Buying Time

Kairos sighed as he approached the main gate and briefly deactivated his time shield, the only thing separating the Fortress of Kinigi from the golden army of light that was waiting patiently outside. Once he had stepped through, he immediately re-raised the shields, checking briefly to make sure that nothing… extra had passed through.

“You are taking a very long time to deliver what we requested, Time Drake…”

The leader of this army stood proud, mounted on a chariot pulled by balls of light. Kairos grunted, opening his wings out as a sign that he was not a threat.

“You are taking a very, very long time. Is what we requested too hard? Are you too stu-”

“We are working on fulfilling your request!” Kairos snapped. “The issue is that the Voidlord’s body that you requested… well, it has been scattered across the space ways… We need to collect all the parts and bring them back here.”

“That should not take too long. You are all deities, after all.”

“Yeah well, that is what we thought too, but it turns out it’s pretty easy to hide bits of dead god and a lot harder to find bits of dead god. We are going as fast as we can, but we can’t search as quickly as we could normally, because your army is getting in the way.”

The shimmering leader leaned forward, eyeing Kairos with its glowing eyes. Kairos grunted, closing his own eyes, the brightness being a little too much.

“We are?”

“Your, ahem, brightness… is getting in the way of the tactics we use to search for bits of deity. It’s like trying to find one cloud in a sky full of clouds. Nearly impossible.”

The leader tutted, crossing its arms, both of which were covered in scales of gold. “Very well. I am happy to see that you are willing to comply. So I shall allow you… some leeway. Some extra time. But why have you not delivered the murderer to us as well?”

Kairos hesitated. “He is… extremely dangerous… You would not want to be delivered a gift and have that gift break free and maul you, correct? Once we have all the pieces of the Voidlord, we will be able to calm down the, uh, murderer as well and deliver both together. After that, you will leave peacefully, yes?”

“Of course.”

There was no real honesty in that reply. Kairos was unsure whether the Voidborns knew he didn’t believe them or not. It didn’t matter. The only reason Kairos was out there was to be a distraction. While he hopefully convinced these Voidborns that they were doing as they had requested, Yisini and Epani had sneaked out, heading to the stars to save whatever they could. All before the Allmaker revealed her plans.

“Are you sure?” Kairos asked, stalling a bit more. “You don’t seem so sure. We are working hard to do as you have asked. It would be unfair and immoral for you to not keep your half of the deal.”

“You see us as immoral?”

“No, no, not at all!” Kairos quickly replied, backtracking. “I just want to be certain that you will keep to your word.”

“Of course!” the leader hissed. “It would be appreciated if you sped up a little though. We have other universes to visit too.”

Kairos nodded. “Sure. My fellow deities are working on it as we speak.”

The leader grunted, then led his chariot away, seemingly satisfied. Kairos flapped his wings then backed into the safety of his time shield, hoping he’d given Epani and Yisini enough time…