Liana felt the shockwaves ripple through her body, as if she were about to be pulled apart again. She had to struggle to stay in her body, and she was already halfway back in the multi-dimensional side room of reality, but now she knew how to keep herself together. She fought the disintegration of the dimensions and won this time. When she opened her eyes she noticed that the area had been rinsed clean. Everything was dark and her eyes had a hard time adjusting to the very dim twilight. The black miasma itself was still a bit present, but a lot of other frequencies seemed completely taken off the air.

Everyone present was struck by the shockwave too. Some seemed petrified on the spot, others had fallen. But slowly the people around her came back to life. John had fallen to his knees, and Andira had disappeared into the other side. The exact effects of the shock wave were not yet clear, but it didn’t appear to be permanently harmful to humans or other nawa. Slowly everyone came back, including a large number of those who had fallen earlier. Apparently, the effect of the weird alien ray-blaster was negated by the shock.

Liana almost wondered if Andira had just brought back all the victims of the beam, which had been the favourite weapon of the STC, but the other effects of the device also became apparent very quickly. Not only had the lights gone out, but it became clear that all possible technology had been shut down. John, who had a hard time seeing in this twilight, aimed his blaster at a group of Nummerfa that had come back up and headed toward him. Nothing happened, and his small band of resurrected bodyguards had to protect him with fists and knives in the dark. Only the Dutchman still had a pistol, with which he fired sharply at Drotnira, who moved fast and were hard to see.

None of the other fighters from both sides could use advanced weapons anymore, because every kind of technology beyond simple mechanics turned out to be useless. A new group of Drotnira entered the room, armed not only with shotguns but also with axes, knives, and mace, and makeshift torches illuminating the room. The first to fall by their hands was the Dutchman, hit on the forehead by a very precisely aimed club. But John's other bodyguards were also caught off guard one by one, and John himself began to panic as well now. His inseparable telephone had stopped working, and so he finally pulled out a revolver, a simple mechanical firearm that still worked. He aimed it at the leader of the Drotnira who now surrounded him from all sides, but they were fast enough to disarm him.

Liana didn't see much of what happened to him in this light except that he was beaten with fists and weapons and then fell into a mass of angry dwarfs. Marah shouted something to the Drotnira, who scattered in all directions and left the place, and then came to Liana.

“You’re still alive?”

Liana nodded, which was probably quite unnecessary.

“I was stuck between life and death for a while, but my atheist friend's favourite god helped me to come back into my body. You must have his regards, Belle. Which is rather exceptional; usually people who call on his noodly name but don’t believe in him irritate him.”

“Uh, what?”

“I'll explain that later. But I especially want to thank you now. I saw you protecting my body and then I knew I couldn't afford to give up, and I had to do anything to get back into it.”

Izabel stared at her, trembling a bit. Her worldview had been seriously stretching since she arrived in the oak forest, but this was a bit too much.

"You saw me? But you were lying down, and your eyes were closed."

Liana nodded. “Like a projection, as if you were translucent. And I saw you come out of the cell and take that shield to stop beams and bullets, not only for yourself but also for me.”

Izabel nodded. “I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what I was doing here. But I did that which made sense to me while I was here. I didn't even know if I would survive, and it all seemed like a dream…” she said.

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“It wasn't,” said Liana. “But it will probably be a long time before we fully realise what happened here today…”

Everyone who was still alive and able to walk seemed to be coming to this room now. Nummerfa and Drotnira had rounded up the last Tech Corp agents which were led by a still very combative-looking Frest. It was clear that the battle was now won by Nuanderra. Liana had picked up a torch and she was researching every piece of the technology she found, and she could only conclude that Andira's weapon had indeed worked well. Any weapons more advanced than the Dutchman's simple pistol no longer worked, and luckily almost all of the STC's weapons had been very advanced. All the lights had gone out, and nothing else working on electricity was working. The Kavanderran magichemical circuits with which, among other things, their weapons worked were also completely unusable.

She walked inquiringly to the gate that was built for travelling between the worlds, and was relieved to see that it was completely lifeless too, like all the other electrical circuits in the whole area.

Only now she realised what that meant for her own stuff. Her casio watch and her smartphone were also completely dead. But that was a concern for later, and a stupid smartphone wasn’t that important anymore when the future of your species and your world has been hanging by a thread. For the second time in a few weeks even… She also liked that smartphone a lot less now that she knew that it had enabled the STC to trace her… The tracker would also be dead now, but she left them here anyway. She put only the SIM-card in her wallet, against her better judgement.

Marah seemed to have taken the lead now.

"We must warn the council, Liana-dinn é." She pointed to Liana. “But you can't do that now. You are not allowed to dimension-bend yourself to Nuanderra if your body and mind have split less than an hour ago. That could be disastrous.”

She turned to another Nummerfil. "Ikuini é, do you have a real gate here somewhere, not some alien junk?"

The woman addressed as Ikuini shook her head.

“No, apparently the STC has destroyed it. We didn't even realise that. And no one here can bend the dimensions themselves. We're all stuck here if there's no dimension bender!"

“The gate of the STC? They have made a gate with the knowledge of the Kavanderrans.” Frest said, but Liana nodded in denial.

"It's as broken as any other technology here, if it even worked in the first place. The council said it wouldn’t."

Her face was gloomy in the light of the torches. Again she cursed the natural law that made communication between worlds impossible.

“If there's no other option, I'll still have to go get Inaya. Can’t I just go to the in-between world and then send a telepathic message.

Marah shook her head. “No, you cannot take that risk. If you get split or stuck between the dimensions now, we're in even more trouble."

“And then there’s the question about what will happen to the prisoners,” said Frest.

"Kill them!" shouted one of the Drotnira in Nummersil, but with a strange accent.

“No, we wait for the council to decide. Killing any more nawa would be an abomination unworthy of any Nuanderran.” Another Drotniril said firmly.

Liana noted that this one had no accent. She guessed it was Gorr, the representative of the council of Nummerfa and friend of Oranderra; and at least he was listened to.

“We have to comb everything!” shouted someone else.

Eventually it turned into a big fight about what was going to be done, and who would do it. Gorr went out on a patrol to capture all the remaining Americans on the property, and the rest continued to argue in the large room in several languages. Liana looked hopelessly at the chaos. The improvement was that no one was shooting at her or at others anymore now, but otherwise the developments were no longer constructive, and if the wrong side took over now, she and Izabel might be in trouble again. The atmosphere became grimmer fast.