“So, what’s next?” Pentaflame glanced across the room. This meeting between the Pentathax and the local sect leaders had been going great so far. Sure, there were very few sect leaders present, but all of them had been rather friendly and courteous to each other. And most of them were already Corruption Purgers or military sects, all stemming the tide of horror coming from the Phtharospitesio pentacluster, which would have otherwise completely overrun the entire eniapent. So not only did the Pentathax now have key strategic information of exactly what to target, but they also had extra support if they needed it, as well as easy access to a purifier sect, in case anyone got too badly infected.
“I hasss more quessstionsss!” Kuuraa, who went by the codename Angersoul and was quite a curious creature, had been constantly asking questions the entire time. He/she/it/they (Kuuraa didn’t seem to understand pronouns and seemed to use whichever pronoun they had last heard) was clearly out of their depth and, although they were aware of Decay Lord society, after all, Kuuraa was part of a named Sect Trio and led the Kshana Decay Lords, it had never occurred to them to ask for help occasionally. They mostly just did what Mutau and the other members of the neighbouring Nuvox Decay Lord sect told them to do.
“What is it, Kuuraa?” Pentaflame asked. He found Kuuraa’s excitement somewhat endearing.
“What dosss you allsss dosss for the psssionic protectionsss?”
“Psionic protection?” Pentaflame blinked. “What do you mean?”
“The whisssperingsss. The Darkvoicesss. You doesss not hearsss themsss?”
“The Corruption around here whispers to you all?” Galeforce glanced at Pentaflame and Permafrost. Both of them looked concerned. They were even more concerned when Soulblade, Peacebringer, Mimicblade, Flamebearer and Stormshade all nodded.
“We all have Psions among our crew that shield us from the utterings of the local strains,” Peacebringer explained. “The local Pantolou variant is mostly dull whispers, the new Nekro-Kinisis strain makes strange promises of desire and the local Hungering Indifference strain chants at you, loudly and audibly, to the point that it’s almost catchy. The Justar have a Mind-Cleanser unit, a team of thirty Psions of several different types.”
“Different types?” Stormshade interrupted. “There are different types of Psions? Sure, we do have a handful of Psions who keep an eye out on things, but I wasn’t aware that there were different, like, versions or species or something?”
Soulblade nodded. “There are four main types of Psions, and telepathy is split several ways as well. The main types are pretty basic: Telkins focus on telekinetic power, Telpaths focus on telepathy, Telshields focus on psionic manifestations such as psionic shields and weapons and Telgams generally have a mixture of all three. Peacebringer here is a Telshield, Angersoul is a Telpath, I am a Telgam. The telepathic splits are a bit more complicated.”
“Would you mind explaining them?” Permafrost asked. “I find this all very interesting, I sort of just assumed all Psions worked similarly. You in particular, Soulblade, you seem quite knowledgeable about this!”
“I thought we were discussing psionic protections against Corruption though?”
Permafrost nodded. “We were, yes, but I’m curious now. We mostly just leave our master Psion, a kindly fellow by the name of Pneumashield, to do her thing.”
Soulblade thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Sure, I suppose I could give a quick rundown. The best way to imagine different types of telepathy is to imagine a locked door to get into a house. A telepath wishes to get inside the house, which represents the mind, and how they get in represents their type of telepathy.
“Most telepaths, myself included, we are Lockpickers. We generally pick the lock in some way and let ourselves in, often making a copy of the key as we do so, so we can come back later. A Softspotter is similar, they’ll break the lock to get in, but they’ll first scan the entire building first, looking for an open window or something that they can leverage instead of using a door.”
“OH!” Kuuraa interrupted. “Isss how we dosss the telepathy! We use emotionsss to weaken defencesss and get ofs the ins that way!”
“Makes sense!” Soulblade continued. “After Lockpickers and Softspotters, the most common types are Doorbreakers. They’ll generally break in to the house in a more damaging manner, or will just smash windows or something, but Psions who are aware of their methods will at least try and patch things up afterwards. Housecrashers, like the ancient and now dead Decay Lord Mindeater, will just tear the house down and brute force their way in, they don’t care in the slightest. A rarer type is the Seducer, who will scan the house and other nearby houses, also looking for weak points, but the weak points they find are social ones, to manipulate the homeowner to open the door and let them in.”
“I have a quick question,” Flamebearer asked. “What type would Litvir be?”
“Who is Litvir?” Pentaflame butted in.
“Souldrainer, my fellow Missing.”
Soulblade hesitated. “Um… Well, I originally thought Souldrainer was a Seducer or a Softspotter, but I’m pretty certain that he is an Antirealist. While most other telepaths see a locked door in front of them, Souldrainer would just open the door, not aware that the door was locked in the first place. On the mental plane, an Antirealist rejects reality and substitutes it with their own. It requires a certain level of insanity that most Psions can’t reach because we are aware of how a brain can be so brutally messed up. I am also pretty certain that the Mindeater used to specifically target Antirealists to make sure that…”
Soulblade suddenly fell silent and blinked in confusion. Peacebringer blinked too, then glanced at Soulblade.
“You felt that, yes, Peshon?”
“I did, Erin…”
“I feelsss it too!” Kuuraa exclaimed. “Isss Corruption! Isss hungry! Isss coming to eat the bassse!”
Immediately looking concerned, Permafrost tapped a communicator on the table in front of him and immediately made a call.
“Safespear, what is going on?”
There was a brief crackle before he got a response.
“There’s an absolutely massive CE heading towards MB. Same scale. Preparing ships to counter… One second…”
The line crackled again.
“CE has fired shots. Small CGs have penetrated MB shields, sending forces to incinerate impact points. More… By the Void… that is a lot of corrupted globules…”
Permafrost tutted, not liking what he was hearing. “Full force approved, do all you need to do. Call back if something happens.”
“Of course, General.”
The line closed, and Permafrost turned to his guests. They all seemed relatively calm, apart from the three telepathic entities.
“Well, no real concern, this happens all the time!” Pentaflame did his best to be optimistic. “This room is secured, we’ll being in some extra guards and some Flames, as well as some extra food, and bunker down here for a bit. Our main forces will deal with the issue in no time.”
“If I am picking things up though, this Corrupted Entity… I assume that is what a CE is… is huge!” Soulblade frowned.
“If you are concerned, then return to your rooms and grab your armour and weapons, then come back here, as it is easier to defend this room than multiple, separate rooms. But I am sure we’re fine.”
The sect leaders all glanced at each other, then got up and rushed off to get their weapons. The Doom Drums watched as they all left, and Galeforce seemed quite upset about this.
“It’s as if they don’t trust us.”
“It’s not trust. They just don’t know us very well and haven’t seen us in action before,” Permafrost shrugged as he checked some incoming reports. “Still, better safe than sorry.”
Everything briefly shook. Galeforce eyed Permafrost.
“Reports are fine so far. I am keeping an eye out.”
“Alright…” Galeforce sighed. “Still, I don’t want to leave them all with a bad impression…”