“They want to kill you. Have fun killing them.”
The telepathic command had been simple enough, and Elksia was definitely making the most of things. She was currently in the middle of doing two things at once: stabbing a bunch of invading Voidborns and stopping said invading Voidborns from stabbing her friends. A lot of this involved time-manipulating shenanigans, with Elksia subtly altering existence around her to make sure that the Voidborns always missed their shots.
To Elksia’s side was a fellow Decayling, the Voidborn-looking Akah. Although, to be fair to Akah, he was only Voidborn-like because he wore a mask and lacked a tail. He didn’t have antlers but, at the same time, Akah also didn’t have massive claws like the Voidborns had, and he was content to use his ice powers to freeze Voidborns solid, then shatter them with his scythe, while blocking stray bullets with his shield.
“You having fun, Akah?” Elksia beamed as she bounced by, cutting a Voidborn in half.
Akah grunted, before straightening himself out. “Compared to that Akhron bastard I fought, who nearly tore me in half? This feels weird more than fun.”
“Why?”
“It’s just… too easy, I guess…” Akah sighed, watching as Elksia impaled another Voidborn and dropped the corpse on the floor.
The conversation was interrupted by the appearance of a very big, very golden Voidborn with antlers made out of crystals. However, it only seemed to exist for several seconds before a shimmering blade pierced its chest and the creature collapsed on the ground. Standing before the two Decaylings was Moonblade, the Phantai Decay Lord who had been helping them with their training as of late.
“Hello, kids, you both alright?”
Elksia grinned. “Of course I am! I’m murdering things! Stupid golden enemies! Except this time I have actual control over my godly powers and can properly fight back!”
“This is a slaughter…” Akah didn’t seem to agree. “Almost feels wrong.”
Moonblade though just laughed. “My little Melek-Glatoras friend, these are mindless shells we are tearing through. The majority of the Crystal Doom are like this, they just create new bodies for themselves. But the more shells we destroy, the more work they need to properly reform. And, after all, they DID attack us. Happens once every four or so evs, but they deserve what they get!”
“I’m a Lanex…” Akah couldn’t help but complain. “Literally no one seems to be able to get my species right. I bet Elkay must have gotten this all the time…”
“Hmph!” Moonblade grunted, holstering his blade. “Speaking of Unender, I did somewhat lose track of the poor thing. Pretty sure he killed twenty Voidborn on his own.”
“Poor thing?” Elksia looked confused.
“Yeah, poor thing. Cute youngling Beh’evok with too many godly powers and his poor arm blades have grown out all wrong. Something is definitely wrong with Unender and Measureblade and I haven’t worked out what yet.”
Akah raised his finger for a moment. “Uh, Moonblade, Elkay is an adult Rethavok. I believe he is in his 80s or something. He is the same species as Retvik and Litvir…” Akah paused. “You don’t have this problem with Elksia, and she has arm blades the same way you all do.”
Moonblade glanced at both Akah and Elksia.
“Threadwarper here clearly isn’t a Beh’evok though. She’s female but she has blades and feathers and is nearly as tall as Unender. Female Beh’evok are skinny, small, blade-less creatures, similar to our Loopblades and your Soulsoother and Shocktrooper.”
A crashing sound echoed down the hallway, one that got louder and louder. The corpse of a Voidborn flew by, narrowly missing Moonblade, and was followed by angry shouting. The Voidborn’s head rolled by Moonblade’s feet and was accompanied by a second headless, armoured husk.
“I AM NOT A BEH’EVOK, I AM NOT A VOIDBORN, I AM NOT ANY OF THESE STUPID THINGS! I AM ELKAY THEANON, THE FORMER HIGH GENERAL OF THE RETHAVOK, I AM SICK OF ALL OF YOU!”
A third Voidborn collapsed in a heap, which Elkay proceeded to stamp on, utterly crushing what was left of the beast’s armour. Elkay was utterly covered in golden blood and Voidborn entrails, and had clearly done a lot of murdering.
“Um, Unender, are you well?” Moonblade’s amusement had faded.
“NO! ONE OF THEM CALLED ME A VOIDBORN! I AM NOT ONE OF THESE MONSTERS!” Elkay continued stomping on the corpse.
“I get them calling me a Voidborn, but why would they call you a Voidborn?” Akah asked. “Also, do you need some help? You, uh, look like you need help. And maybe a hug. And a towel. Definitely a towel.”
After some more stomping, Elkay seemed to calm down, just enough for him to acknowledge his fellow Decaylings. “Oh. Sorry.”
“Why are you apologising, kid?” Moonblade went back to smiling as they put their hand on Elkay’s shoulder. “You should be proud of yourself. The high-tier Voidborns like to try and mess with the heads of anyone who can hear their demonic utterings, and you are clearly fighting back, despite not having been given Soulblade’s mental protections yet. Although that does concern me somewhat because that does mean there is a high-tier Voidborn around here somewhere.”
Elkay hesitated for a moment, then wiped some of the golden blood off his face. As he did so though, he felt something weird on his skull, just under his headplate. Several small, jutting spikes, the beginning of a crown of horns, similar to what most Beh’evok had. Snarling, Elkay tugged at the largest one and ripped it from his head, and proceeded to do the same with the other spikes. He then ripped out one of the blades that had grown from his arm, before trying to do the same with the other. At least he tried to, until Moonblade grabbed him, stopping him from finishing the job.
“Unender, Elkay, little one, you are hurting yourself.”
Again, Elkay hesitated, holding the blade he had just ripped out from his arm. After pausing for breath, he dropped the bloodied spike on the ground. “I have to hurt myself. I am not a Beh’evok. I am a Rethan. I need to keep on reminding myself that, otherwise I lose who I am. And I have always struggled with my identity…” Elkay trailed off and looked up, past Moonblade.
Elksia quickly worked out what Elkay was looking at and glanced forward, peering at the time threads around both herself and her allies. She checked through five different potential outcomes, then decided to go with the least harmful one where she pushed everyone out of the way apart from Elkay. As far as Elksia could tell, Elkay could look after himself, and he seemed to do exactly that as he perfectly dodged a laser beam that exploded through the wall and summoned a torrent of small, golden daggers, which tore the intruding Voidborn to shreds.
“Are you borrowing MY powers now?” Elksia gasped.
“Uh… do you always… see things like that?” Elkay rubbed his eyes, no longer capable of focusing on the world around him. “That… how… I… That is so disorientating… I need to get out of here…”
Before Moonblade or the Decaylings could stop him, Elkay darted off down the hallway, dipping and dodging through a new battlefield that had cropped up, as Voidborn reinforcements had arrived. Thankfully, they were swiftly being taken out by the Phantai, but as Elkay moved, he could hear the Voidborn soldiers whispering. Whispering, muttering, demanding that Elkay join them or die. They could sense Elkay’s presence, and the more he ran, the more the Voidborns started to target him.
Didn’t matter. The Phantai were tearing through the Voidborn ranks, and Elkay had bigger concerns. He needed to find someone more familiar, more similar, closer to himself. Before Elkay lost track of who he was. The Voidborn elites calling to Elkay were one thing, him borrowing Elksia’s Time Drake powers on top of that were driving Elkay insane. To the point that the Voidborn’s offers to join them almost sounded tempting.
Disappearing around a corner, Elkay took a moment to catch his breath. Running was doing nothing. Elkay had telepathy and he wasn’t using it. A quick scan of his surroundings pointed him in the right direction, and just in time too, as a much, much larger Voidborn, this one with glistening, crystalline armour, punched through the wall.
“Are you specifically targetting me now?” Elkay hissed, somewhat wishing he hadn’t ripped out his arm blade. Thankfully, Elkay still had the strength to summon some floating daggers, which he immediately threw at the Voidborn, aiming for its eyes.
“Yes, monster. We target you. Hybrid.” The Voidborn staggered briefly, but was unaffected by the sudden blindness.
Thankfully, help was on the way. A swirl of purple energy and a heavy gold and purple blade sliced the Voidborn in half. While it seemed that Soulblade and Souldrainer had made amends, with Litvir covering Psehon’s back as they tore through the oncoming soldiers, they were struggling somewhat, as the stream of Voidborn soldiers wasn’t coming to an end. No, they were increasing in number and now focusing on the Psions’ position. No, not their position. They were focusing on Elkay.
A new wave of Voidborn soldiers had managed to push through, led by another crystalline behemoth. They were screaming in Elkay’s head now, telling him to die, and that they would kill everyone on the Shimmering Blade in order to make Elkay’s death a reality. Worse, Litvir and Soulblade both seemed unaware of the danger they were in. The crystalline Voidborn was blocking their telepathic links, it was about to tear them apart.
All of a sudden, time froze. No. It wasn’t frozen. Everything was still moving, but incredibly slowly. Elkay could see those strings again. The time threads. Laid out before Elkay’s eyes were a multitude of futures, and too many of them involved too many people getting badly hurt or even killed. Apart from one. And it seemed the crystalline Voidborn, the potential leader around here, was aware of what was going on too.
“You will fall, mimic.”
“We both will.”
“So be it.”
Moving as swiftly as he could, Elkay took Soulblade’s sword and swung it awkwardly, somehow taking the leader Voidborn’s head off. But he wasn’t quite fast enough. As time seemed to return to a normal speed all around him, Elkay felt the Voidborn’s own golden, serrated spear pierce his stomach, cutting through both his armour and his organic plating.
With a sigh, Elkay did what any good, strong Rethan would normally do, and did his best to ignore the burning pain as he removed the Voidborn’s blade from his body. The remaining Voidborn soldiers began to retreat, only to be cut down by both Phantai and Thantir weapons.
As Elkay collapsed in a bloody heap, he wondered if he’d get back up again. He would, surely? Wasn’t that why everyone called him Unender? Either way, consciousness quickly left Elkay’s mind, and, for the first time in a while, Elkay felt certain about who he was. He was a hero.