In the cold reaches of the void, a massive ship that could easily be called a city was slowly floating towards a red marble-like moon. Over a hundred different batteries lined its underside, and another fifty dotted the upper hull, giving this floating disc a veritable arsenal, allowing none to approach it without becoming a pile of scrap before it arrived.

  Tinted in green paint, it left an imposing figure if you saw it from a distance, like an immutable coin that could not, would not be stopped.

  Deeper within the confines of this structural space city, a reptilian woman of the Verdant Hood gasped deep breaths of air, her body hit with a cascading burst of mana and aura that tried its best to destabilize her body.

  This was the High Inquisitor Zala’tazz, or at least what was left of her after she had attempted a warp teleport using the emergency beacon that rested upon her armor.

  She did not know if it would work properly, as the experimental device was only tested a few times. The only proven one she had given to her convert, Glendara, so that their mission and the knowledge they gathered was preserved.

  Knowledge of the silver mining and the tempering methods used by the Elfari Empire.

  She had also wanted to take the DNA collector from the massive deep worm that they discovered on the planet. A way to replicate and use them for the Metal Beast program would give them all the more reason to finally invade the central planet of Steros.

  Alas, something or someone must had intercepted the device.

  No matter, we also gained something else from this expedition.

  She smirked as the thought of tempering and bringing others of these Elementalists into the Verdant Hood. To think they were on each of the moons surrounding the main planet, a group of powerful casters that were all susceptible to the pheromone formula.

  Tools to use against their enemies and new allies to convert to their faith, it was enough to make Zala’tazz forget about her failure to capture the one on Torsca.

  Yet… even with her mission accomplished, the sting of that failure, and the abomination that caused it…

  Zala’tazz nearly destroyed the wall as her fist punched through its incredibly dense structure.

  Damn that creature!

  “I see that you survived as well, unfortunate.”

  Zala’tazz turned her head to the voice, her snarl barely contained as she moved to grab Lesrack’s neck, only for him to parry her hand.

  “If it weren’t for your failure to keep them busy, I would have-”

  “Enough, you were lucky that creature didn’t reach you. Had I not done what I did, you wouldn’t even be alive right now, Zala’tazz.”

  “Oh?” She spat at the floor, “I guess I should be grateful then.” The sarcasm coming from her tone told Lesrack all he needed to know.

  She didn’t stop there though, “did that ship fit all of you fools?”

  Lesrack gritted his teeth, but said nothing as he turned to make his way to the central temple aboard the Motherdome. Not wanting to be outdone by a lesser, Zala’tazz hurried to match his cadence, keeping herself just a tiny bit ahead to give the illusion she was being waited on by him.

  The ship doors led them by an internal light system, showing where they were expected to meet for their debriefing. Not that Zala’tazz needed anyone to tell her. She was an instrument of the Prophet and an Inquisitor of Myna. She had many missions and times where she had to meet in this very chamber, the center of the faith of their people.

  It took a few minutes to reach, as the temple was centered inside the ship, with the fortification all nestled around it to prevent a foolish leak or airlock from killing the faithful.

  They had finally arrived at the entrance after a few more minutes of travel, the waiting doors parting for their arrival.

  The room opened before them, revealing a large circular chamber that had pews surround a central isle of a chair. Upon this chair was a looming figure, a fifteen foot giantess of a reptile woman, adorned with a fair robe that seemed to float off of her body. Her face was covered in a hooded veil, showing nothing of her face except for her glowing red eyes. Shining like rubies, the eyes trained on both Lesrack and Zala’tazz as they arrived.

  “My soldiers of faith, welcome.” The looming figure turned her chair towards them, her movement graceful even as she turned to adjust her sitting position.

  “Prophet,” both echoed as they both bowed, Lesrack bowed lower with his body.

  Zala’tazz smirked at that.

  Of course, you must recognize that here, I am superior to you, fool!

  As if sensing her thoughts, the Prophet of Myna turned to face Zala’tazz, her gaze stealing all of her attention.

  No, it was more as though the Prophet was looking deeper into her soul, the information in her mind and body an open book to the discerning gaze.

  “So that is what transpired…” She turned her gaze, and Lesrack started to undergo the same procedure, the Soul Gaze crawling over him and revealing all.

  “Interesting… and concerning. Both of you encountered something that you call an abomination. This creature is a product of Elfari design, you think?”

  “It must be, great Prophet! How else could such a thing exist?!” Zala’tazz spoke, eager to get one over Lesrack by answering her superior.

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  Lesrack however spoke calmly, his voice tinged with doubts, “at first, I believed as Zala’tazz does your Holiness. However, something about the abomination bothers me.”

  The Prophet nodded, “this creature is an enigma. One that even our Goddess has not deigned to inform me of. It is only natural you two would have doubts.”

  The imposing Leader of the Verdant Hood stood up, lifting her staff, which had been resting at her side along the massive throne, into the air.

  Upon it glowed a golden aura, bathed the holy light of their patron.

  “Myna, grant your faithful a vision. Please allow us to see into the veil and learn of the truth of this ‘abomination.’ Grant us a sign!”

  Zala’tazz felt warmth in her heart as she witnessed the Prophet commune with their Goddess of Verdant Glory. She could feel her faith feeding into the communion, allowing their Goddess to appear and offer its aid.

  Only a moment passed, and soon the ruby eyes of their prophet turned a shade of gold, her body filled with a transcendent light.

  “Teras’emon, the Terasi! The Old Ones have returned!”

  The fear coming from her Prophet echoed outward. Zala’tazz could feel the primal fear that echoed from the very being of their Goddess.

  “Abominations! Purge them, Root them out! Feed them fire and death!”

  The vision ended, and soon their Prophet fell back onto her chair, the exhaustion of the seance stealing her strength.

  “Terasi? Teras’emon? Prophet, what are these things?” Zala’tazz could not help but ask.

  The Prophet’s gaze was lingering in a direction, and it took a minute for Zala’tazz to realize she was looking in the direction of Torsca.

  “My faithful, receive our words and gather our forces. Our Goddess has given us a mission of holy, paramount importance!”

  Both Zala’tazz and Lesrack saluted the Prophet, “Yes our most Holy!”

  The Prophet emphasized her words as she thrusted her staff forward, “We must bring the Terasi to destruction. We must consider the moon of Torsca lost and extinguish all life on it! None must be spared, for the enemy of our Goddess has taken root there!”

  “They must be eradicated!” With a wave of her staff, the order echoed through the halls of the great city ship, and soon word of battle stations and preparation was sent to the entire motherdome.

  “Death to the Abomination! Death to the Terasi!”

  …

  One month after Mera left for Torsca.

  “I’ve got it! Jade, hand me that Photonic Emitter! I’m gonna blow this whole thing wide open!

  “Mistress, I don’t believe it wise to be using experimental technology to… erm, ‘crack this thing open’?”

  In a laboratory on the outskirts of a familiar human city, a scientist who had long ago traded her humanity for a life as a cybernetic organism was using a recovered photon blaster to break into a super dense material.

  This being was named Meghan, and she along with her two assistants Prin (Printy) and Jade, were attempting to break open an asteroid from space.

  The material in question was hard though, and so far, none of their equipment was strong enough to effectively break through. So in a moment of mad science that some would say bordered on the maniacal, Meghan was now attempting to use a supervillain’s photonic based emitter cannon to break the material at the atomic level.

  Much to the horror of her assistant Jade, and the amusement of her other assistant Prin.

  “Oh yes, this should do wonderfully.” Prin spoke in her ears with his droll voice.

  “Hush now critics, I’m sciencing.”

  As fate would have it though, at that moment before she pressed the button that would likely kill her and everyone around her in a one hundred foot radius, another person arrived.

  Though to call her a person was a stretch as she was no longer a human, much like her friend.

  Her name was Sarah, and she had come by to check up on Meghan for their weekly get together, a pact they made to keep in touch.

  One might even call it friendship.

  Either way, with a tendril in hand, she slapped the activation switch out of her friend’s hand.

  “Idiot, you didn’t check for collateral, again.” Sarah spoke, her voice a rather terse and deadpan thing, but still able to convey annoyance as she sat besides her friend with a coffee and a few sandwiches.

  Meghan despite being made of metal rubbed the spot where she struck, “sheesh, did you eat a strength hero recently? That one smarted!”

  “Villain actually, but yes, he was quite delicious. I had to give him back to the authorities but still.” Her friend smiled, albeit it was a tiny thing you could almost mistake for a line.

  “Well give a girl a warning next time, Slappy.”

  Sarah was about to retort on why she should remember to at least point the blast away from the city when she noticed the material on the table.

  “Wait… I think…” She grabbed hold of the rock, and to both her and Meghan’s surprise, the hyper dense alloy began to unravel, and soon opened to reveal a small blob encased in an amber like solution.

  The blob rolled towards Sarah, bumping into her.

  “Wait, Sarah. Is that?” Meghan stopped as she took out a chemical testing device to grab a bit of the blob’s DNA.

  Sarah meanwhile allowed the tiny thing to rest on her hand, which it then sunk into her flesh.

  The blob coalesced inside her, and It took all of Sarah’s control not to burst into tears of joy.

  “It’s her, she's alive!”

  Meghan grinned, pulling up a readout that shows a familiar DNA sequence on the chart. One that identically matched Sarah’s own.

  “It's Chimera!”

  Sarah’s smile reached her ears as she no longer could hold back her tears, feeling the presence inside her link up to the place she and Chimera used to share, the mind palace.

  Taking a breath, she let herself return to that place, and gazed into the orb that rested there.

  Inside, the ball opened up, revealing a young girl with elf ears and a darker shade of skin, but the red eyes that she gazed back at were unmistakable.

  “S-Sarah?! Holy crap, the message made it!” the young blob jumped up and down, dancing around and whooping and hollering with triumph.

  “Chimera? Is that you?”

  The thing shaped like her daughter turned to smile, but the thing was tinged with sadness, “not exactly. This is sort of a pre-recorded message I sent, in the event that I get lost or if I’m unable to get back.”

  The little elf sat on her butt as she pulled out a sequence of DNA, “I figured if there was anyone who could find me and come get me, it would be you Mom. So I sent this in a direction towards Asta and prayed it would make it there. Though I guess this means Meras was right and the oak’s self-guiding!”

  Sarah shook her head as she grabbed the tiny elf, “Chimera, where are you? Are you safe? Why can’t you make it back?”

  The blob smiled, “well, it’s a long story…”

  End Of Book Two of Hero-Chimera (Space-Chimera)