As someone who was deeply in tune with the intricacies of time and space, Vakra could sense disturbances in the in the atmosphere with ease.
He knew when Isabella and Mizik entered the world, for example. He also sensed when the goddess and her Enforcers appeared.
And also...that. The Corruption.
After Mizik destroyed his lab in a fit of rage...a perfectly understandable fit of rage, that is...
...He spent several years rebuilding the lab, recompiling lost information, as well as hiring competent lab assistants who were as intelligent as they were pleasing to the eyes.
Finally, he had built several systems for the purpose of detecting and preventing the presence of the Void from encroaching upon Delvandal.
But...
Well, that hardly mattered now.
One of his lovely assistants warned of an impending disaster as every machine designed to both detect and repel Void-related activity simultaneously exploded and ceased to exist.
And then...she appeared.
The lovely horror. The abomination that never should have existed.
Valtheim, the avatar of the Void.
But something was terribly wrong with her.
She stood there glaring at Vakra. Her face was remarkably pretty for someone so utterly terrifying that even the gods themselves would piss their pants in fear of being anywhere near her.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, Valtheim? Can't you tell when you aren't wanted? The machines you destroyed were specifically designed to repel you. And you deleted them," Vakra said angrily.
He knew his words were pointless, however. Mostly, anyway...
Banter to stall for time to figure out how the hell he was supposed to get out of this mess.
"Mizik...IRATUS!!! WHERE...MIZIK...IRATUS!?!?" Valtheim shouted angrily.
"Oh dear. That's unexpected... Quite the observation I've just-"
Valtheim's eyes widened as all of Vakra's lab assistants were consumed by the Void.
Several pieces of equipment were also deleted from reality as well.
"TELL. YOU...WILL TELL....TELL TELL TELL....MIZIK...WHERABOUTS.... DESTROY...DESTROY...I WILL DESTROY...." Valtheim roared.
"Shouldn't he be in the same place he always is? Excelsis. Why are you bothering me?"
He was starting to feel more annoyed than frightened now. He was so close to getting one of the operator women to sleep with him...
Now she had simply ceased to exist.
Vakra was quite disappointed now.
"Find him...GO....LOCATE... BRING HERE!!! WE...WILL SETTLE...THIS. ONCE AND...ONCE AND...ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!" Valtheim said.
"Eh...okay...? I'll bring him here then, I suppose...?"
Valtheim enclosed Vakra in a Void eye and threw him out into the firmament by the Excelsis barrier.
Something about that void travel felt off, however...
As soon as Vakra reappeared, he felt as if he had escaped a sort of time-based purgatory. Like he'd been in the Void for more than just a mere moment.
He sighed as he realized that it'd been several weeks since he left Delvandal.
"Yep. She's definitely broken. Maybe that's why she wants Mizik dead? Ah...you naughty boy. How did you harm Valtheim, I wonder?"
Vakra pushed the thoughts away and immediately entered the divine realm via a fifth dimensional pathway. He flew towards the massive Cursebreaker anchor platform.
As he landed on it, he wondered why the ship was absent.
"Maybe that's why she doesn't know where he is? She can't enter, that much I know already...but she can at least detect him. So why isn't he here?" Vakra said.
He strolled over to the console and pulled out a small thumb drive from his coat. He plugged it onto the port and tapped a few commands on the console screen.
A message appeared that he'd never seen before.
[ADMINISTRATOR ACCESS DENIED BY ARTIFICER.]
"Oh? So it's like that, then? You think I'll really just let you reprogram MY machines? Ha. As if that were possible," Vakra said.
He input several complex commands and none of them did anything of note.
"Hm. He's better than I expected. He really did rewrite the entire system! However, for the sake of getting on with it, I must disagree. I have chosen to ignore this aspect of reality. The console will work as I have demed it so," Vakra said. He exerted some of his power and felt his form shift into a skeletal state.
The console flashed and began operating as normal.
"How I love reality manipulation... I miss the days when creation was my playground... Curse you, Creator..."
He typed on several more commands and located the Cursebreaker. It was in Dominus.
With a heavy sigh, Vakra opened a dimensional pathway to Dominus. Within moments, he arrived in the sky above the realm.
Below, drones flew about in swarms to whatever their primary functions were.
Vakra decided to hide his presence by switching on an electrical device from his belt.
The small, compact item looked like a plain, rectangular attachment to his belt. But in reality, it was a device to trick machines into believing that you were an administrative presence.
Immediately, he beckoned one of the drones to himself and installed a program on it with a tap of his finger.
"Your primary directive is overwritten. Where is the Cursebreaker?" Vakra asked.
The information on that particular subject did not seem to exist within the drone's memory banks.
Vakra would have rolled his eyes is he currently had any.
He dismissed the drone and looked around. It was fortunate that he hadn't been detected yet, otherwise the entire realm would have gone into attack mode.
But...just as well...
He now had clearance codes taken directly from that drone. He reached up and tapped into the data stream circling the realm and found his way in with relative ease.
"For as much effort as he went through to lock down that anchor platform, his very own home is quite sloppy in the firewall department... Oh well. It seems like the ship and several important figures are separate. How about I give your realm a nasty virus, Artificer? While I find those lovely ladies, of course..."
Vakra uploaded ten thousand different viruses into the mainframe of the entire realm. All of which would normally be enough to destroy an entire world's internal systems.
"That should keep him busy," Vakra said.
At once, every machine ground to a halt and began searching for things to attack.
The sky lit up into mass confusion and chaos as the weapon systems and drones tried desperately to kill each other. All while spewing nonsense about advertising products that didn't exist.
Vakra opened another pathway that led directly into the base of the central region of the realm. The cell in which Mizik's lovely wives were being kept.
After he arrived in the lower portion of the cell, Isabella looked up at him curiously.
"Ah, I was wondering how we would get out of this mess. Everything just suddenly stopped working," she said.
"Why is my toothbrush trying to sell me male performance enhancers...? Darling does just fine in bed. And what is this nonsense about aroused women nearby? I have no interest in anyone other than darling!" Cassandra said with a look of annoyance as she stepped out of the bathroom.
Both of them were, as far as Vakra was concerned, regrettably fully clothed.
He'd hoped to catch a glimpse of them in private. Perhaps being called a pervert and having several random objects thrown at him.
Oh well. He could dream...
"Greetings, you two. I'm here to break you out of this place. Where is Mizik?"
Isabella pointed down.
"Ah. He's in hell? Splendid. That makes this simple. We will go retrieve-"
"Not hell. In that."
Vakra looked down through the viewing glass on the floor and saw a massive sphere floating alone.
It appeared to be a planet-sized containment sphere.
"A containment sphere isn't enough to hold him at this point. I think the Artificer knows that," Vakra said.
"Which is why he sent the Hero Party to deal with him as well," Isabella said.
"Those gods damned meddlers. They gave me trouble in the past as well, you know?"
"My apologies, Vakra, but I don't really care. Nor am I surprised in the slightest. Why are you here?" Isabella said.
"Very well. I'll get to the point."
Vakra dropped to one knee and took his cap off.
"Umm..." Isabella said as she raised an eyebrow.
"Will you marry-"
Vakra was promptly kicked in the face by Isabella.
"FOCUS!!!" She said angrily.
"Gah...worth a shot... Valtheim showed up on Delvandal. She wants to fight Mizik. So she decided to send me to fetch him," Vakra said.
"We know. About Valtheim, that is. The Hero Party abducted Mizik and the Artificer imprisoned us. Regrettably, we didn't stand a chance..." Isabella said sadly.
"Seriously? How? Even just the two of you are walking death threats to creation."
"Because we didn't think for even a second that the enemies sent to fight us...were the true owners of our weapons."
"What...?"
"They introduced themselves as Mako and Mori. They were the true wielders of Bravery and Intelligence. Once we lost our weapons, we stood no chance against them..."
Cassandra grunted angrily.
"That annoying little girl kept launching mortar attacks at us from every direction. She fought using Intelligence's clones, but...I couldn't figure out where her real body was..." Cassandra said.
"Say, Vakra...did you say you dealt with them in the past?" Isabella asked.
"I did. The little girl is Mori, right?" He said.
Isabella nodded and Vakra continued.
"Truthfully, if you were against her and Mako, you never stood a chance. Mori doesn't fight her enemies up close. She can't. She has the durability and strength of a normal teenage girl. However...if she puts enough distance between herself and an enemy...she becomes a godslayer."
"How is that possible?" Isabella asked.
"Don't ask me. I didn't have enough time to figure out how it worked. Her powers are only potent when she's far away. She can move at absurd speeds to accomplish this as well. She's a master tactician who controls the battlefield from a distance. Yet she pretends to be a silly little girl."
"And Mako is a powerful distraction... I see it now," Isabella said.
"Of course. Now then, would you like to rescue Mizik or shall we start taking our clothes off?" Vakra said.
The comment was enough to invoke Isabella's wrath once again. She jumped, spun around, and kicked his head clean off of his body. It slammed into the nearby wall and shattered.
Moments later, Vakra's head regenerated on his body and he switched back to his human form.
"Fine...I'll the that as a no..." Vakra grumbled.
"Do you honestly believe we would just accept such a thing? Besides how disgusting you are, we are loyal to Mizik. If we ever broke that trust, the consequences would be disastrous," Isabella said angrily.
"So...how do I look? In your honest opinion..." Vakra said.
"Not my type. You look like a middle-aged lab monkey. My standards are far higher than you could ever achieve. Especially since you keep turning into a skeleton."
"My type is only Mizik. Anyone else makes me want to vomit. Perverted skeleton! Degenerate! Filthy mongrel!" Cassandra said angrily.
Afterward, she held her hand over her mouth and gagged.
"So I really am that repulsive to you... Oh well. I've had worse rejections. Doesn't mean I have to stop...kekekeke..."
"You will if you value your lives. Now what's this about rescuing Mizik?" Isabella said.
"Ah, yes. I'll make you an offer you can't refuse. I will help you get Mizik out of that containment sphere. On one condition..." Vakra said.
"I swear to Iris, if it's anything perverted, I'll kill you a hundred times right now!" Isabella said.
"Noted. But that isn't my condition. I will abandon my home on Delvandal and become part of the Cursebreaker's crew. I'll be the onboard scientist and work directly under you, Vice Captain Isabella..."
"A tempting offer. But that doesn't mean Mizik won't give you orders as well. I also cannot guarantee your acceptance into our team. Crew member additions have to be cleared with his Majesty."
"Eww...the pervy skeleton might join us...ugh..." Cassandra groaned.
"Just bear with it, sister..."
"Do we have an agreement?" Vakra asked.
"I make no promises, but I'll put in a good word for you," Isabella said.
She reached her hand out and smiled.
Vakra shook hands with her and did his best to smile.
"I look forward to working with you. Your hands are wonderfully soft, by the way... They would feel wonderful on my-"
Isabella slapped him across the face.
"Gross pervy skeleton..." Cassandra said.
Isabella simply nodded in agreement.
"What is out first action?" She said.
"First off, the Artificer is likely to be cautious. I just uploaded ten thousand viruses into his mainframe. The realm is in chaos right now."
"He'll assume we plan to use this opportunity to escape. I would like to stay in Dominus for Mizik's sake... Is there a way we can access the containment sphere?" Isabella asked.
"An excellent analysis. But no. That type of containment sphere is inaccessible from the outside unless you have a very specific code. One that doesn't exist anywhere in this realm. I surmise that the Hero Party are the only ones aside from the Artificer capable of pulling that off. It's a tricky situation..."
"All of the nonsense you must have done to get here and that part is a challenge? Seriously?"
"Shut up. I'm thinking... That containment sphere has more security than any piece of equipment I've ever seen before. And yes, I really mean that. It's impregnable...to all but information, that is..."
"Information? So data streams can pass through it...? Is that what you mean? Because I'm afraid this isn't my area of expertise..." Isabella said.
"Data streams can pass into it with proper clearance. The containment sphere houses the Artificer's memory banks...and the data passing through is an update procedure. Meaning that whatever happens within the sphere is only possible based on his memories of the current reality. That is the only kink in the armor I can see. However, it analyzes everything that flows into it. That much I learned from taking information from the data stream and accessing the mainframe minutes ago."
"What if we downloaded our minds into it or something? Would that work?" Cassandra asked.
Isabella and Vakra both looked at her.
"What? I don't care if it sounds stupid. I have no idea how this nonsense works. All I want is to rescue my darling," she said defiantly.
"No...it's brilliant. Say...don't the two of you have a power connected to Mizik?" Vakra asked.
Cassandra puffed out her chest proudly.
Isabella also smiled triumphantly.
"Yes. Adoring Resonance and Obsessive Resonance," Isabella said.
"I can only speculate which one belongs to either of you... Regardless, that might be a way to trick the system. Tell the administrator it's a vital update and it's sure to let you in. It may recognize this as a containment breach and lock your minds inside, however. One of you will have to stay and keep the other from disconnecting. Otherwise their mind could be severed from their body. Effectively turning them into a vegetable. This is only a moderate risk, but one that should be taken seriously."
"I'll go. I don't mind risking myself to help Mizik," Isabella said quickly.
"No fair...I wanted to be the one..." Cassandra said.
"Sister, you can stay here and keep up appearances with the Artificer. If he visits us again, I'll need you to distract him."
"How do I do that?"
"Tell him how you feel about him."
"That he's a lying, traitorous bastard worthy only of the most horrific death imaginable by the hand of the lowest maggot in all of creation? That he isn't worthy to stand in his Majesty's presence, let alone have the honor of dying by his hand? That he's ugly and smells bad?" Cassandra said.
"Sounds like someone has had this on their mind for a while..." Vakra said.
"Er...yes. Tell him that. But to be fair, Vakra, I believe most of our crew members feel a similar way by now. Especially Mizik," Isabella said.
"Very well. Shall we get a move on? I'll conceal a portion of the data stream and connect it to this cell. Then I'll go cause as much havoc in Dominus as I can to divert attention away from you. By the way, if you need additional assistance in there, you should be able to call upon Cassandra. But only in an emergency."
"Thank you. But...you're forgetting something..." Isabella said.
"Ah, I suppose I should help you figure out how to project yourself into the data stream... That might help."
"Dumb perverted skeleton..." Cassandra said as she turned away.
"Something about the way you insult me and turn away is incredibly sexy," Vakra said with a wink.
Cassandra gagged and held her hand over her mouth. Then she glared daggers at Vakra.
"Let's get on with it, shall we?" Isabella said in an annoyed tone.
"Indeed. Let me show you how this all works..."