As soon as it entered the tent, the rock like creature suddenly appeared to weaken and was forced to crawl along the floor, its body slowly beginning to fade into nothing. The larger hole it had created however allowed other monsters and humanoids similar to the woman who had materialised in the tent to start crawling through.
"You must help us. Please!" One of the creatures moaned, whilst the rock like monster suddenly jumped up and grabbed onto Denika whilst she was distracted with the rabble. Her magic had no affect in repelling these strange creatures anyway, but as the rock like monster held onto Denika however, it's body started to gain a more solid physical form, whilst Denika became weaker until she passed out.
The other Circus Folk meanwhile were powerless to stop it. Not only was the strange creature almost completely indestructible, but they were swarmed by a sea of monsters and strange aliens who kept crawling in droves through the hole in the Tent. All of the monsters seemed to get weaker at first when they entered the tent, only to then become renewed with greater bursts of strength than ever before.
Florence tried to use her singing voice to pacify them, and whilst she was able to briefly stun the humanoids, the monsters were unaffected. Furthermore as soon as the humanoids started to fade, which they all did for a few seconds, then the effects of Florence's voice would wear off.
In the midst of the confusion however one of the scrambling and panicing monsters ripped the paper off of the Strange Boy's forehead. It was more out of curiosity than anything else. Still it would cost them all dearly.
The Strange Boy had been restrained since the Circus Folk left the Earth's core. Being that close to the Kardon's had allowed the savage Demon within to gain complete control over any humanity the Strange Boy still had within him. The Circus Folk really had no idea what they were going to do with the Strange Boy once, or rather if they managed to escape from the Void, but that was a problem they didn't want to face until then.
Unfortunately as soon as the boy was released he instantly started to attack both the monsters and the humanoids. As soon as he struck them however they'd fade. They didn't fade on purpose, it was simply a reaction to being attacked with such force (which was greater coming from the Strange Boy than any other member of the Circus Folk), as their bodies were barely holding themselves together anyway. The little vampire soon became agitated and angry that all of its prey was vanishing and turned on Florence whilst she was distracted and knocked her on her back. She tried to stop the monster child from tearing at her throat, but fortunately Carlene, the Circus Master, Keptis and Ashlei all working together were able to pull the Jiang Shi from Carlene, though when the child vampire turned round to face them, the Circus Master threw the vampire at the rock creature just as it had almost finished draining Denika.
The vampire instantly started to attack the rock creature. With his claws and fangs being powerful enough to cut through his skin, the rock creature rather than fading however, simply stumbled backwards through the tent.
Carlene, Florence, Ashlei and the Circus Master all tried to intervene, but the rock creature easily batted them away, before it went tumbling back out of the hole in the Tent's wall and into the darkness outside, taking the Strange Boy with it.
The Strange Boy floated off into the distance away from the rock skinned alien who soon vanished into nothing.
"Denika! Denika please we need your help." The Circus Master said as he tried to wake her.
Outside of the Tent meanwhile the others could see that the Strange Boy appeared to be constantly struggling and fighting with something. It still appeared to be complete darkness to them however.
Not waiting for Denika, Carlene pulled a rope out of her beehive hair and threw it out to the Strange Boy. He was too far out however and so Carlene tried to crawl out of the hole in the Tent and hold onto the side of the craft, so she could throw the rope out further to him. As soon as she got out however she could feel hundreds of hands clawing at her. It was so overwhelming that she lost her grip and fell off of the side of the Tent and started to drift through the darkness herself.
Ashlei and Florence both managed to catch the end of the rope just before it was pulled out completely with her. On the other end Carlene who still held onto it kicked and screamed and didn't even appear to try and help the Strange Boy.
"So many voices, I can't take it." Carlene said, though the others could still hear nothing.
Within a few seconds the darkness around the Tent was replaced with a large, metallic, city, with thousands of different humanoid life forms all walking by, and strange vehicles flying above. At first neither Carlene or the Strange Boy seemed to be aware of these strange creatures, whilst at the same time none of these creatures seemed to acknowledge any of the Circus Folk's presence. Furthermore the city seemed to continue to fade in and out
After a few minutes however, the city stabilised and the people all seemed to gather around the Tent which had landed on a road.
Ashlei wasted no time and ran out to help Carlene who had almost passed out from her ordeal, whilst the Strange Boy soon stood up, fangs bared and hissing at those in the street. He did not attack however. Instead he just stared them down, and when Florence went to carefully pick him up, he did not attack her either.
Denika meanwhile had been completely drained by what happened. She would recover but it would take her a few hours.
"What the hell is going on?" Carlene said as she stumbled back into the Tent with all of the onlookers being too scared to do anything about it.
Suddenly the sky above began to crack open and the Leraks from the previous world came pouring in. Some flying, others literally riding on the backs of strange animals that literally ran through the sky towards the terrified civilians below. A battle soon broke out between the two.
The Circus Folk tried to protect themselves in the tent, but it wasn't needed as this strange world faded into nothing too.
"What kind of a place is this?" The Circus Master said whilst carrying Denika.
"It is as you said. Nowhere." A mysterious voice answered.
The Circus Folk turned around and saw it was the same warrior woman who had appeared in their tent earlier.
"Relax I am not going to hurt you." The woman said.
"At first when I latched onto this, whatever it is, I was confused. I'm still not sure what is going on completely, but I think I can at least tell you where we are." She said.
"Well?" The Circus Master asked impatiently.
"You are in the place from which everything that ever was, or ever will be emerged."
"Nope you're going to have to be a bit more specific than that." Ashlei replied.
"How can I explain it? Have you ever wondered what existed outside of your universe?" The woman asked?
"Simple, another universe." The Circus Master replied.
"Yes, but what about that one? Oh I know another universe, and yet another and another, but haven't you ever wondered if there was something outside all of the universes that are connected to, or like yours? There must be a space outside for them to both emerge from and exist within. Also where did those universes come from? The answer for your reality and all others is this place. The void. It is an area where nothing exists and therefore anything can happen."
"What do you mean, anything can happen? If there is nothing, then there's nothing." Florence said.
"What a simple way to look at things. I was once like you. Or rather I would have been if only my world could manifest itself properly. In each universe there are laws which prevent anything from happening. For instance in my world." She said as she unsheathed her strange looking weapon.
"This is a weapon. It can't suddenly turn into a person or plant. There are natural laws in place to prevent that from happening. Out here however where there are absolute no laws, then yes. Anything goes. A world, even an entire universe can pop up out of nothing, through any means possible. Some worlds are the creation of vastly powerful creatures that can emerge from the Void, what we would call Gods. Others can be created through temporal paradoxes, where something within the universe travels back and creates it. Others just pop up out of nothing."
"A universe can't pop out of nothing." The Circus Master replied confidently.
"Why? In your world, and mine we know that can't happen because of the law of cause and effect, but out here there are no laws. Like I said anything can happen."
"So you're saying these worlds we've seen flashes of" The Circus Master playing devils advocate asked.
"They are worlds just popping up out of nothing?"
"Not quite." The woman said.
"In the void there are an infinite number of worlds that can be created. Some like ours, others so different they defy comprehension. Sadly even though there is an infinite space, here, an infinite number of worlds constantly being created means that we are constantly for lack of a better term fighting to exist. Only a small fraction of worlds, or beings are able to actually manifest themselves. The rest, exist only for a milisecond as echos before fading. Never to be seen again."
"That's what happened to those worlds?" Ashlei asked, utterly horrified.
"Not quite. Most worlds don't even get to last that long. Those are worlds that have managed to partially manifest, but just as they were forming something went wrong. Some say that these kinds of worlds are brought to life by the will of the creatures inside them. Others say they are simply not strong enough to defend themselves from the other worlds outside that are all trying to claw their way into existence. My reality was able to briefly come into existence a few times, but never longer than a few minutes. The last time it faded I knew that was it."
"Why?" The Circus Master asked, seemingly not displaying any sympathy for her or her people's plight.
"Trust me it felt different. We could feel the emptiness of the void pulling at us. All those who fail to stabilise completely we linger on as phantoms until we finally dissipate. Me and my people. Even parts of my world and its history, like the battle lingered on as phantoms after the last fading, but now I am the last one left. The last phantom, the last scrap of my universe before it fades into nothing."
"What makes you immune?" The Circus Master questioned.
"I'm just lucky is all. Besides I latched myself onto the core of your ship. I'm sorry, but I had no choice. The energy it was emiting allowed me to stabilise for just a bit longer."
"The rock monster nearly drained Denika dry and it still faded?" The Circus Master said.
"Like I said I was just lucky." The woman insisted.
"Yes well I'm afraid I still don't entirely trust you." The Circus Master responded.
"Neither do I." Carlene interjected, "but she is telling the truth about where we are. I know that much. When I was out there and I could feel all of those hands clawing at me, all struggling to hold on to me, I can't describe it, but I got flashes of all their different worlds. I'm thankfully already starting to forget them, but even now I can remember just glimpses of these worlds, it's it's hard to explain."
"I believe her too. When were possessed by those, whatever they were. That was clearly those phantoms trying to use our bodies to stabilize." Denika said.
"Yes it was." The woman replied.
"Had they succeeded, or rather had their worlds been more stable. You would have ceased to be, and become them. I've seen it happen before. When I was a phantom, drifting through the void."
"And you never tried to do it yourself?" The Circus Master asked?
"Well I." The woman replied, not sure what she could say.
"Let's just say it's an almost impossible way to bring yourself into existence, but the phantoms are always that desperate."
"What I don't understand is how you know so much about this? All the other phantoms were lashing out at us like desperate animals, clinging onto whatever power they could find, whilst you seem to have a working knowledge of the entire void? Your world definitely wasn't advanced enough to know that?" The Circus Master replied.
"I told you. I've been able to linger around for much longer as a phantom. I've felt the presence of the other realities, just like your friend there did. I've seen them come and go, and I can help you." The woman protested.
"Really?" The Circus Master said in a mocking tone.
"Yes. The magic of your vessel has helped me stabilise for a short while longer. If you let me, I can use it to trace the universe it came from. Your own universe. Once we're there, I will stabilize in your reality too."
"Now it all becomes clear. No chance." The Circus Master said.
"Fine, then you'll all die as surely as I will." She replied.
"Now come on let's discuss this." Carlene said, much to the Circus Masters surprise.
"You want me to take this strange creature, who may be a Demon or a monster or gods knows what else back with us? The Circus Master replied.
"I'm afraid I'll need more proof before I even consider it."
"You don't have the time." The woman said.
"It could take you years to try and find a way to pilot your ship through the void. There is no up or down out there, at least not as you know it for you to travel in. I meanwhile am not bound by any laws. If need be I can create my own and take you to your reality."
"Why do you need us at all then?" The Circus Master asked.
"I told you, without the power from your ship, I'll fade. Don't you understand, those phantoms were just the beginning. You're a tiny bit of reality, stranded out here in this nothingness. I'm not the only one who will try and use this ship as an anchor into existence. At first it will be universes similar to your own like mine that will sense you and try to grab you, but eventually, the more phantoms converge here, there will be universes and life forms the likes of which you can't even conceive out there. Worse the more they converge on this one tiny little space, the more they'll merge together. There will be nightmarish, hybrids of creatures out there, all wanting to rip this little craft and all of you apart in the hopes that you can help them break through from the darkness. "
The Circus Master knew she was right. He trusted both Denika and even Carlene's judgement on this, and there wasn't really any other explanation for where they were.
"All right." The vandal said begrudgingly.
"I warn you though any tricks." He said before the woman interrupted him.
"Yeah I know any tricks and you'll kill me. It's hard to feel scared when you've never really been alive." She said.
"Well you could at least tell us your name?" The Circus Master asked.
"Algrasa" She said.
The Circus Master suddenly had a few flashbacks of the life of the creature that had briefly tried to take over his own. He saw a few images of the Algrasa, and whilst he couldn't make them out completely, he could sense that she was someone he could trust after all. When the images became a lot clearer he even got glimpses of her helping people, battling monsters and saving the day.
"It seems I may have misjudged you. Algrasa." The Circus Master said.
Suddenly a new world began to form around the Tent. It was a large rocky landscape filled with lava. Large reptillian humanoids, over 30 foot tall began to crawl out of the nearby rocks and advance slowly towards the Tent.
"Okay, if you're going to do something. Now would be a good time." The Circus Master said.
Denika meanwhile showed Algrasa to the magical core of the ship which was just below the Kitchen. It would be much more difficult for Algrasa to merge with it, without Denika's help.
As the giants got near the Tent however they started to convulse in pain.
"They're fading." Ashlei said hopefully.
"No I don't think so. Looks different this time." The Circus Master replied.
Suddenly a strange, pleasant sounding melody began to play in the Tent. It was hard to describe. It wasn't like any kind of music any of the Circus Folk had heard before, on any planet.
At first it was quite nice, almost hypnotic, but soon within a few seconds it became much more intense, and more and more strange melodies began to fill the tent. Enough to the point where all of the Circus Folk soon collapsed onto the ground. Ashlei and Keptis were the most affected. Their ears began to bleed, but as the Circus Master crawled desperately along the floor to where the Kitchen was, he could see that neither Denika nor Algrasa had made it to the core in time, with the music having crippled them with pain too.