Yisini smiled as the door blasted off its hinges, smashing through the room and destroying one of her less interesting and important experiments. She coiled around herself, turning defensively to face her intruder. With a wave of her hand, multiple blood-soaked guards exploded out of the ground, taking the form of winged serpents, and started attacking.
“You’re early!” the Allbirther smiled some more as her guards all burst into clouds of guts and gore. With another wave of her hand, more guards appeared, this time more heavily armoured. Unfortunately, they fared just as badly as the first set of guards, again exploding instantly into clouds of bloody mist.
“I had better bloody hope so!” Arkadin shouted as he dealt with a third group of guards. “I am telling you now, Yisini, give it all up before I take more drastic action.”
Yisini hesitated. Arkadin hadn’t slowed down in the slightest. Realising this, Yisini blew up all the experiments between herself and Arkadin and retreated into the room behind her, sealing the door shut as she did so.
“I can’t give it up, brother…” Yisini sighed. She looked longingly at her very last experiment. The one she had kept separate from everything else. “You have no idea how much work I have put into all of this. The lengths I have gone to…”
Arkadin didn’t respond at first. Yisini first heard smashing, then a loud, fiery sound. The Thantophor was incinerating all of her work. Utterly destroying it. For Yisini though, it was at least a distraction. She opened up her last experiment, working on the final touches. She hadn’t tested any of it yet.
“How long have you been working on this, sister?” Arkadin growled. “How long?”
“Since the last time we spoke!” Yisini replied honestly. She had a chance to save her work. She just needed to keep Arkadin busy. “I told you, Arky, I would use anything from inside or outside this universe. Anything to create eternal life.”
“Even playing with Corruption?” Arkadin hissed. “You had so few rules you had to follow and you still managed to fuck up!”
Yisini could hear the Thantophor getting closer. She took a sample of her experiment and stuck it on the end of a spear. She had very little faith in any of this working, but she had no choice. She had to try.
“It’s inert corruption, brother! Inert! Dead! I am just experimenting on it anyway! Maybe it has the key! Maybe it IS the key to immortality!”
“It could consume us all, Yisini! It will destroy all your work, it is simply too big a risk!”
Arkadin approached the door. Yisini shuddered, genuinely feeling scared. The Thantophor could destroy all her work. Or maybe, if this worked…
The door exploded, sending shards of metal and wood across the room. Yisini shielded herself, waiting for Arkadin to come closer.
“Arkadin, you don’t understand…”
“You put us all in danger, sister…”
The Thantophor edged closer, his horrible blade ready to destroy Yisini’s work. But suddenly, he stopped in his tracks. Yisini’s own spear embedded itself deep inside Arkadin’s stomach.
For a moment, nothing happened.
“Did it work?” Yisini asked herself.
Arkadin stood dead still, unmoving, unblinking. In her hand, a metal device started blinking. Information started streaming into Yisini’s mind as she accessed Arkadin’s thoughts and memories. As she did so, the Thantophor’s golden eyes faded into a deep purple.
Yisini smiled. Her experiment had worked.
“Hm… Guess you didn’t know the secrets of immortality after all…” the Allbirther smirked as she exerted her will on the Thantophor. “Doesn’t matter. You, little brother, are now mine to control…”