“What the fuck, Arkay?”
Epani stood up from her red and gold throne as Arkay teleported into the main hall at the castle at the centre of the universe and sat down on his own throne, a massive black bean bag.
“What?”
“You… You…” Epani grunted, then turned to Sini. “Can I swear at him, properly?”
“You already swore at him, Epani…” Sini tutted. “Arkay, Epani is concerned that you gathered every single Skyavok capable of shadowjumping, and taught them how to do shadowjumps across planets, rather than the standard 100km range.”
Arkay shrugged. “Yeah I know. But I’m making preparations, the same way you all are.”
Epani’s eyes widened. “Preparing… for what?”
It was Arkay’s turn to look at Sini. “You said you both told her!”
“Oh… Oops…” Sini’s reply was nonchalant at best, awkward and concerned at worst. “Sorry, I’ve been busy making sure Epani doesn’t start using you as a punching bag again.”
Yet again, Epani turned to Sini. “What the fuck have you been hiding from me? I thought we were supposed to stop keeping secrets from each other!”
“It’s not a secret. I just neglected to tell you…” Sini frowned. “Can I tell her, Arkay? Or should we wait for Kairos?”
“Tell Epani now, before she freaks out.”
“Tell me WHAT?” Epani hissed. “I am DEFINITELY freaking out now! Is something bad going to happen? What is going on?”
Sini took a deep breath, then instructed Epani to do the same. “Alright, calm down. We are just making preparations. Kairos spotted something unusual and unknown in our vague vicinity, he is anxious about it and making me and Arkay anxious about it, so we’re just setting up extra defences in case the strange, unknown thing comes our way.”
“Oh..” Epani did actually calm down. “What does that have to do with Arkay expanding the abilities of one of his chosen races?”
“You say “chosen” as if I actually had a choice…” Arkay muttered. “To put it simply, when it comes to evacuations and moving the population, the universe is a bit lop-sided. We have the Lanex up north west and the Spasts south west with their super fast ships, but very little on the east. So I set up the Skyans to be able to assist in the moving of the masses as well.”
“What about Sini’s races?” Epani asked.
“There’s enough of them that they can move themselves no problem!” Sini smiled a little. “The larger populations mean they just flat out have more ships available.”
“Is there… an actual problem though?” Epani’s calmness was fluctuating. Arkay and Sini understood why. They hadn’t intended to make her upset, and she was clearly concerned that something bad was on the horizon.
“Not… yet…” Arkay hesitantly replied. “It’s more just us picking up on Kairos, who thinks there is a potential problem.”
“Thing is, sister…” Sini explained a bit better as she put an arm around Epani. “We’ve had bad shit happen before. I was going to say that we keep on getting caught with our pants down, but none of us wear pants, so, uh… we keep on getting caught with a dildo up our pussies. Things keep on catching us completely off guard, so Arkay and I, we’re taking precautions to make sure that… doesn’t happen. Mostly based on Kairos’s predictions.”
“But what has Kairos predicted?”
Arkay sighed. “Either something to do with Voidborns or something to do with Corruption. We’ve had a lot more break-ins lately. More than normal. Even for our 2.5k fluctuations. According to Kairos’s observations, my recent work and some data I’ve picked up from my Decay Lord friends…”
“I thought we told you-”
Sini immediately interrupted Epani. “Shut it. Arkay’s Decay Lords buddies have helped us on numerous occasions. They’re a resource that’s available to us, so we should use them. And at the same time, they are far away enough that they themselves can’t actually threaten us.”
“Not that they would…” Arkay added. “Anyway, from what we’ve worked out, there’s some sort of massive conflict between some Voidborns and a specific strain of Corruption in the next pentacluster over. This other pentacluster is HUGE and it runs alongside the Kentarasa, Vionic and Patagenic pentaclusters, it’s basically a horrible hellhole filled with Corruption and Voidborns, and, annoyingly, that mess is somewhat spilling over here. And, like, everywhere else too.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Arkay hesitated. “Well… I’ve been talking to Litvir again. And he’s been making allies in other sectors. They’ve all been saying what we’ve been seeing. A particular strain of Corruption pushing its way in, and Voidborns pushing their way out. It’s a massive mess. To the point that an external Decay Lord sect, the Pentathax, have arrived in the Kentarasa Pentacluster to try and calm things down.”
Epani went back to frowning and being nervous. Sini noticed this and pulled Epani close.
“Sister, we’re good. We’re just taking extra precautions. Better safe than sorry, right?”
Arkay nodded. “Yeah, better safe than sorry. Plus, you’ve got me and Sini. We’ll do anything to protect this universe. We promised.”
“We did, yes!” Sini beamed.
Epani though still seemed uneasy.
“Do you not have faith in us, sister?”
“I have faith in you, Sini. And I know Arkay keeps his promises. You are both dedicated to your duties. I just… wish you could have told me…”
“You’re right, Epani, we should have told you. But Sini and I didn’t want to scare you. And Kairos is kinda being a little… scaremongering-y.”
“I understand…” Epani sighed. “I haven’t exactly been approachable or easy to deal with as of late… I am trying to be better though.”
“I know, I know!” Sini continued to smile. “But we got this. We always got this. No matter what, we’ll protect you and this universe.”
“I appreciate that. But I have a question.”
“What is it, dearest?”
Epani hesitated. “What… what can I do to help? How can I assist with preparations? I cannot look forward the way you three can. But I am a powerful Life Goddess…”
“Technically, you’re one of the most powerful Life Goddesses around…” Arkay muttered. “After all, you killed the previous most powerful Life Goddess… Sorry, continue.”
That statement did make Epani less nervous. “You are right, Arkay. And I want to put my power to good use. So what can I do? Both to protect myself and protect this universe?”
“Well…” Sini thought for a moment, then turned to Arkay. “Little brother, you got any suggestions?”
Arkay thought to himself as well, then shrugged. “I got a few. Firstly, would you be able to create some micro suns or other sources of high heat around the edges of the universe? Corruption hates fire, Voidborns hate light, both would be useful if something breaks in. Secondly, make sure your bunker is secure, and filled with backups of things. Just in case. Sini, you should make a bunker for yourself too.”
“Oh… good point… I don’t really have a bunker any more. Can I just use Epani’s one?”
“No. Make your own one. Again, just in case. The next thing, I recommend making sure you have your own personal high heat sources and weapons, like, a flamethrower or something. I guess I can also make you some anti-Corruption blades too. Sini already has a dagger, Epani, you should have one too.”
“Does Kairos have one?” Sini asked.
Arkay shrugged again. “Honestly? Don’t know. Last thing I was going to suggest was to keep yourself calm. Calm and well rested. Because if you are stressed and get infected or hurt or whatever, it’s way, way harder to treat and protect you than if you remain calm.”
Sini grunted. “You’re gonna have to remind Kairos of that too.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m going to check in on him after this meeting anyway. I actually thought he was coming to this meeting, but I guess not?”
“Ugh, yeah…” Sini tutted. “I think Kairos needs to take a break.”
“Well, I’ll make sure to tell him… But yeah, Epani, you do the stuff I suggested, and we should all be fine.”
This definitely seemed to make Epani feel better. “I can do all that. Thank you, Arkay, thank you, Sini. I shall head off now and get started.”
Arkay got up from his silly throne. “Yeah, I should head off too. I’m going to go check on Kairos. See you all later.”
The Thantophor waved, then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sini turned to Epani, then smiled properly.
“You’re doing better.”
“I am?”
“Yeah.”
“Huh.”
Sini patted Epani on the back. “Yeah. Keep it up, alright? Anyway, I have work, but are we still on for our meeting at the fortress later?”
Epani nodded. “Sure. See you then.”
“Have a good one, sis.”