“Ow, ow ow ow! Get it off me!”
Litvir flailed as something white and horrible crawled up his arm, a hideous, overly viscous liquid that made Litvir’s skin feel cold and itchy. Arkay tried washing the gunk off with water, but when that didn’t work, Retvik used a very brief and intense flame to burn the unusual liquid off. Whatever it was, the high heat evaporated the goo but also singed Litvir’s armour and burnt his skin. Litvir didn’t care, he was just glad that the gunk was gone.
“What the fuck was that?” Retvik growled as he burnt away the source of the gunk, a white and gold Voidborn that Arkay had violently torn in half. None of them had expected the Voidborn to so violently explode upon death though.
Litvir and Arkay weren’t paying attention. Arkay was busy licking Litvir’s arm, where the goo had landed on him, but his Life-Goddess-like saliva wasn’t healing the wounds as quickly as he would have liked. Litvir in particular was shuddering, not sure if he liked Arkay’s tongue against his skin or not.
“No, seriously, what was that?” Retvik repeated himself. “Was that a Corrupted Voidborn?”
“I guess so…” Litvir had finally calmed down somewhat, but his heart was still pounding. “That… that was horrible. Like instant frostbite all over me.”
“Did you hear chanting or whispers or anything?” Arkay asked.
Litvir thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No, nothing like that. I do not think it was Corruption though. At least, not like the strains we have come across.”
“Considering where we are, I’m not surprised that it’s different from the strains we’ve seen before…” Arkay frowned. “But I actually think Retvik’s wrong. That wasn’t a Corrupted Voidborn.”
“It looked like a normal Voidborn from the outside though!” Retvik exclaimed. “The white plating was odd but the gold was pretty standard.”
“But it lacked antlers or anything like that,” Litvir countered. “It was very Lanex-y in appearance and its energy glows were very weird. Blues, whites and golds, mixed together…” Litvir shuddered some more. “Ugh. That was not nice at all. My arm still feels a little tingly.”
“It does?”
Litvir nodded. “It feels odd. I do not like it.”
Retvik and Arkay glanced at each other.
“Alright, get back on the ship, we’re going to the nearest hospital!” Arkay demanded. “I don’t know if my Life Goddess spit did a good enough job and we don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”
“I am sure that your-” Litvir started, but Arkay interrupted him again.
“Not risking it. I don’t know what we just fought, but it wasn’t like anything we’ve seen before. I know we’re travelling through new places and stuff, but that white thing was nothing like anything we’ve encountered!”
“Arkay, I think you are overre-”
“No, no,” Retvik also interrupted. He scooped Litvir up in his arms and carried him towards the ship. “Arkay is right. We do not know with any certainty what we just killed, and I am not risking you getting ill, Litvir. You are too wonderful to be ill. Arkay, can you get the ship sorted?”
“Of course. But I want to get a sample of this stuff, because I don’t know what it is and I think we ought to at least ask around and find out. Also, just like a snake bite, the hospital will need to know what hurt Litvir.”
“That is rather wise… Very well.”
Litvir relented and let Retvik carry him away. Arkay opened up one of his hammerspaces then pulled out an old anti-phthoric container, a box he used to use inside his old universes to quarantine potentially corrupted objects. There was a small piece of the unknown monster left, part of its hand, and Arkay sealed it inside the canister. Any other remains, Arkay made sure to burn them all up and destroy them completely. He then teleported back into the ship once he was satisfied that everything was gone.
“That was fast!” Litvir exclaimed. Retvik had already sat him down in the cockpit and was currently in the kitchen, preparing a bandage for Litvir’s arm.
“Of course I was fast. This is important!” Arkay was clearly uneasy, doubly so as he realised that the nearest medical centre was a good twenty hours away. Not really having any other options, Arkay set up the autopilot and the ship quickly got moving.
Litvir didn’t say anything. He glanced down at his arm. His plating seemed okay, apart from a few scorch marks, but the skin on the back of his hand and on his elbow looked weirdly lighter than normal. Litvir’s skin was almost pitch black normally, and whatever that white stuff was, it had left odd, light grey marks. The tingling sensation had faded but Litvir still felt a bit off.
After a few moments, Retvik returned from the kitchen, and wrapped a long, white bandage around Litvir’s arm. The bandage was warm but wet.
“What is that?”
“A bandage soaked in acid. Lemon juice. Because any other acid could be a bit strong. And most of them smell bad.” Retvik turned to Arkay. “So, you got a sample, do you have any idea what we just destroyed?”
“Nope. But it wasn’t a Corrupted Voidborn. Or a Voidborn at all.”
Litvir and Retvik both eyed Arkay.
“How do you know?”
“It couldn’t speak Kenosomilia. Wasn’t speaking the language of the Corruption either. It was speaking to us in a language I don’t know.”
“Was it speaking… French?” Litvir hesitantly asked.
Retvik stared at Litvir. “What the fuck is French?”
“That language that strange balaclava-wearing cat person we met at the Justar party spoke.”
Arkay snorted. “Hah. No. It wasn’t speaking French.”
“Can you speak French?”
“Oui.”
“What?”
Arkay snickered again, but quickly went back to being serious, doubly so as he checked over the ship controls and increased the ship’s speed. “There are different types of Voidborns and Corruptions with their own dialects but they are still all vaguely recognisable. This was something else entirely…” Arkay paused. “I think I might actually write a report about this and send it to Deathven.”
“You are that concerned?” Retvik exclaimed.
“Yeah.”
Retvik grunted. “Understandable. Arkay, feel free to write your report then. I shall keep an eye on Litvir and the autopilot.”
“Thanks, babe, I’ll be back as soon as possible…” Arkay sighed as he picked up the phthoric container and headed out of the room. “Just want to make sure that more folks are aware of this…”