“That was… weirdly easy…”
Tenuk didn’t answer. He was busy concentrating. He’d somehow managed to get the Thantir One out of the main hangar and off into the darkness, but he didn’t know what to do next. And it turned out, Nyssi, Retvik and Kayel had no idea either. To make matters worse, the ship they had liberated, the Thantir One, was pretty damn big. Sure, it seemed like most of the ship had been stripped, with the majority of the ship ripped out, but it was still designed for beings that were four or five meters tall. Currently, the tallest person present was Retvik, and he was perfectly 2.5m tall.
“So, uh, what now?” Kayel asked. “Where even are we?”
“Maybe we should just… go in a straight line?” Nyssi suggested. “Or maybe find another Deathven sector thingy to go to?”
Tenuk frowned. “We don’t know where we are and we don’t know which direction to go in. And the Space Between Universes is fucking huge.”
“I mean, obviously, but these ships still travel through it!” Nyssi exclaimed. “Surely they have like a fast travel thing or something?”
“She’s got a point…” Kayel hesitantly replied. “Old Retvik and Itaviir managed to get here to save Phovos, and potentially try and save us as well, they must have had something to get here so quickly.”
Tenuk calmed himself down, then sighed as he let the ship drift downwards, somewhat out of view, so they weren’t blocking the main traffic coming out of the colossal base behind them. “They had teleporter pods, I think. But maybe those Pentathax guys have a teleporter? They probably do, they’re, like, a mobile army or something.”
“Can’t we just, I don’t know, use this ship’s auto-pilot to send us back home?” Kayel asked. “Like, I’m certain this thing has an auto-pilot. Sitting your ass down for days on end doesn’t seem right.”
“Is this the auto-pilot?” Retvik also asked, pointing at a medium sized screen. “It says “initiate autopilot” on it.”
Tenuk blinked, feeling rather stupid. “I mean… yeah, looks like it. But I… I have a small problem.”
“What?”
“I… I can’t remember where we live.”
Kayel, Nyssi and Retvik all fell silent.
“Fuck, that’s a good point… I don’t think any of us know…”
“Care to guess?” Kayel nodded towards Nyssi. “You’re the smart one.”
“The only name I’m aware of is the “Athata Rift”, which scaly Life goddess Phovos mentioned.”
Tenuk entered “Athata Rift” into the search box. To his dismay though, six different Athata Rifts popped up as results, and one of them didn’t have any extra information.
“So… which one of these sounds correct? Bastarian Ocean, Felana Loch, Panata Wilderness, Lynnian Abyss or Ventra Expanse?”
Everyone’s faces went blank. None of them knew.
“What if we picked one at random?” Kayel suggested.
“We could end up in completely the wrong direction, even further away from home!” Nyssi hissed, not liking that idea at all.
“We have to do something though!”
Tenuk’s exclamation was suddenly made even more urgent as he noticed that there were other ships getting a little too close. Clearly, Deathven proper had realized that the four of them had stolen a ship and tried to escape. Having no idea what to do, Tenuk hit the last option on the auto-pilot, pressed an “accept” button and started up the long-distance engines.
“Please don’t shoot at us! Please don’t shoot at us!” Nyssi panicked as the other ships, all in red and blue, chased after them. “Retty, can you, like, do something?”
“You want me to put a gravitational shield around the whole ship?” Retvik growled. “I do not know if I can do that!”
Little clinging sounds echoed from further down the Thantir One. They were definitely firing at the ship, but they didn’t seem to be firing bullets.
“Well, now is a good time to try!” Tenuk shouted back. “I think they’re trying to slow us down!”
“Oh, totally!” Nyssi added. “I think they’re firing magnets at us!”
Retvik hesitated, then decided to do his best. Placing his hands against the front window, Retvik tried to concentrate on the little balls, however, he quickly realized that electromagnetism was a tad tougher than gravity. Instead, Retvik tried to make the entire ship lighter. And, at first, that seemed to work. Before long, the Thantir One was travelling stupidly fast, and most of the ships had backed off.
Something beeped. Tenuk wasn’t sure what it was at first, but as he glanced at one console, he noticed a small message, saying “Thank you for visiting Deathven Sector Alpha, come again soon!” It was followed by a second message, stating that the ship was now in “Clear Voidspace”.
However, there was still one ship chasing after them, and there wasn’t much anyone could do, because Kayel and Nyssi couldn’t find any guns or anything on the ship to fight back.
Suddenly, something was fired at the ship. Some sort of harpoon, which pierced the ship’s rear. It didn’t seem to hit an engine or a wing or anything.
“Kayel!” Nyssi ordered. “Melt the rope on the harpoon thingy or something!”
Kayel leaped from his seat and raced down the main hallway. He didn’t get very far though. Something colossal and terrifying teleported in front of Kayel. Kayel skidded to a halt, then turned tail and scarpered back the way he came, leaving the floor behind him covered in ice. The black, shadowy intruder though was completely unaffected.
“Stop running, little ones! I demand you to stop!”
Kayel ignored the monster. It looked like a smaller version of the Overlord guy who had judged them and called them Decay Lords before throwing them all into glass cells. Maybe it WAS Overlord. Kayel didn’t know.
“No fucking way! You’ll just fucking imprison us again!”
“You SHOULD be imprisoned, you damned Mimics! Now give up quietly, lest I choose to deal with you in a more permanent manner!”
Nyssi grabbed Kayel by the arm and tried to pull him back into the cockpit. The monster reached forward, grabbing Kayel’s tail and squeezing quite hard. But he suddenly backed off as the hallway dimmed slightly, and something flashed in front of him, separating the monster from the younglings with a very long gun-staff, surrounded by flickers of dark energy.
“If you dare harm them, I will harm you. I will make you an offer though. Go back to your throne, relinquish your hatred and leave us alone. Follow my guidance, Deathven, and no one has to ever know.”
Deathven eyed the small, armoured being standing before him.
“You do realize, Deathbringer, you are a catastrophe waiting to happen, yes?”
“My catastrophe already happened. I have repented for my sins. I also have a true duty now, I am the Guardian of the Thantir. Leave now, leave us alone, and this incident will be nothing more than a blip in time, slipping by unnoticed.”
“And why do you expect me to just leave?”
“My offer, my promise, is simple. Leave us alone, and we will leave you alone. Harm us, and we harm you in return. Otherwise, we remain both separate and at peace.”
“Very well.”
The Overlord closed his eyes, sighed, then disappeared in a vast cloud of smoke. The small, magnetic bullets and the harpoon at the back of the Thantir One also disappeared, and the ship that had been chasing them stopped following and turned away.
“Holy fuck you fucking saved us!” Nyssi stuttered. “How the fuck did you get here?”
Arkay shrugged, then leaned against the wall, utterly exhausted. “Same promise I made to Retvik and Litvir, I made a similar promise to the Thantir overall. You four were in danger, I came here to help…”
After a quick yawn, Arkay picked himself up and headed into the cockpit. He immediately inspected the autopilot, then tweaked the course, pointing the ship not towards the Athata Rift, but to the nearest teleportation hub, which would transfer them to another teleportation hub in the Justarian Circle. He then pulled out his communicator and made a quick call.
“Hey, babe.”
“You got them?” a familiar gruff voice asked from the other end.
“Yeah, I got them. We’re in a ship heading back to Savepoint now. Kinda taking the long route, but we shouldn’t be too long.”
“No worries, dear. Itaviir, Pentaflame and I have Phovoula with us and properly secured. We will see you shortly back at Savepoint.”
“Yep. See you soon!”
Arkay smiled as he put his communicator away. Tenuk, Retvik, Nyssi and Kayel were all in awe. But they were also very tired.
“You all alright?” Arkay asked.
“Not really.”
“Well, there’s two observatories on this ship, and not much else left. Let me take over flying, so you can chill out a bit.”
Kayel smiled. “Thanks, Arkay. You’re the best.”
“I’m just doing my job as the Guardian of the Thantir. Go on, relax for a bit. You deserve it.”