The ship skidded to a halt on a rather flat, rocky outcrop, coming to a sudden halt. Its occupants didn’t have a chance to see whether the atmosphere outside was breathable or not as a large, sharp rock had stabbed straight through the hull of the ship. There was no way they could possibly get the ship running again.
As the group climbed out of the ship’s corpse, they tried to find a way to orientate themselves. The golden gates that had dragged them in were gone, buried in the darkness. Not a single star lit up the pitch black sky. Floating rubble moved continuously, drifting on gravitational winds. A dullness filled the air, dampening the sound of crashing debris, reducing them to dull thuds.
“What now?” Kohra asked as he helped Phovos pull useful scraps out of the remains of their ship. Some first aid kids, fabric to keep themselves warm and a handful of weapons – three blades, a gun-staff and some other bits and pieces. Kayen had occupied himself by building a makeshift flamethrower, for some reason.
Timik took a deep breath, then sniffed the air. He paused, sniffed the air again, then took ten steps forward, again sniffing the air. The Temthan then repeated the process for a third time, after taking ten more steps.
“Do you smell that, Phovos?”
“Smell what…” Phovos sniffed too. “Huh. Smells… rotten.”
“Eggy…”
“Like sulphur…” Phovos turned back to Kayen. “Hold off on that flamethrower you’re making…”
Kayen rolled his eyes, then started bagging up what he had built so far using some plastic sheets from the remains of the ship’s sleeping area.
“It’s stronger that way!” Timik pointed off into the darkness. “We should go that way!”
The Temthan charged off. Phovos chased after him, leaving Kohra and Kayen behind.
“Why are you building a flamethrower anyway?” Kohra asked as he stretched, then started to shapeshift into his larger, Rethan-like form.
“Old hobby of mine, back when I was in higher education…” Kayen smiled. Once he was done with the flamethrower, he started putting all the things they’d salvaged from the ship into a second bag, then lifted them both up telekinetically. “We should probably follow them.”
After a good few hundred meters of running, Timik slowed down, allowing Phovos to catch up. The stench was unbearable as small puffs of sulphuric smoke drifted from a hole in the ground. The hole had been recently dug, as loose earth surrounded its edges.
“Looks like a freshly dug grave.”
“That’s because it is.” Phovos covered her mouth and nostrils. “There’s someone inside it.”
“Someone who’s not quite dead yet…” Kayen and Kohra appeared, dropping their sacks of salvage. “I can hear his thoughts. Never realised the Thantophor’s brain structure was so similar to that of normal Skyavok…”
Kohra stared at Kayen. “You’re saying the Thantophor is…” The Kronospast paused, watching as Timik pulled the body out of the grave. He decided not to continue his trail of thought, especially as he now needed to concentrate on not throwing up.
The corpse was black and disfigured and somewhat formless. A silver sword was embedded in the chest area. Its limbs flopped about aimlessly, as if it had no bones or skeletal matter. The smell of sulphur was now almost unbearable, but it lessened as they pulled the body away from the grave and onto flat ground.
“Doesn’t look alive to me!” Timik tutted, wiping his hands on his loincloth. “Looks very much on the dea-AAAAHH!”
One of the body’s charred hands started twitching, before turning into violent shaking. The shaking though swiftly stopped and the body sat upright, clawing black goo and ash off its skin, revealing a more normal-looking form underneath. The silver sword though remained where it was, lodged in its chest.
“Sorry…” Arkadin muttered as he cleaned himself up. “Thanks for pulling me out of that mess.”
“Did someone try to kill you?” Kayen asked. “Are you alright?”
“Not really, no.”
The Thantophor straightened himself out. He was about the same height as Phovos. Bits of black goo still stuck to his armour and dripped from the wound in his chest.
“We’re here to help you, Thantophor!” Timik stood proud and strong. “Anything you need-”
“I need you all to go.” Arkadin was blunt. “Get away from this place. Before she figures out that you’re here.”
“Our ship was destroyed though!” Phovos tried her best to explain. “A bunch of Banikans sent us here to help you and make sure you are protected, but we were dragged through the gate and our ship crashed and we don’t really have a way back!”
“Who is she anyway?” Kayen asked.
Kayen’s question was immediately answered by the appearance of a beautiful, slender, naked being who looked a lot like Phovos, apart from the glowing gloves and flaming hair made out of stars. She snapped her fingers, summoning four cages that instantly trapped the mere mortals.
“I couldn’t have planned that better if I’d tried!” Kinisis beamed. “Oh wait, maybe I did? Who knows?”
“You should know…” The Thantophor sighed. “You’ve broken my heart once, are you really going to break my heart again by making them suffer as I did?”
“Yep!” Kinisis created wheels on the cages. The cages began to become sealed boxes, silencing the prisoners inside them. Kinisis continued to smile. “If you could just get back in that grave and die, that would be splendid.”
“Is this it then?”
“Yep. Don’t know why you’re complaining, kid. It’s not like you wanted to be a death god anyway. You’ve had suicidal tendencies for millennia, really I’m just doing you a favour.”
Arkadin watched as Kinisis faded away, taking his friends with her. What light Kinisis had created quickly disappeared, leaving Arkadin cold and alone. The black gunk weeping from the wound in the Thantophor’s chest began to expand once more, slowly covering his body with the vile liquid.
“I kinda just wanted to be loved, but I guess that’s simply too hard to understand…” Arkadin sighed as he laid back down in his grave. “I suppose, at least this is somewhat painless now…”