THE MOMENT
Luanne felt unnaturally calm. It was a sudden, stark contrast to the terror she was feeling moments before while her head was still covered. Even her sore throat, hoarse from screaming, felt better. She'd been abducted by men in familiar black robes and driven to what felt like a distant location. They chained her to a wall and she had to listen as they performed a droning incantation.
The Cult of Ballisea was known to perform regular animal sacrifices, and Luanne felt it was her duty to bring that to an end. She considered them over-eager cosplayers and they didn't have any legal standing. She assumed the ritual was a scare tactic for her benefit, until everything changed in an instant. Luanne couldn't see anything, but she heard the room go deathly quiet and she felt a presence that she couldn't explain. Someone removed her hood and she met the glowing golden eyes of a pale demon woman. She had immense curling ram horns growing out of her head with a decidedly bored look on her face. But, she didn't terrify Luanne. She was very clearly a supernatural entity, sitting on a throne made of bones and flanked by a pair of skeletons. She should've been concerned for her life, and yet Luanne felt quite at peace.
"What do you want, there's nothing scheduled for today," the demon asked.
"Goddess Ballisea...," the man who removed Luanne's hood replied as he knelt. "...this woman is attempting to interfere with our worship. She dares to hold you to human laws, what would you have us do to her?"
"Allow me a moment to deliberate...," Ballisea replied. She vanished, and Luanne did as well. The young woman found herself standing upright in an empty black void with Ballisea present. Despite the surrounding darkness, the horned woman seemed to glow with her own ethereal golden light.
"They kidnapped you and threatened your life, what would you have me do to them?" she asked.
"What?" Luanne asked. "Why are you asking me? Your Cult leader said...,"
"Nonsense," Ballisea made a dismissive gesture with her hand and giggled lightly. "I am a God across countless realities, with twice as many cults in my name. I do enjoy all the rules and costumes and rituals, cults are fun," she said. "What I don't enjoy is people wasting my time and insisting they're doing it in my name. I've decided to abandon this cult, they no longer amuse me. As such, their fate is yours to decide."
"What do you mean countless realities..?" Luanne asked. She was already in over her head, so she decided to just go along with things.
"The multiverse," Ballisea nodded. "Alternate Earths exist."
"Can I see... or visit other realities?" Luanne asked.
"I will arrange for someone to give you a tour," Ballisea said. "But first, what shall I do with the cult members?"
"Oh!" Something came to mind. "You can send them to other realities too, right? Can you send them all, each of them to a different Earth, but all of them on Earths dominated by animals. Do those Earths exist?"
"They do," Ballisea smiled. "And, I like that answer. I'll go do that, in the mean time, you wait here. Someone will be along to deliver you to safety."