“I think we all have a little bit of explaining to do…” Galyn grunted as he sat everyone down. “Arkay, did you put the ship on autopilot?”
“Yeah…” Arkay answered, delicately placing a large plate of sandwiches in the middle of the table. He had no idea what was going on, but everyone was confused and angry, so Arkay assumed that some food would help temper the mood around here.
Sitting at the table alongside Galyn and Arkay were Retvik and Litvir as usual, plus one more entity that looked a lot like Litvir, except smaller. Retvik was dutifully sitting between the pair of them, acting as some sort of vague body shield for both parties.
“Alright, good…” Galyn mumbled, turning his attention to the new being. “Alright, little icy being, please explain who you are and how you got here.”
“You do not know who I am?” the being almost laughed. “I am Kuta Tieridos, the twin sibling of Litvir Kaldynik, and a captain of the 11th Legion! I have a question though, who are you and little miss yellow Skyavok here? I recognise my dastardly brother, and Retvik is very recognizable with all that fire, but you two seem new!”
The elder Decay Lord eyed this tiny creature. They definitely shared Litvir’s sense of importance. “I am Decay Lord Galyn, member of the Thantir Decay Lords and of Deathven, a former deity of war and justice. This here is Decay Lord Arkadin, Thantophor, Lord of Death and Decay and Destroyer of the Golden Armies.”
The smirk on Kuta’s face dropped. “You mean THE Arkadin?”
Arkay nodded, helping himself to a sandwich. No one else seemed to want them. “I just call myself Arkay these days. Seems like you’ve missed a lot.”
“Clearly!” Kuta exclaimed. “Turns out Litvir is really fucking good at shielding his sensory inputs and outputs. When Retvik and Trismit freed me and killed Litvir, turns out both our consciousnesses ended up trapped inside the vast matrix computer system Litvir and I created ages back. Except Litvir had far more control and I was just subconsciously pulling myself together. At some point, Litvir got a body and surged in power, but it took me a good year and a half to pull myself back together!”
“Why in the name of the Light did you-” Litvir was ready to start screaming and shouting, but stopped himself and took a couple of deep breaths. After all, he was still weak and woozy. “Why did you choose THAT route to resurrect yourself?”
“Because I wanted you to feel a sample of the agony you put me through…” Kuta replied bluntly, before turning back to Galyn. “You still seem confused, large green being.”
Galyn grunted. “I am. So you are Litvir’s twin sibling, but you know Retvik as well?”
“Back in our old Rethan society…” Retvik tried to explain more clearly. “We were a militaristic race, and every Rethavok belonged to a Legion. Litvir was the General of the 11th Legion, which he used to secretly do experiments on the minds of its members. He, uh, used Kuta to build some sort of simulation and trap everyone inside. Kuta, myself and a fellow captain managed to shut it down, but, uh, Kuta and Litvir somewhat… killed each other in the process.”
“Was this before or after you nearly burned down a hospital with your new, out-of-control powers?” Arkay interjected.
“After.”
“Oh, that explains why I don’t remember any of this…” Arkay tutted. “Pretty sure during this time, Kinisis was fucking with me again.”
“Kinisis as in, the Allmaker?” Kuta seemed less and less certain now, as he began to realise he was vastly out of his depth.
“Yeah,” Arkay frowned. “Not that we need to worry about her any more.”
“W-why?”
“I unwillingly blew up the universe, my siblings made a new mini-universe without Kinisis and we’re sitting in a tin can in an eternal void that exists between all universes, minding our own businesses and exploring uncharted areas.”
Kuta fell silent, not really comprehending what the yellow death god had just told him. While he knew that Litvir had grown in power, he’d had no clue as to why Litvir had done so, or what had happened in the outside world.
A sudden clap from the large, green, Rethavok-like being snapped Kuta back to reality. Sheets of paper and a pen appeared in front of Galyn, several of which he pushed towards both Litvir and Kuta.
“Well, well, well, it looks like you have a new Decayling to teach, Litvir. Of course, Kuta will have to take several Decayling Viability tests to examine whether he can become a Decay Lord or not, but if Kuta is as powerful as you, Litvir, that should not be a problem. Retvik, if you could give these two a hand, that would be great. In the mean time, Arkay and I will be back in the cockpit, making sure we do not crash.”
Arkay eyed Galyn in an “are you sure they won’t kill each other” way, but Galyn ignored him.
“Uh, yes, boss…” Retvik blinked, as he watched Litvir and Kuta both start going through forms. “Whatever you say, boss…”