For a moment, Elkay felt safe. He may have been travelling deeper into the facility, back the way he had come, but this time he wasn’t alone. The security had been neutered and he was being flanked by a Vahrga and a Banikan of all things. He was alive, breathing and no longer starving to death or dying of thirst.
“How DID you manage to traverse all this yourself?” Talok asked as he sat on Levik’s back, facing Elkay.
“Desperation and a desire not to die in this horrible place…” Elkay admitted. There wasn’t really much else to say. “While I assume I will die here, perhaps taking this place out with me will make me feel better.”
“Seems kinda like Ct’Era’s plan…” Talok shrugged. “You sure you don’t want to ride on Ct’Era’s back?”
Ct’Era looked round and grunted. She was far friendlier and far more talkative than Elkay had expected, especially since she had lost her entire tribe.
The fleshy trail the group had been following opened out into a very large, open room, which had an upper level filled with control panels and consoles. The lower level consisted of various yellowish glass cells, all pulsating slightly as weird fluids pumped through them.
“Ugh…” Levik hissed. “That is a headache-inducing level of yellow light…”
“It is intentional,” Elkay explained. “This is where she creates the… Stuff…” Elkay was unsure how to describe it. He had seen the fluid in action, injected into other test subjects, turning them into mindless monsters. “It takes over your mind. She sees through your eyes. Your thoughts are hers.”
“She tested it on you?” Talok asked.
“Of course. That is what she does here. Experimentation and torture.”
Ct’Era wandered closer to one of the pulsating vats, putting the side of her head against it. She could sense… something. Something dark. A voice, reaching out to her. But not a voice she expected.
“This is the Dark!” Ct’Era suddenly growled. “The Corrupting Dark!”
“The what now?” Levik and Elkay both asked.
“The ancient horror that terrorised the universe over two thousand years ago?” Talok gasped. “That was destroyed by the deities working together?”
Ct’Era nodded awkwardly, stepping away from the containers. “We must destroy it! Blow it all up! Bring it all down!”
Talok inspected the equipment, wondering how to do that. To his disappointment, there wasn’t a massive self-destruct button like he had hoped. But there were a lot of terminals he could access and have a look around. With a quick inspection of how all the consoles were connected together, Talok determined which console was the main terminal and turned it on. Meanwhile, Ct’Era stomped around, growling at the canisters. She snorted on each one, watching as little black specks bubbled and oozed.
“So how does a life god take control of a death god anyway?” Levik asked. “I always thought there were… protections… against that. The Kronospasts learned that the hard way…”
“Deities are different, I assume…” Elkay shrugged. “But we are talking about corruption, so there is no way to know.”
Talok remained silent, tapping away on a device in his hand. There were no visible data entry points so Talok had to improvise with his own portable mini-keyboard. He had found a lot of data but not much actual information. Bits and pieces. But it was all slowly coming together.
“Hm…”
“Do you require assistance, Talok?” Elkay asked.
“No. I’m good. I think I worked something out though. How the Allbirther controls them. And also where the three deities are located.”
Levik climbed up onto the upper level and joined Talok’s side. “How?”
“It’s a biological system. Basically a virus. The virus uses dead corruption to burrow into deitic cells, which they can’t do normally because deitic cells are too well-defended otherwise.”
“But why are there three deities here?” Levik was still confused.
“Can you turn it off?” Elkay asked.
Talok shrugged. “I… I think so…”
The little Vohra started tapping like crazy. He had picked up on something and was running with it. After several awkward moments, the massive, oozing vats began to drain away.
“Did you do it?”
“I did something…” Talok muttered. He noticed that everyone else had turned their attention to the screen monitoring the deities. There was a lot more movement on the screen now.
Suddenly, a siren started blaring.
“What is happening?” Ct’Era screeched, unable to stand the noise. A loud timer screaming numbers in multiple languages cackled constantly.
“The system is self-destructing!” Levik gasped.
“And worse…” Talok swallowed nervously. “There is no way we can get out of here before that countdown ends…”
Levik sighed as he put an arm around Talok. “Well, at least our mission was successful…”