The Venusian Delusion: Part 2

Carla King knew the secrets to more than just Venus. She is perhaps the only living creature in the history of our omniverse to cross from the great beyond and back. Whilst other dark spirits have been pulled from their eternal rest long after death, King was something of an anomaly not only in that she was able to retain at least some scant memories from the other side, but traces of power too, that would help her influence the history of earth in ways she couldn't have imagined. 

Carla King was born in the year 1980 in Hackney. The daughter of an English man and a Jamaican woman. She came from a working class background and was somewhat artistically inclined even from a young age in a number of ways. She was a very skilled sculptor and dancer, but ultimately Carla's main ambition was to become an actress. Though she did enjoy some success, sadly most of her roles were either bit parts, or villains. Carla had a somewhat eccentric personality, with her sense of humor particular being quite morbid, which coupled with her exotic looks made her a natural for villainous roles in unimaginative casting directors minds. Her most high profile role was playing the evil and psychotic witch Dasentia in the classic fantasy series Night Warriors. Whilst the shows strong cult following served as a healthy pension fund for Carla, sadly it further type cast her and by 2020 she was stuck doing b-movies. 

Her last film, "Vampire Bitch From Hell." Where she played the title character, was a new low for her career, but ironically it would end up being the making of Carla in the real world. For the final scene where Carla's evil vampire queen was chased by her former lover/nemesis she was supposed to jump off of her balcony and onto a chandelier. Carla was always happy to do her own stunts, but this time the movie's low budget meant that the harness hadn't been checked and it broke, sending her crashing twenty feet to the ground on her head. Carla's injuries were so severe she went into a coma for a few weeks, at the end of which she flatlined. She was clinically dead for up to 5 minutes at least on our side before the doctors revived her, and during that time her spirit left her body and travelled to the Great Beyond. 

The Great Beyond is the final destination for the souls of all creatures in all realms possibly within the entire void. It was devised by the creator of our omniverse and the creators and greatest powers of trillions of other realities to serve as the perfect afterlife. Our creator is said to have viewed it as his redemption after his previous sins. Throughout history, those who have been close to death have seen the gateway to the Great Beyond, which for most takes on the form of a white light, though there has been speculation that the Great Beyond takes on the form of whatever is important to someone, whether that is their idea of heaven, or even just a loved one to make crossing over easier and prevent our spirits from being trapped on earth. The white light form it often takes on it is believed by some experts, simply represents a fairly generic idea of something beautiful and positive to lure us in, even to the non religious. 

Whatever its true nature, no one living has ever crossed into the white light and returned. There have meanwhile been spirits that have been ripped from the Great Beyond by the most powerful magics back to the mortal realm. These spirits however are often left so traumatised by the experience that they are wild, feral and insane. The few ghosts who are able to rediscover their identities, or who are resurrected properly after being brought are never able to recall what happened after the white light, other than the feeling of sheer joy. Not even the strongest magics are capable of restoring their memories. 

Carla however inexplicably returned from the white light into her body without any form of magic after the doctors revived her. As soon as she did, all of her wounds, including a broken neck healed instantly. Her recovery made the papers, though most dismissed it as simply a publicity stunt for her movie, to have the actress literally rise from the dead. In fact many of the critics were even harder on the film as a result, joking that Carla's career couldn't return from the dead even if she could. 

Even Carla wasn't sure what had happened at first. She remembered approaching the white light where she saw and somehow felt her life in a completely different way before crossing through it. She felt the ways in which she had mistreated others, and the joy she had brought to their lives both of which affected her when she returned. Sadly her memories about what happened after she crossed over were still somewhat fuzzy. Even Carla did not know the real truth about what awaits us on the other side. Like most her conscious mind could only clearly remember a greater feeling of joy and peace than she ever thought possible on earth. However unlike all others to either reach or enter the Great Beyond. Carla evidently retained memories in her unconscious mind that slowly began to emerge over the course of her life. They were not of the Great Beyond however, but rather of our universe. When she was on the other side she apparently learned all about the universes secrets. Knowledge that would have been too much for her or anyone in a single mortal life. Whilst she was only away for a few minutes in our world, clearly she was away on the other side where time moves differently for much longer. 

This greater knowledge most likely never returned in full, but parts of it would continue to seep their way into Carla's conscious mind giving her some knowledge of magics and science far beyond almost anyone else of her age for years to come. Her souls presence in the Great Beyond also continued to alter her physically. She now not only had healing powers, but control over certain magics too, which coupled with her knowledge, allowed Carla to become a powerful sorcerer in no time. 

Carla subsequently used her powers to battle demons, help spirits cross over and combat the forces of darkness around the world for three years until 2023. Her acting career came to a grinding halt, not that she cared at this stage anyway, though she did continue to make sculptures. Carla even based her statues on strange creatures she had seen on both her adventures and from vague memories that continued to pop up from her time on the other side. These were not creatures native to the other side however, rather those from our universe whose history she saw.

Over the course of her adventures, Carla gathered a team of demon slayers and vampire hunters to aid in her battles against the forces of darkness. To the general public meanwhile, Carla was viewed as a Z list actress who had either lost her mind and joined an insane cult. Still at the very least among those who were aware of the supernatural, she built up quite a reputation. 

Unfortunately Carla was also pursued by a strange entity which she referred to simply as the reaper. In truth no one knew what it really was, and only one almost completely unknown strain of magics could harm it. Even Carla herself wasn't sure where the magics she summoned to fight the reaper came from, and she was never able to access them in any other situation. The reaper was initially believed to have come from the Great Beyond, but Carla later came to doubt that as whenever she was in its presence she felt great fear that went beyond a simple desire to live. She didn't know why but she felt if the reaper got hold of her then her soul would be damned for all eternity. It seems likely that the reaper came from another afterlife. Whilst the Great Beyond is the final destination for us all, there are numerous other pocket dimensions and spells and beings that are capable of harvesting and capturing the souls of the dead for their own purposes. In most cases however the soul will eventually be transported to the Great Beyond, but even then there are some exceptions and many dimensions or beings can hold onto souls for billions of years. 

Whilst Carla's magics were able to vanquish the reaper time and time and again, sadly it always returned and continued to haunt her throughout her entire life. 

In 2024 Carla's life changed again, when she was drawn to a crisis in the town of Hampson. A piece of the crumbling Venusian forcefield had crashed into the centre of the town. Over 400 people were killed in the crash, but worse than that the fusion of the Venusian magics with those of earth led to numerous anomalies in the town. After stabilizing the town, by isolating and containing the Venusian magics, Carla realized that this disaster was linked to a spat of other similar incidents happening over the world at that point. Clearly the Venusian forcefield was breaking apart and very soon it would collapse, leading to dire consequences for the earth. In fact the sudden introduction of that level of alien magic could very well rip the planets already fragile magical structure apart. 

Carla retained some vague knowledge of Venus. Not nearly enough to prepare her for what she was about to embark on. Still after studying the sample of the forcefield, Carla not only felt sure she could fix it, but that she could use this magic to travel to Venus. Initially she wanted to go alone, but her team insisted on coming with her. Carla's recent successes had sadly gone to her head somewhat and she had become arrogant. She knew that Venus was populated by gigantic Dinosaurian creatures, who she foolishly believed she could deal with as they were simply animals.

The initial journey nearly ended in disaster as Carla's spell sent her and the others on a collision course with part of the forcefield that was still intact. Fortunately however Carla was able to steer it just in time to send them through one of the few holes in the field. However the spell still led to them crashing into the woods. Worse than that on Venus as the magics were so unpredictable and contaminated, Carla was not able to whip up another spell to transport them back to earth. At least not yet, meaning that she and her team were effectively trapped on the planet. This also meant that the task of fixing the forcefield would be a lot harder too. 

The Exosaurs meanwhile proved to be a bigger challenge than Carla had anticipated, with the great reptiles having similarly developed a great immunity to magics over the centuries. The Exosaurs killed most of her crew despite her best efforts to protect them, and for the next few years, Carla and her small group of survivors were forced to live a very desperate existence in the ruins of the old Venusian society, where they faced many horrors and recurring threats. 

Among these included a persistent Emperor Rex, whose entire herd had been killed when a piece of the forcefield fell inwards onto Venus' landscape. The Emperor however had survived the magical blast and not only mutated into a larger form, but had also been driven insane. Unlike other members of its kind who killed only to hunt, this creature seemed to enjoy killing its victims and would pursue Carla's team relentlessly. Carla also faced the giant, mutated, magical rat beast known as the Hologath. Just as on earth the majority of mammalian species on Venus were rodents who on this planet grew to massive sizes, enough to hunt and kill small to medium sized Exosaurs even before the collapse of the forcefield mutated them to even larger sizes. 

Perhaps their most vicious adversaries native to the planet were the mutated Athyco tribe the Hersenka who sought to conquer Venus and make it the centre of a new empire and took a special interest in harvesting Carla's unique magic for their own benefit.

It wasn't just threats from Venus Carla faced however. Life forms from across the Galaxy were soon drawn in by the unstable magics of the forcefield, though the most dangerous were the Astrilokon. These monsters had originally been a highly advanced and peaceful race who utilized magic rather than science. Sadly their own leaders corruption, and decadence slowly corrupted the magic that sustained their society over the centuries into dark magic, twisting the entire race into monsters in the process. After ravaging their home planet, the Atrilokon greedily sought to conquer and convert the magic from other planets in order to become the supreme beings. The Circus Family who fought the monsters many times, (in fact they were among their greatest adversaries) later said, that it wasn't just the leaders, but the entire society that helped lead to the corruption of their magics. They also claimed it was also a slow and gradual process, with its people over time becoming lazy, turning a blind eye to the sins of their leaders, and being happy to exploit each other in numerous ways. This is not to say that this is the fate of all races who choose magic, many of which throughout the history of the universe have gone on to be great and thriving civilisations, but the Circus Family were always keen to stress that it wasn't just the actions of a few men and women that had created the Astrilokon. 

Whatever their origin even these monsters had been fooled by the Venusians spell at first, set sights on Venus after the cracks started to emerge in the forcefield. It seemed the catastrophe was bigger than even Carla had predicted as it wouldn't just break apart, but the final pieces of the forcefield would explode, which would destroy the entire planet exploding. Finally the magics that would be unleashed from the destroyed Venus would then spread around the solar system itself, connecting with the magics in all other worlds, such as earth and mars and even those in the sun itself, all of which would be ignited and consume the entire solar system in a ball of magical fire. 

The Astrilokon hoped to harness the flaming mass our solar system was destined to become, believing that it would be the greatest source of raw magics ever seen in the universe. To that end they attempted to accelerate the Venusian forcefield's destruction, but their experiments soon drew in Carla who was barely able to stop their plans, though as time went on the monsters sent more and more of their soldiers to Venus, which soon led to conflict with Herenska across the entire planet. 

Another race of monsters meanwhile, the ghostly Sacrah were sadly only able to infest the planet thanks to Carla herself. After her soul had been sent back from the Great Beyond, one of these creatures somehow latched itself onto her spirit and remained completely hidden after her resurrection. The creature slowly used whatever magics it could to secretly build a portal to our universe deep within Carla's very soul itself. No one knows which afterlife these creatures came from, or indeed just exactly what they were. They were not demons, or monsters, or beasts, though they may have been natural creatures, even then their magics were unlike those ever seen in our part of the galaxy. It was only after Carla moved to Venus that the creature was finally able to finish the portal to its dimension using the more potent and powerful magics of Venus, allowing hundreds of its own kind to emerge into the Venusian jungles. Some have even speculated that it may have even influenced Carla to travel to Venus in the first place after it sensed the powerful magics from the piece of the Venusian forcefield. Carla herself denied this, believing that it was her own arrogance that had led her to the planet.

At first the portal appeared within Carla's own stomach and she was left completely immobilized as the monsters emerged. Fortunately a benevolent Athyco wizard named Jastaka that she and her team had befriended on their travels through the planet, (and who had once been one of the most powerful members of the original society before it fell,) was able to remove the portal from Carla's soul.

Sadly the portal could not be destroyed and continued to exist on Venus for years afterwards, leading to thousands more creatures emerging onto the planet. 

Eventually however after several years, Carla was able to avert the forcefield crisis with the aid of an underground society of Athyco, that after the civil war had sworn to avoid conflict of any kind and had taken their race's isolation policy to the utmost extreme. They literally sealed themselves underground. Carla however was able to shame them into helping the other life forms on their planet and even the other worlds in the solar system, stating that they had a duty as it was their fault that the forcefield was potentially threatening all life. Together Carla and the underground Athyco finally repaired the forcefield, just before it would have collapsed. 

Venus was protected once again from the outside universe, though its secret had been exposed to other races, though at the very least its neighbors could continue to believe the delusion for more centuries to come. 

The few survivors of Carla's team were sent back to earth by the Athyco after the crisis was averted. Some remained in contact with Carla, who decided to remain behind. She did still return to the earth several times for appearances sake, to see her loved ones and to help her former comrades fight earthbound demonic threats. Other survivors however cut all ties with Carla and decided to live more quiet lives. It wasn't out of anger towards Carla. Whilst they did blame her at first, by that point they had all accepted that they accompanied her on their own violation. Still some of the hunters had been somewhat inexperienced and had only survived by the skin of their teeth. Having seen a world torn apart by the supernatural, they wanted to experience the comforts of one that for the time being was able to delude itself into ignoring the truth. 

Carla meanwhile continued to help the Athyco rebuild their society, and reunite the numerous warring tribes. It took two centuries for them to become a thriving civilisation again, but Carla's lifespan was extended by several centuries thanks to both Venusian magic and her healing powers. 

She continued to return to the earth for certain missions even after her friends and family passed on and she was declared dead on the earth, though they did become less frequent that is until the 22nd century. 

Just a few years before the great reveal. Carla fell in love with a man named Peter who then came to live with her for a short while on Venus. Peter was suffering from alcoholism when he first met Carla after his daughter Anne had been turned into a vampire and naturally nobody believed him. Anne meanwhile had become the lackey of a very powerful vampire king who wanted to conquer Venus, and it was through Peter that Carla was able to find his headquarters. He became her first friend on earth in a long time which eventually led her visiting more often and the two falling in love. 

Despite the presence of Carla and Peter who was welcomed by the Athyco, the Venusians had continued to look down on humanity. They viewed us as prejudiced and unable to cope with magic and the supernatural and were terrified that they would attempt to conquer or even destroy Venus if they learned the truth. 

In all fairness Carla did not disagree, but she could never even before meeting Peter completely abandon her people either and thanks to her influence the Venusians did from time to time travel to the earth and help it in secret over the course of the 21st and early 22nd centuries. Even those visitations however came to an end in the middle of the 22nd century when humanity learned the truth about the supernatural. It was thanks to Khastran, the father of all vampires.

The demon's essence had survived his latest body's death at the hands of the Gods and Angels for thousands of years in Prague, with Housaka castle eventually being built over the spot. The castle developed a reputation for being a gateway to hell as a result of Khastran's presence, and was generally avoided. Sadly in the mid 22nd century, Khastran's spirit was given a boost by his vampiric and demonic followers which allowed his spirit to properly manifest in Prague. It was only for a short while, but that was enough for the former demon god to infect hundreds of thousands of people in Europe and transform them into vampire like demons. 

Human society broke down as it simply couldn't handle the truth, whilst the vampires, demons and other creatures fought back out of fear leading to a massive conflict. For the next hundred years the earth was a no man's land of vampires, demons, and scattered humans all struggling to survive. 

Carla begged the Venusians to help humanity, but they still refused, which led her and Peter finally leaving the Athyco. After just a few months back on earth, tragically Peter fell victim to his vampiric daughter who had risen through the ranks since the fall of the earth and become the leader of a large and powerful vampire cult. Anne in turn became one of Carla's greatest enemies with the two battling for decades across the ravaged earth. Carla mostly worked along after Peter's death for a long while, until she picked up a young woman named Rene who later became a famous and celebrated demon hunter. Carla also later met up with Professor Fang the famous reformed vampire/wizard/genius scientist, and with his help, she was able to re-establish contact with the Venusians. She and the Professor together were able to finally convince the Athyco to help, not through altruism but from the point of view of if the vampires and demons claimed the earth then it would be much more dangerous enemy for Venus in the future.

Following the defeat of the demons and vampires, the Venusians continued to help humanity rebuild, again not out of altruism, but simply because they knew humanity were aware of their existence and wanted to monitor the planet to make sure they could never be a threat. Unfortunately for the Venusians, the Federation however soon approached humanity. They had been monitoring the earth from the 19th century to mid 20th century, to see if we were fit to join their organisation. We failed every single time due to our prejudiced and war like nature, and after earth became a no man's land in the 22nd century, they more or less gave up on us. However a few Zeta Reticulans still continued to monitor humanity in that time, simply because they felt that their world had put too much effort into cataloguing it, though they per the Federation's policy the grey aliens were still unable to interfere. After the earth/Venus alliance however the Federation felt that humanity had finally proven themselves, through working with another alien race to overcome the supernatural.

The Federation offered the Venusians a chance for membership too, and with no choice as their existence had become exposed, they felt it would be safer to stay with the Federation. This marked the beginning of the golden age for humanity that we are still living in today. Sadly Carla did not live to see it. She was killed in a final showdown with Anne (which also took the vampires life,) just before the Federation approached the earth, after the latter's vampire cult had been completely destroyed. 

Still if what Carla saw on the other side was truly the Great Beyond, then she would have had no reason to fear death, and we can only hope from that side that she saw the better world that was built thanks in large part to her actions. Sadly however as we know the golden age will not last. In a little over 300 years time an evil race of aliens known as the Hylexans will invade and devastate the surface of the planet. The monsters will not destroy our world simply using their own magics as the later history books will claim. Rather they will use a combination of their magics and the Hand of Ares, an ancient weapon, created by the former god of war that eve he was terrified of. The Hand had been blasted into space and left floating for centuries beforehand. Even the Federation too terrified to go near it, due to its potent magics with any vessel that tried to contain it being destroyed. The Hyexans however will hit it with everything they have, leading to the hand crashing back onto the earth and destroying the surface of the planet as well as the hand itself. 

Only a select group of wizards and witches will survive camped out on the most remote island on earth, Point Nemo, where over the course of 100 years they will perfect a spell that will restore life to the earth, and cover it in a magical forest. The subsequent period after will be known as the age of Tairos, and we shall explore this era in greater detail later. 

The Federation meanwhile will also be destroyed, though the war will at least be mutually destructive for both the Federation and the Hylexans empire crumbling, with the monstrosities being forced to retreat back to their home planet.

Venus itself will also be devastated, not long after the destruction of the earth. The Hylexans will destroy the Venusian forcefield and then bombard the surface of the planet, destroying all traces of the Athyco's society. The surviving Athyco will then retreat across the universe to try and establish themselves whilst the war rages on, which will sadly further cement their reputation as cowards. Still Venus itself will endure beyond the Hylexans, and in the next chapter we shall see how it would ultimately help to rebuild the Federation and restore earth's fortunes once again, as well as how Carla would once again from beyond the grave, help both her home and adopted planets.