The screams grew louder as Danae and Zade travelled in their general direction. They had left Farjack behind in his odd frozen state.

In the distance was a small black crack in space, like a lightning bolt scarring the universe itself. As Zade stared into it she could feel it slowly reaching out to her before trying to yank her soul away like a vacuum. For a deity it was easy to resist with the right amount of caution. But any mortal would have their consciousness ripped from them, leaving behind an empty husk.

Danae had stopped a little closer, analyzing the situation. The screams were definitely coming from there, fueled by an unending pain.

“It appears that this is the centre of creation,” Danae stated, with a metaphorical glint in his eye socket.

“You mean the place you blew up?” She snickered.

He returned an undecipherable glance.

“Something is very wrong here...”

She nodded. Besides the soul sucking emptiness and the screaming, the crack was also mangling her senses, a mishmash of emotions and thoughts flooding her mind and attempting to distract her focus. Whatever it was it was very powerful.

“Maybe we should get Farjack and try and find a way to stabilize it- and what are you doing?”

Danae had begun to poor his magic into the crack, feeding it, sating it. There was a very slight difference in its pull on her, not much but something. You didn't need godly senses to know this was a reckless plan.

Why not join him? She thought, Nothing to lose right? She was questioning the thought put into this but loosened her guard. After all Danae didn't seem like one to get himself erased from existence.

There was a strange combination of pain and euphoria as her very essence was being drained. The crack began to grow slowly, accepting their offering, it was showing no signs of stopping even when it reached thrice her size. Zade was just about to back out of this plan when she noticed a silhouette appear in the darkness. The screams had stopped, as if the source now had enough hope to hold onto life.

She strained through the torrent of energy now surrounding them and forced herself carefully through the crack. For some reason trusting Danae to keep it contained. As soon as she made it through everything dulled, the energy sounded like it was far away and a sudden surge propelled her through the emptiness. There was a flash of white, and in her panic she crashed into a solid surface.

She found herself in a strange room. Struggling to her feet and leaning on a wooden table for support. The walls were made of a similar kind of wood, but uneven and rounded like the inside of a hollow tree. A layer of monochrome grey hid the colours from her view, even her own white side seemed a dirty grey. Almost like colour itself was being drained from the area.

Behind her was a thick black crack that must be her way out. An ominous silhouette faded into view on the other side of the room as other objects started to lose their detail. Whatever this place was, it was being effected by the crack in reality and wouldn't be here for long.

“Hello?” she whispered, but no sound came out. The silence rang in the air deafeningly.

Zade cautiously placed her hand on the persons shoulder and she felt a mental connection form. A flair of relief sparked from both minds and the connection cut short. They were still alive, and she had to get them out of here.

Glancing back she noticed the crack shimmering, she didn't have long until they were both doomed. She grabbed both their shoulders and tried to shake them but there was no response and barely any movement. They were stuck in place. If only she could pull them through the crack, but her magic couldn't help her move bodies.

Zade moved to the other side and began to push, she couldn't just do nothing. But they were almost immovable and she wasn't an unstoppable force. They slowly inched across the fading floor.

Almost there...

The silhouette touched their exit and the next second went by in a flash, the body suddenly weighed next to nothing, flung into the crack with Zade thrown off by the inertia. Her head slammed into their body and with a clang of metal her senses faded.

-

“Hello?” a comforting but worried voice called out, grasping the attention of Zade's unconscious mind. “Are you okay?”

The pain in her head slowly dimmed and her vision returned.

“She will be fine,” shook the numbing voice of death, a snap back to reality.

A beautiful woman floated in the space in front of Zade, watching her closely. She wore a set of chain mail armour reinforced with silver plates and trimmed in a dark cyan. She withdrew instantly as she noticed she had come to, seemingly embarrassed.

The woman's physique was agile and she moved with elegance, but her stature gave her an aura of strength and leadership. She was radiating positive energy that raised Zade's spirit as though she could do anything.

“Are you okay?” she said with genuine concern. “You took quite a hit.” She tapped the armour on her shoulder and offered her other hand to help Zade get her balance that after a moment of hesitation she took. Their eyes caught and her energy that had been so eagerly sucked away earlier all but returned, their fluorescent dark blue invigorating her.

Judging by her intact body and vibrant green skin, she was definitely a lot more living than the others. Perhaps she was related to the humans that Zade retained a distant memory of.

“I am fine,” she said after realizing she was staring. “My name is Zade. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

She thought she heard Danae sigh.

“Sera,” she happily returned the greeting. “I'm Sera, and the pleasure is mine.”

Sera turned to Danae who was now stood away from them, pretending to assess the situation with the, now massive, crack in space.

“Is he your friend?” she asked with a smile. “He's rather... unpleasant,” she giggled.

Zade noticed him blatantly glare their way. “Really? I did not notice,” she said with heavy sarcasm.

Danae laughed, confirming his eavesdropping.

“Do not mind him,” she continued, “I think he has never conversed with a stranger before, and besides he got blown up recently and that is enough to make anyone cranky.”

Sera raised an eyebrow quizzically and turned to Danae who had suddenly approached. The momentum of the movement carried through in her knee-length wavy hair that scattered onto Zade's face via zero gravity. Though she didn't seem to notice. Zade could tell Danae was holding back a laugh.

“We should probably introduce you to the other member of our eccentric group,” he said, “He is far worse than the two of us combined.”