Elkay had no idea what to expect as he and Arkay landed on the shores of Kinigi. Part of Elkay’s mind expected there to be fire and brimstone and suffering and things like that. Or maybe an endless black pit of nothingness. Or maybe lots of clouds and little winged beings with harps. The last thing that Elkay expected to see was a rather nice beach with purple waters and pink sands.
Really, if it wasn’t for the giant, rampaging monster, being tackled and dragged down by smaller, different rampaging monsters, Kinigi would have been a great place for an exotic holiday.
“Come on.”
Arkay tugged at Elkay’s arm. Worryingly, they were heading towards the big, antlered monster.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Elkay worried. As they walked, he could feel there was something off. Like something tugging at the back of his mind. A voice whispering to Elkay, begging him to step into the pale, glistening waters.
“Yes. And ignore the voices.”
The Veth Prime led the way. He darted through the tall, silvery reeds, almost dragging Elkay behind him.
“Why are they whispering?”
“You’re alive. Only the dead are supposed to be here. The voices are telling you to die.”
“Huh…”
As they got closer, Elkay started to work out what was going on. The smaller monsters were all Veth like Arkay, but their arms were almost like rubber, expanding and stretching out, their arms wrapped around the monstrous limbs of the larger monster. Somehow, these little beings were winning.
Arkay stopped suddenly, nearly causing Elkay to walk into him.
The sky above the huge monster opened up, crackles of lightning ripping through the air. A massive dragon appeared, roaring and breathing what looked like ice. Whatever its icy breath touched swiftly froze, although no ice seemed to form on the victims’ bodies. The antlered being took a few more attempts to properly freeze.
Once the monster was stationary, Arkay once again pulled Elkay towards the battle. This time though, he had pulled out a rather strange-looking curved blade.
The other Veth all seemed a tad angry. They weren’t happy that they too had been frozen by the dragon. But as they saw Arkay approach, they appeared to lighten up. The strange whispers Elkay could hear faded away as well. Were the Veth telling him to die?
“Stay here.”
Elkay did as he was told. He watched as Arkay strode towards the massive being and sprouted a pair of huge, black, inky wings. He flew around the monster and quickly and eerily calmly stabbed it in the arm, where various bits of purple and green stuff seemed to be growing. Immediately, the horrible nasty stuff started shrinking. The monster, weirdly, didn’t scream.
“Wait, is that Stasis?” Elkay whispered to himself.
“Yes,” one of the voices whispered. “He is corrupted.”
Elkay blinked, just as Arkay returned. He picked Elkay up and carried him over to the now subdued beast.
“Run your hands across the nasty-looking bits.”
Arkay’s words were blunt. Elkay did as he was told. As he ran his hands up and down Stasis’s body, nasty goo dribbled out of his skin and started to burn away. Before long, almost all the corrupted matter was gone. The colour in Stasis’s eyes changed from green to a pale, icy blue.
“T-thank you…” Stasis shuddered. The Veth around him began to ease up, as Stasis returned to a form that everyone was much more familiar with. “I apologise for my… moments of weakness…”
Elkay watched as everything seemed to return to normal. The Veth released Stasis and began to wander off, the dragon landed on the ground and shook itself off and a strange, Thanatian-like being appeared out of nowhere to see if Stasis was alright.
“Did I… did I do good, Arkay?” Elkay couldn’t help but ask as his brother approached.
“You did great!” Arkay smiled. “Unfortunately…” Arkay glanced over at the weird Thanatian creature. She, it was obviously a she with those breasts, simply sighed at him. “Unfortunately, Kinisis says I have to wipe your memory.”
“WHAT?” Elkay shouted, much louder and squeakier than he intended. He’d accidentally used his real voice. “You show me this place, you open my eyes to the universe beyond death, and you…” Elkay paused. “Actually, now you have mentioned it, I can see why you need to erase my memories.”
“I’m sorry…” Arkay sighed as he led Elkay away. “But on the plus side, no one will notice you were even gone. You can carry on your long life as normal.”
Elkay sighed. The world around them melted away, and before he knew it, they were back in Elkay’s office. And before he could say anything else, Elkay’s mind went completely blank.
“Thank you, brother…” Arkay smiled.
“Thank you for what?”
“Oh, nothing…” Arkay sighed as he faded away.