“Um, Kairos, dear, you can stop that now.”
Kinisis watched as the Whenvern circled around Stasis, growling menacingly. He’d attacked Stasis after a disagreement on which of them loved Kinisis more, and the swiftness of his attack and a punch in the face knocking Stasis into the arena below was enough to nearly knock him out. But with the personification of nothingness unconscious, it seemed Kairos was unwilling to stop whatever it was he was doing.
“Kairos, I am TALKING to you!”
Kairos growled once more then landed on top of Stasis, pinning him down with his three-wingered talons. “You deserve better than the mediocrity that is Stasis, my dear.”
“That isn’t very nice, Kairos,” Kinisis rolled her eyes. “I’ve told you both, so many times. I love you both equally. You don’t need to attack Stasis to prove it. Now put him down and…”
Before Kinisis could finish her sentence, Kairos grabbed Stasis and took off, flying goodness knows where. In his place, he’d summoned his four Kronaron, who were all looking very angry, mind control-y and ready-to-attack-Kinisis-y. As with most things Kairos-related, they’d seemed to have spouted wings. The Banikan decided to start things off by throwing a fireball at Kinisis, which she simply ducked to avoid, before cloaking herself in her usual black fog and dropping down off the ledge she’d been standing on to meet them face to face.
“You know, kids, you don’t need to attack me.”
“We must, for the Whenvern!” the Kronaron replied in unison. But as the four of them raised their weapons, a bolt of lightning shot through the Kronaron, stunning them. They quickly shook off their shock, but rather than stick around, they too disappeared.
With the threat dealt with, Kinisis glanced to her right, where the lightning bolt had come from. Standing in the path into the arena were three beings that didn’t look like Veth.
“Where is Iatre?” Kinisis tutted.
“I told him to go home, my Lady,” Arkay explained. He was no longer a Veth but the being he was when he’d died – a yellow-armoured Threan-type Rethavok. Hidden under a hastily made bandage was what looked like a stab wound. To his side were Vel, who had turned back into his grotesque, Panvok-like form, with tentacles coming off his back and missing an arm; and whatever the hell Ignis was, some sort of weird, biomechanical ninja thing with pointy knees and an overly large codpiece.
It took a moment to realise what was going on. “Did one of them stab you?” Kinisis finally asked.
Arkay glanced down at his wound. “Oh, no. That was there when I died.”
“Oh. I see that Vel lost an arm when he died… but what’s wrong with Ignis?” Kinisis asked, still confused.
“Um, actually, my name is Volt,” the being formerly known as Ignis explained. Its voice was quiet and shy, almost like a young child. “I froze to death, in the depths of space when my ship finally broke down beyond repair.”
Kinisis blinked. “Why did we call you Ignis then?”
Volt shrugged. “That’s the name of the flamethrower I was carrying at the time, and the only legible text I had on me. Doesn’t work in a vacuum. But by the time I worked out you were making me into a Veth, I was a little too scared to tell you you’d gotten my name wrong.”
Kinisis continued to blink for a good few minutes before snapping out of it. “OHHHHH I SEE! Kairos doing non-time stuff is making things go all timey-wimey and backwards and it reverted you guys back to how you were before you died! So Iatre just turned back into a frail old man. I totally see now why you sent him home, but you lot are going to need a fourth guy if you’re going to keep Kairos’s Kronaron distracted while I sneak into his base and save Stasis.”
Arkay glanced at his fellow former Veth and sighed. “You know we can’t let you do that, Death. You always made sure to send others in whenever Stasis messed around with Kairos, now it’s the other way around, you can’t just change your mind.”
“Okay, fine!” Kinisis threw her arms up in anger, before abruptly stopping.
Something had caught her attention, some sort of scent. She pranced off, past her Veth and out of the arena, towards the area where Stasis’s minions had been. She reached their living chambers and wandered around, her nostrils sniffing away at a particular scent. Finally, her nose directed her towards something lying on the floor, shivering. She grabbed it, picking it up by the scruff of its neck. The being in question was Lua, Stasis’s favourite little Deitic.
“P-p-please d-d-don’t k-k-kill m-m-me…”
Kinisis grinned, thousands of silver teeth sticking out of her mouth. “Now, why would I do that?”
“B-b-because I-I-I work for S-S-Stasis and you h-h-hate him… I-I-I d-d-don’t act-t-t-ually l-l-like w-w-working for him! I h-h-hate it!”
“I love Kenos and Kairos equally. But right now Kairos has kidnapped your master and we need to go rescue him!” Kinisis threw Lua towards Vel, who caught him in his tentacles, then vaguely pointed at Arkay and Volt. Lua struggled for a moment but quickly calmed down as he realised they weren’t going to kill him.
“Vel, take him to Kinigi and give him to Kayel to look after, then get him to send ten Veth to this location. Arkay, Ig-uh, Volt, you two are with me.”