“We have to stop him…” Retvik muttered as he peered through the large hole where the front door used to be.
Outside, a battle was roaring. It was a rather one-sided battle though, with limb pieces being torn off and thrown around all over the place. The Voidborn army that had gathered was now scattered and panicking, just trying to keep the enraged monster away from them.
Inside the vague safety of the mansion though, things weren’t much better. One Voidborn had attempted to run to the house for shelter, only to be turned into a black and gold splat all across the front room.
“Why… why was Arkay so… angry anyway?” Kuta was shivering, genuinely fearful for what was going on. The nice, friendly death god he had grown close to had suddenly turned into a monster and gone on a dreadful rampage. But worse, he had threatened to kill them all. “He just… snapped…”
“I think that Xanagenysis thing that Athanatea was…” Litvir started to try and explain, but was distracted by the corpse laying between him and Kuta. The first thing they had both tried to do was try and save the Life Goddess, see if she was still alive in some way. But considering how she had been cleaved in half, Litvir was certain there was little they could have done for her. “I am not certain, after all, I know nothing about these creatures, but I think she wanted to make a new universe and have Arkay help her. And he did not want to… commit to that.”
“He was adamant that he did not want to make a new universe…” Retvik’s tone was very different from Kuta and Litvir, who both seemed scared. Retvik was more angry and concerned. “But this… this is crossing a line. He turned himself into that monster, into Arkidetelos, intentionally. That was something he said he would never do, that he always feared to do. But he did it anyway. We need to stop Arkidetelos, turn him back into Arkay and… and…”
“And what?”
“And…” Retvik hesitated. “And discipline him. Or sedate him. Or something. We can work that out later.”
Litvir got up from beside the corpse and pointed outside. Arkidetelos had just torn a Voidborn in half, throwing the lower section to the ground and chucking the top half into the darkness, before licking blood off its hands. “How are we going to stop that then?”
“We can stop him. Arkay is still in there. With your psionic powers, maybe you can-”
“Not on his own, he can’t!” Kuta protested. “We can’t just go into his mind, we might end up consumed by his wrath!”
The elder psion frowned for a moment. “Kuta is right, we cannot just jump right in. But, should one traumatically distract him, Kuta and I could both jump inside at once and at the very least knock him out so he cannot fight back. However, that means…” Litvir looked up at Retvik. “That means you need to distract him on your own, while we stay out of sight. But that… thing… might not hesitate in killing you.”
Retvik sighed, his attention turning to the battle outside. A battle that was somehow nearly over. What had been a lush, tropical paradise was now a gore-spattered hell-scape.
“He will not stop if we do not stop him…” Retvik eventually replied. “He will just continue killing more and more and more, until he becomes Arkidetelos fully and Arkay ceases to exist. But if he sees me, interacts with me, negatively or otherwise, that should give you two a chance to get in there and pull Arkay out.”
“And what do we do if he flat out kills you?” Kuta exclaimed, not hiding his fears and concerns at all. “What if-”
“If he kills me, well… I do not think he will do that. Arkay still probably believes that we are his friends, even if he is Arkidetelos now. And if this doesn’t work, Galyn is due to come back in a few hours anyway, we just need to hold on until then.”
“But what if…” Kuta repeated himself, but didn’t finish his sentence.
Retvik hesitated as he stepped outside, into what remained of the battlefield. “If he does kill me… Do me a favour and let my family know what happened.”