Arkadin snarled as consciousness returned to him. He wasn’t where he remembered. In fact, he was on the wrong planet entirely. He wasn’t on a planet at all.
“Easy, little brother” a voice cooed from somewhere within the room. After a few awkward moments, a door ahead of Arkadin slid open, and the Goddess of Life, Sini, stepped in. She looked less serpentine than normal and had actual legs for once.
“What happened? Where am I?” Arkadin immediately asked as he sat up straight and stared at Sini. “And why are you not your normal naga self?”
Sini sighed to herself. “They… they really did a number on you.”
The Allbirther’s words only concerned Arkadin more. He summoned a weapon, a metallic, black sword, and tried to climb out of bed. However, Sini raised her hand, suggesting that Arkadin calm down slightly. As he took a deep breath and closed his eyes though, he could feel that there were… problems. Holes in the universe’s walls. Traces of broken Voidborns and slithers of dead Corruption. Wobbles in cosmic orbits. While Arkadin was the God of Decay, he was also this universe’s designated protector, and the fact that the universe was so… battered, it almost hurt.
“What is going on, Sini?”
Another sigh. Sini sat down on the bed next to Arkadin.
“A lot happened, little brother. You’ve been… uh… well… You were hurt. Back in December, something awful got in and set off a chain of events that led to you… being damaged and needing to sleep and… kinda be upset. You’ve lost about a year’s worth of memories.”
Again, Arkadin tried to get up. Again, Sini stopped him.
“Alright, what the actual fuck? What’s the date right now? Why do I feel… weird and slightly stronger?”
“The current date is the Third of August, 2024.”
“But… you said this… horrible stuff happened in December! But… the last date I remember is June! I was, uh, planning on renting a new place…”
“Like I said, it was a chain of events. Starting in December and ending about a week ago, when Epani and Kairos reset you back to how you were last year. Admittedly, they kinda went a little too far by accident, the plan was to reset you back to November but, well, resetting a death god isn’t a well-known or exact art. And before you ask, your little mortal persona is dead and buried, sorry.”
Arkadin frowned. “Aw. I liked that particular persona. Being a Skyavok was fun. Do I have to be someone else or do I have to wait to make a new mortal persona?”
“Epani and Kairos requested that you hold off on personas and mixing with mortals for a while. Technically, you need to stay cold for a bit. But you need some sort of stimulation, so I salvaged your belongings, and I have set up a small abode for you while you recover and get back into gear. You’ve got a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and living room here at this lab. Because you kinda need somewhere to live and store your collection of scary weapons, silly plushies and weird toys.”
“Oh…” Arkadin calmed down somewhat. “So… what actually happened? I take it everything was… kinda bad…”
Sini nodded. “We were… attacked, multiple times. The first attack, in December, was a Corruption that tried to kill you multiple times. It hid in the old Earth Bones, and was made from the remains of Kinisis, the evil entity we killed and rebuilt this universe on. You nearly bled out, I got… mind-altered into attacking you a second time but eventually we all worked together and killed it. You were briefly infected with a separate Corruption, but we cured you and gave you a little more power so that it would not happen again.
“After that, we were attacked by a particularly ancient and horrible Voidborn by the name of Ahkron. One that… nearly beat us. You told us to not go close, we didn’t listen, it tried to destroy the universe by kicking us out of it. But you took over all four Fundamentals and killed the Voidborn with your standard make-them-mortal rule.
“Things settled down briefly once that Voidborn was killed. One of its sons did try and attack you, but you dealt with it, as always. However… you… started… acting off. We didn’t have time to deal with it though because that Kinisis-Corruption suddenly came back and nearly corrupted Kairos, cut your arm off, knocked me out and stabbed Epani. Some… odd mortals did manage to distract the Corruption long enough for you and Kairos to kill it, but, again, you and Epani… kinda started acting oddly.
“Sure, things settled down yet again, apart from a… brief flare up thing with Epani, but you two… you two started hating each other. And you both got… aggressive… Epani more than you. We had to separate you both. And somewhere along the line, it was decided that we reset you. So that’s… what we did.”
Arkadin frowned. “I feel like that’s not the whole story.”
“It’s a sugar-coated, abridged version, yes. But it was you who requested to be reset. You were under the impression that less people would be hurt that way.”
“Oh…” Arkadin fell completely silent. He dismissed his sword, then laid back down, tutting to himself. “I… I must have been pretty bad for me to realize I needed a reset.”
“Well… it’s complicated. I didn’t think you needed it. But here we are. Epani and Kairos wanted you to go completely cold, but you need some sort of, well, existence. You’re a god, not a slave. You do your duties better when you are not completely chained up.”
“I guess…” Arkadin sighed some more, then tried to climb out of bed. This time, Sini let him. “I suppose I ought to get back to work then. I can feel that things aren’t quite right.”
Sini patted Arkadin on the head. “Yeah, things are… funny. We’ve given you a few… upgrades though. You are allowed to fix universal holes now, and you’re free to kill Voidborns and Corruptions however you want. Unfortunately your communicator kinda… got destroyed in the process. I got you a new one and installed our godly comms app on it, but you’ll have to set up your mortal apps again. In the mean time, try and avoid Kairos and Epani for a bit. Kairos in particular. They’re still… kinda angry at you, and I don’t want you to get hurt again.”
“Hmph… Well, thanks, I guess. Is there anything else I should know before I return to my duties?”
Sini hesitated for a moment, thinking to herself. After a moment, she sighed. “No. Just… try to be careful, and remember to take breaks, alright?”
Arkadin got up properly and summoned both some silver armour and a gunstaff. “Alright. I’ll see you later. Stay safe, sister.”
The Thantophor tutted to himself, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sini stared at where Arkadin stood, then tutted as well and went back to work.
“Shame, really. Such a waste.”