Tear in the Megaverse WATTPAD VERSION [Inter-Universal Protectors Series: 5]

29 - THE SYSTEM, HETSIPARA

Leo, Nikki, Bast and Colt fell from the portal, landing roughly on the stone ground. They all moaned, pushing themselves to their feet. No Void Beasts had followed them through Colt's portal. That was something, at least. Hopefully a chance for them to catch their breath. Relatively speaking. Wherever they were, there was clearly no atmosphere. Actually, there wasn't much of anything.

"Where are we?" Bast asked.

Now that was a question. Leo, Nikki and Colt begun looking around properly. They were standing on what appeared to be a large asteroid floating mindlessly in deep space. There were a lot of asteroids, all of them moving with minds of their own, doing as they pleased. That wasn't entirely true.

Colt pointed ahead. "Is that not what you would call a 'black hole'?"

Leo, Nikki, and Bast followed his finger with confused looks.

"I don't see anything," Leo said.

"Me neither," Nikki agreed.

Bast leaned closer to Colt. "What is a 'black hole'?"

Right. Lower beings, all of them. Their eyes couldn't see black holes, only the light and matter being drawn in. There wasn't much of either of those things here. This place was well and truly dead. Slowly but surely, the giant black hole was drawing in the closest of asteroids, devouring them hungrily. It was probably only a matter of time before they were drawn in, too.

"Wait. Hold up. Stop." Nikki spun round. "Who is she? Where did she come from? What is she doing here?" A beat. "She is a 'she', right?"

"Bast, this is Leo and Nikki. Leo and Nikki, this is Bast." Colt crossed his arms. "Childhood friend. She fell through a rift from A'aru, landed in a wasteland, and we happened to cross paths again."

Bast playfully punched his arm. "Griffins and Gods. You know how to make a girl feel special."

"They are part of Amneris' Court," he finished.

Bast grinned. "No!"

"Yes."

She gasped excitedly. "Does that mean you are otherworld beings as well?"

"Not quite," Leo said with a smile. "I am Human. Niks is a Shapeshifter. We were both born on Earth, just like you, only on different versions to the one you were from. Probably."

Nikki was frowning. "So, we're just ignoring the face the dead came back to life and the fact rifts are apparently opening in afterlives?" She glanced at the three, then shrugged. "Okay, then."

"What is this place?" Bast asked.

"Somewhere in space," Colt answered sarcastically. "How do you expect me to know?"

She whacked him. "Stop channelling your wife and do that thing you are good at."

"Or we could use this." Nikki waved her phone.

She flipped through her apps, pulling up one in particular. She pointed the camera at the black hole—more specifically, at where Colt had pointed—and snapped a quick photo. A loading symbol came onto the screen before it was replaced by a map. Nikki extended it into a holoscreen so everyone could see it.

Leo squinted at the numbers on the top right corner of the screen, "Hey, doesn't that mean."

Nikki nodded. "This is the system. We made it."

Okay, great, they'd made it. They'd reached the system after facing a lot of drama – some more than others. But now what? They had to summon Iniq, summon Death, but how did anyone summon Death? It's not really something that can be summoned. Of course, it was only now that this occurred to Leo and Nikki. Having been focused on getting here, neither had planned on what would happen after.