No one had a spaceship in their storage spaces, not even Kallos, who Telos had half expected to pull a sleek crystalline vessel out of her inner world dramatically. For most people this would be an insurmountable problem. For Telos it couldn’t even be called a minor setback, but resulted in some fun creation. Rather than just pulling a design from the infinite knowledge of Binah, the party sketched out designs in the sand. Telos tried to sell the others on a design that looked a lot like the Brittany from Energy Affect series, but Arkaziel in particular said it looked stupid and he wouldn’t ride in it.

Bobbi wanted to make it look like a sphere for simplicity, Kallos liked the idea of a tear drop shape, and Arkaziel argued that they should just ride Telos’ dragon form through space because that would be the coolest. This started an argument between Bobbi and Arkaziel about them riding Arkaziel instead, which Arkaziel then turned to the fact they should ride Bobbi since she was the newest party member.

Kallos and Telos watched in amusement while the two StarManes argued hopelessly with nonsensical rejoinders and the equivalent of ‘nuh-uh’ and ‘yes-huh’ for a solid twenty minutes. The couple linked hands ands minds while they wove creation magic scored by the StarManes argument.

“For the final time, you’re not riding me, twerp!” Bobbi ended the argument by turning to storm away, where she walked right into a crystalline shape that covered a quarter mile of the beach.

“You built it already? Nice,” Arkaziel laughed at Bobbi’s misfortune of walking straight into it a spaceship.

“I don’t know how you two didn’t notice us make an entire spaceship while you argued. We might need to work on your situational awareness, a lot.” Telos teased. The sun glittered off the cylinder shaped ship with a bell at the end, it was a sleek vessel that glowed with constant flows of Ohr Ein Sof shining from within the crystalline exterior.

“We thought about leaving the two of you,” Kallos teased and gestured at the tents and camp that had already been broken and dragged into Telos’ repository.

“Why don’t we just teleport, anyway?” Arkaziel asked bluntly.

“The defenses woven into the Tower Systems preclude us from teleporting straight in, and if I overwhelmed the defenses of the Tower Network we’d have Archons on us before we even started the job. That was if I knew where, exactly, to go. Between my map and your Lantern we’ll be able to close in on Oizys in real-space, hence why we built a spaceship. Which you’d have known if you’d listened to me earlier, and instead of spent the whole time arguing with Bobbi.” Telos didn’t waggle her finger at Arkaziel, but it came awful close.

“Bullshit, I listened, you never said anything about anything.” Arkaziel called her bluff.

“Technically he’s right, darling. We were talking internally,” Kallos struggled to not smile too much with the words, but Telos found her smile and faint chuckle contagious and ended up laughing at herself.

“Alright, my bad. I guess Kallos remains so beautiful that I forget what’s thought and what’s said out loud, and now we’re going to ride in a spaceship made by this crazy love-obsessed woman. Did I focus on the life support, or was I too busy noticing the way the chaotic sea of creation reflected in Kallos’ eyes? Let’s find out!” Telos smiled brightly, but when Bobbi and Arkaziel just looked at her flatly she gave it up.

“I enjoyed it,” Kallos offered comfortingly, with a pat on Telos’ shoulder.

“It’s not often I get a pity-pat. Eesh. Anyway, the ships ready, do you need to affix the Lantern to the exterior or can it be used from the bridge?” Telos led the way to where a pair of doors formed and opened to allow them into the vessel, then sealed behind them into solid crystal once more.

“What’s this ship run on?” Bobbi asked suspiciously.

“Oh, I pulled the schematics for an Infinite Improbability Array from the records of Binah,” Telos joked.

“What’s that?” Bobbi asked, unfamiliar with the earth pop-culture reference.

“It’s, uhm.. Not a real thing.” Telos admitted.

“Then why did you say it?” Arkaziel asked with confusion.

“Probably one of those little things from her original life that none of us could possibly get, but she still says occasionally, anyway.” Kallos smirked at Telos, as if it were a bad habit.

“Okay, okay, I get it. One sided pop culture references should be called out, and I’m the asshole, I get it. Spare me your wrath, oh brave and generous team-mates, and I shall try not to sin again.” Telos mixture of sarcasm and sincerity were made easier to comprehend thanks to the soul link that the group shared.

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Inside of the ship everything retained the crystalline appearance, and the inner light of Ein Sof provided a mind lifting euphoria as it illuminated and warmed everywhere within the vessel. There were no screens, no technology, not even a coffee pot. All four of the people in the vessel could conjure or create nearly anything they would ever need, so the ship had only one purpose: getting them places. Even for Telos, creating a true ship would have taken longer if they copied something from the records of Binah, but a purely magic construct was another matter.

“Why didn’t you just make it a sphere in the end?” Arkaziel asked, raising a hiss out of Bobbi.

“Honestly? I thought this was flashier, and might be better at ramming. Now, the lantern, how does this work?”

“It should work from here, what’s important is that the person navigating can see the path made by the lantern, not that it be in the front.” Arkaziel lifted a paw, and the ordinary looking Nebula Lantern appeared in his hands. Ordinary if you didn’t know that the orange metal wasn’t copper, but Aurichalcum, an exceptionally rare and prized metal used only in the most legendary of artifacts, but not weapons. It lacked the indestructible nature of adamantine, scarletite, or orichalcum, but its magic conduction and resonance with the currents of reality made it perfect for items such as the Nebula Lantern.

A flame appeared on Telos’ fingertip, and when touched to the wick of the lantern it caught aflame in a flurry of sparks. Once the glass and Aurichalcum of the lantern was sealed, the lantern spewed light in all directions like a psychedelic kaleidoscope projected everywhere, which combined with the crystalline structure of the ship made for some stomach churning rainbow overdrive.

“How do I work this thing, Ark?” Telos asked as she dropped into the pilot's chair on the bridge. It was like every other chair, only fancier, and inspired jealousy in the StarMane duo immediately. Even Kallos, who knew the chairs were all the same except the pilot chair was in the center of the bridge and had some extra decorative designs in the crystal, gave the seat a look filled with longing.

“Picture what you want to find and project it to the Nebula Lantern. If you aren’t precise enough, it will lead you to something close but not quite what you wanted. Its nature is to lead you where you need to be, not necessarily where you want to be.”

“Combined with the emanations of the Sefirot, we should be able to roll up on the true Tower of Oizys without that much difficulty, but first..” Telos trailed off as the world exploded in silver light, and the Shores of Chaos vanished from outside the ship to be replaced by the void of space. Stars and planets twinkled on the transparent crystal viewscreen.

“Where are we now?” Arkaziel asked with an edge of annoyance. Trust Telos or not, no one liked to be moved through space without knowing where they were, especially not a narcissist like Arkaziel.

“We’re one system over from Grief’s star system, but we won’t be here for long. This ship should be faster than light.” Telos spoke while a diffuse glow grew around her, the cold light of Ein Sof blossomed strongest from her third eye and cleavage, and in the back of the ship a dull hum that sounded like bells chiming grew louder, until it sounded like a faint song.

“What the hell is that?” Bobbi demanded, a creeped-out look on her face.

“It’s alright, Bobbi. It is but an echo of the Cosmic Song played by the Genesis Drive. The chorus of the song is about how Telos navigates the ship despite its speed. Only Telos or I can pilot the vessel until either of you learn to hear the Cosmic Song, but given all four of us could navigate the celestial void other ways, albeit more slowly, it seemed like a minor inconvenience when we chose this particular magic engine.” Kallos explained the unsettling noises and the power behind the ship to the duo.

“You two spent the whole time we were arguing making this thing, huh?” Bobbi didn’t bother to hide her doubt.

“What else would we have been doing?”

“Flirting,” Arkaziel answered immediately.

“Staring longingly into each other’s eyes,” Bobbi added.

“That’s part of flirting, try again,” Arkaziel smirked at Bobbi.

“Fine, they kiss a lot, and kissing isn’t flirting.” Bobbi flashed her claws at Arkaziel when he started to protest that kissing was flirting, but Arkaziel opted to give her that one.

“Why wouldn’t we do that? We love each other a great deal,” Kallos’ pragmatic mind failed to see any issues with her and Telos’ behavior.

“I don’t know, I’ve never met a pair of immortals with as much power as you two have, who were still so into each other. You don’t act like you have forever ahead of you, and you’re desperately trying to make the most out of every single moment because it might not last?” Bobbi shrugged. “Sorry?”

“Bobbi is right, you two are weird.” Arkaziel, still in kitten form, nodded sagely.

“Things are transient, and we shan’t remain as we are now for nearly long enough. While we are merely us, we must squeeze every second together we can out of reality.” Kallos smile was tinged with a hint of sadness.

“So, even if Telos becomes the Overgod, you’ll still…” Bobbi trailed off at Kallos’ headshake.

“Overgod isn’t our goal. It is a brief speed bump on our ascension beyond the confines of physical existence. A mere Overgod won’t fix the fundamental problems that face this reality.” Kallos smiled brightly, but there was moisture in her golden eyes.

“Don’t get caught up in where things might go, Bobbi. With these two, it’ll be beyond ridiculous. Focus on what we’re doing now, which is slaying Oizys. Eyes on the prize.” Arkaziel attempted to steer the conversation to something less gloomy and metaphysical.

“Speaking of prizes, did someone order a fleet of Celestial Wardens fighting a shark? Wait, that’s no shark…”

The view screen cleared of blinding lights to a much lower speed. Immediately visible were a fleet of approximately thirty ships of varying sizes, firing upon a massive shark-like creature with void-appendages instead of fins, and each tentacle of darkness ended in an additional shark head.

“The Celestial Wardens? How coincidental,” Kallos laughed and arched a brow at Telos.

“Looks like they’re going to lose,” Bobbi pointed at one of the corvettes as it exploded into debris when a shark tentacle bit it in half.

“Siegfreid is aboard the command ship, let’s lend a hand, maybe they’ll join us in attacking Oizys?” Telos suggested.

“Let me out there, I’m so hungry, and even that shark looks tasty,” Arkaziel whined, and looked for an exit.