Metal crates are stacked to the left and right, just before a door in a wide, long hallway. There are two soldiers to each side, using the crates as cover from the incoming masses of horrors while shooting down the long hallway. There is a t-intersection at the end, with passages to the left and right. The lighting is dim, with gunfire creating bursts of light.
The soldiers focus on the main body of the horrors, occasionally having to re-target when they send out a mass of tentacles.
The door the soldiers are protecting opens, revealing part of a room, along with a woman dressed in intricate religious garb. Her outfit is made of many layers, with long sleeves that go past her hands. She steps forward, standing in the middle of the hallway, a mere step back from the soldiers.
A large monitor in the room she came from shows several lines of text.
Terra Main Shield: 97%
Terra Secondary Shield: 100%
Primary Shield Generator Integrity: 27%
WARNING: TERRA SHIELD BREACH IMMINENT
A soldier looks over at her briefly, before returning to firing.
“Hey, you know your gods have no power here, right?” yells out the soldier, his voice cutting through the sounds of gunfire and monsters.
“I know, but their gods do,” she says, her voice quiet but steady.
She pulls her hand out of her pocket, revealing an intricately decorated knife. The soldier who talked to her briefly sees it, shuddering in revulsion. The handle is covered in pulsing flesh, while the blade is carved from a spike from a horror. Glowing lines run along the blade, pulsing with the beat of her heart.
She takes the blade and cuts through her sleeve, running from the base of the shoulder down to the end of her hand. As the sleeve falls away, a long, bloody gash can be seen. She grimaces slightly but otherwise maintains her composure. She grabs the handle of the blade with both hands, holds it up to her chest, and closes her eyes. She begins to chant.
“Sen ta Helaku Niar goqua. Si’a raneh ghan kwo forkanu she’ta.”
As she chants, everything around her begins to slow down. When she opens her eyes again, only the faster of motions are seen as moving.
“Brave of you to call out to me, little one,” comes a voice from the void.
She looks around, still startled by how time around her had slowed down. The upper half of the walls are faded into nothingness, with the ceiling nothing but an infinite void.
“I know why you have called out to me, but I wish for you to tell me in your own words,” says the voice.
“Helaku Niar, Lord of the In-Between, Master of Hidden Spaces, if you know what is in my heart, then I shall make this brief. Humanity is at the brink. If we fall here, our species falls with us. Please grant us protection from the horrors that have decimated my people,” pleads the priestess.
“Why should I grant you protection? What would you offer me in exchange?” asks Helaku Niar.
“Anything, so long as it saves humanity,” she says.”
“Anything?”
She shudders in response to that word. The voice that surrounds her gives of a sense of mischievous glee. She steadies herself, ready to respond when she is interrupted.
“Are you sure you understand what you are offering, little one?”
“Whether or not I truly understand the depth of meaning behind that word, I stand by my offer,” she says. “My only goal is the survival of my species. I’m willing to take on any burden, perform any evil, so long as my goal is achieved.”
“Very well. I will require three sacrifices. One from you, one from you closest loved one, and one from humanity as a whole.”
“What type of sacrifices are you desiring?” she asks.
Around her, the soldiers are still fighting to protect the room behind them. She looks towards the end of the hall, just in time to see the last of the horrors fall… only to slowly be replaced by a much larger horror, one that can just barely push its way through the hall. Before she can fully process and react to this sudden change, Helaku Niar interrupts her once again.
“From you, I shall curse you with immortality. For eternity and beyond, you shall lead your species in the task I put upon them. You will gift a fraction of your power, your knowledge, to all of your kind to assist them.”
She doesn’t interrupt, but she does hesitate for a moment.
“Your wife will become the prime matriarch, bearer of 11 titans, who will be raised by both of you to act as the nigh-immortal generals of my children.”
She tightens her fists as her entire body tenses, her face a barely contained mask of rage.
“Absolutely not,” she says, her voice measured.
Helaku Niar pauses briefly, before continuing. “As for humanity, your species will become heralds for my spread in your universe. All shall belong to me and your species shall sit atop all by myself. Your species will help flood the universe with my children. I shall grant your species knowledge of the In-Between, so your kind may begin the spread without delay.”
She looks straight up, towards the strongest feeling of Helaku Niar that she can sense.
“I don’t care what you do to me. I am fine with what you wish for humanity, for our universe. The rest of the universe can burn for all I care.”
Her voice cracks, her body releases its tension, though she still keeps her hand in fists. Her face keeps mostly neutral, but the pressure of her emotions is starting to break through.
“Just… just leave my wife out of it.”
“You said you would do anything to save your species,” says Helaku Niar, their voice tinged with amusement. “You admitted you likely didn’t understand the full consequences of your request.”
She suddenly looks forward, having noticed motion in her peripheral. The large horror is a third of the way down the hall, uncountable tentacles filling the next third and visibly, quickly, moving forward.
“These are the consequences. This is what is needed to save your species. I can make my way into your universe in numerous ways. You can save your species in precisely one.”
She takes a half step back, before looking back up and focusing on Helaku Niar once more.
“I hold all of the power here priestess. You would do well to remember this,” they say, their voice tinged with menace.
The walls and ceiling of the hall suddenly reappear. She looks forward once more, seeing that the tentacles are nearly upon the soldier. From over her shoulder, just behind her, she hears a light voice. She flinches, unclenching her fists.
“You know what must be done.”
In spite of all the bullets being shot into the tentacles, into the creature behind them, the creature’s efforts are unhindered.
“It should be an easy decision for someone with the inner strength you have.”
The soldiers on either side of her wear masks of fear and determination, willing to give their everything until the last if need be. She’s sweating, shaking. The tentacles are inches from the closest soldier now.
“Why her…” she whispers. She balls up her fists once more, watching as the tentacles brush against the face of the closest soldier. Louder, she asks, “Why her? Why not me? Why not another woman? A hundred? A thousand? How long will she be tormented with the birth and care of your children?”
“A mere mortal lifetime is all. I do this to test your will, to further my goals, and nothing more. You shall be the only immortal. That curse is uniquely yours… at least as far as your species is concerned.”
The tentacles have now reached all four of the soldiers. They’ve nearly reached her. The first soldier reached is bleeding from every orifice on the head as they are choked by a large tentacle.
“So, Priestess. What is your decision?”
The first tentacle brushes against her chest as she takes in a deep, shaky breath.
“I accept your sacrifices, Lord Helaku Niar.”
She drops to her knees, closing her eyes and clutching the dagger next to her chest. The tentacles quickly, albeit briefly, burn and stretch as they are exposed to the In-Between, the Hidden Spaces between our universe and others, before collapsing to the deck Time resumes normal speed. The soldier who was first attacked gasps for breath, eyes shut, covered in blood but still alive. Tears run down the Priestess’ face.