“Have they already opened fire at us?” Litvir asked as a laser beam seemed to fly past their now nearly stationary ship.
“Seems as much!” Retvik grunted as a second one flew by. “This may be somewhat difficult.”
“Yep! Always is!” Arkay exclaimed as he brought the ship to a complete stop. He thought for a moment, then hit the reverse thrusters. They didn’t turn around, but they did slowly start moving backwards, until Arkay was sure they were at a slightly safer distance. He was mostly going on gut instinct though, and wanted to wait and see if the cloaked Voidborn ships ahead of them fired any more shots.
“So, what do we do? Because we are clearly intruding on what they believe to be their territory…” Litvir frowned, checking a nearby console to see how many ships there were. To his dismay though the console wasn’t giving him any answers. And the Voidborn cloaks were stopping Litvir from getting his own answer. “We cannot really approach these beings. Probably because we are Decay Lords, just like the ones that attacked them first.”
“I suppose we could try and speak to them?” Retvik suggested. He tapped a button which connected to his communicator. This allowed Retvik to send out some basic greetings, which the app did say it could translate into various languages and seemed to do just that. Retvik broadcast the message, a very simple greeting and the phrase “we do not want to fight”, then waited.
“You think they got it?”
“Move the ship closer and see if they fire at us again.”
Arkay didn’t like that plan, but he did as he was told, nudging the ship forward again. Litvir activated the ship’s basic shielding mechanisms, just in case.
Almost immediately, when they reached the same distance as before, the cloaked Voidborn ships fired again. Three shots, none of them connecting though. However, this did inform the Missing that there were at least three Voidborn ships present. Arkay once again moved the ship backwards, even further this time, just in case.
“How are we going to contact them though if they are refusing all contact?” Litvir hissed. “They will most likely just keep on firing at us!”
“Because we are Decay Lords, like you just said…” Retvik thought for a moment, then glanced at Arkay again. It turned out, Arkay was thinking similarly.
“You want me to pretend to be a Voidborn.”
“Actually… you may have to BE a Voidborn…” Retvik frowned. “They can clearly tell that we are Decayons. They distrust Decayons. They were attacked by them. They do not know that you are a Synaisthyn, and they would more likely trust a Voidborn over anyone else.”
“Surely Arkay should be a Life Goddess?” Litvir countered. “Most beings seem to trust Life Goddesses over anyone else.”
Arkay immediately crossed his arms and tutted. “No, that’s a stupid and dangerous idea.”
“How comes?”
“Do you trust Life Goddesses, Litvir?” Arkay asked. “We don’t, and I don’t know if we’re the minority or not. Voidborns can’t tell the difference between a Decay Lord or a Divine Guardian, and many cults assume we all just work for Life Goddesses.”
“Fair, I guess?” Litvir shrugged. “Still, perhaps turning into a Voidborn might work? You would have to leave the ship though and float over to them or something. So they can see you are a Voidborn.”
Arkay went back to frowning. “Well… it could work… but I have a problem. I… I don’t want to.”
“You are scared, Arkay?” Retvik asked. “Are you scared you will not be able to turn back into yourself or something?”
Arkay nodded. “Yeah, it’s exactly that. Becoming a Life Goddess is kinda easy, because, as much as I deny it, Kinisis did originally deify me and I am a bit Life Goddess-y. Everything else is straining on me.”
Litvir shrugged. “I suppose, also, you do not have a Voidborn persona like you do with Arki and Arkidetelos. Which makes things harder, but can be fixed by us making you one.”
“You… want to make me a Voidborn persona?”
“Yes. We need to make you convincing anyway. We can help you think up a name, perhaps suggest a complete look for you…” Litvir paused. “Or you could just make yourself look like and act like the old Void Lord Kenon…”
Arkay raised a finger, paused, then lowered it again. “You know what? I don’t want to be like my asshole second step-father-”
“Hang on, second?” Retvik interrupted.
“I, uh, considered old grumpy mortal-me Retvik to be my step-father. Doubly so because I don’t remember my real father and that’s probably for the best. I just know he buggered off to some weird pocket dimension.”
“Theoretically, could a pocket dimension survive the destruction of a universe?” Litvir also interrupted. “So, building on that theoretical notion, could your actual father be alive?”
Arkay turned to Litvir and stared at him angrily. “Alright, shut the fuck up.”
“But-”
“No. Shut up. Don’t want to think about it. I need to turn myself into a Voidborn anyway…” Arkay trailed off, then grabbed both Retvik’s and Litvir’s hands. He muttered to himself, sighed, then seemed to settle down. “Sorry. I wanted to… cement something in my mind. Make an anchor of some sort. Because you’re right, I need to make myself into someone those Voidborns can trust. Just need to…”
Again, Arkay trailed off, but this time, he let go of Retvik and Litvir, and stood up straight, running his hands across his head. As he did so, Arkay grew in size, until he was the same height Retvik was, and heavy metal plates grew across his body. Arkay’s feet turned into hooves and a pair of antlers grew from Arkay’s head. A metallic mask appeared across Arkay’s mouth, snout and part of his head plate but his eyes were still clearly visible, even if they were now much more white than gold. Most of Arkay’s plating changed colour too, either turning black or becoming a dull gold.
Once the transformation was complete, the Voidborn turned to Litvir and Retvik, looking a little dazed.
“Are you there, Arkay?” Litvir asked.
“I am not Arkay. I am Statarkon.” Statarkon glanced out of the window pane in front of it, then made a clicking sound. “I shall speak to them. But I allow you to listen in, Litvir.”
“Ah good!” Litvir smiled weakly. “You still remember my name.”
“Of course. But I will go now. Before they fire upon you again. They do not understand. I will try and explain things to them.”
With a final click, Statarkon phased through the window, then disappeared into the darkness.