“First the fucking Whenvern, now you!” Kinisis growled as the antlered, hoofed being approached. “What are you doing here, Kenos?”
“The question is, Cycle, what are you doing here?”
Compared to both Kinisis and Kairos, Kenos, or rather Stasis, was absolutely huge. He towered over Kinisis, his antlers lowered in shame and embarrassment.
“I am starting over! Making things better!”
“Really?” Stasis seemed concerned. “From the looks of things, you seem to be trying to trigger an Ending. You left the door to Kinigi open for me. The way you are acting, it seems more like you wish to end your own Cycle rather than start over.”
Kinisis screeched, then transformed herself back into a more normal form. She floated angrily in front of Stasis, waggling a finger at him.
“Now you fucking listen to me! You and Kairos have done nothing but get in my way since I fucking started this universe! And now that I’m trying to fix all the shit that you keep on breaking, you get all in my face and tell me I’m wrong! I’m NOT wrong! I am going to start this all again! And maybe I’ll start on you two again as well!”
Stasis remained as he was, not at all threatened by Kinisis. “You do realise that I am the Void, Unchangeable Entropy, yes?”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t fucking try…” Kinisis growled. “Doesn’t mean… HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
The Avatar of the Cycle suddenly did an 180 turn, spinning around to face her precious Soul Fragma. Floating above it were the six creatures she’d hoped to turn into Thantophors, enabling her to kill all live in the universe quickly and efficiently.
“Is that my son?” Stasis asked as he and Kairos watched Kinisis spin around, turning herself into an even larger serpent.
“Yes…” Kairos replied.
“What is he doing here?”
“Kinisis wanted to turn him into a Veth so she could cause mass extinctions more quickly.”
“That is insane…” Stasis paused. “How dare she?”
“That is what I say!” Kairos tutted. “But she does not listen!”
Now that she was in her most horrific form yet, Kinisis was ready to stomp over and kill those stupid little beings. She was done with the whole Thantophor thing. She was done with all of it. She was going to kill everyone and get it all over with. But as she tried to slither over to her first six victims, she realised she wasn’t going anywhere.
“What?”
Something had grabbed onto her tail.
“Why…”
Suddenly, that something was lifting Kinisis into the air and smashing her into the lake of souls beneath her.
“I’VE FUCKING HAD IT WITH YOU!” Arkay roared as he started beating the shit out of Kinisis, throwing her around like a rag doll and chucking her around. “YOU DO IT TO YOURSELF AND MAKE US ALL SUFFER IN YOUR PLACE! YOU CAN’T WORK OUT HOW TO FIX YOURSELF SO YOU HURT US INSTEAD!”
Kinisis tried to wriggle away, but Arkay was having none of it. He summoned his axe and repeatedly chopped off bits of her tail, the pieces of which would turn to dust and reform on the other end of her body.
“Arkay, I-”
“NO. NO MORE!”
Arkay continued to tear Kinisis apart, then leaped up and grabbed her by her serpentine throat. With a horrific cry, Arkay threw Kinisis into her Soul Fragma. The dam of souls shuddered and collapsed under the Avatar of the Cycle’s weight, flooding the low-lying areas of Kinigi with wave after wave of souls.
As the waters died down, Kinisis tried to right herself, but Arkay wouldn’t let her. He stood on her neck, his axe pressed against her throat.
“Arkay, please… I’m sorry…”
Arkay hesitated, then stepped to one side. Kinisis was about to stand up, only for Stasis to come along and put his hoof on her chest, keeping her pinned down.
“Kinisis, do you not want to run the Cycle right now?” Stasis asked.
“I hate this Cycle…” Kinisis finally admitted. “I don’t want to maintain it. I just want to go off and have fun like all the other Cycles, doing what I want. I don’t want to do this right now. Not for you. Not for Kairos. Not for anyone. I thought, maybe if I started again, I’d… I’d want to be a Cycle again.”
Stasis tutted. “A pity. Especially when a much simpler solution has been at hand this entire time.” The Personification of the Void turned to Arkay, who had sneaked off to one side, his rage dying down. “Little Arkay, you care about this Cycle, yes?”
“Well, I guess…” Arkay scratched his head. “It’s treated me like shit, but it would be wrong for me to punish mortals for my horrid existence…”
“Would you like to maintain this cycle for a brief while?” Stasis offered. “Kinisis desires a break from her duties. You would be the perfect temporary replacement for her.”
Unsure what to say, Arkay simply shrugged. “Well, I’ve done this sort of thing before but…” Arkay turned to the remains of the Soul Fragma. “Can I discuss this with my brothers first?”
“Of course.”
Arkay was about to skip off to see his siblings, but paused again. He picked up some sort of device off the ground, then pressed the shiny red button in the middle of it.
Behind him, the remains of the Soul Fragma exploded, creating several new rivers and showering the sky with fireworks.