Wing City Lake

Teo darted aside as the eels shot from the sphere, skating along the surface of the water effortlessly to circle around the floating orb of water. He began to move his arms in a fluid circular motion directed towards the watery prison as he moved, and in response, the water began to grow cold and shift into ice.

It wouldn't be long before the entire orb of water was frozen solid with Nagara inside it, unless she was able to break free.

The eels kept spilling forth from the crevice even as the prison froze. Those that escaped writhed, but fell short just before their jaws could clamp around Teo. Those within grew and grew, some splitting their heads with the pressure against the ice, until the prison began to crack and fall away in a small fountain of red.

It was then that the eelheads grew, not in size, but considerable number, like the many-headed hydra of myth, expanding around their host in search of Teo.

Seeing the prison breaking, Teo frowned. After a moment of thought, he lowered his hand, and allowed the orb to drop into the water of the lake. As it was submerged beneath the surface, he too dropped down, once more becoming little more than a shimmering outline in the water. The ice melted away, freeing the eels, but with Teo seemingly as insubstantial as the water around him, it remained to be seen whether they could actually harm him.

In the meantime, the water of the lake flowed at his command. A current pushed its way through the eels towards the crack in Nagara's chest - more exploratory than forceful, aimed to figure out what exactly the nature of the apparent portal was.

Like a swarm of angry piranha, the eels searched, devouring much of anything they found in their way, had anything not tried to stop them. From his safe alcove, Emeka watched with fear. He had not made this beast, but he knew of her power. Seen much lost to her hunger.

What he did not know was what Teo dared to explore- the portal within the creature lead to something else entirely. Somewhere alien and bizarre. Immediately on the other side were the same eels Teo saw spilling forth into his world trying to swim through, and beyond that, a space filled with thick black waters. The surface was not so far, but even there was inhabited by the eels. Every crevice, every spot was inhabited by them, and not every one alive. Carcasses rotted in the water, eels cannibalized one another in desperate hunger, and not even the largest of them, coiled around mountains in the distance, were safe from the sheer numbers of their kin.

It was a world fueled by hunger, and nothing else.

Teo's mind reeled back in horror away from the world 'within' Nagara, horrified by what he saw. His water had touched that black sea, and for a moment he had felt it all. The water spirit lashed out reflexively, and the currents around Nagara intensified, gathering her up like a ragdoll and casting her up and out of the water to the shore, like the lake itself had spat her out in disgust.

He himself soon followed, rising from the lake upon a swirling torrent of water. "I don't know what you are," he yelled, "but I know that you are filled with wrongness!"

As he yelled, he swept a hand forwards and sent a cascade of water down towards the woman, blasting into the eels coming from her midsection. Those creatures ... whatever they were, they had no minds. They had no souls. He had no qualms in ending them.

Again, the water began to solidify into ice, encompassing the writhing eels with the aim of the intense cold killing them, their own frozen bodies preventing more of them emerging.

It had been the first time since the beginning that Nagara had screamed. Her body convulsed when the eels froze, causing the flow to abruptly halt as it had never done before. The pressure within her body was immense, it was... as though she were exploding from within. The eels that were frozen died, fell limply to the ground. All at once, the woman fell silent. Out of absolutely nowhere.

Slipping away in that black ooze from the split down her middle were the bitten and severed remains of the frozen eels, spat out from the other side of the portal.

Emeka didn't dare move. He couldn't even breathe. What had caused the boy to react in such a fashion so suddenly?

Teo looked down at Nagara with a frown, looking the woman over. Whatever she was, it was clear that she had little left to her mind. Just as the centipede creature had lost its humanity, if she'd had any, it was gone. Having those creatures within her... nothing could endure that and remain sane.

If he didn't deal with her, was it possible that the corruption of that world could infect his home? That black sea spill forth into it?

He couldn't allow that.

The water spirit descended to the beach where Nagara lay, sweeping his arm around in a fluid motion to gather the water around her, lifting her form into the air in its spiralling embrace. Closing his eyes, he directed the water towards her mouth just as he had with the centipede, and sent it down her throat, into her body towards her heart, to grasp it tightly in an icy grip and stop it.

Nagara writhed as she was lifted, now realizing the immanent danger that was posed to her. She held one hand out to the spirit, head lashed to the side, and yelled "No!"

Emeka's eyes shot open. Not once had he ever heard the woman speak a comprehensible word. He thought she was either mute, or a creature that solely did what Sarka told it to. His interest peaked, he came forth from his safe haven, looking up at Teo. If he hadn't done the deed too quickly, the man tried to halt him.

"Wait. Wait, Teo!"

When Nagara spoke, Teo halted the movement of the tendril in surprise, though Nagara remained held in the air by the swirling current. "You can speak?" he questioned, "What... how? What I saw within you ... how can you possibly withstand it? What are you?"

He shuddered - literally, ripples rolling across him, before glancing at Emeka. "Be careful. That ice won't hold forever. The creatures will break out again."

Emeka kept his distance. Even though the woman had intelligence, it didn't mean she wasn't dangerous. But what if she was a victim?

"I'm not coming any closer. Just... do not kill her yet."

The woman curled up to her best ability where she was, hands clasped over her face. She was cowering. "Put her down."

Teo hesitated, but it seemed for the moment that the woman had ceased her offensive. He gently lowered her to the floor, and the water around her began to shimmer soothingly, emitting calming and numbing pulses through her body.

"Speak to us," Teo said, his voice soft and calm, a sharp contrast to the outburst he'd had when he felt the horror within her. "Who are you? How did you come to be like this?"