“You two have some explaining to do.”
Retvik took a long, deep breath and sighed. The Thantir had been with the Phantai for about two weeks now, and their leader, Voidblade, had constantly been questioning both Retvik and Litvir about pretty much everything. While, somewhat thankfully, Voidblade had not been questioning their Decaylings, they had taken Galyn aside a few times to talk to him in private, and, being a former Phantai himself, he had quickly buckled to Voidblade’s pressure. But it turned out, Galyn was just as clueless as the Three Great Blades were, which was why, yet again, the Phantai Trio had dragged Retvik and Litvir into their large, ornate, golden office to ask yet more of them.
“Is this because Psehon lost his duel against me?” Litvir asked, feeling somewhat guilty. “Because I do apologise for that. I probably should not have embarrassed you, Psehon, but you DID challenge me and I could not help but defend my honour. Although there is no shame in preferring to be the receiver in a sexual relationship.”
Soulblade grunted, only partially accepting Litvir’s words. “You put me in my place, as I deserved. But the whole reason Voidblade has brought you both back here is simple. How in the name of the Holy Mothers are you two so powerful? How are your Decaylings so powerful too?”
Voidblade nodded, continuing Soulblade’s trail of thought. “The Tattered Navigators are a pretty basic Trio, and both Leafblade and Shatterblade, while, good soldiers that they were, they are only somewhat above average for the Phantai. We do not really know much about Firestorm, but we assume his strength levels are similar. At the same time, ALL your Decaylings, even the tiniest of you, you all vastly out-power most low rank Phantai AND you are all more powerful than Kal, a team that, while being small and puny, do have a potent range of abilities. Apparently they only survived Ahkron’s attack because your… Voidborn-looking friend intervened.”
“Well, also, there IS the tried and true trick of teleporting your enemy into a nearby star…” Retvik tutted. “Tah did that. Everyone seems to forget that bit.”
“Something Arkay did somewhat pioneer…” Litvir added.
“Which brings me back to my original conundrum!” Voidblade didn’t mean to snap, but he very much disliked how these two Decay Lords spoke. “You are different. We cannot understand why. You need to tell us why you are different.”
Retvik sighed again. “We have told you repeatedly, we do not know.”
“You were deified by the Final Mother though?” Lightblade asked. “Deities made by Life Goddesses, especially the particularly holy and powerful ones from our sector, are always just as powerful. The Final Mother produced some fine specimens, most notably our own Loopblades.”
Retvik hesitated for a moment. “Well… actually, that is not entirely true. As far as I am aware, Litvir, Eksi, Elksia and myself were all deified temporarily by Kairos, the Whenvern, the Time Drake within our universe, and he also turned Elksia into a Time Drake. The former Divine Guardians were deified by Kinisis, but we were not. Yet we are all equally powerful, if unrefined.”
“Although Kinisis DID pick the best of each species to be her personal body guards…” Litvir tutted. “I do find it odd how she picked Elkay over you and Rethais, considering how you two are pure Rethianos blood.”
“Who is Rethais?” Lightblade queried.
“My older brother, sadly no longer with us… Like… the rest of our universe…” Retvik closed his eyes. The other Decay Lords all noticed how Retvik’s shoulders had dropped, and he had lost his normally rather confident stance.
Litvir tutted. He put his hand on Retvik’s shoulder. “Retvik, dear, both Galyn and I have talked over this with you. You are not to blame for what happened. The Golden Protector Voidborns would have attacked our universe whether or not Arkay saved you from the Void Lord, and the Panelix would have eventually gone ahead with her plans to kill Kinisis anyway.”
“You do not know-”
“No, you are right, I do not know for certain. But what I do know for certain is that Kinisis was a monster who needed someone to torture, and with Arkay out of reach, Kenon dead and Kairos becoming too disconnected, Kinisis would have turned to hurting Epani eventually, and, what with Epani being a Life Goddess herself, she would have fought back.”
“So, uh…” Lightblade hesitated. “Your universe died twice.”
“It was heavily damaged by the Golden Protectors, which Arkay unwittingly destroyed. But in the process, Arkay was cast out of his own universe, and the remaining deities kicked Kinisis out as well, because they believed Kinisis had deceived them!” Litvir did his best to explain. “Retvik and I were accidentally cut out and we became Decaylings. However, as far as I am aware, Kinisis tried to threaten Epani and reclaim her universe, and Epani tricked Arkay into killing Kinisis, before trapping him inside her new universe. The universe we came from, as far as we understand, no longer exists, replaced by something different but similar.”
“Hm…” Voidblade thought to himself. “Perhaps your Lost Third’s destruction, combined with the way you were deified so suddenly, on top of the fact that any deified spawn of the Final Mother is always oddly strong, that may all culminate in your over-the-top power levels. Which brings me to another question: why IS your Lost Third so unbelievably powerful? The Final Mother made them into a deity too, yes?”
“Arkay never told us specifically how he became a deity, outside of saying that he was once mortal and had mortal parents. But he is also not a standard Decay Lord, nor is he a Life Goddess.”
“What is he then?”
“Um…” Litvir thought back. “A mimic hybrid, I believe?”
Voidblade grunted. Soulblade fell backwards slightly. Lightblade blinked in confusion.
“That makes a lot of sense.”
“How comes, Voidblade?”
“A… a mimic hybrid is what attacked Deathven Sector Alpha two Yearstrings ago…” Soulblade stuttered. “They never caught the culprit, nearly killed the Overlord himself. Mimic hybrids are terrifying creatures, they can mimic any type of periuniversal void entity, from Life Goddesses to Decayons to Voidborns to Corruption, they can literally bend reality, both inside and outside universes, the same way Life Goddesses and Voidborns can. They are also incredibly violent beings, rare and rarely studied, because they kill and then are killed themselves.”
Voidblade grunted again and turned back to Litvir and Retvik. “And you both befriended one?”
“To be fair, Retvik was friends with Arkay back when we were mortal…” Litvir shrugged. “But yes, the three of us were thrust into a very strange environment and Arkay bound himself to us in a bid to feel some sort of normality.”
“But we somewhat just assumed Arkay was just troubled, understandably, not that he was some sort of super rare entity… Well, until everyone decided they wanted to kill him…” Retvik frowned. “You seem to be far, far too interested in him. More so than you are in us. I take it, now you know what Arkay is, you want to kill him too.”
Soulblade shook his head. “Not at all. The fact that a mimic hybrid not only disguised itself as a Life Goddess/Decayon hybrid, but managed to remain stable enough to not only form friendships, but keep its form tight enough for it to survive both Level Laws AND complete a Decay Lord trial, and on top of that, how it effortlessly kills the very things we swore to destroy, you two do realize your Lost Third is a unicorn, right?”
Retvik and Litvir glanced at each other, not quite understanding Soulblade’s words.
“A unicorn is a Ksithan word for a horned allagon, right?” Litvir muttered to Retvik. “We used to breed and eat them, is Soulblade implying they are special or something?”
“Your kind ATE unicorns?” Soulblade exclaimed.
Retvik nodded. “Yes. But I assume you meant that Arkay is very rare or something, yes?”
“Exceptionally rare…” Voidblade almost snarled. “Pretty much a miracle. One that could have murdered you both at any moment. Something that, according to Leafblade, nearly happened. Although I do not think Leafblade was aware that you three were designated as a Named Trio or as Higher Decay Lords when you were split up…”
Lightblade clicked his fingers, interrupting Voidblade. “Before my dear friend makes this all too sterile and scientific, I ought to point out that it is not just our curiosity and desire to end the Phantai’s Voidborn Problem once and for all that is pushing us to help you. As a fellow Named Trio, the Three Great Blades are almost… contractually obliged to assist other Named Trios in reuniting with each other. Which is partially why we have allowed the Tattered Navigators to wander as they please, and is also why we are attempting to help you two. After all, you can both feel it, yes, that bottomless hole in your hearts that you cannot fill alone?”
“You seem to be speaking from experience, Lightblade…” Retvik muttered.
“I am. The Elder Voidlord that nearly ripped you apart, well, they nearly ripped us apart too. Voidblade… Telin was nearly killed, and we very nearly lost him twice, since we also lost a majority of our local Purifiers, the remains of whom nearly failed to remove a Kenic Spore from Telin’s body. While Telin was in a coma, recovering from his injuries, Psehon and I were inconsolable, to the point that we temporary passed leadership down to Telin’s underlings. If anything you two are coping incredibly well, all things considered.”
“We are not, but thank you, I guess.”
“Still…” Litvir tutted. “There is little we can do about Arkay. He is trapped inside a universe, after all.”
Voidblade smiled as he leaned forward, towards Litvir. “That has not been a problem for us in the past.”
“You… have a way of… getting Arkay out?”
“We have ideas. We just need more information first…”
Retvik and Litvir both sighed and took a deep breath. Neither of them liked how the Great Blades were acting, but just the thought of being reunited with Arkay was almost too much to ignore.
“Fine. Tell us your ideas, then we shall tell you whatever it is you need to know…”