“So, what now?”
Epani sighed as she watched two glows fade off into the distance. Sini, taking a form closer to a Time Drake than a Life Goddess, had set off directly south, not really knowing what to do with herself now that she was exiled from everything she cared about. The Corruption had headed south west, keeping its word and removing its presence from the universe. But the monster had taken Arkay with it, and now the universe was down two deities.
By Epani’s side was Kairos, who was still getting over the fact that he’d nearly been consumed by the Corruption. However, there was anger between them both. Epani was angry that Kairos’s plans had failed, costing the lives of many mortals, as well as, most likely Arkay’s life too. Kairos was confused and annoyed, not understanding why Epani wasn’t sharing her power. With both Arkay and Sini gone, Epani now controlled space, life and death. Kairos still only controlled time.
“Right now? I want to cry…” Epani grunted. “But I am putting that to one side. We need to mourn briefly, bury the dead, then start to rebuild. There’s a lot we need to do.”
“We need to take it slow.”
“We need to move fast. That Corruption left. It didn’t kill as many as I feared, but it killed enough. There will be some political instability among the mortal races, that we will need to step in and rectify. And we will need help.”
“Who is going to help us?” Kairos tutted. “I read through the notes Arkay left. None of it makes sense. None of it even applies to me, since you took three fundamentals! Why aren’t you letting me take a fundamental anyway?”
Epani sighed some more. She felt awful. Sini had been gone for no more than an hour, and already, Sini’s warmth and lust were fading away. While Epani hadn’t confronted the mortal races yet, to inform them of what happened and tell them that half the universe’s deities were gone forever, she felt like a lot of them already knew. What they didn’t know that Epani was holding in a lot of pain and anger, and she wanted to take it out on Kairos.
“I don’t trust you enough. You don’t have the experience to take on life, and you certainly don’t have the strength to take on decay. You can’t do it. You couldn’t do it back in the Before, when Arkay disappeared for a bit. You only did it briefly to deal with Ahkron, and when Ahkron came back, Arkay did the job for you and took it all on himself.”
“I have changed. I can do this. I can handle-”
“You can’t. And I don’t trust you to handle death well. Because you can’t handle death. You fear it. More than I do. I can’t in any way let you carry the burden of decay because you have none of the qualities required to do so. Sure, I lack a lot of them as well, but I have more sheer power than you do, and I… I have experienced loss on a far greater scale than you have.”
“I feel like there’s more to it than that.”
The Panelix sighed yet again. She wasn’t just the Panelix any more. She was Panelix, Allbirther, Thantophor. She was the Allmaker, truly and completely. Unwillingly too.
“You are right. I am angry at you, Kairos. You failed us.”
“We all lived. The universe is still here.”
“Your actions banished Sini, and cast Arkay towards a fate far worse than death. You made Sini and I break our promise to Arkay. And that is on top of the many mortals who died, or who have lost loved ones, as well as the few god-touched we had to exile as well. My helpful Guardians, the backup Time Drake, the Newling Voidborn and the Thantir Decayling were all quite helpful to me. They are gone too.”
“Wait…” Kairos blinked. “Phovoula is… gone?”
“Yes. She counted as a demi-deity. She had to go. And, since she was a Voidborn, she… basically had no chance of survival. We lost too much. Sure, we survived. But it was not in thanks to you.”
The Whenvern snarled. “What do you mean by that? I kept us afloat! I formed the plans! I-”
Epani wanted to snarl back, but lowered her tone. “You got corrupted. You fell almost instantly. This is the second time it’s happened this year alone. When Kinisis attacked, you crashed into a damn public arena, blinded by the corpse Kinisis was puppeteering, and Arkay had to waste precious time stopping you from being consumed, forcing Sini and to fight Kinisis ourselves.”
“That… that’s unfair. You… you held back as well. You got stabbed by Kinisis. You were out of it for a while, then believed you were Corrupted, and Sini had to fix you up too.”
“I did hold back. I was wrong as well. But when Sini got corrupted, she realized she was losing her mind and came to me to help her fix herself. When Arkay got infected, he fought it off and sought help from Sini, and when Kinisis tried to corrupt him, he cut off his own arm and continued fighting. And when Arkay and Sini told me that you believed there was something on the horizon, I heeded their advice and did what they suggested. You though, you expected us to all blindly follow your plans, and when you got corrupted this time, you barely fought back.”
“What could I have done?”
“Cut off your infected limb and fight on. That is what we were all told to do. That is what we have done in the past. That is what mortals did when they were infected. If Sini wasn’t part Time Drake, if Arkay wasn’t the amalgam he was, we would have lost right then, right there.”
Kairos frowned, but didn’t answer and instead gazed out into the darkness. The small trail of light Sini had left behind had faded completely now. It occurred to Kairos that he’d probably never see Sini ever again. Epani was right, about everything. Kairos didn’t want to admit that though.
Thankfully, Epani changed the subject.
“We need to get to work. But we can’t do this, just the two of us. Not efficiently.”
“This universe isn’t very big. Kinisis, Kenon and I handled a much bigger universe.”
“I’m not as powerful as Kinisis, she had an army of beings similar to Arkay at her disposal, and we don’t have a Voidborn here to dissuade other Voidborns.”
“True…” Kairos grunted. “So, you… you want to make… some deities? Can you even do that?”
“I can, yes. They won’t be as powerful as Sini or Arkay, probably not even an eighth of their strength. But they will assist us. And perhaps give us both better insight into mortals and companionship as well. We will need both.”
“Do you… have any suggestions?”
“I do. Sini left some notes. I have some choices of my own, based on the heroism I have seen across the universe. I want to have one deity from each race, so things are equal between us all.”
“Fair enough…” Kairos trailed off, thinking to himself. “Epani, may I make a request?”
“What is it?” Epani grunted.
“If it’s one of each race… I want to choose the Thraki deity. When I crashed on that planet, when I was infected… a Thraki flew over and tried to help me. They brought others to try and assist. And even when I started to turn, when I flailed and roared, while the others scarpered, that Thraki remained. I want that Thraki to be deified.”
Epani hesitated, then smiled. “They sound truly worthy. Find them, then take them to Lover’s Retreat, Sini’s old lab on the far west side of the universe. Alongside anyone else you think is worthy. I will see to them, rebuild them and deify them. But before I do that, I need to fix some things up, make sure every race still has a functional government and that the majority are safe.”
“Alright…” Kairos relaxed a little. “I’m going to do a quick check of the perimeter, and then I’ll give you a hand. We’ll survive.”
The Allmaker gazed off into the void. The last traces of the Corruption had disappeared, as had Sini’s light trails.
“We already have survived. Just need to make their sacrifices worth it.”