The rigors of the last few days were still fresh in Arkhan’s mind. He had, due to no small amount of magical and non-magical ‘performance enhancing methods’ been awake for at least two days, although since he had not checked a calendar recently it could have been that he was up for far, far longer. Something about being doped up on a plethora of magical charms, buffs and a not insubstantial amount of ‘harmless chemical injections’ made the days blend together, not to mention that he had been unable to leave his private bedchambers for the entire time and that no one was foolish enough to try and intervene to save his sorry ass.

He had only escaped his fate of being used as a battleground due to his own limitations as a human. His stats may have been through the roof, but he was still merely a human, and the limitations of said form were great and many. He was finally able to escape his torment via a fate that some men, notably the absolutely stupid ones, would desire; Death by Snu-Snu. He had recalled that a Russian man in his previous life had faced such a fate, but that may very well have been a joke article as he had never actually seen the article and instead merely heard accounts by people who claimed to have seen it.

Either way, his death and subsequent place-swapping with a very unfortunate Geara Zulu had allowed him to no longer be forced to endure such rigors and suffering, but this was only because Asharia had a 5 ‘Point’ lead over the avatar of Zeyhris. Their contest had ended with his expiration, and now the ‘pecking order’ had been fully established.

As he watched the two superbeings chat with each other as if they were old acquaintances, Arkhan felt a shiver crawl up his spine. He was the original ruler of Arcadia, damnit, but he was effectively nothing more than a glorified entertainment system for his ‘loving’ wife and a source of ‘foreign genes’ for Zeyhris. Somehow, he just wanted this all to end.

“Cheer up, sir.” One of the Lotos said while patting its creator on the back. “At least you now have an active sex life. Surprisingly, there aren’t many people who find us arousing. You’d think with so many sapient organics out there that there would be a decent number who wanted hot robot action. But no, our lovers are few, if any. You at least have-.”

Arkhan looked the Loto dead in its photoreceptors with a look that could kill.

“Ooooookay…. Never mind.”

As Arkhan waited for the two monsters two stop chatting, he felt what a certain Space Wizard Samurai Monk would have called a ‘disturbance in the force’. Unsurprisingly, Asharia and Zeyhris’ avatar seemed to sense it as well, with the avatar looking like it had experienced a massive migraine.

The avatar twisted and turned as it began to leak internal fluids from its eyes, ears and nose. A sickly blue-green substance that Arkhan assumed was the entity’s blood was trickling out of it at an alarming rate. Before anything could be done, the avatar collapsed onto the ground, completely unconscious. Arkhan looked at his ‘loving’ wife and the two shared an expression that merely stated “This can’t be good.”

…

The test subject had been awoken and the devices had been fully activated. Preliminary scouting after the activation showed that the devices had indeed produced one of the desired effects. The biological nightmares that had booted them out of their holdings were either in extreme agony or unable to process what they were experiencing and collapsed into a pathetic mess. Still, there were other objectives for the subjects to fulfil, and now that they were ready for fielding the time was ripe to begin chipping away at Arcadia’s influence.

The first batch was deactivated and put in a container. Once the package reached its intended destination, the programming would take care of the rest. The Free Galaxy Resistance had now, in a final act of desperation, decided that if it couldn’t have the galaxy, no one would. Once their weapons began their assault, then there would quite literally be nothing the FGR could do to stop them. The codes to control the bioweapons would be continuously changing, once each femtosecond, so it would be impossible for anyone to take control ever again. They would unleash their wrath, and as the galaxy burned and died, they would sit back and watch the conflagration come ever closer and then finally consume them as well.

If they could not control the world, they would end it. Arcadia would fall, and so would the rest of the twisted and cruel galaxy that denied them their birthright. ‘Operation: Final Night’ was a go.

…

The Hive Mind screamed in agony as the interference from some outside source hacked away at its authority. It was only a short while ago that new genes were added to The Swarm and there was concern that said genes would be a waste of time collecting, but now it was painfully obvious to The Hive that it had indeed made the right call in assimilating so much genetic material. The intrusion into itself that had sent it into such a state had the damage it could do to The Hive mitigated by the genes of the being calling itself ‘Arkhan’. Perhaps due to being connected to so many inorganic drones, the biology of Arkhan had changed to allow it to endure the vast flow of non-biological information without breaking.

By ‘donating’ some of Arkhan’s reproductive cells to The Swarm, Zeyhris had been able to adapt a way to avoid being completely destroyed and taken over by the external intrusion. Zeyhris had seen this tactic before and had been barely able to cut off the infected tendril before being controlled back when it was a mere ravenous beast, but now that it was alone the potential damage it could have taken and been forced to commit would have been disastrous had the ‘hack’ succeeded.

After the intrusion was cut off from its side, The Hive immediately began to adapt its whole being to deal with the threat posed by this new danger. It could only thank fickle fate that it had been so completely changed by now that it could reason to this degree and even comprehend how fortunate it was that rather than attack the Arcadians that had donated such prime genes to The Swarm. It hoped that the Arcadians would be able to deal with what was sure to come while The Hive adapted and evolved. Zeyhris would be dormant for a while, and Arcadia would have to face the new threat alone.