Go Beyonder! Plus! Ultra! (Akeya/Mythal/Serilda)

The light was dying and the dark was growing. Although even during the day this planet had significantly less light than Earthland. Luceam (or was it her companion? Or both?) had been correct in their assessment that this world was one where the element of dark was more dominant than the element of light. Earthland had been fairly balanced, although from Akeya's senses the night back home had always had its fair share of light as well due to the moon and the many, many stars. Here it was the other way around: the nights were truly dark, and while there was a sun during the day its light could not banish all the shadows. For most people from their homeworld that would make this a bad place, but for herself (and Mythal she was pretty sure) it was quite comfortable.

Holding up one invisible claw she let the darkness flow through it. She may have both light and dark inside of her, but she'd spent so long being a creature of dark that she still felt a comfort from this world at night, where there was no question whether the light or the dark was in charge. All the scientists had long since gone inside, their artificial observation technology installed so they could collect data from the safety of the shuttle. Nothing they'd seen so far in this world suggested that the shuttle was in any danger.

And if there was something which could harm the shuttle Akeya would take care of it. If there was something out there which could force her to retreat she would almost certainly have felt its power already even from a fair distance, so either it didn't exist, was too far away to be a threat or was hidden somewhere where it most likely wouldn't come out just to bother these aliens from another planet.

Of course Seridia and Mythal were inside as well. Although both of them had more raw power than Akeya they'd apparently deemed her more suitable for this position, or at least suitable enough. Whether it was because they thought she'd do the best job or because she'd volunteered first and they didn't think all three of them needed to be outside was a secondary concern. For now it meant that Akeya had the outside world for herself while they took care of any issues that might arise inside the shuttle. Like with Luceam: she'd come along because she was good with nature, but it looked like this planet, Constantine, had turned out to be even more alien than anticipated. So alien that someone attuned with nature couldn't bear it. An unfortunate turn of events, but there wasn't much they could do about that. And it brought the threat of Luceam herself becoming a threat to the expedition. Akeya was no naive optimist: she'd seen how the pink-haired fairy and her summoned friend had been behaving. There was definitely a non-zero chance that they'd become a serious threat.

It was a good thing the other two capable mages were inside to deal with that if it were to go wrong. Luceam could wreak a lot of havoc if not contained.

Akeya herself cracked her knuckles as she could see many tiny figures fly upwards in the distance, quickly forming a dark blanket covering an already dark sky. Standing there on top of the shuttle she watched as more and more of the little batlike creatures poured forth from their underground homes, more and more and yet more, more than you could have thought the entire planet to hold. Enough that the blanket of flittering bodies quickly expanded to cover the entire sky, and the dragoness was sure that they covered the sky everywhere else as well. Something you'd never see on Earthland: a natural tiny predator, so numerous that they could envelop the entire world with sheer numbers. Narrowing her eyes she watched as they whirled around high above, a chaotic mess which somehow was even more messy than a sea of writhing worms. Those weren't nearly as fast as these things turned out to be. They weren't so fast that a mage like Akeya couldn't outspeed them, but they were definitely showing off that kind of movement speed that you needed to be airborne for if you didn't want to rely on trickery.

As she tried to keep track of individual bodies Akeya considered whether there was anything else to be done here. The batlike creatures appeared content to stay up in the air for the most part: they only occasionally flew down in swarms, gathering around whatever prey hadn't managed to make itself scarce. Their hunts were brief and to the point, critters quickly torn apart and devoured by a multitude of tiny fanged mouths. A whole flock had approached the shuttle at first, but they'd quickly gone back up once they'd fgured out that this strange thing wasn't edible in the slightest. The dragoness had been completely ignored, her form fully blended into the world so there was not even a physical presence for them to track.

Should she just stand here and watch these things fly about for the remainder of the night? It definitely was one option, but it felt like she wouldn't be making use of this opportunity... The scientists wanted samples, any form of data they could get their hands on. It was a desire that Akeya could easily sympathize with. She too had a great thirst for knowledge and understanding. In which case rather than just standing here... maybe she should help collect some data on how these air piranhas dealt with a hostile intruder.

Calling her shadow blade to her hand she twirled it around several times before suddenly lashing out with it, the string that connected it to her clawed hand rapidly extending as the dark dagger shot upwards into the sky until it buried itself into one of those many, many bats. Forcing the string to shorten Akeya quickly reeled her prey in, but she also saw that her dagger was being followed by a good portion of the dark sky carpet. They still couldn't find her, but at the very least they were reacting to one of their own suddenly being struck down and pulled down to earth.

With a single swipe Akeya released the dead bat, letting it fall to the ground as she grabbed her dagger with her actual hand rather than just letting it dangle from the black string. Spreading her wings she jumped, turning into a streak of darkness that shot away into the air before she allowed herself to materialize even as she began to repeatedly attack with her dagger. Like a whip with a very sharp tip the weapon flew forth ripping through several of the dark bats at a time as they all began to home in on Akeya. Her response, of course, was to begin flying around, outspeeding them even as she kept lashing out again and again and again. However speed could only bring her so far when the threat was closing in from every single angle, more and more bats descending from their skywards patrol to instead attack this intruding dark dragon, who so boldly was attacking them as if their numbers meant nothing to her.

WC: 1,219
TWC: 1,952/25,000

Akeya was actually learning quite a lot from engaging the dark sky piranhas. For one thing it quickly became clear that they didn't have anything going for them other than a decent speed, sharp teeth and sheer numbers. Those were enough that they could deal with any normal intruder but it meant they were horribly outclassed by anything which had an answer to straightforward physical attacks. They did not appear to possess any magic beyond the natural amount which was tied to being a living entity. They didn't turn invisible in the darkness, they had no magical attacks, in short as successful as they were on this planet they were about as ordinary a creature as you could imagine. The dragoness suspected that they'd remain the dominant lifeform until the first creature appeared which couldn't easily be torn apart.

Their attempts at eating Akeya were largely met with frustration. They'd surrounded her properly so she couldn't just keep flying about, but when they all charged in to dig their sharp fangs into her skin the assassin had released a burst of light which sent them reeling, in the confusion escaping from their cage made of bodies and flying away even as she cleaved several more into pieces with her dagger and string. By this point a fair amount of them were already lying died on the ground, where they most likely would remain until morning when the scientists could gather as many as they wanted and research them thoroughly. It was somewhat unfortunate that Akeya couldn't expose the bats to a wide variety of different effects to see how they reacted to different stimulus.

So far their bodies had reacted as she'd about expected from a biological carnivore of their size. Blunt trauma didn't do much because most of the force ended up just throwing them through the air. Even if she tried to crush them against a solid surface their bodies were compact and sturdy enough that it required more force than it was worth. Piercing and slashing attacks were a lot more efficient, especially since once their wings were torn they quickly fell down to the earth. Which also allowed her to learn that once these creatures lost their ability to fly there wasn't much else they could do. Similar to the bats on Earthland they had no capability of serving as earthbound predators.

Releasing another burst of light to once again scatter the sensitive flutterers Akeya considered what to do next. Given the amount of bats there were in the air she could keep killing them all night and still not have put a dent in their overall population. Most mages, even the very strong ones, would run out of stamina before they'd created a safe haven. The only reason she was managing was that she was regaining her energy as quickly as she expended it, the darkness around her effectively giving her unlimited stamina. Even so it'd get rather boring if she spent the entire night doing nothing but running around and slashing at the sky piranhas.

Time to experiment with another trick.

Dismissing her shadow blade she closed both clawed hands, clenching her fists and then opening them to reveal two spheres, one dark and the other light. They both emanated their respective element strongly, the air between the dragoness's hands quickly becoming a battleground between light and dark. Spinning around she launched both spheres into the sky, the dark and the light both intensifying at a rapid pace until half of the area was consumed by a deep darkness and the other illuminated by a brilliant light. Moving into the area where the light was dominant she could see that all the bats were trying to hurry over to the dark side, in accordance with their nocturnal lifestyle. However those who had been in the light zone at first quickly became infused with light themselves, glowing even as they flew into the dark where they disappeared.

"Contrast."

For the next part of her experiment Akeya once more clenched her fists, this time sending the command for both of the spheres to expend all the energy she'd put into them until they dissipated. The sky returned to normal, although all objects (including the bats) were now either glowing or surrounded by a cloud of dark.

"Conflict."

With that command all the bats found themselves rapidly pulled towards a point in the middle, glowing and obscured alike. Despite their best attempts whatever force was pulling them didn't relent, and where they met they quickly began to fall apart. Where a bat infused with light and a bat infused with dark met the two opposing elements forced one another out of existence, along with the bats. In short order there was actually a sizeable emptiness in the sky, the area in which all the bats had been negated in the conflict between light and dark.

As amusing as it had been to watch it happen, it didn't actually provide much data other than that the bats didn't show any special reaction. The light bats definitely had been uncomfortable with their condition but it had appeared to be the reaction of a creature which had a biological sensitivity to light, with no deeper source behind it. The dragoness summoned her shadow blade again as more bats descended from the sky, her miniature extinction event only having slowed down the onslaught for mere seconds before they resumed their relentless assault on the intruder.

She'd try to kill as many of them in as many ways as she could think of, and then go intangible again and wait out the rest of the night. She might be able to keep going but it'd become both boring and pointless eventually.

---

The next day the ground was littered by a wide variety of corpses. The bats had been bludgeoned, crushed, stabbed, slashed, hacked, ripped, pierced, and had various other physical types of injury inflicted on them. Beyond that there were bats who had parts of their bodies literally consumed by darkness, bats which had been burned to a crisp by concentrated blasts of light, and there were some bats which were still squirming and twitching as minor amounts of light and dark had invaded their bodies which were still conflicting with each other, like two virusses fighting over which one would kill the host. Akeya's research had been very thorough and without a single shred of mercy.

The twilight dragon herself was back on her spot on top of the shuttle, waiting for the other people of the expedition to finally come out now that the sun was up. It had been at least half an hour since the skies had been cleared out: despite Akeya's enthusiastic approach she'd been correct in assuming she wouldn't put a dent in the population. Even as she saw them depart for their caves she noted that there wasn't a visible difference in how many there were. Trying to get rid of them and let the world evolve without their oppressive dominance would be a project which most likely would take months or even years. And it wasn't the goal of this expedition anyway. Maybe something to consider down the line...

She shrugged and looked down at the shuttle. The sun was already visible above the mountains, weak as it may be compared to the sun back on Earthland. It was still enough to ensure that no bat would voluntarily remain out in the open, so it was safe for the scientists to come out. Although she suspected that either Serilda or Mythal would emerge first to help confirm that it was indeed safe at this point.

Staring off into the distance Akeya tapped one clawed finger against the hard surface of the shuttle as she wondered how to proceed next. The scientists would have little trouble processing the bats now they had so many specimen to choose from, but what else would they want to take a look at?

WC: 1,335
TWC: 5,332/25,000

Akeya had an acute awareness of everything that was occurring around her, the light and dark combining to create a nearly perfect three-dimensional image of the area. As such she didn't give any sign of surprise or startlement when Serilda phased through the shuttle to join her on top of it, the dragoness just turning her head and nodding towards her fellow space explorer to acknowledge her. Her emerald eyes quickly focused on the cup of tea that Serilda was holding and she accepted it without hesitation when offered. "Thanks." She'd been able to recharge most of her energy by absorbing the light and dark of this world, but a little bit of tea could never hurt. Especially since neither light nor dark really did the job of quenching your thirst under normal circumstances.

As Serilda explained that Mythal had sent Luna back after the two of them had come to the agreement that it was probably better for everyone involved the dragoness shrugged. She had to admit that having to deal with the fairy's breakdown the first day had delayed their work here a bit, and she didn't doubt that Luna was also happier being back home in a world she was properly attuned to. This world definitely wasn't like Earthland. "Probably for the best. Even if she tried to set aside her discomfort it'd most likely still distract her and make things more difficult for all of us. Although that does mean we're now lacking in healing magic should someone get injured." Part of the fairy's task had been to keep everyone in good health after all. It was rather ironic that she was the one who had to be sent back for mental reasons. "I wasn't planning on being reckless before, but you should update the scientists on that front." People could start behaving in very stupid ways if they thought that they didn't have to worry about the consequences.

She remained silent for a while after that, drinking her tea and staring into the distance. She'd had plenty of time to get used to the view, but it was still worth seeing. Everyone else seemed to be mildly to strongly creeped out by this alien place, but Akeya mostly just found it intriguing. And the near-permanent darkness was rather comforting. "I'm not one for mindless slaughter, but there's some cathartic release to be had in cutting loose occasionally. Especially against targets nobody cares about." She frowned briefly as she considered what to say in her head, then began to speak again. "Honestly once you've figured out their main traits that's about all you need. They're small, fast, and numerous, but they're about as fragile as a bat back home. Their bodies are reasonably resilient towards blunt trauma but they're cut and pierced just fine. They don't appear to have any real magic and are incapable of threatening anything which they can't bite." She raised her free hand and one of the corpses nearby was lifted by its own shadow, after which Akeya threw it into the distance. "Fangs sharp enough to pierce through the suits the scientists use to survive in this environment, small enough that they can move in large numbers without getting in each other's way, fast enough that most creatures can't outrun them. They behave less like individual organisms and more like parts of a single whole. Kind of like the insects back home. Oh, and apparently they don't eat their own dead." That last part was at least somewhat interesting, since it implied that either they never needed to eat their own dead to survive or something made eating their bodies a bad decision.

"Of course you should still stay hidden at night. All their numerous weaknesses don't matter if there's so many of them that you might as well call the amount infinite. To move about at night you either need a way to not be detected, be too difficult to kill, or use a virus-like attack which propagates freely." She herself had primarily relied on the fact that she was both good at being stealthy and turning intangible. If it wasn't for those two things she'd probably have been in serious trouble. "Not that the scientists need to be reminded."

When Serilda suggested that Akeya go and recover from a night of activity the dragoness considered the offer for several seconds before nodding. "I suppose I might as well. There shouldn't be anything dangerous around here right now but with how alien this world is you should probably still remain on guard." Given her own and Serilda's respective sensory abilities the odds of being caught by surprise were extremely low, but there wasn't any reason to run the risk. Neither of them was the lazy type who'd let themselves get ambushed just because they couldn't be arsed to keep an eye out.

Giving Serilda a final nod Akeya disappeared, reforming inside the shuttle using one of the numerous shadows present. Returning the empty cup to the cafeteria she moved to her room, laying down on her bed and closing her eyes. She didn't have time for a full eight hours of sleep but with Serilda keeping watch and Mythal most likely waking up soon she could afford a couple of hours. Within no time at all she'd drifted off, or at least so far as she was capable of drifting off in an alien environment. A part of her would always be wary in situations such as these.

---

A while later she woke up again, quickly checking the outside to get an idea of what time it was. It was still day, with plenty of time left, although on this strange world even noon wasn't very bright. It was a peculiar sensation, that she could be here day and night and never have to face the kind of light that Earthland was exposed to on a daily basis.

Getting out of bed Akeya didn't waste much time with preparations, focusing on taking a quick shower before heading out. Light and dark were enough sustenance for her, and tasted better than the space food that the scientists had prepared for this expedition.

Exiting the shuttle the twilight dragon rejoined Serilda and Mythal, tilting her head as the void mage explained that she'd noticed something odd to the east. The idea that it was manmade was... well, she was rather skeptical. They'd landed at a location with plants, plenty of space and access to water. If there was no sign of civilization here she somewhat doubted there'd ever been a lifeform on this planet which had advanced enough to create lasting artificial structures. However even if that was the case it was still something unusual that Serilda had found, and thus worth investigating.

"The scientists should remain happy as long as they've got specimen to study, especially with the plants that Serilda added to the mix. I agree that we should check this out as a group. I'm sure that if something happens here at the shuttle at least one of us can return in time to help out." One nearly universal ability that powerful mages such as the three of them had was the ability to cover distance very quickly, one way or another, whether it was through teleportation, portals or simply moving very fast.

WC: 1,224
PWC: 3,778
TWC: 8,825/25,000

With all three of them in agreement that they could return with haste if something happened at the shuttle there was nothing stopping the three of them from going out and investigating Serilda's findings. Well, other than that the void mage first had to go and inform the scientists that they had to go out and investigate something, but that shouldn't take too long. The dragoness folded her arms as the other female mage left her and Mythal behind for the moment, turning her head to look at the darkness mage as he commented on her performance during the night. "It was definitely an enjoyable experience. And yes, she did. It's not very surprising that you'd be tired after that." She lifted one hand to trace a circle in the air with her clawed index finger. "Portals are certainly convenient constructs of magic but even those have their limits. Frankly it's already an impressive feat that you could connect with Earthland at all, much less create a passage large enough for Luna to pass through. Akeya herself didn't use portals, but she did know quite a lot about them. They were a very popular topic amongst mages and commoners alike, and thus there were many scrolls and books covering them.

Although she lifted her shoulders in a rather dismissive manner when her companion called the event sad. "Given how she reacted to being on this planet it would most likely be more tragic if she had been forced to remain here. The biggest issue is that we now have to ensure that everyone remains careful enough that we don't risk regretting sending away the dedicated healer of our expedition. So far it looks like the bats are the biggest threat of this planet to the point of suppressing everything else, but I prefer to err on the side of caution."

Once Serilda returned the twilight dragon readily followed her, using her own senses to scout the area as well. Her dual nature allowed her to track both light and dark, which meant she had a pretty good sense of her surroundings, and over a large distance as well. It didn't take long for her to also take notice of the odd shape that Serilda had picked up on, the dragoness raising her eyebrows in surprise. Even from a distance she could tell that the regularity, the sharpness of the angles...

It looked like her initial assumption that it couldn't have been manmade might have been wrong after all.

When they reached the construction hewn out of the side of the hill itself Akeya stepped forward, her emerald eyes scrutinizing every nook and cranny, taking note of the decorations as well as the architecture. It wasn't unlike what one might find on earth, although it also had its own uniquely distinct style. She wasn't an engineer or an architect, but she was learned enough that she could already draw several conclusions from what she could see here.

"I agree." Her first words were a response to Mythal as he stated that there was something off about this scene. "I can't make out what exactly it is either, but there is a sense that there is something here which isn't... supposed to be here. Or maybe it's not supposed to exist at all." Her gaze travelled up at the archs and various other pieces of architecture that helped give life to the nicely symmetrical building. Albeit worn down by time. "Whatever it was that made this it must have been remarkably similar to the sapient lifeforms on Earthland. The scale and shape suggest that it can't have been too alien at least. However the architecture is different from anything back home, and we should be the first expedition here. Yet there are no other signs of civilization in the area..." Her brow furrowed as she considered all this, the tip of her tail twitching behind her. "Even aside from that strange offness there's just something strange about all this." Maybe other travellers had built this? But even then you would have expected some signs of civilization... had everything else been worn away by time? Had they simply been looking in the wrong place?

"However for now let's carefully explore it. We can't just send the scientists in here without knowing what they'd encounter." A part of Akeya would rather just stay away from this place, but her job wouldn't let her get away that easily. Taking a deep breath she began to make her way inside if neither of the other mages had any strong objections to the idea.

At least none of them would be bothered by the lack of light inside.

"If either of you wants to take the lead, be my guest." The insides were built the same way as the outside, and were as spacious as you'd expect of a temple of this size. It started out as a single tunnel which led deeper into the hill, but then opened up into a large room with multiple paths leading into several directions. To the sides there were hallways with doorways lined up, but ahead there was a larger opening which led deeper into the darkness.

"People lived in the sidewings, but there's something strange up ahead... I think it might have been the place of actual worship but something seems to be messing with my perception abilities." Indeed, the depths of the temple didn't want to be explored by someone who just looked at it from the outside: visions from what was inside were fuzzy at best and distorted at worst. That power which made Akeya and Mythal both feel like something was off was strong here, filling the air with an ominousness which couldn't be easily explained or ignored. Like the feeling that you knew someone was standing in front of the door leading to your bedroom but you didn't know who or what or why. But then much, much worse.

Akeya wouldn't be very surprised if the first scientists which came this far would promptly turn around and walk away again. She actually liked this planet but even she was getting the shivers from this place. It felt wrong, and she didn't say that quickly. "Some of this architecture does remind me a lot of descriptions of ruins on Earthland, but there's always a little something to it that makes it different. It's... disconcerting."

WC: 1,068
PWC: 4,846
TWC: 12,084/25,000