Krohniak needed to be careful. He was currently enjoying himself. Joining in on watching this large Decay Lord sect bend to his will and attack a smaller Decay Lord sect Krohniak didn’t even know about. When news slowly began to spread about his father Ahkron’s death, no one was really sure who did it, but everyone assumed it was one of the Voidborn-murdering Decay Lord sects, since all they did was wage war against Krohniak’s kin. Well, his dumber kin. The Children of the Collector’s Grasp knew better to toy around with stupid but powerful armies of former deities. The Phantai were the closest sect to where Ahkron had apparently perished, that was where Ahkron’s last traces of manipulation were felt, so that was where Krohniak had went. All he needed to do was hijack the last person that his father had stabbed and left an imprint in, and that was it, free, easy, painful carnage at Krohniak’s fingertips.
Still, Krohniak could see the allure. He intentionally wasn’t really killing anyone yet, because he loved the carnage, but also he did somewhat want to keep these Decay Lords alive. They were fine creatures, battle-born brutes, perfect for a temporary army to throw at someone else as a vague distraction. However not everyone here was under Krohniak’s control, and most of those not under his influence didn’t appear to be Phantai. From what Krohniak had worked out, the majority of the Decay Lords around here were from one race, the Beh’evok, and they had a low-level telepathic network that Krohniak had taken over in order to enslave them. The non-Phantai were of different races, and thus harder to control. The little robots were mostly just annoying, but with a flick of his wrist, Krohniak just sent all four of them flying and magnetized them to a wall using one of their own powers.
Really, there weren’t that many of them left. At least, not in immediate reach and not currently in some sort of special coma. These Decay Lords weren’t the brightest, but they did have the smarts to put all their telepaths into some sort of cryosleep so that Krohniak couldn’t just steal their powers and permanently enslave everyone.
Krohniak’s trail of thought was interrupted by a torrent of both fire and ice. This wasn’t exactly damaging in any way, although some of Krohniak’s shoulder plating did seem melt every so slightly, but the presence of the two beings creating the fire and ice… they annoyed Krohniak somewhat. Not because of their attacks, no, not at all. Since when did these Phantai hire children to to fight for them? And where did they find a youngling Voidborn?
“Why are you fighting me, child?” Krohniak asked the white-plated Voidborn-like being as he grabbed them around the neck, borrowing their ice powers to flash-freeze the blood of the clearly adolescent Beh’evok.
“Uh, because you’re clearly trying to kill us? You even stated as such!”
“The others, yes, but you’re a Voidborn…” Krohniak put a hand to the being’s head. “Hm. No. You just look like one. I suppose I should have guessed, you are too organic, but if you want, once I’m done here, I could make you into a Voidborn.”
“No thank you, I’m quite happy being a Lanex.”
“Suit yourself.”
Krohniak did somewhat admire the creature’s response and, instead of killing the creature, he just knocked them out, filled their head with nightmares then magnetized them to the wall alongside the little robots he had dealt with earlier.
There only seemed to be a handful of beings left. Krohniak decided to let his new mind-controlled army deal with the rest of them while he turned his attention to the Beh’evok child. They’d managed to unfreeze themselves and were about to try and fight back, but Krohniak wasn’t going to allow that. He altered the telepathic network the Phantai were using and extended it to affect children as well.
As a blast of fire rippled up Krohniak’s chest, he realized that maybe he was wrong again. This being wasn’t a child Beh’vok. It was an adult of a similar species. Just like he had with the not-Voidborn, Krohniak grabbed this creature by the throat and inspected its mind. Curiously, it had been mind-controlled in the past and had built up a handful of resistances. However, it showed traces of a telepathic network similar to that of the Phantai, one Krohniak could abuse.
“Little Retvik, would you like to serve me?”
“Not really, no…”
Retvik tried to break free, but Krohniak just turned off his flames. Krohniak noticed that this one was a particularly fine specimen, but, despite his young age, he was battered and broken. A child, in terms of the age of deities. A quick glance into Retvik’s memories showed that he had already watched a society be taken over by a Voidborn.
“I’ll make you kill your friends later…” Krohniak sighed as he pressed his hand against Retvik’s face. “For now, enjoy a quick nap.”
The Void Lord dropped Retvik to the ground and turned his attention to the two final anomalies in the room. Before he could react though, he felt an odd, electric tingle in the air. Krohniak struggled to keep his balance as something heavy and metallic slammed across his face.
“In hindsight, that was probably a bad idea…”
The being that just spoke appeared to be Voidblade, the leader of the Phantai, and the vessel Krohniak had used to enter this ship and take over everyone’s minds. However, weirdly, Krohniak’s control was being overwritten by a much stranger form of telepathy, an almost parasitic link. And Voidblade’s words were laced with a strange, mechanical undertone.
Voidblade gently put down whatever he had just used to attack Krohniak, then turned to face the Void Lord, summoning a long, black sword which sparkled with electricity. His weapon sliced through the air, teleported through the blade Krohniak summoned to protect himself and lopped off a piece of Krohniak’s shoulder armour. Before Krohniak could retaliate further, he found Voidblade’s sword embedded in his stomach, having been teleported out of the Decay Lord’s hands.
“You think that will stop me?”
“Uh, we were hoping that tactic would slow you down, at least a little.”
Voidblade summoned a new weapon, as well as a handful of dark, floating daggers, all of which trickled with electricity. From what Krohniak had seen of the Phantai, this was a pretty common ability. An ability that Krohniak simply copied.
In the shower of daggers though, Krohniak noticed something. Voidblade was a large, heavy creature, but he was moving slower than normal, using some sort of lightning-based energy to teleport short distances to hide his slowness. He also didn’t seem to be responding to pain at all, even as Krohniak leaped forward and broke his arm. There was also something on Voidblade’s face. As soon as Krohniak ripped off the weird, rubbery, mask-like object, his control over Voidblade returned.
“Telin, my servant, do me a favour and kill that weird fire deity over there, alright? The larger one that isn’t a Phantai.”
Voidblade stood still for a moment, then lumbered off. To Krohniak’s surprise, a green, leafy Beh’evok had leaped to protect the fiery being, but the two together were still struggling to hold Voidblade back.
No longer caring about the Phantai leader, Krohniak dropped the squidgy mask thing on the floor and finally turned his attention to the two beings here that were not Decay Lords. They were hiding inside what was essentially an igloo, arguing with each other.
“I can’t change any more strings! There’s no more future scenarios! You have to do SOMETHING!”
“I know, I know, I’m trying! None of this… it doesn’t make sense!”
“He’s gonna kill all of us! He’s gonna-”
Krohniak smashed the igloo to bits, forcing both of the creatures to scream. Time briefly slowed down, but with a hiss, Krohniak sped up his molecular structure, breaking through the weirdly female Time Drake’s chrono-cloud. Rather amusingly, the Time Drake attempted a physical attack, but it passed harmlessly through him, and the Time Drake fell to the ground behind the Void Lord.
“What is a pretty little squishy thing like you doing here?” Krohniak couldn’t help but ask.
“I’m not squishy!”
“That is clearly a lie, and you didn’t answer my question.”
The small, green creature, with both fur and scales, straightened herself out, then pointed a finger at Krohniak. She was clearly panicking and terrified, but was doing her best to remain strong.
“I’m trying to learn how to use my stupid powers without the taint of stupid Life Goddess bitches, and assholes like you! I wish you were gone! Go away! Go somewhere where you can fucking die!”
Krohniak laughed. Loudly and mockingly.
The creature didn’t like that. She snapped her fingers, then immediately fell backwards as sparkles exploded from her fingertips. Krohniak had disappeared, vanished in a puff of smoke.
“Uh, Phovos, what the fuck did you just do?” Elksia asked as she picked herself up and made her way over to where Phovos was sitting.
“I, uh… don’t know…”
…
Krohniak blinked as he tried to reorientate himself. Everything felt wrong. Heavy. Twisted. There was a loud pounding noise, coming from somewhere on Krohniak’s person. Taking an overly needed breath, Krohniak inspected his surroundings.
“Hi? Can I help you?”
There was a sofa in front of Krohniak. Sitting on it were two armoured beings that looked somewhat similar to the beings Krohniak had just been controlling. However everything else just seemed… like a standard living room.
“Who are you and where am I?”
“Who are you?” one of the beings asked. “We’re just trying to watch a movie here. You’re kinda interrupting.”
Krohniak stamped his feet in anger. “I am Krohniak, First Son of Ahkron, Child of the Collector’s Grasp! I demand that you-” The Voidborn suddenly felt uneasy. He wasn’t breathing. He needed to breathe for some reason. “As I was saying, I am trying to avenge my father’s death, and I will happily kill both of you for standing in my way!”
The two creatures glanced at each other. One of them looked utterly bewildered, the other just seemed vaguely annoyed.
“You should leave this universe. You’ve broken the No Voidborns rule. Failure to leave will result in punishments.”
“I care not for your stupid rules! I am a Void Lord, I do as I please!” Krohniak summoned a golden axe. “And I will start by killing yo-”
In less than a second, Krohniak ceased to exist. All that was left of him was a small, platinum marble, which the smaller of the two beings picked up.
“Does that happen often?” Kuta asked as Arkay sat back down on the sofa and resumed the movie they were watching.
“Occasionally. Normally they go straight for my siblings though…” Arkay tutted. However, he smiled as he put an arm around Kuta. “I’ll ask the others in the morning. Let’s just sit here and enjoy our time together…”