The Mega Family: Part 2: Daharian
On the legendary lost land of Point Nemo, the Scottish Dinosaur, Jocaziah first encountered what would become one of its best friends, the strange hybrid of alien, demon and man known as Daharian.
The two creatures at first seemed like an unlikely pairing, and had it not been for the mutual ally Vanessa Shoniwa, they would most likely have never even encountered one another. Still ironically despite their differences they were very similar. Both were not only judged as monsters despite having helped to save humanity again and again, but both in many ways ruled over a dark kingdom of monsters despite not really belonging anywhere.
Daharian's real name and identity I'm sure most of you reading will be surprised to learn was Andrei Abdulov, the famous, lost Russian hero astronaut from the 1980s.
Born in 1955, Andrei's two passions growing up were sports and science (though the former was more to avoid the bullying that came from his interest in the latter, but it did become genuine after a short while.)
These two past times would lead to a career in the Soviet Space Program as an astronaut where he enjoyed great success, even becoming a national hero to his people. His career was so distinguished that he was among those chosen for the ill fated Granitsa mission in 1985.
The Granitsa was in many ways the Soviets last roll of the dice as far as the space program was concerned, well at least for the Russians themselves as much of their technology would later be utilized by their western rivals after the fall.
The goal of the Granista was to go further from the earth than any craft before it had, using a new type of engine known as the Destinya model, named after its creator, one of the greatest scientists in the history of the Soviet Union.
Sadly Professor Destinya would be remembered more for this one catastrophic failure, though there are many who still argue that the Granista was sabotaged. It is worth mentioning that the principle for the Destinya model would decades later be refined and utilized on space ships all over the world. In fact today in the 25th century, all of our ships still use a modified version of Destinya's model, showing that at the very least he was right, though sadly he never lived to see it. He died in 2009 alone, depressed and haunted by the lives his invention may have cost.
Whatever the reason, the very first Destinya model worked too well and within a day the ship had spun out of control. Its pilot was able to steer the ship back into earth's orbit, forcing it to go around our planet for 3 days. If he hadn't it would have sped completely out into deep space and become lost.
Sadly due to its speed no vessel could possibly hope to travel to the Granista and rescue its occupants. Very soon it would run out of fuel and when it crashed there would be a tremendous explosion. To prevent anyone else being hurt or any areas being contaminated the ships pilot took the Granista to Point Nemo, the most remote place on earth. Point Nemo is so far away from any other landmass that the nearest people to it are those in space Throughout the 20th, 21st and even into the early 22nd century, most space programs would program their space probes and ships to crash into Point Nemo for similar reasons to avoid any habitable areas from being contaminated.
However it was believed that Point Nemo was uninhabited, something that the crew of the Granista would discover to be a trick.
There was in fact an island right at the centre of the area, that was inhabited by monstrous creatures from all over the world. It was created during the age of the gods, long before recorded history by the renegade god named Ares.
During their rule over the earth, the vastly powerful interdimensional beings that we would come to know as gods, suffered many divisions, but none was greater than the war that Ares provoked which not only led to the great flood, but the gods eventually leaving the earth. Ares ultimately hoped to turn humanity and the other sentient creatures of the earth into his soldiers to build a vast empire throughout the stars.
The island of Point Nemo was created in the early days of the Ares conflict. It was a breeding ground, training area, and lab for his new army. He took creatures from all over the world, demons, beasts, monsters, magical beings etc and forced them to this new island he had created in order to see which was the strongest, experiment on them, breed them and of course brainwash them in order to serve him. Ultimately Ares eventually gave up on Point Nemo, finding it too long and costly a process to create an army. The Island continued to exist long after the war and the gods left the earth and into the 20th century. Indeed it will endure long beyond our time. Centuries from now it will ironically play a significant role in the survival of humanity during our war with the Hylexans when the last survivors of the war will hide out there and rebuild the earth 100 years after. That is a story for another time however.
The eclectic collection of creatures and experiments of Ares, and the new life forms they had created continued to exist and war with each other on Point Nemo, making it possibly the most hellish place on earth. At some point however a magical shield was placed around it which made it appear as though there was nothing in the Point Nemo region. It was most likely given the power of the spell, Ares himself that cast it to prevent the other gods from finding and using his army, but some have argued that at some point the creatures on Point Nemo may have gathered together into a civilisation of sorts as there were ruins scattered about the island that did not appear to be the creations of Ares, though how any such civilisation could have possibly existed is almost beyond comprehension.
Still either way the spell helped to further shield this island from the outside world, but as soon as the Granista went plummeting towards it and through the illusion of the forcefield, the ship was stopped in its tracks by a powerful wizard on the island, who helped the vessel land gently on the surface of Ares island.
The 200 or so astronauts on board, despite having journeyed beyond the confines of their planet, were still amazed at the sights that awaited them on this strange, forgotten land.
The wizard's name was Ablaisk. He was reluctant to share any details about his past for now, but nevertheless at least at first helped to shelter the astronauts in his vast castle that was protected from the other horrors of the land, though from the start he and Andrei did not like each other.
The Wizard had in truth once ruled over a vast kingdom deep in the heart of South America known as Maros, a haven for wizards and sorcerers from all over the world, though sadly Ablaisk tried to turn them into an army that he could use to conquer the world. He felt wizards should rule the world and the age of magic should return.
After his banishment Ablaisk travelled to Point Nemo which he learned about from Maros' records, though even they believed it to be a myth. Admittedly none before Ablaisk had been willing to test that theory.
The Wizard hoped to make use of not only any stray magic left behind by Ares, but take control of any creatures he could to use as his army to reclaim Maros. Sadly for Ablaisk even his power was no match for the horrors of this island, though he had at least been able to secure this castle with a forcefield left over by Ares as this castle had in truth been one of his labs. Ablaisk had continued to use magic from the castle to experiment on creatures he captured, though even then he was only able to do so on the lesser beasts or the children of the more powerful creatures.
The wizard naturally intended to use the astronauts as his new guinea pigs, but fortunately a female member of the crew named Kira who had similarly distrusted Ablaisk was able to uncover the truth when she stumbled upon one of his experiments below the castle and released them. The Wizard had been left drained by stopping the Granista in his path which was why he couldn't simply imprison the other astronauts and had to play for time.
Thankfully Kira was able to release some of the Wizards creatures who subsequently overthrew his castle, forcing him to go on the run. In the process however the enchantment the wizard used to escape to this island was destroyed leaving he and all the others trapped on Point Nemo. They had no equipment to contact the outside world and even if they did, the spell would most surely have limited it. There was no way for them to simply leave the island, as not only were they too far from any other landmass, but Point Nemo was guarded by a hideous, gigantic creature known only as The Bloop. It was named as such after the strange noise it made.
The Bloop was over 900 feet long. It is not simply a beast, demon or monster. The creatures it belongs to are a mysterious order of life forms from the very depths of the ocean who almost never venture to the surface. Quite why the Bloop was an exception no one knows? Most believe it to have been the work of Ares, but if Ares had found a way to control these creatures (which even the gods were shy of trying.) Then why did he not use them to inflict devastation on the world above? Why only use his most powerful creature as a guard dog?
Some have speculated that the Bloop can see through time itself and knows the important role this island will play in our future and protect it? Ultimately given the mysterious nature of the Bloop's race it is hard to say. One thing for sure however, is that the Bloop was virtually indestructible and not even the Mega Family themselves dared challenge its power. In fact in one instance during the early years of his stay on the island Jocaziah, unaware of the creature's presence was very nearly devoured by the Bloop, until Daharian rescued him. Both the Dinosaur and the mutant even ended up in the giant's mouth at the same time, only narrowly managing to jump to safety before its jaws snapped shut on them both.
Still whilst it certainly showed no preferential treatment to the Mega Family as long as they stayed out of its domain the Bloop gave them no bother either.
Life was hard to say the least for the former astronauts. They encountered all manner of hideous creatures on Ares island, including Cyclops, Centaurs, Manticore's, Griffins, Dragons, Wyverns, Drakes, Amphiteres, Zombies, Vampires, Living Statues, Skeleton creatures, Ghouls, Caradons, Minotaurs, Mummies, Werewolves, Hydras, Giants, and even creatures from outer space, though more on that later.
After 6 months of hell during which they lost over 50 men and women, the survivors finally found an ally in the form of the beautiful giantess Karaleva. She belonged to a race of mini giants, who on average grew to 9 foot tall and were rabid flesh eaters. Sadly whilst formidable anywhere else, these beasts were far down on the food chain of this island. At first they survived by retreating underground and were able to thrive for thousands of years, but they were later wiped out by a host of horrifying bottom feeding monsters, the offspring of a single, vast demonic queen known as Rasvox. Karaleva was the only survivor of her kind who made it to the surface and vowed revenge on Rasvox. Sadly as the demon queen's power grew and she for a while became the apex predator of the island, that looked like an impossible task and Karaleva knowing that it may take centuries to bring down the demon queen, used the forbidden magic of her people to make herself immortal. She was not indestructible, but at the very least she would be spared the ravages of disease and age, giving her more time to plot her revenge. Sure enough that time came over 200 years later, when Karaleva assembled an army of other creatures who had grown tired of their queen and together they were able to overwhelm her, with Karaleva being the one to finally slay the Rasvox.
Once the queen was dead and her offspring perished without her, Karaleva retreated underground into the ruins of her own city. It was the only place she could feel safe, and she enjoyed being around familiar surroundings. She was tempted many times to simply end her life, but ultimately her self preservation instincts always overrode her despair. She continued to hunt and survive for another 50 or so years as the island once again fell into chaos before Andrei and the others arrived. She took pity on them and invited them to stay in the ruins of her people's city. Gradually over time, she and Andrei (who had taken over as the leader of the group after the captain had been devoured by a dragon) fell in love.
It was an unconventional romance to say the least. At first Andrei was like everyone else terrified of the giantess. The fact that she would often eat her prey alive, which included creatures like vandals and monsters probably had something to do with that. (Her already sharp teeth and jaws could grow to twice their size if she wanted.)
Still unlike the others he was at least willing to talk with her, try and understand where she was coming from and didn't react with fear every time he spoke with her. To be fair to the others, the first time they saw Karaleva, she picked up a particularly vicious vandal that had been chasing them for days and started to eat its stomach whilst it was alive, kicking and screaming. Only on their urging did she rip its head clean off its shoulders. Andrei often tried to discourage her from eating her prey alive in all fairness, but still ultimately he saw her as more than a monster and instead came to admire her bravery and good heart.
From the safety of the city, life became just about tolerable for the former crew of the Granista, though they still searched, somewhat in vain for a way home.
Ablaisk meanwhile proved to be their biggest threat. Not only did he try and get revenge on them many times, but his actions would also continue to upset the balance of the island the more he tampered with its magics in his insane lust for power.
They also faced a threat from the Lansars, hideous green skinned mutated humans. They are believed to have been created by Ares in his experiments, or alternatively were perhaps the result of multiple demonic and magical strains being mixed together over the centuries due to the eclectic mix of monsters on the island.
Either way they were savage beasts and lived on the other side of the island and sacrificed creatures to the giant Centaurs who lived in a network of caves. Ironically one of the Centaurs became somewhat smitten with Kira when she was offered up as a sacrifice, though perhaps smitten is too strong a word. It certainly seemed to form a bond of sorts with her to the point where even after they rescued her from its cave, it would search the island for her and even in some instances help the Astronauts against other threats, such as a particularly vicious Griffin, and even its own followers who tried to slaughter astronauts after they escaped.
They also faced a particularly vicious race of vampires, who had become extinct elsewhere in the world, the hideous Lamia who lived in the highest cliff tops of the island. The queen of these vampires known as Alsekia was an old enemy of Karaleva. The two first encountered each other, when Karaleva was just a child and she was playing on the surface with her older brother and little sister they were snatched by these winged horrors. Both of her siblings were killed by Alsekia herself. These vampires preferred the blood of children as they were younger, which was part of why they had been hunted so extensively on the mainland. On Point Nemo the vampires were not quite so picky about who they fed on, but they still preferred children's blood whenever they could get it and the blood of Karaleva's people who were closer to humans than many other mutations was extremely prized, hence why the queen was the one who got to feed on them.
Karaleva herself was freed by her father, who being an influential member of her tribe was able to mount a rescue party to the mountain, though tragically her father was also killed by the bloodsucker during the mission too.
Ironically however it was a fight against Alsekia that began Andrei and Karaleva's relationship, with the two sharing their first kiss after he rescued her from the vampire's clutches after Alsekia had lured her into a trap once again.
Another major threat were the sword wielding skeleton warriors who hunted anyone that dared to disturb Ares weapons chest. Despite warning from Karaleva, the astronauts foolishly raided it to stop a group of particularly vicious underground Hydra's that had begun to attack the city. The skeletons could not rest until they had slaughtered all of those who disturbed Ares' weapons chest. Even though all of the weapons were restored, the skeleton creatures still pursued them. Worse, those the skeleton creatures killed were sent to a hell dimension to suffer for all eternity. No matter how many times the skeleton's were killed they would always return at some point. Karaleva and Andrei (who had wisely taken his love's advice and not interfered) tried to find a way to encase the skeletons in magic, but even then the monsters would eventually resurrect outside of it. Depending on the power of the magic used to destroy them, the skeletons could be gone for weeks, even months at a time, but they would always reappear without warning to try and hunt their victims again.
The astronauts eventually made a dangerous trek to the heart of the island, again an area that even Karaleva was too terrified to go near to try and find the darkest, most forbidden forms of magic that even Ares had been reluctant to use but still kept as a precaution to finally destroy the skeleton beasts. In the process only one of those who had raided Ares' tomb survived, but the monsters it seemed had finally been destroyed. This astronaut would be among those who later escaped Point Nemo, though reportedly decades later when he was an old man, one of the skeletons returned and finally claimed its last victim when he was playing with his grandson in his back garden. The grandson who was inspired to become a demon hunter as a result states that he never forgot the scream the skeleton made when it first appeared and how fast it ran across the garden, with a sword in its hand and struck down his beloved grandfather before he could even respond.
One of the more unusual threats they faced however was a terror from space known as Taranka. This alien creature had attacked the very first Russian space station, established in the year 1978. Manned by just 50 people, the station's captain who was the only survivor of the alien's rampage crashed the station into Point Nemo to finish the creature off.
Sadly however the beast had not been killed in the crash. Taranka came from a far away planet in the Andromeda galaxy and was nothing more than a petty criminal at first, who had been made part of an experiment to cure a disease that had been ravaging his home planet. Unfortunately the cure worked a little too well and Taranka developed such advanced healing capabilities that he was not only able to repair any wound, he could potentially regrow from a single cell. However the process would never rebuild his body exactly as it was and there would always be hideous mutations and defects.
After they realised their experiment had gone wrong,Taranka's people had him burned alive in order to removed all traces of the drug, but again even they had underestimated the extent of his healing powers and after regrowing from a single cell, Taranka would attack and slaughter hsi creators before escaping into the stars. His rebuilt body did not resemble the original, in fact to his own people he resembled a horrifying monster. Taranka travelled the universe for centuries hoping to find a world he could live on, but sadly his monstrous and deformed appearance not only frightened most creatures, but on each world it was only a matter of time before his unnatural abilities would be discovered and their leaders would attempt to harness them for their own efforts or destroy him to prevent their enemies from doing so. He would be killed and tortured hundreds more times, even when he stopped trying to find a planet, word would soon spread of this strange creature forcing him to go on the run.
After centuries of loneliness and suffering, Taranka went insane and fought back against his oppressors. Having gained incredible powers through all of his resurrections and mutations as well as the experiments performed on him by other alien creatures. Taranka was able to slaughter hundreds of planets. His regenerative DNA had become twisted to the point where it could absorb other life forms and slowly consume parts of their bodies and abilities. Whilst at first he only lashed out at those who had hurt him, in time having suffered to such an extent, Taranka was happy just to dish the pain out to others regardless.
By the time he came into contact with the Russian space station, he was more of a gigantic mass and very nearly consumed it by himself before the crash, with most of Taranka burning up in the atmosphere. Officially the crash was of course attributed to simply an accident with the engine, though many conspiracy theories did develop about aliens, very few of them it must be said were on the right track.
One small piece of Taranka survived the crash, buried under a large piece of rubble, where it would remain trapped for years until Andrei and his friends discovered the wreckage. Hoping to perhaps make it a new base of operations, it was Karaleva herself who lifted the rubble off of the alien's remains, not knowing what was under there. Taranka attempted to build himself a new body from that of the creatures of the island. The astronauts managed to thwart his first attempt, but on his second he was able to take control of one of the astronauts himself and not only twist him physically, but mentally too, playing on his rage at being trapped on this island and his hatred of the creatures who had slaughtered so many of his friends.
The astronauts were forced to team up with their archenemy Ablaisk in order to defeat the alien a second time. As far as they were aware, after defeating Taranka the second time, every last trace of the mutant had been destroyed, in truth Ablaisk had managed to hide a small sample of Taranka's body which he kept in a state of magical stasis for years. The wizard hoped at some point to make use of the aliens ability to absorb other creatures and for years would experiment with it.
The astronauts meanwhile remained trapped on the island for up to 10 years, but their time came to an end when Ablaisk was able to break through to Ares hidden temple that the god had previously used to teleport creatures to and from the island all those centuries ago.
Ablaisk had known about it for years, but it had taken him that long to break through for a variety of reasons. Leaving aside the constant danger from the horrors of the island, the magics of Point Nemo itself had been difficult to utilise. Due to the fact that there was such an eclectic mix of creatures and spells from all over the planet, any attempt to carry out even the most basic spell could be catastrophic.
Only a wizard with the most incredible skill like Ablaisk could hope to navigate the dark magics of the island, and even then it took him years for more advanced spells.
Now with the access to Ares teleportation spells, Ablaisk planned to send many of the monsters, demons and witches he gained control of over the years here back into his former home city and conquer it.
The Wizard very nearly managed it, but fortunately the astronauts were able to infiltrate and destroy Ablaisk's base of operations from within, forcing him to flee back into the jungles of the island.
The astronauts sadly had next to no knowledge of magic, even after all this time, but still they vainly tried to find a way to harness the power of the portal to go home.
Ablaisk meanwhile worked with the team's other archenemy Alsekia. By this stage Karaleva had destroyed the vampire queen's mountain base using some of the dark magic she had stolen from the centre of the island when trying to find a way to destroy the skeleton warrior. Alsekia was left as possibly the only member of her kind on the island.
The Wizard and the vampire were able, working together to fight back and reclaim their base. In the ensuing confrontation the crude magics used to try and reopen the portal by the astronauts were able to temporarily do so. Andrei hurried the few survivors left. By this stage only ten of the astronauts besides Andrei and Karaleva had survived. The giantess did not want to leave, but Andrei pushed her whilst he was holding off the wizard, with his final word to Karaleva simply being that he loved her. Sadly however whilst Andrei was holding off Ablaisk, Alsekia herself flew past him and through the portal, following her nemesis.
Not long after the unstable magic caused the portal to overload, not only destroying it, but Ares temple, preventing the portal from ever being recreated.
Ablaisk managed to get himself and Andrei who was wounded to safety in time. Rather than simply kill his nemesis however, the wizard decided to use him as part of his sick experiments to create the ultimate warrior.
Over the next year, he would fused Andrei's body with numerous different strands of demon, monster, giant, and beast dna, which were held together by the last piece of Taranka, that had been modified by Ablaisk over the years so that it seemingly could not recreate him, but could make use of his ability to fuse different beings together.
Eventually by the end of the year, Andrei had been mutated into a gigantic, amphibian-like demonic, hybrid monster. Standing over 60 feet tall and weighing in at over 30 tons. In his new form Andrei became the unquestioned king of the island of the creatures of the island, though he had been placed completely under Ablaisk's control. Ablaisk would dub the creature Daharian, which in his language meant emperor.
For three years Daharian helped Ablaisk rule Point Nemo, but sadly for the wizard his other attempts to either find or create a spell that could allow him to travel back to the mainland were met with a constant failure, until in 1999 an opportunity would arise from one of the greatest demon hunters from the 20th century. Vanessa Showina.
Vanessa was born in 1975 in Timbuktu. The famous African city was once the Islamic centre of learning and played an important role in maintaining the Mali empire through its trade and resources. Whilst Timbuktu would help advance humanities knowledge in many areas from physics, to history to agriculture, sadly it fell into decline following the collapse of the Mali empire.
Still its reputation as an exotic and mysterious place persisted in Europe throughout the centuries, even after the fall of the empire it supported. In spite of this however, few people were aware of one of its greatest accomplishments. During its heyday as a centre for learning, Timbuktu also saw a much greater study of the supernatural in a special mosque, separate from its famous university.
Known as the black mosque, it helped unearth many powerful spells and secrets of the occult that would have otherwise remained lost to history. Tragically however as the Mali empire began to decline Timbuktu would come under attack from warlocks, witches and demons who were angry at their secrets being shared by the black mosque, which they ultimately destroyed.
The ruins were then left to rot when the city suffered from exploitation in the ensuing centuries and was eventually consumed by the earth itself. Sadly the desert around Timbuktu also became a haven for vampires, demons and other creatures who frequently attacked the city, the more vulnerable and isolated it became. By the time of Vanessa's birth, the city was struggling to survive. Indeed the only reason the vampires and monsters of the desert had not completely overrun it was because they didn't want to kill off their food supply.
When she was just a teenage girl Vanessa was part of a major rebellion against the vampires of the desert that managed to push the bloodsuckers back. A few years later when the city started to enjoy some stability again, Vanessa who was now 18 years old had gone on to study at its famous university and learned about the city's history became interested in the Black Mosque. No one had dared visit the ruins after it fell out of fear of incurring the wrath of the demons, whilst the later explorers similarly came to believe it was haunted.
For the last 30 years before Vanessa's birth no one had dared venture into the desert, but following the vampire's defeat, Vanessa became somewhat obsessed with the black mosque believing that it was their only hope. Certainly panic over another attack was strong among the population, though Vanessa still found it hard to recruit volunteers. She came from one of the wealthiest families in Timbuktu and was only able to convince most of the people to brave the desert through bribery.
Little did Vanessa know the black mosque was actually calling her in a sense. The last person brave or foolish enough to enter there over 100 years prior had been killed by the last of the demons that had established a nest in the mosque. His spirit was later able to slay his demonic killer. Unfortunately however he was not able to move on as his unfinished business was in unlocking the secrets of the dark mosque. The spirit used what little magic from the Mosque that he could in his ghostly state to place a shield around the dark mosque to prevent any other monsters, such as vandals from entering the mosque. Sadly for 100 years he was trapped in the black mosque as no one was able to enter the desert for long.
After the bloodsuckers were finally pushed back, the spirit of the black mosque, who had been able to monitor the battle from there, sensed something special in Vanessa. It then started to slowly influence her via magic for several years, without her knowledge. In order to do so it had to sacrifice the magic around the forcefield, but it could afford too now after the vampire population had dwindled.
The spirit also assisted Vanessa's spirit that had to travel out deep into the desert to try and find the remains of the black mosque (as it had originally been built so far away from the city to prevent any of its magic from affecting Timbuktu itself.)
After Vanessa discovered the ruins of the mosque the spirit helped her learn its magic (which she could more easily) which allowed the ghost to finally depart to the other side. Vanessa then used the knowledge in the black mosque to build up Timbuktu once again.
A new base was built over the ruins of the old black mosque (using Vanessa's parents wealth), which would not only ensure that most of the people in Timbuktu were able to learn how to fight the demons in the desert, further pushing them back, but in time Vanessa and the others would make the new and improved black mosque a new centre for study into the occult on a global scale. People from all over the world came to train and learn at the second black mosque and would continue to do so for over 100 years after. Through this action alone Vanessa earned a place as one of the most prominent vampire and demon hunters of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Of course she didn't do it alone. Leaving aside the help she had from the former spirit of the black mosque, her parents, who had been former vampire hunters themselves, supplied the wealth to refurbish the mosque, whilst others would help in the rediscovery and translation of its ancient artifacts and spells. Still ultimately the entire thing was spearheaded by Shoniwa and this, coupled with other victories she'd have against the supernatural in the area, who constantly tried to hit back would lead to Vanessa being dubbed the savior of Timbuktu.
Like anyone would, she started to believe her own hype which eventually led to her getting in over her head when she decided to search for Ares island.
She first learned about it in 1998, from a single scroll which was said to have come from one of Ares' bases of operations on the mainland. Much like the black mosque Vanessa became obsessed with it, though this time there was no supernatural force influencing her.
It seemed as though that was just a natural part of her personality. She was someone who, having spent most of her life isolated in one city, forbidden to ever leave, had developed an obsession with journeying into the unknown. In retrospect it seems like this was the real reason the spirit had selected her.
The second Black Mosque had mastered teleportation spells (it had to in order to share its secrets with the rest of the world.) They were also able to bypass the forcefield, due to the fact that they had Ares scroll. As that was something that belonged to Ares and the island was his creation, they were able to create a connection between them.
Vanessa arrived there with an elite team of demon hunters from all over the world. Sadly even they were unprepared for its dangers. Daharian, under the control of the wizard, proved to be their most dangerous foe, killing a number of the team and stranding them on the island.
Ablaisk meanwhile after learning that there were outsiders on the island tried to hunt them down and demanded they take him back. With no other choice, Vanessa agreed, but as soon as they arrived back in the black mosque, they were able to subdue Ablaisk. Daharian however was not so easily subdued and proceeded to escape and attack Timbuktu, killing scores of innocent people and nearly destroying the city itself, before Vanessa and the others were finally able to restrain him. In the resulting battle Ablaisk managed to escape back to Point Nemo.
Vanessa was able to remove Ablaisk's mind control spell over Daharian. Most of his memories as a human were gone, but he still retained his burning hatred for the wizard and wanted revenge. Vanessa, who had kept Daharian alive to study more because she had never seen a creature like him before, was able to communicate with the beast through telepathy spells. She was able to see traces of the man he was, only fleetingly and was utterly horrified to see that there was a human under there. She and Daharian would then return to Point Nemo to stop Ablaisk who, knowing that his most loyal pet had broken free, attempted to harness the dark magic at the centre of Point Nemo to try and combat him. Scared of what the wizard might unleash, Vanessa and Daharian journeyed into the dark centre of the island, where Daharian was finally able to avenge himself and swallowed Ablaisk whole.
Following this Daharian as he continued to call himself to Vanessa remained on and continued to rule Point Nemo for many years. He did not like to be reminded of the life he had lost, and shunned Vanessa's attempts to help him rediscover it as well as her attempts to help him, believing there was nothing she could do.
Vanessa meanwhile had problems of her own back in Timbuktu. Many at both the mosque and in the city itself blamed her for Daharian's rampage and it took her a long while to win the people's trust again. She was only able to retain her position at the mosque thanks to her parents, though even then her parents saw frequent attacks against their property and in some cases even the mosque itself.
Worse the damage done to Timbuktu allowed many of the vampires and demons a chance to return and attack the city. Life became very hard for the next few years, just when it looked as though Timbuktu was about to enter a new golden age.
Still in spite of this Vanessa in 2003 would call on Daharian once again to help deal with a gigantic demon known as Grootslang that had risen in the desert. Grootslang was a demonic warrior created by the gods of Africa whose role was ironically to protect humanity in their absence, but over the years it had strayed from its initial purpose, before finally being slain by the founders of the original black mosque who buried it deep in the desert.
Some of Grootslang's followers however remained and continued to believe he was a hero and sought to restore him, believing he could bring an end to the troubles of the world. One of his followers was able to infiltrate the new black mosque and used its very magic to restore his form in the desert. Grootsland proved to be the biggest challenge the new black mosque encountered at that point, forcing Vanessa to travel back to Point Nemo to ask Daharian for help.
The creature agreed simply because it owed Vanessa, though even then it was only working with the black mosque that even Daharian was able to banish Grootslang from the area.
Following this Daharian and Vanessa would begin to work together more frequently and eventually established a genuine friendship with one another. Gradually Daharian would regain more and more of his former personality and memories and become more motivated to use his power for good.
He not only helped Vanessa deal with the problems in Timbuktu, but in other places around the world too.
Sadly he was never able to reconnect with Karaleva or the other survivors from Point Nemo. The giantess tried to find a way to return after she was sent to Russia, but she was soon caught up in a battle with her archenemy Alsekia who tried to make her pay. As the former vampire queen created more and more of her people, Karaleva soon became obsessed with destroying Alsekia too, not just simply for revenge, but out of guilt for bringing this hideous, child devouring race of vampires back into the world.
Sadly Karaleva was no match for the vampires who were far too organised and eventually she was forced to go on the run as Alsekia would become a powerful and influential figure.
In spite of their rivalry however in 2007, the two would later take part in Famke Sagal's expedition to the bottom of the ocean. Alsekia funded the operation as her experiences with the Bloop told her there were unknown creatures at the bottom of the ocean that could potentially threaten the world and she wanted to find and perhaps combat them or any dark power before anyone else could.
Famke, who was in many ways a genius both in her knowledge of science and magic decades ahead of her time, accepted the funding from Alsekia, not really knowing who she was. This led to Karaleva attacking her experiment, though Karaleva was subsequently restrained and placed under Famke's control to help her complete the experiment. Karaleva was then forced to go on the first expedition along with Famke, her team and Alsekia herself. What became of them is a story for another time however.
Daharian meanwhile continued to work with Vanessa for decades until 2017 when Jocaziah was sent to Point Nemo. The Dinosaur and the mutant made an unlikely, but effective team and would continue to help Vanessa for a few more years until the early 2020s when another visitor would arrive on Point Nemo, the gigantic mecha Kosarak and in the next chapter we shall explore his history.