What Could Have Been

Panic flashed in Phovos’s eyes as she woke up on an unfamiliar landscape. Nothing but charred, scorched earth and rubble, hanging under a black, smoky sky. There was very little air, only just enough for Phovos’s adaptive lungs to keep her going. Any other Ksithan would have suffocated a long time ago. But as Phovos surveyed her surroundings, she realised that she hadn’t been completely alone. Around her was more than just rubble. Burnt corpses also littered the landscape. Thousands of them. All charred and unidentifiable.

The panic gave way to fear as Phovos scurried to her feet. She had no idea what to do, so instinct drove her to hide by a nearby pile of rubble, away from the bodies. The more aware of her surroundings she became, the more she recognized the putrid mixture of burnt flesh, flammable liquids and toxic plumes of gas. Whatever had happened, this whole… area was utterly destroyed. Beyond repair perhaps.

Closing her eyes, Phovos tried to calm herself down and work out what to do. There was nothing she could do to save the dead. She had to focus on herself. Questions about why had to be left until later, Phovos just needed to stay alive. After a few laboured breaths of thin air, Phovos tried to listen out. Maybe there were other survivors. Maybe there was… literally anyone else.

Something roared overhead, catching Phovos by surprise. She huddled by the rubble, only to realise that the roar sounded not only familiar, but also pained and angry. Looking up, Phovos caught a glimpse of something draconic flying away from the plumes of sooty smoke. The being flapped its wings weakly, before disappearing inside a blue portal. Despite the dragon’s disappearance, its roars still echoed across the landscape.

Phovos knew better not to follow the big monster, so she decided to travel in… well, the way the dragon came from. Because the dragon wouldn’t be there any more. She lowered herself against the ground, walking on all fours, skittering from one pile of rubble to the next. Maybe if she stayed hidden, she would be safe.

Unfortunately, as the sound of pained roars faded away, they were replaced with a more sinister sound. That of… chewing? The grunts and garbles of a hungry beast.

Before Phovos could stop and turn around, she found herself tripping over something. It looked like a long, purple pipe, but… fleshy. And scaly. For reasons Phovos couldn’t explain, she felt compelled to investigate further, to follow the purple thing.

But the purple thing ended abruptly. With a bloody stump and shattered bones.

The dust and smoke ahead of Phovos cleared away, revealing the source of the hunger. A massive, gold and yellow-armoured draconic being was happily chewing on the body of a long, purple serpentine creature that had an obvious Temthan upper body. By the beast’s side was the serpent’s head, cleanly severed from its body.

Phovos also realised that she was directly in the sight lines of the armoured drake. But it either couldn’t see her or it didn’t care. Its head consisted of a single massive plate with no visible eyes, and a mouth full of fangs, each one as long as Phovos’s arm.

More smoke began to clear, revealing the true lengths of devastation this creature had wrought. Behind them, a massive, partially hollowed out skeleton was laid out across the ground, clearly belonging to a sea beast of some sort. Nearby was a severed limb, not belonging to any of the present beings. Phovos realised that it had belonged to the dragon she saw earlier.

“What… what is happening?”

The world around Phovos began to fade away, replaced with that of a simple bedroom. Standing in front of Phovos wasn’t a hideous dragon savouring its meal, but a being that looked eerily similar to Phovos herself.

“I showed you what could have been…” Kinisis explained. “You were wondering why you were here. Why you fight. Why you work for me now. So I showed you what would have happened.”

Phovos rubbed her eyes. To this day, and in spite of what she had just seen, she still couldn’t believe that Kinisis, the Goddess of the entire universe, looked like a sexier, more scaly version of herself.

“What was all that?”

Kinisis put a gentle hand on Phovos’s shoulder. “You saw the Thantophor eating its siblings. You saw a dying universe.”

“Why…” Phovos almost gasped. “Why show me all of that?”

“I showed you an alternate timeline. What would have happened if you and your friends had not stopped the Thantophor. Because I need you to know just how important you are, how much I appreciate you suffering the way you have. The universe would have died without you.”

Kinisis smiled, then helped Phovos into bed. “Close your eyes and get some rest. You deserve it. I’ll see you in the morning. Love you.”

Phovos blinked as she pulled up the blanket and Kinisis turned off the light. “Uh, love you too, I guess?”