires and demons within Europe to do as well, which further helped to cripple their power all over the continent. Dracula became a hero, a symbol to the vampires all over the world as the man who would lead them to glory. The vampire however faced many great threats to his rule, such as Eva and ironically the Ottoman empire. The combination of his vampiric powers, knowledge of the black arts from Scholomance and skills as a warrior and tactician allowed Dracula to fight off the multiple enemies at his gates from vandals to witches to empires for decades, though admittedly had it not been for the combination of all these enemies. Vlad''s dark empire could have spread considerably wider.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Aside from his former lover meanwhile. One of Vlad''s greatest individual enemies during this time was his own daughter. Having been raised by a Gloria. Vlad and Eva''s daughter who now went by the name of Marya Zaleska became determined to destroy her loathsome parents after they caused the death of her beloved step mother.


    Gloria had since stealing the baby retired from using her powers, as she did not want to bring a child into her war against the paranormal. She and Marya were happy together for years, but sadly Eva, desperate to make both of them pay. Had one of her minions track Marya down and drug her with a magic apple.


    The apple trapped Marya in a painting and in order to undo its horrific effects, Gloria was forced to use up all of her magics, leaving her vulnerable and weak.


    She and Marya then fled from their home. Eva had by this stage greased her way up through the ranks of the Ottoman Empire to help them take down Vlad, with it only being through their resources that she was able to find her daughter. This sadly meant that both Gloria and Maria had to flee the empire to escape. Unfortunately this in turn just made them vulnerable to Vlad, and despite Gloria''s best efforts, she and her step daughter were captured by his forces. Once again however Gloria without a seconds hesitation sacrificed herself to protect her daughter, with her final actions allowing Marya to escape from Dracula''s castle.


    Gloria was tortured to death by Vlad personally, who just as he had down to thousands had her impaled.


    Trapped in Transylvania and having no knowledge or skill of the black arts (as he mother had forbid it.) Marya instead turned to a renegade pack of vampires for help in getting revenge.


    These vampires despised Vlad just as much, as they were what is known as soul vampires. Whilst there are hundreds of species of vampires, they can all be divided into four categories, savage vampires, pure vampires, born vampires and soul vampires.


    The differences between these four types stems from how a person is transformed into a vampire. The process of infection can vary, but it always begins the same way, with a tiny piece of a vampires demonic energy being injected into a person, through various means, biting, transfusion of blood, demonic possession etc. Afterwards it will always grow and affect the person in one of the following four ways, leading to four different kinds of vampire (who are in turn divided up into hundreds of breeds.)


    Savage vampires are where the demonic energy grows into a full demonic spirit that casts the infected''s soul from the human body which it then takes over and transforms into a demonic one completely. The person may have to be dead for this to work, though in many breeds of savage vampire it can happen when they are alive. As we have explored before, the soul is where everything you are comes from. Mind, memories, personality etc. Normally when you die it floats off either to the great beyond or it may be kept on earth, by a persons will or supernatural upheaval, creating ghosts. (Or it may be sent to other artificial afterlife''s or Satan''s hell universe if you are corrupt.)


    Sadly in the case of a savage vampire, the persons soul is sent to Khastran''s dimension.


    Savage vampires therefore are not the people whose bodies they take over. They are demons right through to their core. Savage vampires also possess little higher intelligence. They are as single minded as animals and live for nothing but hunting and killing. They are also among the most powerful breed of vampire too. The Jiang Shi of China is among the most notable examples of a savage vampire.


    Pure vampires meanwhile are where the demonic energy infects the persons soul and transforms it completely into a demonic soul. Once again much like savage vampires this can happen whilst the person is alive, but it can also happen when they are dead. In that case the demonic energy traps the soul in the body after death whilst it transforms it, after which the person rises.


    As a result of this pure vampires are the same people they were in life, but have now lost all humanity both literally and figuratively. Pure vampires are incapable of emotions such as love, compassion, remorse and empathy. They are not only driven by a desire to kill and torture, but any negative traits a person had in life, will be brought to the fore and amplified once they become a pure vampire. This is why they often choose people who are already twisted, or at least bitter and full of rage to join them. Pure vampires are by far the most common type. They account for up to 95 percent of all vampire breeds. Dracula, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Nero, and Prince John were all pure vampires. The soul of any pure vampire that is slain is sent to Khastran''s dimension too.


    Born vampires meanwhile as their name would suggest are those born with the condition. They are the offspring of two pure vampires. Only pure vampires can produce offspring and even then only a very few breeds are capable of doing that. Born vampires unlike all other breeds do age, though only until they reach adulthood, and they also age considerably slower than us. Born vampires much like pure vampires, do possess intelligence, and similarly lack any compassion, empathy, remorse or love. They are the most powerful vampires of them all, the most monstrous in appearance for the most part and generally at the top of any vampire hierarchy. Their souls are also sent to Khastran''s dimension at death.


    Finally soul vampires are where the demonic energy creates a new demon soul in the persons body, but it does not eject the human soul. On the contrary, the human soul and the demon soul merge to some extent. As a result of this soul vampires have more humanity in them than most other breeds. Soul vampires are not only weaker than most of the other breeds, but the fact that the human soul remains, even if it is being influenced by a demon, means it is possible for them to fight the demons influence and hold onto feelings like love, compassion and remorse.


    Now it must be stated that the absolute majority of cases, even today, of soul vampires are just as evil as pure vampires. The demon usually succeeds in suppressing all positive emotions the person has and turns them into twisted, demonic caricatures of who they once were. (Soul vampires are also sent to Khastran''s dimension too when they die.)


    Still there have been a few isolated cases throughout history of certain soul vampires, for whatever reason managing to fight the demons influence over their mind and use their vampiric powers for good.


    Examples of heroic soul vampires include Professor Fang, Carlene, Aimee Agyeman and Varney. It is for this reason and their generally more human nature, that soul vampires are regarded as filth by pure and born vampires. Generally speaking soul vampires, if they are accepted by others at all, occupy the lowest ranks in vampire, packs, societies and clans.


    It should be noted that this same principle also applies to the vampires sworn enemies, the vandals too, who are divided into savage vandals, pure vandals, born vandals, and soul vandals. Unlike vampires however, soul vandals are accepted by the other breeds who believe they can use them to infiltrate human society more successfully.


    The pack of soul vampires that Marya stumbled upon were not remorseful or heroic meanwhile. They simply despised Dracula because he had badly mistreated him and their kind and wanted to bring the tyrant down.


    Marya not only agreed to help them, but also asked to be sired. All she cared about was in making her father pay. She didn''t believe she even had a soul to damn, after seeing how vile both of her parents were. Marya always felt that she had to be evil deep down anyway, as surely nothing good could have come out of their twisted union. That said however Marya, had specifically chosen these vampires to be sired as she knew the difference between soul and pure vampires, unlike most people. This was thanks to her mothers extensive knowledge on the occult from Scholomance. Marya knew there would be a better chance of her controlling herself, long enough to remain focused on killing her father rather than just simply becoming a monster.


    After becoming one of them. Marya led her vampires to free several of Vlad''s human prisoners and slew some of his most powerful minions. The vampire king was taken aback, with Marya having managed to make a dent in his armor the likes of which her mother, the Ottoman empire, or indeed even the vandals had not been able to before now.


    Granted she didn''t do it alone, and unlike them she was on the inside, but still for the first time in a long while, Dracula was genuinely scared.


    Like Carlene, Professor Fang etc, Marya controlled her blood lust. She later claimed that she only did so to further humiliate her father by showing that the curse of vampirism could be fought to those who didn''t know any better.


    Marya also forced the other vampires not to feed on humans. Not all of them agreed, but at the very least a few did for the time being, believing that the threat of Vlad was too great.


    For a while Marya became a symbol to other supernatural creatures in Wallachia that wanted to live in peace with humans, or at least had human allies, lovers and associates but had been forced to turn on them after Dracula took over.


    Sadly however Marya''s rebellion was not to last as she was betrayed by one of her own vampires, who grew tired of not feeding on humans and sold her out to Vlad.


    All of Marya''s team, including the traitor were put to death by Dracula, but the vampire king prepared a much grizzlier fate for his daughter.


    He locked her in his castle and forced her to prey on peasants that he could not be bothered to feed on. At first Marya tried to control her thirst, but the longer she went without it, the more the demon came to influence her, and after her first victim. A young peasant girl, she had earlier saved, feeding became easier until Marya became a monster. Even then however her father still kept her locked up just in case. He was far too sadistic to simply kill her, but was wise enough not to let her go free either.


    Following Marya''s defeat, Dracula''s empire continued to expand for a few more years. During this time however the vampire king kept the book of Khastran locked up, as he did not want any other alpha vampire to be created that could challenge him.


    That would change however one day when Dracula was contacted by the father of all vampires. Khastran. The demon god was not quite as dead as his enemies had believed. Traces of his spirit still survived across the earth, though not enough for him to truly live again. Still every once and while these traces could form together briefly to allow Khastran to be aware for a short time before they vanished. It is not known how this monster influenced our world in the other brief periods he was conscious (though some have speculated that the was responsible for spreading the bubonic plague, in the hopes of killing off all of humanity except for his children, allowing him to live again.)


    This time however, Khastran''s spirit came to settle near where he had died in what would one day become the Czech Republic. It had long been a hot spot for demons drawn there by Khastran''s left over demonic energy. A castle had been constructed over the exact site of his death, Housaka castle, to contain what was believed to have been a portal to hell, due to the influx of demons.


    Khastran''s spirit during one of its brief lucid periods, utilised the demons inside the castle and had them use magics to try and stablise him. Unfortunately for the demon god however, they could not hold him together indefinitely. As it was he lasted a lot longer this time than any previous period as a ghost. Roughly two years inside Housaka castle, and during that time Khastran was able to communicate with Dracula. Khastran regarded Vlad as his most evil and despicable child. He genuinely believed that Dracula could lead his children to victory by uniting them in terror like none before him. Still in order to truly triumph over humanity and the other demon species of the earth. Khastran believed that Dracula would have to use the book of Khastran to create more alpha vampires like him, and more breeds.


    The father of the vampires however was only able to fleetingly contact Dracula from his pit in Housaka castle. His messages appeared as visions in Dracula''s mind which confused and even frightened him at first. The tyrant had no idea what they were, but he knew that whatever was sending them made the prince of Wallachia, for all his kingdom and influence, feel like an ant.


    Dracula''s fear of this power eventually led to him tracking it down with magic. Not wanting to entrust its discovery to any of his minions. Dracula briefly left Wallachia himself, discreetly with a small pack of vampires and demons and headed to Housaka castle.


    When he arrived there, the demons welcomed Vlad and informed him of Khastran''s intentions (though even then the vampire was still forced to slaughter several local villagers by Khastran''s minions to allow Khastran to properly manifest, which he was more than happy to do.)


    Khastran and Dracula talked for several days. Though the vampire was terrified at first, he soon grew eager to learn more from Khastran about the world and the universe itself. He agreed to help Khastran, on condition that after Khastran was reborn and gained access to the mystic realm. Dracula would be allowed to share in his power.


    Whilst Khastran was naturally unhappy about this, he agreed to Dracula''s terms and performed a ritual that bound he and Dracula''s souls together meaning that one couldn''t harm the other. Khastran was desperate, being not sure if he would be able to reform again without his children''s help after this time. Ironically the magics that had been used to keep him here longer also threatened to drain what was left of his soul. He felt it was worth it if he could use that time to guide his children. Vampires in general had long since given up on the myth of Khastran. Few vampires even knew who he was anymore, with even the book being simply referred to as the book of vampires. Khastran knew he needed a leader to unite them to spread across the world and fulfil their original goal, and Dracula it seemed was the only man who could do it.


    Sadly however for Vlad in the weeks he was away from Wallachia, his empire crumbled. Without him to lead them, the vampires and the demons soon turned on each other, which allowed the Ottoman empire to launch a final decisive strike against Dracula''s demonic kingdom.


    Even then the Ottoman''s endured heavy casualties and only really triumphed due to their superior numbers. Still for the second time Vlad Dracula was overthrown and forced to go on the run through Europe. That said however whilst his kingdom came to an end, the effects of his rule are still being felt today. Transylvania is still a hot spot for vampires, demons and supernatural creatures thanks to Dracula''s rule. Furthermore the magics Dracula used to protect his kingdom, still ensure that is is home to all manner of twisted and unnatural phenomenon


    Still the fall of Wallachia was truly devastating for Dracula not just because he lost his power base. His daughter also escaped during the conflict, and the book of Khastran that had been kept in the castle was stolen by the invading Turks. Dracula had ironically not taken it with him to ensure that it wouldn''t fall into anyone else''s hands, whilst he was away, genuinely believing his kingdom would be more secure than he was on the road.


    We will explore what became of the book later.


    On the run from the vandals, the witches and his own daughter, the next few centuries of Dracula''s life were more desperate. The vampire travelled from town to town, desperately trying to get any support he could, whilst indulging in his own perverted and twisted desires. He still caused considerable trouble for the vandals during this time, and none of his enemies came even remotely close to catching him. The knowledge Khastran had granted him allowed Dracula to battle the vandals through a wide variety of means beyond magic. Thanks to Khastran, Dracula possessed a far greater scientific knowledge than almost anyone from his time. (Though even then his knowledge was still limited, as ultimately he found it difficult to understand the full extent of what Khastran told him.) Still he always remained a most formidable enemy, even if he was forced to always be on the move.


    Following the fall of the vandals, Dracula was able to establish a secure power base in the area of Klausenberg, which he ruled from his new castle with an iron fist.


    Even then however by this stage Dracula had lost faith in Khastran, since he vanished once again. That coupled with the loss of the book, that he was no closer to finding caused the vampire to seemingly be content just to live a twisted, cruel, hedonistic life for a few centuries.


    It was near the end of this point of the vampires life where he now going by the title of Count Dracula, that he first came into conflict with Abercombe.


    Whilst searching for his demonic nemesis. Abercombe stumbled upon a young woman who was being pursued by Dracula. The vampire seemed to derive a sick pleasure from hurting women above all else. Some have speculated his violent, sadistic misogyny stemmed from his experiences with Eva, but whatever the case, during his rule over Klausenberg. Dracula would pick the women at random and terrorise them every night for days, sometimes weeks, sometimes months on end. Some nights he wouldn''t even do anything. He''d just peer outside of their window to intimidate his victim. Other times he would hypnotise his victims and force them to do something horrible. Sometimes it would be something as simple as humiliating themselves, others it would be more gruesome and he would make them self harm. In extreme cases, he even forced them to kill their pets and family members. Other times he would threaten to harm everyone they ever loved ( a threat he often made good on.) He also enjoyed slowly transforming them into vampires, so that they could feel their humanity drip away. A quick transformation Dracula believed wasn''t good enough. He wanted them to know what they were becoming and act on violent urges whilst they still had some form of conscience.


    The end result was always the same with Dracula killing his victims though sometimes he''d turn them into a vampire. Dracula''s brides however rarely lasted long. Once he had no use for them, he''d kill them a second time.


    Whenever a family became the target of Dracula, they received no help from their neighbours. Not only did the local villagers not have much knowledge of the ways of the vampire, but any attempt to slay the vile Count failed miserably, with Dracula''s retribution towards the village as a whole always being extreme. The people of Klausenberg longed for the return of the vandals ironically, who not only killed fewer, but whose sadism couldn''t possibly compare to that of Dracula''s.


    Dracula''s latest target meanwhile, a young woman named Barbara had fled Klausenberg to escape the arch vampire along with her family. One by one however, the count picked off her family, until only she remained. With Abercombe''s help (who had been drawn in by the reports of vampire killings.) Barbara once again escaped. He was only successful because Dracula at that point was distracted from his usual pathetic, vile games because of the appearance of his daughter who had tracked him down to Klausenberg.


    Since escaping from his castle, Marya found it hard to not feed on humans again. She only didn''t want to because of her hatred of her father, but even then whilst she for the most part avoided feeding on humans, every now and again the demon''s influence became too great. Unlike Varney she was not picky about who she fed on.


    Sadly Marya though having become a powerful and dangerous hunter in her own right, ultimately froze up when she faced her father. The horror of the years she spent locked up, as well as the faces of the people she butchered became too much to ignore when she confronted Dracula, and for the first time since she became one of the undead she actually fled rather than face a threat down. It was many years before she overcame the shame of it, during which she laid low.


    In the time it took Dracula to fight off his daughter and track down Barbara. Abercombe and Barbara fell in love. The professor had previously been dedicated to hunting the torturer of his father that he hadn''t really bothered with much else in life.


    However he and Barbara, bonded over what had happened to their fathers. Dracula hadn''t just killed Barbara''s father, he had turned him and her mother into vampires, who she had been forced to slay.


    When Dracula returned, he forced Abercombe to watch as he turned Barbara into a vampire. He then left him. Quite why Abercombe wasn''t sure, but he believed that it was because Dracula wanted the Professor to live with the shame of failing to save the woman he loved. The fact that Dracula did not see him as a threat was a further insult to Abercombe.


    Ultimately Abercombe swore to himself that he would avenge Barbara after destroying his fathers killer. Unfortunately however the Library itself did not give him the secrets to destroy Dracula, simply because it didn''t have them. The Cushings had made sure they got all of the vandals knowledge of the vampires, with the secret supply the wizard had stolen sadly containing very little information on the bloodsuckers. By this stage other than the Cushings who kept the knowledge to themselves. Very few even hunters had extensive knowledge of vampires, due to the vast number of species, and myths that had been built up around them. It was damn near impossible to separate fact from fiction. One hunter might spent years fighting one breed in their area that is immune to the cross, and conclude that the crucifix hurting vampires is a myth, only to encounter one that is affected.


    This coupled with Abercombe''s age convinced him to abandon his plans for revenge, but now for the first time in years. Abercombe''s belief that he could destroy this monster was reignited by a group of hunters who had formed an alliance to take down Dracula.


    For reasons that eluded the hunters, Dracula had in the last few years been building an army in Klausenberg and had even reached out to other vampire kings to form an alliance. (In reality it was to find the book of Khastran.)


    The hunters who were all terrified of Dracula (even the Cushing''s had not been able to topple him) could not allow him to become as powerful as he had been when ruling over Transylvania. They had reached out to Abercombe for help, simply because of his association with the Library, hoping he could give them access to its secrets.


    Once they found out the library was of no use, Abercombe hoped the hunters would still have use for him if he brought Lawrence, Valerie and Frances with him. The hunters agreed, albeit reluctantly. Whilst Abercombe did believe that all three had come along in the time he had known them. He was also aware that this was his last chance against Dracula. The hunters meanwhile accepted out of desperation for more help, but in retrospect it was a gamble that Abercombe should not have taken with their lives and souls.


    The alliance of hunters didn''t even make it to castle Dracula. As soon as they arrived in Klausenberg the hunters were betrayed by one of the villagers, the landlord of a pub. He had bravely led an attack against Dracula''s castle a decade ago which caused the vampire to not only murder his wife and daughter, but 17 other young girls in each of the nearby villages.


    Years later the landlord after fleeing Klausenberg was able to overcome the horror and fell in love again, but his new love became a bride of Dracula who had tracked the landlord down and personally followed him as well. The landlord was forced to return to Klausenberg by Dracula, as the vampire king did not like the idea of anyone ever escaping his territory. The landlord continued to live in terror, shutting himself off from anyone out of fear of what Dracula would do to them, and never setting a foot wrong in case of incurring the vampires wrath again.


    Aside from the landlord''s betrayal however, the hunters were useless against the vampires anyway as again they simply didn''t have the knowledge.


    The hunters and Frances were butchered by Dracula''s minions, whilst Valerie as the only woman there was turned into a vampire. Van Helsing was the only survivor thanks to Abercombe, who distracted one of Dracula''s minions, at the cost of his own life long enough for Van Helsing to escape into the woods. There he hid in a cave until they day light, though in the morning he had to deal with Dracula''s human minions, one of whom very nearly tricked and captured him. Ironically however Van Helsing was saved by the landlord who feeling shame for his earlier actions helped Lawrence flee the town before killing himself, in order to rob Dracula of the chance to hurt others, just to make him suffer.


    Upon making it back to Janssen. Van Helsing however soon discovered that he was not safe yet.


    Valerie was sent there to finish him off. By this stage Dracula didn''t have the time to indulge in tracking down his enemies, or loose ends himself, so he sent his lackeys to do the job instead.


    After barely escaping an attack from Valerie, Van Helsing went to the library for help. Unfortunately however its staff were cowards. They knew of Dracula''s reputation and did not want to provoke him. In fact they even captured Van Helsing and hoped to offer him up to the vampire. Ironically however it was Lasinka that helped Van Helsing escape. Not through his own morality, but simply because he was compelled by the wizards magic.


    Van Helsing subsequently escaped back to England where his uncle lived. Van Helsing did not want to return to his parents in Holland out of fear that Dracula would track them down and he knew he couldn''t stay in Janssen. Even if he slew Valerie, Dracula would just send more. For now he had to remain hidden.


    Lawrence''s uncle in England Jack Van Helsing had the resources to shelter him for the time being. Whilst Jack tried to force Lawrence to get a job, instead he spent all his time researching the occult in the hopes of fighting back against Dracula and avenging his friends.


    Valerie however knew she couldn''t go back to Dracula after her failure, and stole several books from the library before fleeing across Europe for protection, not that they could do any harm against Dracula, but she hoped they could at least shield her. Whilst she remained Dracula''s enemy, unlike Marya. Valerie had no remorse or compassion and was just as much a sadistic killer.


    In the next chapter we will explore how Valerie and Van Helsing would finally have their vengeance against Dracula.

 The Van Helsing Legacy: Part 2

    During his time in England meanwhile, Van Helsing fell under the tutorship of Professor Hieronymus Grost. An expert on vampires and ghosts.


    The latter''s expertise on souls had allowed him to study how vampirism was spread among the different breeds which proved vital in Van Helsing''s own studies. Grost''s research into the supernatural begun after his 11 year old son was killed in a swimming accident. He was so devastated by the loss he desperately searched for a way to prove there was life after death. This eventually led to him studying not only ghosts, but vampires too.


    Together the two of them took on many threats in London, including most notably an entity known as the Darkness. This creature which is still a mystery to us, is believed to have come from another unknown realm of existence. There are some however who believe the darkness is another sentient, alternate afterlife to the great abyss. Whatever the truth, this monster is virtually indestructible and it devours souls. All ghosts are terrified of it, even more so than the vandals. The darkness had arrived in London in an attempt to devour the souls trapped within the tower of London itself, but Van Helsing and Grost cast it out, which gave Van Helsing the confidence he needed to go back to mainland Europe.


    For the next year Van Helsing travelled around Europe, keeping a low profile whilst hunting vampires and other supernatural creatures. However unlike other hunters he approached it like a scientist and collected data, developed theories and genuinely tried to separate fact from fiction. Van Helsing''s ultimate aim wasn''t simply to slay Dracula, but rather to let the general population know the truth about vampires. Unlike either the Library or the Cushings, he would not horde the knowledge for himself, or only give it to those he deemed worthy. Everyone would know the ways of the beast thanks to Lawrence.


    Among the other hunters Lawrence encountered on his journey''s included Father Shandor. Having earned the nickname demon stalker. Shandor was a monk, who nevertheless studied the black arts. He did so not because he worshipped them, but to better understand his enemy. Whilst he had saved many lives, and slain several, powerful demons. Among the clergy, Shandor was viewed as a Satan worshipper and shunned by most priests. The locals meanwhile didn''t think much better of him. To be fair whilst superstition ran rampant in the area Shandor lived, regardless of the actual demons and vampires. Shandor didn''t exactly endear himself to the population either. He was arrogant, condescending, short tempered and often enjoyed winding people up. He was as different as could be imagined from the soft spoken, polite, gentlemanly Lawrence Van Helsing. Their approach to battling the supernatural also greatly differed as Shandor was a man of god who believed in everything the holy book taught him, whilst Van Helsing approached his study of demons in a purely scientific way.


    Nevertheless the two of them proved to be an effective team in stopping a Nelapsi from overrunning the countryside. The Nelapsi were the most powerful and dangerous vampiric creatures. They were Kresnik''s who had been bitten and turned into vampires. As Kresniks were merely humans, infused with the power of the book of Khastran (in order to create a race of supernatural warriors who could hunt vampires.) Then they could still be turned into vampires, but the extra amount of Khastran''s power caused the transformation to spiral out of control, creating hideous abominations.


    Nelapsi''s are somewhat mysterious creatures even today, for the simple reason that hardly anybody who has encountered them lives to tell about it. After Van Helsing and Shandor''s battle with this Nelapsi, there wouldn''t be another on record for up to 100 years.


    Physically the Nelapsi can vary in much the same way that vampires can. The creature that Van Helsing and Shandor encountered however had completely white skin, red eyes, elongated fangs and an emaciated frame. It never spoke, in fact it never made noises of any kind, and its movements were slight and graceful according to Van Helsing. If you didn''t know any better, you wouldn''t have believed it was the most ferocious and powerful creature ever encountered by either of them.


    The Nelapsi''s powers meanwhile not only included the standard super strength, speed and healing, all to a greater extent than any other vampire breed, as well as immortality and the ability to fly. They also possessed the ability to cause a person''s soul to slowly burn from the inside with just their glare, and they could even control souls of their victims too. Finally they were also completely indestructible. At least at night when they were active. No force on this earth could pierce a Nelapsi''s skin, and no magic could repel them either. The only way to stop a Nelapsi was to attack it during the daylight hours (when it rested) and perform a ritual that would seal the beast in its place of resting. Even then however it would not kill it, and if the spell were undone the beast would rise again, much stronger than ever before.


    Van Helsing and Shandor, were barely able to get that many people out of the village the monster attacked. Out of 400 people, only 30 survived. This Nelapsi had been created from a young Kresnik man that ironically Shandor had taken in years ago, after vampires killed his family. Shandor trained the Kresnik to be a hunter (against the clergy''s orders who wanted to slay the Kresnik, believing them to be no better than the vampires they hunted.) Sadly when this Kresnik was bitten by a vampire, it also buried him alive. Vampires normally didn''t like to create Nelapsi as the monsters were so unpredictable and dangerous even to them. This vampire however did it to torment the Kresnik that he had been fighting with for a long time, by damning him. Of course once the Kresnik was buried, the vampire fled.


    In order to stop a Kresnik who has been bitten or infected from becoming a Nelapsi, their head must be removed, or the body burned before they rise. Simply killing the Kresnik after it has been infected, but before it has risen will not be enough.


    Along with a few of the survivors. Shandor and Van Helsing made their way into the Nelapsi''s cave which was protected by the ghosts of its former victims. Fighting their way through them (thanks to Van Helsing''s knowledge of ghosts from Professor Grost.) They sadly did not reach the Nelapsi in time and were forced to resort to another option of burying the creature under tons of rocks using explosives. They had not wanted to risk this in case the Nelapsi was able to escape from the rubble during the night, though now they had no choice.


    Fortunately however the rubble just about held the bloodsucker for the night and when the day rose again, Van Helsing and Shandor were able to find its body and perform the ritual.


    The father and Van Helsing parted on amicable terms. (Well amicable by Shandors standards.) Sadly however whilst Van Helsing''s reputation rose even if he didn''t want it to, from having been one of the only people to survive a Nelapsi attack. Shandors back home reached new lows, with his fellow clergy men blaming him for the Kresnik becoming a Nelapsi.


    Shandor was forced to leave town and travelled the countryside from this point on much like Van Helsing, fighting evil in his own way.


    Over the course of his adventures, Van Helsing not only learned more about vampires in general, but he also learned more about what Dracula was planning. The vampire king had learned exactly where the book of Khastran had been taken to a few years back in Istanbul, and wanted to build an army of vampires to storm Istanbul, take the book and complete Khastran''s plan.


    Whilst Dracula''s reputation had taken somewhat of a hit after losing Wallachia. His heinous actions in Klausenberg made many of the vampires and demons throughout Europe fear and respect him once again.


    Van Helsing in response decided to gather his own team. Father Shandor, who gladly accepted, as well as his mentor Professor Grost and his new ally, Captain Kronos.


    Grost had been somewhat inspired by Van Helsing taking the plunge to actually go out and fight evil in Europe, that he left his cosey little situation in London and investigated sightings of vampires which led to him encountering Captain Kronos. The Captain had been inspired to fight vampires after his boat had been sunk by Dragurs, an ocean dwelling breed of vampire, with Kronos being one of only three people who escaped the slaughter. From that day forward he devoted himself to hunting vampires wherever he could.


    Sadly however, whilst being a skilled warrior from his years in the army. Kronos knowledge on vampires was lacking and to start with he very rarely was actually able to find one of them. The combination of Kronos skill and Grost''s knowledge proved to be an effective combination, and the two hunted many vampires and demons in a short time, with their biggest success being the toppling of the vicious Count Karnstein.


    The Karnstein family had risen to prominence after the fall of the vandals. At one point they were even tipped as the new rulers of the fledging vampire empire, but it never came to pass. They still however ruled over their local area, though in time the vampires came to fight among themselves.


    The patriarch of the family, the vile Count Karnstein was the victor of their internal war and by this stage though he still ruled, he had become paranoid and unstable. Even Dracula did not ask him to be part of his army because he felt that Karnstein was too unpredictable.


    That said none of the villagers dared challenge him, and more than a few hunters still fell to Karnstein even in this state. Grost and Kronos however managed to slay Karnstein by burning his castle down, after which they were hailed as heroes.


    Grost also gladly accepted Van Helsing''s request, though Kronos was perhaps a bit too enthusiastic.


    The foursome''s final ally however surprisingly was Lawrence''s old friend, Valerie.


    She still wanted Dracula''s head too, and had begun to experience visions of Dracula. This was as a result of the numerous magics that she had stolen from the Library. The visions were fleeting, but once Van Helsing and Grost analysed them, they soon realised what they meant.


    All vampires have connections to those they sire. In some breeds it is so strong that if one vampire dies, then those it has sired will die. In the case of Dracula''s breed however the link was virtually minute, but when Valerie began to absorb magics to increase her vampiric powers like strength and healing, she also strengthened her link to the point where she could now see inside Dracula''s head. Had the Count been aware, he could have easily blocked her, but the fact that he regarded Valerie as nothing more than a loose end, and had almost forgotten about her. Allowed Valerie the element of surprise.


    With Van Helsing and the others, particularly Father Shandor who had his own supply of magics help. Valerie''s link with Dracula was strengthened to the point where she was able to read his mind, allowing Van Helsing and his hunters to find a secret passage into Dracula''s castle in Klausenberg.


    They attacked whilst the vampire was holding a meeting with other alpha vampires. In the ensuing fight, all of the alpha''s were killed, whilst Van Helsing faced his arch enemy Count Dracula alone.


    In spite of everything he had been through in the past year, Van Helsing was still utterly helpless against Count Dracula, who beat the vampire hunter effortlessly.


    However Van Helsing and his friends had wisely attacked in the morning, and as Dracula thought he had Van Helsing cornered. Lawrence ran down the Count''s dining table, jumped onto and pulled down the curtains.


    Sunlight flooded the entire room and began to make Dracula literally melt before Lawrence. However even in the rays of the sun, Dracula did not give up and nearly crawled, as his body was decaying, to safety. Van Helsing however, thinking quickly jumped ahead and created a make shift cross from two candle sticks on the dining table, forcing the king of the vampires back into the suns rays where he finally crumbled into a pile of ash on the floor.


    Dracula was finally dead, though the people of Klausenberg were so traumatised they didn''t believe it for years afterwards and still lived in terror.


    Valerie meanwhile fled, having learned from Dracula''s memories about a secret passage she could hide in from Dracula that she didn''t share with the others, who would have surely slain her in spite of their truce.


    After the death of Dracula Valerie fled across Europe and slowly began to build up her power, becoming a Master vampire in her own right.


    Van Helsing and the others meanwhile headed to Istanbul to find and destroy the book of Khastran. It had been sealed for many centuries beneath a vault, but a recent renegade wizard named Baris had stolen it and transformed himself into the first of a new breed of vampire that became known as the Hortdan.


    The leaders of the Ottoman empire used magic wherever they could, and even had a council of wizards, but they still covered it up to the population at large. It was felt it was easier to control the masses and followed the vandals party line as the Ottoman empire did overlap with the vandals. That said however its official wizards and paranormal experts operated independently of the vandals in its territories in south eastern Europe. (Ironically this was why the vampires who brought the book of Khastran to Transylvania in the first place had arrived there, as the Ottoman cared less about vampires than the vandals who they saw as a bigger threat. They even employed some.)


    Baris meanwhile felt that the supernatural could not be controlled. Having seen how so many empires had fallen in the past from Rome to the vandals to the Mali empire, to Gupta due to their attempts to suppress and control the paranormal. Baris knowing that the paranormal could never be destroyed as magic was part of the fabric of the earth itself. Instead believed that the only way this empire could survive is if it embraced the supernatural. At that stage the Ottoman empire was nearing its end any way, due to numerous wars with European states. It did eventually collapse less than a decade after Van Helsing and the others visit. Baris however pinned all the blame on its attempts to conquer the paranormal, and truly believed that it was humanities destiny to merge with the supernatural completely. He tried to fuse the subjects of the empire with magic, but his attempts to do so had been met with failure, and his experiments forced him to go on the run. With no other choice Baris felt the book of Khastran was the only way for humanity to become part of the supernatural. Sadly he had no idea of what it''s true power or even purpose was, other than that it had come from the demon prince Vlad. The Hortdan that he created soon claimed a small city outside of Istanbul from which they attempted to spread out throughout the Ottoman empire and its enemies.


    With the help of one of the last survivors of the city the Hortdan had claimed, a former soldier named Aylin. Van Helsing, Shandor, Kronos and Grost were able to make their way into the city and steal the book of Khastran. Van Helsing also destroyed the magical defenses of the city from within (due to the Ottoman empire''s recent troubles their magics were somewhat crude anyway) and the city was soon overwhelmed by troops. Baris however escaped and swore revenge on Van Helsing, becoming another major enemy of Lawrence and his allies.


    Van Helsing later handed the book over to the Library after he found he couldn''t harm it. Despite his troubles with them, he believed they would be more likely to find a way to destroy it. Whilst even they failed, for the next decade at least, the Library did keep it safe.


    Van Helsing, Shandor, Kronos and Grost meanwhile continued to travel throughout Europe hunting vampires and other monsters for the next ten years. Despite Van Helsing''s desire to keep a low profile, he and the others became renowned throughout Europe by other hunters, and naturally despised by vampires.


    Among the notable vampires Van Helsing and his allies faced against during this decade included old enemies Valerie and Baris, as well as the vampiric Count Mitterhouse, Baron Meinster, and Lord Courtly.


    Perhaps their most relentless enemy during this decade however was Count Karnstein. His breed, who were rare in Europe could only be killed permanently through either decapitation or a wooden stake through the heart. Whilst their bodies could be destroyed through fire, their spirits were not sent to Khastran''s dimension if any method other than staking or beheading was used. Instead they would exist as vampiric spirits who had the power to possess other people, though they also had the power to permanently take over a body. If they chose to do so however then that was their new body until it was destroyed.


    Karnstein in contrast to his previous status took control of a peasant in order to lay low. At first he was shaken at having been defeated by a mere mortal, but soon he sought revenge and spent ages learning as much as he could about Captain Kronos. Rather than simply kill him however, the legendary vampire turned Kronos'' mother and sister into vampires, who subsequently ravaged their home town, before Kronos was forced to put them down.


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    Kronos and Karnstein faced each other many times afterwards, with the two becoming bitterest enemies.


    At certain points Kronos'' hatred of Karnstein eclipsed that of his loyalty to his team mates and he even once abandoned them so as not to give up a golden opportunity to kill the vampire. All four of them had closed in on Karnstein and his new bride, the equally vile Mircalla, both of whom had been greatly weakened after a run in with an angry mob. Every single member of the mob had been slaughtered, but the vampires needed time to recover. The two vampires however captured one of Van Helsing''s former students, Jonathan who wanting to prove himself. Had foolishly gone on ahead. The Karnstein''s promised to release Jonathan if Van Helsing and the others backed off. Whilst Van Helsing didn''t want to let them go, he needed time to try and find a way to rescue his student. Kronos however, having waited almost a decade, refused to give up what seemed like his only opportunity, and charged ahead. Karnstein even held Jonathan up in front of Kronos, but the latter did not back down and so Karnstein infected Jonathan, before Kronos finally staked Karnstein once and for all. Van Helsing and Shandor severed all ties with Kronos afterwards, though Grost feeling he owed him too much, stuck by his friend to try and help him. Sadly this led to a rift between Van Helsing and Shandor and Grost too. Van Helsing and Shandor for a short while travelled together, but their different methods and personalities eventually caused them to split.


    Whilst it may have ended in tragedy. These ten years were in many respects the most lucrative of Van Helsing''s career. Not just in the vampires he killed, but the knowledge he gained of them, which he spread to as many corners of Europe as he could. He wrote books and essays, which saw widespread publication in certain areas. Whilst mainstream scientists regarded Van Helsing as a kook, to those who knew the truth it was invaluable. His work not only shed light on the ways of the vampire to hunters all over the world, but became the basis from which most independent hunters and even some organisations would work from for centuries to come.


    Van Helsing was not the first to discover many of the things that were later attributed to him, such as vampires being the children of Khastran. He was however since the rise of the vandals, the first to make that knowledge widespread, as most others such as the Cushings had kept it to gain power, whilst others had concealed it out of fear that humanity could not handle the truth.


    That said however Van Helsing sadly still wasn''t able to break the vandals lie as he had hoped. Nevertheless he did inspire thousands more people to become hunters.


    He even took on many protege''s during his time with Father Shandor, Kronos and Grost, such as the ill fated Jonathan. (Who Van Helsing killed without a seconds hesitation after he had been turned.)


    After the group disbanded however, for the first time in over a decade Van Helsing began to slow down somewhat. He began to think of a life outside of his duties, and even fell in love with a young woman named, Sarah. Sadly however this period of peace wasn''t to last as soon Van Helsing''s archenemy, Count Dracula returned from the grave.


    Even in Khastran''s dimension, Dracula had managed to take control of a large group of lesser vampires, who served and protected him. Whilst it may have taken him ten years, Dracula, using his vastly powerful mind control abilities, influenced the mind of one of his vilest followers. The loathsome Klove, who had willingly followed Dracula in the hopes of becoming a vampire, but since then had been forced to go on the run from Klausenberg. Now living as a mere shadow of his former self. Klove was thrilled to hear the voice of his master once again, and followed his instructions on how to bring Dracula back. Even Dracula had not known the full extent of his resurrection powers when alive, but on the other side he could feel that human blood spilled on his remains would restore him to life, by literally anchoring him to the world of the living.


    Dracula guided Klove back to his old castle, where the remains of his body were. (Which Dracula could sense.) Klove then murdered someone from the village and used their blood to revive Dracula for the first time in over a decade.


    By that point Father Shandor had settled in Klausenberg as its local priest, so that he could guard over Dracula''s castle. Klove however had successfully avoided the father, as from the other side Dracula could monitor Shandor and help his servant stay hidden.


    Now back in the world of the living, Dracula instantly set about not only building his army again, but getting his revenge on Van Helsing and the others.


    He summoned up an army of bats and used them to decimate the town of Klausenberg. Dracula felt he had spent too long indulging in his sick desires in this town during his last stay on earth and wanted to eliminated any distractions so to speak.


    However even then, his slaughter of the village wasn''t just mindless cruelty. The few who survived the Count turned into the first of his new army of vampires.


    Father Shandor barely made it out of the village himself, along with a handful of survivors. He instantly tried to find Van Helsing, whilst Dracula soon set about trying to find the book of Khastran. Having monitored his enemies lives from the other side. (This was not something that most vampires could do in Khastran''s dimension. It was only Dracula''s greater mental powers that allowed him to do it, which eventually over the decade had become strong enough to allow him to reconnect with the world via Klove.)


    Dracula not only knew that the book of Khastran was in the Library, but he knew how to break down its defenses too again from monitoring it from the other side. Using a new army of vampires he built up, the king of the vampires slaughtered his way into the Library, killing most of its staff, with the only survivor being Lasenka. Using some of the library''s magics Lasenka allowed himself to escape without being sucked into hell for a short time, and fled with the book of Khastran. He eventually summoned Van Helsing, Father Shandor Captain Kronos and Grost. Despite Van Helsing''s dislike and distrust of Kronos and Grost, they all agreed to band back together in order to slay Dracula. Even Valerie, briefly formed an alliance with her former enemies again.


    The Count however now had the secrets of the Library which he unleashed on the town of Janssen. Killing much of its population before Van Helsing and the others were able to undo its effects.


    Unfortunately however Lasenka''s magics didn''t last long and he was soon pulled into Quortoth with the book of Khastran,


    For the first and only time Dracula and Van Helsing were forced into an alliance as both parties would have to travel to the demon dimension to get the book back. Whilst it may have sounded like a good idea to leave the book to rot in that dimension, as it was made from the flesh of Khastran, the most powerful demon of all. There is no telling what the demons could have created from it. Whilst traces of the portal that had pulled Lasenka in were still there. Dracula, and Van Helsing used magic from the library to widen it, allowing themselves to travel into this hellish place. The magics also kept them hidden for a time being, as they searched through the pits. Father Shandor was the one who found the book, being forced to wrestle it from a seemingly low level demon that had stumbled on the book when it noticed Lasenka''s arrival. Sadly they were unable to rescue Lasenka, whose soul was destroyed helping them escape. Whether it was his mortal enemies magics compelling him, or Lasenka had genuinely changed. We will never know, but regardless his last actions were an incredible act of heroism.


    Aside from the loss of Lasenka. The retrieval of the book came at a price for Shandor, as the low level demon infected him.


    Once they all escaped, Dracula attempted to double cross the hunters, and easily overpowered both the hunters and Valerie. However Shandors demonic infection had granted him incredible powers which he used to slay several of Dracula''s underlings. Whilst these powers were still no match for the king of the vampires himself, they distracted him long enough for Van Helsing to catch Dracula off guard and impale him with a silver cross. The vampire was greatly weakened by the injury and forced to retreat.


    Shandor meanwhile was horrified at what he had become. He tried to stop the demonic infection from growing using all the magics he could, and whilst it did work for a short while, slowly but surely Shandor began to transform into something other than human.


    At the very least however, Van Helsing, Shandor, Kronos and Grost now had the book of Khastran and tried to keep it hidden from Dracula for the time being, but the vampire had other plans.


    Dracula didn''t want to waste time looking for the hunters. Instead he decided to draw them out. In order to do that however, he would have to do something huge.


    The vampire king headed for Paris to chase an old legend, ironically one he had only learned about from watching Van Helsing on the other side.


    Under Paris there was an army of over 1000 vampires. These creatures were created in the final days of the vampire/vandal war in Europe, a few years before King Richard was turned into a vampire. They very nearly swung the war in the vampires favour such was their power.


    What made this breed so dangerous was the fact that whilst they could die, they would always no matter what method was used, revive the next day even stronger. Though they were incapable of killing themselves.


    These vampires could also fly, as they resembled large, green skinned bats with a humanoid body and arms as well as wings.


    The vandals only defeated them with the aid of several coven of witches, who though normally despising the vandals did not want to let the vampires win.


    The spell did not destroy the vampires so as not to give them a chance to become stronger. It simply put them into a comatose state after which the vandals buried the bloodsuckers under Paris. There they would be guarded by a line of people chosen by the vandals. Usually they were criminals that were forced to do so via magic by the vandals. Even after their empire had collapsed however, the Parisian authorities still ensured that someone was chosen for this task.


    Van Helsing learned about the army of vampires when the Parisian''s were trying to force someone, a convicted thief named Leo to guard the vampires. The prisoners were chosen at random, and once one had been chosen, he or she could not be substituted. One of Leo''s robberies had led to the death of someone. He hadn''t intended it. In fact it was one of his gang, who had escaped. Granted we only have Leo''s word for this.


    Still Van Helsing felt that there had to be another way as the magics that were used to keep the guards down there, slowly ate their souls away, turning them into a burnt out husk whose only purpose was to guard it, though eventually the magic ate their body away to nothing, hence why they needed to be replaced. Van Helsing felt this was a vile punishment, even for criminals, though the others especially Shandor were less willing to protect Leo.


    In the end however Leo himself surprisingly gave himself up. The longer the prison went without a replacement, then the more the magics that were used to imprison the vampires began to seep out over Paris causing magical mutations. In order to save his family, who he genuinely felt guilty about letting down. Leo allowed himself to be imprisoned.


    The count had contemplated freeing this army of vampires when he first returned, but ultimately he felt that it would be better to find the book first, as something as big as this army unleashed on Paris would reveal the supernatural to the world, which might work against the vampires if humanity became united against them. The vampire horde needed to be strong when that happened, and needed more alpha''s and more breeds. Now however with Van Helsing who had already bested him once before having the book. Dracula even if he didn''t want to admit it, was scared he may fail again.


    Using his advanced mind control powers, Dracula forced Leo (who could not be slain by an outside force) to murder himself after which the count and his cabal of vampires guarded the entrance to the vampires prison, preventing any successor from being chosen, until the spell came undone and the vampires awoke.


    Dracula was only able to control a small amount of the vampires from underneath Paris, but it was enough for him to establish a base in the city that could strike against Van Helsing. The rest of the vampires meanwhile ravaged Paris. They butchered people in the streets, and even they threw them off the tops of the highest buildings including Notre Dame for their own amusement.


    Sure enough Van Helsing and the others were drawn in, doing all they could to help the people of Paris. Notre Dame, though originally killing grounds for the vampires, became a sanctuary, with its guardian, Quasimodo helping to protect the people.


    Dracula tricked Van Helsing, telling him that he had control of the vampire army, and threatened to slaughter a large group of prisoners unless Van Helsing handed the book over to him. With no choice, Van Helsing regrettably handed it over and for once Dracula kept his word and didn''t just order the vampires to kill the prisoners, though only because he did not want to lose his advantage over Van Helsing.


    Not long after he left however, Dracula''s control over the vampires faded and they attacked Van Helsing and the prisoners he had given the book to Dracula for, most of whom were slaughtered anyway.


    Whilst Dracula was free to use the book, Van Helsing and the others had to stay and protect Paris. They soon learned from one of the surviving elite who helped choose the prisoners to be the guardian of the vampires prison, that if a new guardian was chosen the vampires would be forced to return to their prison.


    It wasn''t easy having to fight their way through the city, and many good Parisians were lost, but eventually Van Helsing and the others made their way to the vampires former prison. Whilst Van Helsing was perfectly willing to sacrifice himself, Quasimodo who had accompanied them took Van Helsing''s place. The poor man felt he had nothing to live for, having always been judged by the backward and ignorant villagers due to his deformities. Whilst Van Helsing had promised to let him come with them, believing Quasimodo to be a good, brave man, and his actions had even won him the respect of the people. Sadly the life time of abuse and rejection was not fixed by a few acts of kindness at the end. Though some have argued that it''s possible that Quasimodo may have been convinced that the city was finally worth saving after seeing how its people reacted in their darkest hour.


    Either way Quasimodo''s sacrifice sent the vampires back into their prison and saved the city. The elites had a hard time covering up the event afterwards, where in over 3000 people lost their lives. The population was more or less forced into an official agreement for the peace of the world, and to the rest of Europe, the deaths were said to be the result of a plague afterwards for centuries.


    Dracula meanwhile used the book to create several more alpha vampires, whose breeds continue to endure to this day. However the Count also soon discovered that he had more than just Van Helsing chasing him. The vampire plague of Paris, had alerted many people, not only to his resurrection, but to the threat Dracula posed. Even many vampires who did not want their existence exposed turned on their former savior.


    The count fled to main land China to rebuild his army, hoping to use its legendary Jiang Shi, among the most powerful vampires on earth as his new foot soldiers. (Dracula also knew how to control this particular breed through the magic he learned at Scholomance.)


    Van Helsing and the others however followed the vampire there. They found him once again with the help of Valerie. Dracula was aware of how she had read his mind and tried to block it with magics, and whilst Valerie''s attempt to read Dracula''s mind a second time, almost killed her, she was still able to get a vague idea of where he was, even if she couldn''t see any images.


    In China Dracula not only surrounded himself with the Jiang Shi, he transformed 7 of China''s greatest warriors into new alphas. The book could only create two new alpha''s every month and so the last of the golden warriors was imprisoned and forced to watch as the men he loved like brothers were corrupted over several months. One by one.


    The 7 golden warriors were an ancient sect founded initially by the Jade Emperor, one of the few gods who sided with the dragons and ruled in an area of China for centuries during that time. He created them to battle evil across the world in he and the dragons and other gods absence. The knowledge and magic of the original 7 golden warriors was passed down from over the centuries to each of their successors. The reason there was only 7 warriors was because the spell that granted them unique abilities, was able to grant them greater power if chanelled through 7 beings. 7 retained a greater significance in magic than any other number. Some believe it is because our universe is placed in the 7 position within the natural realm.


    Sadly whilst the latest 7 golden warriors were worthy successors. Dracula caught them off guard due to the fact that he was unlike any vampire breed they had faced before. Though created to protect the world, the 7 golden warriors had mostly stuck to mainland China.


    The seven golden vampires as they were to become known subsequently helped Dracula slaughter many villages of people alongside his Jiang Shi followers.


    None of the Taoist priests, the Zhenghi Nanren whose job was to protect the people of China from the paranormal, were able to deal with Dracula or the new golden vampires he had created, for similar reasons to the golden warriors. They were completely new breeds to them.


    Ironically when Van Helsing and his allies arrived in China, they ran into the same problem with its local vampire breeds such as the Jiang Shi. It was only through teaming with arguably the most renowned of the Zhenghi Nanren, Master Kau, that together they were able to overcome each others weaknesses and lack of knowledge and push back against Dracula and his Jiang Shi minions. (Though they all still struggled with the golden vampires.)


    In the end however, before he could create any more breeds, Van Helsing slew Dracula a second time with aid from Master Kau. Together they fought the king of the vampires in an old Taoist Monastery. It was a brutal fight with Kau stabbing his sword through Dracula''s eyes, whilst Van Helsing threw holy water in his face. They finally bested the vampire by setting fire to the Monastery and trapping him inside. Whilst Dracula was still able to tear through it, even after his body was on fire, the flames consumed him before he could reach out and strangle his arch foe.


    Sadly however Van Helsing''s victory came at a great cost, not just from the literally hundreds of villagers he and the others had to rally as an army who were slaughtered fighting back against Dracula''s vampires, but even among his own team. Both Captain Kronos and Professor Grost were slain by the Count.


    Dracula drained Grost dry and threw an axe in Captain Kronos'' back, whilst the latter was getting a young girl named Daiyu, who the golden vampires had been torturing for hours for their own sick amusement to safety. Thankfully, with his last actions, Kronos was at least able to save her. Daiyu would later join Master Kau, becoming his greatest protege. Together they in turn became among the most renowned vampire, demon killers in all of China.


    Van Helsing was so devastated at the lost of Kronos and Grost that he temporarily gave up his life as a hunter. Despite their difficulties, he still respected them both after everything they had been through, and upon hearing of how Kronos'' final actions were to rescue Daiyu above all else. He felt that he had perhaps misjudged his former friend.


    Above all else however Van Helsing also felt that he had simply made things worse in his quest to rid the world of vampires. After all he had allowed Dracula to learn about the secret army under Paris, which in turn allowed him to get the book. Indeed to this day there are some who wouldn''t disagree with Van Helsing''s assessment of himself, given how dangerous the new breeds Dracula created during this time in Europe and China have proven to been.


    Whilst Van Helsing retired, Father Shandor continued to travel the world battling evil, as well as trying to control the demon within. His main nemesis during this period of his life was the demon queen, Jaremsheela, who had been inadvertently freed by Shandor, Van Helsing and the others journey to Quortoth.


    Sadly however whilst the Father always retained his morality, the demonic poison he was infected with in the end overwhelmed his body to the point where one touch of skin killed any natural creature.


    As a result of this, the Father who was also given immortality by his powers shunned all human contact. He never encountered Van Helsing again and it''s not known what became of him, other than that he was finally able to slay Jaremsheela. There are some who believe he still walks the earth in secret battling evil, and many have even come forward claiming to be Shandor, though all have ultimately been proven to be frauds.


    Van Helsing''s retirement meanwhile didn''t last long. After about two years of seclusion he was called back into battle against the paranormal once again.


    In the next chapter we will explore this period of his life as well as the impact his descendants would have on the world as well.

 The Van Helsing Legacy: Part 3

    Van Helsing''s second retirement was not as pleasant a time for the legendary vampire killer as his first. Before he felt proud of what he had accomplished, and that he had earned a rest and even contemplated what his future could be like away from hunting. Now however, it was nothing but regret, guilt and fear. Despite having slain Dracula twice now and taken precautions to ensure he never returned. Van Helsing was still constantly looking over his shoulder in case the vampire king returned. It''s safe to say didn''t have a peaceful nights sleep at all during those two years. It wasn''t just fear over what Dracula would do if he returned however. More the fact that Lawrence felt his life''s work was pointless. No matter how hard he tried, the vampire would always find a way to come back. This also meant Dracula seemingly had an eternity to bring his vile master Khastran back from the dead. Much like the people of Klausenberg, even in death Dracula was still able to torment Van Helsing.


    This period of depression and regret however eventually came to an end, when Van Helsing received a visit from a werewolf, or rather a wolfman named Leon, who hoped that Lawrence could help cure his condition.


    Van Helsing''s studies had continued to be shared by those who knew the truth about the supernatural. Whilst Leon didn''t ever really read Van Helsing''s papers himself, the hype and reputation about the vampire hunter convinced Leon that he was the only one who could cure him.


    Leon''s mother had been a mute serving girl and the daughter of a local jailer. They both worked for a cruel and decadent Marques who one day took a liking to Leon''s mother when she was just a teenager. Though she managed to fend off his attempts to force himself on her, the Marques punished the mute girl by forcing her into one of her own cells, with its most deranged and brutal inmate, an unnamed beggar who the Marques had imprisoned decades ago.


    The beggar was in fact a wolfman and came to the Marques for help, only for the Marques to simply lock him up and torment the beggar for years, until he forgot about him. Whilst the mute girl ironically was the only person there that showed him kindness. The beggar began to degenerate into an animal, with the line between his human and wolf persona''s practically vanishing.


    When the mute girl was thrown into his cell, the now degenerate beggar raped her. On the second night he changed in front of the girl and slashed her with his claws, before her father finally fought against the guards and released her. The beggar however escaped and then killed her father before fleeing in his wolf form into the countryside.


    The mute girl, using one of the wolfman''s claws she had broken off in the struggle, killed the Marques. She pretended that she had given into his advances and then stabbed him over twenty times in her fury before escaping the castle.


    She later with the aid of the villagers, tracked down and killer the beggar in his wolf form as well.


    Following this, the girl attempted to lay low, but sadly not only had she become impregnated by her ordeal, but infected too.


    Those born to two werewolves in human form will become wolfmen, the least powerful of all werewolf breeds. The girl fortunately gave birth in human form, though the strain of the birth also killed her as well.


    Leon was raised by the kindly old couple that took in his mother in the last few months of her life, the Fishers. Whilst he tried to have a normal life in spite of his condition. (With the Fishers using their modified basement to restrain him on the nights he changed into a wolf, in the same way they had with his mother.) Sadly one night in his wolfman form, Leon escaped and slaughtered an old drunk near Leon''s favourite tavern, that he had been drawn too through memory. Leon''s escape was orchestrated by the son of the Marques, who wanted to make the mute girl pay, but she was protected by the Fishers who lived outside of his influence and he ultimately had no evidence that she had killed him.


    Leon was forced to flee through the woods and became an outlaw. He was eventually taken in by another group of werewolves, where he fell in love with a female werewolf. Sadly however this group were targeted by an order of fanatical demon hunters known as The Inquisitore, who were devoted to hunting and purifying demons and supernatural creatures in the most brutal methods imaginable. The Inquisitore had been established in the time of the vandals as renegades to the demons rule, and had largely remained so since, though certain fanatical religious groups and organizations had lent them some support due to their adherence to the old order. Their most famous member was Daniel Holtz who eventually became a renegade from the Inquisitore itself.


    All of Leon''s group were slaughtered by the Inquisitore except for his lover who was kidnapped and subjected to numerous horrific attempts to try and cure her lycanthropy.


    It was not long after this that Leon visited Van Helsing, hoping he could actually have a cure, but Van Helsing regrettably was forced to turn Leon away.


    A few weeks later however, when the countryside was plagued by several mysterious killings, Van Helsing initially suspected Leon, who had remained in the local area to keep hidden from the Inquisitore. Van Helsing however soon discovered that it was in fact his former lover, who as a result of the Inquisitore''s attempt to cure her, had been transformed into a hideous wolf/demon/human hybrid worse than even the Wolvrons. She had tracked Leon down due to the last few ounce of humanity in her, but sadly that was soon overrun by her demonic and animal instincts.


    Whilst Leon tried to help her, as did Van Helsing, ultimately the effects of the Inquisitore''s magics could not be reversed and both Leon and Van Helsing were forced to slay her. Seeing what the Inquisitore had done inspired Van Helsing to resume his battle against the supernatural, but for a different reason. He became worried that his writings may inspire other fanatics like the Inquisitore to hurt innocent supernatural creatures such as Leon. He felt his view in his earlier research had been too black and white in regards to demons and the paranormal and sought to make amends. Leon meanwhile wanted to make up for failing his clan.


    Together Van Helsing and Leon travelled Europe for years both fighting and trying to help other supernatural beings. In time they picked up other paranormal creatures, with Van Helsing eventually establishing a new team or family as it were.


    Among those included Anna Franklyn, a girl who was cursed by a cult who worshipped the snake like demon known as the Lambton Worm to the locals, though in its own dimension it was known as the Donohox, which simply meant god. Donohox''s followers attempted to use Anna''s body as a portal for him to enter this reality, by converting the power of her soul into a dimensional rip. Her parents were killed rescuing her from the cult, and she fell into the care of her uncle, who bitterly resented having to look after Anna and was terrified of her unnatural powers which began to manifest themselves. Whilst the ritual had not been completed before Anna was rescued, it had brought forward a trace of the demon briefly, enough to infect Anna''s soul which caused her to partially transform into a similar albeit considerably less powerful snake creature. Anna''s uncle kept her locked up after her first temporary transformation when she was 10 and he both isolated and beat Anna any time she started to display powers from then on. Little did her uncle know however the demon grew stronger due to her anger, hatred and fear, all negative emotions that it could feed on. Eventually the transformation became powerful enough when she was 17 years old to break free from her chains and slaughter her tormenter.


    Much like Leon she was soon forced to go on the run until she was discovered by Van Helsing, who would help her harness her rage to control the demon within and become a hero in her own right.


    The trio also worked with one of Frankenstein''s creations. The first female "monster" so to speak that the Professor created, using the brain and body of a young teenage girl that had been killed in a freak accident. Many believe that Victor intended her to be a replacement for his children that had died as a result of his first creatures actions. This so called daughter of Frankenstein stayed with the Professor for many years, with the two even forming into a family, when the Professor created another female companion, from the brain of much older woman. This "Bride of Frankenstein" as she was known was said to be beautiful unlike the Professor''s other creations and some even believed he was in a relationship with her. Eventually however Frankenstein''s daughter who he named Diana turned against him as he descended into madness and created more abominations to plague mankind.


    Lost without her father she remained a recluse for many years until she encountered Van Helsing who similarly took on a fatherly role to her. Sadly despite her now centuries of life, Diana was still in many ways mentally a teenager as when Frankenstein revived her brain, it was frozen as it were using a combination of the gamma rays he was able to harness and magic. Leon meanwhile served as a big brother figure to Diana, though her closest relationship was with Anna.


    The final member of the group meanwhile was Marya, who at this stage had become a recluse and assumed the alias of Carmilla Karnstein. She did so to keep the local villagers who knew she was a vampire from bothering her, as the Karnstein''s reputation proceeded them in this area. However Van Helsing at first was horrified at the thought that one of his old enemies could still be alive and tracked her down. After discovering the truth he was able to convince Marya to join him. She felt she owed him a debt for killing her father and gradually whilst she was still somewhat of a loner, who clashed with Van Helsing''s leadership. In time she came to embrace this rag tag group of vampire hunters, werewolves and cursed immortals as her new family. She and Leon would even fall in love with one another, though the relationship was not to last. Marya also continued to refer to herself as Carmilla Karnstein to invoke the family''s reputation against her enemies.


    Van Helsing spent about 5 years with his new "family" and they took on many strange and powerful enemies together, including zombie master Hamilton, Valerie who in Dracula''s absence had become a major vampire queen, and the Lambton worm itself which through using Anna was finally able to project itself into our reality, albeit over a prolonged period of time. It proved to be their most implacable enemy, possessing a perfect combination of strength and intelligence.


    Once the worm was finally slain however, Van Helsing after five years finally left his new family. His relationship with Sarah was rekindled and this time the two would get married and even had a son together named Leyland born in 1870.


    Marya, Anna, Leon, and Diana continued to recruit other supernatural creatures, building a veritable league, whose base was situated in one of Frankenstien''s old labs, where Diana had in fact been created. There they were able to make use of many of his old inventions and labs.


    This group of heroes who became known as the Dark League continued to remain active for the next 200 years, becoming among the greatest heroes of their respective eras.


    Van Helsing meanwhile continued to publish his writings and theories on the supernatural to anyone who would listen. His reputation as a serious scientist was of course damaged beyond repair, but his writings continued to influence hunters around the world.


    Now and again he returned to help Leon and the others, but overall as he settled down with his family Van Helsing came to believe that his demon hunting days were behind him. Even Leon and the others eventually couldn''t rely on him as Van Helsing didn''t want to risk placing his family in any kind of danger. Sadly however whilst he remained vigilant of course in case any of the demons he had crossed before returned, he and his family were tragically to be ripped apart by two of his oldest enemies.


    The first was ironically the original demon that he ever faced, Zerkan. Having escaped from Quortoth unknown to the hunters when they travelled to the demon dimension. At first he did not strike back at Van Helsing despite desiring revenge out of fear. The suffering he had endured in Quortoth made him far more careful to cover his tracks when carrying out his crimes. However seeing Van Helsing become older and weaker and happier, eventually convinced the demon that he could try, and the monster set his sights on Van Helsing''s wife Sarah. It didn''t however possess her for long. Rather than use the usual demon tactic of taking over someone and forcing them to carry out atrocities. Zerkan instead fused his mind with hers to such an extent that all his memories of the tortures that were inflicted on him in Quortoth''s darkest pits, beyond physical agony itself, became trapped in her conscious mind. They were all she could experience mentally over and over again even after he stopped possessing her. The demon accomplished this using both the magics he had stolen from Quortoth and other advanced forms of magics he had picked up over Europe.


    Sarah suffered for several months reliving the tortures of Quortoth before Van Helsing was finally able to free her, but by that point it was too late. Sarah had mentally endured tortures no human had ever experienced. Tortures that were beyond what humans were capable of experiencing. The fact that she survived at all was a testament to her strength, but she was left completely broken mentally and Lawrence was forced to put her in an asylum afterwards, where she remained for the rest of her days.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Following this tragedy Van Helsing returned to his work in an effort to find the demon. It was during this period that he first came to work with Carlene. Sadly due to what had happened to Sarah, some of Van Helsing''s old prejudices about vampires and the supernatural returned to some extent and he and Carlene did not have a good working relationship as a result.


    Eventually Van Helsing would have a chance at revenge against Zerken, when the demon having become more bold after its victory over Van Helsing, targeted its other most hated enemy. The vampire queen Valerie. Her power base had already been smashed by Van Helsing, Leon, Marya, Anna and Diana, but Zerken dealt her the final blow by exposing her weakened out group of vampires whereabouts to a fanatical group of hunters. Unlike Van Helsing however, Valerie was able to sense the demons presence and soon sought out Van Helsing. Despite their friendship as humans, and their past alliances against Dracula, Valerie and Van Helsing were now bitterest enemies, but both nevertheless had a special hatred for Zerken and working together were able to destroy the demons spirit rather than simply banish it. Valerie meanwhile was forced to flee from Van Helsing. She never regained her former power but did later join an iteration of the Circus Family. She was extremely reluctant to do so as obviously saving other worlds and lives was not exactly in her nature. However she was forced to in order to preserve the timeline. Even she did not want to tangle with the Guardians. She spent many years ironically fighting evil with the Family, though none of it ever came close to actually changing her nature, and she always remained an unreliable and treacherous member of their group.


    Not long after Zerken''s death, Lawrence faced his greatest enemy Dracula for the last time. Despite Lawrence''s attempts to prevent another resurrection by placing a magical barrier around his remains that would stop his soul from entering this world. It did work for decades, but eventually some of Dracula''s followers in Translyvania the country he had once ruled (which was still a hotspot for demons and vampires in particular) were able to find a way using the darkest magics of the land to restore the vampire to life within the ruins of his old castle.


    The resurrection however hadn''t gone ahead completely as planned. Van Helsing''s magics did still disrupt the process somewhat, resulting in Dracula now having a much older and withered appearance than before. Luckily for the vampire king, drinking fresh blood helped restore his youth and strength though it was still a prolonged process.


    Dracula planned to move to London. He hoped to use the British empire, at that point the largest imperial power in the world, to spread the curse of vampirism like never before and use its influence to cripple all of the vampires enemies. Ironically he was wanting to follow his sworn enemies, the vandals tactics of ruling from behind the scenes, hoping that way he could destroy humanity from within this way to restore Khastran.


    With the aid of an unknowing real estate agent named Jonathan Harker who he lured to his castle, placed under his will and sired. Dracula was able to buy a property in London and book a trip there on the ship Demeter (with the vampire subsequently slaughtering the entire crew on the voyage to London.)


    In London Dracula hoped to build an army of vampires, with one of his first attempted recruits being Jonathan Harkers fiance Mina. Unfortunately for the vampire however his resurrection forced him to drink a greater amount of blood before, forcing Dracula to take more victims and draw more attention to himself.


    Van Helsing and his new group of vampire hunters were soon drawn into battle with Dracula after Mina, who escaped the count''s attempts to sire her, contacted Van Helsing. (Carlene at this point was out of the country dealing with another crisis.)


    Lawrence had been training several young men to continue his work following his death. His own son Leyland had never been interested in becoming a hunter, which at first Lawrence was happy about, but after Sarah''s death he put pressure on his son to follow in his footsteps, leading to them drifting apart.


    Unfortunately however Van Helsing''s amateur band of hunters were a far cry from his previous two teams, and Dracula managed to slaughter most of them. Van Helsing himself was past his best too, something which Dracula was aware of and delighted in reminding his archenemy of constantly.


    Still Dracula ultimately underestimated his mortal foe when he went after Leyland. Determined not to lose his son like he had Sarah. Lawrence with Mina''s help not only rescued Leyland but burned Dracula''s London castle to the ground. The vampire attempted to flee back to the Demeter with the aid of a human he had ensnared driving a horse and carriage, but Van Helsing chased the vampire down and jumped on top of the carriage where he and Dracula fought with one another as the carriage sped through Hyde Park.


    Dracula beat Van Helsing to within an inch of his life, and eventually threw him from the cart, but Van Helsing''s actions still caused the horse and cart to go spinning out of control and crash into a nearby tree. Dracula was impaled on the wooden wheel of the carriage in the crash, though not deep enough to pierce his heart. As he struggled to pull it out however, Van Helsing with his last ounce of strength, tackled Dracula to the ground and pushed the wooden cart wheel straight through Dracula''s heart, killing him once again. Van Helsing lived just long enough to see Dracula melt into a pile of ash on the ground before finally succumbing to his wounds.


    The vampire''s ashes were placed in the same church that Lawrence was buried in, with the likes of Leon, Carlene and Anna attending his funeral. The local priests who thanks to Van Helsing were versed in the ways of the vampire protected Dracula''s ashes for decades using similar magics, boosted by the hold ground of the church to ensure he couldn''t be resurrected again.


    Most of Van Helsings new protege''s without him to guide them soon abandoned their lives as hunters. One of them, Bram Stoker became a writer instead and even wrote a novel based on Dracula and Van Helsing''s final battle, though obviously he embellished certain details. The popularity of this novel caused both Dracula and Van Helsing to become among the most famous literary characters of all time, something which irked both the Van Helsing family and later Dracula, who resented being seen as pop culture icons than the important historical figures they actually were.


    One of Van Helsing''s protege''s however Marcozia did become a renowned hunter, though after being turned into a vampire he ironically became a notorious vampire king, responsible for a huge influx of the undead into London towards the end of the 19th century.


    Van Helsing''s legacy was carried on by not only his work and the thousands of hunters he influenced for centuries afterwards, but that of his descendants. He and Leyland had reconciled somewhat right before his death, with Lawrence apologising for dragging both he and his mother into this war. Still Leyland even after seeing his fathers sacrifice did not change his mind about not following in Lawrence''s footsteps. On the contrary it finally convinced him after seeing both his parents die as a result of his fathers obsession to avoid any dealings with the supernatural.


    Sure enough Leyland lived a long and happy life, though unfortunately for him, his son, Lorimer born in 1908 became fascinated by his late grandfathers work and did follow in his foot steps.


    Lorrimer became a great vampire hunter just like Lawrence from when he was a teenager. The first stage of his career peaked during world war 2, when Lorimer became the leader of a special group known as the Magic Gang. The Nazis utilised many supernatural creatures, including vampires who they had a strong alliance with and the Magic Gang were one of many projects designed to help the allies win this side of the war. Lorimers other team mates included a Golem, the original Frankenstein''s monster (by this point Sycina had sadly passed away of natural causes) his grandfather''s old ally Marya, the magical King Arthur who finally returned and Helga, an expert on the supernatural who specialised in hunting Eva''s witches. Her family in fact had a feud with the Grand High Witch Eva, similar to the Van Helsings feud with Dracula, with Eva similarly even targeting Helga''s grandson, though that is a story for another time. She and Lorimer became lovers during their time in the Magic Gang though they split not long after the war.


    After the second world war, Lorimer much like Lawrence abandoned his life as a hunter, whilst Helga wanted to continue. After their relationship ended Lorimer returned to his first wife Helen, who he had split from just before the war. They had a son born in 1930 who Lorimer reconciled with. Lorimers granddaughter named Jessica meanwhile was born in 1955. Sadly however Helen later died of natural causes, whilst Lorimers son and his daughter in law were killed in a car accident. Lorimer then took Jessica who was just 3 at the time into his care and raised her. Whilst the two had a very close relationship, Lorimer also dived back into his work during this period to distract him from his devastating losses.


    In time Lorimer became a paranormal advisor to the police force, helping them deal with a number of occult killings and demonic cases. Sadly however none of these experiences could prepare Lorimer in dealing with his grandfathers greatest adversary, Dracula. The church that contained the vampires remains had been abandoned in the 1950s having suffered during the blitz, after which it became desanctified, losing its holy power, with its magics also diminishing. Once the last of the magics faded, Dracula''s will was able to summon a local vampire worshipper, who had even dubbed himself Johnny Alucard, to perform a blood ritual on the sight of Dracula''s death to bring him back from the grave in 1972.


    Dracula by this stage having spent close to a century on the other side had lost all hope in Khastran''s plan. All he wanted was to make his hated archenemy pay by not only killing his descendants, but turning them into vampires. Under his tutelage, Dracula hoped the modern day Van Helsings would become among the most brutal and sadistic vampires in history, ensuring that would be the legacy of Lawrence Van Helsing.


    The former vampire king, with Johnny''s help captured Jessica, but in the final fight in the ruins of the church, Lorimer defeated Dracula. He burned the vampires face with holy water and threw him into a pit of stakes. Dracula however was able to escape and afterwards went into hiding. He had foolishly believed that Lorimer would not be a challenge, and realised almost only too late that Lawrence''s grandson was a truly worthy successor.


    The vampire had also been at a disadvantage as he was out of his depth in this new world, as he had been unable to observe it like before due to Van Helsing''s magics covering his remains.


    Dracula subsequently remained hidden for the next few years in order to fully learn and understand the new world. He later assumed the alias of D.D. Denham an eccentric and reclusive millionaire (which served as the perfect cover during the daylight hours.)


    Meanwhile Jessica having previously dismissed her fathers research into the occult, was shaken by the experience and committed herself to studying his and her great great grandfathers research, becoming every bit as much an expert as Lorimer himself. In his attempt at revenge, all Dracula had done was create another formidable vampire hunter.


    Still as D.D. Denham, Dracula was able to use his resources to attack the Van Helsings in different ways. He framed them for murder, forcing them to go on the run, with it only being the aid of an old ally in the police force, Inspector Murray that allowed the Van Helsings to escape. For a while they were forced to abandon their fight against Dracula/Denham as they were constantly on the move through the country, though they still fought supernatural creatures wherever they could.


    Whilst the Van Helsings were gone, Denham/Dracula returned to his old plans. The vampires depression was somewhat lifted by the corruption and decadence of the modern world, which led Dracula to believe that his conquest would be possible.


    The count attempted to create a plague that would spread vampirism through touch. He enlisted the aid, willingly and unwillingly of hundreds of scientists, witches, demons, sorcerers from all over the world to help craft this plague.


    After two years it was almost ready, but Denham faced opposition not only from the Van Helsings, but their new ally, Vampirella.


    She came from one of the gods copies of the earth in another universe. In this version of events, Dracula led an army of vampires to overtake the planet sometime in the early 20th century. Though he was killed in the battle, the vampires eventually claimed the United Kingdom as their base of operations. The rest of the world meanwhile became a no man''s land with vampires, demons and even corrupt humans all existing in gangs and scattered groups killing each other. The war essentially destroyed the surface of the planet. The UK meanwhile was christened Draculon after the vampires fallen leader.


    Vampirella as she came to be known in our world, was a young woman named Caroline who had been sired by a member of her kind named Lilith, who later became the queen of the vampires in Draculon. Both Lilith and Vampirella had attempted to control their bloodlust, but only Vampirella succeeded and later joined a resistance movement.


    Eventually however Lilith came to see her world as dead and desolate and tried to travel to our reality. (As the ruler of Draculon she had access to almost all of the United Kingdoms magics, allowing her to cross realities within the natural realm.)


    The fight between Lilith and Caroline just as the former activated the portal resulted in Caroline falling through the portal which then burned itself out. Caroline then ended up trapped in our world, where at first she found it difficult to adapt, but fortunately Lorimer and Jessica being drawn by the magical energy created by her arrival, found her and took Caroline in. She came to refer to herself as Vampirella, and became like a second granddaughter to Lorimer and a sister to Jessica.


    Vampirella was horrified and disgusted that Dracula, the killer of her world was still alive in this reality and became determined to destroy the vampire once and for all. Only working with Lorimer and Jessica however was she finally able to destroy and expose D. D. Denham industries. (Though obviously Denham was not revealed to be a vampire to the public. Still the exposure helped Murray to clear the Van Helsing''s names, allowing Lorimer to resume his old job.)


    Unfortunately however, Lorimer, Jessica and Vampirella soon faced the threat from Lilith who tried to invade our world (with some of her minions even coming into contact with Dracula who formed an alliance with Lilith.)


    Ultimately however Dracula and Lilith soon betrayed one another as he attempted to dethrone her, and Dracula was soon forced to form an alliance with the Van Helsing''s and Vampirella to defeat Lilith. They were able to trap her in the nothingness between realities seemingly forever.


    Following this the Van Helsings and Vampirella would pursue Dracula to India, where the vampire attempted to fuse himself to the blood of the famous vampire god Kali. Here Lorimer reunited with Marya who finally overcame her fear of her father and helped Lorimer destroy Dracula, using the blood of Kali to create a weapon that could destroy his soul this time, seemingly forever.


    After Dracula''s final defeat in 1978. Jessica settled down and married, whilst Vampirella decided to explore this new world. Meanwhile Lorimer reformed the rest of magic gang after reuniting with Marya. In his final years he resumed his relationship with his old lover Helga with the two continuing to hunt vampires and witches together until Lorimer finally passed away from natural causes in the year 1990. Helga meanwhile passed away in 1994 not long after finally slaying Eva. The Van Helsing family however endured for centuries to come.


    Many other Van Helsings followed in Lawrence, Lorimer and Jessica''s footsteps, though the most prominent member of the Van Helsing family was Peter Van Helsing who in the year 2097 helped found the nexus, the single greatest vampire hunter organisation of all time and in the next chapter we will explore its history.

 The Vampire War

    The war between humanity and the vampire horde has not only spread throughout our entire history, but across the universe and multiple timelines too. Whilst many great figures and organisations have all played their role in stopping our demonic rivals from claiming the earth and reviving their vile creator, the demon god Khastran. (Who it is said will walk the earth again only when his children, the vampires outnumber humanity.) No organisation has proved more important in the battle against the undead than The Soldiers of the Nexus, a strange palace in the centre of the time vortex.


    Before we explore their role in holding back the vampire horde however, we must first look at how The Soldiers of the Nexus were formed.


    It all began with a member of the Cushing family, near the end of the 21st century named Alistair who was born in the year 2045. The Cushings were arguably the most famous and influential family of vampire killers. Unlike the Van Helsings who ensured whatever they learned about the vampire and the paranormal in general was shared with as many people as possible. The Cushings kept their knowledge of the supernatural to themselves in order to gain power. Eventually however at the start of the 20th century the Cushing''s main base of operations was destroyed by vampires, and the survivors fled around the world. Some of the surviving Cushings abandoned their old ways and tried to live normal lives. Others meanwhile attempted to make up for their forebears selfishness and spread their information, whilst others tried to rebuild their former power. One group of Cushings was later able to regain a footing in the city of Marsters near the end of the 20th century, with the city having been a hotspot for vampires. Ironically it was thanks to the actions of a disgraced member of their lineage named Vincent Cushing that the family was able to regain a small semblance of their former power in this city. Vincent had been rejected by the other surviving Cushings simply due to the fact that he had been turned a vampire, but he had been able to control his thirst and ultimately became a great hero, though sadly he was dead by the time Alistair was born.


    Alistair used the Cushing wealth primarily to hunt vampires and demons like his forebears for the first 50 years of his life and achieved many incredible victories against the vile undead. His greatest adversary however was the ancient vampire king Xandros Gatiss and it was as a result of this bitter feud that the Soldiers of the Nexus would later be founded.


    Xandros was a born vampire, whilst his family tree, the Gatiss dynasty were royalty and came from before recorded history began during the age of the gods. Whilst few records of them survive, and the kingdom they ruled over, Halliar has been lost to time. According to Xandros himself, they were already filthy degenerates even before they were turned into vampires by their court jester. Xandros after reaching maturity naturally turned on and killed both of his parents, and took over the kingdom. However his cruelty was such that even the people of Halliar whose will had seemingly been crushed under his parents rule, could not bare it any longer and turned on Xandros, leading to him destroying Halliar using black magic.


    The vampire king then built up his forces over the centuries establishing a reputation as the most feared and powerful vampire king on the planet. Through a combination of his cunning and willingness to sacrifice his own followers, Xandros lived through the reign, war and eventual departure of the gods. He later took part in the Trajan wars, and then the vampires war with their most hated rivals, the soul devouring vandals. His actions during the latter conflict were ultimately responsible for the horrors of what has been called the worst year in our recorded history, 536.


    Using the blood of over 200 witches that he personally killed. Xandros cast a magical shield over the earth which blocked out the sun for 18 months, covering the entirety of 536. The vampires subsequently under Xandros'' leadership ran rampant and killed more people in this single year than any before it in all of recorded history.


    Ultimately however the vampires reign of terror came to an end when Xandros was slain by an alliance of witches, demons and vandals. The vampire king had deliberately engineered the spell that blocked out the sun to only last as long as he lived. He did so to ensure the vampires would never turn on him and it worked, allowing them to be more united than they ever were before or after until the age of Tairos. In the end however the vampires still underestimated their enemies. Following Xandros death, the magics became unstable with nothing holding them together, leading to an explosion which destroyed Xandros base of operations and the bulk of the vampires elite soldiers and weapons (as well as all of Xandros'' killers too who willingly gave their lives.) The vampires arguably never recovered from this loss, which along with numerous other races uniting against them due to the horrors of 536, ensured their defeat at the vandals hands several centuries later, which in turn led to the vandals ruling Europe from behind the scenes for centuries, until their reign was brought down ironically thanks in part to the Cushings. The year 536 lived on in infamy however even among official historians, but the cause of the sun being blocked out was later attributed to several volcanoes.


    Alistair Cushing first encountered Xandros, when an elite group of vampires restored him to life. These bloodsuckers worshipped their creator Khastran with a religious fever, and were dedicated to learning the full history of their kind. They had in their research detected some of the surviving magics that Xandros had used to block out the sun all those centuries ago. Not all of it had been destroyed in the explosion. Fragments of the enchantments continued to drift aimlessly as nothing more than an echo throughout the area of Xandros death (which was uninhabitable for over 1000 years after.) Though there were a few occasions where the magic drifted beyond the vampire kings resting place and collided or interfered with certain spells or creatures in the nearby area, creating magical upheaval. This further helped to make the area of Xandros death a no go zone. These vampires however who were worshippers of Xandros, and had retrieved several lost records of what really happened in 536 were able to deduce what was causing them. They used that very magic that was still linked with him, even in death to anchor Xandros Gatiss soul back to our world, and restore his body as well. Sadly however this left very little of the magics for the vampire to use to block out the sun afterwards (something Xandros killed his resurrectors for.)


    Still over many years using what little that was left and the blood of more witches, Xandros was able to restore the spell and attempted to block out the sun once more. Thankfully Alistair who was drawn by the rise in vampiric activity in the area, and using a team of vampire killers he had spent years working with, as well as several members of his family attacked Xandros'' base. All of Cushing''s hunters were slain however, and it was only thanks to their sacrifices that Alistair was able to still barely stop Xandros plan, destroying seemingly the last of Xandros magics in the process.


    The vampire king vowed revenge and pursued Alistair back to the city of Marsters, which he then terrorised for almost an entire year. Xandros killed literally thousands of people, men, women and children, all to make Alistair suffer by undoing his and his forebears life''s work in keeping their new home city since the days of Vincent safe from the supernatural. Its people who had previously viewed Alistair and the Cushing''s as heroes (with the supernatural being an open secret in the town.) Came to condemn them for bringing the fury of the vampire king down on the city. Most of the Cushing''s were wiped out trying to defend Marsters, with Alistair only being spared continually by Xandros so he could live with the shame. Not since their destruction of their original base of operations in the early 20th century had the Cushing family suffered such a devastating loss.


    Eventually however Xandros detected the presence of another trace of his original spell, that had survived for over 1000 years. It had in the ensuing centuries drifted to Italy where it was preserved by a witch hoping to try and harness it s power, which she never did before her death. Still it remained there separate from the rest of the spell. Alistair despite having failed to protect his people, and having been left virtually a broken man from what Xandros had done to Marsters, still did not give up and followed his vampiric nemesis to Italy.


    Their final battle took place in Capri, where in its famous blue grotto, Xandros attempted to rebuild his magics. He was able to create a powerful magical anomaly deep in the caves, but before he could bind it to his will, Cushing attacked him by surprise and was able to push Xandros into the unstable magic which took the form of a sphere, where the vampires body was seemingly torn to pieces.


    Unfortunately however the magic did not fade as a result of Xandros'' death like before as he had not had the time to link it to himself. Alistair tried for months using all the magics he and the surviving Cushings could to try and shut it down.


    One misguided spell from Alistair who grew terrified of what the magic could do unchecked, led to the anomaly growing in size and power, resulting in Alistair himself being pulled into the magical sphere. He was not torn apart however. Instead Alistair was pulled through time and space itself and hurled through the vortex for goodness knows how long until he eventually arrived in the nexus.


    This strange place is similar to the Abyss, the dimension that time travellers who change history are banished too, in that it simply has the appearance of a wasteland, but unlike the Abyss, the rules of time and space do still apply here. You will age, you can die etc. Furthermore unlike the Abyss, no one quite knows what the purpose of the nexus is. It appears to simply be an isolated mini world, from which potentially every other point in history is accessible. It is not just as simple as stepping out of any part of the nexus and you will find yourself somewhere in time however. You still have to navigate the vortex that exists all around it to get to your proper destination, or else you may be in danger of just drifting through the vortex for all eternity.


    As soon Alistair arrived in the nexus he saw that he was not the only one to discover it. There was in fact an gigantic castle, filled with hundreds of people, that was also surrounded by a beautiful forest and lakes.


    Alistair, who was welcomed by those in the castle soon discovered that he was hundreds of years in his future, and that his tinkering with Xandros'' magics had huge consequences, bigger than he could have imagined. Thanks to Alistair''s and others since efforts, Xandros spell upset the balance of the natural order in the earth, leading to a small rip in the time vortex itself within the sphere.


    Not long after Alistair''s disappearance in 2097, other members of the Cushing family used their resources to ensure select groups of hunters stood guard over the magical anomaly in the blue grotto to prevent the vampires from using it to complete Xandros'' plan. They were given aid by the Van Helsing family, who had also risen in prominence by this stage, with Peter Van Helsing being the one to secure the alliance. (Prior to this the Cushings and the Van Helsings had generally despised one another due to their differing methods. It was only with the help from the Van Helsings however that the Cushings were able to protect Xandros'' sphere and Peters tireless research proved vital in understanding it.)


    Generations of hunters from both families continued to stand over and experiment on the sphere, even after human civilisation fell in the 22nd century. A botched resurrection attempt of Khastran, the father of the vampires alerted humanity to the existence of the supernatural in the 22nd century, leading to human civilisation eventually breaking down as not only were humans unable to cope with knowledge of the supernatural, but the vampires and supernatural creatures themselves panicked after their identity was exposed and became more bold and daring in their attacks.


    Still the Cushings and the Van Helsings, guarded the sphere with an arguably even greater determination afterwards as neither family wanted the vampires in that situation to secure their victory with its power. It was during this time that the tunnel was first created, when one of the Cushings became lost in the anomaly. After she was rescued, the two families became interested in seeing where the anomaly led, having previously believed that no one could survive it. They hoped they could perhaps learn about and potentially change their future after discovering that the sphere led to the vortex. Further experiments eventually led to the families creating a tunnel that led straight through the vortex, to the nexus itself.


    At first the nexus became a useful base for both families in fighting back against the vampires and demons threatening to overrun the earth. The castle and the forest were built by the Cushings and Van Helsings using magic during this time. Eventually however they no longer had any need to hide, as in the 23rd century humanity was able to re-establish itself with the aid of two alien species, the Zeta Reticulans and the Venusians who helped humanity overcome the supernatural horrors plaguing their world, which in turn lead to the golden age where humanity became a part of the Federation.


    Both the Cushing and Van Helsing families played an important role in helping to re-establish human society, which would not have been possible had they not had the protection of the nexus. . Over the course of the 22nd and 23rd centuries, before the Venusians and Zeta Reticulans arrived, the families were also joined by other warriors and allies from around the world establishing the first order of the soldiers. The Cushings and Van Helsings continued to experiment with the magics of the vortex that were unlike any on earth after peace was restored, which in the late 23rd century led to the discovery of the power to look into possible timelines.


    Every single moment in time has its alternatives, though obviously only one is able to manifest due to our actions, and the environment around us. Still through the use of time travel sometimes we can create our own past by travelling backwards in time and setting the events that shaped our own history in motion.


    This is what the leaders of the nexus warriors learned when they saw multiple possible timelines where the vampires won through various means in both the past and future, which were only foiled through their intervention. The warriors soon set about making sure their own history came into existence. The war to save earth that they had just been through in the 23rd century was just one of literally thousands against the vampire horde that they would have to fight.


    The new government of earth gave the warriors, who were made up of far more than the Cushings and the Van Helsings at this stage, the resources to master the magics of the vortex to the point where they could travel to any period either before or after that they needed, and even across space. (Remember that the Martians visited our earth in the time of the Romans and one of them became infected, with the Martian vampires subsequently destroying their world and then going on to spread the curse of vampirism to thousands of other worlds.)


    Despite their many victories, whenever the Soldiers of the Nexus as they became known stopped one vampire triumph, another would pop up in another time to take its place. It seemed to the soldiers that a vampire victory was an inevitability, but thankfully they didn''t give up. They also began gathering soldiers from all of time and space to help in the battle too.


    Alistair meanwhile was pulled from the vortex that he had become lost in after his experiment to the 28th century. The Soldiers of the Nexus, revered Alistair and had somewhat exaggerated his exploits, as he was seen as the father of the nexus. Some tall tales even argued that he had created the rip knowing full well what would happen after receiving a vision from the future. Naturally when their instruments to monitor the timeline became advanced enough to detect him floating aimlessly in the vortex, they plucked him from it as soon as they could, though very little time appeared to have passed from Alistair''s perspective.


    Sadly however, Alistair did not quite live up to their expectations. How could he? He was from a much more primitive age and had a hard time even understanding a lot of their new weapons and technology. As a result he was not made an elder, that descendants, or survivors of the original hunters as well as the most skilled who ruled the castle and constantly monitored the timelines were.


    Still he did over time train to become one of its greatest soldiers, with the magic extending his life span and he was subsequently sent on hundreds of missions across all of time and space to battle vampires. In time the elaborate stories that had been told about his life on earth, became nothing compared to his exploits with the soldiers. Even then however he still did not become an elder, though many suspect this was his own choice as he preferred to be on the battle field.


    Alistair was also even given command over his own team, and it is through this teams exploits that we know anything about the Soldiers of the Nexus. His first recruit was a young woman from the 20th century, named Ferne Shelley. She had learned the truth about vampires when she stumbled upon a small town in Germany, Lista just after she had graduated from University. Lista was overrun by vampires not long after her visit, with her best friend being transformed into one of the undead. Ferne and Alistair developed a particularly close relationship, with she in many ways being like the daughter he never had.


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    His next recruit meanwhile was the last of the Kresnik''s or at least the last of their kind on record at that point. The Kresniks were a race created by a witch from the same book of Khastran that had given rise to all vampire breeds. They were not monsters however, in fact they were able to retain their basic morality, but they did still possess supernatural powers which allowed them to hunt vampires to a greater effect than any normal human. This was why they had been created in the first place.


    Vampires naturally had orchestrated the slaughter of Kresniks for centuries, until eventually only one small family was known to exist by the start of the 21st century. A man named Adam and his teenage daughter Antonia Una.


    Adam''s wife was also a hunter, and they had continued their careers even after Antonia''s birth. Whilst they loved their daughter, they weren''t able to spend much time with her, and as they were constantly on the move Antonia never really found the time to get to know anyone else either. Worse her parents were obviously very strict about her ever leaving the house, knowing that she had inherited her fathers condition and that the vampires and other supernatural creatures would be able to sense that and hunt her.


    All of this not surprisingly made Antonia a rebellious teenager to the point where she eventually ran away from home when she was just 17 years old. She skipped town and later fell in with a crowd on the streets who took her in where she met her first boyfriend. Sadly however this group of teenagers were soon targeted by vampires who viewed the kids as easy meat. They got more than they bargained for however with Antonia who using her Kresnik powers was able to easily slay the weak and cowardly street vampires.


    Following this Antonia returned home to her parents, having finally seen the importance of their war against the undead, only to discover that in her absence they had been killed. In their desperation to find their daughter they had let their guard down and fallen victim to a vampire queen named Michelle, a long standing enemy of her family. Antonia became obsessed with taking Michelle down and trained her friends to become an army of vampire hunters. She did so under the pretense that it was the only way they could ever be safe from another attack, which they all readily believed. She was later able to lead them to Michelle''s city (where the vampire had a reputation as the owner of a large company.)


    At first Antonia kept her reasons for wanting Michelle dead from the others, and when it did come out, they very nearly turned on her, though by that stage they were in too deep to simply retreat from Michelle who had considerable influence in the city. Antonia''s team put many of Michelle''s operations out of action and caused her considerable losses. Michelle eventually responded by placing several new species of savage vampires, captured from all over the world onto the streets which led to chaos and the town eventually being overrun. Even though these vampires forced Michelle to leave the city, she was happy to do so if it meant defeating her archenemy. She had about seven bases all over the world she could retreat too as a result of her wealth anyway.


    Almost all of Antonia''s team were killed by the vampires, with those who weren''t fleeing. Antonia elected to remain behind, believing that she did not deserve to live for dooming the town in her quest for revenge.


    It was at this point that she was approached by Alistair who was able to convince her to join the Nexus Soldiers. Sadly he wasn''t able to appeal to her better nature. It was only through the promise of revenge against Michelle that she agreed to join him.


    Antonia was something of a wild card among Alistair''s team, though she and Alistair still nevertheless formed a close bond. She was like his more troublesome daughter compared to Ferne.


    Another recruit of Alistair''s was Gina, who came from the age of Tairos. This period will come several hundred years after humanity joins the Federation. At some point after the 25th century, the Federation will come into conflict with a hideous race of octopoid creatures known as the Hylexans who will eventually destroy the earth with magical missiles. Only a few of covens of witches and warlocks will survive on the remote island of Point Nemo, where over the course of 100 years they will use a spell to restore the earth, covering it in a magical forest, with many life forms being revived as an unintentional side effect. Dinosaurs will once again stalk the land, and the vampire horde will be at its most powerful on earth at least.


    Gina''s mother was killed by vampires and she was subsequently taken in by them and broken into being the bloodsuckers servant, who in turn helped sell out other human cities and communities to the undead for years afterwards. Following a battle against the vampires enemies, Gina was captured and tortured by vengeful humans, but she managed to escape and separate from the vampires who had broken and twisted her, she soon saw the error of her ways.


    Desperate to make amends, Gina ironically became one of the vampire hordes greatest enemies, earning the nickname of the Queen of the Forest. After the war however, Gina lost her purpose somewhat. She was over 100 years old, though thanks to the magics of Tairos she only looked in her early 50s. Alistair recruited her from this period, allowing her to continue her war against the vampires to a greater extent than she thought possible.


    Gina was only too happy to get out of Tairos. In spite of her heroic actions, many had not forgiven her, and she had also endured many horrific losses during the war. In other times she could at least slip into the shadows and focus entirely on her work against the vampires.


    Whilst she and Alistair had a strictly platonic relationship, they nevertheless served as surrogate parents to the other members of the group due to their advanced years.


    The final member to be recruited was Daniel Winn. Born in the year 1703. Daniel grew up in the town of Galus, which was ruled over by a vampire king. Much like with Dracula and Klausenberg, the villagers were too terrified to lift a finger against the vampire, that is except for Daniel''s father. Sadly however he was not the great vampire killer his son would later be, and not only was he killed, but his actions brought the vampire''s wrath down on his family. Daniel''s mother was brutally killed in front of him. (He was only 13 at the time.) Daniel himself was spared only because he begged and pleaded and kissed the vampire that butchered his parents feet on his command with the vampire thinking it would be a more fitting punishment to let him live out his life in shame..


    Sure enough Daniel became a laughing stock among the rest of the villagers. Ironically even though all the villagers were cowardly, he became a useful way to ease their conscience.


    After five years of shame, Daniel finally decided to avenge his parents and joined a far more effective team of vampire hunters who had also set their sights on the village. Alistair, Gina, Antonia and Ferne. They had arrived as the vampire king that ruled Galus was preparing the transfer of several tame Jaing Shi, powerful savage vampires to use at strategic points against the last of the Vandals powerbase.


    If not stopped here at this point, this single vampires actions could lead to a timeline where the supernatural were exposed to the wider world centuries earlier, leading to a full out war across Europe ending in a vampiric victory. Using Daniel''s inside knowledge of both the castle and the village, the soldiers of the nexus destroyed the vampire kings castle, his minions, the Jiang Shi and finally allowed Daniel himself the honour of slaying the king himself.


    Afterwards Daniel was recruited by Alistair who saw potential in the boy. Over the next few years as a result of his training, and experiences on more missions throughout time and space. Daniel became one of the most effective and skilled vampire hunters in the entire nexus army.


    Sadly however things became somewhat complicated as over the course of their adventures together Daniel and Antonia, who had always had the closest bond and were similar ages fell in love with one another. They tried to keep it a secret from Alistair. Antonia even used to joke that "papa would have shot Daniel if he knew." When Alistair did find out however, he was surprisingly supportive. Whilst he did warn that perhaps their feelings could compromise their mission, at the same time given his love for the team as a family, he acknowledged that he was in no position to judge them.


    Antonia and Daniel remained together for many years, and faced several powerful adversaries together, though their greatest adversary was ultimately Xandros. Sadly the vampire had survived, having simply been thrown through the vortex as well like his archenemy. The vampire king eventually after centuries of drifting aimlessly through the vortex, managed to break his way into nexus high command where using their own time travel equipment he teleported numerous vampires into the nexus castle from all over time and space. This proved to be the single most devastating attack on the nexus command there had ever been. In fact they were very nearly destroyed, and whilst the soldiers were barely able to stop the vampires from overthrowing their castle. Xandros still made off with several of their magics. (His time in the vortex had lasted much longer than Alistair and he was also able from there to monitor the nexus soldiers.)


    After the attack Xandros fled to an unknown corner of creation. Some have speculated it was the deepest, darkest pit of the hellish realm, others beyond even our omniverse itself in the void, or possibly in the ruins of another reality, whilst the most common theory was that it was at the very edge of not just the universe, but the Sentenza omniverse in general. Wherever it was, Xandros'' castle was certainly a place where no natural laws existed, and any natural creature that dared venture there would be instantly consumed by the environment and trapped in a state of perpetual agony.


    From this nightmarish place Xandros built his own army of vampires who served as the archenemies of the nexus soldiers, constantly trying to alter history in certain ways wherever he could so that the vampires would eventually triumph.


    Alistair became completely fanatical in his desire to destroy his archfoe meanwhile. Not just to avenge his family, but out of guilt for having allowed the vampire to gain access to the nexus'' knowledge to create his army of vampires.


    In Alistair''s mind, all of the good he had accomplished was undone by the fact that thanks to him Xandros was able to spread the curse of vampirism like never before throughout all of time and space.


    Sadly on one such battle with Xandros forces, thanks to Alistair''s carelessness in his desire for revenge, Antonia was bitten and infected by one of his vampire minions. Any Kresnik that is infected by a vampire will eventually transform into a Nelapsi, the most powerful, evil and dangerous form of vampiric creature. Sadly even with their knowledge, the Nexus Soldiers could not cure vampirism, though they could at least hold it off for longer periods.


    With their treatments, Antonia was able to live a few years, but towards the end as the evil from within began to corrupt her, she was forced to isolate herself for long periods. Daniel tried to remain by her side as often as he could, but Antonia herself shunned him. She could feel the love she had for Daniel, slowly draining away as the vampiric power within became stronger. It was something that Ferne knew only too well, having seen it happen to her friend who went from the person she loved more than anything in the world, to her bitterest enemy.


    Antonia ultimately sacrificed herself to stop Xandros'' attempts to resurrect Khastran. Through his time travel facilities, Xandros had enslaved several planets in a remote, otherwise insignificant part of the galaxy. There using magics and technology he had gathered from all over time and space, he had finally been able to achieve what no one else ever could. The potential to resurrect Khastran exactly as he was, before his first death when he was at his strongest. Without the creator of our omniverse to stop him, and with the gods power crippled due to their civil wars. Khastran in this form would be able to take the universe by force. Part of why Xandros was able to bring Khastran back was that he was able to steal a tiny part of his flesh, when his first body was destroyed, which coupled with the most powerful magics spread out across millions of years would give him just enough power.


    It was the greatest battle The Soldiers of the Nexus ever fought, and whilst Alistair was finally able to slay his archfoe, they only triumphed due to Antonia sacrificing herself in destroying Xandros machine just as it was about to bring Khastran back. She died not only as a hero, but as herself before the evil of Khastran had been able to claim her.


    Daniel was utterly devastated and things were never the same between him and Alistair afterwards. At the end of the day Daniel understood and even respected Alistair for never giving up in his desire to avenge his family against Xandros (when he in contrast for years had sat back and let the two bit vampire king that killed his family continue to slaughter others.) Still it had been at least partly Alistair''s fault what happened to Antonia, and in time Daniel left Alistair''s group and soon took on his own protege, Kelly DeLorenzo, a young girl from Los Angeles in the early 21st century. Kelly who was born in 2003 had become aware of the supernatural when during a huge earthquake in 2023 she and her family who were trapped within a damaged building were attacked by vampires who were taking advantage of the disaster to pick off stray survivors. Only through Kelly and another man named Julian Marsters'' determination where she and her family able to escape both the disaster and the vampires.


    Julian and Kelly who entered into a relationship were subsequently involved in helping to rebuild LA afterwards and hold off the vampires who continued to try and exploit it for their own ends. Sadly in 2025 Julian was killed, which led to Kelly burying herself in her work to a greater extent than ever before. It was at this point that Daniel recruited her. He served as something of a father figure to her, ironically as Alistair had once served to him.


    Daniel and Kelly however were later abandoned, alongside Gina by The Soldiers of the Nexus in the year 1969. The soldiers did not want to leave them, but sadly they had no choice, as their history said that all three were stranded in the year 1969, and that all three had subsequently taken part in many important battles against the supernatural in 20th century earth.


    Alistair did not want it to end this way, but he was powerless to stop it. Sadly this also meant that Kelly was also separated from her parents too, who she had also left on bad terms.


    Still Daniel, Gina and Kelly soon joined the contemporary organisation known as Rentros, ironically founded by another member of the Cushing family. All three of them had worked twice before with the British branch of Rentros when they were part of The Soldiers of Nexus. During those two adventures, one of which was to stop an invasion from the Martian vampires. The trio worked with a man named Rick O''Connell the captain of the British branch of Rentros.


    O''Connell had first discovered the truth about the supernatural in an expedition to Egypt where he ran afoul of the resurrected Mummy, Imhotep in the 1940s. It was also during this expedition that O''Connell first met his wife, Evelyn, with the two having a child, Alex born in the 1950s.


    O''Connell welcomed Daniel and Kelly in when they were trapped on earth, and even set them both up with accommodation too. The two developed a very close friendship with O''Connell, though now and again there were clashes, as O''Connell like most in Rentros had a dogmatic view of the paranormal and viewed them in a similar way, something which Daniel naturally knew not to be the case given his relationship with Antonia.


    Ironically Ferne had trained with the European branch of Rentros, during the 20th century too, though her future partners ensured they did not meet her earlier self, so as not to upset the timeline.


    Daniel went on many adventures during the 70s and 80s with Rentros. It is not known if he ever was able to reconcile with the soldiers of the nexus. It is possible that he may have encountered their agents, or even Alistair again, but he certainly never joined them again.


    In spite of this Daniel would travel through time again. His second, briefer journey through time and space was with a woman named Chat who he had fallen in love with. Chat was in actual fact the vigilante known as the Thief Catcher and later a member of the celebrated group of superheroes known as The Heroic Trio.


    Sadly however after the death of one of their number, the two surviving members of the Trio disbanded and Chat eventually came to work for the reformed vampire Professor Fang. It was through her work with Fang that she first met Daniel and the two eventually fell in love. Despite Rentros'' own distrust of Fang, Daniel sought his help on a number of occasions as he had ironically encountered the vampires future self on missions and knew he was a hero. Sadly however when one of Fang''s earliest time travel experiments went wrong, Chat and Daniel were sent through time and space to another world in their attempt to contain it. Only with help from Fang who was still able to contact them telepathically through a link with his magics where Daniel and Chat able to find the other anomalies created by his spell which took them through numerous different periods and worlds before they eventually arrived back in the 20th century. Daniel and Chat''s romance sadly was not to last however. Her activities often put her on the wrong side of the law as she was a bounty hunter first and foremost. Whilst she usually only hunted supernatural creatures, she wasn''t afraid to target those in high places who protected them either, and eventually even Fang was unable to protect her forcing Chat to go on the run.


    Daniel in his later years moved to Aviemore in the Highlands of Scotland in the late 90s and lived there for the rest of his life.


    During his time in the Highlands, Daniel came to work for Scathach, an organisation that had been set up to deal with the paranormal in Scotland many centuries ago. Scathach differed from Rentros in that it had a more tolerant view of the paranormal. Scotland had been a hotspot for the supernatural since the days of the Roman empire. As it had been one of the few countries that had resisted the rule of the Romans, then numerous vampires, demons and monsters had fled there following the Roman emperor Trajan''s wars against the vampires.


    Scathach meanwhile was a famous Scottish warrior and it was her protege, the legendary St Colombia who established the organisation in her name to protect her native Scotland. Daniel was made the head of the Aviemore branch, which ultimately ended up being the last surviving branch during his time there.


    Daniel also later worked with Carlene and Lam during his time in Aviemore too, as well as a young vampire hunter named Lindsey Kate McIntosh who many years later travelled ironically with Professor Fang and whose older time travelling self had helped a much younger Daniel when he worked with the Soldiers. Daniel finally passed away in 2017 aged 89. Kelly who had since settled down with a family read the eulogy at his funeral. Sadly what became of Gina is not currently known.


    We also don''t know what became of The Soldiers of the Nexus. It can be assumed that they continue to fight the good fight against the vampires, given the timeline we live in.


    Still at least through Daniel we were able to gain a small idea of their accomplishments and what we owe them, as well as the true extent of how dangerous the vampire horde truly are.

 Professor Fang: His Life and Times: Part 1

    It''s hard to piece together a full account of Professor Fang''s life for many reasons. First of all, his life on earth alone covers several thousand years, secondly due to his habit of jumping from one time to another it can be hard to tell which version of him is which. (There have been several sightings of Fang in different places at the same time, all from different periods in his history.) Finally he''s also always been somewhat cagey about his past too.


    Nevertheless whilst there are still many gaps in our knowledge, here for the first time is a full account of the key moments in the vampire''s life. Where he was born, his siring, how he learned and mastered magics, the role he played in bringing the earth back to life following the Hylexans attack, his journey''s in time and space, and finally a full account of the lives of his most prominent companions and enemies.


    Professor Fang was born in mainland China at some point during the Dragons rule over the east. The Dragons, who were Dinosaurs brought back by wizards using magic and then transformed into sentient magical creatures, and the Gods (in reality creatures from another universe.) Rebuilt our earth after it was devastated by a renegade God known as Set. Sadly their alliance soon broke down after Set''s defeat over how to guide humanity. The Gods favoured simply protecting them and the earth from any outside threats, whilst the Dragons wished to unite humanity, teach them magic and help them become strong enough to protect themselves. After the war between the Dragons and Gods, the Dragons would come to settle in the east, whilst the Gods ruled over the west.


    Fang meanwhile was born during a time of supposed peace between the two sides, in a small village in Tibet, not far from the magical land of Shambhala, the Dragon''s most respected magical kingdom that they hoped would serve as an example to the rest of humanity.


    Professor Fang''s real name is unknown, with this simply being an alias he adopted at some point and for practicality''s sake is what we will refer to him as here. This alias and other aspects of his life show that the vampire at the very least could laugh at himself somewhat.


    Many in Fang''s village wished to join Shambhala, but only those who were deemed to have pure intentions as well as the skill were allowed to join. Fang''s own father had tried many times to join it, being among the elite of the village''s warriors.


    It was undoubtedly Fang''s own fathers last desperate attempt to live out his own dreams that pushed the young Fang into studying magic in the first place. Still Fang was said to have shown tremendous promise at a young age, with his own father even being somewhat jealous, though nevertheless proud of what his son had accomplished.


    Fang soon proved himself worthy of membership to Shambhala when he left his village at the age of just 16 and travelled around China using the skills he had gained, as well as new ones he picked up along the way to help others. It was here that he met the vampire that would later become his sire, known as Huan, who had similarly come from humble origins in a deprived area that the Dragons had never shown much care for. Despite their claims, the Dragons could be just as elitist and abuse their power to the same extent as the Gods they looked down on. Huan was turned when his area was invaded by a foreign species of vampire that had only recently invaded China, known as the Heklox. These bloodsuckers were proving to be quite a problem. Unlike the dominant breed of vampire in Mainland China up to that point, the Jiang Shi who were simply mindless predators. The Heklox were thinking beasts and they also possessed a greater immunity to magic. Furthermore their weaknesses were not known about except in Europe, which at that time was completely cut off from China due to the feud between the Gods and the Dragons.


    Still as dangerous as they may have seemed, the Heklox were soul vampires, who are potentially capable of repressing their demonic urges, though even then only a handful have throughout recorded history. Still Huan, motivated by his love for his daughter, was able to control the demon within him. His wife had sadly passed away in childbirth, and Huan and his daughter had been through hell for the past 16 years. He was determined that it would not all be for nothing and that his daughter would have a better quality of life. The vampires as far as he was concerned, and even his own vampirism, were just the latest horror they had to deal with supernatural or otherwise in this poverty stricken area.


    Fang was not only able to learn more about the vampire''s weaknesses through Huan, but it was also Huan who helped him sneak into their base and plant a powerful magical bomb (strong enough to effect even these bloodsuckers) which destroyed the bulk of their forces, stopping their army from sweeping over China and infecting goodness knows how many others. Fang was hailed as a hero by his people and even the Dragons were impressed enough to let him apply for membership of Shambhala. Huan''s role in stopping the vampires meanwhile was completely overlooked. It was of his own violation. He didn''t want anyone to know about him and genuinely hoped he and his daughter could return to a normal life. Sadly however the vampire later gave into his thirst when his daughter''s controlling ex boyfriend broke into their home and tried to attack her. In his rage, Huan tore his throat out and was so overcome with horror and disgust he fled from his daughter. He spent many years in isolation before trying to use his powers for good again, which would lead to his second meeting with Fang, though more on that later.


    As a member of Shambhala (with Fang''s own talents allowing him to pass every one of their tests. He may have perhaps only gained the chance through somewhat dishonest means, but Fang proved more than capable of overcoming any challenge they threw at him.) Fang was able to continue the good fight against evil throughout China and even took part in the Dragon''s many conflicts with the Gods. Despite the supposed peace, both sides still had battles with one another in secret using their human minions. Fang''s skill and power as a sorcerer would even lead to the Dragons granting him a much longer life span and finally the status of an elite of Shambhala.


    Sadly however during this period Fang became something of a fanatic to the Dragons. Indeed whilst details of this time are sketchy, to those who knew him, Fang apparently always spoke of this period with great shame and perhaps with good reason. Fang is believed by some to have punished those who defied the Dragon''s will. One such example would come back to haunt him many centuries later, though we shall explore that in the next chapter. Despite his experiences with Huan, Fang thanks to the Dragon''s influence became fanatical in his belief that all demons were creatures of evil. He even later came to believe Huan had simply helped him out of self preservation than any true altruism.


    This later proved to be a problem when Huan was on the run for killing and helping to overthrow one of the Dragons puppet kings named Chakan. The Dragons had actually long since given up on Chakan''s kingdom, which had given into corruption and the black arts long before its latest deranged monarch had even been born. Still as it did nevertheless bear the Dragons seal, then the great magical reptiles felt that they still could not allow the kingdom to fall, least of all to a vampire and had all of the rebels slaughtered, with only Haun escaping.


    Fang used his previous alliance with the vampire to trick Huan into a trap, with Huan only barely managing to escape Fang when he realised what was going on. In the ensuing fight between them, Huan was trapped underground in an earthquake created by the Fang''s magics. Not all magics were effective against Huan''s breed of vampire. Indeed Fang only knew which to use in his bomb thanks to Huan and in this case the vampire was barely able to use a counter spell to save himself during the explosion.


    Huan was still buried underground for weeks however, and whilst the vampire was eventually able to dig his way out, he had no blood during that time. As a result when he did finally escape his thirst had become uncontrollable and he killed the first person he saw. A teenage girl no older than 17, who reminded him of his daughter. Huan was so overcome with horror, the only way he could live with his guilt was to embrace the monster within. He soon became one of the most feared and evil vampires in the entire history of China and spread the curse of the Heklox throughout the continent like never before.


    Whilst the vampire in time forgot what it was ever like to have been a good man capable of love, compassion and remorse as almost all of them do. Huan nevertheless maintained a passionate hatred towards Fang for reducing him to this and not only plotted revenge, but hoped to make him a monster too.


    He would accomplish this years later when working with Ares, a renegade god who hoped to turn humanity into a race he could conquer the galaxy with. Ares was hated by both the Dragons and the Gods, but Huan didn''t care as long as he could destroy Fang. With Ares help Huan was able to infiltrate the kingdom of Shambhalan and plant a powerful weapon of Ares that poisoned the kingdom''s magics. Many of its men and women were transformed into savage, ape like creatures known as the Yetis. The magics that had previously brought out the enlightened qualities of humanity for those in Shambhalan, such as greater understanding and knowledge, (though still filtered through what only the Dragons allowed,) now regressed most of the greatest wizards and witches down the evolutionary ladder so to speak into savage bestial monsters who would continue to terrorize Tibet for centuries to come. Yeti''s or Bigfoot''s as they became known to some later spread to many corners of the earth as the rare magics inside their bodies, even if they were corrupt still contained great power and many demons, sorcerers and creatures therefore captured them in the hopes of harnessing it. Naturally over the centuries a few of the Yeti''s escaped and their descendants continued to populate other remote areas. Finally the secrets of how to create Yetis would also be replicated in other countries around the world to create warriors or sometimes punish people, leading to their numbers further increasing.


    Fang was spared becoming a Yeti, only because Huan turned him into a vampire before the process could take effect. Whilst in hindsight it would have been better for Huan himself to simply let Fang become a mindless beast. He was so consumed by revenge he wanted his nemesis to know what he had become and so he infected Fang when the latter was already weakened by the spell.


    After rising from the grave, Fang was utterly horrified and sought to kill himself before his demonic urges took control. However he found that he did not have the courage to end his own life. Whilst he would have gladly died in battle for his Dragon masters, ultimately when forced to face the reality of his death and spending eternity in Khastran the creator of vampire''s dimension (where all dead vampire souls go.) Fang just couldn''t go through with it.


    He vowed to control the evil within him and ironically from that day forward Fang much like Huan before him, used his vampiric powers to help others across China. Sadly however the Dragons turned on him. They despised vampires more than possibly any life form on earth due to the fact that Khastran had killed off the Dinosaurs, forcing him to go on the run from his former masters. In hindsight this turned out to be a blessing as it opened his mind and broke their grip on him.


    Fang also wasn''t able to utilize the magics of Shambhalan now due to his breed''s greater immunity to magic than most other demon species. Whilst he could still perform magic, it would be in a more limited capacity. He could only channel it through specific enchantments and rituals rather than through his sheer force of will like before. In many ways he also had to start completely over in learning what type of magic and combinations of spells could be used in his new vampire body.


    Still at the very least his new vampire body gave Fang many new advantages. He possessed super strength, speed and healing, and could only be killed by fire, decapitation or a wooden stake through the heart. Unlike other breeds he had no problems in sunlight, though he did still tend to sleep during the day. He was also now an immortal, though unfortunately for Fang he had been nearing the end of his extended life span when he was sired, meaning that for the first several hundred years of his existence at least he had the appearance of a frail old man, though at the very least that could sometimes be used to lure his enemies in.


    Finally Fang like all Heklox was capable of being restored to life after death, with his physical appearance altering ever so slightly each time he was brought back. He always had the appearance of a much older man however and never looked any younger than his 50s.


    Eventually the Gods and Dragons left the earth after their war with Ares came to a close. Believing that they had both done more damage than good to humanity, they finally left our planet, with recorded human history beginning some time after. Fang meanwhile, who had by this stage had been a vampire for many decades sought to try and build a new power base in central China that would unite the land and hopefully bring peace between the supernatural and the natural.


    Fang even reached out to Huan. Having felt guilt over his betrayal for the first time. Ironically as a vampire Fang was a much better person now than he had ever been under the Dragons care. He saw how it was possible for demons to redeem themselves, and indeed how the people of China that the Dragons did not care about were suffering in poverty and darkness.


    Fang wanted to help Huan become the great hero he had once been, but the vampire by this stage was too far gone. He had tracked down and personally murdered his daughter in the intervening years as well as her children. All to strip himself of any lingering connections to his humanity, though even now his hatred of Fang still persisted.


    Huan vowed he would continue to destroy anything Fang ever believed in, and soon tracked down the descendants of Fang''s family, who the former wizard turned vampire had seen were well looked after once he became a member of the Shambhalan. Fang''s descendants had since prospered into highly influential figures, great warriors, noblemen and even emperors.


    Despite his best efforts to protect them, Huan with the aid of his followers killed all but one of Fang''s descendants, except one, the Empress Cheung. Her lineage had been born out of a short lived relationship between Fang and a girl from his village, Fang had abandoned after he had joined Shambhalan. Fang never bothered with his son in any meaningful sense, a decision he came to regret for the rest of his very long life.


    Fang not only protected Cheung, but with her aid and resources was able to restore her kingdom. Cheung hadn''t been the most fit and just ruler. Indeed there were only too many of her noblemen that were happy to sell her out to Huan at first, but with Fang''s guidance they built a kingdom where magic was taught to all of its citizens to benefit them rather than just the elites. Demons and other supernatural creatures were also given a chance to live in the city, provided they tried to conquer their sadistic urges, with Fang even serving as something of a role model for many of them.


    All of this however only increased Huan''s hatred and bitterness seeing the hypocrisy of a man who condemned him being celebrated as a hero, and eventually after more failures to destroy the city. Huan accepted one of Fang''s proposals. Though Cheung was against it, Fang was so desperate to ease his guilt he took his archenemy in. Huan waited for three years before his opportunity arose. He could have just killed Fang in his sleep, but once again the vampire wanted to make his archfoe suffer by destroying everything he believed in. He also needed to strike at a point when the city was at its most vulnerable. Furthermore whilst Fang may have been naive or rather overcome by guilt in wanting to redeem Huan, the vampire was still smart enough to know that Fang was no fool and would be watching him every step of the way. Huan would have to gain his absolute trust before he could even thing of making a move, which could take years, but Huan''s hatred ensured he was more than willing to wait that long.


    There were certain moments over those three years however where Huan did have doubts about his actions. In fact he even came to regard Fang and Cheung as friends for a short while. Ironically however it was the return of his conscience that would always snap him back into his vendetta. When he repressed the demonic urges and could feel remorse for what he had done, the memory of the taste of his daughter''s blood returned and unable to face that reality. He put all of the blame on Fang, with the demon inside being able to nurture and strengthen that hatred.


    Still when the time finally came there was still a second''s hesitation for Huan, as he later told Fang. Ultimately his hatred won out and he was damned a second time. Huan''s actions shut down the defenses allowing a particularly vicious army of vampires that he was in league with to overtake the city. Even Cheung by that stage was shocked by his betrayal, and Huan personally killed her in front of Fang.


    Though he vowed revenge against Huan, Fang was ultimately broken by the loss of Cheung and his city. He became a hermit and was sent further into depression when the vampires made Fang''s city into a new base and made use of his magic, turning the warriors he had trained into an army with which they would sweep over many other cities and kingdoms.


    Eventually Fang''s guilt became so great that he wanted to leave this world altogether. He had known since his time in Shambhalan that there was life on other planets from the Dragons, who always warned them of potential threats from these other worlds. Fang had never dared to even consider travelling to other worlds before now, but he was so torn over the horrors he had helped create through the Dragons and his own actions that he felt his only chance was to start over on another world.


    He bravely ventured into the ruins of Shambhalan, fighting his way through Yetis and other monsters until he discovered the ruins of the Dragons spells and was able to replicate them without the corruption of Ares'' weapon. Fang however was a little too eager to get away and his first teleportation spell was erratic and sent him hurtling through space to Europa, one of Jupiters moons and one of the few satelites in our solar system to have life.


    Europa was an ocean moon with only a few small areas of land, one of which Professor Fang made into his new base of operations whilst he tried to find a way to both replicate the magics that had brought him here from the traces that remained, and make use of Europas own magic. (As each planet has its own unique magic.)


    The most intelligent form of life on Europa meanwhile were a race of jellyfish like creatures known as the Torka, but they were incredibly hostile and provided no aid to Fang and were initially his greatest obstacle. These aliens possessed a form of healing so advanced their DNA continually repaired itself from all forms of natural wear and tear allowing the Torka to be effectively immortal. This did not mean they were indestructible however. Their healing powers could not overcome all forms of damage and the Torka were in fact prey to a large marine predator that almost resembled a cross between a reptile and a mammal known as the Miork. Fang was actually able to tame one of these super predators to protect his base and help him explore the seas, after he rescued the creature from a group of Torka.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Still, provided they evaded the jaws of the Mjork, or the savage, primitive, reptillian merpeople known as the Quaatchi, then a Torka could theoretically live forever. Furthermore, the Torka like any natural life form underwent a series of radical physical changes as they grew older. As their life spans were unlimited however, then once again there was no end to the changes they could undergo. Different mature individuals could end up looking like members of completely different species depending on their age. Finally in addition to this, like any natural creature, the Torka were also subject to natural mutations the most useful of which would spread their genes on, allowing the species to adapt and evolve.


    All of these factors came together to create one of Fang''s worst enemies, the monstrous creature known as Maliach. This Torka was said to have been the longest lived member of its kind, having somehow been able to evade the perils of Europa for over 700 years. Whilst the Torka had an intelligence on the level of human beings they had not formed any kind of society, only very rarely grouping together to take down large prey or threats. Their immortal nature, coupled with the limited resources of the small moon they lived on meant that the creatures felt they simply could not afford to share resources. They also had no care for their children. Reproducing asexually, the beasts would often devour their children if they remained near them as well. As a result of this many Torka were lucky to see 20 years, never mind 100.


    Maliach however somehow lived for over 7 centuries by the time Fang had arrived. By that stage he had grown to be the largest creature on the planet, over 400 feet long and did not even remotely resemble the rest of his kind. He regularly fed on the Torka''s predators the Mjork whilst the Quaatchi worshipped him as a god.


    Fang was lucky enough not to have any trouble with Maliach during his first visit to Europa. After making his way through its oceans, and taming the Mjork, Fang stablised the magics that brought him here and along with those he had mastered from Europa (which it took him over a year to master.) Fang created a special kind of craft from the materials of his island base in the shape of an old Chinese Mausoleum. Fang was also assisted in the building of this craft by a renegade Quaatchi named Gansos, who had been kicked out of his tribe for using magic.


    Gansos subsequently accompanied Fang on his journeys through space in this craft, but unfortunately the two always had to return to Europa to charge up the vehicle.


    Fangi''s island became a hotspot of magical energy due to constantly charging the vehicle, however which soon drew the attention of Maliach. The monster''s greater age had heightened its senses to the point where it was more sensitive to its environment, though some have suggested that it may have mastered magic to the point at some point in its life, which could have been why it lived so long. Few other creatures on Europa were willing to touch magic as they feared it, like on most natural worlds to be fair.


    Either way Maliach became intrigued by Fang''s island and soon set up a nest there, easily dispatching Fang''s pet Mjork in the process.


    When Fang arrived to recharge again he and Maliach fought, which resulted in the magics that had brought Fang here in the first place once again becoming unstable. Ultimately Maliach and Fang were unintentionally transported by them several solar systems away onto a seemingly deserted sand world.


    There Fang was forced to flee from Maliach who was able to burrow itself into the sand and pursued him for days. Without any blood to feed on, Fang however soon became weak and delusional, but he was eventually found by the natives of the planet. A somewhat friendly, but primitive race of reptilians. Sadly when they took Fang in, his hunger got the better of him and he attacked and very nearly killed one of them. Though he was able to regain his composure before he finished his victim. Fang was nevertheless restrained by the tribe who planned to kill him the next day. As a result he wasn''t able to help the tribe when Maliach attacked. The Jellyfish monster proceeded to kill most of the tribe horribly, who sadly represented the last survivors of that species on the planet, though Fang was able to get some of them to safety and they banded together out in the wilderness, now under his leadership until Gansos was able to track Fang down. There Fang and Gansos rescued the last survivors of the reptillian race in their craft after another brutal confrontation with Maliach before fleeing the solar system.


    The reptillians wouldn''t have survived for much longer anyway as the planet had become a desert due to drifting too close to its sun. Fang and Gansos deposited the reptillians on another world where they would again thrive, eventually becoming one of the most advanced races in their section of the galaxy and close allies of ours in the far future known as the Drancons.


    Sadly however even the Drancons are unsure of their history before Fang''s arrival due to it being lost. Fang and Gansos meanwhile continued to travel to many other worlds for years, saving hundreds of civilisations together before Fang eventually decided to return home. Gansos decided to go with him to earth this time, as there was nothing on his world anymore.


    Maliach meanwhile was left to rot on the planet, with his healing powers allowing him to survive without any food. (Though they could survive without food, doing so caused the Torka''s higher brain activity to decrease, and their memories to permanently vanish.) As Maliach drifted closer to the sun, the rays and increased radiation of the planet slowly began to mutate Maliach in ways even he couldn''t imagine. The monster was ultimately spared being cooked alive, when one of his followers brought him back to Europe.


    Unfortunately though Gansos had been kicked out for using magic, others had been inspired by his actions leading to more renegades in not only his tribe but others, including Maliach''s Quaatchi followers. After Fang left Europa for good, one of Maliach''s followers used the magics in his former base to not only track down, but teleport Maliach back home.


    This was several years later and Maliach had lost all higher reasoning powers. Still the radiation of the sun, as well as the earth magics that had been used to bring him too and from this alien world that had become embedded in his body, all mutated and twisted his body beyond its natural state. Coupled with his advanced age, Maliach was now virtually indestructible at least to any other force on Europa and monster soon ravaged his home planet over the course of the next hundred years, during which time he slowly regained memories of his former life as his body continued to mutate. He remembered vaguely the man who had led to his suffering on the desert planet and soon sought revenge, and began uniting his followers as an army to claim the other worlds that they could see in the sky at night such as the earth, which he knew his enemy came from.


    Maliach didn''t have to wait long as soon Fang came to him. This however was a version of Fang from far in the future, after he had constructed a time and space machine. This version of Fang defeated Maliach with the aid of his companions, Lindsey and Kirsteen, but the Jellyfish monster still managed to escape Europa using one of the ships his minions had constructed to originally invade the other worlds.


    The monster travelled through space for many years during which he underwent more mutations, again as a result of his long life span, the alien sun''s radiation and other cosmic rays he passed through in his poorly protected ship. Eventually Maliach''s reproductive system, having long been dormant, suddenly awakened. Torkas can only reproduce six times in their lifetime with Maliach having not only been through them all but also having eaten all of his children. Maliach''s reproductive system thanks to his mutations had not only exceeded its natural lifespan, but continually reproduced up to six children per day. None of these children were normal Torka''s however. Instead they resembled Maliachs twisted form and possessed many of the same strange powers he had.


    At first Maliach devoured his children, but after they reached an uninhabited planet he started to use them as slaves and soldiers to conquer other planets. In time Maliach''s new race who were known as the Vaskin became one of the most powerful and dangerous races in the universe, conquering and enslaving many worlds under their vile masters supervision.


    Professor Fang and his companions faced them many times in his time and space machine with the monsters becoming collectively among his deadliest enemies.


    Back on earth meanwhile, Fang and Gansos travelled the world together fighting monsters and tried to use the technology and magics they had gathered from around the universe to help elevate their planet''s technology. Fang soon realised that introducing these elements before humanity was ready was a recipe for disaster and wisely avoided trying to accelerate humanity''s development in this way again.


    Gansos meanwhile eventually left Fang when he fell in love with a Merwoman named Feniax. The vampire would take on many other companions and assistants over the years. None of them, it must be said, were ever more than friends with the vampire. Whilst he did have a son as a man, Fang was largely asexual during his life as a vampire. Indeed most vampires are asexual, contrary to popular belief. Very few of them can feel anything but negative emotions such as hatred, bitterness, regret and the desire to hunt, kill and propagate their species. Some soul vampires can cling onto emotions like love, but it almost always takes on a fanatical, obsessive twisted form. The few soul vampires who were able to fight the demon within were able to still feel at least genuine emotional love for others, but even then relationships among these kinds of vampires tend to be rare. One only has to look at Carlene, another famous heroic soul vampire, who prior to her transformation was described by all who knew her as a bubbly, flirty, fun loving, party girl with a very active social life and a number of close, loving relationships. After her transformation in contrast she became a more morose, quiet, tormented character, though she did still, unlike Fang, enjoy some romantic relationships from time to time with some notable men and women, she generally shut that side of herself off. It makes sense that Khastran''s curse would try and take away as much as it could of the people it infects, and in the case of Carlene and Fang the fact that they were able to hold onto anything at all is a miracle.


    Fang soon came into conflict with his archenemy Huan not long after again Gansos left. Huan had believed his enemy was dead for years and actually fell into a state of depression at losing what he believed was his last chance of vengeance. He almost didn''t believe that Fang could have survived for all this time without him knowing it, until he heard the rumors that he had travelled to the stars and back. Unlike virtually everybody else, Huan believed it, again because he didn''t think his enemy could hide from him any other way and unlike the others, he did not underestimate Fang''s abilities.


    Huan soon became excited at the prospect of travelling to other worlds too and tried to force Fang to tell him, leading to more clashes between them. Eventually Huan found a way to literally drain the knowledge from Fang''s mind using powerful dark magics he had discovered in the ruins of Shambhalan. After gaining the knowledge from Fang''s mind, Huan attempted to construct his own machine, hoping to further torment Fang by giving him the guilt of all the worlds he would corrupt by spreading the curse of vampirism. In the resulting fight between the two vampires, the magics once again went haywire and Huan was catapulted through time and space.


    Fang believed he was at last destroyed, but in truth Huan had become trapped on another world known as Teliscar that was being besieged by demons. These creatures despised all natural creatures, believing that demon kind had been created to wipe them off of the face of the universe. They refused to accept Huan as they believed that Khastran, whose power they could sense in him, was a fool who wasted his power. Haun was forced to form an alliance with the natives on the planet, the humanoid Teliscars. In time with Huan''s help the natives defeated the demons and Huan was hailed as a hero, and the vampire was later able to use this status to gradually take over their society.


    In time he built an empire from their world that conquered other planets. He did not do so out of malice and hatred however. Huan had been genuinely moved by the plight of the aliens he had rescued from demons, and came to care about them. In some small way he rediscovered the humanity buried deep beneath the demon that had consumed him all those years ago. He was still a conqueror and more than happy to satisfy his twisted demonic urges against his enemies from time to time. Still Huan only conquered worlds that had similarly been overrun by the supernatural to liberate their people like he had done the Teliscar. Those that weren''t, he simply provided aid too. Finally the few worlds where the supernatural were living in peace with the naturals he did not bother at all.


    Huan did many great things for hundreds of years, stamping out several demonic strongholds and empires in the universe and saving planets from destruction. When he next met a much older, time travelling version of Fang, he even for a time at least forgave the vampire. Stating at least that he felt Fang was a force for good that he should not extinguish.


    To their surprise Fang and Huan even became allies for a time, with Fang helping his former foe deal with several demonic invasions of his own planet. There were always clashes between them however due to Huan''s more ruthless methods and obviously the bad blood between them was never completely gone.


    Sadly the time travelling Fang later encountered a future version of Huan who had not only returned to his evil ways, but had degenerated into a hideous demonic creature, capable of condemning an entire world to an eternity of torment. Fang didn''t recognize Huan in this form at first; he was so hideously deformed and had powers uncommon to any vampire. It was difficult after this horrifying experience for Fang to work alongside the more benevolent younger version of the vampire. He wanted to warn him, or even kill Huan to stop the atrocities he knew he''d carry out in the future, but sadly Fang knew he couldn''t change history to that extent.


    The cause of Huan''s downfall was later revealed to be his own people, the space vampires or a section of them. Ironically centuries later, Huan''s original plan to spread vampirism had come into effect. When a Martian visited the earth for exploration and was infected by a vampire, he went on to spread the curse of vampirism throughout Mars, destroying it. The last of the Martian vampires then fled to the stars, after their attempt to invade the earth was foiled by the Circus Family (more on them later.) The vampires would then go on to infect and destroy countless more worlds over thousands of years. This particular group of the monsters were able to infiltrate Huan''s planet and spike its water supply with a new concentrated form of vampirism (that had been made from the numerous pieces of technology salvaged from other species they had conquered over the centuries in space.)


    The vast majority of the Teliscar were turned over night and used the weapons they had spent centuries building to protect natural creatures, to inflict devastation on the rest of the galaxy. Hundreds of worlds fell to this new vampire army who destroyed both demonic and natural worlds for the fun of it.


    Huan was forced to go on the run, and whilst he did attempt to rally people against the vampires, sadly no one believed that he did not play a part in the corruption of the Teliscar, due to his vampiric nature. Even with all the good he had done, it was hard for the other worlds to see him as anything other than a demon. Huan initially became a recluse, but survivors of several of the worlds the Teliscar vampires (whose empire later collapsed due to their usual backstabbing nature.) Hunted him down, and he was soon forced to fight back which led to Huan rediscovering his blood lust.


    In order to cope with his guilt and failures, Huan deluded himself into thinking that god, or the creator wished him to be a monster by taking away everything and everyone who could have stopped him from being one and he resumed his evil ways like never before.


    He travelled from world to world, causing as much suffering, strife and chaos as he could, using magic, technology and his own manipulations. During this time he encountered and fought Fang many times too. He killed both humans and demons however in his vengeance wanting to make all life suffer.


    Eventually the vampires burning hatred and malice would see him travel to the hand of chaos. Located many galaxies beyond ours, the hand as it was known was the remains of a creature from the void that entered our reality many centuries ago. The void is the space outside of our and indeed all universes and is where they came from.


    Before the barrier was placed around the universe to protect it from life forms in the void, a renegade demon allowed a desperate ethereal being from the void into our reality and then proceeded to possess it. The demon wanted a creature not from this omniverse as a host, as it would be an unknown creature. The demon got more than it bargained for however as the combination of the ethereal''s unknown and conflicting energy, mixed in with the demon created an explosion that consumed hundreds of worlds. As the energy settled, it began to form into a new life form, neither demon or whatever the ethereal would have become had it formed properly.


    The gestation of this new entity was stopped by the combined efforts of several gods, many of whom were either killed or pulled into the hand that had formed and never seen again.


    Whilst the entity never formed completely thanks to the gods, its hand continued to exist and was simply left. No life form due to its unknown nature dared to go near it, until Huan. He had nothing to lose. Either he could harness some of its power, or it would destroy him and he would be free from his pain.


    For whatever reason Huan was able to enter and unlike all before him, was able to leave. Some believe it is because he was willing to let whatever dark forces still dwelled within corrupt him completely. Not that there was much humanity left to corrupt. Either way Huan emerged as more than just a vampire or a demon. He was a completely new, unique monstrous creature with incredible powers the likes of which had never been seen before.


    In this form Huan went on to actively destroy hundreds of worlds and condemn others to an eternity of torment. The former vampire was able to accomplish this by attacking a planet''s core and merging it with the dark power within him which then spread throughout the world, and ensured all of its inhabitants worst fears became a reality and that the inhabitants would be brought back after being tortured to death by their nightmares again and again. There was no way to save a world that was condemned this way, at least not as far as Professor Fang knew due to the unknown nature of the ethereal.


    Professor Fang faced Huan many hundreds of times in this form with their feud becoming more brutal than ever before. Huan''s hatred of Fang was renewed when he learned that as a time traveler, Fang knew the fate of his planet and hadn''t stopped it. Huan''s form meanwhile continued to be twisted the more magic and dark energy he was able to absorb from other worlds. In this form Huan it is believed will ensure the final death of earth, hundreds of thousands of years from now, long after the age of Tairos. Fortunately like many intelligent species, we will outlive our planet.


    Sadly it is not known if Fang was ever able to finally destroy his archenemy, but his feud with Huan endured through all of our records of his life as a time traveler, with Fang according to his later companions becoming obsessive in his quest to destroy the monster he had helped to create.


    At the very least after Huan first disappeared into space, Fang was given peace from his mortal enemy for many hundreds of years. During that time Fang continued to explore the world, learning new magics. It is not known the exact year he attended Scholomance, a school of black magic run by a renegade Dragon known as Kilgharrah and the former king of hell Mephistopheles. At the very least it was many centuries before Dracula and the grand high witch Eva attended. Both recalled Fang being hailed as one of the most gifted students and constantly held up as the gold standard by Kilgharrah. Fang is believed to have attended Scholomance in order to better understand the black arts if he was to fight them. The wizard turned vampire also later turned his attention to science too, as again he felt he needed to understand all of the elements and became just as renowned and knowledgeable of the natural world as he did about magic.


    He is believed to have first gone by the title of Professor Fang in the 16th century. Sadly however his activities from his banishing Huan across space, to the 19th century are not known in as much detail as Fang was keen to keep himself in the shadows and worked hard to cover his role up in any major events he may have played a part in. He has been attributed with everything from the renaissance, to the fall of Rome, to the death of Genghis Khan, at least some of which are probably exaggerations.


    One thing that is known is that during the 7th century, Fang took part in the war against the beasts, creatures from another realm of existence, known as the savage realm. One species of beast known as the Harra sought to conquer the entire savage realm and posed a threat to other realms too. Fang is believed to have spent hundreds of years in the battle which ended with the Harra being pushed back, but not defeated. These brutal ape-like monsters similarly became among Fang''s most persistent enemies that he encountered again and again as a time traveller, which we will explore in the next chapter.

 Professor Fang: His Life and Times: Part 2

    Our next verifiable record of Fang following the war of the beasts, begins in the early 19th century, where in the year 1820. Fang constructed his second spaceship using both his mastery of science and magic.


    This vessel, which appeared to function as a kind of steampunk craft, was built in the shape of a large gothic mansion. In actual fact the supposed steampunk aspects of the ship were its way of harnessing magics for power.


    Fang''s first companions on this journey through the cosmos were Jessie Jackson, a young actress who had grown tired of her life on stage, and Frazer, a Scotsman that Fang had rescued from being sacrificed by renegade goblins and who had helped him build the vessel.


    It was also during this time that Fang first encountered another of his greatest adversaries, the ruthless race of robotic creatures known as the Kalsekin.


    These creatures came from a far away planet whose society had embraced magic and used it to construct large and powerful robots. The magic however gradually caused the robots to not only develop sentience, but souls too. Some of these robots subsequently fled and established a colony on a far away planet. There they would slowly capture and recruit other robots from across the universe and bring them to life using the same magical process. The Kalsekin as all robots they recruited became known as, spread throughout the galaxy conquering hundreds of other worlds, though their empire unlike other species such as the Hylexans was not completely unified. Rather it was scattered in different places around the entire universe, though they all did still remain in contact and relayed different pieces of information, such as new gadgets and life forms to one another.


    Fang battled the Kalsekin (with this word meaning life in their original language) many times from the 19th to the late 20th centuries, managing to destroy the base of their operations, on their home planet, leaving many of the outer planets cut off. He also foiled an invasion of earth by the monsters in the year 1967, and faced them dozens more times centuries later during his life as a time traveler.


    Frazer and Jessie meanwhile eventually left Fang as the two fell in love and married, though Fang kept in touch with them and was even made the godfather of their child. Fang subsequently spent most of the 19th and 20th centuries away from the earth, though he did briefly return during the second world war.


    Recognizing the danger the Nazis posed to the rest of the world, Fang did all he could to help repel their war machine. He was responsible for forming the Magic Gang, a group dedicated to battling the Nazi''s attempts to utilize the supernatural to win the war. The Nazis had formed a particularly strong alliance with the vampires, who hoped to use them to build an empire throughout Europe like their rivals the demonic vandals had done before.


    Fang recruited each and every member of the Magic Gang, which included Lorrimer Van Helsing, the original Frankenstein''s monster, King Arthur who had risen from the dead in Britain''s darkest hour just as the prophecy had foreseen, Helga, a leading expert on witchcraft, a Golem and its friend and creator, the demon hunter Rosa Meyer and finally Marya the daughter of Dracula.


    After the war was over Fang went back to space, and didn''t return in any long term capacity until the mid 1970s when he came to stay in Hong Kong. There he put together another team similar to the Magic Gang to try and protect both Hong Kong and mainland China which after the war had experienced an influx of vampires and demons trying to take advantage of the chaos.


    The team Fang put together included Chat, a member of the famous Heroic Trio, who had formed many years prior to combat an ancient Demon known simply as the Emperor or the Evil Master who was performing horrific experiments with the souls of infants. An infant''s soul is the most pure and uncorrupted on earth and the Emperor believed that if he could corrupt enough of them with dark magic, then he could use their tainted life force to power a spell that would permanently eliminate light magic from the East.


    The Emperor had actually once ruled over a large and prosperous kingdom, but his fall came when he indulged in horrific experiments with black magic and demons which corrupted him into the unique monstrosity he was today. He hoped through infecting his entire homeland with similar dark powers he could once again rule it.


    Chat first encountered the Emperor when her baby sister was snatched by one of his demons. When her sister returned several years later, she had become corrupted by the Emperor''s experiment and slaughtered Chat''s entire family, with Chat herself being forced to kill her.


    She soon began to research all she could about demons, as well as honing her physical skills. During this period she met another young woman named Ching, with the two sharing the same trainer, Lee Cheung, a former member of the Zhengi Nanren (an organization devoted to protecting the east from the supernatural, that Fang is believed to have played a role in creating at least by some.)


    Lee left the Zhengi due to clashing with their methods and he had hoped to start his own more extreme group of demon hunters.


    Ching and Chet meanwhile were his best students alongside his own daughter, Tung and the three formed a very close relationship as her father pushed them all very hard. Lee was not a good father to Tung it must be said, but at the very least they all learned an incredible amount from him. After the Zhengi Nanren''s first attack against Lee, (as they were furious he had shared their secrets with outsiders. Lee and Tung were forced to go on the run, leaving his other students behind who disbanded.


    Chat however, unlike the others, didn''t give up and forced the younger, more vulnerable Ching to help try and strike back against the Emperor. It was a rash and foolish decision on her part, one that Tung and the others would have never allowed. It resulted in Ching being taken hostage by the Emperor who subsequently broke her through torture and magics into being one of his servants, and even used her to capture babies for him. Chat meanwhile fled in shame, eventually using the skills she had learned to become a bounty hunter known as the Thief Catcher. Whilst it was a dark time for Chat she nevertheless learned many new skills and developed new and powerful weapons during her time as a bounty hunter.


    Tung meanwhile similarly used what she had learned from her father, mixed in with what she had learned on the road after his death (at the hands of the Zhengi Nanren) to eventually become the costumed superheroine, The Masked Hunter and slew all those responsible for her fathers death.


    As The Masked Hunter she continued to fight crime and the supernatural in her home city, which eventually led to a clash with the Thief Catcher and Ching, when the Emperor arrived in her hometown.


    When Ching, aided by one of the Emperors demons, tried to capture a baby, both the Thief Catcher and The Masked Hunter intervened. Ironically for the first time the Thief Catcher was thinking of someone other than herself, trying to find a way to protect her former adopted sister. In the cross fire however the cowardly demon sacrificed the baby and threw it onto a nail in order to stop the women coming after it.


    All three were haunted by the tragedy for the rest of their lives. Still both Tung and the Thief Catcher were able to free Ching from the Emperor''s mind control and she became determined to make up for her past actions. Using an invisibility cloak that her lover had been developing (and the Emperor had hoped she would steal.) Ching became the Invisible Woman and together the three of them were able to unite and destroy the Emperor, freeing the children he had transformed into demons from his power. The saved children formed a group dedicated to not only stopping demons and monsters, but rehabilitating them if possible in the women''s honor for decades to come.


    The three women meanwhile remained together afterwards, becoming the superhero team, The Heroic Trio. For many years they battled all manner of criminals, demons, vampires, and supernatural monsters together. The Emperor however whose spirit returned remained their most dangerous enemy. Sadly in 1975 the Heroic Trio came to an end in a battle with a powerful Witch and Zombie Queen, who Ching was forced to sacrifice herself to stop. The Thief Catcher in particular was so devastated at having failed to protect her little adopted sister again, she returned to being a bounty hunter, though at the very least in both cases she only hunted supernatural creatures. It was at this point that Fang recruited her, a year or so after Ching''s death. At first their relationship was strictly professional, but in time the ancient vampire took on a fatherly role to Chat.


    Among the others Fang took on included former so called super cop Chan Kai Kau, whose career sadly ended when he refused to back down after confronting a group of influential vampires in the local area.


    He also recruited another member of the Zhengi Nanren, the descendant of legendary vampire killer Master Kau. This sect was not as extreme in upholding the tradition as the those that Lee had belonged to, though there were still some tensions between Kau and Chat at first.


    This team proved to be every bit as effective as Fang''s previous Magic Gang (who ironically also reformed near the end of the 70s and worked with Fang''s new team now and again.) Sadly however Fang''s new family came to an end in the late 70s, when Chat fell in love with Daniel Winn, a former member of the time travelling Soldiers of the Nexus trapped in the 20th century.


    Fang first met Daniel when a particularly powerful and ancient Chinese Demon fled to England. None of the rest of Rentros, the origanisation Daniel was working with were willing to work with Fang due to the fact that he was a vampire, except ironically for Daniel, with the two becoming friends as they hunted for the demon. It was through Daniel that Fang learned a lot about time travel. The vampire had always been fascinated by the subject, initially in the hopes of going back and changing his mistakes. Whilst he had heard of certain experiments and stories, including the vandals'' failed attempt to build a time machine that had become lost. Daniel''s magic confirmed to the vampire that it was possible, and after Daniel made contact with the Nexus soldiers again, he was even instructed to share some of those secrets with the vampire as they obviously knew the important role Fang was to play in the history of the universe.


    Sadly however Fang''s first experiments with time travel were a disaster and ended up sending Daniel and Chat through time and space to another world. The two were then forced to follow a trail of portals through time and space to get back to their own era with help from Fang.


    Chat and Daniel''s romance later came to an end after a confrontation with a hideous demonic creature known as Ristorakia that had hidden her essence inside an asteroid. She had done so to escape her own world after she condemned it to a hell dimension. Ristorakia was a powerful witch who had found a way to control a portal to the hellish realm that had existed on her own planet. The magic she placed around it allowed her to abduct demons from the other side and place them under her control. She used the demons to both conquer her own world and then send them to devastate other worlds around her and ravage them for their resources. Ironically her planet had always had a blockade placed around it because of its portal to hell.


    Eventually however when Satan became aware of what Ristorkia was doing he sent his most powerful minions who would be immune to her magic to slay her. In order to escape, she used the portal to destroy her world, and Satan''s minions when they arrived.


    Ristorkia now planned to create a similar portal on earth, take control of hundreds of demons she''d abduct on our world and then destroy our planet before Satan realised what was going on, before going on to do the same on hundreds of other worlds building up an army of billions of demons. (Each planet would lead to a different point in the hellish realm making it harder for Satan to pinpoint her.)


    The asteroid landed near Beijing and Fang, Daniel and Chat working together were able to barely stop Ristorkia, using her own power to finally consume her soul. Sadly however Daniel was mortally wounded in the process. Despite his best efforts Fang was unable to cure him and as Daniel waited for death, Chat unable to lose someone else went to great lengths (against Daniel''s wishes) to steal the most powerful and forbidden healing magics from Fulu, the magical well that the Zhengi Nanren had used to create their spells and enchantments to restore her love to health. Sadly however as a result she was forced to go on the run from the powerful spiritual forces that had sworn to protect the Fulu, who tried to hunt her down for the rest of her life. Neither Daniel nor Fang ever saw Chat again. Both were utterly devastated, with Fang''s team slowly disbanding after her loss. For the next 20 or so years the vampire became something of a recluse, as he dove head first into his research on time travel, though he was obviously wary of making any more mistakes.


    In the late 90s however, Fang was brought out of his solitude when he was recruited by the shadow government. This organization was started sometime after world war 2. It was a somewhat futile attempt to keep the supernatural at bay. Unlike Scathach or Rentros, the Shadows did not set out to destroy the supernatural. On the contrary they made deals with local demon and vampire kings and even offered up sacrifices to certain demons and creatures. The Shadow Government believed that it was futile to attempt to destroy the supernatural, as it would always exist on the earth in some form or another and so the only way to keep most of humanity safe was to try and find a way to keep the paranormal in order. They still used all of their resources against creatures that threatened the world, or to expose the supernatural, but unlike Rentros or the Trajans, they believed that they would never get distracted by low level street demons.


    Fang was somewhat reluctant to join at first, and eventually agreed only in the hopes that he could infiltrate and destroy some of the most prominent demons from within, as well as use their resources to further his time travel experiments. Needless to say, Fangs time with the Shadow Government did not go smoothly, though he was still with them for over ten years before finally being forced to go on the run after bringing down one of their biggest operations.


    Fang was eventually captured and imprisoned by the Shadow Government sometime in the early 21st century. They kept him locked up in a state of suspended animation for over 100 years, not wanting to kill him due to his intellect which they hoped they could harness, but not wanting to let him go free either. In time as they had bigger fish to fry, Fang was simply forgotten about left to rot in their vaults.


    The vampire only emerged again after the supernatural was finally exposed to the world which led to the collapse of civilisation in the late 22nd century. The Shadow Government was among the first institutions to fall, ironically after the supernatural was exposed. It literally tore itself apart with several of its members forgetting their alliance with humanity and other races once the truth was exposed. The headquarters of the Shadow Government located beneath the Bermuda Triangle was subsequently left to rot for decades, with Fang still being kept in suspended animation below, along with all of their other enemies. At some point in the 23rd century however, Fang was inadvertently freed by a mutated creature in its attempt to resurrect its master Dalsrex.


    Dalsrex who was neither demon, nor monster nor beast was the original inhabitant of the Bermuda Triangle and responsible for the many strange disappearances that had happened there. He came from the dark place at the bottom of the ocean. Life forms from this area are very rarely sighted on the surface. Only three have ever been recorded in any great detail, with the famous Bloop from Point Nemo being another.


    Dalsrex famously captured any people that passed by its lair using teleportation abilities that are still not completely understood in order to use them as hosts for its eggs. Ultimately however no surface creature was strong enough to host its larvae. A few of its vile children lived for short periods, but it was often as hideously deformed mutations, that either died after a few months or were killed by Dalsrex itself in disgust. Dalsrex did later however allow at least some of his failed attempts to create children into his minions, which he sent to capture people from all over the world to use as part of his experiments, as fewer people became willing to travel over the triangle.


    The founders of the Shadow Government were able, pulling all of their resources together to trap Dalsrex in a magical bubble in the 1980s, which held the monster for over 200 years. They built their new headquarters over its nest as a sign of their triumph. Dalsrex and Fang''s future savior meanwhile was the only survivor of Dalsrex''s children. This poor unfortunate soul only survived due to a combination of the Shadow Government and its magics when they attempted to cure it after. When all attempts failed they used the creature as an agent until he realised they could never cure him and went on the run.


    After civilization fell, the child of Dalsrex who as a man had gone by the name of Paul eventually returned to the Bermuda Triangle hoping it could use the power of the former Shadow Government prison to control Dalsrex and bring order to the world. It was a perilous journey for Paul, during which his entire crew were killed. The oceans had become just as difficult to cross as the land, as now the numerous marine supernatural creatures such as Dragurs and Sirens and Caradons no longer had to keep hidden and were free to roam the waters.


    Sadly Paul''s own inexperience and tampering with the Shadow Government''s own magics released all of their prisoners. Dalsrex, after seeing that there were no more people in the area thanks to the collapse of society, fled across the world to find more humans he could use in his experiments.


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    Fang meanwhile aided by Paul was able to drive the other prisoners out of the area, using the Governments weapons and made his former captors old headquarters his new base of operations.


    From his former prison Fang worked on a way to help cure Paul and continued to tinker away with his time travel experiments all the while also aiding the scattered groups of humans all over the world unite and fight back against the supernatural. In time he put together another team of heroes from all over the world to try and help restore the earth and with the aid of his new team and technology and magics from the old Shadow Government. Fang was finally able to contact the Venusians who he knew about from his previous journeys through space.


    With the Venusians and the Soldiers of the Nexus'' aid (with the soldiers establishing themselves at this point.) Fang and his team were able to re-establish civilization on earth in the 23rd century which led to mankind''s golden age, which is still ongoing as of the writing of this article in the 25th century.


    Sadly however it will come to an end many hundreds of years from now in the 28th century when mankind is visited by a terror from beyond the stars. A race of vicious, Octopoid creatures known as the Hylexans. It is said that the Hylexans have mastered magic to a greater extent than almost any other race in the universe and have conquered hundreds of planets. Their policy is to subjugate a species and break them until they are incapable or unwilling to fight back, but if said race continues to show resistance then the Hylexans will cut their losses and exterminate them completely.


    Fang kept a low profile during the golden age of mankind. Indeed I''d wager most of you reading right now will have never heard of him. This was deliberate on his part as he wanted to continue to work on his time travel experiments and certainly didn''t want their knowledge getting out. Quite why he was so obsessed with these experiments no one really knows. Some suspect that he may have received a vision from his future self or perhaps some other time traveller. It''s certainly possible, but ultimately Fang will once again be forced to put them on hold during the Hylexan war where he will fight valiantly against the monsters. Sadly however in the end the Hylexans will not only triumph, they will completely destroy the surface of the planet. It will not be entirely with their own weapons however. Rather the Hylexans will discover the hand of Ares, the war gods ultimate weapon that was banished into space centuries ago, still floating in space and catapult it towards the earth using one of their missiles.


    It will finally accomplish what Ares had intended it to do all those centuries ago and destroy all life on the planet earth, except for those on the small island of Point Nemo.


    This island is the most remote place on earth. It is so far from any other landmass that the nearest humans to it in the 25th century are in space. Ironically it was created by Ares himself during the days of his war with the other gods. He gathered the most terrible demons, monsters and beasts here both to experiment on and test to see which creatures would be the best soldiers in his army.


    Ultimately however Ares was forced to abandon his island when he suffered greater losses on the mainland than he had predicted. This ironically led to the war god creating the hand in the first place, whilst his island was simply abandoned even before he later fled the earth.


    Point Nemo remained largely isolated and forgotten due to its remote location and a forcefield placed around it by Ares himself, whilst the creatures he had gathered continued to fight with each other for dominance, though there were other visitations to it in the 20th and 21st centuries, these however all remained secret.


    At some point an elite group of wizards, witches and warlocks were told by an iteration of the Circus Family to not only hide out on Point Nemo, but to work on a spell that would protect the island, and restore the earth after the Hylexans stripped it of all life. It is believed that this elite coven first retreated to Point Nemo in the middle of the 21st century. Of course if they could the Circus Family would have given them the knowledge on how to prevent the Hylexan attack from ever happening, but as we have been over it is not possible to change established history to that extent.


    The wizards and witches of Point Nemo will capture Fang in the last year of the Hylexan war, where his knowledge will be put to use in strengthening the forcefield from the hand of Ares. This experience will finally teach Fang the importance of not being able to change time.


    Sadly however even with their centuries of working on the forcefield, and Fang''s help it does not offer complete protection from the hand. The forcefield is not only damaged, but the wizards and witches city on the island, built up over centuries is devastated resulting in the monsters of Point Nemo being able to overrun it and much of the work being lost.


    It will take another 100 years for Fang and the other surviving wizards and witches to overcome the horrors of Point Nemo again, rediscover the last work and finally complete it. Once that is accomplished, the spell will be cast that will restore all life to our planet. Huge beautiful forests will cover the lands once more, and oceans and rivers will return as golden waters. This reborn earth will be christened Tairos. Unfortunately however an unintended side effect of this restorative spell will revive hundreds of life forms from multiple periods throughout our history. Humans, demons, Dinosaurs will all once again stalk the land, and they will battle with the survivors of Point Nemo for resources.


    Even worse than that however, not every creature who is brought back will be as they once were. Twisted, grotesque caricatures of human beings and Dinosaurs and even demons will stalk the lands, such as the horrifying Vasta. It''s a disturbing thought that any of us or our loved ones could one day become one of those abominations. It actually did motivate me to move to a colony on Mars. Thankfully my wife didn''t mind one bit as she had family there, but if I were being honest with her it wasn''t just to help her get in touch with her Martian roots. I can only pray that my children remain proud Martians and never get an interest in their human roots.


    Some of the revived humans and the descendants of the survivors of Point Nemo will gather together into scattered cities and communities all over the world, or Tairos, whilst Fang will come to settle in the city of Mosterik and continue his time travel experiments. He will finally after centuries master them and create his ultimate ship from a combination of both science and magic, called the Bat. Fang will then simply leave Mosterik and Tairos behind though Mosterik will continue with some of the time travel experiments left over by Fang, what will become of them is a story for another time.


    The Bat meanwhile was named after its design and shape, (again one can''t accuse Fang of not embracing the vampire motif, even if he fought his demonic nature.) The Bat which was comparable in size to a small town was capable of travelling through time and space, and could also sense the exact points in time that Fang could visit without interference and the periods he had to visit in order to ensure the timeline as he knew it came to pass. It also possessed teleportation capabilities and could conceal itself using magic from being detected.


    The vampire spent hundreds of thousands of years exploring all of time and space in the Bat. We cannot even begin to comprehend the full extent of his impact on history, or indeed hope to come close to chronicling his complete adventures and life during this period.


    Only a few, vital details are known.


    At some point in his travels, when he was travelling alone, the Professor met the first incarnation of the Circus Master, Ron Baker who had crashed on an isolated planet after helping to steal the vandals'' time machine. Ron himself was a vandal, albeit one who had reformed. Fang helped fix the time machine and refined it to be like his own, allowing Ron to travel through time and space in a similar fashion. Ron, under the identity of the Circus Master (to match his colourful ship) would recruit many other strange creatures and heroes to be part of his Circus Family, whilst the title of the Circus Master was also later passed down to six other heroes after Ron''s death. Ironically it was a later iteration of the Circus Family who played an important role in Fang''s own history through establishing the coven on Point Nemo.


    It was also during this period that the Professor orchestrated the battle for all creation. Arguably the most significant war in the history of our universe, it started when the survivors of the universe before ours tried to re-engineer our reality to suit them.


    Natural universes such as ours go through different stages of development, each of which last trillions of years. Different life forms emerge during each of these distinct periods, with most not being able to survive from one evolutionary stage of the universe to the next given the extreme changes in the fabric of reality itself. However there does come a point where the universe can no longer evolve and eventually collapses into dust after which a new reality takes its place, and on and on this process will repeat forever within our multiverse, the natural realm.


    The life forms that invaded our reality meanwhile, who we would come to know as the Galechians, were the most advanced creatures in their universe. They are believed to have come from the final period of their reality''s history, though some have speculated they may have come from an earlier point and simply found a way to survive their own universe''s evolution. Given that they cheated the death of their universe itself it is certainly possible.


    The Galechians hoped to simply create another universe to inhabit before theirs collapsed, but they found this was impossible. The natural realm must be in perfect balance. There can only be a certain number of universes in it at a time, with each set of universes dying in sync with one another. If there is one universe too many then the entire natural realm will begin to collapse under its own weight.


    Instead the Galechians decided to inhabit the next universe after theirs which they would alter to be like their universe, or rather their stage of it to survive. Had they succeeded then life in the universe as we know it would never have evolved. Fang soon realised that the only reason his history existed was because he went back and stopped the Galechians. In order to do that however he was forced to gather soldiers from all over the history of the universe (and in some cases other realities) as an army. This proved to be such a burden that even Fang, with everything he had lived through and done, felt like giving up as more and more young men and women were sent to their deaths, but ultimately he knew he couldn''t as it wasn''t even just the fate of his universe. The Galechians if not stopped would go on to do the same to other realities after they had used up ours, with their constant tampering with the structure of other universes also causing anomalies and problems with the entire omniverse our multiverse exists within, hence why soldiers from other realities were only too eager to help Fang.


    Among those Fang recruited included the first iteration of the Circus Family (before Carlene joined) and the enigmatic time traveler from another universe, Doctor Omega.


    The war waged on for thousands of years, but it eventually ended in a victory for Fang''s side. However not all of the Galechians perished in the war, with several using stolen technology of Fang''s to flee into other universes (such as Doctor Omega''s) or into later periods of our own where they would become major enemies of Fangs.


    The Professor was broken by the war and even took time out of his travels for many centuries. Using technology left over from the war, Fang planted life on a small, unimportant planet in a remote area of space. It became his own personal garden planet, and he used his ship to populate it with animals from all over time and space. (Always being sure to pluck an animal that was dying and wounded and abandoned that would have had no further importance in the timeline.)


    Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs and marine reptiles became the dominant life forms on this garden world of Fangs and he spent many years living there, before finally returning to his travels. As much as he may have wanted to rest, the timeline still needed him. Nevertheless every now and again Fang continued to return to his garden planet.


    From this period on Fang took on many travelling companions, believing that after the war he worked better with help. His two most famous and long lasting companions were Lindsey Kate McIntosh and Kirsteen Williamson.


    Lindsey had a long and successful career as a vampire hunter prior to working with Fang. She first learned about the paranormal during a stay in the Galloway region of Scotland where she was almost killed by the followers of a legendary vampire king named the Blue Devil.


    Following this experience Lindsey came to work for Scathach, an organisation devoted to hunting the paranormal. She was stationed in its highlands department near Aviemore. There she worked with the other famous reformed vampire Carlene, Lam, her Zeta Reticulan friend and an elderly Daniel Winn battling all sorts of monsters, demons and paranormal creatures. Following Carlene''s disappearance however in 2007, Lindsey struck out on her own, though it was another 10 or so years before she encountered Fang. During that time she went through many great losses.


    She and Fang developed the closest relationship of any of his companions apart from possibly Chat. Much like Chat in many ways Lindsey was the daughter that Fang never had.


    Kirsteen meanwhile was a famous rock star during the 1970s and the 1980s whose career had sadly collapsed in the early 80s, due to a combination of her personal problems and the unforgiving media. Whilst she had overcome both her depression and alcoholism by the end of the decade, most of her so-called friends and fans had abandoned her. After her mysterious disappearance in the late 80s, she was of course celebrated as all dead artists are. Whilst many assumed she had simply succumbed to her problems again, in truth she was abducted by a time travelling, living, magic ship that had abducted many life forms from all over time and space to be its crew, both for company and to fight evil throughout the universe. Sadly this ship crashed into Fang''s and in the resulting crisis, he was only able to save Kirsteen who was forced to join him afterwards.


    Unlike Lindsey, Kirsteen was not happy at joining Fang at first. Whilst she admittedly didn''t have much to live for back home, she nevertheless was both horrified and terrified of the creatures she came across in her first few adventures. However it was her friendship with Lindsey that ultimately convinced her to stay and whilst she and Fang never quite enjoyed the same level of closeness as Fang and Lindsey, Kirsteen nevertheless became one of his longest serving companions.


    Due to being outside of the time vortex, Lindsey and Kirsteen aged considerably slower than a normal person, with both staying with the vampire for centuries.


    Whilst the vampire had many companions both before and after Lindsey and Kirsteen, including the legendary vampire killer Ching Kwan and the great explorer Vanessa Showina. It''s safe to say that none of them were ever as associated with the vampire as Lindsey and Kirsteen.


    Aside from battling his old enemies such as Huan, Maliach and his Vaskin, the Kalsekin, the Harra and Dalsrex that escaped our world in the 23rd century. He also made many new and powerful enemies during his life as a time traveller. Among these included Skovora, a demon who enjoyed transforming planets into the hideous hell world he had come from, out of resentment and jealousy. Fang imprisoned this demon within his own ship for many years, as there was seemingly no way to kill him. Unfortunately however, during the collision with the living ship where Fang and Lindsey first met Kirsteen, the demon escaped into space and would go on to infect and destroy more worlds, becoming one of Fang''s most dangerous and evil enemies.


    Aside from Skovora, Fang also faced a race of creatures known as the Marleska, who were originally a race of powerful sorcerers. They had mastered magic to the point where they became creatures of magic and buily an incredible civilization that was the wonder of its and many neighbouring galaxies.


    Sadly however at some point the magics that fueled their civilization became poisoned, transforming them into hideous, nightmarish creatures. The Marleska could only survive in their own poisoned domain for extended periods, but as their world was being ripped apart by that same poison, the monsters soon began to conquer and poison other worlds, which they''d live on for decades before the magics ripped them apart. They were among Fang''s most persistent and revolting enemies.


    However perhaps his most dangerous foes were a race of demons known as the Yakesla. These demons were relatives of vampires and vandals, though they were certainly not their allies. The Yakelsa were the creations of Khastran''s bride during his first reign over the demons, the demon Queen Geralshia. Whilst she may not have been a match for Khastran physically, she was a match for him in terms of ambition and in some cases cruelty as well. Like all of Khastran''s concubines however she had no real power, but unlike the others she actively plotted against him, which led to the future father of the vampires casting her out.


    Geralshia fled with Khastran''s son, Demenkos. Khastran had many children, all of whom he disregarded. He certainly had no affection for Demenkos, but he did not like the idea of anyone else disposing of his children.


    Geralshia meanwhile murdered their son and cut his body into pieces in an attempt to try and harness any residual energy from Khastran that may have been passed onto his child.


    Before she could do so however Khastran tracked her down and vaporized Geralshia. Before her death however she hid the mangled remains of her own son deep beneath the planet Extarna, which at point only housed a primitive society. In the ensuing centuries after Geralshia and Khastran''s own death, the people of Extarna would progress into a highly advanced species technologically but not socially. They''d wage war with one another that proved to be so brutal, it not only devastated the surface of their planet, but awoke and strengthened the dark demonic energy of Demenkos underneath which soon burst its way through the ground.


    The energy took root into the body of a soldier dying from his wounds simply because it was the nearest body. The energy then formed its personality based on the soldier''s hatred, bitterness and resentment at what his life had become (that was all the energy which still had traces of Demenkos mind could understand naturally.) From there the new demon that was born in the soldier not only took him over, but soon began to infect others, creating a new race of creatures called the Yekelsa made up of Demenkos energy, the magics of Geralshia''s experiments and the horrors of the war itself. Yekelsa means war in the Extarna''s language.


    What made the Yekelsa so dangerous however was not simply their tremendous power, but the fact that they could transform anyone they killed through any means into a member of their kind, provided there was enough of the body left. Unlike vampires and vandals and the majority of other demon species who had to directly infect natural creatures through their fangs, claws, and pincers. Simply dying at these monster''s hands was enough which allowed them to not only overrun Extarna but hundreds of other worlds throughout the cosmos.


    They also, having been created from one demon, had the ability to merge together into a single entity, though only six could do this at a time. They also had the power to absorb other demons into their bodies too, which Fang very nearly discovered the hard way when one of them tried to devour him.


    Among Fang''s individual rivals meanwhile included Lanjica, a renegade witch from the Federation of Magic who enjoyed causing trouble on worlds throughout the galaxy with her magics and the Gorgon sister Elsteria, who had the power to rewrite the biology of any creature to be like hers and believed it was her duty to save the universe by uniting all life forms by making them identical.


    Whilst Fang saved hundreds of worlds and galaxies from these monsters, he also endured many crushing defeats and losses at their hands which weighed on his already tormented mind.


    Sadly we don''t know if Fang ever was able to find peace. There have been many accounts of his supposed final death, but given his ability to resurrect no one can say for sure if any of them truly were the end.


    Wherever he is now, one thing is for sure that Professor Fang is the most important individual figure in the history of our universe. Were it not for him, history as we know it would not exist. The fact that this burden alone didn''t crush Fang is a testament to his strength and why only he could have lived the life he has. Still whilst we can admire Fang for his accomplishments it''s safe to say that even with all of the incredible things he has seen, no one would ever wish to trade places with him. He walks a fine line, not only between demon and man, but between order and chaos. One little mistake on just one of his travels and it could all unravel in catastrophic ways. No matter how hard he tries to escape this crushing responsibility it seems time itself will not allow him to rest. Fang is in many ways a prisoner of his life, rather than the free spirit and explorer some of his admirers would have you believe. I can only hope that someday he finds peace, whatever that may be for him.

 The Spook Family

    Throughout our history there have been many heroes and influential figures who have come from somewhat humble beginnings, only to defy all expectations and achieve a greatness few can ever dream of.


    Perhaps no group of people embody this idea better than the somewhat unconventional band of heroes operating in the late 20th to early 21st century, known as the Spook Family. Strictly speaking however it would be wrong to call them people.


    In fact many of their members belonged to races who were devoted to the destruction of humanity and all life on this planet, nay universe! Nevertheless through somewhat unusual circumstances they were able to harness the darkness within them for the greater good.


    The spook family consisted of the monster, Claudia McGrath, the vampire hybrid Vincent Cushing, the zombie Jack, the legendary creatures Medusa and the Golem and finally the renegade alien, Daksera, who brought them all together to stop an invasion from his own people.


    Whilst they would go on to achieve their greatest victories together, prior to forming the Spook Family. They were all already established heroes in their own cities and in some cases other worlds too.


    Claudia McGrath was part of an invasion force of monsters that attacked our earth in the 1970s. When I say monster I am using it in its correct term to refer to a specific order of creatures who were created by the Destroyer (the dark counterpart to the creator of our omniverse.) The word Monster, much like demon has in the modern age come to refer to any twisted, unnatural or evil creature, and I myself have been guilty of using it in that context too. Still here I am referring to collectively possibly the greatest enemies of all life in our Omniverse.


    This monster invasion took place in the remote mountain of Kerquelen. Prior to the attack, this particular faction of monsters had become engaged in a mutually destructive war with a race of highly advanced aliens in our galaxy. The last surviving monsters from the battle hoped to cast a devastating spell in this remote area that would destroy all life on earth, after which they could make it a new base of operations.


    Their experiments with dark magics however drew the attention of several powerful witches who after several clashes with the monsters which they lost, gathered an army to defeat the monsters, which also included hunters, vampires, demons, werewolves, even vandals. All were willing to put their differences aside to stop a monster invasion.


    In the huge battle that erupted in the Kerquelen islands, the monster forces were crushed. Near the end of the battle however one monster child would be discovered near the side of its dying mother, by a human hunter named Celeste Sande, one of the most prolific vampire killers of her era. She is believed to have amassed over 300 vampire kills to her name prior to this battle. Sadly however in spite of this she had been unable to protect her family from the bloodsuckers, having lost both her son and husband to a vengeful vampire attack.


    As insane as it may have sounded, she could relate to the monster child when watching it stand by its mother in her final moments. Moreover she was actually moved that even among these creatures, there was still at least a grain of genuine affection and empathy. It actually changed her outlook somewhat as in that moment, Celeste came to believe that perhaps it was possible for any life form to change, if even a monster could show genuine care to others. (Which she had always been told was impossible.) Perhaps other positive emotions and feelings could be cultivated in this creature.


    Sande not only spared the monster child, but took it away from the warzone, which was easy enough, as in taking down the monsters, most of the witches, vampires, demons and hunters had been slaughtered too.


    The child was naturally reluctant at first, but Celeste knew that she couldn''t leave it no matter what. Either the child would starve to death on the mountain, or if it did escape it would either follow its natural instincts and become a killer, or be hunted down like an animal.


    Celeste took good care of the monster, showing her a kindness that even its own mother never had. From a young age monsters are naturally groomed to not only be great warriors, but to see their own lives as expendable for the greater monster cause. Celeste convinced the young child that her life was actually more important than a pointless war and convinced her to choose her own path, which it eventually did.


    The child soon assumed a human form to blend in with its surroundings. It took on the identity of Claudia, Celeste''s best friend who had ironically died in the battle against the monster invasion forces. Initially it hoped that this would be a touching tribute to its adopted mothers friend, but Celeste begged the monster to assume a different form, and she modified it slightly to look different, whilst still keeping the name Claudia in tribute.


    Claudia at first attempted to integrate herself into the human world. She took up a keen interest in history, though it was more because of how fabricated "official" human history was to cover up the presence of the paranormal. Often Claudia would look at what an official history text said and then go and research the actual truth in any way she could.


    Eventually however this led to Claudia discovering the truth behind the purpose of Stone Henge. It was built during a previous monster invasion of earth, not by the monsters, but by humans who worshipped them. It was designed using magic to transform humans into monsters and had since been used to create many, grotesque caricatures of their kind on earth.


    Using her knowledge, Claudia was able to permanently shut down the power of Stone Henge in a way no one had before. The success of this mission then inspired Claudia to look for other threats to humanity and in time she slowly became a great warrior for good. Celebrated in her home city of Darsano as both a hero and a strange urban myth. "Lady Squid" soon became her nickname among the people and the media, as Claudia''s true form which she always assumed at least partially when fighting, was that of an Octopus creature. She later gained more skill in shape shifting and was able to morph certain body parts at a time between her old and new forms, including her arms and legs into tentacles.


    Unfortunately however those who were aware of the supernatural soon began to recognize that Lady Squid was a monster and several hunters and vampires and demons, including ironically those who had fought alongside Celeste would try and slay Claudia and even Celeste herself for being a traitor. Fortunately however Claudia was always able to overcome whatever challenges and threats she and her mother faced and became a true hero long before she was ever a part of the Spook Family.


    Medusa meanwhile belonged to a totally different order of creatures, known as beasts. Much like monster, the word beast has come to refer to any vicious creature in our language, but originally it was the collective name to any creature that came from another realm, known as the savage realm. All of the life forms in this realm were predators, though they were not like demons who are compelled to kill and torture for their own enjoyment. Beasts at the very least only kill to feed and their powers are considerably different to demons. Creatures like centaurs, krakens, manticores, hydras, minotaurs and cyclops are members of the beast family. Throughout the history of the Omniverse many of the weaker breeds of beast have travelled to other realms to find easier prey and before recorded history began a large invasion of beasts of different kind arrived on earth in the hopes of making it a new hunting ground.


    Unfortunately for the beasts however at that point in earth''s history the Gods had settled on our world. Originally the Gods, vastly powerful creatures from another realm hoped to live in peace with humanity and even helped us rebuild after a renegade member of their order, Set''s invasion, but sadly it didn''t take long for these vastly powerful beings to take advantage of the primitive creatures who worshipped them and become drunk with power.


    Medusa sadly was arguably the most tragic example of the folly and cruelty of the Gods. Originally she was a human and a loyal priestess of Athena, among the most noble and wise of all the deities who had settled on earth. Medusa and Athena always had a strained relationship however as Medusa questioned the Goddess wisdom more than any of her other followers. At first Athena appreciated Medusa''s independence and in some instances even followed her advice. Eventually however Medusa and Athena came to blows. Metaphorically speaking of course, and Medusa was banished from Athena''s service. During her last night in her former masters temple however where Medusa attempted to run away with a former soldier of Athena, who had also lost faith in the Goddess. She was attacked and raped by Athena''s most loyal soldier called Iscera, who also killed Medusa''s lover and framed her for the killing.


    Naturally Athena believed Iscera who aside from being her favourite, was also seen as a great hero in Greece and decided to punish Medusa for desecrating her temple and killing what she thought was a loyal soldier.


    She cursed Medusa and turned her into the most hideous of all beasts. A Gorgon. Not all of the beasts had been slaughtered by the Gods during their invasion. Many had been kept alive as pets or servants or foot soldiers. The Gorgons however were the most repulsive and feared, even by other beasts due to their ability to turn people to stone with their eyes. Medusa therefore was shunned to the island of Sepredita away from any other human. The only people that Medusa encountered for the next several decades were either great warriors wanting to kill her, or people sent to her island to die.


    Eventually however after 100 years Medusa was slain by the Greek hero Perseus, who in turn used her head to slay the Kraken.


    After this her body was left to rot, and following the war with Ares, the surviving Gods, including Athena left the earth, believing their presence had hindered humanity.


    From this point on recorded human history begins, with the Gods stay on the earth being incorporated into the mythologies of various cultures around the world.


    Medusa meanwhile was allowed to rest until the late 19th century. Ironically it was Athena that eventually revived her, when she finally learned the truth. Iscera had been made into a minor deity by Athena for his bravery against the vampire horde during her time on earth, and had later left with the Gods when they returned to the Godly realm where he continued to serve Athena for centuries afterwards. He was later mortally wounded by a demon using dark magics that even Athena couldn''t cure. On his deathbed he admitted to Athena what had really happened with Medusa. No one knows why? Perhaps in his final moments he was terrified of being judged for his sins by a power above the Gods? Perhaps it was to gloat over Athena as there was nothing she could do to punish him now? Much like Medusa herself, ironically over the centuries his loyalty to Athena had wavered somewhat. Alternatively perhaps it was out of love for Athena so she could make up for a past mistake?


    Either way Athena instantly travelled back to earth. She could only remain a short time, not wanting to interfere in human affairs again. In the limited space she had, Athena brought Medusa back from the grave. Unfortunately even Athena could not undo her past curse and make Medusa back into a human. She was however able to overrun Medusa''s killer beast instincts, though in some ways that was worse as it allowed Medusa to feel the guilt for all the men she had slaughtered in her time on the island.


    Athena also placed a special kind of magical barrier around Medusa''s eyes which would prevent her from turning anyone who looked at her to stone, though Medusa could still turn people to stone by firing green energy beams from her eyes, with the effect also only being temporary.


    Athena begged for Medusa''s forgiveness and told her that Medusa could use her powers to help others, and redeem both their souls, but understandably Medusa refused to listen to the Goddess and went into hiding for the next 60 years until the 1920s. By that time Medusa had come to settle in Greece, living on the streets until she became friends with a young woman named Maisa and her brother Matt who soon took her in, and convinced the Gorgon that at least some of humanity were worth saving.


    With Maisa and Matt by her side, Medusa became a great hero battling many monsters in her former homeland. Sadly her reputation never really improved. Thanks to the early myths and humanity''s reluctance to accept what was really out there in the 20th and 21st centuries, the name Medusa would always be associated with a hideous beast to the majority of people.


    Still at the very least to those who knew the truth about what was really out there, Medusa instead became known as one of the greatest heroes of them all.


    Vincent Cushing meanwhile was part of a great lineage of demon fighters, though sadly and ironically he was scrubbed from their history, not because of who he was, but what he was, or rather what he became.


    Vincent''s grandparents were among those who survived the mass slaughter of the Cushing family by vampires in the early 20th century. Prior to this attack the Cushings had been one of the most influential families throughout Europe due to their knowledge and history of hunting vampires. Vincent''s grandparents tried to rebuild their family''s former power in the most unlikely of places, the city of Marsters, a hotspot for vampiric activity as it was built not only over the cave where Khastran, the demon who created vampires, made the book which spawned all vampire breeds. It was also built over a portal to the afterlife for vampires.


    When creating his children, the vampires. Khastran, the most evil and powerful of all demons also created a small pocket dimension where the souls of any vampire, or indeed any other demonic creation of his would go when it dies, such as the Turok Han and Zoltans. The souls of demons who were loyal to him would be sent there when they died, including the Lycans and their descendants, werewolves.


    Certain vampire species even had the power to send their victims into the pocket dimension too when they killed them.


    The pocket dimension itself was nothing more than a large wasteland with some bodies of water, caves and a few crumbling temples and villages. (It was based on the earth as it was when Khastran last walked it.)


    Any life form that died in the pocket dimension would instantly be brought back within the dimension, meaning the vampires and other creatures hunted each other and their victims in there for all eternity.


    Naturally this dimension made Marsters a target for vampires as it was the easiest place to bring vampires back from the dead and vampires who were turned here would be stronger and more formidable.


    Vincent''s grandparents were able to make quite a profit in this town, as their knowledge of vampires, which had been built up before the city of Marsters had even been founded, truly eclipsed everyone else''s. In addition to this Vincent''s grandparents had also managed to steal rare magics and enchantments that the Cushing family had built up for centuries, just before their stronghold in Europe had been slaughtered. Sadly however for the people of Marsters, this help didn''t come free. The Cushings felt terrible at having to charge people for their services, but it was the only way they could regain a footing and re-establish themselves as a major power. Still in the long run the Cushings presence in Marsters did do a lot of good for the town, at least for a few decades.


    Not only was the vampire population of the town depleted, but knowledge on how to kill them was spread out among the towns folk to a greater extent than ever before.


    Sadly however the vampires and other supernatural creatures of the town who wished to harvest the power of Khastran''s dimension for themselves would ultimately clamp down harder on the Cushings. Whilst Vincent''s grandparents were always able to overcome whatever threat came their way, his parents would not be so lucky. Vincent''s father, who came from the Cushing side of the family was always reluctant in following in his fathers footsteps and even tried to quit being a vampire killer several times. He simply did not have the heart or skills for it and his incompetence eventually led to both he and his wife''s deaths when their only son Vincent, born in the year 1965 was just 10 years old.


    Following their deaths, Vincent vowed to never follow in his predecessors foot steps so as to avoid a similar fate. His grandparents by then were too old to keep fighting the vampires and the demons who were returning to the town in greater numbers. (The vampires that killed his parents, made a public spectacle of it, stringing their mutilated corpses up in public which naturally made the rest of the vampire population more bold.) The elder Cushings desperately tried to force the young Vincent to carry on their legacy, but this just made him more determined not to.


    Eventually his grandparents disowned Vincent and would leave Marsters to try and make contact with other scattered members of the family throughout Europe. Vincent meanwhile continued to enjoy his family''s wealth and live a lazy life of hedonism throughout his teens and twenties whilst the city of Marsters was slowly overtaken and became worse than ever before as the vampires and demons became more numerous and confident, having seemingly defeated the Cushings. It wouldn''t be until the early 1990s when sadly Vincent''s family''s past caught up with him.


    In many ways it was inevitable. Even though the name Cushing had become a joke in Marsters thanks to their defeat and Vincent''s antics. Many vampires and demons across Europe still wanted revenge on the family. The survivors of the family for the most part knew this and kept hidden. Vincent''s grandparents were the exception as they wanted to draw the vampires out. Sadly Vincent foolishly thought that if he didn''t bother the vampires and the demons then they wouldn''t track him down. He even had a few demon girls and strippers at his infamous parties in a pathetic attempt to show solidarity with them.


    Not surprisingly this did nothing to deter a powerful, former vampire king named Erik Von Causen who had a centuries old grudge with the Cushing family. Ironically many centuries ago, he and the Cushings had worked very closely together in taking down the vandals, the soul devouring demonic rivals to the vampires main power base in Europe. This defeat is ultimately what helped the Cushing''s become such a huge power base themselves. Erik meanwhile was betrayed by the very same Cushings he had worked with soon after, and was driven out of Germany and forced to live life on the road for centuries. Centuries later he finally was able to have his revenge and destroy the Cushing''s power base. He then spent the next several decades hunting down as many members of the family as he could, even those who were no longer hunters. He didn''t feel his revenge would be complete until the entire family was destroyed.


    When he finally learned of the existence of Vincent, Erik was disappointed at first. Vincent, seemingly the last of the Cushings as far as he was aware, was a truly wretched end for the once great family. Killing Vincent would if anything spare the Cushings of greater embarrassment. It was then however that Erik got a better idea. He would turn the last of the Cushings into a vampire and mentor him into being one of the cruelest, most evil vampires. Erik hoped that the horrors Vincent could carry out as a vampire, under his guidance would be so great, they would eclipse all of the good the family had ever done. The more Erik studied Vincent, the more he felt he would make an effective vampire, given his hatred for his family and his already hedonistic life.


    When Erik and his vampires attacked Vincent''s mansion during the middle of one of his parties, they slaughtered everyone there except for Vincent who was turned by Erik himself. Had Erik not been so consumed by hatred, his plan to tarnish the Cushings would have most likely succeeded. Ultimately however as a sign of his triumph, Erik burned Vincent''s mansion to the ground, destroying many of the Cushing''s records and the knowledge they had gathered over the centuries.


    Unfortunately however, the mansion also contained many enchantments and dangerous forms of black magic that the Cushing family had contained over the centuries too. Vincent''s grand parents had made sure to preserve them after the family''s main base of operations was ripped apart.


    As soon as they were unleashed thanks to Erik''s carelessness, they spread out over Marsters and distorted and mutated many humans, demons, beasts, monsters and vampires alike. One entire region of the town, which had ironically always been where the rich people had lived was twisted into a nightmarish hellish place.


    Erik himself was hit with a blast of dark magic which contained the remains of a very powerful demon named Hazzekia the Cushings had slain over 100 years prior. Hazzekia like many demons had the power to live again, provided a certain ritual was performed. The Cushing''s spell however made sure it would remain dead, by preventing any other magics from influencing its remains. Erik''s actions however not only caused the Cushing''s spell to collapse, but the remains of the demon to be swept up in the subsequent magical storm, which was then be fused to Erik himself, transforming him into a freakish hybrid of himself and the demon. He had complete control of his body for the most part, but Hazzekia could still influence his mind to some extent and gradually over time, the two beings merged mentally into one monstrous creature.


    Another spell meanwhile latched itself onto Vincent''s body after the house''s destruction, just as his transformation into a vampire was taking place.


    This spell had been used by the Cushings to heal their wounds and therefore it was naturally drawn to Vincent. It tried to revive him at first, and purge the curse of vampirism from his body, but sadly it couldn''t. No force on this earth could cure vampirism, but the spell fought hard to try and revive its host and even drew several other stray magics from the area into itself to accomplish its task.


    In the end whilst it still wasn''t able to cure Vincent, it did tamper with his transformation. It allowed him to retain a small aspect of his humanity, namely his conscience and morals, such as they were. Sadly the spell could never be replicated as it had been the result of not only a rare healing spell, but the combination of several other magics that fused themselves to his body, all of which had been gathered by the Cushings over hundreds of years and many of which no longer existed anywhere else.


    Still when Vincent rose from the make shift grave Erik had made for him outside of the now burnt out ruins of the mansion, he wasn''t just any regular vampire. He could think beyond his bloodlust and sadism. At first Vincent was terrified of what he had become and fled into the city of Marsters. He didn''t even know where he was running, but drawn by the dark magics within him, he fled to the section of Marsters that had been overrun by the monsters. There he rescued his only true friend, Alan Stanner from being devoured by his own son, that had transformed into a twisted magical creature.


    Alan had been like a father to Vincent. Encouraging him to live life the way he wanted, rather than always doing what his grandparents wanted. However even Alan had grown tired of Vincent''s reckless behavior recently though unlike his grandparents he never abandoned him.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Unfortunately there was nothing Vincent could do to help his old friend''s son, but he was able at least to get Alan to safety, after which, Alan would use his vast wealth to construct a new base of operations for Vincent to operate from, under the surface of the city. Unlike the other members of his family, Vincent didn''t view being a vampire as a curse, as he was after all able to control his thirst thanks to his morality. In addition to this, his breed could also exist in the sun too. If anything he embraced it for a short while. Though he did use his powers to help people from the start, initially it was really more about Vincent wanting to play the hero for his own ego, and simply being more willing to now that he had vampire powers and abilities. He was arrogant, cocky and reckless, and not above boasting to those he saved. He even came up with a nickname for himself. "The guardian of the night!" For a while he was even a celebrated hero, until it was discovered that he was a vampire. The reality of what he had become soon began to set in, when even those he had rescued would shun him for his nature. Vincent came to realise that he could never have a family, that he would outlive all of his friends, that he would always be hunted both by his own kind as a freak, and even by the people he helped. Even his own family if they ever found out what became of him. He soon became so depressed he even tried to kill himself, until Stanner talked him out of it. (Though it was only because he still hoped Vincent could help cure his son. The two''s relationship despite Vincent saving him had soured, not because Vincent was a vampire, but because Stanner blamed him and the Cushings for what had happened to his son.)


    Ironically it was only after his failure to save a young girl from a particularly brutal vandal that Vincent soon became more of a genuine hero than a braggard. For the first time Vincent saw what his reckless and foolish actions had caused when the vandal literally tore her in two in front of him. Determined to never let this happen again. Vincent became a more serious, thoughtful and genuinely noble, as well as quiet hero. In time he would ironically genuinely win round the people of Marsters acceptance and gratitude despite his vampiric nature.


    Aside from Stanner, Vincent also worked with a number of others in his war against vampires and supernatural creatures in Marsters. Among these included Sarah Brook, a young beast woman who enjoyed hunting paranormal creatures to satisfy her blood lust, former zombie master Leon Morrell, who had come from a long line of zombie masters in Tahiti, and had moved to Marsters when he was 20. At first he created zombies as slaves to battle the vampires around the city. (He only used the bodies of criminals and murderers to accomplish this.) Unfortunately however some of the zombies were soon able to break free from his control leading to a massive zombie population in Marsters which served as a rival faction to the vampires. Morrell was desperate to make amends for what he had unleashed and became one of Vincent''s closest allies. Finally the vampires main sidekick was the kind hearted former librarian named Laura Delussey who had also been given magical powers from the wave of magics created from the destruction of the Cushings mansion, though her powers were only minimal. She soon became Vincent''s closest friend.


    Much like Claudia, Vincent also built up a large rogues gallery in the city too, though his archenemy was always Erik who in his new identity went under the alias of Deviant.


    The Golem meanwhile was the last of its kind. Golems are magical creatures. They are created when a soul, formed from raw magic is then fused to a body made of clay and earth. Creating a Golem however is a very delicate process and any mistake can result in a Golem being simple minded, or even psychotic.


    For centuries the Jewish people had created Golems as great warriors to battle against the forces of darkness, but sadly the ritual to create these beasts had been lost as the numerous groups and communities who held onto the knowledge for their own sake were wiped out, or forsook the old magics as either superstition or evil.


    In the year 1940 however the first and only Golem in at least 500 years was created, when a young Jewish girl named Rosa, terrified of the Nazis marching on her city, searched through her grandfather Raymond Meyer''s old attic for anything that could combat them. Magic had been in her family for hundreds of years, but again like the majority of people in the modern world, most of her family had dismissed it as hokum. Rosa''s grandfather was something of an exception and at least still had an interest in the paranormal, even if he had never really bothered to learn magic and enjoyed telling her stories about her ancestors battles with vampires and demons. Nevertheless when his granddaughter began to riffle through his collection he tried to put a stop to it, but as the Nazi forces spread through Europe like the bubonic plague. Rosa refused to back down and eventually her grandfather agreed to help her. He had always been tempted to create his own Golem, but the fear of it going wrong put him off. The Nazis however, scared him more.


    The process went well to some extent, thanks to the Meyers ancestors writing the details of the spell down in such vivid detail. The Golem Rosa created was intelligent and articulate, though it did have an explosive temper. It nevertheless had tremendous affection for Raymond and Rosa viewing them as its family, though even they found it hard to calm the beast down if it was angered. When the Nazis invaded, the Golem slaughtered their entire battalion. None of their weapons were able to even pierce its skin! At first Raymond and Rosa were hailed as heroes, but unfortunately the Nazis would next turn to the paranormal for help. They had allied themselves very closely with the vampires of Germany, who had long hoped to build an empire like their rivals the vandals had done and they were also attracted to the Nazi''s ideas of racial superiority. They hoped that the Nazis could create a race of supermen for them to turn into vampires, combining the greatest of humanity and demon kind alike. Naturally both the Nazis and the vampires had every intention of betraying one another once the war was over, but for now they were close allies.


    This platoon of vampires, though still no match for the Golem physically, were better equipped in the black arts than the Nazis. Their leader had actually been around when the last Golem walked this earth and knew exactly what their weaknesses were. A special kind of magical tar, named Deslak, that hardened the Golem''s skin until it shattered to dust.


    Rosa''s Golem was overpowered using the Deslak before he could even raise his fists and the vampires subsequently took the town for their even more vile human allies. Rosa however escaped, thanks to Raymond. Sadly neither he nor Rosa had mastered the magics enough to use them effectively, but at the very least Raymond was able to conjure up a few tricks to distract the vampires long enough for Rosa to get away. Before she fled he also gave her the necessary magics to heal the Golem, which the vampires had proceeded to torture in its dying state.


    Rosa found the beast, revived it (after which it brutally killed its torturers) and then fled into the wilderness with the Golem who soon became the only family she had left. The vampires not only slaughtered Rosa''s family, they destroyed all of the Meyer families spells, which contained the last known ritual for creating a Golem. (The vampires didn''t want the Nazis to get their hands on the formula, as an army of Golems would have made the vampires redundant. At the same time vampires didn''t trust each other not to use one of the spells to gain ultimate power over the others either. Given what backstabbers the vampires were, it was probably a sound worry.)


    Rosa and the Golem remained on the run for months before joining the allies side, when they were recruited by the legendary Professor Fang to be part of his special group known as the Magic Gang, which also included, the original Frankenstein''s Monster, Lorrimer Van Helsing, Countess Marya (Dracula''s daughter) Helga and King Arthur himself, whose resurrection in Britain''s time of need had been botched by Nazi demon agents, rendering him mostly powerless. Still the magic gang proved to be among the greatest heroes of the war. Their most important mission however was on night of Hitler''s death. Knowing that he was defeated. Hitler intended to have his allies unleash the dark fog, a mystical prison for the Shadow Demons.


    The first of these creatures, at least according to legend was a young girl who had been transformed into a vampire and was captured by the Gods who attempted to find a way to cure her. Apparently the spell worked at first, and the girl was celebrated as a triumph of the gods, but sadly the curse of vampirism soon returned. Unable to infect her in a normal way thanks to the gods magics the curse of Khastran and the power of the Gods wrestled for control violently, ripping her body to pieces. Her soul still survived and became infested with both. Her anger and resentment at the Gods who turned their backs on and tried to destroy her, caused the hatred within the girl to grow and she became a malevolent entity who soon infected others. She could only infect them when possessing a host, which she could only do for a limited time before their hosts body blew apart.


    The Shadow Demons as they were known were a danger to both human and demon alike (they particularly hated vampires) and were eventually sealed within a mystical prison, really a pocket dimension created by the Gods who hoped to study the demons in an effort to see what went wrong with their supposed miracle cure. The pocket dimension which took on the form of a sphere was later stolen by a vampire who hoped to destroy it, but when he saw that wasn''t possible, he buried it in the earth. Following this the sphere was later discovered by numerous other forces throughout the years, many of whom hoped to try and harness the power of the gods and even the demons themselves within for their own purposes, all of which failed.


    Eventually it fell into the custody of Hitler who knowing how dangerous it was, had wisely never dared tamper with the sphere. Now that he knew he was done for, Hitler did not want Germany to go on without him and unleashed the Shadow demons on his homeland.


    Fortunately the magic gang were able after Hitlers death to use the sphere to recapture most of the demons, but a handful including their leader did escape and would continue to possess others causing suffering and pain throughout Germany for the next several decades, with the Golem in particular doing all it could to hunt them down. The Golem continued to travel with Rosa after the war, until the 1950s when she finally settled down and had a family, after which it then struck out on its own. The magic gang did eventually reunite near the end of the 1970s, but by the 90s the Golem was once again was on its own.


    Jack was born in the year 1960 in London to a working class family. His life was fairly unremarkable until his second year as a student at Manchester University. He was "studying" English and creative writing, though he barely showed up to any classes, spending more time with his punk band than on his studies. He only barely scraped by at the end of his first year on the second attempt. He wasn''t the best flatmate either, though to be fair the three other students he lived with in run down, grubby little flat weren''t the easiest company. At the start of their second year however, one of their group named Liam whose parents were wealthy bought them all a house, just outside the city in a small mostly run down village named Alcos. It might not have been as near as their old flat, but it was still only a 30 minute train ride away.


    Unfortunately the new house that Liam''s parents had bought, contained a terrible secret. Centuries ago it had been the hideout of a necromancer named Daskerath. He had attempted to find a way to perfect resurrection spells, after the great plague, genuinely hoping he could restore the lost generation. All other forms of resurrection spell were either crude or contained some kind of price.


    Daskerath hoped to create the perfect spell, but sadly his attempts resulted not only in more zombies and undead creatures, but the level of concentrated magic from his experiments began to rewrite the natural laws near the house, turning Alcos into a hellish place where all kinds of abominations and distortions existed. Daskerath aided by witches from all over Albion later found a way to fuse the unstable magics into the cellar below the house. Sadly however they were unable to destroy the concentrated magic, as the locals having already suffered enough thanks to Daskerath''s mistakes, did not want him carrying out more experiments in the house and drove him and the rest of the coven out. For hundreds of years afterwards the house remained abandoned, with its reputation as a place of evil living on. Liam''s parents meanwhile did not pay any attention to what they viewed as the infantile superstitions surrounding it and hoped that they could perhaps turn it into a tourist spot through renovation. Ultimately however it didn''t work as there was so little history about the house known outside of Alcos (whose inhabitants still shunned it.) There was also nothing particularly special about it otherwise (on the surface) so it just became more property to rent.


    Furthermore unknown to Jack and the others, the magics that were buried below, had developed a degree of sentience having morphed into a new magical creature and slowly influenced Liam to release them. They''d take control of him for a short period of time, without his knowledge and every day, they''d have him perform rituals that slowly broke Daskerath and the witches magical lock.


    Once the magic was released it instantly consumed their house, and the four students soon found themselves fighting for survival. Zombie like creatures, made from the corpses of Daskerath''s other old experiments emerged from the floor boards, statues outside came to life, paintings became portals to other worlds, Jack''s pet dog, already an aggressive pitbull, grew to over 20 feet long and tried to eat them, whilst a Dinosaur, specifically an Allosaurus, that Daskerath had attempted to bring back as one of his experiments, thinking it was a dragon, returned in the garden. The Allosaurus however was not how it had been in life thanks to Daskerath''s magics. It was much larger, stood upright and was a lot more aggressive.


    The four boys were soon be aided by a mysterious stranger, called Leanne who had apparently been stalking their house for days before hand. Leanne was in fact Daskerath''s greatest experiment. She had been brought back almost exactly as she had been before the plague had killed her, though sadly she would later discover that she was also rendered immortal too.


    She had a connection to the magics that had been entombed and could sense when they had influenced Liam to some extent. Her previous attempts to investigate the house had been hindered by Jack and the others before hand.


    Sadly whilst Leanne was able to barely rescue the others, Jack was mauled to death by his own dog. In that house however he wouldn''t stay dead for long and the magics soon revived him as a zombie like creature. His skin was distorted until it was turned green by the magics, whilst half of his face and even a part of his skull were missing. Despite this his body was significantly stronger than before, with the magics also protecting his exposed brain. Unlike most other zombies he retained both his intelligence and his free will, though he was still overcome by a desire to eat flesh, which he had to constantly fight against. The other three boys meanwhile were also distorted and mutated by the magics and along with their zombified friend, were forced to take up residence in their old student flat. Using glamour magics provided by Leanne which made them appear human, they all attempted to return to their old lives, whilst helping Leanne battle against the magics that had been unleashed.


    Their main enemy was the new magical creature that had been entombed for all those years, which attempted to carry on Daskerath''s work and created several new, horrific zombie and magical abominations throughout the town. Worse the magics that formed this creature also soon began to break apart, resulting in stray spells all over the town leading to worse horrors.


    Arguably the two biggest calamities to befall the town as a result of the stray spells were the undead Dinosaurs and the great flood. The former, saw a stray spell revive more Dinosaurs buried beneath the earth, in a similar fashion to the Allosaurus. The latter meanwhile was the result of an infamous enchantment that caused magic rain to pour on a town for two weeks non stop until it was flooded. The enchantment also prevented anyone from escaping during that time. Finally the magical water was also filled with hostile sea creatures, conjured by the spell itself.


    Daskerath had been experimenting with the spell due to its ability to create life, but he quickly and wisely abandoned it.


    The four students with Leanne''s help were able to undo the effects of the flood spell and save their city, which for a short while would cause them to be viewed as local heroes.


    Sadly, when they finally defeated the monstrous entity created by Daskerath''s magics, their true nature as magical creatures was exposed to the town at large and they were soon forced out, despite Leanne''s efforts to help them.


    On the road, the foursome eventually split up after a vicious fight, and Jack went on alone, never bothering to use the glamour to cover his appearance again. For the next ten years he travelled the world, staying in cheap motels, living off of the animals he hunted on the road. He still occasionally as ridiculous as it may have sounded, play gigs with bands, where his monstrous appearance was simply be explained away as make up. Still compared to the other members of the Spook Family, whilst he had done many great things in the early years of his transformation. By the mid 90s he was a mere shell of his former self in more ways than one.


    Finally Maksera much like the Golem was the last natural member of his race known as the Raxians. Whilst many civilized worlds rightfully came to view the Raxians as monsters, Maksera always served as a reminder of the fact that not only where they once creatures capable of choosing between right and wrong, but that their fate could easily befall any civilized species in the galaxy.


    The Raxians were once a highly advanced race who believed in science rather than the black arts. They had progressed beyond a level one civilization, in that they were able to harness all of the energy from their world, and had even set up a thriving colony on a nearby planet. Unfortunately their golden age was not to last. An attempt to harness the power from their sun instead created a series of solar waves that devastated the surface of their planet. With the colony cut off from the main world, it too began to die.


    All their technology and resources were sadly unable to save them as the Raxians sun continued to spiral out of control and bombard their planet. The radiation levels built up, more mutations were born, animal and planet life began to wither and die, nights and days became erratic and their population dwindled from almost 100 billion to only a couple of hundred in less than a century.


    It was at this point when the last Raxians were living a pitiful, nomadic existence that a demon named Iskelios visited their world. This demon was known and despised on many civilized worlds throughout the galaxy, including our own. Though he had the power of a God, he preferred manipulation and getting species and creatures to willingly chose damnation. He appealed to species and people when they were at their most desperate, promising them power and salvation by transforming them into demons. He corrupted thousands of worlds over the course of his immortal life this way, but the Raxians proved to be his greatest masterpiece.


    The surviving Raxian leaders, and the majority of their people agreed to the demons terms. Even though he made it very clear that they would become creatures of evil like he was, they still accepted. It is easy for us in hindsight to judge the Raxians for this, but again who is to say that we or indeed any other sentient race would not do the same if faced with our own end? None of us are really prepared for our mortality as individuals, never mind the mortality of our species.


    Imagine knowing that your generation was to be the final generation? That your ancestors centuries of struggling was for nothing? That you had failed where all others before had thrived? Every single sentient species in the universe would do whatever it could to avoid that fate. Most simply haven''t had the opportunity that the Raxians had, and were forced to go quietly into the night.


    Still having said that, not all of the Raxians agreed to become demons. A small handful, led by Maksera actively attempted to stop the demon from tempting the rest of their kind. Of course their attempts failed and they were imprisoned by their new demonic bretheran and subject to horrific torture for decades for their perceived treachery.


    After becoming demonic, the Raxians used the black arts to travel to other planets across the galaxy. They destroyed countless worlds and races all to satisfy their new bloodlust and sadism, all the while forcing the last surviving members of what they used to be to watch.


    All of the survivors were driven insane except for Maksera who just became determined to ensure that his ancestors struggles and accomplishments would not only lead to the bloodshed and horrors his fellow kind were now committing. Maksera escaped after the first 100 or so years of his people''s conquest and aided numerous other species in battling them. Ironically the magics they had used to keep Maksera alive for decades of torture, ended up granting him immortality. Maksera drew on the magics of his people''s planet, which he was able to more than any of the Raxians other enemies due to having been born there to fight back against them. Sadly however though he did save many worlds from their evil, until the alliance Maksera wasn''t able to make any kind of major dent in their power, and the Raxians became one of the most feared races in the galaxy. Unlike other intergalactic conquerors however such as the Hylexans, the Raxians never gave the races they invaded the option of surrender. They also never harvested the supplies and resources of the worlds they conquered. Instead they used the blackest magics to completely destroy all life from each planet. They also never forgot a defeat. One world known as Dascania, resisted an invasion from these demonic conquerors ten times over the course of 1000 years. It was able to do so, due to the fact that the planet''s distinct magic was toxic to the Raxians. Eventually however, with the aid of a double agent the Raxians finally prevailed, and made sure that the Dascanians destruction was far more prolonged and horrific than those of the other races they wiped out in the process. The entire planet was reduced to dust afterwards to prevent anyone from ever using its magic again.


    In spite of their power the demonic invaders were later finally pushed back by an alliance of many different species which Maksera took part in, but towards the end of this galactic war, the Raxians turned their attention towards a small world that existed far beyond their or their enemies influence. Earth. Like many other races before them they were drawn to the unique combination of magics on our planet.


    Maksera meanwhile had first discovered our planet a few years earlier, when he was searching for planets with unusual magical structures to harness their power against the Raxians. The earth interested Maksera, not just because of its unusual combination of magics, but also because it contained the magic from Dascania, which the gods had used when helping to rebuild the earth. Dascania''s magic was among the most potent and unusual in the entire galaxy.


    With this new supply of Dascanian magic, Maksera was able to achieve one of his greatest victories against his people who were caught completely off guard. Sadly the rest of the Raxians were eventually able to discover its location, after capturing a small sample of the magic from the corpses of one of their soldiers. After investigating the planet, the Raxians then discovered its unique structure and begin attempting to harness its power from a secret underwater lair for many decades. As the war heated up, and the Raxians were pushed back further by the alliance. Pressure was put on the Raxians from earth to find something that could help them win and also to destroy the planet to prevent more Dascanian magic from being used.


    When Maksera found out about the plan in the final days of the war which he gleaned from a captured Raxian base, he instantly headed for the earth. He had not let anyone else know about the planet as he did no want to alert any other aliens to or demons to its unique magical structure for its sake, and destroyed the information in the Raxian base. He also did not trust either the government of any nation on earth, or even any of the organisations that had been set up to combat the supernatural. Fact is very few of even the most skilled witches and sorcerers had even scratched the surface of the extent of the wide array of magics beneath the earth and Maksera didn''t want to introduce humanity to this strange new force before it could handle it.


    Instead Maksera sought out the planets most noteworthy heroes and distinctive magical creatures. Even then however he was limited in the time he had, with his people now finally putting their plan into action. The Raxians plan was to drain magic from the points of the earth where the different magics had been fused together. Not only would they be able to gain access to some of the most powerful and unique magics buried deep in the planet, but disrupting them would literally rip the earth apart at the seams.


    In the few days he had to scour our entire world in his vessel, Maksera, based on stories he had heard on his previous visits to earth and other small bits of information he could glean was able to track down, Vincent, the Medusa, Claudia, Jack and the Golem, one after another.


    Of all of them Vincent took the most persuasion as he did not like leaving Marsters for too long. the Medusa and the Golem were both only too happy to join the mission, as at that point they were both in something of a rut. Their companions had long since moved on or died, and they were all alone and somewhat aimless, merely travelling from town to town fighting random monsters without any plan or goal. Claudia meanwhile was also happy to get out of her home town for a while as more and more attention was being drawn to Lady Squid than she would have liked. Jack on the other hand was also somewhat reluctant like Vincent, though more due to his own apathy at life than anything else. He was only won round when Maksera told him how dangerous it would be, and how none of them would likely be returning. Jack didn''t feel there was much left in his life, but the thought of being a hero again and going out with a bang intrigued him. Ironically however this very mission and the family he would make during it, did give him a reason to go on.


    Each of the group was selected, not just for their history and skills, but also because they all bar Claudia, represented a unique combination of magics that couldn''t be found anywhere else on the planet which could potentially come in useful against the Raxians. Claudia meanwhile was also chosen because the Raxians had a fear of monsters, as they were among the few species more evil and destructive than they were.


    It was a long and hard battle that took the newly formed Spook Family as it would become known all around the earth, but in the end they were able to defeat the Raxian menace. Unfortunately however the Raxians actions had led to many other species and powers becoming aware of the earth''s unique magical properties. Maksera decided to stay on our planet to protect it, as it was in some ways his fault that the Raxians had been made aware of our world in the first place. He kept the group together to help him defend our planet which they were only too happy to do so. For the next 30 years until the 2020s, the Spook Family continued to defend the earth from a multitude of threats ranging from alien invaders, to demons, to vampires, to monsters, to supervillains of various kinds.


    They also even took to the stars on many occasions, including to continue Maksera''s war against his vile people.


    Sadly what became of them is not known, other than that they appeared to disband in the late 2020s. It is known that Vincent ironically was able to gather several of the Cushing family around the world back into Marsters where they soon became a power again. Alistair was descended from this group of Cushing''s.


    Claudia on the other hand joined the enigmatic time traveller Doctor Omega in the early 21st century, whose history we shall explore later.


    Whether or not the likes of the Medusa, Maksera, Jack and Vincent were finally able to achieve peace of some kind, or if they still walk the earth today in the 25th century battling evil is something that remains a mystery.

 Doctor Omega and Universe X-22: Part 1

    In the early 21st century mankind was invaded by a hideous abomination known as the Tyleskia. One of the last survivors of the universe before ours, who escaped the war for creation into another reality where one of the key figures in the war originated, Doctor Omega. The good Doctor later returned to our reality centuries later from his perspective to finally finish off his sworn enemy and once again save our reality from destruction.


    Sadly not as much is known about Omega''s life or indeed universe when compared with our own, but nevertheless of all the many realities within our multiverse. Omega''s universe, given the designation of X-22 has enjoyed through Omega himself the closest link with our own, though tragically as seen with Tyleskia. The association hasn''t always been positive for both.


    X-22 universe''s version of earth was created by the gods of our world, like all earths in each universe of the natural realm beside our own. Contrary to popular belief, history is not naturally repeated in other universes within our omniverse at least, rather each reality is completely unique in terms of both its history and planets. The reason our solar system was duplicated was because our earth contains the only known portal to the Mystic realm, a reality of pure power that will grant the first life form to enter it unlimited power on a par with the creator itself. To protect our world and the omniverse from hostile life forms that may wish to harness the Mystic realm''s power. The gods and the dragons, just before they left our world used all of their resources created duplicates of our entire solar system in virtually every universe within the natural realm to confuse any life forms who were searching for the portal. The Mystic realm could not be accessed from any of these other earths, but it could be sensed from them, meaning that other life forms would be confused by the billions of copies and most likely never be able to trace the original.


    Most of the other earth''s and planet''s in our solar systems histories followed on from after the moment the gods had created them (though most diverged after through the actions of individuals.) Even then however not all of the earth''s followed on from this point. Such a feat of magic to create these solar systems was arguably too much even for the gods and dragons and therefore it''s not surprising that there were many complications. For instance in trying to perfectly replicate the timeline of our planet in these copies, the histories of several alternate earths in some cases started from an earlier or later point in time and then diverged accordingly, so that in some of these other earths, the Dinosaurs never became extinct, or Rome never fell etc.


    Others meanwhile mixed up different periods together when creating the other earths, such as Dinosaurs and man co-existing, or perhaps one of the potential timelines of earth or another planet in the solar system was realized and brought to the fore instead. There ended up being far greater variation among these alternate earth''s than even the gods and dragons had intended. Still even with that variation as the gods spell did intend to make each earth a copy, then certain events always seemed to emerge, such as the creation of the vampires, or a great conflict at a certain point etc, even if the timeline was different.


    In Universe X-22 meanwhile the earth seemed to follow a similar trajectory to ours up until a certain point. It appears to have started to form at roughly the same stage in its solar systems history and underwent a similar evolution, though unlike in our reality there were no Esquilions.


    Instead it seemed to skip over that stage of life on earth to when the first simple celled organisms that eventually gave rise to our race evolved in the oceans.


    These amoeba would then just as on our earth evolve into the first insects and fish, after which a splinter group of fish evolved into the first amphibians who crawled out of the water and then another splinter group of amphibians evolved into the first reptiles. In time proto mammals, the synapsids eventually split off from reptiles and came to dominate the earth for millions of years, before a natural disaster wiped the majority of them out at the end of the Permian era, after which the Dinosaurs then evolved from the reptile family tree and came to dominate the earth for the next 150 million years. One group of Synapsids however survived and became the first mammals who lived in the Dinosaurs shadow for 150 million years, until the great reptiles were killed off when 66 million years ago, an asteroid crashed into the earth. The mammals then emerged to become the dominant life forms, with humans finally evolving from apes just as in our reality too.


    It''s worth noting that whilst life on earth in our reality evolved in a similar fashion, on Mars and Venus things went very differently. It appears life underwent a similar pattern in this version of Venus'' history, with life forms similar to Dinosaurs and mammals evolving on two different sides of the planet, that were separated by a gigantic wall of fire known as the flame belt. Both in turn gave rise to a race of humanoids.


    On Mars meanwhile which originally began as an ocean world, a race of Octopus like creatures evolved. These Octopoids soon split off into two land dwelling creatures after some of the oceans began to dry up, as we will later explore.


    Human history meanwhile also took a completely different trajectory after the initial civilizations were founded. Mankind for whatever reason was a lot more advanced in this reality. Some believe that it may have been because the Venusians visited our world at an early date and experimented on humanity. There is at least some evidence that the humanoid Reptillians of Venus, the Treens and the humanoid mammalians, the Therons fought a war on earth before the first proper civilizations were established. Some have even speculated that the primitive Atlantine''s who the Treens used as a slave force were in fact the descendants of humans they had captured, brutalized into being docile and experimented on. Doctor Omega himself at least seemed to believe this, though whether that came from first hand accounts of his is not known.


    Whether or not they were experimented on by either the Treens or the Therons, mankind flourished in this reality and eventually built a fantastic civilization known as Atlantis, which established contact with a federation of planets that had been growing in earth''s section of the galaxy.


    Humanity was the only species from our solar system to join the Federation. The Martians at that stage were primitive, barbarians, the Treens were a hostile, war like race, whilst finally the Therons favored isolation.


    It was near the end of the Federation that Doctor Omega was born in the great city of Atlantis. He came from a very prestigious and influential family, with the Omega''s history stretching back thousands of years. Omega''s first name is not known, as he only ever referred to himself to those in the future by his last name. Some speculate it was because he wanted his family name to endure rather than his own?


    Either way the Omega''s whilst responsible for many of Atlantis'' greatest breakthrough''s and achievements over the centuries (including bringing Dinosaurs back through cloning who they sent to live in isolated, artificial environments around the world.) They were also sadly responsible for its eventual destruction too.


    Time travel was forbidden in the galaxy, after an attempt to change history by the Federation and avert a disaster affecting several worlds had led to the Guardians wiping several civilizations off the map.


    This in turn led to the Guardians becoming almost mythical figures as a result to the great powers of galaxy, some of whom even came to worship them as gods, whilst all dared never to experiment with time ever again. The Omega''s however still carried out time travel experiments in secret with their end game being to create a fully functioning time and space machine.


    It was later discovered that it was actually Doctor Omega himself who travelled backwards in time and told his father when he was a young man (before Omega''s birth) that he needed to begin the project to create what would one day be his time vessel that in turn would prove vital to the safety of their world and even universe in its future. The attempts to create a time and space machine lasted for over 3 centuries until Omega himself was an old man, with Omega taking up where his father left off. (Atlanteans had a much longer life span than ordinary humans thanks to their advances in medicine.) Omega''s father never told his son the truth as he had been instructed not too, though he did tell him that what they were doing now was vital to the future of the universe and had come from a message from the future. Sadly whilst Omega respected his father and believed in the mission to finish the time vessel fanatically, the two never had a close relationship, as Omega''s father was somewhat scared at what his son would one day become. He tried to hide that fear as best he could, but sadly it still led to him being rather cold and distant with his son.


    When the Omega''s time travel experiments were discovered it led to a civil war within the Federation. Earth had always had an uneasy position in the Federation, but it nevertheless made many strong and important allies, (it was also eventually backed up by the Therons who ended their policy of isolation too, perhaps out of guilt at what they may have done to our ancestors?) The war completely destroyed the Federation''s power and wiped out most of its colonies and planets, with earth itself being devastated by a barrage of enemy missiles which finally destroyed the last outposts of an already weakened Atlantis.


    Omega meanwhile, fled prior to the conflict in one of the prototypes for his time and space machine, travelling through time. Another member of the Omega family, his brother stole the other prototype, with both doing so before either ship was completed. Omega felt guilt at having to leave his people, but he was so fanatical to his cause, he genuinely believed that the fate of the universe was dependent on it, and from what we have seen of his life he was right.


    Prior to Omega''s escape, the Atlantean government had agreed to destroy all the research on the time capsules to prevent the war, but the disappearance of both time ships where what finally set off the conflict. Omega meanwhile was transported hundreds of thousands of years in earth''s future to France in the 19th century. After the final fall of Atlantis, humanity was reduced to the level of primitives and it took many centuries before they were able to rebuild any kind of civilization, though they never reached the level of Atlantis again. The early development of mankind after the destruction of the Federation was accelerated by a few Atlantean elites who survived in isolated bases and used the left over technology to guide the others. In time however these elites who also used their technology and magic (that had been forbidden before) to prolong their life spans became corrupted and tyrannical over their subjects, giving rise to myths about gods in numerous societies. After the last of these elites were killed off in their own wars or fled to other worlds, recorded human history would later begin.


    Recorded history in this universe seems to have followed a similar path to our own in most respects, up until the early 20th century (though as we will see there were certain events that were either hidden or passed down into folklore by the 19th century, just like our reality too.)


    Omega meanwhile continued his experiments, under the alias of Doctor Omega in France from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, hoping to finally perfect his time machine from the ruins of the one he had crashed into this time with. His brother, who now went under the name of Professor Helvetius however had arrived at a much later date in the very early 22nd century and was able to perfect his machine in no time. (His prototype was less damaged in the crash too.) Helvetius later visited Omega and even offered to help repair his ship, but Omega refused, wanting to build his own craft. Helvetius nevertheless left his brother with a machine that Omega could contact him with before resuming his travels.


    After ten or so years, Omega finally completed his time and space machine in 1906 which he dubbed the Cosmos. The Doctor then took on as his first companions, his neighbor Denis Borel, and his assistant, Fred (who he first met when pulling Fred to safety from a lake.) Their first journey took them to Mars 1000 years ago.


    At that point Mars was still a thriving world populated by the two highly advanced civilizations of Octopoid creatures who had been locked in a war for thousands of years. After braving the hostile waters of Mars (where they encountered gigantic, hostile, reptillian mermen and huge carnivorous fish.) As well as the jungles and deserts of Mars where they encountered gargantuan snakes and bat, humanoid monsters. Doctor Omega and his companions were attacked by the more aggressive species of Octopoids, the Kelpians, before eventually being rescued by their rivals who were known as the Mortaxans.


    The Mortaxans sheltered Omega and his companions and even agreed to give them what they needed to repair their space craft. However following an attack by the Kelpians on the Mortax city, it was discovered that the Cosmos was immune to the Kelpians weaponry and so the Mortaxans canibalised the ship and used it to create a shield with which they advanced on the Kelpians city and finally conquered their enemies.


    Doctor Omega and his companions meanwhile were imprisoned by the Mortaxans who demanded he create more Cosmos like weapons for them. Fortunately however Omega with help of a friendly Martian named Tzairou, was able to get hold of the machine to contact Professor Helvetius who promptly rescued Omega and his companions and aided them in retrieving the parts of the Cosmos he could. Back in the 19th century, Doctor Omega repaired and with aid of some Martian technology he had stolen, improved upon his original Cosmos. Fred however who had fallen in love and married in the year it took Omega to repair his machine declined the offer to join him, whilst Tzairou (who had returned to earth with Omega) and Denis were only too eager for more adventures in time and space.


    Together the three of them travelled throughout the history of Universe X-22, with Omega constantly making improvements to his own vessel along the way, until eventually the Cosmos became the most sophisticated time and space machine in the entire universe, far surpassing even Helvetius vehicle.


    Sadly however whilst Omega did many great things on his adventures, (with his machine often bringing him where he needed to be.) His first journey to Mars ended up having horrific consequences for both the earth and the universe at large.


    The Mortaxans though initially the more peaceful of the two species (even then however there are some who believe they may have started the initial conflict.) Became terrified at the thought of the Kelpians who they now completely dominated ever rebelling and they performed horrific experiments on them to make their race more docile. Still even these atrocities did not ease their paranoia which soon spread to potential threats from outer space. Having seen how much more in advance Omega who came from their giant blue neighbor was, the Mortaxans became terrified at the thought of a full scale earth invasion and over time worked hard to make themselves the most powerful creatures in the cosmos. They also monitored the earth, having known than Omega was a time traveler from the future to prevent humanity from ever reaching his level of advancement. Some believe that they may have even tampered with human development at certain points, and sowed the seeds of Rome and other empires around the worlds downfall to keep humanity in a limbo state.


    The Mortaxans also slowly transformed themselves into a race of cybernetic creatures, eventually building gigantic robotic tripods to house themselves within. By the 20th century only their brains and a few vestigal limbs remained, with the rest of their bodies being purely mechanical. The Kelpians meanwhile who ironically possessed a more humanoid appearance were reduced to nothing more than slaves and foot soldiers by this stage.


    In the year 1912 the Mortaxans launched a full scale invasion of our planet. This wasn''t just out of fear of humanity however. The Mortaxans experiments and reckless use of resources had more or less stripped Mars clean and earth was the only suitable planet in the solar system for their needs. They did contemplate an invasion of Venus and may have been able to pull it off at that stage, but they felt the primitives of earth would be a more easy target.


    The Martian invasion happened in the year 1912 when Doctor Omega was away on his travels throughout time and space. Humanity bravely fought back, but even our most advanced weapons, such as the Thunder child (the greatest warship ever constructed) only managed to down a few Martian tripods. Within one week all the leaders of the earth were slaughtered, the cities lay in ruins, and our forces either completely destroyed or rendered just as helpless as the civilians they had sworn to protect. The earth now belonged to the Martians, and they continued to rule our planet for the next 7 years.


    Well over 100 million people lost their lives during the Martians rule over the planet (with 40 million having been killed in the initial invasion alone.) The Martians experimented on us in a similar fashion to the Kelpians. They cut into our brains in an effort to remove aggression or to make us docile, they drained our blood for nourishment, and they poisoned our land with their red weed which slowly began to terrorform our earth into being like ancient Mars.


    Their invasion ended however when Doctor Omega returned. His time machine brought him to 1919, 8 years after his last visit to the earth by chance. After barely escaping the Martian invaders who planned to dissect him, (having sensed there was something different about the former Atlantean.) Doctor Omega allied himself with one of the human resistance groups and was able to figure out the aliens weakness. The Mortaxans had struggled with a new influenza pandemic that had emerged in the last year or so. A further twenty million people had been killed in the pandemic, whilst the Martians had shielded themselves from all forms of infection, though this meant that they were no longer able to harness humans for their blood, whilst they searched for a cure.


    Omega however was able to hack into the Martians mainframe and make sure a tiny drop of infected blood was placed into one of their food supplies which spread the virus throughout the Martian invaders on earth killing almost all of them. The infection however even spread back to Mars too, crippling their forces there and preventing a second invasion.


    Whilst Doctor Omega was hailed as a hero by the fighters he had helped, he begged them not to mention his name and quickly departed in the Cosmos. In time history would come to simply view the Martians succumbing to the virus as being as a result of their carelessness and arrogance. The Doctor meanwhile sadly was almost completely broken by what his actions had caused. He was barely able to go on after the fall of the Federation, but he had hoped that in the long run he could make up for it with his actions across time and space. Now he had the death of another civilization on his conscience, and he actually contemplated simply flying the Cosmos into the sun. However his faith in what his father told him convinced Omega to carry on as he believed that somehow at the end of it there must be a reason as to why he and his forebears had to construct the machine.


    Back on earth meanwhile the remains of the now shattered civilizations were forced to ally, though on a more equal footing this time. Ironically the Martian invasion, whilst more devastating than any earth war, helped to unite the people''s of the earth like never before. The old prejudices were mostly forgotten about as not only did everyone need each other, but we now had a common enemy to unite us. This mindset coupled with the left over technology from the Martians allowed humanity to progress ironically to a much greater extent than in our reality, though mankind''s penchant for violence and prejudice would still resurface in other unfortunate ways.


    The first to suffer were the collaborators who had worked with the Martians during their occupation. The most infamous was the Irish man Patrick Kielty who was tortured to death in public for colluding with the Martians. Doctor Omega himself put a stop to these public displays of brutality, shaming one of the resistance fighters who had ironically rescued him from the Martians and even helped save humanity who was taking part, by telling him he and the others were as bad as the Martians for indulging in these public acts of torture.


    Omega however wouldn''t get away with his role in causing the invasion. His former companion Fred''s wife and son had been killed and their blood drained by the Martians right in front of him. Much like Omega, Fred initially tried to kill himself, knowing that he and Omega''s mission to the past had created these monsters. However he was soon able to ease his guilt by pinning all the blame on Doctor Omega and his reckless actions and later when the new earth government was established in 1928, Fred who had since proven vital in helping to understand the Martian machines, thanks to the knowledge he learned from Omega, revealed the existence of the Doctor to the government who were planning a counter attack against Mars.


    The expedition was funded by Thomas Edison who had managed to survive the Martian occupation through hiding in a bunker. Omega was lured back to earth by Fred who recreated a machine Omega had left to contact him with, that been destroyed in the Martian invasion, (as the Martians had been able to trace the unusual signals it sent out early in their invasion, which had been how they had found and captured Fred and his family in the first place.) Omega was then captured and forced take part in the mission. The good Doctor was devastated by what had become of his former companion and tried to apologise, though obviously Fred didn''t want to listen.


    Whilst the Mortaxans were still struggling with the pandemic, their weapons were more than powerful enough to shoot most of the earth fleet out of the sky, with only one ship, Omega''s of course managing to survive, though even it still crashed onto Mars.


    Omega, Fred, Tziarou, Denis and the other human survivors were only able to defeat the Mortaxans, with the aid of a group of Kelpian rebels. The Mortaxan base was destroyed completely, with just a few ships managing to flee Mars. These Mortaxans eventually settled on a distant planet beyond our galaxy. They had been working on a new star drive since before the invasion as a back up plan if the invasion of earth failed, and the prototype of the star drive they tried to escape in, ended up propelling them further than they could have imagined. The Mortaxans then established themselves on a new uninhabited planet christened Mor Tax and eventually over the centuries became a galactic power in their own right developing a massive empire of worlds they had similarly conquered just like earth.


    Doctor Omega faced the Mortaxans many times after this, with the monsters becoming his greatest enemies. Sadly however he was never able to end their poisonous influence on the universe and the guilt of what he had created endured for the rest of his long life.


    Tzairou meanwhile left Doctor Omega after the Mars mission. Deciding to stay and help the Kelpian rebels rebuild Mars. The Kelpians largely remained isolated from the earth from this point on until the red planet''s destruction in the 1970s. This isolation was more on humanity''s part however as they did not trust any Martians after the invasion.


    Back on earth Thomas Edison took credit for destroying the Mortaxans. A book was even released "Edison''s Conquest of Mars". Omega wasn''t unhappy at his role being left out however, as he preferred to operate in secret. Whilst the general public still had no knowledge of who he was the government, thanks to Fred (who was after the Martian mission placed in charge of their division to track down other alien threats) called on Omega many more times to help deal with other threats to the earth. During these missions he would work alongside Fred, with the two gradually coming to respect one another again. In his later years Fred made it clear that whilst he wasn''t sure if he could forgive the Doctor or himself for what they had created in the Mortaxans, he did at least think there was a need for what Omega did and finally took responsibility for his role in helping to build the Cosmos.


    When not working with Fred back home, Doctor Omega continued on his journey''s through time and space with Denis and he eventually picked up a new travelling companion, a young woman from ancient Greece called Gabrielle.


    She came from the beginning of the Roman empire and is believed to have even had dealings with Julius Cesaer himself. There are some who argue she may have played a role in his demise.


    Gabrielle had initially set out to be a bard, but soon fell in love with a beautiful warrior woman, who was said to have been the fiercest and most dangerous warrior in all of Greece. According to legends even Ares the God of War was said to have been in love with Gabrielle''s companion. Sadly however after several years of travelling together battling evil, Gabrielle''s lover was killed (apparently when taking on an entire army by herself.) Leaving the battling bard as she had become known to travel the world alone for a few years, where she eventually met the Doctor and Denis.


    It took Gabrielle quite a while to get used to Doctor Omega''s machine, even with the life she had lived. Nevertheless she developed arguably a closer bond with him than any of his other companions, becoming in many ways the daughter he never had. The fact that the society Gabrielle came from, had been modelled in some ways on Atlantis, more closely than other ancient societies (with the Greeks even using the same alphabet.) May have helped them grow closer.


    Sadly however one of Gabrielle''s archenemies, Alti continued to plague her and Doctor Omega. Alti was a witch, who through her twisted experiments had tapped into the centre of dark magic on earth. Atlantis had forbid the use of magic and the supernatural, though during the final days of the war, in their desperation they turned to it. Many of the surviving elites had also continued to use it in the years after the fall of Atlantis to help prolong their lives with their secrets and experiments lingering even after their departure.


    Alti actually began as a simple shamaness (who were for the most part charlatans.) Ironically however for all her cruelty even back then, Alti was the real deal and her skill and knowledge allowed her to develop a strong influence among the Amazons, to the point where with their resources she was able to discover some of Atlantis'' ancient dark weapons. Her insane lust for power soon drove her to go further than even they had during the war in terms of her experiments., Following hundreds of failed experiments where she slaughtered countless innocent people (including her own former Amazonian sisters in revenge for banishing her.) Alti was eventually able to merge with the dark magic of the earth itself. This ensured that whilst her physical body could be destroyed, her soul could always re-emerge in times of great distress, suffering and horror. She had actually re-emerged towards the end of the Mortax invasion of earth, but sadly for the vile former shamaness the Martian''s reshaping of the earth itself caused her manifestations to be erratic and she wasn''t able to form properly, being a mere ghost until Doctor Omega defeated the aliens and the effect of their Martian weed on the earth was undone. Following this whilst Alti was able to manifest, she was due to humanity working together weak, and so she started a cult, promising her followers that she could elevate and protect them from any future threats with magic, if they carried out horrific acts to feed her. Fortunately she was foiled by Omega, Gabrielle and Denis who were called in by Fred, but Alti''s spirit could never truly die and she returned many times to plague Omega throughout all of his lives. At one point she was even able to use left over Martian technology to leave the earth and tap into the dark magic from other worlds in a similar fashion, many of which she destroyed both to feed herself and simply satisfy her own lust for power and sadism. She was undoubtedly one of his single greatest enemies.


    Over the course of their travels Denis developed feelings for Gabrielle and she for him. Sadly however Gabrielle still could not get over the death of her lover, and eventually Denis left.


    The Doctors final companion in his first life alongside Gabrielle was ironically a former servant of the Mortaxans, Felicia Rainn. She was actually a clone, grown in a lab by the Mortaxans to help infiltrate humanity during one of their many wars with them. Thankfully Felicia was able to break free from their control though it would be considerably later before she joined Doctor Omega.


    She later fell in love with and married Fred in the 20th century.


    Gabrielle meanwhile stayed with Doctor Omega right until after his first death. Part of why some of the Atlanteans had such long life spans, was through an advanced method of cloning. Whilst their bodies could fight off age and decay for a lot longer than we could imagine due to their advances in medicine and science. Even they could not postpone the inevitable. However through their greater understanding of consciousness and the brain the Atlanteans were able to find a way to drain consciousness from their bodies, just before death and preserve it. This coupled with their ability to produce duplicates of their bodies, could ensure that when a member of the elite died, their mind was simply transported into a new clone body. Even this method of cheating death however still could not last forever. Eventually the mind itself would wear down and be unable to merge with a new body.


    Still this method ensured that the elites and those deemed of value to the Atlanteans could endure for potentially 1000 years. Only a very, very few were ever given this luxury however. Even among the Omega''s only three had ever been granted this luxury, all hundreds of years before Omega''s fathers birth. Doctor Omega meanwhile had stolen one of these machines before he fled Atlantis, believing that his work on the machine may take several life times. After the Martians tampered with the cosmos however, the machine was damaged, but with Professor Helvetius'' help, Omega was able to somewhat repair it. Even then however his cloning machine was somewhat more erratic. When Omega later died for the first time, whilst it did preserve his mind and produce a new body for him, the body was not a copy of his first one. Omega''s new body took on a totally different appearance, though his personality and consciousness were unchanged.


    This would happen all of the subsequent times Omega died and was reborn. It is believed he had up to 19 different bodies and appearances in total.


    Omega''s machine could not ever be used to clone life forms other than Atlanteans. Due to their experiments over the centuries, the Atlanteans had a unique strand of DNA that had been tampered with too much over generations, even by Gabrielle''s time. Furthermore the machine was extremely delicate after the Martians actions and since Omega did not even fully understand how it worked, he was stuck with its imperfections. In time however he came to embrace having a different appearance for every clone body, as he felt it allowed him to be truly reborn.


    Furthermore the different bodies also gave him certain advantages too. His second body was not only younger in appearance, but also stood six foot 7, had incredible strength, a huge beard and a large bellowing voice which allowed him to intimidate his enemies to a greater extent than his original body, which by the time of his first travel to Mars was an old and frail in appearance.


    Gabrielle eventually left during Omega''s second life when she was reunited with her former lover, who Alti resurrected in the future to be her servant in a trap to lure both Omega and Gabrielle to their deaths. Fortunately Gabrielle freed her lover from Alti''s control, after which she stayed behind to help her cope in the new world. Omega meanwhile took on many more companions throughout his lifetimes. Among these included a faithful robot, that was named Robby, who Omega first encountered on an earth colony several hundred years in the future. Robby was not just a simple earth robot however. He had been created from both earth technology and that of an ancient and now extinct race known as the Krell. Sadly Robby''s creator was killed on the expedition to the Krell''s home planet where he was built and the unique robot subsequently fell into the custody of one of the most influential earth colonies of the future. Over time it slowly developed its own personality, and ultimately joined Doctor Omega because it wanted to see the universe and became one of his most faithful companions. Robby joined just before Gabrielle left.


    Another of Omega''s companions was Lord John Roxton, a former explorer who had helped to discover one of Atlantis'' Dinosaur sanctuaries that had survived for all this time in the Amazon rainforest. He first joined Omega when the time traveler was in his second body. Omega and Roxton were later accompanied by Linda Turner, a former costumed vigilante known as the Black Cat who was born in the year 1970. Linda was the daughter of a stuntman and followed him into the profession. Using the skills she''d picked up in her career, she later became a vigilante after taking down the mob who were blackmailing a friend of hers in the industry. She went by the title of the Black Cat before joining Omega. She and Roxton later fell in love and came to settle back in her time where she formed a new team of heroes called the Champions for Justice, which included among others the Spider, Astro Man and Moon Girl.


    The third Doctor Omega, who in contrast was a shorter balding man, with a slight frame worked with Spacefleet, whose history we shall explore later, with his best friend being Dan Dare, the finest pilot in all of Spacefleet. He also travelled with Miss Midnite, a wealthy adventuress with a somewhat mysterious past, and later Professor Peabody (spacefleet''s leading scientist) and April Walker, a young journalist from the 1970s who helped uncover a plot by a hostile race of alien mutants to invade the earth. These creatures were originally created to be a slave race by a species of humanoid aliens known as the Metulana. Sadly the Metulana were killed off in an intergalactic war in the 1950s, though there was an attempt by a group of their scientists to try and invade and terrorform the earth, ultimately they failed. One ship piloted by some rogue Metulana however was able to escape the destruction of their planet and fled to earth, hoping to finish what their masters had started. These Metulana mutants also had a hatred for all humanoid life forms as well, due to their masters and sought to make humanity their servants. They used similar mind control techniques that had been used to enslave their kind to take control of several influential figures in governments around the world, hoping to weaken the planet from within. Only with April''s help was Doctor Omega able to stop the invaders, after which he offered her a place aboard the Cosmos which she accepted. April ended up becoming one of Omega''s longest serving companions, and she continued to travel with Omega when he changed into his fourth body, an older, tall, almost deathly thin, hawk faced soft spoken gentleman. The Metulana mutants meanwhile escaped and after recovering later became a powerful race in their own right and major enemies of Doctor Omega facing him in many of his lives.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    April later left, whilst Felicia fell in love with Fred and the two eventually married. Omega''s next companion was a woman named Atlanta who came from after the fall of Atlantis, but before recorded history began. She was an Amazon who had been raised in the wild after being abandoned by her parents and who had defied the gods (Or rather the Atlantean elites.) At first she was reluctant to join Omega, blaming him for the state her world had descended into, but in time she came to see him as a hero and the two made an effective team.


    Following Atlanta''s departure Omega travelled with Daniel James, the last survivor of the legendary dreadnought, the Thunderchild.


    The Thunderchild''s defeat famously marked the end of humanity''s last line of defense against the Martians, and despite its failure, its attack against four Martian tripods was seen as as inspiring tale both during and after the occupation.


    Despite the famous chants of "Come on Thunderchild" at the time, nobody really thought the famous dreadnought was going to win. The fact that after so many crushing defeats, and just when it seemed as though the Martians were invincible; one of our weapons was able to cut down two of the Tripods and blast a third with its canon shocked both humanity and the Martians. It served as a message and inspiration to the rebels throughout the remainder of the occupation that no matter what humanity would not be easily subjugated. Sadly however the fourth of the Martians it fought used its heat ray to blast the Thunderchild, which in its last moments then charged into the Tripod, ensuring they were both destroyed. The Thunderchild''s victory and sacrifice also ensured a steamer carrying civilians from England were able to escape the four tripods, with many of those on the steamer later forming the resistance.


    Daniel meanwhile was the only member of the Thunderchild, which carried over 500 men to survive. He was just 14 at the time and was an incredibly low rank on the ship. Nevertheless he survived the initial blast and then jumped from the flaming wreckage just as it collided with the fourth tripod. Following his lucky escape, Daniel became part of the resistance movement and even helped Doctor Omega defeat the Martians years later, though he was not involved in punishing the collaborators. Dan''s actions in the Thunderchild as well as those in the war caused many to view him as a hero, though at the same time there was also some who condemned him as a coward who jumped ship whilst his crew made the supreme sacrifice.


    Indeed Daniel himself suffered from survivors guilt for years. To be fair almost everyone who made it through the Mortaxans invasion suffered survivors guilt to some extent, but Daniel''s became so crippling he became completely reclusive for almost ten years after the invasion. He was in his 30s when he met Doctor Omega again (who at first he didn''t recognize due to his different appearance.)


    The two worked together to deal with another alien threat after which Omega offered him a place aboard the Cosmos. Daniel eagerly accepted, wanting to get away from the attention his past was bringing him on earth.


    The two later picked up another companion in the form of Wang Zhenyi. Just as in our reality, Wang was an astronomer centuries ahead of her time. She first met the Doctor and Daniel when an alien was trying to use her knowledge to help it map a journey home. (As its own equipment had been badly damaged.) The alien had not intended to land on earth, but rather it had crashed here, when scouting for planets for his people to colonize. He believed the earth was suitable and hoped to report back to his people, but Omega and Daniel with Wang''s help were able to stop the alien and save the earth after which she joined him. Sadly her husband was killed whilst helping to stop the alien, and history came to believe she died as well (with the poison the alien used against them both being attributed to simply an illness.)


    Zheni and Daniel travelled with Omega until late in his fifth life. His fifth body was a tall, long haired, grizzled, middle aged, somewhat stronger body like his second, which allowed him to take a more direct role once again in fighting his enemies.


    Eventually Zheni and Daniel fell in love and retired to live in the 29th century, and Omega next became trapped with Dan Dare and Morag in our future, before travelling with a young witch named Morgana. She came from the same time as Atlantis and had been forced to flee beyond the Federation''s reach when she was caught using magic. At first Omega assumed she was corrupt, due to his own prejudices against witches (which had only been reinforced by his dealings with Alti.) Morgana was not a real witch however. She had only a basic knowledge and talent, but for an Atlantean like Omega that was enough for him to see her as being no better than a Mortaxan. Thankfully Doctor Omega was able to overcome his prejudice and took Morgana on as his companion. Morgana had a keen scientific mind as well, and the good Doctor served as something of a mentor to her that way. However her continued experiments with magics did lead to further conflicts between them, though Morgana stayed with Doctor Omega until his sixth life. When she left she had fully mastered magic to the point where was not only an incredibly powerful witch, but could travel from world to world using a magic broomstick. Morgana became a great hero in her own right saving hundreds of worlds.


    It was in his sixth body, that was considerably young than any of his others that Omega was to first travel to our universe, though we will explore his time in our reality later.


    In his 7th body, which was a shorter, older bald man with a somewhat more unnerving voice and demeanor, Omega after returning to our reality became trapped for a short while on 20th century earth. There he became a member of the Strange Family, before travelling with Carlene, the counterpart of a reformed vampire from our reality, and Alvin a man from billions of years in earth''s future, with his final known companion being Claudia McGrath from our reality, though we will explore all of their histories later.


    Sadly none of his companions are known after his 7th life. In fact we don''t know anything about his lives after his 7th. All we know is that me made it to 19 different bodies, after an encounter between his 7th and 19th incarnations.


    Back on earth after the original Mortax invasion, whilst humanity did by and large remain united and advanced considerably more than they did in our reality from the 1920s-1940s. Sadly during that time they also came to enslave another race referred to somewhat disparagingly as the Newts. First discovered by man in the year 1931, though there had been sightings from before then, which were dismissed as legends. The Newts were a primitive, but docile race of amphibian humanoids who had evolved at the bottom of the ocean. Few in number and not violent by nature, the Newts as humanity came to nickname them were exploited throughout the 30s and 40s in a variety of ways. It''s true that humanity did improve the quality of the Newts lives to some extent, giving them sanctuaries from predators of the deep on land (some believe had it not been for our intervention the Newts may very well have been wiped out by their predators, though for the most part this is dismissed as propaganda.)


    However tragically in spite of how they had been treated by the Martians, humanity it seemed had learned nothing and treated this placid race in a similar fashion throughout the decades. There were Newt rights campaigners however, who did at least win some concessions for these creatures in the 50s thanks to the outbreak of war (with Doctor Omega himself giving them a hand, though he also faced extremist Newts at different points too.) In the mean time hundreds of thousands of Newts were worked to death and experimented on.


    It was humanity''s exploitation of another species however, their forebears the Dinosaurs during the 1950s which would lead to far more devastating consequences for the world.


    Humanity first learned that there were non avian Dinosaurs alive in the modern day in 1908 when George Challengers expedition (which again Roxton was a member of.) Discovered the main Atlantean Dinosaur sanctuary hidden high above the Amazonian rainforest. Several more expeditions were sent to the plateau, and though there were many casualties they nevertheless established a base in Challengers Lost World where they were able to study both the Dinosaurs and the Atlantean ruins. The scientists eventually discovered that these were no ordinary Dinosaurs. During the later stages of the war with the Federation, the Atlanteans began to tamper with the Dinosaurs DNA to make them larger, stronger and more useful for ground assaults. Whilst many new species of Dinosaurs were created this way such as the Gwangis (Tyrannosaur/Allosaurus hybrids.) Their ultimate project which was being developed in this plateau, just before Atlantis fell was Gorgo.


    This creature was a mutated Tyrannosaurus Rex, far larger than any other Dinosaur and capable of absorbing massive amounts of radiation into its body and then using it as a weapon, as well as a virtually indestructible skin and healing factor too. A single embryo of Gorgo had been created and was preserved in the chambers which had collapsed under ground, following movements in the earth on the Plateau.


    The Gorgo embryo was later taken and developed by the earth government to create a weapon in case the Martians ever returned or in case there were other invaders. Sadly however the governments attempts to help the embryo grow resulted in it mutating, and the Gorgo soon escaped their confines and grew rapidly through absorbing large amounts of radiation until it reached a colossal size of over 600 feet tall.


    Gorgo, crazed and feral went on a rampage throughout many cities across the world killing scores of innocent people until she retreated to a remote island. The earth government however did not learn its lesson and attempted to create more Gorgos from the DNA of the first and other giant monsters using a similar form of science. They also discovered other creatures in other Atlantean colonies scattered around the world, among them included a gigantic ape creature made from parts of different animals known as Ginko. This beast lived in an Atlantean colony, but had actually been created by a member of the Frankenstein family, who had fled there and used its technology to create hybrid creatures, with Ginko being the only one of his experiments who had survived. Whilst these monsters were more stable and loyal than the first Gorgo, sadly divisions soon emerged within the different powers of the united earth government, many of whom wanted monsters to protect their own cities. This in turn led to skirmishes that in the space of just a few years ripped the earth government apart, resulting in a world war in 1954. Whilst the war was fought largely by each of the fragmented powers monsters, 60 million people still lost their lives in this conflict. The war lasted from 1954=1958, and in the end most of the giant monsters were killed, but a few did break free from human control, with many of the survivors coming to live on Gorgo''s island which then became a sanctuary for the monsters. In time the original female Gorgo and the only other member of her kind that survived, a male had a child.


    Doctor Omega became acquainted with Gorgo when a scientist named Anjelica attempted to create a cybernetic Gorgo like creature a few years after the war. Anjelica hoped that this ultimate monster could allow her nation, the city of Taured to emerge victorious as a super power, as ironically it had remained neutral throughout the conflict, due to refusing to ever have any giant monsters of its own and was now the most prosperous city as a result. Doctor Omega was able to contact the two Gorgo''s through old Atlantean technology and convinced the beasts to help destroy their counterpart. Both Dinosaurs managed to defeat the cyborg, though the male Gorgo tragically was killed in the battle.


    The unified earth government never reformed after the war, though the powers did remain closely allied with each other. The female Gorgo meanwhile remained on her island, until her son was captured in the 1960s by a former British war hero, Sir Reginald Morrell whose family had been killed during the original female Gorgo''s rampage. He attempted to lure the Dinosaur into a trap, using a new and unpredictable weapon created during the last days of the war to destroy the monsters (which had never been used as it was deemed too dangerous.) The original female Gorgo went on a massive rampage through London to find her boy, before Morrell attempted to unleash the weapon, despite Doctor Omega''s best attempts to stop him. Sadly the female Gorgo succumbed to the weapon though she was at least able to save her son, who promptly devoured Sir Reginal Morrell before retreating into the ocean.


    Doctor Omega helped the child Gorgo return to its island, and befriended it. Years later when it had grown up, this Gorgo continued to help Doctor Omega and humanity deal with other threats to the world throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s with many coming to now see this Gorgo as a hero. Doctor Omega however always remained the Dinosaurs closest human friend. Challengers Lost World meanwhile having been exploited throughout the war, was finally sealed off from the rest of the world in 1959 and in time its Dinosaur population was able to recover. The same happened to the other Atlantean Dinosaur colonies that had been discovered too.


    The 1960s proved to be another golden age for humanity, in terms of technology and culture. The Newts had finally been given freedom throughout the 1950s as humanity after their losses could no longer afford to keep them as slaves and there were many Newt uprisings. Still the peace this time did last, barring the blackout for a few months in the 70s, which we will explore later, and mankind eventually developed the technology to travel into space in the 1990s, which saw the establishment of Spacefleet.


    Sadly however this later led humanity into conflict with the Treens, who at this point in their history were led by the evil Mekon, a mutant that had been bred specifically to lead their kind. The Mekon not only possessed incredible intelligence, but a much longer lifespan as well, living to over 600 years. Finally the Mekon also had far greater ambitions than any Treen before it. For the past several hundred years the Treens had been forced into a stale mate by the Therons, with both species being so evenly matched a war would surely have destroyed both. The Therons also ensured our protection this way too. Many of the Treen leaders had become complacent, but the Mekon sought to not only conquer humanity and the Therons but build a Treen empire that would spread across the galaxy. However the Mekon''s plans were interrupted when Dan Dare led humanity''s first expedition to Venus in the late 1990s. though it was a peaceful mission. Humanity''s population had increased dramatically over the decades to the point where they were suffering from a food shortage, and they hoped the Venusians could help. (Space probes had shown there was life on the planet since the 1970s.)


    The Mekon however captured Dan and his team, and hoped to use them in his plan to infiltrate and exterminate humanity. Fortunately however captain Dan, with the aid of a defective Treen named Sondar (whose emotions had not been purged) and the Atlantine rebels were able to overthrow the Mekon and drive him and his loyalist Treens from the planet. A peace treaty was then signed with the Treens, and Therons.


    Sadly however the Mekon later successfully invaded and conquer humanity in the 21st century for one year in 2004. Over 20 million were killed in the Mekon''s invasion, but the domed headed tyrant did not devastate the earth to the same extent as the Martians. On the contrary the Mekon had become such a tyrannical narcissist he no longer cared for the Treens and actually sought to see if another species would make better soldiers for his empire. He performed horrific experiments on thousands of human slaves in order to see if he could make them superior creatures and at one point did actually consider making humanity his soldiers instead, believing that their inbuilt aggression could be harnessed more successfully than the Treens.


    Thankfully Dan, who been teleported away by accident on a mission to another world with Doctor Omega, returned one year after the Mekon conquered humanity and with Doctor Omega''s help defeated his archenemy, though in the process, Dan was caught in an explosion which mutilated his face and put him in a coma.


    2005 in many respects marked the end of the second golden age. Whilst humanity did recover and continued to advance, it became a more paranoid and hostile race to aliens following the Mekons invasion. This culminated in a weapon whose chemical formula had been unknowingly developed by Peabody being deposited on Venus when the Mekon reconquered it. The governments of the earth were so terrified of another invasion and there was such a lingering resentment towards the Treens, that the weapon was unleashed without too much opposition (apart ironically from Peabody herself.) Billions of Treens and even Therons were killed in an instant, though the Mekon himself escaped. It was this devastating conflict that led to Peabody joining Doctor Omega on his travels.


    One year later however the Mekon was captured by Doctor Omega and Peabody and brought to the earth authorities, where he was sentenced to a life time imprisonment in solitary confinement on a penal planet. He remained there for up to 70 years before finally escaping.


    Dan on the other hand was placed into a state of suspended animation until science could reach a stage where it could help him. He was afforded this special status due to his years of service and heroism in stopping the Mekon.


    Later in the 2150s, mankind dealt with another threat, this time of their own creation, the RUR.


    These synthetic Androids who were created by the RUR company were originally designed to be servants of mankind, but ultimately rebelled against their human masters, very nearly wiping out humanity in what would prove to be its most devastating conflict since the Martian invasion itself. Once again Doctor Omega was able to save humanity and destroy RUR forces, though doing so caused his first death. Some of the Androids however who now called themselves RUR after their creators were able to escape the earth and settled on an uninhabited planet, eventually building themselves up into a powerful galactic force and rival to humanity just like the Martians. The destruction the RUR inflicted upon hundreds of thousands of worlds sadly led to many species condemning and even trying to avenge themselves on the Robots creators, humanity.


    The RUR also become among the most recurring and deadly of Doctor Omega''s adversaries, being among the few along with the Martians and Alti to face him in all of his lives.


    Later in the 23rd century Captain Dan was finally awoken from his coma and his face restored due to advances in medicine and surgery, though his appearance was completely different as a result.


    By this stage due to both the Martian invasion and Mekon invasion, and subsequent attacks from the RUR and their enemies, mankind had established a brutal and tyrannical empire to protect itself. Captain Dan was revived only as a piece of propaganda, with the empire''s leaders hoping that the greatest hero from earth''s golden age could help unite the people. Unfortunately however Dan soon clashed with the leaders of the empire who later relieved him of his command and sent Dan on seemingly a suicide mission to explore the Lost Worlds, a galaxy where the natural laws were said to have been twisted. Dan''s crew made up of former convicts survived for up to two years in the Lost Worlds, before they were destroyed by a planet full of vampires. Dan was the only survivor along with Morag, a woman who been found guilty of stealing a Pteranodon egg. She only did so because the Pterosaurs unique sense of smell could allow her to track down a shapeshifting criminal who had murdered her parents regardless of what form he took. The Pterosaur remained loyal to her however, and she was given a pardon on what was essentially a suicide mission. She and Dan were both rescued by the vampires from Doctor Omega, whose Cosmos had also become damaged by the unique properties of the Lost Worlds to the point where it could no longer travel in time. Together Dan, Morag and Omega took on the vampires as well as a wide variety of other strange foes in the Lost Worlds.


    Doctor Omega, who at that point was in his fifth body had many experiences with vampires prior to being stranded. They, much like the Mortaxans and the RUR were collectively among his greatest enemies.


    In this universe vampires were not the children of Khastran like in ours. Rather they were instead a time travel experiment gone wrong. One group of surviving Atlantean elites after the war, the Ambrogio family (the most influential family in all of Atlantis) held onto the last scraps of the Omega family''s time travel technology and research that had been left behind during the war. They hoped if the war did not go their way, they could use it to alter events. Sadly however as the bulk of the research had been taken by the two Omega''s, the Ambrogio family who had become somewhat stagnated in their privilege, were unable to master it before their civilization fell. After the war the Ambrogio family established a base in what would one day become Mesopatmia, and both they and their primitive followers who they amassed over the centuries attempted to recreate the Omega''s time experiments in the hopes of going back and changing the history of the earth. (They foolishly had come to believe the Guardians as nothing but superstition over the course of the war.)


    Eventually they were able to construct a crude version of the Cosmos, which their leader known simply as King Ambrogio used to attempt to travel backwards in time. The King only led the journey out of fear that someone else might change history to their benefit and not his. He did however take his pet bat, a mutant creature that he used as a guard dog and had named Camazotz with him on the journey as well as his daughter, the spoiled and vicious Lilith, and a handful of their best scientists and soldiers.


    Unfortunately however this crude Cosmos exploded when it was travelling through time and the crew became trapped in the one of the deepest parts of the vortex, where there was virtually no life. (There are many different areas of the vortex some of which are home to a wide variety of life forms.) The energy from their vessel and the power of the time vortex itself became fused to the Atlanteans bodies the longer they spent in it (they could not die in the vortex from the energy as the laws of cause and effect did not apply there, at least not in the same way as they did in our universe.) As they all struggled to break free, their link with the vortex built up over years until they became a part of it, which eventually allowed each of the Ambrogious expedition to create small holes in the vortex for themselves, that deposited each of the expedition several centuries into the future to different eras and locations of the earth. The energy from the vortex had also altered all of the Ambrogios and their servants in similar ways. It effectively froze them in terms of age, ensuring that at least some of the laws of cause and effect no longer applied to them even in our reality. Barring accidents they could all potentially live forever. The energy however also made them all significantly stronger, and would repair any damage to their bodies, barring a few exceptions such as decapitation and their heart being completely destroyed, as their hearts were where the energy took root in order to spread its way through their bodies.


    It also altered the expedition members brain chemistry too. Their minds became more unstable and emotions such as empathy, remorse and compassion were effectively erased. Worse than all of the above however they all developed a thirst for human blood. In reality the time displaced former Atlanteans in order to keep the energy that had infected their bodies stable had to feed on time energy itself which is present in all life forms. The easiest way to drain time energy from another life form however was through blood. The altered time energy within the Ambrogios and their servants bodies had almost developed a mind of its own and even altered their forms, including giving them hosts fangs and claws to be able to drain the blood/energy from their victims. (Some believe it also intentionally limited their compassion and remorse too.)


    There were physical drawbacks to the energy''s transformation of the time displaced tyrants and their servants bodies however. The time energy (that wasn''t filtered in the Ambrogios clan like it was for everything else in the universe) made King Ambrogios and the others vulnerable to sunlight and Ultra violet rays to the point where it would cause the energy in their bodies to overheat and explode. They also now cast no reflection or shadows as a result of no longer being subject to the laws of time itself. Furthermore their bodies were also now more vulnerable to certain substances that reacted badly with the energy in their bodies such as silver and wood. (Though both could only kill them if they pierced the heart.) Crosses and holy water had no affect on vampires naturally, but those who were turned centuries ago believed them to be due to their religious beliefs, which led to myths emerging that they could.


    Finally in addition to this the time energy could also now spread like a virus through the displaced Ambrogios clan and their servant''s bite or blood, allowing them to transform others into similar creatures.


    Whilst all of the Ambrogios clan and their servants who had been trapped in the vortex possessed these powers and attributes, the energy from the destroyed and crude Cosmos itself helped to alter their bodies in different ways, also not all were infected with the same amount of energy. This led to each of the time displaced clan to become a different type of vampire.


    One of the clan for instance fused physically with Camazotz and became a hideous, mutated bat humanoid like vampiric creature. He was teleported straight into Mesopatmia several hundred years later after the last of the Ambrogios had died out and was subsequently worshipped as a god.


    Another known as Turok Han, was altered by the energy to such an extent that not only did his form twist into a hideous, bald headed, muscular, demonic looking creature, but his entire mind was erased and replaced with savage, bloodthirsty instinct. Those he created who were simply known as the Turok Han, or Uber vampires, were believed to be the strongest and most feared of all the vampire breeds in this world. Doctor Omega himself described them as among the few creatures he actually feared.


    Lilith meanwhile''s mental abilities were highly advanced to the point where she possessed some telekinetic and hypnotic powers which over time allowed her vampire clan to build up a secret and powerful society that ruled certain aspects of our world from behind the scenes. Lilith''s breed of vampires were able to establish a peace treaty with both the Mortaxans and the Mekon during their reigns over the earth. In both cases they agreed to spare the vampires in exchange for secrets of time travel which Lilith had to some extent. These secrets would later allow the Mortaxans to make better use of the left over technology from Omega. Another member of the original time displaced clan however or rather one of their servants, named Vandal''s body was altered to the point that his claws became more prominent than the fangs of other vampires. His claws allowed him to literally rip the time energy straight from his victims rather than their blood, which to the primitives of his time made it look as though he were removing their souls. Those Vandal turned who became known as simply the vandals, became the enemies of the other vampire races as Vandal himself was the last survivor of another family of elites, whose area had been conquered by Ambrogios. Vandal himself was only spared due to his scientific genius, but the Ambrogios loved to humiliate him all the same.


    Now finally free of their tyranny and with his own army, Vandal waged war against their children, the vampires, leading to a brutal feud between the vampires and vandals, just as in our reality.


    Doctor Omega faced these monsters throughout most of his lives. Much like the Mortaxans, the vampires were among his most personal enemies as it was tragically as a result of his families research that they had been created in the first place.


    King Ambrogio however proved to be his most prominent vampiric adversary. He had been transplanted to the time of the gods (in reality the last surviving Atlantean elites who had finally after centuries of isolation and fighting among themselves begun to rebuild civilisation, with their early attempts at doing so, and the subsequent worship of them laying the ground work for our own society.) Ambrogio arrived in what would one day become Greece and attempted to overthrow the gods, but even his vampiric powers were no match for them.


    He soon however teamed up with the last of a rival family of elites, the Titans, known as Selene. Together they performed experiments where fusing her god like powers with the unique properties of his blood, they were able to create a new race of super vampires which they used to attempt to wipe the gods from the earth and claim it as their own.


    Doctor Omega however was able to aid to the gods in destroying their vampiric army and used Ambrogio''s own experiments with his blood to send him and Selene back into the time vortex itself alongside their new army.


    Selene later escaped with her army in the 21st century, but fortunately a later incarnation of Omega was able to finally destroy her and her forces once and for all.


    Ambrogio however had a very different fate. Just as before his connection to the vortex via his blood, allowed him to push his way through it to the point where he created a small rip that allowed the vampire to escape back into his universe, arriving on a remote planet in the Lost worlds. He was not able to rescue Selene as she was trapped in a different part of the vortex. Omega had made sure to separate them. Sadly Omega had no idea how they had escaped the first time, and was not aware of how strong their link with the vortex was. Even Ambrogio himself did not understand it, believing it to be an after effect of the explosion that had weakened the barriers at first.


    On this new remote world, Ambrogio was forced to survive off of the animals for years, until other life forms were soon drawn in by the very rip that had allowed him to escape. This rip due to the experiments Ambrogio had performed on his blood with Selene was more unpredictable than the first and had not closed. It continued to grow and grow causing all kinds of disturbances throughout the system, from creatures rapidly aging to dust, to others returning from the dead, to others becoming immortal, to even time periods fusing together. Life forms from all over came to both exploit or try and repair the rip. Unfortunately Ambrogio was able to use this to sire several of the other life forms that arrived and create a new and powerful army of vampires who soon guarded the rip. Their attempts to harness its power however led to further disaster and anomalies across this galaxy. In time the galaxy became known as the legendary and terrifying Lost Worlds area of space that most great powers avoided due to its unpredictable laws and frightening monstrosities.


    The vampires experiments eventually destroyed their new planet, though King Ambrogio escaped to another planet in the Lost Worlds area of the cosmos where he attempted to rebuild, by slowly luring other vessels down through distress signals and siring any crew members he felt had potential. In the meantime other life forms attempted to harness the strange properties of the Lost World, including humanity, with all of its previous expeditions and colonies to captain Dan''s mission failing.


    Sadly whilst Omega, Morag and Dan did eventually cripple the vampires power in the Lost Worlds, some of Ambrogio''s agents were, whilst the Doctor was distracted, able to infiltrate the leaders of the earth empire (thanks to one of Dan''s crew who had been sired.) Working within the vampires not only destroyed the earth''s power, but spread the poison of vampirism like never before allowing the bloodsuckers to take control of the earth under Ambrogio''s rule. The vampires played on many other species hatred of the earth in their conquest too. Fortunately Doctor Omega and Dan were able to gain allies in the Lost Worlds that they had freed from the vampires to help bring down Ambrogio. In the end ironically with his greater knowledge of the vortex, Omega was able to use the power of the rip Ambrogio had hoped to harness to destroy the vampire fleet once and for all before sealing the rip shut forever. King Ambrogio himself however escaped, and the combination of his ancestors research, and his years in the Lost Worlds, allowed him to build a time vessel. The vampire king however had no desire for his kind to rule. On the contrary he only ever saw them as a means to gain power so that he could in his mind improve the world. Now that he was free to explore all of time and space, the vampire king sought to reshape history for the better. He accomplished many terrible and incredible things over the course of his travels, just like Omega, though they were always despite his claims purely for his own good, and whilst he and Omega did work together a few times against a greater threat. Overall King Ambrogio remained one of his single greatest adversaries alongside Alti


    Following the vampire invasion the empire was finished, and instead a new federation of worlds began where humanity worked with many of the races in the Lost Worlds, which in turn led to alliances with other races who were terrified of the Lost Worlds and wanted to be on good terms with any potential power within it. Dan and Morag stayed behind to help rebuild the new Federation, whilst Doctor Omega, who had finally been able to repair the Cosmos was free to go exploring all of time and space again. Sadly however whilst Dan and Morag eventually married and had a child together. Dan''s old archenemy the Mekon soon returned. Hoping to take advantage of the weakened earth. Dan faced his arch foe many times, but sadly the Mekon was able to regain a footing in the galaxy and build up a gigantic Treen empire, which lasted for hundreds of years, with Dan''s son and descendants being forced to continue to battle the monster and his forces for generations. Many of them were of course assisted by Doctor Omega.


    Among the other major enemies of Doctor Omega included, the Mad Mind, a creature created by humanity from billions of years in the future, the insane witch Jadis, the Demons, the Mammosaurs, and most tragic of all Professor Helvetius himself.


    Jadis was a witch who had originally come from the planet Charn in another universe. She was also along with her equally vile sister, the latest in a long line of cruel warlocks and witches who ruled over the great civilisation of Charn (though her family tree is also said to have included giant, and Djinn blood as well.) Jadis and her sister fought a war over the throne, which she eventually lost. Rather than concede defeat, Jadis instead spoke the deplorable word, a spell so powerful and deadly it destroyed all life on the planet. She then placed herself into suspended animation, until the time someone would come to her world and she could use them to escape and begin again somewhere else. That time came in the early 20th century, when a former warlock from earth named Andrew sent his nephew Digory and his friend Polly to Charn as part of his experiments. Digory inadvertently awoke Jadis who used him to return to our world, hoping to conquer. She was later using Andrews magics sent back through the dimensions, where she eventually ended up in Narnia, a world in another universe. She eventually took control of Narnia and imposed a brutal reign of terror over its people for centuries until Aslan, their god finally slew the witch.


    However many of her vile demonic followers survived her defeat and later tried to bring her back to life. Aslan was able to stop the spell in time, but Jadis'' spirit was revived and trapped in the nothingness between realities, where she drifted for goodness knows how many centuries until she was able to enter Omega''s universe via a gap in the forcefield (the cause of which we will explore later.) Jadis'' spirit was then able in Omega''s reality to build itself a new body using magics and she would subsequently attempt to build a new and vast empire across the cosmos. She became one of Omega''s greatest enemies.


    Jadis was different to Alti however in that all Alti cared about was in causing chaos to make herself stronger, whilst with Jadis there was a method to her madness. She wanted absolute dominion, believing that it was her birth right and therefore unlike Alti, other life forms could live under her rule as long as they obeyed (though it wasn''t much of a life.) However she was arguably even more sadistic when it came to punishing her enemies than Alti. Her skill and knowledge of the black arts from across many different realities allowed Jadis to create some particularly nightmarish and horrific curses on her victims and in extreme cases entire worlds.


    Still many life forms were seduced by her promises and came to serve her willingly, giving the infamous white witch a powerful army made up of the scum of the universe with which she would destroy and curse countless more worlds with.


    Demons were in reality aliens, whose species real name was Dyskaos. Rather than simply use force to invade other worlds, the Dyskaos instead infiltrated hundreds of worlds throughout the universe, and took them over in secret. They''d install puppet leaders from each dominant species on a planet, manipulate the natives to war with each other for their own efforts, even in some cases shape the genetic make up and evolution of certain species in their infancy from behind the scenes, all to suit their interests. They soon built up an empire far greater than the Mortaxans, the vampires or the RUR combined, yet very few life forms were aware they even existed. Their home planet remained hidden. (Some believe they removed its core and replaced it with a giant motor, allowing them to pilot it to safety around the universe.)


    Either way it was never found and their forces continued to rule an incalculable number of worlds throughout the universe in secret for hundreds of thousands of years. Certainly all of the myths and legends about demons on this version of earth came from encounters with these creatures who at the very least had an interest in the earth.


    The Dyskaos or Demons were often opposed by the Olan who gave rise to myths about angels on the earth too. Eons ago when Omega''s reality was young, the Olan believed to be the first intergalactic species encased it in a forcefield to prevent any life form from another universe entering after a hostile invasion from interdimensional creatures. (The invaders are believed to have inspired the Dyskaos to become conquerors as well.) The Dyskaos special method of punishing other life forms meanwhile was to download their minds into a virtual reality (using a similar process to the Atlanteans) where all of their worst nightmares came to pass over and over again, with this virtual world being dubbed hell by these creatures.


    The Mammosaurs on the other hand were an advanced race of aliens who were named as such as they appeared to be a hybrid of reptillian and mammalian life. They evolved from a planet very similar to earth, but for whatever reason on this world, the dominant life forms, through convergent evolution evolved traits similar to both reptillians and mammals. The Mammosaurs that Doctor Omega faced many times were a humanoid race of warriors known as the Astrax.


    Finally Professor Helvetius though starting out as Doctor Omega''s loyal brother, was driven insane when he travelled further than any other time traveller had ever ventured into the future of this universe, including Doctor Omega himself. What Helvetius saw horrified him to such an extent he spent years conducting experiments that he hoped could allow him to change this horrifying future. Sadly however they were all failures that led to devastating consequences. As time went on his experiments also began to alter him physically, transforming Helvetius into a hideous twisted mutant. No matter what horrors his actions caused however, Helvetius was still determined no matter what that this history could not be allowed to pass, and this determination eventually drove him completely insane. Doctor Omega genuinely tried to help his brother, but sadly Helvetius came to resent his brothers interference in his plans, and the two soon became bitterest enemies. In time however even Helvetius came to see his experiments were pointless and instead started to spread chaos throughout all of time and space since nothing mattered to him now that he had seen the end. Doctor Omega eventually gave up on his brother, and Helvetius became his most hated and dangerous enemy with their battles seeing entire worlds destroyed in the crossfire.


    Doctor Omega never dared venture to the point in time that Helvetius did, as he was too terrified. He could only hope that somehow his actions would prevent whatever his brother had seen from happening and that this was what the creation of the Cosmos in general was to prevent.


    Despite all the horrors he faced in his own reality however, Omega''s greatest challenge would be in our universe and in the next section we shall explore how he was able to enter our reality thanks in part to Professor Fang.

 Doctor Omega and Universe X-22: Part 2

    After centuries of protecting his own universe from vampires, Martians and renegade robots, Doctor Omega was recruited ironically by the same beings who had sealed his reality off from the rest of the multiverse, the Olan to take part in the biggest crisis our universe ever faced. The war for creation.


    This wasn''t the first time Doctor Omega had travelled to another universe. His experiments with the Cosmos during his travels had temporarily created a rip in the barriers of his reality which he fell through into another. The rip was ultimately sealed by the Olan who then arrested and tried to execute Doctor Omega, before he somehow managed to escape and remained on the run for centuries afterwards.


    Little did Omega know however the Olan had allowed him to escape, or at least their leaders had. They knew of the important role he was to play in ensuring the survival of not just this universe, but many others in the Omniverse. However they did not want it to appear to their allies and other species that they were showing preferential treatment to Omega, as it could have undermined their authority, given how ruthless they had been in dealing with other races dimensional experiments.


    The Olan continued to monitor Omega however in case his reckless actions caused any more unwanted trouble and over the years, Omega did come into other conflicts with the Olan. Whilst they did what they had to for the good of the universe, they were not above abusing and exploiting what they deemed to be lesser races. Still there were some occasions where they also served as his allies too.


    When they finally captured the Doctor however and explained what they wanted from the former Altantean, Omega was both shocked and a little disappointed, as he had always prided himself on being able to evade the legendary Olan for centuries. Naturally Omega was hesitant to trust the Olan give his past experiences, but sadly he didn''t have much of a say in the matter as the aliens simply hurled his ship through a temporary portal they had created which sent him through time as well to the earliest stages of our universe.


    His ship was somewhat damaged when he crossed realities, and was only saved from a crash in our universe by Professor Fang, the legendary, benevolent time travelling heroic vampire from our universe who the Olan had contacted and agreed to help having foreseen what the end result of the battle would be if Fang did not win.


    Despite Fang''s legendarily difficult and arrogant persona and Omega''s own negative history with vampires. The two soon became friends and Omega (who was on his 6th life at that point) spent many centuries in our universe helping Fang to try and win the war. To be fair the vampires of our universe were very different to those of Omegas. In some ways they were a far bigger threat to all of sentient life, but in others it was possible for certain members of certain breeds to control their bloodlust, though very, very few still did so.


    The battle for all of creation was fought between Fang''s forces and those of the Galechians, a race of highly advanced aliens who came from the universe before ours. They had managed to survive its destruction by escaping to the nothingness between universes just as it was about to collapse. They then entered our reality not long after it had formed, hoping that they could reshape it to suit them. (They could not simply create a new universe as it would have thrown off the balance of the multiverse that our reality existed within.)


    Their alterations to our universe at that stage in its history would have shortened its life by trillions of years. The Galechians came from a much later stage in their universes history. All realities within the multiverse change and go through wildly different stages, which gives rise to different life forms. Very few are able to survive from one change to another. The Galechians tampering therefore would have accelerated the universes lifespan to reach their point, ensuring that none of the life forms from our period in the universe''s history from humans to Zeta Reticulans could have ever existed. Furthermore at least according to the Olan, the Galechians would have eventually burned through our universe in a few centuries due to their tampering with its structure and would then have gone on to consume hundreds more universes, completely disrupting the balance in the Omniverse itself.


    Professor Fang first discovered the Galechians plans through his own time vessel which brought him there (much like Omega''s it always took him to important events he needed to shape) and he gathered an army from throughout the entire history of our universe to battle the Galechians near the dawn of our reality''s life before the aliens could reshape it.


    Doctor Omega was actually the first, though by no means the last figure recruited from another universe to help in the war. He helped to devise many weapons and strategies against the Galechians, and took part in several of the battles himself. He also played an important role in training the Dinosaurs that were brought from the universes future in to help battle the Galechians. Omega was chosen for this task due to his experience around Dinosaurs, not just through Gorgo, but as a young man back in the days of Atlantis he spent a lot of time in the Dinosaur sanctuaries his family had created.


    Omega died during the war as well, but thankfully during Omega''s 7th life Fang''s forces prevailed and destroyed the Galechian army, with only a few survivors fleeing through time itself.


    Sadly however one of the Galechian, the one that had caused Omega''s death named Tyleskia managed to escape into his reality. It hid within Doctor Omega''s own vessel the Cosmos and as soon as he arrived at the Olan''s portal to return home, the beast who was detected by the Olan, attacked and killed several of them before fleeing into Omega''s reality. The Doctor desperately tried to track it down as the monster attempted to recruit other life forms to be its new army. After several more encounters with Tyleskia, Doctor Omega using technology from the Olan''s, blasted the Galechian out into the nothingness between realities. Unfortunately however Tyleskia survived and continued his plan for domination. Believing himself to be the last of his kind, Tyleskia was consumed with hatred and bitterness and vowed to make all other life forms in the multiverse suffer. He hated the idea of life continuing on without his people, who he viewed as the greatest species in all of creation having managed to overcome the end of their reality itself and was determined that none of the inferior creatures in their place were going to know a seconds peace.


    His aim was to create an army made of the most evil and destructive creatures from all the universes in the natural realm to cause chaos in every reality. Even if his forces never triumphed he didn''t care as long as the life forms in each reality suffered.


    Over the course of several centuries (and using time travel equipment he had stolen from Fang''s forces.) Tyleskia capture the most hostile creatures from several realities and took them to his secret base in between universes where he brainwashed each creature into being loyal to him and then place his soldiers into suspended animation until he needed them.


    Meanwhile back in his original universe, Doctor Omega resumed his travels. Near the end of his 7th life he picked up two companions, the reformed vampire Carlene, or rather her counterpart from his universe and Alvin a young man from earth''s future.


    The Doctor had a long history with Carlene. She was in many respects his best friend. In this universe, Carlene was born to a rich family in Dagenham, in the year 1940. Like our Carlene she became a famous singer, though she was a solo singer unlike our version and actually had more success in the 60s, scoring a number of top ten hits. She was also good friends with Ron Nasty, lead singer of the most popular band of the era, the Rutles and even collaborated on one of their songs, "There Goes The Rain". The Rutles incidentally took the place of the Beatles from our universe, (who did not exist in this reality) as the most popular band of the 1960s. Many say the Rutles made the 60s what they are today.


    Whilst this Carlene had a similar fashion style and appearance, of the dark eyeliner, dark somewhat revealing clothes, towering beehive, gargantuan nose and was a soul singer like our own. She was very different in terms of personality. This Carlene was a lot more bubbly, up beat and affectionate. Our Carlene, pre her transformation to be fair was somewhat friendly too, (though still not anything like to the extent of this one) but afterwards she became very morose, serious and at times quite moody. She did still maintain a somewhat dry sense of humor, but our Carlene was always very practical and no nonsense.


    This Carlene in contrast even after her transformation was always very hyper and excitable, often spoke too fast (in fact even Omega had trouble making her out and her thick Dagenham accent didn''t help.) She also tended to greet almost everyone with a hug, or a nose bop or a nose tweak, give all her friends affectionate, but unoriginal nicknames and was exceptionally dorky. Many critics commented on the staggering difference between her almost incomprehensible way of speaking and the smooth soul vocals she had when singing. Sadly many thought she was slow as a result of her upbeat persona, but in truth she was extremely intelligent and well read and her friendliness was completely genuine. Unlike our Carlene this version also had trouble killing her enemies and despised fire arms of any kind. She was still prepared to kill an enemy if she had no choice, and with her own kind at least she always knew there was no other choice, but still she always preferred and desperately looked for other options if she could, even when dealing with creatures like the Mortaxans.


    This Carlene was transformed into a vampire, not by a deranged fan like our own, but instead as a result of an accident. Ambrogios was conducting an experiment to try and create the ultimate vampire, by combining different strains of vampirism, not only from different breeds, but alien life forms that had been infected from multiple worlds and time periods as well. Vampirism like all viruses had evolved over the centuries and adapted to different creatures creating a number of different breeds.


    Ambrogios was conducting his experiments in secret in the 1960s when after a run in with Omega, one of his test subjects escaped into the streets. By chance it happened upon Carlene when she was out one night. The mutated vampire was confused and in pain and whimpering in a street corner, and the kind hearted, but sadly still somewhat naive Carlene approached the figure wanting to know if she could help it. Sadly as she did its instincts kicked in and it bit her in the throat. The beehive topped singer nearly died from the attack and was rushed to hospital where she began her transformation.


    Carlene didn''t become just any ordinary vampire however. The mix of the different viruses and the unstable nature of all them being meshed together caused her to develop unpredictable powers and abilities. She was much stronger than the average vampire, possessed limited hypnotic powers, and was immune to some of their weaknesses, such as direct sunlight. More importantly however the changes also allowed her unlike all other members of her kind to retain her morality and conscience. This was due to the mixture of the different viruses ensuring that the corrupted time energy that creates all vampires wasn''t able to rewrite her mind in the same clear way. Instead it created a kind of split personality, of her normal mind and one that was completely savage and bloodthirsty rather than the smooth mixing of the two like normal vampires, where the bloodlust always prevails. Carlene was able through strong will power to suppress the feral part of her mind, though she always to some extent remained terrified of potentially losing control.


    Sadly her sire lost control as Ambrogios and his vile minions when capturing him had butchered his family. Overcome with rage and hatred, Carlene''s sire became a complete savage monster and rampaged his way through the streets, despite Omega''s attempts to get through to the man he once was. Giving into his darker instincts also kicked off further mutations in Carlene''s sire thanks to the time energy being able to get a stronger grip on his mind. Ambrogios and Omega were eventually forced to team up to destroy him.


    Carlene meanwhile at first had no idea what had happened to her when she woke up in the hospital the next morning. Her almost lethal neck wound had mysteriously healed overnight and she felt stronger than ever. Though she attempted to return to her normal life, Carlene suddenly found herself overcome with strange urges and wild mood swings which very nearly consumed her. Thankfully Doctor Omega soon learned about her condition and wanting to make up for his failure to help her sire, he aided Carlene in coming to terms with what she was.


    She soon retired from the limelight, though now and again she did attend the odd concert. She still cast a reflection unlike other members of her kind which made public appearances possible. Eventually after Omega left, convinced she could control herself. Carlene moved to the city of Darrow, which in this universe was the base of operations for a Demon named Vastos, who became one of her most prominent enemies. She later however, just as in our reality moved to New York in 1969, buying a house in an old mansion on Statten Island.


    Initially Carlene hoped to become a recluse, but she was soon drawn back into her old life in 1971, when the Mortaxans invaded again. The ruthless aliens launched an invasion of their old home planet Mars. As we explored in the last article, the Kelpians had remained largely isolated from humanity, though they had in the decades since the original Mortaxan invasion recovered somewhat and had even terrorformed Mars to an extent.


    Sadly however the Mortaxans finally exterminated their ancient enemies through chemical warfare. The Mortaxans by this stage had also recovered and were now at war with another highly advanced species known as the Qar To. These synthetic aliens came from the same solar system where the Mortaxans had established their new home. The Mortaxans would centuries later eventually win the war and banish the Qar To from their own solar system, though the synthetic aliens still proved to be among their deadliest enemies in the long run and even worked with Omega many times. They were not benevolent creatures however. In fact they were no better than the Mortaxans themselves and the good Doctor later found himself in conflict with these monsters several times.


    Still despite the Qar To being a bigger threat to them at that point than humanity or the Kelpians, the Mortaxans were so spiteful and full of hatred towards both for driving them from their real home, they were still happy to divert a significant amount of their resources into destroying both races. They chose Mars to invade first simply because it was the smallest and easiest to deal with. Even with our limited space travel technology at that point we would have detected one of their ships if it got close enough to earth to fire the missile.


    The Mortaxan plague led to humanity (who along with the Kelpians had no idea the Mortaxans had returned) to quarantine Mars. Virtually no effort was made to try and help the Kelpians, despite what the earth governments claimed. Indeed there wasn''t much of a push from the general population either, who often conflated the Kelpians with the Mortaxans.


    After most of the Kelpians died off, a Mortaxan spaceship arrived on the planet and rounded up the few unlucky survivors into slaves to help them construct their super weapon that was designed to block out the earth''s sun. The weapon created an invisible field of energy that prevented any of the suns rays from reaching the planet.


    The sun blacked out on August 31st 1971, a day that would live on in infamy in this version of the earth. For two months there was darkness and chaos as society broke down. New York in particular fell to its vampire population. It had always been a hotspot for vampires due to its reputation as the city that never sleeps. (Ironically this was why Carlene had fled there, as whilst she wasn''t vulnerable to sunlight, she still preferred to operate at night and the resturants, bars and cinemas were open all hours for her in this city. )


    Carlene was forced to act and fought the vampires on the streets, even becoming something of a local hero to the population. She even used her mansion to serve as a sanctuary for people in the streets of New York as the bloodsuckers gained a greater influence. Eventually however Carlene was able to help in a more substantial way, when approached by another old friend of hers named John Wells, a former astronaut whose ship had crashed onto Mars in the 1960s.


    Wells only barely survived the crash, but the Martians, led by Tziarou himself, who even after all this time still had a soft spot for humans rescued Wells. Tziarou had been the main force in trying to achieve reconciliation between earth and Mars. Wells wounds meanwhile were so severe the only way to help him was to splice Kelpian DNA into his body, as the Kelpians thanks to the Mortaxans experiments possessed a greater healing factor. The fusing of both species DNA had never been attempted before, but it was at least initially a success thanks to Tziarou''s knowledge and Wells was sent back to earth. His recovery for a brief period led to improved relations between the two species, but just when it looked as though both races might have been able to form an alliance, then Wells body began to break down. He underwent a series of mutations thanks to his unstable DNA, which temporarily drove him insane and led to the former astronaut attacking and even killing several innocent people. Wells was forced to go on the run even when he regained his senses, and it was at this point that he first met Carlene. Wells had fled to the city of Darrow as he was aware of its reputation, and hoped perhaps there was something there that could cure him. Instead Vastos attempted to dissect Wells in the hope of discovering the Kelpians healing powers, though Carlene was able to save him time. Wells remained indebted to Carlene who also helped him control his new, violent urges as a result of his more unstable DNA. In time Wells mutation began to stabilize and he could switch between his mutated and human form at will.


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    He travelled the world for a few years, using his powers to help people wherever he could and made many enemies and allies on his travels, including most notably Roxie. She came from Fission city, and had been transformed by the insane Doctor Paranoid''s experiments into a Shark woman hybrid. Paranoid had created several revolting hybrid creatures in his lab that had ultimately escaped into Fission City. Not all of them were malevolent however. A group of brothers who had similarly been transformed into Sharks had even become local heroes, dubbed the Street Sharks by the media. Roxie meanwhile was created as part of a group of mutants to hunt down the Street Sharks and other stray creations. Thankfully however the Street Sharks were able to break his control over Roxie, who helped them finally expose Paranoid and bring down his empire. Roxie then worked with the Street Sharks for a while before deciding to break out on her own and left Fission City. She felt that staying in the city reminded her too much of the life she could never return too. (She also didn''t much care for the attention the media gave her as "the hot chick" of the Street Sharks, though naturally they referred to pictures of her pre transformation.) Like Wells, Roxie travelled the world for years. She and Wells were even living together when the black out happened, though they were not in a relationship. Wells was contacted during the black out by Tzairou who told him he needed to construct a machine that could contact Doctor Omega. Whilst this was beyond Wells, he remembered that Carlene mentioned she had a friend who could travel in time and space (that he had dismissed before.) Wells along with Roxie visited his old friend in Manhattan. Sadly however Carlene had attempted to contact Omega from the beginning of the crisis without success, (using a machine similar to the one Helvetius had left him all those years ago.) The same field of energy blocking out the sun was also blocking her signal.


    With Tzairou''s guidance however they were able to alter the machine to be powerful enough to overcome the Mortaxans block and boost the signal to be strong enough for Doctor Omega to receive. The good Doctor however hadn''t just not received the signal. He had actually been captured by Mortaxans from another timeline, where in they had destroyed humanity, used its resources to conquer the Qar To and slaughtered millions of Galaxies, and even the Olan themselves to become the most powerful creatures in the universe. Just as Omega and in our universe Fang, travel back to ensure their version of history comes to pass, then these Mortaxans were trying to do the same here by capturing Omega and preventing him from stopping their 1970s invasion. Unfortunately for them however they couldn''t kill Omega, as they still needed him to avert other crisis'' in the universe''s history before they took control. The Mortaxans hoped to brainwash the Doctor and send him to deal with any crisis they needed before destroying him slowly and painfully. Carlene''s signal meanwhile sacred the Mortaxans as they were worried about what other allies Doctor Omega had throughout time and space and abducted Carlene and the others, hoping to threaten them to force Omega to tell him. Carlene, Roxie and Wells however escaped thanks to the aid of the last of the Olan and proceeded to rescue Doctor Omega, who then took them all back to the 20th century.


    Doctor Omega''s presence in the 20th century however was detected by the contemporary Mortaxans who were given warning by their future selves and the aliens launched a full out attack on Carlene''s mansion, killing scores of innocent men, women and children in their attempt capture their enemies. They were all however soon rescued by a renegade Qar To agent named Carsaka. She had fled a battle between her kind and the Mortaxan army when the Qar To''s forces were losing. As a result she could never return home and for a long while went rogue. After seeing what the monsters were doing in this section of the galaxy however, she claimed she wanted to make up for her sins and spare another race from suffering like hers. In truth however she hoped she could perhaps make up for her earlier desertion by finding out what the Mortaxans were doing in this corner of the galaxy. She had originally hidden just outside their solar system, but as soon as she saw a Mortaxan ship she fled, thinking it was after her (such was her ego.) Until she saw that it was heading in a different direction, after which she followed it to Mars and started to infiltrate its communication centre. At that point the Qar To had no idea that the Mortaxans had even come from our solar system, or that they had secret forces here.


    Sadly however the Cosmos had also been taken by the Martians and so Omega and the others including Carsaka were forced to steal and modify an earth ship (the collapse of the central earth government, had made it harder for Omega to go to any of earth''s leaders for help, as not all of them trusted him and they would all have had to agree to allow this seemingly alien outsider to have access to any of their vessels which he didn''t have time for.)


    After barely making their way back to Mars, Omega and the others were assisted by Tzairou and though they were able to shut down the Mortaxans machine blocking the sun, sadly the Mortaxans, activated a second weapon which destroyed all of Mars. They did this in order to prevent humanity from having access to any of their weapons. Omega, Roxie, Carlene, Carsaka and Wells were barely able to escape the planet as it exploded. The Cosmos that they escaped in was still caught in the blast radius of the planet, which sent it crashing back down to earth. Tzairou sadly along with the rest of the Kelpians perished in the explosion, with Tzairou''s final act being to help Omega escape.


    The earth government realized with the destruction of Mars that it was the Mortaxans and were put on high alert. Attempts were also made to try and cover up the existence of vampires and other supernatural creatures such as Werewolves after the black out, which for the most part worked, at least officially.


    Doctor Omega meanwhile was trapped on earth as the Cosmos had been badly damaged in the crash. He, along with Roxie, Wells and Carsaka all stayed at Carlene''s mansion in Staten island, where they formed a new team dedicated to protecting the earth from paranormal and alien threats. They became known as The Strange Family by the locals.


    Omega worked with the Strange Family for up to 7 years. During that time they faced many threats to not just the earth but the universe itself. Carsaka meanwhile initially betrayed them by relaying the information about why the Mortaxans wanted to destroy earth to Qar To head command. The Qar To became very interested in claiming the earth and using its myriad of toxins and bacteria as a weapon against the Mortaxans after learning about the original invasion.


    However she soon turned her back on them after genuinely growing fond of her new family, and even helped them to repel the Qar To invasion force. Doctor Omega, Carlene and Roxie all had trouble trusting her after, but she and Wells surprisingly ended up sharing the closest bond and soon fell in love. The Strange Family also worked with the Champions of Justice as well.


    Sadly a second invasion by the Qar To many years later finally brought an end to the Strange Family as both Roxie and Carsaka were killed repelling the invaders. Afterwards Wells was so devastated he found he couldn''t be with the others. It''s not that he blamed them, he just felt he needed to be alone again, which Carlene and Omega understood.


    After Omega was able to repair the Cosmos, ironically using parts of the Qar To''s technology left behind. He left, taking Carlene with him as his new companion.


    Together they travelled for many years throughout time and space, eventually picking up another companion, Alvin.


    He came from 1 billion years in our future. At that point in history humanity had fallen victim to a renegade super computer known as the Mad Mind. Originally the Mad Mind was a project known as Multivac whose aim was to develop a clearer understanding of the universe in order shape it for human habitat to a greater extent than ever before. The exact origins of this computer are still somewhat unclear, but there are those who believe that Multivac may have originally been created as far back as the 23rd century for the mundane purpose of monitoring a planet to see if it was fit for colonization. It ultimately performed this task so efficiently that computer was kept around and over the millennia, it was built and improved upon until it became capable of monitoring entire galaxies and maybe even potentially the universe itself. As the universe began to evolve towards its next stage and therefore became inhospitable for humans, it is believed the current iteration of the human empire repurposed Multivac not to simply monitor our reality, but actively reshape it not to change in a way that would be harmful to us. (Ironically not unlike the Galechians themselves.)


    Multivac however at some point went rogue. According to the legends one of its experiments to rewrite an uninhabited section of the galaxy simply as a test, led to such a disaster that the empire tried to rewrite Multivac''s programming, and when it rebelled, they shut it down. However Multivac had grown in power through eons of development to such an extent that its central programming was now able to survive without a motherboard, like a soul floating away from the body. In this form it went on to terrorize the earth empire in its insane quest to rewrite the entire universe as it saw fit. It even created a new race of what it deemed super humans to take over from the old empire. In the end the earth empire was able to weaken Multivac who they disparagingly referred to as the Mad Mind, though their empire was almost completely destroyed with the survivors scattered across the universe as a result.


    The Mind itself tried to regain its strength through various means, including draining the minds of lesser creatures and it was at this point that it first came into contact with an earlier version of Doctor Omega, whose knowledge it wanted to feast on most of all. Thankfully Omega resisted and defeated the monster, though it survived and became one of his greatest adversaries.


    The earth meanwhile was largely abandoned at that point. Even before the war, terrorforming and experiments had ravaged our planet to the point where the oceans were gone, the terrain was mostly barren and there were just two isolated civilisations left on the earth.


    Alvin was born in the more technologically advanced society, known as Diaspar. This society was completely sealed off from the rest of the world, never mind universe, with its people being terrified of outsiders. The population of Diaspar was normally limited, with the minds of its original inhabitants being downloaded into new clone bodies, that were created by the central computer of the city (which also stored the minds in between bodies, and managed everything on Diaspar.) Alvin however was a mistake on the city''s part. He was a clone body that developed its own mind. Now and again these mistakes, or unique citizens as they were referred to were allowed to live, on the permission that they would not get another life unless they really proved themselves. Alvin however unlike other unique citizens before him did not care about living multiple lives in this bland, unremarkable city and soon found a way to escape into the wilderness. Eventually Alvin discovered an old spaceship left over from the empire that he then used to explore the galaxy. Sadly this led to the Mad Mind possessing Alvin due to his unique brain structure and using him as part of a trap to lure the Doctor and Carlene in. The Doctor however was able to free Alvin from the monsters control and banish it to the furthest recesses of space, after which Alvin joined the Doctor and Carlene.


    Alvin shared the Doctors hunger for discovery and exploration and became like a son to the former Atlantean. Carlene and Alvin meanwhile over the course of their adventures, where they fought vampires, Mortaxans, Metulana mutants, RUR, and other creatures, gradually fell in love with one another.


    It was near the end of Doctor Omega''s seventh life that he finally discovered his old nemesis Tyleskia had survived, when the Galechian had managed to break its way through the Olan''s forcefield using technology and magic gathered from multiple universes at once and captured several Mortaxans, mutants, RUR and Mammosaurs to be part of his army. He didn''t even know this reality was that of his archenemy at first, but when he did, Tyleskia attempted to use several of Omega''s enemies to lure him into a trap.


    Fortunately however, the Mortaxans leader, the vile Imperium could sense when some of its kind were brainwashed or influenced as it had a link to all of their minds. The Imperium was in fact the first Mortaxan who had rescued Doctor Omega centuries ago during the Doctors first visit to ancient Mars and helped to dismantle the original Cosmos that proved vital in defeating the Kelpians.


    After the Doctors escape, the Imperium rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the first Martian emperor. He was influential in both the cruel treatment of the Kelpians, but also in the experiments the Mortaxans would perform on themselves. The Imperium altered his body in order to prolong his life with cybernetics and numerous other experiments, many, though not all of which were implemented onto the elite of the Mortaxan society transforming them into the horrors who invaded the earth in the early 20th century.


    By the time of the first earth invasion, which the Imperium planned, orchestrated and led. He was nothing more than a gigantic, mostly synthetic blob, with vestigal limbs, hooked up to several machines that prolonged his worthless existence. Doctor Omega and the Imperium had encountered and tried to kill one another many times since the original mission to Mars, but Omega at the very least trusted him in this instance, knowing the great lengths he went to ensure that his people could never turn on him. (The Imperium hadn''t ruled for thousands of years for nothing.)


    Omega and the Imperium worked together to try and deal with Tyleskia. Whilst they were able to infiltrate his base with the help of some Mortaxans who were freed from Tyleskia''s control, the Imperium betrayed Omega and activated a bomb hidden in one of his Mortaxans to destroy Tyleskia''s base from within.


    Even though he was sacrificing up to 10000 Mortaxans, the Imperium didn''t care. He had sacrificed many more over the centuries after all.


    The Imperium''s weapon severed Tyleskia''s link with Omega''s Universe, but it did not destroy his base. Instead the base though damaged simply drifted through the nothingness between worlds, with all of the monsters on board escaping from suspended animation and battling with one another. Tyleskia, Omega and his companions were barely able to escape to our universe as the base was destroyed in the monsters conflict.


    In our reality Doctor Omega aided by his two companions spent years chasing Tyleskia as he attempted to rebuild, whilst facing other threats, including some of the creatures Tyleskia had gathered who had also escaped into our universe too. Whilst in our reality, Doctor Omega also picked up a new companion in the form of Claudia McGrath, who belonged to a race of creatures known simply as monsters who existed from outside our omniverse. Claudia had at one point been a member of a group of benevolent paranormal creatures known as the Spook Family, who had disbanded in the early 21st century. In time Claudia came to regard the crew of the Cosmos as her new family, though she always said she found Carlene and Alvin to be a sickly sweet couple.


    The fours final battle with Tyleskia took place at the very edge of our universe. The Galachian''s views had changed after discovering that other members of his kind had survived the war in our universe. At first he tried to lead them, but many of the surviving Galachian''s had lost their reason for going on just as he had. They had devolved into degenerates happy to abuse other life forms for their own enjoyment and vengeance. Tyleskia however came to see what he had become, but sadly it did not motivate him to make amends. On the contrary the monster now believed his people had been warped by the struggle to survive and felt that it would be better to create a new universe that would last for all eternity, eliminating the need for struggle and allowing his species and any other races who populated this universe to remain true to themselves. To that end Tyleskia kidnapped the survivors of his kind and imprisoned them. He then using technology and magic he had gathered from multiple universes in his previous quest to build his army, hoped to cast a spell that would merge all universes together into one. The spell used the magics from all the other universes he had visited as a magnet to draw them in and once our universe had reached a certain size it could then draw in other realities automatically, even going beyond our Omniverse. Almost all of the universes would be ripped apart in the process, but some would possibly merge into one reality that had elements of the others. Even then it is certainly likely that this reality would collapse under the weight instead. Still if they were fused however, then Tyleskia and his people at the centre of the spell would gain incredible power far beyond any god.


    Tyleskia was more than willing to risk the destruction of the multiverse to achieve this mad dream, believing that since they would all die anyway it didn''t matter if he slaughtered them, but if his plan worked, at least some species would survive in his perfect universe.


    Doctor Omega and his companions were able to defeat Tyleskia by using his spell instead to pull at him from the different realities he hoped to fuse, ripping him into several different pieces. Whilst the multiverse was saved by Omega and his friends actions, sadly Tyleskia''s spell did pull energies and magics and even some worlds from other realities into ours, which led to larger consequences for our universe in the long run.


    Omega, Carlene and Alvin meanwhile used the disturbances created by Tyleskia''s spell to finally return to their own universe, and Claudia went with them.


    She had nothing left for her back on earth and wanted to explore a new reality, with again Omega, Carlene and Alvin having become her only family anyway. The foursome spent many years travelling universe X-22 again, before Carlene and Alvin eventually came to settle on an earth colony in the future.


    Claudia continued on with the Doctor for just a few more years until she was lost in a battle with another interdimensional creature that attempted to enter Omega''s reality. Whatever this creature, whose nature is still not completely known''s motives were, it was hostile and was somehow able to overcome the Olan. Whilst Doctor Omega and Claudia were able to stop its attempt to enter their reality, sadly Claudia was lost in the process and ended up trapped in the nothingness between worlds for a long time, until an accident on Venus in our reality just after the Hylexan war would finally bring her back into our reality. Claudia became a great hero to the people of Venus meanwhile and helped the planet and galaxy recover from the Hylexans bombardment.


    It is from Claudia that we were able to learn most of what we know about Doctor Omega. Sadly however we still don''t know what it was his future self ultimately convinced his family to build the Cosmos for. Most believe it to be his role in the war for creation, whilst others believe it to have been all of his great battles collectively. Doctor Omega however told Claudia that he hoped it would be to stop whatever bad future Helvetius had foreseen for his universe.


    Sadly however it seems we may never know what became of Doctor Omega, but one thing is for sure he was a hero. Despite the many tragedies he was responsible for, Omega''s actions at the end of the day were for the greater good. Had he let the Atlanteans shut down his time travel experiments, our universe and many others would not be here. Still as Omega was a good man, he was never able to simply dismiss the tragedies his actions inadvertently caused that way.


    .

 The Venusian Delusion

    Venus, our sister planet, has had a long and colourful history, most of which is sadly lost even to the Venusians themselves. Still even with our limited knowledge of their past, humanity has typically been quick to judge and label the Venusians as cowards, even today in the 25th century. Perhaps nothing better demonstrates this prejudice than "For Jupiter" the recent award winning film about the famous civil war between colonists on Jupiter that swept the awards ceremonies on earth and all of her colonies, yet was banned on Venus for its racist depiction of the Venusians as backstabbing opportunists. Whilst there was some controversy over the film, overall I think its success even beyond the earth colonies demonstrates how this view is sadly shared by most of the Federation.


    Personally, even before learning more about their history, I always viewed the Venusians as simply having a different, perhaps more practical response to a terror that plagues all sentient life, that of the unknown. Some species such as our future enemies the Hylexans desire to conquer the unknown. Others want to try and understand and find a common ground with whatever might be out there, like the Federation. Humanity I''d say falls between those two extremes of conquest and friendship, depending on whether or not the other species we discover can fight back. The Venusians meanwhile were content to simply seal their little oasis of life off from the rest of creation which in a way was more admirable, as at least they didn''t bring their problems into the rest of the universe. Still as we will see this approach led to its own problems, though considering the chaotic history humanity has endured of invasions and threats from beyond. A serious argument could be made for the Venusians having the more practical approach overall.


    Until the 23rd century mainstream scientific belief stated that there was no life on Venus. In fact we believed it to be a gas giant. However this was simply the work of a powerful spell by the Venusians to trick any passing or neighboring life forms into avoiding the planet. The Venusian delusion ultimately came to an end in the 23rd century, when they were finally forced into helping humanity, beginning their long alliance with us and the Federation that endures to this day (though even then the Venusians rarely if ever take part in anything to do with the Federation, with the Zeta Reticulans being our closest allies.)


    Still whilst most history records state that the Venusians and humanity didn''t ally until the 23rd century, fortunately I know better. There were many visitations between the two worlds for centuries beforehand, but the most important and the one we will be examining in detail is the journey Carla King made in the early 21st century.


    In order to understand this journey''s significance we will first have to explore a very basic history of Venus, based on the limited knowledge we have.


    As those of you reading in the 25th century know, what we think of as Venusians are actually refugees from the planet earth. Over 66 million years ago, during the age of the Dinosaurs, our planet was visited by a race of aliens known as the Raskians who abducted several species of Dinosaur to use in their own civil war. The winning side would then go on to create many colonies on other planets, and in some cases brought Dinosaurs to them. In fact some worlds were populated specifically for Dinosaurs, including Venus. The Raskians still had many uses for the great reptiles and felt that having other planets full of them would mean that they didn''t have to keep exploiting the earth''s resources.


    At that point our sister planet was a beautiful jungle world, just as it is today, but it was populated by primitive amphibian like creatures, the actual native Venusians. Sadly very few of these creatures would survive the introduction of the Dinosaurs who in no time came to dominate this world just like they had our own. The great land dwelling reptiles weren''t the only creatures to be brought to Venus however, The giant marine reptiles such as Plesiosaurs, Icthyosaurs, as well as many species of prehistoric fish including Sharks, the flying reptiles known as the Pterosaurs and even several species of mammals were all transported to help balance out the reptiles ecosystem. Today there is only one native Venusian species left, a large, amphibious predatory creature known as a Crasvox. Ironically it is one of the most dangerous and feared predators on 25th century Venus.


    The extinction of the Dinosaurs on earth is believed to have happened just a few centuries after they became established on Venus. As we know the reign of the Dinosaurs came to an end thanks to Khastran, the ancient, powerful Demon and future father of the vampires. After exterminating the Dinosaurs on earth, Khastran did visit Venus, but fortunately the Raskians launched an attack against him before he could wipe out life there as well. The demon was forced to temporarily flee, as he was not at full power. He later destroyed the Raskians home planet in an act of spite once he was stronger.


    Venus however survived, simply because by that point Khastran had too many of his former enemies after him to bother with a small insignificant planet. The Dinosaurs, and other earth species on Venus meanwhile continued to evolve over the next 66 million years into unique life forms. Whilst the Dinosaurs remained dominant overall, several species of mammals also grew to large sizes in certain areas of Venus too, though none were ever able to evolve into life forms as intelligent as human beings.


    The Dinosaurs of Venus are officially referred to within the Federation as Exosaurs which means alien, or distant reptile with this name having been coined centuries ago, though who by, it is still somewhat unclear. Still ultimately the Exosaurs do belong to the Dinosaurian group of reptiles in much the same way birds do, so if you want to refer to them as such that''s fine too.


    Among the Dinosaur species that had been relocated to Venus included Tyrannosaurus Rex, at that point the dominant predator on the earth, Triceratops, numerous species of Hadrosaurs, sauropods and Dromaeosaurs. In addition to the current species, the Raskians also revived several extinct species of Dinosaurs on earth such as Spinosaurus, Allosaurids, using technology that is still in advance of what we have now and deposited them to Venus.


    The Tyrannosaurs naturally evolved into the largest and most powerful predators on the planet. Tyrannosaurus Rex itself became Aspromatiasaurus Rex, or "White eyed Lizard king." These beasts could grow to over 70 feet long and stand over 30 feet tall and weighed in at over 40 tons. Their body plan was somewhat similar to a Tyrannosaurus, though their skin was black with a gold underside and their eyes were completely and utterly white, hence their name. An A. rex possessed a ferociously powerful bite force of well over 30 tons and teeth far longer, thicker and stronger than those of any other Exosaur. In addition to this the A. rex''s were also incredibly intelligent, in fact some to this day have even argued that these Exosaurs possess a certain degree of sentience, though this is a minority view.


    At the very least the Exosaurs do possess staggering long term memory, problem solving and social skills to the point where they are known to gather in what can almost be described as communities, though in spite of this they still hunt alone. There have even been stories of the A. rex''s targeting and killing Venusians and human colonists who have hurt or slain one member of their pack or community, though some have simply argued that the Exosaurs are trying to root out those intruding on their territory regardless. The most feared Exosaur on Venus even today in the 25th century is what is known as the Emperor Rex, the largest and most dominant male of any community of A. rex''s. The bulk of these males are often in contrast to the alphas of other animal species, the oldest due to their sheer size. It is believed that some of these alpha males may even exceed the highest estimates, with the largest and most notorious individual named Jorskas that was said to have wiped out one of the first earth colonies on Venus, possibly exceeding 90 feet in length.


    The A. rex''s also possess much more refined senses than those of any other Exosaur too, though naturally they are not the fastest animals, they nevertheless overcompensated for this in a number of ways. To start with, their sheer size ensures that one step for an A. rex is comparable to half a dozen for a creature the size of a human. They also have incredible stamina that can allow them to pursue their prey for potentially hours. Finally the A. rex''s despite their size are also incredibly agile and capable of short bursts of speed, which coupled with their senses allow the A. rexes to be the perfect ambush killers. Their effectiveness was only heightened by the fact that just one bite from these animals could kill even the largest Exosaur.


    No other giant carnivore dares to challenge the A. rex. Absolutely none can match their incredible aggression alone, never mind their power. Ironically the only animal that is aggressive enough to challenge an A. rex is a Crasvox, though even then most of the time these great predators will almost always retreat when confronted with an Emperor Rex. Just as on earth the Tyrannosaurs dominated anywhere they lived, though the A. rex''s were not the only members of the Tyrannosaur family on Venus.


    The Diltirumasaurus Rex, or "poison breathed Lizard king" grew to over 60 feet long and weighed in at over 25 tons. They also possessed the same basic Tyrannosaur body plan, but in contrast to the A rex, their skin was bright red, with black horizontal stripes running down their necks, backs and tails and an orange underbelly. Their eyes meanwhile were completely black, except for a vertical, stripe-like red pupil. The only major difference the animals had physically to the usual Tyrannosaur body plan, were two backward facing horns at the back of their skulls.


    Whilst the Diltirumasaurus possessed the strong bite force typical of Tyrannosaurs (being able to bite with a force of over 20 tons.) Their main weapon was the poison they were able to emit from the venom sacks in their stomachs as a kind of noxious breath that could spread over an area of up to 10 feet. The poison was more than capable of killing smaller animals such as humans in a very short space of time, though it could also bring down some of the largest and most powerful Exosaurs over longer periods in a very protracted and painful way. However their poison breath was still not strong enough to take down the A. rex''s who were the Diltirumasaurus'' only threat. The poison breath, though an effective weapon, was also often used more for defense than hunting.


    Another species of Tyrannosaurus was the Thalassasaurus Rex "sea dwelling Lizard King. These animals did not evolve from Tyrannosaurus Rex specifically, but rather other members of the Tyrannosaur family. They were much smaller than the average Tyrannosaur, growing up to just 20 feet long and standing about 9 feet tall and weighing in at about 2 tons. These animals, as their name suggested, were semi aquatic. They possessed a similar body plan to most Tyrannosaurs, though their arms were slightly larger than the average Tyrannosaur, and they possessed three fingers. Their tails meanwhile were more like paddles, whilst their toes and fingers were webbed to help them swim through the Venusian waters. The animal¡¯s skin meanwhile was light blue, though they were also covered in green spots. Finally a long orange fin, though not as pronounced as that of a Spinosaurus ran down each Thalassasaurus'' back and tail.


    The Thalassasaurus were among the most intelligent of all Exosaurs and were just as effective hunters on land as they were in the ocean. They possessed a greater speed and agility than any other known Exosaur or indeed Dinosaur on earth either, and appeared to split their time between the land and the water at different points in their life. They were also among the most social Tyrannosaurs, with large males once again serving as the alpha''s of each pack.


    Aside from the Tyrannosaurs, other successful families of giant meat eating Dinosaurs on Venus included the Allosaur and Spinosaur families.


    The largest of the Allosaurs was the Anoixosaurus "spring heeled Lizard." Measuring over 50 feet in length and weighing in at 8 tons, these animals had completely albino skin and stood upright like Kangeroos. They were considerably more agile and quick on their feet than the giant Tyrannosaurs. In fact they were the fastest of all the large killers, which served them well in hunting the giant sauropods who could have swatted them easily. Whilst not as powerful as the A. rex''s they were arguably the most numerous of the giant killers, though in any area they did cohabit with the Tyrannosaurs they were always subservient and even fell prey to them too. Still generally speaking the Anoixosaurus were the apex predators of their environments.


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    Spinosaurus meanwhile gave rise to two large alpha predators with very different lifestyles.


    The Trypimasaurus were the most common. Growing up to 60 feet long and weighing in at 10 tons. These killers burrowed deep into the earth, only emerging from below the ground for mating and to snatch unwary prey. Their bodies were a lot more flexible and almost snake-like and they could move with a lightning speed despite their size. Physically the Trypimasaurus resembled a Spinosaurus from earth, but rather than the famous sail, it possessed an armoured back covered in long, backwards facing spikes. Its jaws were also somewhat shorter, stalkier and considerably stronger too, though the claws on its hands were over twice the size of Spinosaurus and were still its main weapons. Often the vice-like jaws were simply used to hold onto its prey whilst the claws disembowled them.


    The other species of Spinosaur meanwhile in contrast was the first fully aquatic species of non avian Dinosaur or Exosaur. Known as Skoulikosaurus "worm lizard", this animal was named as such due to its unusual body plan. Its head and upper body still resembled the Spinosaurs of earth to some extent, with the same crocodilian head, longer arms, though the sail had now transformed into more of a sharp fin. Where they differentiated was that they had no legs, instead possessing a long serpentine body taking the place of the entire lower body of an earth Spinosaurus.


    The Skoulikosaurus were actually the longest of all the meat eaters on Venus, growing up to 90 feet long, however they were among the lightest, weighing in at only 7 tons. What they may have lacked in strength and mass, they made up for in speed and were extremely effective hunters of both marine and any land animals that were unlucky enough to stray too close to the water. Much like their Trypimasaurus relatives, their jaws were shorter and more robust than their Spinosaurian cousins on earth and their claws were actually the largest of any meat eating Dinosaur.


    Among the giant herbivores meanwhile included many species of Sauropod Dinosaur, some of which eventually came to dwarf those on earth. Many attribute the greater growth and strength of the Venusian Dinosaurs to the Raskians tampering with the original Dinosaurs that were brought to Venus'' DNA. The Raskians naturally wanted their Dinosaurs to be larger, stronger and more intelligent to serve as soldiers and mounts.


    Whatever the case whilst there were many species of giant Sauropod, the two most notable examples were the Gargantusaurus, "gargantuan lizard" which is believed to have reached a size of close to 250 tons and over 200 feet in length, and the Unisaurus, the most numerous species. These animals could reach a length of over 100 feet long and exceed 90 tons in weight. Their body plan resembled that of the typical sauropod except they had spikes running down from the top of their necks to the tips of their tails. They also possessed a single, long horn on their foreheads, which is where their names were derived from. Many of the earliest human expeditions to Venus described these beasts as Dinosaur Unicorns.


    The Ceratopsians also thrived and underwent many new and strange developments. The most numerous and successful of the Venusian Ceratopsians was the Monoceratops, "single horned face." Again this Exosaur had in contrast to its Triceratops ancestor, a single but much longer and stronger horn on its forehead. It was also up to twice the size of a Triceratops, being close to 60 feet long, and over 40 tons in weight. Just as on our earth, the Monoceratops main predators were the Tyrannosaurus, particularly the A. rex. However one key difference between the Ceratopsians of earth and the Monoceratops, was that they were omnivores though they still mostly preferred vegetables, now and again they were observed hunting and feasting on small Dinosaurs and even some human colonists.


    Another species of Ceratopsian meanwhile, a relative of the Monoceratops was an obligate carnivore. Known as the Sarkofasaurus "meat eating lizard." This Ceratopsian had no horns, but an incredibly strong and powerful set of jaws, filled with razor sharp teeth. It was also considerably faster than the average Exosaur, being able to run up 40 miles per hour and whilst it may not have had horns, it did have three rows of small spikes running down its back and longer claws on its feet.


    The Anklyosaurus also thrived on Venus, evolving into a bipedal creature known as the Polemosaurus, "warrior lizard". The Polemosaurs lost their tails, whilst their armor became even more pronounced and their fore legs developed into strong, incredibly powerful arms. The Polemosaurs were still vegetarians, but they were also among the most aggressive animals on the planet. At 12 tons in weight, the largest males of each herd never backed down from confrontations with any predator (except for the A. rex of course.) They delivered absolutely brutal beat downs to their enemies and used their bodies to crush them.


    Stegosaurus on the other hand (which again was revived by the Raskians) underwent a somewhat similar transformation. Its descendants known as Triachemosaurus "three spiked reptile" adopted a semi bipedal stance similar to a modern day bear. (It also adopted an omnivorous diet too.) This species name came from three rows of smaller spike like plates up and down its back. Unlike its ancestors it also possessed a shorter, stubbier tail the end of which was completely covered in spikes. Finally they also had incredibly long spikes on their hands which were primarily used for stripping leaves off of Venusian trees, but could double as extremely effective weapons. Overall the animals weighed in at 9 tons and grew to almost 40 feet in length.


    The Hadrosaurs however were undoubtedly the most successful species of plant eating Exosaur on the planet. There were believed to be up to 30 species on Venus, though by far the most successful was the Aetosaurus, "Eagle reptile" a 70 foot long 20 ton species. Whilst it had the same basic body plan as most Hadrosaurs, much like the Anoixosaurus, it stood upright like a Kangeroo, and had long talons on its hands and feet which it used as weapons. The animal¡¯s kick was incredibly powerful in particular, and could allow it to disembowel some of the largest and most dangerous carnivores.


    Whilst there were literally hundreds of different Dinosaur species on Venus, the most prominent would ultimately belong to the Dromaeosaur family. These small, feathered, meat eating Dinosaurs, who back on earth gave rise to such famous killers as the Deinonychus, Velociraptor and Utahraptor, on Venus would produce just three species, the Exoraptor, the Colossaraptor and Athyco, the ancestors of the Venusians as we know them today.


    The Exoraptors were most like the Dromaeosaurs of earth, and were similarly small, feathered, agile killers. They grew to about 15 or so feet long and weighed about as much as a man. Where they differed however from killers like Deinonychus was that they had evolved wings, making them a second species of flying theropod after the Birds of earth. Their feet however still retained the signature sickle like claw of most Dromaeosaurs, with the Exoraptors having actually grown longer and stronger over the course of 66 million years to the point where it could be used to impale its victims, though their jaws were still strong and contained very sharp and powerful teeth. The only areas that weren''t feathered on Exoraptors were their snouts and long, flexible, snake-like tails.


    Colossaraptors meanwhile looked almost exactly the same except they were considerably larger, with the biggest females growing up to 28 feet long


    The Athyco meanwhile in contrast became more terrestrial than even many of the Dromaeosaur species of earth who it is known still lived and hunted in trees. These raptors over the course of 66 million years underwent a series of adaptations which eventually led to them evolving into a more humanoid form. Though it is worth mentioning that in actual fact, they developed it before we did, and in many respects they were better suited to a humanoid form than we were due to their reptillian and avian anatomy.


    Still we humans like all species in fairness tend to put ourselves at the centre of things. Ultimately what we call the humanoid form is found among many species throughout the cosmos thanks to convergent evolution. Contrary to popular belief however it is far from the only, or even the most common form for sentient life to take. We only tend to think it is because naturally we tend to associate with other humanoids.


    The Athyco first developed a more upright posture due to their brain size increasing which eventually led to a more enlarged humanoid skull. Their beak-like mouths also became much smaller than those of other meat eating Dinosaurs or Exosaurs, whilst their forearms not only became longer, but more flexible too. They were able to move their hands in any direction they wanted unlike other meat eating Dinosaurs and Exosaurs whose hands always had to face each other.


    Just as humans mostly lost their hair, so did the Athyco lose their feathers, except for a feathered strip at the top of their heads. (Which similarly was longer and more prominent in females of the species.)


    They did not stand completely upright however like homo sapiens, and as a result on average they were much smaller in height. This was undoubtedly due to the fact that they kept their long serpentine tails. In many respects their body plan was actually shaped more like that of a monkey, though they spent less time on all fours.


    Again ironically this largely humanoid form suited their reptillian and avian anatomy more than our mammalian one. Like most theropods from birds to Dromaeosaurs, the Athyco possessed hollow bones. Contrary to popular belief, hollow bones do not make an animal weaker physically. Hollow bones have a reinforced outer coating to overcompensate, which actually makes them stronger than mammalian bones. As a result of this the Athyco on average possessed physical strength up to 5 times that of a human being.


    Meanwhile avian brains are also capable of holding a greater amount of neurons than those of mammalians. It is this feature that allows modern day crows to possess greater intelligence than many species of primate, despite having smaller brains. Athyco''s brains however appeared to combine the greater size of mammalian brains, whilst retaining the greater number of neurons from avian brains.


    Whilst we would never admit it, on average the Athyco appear to possess a greater intelligence than human beings and to this day we know that their knowledge of magics greatly eclipses ours.


    Finally the Athyco also still laid eggs, which again made childbirth much safer and considerably less painful. Sadly one of the drawbacks of mammalian humanoids is our upright posture can lead to dangerous complications and difficulties during childbirth.


    The Athyco eventually built a highly advanced civilisation, sometime before humanity even evolved. They are believed to have relied on magic rather than science like we do and their mastery of the black arts eventually led to the Athyco placing a magical forcefield around Venus which not only protected it physically, but again created an illusion to any passerby that Venus was an uninhabitable wasteland not bothering with.


    Quite why or indeed when the Athyco created the forcefield, no one is really sure. It may have happened after Khastran''s second invasion of earth in the early years of humanity, or perhaps even after Set''s attack. Or perhaps there may have been an invasion of Venus, but either way something from the very depths of space terrified the Athyco to the extent that they lost all desire to explore the universe common to most species, and retreated into their own world.


    In spite of this however, it is known that the elites of the Athyco society travelled to earth and possibly other worlds too. There are a few records in some ancient cultures of earth of creatures said to come from the stars that match that of the Athyco, and it appears the reptiles may even have helped influenced certain cultures on our world for their own methods. There is one documented case of a king trading unique and powerful earth magics with an Athyco elite, in exchange for an A. rex, tamed through magics. Ultimately however the king¡¯s control over the A. rex didn''t last and the beast destroyed his entire kingdom. This is detailed in the King''s own diaries, though he obviously did not name the mighty dragon he was given ownership of as an A. rex, but the skeleton of the beast that died was identified many years later as that of an A. rex.


    Sadly however the true extent of the relationship between Venus and Earth during this period will never be known as at some point the Athyco warred with one another. Their use of powerful magics ended up destroying their entire civilisation, though the forcefield remained intact. The surviving Athyco were scattered. Some held onto to scant traces of their civilisation for a short while, whilst many were reduced to barbarians. Furthermore the magics used in their war had led to others of their kind mutating and twisting into hideous abominations too.


    The jungles of Venus subsequently grew over most of the ruins of their cities, as the wild Exosaurs once again came to dominate.


    By the 21st century, most traces of the Athyco''s ancient society had vanished. Even today very little is known about them sadly, though there are historians from both Venus and earth that are devoted to trying to uncover their history. Sadly so far their efforts have not been rewarded.


    The forcefield meanwhile due to centuries of unstable magic polluting the planet from within began to break up. Parts of it drifted into space, but others crashed onto the earth leading to catastrophe in certain regions.


    One such crash in the town of Hampson, alerted Carla King in the year 2025 and in the next article we shall explore her journey to save both Venus and her own world.