Kairos took shelter behind a smashed pillar, wrapping his wings around his bruised body. A weak time-shield was stopping the majority of flaming death balls from hitting him, but he couldn’t hold it for long. That burst of blinding light would wear off at some point and the monster would most likely attack him.
Peering over the pillar, Kairos tried to work out what the creature was. Multiple heads, various elements. Mostly tail and claws. A blast of lightning forced Kairos back. Another one forced Kairos to find more cover.
The remains of a brick wall would have to do. Kairos leaped over it then hunkered down. Why was this creature attacking him. What was it? Why was it here? And why was it screaming that it was going to suck out Kairos’s soul? He didn’t have a soul.
Something screeched, causing several nearby windows to shatter. Kairos covered his head with his arms and his body with his wings. The glass slowed down and froze in mid air, giving Kairos a second to get out of the way.
Not quite enough time. The creature tried to pin him down, but a time-slowing field gave Kairos the milliseconds he needed to move and find more cover.
Kairos knew he was screwed. He couldn’t keep on doing this, leaping from cover to cover, dodging this monster’s infinite amount of attacks. There was a bigger problem though. The creature had erected a field around them, trapping Kairos inside, and cutting off his connection to the rest of the universe. As far as Kairos was aware, he was alone with this being that was desperately trying to pin him down and rip out his insides.
Another screech echoed by, the creature shouting in another direction. The sprinkling of fire rain that had been pouring over the ruined temple faded away. Something had caught the monster’s attention.
“How the fuck did you get in here?” the Thantophor bellowed as he repeatedly stabbed the monster in several of its mouths, then leaped out of the way of some sort of breath attack. Arkadin summoned a Void net and threw it at the beast, pinning it to the ground.
Kairos hesitated, then left his cover, quickly reaching Arkadin’s side. The Dragon God of Time towered over the Thantophor, but in these sort of conflicts, size meant nothing. “I’m so glad to see you, little brother! I-”
Arkadin raised a claw, telling Kairos to shut up. He was inspecting the creature, trying to work out what it was.
“Arkadin, this creature threatened to suck out my soul.”
“Yeah. I guessed as much.”
The Thantophor circled the being, throwing more Void nets over it. The nets began to ooze with a black tar and started constricting, numbing the beast and crushing its body. Within a couple of seconds, the monster was no more, just a lump of jumbled, foreign matter. Arkadin picked up the remained, wrapped them up in one more Void net then placed it in a glass chamber that Arkadin had created, sealing the remains inside.
“Thank you…” Kairos muttered under his breath.
Arkadin tutted but didn’t say anything. His eyes scanned his surroundings. There was an obvious rip where the beast had broken in and started causing chaos. With a wave of Arkadin’s hand, the rip began to heal itself. With a wave of his other hand, he threw the glass chamber through the rip, exiling it from the universe.
“So…” Kairos tried to think of something to say. “Uh, what was that?”
“A you from another universe. Infected probably.”
“A… A what?” the Whenvern stuttered. “There are other Time Gods out there and they look like THAT?”
Arkadin shrugged, then started picking up pieces of rubble, disintegrating them in his hands. “When you’re Corrupted, you can look like anything. From the looks of things, it was trying to infect you, get inside you and then break Time so it could feed on this universe while everyone is too helpless and frozen to stop it.”
Kairos shuddered. The idea of becoming corrupted was almost incomprehensible to him. The idea of Kairos not being Kairos. Arkadin ignored the uncomfortable look on the Time Drake’s face and continued.
“The weird thing is that it tried to attack you. Normally they break in and go straight for the heart, as it is quicker and Corruptions need to feed. Killing a universe by corrupting time is… well, it’s potentially easier. Which means I think we’re going to have to get an early warning system for you.”
Kairos was only half listening. He was busy fixing parts of his broken house. This temple was only one of Kairos’s homes but he liked this one. “Sure- wait, what? An early warning system?”
“Yep.”
“No.”
Arkadin stared at Kairos. “Don’t argue.”
“Why?” Kairos growled. “I don’t need one!”
“Says the dragon who nearly got infected.”
“I don’t! I’m not Kinisis or Yisini, I don’t need one!” Kairos stamped his feet in anger. “I am NOT A CHILD!”
“This isn’t a question of being a kid or not!” the Thantophor shouted back. “This is a question of me or Kenon getting here in time in case this happens again! You’re lucky as fuck that I happened to work out what was going on in time to come and save you!”
Kairos flapped his wings, then sighed. “You’re… you’re right. I will talk to Kenon. Work something out.”
Arkadin smiled as he patted Kairos on the shoulder. “Thanks mate. I know we don’t see eye to eye, but I’d hate for something to happen to you. I gotta head off anyway.!
“Why?”
“Well, I… I gotta go back to my date…”
Kairos grinned. “Alright. Thank you. I’ll talk to you later about an early warning system.”
“No worries!” Arkadin waved as he disappeared. “See ya!”