Litvir wasn’t quite sure where his lower intestine was. To be fair, he didn’t particularly need it any more, he hadn’t eaten solid food in at least a month, but it was currently missing, having been torn out by the rampaging beast that abruptly broken free in the middle of a mental scan, in which Litvir was trying to find the source of the beast’s madness.
With a low murmur, Litvir tried to pick himself up and focus on his surroundings. There were shards of metal everywhere, some of which were buried in Litvir’s right arm, the arm he had raised to his face to try and shield himself from… some sort of explosion. An explosion that didn’t make much sense. Sure, Galyn was a powerful Decay Lord, but his abilities were all weirdly nature-based, he didn’t really have the power to create explosions from nothing, without any source of fuel, did he?
By Litvir’s side was an unconscious figure. Litvir blinked several times, trying to focus, before realizing that he was blind in one eye, thanks to a thin slice of metal jutting out of it. At least his other eye worked, and he could see that his dear companion Eksi was mostly unharmed. Covered in little cuts and slices from the explosion and definitely not conscious, but also definitely alive. Litvir wasn’t sure he could say the same about everyone else in the room. There was a small, black arm lying nearby as well, not to mention several shards of neon green glass.
The worst thing though was the blood. There was far, far too much of it. Most of it coming from Litvir. Normally, that would have bothered him slightly, but, just like his lower intestine, Litvir wasn’t sure how much blood he actually needed.
Something crashed just ahead of Litvir. Something metallic. Something… head-shaped, with crystalline red eyes. It was joined by another head and half a white-painted body. The first head clicked in anger, muttering various weak curse words, before the lights in its eyes shut off. The second head chittered slightly, saying how it was glad it couldn’t feel pain but annoyed that it would take ages to weld itself back together.
A garbled growl echoed through the air. Litvir pulled the shard of metal out of his eye and felt it start to heal up, a side effect of him being a Decay Lord. It turned out, fast healing was a pretty generic ability in the Space Between Universes, but now Litvir could actually see what was going on.
“Avtos o somatos then einesai arketesanos gia emena allios gia toora tora tha einei katalilisio na sesas skotosomai! Diisete mou to somatos tis Zonantias sas kai tha sesas skotosomai eukolotera!”
Galyn was howling, spouting words that made no sense. All traces of his upper consciousness were gone as he tore through his own crew. Currently, Retvik and Elkay were both desperately trying to stop him from finishing off Phovos, who had a huge chunk of flesh missing from her neck and shoulder where Galyn had bitten her and tossed her across the room. At the same time, Tah and Pah, the last two remaining members of Kal, were throwing bolts of lighting and blasts of plasma, trying to at least stun Galyn. This didn’t last for long though as Galyn’s flying emerald blades rose up into the air and exploded out in every direction. Elkay pushed Retvik out of the way of the blast, while Tah managed to teleport somewhat out of danger, losing his arm in the process. Pah however had moved far too slowly and both his arms and one of his legs had been severed by the barrage of daggers.
With a snarl, Galyn tried to make his way back to Phovos’s position, but a crackle of orange energy briefly blinded him as Teekay teleported Phovos to safety. In their place, Akah and Elksia both stood, weapons at the ready. The elder Decay Lord hardly seemed to care as he attacked, Akah immediately went to work, freezing Galyn’s limbs, while Elksia slowed time around him. Still, they were clearly struggling to contain the threat.
“Hey, Litvir, you busy?”
A voice crackled inside Litvir’s head. It was coming from Koh, one of the decapitated heads lying nearby.
“I am trying to orientate myself, before I suicidally rush in to protect my crew…” Litvir muttered, crawling on his hands and knees and making his way towards Koh’s remains.
“Well, before you do that, can you take my Krana-brain out from my disconnected head and put it on your face?”
Litvir blinked. “Why would I do that?”
“You’d be able to use my sound and telepathy powers to boost your own psionic powers? Although I totally get why you wouldn’t want to put my brain on your weird reptilian head-shield face. It’s weird.”
Litvir hesitated, not really sure what Koh was talking about. His eyes were drawn back to the battle, where Galyn had managed to rip the mask from Akah’s face. Retvik and Elkay were back in the fight though, Retvik blasting Galyn with heat, incinerating the Decay Lord’s emerald daggers, while Elkay was now using Galyn’s powers against him, lacerating the beast’s skin with his own storm of smaller, golden daggers. Just as the two siblings began to get the upper hand though, Galyn somehow caused another explosion, roaring in confusion and agony. Elkay took the brunt of this new attack but staggered back to his feet. Retvik however found himself impaled on some debris and was no longer moving.
Galyn though was no longer paying attention to either Elkay or Elksia, who had rushed to Retvik’s side, using her Time Drake powers to reverse Retvik’s injury. His eyes were focused on the Life Goddess peering in from the main hallway.
“Ao, tha eisesai kalyterotati apo auton ton akrisimopoiieevto teras…” Galyn snarled. Seimeni hesitated for a moment, before attempting to flee, but Galyn immediately grabbed her and pulled her away, back into the centre of what used to be the cargo hold. For a brief moment, Elkay attempted to save Seimeni, but found himself collapsing in a heap, utterly filled with daggers. Both Teekay and Tah also attempted to step in and try and teleport Seimeni to safety, but Teekay met a fate similar to Elkay, while Tah found himself flicked across the room, disappearing in some rubble.
Satisfied that everyone was dealt with, Galyn turned his attention back to Seimeni. Rather than toying around with blades or claws though, the Decay Lord’s jaws stretched open and wrapped around the Life Goddess’s head.
Panicking somewhat, Litvir snapped out of his trance and did as Koh suggested. He pulled open Koh’s metal head plate, revealing a greyish blue, rubbery, face-like object, which Litvir then pressed against his snout. A surge of energy ran through Litvir’s body as he rose up into the air and glided towards Galyn.
“Let her go!” Litvir hissed, the air around him humming ominously.
Galyn didn’t respond. but at the same time, he didn’t seem to be biting Seimeni, just holding her in place with his massive, fanged jaws.
“Fine! Do not say I did not warn you!”
Litvir opened up his arms, summoning a pair of glowing, purple psionic blades that vibrated with sonic power. In a single, swift action, he sliced off both Galyn’s tail and his right arm, causing Galyn to immediately let go of Seimeni and emit a scream that was unbefitting of such a large beast. Litvir kicked the now whimpering Decay Lord to one side, before gently approaching Seimeni.
“Evxarsitisies, mikrisie Litvir mu, omios argysies ligo…” Seimeni smiled, completely oblivious to the small, bleeding wounds left by Galyn’s teeth. “Autos o thyilikos somatos einai arketesimi kalyteri gia emena. Alios, filenatha mu, peite mu tin alitiotita su. Afises tin koritsi mu na meskototonisei, ao?”
Litvir blinked, not really sure what was going on. The smile on Seimeni’s face grew as she ripped Koh’s Krana-Brain off Litvir’s face, tossing it aside carelessly. The ghostly Life Goddess then nonchalantly stabbed Litvir through the chest with a long, silvery blade, leaving him to collapse on the ground in a broken heap.
“Min anysyhieveis, Litvir mu. Tha sas emeino alivisioi. Mu edidoses tin evharia na koitaxomai apo ta avtomatia su. Ta idia then tha legonteh gia ta paidia mu.”
With a brief, sharp laugh, Seimeni disappeared in a cloud of white smoke, leaving Litvir lying in a pool of his own blood, wondering if his heart was still beating.