“So, why are you all so obsessed with Life Goddesses?” Sini asked as she followed Soulblade and his two minions off the ship and into the depths of the Shimmering Blade. As they walked, patrolling Decay Lords would glance at Sini, lower their heads and utter various things, anything from curses about finding Sini beautiful to mentions that they were blessed to see a Life Goddess in person. The ship was mostly made up of corridors, and the central one they were going through passed through a canteen, several other areas and eventually lead to a large navigation room, with a separate chamber just past that, that was sealed off from everyone but the ship’s pilots.
“Not all Life Goddesses!” Soulblade explained. “We are indebted to the Holy Mothers. The Phantai were created to avenge the Mothers, the family of Life Goddesses that used to rule the Golden Paradise, after their first creations, the Voidborn cult known as the Golden Pure, went rogue and became the Golden Doom. The Golden Doom attacked and started destroying the works of the Holy Mothers, then split into three sub-cults, which we fought back against.”
“Was one of those sub-cults the Golden Protectors?” Sini frowned.
“Indeed. They were destroyed by the Final Mother. The other two sub-cults are both also now dead. The Golden Defenders disappeared not too long ago, and the head of the Crystal Doom was severed by the Thantir, and we finished up anyone else who was left. With the Golden Doom all dead, we are trying to tidy up and reclaim the area, to make it fit for life again…” Soulblade paused, realizing that Sini was pulling a face. “Uh… have I upset you?”
“A little, yeah. Kinisis didn’t destroy the Golden Protectors. She did fuck all but hide, while forcing me and her other underlings to do the actual work.”
Sini’s statement caught literally every Decay Lord in the room off guard.
“What?” Voidblade stuttered. “We… uh… um… Hello…”
Sini went back to smiling. “I assume you and mister glowyboi here are Soulblade’s partners? Nice to meet you both. I’m Sini… Hang on!” Sini suddenly span around and pointed at a team of five identical Decay Lords, all of whom were quite small. “How many damn proto-Skyavok called Teekay are there?”
“Seven, as far as we are aware…” the leader of the team sighed. “I, uh, take it that you… know the Thantir?”
“Yeah, yeah. My little sister Phovos is a member of them. I also delivered a bunch of Decaylings to the Thantir and helped my little guardian Arkay return to them.”
Sini turned her attention back to Soulblade’s two buddies, one of whom was raising their hand somewhat meekly.
“Are you… about to drop some sort of truth bomb or forbidden knowledge on us?” Lightblade asked.
“Oh, yes! You all seem to revere Kinisis, for some fucking reason. Well, she was a manipulative monster who enjoyed raping people, married a Stolen Prince and tortured him, enslaved a time drake and a very unlucky mortal kid, turned the kid into an unwilling death god and basically sat on her ass and made her slaves do all the worse!” There was definitely anger in Sini’s voice. “Do you all actually know what happened when the Golden Protectors (which is a fucking stupid name) attacked our universe?”
“Uh, no.”
“Well, the EASIEST thing to do would be to wake up her super powerful death god up from the bullshit coma Kinisis had put him in, then have Arkay, Kairos and Kenon tag team to fight off the monsters. Nope, Kinisis decided to turn my little brother into a nuke and kill 90% of the universe alongside those cunts! I used to wonder why Epani wanted to kill Kinisis, and I so quickly understood why just by looking into things just a tiny bit. Because Kinisis promised to let Epani and I look after the last 10% of the universe, and she tried to take that away from us. She went back on every single promise she ever made. And when we said no and Epani and Arkay tried to destroy her to stop her evilness? She refused to accept that and turned herself into a fucking corruption! One that went on and killed other universes, including one that contained another Holy Mother or whatever you call them!”
The room fell quiet. Most of the larger Decay Lords all remained quiet, but eventually Lightblade turned to his companions.
“So, uh… no more worshipping the Final Mother then?”
“Agreed.”
Lightblade sighed, clearly very upset to have all his beliefs shaken. “I am sorry, uh… sorry, you… didn’t tell us your name.”
“I didn’t?”
“No.”
Sini smiled. “My name is Sini, the Allbirther, daughter of Kinisis and former Goddess of Life and Love.”
“Wait, the Final Mother had DAUGHTERS?” Voidblade suddenly exclaimed.
“Mhm. Four, as far as I’m aware. One that Kinisis handed to an awful Corruption as a bribe to make it leave her universe, then Epani and I, then she had an accident and produced Phovos, who I think you all already met?”
Again, all the Decay Lords eyed each other awkwardly.
“Oh…” Voidblade stuttered. “Well… uh… Firstly, sorry for upsetting you by not knowing that the Final Mother turned out to be… rather evil. Secondly, how can we help you?”
“Help me?”
“Yes. The Phantai are duty-less now, ever since the Golden Doom alliance was destroyed. But we have wanted to restore the Goldtorn Remains back into the Golden Paradise, and we have a side duty of helping Life Goddesses however we can.”
“Also you have shaken my beliefs to my very core and I am very disturbed right now, so I think a lot of us feel awful and want to make up for worshipping a monster…” Lightblade admitted. “Or at least just… something to tell us that we can still worship some Life Goddesses. After all, we only exist because of the First Mother, and if she was… anything like the Final Mother…”
“To be fair!” one of the Teekays perked up. “How the fuck were you supposed to know? The last time the Cycle was within the Goldtorn Remains, she let her universe loop seven fucking times!”
“The Dragon God of Time made the universe loop…” One of the other Teekays argued. “Because the Cycle was trying to make our ex kill everyone.”
“Eh, still her damn fault. Because she was a cunt. I think miss Sini can agree, right?”
“Mhm!” Sini beamed. “But if you want someone to worship, I am totally cool with doing some minor miracles for you all and you all worshipping me. I kinda NEED someone to worship me, because my Dispa has been slowly simmering beneath the surface ever since I left Savepoint.”
“What is Dispa?” Soulblade asked. “That sounds like some sort of mental illness.”
“Oh, it totally is. Kinisis wanted to put roadblocks between me and my work, and that involved inflicting me with a disease that makes me lose my mind and slowly starve unless I routinely hold power over someone else. Worshipping me helps. So does me fucking people. And you larger folks are all pretty cute. Especially you.”
Lightblade’s eyes widened as Sini pointed at him.
“Uh… please let me think about it? Also… what miracles can you perform?”
“What miracles do you need?”
Voidblade thought for a moment. “It has been a long time since any of us have had fresh, uncloned and unprocessed food. You can create life, would you be able to create… something edible?”
Sini slithered over and patted Voidblade on the cheek. “D’aww, you Phantai are so cute! Of course! Tell me, what would you like to eat?”