It turned out, to everyone’s surprise but Psiksi’s, the info the Alsyr had given them was wrong. It was supposed to have been a simple job, clearing out a patch of Corruption inside an old, ruined Voidborn tower, but instead, it seemed that the Voidborn inside the tower was alive and well and was doing experiments in order to try and control the Corruption. It seemed to have been doing a pretty good job until Kayel incinerated most of the Corruption and Nyssi flooded the Voidborn’s main lab. But as they confronted the Voidborn directly, things started going downhill.
The Voidborn seemed to be a telepathic one, and Nyssi was struggling to hold it back, doubly so as it had filled everyone’s heads with nightmares, causing everyone to panic. Psiksi seemed to have some resistance, but he was busy trying to keep Kayel and Ret calm enough to get them to focus on killing Corruption and not killing other people, and Nyssi was keeping most of the mental manipulation at bay. Tanos though had been mostly hiding in a corner, not really adding anything to the fight. He was too scared to even move, and Nyssi didn’t really want to bring him into the fight, he’d just get hurt.
Unfortunately, the Voidborn seemed insistent on trying to infect everyone with Corruption, and when it finally spotted Tanos hiding away, it swiftly targeted him. It intentionally tried to summon Corruption nearby, but Kayel was doing a weirdly good job on destroying most of it. So the Voidborn decided to attack Tanos physically. It smashed Tanos’s hiding place then grabbed Tanos and smashed him against the ground. Tanos managed to wriggle free, but he was clearly hurt.
Before the Voidborn could finish Tanos off though, a hideous roar echoed through the thin air. The Voidborn paused, then turned around slowly, only to be abruptly tackled and knocked off its feet. Normally, the Voidborn was protected by a telekinetic shield, but all of a sudden, heavy claws backed up by gravitational powers began to tear at the Voidborn’s plating. Very worryingly, the Voidborn suddenly realised it couldn’t fight back at all. The being attacking it was going all out, not just holding the Voidborn down with gravity, but its mind was sealed off and almost blank.
Ret continued tearing off plating until the Voidborn was no longer moving. And then he continued to tear at the Voidborn’s lifeless shell, tearing its head off and crushing it completely. Whether the Voidborn was actually dead or not, no one was sure, and Psiksi wondered whether its spirit had escaped and it would reform elsewhere.
“Ret, uh, I think he’s de-” Psiksi was about to approach Ret, but he was immediately stopped by Kayel, who had suddenly regained his senses.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t go close!” Kayel hissed. “He doesn’t know who you are!”
Psiksi hesitated, then let Kayel pull him back. “What’s going on? Also, you seem fine now.”
“I’m still seeing monsters in the corner of my vision. But Retvik’s currently in his Defensive Stance. The Voidborn hurt Tenuk, someone Retvik cares about more than anything and now he’s gone mad with rage in a bid to protect Tenuk.”
“Oh. So… how do we stop him?”
Kayel glanced around, looking for Nyssi and Tanos. Thankfully, Nyssi had already worked out what was going on, and she was helping Tanos back to his feet. His wounds had mostly healed, but he was rather scuffed up and dirty. But as he also started working things out, he realised that he needed to do something. So he turned into a big, blue, fluffy cat.
“Um…” Psiksi was still rather unsure, and Kayel picked up on that and dragged him further way, so they were both just out of sight.
Ret though seemed to not care at all. There was barely anything left of the Voidborn, just tattered pieces of limb plating. The Voidborn had been mostly hollow, and now Ret was more clawing at the ground than anything else. It wasn’t until Nyssi telepathically suggested that Ret glance up that he slowed down and eventually stopped.
The fluffy kitty meowed as it approached Ret. It was a bit dirty and scruffy, but it was big and cute and distracting.
“You saved the fluffy kitty, Ret!” the cat purred. “You can stop being angry. You can calm down now.”
Ret looked at Tanos, but Tanos wasn’t sure if he was actually focused on him. Ret’s eyes were somewhat glazed over, and he was twitching from the surges of adrenaline rushing through his body.
“Just keep on talking and being cute, Tenuk…” Nyssi telepathically whispered. “He’ll settle. Just needs some time.”
Tanos purred some more, then whipped his tail from side to side. This properly caught Ret’s attention. Ret was breathing very erratically though, and he was barely able to focus.
“Retvik, best friend, you did good. You saved the fluffy kitty. You protected the fluffy kitty. You can calm down now. And you can pet the fluffy kitty! I’m nice and soft and blue!”
Ret looked Tanos up and down. He held out one hand, which Tanos immediately brushed up against. However, Tanos worried for a moment as Ret suddenly grabbed him. The worry was brief though as Ret pulled Tanos into a large hug. Tanos let out a small meow of pain as Ret squeezed a bit too tightly, but that caused Ret to immediately let go of Tanos, drop him on on the floor then back away. Ret then curled up into a ball and started crying.
“I sorry! I bad!”
Ret continued to bawl loudly, feeling completely and utterly distraught. This sudden change of emotion, from rage to fear and sorrow, allowed Nyssi to get close enough to both telepathically and physically tranquillise him.
The mighty Rethan stuttered, sniffed, then passed out completely.
“Uh. What the fuck just happened?” Psiksi exclaimed as he and Kayel approached.
“I… I’m not sure…” Nyssi frowned. “We’re going to have to ask Kuta to have a look at Retvik, because he’s gone Defensive Stance before but he’s never been like this.”
Tanos stopped being a cat, then turned himself into a Banikan. “I’ll carry Retvik back to the ship. We need to get out of here and get back home before we do anything else…”