Retvik grunted as he woke up from his nap. He’d just finished a rather long shift doing guard duty for Kinisis’s Life Oasis and had hoped to take a small break before starting on his next job. However, even from his tiny little hotel room, he could hear confused voices all arguing with each other.
Feeling slightly annoyed from being woken up, Retvik climbed out of his bed, threw on the first stomach wrap and sash he could find, then headed outside to investigate. On his way, he bumped into Litvir, who had been interrupted by the same commotion.
As the two young Decay Lords approached the entrance of Kinisis’s Life Oasis, they both swiftly realized what was causing all this trouble. Standing in the middle of the entrance was a being Retvik and Litvir thought they’d never see again, arguing with Galyn and Kuta.
“I am perfectly alive and well and you think I am some sort of threat or clone, dear?”
“But I saw you…”
“Yes, you saw that, but I did not die.”
Kuta seemed to be very flustered, but exclaimed loudly at the sight of Litvir and Retvik.
“Hey! You two were there with me! Tell them what happened! She should be dead!”
Both Decay Lords hesitated, not too sure what to say. Kuta was completely right, the entity in front of them… well, the memory of what had happened was rather disturbing.
“Athanatea?” Retvik blinked, not really believing what he was seeing. “Arkay killed you. We all saw it. He tore you apart.”
The white and pink celestial being shrugged. “It’s pretty hard to kill a Life Goddess. It was all part of my Xanagenysis anyway.”
“But-” Retvik stuttered, then turned to Litvir. “That IS her, is it not? This is not some sort of mental mind trick?”
Litvir tutted. “No, she is definitely standing in front of us. Despite the fact that Arkay tore her into pieces. Mine and Kuta’s quick mental scans… kinda prove it… That actually is Athanatea. But Arkay killed her because she wanted to use him for a new universe or something.”
The Life Goddess beamed, feeling quite happy. She looked identical to how she’d appeared moments before being gutted, but she’d gained a small amount of yellow armour plating on her arms. Athanatea was finally beginning to realize that she had some explaining to do, so she twirled around and started speaking.
“I think you have all gotten confused. What happened to me was part of my Xanagenysis, a procedure in which I refresh my form and re-birth myself. Perhaps the little one got that confused with Epanagenysis, which is the creation of a whole new universe.”
“Wait!” Kuta suddenly shouted. “You WANTED Arkay to kill you?”
Athanatea nodded. “I was hoping he would do it the way I wanted him to, but I suppose that angry side of him took over. The reason I’m here is because I wanted to pay you lot for your work, and thank little Arkay for helping me out.”
Litvir and Retvik glanced awkwardly at each other, then turned to Galyn. “We… sent Arkay… away…”
“Oh, why?” Athanatea chirped. “Did you really think he killed me?”
Retvik nodded. “Uh, yes, that is what we… thought happened. After he sliced you up, we all had to contain Arkay because he… got very… murderous.”
“And where is he now?”
“In a… section of Deathven, getting treatment for his mental health issues.”
Athanatea paused briefly, then cheered up again. “Oh that’s not too bad! Hopefully one day he’ll be better and I can thank him in person….”
Suddenly, Athanatea’s attention drifted behind the Decay Lords. Having also heard the commotion, Kinsis had left her luxury apartment to see what was going on.
“Athanatea!”
“Kinisis!”
The two Life Goddesses giggled as they rushed to hug each other.
“How you doing?”
“No, how are YOU doing!”
“You look lovely!”
“So do you!”
Galyn grunted as he interrupted this sudden reunion. “Kinsis, do you know this individual?”
“Of course!” Kinisis beamed. “We are cousins!”
“Because we were under-”
“She just did her Xanagenysis, we’re all good!” Kinisis interrupted back. “You guys carry on with your jobs, I’m taking Athanatea to the buffet area right now!”
The Decay Lords all fell silent as Kinsis and Athanatea wandered off, still giggling. Eventually, one of them said something.
“I feel somewhat bad for sending Arkay away now…” Retvik stuttered.
“It was probably for the best…” Galyn grunted. “He needed help, regardless of the Life Goddesses.”
“I hope he’s okay…” Kuta whispered.
“I am sure he is,” Galyn grunted some more, heading back to where his office was. “Anyway, I need to get back to work. Feel free to take some time for yourselves. This has been a… tiresome conversation…”