Arkadin scrambled to his feet as rubble and shards of metal collapsed around him. The explosion that had just torn through the hull of this small ship was meant to kill him, but Arkadin was determined to keep himself alive. His bigger worry however was that the Life Goddess trying to murder him was also likely to try and murder his friends.
“GET BACK HERE!”
“No!”
Really, Arkadin had no idea why this Life Goddess wanted him dead. When he’d discovered her, she was trying to break into a vault to kill another Life Goddess, but as soon as she’d sensed him, she immediately attacked. Arkadin had managed to sneak around the lower areas of the ship at first, up until the Life Goddess got bored and decided to take a more explosive approach. That involved blowing up parts of the ship.
“WHY WON’T YOU DIE?”
“Because I don’t want to!”
The panic was beginning to build in Arkadin’s mind. He had been running for about an hour now. The problem wasn’t that he couldn’t fight back. He was more concerned about getting everyone else killed in the process. All his lesser attacks had bounced harmlessly off the Life Goddess, but Arkadin knew that if he tapped into his death powers, he could easily murder everyone on board in the process.
As Arkadin dived under what might have been a table or something, he flicked his wrist, leaving a trail of shadowy caltrops in his wake. The Life Goddess clearly didn’t see them and hissed as the spikes scraped across her body, but it didn’t slow her down at all.
“YOU BASTARD! DIE ALREADY, SO I CAN KILL THAT OTHER LIFE GODDESS AND MOVE ON WITH MY NEW SLAVES!”
The realization hit Arkadin harder than the tentacle that just clawed down Arkadin’s back. This Life Goddess wanted to kill him because she thought he was a Life Goddess. As he rolled across some sort of computer console, feeling a tendril snake around his leg, Arkadin couldn’t help but wonder why this kept on happening. He didn’t ask to be slightly Life Goddess-y. He was just… he was just Arkadin.
“DIE DIE DIE!”
With a sigh, Arkadin concentrated his decay powers downwards, rusting through the metal and heading back to the lower level. He didn’t want or need to be up on this upper deck where everyone else was. The idea was to head back down to where that vault was, so Arkadin could properly unleash his powers. Especially since he was certain that his companions had both been knocked out by the prior explosion.
Unfortunately, the Life Goddess was gaining on him. All it took was one single slip, and that was it. As Arkadin jumped over a pile of rubble, something snagged against Arkadin’s shin armour. The loss of momentum slowed down Arkadin enough for the Life Goddess to get a good grip on him.
Snarling, the Life Goddess’s tendrils wrapped around Arkadin’s arms and legs, turning him over and holding him in place.
“I WILL WATCH THE STARS FADE FROM YOUR-”
Luminescent blood scattered across Arkadin’s face. But not his blood. The Life Goddess’s head was no longer attached to her body and was resting to his side. Not wanting to waste this chance, Arkadin wriggled his hands free then shoved them down the gaping neck wound in front of them. With a low growl, he let out a blinding blast of deadly energy, causing the Life Goddess’s body to instantly decay into bones and dust.
Once Arkadin was sure the Life Goddess was definitely, one hundred percent dead, he picked himself up and glanced at who his saviour was.
“Thank you, son…” Kinisis frowned, handing a large axe back to the Guardian standing by her side.
“Why are you thanking me?” Arkadin asked. “You saved my life.”
“You could have not come here at all and left my Guardians to Viia’s will”.
Arkadin shrugged, then glanced at the bones of what had once been a feral Life Goddess. “Didn’t think you’d just kill her.”
“I needed a distraction. I wasn’t going to face her head on. Especially when she had enslaved my poor Guardians…”
Kinisis paused. Above, they could both hear commotion. Other beings were recovering from the explosion.
“You didn’t have to come.”
“I didn’t really have much choice…” Arkadin shrugged, dusting himself down. “But do you really think I’d intentionally let you get hurt? I’m not a monster, no matter what… other Life Goddesses say…”
“You never were a monster…” Kinisis sighed, again glancing upwards. “Guess I have a lot of work to do, fixing this place up…”
“Do you want some help?” Arkadin asked.
“Nah,” Kinisis smiled just a little, patting her Guardian on the shoulder. “I got this…”