I played with the idea, devised a way that would be consistent with their universes, and borrowed a bit of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion and the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Parallels".
Here's the first, unedited chapter of Invasion!: A Crossover Worlds Novel.
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The Crimson Palace, Naha, the Kingdom of Ryukyu, Year of the Twelve 1979
Anthea, Chief Justice of the city of Orrin in the Queendom of Issura, ducked the slashing black talons of the demon who rushed her. Sweat stung her eyes as she whispered words of her spell, charging her sword with Balance magic. Her backswing sliced into the demon’s neck.
Its screech of fury and pain blended with the shouts and screams of the soldiers, wardens, and clergy around her as they engaged the demon army. Issuran, Jing, and Ryukyu languages mixed in a cacophony punctuated by the chittering tongue of the invaders. The alien scent of their foes mixed with the coppery odor of human blood and the stink of the loosened bowels of the dead.
An arrow charged with Light magic whizzed by her head. The second demon wailed, a sound reminiscent of fingernails on slate. Both the demon and the arrow collapsed into a pile of ash.
Despite the first demon’s efforts to increase its body density to trap her weapon, Anthea wrenched her sword free from its neck. From his perch on a street lantern, Brother Jian of the Jing Empire’s Temple of Light launched another arrow into the third demon. Anthea charged her sword with magic once again as she danced backward from her own foe.
The demon’s swing to disembowel her was slow and clumsy from the effects of her first spell. Since all demons were the darkest shade of black to her, its loss of coordination and lack of its normal speed was the only indication the demon was aging faster than normal.
Anthea thrust her sword into what passed for the demon’s chest. Her foe crumpled to dust as her spell discharged through it. Despite their much longer lifespans, not even the demons could escape the ravages of time. And time was the domain of the Temple of Balance.
She panted and looked around her. Her heart tried to force its way up her throat. Ambassador Quan of Jing along with his wife Shi Hua and Sister Yin Li of the Temple of Love, had been backed against the abutment of the first bridge into the Crimson Palace.
Not Ambassador Quan any longer. With the assassination of his brother and nephews, he was now Crown Prince Bao Quan Po of the Jing Empire. If the Issuran and Jing escorts didn’t keep him alive and get him home to be crowned emperor, Jing would fall into a civil war.
Then the demons would eat the leftovers.
The Ryukyu guards didn’t dare open the gates to the palace. Not even to save their own forces. Despite the palace’s multiple gates and intricate moat system, the demons would overrun the palace guards in a matter of heartbeats. It rested on the clergy and their wardens to reinforce the soldiers and keep the demons’ attention away from the civilians evacuating the rest of the city of Naha.
“Jonata!”
Her warden lit the flashbang in her hand and tossed it in the middle of a group of demons harassing High Brother Luc of Light and Yin Li’s young son Yin Shang where they perched on the outer moat wall. The flashbang exploded. Luc used the demons’ disorientation to fire Light-charged arrows at them. Within three heartbeats, the demons crumbled into dust.
“With me!” Anthea shouted. Her other warden Long Father defended another Light priest who launched his own arrows from a seat in cherry blossom tree. But where in Light was Warden Mateqai? He wouldn’t have left Lady Shi Hua’s side unless—
She shove the ugly thought away. Now was not the time. Not when they needed to deal with the demons first, else more people would die.
Jonata drew her sword and the long knife she used for defense and raced after Anthea. Together, they killed two of the demons at the back of the pack threatening Quan, Shi Hua, and Yin Li.
The pack split, and the back half whirled and charged the two Issuran women. Anthea threw up a quick ward. She rocked back on her heels from the increased mass of the half dozen of their enemies slamming into her magical shield.
“Drop your ward, Justice!” Brother Jin yelled from behind her.
Anthea released her ward while she and Jonata backpedaled. More arrows charged with Light magic flew between them. Four of the demons crumbled into dust. Brother Fa of Wildling, in his second form of a gigantic feline called a tiger, ripped off the head of the fifth demon.
The sixth demon galloped on all fours toward the City of Naha’s public gardens. Anthea raced after it. More sweat dripped into her eyes. She needed to kill it. Sundown was moments away, and then her fellow clergy would be at a huge disadvantage. She’d be the only one who could see in their darkness, and there was no possibility of defending the future emperor’s entire party and the Ryukyuan company escorting them to the palace.
Ahead, a figure stepped from behind a blooming cherry blossom tree. The greenish-gray skin gave away its identity as much as the demon magic it wielded.
Skinwalker. A human sorcerer who studied and apprenticed to the enemies of the human race. Using demon magic corrupted the person until they were no longer human.
It flung a spell at Anthea. She threw up a ward, but the impact knocked her on her buttocks. Jonata yanked Anthea to her feet, and the pair raced after the demon.
The skinwalker cast a second spell. Anthea gasped at the explosion of colors. It was quite literally a rip in reality. Bile surged up her throat. The demon raced for the tear.
“What in Balance—” However Jonata perceived the damage caused her to slow a heartbeat.
“Jian! Take out the skinwalker!” she ordered as she raced past Jonata. She had to catch the demon before it reached the portal.
Light magic surged behind her. A shrill scream filled the air.
The rip flickered. Anthea lunged for the demon.
And found herself flailing in midair. No demon. No ground. No sky.
Then she fell.
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