“Tenuk, we need to talk, right now.”
Tenuk rolled his eyes as he and Plasmablade, a fiery orange and silver Phantai Decay Lord, turned to face the flaming, clearly angry Rethan standing before them.
“Oh, hello Flamebearer!” Plasmablade beamed. “It is an honour! How can I and my new friend Mimicblade assist you?”
Retvik grunted, staring at Tenuk. This was somewhat awkward because Tenuk was currently shapeshifted into a tall, blue and silver Beh’evok, and he towered over Retvik. Normally, Retvik towered over him.
“I apologize, uh… I do not know your name, but I desperately need to speak to Tenuk right now.”
Plasmablade smiled some more and introduced himself. “Not a problem! There are a lot more of us Phantai than there are Thantir! I am Plasmablade, one of the many Flames of the Phantai. You need to speak to Mimicblade?”
“I do, yes. Urgently and in private.”
Tenuk hesitated, then sighed. “Alright. Nice talking with you, Plasmablade, we’ll meet up later or something, alright?”
“Of course!”
“Thank you…” Retvik muttered, bowing slightly.
With a frown, Retvik took Tenuk by the hand and led him away, marching straight towards one of the Thantir-only observatories. As they walked, Tenuk noticed that Retvik looked rough. As if he had recently just finished drying his eyes from crying.
“Uh, thanks for not blowing my disguise!” Tenuk attempted to lighten the mood. “Been working hard on my Beh’en persona and it’s going pretty well, especially since Eksi taught me how to blend in via the Phantai’s telepathic network thingy! Still not sure how I’m going to pull off Elksia’s dare though. And I kinda worry that ‘Mimicblade’ is way too obvious a name…”
Retvik didn’t say anything. This worried Tenuk. Normally Retvik would at least make a comment about Tenuk being strange. In fact, Retvik didn’t utter a single word until they reached an observatory and Retvik pulled Tenuk inside, slamming the door shut behind them and checking no one else was around.
“What’s wrong, Ret? You’re really out of sorts right now.”
“We lost contact with Arkay…” Retvik finally admitted. “He said something happened, or he caught a glimpse of something, or he saw into the future and became Arkidetelos and he has not been online and is not responding to our messages. Litvir is upset and has locked himself in our personal quarters and I am desperately trying to stay calm and failing to do so. We need your tea strainer so we can enter Arkay’s universe and make sure everything is alive and well and that Arkay has not turned into Arkidetelos.”
Tenuk eyed Retvik some more, then placed his hand on Retvik’s shoulder and sat him down on the floor.
“You’re going a mile a minute, Ret. Let’s calm down, take a deep breath and go through things one at a time. How long ago did Arkay go offline?”
Retvik did as he was told and took a deep breath. “About 40 hours ago, as far as I can tell. He normally messages every 10 or so hours though. And he specifically said he was ending contact with us. He left our group chat, he left the Thantir’s Wyvern server, the last message he sent to any of us was to Elkay, saying he couldn’t talk any more but he’d send advice if Elkay desperately needed it. Yes, we already tried messaging Arkay via that.”
“Has he blocked you?”
“No. He is just unresponsive. But I am scared that he might become Arkidetelos and, if he does, Kuta alone cannot stop him and I am certain that Kairos, Sini and Epani cannot stop him either.”
“Hm…” Tenuk thought to himself. “What actually IS Arkidetelos?”
Retvik sighed. “It… it is Arkay’s base, death god instincts, let loose. Death, destruction, rage and hunger. When… when I saw it happen, when Arkay turned into Arkidetelos, he killed and started eating multiple Voidborn entities, as well as the floating island we were on, and that was after he tore a Life Goddess in half in one single slice. The only thing that stopped him was me breaking his heart and disowning him.”
“Are you sure he has… gone like that?” Tenuk asked.
“No. I… I cannot confirm. I do not think Arkay has become Arkidetelos again, I think he went silent to avoid it, but I am…” Retvik looked up at Tenuk. “I am scared. I feel scared and stupid at the same damn time. I felt less scared when I blew up that stupid Voidborn and Arkay saved my stupid life than I do right now.”
“Wait, what?”
“He… did… some sort of astral projection thing so I did not die. Neither of us know how he did it, and it nearly killed him. But I thought, after that, things were going to get better, that Arkay was getting better… And now… things may be at risk again… And… She played him, and I just watched…”
Tenuk continued to stare at Retvik. He hadn’t seen Retvik like this in a very long time. And Tenuk had known Retvik for most of Retvik’s life. Not most of Tenuk’s life though. Tenuk was well over a thousand years old before their universe ended.
Retvik realized Tenuk was staring, then wiped his face and shook his head. “I am sorry, Tenuk. I am being stupid. I am sure everything is fine. Just need to suck it up and wait for Arkay to message us again. Just have to be patient, as always.”
“You love Arkay the same way I love Elksia.”
“You could say that, yes…” Retvik trailed off and sniffed.
Tenuk tutted, then turned himself into his old, Rethan-like Dessaron self and patted Retvik on the shoulder. “I get that. The four of us did a lot of stupid shit together. I mean, we fucking blew up god-like beings BEFORE it was popular…” Tenuk sighed, loudly. “Alright. Fine. We can try and use the tea strainer. I haven’t tested it though, and I have no idea if it will work. But neither of us can go through. You said so yourself, if we enter Arkay’s universe, we’ll lose our divinity. And, worse, I bet Yisini and Epani, Epani in particular, because she seems to be the bitchier, more Kinisis-like of the two of them, they’re probably listening out for weird intra-universal intrusions. And since we’re so insanely far away, we need someone who can escape with ease.”
Retvik blinked, rubbed his eyes and blinked again. “I do not follow.”
“We have to send one of Kal. Probably Nuh, because he can do some sort of weird gravity trick where he can use wormholes to teleport, but he can only teleport himself.”
“He can do that?”
Tenuk nodded. “Tahvra was telling us. Something about how Nuh can crumple his mechanical body up and then uncrumple it. But Kal are different, they’re mechanical so, they’re kinda not actually divine like most of us are, they were just designed and built with bullshit powers. Which means we can send one of them through without them losing their powers, being made mortal or being recognized.”
“Hm, yes. Also, they have worked on Arkay before, they know him well…”
Tenuk smiled. “Alright. Do you know of a door we can use? One where we won’t be interrupted, where I can test the tea strainer?”
“Yes. We can use the doors in my private quarters.”
“Cool!” Tenuk continued to smile. “Let’s go and grab Nuh, we’ll bring Elksia along so she can use her time magic to undo any mistakes we make, and we’ll head up to your room. Just so you know though, I have no idea if the tea strainer will work, so don’t get your hopes up.”
“Very well…” Retvik relaxed somewhat, now that they had some sort of plan. “We should get started then.”
“Oh definitely!” Tenuk grabbed Retvik’s hand and dragged him off, out of the observatory and towards the medical bays where Kal normally worked. “We’ll get some answers. They might not be the ones you want, and, again, don’t get your hopes up, but things will work out, I just know it.”