Retvik grunted as he rolled over, not really wanting to wake up. For the first time in ages, he was genuinely feeling comfortable and well rested. He was in a very soft, warm bed that was plenty big enough for his muscular body, and he could smell nice food nearby. Sure, he’d had a nightmare about fighting against an army of golden beings and the universe blowing up, but apart from that, he’d slept really well. Waking up would most likely spoil that feeling.
Then again, Retvik had no idea where he was.
One eye blinked open. All Retvik saw was pillow. So he opened his other eye. But what his other eye saw was… Well, Retvik wasn’t sure. There was a smiling, white creature staring back at him.
“Ahah! You’re finally awake! Boss, we got one!”
Retvik immediately sat up as a huge, hulking goliath of a creature lumbered towards him and his bed, passing through the white, ghostly creature. They leaned down by Retvik’s bed, very delicately placing a single, armoured claw on top of Retvik’s head plate.
“Hm. This one is good. Move them upwards.”
“Excuse me?” Retvik attempted to ask, before suddenly being thrown upwards, bed and all, through a hole that had opened up in the ceiling. Suddenly, Retvik found himself in a nicely furnished room. It was a small room, but it clearly felt like a cabin on a ship of some sort. Despite the sudden movement, both the ghostly being and the hulking being were both… still there.
“Hm. This one actually may be salvageable. It is a viable Decayling. Sort it out please, Seimeni.”
The ghostly being nodded. The large being grunted then lumbered off, through the wall next to him.
“Alright…” Retvik muttered under his breath. “What in the name of the Light is going on…”
“You’re a lucky one, kiddo!” the ghostly being grinned. Retvik tried to work out what this being was. It looked vaguely Threanic, with the same plates of armour on the chest, head and limbs, but it had long, spiked legs and a very obvious pair of mammaries. “My name’s Seimeni, I’m a Decay Lord and I’m here to lead you down the path from Decayling to fully fledged Decay Lord!”
Retvik blinked in confusion. “I think I may be in shock, I did not understand what you just said. I mean, they translate into Panglish perfectly fine, but the other you just spouted them in makes no sense to me.”
Seimeni continued to nod, seemingly understanding Retvik’s confusion. “Don’t worry, dear, we’ll sort everything out. Can you do me a favour and tell me what your name is and what you were a god of before you came here?”
“My name is Retvik… But I have never been a deity. I have walked alongside deities but-”
“You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t a deity. You were shipped in alongside the four hundred other damaged goods but you’re one of the few to pull though the initial shock. You have to be a deity of something.”
Retvik grunted. “I am telling you, I am not a deity.”
“Someone made you into a deity. You were a god before your universe blew up, you’re a god now.”
“My universe WHAT?” Retvik suddenly exclaimed, throwing his head in his hands. “This HAS to be some sort of horrible nightmare!”
“Hm…” Seimeni sat down on the bed next to Retvik. Rather than actual feet, she had weird, sharp spikes. Not that it mattered, since she was so ghost-like and was more hovering than sitting. “What was the last thing you remember?”
Retvik thought for a moment. He could clearly remember recovering in a hospital bed after the attack by the Void Lord. But otherwise his memories were blurry. “That dream I had… fighting the armoured beings… the universe collapsing… it was all real?”
“Yep. From what we’ve found out so far, a Voidborn army illegally attacked your universe and Kinisis smashed the borders of your universe to kill them all. Kinda broke your universe as well, but frankly a dead Voidborn is better than a live one around here. Had a nice Time Drake by the name of Kairos help us gather all the surviving deities and bring them here for processing.”
“Where… is here, exactly?” Retvik asked.
“The Periuniversal Void doesn’t really have names for places, but this place is now called the Kini-Phoviverse Sector, after the Life Goddess who merged her universe into this area. As for where you are directly?” Seimeni paused, then smiled. “Welcome to Thantir One, the main Decay Lord ship and base in this sector! Would you like to have a look around?”
Retvik hesitated, then shrugged. “I guess. But you will have to run me through all of this again, because I do not really understand any of it.”
“Don’t worry, kiddo! You’ll get used to it!” Seimeni beamed as she dragged Retvik out of his bed, and out into this curious new world.