For once, Phovos had about an hour to herself. She’d finished all her meetings, she’d had her discussions with her House Fighters and the next week’s matches had all been arranged. After a little too long, Phovos had finally managed to arrange the import of several Banikosauric Traumai, a species of colossal, predatory monsters, from an abandon-world in Banikan territories, and she planned to have these pest beasts fight some of her veteran House Fighters.
Still, there were things troubling Phovos. She’d gotten the answer to a question she had struggled to answer. An unknown, pale blue Ksithan had been stalking Phovos at a recent event she had gone to, only for him to disappear before Phovos could confront him. The identity of this being though had shocked Phovos, more than the source of the answer to her question. It turned out, the Dragon God of Time had been casually wandering around and freaking Phovos out. And this bothered Phovos more than the fact that the God of Death (a deity Phovos still somewhat worshipped) had told her this information.
A knock on the door snapped Phovos to attention. She pressed a button on her desk, making the door unlock, allowing the stranger on the other side to enter.
“Hello, Phovos.”
“Hello again, Arkay. Are you here to finally take me?”
Phovos wasn’t that surprised that the God of Death had come to visit her in private. After all, Phovos was unnaturally ancient. The average lifespan of a Ksithan was about 110-120 years, but Phovos was over a thousand years old, and, physically, looked like a teenager. A well-trained, muscular teenager, but a teenager nonetheless.
And she had definitely abused her inability to die. A thousand years ago, the Ksithans lived in tribes, and Phovos had become a warlord, known to many as the Undying Fear, raising an army and clawing her way across the neutral territories of Portalia, uniting the local Ksithan population under one banner, her own. Over time, Phovos did slowly calm down, eventually building a collection of powerful cities, then handing power over to the ruling Tromeros family and taking their surname as her own, but these days, to satisfy her constant, simmering bloodlust, she managed the Great Dessaron Battle Arenas, and probably had way more power than she deserved.
“What? No, of course not!” Arkay seemed somewhat insulted by Phovos’s words. “I don’t really do the whole coming-along-to-kill-one-person thing any more anyway. Way too much work… Actually, I came here to apologize and explain a few things. Something I’ve been meaning to do since… since that stupid piss with me getting a tiny bit of Corruption and Epani wanting to turn you into me… Uh, is it alright if we talk here, or do you want to talk elsewhere?”
“Here is fine.”
Arkay sighed, then stepped into the office proper, closing the door behind him. He sat down on the other side of Phovos’s desk, still sighing.
“So, firstly, I never got around to apologizing for Epani wanting to make you into a death god. That was fucked up beyond belief, and it bothers me no end that Epani was willing to subjugate a mortal the way she does with me…”
Phovos shrugged. “That is not your fault though. The Star Whale should apologize for that, not you.”
“Yeah, I know, but Epani never apologises for anything, so I’m apologising in her place.”
“I guess… Well, I accept your apology.”
Arkay smiled weakly. “Thank you. Now, I guess, I should give you an explanation. Because I worked out with certainly as to why you can’t die, and it’s similar to the reason why my little Dessaron team can’t die.”
Phovos leaned forward. “You finally have an answer for me? Because I feel like you have been following me my entire life, and I have always wanted to know why.”
“Well, since Sini is now truly aware of your existence and we know why you’re immortal, I don’t need to hide you from her any more, and I can tell you the truth with certainty.”
“So you know why I can’t die.”
The Thantophor hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. The reason why you can’t die is because, technically, you were never alive to begin with.”
“What?” Phovos abruptly exclaimed. “I am clearly fucking alive! I’m sitting right here, talking to you!”
“I know, it sounds weird, but… like…” Arkay sighed some more. “Alright, a thousand years ago, a Voidborn broke in to the universe, and I wasn’t fast enough to stop it. Sini had been working on a planet near the universe’s edge, and the Voidborn had attacked her. It stabbed her and… Sini died, briefly. Sure, I managed to swoop in, take over the domain of Life and save Sini before she actually died, but in the brief millisecond that Sini was dead and the domain of Life was non-functional, well… you were somehow conceived. The same way Tenuk, Retvik, Nyssi and Kayel were essentially forgotten by me, you were forgotten by Sini. So you are essentially undead.”
Phovos’s mouth opened and closed several times. She was confused and somewhat shock.
“I… I am a zombie?”
“I… I guess?” Arkay didn’t seem sure. “Maybe not? A zombie implies no real brain activity, a body moving solely on spinal cord reactions and nervous system spasms. You’re perfectly healthy and normal except for the fact that your heart doesn’t beat normally, and the fact that you can’t be killed by normal means.”
Phovos frowned, not liking what she had been told. Sure, she had just been told why she had lived for so long and survived through so much, but it all felt wrong. As if she didn’t want to know. Eventually, Phovos decided to ask a question.
“Is anyone else like me? Like, General Kuta for example, does he… do they have Akairon Healing for the same reason I do?”
Arkay tutted and shook his head. “No. Kuta’s special for a different reason. And I checked the other, uh, semi-immortal beings that I know of, and none of them are long-lived because of Sini.”
“How many semi-immortal beings are there?”
The Ice Wolf thought to himself for a moment. “Um, fourteen, according to Sini. You know five of them, our Dessaron team and my poten-partner. I don’t know if you know about the War-Vohra, and I only recently found out about Thassalin, the Sinic Thraki, myself.”
“That… is… both more and less than I expected… Also, I am very uncertain in your choice in partners.”
Arkay eyed Phovos. “Do you have a problem with Kuta?”
“No. But Kuta is a Rethan. You’re… a Skyavok, I guess.”
“I’m both, I’m a Threavok. I model my physical form on the species that the Skyavok and Rethavok evolved and split from. But since you’re bringing Kuta up, I’m going to have to bring up a warning of my own.”
Phovos blinked, then sank in her seat, now feeling very worried.
“I’ll be blunt. Kairos has an interest in you. I mean, he’s pissed off at me for having friends, and he was considering, for some fucking reason, sleeping with every single being I consider a close friend to teach me some sort of lesson, but he backed down when he realized that, firstly, he can’t turn himself into a convincing Rethavok, secondly, he’d have to be both female and wait three years to sleep with Tenuk because Tenuk’s underage, and, thirdly, it’s a fucking stupid idea. But he’s still interested in you. He likes you. Legitimately.”
“As in… like… romantically?” Phovos asked.
Arkay nodded.
“Like… potentially as a… like… he wants to sleep with me?”
Arkay nodded again. “Yep. Now, if you don’t want him to be interested in you, I can tell him. I’ve been trying to protect you from the other deities for a long time, and if you are not interested, I will force Kairos to back off. But at the same time, I know you’re lonely, that you kinda gave up on relationships when you outlived your first two partners-”
“They were killed. By you.”
The Thantophor shrugged. “Well, yes, I’m the God of Decay, everything dies by my hand, but… whatever, you get what I mean. Either way, if you want me to butt out and let you do things yourself, let Kairos approach you and all that, then tell me. Whatever it is you want in this situation, that’s what I’ll do.”
Phovos hesitated, then fell silent, thinking to herself. The fact that the Time Dragon, the God of Time, was showing some sort of interest in her, was both worrying but… interesting. Exciting almost. She was curious to see how things would go.
“Can I let Kairos approach me, see what happens, and then call you if I need an out?” Phovos eventually asked.
“That’s perfectly fine!” Arkay smiled. He reached into a small fold in his stomach wrap and handed Phovos a card with some contact details on it. “If you need me, you can get in touch. No need to ask our Dessaron team any more. Anyway, I’ll leave you to it, alright?”
Phovos stood up and bowed. “Thank you, oh great Ice Wolf.”
Arkay got up too, and also bowed. “Thank you too, Phovos. Although I still don’t get why you all call me a wolf. I’ve never had fur or visible ears or a fluffy tail or anything remotely wolf-like.”
“I don’t really know either, but we call the other deities odd names as well, as they are ancient traditions. Only the Time Dragon really fits his name…”
“Fair. Have a good day, Phovos. Sorry for keeping you in the dark for so long.”
“I understand, Arkay. Farewell.”
Arkay waved and smiled once more, then disappeared in a puff of black smoke. With an exasperated sigh, Phovos sat back down, not really sure what to do with all this new information she had just been given.