“I’m getting worried…” Phovos muttered as the three beings hid inside an air duct.
“Worried about what?” Kayen whispered. His eyes were closed, they had been for a while. Between the lack of food, the running around in the dark and the things that seemed to be following them, Kayen was exhausted and quickly reaching breaking point. “How are you only now getting worried?”
“Because we haven’t found Kohra yet…” Timik interrupted, answering for the Raptor. “We’ve been all over this damn place, and I haven’t seen a single trace of that poor bastard.”
Phovos sighed. “I was going to say that we haven’t found an exit yet. Not a single window or door that leads to an outside area. But not finding Kohra is worrying as well… Any idea where those beasts are?”
The Raptor swiftly changed the subject. The reason they were hiding in this air duct in particular was because they had been running from a horrific slime monster that seemed to suck in all living things around it, pumping its victims full of sedatives then taking them goodness knows where. At least, that was what happened to those poor Temthans they’d tried to save.
“I think…” Kayen concentrated. “I think they’ve moved on. I sensed another breakout elsewhere and I think they’re going to deal with that.”
“This probably happens a lot…” Timik grunted. “The Allbirther clearly has plans for everything…”
Phovos rolled her eyes. Timik rolled his eyes back at her. They had both been acting oddly ever since they’d rescued Timik. As Timik adjusted his position though and leaned back against the wall of the air duct, Kayen distracted them both by cursing loudly.
“Fuck!”
“What?”
Timik leaned forward to see if Kayen was alright. Once he’d determined the little Skyavok was fine, he leaned back against the wall again, which for some reason caused Kayen to shout again.
“What the…”
“You’re…” Kayen rubbed his head. “You’re leaning on Kohra. Fucking screeched that into my head.”
Timik and Phovos both shuffled around. On the wall was what looked like a piece of stretched out rubber tubing that happened to match Kohra’s pale skin tones. There were a couple of other tubes that looked similar but were in different colours.
“We couldn’t find Kohra because he’s…” Phovos hesitated. “He’s been stretched across this entire facility?”
Kayen squeezed between the two of them and delicately placed his hand on the bit of stretched out Kronospast. He could pick up Kohra’s thoughts.
“Follow my arm. Left, not right. Please hurry.”
“The monsters…”
“I’ll try and redirect them…” Kohra’s thoughts were strained. “You’re close. Really close. Just come. Now.”
The three beings did as they were told. Phovos climbed out of the air duct first, then helped Timik and Kayen get down. They looked up at the wall, where the thin strip of Kohra was. It was heading up north, so that was where they went.
The three of them followed the thin Kronospat tubing around several corners, up a set of stairs made out of bone and sinew, then turned a corner, only to be met with a door made out of small skulls.
The door shuddered, then creaked open.
“See, told you I had friends…”
Inside the room were six Kronospasts, their limbs twisted and contorted across the room then looped up and fed into a single machine at the room’s centre. From there, their limbs were dragged upwards and stretched across the rest of the facility.
“What the fuck… Kohra, are you alright?” Phovos gasped as she rushed over, dragging Timik and Kayen with her. “What has she done to you?”
“She uses us as a security and monitoring system across the Zoovranian Lab Site…” one of the other Kronospasts gurgled. He had clearly been there for a long time, as his voice was harsh and dry, while deep stretch marks covered his body. “Our subconscious thoughts run through the Sleeping One to keep the facility stable.”
“We have to save you all!” Phovos exclaimed. “Tell us what to do and we’ll get you out of here!”
The Kronospast nodded towards a control panel attached to the only unconscious Kronospast’s stomach. Kayen headed over to it and stared at it, awaiting further instructions.
“They can’t save us…” an elderly female Kronospast wheezed. “The Prince, yes. He has only been here for a week. But we are too tied up into the system to be saved.”
“Indeed.” The first Kronospast sighed. “That console depowers our constraints. While you cannot save us… you may bless us with death and you can at least save the Prince from this fate.”
“And destroy this hell!” a third Kronospast shouted. “Burn it all down! Help us burn this place into nothing!”
The shouty Kronospast looked by far the worst out of the six of them. His skin had turned translucent, his bones had broken and turned brittle from possibly centuries of being extended.
“Press the button marked with the number six. That will free the Prince…” the first Kronospast grumbled.
Kayen did as he was told. After a long, awkward groan, Kohra’s restraints opened up. Timik caught Kohra as he fell to the ground and slowly began to pull himself back together.
“We could try and save you…” Kohra tried to argue. Clearly they had been discussing this for a while. “We can…”
“We are too broken, Son of Avra. We are not royalty either, we lack your strength. And we would be honoured to be ended by royal blood, rather than dying to the Harlot Goddess.”
“I’m not strong. Just lucky…” Kohra sighed. “But who am I to deny you your dying wishes?”
“What about everyone else in this facility though?” Phovos asked. “We can’t just…”
“They will die alongside us!” the angry Kronospast roared. “This horrible place and everything inside it is corrupted by the Whore’s vile touch!”
“I was trying to direct escapees to the teleporters up top…” Kohra winced in pain. He had nearly managed to pull himself back together, but his arms and legs were still floppy. Timik scooped him up in his arms and carried him over to the control panel where Kayen was standing. “But…”
“Those who can escape, have escaped…” the first Kronospast sighed. “Anything else is too brain dead to care. On the control panel, press the large, yellow button and that will initiate self-destruction. You’ll have ten minutes to get out of here.”
Kayen glanced at the Kronospasts. “Why is there a self-destruction button anyway?”
“Not a button of destruction! A button of summoning!” the angry Kronospast was almost laughing with glee. “The Doombringer will cleanse us all!”
Kohra sighed as he reached forward and pressed the button. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. There’s nothing more we can do…”