Open Chest Surgery

The screams echoed through the whole ship. All of them coming from one sealed off room. After about five minutes of continued screaming, the pained cries simmered out, only to be replaced with more shouting.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?” Arkay panicked as the automated medical bots attempted to close the still open wound in Arkay’s chest. “WHAT THE FUCK IS IT?”

Mechanical arms reached up to try and pull Arkay back onto the table, but the Decayling destroyed them with ease, not even realising what he had done.

“WHAT IS GOING ON?”

Arkay made his way over to the massive, meter-thick glass wall, where the large, death-like being stood. As he did so, Arkay began to make sense of his surroundings. The medical bots were trying to repair the hole in his chest, and he was basically swimming in some kind of healing fluid. He didn’t want to look at the horrible white and gold… thing that had just been ripped from his chest cavity.

The creature behind the glass grunted.

“Are you done destroying medical equipment?”

Arkay frowned. “Sorry about that, but you could have provided me with some anaesthetic!”

“There was no time. You had a Kenic Spore embedded inside your body that was due to explode at any moment.”

Something popped behind Arkay. He spun round to see a medical robot holding a glass canister. Inside it, the horrible white and gold monster that that been inside Arkay’s chest was suddenly beginning to grow very quickly. The medical robot responded by pressing a button on the top of the canister, causing the nasty creature to be vaporized. Arkay turned back to the creature behind the glass, who seemed very worried.

“Well, little one, you have no idea how close you came to becoming a breeding facility for Voidborns, as well as killing everyone on this ship. You need to answer my questions right now. Starting with telling us if there are any more fragments of the Thantophoric Decayling Deity Arkidetelos.”

Arkay immediately shook his head. “No. Arkadin is dead. I’m all that’s left.”

“Why did you come here to this ship?”

“Who are-”

“Answer the question.”

Arkay sighed. “I… I don’t know. The voices were telling me to go to someone called Kinisis but I knew the voices wanted me to hurt her. I’ve just been trying to stay away from her and this seemed like the best way to do that.”

“How did you get infected by the Kenic Spore?”

“The Kenic Spore is that… thing which was inside me…”

“Yes. That.”

Arkay threw his hands into the air in frustration, pausing only to realise just how weird it was to be breathing and moving in a viscous liquid. “I don’t know! All I know is that this Kinisis being blew up Arkadin to kill an army of Void Lord things and shattered him and I’m all that’s left!”

The creature summoned some sort of tablet and wrote something down.

“You have considerable memory loss and dangerously high potential Fthoric levels. Your power levels are high enough to breach anti-teleportation shields and evade standard Decayling capture, yet lack the mental stamina to be able to control said power. You may not be viable.”

“What… does that mean?” Arkay stuttered.

The creature grunted. As it did so, another being, nearly as large as the first, in gold, red and green armour and lots of horns, appeared. This one seemed slightly more familiar to Arkay, but it was still a strange, shadowy, godly being. Knowing that these were both powerful beings, Arkay backed down, realising he should probably shut up and listen.

“What is it, Vikalos?”

“Is everything secure, Itaviir?”

“It is. Situation is contained. Subject is non-viable. The Life Goddesses will not be pleased, but this one cannot be saved.”

“I thought this one was scheduled to become a Decayling?”

“No. There was a change in plan and a very high demand for this particular specimen. But its levels are all over the place, making it dangerous. Its viability is simply too low.”

“Can we not-”

Itaviir raised its shadowy hand, silencing Vikalos.

“Let me just put it to sleep, and we can talk in private.”

Itaviir turned to Arkay, tutting loudly. With a snap of its fingers, the liquid Arkay was floating in became more dense, making it hard to move. At the same time, Arkay’s eyes became really heavy. He was getting insanely tired, almost as if he had no energy what so ever.

“Poor thing…” Arkay heard Itaviir mutter, the two beings watching and waiting for Arkay to fall asleep. “Came all this way for nothing…”

“Unfortunately…” Vikalos sighed, as consciousness left Arkay’s body. “Sleep well, little one.”