Crystal Shelf

Void’s Edge was a massive perimeter around this part of the universe, a gargantuan crystal wall that curved inwards, protecting the universe from nasty, hungry critters that wanted to murder everything. But most mortals did not see Void’s Edge that way. To them, it was nothing but darkness and empty space, a paradox of a region that no one ever seemed to be able to travel through, that would just lead people back to where they started.

Part of the crystalline wall though had a small shelf built on it. A shelf the size of a large asteroid, but still small in comparison with the rest of the wall. This shelf was where Kairos occasionally slept.

The last few weeks though, he had been sleeping on the shelf a lot. To the point that he had started filling the shelf up with bedding, pillows and cushions to make it more comfortable. Why? Because there had been constant disturbances nearby. Disturbances only a god could deal with.

Today’s disturbance was a set of angry falseverns, beings created out of Void energy and designed in a shape very similar to the Whenvern himself. Ever since Kenon had returned, the massive hole made in the universe’s edge had caused hundreds of these fake deities to break in.

“Not again…”

Every time those falseverns attacked, it was the same. They’d swoop in, try and claw at Kairos and then swoop around the sky a few times before Kairos could get into position to tear their heads off.

Luckily there were only four falseverns today. The first one was also incredibly stupid and basically dived into Kairos’s path. They may have been bigger and looked more menacing than Kairos, but they were all barely-living cowards.

Suddenly, the other three falseverns dropped dead. Kairos picked up their corpses, took one to the shelf to eat later and shoved the other three out of an airlock installed in the crystal wall. He had no idea who had installed that small, opening door, but it had been very useful lately.

“Thanks, brother!” Kairos beamed. He always enjoyed having to do less work. Normally whenever he did more work than normal, things would go wrong. Especially after the last incident… “Uh, I had that, but thank you!”

Arkadin floated out of the darkness, tutting. “Have you had to deal with a lot of those lately?”

Kairos nodded towards his little shelf. “I’ve set up a temporary base here because of it. You worked out where these cunts are coming from?”

“I know exactly where they’re coming from…” Arkadin sighed. “I just… can’t convince Kenon to call them off.”

“So he’s basically got an endless army of clones that he’s sending in, to piss us off?”

“Basically…”

Kairos shrugged. The fake deities weren’t that much of a pain to deal with. Well, they were, but it wasn’t like dealing with a Corruption or anything. “Eh, whatever. We’ll live. You still working out how you want to torture Kenon?”

“In a way.”

“Is that why you changed your look? Suits you, you know.”

Arkadin looked down at himself, then back at Kairos. “You like it?”

“Yeah, makes you look more menacing, but not too menacing. That there’s an air of formality to you. Scary, stern but approachable.”

“I’m… I’m just using a Rethan form now rather than a Threan form…”

Kairos smiled. “Still, looks nice, looks better.”

Arkadin smiled back awkwardly. “Thank you.”

The Whenvern continued to smile. “You doing anything right now?”

For some reason, that caused Arkadin’s smile to fade. “Yes. I need to put some more pressure on Kenon to try and get him to call off these attacks. Can’t even just seal the holes he made either because they keep on reopening them.”

“Well, that can wait a few hours, can’t it? You want to go shopping or something with me?”

“Now?”

“Yeah.”

Arkadin hesitated, then shrugged. “Sure. That’d be nice.”