“I think time is broken.”
Arkay hadn’t spoken for a while. The words he muttered had been all he had said, as the four hybrid beings realised they were trapped in a small doctor’s office. Outside, there had been constant growling and groaning as the nearby mind-controlled monsters struggled with the door.
“How can time be broken?” Vetal sneered. “Time is time, it doesn’t break.”
“Time can be different depending on perspectives,” Arkay started to explain. “We’ve been stuck in here for a week but it feels like we’ve only been here hours. And the poor vok on the other side of the door are not, well, moving… Like they’ve suddenly been frozen.”
Unsatisfied with Arkay’s response, Vetal headed to the door, which was bolted shut. Through the small, vertical window, he quickly realised that Arkay was right. Ksatah and Kalis both also got up to have a look.
“Alright, what the fuck is going on?” Kalis exclaimed. “They were literally just growling at us! And now they’re not?”
“Maybe someone else is doing this?” Ksatah eyed the door carefully. “Maybe it’s some sort of rescue on its way? After all, we have been kinda stuck in here for a while, and our full powers are still missing.”
“There’s no way they’d send anyone to rescue us!” Vetal snapped. “If there was a plan, it’s long gone by now!”
“You say that,” Kalis countered. “This IS a Deathven base. No way they’d just let it fall into someone else’s hands.”
“Yeah! Maybe they’re trying to work out what’s going on!” Ksatah added. “After all, the Decay Lords are all still mind-controlled here. And with time broken as well, I don’t think anyone can get in OR out!”
Vetal grunted, throwing himself into one of the spare chairs. He was at least glad that this little medical room had space to sit down. “I don’t have much optimism about any of this. We don’t even know how long we’ve been in this damn room.”
“I wonder if that evil Life Goddess who started all of this mess even knows that we’re here…” Kalis whispered. “She made that big announcement then didn’t seem to do anything else.”
Arkay shrugged. “I don’t know what she’s planning either, but she’s probably dealing with the rest of Deathven or something, she has no time or patience for four weakly powered hybrids that locked themselves in a room. At best, we’re a low priority threat she’ll deal with later.”
Vetal tutted some more. “Maybe. Either way I am sick of all of this crap. I just want to get out of this mess and I’m getting pissed off because I don’t know how…”
The other hybrids all sighed, feeling similarly to how Vetal felt. However, the silence was rather brief. All of a sudden, a blue spiral of energy appeared in the middle of the room. It swirled upwards and downwards, before abruptly being replaced by a green flash of light. Out of this bright display, something appeared, and it wasn’t something that any of the hybrids recognized.
“Oh hey, I found you! Thought that mean old witch already had ya!”
A reptilian-like entity stepped forward, snapping her fingers. The light show where she had been standing instantly vanished.
“Hiya, little ones! My name is Antitheta, Theta for short. I’m a hybrid, just like you darlings. And you four are going to help me kill the old witch!”
“How the fuck are we going to do that?” Vetal asked, not particularly impressed. “Do you have a plan or something?”
Theta nodded, pulling a large roll of paper out of thin air. “I do have a plan, actually. And I’m going to need your help…”