San Francisco, CA. While the coastline is beautiful, disaster is about to strike. A tsunami is approaching the city and will destroy everything in it. That’s when Koschei appears. A purple winged slime girl with glowing red eyes and green robes. She pulls her hand out and uses some kind of magic force to control the waves. Calming the tsunami and saving the city. Suddenly, she gets a phone call.

Earth A: February 23rd, 2023.

Nairu gets up from the bed, and in shock notices Rasput.

“Oh gods… It’s you!” stutters Nairu.
“Hi, Nairu. Are you alright? I was convinced the cult took you prisoner!” Rasput replies, equally nervous. Nairu gets up from the bed and takes a seat on a nearby chair.

“They tried, and failed. They told me YOU were captured! I was ready to get you out.”. She sighs.

“Well, we’re here. I needed to ask you… What the hell is this all about?” Rasput asks.

Nairu begins. “It was perfect. We built this world from nothing. Ra, Sekhmet, Horus, and so many others… There was this one though. Apep. He was always crooked and unlikeable, lying and manipulating others for personal gain. Several years down the line when we had a real thing going with the first Earth, he discovered the powers of the Voidway himself and blackmailed the other Gods of Egypt. He already had his army of these bird things that weren’t the most capable but overpowered us all through numbers. I don’t know what happened to the gods themselves, but I’ve been hiding and moving from place to place for thousands of years.”.

Nairu and Rasput discuss their paths and Nairu later gives him an introduction to her world. She claims Earth A is the original. With others being replications crafted by advanced Voidway Explorers. This house, while out of place, was right outside the crowded city of Portland OR. Nearby was a chicken restaurant unfamiliar to Rasput, with a nice man that offered to help with any local problems. Later watching a movie, they return home and Rasput politely asks “This has been really fun, but I might have to go back to my world for a bit. Wrap up some unfinished stuff and see if I can get some more of those Jolt bars to cross the Voidway long-term.”. Nairu gives him her phone number and the number of a trustworthy voidway explorer mercenary.

Rasput takes a spare Jolt bar and returns home. Collecting his thoughts about everything he’s learned about Earth A. After about a month, he finishes tuning a record player and is ready to go back to Nairu’s world, though he notices a letter in the mailbox. Signed by somebody called “Ali”, the handwriting is awful, and not a single word could be made out. He throws it away and takes a bite of the bar, being carried to the Voidway and swimming over to Earth A.

Nairu is mumbling to herself aggressively in a bedroom, and when Rasput returns she begins yelling at him incoherently. Rasput asks “What the hell happened?” without a response. Then he notices her mouth has a strange color scheme. It was an indescribable color, hard to look at in a way. “What’s up with-” Rasput gets interrupted when Nairu pulls out a knife. Rasput finds this Ankh pendulum on the table and tries defending himself with it, but eventually he escapes the house and waits a few weeks to come back.

Rasput comes to the conclusion that Nairu’s been replaced with some imposter from the cult. He’s wandering the streets when he sees some hooded cultists and quickly turns a corner, noticing Nairu’s bunker and tries opening the door, though senses a terrible omen. He pulls out a knife from his pocket and firmly asks “Where is Nairu?” when it coldly states “Nairu is not here.” and charges at Rasput with another knife, stabbing him in the stomach. He passes out, and wakes up in the streets of Portland.

Completely unharmed, he believes he must have been dreaming. Taking a bite out of a Jolt bar he’s puzzled finding out that he came out of Earth A, meaning he actually was there. Out of options he calls the number of the mercenary Nairu gave to him.

“This is Koschei. Uh, how may I help you?”

“Hi, my name’s Rasput. I think Nairu’s in trouble, the cult got to her I’m pretty sure. You know her right? Can you please help?”
“Got it. On my way, meet me in Ashland.”

Rasput spends several hours there, sightseeing and researching. When Koschei arrives, they introduce themselves. Rasput asks “Forgive me, but.. How do I know you’re not also with them? Feel like I can’t trust anyone else involved with this.” to which Koschei chuckles and tells him “Watch this.”, making a hand movement and sending him to some kind of humid dungeon with several corridors. After wandering for a bit a portal opens and he finds himself back in Ashland.

“Pretty cool, right? Somewhat of a side project of mine. Trying to make a completely cult-safe world. My security will kill any of them that come in without my permission. Oh, and by the way, you don’t need the energy bars to cross the Voidway. It’s a bit hard to explain, basically has to do with how the void influences physics. All you need to really do is find some gravel, sand, or loose dirt and dive into it with all your force. Follow me.”

Koschei points to a patch of gravel and jumps straight into it, going through like it didn’t even exist. Rasput follows and when he opens his eyes, they’re both in the Voidway. Koschei winks and returns to Earth A, Rasput following.

“That’s insane, Thanks for letting me know. Though look, you know what’s going on. I don’t know what’s up with her, I’ve tried talking and she tried to kill me. I noticed cause she had this weird color scheme with her mouth, and-” Rasput gets interrupted. “She hasn’t been replaced! She was possessed by a cult demon.” says Koschei. Get in my car, I’ll explain more on the way.

Koschei explains that the cult sometimes uses special forces to extract information or destroy groups. It was great that Rasput caught her when he did or she would’ve been lost to the cult completely. A couple hours later they arrive to Portland and Koschei offers Rasput a Glock which he refuses as to not risk hurting Nairu.

They sneak their way across to the bunker, and it’s again difficult, but Rasput opens the door before having a burning pain in his stomach. He’s frozen with pain though Koschei’s already in the house, restraining Nairu. Rasput tries as hard as he can to get in and after a couple minutes he finally does. Koschei throws him a tool that Rasput points at Nairu, before she yells and pushes Koschei to the side, running towards Rasput but collapses shortly beforehand. A cold fog is expelled from Nairu’s mouth and disappears. She’s unconscious, but Koschei promises that she’s going to wake up, and the demon is gone.

Rasput sighs in relief, takes Nairu to bed and goes out to get some fresh air.