Occult: World of Yandere - Volume 2 Chapter 136 - Season Finale IV

Nier tumbled out of the Bifröst tunnel like he had been spat from the mouth of some beast.

One second, he was pure light, weightless in his temporary existence, streaking through that warp space of many colors, each hue twisting like veins leading to different corners of creation.

Reds bled into purple, and blue fractured into greens, every color, and every each of it form, was different location in space material or not, the colors here bled into either.

It was dizzying, infinite, but his path was locked tight, as his location was already predetermined, courtesy of Lisa who somehow casted the spell.

Then, just as quick, the colors collapsed into each other and leaking into his destination.

His body reformed in a rush, atoms snapping back together, bones solidifying, skin pulling taut. He hit the ground on one knee, the air cold against his face, and his heart pounding like he had run a marathon.

“Ahh, that’s going to take some time getting use to.”

Nier while holding his head, as it gave him a weird aching headache.

But headaches aside, he quickly straightened up, blinking away the afterimages. The place he had landed in… it was his mother’s underground lab apparently.

But calling it a lab felt like an understatement. The space was massive…cavernous even, as if the lab was created in an underground cavity with multiple cave system at once, as such the large space was result of that.

It was like someone had hollowed out a mountain and crammed it full of secrets. High ceilings arched overhead, reinforced with glowing runes that pulsed faint blue, woven into sleek metal girders that hummed with low energy.

Tech dominated one side, banks of holographic consoles flickering with data streams, vials of shimmering liquids bubbling in automated analyzers, robotic arms frozen mid-task over dissection tables.

But the occult shit outnumbered it all, shelves crammed with weird trinkets that defied the logic of science, floating orbs purple in color, and yet Nier could heard the voice of the dead within them as if they were sealed.

Potions swirling with colors that glowed, jars of preserved body parts from gods-know-what…such as the clawed limbs from some beast that looked like a half-dragon, half-eagle, alongside eyes still twitching in formaldehyde.

Weapons hung on racks, blades etched with runes of some kind, spears and shield was also present, some had runes other were just normally made.

And the defenses? Even without Lisa saying a word, Nier could feel them, a great swirl and detail patterns of raw Gaiain energy coursing through wards construction.

Because each trap was magical in nature, and he could sense them being used, he easily saw a multitude of magical patterns.

Now that Lisa was fully back online, any intruder dumb enough to step foot here without countermeasures would get destroyed or fucked by Circe design.

But two things in specific instantly caught his attention right away.

The first was what he could only described as a giant altar smack in the center of this lab, it was a towering structure, carved from a unknown black material.

Similar to bone, but way harder than anything on Gaia that is known publicly.

It deluded him at first, like his eyes couldn’t focus on its edges, but then recognition hit like a gut punch.

He knew what this was, or rather he felt it…A pull, deep and undeniable, like a thread tied around his soul tugging him forward, plunging into the unknown.

The connection was normal or describable, as this bond was beyond the physical, transcending time and space, swallowing up every difference and indifference.

If he traced it… yeah, there she was.

His current lover.

The Dark Mother….The 3rd Matriarch: Dark Fertility, third born of formless chaos. The Black Goat of the Black Woods. Shub-Niggurath. Or Kaly, as he had come to know her, love her, and even fear her a little.

He walked over without thinking, placed his hands on the cold surface. A warmth spread through his palms, familiar, and intimate.

He smiled as his hand traces it, a feeling that can only be described as coming home from a long day at work.

“Mother, mother, mother…

Nier said as he continued.

“What a wonderful gift you left behind, with this I can give Kaly sacrifices that are proper, I just need to find a way to move this massive thing, and put it in a more suitable spot.”

But just as he was being taken by the Dark Altar, something just a puzzling was also here, his memory going back on it, as his attention beam towards the other massive structure, and easily the largest thing inside this place.

His eyes shifted quick to the second thing in question, it was a massive ship? And It didn’t quite fit in this place.

Advanced, and futuristic, yet the design is so alien, so much so, it was safe to say that there was no hint of Eldritch weirdness.

The material the ship was made from was something black as night, marble or obsidian maybe, but shiny as chrome, covered in hexagonal patterns that shifted faintly, and glowing a neon green color between the carved outlines of the hexagonal patterns.

Size-wise, it was a monster, as big as a football stadium, sleek and long, built durable but looking weirdly lightweight, like it could lift off without a sound.

The window, or whatever imitated one, was deep green, darker shade, almost pulling you in if you stared too long. The whole thing gave off an odd aura, a feeling that felt as if it didn’t belong of this world.

“…So this is Prometheus!?”

Nier said with open mouth, as Lisa took this opportunity to chime in.

As a bight blue light flickered beside him, coalescing into a form. Featureless, pure glowing blue, but the physique… damn.

Her breasts large but balanced, not over-the-top like Tanya’s or small like Imani’s, right in that sweet spot.

While her waist curved just enough, her ass firm and rounded. It was a killer body, no face or details to distract.

The hologram placed her right hand over her heart, or where one would be, and bowed slightly, as if submitting, as she spoke.

“Greetings, My Master. I am Lisa, your faithful servant and guardian. It is an honor to stand before you in this form.”

Nier blinked once then twice as he was caught off guard.

So much so, he asked.

“What an in odd form… why no features, and just the… uh, killer physique?”

Lisa straightened, her voice smooth through the air.

“I based it on your ideal preferences, drawn from preliminary scans. But as I’m newly activated, I haven’t fully analyzed your tastes yet. This is my default form, a placeholder until I can refine it to perfection.”

Nier just nodded.

“Fair enough.”

What else was he was supposed to say.

He glanced around again, taking it all in.

“This was Mother’s secret lab?”

Nier asked, as Lisa shook her head.

“Yes and no you could say. This is a lab im design but in reality it’s more of a store house in purpose, where a lot of Circe’s original magic, fighting styles, and her magical or technological creations were born.”

Nier sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Of course. Mom was as open as she was vague. Not exactly a good combo, but… whatever.”

His eyes locked back on the massive structure.

“I take it that your main body is in there, right?”

The hologram nodded.

“Yes Master… This is Prometheus, the ship I crash-landed on Gaia with, back when it was just Ærmeta-3. But Circe… she didn’t just fix it. She rebuilt it from the ground up. Upgraded basically everything over the years. Most of my new features are basically magic-based now, woven right into the Ignimozian framework. It’s a hybrid beast of machine that give you the best of both worlds.”

Hearing this Nier crossed his arms, and replied.

“What can it do? Besides looking like it belongs in a sci-fi fever dream.”

Lisa’s form gestured toward the ship, blue light rippling.

“Where to start? The core drive’s been overhauled, advanced hyperspace mixed with wormhole tech, but amplified by spatial runes. Opens a something your mother calls a rainbow gate for FTL jumps. At full power this ship can cross extremely vast distances that would typically take light-years in seconds, or minutes if you’re going multi galaxies far.”

She paused, like she was proud of it.

“But that’s just travel. Weapons? Nanite swarms that can disassemble a tank at the molecular level, backed by binding spells that shoot out like concentrated rays that can trap souls in its structure and be use as an emergency source of power.”

“Defenses are top-notch, the ship can generate a Quantum shields fused with warding runes, to block heavy physical hits, magical attacks to a degree, and even Negativity bursts up to a point. It scanners are also stupidly fast as Prometheus can pick up everything made positive or negative atoms, as such it can picked up ether flows, dimensional rifts, life signs, and even normal energy and exotic magical energy signatures.”

“Research wise it has several lab bays? Full of Circe’s experiments, hybrid engines that run on Prana instead of fuel, self-replicating golems with AI cores, potions distilled in zero-G chambers for extra potency.”

At Lisa words, Nier let out a low whistle.

Nier let out a short, dry laugh as he stared up at the massive black hull of Prometheus, the chrome-shine hexagons catching the lab lights like they were breathing.

“She turned a crashed repair ship into a floating fortress of wonders, huh?”

He shook his head, amused, and stunned at the same time.

“I guess it is fitting, mother was always an extremist in everything she did, so yeah finding out she actually built something like this beneath our house doesn’t come as much as a surprise.”

Nier said out aloud, as Lisa blue hologram shifted slightly beside him, her arms folded in a calm, almost human way she had recently started doing.

“Still… My mother aside, I must ask.”

Nier went on, glancing at her.

“…is Gaia really that special? The way you talk about it sometimes… it’s like this is the only planet in existence with magic. Like everywhere else is just boring rocks.”

Lisa tilted her head at the question, a small, thoughtful gesture to signify her surprise.

As looked towards him and answer.

“Gaia is what the old Galactic Council used to call an Off-World planet.”

Nier raised an eyebrow.

“Off-World? Sounds like a bad sci-fi term. What is that even supposed to mean?”

Nier asked with much curiosity, and Lisa responded back in kind.

“It means exactly what it sounds like.”

She said, with her voice steady.

“An Off-World is any planet that has resources, energies, or phenomena you can’t find anywhere else in the known universe. Places where the laws of physics, as the Council understood them, simply don’t apply. Supernatural events. Basically anything that is magical as a whole. Entities that defy every scanner reading and equation they ever built. Any Planet with these qualities is an Off-World.”

Nier let out a low huh, crossing his arms.

“So… good thing, right, I can take it that means aliens with bad intentions is gonna come knocking at our planet with a massive fleet?”

Lisa gave a small, almost wry chuckle, more human than she use to sounded before.

“Depends on what you call good. For the locals? Usually, yeah. Off-Worlds like Gaia almost always get slapped with a Black Forest classification.”

“Black Forest Classification!?”

Nier ponder.

“Yes, it is the highest danger rating the Council can hand out. Basically: do not approach. Do not engage. Do not even scan too closely unless you want your ship ripped apart like wet paper.”

She paused, letting that sit.

Nier raised an eyebrow.

“I see, I guess that does make sense.”

“The danger is valid master, and for good reasons. Take the Eldar homeworld, for example.”

Lisa said.

“Thousands of years ago, long before I crashed here, the Millgords decided they wanted to invade an Off World, a foolish mistake. Like my creators they where another advanced race, and they where super arrogant at that. Well either way, they sent a massive War Fleet of seven thousand ships, and the firepower they had that day was enough to crack a star open like an egg.”

“Well that day, the fleet jumped in-system, confident in their tech. However their invasion, if you can even call it that became a great humbling for all those who watch from afar…because the second they tried to enter orbit of the world… the planet itself reacted.”

“Invisible hands of different sizes, some bigger than continent’s raging from thousands, maybe millions, grabbed every ship and tore them apart. Hulls peeled like fruit. Crews scattered into the void. No weapons even had the time to properly fire off in a desperate counter attack, rather all the ships were destroyed in an instant.”

Hearing this Nier whistle and replied.

“Oof. So that Eldar world has something like the Dracas if the planet could do something like that then.”

Lisa nodded.

“Close. The Eldar worship a single goddess they call Aelthiriennë, spelled in their old elvish script as ᚪᛖᛚᚦᛁᚱᛁᛖᚾᚾᛖ. She is revered as the Goddess of Life and War.”

“All..threne…. is that how you say it!?”

“It’s a little off but close, yeah.”

“So what the hell is an Eldar, anyways?”

“In modern terms, the closest thing to describe them as would be a race of bloodthirsty space elves.”

Lisa said flatly.

“Their also extremely powerful race as well, despite not being technologically advanced, they were one of the first races to cross the galaxy. And their power speak for themselves, they don’t need tech to achieve that. Their magic lets them fly through vacuum, warp space on foot, and easily travel faster than light if the occasion calls for it. Population wise, they are mostly female. The downside of this though, they are extremely xenophobic, as they view every other lifeform as beneath them. The Council considers them the single most dangerous Off-World species they’ve ever encountered.”

“To think my first run in with a real life elf, would be ai telling me that elves are actually aliens, well it make sense I guess, I would really like to meet one eventually.”

Nier then glanced back at her.

“By chance Lisa, are humans in council database? Since you keep calling Gaia an Off-World.”

“Unlikely.”

Lisa admitted.

“The first time I met a human was when I crash-landed here all those years ago. This part of the galaxy is so far off from my original home, even with rainbow-gate tech, it would take about forty minutes to reach Ignuxia from here. And this sector? It wasn’t even on the Council’s charts back then either. So it is highly unlikely that council even knows a world like Gaia even exist.”

“I see, well thanks for sharing Lisa, it’s good to know all this information since I am new to all this, but that aside I should now get to the main point… Tell me Lisa, my mother left behind alot of secrets. I am glad that I now know what happen to her, but her aside, can you tell me what you bring to the table, top-notch home security aside.”

“…I can do alot master, so much so, it would take four days to explain all my features in great detail, but I can be useful.”

“I know your useful, I just wanted to know how useful, but I guess I don’t have four days waist sitting down, still let me ask you a question I asked you a couple days ago.”

“Sure Master.”

“If you had a way to start a cult, beside the use of mind control, what would be the best way to accumulate followers?”