“Didn’t think we’d be seeing you again so soon…” Kal grunted as Retvik boarded the ship. “Turns out your universe exploding has been way more troublesome than the High Lords thought.”
“Uh… yes…” Retvik muttered, not really sure how to reply. He felt bad because he genuinely couldn’t tell which of the 6 personalities was in control of Kal currently.
“Don’t worry!” a voice squeaked from a green brain-mask attached to Kal’s side. “We get that all the time! Me and Koh are gonna use this body to help you, while Tah and the others use the spare body to stay on board and keep things running up here!”
Retvik glanced around the small ship, clearly having missed Tah. In the corner of the room, wheeling itself over was a shell very similar to Kal’s body, except green and silver and incredibly badly broken. Clearly neither of its legs worked, and the body was mostly propped up in a special frame.
“Yes, I know, it looks bad. Why do you think we have been trying to get new bodies for years?” the black brain-mask strapped to the body’s side snarled. “Just take Leh and Koh and come back as soon as you can.”
The other body somewhat shrugged half-heartedly. “Yeah. What Nuh said. Please be quick because none of us like being in Leh’s old burnt up body.”
Koh grabbed Retvik by the hand and pulled him into the cockpit, sitting him down in the only normal seat in the ship, while he and the shell-like Tah both sat themselves down in front of him.
“It’ll take us a bit to get to your universe’s edge,” Koh explained. “So sit tight.”
Retvik sighed, vaguely annoyed by that statement. “Everyone calls it my universe, it really is not. It was Arkay’s universe, I was just someone who lived in it.”
Koh grunted some sort of response, but Tah and all the brain-masks seemed to light up at Retvik’s words.
“Oh?” Tah asked. “So you’re more like us? Denizens left over from a universe’s demise, picked up by a pissed off deity?”
“Uh, somewhat?” Retvik shrugged. “Honestly, I do not really know what happened. I was definitely mortal. A mortal that was dragged into a war of gods. Or whatever Voidborns are.”
“So you definitely were somewhat like us…” Nuh, the black brain-mask, grumbled. “We would all still be in one piece had some stupid shadow bastard not woken up our Queens early. we ended up being destroyed and then revived by some other stupid shadow bastard later on.”
Retvik decided to calmly agree, not really sure what Nuh was talking about. Not that he had time to as the ship had suddenly come to a halt, and Koh had gotten up.
“This is as close as we can get before their Time Drake spots us.”
“You mean Kairos?” Retvik asked.
“Is that its name?” Koh asked back.
“Yes. He is stubborn but reasonable.”
“Wonderful!” Leh chirped from the strap on Koh’s side. “That means we can talk to him and get Arkay back nice and quick! Does he have an element?”
Retvik blinked. “Element?”
“You know! Like fire or ice or whatever?”
“Leh, not everyone out here has an elemental affinity…” Koh grumbled as he led Retvik out to the back of the ship.
“He does though!” Leh protested. “Everyone calls him Flamebearer! He’s basically a nicer version of that Tawahian bastard! Knowing our luck, there’s probably five more just like him, for each of-”
“Leh. Stop.”
Retvik continued to blink in confusion. Although Koh’s body (which was apparently actually Tah’s body) didn’t display much emotion, Retvik could tell that Koh had already had enough.
“Ah fine…” Leh mentally frowned. “So we go out there, speak to the Time Drake, ask him where Arkay is, get Arkay back and go home. All clear?”
Retvik nodded. “Yes, all clear.”
“Alright…” Koh grunted as he opened the ship’s hangar doors, revealing the cold depths of the Void. “Let’s go…”