“Its Removal Will Release You. Remove The Beast And Be Free.”
Vekeus and Elkay-En were confused. They were all armoured up and carrying an array of weapons. But there was nothing around them to fight. No monsters, nothing. They weren’t even sure where they were. Everything all around them was an annoying dull white, with artificial lights and the odd chair or table scattered around. A single very large room with no entrance or exit. At least, not an obvious one.
However, despite everything being weirdly white and sterile, the place was still very messy. Things had been thrown around. The room had been the host for some sort of strange party and it had all clearly been trashed before being sealed off. There were plates, glasses, ribbons and confetti scattered across the place, tables and chairs doing whatever they wanted, but the centre of the room was completely clear and empty. As if an invisible force had pushed everything to one side and made space for itself.
In the very centre of the room though was a white box, which hummed gently to itself. A large white box. About 2.5m squared. And on the side of the box was a single button. A red button. The only source of colour in the room. Well, aside from the young Life Goddess and the younger Voidborn.
“Huh…” Vekeus asked as he began to wander around. He was pretty sure that there was no immediate danger, so he was rather casual in his movements. “So, what do we do?”
“The little hologram tells us to kill the monster. I assume it’s in the box…”
Elkay-En was a lot less certain. He was trying to hide his nerves and was pacing back and forth, walking around the hologram message that was hovering an inch above the floor.
“You think it’s that simple?” Vekeus asked. “I mean, yeah, it does seem that simple. There’s a monster in the box and we need to kill it to complete the trial.”
Elkay thought to himself for a moment. “I’m struggling to remember, all the trials we read about, were any of them more based on puzzles or were they simple combat? I’m pretty sure it was the latter.”
Vekeus nodded. “Yeah. All the trials the other Thantir did were basically combat. There were some puzzles sprinkled in, but it was mostly just killing through hordes until they worked out the puzzle.”
“But… didn’t Arkay’s trial involve him, Retvik and Litvir digging out of an inverted planetoid then binding their minds in a Life Goddess ceremony or something?”
Vekeus paused, then turned back to Elkay-En. “I… I don’t think they’d put us in a trial designed to kill us. Or rather, a trial where the intended solution required the death of two thirds of the participants.”
“Wait, what? They can do that?”
“They… they did do that in the past. Arkay seemed adamant though that we are just doing a normal Decay Lord trial and no one will fuck with us.”
Elkay-En gestured towards the box. “That might fuck with us.”
“Well, yeah, probably. It’s probably some sort of monster inside the box. We kill the monster, we get rid of it and then maybe bring back the party and we’re good.”
“I guess… But why didn’t they just have a monster attack us straight away?”
“I mean, it is a trial. We’re supposed to think about it a little bit. Which makes me think that there is a reason behind the monster being in a box. And the big red button is probably some sort of trap.”
“Oh, definitely.”
Vekeus made his way over to the box, but didn’t touch it at first. He inspected it from every angle, looking to see if there was anything else on the box apart from the button. To his vague surprise though, he couldn’t see anything.
“Alright, new question, does the button do anything?” Elkay-En asked. “Surely it would be connected to something to make the box open?”
“You’d think, but, well, out here, nothing makes sense. There’s buttons on my ship that I have no idea what they do and buttons that don’t do anything, and I created my own ship.”
Elkay-En blinked. “You created your own ship?”
“Yeah. It’s… a Voidborn thing. You just sometimes can pull whatever you want out of nothing. But weaker Voidborns like me, we lack the skill to do that, so we make what we want out of ourselves. It’s why I don’t have antlers or long horns or a halo like most Voidborns, because I ripped off my antlers and turned them into my ship.”
Elkay-En blinked some more. “That… is fucked up.”
“Oh, definitely. But in all honesty, Voidborns and Life Goddesses are two sides of the same coin. And, theoretically, put two of them together and they bend and break reality.”
“Two of them together… Like you and me?”
Vekeus paused, then shrugged. “I guess. We’re both pretty weak though. And that’s also why Arkay is so strong when he wants to be, because he isn’t two sides of the same coin, he is the coin in his entirety… Anyway, so, what do you think about this box?”
Elkay-En glanced up at the box, then at the holographic message, then back at the box. “Don’t press it or anything… but is the button connected to anything?”
“Uh, not that I can tell, no. Looks like standard Periuniversal Void everyone-was-a-deity-so-tech-is-magic nonsense.”
“Alright… Is the box connected to anything?”
“What do you mean?”
“Is the box connected to the floor or can we move it?”
Vekeus inspected the box some more, then used a hint of telekinetic energy to nudge the box. It moved, ever so slightly.
“I don’t think it’s connected to the floor.”
“Can we move it properly?”
“With some effort, yeah. Might disturb whatever is inside the box, but I think, as long as we don’t press the button, we should be fine.”
“Huh…” Elkay-En fell silent, lost in thought for a moment. However, he quickly looked up and started smiling. “Good. Because I have an idea…”