“WHAT?”
Seimeni shuddered. She was not used to being shouted at like that. But here she was, standing beneath Decay Lord Itaviir’s agonizing gaze, being verbally torn in two.
“Uh… everyone is accounted for except for Decayling Retvik and Amalgam Arkidetelos.”
Itaviir was clearly about to shout again, but held his breath. In his head, he counted to ten, then sighed loudly and angrily.
“Let me clarify what you just said. The single most valuable SBS entity in this corner of the Periuniversal Void, the one desired by pretty much everyone to be used for their own malicious purposes, is missing?”
“Not… completely missing…” Seimeni tried to explain. “He was, uh, helping Decayling Retvik with protecting some low-risk, high-demanding Life Goddesses, alongside a Divine Deity and Time Drake that had been assigned to them. They were returning back to Thantir One when the Voidborns attacked. But they never re-docked or signalled to land.”
Itaviir paced up and down, trying to calm his anger. Two other Decay Lords, Vikalos and the draconic-looking Saahro, appeared in the doorway.
“What is going on?” Vikalos demanded to know.
“The Amalgam is missing.”
Vikalos frowned. “Taken by the Voidborns or…”
“We do not know. Seimeni has a vague idea where their ship is.”
Both Saahro and Vikalos turned to Seimeni. “So, where is their ship?”
Seimeni stuttered, not enjoying being put on the spot yet again. “Uh… near… the big… Voidborn crystal… Wherever they are, their tracking and comm signals are being blocked by the Voidborn presence.”
Itaviir glared at the other Decay Lords. “You can see why I am so damn angry.”
Vikalos grunted, but Saahro simply shrugged.
“No problem. We just have to go and rescue them. And maybe kill some Voidborns along the way!”
“We… cannot do that…” Itaviir sneered. “Lest we cause more problems. The Amalgam is not worth…”
“We definitely can!” Saahro retorted. “They attacked us and kidnapped one of our own, we are simply going to retaliate and save a Decayling and his poor companions. And I’m not even talking about the little hybrid thing, I’m talking about Decayling Retvik. I assume Retvik was on that ship too, right?”
Seimeni nodded. “Yeah. Four beings in total. One Decayling, one Divine Guardian, one Time Drake and whatever Arkidetelos is.”
“So we go and save them. And chase off the Voidborns.”
Itaviir grunted, not satisfied with Saahro’s gun-ho attitude. “We are lacking in number, Saahro. We cannot simply go and attack the Voidborns and expect to come out unscathed.”
“We will not come out unscathed either way…” Vikalos muttered. “The Voidborns will attack again and again. Unless we put a stop to it early on. Saahro is absolutely right, we need to actually be Decay Lords and fight back. Yes, we risk ourselves, but we cannot simply leave our own to die or be harmed while we do nothing.”
Itaviir sighed, leaning against the door, contemplating everyone’s suggestions.
“But how do we fight back? We do not have the numbers.”
“Simple!” Seimeni suddenly smiled. “We fight dirty.”
“Pardon?”
“We pretend to be diplomatic, we pretend to act nicely. Then we teleport everyone else in and fire everything we’ve got at them.”
“Sounds like a plan, I guess…” Itaviir grunted. “How long before the dock is repaired, Saahro?”
Saahro shrugged. “About three hours?”
Itaviir grunted one last time, feeling more confident. “Alright. Saahro, get all hands on to repairing that dock. Seimeni, Vikalos, I need you two to help me clarify this plan and get the ball rolling…”